So happy post-Thanksgiving! I hope you all feasted (but not too much) and made it to and from wherever you may have gone safely. As for me, it was a quiet Thanksgiving with DAPGF. Being the first Thanksgiving without my mother, my father was graciously invited to spend Thanksgiving with my sister's in-laws who are absolutely wonderful people. These are the people who make you want to believe in the goodness of humanity. But with Dad off to the hinterlands of the midwest, DAPGF and I went to the Hotel Del Coronado for their outrageously outrageous buffet. I failed to bring my camera (and the lighting wasn't sufficient for camera phone work), so I was unable to show you just what sort of hellish nirvana was spread before us. To quote John Pinette "Pork chops and spare ribs and scampi, oh my!" There was a bit of everything. Oh who am I kidding? There was a LOT of everything! And an entire separate room of desserts! And the setting? A sunny, slightly breezy day in Coronado right on the beach. Yeah, just another crappy day in paradise! I tried to upload some pics from the Hotel's website, but Blogger seems to be having issues. Meh. Just know that it was a phenomenal meal at a phenomenal place on a phenomenal day. Life is good.
Ahhh, but this is a diet blog. And I would be remiss were I to fail to discuss matters of corpulence. So here's the "skinny" (another joke coming at ya! I got a million of 'em!). On Monday 11/19, my weigh-in was 284.6. I knew the buffet would be outrageous, and you few regular readers know my struggles with anything containing the word "buffet," so I had been working diligently to prepare for the feast. By Thanksgiving morning (pre-feast), I was at 282.0. I had planned to make it to the gym on Friday, but I had to take my POS Jeep into the dealer for some warranty work. So no working out, but no outrageous snacking. By the time I got home, showered and weighed myself, I was at 282.6 lbs. So after one of the more outrageous buffets this side of the Bellagio in Vegas, I had only gained .6 lbs! Can a brother get a w00000t! But wait! There's more! DAPGF had some friends in town for the weekend, and she went out with them on Friday. So Hoff doesn't have to go out to eat. By Saturday's weigh-in, (post gym) I was down to 281.0! Woo hoo!!! Saturday we had a very sensible lunch (back on Coronado for some reason) and some of the best raw, dead fish you'll ever come across at Sushi on the Rock in downtown La Jolla. Absolutely righteous. And the Sunday weigh-in was 281.4 lbs. So after all of that sushi goodness, I'll accept a .4 lb gain. Oh, and I did NOT make it to the gym on Sunday, so the gain was even more acceptable.
Sunday wound up being somewhat less successful from a food intake perspective, unfortunately. I was helping DAPGF get her lesson plans together for her classes this week, so she decided to make lunch, instead of losing an hour and a half away from the computer. Vegetarian burritos. They were very good, but I had more of them than I should. And then came dinner. A nice Italian place down in the Bird Rock neighborhood of La Jolla. Carpaccio, a wonderful caesar salad, and some outrageous mushroom and four cheese ravioli. Topped off by my second-favorite ice cream, Baskin Robbins Chocolate Oreo ice cream. And that was probably the final tipping point. Weigh-in for Monday...282.8 lbs. So I gained 1.4 lbs from Sunday to Monday, but I wound up down 1.8 lbs for the week of Thanksgiving. Ya know, I'll freaking take it! So if I'm managing to get my fat ass back into a loss mode, my goal for next Monday should be 280.8 lbs. Wish me luck, and good luck to all of you in the quest to undo the holidays!
Monday, November 26, 2007
Monday, November 12, 2007
The Fog is Getting Thicker. And Leon (Hoff) is Getting Larger!
Dammit! It's not supposed to happen like this! Considering that I had just about no gym time last week, I was actually making a bit of progress towards my goal for today of 281.8 lbs. And I even made it to the gym both Saturday and Sunday mornings, and DAPGF and I even went on a walk along La Jolla cove for about an hour on Saturday, but once again my progress was thwarted by great restaurants and my lack of willpower. Friday night actually wasn't too bad. Small salad and a grill sampler plate consisting of a steak quesadilla, grilled shrimp, and something else that I forget. Not outrageous by any means, and with the gym on Saturday morning, my weigh-in showed no increase from Friday morning. Woo hoo! Then came lunch. One word. Buffet. Show me the buffet!! Granted, the food tended to be on the healthy side of things, but if you eat enough you will eventually gain weight. Combine that with going out for dinner and many drinks with friends, and I've got the recipe for a 1.5 pound weight gain on Sunday morning. This despite another trip to the gym. Sunday I was on my own for lunch, but dinner consisted of Thai (pad thai, stir-fry shrimp, lots of rice and noodles, and some Baskin Robbins Chocolate Oreo Cookie ice cream (second in my world only to Ben and Jerry's Brownie Batter ice cream). And Monday's weigh-in: 284.8 lbs. Yep. Not only didn't I lose anything from last week, but I gained a pound! Holy fatness!
Still, somehow I remain optimistic. DAPGF teaches tonight and Thursday, so there's two gym nights when I can limit my meals to Lean Cuisine-esq meals. She might have something going on for Tuesday (which would be another gym/eat at home night), and she's getting her hair done after work on Wednesday, which might mean I get another gym/home evening. I can't let these opportunities slip by. I will make some progress, some hard core progress. If nothing else, I need to make progress to offset what next weekend will inevitably bring. Wish me luck, peeps.
Still, somehow I remain optimistic. DAPGF teaches tonight and Thursday, so there's two gym nights when I can limit my meals to Lean Cuisine-esq meals. She might have something going on for Tuesday (which would be another gym/eat at home night), and she's getting her hair done after work on Wednesday, which might mean I get another gym/home evening. I can't let these opportunities slip by. I will make some progress, some hard core progress. If nothing else, I need to make progress to offset what next weekend will inevitably bring. Wish me luck, peeps.
Monday, November 05, 2007
The best laid plans of mice and men...
Well it was nice to see that I could guess exactly what would happen after my last post. After my shocking jump to 284.8 last week, I guessed that by Tuesday's weigh-in I'd be down to around 282. Sure as hell, I weighed in at 282.0. Unfortunately, that was the end of the goodness. DAPGF has gone from teaching on the evenings of Tues, Wed, and Thurs to teaching on Monday and Thursday. So my potential gym times have dropped and they're less "strategically" located. I've now got a long period in the middle of the week where, not only am I not going to the gym, but I'm going out to eat evil good restaurant food instead of eating my Lean Cuisines and such. It is most certainly not conducive to steady weight loss. Admittedly it is my own fault...DAPGF isn't forcing food down my throat, but so much better to be able to avoid the temptation.
Anyway, back to my fat. Because of the way the week is now structured, each day I gained a little weight back. I went from 282.0 to 282.4 to 282.6 and so on. Probably the only reason I didn't completely blimp back up was the dog walks. Now that the doggie is healing up nicely, we go on longer walks, particularly in the evening. Every little bit helps. But traffic was a nightmare on Thursday and I didn't come close to even trying to go to the gym. And Saturday went beyond the normal evil meals and included getting together with some of DAPGF's friends for Chinese food (yum but evil) and drinky-drinks at their place afterwards. And I also didn't make it to the gym on both Saturday and Sunday (vet visit on Saturday and assorted chores on Sunday), so I missed out on two opportunities to try and offset the naughtiness that I had wrought. End result, this morning's weigh-in: 283.8. Yes I gained back 1.8 pounds during the course of the week, but I was still down a pound overall for the week. I'm going to take it.
The time change has been a huge benefit so far. I was able to get up early enough to walk the doggie a decent distance, and also get my gym bag together for after work. I also got to work early and motivated, and even took the stairs up to the 3rd floor. I'm going to kick ass this week. My 2 pound goal is 281.8 lbs, but I want to do better. With the time change I'm going to either try to do longer doggie walks in the morning, or (and I think this is the more effective option) do decent dog walks and do a 10-15 minute Exercise TV workout afterwards. Being back in the 280s sucks, or as it might be stated here, Do Not Want! Dammit, I'm going to beat this. That first 10-12 pounds came off really easily and quickly. I really plateaued and made zero progress in August and September, and started to backslide in October. November is going to resume progress. I'm obviously not going to make my goal of 240 by Christmas, unless I amputate my leg or something, but if I can get below 270 I'll feel pretty good. Wish me luck, and good luck to all of you.
Anyway, back to my fat. Because of the way the week is now structured, each day I gained a little weight back. I went from 282.0 to 282.4 to 282.6 and so on. Probably the only reason I didn't completely blimp back up was the dog walks. Now that the doggie is healing up nicely, we go on longer walks, particularly in the evening. Every little bit helps. But traffic was a nightmare on Thursday and I didn't come close to even trying to go to the gym. And Saturday went beyond the normal evil meals and included getting together with some of DAPGF's friends for Chinese food (yum but evil) and drinky-drinks at their place afterwards. And I also didn't make it to the gym on both Saturday and Sunday (vet visit on Saturday and assorted chores on Sunday), so I missed out on two opportunities to try and offset the naughtiness that I had wrought. End result, this morning's weigh-in: 283.8. Yes I gained back 1.8 pounds during the course of the week, but I was still down a pound overall for the week. I'm going to take it.
The time change has been a huge benefit so far. I was able to get up early enough to walk the doggie a decent distance, and also get my gym bag together for after work. I also got to work early and motivated, and even took the stairs up to the 3rd floor. I'm going to kick ass this week. My 2 pound goal is 281.8 lbs, but I want to do better. With the time change I'm going to either try to do longer doggie walks in the morning, or (and I think this is the more effective option) do decent dog walks and do a 10-15 minute Exercise TV workout afterwards. Being back in the 280s sucks, or as it might be stated here, Do Not Want! Dammit, I'm going to beat this. That first 10-12 pounds came off really easily and quickly. I really plateaued and made zero progress in August and September, and started to backslide in October. November is going to resume progress. I'm obviously not going to make my goal of 240 by Christmas, unless I amputate my leg or something, but if I can get below 270 I'll feel pretty good. Wish me luck, and good luck to all of you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
