So, it’s been a while since I wrote an update on project Brave New Jon. I thought I might share some news about my diet, since I’m not sleeping at 5am in the morning and can only read NDBC raw buoy data for so long, after long since giving up on the counting of sheep.
Firstly, project Brave New Jon is not dead, but has merely transitioned into a longer term sustaining role now that I am done with its initial raison d’etre – it started out as a giant pining exercise, the most elaborate and ridiculous that I’ve ever managed, all over a girl (as many things are). People who know me well know that I was almost indescribably upset, serving as an impetus to do such things as learning to drive in the US within a week, taking up surfing, spending many consecutive weekends traveling to remote parts of California to be alone, that kind of thing. Oh, and buying a car. I’m most grateful to her for that final point – I wouldn’t have blown so much on a car otherwise[0].
Anyway. History lesson done, and I’ve been keeping my diet going. I am now 45 lbs lighter than I was in March (I gained a little, briefly, over the summer through excessive consumption of nuts), and have just 15 lbs to go – just over a stone (an antiquated and pointless unit of weight used by the British, and the source of the pun used in the title, in case you enjoy having the punch line explained). I am specifically aiming to be exactly 6lbs under my ideal weight, briefly, so that I can be technically referred to as “that thin guy”, at least technically. I am achieving this without starving myself, purely through carefully contrived controls and sheer willpower – I haven’t eaten any cheese, desert, chocolate, or anything remotely unhealthy since March. I ensure that I have 100% of my RDA values of all vitamins, minerals, protein, etc. but I eat mostly salads, soups, and lighter meals. Being semi-vegetarian certainly helps (technically, I’m a pescetarian, since I eat fish/sea food). It feels good.
Longer term, I’m shooting for exactly 11 stone, or 154lbs. This is on the lower end of my ideal weight, but we all know what happens when we let life intercede with our diets…so I expect a little hysteresis to occur as an alternative to constant hunting iteration[1]. When I said I was no longer the person I used to be – I literally meant what I said. I’ve been the fat geek type, I’ve been the not so fat geek type, and now I’m interested in being the geek with a six pack. Or at least look good in my wet suit. I’m under a 30″ waist at this point.
Facebook readers can follow along with My Diet updates.
Jon.
[0] Don’t ask. It makes the $3,400 I pay each year for auto insurance look pretty good. But it does afford me the ability to randomly drive up to Salem in the middle of the night, like I did last night, for no reason.
[1]. I’m bored. It’s 5am, and I just spent an hour reading through the most dry and boring technical material NOAA and NDBC have to offer, and still couldn’t fall asleep. So, forgive me, that’s an electronics joke, he says, yet again explaining the source of his jokes. Electronic systems frequently make use of hysteresis levels to avoid hunting between various bounded values. You rely on this principle all the time.