Author: lmc

Weight / fitness status, 4/16/12

My third week back on LoseIt.  Could not weigh in this morning.  Net loss so far is 2.2 pounds.
My starting weight 3/26 was 189.6
My current weight (yesterday) 4/15 was 187.4
My goal weight is 175
My plan is to lose 1 lb per week
My calorie budget is 1,739
My goal date is July 13, 2012
My original date was July 8, 2012

“The worst moment for an atheist …”

I got the following quote in the tag-line of a forwarded email:

“The worst moment for the atheist is when he is really thankful, and has nobody to thank.” ~Dante Gabriel Rossetti
I would just like to say: that doesn’t really bother most of us.
I can’t speak for other atheists (except apparently I just did :), but I, for one, acknowledge that most of the world is beyond my control, and unpredictable enough for me to call it random, or at least chaotic, with a straight face.  So when I’m “thankful”, I reflect on my fortune, and I typically thank my wife, who plays an enormous part in my life, and to whom I am always extremely thankful that she loves me and is generally awesome.
Chances are, Greta Christina has covered this topic with much more eloquence and depth than I have.  [… Google …]  Yes.  What Atheists Are Thankful For and Intransitive Gratitude: Feeling Thankful in a Godless World.  In fact I’m pretty sure these posts influenced my thoughts and feelings on the subject.
And, just to come full circle, she quotes a friend of hers: “My friend Rebecca Hensler (founder of the Grief Beyond Belief support network) once said that one of the hardest things for her about becoming an atheist was figuring out what to do with feelings of gratitude.”  So clearly some atheists do have a problem with feelings of thankfulness, at least initially.
When your internal model of the universe diverges from the actual universe, you have problems.  Athropomorphizing a non-conscious universe is one of those divergences.
Interesting grammatical(?) side note: I can’t say “unaware” or “uncaring” because that implies that there’s something there to be aware, or to care, and it just doesn’t, as opposed to my stance where just I don’t believe there’s anything there to be aware or to care.  So all I can think of at the moment is “non-conscious”.

LoseIt! weight loss plan

When I started LoseIt in late February 2010, I set my plan at 1 lb/wk.  After a while, I don’t remember how long, I noticed I wasn’t losing 1 lb/wk.  So I added in (or maybe subtracted out) an extra caloric deficit of 200 calories.  As I recall, after a while, that still didn’t do it, so I added another 150 calorie deficit (for a total of 350/day off LoseIt’s recommendation).  And then my weight loss was fairly steady.  (Again: recalling 1-2 years later.  And of course there are many other factors in weight loss, like activity level and carb consumption.)

My point being, all other stuff aside, when your budget is 850 cal/day below the assumed maintenance level for your age, sex, and height, that gives you a lot of wiggle room to go “over budget” and still be on a negative track overall.
I admit, in some ways this is kind of like setting your clock ahead so you won’t be late, a practice I consider silly.  But on the other hand, that’s not really what I’m describing.  I wasn’t losing as fast as predicted, so I removed more calories from my budget, and then I was.  But I’m also conscious of that fact, and it allows me to stress less when I go 5,477 over budget for the week, like last week, because that’s still 473 under my theoretical maintenance level.

Weight / fitness status, 4/9/12

My second week back on LoseIt.  Net loss so far, 3.4 lbs, 1.8 since last week.  (Which is pretty amazing, given that LoseIt says I’m 5,477 over budget for the week.)  Current goal date is 10 days closer than original, 5 days closer than last week.
My starting weight 3/26 was 189.6
My current weight 4/9 is 186.2
My goal weight is 175
My plan is to lose 1 lb per week
My calorie budget is 1,731
My goal date is June 28, 2012
My original date was July 8, 2012

“Am I still hungry?”

I think a key part of eating the right amount (especially if you’re coming off a long stretch of eating more than you ought) is asking yourself the above question with some regularity (i.e. several times during a meal).

YMMV, but for me, the “I’m not hungry any more” signal is what we geeks call “edge detect”.  It comes once, and it’s soft and easy to miss.  If I miss it, or ignore it, the next signal is “man, I’m full”, and the one after that is “man, I am stuffed.”  (That one tends to stick around!)
But if I ask myself “am I still hungry?”, and stop eating if I’m not (this is actually the important part! :), then I can recover that lost or missed signal.

Weight / fitness status, 4/2/12

My first week back on LoseIt.  Net loss so far, 1.6 lbs.  Goal date is 5 days closer.
My starting weight 3/26 was 189.6
My current weight 4/2 is 188
My goal weight is 175
My plan is to lose 1 lb per week
My calorie budget is 1,743
My goal date is July 3, 2012
My original date was July 8, 2012

Weight loss goals, March 2012

From Feb 2010 – Dec 2010 I lost 46 pounds.  I started at 226 and finished at 180.  I’ve kept pretty good track of my weight since then, and the last time I saw 180 was Oct 2011.  A more recent minimum was 182 in mid-Feb.  This past weekend, on Sunday, I hit 192.  🙁  Up ten pounds in a month, wow.

This morning was 189.6.  I strongly suspect that a significant part of my current “overage” is water weight, which will come off pretty fast.  But some of it isn’t.

So anyway, back on LoseIt.com.  Goal is 175, a pound a week, which LoseIt thinks I can make by July 8, about 15 weeks out (oddly enough ;).
More updates as events warrant.  Questions or comments welcome.