Fit for the Road

I love how doctors, State enforcement officers and others who are just there to do a job know more than the FMCSA and what the FMCSA is going to do. I had one officer the other day tell me they are going to enforce the new HOS rules that are coming out this fall. I had to ask him what rules and he said they will be limiting driving to 10 hours and require us to use EOBRs for all commercial vehicles.

 

BMI of 33 and Neck size of 17" is what they are looking for. I was told that FMCSA and the trucking association want to add a rule that if you are greater than the stats I mentioned in previous sentenct, they will require a sleep study be done. Why? Because so many obese drivers have sleep apnea. I have sleep apnea and I am trying to loose wieght. It is a daily struggle, because I love to eat...

 

Walk every day. Walk as fast as you can without getting out of breath (your pace will increase as your fitness improves).
Fourteen to fifteen hundred calories per day and walking hard will make you lose weight. I lost four pounds per week once I got the diet figured out.
You would be surprised how much you can eat and still make a 400-450 calorie lunch. Green beans, broccoli, carrots, and other healthy veggies don't have a lot of calories so load up on them. Buy unsweetened apple sauce. Each of the cups in the six packs only have fifty calories.
For snacks carry apples, bananas, healthy granola bars (not the chewy sweet ones).
I pre-cooked chicken breasts and veggies on Sunday and took them in the cooler for the week. If you don't have a microwave, all truckstops have them.
I went to Wal Mart and bought a coleman camping grill. It uses the small gas tanks and worked well for grilling and cooking. You don't need electricity with a camping grill.
Eat only whole grain breads. White, or wheat bread has unnecessary calories.
Avoid anything diet. Nothing will make you fat faster than diet soda. Drink water it is thousands times better for you and you won't miss the soda (and the caffeine headaches) in a short time.
I found that staying awake got easier as I lost weight and ended my reliance on caffeine and sugars. ( Before this I drank about 60 to 80 ounces of Mountain dew per day)
My BP went from 145/95 to 110/65 in seven months.
Once I got all the sugar out of my system my eyesight returned to better than 20/20. Sugar attacks the eyes first and is the reason most diabetics are in danger of blindness.

I was having headaches two or three times per week and they went away after I lost the weight. My back was a wreck and that went away once I lost the weight. I look great in clothes and it was fun buying size 32 waist for the first time since high school. My worst waist size was 42 and I kept one pair to occasionally remind me where I could be.

Good luck. For me the first two weeks were hard. After that it got progressively easier. When I started walking I got tired after about thirty minutes. Now I can RUN four miles without breaking a sweat. Life is so much better when you feel good everyday.

 

so pattyj.you are saying that pushing themselves away from the table and avoiding the foodbars will play a vital role in maintaining a healthy weight? if so,i certainly agree.

 

MH60L, this sounds good. Will power is my problem. All I can do is keep trying. I hate being fat... I am 5'10" 290lbs. I wear a size 46 pants. When I got out of Navy at 30 years old, I wieght 160lbs and had a size 30 pants. What happened???

 

It wasn't easy. Starting and then maintaining the diet and exercise is the hardest part. For me, it took a specific goal. I wanted to start taking helicopter lessons. To get the best price you had to fly the smaller two seater. The maximum weight for me and the instructor pilot meant I had to weigh 210 or less. Once I got to that weight I decided to shoot for my ARMY weight at 190. You can do it you just need a specific goal and a plan. For me a goal of losing weight wasn't good enough. I needed something specific.

 

Actually is what im saying is limit your food intake.Going back for seconds at the food bar is what's going to get you in trouble.I have seen more overweight drivers have a time just getting out of their trk then on to the restraurant,I just shake my head and think now there's a heart attack waiting to happen.Then theres the snacking plus the 3 meals aday.People that eat like that then walk in hopes to burn off the calories is just wasting their time.I don't care how much exercise you do,you won't even lose even an ounce if you overate.I hate trk stop food especially the TA.

 

Im all for watching your weight and staying fit but making it into law is discrimination big time.I have seen more fat and I do mean fat cops why shouldn't they have to lose weight.

 

I don't like all this crackdown but no solution to help. Like in the military they have to stay fit and at a certain weight or get kicked out. So they have free gyms on base and some are real nice. If their gonna crackdown well they need to have gov funded workout centers at truckstops not a room with one BS treadmill. If they can have nice facilities in the military then they need to do the same for us if their making it a law.

 

I actually searched for a cab sized treadmill on Amazon a few months ago to see if they had one. Do you play any sports? Playing a sport with friends burns off way more calories than anything else imo. I remember 10 years ago I got up to 280 pounds (didnt look like a fat slob, but a big football player since I kept lifting weights but didn't do cardio). So I told people I was gonna burn off the fat and get slim again and people were telling me how I was getting older and it would be impossible. I just ate cereal for breakfast and subway for lunch and popcorn for dinner while playing basketball and lost about 50 pounds in three months. I managed to keep the weight off too. The main reason is because when I am running on a treadmill I am thinking about running, whereas in basketball I am running full speed down the court to try and defend and not even realizing how much I am running.