John’s Ramblings

I put my plateau-ridden ass back on the Warp-Speed Fat Loss plan a week ago, in an effort to drop a few more pounds and thus increase my chances of doing pull-ups and looking better naked.  After the quick loss of a couple of pounds, I got stuck at about 223, and couldn’t budge the number in spite of regular workouts.

After a few frustrating days (and some very helpful words from my wife, who talked me down from the precipice of pizza-consolation), I came to the conclusion that the problem may not lie with output, but rather the input side of the equation.  While the diet worked wonders in February/March/April, it wasn’t working now.  I needed a change of pace in order to wake up my system, and to start getting results again.

I looked (briefly) into a complete change of methodology.  Luka has been having success lately with the “Green Faces” diet, wherein you eat nothing but meat and green leafy stuff for three weeks.  Sounds ok (sort of a variation of the Atkins/ketosis approach), but I’ve seen Luka tuck into a cold tub of browned ground bison for lunch, and the lack of variety would be my downfall for sure.  At the far end of the spectrum is the Velocity Diet.  Sure-fired results, but who wants to live on 6 protein shakes a day (bonus-one solid meal… a week!).  My dedication would soon be trampled under the jack-boots of monotony.

Because I have had success with the Warp-Speed diet before, I have decided to fine tune the portions and some of the menu plan.  It is apparent that my base metabolism isn’t anywhere near as high as is assumed by the diet planners, nor anyone that makes those gawdawful formulas that “predict” how many calories I burn sitting on my ass in front of a computer all day.  The diet plan I was working with before was targeted at about 2,100 calories a day.  I’m going to shoot for 1,750 – 1,800 on non-workout days, and about 2,000 on workout days.  Will it be hard?  Youbetchurass.  I’m in a mental place right now that the frustration of not being able to feed my oral fixations is far outweighed by my frustration at the lack of weight change.

I re-read “300 Opinions” this morning, and it makes for a nice reinforcement of my resolve:

If you weren’t given the gift you can’t get the gift so the best you can do – if your goal is important – is work as hard as you possibly can, pay attention every hour of every day and then maybe, maybe if you’ve done enough and been smart enough you’ll emerge from the muck of mediocrity to shine a bit brighter than you shone before.

I had a 2 pound “pop” this morning, but that may just be a water-retention thing.  I should know by Friday how this is working.  If this doesn’t bear fruit, the next step for John is the Alpo Diet.

Tags: weight loss

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