Weigh In, Five, and Weekend Shenanigans.

The chart™

Morning, peeps! I didn't blog all holiday weekend but a lot of stuff sure happened.  First here's my Monday check in:

261 pounds. That means I'm exactly 60 pounds under my starting weight - a goal has been reached. :)

That also means I am a mere 40 pounds from my goal weight, and once I get there I don't plan to stop, I'm going to just have different goals beyond weight loss by that time.  I'll update my goal sheet and share that sometime soon too, but here's a fun look at my overall weight progress, both on my current push and overall. 

Thursday was, of course, Thanksgiving. I am going to devote a separate post to that tomorrow, since I have to hijack some awesome photos from Dawn's digital camera to spice it up.  To sum up though, it was very fun and food-friendly, too. I had some turkey, some green beans and mushrooms, and a little bit of a pretty righteous cake Dawn made for dessert. More on all that, later.

Friday, I did a short little bit of work in the morning, just for an hour or so.  I mostly popped by the office to see if it was busy enough that I needed to be there.. at the time it sure wasn't.  While I was there I learned that a co worker had some stuff which prevented really doing much for Thanksgiving.  That doesn't work for me, so after I left the office I went and got some apple cider and a couple of different types of cookies from the deli, and brought them back for the people working that day.

The Bhargavas in action.

Leslie and Parul dropped by mid day and we all went out to eat lunch at a Mongolian grill in Lynnwood.  Then the two of them went out walking with me on the good old college trail.  Thanks to their advanced gadgetry, I now know that the college walk is 5500 steps, and 2.5 miles. It was cool having the company and it was a beautiful day for a walk, sunny and dry.  As you can see in this photo, these two are just melting away!

Saturday, Dawn and I took care of some chores around the house and then she decided to go walking with me.  She's recovering from a hurt knee and bronchitis - but nonetheless, she walked the whole college trail with me, quite a trooper! I would put a picture of her up here too but generally speaking, I value my life enough not to post pictures of Dawn without her consent and signature in triplicate. Love you honey!

We went out to eat at Five in Edmonds that evening, a favorite hangout of ours. We shared some hummus and then ordered a few small pizzas for dinner.  I made a crack that it was going to be the most bread I've eaten in months.  I couldn't help but recall how we'd been at the same place several months earlier, at which time Parul ordered a pizza (he's a known pizza fiend) and made a comment about how he was breaking his food plan on purpose for the night. The parallel is amusing to me.

It's worth it:



Tomato, Basil, Mozzarella



Pear and Gorgonzola



Sunday, we started the day out with some serious laziness and it never got better for me, I didn't take a walk or do much of anything that particular day.. but, whatever. ;)

My brother and his daughter came by mid-afternoon and we all went out to grab some sushi from Blue C at the mall,  which Tessa likes.  I sneakily parked us a small distance from the restaurant so we could get in a minor little walk, haha. We rounded out the day and I made a healthy meatloaf for dinner, and Dawn made some of her righteous vegetarian soft tacos.

One other thing happened too.  I mentioned I have a holiday party coming up on 12/11 and I needed to decide what to wear, and was worried my clothes don't fit very well at the moment.  I tried on several sweaters and jackets from my closet, found out several are too big, one was too small, one is okay.

Then I tried on the button shirt that I wore for my wedding, and which I had worn to a few other holiday parties. A shirt that used to barely fit, and was super uncomfortable, tight, made my very self-conscious. Expecting it to be snug, I was utterly stunned when it floated on me. As in, I could pull it five or six inches out from my chest and stomach and the sleeves are too long.

I had to tell Dawn, "Sorry, I'm having a moment here. A 'Go Mark' moment. Hell yeah!" :D

Brined Chicken with Mushroom Sauce

I had some extra stuff kicking around last night and put together a pretty decent chicken and mushroom sauce dish.  The first recipe I found when googling sounded good so I gave it a shot, but altered it just slightly. 

I also sliced up and grilled some zucchini to go with this, it was a pretty good side. I would say asparagus would be better, personally.

OK ingredients time:

• 4 6oz. pieces of boneless chicken
• 8 oz. baby bell mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 yellow onion, diced
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1 1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
• 1/4 tsp cayenne
• 1/4 cup splenda
• 3 tbsp yogurt margarine (softened unsalted butter would work)
• 1 tbsp flour
• 4 cups water
• 1/2 cup kosher salt
• 3 tbsp lemon juice

To brine + prep chicken:

1. Clean fat

2. Combine water, kosher salt, lemon juice in large bowl, soak chicken for 30 minutes.

3. Pat dry, liberally sprinkle with black pepper (pinch of salt too if you like, I skip salt whenever possible)

4. Grill chicken until done.

Mushroom and Wine Sauce:

1. Heat tbsp of the yogurt margarine/butter and a tiny bit of olive oil over medium in saute pan

2. Saute onions, mushrooms and cayenne pepper until soft (about 8 minutes for me)

3. Add wine, reduce until mostly gone
4. Add chicken broth, and very slowly add in flour + remaining tbsps margarine/butter while stirring.
5. Simmer until liquid is about 1/2 reduced.

This was a very tasty recipe. You could prep the chicken differently, or even just grill it 100% plain and serve with the sauce.  To healthy it up even more - skip the marinade, and instead of butter/margarine, use a little corn starch to thicken the sauce.

I cook a lot of brown food, and we have brown plates. NOM.

Losing weight.. and other things.



My ring :)



So, almost all of my damned clothes are getting too big. I also have a freaky story about my wedding ring.  It got too loose to wear on my ring finger a little while ago, and lately, pretty loose even on my middle finger, where I have been wearing it.

Recently, I took Dawn over to Target in Lynnwood because she wanted to buy a new pair of gloves, and we needed a few other things.  When we walked in the front of the store, immediately there was a rack of women's winter gloves.  She tried on a nifty pair of fingerless gloves that have a little part which tucks over your fingers when it gets cold, but keeps them free otherwise so you can use your phone, camera, etc. more easily.

She had me try them on too, and I thought they were ultra comfy.  Then we hung them back on the rack, and she tried another few pairs from the rack.. wasn't sure.

We spent a while longer in the store, getting some other things and Dawn looked at gloves in other places as well. I think we were there for about a half hour more or so.  She ultimately decided to go with the first pair of gloves and we went back and grabbed them, and checked out.

Then I noticed, my ring was missing. I said, "Honey.. now.. don't freak out, but... I don't have my ring. I probably just took it off at home, while doing dishes or something. Don't worry."

If there is a better way to get your wife to freak out than to tell her "Don't freak out," I don't know one.

So we got home, and I looked around the typical places my ring would be.. nope, not there.  Then Dawn unpacked her shopping bags, and her gloves and put them on.. and inside one of them, in the finger, was my wedding ring.

So basically, it came off when we tried them on initially and sat there in that glove for a half hour while we walked the store, and we just so happened to grab that exact same pair of gloves from a rack of identical gloves to buy later on, or I wouldn't have a ring any more.

YIKES.

That bad boy needs resizing, but we're going to wait until later in case (or I should say, for when) I lose more weight too.

In other news, Dawn has craft night tonight and I am all alone this evening.  I'm going to cook up a big batch of chili for upcoming lunches and such, and I have a ton of chicken breasts I need to clean and freeze, and I plan to cook a few up for dinner.

I'm finding bell peppers to be a very nice part of my diet lately and they are very colorful too.  I think I am going to marinate some chicken for a little bit and maybe do enchiladas.  Trick is - dodging the tortillas, etc.  Corn is better than flour, but I'm going to find a way around it.

It'll be more of an enchilada stir fry and side salad.. thing, I guess. Haha.

Monday, Thanksgiving Looms, and Hike Plans.

Click for Big Size™

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.

Nom nom. About 350 calories, with the bun in.

Friday lunch+ walkin' the trail.

Being on vacation these last 2 days has been pretty nice, we didn't do much but the chill time has been refreshing.  Yesterday I took a nice roundabout walk to get to the store and pick some stuff up for Dawn, about 40 minutes.

Today, Leslie dropped by early in the day and we all went out to lunch and to Target to get some stuff for tomorrow.  We wound up over at Red Robin and Leslie promptly snagged a nutritional menu.

The two items there I have been getting when I go are the Ensenada Chicken Platter, and the sandwich you see here - their 'simply grilled chicken sandwich' - with a lettuce wrap.  About 350 calories in this thing, and another 32 in the steamed broccoli I had as a side dish.  Sodium, though, is 906.  Pretty steep! The platter, double that. Now mind you, that'd be if you included some of the stuff I don't eat like sauces, bun, etc.  Still, pretty much you are gonna get more sodium when you eat out.

The average burger on the menu? 1100-1300 calories. And that's not even including fries, fatty dipping sauces, etc.

Yikes.

That's as many calories as I eat in a whole day, just in a burger.

We hit target and walked around a bit, got some new hot pads and oven mitts, and Dawn and I scored some purple t-shirts to wear to the Saints Row party Leslie and Parul are throwing tomorrow. We're gonna represent. ;)

When we got back, Leslie and I hit the trail and did the 2+ mile walk around EdCC. I was afraid the leaves might have fallen all over the trail and would be a walking hazard, but it wasn't too bad... not sure if they keep the trail maintained year round or not.

I got this pretty snazzy shot of the clouds while we were out and about today.  It was supposed to SNOW a little today but it didn't happen.  In fact the sun was out - but it was cold. Anyway, here you go, and now I am off to prep some chicken to marinade for grilling tonight.  Dawn has been recovering from bronchitis too so we're pretty much zonked in the living room most of the time.

Vacation Time

Hmm.. what to write about...

Oh hello there.

I didn't write a blog post yesterday. I was a busy dude, getting ready to go on vacation, since I have today and tomorrow off.  I've been getting in plenty of walking this week and keeping a good eye on the diet. Things are going well.

Can't explain why but I have dropped a pound or so almost every day this week since Monday. The body is a mysterious thing when you are in the midst of weight loss.. sometimes it cooperates, sometimes not. Looks like this week is a loss week for sure.

Next week is Thanksgiving. I need to come up with something to cook and bring to my sister's place which is "Mark friendly" - turkey will be fine of course. I'm looking forward to it.. we always have a very nice family dinner. :)

We were going to spend today and tomorrow taking care of holiday gift shopping and stuff like that.. but unfortunately, Dawn has come down with bronchitis, so she's couch bound for the moment recovering. I'll get plenty of time to chill out and write, play some games, etc.  The weather outside sucks, so I am gonna be Mr. Treadmill and some other exercise at home today and tomorrow, seems like.

We also made some pretty awesome Thanksgiving cookies from Pilsbury. Well by 'made' I mean 'put in the oven for 10 minutes.'

I'm feeling very comfortable on my weight loss program at this point.. I have enough knowledge now about how to be smart when shopping and pick healthier items, and enough experience cooking that I am making all of my own meals and sticking to things very well. 

Just this week I am struggling with finding anything to really post about here - so I might take a few days off from it for the weekend. Got some fun stuff coming up. :)

Okbai.

Beltin' Tuesday in the face.

Nothing major to talk about today.. I'm feeling pleasantly brain dead to be honest! Down another pound this morning, for some reason this last week my body has been shedding them like crazy.  I'm not going to complain!  I had some tasty chicken and asparagus for dinner last night, some chili for lunch and some yogurt and oat bran earlier.

I do have one nice thing to report on I guess - I had to get a new belt this past weekend, my old one has been getting looser and looser, I even punched a new hole in it a while back to get it tighter.  Moving down a belt size is definitely an awesome feeling.  Most of my spare weight is around the middle, after all.

Once I get to wear a belt (and pants) at my actual waistline, I'm gonna flip out, I think. It's been so long since I could do that, I don't even remember.  I just bought pants for work a month or two ago and they are already getting too big.. ack! I guess it's a good problem.

Uhhh.. since I got nothin' else, here is a picture of where a belt is supposed to go - and where it really goes when you are a Fat Guy.