Protein snack

A protein bar.

Breakfast 1-9-12

Eggs, bacon, refried beans.

Lunch

A little salad bar action.

Breakfast 1-5-12

Thursday I go sideways. Back on the train after this meal.
Last night's meal made me feel groggy this morning, so didn't get out of bed, hbought chickfil-a for breakfast, used the fat person mindset (well I'm already cheating) and had some small cookies and that made me feel terrible.
when I cheat (allowed only cheat day) I need to be way more responsible about it.
I feel gross and bloated and blergh.

Protein snack

Dinner off plan

Sliders, chips and salsa, and beer!

Lunch 1-4-12

Burrito bowl with lettuce, chicken, black beans and guacamole. Side of squash. Not pictured, the drumstick in my belly.

Breakfast 1-4-12

Eggs, bacon, retried beans.

Goals for 2012

Relationship & Family

• Have one date night every two weeks with Jennifer
• Take one romantic vacation with Jennifer
• Spend New Year's Eve on vacation with Jennifer someplace snowy
• Have lunch or dinner with Mom at least once a month
• Call Mom once a week
• Enjoy trivioke three times a month
• Enjoy D&D three-four times a month
• Plan parties: Beginning of summer pool party, Robert/Jennifer pool party, Halloween Karaoke Party, Birthday Apocalypse
• Attend Family Reunion in summer

Personal Finances & Debt Reduction

• Reduce expenses by minimizing spontaneous spending
• Eat home-prepped lunch 4 days per week
• Focus on funneling money into investment plans
• Set up all payments as automatic, including savings for investments

Investments

• Partner with Mike and purchase first investment property in Q1 2012
• Partner with Mike and purchase second investment property in Q2 2012
• Partner with Mike and purchase third investment property in Q3 2012
• Partner with Mike and purchase fourth investment property in Q4 2012
• Save 25% of first investment property down payment in each quarter
• Purchase first individual investment property in Q4 2012

Health

• Spend six days a week eating following the slow-carb diet principles, one day a week as cheat day
• Focus on the holy trinity of weight loss: sleep minimum of seven or eight hours a day, consume enough protein, drink plenty of water
• Visit the gym at least two times a week, shooting for three
• Record results of strength gains for each month
• Work on flexibility exercises

Mental & Emotional Health

• Study meditation practices
• Meditate - at least once a week set aside time to practice meditation
• Practice Thoughtfulness - think through words and decisions, with focus on the consequences and results of actions

Dinner 1-3-12

Burrito bowl, chicken and black beans, peppers and cheese, guacamole!

Protein bar 1-3-12

Doesnt look all that yummy, but it is.

Snack

Didn't really eat all my lunch and got hungry again.

Lunch 1-3-12

Leftover new years luckiness.

Breakfast 1-3-12

Scrambled egg and egg whites, retried beans and bacon.

Snack x2

Had some more carrots and hummus, and this protein bar.

Dinner

Chicken and squash

Snack 1-2-12

Carrots and hummus.

Lunch 1-2-12

Burrito bowl - no cheese, no sour cream, no carbs. :)

Breakfast 1-2-11

Hard boiled egg, bacon and refrained beans.

Mall walkin frappucino

Chicken verde omelette with black beans, little late dinner.

Lunch 1-1-12

Prosperous black eyed peas and some sausage.

Brunch 1-1-2012

A little homemade chili for brunch. The remnants of a Frappucino in the background, my one Sunday morning guilty pleasure.

Wellness Wednesday... late (or early)

Wellness Wednesdays are about improving my physical (and mental) health. The first step is an inventory/assessment of where I stand. Possibly followed by an analysis of how I got there and then a plan of attack - goals need to be set in order to know how to reach them.

 

I weighed myself on Sunday morning (May 1st) and was pretty sad with the results - 266. After any bariatric surgery (and mine was in July of 2008), there's a year called "the honeymoon" where weight loss is generally effortless. Mostly this is because it's nearly impossible to eat enough of the foods that would keep you at the heavy weight that you started at, but also there are some medical reasons - calorie malabsorption being the primary one. I originally weighed somewhere north of 400 pounds, and had been able to drop to +/- 5 pounds from 230. To creep up almost 40 pounds since I'd reached my lowest weight was something I'd really feared happening. It's called "the rebound" in the weight loss surgery world, and I was happy telling myself it wasn't going to happen. But it did. I needed to do something about that.

 

A couple of years ago I read a wonderful book called "The 4-Hour Workweek" by Tim Ferriss. It details "lifestyle design" which I've also seen referred to as "lifehacking" - the idea being that you can make your life more efficient/successful by challenging the status quo and looking for shortcuts, new ways of doing things, and not just taking "common sense" as something that is gospel. Not being ultra-responsive to email (checking it just twice a day), taking mini-retirements, etc. Recently the author applied that same template to the body/health in a book called "The 4-Hour Body". Several of my friends had already picked up the book and read through it and taken much of the advice and applied it, particularly the diet (referred to as "slow-carb"), and had very good results. I decided to look into it.

 

Now you may be saying - "Mason, you had life altering surgery, why are you investigating some crazy diet?" and I'd say that while I have had alterations made to my innards, my brain remains the same. One of the things I appreciate the most about Tim Ferriss' approach is that he refuses to take the status quo as something you can't walk away from. I've always been willing to challenge the usual thinking and so I was ready to read the book and see if there's something to it for me. At no point would I have approached the diet if it felt "crazy" and it does not. Essentially it's what's known as "Paleo" or "Caveman" diet, which means if a caveman could not have eaten it, neither could you - but there are some substantial differences. The gist is as follows: Avoid white carbs; Avoid dairy Avoid fruit;; balance every meal with proteins, legumes, and veggies; cheat once a week to keep your metabolism from adjusting. I'll write a more detailed post about the diet in the future, but those are the guidelines to get started with. I don't feel like I'm eliminating anything that my body NEEDS (because I'm not eating enough fruit as it is to get my vitamins from them) and I'm also not overindulging in anything that I would consider gross. I'm just approaching it with a balance and with some recompositing of my food choices. I'm still taking in all of my supplements that weight loss surgery requires of me, and of course I have Jennifer keeping guard on my health like a hawk.

 

One of the things suggested in the 4-Hour Body is to take some measurements so that you have a baseline to see how you improve, so here's my baseline (along with some of Jennifer's information for reference).
                 Me   Jenn
Left Bicep 13.5  12.5
Right Bicep 13.5  12.5
Left Thigh 25 22.5
Right Thigh 24  23
Waist 50  36
Chest 39
Pants size 44
Weight 266  163

 

Those measurements were a week ago. Today... I realized that Jennifer and I fall outside of those measurements, except for weight and how our clothes fit. Our skin is too funky to be accurate.

This morning I weighed 254.5 and Jennifer weighed 158. So good progress for both of us. Then, our first cheat day!