Losing Weight In Public — Week 6

Losing Weight In Public — Week 4

1 Comment April 25, 2016 John

Me, looking at pie.

Week 1 weight: 305 pounds
Last week’s weight: 297 pounds
Current weight: 295 pounds
Weight lost since last week: 2 pounds
Total weight lost: 10 pounds

My fourth post. I am a stranger in this land of 200s. Mysterious and frightening be their ways. They eat and then they stop! Their bathroom scales, they do not break! At first, I was but a scared traveler in their midst, scurrying from shadow to shadow, nibbling as I went, afraid at any moment they would see me and shout, “That fat guy has no clothes!” What are they doing in my bathroom at 7 a.m.? I DO NOT KNOW!

Last week’s big successes:

Ok, I’ll just say it right here: last week was mostly great. We had one round of catering at the office and I didn’t eat any of it. Also, though I went out to a few restaurants, I didn’t order any dessert. Yay for me, please pass the ketchup.

Last week’s failures:

Isn’t the world more fun when you don’t blog about your mistakes? I sure think so. Ok, so last Friday at the team potluck was a total fricking bust. I tried like 4 different desserts, and then I tried them all again. I had carbs up the wazoo. How they got up my wazoo, I have no idea, but they were there when I woke from my sugar coma. Really stupid on my part, and it’s a miracle I lost any weight at all. If anything, that shows you can screw up and still succeed, but therein lies a problem. Now I know I can screw up and succeed. Pandora has left the building, and she’s carrying an open box of Twinkies.

This week’s coming challenges:

I can’t think of anything specific, except for the possibility of a meetup group of some sort. Oh yeah, we might go to a seafood place for happy hour. I can eat seafood until my head falls off. Woot.
One challenge we should go ahead and acknowledge: desserts. Every week of this whole “Losing Weight In Public” thing has shown I can’t stay away from them. So it’s safe to say that’s my biggest challenge this week: not eating desserts.

Conclusion:

I’m really looking forward to getting my eating under better control. I need to plan better. I need to figure out why I do the things I do. Am I trying to escape? If so, from what? Am I trying to fill up a hole of some kind? Or am I just a human with millions of years of evolution weighing me down, screaming, “Eat before you starve! Eat before you starve!”

I’d like to blame it all on Darwin, but you know what happened to him?

He died.

See you next week!

Losing Weight In Public — Week 3

6 Comments April 18, 2016 John

Stuffing my face with carrot cake. Surprisingly skinny-looking photo. But then, I’m sitting, and I’m 6’5″.

Week 1 weight: 305 pounds
Last week’s weight: 300 pounds
Current Weight: 297 pounds
Weight lost since last week: 3 pounds
Total Weight lost: 8 pounds

Yes, I’ve renamed the series to “Losing Weight In Public.” I think it sounds nicer, and I think it’s more descriptive (inspired by Dean Wesley Smith’s “writing in public” series). Hope you agree!

I’m going on the third week of the experiment. So far, I’m fairly happy. I could be making better choices, and I could prepare myself better for various challenges. I have to get out of the mindset that eating is recreation (vs. fuel, which it is).

It’s not so much that I love food, it’s that I like eating. For other people, maybe that’s healthy. For me, it’s just a minefield full of cobblers and cheesecakes and mashed potatoes.

Last week’s big successes:

1) Totally, totally, totally ignored the catering they brought in (totally!). This happened twice. Once with begals, the next with these really great sandwiches. Sigh.
2) Someone on the team brought in red velvet cake or something, super delicious looking. I didn’t even taste it.

Last week’s challenges:

As you can see from that sad photo my wife took, I ate something I shouldn’t have. Carrot cake, at the Outback. Looking back on that dessert, I barely remember it, other than that I enjoyed it. One thing I remember is it being really sugary, particularly the icing. I remember thinking, “If I could just have the cake part, that’d be better, because the rest just kind of overpowers it.”

That’s one thing folks new to low carb will discover: sweet stuff tastes too sweet, if you go without it long enough.

Despite the occasional screw-up on my part, my taste buds have adjusted. For example, I can’t drink Coke anymore (Dot can’t either). And I don’t like artificial sweeteners as much. I still like the occasional Diet Coke, though (with ice), so I’m not completely cured.

Another challenge last week was eating over at our friends’ house. Pork loin, mashed potatoes, carrots, and collard greens. I should have stuck with the pork loin and collards. I shall say no more.

The rest of the week was mostly fine (several drinks on Friday with the meetup group — had a blast).

I realize that I can’t keep screwing up as these weeks start accumulating, because my body’s going to be very miserly when it comes to giving up pounds. That said, I’m optimistic I can get fully back into the swing of things.

This week’s coming challenges:

Catering will always be a challenge, so long as I’m working for a living and not going full time as a writer…

Ok, yes, that’s BS, I’ll turn myself in right now. There are plenty of overweight people out there who don’t work under the constant threat of catering. I have to remember that no matter where I am, I need to be vigilant and always have a plan.

One challenge I need to plan for this week is: my team is having a potluck. Oh. My. God. Potluck?!?! Potlucks are like my favorite thing in the world! If I don’t pig out, that’d be insulting to everyone there, right? Talk about a permission slip to screw up!

I have two options here:

Come with some low carb food I’m happy with and just stick to that (and maybe have anything else there that’s low carb, like salad or whatever, and in the right portions).
Don’t go.

I’m seriously considering option 2, because I don’t trust myself to attend without messing up. I’d just get there and start lawyering with myself, making deals like, “If I pig out now, I have all week to fix it, and didn’t I mess up last week and still lose weight? See, I can do it!” Pretty lame, huh?

Ok, that’s enough whining. Thanks for reading, and see you next week!

John’s Little Problem — Week 2

Challenge 1: Catering To My Needs

Last Tuesday, my job had three meetings with an unholy amount of catering, and they stacked it all in the common area when they were through. Worst of all, they had my favorite thing in the world: cobbler, in two flavors — peach and apple. Who doesn’t love apple cobbler? Crazy people, that’s who. I avoided the cobbler and settled for a few pieces of chicken (breaded … ugh, I know).

Challenge 2: Dining And Whining

The wife and I went out a few too many times last week (see her Sunday blog post). The problem, I think, is we don’t have a lot of friends in the area. Ok, none, really. Our closest friends live about thirty miles away, and we only see them about once a month, tops. So the wife and I tend to go out. There’s background music, atmosphere, drinks-drinks-drinks (whiskey or wine, not beer), food we don’t have to make, cheerful waitstaff, etc. And way too many opportunities to over indulge.

Challenge 3: Revenge Of The Cobbler

On Saturday, I ended up breaking down and eating some blackberry cobbler on one of our little outings. I felt bad about that. Not the end of the world, and not in unlimited amounts (like those giant vats at the office…), but definitely the end of ketosis for about 24 hours. Sigh. Something to work on.

This Coming Week…

This week’s challenges are mostly unknown, except for Friday. The wife and I joined a meetup group that’ll be going to a bar for happy hour. “Are you out of your mind?!” you say. Not entirely. We’d probably go out anyway at some point. At least this way we can meet a few folks, make new friends. Also, it’s scheduled fun — for Friday. Not “I’m bored, let’s go mess up” fun three days in a row. And we do need more friends in the area. We’ve joined a few other meetup groups as well. Each will have its food challenges. One’s a bowling group. The other’s an eclectic group that does all kinds of odd things, from board games to happy hours to going to museums.

I’m feeling pretty good about where I am. Five pounds is an awful lot to lose in a week, and I’m sure next week will be more realistic. We always lose the most weight in the first week of a “diet,” whereas “lifestyles” produce less spectacular (though longer lasting) results.

See you next week!

Weekly Weigh-In: Self Sabotage!

2 Comments April 10, 2016 Dot2Trot

I’m up 2 pounds from the last time I posted a weigh-in. Eating out is the culprit. But I’m back in the kitchen with abandon.

Holy crap! I haven’t posted a weigh-in since Feb. 29. Truth be told I’m working on a big project that’s consuming a lot of my time. I can’t say anything now but hopefully by this summer I’ll have good news to share.

After reading those awesome books by Steven Pressfield, I’m determined not to let my weigh-ins slide anymore. So weekly posts are back.

My Feb. 29 weigh in had me at 182.5 lbs, but by the time April 2 rolled around I was back to 187.5. With some changes this week, I dropped 3 pounds and now weigh 184.5.

So I’m trapped in a weird super moon bounce of my own making. Just bobbing up and down 5 pounds. What the heck is going on, Dot?

Self sabotage, that’s what! Grrrrrr!!!!!
Read More

Battling Resistance To A Healthy Life

3 Comments April 4, 2016 Dot2Trot

April just started and I’ve already read 2 books for the month! In Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art and Turning Pro you’ll find lots of motivational gems to help you with not just health, but with anything you want to achieve.

“The amateur tweets. The pro works.”
— Steven Pressfield, Turning Pro

When visiting low carb high fat forums online, many of the most vocal commenters for LCHF eating think it’s a simple matter of eating the right foods. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen on forums, Facebook pages, Twitter or other social media feeds where low carbers talk about how easy it is to eat low carb and have the pounds melt away.

That simply isn’t true for everyone.

You have to put in the work. Eating low carb, high fat does melt away the pounds, but only if you view it as a lifestyle and not a diet. Meaning you:

Eat when hungry and only when hungry
Give up the silly idea of “cheat days or cheat meals”
Can’t go back to eating like you use to once you reach your goals
Can still eat too much (protein, carbs, nuts, dairy and even fat)
Understand that those fattening temptations (candy, cookies, ice cream, donuts, chips) don’t go away because you are eating LCHF

That’s why I always say that weight loss is 100% eating the right foods and 95% mental. We face hundreds of food choices everyday. That’s why it’s important to build good habits. Read More

Man vs. Fat

Is Fasting The New “Diet” Fad?

Microwave Experiment Update

My March Madness – 3 Healthy Challenges

4 Comments March 1, 2016 Dot2Trot

I’m undergoing 3 challenges in March, including strength training.

I hear birds chirping. Our cherry blossoms have a ton of buds ready to bloom. Temperatures topped 60 degrees for 3 days straight. That means March is here and it’s time for a new monthly challenge.

So far this year I’ve only done one challenge – 30-Day No Alcohol Challenge. I did so poorly in January I decided to give it another try in February. Needless to say, February was a bust too.

For March, yes I’m doing the alcohol challenge again, but I’m adding two more challenges, both of which should help me go alcohol free this month (yes, even on St. Patty’s Day). Read More

Dot2Trot

Low Carb Living!

Challenges

Losing Weight In Public — Week 6

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Losing Weight In Public — Week 4

Last week’s big successes:

Last week’s failures:

This week’s coming challenges:

Conclusion:

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Losing Weight In Public — Week 3

Last week’s big successes:

Last week’s challenges:

This week’s coming challenges:

Like this:

John’s Little Problem — Week 2

Challenge 1: Catering To My Needs

Challenge 2: Dining And Whining

Challenge 3: Revenge Of The Cobbler

This Coming Week…

Like this:

Weekly Weigh-In: Self Sabotage!

Like this:

Battling Resistance To A Healthy Life

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Man vs. Fat

Like this:

Is Fasting The New “Diet” Fad?

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Microwave Experiment Update

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My March Madness – 3 Healthy Challenges

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Challenges

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Last week’s big successes:

Last week’s failures:

This week’s coming challenges:

Conclusion:

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Last week’s big successes:

Last week’s challenges:

This week’s coming challenges:

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Challenge 1: Catering To My Needs

Challenge 2: Dining And Whining

Challenge 3: Revenge Of The Cobbler

This Coming Week…

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