Moving on and moving in!

Good morning, fellow humans.

I have some spectacular news - we've emerged from the other side of the house buying process and located a new home in Kenmore, WA! It cuts out work commute down by 20 minutes and keeps us close to family and friends, we're absolutely thrilled to become first-time homeowners.  Let me tell you - being in better shape is a good thing as soon I will be taking on more physical tasks around the new house and yard.

OK, before I go further here are a couple of pictures of the place - the outside, and the kitchen, which will obviously show up in this blog often. ;)



It is going to be a very busy month for us as we finish packing, organizing all of the things associated with moving like calling utility companies, and settling in.  The past few months have been ultra hectic for us as we have been out looking for places and trying to figure life out in general.

As far as my health plan - I'll admit I've paused a bit on that, as finding the time to cook properly and be out exercising has been a challenge. I haven't put any weight back on though - just haven't made much further progress. Post moving I have pretty easy access to the notorious Burke-Gilman Trail and can make use of that. :)

My use of the Dukan Diet started out very strict and I altered it over time - the original timeline expected me to hit my 'true weight' of  230 pounds in June of this year, which I can still pull off.  They also think that's where I am staying for the long haul - which I disagree with, I plan to push it further and try to get down to 200 or so, which is going to take some serious dedication.  I've shown myself that thanks to my better eating habits and regular exercise, I am not going to pack a bunch of weight back on.

Now I need to get back to business and shed the rest of the chub, and achieve my goal of 200.  I am going to aim for doing this by August 29th.  I'm sitting at 250 right now - that gives me 4 months roughly.

Why August 29th?

Because that's the day I started this whole thing up last year, 80+ pounds ago!

Life is a busy thing.

Potential new kitchen? Hmmmm...

I've really been pressed for time lately, and the blog has fallen into a lower priority as a result. Sorry about that, my few reader peeps.

We did go to Hawaii and have a hell of a time and when I get a few minutes I'm going to share some of those pix and stories. It was amazing.. first vacation we managed to do which didn't involve the words Las or Vegas.

Recently, life took an unexpected turn for us when we found out the landlords we lease our townhouse from decided, "Oh, we won't actually bother paying for the building we own any more. Nobody will mind... right?"

We were sitting at home a few Fridays back and saw a camera flash on the front porch - and then discovered a private notice that they defaulted on their payments for this building three months ago. I'm still not entirely sure what the process is - but it'll be months before they either succeed or fail to make amends - worse case scenario, they foreclose, the bank sells the place to someone else.

We want to be out of here before that happens. Less headache.. we wanted to move anyways.

So we're looking into the possibility of becoming first time home owners, working with an agent who is a family friend of a few years and who is helping us freak out a little less - we've been out peeking at a few houses, the picture up there is the kitchen in one of them.

More on that as we go but this is why I am busy lately and don't have much time for blogging!

Meanwhile, we've also been enjoying ourselves out and about.  My diet is still on cruise control - I'm not gaining weight but not losing anything, hanging out between 250 and 252 for a month or so now. I can live with that for the moment.

We found a fantastic place in Edmonds called The Loft.  I indulged in pancetta, walnut and wine-sauce prawns, asparagus and roasted potatos.

Here you go, enjoy my sinful feast. I promise to get back on track and blog more productively soon as I can. ;)

Still at it!

Good day, humans.  I haven't put up a blog entry in weeks - for a few reasons.

Primarily I was out of town on vacation, and writing a blog did cross my mind, but we also had a malfunctioning internet connection at the rental house.  It's also difficult to think about writing a blog when you can walk 50 feet and sit on a beautiful beach. O:)

I never blogged about Christmas, either. What a slacker!  I'm sure my Hawaii photos are more alluring anyways, so stay tuned. 

While down in Maui, a sickness hopped from one of us to another and I was down with it for a week or so upon returning home.  It was bad enough to lead to pnuemonia for my friend Leslie, but I somehow dodged that bullet.  My wife got it next, and is just recovering. We haven't had much ambition to sort through lots of photos and write blogs, etc -- but we will! :)

In the meantime, here is an ultra compressed summary, from my diet standpoint, and in general:

I ate what I felt like. Including the Loco Moco (last day!)
I walked, but not a great deal. Mostly around the beaches, and aquarium.
I swam and snorkeled. Fighting the waves was awesome.
I drank. Mostly longboard and pipeline porter. A bit of whiskey. OK, maybe more than a bit.
Speaking of drinking... at one point, Jason pan fried a Twinkie™.

We had an incredible time and, all told, despite it all - I only gained 5 pounds, and most of that is just water weight. Already back down to 253 and now that I am recovering from collective sickness, it's time to see about fighting the second half of my weight battle, the tougher half as I push down first towards 221 and my 100 pounds lost marker, but then hopefully more towards 200. 

I have already lost 70+ pounds. I can sure as hell do this. :)

But seriously.

Pan fried twinkie.

It was

DELICIOUS.

Two Fiddy

Mark - Minecraft style.

I have a very short blog post today - but a very important one to me.
I hit my first major long-term goal on this plan, this morning.

250 pounds. :)

Since embarking on this change, I have therefore dropped 71 pounds - but it's more like 90 since I really started attempting to lose weight by joining my sister at a local gym way back in January of 2010.

It's been quite a journey the last four and a half months.  I've had so much support from friends, family and co-workers and I can't thank people enough for all of it.  I am feeling very good and looking forward to the rest of this year, and hopefully achieving my next big goal - losing a full 100 pounds on this new plan, which I'll do when I hit 221.  I'll call it 220 just to round things off.  That won't be the end, but it'll be what I initially set out to do.

Apart from numbers on a scale, I have learned to respect food in a new way, and to be selective when shopping, snacking and going out to eat.  With a better understanding of nutrition I don't feel like I am 'on a diet' any more.  I feel like I am in control of my eating habits, for the first time in many years.

This is the last blog post I am going to be making for awhile, too.  Dawn and I are off to Maui this Sunday and gone for a week.

Anyone who wants to see where we'll be can check this out:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=221+S+Kihei+Rd,+Kihei,+HI+96753&hl=en&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=54.621153,113.818359&oq=221+S&vpsrc=0&hnear=221+S+Kihei+Rd,+Kihei,+Hawaii+96753&t=h&z=17

Aloha.  I'll be back with more recipes, inane antics, and such when we return.

I never made a blog post about Christmas day, even.

Such a slacker, sheesh. ;)

-Mark

( -__- )

Pre-Vacation Weigh In

Click for Ze Beeg Version™

I can't claim to have been particularly attentive to my diet the last few days - I had french fries a couple of times, and some biscuits the other night, and even munched on some french toast with syrup. Somehow, I've still managed to lose a couple of my holiday pounds and that's a good thing.  Down to 252 this week, lowest I've managed to get yet.  That puts me one pound shy of losing 70 pounds since the start of my Dukan-based diet.

Next Sunday, we're headed out to Hawaii.  It's the first time we've been and we're both super excited about it and making all sorts of plans.  I'm sure while I am there, I'll sample assorted foods and do some drinking, but hopefully the damage will be minimal. We'll see.  Leslie was all excited about trying 'Loco Moco' which is a dish they have all over that sounds like someone's focused, deliberate attempt to put every single thing I have avoided eating on this diet onto one delicious, fat, carb and calorie-clogged plate.

I'm so looking forward to it.

Here's the first image you get from google if you look for "Loco Moco"

Eggs, Beef, Gravy, Rice, noodles, mac salad... and red dye #3

Apparently in Hawaii, everything you eat also comes with a scoop of macaroni salad.  I was somewhat familiar with this thanks to the local presence of L&L Hawaiian BBQ in Lynnwood, which has very tasty mac salad.  Curious about this, I tapped into the mighty power of the intertubes and asked, "why is macaroni salad so popular in Hawaii".

This is what the intertubes taught me.

I'll sum up for you though. As with most comfort foods - that shit was easy to make, and cheap, and abundant, so now it is everywhere.

Alrighty, over and out.

Time to fess up

Alrighty, it's time to put this up here so I can move forward.  December was awesome - tons of fun stuff going on - but it really marked a halt in the battle of Mark Vs. Mark.  A cease fire.. a lapse.. a... well...

I like to think of it as a momentary truce time for the holidays.  I neither gained nor lost weight, and the Germans had time to retrieve their dead from the battlefield.

I've got a vacation looming mid-January which is going to be awesome, too - but probably a serious food temptation. And while I have noble goals of exercising while in Hawaii...

Yeah. ;)

So my current battle plan is to come back from that action and dig into things again. I've let off on the throttle a little the last month to see what happens.  I'm actually pretty psyched to see that I will be able to maintain my weight level.  That said, I've got 50 or so pounds to go still on my weight loss and they are going to be much harder to shed than the ones I've already dropped.

This is just a short, start-of-2012, here we go - motivation time sort of post!

One more thing. Here's me in September 2011 - versus January 2012. 

42.3 BMI

33.6 BMI

Since starting this lifestyle change, I have been out walking and seen more of the world, I've participated in a charity 5K, I've been able to fit into chairs and booths at restaurants, I've had enough energy to feel antsy and want to get off my ass and do stuff on the weekend, and I have learned to cook a bunch of really awesome, tasty, healthy food.

I am excited to see where I can go next and very thankful for all of the support from people in my life, and for the small but mighty few of them who read this blog I've been writing.  If you are one of them, why not leave a comment on this post and tell me to get off my ass and back in gear for 2012. I could use the motivation. :D

<3

Mark

Minestrone, homey.

We ate at Olive Garden recently and Dawn had the minestrone and commented she'd like to try making some at home.  I mentioned I've seen plenty of websites out there which clone the recipes from popular restaurants and in minutes, she'd found one for the minestrone.

It had a couple of questionable aspects which we altered (namely, not much in the tomato department, which was odd considering minestrone is a tomato-based soup usually).

It was fun to make, and delicious. We added on some pepper-jack grilled cheese sammiches, which of course, you should skip if on a diet.  Yeah, I know. But it was good! Stop looking at me like that and eat this good soup, dammit.

I'll give you the ingredients in groups, and you'll see why. It's OK to put all the ingredients from each group in separate big bowls.

Group 1: Veggies

• 1/4 cup minced onion (preferably white)
• 1/4 cup minced celery
• 2 Tbs finely minced garlic (about 3 cloves)
• 1/4 cup chopped french or green beans (frozen OK)
• 1/4 cup finely chopped zucchini

Group 2: MOAR veggies

• 4 Cups vegetable broth (Swanson, low sodium)
• 1 28oz. can low-sodium diced tomatoes (and juice)
• 1 14oz. can dark red kidney beans, drained
• 1 14oz. can white kidney beans, drained
• 1/2 cup shredded carrots
• 1 1/2 cups hot water

Group 3: Spices

• 2 Tbsp minced fresh parsley
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp. dried basil
• 1/4 tsp. dried thyme

Group 4: Finishers

• 3 cups fresh baby spinach leaves, whole
• 1/3 cup uncooked small pasta, such as shells (we used tri-flavored elbow pasta. Whatever makes you happy. But 1/3 cup goes  along way.)

And of course...

Cooking:

1. Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil in a large soup pot

2. Cook Group 1 veggies about 5 minutes (until onion is translucent)

3. Add Group 2 veggies, pouring in the broth last. Also add Group 3 (spices)

4. Bring to boil, then reduce to medium-low and simmer 20 minutes.

5. Add group 4, stir in, and simmer another 20 minutes.

Grilled Cheese Sammich:

If you don't know how to make a grilled cheese sammich, don't worry. I've hired Odlug Spleenripper, the notorious chaos marauder, to help:

1. GET BREDS
2. GET HOT ROCKS
3. GET CHEESES
4. GET BUTTERS
5. SLATHER BUTTERS ONTO BREDS AND ATTACH CHEESE
6. GLORY IN THE SOUNDS OF ENDLESS BATTLE
7. WASH HANDS IN HEARTBLOOD OF GAROK VAROKROKSENROK
8. Enjoy with minestrone, homey.

©Games Workshop 1987... ish