The Time's: They Are A Changin'

I dunno - but I think things have been slowin down for me lately. My wife has noticed it herself and has commented to me on it. She thinks I am stuck in the 330's. I am spending more time here than I have at weights previously, I think. My rate of loss has slowed some. I am still losing. I am on the verge of busting into the 320's, still. Just way more slowly. I noticed I am about down another belt notch lower than the last one, and it is about time to drill more holes or get a smallerish belt. That is one good thing!

The cycling of my weight up and down has continued - retaining water weight and riding up, then dropping down to new lows. But I am dropping less lately than before. On one cycle recently I noticed a .4 lb drop (POINT FOUR) from one new low to the next!!! Still it **IS** in the right direction.

ARGH!! I have been getting disgusted enough that I stopped logging my daily weight (something I probably shouldn't do I suppose) and have mostly been logging my weight online when it hits new lows.

I am probably getting to the point where things I did in the past with impunity - still losing weight - I can no longer get away with. I have been reading online alot and thinking about things. Am I in a stall? Have I just hit a levelling off period? Or do I need to crank things up or cut things back just to get things going again??

I am not eating massive amounts of carbs. My average is still 1.9 lbs loss a week since January, but still lately I am certainly doing somewhat less which is frustrating. I still have plenty of bodyfat tho. So it's not even like I am leveling out at rock bottom!

I have been contemplating all kinds of things. Beginning to work-out or doing something to raise my metabolic rate. Jumping on to some lower calories low carb thing to bust things loose (perhaps do a Kimkins or a M/E kinda thing for a short period)? It's probably just me needing to cut back on the cheese and salad stuff a bit. Get more ON PROGRAM than I have been lately. I probably haven't been counting carbs tightly enough, and that is perhaps the deal. I haven't been going nose-down into carbs, but maybe overdoing it on cheese or the salad bar or the like. I may need to get back on fitday and do some fascist level logging of things and tracking day to day much harder.

The past couple of days I have had the stomach flu bug. Massive intestinal disruption in very socially unacceptable contexts (if you know what I mean). I have had a bad headache and stomach ache. I am hoping that going through this might be enough to propel me into 320-land. We'll see.

Hanging in there. Keeping on Keeping on. Staying the course.

Catching up...

Well, this weekend I am catching up on some **much needed** rest, sleep, and some relaxing and downtime. It feels SOOOOoooo GOOOOoooD!

I have been under major stress the past couple of months and I have gotten almost completely catatonic with lack of sleep, stress, long hours, and low carb. Maybe it's just me, but I've always been someone who has eaten something when stressed. Everybody makes that sound like an emotional response to stress, but after the past couple months I am wondering if it isn't even a physical response (as in the bod needs the energy or whatever in the nutritional intake during high stress periods). I also tend to get very sleepy after and sometimes during high periods of intense stress. Dunno why that happens, but it does to some degree.

Anyhow, I have stayed on plan thoughout, but it has been hard. One of the the things I have noticed during this prolonged period of long hours, hard work, lack of sleep, and major stress is that I was really having a more difficult time thinking, made verbal miscues more often (said one word meaning another), and got a little catatonic (low levels of emotion and positive emotional response - like joy, happiness, exhuberance, even being expressive in general, etc).

I have suspected that this low carb way of eating does something to increase your testosterone levels, as it seems to have personally effected me in this way, and I have read about this as well reported from others. But I also believe it probably affects your seratonin levels or whatever your happy spots are in the brain. I think I dealt with stress better when eating carbs personally, and I probably thought clearer overall. However I also think that my blood pressure and stomach acid and other problems where much more severe then as well, and I was heading for major physical problems and breakdown on the road I have been on (eating high carb diet in the past and gaining progressively more weight).

Anyhow, I suspect that low carb, coupled together with high stress and with severe lack of sleep are an evil combination that will rob you of joy and pleasure in life, and make life much more difficult. Probably doesn't take a real brainiac to think of that, but if the idea has occurred to you I can confirm by my own personal experience that has been the case for me anyhow.

Also, in the midst of all this I got an infection on one of my fingers and needed to get a doctor to lance it from the fingernail bed area up to about the first knuckle across the entire top of the finger and also the one side also infected. Looked like an ingrown toenail only deeper down inside and down the length of the finger from the nailbed. Doc gave me a couple prescriptions for really strong broad spectrum antibiotics (one said the occasional side effect was that it killed those taking it). I feel that my immune system being down is another indication of the results of extremely high levels of stress, low sleep, and low carb.

I have stayed on-plan throughout and this morning got as low on the scale as 334.2 lbs! Feeling terrific about that, and know that overall I am doing the right thing for me with this way of eating. That makes it over 75 lbs down now as of today (measuring by my lowest weights in a cycle that bounces around a bit). It will probably be a week or more till I am solidly into this weight at my midpoint/average. But it is fun and nice and rewarding to see even little new points of progress along my journey to better health!

I am not trying to dog low carb eating. It has been wonderful for me and has helped me achieve better health overall. I have hung in there cause it is all I know how to do. There is no way I am going to quit and go back up to the weight I was at (or heavier). I want to be here for my wife and to help raise and enjoy my kids, and to serve the Lord.

Thanks to all my friends and online supporters who are a terrific encouragement to me! I am finally getting to the point where more folks are noticing the weight loss, and that is very rewarding in itself. I have started slowly increasing my physical activity (parking further away and taking stairs more often). I want to gradually ease into it, but get to a point where more physical activity is also a part of my life.

Water Retention & A Challenge Brought!

If you've been reading here you know that I was seriously bumming about maybe retaining some water and gaining some weight unexpectedly - just as I was hoping to hit the 40lbs lost mark. I gained 5 lbs when I was at 361.8lbs just the day before and bloated on up to 366.8 lbs by the next morning. Sure, 40 pounds is not a tremendously huge number, but it's the next big round number for me, and one I was kinda excited about just the same.

Well, ...this morning I had lost some of the water I had retained, and was down from 366.8 to 363.8. But my legs are still a little swollen, and I am still pushing the water and liquids as much as I can. Maybe I will be back down there (~40 lbs lost) in the next day or so.

I am hoping that tomorrow and/or the next day or two will get me back down to the "40lbs Down!" mark (360.0) once again, and I can dance and sing and make merry yet!!!

One thing also happened that was really funny. I have been picking on my little brother who lost 80lbs on Atkins - then got off. The other day I called and he was eating a large stack of pancakes!

Oh my!

This brother of mine is the inspiration for my "IF HE CAN DO IT, I CAN TOO" diet, which is remarkably similar - if not (in fact), virtually identical to the Atkins diet (except with more dancing, singing, laughing, lollygagging, and rubbing my brothers nose in it if I can just pass him up on my way down!). In the nicest way possible, of course.

He is desperately trying to get back into ketosis as he now knows I am closing in on his weight (~20 lbs is all the difference between us) and if he slacks up even a little, he will gain the title of the fattest and heaviest sibling in our family (of seven kids, all grown up now).

I have been the undisputed heavyweight champ in the family for many years now, but now my younger brother is in serious danger of taking the belt, and becoming the undisputed reigning family heavyweight champion!!!

He is getting desperate now! And I can smell fear... Muuahhh ahhh ahhh ahhh! This is going to be fun! I have thrown down the challenge and My brother has risen to it, and now... may the best man win! Talk about motivation! We may end up both starving ourselves to the death (don't worry, neither of us is in any danger anytime soon) in this competition between ourselves.

Ah well, ...it will be fun!

So, if you read this bro, better get your game on...

and better keep your game on!

The pitter-patter of footsteps

you hear approaching fast behind you

is just little ol' ME!

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And on a totally unrelated note in the PRETTY AMAZING STUFF Department

Lookey here & Check this out:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xf9oo_jerome-murat

Wow! He is a pretty talented fellow!! My wife had this emailed to her by a friend and I thought it was worth sharing!