Trouble Losing Weight- Lack of Sleep and Exercise

I feel like I am not losing weight fast enough. So my focus is going to change! Recently I have not been sleeping enough. Working too late and going home very late. Staying up and going to bed late. So I am going to try to get to bed earlier and get some more sleep at night. I think lack of enough sleep has been hurting my weight loss. I have also been eating late at night- but I am not sure if that is really a problem. Maybe eating too much! I have also not been exercising enough. Last week I did a stress-echo and never got back into the gym. On the weekend I fished on Saturday and tried to sleep and recover on Sunday from 2 hours of sleep the night before- driving and early rising for fishing. I did get some sun and exercise out fly fishing for stripers- it was a ton of fun as my friends showed me how to catch fish. We caught about 25 fish and they let me land about 6 and finally I caught one on my own while wading on a sand bar. A super fun way to fish. So I have not been doing any long bike rides on the weekend. That needs to change.

Today I made it to the gym and did 60 minutes on the bike with a 4 minute Tabata that was tough- I rode the recumbent and started at level 15 for the first 3 intervals then I kicked it up each time, level 16, level 17, level 18, level 19 and finally level 20. It was only 4 minutes but my heart rate was near my calculated max of 175. I recovered during the last 8 minutes- after about 2 minutes I had recovered and was going easy again to finish the hour with 800 calories down. My goal is to do 1000 calories an hour. I will get there. I like to take it easy and go Paleo/Primal with cardio. After my bike ride I really wanted to do a little "Bruce Protocol"- I was disappointed that the treadmill only goes to 15% grade at my gym. I made it to 18% grade during the stress test. The protocol goes to 22%. So I started at 10% and did what I could going for 10 minutes total time with an increase of stress every 2 minutes. At 15% grade all I could do was speed up the treadmill so I was running slowly at about 4.3 mph. That was enough for me- I was spent! I feel like it is a pretty good interval training although it is only 1 interval with high intensity. As I lose weight I am sure I will be able to run a little better- but I don't want to hurt myself. So for the next 30 lbs or until I am down to the 260 level I am going to focus on cardio. I will lift heavy things if I can, but my time and energy will go into cardio and try to fat burn for now.

I weighed in and met my goal this week! 292 lbs! I really want to break into the 280's next week. I plan to fish on Saturday and do a long bike ride on Sunday. I probably should not have eaten so much- but I had another BAS day at Sweet Tomatoes. BAS is a Big Ass Salad. Which is taken from Mark's Daily Apple Blog (link on the right). I felt full but not stuffed from all the salad. I will have a small dinner tonight and do some more Cold Therapy. Funny how I found a machine now that does Cold Therapy for spot fat burning. The biggest question I have is what temperature does it use for an $800 1 hour session? And can I simulate the same therapy with a bag of ice for $1? I am doing both ice therapy and actual cold therapy in a cold tub of water. Let's see if I can become "cold adapted". I will report in 3 months time if my fat cells have been reduced by ice therapy. It seams like there is some science behind it- enough to develop an expensive machine and market it to those desperate for spot burning. I just need to make some commentary about the crazy K-E Diet.

Here is the latest controversy that is getting bad press- the K-E Diet. A ketogenic diet- which in my opinion is a good diet principle. 800 calories for 10 days. This is pretty severe way to go low-carb. And could be a shock to the system. I think it is getting too much criticism. For 10 days one could simple fast with plenty of fluids. 800 low-carb calories is probably better. What I think is crazy is paying $150 a day for a feeding tube! Heck just eat 4 low carb meals that are 200 calories each in an 8 hour time period for your 800 calories. You can do this by eating Quest bars- Maybe I can start a new diet- THE QUEST BAR DIET. Or mixing some small protein shakes with a little half/half in a hand shaker. But I guess if you did this nobody would think you are crazy and it would not be in the news. Anyway the principle is solid- Ketosis burns fat! What is not solid is after you paid $1500 and lost some weight after 10 days- WHAT NEXT? The doctor should include a copy of the Primal BluePrint in the program. So in honor of this latest controversy I am going to mix in a couple of 800 calorie days- I HATE counting calories- so it may be hard for me. I am sure my salad above had way more than 800 calories! I may do my 800 calories in 1 meal or maybe 2 or split it up with a couple Quest Bars and a small meal.

So that is my plan! I really want to hit 280 soon.

Coughing Pink Frothy Blood

Last week on Tuesday night I was doing some horizontal exercise and at the end of the exercise session my lungs started to fill up with blood. I could feel my lungs filling with every breath and then I could hear the gurgling coming from my lungs. I coughed then swallowed and tasted blood. I did this a couple times before I coughed into a tissue and could see the pink liquid froth. I immediately got up and started coughing into the sink. After a couple minutes I called the advice nurse at Kaiser Permanente and since the coughing and blood stopped we agreed to monitor the situation until the morning. My primary care doctor did not know exactly what it was and thought maybe it either was a heart condition or was acid reflux and prescribed medication. Since I am an asthmatic I know my lungs and told her no-way- I could feel it filling my lungs and my breathing became difficult until I coughed and cleared them. After researching the web- I thought it was pulmonary edema which can be associated with heart failure or left ventricle congestion. She agreed that it could be transient pulmonary edema that had resolved. This has been reported to occur for unknown reasons during (after) sex or exercise (running without warm-up). More reports have been from triathletes as it is known as SIPE (swimming induced pulmonary edema). The web has been a wonderful tool for investigating this situation. I insisted on seeing a cardiologist to make sure some virus in years past did not cause lasting damage to the left ventricle of my heart. I got a referral to see the cardiologist.

I saw Dr. Ethan Daniels at Kaiser Permanente in Santa Clara CA. It was incredible- I told him about my diet and I thought I was going to have to defend myself. I told him I am doing a low carbohydrate diet. It clicked! He said "That is the best diet out there!" WOW- I found a low-carb Doc! We chatted about different diets and then he threw down the challenge- He set a number much higher than my goal and said I will schedule an appointment in 1 year to make sure you hit this goal and maintain it! He did his normal check up and an EKG and all was fine. Then ordered a Stress-Echo for the next day. I felt really confident in this Doctor- he knows his stuff! I came in for my Stress-Echo and read up about the Bruce Protocol but this lab did it a little different using a higher stress test ramping faster in intensity. I wanted to try to do the full test- but the doctor monitoring the test said even some Navy Seals have trouble with the full test. I am in no condition- since I have not been working out that long- plus I don't run- I ride a bicycle. But the test is a thread mill test. I know I am not a runner- I have asthma and have always had trouble breathing but I gave it my best shot. I told them I was going to finish the test. I think I surprised the technicians and the doctor as I passed stage 4 into stage 5- I had to start running. Instead of pushing me they started to try to talk me into stopping- I am sure I could have went to stage 6 and maybe stage 7...but I was more than half way through stage 5 when they finally got to me and I agreed to stop the test about 15 or 20 seconds short  of stage 6- I was above my maximum calculated heart rate of 175. I hit 190 BPM and was breathing very hard but not wheezing- I think my supplements are working. This test was HARD! I laid down and they did the ultrasound. GREAT NEWS! NO ISSUES FOUND! I think they thought I might collapse or pass out- but it did not matter much since my heart was pretty much maxed out but I thought I had room for more!

Here is the protocol from what I could remember: I was at 18% grade going 5 mph for about 90 seconds about 9.5 minutes of testing. Wow- that was an awesome interval workout- it took me at least 10 minutes to settle down from that stress level and get my breathing back to normal. I felt the stress the next morning as I woke up hungry- which does not happen unless I fast, plus I ate more than I should last night...I will definitely have to try this again in the gym- 10 minutes of exercise and I was hammered!

Modified High Stress Bruce Protocol

Stage	Minutes	% grade		MPH
1	2	10		1.7
2	4	12		2.5
3	6	14		3.4
4	8	16		4.2
5	10	18		5.0
6	12	20		5.5
7	14	22		6.0