Category: Phase 4

Spider-man with Shriek, a villain I’d never heard of. Still hot in Ontario. Check out Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Mutant Diet Phase 4 Day 21
That was one heck of a yoga class last night. Despite how achy I felt after the class, today things feel fairly limber. I will be able to test this theory at the gym later.

I have two work weeks before the hernia repair and I have to keep my head attached and reduce the number of things that might occupy my mind afterwards.

The meditation process is interesting because I’m having trouble finding a time to do it. It then occurred to me that even a couple of minutes will be better than nothing. So I tried on the bus today but failed because of distractions. But I did slow down the breathing and I’m sure the blood pressure. Which reminds me I haven’t taken my blood pressure and I think it’s low because I was slightly light-headed at yoga. Some moves do cause that head rush feeling but it seemed more frequent. Considering I was not short on glucose, I can’t blame that.

So I’m optimistic this week will be a better dietary week because I’m supplied and prepared.

Invisible Woman and Spider-man. Looks like Toronto found summer finally. 30°!

Mutant Diet Phase 4 Day 19
A friend posted on my Facebook feed that the head game in this diet/fitness voyage might be the worst bit. (And when I say “voyage” I’m starting to think “Norwegian Epic Poem with extensive notes in Sumerian”.) As I noticed today that my brain was looking for new ways to criticize myself for dietary sins. It seems, now that being strict on the carbs/sugar is a habit, my beating up on myself is now equally as habitual. This means that my brain starts calling me names when I eat a single chip as opposed to going off diet for a whole day. This mental behaviour fails the “Is this helping?” reality check.

What I don’t need is my brain stressing me out more as I successfully restrict the carb/sugar flow.

The result is my cheat day was yesterday and not today. But I am having Sushi later because I want to. And for goodness sakes it’s Sushi, not a 3 course pasta meal.

I will confess that my son convinced me yesterday to add mini marshmallows and M&Ms to a regular brownie mix. I was really thinking it would be gross but — holy heart attack — those were good.

For those of you who saw Spiderman Homecoming you now can see part of a panel that inspired a scene in the movie. Fort St. James, BC is about 100 miles NW of of Prince George. You needed to know that.

Mutant Diet Phase 4 Day 19
As I walked to the gym yesterday, I felt very much like keeping walking down to the water and to Stanley Park. Yes, none of what I was thinking and feeling was reasonable. My views as to my progress in this journey are mixed and are more like symptoms of body image crisis. Sometimes I feel OK, and that the progress is good, and other times I feel like a hopeless fat ox.

It’s certainly not much of a party being inside my head these days.

But it’s sunny today and there’s a Strata meeting, children to be shuttled around town and perhaps I can find a cup of coffee.

Spiderman with a modern version of the Avengers. I have this urge when the weather changes to go to the Okanagan for apples and wine.

Mutant Diet Phase 4 Day 18
What they say about sleep is true in that less sleep does not lead to better brain function or an increased amount of willpower.

This is of course why building new habits is touted as a way to stay off the lard train. If however you are in the habit of not eating refined carbohydrates, you have to make sure you have an easy-to-access supply of meat and vegetables. Yesterday I ran out. Today I shop.

Two weeks to hernia operation. What fun.

Early Spider-man and Human Torch. A client with properties in Grande Prairie renewed.

Mutant Diet Phase 4 Day 17
Thursdays are too far from cheat days to be reassuring but on Thursdays the sugar/carb supply reaches critically low levels.

The abdominal work showed up in the yoga class giving me a bit more strength to try things that were previously avoided. (Side plank and dancer’s pose for you yoga nerds.) This shows the value of cross training because the personal trainer and gym workouts help yoga and yoga helps the PT sessions by giving me flexibility not normally seen at 8 AM. (I.e. I could forward fold and touch my toes without much warm up.)

After the yoga class, the hernia was really still trying to make a run for it. I think in knows that two weeks tomorrow is bye-bye day.

But I definitely feel like the weight loss is tiny. Things fit looser but the big changes that one would hope for are slow slow slow. To say I hate it would be an understatement.

Spider Gwen and Spider Pork. They are real (in comics). Visit Burns Lake BC. Why not?

Mutant Diet Phase 4 Day 16
I will not poo my pants I will not poo my pants.

Nope, not nervous.

Stop talking about it.

It was really good to be on my bike this morning. It’s not that the bus is kind of cramped gross and filled with odd people … it’s that it’s gross, cramped and filled with freaks.

I have to admit that, due to some extra chores, I didn’t so any pushups this morning. I could not bring myself to do it on the common laundry room floor.

Am I allowed to eat the brains of people who don’t wear helmets on bicycles or should I outsource that?

Yoga class is soon. I want to stretch the hip flexor muscle on the right side off my hip and have it snap back into the right place.

Lots of bad guys! A work colleague just came back from vacation in The Shuswap.

Mutant Diet Phase 4 Day 15
8 AM personal trainers sessions are rough because you have to wake up earlier than if you were going to the dentist because you need more time to digest breakfast and it’s good to be woken up enough not to trip over equipment you aren’t even using.

I think the trainer likes it better because I talk less.

She’s teaching me to twist my abdomen without moving the hips and keeping the shoulders in place. Think wringing yourself out like a rag.

I am now sitting very still with decent chair posture. We had to do hamstring, glute and hip flexor releases which all should be used as interrogation methods by the Spanish Inquisition.

And gasp, from the calendar I’m 1/2 way to Hernia Repair Day. Yick.

Cool black costumes. All my WordPress sites are up to date including Prince Edward Island.

Mutant Diet Phase 4 Day 14
It’s a fine day to try to finish cleaning one’s desk. However, it always turns out to be more work than you planned because you find things. Things like a $4 off coupon for the big bag of peanut M&Ms at Costco. Tempting as the dates for the coupon fall into the post surgery time zone.

My server problems came to an end, finally. There’s a distraction you don’t need.

I am back on ultra low refined carbs today. I had to skip breakfast because I was still full from yesterday. The carb cravings kicked in aggressively by 1:30 PM, after I’d had salad and chicken for lunch.

As the clock counts down to Oct 6 hernia “repair” day, I realize if I can reduce worries, it will likely lead to a better outcome.

So, don’t worry about carb cravings, I suppose. Ignore them instead!

This group shot includes Iron Man in his original 1960s armour. I went to dinner in Vancouver for the cheat night.

Mutant Diet Phase 4 Day 13
Goodness. I almost did my blog entry yesterday and then things blew up. I was fairly strict yesterday (Saturday) and I could tell that I was carb craving because after dinner my stomach was demanding more. When I gave it peanuts, it was happy, but for about ten seconds. Oddly going to bed stops cravings. Because this morning the cravings were less intense. So, how does that work?

Technically today is a cheat day, but I’m not feeling too desirous of cheating. That may change in a few hours. But if I take in something, I want it to be something good.

This post was very late in going live because my MySQL database went off for all my WordPress sites. I’m still struggling with one of them.

Lots of Spider people! I did this bike ride home through Stanley Park yesterday.

Mutant Diet Phase 4 Day 11
Spoiler alert. I have not quit my diet/fitness program.

I know why people do quit their diet/fitness programs. If you work for 557 elapsed days and lose 17 pounds you start to go crazy and think, “What kind of walrus is this?” Had I lost 1 pound a week on average that would have been 79 pounds.

So, monitor your own thought processes, ten bucks says your thinking is along the lines of, “Goodness that’s a lot of effort. He must be doing something wrong.”

The people who give up perceive people seeing them as being incompetent or stupid and, deep in their brain, think, “if people see me that way, I might as well enjoy the croissants.”

If you review the body of work, starting here you will see that I have been relentless and I’ve refined the process. I dare anyone to follow my current program for a week. Double dog dare you.

So, I am not asking for advice. I think I’m battling genetics, allergies and age. One thing is that I’m way stronger. I think I can pick up all the groceries and the Smart Car at the same time.