NevBlog

Neville's Digital Surrogate Brain

food

Not caring about food

by

It seems like a lot of attention is paid to food.

Food is just temporary fuel for your body.

Food is temporary pleasure, but its longterm effect on your body is quite large.

YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT.
Stupid old cliche or real statement?  I think it’s pretty accurate.

For the Getting A Six Pack Experiment, in roughly 5 weeks I lost around 17 lbs total….and I wasn’t really fat to begin with. That’s a LOT of weight in NOT A LOT of time, HOORAY!

…did I also mention that I was working out LESS than I normally do that whole time?

So I was working out less, but got dramatic weight loss results FAST. Obviously something had changed, and it was my CHOICE of foods.

No no no….I didn’t STOP EATING food, that would just be silly…like not filling up your gas tank and expecting your car to run. Instead, I gave my car premium fuel instead of the shit I was previously putting in.

Eating healthy is NOT expensive….buying packaged foods that say “Healthy” on the label IS expensive. The best part is, those foods AREN’T healthy at all, so you don’t need to buy them!

Why eat them if they’re more expensive AND not healthy?

I primarily ate raw foods for this experiment, and the transition wasn’t exceedingly hard when I made up my mind not to eat any super-high calorie items that weren’t good for me (although it took some see-sawing first).

If you can’t do this yourself, you might want to checkout what Adam at MyBodyTutor offers.  I knew I couldn’t do this myself, that’s why I signed up with the service…it keeps you in check everyday, and soon it becomes a habit that ISN’T hard to keep.

Adam didn’t recommend me to eat mainly raw foods…I was already doing it before I called him (I must’ve been one of his easiest clients since I was already eating so well)!

One of the main things I’ve learned through this experiment was controlling what I ate was more mental than anything.  I’m the variety of person that DOESN’T eat when I feel emotions such as happiness or sadness (fat people tend to be the opposite)…if you have that problem, you DEFINITELY might consider Adam’s help.   However I still had the “Food as a reward” thing going on in my head.

Successes were celebrated with big meals, and special occasions usually indicated a big feast was coming.  I’m all for celebrating victories, but stuffing-myself-silly slowly and slowly seems less attractive.  Why ruin a good victory by running myself down….what’s the point?

————————-
————————-

P.S.  I actually first recorded this post, unscripted, on audio.  I kind of like doing the audio thing now.  The audio and post don’t really talk about the same thing at all.  Here it is (click play):
[audio:not-caring-about-food.mp3]

The 6-Pack Experiment Response Has Been Awesome

by

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.

Upcoming “Getting a 6-Pack” Experiment

by

Does this blog need more pictures of my half-naked body on it?

YES. Definitely.

Before you stop reading in disgust, I’d like to ask your opinion on an upcoming experiment for the month of April 2010 where I’m attempting to get a REALLY ripped 6-pack stomach.

QUICK EXPLANATION:
Even though I was satisfied the way my body looked in that “How I Lost Weight” Experiment, I still didn’t have a PROPER 6-pack set of abs.

There was still a decent sized layer of fat between my abdominal muscles and the real world.

From everything I’ve learned, this experiment will be primarily about controlling what I eat very carefully.  Before, I didn’t have the self-control to do this, but over the last year I’ve become pretty good about controlling what I eat….so the time has come.


THE EXPERIMENT:
I want to see how hard it is to get a true 6-pack, and if it can be done within about a month (for someone like me who’s already in decent shape and physically active).

…so over the course of the experiment I will be training and eating properly for it….and documenting the steps of course.

Will this 6-Pack be sustainable? I doubt it.
So why try? One of my friends called me out on this and said, “You just want to get a picture of yourself with a 6-pack so you can show off later.”

He was absolutely right.  In case I have the urge to brag to my future kids about “how cool dad was back in the day”…at least I’ll be able to pull up the photo and say, “Check THIS out” as they roll their eyes and accuse me of Photoshopping the picture.


THE CURRENT SITUATION:
Unflexed, my abs look like:

When flexed, my ab region currently looks something like:

It’s not bad….but it’s not lean enough for a true 6-pack either.  If I pinch the fat on my stomach, you can tell there’s a definite barrier between those sweet abs and the adoring world:

By the way…I took that fat-pinch picture while writing this in the library, and one of the librarians saw me lift up my shirt, pinch myself and take several pictures!  She just whispered a comment to the librarian next to her…Hahah, I wonder what they’re thinking!

Anyways, I’m curious if anyone out there has actually done this successfully…and maybe share some of that advice?  I’m not a fitness guru by any means, just some guy who wants to shove it in his future-kids face that dad had a 6-pack!