July 2013 · the intro post
Having just rounded the first third (quarter? half?) of my life, it seems like it's time for a non-mid-life crisis, which I've decided to document–along with other things–in this forum. A blog has been rambling around in my head for some time, and I've even made two-post attempts at starting one up, but now it's time to establish the ne plus ultra of thoughts from my brain and the on-going actions of my body (not the gross ones).
The main things that I expect to publish here: a weight loss journal, random thoughts on the various media that I voraciously consume (books, movies, TV, games), pictures that I've taken (but probably not the nudge-nudge, wink-wink variety), various pieces of fiction and social commentary.
My promises to myself (and potential readers out there): honesty (up to a point), and a mix of solid, considered information with just a little bit of the old English major flair (and much less of the lawyer).
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July 2013 · Phase 1 / Weight Loss
So today is the first day of trying the six week Shred diet. In some ways this will be a fairly long form review of the book and program, but for your sake and mine, I'm not going to try to write about it every day.
A rocky start, given that the day started with two strikes: I hadn't gone to the store last night to get all the various foods that I needed to hit the seven (yikes!) food events throughout the day; and I woke up late (8 am), too late and too rushed to make the slow oatmeal that was supposed to be for breakfast.
The oats and honey breakfast bar that I ate from the pantry at work does have oatmeal in it, but also has all that non-organic processed junk, plus I was an hour late in eating it according to the Shred clock. Never mind missing the piece if fruit and the fresh juice that was supposed to accompany the oatmeal. Snack 1 (100 calories) was 1/2 of another oat bar package, again eaten late.
Calls at work delayed me from getting Meal 2 at 11:30, but I was on the road by 12:15. I figured that a Chick-Fil-A grilled chicken Cobb salad with fat-free honey mustard dressing met most of the Meal 3 requirements (with just a few extras in the bacon and egg department, but not a crazy amount of deviation). The next stop was Publix, but my plan of getting a fruit or protein smoothie was foiled due to those damn bananas. Even though they had a ton of flavors of the Naked products, every one contained a banana component, and I hate bananas.
Yeah, I know–they're great for you, nature's perfect food, yada yada yada…I just hate the taste (and the texture isn't so hot, either). About once I year, I try a banana just to see if my taste buds have changed, and I really try to like it, but yeech.
So, soup it was.
Since it was replacing Meal 3 with Meal 2 (by this time, the hunger was upon me and there was no waiting to get to an appropriate spot to heat up the soup), I ate the salad in the car, basically scooping it into my mouth without worrying about who was watching and/or judging.
Snack 2 was also from the pantry at work (mini-pretzels), with a catch-up on the fruit and juice, putting me back on the side of the plan, despite the problems with timing.
I came home early (to beat traffic on my easy commute), but took a couple of calls in the car (the boon and bane of call forwarding), and was famished by my 7:00 pm feeding time. A bag of steamed vegetables and a cup of white beans (with chili powder) finished up the meals for the day.
A quick trip at around 8:30 to the Publix near my house…purchasing all the stuff that I should have bought yesterday to make today an easier success.
Snack 3 was crazily small (100 calorie bar) given the size of my hunger, and I took advantage of the two pieces of wheat bread (they're allowed at any time during the day) at the same time.
Ultimately, how did I feel? Generally ok through the day (perhaps because of the compression of food), with some severe hunger at 5 pm and 8 pm, and a gnawing hunger after 9:30. No significant mood alterations until around 9 pm, when I could feel my brain slowing down from the lack of glucose. An extra poop at night. One thing was that I didn't have any enjoyment of the food as food–scarf it down to appease the hunger pangs.
In a few minutes, I'm going to get with the exercise part of the program (not really the Shred-approved version, but a 7 minute work-out that I'll be posting about a little later).
Yikes!
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August 2013 · Phase 1 / Television / Weight Loss
Week one of the Shred program generally worked the way that it was supposed to, setting me up to embark on week two (challenge) with a little bit of tailwinds, plus a better ability to incorporate the program into my life.
One big problem that I have with the program is the amount of time and effort it requires. By having seven different food events throughout the day, targeted at specific times, it requires a fair amount of juggling to get it right. I suppose if I didn't work in an office job, it might be a little easier. Generally, the snacks work out (a trip to the pantry and then only eating half of a package; or something that I've brought), but having a meal at 11:30 and at 3:30 requires a bit more effort since they tend to be a soup or smoothie selection and then a salad and protein selection. Both of these meals are easier (in my environment, at least) to pick up from someplace else–carting a blender to the office and then spending five minutes in the pantry preparing a smoothie would invite my co-workers too much into my life. A second challenge is going to be finding appropriate smoothies–at 300 calories, there are a couple of choices available at the major smoothie chains; at 250 calories, there's maybe one without throwing away half of the smoothie; at 200 calories (coming up), it's going to be very hard to find.
Anyway, that's to say that the logistics of the program are fairly difficult to navigate, even with prior planning. At times, it feels like the books a bit lazy, having copied and pasted most of the text, with slight revisions. Often, it feels like there's a product or recipe that he's getting at (when you find something that fits perfectly), but he doesn't say it–making you search the recipes at the back of the book. A few more practical suggestions scattered throughout the text would have been helpful.
In addition to the time commitment of obtaining ingredients and preparing up to seven meals and snacks per day, there's also the cardio component on 5 of 7 days, with target workouts of 40-45 minutes. While I'm definitely devoted to losing weight, the Shred program is a bit extreme in the level of effort required to follow it. Truthfully, I can imagine working through one cycle of the program, but it's hard to imagine going through the 5-6 cycles it would take to hit my goals (of course, I'll revisit once I'm done with Phase I).
So far, however, the results have been good–I'm officially down 6 pounds from the start (8 pounds today).
I can see the difference between the two weeks: calories are being ratcheted down (through a combination of reducing the smoothie/soup component to 250 calories, plus with fewer real meals and more smoothies).
The first day was extremely tough for me. Because of my schedule, I ended up being about 1 1/2 hours late to Meal 2, which threw me completely off balance–I was extremely hungry and tired, and my mood suffered because of it, making it very difficult to concentrate at work. I ended up leaving early and taking a nap at home. Combined with catching up on meals (though the gap between 3:00 pm and 7:00 pm was difficult), that set me right again, and I was able to do a fairly decent 45 minute workout on the recumbent bicycle (while watching The Newsroom on the iPad–I know that it's not a great show and people don't talk like that, but I still enjoy it. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if Sorkin and Mamet collaborated).
Anyway, one week down, thirty-two to go…
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August 2013 · Uncategorized
It's been a rough week–I deviated from the plan on two days, but only slightly, and tried to make up for it with additional exercise. The end result is two pounds down for the week, which is the same place I was on Tuesday.
My guess is that I'm going to have some fairly quick losses coming up soon–partially from following the program, but also partially from releasing some water and other stuff that's weighting me up.
The second week of the program is in some ways easier to follow than the first, especially related to the schedule: you learn how to integrate it a little better into your daily routine, and you also start having some strategies for dealing with the food requirements. The problem with the second week, however, is the hunger and routine of it start to get a bit much (hence my two meals that were off).
I've gone through the third week menus, and it's basically four days of shakes at 200 calories per, and then moves back to the more standard program with protein, etc. Also, there's drinking lemon juice every morning.
The weird thing about it all, and what I'm still trying to wrap my head around, is that even with the two days of deviations, I was still well below my calorie maintenance threshold (unless my metabolism is so efficient, or slowed down), plus the additional exercise; all this should have yielded a fairly steady decline in weight according to my spreadsheet (yes, there's a spreadsheet for tracking it). Week 1, I was exactly on the weight loss track; now I'm five pounds high. I'm a little surprised at hitting this plateau so early, but will keep to the program for this transformational week in the hopes that there's more to the science and that breakthroughs will happen.
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August 2013 · Phase 1 / Weight Loss
Catching up on this…
I started with a feeling a severe depression on Monday–combining the diet with a down week at work (eg, not being very busy and therefore not making money, but also not extremely motivated to push through the August doldrums), but after a little while this passed.
The challenge of this week is something like five days in a row of just drinking stuff (or eating soup) with fruits and veggies thrown in. Every now and then there's something more substantial, but never enough to satisfy.
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August 2013 · Uncategorized
The whole naming the weeks thing is BS…week 3 is the lowest calorie count, but it's not like week 4 is that much different. There are a couple of days with some additional solid meals, rather than the shakes and soups and such, but it seems like the basics of the program, regardless of the claims, come back to "eat less and exercise."
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August 2013 · Weight Loss
OK, I've been countering his weight-loss science with my own. Tracking the calorie count against MyFitnessPal, the basic calorie load is around 1800 for most days, just spread out in a very unsatisfying manner that requires too much effort. Given that number of calories, my weight loss has been unspectacular (at least for me): 17 pounds so far after 29 days of following the program fairly well. When I compare that my spreadsheet, it's basically on track for eating an 1800 calorie diet.
This week, the cleanse week, I've decided to follow the cleanse side of things, but to ramp it up with an alternate set of cleanses.
First, two day detox from Arden's Garden (flush out some of this excess water and give the system a bit of rest). Second will be five days of Arden's Garden "Love Your Liver" cleanse, which has many of the same precepts of the Shred system, but with fewer calories and more of a rest to the system. My plan is to do the three days of juice drinking, followed by two days of raw fruits and veggies, bridging me to the last week of Shred.
A potential problem with this approach, of course, is the deprivation will require more willpower, depending on how long it takes to get to that Zen place of not worrying about food and feeling the hunger. The Shred system isn't very much better than that, though, with a constant battle against hunger–it's just enough food to never walk the balance between full (too little) and Zen (too much).
We'll see how things progress…
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August 2013 · Uncategorized
Any program that had the instruction of not eating until you're full and has a very defined set of eating rules is destined to have a breaking point.
I hit mine today, 11 days in…I don't think I've done a ton of damage–partially since I only ate half of what I ordered (the Shane Sampler at Shane's Rib Shack).
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August 2013 · Uncategorized
The pendulum has been cut, and it is now flying towards the final resting place. The magnetic forces that have been drawing it towards evil (greed, hubris, [some word for a small man gaining power]) are very much in play, and there are no longer any forces drawing it back to good. Skyler is complicit; Hank is polarized. Perhaps Jessie could do it, but it seems that his only power is that Walt doesn't want to kill him and will lie (unconvincingly) to avoid the messiness of swatting the fly that he likes. It's a perversion of the old father adage, "don't make me do this, it hurts me more than it hurts you."
Any hope of redemption for Walt died at some point (different points for different views: was it Jane, Gale, the kid, the other kid, Frank, or one of the many other steps along the way?), and we are now very much into the Scarface side of the story, having abandoned Mr. Chips.
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August 2013 · Videogames
★★★★ (4 stars)
Saints Row IV is a mash-up of lots of other videogames, having moved past its origins as the runner-up to GTA. The roots are there–it's got the GTA map and missions–but there's a fair amount of Infamous (it's own set of knockoffs), Prototype, the Arkham series, FarCry 3 and Mass Effect 2/3, all wrapped in the Matrix.
Like wandering around the sandbox beating stuff up? This game's for you.
Like precision driving? Like collectables? Like gathering powers? Like leveling up guns? Like racing? Like side-scrolling beat-em-ups? Like well-defined missions? Like boss fights? Like climbing towers?
The beauty of Saints Row IV is in combining these various play mechanics into a well-packaged, funny, meta-video game. Take for example, the character selection: in addition to the crazy character costume options, one of the voice choices is Nolan North (the voice of video games) who makes self-referential comments throughout.
While the game knocks off a lot, it does it with style and humor. The ludicrous over-the-top-ness of Saints Row III (which I didn't play that much) makes its way here in a brilliantly conceived trope of the Saints having risen to presidency, just when an alien invasion happens. The aliens stick everyone into pods, jacked into a Matrix-like simulation. Fairly early on, you escape to the "real world" of a ship that can link into the simulation, with your goals typically being to destabilize the program through conquering stuff or using your superpowers.
Like Saints Row the Third, this one starts off with an hour or so of cut-scene plotting that doesn't really reflect the core gameplay. Once past these set-pieces (rescuing the world from nuclear annihilation (by climbing on the bomb), ascending to the presidency, losing to an alien invasion, and escaping a 50′s sitcom), the game gets down to its real business. I actually found the start of the game to be the most tedious and almost didn't make it past the intro–luckily for me, I continued.
Once into the core of the game, the superpowers really enhance the experience: when you can sprint and glide, driving becomes tedious and dangerous: I found that gliding over it all and swooping down was my default mode of transportation. [I must admit that driving tends to be one of my least favorite parts of most games.] I do wish that there was more control in transitioning between fast and slow modes–one of my frustrations was in trying to grab something while in flight/glide, but almost always missing it and having to stop, adjust, jump, adjust again, and then capture it before going on my way again. There are also a couple of button-mapping problems: on the XBox, the "A" button activates a recovery mechanic from explosions and also activates Super Jump; usually, I ended my recovery with a jump when I really wanted to end it with a blast, shot, or anything else.
The sandbox overlaps with the side missions, so if you enjoy clearing a section of the town, at some point that means that you've also completed a set of tasks for a character.
The two things that I liked the most about the game are the (usually) very forgiving difficulty levels (it's pretty easy to complete items at the basic bronze level through button mashing, but gold requires skill) and the great writing. Even though the world is derivative, it's thoroughly grounded in Saints Row lore, and you never forget you're in that world. This is combined with actual humor. The characters and relationships are fairly deep, unless they are sacrificed on the alter of stereotypes for a laugh.
This game doesn't make you work too hard for anything. Take the romance feature of Mass Effect 2/3, where you have to spend the entire damn game constantly checking in with characters, making the right choices, consulting on-line guides to make sure you don't miss a key encounter, all to end with a lame cutscene that doesn't show anything despite the M rating… Saints Row IV has the same romance feature. Once a character is on the ship, you have a "Romance" option. One button click and the characters hook up (again, not showing anything despite the M rating). I played as a male character, and let's just say that almost everyone (and everything) was up for something…each of which had something funny to offer.
Throughout, the writing and voice-acting is great, letting you mostly ignore any rough edges to the AI and the pop-ins. Your vice-president, Keith David, who "conquered Hollywood" gives hilariously deadpan lines, including, "…plus, I'd look good on money." One set of missions takes on the Metal Gear Solid series, with the characters sticking to the dark, shooting out lights ("But that light had a wife and kids") before the guards, and making kills from inside a cardboard box. While there aren't a lot of laugh-out-load moments (but there are a few), you'll have a wry smile pretty much throughout the game.
According to the game's baseball stat system, after 18 hours, I'm 67% complete, but I think it's about 90% of the way through the story (for example, I've collected something like 900 of the 1500-odd clusters). I've reached the level cap of 50 and most of the map is purple. I've encountered only one stopper (Obey (again) with completing a mind-over-murder thing). Even if I don't finish the story, it was well worth my time and money.
Oh, yeah, there's a whole co-op syste that I didn't touch…
Saints Row IV is fun, funny and worth the visit (for adults who haven't grown up yet).
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September 2013 · Weight Loss
Weight loss is, for some of us, pretty hard business, requiring a minute-by-minute effort to hold back bad habits balanced against the slow pace of losing. At some level, you have to eat, but there's a complicated calculus associated with those choices involving vitamins and minerals, hormonal impacts, satiety, and being able to live a life within our society. In those willpower studies, maintaining a focus on something (eating right, for example), drains you and leaves little mental energy available for much else, and I've definitely felt that effect while being on a "program" for the last six weeks.
For example, I probably haven't been as effective at work (though my 50% is better than most people's 100% ), primarily in having less focus and desire to get out there and pursue new business (the flip side is that my confidence is going up, making me generally better). I can definitely feel a sluggishness in my head; expressing myself with precision is somewhat dodgy. Social life has suffered, and don't get me started on romance…
I'm really trying with this round of weight loss to hit the BIG GOAL of getting down to that magical ideal (ish) weight/body fat percentage. I have to work for the BG, partially since I have tracked my weight on-and-off for 25 years, and recognize a few unfortunate patterns:
-there's a slow cycle that I've been on for the last 8 years, playing within the same 50 pound band which is much higher than I want it to be
-I can lose 30-40 pounds and then when left to my default eating patterns, it starts coming back
-I've had three weight hops, where somehow, for either unknown/unobserved reasons (perhaps unresolved emotional issues), my weight has jumped up to a new, horrible category
-There's a 30-60 day threshold for effectively losing weight, when I have a break for a variety of reasons (holidays, vacations, wanting to join people), and I don't resume the program
So, the prime impetuous for the BG [put myself back at a healthy weight and maintain it] is the probably misguided notion that it will fix a few things in my life. At the same time, it will! For example, I'll fit in the world better–no more worrying about seatbelt extensions (though I can't do anything about the height of the chairs), being able to buy fashionable clothes at the regular shops, being able to participate fully with my friends in all the various activities that I haven't been able to (scuba diving, amusement parks, sports…), and generally feeling better about myself. I know, having hit the BG once many [20] years ago (and kind-of maintained it for a few years) that it doesn't change who I am, doesn't fix all my problems, but it's a step in a healthier direction and a step towards the life that I want to lead, when getting older and wanting to maintain the best quality of life that I can well into my 100′s (you doctors and scientists out there better be working hard on that longevity crap, because I'm expecting it).
As my doctors tend to notice, I'm pretty damn healthy despite my weight: no diabetes problems, heart's good, cholesterol is great [of course, this comes while I'm waiting for some bloodwork, so hopefully it's not a jinx]. But I still feel young and have lots to do and give and want to achieve.
I've broken my BG into three Phases, basically corresponding to a weight-loss amount that will put me at a nice, even number. The entire thing will hopefully take no more than 300 days (42 days down) and have me losing 44% of my body weight. For Phase I, it's cardio. In Phase II, I'll probably add in some strength training through a gym/personal trainer. Phase III might be P90X (maybe I'll move that in Phase II, but we'll have to see). Right now, in Phase I, I have too much difficulty doing the exercises with the right form (push ups are tough and pull ups unthinkable). In my bullet journal, I have these little stick-em stars for various milestones: a 5 pound and 25 pound star, a 10% star (10% of my goal), and a Phase star.
Anyway…so I'm six weeks towards the BG, and how did Shred fit into my pursuing the BG?
The cover of Shred says "Six Weeks Four Inches Two Sizes." [Given that dudes don't really live in the "sizes" world, I suppose that's a give-away for who it's marketed to.] At the same time, my own experience is that over the six weeks, I did lose inches, my clothes definitely fit better and I'm down a total of 26 pounds. From that standpoint, it's been a successful six weeks.
As I've talked about some, I've had some problems with the program: I think that it's too complicated with the number of meals/snacks to eat and can add another layer of difficulty to your life in keeping with the program. At the same time, it seems like the nutrition is pretty much there and the calorie levels are about right for weight loss. Also, the last two weeks, I basically ditched the real program (while keeping to the concepts). Part of that was being on vacation and having trouble with getting the right mix of food while also enjoying myself out and about; part of it was trying to undo some of the damage through a couple of two day juice fasts.
One thing that is very good about the program is the focus on five days of cardio a week–I don't think that I would have been as diligent if left to my own devices (having done the math, the workouts contribute about 20% to the loss just from an in-the-moment calorie calculation, but there are the ancillary benefits of speeding up metabolism and adding some muscle).
All-in-all, Shred's kind of an "ehh" program–it's good if you need extreme structure (which I did), but is kind of hard to follow.
My next few weeks, I'm going to try a somewhat less intense program of sticking to the 1400-1500 calories a day thing (with occasional juice fasting), but having fewer, bigger meals along with a bit of grazing on veggies. I'm going to try to stick with the cardio program, having purchased a rowing machine to go along with my recumbent bike. [The thought process there is to get more muscle groups working so that I don't end up with Popeye legs.]
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September 2013 · Videogames / Weight Loss
A plateau. A soul-crushing, motivation stealing, confusing, frustrating plateau.
Maybe it's just a bit of overanalyzing. I've been using the myfitnesspal app and website to keep a food diary and activity log. So one typical plateau possibility isn't happening: I haven't veered off track, increasing calorie intake though inattention (the "maybe you're eating more than you think" thing). Also, given my work-out regimen (all cardio), I also don't think it's the "you're gaining muscle that's replacing fat" effect. The one that I'm worried about is the "your body thinks it's starving, so it's holding onto fat" issue. I have tried to vary my calorie intake a bit (averaging it out by going high and low), but haven't gone the full cheat day approach advocated by 4-Hour Body (I'm easing into this as the next program).
The flip side of keeping a daily log is that it also encourages you to weigh yourself daily, potentially finding plateaus where there are just regular variations due to water retention or other factors.
Weight records are definitely something that I've read different approaches about: there's the weigh once a week crowd (see progress through snapshots); the weigh daily crowd (I think it was from a study of people who had successfully lost weight and kept it off–it was probably weigh regularly, rather than daily); and the don't weigh at all crowd (it's too imprecise a measure; you should be tracking inches or some other body composition).
I fall into the weigh more than once a week category. Living in a numbers world and needing the motivation of seeing an end in sight, I have a spreadsheet. I've mentioned it in passing before, but I'll go into a bit more detail, highlighting some of the positives and negatives of this approach.
Basically, I pick a day and weight to start and everything flows from that. It makes a daily calculations based on my baseline metabolic rate data (height, weight, age, activity level) less my assumed calorie intake. Using the simple math, each day I'm supposed to lose a certain amount of weight until I hit the BG way down the line (roughly my birthday next year). I tend to let the target calculation run without overrides (I don't put in actual calories eaten or actual exercise), hoping that hitting the calorie levels along with the activity adjuster will make the calculations mirror what's really going on in my body.
Earlier during this, my final round of weight loss (because I'm going to succeed damn it!), I realized that my calculations were off, demotivating me because the reality of my weight loss was trailing the excel spreadsheet. Looking into it, I found three main problems: when I built the thing, I was a bit younger, having hard-coded my age, so there was a five year difference in the metabolic rate. More importantly, I over-estimated my general activity level, using the 1.6 multiplier (active) versus the 1.4 multiplier (lightly active). The third thing was upping my calorie consumption to reflect what I was really eating. Once I made those three adjustments, the reality and the calculations started matching a bit better.
I keep a very light journal within the same sheet (putting what my eating plan is, vacation days, significant deviations, etc.–two or three words off to the side), and have it broken into days, weeks and Phases. I also calculate a variety of metrics: currently, I'm 19% towards the BG; 54% of the Phase I goal; have 251 days (36 weeks) to reaching the BG. I also track my inches (chest, waist, hips, biceps and thighs), but try to do this on a six week basis (though I wrap the tape measure a lot more than that, just don't record it)–inches move pretty slowly, so recording more than that just means deceiving yourself by pulling the tape measure tight or writing down the same numbers every week. I have an official weekly weigh in day (Monday), but also track a couple of days throughout the week (maybe four readings a week). While I weigh myself every day (or multiple times a day), the one I really pay attention to is the morning weigh in, having breathed out three pounds of water throughout the night and at my lightest point.
For me, the spreadsheet gives you a good sense of the path you're currently on, with clear signposts; in other words, when you see a number on the scale, you have a broader context for what it means, and it puts the whole program into a finite world. While I'll need to be vigilant once reaching the BG, the assumption is that I'll either have internalized all the lessons learned, or will function properly without the need for constant deprivation. The dark side is the fairly long timeframe for achieving the BG (hence the Phases)–it's a grind, and not hitting the target puts me into a bad cycle, alternating between taking a deprivation approach (juice fasting, for example) and thinking about taking a break (going off program for a while to reset).
Which leads me back to the overanalyzing, and being 2.6 pounds over my target. My perceived plateau is more being consistently over target than not losing. I'm still down week over week, but it really feels like I've slowed down a little bit, and I worry that something may be impeding my calculations (such as the starvation effect causing my BMR to plummet).
A couple of nights ago, I moved the (ok, an, since there are multiples) XBox 360 down to the basement and have been playing GTA V while on the recumbent bike. Neither activity is maximized: my wattage on the bike suffers a bit while playing the game (140′s instead of 160′s), and I fail missions a lot, sometimes having to stop the riding to be more precise in my fake driving. Even so, adding another hour of riding should be doing something positive, but I do need to make sure that I'm also getting the real exercise that pushes my heart rate into that HIT training zone (something to be done on the side).
So, let me give it a few more days (or another week) before I admit to a plateau…ideally, there's a cliff that comes after it. Alternatively, there's typing a new number into the target, reseting the excel calculations, with the unwanted effect of pushing the timeframe to the BG out.
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September 2013 · Phase 1 / Weight Loss
I see signs that the plateau (or Plateau 1) may be over. While I'm still not caught up on the spreadsheet, my weight has been going down for the last couple of days, edging closer to the target weight and dipping below a pretty good threshold. Finally, some downward momentum…
Weight loss is kind of like the weather–we have a general understanding of what's going on, but the whole system is too complicated for us to figure out with true precision. You can just look to history, what's supposed to be happening, and a best guess about trends.
So when hitting the plateau, I made the following changes, maybe some of them helped, or maybe not:
- Went up on the calories for a couple of days and then did some cycling between low and high days (trying to convince the body (I almost said "trick") that it's a land of plenty, with no reason to conserve fat [You're not starving.] I continued tracking everything using myfitnesspal.
- Started drinking massive amounts of water (flush out those toxins and convince the body that releasing water is fine)
- Continued taking a variety of supplements: the 4-Hour Body thing of ALA, Garlic and Green Tea, with some Policosanal; a CoQ10 [ubiquinol] and PQQ combo pill (feel those mitochondria regenerating); some resveratrol (free radicalize me); and a multivitamin
- Drank lemon juice first thing in the morning
- Ate a high-ish protein breakfast within an hour of waking up (lately have been trying this Vega crap which is a Frankenstein of nutrition–non-soy plant protein, antioxidants, servings of vegetables, good gut bacteria, fiber and plant Omega-3s, all bound into a gritty, bad-tasting shake-like thing)
- Varied my workouts by doing a shorter, more high-intensity work-out as well as spending time on both the elliptical and the rowing machine
- Stuck with "it" (eg, the commitment to lose weight and get healthier)
As the beer commercial says, "It's not weird unless it doesn't work."
So I don't know which, if any or all, of these items helped break the plateau (please…please…let it be broken), but I'm now almost sixty days in and have lost 33.6 pounds. It's a respectable amount, definitely noticeable, but still shy of my Phase I goal, and well shy of the BG.
In other words, not quite time to take a victory lap (in 30 days, maybe), but trying to keep my motivation up and stay on this train.
By the way, props to myfitnesspal for a very robust database and way to keep track of stuff. It has really helped me make better choices to keep to my calorie goals. What sucks about it (though it's really not the application's fault) is that there are some restaurants and foods that are basically impossible. When every entree is 1000+ calories (especially the ones that I love), it's hard to reconcile yourself to not eating nachos for a long time (I suppose you can have a small bite of nachos, but the chips are just freaking deadly).
It's sometimes tough to find that 600 calorie option for lunch. Typically, I've been doing 250 calories for breakfast, somewhere around 400-600 calories for lunch, another 300 calories in snacks throughout the day, and then rounding out dinner to reach 1400-1600 calories.
A Wendy's pretzel bacon cheeseburger (single) is something like 680 calories (and not a horrible choice for an "I've got to have normal food" moment, as long as you don't get the fries). Waffle House is in the same category (grilled chicken with hash browns, for example).
Anyway, the next couple of days are going to be tough: a going-away party for one of my staff tonight (trying not to do the double-whammy of drinking too much and then cascaded into an eating frenzy) and another staffer in town and wanting to grab drinks tomorrow…
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September 2013 · Videogames
★★★★ (4 stars)
Just finished Diablo III on the Xbox last night, or as the developers would like it, my first play-through, with potentially many more hours of gaming ahead, trying to max out levels, get the perfect mix of powers and runes, and find that elusive magical item with all the cool features. The problem with this is that I've finished the story…and don't know that I want to slog through the entire story again (and the story is mostly a slog, but more on that in a minute) with a few randomly generated dungeons and bosses to mix it up.
I purchased Diablo III last year for my Mac, and made it about halfway through the first playthrough (Normal, Medium) with a wizard before events [design flaws] conspired to keep me from moving forward. I didn't use the auction house (my stuff was never good enough; the stuff I wanted was too expensive); I didn't really like the control scheme (the whole keyboard/mouse thing, while hardcore gamers might love it, isn't really my bag–I don't need to record macros and find that my typing isn't quite precise enough); at some point, my password was hacked; I got busy at work…anyway, I dropped the game, thinking it was good, but not as great as Diablo II.
For a medium-skill gamer, the console version is much better. I didn't miss the auction house at all (the magical drops, combined with the blacksmith/jeweler met my needs); the game just worked without patches, always on internet, etc.; and the Xbox controller is great. One main difference between Diablo and most current games is that the player has no control over the camera, with the left stick being used for a dodge feature. The camera is generally good, but there are times when you're heading the wrong way, or the view is blocked by walls (with a shadow representation).
The game is a mix between a dungeon crawler, bash-em-up looter with some role playing elements. The story is linear, told in four acts, but the whole quest system is pretty boring: go to this place and achieve this goal (close this door, beat this boss). I guess the story moves you forward, but I can't think of any of the levels that I really want to do again–no really memorable fights, no clever touches. It's by-the-numbers and very serious, or perhaps earnest is a better word. A little humor comes from the side players, but toward the end, even the scoundrel has revealed a boring backstory and has tremendous respect for you (though, I guess saving Heaven and Earth is good). The whole mythology is kind of weird, sort of a quasi-biblical view, but without God.
Of course, that mainly gives you a chance to go around and kill hordes of stuff. At times, the action is so chaotic that it's worse than just button-mashing, with no sense of where your character is in the melee and what he/she is doing beyond killing stuff (if you could do damage to your follower, it would have been very bad for me since I was often trying to kill them before realizing, oh, that's my Templar/Scoundrel/Enchantress). I played as a wizard (tried witch doctor for a little bit, but hated it), but I think there is a progression flaw in both version of the game: you slowly unlock abilities that correspond to various buttons, so by the time you unlock the right bumper button, you're pretty locked into a muscle-memory play style that doesn't use it, so X/Y/right bumper didn't really make it into my playing. I'd B for my armor and then right trigger until my arcane power was down and then A until it refilled, occasionally touching the other buttons to remember what they did.
At least on normal, the game isn't that hard, especially once you hit a certain level (I was killed mostly by poisonous things for some reason). I died very rarely in the last two acts, even in the boss fights, with a pretty consistent power load out of a slowing armor effect combined with a damaging ray. My character ended up at around level 33.
For the replayability of the game, the story is going to be a problem, but there are plenty of additional levels to gain, plus there are certain features that don't come into play until the higher difficulties (the blacksmith and jeweler both have "books" that they need to level up beyond level 4 or so that aren't dropped until Nightmare). Basically, for the last two acts, money wasn't important (I made all my own stuff and couldn't spend it to level up the jeweler and blacksmith) and loot was just a lot of work: sell the non-magical stuff and high-value magic, salvage the low-value magical stuff for components to make new magical stuff. Most levels are just a little too big, take a little too long, and it's very hard to figure out when to take a break in the story–the game eats up time (just one more level/dungeon–crap did an hour just go by, and is it really that late), but there are too many denouements and things that feel like penultimate battles turn out to be very much in the middle. Plus, there aren't very many side-quests (there's side information, but you find it while wandering about).
I also think that my typical dungeon crawling method (make sure that every part of the map is lit up, while destroying every vase, chair, table, bookcase, statue that can be destroyed) won't survive a second playthrough. In a lot of ways, I'd prefer a Borderlands type system, where you can revisit battles that are fun on their own independent of the story. I'd actually like it better to just wander through random dungeons, castles, countryside, etc. rather than have to achieve the same boring goal for the third, fourth, fifth time.
Most of the time, I really enjoyed the game and am interested in seeing if it can hold my attention for continued playing, or playing as a different character type.
Oh, there's also the multiplayer aspects to the game–I'll report back on those once I actually use them…
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October 2013 · Uncategorized
Things were rocking along, plateau broken, 61 days into the program with no significant break-downs on either the eating or exercise front, when I received a call semi-out-of-the-blue from a friend on his way to the LSU-Georgia game. Would I like to meet them at the Vortex for drinks and dinner.
I walked up the stairs from the basement, away from the elliptical machine, and headed out to a disastrous night…
The first disaster was just the Vortex's menu: almost nothing on it fit the plan, and all the myfitnesspal references seemed to be done by people wanting to fool themselves (the Coronary Bypass Burger at 608 calories–really?). Disaster number two was bringing alcohol into the equation, especially on an empty stomach (my pre-alcohol plan was to get a salad).
Of course, John and Cliff had just eaten on the way into town, so our meal clocks were entirely off…they were there to drink and then eventually to get something to eat, while I was passing my 200 calorie snack and 300 calorie dinner timeframes. At the same time, Trip was an hour later, so there was waiting for him, too. Disaster number three.
This isn't to blame my friends, of course. Unfortunately, it was a group that I hadn't brought into the "I'm doing a diet, and I'm serious about it" fold, plus I was enjoying catching up with them, hearing about how things were going in their lives plus reminiscing about old times.
So the things that I did that weren't that great on Friday night: ordered appetizers (and ate most of them), ordered a hamburger and tots (actually pretty good–better than the last time that I ate at the Vortex), drank too many girlie-drinks over the six hours we were there (at a moderate pace, but still a drink an hour adds up).
OK, two ways of looking at the disaster: 1) it's a disaster; I've got to get back on the horse and figure out ways of habitializing myself when in those situations; or 2) it was actually a cheat day, and everything's cool.
I've actually split the difference, forgiving myself a bit, but atoning for it during the rest of the weekend: more exercise, a juice fast on Sunday, light food on Saturday. Come Monday, things were better–still a couple pounds high according to the spreadsheet, but at my lowest weight in a while, crossing the magical 10% of my body weight threshold.
The second thing that I noticed when I did my tape measurements was that while I was plateauing, things were actually getting better–there were changes going on, losing inches instead of pounds, with another 9 total inches for a total of 14.
It's funny: I managed to negotiate the two traps that I expected this week, but the one that came out of the blue was a challenge. Having an ex-post-facto cheat day reminds me of my college math class that had a drop grade–don't study and get a C, well that's my drop grade; unfortunately, my next not studying generated an F: Yikes, that's my drop grade! and also a wake up call to apply myself to eke out a B for the class.
I'm not quite sure what lessons to take from this weekend other than the importance of planning ahead to reduce the risk of falling off the weight wagon. The lesson is definitely not to abandon your friends or social life (though hermiting does make temptation harder to find, as long as you don't have cheat foods in the pantry…or at the store). I think the main problem is that with the amount of weight I'm trying to lose, combined with the timeframe and spreadsheet, there isn't really a good middle ground that would be possible in a maintenance mode.
Right now, I'm motivated to suffer (while building better eating and exercise habits) towards the BG, but I require two things from the suffering: 1) continual progress, even if slower than I want, but movement on the scale and a loosening of the clothes, and 2) a known end to it.
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October 2013 · Uncategorized
★★★★ 1/2 (4 1/2 stars)
Of all the bodily fluids we've seen in space movies, tears are the most beautiful.
Unfortunately, Alfonso Cuaron isn't subtle with them–they start small, subtle, just another of the hundreds of visual grace notes within the movie, and then–making sure that everyone in the audience will notice them–one of the tears floats in 3D towards the audience with the same nuance as Jason's machete (spear, fence post…).
Gravity is just this shy of perfection…it's truly a visual feat and a wonderful way to spend a relatively tense 90 minutes.
Cuaron knows how to use 3D–this is the best use since Avatar. The scenes of Sandra Bullock floating through various space stations are magnificent, showing zero g beautifully. The action sequences are amazing (I'm a sucker for all the action going on in the background). The performances enhance the movie: George Clooney is very good as a cocky, competent astronaut who is good under pressure. Sandra Bullock also does a great job of playing a damaged character (with a so-so arc) who is extremely competent, but inexperienced.
A couple of nit-picky comments: the occasional movie reference that takes us out of space and the situation (a scary beat a la Jaws [when they found the head in the sunken boat], lots of 2001 [Sandra Bullock slowly, and actually quite naturally, coming into a fetal position]); a reliance on the same "space issues" for tension, rather than building on them (how many times can those clunky gloves be reaching for a hold, the consequence of missing being floating off into space). My biggest disappointment was the movie's ending (spoilers ahead): there was a perfect Schrodinger's Cat moment (or Sandra in a Space Capsule) when the movie could have (should have) ended, but instead it wrapped everything up in a bow, with the obligatory ironic one-last-crisis. I was so miffed by the pandering that some of the nicest images of the movie flowed on by.
Gravity is truly a classic and will hopefully serve as a visual touchstone for directors to come, but had it ended where I wanted it to (test audiences be damned), it would have been the whole package.
I chuckled, my eyes moistened, I cringed, I gawked, I had a few inappropriate thoughts about Sandra Bullock; I gasped…it was a great night at the movies. See it on the biggest screen you can (unfortunately, I didn't see it in IMAX) and in 3D.
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October 2013 · Uncategorized
1. Fitting into restaurant booths without jamming 2. Giving a completely different set of clothes to Goodwill (and rediscovering old clothes that have come back into style) 3. Moving back into the almost normal sizes of clothing 4. A more active lifestyle with running and jumping 5. Less food falls on my belly (lower dry-cleaning bill) 6. No one owns this but me
The down side:
1. Starving still sucks 2. Two phases left 3. Sweaty clothes after workouts 4. Now just really fat (better than monstrous)
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October 2013 · Uncategorized
After 86 days, I'm down a total of 50 pounds (50.6 to be exact). This is my lowest weight in at least eight years, but more importantly, I'm in dramatically better shape than when I started three months ago. Over the weekend, I was throwing a football around, and my shoulder didn't bother me and there was actual jumping for a couple of catches.
Over the last six weeks, I've also had a bit of a shift in philosophy about how to approach losing weight: I started by following the program advocated in Shred, following it pretty well for four of the six weeks, but started veering at the end. My veering, however, wasn't a U-Turn, but instead was moving into a lane that has, to this point, been working better with my life. So, instead of following a specific program, I've instituted a few simple rules that guide my behavior:
-I track everything I eat in myfitnesspal. Their database of foods is very robust, and even if I can't find exactly what I've just scarfed down, there's usually something close enough. Through tracking, I have a much better sense of those dangerous meals that I love and am able to make better choices at restaurants.
-I try to keep my calories in the 1400-1600 range for most days, with the occasional up and down to work through plateaus. By staying in this calorie range, I'm able to keep my sanity by addressing cravings at a moderate level, without completely backsliding.
-This level of calories has several corollaries to what I end up eating: in order to have three meals and a snack or two, my choices have to be relatively healthy, such as choosing vegetables and avoiding white stuff.
- I start my day with a horrible tasting, gritty mush that supplies protein, vitamins, digestive stuff, omega-3s, etc. in 146 calories. I think it's an OK breakfast while being better than taking a bunch of pills, and since I've started drinking it with a straw, things aren't as messy.
-About one a month, I do a two-day juice fast–sometimes flushing some of the water weight out makes you feel better about the arbitrary number on the scale.
-I've mostly eliminated diet drinks from my diet, but they have been creeping back in a bit lately, especially when going to see movies.
-A single Milk-Dud is only around 13 calories. Nothing wrong with that, as long as you limit it to one.
-I've been exercising at least 45 minutes a day, usually doing a cross-training program on the recumbent bike while watching TV. It gets my heart rate up and makes me sweat. I've also been adding a 50 minute mixed cardio/toning program in 2-3 times a week. The first couple of times would have been a sensation on YouTube (not in the good way: watch the uncoordinated fat guy try to exercise), but I'm making progress on doing all the moves.
That's the basic program: eat less and exercise. So far, it's been generally working, and I've seen great results in three months. When I look at the before and current pictures, I'm still not happy with my upper body, but I can definitely see progress. The great news is that my fat clothes don't fit anymore. Also, by moving to this philosophy, I find that I'm unhappy less of the time: not as focused on food, not as hungry.
When I went back and looked at my weight history since I've been an adult–from my senior year of high school–I saw a few things that surprised me and gave me more hope that this time will be different.
First, some of my key weight loss successes when I was younger were much less significant than my current status: the period of loss was shorter and the amount of loss was less (I had much less to lose to get to the goal).
Second, my more recent temporary weight loss successes (the ones that were derailed) followed a typical pattern of sprinting and achieving early successes, followed by a derailment. In 2011, I had a period of 108 days that achieved close to the same results as my current status, but it was really a 56 day run, followed by 24 day retrenchment and a 28 day second round of progress.
This current round of weight loss feels different to me in several ways: I've sustained it for a much longer consecutive period, and it feels like I've made some good, semi-permanent habits. Having worked this round for 86 days makes it the longest healthy life-style change that I've made. Part of that is being in a different environment (an Atlanta house versus a Manhattan apartment): Atlanta seems to be an easier (generally more supportive) environment–it's not the people, but more the access that I have to healthy food and a consistent exercise area. New York had those things, too, but when things got busy, Seemless web (or Kozmo, or Urban Fetch) was so convenient with hidden bad choices (by not tracking, I was making high calorie decisions).
I have several hopes for my future weight loss, as I move into Phase II:
-That I've reached that moment of clarity that is propelling my down the righteous, healthy path without backtracking
-That my body hasn't been too ravaged by long-term fatness and is able to snap back when I lose the next 50 and then the next 50
-That the upcoming holidays don't lead to the backsliding that has happened to me before
Most of the reason that I write these posts is to work through issues and help cement my positive progress. It feels like I've hit something of a groove, and I really want to keep with it. I have a few more days left in Phase I, and I expect some leveling off on the 50 pound loss (I'll probably move up a little from water coming back).
I'll end with the brilliant Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, who had an article in the Wall Street Journal a couple of weeks ago (an excerpt from his book), challenging conventional wisdom about goals and passion. Part of his point was that he preferred systems over goals, with one of his examples being weight loss: by pursuing my BG, I spend my entire time failing, with one brief moment of success; my current philosophy is more of a system that will eventually lead to the BG. The point about passion was that success helps breed passion–he'd had several failures that he was initially passionate about, but after a couple of years of failure, the passion faded, while the things that succeeded (like the comic strip), ended up stoking his passion.
Right now, it feels like I have a system, and the successes I've had so far are definitely making me more passionate about continuing.
It's not a lifetime of deprivation that's facing me…it's a system that will yield consistent weight loss towards a goal, followed by a less rigorous monitoring. But, damn, it will feel good to eat nachos again once-in-a-while.
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October 2013 · Uncategorized
The last few weeks, I've been in an organizational frame of mind, working on my typical organizational systems as well as on my physical space.
Having moved about a year ago into a massive house, going from 1000 square feet in New York (plus a 1300 sf "storage condo" in Atlanta) to a 4000 sf house with another 4000 sf of basement space, I've really been enjoying the ability to spread out and let most of my stuff breathe.
For example, my books–which were always an issue in New York, forcing me to move apartments when they were taking over everything–are now all on display in a single row. The good, the bad and the ugly are available for everyone (and me) to see–with the exception of a few volumes that have been moved to my version of the Vatican Secret Archive. Since the first Kindle came out (and even earlier, with the Sony Reader), I've purchase books in electronic form, so my library stops around 2010, but I've been considering filling out my library with a select number of volumes purchased at bargain prices now that I have the space.
While the books are a space success story, there have been some stumbles. With all this space at my disposal, it's easy to have an entire room devoted to miscellaneous boxes. Downstairs in the basement, boxes of papers, photos and junk that doesn't quite fit; in my second bedroom closet (the one built for the future woman in my life, or my house's life), piles of clothes to go to goodwill (more on that in a later post), electronics, wires, papers and more junk–good ideas and experiments that have run their time. The Sony mini-disk system…Nintendo DS…Wii…PSP…several label printers…every USB cable that came with any electronic product I've ever bought.
Manhattan is a very harsh mistress and living there requires (and forces) an extreme regimentation and discipline in dealing with stuff. Some people have a policy of never bringing anything into the house without taking something out (out with the old, in with the new taken to extremes). One key that I learned while living there for 15 years was that everything must have a place. I can remember so many times when my apartment went from being somewhat tidy to completely ransacked, not hoarder-style but close, just because I had gotten one little new thing (surely a new computer monitor can be incorporated). Ditto for a suitcase–don't unpack immediately upon returning home, and the suitcase spreads out, eventually taking over the entire apartment, kitchen included, with clothes, papers and junk.
So, even though I'm reveling in my extreme space, after a year, it was time to put some Manhattan discipline into my Atlanta lifestyle, coming down to three key items:
(1) Make sure that everything has a place to go: I was vastly under-storaged in Atlanta, needing drawers, bins, shelves, etc. to tame some of the mess; a corollary of being under-storaged was that too much stuff didn't have a Place to Go;
(2) Get rid of stuff you don't need: this one tends to be difficult for me, with lots of things serving as memory hooks or having potential uses. To work through the memory side of things, I've been taking pictures of the item and then donating or trashing to physical thing.
(3) Set up systems that allow you to process through (1) and (2), plus keep you on top of stuff as it comes in.
It's funny the difference that having a storage system makes. My main project this last weekend was to tame the junk closet. To that end, I brought up a shelf from the basement which was not being used, and then put in two additional shelving systems (one from Costco, one from Lowe's). The shelves allowed me to make stacked boxes accessible, plus move the contents out and into more coherent single-item-type categories. In addition to the shelves, I purchased a ton of stacking bins, allowing even more access to stuff (a bin for hats, a bin for umbrellas, a bin for sports equipment).
While there's a part of me that thinks that the organization this weekend was a total fail from the GTD perspective–most of what I did was shuffling things from one type of box to another, touching things multiple times–the organizational process made things useful rather than stored. As my multiple trips to the store also indicate, my car is too small for bulk purchasing, but also, there was an iterative process at work. Sometimes it's tough to get the packaging just right: I had my excess stereo wires (speaker wire, end caps, antennae, and cables) packed very nicely into a little box when I found another whole mess of wires, too much volume for the existing container. Or, when you discover a problem, like hooking up your lifetime subscription Tivo (having gone to the cable company to get a cable card last week) only to find that the power supply has gone bad.
Despite minor setbacks, I worked through the closet, and it's much better than it was, but still not perfect. There are still several boxes and bins of unsorted items, but there's a system and a plan for sorting through them; eventually, everything will find a home (either in my house, through a donation, or monetized through Amazon, eBay, etc.).
The funny part is that organizing a messy closet, turning it from a whole bunch of stacked boxes and bags, into a bunch of shelved boxes and bins, makes it better, more manageable and neater looking. Just sticking a label on a box that says, "Unsorted Junk", tames it; by naming it, you've removed its psychic power.
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October 2013 · Uncategorized
Phase I was three months, starting on July 29, 2013, and there are a couple of key numbers to revisit from the 91 days:
-53.2–the number of pounds lost -20–the number of inches lost from my chest, waist, hips, biceps and thighs.
While it's a little less than I wanted, it represents a huge first step in the right direction, comprised of lots of little steps. One key is to continue with the momentum and work through this tough time of year (there was a bit of gorging on Halloween candy Sunday, but I recorded it). Another is not to take any steps backwards–instead of pausing the exercise and having a food-oriented celebration, just continue on, perhaps even ramping it up a little bit.
One change that I'm trying to incorporate is to exercise in the morning (as well as in the evening). What I've found is that I generally don't mind doing a fair amount of recumbent bicycling while watching TV, which has extended my workouts (I do hate the last three "hills" that are programmed into the cross-training). Today (the start of Phase II), I actually got up early (having gone to be early) for a 45 minute session, during which I watched The Blacklist. I've pushed the resistance up to 8, so it was a bit more intense than my typical workout, and I think that I'll still try to do something tonight (maybe not as intense, and maybe playing Batman Arkham Origins, which I've been having some trouble getting into).
While operating at a food deficit still contributes to the bulk of my weight loss, the exercise does a few things: getting into better shape helps the positive feedback cycle; it pumps up the calories burned during the day and increases the deficit; it helps even out muscle loss that might be happening due to the somewhat rapid weight loss; hopefully, it's a net gain in muscle, which increases my metabolic rate.
So, what are some of the lessons that I want to take from Phase I into Phase II.
First, you can do it! Losing over fifty pounds and getting in much better shape makes lots of positive changes to my life as well as how I feel about myself.
Second, it's not about a specific program or set of goals, but is about a system that fits my life and allows for deviations and challenges; maybe even call them habits. My system: eat less (better) and exercise, with myfitnesspal as the tool for tracking the eat less (better) part and a variety of tools (primarily the recumbent bike, TV, DVR, XBox, videos and adjustable dumbbells) for the exercise part.
Third, the system will work over time, and that time may be week over week rather than day over day.
Fourth, be willing to adjust. The spreadsheet is a good guide, but don't let a negative deviation erase the great progress. Just because it's not matching perfectly doesn't mean that things aren't going well.
Fifth, Keep At It!
Here's to a similar post at the end of Phase II.
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November 2013 · Uncategorized
Phase II is off to a horrible start.
My foot "injury" made me hold back on exercise for a few days, trying to let it heal, so my main activities were a little light hiking and tossing the football around. But the exercise has always been mostly about giving my eating efforts a little extra help, and eating hasn't been so great over the last week. First, my calorie counts started pushing up–I was averaging about 2000 calories per day, which seems to be enough to push me back from a consistent losing point to a maintenance/slight gain point. Combine that with some gorging on Halloween candy (yes, I tried to track it, but honestly I probably ate more than went into the calculator), and you have a regain of water, a bad number on the scale and a retrenchment from previous successes.
On the good news front, it's only a slight deviation–my clothes still fit better, I'm still at my lowest weight in years and it's not a complete loss. My blood tests came back completely normal from the doctor/lab. On the bad news, this retrenchment's as demotivating as a plateau, and there's definitely a part of me that's thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas. When you have bombs built into the schedule, how can you keep working to progress with the knowledge that the most likely outcome is maintaining…I lose through Thanksgiving, then go back up, conquer it through Christmas, then go back up, and start anew after New Years.
It's the same thinking that got me a whole bunch of previous times: why not skip the middle-man and just enjoy the holiday season and start fresh in January? The middle-man in this equation being the continual deprivation. Despite having built a 1400-1600 calorie level that generally works with my life, it's still somewhat hard to maintain and does require constant good choices which is still a challenge. Think four lean cuisines plus a 200 calorie snack as being the baseline…see how easy it would be to pick up something extra. A normal deprivation meal (eg, a Chipotle chicken salad with guac, no cheese and no dressing) is two lean cuisines…and also figure that lean cuisine's aren't really the best things: they hit the calorie count, but tend to be full of white stuff (pasta, potatoes, breading).
Of course, I know that the reason for keeping on with it is that no matter what the outcome, I'm much better off in January without having reverted. Most likely, even with the two time bombs, I'll still be down a fair amount: figure a continual 1500+ calorie a day deficit (being really conservative); five extra big meals isn't going to cancel out that 81,000 calorie deficit (or 160,000 calorie deficit). Otherwise, the pounds will pack back on over the next couple of months, and January will be like starting Phase I again, rather than (worst case), restarting Phase II.
Yep–this is an emotionally tough time of year for me (along with everyone else). My father died around Halloween and then your have the emotionally-charged Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year combo…with my bonus coming at the end of November (high hopes, but very stressful going from fantasies to realities to possibilities to … just tell me the damn number already!).
So, there's no more Halloween candy in the house…I'm getting back on the recumbent bike (now wearing shoes, which strangely makes the work-out harder–those extra two pounds on my feet really add to the effort)…and I'm getting my mind right again. As I continually find, the most frustrating thing is when you're doing everything right with no progress, and just leaning out the wagon can set you back.
Yesterday, I started getting back into Phase II, and I'm going to continue it day by day, following the process, knowing that eventually it will work.
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November 2013 · Uncategorized
A few days ago, I bought a Big Green Egg along with a boatload of accessories. Combined with all the various stuff that's been coming from Amazon into my kitchen, it feels like I'm drowning in boxes–unpacking, figuring out where stuff goes, jamming cardboard into the recycling bin. There are still a few things that I need to figure out, but I've been able to maintain my basic kitchen organization.
But the last two nights, I've been foregoing prepared foods for meals that I've cooked on the Egg. So far, I'm not quite in the crazy evangelist category, but it is a very well designed tool.
Based on advice from friends, colleagues and family, I bought the large egg–given that most of my cooking tends to be for one or two people, with the occasional (though hopefully more regular) party, the large felt about right. While the extra-large can handle two 20-pound turkeys, I figure that I can cycle the outdoor meat to meet most party demands, plus I have so many other cooking implements (the two ovens; the fancy microwave that has some kind of convection built in; a slow cooker; the griddle and grill plus four burners) that if needed, I can feed an army with just a little bit of extra planning. Oh, there's also the built-in gas grill on the deck that I haven't used (I need to replace the guts before using it).
The extra-large would just use more charcoal, take longer to get up to temperature, and cost a boat-load more than the yacht I bought.
I bought the large egg in a nest with wooden side-planks pre-assembled. Even though it looks fairly easy to assemble, getting the gaskets placed just right seemed to be a potential problem with my level of manual skill, so I decided to pay for someone else who had already spent the time to do it right. Again based on advice and research, I also bought a computerized temperature control device (a fan that adjusts the airflow to maintain a more consistent temperature)–which it was more expensive than I would have liked, it seems like a worthwhile investment in better outcomes.
There are a few things that I've noticed about the Egg community: 1) there's a tendency to skip the basics and jump directly to assumed expertise and 2) the love of the egg also seems out of proportion to the actual quality of the tool.
For the first observation, I bought the kindle version of the Big Green Egg cookbook (it's less a cookbook than a marketing piece to sell additional accessories–most of which I've already bought). Is there a basic rib recipe and instructions? Nope–it's all about some fancy stuff. Perhaps I was spoiled by the Julia Childs How to Cook books that started with basics and then moved to more and more complex variations, but currently, I'm trying to find the relatively simple items: I just need to know how to prepare the items and how long to cook or smoke them at what temperature. Of course, a lot of that's online, but not specifically tied to the Big Green Egg and its idiosyncrasies.
For my second observation–yes, grilled/smoked food does have a great taste, with additional complexities. But it feels like most of the people who've come to the egg may have never cooked anything good in their life before. It's like my love of a built-in griddle, primarily because it makes some things easier (bacon, eggs and pancakes, for example), without having to pull out the cheap griddle from underneath the cabinet like my mom used. But at the same time, I could achieve much the same result with a variety of pans, or that $10 electric griddle. With the egg, it seems that some men have finally given themselves permission to cook full meals (and get them right) because it's an outdoor system involving fire.
My first meal was meant to be pretty foolproof: pork chops, broccoli, grilled onions and corn on the cob. The egg got to the right temperature, I finally figured out how to install the blower (though it doesn't fit quite right, but that's a design flaw rather than a user flaw), and I staged everything on the grill. The broccoli and onions turned out perfectly and delicious; I undercooked the corn (but I like it al dente); and the pork chops were really good (nicely seared and tender). But, when a friend asked how long it took, I had to step back and think–I hadn't really tracked the time (there were some setbacks with just assembling the equipment like the blower), but I knew it was a lot longer than it would have taken had I cooked it in the house, and was probably more effort for only slightly better results.
My first pizza (using the indirect ceramic piece plus a pizza stone) was a partial success–had I not been distracted for a few extra minutes (I'll just watch until the next commercial), it would have been excellent. I did some kind of yeast/wheat crust with embedded herbs (as usual, I take the recipes, follow the key science items and then make adjustments for taste/calories), some andouille sausage, cooked down a chunky tomato sauce and then used a little mozzarella. After a little experimentation, I was able to get the egg to the 700-750 degree range–basically, you make sure that the bottom door is fully open with just the screen door and then take off the top damper thing. I turned the egg's door towards a breeze that was blowing and huge heat. The two things that I am going to work on improving next time: getting the crust onto the pizza stone was a bit messy (I probably didn't have the pizza paddle floured/cornmealed enough, but there's also a somewhat difficult angle and very limited space to set the crust properly); and taking the pizza off when it's done and not super-extra crispy. Despite those problems, it tasted good, and I could definitely see why people use the egg as a pizza oven: gets hot enough (or as hot as you're going to get in a home environment) and imparts a nice taste.
Yes, the egg is great and versatile, but I don't see myself cooking everything on it like many of the evangelists seem to. For low, slow and smoked, it's a no brainer; for pizza (my second meal), it's fantastic; for grilling meat, probably; maybe even for some baking to get that smokey flavor. But, I think for me, it's going to be another tool that will tend to be a week-end oriented thing, primarily because of the set-up and cool-down time.
Another piece of good news with all my meals on the egg so far is that I've been able to keep them to an appropriate calorie count, though this week-end is going to be pork butt and ribs!
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December 2013 · Uncategorized
Well, Phase I is still complete, but between a bit of retrenchment and Thanksgiving, I have a lost month. As usual, there's good news and bad news associated with everything (as long as you look at the glass with relatively clear eyes).
The bad: my system has suffered a couple of set-backs, primarily in the exercise department–with the cold weather, residual pain in my foot and some muscle soreness, I've been less inclined to workout on a regular basis, opting for taking a warm bath or going to sleep early. Also bad, I've gotten a little out of the groove of dieting, especially over Thanksgiving week, with more temptations in the house, along with several days of calorie-busting meals.
The good: despite "losing a month" of weight loss, I've maintained my weight for a month with a little bit of bouncing around, so the system isn't quite dead; I'm still tracking my food intake, and I've replaced some horrible exercise with various activities (hiking, throwing the football, etc.). I've also gotten the Fitbit Force, which seems to be a pretty decent pedometer/motivator.
As long as I don't pay attention to the spreadsheet, things are going OK–in some ways, I'm pretending that I took a month off to settle, and Phase II will start in earnest now (as opposed to after New Year's). Collapse the spreadsheet, type in a new number, and start Phase II all over again.
Actually, looking at how I've been losing weight, I've been doing three things:
1) moderated my overall food intake by tracking what goes in and recalibrating my baseline (40%); 2) increased my activity by engaging in aerobic exercise, along with some strength training (20%); 3) engaged in intermittent fasting to push the weight loss up (40%).
So far, it's been working, both in losing a good amount of weight, as well as in maintaining that loss. It's just time to crank the losing machine up again and crack into weights that I haven't seen in a decade.
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