Fifteenkey

A place to indulge my narcissism... and write stuff...

Month: January 2020

There is a moment…

January 19, 2020 / / 0 Comments

“There is a moment…” 

–Dr. Mann

This short scene from “Interstellar” reminds me of peering into the fridge between meals. There really is a moment as I’m staring into the abyss of unneeded calories that I must choose to step back — or push ahead, with food into my piehole. As Dr. Mann, played by Matt Damon instantaneously learned, pushing ahead can have disastrous consequences, and when at the modern icebox, it usually does. 
 
So how does one push back when at the brink of bulking? Well, I think the first thing, and we have but an instant to do it, is to be mindful that the moment is even occurring. Why am I at this fridge? Again. Sometimes just that split-second to pause and consider the imminent caloric explosion can lead to stepping back. Think about how many times these moments occur and how often we impulsively push ahead and indulge. There is a moment. Be mindful of it and you can save yourself.
 
I’ll need to do some research on “Why we eat?” but one thing’s for sure, aside from nourishing the body with the nutrients we need to survive, there is a primal and visceral pleasure in the act of gnashing food with our 8 Incisors, 4 Canines, 8 Premolars and 8 Molars that begins the digestive process, all while sensing the textures and extracting the flavors that make eating so enjoyable. Hell, overcoming all that is a genetically physical and mental mountain to climb.  
 
Any addiction is difficult to overcome, but we don’t need to look at our phones or drink that whiskey or smoke that cigarette or chase the dragon to physically survive as a human, but we must eat, and with 40,000 years of an evolving survival instinct in each of us, disciplining oneself to eat less is a bitch.  Just take it moment by moment. 

Baby Steps

January 17, 2020 / / 2 Comments

Note: My reading of the scale yesterday must have been an early morning hallucination. Anyway, back at it.

In the 1991 comedy, “What About Bob?” Richard Dreyfuss and Bill Murray play a psychiatrist and patient. The movie works, of course, because the doctor is crazier than the patient and the two actors have great chemistry. One of the comic props in the film is the book, “Baby Steps,” written and shamelessly plugged by Dr. Leo Marvin, played with perfect smugness by Mr. Dreyfuss.

  • Baby Steps?
  • It means setting small reasonable goals for yourself one day at a time.
  • One tiny step at a time
  • Baby steps

Baby steps seem appropriate to describe the process for trying to lose weight. Here are some of the baby steps that I’ve learned from so far:

  • Baby steps a single serving of oatmeal will do…
  • Baby steps don’t stop at the bagel store…
  • Baby steps I don’t need a second helping…
  • Baby steps or a third…
  • Baby steps just one or two of Kyle’s fries will do…
  • Baby steps tonight I’ll have water instead of a beer…
  • Baby steps I don’t need to eat when I’m bored or as a distraction…
  • Baby steps eat what you want, just take a little less…

These baby steps have me down 7.8 4.8 pounds halfway through the month against a five-pound goal to 253.2 256.2 without a functioning NordicTrack… (That’s another story…)

If I can keep this going for the remaining 95.9% of the year that remains, I may be able to say, just like Mr. Murray’s Bob Wiley, “I feel good, I feel great, I feel wonderful… I feel good, I feel great, I feel wonderful… I feel good, I feel great, I feel wonderful…”

61* in ‘61

January 4, 2020 / / 1 Comment

A guy I follow on LinkedIn and Instagram posted recently about “B2B marketers trying desperately to link 2020 (year) and 20/20 (vision) to help peddle their products…” Sure, it may be 20/20 hindsight by then, but I look forward to his “2020 Top 20” of simpleminded 2020 – 20/20 analogies toward the end of 2020.

Since it’s January 1, 2020 as I began to write this, let’s do a resolution post. I’m not a fan of them mostly since they don’t happen, but nonetheless…

I resolve to lose 61 pounds in 2020.

The awful truth on New Year’s Day 2020

Sure, it seems like a lot, but it’s only 5.083333333333333 LB’s a month. I’m pretty sure I can put that on in a weekend.  Hey, the odds (and the fans) were against Roger Maris in 1961, but on October 1st of that year, he belted home run #61. The baseball establishment then put a freakin’ asterisk next to it in the record books because he did it in a 162-game season when Yankee God, Babe Ruth swatted 60 in only 154 games.

So why go public?  Well, it’s not like people I know don’t know I’m fat.  Hell, I’ve been battling this since my mother traumatized me back in the 60’s in the “husky” pants section. And the last time I successfully lost tonnage was in a public contest at work, so I figure that if I don’t put it out there to my audience of 3 or 4 people, there’s even less chance of it happening because only I’ll know of my abject failure.

I could go on and on about this, but the new year is slipping away. I’ll update my progress or lack thereof here and share any insights I learn about what works for me and what doesn’t. Here’s a starter set:

  • Losing weight is about portion control – just eat less
  • Delicious and satisfying white carbs like pasta, rice, bread and sugar are your enemy
  • THINK about why you’re peering into the fridge before taking any action
  • Stress eating can be reduced by reducing stress in other ways – exercise, meditation

There’s my resolution. I wish you luck with yours.

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