198

I hope this is just a random uptick. 198 pounds this morning.

Consequence

197.5 this morning.

A likely result of a huge Greek dinner last night with my sister's family, and drinking at Candidates Gone Wild.

Back on the diet today.

Starting again and again

196.5 this morning.

Fuckin' weekend.

Trend is down

In spite of doing very well both diet-wise and exercise-wise, my actual weight was up this morning to 197.

But Calorie Count+ still shows my trend on its way down. Yay!

Pretty good day

I woke up around 8 AM this morning. Maybe earlier. Can't remember.

Weighed in at 195.5, which is down. Yay!

Ate a light breakfast (orange yogurt, two slices of toast with peanut butter, raspberry preserves, and a little chocolate topping!), and later, around 11:30 AM or so, a sandwich, some trail mix, and an apple.

Tracy texted me after a long walk in the sunshine around noon, so shortly after 1:00 PM, out of guilt, I went for a long walk myself. About two hours worth! I wore shorts but a long-sleeved shirt, and my old Brooks GTS 6s (the ones with MoGo), and listened to the new B-52s album. I got warm about halfway!

Stopped at the Limelight for an early dinner. Santa Fe chicken sandwich and a small green salad. Yum. And that put me at 1800 calories.

I am done eating for the day. I hope.

Ugh

When I got out of the movie last night, I felt full, bloated even. Mustve been the 64 oz. Diet Coke I (tried to) consume during the movie. I seriously considered getting dinner anyway; after all, I could have had delicious pizza, and I still would've been under 1900 calories for the day.

In the end, I realized that it was foolish to eat when wasn't hungry. No dinner for me. I did have a snack of a handful of smoked almonds when I got home.

This morning I weighed in at 196.5.

Setback again

Yesterday, someone brought in donuts. If you know me at all, you know that I love donuts the way Homer Simpson loves... donuts. OK, that's not a great analogy.

I had two. Two delicious donuts. And before lunchtime rolled around, because of my "normal" breakfast and the delicious donuts, I had already eaten over 1000 calories.

Lunch was with my buddy Ken, and we went to Taco del Mar. Oh, delicious Taco del Mar. I could have pigged out with a giant burrito, but I had enough self-control to get the taco deal - two fish tacos and some beans and rice.

Which put me at over 1800 calories.

If only I could have, y'know, stopped eating. Then I would have been fine. But, no, I felt sleepy around 3p, so I went upstairs to get some coffee to get me through the rest of the afternoon. And the donuts were on sale.

Yes. I ate three donuts yesterday. I'm going to stop calling them "donuts" and start calling them "kryptonite". That would help a lot. That put me at 2300 calories.

In the evening, after work, I had to go to the store to get allergy meds and laundry soap. Ah, the life of a bachelor.

Then I walked past the Limelight and saw that they had cream of spinach soup as their special... and I walked in and ordered a cup of soup... and a plate of fries. Fuck. 2900 calories. And no exercise. And lots of salty food.

This morning I weighed in at 198. And the trend line for the past couple of weeks is going up again.

Gotta keep trying.

Not much

196 even this morning.

Around 1950 calories yesterday.

Back slidin'

It has been a tough week for me and losing weight.

I did not participate in the Bridge to Bridge to Pints 10K yesterday. Threat of snow? No, thanks.

I did pretty good calorie-wise over the weekend: around 1600 on Saturday and just over 1900 Sunday.

Weighed in at 197.5 this morning. Yesterday was 194.5 - a recent low!

I keep plugging away.

Longrun

It apparently took me over 90 minutes to jog/walk 6.5 miles. Left the house around 1:00 PM, got back around 2:35 PM.

Ugh.

But hey, it's been a while since I've gone that far. At least a month and a half, maybe more. I'd have to check.

Right now I'm just going to shower and eat.

197. Again

Dammit. Last night, after my run, I went up to the Limelight and ordered a Sante Fe chicken sandwich and fries.

The sandwich was huge - not just on a round hamburger bun, but on an oblong sandwich roll.

Damn it was good, though. And the fries, dipped in ranch? Delicious. And altogether they were about 985 calories. Which is 500 calories more than I needed if I want to keep losing weight.

And then? And then? I walked back home (yay, me!) and stopped at Foster's Market to get a couple of donuts (boo, me). Another 509 calories I did not need. Fuck.

So, no surprise this morning, when I woke up and weighed myself. I knew the number before I could see the number on the scale.

One hundred and ninety seven pounds.

Which is where I was when I started being serious about dieting again, 12 days ago.

Warm run

It was near 70° F when I got home from work. Perfect for a run.

So I did. Three and a half miles. Easy. Didn't push it.

Felt good.

This weekend I'll try a longer run, then next week I'll start doing some actual training; hills, tempo, etc.

But tonight I just ran.

Actual vs. Trend

My actual weight was up a half-pound, but the trend went down by a tenth. So weird.

I did well with calories yesterday. Not so good with actual nutrition; half of my calories were from sugar and pastries. Damned cookies and donuts. Gotta learn to pass those up.

Salty food, I hope, explains it

195.5 today, and the 10-day rolling average provided by Calorie Count is 195.55. Yes, the trend is almost the as the actual, and above the actual. Not good. Dammit, I was so good yesterday. Even if I undercounted the fries, that would only put me over by 100 or so. And I undercounted the calorie burn of my running. Oh, snap.

It's only been 10 days, though, and I haven't been running as much as I'd like. I'll get there. I will get there.

Stoopid rain

I ran my 3.5 mile loop tonight. Frequent walk breaks, same as the last time I ran, but the breaks were shorter in duration today.

Also, I hate the rain. It only sprinkled, off and on, but it was still almost enough to prevent me from even trying. Almost, but not entirely. I did it.

After I crossed my "finish line" at SE 19th and Marion, and I was walking back home, I passed a female runner who was stretching. Not sure if she was just beginning her run, in the middle, or what. I noticed that she was wearing Brooks shoes, just like I do. I smiled and simply said "Brooks!" and pointed at my feet.

She replied, "Yeah," with a smile, "these are my fourth pair!"

Now I'm cleaned up and I want pizza. Bus won't get here for 20 minutes. Pizza pizza pizza.

WIN

When I got home from work last night, I had eaten about 1500 calories so far. I had planned on running, which meant I would have about 500 calories for dinner afterward.

Then it started raining. OK, I said, I can run in the rain.

Then it started hailing. Fuck this, I said.

Which meant I only had about 200 calories left for the day, if I didn't run.

I went to bed early last night (around 7:00p) to avoid overeating.

This morning I weighed in 2 lbs. down, at 194.5. WIN.

Keep on trying

Yesterday morning I weighed 195.5, up a pound and a half. There was some confusion over my calories, at least in my mind; the burrito from Taco del Mar seemed a bit large for a half-size one, and I counted all the tortilla chips as 1.5 ounces. Oh, and I ate a kreme-filled donut that I had bought and ignored the day before, which put me over but not by much.

So this morning I weighed in another hal-pound up. I feel a little lighter but maybe it's just in my head... Most of what I ate the last two days has been high in salt; maybe that's the reason.

I'm running tonight, though. That'll help.

Three and a half

Instead of my planned long run this weekend, I did my three and a half mile loop today. I've been bummed about the rain this weekend, and have been spending the day working on my websites and cleaning my apartment. So when I went outside to take out my trash, and noticed it was warmish, blue sky showing around the clouds, and not raining, I tossed on my running shoes and clothes and went out for a spin around the neighborhood.

Felt good.

Some asshole leaned out of a car from the passenger seat and yelled "Your stomach is jiggling!"

To which I mentally replied, yeah, and you're sitting on your ass! At least I was out doing something about it.

It gave me the energy to finish the rest of the run strong. Thanks!

Learning

Just got out of bed from a nap that started around 6:30p.

Didn't run. Stupid cold rain. I got as far as getting dressed to run, but just couldn't leave my warm apartment. Finally dithered so much I bumped into the time I needed to return my ZipCar. So I got back into street clothes and drove the car back and had dinner. Slice of pizza and a salad, like I had planned.

Did avoid too much overeating - finished yesterday with around 2000 calories, more than I'm aiming for on non-running days, but, oh, man, it could've been so much worse. Came dangerously close to grabbing a bunch of donuts from Foster's Market but turned back at the last minute when I realized eating them would only make me feel worse later.

I feel bloated now and will weigh in after a bit more sleep. Only drank about a liter, maybe a liter and a half, of water yesterday so let's hope that's why I feel puffy.

Weight

My self-control pays off this morning with a weigh-in of 193.5. Sure it was later than normal (just a half-hour ago at 10:00 AM, actually) and alcohol is dehydrating but it still feels good to see the number on the scale go down by a lot.

Another pitfall of dieting for me is the weekend. Without the structure of going to work and regimented breakfast, lunch and dinner times, I tend to overeat. My solution for that today is to plan out my meals in advance. Crazy? Crazy like a fox. Since I plan on a long run today (6+ miles) I'm allowing a few more calories today.

Food plan: a big breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, and home potatoes, toast and jam and coffee, then a late lunch/dinner (after my long run) of a delicious pizza slice and a salad, and that leaves me around 350 calories for dinner and a snack. Hmmm...

Success

I stayed under my non-running-day goal of 1750 calories.

Not sure how I managed it - normal breakfast (coffee and cinnamon roll), slice of pizza and salad for lunch. Oh, right, no snack, no extra cookies.

Another good decision: tall soy chai for afternoon snack. Not a grande or venti. A tall. 12 ounces.

Then the closing act: dinner consisted of a single fish taco. No chips. No salsa. No rice and beans. Just one, soft, delicious taco.

And then two gin and tonics when I went out for the evening.

An awesome day for dieting.

Calorie targets

I've recalculated my daily calorie targets, using the advice of Calorie Count Plus, aiming for a weight loss of about 1.5 lbs. a week.

As much as I love Calorie Count as a whole, the difficulty with using their calorie advice tool is that the descriptions of "activity level" are vague and there's too large a gap between "light activity" and "moderate activity", as I see it. Am I a "light" activity person? Well, sometimes I do sit all day and get little exercise, but sometimes I run 3-6 miles and am moving all day long.

The obvious solution has only recently occurred to me: use the "light" activity calorie goal for light days, and use the "moderate" or even "heavy" calorie goals for the more active days.

So for days I'm not running, I'll aim for 1750 calories intake.

For days I do run, I'll aim for 2050 calories intake.

Problem solved.

Weight

195.nothin' this morning. It's 2 lb. down from yesterday. Yay!

Those damned cookies

A co-worker brought in delicious cookies today because we were all pitching in together to swap out a bunch of PCs on a special project. I had two. Not one, but two. A delicious black-and-white cookie and an oatmeal raisin. Mmmm. But they made me go over calorie-wise, by about 400 over what my goal is. Bad cookies.

I got a lot of physical exercise today due to the aforementioned computer swap-outs. Lifting, hauling, moving, walking, standing.

And even so, I went for a run tonight. I did my 3.5 mile loop, but because I'm still getting back in shape, I only ran for about the first 2.5 miles, and walked the last mile. I can't be mad or upset. I'm still getting back in shape. Yay, me, for doin' it.

Weight

197.5!

Aaaaah!

I thought I did so well last night! Soup (cream of broccoli) and a salad. Snap.

Racing again

I just signed up for two 10K races.

I'm not sure why that makes me nervous.

They're both Terrapin Events races, and the guys that run the races are good people that put on fun events.

First one is the Bridge to Bridge - I'm sorry, the Bridge-to-Bridge-to-Brews, as it's been renamed - this month. I did this one last year and actually set a personal record (PR); however, considering my current condition it's unlikely I'll beat last year's time. Still, I'm going to show up.

Second one is the Cinco de Mayo 10K. I've only ever run the 5K course for this event in the past; this year will be my first time on their 10K course. Plus, I get a technical shirt instead of the cotton T-shirt that I normally get. I don't wear cotton t-shirts when I run. I just don't.

Did I mention I'm not in nearly as good a shape as I was last year? And that I'm nervous about these upcoming races? Yeah. I am.

Weigh-in

196 this morning.

Took another picture, too.

Coffee and cinnamon roll for breakfast.

See the pattern?

Oh, wait, I broke the pattern by running last night. Yay, me!

Fresh start

I ran tonight.

Weather was awesome, sunny, just a hint of wind.

I strapped on my trusty Brooks, shorts and technical shirt, sunglasses, cap.

I ran my old 3 mile loop. Took walk breaks every mile or so. Went slow. Stopped for water twice.

I have no idea how fast or slow I was.

I simply did it.

Felt great.

Weigh-in

197 this morning. Oh, snap.

Oh, and I took a picture of me in my underwear. It's not going on the internet. OK, maybe after I've lost 25 or more pounds, I'll post it as the "before" picture. I said maybe.

"Standard" breakfast this morning - coffee and cinnamon roll. I know, I know.