no weigh in this week

So I may not be able to do a weigh in this week. My scale insists today that I'm down to 327, like more than 16 down from last week. I mean, I would like to believe that... but I know I haven't been nearly that good. It did this sort of thing once before, and then it was working fine in a couple of days, so we'll see.

For now, i'm on non-scale measurements, and don't really have anything positive to report. I'm still pretty much stuck somewhere between 337 and 343. I've been on plan since Sunday, including workouts, so hopefully i'll start to show some results next week.

good luck to all!

good feeling

So I have a good feeling about this week to come, diet wise at least. My treadmill is back in working order, though I probably won't have time for it tomorrow morning. I can't think of any reason why I couldn't be on plan as far as calorie intake.

And once I survive tomorrow things should be looking up again at work. Unfortunately tomorrow I need to get in as early as I can. I have a annual review/case review thing with my boss that I'm really not looking forward to at all... and if I fail to get something done in the morning that would have made it go smoother because I took time to do my workout it would send me into a anger spiral. I know this is a cop out, but I will make it up in the afternoon.

So there are times when being on plan just seems natural and obvious, and other times when it seems all but impossible. And I don't mean things like thanksgiving dinner. I mean just normal days where there aren't any outside influences making me make bad choices, I just do. I really want to get back to where it seems easy again, I'm just having a hell of a time finding my way back.

week 13 results

So I had to do my weigh-in for this week last night before rushing out to Zanesville for the holiday. Unfortunately, i'm up again, taking me to 343.1.

No real excuse for this... I just haven't been living up to my own standards.

I know that this is a disappointment. Don't give up on me, I will get this figured out.

"new" treadmill

My treadmill is working again !!!

/me is doing a happy dance.


Turns out that I had a bad fuse. I've replaced it.

No more having to venture out to the gym in the morning, at least for a while. This is exactly the type of morale boost that should help me get rejuvinated.

So yeah, I'm happy this morning.

belated week 12 wrap up

So sometimes I hate blogger. I'm sure this has happened to others, but I had a fairly long post disapear on me last Thursday, and was too frustrated to want to write it all up again. I'm not sure why I let that bother me so much, I mean, stuff happens, but that sort of situation always tends to lead to not posting for a while. In fact, every blog that I've started and then later abandoned was because of a day just like that one.

But don't worry, I'm not going to abandon this effort.

I really don't have anything of importance to post though, and that's the problem. I ended week 12 .2 lbs down from the end of week 11, and right now I'm back another .5 on the week. I'm not completely on or completely off plan. I'm doing a lot of things wrong, a few things right.

Really everything can be reduced to not focusing enough, not paying enough attention to this part of my life. I haven't been keeping my food log at all or blogging. I have been exercising, but not making it an absolute rule.

I guess the long and short of it is that i'm still here, I'm still struggling, and I'm still trying to make progress.


What have I learned through this last several weeks of slacking off?

I think I need to make concrete short term goals for myself. Realistic short term goals work. I did have a goal set for thanksgiving which was not realistic, and when I realized that I could not achieve it it really set me for a loop. It was kind of a, hey, I'm not going to make my goal, why should I care if I miss it by a little bit or a lot. That's really not the attitude I need right now.

So, what is my goal. Well, Since I have to do my week 13 weigh in on wednesday morning (two days from now) I'm going to set my week 13 goal to .5 lbs down from where I am right now. Then my week 14 goal will be 3 lbs. Then I'll reevaluate.


Thanksgiving schedule - I will be in Zanesville Thursday, Columbus Thursday evening through Saturday noonish, and back in Chillicothe Saturday evening. I will find time to post tomorrow and Wednesday, and probably not again until Saturday.

Tim, keep me honest on this... give me a call Sunday if you don't see a Saturday post!

Liz's recipe for today - super easy veggie wraps

So this is actually Liz - We'll see how long it takes Mike to notice I've hacked into his blog, and maybe it will inspire him to post as well. Mike and I had talked a while back about me posting a recipe on here periodically, and I figured now was a good time to do it.

Super easy veggie wraps:

What you'll need:
- frozen mixed veggies of your choice (we like the Kroger brand fiesta mix - it has broccoli, carrots, and an assortment of beans)
- salsa
- tortillas (whole wheat if you can find them where you are)
optional:
- shredded low fat cheese (the fat free kind won't melt at all - Sargento makes a really good low-fat kind though)
-fat free sour cream/plain yogurt
-other toppings you like


Put as many veggies as you think you'll eat into a microwave safe bowl, and mix in a few tablespoons of salsa per cup or so of veggies. Cover the bowl with a lid (or an overturned plate) and put it in the microwave. If your microwave has a "frozen veggies" setting, set it for one serving, and start it - we've found that our microwave likes to cook frozen veggies to mush, so start with the time for one serving and add on more if the veggies aren't cooked to your taste. Otherwise, the veggies have time suggestions printed on them (although these will generally also give you mush - so you may want to reduce the time somewhat.) All of this can also be done in a covered pan on the stove - just add a little water to make sure nothing sticks.
When the veggies are cooked, spoon some out onto a tortilla, top with whatever toppings you like, and fold them up.

Yum!

Please post soon Mike ;)

not giving up

So there have been a lot of opportunities to just give up and walk away from this in the past couple of weeks. It would have been easier in the short run.

Thank you for reading and sticking with me, and keeping in touch with me through this rough patch.

I want to post a happy uplifting message again. I want to be proud of myself the way i was just two weeks ago. I want to go through a single day with no mistakes and no sliding and no cheating myself. I want to expand that to a week, to a month.

Tomorrow is "put all the pieces together" day. Tomorrow i am going to 1) do both of my workouts, 2) stick to the plan in terms of food, 3) read blogs, 4) write my food journal, and 5) be able to post a happy message at the end of the day. And then the day after that I'll do the same, and the day after that I'll wonder why I found it so hard to do that for this "time off."

middle of the road

Today was a good example of the kind of week i'm having. Neither spectacularly good nor spectacularly bad. Somewhat complacent though, and I need to work on that.

Tomorrow I'm going to make a serious effort at getting up and getting to the gym in the morning to start my day off on a good foot. I really need to get back into my walking/jogging habit.

happy birthday mom :)

So my mom doesn't actually check my blog, in fact she doesn't really know how to use the internet at all, but happy birthday to her anyway.

Completely meaningless coincidence... I was born on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, the day that is generally cited as the introduction of the US into WW II, my mom was born on the anniversary of the day which is remembered as the end of WW I.

Anyway, did pretty well today, but didn't get any formal exercise in. Tomorrow should be a holiday at work, but I have depositions, so I have to work. But I will definitely make time to get to the gym, so that's a positive.

The wedding was nice, but quite long. Did allow myself the prime rib at the reception, but skipped the alcohol, fried appetizers, and wide array of cookies and candies. So all in all I don't feel like I have any guilt from that.

I'm getting sick of recommitting myself and saying, ok, bad half hearted time is over, back to work. I feel like I've been saying that a lot lately. I guess I could interpret that as incentive to make it stick this time :) Here's to ending out the week in a strong way.

In keeping with my goal of getting back to the system that was working really well, tomorrow I am going to restart my food log. I have been skipping that far too often, and it is too easy to cut corners when I don't have to face the points at the end of the day.

Several people have commented that I could just find time to walk outside now that my treadmill is busted and going to the gym for their treadmill is proving difficult. The problem is 1) it's freaking cold in Ohio in November, especially at 5:30 am! :) and 2) walking outside is more public than I think I can handle at this point. At least at the gym everyone else is working out. But then six weeks or so ago I though I couldn't handle doing the gym thing, and just had to decide to make myself do it, and it worked out fine. So I'm not dismissing the idea of walking outside altogether, but I can't say that I've worked up the guts to do it yet.


Ok, deep, calming breaths. I can do this.

checking in

So one day into my new committment to blog every day and I already missed a day :)

Anyway, got home at around 4 am last night, helping a friend pack books into boxes. Between that and my trip to the gym Friday evening I really did a number on my back, so sitting down and typing was out of the question.

Today and tomorrow are going to be hectic... I have a wedding to attend in Dayton this evening and then I'm off to Zanesville for my mom's b-day tomorrow. So staying on plan will be a little bit challenging.

The lack of a treadmill at home is also being a problem of late. Getting up early enough to get to the gym and come back home before getting ready for work is proving to be an almost insurmountable hurtle for me. I really need to get someone in to check out my treadmill so I can get back into my twice a day schedule. Hopefully I'll get ahold of someone on Tuesday.

Anyway, still struggling, but showing signs of improvement, and feeling a bit more hopeful.

good riddance to week 11

So "the rumors of my death..." and whatnot.

Truefully, this week has been very hard on me professionally and personally, and I am glad to see the end of it. Here's to a better week 12.

I'm up 5.2 lbs this week, taking me back to 339.6. I can't say I'm surprised, as I really haven't done anything right this week at all. I mean, I haven't been completely off the wagon since Sunday, but I haven't been making the best choices possible either. And I haven't been keeping my food log or blogging. The last two can be somewhat explained by the insanity at work, but it still is not anything to be glad about.

So, I need a recovery plan. Something to turn things around and get me focused again. I think I will start with the blog. I will make every effort to post at least one entry every day for the next week, in hopes that will inspire me to get back into the habits which had been serving me so well for 10 weeks.

I can do this.

my first and last relapse

Ok, so no midweek report this week. I am afraid to look at the scale today, and am going to force myself to stay off it until Thursday. When I will most likely see a gain for the week.

I relapsed hard yesterday. I can't even begin to attempt to explain it. I can't even come up with an excuse let alone a rational reason why it happened.

One "good" thing... I feel like crap today. Physically I mean, not just emotionally (though that's there too). My stomach hurts and I have no energy. I remember binging feeling good, and it just doesn't any more. I feel like an alcoholic who sobered up for a while and then went on a bender only to find out that his body does experience hangovers now. I've become accustomed to being on plan, and it just doesn't feel good to go off any more.

Today is going to be the real test. Can I go back onto plan? Can I nip this in the bud before I undo all of my progress?

And can I forgive myself for being so monumentally stupid?

I can't let this happen again.

anticlimatic conclusion of FIF

So it turns out that FIF ended yesterday after 10 weeks, not the 11 that I had thought. Somewhat anticlimactic since I really think I would have made the last couple of pounds to finish out my goal. Oh well.

Had lunch at a meeting today, and was bad enough to allow myself two chicken breasts with skin. They were baked ... so not as bad as fried at least. I'm not too worried about it, if that's the worst slip up I have to confess to its not much to worry over. I'll just focus on having an extra saintly dinner or something.

end of week 10

Ok, so who ever said that I know a damn thing about weight loss? Sometimes it seems like a science ==> food in - calories out = weight gain/loss. Other times, like today, it seems like black magic being performed on me by my scale whose only mission in life is to confuse the hell out of me. =)

So from Thursday morning last week through to Monday morning I only lost about a half a pound total. But then from Monday morning to today I dropped a full pound each day. I haven't the faintest clue why... I really didn't do anything all that different in the second half of the week compared to the first half.

So either a) I've broken through the plateau already, and have gotten a second wind back, b) this is a one time burst and next week i'll be back to around .2 a day or so, or c) I have no idea what to expect one way or the other because I'm confused as to what happened this week.

Current weight: 334.4

Loss this week: 3.6 lbs

Total loss (10 weeks): 58.4 lbs

Fat lbs lost this week: about 4 lbs

Total fat lbs lost: approximately 64 lbs

Seriously though, thanks to everyone for all the encouragement and comments this past week. It has been somewhat of a trial for me, and I hope that I can say that I've passed. Here's hoping for a smoother week 11.


Only one week left for FIF. I've already reached the original goal that I set for myself for the 11 weeks (25 lbs), and have a realistic chance of reaching the more aggressive goal of 60.