NevBlog

Neville's Digital Surrogate Brain

Neville

Six Pack Experiment – Day 20 Update

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So just 20 days into this Getting A Six Pack Experiment I’m down about 12 pounds and up in muscle (especially in the abs).

These pictures don’t do it justice, but when flexed the six-pack is definitely coming in nicely…it’s starting to poke its head out!

Not bad for 20 days!

My abs are definitely stronger and harder than they’ve ever been.  When I press against them they’re completely solid.  The top part of the abs have also developed for the first time, and I’m seeing “new” muscle I’ve previously never seen before!

Pretty cool what just a few simple exercises and STICKING with my healthy eating plan can do in just 3 weeks.

Vodka Salad for Healthy Drinking

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Oh crap, this is a tricky situation….
…My friends are going out tonight and most likely we’ll all be drinking…
…I love doing that…
…it’s tons of fun!…
…but I’ve been eating SO WELL  these last few days and I don’t want to blow it!

Those are typical thoughts I had during this Getting A Six-Pack Experiment….what’s worse is I live Downtown now, so 6th Street and literally 200+ bars are all within a two minute walk (or stumble) from here.

To Drink?

or…

Not To Drink?

Well like any normal human being I like to have my cake and eat it too….so I’ve found a pleasing compromise by doing a little research:

BEFORE WHEN I WAS DUMB AND IGNORANT:

….a big night of drinking starting at 10PM and going till 3AM could involve:

  1. Eating a decent sized (but not too big) meal to make sure I don’t get hit by the liquor too quickly.
  2. One Blue Moon beer
  3. A mixed shot from bar with all sorts of sweeteners
  4. One Dos Equis beer
  5. One rum and Coke
  6. One vodka and Red Bull
  7. One vodka and Red Bull
  8. One Irish Car Bomb (Guiness beer + a shot of Bailey’s Irish Cream and quick chug)
  9. One vodka and Red Bull
  10. One Rum and Coke
  11. One Blue Moon beer
  12. After all the drinking naturally most of crave REALLY HEAVY FOOD, and I’m no different.  I’ll usually go out for street food and get two giant slices of pizza or a giant bratwurst sausage loaded with sauerkraut and all the condiments.

Now this seems excessive, but over a 5 hour span this is probably LESS than most people drink on a crazy night….technically that’s only 2 drinks per hour which doesn’t seem like much.  This would just keep a person in a relatively buzzed but not-overly-drunk state (depending on who you are).

Now let’s do some quick math with this same night:

  1. Eating a decent sized (but not too big) meal to make sure I don’t get hit by the liquor too quickly. (Chips + queso + quesedilla) 800 calories (and I’m being conservative on that one)
  2. One Blue Moon beer (171 calories)
  3. A mixed shot from bar with all sorts of sweeteners (120 calories)
  4. One Dos Equis beer (130 calories)
  5. One rum and Coke (182 calories)
  6. One vodka and Red Bull (177 calories)
  7. One vodka and Red Bull (177 calories)
  8. One Irish Car Bomb (Guinness beer + a shot of Bailey’s Irish Cream and quick chug) (237 calories)
  9. One vodka and Red Bull (177 calories)
  10. One Rum and Coke (182 calories)
  11. One Blue Moon beer (171 calories)
  12. After all the drinking naturally most of crave REALLY HEAVY FOOD, and I’m no different.  I’ll usually go out for street food and get two giant slices of pizza or a giant bratwurst sausage loaded with sauerkraut and all the condiments. (I’d say each slice is 400-500 calories…for a VERY CONSERVATIVE total of 850 calories).

Oh…my….god.  I don’t even want to do the math because I’m scared.

Calories from drinks: 1,724
Calories from drinking-related foods:  1,650
Total Calories from a night out: 3,374

HOLY…FREAKIN’….CRAP.

That figure doesn’t even include what you ate before that night out, or what fatty-ass foods you’ll eat when you wake up hungry for heavy foods (which alcohol tends to do).

To give you some perspective, a person like me is supposed to eat 2,000 calories per day at MOST unless there’s some insane amount of working out you do.

Currently during this experiment I’m only taking in 800 to 1,300 calories PER DAY….but on a drinking  night out I might take in 3,000+ calories in a few hours!!! Is this blowing your mind yet!?!?!

No wonder people get so damn fat from years of drinking!  It loads you up with empty calories that DON’T make you full or give you any nutritional value, plus it ALSO makes you hungry for super heavy foods. Double whammy.

NOW THAT I’M EDUCATED AND ENLIGHTENED:

….I’ve found a cure to get rid of all those calories:

Don’t drink.  Simple.

..

….

…….

……….

…………..

HAHAHAHAHA!! Yea right!  We’re trying to have our cake and drink it too!

So after my research I’ve come upon the drinks that have the fewest calories:

  • Unflavored and clear vodka’s, rums, gins etc.  If it’s clear and unflavored, it’s in the 90 to 110 calorie range.  Each shot is considered (1.5 oz)
  • Bud Light, Coors Light, Miller Light….anything “Light” has around 110 calories.
  • Club soda.  If you NEED a mixer for that vodka, either get water or club soda….NOT tonic water (it’s the same amount of calories as a soft drink).

Well…those are the lowest calorie things I could find.  Anything with flavoring or color in it has other additives that add calories and sugar or other crap.  So I decided for this experiment that if I was going to drink, it’d be either straight vodka or rum (possibly with club soda) or “Light” beers.

Ok, so that sounds pretty boring, and like my get a cool plate post, I want to encourage you to make a cool drink!

So I started making these vodka and fruit concoctions I’ve affectionately termed as “Vodka Salad”.

I simply start by taking a fun glass and filling it with 1 shot (1.5 oz) of vodka:

Then I do what seems gross but actually tastes great and tear up a clementine and dump it inside the vodka:

I even squeeze some of the clementine pieces so they leak their juices into the vodka for taste.  You can add ice or water as filler.  You end up getting a great tasting, low calorie, nutritious, and cool-looking drink!

What’s even more cool is you get “Vodka Candy Pieces” when you eat the fruit!

I add all sorts of things into the drinks when I’m at home, one of my favorite fillers is grapes:

So far these Vodka Salad’s are what I’ve been drinking at home if we have a party.  At first people are like, “Ummm, WHAT are you doing?”  Then pretty soon they’re saying, “Ummm, can I have some of that fruit…please?” as they pick vodka-infused fruit from my glass like candy.

If you’re going to drink while trying to lose weight, I’d suggest follow these few quick tips:

  • Compensate for drinking at night by eating very low calorie through the day.
  • For liquor: Drink clear and unflavored vodka, rum or gin.
  • For beer: Stick to anything with “Light” in the name.
  • Skip that late night meal.
  • Load your drinks with fruit if possible.

Bottoms up!
-Neville

My Jeans Don’t Fit At All

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The jeans I wear all the time don’t stay up, not even close…I need to cinch my belt all the way to keep them from falling.

I’m also at 151 lbs AND have gained muscle.  I haven’t weighed 151 lbs since early high school.

Adam, whatever you have me doing in these last 16 days for this experiment has been working big time.

6-Pack Experiment – What I eat for a day

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The Getting A Six Pack Experiment has been in effect for about 2 weeks now, and I have purposely not been posting what I eat everyday for the first two weeks….I wanted to first get some good, solid meals that fill me up, have extraordinarily low calories, provide tons of nutrition…and mainly, leave me feeling energetic.

I didn’t want to post stuff that left me feeling terrible.

The way I’m tracking what I eat is through Adam’s company MyBodyTutor.  Not only do I track what I eat, but I get professional feedback on each and every meal.

Now the biggest problem I personally face when reading about “eating well” is I STILL DON’T KNOW WHAT THE FUCK TO EAT!

Why don’t these people just TELL me exactly what to eat for breakfast/lunch/dinner?  Oh wait, they do….they tell me to eat THEIR food which they provide you for $399/month.   Thanks guys.

Well that’s not sustainable (although it is a FANTASTIC business model though)!

If something DOES tell you what to eat, it says, “Eat a healthy dose of foods with nuts, grains, fruits and vegetables.”  Umm….ok….such as???

Anyhow, I figured if people could learn something, it’s just a simple picture documentary of what I eat on a typical day….BEGIN:

11:30 AM:

4 spring rolls made out of:

  • 4 rice wraps
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 1 cup spinach
  • 1/2 avocado
  • 1/2 cup cashews
  • 2 clementines

I basically dump and the stuff in a bowl, mix it up, then wrap them in the rice wraps (I’ll do a full tutorial later). They taste amazing and average to about 50 calories a piece…so I get completely full from 200 calories….in comparison a Snickers has 440 calories and doesn’t fill you up.

So many of my friends see me making these, taste them, now THEY make them all the time!  It’s an incredibly healthy and tasty meal.

3:50 PM:

1/2 cup of grapes (somewhere around a handful)

5:20 PM:

1 apple
1 handful of raw cashews

6:50 PM:

A salad with:

  • 1/2 cup spinach
  • 1/2 cup strawberries
  • 1/2 cup cashews
  • 1 cup grapes
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce


(Ok, I admit, that’s the wrong picture, but it’s not that far off).

This is easy stuff to eat, and it tastes great! I barely consumed any calories, I got a TON of nutrition, I felt satisfied and I felt nice and light afterwards.

8:25 PM:

1/2 cup carrots
2 clementines

10:20 PM

1/4 cup almonds
1 clementine

I NEVER feel guilty about snacking on raw fruits and vegetables.  Eat your freakin heart out of those.  That was the whole day’s worth of food.

Exercise:

-Ran 25 minutes on the elliptical machine (very hard resistance).
-Did all the ab exercises given to me by MBT.
-Went for a quick swim in the pool.
-Did ab exercises throughout the day during breaks.

This is a pretty typical day of eating and exercise (not even that much exercise).  This food actually fills me up, and I don’t go around hungry all day.  I HAVE learned how to eat less over time, and your body adapts to it just fine.  Eating like this took some practice, but now it’s a perfect amount.

Just look at all that stuff, you can’t POSSIBLY feel sluggish after any of those meals!

Back in college I would’ve though this kind of eating was insane, but that’s because I was so used to loading up on really heavy foods every single day.

I’ll do these daily posts a few more days, and try to include the calories too (this day was very low as you can see). One value meal at a McDonald’s will have far more calories than this entire days worth of eating, AND it’ll make you sluggish.

Oops I Did It Again

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I first got an iphone, then I sort of cracked the screen a little, now I completely shattered another screen!

….yet it somehow still works perfectly.

Even though I’ve cracked two…I’ve never used a case or screen protector and I don’t treat it special…so considering the abuse this thing goes through it has held up amazingly well.

How did I break it?  It involved running and texting at the same time.

Well, luckily it still works perfectly and screen replacements are only $99!

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UPDATE: 4-15-2010
I express shipped myself an iPhone 3GS glass and digitizer kit from eBay to replace the screen myself….mistake.

My shattered screen made the whole removal process take a long time, plus I ALSO cracked the LCD screen behind the glass in the process!  I had to get it repaired for $120 at a cell repair place (simply replacing the glass in the first place would’ve only cost $89).

The 6-Pack Experiment Response Has Been Awesome

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Wow…I started this six-pack experiment just to see if I could get ripped in a month…but it seems  A LOT of interest has been generated amongst my personal circle of friends (and others).

Generally when I start an experiment (such as the homeless experiment) I get a lot of negative or so-so feedback…until after it’s done, then everyone says it was cool.  Not for this.

Without trying to influence anyone to do this, I’ve already got a ton of people starting to eat differently……apparently losing weight and getting in shape is a common goal many people have…who woulda thunk it!

I have a feeling once people see the END RESULTS even more people will try.

So one of the things Adam (my awesome virtual personal trainer) told me was 3,500 calories = one pound of fat.

This means if I stay in a 500 calorie deficiency for a week, I lose one pound.  At that rate I’d lose 4 pounds during this experiment.  However I’ve gone beyond that…every day I’ve been in a 500 to 1,300 calorie deficiency…on average about -1,000 per day.

This means in one month I’ll lose approximately EIGHT pounds…which is a lot considering I’m not fat to begin with. And here’s the common question EVERYONE asks:

“But aren’t you hungry ALL THE TIME?!?”

The answer is NO!  Not at all!  …..but how?

It’s simple. I used to eat a bunch of junk that had lots of calories but super-low nutritional value.  Now I eat roughly the same amount of stuff, but more stuff that has HIGH nutrition and super-low calories.  This is why I’m eating mainly raw foods such as fruits/vegetables/nuts….because they’re all GOOD for you (those old cliches are often right) and have very few calories.  This means I get full, with LESS calories.

Have I given up meat?  NO!
Have I given up processed foods? NO!
Have I given up alcohol? NO!

However I’m eating A LOT less of anything with high calories….so naturally I’m eating WAAAY LESS of the above.

My roommate who joined me in this experiment (without me asking) told me one thing:

“One thing I’ve noticed is that every time you eat something, it LOOKS really good….and I think it’s because you have a cool plate.”

I realized a long time ago when I learned how to make really cool-looking alcoholic drinks that you FIRST eat with your eyes. I would make a normal drink (such as pineapple juice and vodka), but put it in a funky martini glass rimmed with sugar and garnished with a wedge of pineapple….then drop a cherry in the bottom for added effect and call it a “Cherry Love Bomber” or some stupid made-up name.  NONE of those additions changed the taste of the drink, but I got a reputation for “knowing how to make REALLY GOOD drinks” because I simply dressed them up in nice clothes.

Same goes for food.

Below are similar things, but one’s dressed better than the other (and by dressed, I mean in a cooler looking plate):

Ehhh…looks like boring-ass healthy food:

Now THAT looks sexy and delicious!:

Damn, just looking at that makes me want a piece:

Now doesn’t that look more fun and appetizing!?  It seems completely stupid since it doesn’t change the taste one iota….but tell that to all the people who drank one-too-many of my dressed-up-drinks “because they looked so good!”

Would you rather have this for lunch:

Or THIS slick meal for lunch (which has only 250 calories):

And even if you don’t have a slick plate like me (which I bought at a local Asian market for $10) you can always try to sex up a regular plate:

….although that’s much harder.  Plus regular plates are TOO BIG.  It makes you feel like you’re not eating anything and encourages you to slop more on there.

I also recently bought this small bamboo serving tray from Whole Foods….it’s a TINY tray that barely holds much, but holds enough for a small snack.  Ever sit on the couch with an entire bag of Cheetos??  I used to….and I wish I used this plate instead:

I can hardly fit a small bag of carrots or 2 clementines on there….PERFECT FOR SNACKING!  You literally can’t get much on there, plus it looks cool:

Buy a cool serving dish….you’ll love it.

It’s just a tiny and painless start to eating a little better.

Throw In A Monkey Wrench for Six-Pack Experiment

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For most of the year I live in a house about 5 miles away from Downtown Austin.  This house is nice, spacious and a drive away from everything, so controlling what I eat in that area is easy.

However nearly every summer I get a place smack in the middle of Downtown (like the 4,000 sq. ft. 6th Street loft I had for a few months) just for fun.  This year I have a place on 9th Street for a few months, just walking distance to everything I need and everything fun!  I also have a car and scooter in case I need to go further.

Now when a person lives Downtown, it automatically opens you up to having parties, hosting guests and going downtown more often….and eating crappier more often….plus Austin is considered the “Hardest Drinking City In America“!

There’s late-night junk food places a-plenty around this area…and I do love me some junk food.  However at the same time I’ll be living in this area, I’ll ALSO be doing this six pack experiment.  So this will be a definite experiment with self control.

It also STOPS people from saying, “Ohh, it’s easy to eat like that where YOU live”…because that’s definitely not the case anymore.

I’ve already been out to several family friends house where there was good-food-galore, but I’ve found it very easy to abstain from eating junk….mainly because of what I’ve learned from Adam.

Anyhow, here’s a quick tour of the Downtown place…two things to keep in mind:

  • I say “you won’t find soda in this fridge” but there’s clearly a Coke in there…that was from the previous guy who lived here…must remember to throw that out.
  • I have this place for about 2 months, and still have my other place 5 miles from Downtown

Starting Off “The Getting A Six-Pack” Experiment

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For the upcoming Six-Pack Experiment I have planned for the whole month of April I’ve got one goal: Get a six-pack in roughly one month.

I’m not fat, but I’m not lean enough for abs to show through.

(I think that’s what a six pack looks like)

There will be three main things I need to do during this experiment on a level I’ve never done before:

  • Go into a calorie deficiency for several weeks to lose weight
  • Do a bunch of ab exercises
  • Consistent cardio exercises

The HARDEST part of this is eating properly, thankfully I’ve been practicing doing that for the last month or two and have been successful at it….in fact preferring it.

I workout all the time and eat (relatively) correctly, but not to the extent I should…and I feel it’s because I’m not sure what to do.

So one thing I wanted for this experiment was PROFESSIONAL ADVICE. Originally I was going to get a personal trainer here in Austin, but that alienates everyone who wants to join me in this experiment (I know a couple of you out there have asked). “Oh, he had a personal trainer…no fair.”

Well I found a workaround. A fellow blogger Adam Gilbert.  That link is his personal blog, but what I’m interested in is the successful business he runs called MyBodyTutor.

Adam runs an online business that’s kind of like a “virtual personal trainer”…..but more than just dishing out some simple advice, he actually keeps you on track to hit your goals.  I signed up for his monthly service roughly a week ago, and told him “My goal is to get an awesome six-pack.”

With that said, he went ahead and gave me certain exercises to do and tips on eating yadda yadda…BUT THE BEST THING is the daily tracking you must do.  I didn’t realize this at first, but they have a whole back end to the website that members sign into daily….THIS is why I signed up…to be held accountable for everything I eat and how much I work out.

I signed up for the service about one week ago, and have eaten the best in my life these past 7 days thanks to Adam.  I’ll explain more about the process later in the experiment.

So in addition to being accountable by posting this experiment on my blog, I’ll be getting professional help, advice and accountability from Adam (thanks man)!

Currently, this is what we’re working with:


So obviously I’m not a big lard here, but if you look closer…you can see the problem:

We’ve got to get rid of that bit of chub.

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Amidst all the semi-lame April Fool’s Jokes other bloggers will be playing on their readers today, I will be starting something that’s less funny, but more useful (To me…but hopefully others too).

This is called the Getting a Six-Pack Experiment, so I want to make it pseudo scientific….and by pseudo I mean “scientific in a sense that even a dumb guy like me can understand”.

The Scientific Method:

  • Define the question – Can I get a six pack in one month?
  • Gather information and resources (observe) – I will be basing this experiment on past experiences with losing weight, what I learned recently about calories and professional advice from MBT.
  • Form hypothesis – I believe by April 31st I will be able to see my abdominal muscles MUCH better, creating a “six-pack” on my stomach WITHOUT starving myself at all.
  • Perform experiment and collect data – Starting today I’ll be documenting everything I eat and do for exercise.
  • Analyze data – Hold on fool…I haven’t started yet!
  • Interpret data and draw conclusions that serve as a starting point for new hypothesis – Hold on…let me start first!
  • Publish results – Wait till after April.

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On that note, I definitely think others out there should TRY THIS EXPERIMENT WITH ME! …and maybe not just trying to get a six pack, but maybe to start eating “just a little” better, or get just a “little” slimmer, or workout more…

It would make it more interesting and motivating to have others follow along to some extent.

LET THE SIX-PACK EXPERIMENT BEGIN!!

The Unbelievably Over-Complicated Subject Of Calories

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I’m a really dumb guy.

I need really simple and clear explanations of things or I don’t grasp them.

So in the past I tried to understand why I never lost weight even though I worked out.  The answer was later found when I started losing weight by accident.  At that time I came to the generalized conclusion that:

Bad food = stuff that comes in a box.
Good food = stuff that grows.

Is that generalized?  YES!  Is it accurate….well…I think yes!  I bet some smarter person could run rings around me proving how XYZ food doesn’t grow, yet it provides ABC benefit because it has Beta Carbonutralized Bioflavayadda yadda yadda…

Well I’m not capable of understanding this smartness.  I’m too dumb……so I’m going to try and simplify the weight loss process so even a dummy like me can understand:

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Here’s a horrible analogy that barely makes sense:

  • The day starts and your car gas tank is half full.
  • You fill up one gallon of gas at the beginning of the day.
  • During the day you only drive a few miles and use maybe a 1/2 gallon of gas.
  • Because you didn’t use up that whole gallon, your car is fatter than before!

However if you drove a lot and used several gallons of gas….
…end of the day your car has “lost weight”.

Damn that was a bad analogy!  ….but does it make sense?

TO LOSE WEIGHT:

CALORIES IN < CALORIES OUT

(For you ultra-dummies that means:  calories you eat are less than calories you use).

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The reason everyone says to cut out sodas and candy etc. for weight loss is this simple fact…THEY HAVE TONS OF CALORIES! Not only do they have lots of calories, they have EMPTY calories….meaning the nutritional value you get is nearly none, but you still get all the calories.

Enough pretending I know what I’m talking about and lets do some visual comparisons.

Let’s take a nice household candy bar such as Snickers (something I used to eat all the time):

Notice it has 220 calories…but there’s TWO “servings per container”.  That means if you eat a full Snickers (who the hell only eats half??) you get a huge 440 calories for something that has virtually zero nutritional value and doesn’t get you full.

Until I took these pictures I never realized exactly how bad these (and other candy bars) are!  Yikes!

Compared to one of my favorite fruits, clementines, the Snickers bar doesn’t really hold up.  If I eat 3 clementines at once, that’s a lot of intake and I feel satisfied…and it’s only about 100 calories (roughly 36 calories per clementine)….plus I get a lot of nutritional value from them.

I can eat TWELVE clementines instead of ONE Snickers bar, get more nutrition and still consume LESS calories!  Good god!

Starting to see why people tell you to cut out the junk?

Instead of eating that one semi-gratifying Snickers that DOES NOT fill you up, you can eat TWO clementines, ONE banana and ONE tomato…they will definitely fill you up, and they look nice too:

Yummm….and the best part is ALL OF THAT together adds up to only 153 calories and has tons of great nutritional value. I can eat that for lunch and get full!!  You can even toss a handful of baby spinach on top and make it a salad.

Also instead of that ONE Snickers bar, you can eat ONE big apple and get:

Total calories: a few more than 65 (that was a big ass apple).

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So all you’ve got to remember is:

  • Don’t eat so many calories.
  • Processed foods usually have A LOT of them.
  • Fresh stuff = Good.

That’s a list even I can remember.

What was learned here will be the basic premise of my Getting A Six-Pack Experiment which I will  be doing all through April.  I’ll replace all the bad stuff I was eating…with good stuff! What a novel concept!!

I’ll be eating very clean in April and will document a lot of stuff…hopefully something will be learned.

Steve Pavlina’s Raw Food Diet Link List

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A direct inspiration for the eating portion of the Getting A Six-Pack Experiment is Steve Pavlina’s 30 day raw food diet.

He has one of the largest blogs on the entire interweb, yet for some reason this goofy mofo made it really damn hard to navigate his 30 day trial.  So I’m adding all the posts here (mainly so I can reference things I liked):

Steve Pavlina’s 30 Day Raw Food Diet:

For his 30-day trial he decided to eat raw foods for different reasons than I:

He cares about saving animals /// I don’t really care

He was loading up between 2,000 and 3,000 calories /// I will be staying well under 1,500 almost every day

He did a lot of research /// I’m going with the little I know

He did it to learn to eat better /// I’m doing it to get a raging six-pack

He calls it a “30 Day Trial” /// I can it an “Experiment”

He’s never had alcohol and has a family at home /// I live in America’s Hardest Drinking City: Austin, TX. and go out with friends regularly

He was eating only raw foods /// I can eat whatever I want, so long as in calories < out calories.
Even though our methods will be different, I must fully accredit Steve P. with opening my eyes to the fact YOU CAN EAT A LOT OF FRUIT. I simply didn’t realize that before.

In my weight loss by accident post you can see the exact point where his 30-day experiment influenced me.

Another great resource on what’s “Good” for you is this amazing Dr. Klaper speech:
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

So his 30 day trial inspired me, now onwards with the experiment….