After a small (unintentional) break, back to business

Hello blog world!  I must say that after a smashing success of losing 10 pounds during the month of July, August has been decidedly meh.  I've been doing some hovering in the 278 to 281-ish range the entire month.  I fully am to blame.  Mainly I've been snacking more at the office than I should.  Not a lot, but just enough to erase any progress made by exercising and eating decent meals.  At the tail end of July (Monday 7/30), my weight was sitting at 280.6 lbs.  The following Monday, 280.6 lbs.  The Monday after that, 280.6 lbs. 

Monday 8/20 was another story.  I had a slight Chinese buffet meltdown, and the weigh-in was 281.4 lbs.  So that put the week's 2 pound goal at 279.4 lbs.  The original goal of 278.6 would be the "X-Ring" bonus weight.  Monday and Tuesday brought large drops to 280.2 and 278.8 respectively.  Wednesday saw a rise to 279.2, Thursday to 279.6, and Friday to 280.8.  I made it to the gym on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, so I'm not exactly sure why those days had increases.  Thursday I had lunch with some co-workers at a local brewpub.  I had a relatively healthy chicken sandwich, but caved in and had fries with it.  Meh.  Saturday, despite not getting to the gym I managed to drop back down to 280.0.  Sunday I didn't make the gym again, but still had an additional drop to 279.0.  Both days I didn't starve myself, but I ate relatively healthy.  Saturday was sushi for dinner and Sunday was mushroom ravioli, avoiding the alfredo sauce in favor of a much healthier tomato and veggie sauce.  End result, this morning's weigh-in, 279.2 lbs.  Yes I gained .2 lbs, but considering I didn't have much of a workout last night or this morning (both dogwalks were 15 minutes or less), I'll take it.  Besides, I beat my goal of 279.4, so good on me.  

The goal for 9/3 is 277.2 lbs.  Given that the 3^rd is a holiday, I'll likely go to the gym that morning.  Hopefully that will allow me to get a good start to September and get back into the groove that I had going thru July.  Wish me luck, and good luck to all of you.

The one in which we admit some shortcomings, and still see progress

Whassup party people?  Sorry for the delay in posting, but there's two reasons.  First, I've been hella busy at work for the past two weeks.  Second, I haven't had much to report.

 

My last post was on August 6, and at that point I was at 280.6 lbs, precisely where I'd been the week before.  As I said, I've been quite busy at work.  I did make it to the gym a bit during the week, but I didn't get any of my midday exercise in.  End result, Monday 8/13 my weigh-in was again 280.6 lbs.

 

I actually started to make some progress this past week.  I made it to the gym several times during the week, including Saturday and Sunday mornings, I hit the driving range once, and I got a bodysurfing session in on Sunday morning.  Water temps were in the low 70s and it was fan-dam-tastic.  My weight had been trending down, and as of Sunday's weigh-in (8/19) I'd beaten my goal of 278.6 by .4 lbs.  And then the wheels fell off.  If you either know me, or you've been reading What Happened for any length of time then you know I'm a sucker for Chinese food.  I.  Freaking.  Love.  It.  Sunday, after the gym, the beach, and the bitchin' weigh-in, I took my car to be detailed.  DAPGF was going shopping with a friend, so I was on my own for a rare Sunday.  There happens to be a Chinese buffet in the same shopping center as the car wash.  I haven't been to a Chinese buffet in close to a year, and I was jonesing.  So I went.  I really tried hard to not gorge myself like I've done in the past, and I think I succeeded.  That being said, I knew it wasn't a good thing.  And to top it off, DAPGF and I had to run errands after dinner, so no après-eating walk.  Monday's weigh-in, 281.4 lbs.

 

Yes, I know I torpedoed my progress and I've got nobody to blame but myself.  That being said, I'm not worried.  I know I'm not backsliding or anything, and I know that this mini plateau I've hit is only temporary, aided somewhat my conditions at work (which aren't bad, just busy).  So I'm ok with myself, because I've proven that it isn't that difficult to lose the weight.  I lost the first 10 pounds pretty easily, and, I know the first pounds are the easiest, but I'm so much heavier than I was 3 years ago that I know this is all excess weight that should come off fairly easily.  Besides, the odd Chinese buffet notwithstanding, I'm consistently eating much healthier than I have in years, and I'm exercising much more consistently as well.  As an example, Monday I started off on the road to go to a meeting with staff from the City of San Diego and one of our smaller airports (my company is looking at doing some work at the airport).  I ate my bagel on the road for breakfast, had just one quesadilla from Taco Bell for lunch, and a Lean Cuisine Bistro Brick Oven Pizza (they're surprisingly good, roughly 350 calories and 3 and a half minutes in the microwave) for dinner.  End result: Tuesday morning's weigh-in was down to 280.2 lbs.  See?  I can do it!  Now back to losing weight.  Gym tonight!

Still going...

So this week really got off on a bad start.  Monday morning, after a stellar weekend of avoiding pitfalls all over the place, I had a weigh-in of 280.6 lbs.  That not only beat my stated goal of 282.4, but also beat what had been my original goal of 281.0 lbs.  And then I got to work.   The day started off benignly enough, with my usual bagel and a couple glasses of water.  Then two of my coworkers grabbed me for a marketing meeting with a firm we're looking to collaborate with on a couple of projects.   So you've got 3 guys all in their mid 30s, with no authority figures around anywhere (aren't WE supposed to be the authority figures?), so do we go somewhere healthy to eat?   NO!!!  We go to the Pizza Port Brewpub for some doughy, cheesy, beer-y goodness.   One big cheesy chicken and artichoke heart pizza and 2 pitchers of beer down there.  And now hopefully we can go back to the office and get to work.   Nope.  One of the guys gets an email on his Treo stating that we just won a contract to prepare an Environmental Impact Report somewhere, and that is a six figure contract so it was time to celebrate.   Margaritas!  When all was said and done, Tuesday's weigh-in was almost 3 lbs higher.  Noooooo!  

 

But lately I've been feeling pretty good about this weight-loss thing.  I've actually lost 10 pounds over the last month, and I'm feeling good about my ability to keep losing.   So I buckled down and really worked.  I had a bonus gym night and took advantage of it.  I hit the driving range several times.   I was hyper diligent about what I ate.  By Sunday's weigh-in I'd gotten to within a half pound of my goal of 278.6.   And with DAPGF going out with some friends in town from NorCal, I'm thinking I can actually pull it off.  But I shot myself in the foot.  Dad is heading out on a vacation, his first real trip since my Mother passed away, and I figured I'd go spend some time with him before he took off.  Some snacking and such later, and I'm back home.   Monday's weigh-in, 280.6 lbs.  Exactly what it was last Monday.  On one hand I should be disappointed that I didn't lose anything.   But, I'm actually pleased that I managed to lose the 3 pounds I gained at the beginning of the week, and I'm liking my chances at continued weight-loss this week.   Tonight DAPGF is out for drinks again with her friend, so I get a bonus night at the gym.  And there shouldn't be anything at work that could cause a meltdown like last week, so I should be pretty safe there.   Finally, I've managed to get up a little earlier the past several mornings, which allows me to get my ExerciseTV mini workouts in the morning.  My goal for this week should've been 276.6 lbs, but the actual 2 pound loss would put me at 278.6 lbs.  So 278.6 is the goal.  If I can do better, and I think I can, then yay me!