Back in the saddle... again

So, here we go again! It's taken me weeks, but I've finally gone from half-hearted "every other meal" good diet choices, to actually hitting the gym every day (sundays off) and eating well consistantly.

Before, when I first started this blog, I did what I seem to do alot - I overplan and overthink. Now, by just doing a little bit at a time, I'm doing much more for my health then when I tried to go ahead full force.

Remember those charts I made to track my weight loss? They were really fun to make (geek) and I loved seeing my progress graphically. BUT it didn't help keep me on track, it just served as a reminder about how short lived all that shit was. But, unlike all those charts and weekly progress reports I live on to shrink another day! Perhaps I'll track progress and make charts every few months instead.. yes I'm a lazy geek.

I'm going to take a much more zen approach to the weight loss thing.. I'll remain active and eat what I know is good for me.

Speaking of which, I had a terrific salad today!! The star of my wonderous creation were some of my roommates olives I found in the fridge (sorry Mike, I'll buy some more). Very tasty.

For exercise I've been doing some very careful resistance training (because of my back injury, I can't do anything that exerts pressure on my spine) and also some swimming. I love being in the water again! I don't have to deal with being self concious, since I swim on my lunch break which occurs at around 3am since I work nights. One of these days I'll just not give a shit about what people think of my body and just do what I want!


Theres a good subject for another blog, the whole body image thing.. what would YOU do if self-image was irrelevant?

Oh and as a last minute thought. The back is feeling awesome from the swimming and the sit-ups and such... yay for my back.

And now, your moment of Zen.....
<~~~ I stole this picture from someone I don't know and put my junk on it. I'm so bad...

Things to say to your server when you eat low carb

For anyone that has braved eating out when low carbing, you are well aware of the confusion that is evident on the faces of some servers when you make special requests or refuse things that seem innocuous to some people. Here is a compact list of handy responses that you can keep with you when eating out, in case you meet with some resistance from your server.


1.) I'm Diabetic. If you give me sugar I'll go into a coma immediately after stabbing you with my fork.

2.) Keep your croutons to yourself, mister.

3.) I just ordered a hamburger wrapped in lettuce. If you offer me fries one more time, I'll order them and insert them into your eyes.

4.) Yes, that's all I want on my plate. If it makes you feel better you can put a potato there for me to toss at your other table.

5.) So I eat butter with a spoon. You brought me a loaf of bread. As I see it, you tried to kill me and I'm trying to butter away the pain.

6.) You're right, it's not a balanced diet. That's why I eat Vegans.

There it is - six things to confuse and frighten uncooperative servers.

Thanks for reading! Remember, print this out and practice - sooner or later you'll find the perfect opportunity to make your server understand the depth of their ignorance. Or you could just get arrested. Either way, it's sure to be fun.

A pat on the back goes a long way

There are a bunch of low carb blogs out there, and one of the best is Jimmy Moore's "Livin' La Vida Low Carb" blog. If you take a search engines word for it, Jimmy's blog is #1. If you ask his readers they'll tell you the same thing! Since I've been in the low carb blog world, his blog has been my destination of choice. In fact, it was his writing that prompted me to start a blog of my own. Imagine my surprise when my picture ended up in one of his posts! No, it wasn't a wanted poster.

It set me all a gigglin' when I caught wind of it. I'm glad you dig my blog Jimmy! Maybe I'll get to meet you one of these days. I'll hunt you down when I hit my goal weight. Until then I promise NO stalking.

All Hail "In-N-Out", my guardian angel!

Everyone that has an In-N-Out near them MUST go eat there. Low carbers especially. There is a secret menu (many of you already know this) that is found on their (notsosecret) site that includes a "protein" version of any of their burgers. Yes, like many other fast food places they'll wrap up the burger in lettuce for you. How they differ from other fast food joints is that the food is actually TASTY wrapped in lettuce and I never feel like they're confused by my request. In-N-Out has saved my fast food loving ass more than once.

Near where I work there is an In-N-Out next to a few other fast food places. It's like a filter - just when I'm about to toss my diet down the drain, I get saved by all those perky burger-wranglers who find it natural that I don't want their buns.

The reason the holiest of holys is on my mind, is that I put myself in a precarious position tonight for dinner. I didn't eat breakfast or lunch today. Bad, I know! When I don't eat during the day, I get hungry (of course) and my will weakens. I tend to eat anything that gets in my way when I'm at this point. Burger King usually gets taken out first with a vengeance. Late night, Taco Bell usually falls victim to my beastly hunger. Nothing is safe. Not even my co-workers.

When I hit the road for dinner tonight, I heard that little voice in my head, the addict in me; "Go ahead and just grab some Taco Bell. You can do some extra pushups to get rid of it! You can stop anytime you want, just DO IT." I felt my hands take on a life of their own as I switched lanes in order to position myself for the kill. Thankfully, In-N-Out is closer than Taco Bell so I pulled in there instead. It tasted 10 times better, and was completely low-carb.

"Double Double, Protein Style please!"

"Hackers on Atkins"

I read a clever article discussing the Atkins approach and its draw to those who enjoy thinking out of the box. It's called Hackers on Atkins. I get a kick out of blowing peoples minds who aren't too informed about Atkins by telling them I lost over 100 lbs eating 2500 calories a day. They usually think I exercised a ton (I didn't) or ate low fat (I eat about 100 grams of fat a day). I did exercise, but not until I lost about 75 lbs. I was just too self conscious to go to a gym.

Reading the Hackers article reminded me of why I did Atkins in the first place - I was fat and pissed off at diet gurus like Susan Powter that encouraged eating a high volume of carbs. I got even fatter doing that!

Check out the article, its a good geek read.