Newnan’s Largest Lessener 16

Well the contest ends any day now.  Weigh in by next Thursday, maybe Wednesday so one more holiday weekend ruined by this.

I mean I am very happy and excited and glad to have participated.

I’ve also long ago come to the realization that I am not dieting, not competing in a contest against six other fat guys from Newnan.  I am changing how I relate to food, much easier than changing how I relate to people, and it’s a process that will go on for the REST OF MY LIFE.  (sigh)

The last pre-weigh in measurements.

Now the numbers:

	2/9/2012	5/18/2012	5/25/2012	LW	AdvoVar
Neck		17.00	17.00	-
Left Arm	16.50	15.00	14.50	(0.50)	(1.50)
Shoulders	58.50	52.50	55.00	2.50	(6.00)
Chest	56.75	51.75	50.75	(1.00)	(5.00)
Waist	55.00	47.75	47.25	(0.50)	(7.25)
Hips	49.00	45.00	44.50	(0.50)	(4.00)
Left Thigh	28.50	24.50	25.00	0.50	(4.00)
Left Calf	18.50	17.50	17.50	-	(1.00)
Left Ankle	10.50	10.00	10.00	-	-
Left Wrist	7.75	7.50	7.25	(0.25)	-
BP	159/104	122/74	137/85	-	-
Pulse	70.00	70.00	76.00	6.00	-
Weight	319.20	276.60	272.00	(4.60)	(47.20)
Contest	330.00			17.58%	(58.00)

Holy amazing weight drop Fat Man!  Even accounting for the plus 0.6 lbs last week that is a FOUR pound drop in the waning days of this contest.

I also have to secretly admit, to the entire internet, that I don’t mind eating like I have been for the last four months.  I barely think about bread in general and the occasional low carb wrap is more quirky than something I feel I need.  I barely eat dairy and it’s mostly a sprinkle of parmesan cheese on a salad or a tablespoon of cheddar in a wrap.  I like fish and I like chicken and the occasional lean cut of beef.  Steamed vegetables don’t need salt or butter, no really!

So no matter what else happens after weigh in and contest end, the eating habits are going to be followed for the rest of my life.

Except there WILL be the once in a long while pizza run.  There must be.

The Exercise Routine:

Speaking of habits, I have none here and not sure I can develop it.

Will work on the morning routine just to get minimal tone in the ‘guns’ and a little bit of flexibility.

The rest will have to wait until I figure out what I might want to do.

Diary of a Fat Kid

I was the kid who hated the end of the school year.  I asked the teacher if they had any recommendations for summer reading lists.

The nun said, “You’re seven, just go outside and play.”

So I read every book on World War II that my dad had in the library at home.

Motivation is a funny thing.  I was really smart in school and I worked at challenging myself when the classwork wasn’t all that hard.  Sometimes I had teachers who made it easy for me to do my own thing and other times I had teachers who were just there to collect a paycheck and didn’t try too hard.  My parents weren’t overly concerned about me and schoolwork.  I did my homework without nagging, in part so I could go out and play with friends before and after dinner and in part because I loved homework, and I was always doing the extra credit work.

The point is when you are doing what you want to do, you just do it, you love to do it, you want to do it and you look forward to doing it.

My brother didn’t do so well in school.  He lacked focus, he had attention deficient disorder and he never got encouragement.  He had trouble studying, he didn’t like it, didn’t want to do it and so he fought against homework, reading, studying and learning.  Now he’s President of the United States.  No he’s not, but he’s going back to school now and trying to get a degree and he is ready to try this time.

I am more like him as a kid than him now.  I am not ready to try with this whole exercise thing, but I need to channel that little kid me and find what will kick me into wanting, needing and desiring to work out for a purpose.  Maybe I’ll take up kickboxing, that way if my brother starts thinking he’s smarter than me…roundhouse kick to his face.

Just like when we were growing up.

The Plan:

Weigh in day, super eating day then purging day.  After all that back to the day to day living of life.

Enjoy your holiday and all those delicious hot dogs, hamburgers and mac ‘n cheese side dishes.  I’m gonna eat the hell outta this salad.

Later.

Newnan’s Largest Lessener 15

(this was last week in case you missed it)   (and you did)
One week to go in the contest.

I think there is one week anyway, we were a little hazy on the final weigh in date and there was much debating over having it before or after the holiday weekend.

So this is late, about three days late, and I was really a bit depressed about the results on Friday.

Without further ado…

Now the numbers:

	2/9/2012	5/11/2012	5/18/2012	LW	AdvoVar
Neck		17.25	17.00	(0.25)
Left Arm	16.50	15.25	15.00	(0.25)	(1.50)
Shoulders	58.50	53.50	52.50	(1.00)	(6.00)
Chest	56.75	52.00	51.75	(0.25)	(5.00)
Waist	55.00	47.50	47.75	0.25	(7.25)
Hips	49.00	44.50	45.00	0.50	(4.00)
Left Thigh	28.50	23.00	24.50	1.50	(4.00)
Left Calf	18.50	18.00	17.50	(0.50)	(1.00)
Left Ankle	10.50	10.00	10.00	-	-
Left Wrist	7.75	7.50	7.50	-	-
BP	159/104	139/82	122/74	-	-
Pulse	70.00	73.00	70.00	(3.00)	-
Weight	319.20	276.00	276.60	0.60	(42.60)
Contest	330.00			16.18%	(53.40)

So I gained a little over half of a pound.  I have no excuses.  I don’t think I’ve hit any sort of plateau or anything.  I may have just eaten a lot more than usually, not necessarily bad foods just more than previous weeks.

I was exercising a bit and then eating more.  I didn’t find this change all that awesome.  I spent the weekend eating less and my Monday to Monday weight stayed exactly the same.

I am still trying to make 20% by the end of the contest.  That’s going to take some effort to get down 16 pounds in 1 week.  Maybe I should sweat it out in the sauna all week.

The Exercise Routine:

I read an article over the week that has made me feel much better about not exercising than ever.  One, exercise for the sake of exercise is just stupid.  Working out to play basketball or football or any other sport makes sense.  Working out to sit at desk for nine hours a day at work then three hours a day at home is terrible.  In fact looking at some people who work out all the time (football players, construction workers) are as fat as anyone. 

Also really thin people can be in lousy shape too because they eat for crap, they just don’t eat that much.  There is a quiet truth that eating right, not diet foods and not protein shakes, will be enough to lose weight.  Exercise industries are built like diet food industries and the social pressure is just weird.
Mostly, I don’t want to exercise and I don’t care anymore.

Diary of a Fat Kid

Summer was the best back in the seventies, before twenty four hour news and structured activity planning.  We’d take our bikes to the pool at Como park, several miles from home, and spend the day there goofing off and totally not peeing in the pool.  We’d bike all over town, we’d play baseball, kickball, football or whatever else.  When the Atari 2600 came out, we’d play that when it was too hot to be outside.

We had A/C in two rooms in the house, my parents’ bedroom and the family room.  Most nights are cool in Minnesota even in July and August, but the humidity was always there and a few nights the heat just clung to the city.  So we’d camp out on the floor of the bedroom or have a sleep over and watch movies in the den all night.

Ice cream trucks, Dairy Queen runs and A&W root beer were all part of the fabric of summer growing up in Saint Paul.  I don’t ever remember anyone talking about calories or fat kids.  The food pyramid was a new idea but mostly we ate cereal for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch and a sensible dinner.  I’ll find a picture of myself circa 1980 and you’ll see the idea of a husky kid then so you can compare it to the husky kids of today.

I can’t hold a candle to the fat kids of today.  Literally, because with all their blubber they might spontaneously combust.

The Plan:

I don’t have much of a plan.  Getting over this whole diet fatigue after months of more or less the same foods and nearly no bread.  Had a sandwich yesterday and the incredibly crappy bun was like the best bread I’d ever eaten.  It’s not a good sense of food anymore and real pizza, I miss real pizza.

After that, who knows?

Later.