Blogcritics

Countdown to 165: Week 20 - The End

Phillip Winn — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 18:34:42 EDT

At last, the end, and a happy ending at that -- 70 pounds lost in 20 weeks.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007, I woke up and stepped on a scale. I knew the number would be high, since I had weighed myself a few days before, but seeing it on the scale and realizing I would have to record it and display it for the world to see helped to strengthen my resolve. It was two pounds higher than Saturday. Having posted my initial weight of...

Countdown to 165: Weeks 18-19 - The Final Stretch

Phillip Winn — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 14:45:11 EDT

With one week to go, I know the effect a single high-carb meal can have.
With one week to go, it is more difficult than ever to stay focused. For example, I'm taking my family on a hayride Saturday night, and the highlight every year -- for me -- is s'mores by the bonfire. I believe s'mores made by a bonfire taste different than s'mores made on my grill. The singed eyebrows and burnt fingers add to the...

Countdown to 165: Weeks 16-17 - The Home Stretch

Phillip Winn — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 07:02:57 EDT

Finally I can buy pants and not have to worry about shrinking out of them! I've bought my final belt, too.
I've lost 66 pounds and dropped more than a dozen inches around my waist, and people have noticed. Even people who have managed to resist asking me questions before this week have finally start to quiz me for details now that I've begun wearing better-fitting clothes! I've had to come up with a set of recommendations and advice.What I...

Countdown to 165: Weeks 14-15 - New Clothes

Phillip Winn — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 16:37:55 EDT

In which I buy new clothes, but shrink out of them before I can even try them on!
My mission is to lose 85 pounds in 20 weeks. I'm not going to make it.Getting StartedI have lost 62 pounds in 15 weeks. That has earned me quite a bit of attention, and many people have asked for my "secret." Regular readers of this series may suspect my answer already, but I tell everyone the same thing: You must want to lose the...

Countdown to 165: Weeks 12-13 - Resetting the Target

Phillip Winn — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 01:28:48 EDT

My entire endgame disappeared overnight. Can I continue on pace after being set adrift?
I have been on a mission to lose 85 pounds in 20 weeks, but in these two weeks things fell apart. No, I didn't gain weight, or cheat even once. But my deadline has disappeared, and my dieting role model fell off the wagon after a major disappointment of her own.Major ChallengesFirst the role model: my mother introduced me to this diet, and at...

Countdown to 165: Weeks 10-11 - Mid-Term Course Change

Phillip Winn — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 07:39:11 EDT

Forget the wise choice -- I'm going for the raw numbers! We'll see how foolish it looks next year.
Let's recap: On June 12, I began a 20-week plan to lose as much weight as possible before a scheduled trip to Central Asia. No reinforcing the stereotype of "the fat American" for me! I weighed 250 pounds, and decided I would like to eventually lose 85 pounds. To hit that target would mean losing 4.25 pounds per week, which seemed...

Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

Countdown to 165: Week 8-9 - Halfway There

Phillip Winn — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 19:23:32 EDT

I missed my deadline last week, but I hope most of you caught Craig Harper's excellent article, The Psychology of Weight Loss. More of my articles in this series have focused on psychological aspects of weight-loss than on the physical, and that's not an accident. While research and observation convinced me that a low-carb, low-calorie plan would be fast, effective, and safe, most people who fail to lose weight fail because they quit, not because they've chosen the wrong level of calories.Psychological PreparationI prepared myself by spending nearly a week getting "psyched up," ready for anything, and committed to the end... or so I thought. Last week I encountered a subtle temptation I did not expect: the lure of success. A few weeks ago I dealt with the temptation of failure. "Why work so hard for such meager results?" is the question, and "Because I've committed to do so, and short-term setbacks don't affect my long-term goal" is the answer. The temptation of success is different.I started with 85 pounds to lose, and that's a lot of weight. Head to your local butcher's counter and try to count out how much meat it takes to reach 85 pounds! Though many people have much more than that to lose, any reasonably large number can seem overwhelming. I didn't know if I could lose all of the weight by November (it now looks like I probably won't, quite), so I focused on other things. I focused on a date, resolved to keep going until that date, no matter how much or how little I lost. But then I realized I had lost 40 pounds, and that's also a lot of weight. It's a big accomplishment, something worth celebrating.Not with dessert.Strangely, that's the temptation I faced. To celebrate my weight-loss success by eating things guaranteed to push my body out of ketosis, so I would have to start all over again! Rationally, I knew that splurging would be counter-productive, but irrationally I thought that I could easily lose the weight again. In the end, reminding myself of my commitment kept me on track, but it was a tough couple of days.Are you prepared to deal with the unexpected? Today I found out that the can of tuna in my desk drawer wasn't tuna at all, but crab meat. I opened the can, then threw it away. Crab meat, at least that can of crab meat, is clearly not meant to be eaten straight. That left me with nothing to eat for lunch! At that point, if you're thinking a coworker could provide sandwich supplies, or Taco Bueno is cheap, you're in trouble. I was planning to drive to a grocery store to buy canned tuna, but my wife mentioned that she had mixed up some chicken salad, so I drove home for that instead. Although I've skipped only one meal in the nine weeks I've been on this diet, and not on purpose, I would rather skip a meal than cheat. I believe that is where you need to be to succeed at losing weight.Get Plenty Of SleepLack of sleep contributes to weight gain -- or slow weight loss -- far more than most people realize. I consider sleep "wasted time." It interferes with getting work done, watching movies, listening to music, everything. I've seriously considered odd sleep patterns to try to reduce the amount of time "wasted" each day, and generally don't get enough sleep. This is bad. Don't do it!This isn't a folk tale. Your body released hormones called "leptin" and "ghrelin" that help to regulate appetite, and when you don't get enough sleep, you end up with less leptin and more ghrelin than you should have. In fact, among male participants in a University of Chicago study who were sleep-deprived for the sake of science, "Their desire for high carbohydrate, calorie-dense foods increased by a whopping 45%." For most people, this is bad news. For people on a low-carb, low-calorie diet, it's catastrophic.WebMD has some tips on getting enough sleep, but I think I need only one: do it. I know when I have to get up, so I can't stay up until five hours before then and then head to bed without seeing consequences. It would be a shame to pour myself into a diet and then sabotage it nightly by grabbing a few extra hours of reading and movie-watching time.Personal UpdateIt has been an odd couple of weeks for me, as I weighed myself on a couple of "extra" days and noted that my continued issues with constipation are having a dramatic effect day-to-day. On weigh-in day this week, for example, I weighed more than I had a couple of days before. Nevertheless, you'll get the official numbers: I lost two pounds during Week 8, and three pounds during Week 9, for five more pounds total. I passed two milestones along the way. First I lost 40 pounds, then I reached the halfway point with 42.5 pounds lost. I'm still one pound shy of my all-time weight loss record. Years ago I lost 45 pounds and kept it off for more than a year, and one more pound will get me there.I'm continuing with a steady commitment to the gym, even though it's hurting my short-term numbers. I can see improved muscle mass in my arms, for example, which can't be helping my weight now, but will be healthier for me down the road.In addition to my weight, I've started measuring my waist. I'm not exactly sure where I started, but it was somewhere in the 40s. I try not to think about it! After a few weeks, I had to buy a new belt, and then I noticed that I was drawing it in tighter and tighter every few days. When I bought it, I used the 43-inch notch, but soon I was using the 41-inch notch, and then the 39-inch notch, and soon I ran out of notches! That's the point at which I began measuring my waist weekly with a tape measure. I still haven't poked new holes in the belt, so now I'm sometimes in danger of my pants falling down even with my belt on!2007-06-12: 250, initial weight2007-06-19: 236, -14 pounds2007-06-26: 231, -5 pounds2007-07-03: 225, -6 pounds2007-07-10: 221, -4 pounds, 43 inch waist (estimated)2007-07-17: 217, -4 pounds, 41 inch waist (estimated)2007-07-24: 215, -2 pounds, 39 inch waist (estimated)2007-07-31: 211, -4 pounds, 38 inch waist2007-08-07: 209, -2 pounds, 37 inch waist2007-08-14: 206, -3 pounds, 36 inch waist, 44 pounds lost total

Phillip Winn is the Chief Geek for BC Magazine, and a blogger since 1995. He can currently be found and followed on Twitter.

Countdown to 165: Week 7 - Slow And Steady

Phillip Winn — Thu, 2 Aug 2007 22:41:47 EDT

Last week, I explained that my weight loss had slowed down, and offered some possible explanations. I'm not sure if readers caught a whiff of frustration, but I was frustrated. As horrible as it sounds to be frustrated about losing "only" two pounds in a week, there I was.One interesting result of the "slow" week is that I faced real temptation for the first time since starting. While the first week had the worst physical effects, at least for the first three days, this week had the worst mental effects. Every day, several times a day, I was tempted to have just one cookie (homemade butterscotch oatmeal), or just one ice cream sandwich, or maybe a tortilla to wrap around that fajita chicken. When I stopped to think, I was easily able to resist the urges, but the subtle thought process seemed to be that it didn't really matter that much, because I was hardly losing any weight anyway.Of course, this is both a lie, and irrelevant. While two pounds a week wouldn't get me to my goal by November, it's still great progress. I didn't start out thinking I'd reach my goal by November, so even though I let my hopes rise, a dose of realism shouldn't discourage me. Even if my weight loss dropped to zero, or even if I gained a pound or two some week, splurging would still be sabotaging myself and risking every bit of progress I've made. One can always recover after mistakes, but it's much better not to make the mistakes. Why make what seems like a bad situation even worse? Waiting out a period of water retention or constipation is far easier than re-entering ketosis after eating too many carbohydrates!Logic and reason have little impact when my kids ask, again, if I want a cookie, but I managed to hold on. After a few days, I realized that I needed to try a different approach to keep myself out of trouble, and so I focused on the inches I've lost around my waist. That seemed to help, and I realized that I'm fortunate to have had measurable progress at all. I fully expect weeks to pass with no measurable progress, and those will be harder. I can only hope that reason and logic will carry me through.This is a marathon, not a sprint, and just as in many long races (think of the Tour de France, or any number of old Herbie movies), I've built in a resting period in November, so the "end" is in sight.Personal UpdateI can confirm -- delicately -- that the lack of fiber in my diet was indeed a major cause of the slow loss, and while I've made progress in that area, I'm still working on a long-term (non-addictive) solution I can recommend. I switched back to daily weigh-ins for the first few days, solely for my own benefit, which is what helped me link the effect of the lack of fiber in my diet to my weight retention. (It may have had the side effect of causing me to be discouraged, so I've since stopped.) That situation isn't wholly resolved, but periodic application of a potent herbal tea is helping while I track down low-carb fiber supplements.This week I lost another four pounds, which makes 39 pounds lost overall, one pound shy of a real milestone I was hoping to reach. I'll celebrate the half-way point of 42.5 pounds sometime in the next week or two, and my next minor goal will be "Onederland," a label for any weight for which the first digit is one. I also lost at least another inch around my waist. It might be two inches again, but I've run out of notches on my new belt, so I'll have to poke some new holes to be sure. I'd like to lose another six inches or so around my waist, a return to my 32" waist when I was a teenager. My wife suggests that this is an overly-optimistic goal, so I'm treating it as a secondary goal -- at least as far as she knows!I'm tempted to run through the numbers a dozen different ways, but you've got the raw data, so you can do that yourself if you're so inclined. Instead I'll say that I've experienced a horrific personal catastrophe -- I've run out of cappuccino-flavored protein powder! It turns out that those big tubs aren't bottomless, as I'd somehow hoped, so I've had to resort to breakfast shakes using other flavors of powder, and on two days I even had eggs (one whole egg, one egg white) with turkey pepperoni for breakfast. I just checked with my local supplier (my mother), and she has a few extra unopened tubs of the cappuccino powder, so I'll drop by for a visit soon, and pay her a buck or two over what she paid for the quick service.I've developed a habit of walking to the grocery store when we need something, once or twice a week. It's about three-quarters of a mile each way, and I carry a bag or two of groceries on the way home. Monday night I noticed that my shoes felt weird. I was sliding back and forth in them. When I mentioned this to my wife, she reminded me that when I bought those shoes, I was surprised to find that I needed a bigger pair than I'd worn before. Only when my feet shrunk back down this week did I finally realize that my feet had gotten fatter! Any week in which my waist and feet both shrink is a good week.My dietary goal for the coming week is to eat more protein, since I've started working out four days a week, and will probably increase that to five days most weeks. Two days of cardio, and two days of full-circuit weight training. If I add a fifth day, it will be more focused upper-body weight training. If I don't eat enough protein, my body will start breaking down muscle for fuel. While that would be good in the short-term for weight loss, it would hurt me in several ways over the long-term, and I'm in this for the long term.2007-06-12: 250, initial weight 2007-06-19: 236, -14 pounds 2007-06-26: 231, -5 pounds 2007-07-03: 225, -6 pounds 2007-07-10: 221, -4 pounds 2007-07-17: 217, -4 pounds 2007-07-24: 215, -2 pounds 2007-07-31: 211, -4 pounds this week, 39 pounds lost total

Phillip Winn is the Chief Geek for BC Magazine, and a blogger since 1995. He can currently be found and followed on Twitter.

Countdown to 165: Week 6 - Two Pounds, Two Inches

Phillip Winn — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 08:30:40 EDT

Why do most major changes in diet fail? Because people quit. In fact, I think one measure of the benefits of a diet ought to be how many people are able to stick with it. The most intensive of diets may have the best results, but if the majority of people quit after a week, odds are it won't be successful for you, either.Of course, a certain percentage of people quit every weight-loss effort they ever start. Add to that people who claim to be on such-and-such plan, and yet apparently misread the instructions, because there they are, eating something they're not supposed to. Pile on top of that the doubt and self-recrimination that most overweight people have developed over the years, and it is not surprising that it's hard for most people to lose weight. One the other hand, someone with a strong will can lose weight on just about any diet plan, even eating only food from McDonald's. (I don't recommend this, by the way.)Why do people quit? Sometimes it is because they did not carefully count the cost before beginning, a problem I addressed last week. Sometimes, however, it is because the results don't turn out as they expect, and they lose faith in the plan. Many people expect weight loss to be smooth and uninterrupted, but we don't tend to notice the fits and starts with which we gain weight. Many things affect daily or weekly weight, which is why I think it is important to set a time limit and then stick with it, no matter what. If things don't go as you'd like one week, just wait. The next week may see great progress, or perhaps the progress isn't coming as you expect.I can probably illustrate this best with a personal update.Personal UpdateThis week I lost "only" two pounds, which was slightly disappointing, but I also lost two inches from my waist. In fact, I wish I had taken measurements on Day One, because the only reason I noticed progress is that I bought a new belt two weeks ago. I deliberately bought the belt on the small side, so I started at one shy of the largest notch on the belt. After one week, I was cinching it two inches tighter, and now after one more week, I am cinching it four inches tighter, and by next weigh-in day, I might need to poke new holes in the belt.If I was discouraged about the slowdown in weight loss, the realization that I should be able to wear my old black shorts now more than offset it. (I'm wearing them now!) A few t-shirts that I had "outgrown" fit again, too.I had expected a poor weigh-in, for three reasons. Two of them I may be able to change, while one is just something I'll have to deal with.First, the most embarrassing reason, and the big downside to a low-carb diet: constipation. I'm consuming a far smaller quantity of food than I used to, so there's less material to work with, and what I am consuming has almost no fiber at all. Most people are affected by this challenge eventually, and I managed to dodge it for a few weeks, but eventually it caught up to me. For those who generally think I'm "full of it," on weigh-in day and for a day or two before that, you were right! I'm turning to an herbal tea for now, though I'm also looking into more suitable long-term solutions. This may have cost me a pound or two, and is generally not a good thing in any case.Second, I could tell I was retaining water again. My initial overwhelming rush of weight loss was due in large part to my body retaining less water than normal, but this week, for some reason, I started a diet soda habit. Though the sodas have zero calories, they do contain sodium and other chemicals, which don't seem to do my body good. I've cut the diet soda out, and also cut back on some saltier meat products I had been eating, and I hope that will make a difference in water retention. This may have cost me a pound or two.Third, I am still building new muscle. My gym membership is great, and I don't regret the time spent or the muscle gained, or even the occasional soreness as I get back into shape, but muscle is denser than fat, so losing a cup of fat and replacing it with a cup of muscle means a net gain in weight, which may have cost me a few ounces.Of course, losing two pounds in a week, six weeks into a weight-loss plan, seems like a good problem to have! In fact, I've now lost 35 pounds in six weeks, which gives me exactly 50 more pounds to lose, and a little over 14 weeks in which to do it.My diet is expanding as my family adapts to mostly low-carb dinners, and I become more familiar with rought estimates of carbohydrates. The diet I'm on allows up to 20 grams of carbohydrates per day, but the math is much easier for me if I keep it under ten -- I can track it in my head. This week I will drink the last of my already-purchased diet sodas, and bid goodbye to Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper forever. Goodbye also to the salty pepperoni sticks that helped spice up some lunches.I encourage anyone starting any weight-loss plan to take more measurements than just the number on the scale. As long as you're faithfully following your plan, assuming it's not a bad plan, I think you'll find that one set of numbers or the other will always show progress. Two pounds is the least I've lost so far, but two inches is still pretty exciting!2007-06-12: 250, initial weight2007-07-17: 217, starting point for the week, 33 pounds lost total2007-07-24: 215, -2 pounds this week, 35 pounds lost total

Phillip Winn is the Chief Geek for BC Magazine, and a blogger since 1995. He can currently be found and followed on Twitter.

Countdown to 165: Week 5 - Staying On Track

Phillip Winn — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 17:03:30 EDT

In five weeks, I've lost 33 pounds. I have 108 days left of my 143-day plan, so I'm not even quite one-quarter of the way through. And yet I don't worry about "cheating" or breaking my diet at all.Staying FocusedOne of the biggest challenges facing most people who need to lose weight is perseverance. Like people trying to quit smoking, it's easy for us to start exercising or cut back on certain foods; we've done it many times! Sometimes for a day, sometimes for a week, and sometimes just until we realize that there's one more Little Debbie snack in the pantry. Honestly, if we were people with plentiful self-control, we probably wouldn't be fat.One popular myth is that it takes an event to trigger dedication. The stories begin with "One day I realized I had to do something..." and "That day I vowed that never again would I be embarrassed like that again..." My story isn't like that. In fact, I had one of those days, but it didn't help. I was embarrassed, and I realized I had to do something. I didn't eat for the rest of the day -- and then the next day I went out to an all-you-can-eat buffet. Then, of course, I was so depressed that I figured I would just always be fat, and gained another 20 pounds pretty quickly. While some people may be inspired to dedication and focus by a momentous event, it is the dedication and focus that is key, not the event.When I decided to get in shape, I gave myself a week. I needed that week to focus. I didn't spend the week eating and drinking everything I would miss, at least not much, but getting my thoughts in order. I had to choose what to value, and decide whether this was worth it. What motivated me and helped me may not motivate or help you, but if you've been looking for a bolt of lightning from the sky, consider these thoughts instead.Nothing tastes as good as being thin will feel. I love food in a profound way. I love how food tastes, the way it feels in my mouth, and how full I feel after eating a lot of it. I could never understand people who turn down food, or leave food on plates, or skip dessert. I reasoned that they must just be put together differently than I am -- and that may be true. Nevertheless, my love for food is a self-destructive passion, like a drug or alcohol addiction. How good it makes me feel is irrelevant, I must learn to control it. I must learn to think long-term rather than short-term when it comes to food. The key for me during these 20 weeks is to think not just about the benefits of food, which are immediate and obvious, but the drawbacks, which are longer-term and more subtle. The Butterscotch Zingers taste wonderful, but not being able to snuggle with my son because I'm too fat is disastrous. Which is worth more? That third helping will seem like the best thing ever, but if I develop diabetes or die of heart failure from being overweight, what are my wife and kids going to do without me? Which is worth more? I spent the week leading up to the start of my change in diet reminding myself every time I saw something tempting that nothing tastes as good as being then will feel. There will be time later for reasonable portions of chocolate, or beer, or whatever.Get it done. When I think about some of previous attempts to lose weight, I'm not surprised I failed before reaching my goal. While "eat less, move more" is ultimately the key to long-term weight loss, it's only a rough guideline which needs fleshing out in detail. Does "eat less" allow for one extra spoonful of corn, or not? (I always said "yes.") Does "move more" mean I must take a walk tonight, even though I'm really tired? (I often said, "no.") A friend of mine is using software to chart her daily calories in and calories out, complete with color-coded graphs. The last time I checked, she'd lost 14 pounds, and was making great progress. In my case, my goals are simple: I aim to consume fewer than 10 grams of carbohydrates each day. The diet I'm on actually allows up to 20 grams, but why take any longer than I must? I've allowed myself 143 days, but if I can reach my goal weight even sooner, than that's less time I have to spend micro-managing my diet, and I might even enjoy a bite or three of Extra Stout Chocolate Mousse before I travel overseas. My goal is to lose 85 pounds as quickly as I can, so I can move on to the next phase of my life: establishing an approach to food that allows me to enjoy it without it ruling me. To cheat would just delay my ultimate success, and it's just not worth it.Nothing is more embarrassing than being fat. During that week of preparation, I came up with a few objections and concerns, and I wrote them down, and I thought about them for a day. I realized that they were all answered the same way. Will the waitstaff at Chili's be disappointed when I don't order my usual tall Shiner Bock and the $15 Grand Trio dinner once a week? I can use some of the money I'm saving by tipping them as if I had, and then they won't care at all. Will I have loose belly-skin? Perhaps. I'd rather that than tight belly-fat! Will I draw attention to myself by not eating what everybody else is eating? Maybe. I draw attention to myself by being fat, too. I had to stop kidding myself that people didn't really notice or care that I was fat. People do notice, and people do care. When I tell my kids that they need to learn to control themselves, do their eyes flicker down to my belly and then back up again? I deserve that. I thought about how people on the street view me. They don't know anything about me other than what they see, and based on that, they shouldn't be impressed. I learned to see my fat the way thin people see my fat, and it disgusted me. All of my objections paled in comparison.Setting a limited time helped me a lot. My goal was "only" 85 pounds. Others need to lose much more, and the thought of starting this diet with 200 pounds to lose would be too much, I think. After all, if we could easily set ourselves to difficult tasks, we probably would be that overweight in the first place, right? I can't imagine even starting with no end in sight, so I would set either a time limit (like six months), or a short-term goal (like 50 pounds), and reevaluate then. I think I would probably decide to keep going without a break for another 50 pounds or six months, and continue doing so for as often as I needed to, but I don't think I could start without that option to take a break.Personal UpdateI lost another four pounds this week, which actually surprised me. Since I've switched away from daily weigh-ins, for my sanity, I've found myself always suspecting poor results. This week I could tell that I was losing fat, but also that I was gaining muscle, so I assumed that the heavier muscle would offset the lighter fat. Fortunately, this turned out not to be the case.I realize now that I should have taken physical measurements when I started. I've had to buy a new belt, and my wife tells me that all of my pants now look "obscene" because they're loose. In fact, while I lost "only" four pounds this week, my belt is now cinched two inches tighter. My pessimistic view is that one of these weeks I'll report no weight loss at all -- but I'll finally have to break down and buy new pants.2007-06-12: 250, initial weight 2007-07-10: 221, starting point for the week, 29 pounds lost total 2007-07-17: 217, -4 pounds this week, 33 pounds lost total

Phillip Winn is the Chief Geek for BC Magazine, and a blogger since 1995. He can currently be found and followed on Twitter.