Tag: exercise

What a difference a decade can make

Craig

Happy New Year!

It’s hard to believe that it’s 2020.

It’s going to be the best decade ever.

The last decade was a life saver and a game changer and will only get better.

Back in 2010, I was a 46 year old, unhealthy and overweight graphic designer living in Toronto.

My daily routine consisted of going for a short walk in the morning and then driving to the office to sit in a chair all day.

I would have a big bowl of oatmeal and eat a dozen or two TimBits with an extra large triple triple before arriving at the office.

The hour long drive was stressful so the drive through was my best friend.

There certainly were no chocolate avocado smoothie’s or green juices for my breakfast back in those days.

I had reached 300 pounds

And by 2010, I had reached 300 pounds, was wearing big and tall clothes with a 44 inch waist to prove it.

Exercise and proper diet were not part of my life like they are now.

It is now January 2020 and I am healthy and fit 56 year old man with a 32 inch waist, weigh 175 pounds with a BMI of 24.

I no longer take a plethora of medications when I wake up in the morning

Wearing skinny jeans and slim fitting shirts has become normal.

I am now an entirely different person, in more ways than you can imagine.

In 2015 I started to take yoga classes and then spinning and circuit training classes. From there how to eat clean and do juice and vegetable cleanses.

That is when my weight loss really accelerated.

My pants fell right off

One day my pants literally fell right off while I was walking out of the yoga studio. I needed to go buy new pants and a belt that day.

And in 2020 and beyond I plan to continue to get healthier and fitter.

Staying motivated to get up and go to the gym every day is hard work.

Keep investing in yourself. After all, you are worth it.

Nobody said it was going to be easy.

Staying positive, having attainable goals, a personal trainer and a proper support team in place to achieve your fitness goals is important.

But most importantly, remember to have fun.

Back in the Saddle

Craig

It’s been 10 weeks since I fell off my bicycle and injured myself.

It has not been fun sitting alone with an ice pack on my my leg lump for 90 days, taking stitz baths and going to sleep every night at 8pm.

Healing process has been painfully slow.

At times I wondered whether I was even getting better.

I would never have thought that falling off a bicycle could cause such a serious injury, but it did.

After three months, I have finally turned the corner and starting to get and feel better.

As crazy as it sounds, I have become healthier and fitter during the time I have taken off from yoga, circuit training, working out and spin classes.

Being healthy has helped to have a faster injury recovery time.

I’m looking forward to returning to my exercise schedule and getting on with my life.

Dehydration may cause gout

Craig

People going through a lifestyle change can and will face something called a setback.

This year has been the most difficult for setbacks for several reasons but gout has been the main reason.

If you have never experienced gout then consider yourself lucky.

This year I have had four separate acute gout attacks.

Gout was taking control of my life and it sucked.

I had to find a solution to this before I went off the deep end.

When you get gout, life comes to a standstill.

Not only is gout extremely painful but you can not walk, sleep, exercise or think properly.

Worst of all, your sex life comes to an end when you have gout and that sucks even more.

The onset of an acute gout attack

Gout started to appear when I was in my early thirties, overweight and leading an unhealthy lifestyle.

Usually gout would appear after a night of too many beers and eating rich foods like T-bone steaks, ice cream and roasted cashews.

Since I am a healthy man now, I wondered why the hell this was still happening to me.

What I noticed was my gout attacks were occurring after hot yoga classes, high intensity work outs and after drinking coffee.

Sometimes I drink coffee after working out or a hot and sweaty yoga class.

Could drinking coffee after hard work outs or hot yoga classes be causing the problem?

When I work out or do hot yoga I leave puddles of sweat behind.

It never occurred to me that those puddles of sweat would cause trouble.

And then I would usually go for coffee at Starbucks.

So instead of replacing the essential nutrients, I was drinking coffee and not replacing the nutrients. My bad.

So I got onto the inter-webs and did some research.

I was sweating out magnesium and magnesium deficiency has been known to cause gout.

Full blown acute gout attack

Magnesium deficiency will increase uric acid levels.

Increased uric acid will cause the kidneys to produce excess uric acid which can cause gout.

Right away I ran to the health store and started to take magnesium supplements.

And wihin a few days my gouty arthritis symptoms started to recede, slowly.

Everything is slow when you have gout from walking, showering and even your clouds your thinking.

Receding

So instead of drinking coffee and hyper hydrating after a super hot and hard workout, I changed my pattern.

Now I drink copious amounts of water or an electrolyte drink to replace all the salt and essential minerals

From now on I will continue to take magnesium supplements and see if that helps to keep the gout away.

The health store owner told me that eventually gout will be a distant memory.

I hope he is right.

Exercise increases T-levels

Craig

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is important to increasing your testosterone levels.

Having high testosterone levels are important to get and maintain a hard erection.

In 2005 after a visit to the hospital for some chest pains, I found out that I high blood pressure.

Soon after taking medication to lower my blood pressure, I started to experience low libido and E.D.

So I went back to see the doctor and was prescribed another medication to fix a problem that a medication was causing.

Or at least, that is what I thought.

It did not seem like the best solution to me.

I stayed on track with my fitness goals, continued to work out religiously, hike, spin, do HIIT, practice yoga and eat clean and healthy.

After losing more than 100 Lbs, started to experience dizziness, nausea and went back to my doctor.

My doctor told me to stop taking the blood pressure medication.

I could not have been happier.

After a few months, my body started to come to life again.