More Less is More

Wherein our hero, seemingly on an R. Buckminster Fuller jag, sheds more than his vestments; and shares the secrets of his weight loss with his audience. (That’s right, you and the other guy.)

I was a pretty skinny kid. Then I was a pretty skinny adult. That changed when I hit my 30’s. I’m not sure when the realization hit me that I was overweight. It was probably brought to my attention by my wife and/or family. These days, the Wii Fit tells me daily, in it’s pixie voice: “That’s obese!” At this point, the main function of the Wii Fit is to exercise my self-restraint, and keep from pitching it out the window.

Weight loss, to my mind, involved some idealized, sybaritic lifestyle, where my time was my own, and I could spend a good part of my days at the gym. A gym, I should add, which looked a lot like the one in the opening sequence of Red Heat. (OK, it was actually a banya, not a gym.) Slowly, it dawned on me that wasn’t likely to happen anytime soon. (Especially the Red Heat part.)

So, emboldened by the sloughing of el-bees of some of my peers, I went on the Atkins diet. After having dropped 30lbs over several months, I abandoned the diet over concerns with heart disease and organs. With time my weight crept back up, and beyond where I had started.

Now with health issues crowding me (sleep apnea and high blood pressure), losing weight has become more of a priority. Fortuitously, a couple of Tucows colleagues, Fabiana and Tina (neither of whom really need to lose a pound, in my opinion), started the Happier, Healthier Herd program, to help others fight the good fight. They’ve based their program on a commercial system which rhymes with Mate Matchers. After 4 weeks of following it, more or less, I’m down 8.6lbs. And this, in spite of pretty much continuing to do what I always do: eat lunch at a restaurant two or three times a week.

So here’s the skinny on how it works.

Based on your sex, age, height, weight and activity level, you’re assigned a number of points per day. Each food has a point value, and you can’t eat more than the number of points you’ve been assigned. We have a couple of websites that list generic foods’ points, and restaurant food as well. We also have an online calculator for foods which don’t appear on the lists. A food’s points are based on calories, fat and fiber. And that’s it!

Well no. There’s one more thing. You actually get 35 bonus points per week. You can use them as you will: all at once, or spread out over the week, a little each day. Some people like to save them up for the week end.

OK, now that’s it.

I’ve set up a couple of pages with the points calculators: Daily Points Allowance, and Food Points.

And here are the links for food points:

Rachel’s Food Points List
Health Discovery Restaurant Food Points
Dottie’s Restaurant Food Points

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.