Changes are Afoot

So. My last post was back on June 14. One week after that, I was laid off from my consulting job, making this twice now that I have been laid off in this current recession (the first was in May, 2006). 6 months have passed, and I have had a grand total of two interviews. In short, this job market sucks ass. Money has been extreeeemly tight, and the associated depression has really sapped my motivation to go to the gym, blog, play poker, pretty much any kind of social interaction. For whatever it's worth, I've made a bit of progress on the weight loss front. At one point I managed to drop down to 269.8 lbs. I've since ballooned back up to 279.4 lbs as of this morning (12/31/09), but I'm still down from the 282 I was at in June.

That being said, I'm tired of being a slug. I'm tired of not going to the gym, I'm tired of not blogging, and I'm tired of being depressed. But because I don't quite feel like I've got enough going on to support two blogs (I am STILL unemployed), I'm going to put What Happened on hiatus and combine its subject material (my fatness) with my original blog, The Randomness of Hoff. Please feel free to follow me over there to witness the transformation of Hoff. Hey, it's a new year, why not a new approach? As things progress, I may come back to What Happened and kick it back into gear. Until such time, point your RSS feeds and Bloglines listings to The Randomness, and enjoy the show.

2009 was Teh Suck. Bring on 2010!

I iz uh slakur

Yes, it has been over a month since I posted. May 8, to be precise. A lot has gone on since then...a Mother's Day trip to the Central Valley to see DAPGF's mother, helping my father get ready to move to Nevada, land of no state income tax, several projects exploding at work, and other such assorted disasters. That, and until recently I haven't had any really worthwhile progress to take note of.

Short version, I remain the yo-yo that I have always felt I was. When last we discussed my corpulence, I rang in at 286.2 lbs. Throughout the month of May, I ranged from there up to a peak of 287.0 to a low of 283.6 lbs. The end of May saw a weigh-in of 285.6 lbs, and after a busy busy weekend, June 1 saw a weigh-in of 283.4 lbs. Yay me! It's a long story, but between work and some "family" issues, my time at the gym has been inconsistent at best, and I've barely picked up my golf clubs since the middle of May. Still, the first week of June saw me go from 283.4 to 285.4 and back to 283.4 lbs on Friday, 6/5. That entire week pretty much went in the wrong direction, partially due to my lack of physical activity, and partially due to my need for Chinese food and drive-thrus. Bad bad me. But after peaking at 286.0 during the week, Friday 6/12 saw me erase some of the damage and wind up at 284.0 lbs. Despite not hitting the gym on Saturday morning, the weigh-in dropped a bit to 283.8 lbs. And thanks to careful selection of lunch and dinner (sushi at Zenbu in La Jolla!), a night of drinking with friends was offset by the gym on Sunday morning. This morning's weigh-in? Down to 282.2 lbs! Can a brother get a w00t! Work has calmed a bit (just a bit), but it may be enough for me to get to the gym during the week, at least a couple of times. Maybe by Friday I can be back into the 270s. It's possible. Wish me luck, peeps, and I'll see ya out there!

Getting there...not quickly enough, but getting there.

So last week's weigh-in was 287.0 lbs, and I'd set my goal for today to be something below 284 lbs. The weekend started off with a slight drop, which went back up on the Monday weigh-in. Tuesday was pretty good, dropping down to 285.8, but being Cinco de Drinko, I knew that Wednesday's weigh-in wasn't going to be good. It could've been worse, being back to 286.2 lbs. But I knew it was my first gym day of the week (I hate DAPGF's new schedule), and I worked it. I was also diligent about what I ate, and it freaking worked! Who knew? Thursday's weigh-in dropped fantastically down to 284.4 lbs! And Wednesday had been a road day, with a naughty BK drive-thru experience in the morning. As I packed the gym bag on Thursday morning, I knew I was going to hit my goal. In the office, controlling the diet, and another gym night. But mid-way thru the day, I remembered that I needed to go pick up the Mother's Day gift I'd selected for my baby-doggy mama. Drive time there, searching in the store, thrashed mag stripe on the debit card, and rush hour drive home unfortunately eliminated the gym. And I unfortunately felt compelled to nibble on stuff at the house, while catching up on some DVR shows. End result? This morning's weigh-in was 286.2 lbs. Dammitalltohell! All that effort, undone in one day's lameness. Still, I showed that I can drop the weight, and that I need to go to the gym and exercise greater self-control.

Next week's goal should be 283.0 or lower. The weekend isn't going to be a help, because due to Mother's Day activities I won't be hitting the gym. We shall see. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms, and be sure to wish your mother a Happy Mother's Day, too. I wish I could. Miss ya, mom.

It could've been worse

So. Yesterday I skyrocketed back to 288.6 lbs, due to a variety of factors, including work, DAPGF, and my own pathetic lack of willpower and self-control. But dammit, Friday is weigh-in day! I've got to make some actual progress before Friday. So, despite Thursday being an unscheduled road day, I tried. I was somewhat careful about what I ate, I made it to the gym, and because DAPGF was teaching, I was able to eat a Lean Cuisine for dinner. End result, this morning's weigh-in fell back down to 287.0 lbs. Granted, that was not quite a whole pound heavier than last Friday, given what happened this week, it's not a bad showing. But once again, I've managed to both show where my areas of fail are (willpower, portion control), and that with concerted effort I can make positive progress. So here we are at 287.0 lbs. I've got workouts planned for Saturday and Sunday mornings, driving range Tuesday and Wednesday, and a workout on Wednesday. If I can actually manage to do a good job of watching what I eat, I might actually hit my 3+ pound goal. Somewhere below 284.0 should be workable. Wish me luck, peeps.

Something's not quite right...

So. Last Friday I managed to weigh in at 286.2 lbs. I was aiming for 285.6, so I was .6 lbs short. Still, not too bad. But I was taking off for an extended weekend Mancation, and the combination of beer, tequila, beer, bourbon, beer, vodka, beer, gin, beer, carne asada, beer, pizza, and you get the drift, was not expected to be kind to the weight. Ahh, but wait! Our Beer Belly Olympics actually involved reasonably large amounts of physical activity. Basketball, horseshoes (those things are actually heavy), bowling, golf, etc. And when I returned on Sunday evening, DAPGF and I went out to dinner to Indigo Grill for my flatiron chimichurri steak and all the fixins'. Monday morning weigh-in: 284.8! Holy crap! I wasn't expecting that!

Now my goal was to continue the excellent results. 2 things worked against me. First, DAPGF's teaching schedule changed. She used to teach Monday Tuesday Wednesday, and I would hit the gym and not go out on those days. Now she teaches on Wednesdays and Thursdays, so I lose a gym day and have to wait until later in the week for them. The other bad thing was complications at work. So Monday I was reasonably good at lunch, but dinner just didn't quite work out that way. After trying several places only to discover that they were closed on Mondays (she's almost always taught on Mondays, so I would never go out on Mondays), we finally found a place. Stupid me, I ordered a milkshake to go with my monster deli sandwich. Then we had dessert at Baskin Robbins. Yeah, stupid. And the weight went up to 286.2 lbs. Tuesday I went to the driving range for some physical activity and was sorta good at lunch. Dinner was sushi, and by Wednesday the weight dropped down to 286.6 lbs. Wednesday was a road day, so I caved and got my Cheezy Bacon Wrapped goodness on the way to Riverside County. Lunch was the bad thing. Some of my coworkers from our LA and Sacramento offices were in town, so we went out to lunch. I had this awesome Kobe beef chili, and what was supposed to be a side salad. It turned out to be a monster blue cheese wedge salad with thick-cut applewood-smoked bacon. Definitely not conducive to weight loss. I did hit the gym on the way home, but the damage was done. This morning's weigh-in ballooned back up to 288.6 lbs! And due to an annoying project applicant, I had to go back to Riverside this morning. More BK, and more bad lunch. I'm going to the gym tonight, so hopefully I can undo some of the damage from this horrible week. Somehow, though, I don't think I'm going to get under where I was last Friday. Frankly, I'll be lucky to get back down to where I was last Friday. But I did make some surprising progress over last weekend. I think I can do it again. Wish me luck and willpower. Lord knows I need it!

Take what you can get!

So. Last Friday I blobbed in at 292 lbs. By Monday I was down to 289 lbs. By Thursday, I'd managed to drop all the way down to 287.4 lbs. Frankly, I attributed my progress this week to working out and generally controlling my lunch. Until Thursday. I hadn't had a chance to get to the store, so I had no breakfast-y stuff in the house. So I hit Subway for one of their Bacon Omelet flatbread sandwiches. Not bad for 500-ish calories, but more than the Jimmy Dean 250 cal Ham and Cheese Omelet that I would've otherwise had. Likewise, I didn't have any lunch-y foods around, so I ordered out. I attempted to be good, and went to a salad place called Croutons. The food is fresh, tasty, and seems pretty quality. I had their lunch combo which consisted of a small size grilled chicken breast salad and a half panini sandwich. Mine was bbq chicken. The meal was yummy, and for the quantity was probably not too bad calorically. For the quantity. But as I've proved via Souplantation, if you eat enough of anything, you'll eventually gain weight. To top it off, DAPGF won tickets to the House of Blues to see Springsteen: The Premiere Tribute Band (their name) open up for Lights: The Ultimate Tribute to Journey (again, their name). The show was good, but it involved much drinking. We didn't eat a whole lot of food, which at the time was good but by the time we got home, we were both hungry. Pringles generally are not a wholesome food...a yummy and convenient one definitely, but not a wholesome food. And I paid for it with a weigh in this morning of 288.8 lbs. So I gained 1.4 lbs from Thursday to Friday. It's not a major concern, because from Friday to Friday I dropped 3.2 lbs! Yay me!!

3.2 lbs sounds like a decent number. For next Friday, I'm going to aim for another 3.2 lb drop, which would put me at 285.6 lbs. Wish me luck and have a great weekend.

How About That!

So, umm, yeah. That wasn't exactly what I was expecting. On Friday the 10th, I weighed-in at a blob-tastic 292 lbs. And I was fully expecting to bloat up over the weekend, what with a poker night (meaning beer) on Friday, Italian for my b-day on Saturday, Easter buffet on Sunday morning, and then steak for dinner with DAPGF on Sunday night also for my b-day. Granted, I worked hard to minimize the damage. Friday night dog walk. Saturday morning dog walk. Sushi for lunch. My Italian food wasn't a very large portion and I only had one piece of bread before the meal. Dog walking Saturday night and Sunday morning. Gym and driving range after 6 a.m. Sunrise Easter Church. Knowing I was having steak for dinner, I avoided the carving stations at the buffet. Dinner I had a wicked Top Sirloin (Baseball Cut, it was phenomenal), that wasn't coated with bleu cheese or horseradish or anything weird like that, and I only had one piece of bread and minimal potatoes. Dog walk Sunday night and Monday morning. And when I jumped on the scale...289.0 lbs! 3 pounds down from Friday!

So. Having not only survived the weekend but actually made positive progress, I've got to keep the momentum going in the right direction. I've got to follow thru on the diet and exercise this week. If I can do it right, I might actually be able to make some serious progress on the weight loss. Figures it would take adding another year to the tally to make some headway. Wish me luck, peeps.

Anybody know where I can find some willpower?

I'm not sure exactly what my deal is, but it sucks. I would love to have the willpower to go into Target (or Ralphs, or Vons, or Whole Foods, or wherever) and not buy either the naughty foods, or way too large quantities of any foods. I am just horrible at that, and my pathetic efforts at losing weight reflect this. I hit 292 lbs this morning. That is without a doubt the heaviest I have ever weighed. Period. And I'd like to say that it won't go any higher, but I cannot make that guarantee...at least for this weekend. Two bad (well, good but bad food-wise) things are happening. My birthday and Easter. My birthday is bad because my dad is taking DAPGF and I out for Italian on Saturday, to one of our favorite places, Arrivederci in Hillcrest. Then Sunday morning, the three of us are going out for a champagne buffet brunch at the Prado at Balboa Park. Then, DAPGF is taking me out for steak for dinner, probably because with my advancing age it will be easier to kill me off and take my life insurance (death by prime rib?). I have no idea how in the hell I'm not going to bloat up like a dead whale after all of this. I will be hitting the gym and walking the dog at every opportunity, and I promise (cross my cholesterol-laden heart and hope to die) to try and exert some portion control. We shall see.

But back to this week. Granted, I had some help in my naughty behavior. Monday, one of my neighbors invited me to join him and a group of UNC fans at one of our local sports bars to watch the NCAA hoops finals. That involved several (some might say many) drinks and lots of bar food (wings, fries, sliders, etc.). Then when I went to the store to buy some groceries, I picked up a jar of dry-roasted peanuts. Generally, I dislike nuts. They ruin the chocolate (brownies, fudge, etc.), but plain peanuts are a nasty habit of mine. So I bought the nuts to keep at my desk (big mistake number 2!), figuring that I could munch on a handful in the middle of the afternoon, yadda yadda yadda. Yeah, not quite. I also picked up some non-Lean Cuisine type meals that were very noodle-laden and therefore not nearly as caloricly benign as the stuff I already had in the fridge. And then on Thursday DAPGF and I went out with some friends for dinner and drinks. So more drinks, appetizers (spinich dip, buffalo wings, chicken tenders, and so on), and did I mention the drinks? Not a good week, particularly after the initial progress made over last weekend.

So where does that leave me? In a word...fat. Am I happy? No. No I am not. I really have to get past this willpower thing. Let's see what happens when I make a genuine effort to not snack and to not buy extra crap at the store. I bet if I stick to my exercise regime and stick to the 1800-1900 calorie diet I laid out earlier, I can get back to losing weight. I need to. This is starting to get embarrassing.

My diet during the week will consist of (on days DAPGF teaches):

Breakfast - Bagel or breakfast omlete (Jimmy Dean) or something else similar: 250 calories
Snack - Wheat Thins or comparable: 200 calories
Lunch - Lean Cuisine/Smart Ones/Healthy Choice entree, soup, hershey's kisses: 650 calories
Snack - 100 calorie snack pack of something: 100 calories
Dinner - Lean Cuisine-type, some chips, Weight Watchers Giant Chocolate Cookies and Cream ice cream bar: 700 calories

Total: 1900 calories.

Combined with hitting the gym for an hour-ish on the weekends and on days DAPGF teaches, going to the driving range once a week, and walking the dog twice a day for approximately 60 to 90 minutes each day, I should be able to get back on track. Granted, by the beginning of July, I was hoping to be in the 230-ish range. If I can get back to my 3+ lbs per week loss, at best I'll in the 250s. Which, admittedly is better than I am now, but not anywhere near what I wanted to be. If I want to get into the 230s by the 4th of July weekend, I'll have to lose 5 lbs per week. Somehow I don't see that happening. But for now, I'm going back to a 3.3 lbs per week goal. I'm going back to the short-term goals, because it is way too easy to lose track of the goal when it is so far out there.

Happy Easter everyone!

I'm a loser, but not the right kind...

Yeahhhh, so I apparently have zero willpower and self-control. Fast food? Uh huh. Extra snacking during the day? Yup. Buying extra bad junk at the store on the way home, despite the fact that I've got perfectly good Lean Cuisine-type meals waiting in the freezer? Guilty.

Two weeks ago, I rang up at 290.8 lbs, and swore that things were gonna be different. And surprisingly, over that weekend I managed to make some significant progress. I did expect that by Monday morning there would be some slippage, and I blogged about that here, but I figured that with the weekend momentum it wouldn't be a problem to stay in the groove. And that lasted all the way to Monday evening. First of all, I wasn't able to hit the gym. Second of all, I was able to hit the Chinese buffet (which I hadn't visited in several months). Not a combo designed to aid weight loss. And because of my spectacular exhibition of Fail, I stopped logging my food intake and exercise (what exercise?) in My Fitness Pal. End result? From the low point of Sunday morning, 285.4 lbs, I'd managed to rise back up to exactly 290.8 lbs! Zero loss.

Obviously I seemed to be ready to throw up the hands in defeat, and acknowledge my fatness. Ah but wait! A wrinkle occurred literally 90 minutes after said weigh-in that, while not correcting every bit of my weakness, will certainly aid my efforts. That wrinkle is this:


Meet Champ. After months of diligently trolling the interwebs, DAPGF managed to find this year-old male Dobie at a shelter north of Los Angeles. She called me at 9:15 a.m. Friday morning and said that she'd been approved to adopt him (this is a big deal, because young Dobies in good health, particularly with the ears and tails done are rare and go quickly). So I bailed on work and we drove up to get him. So Friday consisted of fast food, but with DAPGF riding shotgun I was able to keep under control. At Carls Jr, for example, I bypassed the Western Bacon Cheeseburger combo for the BBQ Chicken sandwich combo, thus saving probably 600 calories (chicken breast, no cheese, etc.). A similar story for dinner. But where this becomes helpful is that I'm back to going on regular dog walks every day! Just like with my beloved Ginger, I get about a half-hour or so walk in the morning, and then an hour or so walk before I crash out for the night. Obviously, by virtue of the fact that my weight has barely moved, it hasn't had a huge effect. Still, my weight had been hovering in the low 289s for most of the week, so it had probably helped a bit. That and dinner on Friday involved a pretty fatty helping of Gyros, so a better dinner might have kept me at least below 290. End result: this morning's weigh-in was 290.6 lbs. A net loss of .2 lbs for the week.

So. Here we are again. A rededication. Again. But the driving factor is the fact that my 38th birthday is fast approaching. When I went thru my awesome, illness-assisted weight loss, I set a goal of being down somewhere into the 230s by summer, which required a goal of 3 lbs lost per week. Had I managed to continue on that path, by my birthday I should've been under 260 lbs. 30 pounds in 2 weeks? Don't think that's gonna happen. But there's no rational reason why I can't summon up the willpower, stick to the diet plan I've put forth here, and follow through on the exercise. Frankly, I'm getting tired of this s**t, and for those of you who watched How I Met Your Mother this past week or grew up in the 80s and watched the Lethal Weapon movies, I'm getting too old for this s**t! I've got my meals for the work day planned out and logged into My Fitness Pal. Not sure how things are going to go with dining out over the weekend, but I'm going to try and control myself no matter where we go. For what it's worth, I have been doing better at not gorging myself on the bread or chips and salsa, and I've really cut back on the Diet Coke. I'm down to 1 per day (down from 2-3 cans plus several glasses at home after work per day), and trying to drink more water, iced tea, and anything else that might be healthier than Diet Coke. Here we go again...let's see if we can make this go 'round work.

Some Success! And Now We Continue The Effort!

So...back on Friday I weighed in at a flab-tastic 290.8 lbs. I decided that I was going to make a strong effort to reverse the trend and get back in the groove. As a side effort, with all the news lately about the negative effects of diet sodas and my sister's decision to stop drinking soda altogether, I decided to see if I could go the weekend without Diet Coke (aka: The Nectar of the Gods). So here's what happened.

First, the dieting. I really tried to stay on top of things, although you wouldn't think that by how the day started. I did manage to get a quickie mile run in, but I hadn't gotten anything from the store for breakfast. So I had a breakfast sandwich from Subway (510 calories), which turned out to be better from the caloric perspective than the usual 2 Cheesy Bacon Wrappers from BK (750 calories, or so). But from there, it was right on the diet plan. Wheat Thins for the a.m. snack, Lean Cuisine-type meal (490 calories) plus a thing of soup (180 cal). Couple of 100 cal granola bars in the afternoon, and then it's out with DAPGF. Because we were trying to get into an early movie, we needed someplace quick and close to the theatre: Daphne's Greek. A gyros combo plate runs around 600 calories. Total, a tick under 2000 calories. Saturday morning, hit the gym for weights, abs, and cardio. Home, shower, step on the scale, and we're down to 287.0 lbs! Can a brotha get a w0000t! Granted, my weekend weigh-in times are roughly 3 hours later than the weekday weigh-in times (which I've mentioned in several previous posts), but still! Now, the question is can I survive Saturday? We started off right, at this funky organic salad and such sort of place called Tender Greens. The food is awesome! We shared an order of seared ahi tuna with grilled veggies and a chicken breast cobb salad. Total, less than 500 calories. We decided to be a little naughty for dessert, and hit one of the latest trendy things, a gourmet cupcake shop on the edge of Point Loma and O.B. in San Diego, called Cupcakes Squared. I had a S'mores Cupcake, which consisted of a graham cracker cake with chocolate chips, chocolate frosting, marshmallows, and a dusting of crushed graham cracker. Estimated at 350 calories of damage, so for just over half the day, I've got less than half the calories I'm trying to stick to (or have stick to me?). Dinner consisted of tapas at our favorite happy hour joint, Mr. Tiki Lounge in the Gaslamp District. Generally healthy stuff, sushi, calamari, tempura shrimp, and a couple of drinks, I'll estimate it all at around 1000 calories, for a daily total of less than 2000! Yay me! Gym on Sunday morning and the weigh-in...285.4 lbs! But now it's Sunday. Sundays are typically bad days for me, and I'm not sure why. Part of it likely has to do with the weigh-in time jumping back to 7:30 or so, as opposed to the 10:30-ish weekend time slot, and part of it is probably because I don't get a full gym workout in the morning (I do get my run in, though) but beyond that, I'm not sure why things usually get worse for the Monday weigh-in. Granted, this past Sunday was a bad food day. Started off with a huge egg scramble, with bacon, ham, 3 cheeses, potatoes O'Brien, etc. I didn't finish it (it was freaking huge), but I was certainly full. We went for a walk along the boardwalk in Pacific Beach for about a half hour, and then ran some errands. Dinner was the bad thing. Red Robin for the Whiskey River BBQ Chicken Wrap. I just looked it up on Calorie King, and frankly, I may have had my last one. 1526 calories! WTF?!? Granted, that includes the fries (per the Red Robin site), but losing the fries only drops it down to 1136 calories. At least we went for a 45 minute walk around Mission Bay afterwards, but the damage was done. Monday's weigh-in: 288.4 lbs. Disappointing, yes, but given the no gym this morning and the much earlier weigh-in, I'm not surprised. The thing will be to see if I can get back on the losing momentum for the rest of the week. I'm off to a good start so far, with 500 calories for breakfast (Jimmy Dean breakfast omelet), and my Wheat Thins for a snack. If I stick to the plan today, I'll consume a total of right around 2000 calories. With that, I should be dropping.

Diet Coke. I made it the whole weekend without Diet Coke (the last one I had was Friday with dinner). Granted, I didn't make it a soda-free or caffeine-free weekend. Saturday lunch I had iced tea, and dinner included a couple of mai-tais. Sunday lunch was root beer, and dinner was lemonade. I even managed to not drink a Diet Coke with my Wheat Thins snack this morning. Maybe I'll see how long I can go without. Short your stock in Diet Coke, peeps!

So things seem to be on the right track. Wish me luck and good luck to all of you.

What Happened to Me? WTF is Wrong With Me?

290.8 lbs. This is the heaviest I have ever knowingly been (there was a period where I didn't have a working scale), and I'm not happy about it. I can offer up excuse after excuse, but it doesn't change the fact that I'm shoving waaaay too much food down my throat.

Wednesday was the bad day this past week. I had actually been inching my way down, and was on track to lose at least 2 lbs this week, maybe more. Instead, on Tuesday I had to stop at the grocery store to get dinner (thus breaking my rule to not shop while hungry), and I picked up one of the deli's XL Turkey sandwiches (about 18 inches of torpedo roll piled high with turkey, cheese, lettuce, etc.), with the idea that I'd have one 6 inch section for dinner with the bagel bites I had already bought, and take the other two sections to lunch on Wednesday. Now, Tuesday I hit the gym after work, so it negated the sandwich and I stayed even on the weight. I had made the oversight of not picking up bagels or something for breakfast, so on Wednesday I started off with not just two bacon wraps from BK, but I got the whole damn value meal! Carbs are baaaaad, and they seem to be the biggest contributor to my weight (tortilla chips, rice, pasta, bread, and so on), and naturally I scarfed down the hashbrowns without a thought. Then came lunch. I ate the first part of the sandwich, and actually felt somewhat satisfied. But I had another really tasty sandwich waiting for me. So of course I ate it, telling myself that when I hit the gym on the way home, it would be fine. That and of course I wasn't going to have much for dinner. Granted, I only had one lean cuisine, but I supplemented it with Pringles of course, and some chocolate cake that DAPGF brought home! Oh, and the gym? Well, the weather has been good, and this is the most convenient 24 Hour Fitness with a pool, so I thought I'd swim laps. Everybody knows that swimming is kick ass exercise, and I figured that I can knock off 20-30 minutes on the elliptical without much of a problem, I should be able to get in 15-20 minutes of swimming without dying in the pool. So to minimize the amount of stuff and changing I would have to do, I decided to forgo the normal workout entirely (cardio, abs, weight) and just do the swimming. So I got to the pool at about 3:50 pm, and had to wait for a lane. For 20 minutes. 20 minutes I could've been doing any kind of physical activity if I'd been thinking about it. Finally a lane opens up. One full lap and I realize that it has been a good 7 months since I'd done any swimming, and jeez am I having a hard time of it. So I struggle through 10 minutes of it, but hell if I can even remember how many lengths I did (12? 16? 20?). So yes, it kicked my ass but unfortunately it wasn't nearly enough to undo the damage I did.

So what do I do now? I've spewed lots of words in this here corner of the interwebs, and some of them I've managed to follow through on, at least for a time, but I need more than words. I need to find the follow-through to make it work. So that's what I'm going to do. No more buying snacks in the middle of the afternoon (like I did on Thursday...don't know how I managed to not gain more than .2 lbs). No more monster meals like that damn sandwich, and no more doubling up my meals (2 lean cuisines instead of 1, etc.). Portion control...that was a key component in my father's recent weight loss, although his current significant other feeds him more that she should, and he's gaining weight again. He would sit down in a restaurant and either move half of the meal off to the side, or have the server box up half of it from the get go. That isn't really an easy option for me, because when I am out to eat, DAPGF and I are (with lunch) usually running errands of some sort or (with dinner) going to see a movie. Either way, food would have to be unrefrigerated and stinking up the car for 1 to 3 hours before I could get it home. And I really can't wrap my head around the idea of just eating half of it and letting the server take away half of a meal that I paid for. I try to be frugal (hell, cheap), and the idea of paying $10 for a BBQ chicken salad or $13 for blackened Tilapia Fish Tacos and throwing half of it away just kills me. So I eat what I order. But the horrible thing, and here DAPGF is truly my enabler, is the bread or tortilla chips that are provided prior to the meal. We tend to go to nicer restaurants, and they all tend to provide some sort of carboriffic experience while we wait for the meal. How can I not partake of freshly baked sourdough bread or tortilla chips with awesome salsa? All I can do is try to slow down and simply not eat as much of it. As to the rest of the meal...I will be even more diligent in what I order, and I will minimize the amount of food that DAPGF will shove off on me (she eats much less than I do). And when I'm not out with DAPGF, I'll stick to my single Lean Cuisine-type meal and try to do nothing else. For the most part, I'm pretty solid in my workout routine, and when I stick to the meal plan that I laid out here, I tend to experience the success that I want (I really do want to succeed and lose weight!). Now, there are two events on the horizon that lead up to the summer beach season. The first is my birthday in early April (go Aries!). DAPGF doesn't really like steak that much, so when I have an opportunity to nom on some dead cow, I take advantage of it. The second is in late April, when some of my cohorts and I will be participating in the Beer Belly Olympics. Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Game of bowling, round of golf, darts, billiards, horseshoes, washers, poker, etc., and lots of drinking. I've got to make the losses happen, so that those two events don't do a lot of damage. And to top it off, in honor of my little sister, I'm going to try to go without Diet Coke (or any soda) this weekend. This will not be easy, but I'm going to try. Wish me luck, peeps.

Motivation, let's see, I know I had some around here...

Yeah, I've been a bad boy. Valentine's Day had the unfortunate (for my weight) luck to coincide with my getting my appetite back after my wicked illness. That reacquisition of the appetite has led to my rediscovering snacking at work. And when shopping at lunch for groceries, getting extra stuff besides the Lean Cuisine-type meal I already brought. Not good, Hoff. I went a week without running in the morning (bad, naughty Hoff!), and I know that is going to be a difficult proposition with the Daylight Savings Time change. Still, the weight has been going in the wrong direction (Loozin wate, I'm dooin' it rong), and that's gotta change. So here I am rededicating myself to this weight loss effort. You know, it seems I need to do this almost once a month. This idea is actually somewhat consistent with something I observed a couple of years ago. Focusing on a long-term goal is fine, but it is so easy to discount minor setbacks (ooh, I gained a pound this week, but I'll make up for it in no time), because they are relatively small in comparison to the big goal. Lately, I've let that slip and have been focusing on the larger goal. Time to get back to the basics. Weekly goals. I know that I said that to hit my big goal, I've got to lose 3-ish pounds per week. That is not going to be easy, but I'm going to make every effort. No more Pickup Stix. No more Cheesy Bacon Wraps from Burger King. No more extra snacking at work. Fixed calorie count, every day. What I bring to work is all I'm going to eat (plus dinner, duh). Now that DAPGF has started teaching a new quarter, I've lost one of my gym nights. To make up for that, in addition to the running in the morning (going to be difficult for the next week or so), I'm going to try and hit the driving range once or twice a week, depending on what my work schedule will allow. Non-golfers may not believe it, but a golf club weighs a couple of pounds, and swinging that in a full rotation 90 to 100 times in an hour will burn 500-ish calories in an hour and allow you to break a slight sweat. Wish me luck, peeps!

The one in which we suffer an anticipated setback

Yep, a setback. I knew, based on what sort of activities I had planned for DAPGF and I, that the whole Valentine's Day weekend would be a veritable minefield of caloric bombs. And I stepped on a few. Last Friday's weigh-in was 281.6 lbs, a weigh-in of which I was justifiably proud. Unfortunately, by Monday morning's weigh-in I had ballooned up to 285.4 lbs. As I've noted previously when discussing such evils as Souplantation, if you eat enough of anything you're going to gain weight. Friday night was happy hour at a local Mexican restaurant (margies and flautas and cheese, oh my!). Saturday lunch was at one of our favorite restaurants overlooking the Pacific in Del Mar, Pacifica Del Mar (clever name, I know). Ahi salad and a bleu cheese steak panini (shared, of course). Dinner was at one of the best sushi joints in San Diego, Shien of Osaka (aka Akai Hana), which is where I took DAPGF on our first date, lo those many years ago. That was followed up with some sort of Death by Chocolate experience at Heaven Sent Desserts, in Normal Heights. I really worked hard to try and work it all off, and Monday and Tuesday helped erase some of the gains. By Wednesday, though, I had a road day and picked up some weight again. Thursday I committed a cardinal sin. I needed to stop at the store to pick up some dinner for myself (DAPGF was teaching), but I was unfortunately very hungry. As I walked past the deli case, I noticed these sandwiches that the deli makes. They're big, and consist of nothing more than bread, lettuce, swiss, and a literal pile of sliced turkey breast. As with the sushi and Souplantation experiences, it was apparently too big, and erased my earlier efforts entirely. End result, Friday morning weigh-in was back up to 285.4 lbs.

So what have we learned? First of all, I can at least predict when things are likely to be problematic. DAPGF's birthday is in the middle of March, so I'm likely going to suffer a similar set of events at that time, but beyond that I see nothing on the agenda that should cause any such repeats. I'm just going to have to knuckle down and get back on track. I've been pretty diligent in making it to the gym, I've been running every morning this past week, and I even made it to the driving range yesterday at lunch (if any of you think that it isn't a decent workout, go ahead and take 125 swings of a golf club and tell me if you're not feeling it and breaking a slight sweat). I just need to be that much more diligent on the eating. I've been better at the snacking thing, but I still occasionally find myself in the BK drive-thru for some cheezy bacon wrap goodness, and I eat more at dinner (even by myself) than I should. I could take the easy way out and say it's due to my getting over my cold and getting my appetite back, and there's probably some truth to that. But in all reality, I'm the one stuffing food down my neck, and I'm the one that has to put a stop to it. It ain't going to be easy, but it has to be done. 20 weeks to drop at least 45 pounds and get back down to 240. That's 2.25 pounds per week. If I want to continue the efforts of the first two weeks of February and shoot for 220 to 230, that's a little over 3 pounds per week. Neither one is going to be easy, but I still want to do it. The idea of being 220 lbs just seems way cool, and should look pretty good at the beach (not to mention my rapidly approaching 20th high school reunion). I want it, and dammit, I'm going to do everything I can to make it happen. Wish me luck!

I never thought I'd be disappointed with this kind of progress

Yes, I am disappointed, but it's hard to be disappointed with this kind of progress. Last Friday, my weigh-in was 285.4, for a drop of 3.2 lbs since I started my revised efforts at the end of January. I knew that things were happening, not exactly according to plan, due to my illness last week, and I was looking forward to seeing how this week would shake out.

In a word (or two, I suppose), it started off en fuego! I actually managed to lose weight over the weekend, which is very much against the trend, and I was down to 281.6 lbs by Tuesday morning! Tuesday, though, I was feeling uber-hungry on the way to work, and caved in and hit the Burger King drive-thru for a couple of cheesy bacon wraps. They are yummy, only cost 2 for $3, but ring up at approximately 800 calories for the two of them. The rest of the day was according to plan, and I did hit the gym after work. Granted, "something" didn't agree with me during the day, and the accompanying biological activities probably helped things out. End result, I defied the odds and was down to 281.4 lbs on Wednesday morning. Wednesday was a road day, though, and again I succumbed to the siren call of cheesy bacon wraps (from a completely different BK, though). As before, the rest of the day went according to plan, and I did hit the gym on the way home. Again, though, I experienced digestive "issues" throughout the day. End result, Thursday's weigh-in was all the way down to 280.6 lbs! Holy IBS Batman! Now, to clarify, I've eaten the cheesy bacon wraps several times before, and never experienced any problems, so I'm not sure if they were the problem or not. In any respect, I was looking forward to Thursday. The final push before the Friday weigh-in, I knew I was going to stick to the plan. And I did. No cheesy bacon wraps, no snacking, the exact same dinner that I had Wednesday night. I figured that if I ate less than I did the day before, and still hit the gym, there should be no reason why I can't crack the 279 lb barrier. The only difference from Wednesday was that I did not experience any digestive issues. End result, Friday's weigh-in was up a pound from my low point, but it still rang in down 3.8 lbs for the week at 281.6 lbs. Disappointing when you're hoping to get into the 270s, but still a nice drop.

I'm still snacking more than I planned to (bringing two or three more 100 cal snack pack things than I should), but I can't argue with the progress. Hopefully I will be able to minimize the damage over the weekend...I'm not sure what's going on tonight, but DAPGF and I are having sushi for Valentine's Day which shouldn't be too damaging. And next week I'm going to be even more hyper vigilant on sticking to the plan. The goal I set for this round of efforts is 2.2 lbs per week. Normally, that would be a pretty tall order. But so far, I'm exceeding the goals substantially. I have no idea whether I can maintain this pace, but it sure would be nice. If I can average 3 lbs per week, by the end of June I would be down to a beach-tastic 220 lbs. At my best in college, I was decently cut and weighing around 235. 220 would freaking rawk! In any respect, I'm sticking with the 2.2 lbs per week goal, but going to make every effort I can to better that. Wish me luck, peeps!

It seems to be working!

I think my plan is working. It hasn't been a perfect application of the plan...I really haven't been to the gym since February 1, but I think my illness has further suppressed my appetite. In any respect, I established the plan on 1/30, at a weight of 288.6 lbs. This morning, it was all the way down to 281.6 lbs!!!!! Can a brother get a w000t! Now, I can feel my appetite starting to come back, as the cold loosens its grip on me, but as the cold fades away, my energy and lung capacity should subsequently return. This will allow me to reestablish the gym routine and make up for any lapses in willpower I might suffer. It's not been easy, but I'm doing it! Wish me luck in keeping it up!

Progress! But not exactly as intended...

So...last Friday I laid out my game plan. I was going to be super-dedicated to hitting the gym at every possible opportunity, and during the week (when I had much more editorial control), I was going to plan out my meals to a rough average of less than 1900 calories per day. Given that lately my daily intake had ranged anywhere from 400 to 1400 calories above that, I figured that effort alone would help with the drop. Last Friday's weigh-in hit at 288.6 lbs. This morning's weigh-in was down to 285.2 lbs, for a drop of 3.4 lbs! But all is not exactly what it seems...

As with most of my plans, something always comes out unintended. And this particular "unintended" happened to be the wicked cold that is currently going around San Diego (and probably has variants in other parts of the country). I think I was infected sometime on Thursday, as both one of my co-workers and my father were both suffering from it. I first noticed the throat tickle Saturday morning at the gym. By Saturday afternoon, it was a full, dry, hacking cough and an all-over body ache. I actually did go to the gym Sunday morning, but could only manage a half set of abs, no weights, and about 10 minutes on the elliptical before I had to call it quits. My joints were killing me, I was feeling the fever/chills combo, and my cough could've scared a buffalo (which was ironic, since DAPGF and I shared a Buffalo breakfast quesadilla at the Tractor Room for breakfast). I must have really seemed sick, because DAPGF let me just lay in bed and watch the SuperBowl all afternoon. We did go out for dinner to this road house bbq place in El Cajon with some friends of hers (see, the weekends are harder for me to control), but I felt awful enough that I hardly ate any of my dinner. We went home and I promptly went to sleep, deciding at that point that there was no way I was going to work on Monday. Interestingly, I did better than I planned from a meal perspective, because I did absolutely no snacking. It's hard to snack when you're asleep. Tuesday was more of the same, except I did snack a bit (ironically, there was little to no nausea associated with this particular cold). I would've preferred to stay home on Wednesday also, but there were some things that I actually had to get done at work. This was the first chance I had to try out the diet plan on the road, and aided by my diminished appetite, I stuck to it. I also went to the doctor who said I was turning the corner and gave me some wonderful drugs. Thursday was almost as successful, except for one minor issue. Or rather combination of issues. By the end of Thursday, I was feeling somewhat better and getting my appetite back. Plus, I had to go to 4 different stores, at rush hour, in the rain, to get groceries on the way home, so in a weak moment I bagged on having a Lean Cuisine-type meal and went for the guilty pleasure Red Baron deep dish frozen pizza singles. Those rang up at probably 500 calories more than what I should've eaten.

So there's the first week. Successful, but not quite as intended. I haven't really gotten my energy back yet, and I haven't cleared enough crap out of my lungs to feel comfortable doing my usual gym workout. I will probably try to go in and do a light workout on the lifecycle, just to keep the metabolism going, but it's not going to be anything substantial. That being said, when I have a chance to fully implement my plan, I think this is going to work. Wish me luck and stay warm and dry out there!

The one in which we see a smidge of progress

Yes, a smidge. After 2 straight weeks of the scale numbers climbing instead of dropping, I finally had a week where I lost weight! Ahh, but what, exactly, is a smidge? In this case, a pathetic 0.2 lbs. Yes, on 1/23 my weigh-in was 288.8 lbs, and this morning it had dropped all the way down to 288.6 lbs. Granted, yesterday's weigh-in was a flab-tastic 290.0 lbs, so being somewhat careful on Thursday along with getting a quick gym workout in melted off 1.4 lbs. But all things being equal, this ain't working for me.

When I started the latest round of weight-loss efforts on January 2, the scale rung up 289.0 lbs. After the first week's loss took me down to 286.4 lbs, the scale has been going in the wrong direction. I have nobody to blame but myself. Really. I may claim torpedoes here and there, brought on by my father, DAPGF, or coworkers, but I'm the one opening my mouth and shoveling food into it. So I'm going to take the nuclear approach. Starting on Monday (because the weekends with DAPGF and others are too hard to control to the level I'm aiming for), I'm actually going to set up a meal plan ahead of time. I'm not sure where I'll find the time, but each night I'm going to attempt to blog what I actually consumed, and lay out what I'm going to consume on the following day. So each day I'm forced to not only admit to what I'm going to eat, but admit to what I ate in addition to what I said I was going to eat. Hopefully the structure alone will motivate me to comply, but the shame of admitting that I swung through the Burger King drive-through for 2 cheesy bacon wraps on my way to Wildomar will hopefully prevent a large-scale pile of fail. I don't want to be sadistic to myself, and I am a realist with how much I have a compulsion to snack. So here's a rough outline of what I expect to consume on a random weekday (calories are estimated based on data I found in My Fitness Pal and Calorie King):

Breakfast: Bagel with fat free cream cheese - 290 calories
Morning snack: reduced fat wheat thins - 130 calories
Lunch: Assorted Healthy Choice/Lean Cuisine/Smart ones - 300 calories
Lunch: Campbells Chunky Chicken Noodle Soup - 180 calories
Lunch: 6 Hershey's caramel kisses (lowest calorie ones) - 135 calories
Afternoon snack (for gym energy): assorted 100 calorie snack pouch/granola bar - 100 calories
Dinner: 2 assorted Healthy Choice, etc. meals - 600 calories
Dessert: Weight watchers Giant Chocolate Cookies & Cream ice cream bar - 140 calories

This generic meal plan rings in at 1875 calories. That may seem like a lot, and it is. However, looking over My Fitness Pal, my daily food intake has been ranging from 2300 to 3300 calories (which explains my weight!), so if I can even come down to a steady 2000 per day and get a decent workout in, I should start making some downward progress. It will be difficult...I know how much I like to snack, especially while sitting at the computer, so I'll make efforts to control things. I've got a 32 ounce sport bottle that I fill up from our water purifier (our coffee maker is pretty bitchin', including giving us a separate tap for ice cold filtered water), so I'll start there. I'll also get back to keeping gum at my desk. It's never the same, but if I can chew on something in between meals, I might be able to avoid unauthorized snacking. And as I noted previously, the weekends are hard to control. I'm out with DAPGF, and occasionally others, and we're at nice restaurants where they serve booze, crab and mushroom potstickers, and other assorted goodies. We attempt to select meals on the healthier side of things (split a salad with the vinaigrette dressing on the side, and split the ahi tuna sandwich), but portions being what they are, I'm still consuming waaay too much food. I'm going to try to minimize the damage (not eating so much bread would be a start), but I offer no guarantees on weekend food consumption.

So there we go. All in black and white (so to speak). My weigh-ins are going to remain on Friday mornings, but I'm not going to kick this off in earnest until Monday the 2nd. Granted, I may get torpedoed on the first day if I have to go to a jobsite with my boss and he treats for lunch. Last time we wound up at Rubios and had a couple of beers, so who knows what might happen. But be that as it may, I should be able to guarantee at least 3 days during the week on my program completely, with the other days at least partially complying. Combine that with a renewed effort to work out (go to sleep earlier so that I'm able to get up and run in the morning, and suck it up and go to the gym after work, regardless of how late I get out of work), and I should start seeing some major progress. Thanks to the explosion of Facebook, Hoff is approaching his 20 year high school reunion. I'm not entirely sure how much I weighed when I graduated from high school, but it was somewhere around 210. If I could get remotely close to that, I'll be happy. Beyond that, the goal is still to get down to 240, by the end of June. I want to get back to surfing regularly, and having a more beach-friendly bod wouldn't hurt. 22 weeks to drop 48 pounds. That's 2.2 pounds per week. Not sure I can pull that off, but I'm going to try. Wish me luck!

More like "what's wrong with me?"

Well, this past week was a big steaming pile of poo. After last week's 3 item combo plate of fail, I followed it up with a dessert of fail a la mode! In short, I gained another pound-ish, going from 287.4 lbs last Friday to 288.8 lbs this Friday! It could've been worse, though...I actually got as high as 290.8 on Tuesday, which is pretty effin' ugly unto its own. I could've been better at the exercise thing, but mainly it was dinner that stuck to my ass. Last Friday night was restaurant week in San Diego, and DAPGF and I went out with friends for a bitchin' steak dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, so that was bad. Both Saturday and Sunday mornings I made it to the gym, but I got such a late start both days that I had to do a shorty workout. Because I'm with DAPGF all weekend, my meals are anything but minimalist. Monday I managed to go running in the morning and made it to the gym after work, but I stopped at the grocery store on the way home (before dinner), and bought a bunch of stuff that I shouldn't have, and then ate most of it in one sitting! Stupid. Tuesday I made it out in the morning to run, but had to work late and couldn't hit the gym on the way home. Wednesday I overslept and missed the run, but I did make it to the gym. Thursday it rained, so no morning run, and I worked late so no gym. And Thursday was capped with the neighbor asking if I wanted to go out for Mex food and beer. Hmm, let me think about that. So here we are.

I'm not going to the gym Saturday morning, because DAPGF and I are going up to Pomona to look at a rescue Dobie. Who knows if we'll come home with her or not, but I'm going to try to at least run in the morning. I should make the gym on Sunday, and then I should be in a good position to run every morning of next week and hit the gym at least on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. But as I said, the exercise is not as much of a problem as the need to feed the face is. Despite the obvious failure on the food intake, I at least felt good that I was making progress on the exercise angle. I can't guarantee anything this weekend, but for meals that don't involve DAPGF, I'm going to do everything I can to control myself. A 1.5 lb drop from 1/23 would bring me down to 287.3 lbs. I can do better than that, so despite the official goal of 287.3 lbs, I'm going to shoot to get under 286. It won't be easy, but I think I can. Wish me luck.

Ummm...

So, umm, yeah. Hmmm. Last weigh-in was 286.4 lbs, with a goal for this morning of 284.9. In short, I didn't make it. Spectacularly! As a matter of fact, I ultimately GAINED a pound!!! WTF?!?!!? Unfortunately, I know exactly WTF. TF was that I still eat like a pig, combined with a laziness that caused me to miss out on 3 morning runs out of 5 this week and 2 of 6 gym opportunities. The laziness, what can I say? I'm lazy and find it more and more difficult to get up early in the morning. Staying up late to dink around on the computer doesn't help and certainly could be avoided, but it is what it is. Food is my kryptonite. I'm a sucker for food, and my current life obligations and activities don't do much to discourage the cravings. Growing up, I was always either reading something or watching TV. And along with that, naturally, came the nibbles. Oreos, string cheese, pseudo pizzas made with spaghetti sauce and mozzarella on english muffins, whatever. Now I spend several hours per week driving from one place to another. And magically, visible from the freeways and surface streets are signs from these places...these places that allow you to drive up and they give you food! And when I'm not sitting in the car, I'm sitting at my desk, inevitably reading some document or other. And inevitably the compulsion to nibble surfaces again. I try to distract myself or fake myself out with gum or hard candy, but that never lasts enough and never has quite the taste I'm looking for (think Oreo Cookies or French Fries, not spearmint).

Now, as bad as this is, it was worse just a few days ago. Sunday evening, DAPGF and I went out for Mexican food with some friends. Of course I picked the anti-good food and had a 3 enchilada combo plate. Yeah, not exactly slimming, and combined with not running that morning, I had hit 288.6 lbs. I did hit the gym on the way home, but I also hit the store. Shopping while hungry...not the best thing. Still, I managed to slip back down to 288.0. Things went a little better in the food department...I did a much better job of controlling what I ate. I didn't make the gym that evening, but still managed to drop back to 286.8 on Wednesday morning. Wednesday was a bad day. I ate bad and didn't run or make the gym. Thursday morning I did go for a run, and it was probably a good thing, because the evils of hump day ballooned me back up to 288 lbs. I finally made it to the gym after work, and tried to control my eating. The only place I really stumbled was after DAPGF came home. She got a half of a ring cake (Bundt-type cake) from the grocery store, and we proceeded to have several slices while watching the tube. Friday morning I did make it out for a run, and the weigh-in had me down to 287.4 lbs. It would've been a lot better without the cake, but I'm weak and my progress (or lack thereof) attests to that. Still, I noticed that the trend was generally moving in the right direction, particularly in my habits, as the week progressed. We're out to dinner with friends again tonight, but I will get to the gym Saturday and Sunday mornings, so hopefully I can build some positive momentum. My 1.5 pound goal for next Friday is 285.9 lbs. Unofficially I'm going to try and beat it. Wish me luck!

The one in which we assess our progress...

Greetings and salivations, party peeps! Here's hoping that you all are sticking to your New Year Resolutions, and that you haven't fallen off the wagon just yet.

Me, it's sort of a mixed bag, but I've got an excuse (don't I always?). First, the good. On January 2, 2009, for the first weigh-in post New Year's Day buffet orgy, I rang in at a blimp-tastic 289.0 lbs! Now, because I knew I was going to the buffet, I knew that the 2nd would produce a somewhat artificially higher weigh-in than would otherwise normally occur. Obviously I was right. And here we are a week down the road. Given my 1.5 pound per week goal, I was aiming for 287.5 lbs. Lo and behold, stepping on the scale this morning showed a weight of 286.4 lbs, for a loss of 2.6 lbs!

Yay me, but with an asterisk. You see, secretly I had hoped that the drop would be in the three to four pound range, because the buffet was only a short-term food condition (obviously I don't eat like that every day), and with DAPGF starting her new teaching quarter, I was going to have several evenings of gym action. Plus, as we continue through life temporarily without doggie, I have stated that I intend to use the former dog walk/dog feeding morning time to go for a run. What I didn't count on was a wicked cold to envelope my head and chest. Get up early and go for a run? Hell, I could barely breathe, so let's just stay in bed for another 45 minutes. Hit the gym after work? One night DAPGF needed me to come home and help her out with some prep work for one of her classes, one night I left work 2 hours late, and one night I just wasn't feeling in the mood.

But as the week went on, I started to feel better. Thursday morning, I managed to make it out for 10 minutes of running, just to try and get back into a rhythm. Friday morning I did it again. Saturday morning should be a gym trip, so hopefully I can build on the momentum, and keep shedding the pounds. My 1.5 pound goal for the week would get me down to 284.9 lbs. Wish me luck, and good luck out there to all of you!

I guess I should look at the bright side of things...

So January 1 came and went. As expected, DAPGF and I attended a very nice, very caloric buffet at the Hotel Del Coronado. We attempted to offset this by going to the San Diego Auto Show and spending 3 hours walking around looking at things. If it was an offset, then I am afraid for what might have been.

My New Years, New Hoff weigh-in on 1/2/09 rang in at an unbelievable 289.0 lbs! 5 pounds heavier than January 1, 2008, and 5.8 pounds heavier than when I started this blog back in 2006! Yeah, losin' wayte...I'm doin' it rong. But the bright side is that the weight had some unusual help in the food consumption area, due to the buffet. That and because I've been fighting off my annual Christmas cold, I wasn't feeling motivated enough to go to the gym this morning. After that weigh-in, bet your ass I'll go tomorrow morning. So what I'm ultimately saying is that, for at least this first week, it should be pretty easy to meet my weekly goal of 1.5 lbs by 1/9. The target is 287.5 lbs. If I can't make it, I'm in pretty serious trouble. Good luck, peeps!