The one in which we bid 2008 a resounding Meh

Readers? Anybody out there? Bueller? Anybody? Man, 2008 turned out to be teh suck. I looked over my post from 1/1/08 to see what horrifically unobtainable crap I actually considered attempting. 2 pounds per week, under 240 by summer, get more organized, blog more, play more poker, yadda yadda yadda. Yeah, pretty much none of that was realized. There were a variety of factors in my trip on the Fail Boat, but they mainly come down to the overall fact that I'm lazy and self-indulgent. Shocking, I know, especially to those who know me, but I tend to have fun first and then cram to get whatever it is that I'm supposed to be doing actually completed. Paying bills, housework, gym, whatever, I was just the master of the douchebaggery.

There were other things bad in 2008. Lots of personal stuff with DAPGF (not between us, just her own personal issues), the ending of my Santa Ana work assignment (that wasn't conducive to blogging and poker, but was great for exercise), and the commencement of an assignment in Riverside County that forced me to drive my gas pig Jeep 140 miles round trip 3 to 4 times per week. I got reimbursed for mileage, and despite the horrific gas prices (at the peak, $4.79/gal for 87 octane...it cost me around $90 per tank) I actually came out ahead on that aspect of things. Mileage cap on my lease was another story, though, and I wound up buying a piece of crap commuter box that ate up way too much money to minimize the impact on the Jeep. The absolutely worst thing about 2008, though was very personal. Ginger, the nicest Doberman on the face of the earth and all around best doggie anywhere, lost her battle with cancer just before Thanksgiving.
She's up in heaven, chasing the bunnies and such, but DAPGF and I hadn't really realized just how much our lives were structured around her until she wasn't there. I had no reason to bundle up and go for an hour long walk at 11 pm, and there was no stubby wagging tail greeting us when we'd come home. Very sad, and had the additional effect of eliminating an opportunity to exercise. We looked into getting a 7 month old puppy from a breeder, but it had behavioral issues that would likely require a several month stay at a Cesar Milan Dog Whisperer boot camp, so that was a no go. We are now waiting for a litter to be born in March, so we can get one in June, after the shots and such are all taken care of. So for the interim, no doggie.

But I'm not giving up, dammit! I'm going to fight my way out of this morass that was 2008, and I'm going to have a multi-pronged approach. Some of these mirror what was proffered a year ago, but the loss of Ginger has kind of given me an energy and opportunity to kick my ass in gear.

1. Exercise. Since I no longer have to wake up to walk and feed the dog, I've got a solid half-hour or so of free time. I'm going to go for a run in the morning...approximately a mile or so, depending on how I'm handling it. I used to do this when I lived in Orange County (pre-DAPGF), and I was a good 30 to 40 pounds lighter back then. I'm also going to get back into the gym rhythm. When DAPGF teaches, my first shot after work is to the gym. After that, then I'll go home and relax (or go to the store, Home Depot, whatever). I will also get back into the habit of logging my exercise onto MyFitnessPal.com.

2. Diet. Now that I'm back to a driving assignment, it is way too easy to swing past a drive-thru or a 7-11 for some munchies. I'm going to get back into counting up my calories for the day and logging everything I eat into MyFitnessPal.com. I need to have some accountability, and publishing my heinousness in a daily web format should accomplish that. Plus, the tracking tools for calories consumed, calories burned, weight gain/loss, etc. are very comprehensive.

3. Weight loss. As I age and my metabolism slows down that much more (groan, sigh), I need to be a little more realistic. Based on my exercise and diet goals, I'm setting a weight-loss goal of 1.5 lbs per week, measured Friday to Friday. Why then? A couple of reasons. First, the weekends are always a little screwy from a timing perspective, and I think I can be more consistent on a Friday morning. DAPGF is scheduled to teach Thursday nights, so that will help me out on the day before the weigh-in. Sometimes the weekends include much more rich and filling dining experiences. And January 2 is on Friday. Why not January 1 as a start? DAPGF and I are attending the New Year's Day champagne brunch at the Hotel Del Coronado, which is expected to be non-diet-friendly. Ultimately, I'd like to hit 240 pounds, which is approximately 45 pounds lighter than my current weight today. At an average of 1.5 lbs per week, that puts me in the middle of July. Sooner would be better, but I think 1.5 lbs is attainable so that's what I'm going to run with.

4. Personal responsibility. This is a generalized category that covers a multitude of personal characteristics. Set aside time to pay bills. Set aside time to clean out and purge my financial files. Likewise magazines. Make sure that any needs/chores from DAPGF get prioritized ahead of my playtime. Granted, I'm not going to eliminate my fun times. In fact, I'm resolving to actually blog more than I did in 2008 (shouldn't be too difficult), as well as play poker more consistently (both quantity and quality). I'm just trying to make sure that I've got my priorities properly ordered.

So there we go. 2008 can GTFO, as far as I'm concerned. Bring on 2009. So what if it means my 20 year high school reunion? I know I'm getting old, dammit! Now get off my lawn!

In which we assess the damage...

Not damage by a hurricane or anything, and any of you readers (anyone out there? Sis? Anyone?) who have gone thru Gustav, Ike, or any of the other recent storms, my thoughts are with you, but this blog is about my fat, and it's been pretty damaging.

My last post on 9/3, my weigh-in was 282.2 lbs, down from a recent peak of 284.2 lbs, but way up from my most recent low of 274.6 lbs. On that Sunday (9/7), I dropped down to 279.0, setting up a 1.5 lb goal for 9/14 of 277.5 lbs. The past week was somewhat problematic, though. DAPGF started a new teaching semester, but the associated crap that goes along with it (prepping lesson plans and online shells) as well as a pile of the other usual crap (getting food and stuff for the doggie, etc.), I didn't really make it to the gym much this past week. It showed with a peak on my 9/10 weigh-in of 283.0 lbs. Still, I fought back and got down to 280.6 lbs on Saturday morning and then 280.0 lbs this morning. A net gain of 1.0 lbs for the week, but given that I was pushing 4 lbs at one point, I'm ok with that.

I'm not going to get where I want to go with a repeat of last week, so I've got to step up and head in the right direction. The week isn't going to start off on the right foot, because instead of going to the gym after work, I've got a meeting to go to in the early evening. I'm just going to have to work hard at eating right. My goal for next week is going to be 278.5 lbs. Wish me luck, peeps.

Waay overdue post

OK, I'm a schmuck. Almost 2 months since I posted, and I've got nothing but bad news to show for it. When last I posted, my weigh-in on July 6 was 274.6 lbs, and I was showing steady progress downward. And then the wheels fell off. Or rather I started looking for new wheels. As you know, I started a new assignment at work. One which doesn't allow me to have a nice train ride and 20 minute power walk 3 days per week. Nope. I get to drive 70 miles from Casa de Hoff to the client's office 3 days per week. Gas has come down, but when I started, regular unleaded was hovering around $4.60/gal here in San Diego. My Jeep at best gets 18 mpg on the freeway, and it's a lease. I certainly didn't want to completely destroy the mileage cap on my lease, and driving something more fuel efficient made sense, so I started looking for a beater car to drive the wheels off of. Minor problem, I had a limited budget to work with, and most used cars in the $3000 price range tend to be, well there's no nice way to put it, pieces of shit. So I spent every spare moment for the next 3 weeks scouring Craigslist and Autotrader.com, looking for that elusive diamond in the rough. Well, they were rough. And Casa de Hoff is in a very nice coastal area of San Diego. Cars in that price range tended to be owned by people who lived in lower income areas of the county, all of which tended to be a 40 to 50 mile round trip each time. So I wasn't exercising much, I was eating poorly, and I was stressing myself out. Yeah, great recipe for disaster. And the end result has been a steady increase in my corpulence. As of this morning (Wednesday) I weighed in at 282.2 lbs, down from a peak of 284.2 lbs on Tuesday. Yep, that's a gain of nearly 10 pounds over the past month! Me no likey!

Ultimately, I did purchase a car...a salvage title 1997 BMW 328i. It's got some issues and needs some heavy TLC, but it is loaded, it scoots, and it gets 25 to 30 mpg on the freeway. For what I need it for, it works just fine for me. And now that I've got that taken care of (I put 3000 miles on it in the first month I owned it!), I'm trying to get back into a groove. I'm working hard at eating better, and because of the hours I need to be at the client's office, sometimes I have time after work to stop at a 24 Hour Fitness on the way home. It's not perfect, but I'm trying to reverse the momentum and get back to losing again. Wish me luck, peeps.

The One In Which We Cross a Threshold

Wow! It's been a while since I posted. Bad Hoff! Bad, naughty Hoff! I am deserving of a spanking. And then the oral sex!

But seriously folks, it has been a while, and I have positive news to report! When last we checked in, I was aiming for a weigh-in on 6/22 of 276.9 lbs. The week had been my usual up and down, peaking at 278.2 on Friday 6/20. But with DAPGF out of town, I was able to make some headway and drop down to 276.2 lbs for Saturday! Saturday did involve time with Dad and some naughty food, but I was able to use the rest of the time on Saturday for beach and gym, and made my weigh-in on Sunday at 276.2 lbs.! No gain from Saturday and I bettered my goal by more than a half pound!

With that success, my goal for 6/29 would be 274.7 lbs. That would represent my first foray under 275 lbs since I can remember. Looking way (weigh?) back at things, this weight-loss thing all got started when I realized that my scale was broken (insert fat jokes here). For whatever reason the scale (an old-school mechanical dial one) would read no higher than 260-ish pounds (the dial actually went to 300 lbs). Despite the fact that my clothes were seeming much tighter and my gut seemed larger, it hadn't dawned on me that the scale continuing to read 262 lbs wasn't indicative of a problem. I jut figured I'd only gained 10 or so pounds from the Newport Beach and Aliso Viejo days, and as I aged the weight was redistributing itself into my gut. Yeah, wishful thinking. So one morning I get on the scale and notice that as it spins up, instead of doing the typical "needle back and forth until it settles" routine, it simply stopped in the 260 neighborhood. With no idea how long it had been broken, I went and bought the new scale, and promptly realized that I was up in the 280s! Holy crap! But beyond the obvious horror, I had no idea how long I'd been that fat. So with that knowledge, that last bout of food poisoning was the last time I'd knowingly been in the 275 lb range.

So I'm starting at 276.2 lbs and aiming for 274.7 lbs on 6/29. The week was again my typical yo-yo experience, and I actually peaked at 278.8 during the week. Still, I fought and fought and managed to do a weigh-in of 276.2 lbs on 6/29. No change from the previous week, but given the 2.6 pound increase during the week, I'll take it.

So, again, I'm aiming for 274.7 lbs on 7/6. Again, the week was a typical yo-yo with an added wrinkle. I'm no longer riding the train, so I no longer get my thrice weekly bonus exercise walk to the train station. To make it worse, my new gig is with a brand new client who is still setting up their offices. So I didn't really even have a good opportunity to bring a Lean Cuisine type lunch. Nope, everybody wanted to go to the naughty Mexican joint nearby. But I didn't want to have two straight weeks with no progress, so I was careful with what I ate. DAPGF had a meeting to go to one evening, and she went out for lunch with friends on Saturday, so I had good opportunities to hit the gym and avoid restaurants. End result? Weigh-in on 7/6 was 274.6 lbs!! I beat my goal by .1 lb, and I was under 275 for the first time in well over a year!!! Can a brother get a woo hoo!!! Next Sunday, 7/13, the goal will be 273.1 lbs.

One thing that should help with meeting my next goal (and I'm sure helped out this past week) is my gym. Not that 24 Hour Fitness is really anything special, but they just got some new elliptical machines in, and boy are they difficult. The key thing about them is they have a variable stride to them, and because of that you have to work extra hard to keep up a constant stride. You get going and get yourself into a steady pace. All of a sudden, the "incline" or speed of the machine changes, and unconsciously your stride changes. God forbid you decide to reverse and go backwards. It is hella hard, and a brutal workout. With the old elliptical machines, I could bang out a half hour workout, on resistance level 11, and be sweating but hardly breathing heavily. With these new machines, I spend so much effort trying to maintain a consistent, steady pace and stride that I find myself winded after 12 minutes. I think, tbough, that the extra effort makes up the difference and probably then some. I will keep you advised as to whether I give up on them or not. Wish me luck.

And to finish off this long overdue post, instead of the last 5 songs I heard at the gym this morning, let's go with the first 5 songs...which ones served to pump me up. I added a bunch of tracks to the mp3 player, so I manually created a playlist, started with one particular song, and shuffled the rest. I was not disappointed.

Motley Crue - Kickstart My Heart
AC/DC - Whole Lotta Rosie
Pantera - Mouth For War
Testament - Electric Crown
The Vines - Ride

FWIW, the next 5 were equally motivating:

Megadeth - High Speed Dirt
Iron Maiden - Invaders
Iced Earth - Declaration Day
W.A.S.P. - Blind in Texas
Babylon A.D. - Hammer Swings Down

See ya out there, peeps.

A bit over due, but worth the wait...

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've been busy. I'm sure everybody is busy, but I really am. Out the door super early for work, back late. And when I've actually been in my office instead of some client's office, I've been hella busy on this new project that kicks off July 1. On top of work, DAPGF just went out of town, had a birthday party for a neighbor, and my Dad is in the process of moving. It has been a bit busy.

So, last Sunday, 6/8, my weigh-in goal was 277.0 I had (obviously) been at 279.0 for the previous Sunday, and set up my usual 1.5 pound goal. Unfortunately, I didn't quite make it. I did lose some weight, though, so no backsliding and I'm still under 280! 6/15, my weigh-in was 278.4 lbs, for a .6 lb loss during the week. I did my usual yo-yo thing, but it was a much smaller range of weight. Sure I didn't drop a lot off, but neither did I put on a lot, so I'm generally satisfied. And from 278.4 lbs, my goal for 6/23 is 276.9 lbs.

This is going to be an interesting weekend. I started off on fire. After a .2 lb gain after a Father's Day steak dinner with DAPGF and my Dad, I dropped down to 276.6! Holy crap! I think there was one moment a year an a half ago that I hit 275, and that was only due to a bout of food poisoning. Since Tuesday morning I've actually gained a little bit back. We had the aforementioned birthday party for the neighbor, and that involved appetizers and margaritas at a Mexican joint near Casa de Hoff, so that was expected. Wednesday I was actually on track for a pretty good showing...I was working in my capacity of Public Information Officer for a local water district, and doing a lot of door-to-door, up and down condo stairs in 95 degree heat. And that's where the problem came in. Milkshake, baby! I wanted it, I needed it, so dammit, I got it! It was gooooood. And baaaaaaad. But with DAPGF gone until Sunday morning, here's what I've got to look forward to: walking back to the train in predicted 100 degree heat on Friday afternoon; a run to the gym and/or the beach for some waves Friday evening (not sure how motivated I'm going to be, but the intent is there), followed by a (hopefully) healthy dinner of my choosing. No restaurant planned, so maybe I can avoid the large calories associated with a big dinner out. Saturday morning gym and beach, followed by a presumably healthy lunch at home (again, no restaurant). Dinner will likely be with my Dad, whom I will be helping move, so there will be exercise, but there will likely be beer as well. Must be careful. Sunday morning will be a repeat of Saturday morning, with the gym/beach/breakfast or lunch at home. DAPGF is back Sunday evening, so that will return the dinner plans to normal. Hopefully, though, I will have had the willpower to take advantage of the weekend and drop some serious weight. Wish me luck, peeps.

The one in which we achieve a major goal...

Well how about that! Last Sunday's weigh-in turned out to be 280.6 lbs. That would set the goal of a 1.5 pound loss at 279.1 lbs. Generally, I did fairly well during the week. I didn't really lose anything, but I also didn't really gain anything. I did get sick on Wednesday, to the point of staying home from work on Thursday. The surprising thing was the weekend, though. We ate very carefully on Friday (Thai veggie stirfry) and I hit the gym Saturday (caturday?) for a weigh-in of 279.0 lbs! Yay me, but wait! This is a pattern of mine. Sunday, being weigh-in day, usually involves some backsliding from Saturday's weigh-in, even if I do go to the gym. And Saturday night was expected to be even worse. DAPGF and I celebrated 6 years (?!?) together by going to Fleming's Steakhouse for a righteous meal of dead cow and assorted stuff. She had the petite filet, and I had a 16 oz New York Strip that was melt-in-your-mouth yummy. Bread and their House Special potatoes (told ya we lurved our carbs) made with real cream, jalapeños, and cheddar cheese, and a complementary piece of their molten lava chocolate cake, accompanied by whole whipped cream and whole vanilla bean ice cream. OMFGA was it wonderful, but I was sure that I'd pay for it Sunday morning. And to top it off, because of long doggie walk and needing to get the car washed, I didn't make it to the gym. Weigh-in result? 279.0 lbs!!!! I made my goal and had an official weigh-in of under 280! And it was 2 weigh-ins in a row under 280!!!! Yay me!

So the goal for Sunday 6/15 will be 277.5. I'd have to go back and look, but I believe that will be the lowest weight I will have knowingly had since I discovered that my scale was broken back in 2006! And I must say, I'm on an excellent start! This morning's weigh-in? 279.0 lbs! And what makes this weigh-in that much more significant is that, not only was there no physical activity involved beyond a 10 minute dog walk, but the weigh-in occurred at 7:30 a.m. The weekend weigh-ins usually occur around 11 a.m. So that tells me that I actually went against the grain on Sunday and lost more weight! DAPGF is going to be gone nearly every night this week, so I am going to have some good gym opportunities along with safer food options. This may turn out to be a really good week. Here's hoping I don't screw it up!

Better late than never, I suppose...

This post is long overdue. It's late partially because my schedule's been screwed up at work, and partially because I've been embarrassed that I finally had some backsliding. But here we go.

2 weeks ago, my hoped-for weigh-in (Memorial Day weekend) was 278.7, which would've been my first "market closing" weigh-in of under 280 in a looong time. I had done my usual yo-yo thing, but was climbing back down and approaching my goal. Saturday 5/24 actually saw me at 279.6, so I was within fingertip distance of my goal. I'm still not exactly sure what happened to me (hey! great blog title!), but Sunday's weigh-in bubbled back up to 280.6 lbs. My first bit of backsliding...a gain of .4 lbs for the week. Ahh, but the weekend is still upon us, and Monday's weigh-in dropped me back to 279.8. Not the real goal, but a weigh-in of under 280! Woo hoo!! So I figured I'd take my goal from Monday's weigh-in and simply aim for a better Sunday, so the goal for 6/1 was going to be 278.3.

278.3 lbs. Hmmm. I was off to a good start, with Monday not causing any damage, but then the wheels fell off. DAPGF was out teaching, so I caved into my evil urges and ordered Kung Pao Shrimp from PF Changs. Oh so freaking tasty, but pure evil. The weight jumps to 281. Then to 282! Then by Thursday I was back on the train thing, which got me some exercise and food control. Friday was even better, because I had to go to Riverside with my boss for a meeting at 10 a.m. No train walk, but I figured I'd get home early enough to maybe get a quickie workout in. Noon hits during the meeting, and one of the guys asked if anybody wanted lunch. My boss and I said we just wanted to work through, so we could get on the freeway headed south before traffic went to hell. So we plowed through and took off. At that point, I figured I could wait until we got back to my boss' place, and I'd hit some fast food on my way home. But the traffic gods actually helped me out. The freeway was packed, so I wound up taking Coast Highway (PCH) from Encinitas down to La Jolla. That helped me because there is no fast food located along the PCH. So I just gave in and drove home. I did have some Wheat Thins when I got home before we went out to dinner, but basically I hadn't eaten anything but a bagel all day. I made it to the gym and the beach on Saturday, and it showed. My weigh-in was back down to 279.4 lbs. Not quite to the goal, but given where I'd been the day before, it was a good sign. Saturday lunch was my downfall, though. Veggie burgers...no problem. Fries...major problem. I have come to the conclusion that potatoes, french fries in particular, are NOT my friends. And to make matters worse, DAPGF and I go to lots of places that serve them (Applebees, TGIF, Fuddruckers, Burger Lounge (a hoity-toity but uber-yummy burger joint in downtown La Jolla) and other such places. I always gain weight when fries are involved, and I really need to be better at avoiding them. I really need to be better at avoiding carbs in general, but that's difficult when the places you go to eat serve one or more of the following: bread, pasta, tortillas, tortilla chips, rice, fries, hash browns, and so on. End result, Sunday's weigh-in (despite a good workout at the gym) was back in the 280s somewhere (I don't have that day logged into My Fitness Pal yet).

So whatever the exact weigh-in was on 6/1, the goal for 6/8 will be exactly 1.5 lbs lighter than that. The week started ugly, despite a good workout on Monday evening. I once again fell victim to my baser urges and had lunch at Pizza Hut's buffet! What was I thinking?!? Still, this morning's weigh-in was back down to 280.2 lbs, so maybe I can make up the badness and get back on the downward trend. I wish you luck, peeps.

An Interesting Observation...

Slowly but surely, my weight is dropping off. I kind of yo-yo through the week, but so far, the past month-plus has had a net drop in weight each week. To the point that I've lost 5.4 pounds from 4/13 thru 5/18. Yay me!

As I've noted in previous posts, usually at the beginning of the week, when I am unable to hit the gym or avoid eating at a restaurant (or two!), my weight will jump up 2 or 3 pounds from the Sunday weigh-in. Part of that is due to the fact that the Sunday weigh-in typically takes place around 11 a.m., and the weigh-ins during the week typically occur around 7 a.m. But whatever the case, my weight jumps at the beginning of the week and then I fight to get it down as the week progresses. Thursday and Friday are two good days, because I have to do my 20 minute power walk back to the train, and it's more difficult to snack in Santa Ana, not having access to a car or the time to go somewhere to get something. Saturday morning usually allows me to go to the gym, and then likewise on Sunday, before that weigh-in. So the week starts rough, and lately has been ending on a relatively good note.

My scale is one of those fancy digital ones that, among other things, calculates BMI, or body fat. Given my size, it's going to be quite some time before my BMI is below "obese" (30% or so, if I remember correctly). But the interesting thing has been watching my body fat measurement each time I weigh myself. My BMI number has been steadily dropping as well. Typically, a gain in weight (such as what I typically experience on a Monday) results in a slightly lower BMI number, due to the "better" weight to Body Mass ratio. That being said, the range of the numbers has dropped over the past month by an average of 1 to 2 percent. I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but it works out to be a roughly 4.3 percent drop in body mass. Again, yay me!

So even as my weight does it's yo-yo thing, I can still see that I'm making progress by the fact that my body fat percentage is dropping off. And that is helping me keep going. Good luck out there.

Slowly, we continue the march...

Greetings, my peeps. I hope it isn't too hot where you are...it's somewhat thermal here in SoCal right now, but they are saying the temp is going to drop 10 to 12 degrees tomorrow, which means it will be in the high 70s instead of high 80s/low 90s. Every little bit helps, I suppose, which brings me to the topic at hand: my weight loss.

The progress has been slower than originally anticipated, but dammit, it's still progress! I continued my adherence to the "one little day" concept last week. Last Sunday (5/11), my weigh-in was 281.0 lbs, which led to my weekly loss goal for 5/18 of 279.5 lbs. Lately, Mondays have been good alternate gym days, because DAPGF has been out with friends on those evenings. I get to go to the gym, and eat a Lean Cuisine or two at home instead of going to some restaurant experience that will top 900 calories. Last week wasn't one of those days. Actually, the week wasn't that good for the exercise front in general. The only real exercise I got was my power walk on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday back to the train...the other days of the week, not so much. My daily weigh-in's reflect that pattern, with the weight that goes on from Sunday brunch (the weigh-in is obviously before eating) thru Monday dinner causing an inevitable 2 to 3 pound gain from Sunday to Monday (a weigh-in time that is 3 hours earlier doesn't help), slowly going off as I do my train walks on Thursday and Friday, followed (usually) by a trip to the gym Saturday and Sunday mornings. Same basic thing happened this week, which led to a 5/18 weigh-in of 280.2 lbs. Again, short of the goal by .7 lbs, but it still signifies a loss of .8 lbs for the week. I may not be achieving the individual goals that I set out to achieve, but I am still having positive results on the overall goal of losing weight. Since my recent rededication (my birthday), I'm down 5.2 lbs. Heck, since I started this blog, I dropped almost 11 pounds, gained more than 20 back, but I'm back to a net loss of 3.2 lbs, and actually making steady progress in the correct direction consistently for the first time in a while. And that, my friends, I will take.

Next Sunday (5/25), the goal is 278.7 lbs. See you there.

One Little Day (Revisited)

So. Last week I weighed in at 281.4 lbs, and the weekly goal for today's 1.5 lb loss was 279.9 lbs. The week was pretty mellow, and followed the typical pattern. I ate more than I should've for lunch, but hit the gym when DAPGF went out with friends. Tuesday was an OC day, so I got to do my walk to the train for exercise. DAPGF was teaching, so I was able to control my dinner. Wednesday was neither train, nor gym, nor Lean Cuisine. DAPGF and I went walking for a bit after dinner, which was better than nothing, but didn't really balance out dinner. Thursday I at least had the train for exercise, which when combined with the apres dinner walking gave me some progress. Friday was an interesting day. The train got as far as Irvine, where we were stopped due to a natural gas leak. I caught a bus into Santa Ana, and made it to the office for a few hours. I called both Metrolink and Amtrak before I left to see what the status of things were. Conflicting messages led me to go ahead and walk to the train. Upon arriving there, I got a ride to Tustin and crowded onto a bus to go just down to Irvine, where they told us that the buses might take us southward. Or maybe not. Or maybe trains were running. Who knew. So I finally got to Irvine, only to see the Amtrak train I rode up on in the morning, still there with the crew. I did check, but all the alcohol on the train had been consumed. So I waited. And waited. And waited. After an hour-ish, I started to get hungry. The only non-vending machine food I found was in this little quick wok Chinese joint at the transportation center, and I had some surprisingly delicious lo mein (I <3 pasta, remember). So I waited for a few hours, climbed several flights of stairs several times going from one set of tracks to the other, based on what the non-helpful personnel were telling us. Finally, an Amtrak train came up from Oceanside to take us back into San Diego county. Once in Oceanside, I caught a ride from a very nice young lady back to my car, and made it home just after 8. Normally, I would've been home by 4:30. So no gym, but no snacking and lots of walking around from place to place. Which led to a glorious weigh-in on Saturday that was within spitting distance of my goal...280.0 lbs! Oh so close. But it was not meant to be. DAPGF wanted to go to a sushi buffet for lunch, and then deep fried dinner stuff served to torpedo my phenomenal efforts. Weigh-in on Sunday morning was 281.0. Short of my goal by a pound, but still a net loss for the week. So for the month since my 37th birthday, I've dropped just about 4.5 pounds. Not as much as I'd hoped, but I haven't backslid since then. So I'm going to keep going. Next week's goal, 279.5 lbs. See ya out there!

The One In Which Reality Catches Up...

Hey, I'm only human. I only had one full gym day this week...both Saturday and Sunday were shortened workouts to deal with assorted tasks (hair cut, car wash, etc.). Combine that with a fast food lunch on Monday (hadn't gotten to the store), going out for a wicked large burrito in Santa Ana's ghetto (training a co-worker), and going to DAPGF's favorite tapas buffet on Saturday, and I didn't make my goal weight. For the record, my goal for the Sunday weigh-in was 280.6 lbs, for a 1.5 lb drop from last Sunday. And despite the above, I tried. I ate as conservatively as possible...not always easy with DAPGF wanting to go out for our meals, and we walked after eating as much as DAPGF's flu or whatever would allow. In the end, Sunday's weigh-in was 281.4 lbs., less than 1 pound down from last week.

Now, that was disappointing, but still useful. I did lose .7 lbs for the week, which is still something. More importantly, I was able to identify the specific shortcomings I encountered and can hopefully either avoid them or devise more effective ways to accommodate them while minimizing the damage. I am trying to change my eating habits permanently, and being able to recognize some of the bad habits that I have should help me in being able to devise ways to change them for the better. That being said, my goal for Sunday 5/11 is 279.9 lbs. If I am successful, that will be my first foray below 280 in quite some time. If I were still on schedule, the goal would be 279.1 lbs. And to evoke the margin of error discussed previously, somehwere in the 278 lbs range would be a slick idea. So my official goal is to crack 279 lbs, with the minimum set for 279.9 lbs. Unofficially, I'm going to work extra hard to actually drop below 279 lbs and get somewhere into the 278 lbs range. Despite not achieving my goal, I'm still dropping the weight. I'm going to do my damndest to keep it up.

Good luck, peeps.

Since it's political season, go with the margin of error...

So. Freaking. Close. My goal for this morning was 282.1 lbs, for a 1.5 lb drop from last Sunday. The week actually started ugly, and at one point I was up 4 pounds from last Sunday's weigh-in. Late night snacking, and a Chinese buffet were the culprits. Or rather my will power (or lack thereof) was the culprit and the snacking and buffet were the tools of my downfall. But I battled back. I did my power train walk, I had 2 extra gym days in there, and had an hour-plus of walking around at the Encinitas Street Fair on Saturday. End result, 282.2 lbs. So close, but within that "margin of error" that the politicians so love, so I'm going to claim the victory! Given that 1.5 lbs down from what today's goal was would be 280.6 lbs (as opposed to 1.5 lbs down from today's actual weigh-in for 280.7 lbs), I'm making 280.6 lbs as my goal for next Sunday. Wish me luck!

And wonders never cease...

So. My goal for the 4/20 weigh-in was 283.9 lbs, for a 1.5 lb drop from the day after my birthday. Lo and behold that when I stepped on the scale this morning, the digital numbers stopped spinning at 283.6 lbs! w00t!!! I actually bettered my goal, and I really made it happen over just 3 days. Monday and Tuesday weren't good days. Monday was a working lunch and dinner with DAPGF. Tuesday, normally a train/walking day, didn't happen that way. I missed the train, so I drove to Santa Ana, thus eliminating my 20 minute power walk at the end of the day. I also didn't bring a lunch on Tuesday, so the day was more snack-laden than it should've been. Wednesday was ok until dinner. There was a 40th birthday party for the wife of one of my best friends, and it was being held at Cafe Sevilla, a local Spanish (not Mexican) restaurant known for both its tapas as well as its sangria. Topped off with dessert from Ghiradelli's Chocolate, Thursday morning's weigh-in saw me with a .6 lb gain over the 4/13 weigh-in. But I'd brought a lunch and caught the train, so the walking happened. DAPGF agreed to walk some more after dinner, and that helped immensely. Friday's weigh-in was down a pound from Thursday. More will power and train walking combined with after dinner walking knocked another .6 lbs off. Will power, a morning walk while the Jeep was getting the oil changed, a post-lunch walk, post-dinner walk, and then gym Sunday morning resulted in an additional drop of .2 lbs, for a total of 1.8 lbs loss for the week. Yay me! Next goal, 1.5 lbs down from this morning, for a weigh-in on 4/27 of 282.1 lbs. Wish me luck, peeps.

Happy Freaking Birthday!

To give an indicator as to how screwy my life has become, my birthday was actually last Saturday. Sigh. That is probably one of the things that I miss most about no longer working in real estate development and now working as a consultant...hourly billing. As a consultant, I have to track my time in 15 minute increments and for a solid majority of the time have a project to bill my time against. I haven't figured out which billing code I can put "blogging" into and get away with it. I am working on it, so when I figure it out I will let you know. Back in the formerly superheated San Diego real estate market, a lot of my time was wasted in the "hurry up and wait" game. I had plenty of work to do, but much of what I did was dependent on work that my consultants (architects, structural engineers, landscape architects, etc.) would prepare. It left me plenty of time to blog (see the 2005-2006 archives for What Happened and The Randomness). Now, not so much. But enough of that.

I am now 37. I. am. getting. old. As my sweet little sister so kindly pointed out, no matter how old I get, I'll always be older than her. Pbtpbtbpt! With said increase in age comes a corresponding decrease in my metabolic rate. Combine that with DAPGF not teaching as often, and Hoff has fewer opportunities for a workout at the gym (yeah, I'm really getting my $32/month out of the deal...not!!). And to top that off, one of the nights that would theoretically be a gym opportunity is one of the days that I work late in Santa Ana...a day that if I'm lucky I get home by 7. The last thing I want to do at that point is change clothes and head to the gym. One minor thing that is helping a bit, is that DAPGF is also getting older, and she claims (not that I can see it) that she's gaining weight. So I've convinced her to start walking after we have dinner (which is another issue entirely). So we do a half-hour stroll through some random San Diego neighborhood after dinner, to try and minimize the inevitable damage from dinner. Ah, yes, dinner. When DAPGF taught several nights per week, those were nights that I could hit the gym after work, and then come home to a simple Lean Cuisine meal (or two...some of those things are pretty damn small), and play some poker. Now, 3 or 4 nights during the week we go out to various restaurants (cheap ones...can't afford to do it up richly every night) where she tries to get us ordering healthy foods, but she's at least as much of a carbaholic as I am. Breads, tortillas, french fries, pasta, rice, bring 'em on. I'm trying to keep a lid on that behavior, but I love 'em too. Meh.

Which brings me to the moral of the story: a birthday is a perfect time to set some new goals. To set the stage, I decided that my birthday would be a blowout of sorts. Friday night was a poker night with a bunch of friends ($20 buy-in, by the end of the evening I'd pretty much tripled my money), so that was a beer laden evening. Saturday started off at me and DAPGF's favorite tapas buffet, Azul La Jolla. I really tried to maintain some semblance of portion control, but if you saw the spread they laid out, you'd understand. The day was gorgeous, so we walked around La Jolla for a bit, and then dinner. Steak at Lou & Mickey's in the Gaslamp District. The meat is so flavorful there, it's almost painful. And their scalloped potatoes (more carbs) are a cheese-laden delight. And it was topped off with a piece of layered chocolate cake so moist and rich that you'd think it wasn't cooked all the way through. Oh so freaking good. So Sunday morning, I weighed myself before hitting the gym. 285.4 lbs. Yikes! But there's my starting point. 285.4 lbs. I want to get down to 240 lbs by Thanksgiving (just in time to put it all back on!). That's 45.4 lbs to lose over the next 7 months. Approximately 6.3 lbs per month, or just about 1.5 lbs per week. I think I can make that work, so dammit, I'm going to do it! Admittedly, I'm not off to a great start. No gym on Monday, and I drove to Santa Ana today so no walk back to the train depot, but I've got plenty of week left to get through. My goal for next Sunday morning will be 283.9 lbs. Fat and stupid is no way to go through life. Not sure what I can do about the stupid, but maybe I can at least work on the fat. Wish me luck, peeps!

The one in which we continue to yo-yo

So. My last post on 3/19 saw a weigh-in of 284.4 lbs. Over the past two weeks, it was slightly up, then slightly down, until last weekend. Knowing that DAPGF and I were going to this fine establishment for the champagne brunch to celebrate her birthday, I worked extra hard to try and drop a few pounds...just to prepare. It doesn't matter how good the food is (and holy crap was it good!), buffet is still an evil word. Sunday morning, I was down to 281.2 lbs. But the 12:30 hour was fast approaching, and it was bringing crab claws. And omelettes. And prime rib. And seared ahi tuna. And 15 different types of cheeses. And 5 chili mole chicken breasts. And several different types of caviar. And smoked salmon. And porcini mushroom tortellinis. And you get the idea. End result? Monday's weigh-in was 285.8 lbs! Holy porcini mushrooms! Monday saw a slight drop off, as did Tuesday, but neither as much as I would've hoped. I still eat too much, and the only physical activity I got on Monday was 45 minutes at the driving range. Side note, as I noted, work had been crazy busy and it had been at least a month since I'd been to the range. My swing, which was far from perfect, went from a solid meh to a screaming WTF!. Tuesday helped somewhat, because I had to do my 20 minute walk back to the train at the end of the day. End result, this morning's weigh-in was 284.4 lbs...right where I was two weeks ago!

Normally, today would be a gym day, because DAPGF sometimes goes out with friends on Wednesdays. Hoff likes those days because I can go to the gym and eat a Lean Cuisine for dinner instead of going to a restaurant. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like that's going to happen...so no gym and restaurant food. Not a good recipe for weight loss. At least I made it to the driving range at lunch. If I can minimize the damage today and make progress tomorrow with my walking, I might be in good condition to enter the weekend making some progress. My recent goal of losing 10 pounds in the month of March has obviously gone out the window. I've got 10 days until my birthday. My goal is to be under 280 lbs by the morning of my birthday (4/12), which is basically 5 pounds. So, .5 lbs per day. Theoretically, that should be an easy one. However, if it really was easy, I'd already be down to 240 lbs, so take from that what you will. Wish me luck, peeps.

Pathetic Efforts, and other excuses

The dog ate my homework (well, tried to eat both an opossum and a raccoon, long freaking stories), work is hella busy (actually that has been true), I haven't had time to get to the gym (also sadly true, see "work" above). The short version is that it's been almost three weeks since my last post, and I've got pretty much nothing to show for it. Let's review the sadly unrealized goals:

1. Get caught up on emails. As I noted, I have far too many email addys. I've actually done almost adequate work on this front. I haven't been checking them as often as I should, but it's been often enough, for the most part. For the past 3 weeks, though, I've had the project from hell that I was working on. I was working on the train, I was working on the weekends, and I was working at night. I was NOT taking time first thing in the morning (which is my usual M.O.) to do a quick blast thru the emails whilst noshing on a bagel before starting the day. Nope. Too much stuff to do and not enough time.

2. Blogging more regularly. Well, it's been since 3/1 since I'd posted here at What Happened, I hadn't posted at Teh Randomness since 2/17, and 2/25 was the last post at How I Would Do It (too many blogs, I know). Hell, I went almost 3 weeks without a Tweet...it's been that kind of month. I've also been really bad at staying caught up on Bloglines. I probably have more feeds than I should (at least given the time constraints I've been under), but I'm working on that and made some progress this morning. With a little more free time in the office, I think I can keep a better handle on things. Time will tell, I suppose.

3. The big one (no pun intended), weight. I guess I should be satisfied that since March 1, I haven't gained any weight. The down side is that since March 1, I've only lost 2 pounds as of this morning. Granted, 2 pounds is better than nothing, but 2 pounds in almost 3 weeks is not enough. My goal had been 10 pounds for the month of March, but time and other issues are piling up against me. I'm about to partake in an Easter buffet with DAPGF at one of San Diego's institutions of fine dining, The Marine Room at the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club. Yes, just feel the snootiness oozing out of that sentence. Already I can see the line of Bentleys and Lamborghini's waiting to be valet parked. Also, DAPGF had a birthday last week. We were supposed to go to the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel this past Sunday for brunch, but DAPGF was hella sick all weekend. Not sure when that's going to be rescheduled, but it will happen. Maybe I can shove that into April sometime. Plus, I'm still snacking too damn much. Combine that with zero golfing and maybe 1 day per week at the gym, and the exercise factor has been non-existent as well. Plus, this train schedule doesn't give me the time to try and do the good old Exercise TV on-demand thing that I used to do. Meh.

So. With only 12 days left in the month, can I fashion a loss of 8 pounds? Theoretically, sure. .67 pound per day isn't completely out of reach. Difficult, but not completely out of reach. So I'm going to take a swing at hitting my goal. My birthday is next month, and I still want to start building some momentum in the correct direction. That my birthday will begin the progression to summer and time at teh beach is added motivayshun, because I don't want to still look like a freaking beached whale out there. So here we go. 2 pounds down, 8 more to go. Goal, 275.4 lbs or lower. Game on!

Mowtivayshun - I can has pleez?

With apologies to the lolfans out there, March equals motivation. I have decided that I am motivated to actually accomplish a few things.

1. Stay caught up on emails. This is more difficult than one might think. 3 days per week, I work in Santa Ana in an office where I am blocked from accessing hotmail, yahoo mail, and Gmail. Between those three services, I have 10 or so email addys, 3 of which require regular attention. Before I leave in the mornings and before I crash out at night (DAPGF is asleep by this point), I'm going to make an effort to catch up on things.

2. Blogging. I am not only going to post more regularly at all of my blogs, but I'm also going to do a better job of keeping my Bloglines feed under control. Currently, I've got 582 unread posts. That is unacceptable. On nights DAPGF teaches, I will take an hour or so to run thru my Bloglines feeds, and maybe do a post or two. Some of this I can do at work, and will try to make circumspect use of that time.

3. Get back on the diet. Just to confirm how serious I am about this, I weighed myself at just after midnight, on the morning of March 1. 285.4 lbs. My goal is to lose at least 10 pounds over the course of March. The diet was the first "motivation" element I thought of, and I thought of it for one main reason. I turn 37 years old in April (when in the hell did I get old?). I really don't want my weight increasing with the years of my age, so I'm getting back on track. More consistent workouts, and more willpower when it comes to my food intake. Earlier in the week I succumbed to the siren call of a Chinese buffet. It was hawesome, but bad all at the same time. No more. No more vending machines, none of that. No more purchasing snacks to keep at the office. Nothing.

So there's my motivational goals. Wish me luck.

Here's What Happened to Me

I got stuck with a really fugly work schedule. And for the past two weeks, when I haven't been In The Ghetto in Santa Ana, I've been working on a major proposal that is sucking up the rest of my free time. Trips to the driving range have been minimal, as have gym trips. Basically, the only exercise until recently that I've been getting has been my walking to the train station. Anyway...

My last post weigh-in was 283.0. In the ensuing 2 weeks, I've dropped down to approximately 282, exploded up to 284.6 lbs, and as of this morning dropped back to 283.4 lbs. They call me The Yo Yo. On the plus side, DAPGF is complaining that she's gaining weight. IMO, she's skinny and I can't tell if she's gaining weight, but I'm a dude so my opinions are obviously suspect. The upside of this is that she has started us walking after dinner again. Over the summer we walked for a half hour or more every evening after dinner. As it got darker and the weather got cooler, the walking faded away. Now, it seems, we're back into it. More exercise is always a good thing. Good luck out there.

I'm Still Here Dammit!

I suck. I know. This work schedule is really not very blogger-friendly. I have GOT to talk to somebody about this! Anyway...

Jericho returns tonight!! 10 pm ET/PT, 9 in flyover country on your local CBS affiliate. Watch it and don't make me have to send more nuts to CBS again. Climb out of the malaise that is Dance Wars, The Biggest Loser, and Wife Swap. Watch a real show!

Not a helluva lot to report on the weight loss. The train/walking thing is somewhat beneficial, but my snacking habits are not. Curse the vending machines! New tweak to things. Instead of Tuesday mornings, my weekly goal dates are now Wednesday mornings. I'm doing this for two reasons. First, on Tuesday mornings I'm always in a rush to get out of Casa de Hoff in time to get to the train, and second, Monday evening is usually an evening with DAPGF going out to dinner and no real exercise. By moving it to Wednesdays, I'm less rushed in the mornings and might actually be able to write a post before heading off to my typical Wednesday staff meeting, and I have had the benefit of (hopefully) less to eat during the day because I don't bring a cooler bag with lunch in it, as well as the nearly 2 mile jaunt from the office to the Santa Ana train depot. As stated earlier, though, there's not a lot to report. This morning I weighed in at 283.0, a far cry from the 279.6 lbs that I managed to hit on the date of my last post (1/23, what kind of a loser am I?), but as is usually the case with me, it's been a yo-yo experience. I've spent several days from then to now in the 279s, actually 4 times hitting 279.6, and I've ranged up as high as 283.6. You have no idea what I would give for a consistent schedule, where I know I can get a solid amount of exercise every day. No gym tonight, but I did manage to make it to the driving range. Broke the head off of my 5 wood, but that gives me an excuse to look at replacements. This would be acceptable:
Let's see. Brakes for the Jeep? Taxes? Credit Card payments? Nah. I think this is a better idea.

A Taxi Cab Company of Orange County (yes, that's the official name) sucks at dispatching cabs on time. Tuesday and Friday I called for a cab 20 minutes or so ahead of when I wanted it, and 35 minutes ahead of when I NEEDED it, so I could catch my train back to San Diego. The first time the dude was just way too late, and picked me up at the time the train was scheduled to leave. No way to make it. The Friday one, the guy picked me up with what would've been enough time had he known where he was going. Unfortunately, I get the only white cab driver in Santa Ana, and he's apparently the only one who doesn't know where the damn train depot is! We pulled into the bus drop off area because it was closer to the train platform, just in time to see my Amtrak Pacific Surfliner pulling out of the station. Yeah. This was the wrong time of the month to explain to DAPGF (who was being neither D nor P at that point) why we were going to be late going out to dinner and so on. She teaches on Thursday night (Valentine's Day, for those who need the reminder) so we're celebrating on Friday. I think I'm going to leave work early enough to walk to the train depot (which is what I normally do), so that the only way I'll miss the train is if I get run over in a crosswalk or shot in a drive-by.

Last night at the gym, the last 5 songs to come up in the shuffle whilst on the elliptical hamster machine:

Iron Maiden - 2 Minutes to Midnight
Bad Religion - Los Angeles is Burning
Dream Theater - Pull Me Under
LA Guns - Rip and Tear
Stormtroopers of Death (S.O.D.) - Speak English or Die

Had an interesting revelation at the gym over the weekend. Was doing my hamster impression on the elliptical, when Number of the Beast by Iron Maiden shuffled it's way into my bluetooth headphones. Interesting thing about that song. It is far from the "fastest" song that I listen to. That honor would likely go to something by Stormtroopers of Death (probably "Milk" or "Speak English or Die"), or something by Anthrax, Nuclear Assault, Megadeth, or Slayer. But the song is very fast paced. And the problem I had was it was just fast paced enough that I was pushing probably 85 rpm or so, when I normally run at around 70 rpm (a steady 70-ish rpm will get you 2.13 miles over 20 minutes). But it was just at that right speed where I couldn't slow it down and catch a double beat on the stride for some of the superfast songs, so I had to just sprint like a fiend. When I finished, the dude next to me asked what song came on my player, because after 15 minutes of steady I just opened up into a sick sprint. Just something to keep in mind.

Have fun out there, and Stay Classy.

Busy busy busy

Weird observation of the day. Jello Pudding Pops. I love's me some pudding, and I loves me some ice cream. Combine the two, and Hoff is a happy camper. Conveniently, Jello Pudding Pops only have 80 cal each, so it's a frozen, yummy, not too evil treat. I recently purchased a box that contained Vanilla, Chocolate, and Swirl. I must say, the flavors were really accurate pudding flavors, particularly the vanilla (you can definitely tell the difference between vanilla ice cream and vanilla pudding, much more so than the difference between chocolate pudding and chocolate ice cream). But the weird observation is this: after 3 days in the freezer, they've all assumed the same temperature. The chocolate ones were nicely frozen, as you would expect. The swirl ones seemed softer, and the vanilla ones were very soft. I had no idea that different pudding flavors had different freeze characteristics. Sounds like something NASA or the Department of Homeland Security should be studying. Anyway...

This work schedule of mine makes it really difficult to keep up on my blogging. Tuesdays are the days that I have my weekly goals scheduled for, and in the past I would usually post on those days to give an update to my status. Unfortunately, Tuesdays have me jumping on a train first thing in the morning and going up to Santa Ana. And the office there is laden with IT nazis who don't want me to be able to do anything fun. I cannot access Blogger, hell, I can't even access Yahoo Mail or Gmail! So suffice to say, blogging doesn't happen up there. So now I'm going to provide a much needed and deserved update.

When last we blogged on January 8, we were at 282.2 lbs, aiming for 280.2 lbs. Well, we didn't exactly make it. I was making a little bit of progress through the week, but a Chinese buffet got in my way on Monday, and instead of 280.2 lbs on 1/15, I hit 283.6 lbs! Oops! So this past week was going to be a solid effort. Careful on food, working out whenever possible. Friday's weigh-in on 1/18 was actually down to 280.0, but I was afraid that the weekend would nuke me, as it usually does. I did gain a bit over the weekend, but just small amounts. 280.2 lbs. 280.6 lbs, and then the weigh in on Tuesday 1/22: 280.8 lbs. Yes I'd come back up from the low point, but I was nearly a full pound below my goal of 281.6 lbs, so I'm proud of myself. And to top it off, this morning's weigh-in was all the way down to 279.6!!! Below 280 for the first time in quite a while!!! Woo hoo!!! All this walking up several flights of stairs for the train, plus the 3x per week brisk 1.6 mile walk from the Santa Ana office to the train depot seems to be paying off. Yay me!! Wish me luck in keeping it going.

Aaaaand we're off!!!!

A funny thing happened on the way through the first week of 2008. I LOST SOME WEIGHT!!!! Now, I didn't make my goal, but I got close enough that I'm going to claim victory. The morning of January 1, my weigh in was 284.0 lbs, and my 2 lb per week goal would've put my weigh in for the morning of Jan 8 at 282.0 lbs. Over the weekend I had actually gotten all the way down to 281.6 lbs, but following my usual pattern, Sunday nuked me. It was my Dad's birthday, and DAPGF and I took him out for lunch. Which was followed by Mud Pie. Which was evil but in a good way, and my weight had subsequently spiked back to 283.4 lbs for Monday's weigh in. But because my weigh in is now on Tuesday, I had the opportunity to attempt to atone for my naughtiness. End result, the weigh in on Jan 8 was 282.2 lbs!! Can a brother get a w00t!!! So for Tuesday Jan 15, the goal is 280.2 lbs. I'm actually going to aim lower, and see if I can hit 280 even, which is where I should be. But the official goal is 282.2 lbs. Wish me luck, and good luck to all of you.

Happy Freaking New Year!!

Happy New Year all you freaks and such. Hope you had a fun and safe New Year's Eve, and that you are now ready for some heavy duty resolutions and weight loss efforts. Personally, I had a great NYE. Me and DAPGF went to an 80s party in a converted church. GF commented on how interesting people's different takes on the 80s were, especially those who missed them the first time. Me, I was there in all my headbanging glory. There were those dressed as hair metalers, or wearing concert Ts (some even appeared to have gone to the shows...damn my fatness that made all of those t-shirts unwearable). There were the New Wavers, with their Depeche Mode or Cure wigs and makeup on, Boy George was there, as were several Madonnas and Flavor Flav (pre Flavor of Love, natch). A couple of Molly Ringwalds (no Long Duk Dong, sadly) and one Marty McFly. Good times. On to bidness.

NYE morning, my weigh-in was 284.6, a decidedly bad weight, a good 7 pounds higher than my lowest point of 2007, but at least 6 pounds down from my highest point of 2007. January 1, 2008. Weigh in at 284.0 lbs. There is a small qualifier here, in that this weigh-in happened much later in the morning than normal, and as such likely would've been higher had I weighed myself early as is my normal practice. Still, it was my first weigh-in of 2008, so that's where I start. I'm also going to take advantage of the calendar and see if I can address a recurring problem from last year. I usually did alright during the week and fell apart on Sunday, erasing much if not all of my progress from the week. So given that January 1 is on a Tuesday, my weekly goals are now going to be from Tuesday to Tuesday. It just seems logical. Besides, DAPGF's teaching schedule is all screwed up, so I'm not sure how often I'm going to get to hit the gym during the week, so I may as well make it Tuesday to Tuesday and just run with it.

To formalize all of this, I'm sticking with the goal of 2 pounds loss per week, and I'm going to try and get back into tracking things regularly on My Fitness Pal. My work schedule makes it very difficult to get any kind of meaningful time on the internet, so it should present a whole new batch of challenges. In any respect, I don't see myself getting below 200 lbs, or at least in a healthy fashion, so my resolution is to lose enough weight to get below 240 lbs. I'm sitting at 284 lbs, so 44 pounds. Assuming I make my goals each week (nobody's THAT optimistic), by summer I should be ready to hit the beach. I'm going to try like hell to hit that, and in that regard, my current work assignments may actually help. Because of my limited time in my assignment in Santa Ana, I expect to take the train from San Diego to Santa Ana, work from 9:15 to 2:15 each day without taking a lunch (there's the key), at most eating a small snack from the lounge. If I can hold to that, that should cut out 200-500 calories per day.

Related to the assignment is my resolution to be more organized in my entire life. Tall order I know, but so many of my shortfallings, both professional and personal, can be traced to this one aspect of yours truly. I plan to hit this in several different ways, some of which I've already started. Blogging. Because of my limited internet time during the work day combined with my uncertain amount of free time in the evenings (depending on DAPGF's teaching schedule), finding time to both post and read other blogs is difficult at best. The first step I've taken is to setup a Bloglines reader. Most of the bloggers I know from the poker blogging world use them, and it's high time I do likewise. The great thing is that I can see at a glance who has new posts and how many. Reading them is little more than clicking on a link in the reader. No redirect, no having to "back page" or anything like that. I also plan to set aside periods of time at least twice per week (depending on DAPGF's schedule) to post on my blogs. I'm trying to use the Google empire more and more to keep things in my life accessible and organized. Google calendar is pretty slick and the email reminders are priceless. Google docs allows me to post something to an internet folder that I can access from anywhere. Having access to excel sheets that I use for budgeting or tracking my timesheets from home, my office, or my client's office is a real help. Right now the other key thing I'm trying to organize is my bill paying process. It used to be that I simply kept everything in my briefcase and paid them during a slow period at work. I've managed to get most of them able to be paid online, and a few are automatic debit. Still, I need to remember to pay the online ones, and there are a few that I actually have to mail a payment in for. My plan for this is to pay the mail ones while on the train. Dead time with no internet access, it should be a good way to work. The electronic ones I've been setting Google Calendar reminders, and hopefully I'll be better about minding those than I have been through November and December. I am also working hard at organizing my desk/computer area to make it easier to actually do some of these activities here at Casa de Hoff. Finally, every night before I crash out I'm going to take a half hour and log in my daily activities. Meals, exercise, and calories will go onto My Fitness Pal at that time, and any spending I've done will go onto my budget and expense worksheets. So I've got exercise, finance, and blogging planned out. Whether I can stick with them is anybody's guess, but I'm for damn sure going to try. Wish me luck, peeps, and good luck to all of you.