Straight on to the elliptical this morning for 562 calories in 31 minutes.
I worked out while watching “Alice’s Restaurant” for the second time in as many weeks. It’s worth watching twice, and seems to grow on me. I’ve always been a big Arthur Penn fan, and Arlo is a culture hero of my time on the planet.
Watching the movie brings back the culture wars between the hippies and the rednecks, all but forgotten now. I remember being refused service in a restaurant in Sechelt, British Columbia, because my hair was too long and I had a bit of a beard. “We don’t serve hippies here.” We knew we were in their faces, and our styles got up their noses. Why did we do it? Why do I wear an ear ring to this day?
Speaking of which, an elderly Chinese gentleman in a very classical Chinese garden the other day noticed my ear ring. He pointed at it, made a gesture of throwing it away, a look of disgust on his face. “Bu xi huan.” he said, don’t like. My wife said “Wo xi huan,” I like. So here I am in China, still a shit disturber. Why? Well I guess the easy answer is I demand authority over my own looks and style. People like me gave us a world where long hair doesn’t get you beat up in cow towns. Now you actually have to deserve it to get the boots put to you. Unless you’re gay or transgendered, of course. That could still do it. Bigotry doesn’t die easy, even if we overwhelm it with numbers.
I’m a little concerned about staying on the program today. We’re leaving at 1:00pm with the Chun Hui Young Volunteers to attend their big conference. I helped them write the English on their agenda statement, and we’ve been invited to attend. But that means it may be hard to eat on the program. I think it will be okay. Most Chinese feasts include a lot of protein and greens. If I just avoid the oils and carbofats, I should be okay. We’ll be there for the weekend, possibly, so I may not get the cheater day report in until Sunday.
Hello David,
I’ve been doing my version of the plan – eating 6 times a day. I began Monday. It’s Saturday morning and I’ve lost 1 1/2 kilos Yay!!! Now, I remember being on a weight loss program that was similar to this (6 meals). It was designed to keep one’s sugar level even so that one wouldn’t dive into food ravenously. One technique that was part of the program was sucking on a sour boiled sweet (you know, lemon or orange flavored hard candy) about 15 – 20 minutes before each main meal. It really takes the edge off the appetite and helps to prevent one eating oversized portions.
For me, i’m not going to have a cheater day, but rather, a cheater meal once a week, and it’s enough. It has worked for me in the past. If not a meal then I will take a cheater whole bar of chocolate or icecream sundae or whatever on the weekend. Anyway, I sent my fat pictures to my sister in Sydney and am trying to recruit her to join in, Hope she does. Elaine
So glad to hear you wre with us on this adventure, Elaine. I don’t think it matters what plan you are on, as long as it is not a calore reduced crash diet which only increases your fat to muscle ration. More on this later. the big thing is taking control of our lives and shape, and not just going with the old eating habits. We didn’t evolve to live in this world of constantly available carbofats. The other big thing is to recognize that it took us years to gain this fat, and we need time to get rid of it.
One word of caution. I’ve found that while this program does reduce my weight, eventually, the daily fluctuations can be quite discoouraging. the first time I did the program, ten or more years ago, I never even looked at the scales. My first weigh in this time was very encouraging, but my second was scary. I’d actually gained weight, or at least hadn’t lost any. Many things can account for this, mostly water retention and a full bowel. I find that pinching the flab is a much more reliable indicatioin of success, and I’m feeling very good about that right now. I’m in one hole on my belt, and close to being into the second hole. Most of all, I feel lighter and slimmer. So weighing yourself every once in a while is okay, but don’t take it too seriously.
I hope your sister joins us. I’ll try to post some more of the vast store of information I’ve gained about weight loss in the next few days. Mostly it’s about what not to do. As I said, calory reduced diets are deadly. They are what finance the diet industry, and they make people sick and fatter. With reduced calories, your body will eat muscle before it will eat fat, asnd muscle weighs more than fat, so at the end of a calore reduced diet your fat to muscle ratio has gone up. I’ll post a bit more of this on the main blog soon. Mostly it’s stuff cribbed from Susan Pouter.