It Is What It Is

Day 12

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 19:26:17 GMT

Weight loss today - .5lbs. Total to date - 12.5lbs

Food for today:
6 strawberries
Chinese 5-spice steak
purple cherry tomatoes
6 strawberries
(protein and veggie serving TBD)

I wasn't very hungry this morning, so I ate the strawberries allocated for breakfast with my lunch. Something about the outfit I wore today must be especially complimentary because one of my co-workers said that I really look slimmer today, and this guy sees me every day. Other people have commented that they can see the weight loss in my face, which I am really pleased to hear, as the fat pouch under my chin is one of the areas that I am most unhappy about in my appearance. I've also made a concentrated effort to stand up straighter and do some isometric abdominal exercises. I had a more defined waist line when I was belly dancing, which I know that I've lost some of, plus it helped by back.

more Day 11

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 06:33:44 GMT

For dinner, I had steak and purple cherry tomatoes. I'm feeling kind of achy today, but that may be from my "time of the month". I didn't feel like cooking a bunch of stuff tonight. So, I have the other half of the steak for lunch tomorrow, but I'll have to cook for dinner.

Day 11

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:01:52 GMT

Weight loss today - 2lbs. Total to date - 12lbs.

Food for today:
spiced apple (diced cameo apple with cinnamon, cardamom, and clove)
baked herb striped bass with tomatoes
apple mint salad (thinly sliced apple with torn mint leaves and lemon juice, a suggestion from my old friend Drew via Flickr)
*Not sure yet what I'm having for my last protein/veggie combo, need to shop after work.*

Last night, I had Myrna meet me over at the Phoenix Downtown Market before going to the Mercury game. She had never been. I picked up another Armenian cucumber, a couple of apples, a bag of spinach, a bunch fresh mint that is flowering, and some purple cherry tomatoes. Myrna got a whole bunch of stuff. I didn't see all of the individual items, but she had 4 bags to carry back to the car. She was very excited to find okra. On the way home today, I need to pick up some more protein and a few more fruits at the grocery. I'm in the mood for beef today. I really had a hankering for it yesterday too, so there is probably something that I'm lacking that I need from it.

Day 10

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:30:52 GMT

Weight loss today - .5lbs. Total - 10lbs

It is nice to hit the 10lb mark. It has been a week since I started the calorie restriction. I went for a walk at the mall last night with razz, and I felt good during and after. Check my flickr page for videos of the adorable puppies that we stopped to admire. I managed to get to sleep around 1am. Since I had diverted Timmy in the kitchen at bedtime with a treat and shut him out of the bedroom, when I woke up briefly at 5am, I fairly quickly got back to sleep for another 2 hours. Nice.

Food for today, in the order I plan on eating it:
1 jonagold apple
Greek-seasoned baked tilapia and tomatoes
1 cameo apple
Singapore-seasoned krab and zucchini

Crafty-Con

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:21:18 GMT

After last year's fun with the knit Wonder Woman costume, I struggled to come up with something equally awesome to create to wear to this year's San Diego Comic-Con (July 22-26). I didn't have as much lead time this year, with baby projects to create for the beginning of June, so I knew that I wouldn't be doing another full bodysuit arrangement. It was also tiresome to be trussed up underneath that outfit, and I won't have the convenience of a nearby hotel to retreat to this year. I decided to create a Green Lantern Corps outfit, knitting a sleeveless Green Lantern sweater and mask, but wearing bought pants and power ring to fill in the rest of the look. I crocheted up a mask last night, and I am down to the last few inches on the sweater. I'm going to skip on white gloves, though I am thinking about possibly knitting white armbands or gauntlets, since it looks like I may have time to. Do my readers have any opinions on whether armbands would be cool or not?

Day 9

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:08:30 GMT

Weight loss: 0lbs

"Aunt Flo" started her monthly visit early today, which I was told would slow or halt weight loss for a few days, possibly even a slight gain from water retention, so I am not worried about the zero loss for today.

I have been having increasing insomnia over the past couple of days, which I was concerned about, so I called the naturopath. She wasn't in, so the receptionist gal called her for me at home and called back to tell me that this was normal and should get better in a few days. If not, I can take an OTC sleeping pill, which are generally not effective for me, so I hope that the issue resolves on its own. It also didn't help that TimBot woke me from a sound dream sleep at 5am (after I had finally gotten to sleep around 3am) by attempting to burrow into the sheet tucked under my left arm. I deposited his furry butt into the hallway and closed the door, but I was too agitated to get back to sleep. I was super tired and grumpy this morning, but surprisingly alert this afternoon, but a bit distracted.

Food for today:
1 Jonagold apple
baked herbs de provence striped bass with zucchini
1 Fuji apple
"tandoori" shrimp and tomatoes (bake shrimp and tomatoes in a packet with 1tsp tandoori seasoning. Smoosh the cooked tomatoes into a sauce with the spices.)

Day 8

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:08:41 GMT

Weight loss for day 8: 2lbs. Total to date: 9.5lbs
I expect that the weight loss per day will taper down soon. I can tell that much of the weight lost so far was retained water, as I no longer have "puffy foot" at the tops of my shoes.

Food for today:
6 strawberries
repeat of the shrimp and spinach with garlic and basil
6 strawberries
striped bass ceviche with tomatoes

If anyone is interested in reading the manifesto that the program I'm doing is based on, you can read a PDF here.

Happy 4th of July

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:56:20 GMT

Happy 4th of July, originally uploaded by chris_wass.

It was a nice holiday weekend. Thursday night, I went to Kat's house for swimming and crafting. Friday afternoon through the evening was spent at irena_seraphina's place playing D&D. I made shrimp ceviche to share and a little portion-controlled batch of my own to eat. Everyone seemed to like it. Saturday night, I went to a pool party and BBQ at Lissa & Tom's. More swimming to be had, and we could see a little bit of fireworks from their yard. Today, I updated my resume to have on-hand in case the state budget gets totally hosed, knitted while watching Torchwood, had some Timmy time, washed a bunch of dishes, and cooked.

Days 6 & 7

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:43:27 GMT

Diet Food - shrimp ceviche, originally uploaded by chris_wass.

Weight loss day 6 - 2.5 lbs.
What I ate, in order during the day:
tilapia ceviche (with tomato)
6 strawberries
Singapore-seasoned tilapia and zucchini baked on the grill
6 strawberries
(cheat) 1 grilled cherry tomato

It was really tough not to snack at a 4th of July BBQ.

Weight loss day 7 - 1.5 lbs. Total loss to date - 7.5 lbs
What I ate, in order:
6 strawberries
pan-cooked shrimp and spinach with garlic and basil
6 strawberries
baked krab (crab-flavored pollack) and tomato seasoned with Zatar

I was finally not ravenously hungry all day.

I had more energy tonight, and cooked protein and veggie combos for the next 3 day's meals. I've been doing the foil packet in the oven scheme. I lay out pieces of aluminum foil, weigh out and chop up the veg for each, then top the veg with weighed out protein portion. Then I season each one differently, fold up the foil packets, arrange all on a baking sheet, and put in the pre-heated 350 degree oven for 25 minutes. I did the same thing when I did the Atkins diet years ago.

OPD - Other People's Diets

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:45:11 GMT

I found out last night that a friend that has been a major inspiration to me as she has been so successful in losing some weight and getting healthier has been doing the hCG diet! I knew that she had tried Alli a few months ago, so that's what I thought was what she was still doing. It turns out that Alli was unsuccessful for her, but she didn't want to tell people that she was doing hCG because she thought that people would give her crap for it. She has lost 44lbs.

Sue told me that two of her co-workers had tried hCG and were extremely unsuccessful, so she was worried about me. They were using drops that they took orally instead of the injections. From what the naturopath told me and what I saw from searching the internet, the oral version is not as effective and not well regulated for content. It also sounded like they just got the stuff and didn't have much direction. One person became so dehydrated that she became very ill. Um, duh, you should drink heaps of water when you diet! I've been really conscientious about drinking lots of water. The other apparently just gave up on dieting.

It is odd for me to having to weigh so many things; myself, my food. I didn't own a bathroom scale before Monday, and had been kind of against obsessing over weight, determined to concern myself only with how I felt. I also don't have a food scale, I'm using the postal scale that I bought for weighing packages for eBay and Etsy sales as a food scale. Hey, why buy something else, eh? It's accurate to the tenth of an ounce and I can tare out the container I put the food in. I just had to buy a fresh 9 volt battery. Whenever I dieted before, I pretty much eyed out smaller portions. Turns out that I am decently accurate about approximating weights for non-leafy things by eye and touch, but not perfect.

Day 5

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:14:18 GMT

Weight loss today - 1.5lbs. Total loss so far - 3.5lbs

I'm getting more creative with my food now. I made some cucumber salad for my 2nd vegetable last night, and more for today. It came out really tasty and is super simple: Armenian cucumber cut into chunks, raw apple cider vinegar, some salt and pepper, dried lemon peel. I also started some shrimp ceviche last night for eating today, and a bigger batch to bring to irena_seraphina's house for D&D.

Ceviche can be pretty simple:
Cut up raw peeled shrimp (my 3.5oz portion), you can also use other fish, like tilapa
Add lemon (or lime) juice (2tbs for mine) and season (salt, pepper, cilantro, onion, hot sauce)
Let mixture sit in the refrigerator overnight, stirring once to get juice contact on all pieces.
You can eat this as-is, or add:
And equal amount of fresh diced tomatoes (3.5oz for me)
Add some more seasonings to taste and let sit in the 'fridge at least and hour for flavors to develop.

Food for today:
Breakfast: Lemon-cured shrimp (with onion and cilantro), Maya's apple cut into cubes and dusted with cinnamon, clove, and cardamom then heated in the microwave for 1:30 (very tasty)
Later: Armenian cucumber salad, shrimp ceviche, 1 Maya's apple

Grumble

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:59:19 GMT

I was stuck in a meeting which caused me to eat my lunch an hour later than normal. I was MAD hungry! I managed to make it through the meeting and was coherent. I couldn't wait to dig into my little lunch, but had to force myself to eat the steamed greens. Turns out that arugula is really bitter when steamed, yuck. It's just as well that it's not on the approved list, whew!

Day 4

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:34:56 GMT

Weight: Down 4lbs from yesterday, 2lb net loss.

Food for today:
1 apple from Maya's Farm (ate for breakfast and it was tasty)
1 golden delicious apple for a snack around 3pm
baked chicken and arugula for lunch
baked chicken, and I'm not sure what vegetable yet, for dinner

What I thought was chicory turned out to be sorrel, and not on the approved list. I went to the Phoenix Downtown Market last night to pick up some fresh veggies, and when I asked Ivy at Maya's Farm stall for some more chicory, she was like, "Actually, that's sorrel." Darn, I liked that stuff, it was kinda lemony. I did get some tomatoes, apples, an Armenian cucumber, zucchini, and spinach for eating over the next few days. Need to get some more protein on my way home from work today.

Fattypants Recipe

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:40:31 GMT

My co-worker, Ashish, said that he really enjoyed the last of my fattypants dessert from yesterday, and it was easy to make, so I thought that I'd share. Just in case you wanted something delicious and easy, and it's gluten-free and low glycemic, for those who are concerned with such things.

8oz mascarpone cheese
1 pint heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 cup raw unsalted shelled pistachio nuts

Mix together mascarpone, agave nectar, and cardamom until smooth. Whip cream until stiff (I used a whipped cream whipper). Fold cream into mascarpone. Fold in nuts. Yum!

I originally planned on using the nuts for a crust and making it like a cream pie, which I still think sounds good, but I didn't have enough nuts.

Day 3.5

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:32:52 GMT

It's 1:30 and I've eaten half of my food allotment for the day, and I am hungry. Suck. Drinking water to allegedly curb hunger is BS, I tell ya.

Day 3

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:49:13 GMT

Weight this morning, surprisingly unchanged. The doctor warned me that I would be less hungry on day 2 and that it would be harder to stuff in the food. By mid-day, I wasn't very hungry for lunch, but stuffed it down anyway. This fat food chart that Myrna sent me helped me get the idea for the mascarpone and pistachio dessert for last night, which really should have been 4 portions, and while it was delicious, I was only able to eat 2/3 of it. I am really surprised that I didn't gain weight from yesterday. Oh well.

Food for today:
1 golden delicious apple
1 fuji apple
baked chicken breast and zucchini (I can't remember what seasoning I put on either chicken)
baked chicken breast and chicory/arugula

I'm not supposed to mix the chicory and the arugula, but I didn't have enough chicory for a serving (with leafy greens, it takes a LOT) and I didn't want to waste it. This seemed like a small compromise on day 1 of calorie restriction.

When I woke up this morning, I still felt a little full, but I am starting to get hungry and will eat an apple soon. I didn't mention yesterday, but I am also taking a B-12 supplement on recommendation from the doc.

It is still creepy to inject myself with stuff.

Days 1 & 2, aka Fatty McFattypants days

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:07:17 GMT

Days 1 & 2 are "fat loading" days. I'm to eat as much fatty food as possible, and expect to actually gain 4lbs.

What I ate, day 1:
Breakfast: McDonalds sausage McMuffin w/egg, hash brown, orange juice
Lunch: McDonalds angus bacon and cheese burger, fries, iced tea
Dinner: fresh whole milk mozzarella, Italian hard salami, kalamata and green olives, tiramisu

Weigh in day two - 2lb weight gain
What I ate day 2:
Breakfast: breakfast burrito with bacon from the cafeteria
Lunch: cheese steak sandwich, onion rings, and whole milk from the cafeteria
Snack: Lay's BBQ potato chips
Dinner: Mediterranean chicken and lamb meatloaf, dessert made from mascarpone cheese, whipped cream, cardamom agave nectar, and pistachio nuts. The dessert was super delicious, but I couldn't manage to finish it.

I baked 4 portions of chicken and 3 of veggies for the next two days. I need to pick up some more veg at the farm market tomorrow.

What's this diet thing?

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:18:03 GMT

I was answering some questions from irena_seraphina about the new diet so I decided to re-post them here.

I’m doing this thing that you inject yourself with a pregnancy hormone, hCG, so when you are on a restrictive diet your body doesn’t destroy your organs and muscle tissue to protect your nonexistent fetus, thereby using up the stored fat first. I'd known the part about the body protecting the fetus in this way, not that I can remember how I came to this knowledge, but it made sense to me. The "protocol", as they call it, using injections of this hormone to aid in fat loss, is highly contentious. You'll find a lot of different, and contradictory information on this stuff on the internet. As my friends, I hope that you will be respectful enough to question but not to bash on these methods, but I will be screening any non-friend comments, as I have seen some crass comments against others that are on this protocol.

I originally found out about it through my friend Lisa, the massage therapist. Her friend is the naturopath that I am seeing about it. She’s doing the protocol herself now, and is on her 2nd round, and has lost 60lbs. Soon after I heard about it from Lisa, I met a gal at the SnB at the Duck that is doing it and has lost 30lbs in 6 weeks. The program is either 3 or 6 weeks; these other people have done the 6-week deal, but I am doing a 3-week to start, as I only have 3 weeks until Comic-Con, and I knew that I would have really limited food options there. People doing the 3-week protocol generally loose between 10-20lbs.

What I'll be doing: For the first two days, you eat as much fatty stuff as you can, allegedly to "plump up" the fat cells for easy and immediate use when you start limiting your calories. For the following 21 days, diet is limited to about 500 calories a day, and you are limited to a very small set of foods components to choose from. You get two 3.5oz servings of lean protein (white fishes {cod, flounder, tilapia, shrimp, etc}, chicken, lean beef), two 3.5oz servings of vegetable (I don’t remember all the choices, but some are; spinach, zucchini, tomato, cabbage, radish, chicory), and two servings of fruit (1 whole apple, 1 whole orange, ½ grapefruit, or 6 strawberries). You can eat any combination of 1 from each category at any time, but aren’t supposed to double up on any of the servings, like you aren’t supposed to eat the whole 7oz of protein at one meal. The preference is for all foods to be organic and meats to be hormone-free. There are a bunch of spices and herbs that you can use, and lemon juice to flavor and cook with. You can’t cook any of your foods with any oil or other fats, it’s got to be baked, grilled, steamed, or boiled. You can have caffeine. You’re also supposed to drink a lot of water, which is pretty standard. Every morning, for the first 21 days, I'll be injecting myself with a small amount of the hCG. There are many variations that others have developed, but this is supposed to be the original plan that was formulated and has shown the most consistent results.

I'm not looking to this as a cure-all for my fat issues. I'm looking for a jump-start to help me to get myself healthier again. I've gotten to a point that I am uncomfortable with my current size and feel that it is limiting me. I've tried "eating better and exercising more" with limited success, for various reasons, and I own that some of them are my fault psychologically. I've stayed away from other diet pills and drugs in the past, as my mother's use of them on and off for 30 years was a major "risk factor" in the development of the pulmonary hypertension that lead to her early death.

I am now on day 2.

Poll - Diet Readership

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:28:00 GMT

I've started a new diet yesterday, and I want to blog about my progress. I wonder if my friends who still read this blog would be interested in reading about it. Please take the poll to let me know!

View Poll: Wanna Read About My Diet?

tweet-esque

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 08:11:33 GMT

Wendy's boob money is moist.

as if I had twitter

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 07:35:30 GMT

Patrick is moist at Denny's.

Need a little diversion this afternoon?

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 23:37:14 GMT

WWUD?

birthday post

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 04:29:50 GMT

It has been a nice bday, lunch w coworkers, dinner w Darenna, lots o well wishes.

Not since Harold and Maude have I been so into a hearse...

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:58:42 GMT

A limousine company in Japan plans to make hearses out of Priuses.

Not So Secret Admirer

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:58:08 GMT

I was checking my Flickr stats this morning, and saw a bunch of hits out of nowhere on some seemingly random photos and found that someone on a live music community site linked to a bunch of my pictures. The poster and someone else made avatars out of some of the photos: http://www.jambase.com/Fans/jchendon and http://www.jambase.com/Fans/BenjaminHuman. At first, I was peeved about his description of my Flickr stream as a "treasure trove of nerds", but after I saw how much time he spend finding his favorite shots over a lengthy span of time of postings, he seems to mean that lovingly.