Category: Phase 4

Spider-man in Hong Kong with Mockingbird being his usual goofy self. I’m going to lower my blood pressure by going (mentally) to Tofino and looking at the ocean.

Mutant Diet Phase 4 Finale
I just ate a timbit. (Should it be timbit or Timbit?) Anyway, it tasted pretty good.

Yes, Phase 4 is over and Phase Hernia Repair starts tomorrow at noon when I show up to the hospital to have my xenomorph removed or whatever.

The uncertainty of what condition I’ll be in is a bit nerve-wracking. A thirty-minute procedure is going to precipitate a 6 week recovery. Good grief.

So we shall see. In the meantime, I’ll just try to chill.

This is a totally retro X-Men and Spider-man image. A friend of mine posted some cool pictures from Signal Hill in St. John’s Newfoundland.

Mutant Diet Phase 4 Day 30
Today is the last day of Phase 4. Tomorrow I write the final entry. Friday I go get my hernia repaired. Yikes.

If I review this past phase, I can say that I finally budged the scale in the right direction, but not by much. However, given how reluctant my body is to give up a single gram, this is still a win. If you look at the chart below you can see how the swinging of pounds, pounds of water and % body fat make no sense at all. What did make sense was that my belt size and belt overhang reduced, which finally was reflected on the scale.

There was also a change during the super strict refined carbohydrate reduction periods. It took from July until now (mind you) for the carbohydrate cravings not to be so stupidly intense. I noticed in the past couple of weeks that the intensity dropped under the same conditions.

This prepares me for Phase 5 (date to be determined) where I’m going to eliminate coffee, chicken and beef and see if I can modulate my immune response to foods. These are documented allergens or intolerances for me.

I’ve seen faster banana slugs.

I have this comic book somewhere in storage. This West Vancouver walk would be good today.

Mutant Diet Phase 4 Day 29
It’s always better to take a half hour more sleep.

My last Personal Trainer session is today and I’m hoping I can activate all the healing muscles in preparation for Friday. I keep researching what exercises you can do post hernia repair and the universal answer is Not Much.

Why my focus? I hate losing ground. The key issue will be maintaining proper posture when in discomfort.

The nightmare in Las Vegas threw me off. The scale of it was ridiculous. And, a country music festival? Seriously?

Spider-man, Silk and Spider Woman.

Mutant Diet Phase 4 Day 28
Back to keto land today. Yesterday’s cheat day is becoming a dream. I really only have to push through until Thursday because Friday is xenomorph (hernia) removal day.

I weigh-in tomorrow and I’m expecting a stable weight from last time because the process is so annoying and wants to make me completely mental. I do perceive changes around the middle so the numbers from the scale are pretty much for record keeping and not much else.

It’s a tough day because of the news. I may have to take a media break. And, according to Facebook friends in Calgary it snowed!

I have good cycling weather in Vancouver until Friday, which is a bonus.

Ms Marvel, Iron Man and Spider-man in a Tony Stark suit. A lot of people are thinking about Edmonton today.

Mutant Diet Phase 4 Day 27
Holy badger vomit, it’s October 1. Not only do a lot of pre-authorized payments come out of my account tomorrow, I am on the final five days of this phase. Friday is hernia removal day. I’ve asked my wife to text people when the procedure is done and say, “Congratulate us! It was a hernia! (and not a xenomorph)”.

I was pretty on track yesterday and could tell because even after a late-night trail mix treat, I was still hungry. Going to bed fixes that. I’m not sure what that’s all about.

Because I’m unsure of when the next phase will start, I will give you a preview. My theory of my constant weight plateau is my food allergies. Therefore I will swap out chicken and beef with bison and turkey. I will also go from coffee to tea. I’ll try this for a week and see if it shocks the system.

However, I have to focus on my weigh-in on Tuesday and making sure my abs are as strong as possible for the “repair.”

A cool image from the Spiderverse series. A client renewed in Strathmore Alberta.

Mutant Diet Phase 4 Day 26
It’s remarkable how fast your body goes out of the ketosis zone (that the keto diet fans look to achieve) when faced with a single gram of refined carbohydrate or sugar. The problem with me and the ketosis zone is that I am unbelievably grumpy and hyper sensitive.

Losing the ketosis zone is what happened at the Thai restaurant yesterday. Two things prevented me from staying on track. Actual hunger and a subtle peer pressure. The boss was paying for the meal to celebrate a co-worker’s significant years-of-service milestone. Everyone was ordering the lunch specials. I would have been stupidly expensive were I to custom order. The whole look-at-me-aren’t-I-special thing would have been outside my comfort zone.

One thing I noticed is that rice does not spike my sugar levels the way wheat does.

Today I aim for strict as I ain’t giving up my planned cheat day.

The Avengers had to subdue Spider-man when he was possessed by a bad guy. I feel like that when I haven’t eaten. It’s a rainy day and I feel like tea in Victoria.

Mutant Diet Phase 4 Day 25
I’ll probably be in a hospital bed a week from now. Ick. Although this alien lifeform trying to escape through my damn belly button can go away anytime.

I think though I had good progress because my legs were thanking the skies for the rain in Vancouver today. Yesterday was stunning and felt like summer.

Given the run-up to the end of this phase, I think I’ll concentrate more on the meditation part. It will likely help when the medical stuff kicks in. The reduced refined carbs still cause me to be very aggressive in the evening, especially if I don’t have dinner by 6 PM. Ask my son.

So, there’s a team lunch today where I get to wade through the minefield of a restaurant menu. Which fast food company used to say “special orders don’t upset us”?

More Spider-man with some X-Men. My stress level is such that I want to go to Tofino and look at the beach.

Mutant Diet Phase 4 Day 24
I bought a new foam roller, a torture device that’s used to squish out muscles like IT bands. They have them at Costco for cheap. However, they’re not foam. It’s has a metal core with rubber that looks and feels more like monster truck tire treads. No give at all.

Anther thing I learned yesterday is, when you have a hernia, you get a mesh installed when the hole is bigger than 2 cm. Which isn’t very big. Apparently my surgeon is using tried and true meshes.

No matter what information I look up on this, my sense of calm does not increase.

My surgical pre-assessment, which will take about 2(!) hours, happens Wednesday next.

I’m not nervous but I know a guy around my age who is.

Spider-man, Deadpool and the female Thor. I decided to see what’s happening in Whitehorse today.

Mutant Diet Phase 4 Day 23
I had two radical thoughts at the gym yesterday. Actually, there were more than two, but this is a PG rated site.

One: The scale at the gym is neither diagnostic nor prognostic. Therefore I skipped weighing in. I will do so next week when I’m closer to the hernia removal date.

Two: I found myself wasting time with thoughts about current events. I won’t go into details but one idiot’s name rhymes with slump and the other guy looks like a honeydew melon with a bad haircut. What I should have been thinking was “I am working hard to improve my fitness with the help of an intelligent, beautiful lady.” Gee, which line of thinking leads to a better day?

My hamstrings are baked. I am afraid to stand up.

It’s all good. Yoga later.

Technically this is some variant of Venom and Valkyrie, who is going to appear in the upcoming Thor movie. With in being so hot in Ontario, are people drinking more beer?

Mutant Diet Phase 4 Day 22
I would like to know the biology behind what I think I’m going to call Fake Hunger. This is where after dinner your stomach sends signals that it’s hungry, but you know that you had a filling dinner. But of course is was meat and vegetable and free of any refined carbs. I also know that if I throw peanut butter (all natural) or bacon at the problem, it removes the hunger pang, but only for a few minutes.

Last night I decided not to bother because why eat anything if it’s not going to make the body shut up? Even had I weakened, and ate chips or toast or something, it would still crave more.

It would be really nice if this stopped. Why can’t a body feel happy and satisfied to feast on the stored lard, a product that is readily available in good supply?