Weekly Weigh-in (Week 54)

Sunday yet again and time for the weekly weigh-in.

Been doing alright the past week. Getting some things straightened out, plans put in place, and visiting with some friends I haven't gotten to see in a while. All told, a pretty good deal.

It's the end of January now and my recent dietary experiment is drawing to a close. So today I'm going to discuss said experiment, and let you know a bit about how it went for me.

For the month of January, partly as a challenge to myself to see if I could do it, partly with a friend to see if it would increase her energy levels, and partly because I was looking for a way to start the year off differently, I decided to try and eat Primal for an entire month. Now, I'll admit it wasn't strict primal the whole time, Monday was our designated cheat day to eat whatever we felt like eating primal or not, though for the most part I found that even on these cheat days I still ate differently than I would have before the month had started.

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about the Primal plan is based around the idea that humans are adapted to what we were eating in the late Paleolithic time period, ie pre-agriculture. As such things which do not occur naturally in the wild are avoided, grains (and gluten in particular), legumes, rice, corn, and potatoes and various other starchy carbs are cut from the diet leaving you with meat, vegetables, fruit, nuts, and seeds. At first blush that sounds like it would be incredibly limiting but I found that, despite the fact that I did often eat the same basic things out of convenience, I wasn't any more limited in my food variety than I had been before when I could eat anything I wanted. I just ate slightly different things.

Over the course of the month I can honestly say that I never felt strong cravings for carbs like some people experience, though truthfully I find I don't really eat all that much in the way of grains/carbs anymore even before this experiment. I feel great, I've been dropping fat consistently through the month and putting on muscle, and I've tried some foods I never would have otherwise (spaghetti squash may not be that full of flavor on it's own, but neither is pasta). I've developed a love for spinach I never knew I had, and discovered that I really enjoy cashews.

So you might be wondering, what does your meal list look like on a plan like this. Well, here's a couple sample meals from my month of primal dining.

Breakfast: Homemade Protein bar (made from almonds, pecans, eggs, and blueberries); or some fresh blueberries, cheese, beef jerky, and a handful or two of either pumpkin seeds or mixed nuts (but without any peanuts as those are a legume not a nut); eggs and bacon; omelet with mushrooms, cheese, bacon, and sausage

Lunch: Salad from Subway or Paradise Bakery (I prefer Subway with spinach instead of lettuce), Fajita Burrito bowl from Chipotle, Protein Style burgers from In-n-Out, chicken and wild rice soup, leftovers

Dinner: Steak and Asparagus with a Cesar Salad; Spaghetti Squash Carbonara with mushrooms, asparagus, and sausage; Chicken Soup, Pulled Pork and steamed spinach, roast chicken with mixed veggies

Snacks: Pumpkin Seeds; mixed nuts (again, no peanuts); cheese; salami; fresh fruit (blueberries and nectarines came up a few times); Trader Joe's Thai Chili Lime Cashews; Trader Joe's Jerky (I had both beef and buffalo at various points in time)

As you can see, there's a decent amount of selection up there provided you aren't a vegetarian (sorry). The most limited meal is probably lunch and that's mostly because of my schedule being a pain for eating of lunches that require any preparation. Dinner was often prepared by a trip to the store on the way home from work to figure out what meat was in the mark-down section that day, and then combine it with a veggie that was on sale and a salad kit. The protein bars I was using for breakfasts all came from a batch I made at the start of the month and have been eating off of since. All told, it's a pretty varied plan in practice even if the theory makes it sound restrictive. Well, that's about all the space I plan to dedicate to this post so come back next week for the rest of my primal wrap-up and some info on what I plan to do with the observations from the experiment.

So, what does the scale have to tell me today? 199.4 up a bit from last week, 3.2 to be specific, but not enough that I'm particularly concerned based on my behavior toward the end of the week. We'll see where it goes going forward. Even still, my fat mass is decreasing so I'm not concerned.

Weekly Weigh-in (Week 53)

Sunday morning yet again and time for my weekly weigh-in.

It's been a rather interesting month for me, trying out this primal blueprint stuff (which I've found to be a lot easier than I expected it to be), and a few other smaller experiments on myself.

One thing I'm in the middle of is a trial of whether or not, so far it's looking like a yes to this part, and by how much localized application of cold temperatures can increase fat loss. That's a long winded way of saying that for 10 days this month I put an ice pack on my neck and trapezius muscles for 30 minutes in the evening. I'm gonna compare that to the first ten days of the month, and the last 10 days of the month, during both sets of which I am not applying said ice pack. This is the first "controlled" experiment I'm running on myself, but it won't be the last. I'll let you guys know how things turn out.

Short post this week, expect something a bit longer next week as a wrap-up for my month of primal eating.

So, what does the scale have to say this week? 196.2, down 1.8 since last week. That's not too bad. I'll see you all next week, until then be the you you've always wanted.

Weekly Weigh-in (Week 52)

Sunday yet again and time for the weekly weigh-in.

Well, this is week 52, which means it's now been a year since I started actively trying to better manage my weight. What do I have to show for that year? This time last year I was just starting my final semester of college, starting in on the planning of my wedding, unsure of what the summer held in store for me let alone anything past that. I was also 283 pounds and in generally terrible shape. This first photo is of me giving a toast at my friend Ross's wedding, you can see him sitting next to the bride in that shot.

That was a me I knew for a while I was unhappy with, but had for too long decided to just sit around and not do anything to fix. It was shortly after that wedding that I had the epiphany, wanting something to be different and actually having it be different are entirely not the same thing. That was when I decided to stop wanting to be in better shape, and wanting to weigh less, and to start doing something about it. That decision has led me to where I am no in terms of my physical well-being, and it has also helped change how I interact with the world. I feel like I spend less time as a passive observer of my world and more time making it into what I want it to be. Frankly, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Based on the numbers from last week I've lost about 85 pounds from my starting weight, around 30% of my starting weight. For comparison that's the approximate weight of an 11.5 year old child, two five year olds, 8 babies, 19 bricks, 301 1" steel cubes, this much cocaine (apparently), or any of a number of other things I found on google trying to find answers to this question. I feel amazing compared to last year. I feel much better about myself, I can sustain physical activity for much longer than I could have dreamed of last year. I haven't timed myself but I'm fairly sure I can run a mile faster than I did in high school, and otherwise outperform my high school self in any meaningful metric. I have grown as a person through the challenge of losing that much of myself, I have found more of myself than there ever was to lose. Compare the previous picture of me to this picture of me and it's easy to see the difference.

So sure there have been a lot of changes for me in the last year, but what about the next year? Well first I'm going to be trying to drop my body-fat, something I seem to be having decent luck with so far. Secondly I'm going to try and add some muscle mass, to get a more balanced look going on instead of the slightly strangely shaped appearance I have going on right now. Going to put some effort into increasing my strength and endurance through my exercise routine, and if I can find the time and money to do so I'm hoping to get back to doing martial arts at some point this year.

I'd like to thank all of you who have given me such encouragement this past year. I relaally appreciate all the kind things you've had to say, the personal experiences shared and all the advice I've picked up. I plan to keep posting these logs, but I expect the numbers are going to stop going down before too much longer and start staying pretty much the same. Hopefully even with that being the case the picture I have to put here next year will look even better than the one I had to show you this year.

So, what does the scale have to tell me today? 198 even, down .2 from last week. Just about what I expected, and around what I'm shooting for going forward, small losses until I hit my eventual target. Small because I'm trying to make sure that the losses are mostly fat and that I'm also increasing my lean over time. Until next time, take whatever you don't like about yourself and your surroundings, and change it for the better. Because if you don't nobody else will either.

Weekly Weigh-in (Week 51)

Sunday yet again and time for the weekly weigh-in.

This has been a rather fun week for me. Been trying some new things with my diet that so far seem to be working out alright for me, I'll go into greater detail about that in a couple weeks. For now let's just say, I've been enjoying the changes to my eating habits for the most part.

Well, as some of you commented after my last post, it's gonna take more than running to look like the picture I posted here last week. So this week I'm going to talk about what I've started doing recently that isn't running in terms of exercise, and to ramble for a while in relation to the blog from which I got the workout.

Firstly, the workout. The past couple weeks I've replaced my running, don't worry I'll be coming back to that before too much longer, with some resistance training. Specifically I've been doing the Beginner Bodyweight Workout from Nerd Fitness. It's a fairly simple workout overall, bodyweight squats and lunges working the lower body, pushups and dumbbell rows working the upper body, plank and jumping jacks to round things out with some core work. Since I spend most of my time on the second floor I usually replace the jumping jacks with flights of stairs, but other than that, I've been doing variations on that workout for the past couple weeks. So far I've been doing abbreviated versions to work my way up in terms of ability, last week it was 1 half set, 1 whole set, and 1 half set; next week it'll be 1/.5/1 instead and working up from there. I've already been noticing improvement in my skill, and am already looking at ways to make the exercises work for me in the longterm as well.

Now, a little rambling about Nerd Fitness. Nerd Fitness is a blog written by a guy named Steve Kamb. Like myself he's a self-professed nerd and it shows in much of his writing. He's also a big fitness buff. While I don't always agree with everything he posts most of the stuff I see on the site is top notch. Like with everything, don't take all that you read on the internet at face value, but do your own research and see what you figure out. Most of what I see at his site resonates with my own research into the subjects and thus I put a lot of it to use. I expect I'll end up using a lot more of his tips as time goes on, but we'll have to wait and see. For now, I will say with certainty if you are a nerd, and you are interested in being in better shape, or even just keeping yourself in the good shape you are already in, Nerd Fitness is a blog that you should check out. But you don't have to take my word for it.

Now, on to the numbers. What do I have to show for my dietary changes and nearly a year of weight loss? 198.2, down 2.6 pounds since last week. Down 84.9 overall, a full 30% of my starting weight. Nearing where I plan to try and hold my weight in the long term, so hooray for continued good news. Until next week, be whatever you want to be, but make it awesome.

Weekly Weigh-in (Week 50)

Sunday yet again and time for my weekly weigh-in.

The week between the holidays has been rather kind to me I feel. Interim weigh-ins have been promising, I feel great, I'm looking better than I recall looking in a long time. Tried out a new workout twice this week, and while I was incredibly stiff and sore after the first time I'm so far feeling much less so after the second time. So I'm hopeful that is a sign of at least some improvement.

Alright, so now to the meat of the post. This week I am going to indulge my slightly nerdier side, and for those of you who don't care for that, feel free to skip to the end if you don't find you are the kind who cares for my nerdier rantings. Those of you who have ever played any form of RPG with me, or heard the stories I am somewhat oft to tell about them, know that I am at heart a chronic min-maxer, a power gamer if you will. Once I have a good understanding of the rules, I find a sick sort of pleasure in finding the myriad ways to push a character to the limit of said rules and see what I can make it do. It has recently dawned upon me, that there is no real reason why I cannot apply some of that skill and drive to myself just as easily as I can to my RPG characters.

I have developed a reasonable level of knowledge of the functioning of the human body, and the ways in which it can be improved and hindered through the course of my weight loss goals and my education. Combining that plus my power gaming tendencies seems like it could lead to some very interesting avenues of expansion for me personally. I picked up a copy of a new book in this vein that I have seen good reviews of, and I'm excited to see what ideas I can glean from it. I will refrain from mentioning it now but save that for when I have either good or bad things to say of it. I have decided that in addition to the goals I listed last week for 2011, I'm going to be adding 2 things to the growing list. Firstly, for the month of January, in conjunction with a friend, I am going to be attempting to eat a 'diet' dubbed the Primal Blueprint. It's a grain-free, gluten-free diet based on the diet of our evolutionary history. Going to give it a shot for the month and see if it seems to help or hinder my progress toward my other goals. I'll keep you all posted. The other thing I decided this week is that I'm going to see what I can do over the course of the year to get myself to look more like this guy.


Well, all that taken care of, and much less geeky than I really expected. Long story short, I plan to level up my life and tweak everything I can about it until I am the me that I want to be. So let's do this thing.

So what does the scale have to tell me today? 200.8 down 7.2 since last week. Now some of that is likely to be water weight, I know I've not been drinking quite enough water the past few days, but still I'm making good progress. So it is with great pride that I report that my weight has finally made it below the threshold that allows me to state, my BMI calls me Normal and not Overweight now. Not as big of a difference mentally as there was when I dropped out of Obese, but it's a nice milestone regardless. I'm down 82.3 pounds which is 29% of my starting weight. It's been a good year for me, and it's gonna be an even more interesting one this year I suspect. So until next week, be the person you've always wanted to be.