A Diet and Psychological Reform, Update 2

Those who don't care about the minutiae of my life, click here for the moral of the story.

Well, it's been a stressful, hectic week. This, of course, is a very bad thing in combination with attempting to change my overall mindset.

Thursday was supposed to be a fast day for ADF. However, I knew my Friday was going to be a very busy day, and worried that my caloric intake might be too low to sustain myself. So I compromised, and had some pecans. Only, that turned into about 1000 calories. I wasn't terribly worried at that point. I was, however, extremely disappointed in myself as I'd been working feverishly on an Arduino project called the MIDHuman (more on it in later posts), but, having never taught myself the basics of soldering, damaged a part crucial to the device and ruined part of it. Worse still, I'd been planning on using it at Friday's show. It was just another scenario where I had jumped into something, not bothering to learn from the ground up, and it came back to bite me in the ass. A rather humbling realization for me, once again.

Introduction To: Assertive Psychology (Includes Exercise)

As I've promised, here is the first of the Introduction To: collection, which will explain many of the concepts I'll be rambling about for the next indefinite period of time. These will attempt to break down things to very simple terms, in an attempt to make it easier (hopefully) for you to understand what I'm talking about. So here goes:

First of all, I don't aim to mislead, so a disclaimer: Look, I'm not a doctor. I'm not a psychologist. I'm not even a med school student. I'm an 18-year-old (how many people just left?) high school senior who likes the direction in which his life is headed. As far as assertive psychology goes, I've been developing this and using this for a while now and I feel it's effective enough that I want to share. It's really as simple as that.

In Defense Of: Alternate-Day Fasting

I decided I'd better not put this one off. The concept of going an entire day without eating is likely to scare some concerned friends, family, co-workers, etc. Looks like I've got some informing to do.

Here's a quick sample of the studies that "alternate day fasting" brings up on Google Scholar:

Alternate-day fasting in nonobese subjects: effects on body weight, body composition, and energy metabolism

And a summary, so you don't have to:

Subjects lost 2.5 ± 0.5% of their initial body weight (P < 0.001) and 4 ± 1% of their initial fat mass (P < 0.001). Hunger increased on the first day of fasting and remained elevated (P < 0.001). RMR and RQ did not change significantly from baseline to day 21, but RQ decreased on day 22 (P < 0.001), which resulted in an average daily increase in fat oxidation of 15 g. Glucose and ghrelin did not change significantly from baseline with alternate-day fasting, whereas fasting insulin decreased 57 ± 4% (P < 0.001).

A Diet and Psychological Reform, First Day

One of the big promises I'm making with this blog is that I will not bore you, nor dilute the potentially informative content of what will be my blog with the unimportant minutiae of my life. However, I also feel that I need to prove that what I'm attempting to do is both possible and sustainable, and therefore, I'll update you about once a week on how I'm doing thus far.

A Diet and Psychological Reform, Part 2

Now that we've covered the WHY of my diet, it's time to address what I think will benefit you the most: the HOW.

One thing I've noticed that's wrong with a lot of dieting methodologies (even those such as the Primal Blueprint) is that they don't address the hardest aspect of dieting. Sure, they'll tell you what to eat, what not to, and (most importantly, of course) why, but they don't tell you how. Most diet/lifestyle book authors assume it's as simple "don't put x in your mouth." Unfortunately, anyone who has attempted to diet (even many on the Primal/Paleo lifestyle) know it's just not that simple. There is a great deal of psychology involved, what I sometimes refer to as the "Menemy."

A Diet and Psychological Reform, Part 1

I regret that there's little time for introductions. I'll be sure to post primers on the topics that will arise in this post soon, ideally before the year's out. Today, I'm announcing my diet plan. The reason for doing this publicly is twofold. 1) The fear of shame is an added negative incentive to stay on track. 2) I've developed some techniques and philosophies that I find to be unique. I've also found them to be extremely helpful, and as such, feel they will benefit others by being shared.

So today, I am beginning my diet. To be frank, here are the rules: