Week 6: End of Phase 1, and I Suck at Soccer

Lots to talk about this week.  First off, I weighed in at 164 lbs today.  This means my DCV is 1882 Cal and my BMI is 24.2.  This is excellent news.  It means that I've successfully completed phase 1 of my fitness goals:  Get my weight down.  

Phase 2, is where I increase my range of motion/flexibility, and add weight-lifting to my workout.  This may result in my weight going back up, but it will be built on a better cardiovascular base and a much more disciplined diet.

Speaking of diets, now that phase 1 is complete, I'm technically done with the diet.  This doesn't mean a green light for junk food, but it does mean I'm going to allow a greater tolerance for my caloric totals.  I may decide to stop tracking the composition of my diet in the next few weeks.  This has been the hardest part in my opinion.  Getting accurate information on food items can be really hard.  Even more hard when I'm eating many vegan recipes from the web.  I've often used the non-vegan numbers when I couldn't find nutritional data on the vegan version as to be conservative with my numbers.

Last week was kind of a bummer.  I was honestly not motivated at all to do this blog.  I was back-logged on recording my numbers and honestly wasn't caring.  It was only over the weekend that I was talking to the motivational speaker and pop-locker extraordinaire, Otis Funkmeyer, that I found the motivation to continue. He said he was impressed at what I had done so far, and made an analogy I thought was worth sharing.  He said that no business enterprise is successful without good accounting.  I thought about my success so far, and in my fitness and wellness enterprise, I had to admit, it was my nutritional and exercise accounting that had made me successful.  It's not time to quit.  I may keep new metrics for phase 2, but I will still keep the numbers coming.\

I thought I'd give you some new graphs this week.  The old graphs are great, but it's the same thing every week.  The first two, examine the relationship of how I spend my time in relation to what type of day I'm on in my schedule.  

click to notice the the images are already large

The first thing I notice is that, on average, I'm actually pretty much the same on days and mids.  I only exercise and sleep a little more on days.  The second thing I notice is that I'm using my days off in a good way.  As for consistency, well... the standard of deviation for how long I sleep is about 2:21.  I'm kind of all over the place.   It's interesting to me that even though I get a little more sleep during days, I'm way more consistent on mids.

click to view battle damage

I thought I'd offer some data to inspect my previous claim about my attention to fiber being a great way to stay on top of things.  While there is some reason to believe a relationship is here, you can see that my data points are all over the place.  There appears to be a pretty natural break at around 2,000 Cal where my fiber level seems to vary with a large degree.

click to ole, ole, ole, ole, o-le, ooo-le!

Lastly, I'd like to show you how awful I am at soccer.  I shot 10 balls from three places on the field:  The left and right corners of the penalty box and the top of the penalty arc.  The ones I made in, I assure you would have been very easy to block.  It's time for the World Cup, so get excited.  I know I am.  I will post future attempts to best this terrible performance.

Week 5: Less Than Enthusiastic Post

Hey. Working in the middle of the night blows. I'm almost done though. Five more nights of work starting on Saturday. I think posting has been hurt due to this, so that sucks. I can report that things are still being recorded though.

I weighed in on Monday and I'm down again. I now weigh 168.1 lbs. This means my DCV is now 1902 Cal. My BMI is 24.8 which means that I'm officially no longer considered overweight! My clothes fit pretty loose and so I can sense that I'll need a new wardrobe soon.

Sleep is better during mids I think. It's that or I'm just getting better about doing it since I'm recording it. Necessity drives you. That's the interesting thing about recording your life. It's introspection on yourself in VERY literal terms. No ego to lie to you.

I had a few high calorie days recently, but I'm not too concerned. Crossing my DCV doesn't mean I gain weight. It means I lose less weight that if I was below it. I'm getting better at developing a sense for my numbers and I think come the day that I stop writing everything down, I'll be well equipped to live healthy and happy.

Week 4: Mega Metrics

I have 28 days worth of Data! This is a cause for celebration! I wanted to put something special down today because I've not been so good about posting this week. Tonight, I've brought you just about everything I was supposed to post, plus a little more. Things of note this week: good results and I took some time to make my graphs look polished. Also, observe the new blog banner.

click to go over the rainbow

This week we can see some interesting habits in my sleep. Note 5/11 through 5/14. This is while I was working my "mids" schedule. What I see here is that when I'm on mids, I'm much better about being consistent with my sleep schedule, and I'm actually getting more sleep than my daytime work schedule. Perhaps this is a sign of Shift Work Disorder. I'm not sure if I buy into SWD just yet. It seems like a ploy to sell pills for what is otherwise obvious: When you work through the night, you sleep at odd times.

Moving on to the Composition of my diet. I've been posting "young data" in the last two weeks, but I figured I'd show all my composition cars at once since today is 28 days worth of data.

click for professional teens

Protein is an area I do fairly well in. For a 2000 Cal diet, the daily value is 50 g of protein. The DV is calculated to a % of your calorie intake. I'm actually getting a good serving of protein. This I want to emphasize because you'll notice I meet my protein needs with no problem given the recent change to a pescetarian diet. Although I still eat fish, it is not a daily food for me. Most days, I eat zero animal products. It is a common misconception that vegan, vegetarian, or similar diets leave a person protein deficient. Even when I was still eating meat, my primary source of protein was from sources like black beans and lentils. On average I ingest 74.04 g of protein a day.

click fo- Wanna ride bikes!

Sugars I don't quite have mastery of. I vary quite a bit, but I don't have a terrible average intake. I haven't observed any real noticeable fluctuation in my energy levels, but I've also minimized my caffeine intake. Sugar shouldn't be feared, I need it for my brain to function well (Editor's note: Results may vary). In a given day my average sugar intake is 69.47 g.

click regularly

I can't prove it yet, but I'd say that my success thus far has largely been due to good fiber intake. For a 2000 Cal diet, the DV for fiber is 25 g. As I've stopped eating meats, the foods that have replaced them have all been higher in fiber. Fiber, along with drinking lots of water (approx 2000mL) every day make me feel good. On average, I intake 33.86 g of fiber. I'm extraordinary at being regular.

click if you like pasta

Carbohydrates are more erratic in my diet, but I'm almost always under the DV. The DV for a 2000 Cal diet is 300 g. I eat on average 221.07 g per day. I'm particularly proud of this considering my choice to become a pescetarian. The increase in vegetables has not shot my carbs through the roof. Suck it Atkins! I'm doing this with a balanced diet.

click avocado style

Fat is a something I go over on rather frequently. It's not something I worry about. Fat is quick energy, and is easy to burn. My workouts help use this energy quickly. If I'm monitoring my calorie intake, and I'm active, fat content is lesser an issue. The DV for fat for a 2000 Cal diet is 65 g. My average is 59.87 g per day.

click because you see pretty colors

I won't lie. I've had cheat days. any day where my calories are exactly my DCV are days in which I have decided in advance that I the day would be better if I went off duty tracking things. On these days, I don't punish myself on the numbers, so I just record the day's calories to equal the DCV. For my diet content, I use the average values from all data previous. If you're wondering what that recent really low day is, it's from me staying up an not sleeping after my mid shift so I could flip my schedule back. This added a weird half day in. I did not starve myself.

click lightly

Today was my weigh-in. I woke up at my girlfriend's house and used her scale. It's the same model as mine. It read 170.6 lbs. I peed. It read 170.2 lbs. I didn't believe my eyes. It seemed like too much. I figured the scale was calibrated a little differently than mine. I decided to redo when I got home. By time I had got back I had drank some water. Despite this I ended up weighing in at 169.8 lbs. I didn't know what wizardry was afoot, but I thought that perhaps the scale wasn't level and I moved it. Upon the second attempt I weighed-in at 169.2 lbs.

I decided to write in 170.0 lbs for this week. This means that my new DCV is 1912 Cal, and my BMI is now 25.1. In terms of BMI, for my height and gender, a value of <> is normal weight. My goal is still 165 lbs. This means I'm close to completing the first phase of my wellness and fitness goals, but we'll talk about what changes when that days comes.

So what happened this week? No loss last week and then a loss of over 5 lbs this week? I speculate that last week's weigh-in might have been when I was water-heavy. I think it would make more sense and explain both weeks. 3 lbs in a week is normal at my level of activity and diet, but 5 lbs is a bit crazy.

It's much more difficult for me to post this stuff during the week due to the mids schedule, but I'm sure it's better that I'm getting more sleep.

Workout Data

Tuesday: Aikido - 01:45

Wednesday: Interval training - 00:30

Thursday: Interval training - 00:30

Friday: Interval training - 00:30

Saturday: Interval training - 00:32 (two minute bump! w00t?)

Sunday: Hiking in Rock Creek Park - 03:30

Week 3 & Monday Weigh-In

click at own risk

Plenty to learn from this week: Results aren't always linear. A note first about this week's data. My numbers for Saturday are made up. I did this in advance because I knew that I'd go off diet that day for the wine party I was hosting. I used my DCV for my Calories, and the average nutritional values for my diet content. Other than giving myself a day off, I did fairly well on my numbers and did not go over. I did hop on the scale mid week to take a peek (kind of against the rules... heh), and noticed I had actually gone up in weight. Instead of letting myself feel let down, I simply kept to the plan.

click for delay enlightenment

By this morning I seemed to have returned to 175 lbs. This means that I'm down zero lbs this week and my DCV will remain at 1937 Cal for the next week. It's nothing to be upset about. I feel my body is more toned, and I think that I made other types of progress this week. Speaking of tone, I think I'm going to slowly add back in some strength training into my workout. My goal is not to be massive, I don't think that would look very flattering on my 5'9" stature, however in both aikido and break-dance I'll need some more strength for me to continue to develop.

Workout Data

Monday: Interval Training - 00:30
Tuesday: Aikido - 02:00
Wednesday: Interval Training - 00:30
Thursday: Aikido - 01:15
Saturday: Interval Training - 00:30
Sunday: Interval Training - 00:30

Week 2

click to see full size image

Data for the second week! This chart displays not only this week, but both weeks thus far. I think that the more data the better. It will be useful in finding trends in my behavior and help me optimize my process. The blue line is my Daily Caloric Value (DCV) calculated for me to lose weight. Each week I recalculate the value, so each week it will move down as I lose weight (because I'm not going to get any taller... perhaps...).

Some notes on this week. I went over my value on two days, but in the end, my weekly total (11,931.47 Cal)was lower than last week (12,035.50 Cal). I think this is worth noting. It can be a deflating (inflating? heh?) feeling to mis a daily goal, but it's good to remember to not get discouraged and refocus.

I'm becoming very conscious about how much work goes into this, but at the same time, I feel like this is a very positive growth for me. Tomorrow is my Monday weigh-in. I think it will go well. My goal for this next week is to try and stabilize my numbers some and try to learn and analyze my diet composition so I can start engineering a more perfect experience (because let's face it, I don' want to diet forever...).

Workout Data

Wednesday: Interval Training - 00:30

Thursday: Aikido - 01:30

Friday: Interval Training - 00:30

Saturday: Interval Training - 00:30 (tried to up my speed but it kicked my ass)

Week 1

click for full size image

So here is the data for the first week of my diet. The blue line represents the daily caloric value I have calculated for myself (1,972 Cal for a 5'9" male with moderate activity). The red line represents my recorded values for the week. This chart will be one that is posted on a weekly basis.

Some notes here. The weekend was erratic. This was largely due to me eating many new foods. I can't fully trust the numbers for either day (especially Sunday). I may end up going back and recalculating numbers to see if I was actually that low. I find that when I feel I don't know what (as in nutrition facts) I'm eating, I'm very "portion shy" to be on the safe side.

Last week I also had some good workouts. We'll see if the diet along with the week's activity produced any results! I'm feeling confident.

Workout Data

Monday: Interval training - 00:30

Tuesday: Aikido - 01:30

Thursday: Aikido - 01:15

Sunday: Yoga - 01:30