Only Splurge on Days that Start with the Letter S

Ah, the weekend. I've been good all week, living the disciplined life. I've done my four days of aerobics and two days of weights, one hour each day. I've followed the rules of two: eat twice as often, eat half as much and chew twice as long. I've followed the Indian proverb: "Drink your food, eat your drink." I've tried to get enough sleep and come up short.

Now it's the weekend. Time to let my hair down. Time to relax. Time to snack if I really, really want to. I like the saying "Only splurge on days that start with the letter S."

I never say never to anything. I try not to eat fast foods or stuff with trans fat or saturated fat. I try to eat 10 helpings of fruits and vegetables a day. I try to not deny myself things so the cravings get out of hand.

As Oscar Wilde said, "Moderation in everything — including moderation."

Maybe on the weekend I'll even sleep seven to nine hours. Hmmm.

Obsession with Weight

Too many people in America are obsessed with weight. In the Younger Next Year program, however, the weight will take of itself if, as authors Chris Crowley and Dr. Harry Lodge say, you exercise hard six days a week and stop eating crap. Crowley mentions losing 40 pounds on the program, a terrific accomplishment, and keeping it off year after year. As the authors say, it is not a diet. It is a lifestyle.

Since my top weight of 240 pounds, I've lost more than 60 pounds. That's one-quarter of my body. Not all of this occurred while I was on the Younger Next Year program, starting in earnest in August of 2009. I probably weighed about 210 pounds at that point. I weigh 178 now.

But the weight has melted off without me stepping on a scale more than once a week, or even thinking about it much. The secret? Making exercise six days a week, an hour a day a habit. And getting out of the grocery store with almost all good stuff — the complex carbohydrates, proteins and good fats.

Sure, I still indulge myself occasionally with ice cream and pizza. Sometimes I still have chips. But not often. And I know enough to feel just a little guilty with these pleasures.

Now my big challenge is not having beer at home. Dr. Lodge advises never to have a sugar pop again as long as we live. Beer is different. One a day for women and two a day for men might actually help people live longer. Any more than that can be a problem. As the authors say in "Younger Next Year," a lot more than that can be a big problem. The calories quickly accumulate. Weight builds.

I like to think of it this way. Each beer is equal to eating one more Twinkie. I even have a laminated card in my wallet that tells the toll of binge drinking. It's a long list: dehydration, fatty acids on and cirrhosis of the liver, increased weight, impaired cognitive function, diabetes, increased cancer risk, high blood pressure, stroke, moodiness, sleeplessness, motor skill decline, interpersonal problems and last, but certainly not least, shrunken brain.

Worst of all, binge drinking — that is, having three or more beers at one time more than once a month — can take six years off a person's life. Those years would be a shame to lose since the Younger Next Year program can give you quality years, if you're lucky, well into your 80s and possibly your 90s.

However long you live, you will continue to have nutrition challenges. That's a given. One difficult thing, as the endlessly virtuous Dr. Lodge advises, is to try to avoid snacking and having seconds. But in those times when we open the refrigerator or pantry, the snacking becomes less destructive.

The secret is to exercise six days a week and not eat or drink crap. Easy, almost peezy.

Blue Toes

I love riding bicycle outdoors. Even if Vitamin D from sunlight is in short supply from November through March in the northern hemisphere, even if it is foggy and 32 degrees as it was Friday, even if the only other bicyclists on the streets are ones who have recently received DUIs, I love riding outdoors.

I dress in my regular bicycle gear and then add a pair of sweats and a sweatshirt, wool cap and winter gloves. Then I jump on my bike. Before long, I get up to speed and generate plenty of heat.

I try to do intervals once a week, usually Friday afternoons, and that adds to the warmth. My mode of operation is to ride as fast as I can primarily concentrating on my right leg from one telephone pole to the next, then my left leg one telephone pole to the next, then coast one telephone pole to the next. Repeat. To get the full hour in, I ride up the modest hill at the east end of the course three times. It's a challenge, especially when a south wind is blowing in my face.

I love my Milton-Freewater course. Only problem is, when I get home and get off the bike, I notice my toes are cold. I go through a painful few minutes while they thaw. Next time, if I remember, I will wear two pairs of socks to avoid the blue toes.

Give It a Month

Home is where the heart is, not where the beer is. I'm now on Day 6 of an experiment to not bring beer home. As a former copy editor at Hazelden Educational Materials, the publishing arm of a major national drug and alcohol abuse recovery center, I know a thing or two about treatment. I also know a thing or two about relapse and addiction. It seems there is a reason why the typical treatment program lasts 28 days. It's all about building new good habits. It's about putting yourself in positive environments and figuring out new patterns where temptation is minimized.

The experiment is an extension of lifestyle changes I've already made that start with exceptional discipline at the grocery store. My goal? To have only good stuff in the refrigerator and pantry. No matter what I grab for, it will be good for me. I will not eat junk or drink junk, because I will not have brought any junk home from the store.

This isn't a diatribe against alcohol. For many people, alcohol in moderation can actually extend life. It may be OK for men to have two drinks a day and women to have one. Any more than that, however, can be a liability. A lot more can be a major problem.

It's not just the empty calories. If sugar pop is bad, sugar beer must be equally damaging. In quantity, beer can be especially damaging to health. Bingeing once a month or more can take six years off your life.

The bigger issue is, I really want to see what this Gray Seal program will do for me. And if I add 500 extra calories a day of beer, before long I will see incremental declines rather than gains. All the work — the hour a day six days a week of exercise — will be in vain.

I will give the beer-free home experiment a month. If successful, it could give me six extra years to enjoy life. A month for six years. Seems like a fair trade.

Sweat and Burn

Last evening's one-hour ride on the indoor bike ended up with me soaked in sweat. Of course, riding 15 feet away from a roaring fire in the wood stove helped. The ride helped stoke the fire of my metabolism, too.

The indoor bike is extremely durable. At this point, I have 1,450 miles on it, or the equivalent of halfway across the United States. I ride the indoor bike when light or poor weather conditions prevent outdoor rides. It takes away one more excuse to skip exercising.

I welcome the sweat. The physical portion of the Younger Next Year program encourages us to sweat when we do aerobics and to burn when we lift weights. Certainly, we want to avoid injuries or overwork. But we do want to make the most efficient gains, and monitoring the sweating and burning is a good way to do just that.

Owl Alarm Clock

This morning at 4:30 a pair of great horned owls began hooting back and forth to each other in the ponderosa pines not far from my bedroom window. I love listening to the owls. I also love my sleep. Most of us need seven to nine hours of sleep a night to repair our bodies and rejuvenate ourselves for the challenges in the day ahead. Getting less than six hours of sleep a night can be particularly devastating to health. And getting more than nine hours of sleep a night on a routine basis may be a sign of depression setting in.

Most nights, I manage six to seven hours of sleep. Not bad. Could be better. We need to be passionate about getting our z's. It's important to overall health. Give a hoot.

Junior Year

For two years I attended the Younger Next Year Junior College. I did 45 minutes a day of aerobics four times a week and 45 minutes a day of weight lifting two days a week. The whole program kicked off with the RAGBRAI bicycle ride across Iowa with 20,000 of my newest, closest most personal friends — and good buddy Bill Rautenstrauch.

I celebrated graduating from YNY Junior College by climbing Beartooth Pass in northwest Wyoming twice — first from the east side and then from the west side.

Then I moved on to the Gray Seals University. Now I do one hour a day of aerobics four times a week and one hour a day of weight lifting two days a week. This summer I plan to celebrate finishing my junior year by riding around Crater Lake with Bill.

I have not yet decided what my graduation ceremony from Gray Seals University will involve, but hopefully it will be a challenge that captures the imagination.