I usually train aerobically three times per week. One day I do a 20 minute treadmill routine with a five minute warm-up, walking faster each minute. I then walk as fast as I can at a steep incline for 10 minutes followed by five minutes of slow cool down. My best at this routine to date is walking 4.5 miles per hour at a 10 degree incline. The next aerobic workout is done either on my spinner bike or Life Cycle bike. I warm up for five minutes getting my heart rate up followed by four or five minutes of very intense peddling at a high resistance and then I cool down for five minutes. I don’t wear a heart monitor, I use the talk test to determine when I may get too intense if I can talk I feel my pace is right. I also like to work out on the bike or treadmill for 30 minutes at a more moderate pace with a one minute peak intensity every three or four minutes.

While I don’t count running my eight dogs as an aerobic workout it certainly feels good for me. I walk them on Corp of Engineers land for 40-45 minutes at a fast pace in rough terrain up and down hills. I take them out three or four times a week. Incidentally I use these walks to decide if I’m ready to work legs the next day. If my legs feel somewhat tired walking down hills I wait another day to train. I’m now adding 15 minutes of Charles Staley’s Escalating Density Training routine with each weight workout and I truly think that this will improve my fitness, lose some fat and perhaps gain some hypertrophy in my legs and arms. I’ll report on this at a later date.

How my wife and I eat and what I recommend to folks who ask me how to lose or keep off fat

We eat carbs sparingly. When we started doing this three years ago my wife was wearing size 10, snugly, now she looks great wearing fours and sixes. I weighed 198lbs and wore size 36 jeans, now at 180lbs I wear size 32 or 33, the same size I wore when in the Army at age 19. After reading the information in the AllYourStrength.com newsletter about carbs I have cut them back even more. I hope to reach my desired body fat goal of 10% eating and drinking the following:

I eat some kind of protein with every meal, either meat, fowl, fish or a protein drink. I do eat berries with flax seed, soy milk and protein powder and some kind of meat almost every morning. My lunches are usually a salad with chicken or tuna and ice tea. Dinners are usually meat, chicken or fish and organic green beans and broccoli once a week or so we’ll have brown rice or red beans and rice as a treat. We rarely eat bread, any kind of white flour, sugar, potatoes, pretzels, potato chips or processed foods. I almost never eat ice cream, cookies, flavored yogurt, crackers or cake and I never have any kind of soda, diet or regular. I do drink red wine, my only vice, tea, one cup of coffee a day and lots of cold water. Both Karin and I snack on almonds, walnuts and peanuts a few hours before dinner or anytime in mid day.

I start my day with two large glasses of water and three packages of a product I love and have taken for 20 years called Emer’gen-C and Juice Plus+. This means that before I have eaten anything I have taken in the equivalent of four servings of fruit and three grams of vitamin C plus a ton of trace minerals. My wife and I have been taking Juice Plus for over three years and would not ever give up this product as we both think it has helped us stay very healthy. I do like a bowl of cereal once in a while and I like a product from Keto called Cocoa Crisp. This product has no sugar, aspartame or saccharin, only four grams of carbs and 21 grams of protein. We also love pasta and I like Kamut pasta with very low sugar pasta sauce and a Keto spaghetti product that has only five grams of carbs and 22 grams of protein. I don’t profess to eat a perfect diet but it does seem to work for both my wife and me and I think I’m in better condition, stronger pound for pound and have less fat than I did 20 years ago.

I have been getting some very good treatment from a great chiropractor in Grapevine named Dr. Stephanie Whetsell who is helping me balance my body and eliminate trigger points that have resulted from 50 years of training. I think a lot of people who have trained for some time can benefit from the treatment I’ve gotten. I had very painful trigger points in my upper back for over 10 years that are now gone. -:) I’ll report in more detail on this at a later date.

Editor’s Note: As of today, February 2005, George has progressed even further and is in the best shape of his life—and he’s almost 70!

Contact Information: Feel free to email George at GBoedecker@aol.com. George hails from Dallas, Texas and lives with his wife and a myriad of animals! George cares very deeply for animal rights and is active in the pet adoption community.