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

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hear you on the restaurants, but I think that you actually made a very good choice with the crab and steamed broccoli. And, two bread sticks to go with it seems reasonable to me. It's good to maintain variety in your diet, anyway.

Hey, if you haven't lost any weight tomorrow, no big deal. Rome wasn't built in a day and you didn't develop your eating habits overnight. No matter what, we'll be cheering you on. Linnea

Sue said...

It's 8:00 pm, when are you going to post your success? Do you know that you will weigh less in the morning before you start eating? We are weighting!

Teresa said...

I think you did AWESOME at the restaurant. Seriously compared to how we used to eat in restaurants you did way better. You even opted to not have the appetizer. Way to go on that. You did forget to mention your salad with ranch, but still that was a healthy choice.

Steve said...

Actually, I didn't decide against the appetizer, you did, honey!

Anonymous said...

Hey Steve ... Good for you for changing your health. It's an incredibly important step for you, for your family, and for your posterity. Your children are so programmed by what they see you do!

(I apologize now as this will be lengthy...) Here is a good rule of eating that has a little flexibility to it. Breakfast like a king, lunch like a queen and dinner like a pauper. The flexibility is you can switch breakfast and lunch around there, but dinner has to stay at pauper portions.

Your breakfast one day last week (cereal and milk) isn't enough for anyone to get by. There is not enough nutrition to tide you over for very long at all. You should be focusing on a lot more protein for breakfast (eggs are NOT bad!). Two eggs with some veggies, maybe some cheese as well is a great way to get the body going. And yes, add a piece of WHOLE GRAIN toast. Balance is what you want. Some protein, some carbs, some fats at EACH meal.

I have tons of thoughts to share, but won't do it all at once of course. :-)

On exercise, aim for something manageable. If you aren't used to exercising, don't start of with a goal of an hour a day. The bar will be too high, it will be too hard to make it happen, and then you are set up for failure. Start with a more reasonable goal of 15 or 20 min no less than five days a week. Go for walks with your family. Go for bike rides with your family. Exercise in the great sweaty outdoors! 20 min on a bike can burn 150+ calories. It's all about getting the heart rate up! And the more muscle you add, the more calories your body burns at rest.

Pray every morning for help - this has helped me many times.

There will be lots of little stumbles along the way and that's OK - don't beat yourself up over them.

Keeping a food journal is good and can become very tedious. Make the commitment and stick to it as this is part of your accountability.

Just a salad for lunch for you will never do. Switch the salads to dinner. Lunch MUST have a good portion of protein. If you eat a really good breakfast and lunch, you'll be much better come evening time with eating a huge salad (btw, you have to start eating real greens and not iceberg - it's mostly water with very little nutritional value) and then not eating after 7. (not eating after 7 will help you sleep better - the body temp has to drop to settle in deep sleep/repair mode - too little temp drop, not enough repair, not deep enough sleep either) You CAN have a protein snack before going to bed. Protein doesn't raise the temp. But this is a small snack, like string cheese, if it is needed.

That's enough blah blah blah for now. Remember when it gets tough that it is a journey. You are undoing many years of 'doing' and this will take TIME.

We are rooting for you and here to support you!

Andrea & Mike