Diet, Days 12 & 13

One of the inconvenient aspects of working the graveyard shift is that if you want to blend in with society, spend time with friends, etc. on the weekends, your sleep habits get tossed to the wind. You sleep when you can & try your best to be awake when you want or need to. I had a heck of a weekend, and it messed with my diet a little, but it's not like I was out having pizza & ice cream. Just a schedule glitch.

Despite normally being asleep no later than Noon, I was awake until about 5-6pm on Friday. Now, my diet schedule has me awake around 8, and starting the supplements & meals around 9. Wasn't going to happen. I slept until about 3 a.m. When I awoke, I spent a few hours watching Friday night TV shows on my TiVo, and I began to crave a hamburger. (I blame commercials) Instead, I went & got some diet-approved food from the fridge and took my supplements around 6 a.m. This meant that I'd be finishing my supplements by the afternoon.

It also meant that if I slept during the day today to prepare for my work shift tonight, as I planned to, my supplements might get off schedule. Specifically, the prescription appetite suppressant. The doctor was very clear that I was never to have more than 3 doses in a 24 hour period. So I didn't get all of my supplements or food today, but that's OK, since it was a short day. (Assuming I get to sleep quickly after posting this)

Dinner yesterday was a barbecue with the local MINI club, at which I played grillmaster. I got the meats & veggies prepped for shish kebabs to feed 16 people. Everyone assembled their own kebabs, and I grilled them. In order to maintain my diet, I measured out my meat & veggies into separate containers before the gathering.

Because I did not post yesterday (I was awake for about 22 hours by the time the barbecue was over), I will post 2 days' info today.

Yesterday, 3/07/09:

All supplements taken as directed

Water: 1 gallon

Cardio: 0

Meal 1- 1 cup fat free cottage cheese (4 vlp), 2 cups raw celery (2 veg)
Meal 2- 4 0z each: shrimp, chicken, sirloin (total 8 vlp, 4 lp), 1 cup peppers & mushrooms, measured raw (1 veg)
Meal 3- 3 cups raw peppers (3 veg)

Totals: 12 servings very lean protein, 4 servings lean protein, 6 servings veg. GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLL!

Today, 3/08/09:

Supplements: Did not take dose 2 or 3 of appetite suppressant, did not take dose 2 of calcium pyruvate fat burner. All others taken.

Water: 3/4 gallon

Cardio: 0

Meal 1- 80z chicken (8 vlp), 1 cup peppers & mushrooms (measured raw) (1 veg)
Meal 2- 1.5 cups fat free cottage cheese (6 vlp), 1 Granny Smith apple (1 fruit)
Freebie- 1 container sugar free Jell-O (pre-packaged)

Totals: 14 servings very lean protein, 1 serving veg, 1 serving fruit. Room for improvement.

And now I go to sleep, in the hopes that I can stay awake at work tonight!

Diet, Day 11

I've been awake for about 24 hours straight now, so I am just going to record the important data today & go crash...

Today, 3/06/09:

All supplements taken as directed

Water: 1 gallon +

Cardio: 0

Meal 1- 3 hot dogs (5 oz, <1g fat/oz) (5 vlp), 2 cups cauliflower (2 veg)
Meal 2- 1 Granny Smith apple (1 fruit), 4 oz cheese (4 lp)
Meal 3- 2 hard boiled eggs (2 vlp)
Meal 4- 6 oz tuna (6 vlp)
Meal 5- 2 cups cucumber (2 veg)
Meal 6- 3/4 cup fat free cottage cheese (3 vlp)

Totals: 16 servings very lean protein, 4 servings lean protein, 4 servings veg, 1 serving fruit. OOPS! I must've gotten confused when counting servings as I packed my food before work. Went over on protein by 4 servings, and under by 1 on fruit/veg. Thinking maybe I forgot to count the cheese from Meal 2, and led to me finishing the last of a container of cottage cheese after I got home.

Diet, Day 10

If you have never tried sodium free beef or chicken broth, I highly suggest you do not start now. I had bought some broth, as it is a freebie on the diet plan. Thought I could just sip a cup every so often. And since I do have hypertension, when I saw the sodium free stuff, I thought that would be even better for me. Yeah, it tastes so incredibly bland that it is mildly offensive. I ended up grinding some salt into it.

I was planning to take today as an off day from cardio, but when I got home from work, I was actually looking forward to it. I absentmindedly went in & started a workout, forgetting my plan to rest. I think I maybe coming down with something. ;-)

For those of you whose weight doesn't fluctuate much, you may not quite be familiar with how your pants, especially jeans, will stretch with you as you expand. Of course, every time you wash them, they tighten up again & you stretch them out again as you wear them for a day.

A few months back, I was wearing 46" waist jeans, and I ordered some new ones to replace them, as they were wearing out. When the new ones came, I absolutely could not fit into them, so I had to order some 48's for the very first time. And 48 is as large as Old Navy goes. That was part of my wake-up call, by the way.

I mentioned in a previous post that those 48's were always a bit loose, but they as I started losing weight 2 months or so ago, they slowly got looser. By the week before I started this diet, I had to put my hands in the pockets to discretely hold them up as walked. So I switched back to my old 46's.

A few days ago, I decided to pull those never-worn 46's (the ones I couldn't get into) out of the bottom of my closet, and to my surprise they fit rather well. Another tiny sign of progress. While I don't want to spend big bucks on clothes, I am looking forward to buying smaller sizes as time goes by.

And I noticed today as I was puttering around the house that my belly flab- the spare tire portion that kinda leans/droops over my beltline, is lightening up. Not as jiggly as it was a few weeks ago. Again, a small victory, but it feels really good.

Today, 3-05-09:

All supplements taken as directed

Water: 1 gallon+

Cardio: 35 minutes

Meal 1- 6 oz chicken breasts (6 vlp), 1 cup mushrooms, measured raw (1 veg)

Meal 2- 1 cup fat free cottage cheese (4 vlp)

Meal 3- 2 cups raw red bell peppers (2 veg)

Meal 4- 6 oz chicken breast (6 vlp), 1 cup mushrooms, measured raw (1 veg)

Meal 5- 1 grapefruit (2 fruit)

Freebie- 1 cup sodium free beef broth, with sodium added. LOL

Total- 16 servings very lean protein, 4 servings veg, 2 servings fruit. BOOM! Head shot!

Diet, Day 9

I hadn't given it much thought in a few days, but my hunger has remained minimal and energy has remained strong. Could simply be the diet affecting my metabolism, and it could also be due to the supplements. Whatever it is, I feel better already than I did just a few weeks ago.

I forgot to mention that in my Monday doctor's visit, I was informed that it may take some weeks for my intestines to settle down, and that's normal. "Disturbing," says me, "Normal," says the doctor.

Since my friend who did this plan was on a more restrictive diet than I am, I began to wonder if I was staying in ketosis. After all, I am eating some fruit almost every day. I pretty much assumed that wouldn't be enough to break ketosis, but since I had all the extra test strips lying around, I used one this morning. Sure enough- still glowing pinkish-purple. Good sign. If & when they advise me to raise my daily intake of any of their food groups, I will probably check again, just to be sure. I'm curious like that.

Today, 3/04/09:

All supplements taken as directed

Water: 1 gallon +

Cardio: 40 minutes

Meal 1- 8 oz bay scallops (8 servings), 1.5 cups cooked green beans (3 servings)
Meal 2- 1 granny smith apple (1 serving), 4 oz cheddar cheese (<3g fat/oz) (4 servings)
Meal 3- 4 oz tuna (Starkist pouch) (4 servings)
Meal 4- 2 cups raw cucumber (2 servings)

Total: 12 servings very lean protein, 4 servings lean protein, 5 servings veg, 1 serving fruit. Bingo.

Note: Cardio ran long by accident. It's amazing what you can do when you zone out to some good music... I will try to limit myself to 30 minutes for a while, and maybe increase duration in a few weeks.

Diet, Day 8 - Let's do cardio!!!

I only slept for about 4 hours yesterday, so I was dreading being tired this morning. I did not want to have any excuse to say "I'll put off the cardio until tomorrow, when I'm well rested." Well, I just finished my 30 minutes on the exercise bike, and I'm not as completely wasted as I expected. Sadly, some of the programming buttons on the bike are no longer functional, so I cannot set it to automatically increase & decrease the wheel resistance for pattern workouts, etc. It also no longer displays my speed, time, distance, or calories burned, which kinda irks me- especially the timer. The only thing I can do is manually adjust the resistance & it still displays my heart rate. I may see if I can find the computer unit for the bike used online somewhere.

Yesterday, one of my errands was to find a 2 quart insulated jug I could use to carry filtered water to work. Every Verizon building I have ever been in seems to have slightly funky water and I don't like to drink it. (I even use bottled water to brush my teeth at work) Anyhow, I ended up finding a 1 gallon jug, which is convenient, since that's the minimum quota- as long as I finish that before bedtime, I'm good to go.

Nothing else to report, other than the day's data. I will say that I am happy that so much seafood is on the "very lean protein" list. I loves me some seafood.

Today, 3/03/09:

All supplements taken as directed

30 minutes cardio completed

1 gallon+ water consumed

Meal 1- 8 oz bay scallops (8 servings), 2 cups raw broccoli w/ 1 tbsp dressing (2 servings)
Meal 2- 4 oz tuna (Starkist, in the pouch) (4 servings)
Meal 3- 2 cups raw red bell peppers (2 servings)
Meal 4- 4 oz 93% lean ground sirloin (4 servings)
Meal 5- 1 grapefruit (2 servings)

Total: 12 servings very lean protein, 4 servings lean protein, 4 servings veg, 2 servings fruit. Spot on.

2nd Doctor's visit & Diet, Day 7

After an uneventful night at work, I had my 2nd doctor's visit today. The regular doctor (an Osteopath) was out of the office taking recertification tests & her stand-in was apparently from another part of town. And he misjudged traffic, arriving over 30 minutes late. Oops.

I arrived early this morning & noticed something odd. The office staff was seated in the lobby & they were having some sort of meeting. I could not hear details thru the closed doors as I waited outside, but it started to sound like some sort of pep rally. The only thing I heard clearly was the very last thing- whoever was leading said "What are we gonna do today?" and everyone shouted "Kick ass!"

Now, a positive attitude is great, but this sounded like the way they pump up salesmen before they go into the field to make cold calls. And that could be a little disconcerting. After all, this place is supposed to be about health care, not sales & marketing, quotas, etc. I certainly hope that's not the way they are doing business. But maybe I'm being paranoid.

I should note that I weighed myself on the scale at home before leaving for their office so that I could compare the 2 readings. Home read 293.5. Much to my surprise the doctor's scale read 294.4, meaning that me home scale only reads light by about a pound, and I lost over 11 pounds this first week. I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around that.

Now, they use a scale/body fat monitor that uses the electric pads under your feet to send a low voltage charge thru you to estimate body fat. Everything I have read from all reputable sources says that this method is inherently inconsistent, as it can vary with body temp, hydration levels, etc. The tech who did my measurement today told me that last week was 52.3%, but I am 99.9% certain it was over 56%. I was looking at the meter when the first tech wrote it down. This week, it read 57.8%. Not encouraging if you just look at the number, but since I am fairly certain that these machines are only a ballpark estimate, I'm not even concerned.

My blood pressure was spot on today- 110/70. I know that my pressure varies quite a bit throughout any given day, so last week's high reading wasn't that big of a deal, and I'm not celebrating this week's normal reading. Once I see normal readings week after week, I'll call that progress.

The doctor went over my blood work as well. Liver & thyroid functions are excellent. My total cholesterol is 184, which is in the acceptable range. Triglycerides were 111, which he said was excellent. HDL was 44, and he said that ought to be more like 48-50. LDL was 120, which he said needs to come down, but he did not specify the normal range. The HDL/LDL ratio was 2.7, which he also said ought to be around 2.2. He was confident that the diet would take care of the HDL & LDL within a few months.

Oh, he also mentioned that I was a little dehydrated the previous week when the bloodwork was done. This could explain the body fat reading low. It also explains why they had a hard time getting an EKG done. They used 3 sets of contact pads, 2 sets of leads & 2 machines before getting something usable. Maybe my magnetic personality was interfering with its readings. ;-)

I ended up having a boatload of errands to run after the office visit, so I now have no time to do my first cardio. But I will have plenty of time tomorrow, which is when I am supposed to start anyhow. I'm actually looking forward to it, after seeing the progress in my weight thus far. It's rather motivating.

Today, 3/2/09:

Weight: 294.4 (Doctor's scale)
Body Fat: 57.8
BP: 110/80

All supplements taken as directed

1 gallon+ water consumed (1.5 quarts with Crystal Light drink mix)

Meal 1- 7 oz chicken breast (7 servings), 1 cup mushrooms (measured before cooking) (1 serving)
Meal 2- 2 cups raw cucumber (2 servings)
Meal 3- 2 hard boiled eggs (2 servings)
Meal 4- 1 whole grapefruit (2 servings)
Meal 5- 7 oz chicken breast (7 servings), 1 cup mushrooms (measured before cooking) (1 serving)

Total: 16 servings very lean protein, 4 servings veg, 2 servings fruit. On the nose.

Diet, Day 6

Looks like I spoke too soon yesterday when I said my intestines were heading towards normal. 'Nuff said. Will discuss with the doctor on Monday morning.


I moved my exercise bike inside this evening, since it's going to be getting warm out soon. Technically, I am supposed to start cardio on Tuesday, but I think I might go ahead & do a little Monday morning before bed.


Nothing interesting today... just the basics:


Today, 3/01/09:


All supplements taken as directed


1 gallon+ of water consumed


Meal 1- 7 oz chicken breast (7 servings), 2 cups raw broccoli (2 servings) w/ 1 tbsp low fat/cal dressing (allowed up to 2 tbsp as a "freebie")
Meal 2- 4 oz ground sirloin (93% fat free) (4 servings), 2 cups celery (2 servings) w/ 1 tbsp low fat/cal dressing
Meal 3- 1 small apple (1 serving)
Meal 4- 1 1/4 cups fat free cottage cheese (5 servings)
Freebie: 1 dill pickle spear (0 servings)


Total: 12 servings very lean protein, 4 servings lean protein, 4 servings veg, 1 serving fruit. Short by 1 serving fruit/veg for the day.