Good News

I like the news.

Evenings in the DFAC they have been showing CNN's "Crossfire", a revitalization of an older CNN show.  I think it is supposed to be two left wing hosts (sorta versus) and two right wing hosts.  Each side gets a female; Sarah Elizabeth (or S.E.; don't know why the initialization) Cupp is the right wing and Stephanie Cutter is the left wing.  It appears that the show quickly devolves into shouting matches.  The other night the topic was Obamacare, the Rev. Cornel West was defending the policies of the program.  At least I think he was; the volume wasn't that loud and I was many rows away.

Reverend Cornel West

I'm not endorsing any of the hosts or the guests, but if you have this host:

I'm calling CNN "Crossfire" from Fox News "Red Eye" an upgrade

...or...

The photographer gave her fair warning this time.

...versus:

Happy face

...I think any message might be muted and/or lost in translation.  Like Russell Brand says, "I'm only flesh and blood; I've got instincts."

So that's what's on the telly in the dining facility.  Like any human with a functional deliciousness center int he brain, my trips to the DFAC, combined with the snacks in my work drawer, have resulted in feasts and, well, smaller feasts.  According to fitday, today I consumed approximately 4,400 calories.  Based on the number of sardine tins and macadamias left, more caloric binges are possible in the next week.  That being said, my goal has been a daily 16 hour fast, meaning from a few hours before I went to sleep until dinner time, no food.  Yeah, yeah: it's easy to not eat when you are sleeping (I don't sleep walk/sleep eat), but by confining my repasts to 8 hour blocks, the goal is to use my body fat as energy during the other hours.  I've lost some weight, but no idea on body fat percentage.

A later post will highlight the three workout strategies I've used while here: Whatever I Felt Like (bad), Confused 5x5 (better) and (almost as prescribed) Stronglifts 5x5 (more better).  Next phase (starting around 21 October): Stronglifts 5x5 with the Whole30 diet.

The past 30 days

Today is my last day of doing the Whole 30 diet.  Yeah, yeah, I know: I have no idea what they put in the delicious beef, chicken or pork sausages, I don't know where they get the eggs, they use PAM to fry the eggs and the "olive" oil I put on my salads is probably a blend with less than perfect polyunsaturated oils in it.  That being said, I ate a lot of salads, eggs, steak, nuts and drank water, coffee and tea for 30 days.  I didn't eat butter and did let some chocolate slip into my diet.  I typically ate two meals a day and did complete my first 24 hour fast.  I drank water and coffee (mixed with MCT oil) during the 24 hours.

SWMBO and I tried the diet a year ago for 15 days, then again back in February and we each lost ten pounds or so.  The lack of desserts, white potatoes and alcohol makes a big difference.  It's actually easy to do when the desserts over here look bleh, you can't keep alcohol in your room and the hash brown patties are probably the same quality as McDonald's.

In light of all of that, I decided to reward myself (as much as one possibly can) at the DFAC tonight.  I had five slices of pot roast, tater tots, scrambled eggs (probably from a box) and corned beef hash.  Since misery loves ice cream, I put three cookies in a bowl and topped that with two scoops of Breyers butter pecan ice cream.  I finished all that almost three hours ago and still feel incredibly full.  I really didn't need to do that.  Thankfully I did work out before eating that, but unfortunately CICO doesn't work.  Pancreas: I hope you can forgive me.

I think you're gonna need a bigger plate.

I've got a bad feeling about this...

Listening to Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals' "Burn to Shine" album.  Finally making use of Google Play's music that I uploaded many moons ago.  I originally bought that album because a friend of mine made me listen to Harper's song "Burn One Down."  I'll give you three guesses what that song is about and the first two don't count.

I'll end by saying tomorrow mark's day thirty one of this mustache which is the longest time I've ever had a mustache...breaking new ground here.  I've grown a beard for two months after graduating college, but mustaches are much less socially acceptable.  Wish me luck