The Mundane Adventures of an IT Geek

40 Pounds in 30 Days - Day 8

So today is the day… Weigh in day for Week 1. Here shortly I’ll leave to my chiropractor’s office and when I return I’ll have an accurate sense of how much I’ve accomplished.

Right now the court is split because I’ve not held as well to the dietary restrictions I’d wanted to. Additionally, Sunday I omitted taking the pills at all; justifying it in my mind as “not wanting to build up an immunity” and “giving my body a rest”, but now I simply wonder if I cheated myself out of an increase to my body’s natural abilities to burn fat or if I made the right move by holding off.

I’ve also been sick to my stomach for two days now and I feel extremely bloated. It may be possible I’ve somehow gained weight, which I fear may be the case.

All I know for certain right now is that I can’t get discouraged because I’ll stop trying. And if I stop trying I’ll end up as a fat Spike Spiegel - and no one likes that.

—-

EDIT: I got back from the Chiropractor and I’m down to 180. So doing pretty darn well, all things considered.

4 Pounds in 30 days - Day 5

I didn’t post yesterday because, essentially, I was far too busy with work to even attempt it. In summary of the day, I think I’ve ironed out that the best time of day for me to take the supplements is between 8am and 9pm because it provides me with enough energy to make it through my day and helps ensure portion control during both lunch and dinner. Additionally, it saves me the foul smelling hell of “half now, half later” which might not be as bad with pills that weren’t so huge or fishy smelling.

Anyway… Day 5:

Today is Saturday - my first weekend since starting this… “weightloss journey” ? (Is there really a term for what I’m trying to do? I mean, it’s not so much “dieting” as it “Hey quit eating so much, try to move around more often, and make sure you’re getting proper nutritional supplements because the things you eat day to day completely suck in that regard.”)

With this being my first weekend, I get to tap into an “explosive workout” supplement which is mixed with water (like koolaid) and drank about half an hour before working out. This supplement came as a promotion with my big 30 day pack of the supplement pills. I consulted with a doctor yesterday about being on both at once and she assured me so long as I drank plenty of water I’d be fine.

Because this little promotional package only comes with 5 scoops worth of powder (making for 5 servings) I’ve decided to split these out in to one every Saturday during my 30 days, and the last one on the last Sunday.

But since I have a limited supply, and my weekends tend to pile up with work, I need to make the absolute most out of these Saturdays. Fortunately I live a little outside of Pensacola in the Milton/Pace area - so we have plenty of nature walks, bike trails, tennis courts, and such to allow me a good area to work out in. And if I felt like driving into Escambia (which, humorously enough, Firefox thinks is a misspelling of “Scabies”), there’re always the Scenic Hills trails (with exercise and rest areas positioned sporadically throughout (pull-up bars, sit-up benches, balance beams, etc)) and of course the beaches which should be nearly deserted this time of year (but I don’t think I’m quiet ready to start running in sand again).

So today’s journey will take me down the Blackwater Heritage Trail (thank goodness for the state parks program and the south’s open embrace to surrendering so much land), beginning at the Milton Public Library and riding my bike for as far as I can, or until travel the approximately 15 miles to the East Gate of NAS Whiting Field and am told to turn around. But the later of these two seems unlikely.

My point of concern with this workout is getting decently far out from the library (where my car and bike rack will be) only to become so tired that I can’t reasonably make the return trip. This is, of course, not a huge life-threatening ordeal as it may be if I were jogging alone in the mountains or something - no I’ll never be more than a short distance from a major road or be able to flag someone down if I need serious help. And absolute worst case is I have to use one of those little call boxes that are every so often on the trail and have a park official come pick me up in one of those golf carts with the truck bed on the back.

Anyway… Off I go.

Adventure!

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40 pounds in 30 days - Day 3

I am Jack’s PC. Despite reaching 10% in 3 days, I estimate 6 weeks remaining.

Fight club references, “Microsoft Can’t Count”, and seemingly needless italics aside, that’s pretty accurate to how thing are going. Today is day 3 of 30. My 10% down mark on my road to epic cosplay an improved state of well being.

I’ve decided to stop weighing myself except on Tuesdays because the weight fluctuation is too severe - so as it stands, I won’t know whether or not I’m making any weight loss progress except for once a week.

I am, however, realizing the problem with weight loss related new year’s resolutions or any sort of limited-budget exercise program launched around this time of year: It’s friggin’ cold outside. It’s 36 outside and feels like it’s 30.

I’m not certain how it is I’m to exercise when I’m either freezing to death or so bundled up for warmth that I can’t move well enough to burn any calories.

“30 degrees isn’t that cold.” For the Pensacola area and it’s constant humidity, yes it is. It’s a different kind of cold than you get a skii resorts and such.

“Couldn’t you join a gym?” Limited money in conjunction with my extreme unwillingness to be around anyone else while I work out puts gym membership ideas to a dead halt.

So for the time being, I have to trust that these supplements can simply “naturally” help me burn the fat because all I can currently contribute is dietary change, and I guess I’ll know in 4 days whether or not that’s working.

Lunch Time Woes…

This morning I took half the pills and the thermal enhancer - and compared to yesterday, I can definitely tell I’m running at have efficiency.

My appetite is not nearly as suppressed as it was yesterday and my mental clarity feels about the same as it always has this time of day.

So while I’m fairly certain I can get by with just a glass of water and a little bit of chicken for lunch, I’m not so keen to the notion of taking 4 rather large and collectively foul-smelling pills in public.

*sigh*

But I suppose I have no choice.

Edit: I took my pills in the car and used my willpower (what limited I have) to stick to just getting chicken.

Continued Progress - Day 2

Day 2 is off to a bad start… Bad weather and limited clothing made it to where I couldn’t exercise outside (because I’m not quiet willing to get my work clothes all sweaty before attempting to wear those same clothes to work. That’s just gross. And wrong), my only option was to workout inside in my pajamas… Which narrowed me down pretty quickly to some basic floor exercises and lifting what little weights I have.

Only problem with that is that I do not like to be around anyone at all while working out, so I had to wait for my fiance to leave for work before I felt comfortable enough to try to get in a little exercise and shower before heading out myself.

It’s not because of her, or anyone other than myself, really, that I don’t like working out with or around anyone. Like I said in my original post, I was the type of kid who (if he showed up at all) didn’t do anything in gym class and never once stepped foot into the locker room. So I’ve got some issues that I’ll need to chip away at before I could exercise with/around anyone. On that note: The word “exercise” trips me up horribly. I keep spelling it “excercise” - don’t do this. It makes you look rather foolish.

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40 pounds in 30 days - Day 2

Realizations:

A few key points have become clear to me thus far. For example, I’m going to need to get some workout clothes and some comfortable shoes. Additionally, I’ve learned to break my pills into two servings, one in the morning and one mid day.

Now of all the pills present (eight per day), I can divide everything up into two identical 4-pill packets with the exception of two pills that only come in singles: A thermal accelerator (which greatly helps with the efficiency of exercise), and a water pill (the benefits of which elude me as I haven’t been awake very long and am waiting on the first 4 to kick in so I can go work out).

I elected to take the pack with the thermal accelerator in the morning, since as long as my will power persists, my morning work out it pretty well guaranteed - unlike my access to the company weight room, which is subject to someone playing key-keeper at that office.

Additionally, I’ve realized that my diet is going to be one of the biggest hindrances to my progress in this task (seeing as last night I did slightly over reach on dinner), so since these pills make it decently easy for me to fast, I can skip out on big meals, and essentially float through my day on less than 500 calories and 20% the FDA daily allowance of fat and carbs. Currently, the only food within my budget (and unique taste restrictions) that will cut all my intakes down to 1/4 or lower (while at least providing me some trace amount of protein) are the original (I don’t like spicy) Wendy’s chicken nuggets. It set’s me back about $1.50 a meal (Which is WAY cheaper than I’m eating now), and yesterday I was only able to eat 4 out of 5 at lunch (it was in the evening, after my pills had worn off that I over-did dinner).

Hopefully I can stomach the taste of breaded chicken for a full month and not burn out on it. Also, with any luck, my method of dividing up the pills will work nicely and my energy, mental celerity, and willpower will all stay elevated throughout the day and only wear off a few hours before bed.

Worth Mentioning:

My vitamin supplements also came with (through some manner of promotional hoohah, I’m sure) some water-based supplements designed specifically to enhance hard workouts - but I only have 4 or five servings of it, and am in no position (financially or physically (at least until I get a good feel for the pills that I’m already on)) to make it daily part of my life. So I’ve decided I’ll break it down into one serving per weekend for the next month, and then spend that day trying to break myself in half with any form of exercise I can accomplish around the house.

Well… My stomach is feeling sloshy, so these pills are taking affect, I’d better go work out while that thermal enhancer is at it’s peak. (Man, you can really feel the difference in energy from “dead tired” when I started writing this, to “got stuff I need to go do!” now. I just wish the pills didn’t make you feel like you have bad gas and indigestion :/ Oh well, I guess.)

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A Learning Experience…

My pills have worn off, and my fatigue, laziness, and mental fog have all returned… Tomorrow I’ll have to break the pills out to a half now, half later arrangement.

It wasn’t an instant crash or anything, it happened slowly over about two, two and a half hours. And when they were finally completely worn off, by comparison to just a few hours previous I felt as though I was half asleep. Only later did I realize that this is how I live day to day… Running through my daily life at roughly at 35% actual capacity.

I’m left now with the realization that I need a FAR better diet that the nearly 24 years of snacks and pizza to which I’ve become accustomed - especially if my current low can be attributed to basic dietary neglect / malnutrition.

So I have to change… And more so than just pop some pills and work out.

Which reminds me. As I type this, the business day ends, and I’m free to go to the company weight room in our office across the lot…

I’ve gone from endless energy (which was used to park as far as away as I could, just so I could enjoy the walk) to utter fatigue, if not dread of working out.

*sigh*

This will be one of those things I do not because I want to, but because I want to want to.

The Minority

So, apparently, I’m one of very few men on tumbler making use of the “weight loss” tag, and of them I seem to be the only one who’s not already fairly athletic or trying to sell/promote a product.

I have to admit a misconception in which tumblr (well, blogging in general) was dominated by people like me: The desk workers of the world who study languages and cultures, watch anime, read manga, and play video games.

Perhaps this is why the stereotype of guys like me are morbidly obeise guys with bad skin and no women in their lives.

Come on, guys! We need to break the stereotype and start taking care of ourselves while “gamer nerd” is still popular style, lol.

We’re at a unique point in our culture where the very things that got many of us picked on in school (wearing ‘weird’ clothes, thick framed glasses, and playing old school video games) is now surprisingly trending. If there was ever a time to come out of the shadows, lift some weights, and reclaim your place in society, now’s that time!

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