Allowing change

Just got off watching a Keanu Reeves movie. No surprises with the theme and the climax sending out the message that humans are a worthy race who will change at the precipice.

Or, we will not change unless a certain extinction forces us to do so.

However staid the message may be, felt that it underlines the core truth that we are all beings of habit. I like to eat food three times a day and hence get hungry three times (or more) a day. I am brought up to be an average person, hence I never think about stretching a point to achieve the "impossible".

What if we never had any boundaries - social or mental - to grapple with? What if the boundary was the only real one imposed by physical limitations - unless that too is a virtual boundary created by the species psyche over generations? Will we be able to perform tasks way beyond our means as we assume it to be today?

It will be an interesting social experiment to run a "Truman show" and study the results. Most likely, the outcome might be an individual who is not a human at all.

So, are we a race of underperformers? Or are we like a school of frogs in a well who refuse to let a peer escape from the mess we have dug ourselves into?

Time might tell us, if we let it.

Pondering the futility of dieting...

Guess I got happy a bit soon. Scales threw a surprise at me today...

I had a couple of heavy dinners this weekend. About 2000 calories each at friend's places. Thought I had compensated a bit by living on salads for the rest of the days and exercised away around 1200 calories.

Imagine my shock when the scale showed 175 pounds.

Two lessons:

1. No more GM diets..the effort/return ratio is simply not worth it.
2. I am going to say a firm "No" to dinner invites with heavy food :)

The good news is that I am still within my overall target of hitting 175 by May 1st. So, need to burn off another 4 pounds this month...and I had thought that my work for the month was over!

Friedman was right - no free lunches to be had anywhere!

Weight at last count - 175 lb.

Second success...

Finished the second round of GM diet couple of days back. Managed to hold back the temptation on food pretty easily this time. Of course, it also helped that Rima decided to do the drill with me this time (God knows, why she feels the need to trim down further, though!)

Swapped rice with pulses during the sixth day and made sure that I had lots of water. The weight was swinging at least 2 -3 pounds every day. The best was when I logged 169 pounds on the sixth day.

On reflection, I might not go through the whole routine again. Probably once a month with the first three days of fruits and vegetables should do the trick as I lost 90% of the weight in this period. But the whole exercise is very good from disciplining your food habits, though. I feel very light and invigorated now. The halo should remain at least for another week :)

My weight has now stabilized at 172 pounds. Losing 5 pounds in 8 days...not bad at all, eh?

Another 29 pounds to go by year end. Good thing is I have shaved off 20 pounds in the last three months.

Let us see how long I travel in this road.

My experiments continue

Started my second shot at GM diet this year yesterday.

Breezed through the fruit day...much better than last time when my dietary habits shouted and screamed at me through the day.

Fighting hard with the vegetables today, so good so far.

Looking back, more than the 7 pounds lost, the week of dieting gave me the discipline to control the craving. The brain finally realized that we can live without having to hog food! A dinner foregone once in a while is actually good for the body.

Have been religiously working out the last two months. Been telling my friends about it to pressure myself into being regular.

And slowly but surely, I am moving forward...at last!

The pessimist in me still has some hope left though. Gluttony after all is so ingrained into my psyche :)

Will keep posting; Weight at last count, yesterday morning: 177 pounds