SmartPIT Blog

Ok, so I promised my friends I would type up something this weekend, so they can get started right away. There’s a lot to cover, so I’ve decided to publish this “Quick Start” Guide.

Two Biggest Changes (To Start, don’t worry they’ll come back)

Cut out Simple Carbs (Or overly processed foods)

• All Breads (Except Ezekiel) – I don’t care if it’s whole grain, multi grain, etc. Trust me, get used to not having it. Later I’ll explain some others that are safe to eat. For now, it’s easier to do what I did, before I did the research… Stop eating bread
• Yes, that includes pasta (Spaghetti, Macaroni, etc.)

Cut out Sodas

• If you are going to follow The Wincel “Diet”, then you got to give up sodas. I don’t care if it’s zero cal, zero caffeine, zero carb, zero sugar, etc. For me, I just gave them all up. Now, I can’t stand sugar and it used to be one of my favorites (Bacon being 1st). Trust me, you can do it and it’s not as hard as you think.

  Note: (I use my primal instinct when it comes to deciding rather to drink a soda that’s zero everything. If you can’t find it occurring naturally in nature, then avoid it) Cavemen probably didn’t drink sodas, but I bet a few of them might have had Perrier. (A brand of seltzer that’s naturally occurring. best bought in the glass bottle, and refrigerated. This is simply natural carbonated water)

Find your love of these items;

• Yogurt (Really, any yogurt. But I prefer the no-fat, low fat, no sugar added.) Recently I’ve found a love of Greek Yogurt, particularly Chobani yogurt.
• Green Tea (It’s how I kicked the Coffee and soda habits). Green Tea is insanely healthy for you, and there’s a couple of ways to drink it (Brewed or Blended) Some people I’ve spoken with just simply can’t stand Green Tea. If you can train yourself to like it, and drink it 3-4 times a day I promise you, you won’t be sorry. Otherwise, if you just can’t stomach it then find some other tea you like (Just don’t sweeten it, or put cream in it) Drink it simply brewed & natural.

  Note: I was first introduced to Green Tea in High School when I had green tea ice cream. And later that same year when I ate a red bean desert that was surrounded with a green tea rice cake. (Yummy). Since I’ve had green tea, and it wasn’t the same brewed. (It was good, but tasted different). While traveling, I had green tea at a restaurant which was simply delicious. I later found the powder this was made from in a Oriental Market. And later I learned how to make my own by buying the green tea loose leaf then blending in a bullet until it was a fine powder.

Eat lots of these;

• Protein – (Whey powder, or egg whites) Lean meats (I.e. 4oz Chicken Breast, Tuna, very lean steak, legumes. I focused more on the powder, making smoothies and shakes.
• Since I mentioned meat (Above). When coming to meat, focus on grilled\baked chicken breast. When eating meat, that should be a good first choice.
• Fish should be second. And it should be grilled, broiled, or steamed. My  favorite is blackened tuna steak, or herb crusted salmon (I.e. from Olive Garden).
• I would try to avoid beef as much as you can. If you eat, then only do it once a week and ensure two things;

  ‣ It’s a small portion
  ‣ It’s very lean

• For now, I would avoid pork like the plague. Not saying give it up forever, but at least until you get your metabolism reset and you are 3-4 lbs under the weight you are trying for.

• Fiber (Benefiber is good choice. Won’t thicken, and has no flavor)
• Fruits & Veggies (Don’t think it’s even possible to eat too many veggies)

Keep a Journal

This is important. You need to keep a diet, so you can reflect on what’s working and what’s not working. Also, to track your progress. I use Evernote, mostly because it’s accessible from any device I use. (I.e. I have it on my Windows Mobile phone, and it’s on my iPad and iPod Touch. I also have it installed on all of my Windows workstations, and on my Linux box I simply access it via a web browser.) The point is, I can update my journal anytime\anywhere.

You should be keeping a daily journal of;

• Morning Weight (Weigh yourself nude, or in your underwear) Clothes can alter your weight from 1-3 lbs, so best to keep variables the same.

  If you’re curious throughout the day what your weight is, then weigh yourself before and after you dress so you know what your clothes weigh.

  Also, try to determine the difference of all your scales. (I.e. My scales upstairs are about 1 lbs off from my downstairs scale. The scales where I work is about 3 lbs off). Know that and the weight of your clothes, and you can do some quick math.

  Note: I’ve read and heard advice that you should not weigh yourself except once a week. Because your weight will fluctuate. And that’s true. However, I weigh myself 2-3 times a day (2 for sure). I do this because it keeps me in check. If I wake up every morning, and weigh myself and I see I’m dropping 1-3 lbs a day, then I know I’m doing good. And if I goof up, and eat 3 slices of pizza and wake up and see I gained a pound, then I know I messed up.

• Food – You should record your Breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner, and evening snack. I used to record all of the nutritional values to. But today I only focus on three things. Calories, Carbs (And the source of carbs. I.e. Fiber vs Sugars), and Protein. Visually, I look at the fat and that’s my first gate. If it has trans fats, I decline it immediately. It it has more than 2G of saturated fat, then I decline it as well.

  Note: Tracking Cal, Carb, Prot is simple. Especially if you make yourself a cheatsheet of the common stuff. (I.e. if you eat strawberries daily, blueberries, carrots, or drink a slimfast every morning, etc.) I typically do a search for the food, with keywords like nutrition. (I.e. Strawberry nutritional facts) Once I get to what I’m looking for, I screen shot it and add to my cheatsheet.

• Mood – I like to write about how I feel as well. I.e. I was very tired, and not with the program. Or I had crazy energy and just had to run. Or, I ate like a hog all weekend long and now I feel fat and sluggish. That is helpful in customizing what foods you like, which help you lose weight, while making you feel good.

What to do when you go out to eat
Face it, it’s going to happen. You’re going to go out to eat with either the family or friends. What you do in that scenario is going to be important, especially if you do it often.

• Avoid breads and pastas
• Avoid sodas, ask for unsweet tea or water.
• Look at the menu for grilled chicken salads (Ask them to hold the croûtons, and cheese. get the dressing on the side) Also check out their fish dishes, and other chicken offerings. (Ask to make sure these are grilled, broiled, or cooked w\o butters and fats.)
• When they bring out the food, ask for a to-go box. Before you even start eating, split the portion in half. Half stays on your plate, the other half goes home. (Can be tomorrow’s lunch, or a snack)
• Remember to look for other healthy alternatives. (I.e. when I go to cracker barrel I order the 3 eggs poached “Which is essentially boiled” I’ll alternate the sausage w\ Turkey sausage, etc.)

What to do when you overeat
I ate 3 slices of pizza not long ago at work, and discovered a trick on what to do when that happens. (BTW, don’t use this knowledge to cheat. I promise you, it doesn’t work that way. Use this on the rare occasions you’ve overeaten or consumed far more calories than you hoped. (This shouldn’t happen often, but if it does);

• You need to keep your body processing. So march in place until you’re winded, or breaking a sweat. You can also go on a walk, one that’s enough to get you sweating, or winded.
• In 1-2 hours, you need to eat again. (Even if you are stuffed to the max.). You need to keep your digestive tract moving along. You want that nasty, calorie dense food to get out of your clean body ASAP. So focus on fiber sources, veggies, salad greens, etc.

Summary

• Stop eating simple carbs (Breads and Pasta), or overly processed foods.
• Stop eating sugar. NO SODAS. (Not only sodas, but don’t add sugar to anything. If you want something sweet, eat fruit. Or look to sweeten things using carrot juice, or pure Stevia “The green kind”)
• Eat lots of Yogurt (no-fat preferred, low-fat okay. The others are not bad, but don’t over do those)
• Eat lot’s of Veggies (Broccoli, Carrots, Celery, Asparagus, Bell Peppers, onions, etc.)
• Eat lot’s of Fruits (Strawberries, Blueberries, Kiwi, Grapes, Grapefruit, Apples “The perfect food btw, more on that later”)
• Journal Everything, logging weight and food info (Calories, Carbs, Protein). Avoid all trans fat foods, and think twice about consuming stuff that has more than 2G of Saturated Fat. (Not saying not to, just analyze and make good choices. “We’ll cover this more in part 2″)
• Eat lots of protein, and lots of fiber
• Drink lots of tea & lots of water
• You want to stay regular, so if you’re not using the restroom 1-3+ times a day, then you’re not regular. Beef up the fiber. (I would also recommend using Swiss Kris, or Senna tea. Not more than a week at a time. use along w\ Fiber)
• Grab a fat burner (I’ve had a lot of success with various pills. None of them Miracle drugs, so you still need to eat right. And you should do some minor exercise)

  Caution: You can make your own, which is essentially a ACE stack. (Aspirin, Caffeine, Ephedrine). You’ll buy baby aspirin, which I believe is 81MG. 1 Vivarin pill, and 1 bronkaid pill. Do this only in the morning, and only once a day. This is the most effective I’ve seen as far as fat burners. but I’m also not a doctor, so do this at your own risk. (Or at least research it) most diet pills are some form of those three ingredients.

That’s it in a nutshell, stick to this until I get part 2 published.

Closing
We’ll begin breaking down the foods you can eat, and develop the plan a little more in Part 2. We’ll also talk about exercises, and go into details on smoothies, stackers, and supplements.

The Wincel “Diet” – Introduction

I’ve written this introduction 2-3 different ways, and each time straying away from my message. So for now, I’m going to keep this simple;

• I weighed 235 lbs, and lost 75 lbs in 5 Months. And I did it without dieting, or exercising.
• The first 30lbs dropped off in the 1st 4-6 weeks. The rest averaged 1-2 lbs a day, or 1-2 lbs every other day when I plateaued.
• I have a 6 pack, (Really looks more like a 4 pack, with well defined obliques) without doing a single sit-up (Everyone has them, you just can’t see them because of the fat. Drop to 11-12% and you can start to see them appearing. Drop to 10% or less, and yep there they are.
• I have so much energy it’s driving me crazy, so on Monday I’m going to start P90X (One of the most extreme workouts I know of), just to kill some energy.
• Oh, and I didn’t starve myself getting there. In fact, I feel like I eat twice as much as I did before, and more frequently. I now eat about 6-7 times a day.
• I’m writing a book and a paper on the subject (My doctor is extremely interested in how I did it. Because I did it in a manner that’s healthy)

Why am I writing this?

• For one, everyone is begging me to.
• I tell my story on average 3-4 times a week, sometimes 3-4 times a day and felt it would be easier for me to just write it down. That way I can reach more people without having to repeat myself.
• Mostly because I want people to be healthy. Especially those close to me. Being overweight sucks and being unhealthy sucks.

How did I do it?

I was on the “Master Cleanse Diet”, a diet I’ve done several times in which I dropped a lot of weight (17-20 lbs in 2 weeks). But I always gained it back. I will admit that I felt really good after cleansing my system of toxins. I may still do this in the future simply for the detox benefits of it, but for now I’ve written it off as the healthy way to lose weight.

So while on the Master Cleanse diet, I was reading several diet books trying to figure out what I would do after the Master Cleanse. I read probably 11 different books, and all seem like they would work but while so many overlapped, most of this contradicted each other. Frustrated, I decided to fix my own problem by going to where I felt the root problem was. How I ate, and how my metabolism really works.

I’ve always been curious about Metabolism, and knew it was a bigger science than I’ve been exposed to. But there was never really any good details about it in the diet books. So I did my own research and found a book that changed my life. A book which explained what metabolism was, and how it worked. Focusing on that knowledge, I began catering my dieting and doing research on different areas (I.e. determining Daily Calorie Requirements, How to target fat burning, as opposed to muscle breakdown.) What’s the difference between high vs low impact cardio.

Once I had all the pieces, the lights started coming on. I could see why so many diets worked, but then failed in the end. I could see how others didn’t work, but rendered weight-loss. And so I decided to start my own “Diet” based on how metabolism works. You’ll notice I don’t consider my philosophy a diet, because it’s not really. It’s a lifestyle change, or a methodology I apply. Do I eat cheeseburgers and pizza? Yep, but I set rules around that consumption and I don’t do it often. Do I consume a lot of carbs? Sometimes, but I make a judgment call on when I consume certain types of carbs (Because not all carbs are created equal.)

In closing on this intro (Which I’ll be revising over time), once I applied what I learned about metabolism I was shocked to see I was dropping 2-3 lbs a day. So much that I visited my doctor to make sure I was healthy, and I was. I discovered some interesting facts around plateaus which I became a master at overcoming.

Let’s get on with the good stuff…

I am inside.  It feels like MY house but it also doesn’t.  I am walking around looking for my husband as  I make my way to the front door which is wide open.  My husband is on the front porch and he’s leaning on a support beam with his hands tucked in his pockets, staring up into the night.  As I step out, I see what appears to be a Comet very slowly burning it’s way across the sky from left to right.  As I start to state how strange that is, another burning comet appears to the left.  This one isn’t going in a straight line, however.  It’s making a circle.  I do find my voice and try to direct his attention when my husband simply points to the sky to my right.  IT is the most amazing thing I’ve EVER seen.  The sky is lit up in orange with a meteor shower.  The objects are just pin points in the sky but as we watch, the number increases and spreads.

I fear it’s about to end soon and I think of the kids.  This is a once in a life time event and I HAVE to get them out of bed.  As I run inside, I have a fleeting thought.  “Is this it?  The end of the world?”  I immediately dismiss it as I was sure I would have heard about it by now.  Nor do I “feel” panic.  I run into the kids room.  I yell for them to get up and com look.  “It’s Amazing!”  I pick up my daughter and run out.  My son is,  surprisingly, fast behind on my heels.  We didn’t miss it.  As we watch, we see something strike the ground way off in the distance but we continue to watch in silence and awe.

Suddenly, a large flaming ball strikes our front yard between, the trees near the road.  As flames burst up and towards us, we run inside.  No one speaks so I mention how close that was.  Just as I’m feeling relieved, I see a small fire in the corner of the room.  I yell and point it out to my husband.  I then grab what I perceive is a towel and start whacking at the flames.  As I put them out, new ones spring out across them room.  This repeats all over the room, then into another room.  When one especially stubborn fire won’t go out, I finally realize what I have in my hand is a plastic bag.  How did I not notice THAT?  I run to grab something cloth then attack the fire again.  It’s finally out.

I look around for my husband thinking he’s battling flames in other parts of the house.  He’s not.  He’s standing right where I left him when we ran in.  He still has the same look of amazement.  He STILL hasn’t said a word.

I am awakened by a loud sound on the roof of our cabin.

Okay, I know this has nothing to do with technology, but thought I’d share the strangest dream I had last night.  I have been playing a lot of D&D 4th edition, and working with Cartography Apps to generate maps.  Adding to my list of fun, I’m somewhat hooked on Little Big Planet.

Last night, I saw a commercial for Thor vs. The Incredible Hulk (A Retro Cartoon I sadly enough remember).  To top it all off there was a nasty rain storm last night.  Now that you have the background, here’s the dream.

I woke suddenly and found myself on some weird planet covered in dark mud, with mountains and crevasses all around me.  It was dark and cold, and there was a downpour of rain. There were two tall mountains (made of mud) on either side of me when I heard the call of Godzilla.  I was frightened, and suddenly it all became clear.  Godzilla and the incredible hulk were hunting me. (Don’t ask why I knew that, I just did).  So I did what most brave IT nerds would do.  I ran.  And I ran as fast and hard as I could given the conditions, but Godzilla was gaining ground.  So I bolted around a corner, and almost slid off the ledge of a cliff.  As I gained my balance, I mixed my Godzilla and T-Rex facts up.  I got the notion that if I covered myself with mud like Arnold did in Predator, and got up close to the side of the mountain he wouldn’t see me.  I was already covered in mud, so, for whatever reason, made a pose like an Egyptian and held still.  Heart pounding, I open my eyes and notice I’m 3 feet from a cliff, on the side of a muddy mountain, overlooking the ocean when I suddenly realize I’m standing on a beach ball.  “CRAP! I must of accidentally stepped on that coming around the corner.”  So I slowly stepped off and kicked it over the cliff.  As I was doing this, I noticed on a nearby cliff The HULK saw the ball. The gig was up, Id been spotted.  The Hulk bounced from his current position in a large leap while screaming “Hulk SMASH!!”, but missed the cliff. (Probably because it was dark and rainy).  As he was falling, the sun was coming out and he started changing back to a skinny man, and then into the little Sackboy on LBP.  Then I woke.

When I woke, I was poised like an Egyptian in my bed, and the wind sounded like it was tearing down the side of the house. My heart was pounding.

Kind of funny when I reflect on it, but man Godzilla and The HULK are scary in real life.

For all of my Hockey buddies (and anyone else with STINKY gear or clothes ), I’ve been researching this because I am concerned about how my gear smells. Granted, being a girl makes me slightly more picky, but, for you GUYS….I’m sure ANYONE else around you would appreciate the tip .

The mix across several different sites have consistently been about 1 part Isopropyl alcohol to 3 parts water. One site stated 1/3rd to 2/3rds which may be better and is the mix I intend on using. I have a bottle of Tea Tree Oil that I picked up at either Wal Mart or Kroger (I also have one from The Body Shoppe in the mall. This stuff is generally used to kill the bacteria in your pores which will help alleviate pimples, or in this case, odor. It’s safe for the skin (as is Alcohol in limited amounts), obviously so the mix will not hurt you ESPECIALLY after it airs out.

There is a product out on the market that has a “similar” mix and, of course, will charge you more for it than you can make w/ your at home ingredients. Any who, thanks for letting me go on my diatribe. Good luck with your SMELLY GEAR!

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