Newnan’s Largest Lessener 9

Back with a vengeance!

Thank goodness for spellcheck, I wasn’t even close on vengeance.

It was a short week back at work and one filled with danger.  The weeks leading up to a holiday, especially  the candy holidays like Valentine’s Day, Easter and Christmas, there are always people with candy or cookies or cupcakes at their desks or in the break room.  I personally try to see that we have some sort of lunch the day before a holiday off to sort of reward the people working that day.  So we had sub sandwich trays, veggie and fruit trays and a brownie tray yesterday.  I know, I know why throw it the temptation but it’s for all the people at work and most of them are perfectly fine eating a brownie bite or two.  Some of us aren’t so lucky…but more on that later.

The Numbers:

	6/21/2009	2/9/2012	3/16/2012	3/23/2012	3/30/2012	4/6/2012
Neck	21.00		18.50	17.75	18.25	18.00
Left Arm	18.25	16.50	15.25	15.00	15.25	15.00
Shoulders	58.50	58.50	52.75	53.75	54.00	55.50
Chest	58.00	56.75	53.75	53.75	53.00	52.25
Waist	60.00	55.00	50.50	50.00	50.00	49.50
Hips	52.50	49.00	46.75	46.25	46.50	46.50
Left Thigh	34.00	28.50	26.50	24.75	25.50	25.50
Left Calf	18.50	18.50	18.00	17.75	18.25	17.75
Left Ankle	11.50	10.50	10.25	10.00	10.25	10.25
Left Wrist	8.50	7.75	7.75	7.75	7.50	7.50
BP	170/115	159/104	136/87	134/88	120/76	145/92
Pulse	78.00	70.00	71.00	60.00	70.00	73.00
Weight	350.00	319.20	295.20	292.20	293.00	289.00

Ha!  So there, not only did I right the ship from last week’s 0.80 up I knocked three pounds from the last low.  I told you the problem last week was more timing than actual set-back.  Speaking of set-backs let’s see that new exercise tracking system that is still in progress (and patent pending).

Exercise:

Exercise:	Mon.	Tues.	Weds.	Thurs.	Fri.	Sat.	Sun.	Goal	Actual	Pass/Fail
Bike (mins)	-	-	-	7	-	-	-	4-5	0	Fail
Pilates	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1-2	0	Fail
Walk (mins)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	4-5	0	Fail
Elliptical (mins)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	4-5	0	Fail
Jumping Jacks #	-	-	-	30	-	-	-	4	0	Fail
Push Ups #	-	-	-	8	-	-	-	4	0	Fail
Sit Ups #	-	-	-	17	-	-	-	4	0	Fail
Stretches - AM	-	-	-	X	-	-	-	4	0	Fail
Weights - AM	-	-	-	X	-	-	-	4	0	Fail
*Bold for exercise goals that are a combination of the exercises over the course of a week.

In case you didn’t know it yet, I love a spreadsheet.

So I’m not a 100% happy with this yet.  If I leave myself too much ambiguity I will take advantage of it.  I enjoy the Pilates DVD because I know it works the core muscles like nothing else, I did use it before and it was amazingly more effective than sit-ups and crunches, also it’s got hot chicks in tights and that’s nice.

The combination of Bike, Walk, Elliptical is where I’d like to knock it down to more specific goals, I need 4-5 days a week of 30 minutes or more of continuous cardio in the fat burning zone, according to all the infomercials out there.  Seven minutes on a bike won’t cut it, but the bike it the least loathsome of the options because it takes minimal prep and no exposure to the elements (or people in general as I like to call them).  Today I may walk because it’s nice out and the place is quiet, a rare Friday off when everyone else is working.  Going forward though, I’ll probably have to designate certain days to specific cardio, maybe changing it up week to week, so I know I have to do what is on the schedule.

And yes I know I am only playing games with my own head, but there it is.

Nutrition:

I am eliminating dairy in all but one tiny spot.  I will still put a dash of parmesan cheese on my lunch salad.  I can’t explain it but there is a clear taste difference that maybe the little extra salt adds that makes a daily lunch salad bearable.

Still not giving up coffee, I changed the supplements I am taking slightly and leaving off a metabolism booster at dinner time seems to be helping with the sleep cycle.  I’ll keep an eye on it since the supplement program is all about recommended, allowable and inadvisable amounts of each thing to take over the course of a day.

You know how I know I am old?  I love a fiber drink in the morning.  One, it really does seem to be helping with exactly what you think a fiber should help with, you know what I mean.  Two, it seems to be helping with many of the morning cravings and the problem of eating breakfast at 6:30 am making me want lunch at 10 am and dinner at 3 pm.  All that was making me very hungry at 6 pm when I am driving home, past all the deadly fast food places with meals so much easier to make than steamed fish and steamed vegetables.  So there you have it, not only does a fiber drink help you poo, it also keeps you from eating all day long and whittles at the “must have big meal” dilemma.

Today’s diary of a Fat Kid:

I already can’t remember if I’ve done these before (food as a reward, clean plate) but they both tie into this week so I’ll re-rehash.

We didn’t grow up poor, but it was a bit like feast and famine.  Eating dinner at a restaurant was a once every other week or a special occasion.  Eating at a fast food burger place was a maybe once a week thing, usually if we behaved at the grocery store or did our chores.  Going to Dairy Queen was literally a treat since in MN they were only open for a time in the summer and my parents always made a big deal of it.  All this to say that eating out had a certain level of reward to it, you got it for doing something else.  Hell, even when my mom would diet back then, after it she’d reward herself and us with homemade cookies and the like.

Dessert was also a reward for cleaning your plate.  All the old standards were heard in my house, “finish your dinner if you want dessert” and the like.  So when I think about why I want dessert these days, “hey I finished my dinner so where is my mother-loving Twinkie!”  Oh yeah, I’m still seven at the heart of it all.

Also tied into all that is not wasting food.  Obviously if we didn’t have a lot of money to spend on fast foods and restaurants we also didn’t have money to throw away the food at home either.  Did you know that the mold you see on bread is actually millions (or billions) of mold spores in a spot and actually the entire thing is covered in mold that you just can’t see?  If my mom knew that she didn’t seem to mind.  She cut the moldy part off of many food items –bread, cheese, deli meat- and went about finishing the sandwiches for lunch with the gutted out remains.  Also, “you can take as much as you want, but eat all that you take” was the norm for pot-lucks and the like.  Made worse by the fact that, and I love them all for this but, every person made a dinner item and a dessert.  So every gathering had 12-30 dessert options every time the families got together.  Had to try them all to be polite right?  Had to finish them all because that was the rule?

Oh yeah, this guy has issues related to food.  So the end of the day yesterday, the crew did a good number on the lunch foods.  All that was left was sandwich toppings (blah), some veggies (I took home) and three sad, little brownie bites that clearly nobody wanted (they had fruit on them for Jiminey’s sake).  I wanted to just toss them in the trash, really didn’t want to eat them, but I did.  They were pretty gross, people should not put orange on brownie, and I didn’t feel good about it.  Also, little discussed fact-ish, simple carbs like sugar and white flour increase appetite and can lead to more overeating.  So a few brownie bites now means eating more later.  However…

The Plan:

Four pounds down from last week!  So suck it brownie bites!  Not going to use that as an excuse to go on a bender, but I’m overall pretty happy.

Also proves my philosophy a little bit, don’t even keep danger foods nearby because I will eat them eventually and one slip-up doesn’t mean breaking down completely or giving up.

Later!