Fat Enders

[Elgarian]

Okay, Elgarian, at last I have tried it!  I mixed it up according to directions, light cream cheese, sweetener, and whiskey (Kentucky sour mash). I'm calling it Salieri's Sweet and Sour-Mash Dip and I'm going to serve it with fresh fruit tomorrow.  I expect it to be a smashing success!

I can't think of a better name for it. My wife tried a variant on it, made with honey instead of sweetener, and of course it was fabulous (I sampled a spoonful) - but no use for our purposes, because the whole point is to keep the calories and fat down to an absolute minimum - and the honey probably doubles the calories at a stroke.  

Unfortunately, my exercise plan has been temporarily derailed by a cold/cough/flu/whatever that I've had for the past week.  I finally went to the doctor yesterday, who gave me prescription cough medicine (oh yea, the good stuff!), and told me to stay home for the remainder of the week and rest.  I hope to be able to run again next week, but at the moment there's no point in trying--anything requiring a deep breath brings on a coughing fit.  Sigh.  Even though I haven't had much appetite since I've been sick, I can feel pounds and flab creeping back on!

Oh bad luck! You've every right to feel sorry for yourself. After working at the exercise so hard, it's horrible to have your routine interrupted by a cold, knowing it's taking you a few steps backwards. What you can still do, of course - is walk. If you feel well enough to do one or two gentle walks each day, you won't do yourself any harm (it's the elevated pulse rate that makes running inadvisable when you have a virus infection), but merely by walking you'll still burn off some calories and help to keep your metabolic rate high while the cold is upon you.

[secondwind]

Good idea.  I'll try some walks for a few days before trying the run again. 

[Elgarian]

I decided to get seriously mathematical (having found a useful free graph-plotting utility called, curiously enough, 'Graph'). I've taken the last 56 days of recording my weight, and calculated a series of 5-day running means, and then I've plotted those on the graph. The weight is relative to 14 stone, so below the x-axis is 13st-something. The optimistic target is 13, but if I get to 13st 8 I'll be well pleased.

Anyway, what's clear from the graph is that even a 5 day running mean has a lot of scatter in it, so it's not surprising there were times when I got discouraged because I seemed to be getting nowhere (look at the scatter on the points in the two weeks between day 25 and day 40 for instance). But the overall average trend (the best-fitting straight line) shows a loss of one pound every 10 days. So something really is happening, and the 'gorge yourself on melon, oranges and plums' technique seems to be working.

[secondwind]

Congratulations!  I must buy more melon!

[secondwind]

Hello, long lost Fat Ender friends!

I thought I'd check in to see how everyone else is doing.  By now,  if the trend in the graph continued, I expect Elgarian has wasted away to mere skin and bones.  How about everyone else?

I am here in the Florida heat visiting my mother.  Still working to re-establish the running routine that was interrupted when I got sick in October.  Although I'm not up to the total time/distance I was running in September, at least I'm running again! 

[MN Dave]

I have totally lost control of my weight. 

[Bogey]

I have totally lost control of my weight. 

Here is an anology of my dieting:

[secondwind]

Here is an anology of my dieting:

Ouch, looks painful!  Here's a tip--when I sense a diet nose-dive about to happen, I always aim for a New York cheesecake or a big tub of tiramisu--softer landing that way!

[Elgarian]

By now,  if the trend in the graph continued, I expect Elgarian has wasted away to mere skin and bones.

Alas, no - here's the sad story:



We went away for a week (you can see the 7-day gap) when I relaxed my efforts, and look at the consequences! Since then I'm going nowhere. Still trying, still being sensible most of the time, still exercising thoroughly, but unable to resist the odd biscuit here, the odd pudding there, and this is the result.

[snyprrr]

What happened to MNDave? Did he succeed? The avatar's changed.

[MN Dave]

I have totally lost control of my weight. 

[Harpo]

I have totally lost control of my weight. 

Not me. I am rigorously following my diet and exercise plan and losing lots of weight.

[Elgarian]

I have totally lost control of my weight.

You think you have a problem? I asked my graph-plotting program to fit a quadratic to my measurements of weight and this is what it came up with:



According to the mathematical extrapolation, if I keep going the way I am, for another 100 days of trying really quite hard, I'll put on 25 pounds!

[Novi]

You think you have a problem? I asked my graph-plotting program to fit a quadratic to my measurements of weight and this is what it came up with:



According to the mathematical extrapolation, if I keep going the way I am, for another 100 days of trying really quite hard, I'll put on 25 pounds!

Don't worry, you're not a parabola.

[Diletante]

Elgarian, you crack me up.

Anyway, my weight is out of control! I'm in my worst shape since high school. But, that's what New Year's resolutions are for, right?  0:)

[karlhenning]

Holding fairly steady.

[secondwind]

You think you have a problem? I asked my graph-plotting program to fit a quadratic to my measurements of weight and this is what it came up with:



According to the mathematical extrapolation, if I keep going the way I am, for another 100 days of trying really quite hard, I'll put on 25 pounds!

Well, I haven't graphed my numbers, but I'm afraid the news would be about the same.  So I'll just have to try harder.  It is a bit depressing how quickly the progress can be lost. . .

[MN Dave]

It's soooooo HARD. 

[Elgarian]

It's soooooo HARD. 

Don't forget, there's always the Amadeus Special Super Nectar.

[MN Dave]

I haven't made any yet.