Day 44 - Running Dreams

The last few weeks have seen more nights with dreams about running.  That's not really a bad thing, if I do any activity a lot I tend to dream about it and I certainly have been running.  It does sometimes feel weird however to wake up from a dream about running and feel kind of exhausted by all that "exercise."  Other dreams involving it are just weird (one where I thought I'd forgotten how to run outside comes to mind).  It does provide a bit of weirdness in my life, but honestly that's hardly the first weirdness I have there.

Food today:  egg and cheese (300 calories), turkey sandwich (500 calories), M&M's and peanut butter (250 calories), penne, sauce and garlic toast (1000 calories).  Exercise was a lunch time walk and then running at the gym (1265 calories total).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total: 2050
Exercise: 1265
Points Earned: 2215
Total Points Earned:  74598
Points to go:  125402

Day 43 - Running Outdoors

So there's definitely a world of difference between running on a treadmill and running outdoors.  Even more so when your GPS watch isn't working so you have no idea how fast you're running.  Today was a reunion run for Team Challenge, and so that meant running out in the "real world."  Nothing overly challenging, just a mostly flat stretch of sidewalk in Boston.  The total run I did was somewhere between 4 and 5 miles, but I'm not exactly sure how fast I went.  I'm guessing I was at least at a 10 minute mile pace, at least in part because I was outpacing other runners on the stretch.  The next time I get out though, I definitely need to have the watch working because otherwise it's very hard to get a sense of what I'm doing.  That is one of the nice bits of the treadmill, it always tells me what it thinks I've done at least.

Food today:  egg and cheese for both breakfast and dinner (300 calories each), lunch was a bacon cheeseburger with fries (1300 calories) and snacks on the day included some popcorn (300 calories).  Exercise estimate for the run today (500 calories).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total: 2200
Exercise: 500
Points Earned: 1300
Total Points Earned:  72383
Points to go:  127617

Day 42 - Usual Saturday

The weather is definitely getting nicer, so before too much longer I'm going to have to start running outside.  But for this Saturday at least I was back at the gym.  Running alone without the TV or something to distract me is just not as relaxing as running with the TV.  Even so, if I want to stretch out the distances it's something that will need to be done, particularly since the treadmills at the gym shut down after an hour.  Otherwise nothing all that critical happened today.  A couple reasonable meals and a lot of water and light lemonade made up the day's food and drink.

Food today:  egg and cheese (300 calories), hot dog (300 calories), snacks were a granola bar and then some turkey at the deli counter of the supermarket (300 calories), dinner was steak, noodles and green beans (1000 calories).  Exercise was the hour on the treadmill (1167 calories).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total: 1900
Exercise: 1167
Points Earned: 2267
Total Points Earned:  71083
Points to go:  128917

Day 41 - Getting Back

So one of the big dangers to a cheat day is letting yourself fall off the diet after you cheat once.  My second 200k Challenge eventually fell apart precisely for that reason.  Even with me doing well on it, I just got bored and wanted to eat junk food instead.  After falling out of the habit of dieting I started to slip back into my old patterns.  Needless to say, today was kind of critical.  I'd skipped running despite having opportunities to do so and I'd gone out to feed my weakness.  Today though I got back on the treadmill and actually stepped up my performance.  I actually ran at a 7 mph pace for a half-hour, and mostly a 6.5 mph pace the rest.  I still need to start working on distance eventually but I plan to start doing that this week if I can get outside to do it.

Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast (300 calories), a couple of cheese pizza slices for lunch (600 calories), snacks were some M&Ms and a piece of cheese (150 calories), dinner was penne, sauce and garlic toast (1000 calories).  Exercise was a lunch time walk (100 calories) and an hour on the treadmill (1168 calories).


Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total: 2050
Exercise: 1268
Points Earned: 2218
Total Points Earned:  68816
Points to go:  131184

Day 40 - First Cheat Day

So after feeling like crap most of the day, and having a dentist's appointment today turned into my first cheat day of the diet.  As I mentioned yesterday, I'd been feeling a bit burned out.  Today that carried over and while I was able to catch up on sleep I finally decided I wanted a trip to 5 Guys.  So the only positive was I stuck to my guns and avoided soda while there, but still ended up having a bad calorie day without exercise.  Probably not a huge problem long term, but I probably caused a few extra days of work to hit my goals.

Food today:  english muffin with peanut butter (300 calories), 5 Guys cheeseburger with fries (2000 calories), egg and cheese sandwich for dinner (300 calories).  No real exercise on the day.

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total: 2600
Exercise: 0
Points Earned: 400
Total Points Earned:  66598
Points to go:  133402

Day 39 - Feeling Burned Out

Today started out promising but ended up disappointing.  I was realizing today that I've been feeling a bit burned out over the last week or so.  I'm not sure if it's an illness or just general exhaustion but by the end of the day today I was barely able to keep up.  Even the bike ride home didn't really get me active again.  As such, I took the night off from exercise.  I'll probably "make it up" by going back tomorrow, but even so it was a little disappointing to let myself skip it.  As long as it's not an illness though getting some rest should put me back on track.

Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast (300 calories), turkey sandwich for lunch (500 calories), penne, sauce and garlic toast for dinner (1000 calories), and some M&Ms as a snack (100 calories).  Exercise was a longer lunchtime walk (150 calories).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  1900
Exercise: 150
Points Earned: 1250
Total Points Earned:  66198
Points to go:  133802

Day 38 - Routine

I am starting to settle into a bit of a routine, though it doesn't take too much to implode that.  Today was fairly ordinary.  I got up late, so the morning turned into a bit of a rush but otherwise everything proceeded fairly typically.  There were a couple temptations at work, and I gave into some cookies.  The weather also kept me from doing my walk but even so the day wasn't really a negative.  Just an average day.

Food today:  english muffin with peanut butter for breakfast (300 calories), turkey sandwich for lunch (500 calories), snacks were a couple shortbread cookies (200 calories), dinner was a cheeseburger and a hot dog left over from Sunday (900 calories).  No exercise for the day.

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  1900
Exercise: 0
Points Earned: 1100
Total Points Earned:  64948
Points to go:  135052

Day 37 - Average Day

So today was a fairly average Monday.  For this diet though that's actually a pretty good thing.  I ate a reasonable day's worth of food, got to the gym and otherwise was pretty productive in terms of my goal.  We had some candy things passed out at work which was a little bad for me, but not terrible.  Otherwise I kept on track, avoided any temptation to cheat and ran for an hour.  All in all a good day, for a Monday.

Food today:  egg and cheese (300 calories), turkey sandwich (500 calories), salmon, noodles and green beans (900 calories), and snacks were some pieces of candy and a spoonful of peanut butter (250 calories).  Exercise was a lunchtime walk (100 calories) and an hour on the treadmill (1141 calories).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  1950
Exercise: 1241
Points Earned: 2291
Total Points Earned:  63848
Points to go:  136152

Day 36 - Grilling and Baking

So after yesterday's very productive day, today was more of a wash.  I had decided to grill up some burgers when friends came over which mostly worked (I am pretty much incompetent in lighting charcoal, I do not understand why).  I also baked some fresh rolls that went nicely with them.  As far as food went it was a pretty satisfying day.  I didn't get any exercise today but that was somewhat intentional.  I really felt like I needed a real recovery day, hanging with friends was also more fun than the gym.  All in all today wasn't really productive as far as the diet but it's not one I'm unhappy with.


Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast and dinner (300 calories each), lunch was a couple burgers and a hot dog (1200 calories).  No exercise on the day.

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  2000
Exercise: 0
Points Earned: 1000
Total Points Earned:  61557
Points to go:  138443

Day 35 - Recovering from the Bad Days

So one of the challenges I've always had with diets is recovering from the bad days when the diet falls apart a bit.  Even looking back on this blog there are a couple incidents that jump out.  The 2nd challenge fell apart, and a 3rd one never even really got started because after set-backs I quit rather than stepped back up.  This week I had a couple bad days.  It's possible I even underestimated just how bad they were (I guessed high on calories, but maybe not high enough).  At the same time however I did stick to my goal.  In the end what the bad days have done is keep me from losing weight week to week, but they didn't kill the diet.

One of the reasons I set up the challenge like this is because of that weight-loss "failure."  If weight loss is the only way to measure success, then a week or two without weight-loss is a failure.  For me, success is measured in points over a 4-5 month period.  Shorter-term, success has been as much about little accomplishments (not going to 5 guys, running at a faster pace for an extra minute a day, completing a treadmill 10K in less than an hour, etc) as weight loss.  That's not to say that I'm not disappointed when I weigh myself and don't see a big positive change, but not seeing that isn't enough by itself to kill the diet.  In the end, it's not just about weight loss, it's about being healthier and every little bit helps with that goal.

Food today:  egg and cheese (300 calories), grilled cheese (600 calories), pancakes with milk for dinner (750 calories), peanut butter as a snack (100 calories).  Exercise was an hour on the treadmill and stepping up the speed a little each day (1139 calories).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  1750
Exercise: 1139
Points Earned: 2389
Total Points Earned:  60557
Points to go:  139443

Day 34 - Getting Back On Track

Well after two days where the negatives piled up a bit, today worked out mostly as a good day.  It wasn't perfect but I kept to the diet and went running.  Beyond that there isn't a heck of lot that's negative about the day.  Work was a little more stressful than normal, but the combination of a lack of candy in my immediate area and a continued commitment to avoid drinking soda meant I didn't feel a strong need to cheat.  In the end I even managed to keep my lunch reasonable rather than going nuts.

Food today:  egg and cheese (300 calories), cheese pizza at lunch (600 calories), dinner was penne, sauce and garlic toast (1000 calories), and snacks were a little peanut butter before running (100 calories).  Exercise was an hour on the treadmill again (1135 calories).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  2000
Exercise: 1135
Points Earned: 2135
Total Points Earned:  58168
Points to go:  141832

Day 33 - A Bad Day

So no question today turned into a bad day by the end.  It started as usual, but my plan for dinner had been to make a burger and use one of the rolls I made the night before.  That wouldn't have been a problem, the problem was I talked myself into going to the store to get some lemonade and chips to go with the burger.  What had been a nice relatively light meal ballooned.  Maybe not a huge deal, but I ended up eating way too many of the chips.

Food today:  egg and cheese (300 calories), turkey sandwich (500 calories), a couple pieces of chocolate (100 calories), and a cheeseburger with chips (1500 calories).  Exercise was only a lunchtime walk (100 calories).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  2400
Exercise: 100
Points Earned: 700
Total Points Earned:  56033
Points to go:  143967

Day 32 - The Full Plate

So I took my mom out for dinner tonight, which was nice.  Unfortunately my eyes were a little bigger than my stomach, and I ordered too much food (I partially blame the special, I wanted a smaller meal, but a larger size was cheaper).  As is so often the case with food though, I'll eat what's on my plate and be content.  So if my plate had held a small steak and a few noodles and veggies (like I'd make at home) then I'd eat that and be full.  Going out though meant a bigger steak and a stack of fries and some bread.  So of course I still ate what was on my plate (the only positive, I didn't eat the extras from my mom's plate).  I followed it up by going running and ran into an old problem.  Running on a full belly is just unpleasant.  All in all it was a great meal followed up by a bit of regret...so my normal mode of eating out.

Food today:  egg and cheese (300 calories), turkey sandwich (500 calories), some chocolate (200 calories), and steak and fries (1500 calories).  Exercise was a lunch time walk and 6+ miles on the treadmill (1228 calories).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  2500
Exercise: 1228
Points Earned: 1728
Total Points Earned:  55333
Points to go:  144667

Day 31 - One Month In!

Woohoo.  One month without cheating!  Oh I'm also down 14 pounds or so too, but since I'm just losing weight I'd regained that's less fun.  The last time I was down here I kept having "Lowest since UPS" or "First since college" moments.  "Lowest since August!" just doesn't have the same ring to it.  On the other hand there are a few positive highlights to note.  One month without cheating is actually a pretty big deal.  I haven't reviewed my old posts but I'm guessing I cheated at least once in the first month last year (admittedly I think the first month included Thanksgiving so that's not hard to guess).  Another highlight of the day, I completed a 10K on the treadmill today in under an hour, and got up to a 7 MPH pace for a little while (only 5 minutes, but that's hopefully just the start).

So it's a great start.  After one month, I'm a quarter of the way to my goal.  Hopefully I can keep up this pace (both in terms of the diet, and in terms of the running).

Food today:  egg and cheese (300 calories), roast beef sandwich (500 calories), snacks were some peanut butter and a few Kisses (250 calories), dinner was the usual pasta night (penne, sauce and garlic toast:  1000 calories).  Exercise was a lunchtime walk (100 calories) and a treadmill 10K (1129 calories).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  2050
Exercise: 1229
Points Earned: 2179
Total Points Earned:  52505
Points to go:  147495

Day 30 - Avoiding the Cheat

So another weekend gone, and I've once again avoided a cheat day.  So the question of whether cheat days are good or bad is kind of irrelevant to this conversation.  A Cracked writer recently did an article on weight loss that I kind of liked (http://www.cracked.com/article_20307_5-diabolical-ways-your-body-tricks-you-into-being-fat.html).  One of the lines I liked pointed out that if I was trying to quit heroin, nobody would ever say "Hey you've been clean for a month, it's probably okay to have a cheat day and just take all the heroin there is."

Nonetheless it's almost guaranteed that I'm going to give into cravings at some point.  If so the weekend is probably the best time to do it.  If I go to Pizza Hut or 5 Guys or something and eat 2000 calories in one sitting then at least I can usually make that my one meal for the day.  Combined with going to the gym, it might not even be that bad a day points-wise.  On the other hand, if I give in during the week I've likely already had breakfast and lunch and now I'm using this giant meal as a dinner instead.  So I've been lying to myself during the week, telling myself that if I'm going to get junk food it will be on the weekend.  So far that's worked. 

Weirdly the double withdrawals that I'm dealing with (food and caffeine) are also supporting each other.  If I go out, I know I'd be more likely to get soda, so I talk myself of going out in order to preserve the elimination of caffeine.  Then when I consider buying some soda at work or at the store, I tell myself that if I'm going to blow the caffeine thing it would be better to do it on a really good meal out.  It's stupid, but it's working.  So 30 days and 50K in and I haven't convinced myself to break the diet yet.  Hopefully I can keep it up.

Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast (300 calories), a roast beef sandwich for lunch (500 calories), dinner was salmon, noodles and green beans (900 calories).  Snack for the day was some peanut butter (100 calories).  Exercise was an hour on the treadmill (1058 calories).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  1800
Exercise: 1058
Points Earned: 2258
Total Points Earned:  50326
Points to go:  149674

Day 29 - A Minor Cheat Day

So I've been really focused on not letting myself have a cheat day so far.  There's no guarantee that I'm going to stick to that (heck, having now drawn attention to it I could end up at 5 Guys tomorrow).  So far though I have been mostly successful with that.  However I've had a couple days, including today the ended up as minor cheat day's instead.  Days where I ate a bit more than I needed, or didn't exercise enough.  Today was a little of both.  I ate a bit too much thanks to some pizza at lunch, and then got only half my normal time at the gym due to showing up late.  It's not a failed day (even a full-scale cheat day might not be if I hit the gym first), but I didn't end up with the points I had planned on.  Still a fun day, and still somewhat productive.

Food today:  egg and cheese at breakfast (300 calories), pizza for lunch (900 calories), snacks included a granola bar and a handful of chips (200 calories), dinner was penne, sauce and garlic toast (1000 calories).  Exercise was only a half-hour on the treadmill (556 calories).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  2400
Exercise: 556
Points Earned: 1156
Total Points Earned:  48068
Points to go:  151932

Day 28 - Starting to Run Better

So one thing I've been starting to notice is that I'm definitely getting my wind back and I'm starting to push my training runs as well now.  Admittedly this has all been on the treadmill, but even so I'm pushing my speed up a couple notches.  It's still not fast in comparison to some of the runners I know, but if I can keep it up I might be able to finish a 10k in under an hour.  Not a huge accomplishment but a nice round number to shoot for.

Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast (300 calories), cheese pizza for lunch (600 calories), broiled swordfish, noodles and green beans for dinner (1000 calories), snacks included a couple granola bars and some Hershey's Kisses (300 calories).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  2200
Exercise: 1083
Points Earned: 1883
Total Points Earned:  46912
Points to go:  153088

Day 27 - Routine day

So as is so often the case, today was a pretty routine day as far as the diet went.  I'd been hoping for a big snow-storm, and instead got an unpleasant walk to work but otherwise nothing significant.  Work went well and I mostly avoided any unusual snacks.  Still clear on caffeine, and stuck to the diet pretty well.  Other than that, not that much in the way of excitement today.

Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast (300 calories), turkey sandwich at lunch (500 calories), snacks on the day included two granola bars and a couple Hershey's kisses (250 calories), dinner was a small chicken breast, rice and green beans (900 calories).  Exercise was a lunch time walk (100 calories).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  1850
Exercise: 100
Points Earned: 1250
Total Points Earned:  45029
Points to go:  154971

Day 26 - Bargaining with myself

So as I said yesterday, I'm getting some pretty strong junk food cravings.  I've avoided most of them (I bought a bag of chips today at lunch but avoided the worse cravings I had), but I have noticed myself trying to "make deals" about junk food.  Once I finish a month of the diet I'll go to 5 Guys.  Once I hit 220 pounds I'll get some fried chicken.  If I hit 50K in points I'll reward myself with a treat.  Now on the one hand, to some degree I'm using these to convince myself to not go out when I get a craving.  On the other hand it's probably not a good sign that a lot of these "goals" are coming up soon.  I'm not really bargaining in that case, just trying to make excuses to pig out.

Food today:  egg and cheese (300 calories) and a turkey sandwich (500 calories), as usual.  Snacks were a bag of chips and a granola bar (400 calories), dinner was penne, sauce and garlic toast (1000 calories).  Exercise was a lunchtime walk (100 calories) and an hour on the treadmill (1079 calories).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  2200
Exercise: 1179
Points Earned: 1979
Total Points Earned:  43779
Points to go:  156221

Day 25 - 5 Guy's Cravings

Weigh-in result for the morning was 224 pounds.  A bit higher than I wanted, but still trending down.

Well today I had what was certainly one of the strongest cravings for cheating on my diet since I restarted it.  The last couple years I've had a semi-tradition.  When a new book in one of a few favorite series arrives, I take it out to 5 Guys with me and have a burger, too many fries and spend a while just sitting and reading.  When a new book arrived today, it was very hard to resist the temptation, particularly as I had to run out to the grocery store anyway (snow storm expected tomorrow night, needed my bread and milk).  I was able to overcome it, but I will admit that had more to do with not wanting to get soda there rather than wanting to stick to my diet.  I almost broke both challenges at once.  On the other hand, I did manage to overcome it so I guess we can count that a minor victory.

Food today:  egg and cheese (300 calories), turkey sandwich (500 calories), steak, noodles and green beans (1000 calories), and snacks was a small piece of birthday cake at work (200 calories).  Exercise was a lunchtime walk (100 calories).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  2000
Exercise: 100
Points Earned: 1100
Total Points Earned:  41800
Points to go:  158200

Day 24 - Feeling the Caffeine-Free

So I'm definitely noticing the effect of being caffeine-free.  I'm actually sleeping better and my energy at work has been better without too much of a crash.  So that's the positive.  The negative is that I'm crashing a bit once I get home, particularly if I hit the gym after work.  Today 7:45 rolled around and I was already trying to figure out when I could go to bed.  All in all it isn't a bad thing, but I think I need to try and get my body used to it.

Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast (300 calories), turkey sandwich for lunch (500 calories), penne, sauce and garlic toast for dinner (1000 calories), snack was a piece of cheese (100 calories).  Exercise was a lunch-time walk (100 calories), and an hour on the treadmill (1080 calories).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  1900
Exercise: 1180
Points Earned: 2280
Total Points Earned:  40700
Points to go:  159300

Day 23 - Not-so-homemade Pizza

So today was a day spent hanging with friends so I decided to get some pizza for us.  Not really much difference from yesterday.  I may have eaten a bit more pizza, but my commitment to avoid soda and caffeine at least stuck which was more challenging than it could have been.  For one thing, my friends brought soda over, so I know it's in the house now.  All in all it was a good day.  I took the day off from running, keeping to my four days a week schedule. 

If I'm going to do longer distances I need to start that in the next few weeks to ensure that I can do some kind of half-marathon this spring.  Otherwise I'm just trying to focus on getting back into shape.  One of my goals this time is to get below 200 and finally get the "giant-pants" picture that I didn't bother getting last time.  I've got an outfit I saved from my old XXXL clothes, specifically to get that picture.  I could take it now of course and it would still be impressive, but I'm looking for something a little cooler.

Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast (300 calories), pizza for dinner and lunch (1600 calories).  No snacks and no exercise.

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  1900
Exercise: 0
Points Earned: 1100
Total Points Earned:  38420
Points to go:  161580

Day 22 - Homemade Pizza

So today was a pretty good day for the diet, and just in general.  My tooth is feeling a lot better now (I'm starting to wonder if the problem was the tooth at all) and I got to sleep in a bit.  The two big moments of the day for the diet were going to the gym for an hour and then making a homemade pizza.  I didn't make everything from scratch, using some pre-made dough, some sauce and cheese and just putting it all together.  On the other hand it came out reasonably well, so I'm content either way.  I used the pizza as a combination of lunch and dinner as well which helped keep my calories down for the day.

Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast (300 calories), cheese pizza for lunch/dinner (1400 calories), and snacks on the day was peanut butter again (100 calories).  Exercise was an hour on the treadmill (1005 calories).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  1800
Exercise: 1005
Points Earned: 2205
Total Points Earned:  37320
Points to go:  162680

Day 21 - Fish and Chips

Another Friday, another week to get fish and chips.  I do think it's a little funny that I've had it three straight weeks but got it from three different places.  So there's some variety, just not in the food itself.  Otherwise today wasn't too bad.  My tooth is still sore, but seems less painful when I eat.  On the other hand I've mostly been eating stuff that is a little bit softer.  We'll see how it is by the end of the weekend to be a little more sure.  I've also continued to steer clear of caffeine (got water at lunch instead of soda for example).  Except for the mild headache the first few days I really haven't noticed withdrawal which is a little weird.  All in all it was a pretty good day, and I got to the gym as well.

Food today:  breakfast was an english muffin with peanut butter and milk (300 calories), lunch was fish and chips (1200 calories), dinner was another english muffin with a little extra peanut butter and milk (400 calories).  I also had a bit of bread as a snack (100 calories).  Exercise was a lunch time walk (100 calories), and an hour on the treadmill (weirdly 1000 calories exactly according to the treadmill).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  2000
Exercise: 1100
Points Earned: 2100
Total Points Earned:  35115
Points to go:  164885

Day 20 - Sore Tooth

So for the last two or three days I've had a sore tooth.  Not sure if it's a chronic problem or not but it's stuck around long enough that I decided I needed a dentist's appointment.  Unfortunately I couldn't get one earlier than three weeks, so I'm hoping it will fix itself somehow before than.

In the intervening time however I've got a new challenge to the diet.  It's not so much a matter of temptation to cheat on the diet and eat junk food, but a challenge to find which foods on my diet can be eaten with a minimum of chewing.  So the last couple nights have been pasta (it's soft and can be easily swallowed), but while the garlic toast is a standard addition to the meal, it requires more chewing and so may end up taken out of the mix.  Soup's probably a good choice though I don't know how filling it traditionally is for me.  My normal breakfast and lunch meals though may require a lot of modification, since they're chewing intensive.  I do think it's a little funny that a tooth problem only starts up after I stop drinking soda.

Food today:  english muffin with some peanut butter and milk (300 calories), roast beef sandwich (500 calories), snack was a cookie at work (100 calories), dinner was penne, sauce and garlic toast (1000 calories).  Exercise was a lunchtime walk (100 calories).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  1900
Exercise: 100
Points Earned: 1200
Total Points Earned:  33015
Points to go:  166985

Day 19 - First missed post

So last night was the first time on the current challenge I forgot a post.  Don't have much time this morning so I'm just going to update the data.

Food today:  egg and cheese (300 calories), roast beef sandwich (500 calories), snack was some peanut butter (100 calories), dinner was penne, sauce and garlic toast (1000 calories).  Exercise was an hour on the treadmill (972 calories).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  1900
Exercise: 972
Points Earned: 2072
Total Points Earned:  31815
Points to go:  168185

Day 18 - Nothing Happens...

So as the title suggests, today's been a little boring.  No major challenges, no successes either.  I considered hitting the gym for a 2nd day in a row but decided it might be better not to push too hard.  I'll go again tomorrow.  Otherwise an uneventful day.

Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast (300 calories), roast beef sandwich for lunch (500 calories), penne, sauce and garlic toast for dinner (1000 calories), I had a cookie at work for a snack (100 calories).  Exercise was a lunch time walk (100 calories).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  1900
Exercise: 100
Points Earned: 1200
Total Points Earned:  29743
Points to go:  170257

Day 17 - Empty Gyms

So one amusing thing about the day was the state of the gym when I showed up today.  I usually go after I get out of work which means getting there about 4:45.  It's never over-crowded at that point but when I walked in today I was stunned at how empty it actually was.  I think I was one of three people using one of the 30+ treadmills.  Thinking about it, the busiest time is always the first three weeks or so after the new year, and it keeps busy through Valentine's Day.  Since we're after that, and not into beach-prep season yet, I can understand it being less crowded but it still surprised me.  There may be another reason of course, but that amuses me less.  I like the idea that I'm getting back into the habit, just as everyone else is bailing out.  :)

Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast (300 calories), roast beef sandwich for lunch (500 calories), dinner was a cheeseburger on a fresh roll (call it 800 calories, though that may be high), snacks varied through the day and included a few chocolates and some bread (400 calories).  Exercise was a lunch time walk (100 calories) and 55 minutes on the treadmill (852 calories).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  2000
Exercise: 952
Points Earned: 1952
Total Points Earned:  28543
Points to go:  171457

Day 16 - Lazy Day

So today ended up being a fairly standard lazy day.  I spent most of the day on the couch or in bed reading a pretty good book.  As is so often the case though I didn't even realize I was "wasting" the day until it was mostly over.  In the end I probably should have gone out to the gym today, and I feel like I'm probably going to regret skipping it, but I did like doing nothing all day.  One minor change in my normal diet is that I've cut caffeine out for a few days now.  It's been about five days and I don't think I've really been smacked with withdrawal yet.  I imagine it'll be coming.  It didn't start out as anything intentional, but after unintentionally cutting it out I figured I'd see how long I can go.  I'll probably be talking about it a lot here, though I don't know if it has any effect on a diet.

Food today:  bread heavy as I cooked some this morning.  Breakfast and Lunch both consisted of a couple small rolls (400 calories for each meal).  Dinner was an egg and cheese on a sourdough roll as well (300 calories).  Snacks during the day included a little peanut butter, and a cheese slice (200 calories).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  1300
Exercise: 0
Points Earned: 1700
Total Points Earned:  26591
Points to go:  173409

Day 15 - Hanging With Friends

Just a short post for today, as it's getting late and I'm tired.  Today I hung out with friends all day.  The only negative was that I didn't get a chance to go to they gym, but otherwise it was a pretty good day.  For dinner the five of us went out to Red Robin, so that single meal was a little too big but I also skipped lunch which balances out the negatives a bit.  All and all though it was a pretty good day.

Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast (300 calories), snacks on the day included some handfuls of goldfish plus a couple chocolate nuggets (200 calories), dinner was a bacon cheeseburger and fries at Red Robin (1500 calories).  No exercise on the day.

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  2000
Exercise: 0
Points Earned: 1000
Total Points Earned:  24891
Points to go:  175109

Day 14 - Fish and Chips

Relatively uneventful day, though I ate too much.  The biggest reason for that was the decision to make home-made fish and chips.  Sadly it did not come out as well as it could have (I undercooked the fries a bit, and the batter for the fish wasn't great).  On the other hand, it was fish and chips and that's always nice!  I also had too much candy again today, though less then yesterday.  Hopefully by Monday I can get that under control and make it through the day.

Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast (300 calories), PB&J for lunch (500 calories), candy as snacks (200 calories), fish and chips for dinner (1300 calories).  Exercise was a lunch time walk (100 calories), and then 55 minutes on the treadmill (835 calories).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  2300
Exercise: 935
Points Earned: 1635
Total Points Earned:  23891
Points to go:  176109

Day 13 - First Weigh-In and Candy

So today was the first weigh-in for the new diet.  As always this is the easy weight, the "water weight" which comes off quickly right at the beginning of the diet.  I fully expect to see a significant slow down in the coming weeks.  Even at my best I only got down right below the 200 pound mark, and at the time there was plenty of slowing.

Weigh-in Result:  226.2

So from the start of the new diet that represents a loss of 8.2 pounds.  A major drop but I haven't really seen a major change in the tightness of my clothes, etc.  My guess is I probably won't see really noticeable results until I hit the 15 pound mark.

As for the day itself, it should have gone pretty well.  Unfortunately an otherwise nice person at work decided to be an a-hole.  I have a little sticky note up in my cubicle with a message saying "No Candy."  It's meant to remind me not to go grab candy from the various candy bowls at work.  Admittedly this mantra is observed in the breach more often than not, but what can you do?  This person saw the note up, and thought it would be funny to bring over one of the recently re-filled candy bowls and stand there shoving it in my face.  At first I tried to be funny about it, but when they refused to go away until I took some candy, I grabbed a piece.

On another day, this probably would have been bad, but not terrible since I would have grabbed some anyway.  Today though I was doing quite well, I wasn't hungry in the morning at work (despite the reduced intake, and small dinner, yesterday).  Lunch was also quite filling for me as well.  In addition, I hadn't gone looking for snacks so I hadn't known the candy bowl was refilled.  If they hadn't decided to be "funny" I probably would have gone the day without a problem.

One of the reasons I'm still overweight though is that simply one piece of candy isn't going to be enough.  Once I had the one I'd grabbed (because as we've established in previous posts, I have the willpower of a first-grader), then of course I was going to go get more.  In the end it was a disappointing day.  I compensated by making a smaller dinner than planned, but even so, the day didn't go well because of that.

Food today:  egg and cheese on sourdough for breakfast (300 calories), turkey sandwich for lunch (500 calories), dinner was four medium pancakes with some syrup and milk (750 calories), snacks though were too much candy, and then a piece of sourdough roll before dinner (total of 350 calories).  Exercise was a lunchtime walk (100 calories).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  1900
Exercise: 100
Points Earned: 1200
Total Points Earned:  22256
Points to go:  177744

Day 12 - Fresh Bread

Today was a great day points day, though I do feel like I may have underate for dinner.  The big diet related moment of the day though was the fresh bread I made this morning.  I'd made the dough yesterday and left the rolls to rise overnight.  More as a result of the timing, it worked out quite well to make them before breakfast.  Which meant my normal egg and cheese at breakfast got a roll out of the oven instead of an english muffin.  This makes for a very nice change, but resulted in me eating an extra roll in the morning.  Otherwise things went pretty well.  We had pizza at work for lunch, but the one nice thing about cheese pizza is that it's a pretty filling food for a reasonable amount of calories.  Otherwise there wasn't really a challenge.

Food today:  egg and cheese on a sourdough roll, with an extra small roll on the side (500 calories), lunch was some cheese pizza (600 calories), dinner was another egg and cheese (300 calories), as I was trying to control the calories and not eat too much.  Snacks came later, after dinner though as I had another roll as a snack as well as some peanut butter and a cheese slice (300 calories total).  Exercise was 50 minutes on the treadmill (740 calories).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  1700
Exercise: 740
Points Earned: 2040
Total Points Earned:  21056
Points to go:  178944

Day 11 - Ordinary Day

So today was really kind of ordinary.  Not a big deal when it's actually happening, but a little more of an issue when trying to come up with some kind of point for these posts.  I think the real takeaway with the day though was simply that it was ordinary and I was healthy.  Five years ago, an ordinary day probably resulted in me getting something unhealthy for lunch.  At the very least I would have gone to the cafeteria at lunch and gotten tater tots as a "snack."  Dinner would likely have been a couple thousand calories of pasta and meat, or steak and fries or some kind of frozen food.  Now an ordinary day is a little more controlled, and didn't result in unnecessary snacking.  How much of that success was because people haven't refilled their candy jars is a harder situation to judge.

Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast again (300 calories), turkey sandwich for lunch (500 calories), dinner was penne, sauce and garlic toast (1000 calories), snacking was some peanut butter after work but before dinner (100 calories).  Exercise was a walk at lunch (100 calories).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  1900
Exercise: 100
Points Earned: 1200
Total Points Earned:  19016
Points to go:  180984

Day 10 - Fitness Coming Back

So I had the day off today, which was nice.  I definitely like having 3-day weekends, even when I can't use the weekday off to overeat at the all-you-can-eat Pizza Hut lunch buffet (always a favorite back when my weight was in the high 200's).  Spent some time with friends but I was proud of myself for both having a reasonably healthy lunch with them (though Subway's free cookie today for President's day was a little evil), and also going out to the gym after finally getting home.  Two things that would have been very easy to say, "It's too late to go to the gym," and "I was planning an unhealthy meal today anyway, let me stop somewhere on the way home."  I did say both of them, but I managed to avoid doing either of those things.

Also on the plus side, it's pretty obvious that my running fitness is coming back pretty well.  I don't quite have the speed back yet, but at the end of 50 minutes on the treadmill I was still doing pretty well and could probably have gone a longer distance.  Once I get back up to an hour in time I'll start training on speed again.  I think I still have a pretty good chance for a half-marathon in April.

Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast again (300 calories), lunch was a 6-inch meatball sub from subway with a bag of chips (750 calories), snack was a chocolate chip cookie (150 calories), and dinner was salmon, whole-wheat noodles and green beans (900 calories).  Exercise was 50 minutes on the treadmill (741 calories).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  2100
Exercise: 741
Points Earned: 1641
Total Points Earned:  17816
Points to go:  182184

Day 9 - Kind of Boring

So nothing much happened today.  I had friends over but they mostly ate before arriving so no challenges there.  There was some snow, but not so much that it was a hassle to shovel.  I ended up having a pretty routine day.  The only disappointment was not getting out to the gym, but that will have to be tomorrow.  All in all the day went reasonably well, I just wish I'd had more to do.

Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast (300 calories), grilled cheese for lunch (500 calories), peanut butter as a snack (100 calories), dinner was penne, sauce and garlic toast (1000 calories).  Exercise was most of an hour of light shoveling (400 calories or so considering the difficulty).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  1900
Exercise: 400
Points Earned: 1500
Total Points Earned:  16175
Points to go:  183825

Day 8 - Saturdays without Junk Food

So having a day of doing nothing on Saturday always seems a lot more fun when I've got junk food to pig out on.  Obviously this is both a sign of my addiction, plus not even all that true, but it's still something I thought about at various points during the day.  I ended up going to bed early last night, which resulted in getting up early as well.  Unfortunately I had nothing planned for the day, and that left me kind of at loose ends with how to fill the day.  Lots of chores completed, a trip to the gym, watched a little TV. 

When I'm in unhealthy mode though I'd be much more likely to take a trip to 5 Guys or Pizza Hut.  Maybe run over to the supermarket and get a bag of chips or fries or something.  Then I might plop myself down in front of the TV or computer and demolish those snacks.  Weirdly, when I'm in healthy mode though I feel a need to be active and so a lot of the things that are otherwise fun get overshadowed by trying to "get things done."  I hate to say it, but I always find myself missing "lazy Seth" by the end of one of these days.  It's terrible for me I know, but it is always kind of fun to just crap out on the couch with junk food and a marathon of some TV show or another.  Ah well, better to be healthy I guess.  At least I get to gripe about it here.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), a grilled cheese at lunch (about 500 calories), snack was some peanut butter (100 calories), and dinner was grilled pork chop, noodles and green beans (900 calories).  Exercise was 45 minutes on the treadmill (671 calories).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  1800
Exercise: 671
Points Earned: 1871
Total Points Earned:  14675
Points to go:  185325

Day 7 - Lent and Eating Healthy

So I missed that Lent started on Wednesday.  Not really a big deal, I'm not particularly observant but I do generally try and stick to the whole "No Meat on Fridays" thing.  Today was also pay-day which means a slightly longer lunch, which also translates into several friends and I going out to someplace we can actually sit down and have a nice meal.  A lot of times that means a burger or something.  Today it meant fish and chips.  The one nice thing was that I was able to buy a smaller portion size.

In general Lent doesn't really affect my eating habits too much.  After all, considering how much pasta I eat, it's simple enough to switch around a schedule or simply make something else on a day.  Obviously someone on a different diet plan might have more problems.  I'd imagine someone on Atkins' would have to think about their meals more carefully.  What Lent does do well though is provide a little reminder on the need to cut back.  Even if I wasn't dieting, I might choose to cut back on something unhealthy during Lent, and sometimes that becomes a trend you can maintain long after the period is over.  As with anything though, it's a lot more about making the choice than anything else.

Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast (300 calories), fish and chips for lunch (900 calories), pancakes for dinner (700 calories), no snacks.  Exercise was 40 minutes on the treadmill (580 calories).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  1900
Exercise: 580
Points Earned: 1680
Total Points Earned:  12804
Points to go:  187196

Day 6 - Still Weak

So I've still got the willpower of a 1st grader.  At work today someone brought in some ridiculous heart-shaped donuts.  I walked by them half a dozen times, but in the end I couldn't resist.  I wish I was one of those people who really were able to simply say, "I'm going to give up X," and make it stick.  Unfortunately I'm not one of them.  Instead, when snack foods or sweets are available it really requires a lot of effort to avoid them.  Today I failed to avoid it.  It didn't kill my diet but it cost me 300 points I would have otherwise avoided.

Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast (300 calories), turkey sandwich for lunch (500 calories), penne and garlic toast for dinner (1000 calories), and snacks were the aforementioned donut (300 calories).  Exercise was a double length walk at lunch (200 calories), and then walking the dog after I got home (100 calories)

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  2100
Exercise: 300
Points Earned: 1200
Total Points Earned:  11124
Points to go:  188876

Day 5 - Winter and Exercise

So here in the northeast winter is kind of a pain when it comes to exercise.  The kind of activities that are always available in the summer (biking and running for example) can be wiped out for weeks at a time thanks to a pile-up of snow and ice.  Admittedly going for a walk in the snow (as well as short-term activities like shoveling) can still be a good source of exercise, but it definitely puts a damper on a routine.  Nonetheless I did get out today for a walk during lunch, and then followed up by walking my sister's dog after work.  Not quite the 45 minutes of running my schedule called for, but you do the best you can.  At the very least I'm still heading in the right direction.

Food today:  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 some peanut butter (100 calories).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  1900
Exercise: 200
Points Earned: 1300
Total Points Earned:  9924
Points to go:  190076

Day 4 - Grocery Shopping

So mostly today had little of real consequence happen as far as the diet went.  I stuck to it, and avoided any setbacks, but that had as much to do with no one restocking the candy jars at work as my willpower.  With the snow melting walking into work was a little more of a challenge than usual as well.  Walking on ice and snow didn't really take longer, but I was definitely burning a few extra calories.  Unfortunately under the rules of the Challenge those don't "count."

The only thing of any real significance was finally getting to stock up on groceries after the storm this weekend.  I made the mistake of going shopping while hungry but that didn't actually hurt me any.  No chips, cookies, crackers, ice cream or french fries ended up in my basket thankfully.  Over the past few months all of those have ended up there, hence the need for the diet.  Mostly I bought the usual suspects, some pork chops, some pasta, bread, turkey, cheese, eggs and milk.  One technique that I will emphasize, at least for someone who lives alone, is to immediately sort out the foods and freeze what's going to be frozen, etc. 

Many times over the past few months I've gone to the grocery store and bought chicken, fish or pork and then got lazy after getting home.  Not a big deal, but then either the stuff sits in the fridge long enough to go bad (because of course I was going to "make it" tomorrow), or it all gets tossed into the freezer together (and then making a chicken breast means defrosting three or four extras).  As a result a lot of the time I would have healthy food on hand, but not want to make it because it was too much of a hassle.  Then I'd "solve" the problem by ordering pizza, or heading out to Wendy's instead. 

Other people plan out their entire week's meals or some similar equivalent.  I don't have that much forward thinking myself, at least as far as my food goes.  I've got a little too much impulse eating, even when eating healthy to try and schedule meals that much.  On the other hand, if you can do it it's a pretty awesome strategy and solves both of the problems I've discussed here.  It all still comes down to figuring out ways to control what you eat, the strategy by which you control it is about what works for you.

Food today:  pancakes for breakfast again (500 calories), Subway 6-inch meatball sub for lunch (500 calories), dinner was steak, noodles and green beans (1000 calories).  No real snacking or exercise on the day.

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  2000
Exercise: 0
Points Earned: 1000
Total Points Earned:  8624
Points to go:  191376

Day 3 - Lost fitness

So between laziness and illness I haven't really run in almost two months.  As a result I was expecting to find that my general conditioning had dropped off.  Sadly tonight's trip to the gym proved that.  Last summer a trip to the gym meant an hour on the treadmill without much problem.  Even as late as the fall I still joked that I only really felt warmed up after 6 miles of running.  With two months off however that conditioning is gone.  I made it a little over a half-hour and 2 and a half miles before slacking off and deciding to kill the run.  I could have pushed myself longer, but I had no interest in it (also the episode of Castle on TNT was one I didn't like as much, so had less reason to stay and watch).  Definitely have to get the distance and speed back up, but it's looking like there isn't much chance of a half-marathon in March.  May have to shoot for April and see what happens.


Food today:  three pancakes with syrup for breakfast (500 calories), lunch was a piece of french-bread style pizza (500 calories probably), snacks were a handful of M&Ms (100 calories), dinner was a pork loin, rice and baked beans (1000 calories).  Exercise was 35 minutes on the treadmill (524 calories).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  2100
Exercise: 524
Points Earned: 1424
Total Points Earned:  7624
Points to go:  192376

Day 2 - Trapped at Home

Well one thing this snow storm has done is pretty much trap me in the house.  So between being unable to drive (meaning no fast food) and having to continue to shovel out snow the first two days of the challenge have been healthy and productive.  On the other hand it's also left me eating whatever is in the house which makes my meals a little less regular.  Or could have, had I not had most of what I needed stored in the freezer already.  Still, with this much shoveling I'm extremely sore.  It's going to be interesting trying to get back into a regular exercise program tomorrow (meaning running).

Food today:  egg and cheese for breakfast (300 calories), lunch was three pancakes and some syrup (500 calories), dinner was salmon, noodles and green beans (900 calories), snacks was one package of sports beans (100 calories).  Exercise was two and half hours of shoveling (which is still not done) for 1700 calories of exercise.

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  1800
Exercise: 1700
Points Earned: 2900
Total Points Earned:  6200
Points to go:  193800

Starting a new Challenge - Snow Day

So as you can tell by my lack of updates, I fell off the wagon quite convincingly.  Over the last few months I've regained a lot of the weight I lost.  I've still held off about half of the total weight lost on the first challenge, but the trend was getting away from me.

So what happened?  Simply put I got back into my old habits.  Even though for much of that time I was still running semi-regularly my eating habits went wildly off track.  5 Guys, Pizza Hut and Wendy's all show up a lot on my credit card statements, as well as half a dozen local restaurants.  Instead of buying and making sensible meals, I was going out to eat because it was "easier" and I was "tired."  As things started heading in that direction it only made things worse.  Even more, when I'd try and get back on a diet the sense of urgency was gone.  I'd done the whole weight loss thing, I didn't need to do it again.  I run half-marathons (even if I'm not in training), and I kickbox (even if I haven't been to class in three months).

So those are the negatives, and they pretty much account for why my weight has started spiking (particularly since the beginning of December).  So what are some of the positives?  Well, when I make food at home the changes to my diet have stuck pretty well.  I no longer make the old 2000 calories "pasta surprise" (the surprise is that it's always exactly the same).  I don't really get a bunch of the frozen nuggets, fish sticks or fries much anymore.  I tend to eat reasonably healthy in fact, as long as I'm making the food myself.  Unfortunately I stopped doing that.  While my eating habits at home have changed, at restaurants they're still the same huge calorie meals.

So we're starting a new challenge and we're going to try and go with some of what made it successful the first time.  First is coming up with a prize I'm going to want to earn, without it being something to buy regardless of the results.  So the prize for 200,000 calories is going to be a new computer.  I'm setting myself a $2000 budget for the new machine as well, so it's potentially going to be awesome.  The second step is to get back to tracking this stuff on a day-to-day basis rather than just winging it.  Hopefully that will help keep me on track.  The last step is to get back into training for a half-marathon.  I'm not doing a spring season of Team Challenge, but I'm going to pick some other races to train for instead.

So today was spent digging out from a blizzard.  As such the points were much higher than might be expected on a normal day.  Food was:  an egg and cheese sandwich (300 calories), a bag of microwave popcorn (400 calories according to the box) and then dinner was penne, sauce and garlic toast (1000 calories).  Exercise was three hours of shoveling snow (2000 calories according to most sights for someone of my current weight).

Daily Point Total:
Daily Food Total:  1700
Exercise: 2000
Points Earned: 3300
Total Points Earned:  3300
Points to go:  196700