Last month, Todd and I ran across this article (via Consumerist) about how Charlie Munger, the Vice-Chairman of Warren Buffett’s investment company Berkshire Hathaway, used to set aside one hour each day to work on personal side-projects for himself. I like this idea for a couple of reasons:

1. One hour is about all the time I can spend on a project right now.
2. It’s such a small amount of time that the pressure of producing something “epic” is kept at bay.

Over time, these little actions will yield big results. It’s not a new idea, I know. But it’s easy for me to get caught up in a mental gumption trap, believing that I shouldn’t or can’t start something right now because I don’t have the time to give it the attention I feel it deserves or needs. Of course, that is complete and utter bullshit.

Over the past week, I’ve been trying to keep this in mind, working on various side projects I’ve intended to get around to someday. Not surprisingly, at the end of each hour, it’s satisfying to have been able to work on something that’s been sitting around in my head for weeks, months, and years.

After doing this for just one week, a couple of things become obvious:

• I still watch too much television.
• I don’t get enough sleep.

And these two things greatly influence how well I do other things throughout the day. I need to fix that.

As the article asks

“…if you aren’t satisfied with your current situation, why not work for yourself an hour each day? Instead of just idle dreaming, set aside specific time for action. Perhaps the key is small chunks of time, but at regular intervals.”

How very Kaizen. How very Bird by Bird.

At the end of the month, I’ll have a better idea of which projects I’m actually enjoying spending time on, and which ones I’m better off ditching.

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Okay, I don’t have any tattoos, but l know lots of people who do. I’ve thought about getting one, but I’m afraid that whatever I get, I’ll be bored with it soon, and wish I would have gotten some other design instead.

So, here’s some questions for you guys:

1. Do you have any tattoos, how many, and where?
2. Are you thinking about getting another one, and of what?
3. If you don’t have any tattoos, have you thought about getting one, and why or why didn’t you get one?

I’ve been thinking about this again because I might get one if I lose 80 lbs.

Any thoughts?

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Let me be the first here to say that, yes, size matters.

A couple of weeks ago I was on a drive from Tulsa to Houston. The Trailblazer I was driving had XM Radio, and during Air America’s commercial breaks, there was a health tip (brought to you by Maxim…or Men’s Health or somebody) that stated the size of our dinner plates was a major contributing factor of Americans becoming overweight. Here’s the way it works: the diameter of a typical American dinner plate is 11 inches; the diameter of a typical European dinner plate is 9 inches. ?r² shows that the 2-inch difference amounts to the 11-inch plate having 50% more surface area than the 9-inch plate. If, like most people, you fill your plate, you’re putting 50% more food on it than a person with the 9-inch plate.

This means we’re eating 50% more food, since we usually eat whatever is on our plates. Or, to look at it differently, we feel full when our plate is empty. By the way, some restaurants use 13-inch plates, which means it’s twice as big as the 9-inch plate.

When I got back from Houston, I went out and bought a couple of 9-inch plates. Now, because we can’t fit as much food on it as we would be able to with the regular plates, Cindy and I have started using portion control. Whatever the package says is one serving, we put one serving of it on the plate. Basically, we’re eating the same stuff, but scaling down the meal to fit on the new plates.

And we’re caring over portion control to breakfast and lunch, with a snack in-between meals. If we didn’t, I would feel that because I’m eating a smaller dinner, I can eat a bigger breakfast or lunch to make up the difference of what I’m not getting at dinner. So, the change has to be across-the-board or it just won’ t work. The weird thing is that I don’t feel hungry. In fact, sometimes, I feel so stuffed that I just know I must be putting on weight. It certainly doesn’t feel like I’ve lost any.

Going to the gym and taking Hooper for walks is great, but with my normal eating schedule and portions, I was making slow progress. From the beginning of January to the end of May, I had lost a total of 4 lbs.

Since we’ve been doing this — from the beginning of June to today — I have lost 6 more lbs., making it a total of 10.

I had to re-check the scale a few times, but it was right.

Time to change the ticker.

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I did my first yoga session in the living room today with Cindy. She wasn’t impressed with the DVD, but it is called Yoga for Weight Loss (or something), so I imagine that if you’re doing it to lose weight, you probably haven’t been doing much of it to begin with. And since she’s been doing yoga for a good while now, I can see why she’d be impatient with it. Considering she doesn’t need anything called Yoga for Weight Loss, it was really an introduction for me.

Aside from a few bouts of giggles, I managed somehow to live through the experience and, oddly enough, felt pretty good afterwards. Being completely new to this, it helped having Cindy there to explain the poses and how to do them properly.

It’s harder than it looks…and even harder when you’re laughing. I mean, the woman on the DVD referred to ass cheeks as “sit bones”. I ask ya, how can I possibly be expected to keep a straight face?

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Today was my first full all-out complete circuit workout on the new FitLinxx-equipped machines, which now have a cam-wheel-thingie that you can adjust to work different muscle groups. This new bit of technology makes the workouts as painful as using free weights.

With four machines to go, I started getting really light-headed, and had to lie down for a bit on the cool, oh-so-cool, concrete floor. But I did go back and finish the final four machines.

Why does losing weight have to be so much harder than putting it on?!

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TIffany suggested getting a weight ticker, so why not?

This is the starting point, the first weight ticker in a series of I-Don’t-Know-How-Many. Tomorrow, I go back to the Y for Fitlinxx re-orientation because over the holidays the Y replaced all the old machines with new shiny ones.

Ticker #1 – COMPLETED on Wednesday, June 14, 2006

UPDATED on Wednesday, June 14, 2006.

Ticker #2 – IN PROGRESS

I’ll put a link for this entry in the side menu (probably above the “Recommend a wine” link, and will update it every week or every other week (I’m not sure which yet).

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I just reviewed some of the Weighing In posts from last year, and it’s a sad collection with only four entries.

By the time I stopped going to the gym, I had lost 10 lbs., which isn’t much. Still, I’d rather not have them than have them. For the most part, the 2005 Regular Exercise Plan was a bust. The one upside was that the 10 lbs. I lost during the first half of the year stayed off during the second half of the year, after I had stopped going to the Y.

Having finished with a number of Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners that could give any Vegas buffet some stiff competition, I wouldn’t have been surprised if I had gained that 10 lbs. back and then some.

Today was the first day back at the Y in a long time, and after a short workout, I checked the scale and was surprised to see that I was exactly where I had left off. How that happened is a Christmas miracle.

For this year, I bought a Moleskine 2006 Daily Planner, which I’m using as a diary of sorts to track two things: 1) Exercise and Meals, and 2) Writing Projects. Providing I keep up with it, I should have a good record of productive and not-so-productive periods.

Also, at the beginning of each month, I’m going to post a picture of myself. It’s nothing special, just what I look like on that day. There’s not going to be any drastic weightloss ? la The Biggest Loser, but that’s still 12 pictures over the course of the year and, at the very least, there should be a noticable difference between my January 2006 and December 2006 pictures.

I’ll post this month’s picture here sometime tomorrow. Okay, here it is.

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Just for fun, Cindy and I have been walking the trail that leads from the public library to a small park on the other side of the highway. Going under the highway with all the cars and trucks rattling overhead is the scariest part of the trail, by the way.

Today, we thought we’d take Hooper for a walk, but as these things usually turn out, it was more like Hooper taking Cindy for a pull.

I think he’s part sled dog or something.

Sit, Hooper, sit.

Good dog.

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I know it’s been awhile since I’ve checked in, but I’ve lost 7 lbs. since my previous post. I wish I could say that it’s because I’ve been hitting the Y like a crazed madman, but I can’t. I stopped going for almost two months because of laziness, and then there was the hernia thing.

So, I think the biggest factor for my continuing weightloss is a drastic cutback in my sugar consumption. I still drink tons of coffee, but I’ve been using Splenda instead of sugar. Those of you that know me can easily imagine how much sugar I haven’t been taking in. For those that don’t know me, it’s a lot.

And I haven’t been drinking as much soda over the last month as I normally would…although I should probably drink more soda because, as Audrae Erickson (she’s President of the Corn Refiners Association) suggests, high fructose corn syrup is good for me. Yay!

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I had my two-week follow-up appointment yesterday, and the doctor says everything is healing fine. I’ve still got some swelling and pain, but that will lessen over the next couple of months, during which I have to avoid heavy lifting. After that, it should be life as usual.

And this concludes the hernia chapter of our story.

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