WIMHW 08.08.12

What's In My Head this Wednesday?  Ohhhh, plenty I suppose.  It's the time of week when I start thinking about the weekend and everything I have to get accomplished before close of business on Friday.  Conference calls, customer visits, a customer lunch and day-to-day stuff that keeps me pretty occupied.  Yet I still have time to think about food and my eating.  I guess that will never change.

Working Out is Working Out Fine
I had session #3 with the trainer last night.  Ryan is very encouraging and I greatly appreciate that.  I never feel inadequate, despite the fit and slim that surrounded me.  He pushes me to the point that I can't do much more, but is mindful not to press so hard that I will do damage.  I never thought that using little or no weights could get the muscles so engaged.  My right thigh was screaming when I got home last night from squats with a 10 lb. medicine ball, but in a good way.  Today I recovered pretty well.  I was expecting a lot more muscle ache.  So far, so good.  I'm digging the Crossfit.

Thanks Marcelle!
One of my readers suggested that I try Ebay for some new or gently used clothes.  I did just that.  I managed to pick up 5 pairs of pants for around $85, including shipping.  It will probably cost me another $25 for alterations, but I won't complain about that.  At around $22 a pair, who would?  Thanks for the tip, Marcelle!

Reading On Food
Since I got a Kindle Fire a month or two ago, I have been scanning various sources for articles, all regarding food, fitness and weight-loss.  I also subscribed to a trial membership of Bon Apetit Magazine.  Aside from being extremely well laid out and having stunning images, I was taken by the fact that Bon Apetit has plenty of articles and recipes that fit my lifestyle or can be easily adapted to do so.  It's comforting that the idea of good food not having to be rich, fat-laden, highbrow cuisine, but healthy, seasonal and simple fare is going more mainstream.  I encourage all of you who enjoy cooking to look to all sources for inspiration.  You will be surprised at what you find.  Right now I see much of what is in print dedicated to summer vegetables and fruit.  I will be reporting on a few of the finds which I plan to make, like watermelon gazpacho and corn soup.

Cya Tomorrow,
M

What I ate and how I exercised:
Breakfast ~ 1 egg and chicken sausage on whole grain bread
Lunch ~ Sweet potato falafel on 1/2 a whole grain pita w/silken tofu tsasiki sauce.  I'll post the recipe sometime soon.
Snack ~ About 1 oz. of beef jerky
Dinner ~ TBD
Exercise ~ It's a nice night.  I think I will take foster dog Fay for a walk. 

Six Month Anniversary

Welcome to the TDT195 six-month anniversary factapalooza!  Today we celebrate 182 days of dietary sobriety on the road to wellness.  I'll bathe you in factoids and minutiae regarding both my weight loss and the blog itself.  Today, no funny or sad stories and nothing educational.  If you are like me, then you find this stuff interesting.  If not, then that's fine.  I am sure the personal nature of this writing gives it a few extra points on the fascination scale.

Weight Loss Related Tidbits

• As of yesterday, the actual 6-month mark, I have lost a total of 65.2 lbs. or an average of 2.5 lbs. per week or 5.76 oz. per day.
• At the current rate of weight-loss I will hit my goal of 195 lbs. by May 22, 2013.
• If 1 lb. of fat  = 3500 calories (this is a universally accepted figure), then I have reduced my intake and burned through exercise 228,200 calories or 1,253.4 calories per day.
• I no longer am in need of my CPAP machine to ward off sleep apnea.  In fact, I seldom even snore any more.  On the rare occasion I do, one warning from The Wife is enough to fix it.
• My pants size on February 6 was 60 or 62 depending on the cut of the slack.  Today it is size 54.
• My shirt size on the start date was 5X and is now 3X.

Blog Related Statistics

• There have been 167 posts (not including this one) in 182 days.
• It takes, on average, 1 hour and 45 minutes to research, write and edit each entry.  That is a total of 292.25 hours or the equivalent of working a full-time job for 7.3 weeks.
• There have been 9,714 pageviews as of this writing from 10 countries or an average of 53.4 per day.
• The most read entry is still "My Wife Tried to Kill Me On Oct. 10, 2008" followed by "Weigh-in: Week 4".  What makes week 4 so bloody interesting is beyond me.  It has surpassed "Size Matters" for the #2 slot.
• There have been 25 recipes offered here and to the best of my knowledge, no one has died or even gotten ill as a result.
• There have been 35 items added to my "Dream Bigger" bucket list, of which, one has been partially achieved by not needing a seat belt extension on flights to both Minneapolis and Boise.
• There have been 168 comments left on these pages and I think that, perhaps, 40% of those were responses from this writer.  Thanks to all who have commented, complimented and encouraged.  It means the world to me.
• There has only been one comment I deemed to be negative and I did not delete it, nor will I ever delete a comment unless it is lewd or downright mean.
• 74% of readers are Windows users, 11% Mac and 8% read from their phone.  I find the phone readers stat the most humbling.  Thanks, all you dedicated smart-phone folks!

In the interest of brevity and not boring the bejeezus out of you, that's all I have for now.  Once again, I am beyond thankful for everyone's support during this undertaking.  I ask for one thing of you all.  I feel I am helping a small percentage of you out there by sharing my story and my methods.  I'd like to help even more people.  If you feel you know someone that could either benefit from or, perhaps, just plain enjoy reading this blog, please share it with them or maybe share the link on your Facebook page. 

Cya next time,
M

What I ate today and how I exercised:
Breakfast ~ Generic Grape Nuts cereal w/fresh blueberries, bananas and almond milk
Lunch ~ Leftover whole wheat linguine in a light seafood broth
Mid-afternoon ~ Grande Iced Decaf Vanilla Skinny Latte and some glazed almonds
Dinner ~ 3 oz. of porcini crusted skirt steak, an arugula salad w/chipotle lime dressing and a slice of whole grain bread to sop up the goodness
Exercise ~ Session #3 of Crossfit training KICKED MY ASS.  I am going to feel it tomorrow I am sure.

Weigh-in: Week 26

Welcome to the 26th Weigh-in Results Show.  That means that today marks the six month anniversary of TDT195.  If you come back tomorrow I will bathe you in facts, statistics and perspective on the first six months of my new lifestyle and the blog.  For today it's all about the scale though.


A somewhat infrequent occurrence this week.  I saw a slight gain.  0.2 pounds of gain in all.  I look at this as no change.  This is the third or fourth time our history that this has played out to negative progress on scale day.  Truth be told the first step on the scale read 297.2, but I always look to get a reading verified twice before I post it.  298.2 withstood that scrutiny.  Bummer.  Bottom line: I am around the same as last week.  I'm not thrilled, but not concerned in the slightest.  I know where I could have done better and it's easily correctable.  Total loss to date is 65.2 lbs.  The scale will move in the right direction next Monday.  Body fat percentage and water percentage remained unchanged.

Cya Tuesday for the 6 Month Extravaganza,
M

What I ate today and how I exercised:
Breakfast ~ 1 egg with diced chicken andouille and tomato on whole grain bread
Lunch ~ Sliced roasted turkey, tomato, arugula and lite mayo on whole grain bread w/a large serving of gazpacho
Dinner ~ TBD, but likely some Tom Yum soup and lite Chinese food w/brown rice
Exercise ~ I am going to get in 20 minutes or more on the treadmill if it kills me

A.L.O.E. 08.05.12

A Little Of Everything a little bit late.  I was off doing other things in the non-weight loss world last night and hadn't gotten to write the A.L.O.E. post for Sunday.  I have pledged to write six entries a week or at least have six posts if a guest blogger comes along for the ride.  Here are a few snippets for our last session before weigh-in is officially posted on Monday night.


Crossfit Session #2
I originally had scheduled a my second session with my trainer for Thursday after work.  Unfortunately, I was tending to a debit card fraud that swallowed about 3 hours of my day on Thursday.  We rescheduled for Saturday morning.  I told Ryan, my trainer, that it was a good thing too because I was still a little sore in spots, particularly around my knees.  He went a little easy on me as a result... or at least easier than the previous sweat-a-thon.  We went through a scaled back version of what he had set out for me to accomplish.  I am guessing that I am one of his biggest clients and he is trying to find the sweet spot, pushing me beyond my perceived abilities to my actual capabilities.  All of the muscle fatigue I endured for the days following day one of the gym have subsided and I have new, but lesser, fatigue in other areas, mostly the abs.  The Wife said it is the lower abs and I shot back "Of course it is.  I am only working on a 3-pack to start."


Six Months Down
Monday August, 6 marks the six month anniversary of this endeavor for a new me.  Since it is a weigh-in day and that takes precedence over everything else, I will have a six month retrospective of facts and my figure.  Hard to believe it has been 182 days already.  


Cya later for the weigh-in results,
M


What I ate Sunday and how I exercised:
Breakfast ~ 1.5 egg omelet with chicken andouille, tomato, reduced-fat provolone and one piece of whole grain toast scraped with Earth Balance Spread.  Decaf w/fat-free 1/2 &1/2
Lunch ~ Sliced roasted turkey, with tomato and mayo on a deli flat
Dinner ~ Porcini crusted skirt steak w/arugula salad 
Evening ~ 1.5 O'Douls while seeing my cousin Peter's awesome band, Almost Easy
Exercise ~ Yard work

Speak of the Devil

I have often contended that nature has endowed us with an inherent ability to know what we should eat and what we should avoid.  On some level it is a variant of our brains saying that food that smells bad is dangerous and aromas that are pleasing are edible.  This isn't a scientific fact that I present, but a personal certainty that our bodies want us to nourish ourselves properly and when we choose a donut over a piece of fruit or some healthy cereal, we overridden our programming with the free will we have also been granted.  It's the age old angel on one shoulder and devil on the other.


I used to reference that devil in my rantings here, but as of late he hasn't been spoken of much.  For the longest while he was on a holiday somewhere, perhaps on the shoulder of some other fat guy, maybe Chris Christie or Louie Anderson.  I knew he'd be back.  And I had a feeling that it would be right around the time I hit 299.  Having a food addiction is a lifelong struggle.  Just like an alcoholic never becomes cured, there is always a kernel of the addiction planted deep inside of us abusers of food.  Someone wrote me a Facebook message the other day and mentioned a friend of theirs that had slimmed down.  When you would compliment him on his svelte form, he would reply "Thanks, but there is still a fat f**k on the inside."  Lately, I feel my 'fat f**k' trying to emerge once again.  I haven't been eating candy or pizza or anything someone would look at and say "Geez, that's bad for you."  What I have been doing is blurring the line with a little bread while eating out, a glass or two more wine during the week or a SoCo rocks here or there.


These are the small variances that have tended to derail my efforts in the past.  Much like small victories add up and make you feel like a winner, so, too, do the failures to yield to the angel on my shoulder move me closer to backsliding.  These missteps have gravity much more than caloric impact.  It's the wearing down of progress and of my resolve.  So today I write of these things in an effort to remind myself to stay the course and shun the devil.  I'm still in a good place, but peeking over the fence to see what it is like where I used to live doesn't serve me well.  


To help push me back to my center, the cosmos sent me a message in the form of a dream.  Not a dream of mine, mind you, but a dream via my wife Tabitha.  On Thursday night, she had a vision of the thin me.  Much of the dream was about my future skin removal surgery.  It was rather odd, like many dreams are, but that wasn't the part that moves me.  When retelling the story, her eyes were alight with joy for the future me she saw.  I was fit, confident and happy.  She saw what I have been envisioning in my head for the longest time.  She got to scry into the future and know what lies ahead and she was excited.  It was infectious seeing that joy in her eyes as she told me about it.... several times yesterday, in fact.  So thank you, sleeping Tabitha, for energizing me and motivating me to eschew that devil on my shoulder.  On to the next small victory for me.


Cya Sunday,
M


What I ate today and how I exercised:
Breakfast ~ Grape Nuts (generic brand, actually) w/fresh blueberries and almond milk
Lunch ~ Sliced roasted turkey on whole grain Italian bread w/tomato and lite mayo
Dinner ~ Seen here, I had an arugula salad with tomato, chick peas and fat-free feta, drizzled w/lemon and EVOO and some homemade sweet potato baked falafel on the side.  Looks good, right?
Evening out ~ 1.5 O'Douls
Exercise ~ None

Food Thursday 08.02.12

The last few weeks I have had a taste for some jambalaya.  For years I have used the Zatarain's Jambalaya Mix out of the box and doctored it up with my own enhancements.  My thought process recently was to use boil-in-bag brown rice and the spice packet from the Zatarain's, some chicken andoullie sausage and my normal accoutrements.  I had the sausage and the brown rice, but when I went to the pantry to find my cache of Zatarain's, there was none!  The horror of it all!  I was all amped up for a delicious meal and now what?  It's a good thing I'm well equipped to handle such atrocities.  Packet, schmacket.  I'd make my own spice mix.


Here is what I came up with on the fly.  I have to say it was pretty damn good.  It is ready in about twenty-five minutes and, for my money, even better the next day.  I like mine with a few dashes of Frank's Red Hot stirred in, but you may not be a hot sauce kind of person.  You can also change the level of heat in the dry spices by adjusting the amount of cayenne.  If your family likes this type of food, it's a perfect weeknight offering.  Jambalaya is like a blank canvas to which you can add chicken, shrimp or even crawfish.  When using seafood, just add it in during the last five minutes of cooking instead of at the beginning.  Heck, I've added multiple proteins in a single batch using leftover rotisserie chicken or lean pork.  Just be sure to watch your fat and salt levels in the additional ingredients.  Go ahead.  Experiment.  Play with your food!


Quick and Easy Jambalaya
Serves 3


Ingredients

1 tsp smoked paprika 
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper 
1 tsp garlic powder 
1 tsp onion powder 
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp celery seed
1 pinch cumin (1/8 tsp)
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 red bell pepper diced into 1/4" squares
2 stalks celery diced 1/4" 
1/4 cup diced onion
3 chicken andouille sausages
1.5 tsp Worcestershire sauce 
1.5 cups low-sodium chicken stock or broth
1.5 cups or 1 small can diced tomatoes, liquid included
1 bag brown rice, boil in bag removed (Success is the brand I use)
2 Tbs chopped fresh parsley (use 1 tsp dry as a sub, but add it to your spice mix in step 1)


Method

1. Mix your dry ingredients (paprika through thyme) in a small bowl, breaking up any clumps you might have in the cayenne or paprika.
2. Slice your sausages down the middle lengthwise so that you have six long pieces, then crosswise in 1/2-inch slices.
3. In a large microwave safe bowl, add all of your ingredients, except the fresh parsley, mixing very well to fully incorporate your spice mix.
4. Cover with either a lid or cling wrap and microwave on high for 15 minutes, stirring half way through.  BE CAREFUL!  IT WILL BE VERY HOT AND STEAM WILL BURN YOU!  *microwave times vary.  Test your rice for doneness.
5. Remove from the microwave, stir and let sit for 5 minutes.  
6. Stir in parsley and serve with a nice side salad and hot sauce.

I hope you enjoy this quick version of my jambalaya.  The brown rice has a lower glycemic index than the traditional white rice and the batch I made came in at only 210 calories per serving.  Your brand of sausage or protein of choice will vary the nutritional content.

Cya,

M

What I ate Thursday and how I exercised:

Breakfast ~ Kashi Go-Lean Crisp cereal w/banana and almond milk

Lunch ~ Smoked Turkey and lean ham on a deli flat w/tomato and lite chipotle mayo

Dinner ~ Sliced roasted turkey breast and an arugula salad dressed with lemon and EVOO, plus shaved parmigiano cheese

Evening decaf w/fat free half and half

What's In My Head Wednesday 08.01.12

Midweek, once again, and time for yours truly to do a brain dump.  This is what is on my mind this first day of August.  Okay, I'm late in writing this, so it's the second day in August.  But I promise you these things were on my mind yesterday too.  I treated myself to dinner with my best friend and a night at the Sands to play poker.  And yes, I won.


Out Of The Mouths Of Babes
Or should I say brats?  The brutal honesty of kids has always been a reminder to me of my obesity.  Monday I received such a gem, issued in the form of an insult from a 7 year old boy.  I walked into my wife's main office to pick something up for her.  This place has always been like a daycare center with up to four toddlers at a time prowling the toy riddled space, sometimes replete with a kiddie pool, half filled in the middle of the room.  Like a rug-rat day spa.  This little monster popped out as I entered the door and called to his mother "Oh!  It's just a big fat guy."  "Just a big fat guy.", I repeated for benefit of his mother who was rounding the corner.  What I wanted to say, but I bit my tongue in deference to the fact that my wife works for the little shit's grandmother was "I got fat from eating rude little boys like you.  Arrrrrggghhhhh!"  His mom rolled her eyes and quietly said "I'm sorry."  You're sorry?!  Make HIM apologize for Pete's sake!  That little snot will always be rude and obnoxious because his mother lets him.  She should have admonished him on the spot and forced him to beg my forgiveness.  Maybe have him wax my car or something.  You'll be reading about him in your local papers as part of a bullying story in a about 7 years.  Mark my words.  I left more agitated than hurt, but reminded that I'm not there yet.  I will be soon though.


Self-deprecation
One of my readers and good friends called me out recently for some self-deprecating humor in my blog.  She said "No need to make fun of yourself though, others have done that for you long enough."  I do hope that what I see as a humorous aside doesn't make my readers uncomfortable.  This is a means of keeping the mood light, so folks do not get the feeling that when they come here it is a downer and Mike whining about his trials and tribulations.  I am okay with laughing at myself.  I have a good sense of humor and use it to cope or help others understand me.  If there are those of you out there that are made uneasy by this, please let me know.  As for me, I'm all good.


Cya later for a great quick and healthy jambalaya recipe,
M


What I ate Wednesday and how I exercised:
Breakfast ~ Kashi Go-Lean Crisp cereal w/almond milk
Lunch ~ On the road w/a McDonald's Grilled Chicken Chipotle BBQ Snack Wrap (260 calories, 8g fat) and a big serving of some homemade gazpacho 
Mid-afternoon ~ Starbucks Mocha Lite Frappaccino and some almonds
Dinner ~ Some bread prior to steak and Brussels sprouts, decaf w/milk for dessert
Playing Poker Free Cocktail ~ 1 Southern Comfort on the rocks w/a lime wedge