I’m 10 days into my cleansing, and have set up a good rhythm. I’ve got 11 days left, and am starting to think about what I need to have around for my 22nd day! On my list are: Magic Hat #9, Charles Shaw Merlot, good strong rich coffee and really good dark chocolate. As for dark chocolate M&M’s, I have a feeling that my expectation will be let down, so I’ll focus on getting a good bar of dark chocolate - I can try the M&Ms later. I’ll be heading out to Trader Joe’s - they have everything I need for a post cleansing celebration.

Since I started I’ve been able to not only remove my dependence on coffee, but decreased my complete caffeine intake. I am now down to two cups of green tea (one with breakfast, and one with afternoon snack), with three other cups of decaf tea per day (one at second breakfast, one after dinner and one with dessert). When I re-introduce coffee, I’m going to try to stick to one cup per day in the morning. In the afternoon I can have green tea.

My exercise is also going good, but I’m not feeling as much of a burn now that I do it everyday. I do weights every other day. I can easily bench 90 lbs @ 10×2 reps. For my dumbell exercises I’m doing 30 lbs per hand, using these for back, forearm, traps and triceps. On my short bar I have around 60 lbs, use that for shoulders and biceps. All weights I do 10 to 12 reps, except traps where I do 20. I repeat the whole routine twice. I’m hoping that by keeping the weight the same and increasing reps I’ll just naturally move from building bulk to more sculpting/refining.

On the other days I do abs: situps (around 100), crunches (15), and leg lifts (12). I do biking everyday, 30 to 40 mins.

So, where has this gotten me?

Last week on Monday (day 1) I weighed myself at 155. Last week on Wed. (day 3) Weight Watchers weighted me at 154.2. Today (day 10) Weight Watchers weighed me in at 149.8. So, in the last 10 days I’ve lost 5.2 lbs, or half a pound per day.

And, totally unrelated, did you know that daylight savings time is being moved up in 2007? It was the first Sunday of April, but now will be the second Sunday in March! Still doesn’t help much with biking season, as it is too cold to take the kids out on bike until mid/late-April. More info about daylight savings time here.

On August 8, 2005, President George W. Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005. This Act changed the time change dates for Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. Beginning in 2007, DST will begin on the second Sunday in March and end the first Sunday in November. The Secretary of Energy will report the impact of this change to Congress. Congress retains the right to resume the 2005 Daylight Saving Time schedule once the Department of Energy study is complete.

Photo by Tony King

Nothing start off the day like a nice bowl of oatmeal with beans. I know many of you are asking, “so what is he eating on the cleansing spree, and what is that smell? He says no coffee, no chocolate, no beers or wines, and reduced calorie intake? What does all this mean?”

Well, first off - I am making an exception to the chocolate rule, I am allowing myself chocolate flavored tea, chocolate flavored fat free yogurt and of course chocolate ice cream. However, another piece I may have missed is that I am eliminating soda, with the exception of maybe some bubbly water. Also, I’m staying away (as I usually try to do) from artificial sweeteners.

Okay, here is an example of my daily menu:

• Breakfast, 7:30am: Start with a tall glass of water, about a cup and a half. Then a bowl of instant plain oatmeal - 1/2 cup of oatmeal, 1/2 cup of skim milk. Mix with that 1/2 cup of some sort of bean, dark red kidney, light red kidney, white kidney, pinto, black, etc. Top with a heaping teaspoon of ground flax seed and microwave for a minute. On the side I’ll have another 1/2 cup of skim milk and a cup of green tea, unsweetened. Finish it all off with another cup and a half of water.
• Second Breakfast, 9:30am: More water, another 3 cups before lunch. Also, another cup of tea. I have been drinking green tea, but am starting to switch to something completely decaf (Trader Joe’s Chocolate Tea, made with decaf black tea leaves - still a little intsy bitsy bit of caffeine). For snack I have an apple.
• Lunch, 12pm: More water, another 3 cups. I’ve been having a half turkey sandwich for lunch these days. Two slices of whole wheat bread, two slices of deli turkey, slice and a half of cheese (american, cheddar, swiss, etc.) lettuce, mustard, cut in half. On the side I’ll have a Stonyfield Farms fat free yogurt, any flavor, and some baby carrots.
• Afternoon snack, 3pm: More water, another 3 cups. Green tea (I’m dying without a little caffeine in the afternoon). For snack I have a banana.
• Dinner, 6pm: More water, cup and a half before, and another after. I’ll start of with a cup of low-fat low-sodium chicken broth, with a 1/2 cup of beans. Then, 3oz. of grilled marinated chicken breast, 4 jalapeno stuffed olives, about a cup of fresh steamed green beans, about a half cup of brown rice, lettuce/greens salad, no dressing and grape tomatoes.
• Dessert, 10pm: More water, at least a cup and a half. Cup of tea, something decaf. The main kicker: 1/2 cup of Edy’s slow churned ice cream, current favorite is chocolate brownie. Have a banana or apple on the side. I froze a banana last night, might try that!

That’s it folks. When I’m done eating I brush my teeth, and that’s it. The end. No straying, stay focused.

As part of my cleansing I’m also giving up chocolate and alcohol. Just in time I find out they now make dark chocolate M&Ms, and found my new favorite beer (Magic Hat #9). They will just have to hold off another 17 days before I can indulge again.

Some of my friends asked me if I was doing my own version of Lent. Lent occurs in the spring, 40 days before Easter. In Eastern Orthodox chuches, Winter Lent (Advent) is the 40 days before Christmas. When you combine Ben with Lent you get: Bent. So, no relation to either lents - just need to do some house cleaning. So get bent.

My family and I went to Martha’s Vineyard with some really awesome friends for the Thanksgiving weekend. It was a great adventure, except that I had to work on Friday, and Erica caught strep throat.

We drove down Wednesday afternoon, parked the car, took the bus, then the ferry, then the minivan, then a nap, then some coffee. Erica brought ingredients for her awesome spinach lasagna, and Ted brought a lasagna that he had frozen - so dinner was delicious - so was the coffee.

On Thursday the crew worked all day preparing the turkey and all the fixins. The turkey spent most of the day in the oven, then moved out to the grill - it was awesometastic. After dinner and dessert and all-day coffee, they drove me back to the ferry. I took the last ferry, back on the bus to my car, two hours of driving, three hours of sleeping, then to work at 5AM.

By noon Friday we had made over $76M with no site failures of any kind, so by 1PM it was safe to leave. Another two hour drive, then a bus and a ferry and a minivan and some coffee. Back on the island by 4:30PM. And then some coffee.

On Saturday we had some coffee, and a couple really nice walks. We got out to the beach, which was amazingly pleasant for a late-November day. On Sunday we had coffee, then packed up. Somewhere along the line Erica caught a nice case of strep throat, so, we had some coffee. Then got in the car, on the ferry, in a bus, back to our car, and a two hour trip home. I took off Monday and Tuesday to take care of her and the kids.

So, now, how about the coffee? Oh, and the food?

Things started to get bad when Halloween hit, but now combine that with Thanksgiving and you have a disaster. For the past month I’ve been overeating all kinds of bad stuff. I managed to gain about 7 pounds - bringing me up to one pound under my goal weight (okay, so I shouldn’t complain). I’m at 154 now. I’ve also completely overdone it with coffee. I started to get to the point that coffee wouldn’t wake me up anymore, and only helped get rid of the headaches.

So, starting this past Monday, I started a 21 day cleanup routine. I’ve dropped coffee and soda - replaced it with a little green tea when I really need it. I’ve also gotten back on plan with eating. I’m not counting points, but just using the common sense I learned from losing 50 pounds. I’m also upping my exercise to daily, alternating biking/weights with biking/abs. I’ll keep you all updated on my progress to cleandome.

I had a great weekend! I swapped out my workout routine Friday night. Getting up early to work out (as opposed to biking) has just not been working for me. I’ve been out of energy and feeling craptastic all of the time. So, I figured I should do what I did last winter, work out at night after the kids go to sleep. And, pack in both workouts at one time, and only do it every other day. So, I popped in a DVD (watched Donnie Darko again), hopped on the bike trainer for 30 mins, then did weights.

My parents came up to visit Saturday - we met for lunch, then they took the kids while I got a chance to go for a bike ride (a real ride, in the out of doors!). Perfect weather, did a nice leisurely 28 miles - up through Sudbury towards Concord, jogged over past Acton and stopped at Bill’s in Maynard to say hi. Then I headed home through Hudson and on to the bike trail to Marlborough.

Saturday evening was a pot luck dinner at the church, another great time as usual. Lots of awesome food, beer, dessert and church coffee (which I don’t understand why Brent uses that term in a negative way - our church has awesome coffee). Then my parents took the kids for the night.

I actually managed to get some sleep, in fact I woke up late and ended up having to run around like a chicken with its head cut off in order to get to church, get the recording equipment all setup and still make choir rehearsal on time. I did cheat a bit on my way to church, stopped at Ariba coffee in Hudson for a grande dark roast. I’ve been trying to not buy coffee at all, so much more cost effective to brew it yourself - but I was totally dragging this morning after getting too much sleep. In any case, Ariba is awesome! Free wifi, they actually have food (like sausage egg and cheese on a croissant), awesome coffee, modern starbuckian/panera breadian atmosphere, and the local/non-chainism appeal.

In any case, got in some good churchin, then came home, put all the kids in bed, bought some steaks at the supermarket and made a fancy schmancy dinner with wine and bread and real metal utensils. Put the kids to bed and then it was workout time again. Finished Donnie Darko and started up Matchstick Men. I’m going to need to get Netflix going again - and I need to get my DVD recorder fixed, craptacular POS. Had to record Heroes on (yikes) VHS last week. Anyone want to donate a subscription free or lifetime Tivo?