Day 132

Just a quick post for tonight.  Nothing particularly significant occurred today, and I didn't face any particular challenges other than hanging out with some friends.  Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), turkey sandwich on sourdough (500 calories), granola bar, some peanut butter, and a couple Twizzlers for snacks today (300 calories), penne, sauce and garlic toast for dinner (1000 calories).  Exercise was a lunchtime walk again (100 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2100
Exercise:  100
Points Earned:  1000
Total Points Earned:  174640
Points to go:  25360

Day 131

So as the diet is nearing completion I've started to wonder what I should do next.  In May I'm going on a vacation, so at least during that period I'm likely to not worry too much about eating right.  I will be trying to run a bit because the half-marathon is going to be a couple weeks later, but even there I'm going to be trying to have fun while running rather than doing it for exercise.

Other than that trip though the point is rapidly approaching where I need to determine what long term goal I hope to achieve.  I would not be surprised to discover that I'm going to end up losing 50 pounds during the Challenge.  Five months ago just achieving that would have been an end in and of itself.  Instead I can now see even more possibilities ahead.  In terms of weight, I'm at a point that I likely haven't hit since at least leaving UPS and possibly even before that.  In terms of aerobic activity it's very possible that I'm in the best shape of my life...which is just sad, but still an accomplishment.

So at some point soon I need to decide what's next.  Any suggestions?

Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast (300 calories), turkey sandwich for lunch (500 calories), a granola bar and some mini-reese's as snacks (200 calories total), and a cheeseburger on a sourdough bun for dinner (800 calories).  Exercise was a lunchtime walk (100 calories) and an hour at kickboxing (500 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  1800
Exercise:  600
Points Earned:  1800
Total Points Earned:  173640
Points to go:  26360

Day 130

I've had a lot of positive changes over the past four months, as the diet has progressed rather successfully.  One of the most promising changes has been my willingness to exercise and my recovery time afterwards.  Last year as the half-marathon training started I attempted to go to the gym a couple times per week, and then running with the team on Saturday.  Trips to the gym rarely lasted longer than a half-hour on whatever machine I was using.  More importantly, the day after a training run I was usually wiped out.  It didn't stop me from doing stuff, but I would usually end up with a lazy day.

Four months into the diet and I'm going to exercise at least six days a week most weeks.  It's actually gotten to the point where kickboxing and running is actually interfering with other activities.  I still get a bit wiped by anything too elaborate of course, but basic running doesn't seem to do it any more.  I'm sure as the distances for the training runs extend I'll feel it more, but at least for up to an hour of running I seem able to handle it.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), lunch was peanut butter on a sourdough roll with some milk (500 calories), snacks were a slice of cheese and turkey while shopping, and a sourdough roll after dinner (300 calories), dinner was a cheeseburger on sourdough with a single potato's worth of french fries (1000 calories).  Exercise was an hour on the treadmill (833 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2100
Exercise:  833
Points Earned:  1733
Total Points Earned:  171840
Points to go:  28160

Day 129

Today was the second training session for Team Challenge.  This week we stretched the time out to 45 minutes and I still managed to run the whole way at a very good clip.  If you're interested here's today's run:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/152398301

What's really nice is that I completed this run at a pace of 5.5 mph.  That's important since my goal this year is to finish the half-marathon in 2 hours and 45 minutes.  In order to do that I have to achieve an average speed of 4.77 mph over a distance of 13.1 miles.  Needless to say, if I can stretch out the distance I can run it would be really nice to keep this kind of pace going, even if I can't stretch it to far having a higher pace that I can alternate with a slower one would also be nice.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwiches for breakfast and lunch (300 calories each), snacks during the day included an orange slice, peanut butter, and a chocolate chip cookie at the theater (400 calories total), dinner was fish and chips at the Trinity Brewpub (1400 calories as a guess).  Exercise was the morning run, then a walk into downtown (650 and then 100 calories respectively).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2400
Exercise:  750
Points Earned:  1350
Total Points Earned:  170107
Points to go:  29893

Day 128

Just a short post for yesterday, as I forgot to actually post the days results.  Nothing too exciting yesterday, but I did decide to give myself a break from running for the day.  The combination of being a little sore from kickboxing, and running Saturday morning allowed me to talk myself out of it a bit.  I'm generally trying to avoid letting myself do that, but I figured one day of rest wouldn't hurt too much.

One other bit of excitement was the Wellness Committee at work (which I'm a member of) hosting a Lunch and Learn about Zumba.  Fun looking bit of exercise, but when I got dragged up to try it out I ended up looking like an uncoordinated monkey.  Not sure if it's an exercise program I want to take up myself, but I can definitely see why folks like it.  It just looks like a lot of fun.

Food for yesterday:  egg and cheese sandwich (300 calories), PB&J for lunch (600 calories), salmon, noodles, green beans and a sourdough roll for dinner (1000 calories).  Exercise was 0 calories, as I have no way to estimate what I burned in 20 minutes of uncoordinated Zumba.

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  1900
Exercise:  0
Points Earned:  1100
Total Points Earned:  168757
Points to go:  31243

Day 127

So as I've mentioned, I've been doing kickboxing for about a month now.  With running, I've done enough that I can sort of settle into a groove.  The challenge there is going to be setting a pace and sticking to it out in the real world rather than the treadmill.  Plus of course going 13.1 miles while doing it.  With kickboxing everything is new, and my body is realizing that it doesn't move that way naturally yet.  One fun part of the classes though is that every class is a little different, with the combinations of punches and kicks varying from class to class.  Because of that, one week I can feel fine after class and on another I'm completely exhausted.  It's a great workout though and I'm really enjoying the variety.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich (300 calories), turkey sandwich on sourdough (500 calories), pizza strip at work and a slice of cheese after kickboxing for snacks (200 calories), lasagna with garlic toast for dinner (1000 calories).  Exercise was an hour at kickboxing (500 calories) and a lunch time walk (100 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2000
Exercise:  600
Points Earned:  1600
Total Points Earned:  167657
Points to go:  32343

Day 126

Snacking is always a little dangerous during the day.  It's become somewhat standard for me to scrounge up some snacks during the day while at work.  More dangerous on some days rather than others though, as I will occasionally find myself eating my lunch too early.  At that point I go looking.  Occasionally that just means a small bag of chips, but it can also be candy, cake or whatever other junk food might be lying around.  Today was even worse as I ended up hanging with friends and eating some extra junk food with them as well.

Going forward past the end of the diet I'm going to have to be a lot more cautious about stuff like that.  Right now I'm trying to keep track of what I eat, but if I end up slacking off a bit with that I could find myself killing bags of chips or cookies again without realizing it.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich (300 calories), peanut butter and jelly (600 calories), a bag of chips, a piece of candy and some cookies for snacks during the day (450 calories) and penne, sauce and garlic toast for dinner (1000 calories).  Exercise was an hour on the treadmill and a walk at lunch (1013 calories total).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2350
Exercise:  1013
Points Earned:  1763
Total Points Earned:  166057
Points to go:  33943

Day 125

I've been at this diet long enough now that a lot of the milestones just pass me by without noticing them.  On Monday I finished the fourth complete month of the diet.  In the first couple months the milestones meant a lot more, as I hit each one they were an accomplishment as much because of my tendency to bail out on diets.  Now that I'm in the home stretch of the diet (and down 40 pounds) the milestones are a little less exciting.  In some ways the only milestone I'm looking at right now is when I finally cross 200K.

Of course tied into that is a few other targets and accomplishments I'd like to hit.  Getting to 215 pounds means a 50 pound weight loss on the diet.  I've got a physical coming up in two weeks and I'd like to be able to impress my doctor.  I'm going on vacation in a couple of months and I'm looking forward to pictures of me as a "skinny" person (under a very loose definition of skinny of course).  Sometime in the next couple weeks will also likely be my big shopping trip to buy new clothing, I'm really looking forward to that.

So the milestones of dates (4 months in), days of the diet (todays Day 125), or pounds lost during a week matter less to me but there's still some rewards of the diet I'm looking forward to.  Plus there's also my new table whenever that arrives.  You know, I think maybe this diet wasn't as crazy an idea as I thought.  We'll have to give it another month and see.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), turkey sandwich on sourdough for lunch (500 calories), a small bag of chips and a few tootsie rolls for snacks (200 calories), chicken, rice and green beans for dinner (1000 calories).  Exercise was an hour on an elliptical machine as the treadmills were all in use (750 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2000
Exercise:  750
Points Earned:  1750
Total Points Earned:  164394
Points to go:  35606

Day 124

A second day in a row without any real exercise.  Yesterday it was just a matter of being busy, today I kind of blame on me being lazy.  Had an opportunity to either go to kickboxing or go run at the gym.  Instead I decided to play Kingdoms of Amalur (my character sprinted a bit, that counts right?).  Really though since today was a Monday holiday, I took advantage to go hang out with some friends.  I didn't eat badly today, but my other activities interfered with my exercise.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), lunch was a burger and some fries at a the Black Sheep Public House in Niantic, CT (nice place for a meal, 1000 calories is a guess).  For dinner I went with another egg and cheese sandwich, though on a sourdough roll (400 calories).  Snacks included a few leftover chips and a slice of cheese (150 calories).  No exercise today.

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  1850
Exercise:  0
Points Earned:  1150
Total Points Earned:  162644
Points to go:  37356

Day 123

140K to 160K took 14 days.  I've been worrying about plateauing for the last month and a half or so.  Part of the reason I've done so has been the fact that I seem  to lose weight in little clusters.  In between formal weigh-ins I tend to check my weights every so often.  I usually measure on the 10K marks just to keep an eye on any patterns, and sometimes I'll randomly weigh myself (if I'm in the bathroom and just decide to check).  So at some point I may weigh myself and see I've lost three pounds, but then a week and a half later I'm still at that weight.  That's when I start worrying about if I've slowed down.

Weigh-in result:  221.8 lbs.

So there's no question I've started to slow down a bit.  After all during the first half of the diet I tended to lose 5 pounds every 20k pretty much without much variation.  Those numbers have tightened now, but the important part is that I'm still losing weight.  Even more importantly the loss of weight is now quite visible.  Even I can see the difference when I look in the mirror (and it looks kind of weird to be honest).

Of course after the successes of the last few weeks, today fell in the low end of success.  Egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), a cheeseburger on a sourdough roll with a few chips for lunch (800 calories).  Had some friends over so I didn't have dinner, instead I snacked all day (1200 calories) on a piece of pizza, chips and a few cookies.  The real problem was no real exercise today (rode my bike to work, but that doesn't count in the rules of the challenge).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2300
Exercise:  0
Points Earned:  700
Total Points Earned:  161494
Points to go:  38506

Day 122

Today was the first day of Team Challenge training.  I'm running a half-marathon to support the Crohn;s and Colitis Foundation of America (http://www.active.com/donate/virginia12newengland/VASDwyer), and today was the first day of training towards that goal.  I did pretty well for the first day.  Last year I distinctly remember running with people for about 10-15 minutes before completely dying.  Then I pretty much walked the rest of the way.  This year I stayed with the runners for 30 minutes, and completed 2.7 miles.

If you're interested in the course or any details on the run, take a look at this:  http://connect.garmin.com/activity/150616840

That's today's course on the Minuteman Bike Path in Lexington.  All in all a great start to the season.

Food today:  a piece of toast with peanut butter for breakfast (300 calories), no lunch but I did have some popcorn, tater tots and peanut butter at various points of the day as snacks (550 calories), dinner ended up being penne and sauce (800 calories) and then after dinner I had a sourdough roll (200 calories).  Exercise was the run listed above (400 calories).

Daily Food Total:  1850
Exercise:  400
Points Earned:  1550
Total Points Earned:  160794
Points to go:  39206

Day 121

Just a quick post for yesterday.  As the diet's gotten longer most of these posts have definitely gotten shorter.  No major challenges, though we did have a potluck at work so I ended up snacking more than I should have.

Food:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), turkey sandwich for lunch (500 calories), several pizza strips and some peanut butter as snacks (400 calories), and penne, sauce and garlic toast for dinner (1000 calories).  Exercise was a lunchtime walk (100 calories) and an hour on the treadmill (821 calories).

Daily Food Total:  2200
Exercise:  921
Points Earned:  1721
Total Points Earned:  159244
Points to go:  40756

Day 120

Just remembered I was supposed to have the Kick-off party for Team Challenge tonight.  Got home, and was so exhausted I didn't really want to do anything and so crashed for a bit.  Oh well, training starts for real on Saturday and I'm definitely going to that.  I've set myself the goal of finishing this year's half-marathon in 2 hours and 45 minutes.  That means cutting 25 minutes off my time from last year.  A doable goal but still challenging as it requires an average speed of 4.76 mph.  Or an average of a 12.5 minute mile.  That's going to be challenging.  On a treadmill I can go at that speed for an hour, but stretching it out to 3 hours in the real world seems a little bit tougher.

Food today:  breakfast was a soudough egg and cheese sandwich (400 calories), turkey sandwich for lunch (500 calories) and dinner was salmon, noodles and green beans (1000 calories today).  Snack was some peanut butter (100 calories).  Exercise was a lunchtime walk (100 calories).

Daily Food Total:  2000
Exercise:  100
Points Earned:  1100
Total Points Earned:  157523
Points to go:  42477

Day 119

Had to get back to the gym today.  I've been letting it slide for a couple days due to scheduling conflicts and other errands.  Even so, I almost talked myself out of it at the end of the day.  The longer I go between periods of exercise, the harder it is to get back in the habit.  Of course another reason to go to the gym is that I'm getting close enough to 200k that I can smell it.  Every additional point earned makes it that little bit closer to the goal.  At the current rate I may be done before April!

Food today:  breakfast sandwich on a sourdough roll (400 calories), meatball sub from Subway (480 calories), steak, noodles and green beans for dinner (1000 calories).  The only real snack was some peanut butter while cooking dinner (100 calories).  Exercise was an hour on the treadmill (814 calories).

Daily Food Total:  1980
Exercise:  814
Points Earned:  1834
Total Points Earned:  156423
Points to go:  43577

Day 118

Just a quick post for yesterday.  Nothing major happened, though someone did bring in a red velvet cake for work.  Looked so good I had to allow myself a slice.  Made it as thin as I possibly could, but who knows.

Food:  egg and cheese sandwich (300 calories), meatball sub (480 calories), penne, sauce and garlic toast for dinner (was supposed to be something else but I mangled the recipe, 1000 calories) and a slice of cake (200 calories).  Exercise was walking and running during lunch (100 calories).

Daily Food Total:  1980
Exercise:  100
Points Earned:  1120
Total Points Earned:  154589
Points to go:  45411

Day 117

It's kind of funny what happens when you can't make a lunch to take to work.  All of a sudden finding something reasonably healthy becomes a lot more difficult.  Today I picked a trip to Subway as the most likely "healthy" meal of my various options.  While there are a lot of healthy options downtown, very few of them are something I'm going to willingly eat.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich (300 calories), 6-inch meatball on wheat from Subway (480 calories according to their nutrition list), penne, sauce and garlic toast for dinner (1000 calories) and a sourdough roll as a snack (200 calories).  No exercise as I had errands after work, and had to stand in line to get lunch.

Daily Food Total:  1980
Exercise:  0
Points Earned:  1020
Total Points Earned:  153469
Points to go:  46531

Day 116

I know it's there for safety purposes, but there's something really irritating about the kill switch on a treadmill.  Every few weeks or so I accidentally get tangled in the cord and pull it out.  At that point, obviously, the whole treadmill stops working and I interrupt my exercise.  If I can get it back into position fast enough I can at least get back to it, but at times that doesn't happen.  Today was one of those times.  Instead of an hour I ended up doing 30 minutes, all because my headphones got tangled with the kill switch cord.

On the plus side I made my first homemade pizza today.  Today's focus was primarily on making the dough, so I used some sauce from a jar.  Next time I may try and make the sauce from scratch as well.  It was fun and came out surprisingly well.  Definitely some room for improvement possible, but could be interesting in the future.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich with and extra slice of cheese for breakfast (350 calories), pizza for lunch (800 calories), and a little less for dinner as I shared some with a friend (500 calories).  Exercise was the aforementioned half-hour on the treadmill (412 calories).

Daily Food Total:  1650
Exercise:  412
Points Earned:  1762
Total Points Earned:  152449
Points to go:  47551

Day 116

I know it's there for safety purposes,

Daily Food Total:  1700
Exercise:  0
Points Earned:  1300
Total Points Earned:  150687
Points to go:  49313

Day 115

Well today's exercise was supposed to be shoveling out after the medium-sized snow storm we were supposed to get.  That never happened so I decided to give myself a bit of a break today.  Had to go into work for some OT, and after that I just went home and crashed.  One thing I have begun to notice though is that all of my exercise is starting to eat rather dramatically into my free time.  Not sure if it's a problem, but I've noticed a few errands and such falling through the cracks a bit, as my time is taken up with other stuff.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwiches for both breakfast and lunch (I need a bit of a shopping trip I think), dinner was salmon, noodles and baby carrots (1000 calories).  I had a slice of cheese as a random snack during the day as well (100 calories).  No exercise today.

Daily Food Total:  1700
Exercise:  0
Points Earned:  1300
Total Points Earned:  150687
Points to go:  49313

Day 114

I decided to give myself a bit of a break today.  I've been exercising quite a bit lately, and having one night off to crash early if I want might be nice.  One thing I need to do soon though is hit the grocery store and find some more low-calorie snacks.  The last few days I've been grabbing some small bags of chips.  They're not terrible (160 calories), but they're also not exactly good.  Unfortunately I definitely need something by the time the middle of the afternoon rolls around.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich (300 calories), turkey on sourdough (600 calories), a bag of chips (160 calories), penne, sauce and garlic toast for dinner (1000 calories).  Exercise was a lunchtime walk (100 calories)

Daily Food Total:  2060
Exercise:  100
Points Earned:  1040
Total Points Earned:  149387
Points to go:  50613

Day 113

For anyone looking for a fun and varied work-out, I definitely recommend taking a kickboxing/fitness class.  Every week seems to be a little different, and on any given week I never know if I'm going to be totally exhausted before I get to the end of the night or not.  Plus it makes a nice combination of cardio and strength training.  After four weeks or so I'm really having fun with it.  Not much else going on today, though I am once again enjoying having sourdough in the house.  This could get dangerous if I'm not careful.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich with milk (300 calories), turkey sandwich on a sourdough roll (600 calories), a bag of chips as a snack (160 calories), a piece of lasagna with garlic toast for dinner (1000 calories).  Exercise was a normal lunchtime walk (100 calories), and an hour of kickboxing (still calling it 500 calories).

Daily Food Total:  2060
Exercise:  600
Points Earned:  1540
Total Points Earned:  148347
Points to go:  51653

Day 112

It's always more fun to exercise with other people.  When I go running alone (in the real world, not on the treadmill) it's very easy to simply give up on running pretty quickly.  After a few hundred yards I "take a break," then I walk for a while before running a little more, and start the cycle all over again.  Running alone creates an easy excuse to stop.  When you've got others to work out with there's someone else to help keep you on track.

I bring this up, because at lunch I ended up walking with a couple people from work.  Normally I take a short, relatively easy walk.  Today, with a couple other people pushing me I stretched out both the distance and speed at lunchtime.  At the same time I didn't really notice the change, because I had other people with me pushing that higher pace.  The same experience has been true in much of my other exercise and training.  As long as I have other people to work out with, I am a lot more likely to put in some form of effort.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), turkey sandwich on wheat bread (500 calories), a small bag of chips as a snack after lunch (160 calories), penne and sauce for dinner (900 calories), and a fresh-baked sourdough roll as a snack after dinner (200 calories).  Exercise was the longer lunchtime walk (calling it 150 calories, though it was probably more) and an hour on the treadmill (842 calories).

Daily Food Total:  2060
Exercise:  992
Points Earned:  1932
Total Points Earned:  146807
Points to go:  53193

Day 111

Nothing significant happened yesterday, and there were no real challenges either. As with the day before I needed to avoid all the leftover snacks and junk food from the weekend. Didn't do a perfect job of it, but I avoided any of the major dangers.

Food yesterday:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), turkey sandwich on sourdough for lunch (600 calories), a handful of chips as a snack (150 calories), and a steak and cheese sandwich for dinner (1000 calories).  Exercise was just a lunchtime walk (100 calories).

Daily Food Total:  2050
Exercise:  100
Points Earned:  1050
Total Points Earned:  144875
Points to go:  55125

Day 110

So I've started getting back on track today.  Various people brought in leftover Superbowl snacks today (including a container of these delicious looking frosted brownies).  I was generally good, and avoided any of the dangerous snacks.  Though I did have a serving of tortilla chips, as I wasn't completely able to resist.  I also avoided pizza at the gym tonight (the monthly pizza party was tonight). 

If I'd cheated a bit it wouldn't really have been a problem, but I really do want to try and recommit to the diet.  Tomorrow night's probably going to be steak and cheese again, as I have about half a pound of shaved steak left, and I wanted to have a good night before hitting the bad night tomorrow.  It seems silly to be worrying about a little bit of cheating here and there, as I've already lost 40 pounds and expect to keep losing weight.  However it's more about avoiding the formation of some bad habits.  Plus, now that I'm down at 225 (which was originally a goal I honestly didn't expect to hit) I want to keep pushing.  200 pounds doesn't seem so impossible anymore.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), turkey sandwich on a sourdough roll (600 calories), some chips as snack (150 calories), and salmon, noodles and green beans for dinner (900 calories).  Exercise was a lunch time walk and an hour on the treadmill (934 calories total).

Daily Food Total:  1950
Exercise:  934
Points Earned:  1984
Total Points Earned:  143825
Points to go:  56175

Day 109

120K to 140K took 14 days.  I mentioned a few days ago that I was a little suspicious if I underestimated the calorie totals for a few of my junkier meals in this last period.  If I did, then it helps to explain the apparent plateau during this 20K interval.  Starting this week I'm going to be trying to get myself back on track by focusing on the menus I've had success with previously.

Weigh-in result:  225.0 lbs.

That's 1.6 pounds lost since the last weigh-in.  At the last weigh-in I mentioned a concern that I'm getting sloppy, this period has definitely demonstrated that.  Refocusing for the last 60,000 points is going to be very important, as is maintaining the changes once the diet formally ends.  On the plus side, since it's pretty obvious I'm going to make the target (not least because I still have until July 20th to make it), I finalized the order on my table.  Hopefully sometime in the next few months I'll get my reward.

Food today:  breakfast was an egg and cheese sandwich (300 calories), throughout the day I snacked on half of a bag of chips (800 calories), and dinner was a steak and cheese sandwich on a homemade sourdough roll (1000 calories).  Exercise for the day was going for a 3 mile run at Carson Beach in 41 minutes (400 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2100
Exercise:  400
Points Earned:  1300
Total Points Earned:  141841
Points to go:  58159

Day 108

So tomorrow's the next weigh in.  I 'm pretty sure this one is going to show the first plateau on the diet.  If it does, then there's probably a few different contributing factors.  On the positive side, I've added a new form of exercise to my regiment.  Kickboxing is a lot of fun, but it's a lot more strength intensive and works the upper body more.  So hopefully that means I've added some upper body muscle, but haven't lost a corresponding amount of fat.

More likely though we're seeing a slow down for a couple different reasons.  For one thing I've eaten quite a bit more "junk" food during this most recent 20K than I have in the previous ones.  I may have my calorie estimates off a bit, which would contribute to the impression of "slowing" weight loss (it might not actually be slowing, I just may have eaten more calories than I thought).  It also may reflect an increase in the amount of fat and oils I've eaten in those dishes (fish and chips, 5 guys, etc), and a corresponding decrease in some of the high-fiber, low fat dishes.

The third possibility is that I've finally lost enough weight where the decrease in caloric intake alone isn't enough to have the fat simply "melt" off.  The 5 pounds per 20K average I've been running for most of the diet may simply have reflected that change.  Now that I'm down 40 pounds from the start of the diet, it may simply be telling me I need to do more if I want to keep losing the fat.  In that case I'm probably going to need to vary some additional exercise into the mix.

Food today:  baked bread today, so breakfast/lunch was two sourdough rolls (500 calories), dinner was penne, sauce and garlic toast (1000 calories), and snacks included some potato chips (500 calories).  No exercise of note today.

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2000
Exercise:  0
Points Earned:  1000
Total Points Earned:  140541
Points to go:  59459

Day 107

Today ended up being a surprisingly challenging day.  At work the Employee Association decided to hold a recruitment drive, and that meant a free lunch including pizza, chips and a whole variety of desserts.  My initial plan was simply to grab a couple small pieces of pizza, but faced with all the food that ended up a lot more difficult than I imagined.  I know who brought the fancy, homemade Reese's cupcakes but whoever brought the chocolate cream pie was just evil.  Luckily I was able to avoid those temptations, but I still succumbed to some chips and cookies.

The real challenge though became what to do after work.  It was a somewhat long week, and by the end of the day all I wanted to do was go home.  Considering all the junk food though, I talked myself into a trip to the gym.  Then for dinner tonight I decided to turn things around a bit and merely have a small meal, instead of a more traditional dinner.  All in all, I'm a little proud of myself for turning what could have been a nightmare day into something positive.  I still want that cream pie though.

Food today:  breakfast was a piece of toast with peanut butter and milk (300 calories), lunch was pizza and chips (700 calories), snacks in the afternoon were a mix of cookies and more chips (450 calories), dinner was a grilled cheese sandwich (600 calories).  Exercise was an hour on the treadmill (814 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2050
Exercise:  814
Points Earned:  1764
Total Points Earned:  139541
Points to go:  60459

Day 106

Got back on track on Thursday.  Went to kickboxing, ate reasonably well and didn't go nuts on any junk food.  I haven't officially weighed myself yet, but I'm a little worried that this next weigh-in is going to show that I've plateaued.  It seems weird that I would suddenly hit that mark without getting to it more gradually, but who knows.  With luck it's just a temporary aberration.

Food today:  scambled eggs with toast (400 calories), PB&J for lunch (600 calories), lasagna with garlic toast for dinner (1000 calories).  Exercise was a lunchtime walk and an hour of kickboxing (600 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2000
Exercise:  600
Points Earned:  1600
Total Points Earned:  137777
Points to go:  62223

Day 105

Just generally not a great day.  Woke up feeling like crap, so decided to call in sick for work.  By the later afternoon I was feeling a bit better so I went to the gym to run, which would have been good.  However I decided I needed a pick-me-up after that though and ended up at 5 guys for dinner.  All in all, the day could have gone better from both a health and a diet stand point.

Food today:  a peanut butter sandwich for lunch (500 calories), and a burger and large fry at 5 guys for dinner (2500 calories total probably).  Exercise was 1 hour on the treadmill (814 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  3000
Exercise:  814
Points Earned:  814
Total Points Earned:  136177
Points to go:  63823

Day 104

Today was a lower scoring day than it should have been.  For a change it didn't have much to do with overly snacking or anything like that.  This time it was because I went to make breakfast and found that the english muffins I'd been planning to use were moldy instead.  Ended up making a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast, but that's higher calories than the alternative.  It's little things like this that can have a negative effect if you let them.  "Well, my meal plan for the day is already ruined...let's go get a burger and fries for lunch."

Not sure how often I've mentioned a burger and fries on this blog, but I feel like it's been a lot more than it should be.  It's possible I have a ground beef and potato addiction.  Food today was a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast (500 calories), PB&J for lunch (600 calories), a piece of cheese and a piece of candy as snacks (150 calories), and pasta, sauce and garlic toast for dinner (1000 calories).  No exercise as I had a wellness meeting at lunchtime.

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2250
Exercise:  0
Points Earned:  750
Total Points Earned:  135363
Points to go:  64637