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In a variation on the Justice League, we find a girl Shazam. Let’s check in on Bay Roberts Newfoundland at 1°.

Mutant Diet Phase 10 Day 5

Things that make you go hmmmmm.

• At today’s breakfast, my body pretty much said, “Where’s the rest of it?” Obviously five days in I’m not acclimatizing to the reduced calorie count.
• Unsurprisingly, even with ear buds, meditating in a mostly empty food court surrounded by smells of cooking did not lead to a really effective 10 minute meditation.
• On Tuesday I could not do three sets of 10 bench presses at 130 pounds. I kind of lost power at about rep 6 of the third set. On Thursday I did the full 3 sets and was only wobbly on the last rep.

It seems that the intermittent fasting technique is a big thing. I’ve seen a fellow at work use it to reduce from a very dangerous size. However, I also did the numbers; if you are tweaking yourself down to 2000 calories, there just isn’t the calories available to eat anything too late in the day. For example, if you are up at 7 AM, hold off breakfast until 8 AM and stop eating at 8 PM, then you have a 12-hour fast. It at least gives your innards time off for good behaviour.

Shazam and Constantine are magical entities. Family members heading to Victoria this weekend.

Mutant Diet Phase 10 Day 4
I hate that a new approach to an old diet seems to take effect fast. I noticed a change in my nose. Again. My nose lost weight. That’s good I guess. But I steel myself for the date in the future where I weigh in and the scale once again barfs on me.

In yesterday’s yoga class, I felt more open. I’m postulating that the water increase (and infinite urine) is reducing inflammation. When I compare to past efforts, the change to a diet with less sugar/carb/dairy does reduce inflammation, but not normally that much in under 3 days. And I had more flexibility in my right hip area despite it bitterly complaining about being in yoga class at all.

I still feel kind of weird though. Tingly. It’s allergy season too, but only mild by Alder tree standards.

Argh. I realize I’m out of salad. Have to go buy some.

Technically there’s a Shazam family. Not sure how that plays on screen. 8° and rain seems right for Ottawa today.

Mutant Diet Phase 10 Day 3
It’s Day 3. I made it through Day 2. I felt tightly all over and if I could make money from urine production, I’d be rich.

I did venture into dairy-and-carb because it came to last call for food last night and my son had a bit of leftover bagel-wich. It was difficult to estimate but I simply said, hey, this isn’t 200 calories and sure as hell isn’t 400 calories so I settled on 300.

Because, if the goal is to try to stay within 2000 calories, it doesn’t matter too much if you dip into the forbidden carb zone because a single Costco plain bagel is 330 calories. There is no the room in calorie count to really dive into the sugars and carbs.

The Shazam movie comes out this weekend and I thought I’d honour it. Spring in Winnipeg. -1° and light flurries.

Mutant Diet Phase 10 Day 2
I lived through day 1 with a much more strict diet. Making sure the first day does everything planned is important. The new compressed diet log needs some tweaks to make sure I’m reminded about meditation. That was funny because there’s a ton of choices on the Insight meditation app and the first voice I picked was just wrong. Then I found another that took me through a familiar Savasana process.

From a hunger perspective my body didn’t notice it was missing 1000 calories or so until 2 PM or so. Woza that was intense. But by 3:30 it was like a painful headache had passed.

My schedule for today is supportive of the process, but Wednesday, evening meetings start to creep in.

I weigh in with the trainer, but since I only care about the deltas, I never have to know my weight. I only need to know what direction and by how much it’s moving. No number on the scale will make me happy so, screw it.

By the way, in the chart below, I forgot my pre 8 PM snack not out of tough-guy-ness, but because I got too busy with paperwork.

I think Wolverine fighting Deadpool represents my challenge. Only 1° in Toronto.

Mutant Diet Phase 10 Day 1
It’s oddly exciting to start something new. Even though it’s a lot of the same with 500 fewer calories. My previous post shows the overall plan, but today I had to really psyche up. The first challenge is that there’s a freebie muffing/coffee thing going on at work that I have to completely avoid without sounding like some kind of no fun nancy.

The key things that will be interesting to keep is the 10 minute meditation and the 3 L of water. I figured out that’s 6 of my stainless steel water bottles at work.

My annual battle with Alder trees has started and I’m wondering if I will be able to see if going clean on the diet will have an effect, particularly with the water. In the past when allergies hit, my desire for acidic pop drinks increased.

I’m calling all superheroes to help me with Phase 10. Forecast for Vancouver needs to get a little warmer for cycling.

Mutant Diet Phase 10 Pre-Show
Last night I sort of celebrating 3 years since I started the Mutant Diet by drinking beer. I know, right?

It was March 22, 2016 I took my first photo with my first trainer.

I am now three years into this and I have a fitness habit. I was away in Orlando for a vacation and I did use the hotel gym twice. This was a record-breaker as I’ve never used a hotel gym before and I’ve travelled heaps. Also, there was a ton of walking around the Universal parks, which was offset by too much eating.

Phase 9 was not good because I was sick and could not focus on the diet. I also think the sense of futility crept in. I can’t seem to make dent in the weight. Although this thinking I’m about to describe falls into the category of “just try harder” I do think it’s time for a short experiment. I was working on 2500 calories per day and I want to see if I can do 2000 calories per day for 2 weeks. This isn’t about keto, by the way. Long ago I realized a calorie-reduced diet simply is impractical with any meaningful number of carbs. Plus no one ever died from not eating bread while eating salad instead.

This will mean a much stricter measuring and counting process and will require some mental strength not seen in nature. There’s the risk that if I lose anything, I’ll be at risk of getting pissed off and putting it back on.

Regardless, it’s time to change the process. I also could not likely sustain this for a full three month phase, but for two weeks, you can say, “hey, it’s just two weeks”.

What are the hallmarks of the two week experiment?

• 2000 calories per day from non-refined sources. I.e. sugar, wheat, rice, corn and potatoes are banned.
• 11 PM bedtime
• 8 PM to 8 AM fast
• Strict weighing of food in advance of meals
• A mini cheat with sushi on Sundays
• Meditate. 10 mins per day using an app
• 3 L of water per day
• No alcohol
• Blind weigh-in via the trainer on Tuesdays
• Current gym routine plus – weather permitting – getting back on the bike

The biggest risk is my battle with negative self-talk. I have to keep that battle going as it’s poisoning my mind.

I also have to accept failure (i.e. no meaningful weight loss in the 2 weeks) as a win because it will prove a suspicion that my body is really not willing to lose weight. I also want to keep the strength training on full tilt because if I lose weight, I want it coming from lard, not muscle.

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.