2011 New Year's Weight Loss Resolution Week 8: Down to 190

At this week's weigh-in I am finally down to my Super Bowl February 6 goal of 190 pounds.

The fat is noticeably melting from my gut zone.

The shrinkage has amped up due to amped up physical activity. As in the temperature has warmed up enough that I have been going for a long bout in the pool every morning.

I'm feeling rather good about being only 10 pounds away from my 180 pound ultimate goal.

Losing A Lot Of Weight To Get Ready For My Movie Nude Scene

In the photo that is Christian Bale in a movie called The Mechanic. I don't know why Bale's character in this movie, Trevor Reznik, had to be so thin.

To play this character Bale starved himself for 4 months, with a daily diet consisting of one cup of coffee and either an apple or a can of tuna, for a whopping daily calorie intake of around 275. Bale lost 62 pounds, shrinking to only 120 pounds.

I believe this movie part came after Christian Bale got himself all buffed for American Psycho.

After The Mechanic Christian Bale re-gained his lost weight and re-buffed himself.

And then Christian Bale put his body through this ridiculousness again for the part of  a crack addict named Dicky Eklund in a movie called The Fighter. This time Bale's extreme weight loss role has him being a likely Oscar nominee for Best Support Actor in the 2011 Academy Awards.

Matt Damon is another actor who lost a lot of weight for a movie role. Damon played a drug addicted soldier in a 1996 movie called Courage Under Fire. Damon lost 40 pounds in 100 days through diet and heavy duty exercise. Damon had to take medication for years due to the damage done to his adrenal gland.

And then you have the actresses who have starved themselves for a part.

Natalie Portman is also an Oscar contender this year for her role in Black Swan. She lost 20 pounds from her already skinny body to play a ballerina under a lot of pressure.

For her part in Dream Girls Beyonce shrunk 20 pounds by drinking nothing but lemon juice and maple syrup.

To play the role of Winnie Mandela, Jennifer Hudson shrunk 56 pounds from her plus-sized body. Jennifer continued shrinking after filming ended, eventually losing a total of 80 pounds. And I must say, Jennifer Hudson is looking good in her newly shrunk body.

For her part in Jennifer's Body, Megan Fox simply stopped eating til she dropped 10 pounds.

Some actors have gone the other direction for a movie. I remember Sylvester Stallone going from being a muscle man to a cop with a gut in a move the name of which I don't remember. Robert De Niro put on a lot of pounds playing boxer Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull, going from 145 to 215 pounds.

Matt Damon put on a lot of weight for his role in The Informant. I don't know if this damaged his adrenal glands.

I think it'd be a lot of fun to be a movie star. But, I really don't think I'd be so desperate to be on the big screen that I'd make myself either ultra-skinny or ultra-fat. I would probably make sure I was in really good shape, though, if the part called for a nude scene.

2011 New Year's Weight Loss Resolution Week 7: Down to 195

The goal had been to get to 190 by February 6, Super Bowl Sunday. I missed that goal by 7 pounds.

And then by last Saturday's weigh-in I'd added 5 more pounds, putting me back over 200 at 202.

I blamed this reversal of shrinking on the weather, because sub-zero temperatures, ice and snow kept me from my regular calorie burning activities.

I have now reversed my reversal and have shrunk to the new low of 195.

I believe the shrinkage has been due to the return of warm temperatures, temperatures so warm that the past 3 days I have been able to go swimming, in addition to strenuous hill hiking.

The shrinkage has been enough that I have gotten way closer to being able to get into the Yoga Reverse Plough position that I whined about recently regarding being shocked to find I could not manage this simple Yoga pose that had always, previously, been real easy for me.

We'll see next Saturday if I've managed to finally get to my Super Bowl Sunday goal of 190.

Does a Flab Tax Make Sense?

The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development published a report which raised concerns regarding the rising obesity rates in developing nations that are adopting the western lifestyle.

The report suggests these nations should amp up their efforts in fighting obesity by promoting healthier lifestyles, imposing stringent regulations on food labels, restricting food advertising and levying taxes and subsidies to improve diets.

Methinks what is a good idea for the developing nations is a good idea for the developed nations that have already adopted the western lifestyle that leads. all too often, to obesity.

Some have proposed a Flab Tax.

I have no idea how that would work. Levy a 10% surcharge on Twinkies?

A letter in a recent edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, it being a newspaper in one of the most obese states in one of the developed nations, Texas, brought suggested that flab be taxed....

Flab tax

Seems to me there's a better tax target than cigarettes, one that's quite deadly. The news agency AFP reports that more than half a billion men and women worldwide are clinically obese, according to joint research from Imperial College London, Harvard and the World Health Organization. Texas certainly has its share of the lard. I call on the Legislature to fast-track real "emergency" legislation. Expand "sin" taxes. Tax flab.

-- David House, North Richland Hills, Texas, United States

One area where I can see it might make sense to add a Flab Tax is flying. It does not seem fair, to me, that a person who weighs 600 pounds pays the same price to fly as a person who weighs 100 pounds. It takes a lot more fuel to fly 600 pounds than 100.

Maybe it makes sense to add a Flab Tax in restaurants on some menu items. Like a surcharge on French Fries.

What makes more sense is for people everywhere to learn to eat right and not get fat. Unless one wants to be fat and is happy being flabby. Taxing flab? Just sounds real complicated to me.

2011 New Year's Weight Loss Resolution Week 6: Back Over 200

My goal had been to get to 190 by Super Bowl Sunday. I only made it to 197.

It was a weather related woe which halted the shrinkage.

The weather related woe continued this week, with even more weight gain. I am no 12 pounds above my Super Bowl Goal.

Which is 22 pounds from my ultimate goal of 180.

This has been a rough week with record breaking low temperatures in the sub-zero range.

Only yesterday was I able to get in some hill hiking.

It was a very demoralizing week.

A week in which I learned my expanded gut zone now prohibits me from being able to easily do the Reverse Plough Yoga Position. Which is something that, previous to this week, has always been extremely easy for me.

Well, today it is supposed to get in the 60s. Tomorrow even warmer. So, I think I will get my shrinkage back on track after this 2 week debacle.

The Shocking Reversal of My Yoga Reverse Plough Position

My 2011 New Years Resolution to shrink back to 180 pounds has taken about a 2 week hit due to bad weather putting an end, for the most part, to outdoor calorie burning activity, like hiking.

Today I was hit with a shocker.

I can not do the Reverse Plough Yoga Position.

My gut gets in the way.

Confirming that this episode of weight gain has primarily centered on my center.

Two years ago wrapping a tape measure around my mid-section added up to 29 inches. I just measured my mid-section, post-lunch, to find it ballooned to 37 inches.

But, not being able to do the Reverse Plough. This is a shocking wake-up.

I first learned Yoga when I was in college. I got a Yoga book, learned the positions. And watched a Yoga Show on PBS. I forget the name of the PBS Yoga Show.

The first time I saw a photo of the Reverse Plough Position I thought that looks awful weird and difficult to do. I followed the instructions to slowly lift my legs off the floor and over my head. It was easy.

The Reverse Plough has always been easy for me.

Until today.

I was able to get my legs over my head, but getting them any further was a real strain. And then my ballooned gut stopped my legs from going any further.

Well. I am motivated now. This gut phenomenon has got to go. And go fast.

When I am once more able to successfully manage the Reverse Plough Yoga Position I'll take a picture of myself doing so. And blog it. I'm not going to take a picture of myself currently attempting the Reverse Plough Position. That is a picture I don't want to see.

Monday Morning Bloating From 3,400 Pizza Calories Consumed During the Super Bowl

Super Bowl Week was a disaster for ongoing attempt to shrink to 180 pounds.

The empty Pizza Box is evidence left from the disaster.

For almost 5 days I was Ice and Snowbound. I was finally able to get outside without slipping and sliding on Saturday.

5 days of sloth not only stopped my shrinkage, it reversed it, with a one pound weight gain on my weekly Saturday weigh-in.

And then came the Super Bowl.

I found myself eating Pizza. A Supreme Pizza from Wal-Mart of the take it home and bake it yourself sort.

Along with the Pizza I had Pomegranate Juice.

And then after the Pizza was all gone I had something called Hippie Chips, with Hippie Chips being Baked Potato Chips with Hemp & White Cheddar.

In other words I had a carbo loading calorie Pig Out yesterday.

I think the Nutrition Facts info is new on the Wal-Mart pizza box. I know I had not noticed it before. I think the take home and bake pizza has been re-classified as no longer a taxable food item, maybe, and now requires the Nutrition Facts.

Anyway, I was appalled this morning to read the Nutrition Facts to learn I'd consumed 3,400 Pizza Calories yesterday. Of those 1,360 calories were due to the 170 grams of Pizza Fat I ate. 1,280 calories came from 320 grams of Pizza Carbos. And there was the 600 calories coming from 150 grams of Pizza Protein.

I feel like a bloated fat pig this morning.

2011 New Year's Weight Loss Resolution Week 5: Gained a Pound

The Super Bowl is tomorrow. My weight goal for the Super Bowl was to be down to 190 on my way to the ultimate goal of 180.

I did not make it to 190 for this week's Saturday Weigh-In.

I seem to have gained a pound. It looked to me that the pointer stopped around the 197 pound mark today.

My excuse for gaining weight instead of shrinking is the same thing that has plagued the week leading up to the Super Bowl, since I am stuck in the same predicament the Super Bowl is stuck in.

That predicament is both me and the Super Bowl both sit in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

I was snowbound starting Tuesday. On Wednesday I woke to a Rolling Blackout. By Thursday I was running low on protein products for the Atkins type diet mode I had been on. On Friday the roads had cleared of ice enough that I was able to get to a grocery store.

I have been unable to get my regular amount of heavy duty calorie burning outdoor exercise. No hiking, no swimming.

I forgot to mention that yesterday a water main malfunction had me without water for several hours.

So, this has been an annoyingly stressful week for me and a lot of other people in North Texas, including a lot of people who had big hopes of the Super Bowl being a big boon for North Texas.

The big boon has turned in to a big bust. Just like my ongoing shrinking did this week.

More snow is predicted to arrive on the day of the Super Bowl. I currently do not know when I am going to return to my regular activity level.

So, for this week my Weight Loss goal is to simply not gain any, and to stay steady at 197.