Author: Robert Ford

More Birds of Prey although one is a bat and another a ninja. Very sunny in Vancouver today.

Mutant Diet Phase 8 Day 69
I must be on a better dietary track. I was freaking out last night because I had an early light dinner and then when I got back from shopping (always eat before shopping) I was ravenous. I ate quinoa soup and small batch of nachos to stop me from wanting to chew up the carpet.

I was so worried that I’d blown the calorie count. If you look below I was below 2500 and nearly doubled the food calories with what the Fitbit said I’d burned.

Still so far to go. I have to find ways to stay with it because I noticed an improvement in my back. In the gym there’s a mirror set up that lets me see my upper back. I could tell from the way the t-shirt was hanging that I was not longer a rounded fat-boy back. It’s hard to admit, due to the mental scarring over the years, but I can see progress.

The high intensity workout had a moment where ego met fatigue. I wanted to push through despite having had to drop out of a walk out plank. But I thought about this artificial number I’d set versus the risk of injury. Later I did not feel like a weenie. I felt sore all over. It was a good call to bail out on that last set or two.

I need to take win and let it carry me to the end of this phase.

I always liked the big team pictures. I guy using my last name is making me worried for Ontario.

Mutant Diet Phase 8 Day 68
As of today, I have three days in a row with no mess ups. I did have Chinese food in the mall at dinner. I had meat and veggies and skipped the rice or noodles. With the sauces and stuff, I’m sure there was bad stuff in the meal. However, my schedule did not allow me to get home before I would have become uncomfortable and behaved unpleasantly.

The trainer session was on a rare Thursday (normally Tuesday). I was able to boost weights except for the mysterious Lat Pulldown and the deadlift, which is still tough at the 180 pounds.

The attitude I have — i.e. questioning if I’m making “real” progress — is all wrong. My self-judgement is unfriendly and is not serving me. The chiropractor said adjusting me is better due to my increased strength. Why not take that as a win and keep on trucking?

Birds of Prey, which has a batgirl in it. Hmm. Anyway, let’s try Burns Lake BC.

Mutant Diet Phase 8 Day 66
Not great but better. I finally filled in a diet chart and I clearly can’t eat chocolate almonds anymore. 5.5 calories per gram. Ouch.

The weights went up in half my exercises. My chiropractor likes the new muscles because, somehow, it makes adjustments easier. My right hip and mid-back were out of whack. It felt much better after.

My trainer has challenged me to a zero sweets for two weeks and after that we get to go to a French pastry place. I am going to accept the challenge.

In honour of Stan Lee, who passed away at 95, here are three of his famous characters. Let’s hide on Denman Island.

Mutant Diet Phase 8 Day 65
I think I might be serious about this now. I have supplies. I can’t sabotage this anymore.

But the trick is not to invoke the rebellious child response. I have to go back to a strict diet without becoming pissed off about it.

Let’s do this. I have until December 7 before Phase 8 ends. Twenty-four days.

A team called Birds of Prey. I caught some of West Vancouver‘s Remembrance Day ceremony today.

Mutant Diet Phase 8 Day 63
It seems funny to be worrying about a diet on Remembrance Day.

The job today is to find my inner peace and to look forward to how I get a grip on myself.

This does not explain why I lost my shit on a lady honking at me in a parking lot. The reason I wasn’t moving out of her way was because I was waiting for someone to move out of my way.

So much for inner peace. I don’t even have outer peace.

Batman and friends in the jungle. I updated the Vancouver page.

Mutant Diet Phase 8 Day 62
Commence panicking. I have to bring this phase back onto the tracks. I took yesterday off and my wife and I hung out and escaped the children. It was really nice.

We ate well at a fully vegan restaurant in Yaletown. (See link.) But it wasn’t on the strict track. There was alcohol.

So now I face the rest of this long weekend with a challenge on how to get on track. There are 27 days left in Phase 8 and I will feel terrible if I don’t give it a good go. I booked time with a naturopath in late November to see if I can find a reason why my body is hanging onto lard to intently. Any information from that won’t help this Phase but could be useful in January.

Despite a day off, there was a challenging yoga class at noon on Friday and today I did some weight work. The Saturday gym challenged me because I was cornered by a rather elderly, clearly twitchy Dutch guy who thought I needed to know about his 1000 calorie-a-day diet that he recommended. I’d characterize it as Extreme Paleo.

Sigh. About 12 hours into such a regime, I’d be taking hostages. Time to start documenting again and getting back into the swing of it.

More Earth 2 with a creepier Batman. I’m going to explore Yaletown in Vancouver tomorrow.

Mutant Diet Phase 8 Day 60
Well, so far so bad. My efforts at yoga yesterday were greeted with the spectacular realization that my shoulders could not hold my arms in place for warrior 2, side angle stretch or triangle pose. They were still knackered from the personal trainer workout.

The only thing, however, keeping me from giving up are the workouts. All kinds of diet issues and all I’m doing is trying not to completely go nuts. But the workouts make me feel leaner. The reality is likely the opposite.

But today is heavy lifting gym homework. Hoo haa.

My plan is to regroup over the weekend and hit the ground running for the final push to the beginning of December.

The Justice Society is from Earth 2. Winnipeg. -6 and light snow.

Mutant Diet Phase 8 Day 59
The cake was good yesterday. Today I saw the massage therapist who managed to make my hip feel like it was about a foot away from my body without actually working directly on it. My quads and IT band are screwy.

I can’t wait until yoga later. I paid for the class in advance; I’m going.

I need to reign back the food without invoking the rebellious response. That’s the one where you say, “this never works so why try?”

It’s a trap.

More Earth 2. Let’s got to Toronto the home of carbon tax insanity.

Mutant Diet Phase 8 Day 58
It’s taking time to recover from the frustration of the doctor’s visit. Yesterday I did 2/3 of the high intensity workout. I probably could have plugged through all of it, but today I see the trainer and I didn’t want to be healing up.

I bought weight lifting gloves because the calluses on my hands are really starting to bug me. I don’t want to drop a weight for that.

Today is my daughter’s birthday. Indian food and cake. I’ll have to pull out the diet stops in the coming days.