Jake Ludington’s Digital Lifestyle

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I’m fairly confident I’m going to miss my weight loss goal of 30 pounds by 1 May 2009. I’m currently down 12 pounds from my starting weight, with 8 days remaining. While I’m sure there’s some “miracle diet” I could follow to drop 2+ pounds per day for the rest of the month, starvation doesn’t seem like a healthy alternative. I’m fairly confident I’ll finish the month of April with a total loss of 15 pounds.

What derailed me from my goal? I got sidetracked initially by the arrival of Robin’s parents. My eating habits were corrupted by morning breakfast options I don’t normally entertain, which put me over my daily calorie budget. That’s my own fault and I should have planned accordingly, but didn’t. Two weeks with a new baby has meant my primary focus of any spare moment has been on sleeping not exercise, which accounts for more of the delay. I am closer to my goal than I was 30 days ago, which is a good thing, but a refocus on eating appropriately and getting a normal exercise routine back should move things along. I’m targeting a new date of 15 June 2009 for the remainder of the weight to be gone.

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On January 29, I made a personal goal to lose 30 pounds by May 1. I told some of my friends about my goal at that time. If you subscribe to my email newsletter, you saw me reaffirm my commitment to this goal in the February 22 issue. At that point, I had lost 5 pounds. Today, a week later, I’m down a total of 7 pounds (you can see the tracking widget in the sidebar). Writing about my personal weight loss goal caused a flood of email from subscribers asking me what I’m doing to lose the weight – this post is the mass reply to those questions.

So how am I losing weight? I like the way one subscriber demystified his own weight loss of 65 pounds, so I’m going to borrow it. I’m losing weight by burning more calories than I consume.

I realize that’s a cop out – it doesn’t provide you any action steps you could take in your own quest to lose weight, so I’ll break it down with what I’m actually doing. There are basically three parts to my weight loss equation: Exercise, Eating, and Sleep.

My Exercise Program

My exercise program is incredibly simple and it may be that as I approach the end of my goal I’ll need to increase it, but so far it’s working. There are two key components to my exercise:

Walking 30 minutes 5-6 days per week

15 minutes of body weight exercises

One of the things that makes my exercise most successful is doing it first thing in the morning. I wake up, get dressed, drink some water, and head out the door for my walk. When I get back I do 15 minutes of additional exercise, then hit the shower and eat breakfast. I got the idea for doing exercise first thing in the morning from two places – Bill Phillips’ Body For Life, which suggests you get more out of exercise by doing it before you’ve had anything to eat and Eben Pagan’s Wake Up Productive which encourages you to create a morning routine to launch yourself into a more productive day.

What exercises am I doing:
Upper Body
Push Ups
Triceps extension with a chair
Abdominal / Lower Back
Crunches
Side Plank on a Box
“Supermans”
Legs
Single-Leg Squats
Box Jump
Lateral Bound
Squat Jump
Walking Lunge
Jumping Lunge
Calf Raises on a step

I’m definitely not an expert on fitness, so consult someone who is before coming up with your own exercise program. My primary motivation for doing body weight exercises is to pick things I can do anywhere. I can’t make the excuse of not being able to exercise if the only required equipment is me.

My Eating Program

For the most part I eat nutritious foods, but I tend to eat too much and too late at night. I have two eating strategies for weight loss. Strategy one is to eat smaller amounts of food more times throughout the day, which helps maintain energy levels and keeps me from ever feeling really hungry. Going back to Body For Life, Bill Phillips recommends 6 small meals. My target is 4-5. Eating 6 times a day became frustrating when I tried it about 10 years ago. Strategy two is to not eat after 8pm.

My breakfast following my morning workout is a smoothie comprised of blueberries, a banana, hemp protein, and flax oil (which tastes better than it might sound). The rest of the day the meals vary depending on my schedule, but the goal is to not over eat. I have flexibility to eat when I want now because I don’t have a boss to report to, but I used a similar strategy 10 years ago when I worked in a cubicle. By making meals the night before it is easy to stay on track throughout the day.

My Sleep Program

In doing a bunch of reading about metabolism, I’m inclined to believe there is a strong correlation between not getting enough sleep and gaining weight. One thing I’m doing is making more time for sleep. For my personal schedule, this means being in bed by 11pm most nights (which is about 2 hours earlier than my typical schedule). I’m awake by 7am to get started walking. The side benefit to getting more sleep is I actually accomplish more in less time because I’m less likely to become mentally fatigued during the day.

Fourth Key to Success – Day of Rest

I said there were three primary keys to meeting my weight loss goal. There are actually four. The fourth key to making my goals successful is to allow one day per week to break all the rules. I make Sunday that day. I don’t worry about getting exercise (although I occasionally still go for a walk). I eat whatever I want. And I generally don’t try to stick to a schedule of any kind. Taking a break one day a week won’t derail your weight loss goals because it has a great psychological benefit the rest of the week. When you feel inclined to cheat on meals during the week, you can easily remind yourself there’s a reward coming at the end of the week. Giving your body a day off makes it that much easier to pick back up exercising when you start your next 6-day cycle.

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“What happens when the random drug test is checking to make sure you’re taking the drugs you’re supposed to be?” – David Pescovitz. I’m sitting in the ETech Mind Hacks session listening to a bunch of smart people talking about the future of mind hacking, which sounds like a future of pill popping and analysis. This after I find out from a Jack FM commercial that I can piss test my kid for drugs with the $20 First Test Home Drug Test kit from CVS Pharmacy. David’s question raises an interesting observation about the types of performance enhancement we may be required to use in the future. A home drug test raises questions about what kind of relationships people in the United States have with their kids? Or possibly it suggests parents will better prepare their kids for the real world by training them to learn how to beat drug tests at a younger age.

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Stock up on Water

There’s something about Las Vegas that creates a constant state of feeling parched. All the strip hotels charge $3-4 for the convenience of in room bottled water. You can pick up a 6-pack of bottles for that price by dropping in on one of the Walgreens located near the strip. There’s a Walgreens on the northeast corner of Convention Center Dr and S Las Vegas Blvd, directly across from the Stardust, which is convenient for Wynn guests and another one further down the strip about midway between the Aladdin and MGM Grand. Both are open 24 hours and have all the usual drug store supplies (although they aren’t listed on Google’s Map)

Change Your Socks

If you’re doing the Las Vegas conference circuit as I do several times every year, you already know a good pair of shoes will save your feet. Take that a step further and bring 2 pairs of socks for every day you’re in town. Changing socks midway through the day will re-energize your feet.

Avoid the LVCC Monorail Entrance

When the LVCC halls close for the day, a mass exodus of attendees ride the escalator to grab a seat on the monorail. Avoid the temptation and seek other transportation. The lines are long and you’ll easily spend as much or more time waiting as you would simply taking one of the available buses back to your hotel. If you must ride the monorail, take a short walk to the Las Vegas Hilton and use the entrance there. The line is shorter and you’re more likely to grab a seat before the stop at the LVCC where everyone is clambering to get on board.

Get an iGo Universal Power Adapter

Universal power adapters certainly aren’t sexy, but they will cut down on the amount of extra stuff you carry. iGo makes several universal adapters that both reduce the amount of space you need for carrying power cords as well as providing an efficient way to charge your devices. Depending on how many gadgets you travel with the company makes chargers that can re-power more than one device simultaneously. I once eliminated almost a pound from my gear bag simply by removing all the chargers. [Disclosure: I get nothing for recommending iGo, I simply like that they solve a common problem]

Stay Near the LVCC or Stay Far Away

The best casino action may be on the strip, but the best hotels for CES are either near the Las Vegas Convention Center or off the beaten path. The closest hotels are the Marriott Residence Inn and Courtyard by Marriott hotels – these fill early and are often hard to get into. The Las Vegas Hilton also gets you close, while providing the Casino Experience. On the cheap you can stay at the Sommerset House Inn, which doesn’t look like much but provides a clean place to sleep. The Marriott next door to Piero’s on Convention Center Drive is also a good choice for staying close.

For far away, The Orleans and the Gold Coast are both hundreds of dollars cheaper per night and have much shorter cab lines than the strip hotels, which means less travel time even though they are far away.

The exception to this rule is Wynn, which is on the strip but provides free shuttle service to LVCC right on the Wynn grounds.

Pack a USPS Flat Rate Box

I make it a rule to skip most schwag at CES, but I always end up with a few extra items. Rather than resorting to sitting on your suitcase and forcing it closed, plan ahead and bring a USPS Flat Rate postage box to ship your extras. You can pack it pre-taped in your suitcase, with your stuff in side, then remove the box and use it for shipping the extra stuff you end up with at the show. Most hotels offer postal service at the desk. For about $10, you won’t have to fight for extra room at the end of the show.

Bring a B Vitamin Supplement

No one gets enough sleep during CES and the constant exposure to cigarette smoke in every building will certainly run you down (and according to some research, deplete your B Vitamin supply). B Vitamins are a great way to help you body purge the toxins and keep your energy up while you’re pushing your body beyond it’s normal limits.

Todd Cochrane of Geek New Central offers a few more CES survival tips.

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If you have kids on your holiday buying list, you may want to check healthytoys.org before making any purchases. The site, a joint project between the Ecology Center and the Washington Toxics Coalition is working to provide a long list of toys with dangerous levels of toxins. Major toxins like Lead, Arsenic, Mercury and Chlorine are all tested, as well as a number of other potentially harmful substances. While it’s easy to point the finger of blame at Chinese manufacturers, I think we all should be looking closer to home at the companies who are writing the checks to the assembly lines – the companies who put their brand name on the box for all these harmful products are largely based here in the United States where we should have some control over what they are allowed to put on store shelves.

Don’t forget to check on products you use in your own daily life as well. Another research group, with details at safecosmetics.org is testing cosmetics like lipsticks for lead and finding that many of the most expensive brands have harmfully high levels of lead. We’ve likely all been doing unknown damage to our bodies using products with no regulation. I’m not really a big fan of excessive government regulation, but in cases where companies are knowingly using harmful substances in their products, it may be that someone needs to jump in and put a stop to unhealthy products.

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