Losing it

About a month before Thanksgiving last October/November, I joined Tina while she dieted on a program called Lose it. Lose it is a web-based program with smartphone apps that helps you track your daily calorie intake.

Tina started the program with a friend who, because of her schedule and three kids, couldn’t find the time or the desire to stay on the program.

At the time, I was curious what counting calories would be like. I was weighing in at 183 and sometimes 185, you know, on particularly bloated days.

We carry around heavy photography equipment a lot. The older I get, the more I need to watch my weight and maintain an exercise regimen. Public perception and physical attraction are part of the sell, believe it or not.

I also wanted to try logging my food intake for a while. We saw a BBC program a couple years ago that showed overweight people how much food they consumed in a week all in one space.

Imagine entering your kitchen or a basketball gym (because the kitchen was too small) to see all the food and drink you consumed in a week. It might be pretty scary.

Lose it is pretty easy to do.

You feed in your weight and a desired weight goal. Then everything you eat, you journal. It tells you how many calories you’ve consumed that day, and blinks and lets off a fog horn when you go over your limit.

Honk.

For me, I fed in 183 lbs and that I wanted to lose five pounds. This was, mind you, before Thanksgiving and Christmas, the two eat-filled holidays. The reason for the season is to develop your Jesus-filled love handles.

The program gave me a limit of about 1,900 calories, about 550 more than Tina’s allotment, maybe even more.

Sigh. Women have gotten the short end of the stick since the Bible blamed all sin on them. 

To keep track of your calories, you can scan barcodes of some items and tell the program how much of it you had. You can access a database of restaurant foods and grocery store foods by search function. Or you can feed in manually, say 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and it will add the calories.

Olive Oil, by the way, has way more calories than I thought. One tablespoon is something like 120 cals.

Or, say you have a bag of chips from Subway. Did you know there are two servings in those bags and it’s about 250 calories a serving? Voila! You’ve just managed to consume 500 calories … of chips.

Salty, pointless, empty calories. 

McDonalds and many other fast food chains are now listing their calories. And you can see the damage you’re doing before you start.

To avoid going over our calories, Tina and I started avoiding French Fries all together. When we drove to NC and were forced to eat at fast food restaurants, we ordered sandwiches only. Grilled chicken instead of fried.

After the new year, I had dropped to 175 lbs, and decided to stop keeping track on Lose it. I had reached my goal and we got busy with work.

Although, I may have developed some good habits, because I’ve managed to continue losing weight. I’m hovering around 172-174 depending the day and hour.

It helps that I cook every night. And before Lose it, I might sneak a tablespoon or more of Olive Oil into a recipe for flavor. You know, how all those kids on TV use a bit more butter and salt than necessary. Their “pinch” is more like a handful.

But when you start seeing calories add up, you try to watch it better.

Not to mention, exercise subtracts calories. I run a few times a week. Three miles after breakfast zeroes out my breakfast and some of my lunch. There are days at dinner when I have -150 calories. Mind you, my hands are shaking and my skin is cold to the touch.

Losing more than weight

About a week ago, I was cooking some chicken thighs for a recipe and I took my wedding band off. I thought I put it back on. Later that night, I went out to shoot some night photography.

Every time I stopped to shoot, I pulled off my gloves to make camera adjustments and then put the gloves back on.

At some point, I lost my wedding band.

I was so angry, and right now, I feel compelled to make a T-shirt that reads, “Avert your eyes, all you hot women. I’m married and lost my wedding ring.”

Or something.

Losing more than my ring … my mind!

A few weeks ago, you remember that I rented a medium format camera with two other photographers. The experience blew me away. When going through film, there was such a massive difference in skin tones and image quality compared to my Canon 5D Mark II.

You can say, I lost my mind.

Where we are in our career isn’t exactly in a position to buy a brand new medium format body, back, lens and accessories. I’d have to drop $25,000 or more dollars.

So I took to eBay, where there are some deals on great used cameras.

Long story shortened, I Geronimo’d into medium format photography this week by buying a used Hasselblad H3DII-31, with a 80mm lens and a 35mm lens.

My goal is to effectively attract more of the Interior Design industry that Tina and I have networked into, as well as the portraits, catalogues and editorial business that is definitely available in Chicago.

I’ve given myself a year to explore the business from the standpoint of medium format. We’ve already booked an interiors shoot, a bridal catalog, some bridal editorial, and portraits and product with it.

Mind you, this isn’t an everyday camera. Many people buy one and leave it in the studio. Although, lots of people use them for landscapes and, this photographer Douglas Sonders seems to carry his where ever he goes.

Many of you know that I’m hoping to land a job writing for Phlearn as well, and I feel the experience might be fun to explore through writing if that’s something applicable to the job.

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