Wow! Memory lane.

My last post was a) from Japan, and b) about WoW, neither things of which I am involved with at the moment. Never mind that it was also from over a year ago (15 months maybe?).

Well, I guess with the plethora of time I have, I think I'll update this. Mostly random musings, which I usually do on Facebook. My friend and voracious blogger Rob seems to cross-post all the time.

So, what new? All my (very few) readers will know that I'm back in Canada. I am also currently unemployed, a fact about which I am currently ambivalent.

(Actually, not quite so ambivalent since seeing a recent credit card statement, and then paying said credit card statement, and then seeing its effects on my ever-shrinking bank balance. This has prompted me to a) get real and start tracking my finances, and b) re-evaluate my spending habits.)

Of perhaps more relevant news is my recent go at weight-loss. In the first two months of my return to Toronto, I fell into the very bad (for my health) habit of eating. A LOT. My routine was play games all day, and eat chips. Repeat for about 60 days.

No, certainly not good.

I suppose the major kicker was a photo taken for an application for my MA TESOL degree, which I hope to start in January. I have a mirror on my desk, which I use to check my teeth, trim nose-hairs, and other facial hygiene related things. As it's on my desk, I'm usually hunched a little forward, in FPS mode. This means my chin is out, which pulls the fat on my neck back. HAHA! NOT FAT!

Then of course I took a picture, in which I must stand tall, shoulder back, chest slightly out. This is the more realistic representation of me, and wow it was apparent just how fat I had become.

To give a concrete example, when I left Japan, I was probably clocking in around 97 kg. In the two months that followed, my weight went up to 103 kg. All that was pure fat.

AND IT SHOWED! Did it ever show!

I'll estimate that I was consuming between 2500 to 3500 calories a day, and the only exercise I was getting was with a keyboard and mouse.

At the beginning of November, I decided that I would begin my dieting. The old adage of eat less move more is ever my guiding principle, so the first thing on my list was to limit my caloric intake. I am now on a diet of 1800 calories a day, excepting Sundays which is my cheat day.

At the beginning, I was hard-pressed to keep to this limit. I knew immediately that I would have to cut out all the junk food. I also cut out the majority of my carbs at dinner. Lunch is almost always a 6-inch Subway sandwich.

Yes, I am on the Subway diet, and it's working.

My initial problems were hunger. I don't think there's any real cure for this but to wait until your stomach gets smaller. Now into my 3rd week of dieting, I find that I can easily to till 1 or 2 in the afternoon before getting REALLY hungry. Plus, the Subway and soup fill me up pretty good.

Next on my list was tracking what I ate. If anyone reading this is serious about losing weight, I seriously suggest this. Search this blog for dieting posts, and you will most certainly find that doing this was a key component for me for losing weight. Now, the fact that I keep rebounding is another thing entirely, but the fact remains that this is a weight-loss tool par excellence.

Next consideration is exercise. I am living a fairly sedentary lifestyle, with no work to burn calories. That's bad. Initially I started doing just push-ups (inclined, girly-man push-ups because I am weak). It didn't last long because I was doing them only semi-regularly (like every time I went upstairs), and soon they disappeared entirely.

Oh how I wish I had shipped my Bowflex dumbbells from Japan!

I toyed with the idea of buying them again here, but the price-point always seemed too high. But instead, my eyes turned to kettlebells.

Right now, these things are rocking my world.

Small, versatile, and a good weapon in a pinch!

OK, maybe not the weapon part. But the idea is bafflingly simple and perfect for my situation. Generally speaking, my routine will involve carrying them up stairs (modified farmer's carry), swings, and either shoulder presses, chest presses, or cleans.

Alright, enough blathering. What are the results? Sadly, I left my Tanita Body Fat Weight Scale at home, and all I have here is a crappy (but stylish) digital bathroom scale.

There you go. Where as previously I had done a crazy caloric restriction (which unsurprisingly led to massive weight-loss), I'm doing a more modest 3-4 pounds per week, or about 1.5 kg a week. So far so good. I went from a start weight of 101.3 kg, to my current 97.9 in about 2 weeks. I plan on keeping this up until I hit my personal best of 85 kg, at which point I'll re-evaluate my goals/lifestyle.

Phew, long ass post. Next ones will be shorter, I promise ;)

Me is hungry

It's been a while since I did any blogging.

Last year was an interesting year for me, what with the root canal, wisdom tooth pulling, and cataract surgery and all.

But last year I also saw myself beginning to rebound in weight.

There were plenty of excuses I gave for this; I was too busy, Jon was no longer my neighbor, I wasn't THAT much heavier etc. etc. Well, like most things, there's some truth to all this, and some things that are just me ignoring the elephant in the corner.

Addressing the first of these, I really WAS busy. The combination of the wisdom teeth and the cataract surgery sandwiching my preparations for midyear seminar is what really did it. During that short 2.5 month period, due to a pressing need to catch up on work, I left work more times after 6 than my previous YEARS combined. Needless to say, my diet rapidly degenerated into whatever I felt like eating at Mini-stop, or even worse, grabbing myself a double quarter-pounder at Micky Dee's.

Jon, who wrapped up his last year on JET, moved away from the apartment. While still living in Fukuma, the idea of biking to his new place after work, working out, then biking back to my place, didn't really seem to jive. So gone were my days of going to the gym 4 times a week.

Well, the time after mid-year and before I went back home for the holidays was a party-filled affair, with more than it's fair share of beer and other liquors. And going home for the holidays was of course a treat, but I also fell into the vacation mentality, indulging my every fast-food whim.

Thus the result of about 8 months of neglect, in which probably 80-90% of the damage occuring in the last 3 months of that time, was an increase in weight from my all-time best of 85 kgs to 96 kgs this January, or about a 24 pound increase for those of you who are metric-phobic.

I knew I had gained weight. Any of my recent Facebook pictures proves that. Returning to the limelight were the all-stars, my gut and my double chin. Like I do every year, I made a resolution to lose weight.

I made this same resolution last year, but I pretty much didn't go through with it. After all, I was still working out. In a very real sense, I didn't need to watch what I ate as much.

But by August, with Jon gone from the apartment, my motivation to go to the gym dropped like a stone. I was still eating like shit, and so the inevitable creeping back of that band of fat around my torso and legs became evident. Shirts were tighter around my chest again. I went up a belt hole. My airsoft gear needed to be readjusted.

Fucking hell.

Well, I'm back in the saddle again, as it were, and dieting pretty hard. Though the gym hasn't made a return to my life, I now walk to school and back every day. I've also limited myself to a 1700 kcal diet (or as close as I can get to that), with, again, a cheat day on one of the weekend days.

Recording what I eat has also returned. But rather than a notebook I carry with me, as I did during 2008, I now track my progress on www.livestrong.com. Yes, this is the Lance Armstrong website.

Well, I'm happy with the results. Again, motivation is a huge factor, and this is one area where, for me at least, using the website is of real benefit. My morning routine involves me weighing myself first thing. I then head over to the computer and input that data into the website.

Well, what can I say. This is working! Not only that, but seeing a measurable amount of progress helps me out when that Big Mac looks REALLY good.

The initial loss is probably the most recently acquired fat, and the shock of going from a 2700 - 3500 calorie a day diet to a 1700 calorie one. I theorize that this is my "Canada" fat. I'm now chipping away at the, September to December fat, and on average going down about 200g a day.

My immediate goal is to get my weight down to 85 kgs, my personal best, a goal I'm hoping to hit before the end of February. My mid-range goal is to get to 80 kgs, hopefully by the time summer rolls around. Ultimately, my end goal is to get my BMI to under 25, and take myself out of the obese category.

Let's see what happens...

Dieting again

Yes, I'm back to dieting. I've had a run of a few bad weeks that have seen me gain back a few kilos. Enkais, going-away parties, and some general late-winter malaise have all help erode my healthier eating habits. I find I'm doing a lot of snacking, pretty much a no-no for me, but worse doing it late at night.

OK, so the buck stops here.

However, where as before I'd adopted a rather simplistic (though effective, at least at that time) approach to dieting, recent readings have gotten me thinking. In particular, I've read more and more that caloric intake ultimately has no real bearing on weight gain/loss. Neither, ultimately, does fat intake. Rather, it's the intake of carbohydrates which affect insulin levels, which affect the body's ability to burn fat that's the culprit.

This is too simplistic a description of something that is far more complex. I'll admit readily that I have no deeper or intrinsic understanding of the factors/forces at work here. In fact, there's every good chance that I have fatally misunderstood this concept. I'll plow on, regardless, and hope that any clarifications catch up with me.

First, thanks to Rob for this damned interesting blogpost that reviews a book that explores many health-related things seen as "conventional wisdom." The blogpost is all the more interesting in that it is written by a physicist, who decries the un-rigourousness of modern "soft science". In the current counter-counter-culture mood I find myself in of late, this article feels especially appropriate.

Second, all this highfalutin ego-prose aside, let me meander into my own life, as there are some recent revelations I want to share:

1) I am stronger now. I have bigger muscles.
In this sense, my weight gain doesn't bother me...of course, assuming that this is all muscle and not fat.

2) My pants feel tighter.
Ah the other shoe drops. The operative word here though is feel. I highly suspect that while my arms and chest have become bigger due to muscle, my abdomen is also bigger, meaning bigger waist-size, meaning fat. I would estimate that my waist-size has gone up about 2cm (or just under an inch). This is, I feel, directly related to...

3) I am snacking and eating more bad shit.
Like McDee's, though no where near what I used to. I used to go to McDonald's and get 2 hamburgers and 5 nuggets, but now I'm back to just ordering a combo meal. I also used to ask for smaller portions of rice, but that rarely happens now either.

OK, so obviously cutting out bad shit is key. I suppose the easiest thing to do would be to cut out the McDonald's, but really, that's never going to happen. While I'm not really all that fanatical about the evils of processed food, I nevertheless realize that they are ultimately unhealthy for you. In this particular case though, this is rather something that nourishes my psychological self, because dammit sometimes I WANT to eat that Big Mac because it taste good and makes me happy.

However, given what I've read, a more careful consideration of my carb intake is probably warranted. I don't think I'll worry about the single piece of toast that I eat for breakfast. But the bread/pastry from the canteen downstairs at my school? Out. I'll also be going back to my no fries policy, at McDonald's and elsewhere. A side-salad, even with the high-calorie dressing, is better.

I may also have to re-think my calorie counting policy, in light of the above article. While it is only one side of a multi-faceted argument, I find the fact that the review was written by a physicist to be somehow comforting. So instead of calorie counting, I might consider carbohydrate counting instead, coupled with a wiser eating regimen. The occasional skipping of a meal is also something I will consider (like tonight, thanks to my gigantic but delicious bento the English department ordered for entrance exam marking day).

Well, that was a long and possibly boring post, but whatever.

Plates = Progress

According to gym buddy Jon, "plates" are the 45 lbs/20kg weights used during bench lifting and sundry other activities. These were also a sort of milestone for me.

Let's go back about 4 weeks. Back when I first started lifting, my chest area was woefully underdeveloped. Having broken my wrist when I was younger, I hadn't tried to bench press in at least 15 years. My "enhanced" weight also meant that I rarely, if ever, did push-ups. So it was no surprise to me that when I started that the bar itself consisted of an actual set (versus a mere warm-up to get the blood going), and that 2x 25lb (10kg) was my limit.

I'll travel down a related path for a moment. It's interesting; many thinner people who look at fat people in disdain cry out "Put down the fork!" While this is fundamentally a truism, it's also cruel and cold-hearted advice that doesn't take into account that exercise and mindset are critical factors as well. While some people are content to be fat, I would venture to say that most people are not. Thus the diet fads, all of which promise the moon for little or no effort, at least at first glance.

Thus the problem I think most people face is the same one as I faced: lack of visible, trackable results. Last year, I tried Billy's Bootcamp as a method of losing weight. While I saw results (it is, I still maintain, fairly effective core training), those results were spoiled by poor eating habits. I had fallen into the trap of excusing bad eating by exercising.

This was a recipe for failure, and I think that I ended up rebounding that much harder. It is no surprise that I was fatter. Though my weight hadn't changed, my muscle mass had decreased and my body fat increased.

Getting back on track, like my weight-loss, I've seen progress in lifting weights. My first time benching I couldn't lift the 35 lbs (15kg) plates. Now I can bang out 10 with proper form. The 45s were a dream, but yesterday I did 4 reps clean and 2 more with Jon's help. While the weight itself was hardly noteworthy, it is that PROGRESS, the visible fact that A) I was lifting more, B) I am visibly more cut now, which fuels my desire to continue to work out.

In an tangential, though still oddly related, line it's the same as successful GMing, and perhaps the secret of Blizzard's success with World of Warcraft. Table-top role-players and online gamers NEED to see progress, need to see results, need to feel that the time and effort they are putting into an activity are being validated by results. My fellow blogger Rob warns me of the perils of looking at pictures of the past and being disheartened at a 20-year old physique. As he is a former Marine, I can understand his plight on an academic level. But all my childhood pictures are of me being fat. I can only look at my pictures and grin, as I am more healthy now than I have been in a decade, and possibly for at least 1/2 of my life.

In the end, this isn't a novel or revolutionary idea. Far from it, in hindsight it seems perfectly obvious. But this was an epiphany of sorts for me, and perhaps my first step into a world of better health.

Hydrate or die.

OK, maybe not die, but at least slough off some skin in a fit of itching and blood.

Yes blood.

The last 3 weeks or so have seen me suffering from an eczema flare-up. At times better, at times worse, but over the last 2 days it has become particularly alarming.

No one really knows why eczema happens, and there are more treatment options than I care to name. I've tried a lot. The best, but possibly most harmful, was a topical cream called Celestoderm. A powerful cortical steroid, I usually saw good results (less itching, redness) within 24 hours. Sadly, my large jar of it got used up, so I'm left with lesser products.

Moisturizing of course doesn't really help. Anything alcohol or Urea -based will serve to inflame my skin even more. Milder solutions, like Glaxal-base work to stave off dryness (for a while), but do nothing about the ITCHINESS, which at times is unbearable. Scratching that itch feels good. I mean, it REALLY feels good. Euphoric even. Until you stop and notice your hand is stained red.

From blood.

That's where I am now. I have a constantly healing set of scabs on my elbow-pits (?), on my knees and forearms, on my upper calves. As they form, the reduce skin flexibility. They break apart from the surrounding skin and become itchy. I scratch. I bleed. The miserable cycle continues.

Thoroughly nauseating as this post may be, it is part of my daily life, and is notable in the one aspect of my health which seems to have gotten worse since I came to Japan. I have attributed this to the change in seasons...but an epiphany of sorts struck me last night around 11pm.

My eczema had almost disappeared during the late summer. Odd in the sense that increased humidity and heat usually made it worse (due to sweat causing discomfort thence itching etc.). As such, I attributed my worsening to the change in seasons, with autumn bringing in unwanted allergens, then moving into dry winter weather. As I had run out of Celestoderm, I assumed that this was the most logical of explanations.

But that epiphany changed that. During the late summer (that's October over here), I started to drink a lot of water. This was part of my diet routine. Constantly having to process water means your body is in a constant state of metabolism, or at least I think that's how it works. I'll leave the true facts to those more erudite than I.

About a month ago, however, the weather started to get cooler, and I no longer toted my Nalgene bottle with me. It was still hot enough that I didn't need the extra weight when biking, and my dieting was going smoothly.

2 things started to happen, which now seem obvious in hindsight. My weight-loss plateaued, and my eczema started to flare up.

I had intended to visit the doctor, to see what he might prescribe for me. But for now, that's on hold. I need to see if my reasoning holds true, and that by hydrating (that is, drinking at least 2 litres of water every day) my eczema settle down. Call it an experiment.

Mission Accomplished

Gets off a plane and onto the deck of a USN carrier. Service men and women stand at attention. The media, in all their propaganda glory, snap madly away. Coming to the podium with thumbs up:

Mission Accomplished.

OK, so does anyone remember those size 34 GAPs I bought? Well, I can now fit into them quite comfortably. No chaffing, pinching, or squeezing.

I'll need to reassess my goals, because I still feel like a tub of lard.

(OK, not really. But damn if that belly fat isn't hard to get rid of...)

Days 56-58

This weekend was a busy one for me, and until about 7pm or so, I was feeling pretty shitty and angry. The reason was my semi-annual shopping trip for my mother, to give to my father to bring back home to Canada. But in all honesty, it's a grind I'm used to. I think I was cranky because of hunger or general tiredness.

Or, I was still in a sort of hungover state.

So lets begin on Saturday.

Day 56
10/25 (1106+????) Biking Commute
0700-1200: Bowl of granola cereal with milk, banana, coffee x2
1200-1700: Diced steak lunch (steak, salad, soup, rice
1700-2400: Oh god...too much fucking alcohol.

Knowing I was going on a family trip to Nagasaki the next day, I postponed my freeday to Sunday. Spending a somewhat lazy morning, I had a successful JHS demo class for the kids that visited Genkai for open campus. This was a lot of fun, and kids got into it. A bonus was the 4 kids from the demo class I did at Shingu JHS who were in my class then and again on Saturday. I'm hoping that at least one of them will show up next April.

That night Jon, Jon's friend Ryoko (or Kyoko?), and I went to Bagus for dinner. It wasn't my cheat day, but whatever. Nice conversation, good eats. I hadn't planned on drinking much, but I was pretty nicely toasted by the time we settled our bill.

Afterwards, we went to karaoke with Julie, Rochelle, and another ALT Brad. There, I continued to drink. And drink. And drink.

I don't know what caused me (for the first time in my entire drinking history) to be violently ill. I suspect that it was the really bad gin, or the mixing of different kinds of drinks. What I DO know is that I ended up emptying the contents of that evenings meal on parts of the floor, the urinal, and the toilet of the men's room at the karaoke. My hand got caught in the initial spray, causing some spatter to hit my shirt and pants, as well as my chin. Of course, I felt immediately better thereafter, and feebly attempted to clean up the toilet. I was then sober enough to realize what a mess I had made, and shamefully told the karaoke employees. They seemed resigned. I guess it's something that happens with some degree of frequency.

That said, I'm almost positive I threw up almost everything I had eaten that night. Or if not, a good portion of it. This is because the urinal I threw up in was clogged, probably from food matter. So I can't really estimate my calories for the day.

Yeah. That's not gonna happen again.

Day 57
10/26 (3252...or there abouts) Freeday
0700-1200: Fried Chicken, Grain bar, Pepsi White, Can Coffee
1200-1700: Takoyaki, Pork Yakitori, Softcreme, Boiled Egg, Skittles, Beer
1700-2400: Sashimi, Steak, Chawanmushi, Chicken Nabe, Rice, Fried Chicken, Spicy Fries, Chou Creme

Well, vacations are about eating, and I did this in spades. Still hung-over from my previous night's indiscretions, I trudged my way to Hakata Station, then to my father's hotel. There, we met up with my cousins, who managed to get a $100 parking ticket. Our trip was to Unzen, an onsen south of Nagasaki City. The occasion was the celebration of my grandmother turning 90, and her two sisters (a belated birthday celebration, though I don't know her age, and the successful recovery of the other from a hospitalizing injury). It's rare to see such a family get together, but I had met a number of them before from my trip to Nagasaki last August.

Unzen was nice, but not being able to have a bath in the onsen, my presence there was more perfunctory than anything else. Still it was nice to met and greet, and family get togethers are never a waste of time in my books.

My calorie count is all over the place because it's hard for me to estimate what i had for dinner. I was pretty full, but that's more a result of my smaller stomach. The sashimi was bream, and the nabe was mostly vegetables, tofu, and chicken meatballs. The steak was 6, small strips (10cm x 1 x 1). In all the rice probably had the most calories, and it was a small bowl. I'd estimate about 750, but that's probably a low-ball figure. I returned home later that night (many had elected to stay the night) and upon returning home I went to Ministop to get the meat and potatoes I was craving. Top it off with a Cream-filled Pastry Puff for desert, and there ended a truly, TRULY, freeday for me.

Day 58
10/27 (2516) Walking (4 hours), Weight Training
0700-1200: Pastry, Chicken, Crackers
1200-1700: Balance Bar, Can Coffee, McHamburger x2, McNuggets, Red Bull, BCAA Drink, Weider Protein Jelly
1700-2000: Protein Meal Replacement Shake

Believe it or not, I was STILL feeling the effects of Friday night. I felt a little nauseous as I headed into town for a day of shopping. While the shopping was routine, my tiredness was catching up with me, and I felt sort of cranky all day. The surprise of the day was when I ended up at one my favorite shops to buy my Halloween costume this year. This year I will once again pretend to be a U.S. serviceman (a modern-day Marine, as all my old WW2 stuff is back in Toronto). I purchased a pair of desert MARPAT BDUs, and to my surprise, I fit into the medium size. Considering a large would have been a snug fit 2 monthes ago, that makes me pretty damned happy.

This week in review (Days 51-55)

Overall, it was a high calorie week. That said, I did work out 4 nights (today will be day 5), and overall, I saw a (slight) reduction in both weight, though no real reduction in body fat.

10/20 (1714) Biking Commute, Weight Training
0700-1200: Scrambled Eggs, Banana, Coffee, Coffee
1200-1700: Kitsune Udon, Kara Age, Calorie Mate
1700-2000: Peanuts, Sirloin Steak, Veggie Juice, Yakult

10/21 (1604) Biking Commute
0700-1200: Banana, Balance Bar, Coffee, Coffee, Soyjoy
1200-1700: Kara Age Curry
1700-2000: Peanuts, Tandoori Chicken, Yakult, Veggie Juice, Saltines

10/22 (1902) Biking Commute, Weight Training
0700-1200: Banana, Coffee, Salmon Onigiri, Beef Onigiri, Coffee
1200-1700: Double Cheeseburger, Medium Fries, Weider Protein Jelly
1700-2000: Protein Shake, Tandoori Chicken, Harusame Soup

10-23 (2510) Biking Commute, Weight Training
0700-1200: Scrambled Eggs, Banana, Coffee, Calorie Mate
1200-1700: Kara Age Curry
1700-2000: Peanuts, Weider Jelly, Protein Shake, Karomatsu Grilled Chicken, Yakult
(Notes: Jon and I decided to eat out, which accounts for the high calorie count)

10-24 (2030) Biking Commute, Weight Training
0700-1200: Banana, Coffee, Coffee, Calorie Mate, Salmon Onigiri
1200-1700: Yakisoba Kara Age Bread, Spicy Sausage Bread, Chocolate, Granola Bar
1700-2000: Protein Shake, Ginger Pork, Veggie Juice, Saltines, Nori

Really, what's adding to my calorie count is the protein shake. 35g of Whey Mix + 180mL of milk makes for about 250 calories. That said, it's 22+6g of protein right after my workout, so that's here to stay.

Tomorrow is the family outing to Unzen Nagasaki, so I'll reserve my free day until then. Pictures (maybe...).

Day 48-50

Day 48 (1869) Bike Commute (Hard)

0700-1200: Scrambled Eggs, Banana, Coffee, Onigiri, Konyaku Drink
1200-1700: Kitsune Udon, Kara-Age, Soyjoy Bar
1700-2000: Ministop Spicy Fries, Spiced Chicken, Minestrone, Saltines, Nori

Day 49 (3320) Hiking at Houmanzan (approx. 2400-2700 calories burned)

0700-1200: Scrambled Eggs, Ministop Spicy Chicken, Veggie Juice, Coffee, Balance Bar
1200-1700: Peanuts, Yakitori, Hypertonic Water, Amino Vital 2000 drink
1700-2000: Buffet Dinner, Coke

Day 50 (1737) No exercise

0700-1200 Balance bar, saltines
1200-1700 Subuta Lunch, 2 chicken wings, Ministop Kara Age, Peanuts
1700-2000 Tandoori Chicken, Saltines, Nori, Yakult

Day 46/47

10/15 (1854) Bike Commute, Weight Training
0700-1200: Banana, Scrambled Eggs, Coffee x2, Apricot Soyjoy
1200-1700: Italian Hamburg Lunch Set
1700-2000: Peanuts, Tandoori Chicken, Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

10/16 (1652) Bike Commute, Weight Training
0700-1200: Maple Oatmeal, Banana, Coffee x2
1200-1700: Big Mac, Side Salad, Nori,
1700-2000: Spiced Chicken, Ministop Pizza Panini, Yakult

Observation of the day: While the side salad from McDonald's is only 10 calories, the dressing that comes with it (Creamy Roast Sesame) is 115 calories? WHAT THE FUCK MCDONALD'S[DOT]JP? I might as well be eating the fucking fries!

Where does he get those wonderful toys?

From Fujitsu FMV

From Fujitsu FMV

...well, at a little known (or perhaps well known, depending on what circles you travel) used OA store called Kyushu Hard.

OK, lets ignore the Engrish naming conventions for a moment (it's far better then Hard Off anyway). OA stands for Office Automation. In other words, Kyushu Hard is a reseller of used computers, copiers, laminators, projectors, and a plethora of other technological (not-so) wunderkind.

Pictured above is my new (to me) used Fujitsu FMV-7100MT5. Ever since I saw a similar sized item at the store, I have been somewhat in the market for a new ultra-lite notebook. While not as light as the Panasonic Let's Note I was looking at, at 1.2 kg it is a far cry from my 2.8 kg Dell Inspiron 6400. But with the reduced weight come some hefty limitations.

The most noticable of this is the lack of any form of optical drive. No CD, DVD, or even legacy floppy drive. To compensate, there are 2 USB 2.0 ports, plus a built-in LAN port. The OS is, I believe, hard-coded into the BIOS, and as such has no theoretical need for anything like a optical drive. That would never satisfy my computing needs, even for on-the-go computing, but some virtual DVD-Drive mounting software should be more than sufficient. Transferring gigabyte-sized files may prove some sort of problem in the future, but for now this is not a real issue.

The hardest part may be if I have a hard-drive failure. Miniaturization means that instead of a standard 2.5 inch note-book HDD, it has a diminutive 1.8 inch 40GB HDD. Should that fail, a retail replacement could cost upwards of $200 dollars.

Size-wise this is effectively a B5-sized notebook, though in reality a little larger. Roughly, it's 27cm wide, 21.5 cm deep, and about 3.7 cm tall at it's wider end. The screen is a 12.1 TFT LCD, with a max resolution of 1024x768. Processor is a 1.0 GHz Celeron Mobile, with 512 MB of RAM installed.

In it's current vanilla state, it's boot times are impressive, going from off to usable desktop in about 37 seconds. While this will be sure to decline with installed programs, I intend to keep it as clean as possible.

I think the sweetest, and at the same time most galling, aspect is the price. My 4-year-old, admittedly much better though much heavier, Dell is STILL being paid for thanks to a 3 year installment plan. Financing included, that computer (for which I have already had to buy a new, non-OEM battery) will end up costing me some $2200 CAD. My new Lifebook is 5 years old, used, and cost me (assuming 1:1 penny:yen conversion) $280 dollars. Not to mention that I got a free optical mouse and wireless LAN card to boot.

Yeah, pretty happy cat at the moment.

OK, lets include a little coda here:

Day 45
10/14 (1507) Biking Commute, Walking 15 minutes

0700-1200: Coffee x2, Banana, Scrambled Eggs (2), Apple Danish, Yakult
1200-1700: Shrimp Wonton Noodle Soup
1700-2000: Tandoori Chicken, J-Veggies, Veggie Juice, Saltines

Weight: 89.4 kg
Body Fat: 27.7%

Not only did my weight go back down, so did my body fat. Also, I've been over-estimating how much chicken I was eating, and on the days I get my chicken breast from the grocery store, I'm eating about 85 grams, as opposed to the 150 grams I thought.

So yeah, good day!

Weekend Wrapup

10/10 (1697) Biking Commute
0700-1200: Coffee, Banana, Veggie Juice, Spicy Sausage Bread
1200-1700: Ramen, Kara Age
1700-2000: Kara Age, Veggie Juice, Yakult

10/11 (1790) Weight Training
0700-1200: Scrambled Eggs, Apple Danish, Coffee, Pumpkin Bread, Orange Juice
1200-1700: Salad, Ministop Spicy Chicken, Peanuts, Jumbo Frank
1700-2000: Kara Age, Ministop Fried Chicken.

10/12 (1131+????) Free Day, Biking 15 minutes
0700-1200: Energy Bar, Nikuman, Latte, Can of Pringles (SM)
1200-1700: Salad, Ministop Spicy Chicken
1700-2400: Uhhh, lets not talk about it...

10/13 (1598) Weight Training
0700-1200: -
1200-1700: Ham and Cheese Omelette, Apple Danish, Yakult x2, Energy Bar
1700-2000: Konyaku Ramen, Spicy Chicken

Weight: 91.2 kg
Body Fat: 29.3%

This was a kind of a bad weekend for me. With a little bit of weight gain, and an increase in body fat, I can definitely attribute these to my night of culinary debauchery on Sunday. I'll admit that I've been feeling somewhat complacent, having almost reach my initial goal of -10kg, but this is where the real work starts.

To that end, I'm going to be hitting the gym with Jon 3 times a week. Cleaning up my diet too, which has been somewhat sloppy. Damned Mini-stop and their delicious chickens.

Day 40 (Ahem! Thanks Rob!)/Random Stuff

With no tennis yesterday, the damage was a little high, but still within acceptable norms.

Food (1838)
0700-1200: Coffee, Banana, Onigiri, Calorie Mate, Grape Konyaku Drink
1200-1700: Steak Lunch (Rice, Miso Soup, Pickles)
1700-2000: Basil Chicken Sandwich, Soup, Yakult.

Exercise: Bike Commute

Also, I almost (again) got hit by a car. I was watching the woman behind the wheel as I approached. I was biking along a main thoroughfare, and she coming in off a side street. She looked right (normal, as Japan runs on opposite roadsides), but failed to look left. Of course I was coming from the left. She had a very surprised look as I passed her, slamming down on my bell. Julie said she had a bewildered look.

Day 39

Weight: 90.0 kg
Body Fat %: 28.7%

Food (1540 Cal)
0700-1200: Juice, Coffee, Banana, Hamburger, Coffee, Chocolate
1200-1700: Corn/Tuna Salad, Spicy Popcorn Chicken, Calorie Mate, Candy
1700-2000: Meatball in Tomato Sauce (12), Veggies, Veggie Drink, Yakult

Exercise: Bike Commute

Plateau

Occupying much of my thoughts lately has been my dieting. I'll happily report that since last week I weighed in at about 93kg (205 lbs) just before I started my gym session. But somewhere along the line, I knew that I would hit a plateau, as my body became used to the lowered food volume I was putting into it.

That plateau has arrived. Yesterday, when I checked my weight, I had lost a measly 800 grams, or about 2 pounds. OK, so that's not that bad. And I was sick last week and didn't diet for 2 nights. But to my ears, these are hollow excuses.

So I've started the "Write down what you eat" diet. Not really a diet per se, but rather a log of what I eat every day, no matter how minuscule. With these come some calorie calculations (precise where they can be, but otherwise a rough estimate using the wonderful internet).

Lets look at damage today:
Breakfast: Banana, Small (70); Salmon Onigiri (191); Bacon Bread (250 [estimate]), 2 cups of coffee (120 [estimate, no-cal sweetener, light powdered creamer])

Lunch: 2 McDonald's Hamburgers (502), Chicken McNuggests (254), Veggie Juice (68)

Dinner (Projected): 150g Chicken Breast, spiced, pan-fried in 2 tbsp Extra-Virgin Olive Oil (215+30+80), small Japanese-style spinach/beans/hijiki (30), Veggie Juice (68), Yakult Drink (67)

CALORIES: 1945

Yeah, the Micky Dees was a bad idea. But that said I can cut 200 calories there pretty easy and still feel full. Also, the extra bread in the morning, when I've already had a banana and an onigiri was extravagant. From this current total, by eliminating the bread, and switching the nuggets for a side salad (about 50 cal including the dressing), I can cut out about 400 calories.

OK, so it's not that I'll be eating this everyday. Some days I WILL be over 2000 cal. Other days, I'll be well under, closer to my 1500 cal/day goal. The point of the diet diary is to keep track of my eating habits, not to meticulously count calories. This helps build up not only a knowledge of how many calories a variety of foods have, but also how to cut out the unnecessary calories and still feel like I've eaten a good amount.

Happy news

The last 4 weeks have been an interesting time for me. I am now on day 23 of my diet. With Saturday as a nominal cheat day, the rest of the time, not including things like enkais or whatnot, I am carefully watching what I eat.

The beginning of the story is some 4 weeks ago, at the welcome party for our new ALT Julie. I had had a pretty wild day until then; our final orientation committee meeting, followed by dinner at Hard Rock Cafe. Julie's welcome party, an enkai held by Jon's school by the younger teachers with Ms. H, a JTE who used to be at Genkai hosting, and wrapping up the night with karaoke.

An off the cuff comment at Julie's party by Mr. K, one of my JTEs, spear-headed the change in my eating habits. He mentioned that I was fatter than when I first arrived in Japan. We laughed at this, but secretly I wondered if it was true. The following day, I borrowed Jon's bathroom scale, and to my surprise and somewhat relief, it seemed that my weight had not changed. In fact, it was exactly the same.

Yet his comment bothered me. Considering that fat weighs less than muscles, it was certainly possible that I had traded muscles mass for fat mass. I was indeed fatter than I when I arrived.

However, this was strange also. I bike to and from school everyday. So I imagine that in the end, I had lost some muscle, gained some fat, but was overall maintaining my weight.

So the answer seemed clear:

If I was able to maintain my weight with a lifestyle that included large dinners, plenty of snacking, and sparse exercise, then it seemed equally possible that by cutting back on my caloric intake and eliminating my snacking, I could lose weight with little impact to the amount I exercise.

4 weeks later, I am glad to announce I was right.

But lets look at what I might have had for a typical day before my diet. For breakfast I would have an onigiri and bread, and drink that down with coffee. Then for lunch I might have a katsudon (ricebowl with breaded pork cutlet), with a side of karaage (fried chicken). Upon returning home, I might snack on a bag of chips before I had dinner of jalapeno chicken tenders with a bowl of rice. After that would probably be a dessert of some kind, say a bowl of ice-cream.

Lets break down the calories here.

Breakfast
onigiri 250
bread 350
coffee 250
Lunch
katsudon 750
karaage 350
Snack
chips 350
Dinner
chicken 500
rice 250
dessert 300
TOTAL 3350

HOLY. FUCK. There is no way I needed that many calories. When you add the sodium, saturated fat, carbs, sugar etc. in all that, I was definitely on the road to something bad. Also, this doesn't take into account days I might hit up McDonald's, or ate candy or something at work.

OK, lets look at my average day now. For breakfast I have a banana at home, then an onigiri at school, with some grape konyaku (a sort of jelly made from the root of a plant, mixed with grapes). For lunch, I'll have that same katsudon. For dinner, I'll have 2 pieces of chicken tenders, with a vegetable juice. As a small hold over for when I feel peckish, a pack of 6 Premium Plus crackers.

Breakfast
banana 100
onigiri 250
konyaku 70
Lunch
tonkatsu 750
Dinner
chicken 500
veg juice 70
saltines 70
TOTAL 1810

Now that's a fuck load better. I am also now very conscious of the aforementioned factors such as fat, carbs, sugar, sodium etc.

So how does all that relate to me? What are the results after 23 day over 4 weeks? What is the happy news?

Before I started this diet, I was 99.6 kg (about 220 lbs). My pants size was a 38. Having gone to the gym today with Jon, I weighed myself and clocked in at 93 kg (205 lbs.).

FUCK YEAH!

While my shirts are still all fitting as they used to, I most notice my weight-loss in my pants size. Where as before I would cinch my belt below my gut, I can now belt it at my waist proper. My belts are now at their shortest hole, and in some cases (like my old 15 year old belt) now loose. Don't get me wrong. I still have a gut. But sucking it in now yields a much better result!

Spurred by my recent weight-loss, I headed to the GAP yesterday, intent on buying a new belt, and determined to get into a pair of 36 waist pants. Picking a pair out, I got into the change room and slipped them on. To my shock, they more that fit. They were loose on the waist! OK, as people in Japan have no ass they were still somewhat snugger than I was used to, but DAMN!

In trepidation, I asked the clerk to bring me a size smaller, a 34. A month ago, I doubt I would even be able to get a size 34 passed my hips.

Not only was I able to get them passed the hips, but I was able to button them up.

Yes, gentle readers. 34. For me, this is a size I have not seen in over 10 years. Needless to say I was blown away. Very fucking happy news indeed.

OK, so the pants I ended up buying are not comfortable. I can button them up, yes, but they restrict my movement and are basically too tight. But I spent my $78 on them anyway. Why? The way I see it, I will put them on at the end of every week and see how they fit. Once I am able to wear them comfortably, I know that I will have reached something approaching a proper weight. I am eagerly looking forward to the day I can wear them to work.

OK, so what's in store for me? Certainly, I will continue my diet. I will admit the 2nd week was the worst, and I was hungry and irritable all week. However, part of my plan includes getting used to less food and pay better attention to what I eat. It would be a Sisyphean task to lose my current goal of 15 kg (33 lbs) only to gain it all back with poor diet and over-eating. But at the same time, I will experience a rapidly diminishing effect from cutting back on calories as my body gets used to this lower caloric intake.

So more exercise is in the books. Once I get below 90 kg, I want to begin to work out more regularly. Goal wise I'm looking to have lost 10 kg. by the end of October, and 15 by the time I get back to Canada for the holidays.

This warrants a new label: Lifestyle.

Saying my goodbyes...

Well, it's come. In less than 10 hours, I will be on a plane headed to Detroit, and then to Japan. I think there was always a part of me that was convinced that I still had some more time--time to clean up my room, time to pack, time to get my affairs sorted, time to say my goodbyes. Yet here I stand at the threshold of what may indeed be a life altering adventure, the reality of what I am about to embark on ever-so-slowly starting to set in.

I look around my room, still in disarray, still filled with many of the relics of my life here. And yet there is a sense that it is no longer mine. Gone are the clothes that were piled up on the old and unused computer chair. Gone is the giant monitor and computer that once dominated my desk. The shelves that once held my treasures from childhood sit empty, their contents now dormant in grey or plastic storage boxes.

This strange sense of disconnection seems to have permeated my last night in Toronto. I gathered with some of my closest friends for a final dinner, and at times I felt a strange sense of separation from the conversations at the table, content instead to be a silent observer. I climbed the steps up to my front door, in a strange way no longer at home, knowing that my life was now packed in 2 suitcases, a knapsack, and a laptop bag.

It is the first time I have truly felt a sadness in my leaving for Japan. The time, I am sure, will fly by. And yet I will return to a Toronto, to a Canada, to a life here that's changed forever.

It's hard not to sound melodramatic, hard not to let this odd sense of melancholy twinge my writing, hard not to sound emo. I wasn't really sure how I felt tonight until my dog Dana poked her head into my room, and just looked at me with her big dark eyes. When I called her, she plodded over and lay down at my feet, content to let me scratch her back. It is not too much of a conceit to say that my puppy knew that I was leaving. I'll confess, dogs are a weakness of mine, and I am more greatly affected by them than I would care to admit.

Be good Dana-dog...

Counting the days...

Its hard to believe that in some 3 days time, I'll be on a plane headed back to Japan. The reality of it started to hit me, oddly, on the way to a family dinner, when I realized that it had turned to August somehow without me knowing. Of course, I blame my blissful month as an unemployed bum.

I've been lazy about updates, I know. In part, I have been legitimately busy with some last minute preparations. Not really a good reason, but I digress.

The truth of the matter is that most of what I've been doing in the last few weeks has been fairly routine. I spent a day at the CN Tower, a fun day revisiting an attraction I hadn't been to in over a decade, but ultimately pretty banal in execution. I bought luggage, gave Power of Attorney over my bank account to my mother, purchased gifts for my teachers and family, snapped pics of Toronto, et cetera et cetera ad nauseum infinitum. For just about every JET that travels to Japan, there are an equal number of blogs to catalogue their trials and tribulations.

No, I'm not going through a bout of self criticism with regards to my own blog. After all, it remains, as always, primarily a tool to give my friends a glimpse of what my life will be like in Japan. Its the mundane aspects of my last few weeks which has prevented me from posting anew.

I'll retract that last statement. Not everything has been mundane, and so I'll give you the skinny on the good stuff that's happened.

The best things by far have been the time I've got to spend with my friends. A wicked farewell party at my fav hang out Las Iguanas got me completely loaded. Beers, lemon drops, and heartburn inducing tex-mex all served to remind me just how much I'll miss everyone. Thank you Al Gore for inventing the internet--now I'll be able to keep in touch.

Just tonight I got to have a kick-ass dinner with the family. Baby back ribs, and a fully loaded baked potato. It's a meal I doubt I'll see for a long long while. My only regret was the collective realization amongst my family members, that we get together for such dinners far too little.

And perhaps finally, I've found out that my new co-ALT will also be from Toronto. A Chinese-Canadian girl, coming with Group C (i.e. end of August). Cool beans.

Niagara Falls, and news from Japan

I'll admit it--I've been lazy about posting. I went to Niagara Falls last Friday, a trip that was both successful in intent and incredibly annoying in execution. Let me digress.

Leaving at 9am, my dad and I arrived on time at around 11am, having spent 20 minutes or so at the Number 3 lock at Welland Canal, and about 10 minutes at Tim Horton's. All the attractions were comped to me, thanks to my dad's working as a consultant for Niagara Parks Commission, and so I did the whole Journey Behind the Falls and Maid of the Mist. In both cases, I managed to take some pretty iconic photos. Standard tourist fare, all in all.



In the sense that I managed to snap these pics, even on my sub-par 2 megapixel camera, my trip was a success. However, the rest of the day was a trial.

From 3-5:30, my time was spent waiting in the car while my dad conducted business. This was fine. I had my laptop, I had music, and I had a book. Honestly, in the lazy heat of southern Ontario, the time passed quickly and without incident. This is where things start to go awry.

The reason for such a long time spent, in the shadow a tree at the Chateau de Charmes vinyards, was that media tour (they take promotional videos) was late by an hour arriving, and when they did arrive, they had to be hand-held for the entire time there. While at the time I did not think much of the wait, little did I know it would be a mere taste of what was to come.

Leaving Niagara Falls, we got on to the QEW just in time for to smack into the ass end of a hellishly slow traffic jam. We covered the distance from Niagara to St. Cat, a trip which usually takes some 20 minutes, in about 3 hours. From about 6pm onwards until just before 9pm, in that almost 3 hours I swear I could have walked the distance we covered faster. About 9pm, we managed to get off the QEW and onto highway 81, a smaller but much faster route, by-passinged the blockage. Back on the QEW, we sped to Burlington where we stopped off for dinner at Jack Astor's, arriving back in Toronto at about 10:30pm, exhausted from our almost 5 hour journey home. If you were paying attention earlier, even at a moderate speed it normally takes about 90 minutes to get from Toronto to Niagara Falls.

Well, that out of the way, some more information from Japan. First, I just found out my co-ALT has dropped from the Programme. I'm surprised that people are doing so this late in the game, and it often makes me wonder why such things happen. While I'm sure a large number of people drop because they find better jobs, or are offered some other means to further their careers, I'm certain that some percentage at least drop out because they learn they are in a rural area, or simply freak out because they cannot handle the idea of moving to a foreign country for a year (or more).

Having said that, it makes me wonder what these people were thinking when they submitted their application. Did they expect to be in the big city, with every modern convenience easily at hand? A simple Google for JET blogs will have easily disabused anyone of that notion. The JET Programme is designed primarily to facilitate cultural exchange at a grass roots level, often introducing internationalisation to those who might not always get a chance to do so--kids in rural areas of Japan.

As well, as different as Japan is culturally (and in a very real sense I am a very poor candidate to sympathise with the plight of those who are dropping everything they are familiar with to teach in a country they hardly know the language of), it is still a modern nation with many aspects that are recognizably western. Even small towns will have McDonald's or some equivalent, and Starbucks are popping up everywhere. Internet and internet culture has flourished in the last decade, and having access to the world wide web means that you are never more than a click away from your friends and family. Of course people will still suffer from culture shock and home sickness, but the point of the JET Programme is also for it's participants to experience new things and new cultures.

Of course, this is not to imply that my co-ALT was one of those that freaked out and dropped. I don't know what the exact situation was, save that some lucky Portland alternate just got a chance to be upgraded. Congratulations are in order, because that is a feeling I am intimately acquainted with. And to my co-ALT who dropped, I wish you the best of luck in all your future endeavours.

Ok, rant over.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I just recieved a FLOOD of emails from some students from Genkai H.S. I was floored by the emails, and it's made me even more hyped to get there. I spent an hour replying to them all, and I can't wait to try and match email to face. Hmm, I wonder if this email flood was part of a computer lab lesson my predecessor made up...

Drinky drink

My attempt to "not get too drunk" last night failed completely.

That is all.