log 6/26/11

today starts another round of the diet.

breakfast- yogurt, coffee (out of eggs)

lunch- leftover indian, avocado

dinner- lentils, salmon, cauliflower

Journal

Since Tuesday I've been sick; the kind of sick where you spend your days sleeping on the couch, nights sleeping also. So the diet has been off. I did manage to eat my eggs for breakfast. Back to it tomorrow.

Power!!

Without power at my home from Saturday-midday Tuesday. Did a pretty good job of sticking through the diet though. Binged over the weekend with excessive alcohol during candle lit board game parties. Haven't been eating lentils bc no microwave and now I'm going to the beach with mom for a bunch of days. Think it'll be mostly good and a great opportunity to really get used to the diet again.

Morning: pills, Earl grey, 2 eggs, 3 strips turkey bacon. 2 bacons are my new limit.

C.R.

wake time: 7:45am

bed time(last night): 9:30pm

outside: 8am with coffee

weather: 42 and drizzle

mood: optomistic

log

breakfast: yogurt wi/ cinn and vanilla

lunch: pea soup, white beans

dinner: pork and carrots

log

Due to the cheating last week i'm back to 160lbs. Oh well. Its good timing for a fresh update of the SCD.

today's food:

breakfast: leftover steak, kidney beans, spinach, coffee, pills.

lunch: split pea soup, pinto beans, chicken sausage, pills, tea

dinner: pulled pork, pickles, chili, tea, pills

C.R. update

well, im a slacker. i haven't been out in the morning. im on it tomorrow. also, my insomnia is quite bad this week. for example today:

wake time: noon

- very difficult to wake

bed time (last night): 2:30am

-difficult to sleep

log 4/15

breakfast: 3 hotdogs (i know. i usually have eggs but we are out, and i was so groggy i would have burned my self if i had cooked anything), pills, water, coffee

lunch: split pea soup with kidney beans, pills, water

How Far Ive Come

compared to this post in january.

More pics after the jump...

diet recap

over all this diet (scd) has been great. after the initial rapid scale weight decrease, im loosing 3-5 lbs a week. real cheating has been at a minimum (ie sugar, breads, and booze). things that aren't exactly cheating, but aren't in the spirit of things, have been happening more. for example: hotdogs. i also haven't been taking the pills regularly. it all ends now; friday before binge day.

while i think what i have been eating lately can easily be the way i eat in the long run to maintain my figure, the fact is that i havent yet reached my goal. i need to get back on the bigger horse, the one with the faster wagon.

what is my goal? really its a range; 135lbs-120lbs. thats my college weight. 135 was where i was when i left college, the weight that i think i can reasonably get back to. 120 was where i was at the end of my freshman year after 8 hours of dance class and eating veggie stir fry every lunch and dinner. not a goal i think is realistic, though i like to think about it anyway. i work better when challenged. like when an italian man said girls cant play pool, after which i ran the table on him twice. best pool ive ever played.

Back at it

Seeing some body transformation after only being halfway committed to the diet for the past week and a half. Binged all weekend, felt... not my best on Monday, but ate clean. Might have kept to the slow carb diet (henceforth SCD) that whole day. Mostly stuck to it Tuesday until I went to meet some people at a thai place in Cary. Had the house salad, but then got a spicy catfish, which ended up being fried. I devoured it, but avoided most of the delicious rice. Went to an Irish bar for trivia, where I am already recognized by two tenders as "JK, the pinot noir guy"... which is nice actually. Yesterday I did really good on the diet but ate some tortilla chips at the local Mexican place. Chicken breast, guac and beans were all SCD friendly. Drank some wine and watched some playoff hockey, then started feeling hungry. Ate some turkey slices and a few spoonfuls of almond butter and eventually had the last of my mocha protein shake.

Going to stick to the diet 100% today and used some previously successful methods to help me out.
1. Had a spoonful of almond butter shortly after waking before my coffee.
2. Ate breakfast. Well, breggfest. Not sure if I've eaten it all week. Lentils, spinach, 2 scrambled eggs and 2 slices of turkey bacon already in my belly. Lots of protein will keep me satiated for a while and I'm hoping the early fat will make it less likely that I have late night hunger.

I've been pushing around my hood the past two days because the weather has been phenomenal. 1.8 mile trek and 1.9 miles. Yesterday's came just a couple of hours or so after my arm and shoulder workout, which really had an impact on my fatigue.

Feeling pretty good about life right now.

Dinner

Tonight's treat:

Grilled Steak w/garlic & savory spices basting (from here)

Black Beans w/cilantro, tomato

Guacamole

Lunch

Today's lunch is actually borrowing from breakfast. For breakfast, I made cannellini beans with celery, garlic, and onions that were sauteed in bacon fat. I added cilantro, cayenne, and chili powder.

For lunch, I reheated the beans, adding about a cup of chopped baby spinach greens and crumbled bacon into it. Result: fantastic.

Lame!

I was doing so well! Then, last night, I got home, talked to my housemates and a neighbor for a while, went downstairs and... got a pizza. Argh, I'm really unhappy with myself.

1.) Cheating the night before binge day? It's like opening your presents two days before Christmas.

2.) I was at my lowest yet on this diet, and now I'm going to be working for the next week to get back there. That's dumb.

The good news is I understand how it happened. I had very little sleep the night before. I hadn't had any veggies during the day, and my stomach was rumbling and looking for them. When I got home, I didn't immediately attend to my appetite, and my energy went rapidly downhill, and there was nothing easy and satisfying at hand.

After the past two instances of cheating I've got a couple of ideas on how to prevent it from happening again:

1.) Always have something filling, on-diet, and easy in the fridge.

2.) Call a friend who is also on the diet and tell them that cheating is imminent.

It's made it a lot easier to stick to this diet since I have friends who are also doing it. I also realize that this pays off when I'm REALLY having a hard time doing it and I need some positive reinforcement. So that's something I'm going to keep in mind.

For today, I'm still going to enjoy binge day, but I'm going to introduce some of the mitigating factors I read about in 4HB: citrus (including grapefruit), caffeine, high intensity exercise. I'm going to have to save PAGG for another week. That week will be soon, though, because I've been rereading the chapter on it and I'm interested in seeing the effect it will have on my body chemistry.

Right, on with binge day! I've already had scrambled eggs and spinach with garlic and lemon. Let's do this.

Getting Ready For Binge Day...

Today I'm 203.6, which is fantastic. I'm well on my way to my goals for the month. I've had black beans with salsa and fresh cilantro for breakfast since I was unable to make time for eggs. I've also had some chai tea and plenty of water.

Tomorrow I want to try introducing grapefruit to my diet. Hopefully I can have some good grapefruit juice. My problem with grapefruit is that, unlike lemon, its bitter taste isn't offset by sweet. It's just an astringent taste to me. Devona says that I just haven't had good grapefruit. Any thoughts on where I can find good grapefruit/grapefruit juice?

Imortance of Regular Meals

I didn't eat in between my last log and when I got home late last night. Drank two glasses of pinot noir in between, then had a hard time feeling satisfied because my hunger had gotten out of control. Ate slices of turkey, shredded cheese, a few tortilla chips, a pickle and eventually a double serving of vanilla syntha-6 before I felt satisfied.

1. I kept to the diet all day, so it was a bummer to cheat on cheese and chips at the end of the day but I felt like I couldn't help myself.
2. Gross combination once I became burpy. Pickle + protein shake =/=goodness

Started the day with some black coffee. Ate spinach, lentils and two chicken and turkey sausages from TJ's for breggfest. Meat sausages are maybe less appealing to me than veggie ones.

Gonna do my best to really stick to the diet 100% today!

2 scrambled eggs, lentils and spinach for breggfest. I cup of coffee in the morning, one up a few minutes ago. Just warmed up lentils, eggplant & zucchini covered with tomato thing and 2 slices of turkey. So far today, so good. :)

Dinner-Now

Today feels much better so far, but it's early. Last night I went to Mura with Austin and Mom. It was awesome! $5 Martini's meant I got two of one that had New Amsterdam gin, lemon, lime and cucumber. Not sure if it'd be good with Hendrick's or if that would be too much cucumber. Shared some sashimi I ordered because mom wasn't sure if she'd like it. She did. She kept to the slow carbs, she does really great with that. Makes me proud. It was also buy one roll, get one half off night. I got a scalloppy one that was incredible and one that had soft shell crab, tuna and salmon, but was covered with seaweed salad. I didn't like it. Ate some brown sugar pecan granola the exgf left over while watching Scott Pilgrim v. The World. I think it'll be the last cheat meal I have for a while. I didn't sleep that great again last night, but better than the night before. Woke up sleepy, but after 15 minutes I forced myself to get up and start moving. Feeling optimistic. Fingers crossed.

Post-Monday's...Post Thru Pre-Dinner Tuesday

After my midday coffee (which has become too common of an occurrence) I ate asparagus, a eggplant and zucchini covered with diced tomato thing and a tiny bit of salmon and black bean, black eyed pea and corn mixture with mom and Jack at their place. Didn't have much of an appetite. Mom eventually followed me back to my house to work on getting things in order for her party this weekend. Mom, my new roommate Austin and I had some red wine before going out to dinner at El Dorado together. I cheated by eating lots of fried corn tortilla chips and two starchy corn tortillas with my otherwise healthy dinner of chicken breast and beans. Might have been some cheese in there somewhere, can't remember. Had a shot of Makers Mark 46 when I got home. I got more bummed out over my recent break up as the day went on and used it as an excuse to justify my cheating. Understandable, I guess.

Today has been sucky. Woke up to gross weather. Didn't sleep well. Had 2 slices of turkey, lentils and spinach for breggfest. Back strength training workout went okay, hard to get into it. Did some errands, came home. Ordered an ipad. Did some things around the house. Have been way more depressed today than yesterday, but I think that ought to improve for me soon. I hope. Ate some spinach and lentils around 3 probably. Couldn't bother with eggs and was out of turkey. Drank more coffee. Planning on going to a sushi restaurant that's supposed to be really good this evening. Can't imagine myself not cheating, but I don't have much of an appetite either, so maybe I won't do too much damage. I don't usually stay this depressed for very long, maybe tomorrow I'll force myself to stay true. Breaking up is hard to do. Alliteration makes me feel a little better. :)

Short Term Goal

I have a short term goal for the month of April: I want to be able to fit into my suits by the time I attend my friends' wedding at the end of the month. Additionally, I want to have more energy so that I can make it through the weekend, return to Boston, and not be too wiped to keep on top of the diet.

Back on Track...

Last week was craptastic for me. I cheated quite a bit- pizza was my primary sin. The key problem for me was a very low level of energy, making it difficult for me to want to cook.

Thankfully, not a lot of it stuck, and now I'm back to where I was exactly a week ago.

Even better news, I'm continuing to have a great time cooking. What I've been doing is finding a really good meat recipe on Epicurious, then coming up with some steam or sautee dish of greens. Beans are probably the most fun- I've been adding the holy trinity- either the French version or the New Orleans version. It helps that I have a grab bag of local, grass-fed beef and other meats in my freezer waiting to be turned into something fantastic.

I'll post next time I make a delicious meal. Hopefully it'll inspire y'all.

Back On the Wagon or (Diet) Regulators, Mount Up

Happy to see that there is some blog activity! I'll catch up on everything this afternoon, but in the meantime, my update.

Slow Carbs, logging, once a week binge day, etc worked for me really well. I was easily down to single digit body fat % for the first time in my adult life... maybe ever. I had my weight down to 115 lbs, which is kinda shocking, but not as much once you consider how little weight is carried in my lower body. The success of the weight loss and some recent depression lead to me going quite a bit overboard. Time to fix that.

Laid down last night around 12:20-12:30, probably fell asleep around 1. Got 6 hours of sleep. Took my morning medicine and BSN's Nitrix supplement. Started making breakfast around 8:10, finished around 8:30. Took AGG before breakfast. Consumed two scrambled eggs, spinach and lentils with a slice of turkey. I've been a regular bird eater for the past week or so. I like it, a lot. Lentils, eggs and spinach has become a staple meal. I've never been a huge breakfast food fan, so I like that I can skip straight to something lunchier. I call it "breggfest".

Today hasn't been the best. When I get depressed, I allow myself to justify destructive decisions, which leads to a cycle of negativity being created. I have great success with logs because they keep me honest.

C.R. 3/30

9:50am- 15 mins out side on my stoop with my coffee and harmonica.

wake time: 9:30am

- medium difficulty to rise this morning, easy to get moving

bed time (last night): 1am roughly

-difficult to sleep, one hour at least

weather: 41 degrees, sunny

mood: pleasent

C.R. 3/29

9:40am- 8 mins out side on my stoop with my coffee and harmonica.

wake time: 9am

- easy to rise this morning, hard to get moving- groggy

bed time (last night): 1am roughly

-easy to sleep

weather: 38 degrees, sunny

mood: hopeful

C.R. 3/28

9:30am- 10 mins out side on my stoop with my coffee and harmonica.

wake time: 9am

- easy to rise this morning

bed time (last night): 1am roughly

-easy to sleep

weather: 31 degrees, sunny

mood: hopeful

Checking in

Right- this morning I weighed 205.8, with my measurements not budging very much. I realized that I've been leaving my chest out of the measurements, and it appears that I'm losing weight there first. Ah well, too late to compare to previous weeks.

I also went to the farmer's market today and bought a bunch of chocolatey things, had a chunk of cheese, and a small bottle of organic chocolate milk. MY body is already rebelling. I also had a silano pizza. Hoo.

Caffeine Affects Me

Well, I think I can safely say that caffeine later in the evening affects me, as I can't fall asleep right now. It used to be that I didn't perceive as great an effect; this perception may have been due to staying up late anyway or because my system had mitigating agents in there. I don't know how caffeine interacts with starches and sugars.

I'm likely to wake up at 7:45am in the morning anyway due to the habit I've formed. That means I'm gonna crash hard in the evening. Hopefully I can temper that with my diet during the day.

C.R. Day 3

9:20am- 7 mins out side on my stoop with my coffee and harmonica.

wake time: 9am

- easy to rise this morning

bed time (last night): 2am roughly

-hard to fall asleep, at least an hour

weather: 33 degrees, cloudy

mood: none

C.R. Day 2

9:20am- 15 mins out side on my stoop with my coffee and harmonica.

wake time: 9:10am

-alarm at 8am, i dont think i moved, josh brought me coffee around 8:45; very tired, acute by 10am

bed time (last night): 3am roughly

-hard to fall asleep, missed the window around 12:30, watched tv, once to bed 40 mis or so to sleep, sound sleep during the night

weather: 33 degrees, sunny

mood: none

C.R. (circadian reset) day 1

9:10am- 10 mins out side on my stoop with my coffee.

wake time: 8:50am

-alarm at 8am, josh poked me some, then brought me coffee around 8:40; initially groggy, normal lvl, acute by 9:30

bed time (last night): 2am roughly

-easy to sleep, sound sleep during the night

weather: 40 degrees, partly cloudy/sunny, bit of wind

mood: positive

The Circadian Reset Project

One of my goal is to overcome a life time of mild insomnia that has gotten really bad over the last few months. In my quest to better my quality of life, exploring whether natural "remedies" can work to alleviate things like overeating, mood swings, quality of sleep, anxiety, and depression, I have done a lot of reading on light therapy. The premiss of my current self experiment is that 10 mins of out door light upon waking can reset your clock.

Well, Hello.

Yeah. It's been a while since I've posted here. Since that first post when I was 209.2, I went up to 219; at that point, I went on the slow carb diet and have been dropping weight steadily. After three weeks of dieting, I'm at 206.8. That's without any strenuous or continuous exercise; I have done some of the 1.5 minute high intensity exercises suggested in 4HB, though.

Measurements:

Left Arm 12

Right Arm 12

Waist 40

Hips 40

Left Thigh 24

Right Thigh 24.5

Total Inches 152.5

I've lost an inch and change on my biceps, which is at first troubling. Then I realize that I really haven't done anything for them except day-to-day operation. As soon as I incorporate some upper body exercise, that will change quickly. In fact, I'm going to make it my short term goal to incorporate upper body exercise. See you in a week.

update

i broke the 160 mark on friday. not only do my clothes fit better, i fit in to stuff that i couldnt button.

stat

i broke the 165bl mark this past week. woohoo!

binge weekend

due to the fact that i need a break, we are extending binge day to the entire weekend. ill be ready to go full on again on monday.

log goes bye bye

ive been really slack on the log. but really how many times can you take a picture of the same thing over and over? the diet has been going well though. i did break down and have pasta for lunch one day last week, though. but otherwise on track.

i have a back log of pics that i will post soon

Breakfast

Spinach and 2 organic + egg white omelette with salsa. TJ's Cuban black beans w salsa. Salsa, salsa, salsa!

Dinner

Went to Cafe Asia with the other coaches tonight. Came highly recommended and didn't disappoint. Freshest fish I've had so far inland. Ate edamame, salad w dressing and the sashimi below. Top left is seaweed salad w cucumber and squid, red snapper, salmon, tuna in center. Not sure of the two closest to camera, thought the right most was mahi while the other was a different tuna, but not sure. Totally stuffed.

For lunch I had a cup of Tom yum soup w shrimp and thai tofu basil, no rice. It wad also delicious. Good eats today. Go team slow carb!

Bojos team dinner

2 eggs, salad w Italian dressing, pinto beans, water.

Lunch

Salmon, haricot verts and black beans.

I think less for binge day

Im thinking im not going to go over board this week. Im still having cupcakes though.

Breakfast

2 eggs, sausage, tomato with salsa.

Long Lost Log

Ok, so I've got a back log of food to post. The above pic is of breakfast last friday (the 14th).

this I think might be lunch also on friday. That's an egg, chicken, pinto beans, stewed tomatoes, and yogurt.

Binge day morning!! coffee w/ cinnamon, and grapefruit juice (for after the appetizer)

this was the appetizer which I was counting as my first meal, on diet. nova lox, capers, cucumbers, tomatoes.

tha all mighty empire eggs. oh so tasty.

its poached eggs on lox, on spinach, on potato pancake, with hollandaise. I didn't bother with the home fries and fruit.

4 mini cupcakes with root beer.

(for scale)

there was then lunch; which was my leftovers from brunch. The there was dinner at Ogden and Erins which was a nice selection of cheeses with crackers, and pasta carbonara.

for dessert.

back to regular meals.

this was dinner sunday; hotdogs, mustard, sauerkraut, refried beans, and harcort vert.

this was dinner on monday; artichokes

still monday; carrot mash, steak

breakfast today was 3 eggs

lunch; leftovers

tonights dinner; salmon, black beans, onions.

black beans, lettuce, tomato salsa, shredded beef and guac
Also took a dose of AGG with no adverse effects

PAGG

So last night we started all the pill popping.

AGG with dinner
- this caused some pretty severe stomach reactions at first

PAGG before bed
- Again with the odd stomach reaction but this was much less

AGG (this morning 1/19) with breakfast
- took this along with my daily vitamins with my breakfast. No adverse reactions at all.

I am going to have to play with the dosage to see how this goes, also need to re-do my measurements and possibly "start" over as I have no lost any weight.

2 eggs, 1/2 cup spinach, 2 pork breakfast sausages

Breakfast

Lentils, spinach w sone Irish butter. 1 whole egg, egg whites and salsa.

Dinner

Salmon w dill, microwaved. Broccoli and lentils w Irish butter.

Breakfast

2 eggs, salsa, spinach, lentils. Yum

Binge Day!

Gigantic blue moon, few cheese sticks, popcorn shrimp and potato wedges.

Breakfast

2 hardboiled eggs, spinach and black beans

Applebees

Sizzlin shrimp, extra veg instead of rice. Not eating the wantons.

1st half

above is lunch: 1pm

steak, carrot, cabbage

breakfast:9:30am

2 hard boiled eggs- coffee

Measurements

Out of town hoops tournament this weekend, getting in measurements before I hit the road. Moving my binge day to Sunday so I don't waste it on Newport News.

L arm 13.25
R arm 13.25
Waist 26.5
Hips 33.5
L leg 17
R leg 17

OMG TOMORROW IS BINGE DAY

Breakfast

Spinach, black beans, panfried salmon, hardboiled egg w mustard

lunch/dinner

lunch

peas, carrot mash, leftover steak with marinade, faux-sagne

snack

yogurt w.cin

dinner:

steak with steak rub, tomato soup, carrot mash, peas

also, ive had 2 full nalgene bottles of water today, so far.

Dinner

Black beans, fresh spinach and canned salmon w soy sauce and walnut oil.

Lunch

Seared ahi salad. Didn't eat the oranges or bread.

breakfast

12:35
avocado, coffee

Breakfast

Egg whites, spinach, red beans, salsa

dinner

burger, with avo, brussel sprouts, carrots, parsnips

meat!

Lunch

Salmon pan fried in macadamia nut oil. Peppers, onions and broccoli cooked in the same method. Red kidney beans.

lunch

steak, pintos, guac, celery, cucumber, salsa

1/12 journal

im not drinking enough water. my lips are chapped.

my body feels different, my pants fit different a bit.

morning

2 hardboiled eggs, coffee.

Breakfast

1 whole egg + egg white omelette with spinach and black beans.

2nd half of the day

lunch #2: pinto beans, cabbage, tomato soup

Dinner: steak, faux-sagna (see below), peas

also a spoonful of cashew butter, and yogurt.

faux-sagna: cabbage leaves instead of pasta, beans, tuna, more cabbage, onions, celery, sauce (mustard-curry)

im craving flat out pasta today, or mashes potatoes.

I could kill for some Chick-fil-A

Lunch

Salmon in skillet with macadamia nut oil. Black beans. Peppers, onion and broccoli stir fried in mac nut oil.

lunch & breakfast

Two hamburgers, with tomato, onion & pickle, wrapped in lettuce



3 eggs with a cup of spinach

1st part of the day

breakfast

lunch:

cabbage and cabbage (well turnips but they are cabbage family)

sausage

Breakfast

Spinach omelette with salsa. Black beans for carbs.

Fell off the wagon with the log

but not with the food. lets see if i can remember.

dinner tonight-
cod, steamed cabbage, pinto beans, tomato soup
lunch-
none (i forgot to eat)
breakfast-
a bit of leftover chuck with onions, garlic.

last night dinner
chuck with onions and garlic, tomato

lunch-
kidney beans?

I Got Sole

With butter beans and spinach.

Lunch

Mojito salmon, peas and lentils, divided into 3rds. Forgot to take a pic until I finished the first one.

Breakfast

Whole organic egg + egg whites w tarragon and salsa. Lentils and spinach.