So Joe…

I had chinese lunch today, as I do almost every Wednesday, at Oriental Coast on Brady Street. It’s always a good time, and good food. I’ve been going there for a few years now and I’ve never seen a menu. Early on we used to just ask for certain dishes we knew we wanted (family style, we pass dishes around the table), but as time passed, we just let them decide for us, so now, we never know what we’ll be eating until they bring it. Sometimes their are only a few people, sometimes their are a couple dozen, it’s an open invitation (feel free to join us!).

So of course, now that I’m counting calories, this kind of meal doesn’t fit in to well, but it’s a good time and I’ve decided it’s one of those parts of life that I have to accomodate. So, we start with a squid appetizer, the breading is to die for. I’ve told them they could coat a napkin in that breading and I’d be happy to eat it. Then the soup, today it was an eggdrop with chicken and corn, most excellent. Then the main dishes start coming out. A cool dish of pork and some kind of green vegetable, then mushrooms and tofu, sesame chicken (one of my favorites), another pork dish with bean sprouts, fish with onions and other veggies, another dish I can’t remember, and finally when we didn’t think we could take any more, beef in gravy over broccoli. Seven dishes total, each as tempting as the last. I tried to take small portions, but with that much food, and as good as it taste, I’m guessing I put down at least 900 calories for lunch. Finish that off with a fortune cookie and a couple slices of orange and I was stuffed.

So, with all those extra calories, I did skip my afternoon snack, mostly because I was still completely stuffed. For supper I had some of the leftover pork and bean sprouts (don’t want to skip to many meals or my metabolism would probaby fall). Then I headed out for a walk at 7pm. It was sprinkling out, I figured it would probably stop, didn’t look to bad. I did the first 40 minutes or so and decided that I was still good for more, in an effort to burn off some of those extra calories, so I continued onward and did about 5 miles in 80 minutes. Along the way, early in the walk, a light across the street from me turned off, which never had before, as I was about 75′ away. A little further up I passed ‘the light’, but it was off again. I ventured a couple blocks off my normal path, and in those couple blocks, two other lights turned off, both as I was again about 75′ away. I finally worked my way around and came back upon ‘the light’, which was now on. I approached it, nothing happened, walked away about 50′ or so, nothing, went back to it, nothing, finally walked away, and as I got 75′ away, it turned off. I guess my range increases when I’m wet? So, 4 lights went off tonight, all when I was ~75′ away. And now I have a few more test subjects to walk by!

So, when I got home, I was soaked pretty good, it never did stop, in fact it rained harder most of the time. The front of my pants had soaked through by about half way through the walk (from the rain, not from the nature call). My jacket and gloves were pretty wet as well. I was fine though, upper body was still dry and warm. I took a warm shower anyway just to help relax. And now, time for Law and Order!

I didn’t post yesterday. The reason was, I was busy, and my computer wasn’t available much of the time. Why not? Well, I finally broke down and bought an iPod Nano. I decided that with all the walking I’m already doing, and all the cardio work I plan to continue doing as part of my lifestyle, it makes sense to have one.

So, I picked up a 4GB black Nano at Best Buy. Now, I had to get it working with my computer. My computer was already behaving a little flaky, so I wiped it and reloaded it from scratch. Their’s lots of stuff I use on it, so it takes quite a while to get it all reloaded again. Long story short, I got it all working, and while things would install, I also worked in some strength training. I went on my walk last night with the iPod, and boy, does it make a difference. I put Metallica’s S&M on it, which I hadn’t listened to for some time. Made the walk go by in a flash!

More on the walk. I went south toward ‘the light’ and at 6:14pm I got there. The light was on, and as I passed under it, nothing happened, but as I walked away, when I was about 50′ away, it turned off. I then looped around the block and about 10 minutes later reapproached, but the light was still off. I went back around a few times, but the light didn’t come back on. In those passes, I looked for security lights, their are none, so my speculation on Friday wasn’t true. Speaking of Friday, I ended up not going out, so no calorie overload.

So, I’ve worked real hard this week. I’ve added at least one walk a day to my schedule, and stuck to my calorie count. Weigh in time was this morning. I told myself before hand that even if the measurements don’t confirm it, I feel great, and I can see the difference. The ever important ‘how do I look naked’ is much improved (you’ll have to trust me on that one). So, if the measurements didn’t confirm this, I swore to still stay on track, because eventually they would have to, their is simply no doubt. So, here’s the results:

• Weight: 158 (down 3.5lbs since last week)
• Body Fat: 19% (down 1% since last week)
• Waist: 35.75 (down 1/2″ since last week!)

This is exactly what I was hoping for. The body fat finally adjusted, and both the scale and caliper agree on that. And the waist measurement, 1/2″ in one week, damn, that’s the greatest of all. The weight is a little more than most doctors recommend (1-2lbs per week are generally recommended), but I’m eating healthy, so most of that is probably due to the extra exercise (and reduction of unhealthy consumption), so I think I’m fine there. So, this is very encouraging, and I’m driven to continue on this path. I’m going to copy all my ’self improvement’ audio books to the iPod, and listen to them on my walks as well as music, so this will help make that time even more useful.

Figured I might as well sneak in a walk before I go out tonight. I headed directly south today, opposite of my previous walks, so I’d pass my favorite light much earlier in the walk. I approached it at 6:14pm, and this time it was on. As I got about 50 feet away, it turned off. I laughed and proceeded onward. I decided I’d just keep going straight south about a mile and a half, then turn around and come back, which would give me a second pass at it.

As I approached it again, at 6:37pm, the light was back on, but it didn’t have the usual amber color, it looked almost white. I walked by it and nothing happened. After I was 50′ past, I turned around and walked back to it, still nothing. Darn! I turned around and started walking away, and when I got about 75′ away, I had a thought. What if I was triggering someones security light, and that in turn was affecting the sensor on the street light?

I turned around to go back and look for security lights (I hadn’t noticed one so far). After taking a couple steps, I looked up and noticed the light was back to the amber color, and as I got about 50′ away, it turned off again! Twice in one day! I was so tickled by this that I forgot to look for security lights. Oh well, I think I’ve added a few more variables to investigate. One would be to find out how long the light stays out before turning on again. Another would be to see how long it is white before turning amber (assuming that it starts white and then turns amber every time it restarts itself). I know, a very strange obsession of mine, but hey, it’s adding interest to my walks, and giving me something to think about out there in the cold.

I’ve been walking my ass off (literally, my pants which are a 32W fit much better, I don’t really have to suck in my gut now to button them). I walked for lunch yesterday, went around the perimeter of our ‘L’ shaped campus, took about 30 minutes, so it must be about 2 miles. When I got home I walked again after dinner, mostly so I could walk by that damn light again. This time my plan was to walk down the east side of the road, and approach the light from the east instead of from the south like I have previously. When I got on the street though, I noticed the light wasn’t on (though all the others were). I was a bit disappointed, but thought maybe it would turn on as I approached. No luck, the light didn’t respond to me today.

I knew Mike would be coming over, and I would be consuming a few beers, so I limited my calories for dinner, had a LaChoy Shrimp Chow Mein, only 180 calories for the whole thing (3 servings). I also picked up some Light beer (1/3rd less calories than your regular beer). Not so sure about that ‘Taste Great’ part, but it was ‘Less Filling’, and even after four of them and a snack, I was well within my calorie count for the day.

Got to bed at 11:30 again, woke up somewhere after 3, then again around 5 (had to use the bathroom, damn Lite beer!), and finally, got up at 7:45 (interval row, breakfast and out the door). I’m sleeping in later every day! I think this going to bed early thing is backfiring, and I suspect it has something to do with the sleep cycles. I’m probably waking up a bit to early, so I lay back down, and then go through another cycle, which ends up being later than I’d like. Next week I’ll switch back to midnight and see how it affects my wake-up times.

Tonight will be a challenge. I’ll be going out to eat and drink, and though I want to enjoy myself, I also want to keep the calorie count within reason. I’ll make an effort to limit my portion, or at least choose something low cal, and will have Lite beer as well. Hopefully I can keep within the upper limit of my calorie window (1380-1730). It’s just so hard when you see tastey food that you want to try, and then when you do, you don’t want to stop eating it! I just have to remember, eye on the prize, eye on the prize, eye on the prize…

Googled around a bit on SLI (Street Light Interferance), apparently I’m known as a SLIder. Here’s a video from someone that claims to be able to turn them on and off at will:

http://www.jasonchatfield.com/SLI/20060220_SLI.wmv

Most discussions of the topic seem to involve people having every single light turn on or off as they pass, which is not the case for me. Also, many accounts have the people being very emotional, which I don’t believe I have been.

Well, I waited eagerly all day for it to get dark so I could take my walk past that streetlight again. Yesterday I went east and came back around to my street past the light, today I went west and came back around past the same point. It was starting to drizzle when I left the house, but I didn’t figure it would come down to hard, and it didn’t. As the light came into view, I first checked to see if it was on, and it was. I approached the light with great anticipation, but I was fairly certain that it wouldn’t happen again. As I got about 40-50 feet away, still looking up at the light, it turned off! I let out an audible laugh in disbelief that I had somehow again caused a streetlight to turn itself off.

I got to the light about 10 minutes earlier today than yesterday, so it’s unlikely that it has to do with time of day, or the amount of time since it turned on. On the otherhand, it was cloudier today, so the light may have come on a bit earlier. The next test will have to be at a different time period to completely eliminate time as a variable.

So, this certainly gives me a new reason to want to take walks, which is good (burns over 280 calories). I’d like to try and narrow down what could be causing this, and if you have any ideas of things I could try to narrow it down, please do tell!

P.S. I just found this link that I haven’t seen before that talks about this issue, it even has a name, SLI (Street Light Interference).

http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa012400a.htm