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!
Showing posts with label restaurants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label restaurants. Show all posts
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Thursday, April 30, 2009
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!
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!
Monday, April 13, 2009
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.
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.
Friday, April 10, 2009
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!
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!
Monday, March 23, 2009
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.
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.
Friday, March 20, 2009
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.
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.
Friday, February 20, 2009
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!
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!
Friday, February 06, 2009
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!
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!
Friday, January 30, 2009
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!
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!
Saturday, January 24, 2009
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.
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.
Friday, January 16, 2009
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!
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!
Friday, January 02, 2009
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!
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!
Sunday, July 06, 2008
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.
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.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
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.
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.
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