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Justice League Dark. That would be a fun movie. I’d complain about the pollen in Vancouver but with freezing rain in Toronto, uh, no, it’s just fine here.

Mutant Diet Phase 7 Day 14
I felt like I cheated like crazy yesterday, but the calorie count came in within boundaries. I’m hoping not to obsess over this, but calorie estimating is part of the process. The results will be whatever the body decides it will be. But I need to let the process have a chance to take effect.

At this stage, my tight jeans from two weeks ago aren’t fitting properly so I will try to place my faith in the process and give it a chance to proceed un-messed with until the end of this month. Then I will steel myself for a weigh-in and measure to see.

Today is my official cheat day, despite nasty carbs creeping in yesterday, I don’t have the same intensity of cravings. Same cravings mind you. I just don’t think they are inducing the same level of distress as last week.

Moon Knight is a cool character that doesn’t seem to be on the movie radar. I was helping a client in Westerose Alberta yesterday

Mutant Diet Phase 7 Day 13
It’s Saturday morning. Do you know where your calories are? It’s funny because I saw a re-tweet yesterday involving @YoniFreedhoff, the fellow who wrote the Diet Fix book, which is the book I’m semi using to upgrade my Mutant Diet, which was initially inspired by a Keto mindset.

I wonder how often authors of books see nuts like me trying something and wondering which sections of the book I willfully ignored.

Anyway, my body thanked me for not going to the gym because the lower back is still not right. I’ll have to get some more treatment. My wizard(ess) RMT has a waitlist and I’m on it.

But if you’re wondering how I stick to it, I noticed that the jeans I’m wearing were not comfortable two weeks ago and now they are loose.

Notice Batman doesn’t look scared. Difficult to spell, but I went to Kindergarten in Mississauga.

Mutant Diet Phase 7 Day 12
There’s a challenge with keeping the calorie count in the evenings. I’m just getting too hungry. And with muscle pain, it becomes overwhelming and adversely affects my effectiveness in the many things that are going on. I guess I have to try to shift more calories to later in the day. I’m not sure how that works.

In the meantime, I figured out the mathematical reason I’m skipping the scale. (My psychological reasons are due to childhood dieting trauma.)

The scale is simply too blunt an instrument. It’s too slow to show progress. For example, I have never been back to the weight from 2 years ago, even though I lost a meagre 15 pounds. However, I consider that loss a fairly permanent change. I.e. One weekend’s indulgence won’t put it all back.

However, when you are in the middle of working on a new target, your body can put on or take off a pound in the same day. Therefore you can’t really trust the scale until the change has become a new lower baseline. A sensible average weight loss is 1 pound per week. Which means in a month, that’s a piffling 4 pounds. Which frankly for the amount of discomfort I’m experiencing feels almost not worth it.

Therefore, if you wanted to drop 60 pounds, that’s really a-year-and-a-half because Christmas and vacations will at best stall the process for some of the time.

There has to be a better way to measure progress than the scale. There are many changes happening that are not being observed. I don’t trust my own observations and the scale simply won’t inform me.

I read that they’re filming a Teen Titans movie in Toronto.

Mutant Diet Phase 7 Day 11
Yesterday was a tough day for sugar and carb cravings. Given how hungry I was when I went to bed, I don’t think I did too badly, but my estimated calorie count shows a little high.

At Day 11 the excitement, such as it was, for a new attempt at changing the diet is starting to wear off. It’s a big slog on a bumpy road to a destination that is unknowable.

However, I have to ask, am I feeling it in my body. Oddly I think so, but you can’t rule out self-delusion. I can’t bear the thought of the scale until the end of the month. I’m also scared to death that my body will adapt to the lower calorie count and hold onto the weight.

I won’t find out unless I stay the course for at least three weeks.

Werewolf-by-Night or how I feel on a diet. Maybe there’s a nice B&B in Ladner.

Mutant Diet Phase 7 Day 10
I’m wondering “what next?” There’s a mp3 I have on my desktop that is of King Julien from Madagascar where he yells “How long is this going to take?” I think I will play this daily. King Julien clip.

I am sore from my self-paced workout and I see the chiropractor to see if she can shove my lower back somewhere near where it’s supposed to be.

I think my process is working. Last night’s after dinner wanting-to-gnaw-my-own-arm-off feeling was unpleasant. I could also feel my behaviour toward others deteriorating.

There is doubt. Is this the right diet? Am I working out enough? Where could I add more? Am I getting enough sleep? What if this doesn’t work? How will I change if I do reach some sort of end state? What is that end state really?

No wonder I’m tired.

I just thought this was cool. I have no idea what’s going on. A lot of people are thinking about Humboldt Saskatchewan these days.

Mutant Diet Phase 7 Day 9
Wow. I was really hungry last night. Bacon to the rescue and then I had to just try to ignore it for the rest of the night.

Lower back mystery: according to the trainer I was doing the kettle bell wrong. Too high a swing. She made me do deadlifts and I thought it had been easy until after I left the gym and returned to the office. Yeesh.

Practical Tips for Calorie Counting

I was finding calorie counting distressing because it’s difficult to be exact. This is what I learned.

• Don’t stress; it’s not possible to be exact.
• New food? Look on the back of the package and estimate. If no package, Google it and check a couple of different answers. Pick what’s reasonable.

The real value of calorie counting is that part of your mind will know that if you eat anything, you have to write it down and figure out the calorie count. Easier just not to eat.

One tip from the Diet Fix book is to this of calories as money you don’t want to spend.

It’s hard to know if this is working. I feel like I lost weight off my back and my nose. WTF?

I’m looking forward to superhero interactions in Avengers Infinity War. I am nearing Mississauga in my data clean up.

Mutant Diet Phase 7 Day 8
It’s official that week 2 has started. Cheat days make for difficult calorie counting. I’m not sure about my numbers, but it does provide me with the evidence to realize that getting to a 4000-5000 calorie cheat day would be easy.

I did notice a change in my eating. When I was eating my sushi treat last night, I actually got full. I should have stopped eating the rest, which I will try next time, but what I need to do is order less. It’s funny that it only took a week to develop the self-awareness.

Of course the question is, is this working? I know the pants are looser. I won’t be brave enough to weigh in until at least the end of April.

It would be nice if the trees could finish pollinating so I could remove one stressor.

Yesterday was better from a grumpy perspective, but took a lot of concentration.

This is a cool Avengers montage. I didn’t know The Hulk ever had an Iron Man style suit. Pretty soon I have to review the Minden Ontario listings.

Mutant Diet Phase 7 Day 7
It’s Sunday. Do you know where your calories went? Technically it’s a cheat day, but I cheated a little Friday and Saturday so I don’t think it’s going to be that big.

Counting calories when you aren’t doing the cooking is a pain. However the stir fry at a food court was pretty fresh and had obvious mix of vegetables and zero rice. Regardless, this is why I don’t trust yesterday’s number so much. But I did restrain myself and I noticed I was a little hungry when I went to bed.

A notable side effect of dieting for me is satanic levels of grumpiness. If I or my family is to survive, I have to put a lid on that shit. The lower back discomfort does not aid in promoting one’s Qi

I’m still on a Spider-man kick and I found this part of a cover of all Spider Women. Midland Ontario is coming up soon for data review.

Mutant Diet Phase 7 Day 6
Yesterday had a wine-and-cheese event and two cookies and that blew my 2500 calorie goal by 500. I can feel the difference the extra sugars and carbs. But one of the side effects is less stress mentally. The good news is that when you are strict for five days straight, the so-called cheats taster really good.

Tomorrow’s post will show where I went off today. I don’t think the dull pain from my lower back’s left side is helping. One looks for comfort from where one can.

It looks like fitness will be delayed until yoga tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll be able to reset the back at that class.

The balance of today will be trying to take in the bare minimum needed.

I can’t imagine what dialogue between Deadpool and The Hulk would be like. The listings in Markham Ontario are refreshed.

Mutant Diet Phase 7 Day 5
Yesterday one kettle bell went the wrong way and now my lower back is pissed off. I think I’m going to stay away from the gym. And clench everything else except my lower back muscles. Dang.

Calorie count yesterday seemed to work. There’s another social at work with free booze and snacks. That’ll be the third big will power test this week. Figures I wouldn’t get an easy first week of a new phase.

I’m hoping the tingling and weird body temperature swings (no, I’m not menopausal) settle down. The weekend is coming and I want to cheat but not lose what momentum I suspect I’ve built. According to the Diet Fix book, the key is planning.

We shall see.