hacking me.

Day 6: My first binge!

Sat, 08 Jan 2011 23:55:07 -0800

Today’s binge menu was:

Breakfast - Nutella and banana crepe with vanilla bean ice cream Side of bacon Side of potatoes with ketchup and Tabasco Fresh-squeezed orange juice

Small soy mocha with whipped cream at Peet’s

This morning’s breakfast: A hash made of two eggs, spicy...

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 09:45:32 -0800

This morning’s breakfast: A hash made of two eggs, spicy black beans, and salsa cruda.

what is motivating you to get healthy now?.....are there any underlying factors that made you gain weight?

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 22:44:54 -0800

I’m going to be 30 in a few months, and I decided that it’s time to get my act together, because it’s only going to get harder as I get older. My weight gain was caused by nothing particularly interesting — working long hours, not taking care of myself, and getting too comfortable in a long-term relationship.

Day 2: Another day, another egg

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 09:16:04 -0800

Even though I was incredibly short on time this morning, I managed to get in my breakfast anyway. I upped my eggs to 3 and added some extra beans, because I was a bit more hungry at lunchtime yesterday than I would have liked to be.

Today’s weight: 195.1. Yesterday’s weight: 197.3. Although I’m sure it’s mostly water, it was nice to see the scale move down. It also means that I spent a good deal of the day peeing, which is annoying, but not a horrible way to drop weight. :)

My meals yesterday were Slow-Carb-friendly, even though I’ve committed only to changing my breakfast habit this week. Hopefully I will begin experimenting with preparing some Slow-Carb meals at home this evening.

Day 1: One week of breakfast

Mon, 03 Jan 2011 09:57:25 -0800

Today is my first day officially into the Slow Carb Diet prescribed by The 4-Hour Body. I’ve already lost about 15 lbs. since October by simply cutting all grain from my diet, but the Slow Carb Diet has a lot of appeal to me (and isn’t that different from what I’m already doing) so it’s definitely worth some of my time and attention.

One of the main recommendations requires me to have a high-protein breakfast within 30 minutes of waking, which is something I haven’t done in a long time, so I’m using this week to get started on a regular breakfast routine. While I’m sure that most of my other meals will be slow-carb as well (lots of protein, greens, and legumes) I’m only going to hold myself strictly to the breakfast requirement for the first week, because changing one habit at a time is usually easier.

Once I’ve become accustomed to eating breakfast again, I’ll start to pay more attention to the rest of the day, and add some exercise back into my routine.

Preparing my first 4-Hour Body breakfast: Two eggs fried in...

Mon, 03 Jan 2011 08:38:15 -0800

Preparing my first 4-Hour Body breakfast: Two eggs fried in butter and some retried beans.

Happy New Year’s Eve. This is today, posted publicly for...

Fri, 31 Dec 2010 13:28:00 -0800

Happy New Year’s Eve. This is today, posted publicly for posterity. As I start my experimental journey with The 4-Hour Body and the Slow-Carb diet, I think it’s important to document my starting point.

It’s not pretty, but it’s the current reality. So let’s get this show on the road.

Experimenting With My 4-Hour Body

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 18:42:00 -0800

I’m a fan of Tim Ferriss. I loved The 4-Hour Workweek and its message encouraging people to find a way to make more time in life today to do the things they’re passionate about instead of waiting to retire at an old age. The book inspired me to take a month off work in May 2010 and take a trip to Buenos Aires.

Since I’m such a fan of Tim’s work, you can imagine that I’m also super-psyched about his second book, The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman, which hits stores on December 14.

The basic premise of the book is that, through self-experimentation, Tim has come up with a compendium of a ton of small changes that you can make in your life in order to get big results. The back cover of the book makes some pretty crazy promises, claiming that it will teach you how to “increase fat-loss 300% using temperature manipulation” or how to “sleep 2 hours per day and feel fully rested”.

Believe me, I’ve got a pretty good bullshit detector, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say that the claims Tim makes about this book seem a bit out-there. On the other hand, The 4-Hour Work Week was such an inspiration that I feel obligated to give everything this guy says at least a fair shake. When I read a guest post on Tim’s blog about the Paleo Solution Diet, I tried cutting grain from my diet and adding no extra exercise, and managed to drop an impressive 20lbs. in under 2 months. Maybe this guy is on to something.

My Plan

When the 4-Hour Body comes out on December 14, I’m going to forage through its pages for tasty experiments of my own to try. I’ve got plenty of pudge left to spare, and I certainly could get a lot more done if I was only sleeping 2 hours per night. I’m not completely sure of what to expect since I don’t have a copy of the book in my hands yet, but I’ve read the first chapter at Tim’s website and it looks like it’s going to be a fascinating read.

Check back here soon for my review of the book, along with the play-by-play of whatever crazy body experiments I decide to subject myself to.

Let’s go! :)