Friday, December 2, 2011

Weight Loss Contest - Looking Back

For anyone that's following this, I ended up winning the Biggest Loser Challenge here at work.  I hit the scale for the final weigh-in at 259.1, which was a 43.5 pound loss and worked out to 14.375% of my starting weight.  This was just enough to win out over a guy who lost 27 lbs (13%).  If I hadn't hit the steam room hard and sweated off 7 pounds, I wouldn't have made it.  After the contest was over, I rehydrated back to 266 and I've managed to maintain that for the 2 weeks since.  I'm still watching my carbs, but not being super-crazy strict about it.  Now that Thanksgiving is over, I'm going to get back into the gym to try to drop 2 pounds a week or so.

On another note, work is weird.  A coworker and my boss both quit within a 2 week period and now we're kinda floating in limbo.  I'm just going to keep doing what I've been doing and hammer out my projects.  I'll worry about leadership after the new year.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Weight Loss Contest - Final Week

Okay, I'm on the final week of this thing and I'm feeling pretty good at 266.8 lbs.   We have the final weigh-in on Thursday at 9 AM.  Between now and then, fat loss isn't the objective.  For the next 5 days, the name of the game is gastric emptying and water loss.  Sunday and Monday, it's business as usual for the most part, with the exception of a laxative tea that I'm be drinking twice a day to keep things moving along.  Don't be grossed out, it's biology for cryin' out loud.

Starting on Tuesday at Dinner, I'll consume no red meat or starchy carbohydrates until Thursday after the weigh in.  The second modification happens on Wednesday morning, when I'll be cutting my normal liquid intake to 1/3.  I log my water intake, so this should be fairly easy. 

The final modification begins on Wednesday night after an early dinner consisting only of vegetables.  At that time, I'll stop fluid intake and  begin thermoregulatory work.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

The Return of the Shaggy Green Blog

I don't really have much to say normally, so my blog just kind of sat here for a long time and grew incredible masses of cobwebs.  Not sure what I'm going to say here, but I guess I'll use it as a place to write about what's going on with me.

At the moment, I'm involved in a weight loss contest at work.  Highest percentage of starting body weight lost in 10 weeks for each gender gets $500.  Second place gets $200.  I started at 303 pounds on September 12th and I'm down to 269.  That's 11% since I started.  I'm looking for closer to 15% by the end of the contest.  We have 2 more weeks left and I'm looking to get down to 255 or so.  I'm getting this done mainly through a low carbohydrate diet.  I've always responded well to this type of eating protocol and this time is no different.

I'm reading 2 books right now.  The first is The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss.  It's really interesting information.  I'm saving most of it for after the contest is over, since it focuses on body recomposition, gaining muscle and losing fat, rather than simply losing weight, which is what I have to concentrate on during this contest.

The other book I'm reading is Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes.  It looks at the research and science behind what we are told to believe about nutrition and challenges it.  It's not exactly a diet or lifestyle book, but more like a journalistic look at the research that led to the current state of confusion in the areas of diet and nutrition.

On the professional front, we're in the process of rebuilding our Atlanta Data Center and I've been doing some travel back and forth.  It's good to be getting that data center whipped into shape and onto the new architecture.  It's rough on the diet and sleep schedule, but getting to build new, high performance networks is what I'm in this business to do, so I'm having a ball.