Playing catch up

I apologize for not posting for a while, but with the internet Nazis around my company, it is difficult to find time to even email in a post (not that I’ve figured out how to do that or anything). That and it’s been kinda busy around Casa de Hoff. Combine working late with trying to hit the gym after work, helping DAPGF with computer issues, and just doing the odd spring cleaning crap that needs to be done, and I’ve barely been on the computer at all. So I apologize for the scattered and cluttered nature of this post. Lots to say, so here we go.

This past weekend notwithstanding, I’ve been pretty good about what I’ve been putting down my neck. My weekend was a food world tour of evil. Italian (4 cheese angel hair pasta!), Mexican (carne asada plate with a cheese enchilada), and Thai (Pad Thai with shrimp and Panang Curry with chicken), how’s that for a world tour? During the day is a whole other issue. Trying to find a food that can satisfy the munchie cravings, keep me feeling filled up, while not having too much in the way of fat, calories, and other evil stuff, has been difficult. Hard boiled ggs are great from the protein perspective, but they are high in fat and cholesterol. I know, if I avoid the yoke, I can avoid a lot of that. I just feel like I’m wasting it, though, and it is a pain in the butt to hard boil them, cool them down, open them up, then take the yoke out before eating them. Plus, I’ll probably need to have a couple of eggs to fill me up, if I remove the yoke. Still, as a mid morning snack or to supplement my oatmeal in the morning, they’re not a bad bet. I’m not a huge fan of nuts, except peanuts. I love peanuts, and they are another food that is high in protein, has the sodium fix that I’m looking for (too much, I know), and fills me up. Unfortunately, they are so high in fat that I’m afraid to eat too many. And it’s hard for me to just eat a “single serving” of approximately 15 individual nuts. That’s not even a handful! Jerky, be it beef, turkey, or whatever seems to be a pretty good compromise. A 1 oz serving (a couple of decent sized hunks) typically has only 80 calories, and just a single gram of fat. Because I have to work at chewing it for a while, it really helps satisfy the need to munch. Like everything, it does have its downsides, though. First, it is really high in sodium. I just make sure I chug another 24 oz of water when I’m gnawing on some, and I think I’ll be ok. The other problem with jerky is, compared to the others, it is pretty expensive. If I’m lucky, I can find a 4 oz bag (which if I’m lucky I can get 4 snacks out of, but usually somewhere between 2 and 3) for less than $6. So if I go thru a bag in a day and a half, that’s more than $20 per week. I can get a dozen eggs for around $3, and a jar of peanuts that will last about a week goes for around $4. Any thoughts on what you party people out there munch on to satisfy those evil mid-morning and mid-afternoon cravings?

So, weight. I failed to weigh myself on the morning of 3/1 (we had a minor ant invasion in the shower…I guess they wanted to be clean, or they wanted to see me nekkid, with my junk hanging out), but on 3/2 I weighed 284.6 lbs. Despite everything that I ate, on 3/3 and 3/4, I weighed 282.6 lbs and 293.2 lbs. I was running late this morning, and didn’t take the time to jump on the scale (actually, I don’t want to jump on it…it would probably break!), but here’s what I’m wondering. I did go to the gym on Saturday and Sunday, but the thing that I think will have the greater impact is the fact that I didn’t weigh myself until almost 10:30 a.m. on both mornings (after showering after coming home from the gym). My fear is that because I weighed myself several hours later than normal (normal time is approx. 7:45 a.m.), any actual weight loss was over-exaggerated. I guess Tuesday morning will clarify things.

Last Tuesday, I had to go out to the Imperial Valley (desert area east of San Diego and directly north of Mexico, where the sand dune scenes on Tatooine in Empire Strikes Back were filmed) with 3 of my coworkers to work on several projects we have going out there. Now, my company may have an internet nazi thing going on, but they still take really good care of the employees. At my old job, I had to drive my own vehicle from the office to job sites. I received an auto allowance that actually did cover my car payment, but I was still putting almost 36,000 miles per year on my truck. At my new company, I can choose to drive my own car and file an expense report for mileage reimbursement. But if I so choose, the company will rent me a car. So because there were four of us going, and we had all of our laptops, plan rolls, boxes of PR trinkets, etc., we wound up with a 2007 Ford Edge crossover SUV. I drive a 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee, and I’m perfectly happy with it. I must say, though, I was extremely impressed with the Edge. It’s not too big, but still has a 265 horsepower V6, and even with all of us on board we could still spin the tires on pavement. It handled the rain and wind very steadily, with no real problem from cross-gusts (and Weather.com had the winds at a steady 30 mph with gusts up to 60 mph) or loss of traction. More importantly, the thing was super comfortable. The seats were very supportive, and the rear seat actually reclined to about a 45 degree angle. And I’m 6’3” and I even had room to cross my legs while in the back seat! There were lots of little places to store things, and the stereo was great, with Sirius satellite radio, MP3 capable 6 disc CD changer, and the all-important iPod jack. The only issue I noted was that when you folded down the rear armrest and opened up the integrated cupholders, it didn’t leave a comfortable surface to use as an actual armrest. Beyond that, the thing had great power and still managed to average almost 19 mpg, with a full load of people and crap over mixed driving ranging from 90 mph to bouncing along over farm roads and desert trails. If you don’t need a 7 passenger vehicle, it’s a great choice, starting in the high $20s and going up to the mid $30s for the loaded model. And if a Ford isn’t luxurious enough for you, Lincoln sells a version called the MKX. Same basic body, same engine and transmission, uber-pimped interior. Definitely worth a look.

Saw the movie, Black Snake Moan, over the weekend. Of course the stupid radio movie reviewer guy starts off his review with, “the only things that Black Snake Moan has in common with Snakes on a Plane is the word “snake” in the title and Samuel L. Jackson.” Har har har. That being said, it was actually a really good movie. SLJ shows once again what incredible range he has, starting off being publicly dumped by his wife, for his brother in a diner. From there he ranges from tender and scared to forceful and full of tough love for Christina Ricci’s character. Going from being forceful with her to prevent her from hurting herself more, to being embarrassed at having to ask a lady who likes him about getting women’s clothes and medical supplies, to being a wailing bluesman who tears it up in a deep south juke joint, such incredible range. And Christina, yes it was strangely sexy, watching her chained up in SLJs house, wearing just a t-shirt and some panties, but she really put on a performance of her own. Her character ranges from a loving girlfriend, to a sex-addict who is more than willing to take the abuse to satisfy her craving, to a beaten victim who is trying to still show that she’s tough while trying to accept the care that SLJ is giving to her. And even Justin Timberlake’s performance was decent. I’ll admit, as a non-fan of boy bands, it was fun watching Justin Timberlake play a wuss. Probably the most ironic part of the movie, there are many people who sing (and Samuel L. Jackson can freaking wail!), but Timberlake isn’t one of them. All in all, very edgy and rough, and definitely worth a watch.

Some bad news, some good news

First, the bad news. I have come to the conclusion that I have zero willpower when it comes to food. When me and DAPGF go out, I eat all the bad stuff. Pasta, lots of dressing on the salad, lots of bread before the food, lots of dipping sauces, etc. And during the day...can a brother get a freaking muzzle? And it's not like we have a vending machine or something right by the office. No...I have to drive over to the deli to get my snack on, or worse, I run thru a nearby drive-thru. I suck, and it shows. My weight has exploded over this past week, such to the point that I am embarrassed. Suffice to say, I hit my all-time (knowing) weight Tuesday morning. That afternoon, I hit a major combination of depression and motivation. I was at the bank, and while standing in line I saw myself in the security monitor they had on the counter. WTF?!?!? What Happened To Me? (Hey! Catchy blog name!).

Now the good news. Last week, Exercise TV was non-functional on my cable system. Don't know why, and neither does Time-Warner. I did make it to the gym over the weekend, but most of last week was spent preparing for Valentine's Day, thus preventing me from getting to the gym. This week has been better in both aspects. I've managed to get a shorty workout in after the morning doggy walk, and I've made it to the gym on the nights that DAPGF teaches. The other thing, I discovered what could be (at least to me) considered miracle foods. According to the crap I've read (Men's Heath, etc.), eating foods with protein help you feel fuller longer. For the most part, my snacks have consisted of various reduced fat chips and crackers (Gardetto's, Wheat Thins, etc.), which have been very low in protein, high in carbs, and waaaay too "munchable". Gum and hard candy don't work, because I'm looking for something saltier, not sweeter. So the miracle snack foods. First, Kashi's Chewy Snack bars, specifically the Peanut/Peanut Butter one. There's not a lot of taste (it is Kashi, after all), but each bar is only 140 cal, 5 g fat (45 cal from fat), only 19g carbs, and 7g protein. The taste is generally nutty/oat-ey (is that a word?), with a hint of peanut butter. Overall it strikes a good balance, and does a decent job of satisfying the munchie need. The second one is Beef (or Turkey) Jerky. One of the decent-sized bags you can buy at the store (4 oz) contains 4 good sized servings. Frankly, I can spread one serving out over a morning and be perfectly happy. The downside is it tends to be higher in sodium, but who doesn't like a good salt lick every now and then? But each 1 oz serving (one morning, and most importantly one afternoon) contains 80 cal, only 1g fat (10 cal from fat), only 8g carbs, and 11g protein! These stats are for Oberto's Teriyaki Beef Jerky, but the other flavors and the turkey variants are all similar. Tuesday afternoon was the first shot at eating it, and it seemed to work. Wednesday I had it both in the morning and afternoon, and it did a great job of satisfying my need to chew on something for a while. Good stuff. Hopefully the scale will start to descend into much friendlier territory.

Go ahead and hate me. I don't care. I have this...

To continue Wil Wheaton's meme, I offer this photo. This was shot by yours truly, at around 12:30 p.m. today, at Powerhouse Park in Del Mar. The waves look small, but really the park area sits 15 or so feet above the beach, and a couple hundred yards back. Just thought I'd share. Go ahead and hate me. I'll just throw the sunroof back and crank up the stereo.

On the other hand, I think we can all be glad that we're not this poor soul. Look at these pictures, and be happy that this isn't your car. More pictures can be found at the link. Have a great weekend, everybody!

The United States of WTF?

Many of you (many? can't be more than one or two of you left, these days) know that I play online poker. Some of you are likely aware of the problems that eWallet sites (similar to PayPal) that work with online gaming sites are having. In case you're not aware, the biggest eWallet that worked with all the gaming sites was called Neteller, and they're based somewhere in the UK, I believe, and they're traded on the London Stock Exchange. They probably handled 60% or more of all the online gambling transactions, especially poker. Recently, the federal goverment arrested two of the founding members, who did nothing more these days than sit on the board, for wire fraud, money laundering, etc etc, all because they were stupid enough to step onto US soil. That one action has had a huge ripple thru the online poker industry. Most of the eWallets have either shut down entirely, or prohibited US-based customers from utilitzing their services, and several of the online casinos have pulled out of the US market. The Department of Justice has also seized almost $55 million from Neteller, money that actually belongs to the individual account holders. My buddy Troll has a little bit of money he can't access because the account is frozen. Another poker blogger was playing a live tournament in Los Angeles recently. He got to talking to the people at his table, and between four of them they had over $55,000 tied up by Neteller. So now that I've gotten my non-poker blogging audience somewhat up to speed, (with apologies to Paul Harvey) here's the rest of the story.

I presume most of you have heard about Bank of America, and their decision to allow undocumented aliens to open bank accounts, credit cards and mortgages. Things that make you go huh? According to B of A, they are trying to service the ever growing Hispanic market. Fine. Service those here in this country legally. Technically, and I'd really need a lawyer to back me up on this, I would think that anybody at B of A either connected to this policy, or connected to the implementation of this policy could be found guilty of aiding and abetting criminals. I mean, it IS a crime to be in the country illegally, right? But ok, let's move beyond Bank of Attitude (yes I used to bank there, years ago, and Attitude is right...customer service sucks, apparently unless you're in the country illegally).

We have our beloved federal government prosecuting two former employees of a foreign company, one (I believe) located in another country who happens to be one of our strongest allies, and indirectly persecuting those of us who play poker and otherwise gamb00l online all in the name of fraud prevention and prevention of terrorism. Noble goals, and one can certainly understand the government of these here United States of America wanting to protect herself and her citizens from these crimes. But they're not going after a financial institution, one of the largest financial institutions, for proudly publicizing that they don't require a valid US-issued identification card (like a Social Security Card, a Drivers License, or a Passport/Visa) to grant bank accounts and credit. Hmmm. Sounds like fraud to me. And one of the other benefits that B of A trumpets is that people who open these accounts can wire money from their account to Mexico for free! Just try and find a bank willing to do that for you, especially without proper identification. But that sure seems like it would be conducive to money laundering, and would be very well-suited to (let's just say here, not that I'm trying to stereotype...just using a prevalent example) a radical Imam at an Islamic mosque laundering money for terrorism. Again, I'm not saying they all do this, just using the example. This Imam extolls his parishoners to donate money to the Jihad against the West, against Israel, whomever. Much in the same fashion as Irish Republican Army "representatives" would do in countless bar back rooms in Boston and other areas (just to be fair). Because B of A doesn't require proper documentation to open an account, what's to stop this Imam, one of his parishoners, or whomever (an undocumented worker? they're easy to find here in So Cal) to open an account at B of A. Even to further hide the paper trail, money deposited could even be wired into an account in Mexico (it can't be that difficult to open an account down there), and THEN have the money wired into yet a 3rd bank, maybe in the Cayman Islands or something. Either way, it sure seems like an easy method to finance terrorism. And our federal government is going after an internet business based somewhere in the UK, I believe, not to mention cutting us off from online gambling (except for appropriately state sponsored methods, like lottery and horse racing). Am I alone in thinking that our government's priorities are kinda, what's the word I'm looking for, oh yeah, FUCKED UP BEYOND ALL RECOGNITION?!?!?!?!

Some positive, and some negative

Sorry for the delay in posting, but it's been a crazy week. Work has been a mix of busy and not, but something I alluded to previously has cropped up again. I mentioned that I have no privacy in my office, so keeping Blogger open for posting and such isn't really an option. The posts that I've sent up during the day have been sneaky: I type up the post in MS Word, and then open the Dashboard, copy and paste, touch up any hyperlinks or pics, and elbow and send. Unfortunately, my boss informed us that our corporate IT masters up in Sacramento have installed software on all of our computers (our company is very wired) that tracks our internet usage. And my boss wasn't telling us that in a fashion that said that he was watching us. Rather, he informed us that he wasn't even checking HIS personal email from his work computer. So blogging at work, even at lunch is not the best move. Still, work has been going relatively well. I still feel as though I'm being under-utilized (they don't have enough work yet for me to have a full workload), so it's a delicate line to walk, looking busy and being able to fill out an honest time sheet (I do consulting work, so I have to account for my time in 15 minute increments because it's all billable), while knowing that I've got enough work that I could honestly take 3 solid days and be done with it, if that. So I fluff things out, make it look as though I'm busier than I am, and hope that some of our proposals get accepted. A consultant's life, regardless of the field, isn't always great. And more to the point, combine that with gym and poker after work, Valentine's Day shopping, and honeydew stuff (honey, when you get home can you do this...), and I haven't had much time to blog.

The mornings have even been busy, and I only weighed myself a couple of days this past week. Nothing exciting out of those days, but this week hasn't been good. We had a company thing one day that involved going to our wonderful local brewpub for munchies and adult beverages, which didn't help things at all. I've done some shorty workouts off of Exercise TV, but I haven't had the time to do anything longer than 10 minutes at a time (besides the dog walks). And to top it off, because Dear and Patient GF teaches in the evenings, we did Valentine's Day this weekend. Great food, but not good for the waistline. Monday morning's weigh-in is not expected to be pretty.

Still, things seem to be going fairly well in that department. DAPGF has been going thru some rough times with work, but she's made a point of reaching out to me both in asking for help and to apologize for some "chilly" behavior on her part (I never said anything, knowing that it wasn't me, but work that was thowing her off balance), and things just seem to be going really well.

So there you have it. Diet and weight aren't great, but I think I bought the right stuff at the grocery store over the weekend. Work isn't bad, just kind of awkward for now. And life with GF is pretty good. All in all, I'll give myself a solid "not bad".

Assorted thoughts and updates

I recently downloaded Windows Media Player 10, because a video I downloaded needed some updated plug-in or something. It is pretty sweet, has a great music functionality and a very well integrated rip feature. I've never been a fan of iTunes, and I don't have an iPod so I figured that I'll just use WMP 10 as my music interface, at least until I cave in and get an iPod. I might get a Zune, though. I played with one the other week at the store, and it was pretty sweet. Anyway, while GF is out teaching, I don't want to watch Gray's Anatomy without her (thank you DVR), so I'm ripping a bunch of my CDs to the computer. I just got done with a late 80s metal band album, Perfect Symmetry by Fates Warning. Those guys were so ahead of the game technically. I mean, the music is great in and of itself, but it is so technical that if you have any musical knowledge, it is pretty sweet to listen to the non-standard timing and progressions. Combine that with some of the best full digital production to come out of the 80s (those of you old enough will remember that the first CDs were "AAD", which meant it was: Analog recording, Analog mixing, and Digital mastering), and you've got a phenomenal musical experience, IMHO. Punchy guitars, tight drums, perfectly crisp cymbals, and ultra-clear vocals. Good stuff.

Anyway, on to the point of this thing. I'm not going to bother going into detail on weight and food consumption between my last diet post of 1/8 and my post of 1/30. Suffice to say, I yo-yo'ed in pretty much the same range I've been in since March. High of 283.4 lbs and low of 279.0 lbs. Same old same old. Since then, however, I actually have some data to provide:

1/30 - 282.2 lbs and 36.6% body fat (7:30 a.m. weigh-in). I caved in and had a breakfast burrito, and noshed a little more than I should've while playing poker. Still, I did do one of the Exercise On Demand TV sessions for about a half hour, so I like to think I at least made up for my food naughtiness.

1/31 - 282.2 lbs and 38.5% body fat (7:30 a.m. weigh-in). Weight stayed the same but the bf went up. Haven't a clue as to why. Oh well. Dog walks were really quick due to rain, but I did get another TV exercise session in while GF was teaching. Nothing exciting about the food intake.

2/1 - 282.4 lbs and 35.8% body fat (7:30 a.m. weigh-in). Up by .2 lbs and down by 2.7% body fat. Again, don't get it. Meh. Breakfast was good, but lunch was baaaad. I had Thai from this place near my office (as I've said before, I'm a sucker for Asian food), and it was sooooo good. Dinner was reasonable and I did another TV workout. They may not be a full gym workout, but they are a helluva lot easier to deal with then driving to the gym, driving around for another 10 minutes looking for parking, and then waiting to use just about every single machine that I want to use.

I'm hoping that I can start to build some consistency, but this weekend isn't going to help things. My company is doing their annual party, and they're flying all employees not located within driving distance of Sacramento, plus spouses/significant others, up for the weekend and putting us up at the Sheraton Grand. Swanky dinner, hosted bar, casino night, I'm not too optomistic. Still, we shall see. If the hotel has a gym (and I don't know why they wouldn't) I'll see if I can't get in for a workout. Until then...

Anything that makes it easier...

I must give full credit to my hottie neighbor. She's been trying to lose weight (not that she needs to in my eyes, but who am I to say), so we chat about what a pain in the ass it is, blah blah blah. She had cancelled her 24 Hour Fitness membership and had been using a personal trainer for a while, but she still wasn’t seeing the results she thought she wanted (again, hottie. What is it with hot women? They either totally know it and are mega-bitches, or they haven’t a clue and are totally miserable. I don’t get it.). One day I ran into her in the parking lot (figuratively, not literally) and we got to talking. I asked how her trainer was working out. She said that she wasn’t seeing him that often now, and I asked what she had been doing. And THIS is the cool thing. She mentioned that there’s an Exercise On Demand channel on our digital cable system (Time-Warner Cable San Diego), and she’s been doing a bunch of the workouts on that. They have everything from Yoga to Pilates to basic cardio to Step to Dance to body sculpting, to abs and so on. They also have specialized sports training, geared to specific sports. I tried a basic program yesterday, and it was a phenomenal 24 minute cardio/toning workout! What a great idea! No need to go to the gym after work, change clothes, wait in line for a variety of machines, change clothes again, and finally get home around 7 pm. After wasting 15 minutes just on changing in and out of workout attire. Or worse. Dragging my ass home after work, and not wanting to leave the house until I go to work the next morning. Last night I actually waited until I was done with a poker tournament, but they’ve got programs ranging from 10 minutes to one hour. I can actually click “sit out” on my poker tournament and do a 10 minute session, and go back to poker without losing a bunch of money on the blinds. And I can do that multiple times during the game, if I really want to and the action lets me. And, I can get a quick session in while the dog is eating breakfast and GF is still sleeping. I’m really excited about this! This might be the “killer-app” that I needed to really make some progress. Keep coming back and I’ll be posting my progress.

New Horizons, New Challenges

So. As much as the new work gig is in fact a GREAT job (and not just because I was off work for 6 months…it really is a great company), the physical office layout does not provide me with much in the way of blogging opportunities. The company was a start-up, expansion branch of a larger company. They have established themselves, and we are expecting to relocate to much larger digs in the next few months. In the meanwhile, I’m sitting at a desk, working on a laptop, with not so much as a half-height cube wall to separate me from my coworkers. Meaning, I gots no privacy!!! Thus, I don’t want to be sitting with Blogger open, inserting pictures and hyperlinks while my boss walks behind me. Which is my cheap-ass excuse for why I haven’t posted in a while. But I’m attempting to change that (wait, we’ve heard this before, haven’t we).

You may have noticed a new appearance, and a new blog header/description. I’m expanding (no pun intended) the goal of this here Totally Ghey Online Diary to include all manner of personal improvement…not just weight. For this, I give the majority of the credit to Dear and Patient GF. We were watching either a movie or a TV show where one of the characters was being called out for not being willing to change, to meet the needs of their significant other. And we both noted parallels in our relationship, particularly on my end of things. Basically (as if you hadn’t noticed from my lack of consistent posting and consistent gym attendance), I’m a lazy schlub, who really doesn’t want to give up my easy, lazy habits. Well, I’m going to try to change that. In addition to the obvious tracking of the weight issues, I’m attempting to get my finances in order, and be a better boyfriend. I’m going to better prioritize my life. Basically all the little crap that becomes the first casualty of a lazy attitude, that’s what I’m going to try and improve on. Right here and now, I can’t tell you specifically what I’m going to do, but I am going to try and use better judgment to react to life and its unique challenges. I do hope to post at least several times per week, if not daily, so we shall see. Wish me luck.

The one in which we actually see a little progress

Well. As much as I'm an architect of my own disaster, I've determined that when GF and I go out to eat, it's not always good for me. Witness the following progression:

Last weigh in was 1/4, and the stats were 283.8 lbs and 35.4% body fat.

1/5 - 282.8 lbs and 35.1% bf. Personally, I did a pretty good job of controlling my lunch intake on 1/4, and that made a big difference.

1/6 - 281.8 lbs and 36.7% bf. Not sure about the jump in BF, but had long dog walks on 1/5. Very strict control on my lunch intake, and, here's the big one, Dear and Patient GF went out Friday night with friends. Yours truly went to the gym after work, ate a very reasonable dinner (pita and hummus sandwich and some Spaghetti-Os), and stayed home playing poker. End result, dropped some weight. Nice.

1/7 - 278.6 lbs and 36.0% bf. Holy carp!! DAPGF went out with other friends Saturday night, so I hit the gym again, ate a small frozen pizza (roughly 450 cal), and played more poker. I think I can definitely say that, despite my own failings wtih lunch at work, going out for dinners ain't the best thing for me either. Sunday could've been better. Brunch was a skillet mix of eggs, potatoes and such, and dinner was Thai. Finished off with a slice of ice cream cake to celebrate my father's birthday.

The morning weigh-in should be interesting. Still, DAPGF starts teaching this week, 2 or 3 nights during the week. Those are gym nights and sensible dinner nights. Also, gym on Saturday and Sunday mornings. I think I may be starting to get this thing under some control. Check back for further updates.

The one in which we try to get our fat ass in gear

Well. So far, the year is not off to a good start. I (jokingly) blame Dear and Patient GF, but she wasn’t the one stuffing food down my throat (for the most part).

My goal was to hit the gym every day possible. BEFORE I did anything fun, like playing poker. That was my big problem last year, whether I was working or not. I always was rushing home to play poker, or there was a tournament spinning up and I didn’t want to miss it, so I really avoided going to the gym. Great use of the membership fees. So this year was to be the big, consistent gym push. I actually started off making it work, attending New Years Eve in the morning, and then again New Years Day in the morning. Beyond that, haven’t set foot inside 24 Hour Fitness since. The reason I blame DAPGF is that she doesn’t start teaching again until next week. So she’s home every night and wants me to come home right after work so that we can have dinner. To top it off, one meal (NYD lunch) was a Pizza Hut lunch buffet and dinner that evening was Souplantation’s buffet. I don’t care if it is a salad place, BUFFETS ARE EVIL!!! I do not fare well in them, especially the Chinese ones. Even without the buffets, we are still going out for less than skinny meals. Lots of Mexican food, cheap Indian food, and the like. Tasty stuff, and not super evil, but still 700-1000 cal per meal.

But I have done plenty of damage all on my own. Lunch is really weird for me. For some reason I have this compulsion to go out and get something to eat, regardless of whether I brought a lunch, whether I ate it, or even what it consisted of. I usually bring something that requires at least heating in the microwave, so it’s not an issue of eating a hot meal. I really don’t know why I do it. Lord knows I don’t need to be spending the $$$$, either.

As much as it is me trying to sidestep the blame for my re-increasing gut, when GF goes back to teaching it will really help me out. First of all, I will be able to get back to the gym 3 nights during the week. Combine this with the at least one weekend morning (usually 2x) at the gym and the physical activity level really ramps up (and hopefully so does the metabolism). More importantly, those nights I eat at home. And I can do a much better job of controlling my food intake at home. Surprisingly, playing online poker helps that out, too. I’ll nuke up a small frozen pizza (400 cal) or a Lean Gourmet meal (300 cal or so), register for a poker game, and then have to wait for a break in the action to get my food out of the microwave. And if I multi-table (play 2 or more separate games at once, for those of you who don’t play poker online), I have even less time to get up and find something in the kitchen to shove down my throat. If I can take 3 nights where I might have normally consumed 900 calories and reduce that down to 400 calories, I’m saving 1500 calories for the week! As the guys in the Guinness commercials say, Brilliant!!

So this weekend it kicks off. GF is actually going out with friends both Friday and Saturday nights, so both nights I get to hit the gym and play poker! Woo hoo! Then Sunday morning I should be able to make it. Monday GF doesn’t teach, so that will be some dining out experience. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday become my power days at the gym. Abs and cardio every day, with alternating arms, chest, back, and shoulders. I’ve got 8 weeks before GF’s next semester break. Let’s see how far I can get. Which leads me into the ugliness of how far do I have to go. Let’s look at some ugly weigh-ins.


1/2 - 285.0 lbs and 36.4% bf. Yep. The buffets killed me. 'Nuff said. Absolutely the heaviest I've knowingly been. Bad, naughty Hoff.

1/3 - 283.8 lbs and 35.0% bf. Better. Not great, but better.

1/4 - 283.8 lbs and 35.4% bf. Same weight and smidge more bodyfat. This was due to one of my aforementioned lunch meltdowns. I had to run to Target and get a few things on my lunch break. Unfortunately, some evil bastard placed a Taco Bell just across the street from the shopping center where the Target is. Damn them to hell, and damn the Big Bell Value Menu. So much food for only $.99! Damn you Cheesy Bean and Rice burrito! Damn you to hell!

Had an extra long walk with the dog tonight, so maybe that will help lower things a bit. We shall see...

Happy New Year!

What's the number one resolution out there? Lose weight! Me too! Yes, I know I've been at this a while, and I really only have myself to blame. Still, the dark times that befell me at the end of May did nothing to help me along the road to thinness. So having finally started working again, I am rededicating myself to losing weight and getting in shape. To set the tone, we need a starting point. To get that, we need to see how 2006 came to a close.

12/29 - 280.8 lbs and 35.7% bf. Today was a baaaad day. Started off good, with oatmeal. Then little sister & bro in law were heading back to the Memphis area, so we had to get together for lunch. An evil BBQ cheeseburger and fries at Chilis resulted. Then work closed down early, allowing me and 2 coworkers to head for Karl Strauss' Oriental Beer Garden for several pints. Yummy. GF wanted ribs for dinner, so Tony Romas continued the orgy of bad foods. Weigh-in Saturday morning was not looking good.

12/30 - 281.8 lbs and 35.2% bf. Yup. Not good. Saturday was better. Bagel for breakfast and then several hours wandering around the San Diego Convention Center at the SD Auto Show! Uber-fun for a car junkie like me. Quote of the convention from GF: she slides into the drivers seat on a Porsche Cayenne SUV and simply says "Ohhh."

Apparently my next vehicle needs to be the Cayenne. Black looks pretty sweet, but I hate keeping black cars clean. Maybe a nice Titanium Gray with the ebony leather. As if I can actually afford one! Maybe in a few more years...

Anyway, had our ghetto Mexican food (ghetto vegetarian...who knew), and Thai for dinner. As I said, the day started off well, but quickly went downhill. The weigh-in would tell the tale.

12/31 - 281.0 lbs and 35.7% bf. Wonders never cease. I am sure that hitting the gym first thing in the morning made the difference. Yep, I did manage to make it to the gym on the last day of the year. Yay for me! Didn't have breakfast. Lunch consisted of a sushi buffet. Yummy, but I ate waaay too much. Rationalized by way of "January 1st I'm kicking things into gear...I can have a blow out on the last day of the year..." Dinner was a superb dry aged, bone-in USDA Prime New York Strip accompanied by the most phenomenal tableside Caesar Salad to ever be prepared. Wandered around San Diego's Gaslamp District for a while, checking out the bars and parties, and settled on dessert at Ghiradelli's. A wicked chocolate and toffee sundae. Pure evil goodness. Finished off with Dick Clark dropping his balls on Time Square, and welcomed in 2007. GF went to sleep and I fired up the poker machine. I had actually been doing pretty well in the final few weeks of 2006, but '07 started off not so great, with my busting out of two tournaments just short of the money. Oh well. Just like the stock market, there has to be some profit taking, and PokerStars took some of my profits. Meh.

1/1 - 282.0 lbs and 36.2% bf. As I said, I had a lovely blow out on New Year's Eve, and had one more pound to show for it. Meh. I did manage to hit the gym, so points for me! Interestingly enough, Homeland Security seems to have taken over 24 Hour Fitness in San Diego County. Instead of simply showing your membership card and photo ID, now you walk up a "railed-off" entry, leading up to a turnstile like what you find going into stadiums or a subway station. You punch in your PIN #, and once their computer system confirms that your PIN is valid, then you place your finger on a scanner so that it can scan your fingerprint! Crazy. Anyway...

Breakfast
Nothing

Lunch
Geez. The only places open today were the champagne brunch type places, and the budget didn't support that option. What do we finally find open? A Pizza Hut buffet! I tried to be good and have the salad first and 3 small pieces of pizza. Not feeling too optomistic.

Dinner
To continue the theme, Souplantation was one of the few places open that wasn't a dirt cheap Mexican place (there's a time for that type of food, and it's usually right after a session in the waves off of Del Mar or at 2:01 a.m. after the bars close. So. Buffet again. But hey! It can't be bad...it's salad!!! I'm quite sure that Tuesday's weigh-in will not be pretty. So it goes.

So Happy New Year to any of you who still stop by here. May you be strong enough to keep your resolutions and may those of you who are going thru the weight loss process find continued success. See ya out there!

I haven't completely forgotten...

So...

I am still blogging and I am still trying, albeit not very successfully, to lose weight. I have had a few things working against me, not the least of which is my own self. The holidays, shopping, my sister being in town for Christmas, me and Dear and Patient GF going out of town for part of the holiday to see her family in Fresno (Fresno?!? Nobody goes to Fresno anymore!), and going on something of a tear on the poker tables have all conspired against me losing weight, much less blogging about it. I've had several days where I could have gone to the gym, and frankly SHOULD have, but instead I raced home to fire up the poker machine and continue on my win streak. My own fault. Oh well.

The holidays are just about over, although I've got one more extravagant meal to consume before 1/1/07 (New Year's Eve, probably the best steak I've ever had and definitely the absolute best tableside Caesar Salad you will ever come across), and then I start working in earnest. I'm going to join the Men's Health Belly Off Club and actually attempt to stick to it. Also, every day that I have the opportunity (weekends, and nights that DAPGF is teaching) I will be hitting the gym before doing anything fun like playing poker or blogging. Right now, I predict that the diet will be the toughest part of this. Breakfast is pretty safe (usually oatmeal), I'm starting to get some control over my mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacking, and for the most part lunch is pretty easy to control. Dinner is my big problem, mainly when DAPGF and I go out. She's not an eat at home person, even if it is to go out for cheap Mexican food. So we go out, and portion control becomes a big problem. If I'm paying for it, I'm gonna eat it. At a lot of the places we go, the food really isn't "optimized" to take leftovers home (sloppy enchiladas and such), so it all gets eaten. And Leon's getting larger! So it will be a battle, but one I intend to fight. Wish me luck. Obviously I'm attempting to get my act together now, but 1/1/07 and the game is on!

So enough of that. When last we left our hero, we were still fat. Here's the progress from 12/20 thru 12/28.

12/20 - 279.4 lbs and 36.5% body fat.

12/21 - 280.8 lbs and 35.7%

12/22 - 281.0 lbs and 35.4%

Out of town, and didn't have a scale. Really.

12/26 - 281.0 lbs and 37.0% Considering how much I ate and drank, I'll take it!

12/27 - 280.0 lbs and 37.3% Haven't really figured out the correlation between weight and BF.

12/28 - 281.0 lbs and 36.4%

Breakfast
Oatmeal - 160 cal

Snack
Pringles - 250 cal

Lunch
Lean Gourmet Lasagna - 310 cal
Campbells Select Chicken Noodle Soup - 180 cal
Oreo Cookies - 240 cal

Snack
Pringles - 250 cal

Dinner (here we go, out for Mexican food in Old Town San Diego)
Combo Meal - Beef taco, chicken flauta, quesadilla, chips and salsa
No idea how many calories, but probably too many.

I walked the dog in the morning and late at night, and sprinted with her for a few minutes after work, and that sums up the physical activity for the day. I will get better, dammit!

So. Getting back into the work swing of things. By and large it’s a good thing. Hell, after almost 7 months of being laid off, it is DEFINITELY a good thing. For the most part, it has helped with the weight loss, too. I’m not at home all day, within arm’s reach of the kitchen, so I have cut down the grazing. Likewise, I bring my lunch so I’ve got a finite amount of food to eat, further limiting the possibility of stuffing some chili-coated, deep-fried fat down my throat. Finally, being on a regular schedule has allowed me a little more consistency in getting to the gym. I haven’t been perfect, and trying to accommodate the needs of Dear and Patient GF does not allow me to go to the gym every single evening (which I would do if I could). Still, these changes, plus the more consistent times at the gym, plus the regular dog walks have helped kickstart the weight loss again. Three things that kind of hurt me from last week leading into this week:

1. Dinner at a Chinese Buffet. DAPGF and I are both suckers for Asian food, and given that we’re still on a pretty tight budget, the buffet is a decent alternative. Downside, unlimited baaaaad food. Sigh.

2. Dinner at Souplantation. Of course it’s healthy…it’s salad!!!! Buffet bad, moderation difficult.

3. Lunch out with new coworkers. There’s not a lot of food options near my new office, but there is a little surfer-Mexi joint about a mile away from the office (and about a mile from the beach…ya gotta love San Diego). Carne Asada quesadilla. Yummy. Evil. Sigh.

The latter part of the week was difficult to track, consumption-wise, and the weekend in particular was not conducive to logging the specifications(eating out and then going shopping...not a chance to log stuff in whilst fresh in the mind and gut). Given that, here's a summary of what happened to me (hey, clever tie in!) from my last post until now. When last we left our hero, he had survived a weigh in that rang the scales at 278.4, but we were anticipating ugliness at the next weigh in. Sure enough it happened.

12/14/06 - 280.0 lbs and 35.4% body fat. Meh.

12/15/06 - 280.6 lbs and 35.1% body fat. Considering what could have been, I'll take it.

12/16/06 - 278.4 lbs and 35.7% body fat. I ate very sparingly during the previous day (no cheating at all) and we had the Christmas party at my boss's house (holy carp what a house - 5000 SF, on a golf course with ocean views, and looking like one of those luxo homes you see being redone on HGTV and such), but the food was super healthy. A mix of cheeses was probably the most evil stuff (but OMG was it good), sushi, seared ahi tuna, lean carne asada, veggies, and so on. I also made it to the gym before weigh in, so I'm sure that had a little to do with it.

12/17/06 - 279.4 lbs and 35.8% body fat. Chinese buffet for dinner and no gym before weigh in. 'Nuff said.

12/18/06 - I weighed myself unofficially (I didn't write it down out of shame), but it was something on the order of 281.2 lbs. Gotta get my shame in somewhere. I didn't have time to weigh myself on 12/19, due to running late in the morning. Meh.

12/20/06 - 279.4 lbs and 36.5% body fat. Well, I erased those gains, thank God. Combination of being good during the day and not having much for dinner. I had plans to crank out some serious poker before finishing my Christmas shopping, so eating was a secondary consideration. I'll take it. Besides, I won all three poker tournaments that I entered! Woo hoo!!
Let's see if I can keep the downward momentum going! I'm sure it will be difficult, but I'm gonna try. Good luck to all of you, too, and have a happy holiday season!

Update

12/13/06. 7:15 a.m. 278.4 lbs and 36.1% bodyfat. Cool. Especially impressive given everything I ate yesterday. I did make it to the gym, and I still walk the dog first thing in the morning and last thing in the evening, so I am getting some physical activity. Still, given what I shoved down my throat, I am impressed that I actually dropped a smidge of weight.

Today started off with such promise. It seems as though it may have ended up ok, but I did a baaaad thing.

Breakfast
Maple & Brown Sugar Oatmeal - 160 cal

Snack
1 oz R/F Wheat Thins - 130 cal

Lunch
Carne Asada Quesadilla - Estimated 1000 cal (per Calorie King)
Hershey's Caramel Kisses (8) - 180 cal

Snack
1 oz R/F Wheat Thins - 130 cal

Dinner
Lean Gourmet Spaghetti w/ Marinara sauce - 280 cal
Chips and Salsa - Estimated 250 cal

Total: 2130 Calories. Weigh in should be interesting...

Let's see how long I can keep this going

Hey! Another post. Maybe I can build some momentum, like my San Diego Super Chargers!

12/12. 277.8 lbs, 35.4% body fat. A bit of progress...nice!

Breakfast:
Instant Oatmeal - 160 cal

Snack:1 oz reduced fat Wheat Thins - 130 cal

Lunch:
Budget Lean Gourmet 5 cheese lasagna - 310 cal
McDonalds Snack Wrap - 330 cal
Hershey's Caramel Kisses - 180 cal

Snack:
1 oz R/F Wheat Thins - 130 cal

Dinner: (here's where it gets ugly)
Thai Peanut Noodles - 600 cal
Ben & Jerry's Brownie Batter Ice Cream (Oh dear Lord is this stuff just completely evil, but in the best way possible) - 800 cal

Total: 2640 cal. Yeesh. I'm bad. I'm naughty. I deserve a spanking. Any volunteers? River Driver you are excluded for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is we're not from Appalachia!

So far the new job is working out quite well. Just waiting to get all the in-processing taken care of. We shall see.

Hey Everybody! I'mmmm Baaaack!!!!

I'm back!! I just finished my first day at the new job. After 194 days of unemployment, I'm back among the living again! I had no idea that it would become this demotivating...I lost the desire to play poker, I lost the desire to go to the gym, and I was bored enough that I constantly felt the need to nibble. Bad things. I went from a previous low of 277.4 and ballooned up to 284.2 at one point. Still, since getting the job offer, things seem to be looking up.

12/11. 280.2 lbs at 7 a.m. Meals went like this:

Breakfast: Nothing. Not the right idea, but not knowing what the kitchen situation was like, I didn't want to try and do oatmeal if it wasn't going to be an easy task.

Snack: Reduced Fat Wheat Thins - 240 cal.

Lunch: 10 piece Chicken McNuggets - 420 cal.
BBQ sauce - 180 cal.

Snack: Hostess Donuts - 420 cal.

Dinner: Lean Pockets (2) - 580 cal.

Dessert: Jack Daniels and Diet Coke (2) - 128 cal.

Total: 2128 calories. Could've been worse. At least I made it to the gym tonight. It looks like I'll get to go for 2 or 3 nights out of the week (when Dear and Patient GF is teaching) and probably mornings on the weekends. Hopefully I'll start to see some positive results.

Has it really been a month?!?

Wow! I am even more lame than I thought. Thanks to my darling little sister, River Driver for pointing out that it has almost been a month since I last posted. I blame the booze. Oh wait, I can't afford booze *sobs*. Seriously, there hasn't been much of anything going on. The job hunt is moving at the proverbial snail's pace. Since my last post, I've had two more interviews, one of which went to another schmoe, and one of which I'm supposedly still in the running for. There's been a few rumblings from recruiters looking to fill slots in So Cal's Inland Empire (Temecula to Riverside). Admittedly, the pay tends to be huge, but I'm faced with one of two and a half options. First, I could accept the job and just commute. Technically, that's doable. Technically. From a practical perspective, it's 100 miles each way between Casa de Hoff and downtown Riverside. 200 miles each day, leaving the house absolutely no later than 6 (more likely 5:30) and not getting home until 7:30 or so. The 2nd option is to take the position and rent an apartment or even a room up there during the week. Again, it is technically doable at the salaries that are being thrown around, but GF and I went thru the long distance thing (her here in San Diego and me up in the OC) for the first year of our relationship and we do NOT want to go back to that. The half option is to do either of the previous two, while attempting to convince Dear and Patient GF that living in Riverside or Temecula is just as good as living in La Jolla (it isn't), get her to find a job up there, AND try to sell a condo in the softening (dare I say flaccid?) San Diego real estate market. So the hunt continues. Any good juju, thoughts, prayers, virgins for sacrifice (just send 'em to me, I'll take care of the details, heh heh heh) you all care to send my way to appease the gods of employment, I'll take 'em.

Weight is kind of a funny thing. As I noted in an earlier post, I'm a notorious yo-yoer (who of us isn't?), and in the past month, it has been a yo-yo experience. Interestingly enough though, my range is the same 3 pound range it usually is, just three pounds lower than the peak of my fatness. Over the past month I've ranged from 280.6 lbs to 277.4 lbs, as opposed to the 283 to 280 it yoostabe. I guess that's soemthing. I'm still snacking as I read, particularly in front of the computer. I wish I could find something to distract me from that. As I noted earlier, if I'm doing something, hell, just about anything, I don't even think about snacking. But I'm spending a good solid 4 hours a day surfing the job boards and sending off resumes (over 100 in less than 3 months, sad), so there's a good chunk of time to be stuffing Wheat Thins (at least they're reduced fat) into my face. I'm quite convinced that if I could cut that out I would start to see some downward trending in the avoirdupois. I've tried gum and hard candy, but they don't give me the same satisfaction. I wind up crunching thru the candy and then I'm ready for some chips, or the gum flavor goes flat and I'm ready for something crunchy. So it goes. I hope all of you out there are continuing to find success in the weight loss department...give us weak-willpowered folks something to aim for! For the record, today's meals saw the following:

Breakfast
Bowl of Cocoa Pebbles with skim milk - 250 cal

Snack
Bowl of Cocoa Pebbles with skim milk - 250 cal (hey, I like 'em)
Reduced Fat Wheat Thins - 300 cal

Lunch
2 Turkey breast sandwiches - 500 cal
Frozen Burrito - 300 cal

Snack
Reduced Fat Wheat Thins - 300 cal

Dinner
Lean Gourmet Spaghetti Marinara - 240 cal
Cocoa Pebbles (this was sorta dessert for the chocolate factor) - 250 cal

Total - 2390 cal. Didn't make it to the gym this morning...the dog got sick and I had to clean the carpet. Something of a mini cardio workout there, but not nearly a makeup for the gym. Definitely going tomorrow. Still, got the morning dog walk in (30 min), the afternoon sprint (5 minutes ranging from steady jog to full speed), and the evening stroll (which should be an hour's worth) will be coming up at 11:00 p.m. pst. Every little bit...

Finally a bit of housecleaning. I've updated the weight stats on the sidebar and added a few links I promised I would. Fat Bitch, Really Too Big Cactus Freek, and Twice The Man are now set up for easy linkage. Hopefully I can turn this here post into some sort of momentum and get back into the swing of things. We shall see. Those of you who for some silly reason still stop by, thank you for your patronage. See ya bounciing 'round the room.

What? I Still Have a Blog?

Yes, I am uber-geigh and lame for not keeping up with the posting. I am trying, and I've managed to get back to posting somewhat regularly on my poker blog...maybe I can get back into the routine here, too.

So first of all, I'd like to thank those of you who still check in, see how I'm doing, and are willing to offer up words of advice and encouragement. Twice the Man, reallytoobig, and FatBitch, links will be added in short order. Dan and BSN, glad to see that things are still going well for the both of you. Whichever one of you wins the Pool, enjoy my money. :) And congrats to my sister, RiverDriver. She was in San Diego last week for a conference and she's looking great. She's dropped a bunch of weight and is really making strides in returning to the good old days of thin-ness. She may not think so, but even GF noticed that she's dropped weight. We even hit the beach to get some relief from the heat that has been baking the country.

For the record, I did track my weigh-ins every day except the mornings of 7/8 and 7/9. Those were the dates of the Vegas trip, and circumstances were beyond my control. The short and simple version is that from 6/30 to 7/16, I dropped from 278.6 lbs to 277.6 lbs. During that period, I saw a fat peak of 281.4 lbs (I think I'd missed the gym the previous day due to an interview) and a low of 277.4 lbs Saturday morning. I really do yo yo more than I should, and I haven't completely figured out why. I'm fairly consistent in my eating (being home all day, it isn't that difficult to eat the same crap all the time), and I make it to the gym and/or the beach fairly regularly, so I'm not sure why the yo yo. I don't make it to a formal workout every day (I do walk the dog several times a day and hit the beach several times a week, but on the upswing days, I don't see a correllation to my workout schedule.

Here's a typical sample of what I do eat during the day, to give you some idea of how us unemployed folks get thru the day.

Breakfast
Carnation Instant Breakfast with skim milk - 220 cal.

Snack while surfing the job boards, blogging, and playing online poker
R/F Wheat Thins or R/F Gardetto Snack Mix or Scoops with salsa - 350 cal.

Lunch
Assorted Budget Lean Gourmet Meal - 250 to 300 cal.
Frozen Tinas Burrito - 300 cal.

Snack again while on the computer
Assorted chips, etc. - 350 cal.

Dinner
Nights GF teaches Assorted "diet" frozen meals (Healthy Choice, Whole Foods Kitchen, etc.) - 250 to 450 cal.
Nights GF doesn't teach - Random restaurant experience (Chipotle, Red Robin, etc.) pushing probably 1000 cal or so. All told, anywhere from 1700 to 2500 cal for the day.

A big chunk of what I need to get a better handle on is the computer snacking. This was also a problem when I was working. I read a lot. Books, magazines, newspapers, cereal boxes, tatoos on the inner thighs of hot chicks, wait, scratch that last one. But you get the idea. Ever since I was a little kid I've read, and when I read, I snacked on something. I honestly don't remember if that was a parental bribe to get me and my sister to read, but they've never had the healthiest attitudes towards meals. They've gotten better over the years, but still way too much creams, gravys, butters, and so on. But when I read, I have this compulsion to snack. Now, you could take the same 3 hours in the morning that I might spend on the computer and send me to the beach or plop me down at a construction site to do inspections, and I won't miss the snack at all. For some reason, though, when I read I need to be nibbling on something. I've tried to control it with gum or hard candy, but it doesn't quite work. I'm trying to control it better while I'm home during the day, so that when I (hopefully soon) return to the working world I won't have this need to snack.

I am drinking a lot (non alcoholic) during this heat wave. Damn our realtor who said that we were close enough to the beach to not need air conditioning. I'm calling bullshit on that. It's hot in here, dammit. I'm drinking water and Diet Coke by the gallon. Seriously, I figure I'm drinking 5 or 6 pints of water and 3 or 4 pints of Diet Coke over the day.

Here's hoping things are well with you and yours, wherever you are. Keep it up and I'll try to get back to posting more regularly. Stay cool out there.

Update

I've been a slacker this week in keeping track of my grazing, I mean eating. This being home all day, job hunting on the web is most certainly not conducive to avoiding snacking, much less being enjoyable. I do have the weight stats, though, so here they are.

6/26 - 278.2 lbs and 35.6% body fat.

6/27 - 278.8 lbs and 36.3% body fat.

6/28 - 277.4 lbs and 36.6% body fat.

I'm not doing as well as I'd hoped, much less as well as the other bloggers in our little competition, but this is the lowest weigh-in that I've had without the assistance of food poisoning! Woo hoo! I did track my food intake today, so I can give you those details here.

Breakfast
Instant Breakfast - 220 cal

Snack
R/F Wheat Thins - 240 cal

Lunch
Lean Gourmet Lagsana - 320 cal
Campbells Select Chicken Noodle Soup - 180 cal
3 pcs ghiradelli 70% cocoa dark chocolate (holy crap is this stuff good) - 140 cal

Snack
R/F Wheat Thins - 240 cal

Dinner
Chipotle Chicken Burrito - 1047 cal

Total for the day - 2387 cal. I honestly had no idea the burritos were that evil. For the record, I checked on Calorie King to see what the chicken burrito salad option checks in at, because that's the way I try to order when we eat at Chipotle. Getting the chicken salad instead of the burrito saves more than 300 cal (704 vs 1047). The major culprit is the flour tortilla at 340 cal. Good to know.

One thing I've tried to do, both to try and control my eating/physical activity and to simply help my mental state while I job hunt is to put myself on a schedule. No more coming in from walking the dog and plopping down in front of the computer to surf job listings while playing poker, and deciding to shower at 2 in the afternoon. Frankly it will probably help my poker game, too. Set time for the dog walks, set time for the gym, set time for job hunt/web surfing, set time for poker, and with the weather as fan-dam-tastic as it's been here in San Diego, set time for the beach. Hope life is good wherever you are.

Weekend Update

Hey, I'm still posting! Woo hoo!

6/24 - 280.2 lbs and 35.6% body fat. As I figured, the combo of a substantial lunch and a substantial dinner had an impact. Still, it could've been worse.

Breakfast
Nothing.

Lunch
1/2 of a ham and swiss sandwich, a small caesar salad, and a chocolate chip cookie at Boudin Sourdough. What amazing bread. No calorie count, sorry. That'll be a theme for today.

Snack
Reduced Fat Wheat Thins

Dinner
Asian Fusion Tapas at Roppongi. Tiger shrimp skewers, kung pao calamari, seared ahi tuna, grilled flatbread, and crab cakes. Evil good stuff.

Dessert
Mixed bag of chocolate covered raisins, chocolate covered brownie bites and chocolate covered cookie dough (sense a pattern here?) that we were able to sneak into the movies.

6/25 - 279.0 lbs and 36.2% body fat. I guess the chocolate covered festival didn't do as much damage as I expected.

Breakfast
Nothing

Lunch
Reduced Fat Ravioli - 380 cal
Lean Gourmet Whole Wheat Rotini pasta - 260 cal

Dinner
1/2 of a small veggie pizza from Round Table Pizza - 500 cal

Dessert
1 scoop of Marble Slab Birthday Cake ice cream - 450 cal

Total for the day - 1590 cal. My best day yet! Of course, I'll probably gain weight for the Monday weigh-in, just to spite myself.

6/23

6/23 - 279.0 lbs and 37.8% bodyfat. Up 2/10 of a pound since Thursday morning. Given all that I ate, I'll take it.

I really couldn't keep a detailed food log today, due to circumstances beyond my control. I mean I know what I had, but it would be difficult at best ot attempt to guesstimate or recreate the weight for each meal.

Breakfast
Instant Breakfast - 220 cal
2 Lean Pockets Breakfast sandwiches - 300 cal

Snack
Peanuts - 150 cal

Lunch
Teppen Steakhouse combo of miso soup, shrimp, New York steak, fried rice,and assorted veggies

Snack
Jack in the Box chocolate shake

Dinner
GF got home from work late, so we went to this Chinese place she knew about. Won Ton soup, Kung Pao Shrimp, and steamed rice.

We shall see what the day will hold...

Getting Back Into It

So...when last we left things, I was fat. Well, I still am, but I'm starting to head in the right direction again.

6/20 - 281.6 lbs and 36.3% body fat.
6/21 - 280.4 lbs and 35.9% body fat.
6/22 - 278.8 lbs and 38.4% body fat. Maybe there is something to this rededication thing after all.

Breakfast
Instant Breakfast - 220 cal
Lean Pockets Breakfast Sandwiches (2) - 300 cal

Snack
Peanuts - 340 cal

Lunch
Turkey and Swiss Pita Sandwiches (2) - 400 cal

Snack
Wheat Thins - 270 cal

Dinner
TGI Fridays Potato Skins - 500 cal
TGI Fridays Santa Fe Chicken Salad - 300 cal

Total - 2330 cal. More than I should've had, but dinner screwed us up. When we go to places like TGI Fridays, we usually get veggie burgers in an attempt to be a little more health conscious. Unfortunately, TGI Fridays has removed veggie burgers from their menu, for reasons unknown. As such, dear and patient gf wanted some comfort food, and the potato skins were it. So it goes.

I'm lame. I know. Whatever.

So the past two weeks hadn't been going too badly, until this weekend. At one point I'd gotten down to 279.2 lbs, but as of this morning, I weighed in at 281.2 lbs. The weekend was not good, combining a beer laden (mmmm, beeeer) poker home game with an Italian food-fest for Father's Day. I wish it was that easy, to just point to that.

Unfortunately, this whole being laid off thing kind of has me drifting (and not in the fast and the furious way). I am rededicating myself to a bunch of things that have been falling by the wayside. First of all, I'm trying to put myself back on some sort of schedule. When you don't have to head out the door to go to work, it becomes far too easy to stop doing things that you should. I didn't make it to the gym this morning, but I took a nice long run/walk with the doggie. I just had my instant breakfast for breakfast, instead of grazing my way thru the kitchen. I'm sitting down to do my job search before I jump into a poker game (ok, hadn't planned on blogging yet, but some people actually seem to care what is up with me, so I feel justified). Basically, I'm trying to get my head screwed on straight and kick my ass into gear again, and I promise that this will include regular blogging (reading and posting). I invite you all along for the ride, and feel free to offer up your comments.

Monday

When last we left our hero (me), the weigh in from Sunday was 280.2 lbs. Let's see what happened on Monday.

6/5 - 280.0 lbs and 38.0% bf (dry feet)

Breakfast
Instant Breakfast - 220 cal
I am attempting to avoid all things muffin.

Snack
String Cheese (2) - 120 cal

Lunch
Healthy Choice French Bread Pizza - 360 cal
Ghirardelli Caramel Chocolate Squares (2) - 145 cal

Snack
String Cheese (2) - 120 cal

Dinner
Whole Foods Organic Cashew Chicken Dinner - 400 cal
Healthy Choice French Bread Pizza (that dinner was really small) - 360 cal

Drinks
Jack Daniels and Diet Coke (2) - 300 cal

For the day, 2025 cal. We shall see what Tuesday holds.

I'm Still Here!

So. Combine the holiday weekend with some absolutely weird times at work, and you get no real time to post. I work in the real estate development industry in San Diego, and the market seems to be slowing down. As such, things are really sketchy at work. Not exactly like another blogger who actually had to delete his blog due to workplace politics, but sketchy and uncertain nonetheless. As things progress (or regress as the case may be) with work, I'll update things as appropriate. In the meanwhile, back to the fat!

During the period of darkness, I was not keeping a detailed food log. I had started to, but as things headed south following Memorial Day, that took a back seat. I did still weigh myself each morning, and I can post those results here. As a point of explanation about my body fat percentages: my scale measures bodyfat, but part of how it measures it depends on my hydration. Particularly, how moist (soft? supple?) my big feet are. I normally weigh in after I get out of the shower, so all is typically good. If I weigh in before I shower (work with me here), my feet, which are callused from wearing flip flops far more than I should, register as more solid to the scale which leads to an increased body fat measurement. During this period, which included barbecues over the holiday weekend, beer over said weekend as well, and a significantly increased amount of Jack Daniels during the week following Memorial Day, my weight stayed remarkably consistent. I didn't manage to lose anything, but I didn't really pack anything on either. Given the circumstances surrounding the past 10 days or so, I'll take it. Here's the numbers:

5/26 - 279.2 lbs and 35.2% BF
5/27 - 279.4 lbs and 36.5% BF
5/28 - 280.0 lbs and 35.5% BF
5/29 - 280.0 lbs and 35.6% BF
5/30 - 281.6 lbs and 34.6% BF
5/31 - 280.2 lbs and 37.1% BF
6/1 - 280.6 lbs and 36.2% BF
6/2 - 280.2 lbs and 38.6% BF
6/3 - 280.0 lbs and 34.5% BF
6/4 - 280.2 lbs and 34.7% BF

Hopefully I'll be able to get back on the losing track and be able to post more regularly. More so, I hope things settle down on the work front. Things are kinda fugly and uncertain, and I'm hoping that the stress doesn't cause me to seek out comfort food. Wish me luck.

Thursday

5/25 - 280.8 lbs, 33.9% bf. Yes my food intake on Wednesday was not good, and it shows. At least the body fat percentage is dropping. Today could've been better, so let's see what happened.

Breakfast
Instant Breakfast - 220 cal
Croissant - 470 cal

Snack
Wheat Thins - 125 cal

Lunch
2 Turkey Pita Sandwiches - 400 cal
4 Hershey's Kisses - 90 cal

Snack. I had to go out to a meeting in the afternoon, and I got a wicked craving for McDonalds fries. Stupid stupid stupid.
Medium Fries - 350 cal

Dinner
Budget Gourmet Spaghetti - 280 cal
Chips and Dip - 300 cal
2 Toll House Cookies - 220 cal

Total for the day - 2455 cal. Not good to hit an upswing right before the weekend. Hopefully I'll be able to work out more and do a preemptive first strike against the inevitable restaurant assault GF has planned.

Wednesday

5/24 - 279.0 lbs, 34.5% bf. Without being too graphic, I would guess the timing of when I weighed myself explains the .2 lbs I gained. So it goes.

Breakfast
Instant Breakfast - 220 cal
Croissant - 470 cal (I was out of oatmeal)

Snack
Wheat Thins - 125 cal

Lunch
Jack in the Box Southwestern Chicken Pita - 230 cal. This is one of the best fast food items in terms of calories vs. taste and satisfaction that I've ever come across. The spices and flavoring are good, you get a lot of stuff, and it doesn't cost too much. The only downside is that it isn't very road friendly. Pitas generally aren't that durable, and because this stuff is all sauteed (chicken, corn, onions, etc.) there's some grease that winds up in the pita, and over time can compromise the structural integrity of the pita. Eat quickly.
Small Curly Fries - 270 cal
4 Hersheys Caramel Kisses - 90 cal

Snack
Wheat Thins - 125 cal

Dinner
Beef Teriyaki Combo dinner - est 800 cal
Baskin Robbins Chocolate Mousse Royale (1 scoop) - 400 cal. Sue me. GF wanted ice cream, she got ice cream. At least I didn't get a full sundae!

Total for the day - 2730 cal. Not good. Dog walks were shorter today, too, so we'll see how the Thursday weigh-in goes.


Again, thanx to Alex from whom I shamelessly stole another funny pic.

Tuesday

Still inching down.

5/23 - 278.8 lbs, 34.6% bf. It's like I'm playing micro stakes Limit Hold 'Em. I may not be making huge moves, but I'm moving in the right direction.

Breakfast
Instant Breakfast - 220 cal
Oatmeal - 150 cal

Snack
Croissant - 470 cal

Lunch
Campbells Chicken Noodle Soup - 180 cal
Turkey Pita Sandwich - 200 cal
4 Hershey's Caramel Kisses - 90 cal

Snack
Reduced Fat Wheat Thins - 250 cal

Dinner
Budget Gourmet Angel Hair Pasta - 240 cal
Chips and Dip - 300 cal

Total for the day, 2100 cal. Low limit grinding. So it goes.

Monday

5/22 - 279.6, 34.8% bf. And once again we're moving in the right direction. I guess all that walking around Doheny State Beach at the Blues Festival paid off. We'll see how Monday turns out.

Breakfast
Oatmeal - 150 cal
Instant Breakfast - 220 cal

Snack
Reduced Fat Wheat Thins - 250 cal

Lunch
Taco Bell Cheesy Bean and Rice Burrito - 490 cal
Taco Bell Mexican Pizza - 540 cal
4 Hershey's Kisses - 90 cal

Originally I was going to have a turkey pita sandwich and some soup, but the soup can was damaged and I couldn't trust the quality of the contents, so...I went out. Bad me.

Snack
Wheat Thins - 125 cal

Dinner
Organic Chicken Flautas - 480 cal

Total - 2345 cal. If I would've eaten what I intended to eat, I would've saved over 500 cal. Meh. Tuesday is a whole new day.

The Weekend

So. Lotsa food. Let's see what happened.

5/20 - 280.2 lbs, 34.3% bf. Bleah. Dropped the doggie off to be groomed, so no breakfast. While we waited to pick her up, we walked around downtown La Jolla so GF could shop. Probably a solid hour of walking. I'll take it.

Lunch
GF took me to Azul La Jolla for their tapas buffet. I'm sure I ate well over a thousand cal.

Dinner
Wokked Kobe Beef - est. 450 cal
Fried Rice - est. 500 cal

Dessert
Gelato - est. 150 cal

Total for the day, around 2600 cal

5/21 - 280.2 lbs, 35.0% bf. The walking seemed to have done the trick. Today we drove up to Dana Point in the heart of The OC (just south of Laguna Beach) for the Doheney Blues Festival. Ton of bands, right on the beach...all good. Lots of walking from the parking lot to the festival, so maybe I'll survive the weekend relatively unscathed. We got into Dana Point around 10:30 a.m., so breakfast and lunch became brunch. Amazing how that works.

Brunch
Omelete (ham, mushroom, provolone) - est 600 cal.
Side of bacon - 150 cal
Sourdough Toast - 400 cal

Dinner
Udon Noodles and Prawns - 650 cal

Dessert
Brownie and ice cream - 500 cal

Total for day - 2300 cal.

The morning should be interesting...

End of the week

Been a little busy these past few days. Late nights on the poker tables have kept me from posting these past few days. But the weight has been going in the right direction, so I'm happy. Wish I could say the same about the poker bankroll.

5/17 - 280.6 lbs and 35.0% bf. Despite the advice I gave to Awe the other day, I think the pizza got me. Today wasn't too bad, though.

Breakfast
Oatmeal (150 cal) and instant breakfast (220 cal)

Snack
Wheat Thins (250 cal)

Lunch
Salad (90 cal) and Lean Pocket (280 cal) and 4 caramel hershey's kisses (90 cal)

Snack
Apple (90 cal) peanuts (200 cal)

Dinner
Whole Foods Cashew Chicken (440 cal)

Total for the day - 1810 cal, my best day yet (when not suffering from food poisoning.

5/18 - 278.4 lbs, 35.1% bf. And Wednesday paid off. Traffic was extremely screwed up, which allowed me to miss the muffin guy that comes thru the office every morning. Who knew a jackknifed semi truck carrying gravel (no major injuries, btw) could be beneficial?

Breakfast
Oatmeal (150 cal) and instant breakfast (220 cal)

Lunch
Healthy Choice Chicken Noodle Soup (220 cal), Lean Pocket (280 cal), a slice of pepperoni pizza (est 350 cal), and 4 hershey's kisses (90 cal)

Snack
Peanuts (200 cal)

Dinner
Healthy Choice Country Glazed Chicken Meal (230 cal) 4 slices of low fat cheese (180 cal)

Total for the day, approx. 1920 cal.

5/19 - 278.6 lbs and 34.9% bf. Thursday's dog walks weren't as long as normal (doggie was hungry and wanted to get home to eat...don't we all).


Breakfast
I was out of instant breakfast, so I had my croissant (470 cal)

Snack
Wheat Thins (250 cal)

Lunch
Turkey breast sandwich on sourdough (roughly 400 cal) and 4 hershey's kisses (90 cal)

Snack
Wheat Thins (250 cal)

Dinner
GF wanted to go to California Pizza Kitchen We split the spinach artichoke dip (250 cal), the field greens salad (175 cal), and the BBQ chicken pizza (600 cal)

Total for the day: 2485 cal. All things being equal, I expected worse. Hopefully the scale will be kind in the morning. (thanx to Alex at Something's Gotta Give, from whom I shamelessly stole this pic)

Tuesday

5/16 - 279.6 lbs and 35.3% bf. And the downward slide continues. Big milestone...dropped below 280 without the assistance of food poisoning! Didn't make the gym on Monday, but I made it tonight. Felt really good.

Breakfast:
Carnation Instant Breakfast - 220 cal

Snack:
Croissant - 470 cal

Lunch:
Submarina Triple Play sandwich - 480 cal

Snack:
Apple - 90 cal
Reduced Fat Wheat Thins - 250 cal

Dinner:
1/2 Small Pepperoni Pizza (Round Table) - 490 cal

Total: 2000 cal. Not great, but not too bad. Consistent with other days, and I have been slowly losing the weight.

Monday

5/15 - 280.6 lbs, 35.8% bf. Exactly the same as Sunday morning before we hit the buffet. Breakfast was normal (370 cal), croissant for a snack (450 cal). Lunch was a lean pocket and my salad (370 cal). I had a BRC burrito from El Pollo Loco as a snack (500 cal). Dinner was some mini pizza bagels (440 cal), for a little over 2100 cal for the day. Hopefully Tuesday will not be so dangerous.

Update

5/12 - 280.0 lbs, 35.2% bf. And the downward trek continues. Didn't do my usual routine, so I had a croissant (damn, they're good). Then I actually had to go home and wait for the plumber to come and fix a leaking water heater. Fortunately, it was nothing like StB's recent troubles with leaking pipes. Anyway, I had my salad mix for 90 cal, and a pita sandwich for approximately 300 cal. I did have some chips and salsa as a snack, adding roughly another 300 cal. Dinner was roughly 800 cal of sushi, followed by roughly 600 cal of dessert from Extraordinary Desserts. All told, I probably inhaled 2560 cal for the day. Not good.

5/13 - 280.2 lbs and 36.0% bf. I guess the gym helped. I did a bad thing, though. GF and I were pet sitting for the weekend, so I went to go let the critters out into the yard for the day. I gave in to the siren song of 2 McMuffins for $2.50. I know BSN will feel my pain. Not feeling too hungry, I had some chips and salsa around lunch. Frankly, I was more focusing on the bloodbath I was taking at the poker tables, than I was on eating anything. Dinner was at Red Lobster. GF and I shared a helping of some lobster flauta things, a caesar salad, and their lobster chops. I have no idea how many calories I consumed, but I'm sure it was way too much.

5/14 - 280.6 lbs and 35.8% bf. Long walks with the doggie seem to have been helping minimize the damage. I don't know how today could possibly be minimized, though. Mother's Day. GF and I went to a brunch buffet at Loews Coronado Bay Resort (we celebrated with my mother last week, before her new round of chemo started. She's doing fairly well, all things being equal). Omelet bar, sushi, rolls, various cheeses, smoked salmon, 5 different kinds of caviar, tortellini, prime rib, turkey breast, ham, jumbo shrimp cocktail, crab legs, salads, taco bar, champagne, and one of the most evil dessert spreads I've ever seen, including a chocolate fountain with skewers of marshmallows and rice krispy treats looking for all the world like Willy Wonka's own version of ka-bobs! I don't even want to speculate how many calories I consumed. Because it was brunch, we eventually did get hungry again, and shared some Pad Thai and a Spicy Vegetable dish. We shall see what Monday looks like.

To sum up the week:

Weigh in on 5/7 - 283.0 lbs. 0 lbs lost from start.
Weigh in on 5/14 - 280.6 lbs. 2.4 lbs lost for week. 2.4 lbs lost from start.

Pounds to go: 40.6 lbs.

Thursday

5/11 - 280.2 lbs, 35.3% bf. Marching in the right direction...here's hoping I can keep it going.

On the road, had a croissant sandwich for breakfast (450 cal). No time for snacking.

Lunch was a cobb salad, for right around 500 cal.

Caved in and had some Jack in the Box fries (350 cal).

Dinner was this Ethnic Gourmet organic chicken, rice and veggie meal (300 cal), followed up by some chips and 5 layer organic Mexican dip (500 cal).

All told, around 2100 cal for the day. I'm still eating more calories than I'd like, but not nearly what I used to eat. If I can continue to build this into some consistency, I should do pretty well with the weight loss.

Update

5/9 - 282.8 lbs, 34.3% bf. Considering how Monday went, with the ballgame and everything, I'll take a .8 lb gain.

The day started off scary. I didn't take my breakfast or oatmeal in, but somebody brought in donuts. Mmmmmm, donuts. So I had two for a total of 450 cal. Mid morning I had some reduced fat wheat things, for around 280 cal. Lunch, I made a couple of pita sandwiches, total between the two was around 400 cal. I caved to the chocolate demons (a fix is in order) and had a haagen dazs bar (360 cal). I had an apple for an afternoon snack (90 cal), hit the gym on the way home, and had a chicken burrito salad from Chipotle, for around 560 cal. All told, a little over 2100 cal.

5/10 - 281.8 lbs, 35.3% bf. I'm hoping I'm getting into a steady pattern of small daily drops. Instant breakfast on the way in, and a croissant upon arrival. Wheat thins as a snack, and the pita sandwiches again for lunch. To address the chocolate fetish, I bought a bag of caramel-filled Hershey's Kisses. They taste great, and the caramel ones have the fewest calories of any of the Kiss family. 4 of them only total 90 cal and 4g of fat. Another apple, and the gf made (turkey) bacon, lettuce and avocado sandwiches for dinner. Rough guess, 600 cal for the sandwich. Today, around 2100 cal for the day. I didn't hit the gym, so we'll see if that made the difference yesterday.

5/8

5/7 - 283.0 lbs, 35.6% bf. Yup. It's all back, right where I left it. Yes I gained back what I'd lost during my illness, but that was to be expected. Lunch was this Italian buffet that my mother wanted to go to for an early Mother's Day (long story). The food was pretty good. I tried to be careful in what I ate, but it was difficult. I'm all about carbs, pasta in particular, so an Italian buffet is a dangerous place. Rough guess, I shoved around 1000 cal down my neck. Dinner was sort of better. Nachos, bad (but soooo tasty). 1/2 veggie burger with a side salad, not so bad. Still, that added roughly another 1500 cal to the day, for a total of 2500 cal, plus or minus. Not the way to lose weight.

5/8 - 282.0 lbs, 34.8% bf. Hmmm. Down a bit because the wind beneath my wings made me lighter on the scale. I honestly thought the Italian buffet (I thought only the Chinese did that) would have killed me. Who knew? Monday was not going to be a good day. Caved into the muffin guy and had a croissant, in addition to my usual breakfast regimen. Breakfast - 380 cal. Snack - 470 cal. Lunch was soup and salad, for a total of 310 cal. Needed a chocolate fix and had a Butterfinger bar for an additional 270 cal. Some reduced fat Wheat Thins as an afternoon snack added another 250 cal. Then came "dinner". My company has season tickets to the San Diego Padres. I got the tickets for tonight, so I went with my dad and a buddy of mine. Started off with a hot dog (350 cal) and an MGD beer (150 cal). Then came a plate of nachos (approx. 800 cal) and another beer. All told, I consumed almost 3000 cal today! At least I'll get to hit the gym for the next few days. And yes, the Padres swept the Cubs and continued their 9 game winning streak! w00t!

Curse the influences in my life!

5/6 - 280.2 lbs and 35.7% bf. Damn. Between the Marie Callendars, the weekend dinner, and recovering from my illness, I gained back 3 pounds. And that weigh in was after hitting the gym in the morning!

So. Walked the dog. Hit the gym. Went to the store (think Natural Cheetos). Came home and had a dry box of Trix cereal (120 cal). Lunch was shrimp fajitas. Calorie King's database puts the average shrimp fajita meal at somewhere around 1000 cal. Damn. Dinner was Vietnamese food. Soup, a noodle dish, and this wok-seared filet mignon dish that was outrageously good. Rough guess, another 1000 cal. Dessert, small piece of pie (300 cal), and I'm at another 2400 cal. Sunday is another day. We shall see...

A Sign of the Apocalypse

So I'm wandering thru the grocery store this morning, buying the usual crap. Bottled water. Pita bread for sandwiches. Soup. Diet Coke. It was near this last item that I stared deep into the abyss. In a quick flash of insight before my eyes exploded, I whipped out the camera phone and shot this picture:

NATURAL CHEETOS?!?!? Holy Hebrew National Franks, Batman! I was unaware that there was anything natural about them in the first place! Once I slipped the Thermonuclear Protection of my Mil Spec Oakley Eye Jackets over my suffering eyes, I was able to read some of the information on the bag. First of all, it said "no artificial colors. Huh? Cheetos are about nothing BUT artificial colors! Do you really think that shade of cheeto orange occurs in nature? Apparently they use organic flour and white cheddar cheese (byproducts, I assume). And in keeping with the whole organic-natural-healthy vibe, instead of an obviously clear plastic bag, the bag was still plastic but had that brown paper bag appearance thing going on at the top and around the label. Be afraid, be very afraid, as they also had other varieties such as Natural Tostitos chips. I'm sure Natural Doritos aren't too far behind.

5/5 - 277.0 lbs. and 35.0% bf. And the slide continues. The day started off correctly, with the instant breakfast and oatmeal morning. Lunch consisted of another mixed greens salad with fat free ranch dressing and a Lean Pocket Cheeseburger sandwich thing. Then came the afternoon (cue bells of doom). We had a going away party for one of the employees. We had Marie Callendar Banana Cream Pie and French Silk Pie. Curse them all!!! I had one piece of the French Silk pie, because I'm a sucker for anything chocolate. Damn them to hell! Dinner consisted of a variety of sushi rolls. As best as I can estimate from Calorie King, probably 800 cal worth. And on the weekend the gf gets to go out and have dessert at one of several swanky dessert places. I managed to get away with having half of a slice of this Grand Marnier Chocolate Truffle cake. I'm lucky if that half alone was only 400 cal. All told, probably around 2500 cal for the day! We'll see what the morning holds...

5/4

Weigh-in on the morning of 5/4. 278.8 lbs. Let the purging continue. I did go to work on Thursday, but I was still feeling the effects of whatever it was. I ate, but for some reason (hmmm) it was a lot easier to control my intake, selection, etc. I guess when you're not really feeling good about the idea of eating, it's easy to not eat. Shocking revelation, I know. On to the nitty gritty.

Breakfast was the usual combination of the Carnation Instant Breakfast on the drive in, and Maple & Brown Sugar Oatmeal after arriving at work.

Breakfast - 380 cal

Lunch was a mixed iceberg salad with fat free ranch dressing totaling 90 cal, Healthy Choice Chicken Noodle soup for an additional 220 cal, and an Oreo ice cream bar. Damn those chocolate demons, but surprisingly only 260 cal.

Lunch - 570 cal

Afternoon snack. I brought an apple to eat, but the evil people in the office I like to call everybody, decided to bake Otis Spunkermeyer cookies. I work for a home builder, and if you've ever gone thru a new home model tour, often the developers will put out cookies and bottled water and other stuff. So we had the frozen dough in the office kitchen, and the office manager decided that cookies sounded great. So I had two. Amazingly, only 96 cal for the two of them. Calorie King had my Red Delicious apple pegged at 92 cal, so I'll take the trade off.

Dinner wasn't bad. Got home late, walked the dog, railed a bunch of poker bloggers in a tournament, and vacuumed around the house. By this point, it was getting later, so I killed my extra nibble time. I had a Celeste frozen pizza for one (Zesty four cheese) for 440 cal. Not too bad, all things being equal. After that, I also had some chips and salsa that added approximately 250 cal. Meh.

Dinner - 690 cal.

All told, I ingested 1736 calories. This is the first time (yesterday notwithstanding) that I consumed less than 2000 calories, in many years. Not to gross anyone out, nothing seemed to stay in my system long, so this might actually be a significant drop. I started off at 278.8 lbs. The morning weigh in should be interesting.

I be illin'

5/3 - 280.4 lbs and 39.5% bf. Yup. Purging myself of everything I'd consumed in the previous 24 hours netted a 3 pound drop. BF went up, but I attribute that to a lack of hydration. I think that's what my sister said causes that. Had a Healthy Choice Chicken Noodle soup for lunch (220 cal), and gf thought I needed some roughage for dinner so we went to Souplantation. Maybe 1000 cal there, I don't know. Either way, I was in and out of the bathroom all day, so anything I ate didn't hang around long. We'll see what Thursday holds.

5/2

5/2 - 283.0 lbs and 35.2% bf. Day started off ok. Breakfast and oatmeal (no croissant - w00t!) for 370 cal. Staff meeting all morning. Had to blast up to Riverside for a quick meeting. Had some Chef Boyardee R/F ravioli for 380 cal. Couldn't help myself and had a Taco Bell Chicken Caesar Grilled Burrito for another 670 cal. Did my meeting. Had the nibbles driving home and actually hit McDonalds for some fries. I haven't had fries in months! They tasted good, but I don't think my system can handle that much grease anymore. I was dying by the time I got back to the office, and was in and out of the bathroom for the remainder of the day. GF had a crappy day, so I passed up on the gym (wasn't feeling up to it anyway) to take her out to dinner. Yes I still wasn't feeling well, but going out to eat makes her happy so...

We go to this (seems to be a California thing) health-mex place in La Jolla. I had the shrimp fajitas, figuring that those were as safe as anything. That place absolutely rocked! Of course I still wasn't feeling well, but I don't think it was from the fajitas. I spent the evening engaging in reverse consumption. Helluva weight loss plan. Next post will reveal how beneficial driving the porcelain bus can be.

5/1

5/1 - 284.4 lbs and 36.0% bf. The day started off scary, but I did ok. Instant breakfast drink, and then a ham/cheese croissant. Evil good. Must kill muffin man that comes thru our offices. That gave me 690 cal to start the day. Mid morning I had some pickles, for an additional 20 cal. Next, lunch consisted of a Lean Pocket (290 cal), and some Campbells Select Chicken Noodle Soup (180 cal). I caved into the chocolate demons, and had an oreo cookie ice cream bar. Surprisingly only 260 cal. Some reduced fat wheat thins (130) cal as a snack. Dinner was a Celeste frozen pizza (400 cal) and some chips and salsa (approx 300 cal). All told, under 2300 cal. Not great (I think to maintain my weight (ha ha ha) I have to have around 3000 cal), but in the not too distant past I was logging 3600 calorie days regularly. I've got a ways to go, but progress is progress.

Weekend Update

4/29 - 284.8 lbs. and 36.0% bf. So I go have a nice steak and lose a half a pound. Hmmmm. Didn't make it to the gym, but had a nice, hour-plus aerobic workout with the doggie. Then spent the day running errands. Had healthy, ghetto Mex food for lunch, and a bunch of tapas for dinner, at this killer Asian-Fusion place called Roppongi. For those who don't know what tapas are, they are basically "appetizer for one" size portions of finger foods or other assorted appetizers. We ordered a sushi roll, kung pao calamari (not deep fried), this lump crab and artichoke dip, and shrimp and scallop pot stickers. As a side note, we saw the movie, United 93. Absolutely incredible! An amazing portrayal of the events of September 11, 2001, and the passengers on Flight 93 who kept their plane from hitting Washington, DC. I literally was gripping my seat handles as the passengers were planning their attack on the hijackers. There really was no politicizing of the movie, just a seemingly accurate retelling of the events of 9-11. I absolutely recommend that movie.

4/30 - 283.8 lbs. and 36.4% bf. Guess the tapas did their job. Long walks with the doggie. Spent the day walking around. There was an Art Walk street fair in San Diego's Little Italy district, and me and the gf spent the afternoon walking around. Got sunburned for the first time this year. I also did some walking around while the Jeep was being detailed. Because of the Art Walk, breakfast got lost in the mix, and morphed into an early lunch. GF and I split a Caesar salad and some penne pasta rustica (tomato sauce with peppers and sausage). Dinner was at Fuddruckers for veggie burgers with all the trimmigns. We'll see what the tale of the scale says in the morning.