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July 20th, 2009:

Day Eight: Recap – Vice

Jul 20th, 2009
by James.
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I may as well confess, I’ve got a problem.

The weird mermaid space lady is using her mentalist powers on me

The weird mermaid space lady is using her mentalist powers on me!

Starbucks, I can’t quit you.

I don’t particularly love coffee, in fact I don’t really like the taste at all. As strained bean runoff goes, it’s alright I guess. But for the most part I find the first few sips okay to pleasurable, the middle tolerable, and the bottom of the cup harsh and unsavory. Time for a warm up!

The smell though – the smell is terrific. I suppose there’s some sense memory at work there. When I was growing up Dunkin’ Donuts coffee was ubiquitous. My grandmother would always get two cups, one to drink now and one to heat up later in the microwave. The microwave was like a super atomizer for the coffee fragrance, and it would hang in the air for several minutes.

On winter mornings I’d clutch the paper coffee cups to warm up my hands. I was never interested in drinking it, just holding it and smelling it.

When I was in high school Dunks started offering vanilla and hazelnut coffee. The taste was nothing like vanilla or hazelnut. It was chemical like floor cleaner. Mixed with three packets or more of sugar, it made the coffee taste like a nutty jolly rancher. With enough cream added, it could be mistaken for nutty jolly rancher ice cream. This was when my problem started.

I wasn’t wild about coffee, but I was cuckoo for candy. I also found that I responded quickly and aggressively to the effects of caffeine, and that I enjoyed them. On a stinging slushy winter morning following two or three hours of sleep, a hot cup of liquid candy that would shock my body awake was exactly what I craved.

It was also a ticket into the coffee club. Taking orders for family and friends for Dunkin’s runs, going out to grab a coffee, being able to complain that I hadn’t had my daily coffee yet, it was all part of a social experience I’d never been apart of. Since I could never get the hang of smoking, this was the next best thing.

Over the years I’ve come to appreciate different varieties of coffee, and to drink it with less and less adornment. Now I can drink good coffee black, and understand that it is good. But that doesn’t mean I like it.

Coffee isn’t a thing that I seek out because I enjoy its company. Rather it is something I need to have because its absence is keenly felt, and without it the day is slushy and stings.

Nutrition Facts:

Total Calories: 1297.5
Calories from Fat: 376
Fat: 28.2 grams
Carbohydrates: 158.95 grams
Fiber: 10.35 grams
Protein: 49.25 grams

Exercise Level (Low):

Walking 1 mile
Fitness Test 15 minutes

Foods Devoured:

Italian Bread
Balsamic Vinegar
Italian Bread
Turkey Burger
Corn
Roast Potatoes
Turkey Meatball
Water
Grande Skinny Vanilla Latte
Water

Week Two: The Plan

Jul 20th, 2009
by James.
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Now that we’re into the second week, we should set up some sort of framework for the next seven days? Right? Come on, whose with me? Baahhh, to hell with you Stanley. On with the planning!

Sekrit Plan - Week 2

Fitness Benchmarks

Wii Sports and Wii Fit both assign you an “age” that is meant to represent your overall health, lower being better. Unfortunately, they’re both pretty useless as a fitness index. Wii Sports is really just measuring how good you are at specific mini games, and Wii Fit is just an assesment of your balance. Both may have some relationship to fitness, but it’s a pretty tenuous one.

For that reason, I’ve added fitness benchmarks to my weekly measurement tracking. These are pretty straightforward. I’ll see how many push ups, crunches, squats, and chin ups I can do before reaching a failure point. Presumably as strength improves and weight from fat drops these numbers should go up. Maybe not substantially, but there should be an upward trend over time.

To get a snapshot of cardio fitness I’ll be tracking resting heart rate. If I understand heart rate correctly, this should go down as fitness improves.

I’ll also be using calipers to measure body fat percentage, along with various other measurements around my body. Some measurements should go down, like belly fat, others should go up or stay the same.

Wii Sports

Each day I’ll be doing the Wii Sports Fitness test which chooses three activities from the Wii Sports mini games. I’ll also play 12 – 15 minutes of one of the more vigorous games – Tennis, Boxing, or Baseball.

Wii Fit

Each day I’ll continue doing the Wii Fit body test and recording the results. In addition I’ll be doing 15 – 45 minutes of exercise using various Wii Fit activities.

EA Sports Active

I will occasionally add EA Sports Active exercises into the mix to get a feel for which ones I enjoy and find effective. I will not be kicking off a structured 30 day challenge just yet. I may in the coming weeks, but I would like to avoid setting up a regimented plan centered around this software at the moment

Punch Out

I will also occasionaly add Punch Out with motion controls and the balance board to the mix. So far I have been playing Punch Out with the traditional NES style control, so it will be interesting to see if playing with motion control is still fun, and if it provides any kind of workout.

Stat-Tasticks! July 20th, 2009

Jul 20th, 2009
by James.
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Bang Bang! Two shots rang out as the butler scrambled over the upturned end tables toward the maid’s cupboard. Her corset torn on the nail of the false crucifix, a crimson trickle of blood wended its way between her alabaster bosoms, braving the dark crevasse. “Calgon, take me away!” She cried into the night. Before Humphrey could stop her, she had crashed through the third story window, toppling ass over teacup into the smoldering haystack below and the waiting arms of her lover, Calgon of Macedonia.

Calgon clutched her tiny face between his thick square man-paws that reeked of cube steak, manure, and the forbidden passions promised by Aqua Velva. “Did you get them, my love?”

“Here,” She said. “It cost me my fortune, my virtue, and my leg. But by god Calgon, I’ve got them!”

Calgon’s chest hair began to grow.

“Show them to me. At once!” He snatched the stained rumpled parchment from Ragina’s trembling paraffin spackled hand. “Dear God,” he said. “It’s worse than we thought…”

It looks a bit like the Big Dipper's bent cousin, Larry Dipper.

It looks a bit like the Big Dipper's bent cousin, Larry Dipper.

One week down! Looking at my weight fluctuation over the last seven days there is a strange dip on the second day followed by a steady increase over the rest of the week, leveling off around the weekend. I don’t know what could have caused the dip. It may be that that I was weighing myself at different times on different days, and sometimes it would occur before or after one of the life processes had taken places. You know the ones I’m talking about. Food goes in, food comes out. You get my drift.

I am talking about poop.

This Week’s Weight:

Monday: 177.7 pounds
Tuesday: 173.9 pounds
Wednesday: 174.4 pounds
Thursday: 175.9 pounds
Friday: 176.6 pounds
Saturday: 177.5 pounds
Sunday: 176.6 pounds

This is the Big Dipper's lazy Aunt Layabout Linda Dipper

This is the Big Dipper's lazy Aunt Layabout Linda Dipper

BMI tells a less dramatic tale. Instead of the emotional rollercoaster of the weight chart, here we see a gentle dip rather than an abrupt crash. If only the economy could have been measured in BMI rather than Dow Jones. Who knows, perhaps it can?

This Week’s BMI:

Monday: 26.93
Tuesday: 26.36
Wednesday: 26.43
Thursday: 26.66
Friday: 26.76
Saturday: 26.77
Sunday: 26.76

Why didn't you tell me this earlier?

Why didn't you tell me this earlier?

You may recall that jumped through a few hoops to calculate a goal weight using infallible data from such reputable sources as insurance companies, the military, and dubious no-name websites. It turns out that all this time the Wii balance board has been keeping something from me. She had an ideal weight in mind the whole time! It’s a bit like melting Wicked Witch of the West and finding out you could have gone back to Kansas any time you wanted to. In fact, it is that. It is that very thing.

You may recall that the target weight I came up with was 149.58. Now here’s the Wii telling me I should actually be shooting for 145.1. Well, that’s a fine how do you do. I plan to stick with my initial goal for this project. I think the Wii’s suggestion may be overly ambitious for 90 days.

As much as I resent Wii Fit’s cagey passive aggressive way of doling out the information, I do appreciate having it. It is a useful data point, and a goal to consider when the 90 days is all wrapped up.

That is kind of a lot. Could we maybe do it with less?

That is kind of a lot. Could we maybe do it with less? No? Crumbs.

Another little smackerel of information that would have been nice to have earlier. This doesn’t really change anything, but it is handy to have some unit of conversion between weight and BMI. Unfortunate that my conversion factor should be so similar to the sign of the beast, but you takes what you can gets.

Measurements

To my surprise, some of my measurements shifted this week by a quarter inch to a full inch. I wasn’t expecting to see a change, since my overall weight is pretty much the same as it was at the beginning of the week. The only thing I can attribute it to is the whims of fluids inside my body under the thrall of moon’s terrible gravity. Or, it may just be that I’m measuring at a slightly different time of day, or a slightly different spot than I did last time. If a measurement didn’t match up I retook at a few times. These are the results, accurate to my capacity for precision :

Height: 68″ (=)
Head: 22.5″ (=)
Neck: 15.5″ (+)
Shoulders: 44″ (+)
Chest: 37″ (=)
Bicep: 11.75″ (-)
Elbow: 10.75″ (+)
Wrist: 6.75″ (-)
Belly: 35.5″ (-)
Waist: 36.5″ (+)
Butt: 39.5″ (-)
Thight: 22″ (=)
Knee: 15″ (=)
Calf: 15.25″ (-)

New Stat-Tasticks!

I’m going to be throwing in a few additional stats at no extra charge!

Body Fat % Measured by Calipers

First off is body fat measured with calipers as opposed to the scale. Some sites claim this is more accurate than the bioelectric impedance scale. I’m not sure my results will be much better since the calipers require some degree of judgment to pick the right spot to measure. As I’m not trained to use them, I’m not sure if I’m getting the correct measurement. But, the result that they came up with is pretty similar to what I’ve been getting from the scale, so I’m going to assume that they’re in the ball park.

Body Fat % Measured by Calipers: 22.1%

Resting Heart Rate

Resting heart rate is useful for finding your target heart rate – the rate you want to get your heart up to during aerobic exercise to give it a good workout without overdoing it. It’s also something of an indicator of fitness. People who are more fit typically have a lower resting heart rate. I really don’t know if this will change much over the course of the project, but I figured it was a useful data point so I’d include it in the weekly tracker.

Resting Heart Rate: 63 beats per minute

Fitness Benchmarks

These fitness benchmarks are a few common exercises repeated until I’m no longer able to do them with proper form, or doing so becomes not just strenuous, but painful. Theoretically as I lose fat and hopefully replace it with some muscle these numbers will improve. I was actually surprised by how many crunches and squats I was able to do. It seems I have more lower body and core strength than upper body. Not surprising since I actually do walk a fair amount, but hardly ever do any lifting or carrying of heavy stuff.

Max Push Ups: 16
Max Crunches: 90
Max Squats: 60
Max Chin Ups: 0

This Week’s Doughy Photo!

July 20th 2009 Progress - or lack thereof - This is an outfit a retired Spiderman may wear in Boca

July 20th 2009 Progress - or lack thereof - This is an outfit a retired Spiderman may wear in Boca

In defiance of normal pregnancy procedure the food fetus has gotten no larger over the past week. It must have settled into a comfortable size and shape. It hasn’t been kicking as much either. These swim trunks were discarded by a citizen of taste sometime around 2001 and scavenged with the thought that one day they would prove useful. Well my friends, that day has arrived.

Week One: Recap – Self Knowledge

Jul 20th, 2009
by James.
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Now that the first week is under our belt, we should have some interesting data. Remember that this first week I wasn’t exercising at all, just going about my normal routine and cataloging it to gain some insight into how I got into this pudgy predicament.

Had Aristotle been more curious fabulous secret powers may have been revealed to him

Had Aristotle been more curious, fabulous secret powers may have been revealed to him.

I Eat Too Much Food

This seems obvious enough, but I figured it was worth stating. Over the course of the week I ate 21,562.4 calories. That breaks down to 3,080.34 calories per day. You may recall from the calorie counting post that I only need somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,256.43 calories to maintain my current weight. That means at the rate of eating I’ve been going at, I’ll gain about 1.65 pounds per week. Of course, that number assumes I’m not getting any exercise at all. In actuality I did do some walking and rearranging of furniture during the week that probably burned some of the calories. Still, I’m taking in more energy than I’m burning up and that is a recipe for a fatty.

I Don’t Eat Good Food

A lot of the food that I eat is highly processed. For example the Burger King Tendercrisp Chicken Sandwich meal, or the Chocolate Marshmallow Mateys cereal. When I do eat something that’s close to natural like a handful of walnuts or a cup of yogurt, I tend to add chocolate to make it more palatable. I don’t eat a wide variety of vegetables, and the vegetables that I do eat are often starchy. I eat out a lot, which makes it difficult to control portions and to know what’s in the food I’m eating. When I eat out, I usually go for the tastiest thing I see rather than the food that may be the most healthy. Fat caloires accounted for 34.41% of the total calories I ate over the course of the week. The recommendation is no more than 30%.

I Eat a Lot all at Once

Rather than having small meals throughout the day, I tend to go several hours without eating anything and then cram a ton of food in over the span of an hour. I generally don’t feel hungry until I start eating. Once the seal is broken I can’t get enough. Sometimes even after my stomach feels full I still have a mental or emotonial craving to eat more. I feel a though I won’t be satisfied until I eat just one more thing; usually something sweet. This causes me to add an unecessary desserts on top of otherwise satisfying meals or grab seconds after I’m already feeling kind of full.

I Don’t Drink Water

This is pretty straightforward. Overall it looks like I don’t drink enough of anything. I’m surprised I’m not dehydrated all the time. Maybe I am and I don’t realize it. A lot of what I drink contains either caffine or alchohol. From what I’ve gathered both are fine in moderation, but when your diet doesn’t include much in the way of water or juice to offset it, I guess you have to call the consumption immoderate. Pretty much every source of diet advice reccomends at least 8 glasses of water a day. I barely get 8 glasses in a week.

I Don’t Exercise

I’m not completely sedentary. I do walk about a mile or more on average each day and I do some routine chores around the house. But I’m not engaging in regular exercise that gets my heart rate up or contributes to muscle development. From everything I’ve read so far, the benefits of exercise seem pretty clear, and the risks of inactivity seem equally apparent. Being a couch potato is linked to just about every health problem you can imagine, while being active is associated with a portfolio of benefits from mood alteration to cancer prevention. Some of the claims may be hokum, but regardless the bottom line is proven to improve your health, it carries little risk, and it doesn’t cost anything. That’s a pretty compelling case for exercise.

My Sleep Pattern is Erratic

Some days I’ll only sleep for 4-6 hours (or less), other days I’ll sleep for 12 -14 hours. At either extreme I wake up still feeling tired. The happy medium is 8 – 10 hours.  There’s evidence that suggests that lack of sleep can contribute to weight gain. There’s also the simple fact that lack of sleep leaves you with less energy and less motivation to exercise. I also find that when I’m tired I have less willpower. So even if I know I shouldn’t eat a delicious ice cream cookie sandwich, I find it harder to resist if I’m tired and fussy.

Other Observations

Just a few other observations in no particular order:

  • I eat a lot of chicken, usually fried. It’s my main protein.
  • My total calories breakdown is 61% Carbs / 19% Protein / 31% Fat.
  • I get about 21 grams of fiber per day.
  • Silly sources of calories include alcohol and chocolate.
  • I consider a package to be one serving, no matter how big or small.
  • I crave the taste of chocolate if I go too long without it.
  • I tend to snack right before dinner.
  • I will eat out of boredom, or to procrastinate.
  • I eat fast and don’t pay attention to what I’m eating.
  • I will choose something that is easy to prepare over something that tastes better or is healthier.

Conclusions!

Based on this week of examining my relationship with food, I think the following should be my guiding principles:

Eat Good Food

  • Lay off the processed stuff.
  • Eat a variety of vegetables and fruit.
  • Eat whole grains.
  • Avoid added sugar or fat.
  • Chocolate is a sometimes food.

Eat Reasonable Portions

  • A portion does not equal a whole package of a given food.
  • Stop eating before you feel stuffed.
  • Wait awhile after eating before going for more food.
  • Eat slowly, taste what you’re eating, try to enjoy it.
  • You don’t have to finish everything on your plate.

Drink Water

  • Drink at least 8 glasses of water per day.
  • Choose water rather than soda or coffee when given the choice.
  • Bring water when traveling.

Exercise

  • Do 30 – 90 minutes of exercise per day.
  • Get heart rate up into the target zone.
  • Add strength training to burn calories more efficiently.

Have Fun (without alcohol)

  • Stay motivated with fun activities (Wii)
  • Lay off the booze.
  • Get outdoors as much as possible.
  • Look to others for support and encouragement.

There aren’t any Earth shattering revelations in the points above. Just some straightforward guidelines based on the advice that I’ve been reading and my own weaknesses. Hopefully I can start putting these principles into practice right away and start improving my health and moving toward my goal.

Weekly Nutrition Facts:

Total Calories: 21,562.4
Calories from Fat: 7,418.746
Fat: 836.779 grams
Carbohydrates: 2475.88 grams
Fiber: 146.37 grams
Protein: 761.24 grams

Weekly Macronutrient Breakdown