For some reason, I think week 12 probably past me a few weeks ago, but I'm feeling lazy and haven't taken the time to look up what it really is.
I am enthusiastic about this week and my eating and exercise routine. My oldest son has had little league football and he has had practice or games three times a week for the past couple of months. I have been using that, most likely, as an excuse to not exercise because my evenings have felt too busy. He had his last game on Thursday (undefeated this season... woohoo!) I also had a lot of stuff going on at work over the past few weeks, so that has just made me feel even more stressed. I am now finished, I feel like there is a load off of my shoulders and I feel good about this coming week. I have a week where I only have one evening planned to do stuff, and that's Wednesday.
This last week was more of the same as the past few weeks. I ate better this week than before I started this diet change, but it still wasn't stellar. Our young men's youth group had a trip to Columbia, South Carolina this last Saturday. A tradition of theirs is to go to a place called Cici's Pizza. If you take the time to look, you will see that it's not a place for a person that is dieting. I have to admit that I did eat better than some of the youth, though. Ian Mortenson from church ate 17 pieces and 4 breadsticks and John Lewis ate 20 pieces and I didn't catch from him how many breadsticks. I put that in there so that you will not cringe when I tell you about the 8 pieces that I had. (They are small pizzas, so that's roughly equivalent to a medium frozen pizza) That's not great, but I've done much worse.
I didn't exercise this week. Ian, from work, has said that he's excited about this week and nothing going on at work because that means that we can go down to the gym during lunch and work out. I'm going to hold him to that.
Tomorrow I'm taking a salad for lunch, it's already been made, and I'm going to munch on fruit. My mother-in-law, Sue, said that she was trying to snack on fruits and get the recommended allowance of fruits into her diet, and I'm going to try to do that this week.
I have to thank all of you for your encouragement in this past blog, it's very refreshing. Kristin, look out at Thanksgiving, because it's on!
I was able to lose weight this week, even with the Pizza Buffet, but I have to admit that this Sunday was fast Sunday and I weighed myself at the completion of my fast.
Y'all come back and see me next week now, ya hear?
Steve
Journey's starting weight: 260
Week's Starting weight: 245 Pounds
Current weight: 244 Pounds
Weight Loss last week: 1 Pound
Total weight loss: 16 pounds
% Weight Loss this last week: 0.41%
% Weight Loss total diet: 6.1%
Time jogging without stopping: N/A
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
Holy Cow, has it been a month already?
No really, has it been a month already? I have, as most of you have noticed, stopped blogging. I haven't made a conscious effort to stop blogging, it's been more of a procrastination. I have become so frustrated by my lack of weight loss that I've told myself that I was going to stop blogging until the next week when I could come back and talk about the weight that I've lost. The problem is that it's now been what, three weeks later? and I've stayed at the same weight. It was frustrating after the first two weeks, because I felt like I was actually trying, but then when I failed at those two weeks, I kind of gave up. I keep telling myself that I'm going to be able to start eating better tomorrow, or I will exercise tomorrow. Well, as Jon Russell has said, Steve, you can accomplish anything at all... tomorrow. How true that is.
I have failed all of you, I apologize, I gave up because of my frustration with the lifestyle change that starting unwinding slowly and then picked up momentum. I'll go back to what I said before, I like food and I like to eat a lot of it.
I have to recommit to this and recommit now, but I don't know how to do it when my desire is only at about 1% right now. You would think that I would be more into this when I look at myself in the mirror and realize that I'm as huge as I am, I haven't learned to motivate myself well when I lack all motivation. I guess that's one of life's biggest challenges, at least for me.
Here's to recommitting, I'm going to start again, I've tried to exercise 5 times in a week. For me, right now, that's just not feasible. I am going to start with three times a week until I find that I have more time in the evenings. As for eating, I'm going to start... again... eating a light breakfast and lunch and then a sensible dinner. I'll add in some healthy snacks in between the meals so that I'm not famished when I come home, which has been a real problem for me.
Let's try this again, please be patient with me for the past and I'll see if I can't get this ball rolling again.
Thanks for all of the feedback and the support, I would not be restarting this right now if it hadn't been for you all, I love and appreciate your comments, they are making all of the difference!
Steve
Journey's starting weight: 260
Week's Starting weight: 246 Pounds
Current weight: 245 Pounds
Weight Loss last week: 1 Pound
Total weight loss: 15 pounds
% Weight Loss this last week: 0.41%
% Weight Loss total diet: 5.8%
Time jogging without stopping: N/A
Wish me luck, scold me, or comment with anything you like, I'll take it all with a stiff upper lip.
Until next week
Slim Thoughts
I have failed all of you, I apologize, I gave up because of my frustration with the lifestyle change that starting unwinding slowly and then picked up momentum. I'll go back to what I said before, I like food and I like to eat a lot of it.
I have to recommit to this and recommit now, but I don't know how to do it when my desire is only at about 1% right now. You would think that I would be more into this when I look at myself in the mirror and realize that I'm as huge as I am, I haven't learned to motivate myself well when I lack all motivation. I guess that's one of life's biggest challenges, at least for me.
Here's to recommitting, I'm going to start again, I've tried to exercise 5 times in a week. For me, right now, that's just not feasible. I am going to start with three times a week until I find that I have more time in the evenings. As for eating, I'm going to start... again... eating a light breakfast and lunch and then a sensible dinner. I'll add in some healthy snacks in between the meals so that I'm not famished when I come home, which has been a real problem for me.
Let's try this again, please be patient with me for the past and I'll see if I can't get this ball rolling again.
Thanks for all of the feedback and the support, I would not be restarting this right now if it hadn't been for you all, I love and appreciate your comments, they are making all of the difference!
Steve
Journey's starting weight: 260
Week's Starting weight: 246 Pounds
Current weight: 245 Pounds
Weight Loss last week: 1 Pound
Total weight loss: 15 pounds
% Weight Loss this last week: 0.41%
% Weight Loss total diet: 5.8%
Time jogging without stopping: N/A
Wish me luck, scold me, or comment with anything you like, I'll take it all with a stiff upper lip.
Until next week
Slim Thoughts
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
It's finally time to write about week nine
You know, I have to be honest, I hate writing these blogs days after I am supposed to be writing. This week has been a little hectic for me. I've been too tired or not had any time to write in the evenings. I'm going to keep this one short, sorry if you really like reading these, I'll write more next week, I promise.
I made some goals last week. Here are the goals:
1. Nutrition: I made a goal to limit my portions and to eliminate drinking any soda. I made both of those goals. I did very well at my portion controls and I avoided all sodas. Giving up soda, even though I drink only diet sodas, was pretty difficult for me. I love my drinks. I did find, though, as a side effect that I drank lots of water.
2. Physical Fitness: I did not make this goal. I worked out twice last week. I am starting to feel frustrated with exercise. I would like to workout in the evenings, but haven't been able to find the time. I have either had company coming over or had football practice for Steven or didn't get home until late. I am realizing that the only way that I'm really going to be able to make exercise a daily part of my life is if I do it in the mornings, but I am not a morning person at all, and haven't had the discipline to get up early enough to do that.
3. Weight Loss: I did not make this goal either. I actually stayed exactly the same. I can't expect more, though, when I don't get to exercising.
So, I told you this was going to be short. Here's the final results:
Journey's starting weight: 260
Week's Starting weight: 246 Pounds
Current weight: 246 Pounds
Weight Loss last week: 0 Pound
Total weight loss: 14 pounds
% Weight Loss this last week: 0%
% Weight Loss total diet: 5.4%
Time jogging without stopping: 4:00
I made some goals last week. Here are the goals:
1. Nutrition: I made a goal to limit my portions and to eliminate drinking any soda. I made both of those goals. I did very well at my portion controls and I avoided all sodas. Giving up soda, even though I drink only diet sodas, was pretty difficult for me. I love my drinks. I did find, though, as a side effect that I drank lots of water.
2. Physical Fitness: I did not make this goal. I worked out twice last week. I am starting to feel frustrated with exercise. I would like to workout in the evenings, but haven't been able to find the time. I have either had company coming over or had football practice for Steven or didn't get home until late. I am realizing that the only way that I'm really going to be able to make exercise a daily part of my life is if I do it in the mornings, but I am not a morning person at all, and haven't had the discipline to get up early enough to do that.
3. Weight Loss: I did not make this goal either. I actually stayed exactly the same. I can't expect more, though, when I don't get to exercising.
So, I told you this was going to be short. Here's the final results:
Journey's starting weight: 260
Week's Starting weight: 246 Pounds
Current weight: 246 Pounds
Weight Loss last week: 0 Pound
Total weight loss: 14 pounds
% Weight Loss this last week: 0%
% Weight Loss total diet: 5.4%
Time jogging without stopping: 4:00
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Lots of Mistakes During Weeks Seven and Eight!
Okay, I'll have to start out by saying that I didn't really make lots of mistakes. I just needed something that was going to rhyme with eight. I only made a few mistakes, the problem was that I made those few mistakes over and over again. As you know from my last post, during weeks seven and eight I was on a business trip. Here's my problem with going on a business trip. I asked for some advice for those trips and got some great feedback. Some of the suggestions were to find a place with a kitchenette so that I could cook in. Other suggestions were to go to places that served healthy food so that I could eat something healthy off of the menu. All were great ideas and I had great intentions. I think there is a phrase, though, that says, the pathway to hell is paved with good intentions. Well, it can be said the same of diets... the pathway to gaining weight is paved with good intentions.
I stayed in a hotel called Homewood suites. I like staying there because they're generally nice hotels to stay in and they have all suites, so kitchenette and all. They also serve a light meal in the evenings. So when I got there, instead of going to the store and buying groceries, I was just going to eat their light dinner. It saves me money and usually tastes pretty good. My main problem with this trip is that I ate a decent breakfast in the mornings but then wasn't hungry during the day, so I only ate a few times during the day. So, when I got back from the conference in the evenings, I was usually pretty hungry. I would usually go to dinner around 6:30 and by that time I was starving. I also found that, while the meals are advertised as "light" they were anything but. I think they served meatloaf and mashed potatoes one day, taco bar another day, BBQ pulled pork sandwiches another day and hamburgers another, just to give you an idea of the menu. The food tasted wonderful and so portion control went out the window. I had two servings every time I went to dinner.
Staying there two weeks got me into some bad habits. I went, as most of you probably saw from my facebook post, and worked out once while I was there. I have to be honest, my wife and kids are a great motivator for me to workout. I am far more inclined to go workout when I have them expecting it every evening.
Those were my big killers for the week and did it in for my healthy habits last week... or lack of them.
I think I've done great at making large goals, the overall big goals for the end of this diet and the beginning of my new lifestyle, but I've not done so great at making smaller, weekly, goals. So, with that in mind, the bifurcation of my goals for this week is going to be focused on nutrition and physical fitness.
Nutrition
Eating: This week my goal is to have no more than one helping at dinner (where I eat the most) everyday this week.
Drinking: I got in a bad habit of drinking diet sodas. While they don't necessarily hurt me where weight loss is concerned, they certainly don't help. My goal for drinking is to avoid all sodas this week.
Physical Fitness
Exercise: My goal this week is to workout such that I get my heart rate up at least five days this week. Watch for my running entries in the top right hand corner of this blog.
Meeting my goals for being more healthy should lead to the overall goal for this week...
Weight Loss: My goal is to lose five pounds this week. I would like to lose seven, so that I will be on track for where I would have been had I done well these past two weeks. Plus, this is the beginning of my year-long diet and I need to lose all that I can now when I have more to lose.
That's my story for the last two weeks. Hope that you all cheer me on in the coming days. The vacation is over for me now.
Oh, and in case you didn't know, the word of the week is bifurcate: To split or divide into two.
Steve
The usual weekly statistics:
Journey's starting weight: 260
Week's Starting weight: 245 Pounds
Current weight: 246 Pounds
Weight Loss last week: -1 Pound (GAINED)
Total weight loss: 14 pounds
% Weight Loss this last week: -0.4%
% Weight Loss total diet: 5.4%
Time jogging without stopping: 3:00
I stayed in a hotel called Homewood suites. I like staying there because they're generally nice hotels to stay in and they have all suites, so kitchenette and all. They also serve a light meal in the evenings. So when I got there, instead of going to the store and buying groceries, I was just going to eat their light dinner. It saves me money and usually tastes pretty good. My main problem with this trip is that I ate a decent breakfast in the mornings but then wasn't hungry during the day, so I only ate a few times during the day. So, when I got back from the conference in the evenings, I was usually pretty hungry. I would usually go to dinner around 6:30 and by that time I was starving. I also found that, while the meals are advertised as "light" they were anything but. I think they served meatloaf and mashed potatoes one day, taco bar another day, BBQ pulled pork sandwiches another day and hamburgers another, just to give you an idea of the menu. The food tasted wonderful and so portion control went out the window. I had two servings every time I went to dinner.
Staying there two weeks got me into some bad habits. I went, as most of you probably saw from my facebook post, and worked out once while I was there. I have to be honest, my wife and kids are a great motivator for me to workout. I am far more inclined to go workout when I have them expecting it every evening.
Those were my big killers for the week and did it in for my healthy habits last week... or lack of them.
I think I've done great at making large goals, the overall big goals for the end of this diet and the beginning of my new lifestyle, but I've not done so great at making smaller, weekly, goals. So, with that in mind, the bifurcation of my goals for this week is going to be focused on nutrition and physical fitness.
Nutrition
Eating: This week my goal is to have no more than one helping at dinner (where I eat the most) everyday this week.
Drinking: I got in a bad habit of drinking diet sodas. While they don't necessarily hurt me where weight loss is concerned, they certainly don't help. My goal for drinking is to avoid all sodas this week.
Physical Fitness
Exercise: My goal this week is to workout such that I get my heart rate up at least five days this week. Watch for my running entries in the top right hand corner of this blog.
Meeting my goals for being more healthy should lead to the overall goal for this week...
Weight Loss: My goal is to lose five pounds this week. I would like to lose seven, so that I will be on track for where I would have been had I done well these past two weeks. Plus, this is the beginning of my year-long diet and I need to lose all that I can now when I have more to lose.
That's my story for the last two weeks. Hope that you all cheer me on in the coming days. The vacation is over for me now.
Oh, and in case you didn't know, the word of the week is bifurcate: To split or divide into two.
Steve
The usual weekly statistics:
Journey's starting weight: 260
Week's Starting weight: 245 Pounds
Current weight: 246 Pounds
Weight Loss last week: -1 Pound (GAINED)
Total weight loss: 14 pounds
% Weight Loss this last week: -0.4%
% Weight Loss total diet: 5.4%
Time jogging without stopping: 3:00
Monday, September 21, 2009
No Post for week 6
Sorry, I am on TDY this week and I will not be doing any type of progress post. The week was good for eating, but bad for exercise. I have started the next week out strong, though. If anyone still wants me to post, let me know and I'll do a post for last week!
Monday, September 14, 2009
Stayed Alive through Week Five!
Okay, okay, I get it. I'm a day late. I know. That seems to be the story of my life, a day late and a dollar short. Those stories, however, are for a different blog. I do have an excuse. I am on business this week and was traveling all day Sunday. I was just not up for blogging at 11:00 at night after I had traveled all day. I hope that you will excuse this fopaux.
I have to admit, this week wasn't too bad. I wish that I had exercised more. I exercised three times last week, as opposed to five times, which is my goal. The amount of times that I exercised is definitely an improvement over what I have been doing, but I do realize that "a little better" is not the same as my best. Please forgive me if I don't seem as bummed out about not exercising everyday this week, but the week wasn't a total failure.
For eating I controlled my portions well this week. I didn't make a concerted effort, it was more a guilt if I let myself get too full. That control on the portions is a great feat for me. I have been one, for as long as I can remember, that ate until I was stuffed. I still have people ask me if I usually ate until I was uncomfortable, and I would have to honestly say that I always ate until I was so full I couldn't eat anymore, but I loved that feeling, so I wasn't uncomfortable. That desire to stuff myself hasn't gone away, but I have found myself pausing and considering my actions now and sticking to one helping of food. I feel like this past week was truly a learning experience for me, another "ah hah" moment. I realize that Roger may have some validity to his statement when he says that weight loss is in large part due to portion control. I am actually enjoying exercising and am not using this as an excuse to cut that out. I have to admit, though, that an hour's worth of exercise isn't going to compensate for having that second helping of meatloaf and mashed potatoes at dinner.
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that there were several things that I also learned about myself:
1. Don’t allow myself to get to the “starving stage” in my day.
a. I definitely saw the bad in doing this. This past week I let myself get there twice and came home from work and ate more than I should have. I didn’t eat as bad as before the diet, but still worse than usual.
2. Make sure that I exercise in some way every day.
a. I did not do this. I love staying up late, and so I’m usually too tired to get up early and exercise. The problem with this is that with church youth activities, peewee football, and general working around the house activities, I don’t have the time that I would like in the evenings. So, I need to get to bed earlier so that I can get up and exercise on those days when I won’t have time in the evenings. That is my goal.
3. Say no to restaurants.
a. Did good on this one. I think I went out once and I ate pretty reasonably.
4. Don’t give up after a bad day.
a. Check… Hua?
5. Don’t eat when I’m depressed.
a. Okay, this one was a gag, anyway. If you know me, I’m rarely depressed. In fact, I eat whether or not I’m depressed.
I think that pretty much sums up my week. I, unfortunately, am not going to have a picture this week or next week due to my business trip. I won’t have a weigh in next week, either. I did weigh in this week before I left.
I do apologize for not having a picture, but I think this will be cool to see the difference after two weeks of being away on TDY.
Journey's starting weight: 260
Week's Starting weight: 248 Pounds
Current weight: 245 Pounds
Weight Loss last week: 3 Pound
Total weight loss: 15 pounds
% Weight Loss this last week: 1.2%
% Weight Loss total diet: 5.8%
Time jogging without stopping: 2:10
I have to admit, this week wasn't too bad. I wish that I had exercised more. I exercised three times last week, as opposed to five times, which is my goal. The amount of times that I exercised is definitely an improvement over what I have been doing, but I do realize that "a little better" is not the same as my best. Please forgive me if I don't seem as bummed out about not exercising everyday this week, but the week wasn't a total failure.
For eating I controlled my portions well this week. I didn't make a concerted effort, it was more a guilt if I let myself get too full. That control on the portions is a great feat for me. I have been one, for as long as I can remember, that ate until I was stuffed. I still have people ask me if I usually ate until I was uncomfortable, and I would have to honestly say that I always ate until I was so full I couldn't eat anymore, but I loved that feeling, so I wasn't uncomfortable. That desire to stuff myself hasn't gone away, but I have found myself pausing and considering my actions now and sticking to one helping of food. I feel like this past week was truly a learning experience for me, another "ah hah" moment. I realize that Roger may have some validity to his statement when he says that weight loss is in large part due to portion control. I am actually enjoying exercising and am not using this as an excuse to cut that out. I have to admit, though, that an hour's worth of exercise isn't going to compensate for having that second helping of meatloaf and mashed potatoes at dinner.
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that there were several things that I also learned about myself:
1. Don’t allow myself to get to the “starving stage” in my day.
a. I definitely saw the bad in doing this. This past week I let myself get there twice and came home from work and ate more than I should have. I didn’t eat as bad as before the diet, but still worse than usual.
2. Make sure that I exercise in some way every day.
a. I did not do this. I love staying up late, and so I’m usually too tired to get up early and exercise. The problem with this is that with church youth activities, peewee football, and general working around the house activities, I don’t have the time that I would like in the evenings. So, I need to get to bed earlier so that I can get up and exercise on those days when I won’t have time in the evenings. That is my goal.
3. Say no to restaurants.
a. Did good on this one. I think I went out once and I ate pretty reasonably.
4. Don’t give up after a bad day.
a. Check… Hua?
5. Don’t eat when I’m depressed.
a. Okay, this one was a gag, anyway. If you know me, I’m rarely depressed. In fact, I eat whether or not I’m depressed.
I think that pretty much sums up my week. I, unfortunately, am not going to have a picture this week or next week due to my business trip. I won’t have a weigh in next week, either. I did weigh in this week before I left.
I do apologize for not having a picture, but I think this will be cool to see the difference after two weeks of being away on TDY.
Journey's starting weight: 260
Week's Starting weight: 248 Pounds
Current weight: 245 Pounds
Weight Loss last week: 3 Pound
Total weight loss: 15 pounds
% Weight Loss this last week: 1.2%
% Weight Loss total diet: 5.8%
Time jogging without stopping: 2:10
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Week Four is out the door!
Well, another week on the diet has come and gone. Before I begin, my wife has told me that the blogs are too long. Actually, the exact words that she used were, "Don't be long winded again." I'm going to reduce the length of the overall blog and see what y'all think.
I believe that proper diet and exercise need to be a part of my weight loss. Although I haven't given up, this wasn't my strongest week. Let me tell you about my obstacles with the hope that you can give me suggestions about how you overcome those, or at least how you would overcome those if you were in my same situation.
This week was my anniversary. Being my anniversary I had to do a nice dinner for Teresa. I stayed home from work on Tuesday and then made dinner. I have several signature dishes and I made her one of those dishes this week. It wasn't the healthiest of dishes, but was primarily veggies, so not the worst, either. What I did have was a piece of cake that I bought, but it was a very small piece. So, all in all, Tuesday was not too bad, but not the typical salads that I had eaten in past weeks either. Roger said a couple of posts ago that a salad only diet wasn't going to be able to keep me interested. I have to say that I'm finding that is the truth. I enjoy the salads, but I would have a difficult time continuing with just salads. I've learned that I can eat more than just salads, I can even eat a little piece of meat or a small dessert, as long as it's not the norm and I remember portion control.
In your comments for this week, I would love to know what is your favorite healthy dish to eat. If you have the recipe, post the recipe, if not, just post the name or description.
The next difficulty that I had, which also had to do with my anniversary, was that Teresa and I went on a surprise (surprise to me) overnight outing on Friday. Because we were away from home, we went out to eat. We decided on Outback and I ordered a grilled Tilapia dish with a seared tuna, sushi style, for an appetizer. I thought that it was really healthy and because it was one of their healthy dishes, the portion sizes were not large, either.
I go on TDYs often enough (that's a business trip for all non-military people) for two to three weeks. Eating out everyday for two to three weeks has it's harmful effects. So my question is, How do you guys recommend doing things for someone who is on a diet and looking to eat healthy?
Last part is exercise. I did horrible this past week. I exercised on Tuesday only. I could go on and give you excuses, but I just didn't manage my time appropriately. I know that if Lee reads this, he's going to kill me at work and then harass me on the blog... or maybe the other way around.
Here's what is new with my exercise. I don't know if I've mentioned this before. I bought shoes that have an insert that syncs with my iPod touch. It measures my pace, my distance run and calories burned and stores them. It allows me to make goals and then tracks that progress. So, for September, for example, I would like to walk / jog a total of 30 miles or more. It also allows me to publish the results. So, I'm going to be starting to publish my workouts on there as well. With that, you can look at my results daily and then comment here or shoot me an email, or yell at me at work, if you find that I'm missing runs or workouts. I think that I have it setup so that it publishes it directly to facebook, but I'm not positive about that. If not, here is the link, feel free to come and check out what I've been doing.
Skinny Steve H's Runs
I really need your suggestions as to what you do to keep on a schedule or to make sure that you have the time. What do you do to make sure that exercise is a part of your daily routine, if anything?
Well, how was that for being shorter?
To reiterate, if you can think of anything here are the three things that I need / want from you in your comments.
1. Favorite healthy dishes, with recipe or description.
2. Your ideas of how to get the most out of two or three weeks of eating out.
3. What do you guys do to make sure that exercise remains a part of your schedule, what are your tricks of the trade?
Now onto my results:
Journey's starting weight: 260
Week's Starting weight: 250 Pounds
Current weight: 248 Pounds
Weight Loss last week: 2 Pound
Total weight loss: 12 pounds
% Weight Loss this last week: .8%
% Weight Loss total diet: 4.6%
Time jogging without stopping: 5:20
Thanks for following, tune in next week for week 5 reports!
I believe that proper diet and exercise need to be a part of my weight loss. Although I haven't given up, this wasn't my strongest week. Let me tell you about my obstacles with the hope that you can give me suggestions about how you overcome those, or at least how you would overcome those if you were in my same situation.
This week was my anniversary. Being my anniversary I had to do a nice dinner for Teresa. I stayed home from work on Tuesday and then made dinner. I have several signature dishes and I made her one of those dishes this week. It wasn't the healthiest of dishes, but was primarily veggies, so not the worst, either. What I did have was a piece of cake that I bought, but it was a very small piece. So, all in all, Tuesday was not too bad, but not the typical salads that I had eaten in past weeks either. Roger said a couple of posts ago that a salad only diet wasn't going to be able to keep me interested. I have to say that I'm finding that is the truth. I enjoy the salads, but I would have a difficult time continuing with just salads. I've learned that I can eat more than just salads, I can even eat a little piece of meat or a small dessert, as long as it's not the norm and I remember portion control.
In your comments for this week, I would love to know what is your favorite healthy dish to eat. If you have the recipe, post the recipe, if not, just post the name or description.
The next difficulty that I had, which also had to do with my anniversary, was that Teresa and I went on a surprise (surprise to me) overnight outing on Friday. Because we were away from home, we went out to eat. We decided on Outback and I ordered a grilled Tilapia dish with a seared tuna, sushi style, for an appetizer. I thought that it was really healthy and because it was one of their healthy dishes, the portion sizes were not large, either.
I go on TDYs often enough (that's a business trip for all non-military people) for two to three weeks. Eating out everyday for two to three weeks has it's harmful effects. So my question is, How do you guys recommend doing things for someone who is on a diet and looking to eat healthy?
Last part is exercise. I did horrible this past week. I exercised on Tuesday only. I could go on and give you excuses, but I just didn't manage my time appropriately. I know that if Lee reads this, he's going to kill me at work and then harass me on the blog... or maybe the other way around.
Here's what is new with my exercise. I don't know if I've mentioned this before. I bought shoes that have an insert that syncs with my iPod touch. It measures my pace, my distance run and calories burned and stores them. It allows me to make goals and then tracks that progress. So, for September, for example, I would like to walk / jog a total of 30 miles or more. It also allows me to publish the results. So, I'm going to be starting to publish my workouts on there as well. With that, you can look at my results daily and then comment here or shoot me an email, or yell at me at work, if you find that I'm missing runs or workouts. I think that I have it setup so that it publishes it directly to facebook, but I'm not positive about that. If not, here is the link, feel free to come and check out what I've been doing.
Skinny Steve H's Runs
I really need your suggestions as to what you do to keep on a schedule or to make sure that you have the time. What do you do to make sure that exercise is a part of your daily routine, if anything?
Well, how was that for being shorter?
To reiterate, if you can think of anything here are the three things that I need / want from you in your comments.
1. Favorite healthy dishes, with recipe or description.
2. Your ideas of how to get the most out of two or three weeks of eating out.
3. What do you guys do to make sure that exercise remains a part of your schedule, what are your tricks of the trade?
Now onto my results:
Journey's starting weight: 260
Week's Starting weight: 250 Pounds
Current weight: 248 Pounds
Weight Loss last week: 2 Pound
Total weight loss: 12 pounds
% Weight Loss this last week: .8%
% Weight Loss total diet: 4.6%
Time jogging without stopping: 5:20
Thanks for following, tune in next week for week 5 reports!
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Finally Free of Week Three
Wow, what a week. I really don't like it when I start out a week very strong and then have temptation after temptation to eat poorly and then, half way through the week, give in to bad eating. The major problem with that is that a part of me gives up for the rest of that week. I think that is what happened this last week.
Sunday through Tuesday were great. I stuck to the diet and exercised everyday. Sunday, granted, was just a walk with the family, but I still did great at everything... Then Wednesday hit. If I had just fallen a little on Wednesday, I think it would have been alright for the rest of the week, but, as I said above, one slide leads to another.
Wednesday was an activity for my oldest son, Steven. He is just starting cub scouts with church and there was a meet and greet type activity. The boys were supposed to help cook a side dish and then bring their dads to the activity for eating and such. So, Steven's favorite side dish is potato salad. His mom got the recipe from my mother and it's a great dish. Well, Steven and mom made the potato salad and then I went with him to scouts. At scouts we had a choice of hamburgers or hot dogs and then lots of sides. Now here's the crux of my situation. By the time that we finally made it to Steven's activity, it was 7:00pm. I had not eaten since around 11:00 when I had lunch. I was really hungry, and that was the death of me. I did fine on the main dish, having only one hamburger (believe me, I wanted more). My killer that evening was that I had three servings of mom's/Steven's potato salad, and then, when I got home that evening, I had another helping and finished it off. To make matters worse, I didn't exercise, because I came home and went straight to scouts with Steven.
Thursday was another matter, I ate good during the day and exercised. In fact, I need to share a new favorite of mine. I take a piece of whole wheat flat bread. It's about the same size as a flour tortilla, only thicker. I added 2 tbs of hummus, 2 slices of honey baked turkey breast and then roll it up like a wrap. I hate to say it, but I have started counting calories just a bit, so here's the breakdown of that concoction.
Flat Bread: 100 calories per slice
Hummus: 50 calories per 2 tbls
Honey Baked Turkey: 70 calories per 2 slices
Grand total: 220 Calories.
I ate one of those and it satisfied me for about 3 hours. When I got hungry again around 2:00, I ate another and it was enough to tide me over until dinner.
When I got home on Thursday we ate a sensible dinner of fish tacos. I had three of those. I've substituted plain non-fat yogurt for the sour cream and Teresa made a DELICIOUS pico de gallo for the salsa on those. After dinner we went on our "almost nightly" walk. I measured the distance we go, it's only around the block once. It's 1.4 miles and it takes us anywhere from 30 minutes to 45 minutes, depending on our pace. I also started timing myself for how long I can keep up a jog. Now, I know that my time is going to make most of you chuckle, I find it comical myself for how long I can keep up a jog, but it's a start and gives me a mile marker. I'll include that at the end.
Had the rest of the week continued on like Thursday, I think I would have been successful this week, but, alas, it did not. On Friday the guys at work decided that they wanted to go out to a Korean restaurant for lunch and I didn't resist. I went, had some Kim Chi (sp) and some wontons and so bulgogi (sp) with rice. It was a lunch portion, so not too much food. I had run out of my flat bread, so I couldn't have that for a snack when I got hungry again near 2:00. So when it was time to go home, I was really hungry. I usually call Teresa when I'm on my way home from work and Friday was no different. When I called her, she said that she hadn't made dinner yet and I suggested that we try Applebees, since we have coupons for the kids to get free meals. I know, it was twice in one day, bad enough to go out twice in one week. But, I rationalized, I would just order their salad, get a vinaigrette salad dressing and then call it an evening. Well, by the time we got to the restaurant and waited in line for a table, I was starving. Restaurants and starving are a poor combination. I order the fajitas and ate every last bit. We left the restaurant and, because I was stuffed, I chose not to go walking either.
Saturday was a little better. I ate a sensible breakfast and then a fitness bar for lunch. I worked outside in the yard most of the day. We decided to invite our neighbors over, though, so the strict diet food was not much of an option. We cooked tri tip. It was great, but I probably had six pieces. On top of that I had 1 1/2 baked potatoes and then some cake at the end and a salad and and and... We ate at 5:30 but then by the time that our friends left, it was too late to go walking, and the boys needed to go to bed. My exercise in working around the yard was going to have to be sufficient for the day. Then it's time to go to bed and I'm starving again. I got a salad out of the fridge and ate that. It had lettuce, chopped up steak and I added light ranch.
So, not surprising, after all of these setbacks, I was not happy with my weigh in this morning.
Here's what I've learned this week:
1. Don't allow myself to get to the starving stage. Eat less but more often
2. Make sure that I exercise in some way everyday
3. Say no to restaurants for the next month or so, to get myself situated on how I should be eating.
4. Don't give up after a bad day.
5. Don't eat when I'm depressed.
Okay, so number five doesn't really have anything to do with me, because I haven't been depressed and I didn't eat when I was. I added that more so that in case anyone reading this was depressed at my progress this week, they wouldn't be tempted to eat. :)
As for this evening, I should have gone walking again, but it started raining and we had a bit of a storm that lasted until late, so we didn't go. I did take some cool pictures, so I apologize for adding pictures that have nothing to do with my diet, but I thought that they were beautiful. There's a few of them. They were all taken after it was dark and the sun had completely set. If you'll look at them, you'll see a shiny spot in the upper right hand corner of the pictures... That's Venus, pretty cool!
Onto the results of this week's endeavors:
Journey's starting weight: 260
Week's Starting weight: 251 Pounds
Current weight: 250 Pounds
Weight Loss last week: 1 Pound
Total weight loss: 10 pounds
% Weight Loss this last week: .4%
% Weight Loss total diet: 3.8%
Time jogging without stopping: 2:40
Now, the next pictures were of the amazing thunderstorm that passed through for a couple of hours this evening. Enjoy!
Steve
Sunday through Tuesday were great. I stuck to the diet and exercised everyday. Sunday, granted, was just a walk with the family, but I still did great at everything... Then Wednesday hit. If I had just fallen a little on Wednesday, I think it would have been alright for the rest of the week, but, as I said above, one slide leads to another.
Wednesday was an activity for my oldest son, Steven. He is just starting cub scouts with church and there was a meet and greet type activity. The boys were supposed to help cook a side dish and then bring their dads to the activity for eating and such. So, Steven's favorite side dish is potato salad. His mom got the recipe from my mother and it's a great dish. Well, Steven and mom made the potato salad and then I went with him to scouts. At scouts we had a choice of hamburgers or hot dogs and then lots of sides. Now here's the crux of my situation. By the time that we finally made it to Steven's activity, it was 7:00pm. I had not eaten since around 11:00 when I had lunch. I was really hungry, and that was the death of me. I did fine on the main dish, having only one hamburger (believe me, I wanted more). My killer that evening was that I had three servings of mom's/Steven's potato salad, and then, when I got home that evening, I had another helping and finished it off. To make matters worse, I didn't exercise, because I came home and went straight to scouts with Steven.
Thursday was another matter, I ate good during the day and exercised. In fact, I need to share a new favorite of mine. I take a piece of whole wheat flat bread. It's about the same size as a flour tortilla, only thicker. I added 2 tbs of hummus, 2 slices of honey baked turkey breast and then roll it up like a wrap. I hate to say it, but I have started counting calories just a bit, so here's the breakdown of that concoction.
Flat Bread: 100 calories per slice
Hummus: 50 calories per 2 tbls
Honey Baked Turkey: 70 calories per 2 slices
Grand total: 220 Calories.
I ate one of those and it satisfied me for about 3 hours. When I got hungry again around 2:00, I ate another and it was enough to tide me over until dinner.
When I got home on Thursday we ate a sensible dinner of fish tacos. I had three of those. I've substituted plain non-fat yogurt for the sour cream and Teresa made a DELICIOUS pico de gallo for the salsa on those. After dinner we went on our "almost nightly" walk. I measured the distance we go, it's only around the block once. It's 1.4 miles and it takes us anywhere from 30 minutes to 45 minutes, depending on our pace. I also started timing myself for how long I can keep up a jog. Now, I know that my time is going to make most of you chuckle, I find it comical myself for how long I can keep up a jog, but it's a start and gives me a mile marker. I'll include that at the end.
Had the rest of the week continued on like Thursday, I think I would have been successful this week, but, alas, it did not. On Friday the guys at work decided that they wanted to go out to a Korean restaurant for lunch and I didn't resist. I went, had some Kim Chi (sp) and some wontons and so bulgogi (sp) with rice. It was a lunch portion, so not too much food. I had run out of my flat bread, so I couldn't have that for a snack when I got hungry again near 2:00. So when it was time to go home, I was really hungry. I usually call Teresa when I'm on my way home from work and Friday was no different. When I called her, she said that she hadn't made dinner yet and I suggested that we try Applebees, since we have coupons for the kids to get free meals. I know, it was twice in one day, bad enough to go out twice in one week. But, I rationalized, I would just order their salad, get a vinaigrette salad dressing and then call it an evening. Well, by the time we got to the restaurant and waited in line for a table, I was starving. Restaurants and starving are a poor combination. I order the fajitas and ate every last bit. We left the restaurant and, because I was stuffed, I chose not to go walking either.
Saturday was a little better. I ate a sensible breakfast and then a fitness bar for lunch. I worked outside in the yard most of the day. We decided to invite our neighbors over, though, so the strict diet food was not much of an option. We cooked tri tip. It was great, but I probably had six pieces. On top of that I had 1 1/2 baked potatoes and then some cake at the end and a salad and and and... We ate at 5:30 but then by the time that our friends left, it was too late to go walking, and the boys needed to go to bed. My exercise in working around the yard was going to have to be sufficient for the day. Then it's time to go to bed and I'm starving again. I got a salad out of the fridge and ate that. It had lettuce, chopped up steak and I added light ranch.
So, not surprising, after all of these setbacks, I was not happy with my weigh in this morning.
Here's what I've learned this week:
1. Don't allow myself to get to the starving stage. Eat less but more often
2. Make sure that I exercise in some way everyday
3. Say no to restaurants for the next month or so, to get myself situated on how I should be eating.
4. Don't give up after a bad day.
5. Don't eat when I'm depressed.
Okay, so number five doesn't really have anything to do with me, because I haven't been depressed and I didn't eat when I was. I added that more so that in case anyone reading this was depressed at my progress this week, they wouldn't be tempted to eat. :)
As for this evening, I should have gone walking again, but it started raining and we had a bit of a storm that lasted until late, so we didn't go. I did take some cool pictures, so I apologize for adding pictures that have nothing to do with my diet, but I thought that they were beautiful. There's a few of them. They were all taken after it was dark and the sun had completely set. If you'll look at them, you'll see a shiny spot in the upper right hand corner of the pictures... That's Venus, pretty cool!
Onto the results of this week's endeavors:
Journey's starting weight: 260
Week's Starting weight: 251 Pounds
Current weight: 250 Pounds
Weight Loss last week: 1 Pound
Total weight loss: 10 pounds
% Weight Loss this last week: .4%
% Weight Loss total diet: 3.8%
Time jogging without stopping: 2:40
Now, the next pictures were of the amazing thunderstorm that passed through for a couple of hours this evening. Enjoy!
Steve
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Week Two, Now Through!
Well hello faithful followers, all 8 of you! I'm sure that you have been waiting with much anticipation for this week's weigh in.
As I write this blog, I have to say that I'm pretty amazed by television writers that, on a daily or weekly basis, write television shows, come up with new stories and captivate audiences week after week. I'm sitting here now, trying to think about what to say and realizing that I don't have a lot to say about this week. Maybe once my fingers begin pressing keys, they'll take over and my brain won't have to think about what should be typed. At the least I hope that I can keep your attention until the end of the blog.
In my life, I've lost a significant amount of weight two different times. The first time was when I was 19. I weighed 210 pounds and went on a church mission to Venezuela. Venezuela is the northern most country of South America. When I arrived I had a rude awakening about life outside of the United States. In South America wealthy people have cars. Everyone else rides public transportation, unless you can't afford that, and in that case you walk. Well, even though we were missionaries and, most of us, from the United States, we didn't have the luxuries that most Americans have when they travel. We used public transportation. When we ran out of money, which was not uncommon, or when the public transportation was offline for whatever reason, we walked. As missionaries, we had areas that we were assigned to work in from one to six months. I remember one week when the bus drivers were on strike in a place called Barquisimeto. We lived 3 miles outside of our work areas. We had to walk to our area to work and then walk from one side of the city to the next. We walked an average of 12 to 14 miles in a day during that week, whereas a typical area would only require 6 to 8 miles a day. As you can imagine, going from no exercise to 14 miles a day is going to do wonders for your body. When I returned from the mission, two years later, I weighed 152 pounds. Contrast the walking that we did as missionaries in South America, or the amount of bike riding that people did in the last place that we lived in Germany with the our lackadaisical attitudes here.
I tell this story to be comical, but this proves my point as to how comfortable we are with our lifestyle in America. I won't mention anyone by name, but I was talking to someone that I care about deeply from Bakersfield, California. She was returning home from somewhere and pulled into her driveway with her car. When she parked, she realized that she forgot to check the mail. Instead of getting out of the car and walking to the end of the driveway and getting the mail, she put the car in reverse and pulled in front of the mailbox, got the mail and then pulled back into the driveway. An just to clear things up, her driveway was the length of three cars. Sorry, I had to tell the story, thinking about how comical that is and it plays into the theme of this week of exercise.
After being back from my mission for a couple of years, I started gaining weight again. I got back up to the 200 pound mark and shortly after I joined the Army. It was in basic training and advanced training that I lost a significant amount of weight for the second time, losing 40 pounds.
Well, needless to say, I have gained all of that weight back, and more. During this week and thinking about those times that I've lost weight, I've had an epiphany, one of my few "ah hah" moments. I've realized that I can eat what I want, if I'm willing to do the exercise necessary to burn off those extra calories consumed. With both of my weight loss experiences, the only thing that has changed was the amount of daily physical exertion that I engaged in. When I finished my mission, I stopped walking and hiking and moving around so much. When I finished with the Army, I stopped exercising daily and worrying about my weight. Now, I don't use this as justification to eat what I want, but as a realization that I can lose weight, without starving myself, if just make exercise a part of my daily routine.
I mentioned in other posts that I love food, and I do. I hate starving myself, too. To lose weight, without exercising, I'm going to have to starve myself, and I think I will eventually give up if I do that. If I am going to lose weight and ... here's the important part... keep it off, I MUST exercise regularly. Now, this may be different with different people, but with me, I will need to exercise in order to lose the weight that I want, and I will have to exercise in order to maintain the weight that I want once I get there. As I go along this journey, I am going to continue to make changes to my diet, which will help me to continue to lose weight.
I think that I mentioned last week that I felt that this week, of all weeks, would be the most difficult. I said that because I have tried several fad diets and with all of them I have crashed and burned on week 2. I have done Atkins diet for 2 weeks, South Beach diet for two weeks, weight watchers for two weeks, fit for life for two weeks, and several others that I don't recall. I've changed my outlook now, I think every week is going to present its challenges and difficulties. I fully expect to go through the weeks over the next year and have failures, but I must convince myself to keep going every week, or else I will be right back up there at 260 pounds and living a less fulfilling life.
Well, I think I'm done philosophizing for this post. Here is how my week went.
I started exercising, as I mentioned in one of my comments this week. Teresa is a great motivator. She goes walking everyday, whether or not I'm there, and is always setting the example for me with exercise. So, this week I exercised 5 days out of the week. We walk for about 30 to 45 minutes around the block (Hey, that block is pretty big). It's probably a little more than a mile. I try to change it up a little bit and have started sprinting between light poles with my oldest son, Steven. Thank heavens I'm still able to beat him. He's a little slower than me and it's nice to rub his nose in his failure. He's gotten to be a little cocky and it's nice to humble him every now and then. All of his brothers ride their bikes and so I've not been able to beat them. Steven's bike just got fixed on Saturday, and now I'm not able to beat him anymore, but it was good while it lasted. I take solace in knowing that, since I'm bigger than him, if he annoys me too much I can just tell him to get off of his bike and sprint with me. It's nice being the boss and being able to affect so much control over him. I don't know what I'm going to do when he gets older and starts showing more defiance. Well, back to exercising. I said that I like to change it up a bit. This week I also tried putting on roller blades that I hadn't worn in years. Holy cow, if your as out of shape as I am and would like to roller blade, get ready for some sore shins, calves, back, stomach, neck, arms (from holding on to things) and lungs. That was a beat down like no other beat down on me in five years. Here is me getting ready to give myself a near heart attack.
As far as food goes this week, I've done better, I've done worse. I need to improve my eating habits still. I got up for work a little late every day this week and didn't have a salad ready for me to go to work. Three times I went out to a restaurant for lunch. Twice I went to Subway and had their Chicken Breast Sub. I would have been fine, had I only had the 6" sub, but I got the foot long both times. The other restaurant that I went to was Shoney's buffet. Buffets, while on a diet, are bad, ok? They're just bad. I had two plates of salad and then, to top it off, had some green beans, broccoli and mashed potatoes with gravy. I ate reasonably because my plates were small, but the mashed potatoes and gravy are diet killers.
So here I am on Sunday, a week where I should have eaten better, but I started exercising more, and here are the results of my journey for week 2.
Starting weight: 253 Pounds
Current weight: 251 Pounds
Weight Loss last week: 2 Pounds
Total weight loss: 9 pounds
% Weight Loss this last week: .8%
% Weight Loss total diet: 3.46%
It's not great, but a weight loss beats a weight gain every time. And I did mention that I planned to take a year to accomplish my goal.
Thanks for following. Look for more again next Sunday!
~S
As I write this blog, I have to say that I'm pretty amazed by television writers that, on a daily or weekly basis, write television shows, come up with new stories and captivate audiences week after week. I'm sitting here now, trying to think about what to say and realizing that I don't have a lot to say about this week. Maybe once my fingers begin pressing keys, they'll take over and my brain won't have to think about what should be typed. At the least I hope that I can keep your attention until the end of the blog.
In my life, I've lost a significant amount of weight two different times. The first time was when I was 19. I weighed 210 pounds and went on a church mission to Venezuela. Venezuela is the northern most country of South America. When I arrived I had a rude awakening about life outside of the United States. In South America wealthy people have cars. Everyone else rides public transportation, unless you can't afford that, and in that case you walk. Well, even though we were missionaries and, most of us, from the United States, we didn't have the luxuries that most Americans have when they travel. We used public transportation. When we ran out of money, which was not uncommon, or when the public transportation was offline for whatever reason, we walked. As missionaries, we had areas that we were assigned to work in from one to six months. I remember one week when the bus drivers were on strike in a place called Barquisimeto. We lived 3 miles outside of our work areas. We had to walk to our area to work and then walk from one side of the city to the next. We walked an average of 12 to 14 miles in a day during that week, whereas a typical area would only require 6 to 8 miles a day. As you can imagine, going from no exercise to 14 miles a day is going to do wonders for your body. When I returned from the mission, two years later, I weighed 152 pounds. Contrast the walking that we did as missionaries in South America, or the amount of bike riding that people did in the last place that we lived in Germany with the our lackadaisical attitudes here.
I tell this story to be comical, but this proves my point as to how comfortable we are with our lifestyle in America. I won't mention anyone by name, but I was talking to someone that I care about deeply from Bakersfield, California. She was returning home from somewhere and pulled into her driveway with her car. When she parked, she realized that she forgot to check the mail. Instead of getting out of the car and walking to the end of the driveway and getting the mail, she put the car in reverse and pulled in front of the mailbox, got the mail and then pulled back into the driveway. An just to clear things up, her driveway was the length of three cars. Sorry, I had to tell the story, thinking about how comical that is and it plays into the theme of this week of exercise.
After being back from my mission for a couple of years, I started gaining weight again. I got back up to the 200 pound mark and shortly after I joined the Army. It was in basic training and advanced training that I lost a significant amount of weight for the second time, losing 40 pounds.
Well, needless to say, I have gained all of that weight back, and more. During this week and thinking about those times that I've lost weight, I've had an epiphany, one of my few "ah hah" moments. I've realized that I can eat what I want, if I'm willing to do the exercise necessary to burn off those extra calories consumed. With both of my weight loss experiences, the only thing that has changed was the amount of daily physical exertion that I engaged in. When I finished my mission, I stopped walking and hiking and moving around so much. When I finished with the Army, I stopped exercising daily and worrying about my weight. Now, I don't use this as justification to eat what I want, but as a realization that I can lose weight, without starving myself, if just make exercise a part of my daily routine.
I mentioned in other posts that I love food, and I do. I hate starving myself, too. To lose weight, without exercising, I'm going to have to starve myself, and I think I will eventually give up if I do that. If I am going to lose weight and ... here's the important part... keep it off, I MUST exercise regularly. Now, this may be different with different people, but with me, I will need to exercise in order to lose the weight that I want, and I will have to exercise in order to maintain the weight that I want once I get there. As I go along this journey, I am going to continue to make changes to my diet, which will help me to continue to lose weight.
I think that I mentioned last week that I felt that this week, of all weeks, would be the most difficult. I said that because I have tried several fad diets and with all of them I have crashed and burned on week 2. I have done Atkins diet for 2 weeks, South Beach diet for two weeks, weight watchers for two weeks, fit for life for two weeks, and several others that I don't recall. I've changed my outlook now, I think every week is going to present its challenges and difficulties. I fully expect to go through the weeks over the next year and have failures, but I must convince myself to keep going every week, or else I will be right back up there at 260 pounds and living a less fulfilling life.
Well, I think I'm done philosophizing for this post. Here is how my week went.
I started exercising, as I mentioned in one of my comments this week. Teresa is a great motivator. She goes walking everyday, whether or not I'm there, and is always setting the example for me with exercise. So, this week I exercised 5 days out of the week. We walk for about 30 to 45 minutes around the block (Hey, that block is pretty big). It's probably a little more than a mile. I try to change it up a little bit and have started sprinting between light poles with my oldest son, Steven. Thank heavens I'm still able to beat him. He's a little slower than me and it's nice to rub his nose in his failure. He's gotten to be a little cocky and it's nice to humble him every now and then. All of his brothers ride their bikes and so I've not been able to beat them. Steven's bike just got fixed on Saturday, and now I'm not able to beat him anymore, but it was good while it lasted. I take solace in knowing that, since I'm bigger than him, if he annoys me too much I can just tell him to get off of his bike and sprint with me. It's nice being the boss and being able to affect so much control over him. I don't know what I'm going to do when he gets older and starts showing more defiance. Well, back to exercising. I said that I like to change it up a bit. This week I also tried putting on roller blades that I hadn't worn in years. Holy cow, if your as out of shape as I am and would like to roller blade, get ready for some sore shins, calves, back, stomach, neck, arms (from holding on to things) and lungs. That was a beat down like no other beat down on me in five years. Here is me getting ready to give myself a near heart attack.
As far as food goes this week, I've done better, I've done worse. I need to improve my eating habits still. I got up for work a little late every day this week and didn't have a salad ready for me to go to work. Three times I went out to a restaurant for lunch. Twice I went to Subway and had their Chicken Breast Sub. I would have been fine, had I only had the 6" sub, but I got the foot long both times. The other restaurant that I went to was Shoney's buffet. Buffets, while on a diet, are bad, ok? They're just bad. I had two plates of salad and then, to top it off, had some green beans, broccoli and mashed potatoes with gravy. I ate reasonably because my plates were small, but the mashed potatoes and gravy are diet killers.
So here I am on Sunday, a week where I should have eaten better, but I started exercising more, and here are the results of my journey for week 2.
Starting weight: 253 Pounds
Current weight: 251 Pounds
Weight Loss last week: 2 Pounds
Total weight loss: 9 pounds
% Weight Loss this last week: .8%
% Weight Loss total diet: 3.46%
It's not great, but a weight loss beats a weight gain every time. And I did mention that I planned to take a year to accomplish my goal.
Thanks for following. Look for more again next Sunday!
~S
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Week One, is now done!
Before you continue, I must warn you that there is an explicit image below of a beached whale standing on a scale. He has pants on, but no shirt, and it's a sight for sore eyes!
Well, week one passed with a modicum of success. Let me take the time to highlight last week's accomplishments. Last week, being at the beginning of the competition, I was the most excited and the most pumped about my ability to lose weight and have a change of lifestyle that will bring me the type of body that I want... permanently. The thrill of making that decision was strongest during the first 6 days, with the excitement of being thin fading and the realization of what "losing weight" really entails steadily growing. After day 6 my determination started to wane, especially, like I said yesterday, with the evils of restaurants tempting me. Okay, they're not so evil, they are just bad when it comes to trying to change your lifestyle.
I had a temporary change in schedule for the last two weeks. I started work at 3:00pm and then went until 11:30. I thought that this would wreak havoc on starting a diet, but it actually worked out well. I ate a reasonable breakfast and then a salad for lunch and then went to work and ate a salad for dinner at work. It was actually quite easy to follow the schedule. My worry is, though, now that I'm changing back to a normal nine-to-five schedule that I'll have a more difficult time.
This coming week, out of all weeks, will be the one that is going to be most difficult. My problem with food lies in three primary areas:
Well, enough about my last week. You know what I'm up against this week to come. To end this week, I'll finish it off with my results of my weigh-in.
Without Further Ado... And no, I didn't take this picture on the 31st of January, 2008, I just haven't set the date on the camera yet. I'll get to it for next week, I promise!
Starting weight: 260 Pounds
Current weight: 253 Pounds
Total Weight Loss: 7 Pounds
% Weight Loss this last week: 2.7%
% Weight Loss total Diet: 2.7%
Well, wish me luck, this week will try and test my will!
TTFN
Steve
Well, week one passed with a modicum of success. Let me take the time to highlight last week's accomplishments. Last week, being at the beginning of the competition, I was the most excited and the most pumped about my ability to lose weight and have a change of lifestyle that will bring me the type of body that I want... permanently. The thrill of making that decision was strongest during the first 6 days, with the excitement of being thin fading and the realization of what "losing weight" really entails steadily growing. After day 6 my determination started to wane, especially, like I said yesterday, with the evils of restaurants tempting me. Okay, they're not so evil, they are just bad when it comes to trying to change your lifestyle.
I had a temporary change in schedule for the last two weeks. I started work at 3:00pm and then went until 11:30. I thought that this would wreak havoc on starting a diet, but it actually worked out well. I ate a reasonable breakfast and then a salad for lunch and then went to work and ate a salad for dinner at work. It was actually quite easy to follow the schedule. My worry is, though, now that I'm changing back to a normal nine-to-five schedule that I'll have a more difficult time.
This coming week, out of all weeks, will be the one that is going to be most difficult. My problem with food lies in three primary areas:
- Addiction to Food: I love food. Not only do I love food, I love ALL food. I love the taste of food, I love the smell of food, I love the look of food, I love to cook it, I love to eat it, I love to... okay, I think I'm being counterproductive now. Suffice it to say, I love food. I honestly think that my love of food will have to be conquered before I will be successful at being healthy.
- Portion control: Ahh, what a great problem to have when I'm addicted to food like I am. I don't want the 9 oz steak, which may fill me up. I want the 22oz steak which I can gorge on and fill me so full that I want to vomit for 3 days after if anyone mentions steak. Don't believe me? I ate here (The American Steakhouse), three times in the past year. Look at their menu and go down until you see the 650 gram rib eye steak. I've eaten that twice. 650 grams = 22.93 oz. That's right, I ate 1.5 pounds of steak and had room for sides and drinks. Again, let me reiterate, I love food and I love LOTS of it!
- Monkey see; Monkey Eat: Okay, that is a twist off of the adage monkey see; monkey do, but it fits. Teresa has pointed it out to me on several occasions. If I see food laying around, I eat it.
Well, enough about my last week. You know what I'm up against this week to come. To end this week, I'll finish it off with my results of my weigh-in.
Without Further Ado... And no, I didn't take this picture on the 31st of January, 2008, I just haven't set the date on the camera yet. I'll get to it for next week, I promise!
Starting weight: 260 Pounds
Current weight: 253 Pounds
Total Weight Loss: 7 Pounds
% Weight Loss this last week: 2.7%
% Weight Loss total Diet: 2.7%
Well, wish me luck, this week will try and test my will!
TTFN
Steve
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Week One, Almost Done!
Well, I've come to my first mile stone. One week on my journey to change my life permanently. This week has, for the most part, gone by very smoothly. Today was the only day that I didn't go 100% of how I should have eaten. Teresa got a babysitter and asked me out on a date. Well, I can't turn that down. We're in a small Georgia town and about the only thing that there is to do here is eat or go to a movie. The only movies that are playing here, that what we'd be willing to watch, were Julie and Julia (I think that's the name of it) and then The Time Traveler's Wife. Well, I wasn't interested in either one of those. Can you guess what we did then? That's right, we went out to eat. Let me tell you, for those of you who have dieted before, restaurants are diet KILLERS. Needless to say, I didn't eat as well as I could have. We went to a steakhouse (http://www.millhousesteakhouse.net/), on top of that, too. I got a pound of crab legs and steamed broccoli. I also had two bread sticks. So, I didn't eat as well as I should have.
Anyway, other than that, the eating has gone well. I only exercised once this week, which I am going to start doing more of next week.
I'm not writing anymore tonight, only to say that tomorrow is my first weigh in with pictures. Stop by tomorrow evening and see the weight.
I told a friend that I didn't think I was going to lose weight tomorrow. I haven't looked at the scale yet, so it will be just as much of a surprise for me as for you. I wanted this first week to be focused on changing my eating habits of eating primarily meat to primarily fruits and veggies. I did horrible with fruits, almost ate exclusively veggies, which I will need to change for the coming weeks, too.
So, until tomorrow, hold your breath and wish me the best!
Steve
Anyway, other than that, the eating has gone well. I only exercised once this week, which I am going to start doing more of next week.
I'm not writing anymore tonight, only to say that tomorrow is my first weigh in with pictures. Stop by tomorrow evening and see the weight.
I told a friend that I didn't think I was going to lose weight tomorrow. I haven't looked at the scale yet, so it will be just as much of a surprise for me as for you. I wanted this first week to be focused on changing my eating habits of eating primarily meat to primarily fruits and veggies. I did horrible with fruits, almost ate exclusively veggies, which I will need to change for the coming weeks, too.
So, until tomorrow, hold your breath and wish me the best!
Steve
Monday, August 10, 2009
I loved all of the supportive emails, comments and facebook posts. I am thrilled that so many people think highly enough of me to comment. For those who've committed to lose the weight with me, welcome aboard. Let's be strong and fight this together!
Now, for the rest of my day, this had been relatively easy to start my lifestyle change, until the end.
I'm working a 3:00 pm to 11:30 pm schedule this week. That really messes with the eating schedule, which I would like to get on to help me make these adjustments. My problem is that I get home from work around 12:30 and by that time I am famished. I had wanted to not eat anything in the evening, but I had to break that due to the schedule. Next week, I'll start sticking to the goal of nothing after 7:00 pm.
A friend suggested that I keep a notebook handy and write down everything that I eat for the next couple of weeks. I think that's a marvelous idea, here is what I ate today.
Breakfast:
Bowl of corn chex cereal and 1 cup of milk
Lunch:
A HUGE salad, and I do mean huge. Here's what the salad had in it...
1/4 head of iceberg lettuce
1 cup chopped ham
1/4 cup chopped grilled chicken
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 can of corn
10 baby carrots
1/3 cup croutons
3 tablespoons ranch dressing
Dinner:
Oscar Meyer Deli Creation Ham and Swiss
Candy:
1 hard candy mint (I had to freshen up my breath)
After hours:
1 bowl of 1/2 grapenuts and 1/2 corn chex cereals with 1 cup milk
So, before you go off on me about the late night meal or the processed food with the Deli Creations, let me tell you what I had in one day, just last week:
Breakfast:
2 Ham and Cheese sandwiches
Snacks: 2 brownies left over from the night before
Lunch:
3 cups of chicken, broccoli and cheese casserole
Dinner:
2 medium pizzas with extra cheese, sausage and mushrooms.
Now, this is very embarrassing that I ate that much in a single day, but I use it so that when you compare that to what I ate today, you should see a dramatic difference.
Now, enough of food. Let's move on to exercise.
My father in law, Roger, suggested that I exercise for 1 hour a day, three times a week. He has lost a lot of weight, even after being on a heart transplant list because of a diseased heart. He sets a remarkable example for me to follow. So, although I didn't go for an hour, I did keep my heart rate up by walking on the treadmill at work for 30 minutes.
Keep the comments coming, pipe in when you have suggestions or anything to say.
Steve
Now, for the rest of my day, this had been relatively easy to start my lifestyle change, until the end.
I'm working a 3:00 pm to 11:30 pm schedule this week. That really messes with the eating schedule, which I would like to get on to help me make these adjustments. My problem is that I get home from work around 12:30 and by that time I am famished. I had wanted to not eat anything in the evening, but I had to break that due to the schedule. Next week, I'll start sticking to the goal of nothing after 7:00 pm.
A friend suggested that I keep a notebook handy and write down everything that I eat for the next couple of weeks. I think that's a marvelous idea, here is what I ate today.
Breakfast:
Bowl of corn chex cereal and 1 cup of milk
Lunch:
A HUGE salad, and I do mean huge. Here's what the salad had in it...
1/4 head of iceberg lettuce
1 cup chopped ham
1/4 cup chopped grilled chicken
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 can of corn
10 baby carrots
1/3 cup croutons
3 tablespoons ranch dressing
Dinner:
Oscar Meyer Deli Creation Ham and Swiss
Candy:
1 hard candy mint (I had to freshen up my breath)
After hours:
1 bowl of 1/2 grapenuts and 1/2 corn chex cereals with 1 cup milk
So, before you go off on me about the late night meal or the processed food with the Deli Creations, let me tell you what I had in one day, just last week:
Breakfast:
2 Ham and Cheese sandwiches
Snacks: 2 brownies left over from the night before
Lunch:
3 cups of chicken, broccoli and cheese casserole
Dinner:
2 medium pizzas with extra cheese, sausage and mushrooms.
Now, this is very embarrassing that I ate that much in a single day, but I use it so that when you compare that to what I ate today, you should see a dramatic difference.
Now, enough of food. Let's move on to exercise.
My father in law, Roger, suggested that I exercise for 1 hour a day, three times a week. He has lost a lot of weight, even after being on a heart transplant list because of a diseased heart. He sets a remarkable example for me to follow. So, although I didn't go for an hour, I did keep my heart rate up by walking on the treadmill at work for 30 minutes.
Keep the comments coming, pipe in when you have suggestions or anything to say.
Steve
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Steve's Weight Loss Journey
Okay, so I should begin by telling everyone a little about myself, so here goes...
My name is Steve. I am thirty-five years old and in the best shape of my life... Oh wait, I'm supposed to be telling the truth now. Let's start over.
My name is Steve. I am thirty-five years old (that part wasn't a lie.) I weigh 260 pounds and I'm at the heaviest point in my life right now. Now, I'm not writing this blog to play the pity party. I take full responsibility for the condition of my body right now. After being a big guy nearly all of my life, I have finally decided that it's time for me to lose weight and be healthier. This, unfortunately, is not going to be easy. I LOVE to eat and I HATE to exercise. That is a combination for Heart Disease (runs in the family,) Diabetes (runs in the family,) high blood pressure (runs in the family...) I'm sure that you get the picture. I am not healthy and I would like to be healthy for myself, my children and most especially, my wife.
So, here's what I'm going to do. I'm starting a blog about my weight loss Journey, hence the name of the blog. I will blog on a weekly basis giving the status of my "Weekly Weigh-in" and include a picture of me at the weigh in. During the week I will also blog what I can on what I ate, how much exercise I did, any milestones that I reached and other personal feelings.
Now, why do I think that this attempt at a lifestyle change is going to work? Well, I've always felt that the only way that I would lose weight is if I'm held accountable to someone. I would like to be held accountable. I want your encouragement, your comments, your thoughts, your criticisms (if you so desire,) or anything else that you can think to contribute. I would also LOVE for you to tell me about your weight loss theories, stories or suggestions. If anyone would like to participate with me and lose weight with me, I'll have a separate section for those comments. I am not going to advertise this blog directly to anyone, so if you're here its because someone told you about it, or you read about it somewhere that I posted it. Either way, I hope that you, along with me, can gain something of value here.
Now, I didn't gain all of this weight quickly, and I don't expect to lose it quickly, so this is going to be less of a diet and more of a diet /lifestyle change. Here is what I plan. Today is the 9th of August, 2009. In one year (9 Aug 2010) I would like to lose 30 to 35% of my body weight. That equates to a weight loss of between 78 to 91 pounds. I also have an exercise goal. Cardiovascular exercise is always what I've had the most difficult time with. I would like to either be able to jog 10 miles without stopping, or I would like to be able to bike 50 miles without stopping. I don't know enough about exercising yet to be able to put the times that I would like to be able to accomplish that. I'm sure that will come with practice / experience.
Well, I think I've explained enough about this. Please pass this address on to anyone who you think would like to participate in this Journey of a lifetime challenge. I am challenging myself to get in shape and would love for anyone else to take the challenge with me.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)