It works

It is always surprising to me, but counting calories and a basic training program actually works.
After 2 weeks, I lost 2 pounds - 1Kg - and I can feel it. And rarely hunger feelings (But I train a lot).

Under 150lbs again

I am always amazed how the body respond well to a training program. I have a long run today, and I should be closing the first two weeks with a good 30 miles/week average.

It is time consuming, but not that hard. I manage to keep a couple of kitesurfing or surfing session through the week, go to the pool, and of course, run 3 or 4 times a week.

A run takes usually less time than a surfing session, which - driving and preparation including - usually cover 3 or 4 hours. Then overall, it is a good trade-off on busy day.

It forces me to go surfing or kiting only when the conditions are better than average, which keep it fresh too. I found - on Maui - kiting is so accessible,  it can become quite old pretty fast.

Not sure if I talked about this before, but I have been barely sick in Hawaii those last couple of years. As a kid, I was sick all the time. Literally.

Miracle drink.

Combining salt water bath when possible and a good warm Apple Cider drink twice a day at the first sign of cold makes it for me. And I go to the pool (Can be chilly - those are outdoors pool, even up-country - where it is rainy and windy) two or three time a week.

Miracle but dangerous drugs

I used to be addicted to acetaminophen, now I prefer Ibuprofen, but overall, I am using very few of them now. Ibuprofen is very common among runners, specially after runs. I try to limit my usage,  and except some light headache because of bad dehydration sometimes - less and less actually - can function without them at all.

But I take Aloe Vera supplements daily now.
That must be it.
:)

Trapezius

Nothing better than a magnificent sunrise on Maui Northsore to reboot a year.

Sunday Sunrise

Came back from Santa Monica with back pain, psoas pain and couple of more pounds. The back pain is string enough to decide me to rest for a couple of days. At this point, I reckon the typical patterns of a moved rib and contracted back (or trapezius).
To the point, I begin to wonder if all my problems do not have one unique source : My posture at work and the usage of the mouse.

After a quick visit to my favorite chiropractor, the ribs are back in place, and now I am back to strecht my back. I took a trackball instead of a mouse for now. And I am locking my trapezius with a yoga belt.
(http://www.ehow.com/video_12292585_ways-relax-tight-trapezius-muscle.html).

Lot of fun.

Eat and Run

Has been a while I did not share my actual reading, and maybe I do not read enough anymore. Being isolated in Santa Monica, in the middle of the effervescent humongous city, I can advise you to have a look to this one:

Another vegetarian "Ultraman"

Not really well written, but there is still a fair amount of good stories. My biggest complain so far, he doesn't dig deep enough into the meditative or enlighten aspect of his running experience. There are bits and spices here and there, but maybe he is planning another more 'profound' book - this one is mostly straight autobiographic - or maybe he was afraid to scare the hell of his readers.

Eat and Run could summarize my life here outside of work. I found it very hard to eat properly outside of our home, without habits. To compensate, I am running almost every day.
Even picking my lucnh from Whole Foods, which supposedly should be quality, I still struggle to maintain my weight - and I ran 40 miles this week - more than my weekly totals at the top of my marathon training !

A typical day-lunch box. Wrap, Salad and Muffin

Only one conclusion: Servings are too big and prepared food sucks. (And I stopped counting calories).

As I do not do cross-training (don't like Biking, cannot swim here easily, Surf sucks as well and I do not have a car and I am too lazy to rent one), running is pretty hard on my body right now.
But, to be fair,  40 miles a week is quite a lot for any enthusiast runner.

Replenished

One of the great thing you can do when you monitor that closely your food intake and calories burning rate, is to do quick experiments, like the last couple of days. I have been logging a few extra hundreds of calories than my daily needs, in the hope to refill carbohydrates stores, and see the impact on my running form.

I went back to a 145 pounds morning weight, i.e. more than 2 pounds than two days ago, but yesterday, the last run was a breeze.

Compared to the struggle of the the previous ones earlier this week, I was flying through the 6 miles all along. I even beat my personal record without racing on one leg, by almost 5 minutes on a one hour run.

Running after this, I felt like I was 12 again.
Maybe it was the magic Vega Gel I tried too ;)

It is just amazing how you feel better when your body is correctly fueled. Dieting while training is usually unadvised, except for a small amount like 300 calories / day max. Which was roughly my goal. I still suspect the Garmin HRM method of counting burned calories while exercising, while way more accurate than Strava or other methods, is aiming at the low side of the spectrum, which caused bigger deficit than expected.

Then my that would explain my hard times on the earlier runs.

Anyway, dieting is over for now, until the marathon anyway, and I will be focusing on a steady 2000 daily intake, i.e. just enough for weight maintenance. That should be more than enough to be full - but not heavy - for the race.

Enough for the theory. Let's go get some more miles again !

Back to the old stuff

Couple of thoughts this morning.
I weighted less than 144 pounds, 65 Kg, for a few days in a row now. Which is certainly directly related to my switch counting calories using the Garmin-HRM algorithm. It might be on the low-end side considering the speed of the go down. Anyway, those weight curves always looked funky to me, on a day to day basis.

Down down ...

What is sure, is soon I will have to eat normally to maintain my carbohydrate load and be ready for D-Day.
It is very important to eat Carbs the week before to fill your storage.
Grains are good for that, as Pasta, Rice, Potatoes, .... Avoid fat (Cheese, Salami, ...) and proteins (Meats, fish), and keep your food intake constant. You don't want to lose weight or gain weight too.

Back to the old stuff :

Related to this, I am rediscovering all the stuff I used to hate as a kid. Like cereals. Right now, I am enjoying cooked steel cuts oatmeal, which is , well, surprising to me. Since I am eating less sugar, my palate got used to less processed stuff. Makes it cheaper and easier to cook.

Few years back, I was just bypassing breakfast all together.
Nowadays, I am starving at 6:30 !!!

Recovery day...

Since last week the pain in my hip came back. I vaguely remember having been doing a 9 Miles run and 1:30 kitesurfing on the same day ;)
I guess I should not have ...
It was last Tuesday. The long run on Saturday did not arrange things and I was limping again on Sunday.
Grrrr.

I went then on full recovery state until the pain recede.
I could log a good one hour swim yesterday.

Swimming is the only allowed activity
when lower body is broken,
Boring but effective.

Helped for the diet on a New Year's Eve.
Right, you heard it, diet on a New Year's Eve.
Did a slow 5 Miles run today, to check things out.
I could not feel the pain before the run, a bit after.
Hopefully, tonight will be good and I will be able to go back on my training. Those are tapper weeks (Slow down and recovery in preparation for the race), but I still need to log 20 miles or so during the week.

Long run of "only" 9 Miles.
But, while limping, could be the longest 9 Miles ever ;)

Myth Buster : A short fitness session will compensate for Hollidays extravagances

Supposedly a 45 minutes of "Intense" exercising will compensate for the craziness of food over-consumption  during Holidays feast, or maybe less ?

Average : 4500 Calories

"A quarter of those surveyed thought they could burn off the calories by working out for two hours…when it would actually take a 130-pound woman more than seven and a half hours of running or more than 15 and a half hours of brisk walking to torch 4,500 calories. Also, 60 percent of respondents said they planned to go for a walk. Other people said they'd shop or get busy in the bedroom later to blast away fat. Hmm, not gonna cut it."

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/eating-thanksgiving/story?id=21021483

"seven and a half hours of running".
Not even true, if you consider cardio zones, the different "calories" types or body storage (carbs, fat) as well as the basics of timing of the training itself. It would be accurate if you were running DURING the feast and we considering pure calories output/input without internal storage considerations. Which is only true in the case of some ultra-runners.

 (http://runeatrepeat.com/2013/11/19/eating-pizza-while-runninginterview-with-dean-karnazes/)

Let's do some math:

If the dinner itself is around 4500 Calories, it is likely your food intake for the day will be around 5500, including breakfast and a light lunch or snack. which is likely 4000 too much overall for a day.
Then, How do you burn 4000 calories, i,e. more than 1 pound (0.5 Kg of fat) ?

Using as a reference my 10K race, and I was not fooling around, in 50 minutes, averaging 8 min/mile, I burned 600 Calories with an average HRM of 155 bpm.

http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/fat-versus-carbohydrate-utilization-during-exercise-calculator.aspx

Unfortunately in this training Zone, I am burning 90% of Carbs and 10% of fat, Carbs that I will have to re-compensate by the daily intake at -at least- 80%, lets assume 200 Calories of burned/race.

In short, I will have to race a 10K every day for 40 days to lose the weight excess of one meal.

Now, using a long run, Lets say, 20 miles, 1500 Calories at 125 Bpm, I am around 50/50, i.e. 750 Calories of fat per long run.

In this case, I will have to execute "only 5 times" a 20 miles/4h run  to compensate.

Piece of cake. Specially, when we are talking of people who would have hard time running 30 minutes on their own. Sorry, jogging. Even, walking.


Morality: 
It is way easier to lose weight by controlling the food intake than to burn it through exercise. It helps, of course, but except if you are training for a marathon, you are not gonna cut it. 


The only way to compensate for Holiday excess is a strict diet for at least one to two weeks after or before. Exercising "intensively" BEFORE the diner will help to empty your carbohydrates storage and the food intake will directly compensate partially.

The other way is to eat less, drink less and go vegan.
But that's not for everybody, I guess ;)
Not just yet.

Readjusting Weight : Strava vs Garmin

Losing weight is all about approximations.
Dieting is not.
Approximation of calories eaten, consumed, burned, of weight lost, muscles builds, etc..
Keeping a weight log of calories, sport activities, weight and waist size is critical to readjust time to time, and kills some wrong ideas.

Couple of last months weight log

First, I pretty fast realized I would not reach my weight goals before the marathon. There is two parts of that. I cannot limit the intake too much in a high training period. And I am building muscle, which weight more than fat. However, there is some signs that I have become leaner. Waist size decreased. Overall shape. But this doesn't show in the graph.

obviously something happened early December that skewed my numbers. In fact, I did switch to Strava as a running log.
And use the website as a Calories Burned reference.

Yesterday, I double checked on the Garmin Connect system.
Based on Strava I have burned in the last 6 weeks a deficit of 7000 calories on top of my daily deficit (300), which bring us to a theoretical deficit of 20K calories, i.e. more than 5 pounds.
Well, obviously, something in wrong.

Based on the Garmin Website, I actually built a deficit of Only 1300 Calories.
Now, If you extrapolate a bit, you can imagine that I might not burn anymore 2000 Calories / day at rest, but , let's say, 1900.
Some math, and voila, I would have only build a total deficit of 10K calories, i.e. less than 3 pounds. Add the muscle build from the strenuous activity , and you have a picture way closer from reality.

As a conclusion, I decided to not change any weight goal for now, but to use the Garmin Connect calories calculation / approximation for my needs.

Some references:

https://strava.zendesk.com/entries/20959327-Calorie-Calculation

Calorie calculations for runs require that you enter your weight. Strava will use your weight and the elevation data and distance of your run to estimate calories burned. If you're having trouble getting calories calculated for your Runs, check or reset your elevation correction by following the instructions on Elevation Correction for your Activities. Calories for runs are a function of speed (grade adjusted), weight, and moving time. Multiply these together with a scaling factor, and that's the estimate.

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2010/11/how-calorie-measurement-works-on-garmin.html

It then combines this data with heart rate information from the ANT+ heart rate strap. Specifically, it evaluates the time between heart beats (beat to beat) to determine estimated MET (Metabolic Equivalent), which in turn is used determine actual work expenditure.

In short, no methods are accurate, but personally, I do believe that calories consumption have to be related to effort and effort is directly related to cardiac activity.
In my case, there is no doubts that Strava is way too generous on the expenditure, I have seen more than 1500 calories difference on a single long run.



Well, If you want to feel good and eat cheesecake, might as well stick with Strava ;)

Road to recovery

Running long is cool, but If you do not pay attention to your recovery, You will not do it often.

Myself, I usually feel very tired after the run, and all along the day. Now, I am stretching just after the run for half and hour. It is helping, but not magical by any mean. At least, after this, I can go back on my bike which seemed totally impossible an instant before.

I used to take some Ibuprofen, but now the pain is bearable, proof that either, I hydrate and eat better, or my body adapts to the stress of the run.

I can still feel a light headache and obviously, very sore muscles. Tension in the back and shoulders, too.

Calves after the long run.
Blood fed.

One technique for the day after the run, to ease recovery, is do to a quick slow run. Mostly to get the blood flowing.

After run snacks.
Notice the 30g organic protein bar ;)

Proteins are key elements in the rebuilding of the muscle. If you do not eat lots of meat, you are back to whey protein supplements, usually in energy bar, or vegan sport recovery substitute, like Vega. Intake of carbs to refuel the muscles is important too. Coffee is not advised - it is a diuretic - but, well, it was the morning after all.

Stretching the back... hard.

Stretching the psoas, even tighter

But this morning, I found that the sun salutations really helped. A long series stretched all the sore muscles and I began to feel my body moving again. I just got back 30 years in 10 minutes, before it, I was limping like a retired war invalid. Add a 45 minute swim on top of that, and I feel ready to tackle tomorrow's easy 5 miles.

As you can see, this is winter in Hawaii. I have a sweatshirt in the early morning ;)

Grain based

Nutrition specialist would advise for lots of carbs when training.
I think I am covered.

Typical breakfeast, lunch and snacks.

Since I am a kid, I don't think I ate soooo much of grains.
And the weird fact is I don't really mind.
Really, I enjoy a croissant time to time at 'La Provence', but for the real food, I crave something grainy.


Overall, it makes it easier to count calories, and it seems I finally managed to manage my weight loss to a slow downside curve, slowly getting to 145 Lbs before the marathon, without feeling tired and still full of energy.

Back on diet - part 3 - Back on track

After one week in California, I am back on my current plan, i.e. 2000 calories a day and 600 burn through exercise. So far, so good, I already lost a couple of pounds, it seems.

In this house, everyone, even the dog, is on a specific diet. Hard to resist, but right now, I am working on greed and temptation. At one point, I imagined to remove some food totally of my diet, like chocolate. Not that I cannot afford it, calories wise, just too hard to only take the recommended serving.

I don't know why it is so hard for me, I just cannot stop. 

I call this this the Pim's effect, where usually, I start by one and end up eating half of the box.

Barnaby's raw food diet

So far, so good. It is tempting, but I usually stay on the recommended dose. What I don't like in this approach is the constant surveillance, and guilt associated. I really prefer my lunch strategy, which is way more simple. Always the same thing at the same time. 

Well, if our dog can eat the same thing every day, why can't I ?

Running the Golden Gate Park

Last but not least, a morning run in the biggest park of the city.

I was initially planning to do a full run around it, and go see the ocean, but not sure what happens,

I lost my way and eventually had to turn back by lack of time. (Needed to clock in in the office, for a change).

Modern Art Museum

Japanese Garden

The rose garden

the **huge** waterfall

There is big spaces without anybody at 7AM,
but it is rare.

They have a ranch (for the Horse Police)

And Bisons

And seagulls

The run summary:

GPS works better in San Francisco than on Maui

Hum. I guess I was not running very fast that day. 3 days in a row, I think I was getting tired.

Running OB

Ocean Beach is by far my favorite place in San Francisco. You can run, surf, kite. It is big, and except a few hot days of the year, almost deserted. I started this run at Sunrise, around 6:30 AM.

Early morning

View of Sunset

We use to live here. House in the middle of the Pic.
We could see the ocean from the attic window.

Wild. It was small and clean. few surfers spread out.

This place is magical. Humongous city with the feet into the water.
Rent as climbed hard though.

Run Summary

Running the bay trail

Back in the Bay area for a small week - work related bizz - I decided to go for a run every morning in the places that marked our live over there.

Obviously, The bay trail, along San Mateo shores and specifically Oyster Point Marinas, where we used to have our boat, and where I started my first barefoot runs.

Oyster Cove from Brisbane

Brisbane Marina

Brand new Ferry Dock at Oyster Point Harbor

The Dock we used to have for Mobylette

Running -even at a slow pace - one hour should help to maintain an adequate Calories burning rate, as I won' t be as active as usual in the water - It is way too cold here ;) - And with the change of rhythm, plus Hotel and Office every day, I cannot enforce proper nutrition. We might eat out every lunch and dinner. Even if you pay attention, it would be very hard to stick to the diet.

While burning 700 Calories a day with one hour run give you a safety net to stay on track.

As a bonus, the "Madeleine effect".

Run Summary

Back on diet - part 2

Back on counting calories.

I realized it was pretty easy for me to save up to 500 every day if I was exercising 1 hour, allowing me a +600 bonus.

I am still using a 2000 calories/day reference which is an common average, but works very well in my case.

Then, this month, exercise one hour every day and keep intake around 2000 daily. So far, it have been proven easy - no hunger sensation - and effective, already more than a pound lost (3500 cal). 

Avocado wrap from Down to earth as lunch. Vegan, excellent and healthy. Why would you like more ?

By running "only" one hour a day, I won't get better for the marathon, but this part is for next month :)

Back on diet - 1

I gave up pretty early in the first part of my marathon training on the diet idea. It was unadvised by my training plan - I.e. THE book - considering that running is hard enough, don't put any additional mental stress on top of it. "You need fuel" they say "let's the body balance itself".

Right, it is pretty hard to run 12 miles with the hunger turning your stomach inside out.

**not related**
The end of the Front street one mile.
Run, Forrest, Run
No kidding, this race is sponsored by Bubba Gump restaurant.

Anyway, all good things have an end, and having one month to fill between now and the second part of the marathon training, which will end the race day, obviously, I decided to go back on losing those 10 pounds. At least, 5. My reasoning is that it will be way easier to complete this damn marathon without those 5 pounds than with them.

For this,I devised a new plan.

First, I looked at the planning. I still have to go 8 weeks of dedicated marathon training. Marathon is mid-January, And I like the idea of a couple of weeks of buffer, specially around the holidays. By the way, most of the people get their over weight quota around this period, it will be challenging not to. Technically, November and December will be where I will be ramping up my running mileage and I don't want to look at my intakes too closely. Hopefully, the fact that I will be running a lot will prevent me to gain weight and might even help to lose some. I will be running more than 30 miles a week at that point, every week, if everything goes according to THE plan.

Which give us October. One month, 4 weeks, 5 pounds. 

Cool.

Should be doable.

Maui forever

I like Maui. I mean, Really. Still, until now, there was one thing that will stop me to say 'forever'. I gave up on the Pim's (we used to find some at Foodland, but they stopped). I gave up on the french wine (californian is pretty good too). You find all kind of cheese here, even some 'President'. You can find some 'Pâté'. And of course french "Champagne".

In California, Trader's Joe used to have a lot of french products, it was not an issue. But here...

Et du Perigord, s'il vous plait !

Still, I never gave up on 'Rillettes'. And eventually, Whole Food decided to store some. 

Now I can say it. Maui forever.

Until they stop importing them, of course.

And yes, when you run 60 minutes a day, you can eat fat.

Good Morning Scale

Another morning ritual.

You need to substract 0.9, I've got my pyjamas.

I am hovering between 147 and 149 pounds right now, I.e. 67kg. My sophisticated scale give me an average of 15% of BMI - Fat Index. And yes, I need to check my BMI at a clinic soon, those scale are average at best. It is not too bad, Athletes usually go under 10%, Ultramarathon runners are around 5-6%, and the American average is peaking at 28% now.

Based on a book, everybody can reach 12%. Going under is more genetic related and can become really arduous. I set my target to 12% for this marathon, i.e. need to loose again 3% of fat.

150 * 0.97 = 145 pounds as a target.

But because I am hardcore, I set 140 pounds as a goal. I like round numbers.

Decadence

We had a romantic diner yesterday, as friends took our daughter for a sleep over. After this crazy last weeks, it was well deserved. Nice evening, but my diet took a serious hit ;)

Tiramisu, in my plate.

As they say, you can cheat time to time. If you are eating well 95% of the time, some exceptions just help to take it easy. Tiramisu ... 400 calories ... for half of it ;)

Casanova, in Makawao. 

Funny that after one year in Makawao, it is the first week we moved to Kula that I try the place.

Anyway, today I paid the price : long run in the Makawao Forest, as fast as I can. It was hard .... But I beat my best time by nearly 10 min!

Seems that the Tiramisu is a boost of energy... Let's keep that in mind for the race !

Diet secrets - Part Four and Last ?

Looking at the stats of the blog, it seems that the weekly change killed my audience ;) or maybe no one is interested by my diet "secrets". Weird, that changed the way I see food, and the world through it, and my life by consequence. Maybe it is a beaten path. 

Anyway, after this series, I may revisit this blog and the content.

Right now, the cruising comes back in my mind with a vengeance, as summer approach and the boat is not selling. Interesting times....

Well, back to our subject for today. Here is my new toy:

I used a plastic mixer for the last 4 months. 

Those days are over !

Ok, at this point, you should now HOW MUCH you should eat. To loose weight, to maintain weight. 

But, WHAT should you eat ? 

It is not a secret. Any food will due the trick, if you are counting calories. But if you want to control hunger, and stay healthy on smaller portions, get all your vitamins, etc.. It is a little trickier. Only one thing comes in mind :  Food high in nutrient. Nutrient quality is a concept that still eludes me, at least from a scientific perspective, but all athletes and nutritionist seem to agree:

  - Vegetables

  - Nuts

  - Fruits

  - Raw food (cooking at high temperature kills nutrients)

  - Lean meat

  - Whole grains and whole grain flour derivative

And ...

  - Avoid processed food

  - Avoid fatty, salty, sugary process food.

  - Avoid junk fast processed food.

If you google 'PaleoDiet', you should get the rational behind this.

But myself, do I follow a Paleo Diet ? Not really. 

First, they ban grains derivative (pasta, rice, bread), mostly because the ratio between calories and weight/quantity is too high from our appetite regulation. But, because it is processed food, too. First hand processed, still. 

And second, for personal reasons, I am targeting more a Vegan diet, even if I don't mind some fish, if raised in a sustainability way (And a good steak once in a while, usually at the restaurant.This makes me be quiet about my rant on non vegan diets - I still enjoy a good juicy steack time to time. Poor cow.) 

What would the vegan version of the paleo-diet ? Proteins from alga and wheat, vitamins from complements if you are too lazy to really pay attention to that.(which is tricky on a vegan diet).

The super secret of my super pseudo-vegan diet ?

Vega, a ready to be mixed vegan powder with tons of vitamins, omega-3 and what ever you need, and your daily proteins as well. With a banana and some almond milk, you are talking around 300-400 calories for a lunch. Enough to carry me until the 3-4PM snack.

Two minutes to prepare, one minute to eat

Why it saved my diet ?

 - Easy to prepare, relatively cheap (3$ the meal, I think) and complete. During a usual work week, I am too lazy, or too focused on my job to prepare a real lunch. Ends up usually to eat crappy food, not fulfilling, low energy, bad quality and usually more expansive.

 - Easy to eat. I can pre-made it, and take it anywhere. During the week-end, I realized my eating habits and need  (12PM sharp), did not meet the one from my wife and kid (1PM to 3PM, when ever needed, when possible), which usually ended to see me super hungry, in a bad moon and over compensating during a late lunch. Eating on a fixed schedule is one of the factor of a successful diet.

 - Fulfilling and rich in vitamins and proteins. As I said before, on a vegan diet, vitamins and supplements are the real issue. You got them all in one serving.

Eating lunch at the beach

Then, what is a typical daily menu ?

- 300-400 calories > 1 cup of cereals with almond milk.

- 100-200 calories > 1 snack : fruits, half avocado

- 300-400 calories > Vega lunch, cookie for dessert or piece of chocolate

- 200 Calories        > 3pm Snack. Chocolate proteins bar, fruits, nuts

- 200-400 Calories > Coconut water after exercise, Nuts, carrots, Raw vegetable, protein bar if starving

- 300-600 Calories > typical family Dinner, could start with Soup, Nuts, glass of wine, Salad, sone tuna or egg, Salmon on toasts, or Pasta, Ice cream for dessert, or chocolate cookies, Cheese too. Anything in a reasonable quantities, following servings, and healthy if possible. 

You see ? not too hard.

And too close this subject, you may ask ... Do you still count calories ?

I would say, No, because I have another secret...

Eat when you are hungry. 

Think about it, and think about it more. And realize everything that this encompass. That mean , you need to welcome hunger. you need to wait for it. you need to let it grow.If you combine this with the obvious rules:

Eat healthy. Eat slowly and small portions.

Then, you should not gain weight. Ever. Trust your body. And if you are exercising in top of that, you will lose weight. Your body needs to lose weight to perform at a decent level. Until you reach your Fitness level, when your performance and your needs stabilize, and your weight as well. But at this point, you will know more things than me on a healthy and successful diet.

As I said before, a successful diet is a diet that you do not need anymore. 

A successful diet is a healthy lifestyle.

I will not be presumptuous, and tell you my lifestyle is healthy yet, but, looking at all those years before, I feel way better. Isn't it what matters after all ?