Dan Nied's Fortress of Weight Loss: Day 8

What I Ate Today
Breakfast

• 2 cups of Wheaties (Red Sox pitcher Josh Beckett on the box)


• 1 ¼ cup of skim milk


• Calories: 300


• Fat: 2 grams

Snack

• 1 apple


• 1 fat free yogurt (black cherry, my favorite)


• Calories: 150 (assuming 50 for the apple)


• Fat: 0 grams.

Lunch

• 2 slices of whole wheat bread


• 4 slices of lean turkey


• 2 servings of fat free mayo


• Mustard


• 1 can of Safeway brand Noodle Mania chicken soup


• Calories: 450


• Fat: 8 grams

Snack

• 1 apple


• 1 fat free yogurt (strawberry, my second favorite)


• Calories: 150 (again assuming 50 for the apple)


• Fat: 0 grams.

Dinner

• 2 slices of whole wheat bread


• 4 slices of lean turkey


• 2 servings of fat free mayo


• Mustard


• 1 can of Safeway brand Noodle Mania chicken soup


• 4 pickles


• Calories: 450


• Fat: 8 grams

Total Calories: 1,500
Total Fat: 18 grams

I should mention, also, that somewhere between lunch and the second snack, I had approximately five tortilla chips that were neither low fat nor low calorie. However, I had five of them and stopped, so I feel ok about that. If you have a problem with it, please get the hell off my back.

Exercise: None. My body is dead after lifting on Tuesday. I probably won’t get back to the gym until Friday, at which time I will begin regular lifting every other day, and hopefully cardio 4-5 times per week.

Starting weight: 299
Lowest weight: 295
Current weight: 298
Pounds lost but then gained back: 3
Total pounds lost: 1

I should mention that I am tinkering with new ideas to add to the top of these posts. The food journal, while being quite tedious to code to the standards of Blogcritics (and most likely, I did it wrong anyway, so an editor will have to go through and change all of my attempts at using code for bulleted lists. If so…sorry.) is still one of the most important parts of this whole thing.

So I wanted to add more things like it. I work in the newspaper industry, and still have to lay out pages at least once a week. We are constantly being told about entry points and breakout items: information boxes that enable a reader to get the feel of a story without actually reading the story. As a writer, I absolutely hate that stuff, but as a designer and reader, I am always grateful. So yeah, I am tinkering with different items on the top of the posts. As you can see today, I’ve installed a pound-counter that details the weight loss to date. As I am planning on weighing in nearly every day, this could be a very useful box for readers. See, I am always aiming to please. If you have any other suggestions for breakout information, feel free to let me know.

Ok, on to the day. As you can see, 1,500 calories, under 20 grams of fat. I am quite happy with those numbers. Wednesday was a day of honest effort in regards to eating well. I knew I fell off the wagon a few times in the early going, so I made the conscious choice to buckle down and count the calories as closely I could.

I repeated my meals – having the same snack twice and the same thing for lunch and dinner – partly because of my tastes for the day, and partly to make it easier on myself during the work day.

One of the most complicated issues I’ve had to work out is what to do during work. My schedule is, if nothing else, odd. I work only four days per week, for 10 hours at a time. I go into the office at 1 p.m. (ok, 2 p.m.), and I come home around 11:15 p.m. Around 5 p.m., I come home for an hour lunch.

But as you can imagine, having to go into work at 1 p.m. allows me to keep the hours of a 15-year old kid during summer vacation. I wake up no earlier than 10 a.m., but more likely at 11 a.m., and I go to bed anywhere from 2:30 a.m. to 4 a.m. As I write currently, it is 1:58 a.m. here in the Pacific Time Zone, and sleep is at least an hour off.

This schedule does nothing to help accomplish the goals of the Fortress. Normally, I am at work when it is time to eat a real, honest-to-god dinner. I am lucky, however, in that I live half a mile from the office, and can come home for my break. Still, for over a year, trying to eat well during work days has been a struggle.

So I devised a little schedule for myself that was fairly obvious once I figured it out. I wake up and eat breakfast, usually around 11. Before I go in around 2, I eat a light snack. Then, I come home and eat lunch around 5 or 6. Easy so far, right? Well, then it got tricky. I now have to remember to bring a snack back to work with me to eat around 8 p.m., and then dinner when I come home.

I know, I must be a dumbass not to have devised that sooner, right? Anyway, Wednesday was the first day that actually worked, and I came in right where I wanted to – at 1,500 calories – for the day.

I have also devised a little game within the Fortress, just to get me started. After Sunday’s off day, I realized I need a true extended induction phase into this diet. There has to be a period of time when I am rigid with the rules in order to shock the body and get rid of the water weight and have a nice little pick-me-up of insane weight loss numbers.

I don’t know if the insane numbers will happen, but I decided to try and go two weeks without screwing up the diet. That’s 14 days of scrutinizing what I eat, figuring out the best times to eat it, and making sure I get to the gym as much as possible. Wednesday was Day 3 of the induction phase, and so far so good.

On the 15th day, I have tentatively planned an off day. As much as I hate to say it, off days are going to be a part of this journey. I, for one, can’t imagine eating like this forever, or even slowly increasing my daily calorie intake to meet my maintaining needs. But I do believe that I can eat like this for a certain amount of time, before taking a short break to eat whatever I want for a day.

I know it sounds like I am playing with fire here, and I definitely am. But I am not a heroin addict, people. One slip does not equal the end. The key, I am thinking, is to control those slips and have them on my terms. One ultimate goal I haven’t talked about yet is easing myself into a fairly normal eating lifestyle. In that world, I will eat healthy almost all of the time, but will allow periodic indulgences when they present themselves.

After all, I am not training to win Mr. Universe, nor am I planning on joining the Marines any time soon. I want my body to be smaller and firmer, and I know what I am willing to sacrifice to make that happen.

But I also know what I am not willing to sacrifice. And right now, I can’t give up good food altogether. I don’t think anyone should. I just have to take control over when and how I enjoy it.

That’s it for today. Back with more tomorrow.