How Am I Feeling?

Pretty good, thank you for asking.

I am optimistic about actually getting to my long term goal. Here are the facts:

• I started this diet on the 12th of June.
• My long term goal is to make it to a 22% body fat measurement.
• For me, as currently calculated, that would be a weight of 208 lbs.
• I am 22% towards that goal.
• I have been loosing 5.5 lbs per week average since starting this.
• That puts my long term goal projected date before the end of the year.
• An interim goal for me is getting to 280 lbs.
• This is half way to the finish line. 
• I should hit that in mid September, based on my average weight loss numbers.
• My other goal is to get below 250 lbs before our big trip in late October. 
• That puts be below a BMI of 35. I will still be fat.
• It will be close, based on projections. But I can try.
• I know that I will gain a couple on the trip, but I will do my best not to.

I was thinking that, once I make it to my long term goal, I will re-create this photo.
Yes, that is Penn Jillette, before his big weight loss.

A Couple of Days Into the New Plan.

Well, I have gone for two days, now into the third, on my lower calorie plan.

There is always the low level hunger. But I can deal with it. Tuesday, my first day was basically an oatmeal breakfast, some catfish for lunch and a couple of meal replacement drinks throughout the day for a total of just under 1,000 calories. Wednesday, It was the oatmeal, a couple of meal replacement drinks and a large salad with a grilled pork chop for about 1,300 calories. I did fill up on salad, but I did not feel well after eating so much.

Today the plan is oatmeal, meal replacement drink, salad, another meal replacement drink, and some ham. This should put me just under 1,000 calories. There is plenty of wiggle room at this calorie level. I could splurge and get a small hamburger if I need it this evening, but it would be better if I did not.

Temptation is always around. Today a co-worker is retiring, so there is cake. It is far enough away that I won't be tempted too much.

I have noticed that I am not as easily sleeping since dropping the calorie count so far, But I expect that will pass.

QI Charging and You.

I am a techie.

My current personal phone is a Samsung Galaxy S5. A good phone when I bought it, just as the 6 was released, and I am not about to splurge on another one just yet. I use the Rokform mount system in my car, and love the security and versatility of it. This is relevant to this post.

A year ago my employer issued us Galaxy S7 phones. These are equipped with a Qi wireless charging interface. At the time I jumped into it head first. My first purchase was a Belkin Boost Up QI charging pad and a Qi Wireless Charging Receiver Card for the S5, which does not include a wireless charging interface as delivered.

The S7 was easy to drop and charge on the Belkin pad. The S5 with the receiver card had it's difficulties, as I had added a Rokform universal mount to my existing case and the added thickness made the wireless charging very picky about placement. I cannot recommend the custom Rokform case more, as now there is no added thickness to the case and with the magnet removed the wireless charging is perfect and it it now truly drop and charge. It appears that the S5 case is much more difficult to find now.

A note on both charging pads, they are limited to a 1 amp charging rate. This will be slower than plugging directly into the cable, but for a charging opportunity it is sufficient.

The QI Wireless Charging Card for the S5 is very easy to install, but there are a couple of issues.

• First, you will loose the NFC functionality from your phone. This will not affect most users, but you must know that it will happen.
• Secondly, it does add a little thickness to the phone that MAY compromise it's waterproof seal. This doesn't affect me much as I only have to deal with rain and am not likely to immerse the phone. 

It is a great solution for easy charging and saving wear and tear on the charging port on your S5 with the above caveats.
For phones that don't have a custom method for adding a Qi receiver there are generic options that plug into your USB port, but I have no experience with them so have no recommendations.

This year I decided that I needed a second charging pad as the first one is now in regular use at my home desk. The new one would be a shared use pad for my workstation. I found the Yootech Qi Wireless Charging Pad at Amazon and decided that it was worth the small investment. It works as well as the Belkin for a third of the price. Neither charging pad included the power supply, the best recommendation is to use the factory included charger for your phone which will supply the 2 amps that the pad requires for charging your phone at 1 amp.

In summary:

• Qi charging is a great thing for ease of use, but it is slower than plugging the charging cable into the phone. 
• A case may interfere with the drop and charge functionality of wireless charging. 
• Upgrades are available for older phones, but may degrade the phone's integrity and other features.

It is a neat add on if your phone comes with the option. If you have to add the functionality to your phone, I would recommend against it.

Items reviewed in this post:

Minimalist Front Pocket Wallet

I would like to introduce to you my wallet for the last several years:

A photo taken early in my years of using it, and here it is now. Notice how little wear is noticeable after five and a half years.

This is a HuMn Mini minimalist wallet. Just larger than a credit card in size and as thin or thick as you need it to be. As you see it here, I have 7 cards and 10 bills in it and it is about 1/2 inch thick. The standard ones come with 2 plates, but I have added a third as in internal divider. I chose the aluminum plates for the outer shell for the RFID protection and durability, the internal plate is plastic and serves to divide my credit cards from my ID. The whole conglomeration is held together with a strong elastic strap. I originally purchased it in 2012 and my first strap lasted for about 4 years. They changed the design of the strap when I replaced it, so I now have the newer version that seems to work better than the original.

I front pocket carry my wallet so the size is important to me. It sits very flat and slides easily into my pocket. When I am travelling I remove a couple of the cards, but this is basically what I carry all of the time.

Accessing the cards is done by wedging the case open from the top and selecting the card you want. Since you can open it from either of the long edges there is no up or down. Nothing will slide out of it. Here is the manufacturer's video on it's use.

They can be purchased from Amazon and from the manufacturer.


The orange sticker in the older photo is a dosimeter tag that I decided to put on it, it has expired since then. I cannot seem to find the sticker versions now, but there is a card version available.

My Next Diet Stage

I think I am about ready to start the next phase of my diet plan, taking my caloric intake down near 1,000 calories a day. Still closely monitoring my glucose levels.

I am now able to deal with a 1,200 calorie diet and am not really that hungry. I was at 1,100 calories yesterday, and a projected 1,200 today. Last week averaged 1,700. I am getting used to carrying my test kit with me every day and having something available for raising my glucose levels if I find them too low.

Early in the diet I had some serious craving for carbs, particularly chocolate. That seems to have subsided and I only eat chocolate if I am below a glucose level of 50 mg/dl.

My current meal plan is still:

• Breakfast: Oatmeal with honey.
• Snack: Berries
• Lunch: Garden salad with low cal dressing and some "Carl Budding" meats.
• Dinner: Another salad or, today, and Avacado.
• Evening snack: Low calorie fast food. (It hits the spot, don't judge.)

I plan on keeping the oatmeal. It is very satisfying and I need something through my colon. Likely I will keep the berries, they are like candy and very satisfying. But my other meals I plan on replacing with protein shakes. That should get my calories down to about 1,000 for a daily deficit of about 2,000, this should get me a loss rate of about 4 pounds a week if I keep up my exercise levels.

I am keeping in contact with my physician via e-mail, and expect him to be concerned about my blood glucose levels and happy about my dedication.


Follow up:
I did it for Tuesday. Less than 1,000 calories for the day. I can feel the hunger now, Wednesday afternoon, but I like the results I am getting.

An Accurate Pocket Watch

As you would guess, an accurate timepiece is necessary for running the trains. I like to go beyond that. In the control room we have a large clock that is regularly set to the NIST standard. Our policy is that everyone's personal timepiece needs to be set to this clock, within a set tolerance. This is fine, as a few seconds is a tolerable variance.

There are a few ways to avoid having to set your watch every day.
One is to have a watch that sets itself to the radio synchronization signal in Boulder Colorado. There are many that will do this, the better ones are charged by light and you don't even have to change the battery.
Another is to have an accurate timepiece. Most quartz watches, both analog and digital face, are rated as accurate to +-30 seconds per month and I would guess that most fall into the +-10 seconds per month range. Setting these would be somewhere around the once a week range. Acceptable for most people.
I happen to like mechanical watches, and most of mine are in the +-5 seconds per day accuracy. This is considered to be extremely good for a mechanical timepiece, but I have to check it about twice a week to be sure that it is correct enough for work.
There is also the "Smart Watch" solution, however they are forbidden to be worn by people operating the trains. These watches can be as accurate as your phone is.

The solution I am using is a quartz driven pocket watch by Bulova.

I have last set it at the Daylight Savings Time change in March. 132 days later, it has gained 1.7 seconds. It has been in my pants pocket every work day and most others for all of that time. At this point it is not worth setting again until Daylight Savings time ends in 108 days. Atop this amazing accuracy, the second hand sweeps smoother than any other timepiece out there, including high end automatic watches. It is just a very pleasing aesthetic, the watch face is well done with large raised hour numerals and individual minutes enumerated. It also has a chronograph function that displays elapsed time up to 12 hours with resolution in 1/1000 seconds. Granted, this accuracy is just a gimmick as anything less than a photo trigger resolves no better than 1/100 second, but it is a neat feature. The watch weighs about a pound, most of which is the back case, but it gives it a very solid feel.

Since purchasing the watch for myself, I have gotten 3 co-workers interested enough to purchase them for themselves.

Finding Content, A Little Rail Talk

I'm striving to fill the month of July with daily posts here. It helps fill the void of not posting my opinions somewhere else. I know nobody is reading them, but that doesn't deter me, as I am doing this for myself, not you, the imaginary reader.

I am kind of at a loss for today though. I have some new stuff from Amazon, but I'm not at the point where I can review it yet. I am still striving to shed more pounds, but I don't have anything new on that front, as I am still eating less and trying to exercise more.

There is little of interest from the job front, except that we had to break a restroom door down due to a faulty door catch. I managed to put a decent sized dent in the door. The security guard who was stuck inside was eventually able to pull the hinge pins, but the door still required a couple of "mule kicks" to get it open. This is a fire door and would have been impossible to just break open without removing the pins or the fire department using breaching tools. Management didn't want the fire department to get a shot at it and we lucked out.

Another new development at work is the closure of the Convention Place Station to passenger traffic. This is part of removing the buses from the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel next year. As far as we at rail are concerned, it is making very little difference. But I am sure the bus operators are more than a little sore about it. They no longer get to take their breaks out of view of the public.