• Weight: 86.8 kg
• Body fat: 23%
• Body Water: 57%
• pH: 6.25

Overall the above is a good show of progress. Seems a like coincidence, but the numbers are exactly the same as they were previously after a good week. Maybe the body fat % and body water % are interrelated. As I water up, my body fat % goes down?

I kept myself more watered than i did before, also slowly increasing alkalinity as per the PhIon water ionizer and alkalizer. While the taste of the ionized water isn’t that great, I’ve started adding a bit of apple juice to the mix, just to mask the salty taste. In my mind it tastes a lot better than just the water.

In terms of excercise, it was very much a maintenance week:

• Monday: morning run at 6am, did 30 minutes at 6 mph (10km/h)
• Tuesday: feeling a little off, so only did 20 minutes running at 9.4 km/h, and then the usual streching routine
• Wednesday: better day, did some cross country skiining, about 25 minutes at around 11 km/h in the gym
• Thursday: I took a day off, because I went to the chiropractor…more on that below. Also moved up to to 9 repetitions of the T5T sequence.
• Friday: Did some interval work toggling between 9.4 and 12 kph for 30 minutes, about 7 minutes at high speed.
• Saturday: a run in the park, more of a jog really, for about 25 minutes

The visit to the chiro on thursday turned out to be quite illuminating, as it turns out that my occasional dull back pain is due to a slightly rotated leg. In effect, my left leg is long that my right leg. I am beginning to wonder if there are any yoga poses that might be able to help support the chiro treatment. Also I definitely felt springier on the treadmill on friday and generally seemed to have more energy when crossing London Bridge in the morning. Amazing how much one tweak like that can affect you.

I think part of my issue regarding body fat is the weekend pig out. During the week I tend to eat healthily and in nice small portions. On the weekend, though, it’s a diferent story.
I tend to have a huge breakfast and a huge highly caloric dinner. Might need to think about how to change that, because it’s quite possible affecting my effectiveness.

Goal for next saturday: 22% body fat

Even though supposedly noone is interested what you had for breakfast in the blogging world, I am going to buck the trend, and actually say what I ate, because I think anyone interested in burning off fat will actually be interested in that. In terms of food, I am going for oatmeal first thing in the morning, as Tom Venuto suggests. Put some raspberries in for good measure, so that it tastes a little better. Oatmeal supposedly is a great source of energy first thing in the morning, as it is a fantastic source of unrefined carbohydrates. Personally, I like Ready-Brek here in the UK, the oats which are refined down to a fine powder. Oats give me an energy kick relative to the amount I eat, although if I only eat them, I tend to run out of steam before lunch.

Did some research regarding alkalinity online. Here is a quote from Victory over Fat by Ric Alexander: “When the pH (in blood) is alkaline (higher than normal), then the body burns stored fat, as this creates acid and returns the system back to normal”. This is what I want to try out. I do seem to have consistently acidic readings from my tests, so if I can push for lower alkalinity in my diet, and possibly supplements, this may help speed things along.

Ideally though, this should be coming directly from my diet. Here is one list of things worth eating that I found over at fitwatch.com:

• Broccoli
• Cabbage
• Rhubarb
• Lima Beans
• Lettuce
• Sauerkraut
• Watercress
• Chard
• Dried Beans
• Carrots
• Dried Figs
• Celery
• Molasses
• Beet Greens
• Raw Spinach

I need to check out what some of things are, but first I’m going to get a carrot from the fridge.

As for the above, you can probably see that I haven’t really been drinking my water. Only about 2/3 of a liter, two large glasses. Here are the benefits according to www.theultimatefatburner.com:

• water maintains and encourages proper kidney function, which increases the efficiency of the liver’s fat burning ability.
• it also acts as an appetite suppressant — people on diets who do not increase their water intake are generally much hungrier than those who do!
• water intake reduces water retention — yes, believe it or not. If your body is deprived of water, it is more likely to hold onto what little it has. On the other hand, increasing your water intake will cause your body to stop hoarding its limited supplies. It’s not unheard of for people to lose 3-4 lbs. of weight shortly after increasing their water intake.
• helps the body function at its most optimal level, which means its much easier to burn unwanted fat.

I guess this may have been the main difference between this and last week. Also, I might need to get a grip on Friday night pig-outs. Half a bottle of wine and a few choclates topping off a solid pasta meal causes quite a bit of regret the following morning, especially when checking the status.

I did a run in the park on thursday, one loop, beautiful day. Lots of people walking dogs. A white labradorish looking young adult ran up to me, after I had passed the owners. It was trying to motivate me to to return to the flock, I think. While having certain secound thoughts about being considered a sheep, I was happy that it accepted me so openly. Dogs can be quite a source of joy.

The basic premise behind my visit to the sauna was that it would decrease acidity and have me sweat out toxins. I can say that I felt good afterwards–lighter–but went partying with friends last night, so I didnt see the effects in this morning’s pH test. This morning I clocked in at a pH of 6.0. I am thinking of getting some kind of ionizing products for water so that the alkalinity of the water I drink is higher. I am doing about 3 liters of pure water per day, concentrated in the morning, excluding diuretics like coffee.

Metrics

• Last Week: Weight: 87.5, Fat 24%, Water 56%
• Today:Weight 86.8, Fat 22%, Water 57%

Definitely a step in the right direction. So far at least I have some results, almost too much, as I don’t want this to be too drastic, but nonetheless I am very happy. In a way it’s good I don’t have granularity down to decimal places in terms of fat. As long as I keep the general trend moving in the right direction, then that’s what I want; otherwise, I start fretting about things that are out of my control anyway.

I’m combining this with my sequence for spinal health, as suggested by my chiropractor from Poland. It’s quite similar to the sequence suggested by the Alexander technique, and also seems to be increasing core strength.

Also had quite a bit of water for the last two days, so hopefully pH is down somewhat.