Nareed's Blog
Another occasional update
I've fallen down on exercise for various reasons. Even so, I'm averaging 1 kilo per week for the past three weeks. that's not bad at all. I've ammended my diet to include red meat only twice per month rather than once a week. I think that helps. I'm down at least two, maybe three waist sizes from where I started, too. that's just great :)Also for various reasons I've missed an electrolysis appointment for the past two weeks. Hopefully I'll be able to go next Saturday. In any case, I'm amazed at the progress we've made. Some areas have shown no re-growth at all for 3 or 4 weeks. Much of what's grown back is thinner and weak, too. I'm hopeful I'll be done in a year rather than 18 months, assuming I can keep up the appointments. Seeing that, the pain is worth it.
Praise
I've been getting a lot of praise at the office lately. Most has to do with my successful weight loss diet. Two other people at the office are trying to lose weight, and one may ahve shed a few ounces over the past two months (then again maybe not). The other isn't serious at all. He's the kind who thinks that saying he's dieting will make him lose weight (really, there are people like that).Anyway, the women at the office have noticed the toilet seat is always down after I'm done. They think I'm very considerate of them. Of course there's another reason. I've been wearing femenine underwear for the past two and half months. With panties and, sometimes, pantyhose on, it's not practical to use the toilet standing up. So yes, I always leave the seat down, because I use it that way.
Speaking of dieting, there's this joke about how men and women differ when they are on a diet:
A woman on a diet won't even look at the dessert cart, because she's afraid she'll gain weight merely by seeing those yummy treats.
A man on a diet will go to a restaurant and order "A double bacon cheeseburger with extra bacon, large fries, a chocolate milkshake and a slice of apple pie with ice cream." When reminded by his wife that he's on a diet, he'll say "Oh, yeah. And a salad, too."
Ok. It's not that funny (who seriously thinks she'll gain weight by looking?), but I've met people like the prototypical man in the story. More often I come across people who complain about not losing weight, and even gaining weight, while on a diet. These can be divided in two broad types: 1) those who keep finding exceptions to their diet, so that the diet itself becomes the real exception and 2) those who fantasize about dieting. The latter include people like the co-worker I mentioned above, but also those who seriously read diet books (sensible ones, even), seriously prepare menus by looking up complex nutriotional charts and/or employ a dietician to do so, and seriously ignore all that and eat what they feel like.
In my case dieting is a matter of motivation. I have a very good motive for losing weight, so I'm sticking to the diet even though it's getting really boring around mealtimes by now.
One of the most boring things in the Universe....
...is hearing about someone else's diet. So you see, I do know that.I tried something new this week: Soy.
There's a product we sell to lots of customers called textured soy. I've no idea exactly what it is, other than it's made mostly of soy meal. In any case I checked the nutritional content and it's very low in fat and sodium. It's also almost devoid of taste. The product looks like, well, like this:
In order to eat it first you need to soak it in water for a half hour, then you need to squeeze the excess water out. Then you can cook it. Yeah, but how? I tried making picadillo with it (that's a beef-based dish). So I cooked it with a little oil, tomato paste, garlic, onion and jalapeños. It tastes like tomato paste with garlic, onions and jalapeños :)
Next time I'll try adding a little powdered beef or chicken soup mix, pending a review of the nutritional label.
Anyway, over the week I've lost 1.7 kilos, or around 3.75 lbs. Over the month of February that comes to 3.20 kilos or 7.05 lbs. also over February I've reduced my waist by 3 inches.
At the supermarkets there are soy-based meat substitutes, often billed as "vegetarian." Most of these contain large amounts of animal fat. A popular soy substitute of chorizo (a crumbly sausage similar to Spanish chistorra) actually has pork fat in it. I've tried some of them and the taste isn't bad. But the fat content is just a little less than for the real thing. So if you're going to have them, you may as well follow Niven's law and not waste calories.
Comments
No updates this week.
1) My scale needs new batteries.
2) I caught a cold and couldn't work out. I tried, but I just couldn't breathe. I did maybe three minutes on the treadmill before giving up. I hate having a cold.
Nareed's adventures on semi-decent eating and tortuous activites
By which I mean diet and excercise. And of course "adventures" is a highly missleading word.Anyway, work keeps getting in the way of working out, but sometimes it affords some opportunities. I'm cronically unable to wake up a half hour earlier on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and last Friday, the 21st of january, we left the office so late I couldn't nuster the energy to face the treadmill all Saturday. I did a bit on Sunday, but was still too tired from the long workweek.
Tuesday the 25th I left for Morelia, a town about 300 km West of Mex City, at 6 am, by bus. I delivered some sample around 11 am, then sat at an Office Max to check some business related stuff on the web. That took me until around 4pm, then I was allegedly free the rest of the day.
Meals at such times can be difficult. I had coffe with toast and jam for breakfast. A complimentary sandwich from the bus line served as lunch around 2 pm; it consisted of two slices of bread, one slice of ham, one slice of American cheese and some bland jalapeño salsa. For dinner I had a burger. I count that as red meat for the week. Not too bad, but I regret the fries. The hotel I stayed in, a Holiday Inn Express, has a little gym. I managed 25 minutes on the stationary bike, and a few sets of leg extensions in the weight machine. There was no bench for proper crunches, but I mannaged a few sit-ups from a mat on the floor. A bench is much, much better.
I hadn't don a bike in years. I think the stair machines are better for overall muscle tone, but the bike really made me work up a sweat and I felt I was putting more work into it. I'll try the bike at home next time and compare its calorie-burn count with the stair machine. I know it's highly innexact, but if they are innexact in the same way then I have a point of comparison.
I also tried to weight myself, as there was a scal in the hotel gym. Well, I really need glasses now. I couldn't make out the numbers (no, I'm not lying about it). I'll try it again at home later today. I won't be posting my weight, but I may post how much I've lost any given week. You'll notice I haven't posted my size, either, with which I am familiar.
Comments
trying to lose weight? quit smoking and see what happens
"Quitting smoking is easy. I've done it a thousand times." Attributed to Mark Twain
"If quitting smoking is good for you, then you should quit as often as possible." Attributed to Nareed
BTW some small cuts on certain things do build up over time. I estimate that by cutting off cream for coffee I'm eliminating around 470 calories per week. That's based on cream having about 23 calories and an average of 20.5 cups of coffee per week (give or take; I drink more of it when it's cold). That's the same as eliminating one full course off a meal each week.
Update:
According to their own readings, the stair machine claims twice as many calories "burned" as the bike. This time I did 10 minutes warm-up on the treadmill, 40 minutes on the bike and 20 minutes on the stair machine, plus legs and crunches.
I could have gone longer on the bike, a lot longer. But 1) from the bike's position the TV's hard to see due to the window behind it and 2) My backside was numb from seating that long <g>
I lost 1.2 kilograms, about 2.6 lbs., over the week.
That's good, but I want to improve this by at least another half kilo per week. I won't be able to until I can get more regular exercise <sigh>
Diet and excercise
The good news is I am sticking to my diet and it is working.The bad news is I can't find the time on weekdays to work out (and isn't that a funny euphemism for "boring and torturous activity"?) Last week the earliest I left work was 10 pm. I tried to get up earlier on the appointed days (Tuesday and Thursday) but I just couldn't.
On the other hand, I am doing better on weekends. First time, a week ago, I pretty much collapsed after 7:45 minutes on the stair machine and a few crunches. Today I managed 12:30 minutes on the stairs, some leg exercises with weights, 12 minutes on the treadmill (at 5 kph, or around 3.2 mph) and thirty stomach crunches. It's better than I expected, but there's still a ways to go.
Of course it helps to have a pocket gym in the building :)
Comments
if i may give some advice. find something that you have a passion for and it will not be "boring or torturous", and you will 'find' the time to do it. i still get excited when i lace up my basketball shoes, and when i was bowling i would feel the same way when lacing up my bowling shoes. the same for bike riding. i don't ride like i did, but if i get on a bike that same exciting feeling of 'freedom and wind in the face' is still there.
i don't know what you can do over there but if you have a passion for anything that requires physical activity then i would do that. passion is one of the greatest motivators.
the same can be applied to your diet. unfortunately most dietary 'passions' are not healthy, but if you can find things that you love to eat and has healthy benefits then you won't look at it like a 'diet'. for example that 'subway' guy. i once had a craving for this chicken and tofu from a local diner and ate it almost every work day for a month. and not because i had to but because i liked it, had a passion for it, looked forward to it every day! i started losing weight without that even being a goal.
passion, my friend, can help you do wonders.
good luck
Thank you for the comment.
There's no physical activity I enjoy much, unless you count typing. When it comes to sports I prefer to watch them. There are tings I like to do, like swimming and ice skating, but only for short periods. In the end I'm better off doing one hour on the treadmill while watching TV with the sound turned too loud.
Food looks a little better. I do like salads of various kinds, rice, oatmeal, pasta, and other things. I also know how to cook low fat, low sugar and low sodium. No, my problem with food is that I also like lots of things that are way too fattening. I'm fighting that this time by allowing myself one such indulgence every month. I think it's better to radically reduce such things rather than eliminating them altogether.
What's working very well is giving up the habit of eating between meals. That alone ought to be worth 1,000+ calories per week.
Comments
What would make you believe anyone on a mostly anonymous internet forum would care one tiny bit about your strange issues? I suppose you have no friends other than weirdos.
Personal insult. Three-day suspension for the above comment.
FWIW, I assume Nareed does know that we care about her...
I've been reading the site but not posting lately. I'm sure you can understand why. In any case I do know I've made many friends in this site, some of whom I've met and others I hope to meet someday. I do know many of you care about me, and believe me I appreciate it.
Thanks.