215.2

The plummet continues unabated.

Just a few moments ago I weighed in at 215.2 on the Tanita scale. You know what that means. The Bod Pod would have me at 214.35. Yesterday, the score was 216.4. That's another 1.2 pounds overnight.

I am now certain I have broken through another system set-point. We have a full-scale metabolic capitulation here.

It's Wednesday, August 10, 2011. Hardly 5 days have elapsed since my last Bod Pod. Five days ago, my weight was 220.348, and today it is 214.35 (on the Bod Pod scale). In less than 5 days, my weight has plummeted 5.998 pounds. That's too fast. Team-Quilici would flip-out.

Still, it makes up for a long and lingering hang-up at the end of my last set-point. They would understand that. I guess you could say I am playing catch-up. I've gotten quite a burst of progress here.

Down and down he goes, and where he stops, nobody knows. Who knows where this next plummet will finish off. This could be my final descent. This one might take me all the way inside 200 pounds.

One thing is for sure, this next Bod Pod test is going to be a good one.

It never rains but it pours: it's the woman thing

So, it has been an uneventful couple of weeks on the woman front. Perhaps this is just because I have been training here at home more often (ROMing to death) and going to the gym less often. Perhaps it is because I have traveled several of the past few weekends, visiting with family members (only). Perhaps it is because I have had more basic survival issues at hand, like finding that big management break in a market tumbling by 635 points.

In any case, that period of relative calm broke big-time today.

Event 1: I got a priceless look of shock from one of the girls in the firm as I walked in this morning. I hadn't seen her in at least 4 weeks. She looked truly astonished, and she didn't try to mask it. She didn't say anything, and neither did I, but I knew what that look meant. I've dumped 4% of my body fat in that time. It makes a big difference. She reacted to that difference.

Event 2: There is a certain female, in my general environs, who is drop-dead sexy and she has always been nice to me. I've always had the feeling that she was borderline interested in me. That just stepped up to an entirely different level today. She was downright kittenish and flirty. She was strutting and pouting and pouring it on. It was an act, but it was an act with a goal in mind, that much is for certain. Her demeanor was fairly unmistakable.

There are only two huge problems with this girl: (1) She's a Sagittarius , and (2) she's married.

Believe me, I know Sagittarians well, and they have big, huge, giant problems staying within their marriage vows. They love adventure. They are fiery. I wouldn't put it past her (at all) to be interested in a fling. This is what worries me. For a traditional, cautious, uptight, conservative, stuffy, moralizing, taciturn, inhibited, Saturnine, shy Virgo (like me) this is absolutely out of the question. There is no chance (I mean zip, zero, nada) of me heading in that direction.

Can't play with them. Can't coach with them. Can't win with them. Can't do it.

Besides that, Sagittarius and Virgo go together like kids and poison candy, like drunken drivers and fast-cars, like cats and mice, like fire and ice, like hungry folks and rice, like Navy Seals and Al-Qaida agents. There are any number of famous catastrophes involving Virgos and Sagittarians getting together. If you don't believe me, just ask Donovan McNabb and Mike Shanahan. That little misadventure cost Washington dearly.

Although I admire Coach Spagnuolo quite a bit, I doubt we would be good partners in crime. I'll just give him the thumbs up from a safe distance... like 800 meters. I am sure he would appreciate the space.

Event 3: As I am walking out of work at the end of the day, I pass by a smoking area outside the building which I seldom see. There are two people, one male and one female, having a smoke break at the end of the day.

Completely unsolicited, the female belts out "My God! You look good! You look like you've lost a bunch of weight."

I take a good look at them both, presuming I have failed to identify people I actually know. Nope, not the case. I have no idea who these two people are. They don't work for my company. I don't know who they work for.

I decide there is no harm in being friendly so we converse briefly...

"Yeah, I have 115 pounds!"

"That's incredible! How did you do it?"

"Gastric bypass surgery did it for me."

"Well you look marvelous! Keep up the good work!"

I note that this is the second time she has said something flattering and in a flattering tone.

"You know, I can't believe how many people have noticed that I have lost weight. I always think I am fairly low-profile. It must be the Jerseys that allow people to recognize me."

"Yeah! It is!"

That was it. Some woman I don't know and never met before called me out on the street near work. How did that happen?

Event 4: I'm over at Robek's Juice getting a couple ounces of wheat grass and a smoothy. It is dinner time. Just as I down the 2 ounces of wheat-grass extract, and my face screws up like I just bit into a sour pickle, a pretty (and very young) girl approaches me and asks me

"Is that good?"

She has a huge shinny smile on her face. I'm coughing a bit from the intensity of the wheat grass.

"This is a pretty sharp dose, but yes, this is great stuff. There are some scientific controversies about wheat grass. Some folks say it's a sham, but the majority report says that that fresh ground wheat grass is terrific for your health."

We talked for about 2 minutes more about wheat grass. The dude behind the counter gives me my Acai smoothy, and I split. About 5 minutes later, as I arrive at my car, a funny feeling crosses my mind.

"You don't think that girl...? There is no way that...? She wouldn't have been...? She can't be more than 22 years old...? She wouldn't want...? She just can't be interested...?"

Folks, I think I missed an engraved invitation to get a telephone number. After thinking about it for awhile, I am fairly sure that was an outright-flirt. I missed it because I am totally unaccustomed to chicks flirting with me. Further, I have no natural expectation that girls young enough to be my daughter would want to flirt with me.

The Young Girl Thing...

Sirus 1.1 claims I have terrifying synastry with younger women. I'm not talking about 6 ot 7 years younger either. I'm talking 14 to 25 years younger. I didn't believe a word of it until recent events began changing my mind.

Sirus says I have virtually no good scores until 1978. Then there are a couple of Scorpios. In 1979, the scores shoot through the roof, rising to a theoretical max score of 537. This is an Aries woman born on 4/13/1979. There are plenty of Tauri, Capricorns, and Scorpios in that 1979 batch. I have plenty have scores over 300 in the year 1979.

After 1980, you can forget it. Anything goes. I have a cornucopia of high scores vs. Capricorn, Taurus, Pisces, Aquarius, Libra, Scorpio, Leo, Sagittairus. The scores range between 350 and 530 points. You name it, Dave. You can have anything you want. Help yourself.

The best of all possible scores doesn't occur until 3/12/1986. This is the theoretical Pisces female I have code-named La-La.

There is a huge batch of Leos scattered from 7/24/1987 to 8/10/1987. The total combined scores of some of these Leos rival those of La-La. Although somewhat lower in the romantic & sexual attraction score, these Leos have much higher communication, problem-solving, shared creativity and pleasantness scores.

It just keeps right on rolling and doesn't quit. I just recently discovered that I have 350 vs AnnaSophia Robb, who was born in 1993. She was just a little kid 10 minutes ago. She's a Sagittarius also.

Do I think that score is legit? I think she's drop-dead gorgeous. She's far and away, the prettiest girl among the teens in Hollywood. I have no clue what she would think of me. Sirus 1.1 suggests she would freak out; that her little-girl hormones would destroy her.

One of these days I am going to have to blog on the subject of Saturn in the 7th House, and all of it's consequences. I happen to have Saturn in my 7th House, which is Pisces.

When I write that blog you will get the distinct impression that God must be a mad joker. God must be clowning me or something. Why deny a man any chance of happiness until his 40s only to turn around and give him the entire world of young women at that point? It seems like sheer lunacy to me.

If I were a Sagittarius, I wouldn't question it. I would jump in head first and revel in it.

216.2

Well, I think we can say that I have officially broken through to the other side of the set-point. Just a few moments ago, I weighed in at 216.2. This means the Bod-Pod would have me at 215.35 this morning.

I should not have been able to shed 1.2 pounds in a mere 24 hours. You know and I know it doesn't happen that fast. I didn't even do a sauna last night, or get a shiatsu massage. There were no particular triggers for this sudden drop. It just happened.

The indication is that something had been going on under the hood all last week, something my system set-point was railing against. When the set-point collapses, and the system capitulates to the new reality, pounds fall off in bunches.

I have officially arrived at mesomorphic appearance levels... I think...

Not much time for considerations of what that means this morning. I need to workout.

The Greatest Show on Turf

Many will complain that I should not put the Greatest Show on Turf in my series covering the NFL's greatest all-time teams. They will protest that I am being a homer. Don't do that until I skip the Patriots. Then you can call me a homer.

As we have heard many times, and many more this past weekend, the Greatest Show on Turf was probably the greatest offense the NFL has ever seen. It's the only offense to score more than 500 points in 3 consecutive seasons. Although it only resulted one world championship, we did make it to two Super Bowls. We should have won that second one.

Cheating bastards...

What was the secret behind that amazing and astounding chemistry? How could they be that dynamic? Well, why don't you just have a good look at the general synastry picture here. I know my Pentecostal brethern Kurt Warner and Issac Bruce would not approve of this analysis, but let's set that aside for the moment.

Look at the number of key players who are water signs:

1. Kurt Warner (Cancer)
2. Marshall Faulk (Pisces)
3. Issac Bruce (Scorpio)
4. Ricky Proehl (Pisces)
5. Orlando Pace (Scorpio)

Let's not forget about Dick Vermeil who is also a Scorpio. What about the rest? Well, Roland Williams, our much forgotten Tight End, is a Taurus. He goes great with everybody.

The most interesting fact about this unit is that Az-Zahir Hakim and Torry Holt are both Geminis, and they both had tremendous chemistry with Kurt Warner.

Sirus 1.1 says Kurt and Torry are totally compatible. Consider the following numbers.

1. Similarity of Interests and Temperament: 257

2. Mutual Success and High Achievement: 103

3. Problem Solving, Communication, and Mutual Understanding: 164

4. Mutual Kindness, Friendliness, Pleasantness, and Peace: 119

5. Aggressiveness, Competition, Power, Success, or Violence: 0

6. Adventurousness, Surprises, Disturbances: 172

7. Shared Creativity, Imagination, and Inspiration: 92

The story with Az Hakim is pretty good, too.

1. Similarity of Interests and Temperament: 371

2. Mutual Success and High Achievement: 31

3. Problem Solving, Communication, and Mutual Understanding: 9

4. Mutual Kindness, Friendliness, Pleasantness, and Peace: 192

5. Aggressiveness, Competition, Power, Success, or Violence: 39

6. Adventurousness, Surprises, Disturbances: 122

7. Shared Creativity, Imagination, and Inspiration: 36

What is the key to Kurt's outstanding chemistry with Gemini? First, Water and Air can mix with some difficulty. Second, Kurt is a 1st day Cancer. He was born right on the edge of Gemini. Finally, Kurt has a considerable amount of Air in his chart.

The offensive line is a remarkable mixture when you look at it. Gruttadauria and Nutten are 180 degree opposites, and you know the story about opposites. They attract and complement one another tremendously. Likewise, Fred Miller and Adam Timmerman are 180 degree opposites. Orlando was actually the odd man out on this unit, although he is all the more compatible with everyone else on the team.

Consider Coach Dick Vermeil (Scorpio) and Mike Martz (Taurus). They too are 180 degree opposites, and there was incredible dynamism between them. We were never the same after we lost Coach Vermeil. It was when these two were together that we had the best of the motivational disciplinarian and the mad scientist. Incidentally, both are super-compatible with their skill position players.

One more point: Martz (Taurus) is side-by-side with Hakim (Gemini) and Holt (Gemini) in spring time. This usually leads to good relations.

One of these days I am going to write a piece about what 1999 meant to me. It's crazy. It's so crazy, I still wonder if some of you will believe me. This is why I hesitate to blog about it.

217.4

Just a few moments ago, I weighed in at 217.4 on the Tanita scale. Of course, this means the Bod Pod would have me at 216.55 this morning. That is a new low. I doubt I have been this low since 1991, when I was a 31V10 in the U.S. Army in Europe.

The lowest I have ever been in my adult life is 192, this happened at the tender young age of 22 after Basic Training and AIT at Fort Sill Oklahoma. I have never reached that low point at any other time. Many felt I was too skinny at that point. So did I. I am not particularly driven to get there, but I may see that number again. I am only 24.55 pounds away from it.

I think the indication is that I have broken on through to the other side of this set-point. The system has capitulated. My metabolism hung-up around at 220 for more than a week, not wanting to go lower. The floor has caved in, and I am falling again.

There are a couple of downsides to this weight loss. Only my size 50 jerseys fit moderately well, and they are a bit baggy. I could stand a few size 48s. A significant number of my Jerseys are size 54. They are now much too baggy for good comfort. A couple of my Jerseys, such as my Dan Fouts jersey, are size 56. That is officially too baggy to wear in public now.

This makes me sad, and shrinks my wardrobe considerably. The jersey rotation is getting a little short now.

The second thing is that I have certainly lost a few of my favorite foods.

I tried making Chili con Carne for the second time (post-gastric bypass) last night, and I got the same results as the first time: I threw up explosively. Chili is just too rich and spicy for my abbreviated digestive tract. The system gets rid of it the fastest way it knows how. This is very disappointing.

Second, I was about the biggest rice-eater on planet Earth during my pre-gastric bypass reign. I love rice in all its many forms: Risotto, Pilaf, fried rice, rice pudding, rice balls, rice noodles, etc. Now I just can't seem to handle it. It gets stuck in my gut like a drainage plug in your kitchen sink. It doesn't allow anything to pass through until I throw up. I can't even drink water while the plug is in.

Third, any sort of raw or grilled vegetable gets stuck and forms a plug in my gut. This is much worse than the rice. I tried some grilled broccoli recently, and that was the worst sticking experience I ever had. Veggies have to be steamed or sauteed with lots of water until they are very soft and very moist. They go down fine then. If they are dry or crunchy, forget about it. You will be in hell. This is the least of my worries, though. I have never been a fan of raw vegetables.

The Late 1990's Denver Broncos: The Water Boy Redux

It is now time to continue my synastry analysis of the greatest teams in NFL History. Let's continue with the Denver Broncos of 1997-1998.

But first, a quick review of general synastry principles.

1. There are 12 signs in the Zodiac: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces.
2. It all starts with Aries at the Spring Equinox. It all ends with Pisces at the Spring Equinox.
3. There are four elements in the Zodiac: Fire, Earth, Air, and Water.
4. They follow precisely that sequence around the circular orbit: Fire, Earth, Air, and Water.
5. The sequence of elements repeat themselves three times through the 12 signs.
6. There are, therefore, three signs of each element.
7. There are three Fire Signs: Aries, Leo and Sagittarius.
8. There are three Earth Signs: Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn.
9. There are three Air Signs: Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius.
10. There are three Water signs: Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces.
11. You are most compatible with members of your element. Fire is most compatible with Fire, Earth with Earth, etc.
12. Your are highly compatible with members of your companion element. Earth and Water are companion elements. Fire and Air are companion elements.
13. Some elements mix with difficulty. Fire and Earth can blend with some difficulty, making a hard ceramic. Air and Water can blend with difficulty, forming a bubbly foam.
14. Allegedly, Earth is totally incompatible with Air, although you can't prove it using me as an example. Allegedly, Fire is totally incompatible with Water. I buy this doctrine.

The notion under-girding this series is that great teams are all about chemistry, comradeship, and brotherhood. In the final analysis, the players win the game for each other. The reason why an injured man rises to fight again when his body says "no" is because he can bear to let his brothers down. If you got a bunch of guys who are as tight as brothers, they will sacrifice for each other, and all things are possible. If teammates don't like each other and don't get along, you don't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning the Super Bowl.

Does anyone remember the Bickering Bills?

With that said, let's consider the back-to-back champion Denver Broncos. The 1997-1998 Broncos were fundamentally a Water team at the skill positions. John Elway, and Shannon Sharpe are both Cancers. Terrell Davis and Howard Griffith are both Scorpios. Rod Smith is a Taurus, just like Shannon's brother Sterling. Incidentally, Taurus is an Earth sign, and goes great with both Cancer and Scorpio.

Then we have our one typical exception and statistical outlier: Ed McCaffrey, who is a Leo. This is not as bad as it may seem. The only guy Ed had to be compatible with is John Elway. It just so happens that Cancer and Leo are side-by-side in the Zodiac; a pair of summer-time signs that treat each other cordially in the neighborhood. Cancers frequently have a little Leo in them. Leos frequently have a little Cancer in them.

John has some Leo in him, and Ed has a bunch of Virgo in his chart. They are more compatible than you might think. In fact they just happen to have a problem-solving & communication score of 174 together. Anything over 150 is considered extremely strong.

The Bronco line was mostly Air and Fire, noted for being compatible, with one outier: Tom Nalen, who is a Taurus. Of course, this only made Nalen more compatible with John Elway. Once again, this suggests the line is a discrete unit, somewhat separate from the skill positions.

Of course, Mike Shanahan is a Virgo, well noted for being compatible with a bunch of Water guys, a couple of Tauri, and Leo. He went on to have some success with a Taurus QB named Jay Cutler. Shanahan had no success with Sagittarius Donovan McNab last year. That was a bad train-wreck. Believe me when I tell you I know how tenuous Virgo-Sagittarius relations can be. Coach Shanahan had a small bit of success last season with with a Taurus kid named Rex Grossman. Rumor has it he might roll with John Beck this season. He is a Leo cusping on Virgo. What a co-inky-dinky...

Offensive Coordinator Gary Kubiak, interestingly enough, is a Leo. He got along great with John Elway and Shannon Sharpe. These days, he gets along great with a pair of Cancers named Matt Schaub and Andre Johnson. We summer-time boys seem to get along pretty well together.

Although not the best elementally aligned football team, you can see that the Broncos were very well aligned with one another. It's pretty clear from the America's Game documentary series that these guys fought like hell for each other. This team liked each other, they respected their leaders, and they had great chemistry.

218.9?

The body's metabolic high-jinks continued this morning as I weighed in at 218.9 this morning. That's after weighing in at 223 yesterday morning. As You know I weighed in at 220.348 on the Bod Pod scale this past Friday.

That's stock market-level volatility.

My body is going through mad mood swings, metabolically speaking. I can feel it, too. I went to the gym early in the evening yesterday, and was on the olympic rowing machine through all Marshall Faulk's (very long) acceptance speech at the Hall of Fame yesterday ; ). When I got home, I was so damn tired I hit the sack in less than one hour. As I woke this morning, I could feel every muscle in my torso. It feels as if every muscle has thickened and grown, and yet my weight is down. Go figure...

Of course, this is as it should be. I rowed for 22 total minutes, @level 10, for 4,500 yards and 268 kcal. I went fast and hard, averaging 49 strokes per minute. I went so hard I actually had to take a break in the middle. The whole time, Marshall was on the HDTV talking... And Chris Hanburger said they were given 6 to 8 minutes each... Jeeze...

Of course, I chide Marshall for the long speech, but you know I loved seeing him go in. Watching the acceptance speech inspired me to row a hell of a lot harder than normal. What would Marshall do? Congrats! I will blog about this soon!

Every instinct in my gut tells me that I am going through a key transition point these days. I am breaking through my latest metabolic floor. For those unfamiliar with set-point theory, I will give you the 101.

The human body contains a program for everything it should do. This program code is called DNA. You DNA codes a few things in a hard and fast way. It codes everything else in a more flexible and adaptable way, to flex and change conforming with environmental conditions.

You metabolism is a bit flexible, and so to is your body fat percentage. Just because it is flexible doesn't necessarily mean that it is easy to flex. Each body has preferred set-points for calorie burn, muscle levels, body fat percentage, activity level, etc. You can reprogram your set point, up to a point, but it is very, very, very difficult. The system will try to snap back to it's genetic preferences. Your genes will fight you as you go against them.

Contained in that tiny passage is every philosophical justification you will ever need for something as drastic as roux-en-y gastric bypass surgery. In order to defeat genetic programming, surgeons make drastic alterations in the metabolic pipeline. These are permanent alterations your body can do nothing about. Genetic set-points are forced to flex in conformance with a new physical and metabolic reality.

Your arrival at a new, lower, set point is just about guaranteed. 98% of all people who have this surgery hit their target weights. I did that already. For those 98% who hit their targets, 85% of the excess weight is still gone 15 years later.

Just because it's guaranteed, doesn't mean it is easy. I can testify that there have been several points in this process where my body has fought the hell out of me. This past week has presented the toughest battle thus far. My genes seem to be drawing a line in the sand saying "This far and no farther! NOT ONE MORE INCH!" Now, those genes are destined to lose. They can't win, but they don't know that. They are planning to make their last stand... and they are planning to win.

For all I know, I may have already broken on through to the other side of this metabolic barrier. This morning's crazy swing downward may be the beginning of a new and steady free-fall that takes me all the way down to 200 pounds. Let's hope so.

As sure as I am sitting here, I know that something big is going on. I can feel it. My muscularity is increasing. My fat is decreasing. My ability to exercise is increasing at an amazing rate. I will give you one example.

These past two days, I have completed 30 minutes, using the interval pattern, at level 15 on the LifeFitness Club Series Cross Trainer. Yesterday, I burned 504 kcal, moving 3.04 miles in the process. For reference, a woman may burn as much as 400 kcal in 60 minutes of Aerobic Dancercise. We're talking 252% of that intensity level. The cross trainer is one of the most intense exercises you can do, and until very recently, I couldn't do it at all. The pain in my knees was just too great. Now I have no pain at all.