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.