April 2008 Archives

Today is my fourth day doing Atkins, so a little over a quarter done with Induction. I feel good today. I woke up early, I had a lot of energy, and felt really clear-headed for being up so early. I don't want to ascribe that to Atkins directly, because it could just be a function of doing something for myself and losing weight in general.

I've been hearing a lot of concerns from friends and colleagues about my health while on Atkins, so I'm going to schedule an appointment with my family doctor for next week. It's probably time for my yearly physical anyway.

Last night I was really jonesing for a dessert. I was going nuts thinking about all of the sweet junk food my wife's got stocked in the house, so I kept eating small portions of lunch meat until I wasn't in anyway hungry. This morning I had a twinge of craving for chocolate, but I'm okay.

I need to start exercising more regularly, but I don't have the space at home. It seems like every corner of my house is jammed with junk leading up to our neighborhood yard sale, and I cancelled our gym membership trying to save money. So I need a place to work out. I'd also love to find someone who'll work out with me and motivate me.

I'm down another pound today, so that's awesome.

All in all I feel great.

Three days into Atkins and I'm really craving an Oreo.

Or a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.

Or some ice cream.

Or anything with some chocolate in it.

Today's my second day of eating Atkins. I'm in what's known as the Induction Phase, which is an appropriate term, considering the overwhelming amount of protein and fat I'm encouraged to eat, I feel like I'm being inducted into a fraternity and this is all some sick prank. I'm still convinced at this point that Atkins really works by making you completely sick of eating for such a long time that you just give it up and go do something else that's interesting.

"Hey, I'm hungry. Let me check what I can have this week. Eggs? Eggs again? What the fuck. I'm going on a bike ride instead."

At least that's how it's been in my own head. I still have to go to Rite Aid and get some pee-strips to see if I'm in ketosis yet. That's another fun aspect of the diet. So why am I sticking with the diet if I'm bitching so much? Because I don't want to become a diabetic. I don't want to wake up at 40 and have my doctor tell me that I'll be dead in a year. I want to be able to ride roller coaster rides with my kids. I want to be able to run around with them, and coach them in sports. I want to look good again. I want to be healthy and live to see them have kids. I want to stop being embarrassed when I take my shirt off at the pool. I don't want my kids to call me fat any more. I don't want my kids to get teased about having a fat father, and I know it's going to happen.

So I'm weighing my food, reading labels, and eating heroic quantities of meat. I went to Giant today and tried to find a bunch of different ways to get protein in my diet and keep the carbs out. I waved good-bye to the naan and the pretzel bread. I promised the grapes and apples that I'd be back soon, and I even blew a kiss at the Oreos, because you know, we have this special relationship...

All in all, so far the hardest thing for me to adjust to has been cutting the milk from my coffee, and it hasn't been easy, but I didn't think it would be. It was easy to put the weight on, and it would be easy to continue doing nothing about it, at least for right now. I'm tired of easy. I want results. And I've already had them. I'm down three pounds so far, so I'm sticking with it.

[UPDATE]: As part of deeper research into ketosis, I came across a link on Wikipedia about Ketogenic Diets, which are a high-fat, high-protein diets used to control seizures, primarily in children. I'm on Trileptal for my seizures and it works really well, but it's nice to know that this diet can help add a layer of control.

If you're interested in tracking my progress, here's my food diary: http://www.thedailyplate.com/diary/who/MauriceReeves

We've been watching "How It's Made" on Discovery HD because my children are geeks (thank God) and it's absolutely fascinating to them. The episode we watched yesterday had how ham steaks are made. My son flat out refuses to eat ham now.

He watched the whole process and declared: "You can't eat pigs. They're people!"

Great.

We watch a lot of Discovery Channel at my house, so I've seen this commercial a lot, and I want to share it. It kind of sums up the channel, and how I feel about the world in general.

The marketing team who put this together deserves a raise.

It's entirely possible that at some point Hillary could be running against John McCain for the office of President, and she's said some strong things about him and his policies, painting him as the wrong man for the office, the wrong man for America, just plain wrong (and I agree with her assessment) but if you listen to her quote about him, it sounds like they've got an entirely different relationship:

"When I'm President I'm going to ask him to come over to the White House, quite often, and take trips with me, because he has a perspective. I don't agree with it and I think, uh, he's the wrong person to be President at this time, but uh, we're friends and we'll remain friends."

The video clip is here:

Start around: 9:05.

Am I the only one who things it sounds like she's sleeping with John McCain? I mean that seriously. It sounds like she's having a good time with McCain. I can see it now. He's over at her house watching Grey's Anatomy with her while Bill's down "campaigning" at Hooters, they're having coffee and scones together, sharing furtive glances across the Senate floor. On Valentine's Day he sent her a box of Constitution-shaped chocolates. And I, for one, applaud them for bridging the partisan gap with their affair. Though let's be honest, McCain's policies and Hillary's policies are not that far off from each other to begin with. In fact, Ann Coulter has pledged her vote to Hillary in November. Yeah, you read that right: Ann Coulter is voting for Hillary.

Check the clip here:
http://jezebel.com/351442/ann-coulter-will-campaign-for-hillary-if-its-mccain

All of this aside, today is Primary Day in Pennsylvania, and I'm out to vote, for neither Hillary or McCain. I'm happy if they've found love in each other, but I don't want either of them in office.

I took this photo over the weekend:

I'm proud of it. So I'm sharing it.

While I'm talking about consumption, I wanted to point out that I'm tracking it at:
http://www.thedailyplate.com/diary/who/MauriceReeves

I'm proud of the fact that the last 3 days I've eaten less than 1600 calories.

I'm also flogging some dinners:
http://www.flickr.com/gp/20768964@N00/0An241

I finally fixed my blog so that comments and publishing is working again. Of course I had to strip out all of the customization that I'd did, but I'd rather be having a dialogue with you. Actually posts to follow.

A few things I'm grateful for today, in no particular order:

1. Coffee. In fact, all this past month, I'm grateful for coffee.
2. My children, and how they interrupt me when I'm working for hug breaks, or just how they'll lay down on the bed so they can be in the same room with me while I work.
3. My wife and how she tolerates my desire to be more green.
4. Death Cab for Cutie.
5. My new lawnmower. It doesn't buck or vibrate madly like the old one. How nice.
6. That my wife's letting me do more of the cooking lately. It feels like I've finally arrived in the kitchen.
7. The nice weather outside. How wonderful to have the windows open again.
8. A clean garage where I can tinker and finally build my work bench.
9. Being able to work from home again.