Frustration and back on the wagon

I got pretty frustrated a couple months ago.  I was exercising and tracking my food and still not losing weight so I stopped trying.  My wife and I also got into a bad habit of eating a lot of fast food and take-out.  I'm back though and going to give it another go.

I subscribe to Cooking Light magazine, so I've decided to make better use of it.  Last week, along with the website MyRecipes.com, I made a menu for 6 nights, went shopping and took over the daily cooking duties from my wife.

I try to do all my shopping at Aldi's, so almost everything came from there.

Monday's dinner was Spiced Pork Chops with Apple Chutney.  As a side, I made green beans with almonds.  This was pretty simple to prepare and tasted great.  I made a few small modifications to the recipe though.  I couldn't find the chipotle pepper, so used regular chili powder and I used a little white wine instead of the apple cider vinegar.  It was a nice spin on a basic meal and still easy enough to do after work.

Tuesday's dinner was Tenderloin Steaks with Red Onion Marmalade along with garlic mashed potatoes and broccoli spears.  Again, this was very easy to make and very tasty!  I used bacon wrapped filets and used a little red wine instead of red wine vinegar.  The red onion marmalade was nice and sweet and it was steak, so how could it go wrong.

Wednesday's dinner was Pan-Seared Tilapia with Citrus Vinaigrette.  I made couscous and stir fried some red and yellow peppers to go with the fish.  This was a very light dish and the citrus vinaigrette added nice flavor to both the tilapia and the couscous.

All three of these dishes were from the Cooking Light "Quick and Easy" section.  All of them were easy enough to make after work and any of them would be fine to serve to company.

Thursday's dinner was Chicken Cacciatore.  This recipe is designed for a slow cooker, but I made it Wednesday night in a dutch oven, tossed it in the fridge and reheated it Thursday on the stovetop.  This was a really good recipe, very hearty and satisfying.  My wife took it for lunch the next day and said it was even better because the pasta had a chance to absorb some of the sauce.  I think next time, I might add a little more liquid, use penne or rigatoni and mix it in while the dish is cooking.

Friday night's traffic was horrendous, so I just told my wife to order a pizza and I would eat whenever I got home.

Saturday's dish was Shrimp Fettuccine with Spinach and Parmesan I thought that it would be a little plain, but it was another easy one and was really good.  It had a lot of flavor and only took about 5 minutes longer than it takes to boil pasta.

Tomorrow night's dinner will be a good old fashioned pot roast.  It isn't from cooking light, but I make a really good chuck roast!

I'm not back at the gym yet, but I'll be back soon.  In the meantime this is a good start.

Stuck for 7 months...er weeks. It only feels like months.

So it's been 7 weeks since I've lost anything.  I've been bouncing around the same 5lbs since the end of May and I've been trying to figure out why.  I've come to two conclusions.  First, I'm not weighing or measuring my food and I think I'm underestimating my portion sizes, especially my snacks like the bowl of cereal I eat most nights.  Second, I've been doing a little mindless munching at work and I haven't been accurately logging it.  A co-worker normally has nuts or mini chocolate bars at her desk and I'll grab a piece of chocolate or a couple nuts a couple times a day and that stuff adds up fast.

With the exception of last week, which was just a mess, I've been going to the gym at least 3x a week, but I can still do better.

So in order to get back on track, I'm doing a couple things.

1. I'm reducing my daily calories from 2000 to 1800, for at least 4 weeks.
2. I'm going to start weighing and measuring my food - indefinitely.
3. I'm going to get to the gym at least 4x a week and will really try for 5x a week.  That means if I miss in the morning, I do it at home in the evening.  If I totally blow off a week day, I work out at home on the weekend.
4. Since I started the gym at work, I've stopped going for walks during the day and I need to work at least 1 walk a day back into my day.

I'm hoping that after a month I'll be able to go back up to 2000 calories, but I'll have to wait and see.

There are 23 weeks left in the year and I'd really like to be be under 300 lbs by January 1st.  That's 42 pounds in 23 weeks or 1.82 pounds a week.  That's what I'm striving for. 

I don't get it...

Over the past year, I've made several attempts to get up early and exercise before work using my home equipment.  It was a struggle and didn't last more than a couple days.  Tomorrow will be the fifth day since joining the gym at work and I haven't had any problems getting there.  None. Not a one.

Well, Tuesday, I had a hard time raising my arms in order to wash my hair, but that shouldn't count.

The alarm goes off at 5, I snooze once for 5 minutes, then I'm in the shower.  I get dressed, grab my stuff, and hit the road.  No issues.

Well, I left my travel mug on the Keurig this morning, but that shouldn't count either.  It's trash day and I was distracted.  At least I didn't throw out the coffee and put the garbage in my car.

Week 1 is going well.  I did overdo it on the weights Monday and haven't lifted since, but I will tomorrow.  I think I'll have to set my alarm 10 minutes earlier, too. I'm only getting to the gym with about 45-50 minutes to exercise and I'd like to have a full hour to do it right.

Day 1 at the gym

Today was my first day at the new gym and it went pretty well.  The hardest part was trying to find the machines that I needed.  Luckily the gym is small and I didn't have to wander aimlessly.  I could see all the other machines from any one machine.and they were all clearly labeled.  The gym does not have a seated row machine though.  Instead I used dumbbells and did bent over rows.  That was really the only hitch.  That and I had to wait for a woman to finish her sets so that I could use the cable machine to do tricep pulldowns.

The treadmills were nice and I think the elliptical machines are ones that are closer to walking than climbing, so I may start using one of those.  My goal is to use the gym every day that I come to work.  Today I did strength and cardio, tomorrow I'll do cardio only.  There are recumbent bikes, so I'll do 15 minutes on a bike and 30 minutes on a treadmill and then on Wednesday, I'll try the elliptical after lifting.  I wonder if I could convince them to put in a lap pool...

One thing I noticed is that I was hungrier this morning than I have been in the past.  I don't like to exercise on an empty stomach, so I used to (and started again) eating a piece of fruit on my drive to the gym, then I had my regular breakfast after I was done.  By 10:00, I was starting to get hungry again, and normally I'm not hungry until lunch.  I keep some 90 calorie cereal bars at my desk for just such an emergency though, so one of those did the trick.

On a side note, the dvd I converted worked great on my phone.  I'm really enjoying my new phone, but that'll have to be another post.

Time to suck it up...

Well, it's time to suck it up and do what I've been trying not to do.  I've joined the gym at my work.  I really didn't want to, but I'm just not losing weight at a consistent pace.  The biggest reason for it, as far as I can tell, is that I'm not pushing myself hard enough with exercise.  The walks I'm taking during the day are great, but I am at work and I don't want to work up a sweat, so I don't really push myself.  I was doing a lot of yard work, but the big jobs are dwindling down (and so is the money!), so I'm not doing as much.  I keep telling myself that I need to use my home gym more, but don't have the motivation at night.

I'm going back to the routine that was most successful for me and am going to make the gym part of my day, by doing it first.  I've thought a lot about it and think I've figured out why I stuck with it so long last time and why I can't repeat the results doing it at home.  When I tried to do it at home, first it was pretty easy to talk myself out of it and keep hitting the snooze button.  Second, if I did get up, I never felt like I was fully awake and didn't push myself. 

When I went to the before work gym, the first thing I did was take a shower; first to wake up and second, the gym was right by work and if it was closed (happened twice), I could still go to work and not be all nasty and greasy!  Then of course is the drive to the gym.  I would typically eat a piece of fruit and have some coffee on my drive, and the half hour trip also helped get the blood pumping, so by the time I got to the gym, I was ready to work out.  I pushed myself harder and typically felt great when I was done.

So on Friday, I went down and took a tour of the gym and signed up for it.  It isn't a huge facility, but they have everything I need:  weight machines, free weights, treadmills, elliptical machines, and stationary bikes.  They also have racquet ball courts and an outdoor basketball court and tennis court.  I won't be using that stuff, but it's nice to know it's there.  They also have different group exercise classes, I won't be going to those either but a couple people told me that they enjoy them.  There are also the standard locker/shower facilities.  The best part is that it only costs $5 every 2 weeks through payroll deduction.

I've installed a couple programs on my pc that will let me copy my dvds and convert them to MP4 files which I can load on my phone and watch on the treadmill.  Once I pick up a new pair of bluetooth headphones, I'll be set.  I have to admit that I'm looking forward to starting the gym again.

Wish me luck!

Just stuff...

I have to say that things are progressing nicely.  I'm averaging a loss of a little over a pound a week and I'm still not struggling with anything.  I know that if I pushed myself harder with exercise or further reduced my calories, I would lose weight at a faster rate but then I'm concerned that I'd start to get cravings or want to fall back into old habits.  It may take longer this way, but I think it's my greatest chance of sticking with it.

My nephew got married this past weekend and it was a wonderful wedding, but it caused a bit of a dilemma for me.  I needed a suit.  I didn't want to go out and buy a good suit, because I'd be paying $300 - $500 for something that I would wear once.  Even at the slow rate I'm losing, any suit I get today won't fit properly in a month's time and there is only so much and so many times that you can take in any garment.  At my current size, there isn't any place I can go and get a reasonable off-the-rack suit, either.  I was about to just suck it up and go buy a suit when I started wondering if you could rent a suit.  I did a little research and sure enough, you can.  A local tux place also rents plain black suits.  It still cost me $100 for a one time use, but that's better than $500!  I had shoes, so I just rented the slacks and jacket and added my own shirt and tie.

Here's a picture of me, my father and my brother.

I'm the good looking one on the left!

The only bad thing about a rental suit is that it doesn't come with belt loops, but has adjustable clips on the side.  Every time I sat down or bent to pick something up, they loosened up and I had to readjust them.

The wedding itself was very nice and other than a little splurge at the cookie table, I made healthy choices for my dinner, laid off the alcohol and enjoyed the time spent with family.  I hope my nephew and new niece are as happy as my wife and I.

I'm sticking to my new walking regime at work and I've noticed that my breakfasts and lunches are now pretty much the same every day.  Breakfast is either whole wheat pancakes, a burrito or an English muffin with peanut butter and an apple.  Lunch is soup, a small salad and a piece of bread.  I really thought I would get bored if I limited my food choices, but so far I haven't.  I've also been doing very well at packing my food to work, 95% of the time.

I'm down another 2.4 pounds.

On January 2nd I weighed in at 370.6 pounds
On May 25th I weighed in at 342.2 pounds

So far, that's 7.66%.

Rant

Why do people go bat-shit crazy when their beliefs are questioned?  I'm not even talking about big beliefs like politics, religion or why "The Princess Bride" is the best movie ever.  I'm talking little stuff, like food.

Look, there are a zillion ways to lose weight and whichever way works for best for you is the right way.  I'm eating the same food that I always have, just less of it.  That makes me happy and it works for me.  My brother-in-law lost about 30 pounds by radically changing the way he eats.  He's happy and says he can stick with it, so it's the right way for him.  He's also excited about it, so he enjoys talking about it, which I totally get.  However, I totally disagree with his diet.  It's some kind of paleo-like diet, he eats a lot of nuts, fruit and smoothies and doesn't eat dairy, pasta, etc...  I'd last 3 minutes on that diet.  We agree to disagree.  He talks about it, I politely nod my head and he does the same with me because we are both right.

But some of the people out there, not my readers but others, need to up their medication.  I'm a member of MyFitnessPal which is a great app/website for tracking calories, exercise and peer support.  It also has a forum section where a ton of beneficial information can be found about any diet you choose to follow.  Unfortunately with that are the fanatics that believe that their diet is THE ONLY WAY YOU SHOULD EAT!!!  If you aren't eating their way, then you are doomed... DOOMED... DOOMED!!!   

I just read a post a woman started... apparently her husband is planning on ordering pizza and she doesn't know what to do.  She has enough calories in her budget to enjoy a couple pieces, but is worried about being able to stop at just 2.  It all started innocently enough.  Some people offered suggestions on how to stop at just 2 and others suggested ways to enjoy something else and avoid the temptation.  Then the crazies came up from the sewers.  Some started testifying on the evils of pizza, while others lept to pizza's defense!  The last I checked, it was 244 posts long and people were arguing about canned tomatoes and how good/bad they are for you.  All because someone wanted to avoid a slice of pizza.

Is it really so hard to simply say "We disagree." and leave it at that?  Especially about CANNED VEGETABLES?!?