Month: March 2021

My 600 Lb. Diet – Day 5

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

When I first started doing this, between days 2 and 3, I was often feeling hot, or just plain uncomfortable.  I couldn’t help but wonder if I was literally feeling the burn of calories that my body was doing, as there was no gargantuan excess of calories being consumed like my general living was like before Dr. Nowzaradan.  Granted, the season is in the midst of changing over right now, and temperatures have been swinging pretty hard, but still, I was wondering if the hot sensation I was feeling was like the start of ketosis or something.

I’ve had several friends do keto over the years, and I can’t say that it’s something that I’m particularly interested in trying myself.  However, given the fact that I’ve been minimal on carbs, and having cut sugar outright, I do feel kind of close to a keto diet, minus the fact that I’ve been pounding a large amount of spinach and broccoli throughout the week, since they’re so negligible in calories but high in nutrition.

Either way, five days in, and I have to say that the hardest parts of the day are in the morning, when I’m up at 6:30, and typically have to hold out until around 7:30 so that my daughter and I can eat our respective breakfasts together, and I’ve noticed a slog at around the 4:30-6:30 area, where I feel my energy level getting low regardless of how long I hold my afternoon snack off until.  It’s during these times in which I feel a little sluggish, and my heart tends to beat faster than I think it should when doing things like going up the stairs, or it could be the fact that my toddler is getting heavier or that I’m unfortunately getting weaker, because my already-diminishing muscles are probably eating themselves.

But it’s not that difficult.  The worst meal of the day is lunch, where I eat an entire can of chicken, where I simply get bored of eating just how much of it is packed into a can.  I’ve been leaning heavily on spices and mustard to help get me through them, and I’d never thought mustard could taste so good in my life until it was breaking up the monotony of plain chicken on spinach.

Breakfast – same as day 3
Snack – same as day 1
Lunch – same as day 1
Snack – same as day 1
Dinner – same as day 3

Exercise

  • 100 sit-ups (50, 50)
  • 110 push-ups (20, 30, 30, 30)
  • 2.98 miles (30:16, 399 calories burned)

Supplemental food on account of having run today

  • 1 slice Martin’s whole grain bread + 1/4 cup cottage cheese (155 cal, 12g pro, 48¢)
  • 1 slice Publix honey wheat bread + 1/4 cup cottage cheese (115 cal, 9.5g pro, 27¢)

Total
Meals/Snacks: 1,313 calories, 139.5 grams of protein. Cost: $9.92
Supplemental food: 270 calories, 21.5 grams of protein. Cost: 75¢
Running calories owed: -399 calories
Total sum of day: 1,184 calories, 161 grams of protein.
Cost: $10.67

My 600 Lb. Diet – Day 4

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Man, I must sound like a real mess if just four days in, I’m already talking about the things that I miss already, as if I’ve gone to like the Vietnam War and am missing my wife and kid here.  But of all the things that I miss consuming after four straight days where I’m cumulatively still under 10,000 calories consumed, I would have to say that it would be sweet things.  The flavor of sweetness, in general.

Although finding Dr. Nowzaradan’s official diet isn’t really possible, there’s plenty of claims and speculative diet plans out there to realize that among them all, there’s one consistent claim throughout them: no sweets.  No sugar, most fruits aren’t allowed because they have natural sugar, and the general idea is that sweet things trigger things in the brain that create cravings for unhealthy sweets, which gateways into ballooning up to 600 lbs.

The funny thing is that I don’t particularly feel that I have much of a sweet tooth, but far be it for me to not enjoy something sweet, multiple times a day prior to starting this stupid exercise.  Be it the creamer for my coffee, the occasional Oreo(s), girl scout cookies, of just plain fruit like bananas, strawberries or peaches; apparently, I consumed more sweet-flavored things than I might have realized until I was in a position to where I couldn’t.

Like a true glutton, I’ve already given thought to what I’d like to eat once I give up this farce of a challenge, and stuff like Willy’s burrito or Five Guys burger definitely are up there.  But I’ll be damned if I won’t be craving some cookies or like a smoothie or just something with a sweet flavor, in addition to it.

However, day 4 didn’t really go that difficult.  I definitely feel it when my body begins to get really low on gas, but honestly once I eat my sparing meals, I’m finding that I’m feeling somewhat full from them, even if they do seem to burn quickly, seeing as it’s fairly clean food.  But the spacing between lunch-to-snack-to-dinner seemed somewhat organic, and I wasn’t ready to run a train on something outside of the meal plan.

The only challenges really were when I was preparing smoothies for my daughter, and then dinner for my wife.  The temptation to take a sip of a smoothie, or take just a single piece of chicken out of the oven was there, but my willpower is still stronger.  The more I keep myself occupied, the less I tend to think about it.

Breakfast – Same as Day 3
Snack – Same as Day 1
Lunch – Same as Day 1
Snack – Same as Day 1
Dinner – Same as Day 1

Total
1,195 calories, 124.5 grams of protein.
Total cost: $9.29

Exercise

  • 80 sit-ups (40, 40)
  • 120 push-ups (20, 20, 50, 30)

My 600 Lb. Diet – Day 3

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Mythical wife has been making a point to not eat around me right now.  As if I’m some weak-willpower’d schlub who will cave into temptation when I see a Chick Fil-A bag, or a sniff out some Dunkin Donuts.  Once, she ate in the car in the garage, and another time, she beelined in the door and into her general office area to eat, as not to eat in front of me.  Firstly, I’m fine if people want to eat around me, I’m the one trying out the stupid diet in the first place.  Second, she pregnant: girl needs to eat.

Either way, three days in, and this day was actually a little easier than the day prior.  Granted, I had a lot of things on my plate today, and like most unpleasantries, distraction is a good way to overcome, and because work is always a feast or famine kind of thing when it comes to things being on fire, it was easy to not think about being hungry for chunks of time, and then remembering that I have to eat a snack, lest my body goes into even more hunger.

Slight modifications were made today, due to switching bread, and to compensate for running by putting in more calories to eat, which I’ll deduct from the end goal of the day of being as close to 1,200 calories.

Breakfast

  • 1 Slice Martin’s whole grain bread (110 cal, 5g pro)
  • 1/4 cup Daisy low-fat cottage cheese (45 cal, 6.5g pro)
  • 4 links of Amylu chicken sausage (172 cal, 16g pro)

327 calories, 27.5 grams of protein. Total cost: $1.16

Snack

  • 4 oz. Kirkland brand oven roasted turkey (140 cal, 30g protein)
  • 1 slice swiss cheese (80 cal, 5g pro)

220 calories, 35 grams of protein. Total cost: $1.93

Lunch: Same as Day 1

Snack: Same as Day 1

Dinner

  • Two 3 oz. salmon filets, steamed (236 cal, 30g pro)
  • 2 cups of broccoli, steamed (60 cal, 6g pro)
  • 1 slice cheddar cheese (80 cal, 5g pro)

376 calories, 41 grams of protein. Total cost $4.07

Initial Total
1,383 calories, 174.5 grams of protein.  Total cost: $10.76

Exercise

  • 100 push-ups (70, 30)
  • 30 sit-ups
  • 3.00 miles run (30:54)

According to my Garmin tracker, I burned 414 calories during my run, which I have to admit that I did some run-walking on account of precaution in the event I was feeling loopy, because I had basically no carbs in my system, and I’m operating at a very low amount of calories.  But since these exist outside of the 1,200 calorie formula, these are calories that I should be expected to make up as best as I can.

Supplemental Food

  • 1 Slice Martin’s whole grain bread (110 cal, 5g pro)
  • 1/4 cup Daisy low-fat cottage cheese (45 cal, 6.5g pro)

155 calories, 11.5 grams of protein.  Total cost: $0.55

True Total
1,538 calories minus 414 calories burned from jogging
1,124 calories, 186 grams of protein.
Total cost: $11.31

My 600 Lb. Diet – Day 2

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment
A visual reminder isolated and put up at eye level where I cannot miss it.

Waking up this morning, I felt like I was hit by a ton of bricks.  I’m not sure if this exhaustion was the result of having gotten just five hours of sleep the night prior, or if this was a sign that my body was feeling weak from dropping down to just 1,198 calories the day prior.  Maybe a combination of both.  But I physically felt slower off the blocks this morning than on the first day, and I have to imagine that I was probably still being powered by the death row last meal the night prior to that, as opposed to this morning.

After one day, I do admittedly feel a little sluggish, but I’m hoping this is something that my body can adapt to, and not something that’s going to make me have to tap out way sooner than I had hoped, because as sure as I am that I could power through this, it might not be the best idea in the world to force, because on a daily basis, I am not responsible for taking care of just me, but a toddler as well as a pregnant wife.  And as much as wouldn’t like having to throw in the towel, the obligations to my family are far more important than an experiment for brog content that nobody will ever read.

But otherwise, it’s not so terrible.  There’s some comfort in knowing that I don’t have to think about what the next meal is going to be, because everything is basically planned out, so all I have to do is throw it into a bowl or onto a plate, and then eat, and then be on my merry way onto the next tasks that my day constantly demands. 

The only real restraints I’ve really felt are when I still feel hungry, and my first inclination is to go to the pantry and grab some Oreos or dive into a bag of chips.  I’ll make a first step but then verbally state that I can’t do that, and then instead usually go fill up my water bottle and slam another bottle of water, and end up peeing 50 more times throughout the day.

Also, I have to exhibit a little bit of restraint when prepping food for my kid, like licking a butter knife, after spreading almond butter onto a waffle, or not eating any remnant piece of whatever it is I’m chopping up for her.  It’s not so much staving off temptation as much as it is breaking habits.

Oh yeah, and getting used to my coffee, black.  It’s not that I can’t drink black coffee, but I typically like creamer in it.  The irony is that coffee is kind of an appetite stimulant, so it’s not really a great idea to be drinking it, but at the same time, I’m useless if I don’t drink it, so it’s like a double-edged sword that I need.

Breakfast: Same as Day 1
Snack: Same as Day 1
Lunch: Same as Day 1
Snack: Same as Day 1
Dinner: Same as Day 1

Total

1,198 calories, 122.5 grams of protein.
Total cost: $9.49

Exercise

  • 100 push-ups (70, 30)
  • 70 sit-ups (30, 40)

My 600 Lb. Diet – Day 1

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Despite the fact that the motivation behind this whole experiment is somewhat kind of a joke, I actually was a little excited to get started with it.  No time like the present to start putting my money where my mouth is, and not give myself any time to back out of it.  Especially when the only real result to actually sticking with this is weight loss, and who couldn’t use some weight loss these days?

It’s funny, while I was preparing for the start of this whole thing, the day before I started, I basically ate as if I were on death row.  Cereal that had some chocolate in it, Zaxby’s for lunch along with fried mozzarella bites and then Costco pizza later on for dinner.  A Tim Horton’s copycat iced capp recipe I’d been sitting on for like a year, I urgently went ahead and made it because the leftover heavy cream I had in the fridge would undoubtedly be spoiled if I were to make it 28 days.

But now that the experiment has begun, I am taking this shit seriously.  I hate failing to do the things that I say I will do, and I’m determined to go as long as I can with this, although there are a lot of loose parameters and tightening up of the rules that I need to do along the way.

I want to chronicle the things I’m eating, as well as try and put a price to them, because when watching My 600 Lb. Life, a lot of people try and make excuses of financial reasons why they can’t eat better, but they’re somehow ordering $45 worth of KFC to eat by themselves in a single sitting.  Naturally, I’ll try my best to attach relevant nutritional information, as well as notate if I’m doing any sort of exercise throughout the days.

So without further ado, here is the summary of day 1…

Continue reading “My 600 Lb. Diet – Day 1” →

I’ve done some stupid things in my life

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

But I’m about to do one of the more dumber things that I probably don’t really need to be doing.  Especially when I’m already starting every single day at like an eight out of ten on the stress level as it is.  But who knows, maybe this is something that can serve to be a distraction to how discontent I am with certain aspects of my life, and such would be tremendously welcome to help take my mind off how much my job makes me completely miserable.  But on the flipside, as a result of this little experiment, I might be hangry all the time, and serve to make not just my own life, but those of my wife and child miserable if I’m a torrent of anger all the time.

For the next month, or rather 28 days, I’m going to be embarking on the Dr. Nowzaradan diet plan, of 1,200 calories a day, high protein-low carb.  Or, for however long it takes for me to tap out and give in to the hunger, to which I really don’t want to fail because I don’t like failing in anything that I set out to accomplish.

Why the fuck am I going to be putting myself through this kind of hell?  I don’t weigh 600 lbs. I’m not trying to get weight loss surgery.  But after years of watching My 600 Lb. Life on TLC the greatest network in the history of humankind, I’ve been clowning on the people who appear on the show for ages now.  They’re fascinating specimens of human beings, and it’s not so much of the train wreck of watching another human being that has somehow managed to balloon up to 600+ lbs. as much as it’s always interesting to learn about their history and their mental conditions that led to such horrific downward spirals.

But the fact is that I have been clowning on the vast majority of the people, especially the ones who are quick to say yes, that they can cold turkey embark on the Dr. Now diet of 1,200 calories a day, but then fall so tremendously short of their initial weight loss goals, which has fluctuated between 50 in a month, 60 in two, or for those who really break the scales at first weigh-in, 100 in two.  So, as mythical wife and I were watching the latest episode (S9 E12), and Tammy bungled her way through her first period of time and naturally missed the mark completely, and I asked her, I wonder if I could do the Dr. Now diet?

And just like that, the ball began rolling, and here I am, on the cusp of putting my life into dietary hell, for literally no reason at all other than to see if I can do it.  I spent what little time I had today to do some cursory research on what kind of meals I could be eating, along with what foods I should be avoiding, and I’m more or less prepared to dive right in starting tomorrow, and only time will tell how miserable I’ll be, or how it’s not that hard after all, and perhaps I’ll lose some weight in the process.

Naturally, my goal isn’t just to do the diet, but also to brog about it each and every day, as if I didn’t already have enough things going on in my life to also take a slice of time to throw down some words about the experience.  But who knows, much like the beer testing in December, maybe it’ll encourage me to write more, and maybe I’ll actually spit up some quality words in the process.

So the parameters are quite simple:

  • 1,200 calories a day; most likely spread across three meals, and maybe some compliant snacks, but the end goal is as close to 1,200 calories at the end of the day as possible
  • I will continue doing my usual exercises, which has really been reduced to 100 push-ups a day, and running three miles, typically three times a week
  • I will try my best to document the food that I am eating for each meal, photos if I’m feeling ambitious
  • In the event that I tap out, it will be announced that I have tremendously failed and admit that I’m an asshole who doesn’t actually understand just how hard it is for the people on My 600 Lb. Life to do their thing

But if I do succeed, hopefully I’ll have lost some weight, and maybe have broken some bad habits in the process.  All the same, I’m already thinking of the things that I’ll probably go apeshit on once the diet is off, and the primary reason why I’ve chosen 28 days is that any longer collides with my birthday, and I think the chances are higher that I’d want to indulge in some capacity around then.  Who knows though, either indulging will wreck me, since I’d been eating clean for 28 days, or I’ll have gotten so used to eating clean that I won’t want to break the streak of cleanliness, even for my birthday.

Re: The Atlanta Asian Spa Murders

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I have a lot of thoughts on this topic.  Very few of them coherent.  Every day since the news broke of a white guy too heavily armed, killing eight people in the Metro Atlanta region, way too close to where my family and I live, it’s been a shit show all over social media and the internet with all the news, opinions and just, overwhelming chatter going on.

There’s so much noise, that I can’t really find the capacity to formulate rational thoughts on the topic.  There’s nothing I could say that hasn’t already been said by someone else, from all ends of the spectrum.  I don’t know whether to be upset, mad, frustrated or annoyed, by all the perceived rhetoric, white privilege, seemingly fake and topical social activism, and all the sudden allies in arms for Asian communities.

Frankly, I just don’t have the time to think much about it, and I honestly would rather not, not because I don’t care, quite the contrary, but because I just have way too much going on in my life at home, that it’s really hard to find the capacity to think about much else that happens outside of it.

But because the internet doesn’t know how to ever shut the fuck up, it’s impossible to avoid and it’s impossible to not be exposed and revealed to fresh information as it’s constantly coming out, in spite of the embarrassingly high amount of empathy and consideration given to a mass murderer simply because of the lack of color in his skin.  So here we are, where I feel like I have to say something in spite of how much I really wish I didn’t, but I feel like if anything at all, I’ll look back at this post when the On This Day plug-in brings it back up in a future year(s) and go oh yeah, that shit DID happen, and America didn’t change one fucking iota as a result of it and all the non-Asian allies went back to their regularly scheduled lives the following Monday when Falcon & The Winter Soldier dropped on Disney+ and everyone moved onto the next shiny topic.

So all I’ll really say is that only in America can people get so misdirected by fighting over what the intent of murders were, that the actual murders themselves are basically rendered secondary in importance.  As if there’s any difference in a sexual motivation or racial one, when eight people are fucking dead, not to mention that it’s very fucking possible for it to have been both at the same time.

To once again say that America Sucks is among the grossest understatements there could possibly be, and this is one of those times where I just want everyone to shut the fuck up.  About their rage, about their convenient recency bias support of Asian communities, and just stop fucking talking and recognize that a bunch of people were gunned down by an angry white guy who was having a really bad day.

I fucking hate this place, sometimes.