Week Eight Weigh-in

This week has in many ways been the opposite of last week.  Last week I was pretty sure I wasn't going to lose weight, and then did my best week in a while.  This week, while the specific food eaten was a little crappy, the total points was pretty good.  I had no reason not to expect to lose at least some weight (and possibly break 250).  Instead I actually regained weight

Last week's weekly total:  10,825 points

So the week 8 weigh-in result:  253.0 pounds.

I regained 1.8 pounds.  I'm sure there's probably a lot of reasons for it, but it's really frustrating.  While I didn't necessarily expect to lose another 2 pounds or anything, I had hoped to see some progress.  Just means I have to keep working at it this week.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (247 calories), subway turkey sub (a real change), chips and a drink (490 calories), two hamburgers on reduced calorie buns and homemade french fries for dinner (900 calories).

Exercise today:  10,000 steps, but nothing point worthy.

Totals
Food eaten:  1637
Calories Burned:  0
Daily Points:  1363
Weekly Points:  1363
Total earned: 79081

A Busy Sunday Spent Sitting

Normally a Sunday spent sitting on my butt would generally represent a pretty lazy day.  Today however I basically filled the whole day.  In large part this was due to going to a baseball game.  Between traveling to and from the game, as well as sitting through the game itself, I probably sat for six hours today.  However it wasn't particularly restful.  I ended up with quite a few steps, and had to stand quite a bit (on the train particularly) even when I wasn't working.  Food eaten today wasn't particularly healthy, but it also wasn't too terrible as far as calories went.

Food today:  toast with peanut butter for breakfast (270 calories), lunch was Aramark's chicken tenders and fries with a diet coke (828 calories), dinner was grilled hamburgers, and some homemade french fries (890 calories).  No snacks on the day.

Exercise today:  11,000 steps.  Nothing point wise.

Totals
Food eaten:  1988
Calories Burned:  0
Daily Points:  1012
Weekly Points:  10825
Total earned: 77718

Dieting on a roller coaster

The last three days have been somewhat crazy in terms of my diet.  Some days I mostly stick to the diet but edge out the calories a bit.  Other days I go over on my calories but make it up with exercise.  All in all I've been at this for a while now and I'm starting to feel a little burned out.  Unfortunately I'm no where near any of my major goals for the diet yet.  This week I'm going to really need to rededicate myself.  It's getting a lot easier to justify cheating...but "just a little bit."

Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast (272 calories), lunch was chicken patties on reduced calorie buns (615 calories), dinner was lasanga with garlic toast (1214 calories), snack was some peanut butter (100 calories).

Exercise today:  2 hours and 15 minutes on the bike, going 27 miles (1823 calories).

Totals
Food eaten:  2201
Calories Burned:  1823
Daily Points:  2622
Weekly Points:  9813
Total earned: 76706

Being an "Expert"

I always think it's funny when I'm the one giving health advice to other people.  Particularly when those people are in generally better shape.  It rarely happens, but if it does it's usually centered around aerobic exercise.  My history of running and biking means that I do actually have some expertise in those areas.  So my advice on hydration, exercise planning and other related topics actually carries some weight (no pun intended).  It's just kind of funny to hear sometimes.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich with lemonade and multivitamin (272 calories), lunch was a cheeseburger and burger from the grill and some french fries (805 calories), dinner was lasagna with garlic toast (1214 calories), snacking was some peanut butter (100 calories).

Exercise today:  20 miles on the bike in about an hour and 45 minutes (1595 calories estimated).  Additionally I made 11,545 steps.

Totals
Food eaten:  2391
Calories Burned:  1595
Daily Points:  2204
Weekly Points:  5195
Total earned: 72088

Another Average Day

No spectacular successes or failures today.  In some ways I probably ate a bit too much, but overall it wasn't horrible.  I also took today off from exercise so I didn't get to take advantage of any extra burned calories.

Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast (257 calories), lunch was a cheeseburger and fries from G-Pub (1000 calories), dinner was some grilled hamburgers and steak fries (720 calories), snack was some peanut butter (100 calories).

Exercise today: 12,000 steps, but nothing point worthy.

Totals
Food eaten:  2077
Calories Burned:  0
Daily Points:  923
Weekly Points:  2991
Total earned: 69884

Week 7 Weigh-in

Weirdly I had a generally bad week...yet I somehow finally broke that 1.8 pound trend.  Weird, but it may have simply been that scuba training is a lot more calorie intensive than I thought.

Last week's weekly total:  8,486 points

So the week 7 weigh-in result:  251.2 pounds.

I lost 2.6 pounds this week.  That's actually a quite respectable total.  I still haven't crossed the 250 pound threshold, but it's within sight now.  Of course the long term plan is to get back down into the low 200's so I've still got quite a way to go.

Today was a pretty good, if standard day.  Walked into work, had my usual Subway trip and then cooked up some real food here at home.  Still not a super healthy combo of meals (and honestly a bit too much meat) but otherwise pretty good.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (257 calories), subway meatball sub, chips and a drink (690 calories), steak from the grill, no yolk noodles and green beans for dinner (1010 calories).

Exercise today:  went out for an hour and a half on the bike and did about 19 miles (1025 calories).

Totals
Food eaten:  1957
Calories Burned:  1025
Daily Points:  2068
Weekly Points:  2068
Total earned: 68961

Avoided the balloons

Phew...that was going to be awkward on Tuesday.  It was a bit tough to get in the necessary exercise today but I did manage to find the time.  Thanks to a forgotten event I had planned though I wasn't able to eat as well as I hoped I would today.  Still under 2000 points for the day, but the quality of the food in terms of health was a little low.  My big contribution though was the two hour bike ride I took today.  Only got 20 miles in but it was a huge challenge.  The wind was so horrible, on the second half of the ride, that I had to pedal just to go downhill.  All in all it was a productive diet day.  Just wish I'd eaten better foods.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich with a multivitamin for breakfast (257 calories), a small D'Angelo's steak and cheese sandwich with chips for lunch (695 calories), dinner was another Newman's Own Thin Crust Pizza with a multivitamin (910 calories).

Exercise today:  a 20 mile bike ride (estimated at 1381 calories, though considering the difficulty it might be higher) and 13,000 steps.

Totals
Food eaten:  1862
Calories Burned:  1381
Daily Points:  2519
Weekly Points:  8486
Total earned:  66893

Water balloons are now a real possibility

Today's points are a little bit deceptive.  I ate poorly (though not horribly so), but the real issue here is that despite having a fair amount of exercise today there's nothing I can really count points for.  I did a reasonable amount of walking (getting up to 14,000 steps by the end of the day) but all of that falls under the pre-diet "normal" classification.  Additionally I spent two hours in the pool during scuba class today.  By the end of the class I was fairly exhausted and definitely burned some calories.  Unfortunately there's simply not any real way to estimate the calorie expenditure.  I'm sure I burned a few but without a way to estimate it, I can't assign a point value to the activity. 

Because of all that however my weekly total is still shy of the 7,500 points for the week.  If I'm not able to eat reasonably healthy tomorrow and get out on the bike...I could be facing water balloons on Tuesday.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich with multivitamin for breakfast (257 calories), lunch was a steak and cheese sandwich and potato chips from Jersey Mike's (900 calories), dinner was a bacon cheeseburger and fries at a restaurant near Gilette (1250 calories).

Exercise today:  14,000 steps and two hours in the pool.  Nothing to count for points though.

Totals
Food eaten:  2407
Calories Burned:  0
Daily Points:  593
Weekly Points:  5967
Total earned:  64374

Tough Week

It's been a tough week for the diet (as yesterday's missed post indicates).  I haven't had a chance to exercise in a week, though I've at least mostly kept in line with the calorie goals for the week.  I'm still averaging above 1000 points a day this week...but if I don't find time to exercise on Sunday I could find myself facing water balloons.

Yesterday was generally okay, but I ended up eating a little too much thanks to popcorn at the movies.  Today though I was largely good food wise.

Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast (257 calories), lunch was a burger and fries at the diner (764 calories), dinner was two chicken patties on reduced calorie rolls (600 calories).  No snacks today.

Exercise today:  10,000 steps, but no special exercise.

Totals
Food eaten:  1621
Calories Burned:  0
Daily Points:  1379
Weekly Points:  5374
Total earned:  63781

A Day of Errands

Today was my day to drive up to Boston, then drive my sister around.  It's the kind of day that in the past would totally have been an excuse to pig out.  "Hey I can stop at 5 Guys on the way home...ooh plus Erin and I should go someplace good for lunch, etc."  Fortunately I kept under control.  I did end up snacking a bit more than I might have otherwise, but overall it was a good day.

Food today:  Special K for breakfast (305 calories), lunch was two slices of cheese pizza (460 calories), dinner was a Subway meatball sub and chips (720 calories), snacks were some mcdonald's fries and a bowl of special K (478 calories).

Exercise today:  9000 steps, but nothing for points.

Totals
Food eaten:  1963
Calories Burned:  0
Daily Points:  1037
Weekly Points:  3170
Total earned:  61577

The Challenge Of Finding Time To Exercise

For the second day in a row I haven't been able to plan time to actively exercise.  I have my usual step counts for the day, but no period of biking or running to add points to my goal.  There are just days when life gets in the way.  My problem this week is that the next few days are all going to feature the same scheduling problems.  I might not have the free time to jump on the bike before Friday...and with my luck Friday's going to be bad too.

Food today:  Special K and multivitamin for breakfast (305 calories), Subway meatball sub and chips for lunch (690 calories), a Spike's hot dog and fries for dinner (767 calories), and a handful of special K as a snack (100 calories).

Exercise today:  12,000 steps.

Totals
Food eaten:  1862
Calories Burned:  0
Daily Points:  1138
Weekly Points:  2133
Total earned:  60540

Week 6 Weigh In

Another week down.  It's been a slow process but I keep consistently losing 1.8 pounds.  I guess I can't complain about that.  Just wish it was faster.  I do think I have let my day to day activities wear me down a bit.  Tonight was scheduled to be an exercise night and I'm just not really in the mood.  It's going to mess up the week a bit, as I'm not going to have as much time to exercise this week, but if the weather holds I'm going to try and add a few longer rides this week outdoors.  Hopefully that will make up for it a bit.

Last week's weekly total (including the info I forgot to post yesterday):  10,670 points.

This morning's weigh-in result:  253.8 pounds.  Another week, another 1.8 pounds lost.  It's kind of weird how specific that is.

Food today:  special K and milk with a multivitamin for breakfast (305 calories), lunch was a Subway day (690 calories), dinner was a Newman's Own pizza with a multivitamin (910 calories), snacks were some handfuls of special K (100 calories).

Exercise today:  14,000 steps, but no points towards the goal.

Totals
Food eaten:  2005
Calories Burned:  0
Daily Points:  995
Weekly Points:  995
Total earned:  59402

Another Quick Post

Mostly because it's late.

Food today:  pancakes with syrup and multivitamin for breakfast (430 calories), lunch was fish sticks and french fries (572 calories), dinner was lasanga and garlic toast (1204 calories).

Exercise today:  16,000 steps.  Additionally I did 24 miles on the bike along with some walking for the last mile (as I blew a tire)  Calorie estimate from Myfitness pal is 1855 calories.

Totals
Food eaten:  2206
Calories Burned:  1855
Daily Points:  2649
Weekly Points:  9605
Total earned: 57342

Quick Post

Just a quick post tonight due to scheduling.  My plans to ride the exercise bike tonight got hijacked by friends, and after thinking about it I decided I really didn't want to ride it at 10:30 at night.  Otherwise a relatively routine day.

Food today:  pancakes for breakfast with a multivitamin (430 calories), lunch was a cheeseburger and fries (764 calories), dinner was fish sticks and fries and a multivitamin (523 calories).  No snacks on the day.

Exercise today:  12,000 steps.

Totals
Food eaten:  1717
Calories Burned:  0
Daily Points:  1283
Weekly Points:  6956
Total earned: 54693

Getting Past A Bad Choice

I made a bad choice for lunch today.  A friend wanted to walk over to the mall, and I gleefully tagged along.  I wanted to hit the food court to get something to eat...and today that meant getting Popeye's.  Honestly, if I'd thought about how unhealthy it was I would have talked my way out of it.  Instead I kind of said to myself, "hey chicken's healthy right?"  So the next thing I knew I was ordering a 3 piece combo meal.  It was just a little too much food.  The chicken wasn't too bad, except for the quantity.  But the fries and biscuit both had more calories than I'd like.  By the time I finished I was feeling a little guilty about it (but it was tasty).

I first had to defeat a temptation to "lie" about how unhealthy it was.  Entering it into the tracker on the phone, it would have been easy to simply not count some of the meal.  But while that would gain me some points here, I'd just be lying to myself.  The next step was to figure out what I had in the house that I could eat that would be lower in calories, and then stick to that.  I couldn't let what happened on Saturday happen again.  In the end I ran over a bit, but not terribly so.  As long as I get back on the bike tomorrow and Saturday I should be fine.  I just have to get past the bad choice, and not let it turn into a bad habit.

Food today:  a cup of pancake batter for breakfast (330 calories), lunch was the Popeye's meal (1330 calories), dinner was a cup and a half of pancake batter (520 calories).

Exercise today:  20,000 steps, but nothing to count for points.

Totals
Food eaten:  2180
Calories Burned:  0
Daily Points:  820
Weekly Points:  5673
Total earned: 53410

Rainy Days

In some ways, rainy days are the worst when you're getting in shape.  There's too much temptation to simply not move around a lot.  Sitting in front of the TV or computer is one option.  Maybe reading a book instead.  Regardless, there are too many perfectly valid reasons to not go out into the rain.  Add in a general sense of malaise that comes with cloudy, gray skies and it's easy to see why those days become wasted on a diet.  Not sure I have a solution, but being aware that it's a problem is at least a start.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (247 calories), lunch was fish stick and french fries (528 calories), dinner was a regular steak and cheese on wheat bread from Jersey Mike's with chips and a diet pepsi (860 calories).

Exercise today:  thanks to the weather I only got 9000 steps in.  For point scoring I was able to squeeze 40 minutes on the exercise bike in (401 calories).

Totals
Food eaten:  1635
Calories Burned:  401
Daily Points:  1766
Weekly Points:  4853
Total earned: 52590

More Frozen Foods

I'm not sure the amount of frozen foods I'm eating is really healthy.  They're high in salt and/or fat, and even baking them doesn't turn them into something healthy.  On the plus side they're fairly controlled in terms of what their calories are.  This makes them good for the diet plan, since counting calories is the core of this.  Hopefully long term I can migrate to some healthier changes in diet as well.

Food today:  egg and cheese with multivitamin for breakfast (247 calories), lunch was another day of Subway's meatball marinara sub, chips and diet coke (690 calories), dinner was more chicken tenders and tater tots (790 calories).

Exercise today:  10,000 steps for the day.

Totals
Food eaten:  1727
Calories Burned:  0
Daily Points:  1273
Weekly Points:  3087
Total earned: 50824

Week 5 Weigh In

So we've got five weeks into the diet now.  A lot of the different diet sites disagree about when exactly a diet becomes a habit.  Some say as little as a couple weeks.  Most settle in around the four to six week mark.  A couple say it never really happens, since your body maintains a food addiction and just waits for you to fall off the wagon (my own life is an example of the latter).  Nonetheless five weeks with only one day that really counts as a "bad" one (and even that wasn't terrible) is a pretty good accomplishment.  Today is the 36th day of the diet and I'm still on track.  I don't think I'm really losing weight at the same rate as I did 5 years ago...but I'm coming along.

Last week's weekly total:  9,686 points.  Not a record, but not a bad total.  Would have been even better without the Saturday pig-out at 5 guys.

My weigh-in result:  255.6 pounds.  Like last week I managed to lose 1.8 pounds over the week.  Still slow, but still trending in the right direction.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich with multi-vitamin gummi and diet mountain dew for breakfast (247 calories), lunch was a meatball sub, chips and diet coke (690 calories), dinner was Simply Smart chicken tenders with tater tots and diet mountain dew (790 calories), snack was a little bit of peanut butter (100 calories).

Exercise today:  11,000 steps, and then an hour on the exercise bike for 20 miles (641 calories).

Totals
Food eaten:  1827
Calories Burned:  641
Daily Points:  1814
Weekly Points:  1814
Total earned:  49551

Getting Back on Track

Yesterday still scored a lot of points, but I can't pretend it wasn't a bad day.  I simply ate too much food.  I'd known going in that it was likely to be that way, but even so I could have been better.  There were choices I could have made with my eating but I specifically went with the unhealthy route.  So today I had to get back on track.  My total calories for the day did creep up a bit over my goal, but that was mostly due to an afternoon snack.  Even without any special exercise I'm mostly back on track.

Food today:  an egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (247 calories), lunch was a pair of burgers on light wheat rolls (570 calories), dinner was spaghetti, sauce and garlic toast (1020 calories), snack was a light english muffin with peanut butter (290 calories)

Exercise today:  the step total was only 9500 steps today.

Totals
Food eaten:  2137
Calories Burned:  0
Daily Points:  863
Weekly Points:  9676
Total earned:  47727