Micromental Changes in 30 Days

I was thinking today about the changes I have made over the last month and while my weight loss is not insignificant compared to average people it is only a tiny percentage of the overall weight I have to lose. 

Numbers are funny things, probably no other semantic tool is more widely used to lie and mislead than simple numbers. Twain said, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics." He was probably thinking of intentional misdirection, but I think numbers can often lead to unintentional misdirection too.

For example, if a person weighing 200 lbs says that they have lost 33 lbs. in 30 days most people would think that they had been wildly successful and yet I found myself mostly feeling like a failure (again) over most of the month. My actual trend line isn't very smooth, my weight has been up and down on almost a daily basis (even weekly) and yet, overall it's down... even dare I say it, WAY DOWN. 

Consider the following statements:
Thirty-three lbs. is barely 6% of my overall weight
Thirty-three lbs. is actually almost exactly 10% of the weight I want to lose.
Thirty three lbs! That's AWESOME way to go man, you're killing it!!!

All true, yet very different stories

One issue that I have had to deal with is water retention, I mean, the human body simply cannot gain 12 real pounds of fat in a single day (that's the spike in the middle). The physics and physiology don't work. Intellectually I understand this, but seeing that number jump on the scale sinks my heart an equivalent distance.

One way I have chosen to deal with this is by focusing on a different number. I was watching a show from the UK called Super Size vs. Super Skinny (I don't really recommend it unless you like over and under weight nudity). They pair an overweight person with an underweight person and have them live together for a week and swap meals. Then they send them home for a bit and bring them on for a recap. Well my one takeaway was the British style of tracking weight. They track weight using stone and pounds e.g. 15 St. 4 lbs. which is 214 lbs.

I read (I think Tim Ferris in the Four Hour Body) a suggestion that you should never try to lose more than 20 lbs at a time. The idea being that any larger number is too large and thereby making it difficult to maintain mental focus. So, lose 20 lbs. then decide affirmatively that this represents your new weight and jealously maintain it. Then when you feel ready to continue make another 20 lb. goal.

Well, I don't think I ever really committed to that idea even though I "tried" it. I found that I could never easily keep track of where my last 20 lb start weight had been and besides, I was never planning on stopping at 20 lbs and didn't consider it a monumental milestone.

For the last week I have adjusted my thinking. I express my weight in the British style and my weight loss in straight pounds. So I have lost 33 pounds but my weight is down from 37 st. 7 lbs. to 35 st. 3 lbs. and this week I expect to cross over to 34 st. x lbs. 

That's it, the next month will be about focusing on micromental, not monumental changes. I suppose you could say this is another sort of lie, but if it's the one that keep me motivated, I don't give a damn about that.

Death Comes in Threes, But Not If I Can Help It!

It has been six months since my last post. Geoff and I had embarked on a mutual weight loss goal and we mutually agreed to not talk about it after stopped losing weight. Geoff was dealing with a lot of depression, more than I knew. I was too, but we had very different outlooks on our lives as evidenced by each of our last blog posts.

If you are reading this, then you probably know about Geoff's tragic departure from this world just two months later. Geoff's death sent me into a tailspin. We dropped everything and drove to Arizona to help plan the funeral. Many friends came together and mourned over the terrible loss of one of the world's brightest lights. If you knew Geoff, than you know what I am talking about.

I spent the weeks after the funeral pondering an idea, that one way to pay tribute to Geoff was by completing the journey we began. I fear this is beginning to sound maudlin; not my intent. I recognize that the kind of obesity that he, and I dealt with is debilitating emotionally as well as physically. There but for the grace of God go I.

Then just a couple of weeks ago my Dad passed away from obesity related causes. It isn't what the death certificate say, but congestive heart failure, diabetes, high blood pressure, edema is all part of Metabolic Syndrome. He had lost quite a bit of weight a few years ago (about eighty pounds) and kept most of that off, but he still weighed nearly 300 pounds at his passing.

I fear the future if I can't beat this and so I begin again. I am eating low carb as from experience even when I plateau, I experience less water retention and therefore less joint pain when I eat low carb. In addition I am trying something called intermittent fasting. I think the combination will be more effective then low carb alone.

So what is intermittent fasting? Well there are several variants but I am doing something called the 4/3 plan which is 4 days of regular (in this case low carb) eating and 3 days of "fasting". I put the fasting in quotes because you are allowed 600 calories (as a man, it's 500 for women) on your fast days. Regular days are just that, you eat what you crave. So far I have not seen an increase in eating on my regular or "feed" days, and I have adjusted well to the fast days also.

If you do the math you can see that if you typically eat 2500 calories per day (average for an adult male), then that is 17,500 calories per week. Following the 4/3 plan you eat 11800 per week or an average of 1700 calories per day which is basically a not atypical calorie count for a dieting adult male. Even if you average 3000 calories per day that is still only 13800 calories per week or a bit less than 2000 calories per day (the typically recommended amount of calories for a dieting adult male).

I typically eat 50 calories or so of a very high protein food every hour or so on my fast days, but sometimes I save up a few for dinner; like tonight. One of my favorite meals is grilled cheese with tomato soup, but as I said, I have been trying to cut carbs. Tonight I cooked 1/2 lb. of cauliflower (60 calories) till tender, tossed it to coat with 2 tsp of mayo (60 calories) added 1 oz of cheddar cheese (110 calories) and then cooked under the broiler until the cheese started to get bubbly and had it with a cup of tomato soup (110 calories). Surprisingly effective swap and it's comfort food so it's pretty satisfying. I saved almost 200 calories from the bread and cut out 1/2 the carbs.

That plus 3 oz. of Jack links jerky throughout the day rounds out my 600 calories and I am feeling pretty good. I look forward to fast days in one way, I feel GREAT the day after a fast day. Much higher energy and less physical pain/discomfort. One of the reasons I decided to try this is because of how good I feel after "Fast Sunday".

For those of you who aren't LDS fast sunday is one day each month where you fast for 24 hours typically skipping breakfast and lunch and then donating the money you would have spent as a "fast offering" that money goes to a fund in each ward which is used to help members in financial need. I am the financial clerk in our ward so I see the donations that come in and it surprised me to learn that several non-lds families in our area also do the fast. It is a very uplifting activity.

I am not afraid to change things if I get stuck or get bored. I plan to be free with switching it up, anything to keep the momentum.

Geoff, Dad, I love you with all my heart and I will miss you both, but I am going to do my bvest to keep our separation as long as I can extend it.  If you have any connections up there (yes I said "up there") feel free to lend a brother a hand.