The Football Fan’s Diet

By Matt De Reno
On The FFD

PITTSBURGH – Yesterday I tried my “new plan” and it worked. I comfortably enjoyed a couple decent meals, even had a beer or two in the evening while watching the Inglorious Basterds (No football this weekend – well, except for the Pro-Bowl – if that can be considered real football). I had a really good workout at the gym and was very active all day.

In continuing the thread on my previous post, maybe I should strive to hit the mark daily? That is I should avoid thinking I have accomplished anything of lasting value if I starve myself for one day under the theory that less calories is better and can only help me to get to the finish line faster.

Again, this is based on my latest idea that if I only consume enough calories to maintain the fit vision of me, I will slowly and naturally get there. Who cares how long it takes? It can take two or three seasons. What do I care? So long as it is slow and steady progress, I’ll be happy.

Perhaps I don’t have to “diet” at all? I just have to eat for my ideal size. The idea is that along the way I will be eating at a level that is appropriate already. When I get there, I will be there already (if that makes any sense).

Monday is the start of my first Preseason match on the Football Fan’s Diet. I will begin to put this theory to the test. Check back daily for updates.

Hut. Hut. Hut.

By Matt DeReno
On The FFD

Pittsburgh – Yesterday I had a good time with some great friends. Drank a few beers. Ate fairly well too. I also spent an hour at the gym. The scale was respectful of my moderation (though I could have been more moderate at the bar).

All things considered, it was a good day to get reacquainted with the gym, moderation and health in general. It got me thinking – why not have a day like that everyday?

What if I just endeavored to loose a pound a week until I got to my ideal weight? That would mean it would take longer than one season to get there, but what is the big hurry? Especially if in the rush to lose weight, I simply spend another six months putting it right back on?

I am in the combines right now. That means I am in the odd number of days preceding a full week start on the FFD. The combines allow you to tinker with your approach to the upcoming season. My preseason is going to start Monday.

I am debating then if I should drastically lower the expectations of what I hope to lose in one season. I have to admit, I am no Lance Armstrong. I do get into the gym but it surely can’t be my life. So what if I took the tortoise’s approach and slowly eroded those pounds away? What if in the course of the next six months I simply started eating right?

Another approach could be to simply eat the caloric level needed to maintain my ideal weight daily? This would be as opposed to endeavoring to drastically reduce your caloric intake to lose weight quickly. In theory, I would starve off all the extra pounds by eating only enough to maintain my goal weight of 185. Hmm. That is an interesting idea. I wonder if it will work and how long would it take?

It would seem to make sense at first glance. After all, perhaps the reason weight loss can be challenging to a really fat guy is that he probably strives to loose four or five pounds a week. However, that means going from a fat body type of diet to one in which that by its very nature would make someone at their ideal weight even hungry. In other words, why eat at level that would make a person already at your ideal weight loose weight? If a guy that ways 185 right now would loose weight on my current caloric levels, then how could a blob like myself maintain that pace? What a fantastic approach!

Quick Warning: today’s great idea is tomorrow’s apology to the masses.

Nonetheless, you would think that if you did eat at the level needed to maintain your ideal weight then over the course of time, quite naturally and effortlessly, your body would simply get back to where it was always intended to be. You would think. Could it be that simple? There is only one way to find out.

Hut. Hut. Hut.

By Matt DeReno
On The FFD

Pittsburgh – And so we begin—For Real—Season IV on The Football Fan’s Diet. My charts are all updated, the slate is wiped clean, and I ain’t wasting no more time…

On that note, I leave you with these unforgettable lyrics…

No, I don’t know where I’m going
But, I sure know where I’ve been
Hanging on the promises
In songs of yesterday
An’ I’ve made up my mind,
I ain’t wasting no more time

here i go again, here i go again

Tho’ I keep searching for an answer,
I never seem to find what I’m looking for
Oh Lord, I pray
You give me strength to carry on,
‘Cos I know what it means
To walk along the lonely street of dreams

An’ here I go again on my own
Goin’ down the only road I’ve ever known,
Like a drifter I was born to walk alone
An’ I’ve made up my mind
I ain’t wasting no more time

By Matt DeReno
On The FFD

Pittsburgh – It feels good to update this and that in itself is a victory. Since the last posting, I have got it handed to me. So bad, I am to the point I am going to alter history. Yes, that is right: I am going to start this thing again – one last time. I have to. I must. I simply can’t have a such a nasty streak tarnish what surely will be a Super Bowl year. Of that, I am convinced.

I will say the past couple days has been one of focusing on whole Matt system, including how I get things done, what I am doing, where I am going in life, the whole Shebang. I like to think in that respects I am closer to a Universal Theory of Matt, but I am not. I do not, this new inner focus is different than what I have had before so maybe that in itself will be enough to right the ship not just once but for all.

That remains to be seen. So tomorrow, I will begin a combine week. On Monday, the whole shebang starts again for how many times I am too embarrassed to count. But such is life on The Football Fan’s Diet.

By Matt DeReno
On The FFD

PITTSBURGH – I won’t belabor the point. This week the game is moving much too fast to think about how I dropped the ball yesterday. I could only watch as my Inner Fat Slob took it in for a score.

I am now losing the week 20-13. The momentum has clearly swung. The game is tough again.

However, the ball is back in my possession. I have to pull myself up and start gaining positive yards. I won’t elaborate about how I plan to do it. I just have to do it.

To me at least half the battle of weight loss is often one of recovery. When you do go off the healthy path, how far did you go? How long will stay off it? This is an issue that I struggle with. Because, when I go off the path, it is incredibly difficult for me to get back on it.

The parallels to football are amazing in that respect. How many times have you seen your favorite NFL team just give up an easy score after they built a comfortable lead? Next thing you know, the swagger goes to the other team and you all you can do at this point is hope to hang on for a win. It goes to prove a point: no lead is too comfortable.

Anybody remember Buffalo Bills backup QB Frank Reich orchestrating a historic comeback win against the Houston Oilers in an AFC wild card game in 1993?

To be exact, it was January 3, 1993. Buffalo was getting trounced by the Houston Oilers 35-3. I was still in college, home on break, thinking that it was Houston’s year to hoist the Lombardi. They had all the right pieces: Hall-of-Famer Warren Moon at QB; a trio of excellent receivers in Ernest Givens, Haywood Jeffries and Curtis Duncan; Lorenzo White totted the pigskin. This was their year. How could they lose? Somehow, they did just that.

I recall watching the contest on the small kitchen TV in my parent’s home in disbelief as Bills came roaring back in the second half of this lopsided game. Frank Reich began throwing darts and the momentum turned at first into a trickle, then into a tidal wave.

At the end of the day Reich finished the game with 21 of 34 pass completions for 289 yards and 4 touchdowns, with 1 interception. Andre Reed had 8 catches for 136 yards and 3 touchdowns.

What stats will I have at the end of the week? How do I get the momentum on my side? How can I be like Frank Reich on that cold January day? How can I rally the troops? How can I get back on track?

By Matt DeReno
On The FFD

PITTSBURGH – Yesterday I had my first lost of Season IV on the Football Fan’s Diet. I lost my way for a day. I went over my Daily Game Day Objective and blew it. How do I get back on track with my health plans? Isn’t that the real trick?

To do so, we must analyze why we went off track to begin with. In this case, it was the “woe is me” blues. To be more specific, I had this sense of marginalization. Marginalization puts you in the margins of the paper so to speak. You feel like you make little difference. I think in the course of human emotions we all experience such feelings on occasion with varying degrees of intensity.

Yesterday was one of those days for me and the feeling was intense. I simply felt like what I was doing, this diet, my other web sites, my personal goals, were marginal – a joke! Ouch. Woe is me. Go ahead Inner Fat Slob and score? You got me in the wrong defense yesterday.

Today, I feel differently. I am ready to take on the challenges with a bit of perspective. I simply must do, will do, and I just might beat your ass if I am motivated enough. I call these days “Kickoff Return Team” Days.

Just like in real football, The Kickoff Return Team takes the field after you give up a score. Your Inner Fat Slob must kick the ball back to you. You will get the ball. You have to ask yourself: what will you do with the pigskin on this new drive? Will it be 3 and Out? Will it be a fumble? Will it be a pick 6?

The whistle just blew. The kick is high and in the air. Today’s game has started….

High Diddle Diddle, Health Up The Middle!

By Matt DeReno
On The FFD

PITTSBURGH – It is a remarkable start to the season to have a week without any daily losses so early. Comparing this feat to the Season II chart, it wasn’t until Week 2 of the Regular season that I notched the first week without any daily losses. Now it should be noticed that I never quit did get a “shutout”. That would be holding my Inner Fat Slob to 0 for the week. The best I ever did was hold my Inner Fat Slob to 3 points. I did that twice last year and that was it. As for scoring the maximum points of 70, I did that 4 times.

Enough with all of that. I have to go the the gym today.

I should finish this posting by stating that it appears my irritability is gone. I actually feel even keeled for a change. I am convinced that overindulging food wreaks havoc on your mood as well. It is my hope I can tap into some of this “even keeled” feeling and get a lot of work done this week. And, I’m sailing.

By Matt’s Inner Coach
On The FFD

PITTSBURGH – Yesterday we did a lot of bending but didn’t break and got the shutout. We tallied up the most points possible on our version of the Football Fan’s Diet: 70. Granted it is only preseason, bu this score essentially means we exercised or got some form of physical activity for 7 consecutive days and hence kicked 7 field goals (21 points). We met our daily game day objective, which is stay under approximately 1,700 net calories (calories minus calories burned during exercise), each day for a total of 49 points. Sunday we exercised the “Maintenance Day” and met our goals on that day as well.

We gave up 3 field goals and no touchdowns. This means we drank beer on 3 days but stayed under our daily game day objective nonetheless. That is bending, but not breaking my friends.

The “Maintenance Day” theory was tested for the first time and it worked. In case you forgot, the “Maintenance Day” is one day out of the week where you can select a Daily Game Day Objective that “preserves the progress” you have made during the week.

Matt stepped on the scale today and held what he worked hard to accomplish during the week. That is the scale didn’t go up. That is what we ask for on a “Maintenance Day.” In many respects, the “Maintenance Day” served as a release valve for a lot of pent up healthy lifestyle irritability. That irritability is gone this morning. Early Sunday it was boiling over. However the maintenance day served its purpose beautifully. It blew out that irritability yet still preserved the losses from the week.

Last season this was a major issue, which we are trying to rectify. You see, so many consecutive days of reduced calories to loose weight would often lead to one day were cravings were so strong that they resulted in a loss. Then momentum was lost and usually a string of losses to Matt’s Inner Fat Slob would follow.

What we did this season to alleviate that is the “Maintenance Day.” This is one day a week, where you can simply opt to preserve the work you have done be healthy and lose weight but not necessarily anything more than that. But, one preseason week does not a season make!

Matt has a lot of work to do still and it starts with getting mentally prepared for what this week’s opponent might bring to the table (literally, in terms of food). So Matt will continue to exercise, mediate and be active. That’s all for today folks.

By Matt DeReno
On the FFD

PITTSBURGH – Yesterday marked my sixth successful day on the Football Fan’s Diet, the healthy lifestyle that is all the rage for real men that love football. This is clearly the diet you—a football fan—have been waiting for. Becuase you love football right? Football is great. Dieting and loving football can go hand in hand and this diet is proof. This is the diet where we model a dieting plan on an NFL football season (Note to editor: Is this enough freaking key words!).

Hey boys. I did it again yesterday on the Football Fan’s Diet. I was confident I would, but it was still close in the end. I had maxed out my caloric level by noon yesterday. In fact, I even went over it by a part of a subway sandwich. So I was forced to exercise to get those calories—net calories at least—down under my daily game day limit (DGO). I did that with a brisk 110 minute walk at North Park, a county park located in the North Hills area of Pittsburgh.

Unfortunately, my 6-year-old daughter and my poorly trained dog, had to do it with me. My daughter had fun trudging through snow, but by the end of the hike, she was beat. She was a good sport about it the end. She made it though and so did I. Our dog did as well.

Today I am going to use the “Maintenance” rule, whereby I get one day per week to raise my caloric intake to one of maintenance for my goal weight. The trick is that it will be the maintenance level not of my existing fat weight but rather that of my goal weight. In some ways then, this can be a way to slowly indoctrinate myself to the levels of food I will need to maintain my goal body weight of 185 lbs.

So considering that I weighed in at 258lbs today, which is a good deal less than my starting weight of 272 lbs, I will exercise this so-called rest and relaxation day by raising my caloric level to one that would “maintain” my goal weight of 185 lbs. According to the Daily Plate, which is simply a fantastic site to track and log calories and exercise, my maintenance level for 185 lbs is roughly 2,400 calories. So right now this represents a comfortable increase over my somewhat restrictive—yet necessary—caloric level of roughly 1,700 calories.

Now, I am not a nutritionist (“No… Really?”). I didn’t even stay at a Holiday Inn Express anytime in the recent past but I think that if I can at least work at maintaining and getting used to the level of calories I should consume to maintain my goal weight, I should still be burning some calories becuase I am nearly 70lbs over that at the moment. In other words, I am not maintaining those unwanted 70lbs on my “maintenance” day off. Is that convoluted logic? I am not sure. But, I do know this? I am off to a great start. Yesterday was walk in the park. Today, it is time to maintain what we did during the week, kneel on the damn ball (since there is really no way my Inner Fat Slob can win this week now) and get mentally prepared for Preseason Week 2.

By Matt DeReno
On The FFD

PITTSBURGH – Yesterday, I almost blew it and it drove me nuts. Moreover, my insanity would have been due to to nuts really. I am talking about mixed nuts and now this is not some sort of label others call my friends and myself. I am talking about real mixed nuts like pecans, macadamia, cashews, peanuts and almonds. I love them but I never realized how high in calories an ounce of nuts can be.

In about 2 oz. of mixed nuts I learned there are 400 calories. Whoa that is a lot. It nearly caused me to go over my DGO yesterday but I didn’t. In fact, yesterday was still a very good day becuase I was a bit irritable yet I still did what I needed to do.

It was Friday and didn’t even have a brew. I watched a movie with the family and that was about it.

So yesterday was another shutout by me on the Football Fan’s Diet, a diet designed for real men who like football. I scored 10, gave up 0 and now I must do it again.

There is good football to watch today so I am looking forward to that. Now there is nothing nuts about watching football all day is there?