Free! Performance Upgrade

.... After many hours of thought, planing and mathematical calculations I have finely come up with a sure fire method of improving upon RV-9A. This is the best of the best in almost every respect as to performance, speed, climb, fuel burn, useful load, interior roominess, easier ingress and egress and most of all overall flying enjoyment. It will cost nothing, and in reality it will save a considerable sum over time. All that is required of me is to lay off the burritos and loose 50 or 60 lbs. Simple! Comments welcome. Allan...

No doubt about it Allan. I'm currently running about 1.4 FAA standard people all by myself. Fortunately, for the time being, things like my BP, cholesterol, etc, remain normal.

Yep

Doesn't it feel great to come clean?

Best,

Has anyone else gone gluten and wheat free? This is the only diet that has ever worked for me.

This book is cited a lot for this trend. It made a believer of me.

Wheat Belly http://www.amazon.com/Wheat-Belly-L...F8&qid=1390408780&sr=8-1&keywords=wheat+belly

Plant Based Eating

My wife and I started a 100% plant based diet early last year. I am now down 45 pounds. Yes, my RV performs better

Allan makes an excellent point.

In my own case, my weight crept up over the course of the past couple/few decades. At my peak I was over 280#, had a sedentary job and worked for a company that was "nice enough" to keep us well stocked with pastries a couple days a week. In hindsight, I was a complete mess -- overweight, out of shape, persistent acid reflux, the works. Since then I'd made a lot of improvement, but was still overweight and not getting enough exercise. I told myself it wasn't that bad; at least I didn't look like other guys who weighed as much as I did. My excess tonnage is pretty well distributed, so I'm not carrying a beer belly or triple chins. But the scale doesn't lie, although it may groan a little in agony.

My doctor tried putting me on Lipitor a number of years ago for high cholesterol, but I didn't like the side effects - and figured I could get to the gym, lose some weight and not need the pills. Besides, I'd had a treadmill stress test a few years ago, and the doc said my heart was in fine shape. And maybe it was... in 2004.

While in theory my approach would have worked, the fact remains I didn't get to the gym, didn't lose enough weight, and ended up last October with a heart attack. Up until a couple of days before the MI, I felt great. I was going to the gym once or twice a week (some weeks), eating fairly healthy, and down over 15# from my peak weight. I was making (very) slow but steady progress. But -- too little, too late.

Since I am left with one coronary artery that's still over 70% blocked and can't be reached with a cath/stent, my chances at getting a medical are slim to none -- ever. So now I'm screwed. I have to sell the RV7 I've worked so hard on, I have a flying club membership I have not been able to unload, and there are no options around here for LSA - so I'm faced with either quitting flying for good, or building an RV-12. I'm just not sure I can justify a $75K+ expense for day VFR only.

So don't be like me. If you've been putting off getting back in shape, don't. I'm not looking for pity, or even sympathy. I have no one to blame for this but myself. I'm here to tell you, though, that if you're living the way I was it WILL catch up with you eventually, and your flying days could end abruptly.

By the way... when the heart attack hit, I was on my way to the airport to take the club 172 out for a couple of hours and get night current again. I guess it's a good thing it didn't happen an hour later.

Dale your story is all too familiar!

People who live with borderline BP, Cholesterol, Triglycerides, etc. are in denial and need to get it treated before it kills them.

I was lucky as well. I had just lost over 50lbs, was doing moderate exercise daily when the "just in for a checkup" EKG and subsequent stress test came back positive for a problem. Next thing I know I had 2 stents.

I was lucky. I was a walking and flying time bomb! Your medical in your pocket ain't worth the paper it is written on.

Dale, don't be so sure that you can't get your SI. I still have a blockage that was also unreachable by stenting and it is being treated medically. It is slowly improving. The FAA has allowed me the SI and has renewed it for several years. I do pass all of their test requirements however.

As for losing weight to gain useful load/performance, I totally bought into that upgrade plan! It was far from free however!

....ain't only de udder guy...

seems all of us could be one medical away from life-changing events!
Even the skinny guys can have eyesight, hearing, BP, EKG or other issues right around the corner. ( I think I'm in ALL the 'red' categories!)
...but it does hurt when someone here posts that they are hangin' up their spurs. Now I'm not preaching, but I would hope that in most flying clubs, there's some younger guys ( or gals, if your spouse permits it!) who would love to get some RV stick time, and then become the 'named' pilot in command on your insurance.
(what money changes hands is strictly between you two, ) but it sounds like a good way to expand General Aviation, keep yourself in the cockpit, and 'do the right' thing to a fellow pilot/human bean!
Win - win.

Shameless Plug

My wife and a doctor friend of hers wrote a book last year on healthy eating. No magic bullets, no diets, just eat real food.

http://wellness100.us/

I lost 40 pounds over several months a couple years ago and have kept them off using her way of eating. I don't really have a choice if I want to eat at my house..

I lost 35 lbs on weight watchers over a year ago; I have kept it all off too. Great program.

100+

When I got the itch to build i started looking at weight and balance, that along with the desire to be my own test pilot led me to the need for aerobatic and tail wheel training. Weighing in at 325 I couldn't get me, fuel, an instructor, and chutes into any of the local aero trainers.

After loosing ~60lbs I could get into a Citabria and that first spin hooked me for life.

When I was down 75 and I could make the weight and balance work for myself and my father to do a loop in the RV I ordered the wings

Over the course of two years I dropped 110lbs, went from a 46 waist to a 34, and have had it off for 2 years. It feels great, the spam cans I rent fly better and there is a lot more room in the front of a 172 than there used to be.

For me it was a radical change in diet, I became 99% vegetarian(life without without bacon would be like life without flying), reduced the daily calorie intake, gave up simple carbs, etc.

It's similar to building the plane, it isn't quick, there are ups and downs, but it's **** rewarding.

Fast Diet, and Grain Brain

I read two books last year that have perminently changed my life. I started with the fast diet after seeing a special on PBS, and then found the "Grain Brain" by Dr. Perlmutter (sp?), and have since gone low carb with very positive results and baggy pants. It really is a whole new way of life that works.

Cupcake Diet

While not overweight at 185, my clothes were more comfortable when I weighed 165. We were eating healthy, but I was eating a lot. My wife suggested I try what she calls her very own ?Cupcake Diet,? which she has followed for years.



Here she is with some friends, she's the redhead in black and white on the far left. It works for her. And no, that's not one of her meals in the picture.

With her Cupcake Diet, imagine 12 cupcakes in a baking tin. That represents your daily intake. One of the 3 rows represents breakfast, one is lunch, one is dinner. So you generously fill up (figuratively speaking) one row of 4 "cupcakes" for each meal with 4 items, for example, a little bit of steak, some potatoes, green beans, glass of wine. If you really do want a cupcake, just eliminate the wine. It?s very simple. Eat what you want (keeping it healthy), but limit your portion sizes.

In 4 months my weight dropped to 161. Was never hungry after the first couple of days and had the same (mostly healthy) variety of foods that I was used to. There is more to her diet than that?smaller bites, chew longer, don?t reload your fork so quickly, and pause halfway through your meal for a couple of minutes to let the happiness chemicals in your brain catch up to your stomach. It works, it's easy.

Allan,
Look no further than your future anesthesiologist nurse. She must be eating healthy. Borrow some tips and recipes.