My 600 Lb. Diet – Day 6

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I’m finding that the biggest opponent of staving off hunger is staying awake longer than is necessary.  Actually, I knew that, because back in like 2006 when I was actively dieting pretty well, I had some pretty regimented hours because my life wasn’t in a particularly good place, and I slept a lot to deal with a lot of the depression I was dealing with, so I went to bed at pretty predictable hours and had a pretty routine schedule as far as eating went.  It was probably close to intermittent fasting before intermittent fasting was coined.

Dealing with a possible emergency situation with one of the house’s pets and went to an emergency clinic for the first time ever.  Now I’ve heard lots of things, mostly negative about emergency vets, but almost all of them involve lots of waiting.  Which is kind of fair, because you’re going with no appointments, the on-call doctors there have to react and diagnose quickly, and things can go tits up with one bad decision.

Regardless, I sat in the parking lot for two hours after being told 30 minutes to an hour, watched several cars that came after me leave before I did, so I called to find out what was up, only to find out that my pet hadn’t been seen yet, and “was next” in about 30-45 minutes.  I told them I didn’t live far, and they finished the statement for me by telling me to go home.  So instead of doing the critical schoolwork I had planned on doing this evening, in the indeterminable window of time it will take for my pet to be seen, I’m catching up on writing this diatribe as well as summarizing my Dr. Nowzaradan diet’s day, as I have been doing over the last week.

But yeah, I’m typically in bed by now, and the hunger I’m feeling isn’t registering while I’m asleep.  But because I’m not asleep, the hunger is real, and I know I’m not eating again until like 7:30 am.  Combined with anxiousness over the wellbeing of my pet, this is not a particularly good way to start a very well-needed weekend.

Breakfast – Same as Day 3
Snack – Same as Day 1
Lunch – Same as Day 1
Snack – Same as Day 1 + 0.7oz extra turkey (end of package, 30 cal, 5g pro)
Dinner – Same as Day 1

Exercise
• 50 sit-ups (50)
• 125 push-ups (25, 70, 30)

Total
1,225 calories, 129.5 grams of protein.
Total cost: $9.35

Moar AEW observations

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

As my schoolwork has begun loosening up a little bit, I began trying to play catchup on all of the wrestling that I’d missed throughout the last month.  Naturally, this would include TNAEWCW, and I got many a great chuckle out of the unimpressive fireworks display they constituted as an exploding ring at their last pay-per-view event that also makes me wonder how their PPV buyrates are in a day where so many people are now used to basically getting PPVs for free through the WWE Network.

Anyway that said, I blew through four episodes of Dynamite just because I wanted to see how a couple of things that I’d heard happened, happened, and as much as I clown on AEW for being TNAEWCW, I still like some of the things that they’re doing, and always do hope that things will eventually get better . . . someday.

A couple of things really stood out when watching a whole bunch of TNAEWCW at one time, and I will disclaim that I fast forward through a whole bunch of the matches themselves, because for a smark like me, the matches themselves don’t always matter so much as I like to see how storylines progress, guys cutting promos, and general flow of segments.

First: AEW really does operate like two separate promotions under the same umbrella.  You have one chunk of the roster all in this weird sub-promotion within AEW that revolves around the TNT Championship, and then you have another chunk of the roster that’s entirely focused around Kenny Omega, the Young Bucks, the Elite, and any and all remnants of any sort of Bullet Club/New Japan talents, even if they are Impact guys like Carl Anderson and Luke Gallows, and whomever they’re feuding with at the time, which appears to be Jon Moxley, Christian and for some reason, Eddie Kingston. 

There practically no crossover between the two sub-promotions, and the show might as well swap out ropes and mats between segments, they’re so diametrically different from each other.  The nepotism that AEW fought in year one is clearly no longer being held back, and now that the inmates run the asylum, they’re letting all their fantasy ideas come to fruition, even if it means lots of actual AEW talents are getting their TV time usurped by guys from other promotions.

Second: Rey Fenix and Britt Baker are the MVPs of AEW, hands down.  I’ve been high on both of these talents pretty early on, because it was pretty prevalent that the two of them, regardless of their actual win-loss records or active storylines, are the top male and female talents on the roster, in terms of consistency, workrate and screen impact.

Continue reading “Moar AEW observations” →

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” →