I wish I'd snapped a shot of my scale, but this road sign image will have to do
Well, I don’t know if I’ve lost 2lbs in 2 days, but this what the scale said this morning. My only insight would be, my sense is that if you’re just patient with your hunger pangs, after 20 minutes or so, your liver will release the stored up energy in your fat (I think it’s called glycogen) and they will gradually disapate. Now I’m not trying to starve myself. I’m eating, but just smaller portions (a half sandwich instead of a whole one for instance), and I really don’t feel hunger pangs in the day. Just late at night, when I’m ready to go to sleep. Maybe try a sleep aid (Make sure it’s safe! Check with your doctor!). I’ve taken Advil PM the last couple of nights because I have knee pain anyway, and it’s put me to sleep.
Also, when I’m eating my smaller portions, I tell myself, “If your hungry again, go ahead and eat again in 2 or 3 hours.” That seems to give me some subconscious relief, and also eating smaller portions but more frequently speeds up your metabolism and keeps your insulin levels (hence mood) more stable. When your insulin levels are more stable throughout the day it tells your body its okay to burn fat instead of trying to hold on to it.
So I’ve been overweight for a long time. I downloaded an app for the iPhone called “Lose It!” which made me enter my weight. So I went on the scales for the first time in a long time. It read 231lbs! That is crazy! I’ve never weighed this much.
This website, CaloriesPerHour.com, is useful. I entered in my dimensions and it spat back out, “Your Obese!” Wake up call! The only thing worse than “Obese” on their scale is “Morbidly Obese!”
The Livestrong App on iTunes may even be better than Lose It! but Lose It! seems to work fine for me now. It’s free. The Livestrong app is $2.99 I believe. I learned of Lose It! on Mashable.com so I trusted it was pretty good even for free.
Anyway, Lose It!, helps you keep track of calories. So now I’m going to count! My goal is 175lbs which is about the right weight for my height (5′ 11″).
Even though it’s embarrassing, I thought blogging it would help keep me on track.
Yesterday I had no breakfast because I didn’t wake up early. Lunch was HALF of a REUBEN sandwich which was something freshly made and packaged from Kroger’s, so I’d say it’s a little bit less fattening than ones you might buy at a fast food place or Oaklawn. Anyway a website said a typical Reuben, cheese and all is about 462 calories.
So for my first meal I had 231+95 (Half a Reuben and a whole Apple) = 326. I drank a Sugar Free Verve which is only 4 calories! I love that, because it feels like drinking a soda which are usually 100 calories or more. So make it 330.
A few hours later I had a Stouffer’s Fish Filet dinner with Mac and Cheese. The box says 400 calories. Normally I would eat two of those. I ate one.
So my grand total yesterday was 730 calories. (I had water with dinner) My budget of calories in the app was 1839. It says that’ll lose two pounds per week if I budget 1839 or less per day. So I was under by a 1000 or more calories!
Going to bed I had hunger pangs. Definitely before the app I would have gone out and gotten something, but I drank two glasses of water. I think I drank half a verve too. The carbonation helps. Also I think I had a Vemma.
This morning, before eating, the scale said 229.5. Now, granted, when I weighed the first time, it was after I had eaten something. So let’s take a pound off of that, and make my starting point 230. (Assuming I would have weighed in at 230 that morning.)
Well, ok. Maybe I lost half a pound. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.
Today I’ve had so far (it’s about 7pm as I write) 1026 calories. I did take a mile and half walk today with my dogs even though my knee was hurting. Finally there was Sun and warmth (about 67F)! The app says that exercise burned about 126 calories. I can live with that. I was sweating by the end of it.
So my net for the day so far is 900. I can eat 936 more calories today and still be under my budget!
Allright. I may have something later. I’m not trying to get crazy or anything.
One thing I have noticed, and I’ve read this before is that when I have a protein with a carb, even if its a smaller portion, I feel satisfied. (The reuben had the meat, bread, and apple. The Stouffer’s meals always have a meat some kind of carb.)
So other than Counting & Keeping track, which according to Lance Armstrong, does work, my one little take away would be to make sure you have a protein and carb with your meal, even if it’s a smaller portion.
I’ll continue to weigh every day just because I like it, but I’m not worried about day to day results as much as weekly ones.
Oh another piece of advice: If you have those hunger pangs at night, it’s almost like the training that goes with quieting the mind in meditation. In meditation you gently nudge the mind back to quietness. With this, at least in my case, I have some water or a carbonated drink to quell them just a little. I’ve done this the last two nights actually, and it feels like they reduce in intensity over time. I think to myself while I’m laying in bed that I’ve got enough stored up energy for my body to sleep and dream peacefully. If my body needs more energy, at least at this point, there are plenty of reserves down there! That helps ease the mind a little that you don’t need anything late at night.
Although don’t think that a fantasy of an omelette plate from Waffle house hasn’t crossed my mind! Still, I be still, do some reading, and fall asleep.
We’ll see what tomorrow brings!
The Goals Page on the Lose It! app gives a nice progress graph.
I think the tricky part is knowing just how many calories everything you eat has. Say you go to a restaurant, have one of there nice meals. Fine. You want desert, fine, but just how many calories did that meal have? Especially if you are on the go, this is a challenge. The web helps. It told me about the Reuben. But sometimes you’ll just have to make a rough guess if you are at a restaurant or something.
Obviously there is more to it than just calories. Fat is the most important thing. But, hey, I’m a numbers guy. An app like this that is on the phone, at least helps me get the ball rolling and focused in the right direction.
Bola de Nieve – "Snowball" the Cuban "Louis Armstrong" wrote this little cabaret song, "Mesie Julian."
[audio:http://www.stephenpickering.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/mesiejulian3.mp3]
This is an old Cuban song by the artist Bola de Nieve, but what I’m covering here is the Josh Rouse version which is off his latest album “El Turista.” The Bola de Nieve version is on piano and it’s wild! I can play piano a little, but I can’t imagine anyone could play it like him. He doesn’t even look at the piano when he sings. It’s like he, the rhythm, the piano, and the performance are one. Amazing left hand. No one can match it. It’s like the rhythm has a life of its own.
This is the first song I’ve sung in another language. Spanish. Although I think he mixed in a little French with it. I still have to work on the pronunciation, but at least I’ve gotten to the point where I can get through it, and its FUN.
Figuring out the chords has been hard. The verse is straight forward: B7-F#-E. But then it gets jazzy crazy. I don’t think I’m doing it exactly right. I’ve tried to look at some Josh Rouse videos of him playing it, but his fingering looks weird from a regular tuning point of view. He may be using an alternate tuning. I asked on his message board if anyone knew, but so far no one has responded. The chorus is sort of a weird B chord that flattens a note in one bar and then goes to E major 7 to G and back to B or B7. The second time around it ends with a C#m7 and Fmaj7 before landing on the root B chord. When I get time I’ll try to draw out the fingering I’m using. I’ll make a video too.
If anyone out there knows how to play for reelz please leave a comment and let me know!
I’ll keep working on this song and when I feel I can play it a lot better I’ll make a new recording. I have a list of about 30 songs so far that grows every day, that I’m learning to play, so that eventually I can do a live show.
Image by Stef Thomas. http://www.flickr.com/photos/stef3d/
This isn’t my song. It’s by a girl, Paz Suay from Spain. But anyway, I had the thought earlier this month, that if I learned one song a day, that would be a pretty good repetoire by the end of a year’s time. Hehehehehehehehhe. The first one I learned and played was “That’s the Way” by Led Zepplin. I just recorded that with one mic. With “World” at first I did it on the iPad, which was so much fun, but then the limitations, got to me at the end, I went ahead and did these 6 tracks in Logic Pro.
I keep thinking, ok if I keep this repetoire alive and growing, like playing the song live often, they’ll sort of grow in character and then I can record them later for a better, um, how to say, more resonating effect.
Of course I’ll play my own songs in there too. I think learning others songs, helps you in your own song writing. You start to learn what chord changes are possible, what melodies are possible. One time I was in a band and there was a definite how do you say, bias against doing “Covers.” Every band did covers. But now, especially after having read Keith Richard’s Bio and realizing like the first 4 or so Stones’ albums were all cover songs, kind of gives you a different perspective. :-))))))0
This girl is selling a MILLION copies a year of her fiction WITHOUT A PUBLISHER on the Kindle platform.
Theseus killing the Minotaur, who is the child of Ego and Greed. The circle is the Soul, and the Labyrinth is when a Societal System is used to trap instead of free the soul.
Arcade Fire not only is selling millions, filling up stadiums without a RECORD LABEL, they also just won the GRAMMY for Record of the Year.
You can Google them.
These are amazing stories. Publishing and Music have cracked because technology has enabled them to be produced for 1/10th, 1/100th, 1/100oth of what they cost 10, 20 years ago.
Motion Pictures still cost millions. So that category hasn’t cracked. But even if you want to be an actor or director, you’ve got the tools to start (HD Cameras, Computer Video Editing) and a distribution channel for free to get you noticed (Mainly Youtube).
I would definitely say this is the age of the person who wants to be “into” what they are doing. If you are the type of person who is just in it for the glamor and wants everyone else to handle the details, well there’s still room for about 5 of you in music, 4 in Pulp Fiction, and maybe 10 males, 10 females in “acting,” but even these positions are rapidly losing not only space, but more importantly “authenticity” and “mind-share.”
Whatever you want to do, if you are really into it. I mean REALLY into it. As in LOVING IT FOR WHAT IT IS and NOT IT’S REWARD, then your time has come. You have the chance to be on the edge of excitement all the time.
Authenticity not only makes you happier and leads you to unexpected discoveries, authenticity SELLS. So in this day and age, the more you do follow your love, the more success your going to have.
Follow the “Thin wax string of your desire.” That’s what the Theseus myth is about. It’s thin because it represents “intent” and following your “inner” voice which is unlike any other, unique to you.
It will lead you out of the maze, the Labyrinth.
The electronics revolution reduced the cost of production, and the Communications’ Revolution is rapidly reducing the cost of distribution.
The cost of finding what you love is infinite if you listen to the outside World and ZERO if you listen to your INNER VOICE.
