Far East Travel

Wow! Has it really been six months since my last entry? In my defense, I landed an overseas job assignment in July and have been working in Taichung Taiwan. I’m pretty excited about the whole thing and I am staying fit during the travels. And yes, I am still perusing my unicorn; that Last 10 Pounds.

Prior to the trip, I had a physical and guess what? My serum Creatinine was at 1.5 and my cholesterol was at 174, with total cholesterol to HDL ratio of 2.26 and an LDL to HDL ratio of 1.03. The LDL to HDL ratio is a bit high but acceptable (<1 preferable) but other wise, all good numbers. I also had to get several immunizations that include a tetanus booster, Hep A and Hep B plus Typhoid. A nickel’s worth of free advice; don’t get a pair of shoots, one in each arm, and figure it won’t affect you bench press the next day. Take it down a few pounds over the next several workouts.

As far as my Taiwan workouts; I got a membership at the local World Gym (my apartment is only a couple of blocks away) and at the apartment, they have a collection of treadmills and stationary bikes in the ‘activity’ areas. In other words I ‘Made Out’. Unlike the U.S., there isn’t a gym on every corner and heavy resistance training is still a new concept with the Taiwan population. A good number of the gyms I walked through, before settling on the World Gym, were very much lacking in the free weight department. And as a minor inconvenience, the World Gym doesn’t open until 6:00 pm, so any ‘before work’ weight training is out of the question.

So as a condition of circumstance, I split my routines; 40 to 50 minutes of cardio 6 days a week before work (yep, still a 4:00 am wake up call), a minimum of 3 evenings a week at World Gym lifting, plus 1 night a week swimming and 1 night a week on the badminton court. I am still managing the modified drop sets at the gym and still lifting in excess of 200 on the bench and 300 in the squat rack.

And, I’ve lost A GOOD 10 POUNDS plus at least an inch around the middle in the process; from 190 in May to 180 today and I can get into my 31” waist slacks again. The best part, a good portion of that weight loss is just plain FAT. So what do I owe this spectacular improvement too? DIET. Even though I’ve increased (not quite doubled) the cardio portion of my routine, which would account for some of the weight loss, I will say that a good percentage (closer to 90% then not) of the weight loss is based on what I’m eating, or to be more precise, NOT eating. Yes folks, I’m here to tell you that the food in Taiwan is pretty much void of one specific refined product; SUGAR.

So let me qualify this statement a bit further. Because of circumstance, I have dropped the 2 day per week intermittent fasting routine and I have been eating breakfast, lunch and dinner 7 days a week. I still try and roll the calorie count back as the day progresses; eating my largest (calorie packed) meal after the morning workout and finishing the day with what most might consider a ‘half’ serving. I eat lots of fish (raw and cooked), I eat lots of eggs, I eat lots of veggies, I eat lots of cheese, I eat lots of fruit, I eat lots of pasta, I eat my share of rice and lately, a bagel a day. I have not been paying attention to specific protein to carb ratios nor have I been supplementing with protein powder or BCAA’s. What I don’t eat are the occasional M&M’s, candy corn, or piece of mom’s apple pie. Why? They’re just not available. The only sugar uptake I have is 1 cup of chocolate milk as part of breakfast after the morning workouts. When you eat here in Taiwan, food tastes like .…. food. No additives to enhance flavor, no additional fat and NO REFINED SUGAR. If you remember, at one point in earlier blogs, I was shooting for less than 40 grams per day. If you are serious about weight loss and muscle gain; NO REFINED SUGAR is the key. Don’t worry about rice and potatoes and bread, or apples or bananas, just ditch the REFINED SUGAR and all will be good. And since there is very little refined sugar in Taiwan, anything like high fructose corn syrup is only found when you go looking for it.

So how do I know that a good portion of the weight loss is FAT, it’s all in the KPI’s; tracking the weight lifted to weight ratio and waist size; WRITING IT DOWN.

Again, the Key Performance Indicators I use are;

·         Weight,

·         Waist size at the navel,

·         Core lift ‘calculated’ 1RM to bodyweight ratio,

·         Core lift Total Weight Moved, and

·         Total Cholesterol / HDL ratio (<2.5) and LDL / HDL ratio (<1) at 10 mg daily statin dosage.

Let’s take a look at the Core lift ‘calculated’ 1RM to bodyweight ratio’s for Squat and Bench;

• Best pre-Taiwan Squat = 2.09 and Best post-Taiwan Squat = 2.26; a net improvement of 0.15.
• Best pre-Taiwan Bench = 1.42 and Best post-Taiwan Bench = 1.4; a net loss of 0.02.

Basically, I gained in the legs and lost a bit in the chest. Not bad for a 57 year old with ‘blood sugar’, cholesterol and other metabolic issues. Anyway, if I haven’t lost in the strength department and weight and waist size have gone down, then there is a good chance that any weight lost is FAT, not the lean stuff.

So basically; to stay fit, stay healthy and keep that ‘feeling’ and ‘looking’ young mentality, it’s a matter of investing one to two hours a day in fairly intense exercise and managing a sugar free diet. These are things I can do and I can tell you from experience, you will feel Sooooooooo much better.

Keep the faith and keep track of your journey to better health and I guarantee, you will stay on a path to lose that Last 10 Pounds.   

 MMJennings