Thursday, April 17, 2008
Added a monthly chart
Nothing much to see here, I just added a monthly chart in addition to the “from the beginning of time” chart
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
A year later and what have we got?
So, it’s been over a year since I started all this.
Down 5 belt holes (actually I had to get a different belt) and anything larger than a 38 (started at 42) is WAY too big.
XXL shirts are actually quite comfortable and my dress shirts have room in the neck.
I’ve gone from 276 to ~250 and I’m on a downward trend currently (thank you fall TV season!).
Got me a good scale
My blood pressure is way down - something along the lines of borderline hypertension compared to “please don’t cut me, I’ll squirt all over the place”
I think I narrowly avoided diabetes.
Let’s see if I can clear 200 before next Halloween.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
First update in a while
Going on vacation really messes things up, especially when you forget to take the oil.
It’s been a little up but mostly down and level lately - I’ve been too tired many mornings to go on the treadmill but as always “I will work harder” (that’s from ‘Animal Farm’ in case you missed it). I am wearing size 38 pants commonly now, that’s a marked improvement. I suppose slowing down every so often (as if I was choosing to do it!) is likely a good idea so the skin has a chance to shrink, right? =)
In a few of the other blogs about this I read they noted that plateaus are common and to be expected so I’m not overly concerned.
Friday, March 09, 2007
The geekiest thing I’ve done in years
this has nothing to do with the diet. Ive been watching the DVD of the IT Crowd. It’s a British comedy that is apparently coming to the US in June of 2007, much like they did with The Office. At any rate, they have normal english subtitles and Uber Geek ones. One has funny inside jokes that only computer geeks would get, another has each letter of the text shifted by 13 places (ROT13), another has all the words for the subtitles sorted in alphabetical order. The 4th episode starts off like this:
Content-Disposition: attachment;
filename=’’TheRedDoor.asc’’
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
KFJveSBodW1zICJBbm90aGVyIEJyaWNrIGluIH
and it just has seemingly random text for the rest of the show. Sitting around yesterday I realized that I could run the subtitles through an Optical Character Recognition program made for subtitle extraction and then I could put that through a base64 decoder - and finally end up with some sort of file. A file attached into video as subtitles - that’s cool. So I did it. The extraction thing goes through the subtitle images (352 of them in this case) and when it comes upon a letter it hasn’t seen yet it asks you to tell it what letter it has highlighted. Starting out you have to type a lot but it starts hitting letters it’s already seen. Eventually you end up with a text file (which I’ve attached here). Then I had to remove the subtitle ID# and time indexes and ended up with the encoded text (here). Ran it through a decoder and found that there was a duplicated line, took that out.... and got the file!
So what was the magic file attached in the subtitles? cool image? a sound clip? It ended up being about 15KB - could be any number of things.
It was the subtitles. Just the subtitles. The English ones. Yes I spent the better part of a half hour decoding the same text as was on the other subtitle stream (but with Unix line feeds). That kinda sucked. I invite the team that will eventually do the DVD of the US version, or the team that will do the DVD of the 2nd season of the UK version to not just wimp out and attach the text. Give us a sound clip of Jan saying “have you tried turning it off and back on again” or something.
“Buy more ovaltine”
Ok. I’m done.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
A few disjointed thoughts
been a while since I updated the blog, though the progress graph gets updated every day (well, almost).
First: on a typical day I’m completely forgetting to eat anything at all for breakfast, eating two things of instant oatmeal for lunch and then eating whatever I care to for dinner.
Second: I made a startling observation about a month ago - I had been maintaining myself in a non-hungry state at all times, eating enough that I was never empty. Thinking about it, that actually doesn’t seem like a normal state (never hungry) rather, most people get hungry as meals approach. Now, I’m not talking about ravishing hunger, just “gee, I have nothing in my stomach or upper small intestines - you know I think I’d like to eat” as opposed to “well the clock says noon, I get to eat again!” I suspect people who have been skinny all their lives will wonder why this is a big deal but for me it’s a major revelation. You see many diets claiming “you won’t have to starve yourself” but I suspect that most overweight people have moved into the “never hungry = normal state” mode and will consider being hungry at all as starvation until they too recognize that it isn’t normal and they’re supposed to get hungry - even if it’s just a little.
Third: I want to reiterate how much I’m eating a day (see point first) and say that I’m not starving, in fact often I’m not even that hungry - until it’s time to go home and have dinner. By then, it’s most definitely time to eat - which usually happens around 5:30 or so. But I’m not wallowing in agony, and once I do start eating the reduced appetite kicks in which is why I don’t really worry about what I’m eating or how much because I just stop when I’m feeling full.
Fourth: Looks like I’ve lost about 16 pounds (7.25kg, 1 stone 2) so far. Though I’m looking forward to reaching my first “turkey” milestone (20 pounds - or about the weight of a thanksgiving turkey) I like the fact that 16 pounds of butter using the 3.125x1.5x1.5” sticks common here in the western US, stacked horizontally would be exactly 8 feet tall.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Running, Running (well, mostly walking but running none-the-less)
Well, I’m right in between the last hole (that makes 4 total) on my belt and the penultimate one. If I use the penultimate one my shirt comes un-tucked and my pants sag, the last one gets uncomfortable after a few hours of sitting, which was what happened 4 holes ago when I started.
Decided to try something new: thanks to the renewal of new TV shows, I’ve been going on the treadmill quite regularly (4 times last week, I think). The problem is finding the time - if I do it after I put the kids to bed I usually don’t get to bed until 10:30 or 11:00 and I’ve been waking up around 4:30 for the last few years which make for little sleeping time. So, I’m going to try it the other way - this morning I woke up at 4 (the urge to hit snooze was almost unbearable), weighed myself (264.5), did the treadmill for an hour, weighed myself (263.5), had to go to the bathroom, weighed myself (262.5, and that’s my final answer).
You too can lose 2 pounds in 1 hour with my proven water/waste weight loss program! Operators are standing by!
Monday, February 05, 2007
I’m also blaming network TV
I noticed that I hadn’t been on the treadmill much lately - mostly because my entire family was passing illness of one form or another back and forth from October until the end of January, but also because there wasn’t any good TV to watch while on the treadmill - well Heroes, Smallville, BSG, Lost and the others are starting up again and I find myself on the ‘mill more and more. I’m not noticing the appetite suppression so much, though it seems to be there still. I think it’s because I’ve accustomed myself to not eating as much - good thing.
Friday, December 29, 2006
I’m blaming Christmas
If you take a peek at the progress chart you’ll notice a upwards movement around Christmas time. Sure it’s just 3 pounds and it’s waning now - it’s still rather upsetting. At any rate, like I said - it looks like things are getting back on track now.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Maybe now you’ll never slime a guy with a positron collider, huh?
Well, it was bound to happen. I’ve been slacking off on the treadmill and a had a few concatenated parties and such: weight went up for the first time since I started (and not just water weight - it lasted more than 1 day) so looks like I need to refocus.
In other news, my appetite is still greatly diminished - eating what I would have considered a “normal” amount leaves me feeling like I want to lay down and sleep because I’m going to pop. I suppose it must be in my head but who would have known that a 6 inch sub would make me want to die.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Tell him about the twinkie
No updates = nothing really to report. I update the graph just about every weekday. Time marches on and I’m still losing weight.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together - mass hysteria
Maybe it was that I spent all thanksgiving weekend replacing the bathtub and surround at my in-laws but I successfully continued to lose weight over thanksgiving - and that’s a first (probably - I actually never kept track). At any rate, time marches on and the graph keeps going down.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
“I am the gatekeeper”
It’s tough coming up with memorable quotes from Ghostbusters.
I suppose it has been quite a while since the last update. I can say without hesitation that the change in my appetite is directly linked to something real - as opposed to “all in my head” Several times over the past two weeks, what I would have considered a normal amount of food left me feeling like I wanted to lie down and die - or at least take a nap - because I was so full. Interestingly, I can tell that I’m not actually full - I just feel like it.
Be sure to check out the current graph (look in the upper right) - things are still going good.
On a side note, do me a favor: click some of the google ad links to the right, I’m saving for some metal DDR pads.
Friday, November 03, 2006
Dropping off or picking up?
Nothing much to report. Time marches on. I have noticed that if I eat and haloween candy I’m suddenly hungry. I still keep running into the compulsion to eat something - even though I’m not hungry and am just fine when I don’t do it, probably transitional boredom.
Monday, October 30, 2006
No Dr. Venkman, you’re being moved *Off* campus
Twice this weekend I felt absolutely stuffed full, bloated, gonna die if I eat anything else… because I ate a hotdog. The odd thing was I knew I wasn’t full but it felt that way. We also went to Applebee’s and I had a Hamburger. That’s easily doable right? I felt like I was going to die. Mind you, this is all extremely good, especially since my weight loss plateaued a tiny bit - I expect it to pick up again on Monday. At any rate I’m still doing better than a pound a week - I’d like to get it up to 2.
Friday, October 27, 2006
Down Three
Belt loops that is. Too bad I’m the only one who can tell so far. I guess I just need to wait a few more months (on a side note, I actually liked Click - if you haven’t seen it you won’t get the connection). OK, go back to work.
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Most recent entries
- Added a monthly chart
- A year later and what have we got?
- First update in a while
- The geekiest thing I’ve done in years
- A few disjointed thoughts
- Running, Running (well, mostly walking but running none-the-less)
- I’m also blaming network TV
- I’m blaming Christmas
- Maybe now you’ll never slime a guy with a positron collider, huh?
- Tell him about the twinkie
- Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together - mass hysteria
- “I am the gatekeeper”
- Dropping off or picking up?
- No Dr. Venkman, you’re being moved *Off* campus
- Down Three