Maybe the dog likes me?

So tonight my daughter and I took the dog out for a walk. Now I've always figured the dog just tolerates me, being one of many who have invaded his home lately. I mean, there's me, my 5 kids... not to mention the rabbit and the kitten who now has 5 of her own kittens.... and I suppose it's something about greyhounds because they're not like labs or retrievers that jump all over you and such. Greyhounds are definitely more stoic. Or maybe melancholy. They whimper a lot when they want something. So I think it's been that my idea of a dog has always been the kind that is super affectionate and all that, and here's this bony skinny musclebound thing that seems rather aloof a lot, so yeah, a guy wonders. Okay, he does wag his tail a lot when I come in the door, although I'd swear half the time he's looking at me like, okay, you're here, so... where's Janiece???

Now when it's walk time that's a different story. He's all up and down and excited then. It used to be that all I had to do was just reach for the leash and he's hopping up and down ready to go. Now it's even to the point where I just need to grab a little plastic bag (for carrying his poop of course) and he hears that plastic rattle and he's barrelling through the house.

So what I find interesting though is tonight my daughter walks with us, and she takes the dog and runs up ahead a bit... but he'll only go so far. Once she's ahead by 50 feet or so suddenly he's running sideways looking back at me. At 75 feet he's dragging her back towards me. At his size, he can do that you know. And I'm like... heyyyyyy, he wants to be with me.

Okay, my wife would explain that greyhounds are pack animals and so he understands the order of things, so he prefers to stay closer to the leader of the pack. And since she's not with us, that would be me. Of course, one has to wonder, am I really the leader? All the times they're all asking for money from me and getting it (if i happen to have it)... who's the real leader? And of course we just have to go back to the poop carrying thing... if someone's bagging up and carrying someone else's poop, WHO is the real leader here anyway?

It seems I've had this discussion of sorts already. Of course that's been awhile. Of course (with added over the previous of course, of course)... I could have written about all this in my last post and it STILL would have been a long time ago... oops?

So I can blame it on being busy. Or blame it on a period where my ankle was acting like it were sprained for no understandable reason... Or blame it on being sheepish because I just haven't been exercising and have still been wishy washy about the diet.... all of these things probably add up together to not writing. So I've likely lost my two readers now in this long period of silence... okay, so I'll just have to be good at writing and somewhere along the line over the next 6 months or so maybe I can pick up another reader?

By the way, the Biggest Loser group started up again last night. I impressed everyone by riding my bike there. It was a pretty short ride so it's not that impressive, but... i'll take the pats on the back all the same. Much smaller group this time around, only 6 people last night. But I think it's going to be better because it will be more of an accountability group than anything, not so much about having speakers and such. So I think that will be maybe better for everyone. We'll get into more discussion, about things like what's working, what's not, etc.

So my weigh in was 363.3. Which is a few higher than my last weigh in, but not a lot. Morning weigh ins have been about the same, still hovering around the 353 mark. The past week or so I've been more dilligent about the diet. Part of that is because I'm finally getting a physical set up and monday morning i went in to get my blood drawn for labs and all, so I wanted to do my best about the blood sugar levels.

Anyway, that's my update for now... if i say something like i won't take 3 weeks to write again that's usually a sign it'll be 3 weeks, so... i'll just leave it where it is for now. Wherever that is.

Gadgets and progress

So, first to report some progress. 352.6. Finally broke the 353 mark I got to, ummm.... 3 weeks ago?

So the good news is, it took me only a week to melt off the 6 pounds I regained. I could look at it as the bad news being that at that pace, that would have been 18 pounds lost by now instead of right back where I was. So instead of 353, right now I could be a svelte 335.

But, right now I'm going to be happy to be back where I was and back on track. I'd rather celebrate the progress than mourn where I could be instead. So let's just look at it this way: I'm lighter than I've been for a few years. And feeling maybe even better than I've felt for many years before that. So that's where I leave that. So the whole thing of lost time, lost weeks, regained pounds, that's all in the past now.

I've been having fun with the discovery of GPS capability on my phone. I can track my workouts now. I've talked at length in the past about mapmyrun.com, or mapmywalk.com or mapmyride.com (all the same, just geared towards different forms of exercise)... so what i've done in painstaking detail til now has been to sit down and draw the map out of where I walked so it could log my statistics. Which is okay... it wasn't that long ago you had to count steps and estimate, or go drive along the route to estimate how far you've gone. So to sit at a website for a few minutes and map it out is pretty cool.

Now this is nothing new for a lot of people, a couple years ago I remember my brother talking about doing this with his I-Pod... but since I've just discovered I can do it on my Blackberry I'm pretty psyched.... I can now have my phone track where I walked, at what speed, all of that. It uploads it to its own site, and is very easy then to move the data over to mapmywalk.com. Okay, the only thing cooler is if mapmywalk.com had an interface with this particular cell where it would register there right way. Maybe some day. =)

But the other thing I found is that I can do an RSS feed on this site to my walks, so it automatically registers on here. So in the past I've listed some of the workouts and such, well now... it will do it for me automatically, to the left here. So, if you don't see any new entries under map my walk, you know i'm being lazy again.

hmmmm..... maybe all this technology isn't so great after all... if i'm sluffing you know. might have to rethink this one eh?

The Chicken or the Egg?

Okay, so... is it the chicken or the egg?

Is it the exercise or the diet?

I'm finding that since I've been working on getting back on track, that I've been more faithful in the exercise area than the diet area, and it would appear to me that right now exercise trumps diet, yes?

Or... maybe. The past few days I've had some cheats, some maybe significant, when it comes to the diet (yes, the 2 cherry pies at mcdonald's again, oops?)... but as a whole the diet has been still a big improvement over the 2 weeks before that.

But essentially i've been going on 2 to 3 mile walks each day. So, faithful on the exercise, semi-faithful on the diet, and the net result is I'm back to 356, or 3 pounds re-lost.

But then my head argues, wait a minute!!! About 5 years ago when I lost 80 pounds on the Atkins diet, I accomplished that with virtually no exercise.

Ahhhh, you may say, but you were 5 years younger then as well. The weight does not seem to come off quite so easily on diet alone this time around.

Well, the truth is that both are pretty vital, I'm finding. It's when I was both faithful on the diet AND exercising regularly that the weight has come off the fastest. And while I'm encouraged by having re-lost the weight, I still need to get better at the diet, for one good reason... blood sugar. I'm about to get a physical exam scheduled, it's been about a year and a half since I had one, and I've drug my feet on it for one reason... my blood sugar was higher than normal and the doctor said I'm borderline diabetic, if i had a second reading in a row like that that's technically a diagnosis of diabetes. That's not really a diagnosis I want to be hung with. I know, if I AM actually diabetic, then I should know about it and go accordingly, right? But I also know that with type 2 diabetes, it's often the kind of thing that can be controlled or reversed by getting good control of blood sugar. So having that under control, well I don't know if that will prevent me from being diagnosed as diabetic or not because I don't know what all goes into such a diagnosis... but even if I am diagnosed as such it's a lot better off if blood sugar is under control. So.... chicken or egg or whatever, the exercise is important, but... i have to stay away from those mcdonalds pies!

Taking a Break + 6 pounds = Big Mistake

My last post I'd mentioned taking a small break. Part of my not posting since is... well the break didn't exactly end. At least not until recently. Sort of....

Something like this isn't something you can really take a small break from, at least that's what I'm finding. Because you allow something you don't normally allow... and that ends up adding to something else... and before long I'm getting the quarter pounder with cheese in a combo WITH the two pies for a buck... and all the while thinking what's up with this but still eating it all the same.

Part of that break has been getting away from the regular exercise. Doing the 6 mile walk the one day might have been overdoing it? Okay it wasn't because it wasn't that difficult to do and I don't think it took that much out of me, but.... maybe it did some because it was hard to get back into that routine. But then when I look at my log on map my run and saw so much of February filled with decent workouts and March... sooooo little.

My first steps to getting back on track have been getting back into the regular exercise pattern and then more consciously getting back on track food wise. I'm finding that the exercise part is getting to be pretty crucial, or at least a good 3 mile walk can cover a multitude of sins. Or a multitude of bad food choices anyway.

But i can't just rest on that, because the fact remains blood sugar is something I still have to watch out for. Exercise alone won't keep that under control.

So, to those 2 or 3 of you who read this, prayers are always appreciated. I'm getting back on track. Besides, the biggest loser group starts up after Easter, and I definitely want to be able to start that up at least a few pounds lighter than when it finished up. So I have to do something about these added 6.

Does that make it 199 pounds now instead of 193, since I have to lose those 6 a second time?

A break

I'm not sure if a break is a good thing or not when it comes to this whole weight loss thing. I'm sure a lot of diets are lost to breaks.

But I think that with all the buildup to the weigh in and maybe overdoing it on some of it before then, it just got to a point where it was like, for a couple days I didn't even want to think diet. I mean, I don't think I've fallen off the wagon and i've stuck to the basics for the most part. okay, the ice cream cone doesn't count, right? After all, I did have it with a diet coke.

Okay, so this is totally off the subject. Completely. It's a simple thing, happens every day, happens all the time... but still totally cool. My daughter's cat had her kittens today... and really she's barely a cat, still more or less a kitten herself. But the part that I think is really cool is here you have this kitten who has kittens, and she totally knows what to do. I know, silly little thing. But it's sometimes those simple, silly things that really speak out. I think it's because I work with someone who's convinced about the whole evolution thing, that all of this that is around us was totally random. But to me, it's like... how can something like instinct, knowing what to do to take care of your kittens and all just out of nowhere, how can that be random? Just one of those silly little things that shows the amazing design of all of this.

Anyway, gotta go get supper out of the oven... and break's over now...

3rd Biggest Loser

It's kind of sad that this was the final weigh in in the Biggest Loser group. Honestly, I did not expect to be as disappointed about it being over as I am at the moment. It takes me a long time to warm up to new people, so being among a group of people I did not know at all made me wonder how well I'd like doing this group when it started.

I know I mentioned this a number of times but I'm not sure I said exactly what it was. There was a piece in our bulletin at church about another church that was doing a Biggest Loser fundraiser. The timing of it was pretty good so I decided to join. There was an entry fee, with it designed to raise funds for the parent teacher association for the school that's part of the church. So I went to it knowing absolutely no one and feeling a bit like a fish out of water. But it's a really nice group of people and there are a number of people who made me feel pretty welcome.

I've mentioned this a lot, but the biggest thing to me is the whole sense of accountability that came from doing this group. Having the weigh in each week, even though the numbers were never divulged publically other than to say who did the best each week, really did a lot to help keep me on track. So I've really gotten to enjoy doing this.

Soooooo.... out of 22 people, there was a total weight loss of something like 160 pounds. That's a whole person! Okay, that's less than a half of this particular person, but... by normal standards that's still a whole person. So that in and of itself is really good to see.

Now one thing I will say is I don't like the scale there. I got on the scale at home tonight before leaving at, with clothes I was at 353... I got on a few times to make sure it wasn't lying to me because that just surprised me since that's what I weighed in at this morning. So then I get on the scale there tonight... and it starts out registering 357.3.. then 357.7, 357.5... then bam, 359, and there it stays. Grumble grumble grumble.... So at first I'm thinking hey, that's no fair, it's 6 pounds heavier than my scale at home. But you know, I remember commenting that I thought the original weigh in was high, so... if it was 6 pounds too heavy now it probably was 6 pounds too heavy then. So the reality is, even if i didn't like the scale, it's the same scale as the first weigh in, so it's all still pretty even.

My initial weigh in was 385.7. So 26.7 pounds is the total weight loss. That put me at 6.9% of my total weight. So I found out someone was already leading at 7.2%... okay, so if i take that 357.7 that it was setting at right before jumping up to 359, then I'd be at 7.3%... I SHOULD BE LEADING THIS!!! (So this is where I have to remind myself everyone else had to deal with the same scale...) In the end, another guy does even better tough, he's at 7.9%. So I console myself by saying these two who were ahead of me were so much smaller they didn't have to lose nearly as much weight to do the percentage. That and if i'd have done this for the full 7 weeks instead of starting late, I'D HAVE WON!!!

Okay, so does anyone sense an overly competitive thing going on in me here? My gosh, I'm obsessing over the little fluctuations of a stupid little scale!!!

But the truth be told, what the two people who placed ahead of me did, in my mind, was an even greater achievement than mine. I mean I feel darn good about losing 26.7 pounds in 6 weeks. But you know, when you're 185 pounds overweight, losing 26.7 pounds is really a lot easier than losing 10 or 15 pounds when you're not nearly as overweight. Those last 30 pounds or so can be the very toughest to get rid of, so for them, I really do take my hat off.

At the end was a good bit of news... They asked if anyone would be up to doing this again after Easter. I really, really, really hope they do. This thing has helped me focus that much better on what I'm doing.

And hey, if i'm starting out at 350 instead of 386, 26.7 pounds is an even higher percentage so... maybe I can pull it off then eh? In the meantime I'll be secretly sabotaging any skinny peoples' attempts to join the group. =)

40

On the morning of the big weigh in... I hit the 40 pound mark. 40 exact. 353. 153 to go.

Okay, so last night I went out and paid some pennance. We had some friends over for desert and I had a small piece of peach cobbler and a very small serving of ice cream... they were definitely small enough that there wasn't anything to be overly concerned with, but I figured with the final weigh in being today for the Biggest Loser group, I'm not taking any chances.

So, off on the longest walk I've taken yet. I did it at what I thought was a pretty brisk pace, although map my run tells me it was just 3.2 mph. Some of that was, i picked a route with some pretty good hill climbs, about 300 feet for the biggest one. I'm sure I was moving fairly slow towards the top of the hill.

In fact I looked up the route for Bolder Boulder that I'd heard there can be some tough hills, and that was looking like a piece of cake compared to this walk. Did I talk about goals yet for the Bolder Boulder? Right now I'm thinking 1:40 would be a good standard to shoot for.

Wow, I just looked at my training log on Mapmyrun.com. I did just under 23 miles in walks this past week. Hmmm... think i'm taking this weigh in a bit serously? I sure hope the intensity can continue once this is over... I thought maybe this blog would create the kind of accountability that might help, but so far it's not like i've got this massive audience. I think Mike Weaver's going public with his weight loss efforts was brilliant for that very reason. I don't think i'm getting quite the attention, though i'm definitely thankful for even the 2 regular readers... Maybe you two can keep me accountable enough to keep me going strong.

I just know this... this morning starting out the day there was a definite feel of... anything is possible. That's a pretty cool feeling.

February comes and goes

Sad news today. And yesterday to a lesser degree. I read that Paul Harvey passed away. I always enjoyed listening to his news reports... there's a major part of Americana gone with him. And then yesterday was the last day teh Rocky Mountain News was printed. I remember doing an internship in Holyoke, Colorado 25 years ago and being so enamored with the size of the comic section in the Rocky. It's kinda sad to see it go.

Okay, so, time for an end of month report. I'm typing this without my contacts so, if i'm making big typos I can't see, so forgive me in advance.

This morning I weighed in at 355.0. My measurements were 59.5 chest, 59.5 waist and 51.5 hips. So if I remember right (I did just go back and read last month's numbers a few minutes ago, so if I'm wrong it's... um... yeah, my contacts are out, that's the ticket! (Better that than admitting to bad short term memory). Anyway, I was 59.5 on the chest, 60 waist, 54 in the hips, so right now it looks like it's the hips that are doing the best. I was at 367.6, so in February I lost 12.6 pounds. And, that puts me at 38 pounds overall, almost 20 percent of my goal.

I'm really happy with how things have been the last couple weeks. I've done well at avoiding any kind of binges or serious falls off the wagon. Granted, on South Beach, y ou have more flexibility in foods than Atkins, they encourage adding more carbs into your diet. This is far less restrictive than when I was on Atkins, for example I have oatmeal most mornings (whole grain, not the instant stuff -- more fiber and lower glycemic index) and some breads, some whole wheat pasta, stuff like that. And with the intensified exersise the past couple weeks, it's all going really, really well.

Walking for the month, I did just over 41 miles. I've been tracking it at www.mapmyrun.com, so that's why I'm not reporting it here so much now like i was doing earlier. I think there's a widget I can put on here that shows my progress from that site, so I'll have to look into that. I only did 8 miles on the bike... mostly just very cold weekends. Now, of that 41 miles, 30 of it came in the past two weeks. So I'm very pleased with all of that.

Two more days until the final weigh in at the Biggest Loser group. Now I'm finding I'm a couple pounds heavier by the end of the day than i am at the beginning, and so adding on 3 pounds for clothes, right now I'm figuring I'd weigh in at 360, which is 8 pounds down from the last weigh in. And of course it depends on progress the next 2 days too... i'd love to nail the 10 pound mark for the week! That would feel like a good sense of accomplishment. But even still, right now that all puts me at 26 pounds down if i'm where i think according to their scale... not bad for 6 weeks.

If I can keep at that pace i'm going to be pushing 300 by the Bolder Boulder... yikes! Or even if I look at the overall pace of 38 pounds in 3 months (including Christmas)... another 3 months like that and i'm at 317. Still very very nice.... this is getting really encouraging, seeing signs of being a bit thinner, feeling a LOT thinner...

Here's to a great March!

Up-Scale.... or is that down-scale?

So just out of curiosity, I got on my wife's scale. Now when I started this whole thing, I had gone out to get a new scale because I was too heavy for hers -- 350 pound limit. In fact the new scale I got wouldn't work to begin, and it had a 380 pound capacity. Sooooooo.... it weighed me in at 356.4. It works!!!! I can use that scale. Which is good because mine took enough of a beating that it's getting kinda incoherent. Well, maybe coherent but way off at times. I mean I'd love to believe it when it weighs in at 335. It was constantly hitting the 340's, so the past week or so it's been really hard to know where I fit in... and so to have this one work and to work so nicely (and other weighins have been rather consistent) is a pretty awesome feeling.

So that puts me in at more than 36 pounds lost!!! Woohoooo.

My brother, who's been getting back into running the past couple years, is going to do the Bolder Boulder on Memorial Day. It's a 10K run, and he's been trying to talk me into doing it. My first reaction was, no way, i'm not getting into running. I'm not ready for that. I think once I get closer to 300 maybe, but I don't want to risk my knee right now. But... as I look through the site they have a lot of different groups or waves, and some of the last waves are set aside for walkers who plan to take 2 hours or more... now I know I can do that, in fact I'm sure I could make it in less than 1:45. I just did a 4 mile walk tonight in 68 minutes, so add half to that. The nice thing is I felt I could easily keep going, so this is a good thing.

All things considered, I could have a 10 pound week... that would make for a nice final weigh in at the Biggest Loser group. I'm really kinda disappointed though that it's ending. There's a nice group of people, but maybe the biggest thing to it is the accountability, there's a group there to weigh in around, and even though the weigh ins aren't public, it's like it's a real guage to how I'm doing. The accountability of a group like that is huge.

Guess that's something to keep in mind, especially if and when I plateau, is to find a group that continues to meet.

So, 36 down, shooting for 40 soon and very soon....

An Awesome Weekend

Okay, so it's Monday night, so I'll get down to details here right away before getting into the weekend. At weigh in I lost 1.7 pounds for the week. I really had no idea what to expect, the scale at home is wonky and then today I had a service call for work that went well into the day, so lunch was rather late, and by that time I was starved. Now I think i did pretty good, it was a grilled chicken salad at Carl Jr's, but with a mongo diet coke. As late as that was, and not really any time to ummm.... process it all? I didn't know how I'd do, so I was pretty pleased.

So there's one week to go, and I know I'm in the running. In fact I'm finding myself pretty ready to go all out this next week. Nothing stupid I don't think, just good sensible eating and good sensible exercise. Maybe the one thing I think I'll do differently though is, I'm kicking diet soda at least for the week. I'm hooked on the stuff, big time, but I think for the next week I'm going to make a big effort to go heavy on the water drinking, which I know I should do anyway, and cut out the other stuff. Okay, maybe a coffee in the morning or a glass of milk, but none of the other stuff.

I'm kinda guessing my weight to be 363 right now, which would be right at 30. My hope is that by next Monday night I can use my wife's scale, which goes to 350. Not that I expect to lose 13 by then, but I'm thinking it will actually go up to 355, and if i can get that to register, I'd be just thrilled with that.

Okay, so... the weekend. It got off to an pretty incredible start. Friday night our church was having a men's retreat down by Colorado Springs, it was a pretty nice little retreat center. Beautiful country! And there was a lot of hurrying to get out the door, but as I got home before taking right off again, there was a letter from my son Josh, the one in Basic Training.

Fortunately someone else was driving, so that gave me the chance to read... which I'm really glad because it would have been hard to drive. He started out saying he knew I had ears and eyes and could tell there were areas he'd fallen away in his faith, but... to make a long letter short, he rediscovered his faith. He talked about what it meant when I said I was proud of him, and he wants to make me proud even more.

The thing is... there's nothing else he has to do to do that. Just him being the man he is makes me proud. I hope and pray I do a good job communicating that. He needs to know.

Then the retreat was pretty good as well. It was just good to get away a bit, connect with other men from the church, and we had some pretty good messages. Jim Weidman, formerly known as the Family Night guy with Focus On The Family, spoke. I thought it was pretty cool to get a guy who was already somewhat known to speak to a small group of 40 guys. I thought he was really good, and really stirred up a lot of thoughts about how to grow as a man, a husband, and a father.... The fellowship was great, and it's amazing how good a group of 40 guys can sound singing praises together. Okay, we were also blessed by having a great worship leader...

I'm quite happy right now with the church family I'm a part of. I never thought I'd say that about a church that wasn't from my 'non' denomination. But there's a good group of believers, some great leadership, and just this body of people that have created a good church home.

God does great things...

Congratulations to Mike Weaver

I wrote earlier about Mike Weaver from Big Daddy Weave. He's lost 23 pounds since starting the beginning of the year. Way to go Mike!

6.7

It's been 4 weeks now (this is the 5th meeting for me) for the Biggest Loser fundraiser thingie. I lost 6.7 this past week, which feels pretty good. Okay, I know that if I weighed like from Wednesday to Wednesday, it would have been maybe more like 3 or 4, and there would have been more last week. But... that's 17 pounds since the start. A bit less than 4.4 percent of my total weight, which is what they're basing the winner on. There are 6 of us at 4% or more, so I'm in the running baby!!!

Now, I started a week late, so I have to lose in 6 weeks what everyone else has 7 to do, but that's encouraging to be right on track with everyone else being a week behind. Now there are a couple of people there who... well.... let's just say I think I have to lose nearly 3 times as many points to keep up since it's on percentage. They might be the ones that will be the bigger challenge. But, when I think about it, it's not really an unfair thing, because frankly, if you're only 10% overweight it's a lot harder to lose 5% of your weight than if you're 50%. So realistically, it does say a lot about how well they are doing. And I have to say, there's one or two of those that, i'm not totally sure they HAVE 10 pounds more to lose... even 5 will be a challenge.

So the way I figure it, I need to be at 7% or better to win this thing... that means probably 10 more pounds in 2 weeks. It can be a challenge... but you know, I sure wouldn't mind being at 355 by the end of the month now, would I?

Tonight was kind of a tough one to sit through though because I'm developing some strong opinions about some stuff as to dieting and nutrition. Tonight they talked about some recipes and all these recipes that were being pressed by these books as being healthy and weight loss friendly.... looked downright deadly!!! And I have to realize some diets work well for some people and others maybe better for others. So much of the group is going by weight watchers and other such diets that follow the line that you keep calories down and especially keep fat down. But then, healthy foods are considered those foods with a lot of starches and stuff that I'm becoming more and more convinced are a lot of the reason for the high rates of obesity we're looking at these days.

I'm finding more and more evidence as I read about how our bodies process different elements of our foods, that we NEED the fats that so many of the diets are saying are the first things to go. The mantra is that fat has more calories per gram than other things like carbs. But what that doesn't take into account is that fats are the last things processed by the body, that fats are typically spread through the body more to be utilized by muscles well before they are broken down, that fats play a critical role in telling the body we've had enough (and thus reducing the cravings)... while rices and pastas are being pushed as being so healthy and yet the way the body processes them, for those of us that are severely obese and especially those of us more susceptible to blood sugar issues, that's one of the worst things you can do for yourself.

It's like I ranted and raved about some in the past, it's kind of hard to stand up and say ummm, excuse me, i have no degree in all this but... you're wrong about all this.

The thing is, I know it's not all wrong. I think typically the more severely overweight a person is, the more the low fat low calorie diet is going to hurt them, and particularly it will be harder to follow the diet. For someone who has maybe 15 pounds to lose, maybe a more typical diet is more appropriate?

I know I've come a ways since I was convinced low carb was the only way to go. I'm not in the camp that all carbs are bad. But I do believe very strongly that for someone like myself, very simple carbs such as processed breads, sugars, and high starch foods do more harm than good. But at the same time, something rich in a lot of vegetables, fruits, and moderate portions of meats and cheeses and such is a stronger way to go.

Maybe I've just read too much propoganda. But I've just found it to be true for myself that the more that I'll eat of breads, pastas, sugars, the more likely I am to crave more of it. And since I've been letting off those things, I've been very well satisfied, felt like I managed to eat a very well balanced diet, and it hasn't been really difficult at all. It's not that hard passing on stuff, and I've had a lot of opportunities to have that tested.

Maybe the simplest way to go without getting all complicated is Dr. Gott's diet: No flour, no sugar. Pretty simple.

Checking In

It's been almost 2 weeks since I posted. The typical death knell of any blog I suppose. Part of it is being busy, part of it finding the mapping and logging tools on MapMyRun.com. But I think it's been going good.

Okay, so, progress.... This morning I weighed in at 365.8. And it's been a good weekend, good week actually. I was down a half pound at the biggest loser weigh in, part of that being Sunday last week wasn't great. It wasn't bad, I didn't go overboard or anything. We had some lasagna for lunch, but with whole grain noodles, but it might have been a bit much still. Then a soft shell taco, whole grain again, but i think the two together were enough extra, that it probably undid some progress, especially being the day before weighin.

On the exercise front, I didn't really get out any this past week. I can probably make excuses about weather and being busy, but I just didn't get out. But I think I did well enough on the diet that it hasn't really hurt. I'm expecting to be down by at least 5 for tomorrow's weigh in. Maybe closer to the 8 or 9. Everyone's kinda bogged down lately in the group, sounds like it's a pretty normal thing for progress to slow way down at this point. So I feel pretty good about having good progress right now. If I don't make some huge mistake tomorrow.

And... Valentine's Day can be amazingly sweet when you have someone special....

Breaking Even

Well, I wondered about how I'd do at the Superbowl, and another Biggest Loser group meeting comes and goes.... sooooo????

Okay, so, Superbowl first. What a game!!! (no, that's not me being evasive, I really meant it). Okay, I'm not sure I'd rank it as one of the best SuperBowls ever. As I heard people talk about the game ESPN called the 'greatest game ever,' the 1959 championship game, it was said that enough of the game itself was rather sloppy and not so well played, but the finish and drama still were pretty big. I think that's how I felt about this game... both teams just made some dumb mistakes along the way and it wasn't the best played of all games, but the finish still made it pretty great. I'd have loved to have seen Arizona come back, just for Kurt Warner.

All I can say is, the clean shaven look doesn't work for Kurt.

Anyway, the important stuff.... Superbowl food! Actually, I think I did pretty well. Buffalo wings aren't too taboo, probably the worst I did was some beanie weenies, just cuz there's likely a bit of sugar in the sauce. I did really well staying away from the brownies and breads and chips that for me can be pretty lethal. All in all I felt I did pretty good, not too terrible in volume though maybe not the best either. But it definitely didn't feel like I sabotaged myself.

I do wonder how many diets go to die at the superbowl. You know, you get a lot of new years resolution folks who start off good for the first few weeks, and then it all falls apart then. Sometimes there's just something about once you crack, it's so easy to crack again and soon. I know that's been the case for me in the past when I've been on again off again about things, I'd be great a few days and then totally blow it for one day, and it's like once that resolve cracks even for a short bit, it's so hard to find it again. But I felt good, and felt on track still when it was all said and done Sunday.

Last night was weigh in again, and... I'm up 2 tenths. Which probably didn't surprise me too much. I do believe I made real progress the past week, but it's like the timing of it all just didn't work out as well for having a good loss at the weigh in. But it wasn't discouraging.

I did manage to do a 2 mile walk right after work. it was a good, very brisk walk, I managed to do a 16 minute pace per mile through 1 3/4 miles, and then slowed it down the last quarter. When I was younger, a 4 mph pace was pretty easy for me, being a bit long legged. I'm walking as fast as I can without breaking into a jog now, and making a full mile in right at 16 minutes. I hope to get that to 15 soon. Part of the slower pace at the very end was right at the 3/4 mark on the second mile I did break into a brief jog, about 100 paces. I do think that's where I'm seeing some real progress as a result of the more regular exercise is that I am finding myself able to jog a little. In the past if i had to jog even a few steps it was like a major effort to do so. My right knee seems to be weaker than my other and probably is feeling the effects more of the weight, and it would be a real forced hobble. Yesterday I could go fairly steady. That doesn't mean I'm going to start getting into running right now. I have a long way to go weight wise before even thinking about that much would be wise, if for no other reason than that knee. Even though I think all the walking and biking has strengthened it quite a bit compared to even a month ago, the worst thing i could do right now is tweak the knee and have that interfere with the exercise bit.

Sales is sucking for me lately at work... I may be getting into doing some cold calling now and that could be a good way to work in a lot more walking without taking time away from family and stuff. We'll see how that goes.....

Nervous about Superbowl

So far this week I've done pretty good, staying true to the diet and getting some exercise. Yesterday on the way home from work I stopped out at Kendrick Lake out west, it's got a trail that's an exact mile. I did the first two laps in 34 minutes, not too bad. It was kinda fun because for the most part I've walked in the past with silence but I remembered to bring along the headphones to my cellphone, so there were some pretty good tunes to walk to.

Audio Adrenelaine is probably the newest of the music. There was a bit of Degarmo and Key, some Whiteheart, some older Third Day. In all I did 3 miles, which felt pretty good. Today I did an 11 mile bike ride, just down the Platte River, stopping at REI downtown across from Elitch Gardens, and then back. I didn't do the big climb out of the river valley though, wimped out and drove to the trail. Which was probably a good thing, it's been a week and a half since I've ridden, and I could feel it. Still, all that said I thought I did pretty well.

And tomorrow, Superbowl. Some friends are having us over... it's the kind of snacking situation that can be kinda perilous, you know? I think I'll do okay, right now there's this sense that I don't want to lose the progress I've been making.

Oh, yes, end of month, so I'll do some measurements:
Chest: 60 inches.
Waist: 59.5 inches
Hips: 54 inches.

So, instead of losing inches from the initial measurements, I gain a bit in the hips and chest? Hmmmm.... Leaves me suspicious of my initial measurements, but it's not like it's anything huge so I'll stick with where it is. Here's to a better February!