Dieting 2.0
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It’s always hard to start a new project and stay committed. I started Fuel the Geek with the intention to document my weight loss and the program I am developing. As with anything, you have to stay committed or you won’t see any results. It seems that I start the day off with good intentions and by nightfall, I’ve not had the discipline, or the time, to follow through with it.

This changes today.

I’m committing myself to following at least 1, 4 week cycle of dieting from the Extreme Fat Smash book by Dr Ian Smith. It’s a solid diet plan, that should kickstart any diet plan. I plan on taking it one day at a time and posting to this blog daily, is part of this plan.

The program is simple. 4 cycles, in increasing calories. Preset diet plans for you to use as a beginning. Preference is given to fruits and vegetables. Every 7 days, you start the next cycle and when you get done with #4, you go back to #1. This is brutal, hardcore, and will kick my ass into shape. Here is an example of day 1:

Breakfast: 1/2 cup egg beaters. 1 cup strawberries.

Meal #2: 1 cup of fruit (no banana, watermelon, or pineapple)

Meal #3: 1 small salad with 3 tablespoons of low or no fat dressing.

meal #4: 1/2 cup of beans, lentils, or chickpeas and 2 servings of vegetables.

2 100 calorie snacks.

60 minutes of cardio.

I’ll outline the Cycle 1 Guidelines in the next post.

I read about this on Lifehacker and I was skeptical at first, so I knew I just had to try it. Obviously, you may want to pass on this one if you do not like bananas.

1. Wait until your bananas are a bit over ripe and almost at the stage where you would make banana bread. Peel them, slice them, and put into freezer for at least an hour.
2. Put them in a blender or food processor and pulse away until it has the consistency of custard.
3. Eat.

You get about 2 damage points per cup, which is amazing. The best part about this is the blank canvas aspect of this dessert. You can add practically ANYTHING you want to this ingredient and still keep the points stupid low.

• cocoa powder
• peanut butter
• granola
• strawberry puree or other fruit puree

If you try this and make something amazing, let me know what you added.

The past couple of weeks have been pretty hectic. I’ve been trying to get into the swing of things and exercise, but life is taking its toll.

I hate that guilty, failure feeling at the end of the day when I realized that I had to stray from the diet.

This ends today.

I’m going to try and ride my bike every day until my knee heals up and I’m able to go to the gym.

Fueling the geek isn’t just about what you put into your mouth, but what feeds your determination, your drive, and your motivation.

-R

Its been a really busy week. Although we have been barren in the content division, we are working on an application and website that will be amazing!

posting will resume today

We’ve updated the Team Geek page with our first 3 core members. If you’re interested in joining this groundbreaking movement, let us know!

We’re slowly adding more and more content and hope to have a lot done this weekend.

x0x

I read a great post over at Lifehack that puts into words, a variety of ways you can center yourself in your own home. I know as geeks, we love our clutter and like to packrat a number of things away just in case we need them. Here are some things to try:

1. Make your bed every day. Creating order and peacefulness in the bedroom settles the energies in that space and those good energies affect the rest of the house and you.
2. Clean up your kitchen every day. Having a clean and orderly kitchen calms the part of the house most associated with nurturance and comfort, also calming you.
3. Have morning and evening routines that are made up of activities of self-care, like bathing, exercising, tending to pets, straightening up. Tending yourself is a powerful way to ground and center yourself.
4. Maintain order by putting things away all the time. Avoid the temptation to just drop things. It takes much more energy to pick them up than it does to drop them. When items are just dropped they have a negative, chaotic energy that is anything but grounding. And, dropped things attract more dropped things!
5. Do at least one 5 minute cleanup per day. Either start or end your day with a quick cleanup. Put things away, move things to the part of the house where they belong, straighten your papers, throw out trash. Take that time to restore order to your space. One of the first things I do when I’m thrown off center by some bad news or a difficult situation is to establish order in my home

[Courtesy of Lifehack]

FRUIT

Apple, dried, 1/4 cup (3/4 oz.)
Apple, fresh, 1 (4oz)
Apples, crab, 2 oz or 1/2 cup
Apples, mountain, 3 (2″ x 1 7/8″)
Applesauce, unsweetened, 1 cup (8 oz)
Apricots, 6 dried halves (3/4 oz)
Apricots, fresh, 3 (4 oz)
Blackberries, 1 cup (5 oz)
Blueberries, 1 cup (5 oz)
Boysenberries, 1 cup (5 oz)
Breadfruit, uncooked, 1/3 cup (3 oz)
Cantaloupe, 1/4 melon (8 oz) or 1 cup (5 1/2 oz)
Cherries, fresh, 1 cup (5 1/2 oz)
Cranberries, fresh, 1 cup (4 oz)
Currants, fresh, 1 cup (4 oz)
Dates, fresh, 2 (3/4 oz)
Elderberries, 1 cup (5 oz)
Fig, dried, 1 (3/4 oz)
Fig, fresh, 1 (2 oz)
Gooseberries, 1 cup (5 oz)
Grapefruit sections, 1 cup (9 oz)
Grapes, 1 cup, 20 small, or 12 large
Green papaya, 1 cup
Guava, 1 (4 oz) or 1/3 cup pulp
Honeydew melon, 1/8 (6 oz) or 1 cup
Kiwi fruit, 1 (4 oz)
Kumquats, 10 small or 5 medium (3 oz)
Mandarin orange, fresh, 1 (6 oz)
Melon balls, 1 cup (6 oz)
Mulberries, 1 cup (4 oz)
Nectarine, 1 (4 oz)
Orange sections, 1 cup (6 oz)
Orange, 1 (5 oz)
Papaya, 1/2 (8 oz) or 1 cup (5 oz)
Passion fruit, 3 (3 oz)
Peach, fresh, 1 (6 oz)
Pear, fresh, 1 (5 oz)
Plums, 2 (4 oz)
Prickly pear (cactus pear), 1 (5 oz)
Prunes, 2 (3/4 oz)
Raspberries, 1 cup (4 oz)
Strawberries, fresh or frozen (unsweetened), 1 cup
Tangelo, 1 (7 oz)
Tangerine, 1 (6 oz)
Watermelon, 2″ slice or 1 cup (5 1/2 oz)

1. Bite it, Write it! You absolutely cannot keep track mentally of what you consume on a daily basis. You are bound to forget that handful of pretzels or that slice of pizza. Write it down and own up to eating it. Use a moleskine’, iPhone app, or post it note. Whatever works for you.
2. If you’re looking for something sweet, try fruit first. If you’re hankering for a chocolate craving, try sprinkling some diet hot cocoa mix on pineapple, apples, or bananas.
3. If you’re like me, sometimes you just want to stuff your face until you feel full and satisfied. For those instances, make up a batch of popcorn and season it with ranch, salt and pepper, spicy seasonings, or whatever else you can find. You’ll surprised what kind of creative munchies you can make when you’re using zero calorie seasonings.
4. Buy bagged salads. They are infinitely better than a head of iceberg lettuce. It adds a touch of gourmet flair to your meal and gives you more vitamins and nutrition than plain old varieties of lettuce. And they are delicious. Shoot for baby greens and arrugula blends.
5. Buy grape tomatoes instead of large beefsteak ones. They look better tossed in salad, they are sweeter and they don’t need to be cut. Also, they are good snacking foods!
6. Buy the butter sprays. They have zero calories, can be sprayed on foods, popcorn, bread, or sweet potato fries.
7. Buy Skinny Cow flying saucers when you want flavor variety for your dessert. Weight Watchers, I’ve found, only come in vanilla and chocolate. Skinny Cow brand comes in those two flavors AND coffee, strawberry, and strawberry cheesecake. And all for just 2 points!
8. Make cauliflower your friend!! When cooked until soft, you can mash it and add lots of fun stuff like reduced fat cheese, garlic, broccoli… and then you can bake it!! It has the same consistency as mashed potatoes!
9. Eat more shellfish! Shrimp is unbelievably low in points especially for the volume you get! And it’s good for you!
10. Recognize that each moment stands alone and that no one binge or one gorged meal wrecks anything! It is part of living and learning and that a bad eating decision doesn’t have to snowball into a weeks long or months long setback. It’s like riding a bike, when you fall down, you get right back up!! You don’t walk the bike 10 miles up the road and THEN get back on! You get back on right away! Consider each moment as just that and know that you never really go OFF program. Weight Watchers allows you to incorporate setbacks into your lifestyle without punishment and guilt.

I’ve got a weakness. I adore french fries and anything fried and crispy. Many years ago, I discovered the splendor of sweet potato fries and have preferred them to regular fries ever since. You don’t have to cook these by hand, as you can find frozen sweet potato fries in most freezer sections now but remember that if you are cooking them yourself, you know EXACTLY what is getting put in them. If you can commit to spending hours upon hours crafting in an online game, then you can certainly learn how to craft your own great food.

You don’t have to make these sweet. You can substitute seasonings such as spicy, curry sauce, malt vinegar, a sprinkle of ranch seasoning, or anything. Add a bit of sour cream and bacon bits and you have yourself a healthy alternative to a baked potato.

Ingredients

12 ounces sweet potatoes
2 packets splenda
2 tablespoons brown sugar substitute
2 tablespoons cinnamon
parkay butter-flavored cooking spray
Pam cooking spray

Directions

1. Cut sweet potatoes in wedge style strips.
2. Spray well with spray butter.
3. Mix sugars,and cinnamon together.
4. Sprinkle mixture over sweet potatoes.
5. Bake on greased pan at 350F for 30 minutes.

Servings: 2
Damage Points: 2

Gaming Night Tip: Since these are so low in points, you can  easily double up on the servings and pig out without feeling ashamed. Cut them up ahead of time and keep them in 2 serving ziploc bags in the fridge. Get home  from work, preheat, toss them in and they’ll be ready before you log into your server. I like to let mine bake a little bit longer so they get a bit crispier.

Welcome to Fuel the Geek! We’re working hard on updating the site with recipes, character sheets of the geeks behind the madness, and information. For now, make yourself at home, check out the information we have currently, and be sure to join our guild , add our new twitter account to your list, and get ready!

Be sure to spread the word and invite your friends to join in. Misery loves company and together, we can accomplish any goal we set our minds to!

-Robb