I mentioned my diet in 2 previous posts, The Disney World Diet and Spiru-tein about a month ago.  I’m happy to report since then I’ve lost about another 6 pounds.  Nothing spectacular after the early weight loss, but the important thing is which direction your weight is heading.  Since then I’ve modified my diet and exercise routine slightly and thought now would be a good time to update things.

My visit to the doctor went very well.  He was shocked how much weight I had lost.  He said he wondered why more people didn’t try meal replacement shakes.  Well, since he hadn’t recommended them to me, he probably hadn’t been recommending them to others either.  He said keep up the good work and sent me off with my prescription for my usual blood test.  The results of the blood test were both good and bad.  My bad cholesterol level was cut in half.  My good cholesterol level didn’t change even one point.

I’ve been taking fish oil capsules twice daily to try and boost my good cholesterol.  I decided to add 1 tablespoon of Flax Oil to my shake each day.  This adds an extra 100 calories to each shake, all from the oil.  Once the oil runs out, I plan to switch to flax seeds that are freshly ground into a powder.  This should give me the same amount of oil, plus some extra fiber.  If the good cholesterol doesn’t go up at least 1 point, I’ll have to have another talk with the doctor about what to try.

Now moving onto exercise.  While my weight hasn’t been shrinking at a rapid pace, my strength has been going up considerably.  I’ve added heavier weights and a few more exercises to my routine.  When I first started running, I could only jog about 1/16 of a mile before having to slow down to a walk again.  Now I can jog an entire mile.  Unfortunately the cold weather is getting really annoying. I freeze at first, then sweat from running, then freeze again when I slow down.

December looks to be a stressful cold month; as long as snow doesn’t hit I’ll be alright.  If I can get though the holidays without a total collapse I should be ready to go come spring.

I know I’m not the only person that spends too much time on the computer.   Even though I walk an hour a day as part of my fitness routine, there are many times I am gaming or blogging where I sit at my desk for hours on end.   Wouldn’t it be great to combine my exercise bike with my computer?  I’d seen a few high tech and low tech solutions before with the same exact idea, so I take no credit there.  The goal of my project was to use my current exercise bike, existing materials around the house, and any extra parts from the local Home Depot.  I wanted something strong and simple, and also reversible if it didn’t work.  For less than $20 dollars in purchased materials I was able to accomplish my goal.  This may not work with all exercise bikes.  I apologize in advance for the quality of the pictures.  My wife lost my good camera at Disney World’s Animal Kingdom, and my backup camera isn’t cutting it.  The cad pictures were created and rendered using Solid Edge.  The mess of wires on the floor belongs to a home lan which I didn’t want to disconnect just to make a pretty picture. 

The following parts I had on hand already.

• Computer
• Wide-screen Monitor
• Exercise Bike (Marcy Deluxe Recumbent Bike)
• Monitor Stand
• Rigid Mousepad (Razer eXactMat Mouse Pad)
• Keyboard (Timberwolf Gaming Keyboard)
• Some screws, washers, nuts, and duct tape
• desk or table to attach the monitor stand

Parts purchased from Home Depot:

• 1 1/8 x 3/64 x 36″ perforated angle iron, qty:1
• 1 1/8 x 3/64 x 36″ perforated steel strip, qty:2
• 1/2 x 2″ L shaped bracket, qty:2
• rubber bath mat, qty:1

Tools Used:

• Metal hacksaw
• screwdriver
• pliers
• allen wrench
• scissors

Directions:

1.  Remove the handlebar from the Exercise bike using the Allen wrench provided by the manufacturer.  Save the bolt as we will reuse it later.

2. Place your keyboard next to your mousepad on a table.  If your mousepad is not a rigid one, you will need something stiff under it to give support.  Measure the length of them together.  In my case the distance was 32 inches.  Using the hacksaw, cut the angle iron and one of the perforated strips to that length.

3. Cut the other perforated strip into five 6″ pieces.  If they are not perfectly the same, it doesn’t matter.  As long as the perforated holes line up, that is what is important.

4. Assemble the parts from steps #2 and #3 as shown. I used nuts, bolts and washers found around the house.

5. Attach the assembly to the exercise bike using the same bolt we removed from the handlebar in step one.  It doesn’t have to be centered.  I offset my shelf so that the gamepad and mouse pad are where I feel most comfortable.

6. Wrap the bathmat around the frame on the side your mousepad will be.  Secure it with 2 strips of duct tape wrapped around it.  This it to provide friction for the mousepad.   Trim away the excess bathmat using scissors.

7. Add the two little right angle brackets as shown . Bend them using the pliers so that they won’t catch on your clothing.

8.  Place your keyboard and mousepad onto the assembly.

9.  Adjust your monitor height and exercise bike seat.  Be sure your knees do not hit the keyboard.  Hide and secure any cables that may hang down around the pedal area. 

I’ve been very satisfied with the final results.  I’m able to watch videos, edit my blog, play games and surf the net while riding.  The only time I have to “put my foot down” so to speak, is when I am playing FPS games like Battlefield 2.  I guess I can’t ride a bike and snipe at the same time.  I do have a few issues with the final build that could be addressed.  I removed the speedometer because it blocked too much of my monitor.  This assembly simply slides on and off and I never used it anyway.  Another related issue is that the metal plate that held the speedometer is pretty ugly.  I use it to mount a clip-on microphone and hang my headphones on, but a person could easily hacksaw it off if they aren’t tall enough to see over it.  Another issue is that my mouse hangs down when not in use.  You could add a cradle if this bothers you.  The keyboard and mousepad are not attached so that you could move them over to a desk.  They could secured better if you wanted a more permanent solution.

Originally I had the idea to mount the monitor onto the bike as well.  I built a little frame in the front and secured the monitor to it.  This didn’t work for one simple reason.  The vibrations from pedalling, however slight, shook the screen.  It really tired out your eyes.  The current system doesn’t have that effect.  Another idea I thought would be cool would be to have the bike generate the power for the computer.  Besides not being simple, The power requirements would be too great.  I keep my computer on 24/7 usually, so impractical. 

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the article.  Obviously few if any readers will have the same exact parts around the house, but hopefully it will give you an idea of what worked in my case.  Send me a link for any of you that built your own version of a computer exercise bike.  And keep drinking that spiru-tein.

Dieting- Everybody does it.  It’s pretty apparent at first appearance who’s succeeded at it, and who’s failed.  But what works for one individual will not always work for another.  For that reason I decided to post what worked for me.  I make no claims what your doctor may recommend, what is healthy, or what will work for you.  I’ve lost about about 40 pounds, a few inches off the waist, and feel great.  Every time I try on a an old pair of pants I couldn’t wear for years, or tighten my belt another notch I know my diet is working.  Obviously, any diet is nothing more than burning more calories than you consume, but here is a guide on how I did it. 

So, why title this diet The Disney World diet?   Because, that’s where it all started; I went to Disney World in Orlando Florida.  My parents, wife, and 2 kids flew down to Florida.  When you hope the airplane seat belt is going to fit, you know you are fat.   (Luckily, it did.)  For those who have never experienced the Magic Kingdom, I’ll save that review for another article, but you are sure to experience are fun, hot weather, and crowds.  Part of the vacation package is that all your meals are included, and you get 2 a day per person plus a snack.  Let me tell you, for a person wanting to lose weight, 14 pre-paid all you can eat meals can be hell.  Don’t even think about losing weight there.  Instead, do what I did.  Eat as much as you want and most importantly ENJOY YOURSELF.  No reason to make you and your family miserable by sticking to a diet in impossible conditions.  However, use this opportunity to start raising your metabolism, and the best way to do that is to see everything.  Walk, walk some more, walk until your feet feel on fire, go for a swim, and then walk some more at night.  Obviously, take a few precautions against overexertion and sunstroke by drinking plenty of fluids, wear sunscreen, a hat, and check with your doctor if you are really out of shape.  If you have kids, pushing the stroller is a nice upper-body workout as well.   7 days of this and you will feel happy, relaxed, stronger, …and still fat.  But that’s OK, because now we are going to work on the weight part.

When it comes to diets, I’ve done the salad thing before and it never worked for me.  You start out eating rabbit salads, and before you know it you’re either eating giant sized taco salads or grabbing the tongs at a salad bar and putting every fattening ingredient onto a single piece of lettuce.   Let’s face it,  we love food.  Eating is one of the great pleasures in life.   So what worked for me?  Removing the temptation.  Get rid of all the crap you shouldn’t be eating and hide it.  Put it into one cabinet and never open it again.  If you have a tiny refrigerator in the garage or another room than the kitchen that you can use just for yourself, all the better.  Out of sight, out of mind.

Next step is meal replacement.  If I had the will power to exercise proper portion control, I probably wouldn’t have any worries.  Unfortunately, I don’t.  Even after personal nutritionist counseling I still couldn’t break old habits.  Let’s put yourself to the test.  Say you are in a room with 3 other people and order a delicious pizza.  You and two of those people each consume 2 slices, but one person states they don’t want the last slice and it’s free to whomever wants it.  Is it your nature to want that slice?  Fat people eat it, skinny people wrap it up for later.  Recognising and conquering portion control is half the battle, a losing battle. 

Rather than fight myself, I rewrote the rules by eliminating 2 meals a day.  It doesn’t matter what 2 meals you remove, I tend to vary this based upon social and family obligations.  Sometimes I take the kids out to a restaurant for dinner, other times I have a business lunch, or maybe my wife cooked a special breakfast.  All that matters is that you only eat one real meal a day.   For that one meal, eat sensibly including vegetables, fruit, and no dessert.  Believe me, vegetables never tasted so good once you’ve cut out all the garbage and lost a few pounds.  Let someone else fix your plate for you if possible at first.  

 Now for the missing 2 meals.  I substitute an energy shake for those.  Having tried many brands, the one I swear by is Spiru-tein.  It’s a meal replacement product that comes in a powder form.  I mix a cup of milk, half a tray of ice cubes, and 1 scoop of the powder together in a blender.  Spiru-tein makes a delicious icy cold shake that is filling and gives you plenty of energy.  Trust me, if it doesn’t taste good, you are not going to stick with it.  Even after several months now I still look forward to my shake.  For breakfast,  I like to also have a large cup of coffee with milk and equal, and maybe a dash of cinnamon for variety.  A review of the various Spiru-tein flavors I’ve tried is here: http://turnipofpower.com/spiru-tein/ 

Remember all that walking and swimming we did on vacation?  There was a point to it.  That exercise was to start raising your metabolism.  Had you started your diet and hit the gym the same moment, you probably would have overdone both and ended up exhausted, miserable, and lying in bed with sore muscles.  By gradually improving your muscle tone and then dieting, you gave your body time to adjust to both.  Now that the vacation is over, we have to keep up what we started.  Buy yourself a Walkman, iPod, mp3 player, or whatever will allow you to listen to music while walking.  Find a safe course of known distance where you can walk.  A high school track is perfect.  You’d be surprised how many housewives and businessmen go there in the early evening to walk/run a few laps.  For the first week start out slowly.  Walk anywhere from 1/4 to 1 mile a day.  Every couple of days add another 1/4 mile.  After a while you will be up to 3 miles.  Running 3 miles is tough, walking 3 miles is easy.  Once you’ve reached the 3 mile goal, start jogging (or shuffling faster in my case) a short distance every lap, then go back to walking.  About 1/16 mile is enough to get your heart beating faster.  Never feel embarrassed that others pass you or that you are out of shape.  You’ll be looking much better soon enough.  I spend about an hour a day walking.  My favorite times to walk are early morning and just before dark.

That’s the main exercise you perform daily, but shouldn’t be your only activity.  3 times a week, you should also work on some upperbody muscles.  I have a pair of 15 pound dumbbells that I do a few exercises with.  I do all the exercises in a row, then repeat the routine 3 times.  It takes much less time than doing 3 sets of each exercise.  The exercises I perform are the Overhead Triceps Extension, Lateral Raise, Biceps Curl, and Dumbell Military Press.  10-12 times each.  Don’t let the names scare you.  They are all pretty simple and quick exercises.  About 3 weeks of doing these and you will see your first muscles taking definition under all that fat.  See, there is a great body waiting to get out. 

Now if you are a gym member, all the better.  Use whatever resources you have available.  This might also be a good time to take an inventory of what old exercise equipment family and friends have hidden in the attic.  Dig out those old treadmills, StairMasters, exercise bikes, rowing machines and whatever.  Use them on days of inclement weather.  I would never suggest buying equipment like that, but if you have it lying around, use it.  In my case I replaced my computer desk with an exercise bicycle I modified.  So when I play video games or blog, I can also pedal a few miles. (I’ll post plans for this in another article)

Additional tips:  If you are taking any medication, check with your doctor.  Some medicines are required to be taken with food.  Take a multivitamin.  I take one multivitamin daily, and fish oil twice daily, along with some extra niacin.  Cravings, every so often early in the diet you get that feeling to snack even if you really aren’t hungry.  For me it was during football with all those pizza commercials.  After the first month they just went away, but they are strong and need to be dealt with.  The best solution would be to exercise right then and there.  2nd best would be to drink a diet beverage.  Keep a jug of lemonade made from powdered sugar free drink mix nearby.  Next best would be to satisfy your craving for flavor, but without the calories.  A single tictac, breath mint, or Cinnamon Hard Candy sometimes did the trick.  Avoid any snacks you know you can’t eat just one of, like pretzels, chips, or nuts.  If you really must eat something, a single piece of fruit or vegetable will do.  In my case, I always had some Banana Spirutein Wafers around because it kept me out of the kitchen where more evil treats were lurking.  

Last but not least.  Track your weight loss.  I use a sheet of paper taped to my dresser where I write the date and my weight.  Geeks out there can use an excel spreadsheet or diet freeware to graph themselves silly.  The important thing is that it allows you to see where you have been, and where you are now.   What happens is you loses a few pounds really fast, then the weight loss is much more gradual.  There may be days where your weight goes up a pound, or stays the same for 3 days straight.  Don’t lose hope.  Tracking will show you that progress continues even if you don’t think it’s happening.

• Summary

1. Week 1: Begin by walking and swimming without concern for dieting.  Just keep moving.
2. Week 2: Replace 2 meals a day with an energy drink.
3. For the one meal you do eat, eat a sensibly balance meal, let someone else fix your plate for you.
4. Walk at least 1/4 mile a day, increasing this distance every few days until you reach 3 miles.
5. Week 3:  Use dumbbells to work out your upper body 3 times a week. 
6. Once you are walking daily and feel comfortable, jog a short distance, then walk again, repeat each lap.

Spiru-tein - I can honestly say this drink changed my life.  When you want, or need to lose weight you get lots of bad advice.  Everything ranging from the stupid “Just stop eating” to the scientific “if you eat fewer calories than you burn, you will lose weight”.  Well isn’t that helpful.  All the worlds problems can be solved that way.  End poverty by earning more than you spend!  Cure alcoholism by not drinking alcohol!  Seriously, if you’ve been overweight your entire life, you need a lifestyle change, not a diet soda.  My diet and exercise program is covered in another post (The Disney World Diet), but the critical part of my successful diet is spiru-tein.  I substitute 2 meals a day with spiru-tein and almost never feel hungry.  When I do feel hungry, i eat a few Spiru-tein wafers as a snack.  At 20 calories each, I’d rather have 100 calories to stop a craving than the 1000-2000 calories I would have eaten from a midnight snack.

The basic formula: 1 scoop of powder (scoop provided), 1 cup of milk (whole, 1%, 2%, or skim), 6 to 8 ice cubes.  Put it all in a blender and mix until smooth.  If you like fast food shakes, then you will love this drink.  It’s tastes exactly like a milkshake.  Some people get fancy and add juice, vitamins, fruit, nuts, flax oil, and whatever.  My opinion is that the simpler the better.  Maybe I’ll get wild when I explore their fruitier flavors, but for now the basic formula has kept me satisfied for 4 months and 40+ pounds lighter.  There are at least 20 flavors, so you can alternate and not get bored.  For those who have tried weight watchers or slimfast shakes, you will be very pleasantly surprised.  I tried another brand and almost gagged at the aftertaste.  From the big 2.4 pound can, you can get 34 one cup servings.  At around $24.00 a can, that’s only $.68 a serving.  Use your savings to eat one nice healthy meal for dinner.

So whats in it that makes it so special?  Here’s a link to the manufacturer’s website:  http://spiru-tein.com/  According to them it’s all in the nutrients along with what they refer to as “green foods” like Spirulina and Chlorella.  I’m sure many people have their own preferences, but i can attest this stuff works.  You don’t crash after an hour, have an upset stomach or aftertaste, you have plenty of energy, and you really feel full.

My goal is to eventually try all 20 flavors.  With over 57 products in the spiru-tein family, that may take a while.  For sure, not all flavors are created equal.  For the benefit of those who are interested, I’ll review the flavors I’ve tried, in the order I would rank them.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl : The name alone makes it sound like a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup.  It’s not quite as good as the candy bar.  But if you have ever been to one of those ice cream stores that put all the ingredients into a blender, then this flavor is for you.   The flavors aren’t very strong, but remember, it is a diet drink that tastes far more fattening that it really is.   

Double Fudge Crunch: Very chocolaty and pleasing taste, but no crunch to speak of by time it got out of the blender.  No after taste either, which is very important for chocolate based flavors.  Definitely satisfies any desire to feel like you “ate something real”.

Banana:  The standard all other flavors are judges by.  I liked this flavor so much that I purchased it twice, using it to mix with an inferior brand just to get that supermarket powder out of the house.  If you like bananas, start with this one.  When you get fancy you can mix it with chocolate spiru-tein for a choco-banana custom drink.  The taste is mild and not overwhelming, which to me is a good thing if you have memories of sickly sweet banana milk as a child.

Cookies & Cream:A nice flavor, but I expected more.  More like vanilla with a hint of chocolate.   Pleasant but not memorable, my first reaction was to ask my wife if she had changed her recipe.  It grows on you, but nothing you ever really get a craving for.  Sort of a middle reliever in the bullpen of flavors.
 

Cappuccino: The biggest disappointment yet.  Usually I start my day with my shake and a large cup of coffee with milk and equal.  One day I had the crazy idea to skip the milk and use a cup of coffee as my base liquid in the blender.  It was flat out awful.   Oh, coffee is coffee, and spiru-tein is spiru-tein, and never the twain shall meet.  At least in my house for breakfast ever again.  It’s not bad if you like coffee flavored things that aren’t coffee, but I don’t see myself buying this flavor again soon.

Find Spiru-tein on Amazon.com