Maybe I should write a diet book too

It seems there are way too many diet books out there right now and they all pretty much spew the same information. More smaller meals, good carbs, lean proteins, and go to the gym. Since my most recent diet has been working, maybe I should try to document it.

In 2 and a half weeks, I've lost most of the weight that I gained after going back to Hong Kong. My program has two phases that last about a week each, with about 1-2 days a week where I don't have to diet. Since it's too much of a hassle to cook, I buy all my food from restaurants or supermarkets.

I agree with the more frequent smaller meals theory about dieting, so I try my best to have 2 lunches, 1 snack, and 1 dinner a day. By separating normal meals into 2, it helps me to eat less per meal. One rule of thumb that I've been using is that if the meat entree from the restaurant (or pizzeria or whatever) costs more than $7.50 from a normal neighborhood place, then the contents should be split into two dinner meals. This is because the portions everywhere in the US are so big, we really don't need to finish the entire thing. The problem is that when I eat out, I always feel compelled to clean the plate, so I make sure to take home all my diet food. Also, when I eat out at a nice sit down restaurant, not only are the entrees themselves too much as it is, I often find myself tempted to make it a full 3 course meal (might as well since I'm already out). So one of the things I've had to give up for this diet has been eating out, but at least I haven't been forced to completely cook all my meals yet.

The first phase/week separates carbs and proteins. I tend to eat most of my carbs and fiber in the daytime and only protein at night. Right now I eat a salad (tomatoes, cucumber, a little onion, baby spinach or lettuce) with either some rice or bread (Turkish pide) for my two lunches. Some days I'll have a fresh fruit/vegetable juice in place of one lunch. This is followed by a snack that introduces some nonmeat protein. Right now I have some hummus with the bread, but I think a nice miso soup with tofu and seaweed will work well and be nutritious too. For dinner, I eat just meat. On some nights I'll get a skewer of chicken chunks from the Turkish place while on others I'll buy some sashimi from the supermarket (cheaper that way).

After this first phase/week, the second week consists of very balanced meals. It'll basically consist of two lunches and two dinners where I just split a normal lunch/dinner portion into two. I try to get some vegetable, protein, and grains into every meal. Right now the meals I've had include a Korean soft tofu soup with vegetables and rice, a lamachun (Turkish flatbread with ground lamb, kind of like a pizza) with some veggies, pasta in garlic and olive oil with chicken or anchovies and broccoli. Other options I plan to eat include club sandwiches (no bacon), egg white omelettes with spinach and mushrooms and toast, and saag paneer (Indian cheese in a spinach curry) with rice. Again, the portions tend to be half of what the restaurant ends up giving me.

During these diet days, I get my sugar from taking occasional sips of vitamin water. At least this way I get some vitamins when getting my sugar fix. I tend to finish a large bottle in about 3 days. On my rest days, I pretty much will eat whatever I like, but try my best to keep the food somewhat healthy and again split the meals into more frequent smaller meals.

So far the weight has come off, and I do not feel hungry or have cravings. The price of the food adds up quickly, but it's mostly manageable. I'll try to stay on this for another month and by then I'll probably have a much better idea how successful this would be. I feel the key to any diet lies in how long one can happily stay on it.

My life, my TV

Can't believe that I haven't written anything for two weeks. It's not like I really have anything to do. I'm still without a job, so my day basically consists of working on my diet, going to the gym 2-3 times a week, and playing online poker. I guess that's kind of like a job too since I end up putting in 6-8 hours a day. Oh, then there's the new fall season of TV.

Here's what I watch on TV during the week...
Monday Night Football (ESPN)
House (FOX) and Boston Legal (ABC) Fabulous Tuesday 9-11pm block
Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares (FOX) Just as good as the British version, but more graphic
Dirty Sexy Money (ABC) It's not great, but it's amusing
30 Rock (NBC) Bought the first season for my video ipod, absolutely fell in love with the show
Big Shots (ABC) Also in the not great but amusing category


There's no good TV on Fridays, though I used to watch both Monk and Psych (USA) when they had new episodes. Both are great.

I also watch these shows but usually catch them online because it's easier that way:

Chuck (NBC)
Rules of Engagement (CBS)
Carpoolers (ABC)
Back to You (FOX)
Till Death (FOX)
Gossip Girl (CW) Who knew? Likeable characters, and only one of the main girls is under 18.
I wish CW had Reaper available to watch online too.

Most of the weekend shows I watch are available online also, including the Simpsons (FOX), Family Guy (FOX), and Desperate Housewives (ABC). I tried to start on the first season of Brothers and Sisters (ABC) and I think I'd like it, but I don't think I can devote 20+ hours to catch up so I'm going to give up on it.

So yea, right now TV takes up a good chunk of my time along with my diet and poker. Tomorrow I'll write a post about my diet and my progress.

New diet?

One of the things I was planning to do with the extended time off was to start going back to the gym and maybe do some cooking and dieting. Unfortunately, one of the problems with where I'm living now makes me not want to cook there at all. So, I decided on a new idea for a diet. This will probably be costly, since I'll be buying food from restaurants as I want to avoid cooking, but that also means that the food will probably taste better too.

There are a couple nice Turkish places nearby, so I'm thinking of making it basically like a Mediterranean diet where I eat a lot of salad, bread, rice, and kebabs. The only thing that I worry about is that I'll end up eating a lot of the Turkish bread (pide), and I keep reading about how eating so much bread isn't really good for weight loss. I don't know. I guess I'll try following it for a week or two and see how that goes. Wish me luck!

Tell me what to post

Sorry guys, I actually went 7-2 in these last three days and the only thing I recommended was that loss on Thursday. There's been a lot on my mind lately. I still wanna blog about some of my Hong Kong experiences (food, culture, etc.) but can't seem to get motivated to sit down and type it all out. Noone ever leaves me comments. Maybe if the scant 2-3 people reading this thing got more readers to leave me comments telling me what they want me to post, I'd post more :-p.

Todays' college football was tough with so many underdogs prevailing. I went 0-4 including Ohio State -23.5 with the final margin being 23 because they had a point after blocked. Ouch. I really don't think I'll post anything for the baseball playoffs, and my record for college football has been abysmal so far. At least my overall record for baseball since I started posting was pretty good:

Running total: +14.35 units
Record: 25-11

I thought that even if I couldn't find a new job immediately I'd be relaxed, enjoy some time off, and spend some time pursuing my own interests. But with the current living situation being so uncomfortable it makes me even more restless when I watch my excoworkers trading. What should I do? Since most of my readers (if any) are friends close to me and understand the situation, I'd be happy to hear some real specific comments about what I should do.

Well, time to sleep. Big football day tomorrow and an even bigger day Monday with the big Pats Monday Night Football game and the National Day race meeting in Hong Kong. Happy National Day to any readers in Hong Kong!

VBOTD (Value bet of the day)

ATL@PHI
Under 9.5

Smoltz has pitched 10 consecutive quality starts going into this one, while Kendrick has had a very good year and pitches very well at home. Usually when teams are on winning streaks, it means they're hitting well. But in this case, neither team has been blowing out its opponents during their respective winning streaks. I'd take this game at 8.5, let alone reduced juice 9.5.

Running total: +1545
Record: 25-10

Baseball season is winding to a close and I'm not sure how much value there is in betting postseason unders, what with everybody's aces on the mound. So I've decided that I will post some NFL value bets, now that we're going to be a quarter of the way through the season and have a better idea how things stand. I loathe it when sports analysts tell me things like "this is the x-ranked defense in the league this season, they've allowed y-yards rushing and z-yards passing per game" only two weeks into the season. Stats per game from two weeks mean nothing. After this week, with a quarter of the season through, we'll be able to actually tell how good and bad the teams are.

RDT (Random Daily Thought)

The Geometric Progression of the Last Bite

Is it just me or do people in general have this tendency? Whenever there is only one portion of communal food left (the last slice of pizza, the last cup of soda from a 2 liter bottle, the last glass of wine, etc.), people try their best to avoid taking the last piece and leaving nothing left. So people start cutting that last piece in half, or pouring only half of what remains, and continue to do this until the portion becomes so small that someone must finish it. Why do we do this? How common is this practice?

VBOTD

CHW@KC
Under 8.5

Kansas City has managed more than 4 runs only once in their last 10 games. Garland is not going to help matters as he's given up only 1 run in each of his last three outings. Yet Garland is 1-2 in those three games because the White Sox haven't been able to get him any run support. Greinke hasn't been dominant since he returned to a starting role, but he's been effective and the Royal's bullpen isn't that bad. I just don't see where the runs are coming from in this one.

Running total: +1445
Record: 24-10

VBOTD (Value bet of the day)

Yes I'm back but there's so much frustration with everything that's going on in my life that I can't sit back and type out a blog entry. What with the lack of a job, issues with my new living situation, and not being able to settle into a routine, it's been really stressful of late. I really don't want to go in-depth and blog about those things right now so might as well try to make us all some money.

LAD@COL
Under 9.5

Both Penny and Fogg have been pitching well and the only reason the line is this high is because it's being played at Coors Field. But as we can see from yesterday afternoon's game, two good pitchers will still be able to dominate, even in the high altitude.

Running total: +1555 Record: 24-9

Posts will be returning soon!!!

The internet should be hooked up either tomorrow (Wednesday) or Thursday at the latest and I'll be back blogging again. Not that I have anything better to do... got rejected at an interview today. The usual reason that they give to me: I didn't seem enthusiastic enough about what they do exactly and they think I'd probably be bored with it very quickly. Sigh....

Delay in posts

Sorry the internet is not yet set up in the new place I moved into. I will continue to post as soon as the internet is set up. I will post some more thoughts about my trip to Hong Kong, a little more restaurant talk, and maybe a couple more baseball picks if the season hasn't ended by the time my internet's back up. I will also try to put up a couple links to my friends' blogs. If anyone is interested in me posting football picks, please let me know, otherwise I may not do it.
Cheers all and thanks for reading.