Some bad news, some good news

First, the bad news. I have come to the conclusion that I have zero willpower when it comes to food. When me and DAPGF go out, I eat all the bad stuff. Pasta, lots of dressing on the salad, lots of bread before the food, lots of dipping sauces, etc. And during the day...can a brother get a freaking muzzle? And it's not like we have a vending machine or something right by the office. No...I have to drive over to the deli to get my snack on, or worse, I run thru a nearby drive-thru. I suck, and it shows. My weight has exploded over this past week, such to the point that I am embarrassed. Suffice to say, I hit my all-time (knowing) weight Tuesday morning. That afternoon, I hit a major combination of depression and motivation. I was at the bank, and while standing in line I saw myself in the security monitor they had on the counter. WTF?!?!? What Happened To Me? (Hey! Catchy blog name!).

Now the good news. Last week, Exercise TV was non-functional on my cable system. Don't know why, and neither does Time-Warner. I did make it to the gym over the weekend, but most of last week was spent preparing for Valentine's Day, thus preventing me from getting to the gym. This week has been better in both aspects. I've managed to get a shorty workout in after the morning doggy walk, and I've made it to the gym on the nights that DAPGF teaches. The other thing, I discovered what could be (at least to me) considered miracle foods. According to the crap I've read (Men's Heath, etc.), eating foods with protein help you feel fuller longer. For the most part, my snacks have consisted of various reduced fat chips and crackers (Gardetto's, Wheat Thins, etc.), which have been very low in protein, high in carbs, and waaaay too "munchable". Gum and hard candy don't work, because I'm looking for something saltier, not sweeter. So the miracle snack foods. First, Kashi's Chewy Snack bars, specifically the Peanut/Peanut Butter one. There's not a lot of taste (it is Kashi, after all), but each bar is only 140 cal, 5 g fat (45 cal from fat), only 19g carbs, and 7g protein. The taste is generally nutty/oat-ey (is that a word?), with a hint of peanut butter. Overall it strikes a good balance, and does a decent job of satisfying the munchie need. The second one is Beef (or Turkey) Jerky. One of the decent-sized bags you can buy at the store (4 oz) contains 4 good sized servings. Frankly, I can spread one serving out over a morning and be perfectly happy. The downside is it tends to be higher in sodium, but who doesn't like a good salt lick every now and then? But each 1 oz serving (one morning, and most importantly one afternoon) contains 80 cal, only 1g fat (10 cal from fat), only 8g carbs, and 11g protein! These stats are for Oberto's Teriyaki Beef Jerky, but the other flavors and the turkey variants are all similar. Tuesday afternoon was the first shot at eating it, and it seemed to work. Wednesday I had it both in the morning and afternoon, and it did a great job of satisfying my need to chew on something for a while. Good stuff. Hopefully the scale will start to descend into much friendlier territory.