Weekly Weigh-in

Sunday morning again, and this time a holiday, and time for another installment of the weekly weigh-in.

This week feels like it went pretty well. Had some good times with friends all throughout the week, which is never a bad thing, had a nice productive couple days of work where a lot of things got done, didn't get the extra exercise in that I had been hoping, but work took care of some of that for me. Also importantly I didn't have any feeling this week of having over-eaten, which is a frequent problem for me if I'm not careful. Now, today is probably not going to be exactly stellar for my track record in the realm of over-eating, but it's the 4th of July and I feel like I've planned ahead for it enough I should be alright.

This week is going to be a deviation from previous weeks in that it will involve a trip to Phoenix for some wedding planning and civic duty all rolled into one short trip through the state. Not sure what all that will have in store for me in terms of food and various activity, but I don't suspect I will have huge amounts of problems as a result of it as long as I keep on top of my eating.

Well, let's get to numbers shall we? Scale tells me this morning that I'm at 248, which is down 1.2 from last week. That puts me down just over 35 pounds since I started tracking my weight back in January. It's awesome to watch how all the little numbers slowly add up to big changes. While I may not have dropped as much by now as I originally thought I was going to, that's because the me that started along this path had nowhere near as much understanding of how hard it would actually be as the me that types this now. I never expected it to be easy, but he was a fool and thought the early losses would continue at near to the same rate until he wanted them to stop when he was at a better weight. I know better now. Losing this weight isn't easy, but it is worth every but of effort it takes, and I'm going to put in what I need to to get out the final results I want, no matter how long that takes.

Thanks to everyone who has been there for me with encouraging words, and helpful suggestions, through the past 6 months. I appreciate your support.

Weekly Weigh-in

Sunday morning brings us round again to another weekly weigh-in. (Hey, that rhymed.)

This week I'd like to take the time to mention a tool that I feel helps me a bit when it comes to watching what I eat. When I started in on my weight-loss goals I decided to take a look at how many calories I was actually eating in a given day. It really wasn't pretty. An average meal out for me could easily contain nearly 1500 calories. It wasn't any surprise to me that I'd been eating too much, I just never before had realized by how much it really was.

So, armed with this knowledge I decided to start looking around the internet for the nutrition data for places that I go on a regular basis when I go out to eat. I managed to find official sources for most places and reputable unofficial ones for some of the less cooperative chains. I went through their menu offerings and found things that were both tasty, and reasonable in the calories column. I put them all into a list on my computer, broke it up by meal, and printed it out. Each meal is subdivided into small, medium, and large categories based on -1 standard deviation, average, and +1 standard deviation of calories, and each size is also assigned a Weight Watchers points value just because I'm a data nut (as I don't do Weight Watchers the actual number isn't much use to me but it makes a good relative assessment if I'm at a restaurant that lists it for certain items on the menu or something).

I mention this list this week because I've used it a number of times over the week, and I feel like it has helped me do better than I would have otherwise. Is this a method that will work for everyone, probably not, is it a method that works for me, maybe, does it make me feel like I'm doing something, definitely. For that alone I feel it's worth keeping around, because it at least seems to help some.

Now for the actual weight. Didn't get any additional exercise this week and work was lighter than usual so I'm not expecting much. 249.2, down only .2 since last week. While I wasn't expecting much, I was expecting a bit more than that. I really need to either hit the pool or take to my feet at some point this week, so if you see me feel free to ask how much I have done so far. I think another step I want to take is to borrow a page from Ed Levine's Serious Diet when I go out to eat. While my wallet won't let me just leave food there, I can at least force myself to bring some back and have it for lunch later in the week.

So that does it for this weeks installment of my weekly weigh-in. Progress, though small, is still progress at making me not so large.

Weekly Weigh-in

It's Sunday morning and time for another installment of my weekly weigh-in.

This week was an interesting case at work. While I worked quite a lot it was much less physical work, so it still used up as much of my time as normal, but gave less back to my health. I also know I didn't eat as well as I should have this week, I think I only ate breakfast 3 maybe 4 days this week. All in all, it was a bad week for my diet.

So what can I do to change this next week? Well, firstly I'm going to make more of an effort to actually work out during the free time I do have, even if it's just short and simple like doing jumping jacks or sit-ups or something instead of going for a longer workout. Also, I'm going to push myself to try and eat less, my issue most of this week with eating was the same as it always has been, I let myself eat too much food when I eat. Instead of eating the whole subway I should be saving half, various other small things like that add up.

So enough of what I did wrong this week, where did it get me? This weeks weight is 249.4, down only .4 from last week. It's not a lot but it's a little anyway and a little is better than nothing. Going to have to do better next week, but at least the things I have got myself doing regularly are helping even when I'm not doing enough else to help myself.

Weekly Weigh-in

Hello readers and welcome to another weekly installment of my weigh-in.

This week was hellish on a number of fronts. Huge amounts of work that seemed to steadfastly resist showing any sort of progress were a constant throughout the week. I was sick for a bit there in the middle portions of the week to make things that much more fun.

I didn't eat very well at all, which is probably part of the reason I was sick, the other part being me not drinking enough water for the sudden increase in temperatures we had. On top of that, other than the aforementioned huge amounts of work, I didn't really do any exercising this week.

I did go down and get signed up at the rec center here on campus so I'm planning on visiting the pool at least once a week for the rest of the semester. I suspect work will try and keep me from doing anything especially productive, it seem to have a knack for that, but will do the best I can despite being very busy.

Anyway, time for the actual numbers. I don't really think I did that well this week, but we'll see if the scale disagrees: 249.8, down 2.4 pounds since last week. The scale seems to think I didn't do bad at all. I'm going to have to chalk that up to the large amounts of work helping burn more calories than I expected, and the eating less because of being sick that happened mid-week. Regardless, I'm almost a third of the way toward my final goal now. Progress is steady at least, and for that I am thankful.

Weekly Weigh-in

A day late this week, I apologize for that. This weekend was busy with working a as an usher at a friend's mother's dance show. A fun experience but bad for my ability to get a post in yesterday.

This past week was full of work, to the extent that aside from work causing me to have to lift/carry/throw/transport large amounts of heavy stuff, I really didn't get much exercise done this week. I feel bad for it, but wasn't really anything I could do about the situation, so I suppose I play with the hand I'm dealt.

Also last week I discovered that the Rec Center may be cheaper than I was originally quoted, so I'm gonna look into that because if I have access to that I can more easily work-out in the evenings/in the pool. Other than that, I feel like I did alright with my food this week, but we'll have to see.

This weeks weight: 252.2, down 2.6 from last week. Making good progress still, hopefully I can keep that up. Got 9 weeks until the wedding, so I could in theory be down around 220 by then if I keep this up. Don't know that I'll manage anything that good, but I'm sure as hell gonna try.

Weekly Weigh-in

It's Sunday morning and once again time for my weekly Weight-loss post.

This week I started doing something that, to my recollection, I have never done before. I started running. Many of my friends will tell you that I have been known to say that I won't run unless I'm being chased by something, and while that may have been true in the past, it's not going to be true any longer.

I didn't get to run as much as I'd have liked this week, the temperature makes it annoying to be outside, let alone doing any form of major activity, during most of the day here; and much of my mornings was spent either dealing with work related things or getting ready for impending work. That said, I did get in a couple good workouts early this week, and hope that I can get some better frequency in this next week. My feet really hurt the times I did get out, so I'm probably gonna have to be careful until I get used to the impact and other stresses going on. However, I'm hopeful that this will help me out in the long run to stay in better shape, and be generally more energetic by virtue of actually getting up and doing strenuous things that aren't just work.

So, now comes the numbers. This week I feel like I probably could have eaten better, but don't think I really did all that badly either. Time to see if the new workout helped any: 254.8, down 2.8 since last week. Hit my first checkpoint, down 10% of my starting weight. Took me since around January or so to do it, but I made it. It's been a bit of a long road, but entirely worth it. Here's hoping it's shorter to the next 10%.

Sunday Sludge the 9th

This week I've got a couple videos and some other miscellaneous links for you guys. Hopefully you enjoy.

Making Contact This link serves as a surprisingly good primer on how to make contact with "visitors".
Mysterious People A list of some very strange people.
Fun with X-Rays Someone people have way too much time on their hands.
Workout Program In theme with my recent weight loss efforts, a video about a 'unique' workout program.
Optical Illusion A rather impressive optical illusion that won some kind of award for being creative.

That's the links for this week, see you again next week with some more.

Weekly Weigh-in

It is now Sunday afternoon, which means a slightly late rendition of my weekly weigh-in.

This week was my first at the summer job, and it went rather well on multiple fronts. Work went well but that's not the point of this post. Work has forced me to eat at regular intervals, which is a good thing as otherwise I very often might not. It has also helped me start getting up earlier, which I like. It has also been making it hard for me to want to eat breakfast.

Breakfast has always been a hard meal for me, I usually don't want to put in the effort to cook an involved meal, but I also don't really care for cereal either with or without milk. Often this has resulted in me not eating breakfast at all, and that's not really that good for me on a number of levels. This week I noticed that my weight was staying very much the same despite increased levels of activity, which I felt was a tad odd as I didn't feel I was eating a lot extra. After talking with a friend for some advice and venting on the subject I decided I'd try and force myself to eat breakfast in the mornings and see if that helped. I feel like it has, I picked up some fresh fruit and some granola bars to help keep myself from having an excuse about eating breakfast in the morning, so we'll see how that goes.

Now comes the moment of truth, the actual numbers from the scale: 257.6 that's 1.8 pounds less than last week. Only another ~3 pounds to go before I've hit my first milestone.

Sunday Sludge the 8th

It’s Sunday again, and that means another installment of the sludge. It’ll be fairly short this week as I’m in the middle of moving, but here it is:

Brain Hacking The human brain can be made to do some amazing things, here is a list of a few of them.

Playing with Postage The brain isn’t the only thing that can be played around with, you can also have some fun with the postal system if you are willing to take the chance.

People of Class An interesting set of data from a national survey.

Awesome Pumpkin This pumpkin is more awesome than yours.

Cool Foreign Films A list of some impressive foreign films that are worth seeing, though I’ll admit I’ve seen only a very few of them myself.

Well, there it is, not much fluff but the substance is there. I’ll be back again next week and hopefully so will you.

Weekly Weigh-in

It’s Sunday afternoon, which means this is a bit later than I expected, so it’s time for my weekly weigh-in.

I mentioned last week that I was gonna buy a scale, and I did. So starting this week my weight will be provided by said scale rather than through Wii Fit.

With graduation and the end of finals this week it wasn’t easy, but I feel like I did alright with the food this week. I also had some issues with my exercise for the week after I had to get an ingrown toenail dealt with and that cut into my new exercise regimen, but more on that later.

My hope for the summer is that, with a more flexible work schedule to open things up a bit, I can have the time to actually make dinner on a regular basis. I’m setting an optimistic goal of cooking dinner at least 5 nights a week. Not sure that’ll actually pan out, but it’s a goal at least.

Well, formalities out of the way I think it’s time for the actual weigh-in. This weeks weight is 259.4. That puts me down 2.7 since last week, and 23.7 since January. Not sure what's gonna happen the first couple weeks here with my summer job, but hopefully I can keep up the progress. Until next week, live the way you want to be.