Mike's progress
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
March 8th
I weighed 2 pounds less than I did on Friday! I am at just over 38 pounds lost and hope to hit 40 by Friday. I walked almost a half hour at work today. My calories are just under 1900. I have been a little nervous since Sunday's walk. I have had discomfort/aching in my chest. Not sure if it's my lungs hurting due to the cold air I breathed in, or if it's my heart. It doesn't hurt, it just aches. I can breathe fine, but I just don't feel right at times. Particularly it is worse when I walk. If it's worse soon, I'm going to get it checked out. But enough of that. Tonight me and the family went to Shoneys restaurant to eat. I selected the under 550 calorie blackened GRILLED chicken breast with rice and garlic toast. I added the salad/fruit bar. After enjoying two nice side salads with just a little cheese and fat free dressing, I was feeling good. I avoided their buffet where I would have went overboard and chose the lower calorie option. The good feeling left soon after my meal arrived. I put grilled in all caps to illustrate without a doubt it was to be a grilled chicken breast. What I got was a breast that was cut in half to make two cutlets, each swimming in oil/grease. I could make a puddle on my plate with the grease. I advised the waitress that I was watching my fat/calories and that is why I ordered grilled chicken. She wanted to act like the chicken was made normal, but then even she couldn't excuse the oil all over it and my plate. She asked if I wanted another one with no oil or butter on it. Oil and butter on a grilled meal that is advertised as under 550 calories?!?! I advised yes, but still got a suspiciously moist grilled chicken breast. By this time, everyone else had ate so I just went ahead and ate it. I also estimated an additional 150 calories on the meal since I have the feeling that meal was not made to be 550 calories. I may be overshooting the estimation, but better safe than sorry. I came home and had an awesome low calorie (100 calories) fudge bar. It is Aldi's grocery store's Fit and Active brand and says compare to Weight Watchers on the box. They are great and less than $3 a box! Well, that's all I got for today. Until next time, take care!
Monday, March 7, 2011
I love a good Monday
Woke up on time. Was able to make a healthy breakfast for Chloe and me. Left the house early. Work was pretty decent...for a Monday. No big issues or drama. Ate good and healthy today. Got a couple walks in during breaks and drank 80oz of water. Calories were under 1400 so far for the day, so may have a little snack before bed. Well, nothing else to really talk about. Going to weigh at work tomorrow to kinda see where I'm at for this post weight loss contest period of my journey. Until next time, take care friends.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Sunday night or Part 2
Hello again. I just finished watching a documentary called Fat Head. It was following a man who ate at fast food places for 28 days and actually lost weight. The film Super Size Me from a few years ago was about a man who ate at fast food for a month and his health went to crap. Anyway, this was the exact opposite to that film. The guy in Fat Head lost 12 pounds (I think) and his health tests (cholesterol, bodyfat and hdl/ldl) improved. He didn't just eat salads either. He stayed close to 2000 calories and didn't drink the sodas. About halfway into the movie, the low fat heart healthy diet we know came under fire. By the end, he had tried a low carb diet full of fats and oils and his health improved quite a bit more. So basically, per the film, grains will become sugar in our body, the body will produce insulin to get rid of causing it to be stored as fat, fats from animals are good for the body and oils from plants are causing heart disease. Pro-low carb diet film for sure.
I have did the low carb thing many times. Lost weight fast, bloodwork always improved and sometimes I felt good. Other times, I felt lethargic and cruddy. No matter when I did low carb one thing remained the same. When I cheated at all or went back to eating fruits, potatoes and pasta, I gained BIG time. So I was not tempted to go back to low carbing after I watched this, but I did have a moment of wondering if I was doing the right thing by just eating lean meats, veggies and fruits, oatmeal and brown rices. After all, they did show doctors who said grains were bad for us and fatty foods were actually better foods. But, Super Size Me had experts say fatty foods are bad for us. And another movies says this is bad for us, and another says...You get the point. Confusion due to hundreds of experts all contradicting each other. I'm sticking with my oatmeal, fruit and/or egg whites and turkey bacon for breakfast. I'll continue my lean meat, veggies and more fruit for lunch and snacks. My dinner will be pretty much the same and maybe a whole grain brown rice, quinoa or whole wheat bread/tortilla will be added with it. I am losing weight (slowly, but surely) and I feel good. When I look at my food log, it actually is lower in carbs because I avoid the processed crap that is primarily carbs.
Here is today's summary. Oatmeal with 2 egg whites for breakfast. Mexican chicken breast, fat free refried beans and shredded cheese on whole grain Flatout wrap. Dinner was chicken mushroom marsala over brown rice. I got a 30 minute walk in and drank 48 ounces of water. Pretty good day! Chloe made me and her a weight loss tracker board for our weekly weigh ins that will start Friday. She has every Friday on it through July 22nd (the day before our vacation to Myrtle Beach starts). She has written some things on it that inspires us to lose weight. Like "Myrtle Beach", "Kings Island", "Shopping", etc. Regarding the home weigh ins, they will be different weights than when I weigh at work. Me and Chloe weigh in our pajamas/underwear when at home, but at work they frown on that so I will have my work office clothes on. I will post both weights here on my blog, but my weight from work is what my starting weight of 403 comes from. The home weight is basically so me and Chloe can support each other and share the experience.
Have a great Monday friends. Feel free to leave comments. I'm here for anyone who needs support or just wants to share weight loss success, tips and info.
I have did the low carb thing many times. Lost weight fast, bloodwork always improved and sometimes I felt good. Other times, I felt lethargic and cruddy. No matter when I did low carb one thing remained the same. When I cheated at all or went back to eating fruits, potatoes and pasta, I gained BIG time. So I was not tempted to go back to low carbing after I watched this, but I did have a moment of wondering if I was doing the right thing by just eating lean meats, veggies and fruits, oatmeal and brown rices. After all, they did show doctors who said grains were bad for us and fatty foods were actually better foods. But, Super Size Me had experts say fatty foods are bad for us. And another movies says this is bad for us, and another says...You get the point. Confusion due to hundreds of experts all contradicting each other. I'm sticking with my oatmeal, fruit and/or egg whites and turkey bacon for breakfast. I'll continue my lean meat, veggies and more fruit for lunch and snacks. My dinner will be pretty much the same and maybe a whole grain brown rice, quinoa or whole wheat bread/tortilla will be added with it. I am losing weight (slowly, but surely) and I feel good. When I look at my food log, it actually is lower in carbs because I avoid the processed crap that is primarily carbs.
Here is today's summary. Oatmeal with 2 egg whites for breakfast. Mexican chicken breast, fat free refried beans and shredded cheese on whole grain Flatout wrap. Dinner was chicken mushroom marsala over brown rice. I got a 30 minute walk in and drank 48 ounces of water. Pretty good day! Chloe made me and her a weight loss tracker board for our weekly weigh ins that will start Friday. She has every Friday on it through July 22nd (the day before our vacation to Myrtle Beach starts). She has written some things on it that inspires us to lose weight. Like "Myrtle Beach", "Kings Island", "Shopping", etc. Regarding the home weigh ins, they will be different weights than when I weigh at work. Me and Chloe weigh in our pajamas/underwear when at home, but at work they frown on that so I will have my work office clothes on. I will post both weights here on my blog, but my weight from work is what my starting weight of 403 comes from. The home weight is basically so me and Chloe can support each other and share the experience.
Have a great Monday friends. Feel free to leave comments. I'm here for anyone who needs support or just wants to share weight loss success, tips and info.
A day late post
Last night turned into a family movie night in our living room with the kids. By the time Despicable Me ended (which was a pretty good lil movie if you haven't seen it) it was nearly midnight. I was tired and just went to bed instead of turning on the computer, so I didn't update my calories on Myfitnesspal.com or post anything here. So let me dedicate this post to yesterday's info and then tonight I catch up on today's.
As I updated on Friday, I was pretty bummed about not seeing the scale move at the final weigh in and completely blew my healthy eating. The effects of the fat, sodium and bad carbs that I consumed Friday were very evident Saturday. My watch and wedding band were tighter from the fluid I was retaining. This will be gross, but my urine had a foul odor. I just felt blah through Friday night and Saturday morning. All this mixed together to provide the kick in the pants I needed to tighten up my eating habits.
For breakfast I had one scrambled egg white and half of a whole scrambled egg along with 2 slices of lower sodium turkey bacon made in the microwave. For lunch I ate a foot long turkey and ham sub from Subway with a 75 calorie bag of light Lays chips. Some people can't deal with the Olestra oil they make them with, but it never does anything to me. I kept the cheese off my sub and used mustard in lieu of mayonaisse. All together lunch was only 675 calories. Usually I wouldn't eat a whole foot long, but breakfast was only 150 calories and I'd rather have my big meal at lunch instead of right before bed.
I had planned on baking chicken breast for dinner in some recipe, but by the time we got home from the grocery it was too late to start cooking. So for dinner I had a Flatout wrap with shredded lettuce, a little shredded cheese, lean smoked turkey and some light avocado ranch dressing. To go with it I had a serving of baked Tostitos Scoops with the homemade pico de gallo/salsa I made. A banana was my desert.
It's funny how old habits rare their ugly head. At least 4 times during the movie I had the thought to get a snack. Eating and movies always went together for me, but not now. I wanted popcorn, gummies or anything else I could get. Then I reminded that old Mike voice that I wanted to not be fat more than I wanted a snack and enjoyed my Diet Pepsi instead.
It's cold today and we even had a trace of snow this morning. I'm going to bundle up this afternoon and go for a walk anyway though. No more excuses not to exercise. I looked at my calorie and exercise reports on myfitnesspal.com and see why the scale isn't moving. I didn't realize how often I have had higher calorie days. February 27th was a big calorie day with the pizza buffet, so that most likely caused a big gain. In all actuality, if I would have weighed everyday last week I would have seen a gain followed by continual losses. In the last 2 weeks I have had 2 days of over 3000 calories. This can't happen again. If I have a bad meal, it has to stay just a bad meal not a bad 2 or 3 meals. So my two steps to work on are 1.) stay within my allowed calories, and 2.) exercise each day even if just a 20 minute walk. My weight loss goal for my weigh in next Friday is 6.5 pounds. I want to be in the 350's. More to come tonight. Have a good day.
As I updated on Friday, I was pretty bummed about not seeing the scale move at the final weigh in and completely blew my healthy eating. The effects of the fat, sodium and bad carbs that I consumed Friday were very evident Saturday. My watch and wedding band were tighter from the fluid I was retaining. This will be gross, but my urine had a foul odor. I just felt blah through Friday night and Saturday morning. All this mixed together to provide the kick in the pants I needed to tighten up my eating habits.
For breakfast I had one scrambled egg white and half of a whole scrambled egg along with 2 slices of lower sodium turkey bacon made in the microwave. For lunch I ate a foot long turkey and ham sub from Subway with a 75 calorie bag of light Lays chips. Some people can't deal with the Olestra oil they make them with, but it never does anything to me. I kept the cheese off my sub and used mustard in lieu of mayonaisse. All together lunch was only 675 calories. Usually I wouldn't eat a whole foot long, but breakfast was only 150 calories and I'd rather have my big meal at lunch instead of right before bed.
I had planned on baking chicken breast for dinner in some recipe, but by the time we got home from the grocery it was too late to start cooking. So for dinner I had a Flatout wrap with shredded lettuce, a little shredded cheese, lean smoked turkey and some light avocado ranch dressing. To go with it I had a serving of baked Tostitos Scoops with the homemade pico de gallo/salsa I made. A banana was my desert.
It's funny how old habits rare their ugly head. At least 4 times during the movie I had the thought to get a snack. Eating and movies always went together for me, but not now. I wanted popcorn, gummies or anything else I could get. Then I reminded that old Mike voice that I wanted to not be fat more than I wanted a snack and enjoyed my Diet Pepsi instead.
It's cold today and we even had a trace of snow this morning. I'm going to bundle up this afternoon and go for a walk anyway though. No more excuses not to exercise. I looked at my calorie and exercise reports on myfitnesspal.com and see why the scale isn't moving. I didn't realize how often I have had higher calorie days. February 27th was a big calorie day with the pizza buffet, so that most likely caused a big gain. In all actuality, if I would have weighed everyday last week I would have seen a gain followed by continual losses. In the last 2 weeks I have had 2 days of over 3000 calories. This can't happen again. If I have a bad meal, it has to stay just a bad meal not a bad 2 or 3 meals. So my two steps to work on are 1.) stay within my allowed calories, and 2.) exercise each day even if just a 20 minute walk. My weight loss goal for my weigh in next Friday is 6.5 pounds. I want to be in the 350's. More to come tonight. Have a good day.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Down the toilet
I weighed 366.4 at our final weigh in today. That was 1 pound higher than Tuesday and 4 pounds higher than where I was hoping I'd be at today. Not sure what happened. I can only guess that Sunday's bad eating and last night's salt filled salad bar and slice of pizza are part to blame. It is discouraging to only have basically 2 bad meals in the last three weeks and have only lost about 4 pounds in the last 5 weeks or so. So being the emotional eater I can be, I snapped.
I'm not proud of how I ate, but I'm also not too tore up about it. I reached a bad moment and had a bad day. Tomorrow I am going to be right back on track more focused than ever before! Let me confess my eating sins to you fine witnesses. Breakfast at work was the usual oatmeal with a banana and apple. Lunch was a Chinese buffet where I consumed over 2000 calories (thanks again to the calculator on myfitnesspal.com). Dinner was a big double cheeseburger and fries from Dairy Queen...and a big bite of ice cream. I regret all this happened, but at least it's out of my system. The biggest regret though is bringing Chloe down with me. She did decent at school, but if you put a kid in a DQ of course they are going to want ice cream. She ate a sensible quesadilla meal and a mini Blizzard. So at least she kept things relatively in check.
So tomorrow is my redemption and back on track day. My goal for next Friday is 359. That is a high goal for me since I have been eating well for almost 3 1/2 months now, but with more exercise, water and lower calories I can do this. Here's to a better tomorrow friends!
I'm not proud of how I ate, but I'm also not too tore up about it. I reached a bad moment and had a bad day. Tomorrow I am going to be right back on track more focused than ever before! Let me confess my eating sins to you fine witnesses. Breakfast at work was the usual oatmeal with a banana and apple. Lunch was a Chinese buffet where I consumed over 2000 calories (thanks again to the calculator on myfitnesspal.com). Dinner was a big double cheeseburger and fries from Dairy Queen...and a big bite of ice cream. I regret all this happened, but at least it's out of my system. The biggest regret though is bringing Chloe down with me. She did decent at school, but if you put a kid in a DQ of course they are going to want ice cream. She ate a sensible quesadilla meal and a mini Blizzard. So at least she kept things relatively in check.
So tomorrow is my redemption and back on track day. My goal for next Friday is 359. That is a high goal for me since I have been eating well for almost 3 1/2 months now, but with more exercise, water and lower calories I can do this. Here's to a better tomorrow friends!
Thursday, March 3, 2011
This will be brief
Hello friends, I was out way too late tonight looking for a 2nd gate to keep our little puppy penned up while we are at work. We came home last night to a destroyed house. Just two days after being spayed, she climbed the baby gate and got out while we went to the store last night. So this morning we blocked her in with a big box with weights bracing it. So obviously not getting home until 9pm on a work night is way too late for me. Let me get to the good stuff.
Tomorrow is the last day of our weight loss contest at work so I wanted to be extra good today. I drank over 130 ounces of water and avoided salty foods during the day. Oatmeal and banana for breakfast. Chicken breast and salt free green beans for lunch. Light string cheese, apple and orange for snacks. Dinner was at Pizza Hut. No worries peeps, I was in control. Two small salads with minimal dressing and shredded cheese on it and one (not multiple) slice of supreme thin crust pizza. My total calories for the day were under 1700 calories. I also walked every break. It was only ten minutes at a time, but at least I was moving and not just sitting. So it was a great day!
I am going to weigh in as early as possible tomorrow. I feel pretty good about things. My body solved the "issue" I was having today, thank God! My water intake should help flush the sodium I ingested at Pizza Hut and I have not had a bad day since last Sunday. If I weigh 362 pounds tomorrow, that will be 10% of my starting body weight lost! So that 41 pounds lost would be my first medium size goal reached. Next milestone would be getting to 349 pounds. To be closer to 300 pounds than 400 pounds will be a great relief. Wish me luck friends! I'll let you know the outcome and numbers tomorrow. Even though the contest ends, my journey continues. I am so thankful I live my life like a fit person now and have adapted to the lifestyle changes in eating and health, instead of still being the chronic dieter I used to be. Goodnight friends!
Tomorrow is the last day of our weight loss contest at work so I wanted to be extra good today. I drank over 130 ounces of water and avoided salty foods during the day. Oatmeal and banana for breakfast. Chicken breast and salt free green beans for lunch. Light string cheese, apple and orange for snacks. Dinner was at Pizza Hut. No worries peeps, I was in control. Two small salads with minimal dressing and shredded cheese on it and one (not multiple) slice of supreme thin crust pizza. My total calories for the day were under 1700 calories. I also walked every break. It was only ten minutes at a time, but at least I was moving and not just sitting. So it was a great day!
I am going to weigh in as early as possible tomorrow. I feel pretty good about things. My body solved the "issue" I was having today, thank God! My water intake should help flush the sodium I ingested at Pizza Hut and I have not had a bad day since last Sunday. If I weigh 362 pounds tomorrow, that will be 10% of my starting body weight lost! So that 41 pounds lost would be my first medium size goal reached. Next milestone would be getting to 349 pounds. To be closer to 300 pounds than 400 pounds will be a great relief. Wish me luck friends! I'll let you know the outcome and numbers tomorrow. Even though the contest ends, my journey continues. I am so thankful I live my life like a fit person now and have adapted to the lifestyle changes in eating and health, instead of still being the chronic dieter I used to be. Goodnight friends!
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Corked and blah
I hate to start on a graphic and unpleasant note, but have to. It has been since Sunday night since I dropped the kids off at the pool (or went number 2 for those who think I took the kids swimming in February). I had to take some Imodium Sunday night due to some way too often number 2's thanks to the junk and huge amount of pizza that did me wrong from earlier in the day. I only took one dose, but have yet to go again since. So now I feel very bloated and blah. I got 48 ounces of water down today and tomorrow I am shooting for 96 ounces. I don't want to take a stimulant, but if this keeps up I'll have to.
Well, enough about that crappy subject (sorry, couldn't resist). Today consisted of me getting back to my oatmeal and low carb/calorie energy drink for breakfast. Those drinks aren't the greatest, but I don't drink coffee and can use the kick. Lunch was a leftover chicken breast and the last little bit of rice and mango salsa. For dinner we went out to a bar b q joint. I passed the ribs and opted for the side of smoked turkey and salad bar. I used very little dressing on my two small side salads that I made. Just a little cheese topped the veggies. The sides I got with my salad were 3 sweet pickles, 4 boiled egg whites, about a cup of pasta salad and about a cup of chicken 'n rice soup. Oh yeah, I also had 2 apples and a orange at work for snacks. Pretty good day. Good amount of food and still under my calories for the day. AND I spent my last break walking around the parking lot! I am going to do that each day, weather permitting.
Well, I'm tired and ready for bed. More to note tomorrow I'm sure. Goodnight friends!
Well, enough about that crappy subject (sorry, couldn't resist). Today consisted of me getting back to my oatmeal and low carb/calorie energy drink for breakfast. Those drinks aren't the greatest, but I don't drink coffee and can use the kick. Lunch was a leftover chicken breast and the last little bit of rice and mango salsa. For dinner we went out to a bar b q joint. I passed the ribs and opted for the side of smoked turkey and salad bar. I used very little dressing on my two small side salads that I made. Just a little cheese topped the veggies. The sides I got with my salad were 3 sweet pickles, 4 boiled egg whites, about a cup of pasta salad and about a cup of chicken 'n rice soup. Oh yeah, I also had 2 apples and a orange at work for snacks. Pretty good day. Good amount of food and still under my calories for the day. AND I spent my last break walking around the parking lot! I am going to do that each day, weather permitting.
Well, I'm tired and ready for bed. More to note tomorrow I'm sure. Goodnight friends!
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