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.

Day 36

This weekend has clearly been about healthy activities but not healthy eating.  Yesterday I did 17 miles on the bike, today I ran a 10K.  So in terms of an accomplishment I finished the 10K in 1 hour and 5 minutes which compares very favorably to my 5K time as well (a little bit slower as an average pace, but not too bad).  Unfortunately the unhealthy eating reared its head after the race when I went and got pizza for the day.  Not really too bad of course, and while I did eat a little too much on the day it was certainly balanced by the run. 

Of course what's worse is that I completely recognize that my craving pizza after the race is due to the race organizers having pizza available, but only for a subset of participants.  Since I didn't want to eat the food they did have for runners (some sort of crappy pasta dish), and wasn't allowed to have pizza, I was both very hungry and craving pizza on my way home from the run.  There wasn't much chance of eating healthy after a 45 minute drive of that combo.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), pizza and breadsticks for lunch (1500 calories), dinner was another couple slices of pizza (500 calories).  Exercise was the 10K run (800 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2300
Exercise:  800
Points Earned:  1500
Total Points Earned:  42935
Points to go:  157065

Day 35

20K to 40K took 19 days. It's not surprising that I've slowed down over the last month in terms of scoring points.  I haven't been exercising much and I've had a few days of eating badly (today's kind of another one).  As such the points have slowed down.  What is shocking though is that I've continued to lose weight.  I honestly expected to have stagnated over the past few weeks.  Instead I've continued to maintain my average loss.

Weigh-in result:  206.8 lbs.

As I mentioned a bit ago 200 pounds has become a bit of a target for me, now it looks like I might be able to hit that target without a ton of trouble.  Of course as I do so, my nice new clothes will start to become baggy instead.  Who would have believed I'd be considering getting rid of the X's on my sizes (honestly getting down to only one X is nice).

Today I ended up doing about 17 miles of biking with people from work (well 14 miles with them, another 3 getting from my house to the bike path and back).  The day was perfect and I was able to keep up with everybody (though fortunately no one was on a pure street bike or racing bike).  What has become a lot of fun for me though is that I regularly have the ability to do these sorts of things without really feeling a ton of after-effects any more.  A 20 mile bike ride used to wipe me out, now I got home and was ready to do more stuff.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich (300 calories), piece of toast with peanut butter (200 calories) and a 5 Guy's trip (2000 calories).  Exercise was the bike ride which I'm estimating at about 700 calories.

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2500
Exercise:  700
Points Earned:  1200
Total Points Earned:  41435
Points to go:  158565

Day 34

Today was supposed to turn into a slightly higher calorie day, but it never really appeared.  Had lunch with folks from work, and was going to go out to dinner with my sister.  Still expected to make the necessary points to cross the 40K mark but it was going to be close.  Unfortunately Erin got sick and we had to go to the hospital (check out http://www.active.com/donate/virginia12newengland/VASDwyer for more on that).  Between spoiling her dog with three different walks, and eating lightly for dinner the day turned out to be quite reasonable.

Food for the day:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), burger with fries for lunch (1200 calories), various snacks on the day covered dinner as well (500 calories).  Exercise was a few walks with the dog (200 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2000
Exercise: 200
Points Earned:  1200
Total Points Earned:  39035
Points to go:  160965

Day 33

Well today I was back on track a bit.  Ate a few too many little snacks during the day (particularly jelly beans) but still got exercise and generally kept myself on the diet.  Two weeks off from kickboxing though definitely left me a little bit out of fitness as far as that went.  Got a bit more tired than I would have during today's class.  All in all no major challenges, but I am worrying a bit about my growing tendency to snack during the day.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich (300 calories), small PB&J (500 calories), snacks included jelly beans, a granola bar and an english muffin (300 calories), dinner was salmon, noodles and green beans (900 calories).  Exercise was an hour of kickboxing (500 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2000
Exercise: 500
Points Earned:  1500
Total Points Earned:  39035
Points to go:  160965

Day 32

Today was a lot more challenging, but more because of a lot of snack foods rather than for a particular challenge with the diet.  Lately I've definitely been snacking more than I should, and it's tied in a fair amount with my lack of exercise.  I have more time to snack, and am getting more free with the snacking even though I should be controlling it more.  Once the trip is over, I'm hoping to get back on track and leave some of these bad habits behind again.

Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast (300 calories), small PB&J for lunch (500 calories), dinner was the leftover pizza from last night (500 calories), snacks included some clam cakes at lunch, and candy when hanging with friends (1000 calories).  Exercise was a lunch time walk again (100 calories)

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2300
Exercise: 100
Points Earned:  800
Total Points Earned:  37535
Points to go:  162465

Day 31

Tuesday wasn't particularly challenging though I did eat a little bit too much on the day.  Luckily it wasn't too bad a day as far as that went.

Food:  egg and cheese for breakfast (300 calories), PB&J for lunch (500 calories), some jelly beans for snacks (150 calories), homemade pizza for dinner (1000 calories).  Exercise was a lunch time walk (100 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  1950
Exercise: 100
Points Earned:  1150
Total Points Earned:  36735
Points to go:  163265

Day 30

Well today ended up quite a bit more on track than is usual for me.  Still took the day off from exercise, but I went through the full day without more than a couple minor twinges in my knee going up and down stairs.  Even got out for a walk at lunch and didn't have any major problems.  The knee isn't healed, and I'm not pretending it's not going to be sore next weekend after my 10K, but hopefully it's tracking closer to healed.

Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast (300 calories), turkey sandwich for lunch (500 calories), pasta with garlic toast for dinner (1000 calories), snacks included some jelly beans and other candy (200 calories).  Exercise was a lunchtime walk (100 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2000
Exercise: 0
Points Earned:  1000
Total Points Earned:  35585
Points to go:  164415

Day 29

Yesterday's post was a little bit negative in nature, in part because I'm still peeved that my knee hasn't magically gotten better.  One positive fact that I was able to take from yesterday though, was that even without much exercise to maintain my fitness over the past two to three weeks, I was still able to pretty much run most of 8 miles.  I did slow down to a walk twice during the run (once to go up a steep hill, once to give my knee a rest).  Still, it's not something I would have even imagined doing two years ago.

One thing I have noticed over the last few days though has been a trend in my thinking about the diet.  A lot of my plans now start with, "once I cross 200 pounds."  It's become something of a mantra in my head for future planning.  On the one hand, it shouldn't be too hard since it's only 10 pounds or so away.  On the other hand it represents a change in my thinking as my diet has stagnated a bit in the last few weeks. 

One of my keys to success on these Challenges has been the fact that I don't "care" about my weight.  Obviously weight loss is the goal (and fat loss even more of the goal), but none of the actual diet goals or signposts are really weight based.  It makes something nice to post to Facebook, and put in the sidebar here, but not something that actually "matters" for the success or failure of the diet.  Now that seems to be changing a bit, and the fact that I haven't seen the weight loss through the first month of the new Challenge that I hoped, has put a weight goal into my head.  Success is now more and more based on that 200 pound threshold.

Once the knee gets better, and once my vacation is done, and I'm free to go back to my established patterns of diet and exercise I suspect that I'll be getting back to a point where it's points that matter not weight.  But as the last few weeks have made clear, weight does matter, I just didn't notice it when I was losing it so easily.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich with extra cheese for breakfast (400 calories), homemade burger and one potato's worth of fries (1200 calories), a roll and some cheese for dinner/snacking (400 calories).  No exercise today again as I was once more resting my knee.

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2000
Exercise: 0
Points Earned:  1000
Total Points Earned:  34585
Points to go:  165415

Day 28

So over the last few weeks I've developed a pattern of carelessness, both for the diet and for the blog.  Partly I think it has to do with my knee injury limiting my exercise.  Posting to the blog is fun when I'm doing well, and scoring points.  When I can't do that it becomes something that I think about less.  Then the next thing I know I've missed two days worth of posts in a row. 

Carelessness with what I eat has also played a roll.  I always have a good reason for eating more than I should (ran 8 miles today, too hungry to cook, or I don't feel like what I have defrosted).  But in the past week there have been a few nights that felt more like old Seth rather than new Seth.  Now on the plus side, after 6 months of dieting when I overeat it's uncomfortable.  Rather than being an enjoyable experience, eating too much leaves me unpleasantly stuffed.  Of course my brain hasn't entirely picked up on that change yet so I eat too much before realizing that I'm not going to like it.

Today was a bit of an overeating day, but as I mentioned...I did run 8 miles.  Breakfast was an egg and cheese sandwich (300 calories), lunch was a burger and too many fries (2000 calories probably), dinner was a hot dog on a sourdough roll (500 calories).  Exercise though was 8 miles of running (1000 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2800
Exercise: 1000
Points Earned:  1200
Total Points Earned:  33585
Points to go:  166415

Day 27

Continuing the quick posts for the missed couple days.  More to talk about later on.

Food Friday:  corn muffin and 1% milk from Dunkin Donuts (700 calories), some candy as snacks (150 calories), pasta, sauce and garlic toast for dinner (1000 calories).  Lunch time walk for exercise (100 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  1850
Exercise: 100
Points Earned:  1250
Total Points Earned:  32385
Points to go:  167615

Day 26

A couple quick posts for the missed days.

Thursday's Food:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), turkey sandwich for lunch (500 calories), spaghetti and meatballs for dinner (1200 calories), snacks included some candy (100 calories).  Exercise was a lunch time walk (100 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2100
Exercise:  100
Points Earned:  1000
Total Points Earned:  31135
Points to go:  168865

Day 25

So 25 days into the new diet I'm definitely not doing as well as I did on the last one.  Now this diet's been complicated quite a bit with health issues which has limited how much I could do at times, but I'm really going to need to refocus.  I have two weeks before I go on my vacation and I'm still debating what I'm going to do to track food on that trip.  Since I won't be able to post on a daily basis as much, I'm thinking I may simply put the diet on hold for the two weeks I'm gone.  Not sure if it's the best idea though, so I'm still considering.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich (300 calories), turkey sandwich and some grilled chicken for lunch (800 calories), pasta, sauce and garlic toast for dinner (1000 calories).  No exercise for one more day.

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2100
Exercise:  0
Points Earned:  900
Total Points Earned:  30135
Points to go:  169865

Day 24

Missed the whole day on Tuesday for a post.  Just simply forgot to do one.  No real need for commentary on that day seperately so I'll just go right into the food.

Food:  egg and cheese for breakfast (300 calories), turkey sandwich (500 calories), a granola bar and some pieces of candy (150 calories), fish and chips for dinner (1200 calories).  No exercise on the day.

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2150
Exercise:  0
Points Earned:  850
Total Points Earned:  29235
Points to go:  170765

Day 23

There's no question that right now I'm at the point where dozens of my diets have died in the past.  The knee injury (which fortunately seems to have gone away today) gave me the excuse not to exercise, and between hanging with friends and feeling kind of crappy (again due to the knee injury) I've been eating a lot more junk than normal.  If this were two years ago the diet would be falling apart.  Yesterday or today I would have "forgotten" to update my calorie counts.  I would have decided to "take a day off" from the diet.

The one thing keeping me honest at the moment is the blog.  Even with the blog, it's possible I undercounted calories on the last couple days.  Never the less, while I'm planning to rest the knee for another couple days before experimenting with running again, I think when the time comes to pick it back up later this week I should be able to get back on track without too much difficulty.  I've probably gained back a couple pounds, but the trend should start going back down again.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), turkey sandwich for lunch (500 calories), a cheeseburger for dinner (800 calories), and chips as snacks during the day (800 calories probably between all the chips).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2400
Exercise:  0
Points Earned:  600
Total Points Earned:  28385
Points to go:  171615

Day 22

One thing I've already noticed about taking the last week off from exercise, is that my excitement about posting the day's results has declined dramatically now that I'm not putting in big point days.  Going off the diet all together would be a lot worse of course, but it's harder to remind myself to calculate the points when the day's only going to be worth 500 points towards the goal.

Food for Sunday:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), lunch/dinner was a hamburger and hot dog on the grill with fresh sourdough rolls (1000 calories), snacks were the potato chips with lunch as well as from the afternoon with my friends (1200 calories).  No exercise.

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2500
Exercise:  0
Points Earned:  500
Total Points Earned:  27785
Points to go:  172215

Day 21

Well Saturday was a generally crappy day.  The knee injury I'd been nursing for a week seems to have flared back up, and prevented me from finishing my run.  Instead of 8 miles and change I got 4 miles done, and had to ride back in a car the rest of the way.  I'm hoping it's not serious, and I'm probably going to head to the doctor's on Monday to get checked out, but it's still very irritating.  On the positive side, I got to see a couple Team Challenge folks I haven't seen since January.  Getting compliments on my weight loss from the folks who haven't seen me in a while is always nice.

Decided since my day was crappy to treat myself to something for food.  Ended up going to 5 Guys.  Not a healthy choice of course, and afterwards I regretted it a little, but good while I was there.  Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), Burger and Fries at 5 Guys (2000 calories).  Exercise was four miles of running (600 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2300
Exercise:  600
Points Earned:  1300
Total Points Earned:  27285
Points to go:  172715

Day 20

Lately I've been noticing what may be a sign of the economy turning around.  Namely a lot of new restaurants are opening in the downtown Providence area.  A new place called Roi opened a month or two ago, and today some friends from work went there at lunch.  Nice place, though kind of funny as it was a bar/concert venue in the past which I've been to once or twice. 

We went a couple weeks ago, but it had been Lent so I was trying to be good and avoid eating meat.  Even so, their burgers looked tasty and I was craving them.  This week we went back and I got a burger.  Relatively conventional burger, though very tasty.  What was kind of neat was that their standard cheeseburger comes with Mozzarella instead of American or Cheddar cheese.  Made an interesting change from the usual burger.

Most of the restaurants downtown are a couple blocks away, and the ones that are closer than that tend to be sit-down only.  Sometime next month though a new pizza place is opening right across the street.  Not sure what coal-fired pizza is, but it could be a whole new challenge.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich (300 calories), burger and fries at Roi (1200 calories), and dinner was another egg and cheese (300 calories).  No exercise today, but hopefully I'm all healed up for tomorrow.

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  1800
Exercise:  0
Points Earned:  1200
Total Points Earned:  25985
Points to go:  174015

Day 19

The slow points week, otherwise known as "rest the knee so I can go on my trip in May without problems" week (less catchy), continues on pace.  Despite doing the math at the end of the last challenge, I hadn't realized how significant the nearly daily exercise really was towards my point accrual.  More importantly, this week's lack of exercise is really bringing down my daily average.  I'm still netting points, but I'm just not feeling productive.

On an unrelated note.  I know there's a lot of tasty healthy food out there, but sometimes switching from the junk food I love to a healthier version just doesn't work.  At lunch today, instead of the traditional bag of normal Lay's chips (240 calories) I got a bag of Baked Lay's (120 calories).  Unfortunately they do not taste even close to the same.  Maybe it's the salt, maybe the lack of deep frying, but the Baked Lay's did not satisfy my chip craving at all.  What they ended up seeming like was a thin, kind of disappointing, cracker rather than a chip.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), 6-inch meatball sub and a bag of Baked Lay's (600 calories), snacks were a few little pieces of chocolate and jelly beans (100 calories), dinner was pasta, sauce and garlic toast (1000 calories).  No exercise again.

My meals have been repetitive lately, but I am still trying to load up on more fiber than protein.  So lots of pasta.

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2000
Exercise:  0
Points Earned:  1000
Total Points Earned:  24785
Points to go:  175215

Day 18

So today was the follow-up to yesterday's level testing.  As I've mentioned, part of my plan this week is to let my knee rest a bit.  When I got up in the morning it had gotten a bit sore, due to overuse during the testing yesterday.  I iced it down for a half-hour and was mostly fine by the time I went to work (part of the reason for the lack of a post for yesterday was the decision this morning to lie down and ice it).  For the rest of the day it didn't really bother me, even with the bike ride into and home from work.  Hopefully by Saturday the strain should mostly be healed, and the run this weekend can go off without a hitch.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), meatball sub and chips from Subway (750 calories), a cheeseburger on a sourdough roll for dinner (800 calories).  Snacks included some easter chocolate and jelly beans during the day (200 calories).  No exercise again.

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2050
Exercise:  0
Points Earned:  950
Total Points Earned:  23785
Points to go:  176215

Day 17

Missed an update for yesterday.  Wasn't a difficult day, and I intentionally kept my meal calories a little low since I knew snacks were going to creep up.  The big activity yesterday was level testing in Kickboxing.  As your skills improve you undergo testing to demonstrate that you've reached the next level of mastery.  Until yesterday I was a level 0.  The testing was difficult, and involved a lot of skills I don't usually use.  Jumping rope was far and away the toughest, though sit-ups and the speed bag were also difficult.  Running and punches weren't particularly tough.  All in all, I'd gone in expecting the testing to be lighter impact than a normal training session.  I was very wrong, it was tougher.  In the end though, I made it to Level 1.  Officially I'm now an Amateur Kick-boxer.

Food yesterday:  egg and cheese sandwich (300 calories), turkey sandwich (500 calories), snacks included chips and a roll (400 calories), dinner was a cheeseburger on a sourdough roll (800 calories).  Exercise was the level testing (500 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2000
Exercise:  500
Points Earned:  1500
Total Points Earned:  22835
Points to go:  177165

Day 16

0K to 20K took 15 days.  Not a great showing, particularly considering how well I was doing in the first few days of the new Challenge, but steady progress nonetheless.  The next month or so is probably going to be a little slow.  I'm planning to take most of this week off of exercising to rest my knee and give it a chance to heal.  That means my next big bit of exercise may not be until next week's run.  Then in a few weeks I'm going away, and while I expect to be very busy on my trip, I probably won't try to hard to eat healthy.

Weigh-in result:  211.8 lbs.

Now from the start of this challenge, that means I'm down 4.4 pounds.  More importantly though I'm down 1 full pound below my weight at the end of the last challenge.  Once again I'm hitting the lowest weights I've had since high school and college.

Food today wasn't great:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), PB&J for lunch (600 calories), a small donut for snack (300 calories) and pasta, sauce and garlic toast for dinner (1000 calories).  No exercise as stated.

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2200
Exercise:  0
Points Earned:  800
Total Points Earned:  21335
Points to go:  178665

Day 15

So today was Easter and that meant eating a lot of desserts.  Since my most consistent readers happened to be at the same meal as me, there's not much use to trying to undersell how much of a pig I was today.  The only advantage I had as far as earning points on the day went was that since dinner occurred during the middle afternoon I ended up combining two meals into one.  Still was a big pig though, and when combined with no exercise to nurse the knee it meant a low scoring day.

Food today:  breakfast was the usual egg and cheese sandwich (300 calories), dinner was ham, some green beans (I think that's what they were) and some bread (800 calories), dessert though was a big piece of chocolate cream pie, some cookies and part of a cupcake (1200 calories total).  No exercise though to balance it out.

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2300
Exercise:  0
Points Earned:  700
Total Points Earned:  20535
Points to go:  179465

Day 14

Knee injuries, even minor ones, aren't fun.  As I've mentioned before I twisted my knee a couple weeks ago.  It's mostly not a problem, but after the long run today it got very sore.  Iced it down and rested it for most of the day after the run, but it's still a matter of concern.  Today we did 7.8 miles, give or take, up and then back down Heartbreak Hill.  Now one nice benefit of running there this time of year is that everyone always seems to think we're actually training for the full marathon, and are very complimentary.  I went a little slower than I liked, particularly at the end, but I still ran the entire distance, though I had to stop twice to tie my shoes.  Running the full 13.1 miles in June is looking more and more doable.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich (300 calories), no real lunch but I ended up eating 6 rolls during the cooking process (600 calories), dinner was penne, sauce and garlic toast (1000 calories).  Exercise was the 7.8 miles of running (900 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  1900
Exercise:  900
Points Earned:  2000
Total Points Earned:  19835
Points to go:  180165

Day 13

Holidays remain a source of serious challenge to any diet.  For obvious reasons, and no doubt based on thousands of years of tradition, holiday gatherings seem to revolve around food.  In my personal case, Easter weekend ends up having two food based traditions.  The obvious one, Easter dinner, is largely similar to Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Simply a day where a ton of food is available, at a huge family gathering. 

Good Friday is a little more difficult, simply because of timing.  The day itself is a normal workday, and so requires breakfast, lunch and snacks as normal.  Church is then at 7 or so.  After church our tradition is to go out and get either dinner or desserts.  Unfortunately, since that means not eating until 9 or so there's a need for a pre-dinner.  In the end it all just simply means more calories, without corresponding exercise.  Not an excuse of course, just an experience.  Holidays are a challenge, but really should only represent slowing down on the diet, not stopping.  Their advantage is simply that they are special events.  Come Monday, I don't have any reason to be overeating.

Food for Friday:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), PB&J for lunch (600 calories), granola bar as snack (70 calories), egg and cheese sandwich for pre-dinner (300 calories), fish and chips for dinner (1200 calories).  Exercise was a lunch time walk (100 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2470
Exercise:  100
Points Earned:  630
Total Points Earned:  17835
Points to go:  182165

Day 12

So there was one new challenge I had to deal with today.  I volunteered to make dinner rolls for Easter dinner, since we're looking at having 40 people there I need to find a way to maximize my baking.  Tonight was a test batch to see how they'd come out.  On the plus side I think I've got a strategy that should make sufficient baking only partially difficult.  On the downside, as tonight's test batch showed, that means a lot of extremely tasty fresh baked bread suddenly appearing in my house.  Needless to say, I had to sample to make sure it was good.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich (300 calories), PB&J (600 calories), penne, sauce and garlic toast (1000 calories), snacks included some chocolate and the aforementioned sourdough rolls (450 calories).  Exercise was a lunchtime walk and an hour of kickboxing (600 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2350
Exercise:  600
Points Earned:  1250
Total Points Earned:  17205
Points to go:  182795

Day 11

No major challenges on the day.  Fortunately, while I ended up going to get a snack during work I kept it smaller than earlier in the week and got the small bag of chips.  I did have a special kickboxing session on the day, as next week we're level testing and I needed to go through some of the moves that we don't do routinely in class.  The real challenge of the testing though is going to be jumping rope for 2 minutes.  Not 100% certain I'm coordinated enough to do that.

Food for the day:  egg and cheese sandwich (300 calories), PB&J (600 calories), small bag of chips (160 calories), steak, noodles and green beans (1000 calories).  Exercise was a lunchtime walk, and a light session of kickboxing (400 calories total).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2060
Exercise:  400
Points Earned:  1340
Total Points Earned:  15955
Points to go:  184045

Day 10

Well it's no question that today went better than yesterday.  Though really, considering how much of a pain yesterday was, that's not too surprising.  Got out for a walk at lunch, and to the gym afterwards.  Even avoided the strong temptation of walking behind someone carrying a box of fried chicken at lunch time (the temptation: knock him down and steal his food, the chicken place is a little too far away to conveniently go at lunch).  If the goal is to keep on track with the diet today was a success.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), PB&J for lunch (600 calories), a granola bar and a couple mini-reeses as snacks (150 calories), penne, sauce and garlic toast for dinner (1000 calories).  Exercise was a walk at lunch and 45 minutes on the treadmill (810 calories total).  The treadmill should have been longer but I hit the kill switch again.

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2050
Exercise:  810
Points Earned:  1760
Total Points Earned:  14615
Points to go:  185385

Day 9

All in all today generally sucked, though it wasn't due to dieting or exercise.  Killed my phone last night and had to run around replacing it after work, but that meant no running or kickboxing.  Also managed to forget my ID for work, which pretty much meant no leaving the building (it's relatively easy to go through security in the morning, it's a pain any other time).  So instead of a nice productive day of exercise, I ended up doing everything but. 

I've seen days like this a lot since October, but there's no question they're discouraging.  Instead of getting ahead, you feel like you're treading water at best.  None of it really represents a long term trend (unless a few crappy days roll out in a row) but the challenge becomes getting back on track.  I'm not expecting it to become a problem.  After five months I think I've settled into the groove a bit, but if I don't think about it then that trend might start to form.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich at breakfast (300 calories), PB&J for lunch (600 calories), a larger bag of chips as a snack (300 calories), pot roast, potato and carrots for dinner (800 calories).  No exercise today.

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2000
Exercise:  0
Points Earned:  1000
Total Points Earned:  12855
Points to go:  187145

Day 8

Took another day off from exercise to rest the knee.  It's definitely feeling better, but I'm still getting some twinges when I go up and down the stairs.  Otherwise today was mostly about hanging out with friends.  All in all a fun day, but not incredibly productive as far as the diet went.  One positive that I first started noticing today has been a little bit of definition in my arms.  I think my kickboxing is starting to pay some dividends as far as upper body strength is concerned.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), homemade pizza for lunch (700 calories), snacks included some cookies and jelly beans with friends (500 calories), and an egg and cheese sandwich for dinner (300 calories).  No exercise on the day.

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  1800
Exercise:  0
Points Earned:  1200
Total Points Earned:  11855
Points to go:  188145

Day 7

Today was the Team Challenge Mock 5K.  Mostly a timed 5K run to give everyone a sense of what a race day is like.  Would have been nicer if it weren't cold and rainy.  I set a personal best for a 5K, improving on my last time by 8 whole seconds!  About half-way through the race I realized I was running too fast, as I'd been trying to match my pace to people with mile times about a minute faster than mine.

Today's run:  http://connect.garmin.com/activity/163286999

At the finish line, getting my Popsicle stick

And as a comparison here's my last 5K:  http://connect.garmin.com/activity/156566594

By the end of the run my knee was bugging me again but it wasn't too bad.  After running though I hit the outlets in Wrentham, one positive of the weather was nobody else was there yet.  I got to pick up some new clothes that should fit me better, at least for a little while.  Eventually they'll probably end up baggy as well.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwiches for both breakfast and lunch (300 calories each), a couple mini-muffins and a mini-cupcake after the run (300 calories), penne, sauce and garlic toast for dinner (1000 calories).  Exercise was the 5K today (500 calories).

Yes dinner's been pretty repetitive this week, but I'm still trying to load up on fiber a ton.

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  1900
Exercise:  500
Points Earned:  1600
Total Points Earned:  10655
Points to go:  189345

Day 6

So that one week off really took me out of the habit of posting my updates at the end of the day.  Got to start doing that again, so I don't have to get up quite so early.  Got to head out to run shortly so just a quick update again.

I decided to take yesterday off from exercise.  I'd twisted my knee a bit on Wednesday and wanted to give it a full day off to let it rest.  It had already mostly resolved by the end of the day on Thursday but it was still nice to take a bit of a rest.  The rest of the day went a little bit off-plan as I ended up going out to lunch with folks from work, but only after having already eaten my prepared lunch.  Ended up eating a little bit too much on the day but luckily not too terrible.

Food yesterday:  english muffin with peanut butter and milk (400 calories), PB&J (600 calories), half a small cheese pizza (700 calories), and then for dinner I cut back and made an egg and cheese sandwich (300 calories).  I did have a few little snacks with a mini-reeses and some peanut butter (100 calories).  No exercise.

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2100
Exercise:  0
Points Earned:  900
Total Points Earned:  9055
Points to go:  190945

Day 5

So just a quick post for yesterday.  Nothing major happened, though I was nursing a slightly sore knee.  It's feeling better this morning, so hopefully it was just a day-to-day kind of injury.  Otherwise I made it through the day without too much of a challenge.

On minor modification to the scoring for this challenge.  I reworked the breakfast I've been having (peanut butter on english muffin with milk), and I'm pretty sure it's closer to 400 calories than 300.  So I've made a modification to the scores for each day which subtracts 400 points from the total that was posted yesterday.  No major deal, but wanted to try and keep it accurate.

Food yesterday:  english muffin with peanut butter and milk (400 calories), PB&J for lunch (600 calories), penne, sauce and garlic toast for dinner (1000 calories), some chips and peanut butter for snacks (200 calories).  Exercise was a lunchtime walk (100 calories) and kickboxing (500 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2200
Exercise:  600
Points Earned:  1400
Total Points Earned:  8155
Points to go:  191845

Day 4

So some positives and some negatives for the day today.  It rained at lunch time, so as I was leaving work I really tried to use that as an excuse to skip the gym for the night.  On the positive side of things, by the time I was heading out the door I'd convinced myself that that was ridiculous.  Also a positive, the rain had stopped by that point so going to the gym didn't end up with me running while soaking wet.

The negative side of things is that I once again ate my lunch too early in the day, which left me looking for a snack later.  Not really a big deal, and my total calories are still fine for the day, but it's become a trend lately.  Partly that has to do with the PB&J sandwiches I've been bringing this week.  I've been eating them as a way to boost my fiber intake (peanut butter's a surprisingly good source of fiber), but for whatever reason as soon as I start getting a little hungry in the mornings I start craving the sandwich.  Other foods don't seem to do that to me, not sure why it happens with these sandwiches.

Still a good day as far as points:  english muffin with peanut butter for breakfast (300 calories), PB&J for lunch (600 calories), snacks included a bag of chips and some peanut butter (200 calories), dinner was salmon, noodles and green beans (1000 calories).  Exercise was an extra-long lunchtime walk (200 calories), and an hour on the treadmill (933 calories).


Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2100
Exercise:  1133
Points Earned:  2033
Total Points Earned:  7155
Points to go:  192845

Day 3

Added an extra challenge to running on the treadmill today.  Normally I run without an incline, today I added a small one.  It wasn't anything major, but it definitely was noticeable.  My legs started wearing down a lot faster than they traditionally do, and I had to keep pushing myself to continue running for the full hour.  Still did a full hour of course, but it was definitely more challenging than treadmill running's been for a while.


Food today:  english muffin, peanut butter and milk for breakfast (300 calories), PB&J for lunch (600 calories), penne, sauce and garlic toast for dinner (1000 calories), a granola bar and a couple pieces of candy for snacks (150 calories).  Exercise was a lunchtime walk and an hour on the treadmill (1072 calories)

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2050
Exercise:  1072
Points Earned:  2022
Total Points Earned:  5122
Points to go:  194878

Day 2

So two days back into the diet and I seem to be back on track.  One nice thing about all of this has been that the changes that I initiated back in October really have become standard.  When I pigged out a bit last week I generally felt uncomfortable with it.  Mind you that didn't stop me from enjoying the hell out of the junk food, but even a week of lazy sluggishness didn't undermine my new habits.  Then on Saturday I still managed to get out and run 7.5 miles.  So overall it does seem like continuing the diet for another 5 or 6 months is plausible.

Food today:  english muffin, peanut butter and milk for breakfast (300 calories), PB&J for lunch (600 calories), snacks included a granola bar and a cookie at work (200 calories), dinner was salmon, noodles and green beans (900 calories).  Exercise today 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:  3100
Points to go:  196900

Day 1

So today's the first day of the new Challenge.  All in all the past week has been a demonstration on what not to do if you want to maintain weight loss.  Don't go crazy with junk food and hit all the restaurants you love from when you were 50 pounds heavier.  Don't stop exercising immediately after finishing the diet.  Don't keep putting off until tomorrow to get things back under control.

My first weigh-in for the new Challenge was this morning.  The result:  216.2 pounds.

Obviously that's a bit of a bump since last Saturday.  Some of that increase is certainly a day-to-day variation, but some of that is from eating too much junk food and not exercising.  Of course it also gives me a slightly higher starting point for this challenge, so hopefully I'll lose it quickly.

Food today:  breakfast was an english muffin with peanut butter and a glass of water with fiber (300 calories), snacks on the day included a cookie at work and some peanut butter during the day (200 calories), dinner was penne, sauce and garlic toast (1000 calories).  No exercise today as I took a rest day after a 7.5 mile run yesterday.

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  1500
Exercise:  0
Points Earned:  1500
Total Points Earned:  1500
Points to go:  198500

1st Challenge Review

So I was originally planning to start the 2nd challenge on the 20th, but thanks to illness and laziness it got pushed back to today.  This past week's been a little unpleasant thanks to being sick.  I also took the week off from exercise to allow for a greater focus on getting better.  Weeks like this aren't too bad so long as you don't allow them to stretch out, but between a lack of exercise and an increase in junk food I've gained a little bit of weight back.

None the less the new challenge starts tomorrow, but I wanted to post the full results from the old challenge here, so I can still review them in the future.

Starting weight (10/20/11): 265 pounds
20K weight (11/4/11): 252.2 pounds
40K weight (11/20/11): 247 pounds
60K weight (12/5/11): 242 pounds
80K weight (12/20/11): 236.4 pounds
100K weight (1/6/12): 231.2 pounds
120K weight (1/22/12): 226.6 pounds
140K weight (2/5/12): 225 pounds
160K weight (2/19/12): 221.8 pounds
180K weight (3/4/12): 215.4 pounds
200K weight (3/17/12): 212.8 pounds

Day 150

The diet's officially over but today's the last weigh-in.  I'm going to be starting a brand new challenge on the 20th, but for the moment I'm just happy to have officially earned my Emissary table.

180K to 200K took 13 days. The two week period's included me being a little sick now and again, though nothing too major.  The big excitement was the focus on finishing.  It's hard to believe but I made my goal.

Weigh-in result:  212.8 lbs.

So that's 150 days after the start of the diet and 52.2 pounds lost.  I always knew that kind of weight loss would be possible, but I didn't think it was that probable.  Now I have a whole new set of goals.  Over the next few months I'm going to start another challenge, hopefully break the 200 pound mark and run a half-marathon.  All in all I want to thank everyone for their support, again.

Day 149 and Victory!

Well despite a bigger than normal lunch, and generally feeling very sick on the day, the Challenge is DONE!  It's taken 149 days instead of the 9 months I scheduled.  I've lost around 50 pounds and tomorrow's the last formal weigh-in of this challenge.  It's been an amazing success, I'm going to take a couple days off probably, but I'm planning to start a new Challenge on the 20th.  I want to thank everyone who's been  reading this.  I could not have pulled this off without you folks keeping me honest.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), fish and chips for lunch/dinner (1300 calories), no dinner or snacks.  Exercise ended up being 20 minutes or so at the gym before I remembered running while sick doesn' t seem that fun (312 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  1600
Exercise:  312
Points Earned:  1912
Total Points Earned:  200576
Points to go:  0!!!!!!

Day 148

It seems weirdly appropriate to me that my final weigh in for the challenge is going to end up being on Day 150.  For the last month or so I'd been hoping to finish up on the 19th, since that would complete the challenge in exactly 5 months.  I did a little better than the average I needed and I was a little bummed that it wasn't going to be a round number or anything (yes I really am that lame).  So I'm excited to see that there will at least be some kind of round number associated with completing it.

Technically of course I might not finish tomorrow, but I only have 1300 points to go and a trip to the gym will pretty much guarantee it, barring me going on a crazy binge tomorrow.  So I've decided that I'm going to do another challenge.  I'll probably start it up again on the 20th for the symmetry (I told you I'm super lame).  Which will give me two or three days not to worry about it.  Sadly I already have some healthy foods planned for some of those days.  But seriously, one day to go.  Who would have believed any of this was possible.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich (300 calories), turkey sandwich (500 calories), snacks included a granola bar, a couple cookies and a cupcake (400 calories) thanks to a special event at work, dinner was lasagna without the garlic toast (800 calories).  Exercise was a lunchtime walk and kickboxing (600 calories total).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2000
Exercise:  600
Points Earned:  1600
Total Points Earned:  198664
Points to go:  1336

Day 147

Well a day later and my shin's not sore anymore.  It's possible I overreacted just a teensy-tiny bit in the last two days.  Seriously though I do worry about injuries a bit more than I used to with exercise.  When 20-30 minutes of exercise every couple days was the most I was getting I worried a lot less.  At that point my exercise didn't really push my body at all.  Now I am, running for an hour isn't natural for me and I can feel the stress after a while.  I stretch and keep active in a variety of ways, and I haven't had any significant problems in more than a year.  The threat is still something in the back of my mind though, and every so often my minimal hypochondria fuels it.

Today was nice and successful though.  Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich (300 calories), turkey sandwich (500 calories), two granola bars and a little peanut butter as snacks (200 calories), lasagna and garlic toast for dinner (1000 calories).  Exercise though made the difference.  I took a more intensive walk with some friends at lunch (200 calories), and an hour on the treadmill at the gym (910 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2000
Exercise:  1110
Points Earned:  2110
Total Points Earned:  197064
Points to go:  2936

Day 146

Wasn't feeling particularly great last night, so headed to bed without an update.  Nothing major happened during the day.  I did notice that I had a little bit of shin soreness during the day.  As a result I decided to skip the gym and give it a chance to rest at home.  Probably not necessary, but since my job entails reading medical reports all day the hypochondriac inside started freaking out.  Oh my god shin splints!  That'll turn into compartment syndrome!  The surgical procedure to fix it will cause nerve damage!  Oh my God, THEY'RE GOING TO CUT OFF MY LEG!  Figured one night off from the gym probably wouldn't hurt.

Food yesterday:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), PB&J for lunch (600 calories), lasagna for dinner (1000 calories), granola bar and some chips as snacks (200 calories).  Lunchtime walk ended up being the only exercise (100 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2100
Exercise:  100
Points Earned:  1000
Total Points Earned:  194954
Points to go:  5046

Day 145

Nothing too exciting today.  I did get to wear my medal from the 5K to work today.  Would have been funnier if everyone else wore theirs, but a morale boost is a morale boost regardless.  No major challenges for the day, as I'm really looking forward to next weekend.  With the last few thousand points to go I'm already hoping to have everything done by Saturday.

So a couple thoughts for the next challenge.  I've been debating cutting the daily calorie allotment, since I never had a negative point day on the diet.  The extra points though did allow for a bit of cheating now and then, and over the course of the whole diet added up to almost 75,000 points by itself.  Cutting them out would probably result in making it more challenging, but I'm not sure that's really something I want to do.  One of the advantages to this plan was the daily sense of accomplishment.  Cutting several hundred points a day out would likely reduce that feeling.

Of course as the heart of the challenge is competing against myself for a prize I've been giving that a bit of thought as well.  One potential idea I had was turning the prize into a new car.  I don't actually need a new car, as my old one only has around 70,000 miles.  But the car is starting to get old (I bought it in 2005) and I wouldn't mind having something newer.  Anyone have some other suggestions for prizes?

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), turkey sandwich for lunch (500 calories), snacks included a granola bar and some peanut butter (200 calories), dinner was the other half of yesterday's cheese pizza (800 calories).  Exercise was a lunchtime walk (100 calories) and kickboxing (500 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  1800
Exercise:  600
Points Earned:  1800
Total Points Earned:  193954
Points to go:  6046

Day 144

Well it was pretty obvious that I pushed myself a little harder than normal yesterday.  I was weirdly sore all day.  I wasn't really in pain or anything, but I was definitely tired and a little blah for the day.  Losing the hour probably didn't help matters since it meant my day had to start a lot faster than I was expecting.  Took the day off from exercise, though I still had to go into work.  Hopefully by tomorrow I should be in better shape.  Otherwise things continue to go pretty well.  Hopefully we can keep these trends up for the next few months as well.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), grilled cheese for lunch (600 calories), and half a homemade cheese pizza for dinner (800 calories).  Snacks included a granola bar and some peanut butter (150 calories).  No exercise on the day though.

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  1850
Exercise:  0
Points Earned:  1150
Total Points Earned:  192154
Points to go:  7846

Day 143

Today was my first 5K in Providence.  It was a lot of fun, though a very different experience than last year's half-marathon.  A half-marathon is long enough that you really settle into the event, a 5K is short enough that it's over almost before you ever get into any sort of groove.  Of course all my friends have joked about my attitude over the distance.  "Oh well it's only 3.1 miles, that's nothing."  It is one of the ironies of training for the longer distances that an unimaginable distance from 3 years ago is now kind of short.

So my result in the 5K was 31 minutes and 8 seconds.  My per/mile average ended up being 10:02, and my strongest mile was the last one which I finished in a little over 9 minutes.  All in all it was a pretty successful day and suggests that I may actually be able to hit my half-marathon goal when the time comes.

Route and the result from my GPS watch can be found here:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/156566594

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), a couple small slices of pizza after the race (300 calories), a burger and fries while out with friends (1200 calories), and dinner ended up being a peanut butter sandwich and milk (700 calories).  Exercise was jogging to the race site, the 5K itself and walking home with a total distance of about 6 miles (calorie estimate is 750 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2500
Exercise:  750
Points Earned:  1250
Total Points Earned:  191004
Points to go:  8996

Day 142

So tomorrow is my first 5K.  I'm doing it with friends from work so I'm planning to pretty much match my pace to them, but I'm curious to see how I'll do.  I'm kind of using it to see if I can't set my pace and stick to it for the course.  If I can, then it becomes merely a matter of stretching that ability out for another 10 miles.  On the other hand a 5K just seems kind of short.  I regularly do longer distances on both a treadmill and out in the real world.  Last week's Team Challenge training did more than 5 miles, so a 3 mile distance just seems a little weird.  I'm not going to try and sprint it or anything.  If I can finish in 40 minutes I'll be pretty happy with myself.

Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast (300 calories), PB&J for lunch (600 calories), snacks were a granola bar, a couple tootsie rolls and a couple jelly beans (150 calories), dinner was penne, sauce and garlic toast again (1000 calories).  Exercise was a lunch time walk and an hour on the treadmill at the new speed (1059 calories total).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2050
Exercise:  1059
Points Earned:  2009
Total Points Earned:  189754
Points to go:  10246

Day 141

So a friend made a comment the other day that I thought was kind of interesting.  According to him I've actually been a lot happier over the last few months on this diet than I had been before.  Obviously that's just his impression of me, but it did get me thinking a bit.  Initially I laughed it off, because it seemed kind of silly.  While I've changed my eating and exercise habits, my basic personality hasn't changed obviously. 

What I did realize though is that I have generally become a lot more active, people in general have been complimentary, and above all else I have had a steady series of accomplishments on the diet.  If those aren't recipes for being happier, I don't know what is.  I can point to a few other life changes as well, of course.  I'm doing well at work, living on my own for the first time in a few years, and otherwise have seen some unrelated positive changes in my life.  But I wouldn't be surprised to discover that the diet, and more importantly the success of the diet, is carrying positive changes over to the rest of my life.  Pollyanna-ish, sure, but plausible.

Gave myself a night off from exercise tonight though, and ate a little more than necessary:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), turkey sandwich for lunch (500 calories), granola bar and some chips as snacks (200 calories), steak and french fries for dinner (1200 calories).  Exercise was just a lunchtime walk (100 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2200
Exercise:  100
Points Earned:  900
Total Points Earned:  187745
Points to go:  12255

Day 139 and Day 140

Well I made it four and a half months without missing an update.  It was bound to happen eventually.  No really good reason for it.  A new book arrived from Amazon yesterday, so I got kind of obsessed with reading it.  When 2 am rolled around and I realized I still hadn't done a post, I just decided to squeeze one into the morning instead.  Unfortunately oversleeping doesn't help that plan.  All in all it's not a big deal.  I've still got it tracked in my spreadsheet, but it just didn't get a post for yesterday.

I'm going to be running a 5K on Saturday and I'm kind of looking forward to it.  The only formal race like this I've ever done was the half-marathon.  I'm kind of looking forward to seeing something a little shorter, and to see how I do over that distance.  Also I'm doing it with a bunch of people from work, so it'll be nice to run with a different group as a change of pace, even if it means missing the Team Challenge practice that morning.  Hopefully I'll get some pictures from the race that I can post here.

Food for Tuesday:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), turkey sandwich for lunch (500 calories), cheeseburger for dinner (800 calories), granola bar and a couple small sourdough rolls as snacks during the day and evening (400 calories).  Exercise was just a lunchtime walk (100 calories).

Food for Wednesday:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), turkey sandwich for lunch (500 calories), penne, sauce and garlic toast for dinner (1000 calories), snacks included a granola bar, some chips and some cookies (400 calories).  Exercise was an hour on the treadmill with the speed kicked up another notch to 5.5 mph (957 calories).

Yesterday's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2000
Exercise:  100
Points Earned:  1100
Total Points Earned:  185088
Points to go:  14912

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2200
Exercise:  957
Points Earned:  1757
Total Points Earned:  186845
Points to go:  13155

Day 138

So we're somewhat back into the daily grind of diet and exercise.  Not that it's actually unpleasant.  I miss being able to eat like a pig of course, but just looking at the photos from a couple days ago points out where that led me over the years.  I've found a set of meals that I enjoy, even if they are a little bit boring at times.  I've also finally begun to realize that as long as I stick to the diet and exercise as my default, a few days of cheating here and there won't hurt me too much.

As with anything it takes good judgment, and I'm hoping that will stick with me for the long haul but at least I know it's possible.  If I stick with it though, I'm really curious to find out where I'll finally settle in on weight.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), 6 inch meatball sub and potato chips from Subway (700 calories), penne, sauce and garlic toast for dinner (1000 calories).  No snacks on the day, and exercise was an hour of kickboxing (500 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2000
Exercise:  500
Points Earned:  1500
Total Points Earned:  183988
Points to go:  16012

Day 137

So today ended up being one of those occasional lost days on the diet.  I generally felt blah today so I ended up skipping out on OT for the day but also skipping on a trip to the gym as well.  I figure I'll pick it back up tomorrow.  Today was also a weigh-in day so I figured it made a good one to skimp on.

160K to 180K took 14 days again.  So for the last couple weigh-ins I've talked a lot about plateauing.  In the last 14 days though I've lost the second largest amount of weight since the diet began.  I'm hoping that it's a sign that I've passed some sort of threshold.  I'm not going to make it during this first challenge, but 200 pounds seems to be a believable goal, and the long term goal to no longer be obese on the BMI chart even seems possible.

Weigh-in result:  215.4 lbs.

Now to finish off the theme from the last couple days I figured I'd show a picture of myself in my running shirt from last year:

Photo of me in my half-marathon shirt today

If you look back to Saturday's post you can see me at the half-marathon wearing this same shirt (better image of me is also available at my fundraising page for this year's half-marathon: http://www.active.com/donate/virginia12newengland/VASDwyer ).  At that point the shirt was pretty tight on me.  Now it fits pretty loosely.  I tried on the XL Team Challenge shirt I was given at one point which I didn't even pretend to wear and that is now pretty comfortable.  All in all at 180K I think I'm doing pretty well.  But there's still 20K to go.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), cheeseburgers on sourdough for lunch and dinner (800 calories each) and a roll and some Mike and Ike's as snacks for the day (300 calories).  No exercise on the day though.

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2200
Exercise:  0
Points Earned:  800
Total Points Earned:  182488
Points to go:  17512

Day 136

So continuing yesterday's theme of photos I figured I'd show a couple photos from the middle of the diet this time.  Neither of them is really revealing, as they're both done with bad angles and bad clothes but they do show some of the changes.

About a week or so before Christmas this year.

So this first picture shows what I looked like about a week or so before Christmas.  Unfortunately I'm wearing a loose pullover shirt and that hides my progress.  It also unfortunately shows my receding hairline, but what can you do.  The shirt I'm wearing though is a 3XL, and is obviously pretty loose though, and you can see some of the changes in my face.

Christmas Eve with my cousin.  I'm so mature!

This second picture shows the remarkably mature guy here on Christmas Eve.  So at this point I'm a little over two months into the diet and have lost around 30 pounds.  It's become more visible in the face (and very visible when compared to the 2005 picture).  The shirt had actually been bought last year and as you can see it has gotten loose as well.  Size here of the shirt is probably 2XL.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwiches for breakfast and lunch (300 calories each).  Snacks included a granola bar, some peanut butter and some cheese at various points of the day (400 calories).  Dinner was a small piece of salmon, noodles and green beans (800 calories).  Exercise was an hour long run with Team Challenge in the rain, slush and cold (600 calories estimated).

We've passed 180K today so the weigh-in is tomorrow morning!  20K to go!

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  1800
Exercise:  600
Points Earned:  1800
Total Points Earned:  181688
Points to go:  18312

Day 135

So the first 200K challenge is very close to being done.  Missed hitting 180K today by just a little (curse you free donut at work).  Because of that I'm looking both ahead at what to do next, and behind to see what's changed.  That'll probably be a theme over the next two weeks or so as well.  So in honor of looking back a bit first I thought I'd include a couple of pictures of where I was before this all began:

Me in 2005 or so.  Probably 300 pounds.

I still have that t-shirt.  Though now it's gotten a little too big.  I still like wearing it to exercise just for the label, but I can honestly say it no longer fits.  It's a 3XL shirt by the by.  Within a year or so of this picture being taken I went on my first big diet.  Went from 300 pounds down to around 250.  Since then I floated up and down around there, though I only got down to 240 once in that time.

This next picture is me after my half-marathon last year:

Shayna and I walk/running a half-marathon in 2011.
Don't forget to support me this year at the link at the top of the page.

As you can see I've dropped a fair amount of weight between the pictures, but at this time I'm still around 250 or so.  The 2XL jersey I'm wearing is a little tight, and my gut is straining to bust out.  I still finished in 3 hours and 10 minutes.  When I looked at the first picture my reaction was, "Holy crap I was fat!"  This one surprised me less.  I know this guy pretty well, and up until October this was pretty close to what I looked like.

October 25, 2011 - 5 days into the diet

And this is me at the start of the diet in October.  At the start of the diet I weighed 265 pounds, this is a few days in so I might be down to 260 here.  Even so, this guy is very recognizable.  Sad to say, but looking back I used to have hair.  Sigh.

I'm going to try and get a couple current photos over the next couple days.  Wish I had thought to do a bit more of them during the diet proper, but there's some Christmas ones at least from around the half-way mark.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), a doughnut as a snack in the morning (300 calories), two slices of cheese pizza for lunch (600 calories), penne sauce and garlic toast for dinner (1000 calories).  Exercise was an hour on the treadmill after work (861 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2200
Exercise:  861
Points Earned:  1661
Total Points Earned:  179888
Points to go:  20112

Day 134

Today had some nice surprises related to the diet, plus a combination of cheating on the diet and extra exercise to make up for it.  First the surprises.  I had a couple doctor's appointments today including my first physical in a year and a half.  The doctor was very happy to see me down 40 pounds from my last physical (apparently I was a little lighter then, than I was back on October 20).  My blood pressure was a little elevated, particularly at the start of the appointment, but the later numbers put it in the higher end of normal.  Blood work was done, but I don't have the results.  All in all I'm healthier than I was at my last physical.

The big surprise came when I hit the store to grab a couple new pieces of clothing.  I decided to try on some new pants and found that the 40 waist I had thought might still be too small was actually too big.  My new pants are actually a 38.  I doubt I've been in the 30's since college, possibly high school.  Makes the 46's that I have in my closet look gigantic.  I also grabbed a button down shirt that was only XL but actually fit ideally.  No idea if it'll still fit well after a trip in the wash but it's an XL rather than 2XL.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), some peanut butter as a snack during the day (100 calories), dinner was a trip to 5 guys for a cheeseburger and large fry (2400 calories).  I'd promised myself the trip after my physical.  Since I knew I was going there I got in some extra exercise today as well to help work it off.  One hour on the treadmill (829 calories) and kickboxing class (500 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2800
Exercise:  1329
Points Earned:  1529
Total Points Earned:  178227
Points to go:  21773

Day 133

Ah winter weather.  I'd kind of forgotten what you were like.  Had to bike home through a bit of a snow storm today.  No major problems though it did tend to make me a little more nervous than I otherwise would have been.  I bike to and from work every day, and as with everything else on this diet there have been some subtle signs of the weight loss with that as well.  One of the biggest ones is that biking up hill has gotten steadily easier, and can be accomplished in a higher gear.  Have my first physical since the diet started on Thursday.  Hoping my doctor will say some nice things.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), turkey sandwich for lunch (500 calories), a granola bar, peanut butter and a reese's mini as snacks (200 calories), salmon, noodles and green beans for dinner (900 calories).  Exercise was a lunchtime walk and an hour on the treadmill (958 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  1900
Exercise:  958
Points Earned:  2058
Total Points Earned:  176698
Points to go:  23302