Tag Archives: Fitness

Time for an Update…I Lost Over 40 Pounds in the Last Year!

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That’s right. I really should update this thing more regularly! I began about a year ago, and my plan was to be in good enough shape that I would feel comfortable walking around shirtless at Southern Decadence this weekend. Did I reach my goal? Not exactly, but that has more to do with my body image issues than my size. I weighed myself shortly after starting on this journey, and I have lost 43 pounds so far. I still have another 15 or 20 to go before I’m totally happy.

So how did I do it? Well, I did not follow the Primal Method precisely. I walked more than before, but not every day and not consistently. Many of my walks were only one or two mile walks. I did not lift weights more than about a dozen times last year. The biggest change I made was cutting out the grains and sugar, and it is THAT change to which I attribute my weight loss. I am much thinner than last August. I will take some pictures and put them up soon. But first things first. This weekend is Southern Decadence! I will be there from Friday until Monday, and I hope to see a whole bunch of people there! I love New Orleans, and I am so excited that the bad weather hit a few days before the festivities this year. I will write more when I get back, and I hope to have some photos to share of my weekend at Southern Decadence!

How to Avoid the Painful & Embarrassing Condition Known as “Chub Rub” (Inner Thigh Chafing)

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I want to let you know that I have found what I consider to be the perfect solution to the condition known as Chub Rub, or inner thigh chafing. It is dead simple, and it does its job perfectly. It works so well for me that I can actually say it works like magic. If you just want to see the solution without reading the entire post, click here.

Chub Rub

I became intimately familiar with inner thigh chafing (AKA Chub Rub) a few years ago when I tried to start an exercise program. It was the middle of summer in Austin, Texas (where the temperature often exceeds 100 degrees F (in fact, we get about 90 days per year over 100). If you are not familiar with this condition, let me tell you…it is very painful. It is enough to put you off working out for several days at least, until you recover. I imagine that a great many people start an exercise program only to be halted in their tracks when they run into this problem, and that’s a shame because–as I’ve discovered–it’s easy to prevent.

The Cure for Thigh Chafing

Body Glide, the cure for Chub Rub

Body Glide, the Cure for Chub Rub!

I tried many different products on my way to finding the perfect solution to this problem. I tried spray-on powders, regular powder, and various brands of creams and lotions, but none of them worked very well. It was only when I found a product called Body Glide that I finally found the thing I had been looking for. It is a stick (sort of like a roll-up solid underarm deodorant stick) that contains allantoin. To apply it, you simply rub it on the area(s) that might become chafed, and that’s it! It is resistant to sweat and it doesn’t feel the least bit greasy or slick or anything. It is unscented, and it doesn’t contain any ingredients like mint to make it feel “cooling” or “tingling” (something I don’t appreciate–I don’t really want my thighs or anything else between my legs to *tingle*, thank-you-very-much!); in fact, it’s hard to tell that you’re wearing anything at all, except that you won’t see any of the chafing or blisters or rashes that you might otherwise develop.

If you are going to go out for a walk or a run, especially during hot weather, this product can be a lifesaver! I also recommend using it if you’re going to be spending a long afternoon walking, such as at a street fair or an amusement park, or if you work outdoors during hot weather. I used to work at an outdoor café, and I used this product every day. In fact, I’ll admit it now: I still use it every day. It’s difficult to find locally (and it’s usually much more expensive), so I recommend buying it at Amazon.  Here in Austin, you can find it at Mellow Johnny’s (Lance Armstrong’s bike shop), but it was twice the price, and they were frequently out of stock.

What is Chub Rub?

When you are overweight, you tend to carry some extra fat around your upper thighs, including the inside of the thighs. As you walk, the skin that covers this bulging area rubs against the skin on your other thigh, and you can develop a friction rash. This can happen at any time, but it tends to be worse in the summertime, because it’s an area that is not well ventilated. The sweat collects there until the area is pretty much damp, and the sweat increases the amount of friction you experience…by a LOT! It can be so painful that you end up waddling back home, trying to keep your legs apart to avoid the pain, which is very embarrassing.

Of course, it is not only people who are chubby who experience this. If you are a thin person who runs long distances, you are likely to experience some of the same type of irritation, especially if you wear ill-fitting clothing. It is not necessary to have skin-on-skin contact to develop a friction rash. Ill-fitting clothes that rub your skin can lead to the same type of irritation. Experienced marathoners know this, and so they take steps to shield the places where this irritation is most likely to occur, such as nipples (shirt rubbing back and forth over a long period of time) or underarms (arms swinging back and forth as you run—this is especially true for men with a “V” shaped chest, where your lats will rub against your triceps and develop an underarm rash). Many women who wear skirts also experience thigh chafing as they go about their normal daily routines.

You can avoid this type of irritation without using any type of product by wearing tight-fitting clothing (as in skin tight, so that it doesn’t move around on your body at all) that is made of a fabric like spandex or nylon (think of bicycle shorts), but this is probably not an option for most chubby people, because they’d be too embarrassed to wear such tight clothing.

One more little known tip: Body Glide (and allantoin) are not just a preventative for chafing…they also work as a cure for people who have an existing friction rash!  So if you have already gotten the dreaded chub rub, spread a little of the BodyGlide over the affected area, and it will soothe the stinging and burning, as well as help speed up the healing process!

On the Occasion of My 45th Birthday

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I turned 45 today, and my mother turned 66 (I was born on her 21st birthday, just so any of you who might be so inclined don’t have to do any subtraction). My mother and I are both overweight, just as my grandmother was before us. This year, I intend to break that cycle for good.

Although I’ve posted a few things on this site already, I mean this to be the real foundational post for my site. I was prompted to start this site when I realized how out of shape I had gotten, and I want to chronicle my progress as I get back in shape. I’m giving myself a year to do this, and I am not sticking to any specific hard-and-fast goals; instead, I’m simply saying that I want to look good shirtless by next Labor Day (2012), when I hope to go to Southern Decadence in New Orleans and celebrate.

Although my goal is loose, I do have some specific ideas about how I’m going to achieve them. First of all, I intend to permanently adapt to a “Primal” method of eating and working out. I may not get those Vibram Five Finger Shoes (which could be called Five Toe Shoes), because, even though I find them interesting and I really think they might work, I know a lot of people who find them weird or gross. I also may not get into kettlebell exercises, even though I know that’s the hot new thing in fitness (a few years ago it was balancing on giant balls). I definitely plan to walk more. Now that we have gotten through the worst of the summer weather in Austin, I plan to start doing a nightly walk around Lady Bird Lake, which offers different trails from 2 to 10 miles, depending on the loop you do and which bridges you cross. I like walking because it’s low-impact, and I still have some lingering lower back pain from a ruptured disc that was mostly repaired with spinal surgery ten years ago (although if I stress my lower back by bending or twisting in a certain way (especially while picking up something heavy), I tend to get some throbbing/shooting sciatic pain that lasts for a few days, so I tend to be pretty easygoing when it comes to exercises. It’s not that I can’t lift weights, it’s just that I’m very careful how I go about it, and I don’t do any sort of jumping or violent movements that involve bending or twisting. When I lift weights (and I intend to begin doing so again—it’s been over a year since I last went to the gym), I tend to do heavy weights with low repetitions in a slow, controlled movement, but I may change that up depending on the recommendations in the Primal Blueprint book (I’ve finished reading the first part, which covers diet and recipes, but I’ve only skimmed the exercise part). And that’s it for exercises: walking and weight-lifting, and maybe some others that I’ll decide to add after I finish the book.

For diet, I find eating a Primal diet to be quite easy. I actually started to try this in the spring, and I managed to lose about ten pounds (I think it was around ten pounds—I don’t own a scale and I don’t intend to buy one, so if I ever mention my weight, it’s something I’ve learned on the scale at the gym). Based on my current body composition and the fit of my clothes (I’m not quite at the fattest I’ve ever been, but close), I would say I probably weigh at least 235 pounds, but perhaps as much as 245…or even 250. When I tried this in the spring of 2011, it was diet only, with a bit of extra walking thrown in, but no weights or other exercises, and I did manage to lose some weight…but then came the hottest summer on record, and I gave up the nightly walks and then doubled down on the mistakes by choosing to begin eating sugar again (in the form of ice cream and peanut butter M&Ms, mostly)! This was an unnecessary and silly mistake, because the primal diet was not difficult for me. It basically involves cutting out grains and sugar. That’s really pretty much what it boils down to: no bread, no pasta, and no sugar. I kind of think of it as cutting out the “white” foods: sugar is white in its crystalline form, flour is white, and pasta is made of flour. I also think white potatoes are too heavy in starch for the amount of nutrients they contain, so I would usually prefer to eat a sweet potato (which is nutrient-dense) over a white potato. There are a few foods such as cauliflower that are exceptions to the rule (cauliflower is great, and it can be made into many different things, and it takes on the flavor of a sauce very well, so I find it very versatile). I’ll be posting some recipes as I go along, and as I experiment and adapt my favorite recipes to the Primal method (and I promise you that anything I post is something I’ve actually made and eaten).

There are some parts of the Primal method that I will not be following (the method actually allows you to cheat and adapt things to your own lifestyle, though, so this is not really cheating…more like not following every single guideline). The specific things that I will not be cutting out of my diet are:

1. Coffee
2. Alcohol
3. Diet Dr. Pepper
4. Dessert

This does not mean that I will be having dessert every evening. I WILL be having a cup of coffee every day (with Splenda, even though I know some people think it’s a nasty chemical and that it shouldn’t be part of a Primal/Paleo diet…so maybe Splenda should be the #5 thing that I won’t be cutting out). I will also have alcohol pretty much whenever I decide I’d like to have a drink. I realize it contains calories, and that I usually drink it with diet soda (Jim Beam and Dr. Pepper is my “usual” drink), but I simply don’t care. I will limit my intake to reasonable levels, but I am not going to put any specific limits on the first three things. For item number 4, dessert, I plan to allow myself to have dessert one night per week, on Sundays. This might be ice cream or a slice of cake (Whole Foods here in Austin makes truly excellent carrot cake), or it might be something else. This doesn’t mean that I’m doing a whole “cheat day” where I can go to town eating anything and everything I want on Sundays, it simply means that I plan to have one dessert after dinner on Sunday evenings (and that one dessert might be cake AND ice cream, so I’m letting you know in advance that I plan to allow myself some leeway when determining what my dessert for the week will be)!

A few other caveats about my plan: I don’t like to cheat on the rules, so I consider all of the rules to be fairly flexible. The Primal Blueprint book says that they know people who live and work in the modern world can’t follow the diet 100% at all times, so you are just supposed to strive to keep up a high percentage (80 or 90 percent) of following the guidelines. If I have a reason to go out to eat such as an anniversary or birthday or the last day of the school year (my partner Michael is a school teacher), or even if my friends just ask me to go out to Happy Hour, I plan to allow myself some leeway. Corn chips and margaritas are pretty much the antithesis of the Primal diet, but they are a big part of the culture of Austin, so if I do go out to Happy Hour with friends (which is something I love to do, because I love a good margarita* and I also love a good bargain), I’m going to relax and enjoy myself, and then get back on track the next day (*As a note of clarification, I should say that I used to be a bartender, and that I love a well-made cocktail, not just a margarita). I am also going to do this without guilt. I think enjoying life and hanging out with friends and family is what it’s all about, so I’m not going to deny myself the opportunity to have some fun in service to some arbitrary bit of diet advice. I may choose to eat less of the chips and salsa, and I may order the agave nectar margarita (I don’t know what I think of this whole agave syrup thing yet, but I’m skeptical), or I may not, and whatever I choose in each situation will be fine. Having said that, if I get six months into this thing and find that I’m not looking like I’m on track to meet my goals, I reserve the right to change my mind about anything I’ve said so far, including cutting out Sunday night desserts (but never my morning cup of coffee)! If that comes to pass, I will update you accordingly, since I intent to be entirely forthcoming about my progress each step of the way.

I hope you’ll bookmark my site and check back in with me. Or feel free to use the links in the sidebar to buy the Primal Method book or the Primal Method cookbook and join me on this journey from fat to fitness!