diet – Atomic Slingshot Press

My Weight. An Update.

As I have mentioned a few times before, my weight is an issue for me. The bonus goal I made at the start of the year was to lose 20 pounds. I recorded my weight as 277lbs. My weight today is 255lbs. That means I have lost 20 lbs. I succeeded in my goal—hurrah for me.

The goal was reached by controlling my diet and using intermediate fasting. It allowed me to lose weight with little effort.

I will be correcting and adding to my goal. No sense waiting around for me to get fatter. I have also flatlined. Plateaued. I am not losing any more weight. This means I will have to change my habits. Taking up some more exercise will be beneficial. With the COVID lockdown and shortages throughout, I have ordered a pair of sneakers online. They are stuck in Montreal for some reason. Once I get that, some jogging is in my future.

I am not a fan of gyms. I have had a few gym memberships in the past and have always ended with spending more money than it was worth. The deals tie you into a set membership. Or if there is no contract, then the price is expensive. Plus, they are always far away from where I live, and I hate having to fight through traffic to get to the gym.

Running seems like it is a decent solution. I used to run in high school. It is something I want to start again. Maybe do a marathon once I get to that level, and they allow marathons. If they enable marathons.

I recognize that I need to change my lifestyle. It consists of me sitting at my desk, working for twelve to fourteen hours a day. I need to move more and be more active. It is a habit I need to pick up, I need to figure out how to do this while still getting my work done.

This journey is not something I can do alone. It takes support from many people for it to become a reality. The easiest way is to visit my Amazon Author Page and purchase one of my books. They are available in all countries and for free in Kindle Unlimited. I do have a tip jar set up at Ko-Fe, where you can buy me a coffee. Or you can also visit me on Facebook. Your help and support are much appreciated.

Trying to find the Dieting Problem.

The hardest part is figuring out that you have a problem. The next is figuring out what the true nature of the problem is, to begin with.

A significant aspect of my life is that I’m fat. I have not hidden that fact. I may not look it, but I’m overweight. Some would call obese.

In trying to solve any problem, the first thing to do is to figure out what the problem is. Without a clear picture of what is wrong, then it is impossible to fix anything.

This is true no matter what it is that is broken. Whether it is a problem with a relationship, a car, the house or whatever. If the vehicle makes a noise that it shouldn’t, then it needs to be fixed. But. Is it the alternator? The pistons? The Clutch? Where is the noise coming from? What is the real problem?

That is like working on my novels or in this case, my weight.

What is the problem? Is it that I’m “big-boned?” Or is it genetic and I have no control over it? No. I call bullshit to those excuses.

I have to be real and call it as it is.

I’m fat cause I eat too much, too often. Period.

It isn’t the fact that I sit on a chair all day hacking at the keyboard with my ten digits. It isn’t the fact that I like pop too much and can’t enough of it.

I’m fat because I overeat food; I’m a glutton. I have a sedentary lifestyle.

Am I ashamed that I overeat? Perhaps.

It is one of the risks of my profession. The danger is that I’m going to get fat and that my weight will be what gives me future health issues.

So this brings me anxiety.

But how do I fix this problem?

Now that I know what the problem is, what do I do now?

My simple solution is to stop eating. My wife tells me that my statement is incomplete. She tells me that I have to “stop eating so much.”

I don’t know if this is going to work or not. It is hard as it is against my bad habits. I’m a glutton after all. I didn’t become a glutton cause I hate eating.

If you like what you are reading and wish to support me in my endeavours, please sign up to my newsletter, visit my Amazon Author Page and purchase one of my books. Or buy me a coffee. Your help and support are much appreciated.

Dealing with Failure

So my bid to lose weight has failed.

And failed hard. I’m back to 278lbs.

It’s not as bad as before at 286lbs, but it is getting there. It’s only a matter of time.

So whenever I fail at something, I do an autopsy on the situation. A court of inquiry on what happened.

Cause failure is a big part of life. We are humans, we are going to fail more times than we succeed. It’s inevitable.

So the question remains, how did I gain back over 10lbs from my low at 264lbs?

It’s simple, really. I stopped counting calories. Counting calories added time to make my food. The apps used are more suited to people who make individual meals instead of a meal for a family of four. It’s hard to keep things accurate when dishing out a bowl. I ended up guessing more times than I was correct.

After I stopped, it has become easier to eat second and fourth helpings of food. In short, I have slipped back into my old habits.

So I need a better plan than counting calories. I just don’t know what to do yet.

Any suggestions?

My Diet: Some Downsides

As you may know, I have been doing a diet for nearly a month now. I have lost 17 lbs so far. At the moment, it feels great. I have lost waist sizes, and I have more energy. My appetite is down, and I no longer feel hungry all the time.

It hasn’t always been this way.

When I first started the diet, I was eating nearly 3000 calories a day. I would eat five helpings of spaghetti at dinner, and I never ate salad. I was approaching 290 lbs.

What I did to start was to control my food intake, cause no amount of exercise is going to help me lose any weight if I don’t control my eating.

The first thing that I did was to get an app for my cell phone called “My Fitness Pal.” It is a calorie counter program. I entered my information; my height, weight, and how many pounds I wanted to lose. It then told me how many calories I was allowed to eat if I wanted to make my goal weight.

Now, I am nearly 34, so I know myself. I know that if I don’t hit this hard, I will lose motivation. I’m still working on the discipline thing. So I put down that I wanted to lose 2 lbs per week.

It gave me 1800 calories per day. That’s it. Before I decided to change my habits, I could eat that at lunch.

The following two weeks were some of the hardest days of my life. I discovered that a plate of pasta, just the noodles, was 500 calories. And I would eat three to five helpings of it.

My Discoveries

I discovered that grains are not my friend, they cost too much in calories. I also found that I can fill myself up with salad, pickles, cucumbers, cheese, and such, which would only cost me 500 calories.

My appetite has shrunk; which is a good thing. I no longer feel hungry if I don’t gorge myself. I no longer pine after the tasty delicious…

I do have my bad moments. The times that I make a mistake and eat waffles, which I discovered are 250 calories each, which I ate 5. Then I spent the latter half of the day hungry cause I really wanted to make my calories.

Hangry and not knowing what to Eat

I always thought that ‘Being Hangry’ was just a joke. That it was not a real thing. I discovered that it is a real thing. I also found that I get hangry bad. Those Snickers commercials have a grain of truth wrapped in them.

Another issue is I never know what to eat anymore. My go-to meal was always spaghetti, and I make a mean spaghetti. However, I overeat it. I can’t help it, I’m still a glutton after all. So the big issue is eating food that I love as much as spaghetti, that I can enjoy as much and not worry about consuming too many calories.

Hope

There is hope, though. Find someone to do the diet with. To help fill out the daily food journal when you know it’s not going to be good and don’t want to deal with it. Find someone to encourage yourself to keep going, past the first few weeks. Past the Hangry stage.

Cause once past that stage, it gets easier. The appetite decreases, the energy goes up. Results start coming in.

I weighed in nearly a month ago at 286.5 lbs. Today I weight 269.5 lbs. I will take those results.

Future

Now, only changing my diet is not going to work in the long run. At some point, I will plateau and stop making gains. I have been making plans for more exercise. It is getting nice out, so more time walking around is in order. I have also pulled out my old rollerblades and plan on making a fool of myself on them. I am also going to be getting a bike at some point. Something that can fit in the limited storage space I have.

But that is all cardio, don’t you plan on gaining muscle? I have heard that a couple of times. And yes. I do. But, I plan to get down to a better weight first before I gain it back in the form of muscle. It is in the cards, however, not yet.

I will be in better shape by the end of the summer.

Cause, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” Someone out there that inspired me but eludes my memory…

Perhaps I will do another blog post about my different mantras. It seems appropriate.

My Diet: Reasons and Update

As you all may be aware, a little under three weeks ago I started my diet and the start of my lifestyle change journey. However, despite the flowery text, my journey has not gone very far. The results, however, have been good so far.

My ultimate plan is to lower my weight from 286 lbs down to 195 lbs. When I was a teenager, I tore ligaments in my knees. Luckily, I didn’t need surgery for it. However, my knees have been giving me issues lately. My doctor says that my weight is one of the causes of it. This isn’t surprising to me. My knees have been a constant source of problems for me since I was sixteen.

Reasons

This is one of the main reasons why I want to get into shape. Another is heart disease and other health issues. According to many health authorities in Canada, like the website Obesity Canada:

“Obesity is a progressive chronic disease, similar to diabetes or high blood pressure, which is characterized by abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health.”

This is a significant problem facing people today. We eat too many sugary foods. According to an article published in the New York Times on Sept. 12, 2016, the sugar industry shifted the blame of heart disease from sugar to fat. It claims that the sugar industry has influenced and is influencing the nutritional information that we consume. This can be seen by merely looking at the nutritional information on packaging. Most processed products are full of sugar. You can’t buy anything without having sugar in it.

According to an article in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, there is a substantial similarity between drug abuse and sugar consumption from the standpoint of what excess sugar does to the brain’s chemistry.

Update

As such, I have cut out all sugary drinks, and foods out of my diet. I’ve not gone as far as tearing the organic section of grocery stores apart for meals with no sugar added.

I have also cut serving amounts and started to count calories. The principle is calories in, calories out. I make sure that I eat just underneath the calories that I need. That means no more five plates of delicious, gorgeous spaghetti. No more late night cheese pizza. I’m eating more salad, more quinoa, and fewer carbs.

I have not purchased an expensive gym membership or a treadmill for my home. Unless the diet is looked at first, no amount of exercise will cause me to lose any weight. I have tried that way before.

So far in the last three weeks, using the simple changes in cutting calories, I have lost 15 lbs. I understand that my current method won’t get me to my end goal. I will have to switch things up and exercise more. To get down to 195 lbs, I will have to continue on the lifestyle change journey.

I will discuss those other changes as they happen. As well as what works for me and what doesn’t.

There are also downsides to this diet, which I will talk about in other blog posts.

End of April 2019 Report

As like the post for the end of January, this is the post of the end of April. I am still putting my money where my mouth is.

RECAP OF 2019 GOALS

Write 500,000 words in personal, non-school related projects.
Complete and publish Felix #2, Felix #3, ~~Des O’Neal #1~~, Des O’Neal #2, Des O’Neal #3, Jovian Marines #1, Jovian Marines #2, Jovian Marines #3, Mech Warrior #1, Mech Warrior #2, Mech Warrior #3.
Correct cover for Felix #1.
Write four blog posts per month
Give Felix #1 and Tokyo Tempest #1 a proofread.
Complete and submit to market Terran Marine Raider short #1, Terran Marine Raider short #2, and ~~RPG Death short~~.
1. Added goal: complete and submit to market, JSS Leda, secret short #2 and secret short #3.
Earn $1000.00 a month from novels.
~~Relaunch publishing company with a new, stronger name.~~
Get 1 client for editing services.
NEW GOAL: Lose 90 lbs and get healthier.

APRIL ACCOMPLISHMENTS

I wrote 40,667 words.
I have written for 120 days in a row, which is also at the approx one-third mark in the days of the year.
The O’Neal Kidnapped has been first drafted.
I have passed the one-third mark in total yearly words at 167k.
Editing the short story with a working title called the JSS Leda.
Working with a local cover artist for a bunch of covers for books.
Edited Terran Marine Raider #1, it is ready to be submitted to a market.
Still worked on editing Jovian Marines #1.
Wrote 4 blog posts during April.
Relaunched with a new, stronger name. Atomic Slingshot Press
Starting weight 286lbs, weight today, 278lbs.

EXAMINATION OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS

I wrote just over 40k words in April. It is the lowest monthly total in both the total quantities of words as well as a daily average. With final exams and final papers in the mix, it was hard to get the amount of time to get the words done. I do have a week before the summer semester starts. It is time to do some catch-up.
I have first drafted the second O’Neal book, The O’Neal Kidnapped. It turned out better than I expected. It clocked in at 61k words.
I am working on editing my secret project.
A local cover artist, not my wife is working on what I am calling “art assets.” These are so my wife can turn them into beautiful covers. They will be works of art on there own but will have no titling, which is why I need my wife.
The edits of Jovian Marines #1 are ongoing. I have decided to give it a full draft rewrite. It is a delay that throws things off. However, it is two-thirds complete. I expect to get the draft done soon so I can get it to the proofreader.
My blog posts are still happening. Even if I get distracted at times. I do thank my wife for carrying the ball when I stumbled. It is very appreciated.
New branding for the site and company. I’m much happier with this than the name before.
I have been on this new diet for only a few days now. My energy is up, I feel healthier, and I have lost a few pounds. I know it is too early to call that weight a success, but it’s helpful.

PLAN FOR THE FUTURE

This month was more laborious than March by far. The schoolwork has built up and piled on. I did get a lot of other stuff done. However, nothing published.

The second O’Neal book, The O’Neal Kidnapped, has been done. I am working on a cover for it, as well as it is in the long editing pile.

I will get Missed Drop Zone finished edited this month. This time I swear it. I know that it has turned into a bit of a joke. It will get done, then published.

I have many plans for other stories. I have at least three different series and one standalone not included on my list that I want to write. I need to push past the current projects to move onto other things.

Dealing with Hours of Inactivity

Like most creatives, I spend hours sitting at the keyboard. The muscle that works the most for me is my brain and my fingers; the rest of me has gotten a tad flabby.

In my twenties, this wasn’t much of a problem. My weight sat around 220 lbs. I wasn’t (for the lack of a better term) fat per se. However, I wasn’t muscular either. I considered myself fit. Today, I am approaching 34 years old, and my body has changed.

It is a natural thing that happens to most men. When they hit thirty, their metabolism slows down, and it becomes harder to keep the weight off. In their twenties, a man can eat like a horse and not have too many problems. In their thirties, that gluttony turns against them.

I now weigh 286 lbs, and the health effects are becoming apparent. I won’t go into details, but least to say access weight is not a healthy thing. I know from experience.

As a Creative, How is this a Bad Thing?

It is simple really. Being overweight in general is a bad thing. No matter what some people say to the contrary. I trust my doctor in that regard. When he tells me that I have gotten “a tad flabby around the middle,” (he is British) and that fact is responsible for some of my ill health, I believe him.

I intend to write my novels until I am 90 and too old. I understand this. If I am to make it there, I need to look after my health. Which means that I have to listen to my Doctor and put the extra three helpings down. And stop eating fast food, candy, and cola.

To do this, I have forced myself on a diet. It’s a simple diet, which I call the Stop-Bloody-Eating-all-of-the-Sugar-Filled-Food Diet. It is excellent to go with the Stop-Eating-Seconds-and-Thirds-as-you-are-not-a-Hobbit Diet.

All jest aside, I’m a glutton. I enjoy eating food, and I enjoy cooking it. I have been joking with my wife that I should stop cooking good tasting food. Maybe then I will stop eating so much.

In the spirit of transparency, in my monthly reports, I will put in a paragraph about the status of my weight. It will give me someone to be accountable to.