Beautiful Life of Zig Zag Zoom

I am still plugging away at my weight loss. Walking has now become my favorite form of exercise and I try to do at least five miles a day at least five days a week. I am still using my FitBit and tracking my calories in and out and how many steps I do each day. I am trying to burn 3000 calories and eating 2000 calories a day. This should give me an average loss of two pounds of fat a week. So you are wondering, how well am I doing?

I have loss 33.5 five pounds since the beginning of January. It may be a little more but I did not weigh the first day I started. That is about 18 weeks which comes out to 1.86 pounds a weeks. This is a good safe weight loss and I am feeling good.

Here are the goods and not so goods. I was eating extremely clean when I first started. This is not easy and I have started to slip a little. I am not sure it is possible for me to always eat clean but I try to eat great as much as possible. I do eat pizza but only if I fit in my calories. I do eat McDonald’s once in a while but I eat a happy meal which now included a reduced size fry and apples. I do drink my sweet teas but I use a higher reduced mix of sweet to unsweetened tea. These do not seem to affect me as much as when I use to eat all crap. It makes it easier to keep up with a reduce eating plan without getting bored.

Reality is, most of us are fat due to the fact that we eat bad. It was easy short term to shut off all the bad. If I stayed that clean, I would have fell off the wagon. Instead, I eat good most of the time, I eat a really bad cheat meal once a week, and I eat smaller portions of things I want as long as they are with in my calorie range and I eat good the rest of the day. This has kept me and my wife on our eating plan. This combined with exercise has allowed Karen and I both to lose over 30 pounds and we are still losing each week.

No plan is perfect and you have to adjust it to fit your needs. Good luck to everyone on the same path and please share your own successes by leaving a comment.

Getting healthy has many aspects. Losing weight is a one of the main keys to getting healthy but that alone does not always fix your health. Your bad habits can play a crucial role is your bad health. Kicking those habits can improve your health and your longevity.

One of the worse habits that people have is smoking. It is a nasty habit that plays a huge role in the decline of your health. Smokers say that they can not quit smoking because they will gain weight. This is only true if you replace smoking with eating. This is caused because you feel like you need a replacement and food starts to taste better as the effects of smoking leave your taste buds. One way to curb those desires to eat is to add a good fun exercise program to your life. The effects of exercise curbs your appetite while improving your overall mood. Smoking has no benefits, kick the habit now!

Another bad habit is junk food. We are all guilty of this. Many programs like the older weight watchers failed because people would use their points for crap food and then always be hungry. They lost weight only to gain it back because they could not stick to the diet. An alternative is to attempt to eat pure natural foods most of the time and have the bad stuff you crave once in a while. Take it from me, the cravings start to die when youa re not eating the junk everyday.

A third habit which seems like good one is over exercising. I am often guilty of this short term. You need to exercise everyday but not to the point that you are wrecking your body. Too much is as bad or worse than no exercise. You need between 30 and 90 minutes a day of walking or cardio. Mix this with strength training three days a week and you have a good mix. If you feel your body telling you to slow down, take a day off. Only you know your body and you need to listen to that inner voice. Keep exercise fun and change often to avoid boredom. However, do not overdo it!

I could list bad habits all day but I think the point is made. Your bad habits have more to do with your health than anything. Weed out those bad habits and your heath will improve and you may live a much happier drug free life.

Want to mention a bad habit that you need to kick, please leave a comment below.

Here’s to your great health!

Men are often scared of very little when it comes to conversation. They talk politics, they can talk sports, they talk girls, and they can get quite raunchy. The one topic men shy away or better yet run away from is problems with their manhood. Surprisingly, some form of male sexual problems happen to almost every man at some point in their life.

These problems can be caused by stress, obesity, and other external factors. More often than not, the problems are temporarily but they cause the man to feel less of a man. Way too often, men either try to hide it or heads to the doctor under false pretense. I have nothing against doctors but lets face it, there job is to write prescriptions. Most of the time, you see the actual doctor for a few minutes. Sometimes you do not even get past a nurse practitioner. They listen to your embarrassing mumble and  they write you a prescription for  medication that if you understood the side effects you would not even dare take. You are just so happy to be done you don’t even question it.

The problem is, when one problem is cured or suppressed, it causes another from the side effect. What is the answer? Do some research and see what other options there are. As I said earlier, most male problems are temporary. There are many ancient herbal remedies that offer no side effects. These include Horny Goat Weed, Maca Root, Ginkgo, and more. These can safely reduce the problem and have no lasting side effects. If you look carefully there are products like zenerx  that include many of these healing herbs that can correct the problems. A good product with a combination of safe herbs  can fix male sexual problems and restore a healthy balance to your whole body without strange side effects that could cause long term damage to your heart or other vital organs.

If you want to see a doctor first to rule out any serious medical issues, by all means do so. However, if he or she finds no underlying medical problem, do not rush to taking harsh medicine. Take sometime to try a healthier herbal approach. The affect is not instant and may take a couple of weeks to kick in but your body will thank you now and twenty years from now. A balanced immune system will work miracles and that balance can not be fixed with a harsh poison in the forma of medicine.

Please feel free to share any other tips from your own knowledge or experience.

Maca Root Extract

When you have been overweight a long time, you often just do not know where to start. The key is to start where you are at. Never exercised before? Do not know how to eat healthy?

First thing is you need to eat healthy and do exercise for successful weight (fat) loss. Exercising is not scary, if you can walk, you can exercise. No matter how much you weigh or how inactive you have been, you can start where you are at. A walk down the driveway or just walking around the house can get you started. Try to start with ten minutes of walking and build up to 30-45 mins a day. Take it slow but not too slow.

Now that you have started with exercise, you need to look at your food. Try to eat as close to nature as possible. Lean meat, veggies, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, fruits, low fat dairy, and eggs. Remember, the more processed the food, the more you need to avoid it. When eating, you should always mix a lean protein with a healthy carbohydrate and a little fat. You should always a protein with every snack or meal.

You should eat every 3-4 hours throughout the day. You should also track your calories, all of them. This includes nibbles, condiments, and bite size snacks. Be sure to know how much you can eat and adjust as you lose weight. There are tons of calculators online that can figure out basal metabolic rate. This is the amount of calories you need each day to live. The calculator can take that number and multiply by your activity level to let you know what you should eat each day in order to maintain your weight. From that number you figure out how much to deduct depending on your goal. Remember you should aim for 1.5 to 2 pounds a week.

To lose one pound, you need a deficit of 3500 or 500 calories per day. The more exercise you do, the more calories you have to eat. Many diets talk about cutting calories super low, this is not only healthy, it can cause you not to lose weight at all. The reason is, it slows your metabolism and your body burns less. That is the main reason people lose weight only to gain it back. Make sure you eat enough to lose weight but not slow your metabolism.

This advice should get you started and more posts will follow. Need help or advice on fat loss, feel free to leave a question and I will do my best to answer it. Thanks for reading and remember it is a beautiful life full of zig zag zoom!

I have been working hard at losing some weight since the beginning of the year. I was at 205 pounds when i joined the YMCA on January 2nd. I have been hitting the gym between 4-6 days a week every since. I have lost over 6% body fat and have lost thirty-five pounds of weight to a current weight of just under 170. I am very excited that I am getting very close to my weight loss goal of 50 pounds to reach a goal weight of 155 pounds.

I am 5’7 and I was in a size 40 waist for pants and I was beginning to feel like crap every time I buttoned up a pair of jeans. I just got back from Walmart where I tried on a pair of 34 jeans and they not only fit but they were a little loose.

I have always been told that once you hit your forties, it is very hard to lose weight. I have found that to be the case. I am currently 42 and five years ago when I tried to lose weight, it fell off quick. This time, it has been a struggle and I hit several plateaus. It was hard hitting the gym and not seeing any weight come off but I kept going. Not only have a lost the weight, I have improved my strength and increased my weight lifting ability. When I started struggled to get five reps on the bench press with 90 pounds. I am currently benching four sets of seven reps at 155 pounds and have a quick recovery time. I would most likely be able to do even more but I do not try to push too far since I lift solo with no partner to spot for me.

As far as my eating, I have cut way back on crap and try to stay at 1800 calories a day with a little protein with every snack or meal. I take one meal a week and eat anything I want. This seems to help keep my metabolism pumping. I did not count calories for the first few months but started to count when I could not budge below 175 pounds. I am now back on a slow steady weight loss and I am hoping in the next couple of months to finish off and star on maintaining my weight. At 175, I started eating a little bad for a couple of weeks but seemed to maintain no matter what I ate as long as I exercised. I am hoping with sticking with this for seven months now, I will be able to maintain once I reach my goal weight. I think adding a little more muscle mass has helped to speed up my metabolism a bit.

I encourage anyone of any age to get up and get going. You will feel better and once its a habit, you will start to crave exercise and eating great. You can take ideas from different diet plans but most are crap, the key is will power, exercise, more exercise, and eating right. I will write more about what I did in the next couple of weeks. Please share and success you have had by leaving a comment here.

I tried weight loss diets before and lost weight but it all came back. I have decided to really try to change my life style. The beginning of the year, I joined the YMCA and Karen and I have decided to eat at home a majority of the time. Real health comes from long term and not quick fixes.

I have stuck now for a little over a month with going to the gym 5-6 days a week. The YMCA has a mileage system that tracks how many miles you perform. For cardio, it goes by the machine and for weight lighting you get 1.5 miles per hour of strength training. I have been averaging about 25- 30 miles a week for over a month. I feel great and though I am extremely busy, I look forward to going to the gym everyday.

As far as diet, we are just trying to eat 90% healthy and cutting out the fried and overly processed foods. I have upped my protein which includes my fresh eggs every morning for breakfast. We have one anything goes meal a week and otherwise, we try to eat as healthy as possible.

I have lost about 10.5 pounds since January 3rd but I have gained a bit of muscle mass so I rely very little on the scale number. I have about 35 or so pounds to go but if i keep gaining muscles, that number may change.

Anyone else trying to get healthy? What are you doing?

I hate to take any kind of traditional medicine. People often take stuff for years only to find out that it was basically poison and causes other health issue. How many times do you turn on the TV and see class action law suits or recalls on medicine that was the prescribed for years? I see them all the time.

I try my best to find alternative medicines to treat all kinds of health issues. One that I swear by is Oregano Oil. I have found many illnesses that it treats and I have not had a full blown cold since I started taking it. Another item I love is Host Defense. However, it is quite expensive so I do not use it right now. There are tons of folk remedies that are out there that work. I am interested in finding some of them that are proven by real people like you and I.

If you have any remedy for anything and you have used it and it works, please leave a comment and share you remedy. With the flu and cold season about to take full bloom, this will be a great help for everyone.

Thanks for be a reader of my blog and your comments are what keeps me writing so please drop me a few!

I did my weekly weigh in today and I am down another pound. This is good considering I am still restricted from exercise due to my back injury. The back is getting better and I am hoping to soon be able to return to exercise. Of course, Karen is ready for me to return to my normal chores. She is getting tired of taking care of the chickens.

I am still struggling with getting in my vegetables and fruits each day. Life is so busy that it is hard to fit them in. I am starting to drink the V-8 fruit and vegetable juice to try and help. Most diets say you should not drink most of your calories. However, the juice has to help some for vitamins and such.

I am still waiting to hear from others who are trying to lose weight. Am I the only fat man out there? Leave some comments about your own struggle to lose weight!

New weight 198.5 lbs

Losing weight is one of the hardest things to do. To have a complete weight loss diet, you must combine both proper eating and good exercise. To do both you have to be in proper physical health.

I was super excited to start my weight loss diet and even more excited to share it here on That Blozzz. Well I had to use the motto of this blog because I was dealt a big life slap the last few days. I mentioned last week that I was having back problems. I finally hit the real brick wall and went to the chiropractor Monday. I have a slipped disk in my back. Not only does this mess up my everyday activity, it puts a big dent in my exercise plans.

The doctor says I should be down and out for at least 10 days but I am hoping it will get better faster. I have been doing OK with eating but that by itself does not get the job done.  I really need to exercise but since I can’t I have to be extra careful with my eating.

The good news is, even without exercise, I did lose one more pound and my new weight is 199.5 lbs. I am not losing at the rate I prefer to but I guess any loss is better than no loss or a gain.

The one pound loss does mean even if you are injured or down and out, you can still adjust your diet to be able to lose weight. Though it is slower, it is still possible.

If you are on a weight loss plan, please share your experience here by leaving a comment.  If you have any advice you would like to share or want to be part of my weight loss diet reporting, feel free to jump in and be part of the That Blozzz community.

Well I just did my week two weigh in and it was OK but not great. I am down 1.5 pounds. I had a good eating week but a bad exercise week. I was very active this week but I did not do any organized exercise. The middle of week two I threw my back out and that stopped me from doing much.

The back is still hurting which is one of the reason I wanted to lose weight. I hurt my back about 13 years ago and when I gain weight, I have more problems with it.

I have been very good with eating and avoiding all deep fried foods and high sugar snacks. Thursday will be my first cheat day because it is my mother’s 80th birthday party and I plan to have a little cake and ice cream.

I am hoping my back gets better in a couple of days so I can get back on track with my exercise. I guess as long as the weight is decreasing I should be happy. However, next week, I am looking for a better number.

Old weight 202 lbs new weight 200.5 lbs.