Okay. So I let myself go a bit over the holidays. You know, just a bit. The way the Powerball jackpot was a bit large. Or the way Donald Trump is a bit orange. I can’t really explain it other than The Switch wasn’t only just off, it wasn’t even hooked up to any circuits.
I never left Onederland, but I did come close. In fact, closer than I have since I finally got back into Onederland nearly four years ago. I swore, I swore, I swore I wouldn’t squander that opportunity. I haven’t yet but I don’t ever want to come this close again.
The appetite suppressant I discovered worked for a short while but quickly wore off. This time, however, it would be different.
I made a trial run at Diet #117 just before New Year’s Eve. I officially kicked it off on the Number One Diet Day Ever: January First.
Ahhh, the new year. So magical. So wonderful. So imaginary.
So what am I doing different this time that I didn’t do the previous 116 times? Nothing. Better call Simba because this is just the Circle of Life playing itself out all over again. I’m simply trying to not eat everything that falls within a three foot radius of my body. And I’m trying to get up and move around as much as possible. In other words, the basics.
Although now that I think about it, I lied. I am doing one thing different. I’m logging my foods. This in and of itself is nothing new. I’ve been doing that quite regularly since 2008. No, what’s different this time is how I’m keeping track. I have been using LiveStrong’s MyPlate that entire time, but over the last couple years a certain dissatisfaction with the service has been growing. I’ll save the details for a future blog post, but suffice it to say I finally started looking elsewhere for help.
I looked at a number of popular services, but in the end the thought struck me: it’s just a list. It doesn’t have to be fancy. I can keep a list of data using almost any medium. That’s when I switched over to my old Etch-a-Sketch. Sure, those knobs can be a bit tricky. But once you get the hang of it, it’s not that bad.
Okay, you got me. I’m actually using Excel. I have one worksheet for my food log. Another for my food database. Other tabs for tracking exercise, weigh-ins, and other helpful reference data. I was worried at first, thinking that maintaining my own food database would be a horrid undertaking. As it turns out, it didn’t take any time at all to create seventeen entries for “Peanut Butter.”
Is it going to work long term? I’ll let you know when I write up my “Diet #118” blog post later this year.
January 8th, 2016
So another year has come and gone. In fact, even one whole week of the current year is already behind us. Yep, almost two percent of 2016 has now come and gone, if you can believe it. So, before any more precious time rushes past us, I’d like to use this post to talk about […]
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December 11th, 2015
The year 2014 was probably both my most bestest and my most typicalest dieting year in recent memory. My weight began the year at the usual post-holiday high. It then went up from there, for whatever reason (certainly not because I was eating too much and never exercising). But then, nearly halfway though what was […]
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December 4th, 2015
With everything else going on late, I nearly forgot to let you in on the most important topic of all: I’m on a diet. I realize that’s not saying much. I mean, I’m never not on a diet. In fact, as I look back over these many years, the only times where I’ve not been […]
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April 6th, 2015
Three years ago today I was flat on my back in a hospital bed. Had I not received any medical intervention, I would have been looking at the last three or four weeks of my life. My nick-of-time treatment bumped the odds to fifty-fifty that I’d see whatever blockbuster movies were coming out that summer. […]
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March 30th, 2015
About once or twice a decade, something compels me to join a gym. It could be any little thing: from needing an extra boost because I’ve hit a weight loss rut to finding new and different ways to set my money on fire. My latest foray into the world of sweat-generating machinery came in February, […]
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March 23rd, 2015
In February, The Great Neverending Weight Loss Story got two much-needed boosts. First, I finally admitted that Diet #113 was dead and so started a new one. Second, I was presented with a Challenge. A Challenge? Enter the February Wellness Challenge, sponsored by my employer. The idea behind it was: hook up with three co-workers, […]
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March 16th, 2015
I am somehow forty-two days into Diet 115 already. Which is hard to believe because it actually feels more like forty-one days, twenty-three hours. It’s like we inexplicably lost an hour somewhere along the way. The good news is: I’m down five pounds. The bad news is: I was down five pounds thirty whole days […]
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February 23rd, 2015
It’s with mingled happiness, excitement, sorrow, and regret that I announce Diet #115 has begun. Before Back to the Fridge went off on a five-week diet soft drink adventure, I had embarked on Diet 113C. In that post I talked about how all my ambitious, post-holiday diet plans crashed and burned right out of the […]
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January 12th, 2015
I’m not a novelist, but I play one on the internet. In my quest to become one in real life, I’ve studied a thing or two about the craft. Fortunately for you, one of the “one or two things” I’ve learned along the way can be directly applied to dieting. When it comes to starting […]
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January 5th, 2015
A few minutes after midnight on Thursday, January 1, 2015, I had an amazing idea. A groundbreaking idea. In fact, it’s hard to believe no one has ever come up with this before. Forget about revolutionary notions like the automobile or space flight or even the Slap Chop. I’ve got something so good it’ll make […]
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December 20th, 2014
Today we once again touch on a difficult topic: the passage of time. Each of us is acutely aware of the fact that the older we get the faster time moves. Up until the sixth grade or so, we generally experience time moving forward at the expected rate of one second per second. By the […]
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October 13th, 2014
I’ve essentially been on one straight diet for over twenty-four years now. However, from time to time, I “go on a diet,” as they say, just to mix things up a bit. I define this diet within a diet like so: adopt a specific methodology, aiming at a specific target weight, for a specific purpose. […]
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September 29th, 2014
When I decided to get this blog going again in July, I made a conscious decision to steer it away from the usual (read: boring) Weight Loss Journey topics and more towards the things that truly matter in life, like Toast and Ramen Noodles. But that didn’t mean I wouldn’t ever talk about the weight […]
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August 25th, 2014
Cancer treatment, to put it mildly, is a bit of an inconvenience. It prevents you from going to work every day. It gives you a fresh, new perspective on life. It helps you lose those last twenty pounds . . . Wait a second. That doesn’t sound inconvenient at all. That sounds awesome. Let me […]
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July 7th, 2014
I’ve undergone an unusual bout of success lately in the ol’ weight loss department. This means that I now fall under Weight Loss Regulation Number 237, Section 6, Paragraph 2 which states that I am currently obligated by law to reveal my Secret to the masses. Paragraph 5 gives me a few options for doing […]
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July 1st, 2014
I honestly had no idea I was embarking upon a three-month hiatus when I posted my April Fools Day post. Especially since I’d just gotten back on a semi-regular blogging schedule. Yet here we are. I only have one excuse, but it’s the best excuse ever: I’ve been busy. So very, very busy. New day […]
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April 1st, 2014
So for the few of you who’ve been visiting me here at the Fridge each week lately, you know that I’ve basically been flatlined since Christmas. I did pretty well in 2013, staying not only in Onederland, but spending a good portion of the year below the Magical 190 mark (Anna, that’s thirteen and a […]
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March 24th, 2014
We’re now two weeks into Attempt #113 and the net total loss is: 0.0 lbs. Yay me. The same problem continues: very little to eat for twenty-three hours of each day, followed by way too much to eat for one hour of each day. Yes, I’m acutely aware of the fact that this is completely […]
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March 17th, 2014
In Chinese philosophy, the concept of yin-yang is used to describe how opposite or contrary forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world; and, how they give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another. Many natural dualities (such as light and dark, high and low, hot and cold, fire and water, […]
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March 10th, 2014
Today was Day One #113. The astute reader will realize that the last post ended with me embarking on Diet #112. The kind reader will know it’s not polite to ask, “So what happened with the one hundred and twelfth attempt?” But I’ll tell you anyway. Diet #112 began on Monday, February 3, 2014. It […]
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March 3rd, 2014
At the end of our last episode, I said I’d let you know how Diet Number Eleventy-One went. First, here’s the my-alarm-didn’t-go-off-and-now-I’m-late-for-work-but-I-really-want-to-see-how-Charlie’s-diet-is-going-first version: it went great and then The Holidays happened. Long time readers know that The Holidays is just a short-hand, eleven-letter way of saying, “All the days between Halloween and New Years Inclusive.” […]
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February 3rd, 2014
Today is my one hundred and eleventh birthday: I am eleventy-one today! […] I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve. It was 1992 when I first read Bilbo’s long-expected birthday speech and thought, “This is […]
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December 2nd, 2013
Curious whether my new catpcha solution was now blocking legitimate humans from leaving comments, I turned it off, just as an experiment. Well, the actual number of human-provided comments did not go up at all. But the spam hose was back on: Do note, this number represents just two weeks’ worth. I’m really never, ever […]
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October 10th, 2013
When we last left off, our intrepid hero Charlie and his faithful sidekick Sad Puppy had just wrapped up a troublesome year with the bathroom scale on the rise. Our dastardly villain, the evil Professor Seefood, had made an unexpected comeback after the triumphant defeat of Bob Hoskins Linoleum. Our hero swore that, after the […]
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September 29th, 2013
In my head I’m thinking, “It’s been two weeks since my last blog post. Probably time to write another one!” However, it’s not until after I spend two hours trying to remember my blog’s URL that I discover it’s actually been eight weeks since the last post. But just because I couldn’t find my blog […]
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August 4th, 2013
So how’d the 365 days since then go? Stay tuned. There’s lots more to write about. And I know the three of you are dying to know all about it. So I wrote back on April 26, 2013. My apologies if this made it sound like my next post in this series was imminent. I […]
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April 26th, 2013
Long time readers of this blog—you three know who you are—are well aware that in spite of the many and varied topics discussed here, none stand out more than Return to Onederland. It was the very first post when I re-launched Back to the Fridge in its current format back in August 2008. It was […]
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May 1st, 2012
On October 3, 2011 I wrote this post about my last diet. And by last I meant final. Because after more than two decades of trying to figure out this weight loss business, I honestly felt like I only had one attempt left in me. As it happens to turn out (as with so many […]
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November 5th, 2009
Things were looking pretty good just a few weeks ago. After faltering for a while, I finally got my head on straight, lost six pounds in a week, and was well on my way to a new, svelte self. What a difference a few spins of the earth upon its axis makes. I know y’all […]
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October 15th, 2009
I just realized it’s been seventy-three days since I’ve mentioned anything about my weight. I know! It’s hard to believe the earth is still rotating on its axis. I thought for sure we would have crashed into the sun if I ever stopped publicly reporting my weight on a weekly basis. I also just realized […]
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August 3rd, 2009
Okay, okay, I know it was only one week ago when I said I’d only post weight progress once a month. After all, there’s a bit more to my life than the number on the scale. (Not that you could tell from this summer’s postings. This isn’t at all how I planned the summer would […]
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July 27th, 2009
This, I must say, is a first. I’m celebrating one year into this current diet. Technically, the anniversary is tomorrow. However, given that diets always start on Mondays, week-wise, it’s today. And I had to ponder that for a while. Yes. This really is a first. Despite the fact that I’ve been doing this for […]
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June 29th, 2009
My guess is when most people find themselves writing “Day 7000” they’re only doing it to exaggerate. It’s not actually the seven thousandth day of their diet, just as they don’t actually weigh seven thousand pounds (even if that’s what they like to tell people). But I’m not most people. Today really is Day Seven […]
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June 22nd, 2009
I don’t look at my weekly weigh-in data until it’s time to write up that week’s post. So up until that time, my image of how the week is going is whatever my brain feels like making up. (Hmmm… You know, that basically describes every aspect of my life.) Last night, I was so sure […]
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June 15th, 2009
Wow. A whole week between posts! How very strange. Not that that’s good or bad in and of itself—just different. I suppose it’s like breaking any sort of routine or habit. Like the week after finals or when they suddenly (and without warning) make you turn around and skate clockwise at the roller rink. Did […]
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June 8th, 2009
It knows. I know it knows. It knows that “194” is officially the “thirty pounds lost” mark. And every time I hit that milestone, my body retaliates. “Ha ha!” my body says, mocking me. “Try to outsmart me, will ya?” Check it out: On the one hand, I was happy Wednesday. I optimistically wrote, “And […]
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June 1st, 2009
Not to toot my own horn, but I’ve always considered myself slightly smarter than the average bear. I primarily watch history and science shows on television. I know off the top of my head that the gamma factor in relativity theory is equal to one over the square root of one minus v-squared over c-squared. […]
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May 25th, 2009
I’d write more, but I gotta start making burgers for grilling. (In other words, I’m taking the day off. Hopefully you can too!) But speaking of burgers, check this out: Click on the image for more. I wants me one of them!
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May 18th, 2009
I took a day off last Monday so this week you get double the pleasure, double the fun. (But no Doublemint gum. Well, unless you just go buy some on your own.) Anyway, before telling any stupid jokes or making obscure movie references or rambling on as I typically do, I want you to check […]
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May 11th, 2009
Takin’ a day off. Double the results next Monday!
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May 4th, 2009
Last week I asked the hopeful question, “Back on Track?” This week I answer it with an emphatic, “No.” The reasons are clear as sugar free Jell-O. I’m still eating too much. Want a donut? Sure! How about a package of cookies? Why not! Here’s a forty-seven inch pizza, interested? Let me get my bib! […]
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April 27th, 2009
If you’re not familiar with the Four Physical Laws of Dieting, I’ll give you Law Number IV: Informing others of your progress immediately halts progress. Here’s a description from something I wrote last year: I can’t be the only one this has happened to. You start your diet on Monday and by Thursday morning you’re […]
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April 20th, 2009
I was so busy with the site makeover last week, I really didn’t talk too much about the topic at hand. If you remember from two weeks ago (and I hope you don’t, because really, my babbling isn’t worth you wasting precious neurons on) I had just broken the last barrier: 197.5. That was a […]
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April 13th, 2009
Why, it’s that new site smell, of course! Welcome to Back to the Fridge 3.0, everybody! Based on my own experience working with the site (as well as much feedback from others), I thought it was time to make a few changes around here. What’s New Here’s a quick list of changes, some interesting and […]
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. . .
on January 15, 2016 at 10:18 am
I had to laugh because I was thinking to myself “Charlie eats the same things over and over!” It would be impossible for me to use your chart because I eat so much different food.
Happy to report -3.8 for the first two weeks – it was a bit of a stumble at the beginning thinking “I am not having wine, well I can have this stack of Oreos.” Gah.
And I am happy you are getting some exercise in 😀 Love you!
on January 15, 2016 at 12:25 pm
I’m going to write in more detail later about food logging. Until, then, though: here are some stats: there are now 154 items in my food database. I’ve logged 241 entries (there are multiple entries per meal, obviously). Of those 241, 99 are unique. However, the number of truly “unique” items is even less. Like, two of those 99 are “Almond Milk” and three are different flavors of La Croix.
But yes, in the long run, my food database will be a lot smaller than most because I simply don’t eat a wide variety of things.
I’m down six pounds so far. I have yet to swap Oreos for wine. I haven’t hit my goal every single day but I’m WAY down from that October to December thing. By far.
on January 15, 2016 at 1:27 pm
Hey, whatever works Charlie!
Having lunch and a movie with Mom and Hannah tomorrow 😀