Follow Up

I forgot to mention that my 40 days of no carbs was practically a success.  I ended up losing about 13 pounds and having my abs show more than they have in a long time, but not all of the way.  Todd came over and did the body fat monitor and he clocked in at 8.9% and his abs are visible, all six of them.  I am still at somewhere between 12.5% and 13.5%.  Pamela has lost her mind.  I will have to comment further later.

Carb Lent Reloaded

I had to start over on my Carb lent.  I was unable to keep it going on vacation.  Sarah warned me that it would happen.  I stayed strong for the first half and slowly, while having to eat in Disneyland and at fast food and then the drive home...it wasn't meant to be.  So, I have started over.  I started on May 14th so I am in it one week. I have had a few (less than 10 a day) 63% cocoa chocolate chips and some fruit and such but that is it.  No sneaking a delicious honey nut cheerio or justifying some major meltdown on the weekends.  When I weighed in on the Sunday evening after our vacation and after enjoying Mother's Day and all its carbs, I was 195 pounds.  I am now at 189.2 as of last night.  I was probably heavier than usual on Mother's Day due to many, many desserts.  I will finish on June 22.  The nice thing about that is the 23rd will be a Saturday and I will have a donut.  I just remembered, I did take some Gatorade to my frisbee game and I probably had about 1/2 of the  bottle.  Even with those carbs, I was lighter Thursday than any other day this week.  I assumed from the sweating that took place at the frisbee game I won.  I scored one point, had two Ds and made one turnover.

Day 4

After today I will be 1/10th into my goal of doing super low carbs for 40 days, in the style of Lent.  I have put on a bunch of weight and I decided that I needed to cut out the deliciousness of carbs for a Lent period of time.  Day one and two were indeed rough.  By the evening I was very tired and had no energy.  Sarah pointed out that I may have been more gradual the first time around and this time it was sort of a cold turkey response to the fact that I had been eating as many carbs as ever.  Yesterday was better.  I didn't eat any sugar or carbs and I felt fine the whole day.  With our Cali trip coming it might get a little rough, but I believe I can lose weight on vacation by carefully watching what I am eating.  This time, when my 40 days are over, maybe I will buy into a monthly donut-orgy-fest but not weekly.  I am pretty sure that is what derailed me.  We (I) were buying donuts every Saturday and once the carbs start coming in, they sure get addictive.  Just for the ease of keeping track, the first day of no carbs was Monday April 30.  The end of my carb super-restriction will be June 9.

Choosing the Left

I suppose he isn't the first child to wonder about such things, but you are never quite prepared for the funny things that come out of your children's mouth unsolicited.  Michael was given a 'choose the right' ring in his primary class. When Sarah asked him about it, he said that it wasn't a church ring.  Sarah countered and said that it was a ring that reminds us to choose the right. He got very serious and asked, "What if I want to choose the left?" I am raising a democrat.  

March 13

I am going to attempt to make my post titles more generic.  So far so good.  So far this month I have read 2 books on mneumonics and am currently reading Maphead by Ken Jennings. It is ok.  I loved the memory books and am trying to put them into practice.  It has become more depressing to think about how much I don't know.  I watch Jeopardy! every day and there are times where the contestants seem to have studied the most obscure subjects immaginable.  I will have to use it for motivation.  This past Sunday I memorized the 12 tribes of Israel along with their moms and in order of youngest to oldest, as far as the OT is concerned.  Next I am going to try and construct some system to memorize the tallest two mountains on each continent.  This equals 14 or 15 mountains, but the names are just weird enough to make it somewhat difficult for me at this point.  Foer mentioned in MWE that memory is less about having a "photographic" memory and more about being creative. I am still struggling with that though I remain convinced that I will get better at it with practice. I also hope to begin eliminating the "good enough" plateaus. I think that is what he called them.  

Jeopardy!

Jeopardy! is the only show on television that remains interesting to me.  I am not aware of another show I care much about.  The Office is holding on by a thread or two.  If Sarah decided to stop watching, I would be fine with it,  Nevertheless, the point is I have finally found an interest of mine.  I like trivia.  I have decided that I am going to try and go on Jeopardy! in the next 10 years or so. I have begun memorizing the presidents of the US.  I am reading a book about a former winner who was also a big loser, but I am only a chapter or two in and I don't know what he ended up winning or otherwise.  I will try to read Ken Jennings book as well.  I have been saying for years that I don't know what my interests are.  I now have something to put into the "hobbies" box on surveys and such.  I also hope that my experience will transfer into something I can write about on a more regular basis.  I thought it would be goal setting and things I wanted to accomplish, but that has proven to make me feel about as motivated as a lion who has just eaten a full grown zebra.  I also want to learn how to write better metaphors.
   

Scrabble

I wanted to play Scrabble for some reason today so I am, right now.  I texted Dave and he gave me the address to the site he uses, and so far so good.  I lost the first game pretty badly after having been ahead at the beginning and now I am dead even with a guy that is likely going to lose due to a lack of time. I keep checking to see if he is done, and he never is. Not in the sense that Jonny's roommate Jesse will never get a card game, which is the actual never, he just takes a long, long time.  His slow response is putting a damper on our game, but at least it gave me time to write in my blog. If he doesn't take the spot I am thinking about playing, which he will, I will be able to play a seven letter word which at this point in the game is pretty good for me.  He is probably off doing something else or using a scrabble dictionary or something that is making him take forever. I still need to write down some goals and to dos.  For some reason, I never follow up on the things I want to do. I wish I practiced an instrument every day. I wish I practiced Italian every day.  I wish I worked out every day. I want to memorize things and strengthen my brain.  I suppose that is a lot I want to do and for some reason, when the day is young, I don't make the time to do any of it.  Again, if I had someone who would hold me accountable...in addition to myself.  Well, he is about to lose or something depending on what the time does.