A tool for the rest of my life

The author of The Hacker’s Diet, John Walker, has generously given me permission to discuss his diet in detail using some quotes, with links back to his site. (Earlier E4T articles on The Hacker’s Diet)

NOTICE:
The author has posted a rare update to The Hacker’s Diet, Beta Blockers and Persistent Weight Gain

(I’m skipping through the rest of the exercise sections for now. I’ll catch up on them on another day)

WEIGTEMP.XLS comes configured for monitoring weight in pounds. If you measure your weight in kilograms, enter 0 in the cell that displays “Pounds” in the “Weight” column; to specify your weight in stones, enter -1 in this cell. If you change the system of measurement, use FILE SAVE to update WEIGTEMP.XLS on your disc. When you create logs for subsequent years, then, the units you prefer will already be selected.

A new WEIGHT menu will appear at the right of the standard Excel menus. Pick NEW YEAR LOG from it. You’ll be asked for the year you’re making the log for (normally, you’ll just use the default, the current year) and the month you’d like to start with, if not January. A new blank weight log worksheet is created, and you’re asked to confirm saving it as WEIGHTyy.XLS, where “yy” is the current year (for example, the log for 1995 will be named WEIGHT95.XLS). If you prefer a different name, fine; just enter it instead of the name proposed in the FILE SAVE AS dialogue. Once the log worksheet for the year is saved, print it with FILE PRINT. Since you haven’t entered any data yet, blank log pages suitable for recording your weight will be printed.

If you aren’t using a computer, just run off a dozen photocopies of the blank form on this page and file them in the “Daily Log” section. Each month write the name of the month at the top of the form as you start to use it. You’ll need to punch holes in the forms to file them in your logbook; buy a cheap three hole punch if you don’t already own one.

Every day

Keeping track of your weight takes less than a minute per day. Once your logbook is started, making the entries in it will quickly become part of your daily routine to the extent you hardly think about it any more.

(snip)

Log daily weight

If you keep the logsheet in a book near your scale, you won’t forget to enter your weight every day.

Even if you’re using the Excel worksheet as your permanent log, it makes sense to record your weight on paper. At the end of the month, you can spend 5 minutes entering the data into the spreadsheet from the paper log. You can, if you like, enter your weight into the computer every day but unless you’re obsessed with tracking day-by-day results, it’s much quicker to scribble the number on the paper sheet and enter a whole month’s data in one swell foop. (Besides, people like me shouldn’t consider touching a computer right after getting up–operating complicated machinery when possessed of the cognitive powers of a sea slug and the disposition of a polar bear with a toothache is most unwise.)

Keep the log for the current month on the first page of the “Daily log” section of your logbook. If you forget to weigh yourself or can’t weigh in that day (for example, when you’re traveling), make a note in the weight column of the log indicating what happened. Don’t leave the column blank–that’s likely to cause you to enter the next day’s weight in the slot for the missing day and get the day and weight columns out of whack.

This is it — I started the exercise program. Tonight I printed the daily logs and I’ll post my first weight in the morning. Since I know (especially after the struggles of the last couple of weeks) that I can’t control myself without help, I plan to use these tools for the rest of my life.

The author has successfully followed this program for 15 years (here’s the update he posted earlier today). I’ll aim for that as a goal, just taking it one day at a time.

[A Note for people using Star Office]

I use Star Office and the Excel files open just as described. Except that the menu he describes isn’t there. So I modified the date myself. All I had to do was switch off security for the worksheet (under Tools/Protect Document, edit cell A4 to tomorrows date and reset the security (just so I wouldn’t accidentally destroy some formula.)

If I discover other Star Office variations, I’ll let you know.

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