The Fat Project–Day 15

No idea why, but I have slipped back since Saturday.  No idea why, I have continued my exercise and kept my calorie intake well under 1500 a day.  Maybe it is just a speed bump as my body tells me that it wants to be a fat guy.  Hopefully I will be back in the right direction by tomorrow.  I am nervous to see Mike return from camping even farther ahead.  Oh well, all I can do is continue with my reduced food intake an keep up the exercise.  Slow and steady…

Todays weight loss is measured in smores.

The Fat Project–Day 14

So, it has been two weeks now since we began this exercise on July 17 and I think Mike and I can both be quite pleased with the results to date.  Despite both of us remaining in the technical definition of “overweight” we have made good progress towards being non-fatties.  Mike still leads with a total weight loss of 6 pounds, but I am creeping up with my total of 4.9 pounds.  I think neither of us have gone too crazy as far as starving or exercising too much, so overall it has been a positive experience.  There are 15 days remaining until Mike arrives in Germany and if we continue to progress at this pace, I will lose about 10 pounds and Mike 12.  I will be pretty satisfied if I can hit that mark and I think I will keep going after that.  In a perfect world, I would like to get down to 170 and a 32 inch waist, but that may be a little bit too aggressive.  Maybe by Christmas…

Today’s total weight loss is measured in pizza slices.

Mike is off camping, so the 199 pounds is there since his last weigh in on Saturday.  Given that Mike will be out in the great outdoors, I assume that he will be gorging himself on a steady stream of BBQ, chips and beer over four days and will be returning to tip the scales at some massive number.  I took the liberty of installing some spy cameras at the campsite unbeknownst to Mr. Starr and this is the latest image from his trip.

Olympic Ping Pong…. Thank you China (and Poland needs more press)

Now, I know the modern world is one where people move from country to country pretty often (myself included) and I have no doubt whatsoever that  that these competitors all follow the correct rules to represent their countries, but I still find it amusing when I see images like this;



Asians, specifically Chinese really dominate table tennis.  I don’t think this is a stunning insight, but its pretty interesting to have a look at the roster of competitors to see just how many countries have Chinese born Ping Pongers representing them at the games.  I did include anyone with a Chinese looking name, and was not surprised that countries with a heavy immigrant population such as the USA or Canada happened to have native citizens of a Chinese background playing.  However, the majority of Chinese born competitors in this event at the Olympics do play for countries other than China.

So, I would say an outstanding word of thanks should go out to China for supplying the bulk to the worlds table tennis elite caliber talent. (all images from the Olympics official website with annotations by me.)









Then there is also…
Xue Li – France (born in China)
Jiao Li – Netherlands (born in China)
Jie Li – Netherlands (born in China)
Melek Hu – Turkey (born in China)
Xing Han – Congo (born in Congo)
Lei Huang Mendes – Portugal (born in China)
Jian Fang Lay – Australia (born in China)
Weixing Chen – Austria (born in Mongolia)Zhiwen He – Spain (born in China)Justin Han – Australia (born in China)Miao Miao – Australia (born in China)
Qian Li – Poland (born in China)
Jia Liu – Austria (born in China)
Na Liu – Great Britain (born in China)

One more thing…. Leading up to the Olympics, I have see a lot of big press and news stories around the South African runner Oscar Pistorius, who will be the first double amputee to compete in the Olympics.  I saw many many stories about him in the lead up to the games and I think it is great that he is able to compete at this level. 

However, I did not see any stories about Natalia Partyka, another athlete who will compete in both the Olympics and Paralympics.  In fact, this is the SECOND time she has done so, competing as well in the 2008 games.  Natalia won her way through to the third round of women’s singles where she was eliminated by Li Jie (NED)  More press for please, she is awesome.

I also thought it was interesting to read that Oscar Pistorious is not only the first double amputee to compete in the Olympics, but his compatriot Natalie du Toit was the first athlete to compete in both the Paralympics and Olympics (Swimming 2008.)  It seems that South Africa has a good history of inclusion for athletes.

The Fat Project–Day 9

Well, neither Mike nor I had a great day, both losing ground.  I am pretty sure mine is due to a combination of chest cold limiting my ability and desire to exercise, along with eating hot dogs for dinner last night.  I am pretty sure that hot dogs are not diet food in anyone’s plan.  At any rate, I popped back up a half pound to 190 and Mr. Starr up 2 pounds to 200.  Overall I am still pretty satisfied with the progression here.  If anything, I think it is a bit disappointing that my linear trend puts me at about 183 buy the end of this bet.  I would ideally like to keep going until I get down to around 175 pounds, I think that is the spot where I look less like a lardy-bottom.

Today’s total weight lost is measured in sweet sweet donuts.

I was able to sneak a hidden camera into Mike’s workout space and catch this image of him mid exercise.  It made me again feel good about my chances to come out on top in this race despite trailing the entire time so far.

Liam the Photographer

Like many people, we have a couple of cameras floating around the house.  I have my big nice DSLR that I use when I want the best photos, and then a little point and shoot that I use when I don’t feel like carrying the large bag around and want the pocket sized solution.  When we take a vacation, I normally have both cameras along to suit the needs of the day, however on our last trip Liam claimed the point and shoot as his own.  It was a good thing in that it kept him quite busy for a while so Claudia and I were able to do things he may have otherwise found boring.   It was not a good thing in that we spent a lot of time waiting around for the little photo maestro to line up and take his “perfect” photographs.

 

Here is a sampling of his work.   I think this actually took him about 20 min over a space of about 10 metres. He had a clear interest in the basket of seals, he told me he needed a lot of pictures of them to take home and show them to his seal so that he could see some friends.

 

The brick wall was taken so he could go home and show Emil “what walls look like on Borkum.”  Perhaps the best reasoning ever.

The Fat Project–Day 8

Ahh, what a difference a day with the cold/flu/whatever can make.  I went down a half kg in one day and the only exercise I did was stagger from the couch to the bed and back again.  Looks like I have found the magic way to lose weight without diet or exercise.  My book will be forthcoming.  Mike however is still somehow fighting his way past beer, cake and other pork based treats to drop seven pounds in total.  Very impressive, although he did drop that first big three pounds on the very first day, which I think must have been all beer.

Todays chart will measure total weight loss in corn dogs.

Fat Project–Day 7

As I feared, my lack of movement in the past 2 days or so have taken its toll.  I have now had my first day where I was worse than the previous, going back up 0.3 of a pound.  Oh well, when this cold passes, I will get myself back to the gym.  It does give Mike even more opportunity to pull farther ahead, Cherie needs to feed him more pie.

Todays total weight loss is measured in Tacos.

I am lazing around feeling sick, so I have no creativity today.  it was a stretch to change the chart to a taco graphic.

The Fat Project–Day 6 (really)

OK, so it looks like I am unable to count and mislabeled yesterday as day six.  Today is the true day six and we will reach the magic one week milestone tomorrow.  I have hit a small snag in that I have come down with quite  a nasty head cold.  Feeling ill has the positive weight losing influence of limiting my appetite, but it also has the more negative effect of taking away my will to do any exercise at all.  I certainly will not be going to the gym for a couple of days.  Despite this, I continue to have slow and steady progress on my weight and I am quite pleased with the results.

I have to confess, I have not done nearly as much exercise in this first week as I thought I would.  Almost all my progress has come down to eating smaller portions.  I read someplace that the best way to make progress on any goal is to write it down.  Since I am borderline nuts for analytics, I have been logging every item of food I ingest since the start of the bet and counting my calories.  It is annoying and not that fun to do, but it does seem to be working for me.  I hope I can keep it up long enough to reach my goals.

Todays total weight loss is measured in Cinnabons.

The Fat Project–Day 6

So the weekend has come and gone and I have to say that it is much much harder to stick to the plan on Sat and Sun.  I do get a lot more exercise given that I don’t spend xx hours a day sitting behind a desk, but the temptation of beer, BBQ, and treats are much much harder to avoid on those days.  Despite this, I managed to watch myself and not lose any ground, but I did not fare so well in terms of weight loss.  I am relatively pleased with losing 2.6 pounds in less than a week, but I somehow thought it would be more when I saw how quick Mike dropped on the first day.  I think neither of us are willing to starve ourselves, so I guess slow and steady will be fine.

I like to play with the charts to settle on a look and feel that is most communicative and minimalistic, so today I am removing the Y axis labels, replacing with start and end data labels and adding trend lines to project overall progress.  I may lose the trend lines, I don’t think they are adding much value.

Today’s Total Weight Loss graph is measured in Bacon Wrapped Shrimp.

I am also happy to see that Cherie seems to be working to help me win the bet by feeding Mike treats like this: 

Good work Cherie!

New Wallet

OK, so it may seem like an odd thing to write a post about, but a little while ago I purchased a new wallet.

 

I was quite unsatisfied with my wallets of the past, feeling that they were too thick and bulky.  I also found it annoying that a relatively small simple think would cost $50 or more.  I know I am being cheap about that, but hey, I can be pretty cheap.

 

While on vacation in Canada, I was in an outdoorsy type store and I saw that they had some really really thin wallets.  Some made from paper, some from nylon, even one from sail-cloth.  I liked that they were all very very thin and light, but I did not like that they were quite expensive (outdoors shops seem to only carry expensive things.)  So I went home and had a look around the interwebs for some alternatives.

 

Without too much searching, I found the “Big Skinny” wallet.  $25 USD, made from nice thin nylon and a bit more durable than paper.  It looked like a good fit, so I ordered one.

 

Empty, it is shockingly thin.  Here I sit it next to my old leather wallet, both empty.  To be fair, my leather one is likely bulging out a little more since it is molded to the stuff I have been carrying around in it the past few years, but still, it is way way thicker.

 

The only “feature” the big skinny did not have compare to my old wallet was a change purse.  but this is something I never ever used and actually complained often about not being able to find a wallet without one in Germany.  Despite being rather small, I was still able to fit all the same cards in it that I had in my old one.

 

 

Even filled with all that stuff, the new skinny wallet is quite a bit thinner than the empty (and now squished down) old leather wallet.  It is much more comfortable to carry around and it can slip pretty easily into back or front pockets.  If anything the only complaint I have is that I sometimes have to search a bit for it since I forget which pocket I put it in and don’t feel it so easily.

 

 

OK, so there is my random product review and endorsement of the “Big Skinny” wallet.  Check it out.

 

The Fat Project–Day 3

Wow, three days along and I have dropped 1kg (2.2 lbs) and feel pretty hungry.  I have certainly not had the initial success that Mike has had, but as long as the direction of the line on the graph is going down, I am satisfied.  I like to believe that it is a tortoise and hare situation and Mike’s fast start will eventually mire in a beer-fueled mid game slump.  

Today, the total loss results are measured in delicious German sausages.  I have also added the latest totals to the charts to add to readability.

As far as Mike’s projected finish from yesterday, I think he may have some flaws in his analysis.  I am pretty sure this is what is going on in his mind…

My Car’s Work Friend

I am still very pleased to have my nice new VW up! in my life.  It is a fun little car and I am totally satisfied with it so far. 

 

I was delighted to find out that there are two other cars exactly the same at work now.  Somewhere in my building, two other people have recently purchased the exact same model and colour that I have.  It makes me feel like I am in a little club.

 

Since I am a crazy person, I make it my mission to seek out and park next to one of the other up!s whenever I can.  So far, I have not seen either of the other drivers in person, just their cars.  I also don’t know if they have observed the parking arrangement, but I hope they have and think it is fun like me.  It is a special dream of mine to one day have all three white up! parked in a row.

 

Here are some examples of my parking success.

The Fat Project–Day 2

The second day did not bring much progress on my side despite eating small sensible meals and going for a nice long walk in the forest last night.  Looks like I will have to increase my activity level q bit more to get things rolling.  Mike on the other hand has started off strong, dropping 3 pounds in the first day and increasing that to 5 total today.  I have to hope this was just water (beer) that he lost in the first days and it will slow down now.  

Congratulations are in order for Mike though, he has now dropped his BMI below 30 and has gone from “Obese” to merely “Overweight”  Way to go fatty.

Today’s table will measure total weight loss in hamburgers.

Mike seems to disagree with my advanced computer analysis and has done some work on his own to project the outcome of this process. 

Apparently, Mike thinks this is the likely result on his side:

 

While I will end up with a slightly less chiseled look:

The Fat Project–Day 1

Here we go… the project is underway and Fraser had jumped off to a tremendous start, losing 0.9 pound on the first day.  I have to say it was pretty tough going so far, I really wanted chips.

Today, “total weight loss” is measured in packages of “I can’t believe its not butter”

I would like to point out that Mike has no chance to beat me.  I was running some computer simulations last night and based on willpower, love of snacks and exercise levels, my high tech computer system has estimated that at the end of 4 weeks I should look like this:

While Mike will look like this:

In the interest of fairness, I will place any content Mr. Starr cares to provide me on this site.

 

Car Show at Meilenwerk–part 2

While the first hall of the Meilenwerk has very very expensive cars for sale that are kept  away from grubby fingers by a nice thick pane of glass, the second hall has the vastly cheaper, yet still very expensive cars kept away from grubby fingers with a little sign saying please don’t touch.  I think this hall was more fun for Liam since he could get right next to the cars and take a really good look.  He wanted to be able to sit in some, but I explained to him that was a no go.  The first car to draw him in was a black Lamborghini that looked just like a toy one that he has at home.



This was just across the aisle from a whole bunch of Wiesmann cars.  A brand that is likely unfamiliar to the North American crowd, Wiesmann hand make custom 2-seater roadsters based on a BMW M3 engine and transmission.  They have a pretty neat egg-like shape in my opinion and look rather retro steam-punk.  The also cost upwards of 200K Euro, so they are not really for everyone.



Next up we saw a row of nice looking Porsches, including this delightful convertible 911.  We have established that this is the car I will be buying if disgusting amounts of money ever fall in my lap.



Since it was summerfest, there were some nice cars outside to look at here too.  Liam was quite taken with this Ferrari.



He also really liked this Ford since it was “A race car that is shorter than me!!”



All in all a very fun trip that has further fueled Liam’s growing love of cars.

The Fat Project

Mike Starr and I have been fighting the age old battle of the belly lately and in order to motivate us both, we are moving to a new motivational 1-2 punch

 

1. Competition

2. Public Shame

 

In one month, the Starr clan will be spending an exciting vacation over here in Deutschland.  Mike and I have made a bet on who can lose the most weight between now and then.  We will have daily updates posted in a public forum for all to observe and ridicule.   I also will use my nerdy love of charts to enjoy the chance to document the journey, I am open to any suggestions of suitable units of measurement for our fatness, a bar chart seems bland when I could be stacking units of bacon, pigs, something more fun…

 

The starting positions:

Car Show at Meilenwerk–part 1

Liam has been nurturing an obsession with cars lately.  He talks about race cars, DTM, Ferraris, and any others that come to mind daily.  He often wakes me up by walking into the room and saying “good morning.  The Bugatti Veyron is the fastest car, it can go 400kph”

 

So I thought I could fuel  this new interest by taking him to the Meilenwerk.  This is essentially a marketplace for specialty cars, vintage, exotic, collectors where they can show and sell them.  It is in a handy location about 5km from my office and it turned out they were having their “summerfest” last weekend.  So I packed Liam into our exotic VW up! and went off to look at Lamborghinis.

 

It is a pretty large building, much like a warehouse or airplane hanger.  Inside there are two distinct areas, the first being one where very expensive cars are in big glass display cases, fronted with little signs describing the car details and asking price.  I would say the majority of cars are high end sports cars, but there are more than a few old timers and Bentleys there as well.  Liam was immediately blown away by seeing two real life Lamborghinis in front of him.  I don’t think he really understood what they would look like in reality.

 

 

There was  a whole room full of cars getting work done, here are a couple of Lamborghinis getting new wheels put on.  I like that the garage work area is cleaner and more sterile looking than most hospitals or kitchens I have experienced.

 

 

Also in the Garage area was this Ferrari that Liam took a shine to.  He asked me if I would ever consider getting one….

 

 

Then I showed him the price on this one.  299k Euro (370k Canadian) and explained to him that we could have this car, or 30 VW up! cars, one for every day of the month.  He started to understand why Ferraris are not for everyone.

 

 

Based on that, he set his sights a little lower and found this one that we could rent.   I think this is the same one that Magnum PI drove, but I could be mistaken. (I checked, Magnum drove a 308 GTS, this is its successor the 328)

“You can just borrow this one for some money papa! lets do that!”

 

 

Then I showed him that it costs 400 Euro per day (~500 Canadian) and again this was a little bit more money than I planned to spend.  To put it in terms he can relate to, a weekend with this car is the same as a week long holiday for the whole family in Borkum.  He thought about it and figured that a whole vacation was probably a better deal, especially since the Ferrari looked like “it was too small to put many suitcases in.”

 

 

Part 2 will follow….