I’ve spent the long weekend continuing to read The 4-Hour Body, and have begun to formulate some goals and ideas.  My general purpose, so far ( expect to set some more objective goals soon), isn’t to lose weight or “get buff”, but rather to become “more healthy” and generally recompose some fat as muscle (thus the definition of Healthy).  Overall, the book has TONS of different things going on, certainly more than any one person could use at one time, so I’ve picked a few to start with.

Read on for the plan!

My basic plan is:

• Start measuring weight and BF% (and eventually key body dimensions) regularly to measure progress and assist in eventual specific goal setting.
• Cut Back on Aspartame (Nutrasweet), as it “can stimulate weight gain”; Even if I don’t buy that part, drinking less [diet] soda is probably not going to hurt me any.
• Cut back on Fructose – Eat less fruit and more veggies. My plan is to limit myself to a small citrus or banana for breakfast and replace the apple or orange at lunch or dinner with carrots or something.  The logic here is that fructose converts more easily  to fat than other types of sugars and also has an adverse effect on triglycerides.
• Focus on a few core exercises, starting with the (now in my mind) notorious kettle-bell swing.
• Try not to manipulate anything else too much.

On Saturday, Becky and I headed to the gym to give the Kettlebell Swing business a try.  I did 4 sets of 11 at 40# (though it’s the squatting, not the weight, is the hard part.  I tried a few at 25# and it was basically the same experience) and seriously about puked… 2 days later, my upper legs are still pretty sore.  It’s interesting because it didn’t seem so bad at the time, right up until I hit the wall and couldn’t even lift the weight.

Once I get my measuring methodology down and start getting consistent readings, I’ll start posting those.

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Books, Projects by Kevin