A day late and a few pounds lighter, but unfortunately no picture update. I was sick yesterday, and I weighed in but neglected to take a photo, then went back to bed. Then I forgot all about it until a friend texted my phone to ask where the post was. Oops! To all my loyal fans (yeah, right) I apologize; here, in keeping with Joel’s original Dethroner manifesto, is a picture of a lion in my belly’s stead. It is the best I can do for now.
This week’s update comes at a time of crisis and drama! Not really, but work with me; you see, I seem to be cheating a bit. Or a lot. On Friday I went out and had a few beers; then on Sunday I had pizza and beer. Beer is bad enough by itself, but pizza should really just be right out. I have no doubt this is slowing down the weight loss, but I still lost a few pounds this week, so I am faced with something of a dilemma. If I can occasionally drink beer (and even, for the love of sweet carbs and calories, eat pizza) and continue to drop weight—even at a somewhat reduced clip—why shouldn’t I do that? I don’t know! Half of me pleads with myself, “Cut it out ninny, you’re not doing yourself any favors,” and this is undoubtedly true, but I cannot lie, every bite of that pizza was absolutely delicious. Perhaps even more because it is the forbidden fruit.
One thing I’m really starting to get hip to is not eating; or at least, not eating for the wrong reasons. I have learned what it is to be hungry, really hungry; for my stomach to actually be empty and my body to be saying, “Hey buddy, you really should eat something.” What I used to think of as hunger was apparently just a non-hunger compulsion to eat. Like most Americans, I would say things like, “Oh man, I am starving,” (and half-believe it) when I was in reality not even hungry at all. I was just feeling this biological compulsion me to dive in. Maybe it’s a survival thing from the days before megamarts and McDonald’s, when food was far more scarce. Maybe it’s entirely psychological, having so long associated food with virtually every activity: watching TV with a trusty bag of chips; going to the movies with a bucket of popcorn; snacking on junk while playing D&D. Yeah, that’s right, D&D. Save vs. death, bitch!
I have found the food-detachment process to be surprisingly similar to quitting smoking. The thought of going to the movies without a big bucket of buttery popcorn was, at first, appalling, much like the thought of going to the movies and not having a cigarette immediately upon exiting the building used to be. I’d find myself asking, “What’s the point!?” Of course, the point is to go see the damn movie. If you can’t enjoy it without popcorn or a smoke then you’re a tool (or at least an addict). I hope to be free of those associations by the time this whole thing is over, even if it means I sheepishly eat half a pizza once in a while.
So here we are, the stats. Dropped another three pounds, though not much change on the belly front. Anybody want to engage in a friendly wager about when I’ll get under 200 pounds? Should be next week or the week after.
Date: 04-18-2007 (Days on program: 35—we’re pretending it’s Wednesday)
Weight: 204 (Total lost: 23 pounds)
BMI: 31.0 (Category: Obese…barely!)
Belly: 41″ (Started: 45″)
I suggest you give yourself one day (or maybe half a day) a week for cheating. In that time, you eat/drink whatever you want, provided you don’t consume it in ridiculous portions. It shouldn’t be too much of a burden on your diet, and will lessen the burden on your mind/taste buds considerably.
I did what you did, and never once “cheated”. -50 lbs, three years later, still -45.
I felt it was easier to not be tempted, and when I did have a little taste of something “bad” – like a single potato chip – it was incredibly good. But I didn’t need to have more. And I was concerned I would enter into a trade-off deal with myself “Well, I’ll just have a beer today, and not have something tomorrow.” Screw that, I knew I’d pass out if I didn’t eat what I needed to eat that next day.
Now, having said that, I did have a medium-sized Slurpee factored into my calorie plan. Every. Single. Day. Oh yeah, baby. Drove people nuts.
Everyone I know who allows cheating has fallen off the diet. But they’re probably just weak-willed anyway. After all, they needed to cheat.
And you’re right on the money with the “want to eat” vs. “hungry” feeling.
I think what Callous said is actually a good idea. If you factor in a cheat food into your daily or weekly diet, you know how those calories are impacting your total caloric intake. Also, if you know you’re going to have that food or drink, you’ll look forward to it and appreciate it.
One thing I noticed about myself when I was losing weight (I went from 215 to a now steady 170 over about 3 years) is that when I started making progress I would get scared of eating. I wanted a pizza, would think and obsess about a pizza, but know I shouldn’t have it. Then I would give in, eat, and feel really guilty about it afterwards. One pizza will not totally derail your diet, if you’re aware of it. If you don’t count those calories and make sure you’re sticking to a schedule all the other days, you’ll soon find the train coming off the tracks.
I wouldn’t beat yourself up about it. Everybody needs a cheat meal otherwise you’ll go nuts. But don’t get too out of hand. A few beers was o.k., then it lead to a pizza and beers, what’s next?
One other thing, always go with the thin crust.
Been in your shoes before…Software developer and my peak was 245, miserable in the morning, miserable in the afternoon and miserable in the evening, lol… Decided it was time to do something about it and 1 yr later I’m now at 175. Those feelings of hunger are not a good sign for long term weight loss and you shouldn’t have them. I suggest protein intake. Get yourself a 5lb tub of protein and everytime u feel the hunger urge (exception of meal time) take a protein shake. Protein leaves you feeling full and keeps you from shedding muscle weight (which drives metabolism and ultimately burns fat). Also, a cheat meal is good for you once a week (maybe not Pizza every week) and if your wanting to trim the storage tank (belly) the beer has to become an occasional beverage of choice. :-) Once you start seeing major progress and feeling much better, those cheat meals will become less appealing. I’d be willing to share what i ate with you to lose the pounds if your interested. Just drop me an email and congrats on the weight u lost this week.
For the record, I wouldn’t say the Friday beer led to the pizza ‘n beer on Sunday, and both were more or less factored into the diet; if not with all the anal number-crunching one might hope for. While I normally try to consume around 800 or 900 calories per day, on Friday I went up to about 1500 including the beer; on Sunday I didn’t eat anything all day except the pizza and beer (yeah, I know) and while I didn’t bother to tabulate the caloric content, I am pretty sure it was still less than my approximate BMR of ~2000 calories. I figure, if I’m around 800-900 most days, and never over 2000, I should be alright, but we’ll see! In any case, I don’t plan to have another pizza-n-beer day. It was not exactly spontaneous–I’d been thinking about it all day Saturday and finally decided to go for it, so it’s not like I had any guilt. My rules for cheating (which I did break a *little* over the weekend) are more or less:
1) Plan it in advance.
2) Factor it in as much as possible.
3) Stay as far away from 2000 calories and 100 carbs as possible.
4) Space it out to about once a week, no more than twice.
Sounds reasonable to me.
Cheating once a week would be alright, assuming that you stick to a strict regimen during the weeks you’re on diet. This link could help you out perhaps:
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/04/06/how-to-lose-20-lbs-of-fat-in-30-days-without-doing-any-exercise/
I don’t know if it will work for you but I hope you find it interesting and helpful. The idea of a Sunday free-for-all at any restaurant of my choosing sounds attractive to me.
Hi Ryan,
I just wonder of all pictures that you could imagine to post here, why is it the lion? Anyways, hope to see a picture of you cause it seems that you’re too worried of your figure(body) or your weight to be exact. If you want to loss weight, you should at least be serious with it. I mean, make a determination on the things that you really want to do for you to achieve things that you want.
I will share you this one:
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/04/29/from-geek-to-freak-how-i-gained-34-lbs-of-muscle-in-4-weeks/
This is a blog about gaining 34 lbs of muscles in 4 weeks, and loosing fats and calories at the same time. This is about self-discipline.
Hope you will like it! And looking forward for follow up post for this. (Put your picture next time):-)
Thanks and more power to you!
Cassandra