NevBlog

Neville's Digital Surrogate Brain

Health

Food is a gift we give ourselves 3 times a day.

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Cool quote overheard on a Lex Fridman and Kimbal Musk podcast:

“Food is a gift we give ourselves 3 times a day.”

– Kimbal Musk

I like this quote because I cook almost all my meals, either in the form of meal prep once a week:

I have in the past bought pre-made meals, but there’s something very satisfying about fresh food and you know every ingredient that goes into it.

Also I enjoy the process of taking a few minutes to grill up some steak or chicken on the grill. There’s something very fun about it.

Weight update

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I’ve done enough weight loss experiments in the past to know what works for me. And if there’s one thing I can do well: It’s not eating allllll day!

This is essentially called Intermittent Fasting.

I count my calories using a pen and Sticky Note. This works well to control calories in the day time, but the BEST way to reduce calories in the morning and afternoon is just not eat them at all.

Typically I’ll eat from 2pm to 10pm or 6pm to 10pm. In that window it’s almost hard to eat past my ~1,900 calorie range per day. So I still get to pig out on a big dinner.

Started at 185 lbs, and am touching the 169 lbs range in less than a month with this method.

After this month the “easy fat” will be gone, and the slightly more strict regimine of working out will begin (but not too much more).

I’ll simply continue the same workout I do, then add some basic cardio to each workout (I use the free Nike Training App and just follow along for these workouts).

Going Down In Weight

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Basic calorie tracking, super low intake all day so can have reasonable dinner. Trying to hit ~1,900 calories per day. Tracking on a Eufy scale:

Dec Progress

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Despite holiday season (and only 1 week into challenge) progress is happening from.

Goddamn I’m Fat

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Doing a challenge with Sam and Casey, so got a Dexascan to figure out what a fatty I am:

After a long and un-monitored holiday season I wanna trim back down to a target weight of ~165lbs. I’m not particularly concerned with exact weight, but more appearances.

Steps to improve this:

  • Track daily calories. Keep intake between 1,600 and 1,950
  • Keep track of protein intake. 100g – 180g range/day.
  • Caffeine only from black coffee or tea.
  • Drinks should be pre-planned.
  • Daytime meals mostly light weight and fruit.
  • Have my friends body-shame me till I lose weight.
  • Bought a Eufy Scale and tracking daily morning/night measurements:

I did a few of these things before with great success.

Let’s start!

November 2018 Calorie + Workout Tracking

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DateWorkoutTarget CaloriesTotal Calories
Nov 01Workout #425001,850
Nov 02Bike ride 10 miles25002,350
Nov 03Workout #525002,500
Nov 04Workout #1 + Cardio25002,500
Nov 05Workout #2 + Bike25002,400
Nov 06Workout #325002,150
Nov 07Workout #425002,650
Nov 08Rest25002,800
Nov 09Workout #5 (didn't do) 🤨25002,700
Nov 1025mi Bike Ride25002,500
Nov 11Workout #525002,450
Nov 12Workout #1 (didn't do)25002,800
Nov 13Workout #1 + Cardio25002350
Nov 1412mi Bike Ride25001,690
Nov 15Workout #2 (didn't do)25002,500
Nov 16Workout #2 2500550
Nov 17Workout #325002,500
Nov 18Workout #425002,300
Nov 19None25002,550
Nov 20Workout #5 + Cardio2500
Nov 21
Nov 22
Nov 23
Nov 24
Nov 25
Nov 26
Nov 27
Nov 28
Nov 29
Nov 30

Workouts based on Billy’s workout.

Public Food Journal

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Hmmmm….let’s see if this works:

public-food-journal(Google Spreadsheet link)

Over the years I’ve tried all sorts of ways to eat healthier.  What I’ve found personally works for me is tracking the amount of calories and grams of protein I eat per day.

This is actually far easier than it seems.  I generally just jot down whatever I eat on my daily to-do list then tabulate as I go.

I’ve tried several phone apps that do this…..but for some reason those haven’t yet kept me in the habit.

I’m giving this basic Google Spreadsheet a try for now :-)

July 2015 Goals

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Here’s my goals for July 2015:

july-2015-goals

It’s damn-near identical to my June 2015 goals because that combo of activities worked well.

But June is done now, so it’s time for July:
july-goals-calendar

The only addition is I started tracking my daily calorie intake (a tactic I did in a six pack experiment years ago I learned from Adam at MBT).

Sometime in June I started tracking my caloric intake and workout status on mirror in my living room.  There’s something stupidly EASY AND HELPFUL about just writing down a health summary of my day.

Quite useful:

july-tracking-calories

Anywho, time to start chipping away at July!

about alcohol

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I wanna talk about alcohol.   

I recently had a small “discovery” about myself which has drastically cut down on my alcohol consumption.

And just for fun, I’m going to write this email, whilst drinking a beer!
Cheers:
——————————————

So here’s how I’d normally drink alcohol:

IF I’m at a party….
–and–
IF they are serving alcohol…

I will normally drink.  

There’s no real rhyme or reason to this.  I’ll simply have a cocktail or beer out of habit.

Now my problem is I drink FAST.
If I have a drink in my hand (whether it’s a beer, martini, or CocaCola), I’ll keep taking sips until it’s finished.

When I’m done, I’ll get another.

I could finish three drinks before someone else finishes one, and not even realize it till it “hits me.”

I went to 9 weddings in 2012 alone, and I want to share with you a common theme:

1….) I would show up to the wedding reception where there’s always an open-bar starting around 7pm till dinner starts.

2….) I would load up on free drinks, and by dinner time, be kind of buzzed (let’s not use euphemistic words to hide the truth here ….I’d be kinda drunk by this time).

3….) Every drink I take lowers my ability to keep up conversation and be “sharp”…..so I’d be bit dull by the time dinner starts.

4….) Since I’ve been drinking, I’m SUPER hungry by dinner time, and I scarf down the meal and whatever leftovers I can get from others.

5….) So now I’m at a wedding, can barely stand up, feel bloated, have to take a huge dump, feeling cranky, and can no longer make witty conversation.  I just wanna leave at this point.

OK……so by the end of a wedding I’m feeling like crap all because I had too many drinks too fast in the beginning.

This was shockingly apparent to me when I was at a wedding in Cancun (the 4th wedding of that year).  I drank before the dinner started, then scarfed down three plates of food (they flew in a chef from Goa and the food was incredible)….and I felt so bloated and full that I had to go back to my hotel room to throw up.

I ate SO much food I literally couldn’t keep it down.

This was my body’s way of saying, “OK YOU DUMBASS YOU NEED TO SLOW THE FUCK DOWN.”

I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone that story until now.
It’s incredibly embarrassing.

SOoooo I ended up making a “Wedding routine” I started following with great success for the next round of weddings.  Perhaps you can use this advice for parties you go to:

1.) I would not have any drinks till AFTER dinner.  Because of this I could keep up great conversation and have a good time without an impending crash.

2.) I would only eat HALF the dinner portioned to me (to avoid feeling so full).

3.) Sometime late into the dinner or after, only if I felt like it, I would start having drinks with friends.  Having a few drinks helped me have more fun on the dance floor.  Several times I simply didn’t feel like drinking at this point because I was having a lot of fun and didn’t want/need any drinks.  It was liberating.

THAT’S IT.  That simple change of “only drinking after dinner” completely changed the outcome!!

Such a stupid little hack changed everything!!

Now that routine worked well for events like weddings, but I frequently go to tech meetups and events, and they’re often held at bars.

The WHOLE point of these is to meet other nerds and have cool conversations.  But with every drink I have, my intelligence goes down.

So one day I was talking with a shy-yet-incredibly-intelligent friend *cough cough* STEVE *cough cough*

….and we were talking about drinking habits.  He asked me one question which till this day I cannot get out of my mind.

This is almost verbatim what he said:

“I don’t understand why you drink.  You’re already outgoing, so why do you need alcohol?  I’m super quiet and nervous at parties, so if I have 1 or 2 drinks, it actually loosens me up and I have a better time.  So the alcohol serves a purpose for me.  But for you it doesn’t.”

–my friend Steve

HOLY FREAKIN CRAP.

I had never ONCE in my life asked the simple question:
Will this drink make my time here better or worse? 

This led me down this path of thinking about all the other hidden invisible scripts I (and others) follow in life.

Go to party with drinks —> You drink. 

Go to college —> Then get job. 

Party is invite only —> You can’t go

It seems that we all follow these invisible scripts for seemingly small things.

So remember in the beginning of this article I said “I’m going to write this email, whilst drinking a beer!”

That wasn’t a joke.
I am sitting on my couch with my Macbook Air and a Blue Moon beer on the table.

But here’s the thing…..
I was feeling lazy and un-creative before.  I was tickled by the idea of drinking a beer WHILE writing an article about drinking, so I did it.  And the beer served me.

Actually the beer isn’t near me anymore.  I only drank half and put it back in the fridge.  Because instead of following the script of “Have open beer —> Drink it”….I’m asking if the beer is serving me or not.

It served me when I started.  And now that I’m done, I don’t want anymore.

I’d like for you to identify one invisible script you do on your own, and how you’ve changed that behavior (or plan to).

I love hearing stories that have TINY changes that product BIG results (so I can emulate them).

I’m particularly interested to hear about changes in your relationship, work, or habits.

Leave a comment on my blog about them (you can remain anonymous or change your name if you’d like).  I will be selecting 5 commenters to send a NevBox to in the mail (anywhere in the world)! (remember each NevBox cost $97 and I have to physically ship it to you via snail mail…..and I’m no longer selling them).

So go comment with a SMALL change that’s produced BIG results for you, and I might be contacting you to send you a NevBox!!!

Losing —- In a good way

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Over the last few months I’ve been trying to GAIN weight.

During my previous six-pack experiment I realized that losing weight was also great because I FELT GOOD all the time from eating healthy food.

However with this weight gain stuff……I’ve been feeling like CRAP all the time.

In fact, I did a pretty bad job of gaining much weight since I simply couldn’t eat as much as I was supposed to everyday!

Adam from MyBodyTutor (who was helping me out) told me:

Eating is your JOB when you’re trying to gain weight.

I thought that sounded FUN!  I mean…..who wouldn’t want to stuff their face every 3 hours with lotsa food??

Well I’ll tell you this:  IT…..COMPLETELY….SUCKED.  

Eating became such a damn chore.

For starters, I always had to be around food…..and relatively healthy food at that (can’t simply eat fast food all the time).

I was supposed to eat at least 3,500 calories per day.

And at least 175 grams of protein a day (I weight about 175lbs right now).

Here’s what I looked like every time I realized how much food I’d be eating:

Plus I had to cut down on cardio exercises, and focus on weight training.  That meant less biking and outdoor stuff, and more pumping weights…..which isn’t all THAT fun on it’s own.


THE GOOD OF GAINING WEIGHT:

  • I gained muscle and got “bigger”
  • It was interesting to at least experience the weight GAIN part.
  • Could eat WAY more at restaurants.

 

THE BAD ABOUT GAINING WEIGHT:

  • I was full all the time, and usually tired because of all the food.
  • I wasn’t as “clear” in my head.
  • I had to use the bathroom a lot more….and things weren’t as “efficient” when going (picture THAT in your head)!
  • I had to actually cook stuff….don’t think I’ve used a stove for over a year before this.
  • I had to buy a lot of food all the time….I was going to Whole Foods pretty much every single day to get ready-made food that was healthy.
  • Every heavy meal zonked me out.
  • I enjoy meat…..but eating SO much meat concerned me.  Every meal was lots of protein which usually meant some meat.

I was actually REALLY BAD at following my diet requirements for gaining weight.  Almost every single day I missed my target calorie or protein intake since it was so damn much.

I just couldn’t do it sometimes.

I even called up Adam half-way through and told him I’d be cutting down my intake because it was interfering with my work (I had WAY less energy everyday).

 

WELL AANNYYYHOWWW….I’ve decided to start shedding the excess weight and get a bit more “cut” in the next few weeks/months.

I know posting shirtless pictures of yourself in the mirror is extremely douchey…..but it’s necessary as a point-of-reference….so here they are!

I can finally start eating healthier again….like this!