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

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!

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

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!