Wow, it's been a while since I've wrote up here. Well, a lot's changed, got a lot to cover. Kept meaning to post, but never got around to it. My normal practice would be to write 4-5 separate blog entries, but what ends up happening then is, one gets written and the rest get forgotten, so here goes.
So far I've lost about 25 pounds, in a little over a month. I gained about that much after the holidays, and I've worked hard to get rid of it. I had a bit of a panic at the end of January; after eating a whole pizza to myself, I weighed 330 pounds. I now weigh 305 and I'm losing about 1-3 pounds a week between a lowfat diet and regular exercise. Oh, and those Alli pills Jen takes, but I'm not so sure they work so good into my plan as diet and exercise alone. Maybe they are, maybe not. I pretty much replaced regular soda with Coke's "Zero" line, drinking more water, etc. When I do eat candy, it's the lower fat ones. There's a big difference between a 3 Musketeers (7g/fat) and a Hershey's chocolate bar (13g/fat) and a York peppermint pattie is better still (4.5g/fat). And I've sworn off seasonal candy starting with Halloween last year. No candy corn, no Christmas candy, no Necco hearts for Valentines Day, and no creme eggs for Easter. I put back an embarassing amount of that stuff the last couple years. I'm not really on a diet, I'm just making better choices. It's a gradual process but I am making progress.
We got DSL the week before last, and it's awesome. We're paying Embarq for DSL and home phone about what we were paying the local phone company for just the home phone service, PLUS we were paying EarthLink $23 a month for dial-up internet. So we're saving money and our Internet is about 100X faster. Maybe more maybe less, but about that. I've downloaded a ton of cool stuff, and we can watch video on YouTube without waiting.
We've been playing Guitar Hero and Rock Band over at Jen's brother's place, and getting into it. I downloaded Guitar Hero III on the PC, and it's crap. Just a really bad game, and people with computers twice as good as mine have the same problems. It skips, it lags. We were borrowing my brother-in-law's guitar (he has an extra one), but we bought Guitar Hero III for the Xbox 360, so now we have our own guitar, and when we get out 360, we'll already have one game for it. And we can delete the download. I feel sorry for anyone who paid for the PC version. It was shipped broken, and shame on Aspyr and Activision for selling faulty software. It's fine on the 360 and the PS2 and PS3, all inferior technologically to my computer, so it should play on the computer just as well. The only thing we can do on the PC is play on Easy - Medium difficulty is unplayable because the extra notes lag the game to the point of making it unplayable. This is a common problem over on the GameFAQs board for GH3 on the PC. People with godly computers have this problem. Everyone's saying at least get a cheap PS2 and play it on that. Well, we're getting a 360 anyway (Jen says by the end of March we can afford it) and we have the 360 version of Guitar Hero III, so we're set.
I was a complete idiot and cut my finger, bad. I was crushing soda cans at the same brother-in-law's place, ripping the pop tabs off and saving them (apparently they're worth more recycled as they're purer aluminum or something) and then crushing the cans. Well, I got some Mountain Dew on my fingers (it's practically all he drinks, heh), and went to pop a tab off, and my finger slipped in, and hit the lid of the can at a bad angle. Blood everywhere and it wouldn't stop bleeding. Almost a week later and it's not quite healed. I'm not even sure it's closed up! I've had band-aids on it, I've even been doing chores, even though every impact hurts like hell. I just did the dishes, luckily we have finger cots to keep the soapy water out. I can put rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide on a cut, but I can't put a cut hand in dish water.
Back on the topic of Guitar Hero, I helped our four-year-old niece play bass guitar in Rock Band. If you've been living under a rock for the past four years, Guitar Hero is a beat-synchronization game where you press colored buttons in sync with colored lights that appear on screen, travelling down a "road". When the colored light goes under your "fret bar" you hit (or be holding) the colored button that matches it, and strum the guitar. It doesn't have strings, but it does have a switch you can flip up or down to simulate strings. It's not an easy thing to do, and it's harder to master. Rock Band is the same thing but with two guitars, a drum set (4 drums and a foot pedal), and a microphone to sing into - you have to match pitch and tone with your voice. Anyway, I traditionally play bass. I put bass on easy; lead guitar, drums, and vocals were all on Expert, I think. I sat her on my right leg and let her strum (when I told her to) and I handled the colors. That worked OK for one song, but for the next two she sat on my left leg and held the colors I told her to, and I took over the strumming. On the third song, we got 90%. Not bad for a 4 year old being helped out by an adult.
The tradition of me doing the laundry continues for the third week in a row. Jen and I used to do the laundry together, on Sunday, but now on Monday nights, I go to Greenville and do it myself. I have a routine down and everything. I thought that we would do it yesterday, as Jen took the day off, but she stayed at her brother's place to play Rock Band (and drink) while I went off on my own and did laundry alone. On one hand I wish she would have been there to keep me company, but on the other hand it's my time alone and I have fun.
Showing posts with label WeightLoss. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WeightLoss. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Thursday, January 24, 2008
First week of my diet
First things first. My scale is very inaccurate (it's digital, wonder if that matters) but I'm definitely under 320. Last Thursday when I started this, I said I weighed 330 pounds, but I had also just consumed an entire stuffed crust supreme DiGiorno. Still kicking myself for that. On Tuesday I met with the "Healthy Weigh" group at my gym and was weighed and recorded at 327. I don't think I lost 7 pounds in 2 days, but I was also fully dressed at that point. Today I weighed in in my underwear. But I've still lost weight.
I have actually cheated on my diet twice, both at Jen's encouraging, although I did order my own food and could have, both times, made better choices. Sunday we ate at Chico's, our favorite Mexican restaurant, and I got my nachos. To be fair, I didn't get the sour cream, but they did have a lot of Cheddar cheese and they had ground beef. And I ate the whole plate. Tuesday we went to Chinese, and I got General Tso's Chicken, which was mostly chicken - and fried rice. Ate most of that. However on both days, that was most of what I ate all day, so it kind of balances out.
In better news, Monday night I made some awesome "spaghetti". Last year Jen discovered spaghetti squash, which when cooked, you scoop out strands like spaghetti noodles. Fat free. Over that we poured Prego spaghetti sauce with zucchini, yellow crookneck squash, and mushrooms chopped up, and garlic. It was certainly vegetarian, and would have been vegan (no animal by-products, e.g. eggs) if not for the cheese in the Prego. And it was at least as good as my non-vegetarian dishes I've prepared. I was very pleased with myself and this meal.
Other winners for me include the following:
So far I've had two of those: Bourbon Street Chicken (above) and Broccoli, Chicken, and Rice, I think it was called. The latter got its broccoli a little too soft, and that's coming from a guy who needs broccoli steamed soft so his teeth can handle it. But, you know, overall these are pretty good. I can't have them every night, but they're helping me a lot. $2 at Walmart; Harris-Teeter has them for $3, so they're probably in between everywhere else.
As far as exercise, I've been going to the gym every day save for yesterday. I didn't feel like it, but I went this morning. I learned in my weight loss class that the most fat/calories burned will be doing aerobic type stuff. The treadmill, the stairmaster, the bike, etc. So I am now focusing 95% of my workout there. I start on the treadmill and try to put in at least 15 minutes, and then about 5 on the bike. My workout goal now is to get up to 30 minutes of such exercise, say 20 on the treadmill and 10 on the bike. And I'm trying to stand/walk more at work, but my mobility is limited as I have to stay in a small area, but I'm working with what I got. And I'm going again tomorrow morning, when I get off work.
So even though I didn't really lose 10 pounds, the fact that it appears that I did is great incentive to continue. I have a long way to go - my healthy weight for my height is about 180, so I'm about 140 pounds over that. 250 is my first "major" goal (with smaller increments as stepping stones) because I weighed about that when I first started talking to Jen. But I don't feel as though I'm much bigger than I was back in '03, though I guess the numbers say otherwise. But once I hit 250, you can be sure I won't be taking it easy - from there the goal is 175, another loss of 75 pounds. I know I can do it, it'll just take time. I just hope I can do it by Sept. 2009, when I next visit California, to shock the hell out of everyone.
I have actually cheated on my diet twice, both at Jen's encouraging, although I did order my own food and could have, both times, made better choices. Sunday we ate at Chico's, our favorite Mexican restaurant, and I got my nachos. To be fair, I didn't get the sour cream, but they did have a lot of Cheddar cheese and they had ground beef. And I ate the whole plate. Tuesday we went to Chinese, and I got General Tso's Chicken, which was mostly chicken - and fried rice. Ate most of that. However on both days, that was most of what I ate all day, so it kind of balances out.
In better news, Monday night I made some awesome "spaghetti". Last year Jen discovered spaghetti squash, which when cooked, you scoop out strands like spaghetti noodles. Fat free. Over that we poured Prego spaghetti sauce with zucchini, yellow crookneck squash, and mushrooms chopped up, and garlic. It was certainly vegetarian, and would have been vegan (no animal by-products, e.g. eggs) if not for the cheese in the Prego. And it was at least as good as my non-vegetarian dishes I've prepared. I was very pleased with myself and this meal.
Other winners for me include the following:
- Bagels. I have mini bagels which are only 1gram/fat apiece and they're a good snack.
- Fruit. I prefer the oranges but I'll eat the apples, too.
- Applesauce. Loved it since day one and it's fat free.
- Del Monte Chunky Mixed Fruit in 100% Juice. Easy winner.
- Michelina's Lean Gourmet meals - every one I've tried (which is like 3 so far) are delicious.
So far I've had two of those: Bourbon Street Chicken (above) and Broccoli, Chicken, and Rice, I think it was called. The latter got its broccoli a little too soft, and that's coming from a guy who needs broccoli steamed soft so his teeth can handle it. But, you know, overall these are pretty good. I can't have them every night, but they're helping me a lot. $2 at Walmart; Harris-Teeter has them for $3, so they're probably in between everywhere else.
As far as exercise, I've been going to the gym every day save for yesterday. I didn't feel like it, but I went this morning. I learned in my weight loss class that the most fat/calories burned will be doing aerobic type stuff. The treadmill, the stairmaster, the bike, etc. So I am now focusing 95% of my workout there. I start on the treadmill and try to put in at least 15 minutes, and then about 5 on the bike. My workout goal now is to get up to 30 minutes of such exercise, say 20 on the treadmill and 10 on the bike. And I'm trying to stand/walk more at work, but my mobility is limited as I have to stay in a small area, but I'm working with what I got. And I'm going again tomorrow morning, when I get off work.
So even though I didn't really lose 10 pounds, the fact that it appears that I did is great incentive to continue. I have a long way to go - my healthy weight for my height is about 180, so I'm about 140 pounds over that. 250 is my first "major" goal (with smaller increments as stepping stones) because I weighed about that when I first started talking to Jen. But I don't feel as though I'm much bigger than I was back in '03, though I guess the numbers say otherwise. But once I hit 250, you can be sure I won't be taking it easy - from there the goal is 175, another loss of 75 pounds. I know I can do it, it'll just take time. I just hope I can do it by Sept. 2009, when I next visit California, to shock the hell out of everyone.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Weight Loss Day 3
Today we went to the gym. The plan was, I was going to sleep 2 hours after I got off work, take Jen to work, and stop at the gym on the way back from picking her up. That didn't work very well and she drove herself; she swung back and picked me up; we still got to go.
I worked out for about an hour, with and without Jen. I got a recovery shake with "fat burner" powder added, then started on the treadmill and it said I burned 98 calories (10 minutes at around 3mph). I rode a bike machine for about 9 minutes. I benched 65lbs, 2 sets of 10 reps. Used some misc. machines including my "arch-nemesis" the military press and my favorite, the butterfly press.
After we were done, I decided we needed a reward, so we stopped at Walmart, which has a Subway inside. I got a foot-long Chicken Teriyaki sub (10g fat) on wheat bread, no cheese. The sauce is supposed to be fat free, so the fat must be between the chicken and the bread (?).
We shopped in Walmart, then in Food Lion, with grams of fat in mind. We picked up a spaghetti squash - a squash which produces strands like noodles that can be eaten with marinara sauce like spaghetti. We got some Prego sauce, 1g fat per 1/2 cup (and it's got cheese in it!). I plan to cook this meal Monday, when I start taking the alli pills. Oh, and I'm gonna make a salad to go with it, maybe garlic bread if I can find some low-fat stuff, but we don't have to have it.
For snacks, I picked out some fat-free rice cakes, caramel corn flavored, and Jen picked out some generic Oreos that are 5g of fat per package, and that's 4 cookies just a little smaller than the real thing. I've had them before, they're good, but for the size it's more fat than I'm comfortable taking in in just a snack.
I used to eat some real high-fat food. I could put back a DiGiorno stuffed crust pizza in one sitting. I could eat a 1lb. burger and fries and a shake. I could eat 2 boxes of macaroni & cheese. I know none of these are accomplishments to be proud of, but the point is I've gone from a high-fat diet to a low-fat diet, and I err on the side of caution with the fat content. If I had to guess, I'd say I've taken in 35-50g of fat each of the last couple days.
It'll be hard, because I work overnight in a grocery store, but I take a few lowfat or nonfat snacks and a box of Lean Pockets or Michelina's Lean Gourmet, and I'm good for the night.
I worked out for about an hour, with and without Jen. I got a recovery shake with "fat burner" powder added, then started on the treadmill and it said I burned 98 calories (10 minutes at around 3mph). I rode a bike machine for about 9 minutes. I benched 65lbs, 2 sets of 10 reps. Used some misc. machines including my "arch-nemesis" the military press and my favorite, the butterfly press.
After we were done, I decided we needed a reward, so we stopped at Walmart, which has a Subway inside. I got a foot-long Chicken Teriyaki sub (10g fat) on wheat bread, no cheese. The sauce is supposed to be fat free, so the fat must be between the chicken and the bread (?).
We shopped in Walmart, then in Food Lion, with grams of fat in mind. We picked up a spaghetti squash - a squash which produces strands like noodles that can be eaten with marinara sauce like spaghetti. We got some Prego sauce, 1g fat per 1/2 cup (and it's got cheese in it!). I plan to cook this meal Monday, when I start taking the alli pills. Oh, and I'm gonna make a salad to go with it, maybe garlic bread if I can find some low-fat stuff, but we don't have to have it.
For snacks, I picked out some fat-free rice cakes, caramel corn flavored, and Jen picked out some generic Oreos that are 5g of fat per package, and that's 4 cookies just a little smaller than the real thing. I've had them before, they're good, but for the size it's more fat than I'm comfortable taking in in just a snack.
I used to eat some real high-fat food. I could put back a DiGiorno stuffed crust pizza in one sitting. I could eat a 1lb. burger and fries and a shake. I could eat 2 boxes of macaroni & cheese. I know none of these are accomplishments to be proud of, but the point is I've gone from a high-fat diet to a low-fat diet, and I err on the side of caution with the fat content. If I had to guess, I'd say I've taken in 35-50g of fat each of the last couple days.
It'll be hard, because I work overnight in a grocery store, but I take a few lowfat or nonfat snacks and a box of Lean Pockets or Michelina's Lean Gourmet, and I'm good for the night.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Weight Loss Day 1
My 2008 New Year's resolution was, and still is, to not drink alcohol in the calendar year of 2008, excepting only medicine (which, I don't drink NyQuil, et al to start with, I'm just sayin it's fair game). However around mid-to-late 2007, I talked (mostly privately) about losing weight.
Last night was kind of a shocker, more of an eye opener. I started feeling big. The scale told me something I did not want to see. As of last night, I weigh about 330 pounds. I'm 6'0" with a medium frame. Most of my weight is an oversized pot belly, but I've started to notice enlargement in my arms and legs.
Food is a big problem for me. I love to eat, and I love to cook. I love to outdo myself either on the Foreman grill, or with a skillet (frying). While I'm not out making obscenely unhealthy stuff, it's not exactly healthy - more middle of the road. One reader of this blog informed my mother (a technophobe who has probably never seen it), that all I write about is food. Hey, RL. ;-) Obviously the blog speaks for itself; while there is a lot of other topics covered, I have covered some food I've made and eaten. But I know now I need to cut back.
Some might say the backlash is going to prove to be too much, but I think I can stick with it. I'm attacking my weight on three related fronts. First, I'm going to adopt a low-fat diet with a target of 45 grams of fat a day, or 15g per meal on average. I love me some generic Nutrigrain bars which are 3g/f each, two of these make a good snack. I'm going to start eating the Healthy Choice, Michelina's Lean Gourmet, etc. frozen meals at work - or bring in sandwiches. I'm talking, bread, turkey breast, lettuce and tomato - no cheese, no mayo. Believe it or not, I like that stuff. Maybe not as much as a 2/3lb. Fuddruckers Bacon Cheeseburger, but I will adapt to lowfat foods, because I want to be healthy more than I want good taste.
Second, diet pills. The new Alli diet has proven effective for Jen, my wife. She's lost about 37 pounds on it since September. She's already adapted to the 45g lowfat diet I'm talking about, so rather than us eating different stuff and different quantities, we'll be on the same page. I've already bought my Alli starter kit, I'll start taking the pills this weekend or perhaps Monday. Alli requires you to consume 45g of fat or less, or you find yourself unable to control your bowel movements, as it were - it's a nasty ordeal I can't say for the sake of my marriage's good health whether I've witnessed this or not, but on heresay alone it's a significant warning. And I need to be on the lowfat diet before I start taking the pills, naturally. And I just ate a DiGiorno pizza yesterday (yes, by myself; yes I know that's very bad) so I have a lot of fat currently in my system. But after a couple days, it'll all have cycled out so I'll be good to go.
Third, exercise. Jen and I just today signed up for a year's membership at a local gym over in Washington, NC, just 8 miles away. Actually, it's a little closer to work than home as the crow flies, and I can just take Hwy. 264 outta Greenville, where I work third shift, head straight to the gym (it opens at 5:30am, I'm off at 6am, and I can be in Washington at 6:30am), work out for an hour (it'll be more but I have to build up to that) and then I'll head home, hopefully be in bed by 8-8:30am. I intend to warm up on the treadmill for 10 minutes, move to the stairs thingy for 10 minutes, and spend 10 minutes on the bicylcle. Then I'll make my way around the weights. I'll check out the ab stuff, since it's my belly I need to target, but I intend to show a lot of love to the free weights. I know I'm good with bench and leg presses - in weight training in high school, the only thing that gave me trouble was the military press. But I'm not looking so much to build muscle and strength. I want to build a little strength, but my goal at the gym will first and foremost be weight loss and fat burning.
Like I said above, I currently weigh 330 pounds. I turn 29 in September, so I'll be 30 in September 2009. My long-term goal is to be under 250 by the time I'm 30. I don't know how quickly I'll lose the weight, but it seems like a long time. Hell, we're planning our second California trip around that time. It's a long ways off. But I'm not just shooting for a long-time goal. I have three stages I intend to do this in. I'm currently in Stage 1, which will take me down to 300 pounds. Stage 2 will bring me to 275, and finally Stage 3 will take me down to 250. I have no idea how long each stage will take. I intend to reward myself - though not with food - for every stage, possibly for getting halfway through a stage.
And, of course, I can track my progress with the blog, but also with pictures. I intend to report in about once a week, with pictures once a month. I know the casual reader of this blog doesn't want to see my enormous gut - I'm wearing a shirt, but it still ain't pretty - so what I'll do is post links. Click the links under the weigh-in information to see them, if you like. They won't mean much now, but next month I'll link back to these as well.
So it sounds like I have this all planned out, right? Well, I'm sure there will be a lot of bumps in the road. I'm sure this will be a challenge. I have no illusions that it's easy, but I'm also ready to put my full weight (pun intended) behind this, so I'm sure I can do it.
Stage 1
Starting Weight: 330
Current Weight: 330
Target Weight: 300
Pictures: Front Side
Last night was kind of a shocker, more of an eye opener. I started feeling big. The scale told me something I did not want to see. As of last night, I weigh about 330 pounds. I'm 6'0" with a medium frame. Most of my weight is an oversized pot belly, but I've started to notice enlargement in my arms and legs.
Food is a big problem for me. I love to eat, and I love to cook. I love to outdo myself either on the Foreman grill, or with a skillet (frying). While I'm not out making obscenely unhealthy stuff, it's not exactly healthy - more middle of the road. One reader of this blog informed my mother (a technophobe who has probably never seen it), that all I write about is food. Hey, RL. ;-) Obviously the blog speaks for itself; while there is a lot of other topics covered, I have covered some food I've made and eaten. But I know now I need to cut back.
Some might say the backlash is going to prove to be too much, but I think I can stick with it. I'm attacking my weight on three related fronts. First, I'm going to adopt a low-fat diet with a target of 45 grams of fat a day, or 15g per meal on average. I love me some generic Nutrigrain bars which are 3g/f each, two of these make a good snack. I'm going to start eating the Healthy Choice, Michelina's Lean Gourmet, etc. frozen meals at work - or bring in sandwiches. I'm talking, bread, turkey breast, lettuce and tomato - no cheese, no mayo. Believe it or not, I like that stuff. Maybe not as much as a 2/3lb. Fuddruckers Bacon Cheeseburger, but I will adapt to lowfat foods, because I want to be healthy more than I want good taste.
Second, diet pills. The new Alli diet has proven effective for Jen, my wife. She's lost about 37 pounds on it since September. She's already adapted to the 45g lowfat diet I'm talking about, so rather than us eating different stuff and different quantities, we'll be on the same page. I've already bought my Alli starter kit, I'll start taking the pills this weekend or perhaps Monday. Alli requires you to consume 45g of fat or less, or you find yourself unable to control your bowel movements, as it were - it's a nasty ordeal I can't say for the sake of my marriage's good health whether I've witnessed this or not, but on heresay alone it's a significant warning. And I need to be on the lowfat diet before I start taking the pills, naturally. And I just ate a DiGiorno pizza yesterday (yes, by myself; yes I know that's very bad) so I have a lot of fat currently in my system. But after a couple days, it'll all have cycled out so I'll be good to go.
Third, exercise. Jen and I just today signed up for a year's membership at a local gym over in Washington, NC, just 8 miles away. Actually, it's a little closer to work than home as the crow flies, and I can just take Hwy. 264 outta Greenville, where I work third shift, head straight to the gym (it opens at 5:30am, I'm off at 6am, and I can be in Washington at 6:30am), work out for an hour (it'll be more but I have to build up to that) and then I'll head home, hopefully be in bed by 8-8:30am. I intend to warm up on the treadmill for 10 minutes, move to the stairs thingy for 10 minutes, and spend 10 minutes on the bicylcle. Then I'll make my way around the weights. I'll check out the ab stuff, since it's my belly I need to target, but I intend to show a lot of love to the free weights. I know I'm good with bench and leg presses - in weight training in high school, the only thing that gave me trouble was the military press. But I'm not looking so much to build muscle and strength. I want to build a little strength, but my goal at the gym will first and foremost be weight loss and fat burning.
Like I said above, I currently weigh 330 pounds. I turn 29 in September, so I'll be 30 in September 2009. My long-term goal is to be under 250 by the time I'm 30. I don't know how quickly I'll lose the weight, but it seems like a long time. Hell, we're planning our second California trip around that time. It's a long ways off. But I'm not just shooting for a long-time goal. I have three stages I intend to do this in. I'm currently in Stage 1, which will take me down to 300 pounds. Stage 2 will bring me to 275, and finally Stage 3 will take me down to 250. I have no idea how long each stage will take. I intend to reward myself - though not with food - for every stage, possibly for getting halfway through a stage.
And, of course, I can track my progress with the blog, but also with pictures. I intend to report in about once a week, with pictures once a month. I know the casual reader of this blog doesn't want to see my enormous gut - I'm wearing a shirt, but it still ain't pretty - so what I'll do is post links. Click the links under the weigh-in information to see them, if you like. They won't mean much now, but next month I'll link back to these as well.
So it sounds like I have this all planned out, right? Well, I'm sure there will be a lot of bumps in the road. I'm sure this will be a challenge. I have no illusions that it's easy, but I'm also ready to put my full weight (pun intended) behind this, so I'm sure I can do it.
Stage 1
Starting Weight: 330
Current Weight: 330
Target Weight: 300
Pictures: Front Side
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