- We started the diet on March 5th, 2017.
- As of today (6ish months later) I've lost 40 pounds, and Natalie has lost 30.
- We mainly used a keto diet (also known as a low-carb diet).
- We decided that unless we went "all in" on this, we'd probably wuss out and give up quickly, so for the first two weeks, we lived almost entirely on Keto Chow. Keto Chow claims to be a nutritionally complete meal replacement; theoretically, you should be able to drink three shakes a day forever and be just fine.
- In case you're wondering... no, this isn't a pyramid marketing scheme. Buy some Keto Chow or don't. We don't get anything out of it either way.
- After the first week or so of the diet, we started supplementing the shakes with sausages, cheese, avocados, pork rinds, salads, steak, etc. There's quite a lot of food you can't eat on keto, but there's also a surprising amount of "bad for you" food that you can eat: bacon, summer sausage, pork rinds, massive amounts of cheese, etc.
- Halfway through the diet, Costco started selling a Kirkland-brand Protein Bar that only has ~4 carbs, and so we've used those liberally when we can't be arsed to make shakes.
- To figure out how many calories/carbs/etc. we should be eating, we used a site called Keto Calculator. It looks intimidating, but the end result is a surprisingly accurate set of target numbers.
- As we hit weight loss milestones, we re-calculated our numbers. That's the rough part, as the number of calories you can eat per day and still maintain weight loss keeps dropping...
- The switch from burning carbs and glucose to burning fat and ketones can be a little chaotic on the body, so we took a daily probiotic supplement, just to help our digestive system adjust to the upheaval.
- We've done two "cheat days": one for the closing of a favorite restaurant that only served carb-heavy food, and the other to go to the State Fair. In the later case, we felt like crap for two days afterward.
- When in doubt: eating too many carbs is very very bad, eating too many calories is bad, and eating too much protein is not fabulous. However, eating too much fat will keep you from losing weight, but isn't actually that big of a deal. Weird, huh? High-fat whatever is just fine.
The Geek Castle
The ongoing adventures of Jon & Natalie
Sunday, September 17, 2017
The Geek Castle Diet
Friday, August 11, 2017
BRB, going 2 China
- “What the hell?!? Where did this come from? China? Are you guys INSANE?!?”
- “So what? The Wilkies are always doing something crazy like this. See you in a few years!”
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Grand Tour 2014: Some Post-Mortem Navel-Gazing
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
On the road!
Bikes are going great. We got a late start from Manchester but are getting settled in to the unfamiliar bikes + backwards lanes + unfamiliar traffic markings + unfamiliar surroundings! Might even pick up speed and go the car speed limit rather than the trucks'! Mike, it's good you don't have your CBR250r any more, I might steal it from you, it's a sweet little bike! Nearly knocked it over getting on, it's so light compared to my Bonnie. ;)
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Grand Tour 2014: Day 11 (London): the Science Museum
Today's location was the Science Museum, which I assumed was basically like PacSci or OMSI with a couple relics thrown in. While there is a wing that's like that, the other 2/3 is a museum of science and technology.
They have an overwhelming collection of artifacts on display, and they're all old and significant and the actual thing not just a model or recreation the actual holy fuck real thing:
We saw Babbage's Difference Engine, lancets used to create the first smallpox vaccine from cowpox boils, the first physical model of DNA, the AC motor built by Tesla and submitted with his patent request, a huge, functional steam engine, the actual mold culture from which penicillin was first developed, a piece of the Moon, James Watt's entire workshop, pieces of the transatlantic telegraph cables.
I was way past drooling to completely locked up. There's SO MUCH. Just whole cases of a thousand artifacts, and some of it's just slice of life, here's what sheep shears looked like, and right next to it is oh yeah here's the patent office's model that Tesla submitted with his patent application. And by the way we have two guys in white lab coats and oil cans operating a steam engine in the middle of the room, with a take-off wheel 20' in diameter just flying along. As you do.
I'm really glad that Rory knew we'd love it and insisted on taking us. It was SO DAMNED COOL.
Friday, April 25, 2014
Grand Tour 2014: "Seeing enough stuff"
Monday, April 21, 2014
The Grand Tour 2014, Day 3 (NYC): March!
Got bagels and coffee. Headed down to the south docklands area to the "secret" half-price ticket office, which has a shorter (only 2 hours) line, a bathroom, and a playground, bought still-OMG-expensive tickets to a Broadway show. Then climbed uphill to the City Hall plaza, where we ate a kebab and watched street performers till the cops shut them down, turning it back into a lame boring empty plaza.
Next we walked all the way across the Brooklyn Bridge. All the way across! The pedestrian path is a wood platform above the vehicle lanes, between the suspension cables. Which are gorgeous (the cables, not the vehicle lanes. Those are crap.). It didn't seem all that far, though our feet disagreed.
As soon as we got across, we headed to the nearest subway station and rode back to Little Italy for a late lunch. (We're incapable of eating lunch before 3 on vacations, even when we get up early. We just don't get around to it or something.) Wandered through Chinatown (which is commingled with little Italy). New York's Chinatown is somehow more Chinese than most of Shanghai that I saw.
We hurried back to the hotel to change, then headed to Broadway! We saw "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Romance", which is set in/based on a novel from 1907 England. It's about a newly-orphaned young man who discovers he's 9th in line to an Earldom, and the ungentlemanly tactics he uses to eliminate those eight people ahead of him in line. One actor plays all eight of his relatives, and he's HILARIOUS. Strongly recommended. They were doing a fundraiser for charity, so we got a photo with the two lead actors, and a signed poster.
When we stepped out into the street after, there were crowds lining both sides and cops keeping people behind barriers. Seems Chris O'Dowd and James Franco are doing the stage production of Mice and Men in the theater across the street, and everyone was waiting for them to leave from the stage door. Somewhere there's a photo of the top of my head and the back of James Franco's ;)
The evening topped off with "dinner" of dessert at Junior's Restaurant, where the dessert sizes may rival Claim Jumper (never been, but I've heard tales...). But despite being huge portions and in a major tourist area, the desserts were actually really good. I finished off an entire plate of strawberry shortcake because it was too good to leave behind.
When we got back to the hotel we learned there's a hot nightclub in the ballroom, and fought our way past a flock of 20somethings to give the high sign to the bouncer and be let in past the indignant kids (that's right, get off my lawn!). Somehow I'd managed to protect our signed poster through Broadway, Times Square, the subway, and the final "boss fight" of throngs of drunk girls in high heels on cobblestones holding cigarettes. Win!
Grand Tour 2014, Day 2 (NYC)
17 April: Uptown, Shopping, Pastrami
Today sort of accidentally became a shopping day. We were going to try to hit the Empire State Building, but since a) apparently New Jersey takes spring break later than everyone else and b) Ford celebrated the Mustang's birthday by chopping one up and reassembling it on the ESB observation deck, the lines were round the block. Instead we had a bagel then went to Rockefeller Plaza for the Lego and NBC stores, the giant flower bunny juxtaposed vs the ice rink, and some actually-kinda-nice artsy easter eggs (the night sky geode was my favorite). After regaining feeling in our fingers (chilly day), we ventured into the Uniqlo showroom for some clothes shopping. Then in what's becoming tradition, we went downtown to the only restaurant we've ever repeated in NYC: Katz's. Had to have pastrami sandwiches, egg cremes, and a laugh at the people who hadn't learned The System.
And then we napped.
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Travel: Why We Leave
Grand Tour 2014: Day 1 (NYC)
Vacation Day 1: Planes, trains, automobiles, ferries, subways, taxis, and shanks' mare. Wandered around Manhattan and took the ferry to Staten Island. Panini shop, comic shop, greasy spoon, chocolate shop, bodega. Lots of parks. New Yorkers; bonus Australian. Sunshine. Maybe sunburn?
Saw the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island from the ferry, it's cool to think we're kinda reverse-tracing some of our ancestors' steps from England and Scotland to the US.
The hotel we stay at in Manhattan was built in 1901 to house sailors between gigs. The rooms are TINY: 50SF, with bunk single beds; it's much like a train or steamship . But it's $100\night in the Village! It housed the Titanic survivors. This week is the 102nd anniversary. Hopefully the ghosts won't mind the company.
Totally spent, may go to bed soon, despite it being only 10:30. Feel like a wimp, and want to wring every moment out of the trip, but got very little sleep on the red eye flight thanks to the kid behind me. Oh well, just means the bagels will be nice and fresh in the morning!