bluebunny27's Daily Check In

[bluebunny27]

Ok, I guess it could be a good idea to start a daily check in.

Just to make sure I am being goooooooooood of course.

I find this all very easy at the moment ... it's strange that just one week ago it seemed quite hard and this week I am living like a monk and loving it too, I'm not even struggling to be good, something's not right !! (Ok, maybe not as good as a monk, but pretty close !)

May 14th 2009 :

I won't write what I had for breakfast, lunch or dinner precisely ... since that could get quite repetitive. Later I'll post a list of what I usually eat ... it's all on one plate though.

It's all written down so there's less chance of cheating, I only eat what has been written down on the lil' piece of paper I carry in my pocket daily, what'll be eating and when ... I adjust this depending on what's going on, if I am hungry I may eat 15-30 minutes early or later ... it's not written in stone (I make a new paper each evening for the following day) It's based on my master list of food choices, I have this in the computer, a list of food items that are good for me and I pick and choose among those daily.

I try to have food from all the food groups at all my meals .... oh and I was planning on making some yogurt tomorrow probably since I am almost out of my first batch. I'll probably make more at once, so I only have to make yogurt once a week on average.

I have plain yogurt daily, not a huge quantity each time but that adds up, hence why I wanted to start making my yogurt int he 1st place ... plus I know what's in it better. I like this new project plus it's pretty simple to make it yourself, takes 20-25 minutes total, apart from the 7 hours' waiting time of course

I plan on exercising in the early evening tonight, it'll be totally inside the house today since it's raining ... I can't cycle outside. Probably an hour's worth of shovelglove mixed with various cardio and calisthenics exercises.

I have had some back pains recently too, nothing too bad but I hadn't had those in a while ... I put some special cream to treat this ... it's on my back, lower right, supposed to be good ...

Yesterday I was at the grocery store and I bought some chocolate covered peanuts, which I love ... I put the big bag in the cupboard, as a treat I can have sometimes, a few here and there, not too often ...

In the old days I would have eaten the whole bag in 2-3 days probably ... how many did I have this time ??

None.

Bag's still unopened. Wink

A bag last that could last me months probably. Having only a few peanuts once or twice a week. It's a treat, not a meal.

Cheers !

Marc

[Nichole]

It's all written down so there's less chance of cheating, I only eat what has been written down on the lil' piece of paper I carry in my pocket daily, what'll be eating and when ...

That's a great idea!!! I know it's silly but I really want to lose 5 lbs. My clothes are a little uncomfortable and if I could just find a way to be 5-10 lbs less I would be so much more comfortable. I look forward to reading your check in!

[bluebunny27]

Hey, thanks Nichole !

5-10 pounds shouldn't be too complicated ! You can even split it if you want. Lose 2 pounds per month and in 5 months you are done.

My tip, (if you are eating well already), add 10 minutes of intense exercises 6 days a week, and then you are done.
You'll lose those 10 pounds for sure.

Anything that gets you moving is good, 120-140 beats per minute, depending on your age. I do cycling and also calisthenics, especially jumping jacks, you can even use a hula hoop or a jump rope if you fancy those and you have the ... huh ... coordination ! Good cardio work out, the trick is to be intense for 10 minutes, that's more effective than working out slowly for 20-25 minutes straight.

If you work or live in a tall building you can even use the stairs to exercise ... I wish I would live next to the Empire state building so I could climb it daily ... using the stairs ... and then going back down in the elevator would feel
niiiiiiice ! Maybe I'd start with the first 30 floors ... than gradually going higher and higher, until I reach the top something like that !

Cheers !

Marc

[Nichole]

I already exercise quite a bit... About 30-40 minutes about 5 days per week, plus free weights, etc. I suspect that 1) my body is used to the exercise bike, despite the way I push myself and 2) I'm eating equal calories to what I put out. I just ordered a Jillian Michaels DVD which is supposed to be intense! We'll see where it takes me. And I'm trying to cut down on some calories. On Monday I switched with coffee with cream to unsweetened tea - that saves about 200 cals right there!

[bluebunny27]

Oh nice ! Yeah, the cream out of the picture, that's what gives you the edge you need ... 200cal per day, 30 days, 6,000 calories ... there's your 2 pounds per month down
you needed,

Remember that an intense work out is always better though, even if it's shorter. You are already close to your ideal weight, so only minor changes are required probably.
Just a few tweaks here and there should get you there slowly but surely.

Jillian is really intense ... but she is a great trainer, it'd be a pleasure to have her yell at me, huuuum ! I never trained using one of those videos but anything that gets you moving is great.

Cheers !

Marc

[Nichole]

I like your take on exercise! I have a lot of hobbies and I make dinner from scratch every night so I look forward to trying out Jillian's 20 minute routines which will give me more time to myself. I'm skeptical b/c I hear that you should work at least 30-45 minutes a day.. will 20 be enough? I guess I'll find out. Maybe tonight I'll try an intense 15 minutes on the bike as opposed to the slow-fast-slow-fast routine that I've been doing lately.

[bluebunny27]

Oh, you do intervals ?? Awesome !! What I do is I cycle as hard as I can (well, 85-90% of the intensity I would have if a tiger was after me !) for 15 seconds and then I slow down to a 35% intensity for 35 seconds ... I do this for 35 minutes, taking a one minute break every 8 minutes ...

so it's :

8-1-8-1-8-1-8 = 35 total ... Intervals are terrific for the cardio, it's much harder to do that than to cycle at 50% of your maximum for the same amount of time, or even twice as long ... Intervals, that's the key, but you have to be really intense to do this, it's really hard ... a few times doing this I was almost throwing up, especially cycling against a strong wind.

I have my mp3 player with songs I put together ...

The first song plays for 15 seconds, the 2nd for 35 seconds, and so on for 35 minutes ... I cut the 15 seconds and 35 seconds myself and then put them all together on the pc alternating the 15's and 35's ... you see. When I cycle, my mp3 player plays the montage and I know when I'm supposed to cycle at 85-90% and when I can slow down to 35-40%

I have been doing intervals successfully for a long time, I was doing that for months before I even knew what interval training was actually ... I researched this later and got the tip about the mp3 montage to help train like this withougt having to look at a timer while cycling.

Cheers !

Marc

[Nichole]

Yeah that's kind of what I do too! I push really hard for about 30 seconds, then slow down for a minute or so, then I go really fast again (usually like 115 rpm or something). I was telling my brother in law this and he goes "oh interval training, that's good!" I always forget it's called interval training lol.

[bluebunny27]

My weight chart :

11-1-2008 280.0
12-1-2008 266.0 ( Nov. 2008 Down 14.0 )
1-1-2009 254.0 ( Dec. 2008 Down 12.0 )
1-13-2009 250.0
2-1-2009 244.0 ( Jan. 2009 Down 10.0 )
2-19-2009 237.8
3-1-2009 234.0 ( Feb. 2009 Down 10.0 )
3-14-2009 232.2
4-1-2009 229.8 ( March 2009 Down 4.2 )
4-14-2009 224.8
5-01-2009 221.6 ( April 2009 Down 8.2 )

...

My new objective for may 2009 : I'd be happy to lose anywhere between 6 and 7 pounds this month.

...

Green day, I followed my diet closely.
Yellow day, I may have added something extra.
Red day, I was bad. My goal is to limit those to 2 or 3 max. per month and especially not to have 2 red days in a row.

I have this SpreadPro file I made for myself on the Pc (Same as Excel) Anyway, I calculate my degree of compliance to my Habit(s) A green day is worth one point, a yellow day is worth 0.6 point (For me a yellow day is still a productive one, I made some effort, I just had an extra bagel in the evening, something like that, or I only exercised for 35 minutes instead of 65) and a red day is worth nothing ...
I enter the numbers of green, yellow and red days in the SpreadPro file and it calculates my compliance for me,
10 greens + 4 yellows + 1 red = 10 X 1 + 4 X 0.6 + 0 = 12.4
12.4 units out of 15 days : 82.7% Which is good. (My own standard is to have a degree of compliance over 80% both for the training and the diet, this has worked out for me so far ... I update my chart once in a while to make sure I don't fall below 80% on those Habits.


5-01-2009 Green
5-02-2009 Yellow
5-03-2009 Green
5-04-2009 Green
5-05-2009 Yellow
5-06-2009 Yellow
5-07-2009 Green
5-08-2009 Green
5-09-2009 Red
5-10-2009 Green
5-11-2009 Green
5-12-2009 Yellow
5-13-2009 Green
5-14-2009 Green
5-15-2009 Green


Future weigh in dates and objectives (Subject to multiple changes depending how it goes !)


5-01-2009 221.6
5-05-2009 220.6 ( Down 1.0 )
5-08-2009 220.6 ( Even Steven )
5-12-2009 219.6 ( Down 1.0 )
5-15-2009 217.8 ( Down 1.8 )



****** This morning It was time for an unofficial weigh in apparently ... and I knew I had been good but I didn't think I had been *THAT* good. Down 1.8 Pounds today just 3 days
after my last weigh in ... I have been training hard 3 days
in a row and also being really careful with my diet, unbelievable. I was sweating bullets for an hour last night in the early evening and feeling good about it too. I'll change my initial May objective based on this result, 5 to 6 pounds was good but I think I'll aim for 6 to 7 pounds after all since I've been doing quite well, better than expected. I'll probably do that from time to time, have an unofficial weigh in, no objective, just to see what's happenin', it'll be optional and I can have one whenever I feel like it, no rules to follow. Plus the good news motivates me to keep on going as well, moral booster. Updated objectives below.


5-18-2009 217.4 ( Objective )
5-24-2009 216.4 ( Objective )
5-29-2009 215.4 ( Objective )
6-01-2009 215.0 ( Objective )

...


Another solid day of exercise planned. Shovelglove and jumping jacks this morning, 30 minutes and cycling in the early evening as usual, 35 minutes. Total, 65 minutes. Sticking with my diet as usual.

Typical day for me.


Typical Breakfast this morning.

- Fibre cereal, small bowl. Mixed with a few small handfuls of unsalted nuts : Peanuts, sunflower seeds, soy nuts. 2% Milk. One hard boiled egg and a whole wheat toast, bit of mayo on the egg, chickpeas. Raw cucumber, carrot and celery mixed together. (The Big 3)

I used to have a plain yogurt with my breakfast (with 1/2 an apple) but now I save it and I can have it whenever I want. Helps me to control my cravings. It's not pure No S, it's like a snack but it helps me a lot and I have been doing great since doing that, april and may have been quite nice so far. I was struggling more in march when I was not saving some of the food for later thing. It helps me to avoid cheating excessively if I get REALLY hungry. I only had one red day in over 3 weeks now, been quite good and focused.

Cheers !

Marc

[~reneew]

I just wanted to stop in to say hi and to tell you that I can't wait to make oil-free popcorn tomorrow! Imagine that!

[bluebunny27]

Hum, popcorn !! Careful, if the *POT* is *HOT* !!

I have a lil' bit of plain pop corn 4-5 times a week probably.

It hasn't hurt me at all as you can see from my updated weight chart. Hardly any calories and it fills you up nicely, especially if you drink a couple of glasses of water while eating it.

Oh, I'm making a big *POT* of plain yogurt today too ...
For some reason I like saying the word *POT* today .. sorry !!
I started it up earlier today, it should be ready in approx.
4 hours. I made 1.3 L, ( 44 oz ) It should last me a week or even a lil' bit more this time ... I hope it turns out good, I think this batch will be a pretty standard one too, I should make about that much every week to 10 days, in similar conditions, except for a few minor changes.

Cheers !

Marc

[bluebunny27]

Ok, not a lot of time today. 5-16

Guests are expected later ... so my plan for the day is to avoid a red day basically. Guests often make it harder cos' there's more food available, people drink a bit of wine and beer, that sort of thing. It's easier to follow a diet and exercise routine when you live like a HERMIT, I suppose !

I'll only train half of a typical day today, 35 minutes.

I'll go cycling really soon actually since rain is expected in the afternoon. I'll go cycling around 10:45am for that reason.
(I check closely the weather predictions now, even the satellite radar image of the area so I can go cycle ahead of the expected rain, planning it in advance, etc.)

I have 2 good sources for the predictions and one radar satellite site that tells me in real time what's goin' on in the sky.

Cheers !

Marc

[Nichole]

You make an interesting point about hermit-ism! Did you know people with eating disorders, one of the sure-signs is isolation?? I'm just pointing out that your observation actually has basis in fact!

I'm also socializing today.. my hubby's work bowling get-together. There is sure to be pizza and beer -- eek!!! I want no part of the beer and pizza... I will be wishing both of us luck!

[~reneew]

I had popcorn for breakfast!

[mimi]

I'm having it tonight for an S! I wrote it down on my piece of paper this morning Marc, and so far, I haven't eaten anything that wasn't on my list for today!
Mimi

[bluebunny27]

Good work, Mimi. You rock n' roll !

Actually I'll have a topsy turvy day today, my whole day is upside down and inside out ... I'm cycling in the morning to avoid the rain (it started raining an hour after I got back, thanks to the radar, I had time to exercise as usual.)

All this before breakfast, but I still had some fruit before exercising ... too late for breakfast so I have a light lunch instead and now I don't know when I'll have my dinner ... no more exercises today either since guests will arrive in 2 hours. I have nothing on my usual piece of paper since this is certainly not a typical day.

I'll work hard to avoid a RED day though (even if I could really have one and not suffer too much since I have been really good this past week and the scale reflects that too ... I've been ahead of my weight objectives a couple of times in a row ... I'll still try hard to be good though, I'll eat some plain pop corn and drink plenty of water.

I was just having some of the plain yogurt I made yesterday, it was really good ! Surprising how easy it is to make and it looks and tastes awesome too. This batch was pretty standard too, probably similar to the ones I'll make from now on, 2 small 650g. containers seems fine. I changed a bit the set up this time and let it sit for 7 and a half hours unlike the first time where I only did 7 hours. I think I'll go back to 7 hours next time, maybe even 6 and a half, (possibly adding a bit more heat) Experimenting to find out what gives me the best result. Minor changes required but the basic set up will remain the same, 90% of it is working great now. It seems pretty hard to mess it up, a lot less complicated than beer where a small mistake can ruin hours of work. Yogurt, you work only for 30 minutes top and then you can sit back for 7 hours straight, hardly any work required after the first 30 minutes. I'll make some once a week probably so I don't run out.

I eat a lot more dairy products now, I used to hardly eat any milk or yogurt, I would have a lil' bit from time to time, not much ... since I started dieting I have milk and yogurt every day, oatmeal or cereals, unsalted nuts, vegetables and fruits too ... I eat less bread, meat, sweets (I rarely have desserts now) A lil' bit from time to time ... I,ve even cut down nearly 50% on the beer & wine.

I was even checking out how to make KEFIR, a yogurt-y product they often have in Turkey, supposed to be really good for you. This costs an arm and a leg at the grocery store, 4$ for a small kefir container, but you can make it at home pretty easily if you get a connection to find the live kefir grain ... trying to locate a canadian connection now ! Apparently the grains last a life time (more or less) The live grains multiply ... so for 15-20$ you can make kefir at home using ordinary 2% milk. No heating required, this seems super simple ... you just leave the *POT* at room temperature for 24-36 hours with the milk and the grains mixed together inside. Then put it in the fridge until the next batch, you separate the grains and the milk with a strainer. Mad scientist !! Beer, Yogurt and maybe ... kefir ???

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kefir

Good luck y'all, Nichole, Mimi and Renee.

Cheers !

Marc

[bluebunny27]

May 16th, 11:59pm.

I Made it through the 16th pretty well. Counted as a yellow but at least it was not a Red day. I was so good I could almost count this as a green day actually, if it was not for the dessert I had along with a few lil' things here and there but nothing major. Much better than anticipated. I was running scared all night long fearing bad food would be served, I mean greasy/salty/sweet stuff with a lot of calories of course.

Most people had 3 or 4 glasses of wine. I only had one glass, then I was drinking water. I was feeling good cos' I had a new black sweater on and it's kind of tight, so it was 100% clear I had lost a lot of weight : 63 pounds in 6 and a half months ... hard not to tell probably, lol !

Few appetizers before dinner, mostly healthy things too, that was a relief to see a plate of veggies, I was going easy on the dip ... and some lil' bread sticks with tomato sauce on top, herbs. I wasn't goin' nutz seeing a plate of bad things I have trouble handling.

No seconds during dinner either and there wasn't a lot of sauce on the meat, which was good, it was a pretty light dinner actually ... a rare dessert for me : Vanilla ice cream with raspberry sauce and crumbled cookies, not a huge quantity, it was served in a glass. In the old days I would have had seconds of everything there. I could have eaten twice as much food all night long.

I am happy I made it through and it wasn't even that hard in fact, I was pretty solid and drinking water to make sure I'd remain steady. I was dodging bullets a few times, like in that MATRIX movie. People were throwing cookies at me, other naughty things but I was dodging, micro-biting and drinking water, lol !

Ok, it wasn't that extreme but I was resisting and even using one of my tricks, micro-bites ... I had a few lil' crumbles from the cookies instead of eating a handful as I would have done in the past. I was like a deer in the headlights all night long so I am tired now.

....


May 17th.

I'll be babysitting my lil' nephew all day long. I'll try to exercise, again, most likely it'll only be a yellow day since I am not 100% free to do whatever I want during the day, I have to watch over him at all times.

A yellow would still be good, 35 minutes of exercise around 9-10pm, when the lil' boy is sleeping ... I'll see how I feel, maybe the whole 65 minutes or just 35, I have the programs already written down on the pc, so I copy and paste what I plan on doing into a text file and then I follow the recipe I've chosen.

I'll try to be green on the diet as well ... but I take it one day at a time. I was proud because I was strong tonight, 5/16 and didn't cheat really too much compared to a green day, still worth a green-ish yellow though.

Cheers !

Marc

[bluebunny27]

My new objective for may 2009 : I'd be happy to lose anywhere between 5 and 6 pounds this month.

...

Future weigh in dates and objectives (Subject to multiple changes depending how it goes !)


5-01-2009 221.6
5-05-2009 220.6 ( Down 1.0 )
5-08-2009 220.6 ( Even Steven )
5-12-2009 219.6 ( Down 1.0 )
5-15-2009 217.8 ( Down 1.8 )
5-18-2009 218.4 ( Up 0.6 )


**** Well, I had a really bad day on Sunday, I knew a red day was imminent since I had had a very stressful saturday where I was dodging bullets left and right, barely making it and feeling stressed out for hours in a row and sunday was basically the same thing except for an even longer period of time. Again I was in a pressure cooker all day long babysitting my nephew and then other things happened that annoyed me, oh well ... I managed to make it green until about 6pm but then I had a bad evening, stress that lead to emotional eating. I basically got tired of dodging bullets and a few definitely got me this time, I am not down and out though, I'll crawl back from the GUTTER soon. I failed tonight, big deal. I don't feel too depressed even if I ate bad food excessively and then I was too tired to exercise after running all day long looking after my lil' nephew and not eating properly in the evening ... I'll try to be good 2-3 days in a row to make up for this but now I went back to my original objective for the month of may, 5 to 6 pounds down would be nice, I was really putting too much pressure on myself, especially so close to my main objective, 195 by nov. 1st ... I am not too depressed though, I think this is pretty much the usual for me. Seems like it happens every month, there's a period or two during the month where I struggle to make it, a few days here and there that are tougher ... usually 2-3 days in a row ... it doesn't hurt me in the long run cos' then I get right back on the horse soon. It pisses me off that this red day happened just the evening before a weigh in, 3 days' worth of hard work basically ruined. It's positive that it happened mid may this time so I have plenty of time to recover before the end of the month unlike in april where I had a tough time closer to the end ... 24-27 ... ;-(


5-24-2009 217.4 ( Objective )
5-29-2009 216.4 ( Objective )
6-01-2009 216.0 ( Objective )



Side note, I'll add a lil' bit of lemon juice daily to my diet from now on, I read today it's supposed to be a good idea to do that ... you add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to a tall glass of water and then you drink it.

Also I will definitely start making KEFIR but it'll have to wait a lil' bit. I found a nice CANADIAN CONNECTION for the precious milk kefir grains but the lady is now away on vacation until june 20th, I'll only get my grains when she gets back. The cost is low, 5 to 10$ to get what is required, the dehydated milk kefir grains ... (They can last a lifetime if you are careful !)

I was reading on this extensively today, it should be all good and apparently quite easy to make as well ... It's supposed to be even better than yogurt for you actually. The savings will be huge on this too, a small container of kefir, 25% smaller than a typical yogurt container, costs even more than the price of yogurt so if I drink 2 cups/small glasses of kefir per day eventually I'll save about 2-3$ per day, something like that, pretty significant savings there.

Takes 10 minutes a day to make your own kefir, even easier than yogurt ... no heat required either for the milk or the incubation, everything is done at room temperature so it's really easy. You can sit on the couch, kickin' it, while the kefir is produced in the cupboard.

I'll perfect my yogurt making method until june 20th and then I can get ready with the kefir 'production' ... I'll probably keep on making those 2 items myself long term.

Update 2 : I found 2 other canadian citizens who can get me some milk kefir grains, so I'll probably be able to make it within 10-12 days instead of having to wait until late june ...


Cheers !

Marc

[~reneew]

So, I guess you're a monk today and tomorrow, huh? Yea, after my weekend I'm like a nun, kinda! I gained more than you though. Ever since I got that new scale and it showed up 3-5 more pounds, my mind is messed up and I feel de-railed. I'm trying to regroup my thoughts

I do the lemon juice in my water and drink it all day long... Mostly to cover up the chlorine. I do add a tad of sweetener, especially when I add too much lemon. If you get bored of it, try lime. It's even better, especially keylime!!!

I keep changing colors today, I'm avoiding weeding my humongous garden!!!

[bluebunny27]

Yes, monk life will be required for 2-3 days straight ... well, except for today, really ... I can't really be a monk today, I'll start tomorrow. I already know today will be a 'yellow' for me since I am going out with some people tonight and we'll have beers, wine, that sort of thing .... I should be mostly good though. Also, since I am still watching over my nephew, I can't go cycle as I would normally do.

I am too hard on myself perhaps, I am closer and closer to my goal and then I feel bad because I cheat a lil' bit one evening ... gaining a pound and a half ... geesh ! half of that extra weight is going to be history within a couple of days anyway, it's not turning into pure blubber overnight.

I didn't do too much damage yesterday actually. I had been quite good before that so my slip up has not hurt me too much, just a bit over where I was thinking I would be ...

I'll start working harder on tuesday, 2-3 days should be enough to go back to the 217's - maybe even the 216's by the 24th ... There's water weight most likely since I had salty things late last night too.

Yesterday I was browsing through a book on nutrition and healthy lifestyle habits I borrowed from the library ... picked up a few tips and things to research as well ... they mentioned 2 tbsp of lemon juice in a water glass daily is good for you. Lime ?? You put the lime in the coconut, then you feel better !!! yeah !!!

Cheers !

Marc

[~reneew]

I had pinacoladas Saturday... that's a far cry from lime water. I really shouldn't do that because they are the highest calorie drink aren't they? ... but they're good!

[~reneew]

Are you still a monk? I think I'm back on track! I have to get to 21 and I'm close!

[bluebunny27]

Yeah, I entered the monastery this morning ... swell place !!
Living in seclusion, hum, that's so nice and good for the diet too !

Yeah, this is my first day back to normal really ... I had 3 or 4 unusual days in a row, caused some minor damages and I was quite stressed too. Nothing that 2-3 very green days in a row can't fix fortunately. It's nice to watch over my lil' nephew but it makes it harder to follow my habits, I can't train as I normally do and then by the time I want to do it late at night I am tired after running after him all day long, lol ! Watching over lil' kids is definitely hard !! I only have
1 to watch and I'm tired by the end of the day, geesh ! It's nice going to the park with him though, they have places for kids to play. I like to go there and chat with the cute single moms while the kidz are playin' too,

Today should be a typical green day for me.
Dieting and exercising for 65 minutes total.

Shovelglove and Jumping jacks : 30 minutes.
Cycling : 35 minutes.

Cheers !

Marc

[~reneew]

Ha, Marc! That's only 1 kid! Try 4! The hardest part is getting food and snacks for little ones and not having any yourself. My youngest is 7 and I can finally tell him to get his own. Luckily he loves fruit and a simple slice of bread with nothing on it. yum? Talkin' to the cute single moms...ha! Little kids attract people who come up and talk to you. They're kind of a conversation starter. Dogs do that too.

[mimi]

Way to get back in the GREEN groove Monk Marc! Hey, I hang out with 12 year olds every day - try that for awhile, ha!! It's a wonder I have any mind left at all!
Mimi

[bluebunny27]

Yeah, I don't know what I would do with 3-4-5 kids at once,
lol ! Even handling just one, I have to take naps in the early evening after dinner ... exhausted !

Good thing the lil' boy likes cartoons, he's 8 and a half years old so he loves anything that is animated ... this way I can nap for a while ... He also likes programs with animals, documentaries on Discovery or National Geographic channels ...

I like those too, we watched a nice show on big python snakes in Indonesia together.

Yeah, mommies at the park are nice, they were pretty *hot* too, lol ! I think they were single, not really sure though. The park is a good place to hang out when you're babysitting.

....

May 20th,

I am planning an unofficial weigh in probably tomorrow morning, 5-21 ... my monastic lifestyle will lead to a good weight loss hopefully. I'll be curious to see but I feel pretty good about it, I feel 'thinner' now, that's usually a pretty good sign ... I should be on track again, it's really not that hard, you follow the rules and the weight goes down, you misbehave and it goes up, pretty simple. I hope I'll be back in the 217's.

Another day, another work out.

Rain is expected although it's not 100% sure ... I'll have to see if I can go cycle. If not, I'll do all my training inside. My bicycle has pretty thin tires so it would be kind of dangerous to use it at excessive speeds even in light rain, especially when I'm CORNERIN' ...

Diet, nothing new there. I'm still researching more information about kefir, how to make it, all that, almost done, I prepared the 'armoire' where it'll be made, cleared part of a shelf for it ... I should get the dehydrated milk kefir grains in the mail within 10 days, I ordered them from an expert in Winnipeg, Manitoba yesterday : 5$ for a tablespoon of dehydrated grains, that's all you need to make kefir, besides some milk of course. The grains should last a lifetime in theory, if you take good care of 'em and follow the rules which are pretty simple. No heat, no soap, no rinsing with tap water, no metal containers or spoon shall touch the grains at any time, that's about it : easier than the rules to abide by in that movie ... GREMLINS !! The grains grow and you have twice the quantity you started with after a couple of months apparently ...

I'm excited about this new project. I'm already pleased the yogurt thing has turned out good and now the kefir production is another thing to look forward too. Plus kefir is a non-stop daily thing, even better. I like the idea of making things like that myself at home too. I make beer (3-4 times a year, about 4-5 hours required), yogurt (Once a week, 35 minutes) and soon, kefir (Nearly every day, 10 minutes).

Cheers !

Marc

[~reneew]

My hubby makes beer. I like dark beer, but not his. I always think his tastes like black licorice. Yuck! I make yogurt a lot. I usually sweeten and flavor it with a T. of my homeade jam. I bought a yogurt maker at a garage sale for a buck. It makes 8 little containers. One of my sons loves it. I think I'll go make some...

[bluebunny27]

Recent months :

11-1-2008 280.0
12-1-2008 266.0 ( Nov. 2008 Down 14.0 )
1-1-2009 254.0 ( Dec. 2008 Down 12.0 )
1-13-2009 250.0
2-1-2009 244.0 ( Jan. 2009 Down 10.0 )
2-19-2009 237.8
3-1-2009 234.0 ( Feb. 2009 Down 10.0 )
3-14-2009 232.2
4-1-2009 229.8 ( March 2009 Down 4.2 )
4-14-2009 224.8
5-01-2009 221.6 ( April 2009 Down 8.2 )

...

My objective for may 2009 : I'd be happy to lose anywhere between 6 and 7 pounds this month.

...

Future weigh in dates and objectives (Subject to multiple changes depending how it goes !)


5-01-2009 221.6
5-05-2009 220.6 ( Down 1.0 )
5-08-2009 220.6 ( Even Steven )
5-12-2009 219.6 ( Down 1.0 )
5-15-2009 217.8 ( Down 1.8 )
5-18-2009 218.4 ( Up 0.6 )
5-21-2009 216.8 ( Down 1.6 )


Alright, I knew I was thinner this time. 2 solid green days in a row and I'm back at my lowest again ... now I just have to ATTACK the fat head on and keep on going down down down. Chippin' away. I think I can do it since I have been more focused in the past couple of days and now it's getting close to the end of the month where I'm usually even more intense. I should be able to lose between 6 and 7 pounds for the month of may. Then I'll go back to losing 5-6 pounds in june and then it'll be 4 pounds down on average for the remaining months, july-august-sept.-oct. : Nov. 1st 2009 : 195.0 pounds, that's the year long plan goal and it seems I can achieve it if I apply myself. I adjusted my objectives below.


5-24-2009 216.4 ( Objective )
5-29-2009 215.8 ( Objective )
6-01-2009 215.4 ( Objective )



5-21-2009, On deck today, more dieting and exercise, big surprise ! The good result I had this morning on the scale encourages me to keep on goin' ... green day is expected with a typical 30 minutes of shovelglove and jumping jacks + 35 minutes of cycling. Good to get the toxins out, sweating bullets. I'm ready to attack the fat now. Side note, yesterday I saw someone who I hadn't seen in many months and she said : Geesh, you've lost a lot of weight !! I was sayin' ... "Huh ... no ...." When it was 100% clear I had, it was making me laugh .. I mean 63-64 pounds down now in 6 months and 21 days, it's crazy to think I have lost all that weight already. Nearly twice as much as what I did in the earl 90's and I thought *THAT* was a lot of weight, 35 pounds within 100 days. I am confident with the new habits I have now I can stick with it long term now and not gain the weight back. In the early 90's I kept the weight off for about 7-8 years but then it started creeping back up. I am more solid this time with the exercise regime and the diet that is even more under control.


Cheers !

Marc

[~reneew]

You're doing great Marc, you're down 63.2! Whew! You're disappearing!
I did go make yogurt, it's been a while and it's great.

I hope that I can get a boost at the end of the month too, because I haven't failed yet. Last month I failed and kept failing because I figured I already blew it so, go for it! This month I plan on keeping going and finishing the month green. I keep trying to remember to not let quitting be an option.

[bluebunny27]

Good point, Renee. When you fail, it feels bad of course. But then the very next day you are back up again, 2 great days straight and all is forgotten. I like that. I have more control, I know if I fail I can make up for it easily, that's what I just did after a tough time on saturday and sunday.
I had a yellow on monday and then 2 solid greens on tuesday and wednesday (monastic lifestyle).

Now I am back even lower than I expected so all is forgotten/forgiven ... I just have to apply myself and it works out. Much better for the spirit than to fail big time one days and then keep on failing for a whole week, 2 weeks ... it takes a lot longer to make up for that too, a small one day slip won't hurt too much as long as you don't give up in the following days. I haven't had 2 red days in a row since march. (March was probably my toughest month, glad I worked hard in early april, I could have slipped big time then)

The end of the month is usually pretty important for me, it's not hard to get motivated then because my monthly weigh in is pretty important ... I want to reach my objective for the month, at least 6 and possibly closer to 7 pounds this month, that would be ideal. I would be right where I planned I would be 7 months ago and ready for the final stretch, like a 5 month marathon to the end.

Once I am there it should be easy to maintain between 190-195, I mean I'll be able to cut down a bit on the diet and the exercise, not too much of course, the key is not to stop entirely. It'll seem like a summer camp to go down to 50-60% compliance on my Habits compared to the 80% I am doing now. I'll see what is required to maintain, 80% makes me lose weight, 50-60% should be good to maintain. I'll try various things of course.

Green day = 1 point, yellow = 0.6 point, Red = 0 point.
80% compliance required.

Cheers !

Marc

[butterfly1000]

Marc:
You seem to have a very good system that you adjust according to the results you're getting. I think flexibility (without abuse) is the key to success. When I start something I tend to want it to be perfect (diet, exercise plan, etc) -- unfortunately, life isn't perfect and things don't always go as planned. I'm starting to realize that adjusting to get some results (even if it's not at the speed that I would have liked), is better than no results at all.

Keep up the good work!
Butterfly

[mimi]

Me too..I'm the same way Butterfly! I am beginning to see the folly of the "gotta be perfect or it's no good" mindset. I'm beginning to see some signs of flexibility rather than the old "destroy the whole effort' way I have formerly followed when I ate something I shouldn't have.
Marc seems to have it down-pat! Good for you Marc! We'll get there eventually Butterfly.


Mimi

[bluebunny27]

Thanks, Butter(fly) and Mimi.

The problem when you do this is you try to be good 100% of the time at first .... and you try and you try, it's really hard, I'll never be in the 21 day club, a red day usually slips in,
lol ! sometimes it's not even possible to avoid it, when there's a party or a special occasion ... that's real life.

I think they key is to be good MOST of the time. This way you get a lot of the benefits, maybe not the same benefits as if you were good 100% of the time of course, but at least you avoid going for the perfect score, failing, getting depressed and then quitting, rinse and repeat ...

This way I can have a slip up sometimes and it's not the end of the world either. I just make sure to do better in the next 2-3 days and it's alright again, no big deal ... The problem is if you fail one day, you get discouraged and then you fail again and again ... and now you have to start a lot further back too, discouraging. If you fail just one day, then it's easier to erase the mistake.

I find personally that 80% compliance is enough to get me to lose weight. I have this program, I punch in the numbers, how many greens-yellows-reds do I have this month, and it tells me my % in seconds. I update it once in a while, it keeps my scores from previous months individually, as well as my score for the past 2 months, the past 3 months, and since I began doing that too. I do that both for the diet and the exercise individually, 80% or more required on both habits.

Anyway, this is my system ... I use the green-yellow and red days. A green is worth 1 point, a yellow, 0.6 point and a red, 0 point ... of course you can't have too many reds in any month, those 0's can't be too numerous or it'll be really hard to end up with 80% by the end of the month, you would have to be lining up the greens to make up, you see ...

I just have mostly green days peppered with a few yellows here and there, a red once in a while is hard to avoid but this system has worked out really well recently (I've been using and tweaking it since late january) Avoiding red days is the key, those are the ones I have to stay away, 2 or 3 per month is usually the limit, I had 4 red days a couple of times and had to line up the greens to make it.

Also a great way to maintain my weight later on, I just have to lower the % of compliance to maintain ... I'll have to see what happens when I lower it to 55-60-65% for example, I'll remain at the % that allows me to keep my weight between 190 and 195 long term.

Cheers !

Marc

[mimi]

Wow, Marc! You HAVE got it all figured out, don't you! That's fabulous! My brain doesn't think in mathematical terms - but your program sounds like it does it all for you. Did you create it in a spreadsheet or is it something you got elsewhere? I use a Mac, but I have Excel also. I like how your thinking allows you to live your life and enjoy the special occasions that do arise in the course of things - and not always on a Saturday, Sunday or other S day!
I'll also be interested in seeing how this program of yours helps you to maintain after you reach your final weight loss goal. That, after all, seems to be the hardest thing to do - keeping the lost weight GONE!
Thanks for all the tips and inspiration!
Mimi

[mimi]

Oops - okay, I just scanned through your previous posts and found your explanation of your program (May 15). Maybe I can create something based on that... we'll see...

Mimi

[bluebunny27]

Good work, Mimi.

Yeah, I explained it before. I use 'SpreadPro' ... a program similar to Excel really, only more simple to use ... They don't even update the program anymore, it's like a 'dinosaur', but
I like to use it, I have been for years now ...

I could send you my chart, along with the program if you give me your e-mail address in a private message ... and you know what to do to open a .zip file attached to an e-mail. SpreadPro works with Windows though, not for Mac.

... or you could make your own chart using Excel if you prefer. (It took me a while to tweak my chart just the way I want it though, so I have all the information I need displayed. I'll post a picture, hold on ...

http://i40.tinypic.com/20uanv4.jpg

Some parts are in french .... my 1st language. rouge means red, vert means green, jaune means yellow. You can ignore the purple 'Br' lines ... that's something else I track : The number of times I have been closed to getting caught by
the FBI ... 10 most wanted list, you know !

Anyway I updated my stats once or twice a week to make sure I am above 80% on both exercise and diet. This is like a hybrid version of the original No S concept, but it works for me so I figure it might help out other people as well.

It'll make it easier to maintain my weight later on too using my SpreadPro chart and simply lowering the %, possibly down to 60% would be ideal, but I'll have to experiment.

Cheers !

Marc

[~reneew]

You're so organized! No wonder this is working for you! My scrambled thoughts might be my hinderance! I am blond ya know! Or maybe I think too much!

It's 4 AM and I'm up waiting to drive my daughter to the bus for a big state capitol field trip for school.

[bluebunny27]

Same ol' green day today. I am waiting to see if it'll rain though. It is possible but not certain. I'll go cycle 35 minutes if it doesn't rain and if it does I'll have to do my exercise inside.
60 minutes, shovelglove, jumping jacks, calisthenics, etc.

I went to the library earlier, borrowed a book on nutrition and another one explaining 'how to lose weight' ... Maybe I'll pick up a few tips & tricks in there. Maybe they'll tell me what I've been doing WRONG.

The other day I wrote my usual breakfast description here ... so here's a typical lunch :

- Leftovers from previous nights (Sometimes I combine leftovers from 2-3 different dinners, a very small portion from each one that is combined on one plate) Today it'll be Chicken salad/Spaghetti/Lamb roast + Chickpeas Cheese
Celery, potato, corn, mushrooms, 1 tbsp of salad dressing, milk. The celery sticks acts as lil' BARRIERS between some things I have on the plate, lol !


....

Later around 3-4pm :

- Saved from this morning's breakfast, afternoon booster.
yogurt, 1/2 pear. 1 tsp of light peanut butter
1 tbsp of molasses, 5 raw unsalted almonds (not sure why but I always count 'em ... there's gotta be 5 apparently !

(I can use those small items sooner or later, depending when I need 'em or if I am cycling or not, etc.) I usually have something 20 minutes before cycling.

Alright, I'm supposed to be green today, right, change of color required.

Cheers !

Marc

[~reneew]

My daughter is 11... she just went to the Iowa state capitol in Des Moines. I lived in Minnesota all of my life, until a couple years ago... so, my kids can tell you more about Iowa and the capitol than me. I haven't even been there yet. I'm a Minnesotan at heart. I live only 5 miles into Iowa, so I pretend I still live there. I'd hate to live too far south. I need snow My son went to D.C. last year, and lost his cell phone. An Iowan found it and returned it Ramble Ramble...

[bluebunny27]

edit

[~reneew]

Each state has a capitol... not too thrilling, except when you're 11 on a bus all day with your friends to get there. She was SO SO excited. She took 2 cameras, and a backpack of food and water bottles. She may be peeing all day!

[bluebunny27]

Thanks Renee ! I didn't know that.

Hey, I just had a donut, does it count as a red day ??

Click link below for the picture :
http://bitsandpieces.us/2009/05/19/i-ju ... one-donut/





Nah, no donuts, I'm doing fine. I'm all green today and rejoicing. 30 minutes shovelglove tonight, + my beloved jumping jacks of course.

Weigh in tomorrow morning, I decided to weigh in a day early since I'm supposed to go out on saturday night. It'll be a saturday mornin' weigh in instead of sunday mornin'.

I think I'll have a good result on the scale this time since I have been quite good the past 2 days really. 2 double green days in a row. My objective is 216.4 or lower. I'd like to be in the low 215's by the end of the month too.

Cheers !

Marc

[bluebunny27]

Recent months :

11-1-2008 280.0
12-1-2008 266.0 ( Nov. 2008 Down 14.0 )
1-1-2009 254.0 ( Dec. 2008 Down 12.0 )
1-13-2009 250.0
2-1-2009 244.0 ( Jan. 2009 Down 10.0 )
2-19-2009 237.8
3-1-2009 234.0 ( Feb. 2009 Down 10.0 )
3-14-2009 232.2
4-1-2009 229.8 ( March 2009 Down 4.2 )
4-14-2009 224.8
5-01-2009 221.6 ( April 2009 Down 8.2 )

...

My objective for may 2009 : I'd be happy to lose anywhere between 6 and 7 pounds this month.

...

Future weigh in dates and objectives (Subject to multiple changes depending how it goes !)


5-01-2009 221.6
5-05-2009 220.6 ( Down 1.0 )
5-08-2009 220.6 ( Even Steven )
5-12-2009 219.6 ( Down 1.0 )
5-15-2009 217.8 ( Down 1.8 )
5-18-2009 218.4 ( Up 0.6 )
5-21-2009 216.8 ( Down 1.6 )
5-23-2009 216.2 ( Down 0.6 )



**** Alright, another solid performance this morning so
I am pleased. I've been quite good the past 2 days, 2 double green days in a row and it shows this morning. I had cravings late last night though, but I grabbed my bag of plain popcorn and had some water, phew ! Only 9 more days left until the end of the month and I'd like to be close to 215.0 by then. It doesn't seem impossible to achieve, I could even ease up a lil' bit. I have a planned double yellow today in any case. I'll only cycle for 35 minutes in the afternoon, do a bit of paint work outside then I'm supposed to go out, yellow nutrition day as well but I ain't too scared. The end of the month is usually not a place where I struggle too much to keep my focus cos' I definitely want to achieve my monthly objective which is more important than the ones I set for the week.


5-28-2009 215.6 ( Objective )
6-01-2009 215.2 ( Objective )


Cheers !

Marc

[mimi]

You're getting closer and closer Almost there - one more pound and you've met your objective for May! Woo Hoo!

[~reneew]

Nice donut! It reminded me of my one plate of onion ring. I'm having a tough long weekend. Too much BBQing and DRINKS and MUNCHIES! By the time I check in on Tuesday, I may have gained all of my 17 (20 really) pounds back. I feel like I'm on death row and can't stop it.

[bluebunny27]

****** Yeah, red days are depressing .. I am glad I have found multiple ways to avoid 'em ... I only had 2 in may, hopefully no more until the end of the month too. it REALLY helps to keep the weight down. It makes it a lot easier, I don't have to train as much even and I still lose weight. Sorry to hear about your struggle, Renee, especially since you had been doing so well before.
Try not to fall for more than one day in a row and then have some green days. It's harder when you have kids and go to barbecues of course, sometimes a red day is really hard to avoid, birthdays, barbecues, parties, etc.

Yes, Mimi, I'm verrrrrrrrry close now ! I'll like it when I am under 215 too, it'll be an 8 year low for me and I'll be on the right side of the 210's too, not the high side, the low side ...

One thing I do to have weigh ins that mean something is I try to have about the same quantity of water in the evening before a weigh in. I usually have about 5 glasses of water and one cup of coffee (it's a diuretic). I have one glass before doing my evening workout, around 7:15pm. I have one glass during my work out. I have one glass right after. I drink a cup of coffee. I have 1 glass between 9pm and 10pm. I have 1 glass when it's time to go to bed, midnight ramblin'.

I try to have about the same quantity of water (and coffee) each evening before a weigh in so it is pretty consistant from one weigh in to the next. I'm not weighing extra water I may have had, that sort of thing ... (Unless I ate some salty things the day before the meeting with the scale of course but I try to avoid salty things the evening before a weigh in. I try to have the same hours of sleep as well so the conditions are all similar, as close as they can be.

Also when you sleep you burn calories and you lose water weight too.

Sleeping is almost an exercise really. You stay up all night, not eating or drinking anything, watching TV and then weigh yourself in the morning, you will have lost less weight (Mostly water weight, evaporation, sweat, etc.) then if you had slept the whole 8 hours. From my experience, I usually lose between 1.2 and 2 pounds during a typical night's sleep (After I have urinated in the morning, since I always do that before stepping on the scale of course).

Side note :
I haven't had a potato chip / onion ring in 7 months.
I used to have onion rings very often, I would go to the burger place nearby, have a couple of burgers, 2 orders of onion rings, that sort of thing. Can't eat just one, just like in the commercial, you betcha. The other day I was at the grocery store and I turn in the potato chips section, I wasn't even tempted to get a bag, I was just thinking about the nutrition ... the nutrition !

Maybe I could get those baked ones that aren't as bad for you, lol !

Oh man, this reminds me, I saw a lil' clip the other day, how they make yogurt. The type with fruit at the bottom. I am pleased I make my own plain one cos' the store bought brand they were presenting seemed quite unhealthy to me. All sorts of fruit syrup, sugar, cream, gelatin and whatnot, mixing it up in a huge container,
huh ! I kept thinking it didn't look too healthy with all those powders and dehydrated fruit bits they were adding to the mix.

Cheers !

Marc

[bluebunny27]

Alright, I'm back.

I went out last night, had a bit of wine and beer ... this gives me a yellow. I am feeling good though.

Should be a double green day today to get the TOXINS out of my system (the alcohol !!)

I'll cycle in the late afternoon probably, nice and sunny day. It's usually pretty tough to cycle the afternoon after I had some alcohol actually, it makes me struggle. My legs don't want to push for some reason, they want to QUIT early. That'll teach me to be naughty !!

I'll be goooooood and try to avoid red days until the end of the month, it's been pretty easy lately besides an occasional craving of course but I am used to handling those now at least. Ready to rock n' roll.

Cheers !

Marc

[bluebunny27]

Alright. I was supposed to have a green day for the exercise yesterday but I only had a yellow since something came up and it was too late to exercise in the evening after that. I just cycled for 35 minutes in the afternoon. There were a LOT of people in the bicycle path too since it was a nice sunshiny day. The most people I've seen there since I started cycling regularly.

I couldn't do my interval training as I usually do because I was always stumbling on somebody getting in my way, getting stuck behind a convoy of 10-12 cyclists grouped together, people coming from the other side making it hard to overtake people on my side safely ... or dealing with sunday afternoon people who have no clue how to use the bicycle path properly and ride/roller skate at a sightseeing pace side by side with their buddy, making it hard to overtake them and annoy everybody who is using a faster pace !!

90-95% of the time I am the one who overtakes people, not the opposite, so I should get a 'Bicycle ringer' (bell) The have nice ones that make a lot of noise, I'll ring people out of the way from a distance on occasion.

I ended up doing regular cycling at a nice & steady pace, about 50-60% of my max. intensity. That was still good.

Cycling makes a big difference, I have noticed it takes more effort now for me to get my heart rate up. My heart rate is not going as high as it was before, I had to increase the duration and the intensity of my jumping jacks intervals I do inside because my old routine was not as effective, I was having a hard time making my heart rate go up over 120bpm using my old routine. I had to make it 15-20% harder to get my heart rate around 130-135 beats per minutes. That's definitely the effect of the cycling. I have been doing it for about 5 weeks now regularly. Nothing beats real cardio exercise outside of course.

I'll have 3 double green days in a row, 25th-26th-27th. The end of the month, the crunch time period, is getting closer now so I want to finish strong if I want to lose at least 6 pounds in may, possibly even closer to 7 if all goes well. I'd like to be around 215.0 at that time so I can't procrastinate too much 'til the 31st.

Cheers !

Marc

[bluebunny27]

Ok, I was asked to put a disclaimer before and it was mentioned again today.

No problem, I'm very niiiiiice. So this'll be my new signature, it should appear on (nearly) all my messages ... unless I forget to click ALT+8 before clicking 'Submit' !!

...

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds - - - 05/23/2009 : 216.2 pounds
6 months 23 days / 63.8 pounds

[bluebunny27]

Ok, green time required.

Another typical double green day today. Being careful with the diet, writing down what'll have on a piece of paper. I have all my possible food choices in a text file on the pc, so it takes only a couple of minutes to make my selection for each meal. I usually do that in the evening, what'll be eating and when the next day .... if I am good and stick to what's on my piece of paper, it's a green day.

Cycling today, 35 minutes as usual. I should take advantage of it because the next 3 days they are predicting rain so I probably will miss some cycling days there ... Shovelglove and jumping jacks session as well, 35 minutes X 2 = 70 minutes. (I added an extra 5 minutes to my shovelglove and jumping jacks routine)

I've been doing really well , no red days since may 17th.
Green or Yellow days, can't get in trouble with those !

I need 2 double green days in a row before my next weigh in. I should be in the low 215's by then hopefully. I'll be there if I am GREEN 2 days in a row as planned. Time to ATTACK the fat .... head on !

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds - - - 05/23/2009 : 216.2 pounds
6 months 23 days / 63.8 pounds

[~reneew]

Thanks Marc, you're very helpful!

[bluebunny27]

Evaluating Green / Yellow and Red days.

There are a lot of grey areas, you can be 100% green and that is awesome of course, but even if you have a tiny lil' bit of something it doesn't make you lose your green day, at least that's what I think.

Nobody's perfect 100% of the time really.
A 95% effort is still really awesome and gives you a lot of benefit in the end when you add 'em all up. Even yellows, they are not negative days, you still made some effort so you benefit in the end even if it wouldn't be as fast as a green day of course.


I guess for me :

Nutrition : Green day = 95% to 110% effort (!)
Nutrition : Yellow day = 85% to 95%

Nutrition : Red day = Less than 85%
Some red days are more damaging than others too, you can have a red day without going off the deep end either.

Exercise : Green day = 60 minutes (or more, Intense.)
Usually if I do only one session, it's 60 minutes straight.
2 sessions, 35 minutes each, Shovelglove & Jumping Jacks in the morning and Cycling in the early evening, 70 min. total. Most times that's what happens. I only do one single session when it's raining and I can't cycle outside.

Exercise : Yellow day = 35 minutes (Intense)
Exercise : Red day = 0 minute (Not intense)


Just a way to evaluate your days, take it or leave it, it's all good.

I've had a great 'Double green' today, I'll definitely be in the low 215's at my next weigh in. 36 hours from now, especially with another DG tomorrow (Double Green).

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds - - - 05/23/2009 : 216.2 pounds
6 months 23 days / 63.8 pounds

[butterfly1000]

There are a lot of grey areas, you can be 100% green and that is awesome of course, but even if you have a tiny lil' bit of something it doesn't make you lose your green day, at least that's what I think.

I'm starting to agree with that -- I've been giving myself a yellow for a healthy snack, but I'm starting to get tired of just seeing yellows (actually, yesterday was a red ... but today, I move on). I think I'll try your system (seems to work great for you!) -- I'm going to try and pre-determine what small deviation still qualifies as green (for example, eating a fruit between meals), and what small deviation still qualifies as yellow (this would be more like circumstantial things like, someone brings a home-made dessert to work and wants you to try it), it doesn't happen often, and it's hard to say no.

AHHHH, WHY CAN'T I BE LIKE SOME PEOPLE WHO EAT WHATEVER THEY WANT AND NEVER GAIN WEIGHT !!! Sorry about that -- just had to let out a bit of frustration.

[bluebunny27]

Yeah, good point, Butterfly !

Update, actually I was *BAD* last night, which I had not anticipated.

I just felt extremely hungry, tired, frustrated over a couple of things that happened during the day, stressed ... and I ate 2 bagels, 2 boiled eggs, cheese and mayo, 3 cookies, even a small piece of cake ... all that around midnight !! Definitely worth a red day unfortunately. I was having trouble sleeping later on having eaten all that food a few minutes before going to bed.

I definitely felt bad about it, my 3rd red day of the month of may. I had been good since the 17th at least so I made some progress before that ...

Now I'll be good for 2 days in a row. VERY green and I'll see the damages this red day has done in 2 days, I pushed back my scheduled weigh in by 24 hours for that reason, it was supposed to be on Thursday morning but it'll be Friday morning instead. Giving me 24 hours more to make up for that red day, then it'll be a quick dash to june 1st and the monthly weigh in. I may have to be extremely green 4 out of the 5 last days in may, 27-28-30-31. On the 29th, I'm going out so I'll go for a double yellow most likely.

You see, I get a red day, of course I feel bad about it, but I don't give up and have 3-4 red days in a row. Instead my plan is to be GREEN so I am able to recover, that's the way I usually think. All the efforts I have made before are not wasted if I do that. A one day slip will not hurt you too much ... as long as you work harder later on, which is what I will do of course.

Maybe I'll have to settle for 5 to 6 pounds down in may instead of 6 to 7, though, not sure ... I'll work out to make up for last night's slip up. I am not depressed cos' I know a few good days in a row are enough to get me close to where I was before this momentary glitch.

Alright, green - green today, rain is expected so I probably won't be able to cycle, I'll work out inside, 60 minute session in the early evening and will be a bit more strict with my diet too today.

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds - - - 05/23/2009 : 216.2 pounds
6 months 23 days / 63.8 pounds

[~reneew]

You're still on track... and the right track, not the rollercoaster track. I officially jumped off of that and I'm on the downhill track. (I need visuals)
I'm doin' "the Marc thing" and not having any pre-planned S days. ***disclaimer* So, we'll see how this goes... This weekend will tell. I still haven't had any reds this month which is a miracle! I just seem to have been making up for it on the weekend. You have such a plan that seems to be carved in stone or hard dirt at least... my plans seem to be carved in dust on a windy day.

[mimi]

Cute analogy, Renee - but it's not that bad! Look at all your GREENS!

[bluebunny27]

Yes, good point, Renee.

If it works for you, it's all good. You make your own personal plan and then you tweak it a lil' bit one way or the other. You can't have the same rules for everyone, it's not an exact science. There are too many factors to consider. Age, Sex, Lil' kids, Exercise habits ... All this is very personal.

You take the basic rules and then you see what works for you, what doesn't and then you make your own rules, tweaking the program, etc. If you get good results,
awesome ! You should be proud, not feeling bad because you didn't follow the rules 100% ... That's what I did right away cos' I'm a *REBEL* of course.

I do the most important rules, No seconds, no sweets, single plate ... I am more flexible with the other parts ... no snacking for example. If I save some food from one meal and have it a couple of hours later, it doesn't count as a snack, it's just something that helps me avoid cheating.

Also, I pick the green and yellow days myself based on what really happens in life, not based on the calendar ... if I am a hermit one weekend, I can easily keep the 2 days green and that's good, I can save a couple of yellow days if I happen to go out or something happens, it's not automatically a yellow based on the calendar, more practical for me.

Green = 1 unit, yellow = 0.6 unit, red days = 0 unit, ... Degree of compliance, I came up with that concept early on. I'll be around 80% for the month of may, both for the diet and the exercise. Seems to be working well.

I am confident I'll recover from my red day since I work out a lot too, the exercise helps to recover from bad 'nutrition' days more quickly.

My updated HabitCal, I added my monthly loss to the picture ...

http://i43.tinypic.com/295s3es.jpg

I usually set my green and yellow days a li' bit in advance too, I try to stick to that but sometimes I have to change a color depending on what happened ...

My updated SpreadPro chart, I translated it in english too.

http://i39.tinypic.com/aue1vo.jpg

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds - - - 05/23/2009 : 216.2 pounds
6 months 23 days / 63.8 pounds

[bluebunny27]

Hi !

Ok, I had a great day yesterday, All green ... and it's time to do it again today to make up for being naughty on the 26th.

I hope to be back in the high 215's by friday morning. Then I'm supposed to go out friday night. I'll be reasonable but it'll still count as a yellow. After that it'll be a short dash to the finish line for the month of may and 2 very green days in a row on the 30th and 31st, hopefully low to mid 215's at that time would be nice. That would be a solid 6 pounds down for may, about what I was expecting.

Today, more rain.

So I'll shovelglove and do my cardio, jumping jacks inside. I tweaked my program earlier to do shorter intervals in the future, making it more similar to what I do when I cycle so that will be interesting for me. Testing this new training method.

For lunch today (A lil' bit of everything, leftovers as usual)
Chicken salad, pork thai dish with pasta I made, crackers, rice with vegetables, chickpeas, cheese, carrot, celery, cucumber.

Saved for the mid afternoon : yogurt (I made some yesterday, 2 X 650g. containers, it turned out gooooood, nice, creamy and smooth, no sugar, additives, I made it myself so it's 100% PURE plain yogurt, nobody has messed with it ...except *ME* !)
1/2 an apple

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds - - - 05/23/2009 : 216.2 pounds
6 months 23 days / 63.8 pounds

[~reneew]

rain rain go away...

[Nichole]

Sounds like you're doing great, Mark!!

[bluebunny27]

Thanks, Renee and Nichole.

Yeah, I may be able to squeeze a cycling session today actually. The rain was very light this morning and now it has stopped. I know the path gets dry very quickly, a few hours without rain is enough ... I might be able to cycle in the early evening as long as it doesn't start raining again. I know it's suppose to start again later, I monitor the situation using 'Environment Canada' and their radar site. It looks like I could possibly be able to cycle after all.

http://meteo.gc.ca/radar/index_f.html?id=WMN

I didn't mind working out inside last night though, kicking it old school as I did all winter long. Cycling is the best cardio exercise though, a lot of benefits. I'd say I have improved my cardio performance 15% in the past 6 weeks by cycling in a very intense way 5-6 times per week, 35 minutes each time. (My estimate, based on my performance later on with the jumping jacks that has improved compared to the time I wasn't cycling during the cold season)

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds - - - 05/23/2009 : 216.2 pounds
6 months 23 days / 63.8 pounds

[bluebunny27]

My updated graph ... with the monthly objectives ...

http://i39.tinypic.com/25uo9ro.jpg

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds - - - 05/23/2009 : 216.2 pounds
6 months 23 days / 63.8 pounds

[bluebunny27]

Recent months :

11-1-2008 280.0
12-1-2008 266.0 ( Nov. 2008 Down 14.0, Total : 14.0 )
1-1-2009 254.0 ( Dec. 2008 Down 12.0, Total : 26.0 )
1-13-2009 250.0
2-1-2009 244.0 ( Jan. 2009 Down 10.0, Total : 36.0 )
2-19-2009 237.8
3-1-2009 234.0 ( Feb. 2009 Down 10.0, Total : 46.0 )
3-14-2009 232.2
4-1-2009 229.8 ( March 2009 Down 4.2, Total : 50.2 )
4-14-2009 224.8
5-01-2009 221.6 ( April 2009 Down 8.2, Total : 58.4 )

...

My objective for may 2009 : I'd be happy to lose anywhere between 6 and 7 pounds this month.

...

Future weigh in dates and objectives (Subject to multiple changes depending how it goes !)


5-01-2009 221.6
5-05-2009 220.6 ( Down 1.0 )
5-08-2009 220.6 ( Even Steven )
5-12-2009 219.6 ( Down 1.0 )
5-15-2009 217.8 ( Down 1.8 )
5-18-2009 218.4 ( Up 0.6 )
5-21-2009 216.8 ( Down 1.6 )
5-23-2009 216.2 ( Down 0.6 )
5-29-2009 215.4 ( Down 0.8 )


Alright, weigh in this morning : 5-29-2009 Excellent result, 215.4, about what I was expecting since I have been really good 2 days in a row. I managed to get back to where I should be despite my red day on the 26th. (My experience, it takes 2 solid green days after a red day !) Today should be a double yellow, since I am going out this evening. I'll try to be nice and not have a red day at least, not a big margin of error and I am too close to the end of the month to mess up now ! Then it'll be 2 green days in a row and the month will be done, hopefully I'll be down again, that would be great. 214.8 is my objective, 6.8 pounds down for the month of may.

Raining again today, so I'll do a yellow shovelglove/cardio inside. 35 minutes. Diet, same as usual. I'm eating a bit of couscous these days and I like it. I sprinkle it on my salads often, not a huge quantity each time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Couscous


6-01-2009 214.8 ( Objective )


Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds - - - 05/29/2009 : 215.4 pounds
6 months 29 days / 64.6 pounds

[bluebunny27]

Ok, I'm back.

I went out last night as planned. It was nice, I was relatively good. Good enough for a double yellow. I did manage to cycle yesterday since the rain stopped for long enough, it might be the same today ... supposed to rain but I am monitoring this using the radar site, I'll probably be able to cycle since it looks alright for the next few hours. It was like that all week long, monitoring the sky and trying to sneak a training session outside.

Double green today so I'll be nice. I haven't eaten anything yet today since I slept until 10:45am.

I was calculating the percentage of red squares in my Habitcal earlier. In the past 14 days I only have 1 red square, 14 days : 2 squares per day : (Nutrition and Exercise) ... 1 red square out of 28, only 3.6% red in the past 2 weeks, Niiiiiiiice !

I have definitely been on a roll for a while now.

That's something else I could monitor, keeping the red squares under 10% for an entire month, maybe even 7%
if I have my game face on.

Limiting the red squares is definitely the key for me, under 5% would be great although I see that during the month of march, my toughest month, the % of red squares was 12.9% and I still lost a bit over 4 pounds ... by comparison in april the % was 8.3% and I lost twice as much weight during that month than in the previous one, 8.2 pounds. This month it should be 8.1%

Red square %

February 2009 : 11.5%
Lost approx. 10 pounds

March 2009 : 12.9%
Lost approx. 4 pounds

April 2009 : 8.3%
Lost approx. 8 pounds

May 2009 : 8.1%
Lost approx. 7 pounds

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds - - - 05/29/2009 : 215.4 pounds
6 months 29 days / 64.6 pounds

[bluebunny27]

Alright, last day of the month, time to rock n' roll.

I am all ready to cycle in about 30 minutes. I do it a bit earlier than usual cos' light rain is expected later in the afternoon. I should be alright doing it in the early afternoon though. I like using the radar site to see what's goin' on, this way I can make sure not to miss a training session outside.

I am really doing well in the training dept. It's not even been a struggle to keep my degree of compliance above 80%, nutrition is tougher, I am struggling to make it to 80% although this past month has been my best performance yet with that habit, very close to 80% now. I have cycled every single day except 2 or 3 since around april 15 ... when the weather was alright of course.

Today I even attached a stopwatch I had to the handles on my bike, that should come in handy. I can look at my time while I am cycling. I used to attach it on my wrist, not sure why I never thought of using the attachment to put it on the actual bike ... especially since I already had it in a box in the closet. Seems to make sense to use it then.

I'll do well with the nutrition and I am pretty sure I'll be in the low 215's tomorrow morning for the official end of the month (Or beginning of the month !) weigh in. This will probably be my last really tough month anyway since after that I won't have to lose 7-9-11 pounds every month, I can just lose 5 in june and then 3-4 per month for the final stretch (july-august-sept.-oct.) and I'm home free, 195.0 on nov. 1st 2009. 85 pounds lost in a year's time.

I'll only have to maintain between 190 and 195 long term after that, reducing my degree of compliance to around 60% perhaps, not really sure, but that's about what I would expect now. I'll have to experiment to see approx. the % required for me to maintain my weight. Using 75%-80%
I am losing 4 to 10 pounds per month.

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds - - - 05/29/2009 : 215.4 pounds
6 months 29 days / 64.6 pounds

[~reneew]

Alright, I messed up the quote thing, but you said...

I have definitely been on a roll for a while now.

That's an understatement! You're the king of calculated control. You're doing great, and I know that you'll get to your goal.

[bluebunny27]

Hey, thanks for your support Renee ! Only a few hours left in may ... Will I make it ?? I would be happy with a low 215 tomorrow morning, that's probably what will happen.

I went cycling and the temperature was *insane* ... I cycled for 40 minutes ...

The first 8 minutes ... sunny
The next 8 minutes ... light rain
The next 8 minutes ... HAIL.
The next 8 minutes ... light rain
The next 8 minutes ... SUNNY !

... it was hilarious to cycle like crazy while it was hailing, I was *loving it*, the lil' pellets of ice were bouncing all over my helmet, everywhere, but I pressed on ... I never thought of QUITTING though, I wasn't done with my work out.

Almost done with this crazy month, heh !
Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds - - - 05/29/2009 : 215.4 pounds
6 months 29 days / 64.6 pounds

[mimi]

Hmmmm! You should have been riding your bike in Virginia! A beauty-gorgeous day all day today!

Mimi

[bluebunny27]

Recent months :

11-1-2008 280.0
12-1-2008 266.0 ( Nov. 2008 Down 14.0, Total : 14.0 )
1-1-2009 254.0 ( Dec. 2008 Down 12.0, Total : 26.0 )
1-13-2009 250.0
2-1-2009 244.0 ( Jan. 2009 Down 10.0, Total : 36.0 )
2-19-2009 237.8
3-1-2009 234.0 ( Feb. 2009 Down 10.0, Total : 46.0 )
3-14-2009 232.2
4-1-2009 229.8 ( March 2009 Down 4.2, Total : 50.2 )
4-14-2009 224.8
5-01-2009 221.6 ( April 2009 Down 8.2, Total : 58.4 )
5-15-2009 217.8
6-01-2009 215.6 ( May 2009 Down 6.0, Total : 64.4 )

...

My objective for june 2009 : I'd be happy to lose anywhere between 4 and 5 pounds this month.

...


June 1st : Nutrition = GREEN / Training = GREEN



...

Future weigh in dates and objectives (Subject to multiple changes !)


6/01/2009 215.6

6/04/2009 215.2 (Objective)
6/10/2009 214.2 (Objective)
6/16/2009 213.4 (Objective)
6/22/2009 212.6 (Objective)
6/28/2009 211.8 (Objective)
7/01/2009 211.2 (Objective)


Alright, 215.6, that was my final weigh in for the month of may (or the first for the month of june)
I was a lil' disappointed actually cos' I thought I had been quite good in the past 2 days in
a row, I was expecting to be closer to 215.0, even in the high 214's ... oh well. Better luck next time !
I'll try a more reasonable approach from now on. My objective for june is to lose 4 to 5 pounds.
It's getting too tough now to do 6 to 8 pounds per month anyway. I was really good during the month
of may and I only managed to lose 6 pounds so I'm definitely slowing down (despite the fact I had
my best month ever according to my HabitCal). I am a lot more disciplined now than I was during my first
3 months and I'm losing half as much weight now as I did back then, I don't have as much of the easier blubber
weight to lose anymore, which is good, but that doesn't produce big numbers, heh !
I am done with the big numbers anyway. I'd be rejoicing just getting under 200 on nov.
1st really (even though I'll work really hard to get to 195.0 since that was my initial year long objective) but I won't
freak out now being a pound up over what I was hoping for this morning, minor set back that should be corrected
within a few days. Same with the year long objective, if I need an extra month to finish the job, it won't be a tragedy and
I'm not supersiticious either, 13 months. This is long term anyway, so I won't go back to my old ways the minute
I am done with the year long challenge.

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds - - - 06/01/2009 : 215.6 pounds
7 months 1 day / 64.4 pounds

[bluebunny27]

Alright, time to be green today. Cycling, Shovelglove, Jumping Jacks, Diet ... I've noticed my ARMS are more muscular now too, I was shovelglovin' last evening and I noticed that. ... so it's not all about a lower number on a scale either.

Another double green day expected today. I have also vouched to weigh less often than I used to starting now. During the month of may I was weighing too often, every 3-4 days and that can be a lil' depressing when you are not losing weight too fast (especially when you are working *HARD* !)

By weighing only once every 6 days, I'm more likely to see a lower number each time I step on the scale, it gives me extra time to lose some weight instead of stepping on the scale too often and not having enough time in between weigh ins ...

I received my cycling bell/chain oil/steel cable & lock yesterday too, installed the bell quickly, nice. It's a pretty modern bell, black in color, small, makes a nice clear 'Ding' too. It's better to have a bell on your bike, when you are turning into a blind corner for example, you can signal your presence and avoid accidents, there are 2 or 3 blind corners where I usually go, I'll ring the bell there from now on, you can't see all the way to the end of the corner because of the trees and the turn in the road ... If there's someone walking right in the middle of the blind corner on the wrong side of the path, it could be a dangerous situation or dealing with stupid cyclists overtaking slower people in blind corners without making sure first nobody is coming the other way... There was such a moron who went by me the other day, coming my way and overtaking someone else just as I arrived so there were 3 people side by side instead of 2 basically, unnecessarely dangerous, especially at speed .... overtaking in a blind corner in a way that was dangerous for everybody.

Also good to warn pedestrians you are about to go by them, quickly, overtaking other people on bikes or rollerblades and especially to ring annoying people out of the way, people who ride/walk/rollerblade side by side for example, blocking the passing lane. People walking their dog in the bicycle path when it's clearly indicated dogs are now allowed there, even dogs on a leash. There are signs every 100 yards sayin' it's not allowed and you still see people with dogs there on a regular basis.

Apparently in Europe everyone has a bell on their bike, it's often mandatory. I have been in a few dangerous situations already, stupid people who don't know how to use the bike path properly for example ... just the other day I almost had to ride in the grass section by the side of the road because of a stupid teen on a skateboard getting in my way. Stupid erratic moves right in front of me just as I am about to overtake and taking 2/3's of the passing lane with his antics !! Stupid behavior like that really irritates me.

Oh, I got my dehydrated milk KEFIR (pronounced, 'Kay-Fear') grains in the mail yesterday too, I should be able to start that production shortly. Nice project. I'll probably start reactivating the grains tonight, supposed to be nice and simple, I have all the procedure to follow already. It takes 4-8 days usually to re-activate the dehydrated grains so they function properly. They are supposed to be good for a lifetime after that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kefir

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds - - - 06/01/2009 : 215.6 pounds
7 months 1 day / 64.4 pounds

[~reneew]

I have no bell on my bike. I 've been known to yell "excuse me!!!!", although I live by a lake and it's really hilly and I don't like to ride where it's too hilly. I love to ride where it's flat though. My favorite bike ride anywhere is on Macinac Island in Michigan. Absolutely no motor vehicles and it's so beautiful there. I do have an antique horn to honk if I wanted to use it... though it's not on my bike. I now only use it when I really want my kids' attention and I want to be annoying. My parents have bells on their bikes and they always ride out past some horses and stop to feed them carrots. It's funny how fast and how far they run to get the carrots when that bell rings! Around here I never see or hear bells on bikes. My kids think they're dorky. I think they should be on every bike everywhere!

[bluebunny27]

Hehe ! The main reason to install a bell is for the safety issues ... I already had 3-4 close calls since I started cycling regularly, 6-7 weeks ago ... and to avoid getting annoyed by some people who are oblivious to others and block the passing lane ... it's better to ring the bell once in a while than to get in an accident, especially in blind corners where you don't see too far ahead because of the trees or a fence ...

I don't care if the bells are supposed to be dorky actually, I look dorky enough already while I'm wearing my posh silver and black bike helmet !!

I tried the yelling technique before but you have to be closer to the person so they can hear you or else you sound like a lunatic yelling from a distance, lol ! A bell is more noticeable. Once I got behind this lady blocking the passing lane while using rollerblades, I say : "Careful, passing left !" (in french) and she jumps out of the way to the right like a bat out of hell, I felt sorry really, even if she was wrong to block the passing lane for no good reason. I said : "Sorry !" even though she had mae me lose all my momentum, I wasn't speeding at all and she still bothered my progression.
A bell should avoid a lot of these annoying situations.

In the old days most bikes had bells on them ... you can get one now for 5$US probably, nice small ones that are modern and make a nice 'DING' sound. Mine is all black. In many places bells on bicycles are mandatory, especially in Europe.

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds - - - 06/01/2009 : 215.6 pounds
7 months 1 day / 64.4 pounds

[~reneew]

Funny visuals Marc! I hope the lady wasn't old... you could kill someone doing that! I guess I need a bell, so I don't harm the elderly.


Ding ding..

[bluebunny27]

Nah, not too old ... about 40-42 y/o ...

I'll probably have to use my bell 3-4 times each time I cycle, unless it's a slow day of course with hardly anyone there on the bike path, but there's usually something happenin' ... someone getting in the way, not looking where they are going, riding next to their buddies and blocking the passing lane ... that sort of thing.

It's shared by everyone, cyclists, pedestrians, rollerbladers, people of all ages, etc. Most people are alright but even if only 5% cause trouble by not acting properly, it means you have to deal with 3-4-5 of those trouble makers in a typical 35 min. session. Usually minor incidents of course, nothing major.

It's the same thing on the roads really, you have people who keep bothering you by not driving properly, sometimes there's hardly any traffic at all and you end up getting annoyed by a single lousy motorist.

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds - - - 06/01/2009 : 215.6 pounds
7 months 1 day / 64.4 pounds

[gratefuldeb67]

Forgive me Marc, but just saw this comment from Butterfly and I don't know how to respond to her without somewhat hijacking your own thread.
Hope you are having a good week.

Anyway, Marc and Butterfly wrote:

There are a lot of grey areas, you can be 100% green and that is awesome of course, but even if you have a tiny lil' bit of something it doesn't make you lose your green day, at least that's what I think.

I'm starting to agree with that -- I've been giving myself a yellow for a healthy snack, but I'm starting to get tired of just seeing yellows (actually, yesterday was a red ... but today, I move on). I think I'll try your system (seems to work great for you!) -- I'm going to try and pre-determine what small deviation still qualifies as green (for example, eating a fruit between meals), and what small deviation still qualifies as yellow (this would be more like circumstantial things like, someone brings a home-made dessert to work and wants you to try it), it doesn't happen often, and it's hard to say no.

AHHHH, WHY CAN'T I BE LIKE SOME PEOPLE WHO EAT WHATEVER THEY WANT AND NEVER GAIN WEIGHT !!! Sorry about that -- just had to let out a bit of frustration.

Hi Butterfly, these so called people who can eat whatever they want and never gain weight, are either not gaining weight because of age, or activity, or generally healthy choices in their diets overall, and occasional indulgences (ie: an S once in a while).. but if they don't do exercise and they just eat eat eat, well, obviously, they *will* gain weight at some point in their life.
No real reason to even envy them.
You are in control of your choices and with enough trial and error, you will find what works well for you.
Me personally, I have lost the ability to eat as I did in my twenties.. If I don't move substantially, I gain weight just by eating *normally*, not even really overeating, cos my metabolism is so radically different now that I'm in my pre-menopausal years in my early forties.

As far as the experiment with snacking and trying to figure out what would and what wouldn't constitute yellow or green, I would *strongly* caution against that.
Marc, as he will admit, I'm sure, is a *VERY* active guy.
So,,, he's lucky because these little snack things that happen, won't necessarily result in gaining weight.. but,,,,,
Take the wild and extreme exercise out of the pic, and keep the snacking, and guess what... a year of that could end up cause some weight gain.
It's a habit that you *don't* want to have, trust me.
Rather than "snack", I would possibly experiment with your number of allowed meals.

I personally allow myself 4 meals a day, with the provision that the fourth meal is healthy, like fruits or a salad.. but I'm not confronted with that snack monster, and, it has the nice added effect of letting you see whether you did or didn't have a green or red day.
That ambiguity of yellow, is really hard to learn from, when you look back on your week and try to remember if you were or weren't on plan.
I do learn a lot from my HabitCal, and it shows where I need improvement.

I had to write this, because, if you are anything like me, you will find some comfort in *not* having to grapple with how to interpret your day based on a bunch of yellow boxes, and try to stick to strict NoS.
My strict NoS is based on 4 *meals* a day.
Maybe that would work for you too?

Have a nice week guys

Debs

[bluebunny27]

Yeah, it should always be mentioned that I exercise a lot more than most people ... with more intensity too based on the way I overtake people on the bicycle path, 95% overtaking ratio. I want to make the exercise count so I exercise with a lot of intensity.

A typical green day would be 70 minutes (split in 2 sessions)
or 55-60 minutes if I do my 'time' all at once. That doesn't include the warm up and the cool down period for each session, 5 minutes each ...

A yellow day, 35 minutes ...

Red day ... 0 minute.

I rarely have red days for the exercise, 2-3 days per month probably, so I'm basically training hard 6-7 days a week...
Ok, I checked my Habitcal ... 8 red days for the exercise during the past 4 months, and only 3 during the past 2 and a half months, crazy !

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds - - - 06/01/2009 : 215.6 pounds
7 months 1 day / 64.4 pounds

[bluebunny27]

June 3rd, I expect a double green today again then I can ease up tomorrow with a double yellow.

Double greens 3 days in a row now so I'm definitely being goooooooood at the moment.

Weigh in tomorrow morning too, I should be under 215 hopefully, high 214's not really sure ... maybe the low 215's. I'm in control the past 3 days anyway so that's positive. I have been behavin' ...

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds - - - 06/01/2009 : 215.6 pounds
7 months 1 day / 64.4 pounds

[gratefuldeb67]

Double greens 3 days in a row now so I'm definitely being goooooooood at the moment.

Way to go Marc!!!
Rock on!!!
Debs

[~reneew]

I just wanted to make sure you are writing down all of our emerald ideas...

Oh, and cars too.

[bluebunny27]

Emeralds ??

I thought DIAMONDS were a girl's best friend ??



Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds - - - 06/01/2009 : 215.6 pounds
7 months 1 day / 64.4 pounds

[~reneew]

You're right, they are... I was just thinking green. We'll get you some green socks.

[bluebunny27]

June 1st : Nutrition = GREEN / Training = GREEN
June 2nd : Nutrition = GREEN / Training = GREEN
June 3rd : Nutrition = GREEN / Training = GREEN
June 4th : Nutrition = GREEN / Training = GREEN
June 5th : Nutrition = YELLOW / Training = YELLOW
...

Ok, due to things coming up and getting in the way I chose to push back my 2nd weigh in of the month by 24 hours ... it'll be june 5th instead of june 4th. I'll have a double green on the 4th and then a double yellow on the 5th most likely. Typical day today, june 4th, supposed to be nice and sunny so I'll take advantage of it ... cycling, 35 minutes. Intensity : Through the roof (!) Basically If I don't think about quitting early or I don't feel like throwing up @ the end, I'm not exercising HARD ENOUGH. Shovelglove and jumping jacks later in the evening, good to work my MUSCULAR ARMS. Diet, being niiiiiiiiiice and only eating what I've written down on my daily piece of paper, this hasn't been a problem lately, total green 4 days in a row now. % of compliance, 100% ... drops to 92% for both of my habits after my yellow day on the 5th. Still well over my 80% objective.

...

Future weigh in dates and objectives (Subject to multiple changes !)


6/01/2009 215.6

6/05/2009 215.0 (Objective)


Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds - - - 06/01/2009 : 215.6 pounds
7 months 1 day / 64.4 pounds

[~reneew]

If 100% = vomit, maybe you should do 90%. Be kind to yourself! Although my 14 year old son says that sometimes he feels like it after track and football practice. Oh, he said basketball too! Great... now I'm wondering about youth athletics in general!!! He also suggests no jalepenos or spicy foods before hand.

[bluebunny27]

Lol ! Yeah, I was just exaggerating a lil' bit ! But it's true I have felt like throwing up a few times while/after cycling.


I will have a good weigh in tomorrow morning. I already know it'll be a success with 4 Double green days in a row and I feel 'thinner' too, usually a pretty good sign, pretty sure I'm in the 214's now, maybe even the low 214's ...

I'm wearing this blue t-shirt today that is a bit tight, well, it's tight at my current weight, I wouldn't have been able to wear it before ... wow !! Wearing that I can *REALLY* see in the mirror how much weight I have lost so far, let me tell you. I must be close to a 66 pounds weight loss now ... and it shows.

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds - - - 06/01/2009 : 215.6 pounds
7 months 1 day / 64.4 pounds

[bluebunny27]

Recent months :

11-1-2008 280.0
12-1-2008 266.0 ( Nov. 2008 Down 14.0, Total : 14.0 )
1-1-2009 254.0 ( Dec. 2008 Down 12.0, Total : 26.0 )
1-13-2009 250.0
2-1-2009 244.0 ( Jan. 2009 Down 10.0, Total : 36.0 )
2-19-2009 237.8
3-1-2009 234.0 ( Feb. 2009 Down 10.0, Total : 46.0 )
3-14-2009 232.2
4-1-2009 229.8 ( March 2009 Down 4.2, Total : 50.2 )
4-14-2009 224.8
5-01-2009 221.6 ( April 2009 Down 8.2, Total : 58.4 )
5-15-2009 217.8
6-01-2009 215.6 ( May 2009 Down 6.0, Total : 64.4 )

...

My objective for june 2009 : I'd be happy to lose anywhere between 5 and 6 pounds this month.

...


June 1st : Nutrition = GREEN / Training = GREEN
June 2nd : Nutrition = GREEN / Training = GREEN
June 3rd : Nutrition = GREEN / Training = GREEN
June 4th : Nutrition = GREEN / Training = GREEN
June 5th : Nutrition = YELLOW / Training = YELLOW
...

Alright, 2nd weigh in of the month this morning and I was pleased. 214.0 Very nice and better than I expected at this time. I changed my objective for the month from 4 to 5 pounds to lose up to 5 to 6 pounds seeing this. Everything is going well right now, I am being good and doing what I have to do as well. I'll ease up today with a double yellow and then I have until the 11th until the next weigh in.

I'll cycle later for 35 minutes and that'll count as my exercise for the day and I'll have an extra 'croissant' and cheese perhaps later as my special treat for the day.
I updated my disclaimer signature below as well.


...

Future weigh in dates and objectives (Subject to multiple changes !)


6/01/2009 215.6
6/05/2009 214.0 ( Down 1.6 )

6/11/2009 213.0 (Objective)
6/16/2009 212.0 (Objective)
6/22/2009 211.0 (Objective)
6/28/2009 210.4 (Objective)
7/01/2009 210.0 (Objective)

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds - - - 06/05/2009 : 214.0 pounds
7 months 5 day / 66.0 pounds

[~reneew]

We're gonna miss you Marc... when you disappear. I bet you can't wait to see that under 200 mark!

[mimi]

Congratulations Marc!

I admire your *steel* resolve and how you make it work for you. I'll be interested to follow your maintenance phase and how you will work that...after all, that's a whole new ball game, right?
Keep up the great work!

Mimi

[bluebunny27]

Thanks Renee and Mimi !

Hum, it'll take a lil' while to get under 200 though ...
according to my chart I should be there around sept. 25th ... that'll be pretty special to have a '1' as the first number. I trust my chart will be *correct* with this prediction.

I don't look so far ahead though, I place personal barriers along the way, every 5 pounds, now I've broken through the 215 barrier ... I'm not stepping back, it was hard enough to get through it ... so I look right ahead at the 210 barrier ... Many times I have felt a bit disappointed recently because I was having a hard time with the 215 barrier despite my best efforts, seemed like I was stuck in the 217's-216's-215's for a while but I pressed on and I had a good result today. 214.0

Mimi, I keep reading that maintaining your weight is hard .. I may be delusional but I think it'll be easy for me if I keep going with my good habits, weigh in on a weekly basis and keep on updating my habit cal (only easing up a bit to 60% compliance instead of 80% using my SpreadPro file) ... that's the key to maintaining.

I did it for many years until may 2001 when I stopped exercising and started eating bad food ... before that I maintained around 190-200 for 8 years straight. I don't intend on making the same mistake twice so I'll always remain active and eating good food now.

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds - - - 06/05/2009 : 214.0 pounds
7 months 5 days / 66.0 pounds

[~reneew]

I'd say that you're healed from what happened May 2001. My down fall was that I kept having babies.

[bluebunny27]

Those lil' babies !! Yeah, I guess I'm in the clear there. Around may 2001 I stopped exercising entirely and probably gained 25-30 pounds within a year. That's a lot of ice cream and greasy chicken, lol ! Typical 'emotional eating' case.

I'll try to be good from now on, which shouldn't be too hard, I mean going down to 60% compliance to my habits will seems like a vacation compared to what I'm doing now. It might even be hard to ease up then since I am so used to being 'full on' nearly all the time for many months in a row ... I'll experiment to see what works and keeps my weight the same, more or less ... 190.0 to 195.0 would probably be good for me long term.

80% compliance =
19 green days / 8 yellow days / 3 red days

61% compliance =
8 green days / 17 yellow days / 5 red days

I'll probably gang up on the yellow days, seems like a good plan. This way I don't go off the deep end too often and I am 'mostly' nice ... good enough to maintain hopefully and if it's not enough I'll go up to 65% ...

65% compliance =
11 green days / 14 yellow days / 5 red days

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds - - - 06/05/2009 : 214.0 pounds
7 months 5 days / 66.0 pounds

[bluebunny27]

Milk Kefir grains, the production is under way now.
Well, I have to rehydrate the grains first.

I got the dehydrated milk kefir (Kay-Fear) grains from Winnipeg, Manitoba in the mail the other day.

I added 2% milk to a Mason jar (3/4 cup). Tossed the 2-3 tbsp. of yellow/brown dehydrated grains in there. Then I put the jar in the cupboard, inside a small cardboard box where I folded a towel as insulation and to hold the jar inside a bit with just a plastic bag over the top of the jar inside. I put it downstairs, in the 'armoire' so the temperature would remain the same all year long ... give or take a couple of degrees. The grains are fussy about changes in temperatures apparently.

I let it there for 24hours, no change to the milk's appearance ... that was expected since the grains take a few days to 'wake up' So after 24 hours, I threw away the milk and kept the grains using a nylon strainer (no metal should touch the grains at any time). The grains seemed softer and whiter.

I put them back in the mason jar and added a fresh 3/4 cup of 2% milk again ... waited another 24 hours. Wow, this time there was a difference to the milk's appearance. The grains were certainly doing something in there, looked like there was a thin layer of cottage cheese on top of the milk underneath ... I threw away the old milk and changed it again, 3/4 cup - - - That was last night around midnight.

Since this is all new to me I am curious of course, not sure what will happen. The grains are supposed to get rehydrated within 4-8 days of this routine, changing the milk every 24 hours. Since I don't have a lot of experience with this I don't know what I am doing, lol !
I try to follow the rehydrating procedure though.

I don't harass the grains too much, I let 'em be. I don't berate them all day long. They just sit in the cupboard and once or twice a day I shake the box a bit cos' apparently it's a good idea to do that, shake-shake-shake. Those grains are live active bacteria, eating the lactose in the milk and producing all sorts of nutrients.

They are supposed to grow in size too, about 5-10% each day so after a while you can start eating the grains themselves, the extra ones, supposed to be excellent as well ... dehydrate some to keep in case something happens to your main grains, that sort of thing.

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds - - - 06/05/2009 : 214.0 pounds
7 months 5 days / 66.0 pounds

[bluebunny27]

Alright, the Kefir situation ... I contacted an EXPERT last night to know if everything was on track and she assured me that there was no problem, I just needed to add more milk.

I did that last night and it seems to have turned out ok. This morning there was a normal situation in the armoire and the kefir grains appear to be working great. I mixed the content a bit by swirling the jar around since it had not been touched in about 12 hours. I think the grains are probably rehydrated properly now (They were even 24 hours ago most likely but I hadn't added enough milk compared to the quantity of grains that were in the *POT*) I was too much of a newbie to realize that at first so I asked an expert.

I am planning on starting drinking kefir in about 36 hours. The current batch has to incubate another 12 hours at room temp and then I strain the grains and put the kefir milk in the fridge in a 2nd Mason jar for 24 hours straight so it gets colder and develops even more nutrients and vitamins (while I start the new kefir batch in the armoire) I like this, incubating, fermenting, it's nice when you take a look inside the box and you see something's been happenin' in there. Those grains are live active bacteria too and they should grow bigger and more numerous each day, 5-10% more each day apparently. Beer, yogurt, kefir : 3 things I make at home.

I'll always be incubating something now since kefir is a non stop process and you incubate a small batch everyday. It should take 5-10 minutes of work every day and kefir is supposed to be really good for my health. Plus making it myself, I save a lot of money too since store bought kefir costs even more than yogurt so it would be expensive to buy kefir containers from the store all the time.

Diet and exercise, double green today. Cycling in the late afternoon most likely, 3pm / 3:30pm. intense 35 minutes and then shovelglove and jumping jacks later on in the evening. I'll probably watch a film and the French open women's tennis final I recorded this morning (I am careful not to watch the news so I don't know who won the match in advance !)

Typical diet day as well. Strangely it has been easier with the diet than the exercise lately, it's usually the opposite. I'm hitting 90% compliance on the diet, closer to 80% for the exercise. Since I don't cheat much on the diet it doesn't matter though, I don't have to use the exercise to make up for 'cheating' in the kitchen.

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds - - - 06/05/2009 : 214.0 pounds
7 months 5 days / 66.0 pounds

[~reneew]

Do you make homeade bread? I think you'd like it. I do.
All this talk of keifer... I don't think I even ever had it. I have made homeade white cheese. It turned out kind of like ricotta. It was called queso blanco... my family called it queso blando. I was blah, but great mixed with spices on crackers, or plain in lasagna. I also make my own pancake syrups. I don't like pancakes much, but I hate fake store bought syrup. I've got to stop talking about food.

[bluebunny27]

I've never made bread. Maybe that would be interesting as a future project.

Kefir is a bit like plain yogurt but you can make smoothies with it. Mix it with fruit, molasses, honey ... anything you can do with yogurt, really. It's supposed to be super healthy in any cases. Since you can make it at room temperature it's really convenient too. The kefir grains prevent the milk from spoiling, you could leave the jar for an entire year in the cupboard and it wouldn't spoil.

Here's a good site :
http://tinyurl.com/2hlyat

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds - - - 06/05/2009 : 214.0 pounds
7 months 5 days / 66.0 pounds

[~reneew]

Hmmm... is it good? It says that it calms nerves. I'm interested. Tell me how yours goes, as I'm sure you will.

I make bread all the time. I started in a bread machine, and when I over used my last (3rd) and it broke, I now got a kitchen aid mixer that can make 4 loaves at a time. My favorite recipe is huge and is made and stored in the fridge up to 7-10 days and can be used for bread, rolls, pizza crust, buns, cinnamon rolls (don't even go there!), bread sticks and anything that needs bread dough. I give my kids a lump and they make some created form, we let it rise, and bake. It's great fun for them... and me.

[bluebunny27]

******* Sounds like good fun to have with your kids, Renee. Are they future SCIENTISTS in the
kitchen ?? Hopefully .. yes !!

I am still experiencing with the kefir grains ... I am trying different things at the moment, techniques, etc.

It was the same with the yogurt, I needed about 4-5 different attempts to get my set up right and now it's close to a perfect system I can follow every time.

I have the quantity of milk, the time of incubation, the temperature in the incubation container, the microwave time required to heat up the milk to the correct temperature, the time required to cool down the milk in the sink filled with water, all that was tweaked a few times one way or the other so I can come up with the perfect set up for my production ...

With the kefir it might be a lil' more tricky since the grains grow, I already noticed I have more and I've only been doing this 3-4 days now ... they become more numerous so that cuts on the fermentation time ... I'll have to see what works best. I may have to eat some of them already since I think I have too many for the quantity of milk I am using daily, 2 cups, and they are more numerous already. Since I'm a newbie I don't know what I'm doing and I need to experiment to find the correct procedure. Quantity of milk, quantity of grains, time of fermentation, time in the fridge, etc.

...


June 1st : Nutrition / Training
June 2nd : Nutrition / Training
June 3rd : Nutrition / Training
June 4th : Nutrition / Training
June 5th : Nutrition / Training
June 6th : Nutrition / Training
June 7th : Nutrition / Training
...

A bit more yellow in my HabitCal now, especially for the training ... but I did a quick 'step on the scale' tonight and I don't really need the extra exercise right now actually. I have been so good with the dieting part that I am losing weight even if I don't train quite as hard at the moment, 35 minutes instead of 70 on the 5th and today as well on the 7th. A bunch of yellows don't really hurt me. The main thing is to avoid the red days. Yellow days are still positive ones for me. I still am pretty good in the kitchen and training for 35 intense minutes on yellow days so it's not a total loss. Oh yeah, my step on the scale result, I'll be around 213.2 tomorrow morning, since I weighed in at 214.6 tonight, the 6th, around midnight (I usually lose between 1.2 and 1.8 pound on an average night according to my previous experience) and I still have until the 11th for my official weigh in so the 213.0 objective probably won't be a problem. Strange that I was struggling a bit just recently and since early june it seems I am losing weight more easily all of a sudden. I think I have been really good on the diet part, my green days were even greener than usual probably, not really sure. On Saturday, the 6th, I was feeling hungry all day long, I could have had a red day easily. It was a tough one but I still didn't cheat at all, not even a micro bite, nothing. I was very good, strong and sticking to what's written on my lil' piece of paper for the day.

I should go out on sunday, the 7th, hence the double yellow. I won't have as much time to train, just cycling in the afternoon around 2:15pm and I'll probably eat a bit more as well, but it won't be a major diet malfunction hopefully.

...

Future weigh in dates and objectives (Subject to multiple changes !)


6/01/2009 215.6
6/05/2009 214.0 ( Down 1.6 )

6/11/2009 213.0 (Objective)
6/16/2009 212.0 (Objective)
6/22/2009 211.0 (Objective)
6/28/2009 210.4 (Objective)
7/01/2009 210.0 (Objective)

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds - - - 06/05/2009 : 214.0 pounds
7 months 5 days / 66.0 pounds

[StrawberryRoan]

marc,

I just read this entire thread and found it to be highly entertaining (and informative.) You are a wonderful writer, creating true visuals. I can just "see" you speeding through the torrents of hail - your black and silver helmet a blur.

Congrats, it appears that you are not only accomplishing your goal,
but enjoying the journey.

Oh wait, I must trademark that phrase to use at a future graduation ceremony. Assuming I am ever receiving an honorary degree and am asked to speak, of course.

[bluebunny27]

Wow, nice compliments, thank you, Berry !

My first language is french too so it's nice to be a
'wonderful writer' using my 2nd language.

I try to give tips, tricks, information about what I do so it can help out others. Of course what I do is not for everybody, being a young man helps to handle the work outs for example and since I'm not married with children I have a lot of control over what I'm eating and when ... my exercise routine, that sort of thing ...

You take bits and pieces from what I do and you leave the rest out if it doesn't suit your needs. It's all good in the end when you see good results on the scale anyway. I'm probably more extreme than a lot of people. Since I am rather good at losing weight I think I can share some details. I have hands on expertise based on my own personal experiences.

Hopefully it's the last time ever I have to do this though.
I lost 35 pounds within 100 days in the early 90's ... I forget the year now but it was the summer of 1990 or 1991 and now it'll be a loss of 85-87 pounds within a year (67 pounds done now, 18-19-20 pounds to go until nov. 1st. where I hope to be around 195.0, possibly even 193, that would be ideal.) I have all those new tips now for eating and training properly, ways to monitor my progress, etc.

This should prevent me from getting in trouble again in the future so I am confident it's the last time ever I have to be this extreme ... especially for a whole year without any break at all, non stop. Twice in a lifetime was enough. I have learned my lesson now hopefully. I'll try not to make the same mistakes : to quit training overnight and eat bad food excessively

I'll be cycling in about 2 hours now. Last night I was researching how to put a high beam on my bike so I can go training later at night when it's dark outside. lol ! That would be pretty cool ! They make special beams you can attach on your bike for late night training, it might be convenient to be able to do that once in a while to avoid bad weather for example. I'll look into that.

Also, the kefir situation. I am looking more into fridge fermentation now. Kefir can be fermented directly in the fridge, it takes about 4 days instead of 10-12 hours (at room temperature) due to the colder temperature of course. That might be good for me.

I could make a 1 L. batch at once in the fridge, 4 days required. Meanwhile I am drinking the fermented batch I made previously, 1 L. over those 4 days while the 2nd batch is fermenting. That would mean less work since I only have to transfer the grains once every 4 days instead of doing it daily. I'll seriously look into that now as it seems like an interesting concept that might be more convenient.

Thanks again, Berry !

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds - - - 06/05/2009 : 214.0 pounds
7 months 5 days / 66.0 pounds

[bluebunny27]

I'm doing super well these days. June : Nutrition, Compliance percentage : through the roof, 93% expected on june 11th. Training, 82% expected.

I'm enjoying this since there are times when it is harder so when I am being good and I am not bothered it's a nice feeling. I am using all my tricks at the moment to make sure I am not cheating on the diet and it's paying off big time.

- Writing down what I plan on eating and when
- Good nutritious food, no sweets, no sugar/salt added, except a tbsp of sugar in my coffee.
- Spreading out my meals, saving some things to eat in between meals so I don't feel the cravings, just a 'controlled hunger' I usually save my plain HOMEMADE yogurt, half a fruit, a few almonds, a tbsp of molasses. 1 tbsp of ground flax seeds, 1 tbsp of wheat bran. (I always have a lil' something 15 minutes before exercising)
- Micro biting if I absolutely must.
- Lots of water and veggies (carrots, celeries), smaller portions of meat/main dishes, bigger portions of veggies, one plate.
- Smelling chocolate cookies instead of eating them,

I even changed my program today. It was supposed to be a double yellow day but it'll be a double green instead since my plans of going out fell through after all so I bounced back quickly and changed my habitcal data just now.


Double green on sunday

Double green on monday is expected as well.
Cycling, shovelglove and jumping jacks.

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds - - - 06/05/2009 : 214.0 pounds
7 months 5 days / 66.0 pounds

[bluebunny27]

Recent months :

11-1-2008 280.0
12-1-2008 266.0 ( Nov. 2008 Down 14.0, Total : 14.0 )
1-1-2009 254.0 ( Dec. 2008 Down 12.0, Total : 26.0 )
1-13-2009 250.0
2-1-2009 244.0 ( Jan. 2009 Down 10.0, Total : 36.0 )
2-19-2009 237.8
3-1-2009 234.0 ( Feb. 2009 Down 10.0, Total : 46.0 )
3-14-2009 232.2
4-1-2009 229.8 ( March 2009 Down 4.2, Total : 50.2 )
4-14-2009 224.8
5-01-2009 221.6 ( April 2009 Down 8.2, Total : 58.4 )
5-15-2009 217.8
6-01-2009 215.6 ( May 2009 Down 6.0, Total : 64.4 )

...

My objective for june 2009 : I'd be happy to lose anywhere between 5 and 6 pounds this month.

...


June 1st : Nutrition / Training 70 min.
June 2nd : Nutrition / Training 70 min.
June 3rd : Nutrition / Training 35 min.
June 4th : Nutrition / Training 35 min.
June 5th : Nutrition / Training 35 min.
June 6th : Nutrition / Training 35 min.
June 7th : Nutrition / Training 70 min.
June 8th : Nutrition / Training 70 min.
June 9th : Nutrition / Training 35 min.
June 10th : Nutrition / Training 70 min.

...

Alright, I corrected the listing above to match my HabitCal. Still on track now. Training has been harder lately so I've slowed down a bit but I plan a few double green days in a row now. I have been REALLY good with my diet lately so I am pleased. No red days at the moment, the most important thing 4-me.
Sometimes I go nutz feeling the hunger coming up but I use all my tip and tricks to make sure I am not cheating excessively. I also updated my weigh in dates below, some dates have been pushed back 24 hours.

...

Future weigh in dates and objectives (Subject to multiple changes !)


6/01/2009 215.6
6/05/2009 214.0 ( Down 1.6 )

6/11/2009 213.0 (Objective)
6/17/2009 212.0 (Objective)
6/23/2009 211.0 (Objective)
6/29/2009 210.2 (Objective)
7/01/2009 210.0 (Objective)

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds - - - 06/05/2009 : 214.0 pounds
7 months 5 days / 66.0 pounds