Category: Phase 9

Big Superhero fight! And a snow fall warning in Vancouver in March? Are you kidding?

Mutant Diet Phase 9 Finale
I officially declare Phase 9 to have ended early with an utterly inglorious end. It was a complete bust and to say I was disappointed would be an understatement.

Why? Illness and situational stress overwhelmed my self-discipline.

How do I fix it? A tough question. Obviously reduce stress. But stuff does pop out of the woodwork and it’s hard to predict. So mitigation has to be key. But how?

Illness? Perhaps I should became a hermit and not go near my children so as not to pick up wonderful germs. Neither likely nor practical.

There’s also the advice from diet experts that says the eating has to be sustainable. I think I know what I have to eat to maintain, but I need to have a longer period of focus to actually lose, given how stubborn my body is.

When I start Phase 10 after March Break, I am considering the following (in no real order)

• Fast 8 PM to 8 AM
• Package and plan the food for the week in advance
• Reduce calorie target to 2000
• Meditate daily
• Keep the meat-and-vegetable eating style as everything else disagrees with me.
• Supplements
• 3 L of water
• Maintain the strength training and hopefully do some cycling, if the weather ever cooperates!

And I’ll probably need predictable counselling. There’s a mental block I have to go after.

Sigh. What a pain.

I am ending this early not so much because it failed, but because I have so much on my to do list, it’s not funny. I am trying to stay on track diet-wise and then on our trip not go crazy.

See you in the spring.

I want to meditate like Dr. Strange. A balmy -11° in Saskatoon.

Mutant Diet Phase 9 Day 58
I have no actual hope of succeeding in Phase 9. There are reasons and I don’t know if I care. I know that going back to where I was before is not an option because the strength I’ve developed, I don’t intend to give up.

On the mental health front, if I don’t handle my situational stress better, this won’t work at all.

I took a baby step of downloading a meditation app and due to technical issues with wireless headsets and other noise stopped me. But it was a baby step.

I actually want to take my blood pressure before and after a 10-minute meditation.

I needed retro today. How can there be pollen in Vancouver when feels like it’s 2°?

Mutant Diet Phase 9 Day 57
Another restart. I had a close call with a muffin this morning. The panicked thoughts about all the various obligations led to the “screw it” mindset. Which nearly led to a muffin. I had been strict diet-wise for nearly two hours and it seemed incredibly lame to break it now.

This week is going to be a situational stress fest due to multiple meetings unrelated to the real job.

In two weeks we go to Harry Potter World. Apparently this is secretly hidden in the United States somewhere.

I hear you can find a few calories in the USA.

Yesterday’s image made me think of if these two teams had ever met. At lot going on in Ottawa, eh?

Mutant Diet Phase 9 Day 54
I write this post while eating chocolate almonds. I consider them a serotonin food.

I am hoping to do a full high intensity workout today.

The real issue is keeping the brain calm. There are so many distractions and stress points and I have to ask my noodle to take stuff slowly and not become as distressed. Most of the material is minor. I.e. not health threatening. However if I accumulate all the crap and let it get toxic, then I have a health problem.

Thanks for listening.

I saw a preview for the Doom Patrol TV show. Bonavista is only -3°; It’s almost that cold in Vancouver.

Mutant Diet Phase 9 Day 53
Let’s talk about blood pressure. He talks about treating it the way I hear artists talk about composing music. I.e. I have no idea what he’s on about.

However, I’m in the normal-ish zone and will be on pills until I can reduce my weight and my situational stress.

It all sounds so simple. If I complain about the effort it will take, I’m a whiner. If I give up, I’m a loser and if I somehow ever manage to succeed, no one will notice.

Wow. Cheery.

I missed a workout yesterday due to all this medical rubbish so maybe yoga will help today.

The Skrulls will feature in the Captain Marvel movie. I wonder how much snow Whistler had given this longer winter BC is having.

Mutant Diet Phase 9 Day 52
There’s a new machine at the gym that simulates rolling over a monster truck tire. I like it.

There’s an inclined arm press that seems easy until the 9th rep when your arms and shoulders abruptly feel like they’re going to jump off your body.

I have to focus on eating well but gently. The rebellious eating response is never far away and its cunning cannot be underestimated.

Retro X-Men and Fantastic Four. It helps me. I had to look. Winnipeg is -23°.

Mutant Diet Phase 9 Day 51
Monday was a bust. Let’s just move along, shall we?

Today I see the trainer and I’m better supplied to avoid whoopsies. The anxiety/stress combo is really, really not helping. You get to a point of mental pain where you don’t care.

My goal today is clean eating. I see the trainer to make sure I feel the burn. Not the bern.

Dream Girl in the bottom left. Big by-election in Burnaby today.

Mutant Diet Phase 9 Day 50
Well, that was fun. Nothing like the whole family taking ill over the weekend to derail eating habits that were hardly on the rails in the first place.

So I am here to ask myself to carry on.

Last night we all had a mild fever so going to yoga class and sharing seemed like A Dumb Idea. But today, fever free, I went to the gym to do a few exercises to remind my body that the couch and bon-bons were not to be considered normal fare.

The saying one day at a time is now one hour at a time.

I think I need all these folks to help at work today. Snow then sun in Vancouver.

Mutant Diet Phase 9 Day 47
I had a conversation with a friend who had done on what would ultimately become a keto diet. Super strict. What was interesting is that, due to many years of friendship, I trusted his work. Also his assessment of my work over the years was free of judgement, which was interestingly refreshing.

Very oddly he experienced a low calorie and zero carb state where we wasn’t losing weight when he was expecting change. The body seemed to be saying, “whoa, dude, let’s not get silly.”

What’s the explanation? Everyone seems to go to the word metabolism. I’ve decided this term is not meaningful because no one really knows (or can express to a nob like me) how it works.

I still can’t shake the notion that the whole calories-in-calories out model is basically incomplete, if not wrong. I talked about this way back in Phase 3. https://robertfordfiction.com/mutant-diet-phase-3-day-102/

I guess if the only tool you have is a hammer the problem always looks like lard.

This is Ms Marvel who becomes Captain Marvel. If you go trekking in the back country near North Vancouver, be advised you might die.

Mutant Diet Phase 9 Day 46
Yep, stress will lead you to sugary foods that you don’t normally like.

I had a meeting about my son’s school’s seismic upgrade and it led me to sugary foods.

Honestly. I don’t think stress per se is the issue, it’s the snacks that you go to as a result of stress.

Back in the saddle today.