Diet and Fitness
Diet and Fitness. Indeed, those words tend to strike terror
into the souls of some and lead to an intricate discusion of the vagaries
of the way we choose to live our lives with others. Some of us (as has been
my good fortune) have decided to embark in the pursuit of health
and fitness just because... just because we weren't happy
with the image in the mirror, just because we were huffing and puffing too
much when carrying our canoe over portages (that must've been me!), just
because bending over to tie our shoelaces in the morning had become more
of a challenge than we ever thought it should be. We all have our
individual reasons... nothing in my life has felt better than the
sudden realization, after I'd lost 40 pounds in a couple of months, that
I could run up a flight of stairs without gasping for breath at the top;
I could tie those shoelaces without holding my breath; I could do a strenuous
hike through brush on a warm day or cross country ski without wondering
if an ambulance would be able to get in to my location. Good fitness follows
an active life style and good diet - nothing feels better than knowing your
health is good.
Dave Bosshard's personal saga
of losing weight and working to regain some semblance of health!
12/10/95
I've been active all of my life. Lived in Wisconsin's great northwoods for
about a decade and never much worried about 'being in shape'. Cutting and
splitting 10 cords of wood for the season's heat, days of backpacking, and
hauling my canoe over countless portages kept me reasonably slim and in
pretty good aerobic shape.
4 years ago I decided to make a move to 'the big city' and have been working
at a desk job since. The pounds have climbed unnoticed, the aerobic fitness
was a thing of the past. Too many cocktails after work, no time for many
activities other than dedication to the new working situation. I knew I
was getting older, heavier, and out of shape, but put it up to the new lifestyle
I'd taken on and figured that if and when I'd get back down to more physical
work those things would straighten themselves out.
This last fall I took a week off and headed back to the north country with
my canoe atop the truck, and visions of dancing the autumn waters. I hadn't
realized how out of shape I had become. I vowed, right there in the midst
of Mountain Lake that it was time to turn things around.
I'm 45 years old, 6'1", medium build. On returning home from that trip
one of the first things I did was buy my very first scale so I could see
just where my weight was. I was shocked and dismayed that first day when
I stepped on it and saw the digits climb to 214. Not knowing just where
to start, I popped on the computer and started searching the web, high and
low, for all the information I could come across on diet, fitness, and nutrition.
Frankly, it's been a great study session! There's a lot of contradictory
information out there, but I do believe I've found a system that works just
fine for me. I've been working at it now for 9 weeks and I'm down to under
190 pounds. Originally, I was shooting to get down to 185 but now, since
that's at hand, I suspect I'll keep right on going until I can hold the
weight at about 165. I eat well - no starvation system, here, and I've worked
hard, though exercising isn't something I prefer to do. I do use an aerobic
rider about 25 minutes a day and it has done wonders for my aerobic conditioning.
It's simple and convenient to use while watching the evening news (or during
the real exciting bits of James Bond movies!). Exercise alone, however,
just isn't going to do much about being overweight. It just makes me feel
a damn sight better! No more problem running up the stairs or hiking up
hills. I'd forgotten how nice it is to not be gasping for breath during
those strenuous stints.
Dieting, either heading in the low fat direction or in the low carbohydrate
direction, didn't seem to fit the picture well... but I had to do something.
Finally, I came across a reference that steered me to some information that
I now swear by. The world of 'weight control' has finally been put into
terms that *I understand* and I'm very satisfied with my present weight
loss of 2+# per week. The toughest part has been the psychological effect
of jumping on the scale in the morning, after a day of hard work and finding
that I've *gained* a couple of pounds. John Walker has shown me a way to
not get overly upset about that happening in his excellent book "The Hacker's Diet", which is available
online.
My personal weight/trend chart for the first 4 months -
35 pounds lost and counting!
ABOUT THE BOOK
=============
The Hacker's
Diet
=============
John Walker
How to lose weight and hair through stress and poor nutrition
Despite the subtitle, this book is neither a joke nor a parody; it presents,
in a unrelentingly rational way, what I learned in the process of losing
more than 70 pounds in less than six months in 1988, and how I've managed
to avoid gaining the weight back in the years that ensued. Unlike most diet
books, which present a rigid program in a "take it or leave it"
manner, "The Hacker's Diet" isn't so much a diet program as a
book about the process of losing and subsequently controlling your weight.
It provides the knowledge and techniques you'll need to develop your *own*
program for permanent weight control--a program tailored to your lifestyle
and preferences, not those of the author.
Described within the book, and distributed with it, are a collection of
worksheets usable with Microsoft Excel which automate the tasks of planning
meals, monitoring your weight, and allow you to experiment with the techniques
described in the book to obtain a better insight into its intellectual foundations.
You don't need to use the worksheets (or even need a computer) to apply
the techniques in the book; easy to work pencil-and-paper alternatives are
given. The worksheets are a supplement for readers who own a suitable computer
and software.
From the Preface
=============
This is not a normal diet book, and I am not a normal diet book author.
I'm not a doctor. Nor am I a nutritionist, psychologist, sports hero, gourmet
chef, or any of the other vocations that seem to qualify people to tell
you how to lose weight.
I'm an engineer by training, a computer programmer by avocation, and a businessman
through lack of alternatives. From grade school in the 1950's until 1988
I was fat--anywhere from 30 to 80 pounds overweight. This is a diet book
by somebody who spent most of his life fat.
The absurdity of my situation finally struck home in 1987. "Look,"
I said to myself, "you founded one of the five biggest software companies
in the world, Autodesk. You wrote large pieces of AutoCAD, the world standard
for computer aided design. You've made in excess of fifty million dollars
without dropping dead, going crazy, or winding up in jail. You've succeeded
at some pretty difficult things, and you can't control your flippin' *weight*?"
Through all the years of struggling with my weight, the fad diets, the tedious
and depressing history most fat people share, I had never, even once, approached
controlling my weight the way I'd work on any other problem: a malfunctioning
circuit, a buggy program, an ineffective department in my company.
As an engineer, I was trained to solve problems. As a software developer,
I designed tools to help others solve their problems. As a businessman I
survived and succeeded by managing problems. And yet, all that time, I hadn't
looked at my own health as something to be investigated, managed, and eventually
solved in the same way. I decided to do just that.
This book is a compilation of what I learned. Six months after I decided
being fat was a problem to be solved, not a burden to be endured, I was
no longer overweight. Since then, my weight hasn't varied by more than a
few pounds. I'm hungry less often at 145 pounds than I was at 215. I look
better, feel great, and have more energy for the things I enjoy. I spend
only a few minutes a day maintaining this happy situation. And I know I'll
be able to control my weight from now on, because I have the tools I need,
the will to use them, and the experience to know they work.
The tools are now in your hands.
Live long and prosper.
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