Monday Monday

The weekend is always too short. For a Monday though, I can't complain. Work was efficient and not too long winded. Took mom to store afterwards and while I was gone, Crystal and Chloe mowed the yard...Score! Ate good and healthy today. Now I look forward to the first elimination weigh in of the contest. The three people with the lowest percent of weight loss for the week are kicked off contest. Today I weighed and was down 10 pounds. Let's just hope nothing I ate today was high in sodium so I'm not up tomorrow. The weigh in is at 430pm!!!! Usually I don't like to eat before a weigh in, but there is no way I can go that far into the day without food. So the gameplan for tomorrow is watermelon at breakfast and a pack of tuna at lunch. This should cover me until I get home to make grilled chicken and veggies. It's late and I gotta take kids to school in the morn, so goodnight.

Saturday stuff written on a Sunday morning

Saturday turned out to be an all right day. First thing as soon as I woke up I realized I was obligated to go with the family to Austin's best friend's house. This is also where Chloe's friend who is a boy (I refuse to call him her boyF@#end) lives. Not only was I dreading her and him skipping along with that whole going out BS, I knew Austin would be hanging with his buddy and then I'd be stuck to myself while Crystal chats all day with the parents. Turns out I was wrong. We got there and they were grilling out for all of us, so immediately I was nervous about my eating. When they realized they forgot some things from the store, I rode with her hubby to pick it up. Me, the anti-social guy actually initiated small talk and had a decent talk to and from the store. And to add to my coming out of the shell, I participated in at least 75% of the conversations. The meal went fine too, only had one burger patty (no cheese or mayo) and a salad (with no dressing) along with a bottle of water. Yea me! Then panic set in, they have a huge pool that I already knew everyone wanted me to get in with them. It took all I had in me not to fall to pieces over it. You have to understand, I never take my shirt off in public due to my own view of how I look. Besides my moobies (man boobies for those not familiar) and my gut, there is also the fact that I look like I am wearing a fur rug as a sweater with all my chest/back hair. Add to that the fact that I just know I out weigh that little plastic ladder they use to enter the pool. I could just imagine how it would end. I would take my shirt off causing nausea, step onto the ladder and as soon as get to the top it would come crashing down taking me and a wall of the pool out with it. There'd be the pissed off parents, crying kids and and embarrassed wife and daughter. But that isn't what happened. After the nice meal I headed outside with the rest of them. I took a deep breath, remembered that I was on the road to getting rid of the moobies (I'm stuck with the hair though) and shed my shirt and hastily went up the ladder-so as to not linger too long with my weight on a particular step-and got in the pool.

So, to summarize, good meal, good swimming/lounging, no embarrassment and stayed on my healthy eating plan. I don't plan on becoming a social butterfly, but at least I know I can interact with other humans outside of work.

For dinner I made taco salad with no dressing, just taco sauce. Total calories today about 1700.

Now it is 223am Sunday, so I am going to bed. bye bye!

big day

I am posting this at little after midnight Saturday the 5th, but the contents reflect Friday the 4th events.

Chloe had her 5th grade graduation and DARE graduation. She read her essay about what she learned in the drug awareness sessions of the DARE program in front of all the other 5th graders and the family members. She did great. After that, they went right into 5th grade awards. Chloe got citizenship award and science awards. All was still going good. Than they played a 20 minute slide show of pics from all school year set to those tear jerker worthy graduation songs. I'm a big dude, but remembering my baby Chloe and than seeing her now getting ready to enter middle school teared me up. I was just glad I got my crap together before the lights came back on. After that all ended, I headed to work and was off by 345.

All this time, I didn't eat anything which would turn out to be a bad idea.

At Chloe's last day of tryouts today, she officially found out she didn't make the team. She was sad for a minute or two than back to her regular chipper self. She says she wants to try everything until she finds a sport she is good at and knows what she needs to do to improve at basketball. Austin meanwhile, went home to stay overnight at his friends house. Final note, Crystal called about job and they said no decision yet. They told her would call her next week to give decision. So everyone (or just me) keep praying and keep fingers crossed that she gets it!

Getting back to the not eating being a bad idea...At about 430 I had a 2 chkn wraps (450 calories). Not bad at all. Then night time came. From 9 to about an hour ago I consumed the following: handful almonds, fiber one bar, peanut butter on a spoon, pretzel sticks and baked spicy chicken tenders made into two sandwiches. Estimated total calories for the day 2100.

Not a total failure, but way too many calories in short amount of time.

Thats all, going to bed now.

DAY 3 OF CONTEST...

All good today. Once again plenty of baked chicken, rice and apples. I added some low fat tortillas and black beans for dinner. Calories around 1900.

Not much else to say. Chloe's basketball tryouts not any better for her but she is still committed to finishing the week. Crystal not heard from job she applied for. Stinks knowing odds are she didn't get it after last week she got such a good vibe about it. There is still one day of hope left, she will call tomorrow to get final word on it.

Alright, got other things to do so I'm done for the night. Adios.

HEY, ALMOST FORGOT...

Took my measurements today so I can also gauge inches lost as well as pounds. Here they are. I am embarrassed to post them, but no one is reading this anyway but me. Who knows, maybe when I lose all my weight my embarrassing blog entries may help encourage someone else in their weight loss journey.

Chest: 54 1/2 inches
Waist (lets face it, my belly): 61 inches (yes, sadly I'm serious. My waist is only one inch shorter than my wife's height)
Right upper arm: 20 inches Left upper arm: 18 1/2 inches
Right thigh: 36 inches Left thigh: 35 1/2

There they are, another item to help keep me motivated.

So far so good...

Day 2 of contest. Ate really well all day and had a large -but healthy - dinner. Total calories were around 2000 but all were from low fat, lower carb and mostly natural foods. lots of chicken breast meat (grilled or baked), brown rice, steamed veggies and had a couple low fat tortillas with fat free refried beens and salsa to go with the chicken for dinner.

I feel so good today. It is amazing that two days of eating smart can make a person feel so good but one will easily do away with that good feeling for a burger and fries or pizza. I have did it so many times, but know I have it in me to stay the course and not screw up this time. I let mom have my copy of Half Assed to read. She is finding the same motivation as I did in it. She is trying to do good eating with me but some old habits die hard. Tonight I took her to the grocery store. As we both filled our carts with proper foods for each of our homes, she reached back into old habits...all ready. As she shows me a marked down cut of fairly lean round steak, I acknowledge and tell her "looks good, just trim off all the fat and that won't be bad at all". Figure not much fat marbling in round steak, all the fat is easily seen to be cut off and red meat in moderation has good qualities. Mom however looks at me shocked and replies "that fat makes it moist and taste good". Failed. As I remind mom that fat also has lead to the countless stints and double bypass on her heart she seen the light. I say that but deep down know that instead of taking it home, trimming it and throwing it on the indoor grill she most likely just cut it in strips (fat and all) and through it in a skillet with a little (too much) oil and then added some stir fry veggies and thinks she had a dinner that wasn't too unhealthy. Eventually I hope to modify her habits, but right now I gotta focus on me. I am a fragile healthy eater. I can go from 1600 calories to 6000 in an hour. The important thing is taking it one day at a time.

Work was better today. Getting used to my crew being gone. Again I thank my buddies for texting me today to say hello. Tomorrow boss is back and I will know if I work Saturday. I hope I do so I can be off Friday to go to my daughter's 5th grade graduation. I don't get to go to a lot of my kid's events at school. This one means a lot to her so I'd like to go. I can't wait until I have lost my weight and am able to do the active things they'd like to do with me...and so I'm not the fat dad that in a few years they will be ashamed to be seen with. It's late, gotta get up early...goodnight all (or just me).

Big 'ol boy got bigger

Since the first gung ho blog entry and weight loss start roughly two weeks ago, I have gained 4 pounds. Today's weigh in has me at 397.4 lbs. I will say though I have went through lots of good food this past holiday weekend and weigh in was at 1:30pm (after I had ate twice and drank two bottles of water). Regardless, I am heavier and feel worse than I have in long time. I look back at my past entries and remember how good I felt. Well, it's time to get back at it.

I thought today would suck, but it wasn't bad. I missed my homies like crazy but they showed me love with texts and facebook messages. Angie, Jamie, Rachael and Laura are awesome at encouraging me! All of my buddies are, but I am only singling out the ones who contributed today ;-)

There is going to be alot of competition in our work version of biggest loser. I know just by looking at the people who didn't need to join, who will be popping laxatives and water pills, who will starve and who will drop out. I will be in the group who actually wants to lose weight and could care less about a prize...although I would gladly take it. One of my co-workers, who shall go nameless, proceeded to give me all sorts of wonderful advice on dieting. Obviously he doesn't realize that an obese person who has dieted all their life knows more than most diet gurus just from the personal experience. I politely nodded my head and agreed...even when he was recommending I do a workout meant for those who aren't 160 pounds overweight. Oh well, that's part of the adventure.

On a different subject...Chloe probably won't make basketball team next year as try outs proving to be too demanding. She is making me so proud though and is going to finish out the week of try outs. She is winded and wore out and talks about how so many other girls were better than her - but she is staying positive. She knows that what she learns now by trying out will show her what she needs to do to have a chance at making the 7th grade team next year.

This has been long winded, I know, but that was my day in a nut shell. I'm just glad I got my diet short bus back on the freeway and out of the restaurant drive-thru.