Five Pounds Harder to Lose

I'm finding that 5 pounds are harder to lose than 25 pounds.

I'm still on the "diet" and probably will always be for the rest of my life. There was a week when I didn't take any oil or sugar water. By the time I entered the 2nd week of no oil, I noticed a notable increase in hunger. I didn't eat too healthily during that period.

So now I'm back on the saddle. I'm determined to lose these remaining five pounds.

In the morning (for breakfast), I'm drinking sugar water with a tbsp of walnut oil. I'm still eating a light lunch. I've replaced GoldFish crackers with a granola bar ... so I eat an apple, a cup of yogurt and a granola bar for lunch. For dinner, I'm trying to eat healthy. Since my wife is trying the diet, she's going to serve me and her salad for dinner every night.

Not that it is part of the official diet, but I'm also taking flaxseed oil capsules every day. I'm convinced of the benefits of Omega 3's. Obviously I'm getting O3's with the walnut oil too. I have noticed that I think much more clearly since taking more O3's. I don't know how to measure it, other than I just feel like I can think more clearly. The only shred of evidence I can offer has to do with chess. I'm going through dozens of chess problems every day in an effort to improve my chess game. Whether out of sheer practice or because of the O3's, I seem to be solving the problems with greater ease and speed these days. But like I said, there really is no hard data that shows a correlation between quickly solving these tactical chess problems and (only) taking O3's.

I'm continuing to exercise. I play basketball Tuesdays and Thursdays and sometimes on Saturday. Then I'll try to get to the gym two other days during the week to bike and run or swim.

I continue to get unsolicited comments about my appearance. Just yesterday I was walking into work when one of the security guards, who rarely speaks to me, called me over and asked me if I had been losing weight. He said I looked a lot younger. It's such a great feeling when someone compliments me on my weight loss.

This morning I pulled myself out of bed to go to the gym since I missed Monday. I ran for 20 minutes and biked for 20 minutes. I was as wet as a soaked sponge when I was done with my workout. Now that the temperatures have cooled off here in Texas, the water can actually get cold at night ... so my showers are very refreshing these days.

I weighed in this morning.

As always, I weighed in at the same time of day on the same scale with just the standard issue white gym towel around my waist.

WEIGHT: 189.9
Difference: 27.6 lbs. since May 1, 2006 ... averaging .17 lbs a day

That is all for this week's update. I hope to report back next week that I'm closer to my goal of 185 lbs.