I'm back!

Okay, so I took some time off from the blog this year. There are several reasons, namely;

• I stopped dieting
• I stopped working out
• I had a problem with kidney stones 

And as a result, I gained like THIRTEEN POUNDS.

So..not the most awesome late spring / early summer work. 

But doggone it...I'm going to beat myself up about it. Let's look at the good points;

•  I'm still 50 pounds lighter than I was was last year
• I've taken four inches off my waistline
• I've dropped at least one shirt size (and sometimes two, if it's cut generously!)
• I've had to buy two (2) new belts in the past year
• My blood pressure is better - I didn't have to start taking medication
• My blood sugar is better

So...lots of good things going on. I'm not at my goal, but after wandering in the wilderness for a few months, I think I'm getting back on track. 

So easy steps - get back on a healthier diet.  I threw together a bunch of vegetables, including a generous helping of KALE, tossed in some cooked chorizo sausage and - instant soup! 

Last of the kale soup! 

Non-scale victory!

Looking for a pair of pants to wear to work this morning. Pulled on a pair that felt tight. Was a little concerned until I realized they were 34" waist. Have not worn those in a couple of decades.

Woo Hoo!

So long Yellowstone...!

Whenever I traveled by air I was always envious of my lucky co-passengers that would board the plan looking tiered, tan and wearing a new t-shirt advertising the fact they had just completed an adventure in one of America's many fine national parks. So when whenever I had the opportunity, I too acquired location specific t-shirt to announce my participation in a great outdoor adventure. In 2010 I visited Yellowstone and picked up the required t-shirt.

The coat does a good job of hiding the excess weight. 

Packing a lot of weight around the middle in this picture, It made hiking along the Yellowstone River a lot of work. 

I still have the Crater Lake shirt - it still mostly fits as it is an XL! 

I loved that shirt. I wore it a lot. Around 2014 I wore it a lot because I'd gained a lot of weight and this shirt still (barely) fit. So it got a lot of use and it got a lot of wear.


Now it's time to face facts. Some good, some sad. The sad facts - this shirt is worn out. It's got a tear at the neckline. It's utility is reduced to yard work or house cleaning.  It's stained and stretched and generally worn.  You could say that it's broken in and comfortable, which is a true statement.

The good fact - I've lost so much weight that this shirt no longer fits. It hangs on me like a tent. Today as I went through the dresser and the closet purging all the clothes that are now too big. I had to wrestle with embracing the body I have now with the sentimental value the shirt carries for me. Then I thought - a compromise. If the sentimental value is derived from my viewing the shirt do what so many kids recommend - take a picture, it'll last longer!  GENIUS!

So now I can throw the shirt out with no remose. When I want to remember it, I can just look at the following picture.




But the real motivation will be to go back to Yellowstone for a new shirt in a size the will fit my goal weight body!

Stay on the path to a new you and see what is over the horizon! 

"Why didn't anyone tell me tasty things tasted so good?"

So...yeah.

It's been sort of a retrograde week. Lots of tasty food. Not so much exercise.

Meh.

We're were talking about fear of success last week. I didn't really get it, but in hindsight it was a very timely topic. I think that is part of what is going on here. Coupled with some other eternal things. What it boils down to is that I need to put this behind me and get refocused on weight loss. The good news is that spring is just around the corner...dog walking weather, which I think both the dog and I will greatly enjoy!

If it was easy...

...we'd all be at goal weight!

I'm on an okay trajectory. Down 0.4 pounds in the past week. Didn't lose a lot last week, but that's okay. We're not always going to lose weight every week. I could point to several factors - no time, stress and annoying lower back pain that is putting a crimp in my exercise routine.  But it's okay.

I made a big pot of vegetable soup that will last through the weekend (and into next week). If can resist the siren call of tasty food dining out this weekend, I'll should have a good week. 

One key to not eating poorly is to keep busy. I've got a few irons in the fire that I can focus on whenever I start to feel 'the munchies' rumbling in my stomach. Another is to recognize that the process will have ebbs and flows to it. I've made amazing progress over the eight months. If I can stay focused, I think I can reach my goal weight this year! 

Random Thought for Saturday...

I sat down at my PC this morning to do the usual. You know - check the e-mail, read some news, visit web sites I follow and check the Facebook.

After logging in to the PC, you know what the very first thing I see is?

A pop up box in the lower right hand corner of my Windows 10 PC that says "ready for the Superbowl? Do you have enough snacks?"

So now the PC is pushing notices to consume junk food?  Really?

A year ago I would not have given that a second thought. But seven months into this journey, I'm almost hyper-aware of how we are constantly bombarded with advertising suggesting that we consume crappy food that may taste good up from but will just be converted to fat if you are lucky and convert to fat and make you feel bad three hours later.

Where's the positive take away here. Stay strong and stay with you healthy choices. Don't consume just because "the man" is pushing it on you. Consumerism is a lifestyle choice, but it is a choice!

Back on track!

SITREP

The weight loss continues. Down another 5.4 pounds in the last week. Lost a total of 54 pounds since embarking on this journey. Let's take a look at the numbers.

Since starting these changes to my lifestyle in June 2016 I've made amazing progress! I never would have envisioned I could lose this much weight. Again, my quote back in June was "If I can lose twenty pounds, I'll count it as a win!" Well, I've lost that twenty and plenty more.

Last week as a good week.

I feel like lust looking at the weight graph is a one -dimensional metric. Yes, it as a good week because I lost five pounds of weight. But it wasn't the only good thing.

For one - I started thing not in terms of how much I'd lost but how much was left to go before I achieve my goal. The good news is that when I think about my goal it no longer feels like it is 'over the horizon'. In fact it's in sight. Yes, there's a way to go, but I can see where I'm going and I have the tools to get there.

For another - those 38" waist pants I was so happy to fit into back in August and just about falling off me. They are very close to joining the 40" pants in making the trip to Goodwill, never to be seen again.  The 36" paints fit comfortably. There's something I never thought I'd say again. I can get into a pair of 34" pants, but I don't think I'd be ready to wear them for 10 hours at a time quite yet (Soon, my precious, soon).

It's been a very busy week. I've not been able to get to the gym much, but I've been walking at work - and climbing the staircases when I get 10-15 minutes. Adding those small amounts of exercise does help as all that activity adds up.

Lastly, I'd sitting doing relaxation exercises for two minutes. When asked why, I shared my pulse had been higher and I thought it was  due to the stress of life and how it was impacting my pulse and blood pressure. We slapped a cuff on my arm and checked the blood pressure - 184 / 74. Ummmmm....yeah, I can't complain about that. Best reading I've seen in several years.

So all in all, last week was a good week.

Onward to next week! Keep that junk food away from me.

Winter returns...

Snow this weekend, but that's no reason not to stay on target. This weekend was  a 'blue dot' weekend as we managed to keep the family meal activities on the healthy side for a change. So that's good! Friday evening saw a great workout at the gym. A good solid hour of exercise on the elliptical, rowing and cycling machines. Burning those calories is as important to the effort as no eating them in the first place!

There have been challenges this weekend. Mostly it falls under STRESS!  It's the usual friction of life - the work load is tough right now. On top of that the furnace is failing and needs to be replaced - that's going to be stress on the budget. Friday night I find that the tires on one of the cars are bad - bad as in the tread is separating from the tire! Off to the tire store to spend money on a set of tires!
Then there's been family health issues that required some attention and caused some stress.

So....STRESS!

The old me would have reacted to all this stress with a good dose of the one-two punch of alcohol and carbs (Mmmm....carbs!). But the current me won't do that. So I'm trying to keep busy. Fortunately, there is a laundry list of things that need done. So make that list and start tackling it! Before I knew it, it was Sunday night!

Food tip. Jen does this really tasty dish with 'spaghetti zucchini'. It's zucchini that's cut into noodle strips and used in place of pasta. With a little Parmesan cheese and some garlic, it goes great with chicken or shrimp. It makes a low point cost dinner that tastes great and fills me up.

Work out tip: Got five or ten minutes - start walking. Or going up and down the stairs. It's not a lot at once, but over time it can really add up!

Surprise - it's not as bad as you think...

...no, really - it's not.

I had a bad day on Monday. Lot's of stress from lots of sources. I managed to eat well during the day. I went to the gym to work out. The crush of resolution warriors is starting to thin out already. (When do diets die - the third week of January...so say the salad bar sales).

So I worked out. But I just wasn't feeling it. My legs weren't feeling it either. After 30 minutes I just said "enough!"

That's when it fell apart. Stopped at the store, Oh, Veggie Chips are on sale - I like those! Pizza sounds good too - let's get the California Pizza that's on sale. And chocolate chip cookies - those sound REALLY good.

Went home and ate chips, pizza and cookies. In short order, I'd eaten 50 points for the day.

D'oh.

I went to my weekly meeting Wednesday expecting the worst. But the worst was " up 0.2 pounds".

Well that's no so bad.

The relief I felt was physical. I hadn't blow the whole week, it was a small set back.

So now I'm attacking the new week. The goal this week is to have 7 'blue dot days' of healthy eating. I've go the treadmill set up in the basement and was able to get in some steps throughout the day. Working in the basement I managed to knock out  14 flights of stairs over the day.

So far, on track for a much better week.  And I really have come a long way. Here's a picture from not quite a year ago...

Me around 245 pounds. 18 1/2 neck and 40" waist, though that stomach was more like 44-46".

27 pounds from goal...

Life: The enemy of my diet.

Well hello life...we meet again.

I was out of town for the weekend and ran head first into the largest challenge my diet faces - being away from home. 

I'm finding that when I'm 'out of my comfort zone' my diet suffers horribly. I'm constrained by group decisions on where and when to eat and the choices of what to eat are often a challenge. 

Now I can whine about it, or I can grab it and acknowledge that it will be tough, So yeah, I knew it would be tough. I managed breakfast pretty well with banana, coffee and Quest bars, but lunch and dinner were 'diet busters'. 

Goodbye daily points! Goodbye weekly points! Hello tasty food. 

The worst part - being awake half the night feeling like I was going to be sick. 

This is a case where my body has adapted to the new diet, but clearly my brain is lagging behind. 

You always hear that "it's not a diet, it's a life style change." Well, it's true! You have to change the way you eat to say no to foods you used to eat. Or to be sure to keep you activity levels high to burn off the excess calories you consumed. 

Sadly, I failed at both this weekend.

But that was then, this is now. (Nice S.E. Hinton, reference, eh?) I'm not going to beat myself up over that. Sure, I went 'off mission' with the diet. But I had good meals with good friends and that's not a bad thing. Now it's back on the diet, back on the treadmill and attack the excess weight. And remember how I felt in the middle of the night on Saturday when I couldn't remember if I wanted to throw up or not...

What does that title mean...? Why am I here?

Good day and welcome to my blog on diet, fitness and living a healthier lifestyle!

In June of 2016 my weight had peaked at 245 pounds. I knew I had a 'weight problem', but I didn't think of it as a 'problem'. The wake up call was when I received a birthday present of a membership with Weight Watchers!  Nothing says Happy Birthday like the gift that says "you are a fat sack of lard - do something about it!"

(BTW - Thanks Mom!)

So I've been attending weight watchers for the past 7 months now. To my surprise, I've actually lost over fifty pounds at this point. I'm amazed. (Mom's amazed too!). When I started the program I made the statement "If I can lose twenty pounds, I'll count it as a win". Well - Mission Accomplished! 

So clearly, the plan does work. But it's not 'only' about diet. While that is an important component, the program advocates exercise as almost as important a pillar of the program. You can limit your intake, but you need to work the other side of the equation and burn more calories to get rid of the 'excess reserve' that I had been saving within my body.

Me in June of 2015. My weight then was approximately 235 pounds.

What does that title mean...?

We all know that diets are hard. In one of our recent meetings, we were discussing how long people that start diets as part of New Years resolutions stick to them. The answer was...the third week of January as that's when the grocery store saw salad bar sales plummet.  Or as one person succinctly put it "Because kale tastes like wet sadness".  And with that, a title was born!

Why am I here...?

Dieting or really changing your lifestyle is HARD. I mean, let's face it - if it was easier we'd all be skinny! With this blog I want to share what's worked for me, when I've succeeded and when I've struggled and sometimes...when I've failed (though failed is such a harsh word). Along the way, I'm hoping to have funny stories, useful stories and just maybe an inspirational story to let you know you too are not alone on this journey to a healthier lifestyle.