Been a while since my last update. Nothing much has changed. Now that we're soon to be entering the month of June I'll say that 2020 has pretty much been a waste of a year so far. As a pro-teacher here in China, I can extend that to say the 2019/2020 school year has been a waste of a year so far to be truthful. Luckily, I've still been getting paid all along which can't be said for everyone.
As I'm writing this I am more or less on my ninth month of doing DDPY continuous. I started around this time last year but missed a lot during the summer break transition from working in the UAE to China and then a big adjustment related to that. All in all, I'm afraid it's not the magic pill that I was hoping it would be. I intend to stick with it as I see real "non-scalable" results--I can do a downward dog with both heels on the ground. I can do a broken hood ornament--which is very difficult. I can really do almost any of the moves or a modification thereof. Just today I tried a little Les Mills Combat--which I haven't done in the year I switched to DDPY and I can totally hit round house kicks and side kicks with both legs which even as a twenty-something I was only able to really do with my right leg. Still not pretty, but I can totally do it. Unfortunately, I'm still not losing the weight and that's what I really want to do. The problem is, has been and remains the diet. For June I'm getting back on the horse yet again.
The variant I'm going for this time is to pace myself for six weeks. I have a TOEFL class that I'm stuck teaching for six weeks. My daughter has a ballet class that lasts six weeks and I will be moving to Beijing in about eight weeks--I expect the last two weeks to be hectic as well as miserable whereas the prior six will be merely miserable. During this time I will use all of the willpower that I can muster to avoid:
1. Sweets--desserts of all kinds. Colas of all kinds. Even limiting my fruit or juice intake. I may still slip in some Peanut Butter here and there, but since that's a trigger for me, I will have to do so carefully.
2. Dairy--Again, pizza is a trigger food, cheese, ice-cream, all of these things. I don't drink much milk out here in China, so I can avoid it that way, but I'm not even going to add powdered milk to anything if I can help it.
3. Gluten--primarily to avoid drinking my calories through beer and to keep away from the bread and pasta. If I can't fully eliminate it from my diet--crackers with my chili, noodles in the soup here in China, or a breadstick here and there is a compromise I'm willing to make.
4. Fast Food--I plan to completely eliminate for six weeks. I'll go to a restaurant or let my wife fix a hamburger for me if I must, but for these six weeks none of the chain fast-food shops will be visited.
5. General Snacks--What wasn't covered above--chips mostly.
I'm going to try to double my workouts...one in the morning and one in the evening. As before with DDPY I want to hit the wake-up every day even if it's a day off. I'm also going to try to incorporate the Les Mills Combat program here and there. Finally, I intend to walk down the stairs every morning when I leave the apartment. I did that on a recent fire drill and it made me about as tired as the DDPY routine does. I dare not try to climb up every afternoon, but you never know where things may lead--I live on the 24th floor BTW.
Last but not least, melatonin. I've thought about it and even said it time and time again that if I can't sleep--due to my empty belly and love of food--that I should take melatonin and knock myself out. This time I'm going to do it. It's not supposed to be addictive and it does put me to sleep rather quickly own the occasions that I've taken it.
...and that's it. I'm going to try to update the blog daily even if it's just to repeat the same thing time and time again. I won't publish daily entries until the end of the experiment, but I'll do a Twitter update daily primarily for myself, but I sometimes get a response or two that helps inspire me to keep going. Today's weigh in: 117.2 KG...258.38177 pounds...but that's only 18.4243 stone
As I'm writing this I am more or less on my ninth month of doing DDPY continuous. I started around this time last year but missed a lot during the summer break transition from working in the UAE to China and then a big adjustment related to that. All in all, I'm afraid it's not the magic pill that I was hoping it would be. I intend to stick with it as I see real "non-scalable" results--I can do a downward dog with both heels on the ground. I can do a broken hood ornament--which is very difficult. I can really do almost any of the moves or a modification thereof. Just today I tried a little Les Mills Combat--which I haven't done in the year I switched to DDPY and I can totally hit round house kicks and side kicks with both legs which even as a twenty-something I was only able to really do with my right leg. Still not pretty, but I can totally do it. Unfortunately, I'm still not losing the weight and that's what I really want to do. The problem is, has been and remains the diet. For June I'm getting back on the horse yet again.
The variant I'm going for this time is to pace myself for six weeks. I have a TOEFL class that I'm stuck teaching for six weeks. My daughter has a ballet class that lasts six weeks and I will be moving to Beijing in about eight weeks--I expect the last two weeks to be hectic as well as miserable whereas the prior six will be merely miserable. During this time I will use all of the willpower that I can muster to avoid:
1. Sweets--desserts of all kinds. Colas of all kinds. Even limiting my fruit or juice intake. I may still slip in some Peanut Butter here and there, but since that's a trigger for me, I will have to do so carefully.
2. Dairy--Again, pizza is a trigger food, cheese, ice-cream, all of these things. I don't drink much milk out here in China, so I can avoid it that way, but I'm not even going to add powdered milk to anything if I can help it.
3. Gluten--primarily to avoid drinking my calories through beer and to keep away from the bread and pasta. If I can't fully eliminate it from my diet--crackers with my chili, noodles in the soup here in China, or a breadstick here and there is a compromise I'm willing to make.
4. Fast Food--I plan to completely eliminate for six weeks. I'll go to a restaurant or let my wife fix a hamburger for me if I must, but for these six weeks none of the chain fast-food shops will be visited.
5. General Snacks--What wasn't covered above--chips mostly.
I'm going to try to double my workouts...one in the morning and one in the evening. As before with DDPY I want to hit the wake-up every day even if it's a day off. I'm also going to try to incorporate the Les Mills Combat program here and there. Finally, I intend to walk down the stairs every morning when I leave the apartment. I did that on a recent fire drill and it made me about as tired as the DDPY routine does. I dare not try to climb up every afternoon, but you never know where things may lead--I live on the 24th floor BTW.
Last but not least, melatonin. I've thought about it and even said it time and time again that if I can't sleep--due to my empty belly and love of food--that I should take melatonin and knock myself out. This time I'm going to do it. It's not supposed to be addictive and it does put me to sleep rather quickly own the occasions that I've taken it.
...and that's it. I'm going to try to update the blog daily even if it's just to repeat the same thing time and time again. I won't publish daily entries until the end of the experiment, but I'll do a Twitter update daily primarily for myself, but I sometimes get a response or two that helps inspire me to keep going. Today's weigh in: 117.2 KG...258.38177 pounds...but that's only 18.4243 stone
