Category: Phase 4

Spider-man, Electra and Wolverine. I’m on a diet. Here’s a Vancouver Restaurant List.

Mutant Diet Phase 4 Day 10
It was definitely one of those want to give up days yesterday. Given the time, effort and diet if I were a normal person this would be over. But, I wonder, have I found the secret chemical situation that’s holding back millions — millions of people who are likely less persistent than I am?

Being sore doesn’t help. The yoga class helped loosen but I audibly groaned just trying to put my shoes and gym bag on a rack at the yoga studio. I also had the fun to doing a reverse table top and seeing my stupid hernia push up, out of my damn belly button, and push against my t-shirt. Seriously. A f__king alien. Gross. It was all I had not to squeal like a 7-year-old and say “gross!!”

This damn hernia repair can’t happen soon enough.

This has lots of Skrulls, shape-shifting aliens. I am thinking a lot about Waterton Alberta

Mutant Diet Phase 4 Day 9
The scale is a nightmare because normal people would have lost a pound a week over this process whereas my body is like a shape shifting alien willing to rearrange its molecular structure in order to maintain the same mass. Despite a reduction in belt notch, the weight is the same.

The personal trainer tried a new set of what would normally be considered shoulder exercises but it had the unusual side effect of working the abs. There’s not an office worker in the world whose shoulders are not messed up.

However, the real goal for this Phase is core strength. Time for some pushups.

This is one of these Avengers group shots I like so much. A friend of mine is going to Toronto to see the Jays.

Mutant Diet Phase 4 Day 8
Yesterday was an odd day. I had a regular dental checkup and felt kind of nauseous afterwards. Not sure if it was the dentist so much as having breakfast too early or from not having enough sleep the night before.

Therefore I skipped the gym and went for a walk instead at lunch. This helped the innards but I was desperately sleepy in the afternoon which is when the evil coated almond supplement entered the system and had a good, but short, effect.

I wore two step counters yesterday. One said 13,213 and the other 7,857. Guess which one I’m going to continue with? The old one I suspect short-changed me for months. However, perhaps the new one is being too generous. Meh, I’ll take the 55% bump thank you.

Today I see the trainer. I think I’ll weigh in but not look at the numbers. I can review all the figures closer to the end of this Phase.

I picked up a new comic series where the premise is Captain America has all this time been a Hydra sleeper agent. Please go practice your math and make any children near you try.

Mutant Diet Phase 4 Day 7
My cheat day yesterday was not as strict as I’d hoped. I was starving by the time I did a trip to Costco to pick up prints of family pictures for my Mom as well as to pick up more meat and salad for this week. Never arrive at a food place hungry.

I now know why in the past on cheat days I was so picky about the quality of the cheat carbs. Lower quality stuff feels good in the moment but makes you feel so sluggish later. I think it’s partly the shock to the system after being strict for 6 days.

The yoga class last night was very challenging despite feeling stronger than normal at the start. I could use the extra core strength from the pushups and workouts to hold poses better. Perhaps I was working harder because I could and didn’t notice right away?

This is a mysterious process.

Spider-man, the Hulk, Hellcat and a T-Rex, oddly. The weather has returned to sun and it’s making me want to take a wine tour in Kelowna.

Mutant Diet Phase 4 Day 6
The obvious challenge of meditation is trying to keep the mind from running off on one of the many topics besieging the mind. [[Oooo look some goofy people in line for coffee.]]

Last night before bed I was taking a moment to try to close my eyes and empty my head. [[Gosh that girl is pretty.]] I chose to listen to my pulse, which seemed quite loud. As I listened to it, I noticed it seemed fairly slow.

After giving up on meditation [[damn sibling discounts in the hot lunch program]], I took my pulse twice and it was 58 bpm. According to the chart here my heart rate for my age is excellent and one beat from the bottom range of athlete. [[Makes me question the chart.]]

I also managed to stay on the ultra low carb/sugar routine yesterday (a Saturday) and today is my cheat day, but I’m going to try to save the cheat for as late in the day as possible. Yesterday no matter how much salad and meat I shoved in my face, I could not stop the hunger pangs, which clearly had nothing to do with hunger but more to do with “Give me the sugar you sonofabitch.”

Spider-man with a persistent bad guy/love interest. Still thinking a lot about The Caribbean, particularly Barbuda.

Mutant Diet Phase 4 Day 5
Today is a rest day but still not the diet cheat day. My abs, legs and pretty much everything else are sore. Staying calm and quiet might be a nice change.

Blessedly it’s raining today and giving Vancouver a decent soaking. It does inspire Fall eating, which of course I’ll stop thinking about right away.

The step counter is still being very generous. I’ll do my two step counter experiment on Monday.

Spiderman and the British Museum. It’s raining in Vancouver!

Mutant Diet Phase 4 Day 4
Prior to starting this phase, I was on vacation from the diet/fitness routine for three weeks. I indulged in not doing much and eating refined carbs and sugars. I tried to keep some fitness in, but compared to this week, it wasn’t much. I was expecting to have to spend the first week doing “belt notch correction,” i.e. losing about half of a belt notch of girth to take me back to where I was before the time off.

It took 2.5 days to achieve that. The odd part is that the process is identical to what I was doing before (i.e. strangling off the refined carb and sugar flow). The only thing that’s different is the pushups.

Also in the department of WTF, my step counter is showing more steps than I’m expecting. I did change to a different (but identical) counter. Was I being short changed prior to this?

Things that are consistent include that when the easily accessible glucose in my system ran out, I knew it. In addition, my body image is actually worse. All the registered professional counselors will grimace when I admit that I still think there are primitive tribes in South America that would kill me, hollow me out, and use me as a canoe. I think it’s the brain using whatever methods possible to convince me to quit and return to a diet with foods that have a high glycemic index.

A very stylized X-Men and Avengers mash up. Check out this cheese and fruit wine combo.

Mutant Diet Phase 4 Day 3
Quick. More pushups.

It’s only Day 3 and I can feel the effect the core work from the extra pushups. Most odd. It falls into the “why didn’t I think of this sooner?” category. Of course I did think of it. A friend of mine swears by it and when watching sports would do a set of pushups when beer commercials came on. Of course that guys weighs as much as one of my legs so it’s not entirely fair. The Matthew quotation works here. “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” The mind can think pushups, but the body thinks couch.

On pushup technique, I may end up having fewer because I want to be sure I’m working on the plank part of it. I don’t really care about the upper body part. I may add planks to boost it some more. The other trick is to make sure the shoulder blades are moving down the back and not scrunching up.

Back to the real job.

Spiderman and Storm, in honour of what’s going on the Caribbean!

Mutant Diet Phase 4 Day 2
OK, so my body returned to its habit of whining ferociously about the lack of sugar and refined carbohydrates by dinner time. In keeping with past efforts, it said, “Where’s the rest of dinner” about 90 minutes after a good evening meal.

Too bad, so sad.

The fact this is only 30 days seems more do-able. I won’t however warranty against whining.

I wish the outside temperature would drop so I could cook some more supplies at home!

Lots of Spider People!

Mutant Diet Phase 4 Day 1
Ah, the first day of a Mutant Diet Phase, in which the body is unaware of what’s happening. This may partly be due to the fact I’m still full from dinner at a friend’s last night. See cake below.

I guess this should have been Day 0 because yesterday was -1. Hmmm.

Nevertheless, I’m upbeat as I rode in despite the hot weather and smoky air in Vancouver.

I did 15 pushups before leaving on the bicycle today.

The strategy is the same as before with the zero sugar and zero carbs for 6 days and then a cheat day. Well, this time it’s a Cheat Afternoon, specifically Sunday. My typical Sunday evening involves a yoga class and then Sushi. I will add a therapeutic glass of wine and that’s about it.

My fitness component is muscle, specifically core. When the hernia “repair” happens on Oct 6 I want the parts that didn’t get bunged up in the procedure to come to the rescue.

I need to add a meditation component – has anyone had any luck with Tibetan bells timer apps? – so that I can work on my bad case of Racing Brain.

Gotta dash. First day back in the office since vacation.

Jerry’s amazing chocolate cake. I won’t be seeing much of this for 30 days.