Filed under: Pondering Life
April 10th I was 201.4
Now almost a month later I am back up to 209.
Between then and now I have basically taken a vacation to Mojave and then lost my 1 year old English Bulldog puppy to an unfortunate accident on the vet’s part. The Mojave part just threw a curve ball at my daily habits – and post vacation depression set in. And then losing your puppy so suddenly doesn’t help either. So up until last night I was straight binging on everything but alcohol (I am wise enough to stay away from that when I am emotionally unstable).
Well here’s the sob story, the really sucky part about my situation.
My dog cost me a ton of money. He cost us our summer fun fund and even the next 2 summer fun funds. I mean the money that you would normally spend in the summer on stuff like new running shoes, a bike, trips to the beach, etc. Plus, we already booked a trip to Hawaii in Augusts which is 3/4 paid for. Therefore, we are broke. I had plans to purchase a new mountain bike right before he died – which is now out the window. I need new running shoes, also questionable. Pretty much anything over that 100.00 mark right now is frustrating unjustifiable.
Therefore, right when I am ready to kick it up a couple of gears and start exercising daily I find myself without the tools or equipment needed.
I am not ready to give up. I may be borrowing a bike soon, and actually I may after some amount of prayer sill spend about $500.00 on a bike from Sport Chalet. As far as running shoes, I don’t know if I have a choice.
This is going to be the week of decisions. I need to decided before the middle of May what I am going to do so that I can at least start some sort of exercising.
Well, after getting to 203.8 last weekend, and then tanking badly over the weekend (I don’t even remember what excuse I used to eat what I wanted, oh yah, Saturday night I went to a poker game which means not only alcohol but some junk food – then on Sunday I just hobbled back into my diet with some other crap food).
Anyway, this week was that for me, hobbling along. I would have one bad meal, then a good meal. I went up to just under 206, and now finally after not hobbling the last 48 hours or less I am back to 203.8
It’s Friday. I dread Friday’s.
The weekend is the most difficult time for me, and I tend to gain 1lb or stay the same over the weekend – which basically causes me to fail at my 3lb a week goal (let’s face it, I am way past that now, I didn’t make it but haven’t given up).
We were supposed to have dinner at my parents house tonight but had to cancel due to the fact that my wife has appointments in Santa Monica this afternoon and won’t be home til 7pm probably. That’s good for me, that means eating light at home on my own with just me and my dog (and my computer or my new Low Limit Hold Em’ book).
When I did weight watchers with my wife (long time ago) one thing I remember they preached was to plan out your “bad” moments. Try to think ahead where you see issues and make sure you work around them.
Well, I have a couple big ones coming down….
First of all, I am constantly having opportunities to drink being thrown at me. Most the time, if not all the time, currently in my life I turn them down (that was an odd sentence wasn’t it?). For instance tonight a bunch of friends are meeting at a local pub by work – almost a weekly thing around here. And I just go home, because the 1 or 2 beers is not worth the 500+ calories, especially at 6 or 7pm. I love my friends, and I enjoy hanging out, but I don’t have the discipline to sit there and have diet coke while staring at their pints… 
But the big one this month that I am most concerned about (April actually) is on the 11th. I leave for Mojave – on a 4-5 day trip with about 9 or 10 other guys. This is a houseboat trip. Do I need to even explain why this is a bad idea for someone on a diet. When I suggested we load up some alternative foods besides junk food I got scourged. This is not even taking into account alcohol. Of course this is the killer. I am trying to ask myself, “what am I going to do to limit the damage about to be done”? Take crack? Hah, I don’t know, but this is why I need to buckle down for the next 10 or so days so that it’s not such a huge hit or set back when I come back on the 15th. And if any of you guys coming on the trip read this – I don’t mind about the junk food actually. I agree, why change or contribute money to food that only I will be interested in – and some of you that have known me for years should know it’s my M/O to ask for something like this only to completely go crazy and throw the diet into the wind…which would be a waste of our money.
Bottom line, my goal was (and still is) 195 by the 11th.
I am realizing now, 190 is probably not low enough for me. I have about 13+ to go and I still feel very heavy.
Oh – I ran into a very old friend, a family friend, at the office the other day. He is actually a regional manager for a particular manufacturer in our industry (construction). Anyway, the first thing he said to me was “wow you’ve lost weight”. I had to smile, yep, over 20 pounds. It was good to hear that finally. People who see you daily don’t recognize the weight loss when it’s slow and steady. Even the friends I played poker with last week (who I don’t see but every few weeks or months) didn’t say much (well one of them did but I talked to him about it before hand). Like I said, the 20 I have lost doesn’t feel like a lot, and I don’t think even my friends notice it that much. If I took my picture exactly as I did in the header image you may or may not notice either. Actually, you probably would. I am waiting until I get to 190 to do that btw. I am beginning to think 185 may be a better idea for me though….even 180.
190 would have to include muscle weight and a lower body fat %.
Filed under: Pondering Life
I am about to put my gym membership on hold for the very same reasons as Vanish.
Well, I am 214 right now. STruggled a lot last week because of my birthday but things are back on track.
Maybe not 3lbs a week, but at least going down.
He mentions going on Weight Watchers. That diet system is incredible. It sounds really gay to say it, but having done it myself (I lost 30lbs once on WW) I can say from experience – nothing works as sensibly as Weight Watchers.
My friends used to tease me a lot about it, but I could care less. I remember one particular night at a local pub getting lambasted by them…how many points is that New Castle there bud? Ah, they didn’t understand the concept of flex points. Fools….
12/28/06: 223.8
01/10/07: 217.0
Total loss to date (assuming original 226 start-off weight): 9lbs
Average loss per week: 3-4.5lbs (this is tought o gauge due to random start dates and random weigh in times….I need to get more consistent in order to properly measure my weekly goals).
I am on goal so far, for the first two weeks. It’s actually been a little bit more then 2 weeks if you use 12/26/06 as my start date, but right about two weeks tomorrow if you use my latest weigh in of 223.8 on 12/28/07. So maybe I will report back tomorrow morning what my weight is and that will give an accurate 12/28/06-01/10/07 weight loss scale. Hopefully I am down to 216 tomorrow, or even better! We shall see.
My mental game is right on, I am not skipping a beat. I have had a couple bad meals in the last 2 weeks. I had 2 really bad lunches (double bacon cheese burgers and fries kind of lunch), one really bad day (new years day watching USC Rose Bowl game, awesome!), and 2 full on sushi dinners (tons of salt, and a bit of rice since I didn’t eat 100% sashimi – you try paying that bill). Also, little to no exercise. So maybe my mental game is not 100%, but getting on target for sure. Improving, not worsening – let’s just leave it at that.
Considering this, I am doing well for now. My Dad, who started of about 5lbs lighter then me is at 213, exactly 4lbs lighter. That means I am right on his heals to catch up if not beat him by 190lbs (23-27 more pounds to go).
The other day my Mom gave me pictures from my trip to Israel in May 2001. I will probably scan a couple of them in soon and post them here, along side more recent “fatty” pictures. Just to make it clear to anyone who hasn’t known me for more then 5 or 6 years that I truly do need to drop a good amount of weight. My healthy weight should be below 190lbs. I would like to hover around 190 for a long time once I get there, no more then 195, and hitting 200 once I get below that should send signals to my brain to immediately cut the fat and get the 8-10 pounds off!
It’s much easier losing 8-10 pounds then it is 40+. Wow, 40lbs overweight.
Also: I realize my categories are lame 
Each post kind of fits into every category…stupid me, trying to get all “smart” about this and make it logical. Oh well….
Yeah, the title of my blog could be PLUS three pounds a week, or MINUS three pounds a week right? I left that one word out, leaving an excuse available.
The point is, I haven’t lost a pound. In fact, I got on the scale last night fully clothed, after days of binging only to see it read: 237. Now, I know that is not 100% correct, but in the end scales don’t lie. The flip side, of course I did not gain over 10 pounds in a couple weeks. Or did I?
So what next?
Well, I was kind of warped to think I would make it through the last half of December without failing. There are just too many lunches out, boxes of candy, and dinner dates to keep saying “no”. It all kind of peaked last night once I got on the scale. I talked my Dad into renewing our bet where the first person to get to 190 pounds buys the other one steak dinner at Morton’s. He weighed in last night at 227, a nice 10 pound gap (in theory) between us.
I’ll be posting my weight tomorrow – as I am on a 24-36 hour liquid diet (shake stuff) to flush my body again of toxins. Should be interesting what the result is tomorrow morning when you consider I was technically 237 last night.
Well, I am still at 226.
Clarification: my goal for Wed (12/13/06) is 224.0.
I didn’t do the diet from Friday through Sunday. Oh well, I have 2 days to lose 2 pounds, shouldn’t be that hard. Actually, I also ate at Jack in the Box on Thursday night (not off the healthy menu either) when Beth and I got our tree with my brother. So, let’s see, I did the diet for all of 48 hours maybe? LOL. Actually, I have done well detoxing off of sugars and stuff, soda, etc. My persistent headache is gone now, and I feel like I can actually get work done today.
I hate dieting though. I would say I probably hate it more then being out of shape and overweight. Isn’t that odd? I need to change that. Somewhere along the line wires got crossed in my head and I would rather shove a donut into my face then jog or walk the dog (90% of the time). This is only a partial truth, otherwise I would never diet. A lot of people could probably relate to this. Obviously, self preservation plays a key role, but at my age that is not a realistic fear yet.
At the heart, I just love food for some reason, only bad food too. Sin issue? I don’t know, I don’t care to ponder that much. I have a good friend who says that gluttony is a problem for just about everyone around us. Maybe it is. Mass media would leave you to believe it is true. I think that gluttony is a symptom of another sin, probably a sin of pride. Eating brings pleasure, it brings happy feelings and self satisfaction. It also kills us. I think of how ironic this is that we are killing ourselves with pleasure every day, and in a strange way this is the biggest act of self hatred that any of us could performe on ourselves. In this way it becomes a “sin” or “gluttony”. When our self-love is turned on us in such a way that we become self destructive as opposed to God focused (I think of how Piper describes true “love of self” in light of eschatology). We are commanded to love others as we love our own bodies so what is wrong with this picture? I am hating my body when providing self pleasure that leads to destruction, and therefore I do not know how to love others either.
Just some food for thought…
I have no idea what I weigh right now.
Here’s the deal, I am out of shape, fat, and lazy. I had a competition with my Father going last year. First one to 190lbs has to buy the other one dinner at Morton’s Steak House. Great idea, reach a diet goal and the first thing you do is go out and eat a pound and a half of red meat with 2 pounds of starch. All in the name of good healthy living right?
So a year has gone by, we are approaching yet another holiday season. Well my life is one giant holiday when it comes to my diet, so I guess it doesn’t really matter what time of year it is. For lunch today I ate 2 Double-Double’s from In-N-Out. I am not even including the french fries and about 3/4 liter of Dr. Pepper. As I contemplated my state of mind while eating this lunch I realized something, that is, I am going to die and the last thing I want to think while dying is my last meal killed me. I know that is not literally true, but consider that my last meal was probably consumed weekly for years and you do the math.
I have a gym membership that I do not use. Yes, I pay monthly, for the last handful of months I have gone one time. My wife dragged me there that one time.
The goal I have set is 3lbs a week for at least 10 weeks. That means I will lose 30lbs by Feb. 13th, 2007. Delightfully, the day before Valentines (my wife will be happy!). From there, I think I will need to lose another 5-10lbs to hit 190, as I really think I am pushing 230lbs right now, possibly more.
I stand at 6′1″ tall.
So, we’ll see. I will probably weigh in tonight after my shower and post stats here, and then again in the morning and continue to post stats.
Watch out world!
