The Y is my Home Away from Home.

Day 167

Since mid-December, I have been working out at my local YMCA and it has helped further my body along in its healthy transformation. Not only do I go there to workout, I go there to relax and get away from life in the outside world. Most of the people I know there are people I only know from my daily Y visits and no other areas of my life.

I do cardio seven days a week and Nautilus three (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays). Since I am there everyday, I think I will do Nautilus every other day starting tomorrow. This will make it either three or four times a week depending on where the Nautilus workout days fall during a particular week.

Nautilus has been a part of my workout for exactly eight weeks now and already I have been seeing results. My chest is beginning to develop a vertical center ripple and my midsection is slimming down. Over these past eight weeks I learned more and more machines, so if I am getting these results in just eight weeks doing them three times a week without doing the whole room of machines until just two weeks ago, imagine how I will look in eight more weeks, going three to four times a week using every Nautilus machine in the room.

I have spoken about my meatless year project to a weight loss group at the Y twice and now I am giving back even more. Today I started volunteering on Saturday mornings at the Y’s front desk. I figure it’s a great way to occupy my time and even put some more experience on my resume under the “other” section.

Today from 9 am to 1 pm I answered phones, greeted Y guests, set training appointments all from this point of view:

That’s my coffee in the picture of course. I think that was my second of the three cups I had today. Coffee always makes the time pass faster but I didn’t need it in the positive, relaxing atmosphere of the Greenfield YMCA.

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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Blue Hair and Belly Fat

Day 165

And continuing with the “Waist Week” theme…

Last Friday, I attended an event at the Y where I workout entitled, “Fighting Belly Fat Through Nutrition”. It was held in the wonderful Y Social Room.

Imagine the above pictured room filled with rows of tables in turn filled with elderly ladies all having lunch while chatting away and you will get a good mental picture of how crowded and noisy it was in there. Before the presentation started I was assisting in cleaning up spills, helping find seats for late comers and chatting with some of the attendees about weight loss. Old people and I are tight like that.

I decided to stand in the back of the room and not partake in the lunch they served (I had a salad in a cooler in the car anyways). The nutrition consultant, Barbara Krolick, MS,RD,LD/N; spoke for about thirty minutes on some of the ways to fight fat through healthier eating.

She recommended cutting out sugar and including more fiber in addition to supplementing one’s daily meals with these following foods that are supposed to be fat fighting agents:

These foods contain Omega-3 Fatty Acids which are good for the heart and help burn off body fat. Note: Consuming the flax seeds in their original form is a great source of fiber but to get the additional benefit of Omega-3s they should be ground up before added to your meals.

After the presentation I went out and got the above items. Let’s see how they work.

*Also, don't forget to vote in the current poll on the right sidebar of the blog, "Should clothing companies be held legally responsible for misrepresenting sizes on their labels?" Be heard! Vote now!

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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Available for Public Speaking Engagements

Days 144 & 145

In addition to the two healthy eating talks I have given to the weight loss group at my local YMCA, I now have a third upcoming gig at my local chapter of the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC). The AAPC is an organization that educates medical coders and billers and is overall dedicated to keeping them up to date on all the latest medical coding innovations.

Last week, at the last local chapter meeting Anita, the chapter’s education officer, asked the gathered members for help in getting presenters for future chapter meetings. The presenters didn’t have to specifically present on medical coding as long as they educated others on a health related topic.

That was my cue and I gave Anita the blog’s business card and told her how I had lost 41 lbs since November 2nd and feel great. Earlier this week she e-mailed me at the blog’s official e-mail address and said she would love to have me come in and present at the next AAPC local chapter meeting on April 21^st. I can’t wait to share the new and healthier lifestyle that I have adopted with my fellow medical coders.

If you are in Western Massachusetts and want me to come in and do a presentation to your club or organization on how to go meatless simply e-mail me at meatlessman@yahoo.com so we can discuss it. Healthy eating is a topic that people want to be aware of now more than ever.

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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Another Y Presentation

Days 131 - 133

Last weekend I did another presentation for the weight loss group at my local YMCA. This time I told them about the unhealthy eating habits I used to have.

I was feeling very tired that day from munching on candy and downing a Red Bull the day before. I pointed this out and one of the people in the group labeled it a “sugar hangover”.

Sugar hangover is the perfect way to state it. One of the things I have noticed since going meatless and balancing my diet is that if I eat junk food, particularly very processed junk food, I feel sluggish and a bit crappy for about 24 hours after—almost like a regular hangover but without the nausea or severe headache.

My body responds better to healthy foods and I can certainly feel it. I guess even a little bad stuff can go a long way to weighing my system down.

P.S. On a totally unrelated note, don't forget to vote in the current poll on the sidebar, "Are zoos as a whole good or bad for animals?", which ends tonight!

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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Pump it Up!

Days 107 & 108

Day 108 and I still feel great. Lots of energy and the weight is coming off at a healthy rate.

So now it’s time to add some muscle.

At the Y a few days ago I got to talking to one of their trainers, Steve. We talked about how building up muscle helps burn fat calories faster and that eventually one hour on the elliptical everyday was eventually going to have less of an effect on my system. With all that in mind I set a training appointment with him for 10 am on Friday. I will let you know how that goes.

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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The Meatless Blog’s First Public Speaking Engagement!

Day 99

On Thursday I went for my daily workout at the YMCA and afterwards got my Body Mass Index (BMI) checked. Y employee Rich took me into the office where their BMI gadget was and there we bumped into Jayne, another Y employee who had also taken my BMI back in December.

Jayne asked how my meatless year and blog were going and I inform her about the positive feedback I have been receiving from readers and that I felt extremely energetic. Yet another Y employee, Dawn, the Y’s Physical Director, came in and Jayne told her about what I was doing. Dawn then asked if I wanted to stop in to briefly speak to her weight loss group on Saturday morning during their cooking tips hour. I enthusiastically said yes.

Saturday morning came and I arrived in the Y’s community room a little before 10 am with two bags stuffed with examples of the food I’ve been eating since going meatless back in November; i.e. whole grain bread, greens salad, natural peanut butter and etc.

Soon, the room filled up and it came to be my turn to present. My three major talking points included.

Focus on losing just one pound at a time, no matter how much you want to eventually lose. This will keep you positive and focused.

There is always time to cook—even if you have to prepare and freeze meals ahead of time.

Eating healthy doesn’t have to be expensive. Eventually one can find the time to go price hunting in their area. There are bargains to be found in many places.

The folks in the weight loss group were very appreciative and I got to chat with a few of them after the talk. I used this time to show them up close some of the healthy foods I brought in. All in all, I loved it and Dawn may invite me back to speak with them all again.

And yes, I am available for Bar Mitzvahs too!

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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Weight Update for February 2010!

Day 96

I am over a third of the way to my weight loss goal of 149 lbs!

I have lost 24 lbs since November 2^nd and continue to have plenty of energy!

Here are the pictures I took today:

And here’s another bit of good news. Yesterday at the YMCA where I workout, I had my body mass index (BMI) taken. Jayne, the YMCA Fitness Director, who took my BMI for me back in December, asked how the meatless diet and blog were going and I told her of all the pounds I lost and the tremendous response this blog has been receiving. Dawn, the Physical Director, overheard this and we started up a conversation in which she asked me if I would come in and briefly speak with a weight loss group at the Y this Saturday morning. I told her I would love to and now Saturday morning the Meatless Year Blog has its first public speaking gig!

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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The Dog Days of—January?!

Days 85 and 86

The people I live with have gone away on vacation so I have free reign of the house. This means spending long hours into the night working on resumes, sending out resumes, developing a writing portfolio, watching Conan’s classy last week (and DVRing Letterman’s jibes at Leno), promotion for this blog, planning new and separate blogs and other random bits of business.

Even though I am being productive on those fronts I have neglected to go to the YMCA for over a week and my eating habits have been thrown way out of whack. The result? I feel sooooo crappy.

It started Sunday night with coughing and a stuffy nose but I am feeling a little better now. Could this have been the consequence of the week-long interruption of my daily routine or did I just catch this cold that’s been going around? Anybody else out there have any thoughts on this?

Anyway, it’s more tea and rest for me. Nighty-night.

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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All writing, videos and pictures copyright the author of this blog unless otherwise noted.

"Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot"

Days 59 & 60

In less than twelve hours it will be 2010. The first decade of the 21st century will be just memories. I did a lot in the last ten years including my share of diets and exercise programs.

I tried Atkins once or twice but always gained the weight back, I worked out at two different YMCAs and Bally’s, took long walks along Lake Michigan in Chicago and up Clark Street (which I think has got to be the most interesting street in Chicago besides Michigan Avenue) but was still not eating the best I could.

Well, 2010 is a new beginning that in some ways began two months earlier on November 2nd, when I first went meatless. Now I’m exercising too and the weight is staying off for the most part.

Speaking of my weight, 2010 will be the year I finally get down to my ideal range of 149 – 162 lbs (according to the Body Mass Index I did at the Y a week ago). Hopefully others will learn from my mistakes and successes that I make along the way. I am aiming to get to my target weight by June 2010. Can I do it? Let’s see. If not, that’s okay; I will still have until November 2nd 2010 to accomplish that goal.

Also, I have some new things coming up in the blog, such as:

Recipes – I will present in the blog meatless recipes from vegetarian cookbooks I have recently acquired and also from the people I know. Who knows? Maybe I will even make videos of me making those recipes and post them here in the blog!

What exactly am I eating? Many people have asked this and I have been putting it off so there will be entries coming up soon showing you some of the foods that I have been consuming ever since I started this meatless experiment.

Besides meat, what other unhealthy eating habits am I trying to get away from? I will show you just what else I am avoiding in the land of terrible meal choices.

Here is to a great 2010 and have a Happy New Year!

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com
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8 Weeks of Meatlessness!

Day 57

I have gone eight weeks without eating meat of any kind.

I have stayed meatless through two major holidays.

I have started exercising everyday at my local YMCA.

I have lost 14 lbs.

This blog has now had over 1,000 visits in just under two months.

So what should I do to commemorate this special occasion?

How about with this?

Talk to you soon!
meatlessman@yahoo.com

Y-M-C-A!

Days 43 and 44

Yesterday, I visited my local Y and found out that there were no volunteer positions open but I could still qualify for the sliding scale because I am currently unemployed. After filling out the necessary paperwork I made an appointment for today to take a tour and fill out additional membership papers.

My guide for the Y orientation was Bill, a 60-something retiree, who was very friendly and enthusiastic. He seemed to know everyone in the place and everyone seemed to know him and like him. See, it’s that sense of community you can’t really get at a Bally’s Total Fitness. The two YMCAs I’ve belonged to over the years have has just as quality equipment as any Bally’s and their staff is more likely to be visible and approachable. The manager at the Bally’s I used to go to in Chicago seemed like an ex-con. I really think Bally’s wants your money rather than for you to get the most positive fitness experience you can. Why else would a place sell you a lifetime membership for a big lump sum yet still expect you to pay at least $100 a year to renew it? Maybe it should be Greedy Total Fitness.

Okay, getting back to today’s Y visit…

After the tour I went right to the locker room, changed and ascended to the top floor. My objective up there was the new cardio room they put in a few years back when they added onto the building. This cardio center is in addition to the ground floor cardio room they have had for many years. The new room ensures that there is rarely a shortage of treadmills, elipticals, exercise bikes or stairmasters for whoever wants to use one. I made a beeline for an elliptical and worked out on it for an hour.

After working up a good sweat, I went back down to the locker room and did some sit ups and then used the steam room. That’s what I really love most about a Y or Bally’s, they always have that relaxing component like a sauna or steam room that makes one feel at least a little bit like they are on vacation when they are using it. It’s nice to get away from the outside world for a bit.

I started off today with 202 lbs. I’ve lost 10 since November 2nd. Only 40 more to go folks.

Talk to you soon.
meatlessman@yahoo.com

Phase 2: Excercise!

Days 39-42

My Bally’s Total Fitness lifetime membership is no good where I currently am because there aren’t any clubs within 100 miles of here. So, I’ve been thinking about getting a membership at my local YMCA. I figure since the weather has turned icy and chilly outdoors it would be a good idea to find a place when I can work out safely indoors where there are lots of options: elipticals, swimming, treadmill and etc.

I don’t want to necessarily build up mega muscle—just get rid of the 40-50 extra pounds of flab I currently have. To do that I will have to step up the exercise routine.

I used to belong to this same YMCA years ago and really loved it. They have added on some new rooms so I am excited to at least get a tour to check out the improvements they’ve made. They already had a setup there that was just as good as any big city Bally's so I am eager to see their new features.

So tomorrow I will visit my local YMCA for membership details. I know they have a program where if you volunteer your time you can reduce your membership fees. That is exactly what I need since I am unemployed at the moment.

Talk to you soon.
meatlessman@yahoo.com