Wednesday, May 31, 2006

After a holiday......

Weighed myself at the gym yesterday.

Current: 222 pounds.

That's no change from last Thursday, but it's generally the last part of the week where I see the change. Plus, I had company this weekend and it was pretty hectic fitting everything in. I don't think I had time for more than 2 shots of oil from Friday to Monday, because of being out and about. That, plus all the great cookout food. With all the cookouts and eating out we did this weekend, just maintaining is a big victory.

No weigh-in Friday because I'll be working out at home that day, and I don't have the same type of scale. Let's see if I drop any more weight by next Monday though.

Technorati tags:
Posted by at No comments:

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Weigh-in day.....

Today's weight: 222 pounds. Down a quarter pound from last weigh-in, but up a quarter pound from May 21.

Not surprising considering how much I lost last week. I look to have another big drop next week if history can be a guide.

My lifts are all up in the gym. I did a total of 43 reps at 162.5 pounds, and 70 reps at 10.5 on the machine for cable rows. Monday, I did 41 reps at 155 pounds, and 58 reps at 10.5 on the cable row machine.

I think I may be gaining muscle and that's why my weight loss gains are down a bit. Clothes don't feel much looser, but I read somewhere that you have to lose 10 pounds before you drop an inch on your waist, so that's expected.

Technorati tags:
Posted by at 3 comments:

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

My typical workout

This is the plan:

Workouts - 2 per week, either Monday - Thursday or Tuesday - Friday.
5 minutes recumbent bike as warmup, try to get heart-rate to 120 BPM or so, then a 5 minute exercise/body part specific warmup.

Move on to 15 minutes supersetting bench press and seated cable rows (SCR). The goal is to do as many repetitions (reps) as I can in 15 minutes. It's a workout program called Escalating Density Training.

I start with bench press and move immediately to the SCR with no rest. If I need rest after the SCR, I rest before my next set of bench presses. I use the same weight, an estimate of my 10 rep maximum, but I limit myself to a maximum of 5 reps per set.

So my last workout went something like this:
Bench press - 5 reps
SCR - 5 reps
rest 20 secs
Bench press - 5 reps
SCR - 5 reps
rest 30 secs
Bench press - 5 reps
SCR - 5 reps
rest 40 secs
Bench press - 5 reps
SCR - 5 reps
rest 50 secs
Bench press - 4 reps
SCR - 5 reps
rest 50 secs
Bench press - 3 reps
SCR - 5 reps
rest 50 secs
Bench press - 2 reps
SCR - 4 reps
rest 50 secs
Bench press - 2 reps
SCR - 4 reps
rest 50 secs
Bench press - 3 reps
SCR - 3 reps
rest 60 secs
Bench press - 2 reps
SCR - 3 reps
rest 60 secs
Bench press - 2 reps
SCR - 3 reps
rest 60 secs
Bench press - 2 reps
SCR - 3 reps
rest 60 secs
Bench press - 2 reps
SCR - 3 reps
rest 60 secs

Total time: 14 minutes 50 seconds.

When I'm done, on early week days (Monday or Tuesday), I do a slow set (2 secs squeeze/raise, 4 seconds relax/down) of seated overhead dumbbell presses.

On late week days (Thursday or Friday), I do 2 sets of dips, and 2 sets of assisted pullups (oh, for the day when I can do them without assistance, like when I was in High School!).

After each workout, I get back on the recumbent bike (if one is available, stationary bike if not) for 10 minutes at a slightly more than moderate pace (try to get my heart-rate up to about 140).

Then when I'm finished, I stretch for 5 minutes. My goal is to be able to do a split, but I don't think that's going to happen at 40.

Total time in the gym: about 1 hour, not including time to change.

Technorati tags:
Posted by at No comments:

Monday, May 22, 2006

Bad weekend

Mid-week weigh-in shows me at 222.25 pounds, up a half pound.

Don't believe that's accurate (water weight, probably), I did have a lot to eat this weekend (2 parties!), but by my estimate, I only went over my maintenance on Saturday, Friday should have been about maintenance level, and I was way under last night.

Still, I'm consistently losing, and Thursday's weigh-in will let me know if I've plateaued.

Still also making progress at the gym, so that's encouraging that I'm probably not losing muscle while I'm losing weight. I'll post my typical workout some time later this week or next.

Technorati tags:
Posted by at 1 comment:

Friday, May 19, 2006

I almost forgot my PIN

Just went to the ATM in my building to get money for cab fare. I had to pause for a second to remember my PIN. I can't believe how little time (and money) I spend at the snack machines and snack bar now. Can't remember the last time I bought something there.

Just another benefit from eating less (and not suddenly ravening anything you can get your hands on because you're suddenly starved due to trying like mad to keep your calorie count down).

Maybe I'll use the money I save to buy some new clothes now that my current wardrobe is getting a bit loose.

Technorati tags:
Posted by at 2 comments:

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Whoops!

Previous weight: 222.25 pounds as of May 15 (224.5 pounds on May 12)

Current weight: 221.75 pounds (May 18)
Body fat (Lifewise 63-1525 body fat meter): 31.8%

The handheld type meters are notoriously inaccurate, but I keep track anyway because at some point, even if they are inaccurate by 5% or so, it will show me results.

So I had this post written complaining about how I had only lost a half pound.

Erp.

That was since Monday!

I actually lost almost 3 pounds this week. I have been carefully tracking my foods, which can and does make a difference. I see when I'm getting close to my maintenance level on calories and I can stop eating then.

The difference is: when I stop eating, I'm not hungry now.

I apparently still have to learn how to tell my actual hunger from my wanting food because hey! Food is tasty!

Even though it does seem easier now to do that, it's still not perfect. For example, I ate way too much spaghetti last night because my wife can cook some great spaghetti.

But I stopped before I gorged myself. I could tell when I finished though, that I had eaten too much. Today, I can still tell I ate too much last night. It's almost 2 pm, and the only calories I've had today are the 2 TBSP of sugar in some water for my workout. With no hunger. At all.

Maybe I'm just fooling myself, but anecdotes like mine tend to discourage the idea that the effects from this diet are due solely to psychosomatics, placebo, expectation effect, or whatever you want to call it. It seems like I have just been expecting a plateau, and was ready to pounce when I thought I experienced it. I apparently am still waiting for this diet to fail, just like the others have eventually. Six weeks ties with Atkins for the longest I've been able to sustain a diet and associated weight loss.

This seems different though, even if I apparently don't truly believe it.


Technorati tags:
Posted by at No comments:

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Giant Placebo?

A lot of people seem to wonder if the oil and/or sugar water taken on this diet are simply placebos. Sugar and oil, from what I can remember, have both been used as placebos in the past, so I guess it makes sense to wonder.

Another possibility I haven't seen brought up is the Hawthorne Effect. Basically, if you know some change is supposed to give results, you give the results. Very similar to the placebo effect.

I think these arguments miss the point.

This seems to be working for a lot of people. Provided, of course, that it continues to work, does anyone really care if it's a placebo or Hawthorne effect?

I don't.

Technorati tags:
Posted by at 3 comments:

Monday, May 15, 2006

My (so-far) diet success

I'm a hungry sonofagun. Or at least I used to be.

On April 6, 2006, while on one of my many and varied sojourns across the Wild internet, I ran across something called "The Shangri-La Diet" (commonly abbreviated SLD by "insiders"). I can't remember now what I was searching for when I found it. I do remember that it had something to do with Freakonomics, because an article by one of the Freakonomics authors was what led me to Seth Roberts's website.

The science sounded flaky, the idea gimmicky, but it was just so easy and cheap to test that I decided it was worth a shot (that's an SLD pun, for you outsiders).

So test it I did. And so far, I am shocked and amazed by the results.

I began on April 6, 2006. My weight that day was 232.5 pounds in a towel (and carrying soap, shampoo, and locker key).

Today, May 15, I weighed myself under the same conditions and can report I now weigh 222.25 pounds. I am noticably thinner, and my clothes fit better.

For the math lazy, that's 5.5 weeks (we'll call it 6, my next weigh in day is May 17 though I usually only weigh-in once a week) and I've lost 10.25 pounds, about 1.7 pounds a week.

This has been accomplished with negligible inconvenience and minimal hunger.

So what's the secret? Well, I could tell you, but Dr. Roberts (he's a psychologist, not a medical doctor) has been so honest and forthcoming, even potentially at the expense of his book sales, that it would pay you to go to his site and check it out for info straight from the doc himself.

Here's a hint, though. You control your hunger by drinking sugar water (! .... yes, I know) or a shot (1-2 tablespoons) of tasteless oil.

Soon I plan on discussing a general view of Dr. Roberts's theory (I took a lot of Psych classes in college, absolutely love the stuff) and some of the implications, so check back if you're interested.


Technorati tags:
Posted by at No comments:

Welcome and Hello


Purpose of this blog: to report progress, reactions and thoughts on the Shangri-La Diet. I plan on updating infrequently, as the mood strikes me, but will at least attempt to keep updating the weight change info regularly.

New clip art added from Hassle Free Clip Art.
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)