The Stickman Chronicles, Day 55

Ladies and gentlemen, I made a mistake this morning when I woke up.  The first thing I did was go step on the scale.  I say this is a mistake because the scale is the enemy.  It is likely the biggest source of discouragement out there, and for most people that comes in two forms - either for those who are replacing fat for muscle pound for pound, but give up because the 'scale' doesn't show progress, or those who run around the rooms giving high-fives to everyone because they have lost 15 pounds in three months.  It's a hollow victory if this is the third time you have lost 15 pounds after gaining 20 over the winter, so stop it.  It's called precongratulation.  I hate the scale.  I remember years ago I hated it so much I took one out in the yard and shot it.  Oh yes, I did.  And it felt goooood.

The Stickman's problem is neither of these.  (The Stickman sometimes refers to himself in the third person, it's called displacement).  MY problem is explained in previous posts, but the title should be a dead giveaway.  I weighed in this morning at 144 pounds.  This is exactly where I started on July 1st.  The day wasn't starting so well.

In spite of these setbacks, today was a day of just enough inspiration to actually make it to the gym, which is my point of failure most days.  I haven't yet figured out how to overcome that one hurdle.  Just get there.  It sounds like a variation of a slogan for Nike, but it really all boils down to that.
While starting my warmup and in between grunts and groans of my weight routine, I discussed this with Mohammed, my personal trainer, who incidentally, is also a counselor.  There is a huge benefit in that - everyone likes a 2 for 1 deal.

He basically told me that I needed to eat.  I had to get myself accustomed to eating small meals or snacks up five times a day.  This is the myth of dieting, he says.  A person's body will fight tooth and nail the shedding of pounds if it believes that its owner isn't feeding it right.  Eat healthy, and enough, then the burning of calories will cause the body to shed fat rapidly, since it isn't scared of starvation.  My body was having the opposite problem - it is afraid to put on muscle (which has, pound for pound, 23 times the caloric needs of fat tissue) because I'm not feeding myself enough protein, and my body thinks that the corresponding metabolic increase will cause me to starve to death.  Stupid body.

I'm not fond of the idea of protein powders.  They're mostly all the same, labelled "Bruce Banner's Massive Hulk-Building Formula" or some such malarkey.  I'd rather eat food.  If the ingredients on the back of something aren't recognizable as food - then don't eat it.  I think that's a good mantra.

So I am off to the market today, to search for some healthy raw ingredients that I can throw into a blender.  If I find something that doesn't taste like sawdust covered in soybeans and honey, I'll post the recipe here.