More about what I'm eating

I started out with the following as a goal:

2 meals/day (lunch/dinner)
- meals mostly paleo
- veggies/salad/cole slaw
- meat/fish/eggs
- small amounts of rice or potato (when past initial couple weeks)
- good fats
- small amounts of fruit
- small amounts of nuts (best roasted by me from raw state)
- one piece dark chocolate (when past initial couple weeks)
- when past initial couple weeks, occasionally:
- one glass wine
- small amounts of tortilla or potato chips (max 5)
Avoid entirely:
- any high sugar especially soft drinks
- grains, especially wheat in any form
- bad fats
Think about eating veggies first.
Cognizant of amounts -- eat less! Don't end up stuffed. Take home or share.
Track all food on my fitness pal app.
Grocery list:
meat, fish, chicken, fish, eggs
green beans, cole slaw, carrots, celery, tomatoes, peppers, avocados
apples, berries, other fruits
potatoes, white rice (basmati?)
dark chocolate
raw almonds, dry roasted macadamias
Also, sweetie's homemade (bone) broth! Possibly drink in the morning with a little coconut oil, also cook rice in it.

I've been pretty close:

• 2 meals a day, definitely -- doing this kind of intermittent fasting is a huge help in keeping total calories at a reasonable rate, plus the other benefits, which I'll write about later
• meals mostly paleo: I went through a period where I ate potatoes or rice at most meals, but found that 1) I didn't portion control and 2) slowed weight loss to a crawl, so went back to mostly paleo
• quickly switched to 2 pieces of chocolate as a treat at night (sometimes with a couple oz. of a nice port!)
• Once I got past the period of too many carbs each day, I've had periodic "breaks" or "cheats" (depending on the way you look at it):  for example, Friday we had lunch at a favorite Mexican restaurant: lots of chips, 2/3ds of a Mexican coke (half liter bottle), 3 enmoladas with mole and rice & beans, probably over 100 grams of carbs in that meal alone -- yesterday I followed with a low carb day, under 50 for the whole day -- however, my weight hit a new low Sunday morning of 222 pounds, down 3 pounds for the week, so clearly not a problem
• small amounts of wine--correct
• avoiding high sugar--mostly, but see above about the Mexican coke
• mostly avoiding grains, especially wheat, but some slips: a sub sandwich last Tuesday and a couple of those the week before -- some corn tortillas and chips (not yet limiting to 5!) -- need to plan ahead better--I did that more often this week, bringing food to school
• haven't eaten veggies first regularly, but am not sure that matters if I have good choices and good portion control
• much better at being cognizant of amounts/portion control 
• got back off the rice, so no bone broth recently -- will find a way, perhaps bring to school for lunch in thermos
• And . . . I've tracked almost every meal, which keeps me honest and focused!

If I look at calories the past week (Sunday through Saturday), I averaged 1591/day. Carbs were: 73, 51, 255, 59, 67, 110, 47 -- a mix of low carb days and one a bit high and one way high. However, if I look at weight loss this week, down 3 pounds this week. While I don't think I can keep that kind of weight loss on a regular basis over the long term, 1 pound/week, perhaps for awhile at 1.5 pounds/week should be totally doable.

We spent a great afternoon yesterday at a "Steak 101" class at the Local Yokel Market in McKinney, which teaches about the different cuts and grades of beef, plus info on "grass fed-grass finished" and Wagyu beef, both of which they grow and sell (plus other products from local farmers/ranchers). Very informative and then they feed you, from their grills, amazing beef of all kinds, tender and tasty! We bought a couple small roasts and some pasture raised pork brats . . . mmm! If we can find a way to do it, we'll try to get most of our meat from there--just better and better for you--incredibly better fat profile (higher in omega 3 fats and CLA, which has several benefits).

All in all, I'm moving in the right direction. I'll take labs at the end of next week, for a physical the following one, so it'll be interesting to see where my numbers are.

Intermittent Fasting

Short post today.

I've read a lot about intermittent fasting and for the past 3 weeks or so have been following the Leangains approach, which is a 16 hour fast followed by an 8 hour feeding window. For me, this means no breakfast, so from a period after dinner to noon or thereabouts, I don't eat. I'm not yet to his macronutrient approach, which is connected with intense (weight lifting) exercise, since I'm not there yet, and won't be for some time.

Mark Sisson recently had a good article on The Myriad Benefits of Intermittent Fasting and the advantages it can give.

So far, no problems with this, no hunger, energy consistent, all good!

That's all for today!

Long-time no write!

OK, so it's been about 11 months since I last posted on this blog. "Why?" you ask? As you might expect, it's because I've not kept up with my progress. Frustrating, for sure!

But, ups and downs are a part of what happens. So, what can I learn from my failures? What can I do differently?

Back in July of 2011 I hit as high as 251 pounds and started this blog at 247.5. Over the course of time since I stopped blogging, I first kept at it, getting down to 219.5 in February of this year. I then gradually gained back weight, although not to my starting point--in July when I started working at it again, 235.5. As of today, I'm 225.5, down 10 pounds. Not yet to my low of 219.5, but not so far from it.

As to what I can do differently, it has to do with a very gradual plan, adding elements slowly (especially exercise), tracking better what I do, and not being too ambitious (I guess that's connected to doing things gradually). The idea is to keep adding elements of my exercise plan, but only as I feel ready, not according to a pre-set schedule.

In a way, getting "back on the wagon" was inspired by an article in The Atlantic: The Perfected Self, by David Freedman, plus a follow up:  How Smartphone apps are changing our lives. Much of this is about how tracking behavior can change it, plus other Skinnerian techniques.

I took a look at smartphone apps and chose two, one with some hardware as well: Fitbit, which has the hardware to measure the steps you take (and how many "stairs" you climb each day); and MyFitnessPal, which from reviews, had the best way to measure what you eat (calories, fat, protein, carbs, etc.).

The point of measurement is, of course, feedback and that the very act of writing things down (or punching them into your smartphone)--i.e. tracking your behavior--begins to change that behavior.

My fitness plan builds on several things:

1. walking every day (usually in the mornings, but I use the Fitbit to track almost all my walking)
2. ride an Exercycle (we bought a recumbent bike earlier in the summer--not fun to exercise hard in the Texas summers!) - this will eventually be Sprint 8 training
3. do my traditional core exercises (plank, side plank, bird-dog, psoas stretch)
4. Foundation Training -- less traditional exercises for those who have trouble with their back--this works on the "posterior chain," back muscles, plus glutes and hamstrings, and how they should function properly
5. bodyweight resistance exercise (from Convict Conditioning--yeah, the concept and marketing is a bit weird, but it's a well thought-out sequence of traditional exercises (pushup, pull-up, etc) from easy to hard versions, with a logical progression sequence

More about all of these individually later, but at this point I've been walking every morning (not necessarily on Sundays), just around my neighborhood, about 1.3 miles. I've started the bike a couple weeks ago--just twice a week, building up from 10 minutes to 14 (eventually to 20). I've also been doing my traditional core exercises after the walks 2-3 times/week. The next to be added will be the Foundation training exercises, which are tricky to learn to do correctly, so I'll need my wife's help, looking at the video and book and watching my form--the whole point is to re-educate your body and the way it works, then strengthening the correct set of muscles. It'll take some time.

I'm also working on improving sleep--if you remember, not a strength of mine! First step has been to shut off the TV and computer earlier--started at 11 PM, now 10:30--I've been mostly compliant and it's helped. The challenge is as I go to more evening concerts now, I tend to be wired when I come home (often 10:30 or so already) and have used watching TV to unwind. Have to see how that works. No big improvements, but some nights I now sleep through (last night was an example) instead of waking up and being up for 1-2 hours.

More on all of this (and reports to track how I'm doing) later!