Jimstolz's Blog Lately it's a little all over the place.

It’s almost that time of year…

Pretty soon it'll be New Year's Day, the day when everyone suddenly gets inspired to change their lives in some way.  How many thousands of people decide to lose weight, get in shape, stop wasting money, etc?  How many of them stick with it?

I resolve to set no New Year's Resolutions.

It's great to make those goals, it really is, but waiting for an arbitrary day to commit to something makes zero sense to me.  The flip side of the coin of New Year's Resolutions is they are expected to fail.  It's the other half of the story.  People don't take them seriously.  It's like a game.  It makes you feel good to commit to something positive, and that's great.

In my experience, if you're not ready to do those things RIGHT NOW... and I mean right this instant, then setting an arbitrary start date is just fooling yourself.  If you're not willing to start that diet RIGHT NOW, even though you ate like crap this morning, or had fast food for lunch, then you're probably not going to stick with the plan for very long.

Set some goals for yourself!  Start doing them NOW! Write them down and track how much progress you made BEFORE New Year's!

Belt notch

Going down... I guess?

Habits are nowhere back in swing, and I haven't even weighed myself since the last post, but this morning I threw my belt on and realized I was down one notch from where I usually am.  I started slow carb at notch 3, quickly dropped to notch 4 and had been there ever since.  This morning I just ended up, without trying, on notch 5.

I wasn't trying to squeeze into a smaller, uhh, "setting" (?) and it just ended up there.

This diet is crazy.  I'm barely putting ANY effort into it.

Shopping trip

Slow carb has been incredibly cost effective for me, so I splurged a little at the store this time.  So far the biggest single expense I had was $19.99 for some macadamia nut oil... which was totally worth it, but the way.  I went with grapeseed oil this last time since macadamia oil is kind of hard to find (ok let's be honest, I didn't feel like spending the money...LOL).

Tomorrow night I'll be trying grass-fed beef for the first time.  Whew that stuff is pricey!  I spent $5.17 for a pound of ground 93/7 grass-fed beef.  Also got a small steak which was $7+.  Not complaining, just sayin'.

What should I make with the ground beef?  Not like I can have a "burger"  Hmm... Decisions decisions.

24 hours later?

Back on slow carb for 24 hours after an 11 day bout of being sick.

Yesterday morning I was at (compared to 12 days ago):

+ 6 lbs. (-3.2 lbs lean mass, + 6.2 lbs fat mass)

Today I'm at (compared to 12 days ago):

+0.4 lbs. (+0.3 lbs lean mass, +0.1 lbs fat mass)

Back on the wagon

So I've been sick for the past 10 days.  Anyone want to guess how much weight I put back on?  I'll give a few hints.  I completely stopped slow carb the day I got really sick (fever, coughing, couldn't think straight, etc.)  Since then it's been carbs, carbs, carbs.  Pizza, fast food, soda, sugar, whatever.  All day, every day.

My last weigh in was on 3/10.  I was at 177.2 pounds.

Weighed in today, 3/21...at 180.2 pounds.

Huh?  How does that work?  3 pounds?  That's it?  Not bad for zero effort.  Might even have been negative zero effort, but trying to calculate that might break the universe, so I'll stick with "zero."

On the days when I wasn't feeling all that sick, I was starkly reminded of how I used to feel all the time. It's hard to believe I used to eat like that.  I had mood swings, my stomach hurt - at least to some extend - about a quarter of the time I was awake, and I was back to spending way too much money on food again.

Tell me, what was the benefit to living like that?

VERY MUCH looking forward to how I'll feel in the next day or two...

Sick, sick, sick.

After a long week at work where my stress levels and schedule got together to conspire against me, I finally got back "on the wagon" and know a cold has got me knocked out. I spent a solid 5 days either "cheating" or going 10-12 hours without eating. Then I was "gung ho!" to get back on Slow Carb and promptly got kicked in my ass.

By Wednesday morning I think I had only put on about 2 pounds, which really isn't bad.  But I am ready for this to be done.  I went home early from work on Tuesday and was in bed, asleep, by 4 pm.  I was back up around 10 pm and suddenly felt almost completely better.  Wednesday I was struggling a little bit, but it wasn't bad at all.  I worked out in the field all day and was fine.  That night I had a bunch of stuff to do so I downed an entire french press of coffee (yes, with creamer) at about 7:30 pm.  Shockingly I was in bed by about 12:30 am.

Today I am a snot factory.  Fever is gone, but talking makes me cough and nose is constantly running, phlegm in my throat, etc.  I'm ready....go away now...

If you can overdose on Emergen-C, I'll be the one to do it.

Can't wait to feel healthy.