Day 46

Nothing particularly significant happened on Tuesday.  Had some friends over which made it difficult to get a post up on time.  No major challenges during the day though, and I had a bit of success avoiding snacks on the day.

Food:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), turkey sandwich for lunch (500 calories), snacks included a granola bar and a few jelly beans (150 calories), dinner was salmon, noodles and green beans (900 calories).  Exercise was a lunch time walk (100 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  1850
Exercise:  100
Points Earned:  1250
Total Points Earned:  57017
Points to go:  142983

Day 45

With all the exercise from this weekend, I decided to give myself a bit of a rest today.  I didn't just crap out on the couch or anything, but I also didn't try to get out to exercise at any point either.  My plan for the day was to hang out with friends and go to a Red Sox game.  On the positive side, it was a fun day and the Sox won!  On the negative side, I probably ate a bit too much.  Today at least, I'm not really concerned with scoring a little low thanks to snacking.  Going forward, that's going to be an issue, but today was something of a special case.

Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast (300 calories), lunch was a hot dog at the game (400 calories and $5), snacks included a cookie from a bakery and part of a bag of popcorn (500 calories), dinner was pasta, sauce and garlic toast (1000 calories).  No actual exercise on the day, though I walked around Boston a bit.

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2200
Exercise:  0
Points Earned:  800
Total Points Earned:  55767
Points to go:  144233

Day 44

Two years ago a three day weekend would have been spent with a mixture of reading, playing video games, going to the movies, and of course going out to eat unhealthy food on all three days.  What wouldn't have been included in those plans...exercise of any sort.  In reality I might have ended up taking some sort of exercise (20 minutes at the gym, maybe a short bike ride) and using it as an excuse to eat even more unhealthy food.

This weekend, it was running on Saturday followed by biking on Sunday.  Monday may include a trip to the gym or kickboxing depending on when I get back in the evening.  I've said it before, I'll say it again, it's weird to have a whole series of healthy hobbies.  Still managed to get sunburned today, which is at least a little unhealthy.

For my bike ride I rode the Blackstone River Bike Path for about 17 miles:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/182672733

Beautiful ride along a great path, but it did start to wear me out.  I've got no idea on how many calories I actually burned on the ride.  The Garmin projection seems really high, but a search online gave me some estimates that seem more realistic (about 600 calories per hour).

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), no lunch but I did have some cheese, a small sourdough roll and a granola bar as snacks during the day (300 calories), dinner was salmon, rice and green beans (1000 calories).  Exercise ended up being about 900 calories worth.

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  1600
Exercise:  900
Points Earned:  2300
Total Points Earned:  54967
Points to go:  145033

Day 43

So Saturday was the final training session before next weekend's half-marathon.  It also presented a bit more of a challenge than most of our training sessions, as it was hot and humid.  We've been training for a June race in Virginia, but most of our training has been in the cool winter and spring weather of New England.  Needless to say, everybody's a little concerned about what the weather's going to be like next weekend.  I haven't decided when my next half-marathon is going to be after this one.  In the short term I know I want to run some 5K and 10K's and focus on getting those times down.  A half-marathon is a long term commitment for me, whereas a shorter race can be run on the spur of the moment if necessary.  I've said it before, but who would've imagined that I'd be running 6+ miles at a stretch at all, let alone planning to run the entire 13.1 next week.

Food:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), lunch was some scrambled eggs and toast (650 calories), dinner was penne, sauce and garlic toast again (1000 calories).  No real snacks on the day however, was a little too busy.  Exercise was approximately 700 calories, for 6.1 miles of running.

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  1950
Exercise:  700
Points Earned:  1750
Total Points Earned:  52667
Points to go:  147333

Day 42

Erin's challenged me to find some new types of snacks, and she's right that I need to do so.  Planning to hit the grocery store this weekend and part of the process will be to find some of the alternatives to what I've had at work.  Today was both bad and good in terms of snacking.  My snack calories are still pretty high for the day but most of those came from a small piece of cake someone brought in that I tried (a chocolate chip cookie cake).  Random snacking during the day was way down however, and the rest of my snacks largely count towards a couple little chocolates before going running and some small sourdough rolls after dinner.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), pizza for lunch (800 calories), a turkey sandwich for dinner (500 calories), and the aforementioned snacks (600 calories total).  Exercise was an hour on the treadmill (894 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2200
Exercise:  894
Points Earned:  1694
Total Points Earned:  50917
Points to go:  149083

Day 41

So over the last week or so, as my diet's restarted I've run into one challenge that I've been failing at.  Namely avoiding overly-snacking, particularly on junk food.  Unfortunately one of my co-workers brought in a bunch of really good candy, including Reese's cups.  I haven't been able to effectively resist the temptation.  Today got even worse as I was baking bread tonight, which ended up with even more unexpected snacking.  I have got some exercise over the past few days, but this is not a recipe for continued weight loss.  In the end I'm going to need to refocus my diet, but I'm still a bit uncertain on how effectively I can do that.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich (300 calories), turkey sandwich (500 calories), penne, sauce and garlic toast (1000 calories), snacks included candy and some freshly baked bread (600 calories).  Exercise was an hour at kickboxing (500 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2400
Exercise:  500
Points Earned:  1100
Total Points Earned:  49223
Points to go:  150777

Day 40

Just a quick post for yesterday, since I didn't have a chance to post it then.  No major events happened, though we did have a big office-wide walk with the boss.  Got me a bit more exercise than I would have had otherwise.  Unfortunately I ruined that by having a bit too much in the way of snacks for the day.

Food:  egg and cheese sandwich (300 calories), turkey sandwich (500 calories), snacks included some candy and snacks (300 calories), dinner was pork loin, rice and green beans (900 calories).  Exercise was a lunch-time walk (200 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2000
Exercise:  200
Points Earned:  1200
Total Points Earned:  48123
Points to go:  151877

Day 39

Nothing particularly significant happened today.  The only mild challenge is that one of my managers has restocked her candy jar with all of the candy that I like best.  Makes for a more difficult time when it comes to avoiding temptation on the day.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), turkey sandwich for lunch (500 calories), candy and a granola bar as snacks (250 calories), pasta, sauce and garlic toast for dinner (1000 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2050
Exercise:  0
Points Earned:  950
Total Points Earned:  46923
Points to go:  153077

Day 38

And we're back from the hiatus for two days running.  Honestly when I decided to put the diet on hold for my vacation I honestly thought there was a good chance the full Challenge was going to die.  While I think enough of my behavior has changed to make maintaining the current diet and exercise plan in some fashion relatively simple, the daily tracking and posts are a different matter.  I like sharing this stuff here, but it does require a bit of effort to come up with something to say.  Also I've been a bit careless lately, letting posts slide and then doing my best to catch up later.

If the blog had died though, the success of the plan wouldn't have.  With my vacation weight loss I've passed the 60 pound mark.  In the next couple weeks I may finally cross that 200 pound threshold.  My friends continue to be complimentary.  One nice benefit of the trip was getting to see one friend who hasn't seen me since Christmas.  When we met at the train station I walked right up to him, and he still didn't recognize me for a moment.  All in all, while I sometimes miss going out and getting a chocolate cream pie and eating it, the rewards have definitely been worth it.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), routine here of course but I hadn't had one in a couple weeks.  Lunch was a turkey sandwich (500 calories), snacks included a granola bar and a few pieces of candy (250 calories), dinner was steak, noodles and green beans (1000 calories).  Exercise was a lunchtime walk (100 calories) and an hour on the treadmill (888 calories).  One downside to losing weight, I burn less calories doing the same exercise.  Oh well.

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2050
Exercise:  988
Points Earned:  1938
Total Points Earned:  45973
Points to go:  154027

Day 37 - back from hiatus

Well I'm back from my vacation.  It was loads of fun, and I did get a fair amount of exercise while on the trip as well.  While I ate a bit too much junk food, I didn't eat a ton of it.  At the end of the trip I actually lost weight. 

As of Saturday morning my weight was: 202.4 pounds.

So that's where we're starting from going further into this diet.  I've noted for years that when I go on vacation I tend to lose weight and clearly this trip was no exception.  The weight lost was due in no small part to the fact that my idea of a vacation tends to include museums, walking and just generally being busy all day.  By the end of the day my feet are sore, I'm tired and I crash early in the evening.  I also tend to only have two meals on a day (breakfast and dinner most often) and they don't tend to be crazy big or significant amounts of calories.

I was a little surprised by how much weight I lost, but excited to see myself creeping ever closer to that 200 pound threshold I've been targeting of late.  So the hiatus was over as of today, food today was:  no breakfast or lunch, but several snacks including a granola bar, some peanut butter, a slice of turkey and cheese, and a small bag of popcorn at the movies (combined for around 900 calories), dinner was penne and sauce with garlic toast (1000 calories).  No specific exercise on the day however.

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  1900
Exercise:  0
Points Earned:  1100
Total Points Earned:  44035
Points to go:  155965

Temporary Hold for Vacation

If it hasn't already been obvious this week, I decided to take a hold on the diet for vacation.  I'm still planning to eat sensibly, and I know I'm going to be active, but I didn't want to both have to think about earning points and trying to find time to post to the blog during the trip.  Day 37 will be the day I come back from the trip.  See you then.