Thanksgiving

Calories eaten yesterday: 1198
Fat: 25g (22%)
Carbs: 85g (33%)
Protein: 121g (45%)
Calories burned in exercise today: 0

The silliest thing was said to me yesterday in a Flickr photo comment. The person claims I "binge often (on CARBS) because you don't get enough whole grains." WTF? How did mankind exist before the advent of agriculture when there were no whole grains and any form of carbs were few and far between?

No, I binge because carbs are physically addictive and I am an addict. You don't give a drug addict more drugs so why do people push carb addicts to eat more carbs?

At any rate, HAPPY THANKSGIVING to everybody!



Brad is sick and didn't want any Thanksgiving dinner. He bought two very anemic looking boneless, skinless chicken breast because he didn't want anything. Boneless skinless chicken breast holds about as much interest for me as the boneless skinless chicken breast I used to eat every day and am sick of. I eventually dug up some tilapia (a kind of fish) and had that along with the cauliflower potatoes and rum cake, alone at work.

Brad went back and forth with the time. I eventually started around noon today and will get off at 8 or 9 - not exactly sure yet.

Let's see, I guess I have to say what I'm thankful for. I am thankful for
God
having a job
my kitties Xena and Abby (the bestest kitties in the world!)
Brad's friendship

Have a good weekend everyone! I'll be posting a bit of Facebook while I am gone, and other than that I should be back with blog posts next Wednesday and a report on my trip. I may or may not have internet access while gone, but I should be able to post some updates to Facebook via my cell phone if you want to keep up with me.

My Thanksgiving - Working Out, Then Working

Calories eaten yesterday: 1230
Fat: 22g (17%)
Carbs: 119g (39%)
Protein: 134g (44%)
Weight this morning: 129.2 (One week ago: 129.2)
Calories burned in exercise today: 332

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope yours was a great one!

Here's what I am thankful for:

1) God's salvation.
2) God's Word, the Bible.
3) my friend Brad.
4) a job in this poor economy. My employer laid off a bunch of people just this past week right before the holidays. So I am thankful that I still have work.
5) my two cats Xena and Abby.

Yesterday was the first truly cold and rainy day of the season. It was freezing. I actually took hot tea with me on the bus, and had three cups of hot tea at work. Today it was 60 degrees like yesterday, but felt warmer.

I had a ton more energy today because I ate more. Breakfast was some of the veggie casserole I made, plus coffee with milk and Splenda, two of my healthy homemade oatmeal cookies (plus I ate one last night and one in the middle of the night), about a cup of unsweetened applesauce, and a small apple.

We live in a graceless world. I walked up to the Starbucks inside Safeway this morning and this one woman insisted that I had cut in front of her. I don't know if I did or not, but since that one minute was just so important to her I let her go ahead. As I said, a graceless world. The unsaved don't even know what graciousness really is. And I was the one on the tight schedule and working today. She was just picking up items for Thanksgiving dinner with her family. Gee, wish I could have Thanksgiving at home with my family. At the Starbucks I got a tall non-fat, sugar-free Cinnamon Dulce latte, a small bar of dark chocolate, and one petite vanilla scone.

I'm not sure that Starbucks got my latte order right (I wanted two shots), but I was too busy to check every detail. Then the bus didn't come. I had let the first one pass so I could get go up to Starbucks and get coffee, but the next one didn't show up. That made me late getting to the gym because the next bus didn't come for an hour. I wish I would have taken the first bus.

So I had a crappy morning, but things got better once I got to the gym. Like Emo Phillips said, "Some mornings it just doesn't seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps."

The gym was busy this morning. It was open in the morning, but they were shutting down at 2 pm. When I came in a little before noon there were a ton of people in both and cardio and weight rooms. I had to do my weight training as machines were available. I did some leg work with my arms as I didn't get a leg day this week.

For cardio I did the pedal-type Stairmaster for 30 minutes. Sweat was literally dripping off me. :) I tried to wear my heart rate monitor so I could work hard enough to keep my heart rate up, but the Stairmaster doesn't have a heart rate feature on it! :-p

Brad and I had Thanksgiving dinner here at work. Turkey of course, and veggie casserole with coffee afterwords and homemade oatmeal cookies for dessert. I did eat bad on the way here. I walked to work from the train station. Burger King was open and I tried to assuage my chicken sandwich craving with chicken nuggets. Didn't work. I bought the six pack of cheesy tater tots. They were only so-so, so when I got panhandled outside I gave the woman the remaining three. I also got a crispy chicken sandwich, but with no mayo (dry sandwich). It was what I was craving and hit the spot. At the convenience store I bought a Snickers bar (was craving that, too), and a small bag of Doritos, but I split those with Brad.

So I didn't do as well as I could have food-wise, but things could have been much worse. My weight will majorly rebound tomorrow. :(

A word on my diet for those who don't know:
I am no longer doing a strict low-carb diet. As some of you may know, my calories were going too high so I had to switch to a low-fat diet to keep the calories down. I still watch my carbs. I don't like how the Cream of Wheat runs my carbs up higher than I'd like, but it's the lowest calorie way to get my iron up.

With my fat low and my carbs controlled, the rest of my calories come from protein. As some of you may know, I am a huge fan of protein and feel pretty good on a high protein diet. I try to get about 1g of protein for every pound I weigh. When I don't get the normal amount of protein my body is used to I start craving it.

Technorati tagged: diet, low fat, weight loss, health, exercise, obesity, overweight, fitness

Week 36 Weigh-In

Start: 154
Week 1: 150 (-4) - Week 2: 148.6 (-1.4)
Week 3: 146 (-2.6) - Week 4: 147.2 (+1.2)
Week 5: 145.6 (-1.6) - Week 6: 144 (-1.6)
Week 7: 143 (-1) - Week 8: 142.8 (-0.2)
Week 9: 143.6 (+0.8) - Week 10: 141.2 (-2.4)
Week 11: 143.8 (+2.6) - Week 12: 142.4 (-1.4)
Week 13: 142.4 (-0) - Week 14: 141.6 (-0.8)
Week 15: 139.4 (-2.2) - Week 16: 140 (+0.6)
Week 17: 139.2 (-0.8) - Week 18: 139 (-0.2)
Week 19: 138 (-1) - Week 20: 135.4 (-2.6)
Week 21: 137.2 (+1.8) - Week 22: 139.6 (+2.4)
Week 23: 143.2 (+3.6) - Week 24: 143.6 (+0.4)
Week 25: 137.6 (-6) - Week 26: 139.6 (+2)
Week 27: 142 (+2.4) - Week 28: 137.2 (-4.8)
Week 29: 137 (-0.2) - Week 30: 136.8 (-0.2)
Week 31: 142.2 (+5.4) - Week 32: 136.8 (-5.4)
Week 33: 137.8 (+1) - Week 34: 135.8 (-2)
Week 35: 137.6 (+1.8) - Week 36: 143.8 (+6.2)
Total loss: -10.2

Ok, now to catch up on other numbers.

Calories eaten Friday: 1061
Fat: 27g (23%)
Carbs: 67g (25%)
Protein: 96g (37%)
Weight Friday morning: 141 (One week ago: N/A)
Calories burned in exercise Friday: 312

Weight Saturday morning: 138.6 (One week ago: N/A)
Calories burned in exercise Saturday: 0

Calories burned in exercise today: 356

Crap. I just keep gaining. 6.2 pounds?!? WTF?!? Even binging before the race never made me gain that much. I guess with vacation and the holidays plus the planned off-plan days there's no hope of losing weight. I'll be darn lucky not to gain a ton. There's really no way to stay on plan day in and day out until after my birthday in January. My body hates me.

Thursday I made a total piggy of myself. Oink oink. I ate from the time I got up to the time I went to bed. I have got to do better and keep my binges to one or two meals instead of morning to night.

I ate mostly healthy food - even dessert was sugar-free, fat-free homemade chocolate cheesecake. But I ate four slices - half of the cheesecake. But because it was sugar-free and fat-free I probably didn't do to much damage. I used sugar-free Jello pudding as the flavoring, Splenda to sweeten, and 16 oz. of fat free cream cheese. Egg whites as a binder instead of whole eggs.

Bread was low-carb and I only had a couple slices. No cranberry sauce or potatoes. We had caulifower potatoes. We also snacked on sardines, and apple slices with peanut butter - no cheese and crackers here.

I pretty well gorged all day that day, but it was mostly healthy food I pigged out on, and I did make it to the gym that morning.

Friday Brad and I went walking in and around the San Leandro marina. We finally found a trail that looks quite long and is paved so easily doable after dark. This Friday there was a full moon to light our way, but we won't have that every week of course.

Saturday was church and in the evening we saw Evan Almighty on Pay Per View. I really liked the movie. I'd give it three stars out of four. It contains a lot of nuggets of truth and the story line flowed well and made sense. Both church and the movie were quite thought-provoking and it will take another blog post to go into this.

After church we did some mall walking to get in some extra steps.

Today I went to the gym. Did one hour of upper body weights, 30 minutes of cardio on the crossramp elliptical, and then I walked to work from BART because it's faster to walk on Sundays than wait for the bus. FitDay says I burned 356 calories.

I bought a new pair of weight lifting gloves. I bought the same kind as I did before. As I worked out today I noticed that one glove had a hole in it. They are wearing out. I tried on one of the gloves in the new pair to make sure it was the right size and it was so much tighter. I didn't realize how stretched out mine were.

Ok, here's the photos from Thanksgiving and the weekend. Click the thumbnails for a larger size and the story behind the photo.

Thanksgiving




Friday



Saturday

Technorati tagged: diet, low fat, weight loss, health, exercise, fat, overweight, NutriSystem, weigh-in

Thanksgiving

Calories eaten yesterday: 1233
Fat: 29g (23%)
Carbs: 76g (26%)
Protein: 141g (49%)

Weight this morning: 136.4 (One week ago: N/A)
Calories burned in exercise today: 366



Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Hope your day is a blessed one!

Had a larger breakfast than usual - about the same amount of protein as usual, but more carbs. I went to the gym. Did one hour of weight training (mostly upper body), then 30 minutes of cardio. Due to my larger breakfast I had more energy than usual; I hardly needed my energy drink. Then I was going to do the treadmill program, but at the first running interval I went for 12 minutes instead of the 2 minutes I normally do. At 5.0 mph that's one mile. I went back into the program after that and at the second interval I went for 3 minutes at 5.5 mph. That came to 31 minutes total.

The bus wasn't running often due to the holiday, so I walked the last 30 minutes to work, stopping at Starbucks for a double tall nonfat sugar-free Gingerbread latte and a chocolate biscotti.

One word on the medication. I had earlier said that it had gone up in price and they were now charging me almost $100 for my meds. Maybe that was in Canadian money and/or included shipping though, because when the meds came while I was on vacation they only charged me $76. I get free shipping for life because I took the $99 deal they offered - pay the one time fee and never pay shipping again. At any rate, it's only gone up a little - $69 to $76.

Here's a random photo of me taken at work yesterday. Click it for a larger size. Thanksgiving photos to come.



I put up some photos that my sister sent. Click the links to go to their photo page:

Millie, me, and my niece Marina
Thanksgiving dinner
the bed I slept in - it will someday be Marina's bed
Dad holds Marina
Millie holds Marina

Technorati tagged: diet, low fat, weight loss, health, exercise, obese, overweight, NutriSystem, Thanksgiving, holiday

Seattle, Day 4

A couple things I forgot to mention yesterday. As most of you probably know, the Space Needle restaurant slowly rotates. What I didn't know was that the windows/walls and center do not rotate. It tweaked my brain for the walls and center and remain stationary while the table/floor moved. It even made me a little nauseous. it doubly tweaked my brain to get used to that and then go upstairs to the Observation Deck, which does not revolve.

The second thing I forgot to mention was at REI. I found and bought a single serve packet of freeze dried ice cream. I haven't had it in ages and it tasted great! :)

Today Renato let me use his laptop to catch up on the blog and step log. Then he asked if I wanted to come for a walk as he walked the dog. After that preparations for Thanksgiving dinner began in earnest. We ate cheese, crackers, and bread and drank wine while Renato cooked.

When all was ready we set the table, took pictures, and ate. Afterwards we had coffee, April did most of the clean up, and I helped.

Then I packed and got ready. I leave tomorrow morning! 3 1/2 days down, 1/2 day to go!

Technorati tagged: diet, low fat, weight loss, vacation, Seattle, holiday, Thanksgiving

Week 31, Day 3

Calories eaten yesterday: 1302
Fat: 37g (26%)
Carbs: 103g (32%)
Protein: 132g (41%)

Weight this morning: 133.8 (One week ago: 133.6)
Calories burned in exercise today: 245

First, to catch up on yesterday I forgot something. An NSV - as I walked from the train station to work a truck passed by and honked at me. :) I guess I look good. It was one of those tractor trailer trucks only without the trailer.

Dad called me last night and it looks like family duties call once again. April wanted me to come see her and new baby and Dad said he will pay for my plane ticket if I fly up the week before Thanksgiving and he and Millie will be there too. We'll have an early Thanksgiving. I have to go. I don't really want to but it's my duty to do so. I just know that I will gain a ton of weight so now I have to stay very focused on loss between now and when I leave. I found some flights (Southwest is cheap). Now I just need to get Dad's credit card number to book it since I don't have a credit card.

My calorie are high today, but will be lower tomorrow. I'm trying a bit of calorie cycling - higher on days I go to the gym and lower on days I don't.

Technorati tagged: diet, low fat, weight loss, health, exercise, obese, overweight, NutriSystem

Thanksgiving pic

Oh, here's the most recent pic of me. Didn't come out great. It was taken after Thanksgiving dinner. That's coffee in one hand, and a forkful of cake in the other. :) This was just a day or two after I noticed my huge gain.



2005 pic

Thanksgiving

I like excercise. :) And I'm trying to get as much use out of my free pass as possible because I won't be able to actually join until at least mid-December, maybe later. So I'll be going back to Curves for at least a short time. I've been overdoing it a bit; my left ankle often hurt when I work out and I'm worried I might be pushing that body part harder than I should. The rest of me feels great and I need to burn calories right now anyway.

Promise...Friday I'll be good, and Sunday I will start over with very low carbs and get back into ketosis and hopefully lose some of this weight by this time next week. Promise, promise.

Today is a carb fest. Brad forgot the sweet potatoes, so I picked some canned ones up on my way to work - pure carbs. And the sparkling juice - pure carbs. And the cake. And the stuffing. And the cranberry. Shoot...all the traditional food is pure carbs!

Give Thanks

Thanksgiving on Thursday was good. Brad brought cornish game hens, yams, and cherry pie (I hate pumpkin). I brought Martinelli's, cranberry sauce, and two wine glasses. I had two turkey TV dinners in the freezer at work, so I used them to provide us with stuffing and mashed potatoes. It was a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. We even topped it off with coffee (provided by me). All we were missing was the rolls. Brad accidentally left them at home.

Here's a Thanksgiving prayer I wrote Wednesday:

Help me to walk closer to You, God. I backslide so often, walk away, go my own way. I don't want to be like that. You have been so good to me. I don't know why I am so mean in return. But even through my most recent struggles, You have held me tight, and Your Holy Spirit has never stopped working on me.

Thank You, Lord, for my apartment.
Thank You for my cats.
Thank You for the gifts of Your Son for our salvation and Your Spirit for our guidance.
Thank You that we have the ability to give You thanks.
And thank You for this day that we set aside to remember Your gifts.

Thank You for your continued protection of this country.
Thank You that You have remained true to the promise You made me a few years ago. You've never once failed in what you said You would do. I've doubted You many times, but You have always come through. Thank You for being so faithful.

And finally, thank You for all the new ministry opportunities of late. I pray, God, that we would let Your light shine through us that all people would glorify You. May the words we speak here be Yours.

Thank You, Father, for all Your gifts.

I got my Christmas presents wrapped on Tuesday night, and dug out the Christmas tree Wednesday night. The box is worn out, so I tossed it out and threw the pieces of the tree into the wardrobe box that I got when I moved. Now I "just" have to set it up. Oh joy.