PhysicsDiet.com

I just finished reading Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain. It is a great read. It looks like a lot of the Amazon reviewers expected a how-to manual. That is not what this book is. It simply presents the growing evidence that our brains remain remarkably plastic throughout our entire lives.

For example, it discusses a technique used to treat dyslexia in children called Fast ForWord. I think similar techniques would also work to help adults learn new languages.

For people looking for a how-to manual I highly recommend Jack Kornfield's The Inner Art of Meditation. I listened to it a while back and it was the first time meditation made sense to me.

Last night at Barnes & Noble I came across another book about neuroplasticity. The Brain That Changes Itself provides examples of the brain rewiring itself to overcome injury or abnormality. My local library just got a copy in so I plan on reading it next.

If you are wondering what any of this has to do with weight loss, read this excellent article: Know Your Hunger.

Update: There is an interview with Sharon Begley on NPR about her book. There is an interview with Norman Doidge about his book (in Real Audio unfortunately) too.

As of this morning I've officially lost 100 pounds in 8 1/2 months.

But another PhysicsDiet.com beat me to the 100 pound mark by several months. jm3000 lost 100 pounds in about 4 1/2 months.

I don't have a final goal weight in mind so I'm not sure what my next major weight milestone will be. I will probably drop below 200 pounds before I'm done. But for now I'm focused on getting my Body Fat below 15%. Once I do that I'll reevaluate where I am then I'll decide if I want to shoot for 10% Body Fat.

Lately I haven't been tracking the calories I'm consuming or the calories I'm burning from exercise. I've been using a combination of portion counting and weighing some foods. But I don't track the details anymore.

I spent several months doing different experiments trying to figure out whether I could optimize my diet by eating different ratios of macronutrients or varying the types of foods I ate. But in the end I found that it mostly doesn't matter what I eat as long as prefer healthier foods over non-healthy foods and control my calorie balance.

The key factors for me are:

• Eat 5-6 small meals a day
  This is a critical component of my success. At first I didn't think it mattered. But when I experimented with some of the ideas from Body for Life I learned that eating 6 small meals a day is the best way to control my appetite and my emotions. I'm much more even tempered now. And I'm never hungry now as long as I eat at least 1500 calories per day. I usually eat around 2000 calories per day though.
• Regular vigorous exercise
  For a long time I thought eating 6 small meals a day was the key to my improved mood. But recently I went about 2 weeks without doing much exercise. I've been under a lot of stress recently and I got a bit depressed. After one particularly bad weekend I jumped on my stationary bike for an hour. That's when I realized that I have to exercise to be happy. Without exercise I get much more stressed and I let little things bother me much more than they should. Exercise is the best way for me to deal with stress and relax. Exercise also helps me lose weight, but not as much as you'd think. Controlling your calorie intake is much more important if your goal is to lose weight. But exercise is critical to your health. You can't be healthy without exercise even if you control your weight. And now I know that I can't be happy without exercise.

On Monday my average weight loss topped 90 pounds. But my average BMI was still just over 30. Yesterday my average BMI dropped to 29.9. That means I'm officially "Overweight". Yeah!

My goal is to get my Body Fat % between 10 - 15%. I'm not too worried about what my weight will be when that happens. I suspect it will stabilize close to 200. That means my BMI probably won't drop below 24.9 so I will probably remain Overweight. But I won't be overfat, so I'm not worried

Getting my BMI below 30 is a major milestone that I've been looking forward to. The next major milestone is topping 100 pounds lost. That should happen within the next month. I can't wait.

160 Calories

That is the number of excess calories that I had to eat per day to gain 124 pounds.

When I learned that a pound fat contains about 3,500 calories I realized I could calculate the number of calories per day I had to overeat to gain weight. I just needed two reference dates where I knew what my weight was.

On 5/25/1998 my weight was somewhere around 200 pounds. I know that because that is my third daughters birthday. The spring before she was born I lost about 60 pounds on the Atkins diet.

On 10/28/2005 my weight was 324 pounds. I know that because that is when I permanently changed my lifestyle and started losing weight again.

In 2,713 days I gained 124 pounds. That is just an average of course. Some times I gained weight faster. Some times my weight even stabilized for a period of time. And at the beginning of 2005 it even dropped a few pounds. But that doesn't matter. The simple fact is that over a period of 2,713 days I became 124 heavier.

I gained 0.0457 pound per day. That is just 20.7 grams. To put that in perspective, a AA battery weighs 25 grams.

Now I know how many pounds per day I gained. Since I know how many calories are in a pound of fat I can calculate the number of excess calories I ate per day to gain 124 pounds.

A single serving, or 1/2 cup, of vanilla ice cream contains about 150 calories. When I realized that I only had to reduce the number of calories I was eating by 1 small bowl of ice cream per day I knew I'd never be fat again.

rangerpretzel talks about how he has lost 20 pounds since December of 2005. He has consistently lost about 1 pound per week.

People have asked me:

• How do you do it?
• How is it so easy?
• Why haven't you gained it back?
• How can I do it?

You probably already know everything that rangerpretzel talks about in his post. But that doesn't make it any less valuable. Sometimes you have to see someone you know achieve something before you believe it is possible for you.

When your weight loss starts to become noticeable you'll be amazed by the number of people who come to you for advice. When that happens you should do what rangerpretzel is doing and share what you've learned. Chances are they've already heard what you are going to tell them. But who knows, maybe this time they'll give it an honest effort. And when that happens it is an amazing feeling. It is great to know that you've inspired someone to make a positive change in their life. Nothing motivates me more than knowing that my success is helping others achieve their goals. It is a lot of pressure. But it is a good kind of pressure.

Here are the top 10 fastest losers right now when you sort the list by the 30 Day Weight Change column. This is great. I'd love to hear what you guys are up to on the forums. I'm sure others would love to hear too. No pressure though

The entire public list is amazing. I'm really glad I added this feature. For example, right now the average 1 Week Weight Change is 1.25 pounds. That is about exactly what all the experts say you should reasonably expect to lose per week.

Playing with the list does make want to add a bunch of new features though. I need to include Height, Calorie Deficit, and BMI. I also need to add a summary row so you can see the averages for each column. There is always more work to do

The Traveler's Diet

...

Greenberg's final answers are not the best sales pitch in the world:

Q:Will this diet ever end?
A: If I told you I love this diet, I'd be lying. I don't love this diet, and I'm not a gym rat. But it's a discipline. I can't let it drop.

Q:Do you ever miss the days of flopping on a hotel bed with a Snickers from the minibar?
A: I miss every single day.

I can't imagine you could ever succeed following a lifestyle you don't enjoy.

I enjoyed overeating. And I enjoyed sitting on the couch watching TV. Or sitting in front of the computer working through the night. I used to enjoy smoking too before I quit in 2001.

But I also enjoy never being hungry. I love having the energy to work all day and then go home and play soccer with my kids for an hour and still work in front of the computer until midnight. I love biking and swimming and hiking. I can't wait to live somewhere that will let me add kayaking and mountain climbing and swimming in the ocean to that list.

Life is too short to be miserable. You don't have to trade happiness in your diet to be happy with the way you look and feel. Eat the foods you love, but in moderation. Don't do exercise that bores you to tears. Find fun activities that also happen to burn calories and improve your fitness.

Life isn't a zero sum game. You can have your cake and eat it too. The sooner you find a way to spread the joy you receive from overeating to other parts of you life, the sooner you'll find your new happy, healthy, lifestyle.

Zippygirl is looking for examples of Hacker's Diet success stories. I think the PhysicsDiet.com public profiles page is a great start.

That page only include active users that have chose to make their PhysicsDiet.com profiles public. Users are considered active if they have logged an entry in their Fitness Log within the last 7 days.

Holly (hja) started tracking her average weight in 2001. She recently started tracking it on PhysicsDiet.com, and her public profile is a great source of inspiration.

My profile is currently at the top of the Biggest Losers list. I expect this is only a temporary phenomenon. I want to lose about 30 more ponds and then I'll transition to maintenance mode. That will put me down a total of 120 pounds. Eventually I expect others with public profiles will lose more than that.

quipark and polar are off to great starts. They've both lost almost 38 pounds so far.

Nolan (kwirq) is also doing well. He hasn't recorded any entries this week though, so I hope things are going ok for him.

ttgf is doing great too. And his blog is one of my favorite health and fitness blogs.

quotidianlight just started tracking her weight on PhysicsDiet.com. So far she is off to a great start. I look forward to tracking her progress both through her public profile and on her blog.

So far there 37 public profiles on PhysicsDiet.com. They all inspire me. I hope that list continues to grow. I look forward to seeing all of them reach their goals and maintain a healthy lifestyle for years to come.

TTGF has a great post about why he weighs himself in the morning. This was my favorite though:

It motivates me to exercise in the mornings. If I go out for a run before weighing myself, I know from experience that I’ll lose maybe a half to one kilogram (1-2 pounds) from sweating. Some might call it cheating since you’ll put that weight back on as soon as you have a drink, but if it motivates you to exercise so that you can clock up a slightly better score, it can’t be all bad! I find this motivation is especially powerful if I gained weight on the last weigh-in.

This is genius. If you struggle to stick to a consistent exercise routine this might just be the perfect mind hack for you. Personally I prefer to exercise in the morning. But lately I have been staying up too late working on the site and I'm struggling to stick to my exercise routine. I might have to give this strategy a try.

I've always wanted to do a triathlon. More specifically, I've always wanted to do a full Ironman triathlon. I started thinking about triathlons again this winter when I started exercising.

I've wanted to start cycling for a few years now. Last year I went as far as buying a used bike from a friend of mine. I bought it long before I started losing weight. But I knew I'd eventually get on a diet and lose weight, and I wanted a bike so I'd be ready when the time came. That wasn't the smartest thing I've done. It just proves that I shouldn't make financial decisions when I've been drinking .

I've never been a very good swimmer, but I've always loved swimming. I used to stay in the pool for hours. And I still do any time I get the chance.

But I've never liked running. I've always associated running with pain. I was never patient enough. Every time I'd start running I'd try to go out and run a full mile on the first day. Predictably I wouldn't be able to run a full mile. Even if I got close, I'd be sore for days. I believed that I just wasn't meant to be a runner. I now know that it takes much longer for the body to adjust to new exercise routines. I know it may take me a month or more to build up a base level of fitness before I'll be able to run a full mile. I know that rest is a critical part of the training process. I know how to treat the aches and pains that come with any new exercise routine.

After years of thinking about it, I am now preparing for my first triathlon. Of course my first triathlon won't be a full Ironman length race (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, 26.2 mile run). I will start with a sprint distance triathlon. Sprint triathlons vary, but they are usually about a 500 meter swim, a 15 mile bike ride, and 3 mile run.

Unfortunately there are a lot of triathlons in this part of the country. There are a couple of sprint distance races coming up in Iowa in May and June. But they are all on the other side of the state. That would make travel and lodging a pain.

There is a sprint distance triathlon in Columbia, MO in July. My in-laws live near Columbia so that solves the travel and lodging problems. The registration deadline is July 1st so I have plenty of time to evaluate my progress and decide if I'll be able to complete the training and race without causing myself any injuries.

That settles it, my goal is to train for, and complete, my first sprint distance triathlon on July 23, 2006 in Columbia, Mo. This triathlon is part of the 2006 Show-Me State Games. The race is a 1/2 mile swim, a 19 mile bike, and a 5k run. Here are the details.

If you have any advice please share it in the forums.

One of our PhysicsDiet.com users - ttgf - has a blog called Time To Get Fit. You can read his introduction here in the forums.

His blog has a lot of great information. You can also follow his diet and exercise progress. Check it out.

I felt much better after my 10am meal and drinking a diet coke. I think I was just tired this morning.

I had a great lower body workout tonight. This seems to be the week I'm getting my weights and exercise form dialed in.

I have especially struggled to get my form and weight right on leg curls. At first I was using too much weight and I was cheating way too much. Then I was too far up on the bench and I wasn't able to really isolate my hamstrings. Tonight everything fell in to place and I'm really feeling it.

I can't wait to do my cardio workout first thing in the morning.

Last night my wife and I went shopping. We stayed out longer than I expected so I missed my 5-6pm meal. At about 7pm we stopped at a coffee shop. I had a 12oz sugar free latte with skim milk. I'm not sure how much milk it had but I'll assume it was about a cup which I now know is about 80 calories. But I couldn't remember that last night

Before we left the mall I almost bought a Cliff bar at the sporting goods store. I could tell that my blood sugar was low but since I wasn't sure how many calories the coffee had I decided to wait until we got home to eat.

I used to drink Diet Coke as my primary beverage from the time I got up to the time I went to bed. Last week I cut way back and started drinking more water. I went to bed around 11:30pm. But then I woke up at about 1:30am. Drinking coffee that late was probably a mistake too. I finally fell back to sleep around 3:30am so I got about 3 more hours of sleep.

This morning I felt like crap. I ate my breakfast about 2 hours ago and I feel a little better. But I still feel drained. I'm drinking a diet coke now and I plan to eat a few more calories than usual for lunch.

Tonight is my lower body workout. I'm going to see how I feel during and after my workout. If I run out of energy I may have to increase my daily calorie intake to 1600 calories per day.

For the past month or so I felt better than I have in years. One thing is for sure, I won't feel like crap every day just to double my rate of fat loss.

Since my eating choices have been rather ‘nonproductive’ the past three days, I decided that it would be helpful to stop obsessing about that, and start thinking about the good things I’m doing for myself and create a positive framework for my journey. [Skinny Daily Post]

It's true, no matter what behavior you are trying to change. Focus on the negative and you will always be able to justify returning to your old behavior.

If you are trying to stop smoking you have two choice. You can obsess about how much you miss smoking, or you can focus on how happy you are that you finally quit.

Want to stop overeating? Don't focus on how much you wish you could eat more. Or how much you miss your favorite foods. Focus on how good it feels not to be stuffed all the time. And how good it feels to have more control of your life. Or whatever it is about not overeating that turns you on.

For me it was easy to quit smoking. It was fairly easy to quit overeating. But starting an exercise routine was a different story.

Last spring I wanted to start weight lifting. I decided I would workout from 6am to 7am every morning. At first it was almost impossible to get out of bed and go down to the basement to workout. I'd had this experience every other time I ever tried to start an exercise routine, so I wasn't surprised.

I started to pay attention to what I was thinking about in the morning right after I woke up. I noticed that I woke up dreading my workout. I'd think about how sore I was going to be the next day. Or how tired I was going to be right after the workout. I would lay in bed forever just full of dread. And for the first two weeks about half the time I would talk myself out of my workout.

A few months before that I'd listened to a bunch of self-help audio books from Audible. I decided to apply some the tips that I'd heard. Every night before I went to bed I'd think about how much was looking forward to my workout. I thought about all the reasons I wanted to workout in the first place. I focused on the things I liked about working out, like the endorphin rush, the feeling of blood rushing through my veins, the extra energy I'd have all through the morning even if I was tired. I didn't make anything up. I truly enjoyed these aspects of exercise. I decided I would focus on the positive and see if it made a difference.

Sure enough. I started waking up excited about my workout. I'd pop out of bed and throw my clothes on. I'd bounce down to the basement and do my workout. I even got to the point where I missed my workout on the weekend. Sometimes I'd even throw in a workout on Saturday or Sunday because I just could wait until Monday to feel the rush.

Here are two self-help books that I highly recommend:

In fact, I think it is time for me to re-listen to both those books. There are still a lot of areas in my life that I tend to focus on the negative first. I know because my wife reminds me at least once a week