Saturday Goal Reached (mostly)

I have have confession to make.  I didn't quit hit my goal.  I missed it by .2 lbs.  Now, if you guys really want to see a picture of me in my swimming trunks in all my hairy glory I'll post is but .2  pounds is close enough for me to call this part of the plan a success.

So I have lost 29.8 lbs over 95 days, which is a loss of 10.5 of my body-weight and an average of .31 lbs a day.

And although I nearly stalled completely the last couple of weeks, thanks to illness, I suspect those numbers will start getting much better as the HIIT starts to happen every other day.  (Right now it's two days a week.)

That's about all my news.  I'm off for apple filled crepes to celebrate.

On Cheating death (or at least serious injury)

So it is my belief that is it far better to be smart, then to be lucky.  However... when you fail to be smart and luck saves you... be thankful.

Today I was doing a simple household chore, that many of do every day.  Dishes.

I'm a little OCD about dishes, having been cut several times by broken glasses or carelessly dumped in knives. So I no longer have fragile glasses, and my OMG sharp knives I carefully stack off to the side separate from the other dishes.  They are OMG sharp, because sharp knives seemingly paradoxically cause fewer kitchen accidents as they do their job better then dull knives.  This means less chance of using to much force... and therefore less chance of injury.  Unless you do something stupid like gesture with them and then they will open your finger to the bone before you will even notice.  I've done that.  It was stupid and painful.

So I am merrily washing dishes having just a few, and have done all the big stuff and am rooting around for the silverware and I'm swishing my hands back and forth when I slide my wrist, at speed across something inexplicably cold in the scalding hot water.

I freeze.

Count to 5.

Carefully lift my hands out of the water and see a faint red indentation on my wrist almost exactly paralleled to all the lovely ligaments and blood carrying tubes in my arm.

I very gingerly reach back into the water and promptly cut my finger on my OMG sharp Santuko chef knife which has magically transported itself in the water.  I carefully fish it out and realize that I had managed to slam my wrist at speed on the dull side of the knife.  Hard enough to dent my skin.  If by chance the blade had been facing the other way...  many many stitches at the minimum.

So I got lucky.

And boy am I thankful

Saturday... schamturday.

Let's see...

So after a rough week my weight basically back where I started from last week.  No I don't know why, but not particularly worried about it.

In other news, as I mentioned earlier I passed my 3rd Brown Kenpo test.  And I inexplicably found myself with a Saturday when I have no plans, no practice scheduled, nothing but an entire weekend of vacuuming dog hair.

So I had pizza and daiquiris.  First pizza since December or so.  First daiquiri since ...oh last summer maybe?

But it' 60+ degrees out (well it was) and clear blue skies, surely that's good enough excuse for consumption of large amounts of rum and fruit juice yes?  I probably should have waited for them to wear off before writing this...

hmm...

No matter.

Other micro-updates.

HIIT train sucks.  But at least it's over quick.

What sucks worse the HIIT is going into work and getting locked in an elevator when the building manager goes around and turns off the elevators in anticipation for the bar crowd.

Fortunately I have his number in my phone and I was only locked in the damn thing for about 30 minutes.

90 degrees at 30 minutes... because there is no AC when the elevator is turned off...

But that effectively ended any urge of mine to continue to work this weekend.  Hence the daiquiris.

Now, if you will excuse me... there is more chilled fruit beverage calling my name....

That's Mr. Instructor to you.

So I officially am a Brown Belt in Kenpo now.

I also learned a deep dark Kenpo secret which I will share with you now...

Are you ready?

To bad you don't get to know it.

:P

Stupid People and weight loss progress

I'm sure every one has one they work with.  That person who says things that just make you stop and stare at them and as you try and search for a work safe response to something utterly stupid leaving their pie-hole.

Background:  This person has expressed loudly and at length how they and their spouse never ever cook and eat 90% of their meals at McD.  This same person in that same conversation went on to express confusion at the fact that they were always broke and how everyone in their family kept gaining weight.  Particularly one of the children for whom they had to stop every morning and pick up McD for lunch because said child wouldn't eat prepared lunches made at home.  It was difficult to point out that someone needed to act like parent...

The Situation:  I brought in some of those amazing pressure cooked hard boiled eggs I have been making to share with a different coworker.  Previously mentioned clueless coworker sees the exchange and comes over to contribute their font of wisdom.

Clueless: "You shouldn't be eating those, they are totally full of fat.  You should put them raw in your morning shake* you are so proud of."

Coworker: "What, just the whites?"

Clueless: "No, the whole thing all the good stuff is in the yolk."

Coworker:  "How is that less fattening then hard boiling them?"

Clueless:  "Duh, they are raw!"

I didn't say anything, just stared at Clueless like she was dead to me until she was uncomfortable and went away.

*Shake previously mentioned in this post ** which has undergone some refinements, but coworker asked me about it once so I explained it.  Whereas the previously described shake killed three birds (Coffeee, Ice water, and protein) I have upped the ante by adding coconut flesh (for more protein, fiber and MDL fats) and Saigon Cinnamon (blunt insulin response.) For a while was adding Cinnamon flavored flax seed oil... but I finally couldn't take the fake cinnamon flavor anymore,  it was ruining the whole shake.

**I should mention in that shake post I mentioned that sucking down 5 eggs was hard... the pressure cooker method... makes them so soft and amazing it's hard not to eat that many.  I actually have to pace myself as last time I made a dozen I ate them all in a day.


~~~

Progress...  so unofficial update.  I have regained the setback between the combination of bacon death gravy and being sick. I am officially once again the lightest I have been in over a decade, and it was further highlighted today by wearing a set of pants I have never fit it, and a shirt I stopped wearing last summer because it had "shrunk."

Snowpocalypse 2012

So I'm sure my readers in Alaska (hi to both of you) are going to make snarky noises at the rest of this post...

Since mid-December every couple of weeks the weather pundits have been preaching doom and gloom as some weather system has moved our direction.  Dire predictions of food shortages, rabid badgers, and endless snow have hopelessly intertwined, frightening the elderly and making weak men weep.

None of which materialized.

The closest we came was in Late January 4-6 of snow was predicted over the weekend, and we got 1/2 an inch of dust that was gone by noon.  In fact, the few times this weekend I left the house (for cold medicine) I didn't bother with a coat, and I watched sadly as the Dog tried to do her business on a patch of snow the size of dinner plate (she prefers snow over grass.)

That's how it was when I went to bed last night.

This morning...

There was ~6 inches on my car and there are only 4 of the 12 employees in the office today.

It's still snowing...

Saturday Sick day.

Quick post just to note that this week was not so good for weight loss.  Didn't particularly change my eating habits, but a head cold basically shut me down all week.

I'm actually a pound heavier then I was last week, so I only lost 1 lb from last Saturdays binge (still was worth it.) But this week was a weird one.  One day I'd gain .2 lbs next day I'd lose .6 back and forth all week.

I can't think of anything specific that would have caused it except being sick screwing up my metabolism (I didn't cheat during the week.)

Let me amend that, I have been tinkering with a microwaveable cake recipe, that should have had no impact on my carb levels.  The ingredients were all low carb and sugar free.  But perhaps that screwed me up, or at least contributed to it.

I will skip mid-week experimentation for the time being and only try things like that on the weekends from now on just to test.  Or perhaps when I'm well again I will empirically test it to see what impact it has.

I also found a source for Mung Bean noodles (or threads) but not the flour.  I boiled some last night, and the results were interesting.  They have about half the Glycemic index of flour based pasta, at 29 vs 61+, but they boil up crystal clear and about the thickness of spaghetti.  Also not sticky like wheat pasta, which means the sauce doesn't really stick to them... nor do they stick to themselves at all.

No flavor to speak of, but a pleasant texture.

Back to sucking down cold medicine...

*edit* So many typos!

Thursday Wisdom

Sick at home, recovering from a head cold and working my way through the first season of "Game of Thrones."

This particular quote was to good not to share.

“A craven can be as brave as any man, when there is nothing to fear. And we all do our duty, when there is no cost to it. How easy it seems then, to walk the path of honor. Yet soon or late in every man's life comes a day when it is not easy, a day when he must choose. (Maester Aemon)” 

Kenpo and carpel tunnel.

So I just completed transcribing instructions for all 40 of the techniques in 3rd brown for my instruction book.  I didn't even try to transcribe the the 250 steps or so in either of the kata.

But to describe those 40 techniques, succinctly but accurately it took 2531 words, 5 pages, 11 pt font, and about 8.5 hours of work between yesterday and today.

Worst yet... I really need to go back and do it for the other belts.  I did it for Green or Blue ( I forget which) but not the beginning belts.

*groan*

Saturday update and bacon

I forgot to post on Saturday mostly because I was to busy stuffing my face.

I had one of those inspirational cooking mornings where I knew exactly what I wanted.

But first, on Saturday morning I was 27.6 lbs lost, average of .37 lbs a day something like 9% of my body weight removed in the last 2.5 months.

Then...

The biscuits.

So I was thinking about biscuits and gravy, but lacking a stove I wasn't going to be able to make biscuits, so I went next best thing and bought some English muffins, toasted them and placed some shredded cheese on top.

Next.. bacon.  1/2 pound of it, was fried and mounded atop.

I then poached a couple of eggs (not perfectly but adequately) and those were placed atop a two of the muffin halves.

I then made a white bacon gravy (as opposed to a sausage gravy.) though I added bit of butter at the end and broke the emulsion...

While this was all cooking, I prepped a fresh bought pineapple and some prosciutto they had on sale.  I relly don't care for for prosciutto wrapped melon... but adore ham + pineapple.  And since the normally $8 meat wast $1...  well I did it for science.  (I ate the rest of the pineapple throughout the day)
It was much better then the melon, but still not something I'd call great.

The end result was not pretty but it was incredibly tasty, glorious even  Between this and the entire pineapple I ate... I gained 2 lbs.

Worth it.

Whistles, HIIT, and leg sweeps.

In preparation for the next phase of the body-rebuilding/whatever the hell I am doing I have been exploring the lovely Bodyrock website and it's High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) videos.  I did a couple of their beginning videos and they kicked my ass. That's a good sign that by doing them I will make great progress.

These videos feature a sweatproof body timer thing.   It looks lovely, appears to function well and is actually quite inexpensive... but a free app that replicates it's function is even less expensive. Naturally it was downloaded to my phone upon discovery.

During testing I discovered that the Interval alarm was a coach's whistle.  The first time it went off Cin poked me in the ribs with her cold nose while whining in concern.

The second time she bit me and ran into the other room in fear.

I think I'm going to change the alarm to something that doesn't leave me mauled by a malamute.

Further, working out with/around her is... umm... a treat.  But only if you appreciate the absurd.

 Firstly, whenever I work on the heavy bags, BOB, or the speed bag Cin glues herself to my side and makes a sorta... half-chuffing whining noise.  I don't actually know if she is complaining... or just excited...

Cin also did it when my former room-mate came over and gave the heavy bag a few test smacks.  Just not as loudly.

Secondly, practicing the various katas are also problematic.  When I am on the mat she wants to be on the mat with me.  Not on her dog bed, not on the wood near the mats... she wants to be ON the mat.  Shoo her away and it lasts until your back is turned and she's back on the mat.

Lastly, she loves my Gi pants, not only because they pick up her shed hair so effectively but she appears to love the *snap* they make when I am doing kicks or moving quickly in a technique or kata.  Last week she actually grabbed the hem of my pants as I was leaping backwards (don't ask... it's part of the kata) and yanked me sideways resulting in me crashing to the ground instead of landing gracefully.

If I can figure out how, I'm going to teach her to do that on command.

Commenting on the internet (Don't do it!)

I don't normally touch on politics but had an experience this weekend, where upon I inadvertently identified myself as differing myself as not in perfect lockstep with the groupthink of the collective on a left-leaning blog.

Even though I expressed agreement with the statements they had made, I was instantly branded as sub-human and what followed was a completely unexpected screed of vitriol and hatred that I was unprepared for.

They would take a simple statement of "Person X said something BAD, and I do not agree with it."  as somehow support of  Person X and use that position to rationalize stream of ad hominem attacks in attempt to discredit me as insultingly as possible... in spite of the fact that I was *agreeing* with them.

The event literally left me stressed and nauseated.

It reminded me of why I stopped commenting on public forums years ago.  I won't be making that mistake again soon.

Quick Saturday update.

No concussions or other serious injuries to report, though I did strain a rib by sneezing of all things.  It is rather hard to spin that one in a macho fashion.  Imagine this conversation:

Me:  "Man, I'm so tough that even my sneezes injure people/"
Them: "Really, who'd you injure?"
ME: "Ermmmm...."

So moving onto to Saturday progress report.  I have lost 24.6 lbs in the last 67 days continuing the average of .37 lbs a day.  I have also lost a total of 10 inches across my hips, chest and waist in this time period.  At this rate I should meet my 90 day goal of 30 lbs in 14 days, giving you guys 9 days of buffer of avoiding scary pictures of me in case I have another pasta day (which isn't going to happen.)

In any case, 24.6 is close enough that when people ask I'm just going to round it up to 25.

The next 90 day cycle I intend to add daily kettlebell swings, speed bag drills and other muscle building exercises.  It should be interesting to see what that does to the number since muscle is denser then fat... but more muscle also means more fat burned.