Hercules! Spandex! Chain-mail bikinis!

[ClintMemo]

I think part of the problem is poor urban planning.  In some cities, like Atlanta, if you don't live in a certain place, you can't get to work any way except by car, or you have to change buses and trains so many times that it ceases to be worth your while.

Louisville (KY) is like that. The city is laid out like half of a wagon wheel. If you live in the burbs and work downtown, I've heard that taking the bus is great, because that's where most of the bus routes go. But a lot of people, like me, live in one part of the burbs and work in another. If you want to travel along the rim instead of along the spoke, taking a bus is almost impossible. My drive to work is 20 minutes. Taking the bus would require 2 hours on 4 or 5 different buses.

[Listener]

I think part of the problem is poor urban planning.  In some cities, like Atlanta, if you don't live in a certain place, you can't get to work any way except by car, or you have to change buses and trains so many times that it ceases to be worth your while.

Louisville (KY) is like that. The city is laid out like half of a wagon wheel. If you live in the burbs and work downtown, I've heard that taking the bus is great, because that's where most of the bus routes go. But a lot of people, like me, live in one part of the burbs and work in another. If you want to travel along the rim instead of along the spoke, taking a bus is almost impossible. My drive to work is 20 minutes. Taking the bus would require 2 hours on 4 or 5 different buses.

I figure if they connected 265 in the north and south it would be a lot easier.

(I did traffic for seven years.  I'm a roadgeek.)

Back when I ran Traffic.com in Atlanta, we had a guy who lived all the way across the city from the office.  Despite the fact that he didn't own a car and had to take mass transit to and from work, he was one of the most dependable employees I had and after I left, a full-time position became available and he got it.  (He bought a car in late 2005.)  I admire his dedication, and I'm glad the company was able to reward him for it.

It takes that kind of dedication to ride the bus or take the train in some mid-size cities like Louisville or Orlando (and poorly-designed large cities like Atlanta), and not go insane.

[oddpod]

whares the  spandex and  Chain-mail bikinis?

[BrandtPileggi]

Damn. I though I knew something about this but there are some real pros here. So let me ask a question for those who've been around the block a few times more than me. Sorry but I have to start out with a little bit of history.

I've played basketball my entire life. And stayed around 180ish (@6') as a result. for about 6 months I wasn't able to find time to play, and gained about 30 pounds. For the last 6 months I have been walking for about 3-3.5 miles, 4 days a week. My caloric consumption is hardly ever more than 1500 calories. And I am losing weight SO slowly. Then I go to my little sister's graduation, 2 days of eating and BAM. set me back 2 weeks. I started putting in time at the gym again, like 3-4 hours on the court, 2-3 times a week. I'm so used to being able to drop 20-30 pounds in a month before basketball season starts up again, but damn! After this last down time, I haven't been able to bounce back. Am I facing a metabolic shutdown? I just turned 29 and my body's quitting on me. So I'm burining an extra 5500-7000 calories a week. That should be about 2 lbs of solid fat. But I'm not really losing weight any more.

Has anyone gone through this? I mean, WTH?

[Thaurismunths]

I'm so used to being able to drop 20-30 pounds in a month before basketball season starts up again, but damn! After this last down time, I haven't been able to bounce back. Am I facing a metabolic shutdown?

That's a big part of your problem right there. One of the dangers of being a wrestler is the constant up and down. Crash dieting really screws with your system, each time making it harder to shed weight because your body just knows that it's going to be 'starved' again soon. To protect itself your body will add more fat cells and fill them up to make sure you'll have an energy supply for the next time your energy needs out-strip your energy intake.
Also: Welcome to getting old(er). Men’s metabolisms start slowing down around 25. If you've made it to 30 before that happened, you're a head of the game.
Lastly, fat doesn't work like most people think it does. When you gain fat your body creates capacitors (fat cells) and then fills them with energy (fat), but when you discharge them (burn the fat) you still have the capacitor. What that means is that even after a month of crash diet and hard exercise your body still has all the empty storage facilities and it doesn't take nearly as long to fill an existing warehouse as it does to build a new one and fill it so gaining weight back can happen very quickly. Two days is a bit quick. Most likely, you had only lost, and gained back, water weight. Crash diets that let you lose 20 pounds in a month are largely based on water weight. Also a crash diet just proves to your body that it will need that massive energy reserve, and more, because eventually you're going to ‘starve’ again and it wants to be ready. Given enough time your body will break down empty fat cells, but it takes months of maintaining yourself or liposuction to do it.

[Russell Nash]

I'm so used to being able to drop 20-30 pounds in a month before basketball season starts up again, but damn! After this last down time, I haven't been able to bounce back. Am I facing a metabolic shutdown?

That's a big part of your problem right there. One of the dangers of being a wrestler is the constant up and down. Crash dieting really screws with your system, each time making it harder to shed weight because your body just knows that it's going to be 'starved' again soon. To protect itself your body will add more fat cells and fill them up to make sure you'll have an energy supply for the next time your energy needs out-strip your energy intake.
Also: Welcome to getting old(er). Men’s metabolisms start slowing down around 25. If you've made it to 30 before that happened, you're a head of the game.
Lastly, fat doesn't work like most people think it does. When you gain fat your body creates capacitors (fat cells) and then fills them with energy (fat), but when you discharge them (burn the fat) you still have the capacitor. What that means is that even after a month of crash diet and hard exercise your body still has all the empty storage facilities and it doesn't take nearly as long to fill an existing warehouse as it does to build a new one and fill it so gaining weight back can happen very quickly. Two days is a bit quick. Most likely, you had only lost, and gained back, water weight. Crash diets that let you lose 20 pounds in a month are largely based on water weight. Also a crash diet just proves to your body that it will need that massive energy reserve, and more, because eventually you're going to ‘starve’ again and it wants to be ready. Given enough time your body will break down empty fat cells, but it takes months of maintaining yourself or liposuction to do it.

I spent this day with a girl who was extremely overweight.  Unintentionally I absolutely fell for her.  Once I realized I was really hooked, I told her that I worried about her health and would help her lose weight.

Our plan had all kinds of rewards for each pound and at different "mile markers".  It also had the very strict rule, "No losing more than two pounds in a week."  The goal was one a week and staying level was OK and two was OK, but she lost rewards if she did more than two a week twice in two months.  When we broke up she wasn't thin, but she was seventy pounds lighter and a lot healthier. 

Slow and steady wins the race.

[BrandtPileggi]

Damnit. Good points. Yeah, I've been trying to lose 2 lbs / week lately but it's simply not happening. In the mean time. I'll just keep my calories low and my excercise high. I need to really cement my healthier changes in my lifestyle. Women be damned! They always come along and want to eat out and keep crap in the house.

[wakela]

In the May 23rd Scientific American podcast on eating disorders in adult women, the scientist/author explained how people's metabolisms slow down when they diet.  So when they fall off the diet, they gain more weight than if they had never started.  Also, diets create cravings for the things you are forbidden to eat.  She said all diets are ineffective and sometimes even cause weight gain EXCEPT Weight Watchers, because WW is a lifestyle change.

Re the preservatives and additives and whatnot.  Is there evidence that these things are bad for us?  Creepy, sure.  But we are eating more of them and living longer than ever before.  I haven't heard of anyone getting sick from them, except for ones that are already banned.
Edit:  After some googling I found that they may increase hyperactivity in children.

I'm not sure about the carbon footprint argument, either.  How much carbon is spent on those bananas per bunch? I looked for some data on this one, but couldn't find anything convincing.

But if the farmer's market stuff tastes better then go for it. 

[Thaurismunths]

I'm not sure about the carbon footprint argument, either.  How much carbon is spent on those bananas per bunch? I looked for some data on this one, but couldn't find anything convincing.

I might have misled you in to looking for the wrong thing. When I said "carbon footprint" I was thinking of the studies done on the number of calories used to create one calorie of edible food, including pesticides, farm implements, preparation, and transportation. All together they are a huge number of calories used to transport food from field to table, and since we use mostly fossil fuels, that means food has a huge carbon footprint.
According to 321Energy.com "The industrial food supply system is one of the biggest consumers of fossil fuels and one of the greatest producers of greenhouse gases."
And SustainableTable.org says "A 2002 study from the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health estimated that, using our current system, three calories of energy were needed to create one calorie of edible food. And that was on average. Some foods take far more, for instance grain-fed beef, which requires thirty-five calories for every calorie of beef produced. x What’s more, the John Hopkins study didn’t include the energy used in processing and transporting food. Studies that do estimate that it takes an average of seven to ten calories of input energy to produce one calorie of food.xi"
Eating fresh and locally cuts down on that foot print a lot because the food doesn’t travel as far and it doesn’t need to be prepared or preserved.

[sayeth]

I've found a few easy things that help me lose weight:

1. Drink lots of water - it keeps you full and keeps you from drinking cokes (soft drinks). If you don't like water, squeeze some lime into it. If you want something special, have mineral water. Just don't drink cokes (I'll be run out of Atlanta for saying that).

2. Use the stairs - Our lab is on the 6th floor. Except for an older lady and a pregnant lady, everyone uses the stairs. You can too.

3. Keep healthy snacks around the house - fruit, nuts (watch portions), prewashed baby carrots, cheese (again watch the portions). Don't keep chips or "easy" sweets. If you really want a dessert, it should be something you have to make intentionally.

4. Unplug your TV - you can still watch TV, but having to plug it in every time makes it a conscious decision. 

[wakela]

Thau, thanks for the links.  I've become skeptical of the whole global warming movement, but I'll check those out.  More people need to supply links and evidence to back up their opinions.

A guy I know lost weight by eating half of every meal.  He didn't have to make judgment calls about what was or was not healthy, and he could order whatever he wanted.  But when he was halfway through the meal he would grab his napkin and toss it on his plate.  By doing this his "food" became "garbage" and he wasn't tempted to pick at it.   It was a very simple, clear rule to follow and didn't involve keeping track of anything. 

Feel free to disregard the above anecdote.  After my scolding about not supplying links, "a guy I know" is the worst citation possible.

[slic]

I'll throw my anecdotal weight behind wakela and sayeth. 

In regards to eating half a meal, I think this is especially true about restaurants - way too much on my plate.

It's little daily things that help.  Park at the end of the lot, take the stairs, don't drink pop.  Then work in sports you like - find a pick up game and have fun.

[Thaurismunths]

Wakela: Kudos to that guy you know. That's a lot of will power to stop eating half way through, but the idea of tossing your napkin on it is a good one.

Slic: You know, there's one thing I've never understood. My girlfriend and I are members of a Rec. Center that has a climbing wall, Olympic swimming pool, and the usual fitness and child-care facilities, but every time we get there people are trolling around or waiting patiently for a parking spot as close to the doors as possible. Are they afraid of over-exerting themselves before they work out? Maybe we live in bat country and don't know it?

[Listener]

Wakela: Kudos to that guy you know. That's a lot of will power to stop eating half way through, but the idea of tossing your napkin on it is a good one.

Slic: You know, there's one thing I've never understood. My girlfriend and I are members of a Rec. Center that has a climbing wall, Olympic swimming pool, and the usual fitness and child-care facilities, but every time we get there people are trolling around or waiting patiently for a parking spot as close to the doors as possible. Are they afraid of over-exerting themselves before they work out? Maybe we live in bat country and don't know it?

These days at the grocery store and at Target (two stores I visit weekly) I park out by the cart corrals.  Nothing's more annoying than hooking your cart on those concrete carstops at the end of spots and then having someone say you're lazy for not bringing it back in.

The only valid reason for a healthy person to make a concerted effort to park close to a building is if inclement weather threatens.

[slic]

Are they afraid of over-exerting themselves before they work out? Maybe we live in bat country and don't know it?

That's a good one - same for me and soccer.  People run around to warm up but will make sure to park 3 ft closer if they can.

[ClintMemo]

Somewhere I have a great picture of a health club with an escalator at the entrance, but, alas, I cannot find it. 

[Russell Nash]

Somewhere I have a great picture of a health club with an escalator at the entrance, but, alas, I cannot find it. 

Mine had an elevator for handicapped people (which is a good), but it was hysterical to watch the aerobics class end and everybody go and wait for the elevator.

[Planish]

About 3 years ago I took up SCA Rapier Combat, when I was 50 yrs old.
Me on the right, in a red doublet:


In addition to the weekly practises, we (wife, son, plus a few friends) sometimes get together in our backyard and have at it, followed by a barbecue.

(The guy with no mask is in instructor mode, going quarter-speed. He's probably about to tell my wife to bring her hand down to her front and start using it defensively.)

I never did any "normal" sports before this, and it finally got me off the couch and away from the computer for a few hours a week at least.