Two Month Progress Report

DISCLAIMER: The author is not a doctor nor nutritionist. The author will not be offering advice for the reader to follow. Before starting any diet or exercise program be sure to consult with your medical practitioner. This blog was created for the express purpose of reporting the individual results of the author's weight loss and cholesterol lowering program.

Two months ago I decided to begin a weight-loss and cholesterol-lowering project, based on findings at my last physical.

The exer-cycle was dragged from it's storage shed, oiled and dusted off and put to use.

At the beginning of the exercise portion of this process, I weighed 215 pounds. After two months of exer-cycling at 15 miles per day, burning 1300 calories in 39 minutes of pedaling Monday~Friday each week, and modifying my diet to avoid the high fat items I weighed myself this morning.

My total weight loss for two months of effort is now 13.5 pounds! I will continue this regimen until I reach the 190 pound range, and eventually want to get down to 185 pounds or so. I may need to exercise a bit more, but not sure I want to subject my fifty-five year old knees to any more abuse?

The cholesterol lowering process includes 1/4-teaspoon of ground cinnammon mixed into whole-grain cereal two times per day. I will wait another month to get my lab work to see if I have dropped my LDL-cholesterol level to a more normal measure, than the pre-diabetes amount my doctor initially reported.

Stay tuned to more exciting news! I am enjoying the blogging experience, and your comments will provide me with even more encouragement! Respectfully, Nicholas

Dieting and Weight Loss

Weight Loss - Eating and Exercise Lifestyle Modification

DISCLAIMER: The author is not a doctor nor nutritionist. The author will not be offering advice for the reader to follow. Before starting any diet or exercise program be sure to consult with your medical practitioner. This blog was created for the express purpose of reporting the individual results of the author's weight loss and cholesterol lowering program.

Welcome to my dieting and weight loss blog. I have never really had much need for dieting until now. A recent doctor's visit revealed that my LDL cholesterol, the harmful one, was right at the pre-diabetes level, and it was recommended that I begin exercising and lose some weight.

This seems to be a common theme in modern America, so many news reports link soda and other foods to childhood obeisity, or other health problems occurring later in life.

An excellent article on two popular diets can be found here:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g5nH6bV4fr0ofSKGT8ZjkSVjbM_AD91V8CNG1

Certainly, if you follow a regimen of moderate exercise, and are selective when choosing foods with high sugar content and foods that are high in sodium or other ingredients you may experience exceptional health according to my health practitioner.

Check out this link: www.ediets.com for some excellent dieting options and nutritional information.

From www.americanheart.org comes the following information on cholesterol, LDL and HDL.

"Cholesterol can’t dissolve in the blood. It has to be transported to and from the cells by carriers called lipoproteins. Low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, is known as “bad” cholesterol. High-density lipoprotein, or HDL, is known as “good” cholesterol. These two types of lipids, along with triglycerides and Lp(a) cholesterol, make up your total cholesterol count, which can be determined through a blood test".

Source: http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=180

My weight when I started this lifestyle change was 215 pounds, and I am a 5-foot, 10-inch tall 56 year old male.

In order to follow the doctor's orders, I immediately began my diet and exercise regimen.

The first week, I gave up eating ice cream and drinking beer entirely.To begin immediate lowering of my cholesterol, I also began eating 1/4-teaspoon of cinnamon, two times each day mixed into some cereal with milk. Some recent university studies revealed that cinnamon has reduced harmful cholesterol levels in subjects in clinical trials. Here is a link to an excellent diet program: www.ediets.com

I also have substituted Cheerios and whole grain breads into my diet as well.

For exercise, I have a stationary exercise bicycle, with a small computer attached, which scans the following information as you pedal: Total pedal-cycles, Total-time pedaling, Speed in miles-per-hour, Distance traveled in miles, and Calories burned. I could substitute walking, starting with 10-minutes-per-day, and gradually increasing up to 1 hour per day which is approximately 3-miles-per-day. (See disclaimer above - consult your medical practitioner..).

This is a good level of exercise to begin seeing results according to my physician.

The Calories-burned data is encouraging, because I can see how many calories have been 'burned', and avoid eating this many calories for my first daily meal, and it has worked for me.

My results have been encouraging. I started riding the exercise bike for 10-minutes, twice per day for one week. After one week I increased this to 20 minutes in the morning only. Gradually with each passing week I added 10 minutes to my regimen.

Now I ride it Monday~Friday, for 40 minutes, travel a total distance of 15 miles per day, and burn approximately 1200 calories. My weight has dropped from 215 pounds to 204.5 pounds in approximately 2 months! Along with watching what I eat, (ok I do splurge on weekends at the occasional barbecue or meal out), my intent is to keep this regimen up forever.

My doctor stated that the most important thing to remember about exercising is to KEEP-DOING-IT! I will continue to report my weight loss and cholesterol-lowering results as they are revealed.

For an excellent website on diet and nutrition options please visit: www.eDiets.com

Please do comment on this blog, I want to build a community of others seeking weight-loss or exercise solutions.

Thank you! Nicholas