Eating habits of the overweight physicist

Well.... as the five most faithful readers of this blog probably remember, I am constantly fighting against being overweight, and - having decided I am by now a middle-aged person - I take good care of keeping in a reasonable fit shape, at least for the risks of heart failure connected with excessive body fat. (It also weighs in appreciably my hidden attempts at keeping my physical appearance reasonably attractive - I have a past history of - perceived or real - insufficient appreciation by the female world, so I am very sensitive to its judgement, and I try to make things easier to them).

Now, after coming back from two happy weeks at Fermilab, in the extremely good company of my summer students - Mia and Elena - I discovered my weight had soared to 76 kilograms, from the statutory allowed range of 70 to 73.  I therefore embarked once again (it's been a roller coaster in the last three years, after a huge diet - I posted the plot here in January and then again in June) in a strict diet. I went to my summer vacation in Padola with a clear mind about avoidiing Salsicce and Polenta, Strong Red Wines, Strudel, and other delicacies one usually finds trekking through the refuges in the Dolomites.

It did work, and I am now down to 73.1 kilograms, a success! 2 clear kilograms lost in 20 days, the perfect recipe I myself decided when planning on my first diet: a 1200 calories diet, which saves about 900 calories a day, therefore losing 0.1 kg per day.

Today, though, I was for some reason in a pensive mood (Coleridge used this once, will you tell me where ? It's a poem about a particular flower). I decided to buy a rather outrageously expensive bottle of Pinot Grigio, and I just made the best of it. (Well, some of it is still there for tomorrow evening).

Now, with a apparently clearest mind, but - I know it - actually confused train of thoughts - I am posting this. One day in a week you are allowed to break your diet, whatever that entails. It is a minor overload: even if you were to make 3000 calories, it would weight for 150 calories on all other days, or roughly a tenth of what you are normally losing with the Dorigo regime.

Curious about details ? I start in the morning with coffee and 200 calories - a croissant with marmalade, or some other sugary stuff.  Nothing until lunch, when I concede myself 250 more calories, typically carbohydrates - crackers or bread or something alike, 40 to 50 grams. Lots of water. In the afternoon, one or more coffees are ok. Dinner at 7, carbohydrates again, not much proteins, and lots of vegetables. Water, or diet coke. In total, 700 to 800 calories are ok.  The grand total is always smaller than 1300.

Does it work ? Yes!, if you are strict about it. I found that a huge boost in my motivation was to check my weight every day, plotting the results on a excel spreadsheet. Try it! Being fit is something you owe to yourself, to your relatives, and to your ego.

Comments

[Tommaso Dorigo]

What a moron! It must be the pinot grigio! It was not coleridge, idiot, it was Wordsworth!
So, having been stupid enough to give the wrong hint, here is the poem:

Daffodils" (1804)

I WANDER'D lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretch'd in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:
I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils."

By William Wordsworth (1770-1850).

[m.visaya]

eventually one comes to know the nature of being in a posture, and that there was really no need to cry the first time. this one later inspired modern space music... (QESN)

[Alejandro Rivero]

Ah, but the trick is trekking! I did a walk from my town to almost Madrid last summed, and except for the sunburns it worked perfectly. Only danger are the hunters.

For this september I am building a tandem bike adapted for the railways, we have some abandoned ones around here. I will include a couple oars for a complete exercise.