It's not an "after" pic if it's not over.

Hey friends;

I thought I should make a visual post of my progress, for your viewing pleasure:



Yes, that was me just a few short months ago.  Yikes.

That's about it for today, not much to describe here.

-P

Everyone's an expert.

I made the mistake of commenting in a social forum (Reddit) on a post about a guy eating a Twinkie-only diet to prove that calorie deficit is the key to weight loss.

First off, let me get something off my chest about this (as I was blasted for saying this in the forum), malnutrition causes weight loss.  There.  Eating nothing but sugar and starch for a month doesn't prove calorie deficit any more than it proves that existing on pure garbage will provide nothing for your body to work with.  The fact is that this guy's body was probably burning up muscle and water in place of proper nutrients.
Bottom line, fuck that guy.

Which brings me to my gripe.

"What?  He's griping?  I've never heard him gripe!" you're probably exclaiming.

It's true.  I have a gripe.

Every time I talk about lifestyle changes and weight loss in the public realm, some militant motherfucker jumps in to tell me that I'm miscalculating my calories and am, in fact eating less.  This person tells me that thermodynamics dictates that you cannot lose weight without eating fewer calories.  This person tells me that a soy-latte-enema is the only way to lose any weight.
The point is that this person is a giant asshole and has nothing better to do with his/her day than nay say everything a person does to lose weight because it's not their way to lose weight.  I find the world of health and diet to be chock full of zealous people just waiting to tell everyone else that they're wrong.  Two posts ago I mentioned a few types within this group.  The internet expert is the other one.  Fuck that guy.

Anyway, I don't feel like going much further into this as I probably have some damage control to do over at Reddit.  Hope you guys are having a fantastic day and are not jumping up people's asses about their diet!

Cheers!

"The only two certainties in life are barf and Texas."

I just returned from a trip to TX to visit the in-laws.
Here's how it went down:

Day one: Got there late-afternoon, hang out, bought beer and whiskey.  Brother-in-law and I proceeded to annihilate 20 beers and a fifth of Jack.

Day two: Dead to rights until about 4pm.  Built a grill and had a BBQ.  Contracted stomach flu, vomited profusely every 20 minutes starting at midnight.

Day three: Woke up at 1pm, stomach still a mess but not vomiting.  Spent rest of day on couch. Dinner consisted of soup.  Slept.

Day four: Finally feeling good enough to move (but not great), went to Abilene to enjoy a lunch consisting of Chinese buffet.  Bad idea.  Next hour in bathroom.  Felt a little better.  Went to BBQ at brother-in-law's mother-in-law's house.  Good food, but still a bit unsettled due to contracting stomach flu after eating BBQ two days earlier.  Drank a beer.  Difficulty getting to sleep.

Day five: Drove home, tired but finally feeling good for the first time.

Now I'm at work and I feel like a million bucks.  My body never wants me to enjoy vacations I guess.
Oh, and the real kicker is I didn't lose any weight.  You'd think I could have puked a pound away in all that.

Fuck you, body.

Skinny and fat advice.

Skinny people never have good weight-loss advice.  They typically, at worst, have had no more than a few to a  dozen pounds to lose at any point in their lives.  When you're in that weight zone, you have no perspective on what it's like to try and haul an extra 50+ pounds around while you beat yourself up to lose weight.  No offense, but fuck your advice.
This goes doubly for the mesomorphs of this world.  You were genetically engineered to be in shape, and your working out only enhances what you already have.  Taking advice from these guys (and most personal trainers are these guys), is like driving around in a minivan and being told by a guy behind the wheel of a Porsche to just "give it more gas".  No thanks, we can't change the car our parents bought us.  We can only modify it.

"Yes, the racing stripe does make it faster"

I know some of you may be thinking that I'm being judgmental and jumping to conclusions with these groups of people, but that puts you in a category I like to call "Overthinkers".

Which brings me to the next group I can't stand the advice of.

My negative, know-it-all fat friends.
Disclaimer: I am not saying all fat people are know-it-alls or negative.  I'm saying I have a few fat friends who carry those traits with a vengeance.  And the reason I even bother with the word "fat" here is that none of my non-fat friends are like this.
The worst one, by far, is the friend who constantly scrutinizes my progress.  When I dropped the first ten pounds (way before this blog), I posted how excited I was to have lost ten pounds in a week based on the books I read, and she was the first to comment.  It was something to the effect of "Eh, it's just water weight.  You can't lose weight without cutting calories and exercise."
Well, negative Nancy, I've lost at least 35 pounds now, most of it in the first month, and if anything I've actually gotten lazier.  (Another disclaimer: I'm not being lazy on purpose, I've just gotten too into lazy activities recently.  Exercise is good for the heart and body *the more you know*)
I don't count my calories, but I know for a fact that I am well over 2000 per day, likely in the 3000 range.
So, to that I say: "Nanny nanny boo boo, fuck off."
I know, I know.  I'm being a dick.  But that's the thing.  I find it incredibly dickheaded to bother saying negative things when someone is obviously trying to accomplish something.  Say all the negative crap you want when I harp on and on about social issues or politics, but for the love of Odin, this is one of those "if you don't have anything nice to say..." situations.  Feel free to debate me on the details of my lifestyle and such, but if I'm just having a moment of triumph, for fuck's sake, leave the jealous crap at home.
Another friend of mine messaged me to tell me that he was upset that I'm promoting this kind of diet, and that he "heard that it can kill you".  First off, I've kept the details of my diet (which isn't really a diet, so much as it's not eating certain things as a rule) fairly shrouded.  Like I've mentioned before, I'd recommend you either seek proper advice on how to do it, or at least buy a book that can get you on the right track.  If anything, I'd only recommend cutting back on carbs, but I can't speak for the overall scope of one's diet because I'm what the experts like to call "not an expert".  My gripe here is that I'm being told that my diet is dangerous by someone who, if he doesn't do anything about it, will likely develop health problems because of his diet.  Maybe there are some risks in what I'm doing, but I also take care to be very aware of how I feel from day to day.  I'm very alert to any potential diet-related complications as I can be a bit of a hypochondriac sometimes.  It's not that I'm crazy, it's that I'm trying to live forever.

Anyway, I think that's going to wrap up my rant for today.  I suppose I should have made this the "Angry Fat Guy Experiment", but I didn't, cause fuck you.

I kid.  Have a wonderful day!

-P

For some extra perspective, check out the following exerpt: #2. We're Hard-Wired to Have a Double Standard (link opens in a new window)

Drum roll please...

I know this number isn't much lower than the last one, but as I mentioned, I plateaued a bit this week.  Now, the plus side is I'm down a LOT of inches overall.

I know, i should have given my scale a wipedown.

You get the point.

-P

Nothing tastes as good as being a smug, skinny asshole feels.

"Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels"

Bullshit.  Skinny isn't a measurement of health, therefore skinny doesn't "feel" like anything.  Terminally ill people are skinny.  Starving people in Africa are skinny.  Stupid phrases like this are just ignorant and pointless.  They don't motivate, they demean.

You know what feels good?  Feeling good about yourself.  Did you know that there are a lot of miserable skinny assholes in this world?  It's true.  I also happen to know some very happy fat people.  Hell, I'm cynical, but I'm happy.

So, next time you feel tempted to say something to motivate a person to lose weight, maybe you should just stick to something realistic and not so fucking smug.

Cheers!
-P

Every ten pounds..

I'm fairly certain I'm going to get stuck every ten pounds or so.  I'm positive that I've lost many inches as I'm fitting into much smaller clothes this week, but I've began hovering again, this time right around the 250 mark.

Now, I know it's not good to obsessively weight yourself, but A) I like to, and B) It helps me see what my variations are.  If I notice a particular fluctuation from one day to another, I can pinpoint the foods/behaviors that may be the culprit, rather than do something for days/weeks at a time and not understand the effect on weight.

On a big plus side, my fancy new scale does read body fat and hydration, which makes it a LOT easier to see what I'm losing and how much of my weight is excess water.