2008 March 25 « 200by40 – Weight Loss the Right Way

Weekly Weigh-In #1

2008/03/25 at 4:25 pm | Posted in Exercise, Food, Health, Weekly Weigh-In | Comments Off

I’ve decided that Tuesdays would be the day of my Weekly Weigh-In. That’s probably because “Wednesday’s Weekly Weigh-In” just had too many Ws in it for my liking. And it sounded like a lunch special at Souplantation or something.

Here’s how it will go down. I will:

Weigh myself each Tuesday morning at the same time
Wear the same clothes each time
Do it before breakfast

At any rate, here we go with this week’s results.

Weight for March 25, 2008: 251 pounds

That’s a gain of one half pound. Now I could go and eat a donut and cry and whine over gaining a mere 8 ounces but I’m not. I can’t. That’s not how things are going to work this time so I’ll accept it and move on to doing things right. Keep in mind that this included the Easter holiday on Sunday so I could have gained much more than I did.

Yesterday’s exercises included my 1.5 mile walk, sit-ups, weight training, biking for about a half mile with my son, and 30 minutes of Wii Sports. It was indeed a full slate of activities and it felt good to use my weight machine as such rather than the clothes rack it’s been for some time now.

My employer will be getting a fresh batch of fruit this morning so I’m set for snacks today. Dinner is still up in the air but chances are it will be some kind of chicken or a salad.

Speaking of food, when I changed my eating habits I made it a point to cut back on red meat. Chicken is about the only kind of meat I eat regularly; I was a fast-food carnivore prior to making the change.

I also gave up my reliance on diet soft drinks. People, you have no idea how bad I was when it came to diet soft drinks. I would buy a case and be through it within a day or two. It got a point where I literally felt addicted to them and needed a “fix” in order to carry on. That’s when I knew I had a problem–as if diet sodas were a hard drug–and quit cold turkey, much to my wife’s amusement.

“You? Give up diet sodas? Yeah, right!”

The next day I threw them all out and started buying bottled water.

I’m not saying I don’t drink them at all, no. I might have one every other day if the mood bothers to strike me. My beverages of choice are now bottled water, bottled water mixed with those flavor packets, or SoBe Green Tea.

My wife still a bit incredulous to the idea of me not drinking diet sodas anymore, especially switching to green tea. I hate it, but it’s better for you.

Another Holiday Gone

2008/03/25 at 4:11 am | Posted in Exercise, Food | Comments Off

With Easter behind me, I’m ready to get back on the schedule.

It’s no secret that the holidays bring with them the temptation to eat compulsively. And chances are you’re like me–you fall victim to all of the tasty goodness that is floating around. There was just too much food around the house for anybody to be “good” so I made a day of it.

But do I regret it? Of course not. If you ask me, it’s fine to skip a day–holidays, at least–in order to keep your sanity while trying to lose weight. The key is remembering to get back onto whichever plan you’re sticking to the very next day.

That’s where I’m at today. All the potato salad, ham, hot dogs and whatnot are in the past and it’s time to move on. I did so by drinking my usual amount of water while at work and in preparation of Easter, extended my lunchtime walk to 1.5 miles about a week ago:

Compare that to my old walking route:

That addition only adds a few more minutes and 1/2 mile to my walk; I do it all in about 20 minutes or so. And that’s where my job’s location helps me out. Because I take the train to work, I have to walk to and from the station and work, up and down stairs to the platforms, and also up and down the stairway in my office building. Every little bit helps and this is proof that no matter how busy you are, there is always time to do a minimum amount of exercise, and walking is about as easy and healthy as it gets.

So once this post is done, I’m off to do my nightly ritual: sit-ups, weight training and maybe some Wii Sports. No, it’s not easy and there are days when I just don’t feel like it.

But it must be done if I expect to reach my goal.

Further Reading

Rather than re-post entries from my other blog, I thought I’d link some categories that would be of interest. Here they are:

Posts of particular interest:

In “Good and Bad” I describe the mixed emotions I’m feeling about losing weight over a prolonged period of time
“Rewarding” is a kind of follow-up to the post mentioned above, in which I speak of rewarding myself for a job well done when nobody takes notice to my progress

See you all later.