Update

Sorry for the lack of posts (Bill); I just need to get back in the habit.  By last Friday I was down to 261.8, so down 5 pounds.  I'll weigh in tomorrow for this week, then try to avoid going buck wild later in the day.  There's a Nagle thanksgiving as well as a Griffin thanksgiving, but at least I'll have Friday off to recover.  I'll try to find someone to play racquetball with me on Friday.  Any volunteers??

Thanks to Bill, I'm pushing this:

Thanks to Bill and Peggy (and Therese), I'm trying to get back on the wagon.  I really appreciate all of you who have been supportive.  I'm finding out how easy it is to let your guard down and fall back into bad habits.

I got on the scale yesterday morning and weighed 266.8.  It's really hard to put into words how depressing that is.  I'm up more than 20 pounds from my low this summer.  I went back and looked at my records and the last time I weighed this much was ... Nov 12, 2009.  More than a year ago! 

Since I last checked in I've run a half marathon and done a 50 mile bike ride, but those were both in October and I haven't done much since then.  The weather is really pretty decent for running but I've just gotten out of the habit.  But with both Thanksgiving and Christmas coming, the next couple months are full of land mines, so I need to get back into the regular workout habit.  More importantly, I need to start watching what I eat as well.  Halloween certainly didn't help, but the kids are now out of all the cany that I like, so that temptation is dying down. 

At any rate, I plan on starting up the weekly weigh-ins again.  Those really did work, since they held me accountable.  If anyone out there ever wants to play racquetball, just let me know.  I'm available almost every night. 

I'll leave you with this photo, and the thought that goes through my head upon seeing it:  "How can a guy with that size belly bend over so far to grab the handlebars?"

OK, now I really am getting serious

So this weekend was kind of a cluster-f, as always.  Maggiano's on Saturday then Blaine's Smorgasbord of Smoked Meat on Sunday.  I got on the scale this morning and was back up to 260.8 from 254 on Friday.  But then I ran 7 miles today and was back down to 254.8.  Given that I ran the whole 7 without anything to drink, that's probably mostly water weight.  But I have hoops tomorrow night and then Therese and I are doing our longest bike ride yet (40ish miles) on Wednesday.  Then we have the half century on Sunday morning.  So maybe by NEXT Monday I'll be at a respectable weight again.  I sure hope.  It's been a while since I hit a new low.

Today's episode is titled "Tenerife Rd. Doesn't Cut Through," or...

... "How My Bike Ride Went From 28 Miles to 35."  Gmaps said our route was possible, but they were wrong.  At the end of Tenerife Rd we got to a private drive with lots of No Trespassing signs posted everywhere.  28 miles was already 6 more than I had ever ridden, but now we had to double back and the 28 became 34.  We were pretty low on water, but luckily Becky Hall lives right on Tenerife, so we filled up our bottles from her hose. We were both totally spent when we made it back to the car, but we did make it.  And we've got ten more days to build up to another 15 so we can do the 50 mile ride the 19th.

As for weigh-ins, I was "down" to 256 last Friday.  I'm down a couple more this week, but I'm still eating too much.  Must be residual cruise ship disease...

Cruise update

I'm back.  We had a great time, even with all five of us in one small (very small!) cabin.  Therese and I did tour the fitness center on the ship, and marveled over all the fancy machines, but that was pretty much it for me.  They also had a jogging track that I didn't use.  (I did think it would be funny to wear the GPS watch while running around and around the jogging track while the ship was moving, then check the map printout.  It would be just a huge curly cue well out to sea.)

As expected, the food was good and abundant.  You could have Chateaubriand with a side of Chateaubriand, not that I did that.  Much.  There was a chocolate buffet one day, but luckily no midnight buffet.  And we did walk a little, since our room was in the fore part of the ship and the dining room was aft...

So, the envelope please!  11.8 pounds.  Up, of course.  Which I an actually VERY happy with.  On one hand, I'm back in the 260's (260.8), which is depressing.  On the other hand, I can gain 12 pounds in a weekend at home, so after a week on a cruise ship I expected massive damage, not just 12 pounds.

But since 12 pounds is 12 pounds (and since Therese and I signed up for a half marathon in 5 weeks), it's time to head out for a run.  I also want to do this in 3 weeks (Therese thinks the half is a good place to start, so 50 miles), so I've got to train for that as well.  I'm running out of time...

Getting ready for my cruise

Looks like I once again will not reach a pre-vacation goal.  I wanted to get in the 240's before I went to Hawaii and didn't make it till I got back, and I wanted to get in the 230's before the cruise and 243 was as close as I got (a few weeks ago, ugh!).  This past Friday I was up to 249.  I'm playing basketball tomorrow, but we leave Friday afternoon, so the 230s will have to wait until September.  Until that time, enjoy this picture of the weight that Therese apparently hopes to get down to, since she's clearly not happy with her current weight.

There are so many things wrong with this photo...

Hat tip to Dan Flook for the pic.

Body fat percentage update

I had Peggy check me again last week (thanks, Peggy!), and I'm down to 23.65% now.  When I was measured in December I was 26.6% and I was 29% when I started.  Those numbers don't seem that impressive, but when cleaning off my desk over the weekend, I did find a piece of paper from my original body fat analysis where one method (there are several ways to derive the number) had me at 34%, so I'm down more than 10% from that number.  I'm not sure why (other than embarrassment) I used the 29% number officially.  I apparently still have 58 pounds of total fat on me (247 x .2365), so a zero body fat Jim would weigh 189.  I'd be happy to split the difference and lose 29 more pounds and be 218.

But my new percentage is exciting because now I'm just overweight!  Goodbye obese category!  (BTW, there's no feeling in the world like dieting and exercising for almost a year to get "down" to ... "overweight"?  What an accomplishment!)

Here's a chart I found online:

Men

Age	Underfat	Healthy Range	Overweight	Obese
20-40 yrs	Under 8%	8-19%	19-25%	Over 25%
41-60 yrs	Under 11%	11-22%	22-27%	Over 27%
61-79 yrs	Under 13%	13-25%	25-30%	Over 30%

So another 4.65% gets me to the "healthy" range.

Drew Carey loses 80 pounds in 8 months!

Wow, way to make me look like a piker!  That's an insane pace, and good for him.  I just hope he keeps it up.  At least I'm not a public figure so there's not nearly the pressure that he has.

It sounds like he's doing hard core Atkins, which is even more impressive, since I know how hard that diet is.  I mean really, 8 months of no bread??  I can't go 8 minutes...

Working out hard and...

...gaining weight?? I don't get it. I know that I don't exactly exist on salads and egg white omelets, but come on. 18 miles on the bike Tuesday, 5 1/2 miles running yesterday morning then 1.5 hours of tennis in the evening, then 18 more miles on the bike today, and I'm still up 3 pounds from last week. It just doesn't seem possible. I guess the one thing I missed this week was my basketball game Tuesday night (stupid Steve Miller concert), but that shouldn't make this much difference. I'm working on the 4th straight week not making a new low. I'm running out of time to reach my 230's goal before the cruise! And a possible beach trip to NJ next week isn't going to help things.

At least I'm not eating any of these:

Can you believe KFC's Double Down (which has chicken patties for buns and bacon and cheese in the middle) has barely over 1/3 the calories of the Friendly's Grilled Cheese BurgerMelt?  So you could eat 3 of them!

Hmmm, what would Homer order?

How far would this set me back?

Hat tip to Mark Sparacino for this one.  1500 calories and 79 grams of fat might just be worth it!

Yes, you saw that correctly.  The sandwich, at Friendly's, uses two grilled cheeses as the bun!

(BTW, I just looked it up.  That would be 37 points on Weight Watchers!  More than a whole day's worth!)

Things I learned this week

1. When biking a long distance on a sunny day, a short shirt that rides up a bit above the waist when bent over pedaling will leave a nasty inch tall sunburn line.  Kind of like a red belt!

2. Even though I thought I had gotten better, I still stink at tennis.  (Thanks, Anil!)

3. Cycling does get easier.  Obviously it should, just like running, but it seems to be happening pretty quickly.  I've gone from 12 or 13 miles to a little over 20 in a couple weeks.

4. My problem isn't the working out, it's the EATING.  Does anyone know of a safe, effective appetite suppressant?  I took phenteramine for a few weeks once, and it worked great for a little while, but then the effectiveness wore off.

Looking ahead...

...because I don't want to look back and see more failure.  Yes, I was up a bit this week.  But I was working out really hard, and I'm getting more fit.  I think I've just been "carbing up" a bit too much lately. 

But looking ahead, I realize that I only have about 6 weeks till my one year anniversary.  [I wonder what I should get myself for my anniversary?  Candy?  Flowers?  Gym membership?]  Therefore, I need to set a one year goal.  I think the goal should be reaching the 230's at least.  But that doesn't seem like that much of a stretch from here (Ha, famous last words!), so maybe something harder?  220's?  Unrealistic, I'm afraid.  Let's split the difference and say 235.  That's more than 10 from where I am today, so that seems reasonable.

I also plan on making my official "year" weigh in on August 20th, since the next day we leave for a week long cruise.  The cruise ends only a week before my Sept 3rd anniversary date, so I think the safer course is to weigh in for the year before the cruise, even if that does mean fudging it a little. 

Peggy, I'm also going to enlist your help again since I'll need to do a one year update on the body fat percentage.  You'd hope that 60 or so pounds should make a big difference!

As a bookkeeping matter, I've decided to stop measuring my total weight loss from the 295 I was the first week and instead measure from the 301 that I got up to before I started the blog.  That's realistically how I think about it.  I didn't do it that way at first b/c I didn't want to confuse the matter, but now that I'm so far into it I'm going to make the switch.

Almost made it back

I was up .2 this week. Like most weeks, that was a major accomplishment. I was up a full 12 pounds as of Tuesday morning, so I've lost about 11.8 in the last 3 days. I know this reads like a broken record, but wouldn't it be great if I could just maintain over the weekend and then be down a bunch the following week? Oh wait, it happened a couple weeks ago and I had my biggest weekly loss since the first week! So that would work! Now to set about doing it this weekend. Last weekend was a little tough with the holiday and all, and I'll have Erin staying here this weekend to keep me honest.

50+ pounds!!

Well, today was a milestone day.  I was 243.2 after this morning's bike/run twofer, and the 6.6 that I was down was the most since my very first week of blogging, back in September.  It also put me down 51.4 pounds since the blog started, so I feel good about that, also.  I also realized the other day that I've been doing this for 10 MONTHS now, which I truly can't believe.  I guess that puts my monthly average at 5.14 pounds, which seems like a reasonable pace.  But it hasn't been a nice, smooth, regular 5.14 per month but a series of plateaus and then drops.  Someday if I have time I'll use Excel to plot a line graph which should look pretty interesting.

The reason I'm down so much this week is b/c I've been a working man.  I took some leave Mon-Weds and spent the time pulling weeds and trimming bushes/trees and putting down mulch in 100 degree weather.  And also eating well and exercising at night.  I did start to feel it on Tuesday at hoops when after two games I had absolutely nothing in the tank and had to sit.  Normally I'm the guy wanting to run full court to get a better workout, but I was spent.  Today I did a little tri practice by riding for 12 miles and then running.  Big E, I'm not sure I'll be ready for the 14.06 b/c I was dying today.  Let's see what another week brings.

I also took some updated pictures last week and this week.  I haven't updated the slide show yet, but I'm going to soon.  I'd like to see if I can tell a difference.

Long time, no blog

Hi both of you,

When last we left our intrepid blogger, he was celebrating an all time low.  Then things changed a little.  He want from 248ish a week ago Thursday to 261ish last Tuesday.  No foolin'.  Apparently a long weekend in NJ eating buckets of Johnson's Popcorn as well as filet and pizza and whatever the heck else was within freakin' arm's reach will do that to you.  Who knew?

But from 261 Tuesday I lost about 12 pounds by this past Saturday, when I "officially" weighed in for the week.  I was back to 249.8, which is where I was on June 11th.  Then I decided to try to not blimp up this past weekend, and I was still in the high 240's today instead of up a bunch.  Granted, I spent several hours in 100 degree weather Sunday pulling weeds, and then a couple more today putting down mulch, but whatever it takes, right?

On a side note, I'd like to welcome spammer Jay to the program with my first spam comment.  Go Acai berry!!

Slow and steady wins the race, right?

I was down another 1.4 this week.  Not this morning mind you, when I was up 2, but this afternoon, after running 3 in the hot sun.  But I'm happy with 1.4 a week, if I can do that consistentlty.  1.4 per week from now until the (maybe) St. Lucia trip in January would be another 40 pounds, and I'm only trying to lose another 30.  Therese bought the Insanity workout DVDs off ebay this afternoon, so we're going to start doing those.  Anyone here have any experience with it?  I hear it's incredibly hard.

The weigh in I've been waiting to see!

New all time low!

Saturday evening, after Erin and I worked on my car in the heat of the day for 3 hours, I stepped on the scale and saw 249.8!  I called Therese in to verify it.  Naturally, much of it was due to dehydration, but even so I was very excited.  November 19th of last year was the first time I got into the 250's, so it only took me 6 1/2 months to lose ten pounds!  At this pace, I'll be in the 230's by January!

Of course, since it's me we're talking about, I celebrated my accomplishment with a big steak dinner Saturday night (although I didn't actually finish the whole steak!).  I didn't work out yesterday, but I'll be back on the wagon today.  I just want the official weigh in later this week to show something in the 240s and I'll be happy.

Thursday Weigh-in, Friday Edition

I was 252.2 yesterday after my afternoon run.  That's down 1.6 from last week.  I don't have multiple barbeques to go to this weekend, so I'm hopeful things continue to improve.  This morning after racquetball with Anil I was 251.6, which is only a couple tenths off my lowest yet.  I'm going to try Peggy's gallon of water suggestion, and Joan is absolutely right that I need to start strength training.  I just find it very boring.  Maybe I could invent a game that involves lifting weights...

Weigh in coming today...

I weighed in this morning and I was down from last week, but just a little.  I'm going to try to run or cycle this afternoon and see if I can juice the number a bit more.  Sit tight!  (I know you're all on the edge of your seat wondering what the number is, right?  No?)

Back to the grind

So the weekend is even more challenging when there's an extra day of it!  We attended 3 barbeques this weekend (and turned down a fourth b/c the kids got sick), plus I ordered pizza on Saturday night.  At least I made an effort at counteracting the food with some exercise:  racquetball Friday, Frisbee Saturday and tennis Monday.  Even so I was back up to 259.6 this morning.  I think that's probably a little less than after last weekend, but last weekend I had a two hour soccer game on Monday night to help me.  We played hoops tonight and I'm hoping to play more Frisbee tomorrow night, so I have some hope of being down this week.  But as of this morning its going to take about 6 pounds to get there...

Another picture from Dan F.

Hopefully nobody will be serving these this weekend!

Reports of my demise are greatly exaggerated

I know I don't post as often these days, but it's because I don't want to sound like a broken record.  For six months now I've just maintained my weight.  Sometimes I get discouraged and stop trying for a few days and gain a few pounds.  Then I get annoyed that I wasted all that exercise and work so I lose those same few pounds back.  Like many people, I'm just stuck in a rut.  I'm exercise plenty, I just eat too much.  And besides being swimsuit season, this is also barbeque season.  What's a meat-loving former fat guy to do?? 

It's depressing b/c instead of being excited by the upcoming long weekend, I'm dreading it.  I only lose weight during the week, when I have my regular routine and normal sized meals.  This weekend is full of pitfalls, with poker Friday and cookouts to attend ALL THREE weekend days.  All I'm thinking about is how to get through the weekend without blimping up again.  (And for all of you whose advice is "Just don't eat that much," that's not particularly helpful.  Obviously if I had that level of self control, I would never have been 300 pounds in the first place...)

After last weekend, I was in the low 260's.  (I didn't weigh myself b/c I just knew that I was.  After 6 months of being in the same narrow range, I pretty much know what my weight is without weighing.)  This morning (after soccer Monday, hoops Tuesday and track workout last night) I'm 253.8.  So once again the cycle continues.  My goal this week will be to break that cycle.  I have determined that this will be the week that I remain strong over the weekend and hit a new low next time. 

One last note:  Welcome to new watcher "Katty Z" from the Czech Republic!

What would 50 pounds look like??

From my buddy Dan Flook:

Exerspy

So Peggy lent me her Exerspy device, which is pretty cool.  You wear it all day and it tells you how many calories you burn, how many steps you take, how many hours/minutes of activity you had, etc.  Given my age/height/sedentary job, Peggy determined that I need to burn 3023 calories a day to maintain my weight.  Obviously, that means I need to burn more than that (or eat less than that) to lose weight.  I figured a typical day not exercising would be less, and it turns out it's a lot less.  Something like 2400 calories was all I burned in a non-exercise weekday.  I'm sure a weekend would be more than that b/c I'm not sitting at a desk all day.  On days I exercised, I burned about 3500 calories.  So I guess it reinforces what I knew, but it give me specific numbers to shoot for, i.e. eat 600 few calories on a day I don't get to exercise.

As for today's weigh in, I was up a pound.  Given Caroline's First Communion party Saturday and then Dan's graduation party Saturday night, and given all the extra subs and chips and sodas we got that we didn't need, I guess I'm not too upset with that number.  Therese and I have been playing tennis in the mornings after dropping the kids off at school, so that's been nice.  Exercise that involves games is so much better than that which just involves running.

Time to start weighing in again

I was 254.8 today, my first weigh in in 3 weeks.  While that's up, it's not devastating.  The weather has been very good for outdoor exercising and pool season fast approaches, so those should be motivators.  Therese and I also joined a coed tennis league at our club, so that will be good exercise on Wednesday nights.  Also good for my humility, since I'm terrible at tennis.

Thanks to the readers I have left for your encouragement.  (Peggy, what's the "Exerspy" you mentioned?)

I'm not done

Thank you to Bill for bugging me.  I took a week of b/c of the Hawaii trip, and since I've been back I've just been lazy.  This morning I was 256, which is up 5 from my pre-Hawaii days, but not as bad as I expected.  I'll run tonight and see what tomorrow brings.  Thanks for hanging with me, everyone!

Didn't weigh in this morning

I should have, I know.  And after basketball Tuesday, I was back close to last week's weight.  But my law office meeting yesterday involved 3 dozen donuts for some reason (who buys 36 donuts for a meeting with 20 people??) and I had a couple of them.  Anyway, I leave tomorrow for some exotic destination (I'm sure Therese will be on Facebook within minutes of arrival), so I'm going to enjoy myself for a few days.  (Is poi fattening?)

This weekend did not go as well as last weekend

I'm into my 7th month of doing this now, and I still don't have much restraint.  It's depressing.  I did well not gaining much weight last weekend, but this time I was not so lucky.  It definitely seems like weight is much easier to gain than lose.  I can work hard all week and lose a pound, or let my guard down for a couple days and gain 7 or 8.  To make things worse, I'm now sick also.  Went to bed last night at 9 and didn't get up this morning until 9:30.  Oh well.  Maybe the sickness will take away my appetite or something. 

The hardest pound of my life

I worked out every single day from last weigh in to today (Thursday) and I ate pretty well.  Some days I did double duty, like Wednesday when I ran 3 miles at the track workout and then played an hour of racquetball.  All that and I'm down ... wait for it ... a pound.  Whee!  The 240's that once seemed sooooo close now seem like a long way away.  The 4.8 pounds last week were WAY easier than this 1.2 pounds.  I know, I know, "at least you're still down" or "you're building muscle" or "once you're past this plateau next week will be better."  I sure hope so.  There's no way I can lose 30 more pounds if this is how hard it is to lose 1. 

I'm sure a day at a park sponsored by Hershey is the thing to get me back on track...

Will this be the week?

I was so feeling the 240's this weekend, but I haven't made any progress the last two days, even though I ran both days.  Little mini plateau, maybe?  Basketball is on for tonight, and the track workout is tomorrow, so I have reason to not make it.  Except for all the eating.  But that's what bugs me.  I've actually been eating well, bean soup, chicken breast, salad, egg white omelets, etc.  What more do you want of me, oh gods of thinness?? 

[Answer from thinness gods]  "Lift some weights, girlie man!"

Another decent weekend

This afternoon after running in the a.m. and doing yard work in the afternoon I was 253.2, so only about half a pound up from Thursday's weigh in.  My M.O. for weeks was to gain 7-9 pounds on the weekend and then frantically lose it Monday-Thursday, so this feels weird to me.  But I'm guessing it will work much, much better than the old system.  Which, of course, didn't work at all.  I even took the kids to Nathan's tonight and only got a kiddie sherbet for myself, even though the kids were having hot fudge sundaes.  The next few days all look beautiful for running or cycling or whatever, so I can't afford to waste this weather. 

Have a great week everyone and thanks for all the comments and encouragement!

A good week for once!

I was 252.6 today, a new low.  Given that my unofficial high was 301, that means I'm closing in on 50 pounds.  Which blows my mind since I was looking at myself in the mirror the other day and I'm still really fat.  Someone who can drop 50 pounds and still be fat must have been REALLY fat before.  It's depressing in a way. 

The big difference between this week and most others is that I didn't blimp up over the weekend.  Even with Easter and several parties this weekend I held back as much as possible.  I also was pretty active, with Ultimate Frisbee Saturday morning and then backyard Frisbee later Saturday and Sunday.

Therese left this morning for 4 days in Vegas, so I'm alone with the kids till Sunday.  A lot of mischief can happen in that time, so I hope I stay strong.  I really want to be in the 240's for my trip in two weeks to an undisclosed mystery location, so I do have a goal.  But now that I'm so close it doesn't seem like much of a goal.  230's maybe??

Very Excite

(Did anyone get the Borat reference?  No?)

So I had volunteered to be a backup on Rick's 7 on 7 over-30 soccer team, and our first game was last night.  I'm glad to report that I was in better shape than half the guys on the team, so I spent a good amount of time on the field.  Great workout, even though I was terrified of making an fool of myself.  Will said after the game that "there were some things you could have done better."  Thanks, boy.

Anyway, with some restraint this past weekend (Wow! What a concept!) and yard work yesterday in the heat and soccer, I'm already down below what I was at Thursday's weigh in.  Normally I'm about 10 pounds up on Monday, so that's a huge development for me.  I have high hopes for a new low Thursday.  But then Therese leaves for Vegas Thursday and I'm by myself all weekend without my diet guardian angel, so hopefully things don't go to heck this weekend.

Got back on the bike today

Only did about 25 minutes b/c Therese had to go to work, but it rode well and shifted fine, so I'm happy.  I'm weighing in 2 pounds more than last week, but I'm actually happy about it b/c of the weekend I had.  If only Brendan had been there at dinner like he promised to slap my hand.  Here's the weekend tally:

Thursday evening (after weigh in):  Ribs, shrimp and dogs with the Downeses.
Friday (my birthday):  Chocolates from Therese, as well as my favorite peanut butter topped brownies, birthday poker (with more brownies), and the gift of popcorn from the Simpsons.
Saturday:  Dinner at Macaroni Grill with friends.
Sunday:  Easter egg hunt at my dad's parish, with the attendant chocolate testing to make sure it's not poisoned (got to keep the kids safe!), then dinner out with family

Whew!  Then, to make things worse, All Saints said we can't use the gym for the next three weeks for basketball, which is my best workout of the week always.  So by Monday I was up 11 pounds (266) and pretty depressed.  But with me it's easy on and easy off, so from Tuesday through today I lost 9 of it.  I keep thinking that if I just had a weekend where I didn't gain any weight then maybe I'd actually lose 9 pounds that week.  Wouldn't that be something!  But then this weekend I have a birthday party Saturday, a cookout Sat night, Easter brunch Sunday and then Easter dinner in the evening.  It's hopeless!

A pretty good indicator that no one reads your blog any more

I SHAVE MY HEAD and one person posts a response.  (Thanks, Dave C.!)  To be fair, I did get a couple email responses, and my mom called to see if I was out of my mind.  But really, that's it?

I actually had another good week this week, down another 2.4 since last Thursday.  That's two down weeks in a row, which hasn't happened since mid January.  This weekend might be tough, since today's my birthday and I plan to celebrate accordingly.  I'll just have to hit the frisbee that much harder tomorrow morning.

I figured out why I wasn't losing weight!

A lot of you "know it alls" have been saying it's because I eat too much and don't exercise enough.  Shows what you "experts" know.  Turns out is was because my hair was too heavy!

Let me know what you think of the new look!

Hit me, I need the money!

So I got $500 for "pain and suffering" yesterday from the lady's insurance company, as well as $ for a new bike.  So I guess I could take the $950 and get a really sweet bike.  But more than likely, I'll just put it toward the 4 grand I'm out on a BMW transmission and try to fix my current bike.  I called the local bike shop to ask how much a new rear wheel is and they quoted me $180!!  For just the wheel, no tire or tube or cassette or labor or anything.  So I'm looking online and on ebay.  The frame is only very slightly bent so I think I can just straighten it myself.

I did weigh in a little lower today, at 257.8.  Monday morning I was 268.4, so that's down more than 10 pounds in three days.  Of course, I should never have been 268 in the first place.  I'm getting excited about the good weather and softball and frisbee seasons coming up.  I ran outside today and it was absolutely perfect.  Hope to see you all on the frisbee field Saturday!!

That didn't go so well

So in only my 2nd time out on the new bike I got hit by a car today.  I'm not seriously hurt, but the bike is pretty messed up.  Hopefully the driver's insurance will pay for a new one.  I was in the crosswalk and she had a red light but was turning right.  She looked back to check on the baby and just didn't see me.  I have some cuts and my wrists and neck are sore, but nothing too severe.  C'est la vie.  At least I was having a fairly good ride until that point.  I was about 12 miles into a planned 15 mile ride, and I felt good.  Oh well.  I still have my old 50 pound upright steel bike.

Hoping to bike outside tomorrow

Forecast for tomorrow is 69 degrees!  Forget trainers, let's see some open road!  Time to take advantage of the "work" at home!

Stagnation, they name is James

If I was at my goal weight and had gone four months without gaining anything, I'd be really happy.  But since I'm only HALF way to my goal weight, and have gone four months without gaining (or losing) anything, I'm not as happy.  I know, I know, many of you out there probably blame Dan Simpson for refusing to play racquetball with my last night.  I think that's unfair.  He's not the one that shoveled all those Girl Scout cookies into my mouth over the weekend, or ordered that reuben at Mackey's instead of the salad.  Also, it appears that the benefits of a full day of skiing are negated by Indian casino buffets.  Who knew?


One other blog-related matter:  For many of you, I've been manually emailing the blog postings b/c Blogger will only send each update to ten addresses.  If you look at the right side of my blog at the bottom, there's an "email subscription box" where you can put in your address and a third party will forward it for me.  For those that I was manually forwarding, I will put in your email address for you.  But you still have to opt in if you want the service.  So if you do, just click on the link they'll send you.  The email will come from:

FeedBurner Email Subscriptions

Not weighing myself this week

I've always heard you should just weigh yourself once a week.  Normally, the only time I don't weigh myself every day is when I'm eating like a fiend.  This week, I'm going to try not weighing myself even though I'm working out more.  Maybe it will increase the suspense and make me work harder, since I won't know how I'm doing and I won't want to be up.  I will have to weigh in on Wednesday morning since I'm heading out to Colorado for 2 days of skiing Wednesday night.

Back to the 250's

So my official weigh in was this a.m. and I was at 259.6.  I'm please b/c that's down 6.4 since Tuesday and also down from last week.  I put my bike on Therse's new trainer last night and rode for half an hour and watched the Simpsons.  It looks like my gears might need adjusting b/c they were clicking all over the place.  I could only find a few gears that were smooth and not making noise.  When I rode outside that one glorious warm day we had in January, there was only a gear or two that clicked.  If the Colemans push back Saturday's indoor ride to a more reasonable time so that I don't have to wake up my kids (i.e. 9ish), I'll have Bob look at it.

Pre-Lent weigh in

It's not "official," but I was 266 last night before basketball.  Yikes!  But have I mentioned before (probably yes) how much I like basketball as a workout?  My weight this morning was 260.2.  We only had 8 last night but we still ran full court and I think we played something like 8 or 9 games.  I was so spent at the end that my calves were tightening up like a charlie horse.

Turning over a new leaf

Well, Lent starts tomorrow.  I haven't weighed myself in a while, but I'm sure I'm up some more.  So my Lenten resolution will be to work out every day.  And to give up sweets.  And soda.  If I can do those three things, I will have made up any lost ground and then some.  And hopefully gained a good bit of will power.  I shall do a pre-Lent weigh in tonight and report back.

Jim's Weight Gain blog??

This cold weather and lack of basketball (including tonight) is not helping at all.  Peggy suggsted switching to Mondays for the weigh ins, and that makes sense from an incentive point of view.  It will, however, make my weekends suck.  I had basically decided to make the switch, then I realized that Sunday was the Super Bowl.  So yesterday was ugly when I did finally weigh in.  This is getting pretty depressing.  I need some sort of big incentive/goal to work toward.  Who's up for a Jim Telethon to raise money to send me to a tropical destination if I reach a certain goal??

Shoveling my way to fitness?

It looks like the winter of never ending snow continues tonight.  I hope we get a good turnout for hoops, since that's always my best exercise of the week.  I did a spin class yesterday and that was super tough.  I'm looking forward to when it's warm enough to ride outside. 

Quit my H&R Block job

Just couldn't take the hours any more, especially b/c of the low pay.  Plus some things have changed such that I don't need the extra income quite as much.  I feel like a great weight has been lifted, and I'm looking forward to using my extra time to work out a lot more.  Or maybe just sleep a lot more, not sure which.  I am very disappointed that it didn't work out, especially given how much time I put into the training class (70 hrs over 3 months).  C'est la vie.  At least I now know a ton about taxes!

Just missed it

I was up two tenths today.  I blame my stupid H&R Block job b/c I was going to go to the gym to work out after I got off Block at 9 but I ended up having to stay later b/c someone came in at 8:45.  I'm sure any activity at all would have burned off a pound or so and then I would have been down. 

I did work out with Peggy this morning and she gave me a plan that will definitely help me lose weight if I stick with it.  If.  But I need to justify my Freedom Center membership somehow, so maybe this will motivate me to go more often.

What a great day!

You have to love mid 60's and sunny in January.  After a weekend of two dinners out and a breakfast of Fr.-Wooten-going-away-party donuts while Will and I helped count the collection, I needed a workout or three.  So I decided to take my new bike out for a spin this afternoon.  What a difference from my other bike!  The rock hard (100ish psi) tires and lack of a suspension combined to pummel Jimmy's hind end pretty good.  But the lighter weight and more aggressive posture of the road bike definitely made me faster.  Granted, not as fast as Bob (or Joan.  Or Brendan, Peggy, Blaine, Carrie, or most likely, Lance), but faster than I used to be.  I did 11 miles on rolling hills and it took about 38 minutes. 

250s again

I'm back in baby's arms.  No, wait.  Back in the 250s.  Just barely, but it's official.  I've only been working out about twice a week due to the H&R Block job, so that's part of the problem.  My truly heroic intake of calories would be the other.  Starting next week I'll be at Block until 10 three days a week, so I can't even get to the gym afterwards like I did yesterday.  I managed to get out of there at 8:30 yesterday and played racquetball with Anil at 9.  (As a side note, how come people always beat me at racquetball these days?  I used to be the one giving tips and administering the beatings.  I wish you could bluff or go all in playing racquetball...)

As Peggy says, I'm going to have to give the morning workouts a try.  I'm not optimistic, though.

Still slacking in the posting department

Sorry guys, I'm just not used to this 60+ hour per week working thing.  Pretty much every single night of the week I'm either working at Block, or Therese is working, or I'm taking everyone's money at cards.  Here I am again at almost a week between posts.  Like last week, I'm not really down at all but still hanging right around that 260 mark.  Normally I'd find someone to play racquetball with tonight to get me over the hump for tomorrow's weigh in, but of course I'm working at Block until 9.  Ugh. 

On the up side, thanks for all the comments!  I think 8 is my most ever, even if one of them is a spam comment.  I guess I've truly arrived in the lofty company of the more famous bigwig bloggers now that I have my first spam comment.  Thank you Green Tea Weight Loss!

Congrats to my trainer Peggy Harris for getting a job at Sport and Health in Gainesville.  I know a couple of my readers are members there, so check her out.

Hello, also, to my high school friend Jess Angsten, who never has to worry about her weight.  Sorry, Jess, no Speedo picture.  I know Joe always looses a bunch of weight every Lent, so I need to do whatever he's doing this year.  How come he never plays racquetball or hoops with me any more?  I know the ankle's fully healed by now!

Weekly posts aren't going to cut it

I just realized that haven't posted since last Thursday, and yet no one called me on it.  Wake up, blogosphere!  Hold me accountable!

So I'm down a piddly .6 this week.  I guess it's better than being up.  Working H&R Block in the evenings is really taking up a lot of my time, and making things hard on Therese as well.  Thanks to Brendan for coming out and playing racquetball with me last night even though he had already worked out earlier in the day.  It's hard to get that guy tired but it definitely looked like he was fading down the stretech, which is probably the only reason I won a couple games.

Funny story.  I take my wedding ring off when I play racquetball to keep from getting a blister where I grip the racket.  Since we left Therese's birthday flowers in NJ by mistake, I went to the grocery store on my way home from the gym to get her another bundle.  As I was paying for the flowers, I saw my ring in the little change pouch of my wallet where I always put it.  Talking out loud to myself, I said somethingl like "Oops, better put this back on."  Then I realized how it must look.  Guy getting home late in the evening, buying flowers for his wife and putting his wedding ring back on!  Ugh!

Up? Down? Both?

I was 261.4 this morning.  Obviously that's up a bit from my last official weigh in, but it's down 3 pounds since Monday, so I don't know whether to be happy or not.  Either way I'm not proud.  My last big hurdle is this weekend with the big Nagle family Christmas in NJ, and then it's nose to the grindstone till Spring.  It doesn't help that until April 15th I'll be working at H&R Block a few nights a week when I could be working out.  I know Bob's answer would be to just get up in the morning and work out, but we all know Bob's insane.

Stupid New Years resolutioners

So I show up a few minutes late for hoops last night and there's 19 PEOPLE there.  We generally have 10-12.  I hope this follows the normal pattern and people fall off pretty quick.  I played so little that I hardly worked up a sweat.  (Of course, you could argue that I should have played better so my team could have stayed on the floor, and you'd be right.)

This morning I swam with Therese, and she crushed me.  That's getting old.  I'm going to have to play racquetball with her just to stroke my ego.

Tomorrow will be the first 2010 weigh in/picture, so we'll see where I am.  Hopefully down a little.

Wow, I'm average!

They say the average American gains 10 pounds during the holidays, and I was 264.4 this morning.  (That's not up 10 from my last weigh in on 12/17 but it is up exactly 10 from the 12/10 weigh in.)  I had studiously avoided checking Mr. Scale for the last couple of weeks, but I wasn't really surprised.  Therese and I got road bikes for Christmas (here's a picture), and I got a new racquetball racket to replace the one that tragically broke when it came into contact with a brick pillar. 

I also have my trusty Freedom Center membership, and hoops starts again tomorrow, so starting today I'm back on the wagon.  Therese has gotten rid of most of the cookies by taking them into work, and we've burned through most of our excess cheese from the wine and cheese party, so the temptation level is dropping a good bit.  (By the way, Mr. Simpson, the chocolate pie was DELICIOUS!)

Happy New Year everyone!