Ate better this week and got downstairs to the gym a few times. So, I was expecting some results on the scale ... no dice, unfortunately.
Start weight: 220 pounds
Last week: 210
This week: 210
Change: 0
Total loss: 10 pounds
Fair enough.
We watched a marathon session of Channel 4's You Are What You Eat, aka "the poo show." Quack nutritionist "Doctor" Gillian McKeith examines the eyeballs, tongues, fingernails and excrement of fat Brits to diagnose specific vitamin deficiencies. She badgers people about their evil food intake and bullies them into eating aduki beans, quinoa ("keen-wah"), millet (budgie food), and other tasteless food, plus hounds them into exercising. And, inevitably, they end up feeling bright, cheery, horny, happy, and about two stone lighter at the end of the eight-week intensive. As much as I think she's a fraud on several levels, there's no arguing with her success.
Point being, it's hard to sit through three hours of this stuff without feeling like making a change oneself. One episode spotlighted a big lady who drank a ridiculous amount of diet cola. I'm a diet cola apologist. I don't see the big deal. It's calorie-free. Granted, also nutrient-free, but aside from taking in some carbonic acid, what's the problem? Well, Mizz McKeith's voodoo science suggests that the caffeine assaults my adrenal system, leading to a cascading stress response, and blah blah blah don't drink diet cola, you big hump.
I considered my own caffeinated beverage consumption. It's not outrageous. Usually a sugar-free energy drink in the morning (Red Bull or an imitator), and a can of Diet Pepsi in the evening. On weekends it might be two, perhaps even three Diet Pepsis. Certainly nothing in the caffeine-addict range, or even approaching what a regular coffee or tea drinker might consume. Even so, I thought it might be interesting to experiment with water instead.
So, today I skipped my morning chocolate milk and energy drink, and went with water instead. Now I'm hankering for a chocolate bar or a bag of crisps ... er, chips. Damn British television. Holding steady.
(Late-day follow-up: I gave in to hunger and bought a pack of peanuts from the diner downstairs. I figured it'd be better for me than a chocolate bar or bag of chips. Wrong. The peanuts had 35g of fat and 450 calories. Doh!)
Also switched out the William Shatner All-Bran Bar in my Regular Healthy Lunch in favour of an orange. A previous round of "Doctor" McKeith's What Not To Eat Poo Voyeur Spectacular convinced me that I should be eating more fruit. Turns out an orange has fibre, just like a Shatner bar, but it has significantly less fat (several grams versus no grams).
---
Sandra recently noted that I haven't been talking much about my gym efforts. Apologies to she and other readers, as I truly have not been talking much about my gym efforts.
You'll recall that I signed up with Nubody's a while back. I went regularly. For about a week.
Since then, I've been doing my working out in the gym in my building. I took Amanda's suggestion of doing a couple of weeks of strictly cardio stuff before trying the muscle-building, and then neglected to go back to the muscle-building.
My workout is typically 20-30 minutes on the treadmill. I walk and jog and run about 1.6 to 1.8 miles at an average pace of roughly 3.8 miles per hour. Some of it is on an incline of up to six degrees. Sometimes I'll run at about 6mph for three or four minutes a shot. My heart rate usually floats between the 145 and 155 bpm range. And I'm sweating, so I think I'm getting a good workout.
But, yes, if I'm going to get any real gains (or losses augmented by gains), I must return to Nubody's and get back to the resistance training. More muscle means more metabolic activity, more strength, more tone, better fitting shirts and a general he-manly sense of visible testosterone.
Next week's update may be slightly delayed or absent, as I'm heading to Ontario. Gonna see my parents, who I haven't seen since December '05; gonna see my sister's new baby, which is expected today or thenabouts; gonna catch up with Sandra and Byron; and Amanda's cousin is getting married, so there'll be a wedding to attend. Gonna be a busy trip! Looking forward to seeing y'all!
---
Start weight: 220 pounds
Last week: 210
This week: 210
Change: 0
Total loss: 10 pounds
Fair enough.
We watched a marathon session of Channel 4's You Are What You Eat, aka "the poo show." Quack nutritionist "Doctor" Gillian McKeith examines the eyeballs, tongues, fingernails and excrement of fat Brits to diagnose specific vitamin deficiencies. She badgers people about their evil food intake and bullies them into eating aduki beans, quinoa ("keen-wah"), millet (budgie food), and other tasteless food, plus hounds them into exercising. And, inevitably, they end up feeling bright, cheery, horny, happy, and about two stone lighter at the end of the eight-week intensive. As much as I think she's a fraud on several levels, there's no arguing with her success.
Point being, it's hard to sit through three hours of this stuff without feeling like making a change oneself. One episode spotlighted a big lady who drank a ridiculous amount of diet cola. I'm a diet cola apologist. I don't see the big deal. It's calorie-free. Granted, also nutrient-free, but aside from taking in some carbonic acid, what's the problem? Well, Mizz McKeith's voodoo science suggests that the caffeine assaults my adrenal system, leading to a cascading stress response, and blah blah blah don't drink diet cola, you big hump.
I considered my own caffeinated beverage consumption. It's not outrageous. Usually a sugar-free energy drink in the morning (Red Bull or an imitator), and a can of Diet Pepsi in the evening. On weekends it might be two, perhaps even three Diet Pepsis. Certainly nothing in the caffeine-addict range, or even approaching what a regular coffee or tea drinker might consume. Even so, I thought it might be interesting to experiment with water instead.
So, today I skipped my morning chocolate milk and energy drink, and went with water instead. Now I'm hankering for a chocolate bar or a bag of crisps ... er, chips. Damn British television. Holding steady.
(Late-day follow-up: I gave in to hunger and bought a pack of peanuts from the diner downstairs. I figured it'd be better for me than a chocolate bar or bag of chips. Wrong. The peanuts had 35g of fat and 450 calories. Doh!)
Also switched out the William Shatner All-Bran Bar in my Regular Healthy Lunch in favour of an orange. A previous round of "Doctor" McKeith's What Not To Eat Poo Voyeur Spectacular convinced me that I should be eating more fruit. Turns out an orange has fibre, just like a Shatner bar, but it has significantly less fat (several grams versus no grams).
---
Sandra recently noted that I haven't been talking much about my gym efforts. Apologies to she and other readers, as I truly have not been talking much about my gym efforts.
You'll recall that I signed up with Nubody's a while back. I went regularly. For about a week.
Since then, I've been doing my working out in the gym in my building. I took Amanda's suggestion of doing a couple of weeks of strictly cardio stuff before trying the muscle-building, and then neglected to go back to the muscle-building.
My workout is typically 20-30 minutes on the treadmill. I walk and jog and run about 1.6 to 1.8 miles at an average pace of roughly 3.8 miles per hour. Some of it is on an incline of up to six degrees. Sometimes I'll run at about 6mph for three or four minutes a shot. My heart rate usually floats between the 145 and 155 bpm range. And I'm sweating, so I think I'm getting a good workout.
But, yes, if I'm going to get any real gains (or losses augmented by gains), I must return to Nubody's and get back to the resistance training. More muscle means more metabolic activity, more strength, more tone, better fitting shirts and a general he-manly sense of visible testosterone.
Next week's update may be slightly delayed or absent, as I'm heading to Ontario. Gonna see my parents, who I haven't seen since December '05; gonna see my sister's new baby, which is expected today or thenabouts; gonna catch up with Sandra and Byron; and Amanda's cousin is getting married, so there'll be a wedding to attend. Gonna be a busy trip! Looking forward to seeing y'all!
---
Dude, you KNOW that peanuts were a better choice than the chocolate bar or a packet of crisps. It's not all about # of calories/fat--you're actually eating real food. Good on ya. It's like not getting hung up on only eating "low fat" yogurt, if you're eating ANY yogurt, that's still got to be better than eating chocolate pudding (at least in my books).
ReplyDeleteFunny you mention the cola thing, we were just talking about your in-defense-of-not-drinking water blog post from several weeks back. I think the gist of your post was that a lot of what you eat and drink has substantial water content, and therefore you don't need to drink much plain water.
ReplyDeleteThe flaw that I see with this argument is that certain foods and drinks (diet cola comes to mind) might have stuff in it, sodium, say (althought Shannon might have a better brain for figuring out food and beverage chemistry) that negates the effect of the water content on your body. Try drinking a few glasses of salt water and see!
Lookin' forward to seeing youse guys out here...we got a load of crap weather in preparation for your visit :)
I just discovered your blog and think it's great! Good luck with the weight loss - I'm on a plan to lose some inches as well, and it's slowly coming off. Keep it up!
ReplyDelete