<p>Definitely was the socks yesterday. I foolishly wore a very low cut sock and it dropped too low and left my heel exposed so I rubbed it raw from my shoe. SIlly! Thanks for the suggestions BB!</p>
<p>WNP…the wedding is in August and no, I haven’t found a dress yet! H and I are signing up for the next 90 weight loss challenge. I don’t have a lot more to lose but this will keep me motivated.</p>
<p>I started exercising for my bad knee one year ago. I didn’t start changing my diet until mid May. I will post my year of progress soon!</p>
<p>Good for you that you have found something that works for you.</p>
<p>However, I know some failed low carb dieters who gained the fat back after losing the will power to stay on the diet. And the Stanford study that was discussed not long ago found that most dieters (low carb or otherwise) were not fully compliant to their assigned diets, despite assistance from dietitians, which is why the improvements were so modest for all of the diets.</p>
<p>That’s the point, ucb - idad is not dieting, he simply changed the way he eats. The same thing happened for us, and I think it might have altered my metabolism. While I still eat sweets once in a while, if I have a huge brownie or a chunk of cake, I feel sick afterwards. A few small bites are perfectly fine.</p>
<p>About 13 years ago, I dropped about 40 pounds in three months though sheer willpower, diet and exercise. I was able to sustain the push because my family was overseas and I had full control over my diet and had more time to exercise.</p>
<p>I’ve already made significant gains over the last two years but most of it was mostly willpower. The thing that kills me the most is work and family stress that throws me off diet and exercise. The low-carb thing doesn’t really take willpower - at least it doesn’t for me at this time. The other thing is Livestrong.</p>
<p>I’m an engineer so I understand the power and progress that can be made with information systems. The quality levels that we expect from cars, computers and the finished goods that we buy benefit greatly from information systems and managing weight is no exception. What I’ve done is to move the willpower effort over to the computer - I let it tell me if I should eat another donut (that’s just a metaphor - I don’t eat donuts).</p>
<p>There’s one other aspect that’s important to me: having additional weight makes it harder to exercise as there is more impact on joints. My current weight places a limit on how far and fast I can run and on how many times a week I can play tennis or ping-pong. I do believe that it may be easier to maintain weight and fitness once you are at a lighter weight and higher fitness level. The problem comes when you let those slip too far.</p>
<p>In fact, I’m approaching the point in time when I have the opposite problem and will need to increase my calories to maintain my weight. I’m not exactly sure how I will do that because the way I eat now is the way I eat. I’m not standing in the kitchen desperate to eat something. I’m already allowing myself some splurges. I have a frozen Italian ice cup (pure sugar carbs, 100 calories) every night for a midnight snack. I’ve been going through boxes of tangerines like there is no tomorrow. I have a jar of dry roasted peanuts on the shelf in the pantry (training myself to have five or ten nuts, because the first handful tastes the best anyway!). I couldn’t eat larger portions. I would be hard pressed to eat more meat or cook with more fat. My salads are just ridiculous.</p>
<p>I really don’t want to get back into the habit of buying pure junk food like Doritos or sour gummy worms. That ends up being just mindless binge eating and I don’t have the ability to stop.</p>
<p>I suppose I’ll probably add some carbs back, with the occasional pizza or pasta or baked potato for dinner. Maybe do a few more special treat meals like tempura shrimp or beer batter haddock. But, I’m like you. When I did the fried haddock as a splurge recently, I felt sick at the portion size, so my capacity to utterly pig out has definitey changed.</p>
<p>Actually, they found rather surprising compliance for the 2 month period when they were working in weekly classes with the dietician. For example, at the two month mark:</p>
<p>Atkins group (ultra low carb diet):</p>
<p>18% carbs
28% protein
54% fat</p>
<p>ORNISH group (ultra low fat diet):</p>
<p>63% carbs
17% protein
21% fat</p>
<p>At that 2 month mark, the low fat group had lost an average of 5.5 pounds. The lo-carb group had lost an average of 9.5 pounds. 9.5 pounds in 8 weeks is pretty significant weight loss for a group of 25 to 45 year old women. Not as impressive as Alwyn and Rachel Cosgrove get with their program at Results Fitness, but nearly 10 pounds of weight loss for a group that started at a baseline average of 187 pounds is nothing to sneeze at. That’s over a pound a week.</p>
<p>Yeah. I had dropped 20 pounds or so back in the 90’s with a low carb diet. Weight came off quickly and easily. I put it back on (and a whole lot more) when I started eating Doritos and red twizzlers and drinking Coke and sugar Snapple and fruit juices and eating pasta again. If I went back to consuming ridiculous quantities of carbs tomorrow, I’m sure that I would put weight back on very quickly.</p>
<p>We have free pizza in the office on Fridays. Back in the 1990s, we had free dinners too.</p>
<p>I imagine that there are some high-tech companies that have stuff like free doritos, chips and peanuts. I certainly know of companies with free beer.</p>
<p>We have an avid baker at my company who was diagnosed with gluten intolerance. She disposes of her gluten-containing baking supplies by making huge batches of sweets and placing them in the company’s kitchen. Thank goodness I cannot eat more than a few bites.</p>
<p>But the year (or whatever) later results found little additional progress on the fat loss, and regression in terms of compliance to the diets (e.g. the carb percentage increased in the Atkins group, and the fat percentage increased in the Ornish group). Also, 21% fat is still greater than the 10% target for Ornish, and 18% carbs may not be low enough to get to ketosis as targeted by Atkins.</p>
<p>Of course, there could also be underreporting of fat/carbs/calories and overreporting exercise, because if the participants were actually eating as low calorie and exercising as reported, they should have been rapidly losing (even on their pre-diet original reported consumption).</p>
<p>I think that it’s easier if you have a support group and I have one at the office and virtually. The support group in the office can actually see me so they know if I’m going up or down. All we can do here is guess around the smiley face.</p>
<p>There’s a woman in my office whom I’ve nicknamed the “office wife.” She makes cake or cupcakes for everyone’s birthday, lights the candles, etc. I keep thinking I’m back in elementary school.</p>
<p>You’re gonna laugh, but I’m serious. Try zinc oxide. Put them on your blisters and it will help dry them up. You’ll laugh because I’m telling you to go buy diaper rash cream I have some here somewhere and really should keep some in my kit for work. It’s a trick that was passed down to me…</p>
H’s company went for years supplying bagels and cream cheese every single morning, with donuts as the alternative on Fridays. It didn’t seem to affect the twenty-somethings, but he found he just needed to go cold turkey and quit eating them. The recession killed that one, but I don’t think it is a loss. They do have really subsidized soda (quarter a can?) but also stock the fridge with cans of sparking water for free.
<p>Another missed workout today. Still just enough of this inner ear vertigo to feel a touch queasy/unsettled with motion. Figured that discretion is the better part of valor, here. Take a couple of days off. I think I’ve put a few workouts in the bank. It’s not like an injury where I could hurt myself, but it is really unpleasant to be moving around a lot. Hard to get fired up knowing that you are going to get dizzy every time you bend over to pick up dumbbells. These workouts are hard enough on a good day.</p>
<p>Workinprogress:</p>
<p>I tried the maneuver you linked. Wow. I sure figured out which ear is causing the problem! Nothing from doing it on one side. On the other side, if I had hadn’t already been lying on the bed, I would have gone down with an immediate faceplant as the whole room instantly started spinning violently! I might have dislodged the wayward crystals, though. I did the manuever again a couple hours later on that side and almost nothing. I’ll give it a third go a little later. Thanks for the tip. The version you linked is easier than the standard version to do solo. I’ve bookmarked the site for reference. Very helpful.</p>
<p>idad, no need for heroism here. We all get various problems from time to time. That’s why I work out religiously three times a week – because at some point I won’t be able to, for whatever reason (plantar fasciitis, anyone?). You’re in terrific shape and waiting a few more days won’t set you back at all.</p>
<p>Yeah. That’s the way I look at it. I’m glad I got a walk in yesterday. And, the dumbbells will still be there after a few days off.</p>
<hr>
<p>I am really testing the Gary Taubes nutrition theories today. First cheese omelet I’ve had in probably a year. Protein is low because I had Paul Prudhomme’s South Miami Cuban Stew for dinner. More of beef stew kind of thing, so not a big portion of meat protein. The omelet was a nice balance or my protein would have been very low.</p>
<p>Ran two miles and did a bit of weights. I was planning on skipping the workout today but had a little spare time and did a short run. I’m glad I did - I had a work conversation with a former manager where I picked up some information that I normally wouldn’t have had access too.</p>
<p>There’s a cold or flu going around. My daughter was really dragging this morning. I went to bed around 7:30 this evening and just woke up 3.5 hours later (now). So I might be sick or not. I got called for tennis on Sundays for the rest of April and also got called for tennis tomorrow so I hope that I’m better in the morning.</p>
<p>Yes, idad, I think your dumbbells are very thankful that you let them rest a bit. They’ve been getting vertigo from being thrown around by you! Just kidding. Enjoy your days off.</p>
<p>We had what might have been the best day of the year so far: upper 50s, no wind, calm and sunny. I hope the rain does not return until late Saturday, because I have huge plans. My Garmin arrived, and I’m itching to test it on the trail.</p>
I have some here somewhere and really should keep some in my kit for work. It’s a trick that was passed down to me…</p>