It's a New Phil, Weeks 87 and 88
A Setback
Up nine pounds since the last weigh-in to 239.
Sheesh. Well, I know what to do.
Live to see it.
September 26, 2007
September 11, 2007
It's a New Phil, Weeks 85 and 86
The Transformation of Desire
Charles Harper's talk at the Singularity Summit had particular resonance for the New Phil series. Here's the abstract from the relevant portion of his talk:
People use power to pursue ends they desire. Therefore the increase of personal power calls for the transformation of personal desire. Science, however, knows next to nothing of the transformation of desire. Monks, hermits, fasters, counterculturals – the athletes of the spirit; these are the sorts of people who work on and know about the transformation of desire. A wise approach towards the development of superintelligence probably should include serious consideration on how to transform desire so that enhanced powers are not abused to serve un-enhanced desires. The transformation of desire for humans involves what in virtue ethics is called “habitus” – the formation of habituated character through devoted, willful practice within a space of real freedom. Virtue is not a matter of either knowledge or “programming.” And it also often is not limited to only individual lives. It occurs in group contexts such as families, teams, monastic orders, communities. Also, people who engage in the transformation of desire often are involved in worship and prayer. They seek inspiration and transformative power from God. In view of such issues, what would be the “transformation of desire” for a superintelligence?
The national tendency towards obesity is a small but revealing example of what Harper is talking about. The "power" in question here is both technological and economic.We can produce and have access to far more food than we actually need to eat. I've been chronicling an attempt to create my own habitus. Who knew?
Next time -- a long overdue (and dreaded) weigh in. Stay tuned.
August 26, 2007
It's a New Phil, Weeks 83 and 84
Recently I added running to my exercise menu. While in San Diego last week, I got up one morning and starting jogging along the pier and just kept hugging the water's edge until I realized that I had run all the way from my hotel back to the airport -- which trip had cost $11 plus tip by cab! Of course, the cab driver couldn't take the same route I did, but still.
Running is a great choice while on the road -- especially when you're someplace like SD which provides such nice whether and beautiful scenery to run through. I mean, taking my bike with me isn't really an option, and I get pretty tired of stationery bikes, treadmills, and elliptical trainers in hotel gyms. Being outdoors is more fun, even in a city. Or maybe especially in a city. In some of the places I've stayed over the years, running would probably feel more like a survival thing than strictly a matter of ensuring fitness.
But the other reason for adding running is that I've observed lots more fat people riding bikes than jogging. Of course, that could mean a lot of things -- fat people start out riding bikes and then end up jogging, the fat joggers are all there but on a trail I don't use, people jog because they're thin and it doesn't hurt them the way it would heavier folks (as opposed to concluding that they're thin because they jog), etc. But I think it's also reasonable to assume that running might represent a somewhat more vigorous workout, or that metabolically, it might just be more effective at burning fat.
So I was very pleased with myself when, yesterday, I ran one of my suburban mountain-biking courses. The distance is hard to estimate, but it was somewhere between 6 and 8 miles, with lots of grueling uphill stretches, several highly satisfying downhill stretches, and very little flat ground: pretty much the opposite of the terrain on the San Diego waterfront, seeing as I didn't push on up the cliffs to La Jolla.
So let's call it 7 miles. That means that I did better than 10K, not bad for a beginner. I mean, you can't possibly run like that and keep much fat on your body, now can you?
Um, well, yes you can. Check out the September Scientific American if you get the chance. It's all about nutrition, obesity, starvation, metabolism -- all things food. One of the articles, Can Fat Be Fit? makes this observation:
Triathletes can now top 300 pounds, part of the fat-but-fit movement.
So people can be competitively engaged in an activity that has them swimming a mile, running 6 miles, and biking 25 miles and still look like this:
Not to say there's anything wrong with the way this guy looks, I'm just surprised that a person could do that much cardio exercise and still be so big. I tend to expect a story more like this one -- very similar to my own, with that starting weight of 297 pounds -- where people lose a bunch of weight related to improving their athletic performance. Per the Sci-Am article, there are those who argue that people should be focused on fitness, not weight loss. Our triathlete shown above would be an example of somebody who is achieving remarkable things athletically, perhaps all the more remarkable when one considers his size.
All of which leads me pretty much back to the same conclusion as last time: this stuff is complicated.
August 13, 2007
It's a New Phil, Weeks 81 and 82
Last time out, reader Gerald Hibbs wrote:
Howdy Phil,
I always notice people who have never struggled with weight saying something like, "Hey fatty, just exercise more and eat less. It isn't rocket science, you just have to have self discipline!"
Now that you have lost a good deal of weight but are stuck for a looooooong time at a plateau what do you think about this? You seem to be eating right and are certainly exercising a lot yet still aren't losing more weight! How can that be?! Is it possible that things are a little more complex?
This was driven home to me when I saw a documentary that follow people who received gastric bypass. One young girl lost a lot of weight but stuck with a plateau where she was still very overweight. Meanwhile she couldn't eat more than about 800 calories a day.
First off, people who say things like that really get on my nerves. The hardest thing about being fat -- at least in my personal experience -- isn't any of the physical stuff. It's the judgment that people will readily and willingly heap on you. I have an extremely fit friend who is similarly bothered by being told, "Yeah, well, it's easy for you," when in fact being in shape represents a lot of grueling work for her.
I don't know what it's like for anybody but me, and neither does anybody else. And for me, it's pretty hard.
Still, I don't think even a one- or two-year plateau is anything to get discouraged about. Nor would I think being stuck at 800 calories per day the end of the world. (And I should say that I'm taking in a lot more than that while maintaining my weight at the current level.) Metabolism is a highly versatile thing; if it can change in one direction, it can change in the other. It just takes patience.
Patience is key, anyway. One way or another, it took me a long time to become a 300-pound guy who was on course to be a 300-pound guy for the rest of his life. I could have become a 200-pound guy in a matter of months, but by now I might be halfway back to 300.
It is said that we live in an age in which people are able to reinvent themselves. Celebrities are noted for this, but regular folks can reinvent themselves, too. We adopt new careers, new looks, new relationships, new personal philosophies...all in pursuit of becoming new versions of ourselves. The New Phil program is a long-term project of self reinvention.
I knew from the start that, in order to work, it had to be more than a matter of making superficial or temporary behavioral changes in pursuit of some numerical goal. I've been down that road lots of times, with what could be a called a spotty record of success. But even that would be a pretty generous assessment. In all honesty, every one of those earlier attempts was an abject failure. The real motivation behind starting any diet or exercise program would have always been to go from being a fat guy to being a thin guy. And yet, a year and a half ago, I was still (or once again) a fat guy.
The earlier attempts didn't work, because on some level I didn't expect them to. The truth is, I believe that going from being a thin guy to being a fat guy is just about the hardest thing in the world. As much as I would have liked to have done it over the last 30 years or so, I never found a way to make it happen. Every diet I went on, I did it with my fingers crossed, fully expecting – even if I wouldn't admit it openly – that sooner or later I would once again be eating the way I wanted to. The stark calculus that said there was no world in which I could eat that way and also be a thin guy never got through.
So the primary thing I've been working on these many months is getting it through my head that if I want a different life, I have to become, in a very real sense, a different person. That's why it's called "It's a New Phil." What I eat, and when and how I eat it – along with how much exercise I get – these are all secondary. The real work is changing what I believe about who I am. It takes a long time, but I'm getting there.
That's why a long period of very little movement on the scale is not a matter of much concern to me. Every week in which I haven't started back up towards 300 is an assertion that I really have changed the way my body works and have made some progress on those fundamental beliefs about myself. So maybe now I see myself as a 230-pound guy. When I weigh in at or around 230 pounds, is that a problem?
Nope. It's a cause for celebration.
Sure, I want to go farther than I have, but that requires – above all – that I have once and for all put away the old beliefs and expectations. Even staying at 230 requires a constant struggle between the old beliefs and the new. (With things like metabolic changes adding to the challenge.) But the fact that my weight doesn't start back up means that the physiological changes are setting in and the new beliefs are starting to hold their own.
Moreover, it proves that when I'm good and ready, I can also change how my body works, along with my beliefs and expectations, to those of a New Phil who weighs 197, 187, 175 – whatever I decide the final answer is.
July 28, 2007
It's a New Phil, Weeks 79 and 80
Something Weird with Your Arm
Well, my week off from reporting did not yield the benefit I was looking for -- my weight remains at its stubborn, long plateau level of 230. I'm telling you, when this thing breaks, it's going to break. But not this week.
Getting up from the breakfast table last Saturday, my wife commented that there was something "weird" with my arm. I looked at my arm but couldn't see what she meant.
"Your muscle looks like it's...sticking out or something..."
So it turns out that "something weird" with my arm was muscular definition. This is a good discovery for her to make, one that will help to brace her for changes to come. Eventually there's going to be something weird with my whole body!
July 14, 2007
It's a New Phil, Week 78
I'm taking a 2-week hiatus on this feature. We'll rejoin the story come week 80.
July 08, 2007
It's a New Phil, Week 77
Well, another two weeks gone and my weight remains at 230 -- 3 pounds up from my low-water mark on the program, 67 pounds down from the starting point.
If I'm going to lose those last 30 pounds in the following 23 weeks, I'm going to have to take measures. Maybe I start counting calories again? I don't want to do anything drastic, but I would like to make that very round goal of 100 pounds in 100 weeks.
What to do, what to do...
July 01, 2007
It's a New Phil, Week 76
My Fifth Day of Exercise
At 127 hours for the year, I am well into my fifth consecutive day of exercise for the year. I'm still working towards a goal of doing 500 of all moves in one workout -- at which point I think I can claim some baseline level of fitness. However, I came across this article the other day which has got me now mixing up the longer and shorter workouts The relevant advice (Tip 31 of 16):
1. Limit your workouts to 30-40 minutes. Though the tendency of some people who really want to get a lot out of their workouts is to spend a lot of time at the gym, the truth is that after 30 or 40 minutes, the benefit isn’t as great. To go that long, you’d have to lower the intensity of the workout, and that means that you’re spending too much time working out. It’s better to work out at a higher intensity for a shorter amount of time.
I can see that, and I like the idea. Although I must say that the middle part of my longer workouts -- where I do the sets with the highest number of repetitions -- tend to be pretty intense. But they have an extended warm-up and cool-down before and after. I'm going to keep doing that variety at least one a week while working on doing some more high high-intensity work. I also might go ahead and move up to a heavier hammer now for the intensity workouts -- instead of waiting until I complete the 500, which was the original plan. That will give me the chance to try out tip number 8: Heavier Weight.
The 16 ideas strike me as mostly pretty good (although the list is a bit repetitious). I'm doing several of those things now and, as noted above, thinking about trying out a couple more.
June 23, 2007
It's a New Phil, Weeks 74 and 75
Ramping Up?
A break-even fortnight, with my weight holding steady at 230. I've been watching what I eat pretty carefully, although I did make one change about three weeks ago that may be a factor. My breakfast routine over the past few months has been a bowl of granola with skim milk: yummy, good source of energy, good source of fiber, etc. But I was noticing that with an intense workout in the morning followed by this breakfast, and usually a fruit and veggie lunch (tomato sandwich + apple + orange or some variation on that theme), I was feeling pretty washed out at the end of the day. Plus, I had noticed for some time that I wasn't building muscle at quite the rate I had planned.
Then one Saturday morning I followed up an intense workout with a breakfast of scrambled eggs, had a salad for lunch, and felt fine all day. My observation -- I feel better if I eat some protein in the morning. And, come to think of it, it couldn't hurt to take in a little more protein if I'm trying to build muscle.
So about three weeks ago I swapped the granola for a whey protein and psyllium fiber shake (my own recipe*), and I've noticed an immediate change in how I feel throughout the day. Plus, I seem to be observing a little more muscular definition, although obviously it's still fairly early in the process. The downside is that my weight didn't drop over the past two weeks, even though I was eating pretty reasonably and exercising vigorously.
Amanda, the nurse at Dr. Harris' office who does the weighing, suggested that if I am putting on even a little bit of muscle, I have to keep in mind that it weighs more than fat. I might even gain some weight, but it all comes down to the basics of watching what I eat, keeping up with the exercise, and recognizing the relationship between the two.
So with 25 weeks and 30 pounds to go towards my goal, I'm going to have to decide whether I should keep on my current track or ramp things up a little for the home stretch. For example, I might go back to counting calories. I don't want to do anything drastic, but I might have to do something to finally break out of this long plateau.
But first, I'm going to keep things exactly where they are for two weeks and see what the next weigh-in brings. If I've learned anything over the past year and a half, it's that losing weight isn't about snap judgments and instant results.
* Phil's Breakfast Protein Shake
4 scoops whey protein
2 tablespoons psyllium husk
20 ounces water
25-ounce shaker cup with lid (or you can use a blender)
72 grams protein
414 calories
11 grams dietary fiber
Pour 8-12 ounces of water into the shaker. Scoop in the whey protein. I recommend vanilla-flavored. You get a nice cream-of-wheat effect with the fiber in there. Some like chocolate, but I personally believe that adding chocolate flavoring to a protein shake is a disservice both to chocolate and to the shake. Better just to have a square or two of good dark chocolate at some point in the day; it tastes better and it's loaded with anti-oxidants. Using a spoon, stir the whey into the water until smooth (this avoids lumping.) Add the psyllium husk and then the rest of the water. Secure the lid and then start shaking -- 30 seconds or so generally does the trick. Enjoy!
On non-hammer (bicycle) days, I use only two scoops of the protein powder, which cuts the calories by about 200 and reduces the protein grams to 36.
June 21, 2007
The Lengths I Won't Go To
I didn't do a New Phil post this week. There will be a new one on Saturday covering the past two weeks. Those who have been following my weight-loss and muscle-building adventures know that I'm not afraid to try new things in pursuit of my goals -- things like getting up at 5 AM so I can swing a sledgehammer for 90 minutes, for example.
However, the overall objective has been to make slow and permanent changes in what I'm composed of and how I behave. It's primarily for that reason that I won't be sampling the new weight-loss wonder drug, alli. However, even if I were trying to lose weight fast, I think I would shy away from that stuff.
A link to an explanation follows. A little heads up here -- if you're offended by frank (very frank) scatological references, don't go there. Otherwise, enjoy.
Okay, then. Why I won't be trying out the new miracle weight loss treatment.
June 09, 2007
It's a New Phil, Week 73
Down two pounds this week, back to 230 pounds for a total weight loss of 67 pounds. With a weigh-in every two weeks, I'm actually going to have to speed things up to meet the new target. Onward!
June 03, 2007
It's a New Phil, Week 72
A Big One-Oh-Oh
No, not that big one-oh-oh -- as I mentioned last week, I plan to be there in about 28 weeks. The one hundred for this week is 100 hours of exercise officially logged for the year, putting me well over my fourth consecutive day of exercise for the year. It's only June, and I think I can safely say that I have logged more exercise time this year than any previous year of my adult life.
Some would argue that the amount of time spent exercising isn't necessarily the best measure of progress. I tend to agree. Like pounds lost, time spent exercising shows a certain kind of progress in its own right, but it doesn't tell enough of the story. For example, if you're losing pounds of muscle rather than fat, that's bad. Likewise, if you're spending hours working out but making no appreciable gains in performance -- speed, strength, amount of work performed, etc. -- you might still be burning some fat, but that isn't all we're going for, here.
So I'm pleased to announce that I hit another nice round number this week, the big three-oh-oh: on my way to the big five-oh-oh. At the rate I'm going, I should hit 500 moves per exercise right around the time I hit 100 pounds lost. That should be fun. Then I'm going to start focusing on an entirely different number --the weight of the hammer. By the time I hit 500, I think I'll be ready for a heavier hammer. Maybe an 18 pounder? Maybe a 22 pounder?
But where does it all end?
well, let me tell you. There was this female bodybuilder at the store where I buy vitamins yesterday afternoon. I just missed seeing her in person, but my wife and I were admiring her poster as we checked out. This program will be complete when I:
1. Have lost all the weight I want to.
2. Acquire the strength and physical endurance that I'm striving for, and
3. Get arms the size of that female bodybuilder.
Modest goals, perhaps, but they're all I need.
May 27, 2007
It's a New Phil, Week 71
A New Goal
Up five pounds this week back to 232. Dr. Harris and I got to talking about this long plateau that I've been on and we decided that it might be time to ramp things up a bit. So at week 71, having established that I can lose weight and keep it off, I think it's time to move on to my target within the foreseeable future.
So the new goal is -- 100 pounds in 100 weeks. That means I have 29 weeks to lose these last 35 pounds and get myself down to a svelte 197 pounds. Let the games begin!
May 19, 2007
It's a New Phil, Week 70
And..Resume!
As I mentioned last week, this was a rest week for me on the exercise front. I picked a good week for it, as I was in Boston at a conference most of the week and there weren't many opportunities for exercise, anyhow. The hotel where I was staying had a gym, but it's being renovated; and I have yet to try out bringing the hammer with me on a trip as checked luggage, but that's coming.
Meanwhile, I got a couple of encouraging messages along the way. First, we heard from reader Cypherk, who writes:
Keep up the good work. I started the 300 work out after your suggestion and it is working nicely for me although my moves are way low and i need to buy a pull up bar
The discussion of the 300 workout was here, for those who missed it.
Great stuff, Cypherk. I, too, am lacking a pull-up bar -- that was the one piece of equipment that kept me going back to the rec center before I started getting serious about the hammer workout. Pull-ups have got to be just about the best upper-body work you can do without weights. Keep us posted on your progress.
I also got a call from Amanda at Dr. Harris's office. It seems I haven't made it for a weigh-in in about a month. This mostly has to do with the fact that my traditional weigh-in day was on Friday and I now work in Boulder on Fridays, which is a longish commute from here and I just haven't been able to squeeze a doctor visit in. On the other hand, it might have something to do with the fact that I could possibly be up a few pounds and I don't want to know about it.
Which means I definitely need to get back there. Thursday. It's happening. Stay tuned.
Anyhow, Amanda wasn't calling to pester me about whether I was avoiding them or gaining weight. She just wanted to let me know that I was missed and that I could come in any day, not just Fridays. Folks, if you're trying to get healthy, I can't recommend enough finding a doctor -- or other professional -- who is truly interested in you as a person and your well being. I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but Dr. Harris and his staff are the greatest. It makes all the difference.
May 13, 2007
It's a New Phil, Week 69
And...Rest
After four consecutive weeks of doing 250, then 260, then 270, then 280 total moves for each exercise, I'm taking a week off. I think I'll take a week off every four weeks, to allow my body to recover and to lock in what gains I've made. At this rate, I will make it to 500 by the end of the year, rather than sometime in November.
May 05, 2007
It's a New Phil, Week 68
Working Toward the 500
A really intense exercise plan was developed for the actors in the movie 300 which allowed them to be just about the only thing in the movie that wasn't a special effect. The 300 workout is pretty intense, a total of 300 moves consisting of:
25 pull-ups
50 deadlifts at 135 pounds
50 push-ups
50 box jumps with a 24-inch box
50 "floor wipers" (a core and shoulders exercise at 135 pounds)
50 "clean and press" at 36 pounds (a weight-lifting exercise)
25 more pull-ups -- for a total of 300 reps
As I mentioned last week, I'm currently doing about 250 repetitions of six different exercises with each workout. Not all of my sledgehammer exercises are as intense as those listed above, although some are pretty much the same -- push-ups, for example. All that's to say, when I hit the 500 mark on reps later this year, I'll be doing a total of 3000 moves with each workout. But again, my moves aren't quite as intense.
So, no, I won't be in ten times better shape than the actors in 300.
Maybe just four or five.
April 28, 2007
It's a New Phil, Week 67
My Third Day of Exercise
I topped 72 hours of exercise for the year this week, meaning that I have spent a total of three days working out since the year began. Most of that time has been spent doing one of my two sledge hammer routines, but I have also been walking and have now added riding my bike to the list of activities.
Dedicating this much time for exercise hasn't been too big a challenge, but I'm getting to the point now where I have the endurance to do much longer workouts with the hammer, so I've started getting up early to work out. I might have to get me an alarm clock one of these days...
I think I mentioned a while back that the standard workout consisted of 100 moves of each of 6 exercises (several of which are repeated twice on the right side and the left.) I called completing 100 moves for each of the 6 exercises a Century. Usually I would do ten sets of ten moves each. Now I'm up to 2.5 centuries per day (ten sets of 25 moves for each exercise) and I plan to increase that weekly until -- sometime before the end of the year -- I'm doing five centuries a day.
If nothing else, that means I'll be doing 500 push-ups a day. So, you know, if the Marines decide they want to start taking guys in their mid forties, I'll be ready for boot camp.
April 21, 2007
It's a New Phil, Week 66
Suburban Mountain Biking
First bike ride of the year was kind of rough. I did about 8 miles, mostly just "laps" around the unpaved part of the open space across the street from my house. My subdivision, Highlands Ranch, was once three or four real ranches which were bought up 30 years ago or so for housing. My immediate neighborhood is on the site of the old Cheese Ranch (where they raised diary rather than beef cattle, obviously) and the open space is a little piece of the former grazing land. I also think the open space includes the site of the ranch house, although all that remains is the windmill. There are both paved and unpaved trails running though the open space, and these can be used -- sometimes with a quick jog of a block or three on real streets -- to connect to a whole system of trails running through other bits of open space and green belts throughout Highlands Ranch which, when I'm feeling really ambitious, can take me out of the subdivision to the Platte Rive, Chatfield reservoir, and up Waterton Canyon into mountains.
There are a couple of less extreme ways of getting vertical using the same system of trails; the route I just described would be at least 16 miles just getting to bottom of the canyon. There are nice bluffs to the south and east which I can get to in 20 minutes or so; they're enough to make one think that one is really doing some mountain biking, anyhow. I've not yet done any actual biking on real mountain trails. This summer I hope to be able to report differently.
Did some spring cleaning and decided to throw out my old golf clubs. They were ancient (I bought them used years ago) and they weren't very good. However, I kept the excellent leather bag. It now holds my sledge hammer and several smaller hammers.
April 14, 2007
It's a New Phil, Week 65
Down three pounds this week to 225 for a total weight loss of 72 pounds!!! Another landmark, yesterday I did a total of three hundred repetitions of each of the exercises in my standard sledgehammer workout. I'm hoping to be at 500 by the end of the year, with a stretch goal of being able to do 500 in 2.5 hours with an 18-pound sledge (currently still using the 10-pounder.)
And with the weather turning warmer today, I might even make it out on the bike this weekend.
April 07, 2007
It's a New Phil, Week 64
Got the bike back today, but with 1-4 inches of snow forecast and the temperature hovering right around a not-too-springish 27 F, I may have to wait a week before reporting on my return to the bike trails. (I'm not big on the outdoor sports when the temperature is below freezing.) No official weigh-in this week, so I'm still hanging tough at 228 for a total weight loss of 69 pounds!
April 01, 2007
It's a New Phil, Week 63
My Second Day of Exercise
For cumulative exercise so far this year, I passed the 48-hour mark late last week. So three months into the year, I have spent two out of 90 days exercising. That's about 2.2% of the total time elapsed. My goal is to add considerable exercise time to each week now that the warm weather is here by spending time on my bike, giving me a total of 300 hours of exercise for the year. However, at the current rate, I will likely exercise about 212 hours total this year. That's good for six pounds of fat loss at a burn rate of 100 calories per hour, or about 30 pounds at 500 calories per hour. I think the reality will be somewhere between those two.
March 25, 2007
It's a New Phil, Week 62
Back down to 228 this week, for a total weight loss of 69 pounds! Looking forward to getting the big seven-oh behind me once again. I'm also on my way to my second full day of exercise for the year, but let's save something for next week.
March 17, 2007
It's a New Phil, Weeks 59-61
Business travel, then vacation, then more business travel, then a really nasty cold/sinus infection (which I just can't seem to shake) have significantly slowed my blogging output over the past three weeks, with no feature taking a harder hit than my weight loss chronicles. I have not had an official weigh-in over this period, so I can only report that I am still (officially) at 231 pounds, with a total cumulative weight loss of 67 pounds.
I managed to keep the exercise program going well both for the first business trip and vacation. In fact, thanks in part to a vigorous three-hour hike -- during which I stopped only to take the occasional picture -- I did about 6 hours of exercise while on vacation, which is probably more than I would have done in a regular work week.
Then I took a week off in honor of the second business trip and the aforementioned sinus problem.
In the spirit of getting back on the horse, I took my mountain bike into the shop for a tune-up to prepare for the upcoming biking season. This is something I should have done weeks ago. I meant to do it weeks ago. Anyhow, the mechanics had such a backlog that they won't be able to get my bike back to me until April 3.
That was the second shop I went to. The first gave me a similar story, so I decided to take the bike home and tune it up myself. How hard can it be, after all?
Um, hard. When did bicycles get so complicated, anyway? I thought I was pretty much up to the challenge, until I identified a problem -- straightening the wheel -- about which the manual itself said: "Only a mechanic should do this. You'll be wasting your time and putting yourself at risk if you try to fix this yourself. Don't be an idiot."
Or anyhow, words to that effect. So my summer biking is delayed. But I'm getting the hammer back in swing tomorrow. And I'll definitely get over to Dr. Harris's office this week to see what these last few unusual weeks have done to my weight.
February 23, 2007
It's a New Phil, Week 58
The Check-up
Back up two pounds this week 231, for a total weight loss of 66 pounds. I seem to have about a six pound range that I live in over the past several months, from 227 to 233. Right now my weight isn't really going anywhere, so the fact that it isn't going down is nicely offset by the fact that it isn't going up.
Anyway, yesterday was my annual physical check-up. Lots of encouragement there:
-
For the first time that I can recall, I was normal (or better) on everything. Blood pressure, pulse, all blood levels, internal checks that they do on guys over 40 (okay prostate, are you happy?), reflexes, EKG, and so forth. Everything was at least good.
-
Great news on the cholesterol front. My total cholesterol measured in at 161, with an HDL (good cholesterol) level of 77. This gives me a cholesterol ratio of 2.09:1, well under the target of 5.1:1 or lower. Dr. Harris compared this level from the same test a few years back when my triglycerides were at about 230 (today they're at 51) and my overall ratio was at about 4:1. It goes to show what a role genetics plays in all this that even when I was a lot heavier and my diet was a lot less healthy, I was still well out of the danger zone. But still -- my ratio is now only about half of what it was.
A proposed new way of calculating overall cholesterol is to divide the bad LDL level by the good HDL level. When measured this way, a result of 3.5 is considered good while 1.7 or lower is, like, extremely good. Calculated that way, my level of 0.96 is practically off the charts. I think this all comes about as a combined effect of diet, exercise, and the daily intake of a fiber supplement.
-
Dr. Harris noted that the stabilization of my weight noted above is apparently being offset somewhat by muscle gain. So the 230 pounds that I weighed four or five months ago isn't the same as the 230 pounds that I weigh now, composition-wise. I've added a lot of muscle. He endorsed the emphasis on exercise and made the radical suggestion that I might not need to lose any more weight, depending on how much I continue to bulk up.
Personally, I think I've still got at least 15-20 pounds to go, even with the muscle gain. The doctor agreed that that might be the case, but that I should continue on as I am now and see what happens. Will I stay at 230, with the composition continuing to change, or will I eventually break this plateau and drop another 20 or so before deciding that I'm done?
Either way, I can't tell you how satisfying it is to have my doctor tell me not to worry about my weight!
February 17, 2007
It's a New Phil, Week 57
Back down a pound this week to 229 for a total weight loss of 68 pounds!!!
I have now worked out 50 times so far this year, with a total exercise time of almost 31 hours. I've noticed over the past couple of weeks that my workouts are growing longer -- some of them are, in fact, just doubled up versions of standard routines. This means that the count of workouts is probably not going to increase as fast over the next few weeks as it did at the beginning of the year, but the total time spent exercising should either be the same or increase.
I's also started throwing in a few shorter "speed rounds" which can get the job done much more quickly. Of course, "speed" here is a relative term; there a few things that I can do very fast with a sledgehammer!
February 10, 2007
It's a New Phil, Week 56
My First Day of Exercise
Still couldn't make it to the doctor this week for an official weigh-in, so let's just assume that everything is the same, yadda yadda yadda.
On Thursday, I reached an interesting landmark. My trusty Excel spreadsheet told me that I had completed 23.96 hours of exercise for the year. We can round that off and call it a full day of exercise. If I continue at my current rate, I should complete 9.35 such days by the end of the year. This means, by the way, that about 2.5% of my total year -- not the waking year, the total year -- will have been spent working out. Which is definitely worth it.
I want to get a handle on two things:
1. How much fat does a day of exercise burn off?
2. How much muscle does a day of exercise build?
Obviously, the answers to those questions will vary widely depending on who's working out and what they're doing. (And the answer to question 1 is going to be a much higher number than the answer to question 2. ) I'm hoping that, by the end of the year, I'll have a good handle on the answers to both questions for me, doing my sledge hammer workout.
We shall see.
February 03, 2007
It's a New Phil, Weeks 54 and 55
No official weigh-in for the past two weeks due to a busy work travel schedule. So let's just say for now that I'm holding steady at 230 pounds for a total weight loss of 67 pounds.
For 2007, I'm focusing on exercise rather than diet as my way forward with this program. I have developed a number of exercise routines (most of which involve my trusty sledgehammer) which I will detail in a later entry. In January, I did 33 separate workouts for a total of 19.4 hours of exercise. If I continue at that rate, I will do about 233 hours of exercise this year. At 100 calories per hour, that will be good for burning off a little more than 6.5 pounds of fat for the year. At 500 calories per hour, it will burn off about 33.25 pounds. Splitting the difference between the two, at 300 calories per hour -- which I think is fairly realistic -- I'll be looking at a loss of right around 20 pounds for the year, from exercise alone.
As I progress through the year, I'll have weight loss data to track against exercise data, so we'll get an increasingly clear idea as to which of those estimates is the most accurate.
January 27, 2007
Remodeling El Jef, week 1
Goaded Irritated Inspired by Phil's year-long success on the weight-loss front (see here for the first and the most recent entries chronicling his progress), and not wanting my nickname to be changed from El Jefe to El Hefty, I've decided to embark on a program of my own to both reduce my overall weight, and to improve the measured composition of what remains.
(Please see the extended entry for progress to this point and other information.)
January 20, 2007
It's a New Phil, Week 53
The Set Point
Holding steady at 230 pounds again this week for a total weight loss of 67 pounds!!!
I'm beginning to suspect that 230 is my current set point, seeing as that all upward or downward movement seems to tend in that direction. Per Wikipedia:
Setpoint is the target value that an automatic control system, for example PID controller, will aim to reach. For example a temperature setpoint in a boiler control system.
The term setpoint is used similarly in physiology and psychology. Examples are body weight and happiness, both believed to have setpoints that are difficult to change.
If my set point is 230, my body is going to tend to "want" to weigh 230 pounds no matter what I do. So if I weigh too much, I try to eat less and exercise more, but if my set point is too high, what then?
A while back there was some interest around the Web and elsewhere around the Shangri-La Diet, which is based on adjusting weight down by lowering the dieter's set point. I haven't read the book, but I did hear the author, Seth Roberts, get a pretty rough treatment on the Laura Ingram radio show. (Glenn and Helen were a lot nicer to him.)
Laura didn't buy into all this talk about adjusting one's metabolism and, from what I heard of her listeners, neither did they. One of them complained that "set point" is just another way of saying "weight." The consensus seemed to be that Roberts was just making up a lot of jargon in order to sell a diet book.
But whether the Shangri-la approach of adjusting set point through consuming regular doses of sugar water and extra light olive oil works, there's no doubt in my mind that there really is such a thing a s a set point. My weight is like the temperature of the room; my set point is like the temperature that the thermostat is set to. There ought be some correspondence between the two, but they aren't the same thing.
Anyhow, getting back to the question of how I can adjust my set point...that's a hard one. I can say that over the past year, I have lowered my set point by around 70 pounds, along with my weight, and that has been primarily through the tried and true methods of diet and exercise. I think that those will continue to work, although I'm interested to see what change, if any, my new emphasis on exercise will have.
I'm currently doing one of five different sledgehammer routines just about every day. Sometimes I do two different routines in a day. To date this year, I have worked out 19 times for a total of 11.9 hours of exercise. My current goal is to do 300 workouts for the year. If I meet that goal, I'm on track to get in 187 hours of exercise in 2007. Next time, I'll look at what that might mean in terms of weight loss.
January 09, 2007
It's a New Phil, Week 52
Back down 4 pounds this week to 230, bringing me to the one-year weight-loss mark of 67 pounds!!! That's still four pounds up from my all-time low, but I'll take it. I'm recovering from the holidays one week at a time. And right now, the emphasis is on exercise. More on that later.
January 01, 2007
It's a New Phil, Week 51
Out with the Old, in with the New
No weigh-in, official or otherwise, this week. I'm giving myself a few days to recover from the last couple of weeks. I find that my New Year's resolutions have more to do with exercise than diet. The sledgehammer workout is starting to take shape, and I want to achieve some very specific things with it in 2007. I also want to put a fair number of miles on my bicycle.
But we'll get into those specifics later. Meanwhile. Here's my 2006 story in a nutshell. One side shows me in late '05; the other side was snapped a couple of weeks ago.
Sadly, as I have noted in the past, that image on the left shows me quite a few pounds shy of the all-time high water mark. But I think that's pretty much what I looked like at 297, where this whole thing started.
UPDATE: I forgot that I had a doctor's appointment yesterday (post-surgery checkup) so there was an official weigh-in after all. Up a distressing seven pounds, putting me back at 234 for a total weight loss of 63 pounds. Dr. Harris told me not to sweat it, likening a weight loss program to an airplane's autopilot. You're never really on course with autopilot, he explained. The airplane makes a continuous series of adjustments.
So let the post-holiday adjustment begin!
December 24, 2006
It's a New Phil, Week 50
Unofficially, I'm up about a pound a half this week, but that's without the benefit of Dr. Harris's scale. That still leave my right around 227 for a total weight loss of 70 pounds!!!
Anyhow, I think I'll be fine over the next couple of weeks, so long as I take it easy on the black pepper lamb chops, potato curry, rice, samosas, turkey, roast beef, mashed potatoes, dressing, gravy, mince pie, pumpkin pie, almond stollen, rum stollen, eggnog, yule log, assorted cookies, fudge, toffee, nuts, gingerbread cake, hot chocolate, leftovers...you get the idea.
Merry Christmas to all who are celebrating Christmas. For others, a happy Hanukkah, joyful Kwanzaa, solemn Solstice, festive Festivus, and a great big happy whatever I may be missing. Peace, joy, and best wishes to all.
December 16, 2006
It's a New Phil, Week 49
The Big Seven-Oh
Down two pounds this week to 226 for a total weight loss of 71 pounds!!! A new high. A new low. Call it what you will. It has taken me about three and a half months to go from 60 pounds lost to 70 pounds. It took a little less than two and a half months to get from 50 pounds to 60. And it took just a litte over two months to get from 40 pounds to 50.
So my overall weight loss rate has slowed to a pound and a half per week, and that includes all the rapid weight loss I had at the beginning. As the chart below shows (click on it for an expanded version) if I can stick with my current rate of weight loss of 1.5 pounds per week, I will reach my initial target of 207 pounds (90 pounds lost) at week 60, 11 weeks from now.
Since that means losing 20 pounds faster than I've lost any of the last few sets of 10, I think it's safe to assume that my overall rate of loss will continue to slow. If it drops to 1.25 pounds per week, I'll reach the 90 pound mark in about May of 07. That sounds like a long time from now, but it doesn't bother me a bit when I consider how far I've come.
December 11, 2006
It's a New Phil, Week 48
Well, I lightened my load on Friday via Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy. I slept through the procedure itself, awaking to find myself with three tiny abdominal wounds, all covered by what looks like bloody scotch tape as well as a big piece of the same tape covering my navel, which was absolutely squishy with blood. It's amazing that they can remove an organ using just these little holes -- especially an organ that was full of stones. It's also amazing that the the whole blood-and-tape thing means that everything went right. If there had been problems, I'd have a huge gash down my abdomen and I'd still be in the hospital. The times we live in!
Oh, in addition to the wounds, I should add that I awoke with a general anasthesia hangover which I managed to keep for most of the weekend. I'm felling better today. The wounds are less squishy and less sensitive. I still can't eat much, which is an unfortunate by-product of the fact that they had to pump me full of gas to perform the procedure, and eating makes me kind of, well, gassy.
On the other hand not eating is good for the overall program, I suppose. I slipped onto a scale in the restroom at the surgery center on Friday and weighed in at 228 pounds, which means I was down two pounds for a total weight loss of 69 pounds!!!! However, I was wearing just a surgical gown (quite a bit less than what I usually wear for a weigh-in) and this was not the official Dr. Harris scale.
But under the circumstances, I'll take what I can get.
December 01, 2006
It's a New Phil, Week 47
It's Galling
I'm doing back-to-back entries today; I missed last week due to illness. I have been sick since driving home from Thanksgiving dinner last week. It started with this strange cramping in my right shoulder and arm. I thought maybe I had worked the old potato masher a bit too hard. I awoke Friday morning to intense abdomninal cramps and symptoms which led me to believe that I had a bad case of the intestinal flu.
I suffered through the weekend and then went to see Dr. Harris first thing Monday morning. After listening to my story and giving me a quick abdominal exam (and telling me he didn't care if my weight stayed on its plateau for another six months), the Doc told me that it looked like gall bladder trouble. An ultrasound and a visit to a specialist confirmed this. My gall bladder is full of gallstones, and it's got to go.
I'm due for surgery next Friday, or Wednesday if I'm really lucky. The sooner the better, I say. I figure pulling that ever-growing bag of rocks out of me has got to break this plateau and make my weight go down. Seriously, that thing has got to weight, what? Two pounds? Three? It's a sack of gravel.
Now the ironic part. What ever might have caused my body to turn one of its organs into Charlie Brown's trick-or-treat bag? Of course, there is no one answer, and these matters are very complicated, but Dr. Harris says that weigh loss can lead to the formation of gallstones.
So now what do I do with this recurring conversation?
Acquaintance: Say, Phil, have you lost weight?
Phil (proudly): Um, yeah. About 65 pounds, actually.
Acquaintance: Wow, you look great!
Phil (slightly embarrassed): Aw, thanks.
Acquaintance: You must feel a lot better, too, huh?
Phil (enthusiastically): I do feel much better. And I love it that I now fit into airplane seats!
Now it will probably go something like this:
Acquaintance: Say, Phil, have you lost weight?
Phil (weakly): Um, yeah. About 65 pounds.
Acquaintance: Wow, you look ...er...really...really good.
Phil (weakly): Thanks.
Acquaintance: But anyway, you must feel a lot better, huh?
Phil (bitterly): Well, I feel okay sitting upright for an hour or two as long as I take some Darvon and don't eat anything with fat or protien in it. Aw, who am I kidding? I feel like crap. Crap, I tell you. Crap!
But that's only for another week. After that, I shed the bag of rocks that's been holding me back and start looking for other expendable body parts that might contribute to my achieving my weight loss goal!
Here's another interesting tidbit. Gallstone attacks are frequently triggered by the consumption of a high-fat meal. Even though they were really only slivers, I had three pieces of my mom's pie to top off all the gravy and other yummies on Turkey Day. (I was just being polite. She made three pies. What am I going to do? Play favorites?) The gall bladder specialist told me that Thanksgiving has given him more business over the years than any other two holidays combined (and apparently, they're all good for business.)
So weight loss may have given me the gallstones, but gluttony triggered the attack. There's a lesson in there somewhere. And if anyone can figure it out, please do me a favor -- keep it to yourself.
UPDATE: Had to go to the doctor this morning for some related stuff. Down one pound to 230 for a total weight loss of 67 pounds!!