Wednesday, February 29, 2012

The "Free Lunch" Weight Loss Plan v.009


Click to enlarge.

Although you cannot see it in the chart, I continue to climb an extra 20 flights each and every day. It's been 9 months so far. Perhaps I'm having a baby. D'oh!

I set a personal best today. I went all out and managed to climb them in 2 minutes and 56 seconds. Surprisingly, I didn't even keel over afterwards (but my legs sure burned).



Click to enlarge.

Winter continues to take its toll. I flirt with seasonal affective disorder. I had not realized just how much until doing these charts.

Check out this weather report. I can expect one day of partial sun in the next 10 days. I probably won't receive any weight loss, but I will receive total consciousness. So I've got that going for me, which is nice, lol. Sigh.

So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice. - Carl Spackler, Caddyshack (1980)

In all seriousness, I expect things to greatly improve once the sun comes out on a regular basis again. It isn't so bad. At least the summers here feel vibrant and alive by comparison.

In any event, this is all I'm doing long-term. It either works or it doesn't. At worst, it will do no harm. For what it is worth, I am down 10 pounds from when I started. One can only imagine what my weight would be now had I done nothing.

Doing nothing is easy. Just look at our political leaders. All of them talk about change. Other than the tens of thousands of lines of tax code offering loopholes to every special interest "fat cat" that can fog a mirror, what really changes?


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

15 comments:

Troy said...

Here in central CA getting like the first winter storm of the season right now. All the trees were in bloom cuz of the unseasonal weather. Gonna be 70 this weekend, too, maybe this will be it for the year.

My regimen is mainly portion control with some light walking, but now that I'm under 200 again I've started some light jogging again too.

The one thing you're doing right is getting you leg strength up. In this diet I'm down 40+ lbs already but don't feel as sprightly as a I did the last time, probably because i haven't done much legwork (last time I rode ~50 road miles a week on the bike).

My 9 months

reminds me of a bugcount dashboard, LOL

The weight I've lost from 245 is about 5 one-gallon jugs. Last night I picked up 5 just for fun . . .

Stagflationary Mark said...

Troy,

Fantastic! Congrats!

Your chart is like a swiss clock. Mine is like swiss cheese, lol.

I figure it will eventually get me to where I want to be. Well, mostly. I'd prefer to not have so much seasonal variation (assuming that's what it is) but I have little desire to prevent it.

The link about seasonal affective disorder explains a lot. It builds slow. It wears on me. I could find the motivation to do marathon sessions in early winter. I did none of that in February though. Looking forward to some sun!

Stagflationary Mark said...

One more thought.

I climbed an extra 580 flights in February. If I had broken the habit at any point then I would have found it very difficult to restart. That alone is what pushed me though.

It was good that I started in June so that I had time to build up some momentum. If it had been a New Year's resolution instead then it might have ended in February.

I think it is a permanent habit now. There's really no way to know for sure. I take it one day at a time.

Good grief. I sound like a spokesperson for Stairstepper Anonymous, lol.

Troy said...

I made the comment elsewhere that a box of girl scout cookies requires 20 milies of walking to work off . . .

Plus it can be hormonal stuff holding onto the weight.

In my chart above you can see the yellow line zig-zag. This was due to resetting my target rate up to where I actually was. That's the key thing with a regimen -- just sticking to it!

Allan Folz said...

"Plus it can be hormonal stuff holding onto the weight."

Absolutely. The hormones are Leptin and Insulin. It's why people used to call "climb them in 2 minutes and 56 seconds" working up an appetite. :-)

You need to reset what your brain thinks you should weigh. It's not easily done, and there appears more then one way to do it, which results in a lot conflicting information and religious wars among the converts.

From what I've seen the best way is to change to a nutrient dense, but otherwise bland diet and do short stints of high intensity weight-lifting a few times a week.

Mark, you want to get down to 200, start doing a dozen power cleans thrice a week. You should do enough weight that you're exhausted by #12, but not dizzy. ;-)

Mr Slippery said...

I flirt with seasonal affective disorder.

I lived in Detroit for 10 years and know all about that. So glad to be in SoCal. I would go all Kurt Cobain in Seattle.

For me, weight is all about food + exercise, and I do fine on the exercise part, while the food part is probably more important.

Hey, you don't have to actually quote Caddyshack for us to pick up on Carl Spackler. We also know about Manganese. Cannonball comin!

dearieme said...

Spring has sprung here in Cambridgeshire. We've had several afternoon sunbathes - there are midges hovering over our back lawn. By God, it's cheering.

Stagflationary Mark said...

Hey everyone,

I'm fairly confident that this is simply a seasonal effect. We'll know for sure mid-summer. I'm just going to keep doing what I am doing.

Back in June of last year I expected it would take 3-4 years to get down to 200. I see little evidence to disprove it. I am still down about 10 pounds after all.

Winter is almost over. I was a virtual shut-in in February. That's not how I am when the sun is out though. I turn into a partial shut-in.

Hey, what can I say? I'm an introvert. Hahaha! :)

Stagflationary Mark said...

Shut-in

A shut-in is a person who is either unwilling or unable to leave his/her home, often due to disability, or a mental disease such as agoraphobia. See recluse.

Recluse

There are many potential reasons for becoming a recluse: a personal philosophy that rejects consumer society...

When the economy goes to hell in a hand basket again, don't go blamin' me just because I'm a recluse, lol. Sigh.

Fritz_O said...

"There are many potential reasons for becoming a recluse: a personal philosophy that rejects consumer society..."

Since our economy is 70% consumer driven, this could mean that 70% of consumers reject reclusion economics.

Or, possibly, consumers are 70% more likely to reject reclusion economics than non-consumers.

Stagflationary Mark said...

Fritz_O,

Reclusion economics has given me an auto immune disease. I'm still driving the same Camry that I bought in 1996. It doesn't even have 100k miles on it yet. ;)

Fritz_O said...

"...bought in 1996. It doesn't even have 100k..."

I can't match your 16 year average but I am catching up. I'm averaging ~6K over the last two years. Well below the national avg. And for the first time in four years my auto ins. premiums went down. (If $3.00 over six months can be considered down.)

Big time :sigh:

P.S. Hating the new "War and Peace" version of "word ver." :WTF:

Stagflationary Mark said...

Fritz_O,

In the past, we'd praise the word verification system for its wit and omniscience.

Now we fear it. It is a vengeful artificially intelligent Deity. There will be human sacrifices before it is over.

Then again, perhaps it is doing what it has always done. Perhaps it is giving us a light-hearted glimpse into our future? A future in which human sacrifices don't seem all that bad by comparison?

Sorry, just gallows humor.

dearieme said...

You do understand that putting on weight is a natural consequence of middle age?

Stagflationary Mark said...

dearieme,

It is my plan to limit the fight against nature to roughly 4 minutes per day. :)

In other nature news, my hair is beginning to change color (especially facial growth). I plan to do nothing about that though. Heck, I don't even care.

Further, there are no comb overs in my future. If my hair ever thins to that point I'll just embrace the change and go with it. Whatever!

And don't even get me started on plastic surgery. I think it makes most people look MUCH worse. What were they thinking?