Lots to Lose

If Nothing Else

2012-02-08T22:19:00.000-06:00

If nothing else, I have been getting my exercise once a day by walking up the many flights of stairs my floor of my office building. Also, have started parking pretty far away. Until I start back on the Wii Fit and other more regular exercise, this will have to do. And I'm hoping as the days pass, I'm a little less winded when I finally get up to my floor!

New Pedometer Year Starts Tomorrow

2012-01-25T22:23:00.000-06:00

Tommorow starts another new year on the pedometer with a chance to earn $500 if I can make it to Level 5 this time. Last two years I've hit Level 4, which is pretty good but not worth as much $. Level 5 does not require running marathons, it just requires a day in/day out committment to at least taking a reasonable amount (7000 steps) each day. You do that, you pretty much are guaranteed Level 5.

Starting tommorrow, I'd like to rededicate myself to taking the same approach with my weight loss effort, meaning I don't plan to lose the rest of my weight with some crazy cabbage diet or exercise regimen. Eating reasonable amounts of the food I love and and diing at least some kind of activity every day worked before and it will work again.

Holidays Over and Mostly Sugar Free

2012-01-17T23:21:00.000-06:00

First of all thanks to my friend Enz for the harrassment to get back to the blog. I didn't quit or anything. Just busy Holidays followed by a great visit with friends in Kansas City, and just now settling back in. Definitely picked up a couple pounds in KC with all the barbeque and beer.

In the meantime though, I've learned something I think will help.Whenever I eat a lot of foods loaded with sugar/white flour I've noticed I really feel crappy, don't sleep well, and wake up feeling unrested and lacking energy. Now I love ice cream and fried/breaded stuff as much as anyone, but I think the way it messes me up when I overdo it is a clear signal from my body telling me to quit it. For the past few days, I've cut way back on these things and have felt much better. It's just really another avenue to my original only-eat-when-hungry road that helped me shed all the weight in 2010, but I have had a lot of trouble losing pounds lately so I'll take any avenue I can get!

Treading Water

2011-12-14T22:30:00.000-06:00

Last few weeks basically just been gaining and losing the same pound or two, I guess with it being the holidays this is sort of a victory. More soon.

Hope All Had a Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-28T22:54:00.000-06:00

Thanksgiving break was overall nice and relaxing and, hey, I even lost a pound in there somewhere. Walked around enough with the wife on Black Friday to burn some of the calories I guess.
Eating, even on Thanksgiving Day itself, wasn't too horrible and the honey bourbon-glazed smoked turkey breasts and ham came out real nice. Still fighting to drink enough water, so have to rate most of my days as B/B- but as long as I'm losing a pound here and there, I won't stress about it.

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving break, avoided the pepper spray, and may you continue to have a great Holiday season.

B's and Sugar

2011-11-15T23:14:00.000-06:00

I've yet to put together that perfect day where I eat just right, drink my fill of water, and get the proper exercise, but it's OK since I've dropped 3-4 pounds in the past couple weeks. Most days in the past week I would rate a B because I ate reasonably well and either drank plenty of water OR got at least form of exercise.

One thing though is that after meals, especially dinner, my body gets this a sugar craving for ice cream, candy, etc. So I let myself have just a little bit. I really shouldn't though because I'm not usually even hungry when the craving strikes, I just want the sugar. And not an orange or something, only legitimate 100% processed sugar will do. So I'd like to stop this habit, I just don't know how right now.

An Encouraging C+

2011-11-08T23:16:00.000-06:00

Grade C+ and for same reasons as usual lately...lack of water and lack of exercise.

I actually find this C+ encouraging because I realize that since I resumed the habit of doing a quick blog post everyday I've pretty much cut out mindless eating, buffets, and overeating in general and really haven't missed any of it at all! And overeating is and has always been my biggest demon when it comes to gaining weight.With a little extra commitment, I can get that water drank and at least do some kind of exercise even if it's just walking around the building at work a few times a day. Those should be much easier adjustments than cutting out all the stupid amounts of eating has been.

I still eat whatever kind of food I want, pizza/fried chicken/ribs etc and I feel like checking in with you guys everyday is somewhat like an AA member staying in touch with their sponsor regularly, it keeps me honest about my goals. Thanks guys!

I'm Tired, Very Short Post

2011-11-07T23:36:00.000-06:00

C+ today. Eating was Ok, but no real exercise and not enough water. Too much salty food too.

Since I started the self-grading, my grades have been subpar, but the important thing is I'm thinking about this stuff again. It will come.

Shish Kebab

2011-11-05T23:55:00.001-05:00

A+ for the grilling, B for the weight loss effort

Grilled some marinated shish kebab for lunch. I think it's reasonably healthy and it came out great! Dinner included hot wings, but only 5, rather than the 15 I'm capable of putting down. Today could have been an A had I drank more water and exercised some more, I mean I raked leaves for 1/2 hour which counts for something, but still need to pick it up in that regard if I want to start dropping more pounds.

Busy Night

2011-11-03T23:24:00.000-05:00

Today's grade is another B-. Started off pretty good but didn't finish well.

Up until workday was over, I was doing really well and headed for an A grade but tonight I let the circumstances of my busy night circumstances dictate what I ate (Krystal - 2 miniburgers and handful of fries) and also let it dictate that I didn't do any kind of exercise. I ciuld have done better, but I certainly could have done worse, so B-.

Improvement

2011-11-02T23:20:00.000-05:00

Today was not stellar, but still a big improvement over the last two days. Fiber bar for breakfast and jerk chicken (white), bean and corn salad, and sweet potatoes at Calypso for lunch. Plenty of water throughout the day, and even a quick walk with the wife after dinner and Psych.

Slip-ups featured eating half a cupcake at work that I wasn't even hungry for and maybe being a little too much of my own best customer as I grilled out for the family tonight (mesquite smoked chicken, grilled onions, garlic bread, and green beans). I like to sample as I go to see how things are coming along and and adjust seasonings if needed etc. This would be fine, except that those little samples do add up and when I finally do sit down and have a reasonable sized plate with the family it's almost lke I've already eaten a meal and now I'm having seconds. Of course, this is the kind of stuff that can be easy to rationalize away, but I was stuffed after dinner and it was obvious I ate too much. It's just a lesson learned I guess. From now on if I sample a fair bit during grilling I'll just have a super small portion at the sit-down dinner, and that will be fine.I need to start putting some pictures of what I grill on here too!

Would have graded B-, but bumped up to B since there was a good lesson learned on the grilling/sampling. Good night y'all!

The Day After

2011-11-01T22:06:00.000-05:00

I did a little better the day after Halloween than I did yesterday, but not much. Too much grazing on yesterday's candy and I even felt the need the finish the last of the Boo Berry cereal after dinner when I wasn't hungry at all. Breakfast and lunch were reasonable at least, and I did drink a decent amount of water, but no exercise to speak of.

Call it a C-

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T22:37:00.000-05:00

Happy Halloween all, definitely writing today off from the weight loss perspective. My company had a potluck lunch and brought in pizzas to boot. Combined with free candy that was absolutely everywhere I went today (home, work, the grocery store), this was a bad eating day. I'm going to throw down one more mini-Butterfinger, take my "F" grade for the day and get back to it tommorow.

Out of earning this "F" though, I have realized that I will start the everyday "A" through "F" grading on the blog again, even if it's just a sentence or two. It's an easy way to keep up with the blog and it tends to keep me more accountable to myself.

Happy Halloween all!

Balance

2011-10-16T09:20:00.003-05:00

I tend to be one of those obsessive personalities who gets really fired up with something for awhile only to have my interest eventually fade away. Back in early 2010, weight loss was my day and night obsessession and I had a lot of success with it. Then my interests shifted over to programming smartphone "apps" and that was going prety well for a bit but life pressures got in the way and I just kind of abandoned it too. This year, I've bought a few charcoal smokers and have become fascinated with learning how to make great slow-smoked authentic barbeque...ribs, chicken, smoked turkey legs... and I'm smoking and reading about smoking in every spare moment.

The point is I want to find a way to escape this cycle of do one thing, burn out on it, move on to the next. I should be able to strike a balance that allows focus on weight loss, programming smartphone apps, improving my BBQ skills, and life/work/family. It's just going to take a little more organization and committment on my part to make it happen.

Hope everyone's weight loss journey is going well!

I Started Smoking

2011-08-07T23:15:00.000-05:00

Just seeing if anyone's listening....

I did start smoking but not in the way you might think. A few weeks ago, we met up with some friends at the park to grill out and I brought the little Char Griller smoker my wife had gotten me for Christmas and got all kinds of compliments on my baby back ribs from everyone, including my good friend who has won at barbeque competitions in Kansas City. Between that and watching a bunch of episodes of BBQ Pitmasters and my general love of cooking out, I've become obsessed with my new hobby of learning how to make killer barbeque. I've been reading nonstop about different techniques and the more I learn, the more hooked I am getting.

Last week, I bought a much larger scale smoker grill and today used it for the first time. It took over six hours till dinner was served, but the family really loved the spare ribs, and I even made them score me from 1-9 on appearance aroma, taste, and texture like the judges do on the TV show! I know I will improve, but I considered it a very good first attempt considering I was using a huge grill, in addition to different charcoal and wood chunks than I'd ever used in the past. Next time I think I'll pull some neighbors into the yard too and get their opinions.

Maybe this isn't the greatest hobby for someone with a weight loss blog, but I'm hooked so I'll just have to make it all balance out! Just need to use the same old portion control as always, though admittedly that can be difficult with a big rack of ribs in front of you. Good night y'all.

Matt

8 Glasses of Water Per Day

2011-07-29T05:40:00.000-05:00

Thank you everyone for all the great tips on making it easier to drink 8 glasses of water a day. I followed Enz's advice to drink from a 1L bottle instead of trying to pound down a bunch of glasses one after another and somehow that seems to work, thanks Enz!

I had to laugh at myself though, after 2 days of drinking 8 glasses I had a conversation with the wife that went like this:

Matt: "This 8 glasses a day thing isn't working, I haven't lost any weight."

Wife: "And what did you have for lunch yesterday?"

Matt: "Well, the company brought in lunch for a long meeting."

Wife: "And what was it?"

Matt: "Uhh, Italian"

Wife: "And what'd you have?"

Matt: "Umm, Spaghetti, Eggplant parm, fettucini pasta, garlic bread, a piece of of cake with all the colors of the Italian flag (green, red, white)......"

Jump Start

2011-07-24T19:51:00.000-05:00

Haven't lost or gained any weight in last couple months. I'll admit that exercise habits haven't been great, but eating hasn't really been that bad other than when I went on vacation, and that was just temporary weight that came and went. So I'm looking for a jump start and the best and easiest idea I've heard so far has been from my wife - the good old 8 glasses of water a day.

Don't get me wrong, I love a nice glass of cold water. I just don't love 8 nice glasses of cold water. But I'm going to drink em' anyway and see what happens. Will update y'all soon when I find some time between bathroom trips.

Red Lobster 1 - Matt 0

2011-06-30T21:25:00.000-05:00

Uusally when wife and I go out to eat we choose places that at least have some reasonably healthy choices. but we were meeting up with some friends and they suggested Red Lobster. I guess what I ordered wasn't so bad in moderation - seafood pasta with New England clam chowder. I'm just a little annoyed with myself for letting some of the silly psychology that goes into overeating take hold of me and win...

Rationalizations like...."gotta have one of the cheese biscuits"...and before you know it you've eaten 3, maybe 4.

Or..."there's less than 1/2 the pasta left on the plate now, not enough for leftovers, plus seafood isn't that good the next day, might as well finish"...even though my stomach was clearly telling me I was done.

And "might as well have a few bites of chocolate cake too" since it came as part of some special my wife had ordered and I was way past full by then.

I've always said since I started this blog that I'm not "dieting" and that I'll eat the foods I like, but stick to common sense amounts and NEVER eat when I know I'm not hungry. I lots tons of weight in 2010 sticking to those simple principles, and tonight I let the Red Lobster steer me away from them. I know that knowing is half the battle and recognizing your behavior is the key to changing it and so forth, but it still doesn't change the fact that the score is Red Lobster 1 - Matt 0.

Hey All!

2011-06-26T15:46:00.000-05:00

Thanks to all of you who've been checking in on me during my 3 months of not blogging. I have missed y'all and I really have appreciated hearing from everyone. And though I haven't been posting, I often wonder how things are going for each of you.

As for me, I have pretty much been in a holding pattern for months, not gaining much not not losing much either. Eating has been a little heavy, but not overly bad. Lack of exercise is the main culprit I think, got to get recommitted to that even if only for 20 minutes a day.

I will fess up about gaining 5 lb on a recent vacation of Boston. Many a visit to places such as this did not help. Thankfully I've lost a few of the pounds since returning from vacation, but I don't think I'd have a prayer if I lived in the North End of Boston!

Losing It

2011-03-20T22:58:00.000-05:00

Finally starting to see some reasonable progress on the weight loss. Still got a ways to go, but I've pretty well gotten back to the point where I don't mindlessly eat anymore and I walk a least 7000+ steps a day. If I can keep that up, I'm confident I'll reach my goal in time.

One thing I think I did wrong in 2010 was to set my goal weight too low. I had lost 25 lb and was within 7-8 pounds of my goal but never could get there even though I was doing all the right things. I should have realized that I was already in the proper weight range, and just worked on maintaining. Instead I guess some frustration kicked in and I started slowly putting it back on. This year, I think I'll get it right.

Good night all!

Thought about WW

2011-03-06T18:27:00.000-06:00

Everyone who keeps up with me on here knows I don't follow a "weight loss plan" but for the past few weeks I've been losing and gaining the same few pounds and not really progressing toward my goal weight and it's made me consider a WW approach. For whatever reasons, I haven't been able to recapture the same drive and motivation in 2011 that I had when I kicked off this blog on New Years Day 2010. I think this is partially because I have managed to consistently keep off 15 of the lbs I intially lost, and my subconscious is saying "oh well, close enough, you still fit into a lot of the smaller sized clothes you bought after losing 25 lb." But I sure don't fit into them as well as I did before. I've been thinking that maybe the discipline of points tracking for a few months would get me going in the right direction again. In reality, WW isn't much different from what I did when I lost all the weight last year, as it's a very "common sense" based approach.

I have no intention of following WW or any "plan" for the long haul because I defintiely don't want to be counting calories, fats, fibers etc for the rest of my life, but for the short term you may hear me quoting points and bonus points to see if I can can start making some progress.

Good night.

Paranormal Activity 2

2011-02-15T23:12:00.002-06:00

Watched Paranormal Activity 2 tonight and I'm really impressed with both films in the series. They lack the glitz, big name movie stars, and special effects we have come to expect in succcessful films thes days, but both make you feel jittery and keep you on edge almost the whole time. I can't really explain why the films work so well, but somehow simple things like a shot of an absolutely still swimming pool at night or someone standing in the same place for 3 hours manage to be really unnerving in the way they are presented. I grew up on the over-the-top horror movies of the 80s like the Nightmare on Elm Street series and I still love all those old classics, but there is something just really inspiring to me about the hard-hitting effectiveness that the low-budget simplicity of the Paranormal series delivers.

You might ask, how does any of this relate to a weight loss blog? Well, I think that the same simplicity that the Paranormal series uses so effectively can be applied to helping us achieve our goals as well. As a country, we spend millions (if not billions) of dollars a year on fancy weight loss programs, personal trainers, gym memberships, exercise equipment, pre-packaged diet food delivery services, mobile device apps, books, magazines, and 1000 other things that fall into this category. And all these things are great if they work for you.

I guess I'm just saying that when you distill down to the core all those things we spend so much time, effort, and money down, you are left with basically a few principles: staying as active as you can, not eating beyond your actual level of hunger, and making sure what you do eat somewhat resembles a decent balance of the food groups. So those of us who don't have the time, money, or inclination to pour ourselves in all these "program" type things can still succeed brilliantly if we stick to the basics like Paranormal Activity 1 & 2 did.

Good night all.

Hands Haven't Bought in

2011-01-31T23:12:00.000-06:00

Past couple weeks my shoulder blade started aching for whatever reason. Just felt tense and knotted and kept getting worse. I had tried every kind of fiery cream stuff you can put on your back sold when my wife finally happened to run across a nurse at the grocery store who recommended taking 4 ibuprofen at a time to kill off the inflammation. Sounded like a ton of pills to me but I took them and and between that and ice packs it sure has helped. Hopefully I am on the tail end of this now, I haven't been in a mood much for blogging since this started.

Pretty much have kept an even keel on the weight loss front. Not much progress. Eating has been a mixed bag. Honestly I'm still having trouble fully recommitting to my #1 principle that led to so much success in 2010 and that is simply ONLY EAT WHEN ACTUALLY HUNGRY. My head and heart are committed to the principle but my hands that grab up the food for no other reason than its there have apparently not bought in 100% yet.

I have not been binging or anything like that, just haven't been doing my best. I will get there though.

Lotta Lotta Pizza

2011-01-19T18:29:00.000-06:00

Wife and I went to New York for a wedding for four days and I ate like a moron pretty much from the time I got there until the time I left. See, I have lived in the South for almost 20 years and one thing that is really hard to get here is great New York Pizza. Within an hour after getting off the plane, I was eating wonderful slices of cheese pizza and Silician pizza, followed by some amazing chocolately dessert. This pretty much set the trend for the rest of the trip, which ended with one last desperate stab at authentic pizza at MacArthur Airport on Long Island. Even that airport pizza kicked the butt of most of the pizza I can get in Tennessee.

That's about all I got for now, I gained a couple pounds, which I guess isn't bad for a long weekend/wedding. Gotta get serious now though, as my new pedometer cycle for 2011 begins next week. Gotta gotta earn that $$$$!

Good night y'all!

Snow in Tennessee

2011-01-11T22:47:00.000-06:00

We've actually had snow accumulation here in the past couple days, which is rare in these parts. Have had some fun playing in the snow, but weight loss and exercise have taken a back seat for the past couple days as a result of being snowed in, etc. Yesterday, I worked from home and noticed myself grabbing at food a lot more than usual just because it was there. I don't do that during the normal day at the office. I guess it's a good thing I don't telecommute every day!

However, I did finally stumble my way to Level 4 on my pedometer program tonight, so $175 is coming my way. When I reached Level 4, the website told me that if by Jan 26, I can earn only 11,900 more Health Miles (which is equivalent to about my past six months total of walking etc.), I will reach Level 5. Anyone got any ideas how I can do that?

Black Coffee

2011-01-08T13:03:00.000-06:00

I have to work this afternoon/tonight, so I'm posting early today while I sip a cup of black coffee and I got to thinking about coffee. One thing I started up in early 2010 and have actually stuck to consistently is not loading up my coffee with sugar and creamers and flavoring. It seems like a silly way to me to add lots of fats and cals to the mix when I'd rather eat something like pizza or ribs or fried chicken or ice cream if I'm gonna have something bad to eat,

And I think it has made a difference. I've gained back some of the weight I lost in ealry 2010, but I think part of why didn't pile it all back on has to do with the coffee. See I drink 3-4 cups a day easily, so it really can add up. So if anyone is looking for an area to make easy cuts in fat intake, I highly recommend the black coffee route, if you can stomach it.

Good day y'all!

The Situation

2011-01-06T23:49:00.000-06:00

So my goal is now to walk 12,000 pedometer steps 4x/week and 7000 steps 3x/week, so as to spread out the walking and make it more achievable than trying to commit to 10,000 every day. Heres the siutation:

I started this on Sunday and used my 3 alloted 7000 step days within the first 4 days. I got 12,000 today and will have to do so again to next 2 days in order to stick to the concept. So the "spread out" idea really hasn't panned out. The "I got all week to get in my 12,000s, why mess with it today" thought process has won out.

I'll get my 12,000s for the next two days, then actually try to spread it out better next week. Good night y'all!

Walking = Money

2011-01-04T23:03:00.000-06:00

Early last year, my company started a Health Miles program where you wear a pedometer and eventually earn some cash when you walk enough steps. It's pretty easy to get to Level 2 and 3, and you get some cash for it, but most of the money is attained by reaching Levels 4 & 5. Those levels takes a long time and a lot of walking. A few days from now, I will actually reach Level 4 and earn $175!

The cycle starts over again on Jan 26, and I'll be back at Level 1. One of my goals for 2011 is to get to Level 5, which I think I can actually do with enough consistency. The extra money will definitely be nice, but I'm hoping the real rewards show up on the scale and in my energy level.

Good night y'all!

Everyday Goals?

2011-01-02T22:47:00.000-06:00

I have been at this weight loss blog thing for a year now, and looking back at 2010 I think my general approach worked when I stuck to it. But I do think there were times when I set the bar a little too high, for example "I will walk at least 10,000 pedometer steps everyday, no excuse" was a goal of mine for a while last year and it just wasn't always possible to stick to that 7 days a week because ..well..life happens and you can't always do it. And when I wasn't able to meet the 10,000 step goals everyday, I eventually stopped worrying about how many steps I had anymore and that was another goal down the tubes. But I think an important part of sticking with this long term, reaching our goal weight, and staying there is being able to succeed at the smaller intermediate goals. And I think part of that means being resonable when we set these goals. In my case it was pedometer steps, but I think if we try to commit to doing anything every single day, the chances are good we will eventually fail and get discouraged.

So this year my goal is at least 12,000 steps 4 days a week and 7000 steps for the other 3 days. It will be much easier to achieve and will result in the same amount of exercise as if I'd hit 10,000 daily. Just something to think about as we set these goals within the goals.

I apprecaite the new followers that have been coming my way, and will be catching up with you tomorrow. Gotta get some sleep for my first full work week in a while. Good night y'all!

Happy New Years

2011-01-01T23:18:00.000-06:00

Just a quick entry tonight before New Years Day is over.

The wife prepared all the classic good luck New Years Day foods (fatback bacon, greens, and of course blackeyed peas) ate we had them for lunch and dinner for double luck in 2011. I wish the same good luck to all my blogger friends past, present, and future, as well as all those people out there who are just starting their weight loss blog today.

Good night all and hope you had a wonderful time ringing in 2011!

Music City Bowl

2010-12-30T22:40:00.000-06:00

Posting tonight just so I can say I made an entry.

I'm in a bad mood from watching the Vols lose the Music City Bowl to North Carolina in most bizarre fashion. The refs actually announced the game was over, players from opposing teams shook hands andetc., then after a lot of chaos 1 second was put back on the clock, which led to overtime and eventually a Vols loss.

Be back to weight related entries tomorrow and definitely on Jan 1, which has to be the most popular day of the year for starting weight loss blogs.

Night all,

Stealing Your Friends

2010-12-29T22:27:00.000-06:00

I've noticed that about half of the weight loss bloggers I used to chat with all the time have pretty much fallen off the blogging circuit like, and haven't posted anything for months. And a lot of the group that is still around posts very infrequently, maybe in part cause it's still in midst of the holidays. Mostly though I think a lot of folks (myself included) started off strong with their blog on Jan 1, stayed active for quite a while, and eventually other parts of life just took over.

It sure has been a lot of fun jawing with Tammy from the old crew though, and it has made me remember how much I enjoyed the everyday camaraderie of the blog. So be warned, over the next few days I'm going to be raiding everyone's friends (startign with Tammy's, LOL) to form a new group of "regulars!"

Good night y'all!

Some Good Things

2010-12-28T20:06:00.000-06:00

Today, for the first time, I feel like I'm starting to get back on track. One good thing I did was eating only half my meal at our favorite Chinese place and then finishing the other half as leftovers for dinner. A week ago I would have just eaten the whole thing. You know how it is. You eat about half the meal and you feel satisfied, but you keep taking another bite and another bite because it tastes so good. Then a few bites later, there's not enough left to justify a takeout box and...well..you don't want that great food to go to waste, you are past the point of no return and you finish it off.I can't count how many times I've done that in my life, and obviously that's a big part of my issue.

Another good thing is that I ran on the Wii Fit for 10 minutes as soon as I got home, which I hadn't done for months and months. And boy did it show. A few months ago I could run 20 minutes straight on there without any issue, but I struggled through 10 minutes today. Even with some good music playing, I kept eye on the timer almost the whole time: "Geez, 7m30s left still! I've only been running for 2m30s!" and so on. I don't know that I was ever "in shape" before but I'm definitely "out of shape" now. Ah well, I got through it anyway. Tomorrow will be easier.

Other good news: breakfast was oatmeal, and I walked down 8 flights of stairs at work a couple times. Still I would only grade today a B, because I had two very salty meals plus a good bit of homeade beef jerky, which is basically like eating a block of salt. But it feels good to be on the right path.

Good night y'all!

Pizza and Beer

2010-12-27T23:09:00.000-06:00

Today started off with good potential - oatmeal for breakfast and just a big bowl of wonton soup for lunch, and plenty of walking. Then came a call from the wife around 3:30pm to see if I wanted to meet up with our friends/family at Mellow Mushroom. We had tomato basil bruschetta for an appetizer, which was good, though probably fattening, Then she and I split a small House pizza, which wouldn't have been bad, except that she was pretty full from the appetizer and only ate 1 slice, leaving 3 for me. All that along with a Fat Tire on tap made for a good tasting dinner, but not a good dinner.

Of course I could have eaten just the two slices and been perfectly full, but even when I was in my peak weight losing pahse earlier this year, leaving a slice of pizza sitting there was never my strong suit, Ah well, one meal is just that, one meal. Right back on it tomorrow. Night all.

Leftovers

2010-12-26T22:20:00.000-06:00

Today was not great in terms in of weight loss I'm sure. Lots of leftovers from yesterday (honey spiral ham, green bean casserole, rolls, candy, etc), but the good news is those great leftovers can only last so long. The scale will tell tomorrow. Good night all.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T12:29:00.000-06:00

Hope you all are having a Merry Christmas and aren't worrying about weight loss too much for today.We actually got a white Christmas in Nashville for the first time in 17 years or so!

I have updated my sidebar to show the weight I gained since I started slacking off on the blogging and good habits. Also I've readjusted my end goal from 160 lb to 165 lb, which I think is realistically the right weight for me. So now I can start setting some short term and long term goals. Short term: wife and I are attending a wedding in mid-January and I'd like to lose 5 lb by then, which will be about 1/3 of the way towards my goal. Long term is reaching goal by the end of March. All in all, it averages out to losing just a little over 1lb per week, which I think is very doable.

Everyone enjoy the rest of the Holidays, we'll have plenty of time get serious about the weight loss again soon!

The Wagon Is Tipping

2010-12-24T18:03:00.000-06:00

Today I at least started thinking about the things that were so successful earlier in the year and blending a few of those things into my day. For example, went to Cracker Barrel for lunch and just had a big House Salad and it was plenty to eat. Well, I bummed a few steak fries from someone else at the table, but the point is that the wagon is starting to tip the other direction.

For better or worse, I am one of those all or none people. So if I'm into something (e.g weight loss), I get vested in it wholeheartedly, but I also tend to fall out of these things wholeheartedly. Getting back into this blog is sort of the first step of folding all the other good habits in. The good thing about how I originally lost all the weight is that it wasn't even a diet or a plan. I ate every kind of food I wanted (pizza, ribs, beer, etc.) , but in much lesser portions than I'm capable of eating. And the thing was, I hardly ever felt hungry or anything during that time. Just the opposite: getting out of bed was much easier, I felt a lot less tired and crappy, and I didn't miss all the overeating.

My "plan" consisted of basically of one thing: don't eat unless actually hungry. That's my biggest downfall, if the food is offered, I'll eat it. If I'm stressed, I'll eat. If I have to stop to fill up with gas, I'll grab a snack just just because it's there. I am convinced that stopping that behavior alone accounted for 70% of my weight loss, the other 30% from simple exercise and getting plenty of water. So simple when you think about it, but also so easy to drift away.

Anyway, it's good to be back on here and heading in the right direction. Merry Christmas to all blogger buds!

I Would Gotten an "F" for Today

2010-12-23T19:40:00.000-06:00

Earlier in the year when I was in the full swing of blogging, I would give myself a letter grade every day based on factors like the healthiness of what I ate for the day, exercise, glasses of water, salt intake, etc, etc. When I stopped the blogging, all the good habits tat led to the weight loss slowly vanished and I've put on some wieght since. So I've committed to getting back to everyday blogging as a way of getting back on track, but I haven't actually started doing anything differently. Right now, I am very much in a "if it's there, I'll eat it" phase. I haven't ran on the Wii Fit in months, I drink water now and then, and the saltier the better. Today was no exception and I think if I were in the grading phase, I'd have had to rank today an F. But that will come in time, today I'm still just happy to be reconnecting with everyone.

Breakfast
2 homeade blueberry muffins my wife made. Not Low Fat, Low Sugar, or low anything. At least they were topped with "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter"

Lunch
Krystal. 5 Buffalo Wings and a Sprite.

Dinner
KFC Original Chicken Breast, mashed potatoes (no gravy), a biscuit, and some asparagus wife made.

Exercise
A little bit of walking.

Snacks
Crackers, Sno Caps, Peanut Butter, can't remember what else.

Water
None.

Can't Believe It's Been a Year

2010-12-22T19:54:00.000-06:00

I first started this blog on January 1, 2010 and dropped from 192.5 lb to 167 lb by the time April rolled around - the discipline of doing the daily blog just kept me in the pattern of doing the right things when it came to eating, exercising, water drinking, and so on. My goal had been to drop to 160lb, but weeks and weeks kept going by and I couldn't get any lower than 167 lb. I should have just decided that was the right weight for me and gone into sort of maintenacnce mode, but instead I basically stopped blogging and slowly got away from a lot of the good habits that led to all the weight loss to begin with.

I haven't put it all back on, but I'm back up to 178 and it's disappointing on several fronts. When I was big into the blogging, I had "met" some other weight loss bloggers that I really considered to be good friends, but I have managed to pretty much lose touch with all of them. I really do miss the daily interaction. And of course, it is disappointing that I have to work on re-losing the weight that I worked so hard to shed in the first place.

My plan to is get back to everyday blogging again, as I think it played such a key role in my success earlier this year. Hope I can re-connect with some of y'all.

Lost Blogger

2010-11-06T17:14:00.000-05:00

Does anyone know what happened to Lisa @No More Diet Drama? I've been pretty much off the blogging scene lately and her blog seems to be gone. She always made me laugh, and I'm hoping she's relocated and one of y'all know where her new blog is.

Hope to be talking more to y'all soon.

- Matt

Dad Was in Town

2010-10-25T22:08:00.000-05:00

My Dad was in town from Thrusday until today, and he had never visited Nashville before. Like me, he enjoys trying regional dishes in his travels and we definitely accomodated him with brewpubs, seafood feasts, pizza joints, downtown ice cream shoppes, country ham, Thai food, and a big home cooked breakfast my wife prepared. Needless to say, I didn't eat well and exercise was sparse.

Dad says he's got to get back to the gym when he gets back up North afte all the eating, and I sure need to get back to exercising and better eating too. I'll weigh in tomorrow and just go from there. Hope y'all are doing well.

A Weird Post for a Weight Loss Blog

2010-09-06T13:23:00.000-05:00

Abother blogger was recently talking about vanilla Tootsie Rolls ("Midgees"), which are apparently only available in stores from September through the holidays. I love these things and went out and bought a big bag of them the next day. Not exactly good weight loss food, but like anything else, it's fine in moderation.

Happy Labor Day!

Still Kicking

2010-09-04T23:06:00.000-05:00

I'm not the blogger I once was, but I'm still managing to keep most of the weight off that I lost. Like tonight I had a 1/2 of a big pork chop and a baked potato with some green beans and a little macaroni and cheese. No seconds and no dessert, which I easily could have done. So even though I've been kind of absentee in my blogger habits lately, I feel like I've been able to make some of the good habits stick. The one I've really slacked off on that that I miss doing is running on the Wii Fit for 20-30 minutes right when I get home from work. If I can get that one back into the fold, I think I'll start moving back to my goal weight again. Good night all and hope y'all are having a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

It's My Pedometer!

2010-08-18T18:41:00.001-05:00

Replacement pedometer showed up in the mail today and I now feel a rekindled sense of committment. I am starting to feel that same determination I felt on January 1 over again.

I think mindless eating is something that probably 90% of us weight loss bloggers have in common. I am convinced that only eating when I am actually hungry was the #1 thing that helped me lose so much weight betwen Jan-Apr. Since then, I have drifted back toward more "eating just because" and as a result I haven't lost any weight since April. I've even gained some back. #2 key to success was exercise. Not ridiculous amounts of it, but a very manageable committment to at least 15-30 minutes on the Wii Fit each day and a 10,000 steps a day. I've also gotten away from that. And #3 is the blog. I've pretty much been a no-show for the past few months and it feels good to be talking to my buds on here again. Just reading a few of your posts again has helped me refocus.

Wife just finished making a big pot o' great chili. Wish me the best in eating just one reasonable sized bowl! That is plenty enough to fill me up, but I will no doubt want more.

Good night y'all!

A Man Without a Pedometer

2010-08-14T09:24:00.000-05:00

Last weekend I found out that pedometers don't work in water. I forgot I was wearing my pedometer and jumped in a pool. Needless to say it doesn't work anymore, even after attempts to revive in by burying it in rice, as was suggested to me. It feels so weird walking around without it, funny how we can get attached to something like that, the way a kid does with a favorite blanket.

Can't wait til the new one shows up in the mail!

I'm Not Gone Just Busy

2010-07-20T22:16:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted for almost a month now - just really been preoccupied with life issues. But I have not given up on the blog or the weight loss goals. At my best point a couple months ago, I had lost a full 25 lbs. Since then I've regained 5 lbs, but I still have the same goal of losing 30+ lb from the point where I started on January 1. Still walking at least 7000 steps a day, eating reasonably well, and happy to have lost 20lb and kept it off.

Going to update the sidebar with my 5 lb gain (:

Hope y'all are doing well, will try to catch up with at least your most recent posts.

Not As Planned

2010-06-21T20:09:00.000-05:00

Running errands during lunch and decided to pick up a Chik-A-Fila sandwich on wheat, with a glass of water. This would not have been too bad healthwise, but then I saw the new Spicy Chik-A-Fila sandwich advertised everywhere and decided on that. So I ordered that and a water, still not too bad. But then the girl behind the counter tells me if I just order a shake, I get the Spicy sandwich for free as a promotion. So for $3 and a little change, I walked away with a giant Cookies and Cream Shake and the sandwich. The sandwich was good, but I still prefer the original. But the shake was awesome! As a token gesture, I stopped after drinking 3/4 of it, but I still had too much.

This is the kind of event that would have slid me down the slope of non stop eating in the past, but it won't this time. Just a silly slip up on my part, with a little help from Chik-A-Fila.

New Obessions

2010-06-13T12:39:00.000-05:00

I bought a Droid phone about a month ago. Being a computer guy, I have spent most of my free time since playing around with it and trying to learn how to write my own Droid apps. As a result, my blogging time has suffered. And my eating and exercise haven't been quite what they were when I started this blog on Jan 1, but I still weigh in every morning to hold myself accountable. When I see any increases, I adjust eating/exercise until I drop back down. I guess it's true that the last 10 pounds are the hardest to lose!

Hope all is well with you other bloggers and I'll try to at least get back to getting 2-3 posts a week in.

Level Three!!

2010-06-04T22:38:00.000-05:00

A few days ago I reached Level Three on my company sponsored pedometer fitness program, which brings me to $150 earned thus far. Level Four, though it's going to take a long while to get to, will add another $175 to the pot. Life has been busy and haven't been hitting the 12,000 steps as regularly as I used to, but still I've at least been getting my 7000 a day, usually more. Also, been shooting some hoops on the street. Eating has been average, not great. Weight has been steadily up and down around the same range. I'll go up a few, then back down a few, hovering around the same place.

All in all, this isn't bad. I'm into my 6th month of this and haven't quit or lost sight of the end goal, which is a victory in itself. Past ventures have usually started with a vengenance and then fizzled out after a couple months. Hope everyone is doing well, good night y'all!

Trip to St. Louis

2010-06-01T00:31:00.000-05:00

Just got back from meeting our really close friends in St. Louis for the weekend. We had a great time and hit many tourist attractions including the Gateway Arch, Anheuser Busch plant, Riverboat Cruise along the Mississippi, and Union Station. Eating was generally unhealthy. Budweiser tour was my favorite, and the free beer at the end of the tour tasted great!

Stops included Ted Drewes for frozen custard (pistachio) and it was terrific! It's easy to find the place, just look for hundreds of people sprawled out all over the parking lot and surrounding area digging into big yellow cups with spoons and you're there. Other places included a great Italian meal at Guido's on the Hill, breakfast at City Diner, Fitz's (where they brew and bottle their own root beer), and good old Hooters and McDs. All this sounds pretty bad when you list it out but other than the Italian meal, I really didn't overdo it anywhere. And we did do quite a bit of walking throughout the weekend. Probably have packed on a couple pounds, but will work on that starting tomorrow morning.

Hope y'all had a happy Memorial Day and found a moment to think of our troops, past and present.

Sometimes Feeling Bad is Good

2010-05-29T00:13:00.000-05:00

Last night was our anniversary, and we went out for a real nice dinner. The food was great, but I definitely ate too much. Crab appetizers, margaritas, big bowl of gumbo, a bunch of my wife's spicy steak pasta, and too many rolls and biscuits with butter. It all tasted great, but a few hours later I felt like crap because my body's not used to all eating all that, which I think of as a good thing. It shows that I've come a long way since January. Yeah, I always used to feel a little crappy after eating too much, but I was really feeling it last night and I think a lot of it has to do with the changes that have taken place in my body over the past few months.

Still there's more weight to lose and keep off, so back to the fight! Have a great Memorial Day Weekend everyone and a special shout out to those of you in the service or with family and friends in the service.

Odd Form of Exercise

2010-05-25T22:11:00.000-05:00

The other day, our neighbors and I dragged this old basketball goal out to the street to play hoops and we decided to just leave it there. See how there's no backboard? This is good and bad. It's still a lot of fun shooting around, but without a real backboard, you end up chasing balls all over the place. But the silver lining is I get a lot of extra pedometer steps in because of the extra running after the ball. Still, I'd like to get a backboard up there!

Champion of Breakfast

2010-05-20T22:31:00.000-05:00

The last few days I've eaten either no breakfast or hardly any. And I've been eating it too late as well (9:30-10am). And I've found myself feeling really hungry for the rest of the day and night and eating all kinds of junk I normally wouldn't eat. So I am declaring myself a champion of breakfast and will start giving this meal it's due respect again.

Showing Up

2010-05-15T21:21:00.000-05:00

Someone somewhere once said that 80% of life is just showing up, and I think that applies aptly to our journeys.

We all have days or even weeks where we get off track or as my blogger friend Kyle says "eat like a jackass." Many of us started out with a vengenance on New Years Day, updating our blogs everyday with every item of food we ate and every exercise activity we did. But eventually the realities and demands of life come crashing in and it gets too difficult to maintain the same kind of everyday focus we started with. Many of the bloggers I used to chat with frequently have long since disappeared, and I fear many of them have given up on all the good progress they had made. However, many of us others have toughed it out through these distractions and through fluctuations in motivation. You know who you are. Maybe we don't all post as often as we once did and maybe some of the initial momentum has worn off from when the journey started, but we are still here, we're still committed to our long term goals, and just because we might have eaten like jackasses we ain't going anywhere, I'm proud to be in cahoots with you guys and every one of you make it a little easier and more enjoyable for me to believe I can do it long term this time.

I've been showing up for 5 1/2 months and plan to keep showing up for many more.

Hanging In There

2010-05-14T17:45:00.000-05:00

We had a great friend of ours and her son from out of town and some other staying at our house for the past week so we spent time with them rather on here blogging, but I have been hanging in there on the weight loss. We tended to eat mostly at home instead of at restaurants, which is good. Granted some meals were not the healthiest. For example, our friend cooks amazingly authentic Mexican food, so we had to take advantage her offer to prepare dinner, right? And the food was so good I that had to try some of everything. And on the nights my wife and I cooked, we tended to prepare things in less healthy ways than we normally would (pan fried tater tots instead of oven baked, and so on) to appeal more to "the masses." Exercise also fell mostly by the wayside, and I gained maybe a pound or two, but no big deal. Back on track again...well after tonight's pizza anyway.

Hope y'all are doing well and have a great weekend!

What's to do in St.Louis

2010-05-06T22:42:00.000-05:00

Our neighbors and friends of many years officially closed on the sale of their house today, and they are staying at our house for the next week or so to finish things up here in Tennessee. So it was kind of a bittersweet day. We'revery happy for them to have removed the financial burden of maintaining a life in Tennessee and Kansas (job relo), but it was sad to see some guy pulling up in a UHaul moving into the house across the street where we've had so many good times. But life must go on - at this point they are more like family than friends anyway - so I expect our realtionship continue for many years to come even if we're separated by more distance and don't get together as often. We've figured out that St. Louis is the halfway mark (about 5 hours drive for each of us) so hat will probably become out new stomping grounds. If anything knows anything fun to do in St.Louis, shout it out.

Half A Pound!

2010-05-05T23:58:00.000-05:00

Thanks everyone for the well wishes to Nashville.

On the weight loss front, I've been floating around the same spot for about a month straight and finally this morning, I weighed in a half a pound less. Now this half pound could be anything from a little water weight to scale fluctuation, but I'll take it! That leaves 7 more pounds to what I'm calling goal and at this rate it will take a good while to get there and that's OK. I feel a lot better these days than I did when I was eating so much, and I've adusted pretty decent to the lesser portions. Tonight, I had just 1 1/2 slices of pizza from our favorite local place when I would have have 3-4 or more in years past, and I was plenty full and that was fine. There was still that urge to eat more just because it's good but I think I am finally learning to live with less.

That's all I got for tonight, it's been nice catching up with everyone and I've missed reading your posts too. Good night!

2010 Flood

2010-05-04T22:40:00.000-05:00

Haven't been posting to the blog much since getting back from the beach. Things were just starting to get back to normal when the floods hit Nashville, as I'm sure evryone has seen on the news. We didn't get any damage on our side of town. Just a lot of rain and tordnado warnings. Good friends of ours, however, have a house that is partially underwater. Anyway, it's been sort of a crazy week.

As far as weight loss, I've been holding my own. No loss, no gain, and I'll take it. My brother, who had last seen me in November barely recognized me when we met up in Hilton Head last week, which was cool. Am going to try to get back in the flow of the blog again. Good night for now.

Back From The Beach

2010-04-28T21:03:00.001-05:00

Hey all, back from my grandmother's 90th birthday celebration in Hilton Head, we had a great time with her, and she's doing terrific! Also saw some family I hadn't seen since I was a little kid, jumped in some huge waves at the beach with my wife and brother, stayed in a great condo, ate some excellent seafood and barbeque, saw 3 alligators and bunches of ibis along a hiking trail, and learned that when you get a bunch of old people together they can drink a ton!

Eating was a mixed bag, some meals were fairly healthy while others I didn't even attempt to hold back. One day we tried to find a no frills seafood place. If you have ever been to Hilton Head, then you know there aren't many hole-in-the-walls, but we found one called the Sea Shack and the food was awesome. It was clear from the start that it was kind of "soup nazi" environment where you are expected to know what you want to order when you reach the front of the line or face their wrath. So after a bit of waiting we get up there and wife tells me to order whatever I think will is best. So I start naming stuff off, and sure enough she starts shooting me quizzical disagreeing looks. So I start changing things around and the order taker starts huffing and puffing a bit and even goes as far as to rip up the paper with the original order on it. At least we don't live there, so if they had banished me (No Soup for You, One Year) it would have been OK! We eventually got our food though, the prices were very reasonable, and it was well worth the soup nazi hassle. We will definitely be back to the shack.

One other good thing, most activities at Hilton Head are outside and involve lots of walking so I did plenty of that, even hit 23,000+ pedometer steps one of the days. I got on the scale this morning and weighed the same as the day I left, so I grade the trip an A for taking a vacation without a weight gain. I wasn't ready to go back to work and start being responsible again, but I have missed you guys and look forward to catching up with everyone. Take care for tonight!

Don't Forget Me

2010-04-21T17:15:00.000-05:00

Next few days are going to be real busy and I may not have the opportunity to post updates or keep up with everyone's journeys, but I'll still be thinking about y'all. Ran across this interesting article today that devles into some of the things that cause use to overeat. I never would have thought about some of the triggers they point out, but I definitely agree with a lot of them, and thought y'all might get soemthing out of it too.

Today's grade is a B- so far. Frosted Shredded Wheat with skim milk for breakfast, a Chik-A-Fila sandwich on wheat (no fries) and Chicken and Broccoli Chinese takeout is in route. Snacked on a 100 calorie bag of yogurt covered pretzels. So that'll be two salty (although reasonably lowfat) meals along with what will probably turn out to be mediocre amount of exercise.

Everyone keep up the great work!

One Exit Away

2010-04-20T23:46:00.000-05:00

We found a great little country restaurant only one exit down the interstate from our house. It's been there for a long time, but we hardly ever go that direction down the interstate because it is sort of headed the opposite direction of most places we go. I'm glad we checked it out though because I really like going to non-chain places with great food and it seems like those places are getting fewer and farther between.

Anyway, I had the Tuesday special: fried cod, whipped potatoes (no gravy), and green beans. The waitress apologized afterwards because they only give you one piece of fish and she felt bad for not warning me beforehand that it wouldn't be enough food, but I assured was plenty and really it was. Not that I couldn't have eaten 3 or 4 pieces, but the smaller portion sure played into my goal of moderation. And I didn't feel bad for having it because my meals up to that point consisted of a bowl of Raisin Bran, a bowl of oatmeal, and a 100 cal bag of yogurt covered pretzels. Also, hit 12,000+ steps and had a fair amount of water. Graidng today an A-, good night y'all!

Freestyle

2010-04-19T20:30:00.000-05:00

Thanks everyone for the compliments yesterday, it just sort of hit me yesterday what a big change in me that whole eat in moderation thing represents. I noticed another one case of this tonight. I ended up eating real light for breakfast and lunch, so my wife and and I went to Moe's for dinner and I had the grilled chicken bowl, fairly healthy. But the big thing is this: when I was done eating, I noticed that my wife only ate about half of her chicken fajitas. In the past, this would have meant instant annihilation, Imperial Stormtrooper style, courtesy of Matt. And I'm not saying the urge wasn't there at all, but I was already full, I took one little bite of chicken and that was the end of the raid.

Grading today a B+ for eating well enough, drinking lots of water, and for not raiding the leftovers. By the way, I've departed from the "food log" approach in every blog post. I still will talk about what I eat, but I was finding there were nights when I didn't feel like posting because listing every food item eaten felt like a chore, like an assignment. So it's freestyle, from here on out, unless I find I need to go back to the food log for accountability.

Good night y'all.

Corn Nuts

2010-04-18T23:39:00.000-05:00

It is late, so another short post. Grading today a B+ for eating reasonable portions of foods I really like (omelet, BBQ chicken, low sodium ham on pita, peas and mushrooms) at all meals, drinking enough water, getting 12,000+ pedometer steps (mostly from yard work). Snacked on a few too many Corn Nuts or might have graded higher.

I feel like I'm generally back on track from last week's mini slump and ready to lose a few more pounds soon. One big corner I can slowly feel myself turning is not feeling like I have to eat a whole bunch of something just because it tastes great. I'm not all the way there on this, but I do find that it's easier these days to eat just 1 piece of fried chicken rather than 3 or 4, or 1-2 slices of pizza instead of all that is available. For me that is a big deal. Good night all.

Anonymous

2010-04-17T23:54:00.000-05:00

Very short post tonight because a good blogger bud of mine had an Anonymous comment dropped on her site, and I ended up pouring all my blogging energy into the ensuing controversy. I didn't intend to and even told myself at the start that I was going to quickly say my two cents and move on, but that just didn't happen.

One big thing of note for me was my very first 20,000+ pedometer step day of 2010, which earned me all kinds of "bonus miles" on my employer health program. And almost all of it came from the walking that just happened during the course of having to do a whole bunch of stuff today.

Good night y'all!

Food Watching

2010-04-16T23:08:00.000-05:00

I feel silly admitting this, but since I started on Jan 1, I sometimes find myself watching what people sitting at other tables in restaurants eat. Not always, but generally, the thinner people order reasonable healthy dishes or at least they tend to eat the heavier foods in moderation. And the heavier people are piling their buffet plate so high that you'd think they were never going to get another crack at eating again. But today at Five Guys Burgers, I saw this very fit looking woman taking her order back to her table and I figured she'd have a tiny burger or something. Instead it looked like the full sized burger loaded with everything and the big ol' paper bag of fries to boot. I thought to myself, "she'll only eat part of the burger and maybe a few fries," but this chick ate every bite of both. Have you ever seen how many fries come in the bag at Five Guys?!? Maybe she works out like crazy, who knows. I find that I even get a little pissed off when I see this kind of stuff because I know what happens when I eat like that regularly, and I wish I could just eat as much I want all the time too. But the fact is I can't unless I want to start putting on the pounds again, so moderation it is. Ah well, enough of that rant.

It's been a long week with a lot of stuff going on - I'm exhausted and not in the mood to log my food and all - this lack of interest in logging might also have a little to do with the fact I ate lunch at Five Guys Burgers and dinner from KFC but ... in my defense .. neither meal was over the top. However, I realize I shouldn't be eatne stuff like that back to back. As a result of busy week, my exercising has also slacked off. Starting tomorrow morning, I'm back to hitting at least 10,000 steps a day and eating better.

Good night y'all!

Cool Whip

2010-04-15T22:50:00.001-05:00

Thoughts for Today
Do you guys ever take a quick nap after dinner and wake up feeling even more exhausted rather than refreshed? That happened with me tonight and I just couldn't bring myself to jump roping or a Wii Fit session afterwards. I didn't even want to take the quick walk around the block that my wife badgered me into before bed, but I'm glad she did because at least it put me over 7000 pedometer steps to earn a few Health Miles for the day. Otherwise, I would have gone straight to bed without earing any for the first time in a couple months.

Grading today a C for general slothiness and for some snacking when I really wasn't hungry. However, out of that unecessary snacking I discovered that fat free vanilla ice cream pretty much tastes like Cool Whip. Maybe that's what it really is.

Good night all.

Exercise
Exhausted tonight so just a short walk around the neighborhood.

Breakfast
Kellog's Chocolate Chip Fiber Bar. 2 cups of black coffee.

Lunch

Thai food - Red Curry Chicken and spring roll. Only ate about 2/3 the rice. Water.

Dinner
Leftover bowl of spaghetti from last night with thin multi grain spaghetti and garlic toast made from wheta pita bread. Water.

Snacks
Kellog's Chocolate Chip Fiber Bar. About 15-20 small gourmet jelly beans. Small cup of fat free vanilla ice cream with a couple spoonfuls of chocolate jimmies (sprinkles). A few Red Hots (atomic fire balls).

Tax Man

2010-04-14T22:50:00.000-05:00

Short post tonight because it's been a long day. After a full day at work, hit Kroger for a few groceries, then came home and let the dogs out, picked up my lawnmower from the shop, finished up some tax stuff, made spaghetti for dinner, and did some jump roping with the wife.

Grading today a C- because I didn't hit my 10,000 pedometer steps, ordered sushi buffet for lunch instead of a few rolls and then didn't follow it up with the light dinner I should have. But what the hell, it was a busy day with taxes and all and I can't always do right. Glad that I'm posting about it though, so at least in my mind I know today was a C- and to strive to not repeat the same grade or worse tomorrow. The sushi place was really cool by the way. It was not a traditional buffet. Instead it was one of those where the sushi goes around the entire place on a conveyor belt in little dishes covered with transparent plastic and when you like one goes by your table, you grab it. And grab we did! Not a place I'll go too often because I eat too much, but it was a lot of fun.

Good night y'all!

McPounds

2010-04-13T23:08:00.001-05:00

Thoughts for Today
Yesterday was my 100th blog post and today I hit the 25 lb weight loss mark, so I figure I'm losing a Quarter Pounder every time I post. If I start posting twice a day, will I lose a Double Quarter Pounder each night?

Joking aside, this is definitely the most success I have ever had at losing weight and I'm starting to hear more and more comments about it. One of the folks I met for lunch today asked me if they were paying me enough at my job to buy groceries, LOL! I know I've said it many times before, but I can't thank my blogging buds enough. Y'all play a big part in the success by being here every day to talk about stuff.

Grading myself a B today. Lunch was too much, but I don't downgrade that as much as I would for a heavy dinner that sits on the stomach all night. Plus got plenty of exercise, drank enough water, and snacking was reasonable.

Exercise
Over 12,000+ steps again, including 500 jump ropes.

Breakfast
2 Fiber One muffins. 2 cups of black coffee.

Lunch

Met up with two folks from a previous company for Mediterranean and had the Mixed Grill, which was an excellent combo of lamb, chicken, yellow rice, hummus, salad, and wheat pita. Glass of water. As a token gesture, I didn't finish everything, but it was definitely token. The remainder would have fit neatly into a Dixie cup.

Dinner
I made baked chicken tenders, macaroni and cheese, and a Birds Eye Steamer Bag of Baby Peas and Mushrooms. Reasonable portions of each. Bottle of Bud Lite.

Snacks
Kellog's Chocolate Chip Fiber Bar. About 15-20 small gourmet jelly beans. 2 slices cantaloupe. 100 calorie vanilla ice cream bar. A small handful of Kettle cooked chips.

100th Post!

2010-04-12T21:45:00.001-05:00

Thoughts for Today
Today is my 100th blog post and I can't believe it! When I started this blog on New Years Day, I couldn't imagine that anyone out on the great wide internet would possibly care what I was saying. Honestly, I wouldn't have been shocked at all if it was something I did for a couple weeks or so and then it just fizzled out. But to my pleasant surprise, I've made lots of friends on here and new followers continue to trickle in each week. So thank y'all for giving me a reason to stick to the blog, and more importantly to my goals.

Grading myself a C+ today. Salty lunch and a bit too much snacking, but at least I got plenty of pedometer steps. Gonna chug a big glass o' water and hit the hay, good night.

Exercise
Over 12,000+ steps again. All exercise come from yard work and a short walk with the wife.

Breakfast
2 Fiber One muffins. 2 cups of black coffee.

Lunch

Taco Bell. 2 Soft Beef Tacos. Diet Pepsi.

Dinner
Leftover 1/2 vegetable burrito from Taco Express last night. About 15-20 chips with salsa. Michelob Ultra Lite.

Snacks
Kellog's Peanut Butter Fiber Bar. 15-20 Reduced Fat Wheat Thins. About 25-30 small gourmet jelly beans. 2 slices cantaloupe. Handful of salted peanuts. A few handfuls of Choco-Cheerios. A couple bites of Sorbee (sugar free chocolate bar).

Long Day

2010-04-11T22:32:00.000-05:00

Thoughts for Today
Wife and I worked pretty much from 7am until now clearing extra stuff out of the garage and the house and hauling it to Goodwill and the dump. We have needed to do it for a long time, and I'm glad we did but I'm exhausted!
Grading myself a B+ today. Dinner was a bit heavy and too salty, but I feel like I burned off plenty of calories and drank plenty of water throughout are long, long day. Going to bed now, good night all!

Exercise
Over 12,000+ steps with all "exercise" coming from working around the house and garage.

Breakfast
2 Fiber One muffins. 2 cups of black coffee.

Lunch

Subway. 6" turkey and ham on wheat with tomato, lettuce, green peppers, banana peppers, red onion, black olives, spices, vinegar/oil. Baked Lays BBQ chips.

Dinner
After a very long day, we got the chance to relax on the patio of Taco Express for Chicken Fajitas and beer. Probably ate a bit too much, but did not eat any tortilla shells. About 15-20 chips with salsa. Michelob Ultra Lite.

Snacks
Kellog's Dark Chocolate Chip Fiber Bar. 15-20 Reduced Fat Triscuits. About 10-15 small gourmet jelly beans. An apple.

Mule Day

2010-04-10T22:12:00.001-05:00

Thoughts for Today
Grading myself a C+ today. Lunch was obviously not healthy, but hey, when at the fair my opinion is eat fair food. Grade was pulled down a bit from an overall salty day, which I'm trying to avoid. But plenty of water and plenty of exercise, so a good old mediocre C+ is about right.

Exercise
Walked a lot at MuleDay and did 500 jump ropes for 12,000+ steps..

Breakfast
Egg McMuffin and one bite of hashbrown. 2 cups of black coffee.

Lunch

I don't know that it can be called lunch. Family outing to Mule Day, which is basically a huge county fair, except that thousands of mules and people from around the country show up for mule parades and lots of other mule activities. Things started OK, an ear of roasted corn, dipped in some butter like stuff but I'm OK with that so far. Then the girls hit the restroom, and my duties were to watch over the stuff, which included drinks and of course funnel cake, basically leaving the fox to guard the henhouse. I bet I ate half of it, and dang was it good. I shouldn't have, but I consider it one of those foods where all bets are off, hungry or not. Other samplings included a bite or two of a hotdog, some lemonade, and few handfuls of cotton candy.

Dinner
Captain D's for a grilled salmon salad with Fat Free Italian, which I think was a nice recovery from lunch. Black coffee.

Snacks
Kellog's Dark Chocolate Chip Fiber Bar. 4-6 Reduced Fat Triscuits. About 15-20 small gourmet jelly beans. An apple.

Stung

2010-04-09T23:29:00.000-05:00

Was just preparing coffee for tomorrow when BAM I got stung by a wasp/hornet. Damn did that hurt! Luckily wife immediately pulled out a tube of anti-sting lotion and it worked like a charm, yeah she's got one of everything...

Anyway, got back on the jump roping thing today, and upped it to 500 jumps. Wife was reading that the best way to do it to maximize calorie burning is to walk around between repetitions of 50 or so to keep up the heart rate. Tried it that way it it worked pretty well. I felt less wore out afterwards. Gonna try alternating jump roping and running every other day so I don't get bored, which happens easily.

Grading today another A-. Yeah I had a Jersey Mike's Turkey and Provolone sandwich (not the best) for lunch but the rest of the day's eating was good, had plenty of water, and hit 12,000+ steps. Also tried a small serving of sugarless chocolate bar that was surprisingly good. Hope y'all are having a great weekend.

Fish n' Chips

2010-04-08T22:34:00.000-05:00

Thoughts for Today
Grading myself another A- today. Yeah I ate fish n' chips for lunch, but I didn't overdo anything and that's totally consistent with what I'm trying to do: lose weight without denying myself any particular food(s) through simple moderation and a reasonable amount of exercise, without letting the weight loss effort take over my life. That's about all I got for today, good night y'all.

Exercise
Ran on the Wii Fit for 20 minutes again and got my 10,000+ steps..

Breakfast
Lemon poppy seed muffin from Publix. 2 cups of black coffee.

Lunch

Dan McGuiness for fish n' chips. I think I got shorted on the fish, just two mediocre sized pieces, but that worked out just fine cause I didn't need the extra and I got plenty full without feeling stuffed. Only ate half the chips (fries). Water.

Dinner
Ham sandwich (with 2 slices of reduced sodium Boar's Head) and a slice of Monterey Jack with spicy mustard on double fiber bread. 1 serving reduced fat Cape Cod chips. Water.

Snacks
Kellog's Dark Chocolate Chip Fiber Bar. 4-6 Reduced Fat Triscuits. 2 slices of cantaloupe. One small chocolate chip cookie.

From D- to A-

2010-04-07T22:07:00.000-05:00

Thoughts for Today
Felt good to run on the Wii Fit again and have a good overall eating day with plenty of water. Grading today an A- (big improvement over yesterday's D-) since it was a good day for the "getting back on track" cause.. I'm really tired and have another long day of meetings tomorrow, so I'm gonna wrap it up for today. Night y'all!

Exercise
Ran on the Wii Fit for 20 minutes and wife and I took a walk, so got 12,000+ steps.
Breakfast
Kellog's Dark Chocolate and Almond Fiber Bar. 2 cups of black coffee.

Lunch

Chik-A-Fila for a Grilled Chicken Salad. Used only 1/2 the raspberry vinegarette dressing and a small pack of croutons. Water.

Dinner
Wife found a 5 ingredient recipe for Light Sour Cream Tortellini, with pesto, parmesan cheese, and broccoli along with a tomato cucumber salad she made with lite Italian. Also had 1/2 of a small piece of Freschetta pizza from my son's dinner. Water.
Snacks
Kellog's Dark Chocolate and Almond Fiber Bar. 4-6 Reduced Fat Triscuits. 1 Dunkin Donuts Munchkin.

Tale of Two Dinners

2010-04-06T23:19:00.001-05:00

Thoughts for Today
I haven't been keeping up with you guys' blogs well lately, have barely found time to do my own posts. But I do appreciate all the comments and new followers and promise to catch up with y'all soon.

Today I did something kind of stupid. I came home from work late and was hungry and had a big bowl of Raisin Bran. Wife was late getting home too and called on her way home with that "I wanna go out to eat" sound in her voice. I didn't wanna admit I was basically full already and so I agreed to go to Chinese, thinking that I could just eat a little and take the rest home. Well we went in the Chinese place and it was just blazing hot in there for some reason and so we ended up at the Japanese place next door. I looked for something small to order, but sushi was all I could really find. I don't consider sushi to be very leftover friendly food, so ended up eating all but 2 rolls and feeling like crap afterwards because I basically ate 2 dinners.

Grading myself an D- today as a result of all this dumb behavior. Also because when I pulled it in the driveway, I was going to run on the Wii Fit to make sure I hit my 10,000 steps and ended up goofing around watching TV too long to do it. There was no good excuse not to run 20 minutes, Not too mention too much overall eating and too much salt.

Feels better to at least document the silliness here on the blog, and strive not to repeat it. Good night y'all!

Exercise
Wife and I took a walk, but it wasn't enough 10,000 steps. Spent far too much time sitting in a conference room today to get enough steps.

Breakfast
Kellog's Dark Chocolate and Almond Fiber Bar. 2 cups of black coffee.

Lunch

Cheeseburger Charlie's for a 1/3 lb burger with letuuce, pico, onion, and BBQ sauce. Ate 1/2 the order of fries, Diet Pepsi.

Dinner
Japanese - Philadelphia Roll and Salmon Skin roll. Used low sodium soy.

Snacks
Kellog's Dark Chocolate and Almond Fiber Bar. Big bowl of Raisin Bran. 4-5 malted milk balls (Whoppers). The carton of Whoppers from Valentines Day is finally gone.

Work Got Me Back on Track

2010-04-05T21:03:00.000-05:00

Thoughts for Today
As y'all who read my blog know, I haven't been doing well with weight loss since mid last week. Today I was in an all day meeting with a big carton of Panera sandwiches provided for lunch. Unfortunately, all the sandwiches already had mayo on them, which I don't care for, so I just had salad, bread, and a small bag of chips and managed to be full enough. So what could have been a heavy lunch wound up a light lunch, even if it wasn't my choice. Also, before this all day meeting, I had (sure enough) another meeting to attend in a building about 1/2 mile away. Normally I would have driven over, but I happened to bump into a co-worker walking over and decided to walk as well. So when I got from form work, I already had almost all the pedometer steps I need for the day, as opposed to the norm of having to hop on the Wii Fit and run.

Grading myself a B+ for the day as eating was good, plenty of water, enough exercise, and just for having a decent day finally. Good night y'all!

Exercise
Will hit 10,000+ pedometer steps by the time day is over.
Breakfast
Kellog's Dark Chocolate and Almond Fiber Bar. 2 cups of black coffee.

Lunch

Panera - Garden salad with vinegarette dressing. Small piece of baguette Small bag of potato chips. Water.

Dinner
Reasonable portion of Easter leftovers. Ham, green beans, pinto beans and onion. Water.

Snacks
Kellog's Dark Chocolate and Almond Fiber Bar. 2 cups of black coffee. A Girl Scout Cookie (Samoan). About 40-50 small gourmet jelly beans.

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T08:52:00.000-05:00

Happy Easter to all my blogger friends, and may you all have a blessed day! Headed out into the country this afternoon for a big family meal. Wife is cooking a big ham and green beans right now. Exercise and weight loss have been kind of derailed since Eighties Night (I'm up a pound or two) and I am going to try to eat a moderate plate of everything, but no promises.

The truth is that over the last few days I've allowed a lot of external factors to creep in and start chipping away at my doing the things that have been working. Not that I've been running around eating buffet after buffet or anything, just subtle little things I've noticed like snacking a few Sour Cream and Onion Chips when I wasn't hungry at all, skipping my after-work Wii Fit run altogether because something else came up...the kind of things can can snowball into bigger problems.

Tomorrow it's back to jump roping and running on the Wii Fit - I've actually been enjoying it a lot more since I found my old CD collection. Back to logging what I eat here on the blog. Back to elimination of mindless eating when I'm not hungry. Back to grading myself on the A-F scale each day. Back to cutting way back on the salt. Back to making sure I drink plenty of water. Back with a vengeance to all the things that have been working successfully, making me feel better overall, and drawing more and more compliments from family, co-workers, and friends.

But for today, I hope y'all have a very Happy Easter! You bloggers have become part of my life and I wish the best upon each and every one of you.

Eighties Night Fallout

2010-04-02T19:40:00.001-05:00

Diversion from my normal blog. Eating and exercise were not good, so I'll concentrate on what was good:

I don't have any pictures to post from Eighties Night at our local sports bar last night, but I will try to paint a picture of the evening. We got all ready at the house, my son wearing the Ralph Lauren khakis, Polo shirt, and sweater tied and draped over the shoulders. Wife with the denimy feathered hair approach. And me sporting the straight tight jeans, white collared shirt, piano tie, and hair loaded with hairspray. When we pulled up to the place, we all kind of had this moment of hesitation like "This sounded great when we first heard about it but now that we're actually here...walking into a public place..looking like this..what if we're the only ones dressed up?"

But we soon got past that and instantly knew all was well when we walked in to a cheesy bleach blond haired, red suspender wearing, flashlight toting DJ waving his arms around like a madman and singing along to Bananarama. I mean the place is pretty 80s-friendly looking to begin with, but this dude sealed the deal. From then on, it felt pretty much like we were actually living in an 80s movie. Some highlights that were not typical Thursday night fare for us:

- Staying out after midnight on a weeknight downing beers (hey they were Bud Light at least)

- Basically talking to everyone in the place as if we knew them all, like it was St Elmo's Fire or something

- I was told by a waitress that I looked like Robert Palmer

- I was approached (while sitting at the table with my wife and son) by a woman dressed something like this, but with more bracelets and stuff, who looked me straight in the eyes and said "I want to have your tie." So many potential cheesy 80s movie type responses to that, but I wisely opted not to use any of them! Our son really wished he had worn the piano tie at that point.

- My wife was approached by this dude who staggering around half in the bag, leaning all over women, while busting his signature pump thrust move (You know there's one of them in every 80s flick! This guys lives the part too, of the 10 or so times I've been to the place, he's been there probably 8 times) . He started telling her how "darling, I have more experience than those 2 a&&h&les put together" (my son and I being the two a&&h&les) and so on. Now normally I would have gotten really pissed for him talking like that and would have ran the dude off. And I would have if he had started touching her. But somehow I wasn't mad at the guy. In fact, the whole thing was really hilarious and my son and I were dying laughing (I mean tears) while this was going on and we actually ended up talking to him for a while as if we were all best buddies. Boy did that feel straight out of a movie scene.

My son, who was born in the 80s but didn't grow up in the 80s said of the night "it was the closest to living in the 80s I'll ever get."

Hope y'all enjoyed the departure from my normal topics, have a great night!

Eighties Night

2010-04-01T18:38:00.000-05:00

It's Eighties Night at our local pub, and I gotta tune up my piano tie, so no time for a full post today. Assault on salt week has officially been pushed to next week since my compliance has been so poor thus far.

Eating today has been OK so far, but we'll see what comes of Eighties Night. Back to this century tommorow.

Good night y'all!

Assault is Not the Right Word

2010-03-31T22:28:00.000-05:00

Thoughts for Today
I probably will not quite hit that 25 lbs in 3 months goal when I wake up tomorrow, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if there were a slight gain. Today's rendition of assault on salt was more along the lines of bringing a nerf dart shooter to a gunfight than an all out assault. Buffalo sauce and Chinese (not to mention salted peanuts) were not good choices for this salt war. I never said I would succeed in carrying out this assault. Just that it worked well last time I tried, and that I wanted to try again for a week. Back on it tomorrow...

However, the overall food eaten today was OK, I had a fair bit of water, and hit my daily pedometer goal. Grade it a C+ and call it a day.

Good night y'all!

Exercise
Walked the dogs up the hill, throw the football around with the neighbors, and ended up with 10,000+ pedometer steps on the day.

Breakfast
Fiber One Oats and Chocolate Bar. 2 cups of black coffee.

Lunch

McDougal's for a Buffalo Chicken Salad with grilled (not fried) chicken. No dressing other than the buffalo sauce.

Dinner
Chinese. Reasonable portion of Chicken and Broccoli and one wonton from the soup.

Snacks
6-8 malted milk balls (Whoppers). 2 pieces of Russel Stover candy from Valentine's Day. A few big handfuls of Raisin Bran. Fiber One Oats and Chocolate Bar. A Girl Scout Cookie (Samoan). A handful of salted peanuts.

Closing In

2010-03-30T23:05:00.001-05:00

Thoughts for Today
Getting real close to losing 25 lbs. As of this morning, I'm down 24.5 from when I started. Would love it if I could drop another 1/2 pound by the time I wake up on April 1 to weigh in, so I could call it a nice round 25 lb in 3 months. Already this is the most I've ever lost, and I'll say it again a lot of it has to do with this blog and my blogger friends.

Grading myself an A for the day for accomplishing a first - running 20 minutes straight on the Wii Fit. I usually break into 10 minute segments. Also for another first, breaking 14,000 steps on the pedometer. Got plenty of water and most of what I ate was healthy, and more importantly tasted great!

Good night y'all!

Exercise
20 minutes runnign on Wii Fit. Also walked the dogs up the hill, and ended up with 14,000+ pedometer steps on the day.

Breakfast
Fiber One Oats and Chocolate Bar. 2 cups of black coffee.

Lunch

Anything and Everything Grilled Chicken Salad at Logan's Roadhouse. Never had it before, but was very good, with little pieces of cranberry and walnut. Had a few too many peanuts out of the bucket, probably about 30, but I like throwing the shells on the floor.

Dinner
In the spirit of low salt, I had a big bowl of Raisin Bran and a whole wheat bagel with a light coating of lowfat vegetable cream cheese.

Snacks
6-8 malted milk balls (Whoppers). Fiber One Oats and Chocolate Bar.

Level Two!!!

2010-03-29T21:08:00.001-05:00

Thoughts for Today
After about two months on the pedometer I wear as part of my company's wellness program I finally made it to Level 2, which earns me $25. Not much yet, but the next 3 levels are $125, $175, and $175, so I'll keep up the walking. Of course the real payoffs are in feeling better and dropping pounds, but still I'll take the cash! If anyone of you have a chance to get in one of these programs, I recommend it.

Assault on Salt Week hasn't exactly started with a bang, because on top of Thai food for lunch I had some leftovers from yesterday's dinner that I didn't want to go to waste. Tomorrow will be a lot less salty.

Grading myself a B- because eating overall wasn't bad, plenty of water, and enough exercise to hit 10,000 steps.

Exercise
Ran 20 minutes on Wii Fit. Will have 10,000+ pedometer steps after a walk around the block

Breakfast
Fiber One Oats and Chocolate Bar. 2 cups of black coffee.

Lunch

Thai Food - Red Curry Chicken and a spring roll. Ate only 1/2 the steamed white rice. Most excellent! Water.

Dinner
Leftovers from last night. Half of Rattlesnake Pasta, mashed potatoes (no gravy), and a little bit of sweet potato for dessert.

Snacks
6-8 malted milk balls (Whoppers). Fiber One Oats and Chocolate Bar.

Assault on Salt - Part II

2010-03-28T20:47:00.000-05:00

Thoughts for Today
I am ready to have another Assault on Salt this week, which means cooking dinner at home every night even when it's inconvenient and trying to keep lunches out as low salt as possible too. When I did it a few weeks ago, it really did seem to shake things up and get the weight loss moving again and since then things have kind of slowed down, so I'm ready to do it again, the the wife is onboard with the idea too. Problem is that I like salty food. Especially while I'm in this weight loss mode and lots of the great tasting lowfat, low cal snacks like seasoned air popped popcorn and homeade beef jerky are loaded with salt. Eliminate salty snacks and sometimes it feels that all that's left is raw carrots and rice cakes..oh wait are rice cakes salty too?...but anyway I'll be OK just doing it for a week.

Grade for today is a B+. Ate only half my dinner portion even though I wanted it all, stuck to one biscuit whn I easily could have eaten three and then asked for more. Had plenty of water and will get in my 10,000 steps. Was a fairly salty day, but next week should fix that.

Any favorite low salt snack suggestions, I'd love to hear them...Good night y'all!

Exercise
Will have 10,000+ pedometer steps after some running on the Wii Fit.

Breakfast
Bowl of Raisin Bran & Multi Grain Cheerios in skim milk. 2 cups of black coffee.

Lunch

Leftover Chinese from yesterday. 1/2 lunch portion of Chicken with Garlic sauce and steamed white rice.

Dinner
Chop House for Rattlesnake Pasta. A very tasty and nonhealthy fettucine in spicy cream sauce dish, but I only ate half and sampled on the wife's mashed potatoes (no gravy), and steamed broccoli. Also had a small biscuit with just a little bit of the sweet butter.

Snacks
An ambrosia apple. About 12-15 malted milkballs (Whoppers). A few small handfuls of salted peanuts.

History Never Repeat!

2010-03-28T00:43:00.001-05:00

Thoughts for Today
I am very happy with where I've gotten so far as far as weight loss and I really do think the fun and support that goes with blogging every day has been a big part of it. And I still have plenty of tough pounds to lose, but even when I do reach my goal, I'm still not sure what's going to keep me from repacking on the weight back on again. In the past, after I've had a certain amount of success losing weight, I'll stop weighing every day, then cut back to once a week, then I'll see I've gained just a few pounds, and it the whole thing slowly erodes from there and one day I wake up and can't fit in any of my pants. This time around is more successful than any past campaigns, but I'm still not sure what's going to keep history from repeating itself.

I think part of the answer lies in continuing the blog long after I reach goal. Do I picture myself posting every item of food I eat to the internet for the rest of my life. No! But I do think I'm definitely going to lean on all my blogger friends for long after I reach goal. to help me stick to the things that have been successful. Besides, I just like chatting with y'all anyway about stuff, weight loss and otherwise, so expect to see me around for a long time to come!

Good night y'all!

Exercise
10,000+ pedometer steps after a walk around the whole neighborhood with my son.

Breakfast
Whole wheat bagel with a little bit of lite cream cheese and 2 slices of turkey bacon. 2 cups of black coffee.

Lunch

1/2 lunch portion of Chicken with Broccoli and steamed white rice and a bowl of hot and sour soup with just a few crunchy noodles.

Dinner
Joey's Pizza (1 slice pepperoni) and a bowl of salad with vinegarette.

Snacks
An ambrosia apple. A frozen Skinny Cow Vanilla Truffle. A small handful of salted peanuts.

Elite Eight!

2010-03-26T21:55:00.000-05:00

Thoughts for Today
UT (University of Tennessee) beat OH State 76-73 to make it into the Elite Eight in NCAA Tournament tonight for the first time in history and we had a great time at Buffalo Wild Wings watching the game and socializing with other UT fans, so health issues and weight loss have taken a back seat for today,

Eating wasn't so good. Had Grilled Chicken Tenders (OK) at Buffalo Wild Wings but also split an order of onion rings and downed 3 giant glasses of Michelob Ultra Lite. Lunch was a Chicken Burrito at Taco Bell, and breakfast was a Kellog's Chocolately Pretzel granola bar. Snacked on a Girl Scout Cookie (Samona) and an Ambrosia apple. Didn't get quite enough water and am not gonna hit my 10,000 steps for today.

C- on the day, but it was a great game, a great time, and I woudln't change a thing about it!
Good night y'all!

I Want my BK Big Kid's Meal

2010-03-25T22:09:00.001-05:00

Thoughts for Today
Wife and I met at Burger King for lunch. Doesn't BK always smell so good outside when they are grilling burgers? We've been eating the BK Big Kid's meal lately, which feels funny to order as an adult, but it's just the right amount of food. A great little double burger and a little bag of fries with a Det Coke. But today we ended up with just the Kid's Meal (guy at counter messed up the order) which is a small, thin single burger and the little bag of fries. And it really wasn't enough, I was starving about an hour later and had to have a snack or two. On the way home I was so hungry, I ate a little pack of croutons that I found in the glove box of my truck.

Also tried my first Activia, before today all I knew was that dumb song Activiiiiiiiiiiiiiiia! It sort of tasted liek strawberry yougurt with hard little pieces of bread in it, but it wasn't half bad.

Grading myself a C+ on the day for not eating enough lunch, which caused me to continuously snack for the rest of the day.
Good night y'all!

Exercise
Should make it to 10,000+ pedometer steps with a little jogging in place. Wife is even talking abou a little jump roping in the driveway, so I'm sure I'll get the steps somehow.

Breakfast
Bowl of Multi Grain Cheerios with skim milk. 2 cups of black coffee.

Lunch

Wife and I met at Burger King - BK Kids meal, burger, fries, and Diet Coke.

Dinner
Leftover Chicken Cream Cheese Rolls from last night. Excellent again. Sides of green beans and Harvest Wheat Brown Grain Rice with mushrooms. Big glass of water.

Snacks
Cascadian Farms Chocolate and Pretzel granola bar. A few spoonfuls of chocolate, the real kind that you cook, excellent! Small bag of croutons. An Activia yougrt/cereal thing. A few peppermints and malted milkballs (Whoppers). A few handfuls of cheese popcorn.

Stress Works

2010-03-24T22:32:00.000-05:00

Thoughts for Today
Again hit my 10,000 steps even though this afternoon/evening was long and stressful and a perfect setup not to get in the steps. I actually kind of used all the crap I had to do as a way to squeeze out a few thousand more steps, so I guess sometimes stress works.

Grading myself a A- for today for reasonable portions of food I really enjoyed, good snacking, hitting my 10,000 steps, having plenty of water, and low salt overall on the day. Need to start working fruit back into what I eat. That's all I got for tonight, hope everyone is doing well on their journey today.
Good night y'all!

Exercise
10,000+ pedometer steps after some walks.

Breakfast
Cascadian almond/chocolate granola bar. 2 cups of black coffee.

Lunch

Wife and I met at Otter's for a salad with two small chicken buffalo tenders and a Diet Coke. Weather was beautiful, so we got to sit at an outside table.

Dinner
Wife found a superb recipe in a book with 4 ingredient Diabetic meals: Chicken Cream Cheese Rolls. She made it with lowfat vegerbale cream cheese and for a 4 ingredient meal, it really had a gourmet type taste. Sides of green beans and Harvest Wheat Brown Grain Rice. Big glass of water.

Snacks
Bowl of Multi Grain Cheerios/Total flakes with skim milk. 1 girl scout cookie (Samoan).

I Didn't Wanna Do It

2010-03-23T21:57:00.000-05:00

Thoughts for Today
After a long day yesterday and a very full day today including doing my taxes, I was in no mood for exercising and my pedometer steps were nowhere close to 10,000. Knowing I didn't want to do it, my wife thankfully jumped in and gave me the motivation I needed, insisting on a much longer walk than we usually do so I could hit my 10,000 goal. She had us going down every little extra dead end, cul-de-sac, and parking lot she could find til I reached goal. And I actually feel more energetic now after having done it. I definitely would have rationalized my way out of it tonight without her, so she gets a Sugar Doll award too even though she doesn't blog!

Grading myself a B for today for the long walk, plenty of water, decent snacking. Would have graded higher if dinner portion was smaller and I'd had a bit less overall sodium.

Good night y'all!

Exercise
10,000+ pedometer steps after the long walk.

Breakfast
90 cal Kellog's Honey Nut bar. 2 cups of black coffee.

Lunch

Mineo's for a slice of cheese pizza and a side salad with vinegarette. The pizza was really good and I must admit I was a little sad when it was gone. Once we left the place I was fine and wasn't hungry at all, but still those urges are clearly there.

Dinner
Wife made a terrific grilled tilapia topped with homeade onion, olive, tomato, garlic, and olive oil salsa. I ate a pretty big piece of tilapia, but had only green beans seasoned with Louisiana Hot Sauce for a side dish. Big glass of water.

Snacks
Cascadian almond/chocolate granola bar. Small bowl of Multi Grain Cheerios with skim milk. Frozen Skinny Cow French Vanilla Truffle.

No Time For Blogging

2010-03-22T17:33:00.001-05:00

Thoughts for Today
Don't have enough time for a real entry today, so just an abbreviated one. Grading myself a A- so far. Meals and snacking have been light and mostly healthy, no real salty food yet, and heading toward decent amount of pedometer steps. Just need to drink some more water and keep dinner reasonable to preserve the A- cause I'm really ready to move past the range I've been hovering at for well over a week!

Good night y'all!

Exercise
Helping our oldest daughter with some stuff at her apartment, that should be enough exercise. Don't know how many pedometer steps I'll end up at.

Breakfast
Fiber One Chocolate and Oats Bar. 2 cups of black coffee.

Lunch

Chik-A-Fila's Char Grilled Chicken Salad with a little bit of berry vinegarette dressing and the pack of sunflower seeds they give you. Glass of water.

Dinner
Unknown as of yet. Something takeout on the way to our daughter's. Will try to keep it fairly light.

Snacks
Cascadian almond/chocolate granola bar. Real small bowl of Multi Grain Cheerios with skim milk.

Thanks Lisa!

2010-03-21T22:04:00.001-05:00

Tonight I'm skipping my usual format because I want to thank my good blogger friend Lisa for presenting me the "Sugar Doll' award. She awarded it to me for being a guy who has lost weight without giving up any of the food I enjoy. As those of you who follow my blog know, that's the most important component of my weight loss journey. I think it's the only way I can make it work long term, as opposed to "diets" I've inevitably abandoned in the past when I grew tired of being so restrictive about the kinds of food I let myself eat and having to keep close counts on calories, fats, etc. My "common sense" approach consists of just a few things: eat only when I'm actually hungry, have whatever I want but in sensible portions that don't leave me feeling stuffed, cut back on sweets and high sodium stuff but don't try to eliminate them, drink plenty of water, and try to get in enough daily exercise to average 10,000 steps a day on my pedometer. I've been able to stick to these things without feeling hungry, have lost 20+ lbs since New Years, and also have felt a lot better and more energetic. It's not a perfect method and I think some of the long plateaus I've hit are a result of eating some hi fat/hi cal food, but I think this is going to be my approach for life as long as I continue to gradually progress towards my goal weight without letting it run my life.

Thank you again Lisa! I really enjoy your blog and I know many others respect what you do as well. This award means a lot coming from you. And now I pass the Sugar Doll award to:

Tammy for losing 100+ lbs, sticking to the reminder of her journey no matter how hard it gets, and being very open and honest about the entire experience.

Enz for always offers great ideas to me and others and keeping a positive attitude through all the ups and downs and her own journey.

266 for losing weight EVERY week since August 2009. Just amazing!

Cactus Freek for her sticking to her journey despite all kinds of chaos in her life.

Journey Beyond Survival for consistently being supportive to me and others and for passing along great information all the time.

Good night y'all!

Flavor of The Week

2010-03-20T23:59:00.004-05:00

Thoughts for Today

First, thanks to Lisa for the "Sweet Doll" award. While it aint the most masculine sounding award, I really appreciate it! Will try to fulfill its terms tommorow. Now onto my day..

I've realized since I started blogging that I quickly grow bored with exercise. Well not exercise in itself, but focusing too much one kind all at once. For a while, running on the Wii Fit was all the rage, then it was walks around the neighborhood, now it's jump roping. Eventually I dread doing them because it becomes too much like a "task." That's why I don't join a gym or anything. I think I would quickly learn to dread any kind of "workout routine" and just up and quit doing it one day. And I'm not putting down any of my fellow bloggers who can and do stick to a exercise routines, in fact I wish I could be more like you in that respect. I'm just speaking honestly about myself and saying I think I need to mix it up better when it comes to exercise instead of concentrating so heavily on things that end up just becoming the flavor of the week.

Anyway, while jumping roping is the current flavor ....

Wife did a little reading online about jump roping and learned that stretching before/after and walking around between sets of 100 or so jumps instead of just standing there panting is supposed to increase the calorie burning benefit because your heart rate stays elevated throughout. So we tried it her way and I do like it better. It seems easier to do all the jumps when you keep moving, my legs don't end up feeling as jello like, and I get done quicker.

Grading myself a B for today. Eating was so-so on the health scale, but lots of exercise, lots of water, and snacking was decent.

Exercise
Upped the jump roping by another +50 jumps for a total of 450. Also, we walked one of the trails at Old Stone Fort State Park and we definitely want to go back and hike more of the trails now that weather is getting nice. Ended up with 12,000+ pedometer steps today.

Breakfast
Bowl of Multi Grain Cheerios mixed with Total and skim milk. I've always liked mixing cereals. 2 cups of black coffee.

Lunch

Wife and I met our son at Panera Bread. I love their French Onion Soup Bread Bowl and I know it's not the healthiest thing in the world but that's my favorite dish there so I was not to be deterred. Was a beautiful afternoon and we got to sit at a table on the outside patio, so I fed the inner part of the bread bowl that they cut out to make room for the soup to the birds. Normally I would have eaten that along with a side of more bread. Instead, got an apple for the side and a few glasses of water.

Dinner
Drove out into the country to visit family and a great home cooked dinner was awaiting on our arrival. Baked fish, baked potato, pinto beans and cornbread, greens and vinegar, and white sweet potato for dessert. Meal was excellent and I must admit I unnecessarily grazed a little afterwards on extra bites of cornbread and sweet potato that I didn't need. But it was a great meal and most people would have done the same thing, so I'm not worried about it. The saving grace is that for her own health reasons "Me-maw" (as we call her) doesn't cook with salt and uses light/lowfat versions of butter, sour cream etc.

Snacks
Fiber One Oats and Chocolate bar. Sliced up orange. A few big handfuls of Multi Grain Cheerios. 4-5 peppermint candies.

How Many Jump Rope Reps?

2010-03-19T21:23:00.000-05:00

Thoughts for Today
Very short post because I'm tired and it's been kind of a long week. Grading myself a A- for today. Eating was healthy other than maybe the dressing on the Greek salad, drank a lot of water, upped my jump rope reps by 50, and snacking was good. I wonder how long I'll be able to keep upping my jump rope reps by +50 a day. At the beginnning, I was thinking I'd get to 1000 a day, but after today (400) I'm not so sure! For some reason, I feel really full even though I haven't overeaten. Maybe it's because of the jump roping and all the water.

Anyway, got to run. I need to catch up with everyone's blogs and will do so soon. Good night y'all!

Exercise
Bumped up to 400 jump rope reps today and am around 8000 pedometer steps. May not make my 10,000 steps cause I'm really tired and my legs bit a bit like jello.

Breakfast
Fiber One Oats and Chocolate bar. 2 cups of black coffee.

Lunch

Terrific Greek Salad at Bosco's with a couple friends from a previous job. Glass of water.

Dinner
A 97% fat free Hebrew National hotdog on a slice of Heathy Life (35 cal) bread with spicy mustard, a small bowl of baked beans, and a few Baked Tostitos and salsa. Water.

Snacks
Fiber One Oats and Chocolate bar. 1 Girl Scouts cookie (Samoan). A few big handfuls of Raisin Bran.

Charley the Grocer

2010-03-18T17:31:00.000-05:00

Thoughts for Today
When I was a kid I remember the guy who owned the neighborhood store was way overweight and he always used to send the kids who worked there out on errands to pick him up Burger King and such. He'd order the most super sized Whoppers, fries, apple pies, etc. available but at the end of the order he'd make absolutely certain that his drink was a Diet Coke. I always found that a hilarious and futile gesture considering the rest of his order. Today I went to lunch at BK and found myself doing the same thing, although in my defense I ate only half of the bad items. But I did make sure that drink was a Diet Coke, so I guess Charlie the grocer finally gets the last laugh.

Posting early tonight cause we're getting ready to head out to dinner with friends soon and probably won't be home until late. Pre-emptively grading myself a C+, mostly because of lunch, but the grade could go up or down depending on the rest of the day.
Good night y'all!

Exercise
Going to jump rope after this post. My goal is to add 50 jumps each day - I did 300 yesterday. Today will be 350, tomorrow 400, and so on until I reach an amount I decide is more than enough. Should top 10,000 steps by day's end.

Breakfast
Fiber One Oats and Chocolate bar. 2 cups of black coffee.

Lunch

Burger King. Ate half of one of the new Steakhouse XT Burger and half an order of fries. Diet Coke. I don't regret it cause I wanted to try the new BK burger, it was really good, and it's not the kind of thing I've been eating on a regular basis! But I just looked up the stats, and I apparently ate half the amounts of each:

970 calories, 135mg cholesterol, 12g sugar, 55g carbs, 61g fat, 42g protein, 1930mg sodium

Dinner
Going out for authentic Mexican with friends. Going to try to stick to chicken fajitas without the tortilla and small quantities of chips and salsa.

Snacks
An Empire apple. 10-12 natural almonds.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-17T20:34:00.000-05:00

Thoughts for Today
Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone, hope everyone is having a good one. I haven't hoisted a green beer yet, but will probably toss back a few Michelob Ultra Lites later. Not quite Harp or Guinness, but it'll do just fine.

Grading today a solid B+. Plenty of pedometer steps, only one salty meal, lots of water, and snacking was healthy. Would have liked to earn an A today, but I did eat some chocolate chip cookie, waffle fries, and bacon, so B+ is tops unless I run a half marathon before bedtime.

Good night y'all and be safe!

Exercise
Going to jump rope after this and also go for a walk, should go way over 10,000 steps by day's end.

Breakfast
Bowl of Raisin Bran with 1% milk. 2 cups of black coffee.

Lunch

My company brought in giant spuds from McCallister's Deli. I had half of one with a little bit of each fixing: bacon, sour cream, cheddar, black olives, chives, and pepper. Also half a chocolate chip cookie. Both were great! Water.

Dinner
Family dinner at Chik-A-Fila. Had a Chik-A-Fila sandwich, half an order of waffle fries, and Diet Dr. Pepper.

Snacks
Fiber One Oats and Chocolate bar. An Empire apple.

Zoolander

2010-03-16T21:35:00.000-05:00

Thoughts for Today
Short post tonight, I'm think I'm still tired from daylight savings and messed up sleep schedule. Grading myself a C+ for today. Lunch and dinner pretty salty and all, but didn't snack much today and have had a decent amount of water, and also going for a walk.

Thanks everyone for all the support last night when I was starting to wander off the trail. Today was an improvement, tomorrow I'll do y'all proud!

Side note. Watching Zoolander while I write this and as stupid as it is and as many times as I've seen it, it still makes me laugh like crazy. Good night y'all.

Exercise
Going for a walk, should hit close to 10,000 steps.

Breakfast
Fiber One Oats and Chocolate bar. 2 cups of black coffee.

Lunch

J. Christopher's for Chicken Panini sandwich and roasted potatoes. Water.

Dinner
Leftovers from Macaroni grill, but much lesser portions than when we went the other night.

Snacks
Fiber One Oats and Chocolate bar.

The BS Stops Tommorw

2010-03-15T22:52:00.001-05:00

Thoughts for Today
Grading myself a D for today. Two salty meals including a fatty dinner that wasn't even very good, not nearly enough glasses of water, no exercise other than walking around Target, and 300+ calories of Starbucks to boot. Pretty much a page out of the playbook that made it impossible for me to fit into most of my pants. If I wasn't going to hit 10,000 steps, today would be a F.

I don't know why I've been messing up the last few days. This morning I had gained 2 lbs, I guess partially from all the salt. It is especially lame on my part because I was so close to getting into a weight range that I haven't seen since the MID-NINETIES and I'm messing around. This BS needs to stop when I wake up tomorrow so I can get on to better places.

Good night y'all.

Exercise
No specific exercise, a little short of 10,000 steps so far.

Breakfast
Fiber One Oats and Chocolate bar. 2 cups of black coffee.

Lunch

Jersey Mike regular turkey sub (#7) on wheat with spicy mustard, lettuce, tomato, onion, banana pepper, and spices. Small bag of baked BBQ Lays.

Dinner
Celebrated our long time friends 25th wedding anniversary and they wanted Chinese buffet. In my experience, going to Chinese buffets at anytime other than 11a-12p or 5p-6p is a bad idea and this was no exception. Nothing really seemed fresh and was all pretty mediocre. I had fried rice, a couple dumplings, hot and sour soup, chicken and broccoli, crab legs, cantaloupe, orange slices, half a cookie, and another couple unmemorable things. All in all was kind of a stupid way to have somewhat of a splurge. At least the hot tea was good.

Snacks
Fiber One Oats and Chocolate bar. 4-6 malted milkballs (Whoppers). Tall Cafe Mocha at Starbucks.

Red Wine Guy

2010-03-14T22:08:00.000-05:00

Thoughts for Today
Grading myself a C- for today, my worst since I started the grading system. Things were OK until Macaroni Grill for dinner and then went quickly downhill. As if what I ate there wasn't bad enough, I then got home and (probably because of the red wine buzz) started eating snacks I was not hungry for at all. Snacked a lot in general today and had 2 very high salt meals. If I hadn't had a decent amount of pedometer steps, I would have downgraded it to a D.

I'm still very happy about the overall progress I've made since starting the blog, but that guy who wants to go around eating everything is definitely still very much alive, especially when you feed him red wine!

Good night y'all.

Exercise
A little bit of jump roping and some walking. A little short of 10,000 steps so far.

Breakfast
Bowl of Raisin Bran and 1% milk. 2 cups of black coffee.

Lunch

Leftover Chinese from last night. Chicken Garlic, string beans, and brown rice. Reasonable size portion with a few glasses of water.

Dinner
Wife and I went to Macaroni Grill. 3/4 of the hot Italian bread dipped in olive oil and pepper. 2 glasses of red house wine. About 1/2 my serving of spaghetti and meatballs and 1 piece of wife's eggplant parm. Only saving grace is we did have leftovers and I didn't ask for extra bread though I easily could have.

Snacks
3-4 small pieces of homeade beef jerky. About 20 natural almonds. An Empire apple. 2 pieces of Russell Stover Candy we've still got sitting around from Valentine's. 6-8 malted milkballs (Whoppers). 8-10 Reduced Fat Triscuits.

Tangible Rewards

2010-03-13T23:32:00.002-06:00

Thoughts for Today
Today I saw some friends I hadn't seen since New Years Eve, right before I started this blog, and they both immediately noticed how much weight I had lost. That was really nice to hear, because I don't notice it in myself as much, I guess because comes off gradually.

Another event today in this vain..after dinner, we hit Kohl's and I bought a pair of jeans in a size that I haven't been able to wear in many, many years. Tried them on when we got home and they actually fit! That was a very cool little moment. It was also the first pair of jeans I have ever bought with holes already in them and some kind of onboard canvas belt. Not what I'd normally buy but wife said they were "kick-a&s" so why not.

Grading myself a B on the day. Although dinner was a bit too heavy, the other meals were fine, my water intake was decent, and had lots of pedometer steps.

Good night y'all.

Exercise
No actual "exercise" but ended up over 12,000 pedometer steps walking around Home Depot, Lowe's and an assortment of other places.

Breakfast
Fiber One Pancakes (2) and turkey bacon (2 pieces). 2 cups of black coffee.

Lunch

Broiled about an 8oz salmon steak wrapped in foil with fresh lemon juice, pepper, spices, and a tablespoon of Parkay. Came out great. Also little bit of rice pilaf leftover from the other day. Water.

Dinner
Wife and I were going to go to Olive Garden tonight cause she was craving pasta, but at the early hour of 5 PM the place was absolutely jam packed. Same deal at Logan's Roadhouse and even Cracker Barrel. The little town we live in used to have none of the major chain restaurants, but now that we do this is what's it's like every Saturday night. It's as if we, as a town, have to try make up for all the years we didn't have the chains.

So we went to Fulin's for Asian and it was great. Chicken and Garlic sauce, string beans, egg roll, brown rice, and split a big bowl of hot and sour. Not an overly healthy meal, but at least we had a lot of leftovers to take home.

Snacks
Fiber One Oats and Chocolate bar. A few small pieces of homeade beef jerky About 20 natural almonds.

The Food Channel

2010-03-12T20:47:00.001-06:00

Thoughts for Today
I find that I pat myself on the back a lot these days for having gotten used to this common sense approach of eating in moderation, but 15 minutes of watching Food Channel sure can change things. Wife and I are watching it right now and seeing all these dishes from great Roadfood type joints around the country: knockwurst pastrami sandwiches on rye with provolone, Chicken MacArthur (a great looking rich, pasta stir fry), perfectly crisp hot wings, and giant and amazing looking burgers and fish sandwiches on big fresh rolls with plenty of awesome looking fries. These were not foods to be found in WW books and the like. We finally had to shut it off cause it looked so damn good!

I guess that part of me that wants to forget the whole thing, push aside the scale, and eat bunches of Chicken McArthur will never be completely gone, but for now I've got him under control.

Grading myself a B- on the day. I did have pizza and chili and beer, but portions were reasonable and didn't I snack as much as usual. However haven't had many glasses of water yet and exercise level is shaping up to be mediocre for the day.

Good night y'all.

Exercise
Nowhere near my minimum 7000 pedometer steps for the day yet, but might take a walk to at least hit 7000.

Breakfast
Fiber One Oats and Chocolate bar. 2 cups of black coffee.

Lunch

Another busy day at work, but went out for lunch anyway. Slice of cheese pizza and a salad with a little bit of Italian dressing. Diet Coke.

Dinner
Wife made up a big pot of homeade chili with 92% lean ground beef and it was a great batch! Had a reasonable sized bowl with 10-12 saltines and two Michelob Ultra Lites.

Snacks
An empire apple.

My First A

2010-03-11T19:49:00.001-06:00

Thoughts for Today
Today was a long busy day and dinner was the only real meal, but somehow I didn't feel hungry throughout the day even though I had only ingested 240 calories up until about 30 minutes ago. Had plenty of water, did some jump roping, should get in plenty of exercise by day's end, and even though it was a weird day of eating that I wouldn't choose to repeat again, I did manage to get in something from all five food groups. Also had dropped 0.5 lbs on this morning's weigh in. Grading myself an A for the day, my first A so far!

That's about all I got for now, thanks much to all my "regulars" who drop by the blog frequently. I always fire up the laptop as soon as I get home to read your comments and it really does make it easier to stick with what I'm doing even when I don't feel like it.

Good night y'all.

Exercise
Did 3-4 mintues of jump roping before dinner. I'm told it's not a good idea to jump rope after dinner, so I won. If I can talk wife into it, we'll take a 20-30 minute walk after dinner so I can get my 10,000+ pedometer steps for the day.

Breakfast
Fiber One Oats and Chocolate bar. 2 cups of black coffee.

Lunch

Very busy day at work preparing for a demo and etc, and didn't have a chance to go grab lunch. All I had sitting around was another Fiber One Oats and Chocolate bar so I ate that with a glass of water.

Dinner
Wife and I split a leftover vegetable burrito from last night's Taco Express and it was very good. She also made up some refried beans with lowfat mexican chhese mixed in. Boy could eat a lot of that, but I just had a portion that fit in section of kiddie tray with a few handfuls of Baked Tostitos and salsa. Bottle of Michelob Ultra Lite.

Snacks
An empire apple.