Log 02/20 - 02/26

Food, exercise, weight log

Sunday 02/20

• 191.6
• Rest day
• Food: 1) 3 sides steak and gaucamole from Chipotle 2) Shrimp cocktail and half pound beef fajitas at Blue Goose.  Estimate 180 grams protein

Monday 02/21

• 190.8
• WOD at CFR
• Food 1) 4 ounces beef liver and 4 eggs 2) 1 pound grass fed beef and a pount of sweet potato.  Estimate 190 grams protein

Tuesday 02/22

• 191.0
• Rest day
• Food: 1) Homemade paleo burgers.  About a pound of grass fed beef, 4 eggs, 5 strips bacon, sauteed onions.  Estimate 180 grams protein

Wednesday 02/23

• 189.8
• WOD at CFR
• Food: 1) 5 ounces beef liver with 4 eggs and a whole grapefruit 2) Pound of beef and pound of sweet potato and a shrimp cocktail at Blue Goose.  Estimate 210 grams protein

Thursday 02/24

• 191.8
• Rest day
• Food: 1) 12 ounces beef, 5 ounces beef liver with onions, homemade crab cakes, a tin of sardines.  Estimate 200 grams protein

Friday 02/25

• 190.0
• WOD at CFR
• Food: 1) 17 ounces beef, 1 pound sweet potato, 2 tins sardines, 1 grapefruit.  Estimate 180 grams protein

Saturday 02/26

• 188.6*
• Rest Day
• Food: 1) 1 pound beef fajita meat and gaucamole at Blue Goose, some Tilapia, 8 ounces smoked salmon, and a handful of Brazil nuts.  Estimate 190 grams protein.

Fifth week of logging, and I'm only averaging about a pound less than 4 weeks ago.  Oh well.  I know I've leaned out from 4 weeks ago, based on nothing more than easily  wearing clothes now that I couldn't wear 4 weeks ago.  I've had a pair of waist size 32 Dockers that I got in 2008 in anticipation of wearing them once I leaned out.  I never could wear them then, even at 186 pounds, but I can now at 189-190 pounds.

This is also the longest I've gone without a free meal since I had the concept of a free meal.  In fact, this is almost assuredly the longest I've ever gone without ice cream in my adult life.  When I finally do have a free meal I'll probably have some, but it isn't at the top of the list.

And at this point, I don't intend to end this 45 day challenge with a free meal.  I just don't like the idea of associating that with the end of the challenge.  I'll let myself at some point, but it will be at least 4-5 days after the challenge is over.  And it may be longer.  I'll see how I feel in 3 weeks.

Final point, there were several days this week where I only had one meal, late in the evening.  I just happened to not be hungry by lunch time, and I pushed eating until it seemed more reasonable to just wait and eat later.  I did that on Friday, and worked out essentially after a 24 hours fast.  I felt great.  In fact, I'll be looking to repeat this soon and see if the fasted state wasn't a contributor to how good I felt.

Log 02/13 - 02/19

Food, exercise, weight log.

Sunday 02/13

• 192.0 (kinda bloated after the salty food on Saturday)
• 3 mile walk with no weight
• Food: 1) 5 eggs fritata with an onion and 7 ounces of beef fajitas  2) 1 pound beef.  Estimate 200 grams protein

Monday 02/14

• 190.0
• Deadlift/pullup/press weights at CFR
• Food: 1) 4 eggs, tin of oysters, tin of sardines, grapefruit 2) 1 pound beef, 1 pound sweet potato.  Estimate 190 grams protein

Tuesday 02/15

• 191.0
• WOD at CFR
• Food: 1) 5 eggs onion and bacon fritata, grapefruit  2) 1 pound beef, 1 pound sweet potato.  Estimate 180 grams protein

 Wednesday 02/16

• 190.8
• WOD at CFR
• Food: 1) 4 oz salmon, 1 tin sardines, 1 grapefruit 2) 1 pound beef 1 pound sweet potato.  Estimate 180 grams protein

Thursday 02/17

• 189.4*
• Complete rest day
• Food:  1)  17 oz top sirloin steak, 9 eggs, grapefruit, 8 oz asparagus.  Estimate 180 grams protein

Friday 02/18

• 189.0*
• WOD at CFR
• Food: 1) 6 eggs and a grapefruit 2) 1.25 pounds beef and 1 pound sweet potato.  Estimate 180 grams protein

Saturday 02/19

• 189.6
• Rest day
• Food: 1) 4 egg fritata with onion and 8 oz chopped meatballas 2) 14 ounces steak and asparagus  3) Couldn't sleep, so started eating Macadamia nuts.  A jar and a half, to be exact.  :)  Estimate 180 grams protein

This makes 4 weeks of logging my weight, food, and workouts.  My last free meal was during my ski trip on January 15th. so 5 weeks with no free meal. 

I've noticed the occasional craving for ice cream is less frequent now. 

I've also noticed my average blood pressure has dropped.  Again.  The highest I've seen in the last month is 125/70.  That was after two cups of coffee.  The lowest I've seen is 104/53.  That is the lowest reading I can remember ever having, and this at an age (43) where most people are seeing these numbers increase rather than decrease.

Perhaps there's something to this diet and exercise thing.  :)

On Thursday I pushed my lunch off so late that I decided to have a 24 hour fast.  It felt easy, and there wasn't much hunger prior to eating.  In fact, I had intended to eat at 6:30 which would have been 24 hours, but I was busy flying and then decided to pick up some groceries and cook, so I finally ate around 8:00pm.  I did not decrease the amount of food I would normally eat, I just ate it all in one sitting.

Log 02/06 - 02/12

Another weekly log.

Sunday 02/06

• 190.2
• 3 mile walk with no weight
• Food: 1) 4 egg, 4 oz beef fritata  2) 20 ounces of meatballs, chicken, and misc protein sources.  Estimate 200 grams protein

Monday 02/07

• 190.6
• Squat/Bench weights at CFR
• Food: 1) 4 eggs, tin of oysters, tin of sardines  2)  20 ounces of meatballs, a pound of sweet potato.  Estimate 200 grams protein

Tuesday 02/08

• 189.8
• Complete rest day
• Food: 1) 6 eggs, 8 oz meat fritata, 10g 85% dark chocolate 2) 4 ounces beef liver, 4 ounces of meatballs, 2 tins sardines and 1 tin of oysters.  Estimate 210 grams protein

Wednesday 02/09

• 190.6
• WOD at CFR
• Food: 1) 5 eggs, bacon, 8oz sweet potato fritata 2) 21 ounces of meatballs and some pure potato chips.  I know, not ideal but I didn't get carbs cooked before hand so I just enough baked potato chips to give me 20g of carbs and washed it down with 30g of carbs from coconut water.  Estimate 190 grams protein

Thursday 02/10

• 190.2
• WOD at CFR
• Food: 1) 6 oz liver, 5 egg fritata  2) 1 pound beef fajitas and guacamole at Blue Goose.  Estimate 190 grams protein

Friday 02/11

• 190.6
• WOD at CFR
• Food: 1) 5 egg fritata, 1 tin sardines, 1 tin oysters  2) 1 pound of beef fajitas at El Norte.  Estimate 180 grams protein

Saturday 02/12

• 190.6
• 3 mile walk with 40 pound backpack
• Food:  1) *Fajitas and a burger plus some cooked dates and goat cheese.  2) 1 rice-free sushi roll and some salmon sashimi.  Estimate 220 grams protein.

*I was craving some foods I haven't had in months, so I decided to play a bit.  I didn't go bonkers, but I did make an exception to the no-dairy rule and had some cheese.  First I made some paleo pancake batter (coconut flour, eggs, baking powder, dash of coconut milk) very thin and poured it in a large pan and let it flatten out.  I cooked that into the equivalent of a tortilla, then took 8 ounces of leftover beef fajita meat and made an excellent fajita with guacamole.  It was awesome.

Then I took the batter and thickened it up with more coconut flour and made two very large pancakes as a substitute for a hamburger bun.  8 ounces of grassfed beef with spices made my hamburger patty.  I sauteed onions in a little coconut oil and put them on top of the burger with some crumbled bleu cheese.  Oh...my...goodness.  I missed ketchup at first, but mustard wasn't bad at all.

I got the cravings out of my system, LOVED my burger, but probably won't do it again for a while, and not very often.  I prefer what I call real food, and strange concoctions with coconut flour don't really qualify as far as I'm concerned.  Sure, it's not way off the wagon, but I don't think it's a great plan seek to recreate traditional foods with paleo-style substitutions very often. 

I also baked some medjool dates stuff with different types of goat cheese.  Those things are like candy, so limited myself to 3 of them.  I could  easily eat a pound of stuffed dates. 

Anyway, another week, and this time my weight is up a bit.  Not sure why since the splurge in food occured after my last weighing, but I'm not really too worried about it.  My pants are just as loose, and I feel good, so I'll see what next week brings.

I am the tiniest bit tired of stuffing myself to get 190-200 grams of protein.  I may take 2 weeks and just eat enough to be satisfied and see what happens.  If my strength numbers don't continue upwards for those 2 weeks, I'll return to the larger protein consumption.  If they keep going up, I'll probably just try for a minimum of 150-160g/day.

Here's some pictures of the fun stuff:

Buns (really thick pancakes) are cooking on one side, and the hamburger patty has just started sizzling.

Onions are getting brown.

Here it is before the bleu cheese crumbles. If you're strict no-dairy paleo, just stop right there and start eating!

This was an awesome hamburger.

Log 01/30 - 02/05

Here's my second log of measurements, this time tracking food as well. 

Sunday 01/30

• 190.8
• 3 mile walk with 25 pound backpack.  Wow, 25 pounds is light!
• Food: 1) 11 oz brisket, 1/2 onion, 6 egg fritata 2) 11 ounces of salmon.  Estimate 195 grams protein

Monday 01/31

• 192.2
• Deadlift/shoulder/back weights at CFR
• Food: 1) 4 eggs and 4 oz beef  2) 1.25 pounds of grassfed meatballs and .75 pounds of spaghetti squash.  Estimate 200 grams protein

Tuesday 02/01

• 190.4
• Walk on elliptical-it was 18 degrees and icy outside!
• Food: 1) 12 oz brisket, 7 eggs, onion and spinach fritata  2) 2 tins sardines, 2 tins oysters, 10g 90% dark chocolate.  Estimate 205 grams protein

Wednesday 02/02

• 189.6
• 100 Burpees at home.  8:23 
• Food: 1) Bacon, Onion, 7 egg fritata 2) Pound of grassfed meatballs and a pound of sweet potato.  Estimate 188 grams protein

Thursday 02/03

• 189.8
• 3 mile walk with 40 pound backpack.  In snow and ice at 20 degrees. 
• Food: 1) Bacon, Onion, 7 egg fritata with 10 ounces of chopped meatballs 2) 2 tins of sardines, 1 tin oysters, and a little beef/zuchini in coconut milk.  Estimate 195 grams protein

Friday 02/04

• 189.6
• Pullup skill work, 250m row sprint and Tabata row
• Food: 1) 1.25 pound beef, 1 pound sweet potato  2) 2 tins sardines, tin of oysters and a handful of Brazil nuts

Saturday 02/05

• 190.0
• 35 minute walk with 40 pound backpack
• Food: 1) 4 egg, 11 oz beef, onion and spinach fritata 2) Shrimp cocktail and 1/2 pound beef fajita meat at Blue Goose

Another week logged.  I ended the week at eactly 190, but was just under that for 3 days.  That's the least I've weighed since 2008.

The urge to pig out for comfort while stuck in the house due to weather was greatly offset by a new sense of being on auto-pilot in the area of diet.  I remember eating 5-6 meals/day and ALWAYS thinking about food.  These days, I almost always eat twice a day, and I don't give it a lot of thought.  I'm about to undertake an extremely large project that will take a vast amount of my time for the next year or two, so it's very important that I don't feel like my diet and exercise require a lot of my time. 

I will continue to follow the routine I'm on as it feels pretty effortless at this point.  One pure weight/strength day a week.  Two CrossFit days a week.  Two or three walks a week.  Once I get down to 180 pounds I will make some changes to that routine.  Mid-March, right?  :)

Giving up free meals

2 weeks ago, I decided to stop my weekly binge that I called a free meal.  I may have them occasionally once I can maintain the body composition I want, but for now they're not an option.  The earliest I'll have anything like my old free meal will be March 18th.  Tracking my weight helps in this area because I can see snapshots like this, in which I drop more than 5 pounds in 2 weeks. 

If I go back 4 weeks, you can see a similar trend, so I think my overall diet is working well.  That initial low reading of 195 is anomalous.  I had just spent 24 hours vomiting and not being able to eat.  All the other values are normal.

Even if I had gone from 195 to 190 in 4 weeks, I would consider that great progress.  I'm still getting stronger while I drop weight, so I don't think it's coming off too fast.  If I start to see some strength decline I'll try to slow down the rate of weight loss.

And finally, my weight from 1/25 to present, overlaid on the goal I set on 1/25 to be 180 pounds by 3/18.

Looks doable, but now it's obvious why I don't intend to have any free or binge meals. 

How would you like an arranged marriage?

What's your gut reaction to that question?  Does it sound good?  What if I told you that your future spouse is really great and you're going to have a great time?  I bet you still aren't convinced.  Would you like the details about this person, or better yet, would you like to choose the person for yourself?

So why do so many people buy packaged food at the grocery store without even looking at the ingredients?  I've seen people buy boxes of total crap and when I ask why they would eat it they say "But it says it's low-fat!" or "It has the heart-healthy symbol on it."

Wow, that's all it takes?  Then why can't I just say you're going to have a great marriage and hook you up with some person you know nothing about?  The reason is because you know that going into that relationship you want choice, and you want to know the details.  I suggest that divorce is a solution to a failing marriage but the crap you put into your body may be carried around with you for much longer than you'll have to wait to get divorced.

I now recommend this as the first change to your diet:  Know what your diet actually is.  It isn't "Chicken-Beak Flavored Wheaty Bits", it's all the consituent parts.  And in that made-up example, it's not the chicken beaks that are the probelm.  It's the wheat flour, the hydrogenated oil, the high fructose corn syrup, and a myriad of additives, preservatives, and nasty chemicals.  Step one in making a change is to just become aware of what you're actually putting in your body.

The next step may be to choose what to eliminate.  I recommend you ditch wheat, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and hydrogenated oil in one step.  And I believe once you realize how much of that crap you're eating you'll feel motivated to do that.  But first just realize it.

Start now.  Forget the front of the box, read the ingredients.  In time, as you care more about what you put into your body you'll find that less and less of your food will come from a box because it won't meet your requirements to be food. 

Eventually, you may get to quit reading labels, but that day will only occur when you are eating real food.  Buy a steak, grill it.  Buy some veggies, cook them too.  Nothing came from a box, and there were no labels that you even needed to read.  You may have a few things that still have a label, such as the jar of coconut oil or stick of butter, but most of what you eat shouldn't need an ingredients list.

Try it.  You'll be shocked at what you find, and it just might be an easy first step towards changing your diet and thus your life.