Author: latepaul

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diet L3 lesamy Less is More

L3 Week 21 – Life, and Other Interruptions to Dieting

Before I typed up last week’s results, whilst I was still out on my walk in fact I got a rather worrying phonecall. My dad had had a heart attack. He’s fine, they got him to hospital and did an angioplasty and inserted a stent and he’s doing well.

But obviously it was a worrying for a time there. Also, I was due to go up for the Family Reunion (basically a meal out at a hotel) anyway – which I did, and it was nice to see dad and see he was doing ok.

At first I tried to tell myself that this is the sort of thing where I need to continue the diet because if I let these sort of “events” throw me off course then it’s a slippery slope and there’s always something to worry about (hopefully not many so major though). Even knowing that though, and I think knowing that I’d be going home and having basically a freebie weekend anyway meant that I sort of gave up really. I didn’t even weigh myself yesterday as I’d spent the day travelling back and was too tired to want to think about the consequence of weighing (i.e. writing this)

So I weighed myself this morning and, all-in-all, it’s not so bad. I have put weight back on, but I’m still 3stone down.

But I do need to get back on the straight and narrow. Particularly since in a week’s time I’ve got a night out followed by a week spent with M. If I make the whole week a freebie I won’t lose weight, but I haven’t traditionally been great at staying sensible whilst going to these social things. But it’s unlikely that’ll I’ll have two things together like this for a while, so I may just take the hit and start again the week after.

We’ll see. Overall I am still determined that L3 will be a success but it’s about a downward long term trend and that sometimes means being a little relaxed about individual weeks.

Lost: -1.5lbs
Lost so far: 42lbs
Average Weekly Loss: 2.0lbs
Weight: 262.2lbs (18st 10lb)

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diet L3 lesamy Less is More

L3 Week 20 – When 3 is Really 4

So the big headline is that I’ve passed another milestone, 3stone lost, finally.

Why finally? Because it feels like I should have lost it earlier. But to some extent that feeling is bogus. When I did Lesamy I weighed myself in kg. When I did Less is More I’d switched to lbs. So it’s hard for me to get a feel for where I am relative to where I once was. However one measure that sticks in the mind is “stones lost” because those are and were the milestone points.

So when over the last few weeks I seemed to be bumping along at just under 3stone lost I was somewhat frustrated because I knew that in Lesamy I’d gotten to 4stone down reasonably quickly and didn’t start bumping along at the same weight until about 6-6 1/2 stone down.

But then I made a graph to compare the relative losses and for a fair-ish comparison I started the graph at the point in Lesamy roughly equivalent to where I was when I started L3. Which was already 1stone down from my heaviest known weight i.e. 3stone is really 4stone down.

As you can see this time around (blue line) I am still a bit higher than Lesamy (orange) but based on my current average loss (purple) I would beat that, given that I’ll probably slow down but hopefully still maintain my target (green).

The numbers are quite impressive this week, partly I think due to a burst of hot weather and consequent dehydration after my walk.

Lost: 6.8lbs
Lost so far: 45.4lbs
Average Weekly Loss: 2.27lbs
Weight: 258.8lbs (18st 7lb)

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diet L3 lesamy Less is More

L3 Week 19 – Dangerous Times

Another week of gain. Not unexpected since I had three official freebies and one off-the-reservation Sunday. A few salient remarks:

I really need to manage the freebies better. Sometimes I’ll have a string of with-other-people events that I can’t/don’t want to completely avoid, so I need to be able to eat and drink sensibly because I can’t declare them all a freebie.

This is where it gets dangerous. Because what could start to happen is that I have a few weeks of losses cancelled by gains and basically bouncing along around the same weight. And that in turn leads to disillusionment which leads to stopping.

BUT I am determined not to give up this time. Which means I need to be determined to getting back to losing more consistently.

Lost: -1.2lbs
Lost so far: 38.6lbs
Average Weekly Loss: 2.03lbs
Weight: 265.6lbs (19st)

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6000 pages book reading reviews

6000 Pages 2011, Killer Move – Michael Marshall (pages 4827-5182)

Killer Move

A couple of books ago I said it was easy to review a book that I’d hugely enjoyed. Here’s one I enjoyed just as much but it’s harder to review  because, I think I don’t want to give too much away.

Killer Move is a novel by Michael Marshall, a name he goes by when writing crime fiction. When writing his earlier SciFi novels, such as Only Forward, he went by Michael Marshall Smith. And, when he wrote The Servants, which you’ll remember I also loved, he was M.M. Smith.

Anyway this is the first of his crime books I’ve read. I’ve avoided them partly because I knew that there was some fairly grim subject matter in the likes of The Straw Men. I carry around in my head that I don’t like such things but let’s be honest I’ve read and enjoyed Let the Right One In and 1974, and at least read 1977, all of which have material that’s as dark as any you’d find.

Still, the reason I picked up this book rather than the earlier crime ones was the intriguing blurb about it, and the fact that it didn’t on the face of it seem to be dominated by gruesome murders. And in fact that’s true. Mostly.

Killer Move is about Bill Moore, a florida realtor who’s ambitious and trying to push his career to the next level. He’s actually got a very nice life – a lovely home, a successful wife who he loves and enough money for a comfortable lifestyle – but he wants more. One day he receives a business card with the single word “Modified” written on it. From then on weird stuff starts to happen to him and slowly his life starts to unravel.

The thing I really like about this book is the way it slowly builds. Things happen at a pace that mean that initially it’s just intriguing, then gradually it becomes stranger, more involved, more dangerous until you’re in a full-on thriller. By the time the gruesome stuff shows up – and it does – it feels like you’re too wrapped up in the story to really worry about it. Plus it has become integral to the story anyway.

But it’s more than just the finely tuned mechanism of the plotting, it’s the slow reveal and/or evolution of Bill’s character. This is an ‘extraordinary things happen to an ordinary person’ type of story and what’s interesting is that the person he is at the beginning – obsessed with success, listens to self-help podcasts, reads positivity blogs and attends branding seminars – isn’t particularly likeable, but he slowly reveals himself to be more interesting than he first appears. I loved the main character of Stark in Only Forward, but I loved him from the first page with his dry wit and cool persona, Bill I grew to like as he both showed more of himself and was changed by the experience.

That’s what sets Killer Move apart from say a John Grisham thriller, though they share a clockwork precision of plot, the characterization. There are characters you sympathise with, ones you instantly like (like Stark), or dislike, or are appalled and intrigued by.

And there is some tough stuff in there but more of it is implied than seen. Certainly it doesn’t have that unrelenting grimness and all-humanity-is-scum feel of 1977.

It would also make a terrific movie.

My only quibble is the title – Killer Move is so generic as to be meaningless and it really doesn’t connect with anything specific in the book. There is an obvious one-word title but I suspect that it was rejected because it doesn’t say enough about what kind of book this is.

9/10 – an excellent gripping read and one that slowly builds up both tension and character development.

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6000 pages book reading reviews

6000 Pages 2011, Carpe Jugulum – Terry Pratchett (pages 4402-4826)

Carpe Jugulum

Carpe Jugulum is the 23rd Discworld book and as you’d expect from the title is concerns vampires (or vampyres as they prefer it – they’re trying to be “modern”). It’s also a Lancre Witches book which is a good thing as I’m a fan of Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg and Wyrd Sisters is probably my 2nd favourite Discworld book. (Mort, since you ask).

The book begins with the preparations for the christening of King Verence and Queen Magrat’s baby. Unfortunately the King invited a family of vampire nobility and inviting vampires in is one thing we all know you shouldn’t do. Perhaps even worse is that although they sent an invite to Granny Weatherwax it went astray. Not inviting the Kingdom’s most powerful witch may have been as catastrophic as inviting blood-sucking fiends.

Into all this arrives an Omnian priest Mightily Oats who has been summoned to perform the christening. He’s an interesting character defined more by lack of certainty than actual belief. Oh and we have the 4th member of the Lancre coven, Agnes Nitt, who’s in two minds about everything, literally.

Carpe Jugulum is certainly a lot of fun. It has some interesting things to say about Faith. I’m not sure there was anything radically new in it. As I’ve said by this stage, book 23, we’ve touched on most of Pratchett’s favourite subjects before, so there’s a lot of familiar ground. But these are characters I enjoy spending time with. I liked the vampires, I like Agnes and I still like Nanny and Granny – though her black-and-white belief in her own rightness pushed me on that.

As with other recent Discworld reads I found I enjoyed the story more than the humour which felt a little predictable in its patterns and rhythms, though there were still laugh out loud moments such as:

‘Indeed?’ said the Count, turning to his son. ‘Right about what, prey?’

I smiled at the subtlety.

8/10 – a fun romp with enjoyable characters and some thoughtful ideas about faith, right and wrong – and the importance of a nice cup of tea.

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6000 pages book reading reviews

6000 Pages 2011, Before I Go To Sleep – SJ Watson (pages 4037-4401)

Before I Go To Sleep

Before I Go To Sleep is an easy book to write about for two reasons – it’s got an easy to understand concept and I really enjoyed it.

This book is told from the perspective of Christine who, when she wakes up in the morning is in unfamiliar surroundings. This happens every morning because Christine has a condition where she doesn’t form new memories, so each new day is a kind of reset. So she wakes up every day, not knowing who the middle-aged man in bed with her is. In fact she doesn’t really recognise the woman she sees in the mirror as she remembers herself to be much younger than she actually is. Slowly, patiently the man explains that he’s her husband and he gently reminds her about some of the other facts of her life. Something he must have to do every day.

The reason this book works so well is that the early chapters work simply as an experience of what it must be like to have this kind of memory condition. If you’ve seen the movie Memento then you’ll have some idea already but this is a slightly different take on the idea. The fact that our hero is female and the setting domestic gives it a different feel. Gradually, we as the reader begin to build up a picture of Christine’s life and also some of what has happened to her. This starts to raise questions which we become aware of before she does and the remainder of the book is almost a thriller, certainly we want to know what has happened and how it will play out if and when Christine starts to discover the truth.

So in the second half of the book you lose some of the psychological subtlety of the first part but you gain a page-turning what-will-happen-next plot. It really works, I found it gripping.

9/10 – both an insight into a different kind of life and a thrilling ride.

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diet L3 lesamy Less is More

L3 Week 18 – Mini-Loss

Well after last week I guess I can’t complain about not losing quite so much this week. Still a loss, so still good.

Not much else to say, so here’s the numbers.

Lost: 0.6lbs
Lost so far: 39.8lbs
Average Weekly Loss: 2.21lbs
Weight: 264.4lbs (18st 12lbs)

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6000 pages book reading reviews

6000 Pages 2011, Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro (pages 3733-4036)

Never Let Me Go

OK, first of all, if you’re the kind of person who doesn’t really want to know anything about a book before you read it, the kind of person who won’t watch trailers of movies in case they give too much away, then you should really skip this review. Not that I’m planning to ruin the book, I won’t give away the ending, but I can’t sensibly talk about it without talking about the central premise.

Still with me? Good.

Never Let Me Go is a kind of SciFi novel in that it’s set in a world almost exactly like ours but with one difference i.e. it’s an alternative present. Still I say only “kind of SciFi” because although good SciFi is always more interested in ideas than shiny tech, this really isn’t interested in tech at all except in how it changes society. In that way it reminds me of something like Children of Men.

Kathy and her friends Tommy and Ruth grew up in a boarding school called Hailsham. There they are prepared for the life that is ahead of them and we soon see that this is not quite the kind of life one might expect. Nevertheless they have a close relationship and the early part of the book is about their experiences together, their loves and aspirations and conflicts within the relatively small world of the school. There’s an intensity here that may relate to their role in the world or may just be a consequence of that enclosed environment.

We follow them as they grow into adulthood, learning some measure of independence but always with an eye towards a particular future. You see these are human clones who have been bred for the specific purpose of providing organ donations. They live relatively normal but short lives, “completing” once they have made 2,3 or at most 4 donations. Some of them, Kathy in this story, work as “carers” to the “donors” supporting them through the medical procedures. But even the carers eventually become donors themselves.

This is a thoughtful intense book. I enjoyed it for the most part. One annoying habit the author has is in the early part of the book he tells various incidents out of order. Nothing wrong with that per se but the way he does it appears to have no real reason. He’ll be telling you about an incident between two characters and at the end he’ll say something like “…but maybe that’s because of what had happened with the tape.” Then he’ll go back and tell the story of the tape ending it with “…which is perhaps why she fell out so strongly with Tommy.” Then he’ll skip forward and tell you about the argument with Tommy. He’ll do this several times in a row and it left my head slightly spinning and I couldn’t think of a good reason why he couldn’t just describe events in the order they occurred.

The other reservation I have is about why the characters don’t try harder to escape their fate – to run away or rebel. I know the answer but it’s not one given in the story itself. Remember I said this was a kind of SciFi? One of the things that SciFi often prompts people to do is ask “why?” questions – “Why don’t they just use the transporter to beam out of there?”. Often there’s a reasonable answer that the author has alluded to but not gone into detail on because he doesn’t want to distract from the story itself. I’ve been a defender of this kind of story-telling. It’s about suspension of disbelief. You accept certain things to allow the story to be what it is.

Well anyway, this is similar to that but the answer to the “why?” question is “because this is a metaphor” and for the metaphor to work the donors need to be accepting of their future. Why don’t I let Ishiguro himself, talking when the film of the book was released, explain:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jCB59pPG7k&NR=1]

So as a meditation on the meaning of life, its brevity and inevitable end, the book does have some interesting things to say. I confess to being just picky enough to be bothered by the “why?” question. I can extrapolate from hints in the text that it’s because they’ve been socialised their whole lives to be compliant, but still…

7/10 – A thoughtful, challenging book.

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diet L3 lesamy Less is More

L3 Week 17 – Lost Week Re-Gained

Or “Gain Re-Lost” I suppose.

So a week keeping strictly to the diet and I’m back to where I was two weeks ago. Isn’t it amazing how you can gain/lose so much in a single week? Well probably not consistently but I had known for a while that weight that’s quickly lost can be quickly re-gained and vice-versa.

So I’m pleased.

And over 3 weeks I still average a loss of 1.7lbs – ask me in 6 months how I feel about that level of loss and I’ll bet I’m envious.

So I really am pleased.

But I try not to focus too much on that. It’s something I’ve always done instinctively but I think I found out why:

[ted id=947]

So when I seem like I should be more pleased than I am, this is why. (Not just that I’m a miserable git)

Oh and just because it’s fun, from the same guy:

[ted id=814]

Lost: 5lbs

Lost so far: 39.2lbs
Average Weekly Loss: 2.31lbs
Weight: 265lbs (18st 13lbs)

Categories
diet L3 lesamy Less is More

L3 Week 16 – Lost a Week

I’ll keep this brief. I know what I did wrong this week. I knew I had a freebie weekend coming up and I tried to over-compensate (did half a mile extra per day) but ended up just compensating for the compensation (ate more). Then when I hit the weekend – which started Friday lunchtime – I basically went OTT.

*sigh*

Oh well. So, we pick ourselves up, re-group and start again. Because the alternative is unacceptable.

Lost: -5lbs
Lost so far: 34.2lbs
Average Weekly Loss: 2.14lbs
Weight: 270lbs (19st 4lbs)