EngelFish.Net

For a while there I was a fan of *crossover* country music, and Mary Chapin Carpenter was one of my favorites. A standard on my iPod rotation had the line, “sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug.” Yesterday, I was the bug. I was fasting, which is normal for my Mondays, but it didn’t go well. I spent most of the day obsessing over food, which is unusual for me. By the time Samara and I were both home, I was tired, cranky, and had no energy. My “meh” attitude didn’t help perk her up either (she’d had a good, but long day herself), and contributed to a “quiet time please” mood in the house. I finished adding a couple of new treads to the staircase to Mom’s apartment, with only two minor power-tool related injuries, but it took everything I had to do so. Afterward, I was too worn out to enjoy even doggie-play-time.

I realized that the fast was not improving the quality of my day, so I bagged it and ate. That was a good decision. What I ended up eating was not. I am following the Dukan Diet, and I’m down twenty pounds so far. Similar to Atkins, it focuses on lean protein and considers carbs to be off limits. In addition to foods that were Dukan-friendly, I also ate two slices of thin crust pizza, an apple granola bar, and an entire box of sugar-free/fat-free pudding. With a belly full of food, and now feeling both sluggish *and* guilty, I opted to go to bed early.

Those decisions were both bad for my diet. I could beat myself up over the slip, or I can roll with it. I’m choosing the latter. I know that I’ll get more accomplished, and make more progress toward my goals, by remaining positive and focusing on what I can do right now. Worrying about the past just isn’t worth it. Going to sleep on a carb-filled tummy has an upside… I’m plenty peppy today! I have a three mile run, a yoga class, and a massage scheduled today, so I can put that pep to good use.

As Winston Churchill said, “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.” Yesterday I was the bug, but today I am the windshield.

For the last two years or so, I have semi-consistently done a liquid fast one day a week, consuming at least 3 quarts of liquid during the fast (diet soda, seltzer, water, coffee, and tea, but nothing with sugar). I started this habit as part of a weight-loss plan. My thinking was, and still is, that if I burn 2,000 to 3,000 calories a day (which I believe is reasonable if you exercise for 45 minutes daily) then by not eating one day a week I am positioning myself to either not gain (or to lose) almost a pound a week.

This assumes that I am eating a well balanced healthy diet the rest of the week, and that I don’t binge when I come off the fast. Some weeks I eat what I believe is a very healthy diet. Realistically, I eat too well on the weekends occasionally and I’m only breaking even for the week. Regardless, I have found that fasting is relatively easy for me. I don’t seem to get particularly hungry, and I only infrequently notice that my energy level drops at the very end of my fast day (which makes it that much easier for me to get to sleep, which is a nice side benefit).

I can’t speak to “clearer thinking” or “detoxification” that some folks claim to experience, but I can say that I do feel better when I follow this approach. It could be all in my mind (is psychosomatic the correct word here?), but it is nevertheless how I feel.

After doing some reading recently, I’ve found that our bodies take roughly 24 hours to use up the available glucose supply. After that period, our body begins pulling glycerol from our fat stores and breaking down muscle tissue to provide the necessary glucose for our brain and red blood cells. By the third day of a fast our body chemistry changes and we go into ketosis, which allows our body to burn/convert fat to provide the glucose for our brains. This process is, I believe, a cornerstone to the effectiveness of protein heavy diets like Atkins. This makes me wonder if I should try either extending my fast from one to two days weekly, or doing a three day fast once a month.

While I enjoy the weight-loss benefits of fasting, my primary interest is in how it affects my general energy level. My goal is to have the vim-and-vigor to work toward my goals every day, and I’m wondering if tweaking my current approach would be an improvement. I would be interested in hearing what you think, especially if you’ve tried anything like this yourself.

I have resumed working on my overall fitness, after a few months of being lazy. I’m using a combination of diet and exercise to meet my goals. There is running 4 days a week (T,T,S,S) and lifting in my gym 3 days a week (M,W,F). I am also using the Dukan Diet for my mealplan. My highest weight was 260 pounds, but I started this cycle at 230 pounds. Thus far, I’ve seen pretty good results in just two weeks (with a setback from a trip to my high school reunion). My goal is to get to 173 pounds, which is average for my height (5’10″) according to the BMI scale (I know it’s not perfect, but it gives me a goal to shoot for). In addition to tracking my weight, I’m also going to track my stomach, chest, thigh, and bicep/tricep measurements to gauge progress. I haven’t set fitness goals yet, so if you have any suggestions I would like to hear them. If I knew a way to consistently (and affordably) track my body-fat, I would. Until I find a solution to that, I’m using the jiggle test. If you stand naked in front of a mirror and bounce up and down, all the jiggly-bits should be things without muscle in them. Since peer pressure and public accountability help, if you know me and see me, ask how I’m doing. I promise not to mention my jiggly-bits.

I guess the biggest news since my last post is that we have a new puppy.  Our friends, Jen & Baron, rescued her from their next-door neighbors and gave her to us.  She was named Willa Mae, but we’re working on coming up with a less grandma-y name, with the front runners being Cara, Lily, and Tessie.  We’ll let you know what the final vote is.  She’s only a few weeks old, but she’s already bigger than Alex & Xavier were at the same age (appx 7 weeks), so she might end up being a big girl, although she looks like a black lab and I wouldn’t have expected it.  Her favorite pastimes, in addition to long walks on the beach and candle-light dinners, are chewing on anything she can fit in her mouth (noses and earlobes included) and sleeping.

Now for an update on my renewed running and fitness program.  It’s been over 10 days since I’ve done a damn thing, which isn’t good.  I did, however, get up and walk for 78 minutes this morning.  It felt good, and it was sorta nice to watch the world wake up.  I haven’t had that experience since running with Kim down on Hillsborough Street back when I was training for the NYC Marathon.  I’ll be keeping this up, if only for that great start to the day.

Photography-wise, things are slow.  I’m in the midst of prepping invoices, trying to design an album, returning calls for pro-bono projects, and putting together a shoot for the RSG Summer Project.  I did have one really interesting photo adventure this week though.  Saturday evening, just after walking in the door from a full day at the pool with Jen & Baron & Taryn, I got a call.  There was a wedding that night at the Duke Gardens (a 30-40 minute drive away), and they didn’t have a photographer.  The DJ was a friend of mine, and through Tommy, asked me to come shoot it.  I said I would, and asked what time it started.  He replied, “Right now”.  I told him it would be at least 45 minutes before I could be there and he told me they would wait for me.  Talk about pressure!  Skip to the end of the evening, and it was a beautiful wedding with a wonderful bride and groom.  Everyone had a great time, and I got some terrific pictures for them to remember it all by.  I was really glad I did it, and I was happy that I got the call at the last minute too.  I didn’t have to spend the weeks, days, and hours leading up to the event worrying and building anticipation.  I just showed up, shot, and had a great time!  If only all jobs could be this fun.

This has been quite a week.   There has been lots of work on the consulting front, and a couple of challenges/projects I’ve been working on have either been solved or are moving into the final phase.  I always like that.  I also had two gigs assisting a commercial shooter here in town.  There was a third gig lined up (it involved helicopters) but it was posponed due to the weather that day.

I’ve been walking/jogging, plus doing the situp and pushup stuff as well. Two of our friends had birthdays this week, so I had a drink with Gennie at Helios one day, and then dinner with Kendall at Lucky32 another.  Kendall‘s boyfriend, Tommy, gave her an amazingly awesome gift, which brought tears to her eyes.  We were all impressed.

We have had a bit of automobile drama as one of our cars needs about $600 in repairs, and another failed the state inspection and needs one engine repair and a set of new tires.  I’m working quite hard to keeping my mind calm and thinking clearly about the various projects I have and need to complete quickly.  I’m having a bit of success in that area, which bodes well for the future.  I’m also, as always, on the lookout for a realistic and implementable task/project management system to help me keep all these things under control and on focus.

Taryn & I had a nice bit of downtime last weekend too.   We drove up to Virginia Beach last weekend and visited with friends on Saturday and Sunday.  It was great to be away from home, although the dogs came with us, and not have to worry about all the stuff we normally do on the weekends.  We did a bit of visiting, spent some time on the beach, and were taken parasailing!  We both had a blast, and we’re looking forward to doing it again (with a waterproof camera next time too!).

Looking forward to this weekend, we’re going to be quite busy.  I’ve got buckets of work to do, as well as plans for yardwork, compost bin building, blog-twitter-flickr training for a friend, and hitting a few yardsales with T.  I don’t see much relaxing going on, but we *are* going to see DARK KNIGHT at the IMAX theatre Saturday night.  It is *so* going to rock.

Speaking of movies, go to the apple website and check out the HD trailer for THE WATCHMEN movie.  I cannot wait for it.

Bookswise, I just finished listening to the audiobook version of David Sedaris‘ “When You Are Engulfed in Flames” and I’m currently listening to Orson Scott Card‘s “Shadow of the Hegemon”.  Sedaris had me laughing out loud in my car, and getting strange looks from other drivers at intersections.  OSC, as always, is brilliant.  I’m working my way through his ENDER’S GAME series.  Excellent stuff.

IMAGE: This is Ian, a friend who works at my favorite coffeeshop, Helios.  He’s also a pretty talented photographer.  I was setting up my laptop so that I could shoot photos while tethered to it, which would allow me to see the images on my laptop screen (which is way larger and clearer than the camera’s LCD).  Ian swung by to visit with friends at the next table, and I shot him as he was checking out the test images coming up on my computer.