A Man I Met On the Amazon Boards

Brent Butler read If I Can Lose It... and has just posted the following about his success:

One week progress report:

For the last week I've used a similar method for tracking what I eat to the method Jon describes in his book. I'm using a web site called SparkPeople.com instead of the one Jon has used. I doubt its any better than Jon's recommeded site, I just found it more conveniently as both an iPad app and regular web site, and my account logs in through both. In looking at EVERYTHING we were consuming, both my wife and I quickly tipped to some eating mistakes we had not been paying attention to. For example, I read Jon's book Sunday night a week ago, and we had already eaten dinner. My wife made a ham dinner with a vegetable and macaroni and cheese. When I found the web site and got set up, I entered what we ate for dinner. Kraft macaroni and cheese dinner ... 400 calories and little to no food value received in return. The leftover is still in a dish in the refrigerator, and likely we should just throw it out, because I can't imagine I'm ever going to want to eat any of it again. LOL Mac and Cheese is a somewhat regular staple of many home cooked meals. Fiber is low at 1.5 grams. Protein is at or below the levels of other family meal vegetables that could be substituted for it with no notice taken. 19 grams of fat for something that just tastes OK ... its not even a guilty pleasure. LOL

With that lesson learned, we started to do some more research. We read again about lot of foods we already knew about but were just out of correct eating habits. I don't drink diet drinks ... can't stand the taste. Recently I've probably had one or two cans of carbonated drinks a day ... at 150 to 200 calories per. I had exactly ONE all this week. I went on the water drinking campaign suggested by Jon, and many other places as well. I'm almost certainly drinking more than the eight 8 oz glasses suggested. I tend to drink more like 12 ounces at a time and I'm probably doing 9 to 12 a day. That much water does tend to kill off a certain percentage of snack craving. I also discovered that one grape tomato actually satisfies a snack craving for me just as well as three oatmeal cookies used to. The difference in calories? 2 for one grape tomato ... 225 for three oatmeal cookies. LOL

By adjusting what we've eaten this week to be more efficient, I'm actually eating far fewer calories than indicated by the program calculated by the web site, which I had set for 1.5 pounds per week. I probably cut 1000 to 1500 calories per day out of my consumption. Yet I'm feeling less hungry between meals, not more. When I do feel hungry I'm not minding it as much, probably because I'm over all the extra sugar that was in my daily consumption. I actually have more energy, because once again, I'm not running on sugar like I was 10 days ago.

Net result, I lost 5 pounds in seven days instead of 1.5 pounds. I don't seriously think I will continue to lose 5 pounds a week. The lower the percentage of body fat gets, the more reluctant the body is to shed what is left. However, its a very validating start, and if I continue at 1.5 pounds per week from now on I'll be quite happy.

My goal is to lose 20 pounds from the start of the diet, then asses what I look like at that point and decide if I should go another 5. I didn't start this at what anyone looking at me would consider to be overweight, yet I look "rounder" to myself in the mirror than I know I should. After I've lost the 20 (or 25) pounds, I'll increase my calories back up to a higher maintenance level to stop losing weight. I may even be able to throw back in a couple more of my cherished Cherry Dr. Peppers (per week) at that point! LOL

4th of July week will be a blip in the effort though. We're having a cook out, which means hamburgers, hotdogs, baked beans, and potato salad. I might gain back two pounds that week. I've already thought through the need to plan ahead for the 4th, Labor Day (another traditional cookout in our family), Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Eve. I should have the weight loss goal comfortably in hand before Thanksgiving. Then I'll look to gain no more than two pounds each for the upcoming three holidays, and go back on the weight loss calorie level for the month of January.

We'll see how reality meets plan now.


The above was copy/pasted without alteration

When weight control is a life changer - not the other way around.

It makes sense to me that always before I would completely change the way I lived to accommodate my endless goal of losing weight, but I can see now that I had it backwards.

When I go after losing weight as if  I were learning a new language I am destined to be confronted with a continuous chorus of misunderstandings. When learning a language we really have no choice but to surrender to the fact that we will make mistakes, and there will be times when we have real difficulty being understood.

When learning a language that difficulty is natural. It's acceptable.  But weight control is, by nature, something that cannot be approached with misunderstandings. We want to gain control and keep it. Which means because the "language learning" approach will present stumbling blocks, it by definition cannot be the way. If I know anything, I know that a stumbling block when I'm trying to lose weight is pretty much the end of that method. And then, what am I left with? Why, nothing! I'm left with, I don't know how to do this - so why bother?

When I get to that point - I stop whatever process I'm engaged in. I disconnect with my goal and I disconnect with my body. For me what is needed is the ability to fully connect with a natural way of taking control, which does not mean giving away all control to someone else, letting them tell me what to do. It does not mean that anyone needs to tell me what to eat, how to exercise...or how to live.

To me natural means - "within the way I live now." What I'm expressing in If I Can Lose It... is living my life and being conscious of the choices I make in a more immediate and complete way. This is a greater awareness of what I already have in the way of tools available to me, and making use of them.

Celebrity Weight Loss

This is a link to the Good Morning America Celebrity Weight Loss page where various famous people extol the virtues of Jenny Craig. You will find a link to that program on that page - if you're so moved. 


This morning I saw actress Sara Rue talking about how she did it: she lost 50 pounds which equaled a reduction of four dress sizes by "turning over control of what and how she ate," and how much exercise she got to a personal coach. She is quoted as saying, "I'm a different person on the inside and on the outside," and further, "...I genuinely feel if I can do it, anyone can do it." Well yes she's right. I feel like that too, but the fact is that I did do it and she did something else altogether... Yes she's right, if she can turn over control of her weight to another person anyone can do that. I've done it and I'm sure that plenty of the people reading this blog have done it. But when you give away control and the weight starts to come back what do you do? Why, you have to make that call, you know the one where you turn it over again and you continue the process of having someone else take responsibility for your weight - oh and you get to pay them for that privilege. 


This is exactly what I feel keeps us prisoner of companies in business to "help us" lose weight (not forever because that would be a bad business decision - wouldn't it?) When a company is in business to make people thin - their niche market is people who want to lose weight meaning their ideal customer is not one of their clients! Their interest is in getting you to where you want to go - with the idea being -  you will be back, because after all they were the ones that did the trick not you.

This is just way cool!

...and I think I've said quite enough about it.

Fast Diet Breakthrough? - NO! - - - ALL DIETS Are Crap!

I continue to wage a campaign of truth in the face of an overwhelming onslaught of advertizing. No matter what we do, no matter how stalwart we are... Even in the face of being accused of being hyper-vigilant - I really believe that the media darlings (read food advertisers) are consistently able to figure out ways to thwart our efforts at weight control. It's as though we were sending them an endless stream of information about ourselves that they can use against us any time they choose... It's as if they were able to see everything we search for on the internet and then fling back the results at us - by way of assaulting our emails and mailboxes with just what we were looking for only a day or so ago. Or like the supermarket kept a detailed record of each and every thing we ever bought there, and then made sure that they have those very things available for us the next time... And what could all that have to do with weight-loss? Ah nothing, nothing at all.  Nah, all that's all just ridiculous sci-fi paranoid crap. Forget I said anything.

The ICG Diet

I've decided to start speaking my mind on youtube about any and all subjects pertaining to weight control, the 6 Billion Dollar weight loss industry, the media that surrounds and hypes that industry, and the myths that are spread around with the sole intention of confusing the issue. All that stuff is clearly intended is to keep selling us products, programs, and bogus ideas that keep a major part the population squarely in the obese range. And of course I feel the real need to look at that very same media as it holds up its collective hands in astonishment that so many people are so damned fat!

If I Can Lose It... is NOW ON SALE! - Sometimes it's right to shout it out.

I am incredibly pleased to announce that as of this moment If I Can Lose It... a middle aged tech-fanatic's extraordinary journey & guide to losing weight is available for sale through this link, and in the next seven days or so will be available through Amazon and in a little while after that in bookstores everywhere if only you will ask for it. And you should ask for it. Really you should:-)  If the book seller wants numbers... here they are:

ISBN/EAN13:

1456354728 / 9781456354725

If for any reason the link doesn't work correctly please just copy/paste https://www.createspace.com/3499086 into your address bar. 

Yes I will keep every one posted on the various release dates.

Oh yes. Hard work pays off.

Persistence Makes Perfect

What I lack in patience I make up for with persistence.

My ongoing issue is that I always want to see results yesterday, or even the day before. That I am making progress is not the point. 184.8 today, thanks very much. Okay, change that. That is the point after all.

I'm making progress.

And by the way, so's the book. The designer is making real progress. I've cut him some slack 'cause he was pretty darned sick, and I do like him. I'd rather he be well than the book be out and ready. Sometimes life is about making difficult decisions that come from the heart, which ultimately are not all that difficult after all are they?.

It's all good, and did I mention my progress?

Oh yes, I rule!

The Hard Part

Life is an art.

...is when new pounds appear and we can clearly remember when not so long ago we managed to take them off. But it must be remembered that these are not the same pounds at all. They are new and must be approached with the same degree of intent. This is not about sliding back or any such nonsense. It's about facing up to a new challenge, the key word being new... these are new pounds. They are not the same pounds that were shaved off a while back. This is the challenge: deal with what is happening right now, and do not be tempted to focus on what has already occurred. Those pounds that were previously lost are still gone. Focus then on how you made them to go away before... and do it again.

I'm Back...

There is no hidden meaning in this photo.

I spent the holiday's in Tucson and in spite of long desert walks and constant attention to "getting enough exercise," there was no amount of activity that could possibly stand up to the onslaught of Mexican delights and grandmotherly temptations.

After closing out the material for the book (which is indeed on it's way. Its currently in final inspection before being released to the publisher. I'll let you know more very soon.), I took some time not paying so much attention to my weight. As a consequence (wait for it) I gained four pounds between Dec 2nd and 22nd. It gets worse because by January 3rd when we arrived home I'd gained another two putting me at 186.8. Aaaarugh! I'm huge! Just take me out to the back country, and leave me to find my way back --- or not.

Mark Twain once said, "I am only human, although I regret it." This is not exactly my stance on the subject but rather the being human part of things just happens to come up at the most inopportune and embarrassing moments. I am, after all, the guy touting my ability to control my weight and here I've gained weight!

Here it is January 16 and this is the first time I've had the inclination to step back into the blog and report on my progress or as it turns out the lack thereof.

However there's good news as well: over these last two weeks, using the methods shown in my own material I've started on the downward journey once again.

Today I weighed in at 185.2...  Progress is being made.

Admittedly, I fell off the horse, but as all the stories tell us, it is important to get right back on. The best news of all is that I have a horse to get back on at all. I know exactly how I was controlling my weight before, and I am fully able to make use of those techniques again. I am successfully using them again,  right now. The rules have not changed. It is always a choice to play by the rules or to ignore them.

As I continue to write I will no longer continue the practice of displaying my weight in gigantic numbers at the top of the post. I will not place a countdown clock at the top of the blog,  nor will I create another graph displaying my day to day losses and gains. Instead I will place all appropriate numbers here in the text. I will take my time in the knowledge that this is not a game nor a contest. I am not in a competition, and there is no deadline. Losing weight is what I am doing. As long as I see progress - I'm on track. Anytime I take the position of one who must get to the finish line on time, I will have to remind myself that I'm looking in the wrong direction...

Or you are invited and quite welcome to remind me yourself.

Taking a Break

Although I continue to live my weight control I have decided to take a bit of a break from the blog until a day or three after the New Year. When I return I will report on my progress to that time but I will make no predictions. One thing I have learned for sure is that no matter what I think about what I'm doing the results will consistently be at least a little bit different than my expectations.

If I Can Lose It... a middle aged tech-fanatic's extraordinary journey & guidebook for losing weight is now  in the hands of the designer. When he has completed his task it will be passed to the publishing house, and printing will begin some seven days later. Does this mean that the book will be available before the end of this month? One can only hope. [Reference last line in paragraph above.]

See you in 2011 where we will surely, each and every one of us, be amazed and dazzled by our own abilities.

Peace and good health,

Jon