The Plan (dun Dun DUUUNNNNNNN)

In one short day and two difficult posts, I have received a lot of support.  I am so grateful for the support and the words of encouragement.

There are topics that I sometimes get a little...crazy about.  If someone talks about wanting to start getting their finances in order, for instance, I am all over that shit!  I love talking about money, how to save it, how to make more of it, how to invest it!  And sometimes, I can get a little overbearing when someone else is finding their own path in regards to money.  I can really only speak to what worked for me, what works for me, and then offer tools if someone wants to know more.

Weight loss and health, for me...well, I think I am feeling a bit like those innocent bystanders of my self-confirmed economic expertise feel when I bash them over the head with all of my TWUE WISDOM.  That is to say...I feel like....

STOP IT.

Really, I love you, but let's not, shall we?  

It might be a bit too soon to start complaining about the nature of the support I receive, but I will disagree.  I am eager for support!  But ask me how you can support me.  What I am not, this moment, eager for, is help.  Don't get me wrong, I need help!  But I have carefully chosen my resources for help.  And....I am fully capable of asking for more help when I need it.

Just like I would never ask a broke person for money advice, I wouldn't ask an unhealthy couch potato on tips for running a 5k and dropping 100 pounds.  It just doesn't make sense.  I have observed others, done some research, and found a plan that I am going to commit to...until it doesn't work.  Then, life is subject to change, and I can make changes as I need to.

Please support me, but until I ask...please stop helping me.  :-)  It's not a complaint, for I truly appreciate the spirit in which all the advice I've already received is intended.  This is me setting some boundaries.

A thing happens when someone offers unsolicited advice: There is usually an expectation attached.  Didn't do what I suggested, and didn't get good results? Told ya so.  There is an unspoken price tag attached, emotionally speaking, to that unsolicited advice.  If I fail at the advice you gave, there may be shame, or a feeling of not only being a failure, but being too stupid to follow simple instructions.  There may be anger if your advice doesn't work, and that could affect our friendship.  No one really likes receiving unsolicited advice.  It has a price tag...snd trust me, I am paying enough for my own poor choices as we speak.

I live in this world.  I am observant, questioning, and fucking intelligent.  I'll figure this out with help from those I trust and have decided to allow to help me right now.  If I ask you a question, that's me asking for help, albeit in that limited respect.  If I ask you, "Did you find that eating an avacado a day helped or hurt your progress?" I'm really only looking for the answer to that question.  If you want to add more, ask me if I'm open to receiving additional information.  I usually will be!  But you ought to ask.

It's the "unsolicited" part that gets tricky, and it's where I find my edges.
Support me.  Don't help me...unless I ask and you can and are willing.  Consent is the key!


So what AM I doing???

I am following a fitness and nutrition plan based upon Timothy Ferris' best selling book The Four Hour Body.

Food ground rules are pretty simple:
For 6 days of 7:
1. No white carbohydrates or carbs that have white versions, so NO bread, sugar, rice, pasta, crackers, dairy (except for butter....ingredients are cream and salt only), and most other starches.
2.  Eat the same few meals over and over again
3.  Don't drink your calories
4. No Fruit (Fructose is as addictive and fat loss stopping as white sugar for most people)
5.  Eat as much lean protein as you can (fatty beef no more than once a week, fatty fish no more than once a week, such as salmon), and as many veggies as you want (of a specific list.  No corn, limit carrots, etc)
6.  Limit to no more than 2 4oz glasses of a dry wine per night, preferable a dry red.

On the 7th day: Go nuts.  This is cheat day.
Ferris recommends jotting down cravings throughout the week so that you can enjoy those things, even binge on them if you want, on your cheat day.

This 7th day of increased caloric intake helps reset metabolism and guards against the body going into starvation mode.

Then, as I mentioned, the MED to exercise (which he differentiates from recreational activities like swimming, dancing, or running around chasing your dogs).

This is a super simplified version, as the book itself is nearly 600 pages.  Lots of science, and lots of advanced tricks and tips, which I'll talk about as I experiment with them.

I am in no way endorsing Mr. Ferris for 4HB.  Clearly, it's day 2 and I have NO IDEA if this is going to work.  But it's a thing that I want to try because the science makes sense to my brain meat, and I have witnessed people have immense success.