bluh

The short version is this: i’m in much better shape, i’m down ten pounds and i have more energy.

The longer version is that i’ve done a few simple things –

1. i’m discriminating about urge to eat v. hunger. The urge to eat is merely my brain saying stupid things like, “it sure would be nice to chew something up”. In the past i would usually oblige it by walking all the way up to the cafeteria and buying a candy bar…expend four calories and consume 300. if i’m actually hungry i will eat a little something. s-l-o-w-l-y. i find it takes at least ten minutes before i get the “you just ate something” sensation. Too many times in the past i would eat until i felt full, so there was an extra ten minutes of cramming shit in my gaping piehole i shouldn’t have.
2. i’m exercising. nothin major – a total of maybe 45 minutes of weightlifting, stretching, some cardiovascular. i’m not one of the meatheads who spends half an hour on his right tricep every tuesday. i like to hit upper body, core muscles (abs/back) and lower body in that order. bench press, crunches, leg press then cycle back through – dips, back extention, squats. repeat a few times, hit up 10 – 15 minutes on a treadmill or elliptic thing, stretch and hit the showers.
3. more vegetables, more cooking. i’ve been watching what i eat and with good reason. If i’m not eating as much stuff (see #1, above), i need to make sure what i am eating is good for me. Plenty of good hearty salads, not eating out, cooking small meals at home, not eating late (or not going to bed within a few hours of dinner) and good filling food all helps. Hell yes, i gorged myself at Thanksgiving. i drank my homebrew cider for two days straight (delicious and alcohol-filled!), didn’t work out for a week and still managed to lose weight overall.

By using the spreadsheet tools with The Hacker’s Diet (a great resource from an engineering perspective), i plotted my weight every day that i took it. There are some noticable gaps, especially around a business trip and thanksgiving, but there is an exponentially smoothed trend line which is going down or flat the entire time.

Looks like progress to me. My clothes fit better, i look better but most importantly, i feel better.