Mark Vs. Mark: Monday, Thanksgiving Looms, and Hike Plans.

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Gooood morning. My Monday weigh-in is 264 today - down 4.5 pounds from last Monday. I was actually down to 262.5 at my lowest, yesterday morning, kinda freaked me out a bit to me that much lower than I was on this past Monday.

I had last Thursday+Friday off, and the 4-day weekend was awesome. Leslie did my walk with me Friday, and I ate pretty responsibly at the party she held Saturday evening. She had some of that good chili going on, and I had some veggie crisps.

Yesterday, I had some leftover turkey tacos for lunch and in the evening, grilled up a couple of low-fat burgers, chopped fresh pickle and tomato, and lettuce, and I tried some 100-calorie whole wheat sandwich thins for buns.

I didn't get out walking Saturday or Sunday - gave myself a pass for the weekend as I was caring for Dawn in her sickness, and kind of busy. I wonder if that, combined with adding a little bread back in, accounts for me fluctuating, weight-wise.

I don't really care, still making good progress. :)

Here's a summary of my progress at the moment, looking pretty good. Over halfway now to my goal weight of 221 - psyched to be on the downhill! I still look in the mirror and think, "Oh look, a fat guy." I think I'll be dealing with that for quite a while, I'm not used to there being less of me yet. It's pretty good motivation if nothing else.

Now, in truth.. I'm getting a little scrawny on the arms and chest department, and I have bony hips going on, it's a little weird for me. Definitely about time to get my ass (also bony) to the gym and see about adding a little bit of weight training to the cardio I've been so good about. I don't need to 'buff up' or anything, but I want to be more fit so when the time comes, I am able to do stuff like running, climbing, etc. To me, that's the real 'phase III' of my plan.

I figure I need a goal, for that. I think I have one, too. Since I've been walking so much, one of these weekend days when the weather is cooperating, I am going to try hiking from my place over to the Alderwood Mall, and then back. There are 2 viable routes. The one I'd probably take to avoid waiting at a ton of lights is 3.7 miles, making it a 7.4 mile hike. I'm guessing that's about an hour each way, at my walking pace. Call it 1 hour, fifteen minutes with wait times for lights maybe.

I'm psyched to do it - and I'm psyched that I'm psyched to do it. I think it'll be fun.

Now, I just need a weekend day where it isn't pouring down rain or snow. We'll see. ;)

Thanksgiving is this week and that is going to be very fun, we go to my sister's house for that every year and people bring good eats. We deep-fry a turkey, and oven roast another - there are a lot of mouths to feed! We'll be making sure there are Dukan friendly foods there too since several of us going are on good eating plans at the moment. It'll be interesting to see how it goes. I know I'll eat smart and have a wonderful time.

One more thing:

My burgers from last night. 93/7 beef, sliced tomato, chopped pickle, 100 calorie whole wheat sandwich thins, mustard, Heinz reduced-fat ketchup.