How's that diet going, anyway?

It's been almost a month since I stumbled upon the Hacker's Diet in a pre-weekend fit of self-flagellation over my weight. How's it all going? Well, here's my chart as produced by physicsdiet.com:

The points are my daily weigh-ins. The top wavy line is the rolling weighted average. The straight line is the trend line.

This shows a slow but steady weight loss of 1.39 pounds per week, courtesy of a daily caloric deficit of nearly 700 calories.

This has not been difficult. I have not been exercising all that often -- taekwondo about once a week, walking home most days ('cept for the past week), and regrettably I've yet to ride my bike -- though I did buy a tire pump last weekend while on an excursion away from Amanda's hospital bedside. There's room for more drastic weight loss, but I'm off to a steady start so far.

Some difficulty will be introduced in one week when the Big Ass Summer Tour 2008 begins. We'll be hitting Bradford for a bit, then Stratford, with a day trip to Toronto, back to Stratford and eventually on to New York City and a return haul through Maine and New Brunswick. I'll be away from my regular scale, so any weight measurements I can manage to take will likely vary a little from my regular. But the benefit of the rolling average is that little variations in the weight from Foreign Scale Syndrome may be smoothed out. It still won't correct fluctuations caused by Eating While On Vacation Disorder.

Hacker's Diet links, articles and resources

• A dude who ate a lot of cheeseburgers and drank a lot of Mountain Dew. A good summary of the basics of the diet, with a graph.


• A guy who lost ten pounds in ten days with the Hacker's Diet and other tools.


• Five things to know about the Hacker's Diet


• The Physics Diet is a charting and logging site inspired by the Hacker's Diet -- gives fancypants graphs for people following the math principles behind the plan


• "Weightloss for Nerds" discovers both


• eHow articles focusing on the diet


• A group at the Daily Plate for HD followers


• Lifehacker has a look


• A Wordpress plugin for people who use that blog software


• MetaGrrrl takes on the diet for a while

That's just a few. Throw in a good calorie counter site like http://www.thecaloriecounter.com/, http://www.calorie-count.com/ or the epic http://www.calorieking.com/ and you're good to go. I've also heard good things about http://www.fitday.com/ for food logging.

On the value of exercise

New reader holymotherofgod and others have pointed out the value of exercise, and I don't want my last post about the Hacker's Diet to mislead anyone about my attitude about exercise.

I'm all for it!

The "What, Me Exercise?" chapter in the Hacker's Diet explains -- and I can agree on some level -- that exercise alone won't solve a weight problem... or at the very least, you shouldn't be adopting exercise with the sole goal of getting thin without considering other things. A solid one-hour walk, non-stop, will burn barely more calories than a peanut butter sandwich. I'm not saying don't walk -- I'm saying cutting out the sandwich will have about the same impact on weight loss, and walking plus sandwich-not-eating gets double the bang.

So, why exercise? Here's what I understand, without having to look it all up to convince myself:

• Resistance training builds muscle.
• More muscle means more metabolic activity, so you can burn even more calories even when you're sleeping.
• Resistance training builds strength. It's good to be strong so you can handle daily activities better: lifting heavy boxes of kitty litter, hauling furniture, getting your ass off the couch, etc.
• Resistance training fosters a healthy skeleton. Put stress on your frame and your frame gets stronger in response. It's nice to head into old age with properly calcified bones!
• Losing weight through dieting can sometimes be taxing on the muscles, as the body breaks down body tissue for energy. Regular training keeps the body in muscle-building, not muscle-eating mode. (Is that anabolic vs. catabolic, or am I just full of words I don't quite understand today?)
• Vigorous exercise works your heart and lungs, making them work more efficiently. Hard things become easier, and easy things become, like, soooo easy. Going up stairs may still make your heart beat fast and your lungs huff and puff, but you'll recover more quickly.
• Training your muscles regularly makes them more efficient. The blood will flow in and out of them more easily. They won't get as sore.
• Muscles look good. It's good to look good. Good things are good. Good.
• It's simply good to *do* something! Exercise often involves *doing* something. Maybe something social, maybe something solitary, but you're doing something!
• People who exercise tend to live longer. Sure, you might drown while swimming or get hit by a car while jogging, or get divebombed by a crow while cycling, but those are exceptions.
• A well-trained body will be more resistant to injury. And with more well-oxygenated blood flowing through your deliciously efficient circulatory system, you'll recover more quickly if you do get injured.

There's probably more to say, but I hope you get the point -- the point is, I get the point that exercise is important. Even if it's not the key to losing weight, the two surely go hand in hand. If you're trying to lose fat, one can assume that you're also trying to get healthier overall, and there's no arguing that exercise is important to overall health.

On that note, I gave my overall health an overall step-forward leading-leg roundhouse kick in the ass last night. I returned to taekwondo on the hottest night of the year so far. Thank heavens Master Yang was offering training t-shirts (black shirts with school logo -- nothing particularly athletic about them) for sale (at $18), because if I had have worn the full uniform, I probably would have gone into ... well, the opposite of hypothermia. Hyperthermia, I guess.

As it was, I felt like a 400-watt light bulb combined with a sprinkler. I don't remember ever sweating so much ever in my whole life. Whoa. Lots of fun -- lots of sweat. Heat. Exertion. Good stuff.

A little less conversation, a little more action

Thanks to everyone for the feedback over the weekend. jojo, sandra, lilsis, anonymous and everyone were able to zero in on my big nasty character flaw in this matter: planning everything to death, yet doing nothing concrete to solve the problem.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step -- but more often than not, I'm too busy fussing with my shoelaces and checking the weather.

I know well enough that worrying about a problem does nothing to solve it. Taking action does. It's good to learn enough so one can be reasonably sure that one is taking the right action, but sometimes doing *anything* useful is better than bogging oneself down with endless refinements of the perfect plan.

In the vernacular of my adopted homeland -- "get 'er done!" .... alternatively, "just giv'er!"

So, this weekend, I ramped up the enthusiasm by reading The Hacker's Diet.

Nothing revolutionary here in the theory -- in fact, it's a step backward from some of the more recent, medical-based diet books I've read in the past year or two. The author works on a very simple calories in-calories out model. Too many calories in -- you gain weight. Too few -- you lose weight. Assume that one pound of fat equals 3500 calories, and with a bit of math, you can figure out how many calories +/- per day you need to get to a given goal.

Where this plan catches my interest is in the self-correcting measurement and feedback system.

Daily weigh-ins plugged into a spreadsheet are calculated into a rolling weighted average -- a trend. The math shows, based on the trend, how many calories you're over or under. If you're gaining a pound a week, you can see instantly that you're eating 500 calories too much per day. So, to stabilize weight, eat less or burn 500 more to bring that to zero. To lose a pound a week, cut and/or burn 500 calories a day from the daily balance. It takes a ton of the guesswork out of the food.

The weighted rolling average smoothes out the inevitable daily ups and downs of water weight to give an accurate trending, taking most of the emotional sting out of the daily weigh-in. It becomes just data -- not a daily triumph or failure. The trend is what counts. Within a fairly short time, the trend will show if the diet and exercise are winning or losing. And by how much!

It's a canary in the fat-guy coal mine, too. If, after reaching the stable goal weight, the trend goes up, it's easy to see that an extra 200 calories a day might be the issue. Cut 400 to get back to the goal weight and resume living.

So! At this point, I'm still all talk, right? You wanna reach through the internet's tubes and pipes, grab me by the collar and shake me 'til I smarten up!? I don't blame you!

Actions being undertaken right frickin' now, immediately, pronto, stat:

• Log sheets and a pen are now in the bathroom for daily weigh-ins & exercise notes.
• I'm set up at the Hacker's Diet Online, which does all the math for me and eliminates the need for me to learn MS Excel ... it'd be a nice skill to have, but jeez, do I need another excuse?
• Calculated my daily lunch calories -- that is, everything I bring to work with me, which is all the food I'll be eating between waking up and going home for dinner. First draft of math puts it at 710, but I'm going to round up to 800 in case I packed more than a single 1/3-cup serving of almonds.
• Eliminated the muffin. Amanda was graciously baking healthyish muffins as a harm-reduction strategy to wean me from my daily cinnamon bun fixation. I've cut the buns down from daily to about once every two to three weeks, so I might as well cut the muffin now.
• Muffin is essentially replaced by carrot and celery sticks. I prepared these in advance, so no excuses about not having them done.
• Water water water water lots of water. I'm a diet-drink apologist, but I can buy into the notion that my body will be producing noxious byproducts as it breaks fat down into energy, and I'd rather have that out of me than in me. Also, it'll fill me up.
• Eating to the point of satisfaction, not fullness. I tend to eat until I'm "ugh" full, not "mmm" satisfied. I've begun eating 'til I'm no longer hungry as opposed to eating until I'm decidedly stuffed ... this could be a tricky one.
• Continue with the exercise, and then some: walking home 25-30 minutes each day is a good start. I'm embracing the truth that exercising to lose weight isn't the key. I should be exercising because it's generally good for my body. Even a full-out hour of exercise will only burn a few hundred calories; I should be able to cut more than that by food choices. The exercise will make my body better in ways beyond fat loss. There's more on the short-term horizon, but today's about today.
• Embrace the discomfort: there's no getting around it. Losing fat is essentially a matter of sustained, controlled, gradual starvation. It's not going to be pleasant. That doesn't mean it has to be torture and endless hunger, but it's not going to a be a quick and easy fix. Accepting that is a key to getting on with it

So we'll call this day one. Day one of many. Get-rich-quick schemes don't work, and neither do get-skinny-quick schemes. I'm having to let go of faulty ideas: that I can get thin without substantially changing what I eat; that I can just wing it without measuring anything; that I can rely on others to make decisions for me; that the problem isn't really that bad.

If I were a diabetic, I'd feel no shame in measuring my blood sugar every day and adjusting my food accordingly.

I'm not ashamed of wearing glasses -- I can't willpower my way to better sight, so I resort to lenses to correct my vision.

Likewise, I can acknowledge that the perfect appetite-control/portion-assessment mechanism that some people are born with is missing or broken in me. There's no shame in turning to technology to measure my calories and inform me of exactly where I'm going off track.

Onward and downward, peeps!

Translatable obsessiveness, part 3

I was stumbling around some personal finance blogs and happened upon an enlightening post by Mr. Cheap at Quest For Four Pillars.

Two years ago today I was reading Kevin Smith's "Silent Bob Speaks" and in one passage he wrote about always feeling like his weight was something "he'd deal with later when it got really serious". This startled me a little, as I felt exactly the same way (although I didn't see myself as being quite as big as Mr. Smith).

So, Mr. Cheap read a book by John Walker called The Hacker's Diet. He applied the knowledge, lost weight, and has kept it off. And through doing so, he learned some parallels between personal finance and weight loss:

Things like the value to knowing as much as possible about your weight (or networth) and the true quality of the food you're eating (or your investments). There are different ways to make changes, such as exercise (or earning more income) and diet (spending less money). If you only make one type of change, its very easy to sabotage yourself by the other (e.g. exercising and eating more or getting a raise and increasing your lifestyle spending). Both processes benefit from measuring your on-going process and making improvements as you see the opportunity to do so. Both are also hardest when you first start them (the first 3 days of a diet or a budget are going to be the hardest, they both get easier as you go).

Is that my answer, or part of it? I started this little series of posts with the question of whether my ability to obsess and learn could be translated successfully to tackling my weight and smoking. And here's Mr. Cheap with direct observation of the similarities between weight loss and reforming personal finance.

I think I'll read this Hacker's Diet thing and see if it's got some truths I can glom onto.

And FYI, I dig Kevin Smith. We went to see him speak in Toronto a few years back, for a taping of what eventually became An Evening With Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder. I felt like dude went a bit overboard with the self-deprecating fat jokes, largely 'cuz I could feel where he was coming from. Long show, but good show. Maybe I oughta read that book, too.

Translatable obsessiveness, part 2

Here are two thoughts about how the personality quirks I noted in part 1 may be standing in my way.

First, I'm about learning and knowing. I learn and learn and learn. I gather information and re-read the same stuff in endless permutations, jumping from basics to advanced to way-beyond-my-comprehension, back to advanced, back to basic and over and over until I either thoroughly get it and get it completely ... or I reach the ceiling of my comprehension and just let it be.

But I don't have a consistently great record for taking action with that knowledge. Sure, I knew a lot about computers -- but did I build a good web site? No, I build an okay web site and let it sit. Sure, I learned a lot about Scientology -- but did I do anything significant to stop them? No, I told everyone I knew the evils of Scientology and chatted with folks at the Toronto Org a few times. Sure, I read a ton about money management -- but did I get rich? No, not yet. I'm building a sizeable cache of shares and I have a decent retirement portfolio on the build, and I'll be in decent shape for wealth management in the years to come, but I'm not a big wheeler and dealer.

I learn a lot -- I know a lot -- I get really really smart -- but I don't always *do* stuff with it.

Second, I noted the transitive nature of my obsessions. Even when I dive in and start off strong with something, I have a tendency to let it trail off as time goes on. Even my taekwondo, which I've really enjoyed since starting a year and a half ago. I've only gone once since they moved the gym a few weeks ago. That's not cool.

That's not to say that I have a terrible track record when it comes to making stable, positive changes in my life. This isn't the forum to talk about all of 'em, but I've tackled several challenges head-on and stuck with them. Some of them have been difficult and without immediate visible gain. I know I have what it takes to do what's hard and what's right and make it go. Especially when other people are at stake.

So, that takes me back to where I was in the first post. I have the tools -- what's stopped me from applying them to smoking and fatness?

More to come.

Translatable obsessiveness, part 1

As alluded to in other posts in recent months, I may be on the cusp of shifting obsessions again.


My personality is such that I tackle a subject that interests me with intensity and passion, devouring and synthesizing information and theory in such a way that I annoy those close to me with my focus and excitement. I become a zealot. An evangelist. A nerd. Or as my sister recently observed in a comment on this blog, a little Asperger syndrome-y. I dig in and don't stop until I get saturated with the subject matter.


That doesn't mean I become a full-fledged expert on anything. That's the other part of my personality. Sure, my rabid consumption of all things Scientological (from the point of view that it's ridiculous and evil) brought my knowledge of the subject several orders of magnitude beyond what any casual observer might know -- but I never went out and picketed or took a course. I became an expert, but among experts, I'm sure I'd still be considered a poser or noob.


My most recent 'obsession' has been personal finance. Yeah, I've been reading PF blogs every day, reading books, watching TV shows and saving and investing more than I can probably even afford in an effort to apply the knowledge I've absorbed. Compared to an everyday broke schmoe, I'm probably some kind of 'expert'. But again, the experts would recognize that I couldn't explain how bonds work, that I don't have a discount brokerage account, that my non-registered stock holdings are completely undiversified, and that I have whole-life insurance instead of term. I've raised my level of expertise, but among experts, I'm a small-change chump.


It occurred to me a coupla months ago -- okay, if I'm able to be so gazelle-intense (to lift a phrase from pious debt-slaying evangelist Dave Ramsey) about any particular obsession ... why haven't I applied that kind of passion and determination to the two remaining blatant flaws in my lifestyle? Of course, those are my smoking and my weight.


If I'm so goddamned smart and clever and intelligent and passionate, why am I still an obese smoker? If I have the tools to make sweeping positive changes in so many areas of my life, rehabilitate my weak spots by gathering the best knowledge available and implementing it (even half-assedly) to produce significant benefits to my being ... why am I still puffing and pudgy? What the hell?


Do I have an answer?

Of course I don't!


If I had the answer, I wouldn't have a pack of cigarettes on my desk and a fat gut between the chair and the desk. There needs to be a paradigm shift. There needs to be a eureka moment. I need to hit a bottom, I suppose.


Perhaps I can manufacture a bottom. Not bottom like my butt, bottom like rock bottom. Like, "oh heavens, I spent so much on cigarettes that I cannot afford cable TV!" or "deary me, this tobacco has gummed up my heart, and if I smoke anymore I shall die forthwith!" or "good lord, I'm so fat that my girlfriend becomes dyspeptic upon sight of my girth!" ... I dunno.


I just gotta find some switch to go from talk-the-talk to walk-the-walk ... although I'm finding it's going to take more than walking to get this thing done.


More to come.

Two wins, one loss

That newsy post about being fat got a really good response from folks, so I've tried to keep some momentum rolling (or building) through the weekend.

Amanda had some bidniz to take care of on Saturday, so I went to the gym. True. I went. I did two circuits through the weight training machines, then 20 minutes on the treadmill. So far so good.

That night we went to a BBQ at my boss' place. There was drinking, and we don't drink and drive, so we left the car in the south end. That necessetated a long walk to the south end on Sunday to pick up the car. Well done. Good walk.

So here I am on Monday, and I'm stuck with the problem of the taekwondo gym. Master Yang moved the facility closer to where I live -- good for the trip home, not good for the trip there. As it was, I was *just* making it on time by walking to class right after work. That's not feasible now. I've yet to nail down a bus route that'll get me there on time. And I'm not keen on taking a taxi twice a week.

My plan today was to ride my bike to work and ride to class. I put on shorts, a running shirt and my dry-fit underwear and loaded my backpack up with a new shirt and a towel. I got out my helmet and biking gloves. I put the extra keys on my key ring and headed downstairs. Unlocked the bike cage in the parking garage. And found my bike. Tires. Moosh. Not enough air. Well, damn. Totally blew my plan.

Rats. Gotta keep on rollin', though.

Local fat radio guy tired of being fat

Local fat radio guy tired of being fat

HALIFAX (BAS) -- Sources close to local fat radio guy Scott Simpson say he's grown tired of being fat.

"He seems to get this way every once in a while," says a friend. "He eats those cinnamon buns for months, drinks his energy drinks and chocolate milk, then suddenly one day decides he's too fat."

A sales rep from Nubody's gym at Halifax's Scotia Square confirms that Simpson paid for a year's membership this spring but has yet to walk through the door even once to break a sweat.

Simpson made several weak attempts to get into shape in years past. One effort in the late 1990s earned him an award from the Radio & Television News Directors' association. Nearly ten years later, Simpson auditioned for the documentary series X-Weighted in an effort to turn his newfound maturity into physical action. The show moved production to other cities in Canada, leaving Simpson to attempt fitness on his own again. Despite signs of progress, the effort was ultimately unsuccessful.

"Now he's saying he's too poor to afford smoking," says an unnamed coworker of the fat news anchor. "He loaded up his online banking and kept muttering about not having enough to buy cigarettes any more. Frankly, all this money sh*t is getting pretty tiresome. I almost wish he'd go back to ranting about Scientology."

Friends say Simpson, whose weight has drifted between 185 pounds and more than 230 pounds in the past decade, has spent most of his adult life in the 220 pound range.

Health Canada reports his current Body Mass Index is 36, considered Obese Class II, indicating a very high risk of health problems related to weight. The only recent bright spot on his health record is a blood pressure reading from a local visit with a new family doctor: 128/84.

Sources suggest the time may be coming soon for the fat radio guy to take action.

"When other people have problems, he jumps in like he knows what's best for everyone," says one confidante. "But when it comes to his own flaws, he talks a big game, plans everything to death, and ends up getting nothing done. He's got two excuses for every one good idea he comes up with. He's his own worst enemy with this stuff.

"If you ask me, he's going to have to give up all the fancy talk, start eating his own cooking, and just get his big ass in gear and take care of business. I sure hope so, 'cuz all his complaining about being fat, broke and out of breath is really getting on everyone's nerves."

"Yeah, and he frickin' reeks of cigarette smoke all the time," added another source. "Just gross. 'Nuff said."

X-Weighted is back

One of my favourite shows, X-Weighted, is back on the air for another season.

X-Weighted is a series of one-hour documentaries that follow peoples' struggles to get fit in six months. Each person has his or her own challenges and issues. Some succeed. Many fall short of their goals.

The first episode took a 260-pound woman from drinking 24 beer a week to climbing all 1776 stairs of the CN Tower. We watched the show last night, and it's every bit as good as every other season so far. It's already giving me that "I can do this!" feeling.

You may recall that I auditioned for X-Weighted a while back, and was this close ][ to getting on the show, 'til they decided not to shoot in Halifax after all. That spawned me to attemp my own (failed) weight loss project, Un-Weighted.

I'm grateful to my PVR, Little Eddie Dingle, for remembering to tape the show. I have it set to record "new episodes", so it just sits there in the background and starts rolling again when a new season starts.

I think it's about time to get the bike out of winter storage and hit the road. I found out last night my taekwondo gym is moving downtown. That'll cut my trip home -- the new facility is about two blocks from my apartment -- but it's a lot further from work, and when I walk to class now, I only barely make it there on time. Looks like my only hopes of getting to the new place on time will be to run (no), taxi ($$$!) , bus (route? timing?), bike or beg for carpooling. I think cycling would get me there in fair time, but tired. And there's the weather to consider. There's no way that'll work in the dead of winter.

I finished the 5k, and that's a win

For the second year in a row, I took part in the 5k run/walk at the Blue Nose Marathon.

Last year I was doing my "Un-Weighted" project and was actually making regular visits to the gym. I was in passable shape. I wasn't training like an athlete, but I was training.

This year I wasn't training, and I'm not in shape. I've put on some (read: all) the weight I lost during the Un-Weighted project and I have not been training. Yes, I have been walking home from work roughly four out of five days a week, and attending taekwondo about once a week, but I have not trained in any sense that'd make real training athletes think I trained.

My goal this year was just to finish. I figured I'd tack another ten or fifteen minutes on my finish time.

But here are the stats: last year's time was 38:55.9. This year's time was 41:14.8. That's a difference of 2:18.1.

Really? No training, more weight, and over five kilometres I only went two minutes and eighteen seconds slower?

Gosh.

I can't explain it. I was just glad to finish, but I ended up finishing stronger than I thought I would've.

The running wasn't hard -- I didn't "blow up" and get winded so much as I got cramps in the muscles along my shins. That made it hard to run and even hard to walk. But I kept going.

Good work, me.

One tip that might've helped: I ran into Music Nova Scotia superstar Laura Simpson on Agricola Street. She snapped the photo you see here. She actually knows how to run. Like, she's run FAR. She gave me a tip about my stride, and for all I know, that's what prevented me from tacking on a whole bunch more time.

Thanks as well to Amanda for coming out to cheer me on!

Saturday night we watched Run Fatboy Run, the Simon Pegg film directed by David Schwimmer. It wasn't as perfect a movie as Pegg's Hot Fuzz, but it was very well done. A nice portrayal of an out-of-shape guy trying to get his life together in order to impress a lady he let down in the past. Very funny in places, and sweet enough to be a chick flick if not for the fact that the lead character is not a typical chick-flick lead.

Gaining omentum for a diet

I'm flipping around the teevee before sleepytime last night, and happen upon the local (local being Boston or Detroit, I think) PBS station doing their pledge drive. The show they're using to hook people between pledge breaks was one I'd seen bits of before. Some doctor-lookin' guy in scrubs explaining good concepts of "waist management." You know, eat this, do this, don't eat that. It's pretty straightforward and un-gimmicky, and very easy to digest, pardon the pun.

I'd never watched it for any great length of time, but I watched enough last night to see something I'd never heard of before.

What the hell is an "omentum"?

I emailed myself a note with the Blackberry to look it up today.

Turns out -- and this is vastly oversimplified, so anatomy nerds need not correct me -- the "omentum" is a fatty gob *under* your belly muscles, around your guts. When you're a fat guy, the omentum can get fatty and push your belly out. That's how some folks can have visible ab muscles with little subcutaneous fat, but still have a beer gut. (I'm not those folks. I mean the folks with the visible abs.)

Interesting, I thought. And interestinger because it is, according to Doctor Whatsisname Wearing The Scrubs, all connected up with hormones and digestion and various whatsits in your innards.

You all know the only thing I love more than being a know-it-all is learning that there's stuff I don't know anything about. And this is the latter. Very curious!

The book being touted is called "You On A Diet". Based on what I saw of the PBS show, it's a synthesis of stuff I've heard about, know a bit about, but never fully synthesized. Stuff like how certain foods will spike your insulin levels, what that does to fat storage, and how your guts honestly process the stuff you eat. It appears to be a very simple-and-makes-sense-without-being-condescending and/or bullshit book.

Someone over at thefitshack.com did a more thorough explanation of the "omentum" and related concepts, having pretty much the same reaction as I did. Go there and learn something new.

Gay guys totally dig me on Flickr

I've been meaning to write something about this for a while, but I don't really know what to say about it.

The bottom line is ... some gay men enjoy pictures of my gut.

Stop laughing.

The picture on the right has had six people label it a favorite. That, as far as I can tell, makes it the most favorited picture in my Flickr library.

The favoriters (word? is it? probably not) include men named tex - just tex, N!(K -- loveforphotography --, Cute_Boy_Wonder, bobjeffs00, matadormat_net, and, the name that seems to sum it all up, Overfed & Underdressed.

Clicking on any of those names will show you their favorites. (I don't suggest doing it at work.) You'll note that they're mostly pictures of topless, hairy, fat men. I'm in good company.

The picture of me with Randy from the Trailer Park Boys comparing big hairy bellies is also a popular choice among the same crowd. Actually, checking right now, I see it has 8 people counting it as favorite, including beardad4bears.

I suppose I'm flattered. It's nice to be considered a sex object, even if those objectifying me aren't the ones I'd expect to attract.

If I were gay, I suppose I'd be welcomed into the "Bear Community." Wikipedia has an article about this, with the following terminology.

• Admirer - a term that refers to someone who is sexually or romantically attracted to Bears (this term is often used in various communities to describe an outsider who has sexual attraction to people within that community). Also often referred to as a Chaser.
• Admirers/Chasers can be of any weight, hairy or hairless and any age.
• Bear - a man with a stocky or heavyset build. Can be hairy or hairless and can be of any age.
• Cub - a younger (or younger looking) version of a Bear, typically but not always with a smaller frame. The term is sometimes used to imply the passive partner in a relationship. Can be hairy or hairless.
• Daddy bear - is an older guy sometimes looking for a daddy/son relationship with either a younger Bear, Cub, Otter, Wolf or Chaser.
• Goldilocks - A female, often heterosexual, who is often in the company of bears. A bear's fag hag. Also can be referred to as an Ursula.
• Muscle bear - a muscular version of a Bear. A muscle cub is a younger or smaller, yet muscular, version. Can be hairy or hairless and of any age.
• Panda bear - a bear of Asian ethnicity. A panda cub is younger version. Usually hairless.
• Polar bear - a silver- or white-haired Bear.
• Otter - a man who is hairy, but is not large or stocky - typically thinner, or with lean muscle. Slimmer version of a Bear with little pockets of fat like love handles or a tiny gut, but not as lean as a Wolf.
• Woof - A greeting often used when a Bear spots another Bear in public and wants to express physical attraction. He might make a growling noise ("Grrr!") or say "Woof!"
• Bear run - a gathering or circuit party for Bear/Cub types and their Admirers.

Kevin Smith has a nice bit about this whole phenomenon in the second An Evening With... DVD. A gay friend told him that if he were ever to switch teams, he could get a really really hot boyfriend, 'cuz the cute muscly hairless guys really go for the chubby hairy dudes.

So, to all the "chasers" -- uh, thanks. Thanks for diggin' my scene. You can look but don't touch.

PS: I now have a full beard. Oo, I'm such a tease.

Considering braces

I was flipping through the teevee the other night, and landed on a show called Style By Jury on the dubya network. It's similar, kinda, to Extreme Makeover -- only more Canadian in terms of budget and production. They recruit a mark, put her in front of a focus group which, behind a see-thru mirror, criticize her appearance. Not viciously, just "honestly." Then they set the mark up with relevant aesthetic and lifestyle services. In this case, a woman had laser acne treatment, porcelain veneers, laser eye surgery, a new hairstyle and makeup, and spa treatment including some much-needed romance time with her fiancee. Looked like the lady deserved it, caring for a special-needs son and all.

Anyway, I got to thinking ... if I had a bit of money stuffed away ... which I do ... and I had some things I'd like to change ... which I do ... what would I do?

I consider my reactions when I see pictures of myself:
- Jee-zus, where'd my hair go?!
- Holy crap, I'm fat.
- Oh gawd, I have such goofy teeth.
- Oh, yes, I have glasses.

So, going down the list of solutions, I considered:
- My hair is going. I'll have to accept that. I've never been impressed with the results of other peoples' hair-replacement efforts. I don't want to look like "Spike" Gallagher or "Mel" Lastman. I may consider something for this eventually, but for now, I'm going to aim to embrase my Quibellesque hair pattern.
- The fat thing is thoroughly documented here. Surgical weight loss doesn't appeal to me. Liposuction is disturbingly violent and just doesn't sit well with me. We've watched a season of Big Medicine, and none of the stomach-reduction surgeries make me want 'em either. Getting un-fat is going to have to be an old-fashioned procedure.
- As much as it'd be nice to have great sight without glasses, it's not extremely high on my priority list. My glasses look alright, and they don't interfere with my lifestyle too much. I can see well enough that I can navigate around the apartment without them and not risk grievous bodily harm.
- My teeth. My teeth are goofy and gappy. There's the target.

I missed the "it's cool for adults to have braces" opportunity by a few years -- you probably remember back in the early 00's when it was almost trendy. Someone told me it was a Tom Cruise-led thing, which makes me glad I wasn't part of the fad.

My parents tell me they encouraged me to get braces when I was a child, but I refused. I don't remember that, but I'm not about to say they're lying.

My teeth are fairly straight. They're clean and in decent condition. They're just spaced a little funny. They're gappy and goofy. It's one thing that discouraged me from getting into television years ago -- I mean, you don't see many goofy-toothed folks on television, Letterman aside.

So, what to do? Braces can be in places for two years or longer. How would I feel as a 36-year-old with train tracks? Or more importantly, how would I feel as a 36-year-old with a gorgeous smile?

Braces are expensive. I haven't had a consultation yet, but prices I've seen suggest it'll cost at least $5000. I see home ownership in my future in the years to come. Would that conflict, or is it a reasonable price to pay?

I talk for a living. Would braces interfere with my delivery? Or would I adjust smoothly?

I'd have to change my eating habits. Okay, that's a good idea anyway.

So, those are some of the things I've been considering. I have a consultation booked with one of the city's top orthodontists. He'll presumably give me the low-down on most of those issues. I should probably get at least two estimates before making any decisions.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Vacation wrapup, way way late

Hola, amigos. I know it's been a long time since I rapped at ya. But life's been busy for the past month or so. Lots to blog about, so let's get at 'er, starting with this wrapup of the big Big Ass Summer Tour 2007.

Saturday, July 21, Amanda and I set out on a big drive, aiming to get to Riviere-du-Loup by sundown. First stop was Wendy's somewhere to try the new Baconator. Yes, two quarter-pound patties of fresh-never-frozen beef, six strips of bacon and two slices of cheese. The Baconator delivers. It's a little mushy, and the first half is best, 'cuz it's hot.

It was a cloudy, rainy day heading through New Brunswick. But more distracting than the rain was the accumulation of bugs on the windshield. I used the gas station squeegee to wipe off the slime each time we stopped for gas, but we could barely keep ahead of the insect carnage.

Arrived in Riviere du Loup and negotiated through the town courtesy of Mapquest's left-right-left-right-left-right-left directions, instead of going straight down one road. Ended up at Motel Boulevard Cartier. You'll note that the motel is attached to the local St. Hubert Chicken restaurant. In fact, the check-in desk is right next to the take-out counter. Check that... the check-in desk is the take-out counter. We checked in to the unremarkable but perfectly passable room. No non-smoking rooms available, unfortunately, so it felt like a real old-school experience, back to the days when all the rooms were smoking rooms. I promptly noticed a fly on the ashtray, turned around, and was delighted to find a flyswatter sitting on its own hook. Thwap! First amentiy used.

St. Hubert, in my mind, has always been the franglais equivalent of Swiss Chalet. And I luvs me some Swiss Chalet. So we ambled over to the restaurant to try out a quarter chicken and frites. This ain't no Swiss Chalet, kids. Tastes like cafeteria food. We added a bit of Nova Scotia flavour by purchasing some Keith's beer (Keith's Red, weirdly enough) to enjoy with dinner. Entered to win a Keith's guitar. Haven't won, so far that I've heard. Our friendly server Benoit told us about a fireworks show scheduled for 10pm down by the water. Cool beans! I luvs me some fireworks, too. If Swiss Chalet had fireworks, they'd be on to something, man. Fireworks show was better than the July 1 one in Halifax, I shit you not.

Next day was time for the killer drive of the trip, from Quebec to Bradford. Lunch was at McDonald's ("Mc Do'"), and the difficult problem of ordering a Bic Mac, no pickles, no sauce (my choix du jour on the rare times I go to the Arches) en francais. Amanda grew up in Northern Ontario (town of Swastika -- look it up) and actually worked her previous job in french, and we negotiated frickin' Paris together, so I figured ordering a Combo #1, no pickles, no sauce would be a breeze. But me, I learned Ontario core french, in which they teach you the names of things. French immersion, sure, you sound like you know the language, but you don't always end up knowing what stuff is called. Amanda was unsure what "sauce" was in french, even when I suggested that it may be "sauce". Pickles were a whole other matter. I asserted that "cochinons" was the word. She didn't know. So, between her and the counter man, I got a Big Mac sans sauce, but avec pickles. I could pick those off. Pickles, it turns out are "cornichons". Unsure so far what "cochinons" is, if anything.

Goddamn Ontario driving. The drive from the border to Toronto is ... is ... is ... no fun. Just no fun. The 401 isn't beautiful to drive on. Worse still when there's a collision and rubberneckers and idiots thinking they can get a tiny bit further ahead by cutting through the service station, then coming out four abroad into a one-lane merge, ending up driving on the shoulder, and ... anyway, Amanda convinced me not to shout anything out the window or hop out and slug someone in a Rav-4.

We crawled into Bradford quite late and found a Pizza Pizza open late. I don't miss Pizza Pizza pizza. Panzerotto Pizza and Wings, yes, I miss that. Toppers Pizza is good, too. But Pizza Pizza isn't the kind of pizza I miss, you know what I mean? Settled in for a nice night at Amanda's folks.

Off to my old stomping grounds on Monday. Bradford is just north of Newmarket, where I was raised. We hit Upper Canada Mall, where I worked at Compucentre as a teenager. Ate in the food court (Made In Japan/A Teriyaki Experience), shopped around, bought my nephew some cool sunglasses at some baby-stuff store. Saw my old house. Jee-zus, Newmarket has grown. Huge. Very different.

That night we had steak and caesar salad. I luvs me some steak, y'all. Then Barb and Wendall took us out to the movies. We saw Hairspray starring John Travolta. Amanda turned to me in horror during the opening sequence -- "Oh my god. I forgot to tell you, this is a musical." No bother. I knew it was a musical. I spent part of the movie trying to figure out where they shot it -- Toronto, obviously, but it was neat to figure out all the locations. Good flick, despite Travolta, drag or not. The popcorn was fan-tas-tic. Fantastic.

'Manda's mom took us to Ikea on Tuesday. See, the first Ikea in North America was across the harbour in Dartmouth, but they closed it down years ago. Shame! So it was a treat to go to Ikea for the first time in more than two years. We didn't buy anything huge, but it was fun to dream. Ikea actually serves good food in its cafeteria. Meatballs and soup and little potatoes! By this point in the trip, I was getting very tired. Nearly fell asleep in the car to and from Ikea. Dinner was burgers and corn and more caesar salad. Good times.

On Wednesday, we had a surprise lined up for my parents. We'd been swerving my mom and for weeks about our vacation plans, based on my sister's suggestion of arriving unannounced. It worked. We pulled in to Stratford and visited with my sister and baby Ewan for a while, then rolled over to the 'rents abode and walked right in. My dad looked puzzled. Mom was in the basement doing laundry, so I just walked right down and surprised her. Clearly she wasn't expecting it. Oh, I forgot to mention -- a Baconator for lunch. We indulged in Dairy Queen after a dinner of BBQ chicken at Chris and Shannon's.

Amanda drove off to London the next day to visit her sister Amy, while I walked around town with Shannon and my dad. Stratford's a beautiful place. It was nice to spend some time with family seeing their town again. We took my folks out for dinner at the nice hotel -- prime rib for all! And DQ to follow! A fireworks show down by the water was supposed to cap things off, but it started inexplicably early. Who starts a fireworks show at 9:15pm in early August? Just ridiculous. So we missed the whole show. Back to Shannon's to hang out with them and the baby some more. That baby is such a hoot. Hilarious. Babbling and screaming and freaking out and making faces. Tons of fun.

The tour resumed Friday as we dined on nachos at Shannon's, hung out at mom & dad's a while longer, then hit the road for Toronto! We found Sandra and Byron's new house -- eventually -- I had the wrong address. Had the wrong address for a few weeks, apparently, as I sent her birthday card to the wrong place. Their new place is delightful! A renovated place north of the Danforth with lots of room and high ceilings on the main floor. Just fabulous. We went down to the Danforth for a filling and tasty Greek dinner. Byron even ate octopus, or squid, or some tentacled beasty that was in the middle of the plate of dips. It was great to see my friends again; it was like we hadn't been apart for long.

Amanda went out early the next day to visit with a relative, and I went to breakfast with S&B. Good food, good company.

Off to Quebec City! We managed to find a Lick's Homeburgers restaurant on the way out -- one of the things we really miss about Ontario. Big, juicy, garlicky burger. Yum yum yum.

The drive to Quebec was a long, long one. We took an impulsive detour through Trois-Rivieres in an effort to take the "scenic route." We should've learned from the Banff trip that the "scenic route" is just a narrower road with more trees. As we arrived in Quebec City, it began to pour rain. Like, seriously, lots of rain. Somehow, somehow, we got to our hotel, parked, and checked in at the Hotel Auberge du Quartier.

We learned that the beautiful breakfast room was no longer the breakfast room, and no longer beautiful. The man at the desk told us that a guest had recently returned to his room thoroughly drunk and puked all over his sheets. He pulled off the sheets and put them in the shower for a rinse. He left the water running and passed out on the bed. The shower flooded the place, and thus, the breakfast room was ruined. Shame. On the up side, we'd get breakfast around the corner, gratis. We hunted down a local pub in the rain and ate a well-earned meal -- some kind of fancy panini sandwich for me, chicken caesar for Amanda.

Br....

... (Oct 3 2007) okay, this post has been "in progress" for a month and a half now. Let's just say that the Quebec vacation was wonderful. We walked a lot. A lot. Walking and walking. Saw lots of beautiful stuff, and ate some great food. Took a horse-drawn carriage ride. I'm gonna rush through the rest of this.

I wanted to mention that on the first day, I noticed that Scientology was front-page news in the paper. Apparently the "Church" is trying to improve its image in the city by expanding its storefront operation. The paper had a two-page spread. Nothing about Xenu.

We also spent a delightful weekend in Annapolis Royal, staying at the King George Inn. The place is effing gorgeous, and Faith the innkeeper is a whirling dynamo of a host. Highly recommended. I think we'll stay there again. Having never heard of Annapolis Royal before, we were blown away by the rich history and quaint feel of the small town. It was the capital of Nova Scotia before anyone dreamt of Halifax. The oldest English-marked grave in the country is there.

We also went out on the Digby Neck, along the Bay of Fundy. We went on a disappointing whale-watching trip -- only saw a few whales, it was cold, and Amanda was sea-sick. Ate scallops of several varieties. They was good.

On the last day, we went to visit the famous Balancing Rock. A whole lot of stairs -- seriously, a lot of stairs -- and a nice view. Pretty cool.

Okay, this post sat unfinished for a long, long time. And it's, IMHO, still unfinished. But now you have a small idea of what we did on our summer vacation. For pictures worth several tens of thousands of words, check the appropriate gallery on my flickr page.

Yes, the inclusion of virtually everything I ate was intentional. Two weeks of eating and travelling, two weeks of morning-show shifts with dinner right before bed, and a recent habit of eating cinnamon buns at work have pushed my weight up to "before un-weighted" levels. Crap.

I did something else athletic (x2)

Hot on the heels of taking part in the 5k run/walk at the Blue Nose Marathon ...

Amanda and I joined the company baseball team. The Rogers Rebels opened the media league's slob-ball season with a valiant effort in a 24-2 loss versus Team XXXtreme, then lost 17-3 against CTV. What the hell -- it's our first season as a team. I'm proud to say I actually hit the ball once. Someone caught it, but it's still a victory in my eyes. Baseball runs Sunday mornings at 9am in Dartmouth. Yes, that is early.

Then on Monday I had my first belt test at taekwondo. I passed! I'm now a yellow stripe. I had to demonstrate three kinds of kicks, two kinds of punches, two blocks, count to ten in Korean, and do some other stuff. Aside from the medal I got for simply finishing the run/walk, this is the first athletic honour I've earned.

And for those who've been waiting on the video to accompany my X-Weighted tribute series, Big Ass Superstar: Un-Weighted, the wait shouldn't be much longer. I have a draft edit finished, and I'm waiting on some outside work on the before/after photos so I can do a proper version of the dramatic morph at the end. I really wish I'd shot more footage throughout the process, as the show really boils down to me being fat and measured, me walking a few places, and me morphing. Ah well, it was a neat idea.

I did something athletic

I've never won a medal, award, or trophy for doing anything athletic. But I got one this weekend at the end of the 5k run/walk at the Blue Nose International Marathon.

I got up early on Sunday morning to run/walk in the drizzle/rain. And I surprised myself with how well I did. I figured I'd be walking the whole thing, with maybe a little sprint at the end. But I ended up running a lot more than I thought I was capable of.

And, aside from some muscle pain, I feel just fine afterward.

Many thanks to Amanda for coming out to support me and cheer me on. I think I even surprised her!

Stats-wise, I finished 397th out of 548 participants, with a time of 38:55.9.

10k next year?

BigAssSuperstar: Un-Weighted: Epilogue

Here's a graph of how the six month project went:

As you can see, it's not a dramatic drop, and there were some ups and downs throughout.

Recapping the stats posted earlier:

Height: 5'7" --> assuming same
Weight: 220 --> 204
Body fat (on electronic scale): 40.1% --> 36.7%
Chest: 44.5" --> 43.5"
Biceps: 12" --> 11.5"
Waist: 47" --> 42.5"
Thighs: 25" --> 25.25"
Neck: 17 3/8" --> 16"

Here's my math for the fat loss, subject to peer verification:

Started with 220 pounds, 40.1% body fat, meaning 88.22 pounds of fat and 131.78 pounds of everything else.
Ended with 204 pounds, 36.7% body fat, meaning 74.87 pounds of fat and 163.09 pounds of everything else.
That means I lost 13.35 pounds of fat and put on ... 31 pounds of muscle? No, that can't be right. Man, I'm no good at math problems. Someone help? I did some math yesterday that suggested I lost 11 pounds of fat and put on five pounds of lean muscle. That sounds more real, but may also be entirely wrong. (Revised calculations suggest I put on 2.6 pounds of muscle. Numbers still need checking.)

A 16 pound overall loss is nice, but it could've been better. Commentary further down. I'm most impressed with the shrinkage around my waist -- studies have shown that midsection fat is the stuff that's worst for your health, so to see the biggest reduction there puts my heart at ease, literally. I'm also happy about getting my neck back, with an improving jawline. Between the two, I'll feel more comfortable wearing button-up shirts. The only number that got bigger was the thigh measurement -- I'm not bothered by that, since I'm fairly certain I've packed on some leg muscle.

---

Let's recap the goals set out in BAS:UW:Week Zero:

• Ultimate goal at this point is 160 pounds with a body fat percentage at the high end of "healthy". I'm setting the six-month goal as a 50 pound loss, putting me at 170 pounds as of mid-March 2007. Ambitious, yes.

Clearly, I didn't even get close to my admittedly ambitious weight loss goal. In fact, I barely got more than 20% toward the goal. I lost weight and lowered my body fat percentage, but didn't get to the goal.

• Fit into size 36 pants. 34 would be nice. I can't imagine 32.

As noted earlier, I'm now wearing size 36 pants, and loving it. 34 is a distinct possibility in the future. I still can't imagine 32.

• Be able to wear new, nice clothes proudly and comfortably

I wore nice, new clothes to the Christmas party and a wedding recently, and was proud and somewhat comfortable.

• See improvements in empirical measures: blood pressure, heart rate, cholesterol

As chronicled in BAS:UW:9, I went to the doctor for blood tests and found an improvement in my blood pressure. I didn't get a call back about any trouble with my blood test results, so I'm guessing my cholesterol is not a concern right now. Next appointment, I will ask for comparable results, and perhaps see about getting old medical records from Toronto to compare the old labs.

• Have more energy
• Less unnecessary sweating

"More energy" is something difficult to measure, so I can't quite say. Perhaps more appropriate distribution of energy would be a more accurate assessment, as I'm appropriately tired when I exercise, and appropriately mopey when I don't. I can say that I no longer sweat profusely at the slightest exertion, though I'm tempted to chalk that up to the change of climate here.

• Quit smoking

Didn't get done. Sorry. Still on the to-do list.

• Reduce pain in back, neck, chest and knees

Success on this one. When I'm doing regular work at the gym, my back and neck don't seem to hurt as much. Chest pains have all but disappeared. And my knees don't bother me any more, as long as I keep up the treadmill and weight training. More than a week or so without working out, and the hills and stairs start to hurt again.

• Develop a masculine physique

My man-boobs no longer trouble me. I'm still doughy around the middle, but I'm really digging how my legs look. I'm starting to see evidence of muscle in my arms and shoulders. The photos suggest I'm making a transition from having "tits" to having "pecs."

• Improve flexibility, thus reducing groaning, grunting, huffing and puffing

Flexibility has started to improve now that I'm stretching regularly at tae kwon do class. Grunting has not ceased entirely.

• Gain respect for my discipline and achievement

That hasn't been accomplished. I know some people are proud for the progress I've made, but I know I've let people down by not giving 110% the whole way through. Some see the lack of significant progress as a blatant example of "impulse control" issues run amok. I see their point, and this project has been a lesson in perceived effort vs. actual effort vs. results.

• Get a better sense of myself as an attractive person

I'm liking the improvements, but I'm still some way off from seeing myself as a sexy dude.

• At the end, shave off my mustache/goatee. It's the mask of the fat man.

Done! Pictures will be appearing soon. This is my first time without a beard/mustache in about five years, so it'll take some adjustment for me and those who know me.

---

So, what started six months ago in response to missing the opportunity to be part of the Life Network (now "Slice") series X-Weighted Season 2, is now over. What have I learned?

Well, I can see what held me back from being a bigger loser.

• I should have started resistance training a lot sooner -- more muscle is good all around, and more muscle burns more calories;
• I should have made a stronger long-term effort to hold back from enjoying the tasty treats offered by coworkers, and the temptation to augment my bagged lunch with off-menu snacks from the deli downstairs;
• I could have put up more of a fight against the "pizza option" when there was no dinner plan at home -- though I really don't regret pizza. I should, but I really like the pizza they make downstairs;
• I set a weight loss goal that was not practically achievable. That was discussed earlier in the project. Perhaps short, achievable goals are the answer;
• Being "accountable to the public" for my weight loss is not, in itself, sufficient motivation to work out like a fiend and eat like a forensic accountant, but it helped.

So, what next? Where do I go from here?

I'm not giving up. I'm not planning to do weekly weight checks on the internet any more, but I'm not about to give up on my fitness goals. That 160-170 pound figure is still the goal. It's a target. It's not a six-month target any more, but it's still a target. As I said months ago, my goal is not to get a little less fat -- it's to get fit. To give up now ... to stop exercising and return to eating junk whenever junk seemed tasty ... would be to make this project a gimmick. A blip. A stunt. The gimmick was there as motivation to actually make some changes, not simply for the sake of drawing attention to myself.

I made some changes. I didn't make a dramatic physical transformation, but there have been changes. I've spent more time on a treadmill in the last six months than ever before. I've put on pounds of muscle. I've eaten a lot of good food. I've taken up a sport. I've taken some risks and seen some rewards. This has been worthwhile, and it's worth continuing.

Of course, it's not all me. I'm not going to take all the credit. If I'd been able to do this all on my own, odds are I would have done it long ago. Thanks to Amanda for taking part in the X-Weighted audition processes, cheering me on even though Halifax didn't make the cut, calling me on my bullshit along the way, loving me despite my cookie binges, helping me dress for my size, and feeding me delicious and healthy food. Thanks to Sandra and Byron for offering their own perspectives on fitness, leading by example, passing on their wisdom about what works for them and what doesn't, and for rooting for me from half-way across the country. Thanks to my family for keeping tabs through the blog, posting their attaboys and waytogos when I made gains, and questioning my logic (even when they did so anonymously). And thanks to everyone else who's been lurking in the shadows and reading along. I don't pretend to have a large and loyal audience, but I get enough questions about the project to know that a few people have been watching.

And there's more to come. I've run the before and after photos through a morphing program and have come up with some nifty videos. I hope to combine that with some footage shot at the initial weigh-in/measurement and a few more clips from along the way and put together a little thingy for YouTube.

Thanks for joining me on this journey!

BigAssSuperstar: Un-Weighted: Week Twenty-six

The final weigh-in for the six-month BigAssSuperstar: Un-Weighted project:

Start weight: 220 pounds
Last week: 205
This week: 204
Change: -1
Total loss: 16 pounds

I expect to write a follow-up wrap-up some time in the next week, with before/after photos and some more thoughts, but here's the rundown of before and after measurements:

• Height: 5'7" --> assuming same
• Weight: 220 --> 204
• Body fat (on electronic scale): 40.1% --> 36.7%
• Chest: 44.5" --> 43.5"
• Biceps: 12" --> 11.5"
• Waist: 47" --> 42.5"
• Thighs: 25" --> 25.25"
• Neck: 17 3/8" --> 16"

And for further comparison, on May 22 2006 I weighed in at 225 pounds. That's a 21 pound loss since then.

More to come later, including a review of the goals laid out at the beginning, before-and-after morphing videos, and a look at what happens next.

---
BAS Un-Weighted Archives: First half: Week Zero, One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen.
Second Half: Week Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen and Nineteen, Twenty, Twenty-One, Twenty-Two, Twenty-Three, Twenty-Four, Twenty-Five.

BigAssSuperstar: Un-Weighted: Week Twenty-five

One week to go, and I have a new weapon in my fitness arsenal: tae kwon do class.

This is a relatively big deal for me. I've never been involved in any kind of sport, aside from tee-ball when I was about six years old. So, attending twice-a-week classes with a six-month purchase is a pretty noteworthy step for me.

Classes went well last Monday and Wednesday. I got tricked out with a snazzy uniform and white belt (which I've yet to learn how to tie according in the Standard Method), did the hour-long class with kicking and punching and stretching and pushups and crunches and lots of sweating. Then I walked home, which is about 2.3km or 25 minutes. All this while fighting a bit of a cold. Pretty proud of myself.

Start weight: 220 pounds
Last week: 208
This week: 205
Change: -3
Total loss: 15 pounds

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BAS Un-Weighted Archives: First half: Week Zero, One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen.
Second Half: Week Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen and Nineteen, Twenty, Twenty-One, Twenty-Two, Twenty-Three, Twenty-Four.

BigAssSuperstar: Un-Weighted: Week Twenty-four

Two weeks left, and it doesn't look like I'll be cracking 200. I'm two or three days into developing a cold, so I'm not sure how gymmable I'll be this week.

I'd like to think that this week's weight change is purely as a result of about 6km of walking last Saturday, two trips to the gym for weight training, and decent eating throughout the week, resulting in significant muscle gain.

Realistically, it could have something to do with that ... plus a junk food binge late in the week. My co-anchor brought in a case of World's Finest Chocolate-Covered Almonds to raise funds for her daughter's daycare, and I think I ate at least six boxes (at $2 each) this week. On the bright side, some children will be enjoying some lead-free paint in their play space.

Martial arts training begins this week. Task one: learn Korean.

Start weight: 220 pounds
Last week: 206
This week: 208
Change: +2
Total loss: 12 pounds

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BAS Un-Weighted Archives: First half: Week Zero, One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven<