Well, that was rough.

Rough, but fun. The Vegas trip was a doozy, as far as eating was concerned. That's basically all we did. Traveling there with a kid makes for a much different trip. The time was mostly spent lingering over meals with family.

After we got back home, I rebounded a little bit, as expected. Then, we hosted a party at home that had me throw all caution out the door. That too was fun.

But now, it's time to pay the piper. After eight straight weeks of weight loss, I gave back almost half of it in a few days. I guess it would have been unreasonable to expect the streak to keep going unabated. Anyway, here we are. Strictly speaking, I need to lose about five pounds by next Sunday. I'm really not sure if that's possible, but I'll have to try. On the other hand, my seven-day-average weight is about two pounds less than where I am now. So, that would mean only dropping three pounds below the expected mean. That would be doable.

I think this will have to be another sprint week. I'll do a weekly plan tomorrow to see if it's possible based on my calendar.

Metrics:

Targeting a fifteen pound loss at one pound per week:

Week 9
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Current     : -7.6 lbs
Weekly Rate : -0.42 lbs / wk
Projected   : 10-Mar-2019 (ouch!)
Original    : 21-Oct

After the big two-pound drop last week, I took it a little easy this past week. We went out for a birthday dinner on Monday, and I scarfed down five slices of that pizza plus a bunch of appetizers. The day after, I had a couple of slices of cold pizza.

After that, I slowed it down a little bit. There wasn't really much more to distract me into eating as I stayed busy with getting ready for the daughter's first day of school and a family vaction week (this week).

End result - another three-quarters of a pound lost. This is the longest I've ever been on this program. At this point, I think I could just keep cruising along, no problem. I need to stay on focus though — we are planning another short trip to Vegas.

I'll have to decide whether to pre-drop some weight (today) or just cram it in over the weekend. On second thought, we have a party planned here at home on Saturday. So that might make it tough. We'll see how it goes. I may have to do another sprint next week.

Metrics:

Targeting a fifteen pound loss at one pound per week:

Week 8
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Current     : -7.6 lbs
Weekly Rate : -0.95 lbs / wk
Projected   : 21-Oct
Original    : 21-Oct

Pleasant surprise this morning — I lost over two pounds for the week. On the last day, I was so tired from the previous night out that I was too tired to eat much. I was also able to go to bed pretty early, thus avoiding any late evening meals.

Anyway, that puts me right back exactly on pace: seven pounds in seven weeks. I'm really happy right now. Halfway through the program and I'm on track. I'm already at the lowest I've been in about seven years. I'm going to feel free to eat whatever today; tomorrow, we have a family dinner out planned. After that, I'll be back shooting for another pound this week coming up.

Metrics:

Targeting a fifteen pound loss at one pound per week:

Week 7
======
Current     : -7.0 lbs
Weekly Rate : -1.0 lbs / wk
Projected   : 21-Oct
Original    : 21-Oct

Well, I almost made a whole week on the regimen. But I forgot that I had a get-together with a bunch of old friends last night. I didn't go overboard, but I did end up eating more than I planned. Hence I gained almost a pound from yesterday.

I also missed a tactics post because I got home so late last night. I will work on making up for everything today.

Looking good so far. I'm down one pound for the week, with two days to go. If I drop another half pound between now and Sunday, I'll be pretty happy. If I get that full second pound in, even better.

Planning to eat some homemade chile rellenos on Sunday and some of that good pizza on Monday.

This one is a little meta...

A great tactic I use to keep myself on track is to make myself accountable to someone. Last year, I wanted to drop ten pounds (pretty much the same ten pounds I dropped earlier this year). I started texting my weight to a group of friends every weekend. I didn't ask them nor did they offer to take part. I just started doing it. And being my friends, they were very supportive. I managed to drop around six pounds before my daughter was born. At that point, I had to do a life reset and my weight loss plan had to be postponed.

This time around, I decided not to bother my friends again. Instead, I started this blog. So here I am writing about why I am writing. It's worked so far. This blog has been especially helpful during this sprint week. Just thinking of what to write each night helps me to avoid eating too much during the day.

So there's the tip: promise yourself and make it public to one or more people. It's just a little psychological trick, but it works very well.

I lost about another half a pound yesterday, which puts me about half a pound ahead for the week. The mono-diet worked until around five in the evening. I had some chicken breasts and roasted poblanos in the fridge that needed attention, so I cooked up the chicken and prepped it with the peppers.

It's a sprint, so I'm going to keep pushing myself for a few more days. I'm currently at a 5-plus pound net weight loss from the start of the program. I want to get to a 6-plus before Sunday. That will put me within range of the 1-pound per week pace.

Oh, and here's the chicken...

The US Marines have a saying: “Pain is weakness leaving the body.”

I thought it was a weightlifter thing. Regardless, it can be right some of the time. I have my own version of this for dropping weight:

“Hunger is weight leaving the body.”

A lot of the time, dropping weight is about hunger management. There are lots of tips on how to stave off hunger (e.g. by snacking on nuts), or how to avoid it altogther (e.g. eat a big breakfast). This absolutely helps. If you prevent the hunger from coming, then you can keep yourself from overeating.

But sometimes, hunger is unavoidable. Eating less will make you hungry. And when hunger does strike, you'll have two choices: give in and eat something, or embrace the hunger.

Embracing the Hunger

People who lift weights talk about “the burn”. The burn is a sensation in the muscles caused by lactic acid buildup. This buildup is the result of the muscle workout. In moderate amounts, “the burn” can be a pleasant feeling, likely because you know it means your muscles are getting better and stronger because of it.

For people dropping weight, hunger is the equivalent of the burn. In moderate amounts, it can be a pleasurable sensation as well. (At least, that's what I tell myself.) When I am hungry, I know it means that I will be dropping some weight. I enjoy knowing this, and therefore I embrace it.

Case in point: I am super hungry right now. I've barely eaten anything all day. But as uncomfortable as it is, I'm happy to feel this way because I know that I'm dropping weight. I also know that I'll be able to eat happily tomorrow morning (or maybe the day after).

Hunger Can be Good

Most have probably heard of the line that Steve Jobs used in a commencement speech he gave at Stanford: “stay hungry, stay foolish”. He was talking about ambition and idealism.

I think the line can also be applied literally: stay hungry. When you're hungry, food tastes better. When you're hungry, you are losing weight. The world today is mostly designed to make people overweight. Stay hungry to keep an edge and stay healthy.

I'm back at zero pounds +/- for the week. The bread mono-diet from yesterday worked. One more day of that, and I'll see where I stand tomorrow morning. This day is clear. No dinners or lunches out planned.

A couple of years ago, Penn Jillette, the magician, dropped over a hundred pounds. For the first two weeks of his regimen, he ate only potatoes and lost about fourteen pounds. It's called a mono diet and it's something I sometimes do for a day or two. (I don't have as much weight to lose as he did and it's not healthy for long periods.)

Penn didn't have to choose potatoes. He could have picked almost any other food. As he explains it, he did this in order to break a lot of his bad eating habits. Like most of us, he was dependent on salty, sweet, and fatty foods. After two weeks of only potatoes, he lost the craving for all the bad stuff and was able to manage his appetite a lot better.

For me, this method is mostly about hunger management. I keep a stash of bread at home (I use a specific kind of bread that they make at Sprouts.) When I get hungry, I eat a little bit of the bread and then drink some water. This fills me up, and then I'm able to not eat for a little while longer. I never do this for more than a day or two.

As I write this, I'm on a mostly bread diet for the day (I ate some leftover corn a little while ago. I also had a banana.) I butter my bread, for flavor. I'll probably do this tomorrow as well. Then I'll have to figure something else out.

Penn Jillette and the One Rule

One detail that needs more examination is that Jillette did not exercise. Specifically, he avoided exercise. More specifically, he suggests to first lose the weight, and only after the weight is lost to begin an exercise routine:

“this is important – I also didn’t exercise while I was losing the weight. Exercising is body building. It’s a different thing. Wait until you hit the target weight, then you exercise.”

— Penn Jillette

This is exactly what I am saying with my one rule. And it's not just him and me, science backs up the theory as well.