Month: June 2011

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diet L3 lesamy Less is More

L3 Week 15 – Odious Comparison

Sorry about the lateness of the post – I stayed up late last night finishing my latest book and so put off writing this.

One of the things I noticed recently was that I’m constantly comparing myself to how I was doing back when I first started dieting. So I finally gave in and added a comparison graph tab to my spreadsheet. Basically I took my stats from the first year of Lesamy and lined them up with my current efforts. By ‘lined up’ I mean I chose week 3 of Lesamy to be the equivalent of week 1 of L3 as that was the closest to my start weight this time around. Long story short, I’m doing a little less well (39lbs vs 44lbs) but close enough for it not to be a big deal (so I can stop worrying about it and obsess over something else!)

The other thing that came out of this was to fix in my mind the number 231 – which is not quite my lowest ever[1] that would be 226 – but it’s a low that I reached a couple of times and hovered around during summer 2009. Once I’m back in the 230s I’ll feel like I’ve really made up the ground I lost. And, that’s now nearer than my start point.

A big loss this week. Below 19st – yay! A fair bit was dehydration though – very hot yesterday. I’ve got a weekend away this coming Friday so I’ll be happy to stay level next week.

Lost: 4.2lbs
Lost so far: 39.2lbs
Average Weekly Loss: 2.6lbs
Weight: 265lbs (18st 13lbs)

[1]by “ever” I mean since I started dieting/post-2000. In 2000 I was ~17st (=238) and I was only ever going up until I started Lesamy in Sep 2008.

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6000 pages book reading reviews

6000 Pages 2011, True Grit -Charles Portis (pages 3509-3732)

True Grit

I decided to read True Grit after hearing it recommended on a podcast around the time of the recent film version being released. The John Wayne film version is one of the few Westerns I’ve watched and enjoyed so I thought it was worth a read. Was I right? Read on.

True Grit is the story of Mattie Ross, a fourteen year old whose father has just been killed by an outlaw called Tom Chaney. Leaving her mother to grieve and look after her younger siblings, Mattie makes a trip to sort out her father’s business affairs and find justice for his death, since Chaney has fled to lawless Indian Territory and no-one seems too interested in pursuing him.

So she secures the services of Reuben ‘Rooster’ Cogburn and sets off to capture, and kill, Chaney. They are soon joined by a Texas Ranger called LaBoeuf who is after Chaney for crimes committed in Texas and for the reward.

The plot moves forward in a fairly straight-forward A-follows-B manner. What really draws you in is the main character and her relationship with Cogburn. Her determination and “grit” are what define her and what I suspect would be a very annoying tendency in real life of nagging til she gets her own way, makes you admire her.

The book is written in her voice, and at first I thought that Portis had cleverly captured that childish simplicity of speech. Then I realised that this was written as an older Mattie looking back. I did find the style a little wearing at times but I suppose it does work as a not overly-educated woman of that era writing her memories of these events.

Even so I think you have to take this style, along with her tendency to go off point and talk about religion (complete with scripture references), politics and unrelated history, as tongue in cheek. I’m not sure it was hilariously funny but it occasioned the odd wry smile and chuckle. However it also illustrates the “nasty, brutish and short” nature of life at that time and place, which was a counter point to any humour.

However the book was very readable and not too long. So overall I found it a good read.

7/10 – a good read, probably still prefer the movie though.

Categories
6000 pages reading reviews

6000 Pages 2011, The Last Continent – Terry Pratchett (pages 3093-3508)

Finishing The Last Continent brings me up to the point where the next Discworld book is Carpe Jugulum which is Ship of Fools book group’s July book. I should have finished it quite a while ago but I seem to have taken a three week gap in the middle.

Anyway, The Last Continent is about what would be the Discworld equivalent of Australia, called FourEcks (XXXX as in those old lager commercials, still going strong at the time this came out). It’s also a Rincewind book, and I like Rincewind.

Rincewind finds himself in FourEcks doing what he does best, staying alive. Meanwhile back in Ankh-Morpork the Librarian has caught some sort of magical disease and keeps changing shape every time he sneezes. The wizards want to change him back to his orangutan form but need to know his name in order to perform the requisite spell. Rincewind, having worked with the Librarian is likely to know his name so if they can find him they can ask him. So they embark on a journey, via magic to FourEcks, or somewhere not entirely unrelated to it, to track down Rincewind.

Meanwhile Rincewind is being guided in his sequence of adventures i.e. serial escapes from various dangers, by a talking Kangaroo, who has told him that the Continent is out of whack, mystically speaking and only Rincewind can put it right. Rincewind reacts to this in the way you’d expect, by running away.

So there are two plot strands – the wizards on a mission to find Rincewind, and Rincewind on a mission to stay alive and avoid his destiny.

Remember how I said that when I first read Equal Rites I was disappointed that it didn’t feel quite the same as the first two Discworld books, but that later I realised that it was the first real Discworld book because it was the first one with a real story and plot rather than just a collection of jokes? Well the Rincewind story is a bit like that – the jokes mainly being various parodies of Australian stuff. I preferred the wizards story because the jokes are funny but I think I prefer a story. Although having said that I do like the character of Rincewind himself, even, especially since he’s developed a bit since the first couple of books.

In the end of course the two plotlines join together and get resolved in what I’ll call one of Pratchett’s “flights of fancy” – where he attempts to be lyrical and mythic. Which sounds like I didn’t like it but I did, just not so much perhaps as I might have when I was younger and had read so many of his books. It was also a little confusing but I just decided not to worry about the bits I didn’t quite get and take in the general sweep instead.

7/10 – No Worries.

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diet L3 lesamy Less is More

L3 Week 14 – Back on Track (I Think!)

So my goal for next week – whether I lose weight or not – is to keep to the diet every day.

Weeeellll. I sort of did this. I had what would have been, any other week, a perfectly fine week. I stuck to my diet every day apart from Friday when we went to the pub for lunch (Fish and Chips and beer) and it was raining too hard for me to do my evening walk. I thought about the stepper – and the thought was something like, “God no, not the stepper!”. But apart from that I’ve been good.

The numbers seem to reflect that. In fact I’ve got a pretty respectable two-week average. Which me being me make me suspicious about the scales. But I’ll take the new low figure and change the battery in time for next week.

Lost: 3.8lbs
Lost so far: 35lbs
Average Weekly Loss: 2.5lbs
Weight: 269.2lbs (19st 3lbs)

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diet L3 lesamy Less is More

L3 Week 13 – It’s Not the Numbers

So, I was all prepared to be explaining a significant gain this week. But, whilst there’s a gain, it’s small. So I think I’ll keep this post short.

However you can safely assume from that that I didn’t exactly follow my diet to the letter last week. In fact far from it. And whilst I’m relieved at the small increase and will probably back to losing by next monday, I am more concerned about getting and staying back on track. So my goal for next week – whether I lose weight or not – is to keep to the diet every day.

Sometimes it’s not about the numbers, it’s about not losing the discipline or, when you inevitably do, about regaining it.

Lost: -0.8lbs
Lost so far: 31.2lbs
Average Weekly Loss: 2.4lbs
Weight: 273lbs (19st 7lbs)

Categories
diet L3 lesamy Less is More

L3 Week 12 – Do NOT Try This At Home

Here’s an interesting and unorthodox way to lose weight:

  • Mon-Thu follow diet and exercise regime as normal
  • Fri – go out for lunch with big boss over from America. Since this is likely to be a big deal count it as a freebie.
  • Since it turns out not to be such a big deal and you somehow feel short-changed, extend the freebie to the evening. Eat and drink too much.
  • Sat – you’re now hung-over so don’t bother with any exercise and comfort-eat even more once you get to the part of the day where you can actually face food.
  • Sun – weigh yourself first thing to discover you’re 5 pounds up. No big surprise really. However – and this is really the key part of the whole plan – now you get sick with some flu-like virus which means you spend 80% of the day in bed and eat almost nothing.
  • Sun/Mon – fail to sleep but do lose a good amount of water through sweat.
  • Mon – wake up, weigh yourself to discover…

Lost: 1.2lbs
Lost so far: 32lbs
Average Weekly Loss: 2.7lbs
Weight: 272.2lbs (19st 6lbs)

However I was not kidding with the title – this is not how to lose weight. I’d much rather be writing about how I need to knuckle down and lose the pounds I put on due to a bad weekend and not (still) be feeling a bit rough right now.