Today's weigh-in: 207.0
So...
It's been a little while since my last post, and obviously things have changed a bit. I have gotten used to the ketogenic diet--I got past the "keto flu" that made me feel so crappy. I've also gotten used to the occasional plateau that seems to happen frequently with this diet. I've had several rounds where I've flatlined on the weight loss, or even gained a few pounds, but eventually it drops again. I even managed to stay on the diet while at my in-laws' house over Christmas, despite a lot of incidental carbs here and there in the food, and ended up losing 2 lbs while I was there.
I don't know what my weight was at the end of 2014, but the last post made that year, at the beginning of November, I was 233. I know when I started this HFLC (high fat low carb) diet on the Monday after my 41st birthday (October 26), I was about 230. So I'm officially down 23 lbs since I started the diet, and about 26 lbs (probably) since the beginning of 2015.
The diet has gotten a bit easier. It helps that my husband has been doing a lot of the cooking. We are also doing a little better about planning out our meals, and having some ready-made stuff (like egg muffins and pre-cooked bacon) available for those times that we don't feel like cooking. We're doing pretty well at avoiding eating out and ordering in. We've also experimented with making some of our previously favorite recipes low carb. We'll keep working on it. And it's gotten a lot easier to avoid the kinds of foods I've previously binged on. I haven't done much overeating, and it seems like the low carb diet is a little more forgiving when I do overindulge.
So I'm cautiously optimistic. If I can lose 1 more lb, I will officially weigh what I weighed when I found out I was pregnant with Brendan. So, almost 6 years since I first got pregnant, I will have finally shed the "baby weight". Then I'll just have to shed the non-baby weight. In looking back at my blog, I can see that my weight right after we moved to Billings was about 200 lbs, so that of course will be the next "milestone" to hit. After that, my next big milestone will be about 175 lbs, since I think that's the lightest I got back in 2006 or whenever it was that we had worked so hard to lose weight.
Fingers are crossed. I hope 2016 is a better year than 2015 was. Happy New Year!
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Wednesday, November 04, 2015
Severely Depressed
Today's weigh-in: 222.8...which is the same as yesterday (and pretty much the previous three weigh-ins, too).
I've asked a couple of friends who do the low carb diet for some help, because I'm terribly disheartened right now. I've been doing this low carb diet since last week, and it's not going well for me at all. The first five days were great, but my weight loss has suddenly stopped and I can't understand why. I'm not eating anything different than I was last week, but my last five weigh-ins have been 222.4, 223.2, 222.6, 222.8, and 222.8. Yesterday, I had two cups of coffee (not low carb but only 19 grams of total carbs between the two cups), a celery stalk with natural peanut butter (11 grams), a salad of iceberg lettuce, spinach, and kale with diced chicken, cheddar cheese, and dressing, pork tenderloin with green beans with butter, and a couple of fat bombs because I was worried there wasn't enough fat. All I drank other than the coffee was water and diet Coke. I'm crushed that I didn't lose any weight yesterday, because I calculated my total carbs, not even net, and it was less than 40. The only thing I have done differently this week than last week is that Sunday I started doing a little mini circuit of pushups, planking, dips, squats, and lunges, but I'm only doing the circuit twice and I'm not doing many of each exercise yet. I really am depressed about the last few days, especially since I'm not enjoying this diet. I'm already tired of rich, creamy, meaty stuff. I need some suggestions for something to kickstart the weight loss again, because if I can't get this back on track pretty quickly, I'm going to give up. This sucks.
I've asked a couple of friends who do the low carb diet for some help, because I'm terribly disheartened right now. I've been doing this low carb diet since last week, and it's not going well for me at all. The first five days were great, but my weight loss has suddenly stopped and I can't understand why. I'm not eating anything different than I was last week, but my last five weigh-ins have been 222.4, 223.2, 222.6, 222.8, and 222.8. Yesterday, I had two cups of coffee (not low carb but only 19 grams of total carbs between the two cups), a celery stalk with natural peanut butter (11 grams), a salad of iceberg lettuce, spinach, and kale with diced chicken, cheddar cheese, and dressing, pork tenderloin with green beans with butter, and a couple of fat bombs because I was worried there wasn't enough fat. All I drank other than the coffee was water and diet Coke. I'm crushed that I didn't lose any weight yesterday, because I calculated my total carbs, not even net, and it was less than 40. The only thing I have done differently this week than last week is that Sunday I started doing a little mini circuit of pushups, planking, dips, squats, and lunges, but I'm only doing the circuit twice and I'm not doing many of each exercise yet. I really am depressed about the last few days, especially since I'm not enjoying this diet. I'm already tired of rich, creamy, meaty stuff. I need some suggestions for something to kickstart the weight loss again, because if I can't get this back on track pretty quickly, I'm going to give up. This sucks.
Sunday, November 01, 2015
Where did I go wrong?
Today's weigh-in: 223.2
Weight gained: .8lbs
I am just in the grip of a crushing depression this morning, with no real reason why. I'm exhausted, all my muscles are sore, and my joints ache. My husband thinks this might be the "keto flu", the body's way of purging toxins as it adapts to the new diet. Whatever it is, I feel rotten. I'm planning on starting one of those 30-day exercise challenges that I always find on Pinterest, but it remains to be seen if I'm feeling good enough to start it. Not that the first day requires much effort, but still. I just feel sad and defeated today. Maybe my muscles are sore from walking around the zoo yesterday at the Halloween party they have, but I shouldn't be that out of shape. I don't know.
It doesn't help my mood that I inexplicably gained some weight yesterday. I didn't eat Halloween candy by the ton like I usually do; in fact, I hardly ate anything bad at all. My "cheat" day consisted of two McDonald's french fries, two peanut butter M&Ms, a goldfish cracker, and a cheeseburger from Wendy's with the bun removed. I'm sure that added to my carb count, but I find it hard to believe that it was enough to push me out of my weight loss zone.
So, I'm at a loss. Or rather, a gain, I guess. I'm already tired of eggs, and meat, and cheese. I desperately want to eat a big old bowl of cereal, or a couple pieces of toast. It's funny; as much as I want to eat a whole bowl of mashed potatoes, I think the first thing I would choose to binge on is french toast. Maybe that's just because it's time for breakfast, and all I can think of is not eating the eggs and sausage that are currently coming my way. Again.
Weight gained: .8lbs
I am just in the grip of a crushing depression this morning, with no real reason why. I'm exhausted, all my muscles are sore, and my joints ache. My husband thinks this might be the "keto flu", the body's way of purging toxins as it adapts to the new diet. Whatever it is, I feel rotten. I'm planning on starting one of those 30-day exercise challenges that I always find on Pinterest, but it remains to be seen if I'm feeling good enough to start it. Not that the first day requires much effort, but still. I just feel sad and defeated today. Maybe my muscles are sore from walking around the zoo yesterday at the Halloween party they have, but I shouldn't be that out of shape. I don't know.
It doesn't help my mood that I inexplicably gained some weight yesterday. I didn't eat Halloween candy by the ton like I usually do; in fact, I hardly ate anything bad at all. My "cheat" day consisted of two McDonald's french fries, two peanut butter M&Ms, a goldfish cracker, and a cheeseburger from Wendy's with the bun removed. I'm sure that added to my carb count, but I find it hard to believe that it was enough to push me out of my weight loss zone.
So, I'm at a loss. Or rather, a gain, I guess. I'm already tired of eggs, and meat, and cheese. I desperately want to eat a big old bowl of cereal, or a couple pieces of toast. It's funny; as much as I want to eat a whole bowl of mashed potatoes, I think the first thing I would choose to binge on is french toast. Maybe that's just because it's time for breakfast, and all I can think of is not eating the eggs and sausage that are currently coming my way. Again.
Saturday, October 31, 2015
If I can't have candy, can it really be a Happy Halloween?
Today's weigh-in: 222.4
Well, I'm down about 7 lbs since the beginning of the week. What I've read about the ketogenic (low carb, high fat) diet is that the quick weight loss at the beginning is mostly water weight. That means it's easy to gain back. So I need to be really careful to continue the diet to ensure that my weight doesn't go back up. I know from watching my hubby in his attempt, which has gone on about three weeks longer than mine has, is that after about two weeks the weight loss will slow down. I'm hoping that, by that time, I can be down about 20 lbs. I think that will make a big difference, since I haven't even incorporated working out into the equation yet.
Tomorrow is the first day of November, and I think I'll try to do one of those workout "challenges" that I see on Pinterest all the time. Maybe that will keep me from bogging down in the diet.
But I just have no energy at all. I don't know what it is; I guess it could just be my body wanting its carbs. Hopefully this will get easier once my body gets a little more used to the diet. Cross your fingers.
I don't feel incredibly hopefully about tomorrow's weigh-in, even though today's was good. I've "cheated" a little bit today. Brendan had some goldfish crackers, and I had one. Ian had some peanut butter M&Ms, and I ate two of them. The boys got McDonald's Happy Meals for lunch, and I stole two french fries. I don't know if that's enough carbs to cause a problem, but it indicates that I am not satisfied with my meals. I need to figure out how to head that carb desire off at the pass.
Well, I'm down about 7 lbs since the beginning of the week. What I've read about the ketogenic (low carb, high fat) diet is that the quick weight loss at the beginning is mostly water weight. That means it's easy to gain back. So I need to be really careful to continue the diet to ensure that my weight doesn't go back up. I know from watching my hubby in his attempt, which has gone on about three weeks longer than mine has, is that after about two weeks the weight loss will slow down. I'm hoping that, by that time, I can be down about 20 lbs. I think that will make a big difference, since I haven't even incorporated working out into the equation yet.
Tomorrow is the first day of November, and I think I'll try to do one of those workout "challenges" that I see on Pinterest all the time. Maybe that will keep me from bogging down in the diet.
But I just have no energy at all. I don't know what it is; I guess it could just be my body wanting its carbs. Hopefully this will get easier once my body gets a little more used to the diet. Cross your fingers.
I don't feel incredibly hopefully about tomorrow's weigh-in, even though today's was good. I've "cheated" a little bit today. Brendan had some goldfish crackers, and I had one. Ian had some peanut butter M&Ms, and I ate two of them. The boys got McDonald's Happy Meals for lunch, and I stole two french fries. I don't know if that's enough carbs to cause a problem, but it indicates that I am not satisfied with my meals. I need to figure out how to head that carb desire off at the pass.
Friday, October 30, 2015
If this really is a good thing, why do I feel so guilty?
Today's weigh-in: 223.6
Well, it seems to be working. I'm not counting calories at all, but I'm losing weight. I'm scarfing down a ridiculous amount of fat each day, but I'm down 6 lbs in four days. I'm pretty pleased so far, but it sure is hard. I so badly want to eat a couple pieces of toast, or a sandwich, or some potatoes, or something. I feel full after I eat, but I just don't feel satisfied. Today was the closest I felt to that, and I think it's because I got some chocolate.
At the grocery store last night, I picked up a couple different kinds of Atkins snack bars, chocolate with caramel. Unlike some of the other diet snack bars I've bought in the past, these weren't half bad. They only have 2 and 3 net carbs, which isn't bad. Also, my husband found some recipes for what are apparently called "fat bombs", things you are supposed to eat to get your blood back into ketosis if you haven't had enough fat or you've had too much protein. They were chocolate and peanut butter with nuts in them, made with a lot of butter and coconut oil. They were pretty good, although a little on the salty side. It's still more of a savory chocolate taste, rather than a really sweet milk chocolate one, but I'll take what I can get.
It's weird, though. This diet pretty much flies in the face of just about everything I've ever been told about eating. I've always heard that you need to cut back on fat, cut back on calories, eat a balanced diet with plenty of protein, eat lots of fruits, stuff like that. I haven't been able to have a piece of fruit all week because they all have too many carbs. I keep eyeing the bananas, but they are more than half of my available carbs for the day. Also, the diet recommends eating as late as 11 pm. Most diets always said not to eat late in the day. The whole thing is just really weird. And apparently you have to eat so much fat! I've never minded fatty foods; in fact, I've always liked the fat on my steak, park, or chicken. But I feel like I'm overdosing on it. Everything feels greasy and oily and thick. I find myself craving a huge swig of orange juice, like it would clean everything out. It's a really strange feeling.
I don't feel like I have much energy right now. I'm still drinking my coffee in the morning, but I've gotten some of those sugar-free Torani syrups to try to make my froo-froo coffee drinks at home. I keep seeing low carb recipes for "bulletproof coffee" with butter and cream in it. It sounds repulsive.
Anyway, it seems to be working, but it isn't really making me feel good, either mentally or physically. I'll be a lot more relieved when I hit the 10 lb mark. I hope I keep going; it's really nice to actually lose weight for the first time in years. I haven't even been working out.
Well, it seems to be working. I'm not counting calories at all, but I'm losing weight. I'm scarfing down a ridiculous amount of fat each day, but I'm down 6 lbs in four days. I'm pretty pleased so far, but it sure is hard. I so badly want to eat a couple pieces of toast, or a sandwich, or some potatoes, or something. I feel full after I eat, but I just don't feel satisfied. Today was the closest I felt to that, and I think it's because I got some chocolate.
At the grocery store last night, I picked up a couple different kinds of Atkins snack bars, chocolate with caramel. Unlike some of the other diet snack bars I've bought in the past, these weren't half bad. They only have 2 and 3 net carbs, which isn't bad. Also, my husband found some recipes for what are apparently called "fat bombs", things you are supposed to eat to get your blood back into ketosis if you haven't had enough fat or you've had too much protein. They were chocolate and peanut butter with nuts in them, made with a lot of butter and coconut oil. They were pretty good, although a little on the salty side. It's still more of a savory chocolate taste, rather than a really sweet milk chocolate one, but I'll take what I can get.
It's weird, though. This diet pretty much flies in the face of just about everything I've ever been told about eating. I've always heard that you need to cut back on fat, cut back on calories, eat a balanced diet with plenty of protein, eat lots of fruits, stuff like that. I haven't been able to have a piece of fruit all week because they all have too many carbs. I keep eyeing the bananas, but they are more than half of my available carbs for the day. Also, the diet recommends eating as late as 11 pm. Most diets always said not to eat late in the day. The whole thing is just really weird. And apparently you have to eat so much fat! I've never minded fatty foods; in fact, I've always liked the fat on my steak, park, or chicken. But I feel like I'm overdosing on it. Everything feels greasy and oily and thick. I find myself craving a huge swig of orange juice, like it would clean everything out. It's a really strange feeling.
I don't feel like I have much energy right now. I'm still drinking my coffee in the morning, but I've gotten some of those sugar-free Torani syrups to try to make my froo-froo coffee drinks at home. I keep seeing low carb recipes for "bulletproof coffee" with butter and cream in it. It sounds repulsive.
Anyway, it seems to be working, but it isn't really making me feel good, either mentally or physically. I'll be a lot more relieved when I hit the 10 lb mark. I hope I keep going; it's really nice to actually lose weight for the first time in years. I haven't even been working out.
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Progress, maybe...
Today's weigh in: 227.6
It might be progress, but it is also within the +/- 2 lbs swing that I often experience. We'll have to give it a few days, to see if I continue to have some weight loss.
Of course, today wasn't a great day. I had a cup of cappuccino (10 g), carrots and peanut butter (19 g each time, x2 = 36 g; it's a lot fewer carbs to eat the natural peanut butter that is higher in calories and fat than the reduced fat stuff), a couple pieces of gum (about 4 g), and a granola bar because I got desperate (17 g). That's 67 g, well over the 50 g mark. So I don't know what will happen.
And the worst part is, I'm starving. I'm soooooooo hungry. I really want a huge pot of pasta or potatoes or something. And it's almost Halloween, which means candy...
This low carb thing sucks.
It might be progress, but it is also within the +/- 2 lbs swing that I often experience. We'll have to give it a few days, to see if I continue to have some weight loss.
Of course, today wasn't a great day. I had a cup of cappuccino (10 g), carrots and peanut butter (19 g each time, x2 = 36 g; it's a lot fewer carbs to eat the natural peanut butter that is higher in calories and fat than the reduced fat stuff), a couple pieces of gum (about 4 g), and a granola bar because I got desperate (17 g). That's 67 g, well over the 50 g mark. So I don't know what will happen.
And the worst part is, I'm starving. I'm soooooooo hungry. I really want a huge pot of pasta or potatoes or something. And it's almost Halloween, which means candy...
This low carb thing sucks.
Monday, October 26, 2015
Apparently, carbs make food taste good.
Today's weigh-in: 229.4
I'm embarking on an experiment, one I fully expect will not last long. A friend of mine has lost more than 100 lbs in the past 6 years, mostly following a low carb diet through a meal plan company (not WW but one of those). She's an incredible person and a huge inspiration. After all her success, she's now become a health coach and is encouraging her husband to do the same. He's following a similar plan, although I believe they are cooking at home instead of getting the premade meals, and he's lost a bit of weight so far (I don't know how much). All this (along with a fitness check for his work that didn't end with pleasant results) inspired my husband to give the low carb diet a shot. He started about two and a half weeks ago, and he's lost about 20 lbs. That's pretty inspiring to somebody who has never lost more than two pounds in a week (me). I decided that, once the birthday season was done (my birthday followed by my son's), I would give the low carb thing a try. I started this morning, and, after about 12 hours of doing the low carb thing, I'm severely depressed.
I used to joke that calories were the things that made food taste good. I was wrong. Carbs are the things that make food taste good. I know I'm a sugar junkie, but I never realized how much of a starch junkie I was. Potatoes, bread, pasta, rice...oh how I love them. And things that I never realized had lots of carbs, like carrots, bananas, corn, birthday cake...ok, I knew that one. Even my gum, which is sugar-free, has 2 g of carbs per piece. How does that even happen?
A couple of weeks ago, I tried to make mashed cauliflower as a substitute for mashed potatoes. It didn't go well. Oh, I know I could doctor them up with a lot of sour cream, butter, salt, and garlic, but they still wouldn't be mashed potatoes. I know you can make zucchini "noodles" or use spaghetti squash. I know you can make a crispy cheese "crust" for pizza. Yes, I know these things, just like I know that there are vegetarians who eat bean and grain "burgers" and tofurkey. I know these things. But I also know that real food, the stuff with carbs in it, tastes best. I don't even want to start on the low carb desserts.
We went to a buffet last night for my father-in-law's birthday. We chose the buffet because we figured it would be easier for my husband to find low carb offerings than a regular restaurant. He found a few things to eat, but it was very hard for him to see them side by side on the buffet display with all the foods that he can't eat.
Yes, my husband has lost an impressive amount of weight in the two or so weeks he's been doing low carb, but I haven't seen him happy or content after eating. Instead, he wistfully opens and closes the fridge and pantry, looking for some miraculous low carb offering that will satisfy his cravings, but none can be found.
So, I decided I would try as well. I've never lost weight quickly, and I'm about 80 lbs overweight, so I need something to jumpstart things for me. I'm hoping the low carb thing will do it, but I just don't know how long I can keep it up. Today I had a cup of Keurig cappuccino (10 grams), carrots and peanut butter (a combined 24 grams), a cheese stick (1 gram), and four pieces of gum (8 grams). I'm not sure what my dinner carbs were, but I had a lettuce/kale/spinach/chicken salad with cheese, some slivered almonds, a few tortilla strips, and some southwestern ranch dressing, so I wouldn't think it was more than 15 grams. That puts me at around 53 grams of carbs today. That might not be the ideal below-50 level that many low carb diets recommend, but it's surely way fewer carbs than I usually consume. It's probably also fewer calories, because I couldn't find anything else to eat.
Oh, and I had a square-inch cube of birthday cake. That was probably another 15 freaking carbs right there. Whatever.
Anyway, we'll see how things look in the morning. If it looks like I'm getting a weight loss jumpstart, I'll try to hang with it as long as I can. If not, I'm eating some damn toast for breakfast.
I'm embarking on an experiment, one I fully expect will not last long. A friend of mine has lost more than 100 lbs in the past 6 years, mostly following a low carb diet through a meal plan company (not WW but one of those). She's an incredible person and a huge inspiration. After all her success, she's now become a health coach and is encouraging her husband to do the same. He's following a similar plan, although I believe they are cooking at home instead of getting the premade meals, and he's lost a bit of weight so far (I don't know how much). All this (along with a fitness check for his work that didn't end with pleasant results) inspired my husband to give the low carb diet a shot. He started about two and a half weeks ago, and he's lost about 20 lbs. That's pretty inspiring to somebody who has never lost more than two pounds in a week (me). I decided that, once the birthday season was done (my birthday followed by my son's), I would give the low carb thing a try. I started this morning, and, after about 12 hours of doing the low carb thing, I'm severely depressed.
I used to joke that calories were the things that made food taste good. I was wrong. Carbs are the things that make food taste good. I know I'm a sugar junkie, but I never realized how much of a starch junkie I was. Potatoes, bread, pasta, rice...oh how I love them. And things that I never realized had lots of carbs, like carrots, bananas, corn, birthday cake...ok, I knew that one. Even my gum, which is sugar-free, has 2 g of carbs per piece. How does that even happen?
A couple of weeks ago, I tried to make mashed cauliflower as a substitute for mashed potatoes. It didn't go well. Oh, I know I could doctor them up with a lot of sour cream, butter, salt, and garlic, but they still wouldn't be mashed potatoes. I know you can make zucchini "noodles" or use spaghetti squash. I know you can make a crispy cheese "crust" for pizza. Yes, I know these things, just like I know that there are vegetarians who eat bean and grain "burgers" and tofurkey. I know these things. But I also know that real food, the stuff with carbs in it, tastes best. I don't even want to start on the low carb desserts.
We went to a buffet last night for my father-in-law's birthday. We chose the buffet because we figured it would be easier for my husband to find low carb offerings than a regular restaurant. He found a few things to eat, but it was very hard for him to see them side by side on the buffet display with all the foods that he can't eat.
Yes, my husband has lost an impressive amount of weight in the two or so weeks he's been doing low carb, but I haven't seen him happy or content after eating. Instead, he wistfully opens and closes the fridge and pantry, looking for some miraculous low carb offering that will satisfy his cravings, but none can be found.
So, I decided I would try as well. I've never lost weight quickly, and I'm about 80 lbs overweight, so I need something to jumpstart things for me. I'm hoping the low carb thing will do it, but I just don't know how long I can keep it up. Today I had a cup of Keurig cappuccino (10 grams), carrots and peanut butter (a combined 24 grams), a cheese stick (1 gram), and four pieces of gum (8 grams). I'm not sure what my dinner carbs were, but I had a lettuce/kale/spinach/chicken salad with cheese, some slivered almonds, a few tortilla strips, and some southwestern ranch dressing, so I wouldn't think it was more than 15 grams. That puts me at around 53 grams of carbs today. That might not be the ideal below-50 level that many low carb diets recommend, but it's surely way fewer carbs than I usually consume. It's probably also fewer calories, because I couldn't find anything else to eat.
Oh, and I had a square-inch cube of birthday cake. That was probably another 15 freaking carbs right there. Whatever.
Anyway, we'll see how things look in the morning. If it looks like I'm getting a weight loss jumpstart, I'll try to hang with it as long as I can. If not, I'm eating some damn toast for breakfast.
Saturday, July 18, 2015
Book Review: Armada, by Ernest Cline
The subject of this entry is the novel Armada, by Ernest Cline. I've been impatiently awaiting this book since falling in love with Cline's first work, Ready Player One. RP1 was both great fun and incredibly insightful, and it was the top of the list of scifi novels my coworker and I wanted approved for our science fiction literature course at school.
With all that in mind, I was super excited when my Kindle downloaded the e-book format of Armada (as well as the e-book of Go Set A Watchman, which is next on my list to read) on Tuesday. I finished it today (Saturday)--please forgive me for reading slowly, but I am reading two other books simultaneously.
Quick and dirty plot summary: An 18-yr-old gamer discovers that video games (as well as science fiction movies, tv shows, and novels) have been intended to train humans to fight against an eventual alien invasion, which, it turns out, is imminent. This kid discovers that his father, who had also been a gamer and had died when the narrator was just a baby, had uncovered some of this hidden government "conspiracy" and was actually still alive, having been recruited into the military to train for the invasion, and is stationed on the moon, where the narrator is sent upon his own recruitment. Father and son are reunited and discuss the conspiracy and the alien invasion, agreeing that there are some suspicious elements to the aliens' actions over the years. As the invasion begins, father and son, along with several other recruits, fight the alien drones with drones the human governments have prepared over the years (keeping most of their soldiers and pilots out of immediate harm's way), but as the battle continues, the father and son realize that humanity might be making a mistake and that the aliens' intent might not be as hostile as it has appeared. They uncover the truth: humans actually initiated the original hostilities, and the aliens could have epically destroyed us years before but never have, despite Earth's escalation of hostilities over the years. The narrator and his father decide that the only way to truly know the aliens' intentions is to disable the weapon of mass destruction that Earth was about to deploy against the aliens and attempt to negotiate a cease fire. This means defying orders and actually destroying some of Earth's own defenses, during which the narrator's father must sacrifice his own life for the cause. The narrator successfully destroys the weapon, and is immediately engaged in conversation with an alien emissary who confirms what the narrator and his father had suspected: this was all a test of humanity's ability to be peaceful. Thanks to the actions of the narrator and his father, humanity is spared destruction and is offered entrance into an alliance of alien races called the Sodality. The narrator, speaking on behalf of humanity, agrees, and Earth is ushered into a time of prosperity and health. [And all that took place in one day.] The narrator, slightly suspicious of the aliens' benevolent intentions and realizing that he can't simply go back to his old life as a teenaged gamer, agrees to be an ambassador to the alliance. And they all live happily ever after.
Quick and dirty (and slightly inappropriate) review: an orgy involving Ready Player One, Ender's Game, the scifi spoof Galaxy Quest, and the new Adam Sandler movie Pixels, all while listening to Star-Lord's mixtape from Guardians of the Galaxy.
Review: So, it's hard for me to feel like I'm being fair to this book in my judgment, because I'm holding it up in comparison to two of my very favorite books of all time, Cline's Ready Player One and Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game. Cline even references EG several times, as part of the plot the narrator's father has pieced together about the intent of scifi to prepare humanity for alien invasion. But instead of feeling like an homage, it ends up feeling like a ripoff. The use of games for training, the fact that the narrator has an anger-management problem involving bullies, the fact that it all turns out to be sort of a misunderstanding and that humans are actually the aggressors...instead of feeling like a reimagining of those elements, it just feels like they've been done before.
The aliens have intercepted and interpreted our fictional and nonfictional broadcasts (TV, movies, internet, newscasts, videogames) just like in Galaxy Quest, being unable to tell the difference between reality and fiction, and feel that we are prone to violence but that we must be given a chance to prove ourselves. Fifty years of secret engagements and encounters with alien space craft (all drones piloted by some being or beings elsewhere in the galaxy) have allowed humanity the chance to reverse engineer the alien tech and increase our own technological abilities, also allowing us to eventually "take the fight to them". Still feels an awful lot like EG, but also reminded me quite a bit of Q's trial in Star Trek: The Next Generation. In the final episode of the show, Captain Picard finds out that the trial that Q initiated in the pilot episode, "Encounter at Far Point," had never actually ended, and that the entire seven-season run of the show had been under the Q continuum's scrutiny. Zack Lightman, the narrator of Armada, manages to save and redeem humanity in a similar test.
But, unlike both EG and STTNG, humanity never actually meets the real aliens. All contact, hostile or otherwise, is conducted through the use of drones. This actually makes Zack a bit suspicious, especially when the drones help rebuild Earth's cities after the battle and then provide all kinds of advance tech and medical advancements, which leads him to become an ambassador (as though he can somehow keep an eye on the aliens and make sure their intentions are pure). I was almost waiting for the other shoe to drop at the end of the book, expecting some kind of big plot twist like in the Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Man." But that didn't happen, and everything just kind of got tied up nice and neat at the end, including a final encounter with the now-mature-and-reformed bully from the first chapter. It all felt a little too easy.
Then there's the use of drones to fight on both sides. Although it ends up being explained at the end as sensible for the aliens because the drones are all being controlled by a single sentient? computer, it makes fighting seem so much less important and dangerous because pilots can simply "respawn" in a new drone. This tactic is conveniently used in the climactic fight between Zack and the admiral who wants to deploy the WMD against the alien planet, because the admiral is a better pilot than Zack. Zack respawns several times in drones that he was smart enough to bring with him in case of emergency (while the admiral somehow neglected to do the same). Yet, when the deaths of characters is needed for dramatic effect (such as the death of Zack's father), it suddenly becomes important to have a few actually-manned ships available. The tactics of the humans and aliens just never quite ring true.
There isn't much available by way of character development, since the majority of the story takes place in a single day. Zack suffers from the absence of his father, as he shows us through his interaction with a bully who gives him a hard time about how his father supposedly died (in an explosion in a waste treatment plant), his hero-worship of his father's belongings (like Star-Lord's addiction to his mother's mixtape), and his poor lonely but pop-culture-savvy mother. He compares his circumstances several times to the heroes such movies as Iron Eagle, Top Gun, and Star Wars, but again, instead of feeling clever, innovative, or insightful, these comparisons seem designed to remind us that Zack is a hero and a rule-breaker, since we only just met him. We don't get to know any of the other top gamers who were recruited, other than some very minor backstory, so when some of them die in various stages of the battle, it feels more like the loss of the redshirt member of every away mission of Star Trek. We also don't meet Zack's father long enough to see any negative personality qualities. He lives up to Zack's ideals: a super gamer (who has actually been playing against Zack online all these years), a faithful husband to Zack's mom (who also has remained faithful to Zack's dad and doesn't date or anything like that--they even manage to squeeze in a fling before his death, leading to the birth nine months later of Zack's much younger brother), and a heroic figure who breaks rules when necessary and sacrifices himself to save mankind. A few other flings are squeezed into the story as well--several of the other recruits manage to hook up before the battle, and there's a romantic interest for Zack who conveniently pops into the story to do things like jailbreak his reverse-engineered-alien-tech-communicator-thingy so that he can circumvent the government's plans without them overhearing him most of the time and then pops back out until she's needed in her mech drone to save his butt (and then pops back in and out AGAIN).
Everything just seemed way too CONVENIENT, I guess. There weren't any real surprises. And all the pop culture references, which were so important to the story in Ready Player One, just weren't really needed here. It seemed like Cline thought to himself, "RP1 was super-successful and had all those pop culture references in it, so I must do that again in this next book."
Overall, I did really enjoy the book. But it was more of a summer-fluff-type read than the deep, thought-provoking joyride of Ready Player One. If you like scifi references, conspiracy theories, and gaming, I definitely recommend it. But don't expect anything life-changing, you know? May the force be with you.
With all that in mind, I was super excited when my Kindle downloaded the e-book format of Armada (as well as the e-book of Go Set A Watchman, which is next on my list to read) on Tuesday. I finished it today (Saturday)--please forgive me for reading slowly, but I am reading two other books simultaneously.
Quick and dirty plot summary: An 18-yr-old gamer discovers that video games (as well as science fiction movies, tv shows, and novels) have been intended to train humans to fight against an eventual alien invasion, which, it turns out, is imminent. This kid discovers that his father, who had also been a gamer and had died when the narrator was just a baby, had uncovered some of this hidden government "conspiracy" and was actually still alive, having been recruited into the military to train for the invasion, and is stationed on the moon, where the narrator is sent upon his own recruitment. Father and son are reunited and discuss the conspiracy and the alien invasion, agreeing that there are some suspicious elements to the aliens' actions over the years. As the invasion begins, father and son, along with several other recruits, fight the alien drones with drones the human governments have prepared over the years (keeping most of their soldiers and pilots out of immediate harm's way), but as the battle continues, the father and son realize that humanity might be making a mistake and that the aliens' intent might not be as hostile as it has appeared. They uncover the truth: humans actually initiated the original hostilities, and the aliens could have epically destroyed us years before but never have, despite Earth's escalation of hostilities over the years. The narrator and his father decide that the only way to truly know the aliens' intentions is to disable the weapon of mass destruction that Earth was about to deploy against the aliens and attempt to negotiate a cease fire. This means defying orders and actually destroying some of Earth's own defenses, during which the narrator's father must sacrifice his own life for the cause. The narrator successfully destroys the weapon, and is immediately engaged in conversation with an alien emissary who confirms what the narrator and his father had suspected: this was all a test of humanity's ability to be peaceful. Thanks to the actions of the narrator and his father, humanity is spared destruction and is offered entrance into an alliance of alien races called the Sodality. The narrator, speaking on behalf of humanity, agrees, and Earth is ushered into a time of prosperity and health. [And all that took place in one day.] The narrator, slightly suspicious of the aliens' benevolent intentions and realizing that he can't simply go back to his old life as a teenaged gamer, agrees to be an ambassador to the alliance. And they all live happily ever after.
Quick and dirty (and slightly inappropriate) review: an orgy involving Ready Player One, Ender's Game, the scifi spoof Galaxy Quest, and the new Adam Sandler movie Pixels, all while listening to Star-Lord's mixtape from Guardians of the Galaxy.
Review: So, it's hard for me to feel like I'm being fair to this book in my judgment, because I'm holding it up in comparison to two of my very favorite books of all time, Cline's Ready Player One and Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game. Cline even references EG several times, as part of the plot the narrator's father has pieced together about the intent of scifi to prepare humanity for alien invasion. But instead of feeling like an homage, it ends up feeling like a ripoff. The use of games for training, the fact that the narrator has an anger-management problem involving bullies, the fact that it all turns out to be sort of a misunderstanding and that humans are actually the aggressors...instead of feeling like a reimagining of those elements, it just feels like they've been done before.
The aliens have intercepted and interpreted our fictional and nonfictional broadcasts (TV, movies, internet, newscasts, videogames) just like in Galaxy Quest, being unable to tell the difference between reality and fiction, and feel that we are prone to violence but that we must be given a chance to prove ourselves. Fifty years of secret engagements and encounters with alien space craft (all drones piloted by some being or beings elsewhere in the galaxy) have allowed humanity the chance to reverse engineer the alien tech and increase our own technological abilities, also allowing us to eventually "take the fight to them". Still feels an awful lot like EG, but also reminded me quite a bit of Q's trial in Star Trek: The Next Generation. In the final episode of the show, Captain Picard finds out that the trial that Q initiated in the pilot episode, "Encounter at Far Point," had never actually ended, and that the entire seven-season run of the show had been under the Q continuum's scrutiny. Zack Lightman, the narrator of Armada, manages to save and redeem humanity in a similar test.
But, unlike both EG and STTNG, humanity never actually meets the real aliens. All contact, hostile or otherwise, is conducted through the use of drones. This actually makes Zack a bit suspicious, especially when the drones help rebuild Earth's cities after the battle and then provide all kinds of advance tech and medical advancements, which leads him to become an ambassador (as though he can somehow keep an eye on the aliens and make sure their intentions are pure). I was almost waiting for the other shoe to drop at the end of the book, expecting some kind of big plot twist like in the Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Man." But that didn't happen, and everything just kind of got tied up nice and neat at the end, including a final encounter with the now-mature-and-reformed bully from the first chapter. It all felt a little too easy.
Then there's the use of drones to fight on both sides. Although it ends up being explained at the end as sensible for the aliens because the drones are all being controlled by a single sentient? computer, it makes fighting seem so much less important and dangerous because pilots can simply "respawn" in a new drone. This tactic is conveniently used in the climactic fight between Zack and the admiral who wants to deploy the WMD against the alien planet, because the admiral is a better pilot than Zack. Zack respawns several times in drones that he was smart enough to bring with him in case of emergency (while the admiral somehow neglected to do the same). Yet, when the deaths of characters is needed for dramatic effect (such as the death of Zack's father), it suddenly becomes important to have a few actually-manned ships available. The tactics of the humans and aliens just never quite ring true.
There isn't much available by way of character development, since the majority of the story takes place in a single day. Zack suffers from the absence of his father, as he shows us through his interaction with a bully who gives him a hard time about how his father supposedly died (in an explosion in a waste treatment plant), his hero-worship of his father's belongings (like Star-Lord's addiction to his mother's mixtape), and his poor lonely but pop-culture-savvy mother. He compares his circumstances several times to the heroes such movies as Iron Eagle, Top Gun, and Star Wars, but again, instead of feeling clever, innovative, or insightful, these comparisons seem designed to remind us that Zack is a hero and a rule-breaker, since we only just met him. We don't get to know any of the other top gamers who were recruited, other than some very minor backstory, so when some of them die in various stages of the battle, it feels more like the loss of the redshirt member of every away mission of Star Trek. We also don't meet Zack's father long enough to see any negative personality qualities. He lives up to Zack's ideals: a super gamer (who has actually been playing against Zack online all these years), a faithful husband to Zack's mom (who also has remained faithful to Zack's dad and doesn't date or anything like that--they even manage to squeeze in a fling before his death, leading to the birth nine months later of Zack's much younger brother), and a heroic figure who breaks rules when necessary and sacrifices himself to save mankind. A few other flings are squeezed into the story as well--several of the other recruits manage to hook up before the battle, and there's a romantic interest for Zack who conveniently pops into the story to do things like jailbreak his reverse-engineered-alien-tech-communicator-thingy so that he can circumvent the government's plans without them overhearing him most of the time and then pops back out until she's needed in her mech drone to save his butt (and then pops back in and out AGAIN).
Everything just seemed way too CONVENIENT, I guess. There weren't any real surprises. And all the pop culture references, which were so important to the story in Ready Player One, just weren't really needed here. It seemed like Cline thought to himself, "RP1 was super-successful and had all those pop culture references in it, so I must do that again in this next book."
Overall, I did really enjoy the book. But it was more of a summer-fluff-type read than the deep, thought-provoking joyride of Ready Player One. If you like scifi references, conspiracy theories, and gaming, I definitely recommend it. But don't expect anything life-changing, you know? May the force be with you.
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