Weekly Weigh-In: Snickering at the Scale

Another successful weekly weigh-in, and I am establishing myself in the 240s now over the past few days, despite allowing some, well, interesting balance into my life the past couple of days that:

• at the Lincoln town fireworks Saturday night, I enjoyed a dinner of Doritos and two frozen Snickers bars
• last night my pal and I celebrated several sweet months with a walk and a dinner in Concord, and my dinner included a pomegranate martini, a cheeseburger, a caesar salad (my pal had french fries, but being statuesque she can get away with anything), and something called a Chocolate Explosion

I won't allow myself many weekends like that, but I also did some walking and it's all good on the scale this morning at 249.6. It has actually been remarkably gradual, which is probably exactly what I should be aspiring to, albeit without Snickers bars.

It was all they had at the fireworks snack bar, really.

PS - This morning my pal said that I looked really healthy around the eyes. I don't know if that would be the Doritos or the frozen Snickers bars.

Viva la difference - Originally posted to BMGS 1.0 on 10.13.2007

I think I have mentioned my friend Diane before.

Back on September 21, inspired by Big Man Getting Smaller, she began a diet. Her goal was to get down from 144 to 125 by following the same basic rules that are working here.

1. Take in fewer calories than her daily maintenance amount of calories, which was 1,904 when she started.

2. Get more exercise, or a moderate amount of exercise 4 or 5 days a week.

3. Keep track of what she is eating, and plan ahead.

As of today, she is at 136, which means that she has lost 8 pounds in 22 days!

That is 6% of her body weight in 3 weeks, which is basically the same rate of reduction that BMGS is experiencing.

It is also considerably faster than I suggested to her when she I produced a chart of weekly calories intake, etc., that would get her to her goal of 125 on February 1.

So congratulations, Diane!

But she is frustrated that it isn’t going more quickly.

Part of this, of course, is the impatience that any of us feels when we don’t get fairly constant positive feedback from, in this case, the scale. We’re working hard at something, and we want to see the progress reflected in some kind of meaningful metrics.

Another huge part of it is that Diane, when she started, was a 144-pound woman. BMGS is a man who started out at nearly twice Diane’s size.

Viva la difference, of course, but there are some very specific differences:

1. Even now, after losing 10.6% of my body weight, my daily calorie requirement for maintaining my current weight of 244.5 is 3398 calories. So, if I take in 1,898 calories a day. I will lose 3 pounds a week. 1,898 calories is not an all-day pig-out by any means, but it isn’t bad. It isn’t starving. It allows for the occasional pint, the occasional steak, and even the occasional dessert.

2. On the other hand, if Diane consumes 1,898 calories a day, her weight will never change. Of course, that is not fair. In order to lose 1 pound a week, which is what I suggested she do in order to get to her goal by February 1, Diane has to consume fewer than 1,400 calories a day. It isn’t starvation either, but it doesn’t allow nearly as much wiggle room as 1,898 calories.

3. 1 pound a week is a lot less rewarding than 3 pounds a week. It basically means, if you are getting on the scale every morning, 5 or 6 days a week it isn’t going to register any weight loss. That is harder.

4. In addition to the good news that I get when I step onto the scale, I also get good news when I step onto one of the machines at the gym. Because I am big, I burn more calories when I work out. Twice this week I had workouts where I burned over 1,000 calories in a single session at the gym. It’s a lot easier to burn 1,000 calories if the number you punch in on the elliptical keypad is 245 than 145.

Oops, excuse me. 136.

So, it is natural that this is occasionally frustrating, and more so for a woman. If it weren’t frustrating, it would be easy. If it were easy, you would have already done it!

Keep it up, Diane. The amazing thing to me is that you are able to do it without creating a blog!

10% Smaller - Originally Posted to BMGS 1.0 on Wednesday, October 10, 2007

I'm mighty pleased today. I started out 40 days and 40 nights ago at the preposterous weight of 273.5, and 10% of me is gone.

I have done this by following the most simple of rules:

1. Cut down my calorie consumption, without starving myself by undereating.
2. Increase my exercise to burn more calories, without wearing myself out by overtraining.
3. Stay accountable to my plan by keeping track of #1 and #2 above by writing 'em down here, rather than subscribing to the stupid belief that either (a) it is not important enough to keep track of; or (b) I can just wing it and not keep track.

I wish there were more steps so I could write a million-dollar diet book, because I will be honest: I do need the dough.

Anyway, if I continue to lose 10% of my body weight every 40 days I will be down to 106 next August, which is about what my Dad weighed when he died of lung cancer at the age of 59 in 1986. I won't go that far, I promise.

But I will celebrate today, with a really huge salad, a great workout, and some of my favorite music. Party on!

Soundtracks for the Best Days of Any Week

Sunday Morning Coming Down - Johnny Cash

Come Monday - Jimmy Buffett

Ruby Tuesday - The Stones

Glory Days - Bruce

The Picture - Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow

We've Got Tonight - Bob Seger

Friday I'm in Love - The Cure

The Heart of Saturday Night - Tom Waits

Sunrise - Norah Jones

Wednesday's Soundtrack



Of course, not all 15-year-old kids are dorks, as I was. These guys have it going on. Thanks for the link, Ned!

Total commitment to anything is what makes anything possible, whether it's hitting the high notes on a solo, throwing an unhittable first-pitch circle change with 97-mph arm speed, or getting your weight down. These guys believe in themselves, so they get it done.

1 comments:

thoughtz said...

The best book cannot grant self control and discipline.
Donna

October 10, 2007 6:52 PM

Freaky Pizza, and a Great Line

As I wrote on my Facebook page today (June 3, 2009), I am "amazed and grateful for your wonderful outpouring of birthday wishes. I began my 60th year with an absolutely wonderful dinner with multiple generations of family and loved ones last night at Za in East Arlington. I know I am a sap, but so far, it is a great, great year."

Also worth mentioning that both yesterday on my birthday and today in its aftermath I got to the pool and did my 22 laps, and despite a very nice dinner that included what Danny calls "freaky pizza" (others might call it "gourmet"), a pint and a half of Smutty Nose dark beer (I split the second pint with Kippy), and some extremely sinful "bourbon pecan pie with whipped cream," I got on the scale today and can report that I right on track as I head toward my next weigh-in on Sunday.

Said she'd never been in trouble, or even in town

Originally posted to BMGS 1.0 10/8/2007

A little over a week ago Donna made a very thoughtful comment that I’ve been kind of waiting for the right moment to engage:

22 Pounds! That's very good for one month! How does all this make you feel? I would imagine you are having feelings of accomplishment and power, and loving yourself more and more. Those are the real benefits of having a goal, focusing on it and doing it!
Donna

I think those very positive feelings are there, definitely, and as she says they are direct benefits of focusing on a goal and achieving it.

Yet I have to admit that it is so easy to lose touch with the positive feelings, even while I am doing it. It is my proven nature that, far too often, even when things are going exceptionally well, I have a tendency to get all wrapped up in the other things I want to accomplish, the other goals that are not being met, the various and manifold ways in which I am flawed. If that were simple humility it might be a good thing, but I think it is as many parts pride as humility.

I am not bringing this up just now to try to figure it out or conquer it, because I would not be optimistic regarding my chances in that battle. I only want to say that it is part of the condition of things for me, something I must live with and try to keep in its place.

And what I must say beyond that, the almost naming of this probably pointless angst, is that this is a large part of why it is good for me to write things down as I am doing, to record my progress toward this very serious goal – the goal of getting into good shape, a goal that I haven’t yet made specific in terms of an ultimate number. By writing things down here, of course, there is the obvious gravity of accountability that helps me stay on track. But there is also the fact that I am allowed to look at this blog each morning, a few times a day even, and say, “Yeah, keep it up, you are doing it, you hot shit,” or words to that effect.

And every bit as nice is that I get comments like Donna’s and emails and other nice feedback from people who know me and people who don’t, along the way. It helps, and I absolutely believe that I will live longer as a result.

I am getting younger every day. The problem with that is that I could keep going, way too far, and end up a dorky kid again, back in 1965, knowing nothing ... sort of like these guys ... give it up for The Critters. Really, they called themselves that.

American pop music had it moments in the 60s, it really did. These guys made two mildly interesting songs, and just go ahead and try to tell me that this line isn't deep:

Said she'd never been in trouble, or even in town

It's a great line, is all.



Here's a somewhat more interesting cover of the same song, by an English-language band out of Hong Kong, Teddy Robin and the Playboys:

Danger - Originally posted to BMGS 1.0 October 4, 2007

A little after 5 p.m. yesterday I was headed over to watch the Red Sox’ first playoff game with Danny, and I hadn’t made a plan for dinner.

I don’t know about you, but nothing spells danger for me, in terms of food and eating and weight gain, like a couple of hours of watching a baseball game. If there is food in the house, well … isn’t that why they have those 17 little breaks at the end of each half-inning?

I needed a plan.

I needed dinner, but that was only the beginning.

There’s a Whole Foods Market half-way between my house and my son’s, and I pulled in.

Five minutes later I walked out with vast quantities of fresh fruit (strawberries, blackberries, and bananas) and veggies (celery and carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes and broccoli florets). There was a container of ranch dip, but I took a little of that and mixed it with balsamic vinegar to lighten it up and thin it so it lasted longer.

I had most of the fruit for “dinner” while Danny had mac and cheese. Then half the veggies and my “homemade” dip sustained me quite well during the game. All in all it came to just over 500 calories, and the other half of the veggies are in my fridge.

Was it the greatest game-watching fare I have ever eaten? No, but it wasn’t the worst either.

It cost less, even at Whole Foods, than I would have spent if I had sat at a bar and watched the game with a sandwich and a beer.

And the Sox kicked some backside, which is especially nice.

Off to the gym! Have a good day.

Stay out of the kitchen - Originally posted to BMGS 1.0 October 2, 2007

Stay out of the kitchen

I had a nice email the other day from old friend Nick Wyman, writing from Sarasota where he will appear beginning October 13 in the pre-Broadway premiere of A Tale of Two Cities at the Asolo Repertory Theatre's mainstage, The Harold E. and Esther M. Mertz Theatre. My efforts to get back to my old playing weight struck a chord with Nick, and he told me he’d been struggling to keep his weight where he wants it. 

One significant difference between us that bears mentioning here is that Nick is 6’5”, while I am 5’11 on a good day. In the interest of full disclosure, I should admit that I have sometimes envied very tall people their ability to wear a few extra cheeseburgers more elegantly than the rest of us.

But I know that is silly, and I understand that it is every bit as much of a struggle for Nick as it is for me. He is doing admirably with a regimen of yoga, gym duty every other day, and some sensible meals. But he got me thinking about another Nick.

Nicky D. was also 6’5” and struggling with his weight when I knew him a few years ago. He was doing time for some drug-related problems (like a couple of million other Americans). Who am I to hold that against him? Like Nick Wyman, Nicky D. was a great guy who I loved being around.

But there was a big man. He had started out somewhere over 1100 pounds. No, that’s not a typo. 1100 pounds. Of course nobody starts out at 1100 pounds, but I think you know what I mean.

He worked at it so hard. He lost over 500 pounds, down to under 575. Yeah, he lost the equivalent of 3 grown men of normal proportions. He did it by eating healthfully and walking every day. He had a lot of extra skin hanging here and there on him, but it wasn’t hard to imagine he might continue his successful effort and get back down around 300, which he had carried well as a high school football player 20 years earlier.

Then he got a job in the kitchen at the prison where he was doing time. Not surprisingly, he was a very good cook. Everybody else in the joint wanted him to work in the kitchen, I heard.

But within a few weeks I could see that things had changed. The scale started moving in the other direction. (He had to use an industrial scale). In a few months he was over 700 again. He could gain 5 pounds at a single meal, and ate around the clock, but the key to it all was that his kitchen job gave him unlimited access to foot after a couple of years of deprivation.

There are morals to the story. Simple ones. Being 6’ 5” is no protection. And if weight issues challenge you, don’t get a job in the kitchen, any more than an alcoholic should be serving drinks or a gambling addict dealing cards.

Talkin Bout My Generation

20 laps in the pool this morning, and I'm feeling a little less unfamiliar in the water each day. I swam every day as a kid -- who didn't? -- and got all the certifications and junior lifesaving badges, etc. But it's been, I dunno, probably 40 years since I did any significant amount of real swimming. I always preferred running, basketball, soccer, baseball and softball, and just about anything else I could do. But all those other things took their toll, and I am lucky to have swimming now, because it is working for me and it isn't beating me up the way any of those other things.

The other thing that's fun about these morning swims is that, in addition to perhaps doing a bit to hold off my personal aging process, I'm also getting a pretty good glimpse of where I am headed, age-wise. There are usually about a dozen people in the pool when I step in around 7:15 or so, and I am often the youngest among us. The men and women are friendly and solicitous, we exchange greetings, and some offer some words of encouragement -- "Good to see you back here today" or things of that nature -- since they may recognize I am, er, just getting my feet wet at this. I can see that for many of them the daily visit to the pool is a social event as well as an exercise regimen, which is as it should be.

I may be younger than they are, but I feel at home with them. The music that is piped into the pool area during the morning adult swim period is heavy on standards from the 1940s and 50s. "Is that Al Martino?" someone asked today about a finger-snapper lodged between songs by Sinatra and Tom Jones. No problem. We're all comfortable. Toward the end of my pool time most days the demographic changes as 30- and 40-something moms come in after dropped their kids off at school. That's fine, and it's not like it's uncomfortable, but I will say that I feel closer to the group that is older than the one that is younger. I'm just hoping I live long enough to enjoy my 60s and 70s as much as they are enjoying theirs. And to give myself to keep making my health as much of a priority as they are making theirs.

* * *

I had a very nice dinner and visit with my daughter Kippy tonight.

She just hit town from New York last night after finishing her work on the Public Theater production of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, and she is starting work on an exciting new project to create a new play for the Ensemble Studio Theater through a grant from the Sloan Foundation.

I picked her up around 6:30 and we went to an old favorite where we've been dining together since she was about 8 years old, the Acapulco Restaurant in Jamaica Plain. It was comfortable and a bit nostalgic, and I ordered what I've been ordering there for over 20 years, Pollo al cilantro. Delicious, as always. And just for tonight, i did not count calories. Or chips.

Oh Danny Boy - Originally posted to BMGS 1.0 9.27.2009

It’s a good time to mention two very nice extra benefits, in the last few days, from keeping this blog.

First, my 9-year-old son Danny has taken an interest in my progress, and it is having an effect on his own health, too. After I mentioned the other day that my weight loss had reached 20 pounds, he told me that he is working out twice a week on the elliptical machine on the back porch. He also took it on himself to suggest that I give him fewer pretzels in his after-school snack!

Like me, he is a big guy, but he’s learning something about the meaning of calories and exercise and the benefit of keeping the two in balance. He is off the charts in height as well as in weight, so it is never too early to learn how to build a strong, fit body. Good for him! Just one of many ways in which he makes me proud.

The other nice thing I wanted to mention is that, because of the blog and the fact that I emailed Wednesday’s entry to a few old pals with whom I had been out of touch, I’ve had some nice email contact in the past 24 hours or so from some good friends from the past: Ned French, Nick Wyman, John Simon, and Steve Peterman. Nice people all, and I am in the process of being back in touch. I am certainly not alone, among men I have known, in being inconsistent at best in maintaining connection with people I care about. But it is so important, and I am grateful to be connected again with these guys.

Back to Danny for a moment. In honor of the fact that I am proud of him, and also of the fact that he helped me a lot on a recent copywriting assignment about Naruto (a teenage ninja franchise, or saga, from Japan), today’s soundtrack is a video that Danny told me yesterday was his favorite song.




Then there was Thursday's sound track... since I am kind of bridging the 2 days here with an overnight post after returning from my GA meeting in Plainville.



Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, "Free Falling" -- Somebody worked pretty hard on this video

I'm not sure, but I suspect it may be a character defect, that I feel compelled to archive each day's soundtrack as if this is somehow the newspaper of record. I'll have to check the list of defects in Step 6 and see if it says anything about YouTube. Meanwhile, I am parking Saturday's soundtrack here, too, since I didnot post that day:



Sox clinch! Steve hits 22.5! I've gotta work like a youngster today to complete a 50-page assignment -- aargh! There must be a theme here somewhere.

I love it when we're cruisin' together.

Gwyneth may not know how to name a child properly, but she has talent. Or presence. Something, definitely something.

Down 2.2 Pounds in Week 1 of BMGS 2.0, and Catching Up

Going forward I'll make Sunday my weekly accountability day here at BMGS 2.0, and try to combine that with tying up any loose ends from the previous week's post.

So, first and foremost: I weigh in today at 254.8, down 2.2 pounds from the starting point of 257 in my Basic Calculations and Plan, May 2009 post of May 19. Good start, and one that I am pleased to build on at the rate of a pound a week.

Other loose ends to discuss below:

• Eating at night
• Daily weigh-ins
• Swimming schedule, other exercise, and days off

Eating at Night. As we all know, eating after 9 p.m. is not the straightest path to weight loss. I try to conform my behavior with this notion as much as possible, but occasionally I know in advance that I am going to have a late dinner (as often occurs on Tuesdays when I am extremely focused on getting my Kindle Nation email newsletter out the door) or want to snack or sip a bit (when I am going out with friends or planning to watch a game). The key to success for me in these kinds of situations is to plan ahead in two important ways:

• Make the basics of a plan about what and when I am going to eat, which will probably help me to eat something healthier for me than if I just leave it to chance and my late-night appetites, which long-story-short have never been for carrot sticks.
• Leave room in my daily calorie allotment for what I am likely to consume, since, after all, a key part of my plan and accountability involves calorie counting.

Daily weigh-ins. I've never totally understood the caveat against daily weigh-ins beyond the basic ideas that (1) we should never get too obsessive about anything; and (2) people who don't understand the basic arithmetic of weight loss, water retention, exercise, sweat, time-of-day fluctuations, etc., may misread their progress or lack of it. But my approach here is focused on daily arithmetic and accountability, and I almost always know what to expect from the scale before I get on it, based on all these things. Seeing the 254.8 this morning confirms my progress and tells me I am where I expect and want to be today.

Swimming schedule, other exercise, and days off. I didn't even notice when I ponied up my $280 for a year's membership at the Arlington Boys and Girls Club the other day that there is no adult swimming time on weekends. No problem. I was going to swim 6 days a week, which might have been excessive anyway. So for now the plan will be to swim Monday through Friday, walk or elliptical on the weekends, and take a day off per week as needed.

I think that catches us up, I've got phone calls and emails to return, and I'll see you here tomorrow. Have a great day, and get outside.

The key to the plan is the plan - Originally posted Sunday, September 23, 2007

All is well in the land of BMGS today, Saturday, May 23, 2009. A busy Saturday with Danny, and we're off to see A Night at the Museum 2 -- I love Bunuel! -- but we leave you with this post from 9.23.2007.

The key to the plan is the plan - Originally posted Sunday, September 23, 2007

Sunday morning, and all is right with the world.

Well, that’s not true by a longshot. But in my personal world there is a lot that is good. Threw some batting practice to Danny yesterday and he was hitting line drives over “the fence” in his yard. Got on the scale this morning and it said I have lost 20 pounds in 23 days. Took in the Red Sox last night eking out a nice, fairly dramatic 9th inning finish to a victory to clinch a playoff spot and cut their division magic number to 6. Got an email from Diane mentioning she has lost 4 pounds on her way to 125 by January. When I saw Danny he was very pleased with some really cool personally autographed Hannah Montana cast photos that an old college friend and classmate, Steve Peterman, had sent. (Steve was an amazing person when he arrived at the little college on the Charles almost 40 years ago and he is every bit as generous, funny and real today). All it takes are little things to make my day.

I got home at 5:30 yesterday afternoon and knew I had 90 minutes before the Sox game. I could easily have just kicked back for an hour but I knew how much better I would feel if I got to the gym. By 5:45 I was stepping on to the elliptical machine. I only did a little over 35 minutes, but I did a lot of climbing and resistance and had my heart rate over 150 for over half the time and really felt limbered up and good afterward. I had been a little stiff yesterday morning after my Fresh Pond run Friday, so it was really nice to loosen up, and I slept like a baby last night.

A little thing like getting to the gym one time made a big difference.

Two stupid little tips here, geeky ideas on the weight loss front:

In Diane’s email she mentioned the following: “I did this really nerdy thing. I gathered all my "take out" menus and highlighted all the foods I could order. Example, Chinese, 4 shrimp boiled and wrapped in rice & sea weed... Sub Shop, small side salad topped with seafood salad and a half pita pocket... you get the idea. I'm such a GEEK!!”

Well, you can call it nerdy, Diane, but in my book (or my blog) it is exactly the kind of thing that makes the difference between success and failure. Being prepared, so that you don’t get stuck making a hasty bad menu choice, can keep you within your daily target and make you feel confident in how you are doing overall. That kind of day-to-day confidence is as important as anything in being successful, whether it is a weight loss plan or something else.

The key to the plan is the plan.

Now here’s my own stupid little tip. As you may have noticed, my breakfast most days consists of some combination of cereal, fresh fruit, cream, and soy milk. Meanwhile, I have been trying to save calories, avoid artificial sweeteners and reduce my coffee intake by drinking my coffee as close to black as possible.

Ever notice how there’s usually a fair amount of cream or milk left in the bowl after you finish the fruit or cereal? The natural thing to do is to lift up the bowl and guzzle it down. But I do something slightly different. I pour it into my coffee cup. I’ve already counted the calories, and the result is a better cup of coffee, even if the last sips of coffee may be a little crunchier than usual.

Like I said, it is a stupid little tip. But it works for me.

In today’s soundtrack, The Robert Cray Band’s “Twenty” is a beautiful song about a terrible subject. 3,797 American dead. Roughly 10 times that many casualties, and who knows how many Iraqi dead? And for what? Don’t get me started, but did you notice Cheney admitted the other day that it’s all about the oil?

1 comments:

thoughtz said...

Our personal worlds are really the only ones that matter. They are the only ones we MAY have any control over!
Donna

September 23, 2007 4:25 PM

You Getting Up in the Morning, or, in This Case, Me

I'll start with a few basics today:

• Calorie intake yesterday was about 2,000, including a healthy chicken fajita salad with iced team and only moderate chip-picking with my friend and ex-bro-in-law Pete at Jose's for lunch and a two-stop dinner (cottage cheese with apple sauce and Kashi at 6 and a vegan tofu-kielbasa quesadilla when I finished my weekly Kindle Nation newsletter at midnight). (Yes, I occasionally eat at midnight, but I try not to do it without a plan. More on that later).
• The scale is moving in the right direction, down from 257 to 256.2 today. (Yes, I have a scale that measures tenths and I do weigh myself every day. More on that later).
• Probably most important of these three items, in the long run -- I was back in the pool at 7:15 am and moved up from 12 laps to 14 laps, or 300 yards, with a slightly higher and thus more intensive ratio of breaststroke to backstroke.
  

The swimming feels great. It is taxing, and of course since I am already swimming more than I have swam, swimmed, or swum in over 25 years I notice that I am breathing heavily at the end of each two-lap segment. I take a little 60-to-90-second break between each segment and then start flailing my arms again. Each day, for now, I will try to add two laps to what i did the day before. We'll see how that goes.

I wondered if I would just be bored to death by the likelihood that I couldn't do enough to feel like I had done anything, but 12 laps and 14 laps on the first two days isn't a bad start. Those who've read my Boston Sports by the Numbers blog will not be surprised to learn that in my marathoning and coaching days I used to have a lot of fun paying attention to times, workout stats, interval clockings, and the like. Certainly swimming couldn't offer me that kind of juice. Then I noticed two guys in the lanes to my right this morning, consulting a printout after each segment and telling each other things like "dolphin down, butterfly back" and "19 strokes down, 15 back." So I started to realize that there might even be a future for a guy like me in the pool. They were doing 88 laps this morning, 1100 yards. I know 88 laps is a lot more than 14 laps, but somehow it didn't seem impossibly far away, today.

When I got out of the pool, showered, dressed, shot a couple of baskets at the outdoor hoop and walked to my car at 7:50 am, I felt terrific, maybe better than a heavyset 58-year-old guy has any right to feel before 8 o'clock in the morning. I had an impromptu breakfast with a pal and was doing productive work at my desk before 10.

Over breakfast, my pal and I talked about getting up in the morning. You'd think we would have it down by now. I've done it 21,535 times, and my pal has done it hundreds of times more than me. But my impression is that there is a constant need to re-train ourselves.

When my kids had to be at school at a certain hour, or I had to be at work at a certain hour, or both, it was relatively easy even if it was not always fun. But even then, there is a lot of difference between, say, rolling out of bed just in time to shower and get to work by punch-in time, and getting out of bed on my own time, early, with a plan to do one or two simple things aimed at getting my day and me off to a good start.

Meditation, swimming, running, coffee and a book on the deck, a walk around the neighborhood -- it can be any of a number of things, but for me and most others to whom I have spoken about such things, spontaneity is the enemy of success in such endeavors. Our brains are powerful, and most of us, when in bed, like to stay in bed.

When I have been most successful at using my mornings to get my day off to a great start, the key to success has been to make a plan -- "get up at 6:45 am and be in the pool by 7:15," for instance -- and allow myself no negotiation, or even any thinking, until I am inexorably on the path I have planned. In my own case, I actually pretend that I am being operated externally by remote control. (In my 12-step program, we call that "turning one's will over to a higher power.")

Maybe I am dumbing myself down, but the payoff is huge.

In my next post I'll try to come back to those "more on that laters" about midnight meals and daily weigh-ins.

Have a great day. I will.

(Thanks for the beautiful picture of the sleeping polar bear to my brothers and sisters at http://www.firstpeople.us!)

The arithmetic of losing a pound

In yesterday's post I said that today I would focus on how I am going to go about losing a pound a week, or a total of 30 pounds during the balance of 2009, and how this will fit into my other goals and plans in my effort to improve my personal health and the overall balance in my life. The basic arithmetic of weight loss doesn't change much, and some of what follows is drawn from an ealier post:

As I continue to make progress in reducing my weight, I am struck regularly both by how simple this is and how difficult it can be.

Simple because, regardless of all the other issues that may effect how I feel, how I eat, and what I way, the bottom line is inescapable. I will lose weight steadily if my net calorie consumption is less than the “daily calorie requirement” that would sustain me at my present weight.

It is easy to figure out that “daily calorie requirement,” also known as my basal metabolic rate. The factors are my weight, age, gender and overall level of activity from couch potato to triathlete. At present, based on today’s weight of 256 pounds, my number is 3352 calories a day. When I began Big Man Getting Smaller at 273.5 pounds, my number was 3516 calories a day.

3500 calories avoided, in this framework, means 1 pound lost. Using today’s figure, then, if I consume 2852 calories a day I would lose a pound a week. At 2352 calories a day, 2 pounds a week. At 1852 calories a day, which is about where I have been given my propensity to forget to include my supplements in my daily log, I should be losing about 3 pounds a week. That’s pretty close to where I have been the past couple of weeks, after the predictable, more dramatic weight loss of the first week.

So all that is simple.

What is difficult? Doing it. Even more so, keeping track. Writing it down. Holding ourselves accountable.

That’s why I’m doing this blog. Should everyone who wants to lose a bunch of weight start a blog? Well, you could do worse things, believe me. I know this has been a good experience for me in all kinds of ways that go beyond the obvious immediate goal.

But whatever one does, with any serious goal, it only makes sense to figure out some way to maintain a journal about it. So I am thinking about this, and I will have some more thought about it tomorrow.

I had a terrific breakfast with my daughter Moriah this morning, and she shared some really nice news with me.

So, long story short, as I renew my efforts now in May 2009: I will keep my daily calorie intake under 2500 calories, get at least 20 minutes of regular moderate exercise 5 days a week (walking, swimming, and elliptical), and lose a pound a week.

Nap and tuck - 9.19.2007

Most people who know me know that I am a confirmed and enthusiastic daily napper. I usually grab about 20 minutes in the early afternoon, and it tends to make me feel refreshed and productive for the rest of the day.

It’s been a bit of an upside down day today, a good day for catching up after a late night last night, but even a double dose of my usual napping hasn’t quite done the trick.

I finished a copywriting assignment at 1:30 this morning and hit the pillow hard, then got up at 7 to take care of getting my son Danny to school so his Mom could attend an early work meeting. I came back afterward and had a brief nap, then went to the gym for a nice workout and on to Toyota for a belated 10,000-mile service visit for my Prius. By the time I came back and did a little work, I was ready for another nap.

This time I took a solid hour while “All Things Considered” was playing on the radio. Woke up feeling even more tired.

But now I can tell the tired feeling is my whole body standing up and letting me know I’ve been doing a lot, relatively speaking, at the gym the past few days. My muscles don’t feel sore so much as well used.

So I will listen to my body and act on this information. I’m having our weekly dinner with my roommate this evening, but afterward I’ll go to bed early, by 10 at the latest. And tomorrow I will skip the gym and do a little walking, but not as much as I would do ordinarily.

Otherwise, all systems go!

Saturday, September 15, 2007

A couple of the comments from the past few days got me thinking, which is precisely, I think, how this blogging thing is supposed to work.

Donna mentioned that this blog was helping her “remember that if I am to be of any help to anyone I must take care of my own desires and needs first.”

It’s the same principle, as any flight attendant can tell you, which leads them to tell us to hook up our own oxygen before we take care of a child’s oxygen mask in the event of an in-flight emergency.

What I am trying to do, with Big Man Getting Smaller, is become more mindful. The main theme, to be sure, is my effort to lose weight, but that occurs in the midst of my daily life where I have many other obligations to myself and to others. By writing down what is going on in this “campaign” of mine, and paying some attention in the process to what goes on in the rest of my life, I hope to achieve greater mindfulness of everything that is important to me, as well as other things that exist around me for better or worse.

All of this helps to make me feel a greater connection with people I care about. I am enjoying my life. I am very focused on doing the things that I need do to lose weight, but also aware that this part of my life does not occur in a vacuum.

Because I am more mindful of the things I do for BMGS, I am better able to plan my days. I do what I need to do for myself and also accommodate the needs and desires of others. I am able to say yes to things, and also to say no.

Nobody else but me in the driver’s seat.

Because I am communicating with people I care about concerning this weighty effort, they are aware and supportive of what I am trying to do. They may also be amused, or think it’s all kind of pathetic, or whatever else, but what the hell? I am kind of amused too, and I would think it was pathetic if, instead, I continued to go to seed.

Today is Saturday. A little rainy outside, so today may be the day I join that gym. Or not. I dropped another half a pound today, to 257. I finished a long, difficult copywriting assignment last night, so it is nice to look forward to this weekend with that deadline behind me.

Today’s soundtrack is provided by the Boss.

Springsteen – No Surrender

We swore blood brothers against the wind
I'm ready to grow young again

1 comments:

thoughtz said...

You are so zen like, Potential Thin Man! Being as mindful as we can only enriches our lives and the lives of those around us. Watching ourselves eating, walking, writing... making love... we gain tremendous insight into our own and human nature in general.
I've just had a wake up call about the dog we got from my daughter... he has gained too much weight and i realized that i overfed him to make myself feel good.
We are interesting creatures.
This is about much more than just losing weight!
Donna
donna

September 15, 2007 5:27 PM

The quinary in the coal mine - 9.12.2007

Well aware of my petty human fixation with the fact that the next half-pound will mean 15, my scale stands firm day after day for the pleasure of mocking me!

That’s gotta be it.

It’s funny how numbers can become fixations, as if there was any significant difference between 15.0 and 14.5.

But I am doing what I should be doing. Eating healthily, eating less, and exercising. Monitoring my progress, writing it down, and “claiming my seat” here at BMGS.

Of course I’d love to see progress on the scale every day, but there is a Zen of doing things the right way, staying on the path and being in the present. And when was the last time you saw a fat Buddhist monk?

One thing I haven’t been writing down in my daily food log are a few supplements I take, based on advice in a terrific book on nutrition by Phyllis Balch. I probably should, since when I look at the labels I see that they add up to about 125 calories a day! Here they are:

· 4000 mg of Vitamin C
· 2400 mg of flaxseed oil
· 2000 mg of fish oil
· 2 multivitamins
· a tablespoon of fennel

Sounds like a witches’ potion. But maybe these things will keep me around a while longer to enjoy life as a 170-pound man. (What? A guy can’t dream?)

I should mention here, because I said I would report back on this, that the burritos I had for lunch the last two days from BoLoco have been terrific. On Monday I had the chicken summer burrito with mango salsa, black beans, rice, melted jack cheese and cilantro. Yesterday the same thing except I had it with baked tofu (thanks, Donna!) rather than chicken. Each was between 550 and 700 calories, very filling, delicious, cheap, and ready in about 90 seconds. So I’ll keep them in my menu rotation.

It was pouring most of the day yesterday and I only got in 10 minutes of walking, when Danny and I took his dog for a walk. I’ll get in my full hour today.

And a little more fruit. Some strawberries on my cereal this morning won’t be a bad way to start.

thoughtz said...

Mmmmmm... baked tofu... Yummy!

How far do you walk/run in an hour?I used to walk at least a mile every day no matter what.. but I've let the desires of others become more important than my own. This blog is helping me remember that if I am to be of any help to anyone I must take care of my own desires and needs first.

Donna

September 14, 2007 6:55 PM

Blueberries - 9.7.2007

Friday morning. Another pound gone, which means 13.5 pounds in the first week of Big Man Getting Smaller. Already 20% more than the most I was able to lose at any point with Atkins back in June and July, and I haven't felt wiped out and plugged up like I did with Atkins. In fact I have been feeling great!

I began today with half a cup of fresh blueberries on top of my cereal. Absolutely delicious.

Thursdays tend to be kind of packed, since I drive an hour every Thursday afternoon to have dinner with a friend and then attend a GA meeting before I head back. No excuses, but one result is that it is the one day when I have trouble scheduling the exercise I would like to have. All I got yesterday was 20 minutes of walking, about a quarter as much as I would have liked. And I had a nice big meal at the Tavern - 1082 calories! - but I'd planned for it and it fit perfectly into my overall plan for the day.

Today I'll make a point of getting some good exercise, starting with a nice walk through Danehy Park to Starbucks and back this morning.

The last 5 days, I have averaged 1 pound a day of weight loss, after my big initial loss the first 2 days. 5 days isn't really much to use as a basis for trying to figure anything out, but it might be enough to make an interesting point about my metabolism. In the past, I've always assumed that my metabolism was a bit on the slow side, and that the slow metabolism was a significant part of the reason for my weight gain.

But for the past 5 days I have averaged about 1600 calories a day, and lost a pound a day. The specific exercise I've gotten has burned off an average of about 400 calories a day. Rough that out and my net calorie intake has been about 1200 a day.

The arithmetic of calories and weight says that 3500 calories equals 1 pound of weight. Doesn't matter if it is weight gained or weight lost, a pound tallies out to 3500 calories. So, if 5 days was enough to go on, I think all of this arithmetic would tell me that my daily calorie requirement to maintain the same weight over the past 5 days was 4700, which would mean a bit faster metabolism and lot more active life than I had thought.

Who knows? Dr. Phil? Dr. Atkins? Dr. Caligari? Dr. Frankenstein? All I know is that I need to keep track of what I eat, what I exercise, and what I weigh, and keep coming back to report in here, because it's definitely working.

What's up with the shredded wheat for dinner? - 9.6.2007

Another pound has disappeared, for a total of 12.5 in 6 days.

The hunger from the previous day was gone yesterday, and I made a point of getting a little closer to the 1750 calorie a day target that I set when I began this. I had been hovering around 1550, and the mild hunger may have just been a residual effect of that deficit. As if I really know.

The other thing I made a point of yesterday was ratcheting up the exercise to 70 minutes, since the back pain I’d experienced the previous day was gone. I’m trying to ratchet up my walking by 5 minutes a day, at least for now. Later, as my weight declines, I will try to include more jogging in the same amount of time.

I did a funny thing yesterday. I forgot that I was nearly out of cash and that I left my bank card/credit card in an out-of-town restaurant a few days ago and won’t get it back until today. So I failed to make a stop at my bank to replenish my cash. I had intended to go out in the evening for a chicken fajita salad at Jose’s, but instead, given my bare cupboard and short cash, my main dinner course was a double serving of shredded wheat and milk. It was fine.

Today, the credit card. And I’ll be having dinner out before my GA meeting this evening. Planning on the “ultimate salad” topped with blackened chicken at the Tavern.

ps - Call me lazy, but a good pal of mine makes a grocery run for me each week, and I am happy to have the help. I give her a list. Okay, call me a lazy leech. Anyway, a few weeks ago I was trying unsuccessfully to follow the Atkins diet, so my list was all about meat, eggs, cheese, tunafish, etc. Here's my list today:

Fresh strawberries

Fresh blueberries

Fresh grapefruit

Raisin bran

Dark rye or pumpernickel bread

Chicken

Canned pineapple chunks

Potatoes (for baking/microwaving)

A burger a month?

Saturday, September 1, 2007 - Day 2 - net loss to date: 4 pounds

Weighing a lot more than we want to way is tough to handle for any of us. There's even a portion of shame involved sometimes. After all, shouldn't I be able to eat normally?

One thing that has always amazed me is how gradual the process of gaining way too much weight can be. I've told people from time to time that my weight gain, since high school, amounted to less than a burger a month. I can even do the math that seems to prove the point:

Weight on 8/31/2007 273

Weight on 8/30/1967 162

Weight Gain in Pounds 111

Weight Gain in Ounces 1776

Period of Gain, in Months 480

Ounces gained per month 3.7

What can I do about a burger a month, after all? 29 days every month I eat healthy and take care of myself, and 1 day I have an extra burger, and look at what happens! I wake up 40 years later and weigh over 270 pounds! Come on! How can this be fair?

Of course, that isn't really how it happens. There have been a lot of peaks and valleys in the graph.

I got off to a good start yesterday, of course. Today the scale showed a 4-pound loss.

I'm not silly enough to think that I really lost the equivalent of 16 burgers yesterday. A pound or so of that is real weight loss, and the rest is a matter of normal day-to-day fluctuations. My weight was especially high yesterday morning, due in part to the fact that it was Friday morning and I generally have a long drive home after a GA meeting on Thursday evenings, during which I ordinarily consume an extra coffee or soda and, often in the past, a snack as well.

But I ate healthy and got my exercise yesterday. I wasn't hungry when I went to bed, and I'm not hungry now at 7:55 on Saturday morning. I walked down the street for dinner at Jose's last night and had their very healthy, nutritious and yummy chicken fajita salad while I sat at the bar and watched a couple innings of the Sox game. But I had an iced tea instead a Corona or a Sam Adams, and I asked the bartender not to bring me the usual complimentary chips and salsa.

More of the same today. That's the ticket, for me.

When I was just 17, if you know what I mean....

August 31, 2007 - 1st post

Good morning.

I’m Steve, and I’ve got to get my weight under control.

I’m 57. I am 5 foot 11 inches tall, and this morning the scale said 273.5.

When I was 17, I weighed 162. I had a 30-inch waist then and I could run a mile in well under 5 minutes. I don’t expect to see any of those numbers again, but I have to get this problem in hand.

At this point, I would be very happy to get to 220 and stay there. In the 90s I used to run marathons. I was a big guy then, around 230 most of the time, but healthy as a horse.

Then I blew out my ankle, overdoing it in a couple of road races in a 6-day period. I couldn’t run for over 2 years, and I was never the same. The weight started piling on. By early 2003 I was up to 281, but I fought bravely back and got down to 209 that November. Here I am again now, like a yo-yo.

I have a lot to be grateful for in my life, and I try to focus on those things each day. But it is very important to me to whip this body into something resembling good shape again, and to maintain that. For myself, because I feel better, enjoy life more, and move around much more easily when I am in better shape. Also for my 9-year-old son, because it would be better for our ability to do things together and for his own future if he could look up to a dad who was not a fat tub o’ lard.

Not to mention the very important fact that I would like to be around, and healthy enough to enjoy life, for another 25 or 30 years.

I’ve done every sort of diet. I’ve probably lost a half a ton in my life while dieting, but gained back a little more than that while not on diets. So I hit on the idea of writing about my progress, of trying to be an open book about it all. It might, I am thinking, help me stick to my plans and my goals if I am transparent about them and write things down every day. I am an active member of a 12-step program for recovering gamblers, and living the principles of that program in a supportive surrounding program has worked wonders for me.

Once I thought about writing about my quest for health and fitness, it seemed natural to blog about it. I am hoping that over time I can share enough of my experience and hope that it might help give strength to others. God knows it isn’t easy to lose weight, get healthier, and keep it off.

I am going to commit myself to writing about this every day. We’ll see how it goes.

Have a good day,

Steve