Healthy Living in Connecticut Blog

As some of you might have read, I'm doing another challenge. But this challenge is all about getting the steps in so it won't be any extra work. I already do 10,000 steps a day, so why not do a competition for something I'm already doing?

The United Healthcare Walk-A-Thon begins September 16 and runs for eight weeks. I was in last year's challenge and logged over 1,000,000 steps. I don't expect to get as many this time as last year, the challenge ran for 10 weeks... two extra weeks of steps. This year, each business competes with at least five people per team. My team consists of eight co-workers.

After talking about the Lipo-Light procedure with a few friends, I decided to hold off and see if better strength training exercises will help. One option is the P90X exercise program by trainer Tony Horton. I know some people had good results with that program.

I'd rather not rush into something so expensive like Lipo-Light when I could get better results from training. I'm also thinking of getting a personal trainer.

As I indicated in a previous post, I went to see a doctor about the loose skin after my weight loss. Just to remind you, after the weight loss, I was still left with a lot of skin in my belly area.

The doctor confirmed what I already thought... that I didn't need to lose any more weight. My body fat percentage is around 19 (it fluctuates up and down but it's around there) and my BMI is a little over 25. He thought this was perfect for my height. The subcutaneous fat that is still in my stomach won't go away with exercise or strength training. He recommended a process called Lipo-Light, a process where wavelengths trigger the body's own ability to break down fat. The body then releases fatty acids that are used by the body during exercise.

I wrote about wanting to tighten my loose skin after all the weight loss a while back. I just thought I would follow up the story as I'm still dealing with the issue.

The problem is that my belly was stretched for so long with all the extra weight, it's taking it's time to go back down. There's no fat in there, at least I don't believe there is, but as many formerly obese people will understand, I'm left with hanging skin.

I wanted to revisit the topic of salt. Scott wrote about salt a few months ago and I wanted to respond in detail why I think salt is not good for you when you have too much of it.

I think the amount of sodium corresponds to how much processed food you're eating. I think most people would agree you should cut down on processed food. Too much of it causes obesity, increased cancer risk, diabetes, etc. So if you're not having processed foods, it would be difficult to go over the recommended amount of salt intake anyway.