Of Regrets and Resolutions

[Mmmm . . . . forbidden donut]

"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.  The second best time is now."

I'm a big fan of New Year's resolutions.  Not necessarily because I'm particularly good at keeping them, but because of the hope they offer: the chance start with a clean slate and do better than I did yesterday.  And for me, there is something rather empowering about the start of a new year, though years have taught me to temper my expectations some (at least in terms of the number of resolutions).

This year, I've thought carefully about two resolutions, but part of seeing them through I think will require making them public (and thereby making me accountable to someone other than myself).

So, here they are:

The first is that I'm aiming to do a physique competition in October 2016.  Many know that this was one of my goals for 2015 (and made up a good part of efforts through September of last year).  But, I started cutting a bit too late given how much fat I needed to lose.  Beyond that, I was also dealing with a rather limiting elbow injury (that I'm actually still dealing with), that lead me to abandon my efforts in the fall.

The second is that I intend to go without sugary treats for the entirety of 2016.* 

If you know me at all, this latter goal will be at least as difficult (if not more so) than the first.  I have a strong attachment to sugary treats: donuts, cookies, brownies, ice cream, cereal, Peanut M&M's, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and so on.  I love them.  I also hate them.  As I've noted elsewhere, when I start in on eating them, it's very hard to stop.  And the overconsumption leaves me feeling miserable, if not often downright depressed (and a bit overweight).

So this latter goal, as much as it will help with contest prep, is at least as important to me on an emotional and spiritual level as a physical one.  I want to see what happens to me physically, spiritually, and emotionally as I completely give up sweets.  For a year.

And I expect to document those results here.

Now, given what's happened between September and January (i.e., the repeated and prolonged indulgence), I'm not quite comfortable yet to publicly give up where I'm at physically, much less share any photos.  That may come at some point later on when where I'm at now is sufficiently in the rear view mirror.

As for the ground rules -- what constitutes "sugary treats" -- I can say that it includes everything I mentioned above (donuts, cookies, brownies, ice cream, sugary cereal, candy), and the general test for me is if it's something sugary that I'm inclined to reach for (and potentially over consume) to satisfy my sweet tooth.  That means it also includes gray area items like graham crackers (and animal crackers) and most granola bars (I generally exempt protein bars -- unless and until they become a problem, too), as well as gray area cereals like granola and Honey Bunches of Oats.

Eventually, given my contest prep, I'll work back into regimented carb cycling to cut.  But the baseline for the year will be to avoid sweets entirely.

Of course, by laying out these goals publicly here, I expose myself to the possibility of failing rather publicly.  It's happened before here, and here.  But on the whole, I'm comfortable with the calculated risk. It's one that I've been weighing for weeks now, and I tend to believe I have learned a thing or two from my past failures. 

I look forward to sharing the year's journey with you.

* The irony of sharing this resolution on a blog entitled "The Forbidden Donut" is not lost on me.
  

The 70,000 Calorie Challenge

A few weeks ago I posted about a new approaching to reviewing donuts. Here's the problem: I haven't been so hot on donuts lately.

First it was the oil soaked butter log from Peterson's Donut Corner that kind of shook my faith (and thoroughly disgusted me). How could a donut shop that I've heaped such lavish praises on in the past (including calling them the best donut shop in San Diego County) turn on me with such lazy craftsmanship on a late July afternoon? After paying for and tasting that batch of donuts, I had to battle the thought: I don't really like donuts that much.

Then I had three experiences with Randy's Donuts (in Los Angeles) over the course of a month or so, due entirely to the generosity of traveling friends. Even absent the Peterson's oil soaked butter log experience, Randy's Donuts revealed everything else here in San Diego County to be so decidedly inferior that I've started to genuinely question why I bother. To satisfy my sweet tooth, of course, but I've started resorting to other means (like these giant chocolate chip cookies that I've started making).

Ah, but there are other reasons, too, why I haven't really blogged much about donuts lately -- chiefly because I've been trying (again) to reign in treats.

Granted, it's a much kinder world in that arena when I'm hovering around 5 lbs. of my target weight [as opposed to years and years I spent weekly resolving to lose 40, 50, or 60+ lbs.] Since July, Michelle and I have taken to another exercise incentive plan. It's devastatingly simple: 4 days of exercise a week = 1 treat day; 5 days of exercise a week = 2 treat days; 6 days of exercise a week = 3 treat days. The treat days carry over from week to week, and they never expire. This was working very well for me, at least until things got terribly busy at work, and I was out of town a few weeks.

Now, with roughly four months until Christmas, I'm trying to layer in yet another goal into my exercise routine – the 70,000 calorie challenge. My goal is through exercise and extra activities (like taking the stairs at work) to burn an extra 70,000 calories by Christmas. This amounts to roughly 17,500 calories a month, or roughly 673 calories a day (exempting Sundays). That may be a bit much given the effects of my work schedule lately on my exercise routine, but I'd like to think there's something noteworthy just in the attempt.

Care to join me?

Oreos

So I kind of fell of the wagon in May. On my way down, I took with me a few Double Stuf Oreos and a few of their generic counterparts. They tasted good. Really good.

But, I knew that Michelle had her limits on how many packages I could appropriately buy and work my way through -- at least without getting some indicting looks, if not an outright lectures. I figured that if I was going to get beyond two bags, I needed an excuse.

Enter family home evening.* Every fourth Monday night, I am responsible for selecting and securing the treats for our family get together. I knew that just buying Oreos for the treat wouldn't be enough: for one, Michelle wouldn't be happy that I'd spent money to get the treats; and two, I was concerned that, having to share the bag, there wouldn't be enough for me.

So, in the name of research, I decided that we needed to do an Oreo taste test. The blind taste test would help determine if Oreos were worth the premium, or if we weren't just as well off with the cheaper generic brands. I was also interested in testing the seemingly inflated claims of some who swore that Newman O's -- an organic Oreo-like cookie -- are markedly superior to the Oreo.

This gave me license to buy five bags of Oreos and Oreo look alikes:** Oreos, Newman O's, Ralph's brand, Target brand, and Walmart brand. The Oreos cost the most at $3.19 for 18 ounces. Newman O's were the costliest cookie per ounce at $2.99 a bag on sale for 16 ounces (18.6 cents an ounce as compared to the Oreos at 17.7 cents an ounce). The Walmart brand were far and away the cheapest: $1.35 for 18 ounces. The other two brands fell somewhere in between.

We invited some friends over for the tasting, and I tried earnestly to keep to keep the methodology clean. The cookies were all on numbered plates 1-5, but were otherwise unmarked.

We let the kids first sample a few from the numbered trays. I didn't bother to blindfold them, but just asked them which they'd like the best. There was no clear consensus among, except that they all liked eating cookies.

For the adults, I had each blindfolded and seated at the table. I gave them a glass of milk and then gave them cookies from the five different plates in succession. They were allowed to eat as many or as few as they cared to. Their task, aside from a sugar fix, was to tell me which they liked best and which they liked least.

The Oreos did very well, coming in either 1st or 2nd on just about everyone's list. Newman O's also were among the 1st or 2nd selection of three of the adults (including me -- for as much as I wanted that not to be the case). They were also, however, considered the worst of the cookies by the two remaining adults. One particularly insightful participant described the Newman O's as tasting like chlorophyl -- though this was apparently a compliment (since he liked them the most).

The generic brands were, almost without exception, discernably inferior.

.

A few other thoughts and observations from my research:

• One of the reasons I determined the Oreos and Newman O's were superior was because they had noticeably more filling per cookie sandwich. Walmart's cookies had about 1/2 the amount of filling as a regular Oreo.
• I should have varied the order of the cookies I gave participants, since the taste of each cookie seemed to get muddled by the time I got to numbers 4 and 5. I didn't have the time or the means to allow the participants to perfectly clean their pallets before each tasting. For me this meant that I started making decisions less on taste (as they all started run together) and more based on texture and amount of filling.
• The way in which the cookies are eaten/tested seems to matter. For instance, my perceptions seemed to change a bit when eating an Oreo straight vs. dunking them in milk.
• Finally, I would have vastly preferred to use Double Stuf Oreos. I couldn't, though because Newman O's and most generic brands only make regular stuffed. I can't be sure what doubling the filling on the cookie does to the overall quality of the cookie.***

All this is to say, of course, that further tests are needed.

* For the uninitiated, Family Home Evening is a night each week -- usually Monday night -- when our family gets together, sings songs, has a spiritual lesson, and then an activity and a treat. It would be hard to overstate how important the treat component is to making such activities a success.

** It was actually six bags, since Michelle and I accidentally ate a bag of Oreos the Friday and Saturday before the Monday tasting.

*** As it is I'm always separating the Double Stuff cookies to make them into Quadruple Stuf cookies.