Hundred Day Head Start Diet, fitness, exercise, and weight loss

Way back when, I chose the hundreddayheadstart.com domain with the thought that if I could successfully document my weight loss and fitness journey, I might be able to build a brand and community around the idea of starting personal improvements – health, fitness, career, finances, etc – now, rather than waiting for an artificial deadline like New Years Day. I kicked the site off on September 23 of whatever year it was, exactly 100 days before New Years – the hundred day head start on all the people waiting until New Years Day to start their diets.

Yeah, it didn’t go anywhere. Branding and community-building aren’t my strength, although I still think my IDEA is brilliant.

One guy that is great when it comes to execution on big ideas is Ted Murphy of Izea. I won’t go into the whole background of Izea because that isn’t the point of this post, except to say when I was a more active blogger I utilized the Izea platforms and made a great side income. Highly recommended, and great people to work with.

Ted just posted this video on his blog and facebook status that was appropriate to the idea behind this blog, so I’m re-posting it here.

Get started now!

Conditions were ripe for a bad weigh-in, and I did not disappoint.

But, as my doctor said, “at least you didn’t gain weight and that’s good this time of year.”

So yes, it’s good. No, I’m not going to obsess on it.

I’ve been sick for about 2 weeks and continued to work long hours. I’m still eating much lighter, more normal portion sizes, the combination of exhaustion and illness led me to convenience foods rather than healthy eating. Dinner would be a handful of crackers rather than a chicken breast and a salad; breakfast was a bowl of cereal rather than an egg or some oatmeal. Oddly, I did fine with lunches. Packed mine nearly every day, just a sandwich and a piece of fruit. Snacking was limited to the one day we celebrated at work, when everyone brought in Christmas goodies.

My doctor also said I may have put on some muscle weight with the exercise I’ve done. If so, I’m good with that.

So, I’ll stick with the plan: cut portion sizes, continue to increase the frequency of exercise, and stay away from crap food. Down 22 pounds in 3 months. I can do better.

I’ve been unable to do my usual walking right now due to inflammation in my Achilles tendon. I’m not in the position to drop $100+ for a new pair of my beloved Brooks Beasts (size 10.5, 2E in case you want to send me a Christmas present, dear reader…), the shoes I wore while dropping 61 lbs while walking every day for 119 straight days back in 2006. My doc wanted me to work out with dumbbells, but do you know how tought it is to work up a sweat with dumbbells and kids that think dumbbells are toys and you’re just “playing” with them?

I’ve noticed, though, that I don’t get too many interruptions while doing chores. Normally, I don’t do chores at a pace that builds up a sweat, unless you count lawn mowing in the summer. But a few months ago we had a tree company take down a dead tree, and asked that instead of hauling it away they just cut it into firelog-sized pieces and leave it behind. A win-win – they don’t have to lift, carry, and haul it away, and I have wood for the winter.

Of course, the wood needs to be split, so I’ve begun working on it for 20-30 minutes a day when I’m home during daylight hours. I’ve got an axe I keep sharp, a couple of steel wedges, and a sledgehammer, and I put them all to good use. Let me tell you, I had no idea how good this could make me feel!

The stress-relief is awesome! Easy to visualize the stressors in my life as I swing that sharp axe down on their heads… uh, I mean, on that piece of wood…

But as an exercise, it is outstanding. I can feel my heart pounding and I’m breathing hard and sweating and afterward, I have that good-pain feeling my arms, hands, back, abs, pecs, delts, butt, quads… just a great feeling. It feels so good that when I work my pile, I think I’m going to volunteer to start on the neighbor’s just to continue the exercise.

He who cuts his own wood is warmed twice
– attributed to everyone from proverbial Arabs to Henry Ford

Down to 325 from my starting weight of 345 two months ago. Nothing glamorous, just a steady 2-2.5 lbs per week. My portion sizes are way down, basically at the size of a normal person’s helping. No snacking between meals, no sweets, no junk food.

No program, just eating less and staying away from crap food. Breakfast is a modest bowl of cereal, lunch is a cold-cut sandwich and a piece of fruit, and dinner is whatever my wife fixes. On nights when I work too late to eat with the family, I’ll have another sandwich or a bowl of cereal instead of a full dinner eaten before going to bed.

I’m also learning to overcome my “Clean Plate Club” upbringing. I’ve actually left food behind, unable to finish my dinner.

I never thought I’d see the day.

I’m still here and still toeing the line on my diet. The workplace stress has been off the charts, but I’ve managed my way through it just fine. I go back to the doc in 10 days for a weigh-in. I went in another notch on my belt this past week, so I’m hoping for around a 10 lb loss this month.

{crossing fingers and knocking wood}…

As I’ve said many times before, I’m not a proponent of any particular program or diet philosophy; the law of thermodynamics works just fine for me. Times like this, I don’t have time to think about proportions of fat, protein, and carbs. In fact, I didn’t get fat because of any of those things. I got fat because instead of eating 1 or 2 slices of pizza occasionally, I ate 5 or 6 slices at a sitting once or twice a week.

So, modifying my behavior is big, and is allowing me to start dropping weight without having to buy special foods or prepare special meals. I stay away from the company cafeteria and fast food restaurants and start my day with a modest bowl of cereal. I drink a lot of water, and bring a sandwich and a piece of fruit for lunch. My guilty pleasure is the bag of pretzels I keep at work in case of snack cravings. Dinner is whatever the rest of the family is having, but I try to match my portion sizes to my wife and kids’ rather than filling up the entire plate.

At some point I’ll plateau and have to shuffle things around a bit, but when you’re my size just eating less is a big improvement.

For me, the answer is usually “Yes”. I take comfort in comfort food.

Unfortunately, I’m under a ton of stress right now at work. New job responsibilities, situation worse than expected, yadda, yadda, yadda. Anyway, so far I haven’t been a stress-eater. In fact, it’s been so hectic that I haven’t had time to think about food much less eat it. As far as my appetite goes, it helps that I’ve been nauseous as I’ve come to grips with each new challenge.

I’ll get through this. In my business, time takes care of all problems, eventually. I have the advantage of having been asked to ‘fix’ the situation, rather than having been the cause of it. But in the meantime some good people are going to go through a tough time, and that’s upsetting me more than the company’s situation. I’m sure my appetite will return with a vengeance soon.

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What the hell is gluten, anyway? It sounds like something undigestible, that might get stuck in my esophagus.

Those that are anti-gluten will tell you that description is pretty much dead-on. I poked around a bit after reading about gluten on some other blogs. I still don’t understand completely, but basically if you can avoid wheat products and sauces you’re on the right track. I’m going to have to ping a family member that works as a nutritionist for a better explanation.

As for me, I was looking into reasons why I get urgent, watery bowel movements two or three afternoons per week. Gluten was one possibility. I didn’t avoid bread this week since my lunch most days consists of a sandwich, but I did keep cheese off the sandwiches and didn’t have any issues that required the tight-cheeked walk of shame. So maybe its just a lactose sensitivity.

More research definitely in order.

I had my monthly check-up with my doc this morning, something I’m doing during the initial stages of my diet to help enforce some accountability, along with monitoring some real-world medical issues. When I started the diet, I agreed not to weigh myself between visits because she didn’t want me focused on short-term variation. If I’m wondering how I’m doing, just go by how my clothes are fitting.

So, the clothes are fitting better. I’m in one notch on the belt. And today I weighed in at 12 lbs lower – 333 lbs.

Yeah, a drop in the bucket. But the journey has to start somewhere and that’s 12 fewer pounds to lose when about half the people in America go on their annual New Years diet – hence, the Hundred Day Head Start moniker for this blog.

Better still, my BP was down this morning, to 122/74, and she said my pulse was down as well. So, that’s good.

Next appointment is scheduled (wisely) for the day before Thanksgiving. Hey, I’m not stupid enough to schedule a weigh-in for the Monday AFTER Thanksgiving!

On the heels of my post about mice getting the benefits of dieting without the diet, I came across this site: Turn Fat People Into Mice
Mostly, there’s a bunch of posts about medical research involving mice. I think the doctor writing the blog thinks they should be doing the research on humans:

Since we are experts at fixing fat mice, instead of trying to work it out for humans, where there are apparently at least 6000 genes relating to overweight/obesity, let’s research how to turn fat people into mice.

Anyway, I appreciated the humor of the premise.

Discovery News reported earlier this month that scientists were able to remove a single gene to extend the life span and quality of life of female mice.

The most popular diabetes drug in the United States, metformin, targets the same proteins produced by the deleted gene, raising the possibility that millions of people might have been taking a life-extending drug for the last 50 years.

Thankfully, I am not diabetic although I have been warned I am heading that way. So, I don’t have any personal experience to draw upon when it comes to Metformin or other diabetes treatments. But the thing that is very interesting here is the possibility for engineering genetically a more healthy body. I’m not sure how I feel about that – honestly, my attitude would be “Ok, you go first” to the scientists that develop a genetic treatment plan. But, it’s still interesting to think about and discuss the possibilities.