Blog

Today is Week 2 of Plan D and it’s time to see if I can be a little more on track. After yesterday’s dental distraction, I’m feeling less icky.

The first week’s activity log shows a lower average cycling compared to the April-June period of the Mutant Diet but better steps. It interesting to see at a glance where unplanned events influence the process (e.g. the dentist and some hernia pain).

Let’s see where we can take this for week 2.

It’s a man’s life, dentistry. I forgot how much I don’t like the needles. And don’t think a 2-hour session partly upside down doesn’t make you a) want to pee and b) hungry.

It makes no sense, really. I had a bowl of oatmeal and I was starving by 10:15 AM.

At least I scored a long ride (9.8 km) from home to dentist and then dentist to work. The air is cooler though. The first few minutes were shivery.

So I need to refocus and make fewer food mistakes.

Nothing lifts your spirits more than knowing your diet is going badly and wondering why that matters to you at all in the context of September 11, 2001 and today’s conflicts in the Middle East.

I guess there’s nothing wrong with geopolitical worry and trying to improve one’s health.

It occurred to me last night that in the diet/fitness context you have to ask more of yourself while at the same time be kinder to yourself if things don’t go well.

Let’s see how that goes today.

A Saturday. I think the articles I’ve seen saying lack of sleep doesn’t help weight loss are true. If for no other reason than you are more likely to succumb to the munchies when you are tired.

I’ve had enough mishaps in the first four days to want to quit. However, I still hate the shape I’m in. I know hate is a strong word, but if the horse trots, ride it out.

OK. I had ice cream and went for a walk on the beach last night. I’m hoping the unusal number of steps and the battle ropes session I did at the gym made up for it.

I was going to do karate but some timing issues with a meeting and the fact my hernia was trying to do a full inversion made me hesitate. It’s not helping that I can’t go full out. I don’t mind needing Tylenol before bed, but feeling like an alien is trying to escape from your own body is no good.

It’s better now that it’s Day 3. Diet and fitness went better on Day 2 than Day 1. However, I think whatever my weather app on my phone tells me I should believe the opposite. One thing about riding in the rain is that you are covered in grit from the road when you arrive home. That’s gross.

Pooh pooh yoga all you want. Yesterday’s class proved to me that Day 1 was hard on the muscles and it allowed me to open things up. Today I plan to hit the gym with increased weights.

Diet I found that I did not have time last night to make a breakfast so I had a powerbar. It will be interesting to see how long that holds me.

Urgh. I did a bit too much on the first day yesterday. I increased my weights at the gym, and managed to do karate. But today’s thrill is not going to see the surgeon for the hernia. I have been rescheduled until September 20.

This means I can go to noon time yoga which might be a good idea as the hips and lower back are tight.

The diet had a small amount of organic corn chips and I kept myself away from 2 PM chocolate apart from the power bar I used to stop me from a snack attack.

1 day down. 98 to go.

It’s with some sense of OMG that I now undertake the 4th variation of the Mutant Diet, which started in March of this year.

I am 30-35 pounds off the mark of 250 that I’m looking for. The weight loss in the previous Plans B and C has been rather glacial, but the changes have been made. I have a new belt that actually holds my pants up. I hate shopping so I’m procrastinating on new garments. Also there is stuff in the closet that may fit soon.

From today to the end of Plan D, there are 99 days. It’s going to be a tough slog to December 13. I’m going to weigh in monthly (Sept 27, Oct 25, Nov 29) plus Dec 13 as a way to keep me a little tense so I don’t do the semi-conscious cheats.

The diet is the same. No wheat, potato, rice or corn. Meat and veggies. Sugar of course is a key thing to avoid. To see if I can obtain a bit more juice out of my lemon of a diet, I need to keep an eye on the 2 PM snack attack. I am thinking of buying an all-natural peanut butter jar for work and having a teaspoon if I feel the snack attack coming on.

There are two chocolate events however I can work toward. Halloween and my daughter’s birthday. Obviously this ends before Christmas, the real chocolate holiday.

The superhero theme will continue (Wolverine and Hugh Jackman were my original inspiration). However, I need to be more efficient, so on the weekend I am going to prepare the outlines of my blog posts with images so as to save some time during the week. Each week there will be a featured superhero and I’ll alternate boy/girl and DC/Marvel. It may link a little to what comes on TV.

One wrinkle. Two days into this diet, I see a surgeon about my hernia. I have no idea what happens after this but all bets are off if I go under the knife to fix this thing, which is indeed in the way of all the fitness (yoga, karate, gym workouts, cycling) that is part of the process.

OK wish me luck. This week is Spider-man because I liked him most when I was a kid.