Tom, I know this is your diary, I just liked what Kelly had to say here--also, it made me think. And I think that being fit and slim in this culture IS actually an accomplishment because we're all like, set up for failure and encouraged to over eat and over eat nasty junk food. At like, 2 am after drinking all night!!! That was the a major thing that probably made me gain weight was snacking (or having a whole second dinner) after drinking all night. Well, anyway, my point is, I'm glad we're all trying to beat the odds and stay fit for life. Well, I hope so anyway!

1. You can certainly tell a lot about someone's knowledge by their workout.... especially how deep they squat and if they do deads. So true. There are no trainers around here that squat full depth.

I love to go into gyms for week trials and go through my workout. I usually get some trainer telling my form is off on my squat. "Going below parallel is terrible for your knees," or "Letting your knees go in front of your toes is going to do more harm than good."

I simply ask "Why?"

They have no answer. All of their so-called knowledge is handed down from years of misinformation and myths. It is sad, b/c they run their clients through their programs that are based on this misinformation.

2. Good luck with the hernia. Keep me posted.

3. There is scientific reasons why breaks help you with your progress. It is not necessarily the starvation mode, but still, your body certainly adapts as you diet, no matter how much fat you hold or what your current size is. It happens slower, the bigger you are. But telling your body, "Hey, we are not starving in reality here" by over feeding it every now and again, or at the very least going to maintenance, is ALWAYS a good thing.

Psychologically, most people need them. Physiologically, everyone needs them.

Science of it. I would have to dig around a bit, but I am sure I could get you more specifics. I mean, I know more specifics about the hormonal adaptations brought on from dieting, but I am sure there are even better things out there in some of my "baskets of info" that I could draw upon.

I didn't know this, but it seemed to work for me! Granted, my age, activity, and muscle mass have a lot to do with the way I lose weight. But I have had 3000 calories days, on many occasions, and STILL continued to lose 5 lbs a month for 3 consecutive months. I've never done that before because I've never stuck to a diet and exercise regime like this. When I was 19, and got down to 135 lbs, it took a year and a half to lose 17 lbs! But I wasn't really trying very hard--until the last 5 lbs, then I was! Anyway, yeah, there is a science for cheat days. We need to figure it out!

hey there, tom!

i am so happy to read about all of the success that you are having!!

you deserve it!!

There is a whole industry built on mis-information and on keeping people on these struggles. If you take control of your diet and exercise and eat natural foods, who is going to make money from that? The show made some great points. I think when overweight people feel that there is something missing from their lives and go into a diet believing losing weight will make them full and happy they are doomed to failure. I believe the best frame of mind in for losing weight is to love yourself despite being overweight and then drop the weight because you want to. Its a journey not a destination.

LOL, I would hate to be one of those ignorant PT's trying to answer your piercing questions!

If you do find anything, I'd be really interested in reading it. I understand the whole concept of energy balance now, but the vagaries of metabolism still confuse me tremendously. I gathered from the PBS program that we still have very much to learn about this as well.

One thing I've realized over the past 40 years is that weight loss is a much harder proposition the older you get. In 1988, I dropped from 250 lbs. to 185 lbs. in six months. Now I have to allow 2 years to do it. Of course, this time I'm intentionally doing it more slowly, so that's a big factor.

This is an aspect kind of hinted at in the show, but never really explored in depth. I think it's a HUGE factor. Food is the new nicotine. At first, it seems counter intuitive that restaurants serve bigger and bigger portions at the same price. The reality is that it costs them very little to do this. Every McMeal has a sunken cost, no matter what its size. The marginal cost of adding to that volume is negligible. By doing that, you solve a big marketing problem. A customer who weighs 120 lbs. and eats at your restaurant even every day will only consume so many calories. But if you can get that customer to weigh 250 lbs., the same person will eat double the number of calories. It's ALWAYS more profitable to expand sales to existing customers than it is to find brand new ones. Portion expansion is a profitable way to do that.

Weight: 237.0, down 0.4 lbs. from yesterday, and down FIVE POUNDS since March 26th. But the scale gods don't get credit for this 4/10 ths loss. No, that is from my miracle lose-one-pound-in-30-minutes-diet that I undertook yesterday. Yes, the pint of blood I gave will return, but it's interesting how low my BP was this morning - 116/74. I wonder if giving blood improves your blood pressure. . .

Yesterday I had to drive to be on-site again, an hour each way. On the return trip, the Starbuck sirens of Scylla (black tea lemonade) and Charybdis (lemon loaf cake) called out my name. First they made me sleepy, a very effective tactic while you're driving 80 mph on the freeway. Then they magically guided my hand to steer my car down the offramp and into their lair. Imagine my despair when I did my entries ino FitDay, and had to put down 600 calories for my misadventure! Ouch!

Not only that, but yesterday was day 4 in my 18 day regimen, which is an off day. Calories from food & drink = 2,786 - 33% fat (6% saturated), 47% carbs (346 grams! 34 gm fiber, but here's where the cake comes in), and 15% protein. Food quality for the day was 2 out of 5. Oh well, we need to have a "cheat" occasionally. I ended up with a 479 calorie surplus.

And yet, and yet . . . I still lost 0.4 lbs. -- take that scale gods!

[Uh oh, now they're going to punish me tomorrow for my hubris. . . pretend I didn't say that line above]

Hi Jerry, I looked that up too, but found it hard to believe. An hour of carpentry is like a hard interval session in cardio? Sorry, I don't buy it. I mean, I guess it could be true if you spent a solid 60 minutes hammering 16d nails into solid wood without stopping for even a sip of water.

or maybe sawing with a hand saw... That is a workout!

I had a nice problem this morning.

I've noticed the fat is starting to come off my middle now. As a result, my pants are getting looser and looser. All my belts are on the last hole. I'm starting to wear my shirt tucked in now, and when I do that, my belt looks really weird. If I position the buckle in the middle, I've got all the left over belt hanging down. If I move it so that doesn't happen, the buckle is way off to one side.

What a nice problem to have!

I guess it's time to buy a new belt! I'm going to hang my old one on the wall as a reminder.

First off, no big deal about Starbucks.
Second, thanks for wishing me a great weekend--I expect to be in Napa tomorrow and Sac Sat night and Sunday, so I shall!
Third, I'm glad your weight went down, I ate a lot yesterday and still weighed in a lb less than the day before, too.
Fourth, glad you middle is shrinking. Bellyfat is dangerous! Congrats!!!

That's the best kind of problem to have

Thanks Valerie & Cannon.

Today's workout - Day 5 in my 18 day regimen.
Today was Weight B: 55 minutes, 638 calories.

BB Squat
1 x 5 - bar
1 x 4 - 95 lb
1 x 3 - 145 lb
5 x 5 - 165 lb
Difficulty = 2-

Incline DB Bench Press
5 x 5 - 120 lb
Diff = 2+

Deadlift
1 x 5 - bar
1 x 4 - 95 lb
1 x 3 - 145 lb
4 x 5 - 165 lb
Diff = 2-

BB Row
5 x 5 - 75 lb
Diff = 2

Chinup
5 x 5 - Level 16
Diff = 2+

Reverse Crunch
2 x 10
Diff = 3

Notes
a) Form felt very good on squats and deads - comfortable, weight was just fine, everything was clicking. Will increase by 5 lbs. next time.
b) Straining with those 60 lb. dumbbells on the incline press. Will need a couple more sessions at that weight.
c) Just gave out on the reverse crunches. I was supposed to do 3 sets of 10, but couldn't muster more than 2.

Overall, a great workout, though. I was a bit worried going into it, because my legs were still a bit tired, but now everything feels AOK.

Congratulations on needing a new belt - that is a good problem to have!

For sure the blood donation would have brought your actual blood pressure down temporarily. (Just as in extreme cases of blood loss, blood pressure also becomes dangerously low.)

I love your Greek fantasy.

Most of your 5 pound loss does count and it's GREAT!!

It's very cool that you need a new belt! Congratulations!