Hazard Rebirth: The second evolution

[Lil_Red_Devil]

Hi Hazard, haven't heard from you in a few days so I thought I'd drop in and see if you were doing OK :-)

[Hazard]

8 hours ago, Lil_Red_Devil said:

Hi Hazard, haven't heard from you in a few days so I thought I'd drop in and see if you were doing OK :-)

 

I’m well.  I’ll post my weekly review sometime today.

 

 

[Hazard]

Weekly progress review

 

 

Mrs H and I celebrated Valentine's Day early.  On Saturday.  She brought home the food options, and I made the meal.

 

I did a one hour kosher salt tenderize of a 1 lb angus strip steak, sprinkled it with garlic powder and pepper, then pan-seared it in butter and finished the cook in the oven to medium rare.  For the sides, she chose orange bell pepper and asparagus.  I sliced the bell pepper into strips and pan-cooked them on the stovetop in a little butter, seasoned with salt and garlic after the pepper strips softened.   For the asparagus, I coated them in coconut oil, then  - after the steak came out of the oven and was moved to a plate to rest - cooked them on the stovetop in the same pan the steak had cooked in, so they picked up the seasoning from the steak juice.

 

Mrs H thought it all turned out fantastic, so, #win 

 

 

What does this story have to do with my Epic Waist Quest?  The answer is:  Salt.

 

 

If you focus in on my waist size from Thursday through Saturday, you can see that I reached this week's 38.50" waist goal.   But then both my weight and my waist jumped for Sunday morning's measurements.   I talked about this before once in January.  That overnight jump in measurements was a Salt Bump. 

 

The method I use for preparing steaks is to liberally cover them in salt (usually either kosher flakes or some variation of sea salt), and let the steak sit for 45+ minutes.  As it sits, the salt draws moisture from the steak to the surface.  That moisture mixes with the salt, then over time is absorbed back into the steak - bringing the salt with it, distributing it throughout the meat.

 

That liberal use of salt also causes my dietary salt intake for that meal to skyrocket.  As I've talked about before, more salt = more water retention.  When I consume a significantly higher amount of salt than I usually do, my body measurements show it. 

 

Because I know this, it's one of those little quirks of the body on the scale or with the tape that I don't flip out about.  In the grand scheme of things, a Salt Bump doesn't really matter.  

 

Eventually I'll post a line graph of my waist and/or weight change over time, and on it you'll see how obvious this is.  It shows on a line graph as a sudden measurement spike that drops away almost just as fast, as the body filters out the excess salt/water.

 

 

In any case, looking over at my weekly averages, we can see that my Waist (and Weight) continues to trend downward.

 

 

The maintenance calorie estimate for the week is laughably low.  But I have 37 straight days of data now.  So, off the chart, I ran a maintenance calorie estimation using all 37 days instead of only 1 week, and it came out to 2,190 calories.  Which is probably closer to the truth.

 

It really doesn't matter right now though.  Having a pretty good estimate for my TDEE won't really be important until 10 months from now, after I've acquired my Epic Waist.  At this point, working the math and playing with estimates is academic curiosity.  Right now, as long as my waist is decreasing at the rate needed to achieve my goal, then I'm clearly keeping my body in a net deficit.  That's what matters, regardless of what the calculated estimate numbers are.

 

As far as getting better estimates, however, since I set up that column at the beginning, and now have far more than 1 week of data, I should probably change the formula to make estimates over a longer time period.   Weekly estimates are better than dealing with day-to-day fluctuations, but for calculating something like TDEE it's better to grab data over more time when possible.  Now that I've got 5+ weeks of data to work with, I'll probably switch that formula over from a 1-week estimate to a 4-week estimate.

 

 

 

The next week's Waist Goal:   38.25 inches

 

 

 

 

[GregT.]

21 hours ago, Hazard said:

The next week's Waist Goal:   38.25 inches

 Just curious what you are dong for belts?  I hope with the rate you are reducing your waist, you have a good awl.

 

[Hazard]

11 hours ago, GregT. said:

 Just curious what you are doing for belts?  I hope with the rate you are reducing your waist, you have a good awl.

 

My belt’s holes are an inch apart.  This one will be with me for at least another 4 inches.

 

[peelout]

Steadfast progress my friend.  

[Hazard]

Weekly progress review

 

 

Waist is still trending down.

 

 

I switched my Maintenance Calorie calculation to give me an estimate based on the previous 4 weeks of data rather than 1 week of data.  Taking the estimates together, my maintenance might be around 2100.  Which sounds right to me.  I've had my MFP goal set around 2100 for the last couple of weeks. 

 

The maintenance estimates are showing a downward trend though.  I don't like seeing that.  But I think it's inevitable.  Though it may be that my metabolism is slowing some, I've also dropped 5+% body weight from where I started.  My body's calorie requirements decreasing as my body's weight decreases should be expected.  The downward trend, if that's what we're seeing, is probably a bit of both.

 

Below is how my averages are changing week-to-week again.  From the numbers I have here so far, it looks like I'm having to lose around 1.5 lbs to cut a 1/4 of an inch from my waist.

 

 

Whatever the case, I didn't make my Waist Goal this week.  For most of the week my waist kinda hung around 38.4 inches. 

 

 

But yesterday (Sunday) while I still ate around my typical 2100 calories, I also walked over 30,000 steps.  Which is 13,000 more steps than I averaged last week.  This morning my waist had dropped to 38.19 inches.

 

 

Meanwhile, on the Walk to Mordor, our Fellowship has continued to drift/row it's way down the Anduin River.  For much of the time, there was little to note about the journey down the river.  Which is probably why these miles and miles of canoeing were essentially skipped in Jackson's film version of The Fellowship of the Ring. 

              Last night, however, Sam heard racing water as we reached the rapids of Sarn Gebir, and then, we were attacked!  ORCS!  We held them off, but one of the Nazgul's flying beasts was also spotted tracking us above.  Thankfully, Legolas has super-elf powers and was able to shoot it with an arrow, driving it away. 

              We huddled in the boats the rest of the night.  Then this morning carried the boats and our packs by land to the foot of the rapids, where we set out upon the river again.  This leg of the journey is nearing it's end.  The Argonath our not far now, with Rauros Falls just beyond them.

 

 

 

 

 

[Hazard]

 

Milestones, yo.

 

As of this morning, I’ve cut an even 2” off my waist, and 15 lbs.  

 

In 51 days. (Not quite 8 weeks).  Some weeks were higher, some lower, but on average I’ve cut a little over a 1/4” per week and just a little over 2 lbs per week.

 

 

[peelout]

7 hours ago, Hazard said:

Milestones, yo.

 

As of this morning, I’ve cut an even 2” off my waist, and 15 lbs.  

 

In 51 days. (Not quite 8 weeks).  Some weeks were higher, some lower, but on average I’ve cut a little over a 1/4” per week and just a little over 2 lbs per week.

 

Awesome job Hazard.  Keep up the consistency of pushing forward.

[GregT.]

That is fantastic Hazard. Y know you are at Epic level now and rapidly approaching HERO level!

 

Keep it up man.  You are an inspiration.

 

 

[WhiteGhost]

Awesome progress!  

[Hazard]

 

Weekly progress review

 

 

Missing my Waist Goal last week bugged me.  Especially my waist spending half the week hanging a good 1/8th of an inch above the week's goal.  It meant that in order to reach this week's goal, I needed to lose both the normal 1/4 inch, and still lose that extra 1/8th of an inch left over from last week too.

 

Who didn't change his diet at all?  ----->  This guy. 

 

I walked 91 miles instead. 

 

 

 

 

Averaging 13 miles a day for the week:

 

 

 

 

 

As I posted earlier, I hit 2 inches of total waist-loss for this journey on Friday.  I had a small bump up on Saturday due to Friday night's salty dinner (Ramen noodles), but I drank a good bit of water on Saturday and flushed the excess salt-retention out of my system for Sunday morning's measurement.  I'm sitting pretty -- right where I want to be, and have set myself up nicely for attacking this week's goal of 37.75 inches.

 

 

I also apparently zoomed past the Argonath statues out onto Lake Nen Hithoel, broke off from the rest of the Fellowship (with Sam Gamgee tagging along, of course), and passed the Falls of Rauros early this week. 

 

 

 

 

First leg of the journey:  Bag End to Rivendell  (458 miles)

Time:  61 days

At an average of 7.51 miles walked per day

 

Second leg of the journey:  Rivendell to Lothlorien  (462 miles)

Time:  96 days

At an average of 4.81 miles walked per day

 

Third leg of the journey:  Lothlorien to Rauros Falls (389 miles)

Time:  45 days

At an average of 8.64 miles walked per day

 

 

And so here we are, on the fourth and final leg.  Traveling from Rauros Falls into the lands of Morder unto Mt. Doom.   Sam and I set off northeast from the lake, trying to make our way through the Emyn Muil.  We'd traveled 56 miles as of this morning, but have become frustratingly lost within the craggy backtwisting cliff ravines.   And Gollum is out there.  We've seen the unmistakable glow of his eyes in the dark of night.

 

 

 

I mentioned a couple of updates ago that I'd post some graphs to show my progress more visually.  Here you go.  The first set is a comparison between my actual daily morning weigh-ins on the scale with all the day-to-day fluctuations ----- versus the nicely smoothed out results of my weight's weekly averages.

 

 

 

And here's the same type of visual comparison for my waist circumference measurements.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you again, old friends and new, for coming in here and joining me on my epic journey.  As always, please don't hesitate to share what's on your mind.   I welcome questions, observations, comments, thoughts, conversation, etc.   

 

 

 

 

 

[GregT.]

Great work Hazard!  It is an inspiration.  In fact I thought of you yesterday as I weighed n and and was slightly higher than I had been the previous day and persevered as you show on your path.  I weighed in today to a happy result.

 

  Thanks for being inspiring.

[Hazard]

On 2/26/2018 at 12:05 AM, GregT. said:

Great work Hazard!  It is an inspiration.  In fact I thought of you yesterday as I weighed n and and was slightly higher than I had been the previous day and persevered as you show on your path.  I weighed in today to a happy result.

 

  Thanks for being inspiring.

 

I’ll try to live up to the praise.  

 

[Cataleya]

That's awesome Hazard. I'm so proud of the progress you've been making.

[peelout]

On 2/25/2018 at 10:56 PM, Hazard said:

 

 

 

 

And here's the same type of visual comparison for my waist circumference measurements.

 

 

 

 

I'm still waiting for you to use a logarithmic scale (not to be confused w/ Eurythimics).  Can't remember what it would look like from my college days, but it would impress the hell out of me to see it.  It would probably either turn out to look totally flat or highly exponential in shape.  Other than a lack of using some crazy scale, great job on the loss.  I always knew you were a loser. (lol)

[raptron]

13 miles/day? Monster!

[Hazard]

14 hours ago, peelout said:

 

I'm still waiting for you to use a logarithmic scale (not to be confused w/ Eurythimics).  Can't remember what it would look like from my college days, but it would impress the hell out of me to see it.  It would probably either turn out to look totally flat or highly exponential in shape.

 

GoogleSheets mobile graphing options are severely lacking.  Or I haven’t discovered where the buttons are hiding.  When making those graphs I didn’t even see an option to change the X and Y scaling.   It was all automated.

 

14 hours ago, peelout said:

I always knew you were a loser. (lol)

 

.   

 

You better keep working hard, bud, or I’ll crush that 7 lb lead you have on me and hit 175 before you do.  

 

 

[Hazard]

55 minutes ago, raptron said:

13 miles/day? Monster!

 

 

Getting better at it all the time. .   I can walk a lot further now before body parts start fatiguing.

 

 

 

It also helps that I re-downloaded Memrise, Duolingo, Mango, and some random other free language learning apps again.  I’m having a lot of fun learning while I tramp along.

 

 

 

[Hazard]

Weekly Progress Review

 

 

I hit my 37.75” waist goal for the week all the way back on Wednesday.  Since I had half the week still to go, I decided to elevate my calories for a refeed.

 

 

 

Over on my weekly averages chart, you can see in the last row that my calories for the week were up compared to the previous weeks, but my weight and waist continue trending down.  At walking 11+ daily miles on average, getting trimmer is almost a given.

 

 

 

 

On the Journey to Mordor, we caught Gollum and extracted of pledge of loyalty from him sworn upon the One Ring.  He lead us out of the craggy maze we’ve been lost in. Then he lead us then into - and through -  the miles of the creepy Dead Marshes.

 

 

 

 

 

Goal by next Sunday:  37.5” waist

 

 

 

 

[peelout]

Well, done.  My week was a bust.

 

[Lil_Red_Devil]

You are amazing Hazard :-) I'm going to try and tap into your motivation for a big kick before my surgery, so I'll probably be visiting here a lot!

[Hazard]

 

I may have found my current limit.  I walked 16.3 miles two days ago, and 15.6 miles yesterday (that’s over a half-marathon both days).  This morning, my legs were jelly.  

 

After waking up, I was walking downstairs from bedroom to livingroom, and half-way down the stairs I sat down on a step thinking, “This is good.  I’ll camp here and make for the bottom tomorrow.”

 

 

[raptron]

50 minutes ago, Hazard said:

 

I may have found my current limit.  I walked 16.3 miles two days ago, and 15.6 miles yesterday (that’s over a half-marathon both days).  This morning, my legs were jelly.  

 

After waking up, I was walking downstairs from bedroom to livingroom, and half-way down the stairs I sat down on a step thinking, “This is good.  I’ll camp here and make for the bottom tomorrow.”

 

 

[peelout]

8 hours ago, Hazard said:

 

I may have found my current limit.  I walked 16.3 miles two days ago, and 15.6 miles yesterday (that’s over a half-marathon both days).  This morning, my legs were jelly.  

This is why I come here.

What is your walking strategy?  Is this based on an entire days steps (like Fitbit or something like it) or are you going for very, very long walks at a time?