Saturday, March 31, 2012

The "Free Lunch" Weight Loss Plan v.010

I continue to climb the extra 20 flights of stairs each and every day as a long-term plan. It's been 10 months so far. I'm absolutely convinced that it is a permanent habit now.

The good news is that I'm down about 9 pounds from when I started. The bad news isn't hard to spot.


Click to enlarge.

Same story as last month. I'm making no additional effort to adapt. Hopefully I'll turn the corner once the sun starts coming out on a regular basis and the momentum will carry me through the summer again. I have no proof. Although I am not a religious person, I guess you could say I'm working on faith.


Click to enlarge.

Winter was brutal. Spring is officially here.

The Weather Channel: 10 Day Weather Forecast


Woo-Frickin-Hoo. Sigh.

In all seriousness, the summers are wonderful in the Seattle area. We get our fair share of sun. The winters make you appreciate them all that much more. I intend on going on a lot more hikes than last year (willingly) and I think my legs can now handle it. In theory, that should help.

I'm reminded of a time I was standing in line behind two people who had recently moved up from California. It was early fall if I recall. They were complaining because there had been a few cloudy days in a row. I secretly laughed to myself and thought, "You haven't seen anything yet!" That was roughly two decades ago. Their conversation had quite the impact on me. How did they ever survive the winter? Hahaha!

I actually don't mind the rain or I wouldn't live here. That doesn't mean I want to take long hikes or do yard work in the mud though. So what do I do instead? Sit on the couch and play video games? Yeah, pretty much. Sit at my desk and blog? Okay, got me there. Deep down there is a lazy person within me who's clearly struggling to get out. And when I say struggling, I may actually mean capitulating, lol.

Fortunately, I am a goal-oriented lazy person. It was my intention to eventually get to the blue zone (in the charts) with the least possible effort. I was originally thinking that it might take up to 5 years. I don't have enough information yet to know if the path I am currently on will get me there. Is this mostly seasonal or not? I think it is, but once again I have no proof.

In any event, I have climbed an extra 6,100 floors since I started. That's roughly 11.5 miles straight up. It certainly hasn't hurt me. My legs actually feel pretty good. I'm going to keep doing it as long as I am physically able. There is no end point where I say I'm done. This is my modest plan and I'm sticking with it.


See Also:
The "Free Lunch" Weight Loss Plan v.000

5 comments:

Troy said...

Back in the 1980s I used to summer in Centralia, with my granddad. Weather was great, better than Fresno at least.

Leg strength is a great investment you can make to increase your physical capital.

When I was on the diet last time I'd bike 3-5 hours a week, and by the end of that I felt great.

The scale says I've lost 40+ lbs from my peak, but I don't feel the difference in my legs as much this time.

As for the diet, this month was a good month, 196 to 193.

It's not a sprint, it's a marathon, and the goal is guaranteed if you stick to the plan. That's the secret of my diet plan, that yellow line -- having a goal gives the plan a direction.

Shoulda productized this as an iApp back in 2008, I had developed this already as a DHTML app back in 2005, LOL.

Stagflationary Mark said...

Troy,

It's not a sprint, it's a marathon, and the goal is guaranteed if you stick to the plan.

That's pretty much how I see it. Congrats on hitting 193!

Troy said...

Next minigoal for me is 189.5 -- that's when my BMI officially leaves the "overweight" classification.

While BMI is bogus for some people, it was an article on it in 2002 that first opened my eyes to my weight issue -- it was 31 or so back then, I felt fat but didn't really think I was "obese". But a 40" waist is pretty much obese.

Stagflationary Mark said...

My BMI is 27. That's in the middle of the overweight range. I could buy that.

They don't think that I'd be underweight at 150 pounds? I've got news for them. I was very thin at 180 in high school. At 6'3" and 150, I'm fairly sure that I could slide through the cracks between doors without having to open them, lol.

Stagflationary Mark said...

As a side note, I felt obese when I was 230. That's well shy of the 240 it claims it would take.

I suppose there is a difference between feeling obese and proving it. Perhaps in my case that difference was 10 pounds, lol.