Remember me...

Well I have not been on here since the 13th and have seen better days. The weight loss journey has been rough. From 7/9 thru pretty much the 19th I did not watch what I ate at all. At this past Tuesday's weigh in I was shocked I was only up about 6 pounds. So I am at a 14 pound loss. Not setting any records, but I am happy with it. If I was on some fad diet, I would've gained 20 pounds during that time off. I am still not back strict, but I'm not eating stupid either. The biggest loser contest at work ended for me by fractions of a percent. Oh well, my journey continues. I go for a job interview at walmart tomorrow for a part-time gig to help with extra money. If hired, the extra hours moving around should help with the weight loss thing. Well, I have more to write but will have to do it later as I got a lot to do before bed. I'll try not to go so far between posts. FYI...my weight as of Tuesday is 383 (better than 397).

Detour...

Since I have last wrote, the adventure has stopped for a break. I intended on a one day break for my birthday on July 9th and have yet to get back to eating right. The family and I are heading camping tomorrow through Sunday, so maybe with being out and active that will help get me back on track. Then again, there will be hot dogs, smores and sandwiches for the meals along with cookies and chips. I will be watching my portions so that will make it a little better. I feel like crap compared to where I was at. I know I have gained weight since Thursday, but I also know it's not the end of the world. I have quit throwing in the towel when I do bad. I may have to wait for Monday to get 100% back on track since I will not be around a stove to make my healthy meals...and I'm ok with that. I will be fine and this weight will get lost. One week of crappy food will not derail me permanently. It's nice to be able to say that. There was a time when I would have just never logged back into this blog, turned my back completely to weight loss and gained 40 pounds. Now, I know I will weigh probably 12 pounds more next Tuesday at weigh in...but that's ok, I will still be down weight since I started and I know I can lose any weight gained this week. Well, off to prepare for the camping trip. Lots to plan and pack.

Last day of work before vacation...

Ate what I wanted today. M&M's, orange chicken and white rice...you get the picture. Gonna cookout for my birthday tomorrow. Bratwurst and burgers and maybe some chips and baked beans. I shouldn't use my B-day as an excuse, but I have been good for over a month and 4 meals won't get me back into old habits (I promise).

Weigh in day...

I lost 6/10ths of a pound this week. Not bad considering I had to weigh in jeans, not shorts and just came off of a long holiday weekend. I am going to ease up on my bread and less fruits. Even though I am not doing low carb, I feel the slow pace of weight loss is due to too many extra carbs that aren't needed. I may look back in a month and think this was stupid, but right now it makes sense to me to do. I don't have anything else to write. Well, g'night.

End of a long weekend...

and the short week begins tomorrow! I work Tuesday - Thursday and then I am off until 7/20! Today I went to the lake with the family for a couple hours. We then grabbed left over cookout foods from mom's house. Total calories for today were about 1800. Mom called me from the hotel her and my sister are staying at. She was just relaxing and enjoying getting out of SE KY. I didn't do much walking today or water drinking. My weigh in is tomorrow. I am just hoping for a loss of any number. The whole eating a good size meal late the night before a weigh in is not good for me. Oh well, I feel better regardless of the scale. I got an early morning so off to bed I go.

Happy 4th of July

Let me start with yesterday since I didn't blog any. We continued searching yard sales for Chloe a first bike. The theory was to get her a cheep one that want be so painful to watch her rough up while learning to ride. First sale we thought we had a winner. I paid $15 for a 24" girls mountain bike. Black and Pink with 18 speeds. It had some rust on handle bars. No biggie, thought I'd just sandpaper it and paint it. It had a collapsed bar near where the back tire was held, like had rusted a little or was hit with a hammer. I figured it was still strong frame and just a starter bike so it was ok. Then as I unloaded it at my mom's house (had to leave family at the sale as there was no room in car for all them and a bike), I noticed a heavily rusted chain and gears. Then I noticed the cable for the gears pulled way out of the black plastic tube that held it. I took inventory, flat tires that may not hold air, a thin metal strip fell out of the rim, rusted chain, rusty gears, gears do not change (as the cable was jerked out of the shifter), handle bars rusted, collapsed tube in frame and that's about it. Mind you, the bike looked mint except for the rusty parts. Good enough to pay $15. I knew I could get new inner-tubes, new chain, and paint the rust for just a few dollars. I wasn't going to worry about gears due to Chloe just learning wouldn't need other gears. It took mom asking if pedals went all the way around to find the fatal flaw. They didn't go all the way around. They turned maybe 3/4 way and then locked up. Had to be frozen solid with rust. I immediately took it back (since family was still there, they knew I'd be back). When I explained it, one of the 4 women working the sale said "it needs oiled". After I asked where I could possibly oil to make rusted internal steel parts to unlock the pedals, I got a shrug and they acted as if was my problem now. Fortunately the eldest of the women told the cashier nazi to give me back my money. It was then we decided to just have Chloe save her money and buy the new one at Wally World in a few months so we know it isn't crap. I want her to learn for exercise, she wants to learn because it looks fun to her. My son, however, does not want to learn. I advised him he is past the limit on his training wheels and they would need to come off. Mind you, he has been on his bike a total of 4 times in our driveway about 2 years ago. It was a 7th birthday gift that has been the biggest waste of money. I told him I would sell it if he didn't ride it. He says not to sell it, but insists I don't take the trainers off. We'll see how it goes. Ultimately, I want to lose weight enough to buy a bike and start riding too. Got a long way til I can get on a bike, so I'll just make due with teaching the kids to ride in the meantime.

Yesterday evening, Chloe went with the friend that is a boy's family to firework festival. Me, Crystal and Austin just watched the ones near our house from a parking lot away from the crowd. We then met up with the others to get Chloe and headed home. I went through drive thru to get them food. Chloe got a grilled chicken sandwich with no fries. So proud of her. I didn't get a thing and came home to veggie high fiber crackers instead. I had already ate my dinner so I was fine. It's funny how the smell of fries and burgers can make you crave and sick at the same time after eating well for awhile. Total calories for yesterday was about 1800.

Today mom had a big pot of hot dog chili and low cal/low fat hot dogs, potato salad, buns, cake, chips and cookies for lunch. I brought my own lite buns and had two chili dogs and some fat free pringles I brought with me. that was about 500 calories. Then we headed to the lake for some swim time while my sister and her family went shopping. We stayed 3 hours and all of us got burnt a little...or a lot in my forehead and Crystal's chest/face case. It was great seeing our good friends Terry and Amanda (and their girls) show up and swim with us. Unfortunately, our friend Amanda had what she thought was a sprained ankle. She was not having as good a time with all the pain. After we got home from the lake, we heard she had a broke foot. Amanda, if you are reading this, I hope you get better soon. They are great friends and I hate that she got hurt. It's never the buttholes that get hurt, it's always good peeps. We got back to mom's at about 5ish and mom was ready for me to start the grill. Yes, even with that food for lunch, we added to it with 1/3 pound burgers and more weenies. By this time, my lite hot dog buns were gone and there was no lite burger buns. So, I had a light weenie with no bun, 1 (not 3) cheeseburger on a bun with onion/tomato/mustard and more fat free pringles. This totaled 660 calories. Total calories thus far was 1160. This is awesome! Usually I would have had at least 3 chili dogs at lunch with the potato salad, chips, cookies and cake for about 1500 calories...in just one meal. Dinner would have been a chili dog, 2 cheeseburgers, potato salad, chips, cookies and brownie for about 2000 calories. So today up until 7 I had consumed 1160 calories, compared to 2660 I would have had a couple months ago. I did add more to that by 10. I had a burger patty with chili on top and a regular hot dog covered with tomato, onion and mustard. No bread or chips. This was about 600 calories. Total calories for day was about 1760. We then watched my nephew Noah light some good fireworks and our good family friends light theirs. All in all a great 4th.

Tomorrow, mom is going with my sister and her family are heading for a 3 day trip to Chattanooga, TN and road tripping it. Mom needs a good vacation and time with Lisa and her family. Mom doesn't get to go many places with her leg issues and our schedules. She definately doesn't get good quality time with just her and my sister. This will be good for all of them. I gotta admit, I'm gonna miss her. Me and mom are very close. Always have been. It was so hard when her and my dad moved away for me not to go with them when I graduated high school. Those few years they were 4 hours away sucked. Especially when my dad was diagnosed with cancer. After he passed away, mom was all alone except for the family and friends living next to her. We moved down about a 1 1/2 years after my dad died to help her out. We have did many a shopping and eating out together in these almost 10 years, but it's been mostly down here in SE KY. She has only went with us to Indianapolis a couple of times and to see her brothers in OH once. There have been an occasional trip to Pigeon Forge or Lexington, but not often. This will be a great get away for her. Her dog is at his own get away at the vets boarding room while she is gone.

I've been long winded today, but a lot was on my mind. If you got bored reading, you should have just left and came back to read a shorter post tomorrow. If you stuck with it and read it, thanks. I'm done now. I have no other thought to write. Goodnight.

Same as yesterday...

Ok, I am noticing a trend that I do not like. I have no interest in eating all day, until dinner meal. Today I started with oatmeal and a banana. For lunch I ate off of the Fresco menu at Taco Bell. My lunch was under 500 calories. I felt great. Then we went to dinner at a steakhouse. I had just about 5 little cubes of fried alligator nuggets (never had them so thought me and Chloe could do our own Bizarre Foods challenge). Not bad and not terrible calories since I had so few (they were the size of dice). Then I didn't get my big 20oz steak, but instead opted for the 10 oz sirloin that I trimmed probably 2 oz of fat off of. Once again, not bad. It was lean and grilled so did good there. Then I had a baked potato (plain...to begin with, will talk about that in a sec) and the salad bar for some veggies. That's where the crap hit the fan. I couldn't tell what dressings were what, so instead of asking a waitress I just got bleu cheese. Lotta fat and calories there. Then I had 2 slices of rye bread with butter. Lotta fat and carbs. Then I added about two tablespoons of cheddar cheese sauce and two tablespoons of taco beef from the salad bar to my plain potato. What the hell is wrong with me?!?!? I was staring at the grilled chicken sandwich and plain baked potato meal while Crystal and Chloe ordered. What causes a man to then order the less healthy. That really isn't even the issue though. The meal I ordered would have been fine. Had I not loaded my potato or got a salad bar it would have been 540 calories and about 650 if I ate the little garlic toast. But instead I added another 500 calories I'm sure. So for today, I had about 2200 calories. I went into dinner having a little over 900 calories. I have been saying that I won't beat myself up over it and can just start new tomorrow. That is getting hard to do when I screw up so often lately. I have got to man up and get past my old self trying to sabotage the new Mike. Right now, I am still on the road of my adventure. I am no where near eating as bad as I used to. I am still walking alot thru the day and keeping my calories (most days) around 1500-1800. Once again, tomorrow is a new day and I will do good.

good and the bad

Ate well balanced, high fiber foods all day. Walked at my first break at work. cooked up 4 thin and long round steaks trimmed of all fat...and ate every bite. Thats right, 4 whole skillet steaks. Now let me reiterate, these were about 4 oz each so not some big 2 inch thick steaks that weigh 8 oz each, but they were still more than I should have ate. So my total calories for day were about 2800. I gotta do better with getting past my weak moments. I'm not going to beat myself up over it though. It's over and tomorrow is a new day.