What Chuck Does

It's hard to eat only good foods...

First of all it’s really hard to eat right. I mean to really eat right. Whole foods. Fruits and vegetables. Secondly it’s hard to eat right and eat a lot. How many salads can you eat in a day? How many protein shakes can you drink in a day? How many chicken breasts can you eat in a day?

Trying to gain muscle for the next 3 weeks but figuring out how I’m going to sustain a healthy caloric surplus is freaking hard. If only I could eat burgers and fries all day…

I already know that I’m going to get to the point where if I see another dried-ass chicken breast, I’m going to slit my wrists… I just know it.

posted at 5:44pm

I got published!

Well kinda… not really. Someone was writing an article online about eating disorders and likely went onto flickr and queried “eating disorder” and found a picture of mine. They asked me if they could use it in their article and I said, “sure”.

Truth be told, my “picture” really isn’t a picture. It’s a freaking screenshot of my nutrition/food records… oh well. It’s a start!

Here’s the article: National Eating Disorder Awareness Week: February 22-28, 2009

posted at 10:07am

Eating Right: Small and Often

It’s really hard to eat too much actually when you eat small meals frequently throughout the day. For the past 2 days I’ve eaten 8 meals a day. Each meal varies between being a light snack to 1/2 a typical lunch meal. For example:

9:30AM: Egg mcmuffin (300 cals)
11AM: Cereal with milk and banana (335 cals)
1PM: Protein shake (200 cals)
2PM: Nigiri sushi (300 cals)
3PM: 1 piece of orange (20 cals)
5PM: 1/2 salad (200 cals)
6PM: Ding Tai Fung (500 cals)
10PM: 1/2 salad, 1/2 Egg Mcmuffin, chips (550 cals)

Total: 2205 calories

Why this works: I’m simply not hungry. I can’t possibly be hungry. I’m eating sometimes at hourly intervals and it’s too frequent for my stomach to be empty (again). So without being actually hungry, the volume of my intake is diminished. I can’t possibly eat as much as I would normally if I only eat 3 meals a day.

The benefits are huge. Sustainable energy throughout the day without converting foods into fats.

posted at 4:48pm

I Know Why People Go Bulimic

Take 1 individual with orthorexia nervosa, a dose of body dysmorphic disorder, a healthy sense of guilt, and an all-you-can-eat buffet… Now I know why people stick their fingers down their throats after binge-eating.

Seriously. I semi-thought about it as I was in the bathroom after consuming 1200+ calories at a Korean BBQ. I’ve been sick for 5 days now and the lack of exercise has been getting to me. Combine that with a large buffet and now I’m accruing a huge surplus of calories that will likely turn into fat unless A) I exercise or B) I barf it out.

posted at 3:26pm

Nutrition/Diet/Results: Live and Learn

I have learned a few things about dieting and the results over the last couple of months from being on and off a strict diet.

• My recent feelings of being “run-down”, tired, and on the verge of getting sick are a result of not consuming enough calories. This happened 1-2 weeks before the wedding when I was last consuming 300-500 calories less than my daily expenditure. I was constantly tired, moody, and needing more sleep. So not fun. When it happened again a couple days ago, I ate more and then felt better.

• Weighing yourself on the Tanita scale after showering creates a lower fat % reading and higher hydration % reading. The weight is the same. I speculate that this is a result of the water or humidity on the skin as well as the temperature of the body (primarily the feet).

• The scale mistakens excess food for more muscle mass. Before leaving for Hawaii in August, I had not broken into the 10’s but when I came back with a full stomach, the scale registered my first 10.9% fat reading. I’ve noticed that any time I binge eat/drink and then weigh myself, the scale registers a lower fat % reading and higher hydration % reading.

• Even though I’ve been eating more than I burn, I have been losing weight. This is a loss of muscle mass and a gain of fat. It’s unfortunate but muscle atrophies very quickly without stimulation and proper resistance training. Which reminds me, I promised to work out today. I will try to get in a small workout after work.

posted at 4:32pm

I Have the "Best Kind" of Eating Disorder

Yes. I have an eating disorder. I also have body dysmorphic disorder. Really the two go hand in hand.

Here’s a sample of my eating disorder:

That’s Monday and Tuesday for the past 2 weeks. Here’s the full version.

So it turns out I have Orthorexia Nervosa. From Wikipedia:

Orthorexia Nervosa is a recently discovered disease because it was thought to be Anorexia earlier on. This type of disorder is an obsession with eating only healthy types of foods. This disease usually occurs when people are so driven to become thin that they start to become obsessed with everything that they are consuming. Someone who struggles with Orthorexia Nervosa will do things like planning out their meals for the next day. This means that they will have a strict planned schedule of breakfast, lunch and dinner. This person will try to be constantly limiting the amount of food that he/she is eating in order to maintain a certain weight. People who have Orthorexia Nervosa are often critical of what others eat, and usually isolate themselves from surroundings (“Eating Disorders”, 2001).

This describes me down to a tee.

During a conversation about my eating habits, he says “Dude, you have like the best type of eating disorder”. And it’s true! Of all of the horrible types of eating disorders that exist, binge eating, bulimia, anorexia, othorexia, and compulsive exercising… I have the best one!

Yay me!

posted at 4:29pm

Egg McMuffin - What's Unhealthy?

Here’s my take on the Egg McMuffin.

• Tastes great
• Bread, margarine, Canadian bacon, egg, and cheese
• 300 cals. 18 grams of protein who cares about the fat.
• Easy access at thousands of McDonald’s locations

Question is, is it “healthy”? Read on if you’re curious…

posted at 11:13am

What does 200 calories look like?

I found this very entertaining. 8 Hershey kisses = 200 calories! Gotta stop eating these… yum…

What does 200 calories look like?

posted at 10:39am

I'm Not Done Yet

I hereby formally resign from the 300-Challenge.

I have decided I’m not done cutting.

I am implementing a new body fat target: sub 10% per scale

I am implementing new strength challenges:

1. 10 x 185 lbs. bench press
2. 25 x bodyweight pullups
3. 10 x 135 lbs. seated shoulder press
4. 10 x 155 lbs. squats x 3 sets

Here’s where I currently stand:

1. 10 x 155 lbs. bench press
2. 20 x bodyweight pullups
3. 10 x 95 lbs. seated shoulder press
4. 10 x 135 lbs. squats x 3 sets

After “letting go” for a week or more, I’ve decided I don’t like the bloated feel much. Nor do I appreciate the double chin nor the extra weight around the waist. I have decided that I have to get sub 10% bodyfat on the scale to be at a comfortably thin starting point to put back weight. Otherwise the double chin and loss of six-pack occurs too quickly.

Tomorrow I get back on track with nutrition and exercise.

posted at 11:09pm

I'm Not Hungry

Seriously. I’m not hungry.

I’ve been consuming what is for me an abnormally low amount of calories (see my caloric input/output here). Over the past week I’ve broken 2000 calories once. But more importantly, I haven’t been hungry. Not even once. It’s strange but I think the “I’m hungry” button that my body used to press when it would get low on blood-sugar, got turned off or something. Maybe it malfunctioned? All I know is that I used to get hungry and now I don’t. It’s weird because I know my stomach is empty and sometimes I even get a little lethargic from low blood-sugar, but the “I’m hungry” feeling just isn’t there. Scary, huh?

Hell, I actually had to try to take in more food throughout the week because I started getting nervous about taking in too few calories versus my caloric expenditure. Imagine that. Trying to eat more… Part of my nervousness was seeing myself drop to 143.8 lbs. on Thursday morning (for reference I am 143.3 this morning). I haven’t weighed 144 in 7 years.

Strength-wise, I’m lifting the same if not more weight. It just goes to show you don’t need to be heavy to push heavy. I’m benching pressing 4-6 reps at 175 lbs. At my strongest I was doing 4-6 reps at 185 lbs. I’m repping bodyweight pull-ups 16+ times (never been able to do that!). Anyway, for what it’s worth I’m pound-for-pound in the best shape I’ve ever been in. I don’t think the fat-loss has been detrimental to my strength and overall health.

Speaking of fat-loss, it seems strange that a “skinny” person can drop 15 pounds and weigh in at 144 lbs. at 5’9” right? Maybe… maybe not. My theory is that there are lots of “fat skinny people” in the US. These would be your typical Asian guy with the hidden beer belly. They look “thin” but in reality they are carrying like 20-30 lbs excess fat around. I don’t think you would have ever called Larry or me “fat” per say. However, at our original weight we were absolutely overweight. Therefore the “fat skinny people” reference.

Am I underweight? What is the definition of underweight? I don’t know. My 24 Hour Fitness trainer used to say, “Don’t go by what you see on the scale. Go by how you feel”. I feel pretty good. Do I have an eating disorder? Probably not. Do I have body dysmorphic disorder? Absolutely. Speaking of underweight, what exactly is “normal”? What about the boxers that weigh in less than me and are just as tall? Are they underweight? Watching the flyweight boxers (112 lbs) in the Olympics, I realize that at 11% body fat, I’m fat compared to them!

Am I really 11% body fat? No. No way in hell. When I was 12%-13% body fat, Larry’s calipers said I was 7.7%. But hey, the scale is my bible and as long as I adhere to the results and the output, I know I’m making progress. That’s what counts. Whether or not I will know when to stop “cutting’ is a totally different question. My goal has always been 10% (or lower) by the output of my scale. I’m starting to realize that the scale’s fat % output is not linearly or at least not 1:1 correlated with what’s actually going on in my body. What could be happening is that when I lose 1% body fat, the scale registers maybe .5% to .8%. This would explain why for the last several weeks my weigh has dropped so dramatically and yet the scale says I’ve lost 1% body fat.

Speaking of body fat results, I mentioned a while back that I didn’t know whether or not I could possibly get “The Final Four” (bottom 4 abs muscles) to appear. Well, in my latest pictures I’m already seeing not only the sidelines but also the bottom lines of the 5^th and 6^th “pack”. This proves to me that I can in fact get a 6-pack (or at least a 5-pack). This is surprising because I never had a 6-pack even when I weight 130lbs in high school (I only ever had a 4-pack). This is also the fuel I need to keep pushing to get at or under 10% fat per the scale.

All in all I’ve made progress. But there’s still progress to be made. Stay tuned.

posted at 4:44pm