Well, my halfhearted attempt at a food blog died. So, since I paid for a year of Squarespace hosting, I might as well use it for something else.
Ironically, I'm going to use the blog to track my first attempt ever at something like dieting. Not working out + not eating real well + 2-3 craft beers at night eventually leads to weight gain, I have found.
I have known for a while I had to do something. I am fan of the Nerdist podcast. It is a comedy & geek culture podcast hosted by Chris Hardwick, Jonah Ray & Matt Mira. I listened to an episode they posted a few weeks ago with Tim Ferriss. He wrote "The Four Hour Work Week" and his second book "The Four Hour Body" was published last summer. The hosts all spoke very positively about their experiences with the diet. I figured that if one of the hosts has lost over 40 lbs on it, I can probably drop 20.
I bought the Kindle version of the book and read most of it in two days. It's called a "slow carb" diet. In simple terms, the diet's main rule is don't eat white foods. Bread, potatoes and rice are all out. Instead, the idea is to eat lots of protein and non-starchy vegetables.
I foresee many Chipotle burrito bowls for lunch. The hardest thing for me is going to not drink beer, since it is basically bread + alcohol. Alcohol isn't banned by the diet, so we will be finally making a dent in our wine collection. It is going to be very weird not drinking at a Cubs game.
The diet seems like something I can do. I can dump the non-beer carbs easily and if it works I can cut out the beer as well. The other very important part of the diet is the cheat day. One day a week you are supposed to go nuts and eat whatever you want, and in my case, drink a few beers.
I have spent the past week doing a bad foods greatest hits tour. Lots of beer, burgers with fries and pizza. Tomorrow is the beginning of the diet.
I'm probably going to fall off the wagon for a week when we go to San Francisco & Sonoma in mid-May, because there is no way I'm not going to the Russian River Brewpub & the Lagunitas brewery.
As of this morning, I weigh 181.8 pounds. I'd like to be under 170 by the end of May.