Newnan’s Largest Lessener 8

First of all this isn’t so much late as it is really earlier for someone who is on vacation. 

 

That’s right I am not at work this week.  Away from the rigid schedule and the easy make lunches (Banana for mid-morning, tuna on top of salad for lunch, celery and hummus for afternoon snack with maybe almonds and a second fruit somewhere in the day).  I didn’t go anywhere and so I was left to fend for myself at odd hours for meals.  I was up later and stayed up later so breakfast was late, I skipped snacks and overall did a horrible job.  Now I didn’t cheat, but I did eat too much too late.

The Numbers:

	6/21/2009	2/9/2012	3/9/2012	3/16/2012	3/23/2012	3/30/2012
Neck	21.00		18.00	18.50	17.75	18.25
Left Arm	18.25	16.50	15.25	15.25	15.00	15.25
Shoulders	58.50	58.50	55.75	52.75	53.75	54.00
Chest	58.00	56.75	53.00	53.75	53.75	53.00
Waist	60.00	55.00	51.00	50.50	50.00	50.00
Hips	52.50	49.00	46.00	46.75	46.25	46.50
Left Thigh	34.00	28.50	26.50	26.50	24.75	25.50
Left Calf	18.50	18.50	18.50	18.00	17.75	18.25
Left Ankle	11.50	10.50	10.25	10.25	10.00	10.25
Left Wrist	8.50	7.75	7.50	7.75	7.75	7.50
BP	170/115	159/104	147/93	136/87	134/88	120/76
Pulse	78.00	70.00	75.00	71.00	60.00	70.00
Weight	350.00	319.20	297.40	295.20	292.20	293.00

So you can see that this was a setback week.  Up nearly a pound and the measures are all over the place.  Goodish news, look at that blood pressure number, wow was I relaxing and what not this week.

Exercise:

I hate exercising; it is more boring than watching political debates.  So with the vacation I didn’t do much on the elliptical, I didn’t go anywhere so not much walking either.  It was Wednesday when I did my first elliptical of the week, since last Thursday.  Yeah, that is pretty bad.  Did 15 minutes straight through though.  Then I took a break and came back for 8 more minutes.  Yesterday was another 10 minutes straight through.  If only it was a total of thirty minutes a week I’d nearly be there.  Next up will be increasing the difficulty a little bit.  See if I can offset boredom with a challenge.  Also starting next week I’ll be re-introducing the Exercise chart.  It’s a calendar with the days of the week and a list of exercises on it.  The goal is still 30 minutes straight through on something aerobic 4 days a week.  I also want to keep up the weight training 3-4 days a week, not mentioned this week because I didn’t do any at all.

Nutrition:

Let’s cut the cheese.  Literally I mean, not figuratively.  I find myself using cheese where it isn’t adding anything to the meal.  I am also suspicious that most cheese at the grocery store is the equivalent of fast food.  No real flavor just the artificial attempt at creating real flavors.  I mean in France they have a cheese course with varieties that I can’t spell or pronounce but sound divine.  When was the last time you sat down for a cheese course?  No, fondue does not count.  So the cutting out of the 2% cheeses that I am pretending are real cheese will be a permanent thing.

I am also worrying about coffee.  Too much or not enough, I never seem to hit the right amount.  On vacation I am drinking about 6 times what I drink Monday-Friday at work.  I actually was getting sleepy around 3PM at work, had to walk it off and slap myself around a little to power through.  Don’t know if it was a night time, not enough sleep, issue or a food related problem or what.

Still not happy eating until I feel like I’m going to explode.  My belly gets like a squirrel’s cheeks then I am happy.  Even with it being mostly salad or steamed veggies that can’t be good.  Also, never feel done eating until I’ve had dessert.  That’s an interesting cultural thing too, some folks never got into sweets at all (I hate them so much) and others never connect dinner with dessert (barbarians!) so I grew up with lunch that included a Hostess treat and dinner that included a dessert of some sort.  This is a tough habit to break.

Today’s diary of a Fat Kid:

Okay, this is less fat kid than it is where I was a decade ago.  The year was 2000, the weight was a steady climb from about 280lbs to over 300lbs by Christmas.  This was with a wicked sinus infection that hit mid-summer too!  Since then I haven’t been south of 300 for more than a week since.  Look up there.  (neat arrow effect if I knew how) and see that it’s been a whole month under 300.  Maybe this week wasn’t stellar, but I am still very happy.  I took a huge bag of huge clothes to the Goodwill drop box this week.  I am thinking I am dangerously close to XL t-shirts soon, these XXLs are so baggy.  It’s been a terribly interesting four years of looking at what I eat and finding ways to change not only my food, but how I approach eating in general.

The Plan:

Failed the plan last week, still want to see 28x.xx pounds on the scale so more working out, applying the exercise schedule to the routines and keeping at it.

Later!

Newnan’s Largest Lessener 7

Oh My Gawd! 

My mom is reading this.  One, this is amazing because she can barely turn on the power for her computer.  Two, she’s the most passive aggressive supporter of all time, “you’re very funny, partly fictional writing” and after telling her I got a raise, “how much…oh I thought you were making more than that.”  Three, she can hold a grudge.  I didn’t become an inhuman monster because of the loving and caring environment I had growing up.

The Numbers:

	6/21/2009	2/9/2012	3/9/2012	3/16/2012	3/23/2012
Neck	21.00		18.00	18.50	17.75
Left Arm	18.25	16.50	15.25	15.25	15.00
Shoulders	58.50	58.50	55.75	52.75	53.75
Chest	58.00	56.75	53.00	53.75	53.75
Waist	60.00	55.00	51.00	50.50	50.00
Hips	52.50	49.00	46.00	46.75	46.25
Left Thigh	34.00	28.50	26.50	26.50	24.75
Left Calf	18.50	18.50	18.50	18.00	17.75
Left Ankle	11.50	10.50	10.25	10.25	10.00
Left Wrist	8.50	7.75	7.50	7.75	7.75
BP	170/115	159/104	147/93	136/87	134/88
Pulse	78.00	70.00	75.00	71.00	60.00
Weight	350.00	319.20	297.40	295.20	292.20
330					11.45%
					8.46%

Another week and another THREE pounds down!  The percentage from 02/09/2012 is 8.46% and the goal is 25%, more than a third of the way.  Now it gets tough…I don’t want to go to longer fractions like 8/15^th.  And half is 12.5%, with 3.3 a percent that’s going to take about 14.00 lbs.

Exercise:

So the elliptical is still the strangest of body movements for me.  Either I’ve been walking wrong my entire life or this machine is designed to make it feel like running in loose sand or up a hill.  I suppose that is a good thing as it really is working muscles that I don’t get to with weight training, biking or walking.  Still every other day is filled with dread.  Last night I stared at the silent contraption for about an hour trying to think of reasons to not use it.  Finally, inexorably, I stepped in the machine and did about three minutes.  It doesn’t hurt, but it aches.  I stop and sigh and walk it off.  I sit and watch a few minutes of ’30 Rock’ and I want to say I’m done.  But I’d gotten up to 11 minutes on Tuesday after 9 minutes on Sunday, so there was no way I was quitting and going to work in the morning and having someone asking me how many minutes I did. 

I’d probably be able to lie, but no.  I got back on the machine, feeling its mocking lights pop up as I moved the pedals, “oh really, wanna try again cupcake?” it says to me.  Then I hit the start button and walk or elliptic or whatever it’s called.   Five minutes, no problem and then around ten I can feel it.  The heart rate rises, the breathing gets labored and I feel fucking sick and fantastic at the same time.  At thirteen minutes I wave the white flag, but feel like the winner.  The goal is at least 30 minutes and 3 plus 13 was 16 minutes that night.  More than half way there!

Nutrition:

Just figured out that the “flavored” tuna servings are for 2.5 and the numbers of course are for 1.  So the spicy tuna is really around 180 calories instead of the 60 or so you get with plain tuna.  It’s a bitter, fishy tasting pill to swallow, like an Omega 3 supplement.  Reading labels sucks.  More importantly American food manufacturers suck.  Guess what, sugar can be “organic” and “all-natural”.  Oh yeah, it can also be “fat-free.”  Even when you go as hard core as I like to try, whole fruits and vegetables – no juices and limited “prepped” items.  I avoid damn near everything outside the diet plan that can last on a store shelf for months since these have all sorts of chemicals, not to mention sodium.  Yet, even buying fresh made foods leaves you exposed to high salt items and other hidden triggers like sugar or flour.  Low carb, but wait legumes have tons of carbs on top of loads of proteins.  Eggs are huge on protein and low on carbs but high on fat.  Food is like Whack-A-Mole eating…chase fat and get high with carbs, then whack carbs and you get too much fat, control all that and the salt kills you.  Calories do matter, but how you get them matter more and eating too much good food is as bad as eating a little bit of bad food.

Is your head spinning yet?  My won’t stop.

Serenity now!

Today’s diary of a Fat Kid:

Most of my recollections of my childhood aren’t particularly sharp and mostly go from about 1976 forward.  I lived in Minnesota until I was 13.  In the Midwest butter is a super condiment, you cook vegetables in it then coat them with in on your plate.  You smear a thick layer of it on breakfast pastries like a second layer of frosting.  White bread with butter is an appetizer, a side dish and sometimes a dessert (when served with jelly or jam).  Grilled cheese and tomato soup was a favorite meal…buttered bread with American cheese melted in the middle, Campbell’s soup made with milk and a pat of butter melting in the soup bowl.  Every meal was starch heavy, rib-sticking, hearty comfort food. 

Not only did I eat with regularity, no fear of missing a meal, but also heard on more than one occasion that I needed to eat everything on the plate in order to get dessert.  Rewards for overeating were Hostess cakes or homemade chocolate chip cookies.  To this day no meal feels finished until my belly is near bursting and then I have cake, ice cream or cookies for dessert.  Even on this new lifestyle of eating, rice cakes with Nutella is my “chocolate cupcake” special dessert.  Oh and count me in the group of kids who heard, “finish your food, there are kids starving in China.”

The Plan:

This week I’ll continue to work toward a 30 minute cardio program.  The weather is supposed to be nice (thanks global warming) so I’ll get out and walk some to fill in the gaps.  Still I will get back on that effing elliptical every other day until I am comfortably doing entire workouts on it.  I can be stubborn when I feel like it.

I’m on vacation this week so I’ll be using exercise as the work with movies as the reward.  Also trying to not play computer games or watch TV until I get my workout in for the day, so more of that when I’m home all day.  The real challenge is keeping on a good food plan when home all day with no set schedule.

Also really want to be under 290.00 lbs when I weigh in on Monday and try for a 5lb week next week.  Lose 20 lbs in April?

Later!