Weightloss for my family

Day 17 post is up on the new site http://screamingbeltloop.com

2011-02-24T00:00:00.000-05:00

Click here to be directed to the new site, all of the posts here have been moved too.

At home day 16, Treading again, and figuring out that we eat out a ton!

2011-02-23T11:04:00.000-05:00

Please check out my blog at it's new location as well and let me know what you think, click on this link.

Comments/Thoughts:

It is weird how you can see yourself and your life one way and then notice you were pretty far off. I have noticed that since I have been home and blogging that we eat out a ton. I mean I knew we ate out a decent bit, but I always felt that I cooked quite a bit at home and that was the bulk of it, but today we ate out for two meals. I think a large part of it is being social. For example the second time I went out today was to do kids night at Fazolis where they have someone to color with the kids and you can hang out with your friends with kids. I was there with my friends Zack, Laura and Kevin and we had about 5 kids with us. It was nice to have adult time and kid time and a good dinner.

I have made mostly good choices when I went out to eat, but for me it is like taking an alcoholic to a bar 3 to 8 times a week. I am in recovery and a great way to relapse is to constantly surround myself with temptations. Tonight I ate my dinner which was already a big plate of spaghetti, but within my calories for the day, but the next thing I knew I was helping the kids finish off their pasta dishes. I did not even know I was doing it and stopped it once I did, but then I took all of their food to go. Big mistake... I knew they were not going to eat it rewarmed, and guess who ate it? Me! Argh! I know better than that, and I still messed up. I really need to work on modifying my behavior if I am going to be in these situations so much. It is one thing to go out for a cheat meal, but another to choose to surround myself with the temptations.

Today was also the first day I did treading again. A quick treading recap is 5 minutes as hard as you can go, 5 cool down, 4 hard, 4 cooldown, 3, 3, 2, 2, 1, 1. It felt good to push myself again. Hopefully it balanced out my mistake. I do not want this to be a lost week. My body needs to understand mistakes vs. normal. Normal is healthy eating and I expect my body to get to a healthier weight.

Statistics:

I walked 8,948 steps and 4.4 miles and burned 3,639 calories via my fitbit http://www.fitbit.com/user/22B6S6

Watch calories burned: I did not have it for my workout, but good news I found my heart rate strap! Watch will be back tomorrow.

Exercise:

Today I did a treading workout and it felt great to push myself again. I am going to try to do kettlebells on Friday, and get back into them. I feel like I am losing muscle as I type this! It needs to warm up so I can start hiking around here. Silly 20 degree weather! We looked at bikes today too, anyone have a recommendation for a bike for a 265 pound guy? Needs to be sturdy I imagine. That is what I get when I reach that goal weight. We are going to get some pull behinds for the kids. We will see how that goes, sounds like quite a workout.

Food:
Breakfast was eggs and toast with bacon once again. For lunch we went to the cafe that is attached to our gym called the Greenway cafe. I had the Mediteranian wrap which had some great chicken in it. No idea on calories, but I would say 400-600 and within my range for a meal. Dinner I went to Fazoli's with friends like I mentioned above and had a spaghetti with meat sauce and then went on to eat half a kids spaghetti and fettuccine. I just looked the Spaghetti I had up and it was 680 calories, not a deal breaker until you add in that I ate extra! Here is the Fazoli's nutrition (or lack there of) web page. ACK ACK ACK! This is a teachable moment is what I would say if I was a politician... Let us all remember to not take food home for the kids we know they will not eat.

Slideshow/Pictures:

By the way if you do not see the slideshow below or in other posts, they are flash applications so complain to Steve Jobs about your Ipad and Iphone not loading them. Sorry!

At home day 15, The beginning of week 3, and a new start.

2011-02-22T09:35:00.000-05:00

Comments/Thoughts:
Well after my problems on Sunday, today was a chance to make up for it and I did fairly well. We did eat out today, but I was pretty diligent in making healthy choices. In the past one bad day has spilled into a week and then a month and so on and so on. I think one of the most important changes for me is going to be ensuring that one mistake does not snowball into a huge setback. If I can control and manage these small slip ups then getting to my goal weight should not be a problem at all.

I used my time after the kids went to bed tonight to work on a project for the blog. I had purchased the web address http://screamingbeltloop.com awhile back and want to transition my blog to a web space that I have control over. I really like blogger, but I think I can have more flexibility with wordpress on my own web host. Last night I imported all the blog posts and comments from here over to The Screaming Belt Loop site and have already made a decent amount of progress on the transition. Any input either here, or there would be appreciated on the look and things that need to be worked on. I chose the name just because my poor belts seem to be victims of denial when I have gained weight back and just did not want to move back up a loop. So some of the loops look like they have been put on the rack and tortured. Anyway it seemed like a good idea at the time. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Statistics:
I walked 11,487 steps and 5.6 miles and burned 3,816 calories via my fitbit http://www.fitbit.com/user/22B6S6

My heart monitor stat is missing! =/

Exercise:
Again today I did go to the gym and workout, but it was a brisk walk at an incline. I am looking forward to going back to kettlebells and double treading, but my body is just not there yet. The fitbit and treadmill claim I burned 700 calories. I miss my heart monitor.

Food:
Breakfast was eggs, toast and center cut bacon. For lunch my wife really wanted to take Katie to Cracker Barrel since she eats so well there. I had grilled chicken tenders with green beans and turnip greens, and also a small salad with less then a tablespoon of blue cheese. For dinner I had a flatout wrap with leftover chinese turkey stirfry and lettuce in it, as well as squash soup and two kashi cookies. I went a little heavy on the dessert section but still had less than 1600 calories today.

Pictures/Slideshow:

Starting a transition to a different web address and blogging type

2011-02-21T23:18:00.000-05:00

I have setup a copy of my blog at the web address http://screamingbeltloop.com and encourage anyone that reads the site to go check it out. I eventually will fully transition to that site. I need some suggestions and input on the site design and flow. I have setup a discussion area over there, or you can comment here. Sorry for the initial confusion, right now posts will mirror on both sites. (except this one....)

Dwayne

At home Day 14, Challenges and being a binge eater...

2011-02-20T19:43:00.000-05:00

Comments/Thoughts:
You did not think I was just going to drop another 100 pounds without a speed bump or two did you? I know I was pretty sure there would be some bumps in the road and today was definitely one. I ended up having a mini binge today after I got a bit stressed out over a random argument with my wife. It was your typical little disagreement that did not get resolved because she had to go to work and so as I sat and stewed over it I started getting this crazy urge to eat. I had eaten about 300 calories of pop chips and two large scoops of peanut butter with two glasses of milk before I even really knew what hit me. At that point I knew I was in some serious trouble as I was already self-rationalizing about how it would be ok to take the kids on a drive to some nice drive through windows I have not seen in awhile. Luckily as I was getting them ready I decided I was going to get a coke zero and go to a subway drive through and get a turkey sub. I cemented this in my mind that I was going to do that by calling my wife at work and telling her about my eating at home and that I was going to get a sub and askeds if she wanted one. She did and I brought her one to work and we had a nice chat about our argument and misunderstanding and I felt better overall. It was not a crisis averted moment because I did end up emotionally eating, however getting control before I went out and had another three to four thousand calories is an accomplishment.

I am not sure how many people that read this blog can actually relate to what it is have a binge eating issue, but it really does put your body on autopilot, or that is what it feels like. It is something I am going to be dealing with for life and I was lucky to meet my counselor at the resort (Essara.) She gave me some techniques to distract myself and I believe that those helped today.

Anyway, tomorrow is a new day, and I am hoping to get back into more challenging workouts.

Statistics:
Well I forgot to wear the fitbit today, DOH!

Worst yet... I can't find my watch heart rate strap! Did I leave it at the gym!?! Grrr

Food:
Breakfast was 50 calories of bacon on two pieces of whole wheat toast and some egg beaters. Lunch was a turkey club with creamy tomato soup. I loved the soup, it was Pacific brand creamy tomato organic soup. At about three I had my mini bing episode. I at a bag of pop chips and about 4-5 tablespoons of peanut butter. Worse yet I had two glass of skim milk. For dinner I had a 6 inch subway turkey sub on whole wheat with lite mayo and no cheese. Overall a bad food day, but not as bad as it could have been. Tomorrow is a new day right?

Exercise:
This morning my wife and I went to the gym. I am still taking it light on strain so I did a one hour walk at 3mph and a 4.0 incline. Since I forgot the fitbit and the watch I have to go by what the treadmill read which was 700 calories. I bet it was more like 400 to 500.

No new pictures or slideshow entires.

At home Day 13, Childrens' Museum plus cheat day aka unhealthy choices day...

2011-02-19T21:36:00.001-05:00

Comments/Thoughts:
I was really happy on the ranch that in their diet plan and at home plan workshops they talked about the need to allow yourself room for unhealthy food choices in your life. They operate on the 90/10 rule where you are health 90% of the time and unhealthy on 10%. I have incorporated cheat days in several diet plans I have done over time, and really do believe if you can control yourself for it they are great. I really enjoyed my cheat meal this week and even allowed myself an extra treat at the movies the day before. Last week I had a nice off meal day and still lost 4 pounds this week. Not sure that I mentioned it yesterday but I had lost another 3 pounds which brought my total to 4 for the week. Only 4.8 pounds to go and I am in the 200s! That is very exciting for me since at 280 my suit will fit for the derby! Good stuff!

We went to the childrens' museum today and there were some drama on the way there with our convoy. We were going with another family and their two children, and as we pulled in to a random rest stop they were pulled over with their hood up. Their car was overheating and no long starting. Needless to say this threw a wrench in things, but luckily we have a big Honda Odyssey swagger wagon and took my friend's wife and two kids into our van and I dropped them off 30 miles away at the museum in Indy, and came back and picked him up as AAA was towing his car the 40 miles back to Richmond. Needless to say the guys showed up to the museum after getting stuck in traffic and we only got the end of the museum time. All and all it was a great experience and afterwards we with to the Spaghetti Factory and had a great meal and pleasant time with our families.

Statistics:
**Will update this in the morning when the fitbit pushes it's stats to twitter and facebook.**

Watch calories burned: N/A walked around the museum only a little

Exercise:
Minimal walking around the children's museum in Indianapolis. Tomorrow it is back to the gym!

Food:
Breakfast was the old standard eggs and toast. Lunch was me grabbing a chicken taragon sandwich at Starbucks (420 calories) and getting to the museum as quickly as possible. Dinner was my unhealthy meal allowance and it was amazing. Baked Lasagna, side of meatballs, spumone ice cream and followed by a peanut butter mountain when we got back to Richmond at Ritters. I was s t u f f e d. The ironic thing is I probably only ate 1000 calories above my maintenance levels. The theory is it also stokes the metabolism by changing up the calorie intake levels. Yeah that is the ticket right?! It makes it much easier to get my 90% and the gym I tell you that much. Doing a full day of meals like that still seems excessive, but doing it for one meal seems to be all I need. Of course that one meal should have been 2 at least!

Slideshow/Pictures:
Added in some pics of kids and the museum along with foods eaten. Beware the lasagna pictures!

At home Day 12, Gym, mexican food, and the movies...

2011-02-19T21:22:00.001-05:00

Comments/Thoughts:
Well again it was a movie night for me, and we went to see the new Liam Neeson, Unknown and I really did not expect too much and it delivered slightly more that I hoped for. That being said it was only a semi decent movie. It was definitely not Taken, which I was very suprised by. Anyway, since the movie was at 10pm and we were out past midnight I started my "unhealthy" eating day a little early and had some M&Ms. I did not really feel bad about it and enjoyed them at my second movie night of the week.

My wife called me about one hour before she was getting of work and said she needed an emergency date night because work had been terrible and luckily enough I got a sitter for the kids. We went out the El Rodeo and I had chicken fajitas with 3 corn tortillas. I actually love that meal, and to know I can eat it with out all the extra fixings and still be on my meal plan really helps.

Statistics:
I walked 11,035 steps and 5.4 miles and burned 3,971 calories via my fitbit http://www.fitbit.com/user/22B6S6
Watch calories burned: 347 calories burned

Exercise:
I went to the gym but still have an injury that keeps me from straining too much so I did the treadmill at 3mph, 2.5 incline for an hour. The treadmill told me I burned 600 calories, however the heart rate monitor I wear says it was more like 347. I think my cardio endurance is better than the strict calculation that is used by the treadmill now. Or at least I am going to tell myself that. I sweated a decent bit and felt good to make it to the gym. Monday it is going to be on like Donkey Kong again.

Food:
Standard egg and muffin breakfast. For lunch I had leftover chinese turkey lettuce wraps and creamy butternut squash soup. The soup was from a box and it was great and only 100 calories for a full cup. Good stuff, and very little prep work for a good meal. Dinner was the "emergency" date night out at El Rodeo. I had fajitas with corn tortillas and no chips, sour cream or cheese. Good work if I do say so myself. We went home after dinner and I met a few friends for a movie and ate a big bag of peanut M&Ms. Bad Dwayne? I felt like it was part of my unhealthy 10% I am allowed. I usually only do one cheat "meal" on my cheat day so I am not too worried.

Pictures/Slideshow:
Added some pictures of the soup and El Rodeo meal to the slideshow.

At home Day 11, At least I got a workout in today.

2011-02-18T10:49:00.001-05:00

Comments/Thoughts:
Well as mentioned earlier planning my next trip is on my mind quite a bit this week and today especially. I have some time to decide so no worries. Today was a pretty good day all in all, I still am not able to push myself too hard. I did a fast walk today on the treadmill which burned a decent bit of calories. I weighed in this morning and lost another pound. It keeps on going down so that is a good thing.

Statistics:
I walked 12,163 steps and 5.8 miles and burned 4,140 calories via my fitbit http://www.fitbit.com/user/22B6S6

Watch Calories Burned: N/A

The treadmill claims I burned over 600 calories in 55 minutes walking at 3mph at a 2.5 incline.

Exercise:
Today I took it easy and still burned my minimum 500 calories. I walked on the treadmill, but forgot to wear the heart monitor strap. I had to take the "word" of the treadmill and it read 600 calories. I was told that the minimum I wanted to shoot for was 500. I am looking forward either tomorrow or the next day of taking the intensity up again. I want to be back on kettlebells by Monday.

Food:

Breakfast was egg beaters, turkey sausage on an english muffin yet again. Lunch was leftover turkey chinese lettuce wraps, and the soup I was was Muir Glen Organic Chicken Tortilla. The soup was amazing and it was two 1cup servings for 130 calories, which was perfect for Jen and I. I put some avocado in it and did not add any other seasoning and loved it. For dinner Jen had a cornbread request and since my son loved it so much I went ahead and made it. I did some pictures of ingredients and what it takes to cook it. It is very easy and if I get permission I will post the recipe. We had leftover chili with it and I made the kids some fruit, cheese, and veggies with organic fish sticks. They ate very well. I need to get them used to some new foods. I feel a little guilty because after dinner I had a huge urge to binge on peanut butter and I ended up having a bag of pop chips and about 4 or 5 chocolate covered strawberries. Much better than a jar of peanut butter or running out for fast food, but still a slight let down. All told it cost me 350 calories or so, but even with that I am still at around 1600 for the day.

This is the fat free krusteaz corn bread mix that is the base. Just get it and add in the fixings you want in your cornbread. Add those calories up though! It is great and only takes about 20 minutes. The bread is sweet and kids love it too.

Slideshow/Pictures:

A question for readers and an update to yesterday...

2011-02-17T16:21:00.001-05:00

Well I have a question I am going to put out there for my readers/friends. I am faced with a tough decision coming up in April, and I need a little help deciding what to do. My son is going to be gone for a week at his fathers, and my mother has offered to watch my daughter for the week. This gives myself and my wife the opportunity to have a week without the kids and it is a fairly rare thing to happen with no vacation planned. So, I could go out to the Biggest Loser Resort in Malibu for that week and work my tail off which I would love, or I can stay at home and attempt to bust my hump part of the day, and blog/work on my web site/iphone apps. The cost involved in going is quite significant considering we want to pay off our minivan, and if I choose to go I will be using savings to do it which I do not like to do. Is it worth the cost for just one week when I know my family has agreed to let me go either this coming late fall or winter? Time to do some cost/benefit analysis I guess.

Pros for going to the resort:
- Amazing trainers
- No thinking about food
- Beautiful weather and hikes
- At least 2 weeks worth of results crammed into one week
- Gives my blog readers so more interesting things to read =)
- Total focus on my training and weightloss

Cons for going to the resort:
- Cost at a bad time
- Already know the program very well, both exercise and diet
- A two week stay is really preferable to adjust
- Little to no time to work on other web related projects

I think the pros and cons for staying home are obvious. Any votes either way? I still have a little time to think on it so I am going to not rush it.

Onto some more updates from yesterday:
I ended up going to a movie at night with my friends Zack and Kevin. We went to see The Eagle, and it was much better than I thought it would be. However, it still left quite a bit to be desired and had some fairly large plot loop holes in it. I had a nice Coke Zero at the movie but no snacks so I am moving in the right direction. Considering how many movies I see the no snack thing is a big deal.

The picture above is of the meal I had after the movie when we all went to BW3s to catch up and hang out. I used my Livestrong.com app to look up the grilled chicken tenders and I had my wild sauce on the side. Each tender is 43 calories, and thanks to Zack I ordered the sauce on the side and hardly used any since it was so hot. The meal came with fries, but I let the guys have them. They had some fried chicken tenders, but I feel like I did well. An extra 160 calories was not really that bad for the day I had. Oh and this morning with I woke up I had lost another pound. Getting close to those numbers that begin with a 2...

Also, my fitbit stats for yesterday were:
I walked 9,814 steps and 4.6 miles and burned 3,968 calories via my fitbit http://www.fitbit.com/user/22B6S6

I have found some great twitter feeds and blog sites I plan to add here in a little bit, more on that later. Hope everyone is doing well today,

Dwayne

At home day 10, Another day of rest that I do not want...

2011-02-16T19:14:00.000-05:00

Comments/Thoughts:
Well today was great in the sense that the kids were occupied until 12:30 and 3pm respectively, so I was able to go and do some research at Starbucks. I spent a decent bit of time reading blogs and looking for health resources online, as well as pricing plane tickets for my possible April trip back to the resort. I really want to go back, but paying for it out of savings is not sitting right with me right now. I still think I am going to do it, I may get some birthday money to throw in on it. It is tough to pass up an opportunity where both kids can be watched and it is easier on my wife when I go.

The downside of my day is that I did not go to the gym today to rest myself. I have had a mild reoccurring injury and my wife tells me the only way to get rid of it is to relax and not do anything too strenuous. I think I am just going to try to get to the gym and just walk on the treadmill. I am really upset about my lack of kettlebell training. I went and bought some mats for the floor to protect them if I drop my new weight, and I still am unable to use them. Very frustrating! I did go on a walk around the neighborhood with the wife, dog and kids today so that is something at least. I am going to see a movie tonight, so it will be a Coke Zero night, yay!

Statistics:
*Will add fitbit tomorrow, 8793 steps premovie*

Watch Calories Burned: N/A

Exercise:
Just a simple walk around the neighborhood. =/

Food:
For breakfast I had some oatmeal at Starbucks with some Truvia to sweeten it. Good, and I avoided the nuts, berries and brown sugar toppings. Lunch was a Turkey club sandwich and a bowl of roasted red pepper soup. Dinner was turkey chinese stir fry lettuce wraps and Miso soup. I just threw together turkey, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, peppers, water chestnuts, and some chinese flavorings + liquid aminos. It turned out great and my wife liked it as well.

Slideshow/Pictures:
Added pictures of my meals:

At home day 9, Jen goes skiing, and the kids and I play

2011-02-16T08:59:00.001-05:00

Comments/Thoughts:
It was a fairly average day. I woke up with the kids and Jen and she got ready and went off to go ski at Perfect North. Looks like she had a great time, and the kids and I got dressed and went to the gym. We are so lucky to have a gym that has child care in our town. The gym I go to is Family Fitness Works and it is a new local gym. They have converted an old warehouse into a great gym and are building a pool on site as well inside. I am wondering what kind of water classes they will have. I really enjoyed my water classes at the resort, and would love to find some similar workouts.

Statistics:
I walked 12,152 steps and 6.4 miles and burned 4,270 calories via my fitbit http://www.fitbit.com/user/22B6S6

Watch Calories Burned: 970 calories burned!

Exercise:
I did another double treading workout and burned a ton of calories. It really seems to be an effective way for me to workout. I want to be doing my kettlebells, but I have an injury that may stop me from both kettlebells and other strenuous exercise for a week. It sucks to want to workout and your body stop working the right way.

Food:
I was fairly unimaginitive today with my food choices. With Jen being gone for the day I was able to just have the same thing for lunch and dinner. My breakfast was eggs, turkey sausage on an english muffin. My lunch and dinner were turkey chili and cornbread. I did have leftover hot and sour soup for lunch and roasted red pepper soup for dinner. After dinner I was still pretty hungry and had about 3 chocolate covered strawberries and a bag of pop chips.

Slideshow/Pictures:
No new pictures unless you just want random pictures I took of the kids all day. =)

At home day 8, New week, valentines day, eating out and life in general...

2011-02-15T13:55:00.000-05:00

Comments/Thoughts:
It was once again special event kind of day, a "Hallmark" holiday of sorts... valentines day! So we went to my son's school with my daughter and ran some events and played with all the kids. At the end of the day I had a babysitter scheduled and so we went out for a nice dinner at O'Charley's. I did not really stray, but I did have red meat which was a first in a long time. It was really a great day, and we ended it by shopping for a new coat for me which I needed since I have lost so much weight. I love clothes shopping now.

So good news for my blog today, I was told that my name and a link to my blog I would be added to the front page at http://blog.biggestloserresort.com and I am hoping I get some new readers. I find that this blog and knowing that people are reading it helps me feel accountable. I plan to do a post soon about things to know before you go to the resort. There are many little things that can help out there.

Statistics:
I walked 14,438 steps and 7.2 miles and burned 4,516 calories via my fitbit http://www.fitbit.com/user/22B6S6

Watch calories burned: 900 calories burned

Exercise:
Today was a good workout day, I did a double treading class on the treadmill at the gym. My shirt was a big wet mass, which is a good thing after a hard workout. My definition of double treading is 5 minutes at an uncomfortable pace (this week it is incline 15 and speed 2.7, 3.2 for the last minute) then a 5 minute rest, then I add on another 5 at the uncomfortable pace, and 5 at a slow past to recover, then I do the 4, 3, 2 and 1 intervals all twice. I burn through about 750 calories on the machine and by the time I am at home I am over 900 calories from carry over.

Food:

I had a 200 calorie lara bar for breakfast and a small glass of skim milk. For lunch I had the great meal you see to the right of your screen. I made fat free cornbread and turkey chili from the great recipe book I purchased at the Biggest Loser Resort. I love the cornbread, and I found out that the kids do as well. Jen loved this meal, and I think it is a definite go to. For dinner I had an 8oz filet, asparagus without butter and chicken tortilla soup. My calories for the day did not exceed 1600 so it was still counted a good day. I also had a chocolate covered strawberry with my wife for valentines day.

Slideshow/Pictures:

At home day 7, Lazy Sunday, Valentine day prep..

2011-02-14T11:29:00.001-05:00

Comments/Thoughts:

It was a pretty good food day, I did go a little above and beyond on making chocolate covered strawberries. We had to do something for the teachers at my son's school so I made some milk and dark chocolate covered strawberries, some with pecans, some peanut, and some macadamia nut covered. Also, I did do a little white chocolate drizzle on some of them. When my wife got home from work we did some sampling... Not too much, but more than I should have had by a couple of strawberries. I hope the teachers like them because
I know we did!

I drove to Cincinnati today and was happy I avoided the temptation of drive through food. It is a big step for me because I usually use the excuse of meeting at McDonalds to grab a burger, and that did not happen today. I guess I should explain why I drive to McyDs, my son (step son) goes to visit his father who lives in Kentucky every other weekend and I am usually the one who drives and does the exchange.

Statistics:
I walked 4,363 steps and 2 miles and burned 3,440 calories via my fitbit http://www.fitbit.com/user/22B6S6

Watch calories burned: N/A

Exercise:
I took the day off again, not because I wanted to but because of a small injury. I will start back up again tomorrow.

Food:
Breakfast was great, I had almond butter and organic honey on an english muffin and put bananas and blueberries on it. I also drank a small glass of skim milk with it, and thoroughly enjoyed the meal. Lunch was leftover meatloaf sandwich as well as hot and sour soup. I also had a 100 calorie bag of popchips and they are fast becoming my goto snack for crunchy needs. Dinner was all natural turkey, 50 calories of bacon, olive oil based mayo, mustard on a arnold slim bun with veggies and brown rice. It was good and very filling. That being said I ended up eating a few of the chocolate covered strawberries I was making so I was a little naughty.

Pictures/Slideshow:
Once again they are added on to the end of the week album. That does it for this album, one week down!

At home Day 6, Unhealthy/Cheat day and going to a private moving screening with friends!

2011-02-13T11:25:00.002-05:00

Comments/Thoughts:

Well it was a great day! Getting ready to go to Indianapolis to see one of my good friend's movie was so much fun for a change. When you gain a ton of weight you end up having to get new clothes, but you leave behind some of your favorites. Well I was lucky enough to do a fashion show for me wife before I left and happily fit into some clothes we both really love. They are actually looser on me then when I originally bought them which just feels so great. I have dreaded having to wear anything except my usual jeans and polo when we go out for so long that I just felt amazing free being able to get into a nice button up shirt and smaller pants and be comfortable. Also, to know my wife loves my outfit just makes things better too, I hate how my weight impacts her sometimes, and last night we were both just amazingly happy.

The movie was great! I am so happy for Zack (and for us since we were investors) and even though I know there were some technical things he wanted to turn out better the movie was just fantastic. My wife was so nervous because she played a doctor in the movie for a scene and it was great seeing her up on the IMAX screen at the Indiana State Museum.

A ton of our friends went and we were able to have dinner with some before the movie. We went to an upscale American cuisine type place called Palominos in downtown Indianapolis. The food and company were great even though we were a little stressed about making the movie on time. None of us knew it could take over 15 minutes to get out of a parking garage in Indy. What made us even more nervous was that we had Laura Parker with us who not only was the wife of the director, but also had his pre-

movie speech with her. We had given her a ride so that Zack could spend time working his magic on the IMAX projector and getting things perfect.

.
Luckily I was able to get there just in time and let these beautiful ladies out and they got in just in the nick of time. I made it in and got myself some naughty little M&Ms and a diet coke. I mean it was cheat day!

Though this was one of my worst meal and exercise days, overall it was an amazing me day, and great date/friends day. We did get a call during the movie that our babysitter had locked herself out of the house with our little girl in there, but with some quick calling of a person with the key in town the crisis was averted.

Statistics:
I walked 5,012 steps and 2.3 miles and burned 3,513 calories via my fitbit http://www.fitbit.com/user/22B6S6 #fitstats

Watch calories burned: N/A since I did not go to the gym.

Exercise:
Walking around Indianapolis, and vigorous fashion show movements?

Food:
Woo boy! So breakfast was turkey sausage, one whole egg with 2 egg beaters on a whole wheat english muffin. Lunch was a bowl of leftover hot and sour soup, veggies with 1/2 cup brown rice, and an orowheat bun and meatloaf sandwich. Dinner is where things went "unhealthy." My counselor at camp Essara always said that it wasn't a "cheat" that we just choose to eat unhealthy sometimes and that is just part of your life. I think it is actually a great way to look at it. I do not feel guilty about the food I ate as now I am going back to eating well the rest of the time. One unhealthy choice does not have ot mean a series of them. Bad foods are a part of life and to be enjoyed in moderation. Cutting them out completely would be to give them too much control over me. Anyway, onto the food I ate... First I had an amazingly creamy portabello mushroom soup! It was crazy thick and amazing! Next came a Sicilian meatball appetizer which had marinara and pistachios in it and was surprisingly good. Last but not least was the chicken parmesan! It was great, not the best I have ever had, but still really good. I actually did only eat half of the chicken and pasta because I was stuffed, but when we got home at 2am I finished it (oh how naughty!) and now there is nothing in the fridge to cheat with, that is good right? I had one bourbon and diet coke with dinner as well and enjoyed it quite a bit. Last but not least at all for my cheating was a medium sized bag of peanut M&Ms at the movies. I think Jen had 6 and I ate the rest. Bad bad bad, but so good good good. There are some pictures of this stuff at the end of the weekly album if you are interested.

Pictures/Slideshow:

At home Day 5, eating out and not cheating!

2011-02-12T09:09:00.000-05:00

Thoughts/Comments:
Today was a great day for food considering two of my meals were eaten at two of my favorite restaurants and with great company. To cap the day off I took my wife shopping for her birthday/anniversary/valentines day present at the Kenwood Mall in Cincinnati and she got a purse she absolutely loves. The cherry on top was that we came to an upgrade agreement on on Iphones that allowed me to get an Iphone 4 at the Apple store! I am pretty excited, and played with the silly new device all the way home. We also went Whole Foods and I got some great stuff to take home and cook. We have no Whole Foods or Fresh Market in Richmond so it is always great to get some quality groceries when we can.

I got to catch up with some friends I have not seen since before I left for camp and that is always great. Today was an amazing day, and tomorrow is "Unhealthy meal day" which means I get to actually indulge in some nice things in Indianapolis. We are going there with a fairly big group to see the private premiere of my friend Zack's new movie Scalene (which was filmed here in Richmond.) Full disclosure my wife and I are investors in it, and she actually got to do a little on screen work as a doctor in it. Fun stuff!

Statistics:
I have lost my fitbit and worry for it's safety... Come home little guy! We miss you!

Watch Calories Burned: 690 calories for a treading class and dynamic stretch class

Exercise:
Today I was lucky enough to do a little training for my wife. We did a treading class today, and she did incline instead of speed for difficulty. She can job 5ks now, but the incline really helped challenge her today I think. Also, I took her through a stretch class I would go to on Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays at the resort that Sam taught. I burned 690 calories and she seemed to be pretty close to that as well.

Food:
We were running very late today getting the kids ready for school so breakfast for both of us was a Lara Bar. I also had about 8oz of skim milk, so it was all good. Lunch was at El Rodeo mexican, and I was proud to not eat the chips and salsa! I had 3 corn tortilla shells and chicken and veggie fajitas with some salsa on them. It was great and I got to catch up with my friends Zack and Kevin. Dinner was amazing at PF Changs, I was suprised to find so many good options calorie wise. The sodium content is too high, but the taste to calorie ratio is off the charts. I had 3 small cups of the soup (120 calories total,) and 1 serving of shrimp with lobster sauce on brown rice (315 calories.) Splitting the dinner with Jen turned out great for both of us.

Pictures/Slideshow:
Added some more pictures to the weekly album!

At home Day 4, Thursday and my aching foot!

2011-02-10T19:45:00.000-05:00

Comments/Thoughts:
Well today I went to the doctor's office for a weigh in and to check my blood pressure. I have been weighing in every month since around September to qualify for a lap band procedure. Surgery has never been what I wanted to do, but I am quickly approaching my 35th birthday and if I am unable to do this through will power I will fix it the other way (or attempt to.) The good news right now is I am not going to consider the surgery. The resort has put me in a great mindset and has set me up to succeed without the added risk. My blood pressure was actually very good compared to the past and in another 10-20 pounds I may be off my medication for it. My weight change since weighing in on the 4th of January is 30 pounds down. I thought they would be more excited about it at the office, but I guess people hit 30 pounds a month in there all the time... sheesh! It was a great feeling, and I wish we could afford both mentally and financially for me to do it all again. I think Jen would shoot me if I tried to sneak away. =)

It was good timing to be at the doctor so I had her look at more cut/sore on my foot and fortunateness she said it was athlete's foot (yuck!) and that with treatment the pain would go away and it would heal. Very annoying, and slightly gross!

Statistics:
I forgot to wear my fitbit! ARGH!

Watch stats: Burned 315 calories during my 30 minutes of kettlebell

Exercise:
I did do my 30 minutes of kettlebells today sweat like a maniac. It was good to get it done and my new 36 pound bell really kicks my a$$. I did not feel up for treadmill action today because just walking around is killing my foot. I have to get this healed up. I went and got a ton of medication and bandages, I won't stay off this foot for more than a day or two. I can't get out of the habit of my cardio.

Food:
Breakfast once again was a turkey sausage, egg english muffin. I enjoyed meatloaf I made last night (from the resort cookbook) for lunch and had veggies with 1 cup of brown rice and some braggs aminos. It was a pretty big lunch, and unfortunately Jen did not like the meatloaf so it is all me! Dinner was a meatloaf sandwich on bread thins, and more veggies with 1/2 cup of rice and braggs. I also had a bowl of Pacific brand low sodium roasted red pepper and tomato soup (low sodium) and it was great for only 100 calories! Dessert will once again be.... chocolate covered strawberries, and I made a new batch of them tonight! I had a 150 calorie snack today of Pop chips! They are great and you get a decent amount for the calories and they really taste like a puffy potato chip. Our dietitian at the resort, Jessica Hummel, showed them to me on our grocery trip and I am very grateful! Jen and the kids loved them too so they are going to be a good go to snack. I ordered some through amazon, but I found them at Kroger today in the healthy chip area. Why do they have to keep the healthy stuff separate?

Slideshow/Pictures:
There are a few new pictures in this album, but you probably have seen most!

At home Day 3, hump day and still going...

2011-02-10T19:27:00.000-05:00

Thoughts/Comments:
It was a decent day except for the fact that my foot is a bit hurt. There is a crack in the bottom of my foot that is quite painful, and amusing that I am home and not walking 6-12 miles a day and now my foot gets hurt. Very annoying, but I am sure I can get past it. I still managed a good workout today.

It was nice to have the kids in school and at parents morning out. I was able to go to Starbucks and catch up on some reading after the gym and that is always nice. I love going there and people watching and missed it quite a bit while I was at the resort. I have switched drinks from coffee with cream and splenda to green tea and less splenda. I think less calories and less caffeine will help me out. It worked at the resort so no reason to rock the boat too much. I also have not been drink diet cokes/coke zero except on my less healthy day of the week, and perhaps when I go to the movies. I have been drinking plain water and crystal lite pure fit in my water as well.

Statistics:
I walked 7,045 steps and 3.3 miles and burned 3,443 calories via my fitbit http://www.fitbit.com/user/22B6S6

Watch calories burned: 615 during workout session

Exercise:
At the gym today I did a treading class, and then afterwards a did a Sam style dynamic stretch session. For those of you that have no idea what I am talking about it is a session that first starts out warming muscles by using them (think lunges, squats, kicks etc etc) and then goes back through and stretches the warm muscles with typical stretch poses. It is both a good stretch and workout. I can get it mostly done in 30 minutes and it is 45 minutes at the resort. My total calories burned was 615, and I did not get to my kettlebells since I woke up late and was beat after the kids went to bed. Perhaps less Starbucks and more swinging is in order?

My foot is bothering me pretty bad and I may have to take it easy on the treadmill for a day or so to heal. It is an open cut/sore on the foot and it hurts bad.

Food:
For breakfast I had a egg and turkey sausage english muffin, lunch was a turkey burger and veggies with leftover mushroom soup, and dinner was chicken bbq pizzas from the resort cookbook with chocolate covered strawberries as a dessert. Have you noticed a theme for desserts? I still think the resort should offer them as an option every night.

Slideshow/Pictures:

At Home on the new living plan.. Days one and two combined!

2011-02-08T22:39:00.002-05:00

Monday-

Thoughts/Comments:
Today was a bit tough to get back in to the swing of things. I noticed I was out of it trying to get the kids off to school. Normally I am a fine oiled machine of efficiency, but a month off has really changed that. Thank goodness Jen was home in the morning to help get us all moving.

I did work out today, but it is weird working out only 2 hours... I know that sounds odd but I felt like I was slacking. Does anyone else feel like that now that you are home? I mean I really gave it my all for those 2 hours, but compared to a hike or my 3 afternoon classes it just was so far from what I am used to now. My legs are burned out still from last week. I guess I really pushed it to have them still fatigued.

Statistics:
None really applicable since I forgot my fitbit and forgot to wear my heart monitor during workouts!

Exercise:
I woke up before the kids were awake and got 25 minutes of kettlebells in. I did 4 sets of 25 two handed swings, 4 sets of 25 on each single hand between the leg swings, 4 sets of 25 switching from handed to hand between the legs, and 3 sets of 20 single handed outside swings. That was definitely a good start to the morning. About 30 minutes later my wife and I were at the gym and I did a treading class (our treadmills go up to 15 incline here too.. Great huh?) and after I did the treading class I did a dynamic stretching session (like Sam teaches at the resort) and then just went out and watched my wife finish her arm workout.

I am really having a difficult time with thinking I am taking it easy. I did have a completely wet shirt from my workout, but I am used to going through 3 shirts a day at the resort. Spacing it out is kind of difficult mentally.

Food:
For breakfast I had a piece of turkey sausage, not the best breakfast, but it was all I could get in considering how slow I was with the kids. Lunch was at Chilli's so I had a decent challenge in finding something I could eat. After some quick intelligence gathering on my phone I learned a bowl of their Green Chile soup was 200 calories, and that just the skillet portion of their chicken fajitas was 330 calories. I added one flour tortilla since they do not carry corn tortillas and that was another 130 calories. It was an expensive caloric lunch, but well within my limit. Dinner was simply a turkey burger, with veggies and 3 small chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. I also had an apple and an 80 calorie Luna bar for snacks during the day.

Slideshow/Pictures:
*Note I am going to be adding pictures to the weekly album and describing them in the captions of the pictures, I will mention it in updates on twitter and facebook when I add the pictures. Also, Tuesday's blog post will be under this picture section.

Tuesday-
Comments/Thoughts:
Well I felt really weak yesterday in my legs so today I am taking a rest day. I had thought I would just wait for the weekend, but I think I need it. Wednesday I plan to hit the kettlebells and gym again while the kids are in school so that will be good.

Getting back in the swing of things here is difficult, especially with Jen on two night shifts in a row. I am trying to get readjusted and adding in the new cooking routine. It is a bit bumpy, but I think I will get it all together by the end of the week. Just ordered a new blender for the soups I make, and ordered some stuff from amazon.com to help finish out the grocery pantry. We can't get everything at the stores in this small town, but I can fill the gaps with online shopping fairly well.

Statistics:
Only about 4500 steps for the day today. Taking it easy, doing some laundry and cooking a good lunch were the priorities.

Exercise:
Carrying laundry baskets up 4 flights of stairs and chasing children was all I got in today. about 15k fewer steps today then a typical resort day.

Food:
Had a good tomato, egg, egg beater omelet this morning. Followed it up with some mushroom soup from the resort cookbook I bought, with a turkey burger and veggies. Dinner was left over Sushi, around 8 pieces and I would estimate it at 400-450 calories. All in all a great food day. Tomorrow I plan on making turkey meatloaf and also working on turkey meatballs for the rest of the week.

Slideshow/Pictures: See above...

Day 28, Homeward bound...

2011-02-07T10:44:00.000-05:00

Well the formatting does not really fit a day like this, so I will just go freestyle. I ate breakfast on the resort while I waited for my shuttle and ate eggs and toast once again. I said some more sad goodbyes, and road in with 3 other guests. The drive was easy going considering it was a Sunday. I made it to the airport and through security with plenty of time and watch some TV shows on my Ipad.

I was very happy to be able to wear my goal outfit home. I wore a shirt two sizes smaller, and jeans one size smaller (it could have been two,) and a brand new belt I haven't been able to wear for a couple of years. It is amazing fitting into old clothes. It is one of the most motivational things. I would recommend bringing some near fits to the resort to go home in for motivation. It worked out of me and I didn't think it was really possible to get into my shirt. Needless to say my wife was pretty excited to see me in it when she picked me up at the airport.

As far as the flight went I did have a roast beef sandwich and I am sure it was at least 550-600 calories considering the bread and cheese. I didn't have any peanuts or other snack foods. I enjoyed a nice coke zero and I did not need a seatbelt extender on the flight and was finally comfortable flying home. I watched three one hour TV shows and next thing I knew it I was landing.

It was so amazing to see my wife and she was surprised by how much I had changed. I have missed my family so much and seeing her made my day. We tried to go to a Thai restaurant but it was closed and found a nearby Sushi place. I had some edamame, pot stickers, miso soup and some great sushi rolls. It was very not diet, but great to have a treat with my wife. Monday it is back on the plan 100%, and there is always my 10% of non-healthy food choices I am going to allow myself.

Anyway, the rest of the night was great, and I went ahead and gave my wife all the presents I bought even though I was supposed to save them for anniversary, valentines day and her birthday! I was so glad to see her it was tough to hold out.

Hope everyone is doing well, and I miss all of my friends I have made back on the ranch and those people that are already back home. Hope your Sunday went well.

Day 27, Last day before my flight home...

2011-02-06T08:59:00.000-05:00

Comments/Thoughts:
Well I went ahead and weighed in on Saturday since I am not sure I can make my shuttle and weigh in on Sunday morning. I will try to sneak an additional weigh in on Sunday, but not new measurements. I lost 27.2 pounds, 5.5 inches around my chest, 5 inches around my belly and 3.25 inches around my waist. I am not going to lie and say I wasn't hoping for more numbers wise, but it is an amazing jump start into going home. I am much more fit and able to workout than before I got here. I moved up from the slower vans to the fastest one here and kept up with my groups on the hikes. Losing weight is a mentally challenging game because we are all caught up in the numbers. One thing I will say is I got in my goal clothing while here. The inches lost mean I have gained muscle while losing fat as well so that is great!

Once again, it was both a happy and sad event at graduation. I am going to miss people here so much, and I am glad I get to keep in touch with so many. Like I said last night at graduation it is hard to leave a place where you find a whole new amazing family every week. That being said I want to again thank my beautiful wife and children for allowing me to come out here. I know it was difficult on them and I will always appreciate that they helped me start this journey, and are supportive and loving in every way I could dream.

Statistics:
Fitbit stats were: 5424 calories burned, 21,450 steps taken, and 10.79 miles traveled

Watch calories burned: 2500 calories

Hike/Exercise:
We did the Paramount Ranch hike this Saturday and it actually was fairly strenuous this time. It was great hiking with my hiking group from this week as well as some new friends I had made during the week. I got a great calories burn for a Saturday.

As far as other classes, I did not make the stretch class post hike (I did do a 30 minute one by myself earlier) but I had a final kettlebell session with Michael and burned close to 600 calories. I am excited to get back home and on with my kettlebell training. Someone came out and video'd me throwing them around, and once I do a little editing I will post them. It is kind of embarrassing because my shirt is way too big and I had to tuck my shorts bottoms into my underwear so I could move them between my legs. So you have been warned! I will post them though regardless of the embarrassment.

An additional bit of exercise occurred when I went to the mall with some of my new friends and walked around Thousand Oaks mall for probably 2 hours. That was an additional mile or three.

Food:
Breakfast was eggs and toast, lunch was asian chicken wraps and roasted red pepper soup, and dinner was a cobb salad which I ditched in favor of a boca burger.

Pictures/Slideshow:

Day 26, Last full day of workouts, and thank goodness I am beat!

2011-02-05T09:23:00.000-05:00

Comments/Thoughts:
Today was a tough day since it is both the end of a hard week, and the end of my trip here. After my hike on Thursday through Zuma and my training session on kettlebells my muscles are just fried. I am once again running out of muscle before I run out of breath, and that is frustrating. A good thing I found out after doing my RMR (resting metabolic rate) rest is that I burn 2866 calories just resting throughout the day. That means I can eat 1800 calories a day and still lose 3 pounds a week.

One great thing today was finding out that I helped motivate someone to get another week here. Sam was telling us at lunch that when we push it hard in the classes and on the hike we inspire both the trainers and other guests to push harder. I think that energy in fact pushed me, and it all kind of builds on itself here. I really can't express how positive this experience has been. I would come back no matter how fit I get just to get my head and body in the right place.

I did the grocery trip with one of our dietitians and even though I missed a class because of it I really got a ton out of it. I am beating myself up now for not taking pictures of everything she showed us, but I will take pictures at my grocery at home and try to share it with you all.

After dinner/lecture tonight I got to hang out with some great people and share photos of home and just hang out. Usually I have been so tired that just doesn't happen. I am going to miss all the people I met this week as well. It seemed to go by so fast.

I also had another great counseling session with Essara, and I feel more and more confident about going home and succeeding. Setting some near and long term goals and making them part of my life is a big part of my journey. Essara has really helped me flesh out things I want, has helped me think through some strategies to help when things are hard. I highly recommend no matter how long or short your stay you get some counseling. Essara is great at digging in really fast and providing tools to help you along.

Statistics:
My fitbit was not with me all day! Argh!

Watch calories burned: 3456 calories!

Hike/Exercise:
Today's hike was Oceanview and it is a difficult hike. Some think it is the most difficult because of how steep it is, but I still vote on Reverse and Straight through Zuma. It was a tough hike because my legs were just blown out from all the work this week. I would push and nothing would happen because they were just exhausted. The only good part of that is everyone else had the same issue (minus all those fit guides!) and so we all stayed together on the hike more or less. It was a great calorie burn and a good way to end the week. My Saturday hike will be paramount ranch and I know that will be fairly easy.

As far as exercise went it was not the best day for me. I missed my first afternoon class because I was late getting back from the grocery, and then I did two pool classes. I was crazy sore and it is frustrating to not be able to give it your all in classes. I still burned some decent calories though.

Food:
For breakfast I had eggs and toast instead of the parfait. Lunch was parsnip soup and a chicken caesar salad. The soup needed some hot sauce and some liquid amino (soy sauce substitute) and it was good, the salad was amazing. Dinner was a turkey burger and veggies with chocolate coconut sorbet for dessert. The burger was great, I love the ketchup here.

Pictures/Slideshow:

USA Today article being shot while I was here is out!

2011-02-04T14:31:00.000-05:00

Just thought I would drop this link here on the blog. This USA Today article was shot while I was here on the ranch. The photographer was a great guy, and I ended up in the background of some of the videos. It does a good job going through a stay here. I highly recommend it for people that are reading my blog before they head out. Here is the link:

Enjoy!

Dwayne

Day 25, Zumthru (Zuma straight through) accomplished, rest of the week is gonna be cake!

2011-02-04T08:45:00.000-05:00

Thoughts/Comments:
Today was a tough but rewarding day. My big goal for the week was to do the full Zuma hike straight through. We finished it at 10:30 which was plenty of time to spare! It has been great setting and making goals while here. I feel like I have accomplished everything I set out to do so far while here. I am so ready to go home right now to see my wife and kids though. I thought at the beginning that I would wish I had another 4 to 8 weeks so I could get much more of my weight goal out of the way, but at this point I think I would go crazy without my family. I really want to come back, but I will need to prove I can be successful at home to get green lit on that.

I really can't thank the staff here enough. Everyone from the front desk staff, kitchen staff, housecleaning, to the trainers, hiking guides, dietitians, and life coaches are just the most supportive people I have ever run into. I think no matter what your fitness level there is something to be gained from being in such a positive atmosphere. No matter how fit you are you can challenge yourself here and get your mind in the right place for your goals.

Statistics:
I walked 23,164 steps and 11.4 miles and burned 5,258 calories via my fitbit http://www.fitbit.com/user/22B
6S6

Watch calories stats: 4050 calories burned!

Hike/Exercise:
The hike today, as I mentioned above, was Zuma straight through. Zuma is usually split up into Zuma Ridge and Zuma reverse. They are out and back hikes and are two of the toughest here in my opinion (and others.) Starting last week they have been doing a straight through hike where you start at Zuma ridge and go all the way to the end of Zuma reverse. They actually have to leave a van at a different place to get us back. It was so awesome to conquer that hike and to keep up with so many quick hikers today. I last did Zuma reverse my first week and it nearly killed me.

I had a personal training session with Michael and 3 other people today. I am getting very comfortable throwing the kettlebell around and I think that the other people there were impressed by it, and hopefully motivated. Michael has taught me so much so quickly, and I am very appreciative for it. Again I recommend a personal training session to challenge yourself here. It really does take you to your limits.

The rest of the day was pretty normal. I did a stretch class after the hike, then treading class after lunch. For my last two classes I did two water sessions, one with Sam and the other with Megan and they really kicked our collective butts in the water. Good stuff, and some great calorie burns.

Food:
Breakfast was an egg and bacon sandwich which was good as usual. Lunch was a greek pita with a side salad and french onion soup. That lunch is awesome! Dinner was stuffed chicken with marinara, rice and broccoli. Very tasty, and once again I added a little ketchup and pretended my broccoli were fries.

Pictures/Slideshow:

Day 24, Last hump day at the resort and I survived.

2011-02-03T09:37:00.000-05:00

Comments/Thoughts:
Today was a pretty good day all things considered. I was kind of out of it after I got back from the hike and one of my trainers suggested that I try eating fruit after my afternoon classes. They explained that I might just be out of it from lack of calories because of my relative size and how hard I am working out. I have to say I think they were right after my first class and extra fruit I felt more into the classes.

One of the great lessons you learn here is how to actually interpret what your body wants. I think I had things so out of whack I never knew whether I was really hungry, bored, stressed, or thirsty. After getting away from the fat and salt and eating what I need I am really becoming confident about choosing when I eat more, and what I eat. They tell you here to try to make the best choices 90% of the time, and you have 10% to make less healthy choices. They don't call it cheating, they call it making less healthy choices. It is a different mindset and one I am trying very hard to adopt.

Statistics:
I walked 22,838 steps and 11.6 miles and burned 5,300 calories via my fitbit http://www.fitbit.com/user/22B6S6

Watch calories burned: 3600 calories (I did a stretch class extra today, and my watch stopped working for a bit)

Hike/Exercise:
The hike today was at the beach and it was freezing and the winds were about 20-30 mph gusts. I decided not to walk in the sand today just because it really messes my toes up. I did walk in the sand on the second beach because that is the only option. It was a decent hike, but the people of Miller Lite were there filming a bootcamp commercial (probably for the superbowl) and there were some really cool tents and things set up. Also, there were about 50 models there freezing in their swimsuits doing exercises all over the place. Not necessarily a bad day at the beach if you are a guy.

As far as exercise went I woke up and did Sam's stretch class, then after the hike I did Micaela's stretch class. The two different stretch classes are completely different. Sam stretches you after his has given your muscles a slight workout so they are warm. Micaela's stretch is a calm down stretch class which is amazing after a rough hike. It almost puts you to sleep you get so relaxed. My post lunch classes were H2O intervals, kickboxing with Ursula and finally Mountain with John. Once again, mountain is a cardio class with 12 increases that you decide on. You increase speed and/or resistance 12 times for 3 minutes each and then cool down. John tried to make us do the 10th increase 2 times, and we argued and whined and he said his watch was at 27 minutes and he thought we were messing with him.... Well two minutes later he just says, "Ok, my watch is stuck at 27!" So we all shared a laugh and ended up not doing the extra increase. Guess you had to be there, but believe me it was funny.

Food:
Today for breakfast they were serving a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with berries. I decided to go the eggs and toast route instead because the PB&J is not worth the calories to me. For lunch we had pumpkin soup, which is fantastic, and greek pizzas. The pizzas are good, and I like to put hot sauce on mine believe it or not. For dinner we had a salmon filet with asparagus and orzo pasta. That is a truly great meal here if you like fish. Dessert was a simple fruit skewer with some raspberry sauce on it. Once again, no chocolate covered strawberries, but still good.

Pictures/Slideshow:

Day 23, fast van and all...

2011-02-02T13:53:00.002-05:00

Comments/Thoughts:
Today was a rough day for some reason. The hike through Chessboro really took a ton out of me today, and I am wondering if I am getting enough sleep. I am usually in bed by 8 or 9 but I get up around 4:30. You know it is a rough day when several people ask you if you feel okay and if you are getting enough sleep. Leslie told me that usually I am chipper in the afternoon and that I looked ready to go to bed. After my training session with Michael and Sam I was just going through the motions for the rest of the day. I made it to all of my classes so that is a plus. No double pool for me on Tuesday. I have a fear Wednesday may not be the same considering all the aches I have right now.

I spent a big portion of my hike worrying that I was not going to be able to keep up with the group, and I did end up at the back of the group but stayed with them for the most part. I think I just let myself get mentally taxed as well as physically.

Statistics:
Fitbit stats were, 23860 steps, 13.36 miles traveled, and 5520 calories burned.

Watch calories burned: 4100 calories (estimated since my monitor was off during my training session)

Hike/Exercise:
The hike kicked my butt today. It was Chessboro (sp?) canyon and we did a few optional hills. It ended up being a 6 mile hike but at the pace we went it just wrung out my strength for the day. After the hike I did a training session with Michael with kettlebells which was amazing as usual. This time Sam joined so he could get some training in with them and that was actually more fun. Sam had not done them in a long time so Michael let me teach him the two handed swing to show that I had learned it properly. Sam picked it all up pretty fast and he was passing two kettlebells at the same time by the end of the class. I think partner passing is such a great way to burn calories and not notice how hard you are working.

My classes for the day were, pool, cardio circuit, total toning (Abby and Carol kicked our butts) and finally a pool with Ursula. I got through them all just barely.

Food:
Breakfast was eggs and toast since I didn't want the muffin. Lunch was quinoa lettuce wraps which are amazing here. You just need to add either some hot sauce or ask for the liquid aminos with them. That is a soy sauce substitute which is great. Also we had some tomato soup which I had to put hot sauce in again. Dinner was Sheppards pie, mixed veggies, and a chocolate parfait for dessert. The sheppards pie was good, but I did put a little ketchup on it. The chocolate parfait was amazing, and Willie at our table found all sorts of new ways to get every last drop of it out of the champagne flutes.

Pictures/Slideshow:

Day 22, Last Monday and last assessment hike of my stay

2011-02-01T09:41:00.000-05:00

Thoughts/Comments:
It is weird starting out the last week for a few reasons. The first being that 44 people left last week and only 53 (of 80 possible) people are here at the resort this week. So many new faces and small classes. Though I have lost many of my friends here through attrition my bonds with others are growing stronger so all of that works out.

For people that are reading this and are planning to come out here a few things I recommend you try before you leave. A personal training session with someone that will push you past your comfort zone. Try a difficult hike so that you go home knowing you can do it. Also, I recommend at least one 2 minute cardio session on the Jacobs ladder in the gym. It is this crazy 45 degree infinite ladder that moves at your speed. It is intimidating, but as with all things here you will discover that you can do more than you imagine. It is amazing what the body gets used to.

Statistics:
I walked 20,986 steps and 12.6 miles and burned 5,395 calories via my fitbit http://www.fitbit.com/user/22B6S6

Watch Calories burned: 4300 calories!

Hike/Exercise:
The LAST assessment hike today was Newton Canyon. Sorry I didn't take many pictures but I have taken them there before and I was really hoofing it today. I kept up with the front guide and was rewarded by backtracking up hills to make the hike last longer. Also, I was informed I was in the "fast" van this week. I am pretty nervous about that since I know how fast some of the hikers here are. This week there will only be 6 of us in that van. I know we are doing the FULL zuma hike this week which I actually am sort of excited about. It is one of the few things I have not done here that is still intimidating. I will feel complete leaving here with that crossed off. It is also cool to think that someone will have to drive a van around a few mountains to pick us up. Who would have thought I would be doing this week 1?

As far as classes went I had stretch with Sam in the morning and ended up burning 400 calories (that is more than my pool and some cardio classes.) After the hike I went to stretch, then the afternoon classes were, core with Megan where I had a great core workout and will be sore today I bet, then the last two were water classes, and finally circuit training. In circuit training I did my last two - two minute intervals on the Jacobs ladder. It was crazy hard and my heart rate was 170 most of the time but I did it. I plan on doing more this week since it is really challenging and yet still less intimidating now.

Food:
Well breakfast was turkey sausage, eggs and soy cheese on an english muffin. It is so much better than it sounds! Lunch was tortilla soup, which is thick, rich and full of flavor and a turkey sandwich with a dressed salad. Finally, dinner was chicken, polenta and asparagus which was decent and chocolate covered strawberries for dessert.

Pictures/Slideshow:

Here are three from yesterday I did not post:

Day 21, Sunday... a day of rest

2011-01-31T08:56:00.000-05:00

Comments/Thoughts:
Today I did very little resting up for my last week here at the resort. Last week I over trained a bit so this week I am focusing on getting ready to go home by attending lectures and all of my classes as they are offered. I will train once with Michael on Tuesday and maybe join Darius in a dual training session with Sam if my legs and ankles feel up to it. I wish I had spread the training out more throughout my stay because you take so much away from each trainer. Megan, Sam and Michael are amazing both in and out of the gym and I encourage anyone coming to spend some time with them and absorb the motivation in and outside of the workouts. They all stay after workouts and spend time with you during meals and are very approachable for anything. All the trainers here seem great, and I wish I had time to train with them all!

Anyway, today was laundry day and I think I am going to ship some stuff home this week. I spent a big part of the day doing a meal plan and grocery list for my first week back. It is more difficult than I imagined, kind of like starting a resume from scratch. I got it done, but I wanted to get 2-4 weeks completed. I think I will have to spend much more time on this during the week.

It is a completely different place here this week with 44 people going home, and only 53 people being left for this week. I am used to 70-80 guests! More time for one on one in classes I bet. It is odd being one of the veterans left here, but it feels good to be able to make the new people more relaxed.

Anyway, there is not much more to add to this day since it was rainy and non-workout. Hope you all had a great weekend.

Day 20, Saturday, a day for hiking and relaxation

2011-01-30T09:26:00.000-05:00

Comments/Thoughts:
Today was a great day except for a little bit of soreness in my legs during my hike. I enjoyed the hike and afterwards I went to lunch with Cody and Debbie. We went to a place called Islands which is known for it's burgers. Before you get all worried I ate off their light menu and had spicy chicken tacos in corn tortillas, and a small bowl of tortilla soup. It was about 300 more calories than the planned meal, so I guess I hit 1500 calories today... Oh no! Seriously though it was fine. I did get a chance to buy some more propel, but now I am worried that it has sucralose (splenda) in it and I am going to have to talk to the dieticians again about that. I believe the non zero calorie propels did not have it. Anyway, I will update when I figure it out.

Graduation night was both sad and happy as soooo many people are leaving. I will miss them all, but I have already increased my facebook friends by a TON. I know many of us will keep in touch and continue to motivate each other to attain our goals. I am going to try to get Teri to give me the quote she read at graduation tonight. It was very inspiring, and I think people could benefit from it. We also were serenaded by Sara who used to sing opera. She is truly amazing. I have two videos of her singing on our hike (one after a very vigorous ascension. You should check them out in my picasa album.

Statistics:
I walked 14,800 steps and 7.5 miles and burned 4,594 calories via my fitbit http://www.fitbit.com/user/22B6S6

Watch Calories burned: 1361 calories

I took the watch off before lunch today so that is why it was so low. Today's only activity for me was a hike since it is Saturday.

Hike and Exercise:
The hike I chose for Saturday was Solstice. It is a challenging hike, but also one of the most scenic ones. It is only difficult in the beginning and it is a nice loop trail so you don't have to go back the way you came and that is very nice. One of our treats this hike was Sara agreed to sing if all of her group made it up to the chimney on the second half of the hike and she did not disappoint. She did some opera singing at the top and down at the creek for others. Our hiking guide Mikaela pushed the button on her walkie talkie so everyone could hear. It was amazing. I have videos of it she allowed me to post.

It was a great hike day, Sara also sang for our graduation at our request and it was amazing to watch the kitchen staff and everyone come out to watch.

As far as the rest of the day I took it easy and plan to do nothing till Monday and recuperate.

Food:
Since breakfast was the peach smoothie I opted for eggs and toast. The smoothie is not so great in my opinion. For lunch I went out with Cody and Debbie and had corn tortilla spicy chicken tacos and tortilla soup at Islands for about 850 calories. Dinner was salisbury steak with mashed sweet potatoes and veggies. It was a good food day even though I got to 1500-1600 calories. That is still diet level. =) I won't mention what Cody and Debbie had but it looked delicious!

Pictures/Slideshow:

Day 19, Oceanview and throwing kettlebells!

2011-01-29T18:51:00.000-05:00

Comments/Thoughts:
I had a good counseling session with Essara today, which I think is definitely a big part of getting ready to go home. Learning to deal with stress and anxiety outside of food is my big challenge. This place does a great detox, and if you work at it you can really get the tools you are going to need at home. I also had a 30 minute chiropractor appointment and the guy here is awesome. He fixed my quad and really got my back and shoulders loose. One of my best stress relievers yet.

One unexpected challenge I have found here is having people leave every week. You really get used to the people here that support you. This weekend Dan, Cody, Lisa, Tracy, Nancy and others are leaving and that is pretty much close to my whole lunch group. They were all long term stay guests and it is always nice to have people around that have been with you throughout your time here. Next week will be mostly new people it seems which is great, because I love to help the new people coming in, but it does feel like you lose some of your support. One great thing is I can keep up with people on facebook/e-mail. Next week is going to be me focusing more on me. I think I am going to focus my time on preparing for home, and do a little less personal training, and a little more class/menu planning. I definitely know how to push myself now.

Again, I would highly recommend to anyone coming here to challenge yourself with personal training. Megan will push you through a crazy core workout that will push and challenge you, Sam has his indoor and outdoor warrior workouts that help you push yourself past your limits, and Michael can training you with kettlebells and show you how to get a TON done in 30 minutes swinging a weight around. It really does help to know how far you can push it because it takes the rest of your class workouts up in intensity.

Statistics:
I walked 22,516 steps and 11.6 miles and burned 5,430 calories via my fitbit http://www.fitbit.com/user/22B6S6

Watch Calories Burned: 3846 Calories

Hike and Exercise:
I went to a counseling session over going to morning stretch. It was a Sam day in stretch so I really wanted to go, but I had a good session with Essara and that is important. The hike today was one I had not been on, called Oceanview. The hike started off going down into a valley and then started going up up up... There was one of the steepest inclines I have seen out here on that hike and it was very difficult getting to the top. After we got up there we followed paths down another ridge for about one and a half miles which was hard on the legs. It was very steep going down that long distance, and I was never happier that I had brought hiking poles to save me knees. People had said it was one of the most challenging hikes, but so far Reverse Zuma is the most difficult one I have done.

As far as the rest of the day's exercise I did a pool class, then a circuit training class, and finished up with cardio disco jam. Look through the pictures to see our instructor John's costume. He dresses up all disco style to make the class more fun. Dancing is embarrassing, but fun and a good workout. I forgot to mention I did an awesome training session with Michael on kettlebells. We did some partner throwing, and were even flipping the bells by the end of it. Kettlebells work you out and you just don't even notice the time passing with a good partner. He also showed me how to practice tosses on my own till I can find a good partner.

Food:
Breakfast was pancakes, eggs and some maple syrup. I wanted more syrup, but such is life. Lunch was meatloaf with wild rice, veggies and some mushroom soup. The soup was great, and the meatloaf was ok with ketchup. Dinner was a chicken tostada which was one of the largest seeming meals here. It was really good with some mexican flair and I added a little more hot sauce and loved it. Dessert was chocolate on banana, strawberries and pineapples, and as you might imagine it was great.

Pictures/Slideshow:

Day 18, I thought it was supposed to be easier at the end of the week?

2011-01-28T08:23:00.000-05:00

Comments/Thoughts:
Ok, before I get into the negatives (and some positives) of my day I want to spend a little time thanking my family, and especially my wife for allowing me the time to be out here. I am a stay at home father, and my wife provides well for our family. She has gone out of her way to make it possible for me to be out here at a high cost to her emotionally and physically. She constantly amazes me, and I hope that you know I both love and appreciate you for it Jennifer.

The other day I mentioned how people had given me a boost by saying that I inspired them. Well there are many people that inspire me here, and one of the big ones yesterday and throughout my stay has been a younger guy named Cody. Cody is here from Alberta, Canada for four weeks (this is his last) and he has been here for the first two weeks with his father, and the last two with his mother. It seems like from day one I have been trying to catch Cody on the hikes. He keeps getting faster and faster, and so do I, but he always seems to be able to kick it up to another level. Today we did Sam's personal training class (Cody will have done 4 with Sam this week!) and many of our activities were together, like pulling a 40lb weight with weighted ropes across a field back and forth like plow horses. Cody pretty much got me through that class by example.

Today was a rough day for me. Yesterday I pulled my quad again and so today I thought it was fine. That was until kickball class when it thoroughly tightened it up once again. It happened right before my personal training class and I was extremely upset and disappointed. I ended up being able to complete the training class, but I missed my scheduled class ever to ice afterwards. It was upsetting since I at least wanted to attend a calorie burning class ever hour of the evening. I did end up with two pool classes at the end of the day, and I worked out with my arms pulling me across the pool between them so I ended up with a significant calorie burn by the end of the day. By dinner I was content with what I had accomplished, but one thing I would say to people coming here is to definitely do some personal training, but make sure you leave a day or two without them in your week. You are already putting your body through the ringer, the personal training takes it up about 10 times as hard. It helps you find your max, but just remember that your classes and maintaining your body throughout your stay should be your focus.

Statistics:
I walked 21,332 steps and 12 miles and burned 5,390 calories via my fitbithttp://www.fitbit.com/user/22B6S6

Watch Calories Burned: 4338 calories!

Hike and Exercise:
Today my hike was Castro's Crest and it was fairly challenging. You walk down into a valley and then ascend quickly up to the crest. As usual there were some great views and I enjoyed it. On the way back Sam and Kimberly (two of our guides) decided that Cody and I were going to push hard from the top back down and out and we were shooting to do it in 25 minutes. We power walked through the canyon and finished the very last leg to the van at a jog. We finished in 24 minutes and to put that in perspective we were maybe 1 to 2 minutes ahead of the group at the top of the crest and when we got to the van we were maybe 8-12 minutes ahead.

Exercise today for me consisted of a kickball game after the hike where I re-torqued my quad muscle in my leg. Very frustrating since 20 minutes after that I did a personal training session with Sam. Sam had Cody and I throwing medicine balls across a field, doing squats in series for 1+ minutes at a time, and pulling weights on ropes together up and down the field. Very intense, but actually not bad on my injured leg. By the end of the class I did have crazy sore ankles and my leg still was bothering me a ton. I missed my next class to ice and then did two swimming classes. The classes I missed today were treading and ball works. I was sad to miss treading since it is one of my favorite classes, but I just knew I would hurt myself more in that one.

Food:
Breakfast was an english muffin with eggs and bacon, definitely one of the better ones. Lunch was a salad and turkey club pita. The bacon in the club was great and the pita was better than I imagined. The soup was vegetable and it was much better this week than last week. Dinner was chicken and squash so I actually ended up eating a Boca Burger (always an optional meal) with vegetables. The dessert was an apple cobbler made of oats and cinnamon cooked apples. It was good once I sweetened it with some Truvia.

Slideshow/Pictures:

Day 17, hump day 3, not all downhill this week from here I fear.

2011-01-27T10:00:00.000-05:00

Comments/Thoughts:
Well of the positive side I have been told throughout my three weeks that I am inspiring in classes and of late on the hikes. Aside from the compliment and ego boost it feels good to know that my hard work is helping others here push through the pain. It is definitely one of the toughest things I have done so far in my life. The most difficult thing is going to be carrying on once I leave. I will lose between 28 and 40 pounds here, but I still have another 100 pound journey at home. I am actually eager to get started, both because I miss my amazing family and friends, and because I am eager for the challenge for some weird reason.

One the slight negative side I fear I have overbooked training this week and it is affecting my classes. Today I trained with Megan and my core was already sore from kettlebell training, and my Monday core class. I was unable to perform many exercises as well as I would have expected. This did not mean I didn't get a ton out of the class. I really burned a ton of calories and Megan is amazing at modifying her difficult routines. I felt an amazing sense of accomplishment once completed. I did end up pulling a muscle in my quad again and that has me a little worried about Thursday. I have Sam at lunch on Thursday and I am truly scared of the workout he has planned considering how sore I am.

My advice if you come here is to get personal training two times a week with someone that is going to push your boundaries. Once on Tuesday and once on Friday. It will help you see how much further you can push yourself in your classes here, and it will not overdo it. I know next week I am going to tone it down so I can go home uninjured. =)

Statistics:
I walked 18,689 steps and 9.9 miles and burned 5,388 calories via my fitbit http://www.fitbit.com/user/22B6S6

Watch Calories burned: 3868

Hike and Exercise:
Wednesday the hike was Solstice. I did this on my first Wednesday here at camp and it was fairly tough. The beginning of the hike is straight up for about 15 minutes. The first week I was here I was in the back of my group and this time I was in the front. It is a good feeling to be able to gauge your progress on the hikes and enjoy them rather than dread them. I loved the hike today since it is one of the more scenic ones, and the only gripe I had was we didn't go up to the chimney at the end of the hike which is up another hill. It ended sooner than usual for me and I wanted to burn some more calories. Weird to feel that way, but I guess at the three week mark you are ready to push on through. The guides were great and my group is fun this week.

As far as other classes, I had stretch in the morning with Sam which was a good calories burner. After the hike I had stretch with Mikaela and she does a very low impact relaxing stretch class which is what I definitely needed. Next I had a workout with Megan in a personal training session. Dan and Rebecca were in my session and they actually got more punishment than I sense my core was not holding me up. My last three classes I went to were two pool classes and a kickboxing class. I did the second pool class because I had pulled my quad and pool does not hurt it as much as Mountain.

Food:
For breakfast I had my eggs and toast, which I really enjoy and could eat everyday. The actual breakfast was Muesli which is oatmeal and granola mixed. Lunch was Green Pizza which I really enjoyed. They do a good job making their bread into crispy little pizza things. Dinner was one of my favorites, they call it a cafe chicken salad, but I will could it a mexican chicken soft shell salad or something. Having that tortilla, beans, chicken, lettuce and green salsa is great. The dessert was mango sorbet which is decent enough.

Slideshow/Pictures:

Day 16, Kettlebells and Beaches...

2011-01-26T08:50:00.000-05:00

Comments/Thoughts:
Today I was a bit sore because of the kettlebell training I did with Michael yesterday. He is a pretty amazing trainer and all around nice person. One thing about this place is that the people that work here are both positive and really well qualified. Here are some of his YouTube videos doing kettlebell demonstrations:

And finally this one is not with a kettlebell but it is pretty amazing...

Statistics:
20909 steps taken, 11.22 miles traveled, and 5210 calories burned.

Watch calories burned: 3863 calories

Hike and Exercise:
I did the beach hike once again today, but the tide was low so it was a better hike. I really do not like walking in the sand that much even though it is good exercise because of all the sand build up in my shoes. Since I tape my feet I don't want to take them off to walk barefoot through the first part of the hike so by the time I reach the hills I have large amount of sand under my toes. The sand makes my toes sore while walking and it get annoying. I did great on the hike and burned about 1100 calories. I went through it about as fast as I ever have and we made it back to campus in no time.

As far as exercise for the day went I did a personal training with Michael and then went to a lecture on eating out. I did two pool classes and did not do total toning since I had already worked my muscles out so thoroughly in my personal training. The last class of the day was cardio intervals with Sam and I beat myself down in that class. I actually ran at 6.5 mph for a minute which is quite a bit of moving for my size.

Food:
For breakfast I had the standard eggs and toast I have grown to love. The other option was a muffin which just does not fill me up enough for the hike. Lunch was parsnip soup which I thought was great with some extra seasoning, and a turkey sandwich. Dinner was veggie lasagna with chocolate strawberries for dessert. Strawberry night is a big deal around here.

Pictures/Slideshow:

Sunday, a weigh in, a football game, and rest...

2011-01-24T17:13:00.000-05:00

Well since Sundays are a day of rest the usual format is out the window. I had eggs and toast for breakfast, and we got a sack lunch. The sack lunch did not look that good, but that wasn't a problem because... Dan took us off campus to go watch the Bears v. Packers game. We had some problems getting in at the first sports bar, but soon found Yankee Doodles. I give them an A+ for screen visibility, and a D- on service. They had one waitress working our 20 table section it seemed.

Anyway, for our lunches Dan and Nancy had turkey burgers and I opted for basic chicken fajitas with corn tortillas (No rice, beans, cheese, sour cream.) They had told us in a class to always opt for the corn tortillas since they are 50-65 calories a piece and that works great for me because I prefer them. Basically I just filled them with chicken, onion, green pepper and some salsa. It was great and I felt happy about being out and making the right choice. There were no beers, but plenty of diet coke.

After watching the Bears' pitiful performance we went back to campus and I spent the rest of the day relaxing. One last thing to mention was that I weighed in the morning and had lose 11 more pounds which brought me to 14.4 in two weeks. Also, I have gone to my third belt loop (from barely being at the first) and that is amazing to me too. I think I have readjusted what I thought I was going to lose, but my fitness level and measurements are doing great!

Anyway, back to class since I am writing this on Monday, I definitely miss have Kent around. Seeing people you get to know leave when you have time left is never pleasant. Hope everyone else is doing well!

Saturday, Day 13 is here, let there be some rest!

2011-01-24T17:04:00.000-05:00

Comments/Thoughts:
Today was a very relaxed day all around. There was some working out, but for the most part it was calm. I went to see a movie after graduation with some friends here and that felt great. I did have some diet pepsi, but no popcorn or candy. We saw the Dilemma and another of our group who had seen it went and saw True Grit. I had already seen that one so it worked out that the movies were on at the same time and were the same length. After that we got back to the rooms and one of the friends I went to the movie with graciously helped me get the splinter out of my hand. As of today (monday) it is feeling great!

Statistics:
I walked 16,656 steps and 7.8 miles and burned 4,641 calories via my fitbit http://www.fitbit.com/user/22B6S6

Watch calorie measurement: N/A

Hike and Exercise:
The hike on Saturday was Paramount Ranch, owned by the similarly named studio. It has a small western town built in it where some westerns (Josey Wales,City Slickers) have been filmed. It was a pretty easy hike and there were 31 people. The pace was relaxed and we stopped quite a few times for head counts. I think I only burned like 700 calories on that hike. It was good though because I got to chat with Dan and Ken, and Ken was leaving the very next day. The class after the hike was a water class and then we were free!

Food:
For breakfast I once again opted for eggs and toast with a little organic ketchup. For lunch Dan took me to a restaurant on the beach and it was tough, but we were as good as the restaurant allowed. I had a salmon fillet and about 6 bites of mashed potatoes. The view was amazing and it was nice to get out. We also went down to Venice Beach and bought some things to take back for our families. It was a good outing all in all and I was proud of how good I was off campus. As I keep telling people you have to be able to live when you leave here. People aren't going to hand you these meals forever. Dinner was back on the ranch and was BBQ chicken and veggies. It was good with hot sauce (as are most things.)

Slideshow/Pictures:

FRIDAY! day 12 and only a half day on Satuday and it is time to rest!

2011-01-22T10:02:00.000-05:00

Comments/Thoughts:

The big event of my day today was my personal training with Sam. Sam was a contestant on the biggest loser and was the first one to reach his goal weight while still one campus. Not to take anything away from the other trainers here. I plan on training with some of them over the next two weeks, but when you are here with someone who has gone through what you are going through there is an instant bond and understanding. Sam's presence is motivational, and his personality just adds to it. The workout he put me through is probably the hardest thing I have ever done physically in my life. I was actually screaming during my workout trying to finish exercises well past my point of fatigue. It was a strength training session, but the majority of it was using my weight, plus some nice medicine balls and weighted bars every so often. One big outside the box exercise was with this huge weighted rope he wrapped around a tree... Essentially I had to hold both sides of the rope in a squatted position and smack it down until I nearly passed out. There were several unconventional things we did and if anyone is interested just ask in comments and I will elaborate more. The session was during lunch and people were outside the gym reading at the pool and wondering what the hell Sam was doing to me in the gym that was causing all the screaming. I definitely got my moneys worth! I plan on doing a session with him next week and with one or two other trainers. I feel like I have a ton to get done and not much time to do it.

Here is a before and after picture of Sam.

Here is a video from NBC with him:

Statistics:

I walked 23,916 steps and 12.2 miles and burned 5,454 calories via my fitbit http://www.fitbit.com/user/22B6S6

Watch Calories Burned: 4689 calories!

Hike and Exercise:

The hike was backbone Latigo Canyon. That was my hike last week (first one after my assessment) and it kicked my a$$. So this week I was eager to see what kind of progress I had made. The bad news was my right knee and left ankle were crazy sore. I used walking sticks again today and that worked out great! I did much better and did not stop once on the hike. I made it through much quicker than the last time and enjoyed it more despite my semi injuries.

Once I got back from the hike I went and iced my knee and ankle instead of going to stretch class. I did go to the morning stretch taught by Sam and burned 350 calories during a "stretch" class. After that I had my session with Sam at Noon and then my afternoon classes ended up being circuit training and two pool sessions. Today was cardio disco jam but I did not think that my ankle and knee were up for another hard on the joint session. I will make sure I do it next week, the trainer who teaches it (John) dresses up for it and it is a great class. I did miss not taking it.

Food:

I only took a couple of food pictures today since my meal times were rushed. Breakfast was french toast and eggs, lunch was chicken stem and a roll (I had to eat that during a lecture at the pool in a togo container,) and dinner was meatball sub with veggies. Again it was a great food day! I hope I can make this stuff taste as good at home.

Pictures:

Day 11, Thursday and still counting down till the weekend.

2011-01-22T09:07:00.000-05:00

Comments/Thoughts:
Today was a good day and I really did not have too many comments other than I went to a good counseling session with a Life coach/counselor here. Her name is Essara (I may need to verify that spelling) and she is great. We talked about methods for me to distract myself when feeling the urge to bing. I am hoping to come away from my experience here with tools that are more mental than physical. The workouts seem to be what many focus on, but I have worked out a ton before and know I can handle that side. It is having the mental abilities to get past my fat and salt addictions at home I need the most help with. She did a great job helping me on that journey and if you end up being a guest here in Malibu I highly recommend attending her class and at least getting one counseling session in.

One other real fun thing I got to do today was play kickball. It is amazing what a fun activity like that does for you when the rest of your activities you are just in survival mode. Sam was the pitcher for both teams and my team won. There were a TON of people playing. It looked like two rival 5th grade classes were going at it.

Statistics:
I walked 22,995 steps and 12.3 miles and burned 5,500 calories via my fitbit http://www.fitbit.com/user/22B6S6

I changed up my watch and wore the monitor all day instead of breaking it up by class.

Watch calories burned: 3531calories

Hike and Exercise:
The hike was once again the beach for me. I really did not get much out of the hike except a ton of sand in my shoes. I actually sweat the least I have on any hike since I have been here. I think I have moved past this hike as far as a big calorie burner. It was still a gorgeous hike, but the winds were gusting at about 40 miles an hour and occasionally I would get a nice sand blasting.

As far as exercise went I skipped the optional morning core class since Cameron is brutal and I need to have my full usage of muscles for the hike. After the hike I had a pool class which was a decent burn. My classes after lunch were kickboxing, mountain and another water class. The kickboxing class was taught by Ursula, who is an actual boxer. She was great and I got a good workout and some good knowledge from the class. Mountain was tough as usual, 12 increases, each being 3 minutes long on the treadmill... fun fun.

Food:
I did a bad job at taking pictures today because I have already taken a ton of beach pictures, so why do more and I forgot my camera for breakfast, and at lunch I was behind and had to hurry because of my counseling session. I did get a shot of the waldorf salad for dinner. It was really good. For breakfast we had a peanut butter and jelly panini with fruit, I opted for eggs and toast instead. It just did not look like enough food to get me through the hike. Lunch was really good even though I had it to go. Tortilla soup was the beginning of lunch and it was amazing. One of my favorites, and up there with the tomato and french onion soups. The meal was hawaiian pizza and that was really great. Little pieces of toasted bread with pineapple, chicken and cheese and a few other things. I added hot sauce because that is how I roll, but I really liked it. Dinner was the waldorf salad and chocolate strawberries!!! Those are the best dessert hands down.

Pictures: (only one!)

Wednesday = hump day, and I busted mine

2011-01-20T09:16:00.000-05:00

Comments/Thoughts:
My ankle held up really well today and my soreness level is decreasing. I am glad things are becoming more fun to do. I did the treadmill today at 15 incline and it was not too bad. All of the hiking is paying off in a general fitness way. They really focus on the lower body here, most stretches and lunges and squats really help you build some strength down low. I do think I need to ice my ankle everyday from this point forward.

Statistics:
I walked 22,422 steps and 11.6 miles and burned 5,294 calories via my fitbithttp://www.fitbit.com/user/22B6S6 #fitstats

Watch Stats:
Hike: 1149 calories
H2O: 249 calories
Spinning Class: 448 calories
Kickboxing: 320 calories
Mountain: 413 calories
H2O: 230 calories

Hike and Exercise:
The hike today was Winding Way, and it was a moderate hike. We finished it pretty early too so I had time to relax before my water class. The hike starts out in a neighborhood and goes downhill mostly to begin with. There are only a couple of challenging hills on the hike so you get to enjoy the scenery. There is a nice waterfall and lots of creeks to cross. I rented walking poles and found that they really helped my lower back and ankle for the hike.

As far as classes for the day, I started with stretch with Sam teaching which started the day off right. I signed up for a spinning class and am still coughing out the seat. The seat on those bikes are crazy painful. After spin I went immediately into kickboxing and then mountain. Mountain was on a treadmill for me today, it essentially is 12 - 3 minute intervals, increasing either speed or incline on each interval. Good class, and I was lucky to finish the day in the water.

Food:
Breakfast was a turkey sausage and egg sandwich with some mixed fruit. One of the better breakfasts since it has some meat on it. Lunch was french onion soup, and a greek pita with salad. This was a great lunch and much better than I thought it would be. The soup was great even though it had no onion chunks in it, and the pita was amazing. Finally, dinner was a salmon fillet on Israeli couscous with asparagus, and a grilled pineapple skewer for dessert. The salmon was great and I thoroughly enjoyed the pineapple. I was starving at night so I ate a side salad from the bar and that seemed to hit to spot.

Pictures:

Week 2 at the "resort," day 9!

2011-01-19T08:53:00.000-05:00

I am feeling better except for my ankle. I did ice it at the end of the day, and as I write this (morning of day 10) it is feeling decent. I think I will start breaking these posts up into sections, stats, food, hike and exercise, thoughts and commentary. This section being thoughts and commentary. I got some exciting news today, but I need to verify it is ok I can post it. It is about one of the trainers here, so I will ask them if it is ok to post. One things that was special to me today was I got a care package from my amazing wife Jennifer. She sent me some sunscreen, warm pull overs, a wireless router that should help me get signals to my room, and a card from Jack and Katie. The card was super cute with quotes from and it really made me feel good. I think about them all the time while here and it feels nice to know they are thinking about me too.

Statistics for the day that was:
A brief note about these statistics: The fitbit that I use does not measure my heart rate. It has an accelerometer in it that measures body movement and tracks steps and estimates calories burned and miles traveled. I do have a heart rate monitoring watch (which requires I wear a device on my chest to get my heart rate), and will try to incorporate some of that data since I feel it is more accurate on calories burning. Every night my fitbit shoots the data out to twitter and facebook so I will cut and paste that into this section at the very least.

Fitbit stats were:
I walked 24,686 steps and 12.5 miles and burned 5,391 calories via my fitbithttp://www.fitbit.com/user/22B6S6

Watch stats:
Hike: 1018 calories
Intensati: 230 calories
Total Toning: 289 calories
H20 Intervals: 277 calories
Cardio Intervals: 394 calories

I will include a blog post that has my previous data this evening if I have time.

Hike and Exercise:
The hike today was to Reagan Ranch. It was a scenic hike, but we did not get to go to the old M.A.S.H shooting site. I hope to convince the guides next time to allow us to take that route. I did hear a rattlesnake in the grass next to me today which was kind of freaky! People back at camp kept asking if I went to look for it... I guess no one knows my motto about natural predators and poisonous creatures. The hike was moderately difficult. It was one of my lowest calories burns ever. This week I am not at the back of the group which makes me feel better a little mentally.

Workouts today were: Morning Stretch class, Hike, Post Hike Stretch class, Intensati, Total Toning, H2O Intervals, Cardio Intervals.

I have commented about all of these classes before except Intensati. I am not sure it is my thing, but it was good to experience it. It is like a combo of yoga, self affirmitive sayings, disco cardio, kickboxing... It was a good calories burn, and I was the only guy that chose this elective workout!

FOOD!:
For breakfast I chose to have eggs and toast as opposed to the fruit parfait they were having. Eggs and toast seem to stay with me through the hike. I usually take a hard boiled egg on the hike with me as well.

Lunch was tomato soup and quinoa lettuce wraps. Both of them were amazing. The soup was the best I have had so far, and those wraps were really good with some hot sauce on them. They seemed like a ton of food as well. Great choice for the day!

Dinner was an enchilada and veggies with a chocolate coconut sorbet for dessert. Both of these options were good, I would have preferred to have lunch again though.

Picture slideshow:

The beginning of week 2, day 8!

2011-01-18T09:39:00.001-05:00

I feel much better this week, and am not too intimidated by the hikes anymore. I really only fear the reverse Zuma hike, but that was not the one I received for my assessment today. There were about half stay over and half new guests this week, so many people were worried about their hikes. We did Newton canyon for my group and it was a great hike. Very scenic, and just difficult enough. It starts next to the Latigo backbone trail and ends at the Zuma trail. I finished off my water pack once again on this hike. It is much warmer this week. Last week the hikes were in the upper 50s and lower 60s, this week it is upper 60s and 70s. So I need to get more water!

Class for the day were stretch before breakfast taught by Sam, Total Body H20 before and after lunch, follwed by circuit training and core training. Circuit training was a tough one, Sam pushed us pretty hard in that one. The core class this week was taught by John and he used to mostly to educate us on core training, not on killing us with core training.

Food for the day was an egg sandwich for breakfast which is always great. For lunch we had Tilapia Tacos and they were awesome! I mean with some siracha hot sauce on them I loved them. One of my favorite meals. Also we had sunchoke soup for lunch which was good. Dinner was chicken with a sweet potato puress and asparagus. I had that last week and it was once again good.

Overall a good day, lots of calories burned and happy to still be here. Below is a slideshow of the pictures from the hike and some food shots.

The weekend, days 6 and 7!

2011-01-18T09:01:00.001-05:00

Saturday was a great day because I got to choose my hike. I chose to do the beach again since the weather is so nice. I did not take pictures again since I figured that would get a bit repetitive. The beach was packed, and once again some things were being filmed there. There were a few star sighting by the guests, so it is still a very interesting hike.

The only pictures I took on Saturday were of the lunch and dinner. For breakfast I had fruit and pancakes, lunch was some great tacos, and carrot soup, and dinner was chicken with marinara, squash and brussel sprouts, and an almond butter cookie. The cookies was 271 calories and it was not very good at all. I enjoyed all the food that day except the cookie, so not worth it. Here are the pics:

After lunch I went with Kent and Debra to see the Green Hornet. We enjoyed the movie and I had a diet pepsi. Not on program, but not crazy off program.

After dinner there was the graduation ceremony for people leaving on Sunday. It was a great event and a little sad. We went through events that were inspiring for the week and it was a very positive experience.

Onto the next day, my day of rest for the week! Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! So food was granola for breakfast, and a sack lunch with an almond butter and jelly sandwich with a banana and string cheese. Dinner was a great tamale in black bean sauce.

I was invited by Dan to go to Venice Beach and jumped at the opportunity. It was a good time we probably walked about 4 miles (I forgot to wear my fitbit!) up and down the beach. It was a very interesting people watching experience. Venice is also Muscle Beach and there were a few muscle guys there. Not too many, I guess Sunday is their day off. I had a great time and actually got a decent walk in on my day off.

The only bad part of my day was the weigh in. I lost 4 pounds in my first week. I was sad, but I realized I have lost over a belt loop already, so as they say, weight is not the only thing to change.

Sunday night was new guests introduction and prep for the next day. Here are the pics from the Sunday:

Day 5, a walk on the beach

2011-01-15T09:25:00.001-05:00

Well on an annoying note I got a splinter in my hand from the handrail on my cabin. There actually were two splinters but with a push pin and plastic tweezers I got one out. I am worried about the other one, and it hurts my palm to do quite a bit now, but I can suck it up for the most part. Jen says it may get infected, but lets hope to not cross that path.

So the day started with a great stretch class. This one was taught by Sam again. His classes are good because they have the right balance of relaxation and core work in the stretching. That set the day up for a good breakfast, which was a veggie fritata, mixed fruit and a hard boiled egg I took with me on the morning hike. We found out that our hike was going to be the beach hike so I was excited to be on a scenic hike I could actually enjoy this time.

Here is the link to pictures and the slideshow. I still haven't had time to work on image integration like I want:

Here is a link to the gallery.

The hike was great, and it was a good workout. I actually signed up for a Saturday hike to do this one again. We walked the street on the first beach because there were two sets of guests doing the hike (they took the sand) and then it was up and over a huge ridge and down it to the next beach. There was a nice shipwreck on the next beach, as well as some cool tide pools. One of the guides was swinging around off the mast of the leaned over shipwreck. I have a video and some pics taken of it above. The walk back was not so great at the end since on the beach closest to our van was had to do the sand walk and it was much looser than the sand on the far beach. I was dragging behind, but I finished it at a run as my fellow guests made a nice tunnel for me to run through at the end.

The class after the hike was H2O intervals, and then it was onto lunch. Lunch was vegetable soup, which was good by itself, but I added some rooster hot sauce and mung beans to and that turned out even better. The main course was a sloppy joe and salad, and it was pretty tasty.

The first class of the afternoon was cardio disco jam which is apparently many of the women's favorite class. It was actually pretty fun and a good workout. It invovles dancing to disco music, and our trainer John dressed up as a crazy disco man. I wish I had my camera for that. Next week I will get a picture. He did a great job teaching the dance moves and we burned a ton of calories. There was even a disco circle which everyone had to do a solo in... Pretty embarrassing, but all in good fun.

The next two classes of the afternoon went by surprisingly fast, and those were Liquid Moves and Circuit Training. I got a good calories burn, but was glad those were two of my last ones of the week. I am ready to get my rest on.

Dinner was a salmon pattie sandwich and veggies. I had to get some ketchup out. It was my least favorite meal for dinner yet. It was edible though, not poisonous. The dessert was a fruit skewer with raspberry sauce. Not as good as grilled pineapple, but decent enough.

After dinner I was invited to go to Target by a fellow guest and so three of us set out to buy some stuff we wanted to make the stay a little more comfortable. I have to say driving by all the great restaurants was hard, but passing up the Starbucks in the Target was INCREDIBLY difficult. I did it though, and now I have some cheaper flavored water here on campus. Target charges 3.49 for 6 bottles of propel, camp charges 2 dollars per bottle. Do the math on that one. I loaded up!

That was the end of the day. Now I am getting ready for breakfast and a good beach hike. Hope everyone is having a great day!

Day 4, the hike from hell...

2011-01-14T08:34:00.001-05:00

The day started off well, there was no stretching class so I stayed in the room and Skyped with my beautiful wife and kids. It was nice to see them and hear daddy daddy daddy. Even though this only the 5th day away from them I miss them a ton. At 7:15 it was breakfast time once again. This time it was hot museli and mixed fruit. The meal was good, it came with either rice or almond milk and was really tasty. I added a little Truvia, and it was great. Once again I am going to just post a slideshow and a link to the web album instead of putting all the pictures in the post to save time and get caught up. Here they are:

Here is a link to the web album.

Next came the hike, and a world of pain. This hike is called Reverse Zuma. It was touted as the most difficult hike by the other campers. This definitely turned out to be the case. The scenery was beautiful, but the hike was straight up, straight down, straight up, straight down and back over and back of a mountain. Making it the 3 miles in was not so bad, but going back nearly killed my ankles. I didn't rest the entire walk back so I did a good job, but I was afraid my ankles were going to cause me to miss classes for the rest of the day. We even got back late and luckily my next class was stretching.

Stretching was a nice relaxing one, and after that was lunch. My ankles were killing me, but I found the energy to make it to the lunch table. For lunch we had a turkey sandwich and mixed salad. Once again it was great, the turkey was preservative free organic stuff and tasted great. I skipped the cooking demo class (I bought the cookbook and come on, I know how to cook) and went and soaked my ankles in the hot tub for about 45 minutes. That is what saved the rest of my day. If you come here do not be afraid to take a rest to make sure you can continue. Lots of people here are coming back because they had to leave injured their first trip.

After the soak I went to a water class, followed by a new class for me called Treading. This class was hard, but probably one I will do at the gym when I get home. It is broken up like this on your cardio machine of choice:
5 minute warmup

5 minutes hard as you can go
5 minutes back at warm up pace

4 minutes hard as you can go
4 minutes back at warm up pace

3 minutes hard as you can go

3 minutes back at warm up pace

2 minutes hard as you can go

2 minutes back at warm up pace

1 minutes hard as you can go

1 minutes back at warm up pace

1 minutes hard as you can go

1 minutes back at warm up pace

3-5 minutes of stretching

It is a very rewarding class and goes fast.

My final class was ball works which was a resistance class with those huge workout balls you sit on. It was challenging and gave a great workout.

Last but not least was dinner. It was a stuffed bell pepper with asparagus and rice. Once again excellent food and even though I was ravenous I was full when I left the dinner hall. There was no first week lecture after dinner so I spent about 45 minutes in the hot tub recovering for the day. Felt great. Ok, now onto day 5. Feel good to have this caught up at 5:30AM in the morning.

Day three, just one more to go to be caught up...

2011-01-14T00:00:00.000-05:00

Ok I am going to try to breeze through these last two and not post so many pics. If you are interested in pictures for these I will post links at the bottom. I have commented most of the pictures now so hopefully they will provide the subtext you need. Also I apologize for the sloppy formatting I have not had time to review my html enough to situate the pictures and text correctly. I hope to fix that problem over the weekend

Here is the slideshow:

Here is the link to the picasa web album.

Anyway.. Day 3 began for me at around 4:35AM PST. I am trying to maintain my east coast time zone advantage by waking up early (7:35 EST) and going to bed early. So far it is working I am having no problems getting out of bed. I woke up sore, but not as bad as I imagined. I believe that the stretching they do here after every class and the stretching class itself help tremendously with this. That brings me to my first class of the day, stretching! This class was taught by a biggest loser contestant from season 9 named Sam. It was his first stretching class he has taught and he did a great job. All the trainers here come around during our meals to talk about the program and it is no different for him. He is very motivating, and I think a great asset to their program here. After stretch was breakfast which was French Toast mostly with some nice maple syrup. I took one of the optional snacks for the hike (hard boiled egg) and an apple.

Next came the hike which is called "Solstice." It was one of the two hardest hikes according to fellow campers here. It was very tough, going all the way up a mountain and then down a canyon behind it. At the bottom of the canyon there was an old burnt down house that was really cool. If you look through the pictures you will see I took several pictures of it. Our guides were great, but they made us do an extra hill so I have to give them a B+ for the day. I did well on this hike and did not have to stop at all after using the "Mountaineer step" that my guide the previous day, TJ, had taught me.

Once back to camp it was on to the liquid moves class which was great for my sore ankles after the hike, and then on to lunch. Lunch was BBQ pizza and a salad I prepared extra which was amazing. There was also beet soup which I liked after I added some tabasco and salt to. Not my favorite one, but not terrible.

After lunch my class was a water class once again. I really enjoy them and sweat for quite awhile once I leave the pool. Some people here say they do not bur enough calories, but I think they are great. Next came Kickboxing class... That one wore me out completely. It was pretty rapid pace and the trainer for the class was Megan and she is crazy intense.

Finally the last class was called Mountain! This class was a 12 increase class where you get on a treadmill (or other cardio machine) and do twelve - three minute intervals. Each one must either increase incline or speed. By the end of it you are humping it. I enjoyed the class and it did beat me down, but the last class of the day just goes by pretty fast I find.

The end of the day was dinner which was a salad, a tortilla bowl filled with chicken, rice and some tomatillo sauce. Very tasty with some hot sauce added. The dessert was mango sorbet. Again very tasty. Finally we had a lecture on Intuitive eating which was great.

Ok, hopefully I can finish the day 4 blog before I finished day 5.

Day two from Day four perspective?

2011-01-13T10:07:00.000-05:00

So I am behind, and will try to finish day two and three today (which is day four.) Confused? I am a little, but that is because the days here all mingle together into a nasty sweaty haze. Anyway onto day two:

Tuesday! So the day started out with a 6AM stretch class once again. From the first day I assumed this would be an easy, wake up stretch and relax class... That was so not the case. The instructor (Cameron) turned it into a semi-core stretching class. I was not prepared for this pre-hike workout mentally. I definitely do not want to be sore on hikes that go straight up mountains, and worse... back down. Anyway, I survived that "optional" class and then went on to breakfast which I did not get a picture of. It was a peach smoothie and some eggs. The smoothie is probably they only thing I have had so far I have not liked here. I did not know there was optional granola and oatmeal. Live and learn I guess. Here is the menu for the day:

Next came the hike which was the Latigo Canyon Backbone hike. It was much more difficult then on day 1. I had to stop several times, but I finished. It was about 6 miles of mostly up terrain. Here are some of the pictures:

After the hike we came back and thankfully I had the H2O circuit class. The water classes are difficult but they help out with all the ankle pain from the hike. I wish it was always that way. Each of the classes is 45 minutes, with a 15 minute window to get changed/move to the next class. It is like high school but the classes kick your a$$. Next was lunch which was a squash soup and turkey club wrap. No picture of the soup, but I remembered to get the wrap.

Once again the food was excellent. The soup was really creamy and good, and the fake mayo they use was actually pretty good.

After lunch there was a cooking demo lecture from the chef here and it was pretty entertaining. I purchased the cookbooks and am excited to try the recipes at home. After the lecture I went straight into my next class which was Cardio Intervals. That was a fairly difficult class but I enjoyed it. The next class was Total Toning, and that was your basic aerobic class with weights. It was one of the more difficult classes Last but not least was another H20 Intervals class. This was fun and exhausting, but a great way to end the day of classes.

Next was dinner, and we had baked penne pasta with vegetables which was delicious. I out a little hot sauce on the veggies and they were great. We also had chocolate covered strawberries and they were amazing. Both are pictured on the side here. Last thing of the day was a lecture on spending calories wisely. Good information. That was it for day two. Now on to day 3.

First days at The Biggest Loser Resort at Fitness Ridge Malibu...

2011-01-12T08:32:00.000-05:00

One thing I will say about this camp is that from Monday through Friday there is very little free time. For all of you that have been sending me texts and other messages that I haven't responded back to I apologize. I have about 10-15 minutes between activities and those go from 6am till 6/7pm.

First impressions so far are great. It is odd being driven in from LA into Malibu, it felt like going through Miami, however the ranch I am on is up in the mountains/valleys of Malibu so the scenery is much like Red River Gorge in Kentucky. It is very scenic. It is pretty chilly as well, and I did not pack for excessively chilly weather.

My first day here was on Sunday and I was checked in and had my initial weigh in. Everyone here is exceptionally nice and the atmosphere is open and inviting. All of the other guests are quick to start up conversation and the people that run the resort encourage this and go about setting up groups so you can bond with other guests fairly quickly.

Sunday was very basic, check-in, weigh-in, and then relax in the room till dinner. Dinner consisted of a teriyaki chicken dish with brown rice and veggies. It was very good, and there was a desert at the end of a little sliver of some sort of whipped cream with Grape-nuts on the bottom of it. After that it was off to bed for an early rise.

Monday... where to begin!

Woke up at 5AM and went to my stretching class at 6AM. Stretching was great and relaxing on Monday. It was an hour of pretty difficult stretches but very calming. Next came breakfast which was great. First came fruit plate and then an english muffin with eggs, some cheese and a little bacon. It was really tasty, and was around 300 calories. I chose to take a 12 almond snack with me for my hike later on in the morning.

The hike...

This was a horse trail right next to the campus we are staying on. We walked over and the trail itself was challenging and fairly muddy. I ended up getting some wet feet which was not too much fun. Oh and the horses left presents along the trail for us to find. We ended up having extra time after looping around these trails so we went and walked up some of the streets to the houses around here, and they were at crazy inclines. That was actually more difficult than the trail. Our guides were talking about how much they love challenging inclines. They are fairly crazy if that is the part of the hike they enjoy if you ask me.

Here are some pictures from that hike:

For lunch I had Chili with cornbread and it was probably one of favorite meals so far. The cornbread had pine nuts and dried cranberries in it and was amazing. The portion seemed huge too, it was almost as big as my hand. I will grab a picture when we have it again.

After lunch there was a lecture on calorie budgeting that was great information, but tough to stay awake through considering all the working out. Next was core training which was amazingly tough. Following that was H20 intervals class which is basically crazy intense water aerobics. Not was easy as it sounds, Finally, the last 45 minute class of the day was circuit training. This was 2 minutes on cardio equipment followed by two minutes of weight training, rinse and repeat for 45 minutes.

One thing I wish there was a little more of was time here. I am not able to do anything except change clothes from 6AM till 7PM so I get little time to chat with friends and family. It is probably a good thing the time is short or I might fall asleep.

After the classes I got cleaned up a little and went to dinner.

Which you can see is Chicken with Yam Puree and asparagus. It was once again very good, and I was very happy to have it after all of those classes. The interaction at dinner with other guests is nice and I am starting to get to know the people that sit around me decently well. The atmosphere here is crazy supportive and positive. People are here from all over too which is interesting. We have people from Venezuela, South Africa and the UK. People stays vary quite a bit. Many are here for just a week and some are here 2 to 3 months. I can't imagine being here that long, but it is definitely a great place to be if you have a good bit of weight to lose.

After the nice meal pictured above they brought out:

Grilled pineapple with some sort of raspberry sauce on it. I have to say this is the best pineapple I have ever eaten, and that includes my time on Maui. Everything they have here is fresh and organic and with some of the things you can really taste the difference. Believe it or not I ate this slowly and it lasted about 20 minutes. I have noticed that most of us have slowed down our eating to enjoy it considering out limited availability of food. I really am not feeling overly hungry though. The food is filling even at these low calories and with a snack, or extra fruit here and there the days are not hunger filled.

After dinner we had our Spending Your Calories Wisely lecture which is two parts. This is only a week one activity and I am looking forward to having some extra time next week after dinner to get to the room and relax. The lecture is give by one of the dietitians here and is really good. All the information here I have seen in one way or another, but they do a great job of collecting and present it here anew.

That is it for my Monday. I am actually finishing up this post on Wednesday morning so instead of adding Tuesdays information to it I will just go ahead and get this first post up. Hope everyone is doing well.

Back from the Big Easy

2008-09-26T09:43:00.000-04:00

So we are back from vacation and as usual things have been hectic as I get back into town. We had a great time in New Orleans, and as you might expect, I did not think too much about diet there.

We had a great time however there was on issue that still lingers till today. The baby bug! As we left our son get a little tummy flu and was sick. We were dismayed, but then on Saturday in New Orleans Jennifer got it as was puking and other things on Saturday. She was mostly better on Sunday, but her stomach is still not right. So far everyone that has come into contact with our son has gotten it. My dad, her dad, her mom and now... Me! I have been (thankfully?) unable to eat much for the past 2-3 days and had to miss work one day this week.

Perhaps this will keep the diet destruction I have been doing to a minimum. We are going on some calorie counting system soon (well at least I am.) Right now I am doing some recipe research. Weigh in will be on Monday and it will be a new starting point.

Glad to be back and hope everyone is doing well.

Thanks for the encouragement

2008-09-09T13:00:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to say a quick thank you to the commenters who have been so suportive. I am going through a rough patch now diet wise. I have let myself become a little too overwhelmed with my perceived failure of late. It is about time to dust myself off and get back to it. I am definitely going to have to use an agressive workout schedule this time.

Anyway, still alive, still kickin'. More to come soon.

Ruh roh

2008-09-03T10:49:00.000-04:00

So I see I was featured today on Jimmy's low carb blog. I guess I should explain a couple of things to clear it up. I am trying to lose weight to be healthy for my daughter who will be born at the end of November, as well as getting in shape for my wife Jennifer and stepson Jackson. I am actually a Kentucky native, but currently live in Richmond, Indiana. I am going through a bit of a low carb crisis on my own and am trying to do low calorie for awhile. Do not let that sway you from the low carb path! I honestly believe it is the right way to go, but because something has changed for me I am not able to go as low carb as I need to. I am right now one of the rare few people who are so resistant that I am not losing weight. I am going to give low calorie a try again and then slowly cut the carbs back out and see if that works.

I hope all you bright eyed low carbers stick it out. I lost 70 pounds doing low carb the last time, but for some reason the exact same diet will not allow me to lose now. Maybe it is my age now, but I am working to figure it out. Don't let anyone tell you high fat, protein laden food isn't healthy, and keep working at it.

Yesterday was a day...

2008-09-03T10:45:00.000-04:00

So, yesterday I may have eaten over my caloric limit, but it is all about getting back in the swing of things no? It felt good to get back in the Kitchen again!

Breakfast-

1/2 Freshly made french pastry at our local chocolate shop

Coffee w/ Cream and Splenda

Lunch-

6 inch Chicken Breast sub w/ veggies, some ranch and some provolone cheese

Snack-

6 inch Chicken Breast sub w/ veggies, some ranch and some provolone cheese

Dinner-

2 low carb tortillas

5oz Ribeye fajita meat w/ peppers&onions

1/2 cup cooked Spanish Rice

1/2 cup Cuban Black Beans

No great, not horrible, not causing weightloss. I will get it back down again. I am feeling the morning workout schedule coming soon too.

Sad but true...

2008-09-02T07:56:00.000-04:00

I had a realization this weekend that my diet is not working for my life. I know that there are hard core low calorie and hard care low carbers, but at the end of the day the eating habit has to be a way of life. Right now I am not losing doing low carb, I only seem to lose doing zero carbs. I am unable to sustain eating that way for a prolonged period of time and fear it will be much sacrifice for a ton of gain back. =) Anyway, I have spent the last week wondering what I should do and over the week I came to a choice. I am going to go back on to monitoring my calories and working out. I am not going to pig out on bad carbs, and try to make the best decisions, but I have to find a way of eating that I can sustain and lose weight on.

Many low carbers may argue that I am harming myself or whatnot, but I have to try. If I still do not lose weight I may have to start considering more drastic measures, but I think I can drop some weight if I just focus on something I can maintain for awhile. The last time I reduced calories I ended up losing quite a bit of weight and then shifted back into low carb and lost a ton more. Maybe that is what my bodies need right now and perhaps I can switch back of to low carb after I have taken off some of this fat.

Anyway, for those friends I have on the low carb boards I hope you understand. Your support has meant quite a bit to me as I have struggled losing and gaining the same 10 pounds back. I know that I would never have lasted 2 months without so much support. I will still be working to lose my weight, and continued support would be appreciated.

I do still believe that the evidence that low to zero carbs is and could be a healthier life style is there. From my reading and all the information I do believe there are benefits. My problem is that whether it is conditioning or otherwise I am unable to eat 0-5 carbs and that seems to be what would be required of me at this point. I wish you all the best and I will continue to update my blog with what I eat and interesting things I read.

Good luck in your journeys, whichever path you take,

Dwayne

Yesterday....

2008-08-29T08:07:00.000-04:00

So here is the food from yesterday.

Breakfast-
Coffee w/ HC&Sweet Water
3 eggs
6 pieces of bacon

Lunch-
N a d a

Dinner-
4oz adobo beef
4oz adobo chicken
3oz lettuce
1oz Pico de gallo
1oz hot sauce
2oz cheese
3oz Guacamole!!!!
(Nice dinner at Chipotle!)

Jennifer had a friend in town with a toddler Jackson's age so I spent the evening reading and dining out. She works the next 3 nights in a row so it will be me and the little stinker each evening. Hope everyone has a good Labor day. Oh and I weighed 324 this morning so I am only .6lbs over my low. That is good I guess.

Oh and I forgetted

2008-08-28T10:27:00.000-04:00

In my fasting haze this morning I think I forgot to mention that I went to the gym again yesterday. It is amusing to me that I enter the gym, get my workout done and leave with all of the same people there. Granted I am sure they are all like, "Wow that fat guy really doesn't stay long." However I think people spend waaay too much time at the gym. Yesterday I did arms and shoulders. I was out in 40 minutes. A long gym stay for me is 50 mins to an hour. I see the same people there. They do have some impressive muscles though. I can't fault their devotion. I remember last year when I started to show some serious muscle in my back and shoulders. It was a great feeling. I think that even if I can't lose the fat I am going to work on my muscle. It always feels good when I leave the gym with mild sorness for a couple of days. Tonight I am going to do legs at home. Lunges+squats when you weigh 325 pounds is really all you need for a good workout. Gotta use the weight for it's positives no?

Anyway, they took like 6 vials of blood from 2 arms and a urine sample. Can't wait to get all those results back. I am worried I am going to have to fight off the statin faires, but we shall see.

Anyway I just had some coffee, eggs and bacon and now my brain feels functioning again. No more doom and gloom like this morning. Hope everyone is having a wonderful day!

Around and around...

2008-08-28T08:01:00.000-04:00

Food from yesterday:

Breakfast-
Coffee w/ HC&Sweet Water
3 eggs
3 bacon

Lunch-
4oz adobo beef
4oz adobo chicken
3oz lettuce
1oz Pico de gallo
1oz hot sauce
2oz cheese
(Nice lunch at Chipotle!)

Dinner-
4 hamburger patties
3 slices of cheese
1 Chicken Breast
2T LC Ketchup
2T LC Peanut butter later in the evening

Today I am going in for some blood work. Had a big dinner last night since now I have been fasting for 14 hours. Yay. =) Anyway I am still going downhill and wanting to cheat more each day. It is hard to keep it up seeing very little positive reinforcement.

I am sure I will snap out of it because I have to.

Hola!

2008-08-27T08:23:00.000-04:00

Ok food for yesterday was:

Breakfast-
Coffee w/ HC&Sweet Water

Lunch-
2oz Cheese, 2oz Sausage, 2oz Tomato sauce
2 Double Cheeseburgers sans buns (bleck!)
2T PB

Dinner-
1 hamburger patty w/ cheese
1 Chicken Breast w/ Cheese
2T PB

PB+Cheese+Tomato Sauce = too many carbs yesterday. I weighed this morning and was 325 again. No surprise that a few carbs is keeping my weight up. I did go to the gym yesterday. Did Chest and Back. Fun fun. It is getting harder and harder for me to keep from cheating as no matter what I do I can't seem to consistently lose and even when I am cheating both my calories and my carbs are low enough I should be losing. This is crazy. =/

Omnivore? No no I am a musclevore. I <3 animal muscle tissue. You?

2008-08-26T09:11:00.000-04:00

For my friend Dawn I have decided to do this little blog exercise from Very Good Taste. It is called the Omnivore's Hundred and here are the instructions and the list if other blog posters want to do this:

Below is a list of 100 things that I think every good omnivore should have tried at least once in their life. The list includes fine food, strange food, everyday food and even some pretty bad food - but a good omnivore should really try it all. Don’t worry if you haven’t, mind you; neither have I, though I’ll be sure to work on it. Don’t worry if you don’t recognise everything in the hundred, either; Wikipedia has the answers.

Here’s what I want you to do:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating (I've used italics for this).
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

I used to be quite the omnivore. =) I think I have had a few more things on the list but I am not going to look them up. Too much work today.

Induction flu again!

2008-08-26T08:21:00.000-04:00

Well though I have stayed in Ketosis throughout the weekend I obviously had enough carbs to cause another round of induction flu. For me it presents as a brain fog. I just feel like I am working through a haze. I can deal with it for a day or two. Just shows me that small cheats or any cheats or even eating higher carbs for me can cause problems. I still haven't weighed. I can sense through my clothes there has been no change. I don't know why I am having such a hard time as I try to lose. Usually all it takes is commitment and I have had that in spades. The long lapses of not losing weight are what keep mentally derailing me. Anyway onto what I ate yesterday.

Breakfast:
3 eggs
4 pieces of bacon
Coffee w/ Sweet Water&HC (3 carbs)

Lunch:
Salad w/ BC (4 carbs)
Cajun Seasoned Steak (1 carb)
Mushrooms/peppers/onions (2 carbs)
Coffee (2 carbs)

Dinner:
2 Hamburger Patties
3T Low Sugar Peanut Butter (5 carbs)

Total Carbs:15

Not the best day for someone trying to get their carbs close to zero. Not a bad low carb day though. Still need to do better I am just not losing.

The good, the bad... and the carby.

2008-08-25T08:04:00.001-04:00

Ok food first:
Breakfast:
3 Eggs
4 pieces of bacon
Coffee w/HC and Sweet Water (3 carbs)

Lunch:
2 Kosher Dogs (2 carbs)
1/2 Chicken Breast w/ Buffalo Sauce
1 Hamburger Patty
Coffee w/ HC&SW (3 carbs)

Dinner:
2 Kosher Dogs (2 Carbs)
1 Chicken Breast w/ Buffalo Sauce
4T of Low Sugar PB (6 carbs)

Carbs: 16 + 4 hidden = 20

Bad day for carbs. Time to rededicate once again. It is like I somehow can only pseudo fall off the wagon. Which is worse than a total fall off. Bleck. Anyway, Jennifer is working all evenings this week, but I have to make it to the gym if I am going to succeed. For some reason my focus keeps slipping. Didn't get any new info at the doctor yet, they rescheduled me for the end of September for some fasting bloodwork. They are going to test cholesterol and my thyroid. Should be interesting information. My blood pressure was high 141/90, but we are going to try to see how diet affects that. Anyway, on to work work work! I just had 3 eggs and some bacon! Mmmmm.

Quick weekend update

2008-08-24T09:55:00.001-04:00

Saturday's meals:
Breakfast-
3 scrambled eggs
3 pieces of bacon
Coffee w/ HC&Sweet Water (3 carbs)

Lunch-
2 hot dogs (2 carbs)
1 Hamburger patty
1/2 piece of chicken breast w/ buffalo sauce

Dinner-
Lots of pizza toppings and cheese (10 carbs)

Total Carbs:15

And so it goes again...

2008-08-23T07:40:00.000-04:00

Well we had a good time at Cena last night. The food was not as good as we had remembered. It may have just been an off night, but for 32 dollars a plate there should never be an off night. The meat was rarely very tender and was overseasoned mostly with salt. I had a couple of diet cokes with me meal. The bad news is I am up 2.5 pounds this morning. I think it is the salt+soft drinks. Anyway the food for yesterday was:

Breakfast-
Coffee w/HC&Sweet Water (3 carb)
3 eggs
5 pieces bacon

Lunch-
10 spicy garlic wings (2 carb)
Blue Cheese (2 carb)
Salad (2 carb)

Dinner-
Coffee w/ HC&SW (3 carbs)
Lamb, Chicken, Sausage, Beef, Pork (2 carbs)
Salad (4 carbs)

total carbs:18

Anyway, back on the wagon! Hope everyone is having a great day!

Thought I would brake up the end of the day..

2008-08-22T11:00:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was just another day in paradise. =) Tonight is exciting because the wife and I are going to CENA!

Breakfast-
Woops! Missed it except for my
Coffee w/ HC&Sweet Water (3 carbs)

Lunch-
10 Buffalo Wings w/ Spicy Garlic sauce (2 carbs)
Blue Cheese dressing (2 carbs)
Salad (2 carbs)

Dinner-
3.5 Kosher Hot Dogs (3.5 carbs)
1 Salmon burger (1 carb)
1 1/5lb Hamburger patty
Mayo+Mustard (1 carb)
Decaf w/HC&Sweet Water (2 carbs)

Daily Total Carbs:16.5 carb! EEP!

Too many carbs yesterday. No weight change yet again.

Life of a middle coast...

2008-08-21T08:12:00.000-04:00

Anyway, the diet yesterday was:
Breakfast-
3 eggs
5 BACON strips
Coffee w/ HC&Sweet Watah! (3 carbs)

Lunch-
Chicken Sausage (2 carbs)
2 1/5lb Hamburger patties
mayo+mustard (1 carb)
Decaf Coffee w/ HC&sW (2 carbs)

Dinner-
3 Hamburger patties
2 oz Cheese sticks (2 carbs)
Mayo+Mustard (1 carbs)

Total Carbs: 11 Carbs

A bit of a high carb day. Good news though I checked the keto strips and I am in heavy ketosis. I at least know I am low carbing semi-effectively. I have been in pain the last couple of days so no real working out. Going to the doctor tomorrow and I plan on getting some nice Cholesterol tests. Yay. Anyway, no more weight lost. Hopefully tomorrow I will drop a pound or something.

Back to work.

Busy as a C

2008-08-20T07:59:00.000-04:00

So I don't have time to babble.. onto the food!
Yesterday:
Breakfast-
3 eggs
6 pieces of bacon
Coffee w/ Sweetwater and HC (2 carbs)

Lunch-
2 1/5lb Hamburgers
1 Chicken Sausage (2 carbs)
Mayo+Mustard (1 carb)

Dinner-
Turkey Filet
2 1/5lb hamburgers
Mayo+Mustard (1 carb)
1 Salmon Burger (1 carb)
Decaf Coffee (2 carbs)
Total carbs=9

No weight change which is good since I am still below previous lows. =)

We came, we saw...

2008-08-19T08:00:00.000-04:00

So I weighed 323.4 this morning. That is some great news because I feel it is at least a new low set point below 325. The very low carb is working for me. Last night I went and saw Attack of the Clones. It was a poor movie in my opinion. Oriented towards kids, with some neat action. The animation was good and odd. A little fast/jerky in some action sequences for my taste. Anyway, I guess I should have seen Tropic Thunder. On to the food:

Breakfast-
2 1/4lb hamburger patties
Coffee w/ HC&Stevia (3 carbs)

Lunch-
1 12oz Ribeye
4 pieces of bacon

Dinner-
1 Chicken Sausage (2 carbs)
2 1/4lb Burgers
1T Mayo+Mustard (1 carb)

Snack/Deviant Behaviour!
1 Diet Coke at the movies (1 carb)

Total Carbs:7

I lost my 2 pounds but I do feel bloated today. Serves me right!

Oh and I got my Sweet Water liquid Splenda in today and put it in my coffee. So I tried a few drops because it is soooo sweet right? Well it didn't taste sweet so I put a few more in and as I was driving I took a drink and it was CRAZY sweet. I guess you have to let it set to distribute! Oh well back to 6 drops tomorrow. I am going to have to thin this coffee out with more coffee. =)

Hope you are all having a wonderful day. I must go fix some broken computers. Yay!

Et tu Outback?

2008-08-18T08:59:00.000-04:00

Well I could have done better today. I am not going to lie. Here are the foods.

Breakfast-
3 eggs
5 pieces of bacon
Coffee w/ HC&Stevia (2 carbs)

Lunch-
1 Grilled Salmon Burger (1 carb)
2 1/5lb burgers
Mayo+hotsauce+mustard (1 carb)

Dinner-
2 1/5lb burgers (at home)
Outback Ribeye
Salad w/ BC&Cheese (4 carbs)
3 (of 5) Grilled Shrimp (They tasted sweet so I gave the remaining two to my wife)
Coffee again (6 carbs)

14 carbs =( The problem is I am not sure the steak was 0 carbs, and I am not sure how many carbs were in the shrimp. They were both sweet to my taste, which is a bad sign. How could The Outback do this to me? Blimey!

Anyway, date night seemed more like a cheat night. One thing about this way of eating is that it makes me think there are conspiracy theories by "Big Sugar" to get some corn syrup/dextrose/sugar/fructose/maltodextrin into my system by hook or by crook.

Anyway, my weight is unchanged from yesterday so that is good right? Now if only I could beat my 325 set point from last round. Goal is 320 for the week!

Hope you all have a great day!

Check out my graph!

2008-08-17T09:27:00.001-04:00

Down to 325.4 as of this morning. That is 10 pounds since I am back from NY!

Starting out early!

2008-08-16T22:32:00.000-04:00

Well I am up late and it is just me in the house so I thought I would start my update early since I already know what I ate yesterday at this point.

Breakfast-
3 Eggs
5 pieces of bacon
Coffee w/ HC and 4 Splenda (2+4=6 carbs)

Lunch-
3 1/5lb burgers
1/2 of a chicken sausage (1 carb)
Mixture of:Bacon fat+mustard+hot sauce+1T Mayo (1 carb)

Dinner-
3 1/5lb burgers
1/2 of a chicken sausage (1 carb)
Mixture of:Mustard+hot sauce+1tsp chili powder+1tsp garlic powder+1T Mayo (1 carb)
Decaf coffee w/ HC and Stevia (2 carbs)

Total carbs=12

Over for carbs for the day but... I was fairly active today. I had tons of energy and took my son out for a long drive and when we got back home it was nursery cleaning time. He took a nap and my wife and I cleaned out the room that is going to be our daughter's nursery. I carried a desk down to the basement and a bookshelf upstairs. We also hooked the Wii Fit up and had a great time competing on the downhill skiing balance game. I am in the lead now, but it should be pointed out that she is 25 weeks pregnant. I played that and Wii Sports for about 35 minutes. At the end of the day I took Jackson on a 15 minute walk around the neighborhood. So, not a bad day in my book. Tonight I had some bad acid reflux. I am not sure if it is from my condiments or the meat and excess water. Gonna try to get it under control tomorrow. Anyway, bedtime. Hope everyone has a great Sunday. I am hoping to have Date night!

New York... New York...

2008-08-16T18:06:00.000-04:00

As promised pictures from New York. I don't caption or edit, so it is a hodge podge. The blonde guy is Dave, the brown haired guy is my friend James. Two great guys and the reason I made the trip.

Ahhh the weekend

2008-08-16T11:36:00.001-04:00

Well my wife is working two night shifts this weekend so I am not sure how much updating I will do. As far as food yesterday:
Breakfast-
Starbucks Coffee w/ HC and Stevia (4 carbs)
3 Hamburger Patties (3/5lb)

Lunch-
3 Hamburger Patties
1T mayo+hotsauce+mustard (1 carb)

Dinner-
1.2lb of Hamburger
5 pieces of Bacon
Bacon fat+1T Mayo+Hot Sauce+Mustard (1 carb_

6 carb day! Yay!

The stevia was weird. I am going to be getting some Sweet Water soon which has 0 carbs for the quantity I will use to sweeten the coffee. It is liquid sucralose, with no fillers and hyper concentrated. Yumo!

Headaches and perspective

2008-08-15T08:43:00.000-04:00

So I woke up with a huge headache this morning. It is caused by one or two things. The first being that I have not had any caffeine other than my morning drink. I am still having my Starbucks in the morning (more on that later) and that seems to quiet the headache some. I have noticed my head starts getting foggy around 2-3pm and that I get a full blown headache by bed time. When I wake up it is at it's worst. It feels like a hangover, but not the full body kind. The other reason I may be feeling like this is re-adjusting to a severe cut in carbs. I was doing 15-25 carbs a day before my trip to New York. Since Wednesday I have been doing 5-10 carbs a day and trying to reach 0.

Many people, myself included, have what is called induction flu where you body reacts to switching from running on carbs/easy glucose conversion to running off of ketones and mostly fat converted to gluclose. It is much more complicated than that, but my head hurts so that is all the info you get. It is easy to look up if you have some spare google time. Anyway, long story short, for about 1-2 weeks you feel lethargic and have less energy. You mind is a little foggy. This happened to me when I started back in July, but I got over it in about 4 days. You know it is over because you feel like you have TONS of energy. Anyway, I am not there and I feel that it is probably for both of the reasons above.

Anyway, on to the news of the day as it relates to my weightloss. First, what I ate yesterday:
Breakfast:
2 eggs
6 pieces of bacon
Starbucks HC&Splenda (7 carbs)

Lunch:
3 eggs
6 pieces of bacon

Dinner:
2 Hebrew National Hot Dogs (2 carbs)
5 1/5lb burgers

I found out that my coffee itself has carbs in it. Probably 2-3, on top of the splenda and HC I use in it. Very disheartening. I am addicted to it... So I bought some Stevia sweetener packets I found at the store and have started using those instead of Splenda. They suck in comparison, but I will get used to it while my liquid splenda comes in the mail. I order some Sweet Water splenda sweetner off of Ebay yesterday. I should be able to use 1 drop of it (0 carbs) to sweeten my drink. That will make me feel better about having to have it. I want to get to 5 carbs or less a day. I also know there are a few carbs in the eggs I am eating, but that will change soon.

Last night I grilled a ton of frozen hamburger patties and hot dogs for myself and Jackson. That should last me awhile and keep me off of eggs for the time being. I had 3 patties this morning instead of the eggs. The hardest part of the hamburgers is 0 ketchup. I love ketchup more than any other food. For the time being I am not even allowing Low Carb ketchup. I have decided that I need success before I can add things back. Removing things one at a time was not working.

As far as weight goes I weighed in this morning and I was back at 328. I weighed when I got back from NY and was 334 so I have already lost down past where I was before I went. I am still not at my low for being on diet, but this is a good sign that I am back on track. I am hoping by next Friday to have a new low below 325. I better with as much as I feel I am sacrificing.

The goal for the upcoming week is progress/pictorial evidence of my weight. How am I going to get on the Today show without evidence?! I bought a tripod recently so I just have to fiddle with the digital camera and find a place to set it up where I can take daily pictures. Then I have to figure out what to wear in them! I am not up for the undies and no shirt yet, and I know none of you are up for that. =)

Anyway, babbled quite a bit this morning, time to get some work done!

There will be pictures...

2008-08-14T09:26:00.001-04:00

Yes I am finally able to post again. It has been a crazy week! I ended up not leaving New York until Tuesday because my flight got canceled on Monday! I missed Jack and Jennifer quite a bit. I had a great time. Now on to the important part. Did I cheat? Yes, quite a bit. I didn't eat a ton of food, but I did eat more carbs than you can shake a stick at. It was amazing, amazing food, and amazing experiences. I don't regret it. So anyway, onto where I am at now and moving on.

Yesterday's menu was:
Breakfast:
Starbucks coffee w/ HC & 4 Splenda (5Carbs)
2 Scrambled eggs and Bacon (1 Carb)

Late Lunch:
2 1/3lb Hamburgers w/ Mustard and hot sauce

Dinner:
3 Small chicken breasts w/ pepper and salt.

Carbs for the day: 6-7

I did not have any diet soft drinks, and had water all day minus my coffee. I will weigh on Friday to figure out where I am at. So far today I have had 3 eggs, coffee and bacon! I am going to keep my carbs below 10 for two weeks and see how that goes.

I got a Wii Fit FINALLY but have not been able to hook it up. I will post more about that and my trip later. Just trying to get back in the swing of things.

Travel day

2008-08-08T08:38:00.000-04:00

Well yesterday I had:

Breakfast-
3 eggs over medium
3 bacon strips
Coffee w/ HC&Splenda

Lunch/Dinner-
18oz Ribeye
A1 (1Tbsp)
2Tbsp Sugar free peanut butter
Coffee w/ HC&Splenda

Workout-
Off day

Nothing really to report. I went to see Pineapple Express and it was ok I guess. I really wasn't paying attention and thought I was going to see Tropical Thunder. It had it's funny parts, but was a little cheesy.

I am going to pretend I didn't weigh in this morning...

2008-08-07T09:11:00.000-04:00

Well so I decided to take a peek this morning... I was up to 331. No one to blame this on but me for my couple of cheats. I am focusing on the positive though. I am back in the gym. I am sore. I am playing my Wii daily. =)

As far as food went yesterday:
Breakfast-
5 sausage links
LC Ketchup
Starbucks HC&Splenda

Lunch-
Italian sausage
LC Ketchup
2 1/3lb Burgers

Dinner-
3 1/3lb burgers
LC Ketchup
LC Cheesecake
2 Italian Sausages

Workout-
Chest workout
3 sets dumbell bench presses (12@40, 10@45, 8@50)
3 sets machine independant arm training incline bench press (12@45 per arm, 3 times)
3 sets machine independant arm training decline bench press (12@45 per arm, 10@50 per arm two times)

I go to New York tomorrow. Getting pretty excited. When I get back I am going to quit Starbucks and Diet Drink cold turkey for a minimum of two weeks, and get as close to zero carbs as possible.

Again and Again...

2008-08-06T08:35:00.000-04:00

Well I cheated and went to the gym. I doubt they cancel out. At least I am going to be honest though. I have no reason, but last night I was crazy hungry. My meals yesterday were:

Breakfast-
2 sausage patties

Lunch-
Ribeye
Salad W/ BC

Dinner-
2 1/3lb Hamburger patties
2 Hot Dogs
2 Italian Sausages
1 piece of birthday cake

Workout- (45 minutes)
Arms (bi and triceps)
Abs

Ok... So I threw my sons birthday cake leftovers away after the cheat. I am really not too down in the dumps about it, but I need to be making some forward progress and this is clearly not the way.

Onwards and downwards. Not much more to add. I am looking forward to my New York trip, but I am already missing my wife since she is working all week on evenings.

Keeping on...

2008-08-05T13:04:00.001-04:00

The info from yesterday:

Breakfast:
5 Sausage Links
LC Ketchup
Starbuck HC&Splenda coffee

Lunch:
2 1/3lb Hamburger patties
1 (1) carb hot dog
LC Ketchup
Mustards
LC Cheesecake (3 carbs)

Dinner:
2 1/3lb Hamburger Patties
1 LC Hot dog
LC Ketchup
Mayo
Mustard
1 chicken breast with bacon and cheese

Post Dinner snack:
LC Cheesecake (6carbs!)

Workout: (50 minutes in gym)
Heavy Resistance Training-
Back, Shoulders

The day was ok. This morning I am .2 pounds lighter, but still above my low. Not much to report, just trying to get through the week and get to New York!

When we cheat...

2008-08-04T09:04:00.000-04:00

Well bad news.. This weekend I had 1 bite of potato chips, one bite of birthday cake, and two bites of ice cream. In my mind any cheats while on low carb are huge cheats. It isn't a diet that allows for many mistakes. Especially in my case where I have been having such a difficult time.

Anyway, out with the old and in with the new. I did go and workout on Friday which is a good habit to start getting myself back into. I worked out my chest and legs. I was very sore for the two year old birthday part y.

Which is where I had all the opportunity to cheat. I didn't have a full meal off but I nibbled. =/

On Sunday I was back on, and went to the Western and Southern Financial Masters and Womens Open. I took some nice pics because we were four rows back behind the players/umpire's chair.
I went to the mens double and single finals. The single's final was between Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic (who beat the current Wimbeldon Champ Nadal the day before). The doubles were a ton of fun. The current number 1 doubles team (Bryan brothers) played and excellent match. Anyway, it was the first tennis tourney I went to and I loved it.

Today I am back on the horse and hoping to finally lose some weight.

Some good, Some very bad...

2008-08-01T08:00:00.000-04:00

Well I weighed this morning and as I feared... I have gained 3 pounds. I am not going to freak out about it, but it does require that I make some changes. I am bothered that what I did before (last year) is not working well at all this year. It seems odd that my body could have changed so much in such a short period. Starting today I am going 2 weeks without any sort of diet coke/diet rite and strictly drinking water and one coffee a day. I am going to decrease my cheese intake, and try to lower my carbs even more. This weekend is going to be crazy since Jackson's birthday party is this weekend on Saturday and I am going to the Western and Southern Finiancial Group Open tennis tournament finals on Sunday. A friend of the wife has some great tickets and she is taking me. =)

The only good news is I was able to workout with my son running around me last night. The workout you may ask? Simple cardio on my Wii, using Wii sports boxing and some tennis. I really worked up a sweat and it felt good. As soon as my wife's schedule stabalizes I am going to start hitting the gym again. That is one HUGE difference between the diet this year and last.

Anyway, as far as food went yesterday.

Breakfast-
2 Sausage patties
3 pieces of bacon
2 eggs

Lunch-
2 double cheeseburgers hold the buns!

Dinner-
Cheesy Chicken with ground beef cheese on the side (mexican leftovers)
Guacamole
Un pocito salsa ;)

Onwards and downwards I hope...

I was going to weigh in today, but...

2008-07-31T08:34:00.000-04:00

Well lets just say that I won't call my meal last night a cheat. However, I won't call it a good idea either. First off here is the list of foods for the day:

Breakfast-
WOOPS! I forgot to eat! (I did eat this morning though, so at least I can improve)
I didn't forget Starbucks though so at least I got some calories!

Lunch-
Easy Cheesy Chili Chicken
1 TBSP LC Ketchup

Dinner-
1 Order of Cheese and Ground Beef (3 Carbs worth)
1 El Rodeo Pollo Especial! Which contained:
1 Large Chicken Breast
Lots of white cheese (3 carbs worth)
Zucchini, Onions, and very few tomatoes (6 carbs worth)
Guacamole (4 carbs worth)

My day was still below 20 carbs from my estimates, however they were ALL concentrated at the end of the day! Such is life though. It could have been much worse I could have had the CHIPS AND SALSA!

Anyway, back to work. I may have more interesting things to say later, but I doubt it. =)

Cheese Chickens are lovely

2008-07-30T08:20:00.000-04:00

Well yesterday was good since I didn't weigh in. =) Regardless, it was a good day. I will get the foodstuffs out of the way:
Breakfast-
2 Sausage Patties w/ LC Ketchup

Lunch-
Chicken Cordon Bleu Salad w/ Ranch Dressing from Penn Station
(That had 8oz chicken, salad greens, 2T Ranch, a few slices of ham)

Dinner-
Easy Cheesy Chicken

The Chicken was delicious. I changed a few things with it. One is I didn't have Cilantro so I did not add it. I could definitely tell I needed to add some fresh greeness to the dish and wish I had gone ahead and put in some flat leaf parsley. It was still great. I also added mushroom and one slice of bacon per breast. I just microwaved the bacon and added it on top of the cheese when I added it to the chicken before I put it back in the oven. It was GREAT. For those of you who have never gone to Linda Sue's website, it has really great recipes and information on ingredients used in Low Carbing. You should check it out!

When you are not the "poster child."

2008-07-29T08:31:00.000-04:00

When I started my journey back on 7/1/08 I thought to myself... My weight loss is going to be like one of those Today Show segments. Matt will come out and say, "Dwayne began his weight loss in July of 2008, and had amazing results in his for month eating a carbohydrate restricted diet. He lost a whopping 25 pounds in his first month! This was only the beginning of what would be an amazing journey for he and his family where he would lose over 100 pounds."

The reality is I have lost 11 pounds in my first month. It has gone up and down the more I watch it. I am more comfortable in the clothes I have, but I know now that my expectations may have been a "little" high. I was basing them off the old me. The 20 year old that could drop 20 pounds in a week and a half and laugh in the face of fat. The 32 year old me is a completely different person. I am spot on with my diet and the scale jumps around like a one legged man in a butt kicking contest.

At the end of the day I am going to be successful at this not because I raced to get it done, but because my family needs me around. I want to be there for my children and my wife. That means that, slow or fast, this is more than a race it is my life. Every mini goal I set is a path that leads to the ultimate goal. A long, productive life for my family with a healthy body. No Today show results for me, but in the end I know I will get there because I have to.

So with those thoughts I will post my meals yesterday!

Breakfast-
WOOPS I forgot to eat! That is a first.
Starbucks Coffee w/ Splenda&HC

Lunch-
10 Buffalo Wings with Blue cheese dressing and spicy garlic sauce
Side Salad w/ BC

Dinner-
20oz of Ribeye w/ HC/Pan Dripping/Worchestershire Sauce

I had to watch my wife eat Fazolis last night. She is pregnant and loves some carbs. It was very difficult watching that spaghetti and lasagna go. I did it though.

Anyway, onto

The weekend

2008-07-28T08:02:00.000-04:00

What I ate yesterday!

Breakfast-
Omelet (Cajun Chicken and some Spanish from OCharleys)
SB Coffee w/ HC&Splenda

Early Dinner-
3 Roast Beef and Cheddar sans buns from Arbys

Late Dinner-
5 Sausage links w/ LC Ketchup

It was a good weekend until the end. Went out with a couple of friends on Friday and on Saturday went one of my wife's friend's birthday parties! Live band and everything. It was quite the event. My son got the CRUP on Sunday and I was up most of the night with him. My wife worked till 2, so it was quite the challenge. He seems to be doing better today, but she is working all night tonight so that will make things challenging. He likes to have Mommy close when he doesn't feel good and crying while you have the crup is a bad thing.

Another quick update

2008-07-27T12:35:00.000-04:00

Breakfast-
Creamy Scrambled Eggs w/ Parmesan Cheese and basil

Lunch-
5 Sausage links w/ Cheddar and LC Ketchup

Dinner-
16oz Ribeye
6 Buffalo Wings
Heavy Cream Latte w/ SF Cinnamon Dolce&Carmel syrup

So far today I have had an omelet!

Quick!

2008-07-26T09:41:00.000-04:00

Ok I am in the kitchen and thought I would do a quick update for yesterday.

Breakfast-
5 sausage links
SB Coffee HC&Splenda

Lunch-
Chicken Sausage and Red Cream Sauce

Dinner-
14oz strip steak (cooked wrong at the restaurant!)
Asparagus
Green Beans
Garlic Butter Shrimp

Anyway back to the family. Just made some Creamy Scrambled Eggs with Basil and Parmesan!

F i n a l l y!

2008-07-25T08:27:00.000-04:00

Ok, this morning I weighed 325 EVEN. That is 11 down total sine 7/1/08! I am just glad the plateau is over. I am definitely not going to weigh in again till Monday and then not again till Friday. Weighing in every day and watching the fluctuations is bad in the beginning for me. As far as food went yesterday:

Breakfast-
5 sausage links (2 carbs)
LC ketchup (1 Carb)
SB Venti Iced Coffee, HC&Splenda (3 carbs)

Lunch-
Cobb Salad w/ avocado and ranch dressing (7 carbs)

Dinner-
3 Chicken wings w/ BCheese (2 carbs)
Weird new chicken sausage and broccoli dish I made (4 carbs)

Ok the Chicken sausage thing I guess I should describe. I have leftovers I plan on eating at lunch maybe. I really liked it, but I will explain why I am partial to it and others may not be.

What is in it?

Ingredients:
5 Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage links (bought in a brat-like package at Meijers)
2 Packages frozen broccoli (the rectangular box kind)
Garlic Powder
Salt
Pepper
Dried Parsley, Oregano
2oz Cream Cheese
3oz Heavy Cream
Red Pepper Flakes
2-4oz Parmesan Cheese
3-4 Tbsp LC Ketchup
3 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Butter

Goals:
Make a creamy tomato italian sauce to go with the broccoli and italian style chicken sausage. I used the LC Ketchup since I LOVE ketchup (I eat it on sausages) and I knew it was sweet and would counter all the savoy/salty cheeses. You could substitute some splenda and tomato sauce it really didn't take much to give the pinkish color to the sauce and the tomato flavor.

How it was made:
- Set out cream cheese to soften
- Use running water to thaw/get ice off of frozen broccoli
- Brown the sliced chicken sausage 2 minutes per side in the heated olive oil. (medium high heat)
- Season with garlic, salt, pepper, pepper flakes, oregano, parsley
- Add Broccoli and re-season cook w/ broccoli and make sure to stir to prevent burning 4-5 minutes
- Add cream cheese, shredded parmesan, Heavy Cream, oregano, garlic powder, pepper, parsley, LC Ketchup to a microwave safe bowl (I used a measuring cup)
- Stir to combine, and heat in microwave 25-40 seconds just to warm/temper it (better not to shock the fat when you are going to be putting it into the sudden heat)
- Add in this mixture when the broccoli seems softened/done
- Take the pan off the heat and combine cream sauce, add butter at end to add extra creamy love
- Serve as is if you are me

I did this dish with broccoli because I am trying to get rid of our old frozen stuff. They actually held the sauce fairly well. The sauce tasted like a Napoli style sauce of a marinara mixed with alfredo (which is what it was really.) I really liked it, but it is hard to divorce my love of ketchup from it. I think adding in some color would help the dish. Maybe some yellow/red/green bell pepper and/or topping it with fresh parsley/green onion. Overall it was successful, but maybe asparagus would be worth trying as well. Sorry for the lack of measurements I cook so often I always season to taste. To me Italian has strong garlic backgrounds with italian herbs hitting you in the front of your palate. "Season" it till it tastes Italian to you. =) I always try to think, Does this taste too sweet or too salty? Once I have figured that out I used the seasonings to even it out. Too sweet? Salt/Garlic/Vinegar/Parmesan, too salty.. Splenda, tomato paste etc etc. Not Italian enough? More herbs/garlic!

Anyone that is how I do it, little to no training but I love to cook. If anyone has suggestion I am open to them. Try the recipe and change it and let me know how it goes. Next week it is crockpot city!

On working out

2008-07-24T10:26:00.000-04:00

I am not stranger to dieting and working out. During my last weight loss I was in the gym 3-5 days a week for about 5-6 months. For about 2 months of that I had a personal trainer and was in during the mornings with him and at night with my friend. That is why I find it so odd I am not back there yet. I figured I would write about my experience so that I can re-motivate myself and maybe share some of my experience being very overweight in a gym with others and maybe do a little motivating.

Sure, at first the gym is intimidating but I have found that the more you go the less you worry about that. You start to see the same people and they start to notice you working hard. The only judgement ever passed in gyms I have seen are on people that are there to socialize and not work out. I have even had people offer advice which I humbly took.

In my opinion (and you will find others touting this or that) resistance training is the way to go. I have read all about (HIIT)High Intensity Interval Training, I have read the articles on LISS (Low Intensity Steady State) as well as many on the benefits to resistance training (lifting weights.)

At the end of the day, no matter what you choose everyone is going to react differently. I think the best is to try a little of each. A great forum I have used in the past for ideas and finding information is the John Stone Fitness Forums. This is not exactly a pro-low carb place but it is great for diet information/working out information.

Most of the diets stressed on the site are of the 6 meals a day, reduce you calories below you basal metabolic rate and slowly burn the weight off. I am not going to get into the calories vs insulin debate, this is my workout post. =) I just thought I would warn people that are low carbers reading this that read some of the diet information there and get upset.

Anyway, onto my experiences. I have found that lifting weights worked very well for me as far as losing inches and getting stronger. One thing about lifting I noticed is that initially you will gain muscle mass quickly if you have not been working out before. Why do I mention this? Well because imagine that you lose 2 pounds of fat and have gained 3 pounds of muscle. What is the result of that? Well for me it was dropping a belt loop and losing 0 pounds or even gaining 1. It felt great though to see myself improving on the weights I could use. Just remember that muscle is dense and fat is not. That is how you shrink when you gain muscle weight. The goal is to lose fat, minimize or gain lean muscle mass. The great benefit is that lean muscle needs more energy to be maintained than fat. Thus your body will use more fuel to maintain itself.

As far as the actual lifting what I did (and would recommend) is to do each exercise at a weight that allows you to do 8-12 repetitions before your muscle fails. If you can just keep going and going you should up the weight. Make sure you start out low the first time you go, don't want to hurt yourself. You should do at least 3 sets of these repetitions per exercise. For example my favorite exercise was the dumbell bench press. I got to where I was using 65 pound dumbells, but when I go back this week I will start back at 40 and work my way up. When you get to the point where you can do 11-12 reps for 3 sets, move up in weight. Just to the next weight up. Rinse and repeat.

As far as how often and when to work out which muscle groups. I am not an expert go to the forums and you will see 1000 different routines where people tell you do a full body workout, others will tell you do do chest/arms and then back/shoudlers, then legs... The way I did it was I just broke it down to Chest/Back, Shoulders/Arms and Legs. I highly recommend starting out with basic compound exercises. Hit your large muscle groups! Squats for your legs, rows for your back, bench presses for your chest, and about 2 other exercises per body part. Why do you break it up? Simply because your muscles will not heal efficiently if you keep stressing them. Give yourself 48 hours AT LEAST before you work the same body part out again. Muscles grow by micro tears/stress and then healing. I know people start off really motivated, but gradual workouts with healing times are needed. That is another reason people break up the exercises by body parts. If you do a full body, fine, just make sure you give your whole body 2-3 days to heal before going back.

I could make this long and perhaps as I go back documenting it would be a good way to continue the conversation. I just wanted to get started. Things I would strongly recommend for overweight people starting out...

Squats and Lunges! Your natural body weight is all you need when you are really heavy and this is where extra strength will help you in your daily life. Do a squat (proper form) the first few times 3 sets of 15 squats with proper form. The next day your will burn. The same with lunges. Be careful with doing a lunge because with either of these exercises you are putting stress on your knees that with your heavy weight they are not used to! Proper form is a must! After awhile add a medicine ball (5-8lbs) and do the squat while holding it, and at the top of your squat put the ball above your head for a shoulder press and come down. I love that exercise. My shoulders were weak when I started and that really burns.

Situps! Remember that your abs are muscles too and you should let them heal like all other muscles. Do your sit ups and wait a couple of days before doing them again.

Work your back out! Seated Rows are great! I noticed that my back got the strongest the quickest. It helps your posture and is great!

I will post the workouts I start here in a few days and show you the other ones I am going to add. Just starting is the key and don't burn yourself out!

One more thing to add.. You WILL BE SORE! The first 2 weeks you will be the most sore. This is just a sign that your muscles are building up, and in the beginning they are building more because of the abrupt change in routine. I promise it will pass over time.

Anyway, not sure if that is a help, but at least I got it out there.

Is lack of bad news good news, or is it neutral?

2008-07-24T08:17:00.000-04:00

Well I didn't weigh in this morning so how bad of a day can it be? Yesterday I ended up going to see my wife at work (she works at a hospital) because she wanted me to get my blood pressure taken. It has been high for my spry 32 years and she has been worried. We had a nurse take it and it registered 120/65! That is the best it has been in a long time. She still set up an appointment for me to get cholesterol and whatnots measured. That is good I guess. Anyway onto the FOOD for yesterday!

Breakfast:
2 Sausage Patties
LC Ketchup
Venti SB Coffee w/ HC&Splenda

Lunch:
Green beans (4carbs)
Chicken Tenderloins w/ Cheese
4 Strips bacon!

Dinner:
3/4lb of chicken tenders w/ Broccoli Chinese style (more below)

So for dinner I decided I was going to flavor up some chicken tenders spicy chinese style. =)

I used:
3/4lb Chicken Tenders
1 Package frozen Broccoli
.5T Pepper flakes
1T Garlic Powder
Lots of Soy Sauce (3-4T)
2T Olive Oil
.5T Seasame Seed Oil
Salt and Pepper
1T butter

Prep work:
Ran water on broccoli
Chopped up chicken in 1 inch pieces
Heat pan with Olive Oil and Sesame Seed Oil

The steps:
- Throw the chicken in the hot oil, add pepper flakes, garlic, salt pepper let it cook for about 2-3 minutes at high heat and flip the chicken around so it semi-browns but does not burn

- Add some soy sauce to chicken, mix around and let it reduce with the chicken in it for about 1-2 minutes

- Add broccoli, add more garlic, pepper flakes, salt and pepper, let broccoli heat through with chicken for a couple of minutes

- Add more soy sauce, stir every so often, let soy reduce out (you can add some sirachi hot sauce or what not be careful it is carb loaded, but powerful in little bursts) Another 2-3 minutes

- With soy reduced, broccoli very warm and steaming add in 1T of butter and flip pan around till it melts and creates a nice buttery soy coating on your food. It should just be a coating and there should be little residual liquid. It is important that you have either broccoli you have soaked and semi-thawed and dryed, or fresh to decrease the amount of reducing time you need.

Anyway it worked for me, it was spicy, buttery and soy soy salty.

Hopefully when I weigh in tomorrow things will be better. I have my doubts. I really don't understand what is going on. Even Calories wise at 328 pounds I should lose weight on any diet that is less than 2500 calories and I am eating 1800-2000 I would imagine. I have done many diets where I count calories and have a pretty good feel for it.

Hope you all are having a great day. I have to do some work!

Wow

2008-07-23T08:43:00.000-04:00

Well good news and bad news! I gained those two pounds back! @#*(^%()*@#&*%!!!! However, from comments here on the blog and from some of the forums I am on people have mentioned that fast food "meat" has fillers and non-meat carby things in them. I don't know why I didn't think of that! Last night I had 2 Baconators and as Sal mentioned that is 16 carbs right there! My last low carb efforts I RARELY ate at fast food, but being a dad now makes it so much easier to do. I am going to severely limit fast food from this point forward and see if that helps. Yesterday's foods were:
Breakfast-
4 patties
LC Ketchup
Venti Iced Coffee HC & Splenda

Lunch-
3 buffalo wings
2Tbsp Blue Cheese
Creamed Spinach leftovers

Dinner-
2 Baconators from Wendys (16g Carbs @%%$#)
Diet coke at the movies (batman again!)
LC Ketchup and Mayo
Iced Venti Decaf Americano w/ HC and Splenda

328 AGAIN! Well at least I have a good idea of what is keeping me from dropping now. I will try to eat things at home for the next week. Also, I am not weighing again till Friday. Until I figure out my stall completely it is hurting more than helping.

Oh and I bought some Canola Oil Mayo instead of the soybean oil based mayo I had been eating. Too many times I have been hearing that the soybean oil is not so good for you and I am eating lots of mayo. =)

Anyway, I will stay positive and move along.

Finally...

2008-07-22T08:44:00.000-04:00

Well I am going to try to not get too excited but I finally dropped back down to where I was beginning of last week. I am at 326.8 as of this morning. As far as food went yesterday I had:

Breakfast-
2 Sausage Patties
1Tbsp LC Ketchup
Venti Iced Coffee w/ Splenda and HC

Lunch-
2 Baconators (double cheese w/ bacon YUM!)
LC Ketchup and mayo

Dinner-
Creamed Spinach
8 Homemade Buffalo Wings
2Tbsp Blue Cheese dressing

I did have some diet coke and some Sprite Zero.
I am unsure what has stalled my weightloss but hopefully I will drop a few more pounds before it happens again. I really don't think it can be the diet drinks. I have reduced the number and am keeping my carbs at <15 a day at least.

Anyway back to work!

No cheats, no results

2008-07-21T08:47:00.000-04:00

So I didn't get to post at all this weekend. It was crazy! I found out that we are having a girl in December (95%.) I can't wait to be a father again. =) As far as the weightloss goes I am STILL 328.4 pounds this morning! I AM SO FRUSTRATED! My only cheats this weekend were diet cokes. I was 100% on my low carb diet! I guess this means a week without any diet drinks. I have never had this problem on low carb before though. Last time I was having diet drinks and eating more than I am now and was dropping continuously.

We got a nice little camera tripod this weekend so hopefully I can start documenting my progress or lack thereof!

Well all I can do is make a small change and see what happens. I am going to start going to the gym this week so maybe that will take me out of this stall. Hope everyone is having a great day.

Reflections on a bad or mediocre week...

2008-07-18T09:22:00.000-04:00

So I weighed this morning and saw what I expected. No weigh down and 2 pounds up from my minimum. It is disheartening once again. I will get over it and it is not going to make me cheat, but it really is depressing.

Anyway, in the good news section we are going to find out the sex of our baby today! Boy or Girl? We shall see soon I hope. I am excited and of course this means we will be shopping. We are going to Lexington this weekend so we will conveniently be near some good shopping for my wife. I am committed to 5 hours on Saturday!

As far as food went yesterday I upped what I was eating since some people said I wasn't eating enough for my size:
Breakfast:
Venti Iced Coffee w/ heavy cream
2 sausage patties
2 eggs

Lunch:
6 Grilled chicken tenders with hot sauce and blue cheese
Side Salad w/ blue cheese

Dinner:
2 Baconators (double cheeseburgers w/bacon) from Wendys

2 Sprite Zeros

That is it for posting. I doubt I will be able to update over the weekend. Hopefully I will drop in on Monday with a new weightloss! See you all then. (All 3 of you!)

Ho Hum...

2008-07-17T08:11:00.001-04:00

Well I am not weighing until tomorrow. It is too depressing over the last few days. I imagine it is mostly water weight, but at this point I really don't care. I just hope on Friday I am where I started the week at. Bleck. Anyway regardless here is what I ended up eating yesterday:

Breakfast:
SB Venti Coffee w/ Heavy Cream
Bob Evans Farmer's Omelet (3 eggs, onions, spinach, hollandaise sauce)

Lunch:
Wendy's Double w/o Bun
LC Ketchip

Dinner:
Burger King Triple Whopper!!! (w/o bun)
Leftover hamburger patty
LC Ketchup

And yes... The last 4 pieces of Sugar Free Chocolate I am going to have. =( I think it is my problem and we shall see going into next week.

argh

2008-07-16T10:27:00.000-04:00

328 =( Not much to say about this today. Maybe I should not weigh again till Friday.

Yesterday I ended up with:
Breakfast:
3 Sausage Patties
V Starbucks Coffee

Lunch:
Splenda w/ Iced Tea
Cobb Salad w/ Avocado and Ranch dressing

Dinner:
2 Huge burgers with cheese and buffalo sauce
Green beans w/ Bacon

The bad:
6 pieces sugar free chocolate (this stuff really is gone now!)
2 Sprite Zeroes

It is hard for me to believe that the SF Chocolate and 2 Sprite Zeroes could do that to me.

Anyway back to work!

Again with the frustration!

2008-07-15T08:19:00.000-04:00

So... I know I said I would get over it and not care, however.... I am up to 327.4 again. I know this is just bloat/normal fluctuation but it frustrates me. I feel like I should be in weightloss freefall for about 40-50 pounds. I guess if it is easy it would be called eating. =/

Anyway yesterday I ate more than I had been since I was oddly hungry. I ate:
Breakfast-
Starbucks w/ Heavy Cream!
3 sausage patties
1 egg
LC Ketchup

Lunch (yes I ate a lunch)
3 Double Cheeseburgers (sans bun)
LC Ketchup

Dinner-
Crackerbarrel Chicken Tenders (grilled 6)
Side Salad with Blue Cheese
Green beans

That is much more than usual so maybe that is why I am bloated. Also... I am sad to report that I had a diet coke at Cracker Barrel. Maybe this poor behaviour is why I am rewarded with 1 pound gain! WHY!?! Ok anyway I will calm down. The reason I went to Cracker Barrel was my brother and father-in-law were in town. My F-I-L had been on Atkin for 5 years and maintained weightloss that had kept him happy. Of course as I go on he switches to Weight Watchers.

This morning I have had 3 Sausage patties. Hopefully that will keep me through till dinner.

On another note we received a neat little gizmo yesterday that is supposed to help us organize our lives and other cool stuff. It is the HP Touchsmart PC. It is really really sweet but... The programs that come with it seem very rushed and have little true functionality. We were excited about the calendar program that would let my wife and I keep track of our crazy schedules. Well, it does not show text in the month views just that there is an event. So we can't see her workschedules or what event is going on unless we zoom into the days. It seems like that would be the most basic feature. There is no file management inside the touchscreen software for your videos and pictures. You have to go out to Vista to manage the files. It just seems like they could have done more. On the other hand it is VERY cool looking and the touchscreen is fun to play with. I hope they add on to the touch applications. It has good possiblities and is a great Kitchen PC for us. With our old computer going away in the room that will become the new Nursery it is the best place for a PC for us.

Anyway, enough with my rambling about new gadgets and back to work!

Beginning of another day!

2008-07-14T08:19:00.001-04:00

No change in weight this morning which is good. I hate it when I seesaw upwards. This morning I had an egg and three sausage patties. For the last 3-4 days I have only eaten breakfast and dinner. I have been impressed with not needing the food.

Yesterday I cleaned the our two cars out. Had a nifty little spotbot we purchased to clean up pet messes. Turns out it is great to shampoo car floor mats and floors. It worked like a charm and she is very happy with her vehicle this morning. It was quite a workout since it was hot here yesterday.

Last night I check my keto level and it was as high as possible. I am glad about that since I have cut so much out of my diet to get there. I am going to continue eating the way I have been. I need to keep the losing up and adding things to see when it stops seems counter productive until I plateau for awhile. Then I will change it up so that I can reset myself and get past the plateau.

The last time I low carbed I plateaued every two weeks which became quite frustrating. The only bright part of that was after it broke I just woke up 3-5 pounds lighter and moved on. I really hope I can get to 20 pounds lost in the each of my first two months. That would put me close to where I was before my last major slip up period. Realistically I only lose 10 pounds a month max so I need to keep that in perspective.

Anyway, hope everyone is having a great day.

Another Quickie!

2008-07-13T19:05:00.000-04:00

First off:
Last Night I ended up having some Meatballs (0 carb ones)
Alfredo (2 carbs of cheese)

Today was:
Breakfast-
Starbucks w/ Heavy Cream
3 Egg omelet w/ basil and cream
4 pieces of bacon
2 pieces of turkey sausage

Dinner-
2 Meatballs w/ Alfredo (2 carbs)
Green Peppper Lasagna Popper leftovers (7 Carbs)

I had a diet coke today and the one at the movie yesterday. Went to see Hellboy 2, it was ok, but less than I expected.

Anyway baby is yellin! Oh and I weighed 326.6 today.

-D

Short and Sweet

2008-07-12T11:25:00.000-04:00

The Bad:
I CHEATED!

The Good:
I just had a couple of diet cokes at dinner with my wife and an extra starbucks coffee so it wasn't really cheating. It was just a little extra carb. =) I was still below where I needed to be, but I strayed a little from my non diet coke goal. That is ok because... I weighed 326.8 this morning! That is almost 10 pounds down.

I am excited, but I am also watching the little one so this is going to be short. Just thought I would hop on and share.

Yesterday's last two meals were:
4:30pm
1 Hamburger, cheese, with some mayo and low carb ketchup

7pm
12oz Ribeye
Green Beans
Few Peanuts
Starbuck Vente Iced Coffee

Today I had a huge breakfast but doubt I have lunch. The breakfast was:
3 egg Omelet with Mushrooms, Sharp Cheddar and some Andoille sausage
6 pieces of bacon

I am going to a movie and am going to CHEAT and have a diet coke. =) Going to let my hair down a little. =)

Anyway hope everyone is doing well. Back to making sure the little boy doesn't tear the house down!

-D

New Stuff Over there ------->

2008-07-11T13:23:00.000-04:00

I added in my SkinnyR graph on the side of the blog as well as a set of pictures in a slideshow of me at different weights. I embeded them from some stuff I had over on my Picasa Albums. From my worst at 380 to my best at 280. I may start doing weekly pictures to update this place. I will try not to do the shirtless weigh ins. I will spare your eyes from that as long as possible.

Also I will just go ahead and embed the album here in a larger form for your viewing pleasure!

Live and Learn

2008-07-11T13:13:00.001-04:00

Well I did the morning weigh in and was at 328! You would think that with all of the times I have gone up and down losing weight I would get used to the peaks and valleys. It is all a mental game sometime. Anyway, enough with the good news on to last nights eating/activities.

The Lasagna Poppers just did not do it for me. In order to cut carbs I eliminated a ton of ricotta cheese and severally limited the tomato sauce I used in them. Not to mention I left the peppers a little too al dente. I will have to bake them longer and load them up a little more to make this a viable family recipe. I think I will put that off for awhile. Not to mention that the mushroom I had planned on soaking things up in the meat did not do their job as planned. I would give it a 5 out of 10 as far as meals go. Back to the drawing board.

Yesterday ended up looking like:

Breakfast-
2 Sausage patties
1 Tbsp low carb ketchup

Snack at 4pm:
About 20 Turkey Pepperoni Slices (0 carbs)
4 Jerky Sausages (2carbs)

Dinner:
1 Green Pepper Popper (7 carbs)
Serving of Bacon Green beans (2 carbs)

It was amazing how long I went without being hungry.

Last night we went on a nice family walk around the neighborhood and it felt good to get some exercise in.

For far today my only food has been:
Breakfast-
3 Sausage patties
1 Tbsp Low Carb ketchup

More later when I have time, back to work!

-D

Well...

2008-07-10T14:03:00.000-04:00

So I gained a pound back this morning. My dinner last night was a big cobb salad with a couple of cherry tomatoes and some avocado. I imagine it was around 9-12 carbs total. Too much to consume before bedtime aparently.

I seem to start off so slow now when I diet it gets frustrating early on! Damn aging is affecting my metabolism I tell ya. Anyway so far today I have only had breakfast and had two sausage patties and 1 Tbsp of low carb ketchup. It is 2pm and I still have not had lunch. I am going to be able to hold it off till dinner I believe.

I had so much energy today I cleaned my office and am looking for things to do. The headaches are gone and I am thinking it may be time to start trying MWF Starbucks instead of daily just to see how it goes. Who knows I may even go to the gym after dinner if there is time. I feel the need to get back to it. I did so well for about 6 months and have just fallen off!

Tonight's dinner is going to be a Green Pepper Lasagna popper. I am excited to try out the new recipe I threw together. That was what I planned on last night before a pick up order was made for salads. I will post the recipe if it turns out well. I may tweak it and post it anyway. Hopefully I will do a better job than with the Fajitas in posting.

Changes

2008-07-09T12:20:00.000-04:00

Well first the good news, I am down to 329.8. Yes I don't round! I am just glad to see that the scale is moving in the right way. First off I need to amend what I ate yesterday.

Yesterday for breakfast I had:
Starbucks Iced Vente Coffee with Cream
5 Turkey Sausages
2 Tbsp Low Carb ketchup

Lunch:
Alfredo Chicken
3 egg Omelet w/ 1 Andouille Sausage and some cheese,
onions and green peppers

Dinner:
Self made Fajitas
Beef, Chicken, Green Peppers, Onion with seasonings:
Garlic Powder, Cumin, Salt, Pepper, Chili Powder
2 Tbsp Guacamole
2 oz Cheese
1 Tbsp Salsa

Snack:
5 pieces sugar free candy

Ok so now the low down. I really enjoyed the Fajitas, but I had a horrible headache yesterday. I am not sure if it is from Low Carb flu, lack of caffeine, or no diet soda/aspartame. Whatever it is I had it until I had my Starbucks this morning! I am going to gradually give up the starbucks once I see how my weightloss goes over the next week. If I think it is stalling me then I will actually give it the boot.

I really believe that the sugar free candies knocked me out of ketosis! That is annoying. No more weaknesses there.

Even with just 6 pounds down my belt is much much loser today. I think that is my favorite part of losing weight is seeing it in my clothes. Overall I would say being able to buy nice clothes is a huge motivator. Not as much as being healthy for the family but up there with being able to ride on an airplane comfortably.

So far today the meals look like:

Breakfast -
Starbuck Vente Iced Coffe w/ Cream
2 sausage patties

I am not sure what lunch will be, but I will post either later today or tomorrow about it. If you are interested in how I prepared the fajjitas I will list it below:

What you will need:
Meat of Choice in strips ( I used ribeye, sirloin and chicken 2lb total weight)
1 Onion Sliced(I used yellow)
1-2 Green Peppers Sliced
1.5 Tbsp Garlic Powder
1 Tbsp Cumin
.5 Tbsp Chili Powder (Mexene is what I used)
Salt and Pepper to taste (I used them fairly liberally)
Cast Iron Skillet (or other dense, well conducting cooking skillet)
4 Tbsp Oil (Regular Olive Oil not Extra Virgin)

The Technique:

First I set the Cast Iron Skillet on the stove at medium high heat and added 2 Tbsp of oil.

Once the oil begin to smoke I added my beef to give it a nice quick browning. It stayed
in for about 2-3 minutes until each side was nice and brown and fairly crisp. Then I
removed it to a plate.

Next I added the chicken to the empty skillet and seasoned it with some of all 5 of the spices
above (salt, pepper, garlic powder, chili powder, cumin.)

I let the chicken brown and then move it towards the outer edges of the pan forming a large
well in the center of the skillet,

I add the remain 2 Tbsp of oil to the well and drop in the onions, as you do this again season the onions with all 5 seasonings.

After letting the onions reduce down I add the green peppers (season again)into them in the well and stir them together with the onions in the center of the skillet.

Give this about 2-3 minutes and add the beef back into the skillet and finish off your seasoning.

Once you add the beef you will keep this on until you start to notice the vegetables are getting flimsy, stir it every couple of minutes and it should take another 6-7 minutes before you serve.

---

So I am not the best at writing recipes yet, maybe I should do it in a video so I can better explain how I add spices. I try to layer them into each component in this recipe. The same spices repeated, but not to exceed a certain amount. You can alway add seasoning at the end so do not add too much to each individual ingredient. Taste as you cook and you will know when things are done. My reason for taking the beef off and adding it back was simply to keep it from getting too overcooked. The beef juices actually do well for the chicken as well. Quite a bit of liquid is released from the meat and vegetables, this should mostly boil off in the end. The Fajitas should not be soupy.

Anyway, first attempt at a recipe I will refine it more with time.

-D

First

Yet another Tuesday, maybe something different

2008-07-08T09:28:00.000-04:00

Well today I did not weigh in the morning simply because I want to wait until I am sure the scale is not going to read plus or minus 1 of the same thing. It really gets me in a slump to start out this way and feel like it is going slow. Remember that I weigh 300+ pounds so my first 2 weeks are the big flashy beginning that are supposed to propel me in to dealing with 1 to 2 pounds a week. I will say that today I really do notice that my belt/pants are loose. That is always a good first sign.

It is hard for me to give up so much at once, but I feel like I am doing myself a disservice and rationalizing my way into some mediocre weightloss. I need to get going if I am going to drop some good weight before my new little one is born. That is what all of this is really about. Becoming a stay at home dad, but one with the energy to make my childrens' lives fun and rich learning environments. At my current energy levels that is going to be tough.

I gave up carbonated diet drinks yesterday and bought some Crystal Light. Well I really think I am only slightly in ketosis because I am drinking artificial sweetners. So I am switching to water only, and I am also debating on eliminating my morning coffee. The problem with that is I will go through some major caffeine withdrawls. I have been drinking Starbucks every morning for about the last 4 years. Crazy as it sounds it is what motivates me to get my day started. It is an expensive habit and I am hoping it isn't contributing to my problem as well. I think for the purposes of getting into high ketosis I am going to try to give it up for two weeks starting today.

Anyway in conclusion:
No diet drinks
No Starbucks until I am into ketosis in a big way or two weeks are up

So far the game plan for today is:
Breakfast:
5 turkey links for breakfast
2 Tbsp Low Carb ketchup

Lunch:
3 eggs scrambled with cheese
2 turkey sausages

Dinner:
2 Hamburger patties
2 Tbsp low carb ketchup