Monday, Day 1

Here’s a recap of what I revealed yesterday:

 “I have had about 1.5 cups of cereal (didn’t measure exactly) with skim milk.  The cereal was a combination of Raisin Bran and Kellogg’s “low fat” Granola.

I had about 2 cups of coffee with Splenda and half ‘n half.

I didn’t do any exercise, except a walk to an from the train (that I do every day) totalling about 10 minutes of brisk walking.”

 But that’s not all! There was more eating, but not really any more exercise (except the walk to and from the train station)

At lunch I had:

• about 12oz of home made chicken and noodle soup.
• a bunch of baby carrots
• one smallish apple
• one individual size yogurt (lemon flavour, low fat)
• one bag of pita chips (this was unplanned, but I was still very hungry in the afternoon, thus this snack) (200 calories)

I had another cup of coffee with Splenda and half ‘n half in the afternoon.  It was either that or suffer from keyboard-face.

That held me through supper which was leftovers from our trip to the Windmill last Friday night.  I had 1/2 of a meatball “grinder” which was built on garlic bread. (about 5 inches long, with - a guess - about 4oz of meat / cheese).  I also helped Elizabeth eat her chicken and angel hair pasta dish.

Oh yeah.  While preparing the leftovers I snacked on 7 smoked almonds.  Yes, I counted.

Elizabeth and I started out Tuesday right by getting up and going for a walk.  Normally my exercise routine involves an episode of Battlestar Galactica and the elliptical trainer, but as the basement is a bit of a shambles right now, and everything is covered in drop cloths, we had to find an alternative.

When I got to work I had double coffee with Splenda and half ‘n half. (from now on I’ll just say “coffee” .. as I always prepare it the same way)  I also had about 1.5 cups of “Raisin Bran with Crunchy Granola - Shaw’s brand) with skim milk.

For lunch I have cheese ravioli with home made meat sauce. (a reasonable portion).  I have some options for side dishes, but we’ll see how it goes.

Tune in tomorrow for all the details!  Riveting stuff, I know.

Re-Dedication

My weight loss has pretty much stalled.  I have been hovering between 201lbs and 199lbs for the last few weeks, and while my weight isn’t heading in the wrong direction, I still have some work to do before I hit the “maintenance phase”.

At the same time, I have been slacking off on my blog contribution.  I’ve been posting a little less than once a week.  My posts have been uninspired at best and pathetic at worst.

Stalled weight loss.  Stalled blog.  Is there a connection? Perhaps.

Well, no more!

For the next week I will be posting every day.  I’ll try to put a little more of my self in the posts, and I will religiously document everything that passes my lips and every bit of exercise I do.  Maybe if I have to write about it I’ll be a little more honest.

So far today:

I have had about 1.5 cups of cereal (didn’t measure exactly) with skim milk.  The cereal was a combination of Raisin Bran and Kellogg’s “low fat” Granola.

I had about 2 cups of coffee with Splenda and half ‘n half.

I didn’t do any exercise, except a walk to an from the train (that I do every day) totalling about 10 minutes of brisk walking.

On the home renovation front, we have started on the basement.  Saturday we ripped out a couple of stud walls and plenty of panelling.  That revealed some pretty gross and moldy vapour barrier.   I tried my hand at joining copper pipe after cutting through one with my Sawzall. (oops)  I guess I needed a shower, right?  It turns out that working with copper is pretty easy, as long as you read the instructions!  Here’s a great tip if you need to solder a joint: Water is the enemy of a properly sealed joint.  Even small amounts of water can cause pin-hole leaks.  What do you do if you have a damp pipe on the inside?  Just stuff some bread in … that’ll give you some time to work on the joint, and when you turn the water back on the bread will dissolve.  Worked for me.

Check back.  I’ll be posting regular updates.

One more thing:  I’d like to be clear that Elizabeth is not a “bad wife”.  She’s been supportive of the “loser’s in law” project and she’s been kicking my butt to live up to my posting obligations.  She’s pointed out the positive results I’ve achieved so far and has complimented me on my new trim(mer) physique.

The Old Demons have returned - Movie review

Man, I had a pig-out day yesterday.

It started well, I got up immediately on the alarm, got going fast and hard on the treadmill, ate a healthy breakfast, and went to work.  Then it started…
    For decoration on the table during our daylong staff meeting, we had jelly beans, not my biggest favorite but you know…soon I had eaten every black jelly bean off the table and started working on the other colors…
   Lunch was salad (2nd serving of fruit/veggies) in the day, then manicotti with sausage and chicken alfredo.  The food was soooo good.  Went back for seconds on both manicotti and chicken, and the chicken was so good I went back for THIRDS.
   More jelly beans through the afternoon, then home for supper.  Did all right at supper, it was a pretty healthful meal and I had another 1.5 servings of vegetables.  Went to Malcolm’s declamation, saw him transformed on stage, get his superior rating for the second straight year, and stopped at Walmart with Grace on the way home.  While there, I gave in and bought myself a box of my favorite, GOod and Plentys, no fat but lots of sugar candy, which was a mistake.
  So I’m home and it is time I should go to bed and fall asleep reading but instead I laid on the couch and watched a brainless episode of Without a Trace (likely a redundancy, although I have never watched the show before.)  I planned to have V-8 as my evening snack, but that didn’t sound quite right so I decided to eat a 1/4 pound of cheddar cheese instead, (straight-no crackers) then have a big cup of spicy V-8, then, hey, why not, I’ll chase it with some Good and Plentys while watching Suns/Warriors on TBS.  Fun game, with lots of scoring, and before long it was halftime and I was falling asleep while STILL EATING GOOD AND PLENTYs.

These are the kind of days I am trying to eliminate.  And to cap it all off, I decided as I went to bed at 11:30 ish to leave the alarm off and potentially skip the exercise Friday morning.  Hey, in for a dime, in for a dollar right?

Thankfully, good habits intervened and I woke before 6 and still got 30 minutes in on the treadmill this morning, even without the alarm.

Bonus Movie Review - I finished Solaris with George Clooney on the treadmill this morning.  I will give it 6.5 stars out of 10, with bonus points for good intentions.  It is one of those movies that raises really interesting questions early on, and you hope that the answers are going to be at least somewhat as worthwhile as  the questions, or at least not a total cop-out.  IN the end, this one didn’t really answer the questions, but the way it handled them was better than giving them bad answers.   IF any of the 3 or 4 people who read this have seen it and want to give me your take on the ending, I would appreciate it.  I would in general recommend the movie if you like philosophical movies without totally clear definition between reality and perception, and can live with an ambiguous but intriguing ending.  Or if you want to see George Clooney’s back end, which shows up several times.

Not sure how this happened

but good news, I am down to 160.8 as of this morning, a drop of 1.4 lbs from last week in a week when I missed several exercise sessions. I also didn’t eat particularly well, although Tuesday was essentially a “met all my health goals” day. ( I exercised, had 5 servings of fruit and vegetables, and did not pig out serving wise on my meals.)

Also went to a wellness fair at my work today and the lady at the Curves table told me my body fat index was 24.2%. She said that was “excellent” although she noted that 15-20% is what they recommend for men. Also had my hearing checked and surprisingly passed without missing a tone.

So good day today, thanks elizabeth for the encouragement, and Colin, hope to see you continue posting here.

If fruit and vegies are good for you, why the gas?

I got back to better eating habits this week.  I had many pieces of fruit and a bucket load of carrots.  I like carrots, and I’m pretty sure they like me back.  I not sure about the nectarines.  I’ve had two of them this week and there is a pretty strong correlation to my degree of flatulence.

I also managed to exercise three times on the elliptical trainer and went for a long walk with Elizabeth.  I am most proud of another achievement this week: I’m posting on a Thursday, like I said I would when we started this thing.

This weekend we are taking a quick jaunt up to Canada for my mother’s 60th birthday.  We’re only a 7.5 hour drive away.  Definitely doable in a weekend.

Oh yeah … the weigh-in.  I hit 200lbs today, down 1 pound for the week.

Well I guess .2 lbs is still progress - need advice!

162.2 is the word on official weigh day - down .2 lbs but still down.  Of couse, I will have to do better if I still expect to hit 150 by Christmas.  So I need encouragment and advice:

• How do I avoid the eating binges that still plague me?
• How do I cut out the after-kid’s-bedtime snacks?
• Any really healthy snacks I can substitute with?
• How do I avoid eating as emotional therapy?
• How do you deal with that “I ate three healthy meals today and my body still thinks it is hungry even though it really isn’t” feeling?
• Should the superdelegates really vote for Hilary even if the popular vote went to Obama (as she suggested on the Today Show this morning?  Weren’t the Democrats very recently whining about winning the popular vote but losing the electoral vote?
• Can I sue the Girl Scouts for making my new healthier lifestyle more difficult
• Has anyone besides me actually watched “Invasion of the Bee Girls” all the way through and thought that it was a pretty enjoyable, really bad movie? Sort of a so-bad-its entertaining type?
• Good luck Brett Favre.  Thanks for showing us you can be a pro football player and still enjoy playing football.
• What do you suggest as far as starting to add a bit of weight training to morning walking?  Don’t suggest carrying weights…I tried it and didn’t like it.
• Any tips for being a better husband, and yes, Patty, you are welcome to post!  Patty has been very supportive of my new lifestyle and that helps a TON.

Oops .. I missed a week

I missed posting last week, so I’ll make it up by posting for two weeks today. I continue to plateau, and I even went up a little in my latest weigh-in.

Two Thursdays ago I weighted in at 199.5. The day before yesterday I was at 201. I guess that’s still in the margin of error of my scale, water retention etc., but it’s not an encouraging sign.

My exercise habits have been pretty good. I have still been averaging 3 workouts of 40 minutes each week. The not so good part has to do with eating. We hosted an Oscar party last weekend which kind of messed up our usual weekly strategy. The theme of the party was “There will be old men!”, so we served food that we thought suited old men. None of it was particularly healthy. We had chips and dip, jello, weenies in BBQ sauce, a cheese log and crackers (Ritz and Tricuit). In a nod towards good health we also provided mini carrots.

So. I am at the end of 8 weeks and I came up short of my goal of losing a total of 16lbs. I did lose 11.5, which ain’t half bad, but it’s definitely time to redouble my efforts.

I am going to set another 8 week goal, and this time I am lowering the target to 1lb per week. By the end of the next 8 weeks I intend to weigh 193lbs or less. I think that should be achievable.

On the home renovation front, the powder room is finished and we’re going to move on to the basement.

Inchworm, inchworm, measuring, john’s wei-ei-eight

Looks like the heady days of 2-3 pounds a week are long gone.  At my official mid-week weigh-in today, I came in at 162.4, down just .4 pounds this week.  And this was with 7 straight days of either treadmill or basketball.

On the positive side, I am still moving in the right direction, and am down 11.8 pounds since january 2nd.  My goals is still to hit (and maintain) 150 by Christmas, which is 12.8 more pounds.  If I keep going at .4 pounds per week, and I have 43 weeks left, I should make it to……<<grey cells straining>>  145.2 by Christmas.

So we will say we are still on schedule, and perhaps it is good that I am doing it slow and steady rather then dieting hard in an unsustainable manner, then shooting back up later.  Thats my story and I am sticking with it.

Next step is to find a way to incorporate some weight training, but that is for another day.

P.S. Finished Gone with the Wind.  It was well worth my time, if a trifle on the long side.  That Scarlett O’Hara is really a character unlike any other in any movie I have seen.

I’m a geek again

Peeked again on Sunday, midweek.  Up .8 pounds.  Shouldn’t do that.  Had a good eating day yesterday, no between meal snacks except v-8, two servings of fruit, and had Papajohns pizza for supper, but only 2.5 slices.

I think I have now exercised 9 days without a break - all treadmill except Sunday night when I played basketball with the other dads.  And I noticed, I can run up and down the court more than I used to without feeling like I was going to puke.  I even made some baskets on fast breaks near the end cuz I was still running.  (BTW, scored 11 points Sunday night, my best in a long time.)

Big presentation on Wednesday I am worried about - not as prepared as I would like and really want to do well.  Wish me luck on this, and on getting a consulting gig that looks good, but no contract signed yet, and would be some nice cash in the pocket.  Pray for me!

Don’t be a geek! No mid-week sneak peaks!

Waiting seven days for a weigh in is hard for me, impulsive fellow that I am.   So despite Wednesday being official weigh day, I pulled out the scale Monday while home celebrating Presidents Day.  NNNOOOOOOO!  I had gained about .6 pounds since wednesday.

So here is the deal.  It is much easier to eat healthy on weekdays, since I’m at work most of the day.  So wednesday is a good weigh-day, as opposed to Monday.  Turns out at my official weigh-in today, I was down .4 pounds from the previous week, to 162.8.  (Serious celebration coming when I get into the 150’s!)

Lesson learned, no midweek sneak peaks.

On a totally different note, I have been working on a project to celebrate and teach about Abraham Lincoln in the virtual world of Second Life.  We had two full-immersion balls for the area over the weekend, with period music and dance.  I played the part of Honest Abe, and here is a link to a great article about it in the Metaverse Messenger. http://www.metaversemessenger.com/pdf/2008/02/MM20080219.pdf