My "When I Lose The Weight" Wardrobe

A quick note before I get into my actual post:  I'm watching a show on the Travel Chanel about the largest portions of food in the world.  They've talked about a restaurant that deep fries everything, including twinkies, mac and cheese, and anything the customers bring in.  The Ben and Jerry's Vermonster, a square pizza that is 54 inches on a side that they need to extend the oven with a special adapter to cook, a seven-pound breakfast burrito, a burger topped with a hot dog, and countless other huge things.  I'm more disgusted than hungry, which is a good sign.  And if you weigh more than 350 pounds, you eat free at the Heart Attack Grill.

Yesterday I got to the last hole on my smaller belt!  It got me thinking what else I could fit into.  Sean at Learn Fitness recently said in a post:



The other day my wife commented that my clothes were looking very “tent like” on my smaller frame so I decided to remedy that. No, I didn’t go on a shopping spree … we can’t afford that with #2 on the way. Instead I pulled out the weight-loss trump card, something almost everyone who’s lost weight more than a few times owns, a tub of old clothes that used to fit them.

I decided to do the same.  I went to the hall closet and pulled out some things that haven't fit in quite a while.  Then I decided to try on a few things that fit last year.  On top of it, I decided to take some pictures for all of you lovely people to see.

The good news is everything buttoned or zipped up (with the exception of one coat with a broken zipper.  I don't even know why I still have it.

First up, we have an old corduroy sport coat I got in 2003.

 

 I'm trying to start a new trend: half-popped lapel.

I've got quite a way to go left with this coat.  I wish I'd taken pictures of me in these clothing items back in November when I started my blog so you could see I've made progress.  I could not get the buttons together on this one before then.  Looks pretty sweet unbuttoned though.

 

I'm sorry, I can't help but make that stupid face whenever my picture is taken.

Next up, we have my old boy scout jacket.  I was probably around 200 pounds when I got this, so I'm surprised I can even get it on.

 

This one is really close.  I think I'll be able to wear this once I move the scale about 10 more pounds (in the downward direction of course).

Next I have a suede blazer I got on sale in 2007.  It was a little small on me when I got it, but I was convinced I would lose enough weight to make it fit.  Instead it sat in my closet for 3 years (and counting).

 

It's a little snug, but I'm pretty close to the weight I was at when I bought this.   This time, I'm going to make this coat fit.

Let me show you a few victories now.  First up is a flannel shirt my dad bought for me as a work shirt in the fall of '08 so I could help him with some outdoor work.  Guess what, it didn't fit.  I was very ashamed.

 

 I'm a lumberjack, and that's okay.

It fits now!  Really well in fact.  There is absolutely nothing snug about this shirt now!

Let's take a look at my broken zipper jacket.

 

This one looks like it's bulging out but it's just kind of an optical illusion.  I wish the zipper still worked, but I broke it in a train station in Antwerp.  I proposed to Claire in this coat, and my love handles were definitely exposed then.  But look, the sides are now straight!

Last, we'll look at my favorite coat when I lived in South Dakota.

 

Now it's my favorite tent!  I liked it because it fit me so nicely before.  Now I'm going to put it up in the front yard with a couple poles and stakes and roast low-cal s'mores by the fire.  Just kidding (there's no such thing as a low-cal s'more).

Anyway, I know some of these things might not be the most fashionable articles of clothing, but they're what I have.  It's nice to actually see that I'm losing girth as well as pounds.  

What do you have that might fit again?  Dig around in your bucket of clothes that used to fit and try stuff on.  Post pictures of something that fits again, something that almost fits again, or something that is now much too large for you on your blog.  Or you can post a link to your picture on the comments section with a brief description and I'll include it in a future post.  I'll make sure to include every picture that you post or email me in the post.

Now go and find something that's been hiding in your closet.

 

Blog of the Week

Each week I give a little link love to one of the blogs I read.  The blog can be a newcomer like Tom over at I Hate Green Apples or someone who has lost a bunch of weight like Jack Sh*t. 

I started by following this week's winner on Twitter.  His blog is infused with his sense of humor when it's so easy to let yourself become incredibly dull when focusing on losing weight.

The winner of this week's Blog of the Week is Ryan at No More Bacon. 

Lately he's been including videos of dance moves to describe the emotion behind each weigh-in, complete with a youtube clip of said dance move.  Unfortunately, we don't get to see Ryan bust a move himself, but maybe if enough people request it, he will.

What weight loss or fitness blog would you like to see win the coveted Blog of the Week title?

Turning Back the Clock

It occurred to me recently that I'm as heavy as I was my fourth year of college.  I started college at 235 pounds and grew to 312 pounds before I graduated.  Given, I lost a few pounds and departed at a trim 298 pounds.  On the whole, I grew nearly 80 pounds in six (gasp) years.  Yes I spent six years pursuing my bachelor's degree, but that's a whole other story. 

It feels really good to turn back the clock on my weight.  I like that the number of years since I last weighed what I currently weigh is growing.  It's been four years since I last weighed what I weigh now.  I'd like to be able to say 5 years by April, which means I want to hit 260 by then.  I don't know if it will be attainable, but I'm going to try.

Yesterday I was definitely in a funk.  Re-losing weight is nowhere near as exciting as losing it the first time; it's something that needs to be done so I can get back to taking it off the first time.  I'm a little worried about how good I'm going to be at maintaining once I get to my goal weight because of it.  That's still 79 pounds away and I shouldn't be too concerned yet.  My journey is about building good habits as well as losing weight.

A Crummy Day

I felt worn down all day today.  I've been tired and sore since this morning.  I didn't have any hot water for my shower this morning which I was not very happy about.  The day didn't get much better after that.  The fact is I just had kind of a crummy day. 

I did 43 push-ups in a row at the gym tonight.  I'm excited about that.  I've got two weeks left on my 100 push-ups challenge.  After I make 100, I'm going to try to find a balanced strength training program so I can build muscle and, hopefully, burn fat faster.

Sorry for the lackluster post.  I'll post something considerably more upbeat soon.  Until then, I'm going to keep in mind that I've come a long way on my journey.

What do you do to lift your spirits when you've had a bad day?

Weigh-In Results

It's Monday night and I've been trying really hard to drop the weight I gained when I lost my grandma.  I can't say this week has been easy.  I nearly broke down the other day because I was feeling tremendously overwhelmed by my journey.  There's a voice in my head that keeps saying "You'll never lose the weight.  Don't even try."  It's a hard voice to ignore.  On the other hand, every pound I lose makes it a little easier to keep soldiering on.

I was hoping for a huge loss this week.  I wanted to lose all the weight I gained during two weeks of grieving and then some. 

 

No such luck.  I mean, a 2.9 pound loss is a good loss.  I just wanted to undo my bump in the road completely and then some.  

It's good.  If I keep going at this rate, I'll hit 196 before I know it.  I'd be lucky to lose 2.9 pounds every week.

I started strong this week.  I almost got on an elevator without even thinking of it this morning, but as the door was opening, I remembered my pledge not to take the elevator this week.  I also put everything I ate today into The Daily Plate.  Everything.  I even came in 177 calories below my target!  I'm going to do it every day this week.  Eventually, it will become a three-week challenge, but I'm going to try for one week first.  Some people post everything they eat on their blog.  I'm not trying to hide anything from you, but that's really not my thing.  If you want to see what I'm eating, create a free profile on The Daily Plate and add me as a friend on the site.  Here's a link to my profile.

What I will post is a screen shot of my end totals for the day.

I'm under on total calories, cholesterol (way under), and carbs.  I'm over on fat (a lot of which I dabbed off the top of the pizza I made for dinner so I'm not too worried about it), sodium, sugars, fiber, and protein.  The protein is fine and so is the fiber.  I ate a lot of natural sugars today in things like milk and fruit, but I still need to control it somehow.  Sodium is the big one though.

It's past my bed time, which brings me to my final point.  Next week, my mini-goal is going to be to get at least 8 hours of sleep every single night for an entire week.  I think a lot of sleep will go a long way to making me healthier and happier.

One pound left to go before I'm back where I started at the beginning of February.  I can do that in a week.

Thanks for Another Great Workout Pledge

Today is the last day of my first week "back on the horse" and I'm not sure how well I did.  I've been getting better at using The Daily Plate and today marks the last day of my 3-week 8-glasses-of-water-a-day challenge.  Somehow, I did it.  I ate pretty well this week with the exception of this weekend.  Friday night we went out for beers (I had 2) and Saturday I made dinner for my Mom for her birthday.  We had lemon chicken with capers, mashed potatoes, roast asparagus, and chocolate cake with ice cream.  Yes, we went overboard.  I figured it was a special occasion.  The problem is, how many special occasions are there?  I think I'll cut the butter out of the recipe the next time I make it.  Given, there's only 2 tablespoons in there, but I can do without it.  I could have also replaced the mashed potatoes with wheat pasta or something.  The asparagus was good, but we could have done without the chocolate cake entirely.

The highlight of my week fitness-wise was my workout pledge.  I rounded up to 50 minutes on the elliptical.  I was quite stinky when I got off the machine.  Thank you everyone who commented and donated and subscribed and linked.  I got a great workout!

There's still time to donate to the Special Olympics for my Polar Bear Swim.  Donate here!

Early on, before I really lost any weight, I said I was going to spend one week pushing hard.  Gym every single day, watch what I eat as closely as I can, etc.  Next week will be that week.  As of the last weigh-in, I need to lose exactly two pounds every week for the remainder of my year in order to make weight.  I'm going to try to make March another month like January so I can get out ahead of my goals again.  My weight loss is sure to slow down as I approach my goal.  I'm guessing the last couple months will be hard and I want wiggle room.  Let's see if I can't help my future self out a little bit.

After I posted about the little things that I'm doing to self sabotage, most of the comments I got were people realizing they did the same things or adding their own little things.  A friend of mine made a comment that cut a little deeper.

Mr. Scott said...

It's good to recognize the things you're doing wrong, but it isn't worth much unless you do something about it. This post is long on excuses but short on solutions. You've been posting for weeks about how you're going to start planning meals in advanced. When is that going to happen? Why hasn't it happened yet? What are you waiting for?

He's absolutely right.  What good is it to point out the things I'm doing wrong if I'm not going to change them?  What am I waiting for?  Awareness is a good start but I didn't start writing this blog just to become aware of the things that are making (and keeping) me fat.  I started this blog to change myself. 

For one week, I will not use an elevator.  There is one student I work with one-on-one that I will need to make an exception for, but either than that, no elevator. 

What little thing will you change this week to make yourself healthier?

Work Out Pledge Results and Blog of the Week

So the results are in.  I will be exercising 49 minutes and 45 seconds.  A good portion of my workout today was sponsored by my parents who donated $100 to the Special Olympics for my Polar Bear Plunge at 11:15 this morning in remembrance of my grandma, Helen Erickson.  My mom said it best when she said "Grandma would be proud and nervous".

I realized that I completely failed to do Blog of the Week yesterday.  I'll do it today instead.  I've been following a lot more blogs lately thanks to Andrew at Andrew is Getting Fit.  But this week's blog of the week is one I've been following since the beginning.  This week's Blog of the Week goes to I Hate Green Apples.  Tom was one of the first people to approach me about my blog.  He was definitely the first person I hadn't met before who approached me about it.  He's offered me encouragement for the last couple months and I've tried to do the same.  Go over and check him out.

Well, it's about time for me to get to the gym.  I'll be tweeting the whole time (@100_Pounds) on my phone.  Please tweet back.  I've never been on the elliptical for this long before and will no doubt need plenty of encouragement. 

Work Out Pledge 2: This Time it's Even Pledgier

I gained weight over the last two weeks.  In order to work it off quickly, I need a monster workout which means it's time for my second workout pledge.  I got (stole) the idea from 344pounds.com and exercised for 32 minutes on the elliptical machine. 

For those of you new to my blog, here's how it works.  You have until noon on Friday to tell me how much I time I should spend exercising by doing any or all of the tasks I list below.  I'll be manning the elliptical machine again.

Post a comment: 15 seconds
A simple "good job" or "keep it up" is fine.  If you wanted to offer advice or ask for some, that's great too.  Every post counts, no matter how large or small.

Follow me on Facebook: 30 seconds
If you become a follower of 100 pounds in a year on facebook, you'll add 30 seconds to my workout.  If you look to the right, you'll see a facebook box.  Just click follow.  As of right now, I have 68 fans.  I will add 30 seconds for each additional person that becomes a fan on facebook by Friday at noon.

Follow me on Twitter: 30 seconds
Same as Facebook.  I often tweet things that don't make it onto my blog or Facebook.  My handle is 100_Pounds.  As of writing this I have 32 followers.

Subscribe to the RSS feed: 45 seconds
You'll have to let me know that you subscribed as I have no way of checking how many subscribers I have (that I know of).  Just email me.  Use the subject "Workout Pledge"

Link to my page: 1 minute
Link to me from Facebook, Twitter, your blog, Digg, etc.  You'll have to send me a link to your link so I know that you linked to me and so I can check out your site.  If you linked to me last time, you can do it again too.

Donate $5 to the Special Olympics to support my Polar Bear Plunge: 1 minute
If you're new to the blog or have been living under a rock, I'll be jumping into ice-cold waters on March 6th to raise money for Special Olympics Minnesota.  You can find my blog entry about it here. 

Again, just let me know if you did this so I can add it to my time.

I'll be on twitter on my phone the whole workout.  You can join me live on Friday at 4:00pm.

Little Things - Part 2

A couple days ago, I talked about the little things I'm doing to help me stay focused and increase my success in small ways.  I do things like rinse out hamburger I'm browning, remove the fat from my gravy, take the stairs instead of the elevator, etc. 

Today I want to talk about the little things I'm doing to sabotage myself.  This one is difficult.  It's so easy to say, "It's just two chips, it doesn't matter."  It might not really matter in terms of calorie counts, but it does matter because I'm willingly sabotaging myself.

When I'm counting out wheat thins or chips or whatever, I don't count the broken chips as a chip.  When they broke, all the calories must have fallen out.  Right.  The truth is that I just want as much to eat as I can get. 

I have a history of being lazy.  I take the elevator much more than I should at work.  I should take the stairs every time. 

I'm really bad at monitoring my intake in general.  I'll leave things off my counting.  Not on purpose, but because I haven't been writing things down that day and I don't have that good of a memory.

I stay up past my bed time nearly every night.  I do so well when I get a good night's sleep.  I'm just setting myself back.

I have a hard time getting back on the horse when I fall off.  It just takes a while for me to find the will to eat right and exercise every time I fail to do so for a day or two.

I'm terrible about making excuses.  I try to keep a "no excuses" mantra, but it's really tough.  I'll write a post specifically about excuses some time in the future.

What little things do you do to self-sabotage?

Before I go, I have a few other orders of business.

Please throw in a few bucks to help me out with the Polar Bear Plunge.  You can donate here!

I'm going to start my second exercise pledge tomorrow.  I had a bad week last week and I need to get rid of some extra calories.  If you don't remember how it works, you can see last month's pledge here.  It will be pretty similar.

I'd also like to start publishing guest posts.  You can gain a little extra visibility for your blog (if you have one.  In fact, I'd like to see some guest posts from people who don't have blogs) and give my readers another perspective.  Please let me know if you're interested.

Weigh-In Results

Tonight's the night for weigh in results.  Before we get there, I'd like to remind you to please donate to the Special Olympics on my Polar Bear Plunge page.  For more details see my post on the Polar Bear Plunge.  You don't have to donate a ton of money.  Other than one very generous pledge from one donor, the pledges have only been $5, which is great.  Please give what you can.  A very special thanks to Scott and Kris Ainsworth.  Your generosity is inspiring and I'm extremely grateful.

Well, we'd better get on with the show.

 

I'm getting sick of using this graphic.  Anyone want to create a better scale with a question mark on it for me?

If you recall, the loss of my grandmother prevented me from weighing in last week.  It also kept me from exercising and eating well for almost a week.  I'm not big into making excuses; they don't help me achieve my goals.  With those things in mind, here are my weigh-in results:

 

 

 

Okay.  277.9.  That's a two-week gain of 3.9 pounds.  I'd be lying if I didn't say I was a little disappointed, but I was expecting a gain.  I'll take it (for now).  I'm determined to turn the scale back around next week.  For the record, this is what happens when I have an excuse not to monitor what I put in my body even for a short period of time.  No wonder I gained 70 pounds in college. 

One more thing.  I've been looking for a new cardio activity.  I think I'll try this:

Tom Hanks eat your heart out.  I wonder if Claire will let me buy a giant piano and put it in the living room.  By the way, who claps along with the music in the middle of Tocatta and Fugue?  Ugh, I hate it when people do that.

Here's to losing the weight I gained since my last weigh-in.  With or without playing Bach with my feet.

Little Things

When you set out to lose 100 pounds, you make a lot of big changes to your lifestyle.  My biggest achievement thus far is my attendance at the gym.  I'm working on the 100 push ups challenge as well.  I'm also getting used to drinking tons of water.  Hopefully, that will help me flush out my system.

While the big things are important, I try to do as many little things as possible.  Hopefully, they will add up.  You can park your car at the farthest spot in the parking lot from the door.  You can take the stairs instead of the elevator.  You can eat spinach instead of iceberg lettuce.

Photo by Anitacanita.

The first little thing I did today was buy fat free, sugar free chocolate pudding mix.  I was expecting it to taste terrible, but it was remarkably good.  I ate 2 servings of it for a total of 160 calories today.  That's roughly the same as one of those hunks of cookie dough I was struggling with a few days ago.

The second thing I did was take most of the fat out of the gravy I was cooking for dinner.  I know what you're thinking.  "This guy weighs 274 pounds.  What's he doing with gravy?"  Guess what.  I like to eat gravy and I enjoy it in moderation.  For those of you who have never made gravy, let me explain what I did.  I put a beef roast in my crock pot this morning with a little water and some pepper.  I let it cook all day on low then poured all the water into a small pot.  I stuck the pot in the freezer and waited for all the fat to congeal (fat turns solid at a higher temperature than water).  Then I scooped the fat out with a spoon and ate it.

Just kidding.  I threw the fat in the trash.  Anyway, back to how I made my gravy.  I then boiled what was left and added a little flour and water slurry to the mix and ended up with a very delicious, low-fat gravy.  I estimate I threw away around 2-3 teaspoons of fat.  Not a lot, but I have less fat in my body right now as a direct result of that act.

The little things may not seem like that big of a deal, but they keep you focused on changing your lifestyle.  Then the big things seem a little more manageable.

What little things do you do to help you on your journey?

Blog of the Week

Before I get to the blog of the week, please make a donation for my Polar Bear Plunge.  I've only raised $10 so far and that's a long way from my goal.  I need your help!

It's been quite some time since I posted a blog-of-the-week.  For those of you who aren't familiar, for the past couple weeks (with the exception of this previous week) I have bestowed the title of "blog of the week" on one lucky blogger whose message particularly resonated with me that particular week or so.  There are a lot of really good weight loss blogs out there and reading them makes me feel much less alone on my journey.  It's hard to pick just one blog each week; I actually contemplated awarding it to two blogs this week.  In the end, I decided on one (but on the plus side, I already know who's winning next week and I'm not telling).

This week's winner is John is Fit.  I picked him for a number of reasons.  He's doing a cool thing right now where he takes a picture of everything he eats.  I may do the same at some point.  Right now I'm focusing on getting back on track after this week.  The biggest reason I picked his blog is he gave me a heart-rate monitor.

Now, I know you're thinking, "Does this guy give everybody heart-rate monitors?"  No.  He does not.  I guess I'm special.  Actually, I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.  John was given a heart-rate monitor by the company that wanted to promote the product.  He was happy with his chest-strap heart-rate monitor, so he decided he would give it away to the first person to leave a comment saying they wanted it.  I was actually second to say I wanted it, but Dr. Kal graciously let me have it after reading my blog and seeing I had a long way yet to go.

Three days later, the Mio Stride Heart Rate Monitor Watch arrived in the mail.  I tested it out at the gym and it's pretty accurate.  I'll give you a full review later on.

 

Ignore the scratches on my hand.  I have some pretty playful cats.

So congrats to John is Fit.  Go check his blog out.  

I'm always looking for more weight loss blogs, so if you read any others, please let me know about them.  I subscribe to around 20 blogs right now and have almost double that in weeks left until I reach my deadline.

So Sleepy

Today was better.  I was 100% cookie dough free.  I'm very satisfied with that since I've been home all day (I don't work on Fridays).  The monkey isn't off my back yet, though.  I'm having some terrible cravings for sweets.  I recently heard that when you eat sugar, it makes your body crave more sugar.  So if I have the cookie dough, not only will I take in 150 calories I'd rather not put in my body, I'll also give myself more cravings I'll need to fight off later. 

I'd like to thank everyone for their advice on how to deal with cravings and emotional eating.  I particularly found Carly's comments about making food I don't want to eat inedible.  I don't know if I have enough strength to pour ketchup (or catsup for that matter) into a perfectly good jar of peanut butter.  I'm engaged in a war against my own temptations.  I need to keep focused on my goal at all times.  I need to lose this weight by any means necessary, even if that means acting a little crazy at times. 

My gym visit was pretty good.  I didn't spend as much time on the elliptical as I wanted to, but that's okay since today is a strength day anyway.  I experimented with some machines I haven't used in a while.  The one that really hurts right now is that weird thing that holds your legs while you exercise your back and butt.  My back is a bit sore.  I hope it's better by tomorrow.

I did my 100 push-ups training workout for tonight.  I'm upset that it's taken me two weeks to get through one week's worth of exercises, but I'm not upset.  I finished my week.  I thought I'd have to start this week over, but it looks like I'm well on my way to 100 consecutive push-ups.

I need to post a new blog-of-the-week.  I'll do that tomorrow.

I'm literally falling asleep as I'm typing.  I'd better get some sleep.  In college, a friend of mine was taking notes in calculus (I think it was calc. anyway) and nodding off.  She ended up writing the sentence "this will help in Kung Fu" in the middle of her notes.  To avoid appearing that silly, I'm going to stop here and get some rest.

A Few Quick Things

It's late and I promised my wife I'd shower since I'm super gross from a pretty spectacular workout, so I'll make this a short post.

I had an awesome workout at the gym tonight.  According to the machines, I burned somewhere around 500 calories.  I wore a stocking cap and my usual sweatshirt.  I would have gone longer, but about 25 minutes into my treadmill workout, I leaned forward to prop myself up on the control panel (I was really worn out).  In the process, I hit the big, red emergency shutoff switch.  I don't know why I didn't anticipate that considering I've done it once or twice before.  I contemplated getting back on, but, as the kids say these days, eff that noise.  I was done.  I still accomplished one heck of a lot tonight.

I've been having a very hard time controlling my intake since I got back to Minneapolis.  I think part of it is I'm still eating emotionally.  Pockets of grief keep coming to the surface and I'm sure there's a lot more going on in my subconscious than I realize.  I'm also trying to recover from all the overeating I did this last week.  I'm just hungry all the time and need to work past that again.  Lastly, I inherited some food that shouldn't be in my fridge, in particular, a bag of 4-dozen ready to bake chunks of cookie dough.  I didn't count how many I ate today; let's just say they weren't canceled out by my gym visit tonight. 

Whatever the reason for my overeating, it needs to stop.  Anyone have any experience with emotional eating and grief? 

Polar Bear Plunge

I know quite a few of my posts recently have had nothing to do with weight loss.  I'll get back into the swing of things soon.  I'm going to the gym tonight, and I'll start counting my calories again tomorrow.  I'll weigh in again on Monday, but I can't promise the results will be encouraging.  This post is about me doing something very stupid for charity.

In my last entry I decided I was going to take the plunge and jump into Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis on March 6th to raise money for the Special Olympics.

I have now registered for the event.  You can donate here or you can click on the banner below.

 

I've set my goal at $400 but I'm really hoping to donate a lot more than that so please tell all your friends.  Also, if you live in Minnesota and want to join my team, please let me know and I'll tell you how to set it up online.  

As I said before, I'd like to set up some benchmarks for dollar amounts. 

Here's what I posted last time:

$75, I'll take the plunge and blog about it later.  $75 is the minimum cut-off to enter.
$150, I'll post pictures of me taking the plunge on my blog.
$300, I'll post video of myself foolishly jumping in a frozen lake to my blog.
$500, I'll wear a silly costume
$800, I'll let you vote on the costume
$1000, I'll take suggestions for a silly costume and let you vote on each and every suggestion (they have to meet regulation of course, I'd prefer if I could make or find it for cheap, and they have to be feasible and appropriate, so no assless chaps please.)

If you have some suggestions for different activities at different dollar amounts, please let me know.

I'll be leaving a banner on my side-bar where the poll was.  Let's raise some money for charity!

 

Thank You for Your Support

I just got back from Luverne, MN.  It's good to be home.  Grandma's funeral was this morning.  I got the chance to sing Children of the Heavenly Father at the service.  I did a lot of crying and a lot of hugging.  I owe so much to my incredible wife, Claire; she put all of her needs (including law school) on the back burner to be there for me. 

Claire, if you're reading this, thank you for being my rock.  You mean the world to me and I don't know how I would have managed to get through the last few days without you.  You make my life immeasurably better and I'm going to lose 100 pounds so I can be with you until I'm 90 and long after.

I'd also like to thank everyone for your kind words.  They provided a source of strength and encouragement over the last few days.  I didn't expect such a showing of support, especially from so many people I've never met in person before.  I wish I could give each of you a hug to show you how thankful I am.  To those of you I do see in person, expect a hug the next time I see you.

I'm planning on moving forward.  It's going to take a while to heal.  I told Claire I'm looking forward to things getting back to normal.  Not that normal is going to be the same as it was before I lost my grandmother.  It's going to be an emptier normal than before.  This experience is leaving me hungry to live my life to the fullest.  Some day I'm going to be in that coffin and I want to fill every day until that point with adventure, love, and joy.  I want to accomplish the things I set out to do.  I want to help those around me.  I want to do things that would have made Grandma proud.

Starting tomorrow, I'm going back to the healthier lifestyle I had to leave behind for a few days.  I'm going to get right back in the swing of things with my diet and the gym.  I've managed to keep my goal of drinking 64 ounces of water every day since the first of the month (miraculously).  I don't think I'll weigh myself until Monday.  I don't need to be discouraged by a number that is the result of Lutheran comfort food.

Thanks to your voting, I decided I am going to do the Polar Bear Plunge.  I'll try to set up something online so you can donate.  I really want to raise a whole bunch of money for the Special Olympics, so tell everyone you know to donate and suggest silly costumes for me to wear.


It's late, and I'm tired.  Thank you again for all your kind words.  They meant a lot to me.

Some Bad News

I dropped off the radar for a few days.  Don't worry, I didn't fall off the wagon; at least not entirely.

I got a phone call from my dad at 6:00 yesterday.  He told me my grandma had fallen and broken her leg.  On top of it, she had a massive heart attack and several other infections.  It didn't look like there was anything they could do for her.  We drove down to see her at the hospital in Sioux Falls and I'm glad we did.

My grandmother passed away this morning at 12:15.  She was 90 years old.  I'm going to miss her, but she lived a long and full life.  Something I can only hope to achieve.

I've already eaten a foot-long sub, Famous Dave's barbecue, and a few cookies.  I've been eating terribly, but trying hard to control my portions.  Over the next few days, there is sure to be a succession of comfort foods and good old fashioned Lutheran Hot Dishes.  I'm going to try as hard as I can to control my portions since there won't be a lot of healthy choices over the next few days.

I'm really hoping there won't be any upward movement on the scale.  Unfortunately, there won't be a weigh-in on Monday.  Hopefully, I'll be back at the gym soon.  If not, I'll keep plugging away at push-ups here.

Go out and be healthy, so we can all live to be 90.

How Can I Be Eating That Much Sugar?

"In general, mankind, since the improvement of cookery, eats about twice as much as nature requires." 

- Benjamin Franklin

I'm getting sick of drinking so much water, but I think it's doing something for me.  I feel like I'm being flushed out.  I nearly forgot to have a second bottle at work today, but I pulled through.

Today was the first day I put everything I ate today in The Daily Plate.  I did pretty well calorie-wise.  I consumed 94% of my daily recommended calories for losing 2 pounds a week, 100% of my fat, 75% of my cholesterol, etc.  As you can see, I really need to reign in my sugar intake.  I also need to boost the amount of fiber I'm consuming.  My diet was also high in protein and low in carbs today.  I've heard protein is a good thing, but did I have too much?

I've definitely been feeling a little blah about losing weight.  It was hard to get started at the gym tonight, and I'm getting hungrier and hungrier.  I hope this is just because work has been tough this week and I'm worn out.  It's too early and I've been too successful thus far to hit a slump already.

I'm exhausted and it's time for bed.  You've got less than 24 hours to vote on if I will take the Plunge or not.  If you're not sure what I'm talking about, click here.

The Nature of Dieting

I'm having a hard time staying motivated tonight.  It's taking everything I've got not to binge.  My body is screaming at me because it wants more calories than I'm giving it.  I have 16 ounces of water to go to meet my daily goal.  Maybe I'll fill my stomach with that.

Do I just power through this or should I try to find something healthy to munch on?  I'm going to stick with water.

Dieting is a funny thing.  When you quit smoking, the goal is to stop entirely.  You can't quit eating cold turkey.  Well, you can quit eating cold turkey but you can't stop eating all together or you'll die.  On top of it, you have to very carefully make sure you're eating just the right amount and the right kinds of food.  I think if we could just quit eating, a whole lot more of us would be successful.

I'm still having trouble managing to write down everything I put in my body.  I'm terrible at logging my caloric intake on The Daily Plate.  I'm going to get better at it.  After I finish this entry, I think I'll try to remember everything I ate today and put it in.

That's all I've got for tonight.  Remember, please vote to tell me whether or not to take the Polar Bear Plunge at the top of the right side-bar.  Thanks!

Weigh-In Results

Before I get to the weigh-in, I've got a quick plug to make.  For those of you who didn't read my last post, I'll sum it up briefly.  I'm thinking about jumping into a frozen lake to raise money for the Special Olympics.  It's called the Polar Bear Plunge and it's on March 6th at Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis.  I'm too chicken to decide if I'll do it myself so I want you to vote on it.  You can vote at the top of the side bar to the right of the screen.

Alright, on to the weigh-in. 

 

As per usual, I was nervous for this weigh-in.  This is the first weigh in where I hadn't gone to the gym every night in a month.  I also started my 8 glasses of water a day challenge today.  I've heard that when you burn fat, you release toxins.  Water flushes those toxins out.  All I know for sure is drinking copious amounts of water is a habit I want to get into.

 

274.  I'll take it.  I was hoping for another 4 or 5 pound loss, but I don't think that's going to happen until I monitor all of my intake every day.  I'm still getting the hang of using the daily plate.  I think maybe March will be the month for starting that.  

So in all, I lost 2.7 pounds since last week.  I'm definitely headed in the right direction.