It’s been a while since I gave an update on my diet.  The reason for this is simple: I’m really lazy.  I also figured y’all got sick of me talking about it.  At any rate, here’s the latest.

Presently I’m weighing in at 183 pounds.  This is down from 205 at the start of my diet a little over two months ago (July 11th, to be exact.)  I’m three pounds from the goal weight I set for myself, and I’m feeling and looking much better.

There are a couple of issues though, and I’ll address them here.  One, I look much thinner, especially in the upper body area.  Shirts tend to hang on me now, whereas they used to sort of “form fit.”  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s disappointing to me because I spent much of my 20s ridding myself of the “skinny” look.  It was to be expected, I guess.  The second issue is that all my pants are loose.  You might laugh, but this is a real problem.  I don’t like wearing belts, and I actually have a couple pairs of shorts that literally hang down all Gangsta Rap style now, unless I belt them up.  It sucks, because I don’t want to buy new pants.  Of course, I surely don’t wanna be fat again either, so I suppose it’s either new pants or a belt.  I’ll have to adjust.

Phase one is almost over.  Phase two is to up the calories considerably (from my average of 1700 per day now to about 3500) and hit the gym.  The goal now is to replace the 20 or so pounds of fat that I lost with lean, sexy muscle.  I’m looking forward to this part immensely, because I get to blend up some tasty protein shakes, consume mass quantities of pizza, and sling some iron.  Of course, I need to think it through better this time.  When I was 19, it was nothing for me to do a workout, play basketball (badly) for an hour, go to class (maybe), and come back the next day for more.  Now that I’m almost twice that age, it won’t be quite so easy.  For one, my body chemistry has changed, so I need to re-think my supplementation routine.  I intend to use creatine and an amino stack, and I gotta get the numbers right.  It’s not as simple as it was years ago.  Two, I don’t recover from workouts anywhere near as fast as before.  I also need to consider that my testosterone levels have probably dropped severely in the last 17 years.  I won’t build muscle as fast or retain it as well.  I’ve never seriously attempted to build muscle as an old man, so this should be interesting.  Perhaps I’ll log it and blog it.

I’m not aiming to be the Hulk.  I just want a nice, lean body with a decent chest and well-defined arms and shoulders.  That’s not so bad, right?  According to recent measurements, I’ve lost a little over two inches on my upper arms in the past ten years or so, so I’d like to get that back.  They were just over 17 inches before, so maybe I can hit 18 this time!  Three inches can’t be that hard, and that would be cool.  My chest is a different story.  It was never that big to begin with, so I need to do a lot of work there.  We’ll see what happens.

Can you tell I’m excited?  I want desperately to be in good shape again.  In four years, I’ll be 40, and I intend to be in better shape at 40 than I was at 20.  I think I can do it too, I just need to keep it up.  I shall again be a sexy beast.

Sigh…  Yesterday was a bad day diet-wise.  It started out great, with the revelation that another pound had been shed.  That makes seven pounds now in four weeks, and I’m ecstatic at the progress, but things went downhill after that.

I just got so hungry, you see.  I looked around my house, but nothing seemed appetizing.  I’m at a point in my diet now where I’m sick of eating the same things over and over.  I need to branch out a little bit, but being the World’s Pickiest Eater is definitely a bad point.  Nothing sounded good at all, and I kept torturing myself thinking about food.  I wanted something different.

I tried so hard to ignore it.  I tried so hard to put the thoughts aside, but the pain was too much.  The intense hunger crashed through my previously un-breakable willpower like the Kool-Aid man crashing though a brick wall.  I resisted so hard, but I just couldn’t do it.  I HAD to get some food… I HAD to.  And it couldn’t be a freaking sandwich or a lame salad.  I wanted substance.

Despite leaving a comment on Claire’s blog just earlier in the afternoon about not having been in a fast-food joint in a month, I broke down.  I couldn’t take it anymore, and I needed a fix.  I ended up at Fazoli’s and had me a plate of spaghetti and a breadstick, and damn was it ever delicious.  At least it wasn’t a massive fatty burger.  In the end, I still came in under my max calories for the day, so not all was lost.  It was a close one though.

To cheat or not to cheat? That is the question.

Once a week, I cheat on my diet.  It’s just one meal, one specific time, and it’s quite fulfilling.  Thus far, it’s always been on Saturday, and the meal of choice has (with one exception) been delicious pizza.

I’m a pizza lover through and through, a fact to which any of my RL friends can easily attest.  I’m also what’s known as a “pizza purist”, which means it’s pepperoni and cheese.  I like other things, but I always go with the pepperoni and cheese, because that’s what I like best.  Pizza is nature’s perfect food, and by that I mean that pizza can be anything.  It can be cold for breakfast, it can be hot and delicious for dinner, it can be vegetarian, it can be a meat-lover’s dream, it can a snack, a meal, or even desert.  Pizza is perfect because it can be adapted to fit any situation or lifestyle or taste.  Pizza is awesome, which is why I choose pizza as my cheat meal, because it’s the one thing I despise giving up.  It’s so incredibly yummy.

Of course, I track my calories as part of my diet, and entering my numbers on Saturday has become cringe worthy.  Just as an example, my cheat meal this week consisted of a medium-sized Godfather’s pizza, and two Mexican cokes.  The pizza alone was 2,080 calories, and with the Mexi-Cokes, the meal came to 2,371 calories… 421 calories over my daily maximum limit.  I feel guilty.

Should I stop with the cheat meals?  I do so love the pizza, but my personality is not habit-forming.  I could, in theory, stop the cheat meals, or perhaps lessen the frequency.  Still, I look forward to Saturdays because of them, and I think I’d miss it if I game them up.  I’m so good the rest of the week, keeping my intake to between 1,200 and 1,500 calories per day.  I’ve been getting in long hikes or bike rides consistently, and the results so far speak for themselves.  Surely one day of going over the limit isn’t gonna wreck everything, is it?

Post a comment below and give me your take on my dilemma.  Should I stop cheating?  Should I change the frequency?  Or should I just keep going, seeing as how I’m probably just over-thinking the whole thing anyway?  Let me know!

I gotta tell you, I feel so much better already.

This is week three of my diet.  After thinking about it a lot, and on the advice of others, I decided that 1000 calories per day was just too little.  Not only is it pretty much impossible to do, but it’s not healthy.  I knew that going into it, but luckily common sense prevailed and I upped my daily count.

I did some research on ye olde Internet and found some formulas and calculations to determine my proper dietary needs.  For a 200lb man, at 5′10, and 493 years old, my calorie requirements are 1,950 calories per day.  That still seems pretty high to me, so I’ve comprimised and set my goal between 1,200 and 1,500.  I think that’s a bit more realistic, as well as healthier to boot.

I’m quite pleased to announce that I’ve lost five pounds, and now stand at an even 200 (as of today).  More than that, I can honestly see a difference in the size of my waist.  I know there’s a “wishful thinking” factor, but there’s definitely a difference to be seen.  I also notice a slight difference in my face too, and that’s got me excited as well.  I’m very happy with my progress so far.

Here’s a breakdown of averages according to the data I’ve been keeping:

Fat – 28.5% (340 grams)
Protein – 13.9% (372 grams)
Carbohydrates – 57.6% (1,545 grams)
Alcohol – 0.0%
Other – 0.0%

My carbs are a little high, and my protein is a little low, but my fat intake is right about where it should be.  I also had a beer last Saturday (thanks Sra!), but it didn’t have enough effect to register in the formula.  With some slight adjustments, I’ll be sitting pretty.

Daily Calorie Intake – 1,752 cals
Daily Sodium Intake – 2,930 mg
Daily Sugar Intake – 82 grams
Daily Cholesterol Intake – 156 mg
Daily Saturated Fat Intake – 21 grams
Daily Fiber Intake – 13 grams

As you can see, I’m a little over my average for calories per day, but this was due to my “cheat meal” of delicious pizza last Saturday, so the curve is a little off.  I’m still under the 1,950 suggestion though, so it’s all good.

I’m also burning an average of 2,800 calories per day, so that’s another plus.  I actually hope to up this a little in coming weeks.

Overall, I simply feel better.  I’m not all “bloaty” like I’ve been feeling for a good year now, and I’m happier when I catch a glance in the mirror and can actually see progress.  I even did Ensign Peak earlier tonight to watch the sunset, and made it to the top without having a heart attack or wheezing like Orson Wells in the 300 meter hurdles.

Progress, my friends.  My six-pack will be back.