Polygon Feast & Fitness Vol. 2

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Hello Polynauts! Round 2 of the Feast & Fitness thread, right around the time a lot of people are giving up on New Year's Resolutions of getting in shape, losing weight, or just eating healthier. Let's try to keep those resolutions going!

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Pan seared wagyu sirloin steak

Submitted by: Sterling Smith

Recipe source: original

Results: Delicious


A local meat market got some wagyu beef in stock and on sale, so I picked up some sirloin and made this as my dinner. The steak is very easy. Before you want to cook the steak, get it out of the refrigerator and let it reach room temperature. I put some extra virgin olive oil in a pan and started it on the stove to heat. Rub a decent amount of sea salt and black pepper on the steak, and cook to desired level, flipping as little as possible, preferably only once. As you can tell, I like mine pretty rare. Then set the steak aside and let it rest for at least 15 minutes before cutting. I sliced it and put it on a bed of sliced green lettuce.

For the corn, I just put a whole ear, still in the husk, in the oven for 35 minutes at 350°F. Once it was done, just peel the husk back, and put a little butter, salt, or pepper, and enjoy.

The last part of this feast is sauteed green beans with onion and garlic. Pretty simple, just dice and saute some onion in a skillet with some olive oil, then add the cut and washed green beans and minced garlic, adding salt and pepper to taste.

To drink, I had some plum wine that I acquired a taste for when my father-in-law brought some back from a business trip to Japan. Very sweet, best served over ice, in my opinion.

Overall this meal turned out great. I was very full and satisfied at the end of it, and it wasn't too terrible for me.

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Fasting

Submitted by: Sterling Smith

A few months ago I saw a documentary called Eat, Fast, and Live Longer, made by the BBC and aired on PBS in the United States. In it, the host/narrator, Michael Mosley, starts exploring fasting, prolonged periods of eating a fraction of what one normally would, as a means of slowing aging, combating/preventing health problems like diabetes, Alzheimer's, and cancer, as well as losing weight. A companion book/site, The Fast Diet, came out shortly afterwards, with some details on the studies described in the documentary, and more details on ways to go about adding fasting to your lifestyle. I checked it out from my local library and have been reading it the past few days.

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In particular, the creators espouse what they termed the 5:2 diet. 5 days of the week, you eat as you normally would. Alcohol, cheeseburgers, pizza, sweets, all the things most diets would have you avoid, are allowed. The other 2 days (they don't have to be consecutive), you eat about 1/4 of what you normally would, suggested as 500 calories for women and 600 calories for men. I tried the diet myself for a month or two in 2013, and saw some good progress before I stopped doing it, for no other reason than life got busy and I stopped paying as much attention. I'm rededicating myself to it now, and I'm going to share my progress as I go, as a way of motivating myself, and perhaps others.

Starting weight: 195 lbs (88.4505 kg)

Starting BMI: 29.6

Starting waist size: 36 inches

Just by normal dieting using a caloric deficit (see the first Polygon Feast & Fitness thread) and exercise, I've already dropped from 205 lbs since New Years, and I'm hoping by making this lifestyle change it will help prevent problems in the future, as diabetes and Alzheimer's both run in my family. My goal is to hit 175 lbs by late May.

Update #1: January 31st

I weighed myself this morning, and I was pretty happy with the results, especially considering I haven't gotten to the gym much this week. I started my first fasting day on Tuesday, and my second is today, then I'm hoping to fast on Mondays and Thursdays as regularly as I can.

New weight: 192.6 lbs (87.3619 kg)

New BMI: 29.3

For breakfast this morning, I had cottage cheese with some pineapple chunks, 100 calories. Later I'll be eating some fresh greens with strawberries and blueberries with some smoked salmon as my dinner. And then tomorrow is right back to normal, including eating at an awesome food truck known for their fusion of Southern and Asian cuisine.

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Update #2: February 4th

Just a quick update: After fasting on Friday and Monday, but eating heartily this weekend, I'm now down to 190.2 lbs (86.2733 kg). I also thought I'd add this chart I made from a Google Docs spreadsheet of my weight loss.

Update #3 - February 13

I've been eating a little too badly on my non-fast days and not exercising enough, I think, as my weight has been yo-yoing a bit the past week. I hit 188 after fasting on Monday, but in the two days since I'm back up to 189.8. Today is a fasting day though, and I'll be hitting the gym, and this weekend I should be able to make it to the gym and eat better in general than the past few weekends, which I hope will get me back on track.

Closing

Everyone please chime in with more food stories/photos/ideas and fitness information that you care to share. This is meant to be collaborative, and for people besides myself to create future entries for the featured sections. If anyone with more Photoshop skill than I has an idea for some good headers for this post or subsequent entries, I'd greatly appreciate the help.

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