February 03, 2010
It is always best to keep in mind the great wisdom of the Solo:
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January 27, 2010
Sunday, I was treated to a meal out at a nice Japanese restaurant, so I had some divergence for the salad and miso soup I was given. Unfortunately, the ribeye was served covered in a sweet sauce I really could have done without. I'm starting to really appreciate the subtle flavors of beef, and all I could taste was something that made me think of candy. It's entirely possible that there was relatively little sugar in the sauce, but in eliminating it from my regular diet, I've likely become overly sensitive to it. In any event, it doesn't appear to have slowed my weight loss. I'm going to try and make it through the next week with stricter adherence and see how that goes. I'm also going to have to be more careful at restaurants. "Just bring me the meat. Cook it -- a little -- put on a plate, do nothing else, and bring it to me."
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January 22, 2010
Also, the "experts" are all over the place on caffeine. Some studies say it raises blood sugar and thus insulin, others say it raises blood sugar but blocks insulin, and still others say it does neither but does make cells more responsive to insulin. Since nearly all of evolutionary history occurred in the absence of coffee -- indeed, in the absence of hot beverages in general -- I'm going to play it safe and just quit it as well.
I'm unsure about whether to keep drinking tea. I have tons of tea laying around, and I mostly drink it iced, and it's basically just water with leaf residue in it, no fire necessary, so I may hang onto it for now and see how I feel going forward.
And yes, this means my diet has now narrowed to meat, water, tea, and the occasional piece of broccoli I'm offered at a restaurant. I'll let you know if scurvy actually sets in, or the Eskimos are really onto something.
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January 20, 2010
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January 13, 2010
Why experiment? Well, 2 lb of beef a day is somewhat expensive, minimally $4.50 a day if all I eat is ground chuck, $8-10 a day if I have my preferred steak for dinner (I basically don't eat lunch any more, I'm not hungry enough to bother). Further, if I can lose faster by eating 1 or 1.5 lb a day, while simultaneously saving some cash, I probably should. I'm concerned I may simply end up hungry a lot of the time, and part of what's made this so easy is that I haven't felt deprived at all. If I keep losing 2 lb/week, that's probably fine. Slightly less than I'd hoped to average, but I'll take it if it stays effortless.
*Side note, so long as I'm eating this way, I'm technically a hypercarnivore, which sounds cool enough to inspire a t-shirt.
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January 12, 2010
H/T to Freeman Hunt.
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January 06, 2010
I didn't weigh myself at all in the week between, but my belt notch fluctuated up and then back down. I don't know if I'm back on track soon enough to hit 190 by Jan 21, but since I have no more holiday celebrations to contend with, it's at least possible.
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December 30, 2009

at the start of December, and it deserves any hype you may have heard about it (you probably haven't, but you should have). Taubes provides an incredibly detailed exploration of the history of nutritional science, starting in the early part of the 20th century. Ultimately, it ends up being a very well-researched critique of US Government-backed nutritional policies and health recommendations, starting with weight management and proceeding to exercise and a strong takedown of the lipid hypothesis for heart disease. While this isn't a diet book at all, it's not hard to follow Taubes' research to the logical conclusions that Ancel Keys and his cohort of advisers to the senate panel led by George McGovern either missed or deliberately obfuscated. Study after study of diets with varying macro-nutrient distributions consistently found that diets lowest in carbohydrate produced the most consistent results in lowering the the weights of obese and overweight patients, further that such diets could serve as a treatment for type 2 diabetes, did not result in increases of arterial plaque, and may even prevent cancer and alzheimer's.
Reading the book, I was repeatedly struck by the parallels to CAGW. We had a tight-knit group of scientists relying strongly on theory and very little on research data, all citing each other, and deliberately locking out and denying funding to competing theories. It's uncanny.
I definitely recommend the book, even if some chapters are a bit of slog. Taubes' writing is pretty consistently engaging even when discussing some rather dry elements of the relevant science, and the content is amazing.
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December 23, 2009
Also, in case I don't post again before then, Merry Christmas to all, Happy Christmas to the UK, Ireland, and Australia, and Joyeux Noel to France.
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December 16, 2009
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December 09, 2009
Sadly, I've also become fairly certain that aspartame is a no-no for me, which isn't a huge shock, but it's disappointing. It's not uncommon for an insulin response to accompany a sugarless sweetener, even if no actual carbohydrates are eaten. Supposedly, saccharine doesn't do this to most people, but it's still saccharine. No thanks. I'm not sure I want to bother seriously experimenting with sucralose/Splenda. I might try stevia extract, but it seems easier to just avoid sweet things altogether, since they mess with my palate and cause me to crave starches.
In any event, this puts me down 18 lb in 7 weeks. If I can lose another 2 lb by next weigh-in, I'll be slightly ahead of my goal of 10 lb per month, since 2 months proper will be Dec 21.
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December 08, 2009
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December 03, 2009
Anyone that still buys into this crap is belligerently uninformed. Can we put that money and effort toward real pollution now, like mercury in groundwater, plastic in the ocean, or whateverthehell is feminizing male fish and amphibians?
H/T to Don Surber
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December 02, 2009
It's also possible that I've just done this too many times now (lost weight and then regained it), and my metabolism has become particularly resistant to changes in weight (up or down; I've never managed to go above 220 either, no matter how bad my diet has been, and I usually stop at 205 on the way down and get frustrated). The only cure for that is patience and consistency.
There are some other tricks I might employ, but I'm waiting to be sure those are absolutely necessary before using them to break the plateau.
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November 25, 2009
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November 24, 2009
NO FAIR, I WANT A BROWNIE!
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November 18, 2009
My waist measured in at... 40". That's what I get for estimating rather than measuring back on day 1. I couldn't find the tape that day, and I'm pretty sure this was my version of "rock bottom", so I haphazardly guessed that my waist was 2" larger around than my pants said it was. Apparently a 38" pair of Wranglers is very, very generous, because my waist is visibly smaller than it was, and my pants are quite loose, to the point of being unwearable without a belt. I'll just have to go forward with waist measurements from this point, since guessing at my original size would be just that: a guess.
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November 11, 2009
It's tough to know something is basically life-or-death and treat it like life-or-death when it lacks all the traditional cues of life-or-death (like, say, an angered mother bear or an advancing line of mongol horsemen with bows drawn).
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Also if you are a veteran, free lunch at Applebee's! The house sirloin is pretty good, at least at the one on Washtenaw in AA.
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