Welcome to Orcmid's Lair, the playground for family connections, pastimes, and scholarly vocation -- the collected professional and recreational work of Dennis E. Hamilton

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Weight Loss and the Cravings

Creating Passionate Users: The strangest, easiest way to lose weight.  Kathy Sierra posted a remarkable experience on changing her physical-weight “set point” using Seth Robert’s Shangri-La Diet: The No Hunger Eat Anything Weight-Loss Plan.  Based on Kathy’s account and on observations made on the Freakonomics blog, I have ordered the book.  To achieve the no-shipping level, I had Amazon toss in Freakonomics, a book I’ve not yet read.

{tags: diet exercise health food craving Freakonomics Shangri-La Diet Kathy Sierra orcmid}

In Winter 2004–2005 I successfully brought my weight range from a high of 168 to a comfortable-for-me 155.  Along with the exercise and diet regimen, I also brought my cholesterol levels to the best they’ve ever been in the 20+ years that they’ve  been monitored and medicated.  I relaxed out of that, and lately my weight is stuck around 160 and is not budging. 

I have become careless about exercise, so I’m putting daily exercise practices back in.  I am working with an e-mail “vitality buddy” and reporting my weight, exercise, and other actions I’m taking every day.  This seems to have stabilized the creeping weight-gain, and it is extremely valuable in having me perform in this area.  But I have pretty constant cravings and I respond by wolfing down snack foods.  There are baby carrots in the refrigerator, and I must put that in.  That’s not where I look when I want a quick snack fix.  I will make snacking on carrots, fruits and other vegetables an addition to what I account for with my vitality buddy and I’ll put that into practice right now.

Meanwhile, I am looking forward to the book.  I will also getting a cholesterol check-point in a month or two and it will be interesting to see if I have reclaimed any or all of my prior victory.  I know that exercise was a big factor, and it was the only way I’ve ever managed to raise my HDLs into the desired range.

My vitality buddy has been cutting back on caffeine, and I know Jeff Sandquist stopped drinking caffeine when he managed the weight reduction that inspired my previous victory.  I started doing the same, and I’ve managed to reduce my intake to 1–2 cups of lip-smacking French Roast drip every two days.  I learned something that I should have known.  Caffeine works for me in managing my regular occurrences of sinus inflammation.  So, in addition to becoming more lethargic than I was willing to continue, I found that caffeine was the best treatment when low-level allergy/sinus symptoms kick-in.   That’s my story.  I don’t think it is caffeine withdrawal. 

Unfortunately, while in Mountain View on May 1–3 I became great buddies with the barista at the IIW2006 workshop and now must go into recovery.  That’s working, although I find that I have begun to crave coffee too.  I also see, in reviewing my previous experience, that I no longer measure calories and that I lost my original coach’s attention after that success.  

At the bottom of all of this, I must embrace this effort as a journey and not as an end-point.  I will never not be managing my weight, exercise, and overall health and vitality.  Now it is time to click post and get on the rowing machine.

 

posted by orcmid at 5/06/2006 01:20:11 PM