August 20th, 2012: Day 19 of 30 and Conclusion of Younger Next Year

8/20/2012: Day 19 of 30

Morning weight: 178.0

If you read yesterday's post you know that I gained 1.8 pounds over the weekend as the result of Friday night's very salty salad at The Other Place (EB&T's going away party) and a very late and also salty dinner at Sullivan's Steak House Saturday night (Castle Creation's welcome party).  Now that the celebrating is over, that temporary weight gain is coming off.  Monday morning I lost the first pound and (spoiler alert for Day 20 post) this morning I was back to 177.2 pounds, exactly where I started off the day on Friday morning.  It feels great to have recovered so quickly.  I believe the reason that I did recover quickly is because I didn't overeat or drink alcohol at either occasion.  My calories consumed for both days was less than 1600.  I am sure the weight gain was water retention from a) too much salt and b) eating so late in the evening on Saturday.  If I had consumed tons of extra calories or if I had had several drinks, I'd be fighting carb cravings right now and be white knuckling it, for sure. 

While I'm talking about salty food at restaurants I am going to put in a plug for Seasons 52.  We have one on the Plaza and I know there are several other Seasons 52 restaurants around the country.  If you happen to have one near you and you want to have a nice dinner out, I recommend trying this restaurant.  They specialize in seasonally inspired, healthy dishes that are made from natural, fresh, wholesome ingredients.  They focus on keeping calorie counts for each dish reasonable (come on, people, anybody can make anything taste good with enough heavy cream and butter) and creating delicious taste combinations.  For me, it is a much more enjoyable experience to eat at a restaurant like that than to go to a restaurant that stuffs as many calories as possible onto a single plate.  Try Seasons 52 and let me know what you think!

   

Today's calorie count: 1554

Morning exercise: Strength Training - Same as day 16 of 30.  The only difference is that I was able to do 2 push-ups from my toes before going to my knees, in each set, instead of 1.

Evening exercise: 30 minute (2 mile) brisk walk with Jack.  The weather has cooled off a bit and an evening walk with Jack is really quite nice!

Alcohol consumption: None

Younger Next Year pages read:  Finished the book - 42 pages.

Notes from the book (Quotes and very near quotes in italics):

I finished reading Younger Next Year for the second time yesterday.  I am glad that I read it again and I am grateful for Ruth's recommendation to read the book and to blog about it.  In reality, I've now read it three times, because when I sat down each day (well, almost each day) to blog about the book, I had to read through the pages again to make sure I didn't miss anything important.  I now, finally, understand why we had to write book reports in school!  The book made a much bigger imprint on me as a result of my blogging than it would have if I had just read it again, for my own benefit.  I couldn't skim through any of it.  I had to absorb what I was reading so that I could be thoughtful about what I wrote.  Great advice, Ruth!!

The first part of today's reading was the end of Harry's chapter about the Limbic brain, the Thinking brain, and the importance of Caring and Connecting.  Harry talks about the links between isolation and depression and the converse, the links between connection and optimism.  He reminds us that most isolation is decay and that most decay is optional.  The other choice, the choice we can make if we choose to do so (redundant, huh?) is growth.

Attitude counts and optimism is a learned skill.  You can decide to be optimistic with remarkable success.  Women who are optimistic about mother-hood before pregnancy have a much lower risk of postpartum depression.  Optimistic women have lower mortality rates from cancer and heart disease.  If you approach illness with a positive, optimistic attitude, you have lower blood pressure, better immune function.  You recover from bypass surgery faster and better, you get out of bed sooner after back surgery and you go back to work and regular exercise sooner.  Anger doubles your risk of heart disease.  But perceiving your work as satisfying cuts your risk of heart disease in half.

Harry sites a longitudinal study that I have read about before that was done with a group of nuns.  Basically, the nuns wrote autobiographical essays very early in their careers.  70 - 80 years later those essays were compared to the life-span of each nun and the surviving nuns' health and attitude.  The nuns that wrote the most optimistic essays in their early 20s were 2 1/2 times (that 250%!!!!) more likely than the most pessimistic nuns to survive from age 75 to age 95.  In addition to that, the researchers could predict the risk of Alzheimer's for each nun, based on the essay that each nun wrote when she was a very young woman.  Harry asks you to Consider Sister Mary, who was highly optimistic and involved in her community throughout her life.  When she died at the age of 101, her autopsy showed fairly advanced Alzheimer's lesions in her brain, but her cognitive testing had been normal and she had shown no signs of dementia in her daily life.  It appears that somehow her optimism and involvement protected her from the disease itself.  This amazing study sites several other examples of the power of a positive attitude, but in my opinion Sister Mary's example says everything I need to know.  Attitude counts.  Optimism is a learned skill.  Make becoming optimistic one of your jobs, like exercising and connecting to others.  It may be tough, but is it worth it?  Is defying Alzheimer's and dementia worth it?  Hell Yes!!  My grandmother had severe dementia for the last 10 - 15 years of her life.  So severe that she had to have help walking, eating, and using the bathroom.  There was nothing wrong with her body, nothing.  It was her brain.  It no longer communicated properly with her nervous system and she couldn't make her muscles do what she wanted them to do.  She drank too much in her old age, too, which accelerated her dementia.  But it was dementia, just the same.  If you can prevent dementia by working every day to have a positive attitude and being optimistic, it is worth every bit of effort you put into it.  But I guess that's just my opinion. 

In one survey, the majority of people felt that the best years of their lives came somewhere after age sixty.  After!  I can see that.  I was looking forward to the second half of my life before I re-read this book, now I am positively pumped!!  Bring it on World!!  I'm ready for you!!

In order to stay connected and optimistic you need to matter to others; it's our limbic imperative, and it's deadly serious.  You need to connect to people who need your help, your nurturing and your support.  And you need to get at least a little dose of all of those back in return.  Without this give-and-take, you decay.

Harry gives some advice on how to stay connected.  One option is to keep working in some capacity as long as you possibly can.  For some of us that is an economic necessity, yet even for those of us that need the money, the benefits of work go way beyond the paycheck.  Work provides structure, an opportunity for social interaction, and - with any luck - makes us feel valued.  A second option is to build connections and communities through fitness activities.  Join a cycling, walking, skiing, or tennis group.  A third option is volunteering.  Giving back to the community can be very rewarding and builds tremendous limbic connections.  And, finally, Harry speaks briefly about spirituality.  He states that Spirituality is too profound and too personal for us to give you any advice on which road to take, but we do know that for limbic reasons alone you should be on the journey.  The growing number of reasonably well done studies on spirituality all point to its importance in our lives for both mental and physical health.  People who search for meaning in their lives and their experiences survive loss better, cancer better, heart disease better, and have healthier immune chemistry, lower C-6 markers of inflammation and lower risks of stroke and Alzheimer's disease.  People who report that faith is an important part of their lives have mortality rates a third lower than average.  They have lower blood pressures and lower blood sugar levels, spend fewer days in the hospital and report substantially higher levels of life satisfaction and emotional well-being.  You can decide for yourself how much of the positive effect stems from the increased social connections offered by organized religion and how much from something ineffable, but the simple message is that it is important to look for the meaning in your life's experience.

In conclusion the book's final chapter is titled, Relentless Optimism. We have every reason in the world to be optimistic about the second half of our lives.  So much of the decision - growth or decay? - is ours to make.  I get to decide, every day, if I want to decay a little or grow a little.  For me, that is a very easy decision to make.

For the first time in my life I am looking forward to getting into very good shape.  I mean, I am looking forward to getting into excellent shape.  I've lost 50 pounds before...hell, I've lost 75 pounds before.  But I have never lost a lot of weight and then spent the next year getting into the best possible shape I can get in.  In the past, I've lost a lot of weight and still been disappointed in my soft gut, the wiggle waggle between my thighs, the fat on my back, and the flapping under my arms.  I've sighed in disgust and moaned in despair and thought, "I'll never look good!"  Well... let me tell you, I am working hard to banish those thoughts from my brain, forever!  Do you know what I think is beautiful?  Fit is beautiful!  Healthy is beautiful!  Active and engaged is beautiful!  The great outdoors is beautiful!  The oceans, prairies, mountains, and deserts of this great nation are beautiful!  Being able to ride my bike 100 miles in one day or hike a long trail is beautiful!  Doing it with people I love is even more beautiful!  And not hurting at the end of the day is even more beautiful, yet!!

I have never in my life had so much optimism and excitement for getting fit.  I can't explain it, really, but as I said a few posts ago I have started thinking beyond Goal # 1, which is to lose 74 pounds and get to a healthy 150 pounds.  I've built a support system that is way too important to me to give up, just because I reach that goal. (I have 27.2 pounds to go.  I should be there by the end of the year.)  So what's next?  How will I engage that support system in 2013?  What will my new goals be?  What will I work towards?  And the answer is I am going to work towards getting very fit.  I discussed this with Jeremy last Friday and he suggested that my 2013 chart should be a Body Fat % chart and I think that is an amazing idea.  I can't even imagine what my body is going to feel and look like if I work for a year on physical fitness, after I'm at a healthy weight.  I have a sneaking suspicion that there will be a very gradual bit of additional weight loss throughout the year, but that won't be the goal.  The goals will be physical.  Obtain a healthy Body Fat %, be able to do a dozen pushups from my toes, be able to do a pull up, complete a triathlon, run a half marathon, perhaps?  Thinking about, dreaming about, and planning for these goals excites me.  It makes me happy.  It makes me optimistic for this second half of my life!! 

By the way, Appendix #1 in the book is Harry's Rules.  They go as follows:

1.      Exercise six days a week for the rest of your life.

2.      Do serious aerobic exercise four days a week for the rest of your life. (Shouldn't that be 1(a)?)

3.      Do serious strength training, with weights, two days a week for the rest of your life. (and 1(b)?)

4.      Spend less than you  make.  (I guess I need to make more money!!)

5.      Quit eating crap!

6.      Care.

7.      Connect and commit.

And that's a wrap on "Younger Next Year," authored by Chris Crowley & Henry S. Lodge, M.D.  I hope you found some of the posts about the book interesting and, perhaps, inspirational.  I have had such a great experience blogging about the book that I think I may have to find another book and do it again!