Monday Weigh in (Week 9)

I love autumn around the Pacific Northwest.

It's another goal achievement week for me! To cut to the chase, my scale weight this morning is 273.5, putting me past my 275 goal.  I did quite a bit of exercise this weekend and it has rewarded me handsomely.

My 275 goal reward was a new winter coat - going to need one soon enough too at the rate things are going. Check out that beautiful fall foliage and fog!

However, I am fitting into some older clothing lately and that includes about three jackets I have never worn very much, so I am good to go for a little while longer before taking the plunge and getting a nicer heavy-duty coat.  Got to decide, too.. go for another leather jacket? Or try something else this time.. hmm. Decision time.

My next goal weight is 260, and realistically I am expecting to be on target for that sometime in December.  I have the hurdle of Thanksgiving (and possible vacation time) to go through before then - but I survived Halloween (Well, almost!) without cheating, except for a nibble on a piece of cheesecake Dawn brought home the other day from a lunch out with friends.

Run for your lives!

Plans are already brewing for some things next year too, since a few of us are getting in better shape this year.  I'm thinking about jumping on board for these too - seems intimidating right now, but something to work towards? You bet.

The awesomest sounding one is "Run for your lives!" - a 5K run where you are chased by zombies, and have to navigate obstacles. 

Leslie and Parul also want to go Sky Diving. I dunno about that one.  I've got no fear of heights, but the idea of tossing myself out of a plane taps the little part of my brain which says, "Life is finite, the skill of parachute makers may not be." So we'll see about that one. ;)

Either way it seems clear to me that the future holds more variety in terms of activities, and they are a fun and healthy thing to work towards.  I would really like to feel that I can get off my ass and go do whatever I want without thinking ahead of time whether it's too tiring, too uncomfortable... yeah.  Think I will start small though. There's a track near our home.  I wonder, in a few months, how quickly I can do a mile? I remember hating that in high school, but I was a chubby kid then too.  I think the only time in my adult life I wasn't was during college when I was a lot more active.

Hey wait.. being active makes you healthy?

Who knew! XD

Alrighty, one other little thing to chat about here.  This is regarding the Dukan Diet.  Technically I am on "Phase 2" or the so-called "Cruise Phase." I am supposed to be alternating pure protein days with protein+vegetable days.  I'm gonna go on record here and state that I have not been playing by the rules very strictly for a few weeks.  I haven't done a pure protein day since early October, and I don't seem to be suffering a bit for it. That's just ME mind you - if anyone else is on this diet, don't use me as an example.. we're all different.

I am getting by by making smart food choices, and smart choices about what to do with my free time when it crops up.  I do keep a mantra from the Dukan Diet pretty strongly in mind when shopping for food.

"Low or no fat, low or no carb, low or no sodium.  Starches begone!"

Alright, that's admittedly the first time I've said that, but it's pretty much how I think when looking at product labels.  The main think the diet has drilled into me is to consider what is in the food I eat.  I'm going to revisit one of my earlier blog posts sometime soon, my ten eating sins, and check in again on how that's going.

My little mantra there would sound a LOT cooler in Italian. Let's see what google translate can do for me.

"Basso o nullo contenuto di carboidrati grassi, basso o nullo, basso contenuto di sodio o no. Amidi Vattene!"

OK, here's the goods.

Clicky Clicky

Weekend Shenanigans!

Friday night we went down to a Halloween party in Redmond. TJ does a party this time of year and he wound up combining it with another party, so there were boatloads of people there.

For the sake of all involved I will not post pix and comments except to say, epic beer pong.

I repeatedly politely turned down beer, drinks, etc. and only nibbled the veggie tray Leslie smartly brought along - in fact that thing got demolished!

Next day, I started out with 2 miles on the treadmill at home, then we went over to Leslie and Parul's to chill out.  While over there I took another short walk with Parul up to the store to grab some yogurt and stuff, and then had a steak and some grilled zucchini for lunch.  For dinner we had what you see in the pic here, and nice beef roast from Safeway, and a honey chipotle marinated chicken, as well as a side salad.  The chicken was a foster farms package from Costco and Leslie thinks they won't be carrying it much longer... so naturally, the need to figure out our own recipe has arisen. That's two I have in the bank now, I still need to lean tandoori chicken tikka. Oh snaps.. good cooking ahead. :D

We rounded out the evening by carving pumpkins:




Jason's Pinhead pumpkin





Dawn's epic 3 wolves pumpkin







Leslie's Bat Cat pumpkin

 

 

My screamy guy pumpkin



Later that night we played with the Kinect - which is a lot of fun. Jason played Gunstringer, a game where you control a marionette cowboy and blow the hell out of stuff. Dawn played with Kinectimals where she had a pet panther (She named it Mephistopheles).  Finally, we played Kinect Sports Season 2 - which had events like football, baseball, skiing, etc.  It was a pretty good mini workout running in place, etc. 110+ calories burned just playing a couple of events, haha.

And now today.. just sitting here writing Ze Blog, over at their place again. Did another 2 miles on the treadmill this morning, and the weight loss continues on schedule, as you shall see tomorrow when I check in I hope.

One last pic, 'cos I can't resist.

Happy Halloween, kiddies!

Pumpkin Sculpting Time!

After skinning the rind off... step 1!

Here's a little diversion from my food blogging.  Last night Jason came by and we grilled up a couple of steaks and some asparagus (Tip - use a metal skewer through all the stalks to make them easy to flip in one go on the grill!).

We have a tradition of him dropping by every year to carve pumpkins with us. I have been watching Halloween Wars this year too and watching crazy-good artists like Ray Villafane making these awesome 3D pumpkins carvings.. I've tried it a couple of times before and the results have been cool but so so at best.

This was the year for me I decided.

Then Trudi, my co-worker and chum, suggested - I should carve ME as a pumpkin.  I was excited about that, and I immediately came up with a sketch idea like so:



First Sketch

 

Thinking about how to 3D it...



Some ideas..



Of course.. sketches are one thing. Turning this thing into a carving in a frickin' pumpkin is another.

From about 9pm-12am I worked on t his bad boy. I am pretty happy with the results.  Here's a little sequence of start to finish, hope you like. :)

Removed the skin with a large ribbon tool.

Blocking in the basic shapes..

A little more blocking work...

Got some eyebrows and stuff started...

Made some teeths, rarrr..

TEETHS



Got my hair.. pompadour'd up...



After smoothing - all done! Click any pic here to see big versions. :D



Side Shot.




With 3 candles inside!

Early happy Halloween.  I'll have pix of Dawn and I in costume after tonight - don't want to spoil it before the mega huge party thing at.. the.. place wherever we're going!

Update: I wont the pumpkin carving contest at work - 1st place, I got a $25 target gift card. Woot woot! =D



Oh hai, BMI. What are you?

Screw you, BMI. I have headphones.

You hear a lot of talk these days about BMI. All the kids are going on about it - the collectible character add-on packs, the robodinosaur mounts, the DLC..

Oh, yeah, sorry. That's just me making shit up again.

BMI is your Body Mass Index - a measure based on your weight and height that tells you whether you are within a healthy range of weight.  It's just another tool - like your scale is a tool.  It's an interesting one though.

It works something like this:

For adults over 20 years old, BMI falls into one of these categories: Below 18.5 (underweight), 18.5-24.9 (normal), 25.0-29.9 (Overweight) and 30.0 and above (obese).

To calculate yours, you take your... well, you get the point. If you want to educate yourself, check this out.

It's also much easier to let the internet do the calculating for you, too. Here is a BMI calculator.

I'm 6'1" tall.  When I started, my BMI was 42.3.  Yikes!  They call that "Obese Class III" - literally the top of the scale.  My 321 pounds had me classified in the worst category possible.

Right now, hanging out at 280 or so pounds, I am at a BMI rating of 36.5.  That's a good change, but still considered "Obese Class II".  I feel like I should have a little rank badge. OB2, bitches.

To get down into the 'normal' range - I'd have to be about 185 pounds, roughly.  I guess that's POSSIBLE, but I somehow find it seriously unlikely I am ever going to be that guy.  My goal is to chop 100 pounds off or so, dropping to 220.  That'd drop me to a cool 29 BMI, in the high end of the "Overweight" category.

What's your BMI? Do you care? You probably should.

In other news..

I had chili lime marinated chicken and some grilled zucchini for dinner last night, it was fantastic. I had spicy teriyaki chicken with a simple side salad Tuesday.  I guess technically, teriyaki is 'cheating' but I don't get rice, and I don't put tons of sauce on like I did in the past. So it's pretty OK. :)

I'm finding good stuff to eat and really.. I don't feel like I'm on a "diet" any more. I have almost zero urge to snack, I have done a reliable job of keeping my fingers out of the candy bowls around the office as Halloween approaches, and I even turned down some bread the other night - almost didn't - so, I think I can get down to the mystical 220 at some piont. Most likely, it ain't gonna happen until well into 2012.

Someday getting down to 185? Well. We'll see. That seems insane to me, but I am looking at it from 280 and it is a tall hill still.  Once upon a time thinking I'd be under 300 was impossible, too.

Never say never.  Unless you are saying, "Never shoot me in the face, please."

And now, a picture: 



Oh, hello. Here I am, all giant and full of sugar and fat. Hey! Where are you going?



Sunrise, Goal Chat and Kinect?

The sunrises are awesome this time of year. Even a pic taken with my phone camera looks purty.

I think this weekend it will be time to try out some new recipes. I need to find some that I can make in quantity, like cook on Sunday and have lunches for 3-4 days from it.

Any suggestions are welcome! The obvious idea is doing soup, but that's tough on a high protein diet.  What works best is probably going to be something like a casserole (but I can't do pasta, potatoes, etc)  - or a dish that is crock-potted.  The key thing for lunches is that they shouldn't be something that is absolutely horrible when reheated in a microwave.  I've run into a few horrible mistakes in that category - the meatballs I made a couple of days ago are one. Dry, dry, dry when reheated.  I needed to make some sort of healthy tomato/pasta-ish sauce to go with them and I did not.  Hmmm.  There's a thought.

Anyway!

I had a weight loss goal of 275 to hit before getting a new winter coat and it is getting close. At that point I'll have dropped approximately 46 pounds.  I decided, since I also have found a bunch of older jackets that fit - I am going to adjust that goal to - when I have lost 50 pounds, or down to 271 in other words.

277 this morning. 6 to go.  I could get there by mid November.. we'll see.

I seem to be dropping about 3 pounds a week roughly. If that continues, by the end of the year I might be somewhere in the neighborhood of 253 pounds.  I had a hoped-for goal of getting down to about 250 by the time we go to Hawaii in the middle of January. I might make it. Maybe, maybe.

One thing I probably need is some sort of better direction in terms of what to do when I start going back to the gym. As is, I am quite comfortable doing cardio stuff like treadmill, bikes, elliptical. Beyond that.. I sort of wing it, do several sets on a bunch of different resistance machines, etc.

I should probably investigate an actual pre-planned workout routine to do there. I don't think I want a personal trainer nor could I really afford it currently, so it'll be an amusing experience trying to figure it out.

Dawn wants to get a Wii or maybe a Kinect so she can do some of the exercise and game-related workout stuff at home, too.  So perhaps that will happen at some point.  While it has zero to do with the exercise part of it - the Wii is just dated feeling to me, and the Kinect is awesome but they sure haven't bothered making many awesome games for it yet. WTF, right?

I wonder what is in store there.

At the moment it is a giant bunch of this.





I don't know what is going on here, but it feels vaguely dirty. Is that the Pope? God dammit, google image search.



Late Night Meatballs

Parsely, parmesan and basil meatballs.

10pm. Oops.. I don't have anything for lunch tomorrow. What have I got around.. let's see, some ground beef.. meatball time, yep.

For a recipe pulled out of thin air these came out goooood. Didn't measure the spices, to here's my best guesses.

1.15 lb 93/7 ground beef
1 egg, not beaten
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
1.5 tbsp onion powder
1.5 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp kosher salt
2 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp red pepper flakes
2 tbsp oat bran (you could use bread crumbs)
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (I had the infamous Green Can)

Turn oven to 400.  Form meatballs about the size of a golf ball.  I chose to bake mine in muffin tins - I heard that tip on a cooking show, and wanted to see how it would go.  I baked them for 20 minutes - then turned them over with tongs, and turned on the broiler for 5 minutes to brown the other side.  This works very well, and much easier than pan-frying them.

Delicious! They would be good solo but I made some of the Asian dipping sauce from my turkey + shrimp meatballs and it will go nicely I think.

And now some photo stuffs.



All the stuff before mixing



Meatballs in the muffin tins



After 20 minutes at 400. Time to broil.

Meatballs are an easy way to go when short on time.  Plus you can eat them cold later. :)

Monday Weigh-In

Clicky Clicky

A couple of pretty cool things happened this past week.  First, Leslie was nice enough to toss a new scale at us - which measures in tenths of a pound, and seems much more accurate than the other one we had hanging around for years.  The older scale, I would step on it 3-4 times in a row and get variances by as much as two pounds.  I'd have to do it several time to 'calibrate' it. Hahaha.. well, it was good enough but I am going to trust the new one now.

The other, I have broken through that 280 barrier, down to 278.5 as of today's weigh-in. That puts me at a total loss so far of 42.5 pounds. I'm creeping up on being halfway towards my weight loss goal which is pretty cool, but I know it is going to get much harder from here forward.

The combination of darker, colder days and less opportunities to be outside doing things will present a challenge.  Being stuck indoors more also leads to more temptation to relax on the diet too,  and there are still several holidays, big birthday parties, etc. to get through and not cave in to temptations.  So far so good. :)

Yesterday I took a small left turn from my diet for lunch.  We went out to the mall to Blue-C Sushi, a favorite of ours locally.  For the first time since August I had rice (albeit a small amount) and also on my salad there were a few skinny slices of chicken that had some breading on them.  The food was delicious, but man I could really taste how much salt there was in some of the items, since I've been on a low sodium diet. It really was interesting.  I used to dunk sushi into soy sauce, now I barely dipped pieces.

Rounded off the day with more of the chili lime marinated chicken which has quickly become a favorite for me, and I have some left for lunch today too.

Dawn brought along her digital camera, so here are some lovely pix of the 2 items (apart from my salad, which is mostly lettuce and carrot shreds) that I had for lunch. :)



Seared Tuna with miso dipping sauce



A lobster roll with cucumber and soy sauce.



Sunday walking + attitude check.

It's getting very autumn-colored around here, at last. Summer was late showing up this year, and fall is following suit.  I was starting to worry we'd hit Halloween and still have nothing but green leaves.

The trail around the college was my target again this morning, we figured out it's about a 2 mile walk.  And by "figured out" I mean Leslie notice mile posts when we walked it together last weekend. ;)

I'm wondering whether and to what degree they maintain it during the winter, when less people are probably interested in wandering around outside in the rain and snow.  For now it looks beautiful and I will toss up a few more pictures at the end of this blog post.  Seems like most of the trees in our neck of the woods like to turn a vivid red color this time of year, it's like walking through a firestorm.

I'm feeling antsy lately on the weekends. I'm sure it has a lot to do with being in slightly better shape, and it is coming at a weird time since doing things outdoors without being soaked and freezing in the Seattle isn't easy.

I also haven't looked at my diet book in a few weeks... the 'cruise phase' of the Dukan Diet is something I know inside-out by this point, but also, it's becoming clear to me that it is a good guidepost but if I follow it religiously I am going to be pretty damned sick of the 'pure protein' days within another few weeks.  Already I have moved off the 'every other day' rhythm.. I tend to do them Tuesday and Thursday and that's it.  I'm still losing weight so, whatever, right?

I'm also eating a little more on purpose, to be sure I hit minimum calorie counts.

I've been in a pretty good mood thanks to all of this, right up until last night. I'm really not sure why but this morning I have just been very blah.  I went walking but I am beat. Had a big breakfast, too.. yogurt + oat bran, 2 eggs, three strips of low-sodium turkey bacon. Have had plenty of water.  Just feeling sacked, all of a sudden, urgh.

I'm taking Dawn out to lunch someplace and then we'll probably chill at home the remainder of the day. Maybe I just need to get some sleep in, hope I'm not picking up the damned cold which has been floating around.

Ok! As promised here is some more photo goodness. :)

Red leaves everywhere!

Millin' it + Tikka Tikka!

Indian goodness from Saffron.

As the autumn weather starts to roll in, going for long walks outside becomes a bit more challenging. Luckily I have a treadmill at my place which my mother gave to me a few years ago.  It sat upstairs sad and alone in an unused bedroom until a few months ago, but now I have it in service.

Did 2 miles this morning (About 35 minutes, approx 3500 'steps'). It's a good and not too lengthy workout.  I try to add incline to things to so I am walking uphill the whole time.  It's effective, if much less fun than walking through an actual trail, etc.

I have a membership at a local gym too, but haven't made much use of it lately. That's another option and I think I need to get to it. Yeah, I know I mentioned the gym before in here and said I was going. Since I've been getting results without it I haven't bothered yet - excuse, excuse.. hah.

Went out to eat last night to Saffron Grill by the Northgate Mall.  It is a fantastic Indian restaurant which also serves some Mediterranean cuisine.  I had tandoori chicken tikka - very tasty, serves with onion, carrot, bell pepper and potato on the side. Donated my potato to Dawn.  Was very good and did not steal one of the fried veggie pakoras which came out for appetizer, or any of the naan, which is one of my favorite things at Indian restaurants.

So naturally, my next goal is ti figure out how to make chicken tikka at home. Can't be that tough - so expect to see a recipe sometime soon, as I have 4 chicken breasts hanging out in the kitchen.

Going to my brother's Halloween party tonight too - not sure what there will be to eat there, but I will be responsible. Promise. ;)

Over and out.

Water Bottle Saga - part 2. And some food info, promise.



My artistic rendition of the suspect.



The water bottle saga turned out to be more hilarious than I hinted at in my blog yesterday.  I think the order of events went something like this, in a prime example of too much time spent over something relatively trivial...

1. I left water bottle at the back of the classroom at the Bellevue Sheraton.
2. Nancy grabbed it for me and brought it out while I was collecting class eval forms from people leaving.
3. I tucked the bottle on one of the chairs and slid it under the table.
4. I gathered up the class material and left, leaving the bottle there.
5. Realizing I'd left it, I asked someone in the office to call Justin (the instructor) to see if he could grab it.
6. Justin had already left.
7. Wendy, the co-worker I'd given a ride to work in the morning, called the hotel to ask about it.
8. Hotel says they can't find it.
9. Wendy sends me the # for the hotel, says maybe I should call, I know better where it might be.
10. I call, but the number Wendy gave me goes to a phone tree asking for a registration number.
11. I call a second time, get a guy who listens to the story then tells me he works for Hotels.com.
12. I get the # for the bellevue Sheraton from him. Hang up. Realize it is the # I called in step 10 and 11.
13. Wendy says. "Oops! Wrong number, here's the right number."
14. I call the second number, which goes to a chiropractors office.
15. Wendy, "OMG. Sorry, sorry! Here's the right #."

16. Me: Naw, I will just use online chat, they seem to have it.

17. Log on to 'Sheraton Online Chat' and get a very bot-sounding guy connected.
18. I ask the guy about the bottle, give very specific info about where it is, etc. He says:
19. "I am not locating at hotel sorry, but I can ask them to open a ticket, they get back to you 5 days."
20. I try call #3 to the hotel.  Get a woman, "Oh, yeah. Someone else called about this before. We don't have it, sorry."
21. Wendy says, "Well my husband is working right down there today, and he says he's going to just go by, that they must not have looked for it properly."

22. Me: "It's.. ok. It's just a plastic water bottle. I don't even like it that much. This is the universe's way of telling me, "Son.. it's time to move on."

23. Wendy: "Oh, he's going anyway, he's on a mission now."

24. Later that night her husband went, they could not find. He left his contact info.

25. This morning I picked Wendy up again to give her a lift to the office.

She tells me, "So, at 6:19pm last night - the guy from the Sheraton called, they found it.  I bet they were probably thinking when my husband walked in, 'Oh my God, we better find this thing. Now they're sending in Guido!"

Evidently, he's gonna go get my water bottle later tonight.  I told Wendy at this point, I would be horribly embarrassed to even go in there and ask about it.  Maybe I should get one of those FBI-looking ear buds with a cord, and when I grab the bottle from the desk, tap it and say loudly, "Sir? We've got it. We're moving out." And then run out the door.

In other news, I engaged in my first ever deliberate cheating on my diet last night, after having such a colorful day.  In 2 forms.

I didn't go for my second walk.
I nommed up on a 100-calorie pack little thing of cookies Dawn had around.

Somehow I think my sins can be forgiven. ;)

I realized something in the store yesterday too - I swung by there to grab some more yogurt, red wine vinegar, and a few chicken breasts.

I've become the guy who stands at the wall of yogurt carefully picking which one to get, because one has 6g more sugars than another, or too many carbs.  I rotate the items so I can compare nutrition labels.

I used to sit and give this kind of careful scrutiny to items in the candy row instead.

Busy busy busy busy..

Click me to see EVEN MORE BROWN PHOTO.

Today has been a whirlwind day!  At 7:15am while on the way to work a co-worker called to tell me she has car trouble.  I offered to pick her up and take her in.

She and 1 other from my department were scheduled to go help present a class at the Bellevue Sheraton - which she wasn't going to make. That left 1 person to do the class.  If I drove her there, that'd leave only 1 person to grab calls at work.

Solution? I dropped her at the office, and I drove to Bellevue to spend 4 hours helping with the class.  After that, got back to the office, found out I left my water bottle behind.  2 calls to the hotel didn't turn it up. 

Finally got to my desk at 2:30pm,  promptly asked by one of our company directors to go sit in a meeting my direct manager was supposed to be in (He's in Hawaii - and actually today is his wedding day down there!) So I go to this meeting.  Then I get back to my desk, and find a giant mound of paperwork I need to shuffle through and get out to some people.

Then I took my first 15 minute walk of the day, and snapped the pic above (and used a nifty filter to make it all autumn-y).  First time since 7:15am I have had a moment to myself to think.

Dawn has a roast beef going in the crock pot at home for me.  It is nestled in a bed of onions, celery, green peppers, rosemary, and other seasonings.  The cats are probably going apeshit smelling it all day long.

I told her...

She might find me passed out in the middle of the kitchen floor, bathed in the juices from the roast, snoring.

Bahahahaha.

Progress - and a perspective shift.

I've found that I am in a pattern the last few weeks. I will stay around the same weight for 4-5 days and then abruptly drop a few pounds.  I think this is due to the rhythm of the diet, and the change between pure protein days and protein and veggie days - and the resulting water weight I hang onto and then suddenly drop.

This morning I weighed in at 280.5 on my scale.  I also got a different scale from Leslie who was kind enough to pass it on since they got a better one.  The new scale (which is a better scale) is telling me 277.8 this morning.  I think I am gonna have to hit the scale at the gym and see what it says, I have a feeling my 'old' scale is probably a liar. ;)  Either way - that means I have officially lost just over FORTY POUNDS.  I just can't get my head around it.

This reinforces something to me, actually - the scale is just an indicator, it has little to do with more important things such as:

• I have worn 4 shirts in the last week which haven't fit me in years.
• I have been walking for miles per day now - and I never get out of breath. Ever.
• My feet and ankles are hurting far less than they used to.

I check the scale every day anyway - it's hard not to do. Curiosity has me thinking to myself... I need to peek! What if I ate something yesterday and gained like, 10 pounds back. Soon small objects like staplers and pencils will begin to orbit me.

The truth is I am 7.5 weeks into this diet, and I have made a lifestyle change.  I think the word 'diet' is not really appropriate any longer.  Diet is something you do briefly, to shed a few extra pounds.  Lifestyle means, I am doing different things.. and it is a permanent change, a decision to treat myself better in terms of my physical well being and not go back to my past dietary and exercise sins.

I get home now and the first thing on my mind is going out for a walk.  I look forward to the weekend mornings because it means a longer walk, and a chance to get outside for a bit.  I take a few minutes every day to do some simple stretching exercises and have been thinking about getting a few weights, perhaps.

That is not stuff which would even have been on my long term radar just a few months ago.

I worry occasionally that I am spending too much time talking about my diet + exercise, etc.  It's hard not to when it is at the forefront of my mind though, and I am excited about it.

I am very fortunate to have a lot of support from my wife, Dawn.  She has been awesome about helping me make good food choices, and she is (I think) enjoying watching my progress.  The other day she looked at me and said, "You're the incredible shrinking man!"

I guess the battle of Mark vs. Mark is going pretty well. :)

Now, for no reason, here is a picture I drew of a ninja, at a 45 degree angle.

Kaybye. 

Surrounded by food.

Bacon Maple Cupcake! The sinister bastard.

I guess this blog post might come off sounding a little preachy. That's not the intention, as I would be a giant hypocrite to go on a diet and weeks later start doing that sort of thing.  The purpose of a blog entry like this is to maybe help anyone else reading it to stop and think about things in a new way, like I have been trying to do lately.

I watched an episode of the show 'taboo' this weekend which dealt with obesity.  It made a number of interesting points that resonated with me because they are absolutely true.  Some of them are things I didn't really think about when I wasn't paying that much attention to what I was eating, when I was eating, etc.

The most telling of them were:

• Everywhere you go now, you are surrounded by food.
• Food manufacturers are now using ads to tell you how 'fun' their food is, not how good for you it is.
• A third of the adult population in the entire world are obese. 15% of children 6-19 years old are overweight. (Not my numbers. Look it up around the web, etc. Yikes.)
• We are raising a generation of children who, due to our food choices, may not outlive their parents.
• Even if these children outlive their parents, they will possibly have debilitating medical issues caused by weight and poor diet.
• There is a growing culture that says fat is beautiful, and it might be becoming more accepted as the norm.

So.. what's so bad about being fat anyway? Most people (me included) know that it causes 'health problems' and can lead to stuff like a heart attack.  Here are some other things to consider.  If you are overweight, you are potentially at risk for:

• Cardiovascular disease (leading to things like heart attack and strokes)
• Type 2 diabetes (Which has a terrifying list of complications at its worst)
• Musculoskeletal disorders
• Increased risk of breast, colon and endometrial (in the uterus) cancer

Just a few there. No need to use scare tactics here, but these things begin with you are slightly overweight.. and are magnified the heavier you are.  The cost of treatments is debilitating, as well as the fact that the things mentions above can lead directly to permanent disability or in some cases death.  Beyond these, until I started to drop some pounds I didn't really realize how much being so overweight was affecting simple things for me like feeling properly tired at night, or being able to walk for fifteen minutes without getting totally out of breath.

So, basically, everywhere you go in the modern world, there are things made available to eat which are not healthy, designed to be appealing not for nutrition reasons, but because they are tasty, or fun, or trendy, and available in quantity (and cheaply) so you can get them without effort.

It's true, too.  I never really thought about it, but pretty much anywhere you go, there is something to eat. And the more convenient food is, the worse it tends to be for you.  It's very difficult NOT to eat all the time, especially in our country.  As an exercise today, everywhere you go, make note of how easy it is to get food and whether or not you really would benefit from eating whatever is available.

Having to say 'no' politely to many foods available is hard as hell.  Sitting down at a restaurant and realizing that perhaps 5% of the menu is actually fairly healthy is distressing. Certainly, it shines a spotlight on the fact that you shouldn't eat out frequently. It's OK here and there, but literally killing you otherwise.  Save the money, buy slightly more expensive, but healthier cuts of meat at the store and learn to cook a few simple things.. it's working wonders for me. And, for other friends of mine.

Oh! And if you are a Starbucks fan.. well, check THIS out.




 

Monday weigh-in - and picture time.

Happy Monday, my very small scattering of blog readers. It's time for another weekly weigh-in and I decided it was about time for some new pictures, since the other ones were from about a month ago. Dawn was kind enough to take a few of me yesterday.  Without further ado:



October 16 front pic

October 16th side pic



This morning I weighed in at 283.  That means since August 29th I have dropped 38 pounds.  I'm at a slow and steady weight loss rate now which is to be expected.  Most important is that I am feeling great! I have more energy, and I am much more active. I'm fitting into clothes which have hung unworn in my closet for years.

I'm still not sure if I am hitting correct calorie counts.  Leslie got on me about that again, and rightly so.  I'm putting together a list of the things I seem to eat the most often lately and their nutrition content, so I can get on top of that. Insufficient calories can greatly slow weight loss and isn't healthy for you for a number of reasons.

I really appreciate the encouragement and support of my friends and family, it really does make a great difference in my ability to stick to my guns.

The grand old chart:

Click for full size

Chili Lime marinated chicken with Asparagus

The salsa really caps this off nicely.

I enjoyed the Ensenada Chicken Platter from Red Robin quite a bit and decided I'd try to make a version of it at home. I found a great recipe for marinade online and we tried it out last night to positive results. This makes for very juicy, flavorful chicken and it paired well with salsa and asparagus.

Prep time: 2 hours (including marinating)

This recipe is for 2 boneless chicken breasts. Clean the fat off, put between several sheets of plastic wrap and pound them out flat to about 1/2 inch thickness with the flat side of a tenderizer.

Chili Lime marinade ingredients:

Chili Lime marinade

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 3 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. onion powder
• 1/2 tsp. paprika
• 1 tsp chili powder
• pinch of salt
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• pinch of black pepper

Combine the olive oil, red wine vinegar and lime juices in a bowl. Add all other ingredients and whisk together.  Pour marinade over the chicken and marinade in a gallon size zip lock bag or in a small casserole dish.  You should leave the chicken in the marinade at least an hour for better flavor.

I grilled these 2 chicken breasts on the BBQ (about 3-4 minutes per side) - and tossed on some asparagus we had to grill it up as well.

A final touch - a small cup of Trader Joe's "Salsa Authentica" to dip the chicken in, which really brought the whole thing together.  A decent replication of the Red Robin dish, but without any ranch, cheese-covered side salad, etc.

Mmmm. Juicy chicken!