Bless her heart and vital organs Karen M had a GREAT post up on Main Page to which I replied way late to.

Here’s Her Diary, A Great One With Lots Of Pups Chimin In In All The Good Ways.

But I was way late to the thread and my reply got gone with the thread . . . so here’s my reply and experiences of being greatly overnourished since 1986.

In two years (’84-86, I was 31-33) I went from 180 lbs to 220 lbs.

It was at age 31-33 and my metabolism had slowed (and I ate like a pig and drank like a thrsty horse nightly) despite working 10-14 hours a day 7 days a week as a chef and still taking a class or two and working a 5am-9am shift M-F on local radio.

I ate too much, exercised not at all and the wine and beer and whiskey begin to sit instead of getting burned off. By ’86 I blew my back out bad, and didn’t work for almost a year and a half. I have chiropractic to thank for getting me up off the floor from a habitual fetal position and off of Kaiser scrips for pain pills, but that’s another story.

By ’90 I was still at 220, but by ’96 I was 240.

From ’01 to ’09 I went up and up and peaked at 310 around June of ’09.

BP, blood sugars, all had long gone to hell n my doc told me in ’09 what I already knew . . . I needed to change, or die young.

Off and on I would work out, but stop. I’d get to 280 and climb back up, 10 lbs in a month added on was easy.

Finally I just had to cut my cals to 1600 a day with or without wine or whiskey. And work out for an hour.

See, since ’88 I’ve had this gym about 70 yards from our front door in the complex where we live. But I failed to use it regularly and despite using it sensibly when I DID start to do so, (I know weight training and conditioning work from the late 70′s n early 80′s) I’d strain something, back off, and fail.

So. Basically, I thought I was younger n stronger, but I wasn’t. N it was all self sabotage I think, lookin back.

In the past 12 months I maintained 1600 cals for the most part, and worked out more regularly. Down 55 lbs to 255.

Along the way, I still strained either my back or tweaked my knees, both of which are battered from old baseball injuries and blowing my back out in ’86, badly.

However, I’ve even further modified my workout routine to prevent injury.

Instead of 45 min. on treadmill/incline, I do 20 min.

I lowered weights on all the equipment I use (8 machines) and shortened my routines while speeding up my machine pace to keep my cardio up at 140 per minute . . . end result is now about 50-60 minutes total with maintained high cardio for 40 minutes, no strains, and an ability to do it every day, regardless.

And, keeping the calorie counts to 1600 daily is key . . . ya gotta count every thing that goes into yer mouth, liquid or solid. Once I started to count booze, well, THAT changed things . . . *G*

I’m 5’10, n I’m 58 as of January. I still think I’m 25 body wise and I have to get over that . . . I’m not. I have NO bounce back the next day if I over do it.

1600 cals a day with exercise means I can lose weight. I’ve proven that to myself.

My wife at 5’3″ and older than I has to keep her cal intake to 1200 daily, she walks at work once a day and hits the gym with me for another half hour of treadmill every day. She’s lost 10 lbs FAST but when she stops the walking/gym for a week can put on 5 lbs fast.

Cals in, cals out . . . . plain and simple. No exercise? Huh, think about 1200 cals daily (for men) just to maintain weight if yer over 40.

If yer one of those lucky one’s who never put ON weight or have a high metabolic rate by default, n yer over 40, god bless ya but I’m phreakin jealous as all hayall of yas!

I anticipate that to lose the next 50 lbs over the next 6 months or so I’ll have to increase something in my workouts, but like everyone else who replied to KarenM’s diary, first I have to develop stamina, then some muscle building (lightly), and build the endurance I need to do more without strains or injuries.

THAT, has taken me considerably much longer years wise than I ever thought it would. I always thought, I can hit the gym, max out and lose 50 lbs in 3 months.

I’m here to say, it don’t work like that for me, and apparently I was lying to myself all along. That’s hard to swallow, with or without two fingers of good whiskey. ;-)

My feet, ankles, knees, hips n back are all feeling it daily, but my key is to lighten up weights, etc. more than I ever dreamt of, and increase cardio level for longer times than I was before.

It’s hell on some days as I just KNOW my body is telling me to take a day off. I just don’t rebound overnight, hardly at all.

I mean, it aches and hurts in my hips and feet . . so, I just start even slower on the treadmill until it all loosens up. Sometimes it takes the whole 20 minutes to loosen up on the treadmill and I only get to about 120 beats per minute. But then the machines get me up to 140 bpm and it’s usually about a half hour of that.

I do stretch out before and after, so that’s not an issue as to my body hurting and taking more time to loosen up. It’s just a fact I’ve had to accept. I ain’t 25 . . . bitter pill, I’m tellin all y’all.

When I was young I played baseball, bicycled a lot, hiked with a 60-75# pack in The Sierra’s for weeks at a time every summer, worked two jobs in kitchens, slept on 4 hours a night when working, schooling, doing radio.

But those days are LONG gone since my early to mid 30′s.

I expect to see 200 lbs before November. And for now I’m finally beginning to enjoy greater flexibility over all body wise and incredibly greater range of motion all over body wise.

And I’m lovin it!

*G*

N that’s my story.

Now the rest of you Pups do what ya can, but take care of yerselves!

We got a long way to go before our time is done on this rock n there’s lots of adventures n challenges on this planet we need face. N we need to face them, it’s the boomer destiny to fix what we haven’t before we pass on. Or at least do our best to do so with the time we have left.

Hence, get healthy, last longer, do better for your/our legacy.

Bless all y’all let’s get to it . . . .

N KarenM, a big ole wet sloppy kiss to ya for your diary, it sure got MY keyboard a tappin n my cranium a crankin . . . *G*