It's Alive! (the streak) ( barely)

So after riding my bike to class and back, combined with yesterday's activity, I am down 1 pound for the week.  I was 266.6.  Given that I was 271 yesterday morning, that's a pretty big accomplishment.  I lost 4.4 pounds since yesterday.  I may be prouder of this week's one pound than I am of all the previous weeks' losses, given how hard it was to attain.

Now my attention turns to next week's challenge:

Saturday:  Halloween
Sunday:  Caroline's birthday party
Mon-Weds:  Staying at the Showboat Casino in Atlantic City
Thursday:  Tragic weigh in???

I guess I should take a day or so to bask in the glow of my continued success before I start worrying about next week. 

Crossing my fingers

I was still 271 this morning [Wednesday], so still up 3.4 pounds.  But I ran 3 this afternoon and then played an hour and a half of racquetball, so I'm hopeful for tomorrow.  I would really like to not have to run tomorrow morning so I have time to ride my bike to class.  I watched the World Series game 1 (congrats Phillies!) upstairs on our crappy bedroom TV so I'd be farther from the food.  I'll know if it worked in a few hours!

Chasing 4

It's Tuesday morning and I'm UP four pounds from last Thursday.  It's not looking too good for the weigh in, and I don't have any basketball to bail me out. 

The stinkin' weekends always kill me.  We went out to dinner Friday and Saturday nights, and then to my parents on Sunday night.  To try to convey what I'm up against at my parents' house, I'll list just the desserts that were available to me Sunday:

4 kinds of ice cream
home made hot fudge for the ice cream
cake and sugar cones for the ice cream
home made regular fudge
pound cake w/ strawberries
home made popcorn balls
knock off Samoas cookies (Safeway brand, and very yummy)
and probably some other stuff that I'm forgetting

I love my mother, and in her defense she did make me some turkey sausage and a salad, so I would have been fine if I'd stopped there.  But alas, no.

So I'll have to see if I can run off 4 pounds (and hopefully a little more) in the next 48 hours.  If not, I'll have to leave the post of shame.

(BTW, that phrase "chasing" a number, is that just a baseball term?  We're chasing 3 runs?  That's the only context I've ever heard it in.  Does anyone know?)

Some friends you guys are!

I thought friends were supposed to pick you up and make you feel good, but if that's the case then Dan and Anil did not get the message. I've been playing racquetball off and on for months and thought I had game. Neither of them has played in months, so I expected to run the table. Then we went out there last night and Dan took one game off me and Anil took two. Anil did soften the blow by sharing one of his free Freedom Center passes with me, which I appreciate.

Carrie, nice job on the comment leaving. Spread the word to others!

260's today!

I was 270.2 this morning when I woke up, which necessitated an early a.m. jog.  Luckily Therese came with me and pushed me the whole way so I ran fast (for me).  Now it's off to class and then a big juicy burger at lunch with Dave Costanzo.  (I don't learn, do I?)

Good basketball games

Not much to say this morning, other than I absolutely love basketball from an exercise standpoint.  Two hours of constant running does wonders the next morning on the scale.  We had 5 on 5, which is great.  Now I have to figure out what to do today since tomorrow is the weigh in.  I guess I should run since the weather is so nice.

Comments!

Hello faithful readers. Before I discuss today's workout/diet news, I'd like to address a very important issue first: Lack of comments. I, like most successful bloggers, am a narcissist. And how do we narcissistic bloggers measure our worth? Comments!! Comments let me know you care. And are physically viewing the site once in a while. I know many of you just read the emails which get automatically generated and respond to those. That's fine, I totally appreciate any feedback. But to the extent that you don't mind just clicking on the link in the email to visit the site itself and leaving a comment, it would be appreciated. Remember, if a fat guy eats a hamburger in the forest and no one is reading his blog, does he gain any weight? Yes, because no one read his blog. See? I need your help.

Remember, you can leave comments as "anonymous," or if you don't want to be anonymous, just choose "name/URL" from the list and type in your name. You don't need to put in a URL. If you have a gmail account for email, you can just choose "Google Account" and sign in with your gmail name and password.

Exercise news (finally!): I am now (as of Tuesday morning) finally back down to where I was last Thursday at the weigh in. Which gives me two days this week to actually lose weight. But since I have hoops tonight, I should be OK, I hope. Therese and I ran last night and I almost kept up with her. Granted, she was pushing a stroller with Catherine in it, but still.

Dan, per your request, I have moved the fat guy beefcake pictures (would those be "cheesecake" pictures?) farther down the right hand column so you won't have to avert your eyes. You now have to scroll down for them versus having them greet you as soon as you visit the site.

My current best weight loss tip:

Stay away from Dan Simpson!

Why?  He's a one man diet killer!  Thursday he's kind enough to get me and Therese tickets to the Caps game in the Wash Post luxury box at center ice.  Which is all well and good, except for the buffet spread out before us with dogs, sandwiches, quesadillas, as well as popcorn, nuts, chips, cookies, brownies, blah, blah, blah.  So I recover a little on Friday and Saturday and today he shows up to watch football with a nice crock pot full of sausage and cheese dip.  With Fritos.  I'm only human!  I have therefore officially deemed my good friend to be a Near Occasion of Eating.

But realistically, situations like this will come up now and then my whole life, so I need to learn how to minimize the damage.  Just haven't learned it yet...

Went to the doctor yesterday.  I do officially have bronchitis, which I basically knew.  Does make it a little harder to exercise, though.  One good thing is that my BP is down a good bit from what it was.  I'm now 122/80 instead of 139/90.

BTW, new fat guy pics should be up in the slide show now.  I still can't tell any difference from week 1 till now, at least in the photos.

The streak continues!

I was 271.8 today.  That's a big virtual middle finger to my bronchitis.  Although I haven't been exercising as much as I would like, I guess living on Ritz, Vitamin C (but not cocaine) [2:26] does tend to promote weight loss as well.  I need the weather to get a little better so I can continue with some of the outdoor stuff (bike, ultimate frisbee, etc.) since the Freedom Center daily admission is eating me alive.  Anyone out there (James?) able to get me a discounted membership?

Running again

I can't say I'm well, but I'm definitely feeling better. It was cold today so I decided to get on the treadmill. This might not seem like earth shattering news, but it's a milestone of sorts for me. Because unless you have one of those NFL-quality treadmills like they do at the gym, a guy my [old] size can't run on them. Each footfall tends to pinch the belt just a little, enough to break up my stride. But I'm now at the point where it's possible to run pretty normally, with just the occassional little pinch here and there. Thank God for small victories, eh?

Sick

Haven't posted the last couple days b/c I haven't done anything. I've been sick and it seems like it's going into my lungs, so I haven't exercised the last couple days. But I need to do something lest I risk having my first "up" week. Unfortunately, the sickness is not suppressing my appetite...

Not the softball games I was hoping for

Well, I said I just needed two good softball games to end the week on a high note, but I didn't exactly get them.  So many balls got past me I felt more like a matador than a first baseman.  Realistically, I would have been just as effective using a red cape instead of a glove.  Since I've been hitting pretty well, Dan suggested bringing a bat out there with me to stop them.  That might actually work...

But I did lose a little more weight, which is the whole point of the blog, so I guess I shouldn't complain.  I'm thinking that if I limit the damage this weekend and then work out pretty hard early next week, I could conceivably hit the 260's by next weigh in.  That will be the first milestone that I'll actually be proud of, since it does seem like that's a pretty big distance from where I started.  I just have to get past poker tonight and football tomorrow.  Those are really my biggest two danger zones each week. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1a_ikfUico

Had a good Thursday

It started off with the good weigh in, then I got a 100% on my mid term in my tax class, then I started work late but still got more than twice as many points as in a typical full day (25), they I played racquetball at night. On that note, I'd like to offer James Younts and Kevin Caiazza congratulations on trying to take down the Big Unit, but only Brendan can do that these days with any consistency. Now all I need is a couple good softball games tonight to really end the week on a high note.

I slept late this morning and I'm starting to feel a little better. I woke up in the middle of the night sweating like crazy when my fever broke, and then this morning I was down more than 2 pounds from yesterday's weigh in. Could that just be water weight from the night sweats? If so, maybe I should add fever to my "natural" weight loss remedy list, which already includes pneumonia?

Plugging away

I was down to 275.8 this morning, so I was happy to see that. Almost 20 pounds in five weeks isn't bad, and the nice thing is that it's been pretty linear, not a huge amount the first week and then smaller amounts. Even so, I think 4 pounds per week is not maintainable long term, but 2 or 3 should be. 10 pounds per month gets me back in shape for next beach season, or Great Wolf Lodge season. The kids have been bugging us to go back there.

I haven't been feeling well the last couple days. It's probably just a cold, but I remember back to the first time I lost a lot of weight, 2006. (Technically that was the second time because the first time was back in college.) Anyway, I wasn't planning on losing weight until I got pneumonia for a couple weeks, and by the time I got back on my feet I was down something like 15 pounds. So I decided not to waste it and ended up losing more than 60 pounds. Then I gained it all back. Which I WON'T do this time, as long as you guys keep me honest.

New pictures to follow tonight.

Looking forward to tomorrow

I can't believe tomorrow is already my 6th weigh in.  I also can't believe that my little experiment has worked so well so far.  A big thank you to all of you out there following me, b/c if you weren't reading then I would have an easier time quitting!  Numerous times I've been temped to pig out on some sort of delicious yet fatty food on a Tuesday or Wednesday night (and it's always at night), but have refrained in anticipation of my Thursday a.m. weigh in.  Now if only I could get those weekly pictures to start reflecting the numerical results, I'd be happy.  To me, the latest pic seems almost indistinguishable from the first one.  Hopefully a year from now when I'm 210 or 220 and ripped I'll look back on them and laugh.  Hopefully.

Matabolism revved up?

So I was expecting scale disaster this week after a weekend of unbridled intake of food, coupled with lack of activity due to two sprained ankles.  (I did one Friday at racquetball and the other later Friday at softball.  Ugh!)  How many pounds would I be up by Monday?  4?  5?  No!  Only about 2.  I still didn't work out yesterday except for mowing, but tonight after basketball I'm back down lower than I was last Thursday at the weigh in.  I can't believe it.  The only thing I can think of is that maybe my metabolism is actually running a bit faster these days.  That, or there's just a delayed reaction when you eat fatty food, and the bad news is still coming.  I prefer to believe the former.

I also can't believe how much energy I had this evening playing hoops.  The difference between tonight and two weeks ago is night and day.  We played 7 games full court (only to 7), and I was still hustling and sprinting in the final game.  I felt great, not winded at all.  What a difference 20 pounds and some activity makes.

Thought For The Day:  Temptation (food wise) can apparently show up anywhere, not just at the grocery store.  Case in point:  Today I went to Merrifield Garden Center to replace a tree that had died.  Should be safe, right?  Wrong!  The new tree was $30 less than the old one so I had some store credit I tried to use up.  Catherine picked out some flowers for mommy, but there was still some left so I looked around.   And they sell...Virginia peanuts!  Only one of my all time favorite foods.  So big, so crunchy, so flavorful.  Ever since the Colemans turned me on to them (see guys, my weight problem is partially your fault!), I've had a hard time weaning myself off.  At any rate, I didn't expect to see them at a nursery, but there they were in a nice little display, calling out to me.  So did I get the standard, delicious variety?  Nope, the even more delicious chocolate-covered variety!  Ah well, you know what they say, never go tree shopping when you're hungry.

Discussion Topic:  Fast Food.  Where do you health conscious people out when you're out?  I love the McDonalds southwest salad with the grilled chicken.  I haven't checked the website for nutrition info for the salad itself, but the dressing is really low fat/cal.  Any other healthy/convenient suggestions?

Edit:  Looked up the salad info on the McD's site.  With dressing and chicken, 420 calories, 15 fat, 6 fiber.  That's 9 points on Weight Watchers, which is a little high but so much better than a burger and fries.  And in the old days I would have had a chocolate shake also.  But this salad is fantastic.  If you haven't had one yet, you owe it to yourself.  It's amazing.

Edit #2:  Looked up "nutrition" info for my old standard order:  2 double cheeseburgers, small fries, small choc shake.  Results:  1690 calories, 70 grams of fat, plus 2710 mg of sodium!  Yikes!

Lots of meat this weekend

It turns out that 25 pounds of pork really is a lot. Mr. Hall made the most delicious (and meaty) ribs I've had in a while, and the pulled pork was amazing also. Given that I spent 7 hours over there yesterday, I expected this morning's unofficial weigh in to be devastating, as devastating as Tony Romo's performance against a completely overrated Broncos team. It wasn't as bad as that, but I still have my work cut out for me this week. Luckily I have basketball tomorrow night which is always a good workout. Anyone besides Brendan joining me?

U2 pictures

Are you guys jealous?  No?  Well, you should be.  Big shout out to Thomas Griffin for the tickets/inspiration.

 

 

U2 rocked

What a great show! We were standing only about 50 feet from the main stage and probably less than 20 feet from the outer catwalk around the main stage. I have some great pictures that I'll post of the guys jamming right in front of us. Turns out the garage we parked in was a 30 minute walk away, so my legs were pretty beat after that and standing four hours. Did that end up counteracting the two bowls of nachos, ribs, and fajitas at Chilis? I haven't checked!

Does standing for five hours count as exercise?

Therese and I have standing room tickets to U2 this evening, and from what I hear it's a long show, especially if you take in the opening band.  PLUS, all the close parking lots are sold out and it's over a mile to the cash lots, so we'll have hours of standing combined with a couple miles of walking.  Oh, don't forget shivering to keep warm.  I hear that burns calories as well...

270's!

Yay for me!  279.2 this morning.  More later.  Gotta go to tax class.