Varmint Exposed!

[torakris]

Varmint

nice to know there is someone with me in the peanut sized bladder club!

When I was a senior in high school my friend and I went to Oahu for spring break and when we got off the plane in Cleveland after getting back her mom asked what we saw in Hawaii and my friend replied, "every bathroom on the island, twice!"

You think it is bad now you should try getting pregnant, you don't even have time to get to bathroom when that 7 pounder is doing somersaults in there!

[Varmint]

you should try getting pregnant

You know, every time I tried to do that, it was that darned Mrs. Varmint who got the baby. Just not fair!!

Tonight we had 2 L'il Varmints in soccer plus Mrs. Varmint is off to lead her soccer team, too, so there was pizza waiting for me. Egad! What do I do??? I ate two slices of pepperoni, rather than my usual 4 or 5. Of course, I'm now making a maple banana buttermilk ice cream (more of an ice milk). I'll just have a small scoop, of course!

[reverendtmac]

Good luck, man - sounds like you're gonna do it up right. Hopefully I can lose a few along with ya - went from a 160lb Vale Tudo machine to 180 thanks to grad school. Finally got 'er scaled back to 165, but now I need to retone...and maybe quit reading the Dinner thread...and purge my memory of where I found the best pint of Guinness *ever* here in town :) Actually, She Who Must Be Obeyed wants to lose some too, so that'll give me an excuse to do more cardio and play more golf (nothing like a five hour walk with 30lbs of stuff on your back!)

[lamb]

Do you plan on an exercise program?

I would love to lose weight w/o sweating. I'm trying to cut out breads, rice and pasta. Like I've said, just want to lose about 10 lbs. Can't just seem to w/o cutting out the wine a dinner. Damn.

Have a treadmill that I hang my clothes on. My hubby uses it and throws my clothes on the floor.

Good luck to you Varmint!

[Marlene]

Been there, done that, my friend! Water. You need to drink LOTS of water. Trust me.

[maggiethecat]

Repeat:

Eat anything you want. Just half the portion size...as you did with the pizza.

And watch the water: Drink when you're thirsty. Pushing water can be bad.

[Fritz Brenner]

Woah, many of you are so motivated, esp. Mr. Varmint... go, man, go! I almost feel guilty reading this post.... but happy for you and confident that you'll be successful.

**Fritz

[Marlene]

Repeat:

Eat anything you want.  Just half the portion size...as you did with the pizza.

And watch the water: Drink when you're thirsty.  Pushing water can be bad.

No Maggie, water is good. Repeat, water is my friend, water is my friend.

[nerissa]

Repeat:

Eat anything you want.  Just half the portion size...as you did with the pizza.

And watch the water: Drink when you're thirsty.  Pushing water can be bad.

No Maggie, water is good. Repeat, water is my friend, water is my friend.

Whoa. This may be the first time I disagree with the Maggie.

Half the time when you think you are hungry, you are actually dehydrated. I would watch the sodas, and juices (some juices are better than others).

Varmint, I hope you are not already tiring of more dieter's dogma... though I shudder at the word "dieter."

[Aurora]

Mrs. Varmint?? Nah, she's a jock who still plays soccer twice a week, runs the other days, chases the L'il Varmints around the house, and manages to practice medicine 20 hours a week.  Of course, she'll usually be eating what I'm eating, so there will be some side effects because she can't cook.

So Mrs. Varmint can't cook? It just goes to show you, we all have our weaknesses.

Much applause to you for doing this, Varmint.

The benefits of basketball once a month is getting wiped out by take out Chinese and Mexican once a week. Reverse those.

Drink water. It will keep you hydrated (and flushed out). Water good.

Don't forget to eat breakfast everymorning, it's great for the metabolism, especially if you are trying to reduce.

This advice is loving given from a woman who was frequently mistaken for pregnant for far too long after her twins were born.

[maggiethecat]

Have a nice big glass of water...when you're thirsty!

Repeat:

Eat anything you want.  Just half the portion size...as you did with the pizza.

And watch the water: Drink when you're thirsty.  Pushing water can be bad.

No Maggie, water is good. Repeat, water is my friend, water is my friend.

Whoa. This may be the first time I disagree with the Maggie.

Half the time when you think you are hungry, you are actually dehydrated. I would watch the sodas, and juices (some juices are better than others).

Varmint, I hope you are not already tiring of more dieter's dogma... though I shudder at the word "dieter."

Of course, keeping hydrated is very important. But there is new thinking about deliberately, massively increasing water intake...if it were not so damn late I'd find the NY TImes article. You must have adequate fluid intake, yes. Too much makes kidneys and such overwork and actually flushes out nutrition you need.

[Varmint]

Water, water, water, and all of it to drink.

I'm going to keep up the water routine for awhile. It makes my stomach grumble incessantly, though. Almost a gurgling sound, as if it were boiling down there. Strange, very strange. I can't do much more than 7 pints a day, however, which is plenty.

I only had three spoonfuls of my funky maple banana buttermilk ice cream last night. Interesting flavor -- tart, somewhat earthy, just a trace of banana and maple. Not very sweet at all. It'd go well with some fresh strawberries, that I'll pick up at the farmers market today.

I had a bowl of raisin bran for breakfast with skim milk. Many of you despise skim milk, but I converted many years ago. Of course, I always use heavy, heavy cream in my coffee, so it's a wash!

ANNOUNCEMENT

First weigh-in will be on Friday. I'll probably post my weight on Fridays. Anyone want to start a pool on the results???? Oops, sorry, this weight-loss program is not a competition. No wagering permitted!

[Varmint]

Announcement: I just ate a Hershey's Kiss.

OK, big deal, you'll say. Well, I always recognized that Hershey's chocolate was not very good, but I still enjoyed eating a Kiss every now and then. Today, however, I ate it and it tasted like chocolate flavored wax. It was absolutely disgusting. Is this the strep throat, the mass quantities of water, or just overall food deprivation? Or did Hershey's change their chocolate? Is my palate actually improving? If so, maybe I should start on a career to replace Robert Parker!? Very, very strange.

[tommy]

this is almost as riveting as reading about cabrales drowning a chicken in maggi sauce.

[Varmint]

Well you wanted riveting, so here you go:

I ate real food today!

Yeah, aren't y'all excited you started reading this silly thread in the first place. This puts the Enquirer to shame.

My throat is healing slowly, although I still sound like a male version of Brenda Vaccaro. Wait, she sounded like a male version of herself.

Anyhow, I had a greek salad with grilled chicken for lunch with a fine vintage of Diet Coke. I didn't touch the pita bread that went with it. I did happily scarf down the olives, of course.

For dinner, I cooked for Mrs. Varmint and me. We had semolina crusted catfish with a black bean, lime and tomatillo salsa. I served this with sliced heirloom tomatoes and sauteed spinach and arugula. For dessert, I had a small scoop of my maple buttermilk ice cream served with strawberries and 12 year balsamico. Mrs. Varmint had 3 scoops, and according to tradition, she literally licked the bowl clean. It was nice to eat a good meal again.

It certainly could have been a healthier dinner, but I stayed away from the major starches (no bread, rice, or potatoes). I ate smaller than usual portions. I drank water rather than wine or beer (although I'm still on antibiotics, so I'll stay off alcohol for a while longer). Plus, I felt content. It was a good day.

I'm a couple of days away from being able to resume my exercise routine, as I'm still hacking up lovely stuff that one would never think of describing. I'm looking forward to getting some aerobic exercise.

Until tomorrow . . . .

[davidthomas8779]

OK, to make it perfectly clear, the guy with the beard, bushy hair, and Mariners cap is vengroff.  I'm the guy getting ready to take another bite out of the Boog Powell barbecue sandwich (and a mediocre one at that).

One key to me for any dietary modification I do is to stop eating stuff that doesn't taste good (note that bad for you food that tastes good is still ok). There isn't really an excuse for eating more than 2 bites of a mediocre barbeque sandwich. As my good friend Steve has said to me "It's not like you're going to drop dead of emaciation if you put that in the trash". Further, I try to eat fairly slowly so that my brain registers when I full and I don't just shovel in more food.

I'm 31 and am currently about 200 pounds, down from 230 last May. I've got another 20 lbs to go before I'll be as healthy as I want and if I get serious again about not eating food that doesn't taste good, I'll do fine.

[Xanthippe]

One key to me for any dietary modification I do is to stop eating stuff that doesn't taste good (note that bad for you food that tastes good is still ok).  There isn't really an excuse for eating more than 2 bites of a mediocre barbeque sandwich.  As my good friend Steve has said to me "It's not like you're going to drop dead of emaciation if you put that in the trash".  Further, I try to eat fairly slowly so that my brain registers when I full and I don't just shovel in more food.

I'm 31 and am currently about 200 pounds, down from 230 last May.  I've got another 20 lbs to go before I'll be as healthy as I want and if I get serious again about not eating food that doesn't taste good, I'll do fine.

My Socrates has done the same kind of modification to his eating plan; if it's mediocre, he won't consume it. Period. And this was a big deal for him initially, whereas now he's on auto-pilot. And also as davethomas8779 has mentioned, he very consciously eats more slowly these days and will stop when he's full -- even if it means leaving food on his plate. Another very big deal for him.

He sez it's all about making choices. "Do I really want to finish this stale donut," he'll ask himself, "or would I rather have a small slice of Xanthippe's ginger poundcake after dinner tonight?"

[Varmint]

OK, to make it perfectly clear, the guy with the beard, bushy hair, and Mariners cap is vengroff.  I'm the guy getting ready to take another bite out of the Boog Powell barbecue sandwich (and a mediocre one at that).

One key to me for any dietary modification I do is to stop eating stuff that doesn't taste good (note that bad for you food that tastes good is still ok). There isn't really an excuse for eating more than 2 bites of a mediocre barbeque sandwich. As my good friend Steve has said to me "It's not like you're going to drop dead of emaciation if you put that in the trash". Further, I try to eat fairly slowly so that my brain registers when I full and I don't just shovel in more food.

I'm 31 and am currently about 200 pounds, down from 230 last May. I've got another 20 lbs to go before I'll be as healthy as I want and if I get serious again about not eating food that doesn't taste good, I'll do fine.

I think that's very sound advice, David. I will have to settle for mediocrity more often than I'd like, simply because of the constraints of my schedule, but when I have a choice, I'll settle for nothing over mediocre.

Breakfast: Two pieces of whole grain toast with a small smear of Maple View Dairy butter (too small ). Actually, it was just fine.

[EJRothman]

When I initially decided to lose weight, I started by running/walking on a treadmill three times a week and cutting out all sweets. Anything else was fair game. Since I'd take real food over dessert any day, this worked quite well.

Although I have since make further changes to diet and excersize as I have leaned more about health and nutrition, this was a good initial start.

-Eric

[maggiethecat]

One key to me for any dietary modification I do is to stop eating stuff that doesn't taste good (note that bad for you food that tastes good is still ok).

That's it, and brilliantly put.

[Varmint]

Lunch today was a single slice of left-over pizza, some good sopprasetta and cacciocavallo (sp?), and 3 sticks of celery. It's nice to have only a 4 minute commute, as eating lunch at home is easy.

I also had 2 gumballs this afternoon. Did you know that the 1 inch Dubble Bubble gumballs have 39 calories each?? I do now. Damn.

I sound less like Brenda Vaccarro today and more like Harvey Fierstein. It's a slow improvement.

WEIGH-IN TOMORROW!!

[Zeb A]

a shade under 6 feet tall in my socks

must be mighty thick socks

[Zeb A]

You should try my diet.

Monday-Thursday: no breakfast, turkey sandwich at Subway (I don't even have to speak, they know me that well) + apple for lunch, turkey sandwich for dinner with cottage cheese and juice, 2 liters diet coke throughout the day.

Friday: same lunch as Monday through Thursday, eat and drink whatever you want that evening

Saturday: no restrictions

Sunday: sometimes treat it like Saturday, other times like Monday

Repeat each week until death.

Exercise is a bonus, but not necessary for weight control. (Is necessary for weight loss)

Take 2 weeks vacation and don't worry about what you eat.

Eat whatever you want over Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday.

Certainly this diet doesn't work for everyone, but it has successfully kept me at a reasonable weight with no weight gain. Of course, some might find the week-day regimentation a bit disconcerting.

[LEdlund]

Of course, some might find the week-day regimentation a bit disconcerting.

Not Jared

[Schielke]

Do you ever opt for the Roast Beef?

Ben