In This Diary

211.6lbs. C'mon! Lower, lower, lower. That was me willing the scale into submission. The 210lb threshold is upon us! No longer will I shake the earth with my footsteps like some peach-ish colored Incredible Hulk. Lo and behold by Saturday (hopefully) I will be down into the single digits of the 200's. Now a note from the author:

Long before I picked up 4-Hour Body or even decided that this was going to be more of a daily blog (almost a diary of my experience now), I wrestled with what to name it. I did, however, know it was going to be about losing weight or, at some stage, oddly posting chapters of a fiction book I am writing. I also knew it would be purpose driven because if I had to post something to the world it would also serve as an impetus to get things I wanted to get done, accomplished.

One of my choices for a name was "After Morgan", because I kind of saw this whole deal as an experiment from the start and Morgan Spurlock, documentary filmmaker known for the movie 'Super Size Me' and the TV Series 30 Days, was a good example of what I wanted to do. So I sort of saw things as pre Morgan and post Morgan hence, "After Morgan". I believe Super Size Me was the start of a movement in self experimentation. I might not always agree with Mr. Spurlock's lack of objectivity or methods but I do appreciate a great deal of his efforts.

My second choice was "Becoming Ryan Reynolds". Frankly, if there was a physical model I would love to emulate, it would be Ryan Reynolds. I kept reading over the years, from various sources, how he achieved the results he does physically and I thought, heck why not? If you click the Ryan Reynolds link you will get an overview of Mr. Reynold's regimen. So why didn't I call it "Becoming Ryan Reynolds"? Because I really thought it was ridiculous. I am not one of those star follower types and (here is where a modicum of genetics comes into play) I am just not the same body type. I would be doomed to failure from the start. Frankly I have more in common, physically, with Gerard Butler. I will never have narrow hips like Mr. Reynolds because as he has stated, he has always been thin. Gerard, not so much. Me and Gerard have birthin' hips.

I do have to say that Ryan Reynold's typical daily diet is not dissimilar to the one I am on now. It's not a no-carb diet, it is a slow carb diet. If you go through his diet you will notice one thing missing: fruit as a staple food. Interesting doncha think? When I get below 185lbs, I will endeavor to bulk up but not in the excessive manner outlined in that link. I am going to try something a bit different.

So I eventually landed on "Soft In the Middle" because it fit. I love music and the title is a lyric from one of my favorite musicians. It also laments what happens to all of us when we hit our 40's: why am I soft in the middle? The rest of my life is so hard. I picked up the book 4-Hour Body and the rest, as they say, was history. I also found myself able to explore subjects beyond, as Roger Waters of Pink Floyd calls it, "alcohol soft middle age". The title was just open enough to allow me explore weight, diet and sometimes music. I think it has been successful so far and I hope I have not annoyed, you the reader, too much. And I hope I have not embarrassed myself too much. I have also failed on a few promises like BF% (it's sub 30's now), before and after pics and binge pics but I will try to keep you up to date with as much as I can. I do have some great food pics floating around and they will make it here soon. Some days trying to squeeze in 20 minutes of writing can be a task unto itself. I will, however, solidly promise that there will be a very self serving pic of me if we reach 190lbs.

If I have not said it before, thank you for reading. It means a lot to me and your readership is well appreciated.

John



"Being grown up isn't half as fun as growing up;
These are the best days of our lives.
The only thing that matters
is just following your heart
and eventually you'll finally get it right."