Weekend Update #1

This weekend Brodie and I went and watched this movie:

Brodie liked it and fondly describes the movie as "nice bear, baby bears, and scary bear," which I think is an apt review of the movie.  I liked it, although it felt more like a Disney movie rather than a Pixar movie.  It was very reminiscent of Tangled which is probably one of my favorite Disney movies, so, there is that.

Brodie's favorite part of the movie didn't actually happen in the movie itself.  It happened before the movie in a trailer.  Brodie heard a familiar voice and then saw this:

(We've seen his smiling face on this Blog before.)

Brodie is absolutely fascinated with Gollum referring to him as "Precious."  We will definitely see this flick when it hits the theater.

Onto more weight loss related topics, I have made a very conscious decision to eat much much better.  With that said, my main goal when shopping at the super market is to avoid the middle of it.  I am going to focus most, if not all, of my attention to the outer fringes of the store.  Why you may ask? (Ok you probably already know why, but, for the sake of this Blog I'm just going to make an assumption that you don't.)   

The outside edges of the super market are occupied by all the fresh stuff.  The actual food: Fresh produce, meats, eggs, dairy, cheeses, and breads.  Where as the middle has all the not food, processed junk.  I am going to spend most of money on the outside, avoiding the middle to help my middle. 

With that in mind, yesterday and today's dinner's were pretty awesome.  Yesterday I made a pizza with grilled leaks, cherry tomatoes, and goat cheese.  I use the goat cheese in hopes Brodie will at least try it (He is allergic to cow's milk and isn't to fond of pizza, weird right?)  Well, he didn't want any part of the pizza so most of it went to me.  The crust was about about the size of a small dinner plate, so, it wasn't too terribly big. 

(Looks good, yeah?)

As for tonight, I made turkey burgers on whole wheat buns with sweet potato fries, which Brodie approved of.  I loaded mine up with broccoli sprouts and red onion.  Super good and pretty healthy as well.  Once again, going with the better quality foods rather than cutting back and starving myself.  At work I make sure and pack myself tons of fruits and veggies.  Today was a banana, a apple, a handful of radishes, and two carrots.  Those were my snacks for the day with the addition of a handful of pretzel sticks.  

And now I reach the point where I must disclose some information that I really haven't been looking forward to sharing.  My weight loss.  It's pretty much at the same point where I started.  This morning I weighed 270lbs.  I started this at 273lbs.  So last week when I said this was a reset, I really meant it.  I am basically starting all over again.  It sucks and I hate to think of all the sweat and time that I spent getting to the wonderful weight I was at previously.  But, oddly enough, I'm not all that discouraged.  

The reason I am not so discouraged is that I know I can do this.  I've done it before and I can do it again.  I am committed.  I know what works for me and I know what doesn't.  I know that if I skip a cardio session it is easy to skip the next one and then the one after that, and so on and so forth.  

So, this is officially the new week 1 and I am glad for it.

Until next time,
- Louie 

Frequency Delinquency

So, you may have noticed that my posting has gone down a bit.  This is not because I have fallen off the wagon again, this time it's a little more deliberate.  In the past I have updated this blog every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  This schedule has been a little hard to maintain as of late.  It's not that I don't have enough material to fill that many posts, it's just finding the time to sit at my desk at home and write.

Writing a post, for me, is a very precise process.  Typically I sit down before I even put finger to key and map out what I want to discuss and in what order.  After the map is complete, I clear off my desk put on some sweet jams, and get to typing.  While I am transferring my thoughts to my computer, I tend to ignore my surroundings and become engrossed in what I'm doing.  That becomes an issue with a four year old boy roaming the house.

(Don't let his cuteness fool you, he is a force of nature!)

So, I am going to scale back my posting to twice a week, Monday and Friday.  I'm thinking a weekend update on Monday and a weekly report on Friday.  I think this will be a little more manageable for my single dadness.  I want to keep on going with this blog and not feel as if it is a burden.

Now that that has been said, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

This week I have been taking it easy with my cardio sessions since I took so much time off.  I don't want to overdo it and so far so good.  Just fast paced walks for 30 minutes.  I'm going to continue this at least until next Monday.  

You may be asking yourself, "Self, why did the fine owner of this blog just bombard my eyes with an image of a nasty winged ant creature?"  

The answer is simple, because today, I had to walk through a whole bunch of those.

 (FOR THE HORDE!)

Yep, where I live these little guys have been hanging out in mass and I had the distinct displeasure of getting pelted in the face by swarms of them while walking into the wind.  It sucked, but, it did make me walk a bit faster on the way back to my car.  So, there's that.

Friday, I will present you with a week's worth of Run Reports, a Weigh In, and some very unflattering photo's of myself.  I would like to thank everyone who reads this for sticking with me.  I really can't thank you enough, dear precious readers.  Until next time.

- Louie

Reset

As I was saying,  I found it was easy to keep not exercising once I started, er stopped, whatever.  Much like this blog grinding to a halt, so did my exercise.  What was just one week, turned into two, and finally three.  Three weeks of no real exercise, no Zombies, Run!, no run reports, no weigh ins, and no cares.  I had my blinders securely fastened to my noggin.  I let complacency slip back into my life.  My diet suffered.  I started breaking my cardinal rules: no fast food, no frozen pizzas, no ice cream.  Alas, perspective shifted, my stomach brain was happy.  Life was easier.
And then, people started asking questions,

 "When will you update your blog?"

"How's the weight loss going?"

"Who the heck is Bossk and why is he your favorite Star Wars character?"

(True story.)

And I took a good long look at myself in the mirror and asked myself a question, "Where am I going?  What happened to the running, the feeling accomplished, the pride?"  

And then I stepped on the scale in my bathroom.  Apparently, my pride did a little transmogrification (it's a word) and decided it preferred the form of fat around my belly.

(Form of, Triglycerides!  Worse episode ever.)

What did my scale tell me?  266.5 pounds.  In three weeks, I had effectively undone seven weeks worth of work.  Seven weeks, of writing, and sweating, and feeling good about myself.  I had hit the metophorical reset button.    

So, I find myself at a crossroad.  Do I let those giant clocks on either side of Mr. Freeze reach zero?  Do I give up the good fight and go back to my easy non-exercising life?  Or do I throw another token in the machine and press start?  Back to the sweating, and the discomfort, and the fight?  Do I begin the struggle once more? 

7...

6...

5...

4...

3...

2...

1...

(clink)

Start.

- Louie

Prelude to reset.

Classy title, eh?  I was really hoping to write a long post this evening about where I am with my weight loss journey, but, I have a 5 am all day teleconference and not much time until I need to lay my head down and slip into a mini comma.

As you may have noticed, I haven't been paying attention to this blog as of late.  If it were a Tamagotchi, it would look like this:

(If you get this reference, Congratulations, you are old like me!)

Unfortunately, my exercise regime went the same way.  I found it was easy to keep not exercising once I started, er stopped, whatever. 

But more on that later, tomorrow to be precise.  This is just a prelude, remember?

- Louie