Gout Attack II – Electric Boogaloo

What really sucks about gout attacks is the “no-warning” aspect of it. I had all kinds of plans for today: get up early, work out, fast all day and continue on my way to a healthy weight.

The throbbing pain in my left-hand food (just below my big toe) put a friggin’ screeching halt to all of that.

So now I’m back to the “colchicine diet,” as I call it. Not a good diet, to be sure. Plus, two attacks in two weeks has me worried, so I’m seeing my doctor on Friday. I probably won’t update until after that. Thanks for the comments and support!

The Plan

Okay, so after a bunch of contemplation, research and just asking myself, “Can I really do this,” here’s my test plan for the next two weeks:

Eating

• Smart for Life: 6 cookies during the day (unless I’ve eaten one of the new yummy Eating Right soups from Safeway for lunch; it’ll be 5 for those days), then a dinner on their plan, except for 2-4 oz. more protein
• Nature’s Best Zero Carb Isopure, Creamy Vanilla flavor, mixed with already-prepared Crystal Light orange (the line that’s designed for mornings). Drink after exercise for 50g of protein over and above what’s provided for on S4L (which I still think is too little for people)

Exercise

• in the AM (ugh), Sunday through Friday
• “Hard days” on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday; “Easy days” Monday, Wednesday and Friday
  • Hard days: Turbulence Training for bodyweight exercises for muscle strength/building, and Pace Power for the interval training on the elliptical (40 mins. 10-15 mins. for TT bodyweight; 20 mins. of Pace Power)
  • Easy days: Turbulence Training’s interval training on the elliptical and/or recumbant (just 20 mins.)
• Saturdays off – S4L weigh-in day

As I said up top, I’m giving this two weeks, to see how my body reacts vis-a-vis the “scale.” I’m guessing my weight loss on the scale will slow, but at the same time I’ll be gaining muscle while losing fat. When I’m at S4L this weekend, I’ll get my weigh-in on the fancy-schmancy Tanita scale that does a good job at analyzing fat and muscle loss/gain, to see what’s happening.

I’ll make some kind of decision about what I’ll do going forward in two weeks. So, April 26th will likely be a big day in the Shrinking Man process. No matter what happens, I’ll still lose weight. This is just an experiment, as I try to pull together the best of everything I’ve found and put it to use. Wish me luck!

Status Update – 4/05

No weight gain this week (still @ 271, almost 55 lbs. lost!), which was good. I’m on deadline for something, so I’ll quickly tell you how.

I did cookies every day. But because of a wide variety of situations, I wasn’t able to “do” the Smart for Life (S4L) plan at night like I should. But I did the best I could. The main killer was wine. You have to give up alcohol if you want to do well on this plan. Period. No way around it.

At least because I did everything else well, I didn’t gain any weight. So it wasn’t a bad week. In fact, the gal at S4L who weighed me in called it a “good week.” I’m not sure I’d go that far, but it definitely wasn’t a bad week.

Onward!

My Sincere Apologies

Wow, I’ve been busy. Tres busy. Too busy (so far) to make the move I said I would do in the blog entry below this one. My apologies about that. I know you’ve probably come across blogs that apologize about not posting, and think, “wow, that’s lame.” But mine is sincere, so the lameness is gone! Kind of.

In fact, I’m just dipping in here now very quickly, as we have really high winds here today and the power has already gone out twice on me. Hopefully, it’ll stay up long enough for me to post this.

For those keeping score, I’m still on Smart for Life, and have now lost almost 55 pounds. That’s in about 4 months’ time. Not bad, eh? I’m back into clothes I haven’t been able to fit into for quite a while. I’ve already had a suit and some pants taken in, and I’ve got two blazers I like but are too big, so they’re up next on the tailor’s form. Plus, I’ve gone through two belts. We’re talking gone completely through two belts. Yee hah!

We’re Loadin’ Up the Truck…

…and we’re movin’ to Beverleeee…

After much deliberation, I’ve decided I’m going to change the focus of my blogging efforts. I’m changing from being an all-tech kinda guy to focusing on just my experiences with the Smart for Life (S4L) program.

This means I’ll be closing down GizmoSherpa for the new blog. Why? Well, doing a gizmo-related site would have been very time consuming. And after examining the blog landscape, I determined that there are plenty of other people out there covering the same thing…and doing it well.

Fear not, though. I’ll not only keep the current blog up for as long as I can, I’ll post an update for where I’m going, Web address-wise, as I haven’t decided as to a name for the new blog yet.

Sudden thought – if you have an idea for a new name, please post it in the Comments section. I’d really appreciate it. So far, I’ve come up with “Smart for Life Guy,” “Smart for Life Life” (search engines won’t like that one) and “Living on Six Cookies a Day” (which, actually, isn’t technically correct, but it is rather darned catchy, eh?).

Meantime, I’m doing very well on the Smart For Life  program. I’m up to 35 lbs. lost, and it is still doing very well. Thanks for asking, crinklynose!

Apologies…

…that I haven’t updated recently. With work and the holidays, I’ve been too busy. I’ve commented in the article below about my progress. Let’s just say that I’m still doing well, especially considering it is the holidays.

I’m fully planning on posting more after the holiday season. I’m also considering doing a few things that will take this blog to new heights. Thanks.

Umm, Wow!

Completely forgot to update with my stats from yesterday; apologies for that. That’s why I’m posting so late – I had your basic “ohmygod” thought before hitting the pillow tonight.

One word describes it all – wow!

Feelin’ Better, Thanks

Day 5, and the muscle cramps have gone away. It’s definitely not good to have your arm essentially vapor lock on you so you can’t move it! Thank good ness they’re gone.

I also spoke with the doctor at the local Smart for Life office (here’s the national company’s Web site). I’ve got to tell you, it’s really nice to have a doctor there with you, every step along the way. They get an “EE” from me (exceeds expectations).

Read on for my experience…

The Plusses and Minuses and Losing Weight

Well, today begins Day 4 of the Smart for Life diet — otherwise known as the Cookie Diet (link goes to my local DC office). While I’d call the overall experience “mixed” right now, there’s lots of room for hope. Around 140 lbs. worth of room.

What’s more, I’m not giving up.

Cookies…and Dieting?

There’s another two words you wouldn’t normally see in the same sentence. But that’s the idea behind a diet (you may have heard of) that’s combines cookies with a low-calorie, low-fat diet that has you eating at least seven times a day.

Read on after the break…