Week 12 Day 1

In Minnesota there are two food choices, bad and worse. You don't just eat cheese, you eat cheese after it's battered and fried and then dipped in a ranch dressing or some other sauce/condiment. It's always fun food and the Minnesota State Fair ups the fun level by making mini-foods and foods on sticks. Mini-donuts, trout on a stick and the like are staples of the fair days. I did have a fresh roasted ear of corn that was slathered with butter and salt and that was close to the healthiest thing I've eaten so far.

Well, I have had a few salads with balsamic vinaigrette dressings. Before going on to eat massive lasagnas and pizzas with extra cheese, that is.

So starting Wednesday with the vacation I had one bloody Mary and three rum and cokes along with a bag of TGI Fridays cheese and sour cream chips on the plane. Then in MN, we went to the Ho Ho Gourmet for Kung Po Chicken. Dinner was Mama's Pizza with a few deep fried onion rings, mostocholli with cheese and pizza with sausage, mushroom, onion and extra cheese.

Thursday was Fair day, the first day of the fair and we started with Pronto Pups, then a peach scone, then a Dole Whip, then a part of a crème puff, then cookies, then an ear of corn, then mini-donuts and somewhere in there a cherry cordial and a gooey turtle. That was breakfast and maybe lunch. Went to see G.I. Joe, not great but not the worst movie of the summer thanks to Transformers 2 and there I had a large soda pop (it is MN) and a small dish of ice cream. Dinner was grilled steaks with whipped potatoes, salad and grilled peppers.

Friday was a nice day. Went to Dunn Bros. for a coffee and a blueberry muffin and free Wi-Fi. Lunch was Donatelli's for a salad, a lasagna and a taste of Hot Fudge Cake, Strawberry cake and Tiramisu. And dinner was grilled hamburgers with medium cheddar cheese slices and a special chili-mustard spread, grilling beans and pasta salad and watermelon.

Interspersed were more cookies and a bunch of soda and a little bit of ice cream.

And that is where we stand three days in. I am guessing I am still at -20, which considering I was at -28.4 on Weds. morning isn't super-fantastic. I am also estimating my calorie count to be around 12,000 so far this trip…and counting.

Saturday's meals were simple. I had a version of Eggs Benedict and a loaf of banana bread at Woodbury Café, then a large fruit punch at the movies and then dinner with Grandma. At dinner we ate cucumber salad, beer can chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, a lovely pinot grigio and for dessert a bit of ice cream and a lot of Grandma's chocolate cherry bars. Then a little later I had some left over pizza while watching football.

Sunday I had some chocolate nirvana drink at Dunn Bros. with a Bavarian crème doughnut, I had a medium root beer and pack of M&Ms at the movie, then we went to Granite City Bar and Grill for lunch and I had Mountain Dew, 7 layer dip, spinach and artichoke dip, a huge peppercorn crusted bleu cheese burger and a apple caramel crumble. Finally, dinner was mom's spaghetti with a salad and two meatballs and a sausage. Dessert was chocolate ice cream with banana.

So make it 20,000 calories and a clearly delightful food time in the great North. Also two consecutive nights of near record lows and I swear I saw snowflakes in a light rain we had on Saturday.

Week 11 Day 1

Holy smoke. Can smoke be holy? Seventy days and 25 pounds ago I started a journey of a single step. If you've been following my exercise routines then you know not many steps came after that.

I tried no dairy and that was crazy, but some of that soy milk and cheese was pretty good.

The best days were ones with simple, fast and pre-made foods. Cereal bars, 100 calorie snack packs, 60 calorie puddings, Lean Cuisines and the like made it really easy to control and track what I ate. A little bit of research makes it clear that fast food meals and the devil, just like my doctor said 7 years ago.

I am taking two weeks off of the stringent picture diary that wasn't very stringent towards the end and taking at least the 2 weeks of the Healthe Trim. All the kudos in the world for helping me set a focus on the start-up but I'd like to see how it goes without pills for a bit.

Big trip to MN on Wednesday and a photo diary of that will be replacing the food diary for the duration. Still at the same general vicinity on Flickr though, so come on by to see how the mid-western, practically Canadian folks on the Twin Cities eat.

Also< I'll try to get a handle on this whole Brett Favre situation and the attitudes of the real Vikings fans. I still can't believe the signs with all the Brett love I saw on the TV picture.

I'll still be posting a before trip and after trip measurement too, so that should be ummm whatever.

Final number on the Healthe Trim was 68 days and -24.6 pounds. Slow and steady should be okay for now and the key will be sustaining it. We'll see if I can build in some exercise while I am off on vacation.

Week 10 Day 4

How do YouTube people make money? How do they spend so much time recording their boring yet oddly entertaining lives?

When I win the lottery I am going to have a crew record everything for a YouTube channel.

Still thinking about that breakfast yesterday and it makes me sick. That was a regular Friday meal a few months ago. Add a regular Wendy's lunch at 1,382, an early dinner at around 1,000 then a late dinner at Applebee's for around 1,600 calories and a regular Friday was about 5,700 calories. One day. Now that is about three days.

Still working out my plans for next week and I think I am taking a break from the Trim for two weeks starting Monday August 24th and ending on Labor Day. Still going to follow my menus, but maybe add back some coffees and energy drinks that I have been trying to avoid while on the pills.

Wonder if there will be an appreciable difference in appetite. I may pack more nibbling snacks like carrot sticks and celery and low cal chips and cookies just in case.

I am also blaming my new eating habits for my extreme lack of focus while playing poker. That's my story and I am sticking to it.

How about a YouTube channel with videos of me eating meals? It might not help me, but other people could watch it and be put off from eating for hours after seeing me jam food in my grill.

Hey! Did I invite you to my BBQ? Then why you all up in my grill?

Thanks, I'll be here all my life.

Later.

Week 10 Day 3

So the pattern is what it is ten weeks into the new life. Very controlled and measured meals on Monday-Friday lunch with wild, wild west like meals on Saturday and Sunday. Very measurable weight loss Tuesday-Friday with wild, wild fluctuations Saturday-Monday. As of this morning we are back to -24.5 and held strong below -20 through the weekend and get back to the new standard of -25. By Minnesota -30 will be the standard I hope to be at when I leave and when I get back.

That said, it is a vacation with the temptations of vacation eating out, snacking and travel foods almost all of which are bad. Also, the measures meals that are generating loss now will be absent on vacation. Finally, no Healthe’ Trim on this trip either, so I can finally enjoy some coffee in the morning without the fear that I will pee napalm soon after. Very exciting.

Something I always imagined but never believed. Calorie counts are deceptively different than I think they should be. Burger King breakfast: four crappy Cini Minis are 490 calories, one dry, nearly flavorless chicken biscuit is 400 calories and the awesomely wonderful Ham, Egg and Cheese Croissan’wich is only 330 calories. So a pretty good breakfast is a yogurt, fruit and the HEC Cois. Like any time I order at a fast food place I got too much food and I ate it all.

So I am skipping lunch today. I hate doing it, but with some raisins and a weight watchers mint cookie crisp mini bar as a snack and an abusive to my urinary tract amount of water I don’t feel too hungry at 3pm. I bet dinner will be dangerous though. I want pizza bad. I will hold out for Mama’s Pizza, that’s a restaurant as my mother’s pizza isn’t that good. Salad and veggies with a frozen dinner and I should get through this day by the skin of my teeth.

Now that I am clearly rambling, possibly from starvation. I hear that sets in after not eating in over 6 hours. I got to get my itinerary together for next week. Getting in on Weds and flying out the next Tuesday so only one weekend to do weekend stuff, but some good days for catching a few movies in there too.

Mmmm…food…

Maybe I should get that lasagna pizza for dinner, that pie is awesome.

Later.

Week 10 Day 1

http://www.flickr.com/photos/crobin11/

Just a reminder that the photos that mostly track my food intake are found through the above link.

It gets crazy next week as there will hopefully be a super special "Foods of Minnesota" collection on my photostream.

Yes, you too can see the mythical Mama's Pizza. The SMOX is a long time family favorite, that's Sausage, Mushroom, Onion, with eXtra cheese if ya don't know. And on a flat bread crust is comes out gooey and delicious – just like my…

I think the weigh-ins for Mondays should be banned. They are not particularly accurate given the horrible eating schedule I have on Saturday and Sunday. If I say I am at -22 this morning and then tomorrow is -28, that is more a factor of food processing times than of any wild dietary excess.

That said, I ate like a madman this weekend. The cookies at Subway are about as low class as Chips Ahoy cookies, but I love the crap out of them. So the foot long Subway Club with Cookies and fruit wasn't the best meal choice, but mmm good. Also managed to eat three dinners on Friday. I had lunch at Mexican place for breakfast, then ate my breakfast for dinner at about 5:40 pm. Then ate ½ of a Moo Goo Gai Pan for middle dinner at 8 and then had ½ a California Shrimp salad at Applebees around midnight. Yes, it was awesome.

Today is back to normal and I can feel the food of the weekend making its way through the forty miles of intestines, it is 40 right?, as my body resets. In a way it was kind of a fun challenge. I didn't know I was having Chinese food at 8, so the controlled ordering and controlled eating which would generally be out of character for me (I am not known as a taker of leftovers when it comes to eating out). Ordering the ½ size of the Salad was different too. Still an Applebee's salad is like 900 calories in the half sizes so no real calorie savings even ignoring that it was my third meal out in 12 hours.

I seem to be doing a little better with the ordering for one. To be fair I am trying to stay away from fast food as I usually think the say number five at mcdonalds with the super fries and a coke might not be enough food and I order a chicken sandwich add on. Still, could have been very happy with one Subway cookie and a 6 inch sub over the 12 incher. God, knows 6 inches is more than enough, right ladies? Ladies?

So, more exercising this week. Now the crunch is on! Going to the MN next Wednesday and I do not want to be the weak link in the Fair walkers when the other two links are 60 or over. That was sad two years ago and I don't want a repeat of me sitting and gasping (despite clearly photoshopped pictures I did not cry) while my mother is dragging me to the cream puff stand way, way, way toward the back of the fair grounds. What I really need is a "Quest Finder" ala WoW that lays out the best path with the minimal effort to help me level up on fair food. That's for the one person who might get that.

Later Taters.

Give ya a numbers update this week too. Sometime. Maybe.

Week 9 Night 3

So here are the latest measures. I'll do another full set before I leave on vacation on the 26^th and a comparison set on the day I get back. During the vacation I won't be weighing or counting calories, but I will try to keep the food diary up and running.

 

As of today:

Ankle:    -1.000

Thigh:    -3.500

Hips:    -2.500

Middle:    -3.250

Chest:    -1.750

Bicep:    -1.500

Wrist:    -0.500

Neck:    -0.750

Weight:-20.60

B/P:    166/110

Pulse:    77

Now the BP is blood pressure in case you didn't know and the goal there is closer to 130/70 or something crazy like that.

The pulse I include mostly because it's part of the BP machine's readings.

This is the U.S. of A. so all measurements are in inches and pounds.

Also, for the record I weighed in this evening for the weight number used and that was after a full dinner and dessert.

Just saying. 66 Days and running.

Week 9 Day 3

Signs that your day is not going well.

1. You pulled a muscle sleeping. That's almost as bad as getting winded answering the phone.
   
2. Your glasses have broken for the 5^th time in a month and now you are out of crazy glue.
   
3. Your eye appointment is scheduled for today and now you'll have to listen to the eye doctor chastise you for waiting so long to come when he sees the "Revenge of the Nerds" tape job you have on your broken glasses.
   
4. You didn't win the lottery last night.
   
5. You really had planned on winning that lottery and now those glasses are going to cost you groceries for the month.
   
6. Despite your love of what you do, your company is on financially shaky ground making every drive in seem like torture.
   
7. Non-stop and seemingly unending road construction makes the drive actual torture.
   
8. You're pretty sure the kick-backs politicians received from the shoddy road crews not working on that construction did not go back into the economy, well maybe the Argentinean economy.
   
9. You're done for the day mentally, physically and emotionally and it's only 9am.
   
10. Since you didn't win the lottery you are back to your 2^nd retirement plan, dying at your desk
    

Other than that the week is going fantastic so far.

Despite the back pain, I have been sleeping very well. Damn it if eight hours a night isn't better than four.

I even did a bit of weight lifting this morning. Dumbbell work and some leg routines. I am looking to make 6-6:30 my workout time in the morning and the evening. Yesterday I spent the half hour walking around Kroger getting bananas and vegetables and bread, so I counted that.

Exercise time is the time you invest in yourself. If I am willing to spend 3 hours a night trying to level up a character in WoW, I should be able to get a half hour in the morning and a half in the evening to build my actual self up a little.

Also, starting this week I am trying to wean myself off of "Big" meals. Up to now I have been using large servings of veggies and salads to compensate for much smaller meat and cheese and noodle and bread servings. I used to eat a huge plate of pasta and then I'd eat a small pasta and a huge salad, that kind of thing. Used to eat 4 sandwiches for dinner, now it's two and I am going down to one. Generally, I think the idea of feeling full is fueling some of my worse choices of meals when I am eating out. This notion that I won't feel like I am bursting at the seams messes with my head a lot.

We'll see how that goes.

I missed measuring and the weight is sitting at -23.4 as of this morning so nothing too exciting there. I ran down my BP measurements and will post those too.

Later.

Week Eight Day Five

Oh am I in a mood today.

OMI? Ohio Medical Institute?

Anyways. Let's get the number since yesterday -.8 for a running total of -23.4 I think.

Enough of that, now on to the more pertinent questions.

 

Was Jesus gay? Right, seems likely doesn't it? I mean the man hung out with dudes all the times, including a pair of brothers which I think is equivalent to bagging sisters for a straight guy. He had his own fag hag in Mary Magdalene, although now that I think about 'fag hag' might be politically incorrect. He hung out with religious old guys when he was twelve, generally a chance for pedophilia in that situation. Finally, he always appears very well groomed with his long hair and full beard even in a time when impeccable grooming had to be a pain in the ass. Also, the temptations of Christ never mention sex, just food, drink, property and outside assistance from angels. Just strange that a guy who clearly had a way with people never had a list of conquests longer than his outstretched arms. It's not like the bible shied away from mentioning sex, often and sometimes in detail, yet Jesus is said to stay away from contact with women. Of course at some point much, much later the Catholic church interprets this behavior to mean that priests need to be celibate "like Jesus" in order to minister to the faithful. Wow, so they go from covering up one man's behavior to creating generations of criminals who pretend to be celibate while carrying on affairs with men and women and unfortunately with boys and girls too.

 

Why don't we cure diseases anymore? We have a ton of treatments these days, but when was the last cure for a disease discovered and given to people? Polio? 1952 for Salk and 1962 for Sabin. I am from one of the last years children were given the small pox vaccine because that disease had been all but eradicated. Now cancer has been around for a long time and trillions of dollars have been spent on research, TRILLIONS. No cure. HIV and AIDS have been around for probably forty years and no cure. We've advanced medical science to the point where liposuction and child birth are out-patient procedures now and we have pills to make even the most flaccid of men truly hard chargers. We can treat cancer and we can treat HIV. Really expensive and generally lifelong treatments. Saw it coming with the Herpes. Used to be a venereal disease could be cured with a quick shot of the penicillin and a note to use a condom when you don't know where it's been before you. Now, it's for life and we can treat it. Can't cure it, sorry, no profits in that, but those treatments are making a fortune for us.

 

And why are people allergic to peanuts all of the sudden? Was George Washington Carver killing folks left and right hundreds of years ago and medicine was so backward they just wrote off those deaths as consumption before going back to their delicious PB&J sandwiches? No one I grew up with didn't eat peanut butter in some way; cookies, on crackers, the freaks had it on celery stalks or in a delightful PB, Banana and Marshmallow Fluff sandwich. Now if you invite friends over you need a list of dietary requirements and an adrenaline shot.

 

Finally, what would you do if you won the lottery? I ask myself this every time the number gets over $100 million mostly because that is the number I think you need to be set for life. At 100, you get about 35 in a onetime payment and even if you don't invest a penny and accrue no interest that's 1 million a year for 35 years and much longer than I expect to be alive at this point. So after I clear all my debts and make sure my name is clean in all 50 states and a few foreign countries where I may or may not be persona non grata right now I'd help out my Mom anyway she saw fit and I'd help out my brother as I saw fit. Then I'd probably disappear and really that just means no more full time work, no more schedules of 'have tos' and 'need tos' as all my time would go to 'want tos' and 'why nots'. If you called me, I might be cheering on the bulls in Pamplona or pissing off the top of the Eiffel Tower. More likely I'd be in a nicely set-up house playing a video game on a computer system that cost as much as the house while watching a movie on some sort of concept 3-D projection system. I'd also love to do a documentary on the first year after winning the lottery and follow the events as they unfold from a 3^rd party perspective. Then go to Cannes and bang coked out celebrities while winning the Palme d'Or and thanking my Mom and random luck.

 

What? Too much caffeine this morning? So what!

Week Eight Day Four

I have been having a great week.

Pizza, the new flavors of boneless chicken wings from that fast food place with the red headed hussy as the mascot, the…how's the weight you ask?

Down.

As of this morning the eight and a half week run has rung up -22.6 pounds thus far.

Still no exercise, still kind of watching what I eat but eating things I want, still going off the deep end Friday night to Sunday night.

-22.6, wow.

I need an app or an add-on so that all the walking and running and skinning and such that I do in "World in Warcraft" translates into actual calories burned in the real world. Then I'd be down at least 100 pounds for far. Being a Level 17 Night Elf Hunter ain't all about the loot. And I am fairly certain that the skinning/leatherworking professions in WoW are a good barometer of future serial killers (or current ones with good internet connections) in America.

Anyways, it's been a mediocre week of watching what I eat for the most part. Still doing the mega-water run in the morning and the late breakfast, but I am getting tired by early afternoon and getting hungry as a mo-fo by the time I get home at night. This is leading me to doubts that the fancy Healthe Trim is performing as advertised.

We'll find out in three weeks as I drop off the Trim, awkwardly phrased there, and try out a vacation week or two at the end of August and beginning of September.

Today's afternoon energy isn't bad though. Could be that I skipped the afternoon Trim, I had some Crystal Light Metabolism – Peach Tea water flavor add, or the chicken nuggets in Honey BBQ and Buffalo sauce that is making the difference.

We'll see which way I go for dinnertime tonight. Could eat the kind of healthy frozen dinner, the yogurt smoothie, or more pizza. Though the pizza nearly killed me last night, not a good sign. Felt like I ate a bunch of razor blades about ten minutes after chowing down on 3 slices of the Works from Papa Johns on a thin crust and 3 slices of Pineapple, or dessert pizza, also on thin. Would not be cool if one of the effects of the Trim is wicked stomach pains from eating pizza, but that seems like a very specific and therefore unlikely explanation.

Hmmm, now I might need to eat pizza just to test my tolerance for pizza. How's that for logic over common sense?

Later.

Week Eight Day One

Okay, so it's been a week and a hey since last I updated.

I won't lie. I kind of hit a wall and it was both depressing and uplifting.

It was depressing because while staying more or less on target with eating the weight stopped falling off. Now this generally happens when you start eating more, taking more days of eating crap, or you stop exercising regularly. Now I never started exercising so I thought maybe I was just at the end of the Healthe Trim's ability to help me shed weight via calorie control alone. Forgetting the fact that it takes a negative 3,500 calories to lose one pound. In theory, in order to maintain my current weight I need to take in 3,500 calories a day (holy crap, if I just don't eat for 100 days I can lose 100 pounds – not really, but it sounds good). So I try to take in between 2,200 and 2,500 a day and that means for four days a week I have a negative 4,000 calories and maybe one pound a week lost. The other three days I am closer to 3,000 calories and we'll say lucky to break even.

Now, I have no idea exactly what Healthe Trim does. Vaguely it suggests that it might work as a appetite suppressant and vaguely suggests it works as a metabolism lifter, at least with its warning about caffeine and energy drinks suggests a metabolic effect but I am pretty sure this stuff doesn't get FDA approval on its effects. Now I will continue through the doses I have left and then see how the appetite is affected and that should be more indicative of the product's claims.

And the uplifting is that the weight hasn't gone up over the last 10 days and as of this morning continues to show signs of going down again. I take a long term view and the short-term results are still positive, plus the urges aren't all that strong to 'cheat' on this plan. And by plan I mean I look at what I eat and I count the calories. If I am under for the day I can have a treat after dinner and if I am looking over I cut out the treat and plan to scale down a bit on the next day.

The plan is really straight forward too. In the morning I drink a ton of water (at least 64 oz.) and they have a breakfast bar, a juice, a fruit and a yogurt with an emphasis on protein in the bar and a banana for no reason other than I like bananas. Breakfast I try to keep under 500 calories, mostly because I have it around 10 am and lunch is around 1 pm Monday-Friday.

Lunch is either a healthy soup or a healthy lunch, a salad, a chip of some sort, a Gatorade, a jell-o pudding, and rice cakes and it's around 700 calories.

So that's 1,200 and leaves room for up to 1,300 for dinner which is sandwiches and chips and vegetables, then an ice cream bar of some type or maybe a smoothie with yogurt and frozen fruits.

And that is the framework of the 21 pounds lost so far. And it's so easy, in the sense that if you do go out for a dinner or a lunch you and figure out where to cut or just to trim it down for the next day, that if it takes two years because I still refuse to exercise then I can do this for two years or forever if need be.

God knows that on a Friday night I might go way off with cheese sticks or a cookie sundae or both, but then the next Monday its back to tossing in 500 calories for breakfast and 700 for lunch. Then another secret to fast weight loss is to go to sleep at 10 pm (after having dinner at 6pm) and waking up at 6am. It cuts on snacking and the sleeping helps with general good health.

In case you need this, none of the statements I make are reviewed nor approved by doctors. Any decisions you make about your life are your responsibility and not those of the person who writes these statements.

What else? I did measurements at some point last week, but I'll redo those and get the numbers on here along with the frightening stats on my blood pressure. And no I do not take BP medication, and I never will. Refer to the above paragraph if you wonder.

Later.