Day 108

Not much happened today.  Having chips in the house meant my willpower breaking down a bit and me snacking a bit more than necessary, but not bad enough to endanger the challenge.  Otherwise, everything pretty much went as normal.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich (300 calories), turkey sandwich (500 calories), snacks included a granola bar, some jelly beans and some chips (350 calories), penne, sauce and garlic toast for dinner (1000 calories).  Exercise was a lunch time walk, and kickboxing (600 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2150
Exercise: 600
Points Earned: 1450
Total Points Earned:  122634
Points to go:  77366

Three Week Challenge (Day 15):
Average Points: 1480
Missed Posts:  1

Day 107

After yesterday's really good day, today turned into a bit of overeating thanks to the baseball game and a trip to the grocery store.  Even so, it was still a successful day for a different reason.  Today was the 120k weigh-in.

Weigh-in result:  199.6

I broke the 200 pound wall, and lost around 8 pounds since the last weigh-in 13 days ago.  That is what I call a successful two weeks.  In that regard at least it allowed for a small scale poor performance day.  The day didn't need to be, but since I was making bread tonight I ended up swinging by the supermarket and made the mistake of picking up some chips and some burger patties.  Ended up eating a few too many of the chips with dinner.  Not really a big deal, and I still went to the gym.  Just not as good a day as it could have been.

Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast (300 calories), chicken tenders and fries at the game (800 calories probably), dinner was the burger and chips (1500 calories).  Exercise was 45 minutes on the treadmill (594 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2600
Exercise: 594
Points Earned: 994
Total Points Earned:  121184
Points to go:  78816

Three Week Challenge (Day 14):
Average Points: 1482
Missed Posts:  1

Day 106

Well there's pretty much one week left to go on the 21 day challenge, and I just crossed the 120k mark on the diet.  Both are really nice accomplishments.  I'm not precisely sure what my weight's going to look like tomorrow, but I doubt I'll have broken 200 pounds (can anyone say reverse jinx).  As strange as it seems, that weight's really become a wall for me.  I keep getting close, but can't quite break the threshold.  I'm not too concerned about it, since I'm sure the weight will come off eventually, but it's a little frustrating not to break it.

Today was a day of exercise, followed by laziness.  I did a two hour bike-ride, but then just fiddled around the house the rest of the day.  I am also on day two of a push-up challenge that some friends at work roped me into.  Neat app on the phone that is supposed to work you up to doing 100 pushups at a time.  I think that sounds ridiculous, but then again I said the same thing about a half-marathon once.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwiches for breakfast and lunch (300 calories each), lunch also included some snacking immediately after the bike ride with an extra slice of cheese and some turkey (200 calories), snacks later in the day included a little more cheese and a granola bar (150 calories), dinner was lasagna and garlic toast (1000 calories).  Exercise was the bike ride and the push-ups (only really counting the bike ride at 1250 calories).


Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  1950
Exercise: 1250
Points Earned: 2300
Total Points Earned:  120190
Points to go:  79810

Three Week Challenge (Day 13):
Average Points: 1520
Missed Posts:  1

Day 105

Nine months ago, when the diet started a trip to the gym was a chore.  Five years ago and a trip to the gym was either unheard of, or worse in some ways, a special event.  In those days the idea of going home after work but still going to the gym simply wouldn't have occured to me.  It's not even that I was lazy about it, once I made it home that was the time to eat dinner, watch TV and otherwise be a bit of a slug.  So when I first started losing weight going to the gym meant scheduling and building a day around a 20 minute trip to the gym.  I'd go in the morning before work, or on my way home from work.

Even last year, while training for a half-marathon, if I didn't stop at the gym on my way home then I didn't go.  The gym may be five minutes from my house (by car or by bike), but there was no way I was going back out after I got home.  I mention this because that trend has definitely changed for me.  This week alone I've "skipped" the gym on the way home twice, but talked my way into going later in the evening.  Both times it was for a good reason, but I almost felt that going out to the gym in the evening was more of an accomplishment than running for 40 minutes or so when I got there.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich (300 calories), Subway 6-inch meatball sub and some potato chips (750 calories), a few jelly beans as snacks (100 calories), lasagna and garlic toast for dinner (1000 calories).  Exercise was 45 minutes on the treadmill (591 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2150
Exercise: 591
Points Earned: 1441
Total Points Earned:  117890
Points to go:  82110

Three Week Challenge (Day 12):
Average Points: 1455
Missed Posts:  1

Day 104

Another pretty good day.  Snacks have continued to be just a little bit high on the day, but not really too bad.  Kickboxing wore me out today, so I ended up grabbing a sourdough roll to snack on after class, which combined with the usual snacks went up just a tad.  On the other hand I also worked out quite a bit.  It's always a good sign when you burn through more than one bottle of water during training.  Says you're working out, as long as you remember to drink enough.  I did get briefly light-headed at one point but recognized the problem right away.  All in all, it's another good day.

Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast (300 calories), turkey sandwich for lunch (500 calories), granola bar, some jelly beans, and a small sourdough roll for snacks (300 calories total), dinner was lasagna and some garlic toast (1000 calories).  Exercise was lunchtime walk (100 calories) and kickboxing (500 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2100
Exercise: 600
Points Earned: 1500
Total Points Earned:  116449
Points to go:  83551

Three Week Challenge (Day 11):
Average Points: 1457
Missed Posts:  1

Day 103

My sources of candy at work were empty for most of the day.  Depending on what I'm working on, I may not notice that I'm craving something.  For the first half of the day I didn't even notice I was hungry.  By the second half of the day however, when my tasks changed I definitely noticed the cravings.  Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, one of my friends sent me a message that she'd restocked her jelly bean supply.  At that point the cravings really kicked in and I went and grabbed some.  Admittedly it was only a handful of jelly beans, and that's actually a surprisingly small amount of calories in comparison to other candies, but it's disappointing that I still give into cravings too easily.

Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast (300 calories), turkey sandwich for lunch (500 calories), snacks were granola bar and jelly beans (200 calories), dinner was some lasagna I made and some garlic toast (1100 calories tonight, due to a little additional snacking during the cooking stage).  Exercise was the lunch time walk and 40 minutes on the treadmill again (621 calories today).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2100
Exercise: 621
Points Earned: 1521
Total Points Earned:  114949
Points to go:  85051

Three Week Challenge (Day 10):
Average Points: 1452
Missed Posts:  1

Day 102

Almost missed a post today.  Luckily I remembered getting distracted last night.  No major challenges on Tuesday, though it's been a tough week at work.  As a result I've been continuing to snack a little bit more than I probably should during the day, but not as bad as I used to.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich (300 calories), turkey sandwich (500 calories), snacks included a granola bar, some candy and an after-dinner roll (300 calories), dinner was penne, sauce and garlic toast (1000 calories).  Exercise was a lunch time walk, and an after dinner trip to the gym (607 calories total).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2100
Exercise: 607
Points Earned: 1507
Total Points Earned:  113428
Points to go:  86572

Three Week Challenge (Day 9):
Average Points: 1444
Missed Posts:  1

Day 101

There's definitely a danger on low-energy days at work.  When it's already hard to get through the day without a boost of caffeine and/or sugar on an ordinary day, it becomes even worse when you're pushing through a low-energy day.  In general I just felt unproductive today, and ended up snacking a bit more than I should have.  I expect I'll probably get back on track soon enough as far as avoiding snacking goes however.

Food today:  egg and cheese on sourdough for breakfast (300 calories), turkey sandwich on sourdough for lunch (500 calories), snacks included some chips, a granola bar and some candy (350 calories), dinner was salmon, rice and green beans (900 calories).  Exercise was a lunchtime walk (100 calories) and 40 minutes on the treadmill (490 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2050
Exercise: 590
Points Earned: 1540
Total Points Earned:  111921
Points to go:  88079

Three Week Challenge (Day 8):
Average Points: 1437
Missed Posts:  1

Day 100

Spending time with friends always makes the diet a little harder to maintain.  I was able to make time for the gym this morning, but I ate too much during a day spent hanging with my friends.  Of course I further complicated it by baking bread for the week today (and therefore needing to try it out, right from the oven).

All in all, kind of a mediocre day but it shouldn't hurt the average too much.  Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast (300 calories), homemade pizza for lunch (1000 calories), dinner was more pizza as well as some bread (800 calories), there was also about 100 calories of snacks on the day.  Exercise was 40 minutes on the treadmill (483 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2200
Exercise: 483
Points Earned: 1283
Total Points Earned:  110381
Points to go:  89619

Three Week Challenge (Day 7):
Average Points: 1422
Missed Posts:  1

Day 99

The weekends always end up playing out a bit unusually.  Part of being at work is a need for those little bursts of whatever that comes from snacking, or even just eating my lunch.  I tend to get hungrier, earlier, at work than I do on the weekend.  Of course, on a day like today, when I get to sleep in until 9 or 10 it's a bit easier to eat less since I'm starting later.

Today I also planned on a bike ride.  It was supposed to go down the East Bay bike path, but I had missed the note that the bridge from India Point Park to the rest of the path was closed.  So instead my ride ended up a little shorter, but took me all over the east side of Providence.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/201549612

It was a fun ride, and I did get to see some sections of the city I don't usually go to, but still a little disappointing.  Have to drive over to East Providence to do the bike path at some point.

Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast (300 calories), toast with peanut butter and some milk for lunch (600 calories), a granola bar for a snack (100 calories) and penne, sauce and garlic toast for dinner (1000 calories).  Exercise was the aforementioned bike ride (about 650 calories probably).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2000
Exercise: 650
Points Earned: 1650
Total Points Earned:  109098
Points to go:  90902

Three Week Challenge (Day 6):
Average Points: 1445
Missed Posts:  1

Day 98

Well with one work week down, I'm doing pretty well on this little concentrated challenge.  Today at work we had a lunch and learn on cross-fit.  An instructor came in and gave a little presentation on the program.  It was kind of cool, and if my schedule weren't already kind of full I think I might sign up for it.  While their exercises focus more on weight work, in a lot of ways it works a lot like my kickboxing classes.  Relatively short bursts of exercise, done repeatedly.  So I do get some of the benefit of that style of exercise already.

Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast (300 calories), lunch was a 6-inch meatball sub from Subway (500 calories), snacks were some candy at work and some popcorn at the movies (600 calories total), dinner was another egg and cheese sandwich (300 calories).  I'd eaten more snacks than normal, so I intentionally scaled back dinner.  Exercise was about 40 minutes on the treadmill, and biking to and from the movies (597 calories total).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  1700
Exercise: 597
Points Earned: 1897
Total Points Earned:  107448
Points to go:  92552

Three Week Challenge (Day 5):
Average Points: 1404
Missed Posts:  1

Puts me ahead of my target point production for the first time.  Now I just need to maintain this average for two and a half more weeks.

Day 97

So the Wellness Committee's focus for the next quarter is effectively Whole-Life Wellness.  Effectively, rather than just focusing on diet and exercise, we're also promoting finding a balance in life between work, exercise, social and mental stimulation and spiritual activities.  While a lot of the literature on this subject ends up sounding kind of wacky and granola-ish, looking back over the last few years kind of bears it out a bit in my own life.

Five or six years ago, when my health was at its worst it carried over into a lot of other areas.  I didn't particularly like my job, and the nature of the job and the stress it brought carried over into my physical life.  As my weight scaled up, and my activity diminished that in turn kept me from wanting to push my social boundaries.  That fed back to my work, making me more unhappy, which caused more stress which in turn carried back into the social and physical aspects.


In contrast, over the last 9 months as I've focused on getting healthier the positive feedback has carried over into other areas.  My circle of friends has grown, I have more responsibilities at work, I'm trying new things and I'm generally happier (despite what some of my posts would indicate).  So I guess I probably shouldn't dismiss the idea out of hand, just because it sounds kind of touchy-feely.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich (300 calories), turkey sandwich (500 calories), granola bars and some jelly beans as snacks (200 calories), penne, sauce and garlic toast (1000 calories).  Exercise was a lunchtime walk and kickboxing (600 calories total)

On another milestone note.  9 months ago I started the first challenge.  Today was the deadline to get to 200,000 calories saved.  I seem to have picked up about 100,000 more than that since then, and lost 60 pounds.

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2000
Exercise: 600
Points Earned: 1600
Total Points Earned:  105551
Points to go:  94449

Three Week Challenge (Day 4):
Average Points: 1281
Missed Posts:  1

Day 96

Today turned out a lot better than it might have.  I went for a walk at lunch, but as the day was winding down a major thunderstorm hit.  I was a little worried that the weather was going to prevent me from going to the gym (as I was going to be biking home in a torrential downpour).  Instead the weather broke just in time for me to leave.


Running on the treadmill also went better than I expected.  I intentionally didn't go up to my fastest pace, but after 30 minutes of running my knee wasn't hurting at all.  Hopefully this means it's going to be better in time for the next season of Team Challenge to start.  Also, with luck I'll be able to maintain this pace for the next three weeks to make up for the weak first two days of the three week challenge.  Nonetheless, for the first time in several weeks I feel like I actually accomplished something with the diet today.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich (300 calories), turkey sandwich (500 calories), granola bar and a couple munchkins (200 calories), salmon, rice and green beans (900 calories).  Exercise was a lunch time walk and a half-hour on the treadmill (524 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  1900
Exercise: 524
Points Earned: 1624
Total Points Earned:  103951
Points to go:  96049

Three Week Challenge (Day 3):
Average Points: 1175
Missed Posts:  1

Day 95

So on the second day of the three week challenge (which admittedly I only really invented today, so I have no one to blame but myself) I had a weak day on food.  Today though that had more to do with participating in an event that's going to be healthier in the long run.  Had a bit more snack food today than I liked, but after work I met up with the new Team Challenge Rhode Island for our official welcome event.  Great fun at Dave and Busters, but I probably ate a bit too much.

Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast (300 calories), lunch was a turkey sandwich (500 calories), snacks included some chips and a granola bar (300 calories), dinner was a burger, fries and some nachos at Dave and Busters (1300 calories).  Exercise was a lunchtime walk (100 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2400
Exercise: 100
Points Earned: 700
Total Points Earned:  101627
Points to go:  98373

Three Week Challenge (Day 2):
Average Points: 950
Missed Posts:  1

Day 94

So, first thing's first, the weigh-in results.  As expected I've gained weight back.  Not quite as much as I feared, but still more than I wanted to see.



Weigh-in result:  207.7 pounds

That puts me up over 5 pounds from my former low point.  Why did this happen?  Because I stopped exercising and started eating badly again.  Not as bad, obviously, as I did before last October but still badly.  The solution is pretty simple, get back on track.  I've been saying that for weeks though and it hasn't been working.  So in order to refocus the diet and put a goal more specifically in mind I'm going to institute a short-term goal in order to make my diet goal.  Over the next three weeks my goal is to average 1400 points per day, and miss no more than 5 posts (a missed post being defined as not updated by noon on the following day).

If I do that successfully I'm going to allow myself to buy the new car earlier than planned.  Rather than waiting until the completion of the challenge, I'll shoot to get the car at the end of that period instead.  The hope being that if I get back into the swing of diet, exercise and posting it will be easy enough to remain on it for the few months until I complete this challenge.


Food for Monday (which is obviously already one of the late days I'm allowed):  egg and cheese for breakfast (300 calories), turkey sandwich for lunch (500 calories), snacks included some candy and a granola bar (200 calories), dinner was salmon, rice and green beans (900 calories).  Exercise was a lunchtime walk (100 calories)

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  1900
Exercise: 100
Points Earned: 1200
Total Points Earned:  101627
Points to go:  98373

Three Week Challenge:

Average Points:  1200
Missed Posts:  1

Day 93

So there have obviously been a few problems with my diet over the past couple months, which I've already discussed ad nauseum.  One of the subtler difficulties I've noticed however is how my time off has taken me out of my state of fitness.  A couple months ago a run for an hour on the treadmill was nothing particularly significant.  Now I'm forced to stop after half an hour.

Fortunately fitness is fixable merely by continuing to get back to the gym.  The knee is feeling a lot better, though still gets sore if I run too fast for too long.  Hopefully that's a sign that it will get back to 100 percent eventually.  Otherwise in order to get back on track I need to keep the junk food down and increase exercise.  The next weigh-in is Monday.  Unfortunately I suspect it's going to reveal that I've gained weight back.

Food today:  some leftover pizza for breakfast and lunch (500 calories each), and penne, sauce and garlic toast for dinner (1000 calories).  Exercise was a half hour on the treadmill (410 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2000
Exercise:  410
Points Earned: 1410
Total Points Earned:  100427
Points to go:  99573

Day 92

So Saturday was both a very good day, and a very bad day as far as the diet went.  On the plus side, I ended up biking a total of around 33 miles.  On the negative side, I had both a cookout early in the day and dinner out with my family later in the day.  That meant eating a lot of food.

On nice thing about the day though, was the realization that biking a 16.6 mile leg of the trip really wasn't that tough.  I can recall some other bike rides where after that much distance I ended up collapsing back at home.  Admittedly I had a cookout in between the two legs, but when I got home from the second ride I was able to hop into the shower and head right back out.  So the 33 miles of biking on the day, while long, wasn't as bad as I was expecting.

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  3000
Exercise:  1600
Points Earned: 1600
Total Points Earned:  99017
Points to go:  100983

Day 91

Not a great day on Friday.  Ended up with another food heavy function at work.  So my day included pizza and cookies, without much exercise.  Hoping for a better week, next week.

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2450
Exercise:  0
Points Earned: 550
Total Points Earned:  97417
Points to go:  102583

Day 90

So during the hiatus I mostly stuck to the diet, and did get some exercise but I also ate more junk food than I probably should have.  I didn't track the points all that well in that time.  So while I should have gotten a bit better result if I had tracked it, I'm penalizing myself by awarding 800 points per day.  I wasn't bad, but I wasn't good.  The only exception is yesterday where I ate like a huge pig, so I gave myself 0 for that day.

Of course now I'm trying to be back from hiatus full scale.  So today we did have a pizza party at work, but I balanced it out by pretty much a hour and half at kickboxing.  Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), pizza and chips for lunch with some other odds and ends (1000 calories), dinner was penne, sauce and garlic toast (1000 calories).  Exercise was an extra long session of kickboxing (600 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2300
Exercise:  600
Points Earned: 1300
Total Points Earned:  96867
Points to go:  103133

Hiatus (days 77 to 89)

I honestly hadn't realized how long it's been since I've posted.  I've still been mostly sticking to the diet, though without much exercise in order to rest the knee.  This week I got back to exercise, though thanks to some parties at work, my actual diet has been a little off track (particularly yesterday).

As for why I haven't been posting, I think to some degree after the success of the first diet I got careless.  On top of that, the reward for this diet ended up being something I'd already decided to buy but just was waiting for the right moment.  Since I was going to get it anyway it didn't seem to matter as much.

So I'm going to try and be back, but it's hard to say how well that'll work.  More posts to follow...hopefully.