Monthly Archives: February 2011

Project 42 – “Ronnie Lott” – Day 1

My name is Mark Siechen and Ronnie Lott is my favorite football player of all time. He was an incredible athlete who would deliver punishing hits to any opponent holding or catching the football. Recently, every time I tell someone how old I am, I reply that I’m 42, the year of “Ronnie Lott”, because that was his number on the San Francisco 49ers team. I used to be an athlete and would like to be one again…recreational, of course.  I have recently been inspired by my brother Todd, my friend Trevor, and several other friends to get myself in shape and healthy for the rest of my life starting today. I have always been the “party animal” in my family and I need to make some lifestyle changes in order to accomplish my goals.  I stole the name “Project 42” from my friend Trevor who set a goal to lose 42 pounds before his 42nd birthday.  He had 90 days to do so and accomplished his goal and then some. I think he lost 50 lbs by his birthday.  He had done something similar before so was very aggressive with his training.  I am working on setting some bigger goals but am taking a first step by taking my brother’s advice and doing some consistency training first. I am going to walk/jog for 30 minutes each morning this week (mon-fri) and I am going to give myself 1 day off (if necessary) wed or thurs morning.  The other part of my first step is creating this blog to tell the world what my intentions are; to use my friend Trevor’s term “Open Kimono”.  I plan to create consistency first and then increase my workouts and set goals for physical milestones in a couple weeks. I am doing this for myself and for my family who I love very much.

Day 1 :  I walked briskly for 30 minutes this morning in sub-29 degree cold and still broke a decent sweat.  However, I forgot to eat something before I went.  I will work to not forget that step tomorrow.

First Step for Goal Setting:  I am going to Target to buy a new bathroom scale.  😀

Slow Carb 2-weeks

This is early Saturday, the second binge day and my weight this morning was 221 and 18.2% bodyfat. Seems like some progress is being made, but I can’t lend a lot of credence to this diet until it’s played out for at least 4 weeks – preferably 6 weeks. I was dealing with quite a few headaches on week 1, but Tim says this is usually a result of not eating enough. Makes sense. I had the same reaction when I started the keto diet, so this was no surprise. After a few days and a bit more eating, the headaches subsided. Last Saturdays binge was a little crazy. I ate donuts, pizza, Doritos and ice cream. I remember how much I love the way this stuff tastes, but I certainly don’t miss eating it. I tried to really pound down as many calories as I could, but it wasn’t easy. I probably put away 8000 calories or so. Most of the day I felt like a tank that couldn’t move. Today I will eat more healthy carbs, in the way of home made pancakes, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, fruit, and a meal out of maybe some italian pasta.

Slow Carb Diet

Starting Tim Ferris’s diet today from his book “The Four Hour Body” referred to as a “Slow Carb Diet”. This means that your source of carbs will come from very slow release low glycemic index carbs like beans, lentils and vegetables. Basically this diet has the following guidelines:

1) Avoid “white” carbohydrates or starch based carbs.
2) Don’t drink calories.
3) Don’t eat fruit.
4) Take one day off per week and go nuts.

So the diet basically gives you 1 day per week to go crazy and eat anything you want. ANYTHING. In fact you actually have to eat quite a bit on this day to stimulate the hormones and get the reset your body needs to keep losing body fat. I’m daydreaming of all the things I plan to eat on this day. Oh my god it’s going to be a fiesta.

This diet certainly isn’t one I would ever stay on for extended periods of time, but I do want to try it out and see just how low I can take my body fat levels. Tim claims this is one of only 2 diets he has tried that has produced veins on his abdomen. There are other very similar diets that bodybuilders use to cut body fat down to sub 5% levels before a contest.

My weight today is 227 and my bodyfat level is reading 19% with the bio-impidence monitor.