Day 15 - 6% Progress

Bullet one dodged. My nephew's 1st Communion yesterday was a great time. The temptations were definitely there to get too close and personal with all the pizza my sister had delivered for dinner. But, thanks to those of you who offered suggestions on how to gear up to dodge the temptations, and some earnest discipline on my part and also that of my wife; I did just that, dodged the urges and came out victorious! I did have one slice of the pizza that was loaded with veggies, had sausage on it too. But my sister also made a huge garden salad so I made that my dinner and treated that slice of pizza as a side dish. Oh, I had one bottle of Miller Lite too. Come on, the hockey game was on; I'm supposed to watch a hockey game with diet soda?

For the trip I brought that huge water bottle and chugged that down; half before the church service and half after. I also ate a Fuji Apple on the short trip between the church and my sisters... Dawn, Thanks for that tip.

Dinner of course included dessert and my sister asked if I wanted some; but Blue,
I said 'No thanks I am fine'... Thanks for that tip.

Oh, dessert, here is the cake that my sister made for Michael...

It's an alligator, made of cup cakes, quite impressive work for my sister considering she has never been known for her culinary deft.

Yesterday was a great day all around. In the morning I got in a hour of cardio and cobbled together a 9-exercise dumbbell routine and did 3-sets of each of those. And the best part, I did all of that 'moving' with my son too so got some quality father/son time in too. Oh, and a shout out to my wife who got up and went to the YMCA and swam 30+ laps for her 'moving' yesterday. Yep, we kicked butt on 'Moving Day'!

Today of course my arms and shoulders are sore, sore, sore. Been here before so I knew yesterday as I was busting out flys, and bent over rows, etc... that I'd be sore today. Nothing a few Advil can't cut the edge off of. The best pain reliever however was when I hopped on the scale. OK, I didn't hop on it, I don't hop. Regardless how I got up there when I looked down the numbers were quite rewarding; 4 pounds lost this past week which now has me 6% of the way to my goal; I weigh 313 today. Cool!

Bullet two today; that family brunch. Kyle  I'll be putting your tip to the test today at this all-you-can-eat brunch; that being find one healthy item and put the most of that in the middle of the plate. Fingers crossed I dodge this bullet as well as I did yesterday's.

Wishing all of you a victorious Sunday!

Responsibility 199... Gotta Do It!!

Day 8 - 2% Progress

Happy Sunday to all; Sunday is weigh in day for me. Good news is that I lost weight this week - whoo hoo! Bad news, no doubt I left some of my potential one week progress on the dinner table last night at Maggianos. Overall, I didn't over indulge last night as I would have in the past especially at such a great restaurant. However I certainly ate more than a man on a mission to lose a large amount of weight should have eaten. Oh, I weigh 317 pounds today!

In reflection on week one, Maggianos aside, I did well on the eating for balance & portion. To aid in reflection and keeping myself honest on food intake I have been keeping an eating log. Just a small notebook where I jot down what I eat and when. With it I use one of the classic white & blue plastic Bic pens with four ink colors to choose from. If what I've ate is well balanced and portioned then it goes in the book in green ink. If it was just OK, not bad or great; then blue ink. And if I've missed the mark entirely then red ink it is. For the past week I have 4 such entries in red. Not surprisingly two of these are restaurant visits; Bill's Pub & Maggianos. The other two were evening slips, also not surprisingly, where I took liberty to enjoy this Russian dessert my son made for a school project. I forget the name of it but it was a highly sugary & fatty little treat. Otherwise many green entries and a few blues fill my log for week one.

As for exercise I exercised just once, yesterday, which of course wont cut it going forward. My intent is to add more exercise in week two and begin to put a routine together. Going to need help with good routines for someone just starting such a mission.  

With an initial 2% weight loss one might expect that I should plan on this mission taking 50 weeks. But we all know that's not an exact correlation I can make. When I started this I figured this will take between 1 & 2 years; so if I do accomplish it in 50 weeks I'll exceed expectations. Something to hope & strive for.

Looking at he picture above I know it is hard to see the 2% loss from Day 1 to Day 8, but trust me there is 2% less width there. Going to be less width a week from now too!

Goals for the coming week will be to have less red entries and exercise more than week one.

Responsibility 199... Gotta Do It!!

Day 7 - Exercise Discipline

That exercise promised yesterday didn't happen. Our plans changed for the evening and the time I set aside evaporated. Not that I am disappointed really since the change in plans was for a good time with the family. Another example that change is good. Yet change can also challenge discipline.

Exercise and what discipline I have for it was on my mind as I awoke this morning. The devil on my shoulder was telling myself I was supposed to feel bad I didn't find a way to squeeze in a work out before I hit the hay for the day. And the angel on the other shoulder was telling me to get over it and do something about it today. Then there was some other creature sitting atop my head telling me to just go back to sleep. When I was done listening to this trio argue I got up and the day going. After taking care of some necessary mumbo-jumbo I did get in a work out. Thirty minutes on the elliptical and three sets of sit ups on a stay-ball (I think that is what it is called; we bought a couple at the start of 2008 when we were to start that year getting healthy). That may not sound like much exercise but as this was my first work out since starting this mission 7 days ago it was enough to see me clawing about for air.

Having got that work out in I sit here typing away with a surge of confidence and 'atta-boy' inside. Now, the question is, when do I workout again? Tomorrow seems like the perfect opportunity as it is Sunday and we have nothing planned other than watching the Nascar race; Talledega time!

My challenge for today is to simply survive dinner without falling off this ship I am happily riding now. We have plans to have dinner with friends we haven't hooked up with in years. The reservation is at one of the better Italian/pasta places in the Chicagoland area; Maggianos. Great place and I love their family style service. But wow, if there ever was a place built to wreck a diet that is not also a buffet, this is it. Realizing that the plan is to enjoy myself and some of what Maggianos offers but behave myself as best I can. Better said, don't just eat eat eat until all plates are clean as I would have done had this dinner been eight days ago.

Responsibility 199... Gotta Do It!!