Josh the Aspie’s Blog

Hello all!

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted here on My Blog and I’m rather excited to be posting again. Due to my move, combined with my new Job, combined with cleaning and sorting items, and being in various stages of “catching up” with things I needed to do to take care of my new apartment, as well as being ill a few times I’ve been a touch neglectful.

Also a constant annoyance is the huge amount of spam I have to slog through each time I come back to my blog, just to make sure that I haven’t missed one of the rare and special comments from a new commentator. Any time a new commentator decides to comment, or an old commenter changes their contact information / commenting name I need to approve their first comment before my blog lets them comment freely. As a result, I get many spam comments submitted for every non-spam comment.

Now, a bit more detail on what I’ve been up to while I’ve been away from my blog.

First of all I’ve managed to get the main areas of my apartment (Living/Entry area, Central Hall, Bathroom, Kitchen/Dinning Room) up to snuff for welcoming guests to my apartment. I’ve also made some headway on making my bedroom more livable, and hanging various decorations. I intend to have several family and friends over in the near future.

The last stages of this cleaning happened last week while I was far to sick to go in to work, but far to well to do absolutely nothing for the whole week. Any time I couldn’t get any work done from home, couldn’t sleep, and felt the need to do something I chose to clean. Things tend to get done more easily when you have the time to do them.

At the end of that week of being ill, I stepped on the scale, and lo’ and behold, due to those small amounts of physical activity, combined with my near non-existent appetite caused me to loose the last of the weight I needed to hit my second weight loss goal, putting me at 275 on my bathroom scale. That weight put me at the lowest point I’d been at in years. I had also, for the past several months been doing the necessary research on various weight loss plans, and for the past month or so on local Taiji (Tai Chi) instructors. To take Taiji classes was the reward I finally chose for my last weight loss goal that I achieved. I wanted to keep this encouraging weight loss up, and so I finally decided to reward myself with 2 things I had been wanting for a while… both of which should help keep me loosing weight.

I am currently taking classes at a Taiji dojo only a walk away from my home. I went in for a trial lesson on Tuesday, and while there were only 3 students there due to the main instructor being out at a wedding, I found the instruction by the senior student to be most enlightening. I go back again on Thursday for my second trial lesson, and I anticipate signing up for another 4 weeks at least. I have a 4 week coupon that will get me $20 off and a free uniform. Somehow, though, a coupon for a discount on learning an ancient internal art seems somewhat disrespectful.

While it does seem to be good instruction, there is an even more recognized and respected Taiji master who offers weekly classes on different days. He has studied with multiple grandmasters, and travels to find and exchange techniques with other masters. I spoke with him on the phone, and he seem to focus greatly on the internal aspects of Taiji, which is an internal, soft form, martial art.

In talking with him I felt him probing me to find out if I would be an acceptable student even as I tried to find out if his lessons would be for me. He wanted to know about any health problems I might have, and talked very freely about the art, and what I should and should not expect from the lessons. He also used simiies very proficiently, using vivid mental images to illustrate his points. I have preregistered for his beginning class, and look forward to it.

I told one of my on-line acquaintances who does Taiji about it, and the masters. I have been encouraged not to tie myself to only one instructor or master, but rather to learn from many, and find what works for me. Taiji, as an internal martial art focused on self knowledge and balance, seems to require balance in it’s instruction techniques as well. I will take the introductory lessons from each of the instructors before I decide which of the instructors I will continue to study with, and if I study with both, which I will consider my primary instructor.

I also decided to join Weight Watchers. While I want to increase my burn of calories somewhat, the main problem causing my weight is that I take to many of them in. So while Taiji will help with other aspects of my health, I hope that Weight watchers will help me to loose weight at a healthy pace.

I went to my first meeting on Monday, and the leader and I selected the flex plan for me. I calculated my allowed points per day according to their system. I am allowed 41, which is about twice what some lifetime members (those who have reached their ideal weight) are allowed for their daily point allowances. Part of it is due to my being a young male, which means my natural metabolism is much higher than that of older female members. Additionally, I have quite a lot more extra weight.

Today is my second day of following the plan, and believe it or not it seems easy so far. Perhaps it was helpful that I cleansed my system of recurring food addictions (read as: caffeine) by being sick right before going on, and didn’t have my full appetite back… perhaps not. So far I have used all of my 41 points each day (as I was told I should). This keeps my metabolism running at a good rate, but also makes sure I don’t over-eat. If I ever really feel like I need more food I have up to 35 extra points that I can use, or I can earn more through physical activity.

I suspect that one reason the plan works so well for me so far is that it reinforces healthy habits I have already begun to develop. Such habits include eating vegetables to make me feel full and get lots of nutrients, eating whole grains, and going to Subway for one of Jarred’s club sandwiches when I go out to eat. Another reason is that it simply makes me so much more aware of what I’m eating, and portion sizes. It’s also a lot easier to account for my intake in points, rather than trying to count each individual calories.

Finally, the plan also makes it easier to choose foods and options with slightly higher calorie counts that are still better for me such as whole wheat bread and to add more vegetables. Most raw vegetables have a serving size of 1/2 cup and have 0 points. Any reasonable slice of bread I have found is only 1 point.

And here’s the thing… I’ve already lost even more weight. This morning I weighed myself and I’d already lost an additional half pound off of my morning weight.

And so far I’ve felt incredibly full and satisfied… and I feel so much healthier for choosing low point high nutrition options like vegetables. I’ve even been able to follow all of the guide lines, have 4 meals of varying size through out the day, and also have an occasional snack, and on some days I get dessert!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 at 11:30 pm and is filed under Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.