Thursday, August 31, 2006

One of the Scales is Off (maybe)

So I compared scales again this morning. I weighed in on the Taylor with my basketball outfit on. Then I weighed myself on the gym scale. The difference was .4 lbs. today. Now one thing to note is that sometimes I will weigh myself on the Taylor, step off, wait 30 seconds and step back on it again and the reading is different. I'll then wait another minute before weighing in again. Usually the 2nd and 3rd and 4th readings are the same. With that in mind, I think I may have just weighed myself once on the Taylor Tuesday morning. So I'll do the same test over the next few weeks until I get a good idea what the difference is between the two scales.

My eating habits have been pretty solid. I've been partaking of the WO in the morning, eating Goldfish crackers, yogurt and an apple for lunch and then just having one helping at dinner and not snacking after dinner. I've had a good week of exercise ... played ball on Tuesday, ran on Wednesday and played ball again this morning. I'll run 3 miles tomorrow morning and then either play ball or run on Saturday.

This morning I had my official weigh-in.

Same scale, same time of day with just a towel.

WEIGHT: 191.7
Difference: 25.8 lbs. since May 1, 2006 (avg. .2 lbs/day)

I'm going to start reporting what the average loss per day is since I started Shangri-La. At .2 lbs. a day, I'll hit my goal on October 4th, 2006.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Moving Towards the Home Scale

I bought a scale at Wal*Mart a couple of weeks ago. The scale is made by Taylor. I chose the low-end Taylor scale because all I needed was a scale that measured weight ... not body fat or body water ... just weight. Taylor seems to pride itself on being accurate. So far, I'm pleased with the scale.

Of course I became curious about how far apart measurements are between my gym's scale and our Taylor scale. Tuesday morning I put on my basketball clothing, socks and shoes, then I weighed myself on the Taylor. I made sure I didn't drink or consume anything before weighing myself on the gym scale. I weighed myself on the gym scale and found that there is a 1.1 lbs. difference between the gym scale and the Taylor. Whenever I weigh myself on the Taylor, I need to subtract 1.1 pounds to arrive at my gym scale number.

Now I've only tested this once. Tomorrow I will test the scales again. I'll continue to test the scales over the next few times I go to the gym. After getting a few samples, then I'll feel confident about weighing myself on the Taylor scale.

Why am I doing this? First, because I may eventually quit the gym and will end up using the Taylor scale. So I want the transition in weights to be accurate. I'm a nutcase ... I like correct data. As long as the two scales are about a pound apart, then I'm fine with using the Taylor for my official weight.

Secondly, I'm running on non-basketball days and I want to use the Taylor to weigh myself after the run.

I went running this morning ... it was beautiful outside ... the heat has broken here in Texas. It was 64 degrees at 6am. After a good 3 mile run I weighed in on the Taylor.

Unofficial Weight: 193.0 (Taylor) 191.9 (adjusted to gym scale)
Unofficial Difference: 25.6 lbs. since May 1, 2006 (adjusted)

Tomorrow I'll have more data as well as an official weigh-in. Eventually my official weigh-ins will be on the Taylor.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Another Side Effect?

So my grades from my Summer Semester came out finally. It turns out that Summer 2006 was my best term ever! I'm a B+ MBA student. But this term I earned 3 A-'s and 1 A.

What is significant about this is that I started the Shangri-La diet right end the end of April and the beginning of May. The Summer term started towards the beginning of May. So could the Shangri-La diet make one smarter too?

I'm half-joking when I ask that question, but that also means I'm half-serious. Maybe I'm not necessarily smarter by ingesting extra-light olive oil or walnut oil, but perhaps by losing weight I've gained confidence and thus am able to perform better in my classes.

Or maybe my better performance is due to the fact that I took two organizational behavior classes (generally considered easy) and one database class (I'm an IT nut, so it was easy). But I did take a tough finance course and I've only earned one other A- in all my other finance classes ... so maybe it was the diet.

Well, I have two more classes before I graduate in December ... one is International Financial Markets and the other is Advanced Master Negotiations. So if I perform well in these classes (A or A-), then maybe being on the diet and getting good grades has a correlation. Maybe Seth can use some students to test this theory! :-)

As for an update on the diet ...

TUESDAY: I played basketball of course, drank 12 fl. oz. of Mt. Dew, 1 dose WO, normal lunch (normal = cup of Goldfish crackers, Yoplait yogurt and 1 apple), 2nd dose of WO in afternoon, 1 SuperSonic cheeseburger and cream-slush before class and then two cookies before going to bed.

WEDNESDAY: 1 dose WO, normal lunch, 2nd dose WO, 4 homemade tacos and 1 cup of Dreyer's Double Vanilla ice cream.

THURSDAY: Basketball in the morning (had to cut it short 15 minutes as one of the guys tore a knee), 1 dose WO, normal lunch ... and since I'm writing this at lunch, I'll take my 2nd dose of WO at 3:30pm or so and then for dinner I'll probably eat leftover tacos.

After basketball this morning, I weighed in.

Same time of day, same scale, same outfit (dry towel):

WEIGHT: 193.3
Difference: 24.2 lbs. since May 1, 2006

So I gained .3 lbs. since Tuesday morning ... I still have to work that Sonic burger and those tacos out of my system. I'm not discouraged at all ... this has happened many times before along my journey.

My wife started the diet a few weeks ago. She told me that she has lost 2 pounds already! I'm excited for her!

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

The Pounds Are Coming Off More Slowly

When I first started the Shangri-La lifestyle (I don't view it as a diet in the sense that you go on a diet for a period of time and then you go back to whatever you did before) I would lose about 2 pounds a week. Now I'm losing about less than a pound a week.

This leveling is due to the fact that I've not been as rigorous in my routine as I was before we had our baby at the end of July. But now that life is beginning to settle down a bit and now that school has tapered off somewhat, I'm getting back into my habits.

This is my routine now:
  • Running outside (about 3 miles each day now) on Mondays, Wednesdays and hopefully Fridays and Saturdays)
  • Playing basketball on Tuesdays and Thursdays (an hour each day)
  • Ingesting a tablespoon of Spectrum walnut oil (WO) in the morning and in the afternoon
  • Skipping breakfast (or worded differently ... eating a tablespoon of WO for breakfast)
  • Eating a light lunch (normally a cup of Goldfish crackers, an apple and a cup of Yoplait yogurt)
  • Eating a nutritious dinner ... but not stuffing myself ... I stop when I feel satisfied
  • Not eating after dinner ... just drinking water.

I'm hoping by sticking to my routine (as I did before) I'll be able to shed those last 8 pounds and keep 'em off for six months.

In order to make this blog more useful for those who are following it and who are curious about what I eat, I'll provide an update of how well I keep to my plan and any deviations from it.

Since I've gone below 200, I've not bounced above that mark ... this is encouraging to me because it tells me that the pounds are staying off.

Today I weighed in ... same time of day, same scale with just the towel.

WEIGHT: 193.0
Difference: 24.5 lbs. since May 1, 2006

Let the last 8 pounds fall.

Thursday, August 3, 2006

And the Pounds Roll

Last week I strained my calf muscle. After a good sleep that night, I was feeling much better the next day. I played basketball on Saturday and did well.

Monday morning I ran 3 miles. Tuesday I played ball. Wednesday I ran 3 miles on the treadmill. This morning I played basketball.

Since I've been at home helping out, I've not been in my normal routine lately which means I haven't been diligent about taking my dose of WO. This morning will be the first time in a few days that I will have taken it. But the pounds are still rolling off. I'm less than 10 pounds away from my target weight.

This morning I weighed in.

Same time of day, same scale with just the towel.

WEIGHT: 194.5
Difference: 23 lbs. since May 1, 2006

The other day an old friend and co-worker came in my office to congradulate me on the new baby. He also asked me if I had been losing weight. He said that my face looks much thinner than he had remembered. I told him (proudly) that I had lost 20 lbs. since May 1st. He was impressed. Besides the benefit of feeling good about myself, comments like that really make it all worth it.