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Wednesday, January 23, 2008

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.

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

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.

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

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.