Not dead yet. 1 week after the end of the #BrewDiet

 

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="Diet time by Simon James on Flickr"][/caption]

It's been a full week after the end of the #BrewDiet. You'll recall that's when I spent the month of October subsisting on sausage and beer. Yes, I'm serious. You're probably wondering one of the following:

Have you fallen off the wagon yet?

What do you mean, yet? Dick. But no, I'm not. Just hopped off the home scales. They read the same thing they did last week. The trick is portion control. And that I want to keep in mind. Always.

I bet you were sick and tired of beer and sausage, huh?

Not in the least. In fact, I'm continuing to make beer a big part of my diet. Once you get accustomed to having a beer for breakfast, it's kinda hard to go without. I've been to two beer-centric events since the end of the diet, including the fantastic RAREaffair™ put on by The Beer for Brains Foundation. Not just the best beer event I've ever attended. It might have been the best event ever.

I'm still eating sausage, though not exclusively. Now I'm experimenting with different combinations. Like madras lentils and beer-braised bratwurst. Exquisite!

What was the first thing you ate after the #BrewDiet was over?

A single piece of pizza from Otto Pizza. Very tasty. And I was full afterward.

How screwed up are your liver enzymes and cholesterol?

Not in the least. My doctor finally got off his ass found time in his busy schedule to write a blog post from the final time I saw him. He says:

... his triglyceride level dropped by half, his cholesterol dropped by a third, and his “good” cholesterol increased.  There was never an increase or a blip in any of the liver enzymes.  His fat mass dropped, the only non-fat mass of his that decreased was that tissue associated with and supporting the fat mass (I know, sounds complicated).  His muscle mass maintained itself.

You'll want to read the whole piece, as Terry takes a scientific look at some conventional wisdom we have about weight loss.

So... what's next?

I keep on keepin' on. Losing weight is easy. Keeping it off for the long term not so much. So I'm trying to keep it up. And I'm also working on some extensions of the experience. Maybe a book. Maybe a presentation or two. Maybe more things than that.

I'll check in from time to time with progress. Thanks for playing along at home!

Related articles

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• First support, then rejection of #BrewDiet (funanymore.com)
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Final exam results of the #BrewDiet

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="DSC_5774e by Zach Klein"][/caption]

Well... that was that. Yesterday was the final day of one month of drinking beer and eating sausage. I called it the #BrewDiet. And it was a grand time. And it was for SCIENCE!

Thanks to all of you who encouraged me along the way. Extra thanks to those of you who contributed by sending me beer. Much appreciated!

OK, let's get right down to it.

Beers consumed:

• 100 "uniques". That's a beer I've never had before. Or if I did, I hadn't yet put it into Untappd. I started at 308 uniques and ended today at 408. No, that wasn't planned. But I do appreciate the simple math.
• ~154 total beers. Why the tilde in front? Because let's face it, there were plenty of evenings (like last Saturday) when not all the beers went into Untappd. I don't think I missed any uniques, but I know for a fact I missed plenty of beers. That, and many were bombers which classify as two. So I'm betting the number was closer to 200. 200/31 = 6.5 beers a day. Sounds about right.
• ~62 sausages. Again with the tilde. Look... most days I had two. On rare occasion I had more than that. But for the first 6 days, I only had one. I'll count them later, as my blog posts have (I think) all of them. So for now, I'm going with the 2x31 for the answer. Expect a more accurate accounting (redundant?) when the book comes out. Yeah, there will be one.

OK, that's the intake. What about the results? I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. I know I was.

Weight Loss Stats

First, let's set the baseline.This is important to those of you keeping score at home. None of these things changed in the last 31 days:

Body Type: Standard
Gender: Male
Age: 43
Height: 5′10″ (though my license says 6′ even, because I am still a growing boy)

But here's what did change. I'll give you before and after numbers from the doc's fancy scale:

Original Weight: 199.0 lbs
Ending Weight: 185.1 lbs

Here, let me help you with that math: that's a loss of 13.5 pounds! Fuck it! I'm rounding up! 14 pounds LOST. Eating sausage and drinking beer!

But hey, that's just weight. We all know that weight changes with fluid. Is it all that surprising? Let's look at the rest of the numbers:

Original BMI: 28.6
Final BMI: 26.6

That's a net lost of 2 BMI. I'd be more excited, but I don't know what BMI means. But it's down by two, so that sounds  good to me. If you care, look it up. If you know, good for you! I don't care. Don't bother telling me in comments. Because I don't care.

Original Fat %: 25.3
Final Fat %: 21.4

OK, I'm smart enough to figure out percentages. That means that I lost 4% (rounding up, remember?) of my my mass as pure, nasty fat. That sounds pretty fantastic. And according to the "target" numbers on my doctor's fancy scale, that's within the "desirable range".

Didja here that? I'm desirable!

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. That Fat % number translates directly to fat mass:

Original Fat Mass: 50.5 lbs
Final Fat Mass: 39.5 lbs

If the word "fat mass" doesn't sound nasty to you, what the hell is wrong with you? I've dropped 11 pounds of fat mass! And if I were to travel to the moon, those 11 pounds of mass would still be gone! I love physics!

But you're not a physicist. You know what the scales tell you. And those scales would say something different on the moon. And I'm not likely to travel to the moon. Ever. Which kind of sucks. But I'll get over it. Why? Because I lost 14 pounds eating sausage and drinking beer, bitches!

Yeah, yeah... some of you want to know about my cholesterol, lipids, and other funky blood serum stuff. I'm going to let my doctor discuss those results. Suffice to say that I'm not dropping dead anytime soon. In fact, my panel looks better than when I started. No, I'm not kidding. Stay tuned for that.

What's next?

Keep it off, obviously. But that's a post for another day. I have some ideas... and this isn't over!

Related articles

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"Your diet would never work for me"

 

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="No beer here :( by Chris"][/caption]

I've heard that a few times now. And it puzzles me. Sure, I know I'm a sample size of one. And because of that, I may be a statistical outlier. But if you know anything about stats, you know the odds say something different. Outliers are things you find in a large sample size. I haven't tried this before. I tried it once. And it worked. Is there a chance I'm a fluke? Sure. But you'd be a fool to bet that way.

Invariably -- and this may get a little on the sensitive side -- the people who have said this to me have been overweight. And oddly enough, they've all been women.

The first part I get. People who are overweight have probably been through more than one "lose weight fast" scheme before. And they've all -- obviously -- failed. So here's one more idiot with what ostensibly looks like the novel-est of novelty diets ever. If that crazy diet lauded over by thousands didn't work for me, there's no way this one can. I get it.

The latter is stranger, but could simply be explained by machismo. Boys are supposed to like beer and sausage. Girls are not. No offense, Bavarian Babes, but that's the way it's done over here. So some of the immediate incredulity could have to do with gonads. Who knows?

But here's what I know;  this isn't rocket surgery. I'm not losing weight because I'm drinking beer and eating sausage. I'm losing weight because I'm eating less. The data I'm collecting will ultimately demonstrate that even foods considered "unhealthy" are perfectly fine as long as they are consumed in moderation. I can't say that all calories are or are not created equal. But I what I can say is that it sure as hell doesn't look like calories from beer and sausage are all that bad for you.

But the again, our data collection of this experiment isn't over. Speaking of that...

• A rather late (11:00a) breakfast beer of a Palo Santo Marron by Dogfish Head Craft Brewery
• For lunch,  A Little Sumpin' Sumpin' Ale by Lagunitas Brewing Company to go with my andouille sausage!
• Dinner was a sausage medley with a coconut curry sauce and an Alleycat Amber by Lost Coast Brewery
• Ended the evening with a 20th Anniversary Imperial IPA by Anderson Valley Brewing Company

Four beers? Wow. That can't be much more than 1400  calories for the day. And I'm not hungry. Nifty! Thank you, #BrewDiet!

Related articles

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Sausage + Beer = -2 lbs. of pure fat. Losing again!

Monday is check-in day with the doc. It always makes me nervous, and this time was no exception. Largely because of the stupid amount of food I ate yesterday. But still, that was only one day, so only the scales will tell.

Oh, and what a sweet song they sang! The details:

Body Type: Standard
Gender: Male
Age: 43
Height: 5′10″ (though my license says 6′ even, because I am still a growing boy)
Weight: 188.5 lbs (2 lbs. down from last week!)
BMI: 27.3 (down  another .3 things. Of what? Dunno...)
Fat %: 22.7% (down almost a point from 23.5%!)
Fat Mass: 43.01 lbs (2 lbs. fat, GONE!)

To say I'm a happy camper would be an understatement. I can't remember the last time I was under 190. A decade, at least.

This is going really, really well. Were I a superstitious man, I'd wonder when the other shoe was dropping. But I'm not, and I'm doing all the right things -- even when those right things go against conventional wisdom -- so I'm happy to keep things going.

I've noticed an interesting banter among people when they learn of my success. I think I'll save that for tomorrow. Here's the intake for those playing along at home:

• Breakfast found me in a meeting, drinking a Messiah Bold by Shmaltz Brewing Company (He'Brew)
• Working lunch was an andouille sausage (hot!) and a a He'brew Genesis Ale by Shmaltz Brewing Company (He'Brew). Yeah, the people I work with are officailly jealous.
• Dinner was a nice Italian sausage from I-don't-remember-where and an Old Blarney Barleywine by Moylan's Brewery. Count this as 2, since it's a bomber. And a VERY BIG BEER.
• I'll end with a Ten FIDY by Oskar Blues Brewery. Fitting.

Good night!

Related articles

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Sunday, with sausage on the #BrewDiet!

I ate way too much food today.

Headed to a late-morning meeting, my belly commanded a stop at Doggie-bertos. You had me at Chorizo Burrito!

Then we went to Citizen Public House again in Old Town Scottsdale. They've taken the Sausage of the Day off the menu, but were happy to adapt to my dietary restrictions with a plate full of sausage (and maybe other) goodness!

Also, it pays to know folks. Got introduced to Richie at CPH by Dan, while the mural you see above was being painted on the outside. That led to a bit of special treatment by the CPH staff, for which I am quite grateful! Significant thanks to our friends Susan & Paul from Los Angeles for spending a great evening with us.

That's my kind of Sunday on the #BrewDiet! Here's the intake:

• Breakfast was sans beer. Sorry. But damn, that was a fine chorizo burrito!
• Lunch was sausage free (after that breakfast) when I cracked open a 22 oz 25th Anniversary Vanilla Doubledog by Abita Brewing Company. It was very decent and got much better when I let the second half sit for an hour on the counter before drinking. Don't get this too cold.
• Sundays are bomber days, so I started off with half of a Danny's Irish Style Red Ale by Moylan's Brewery. A solid red. I like mine more aggressive, but I can deal.
• Waiting for our friends to arrive, I enjoyed a Ruination IPA by Stone Brewing Co. at Citizen Public House. Bomber. So count as 2.
• During the off-menu extravaganza of sausage, I washed it down with a Hefeweizen by Four Peaks Brewing Co. at Citizen Public House
• Now, writing this post, I'm killing the last of the Danny's Irish Style Red Ale by Moylan's Brewer

Tomorrow I visit Terry's office again. I'll have weight results tweeting out mid-afternoon, and a blog post coming!

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Of Sundays, sausage and beer

It's day 16 on my #BrewDiet. I'm more than half-way through the month. And I'm doing fantastic!

People keep asking me about the deleterious effects of a diet consisting of nothing but sausage and beer for an entire month. An in all honesty, there really haven't been any. I do notice pretty severe dry mouth at night. But that's easily defeated by keeping water on the nightstand. Wake up. Drink. Sleep. Easy.

Nor am I sick of eating sausage. Or drinking beer. The variations of both are legion. So if boredom does sit in, I just pick up something out of the ordinary. Like when I was at the store today and picked up some sausage that I've been craving. Oh, it's going to be a great week coming up!

Today was my lowest beer-intake day ever. That's due to a rather uncharacteristic breakfast, as you'll see below:

• No beer for b'fast. Instead, I wolfed down an entire chorizo burrito from Filibertos . Because they are made of awesome. Gigantic awesome.
• Finally after noon-time, I started in to the beers. Bombers for me this weekend, and it started with  Our Own Bavarian-Style Doppel Weizen by Lagunitas Brewing Company
• Not to let a good beer die, I finished up with the rest of the Our Own Bavarian-Style Doppel Weizen by Lagunitas Brewing Company
• I finally started getting a little hungry and chowed down on a maple-blueberry sausage patty, enjoying with a Yeti Imperial Stout by Great Divide Brewing Company
• That was pretty sublime. So I drank the rest of the  Yeti Imperial Stout by Great Divide Brewing Company

So that's two (ish) sausage meals and only 4 (ish) beers. Pretty light. Tomorrow is weigh-in day. Here's to hoping!

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Of smuggling sausages and beers

Well that was interesting! As you know, my work is way-OK with me and the #BrewDiet. My day-job is in advertising, and our industry has a history of the three-martini lunch with clients. We don't do that in 2011, but there's no violation if I have a beer at lunch. And breakfast, it seems.

But today was a little different. Huge off-site with 50+ individual representatives from our client roster. A catered breakfast and lunch in the ballroom rendered me cracking open a beer and whipping out a sausage from my briefcase rather inappropriate.

Fortunate for me, one of the client's (more that a representative: this guy is the client), somehow heard of my diet. He met me at the door with a surreptitiously wrapped turkey sausage smuggled from the breakfast bar! He said he had a beer up in his room. I told him I had a beer in my briefcase. I don't think he believed me. That's OK. I didn't believe him!

Lunch almost worked. A paella, which is traditionally (at least in Arizona) served with chorizo. But in this version, the chorizo was an afterthought, and it would have taken me way too long to pick out just the sausage. And since the chorizo isn't the central part of the dish, I considered that cheating.

So I snuck out the parking lot with lunch kit (yeah, hidden previously in my briefcase), downed a G'Knight and ate half a jalapeno & cheddar sausage. Chomped on a few sticks of Trident and slipped back in undetected.

In my next life, I'm gonna be a double-naught spy!

No one was the wiser. At least I don't think so. If I show up tomorrow with a pink slip on my desk, you'll know differently. Here's how today played out, minus the drama listed above:

• Breakfast of a Dale's Pale Ale by Oskar Blues Brewery. When I got to the off-site, I had a couple of turkey sausages from the buffet. Meh.
• Lunch was a hastily consumed half sausage and the smuggled G'Knight by Oskar Blues Brewery at Hyatt Regency Scottsdale
• Came home and enjoyed a GUBNA Imperial IPA by Oskar Blues Brewery
• The day winds down with a bomber of a Lips of Faith Kick by New Belgium Brewing Company. Count this as two. And pucker-y

That's it. Though some out-of-town friends just showed up with a six pack. Work could suck tomorrow. Ciao!

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I'll see your Vienna Sausage and raise it a Tapatio on #BrewDiet

I'm marking today's #BrewDiet in the WIN column. Loads of things to do, and all of them done smashingly well, fueled on nothing but beer and sausage.

The highlight of the day had to be Ruth's I-passed-the-bar celebration where her mom made me a special sausage dish... by opening up me a can of Vienna sausages! They paired nicely with some Tapatio hot sauce, oddly enough.

The next two days will be a bit of challenge. I've got a conference to attend tomorrow and clients to entertain the day after that. Expect massive smuggling to get me through the coming days!

Also, I check in with The Good Doctor tomorrow, so I'll report back on my (or rather his) findings. Here's how today shook out:

• Breakfast was a American Amber Ale by Rogue Brewery
• Lunch was a G'Knight by Oskar Blues Brewery and the remains of the maple sausage
• Started Ruth's party with an Anchor Steam Beer by Anchor Brewing Company to wash down the Vienna sausage
• Ended the party with BridgePort India Pale Ale (IPA) by BridgePort Brewing Co.
• Capped my evening with 1/2 a sausage and a bomber of  Southern Hemisphere Harvest Fresh Hop Ale by Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.

Great stuff!

 

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I lost 6 pounds! The Paleo Diet can suck it!

 

3 days. Six pounds lost.

OK, that's probably not fair. Let me start at the beginning.

One week ago today, I went in to see my physician, Dr. Terry Simpson. My beer-and-sausage only diet wasn't slated to begin until the following Saturday, but it was a good time to establish a baseline. All that was recorded at the bottom of this post.

When I went in today to do a repeat, I had lost six pounds. Even better: 2 of those pounds were from fat! That's pretty damned fantastic.

So do I really think that 2.75 days of beer-and-sausage only caused me to drop the weight? Well... probably not. I'm making the assumption that I was more conscious of everything I ate after seeing Terry a week ago, several days before I went to the restrictive diet. I've been paying attention to what I eat for a while now, and that's part of the reason for the #BrewDiet in the first place.

But to hell with when I lost the pounds. I really don't give a shit. What is important is that I lost them. And I'll lose more, dammit!

Terry has a good write up on what's going on on his doctory-blog. Check it out. I think he said I could kick a caveman's ass. Damn skippy.

 

Sedona Recap

So as I said yesterday, my planning sucks. But my outcome did not suck, as I got to hang with the fantastic Thomas and Kris, flown in recently from one of the Carolina states. North... South... whatever. I married the two of them a few months back, and they are old friends of ours from when they used to live here. Amazing how a little podcasting can bring people together.

After we knocked back a few (too many) brews at Oak Creek Brewing and caught up with each other, Thomas handed me a present: A couple of brews that don't have distribution in Arizona! The Rye Hopper from French Road was the surprise of the two. Very mellow and clean. I'm a huge fan. Hoppyum from Foothill's Brewing was great as well. Matched my palate perfectly. Yeah, Thomas has been drinking with me for a while.

 

Today's Drinking

I got a chance to try -- and by try I mean completely consume -- both of those tonight. Ah, friends. :) Speaking of that, here's the entire day:

• Breakfast beer: Boulder Bend Dunkelweizen by Leavenworth Biers
• Lunch beer: Lubrication by Clown Shoes with a half of a jalapeno cheddar sausage from Von Hanson's. The vast majority of what I eat this month will be from them. Outstanding!
• Dinner beer consisted of the full 650 mL of Hoppyum IPA by Foothills Brewing, again thanks to Thomas! And I also had the other half of the sausage to round out my protein intake for the day.1
• Nightcap beer consisted of 22 oz of Rye Hopper Ale by French Broad Brewing Co., also courtesy of Thomas. I'm enjoying the last as I type this!

That brings my total calorie count to only 1519. And I'm not really hungry. Excellent. This is going well!

Vital Statistics

Here's what the doctor's machine spit out about me today, one week later. Be sure and compare with a week ago:

Body Type: Standard
Gender: Male
Age: 43
Height: 5′10″ (though my license says 6′ even, because I am still a growing boy)
Weight: 193.01 lbs (six pounds, bitches!)
BMI: 27.7 (almost a full point down)
Fat %: 25.0 (lost .3%, which sounds tiny)
Fat Mass: 48.51 lbs (2 pounds of pure fat-ass-ness gone!)

Here's to the next six pounds going away!

 

Want to get involved?

Hey, I'm not begging here. But if you want me to enjoy your local fare -- craft beer or sausage -- then send me some. You'll find out where to send it on my Contact page.

For hard-core craft beer fans, join me on Untappd. It's a kick-ass mobile app and I'm posting each and every beer as I drink it. I'm up to 19 in the three days so far of #BrewDiet! Most of those check-ins wind up on Twitter and Facebook, so feel free to re-tweet or comment on my status updates.

Related articles

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The realities of compatability with #BrewDiet and a day job

The reality of #BrewDiet hit a few people at the office a little harder today. A typical exchange went like this:

Really, you're not just drinking beer and eating sausage the whole month, are you?

No, really. You're not just drinking beer and eating sausage the whole month.

No, I'm serious. You really are not just drinking beer and eating sausage the whole month.

No, you're not.

Er... yes I am. I fought a little misconception at the day-job today. We have an alcohol policy (throw back to the Mad Men-esque years of my current profession) and I'm willing to follow it to the letter. I reminded them that it's not all that unusual for me to have a beer (or two) at lunch  and I manage to get through the afternoon just fine. This will be just like that. Only I'll have a beer before I get to work. See? Virtually no difference at all.

The team I manage is going to do their own little play-along, documenting my mood and attitude toward them as the month progresses. I think that's an excellent data point to have! But being the cut-ups that they are, I fully expect to have surreptitiously filmed videos appearing, in some mocumentary of what it was like to work under The Monster Who Only Drank Beer and Ate Sausage For a Month. That's OK, kids... bring it!

#BrewDiet is going to be awesome. You can be awesome and contribute some of your local fare -- that's quality craft beer or fantastic sausages -- if you want to  get involved. You can also follow my beer-as-it-happens antics via Untappd. And of course, I'll keep blogging, tweeting and Facebooking the whole thing as it unfurls.

Related articles

• First support, then rejection of #BrewDiet (funanymore.com)
• Beer and sausage for a month? Are you nuts? (funanymore.com)
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First support, then rejection of #BrewDiet

Word of my little experiment is getting around. And even though Untappd declined my request¹ to create a badge for drinking along with me during #BrewDiet, plenty of folks are jumping in with support! Like...

• Brent from PA - This film director mistakenly thought his state had nothing good to offer me in the way of craft beer. I set him straight and he's busy packing up some goodies to send my way!²
• Charlie the Beer Guy from AZ- This man literally taught me to drink good beer. Though his work environment isn't quite as liberal as mine when it comes to consuming alcohol during work-hours, he's got a system he thinks he can stick to. As such, he'll be joining me in the beer-and-sausage-only diet the entire month!
• Chris Miller from OH - Chris recently shed a boat-load of weight. As a fan of beer (and home brewer), people said he couldn't do it. Ha. He showed them. He's modifying the plan slightly to make it more in line with the good stuff he's already doing for himself. For the month of October, he'll subsist on fruit for breakfast, a salad for lunch, and beer for dinner. Whenever possible, he'll work sausage into the salads. Go, Chris!
• Thomas "cmdln" Gideon from MD - Thomas is joining us in spirit, though he's not quite yet worked out what his regiment will be. He is the co-host of the Living Proof podcast, where I'll be a frequent guest next month to document my progress in audio.
• Chooch Schubert from DC & John Taylor Williams from MD - I'm still waiting on firm commitments from these gentlemen, but I know they are in somehow. JTW co-hosts Living Proof with Thomas, so he'll be feeling the pressure!

Thanks for the support, guys! And welcome to the sausage fest! No... wait. That didn't come out right. At any rate, I appreciate you joining me for #BrewDiet.

Want to get involved? OK! Just drop me a line and let me know what you're planning on doing. I'll keep a running list of who's in and to what extent. Maybe do a weekly summary of the #BrewDiet Nation? No wait... #BrewDietitians! Love it!

October 1st hits this Saturday. What should I have for my breakfast beer and the kick-off to #BrewDiet?

 

^{1 - Hey, I can't blame them. They probably get loads of people emailing them all the time with "make a special badge for me!" requests. But I still love the tool Untappd provides and will use it every time I drink a beer on my #BrewDiet.}

^{2 - Yes, you can send me beer. Or sausage! Ship it to:
Evo Terra
1849 E. Guadalupe Rd
C101-186
Tempe, AZ 85283
Be sure and include a note so I know who to thank in a blog post, tweet, Facebook update and more!}

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