The Incredible Shrinking Man

Down 3.0 lbs this week, which isn't too bad :-). Got two more gold stars - a 5 lb one and my 6th big one (for 70 lbs down). Total of 70.6 now.

I'm having self-images issues again. I see the numbers, but I can't translate them to anything. Last night, after my workout, for giggles, I picked up two 35 lb dumbells. *SHIT* No way. No fricking way! I can't grok it. They were heavy as hell. I just can see where I was carrying that around all the time. Sure, Diane said that it is a bit different when it is all over vs. picking it up off the ground - but still.

It was interesting - I had a woman at the Body Shop (which is the workout facility here at work - everything is named after 'car' stuff) comment on how much better I looked lately - and I can't remember if I had ever talked to her before - and barely even remember seeing her. I guess that is pretty cool as well.

So when does this quit being a big deal anyway? Or should it ever?

Pimping for a friend

Well more exactly a friend of a friend - actually a friend of my wife (who should count as my friend, shouldn't she?) Anyway, Ann is a neat kid (and it is scary that I'm almost old enough to be her father) and a good friend to Diane, who is setting off on a grand adventure - so check it out : My So Called French Life

keep checking in.

I haven't been writing much, but I am going to keep checking in at least after weighing in. This week I'm down .6 to 185.2. I have definitely noticed that it is getting more difficult the more I lose. My goal is 172 (technically 172.8 - as that is 80 lbs I'll have lost). Diane says I'm loosing too much, and even when I go to weigh in they constantly remind me that I can change my goal with a doctor's note. But for now I'm going to keep it the same. I still have a bit of a gut that I want gone, and I like the idea of losing at least 75, if not 80.

This weekend we had a good time - Diane and I went up to Kelly's Island in Lake Erie to meet up with our keys family. It was a lot of fun - but I really blew the diet - so I feel pretty good that I still lost half a pound after eating way too much on Saturday.

Of course, tonight is family night at my youngest's boy scout camp, and they always do pizza. I just have to remember - whatever happens at camp stays ON MY ASS!!!

holding steady

I haven't been updating much lately, but I won't go into the excuses here.

Weigh in this week was holding steady at 185.8 - same as last week (darn it). Still leaves me 13 lbs to goal. They keep reminding me that I can get a doctor's note to set my goal higher - but I'm not real sure I want to. Doing that makes me feel a bit like cheating and giving up - making it easier because I can't do it. Beyond that I'm still not happy with my gut - it isn't what it was, but it is still more than I want. I don't really care about washboard abs, but I want a pretty flat stomach for once in my life.

I've gone to 150 crunches to help (I hope) when I work out. I just want it to be done - I'm not feeling much motivation any more.

Everything at once

Why does it seem that everything comes at once? It has been incredibly busy for all of June, but at least things seem to have slowed down, though a third of July is already gone!

I spent a lot of time getting things ready for Origins. I ran my event, and even though I only had three people play I think they had fun. I have 9 signed up at GenCon, so it should go much better there.

I also won "Best Appearance" for my Ogres at the RTT on Saturday. Then on the way out of the hall I was talking to one of the other players, and when I mentioned my "mail" goblins, he was surprised they were mine - apparently he had seen pictures and heard about them on the net, though he hadn't seen my site and I haven't played them in almost three years! Those two things really blew me away - the award and having my reputation out there like that. Pretty cool.

Some days I just don't understand it

Had the weekly weigh-in last night, after missing last week because of my vacation, and the week before being up 1.6. (As an aside, if I ever do get to lifetime and quit worrying constantly about this, what am I going to write about?)

Vacation was nice, but not so good on the points. In fact, it started off really bad. Like all my flex points on the first day (Hog Jowls at Lambert's Cafe' in Sikeston MO). And then did I take care after that - of course not. In fact, I got so discouraged that I flat out quit tracking altogether for the second week. I did step on a scale at Diane's brother's house - it said I was up a little, but it is really hard to know unless you are consistently using the same - and especially since it wasn't digital, it was all kind of guessing.

I did work out most days, at least up until the end. The last few I just didn't feel like it and got lazy.

So anyway, I weigh in. They base me on what I was two weeks ago, of course. And I'm down .2! How in the hell did that happen? I was eating way too much, and a lot of not so good stuff (though I did try to get in the occasional apple, and grab veggies when I could).

So now is time to get back on track. Of course we have keys this weekend. That means 6 hours in the car to Chicago, with Diane bringing out the snacks tomorrow, plus eating out all weekend up there. The hotel options are basically a salad - which has never been very appealing. (Their appetizer platter (wings, potato skins, nachoes) is pretty good however - but not on points). I will try to exercise there, and we will probably continue the liquid breakfast (it just sucks so bad to spend so many points first thing in the morning, when I'm usually not even that hungry). So just make sure I take some apples for drive up and back and avoid the crap, and with luck it will be ok.

But then comes tonight - we have free box seats for a Dayton Dragons game that Diane won. Including food, but no booze allowed (oh darn - whatever shall I do :-) ). But what will the food probably be - chips, hotdogs, burgers. So that is the key, to avoid blowing my points tonight so I have them for the weekend.

I do wish this would get easier at some point.

Tired of moving

2400 driving miles makes for a long vacation, no matter how you do it.

I'm glad to be home, in my own bed.

It was nice seeing family and friends.

I'm not looking forward to driving back to Chicago on Friday, though the seminar should be good.

And, of course, all the ideas I had to write about all vanish when I actually sit down.

stupid scale!

This is really bugging me. Tuesday in the morning I'm down 3 lbs. Yesterday morning I'm up two. Five freaking pounds difference in one freaking day! WTF?!?
So I weigh in - up 1.6 - got the point back. And I deserved it, really. Between the pizza, chips, the chocolate covered strawberry and apple slice (which I never did count on Tuesday) and the few extra I spent then anyway I was well over my point total for the week. So I can understand being up.

But why did it look so good on Tuesday morning? If it hadn't looked good, I would have tried to be better Tuesday night (not had the ice cream (lowfat) sandwich), or the chips). Tried to keep the points down more.

Just me being stupid I guess.

And tomorrow we leave for vacation - first to SE Missouri for my family reunion, then up to Minnesota to visit Diane's family.

Speaking of family - it has been four years today that I got re-married - looking forward to the next forty.

And eight years tomorrow that the divorce was final. That seems so much longer ago. Hard to believe that it hasn't been ten years since she kicked me out of the house (it will be in January of '08).

I'm just a giver

Or an attempted giver. I got a call yesterday - apparently I'm a match for a kid in the local children's hospital with leukemia, so they asked for a white cell donation. I had to go get some pills last night to boost my white cell count, but no big deal.

I get there at 8:00 am, and of course they have problems, so much so that after getting stuck 4 times they send me home, unable to get a donation.

The first stick was for the return in my right arm - and they couldn't get it flowing at all and then hit a nerve (burning pain shooting up my arm - and this was the highlight). When they pulled it out there was a bit of 'flesh' stuck in the end of the needle - joy! So they tried again by the wrist - this just hurt going in, but then worked without being uncomfortable.

Then the left arm for the delivery, which looked easy. But the first poke didn't do it, and I started to bruise after she dug around in my arm a bit (that is always such fun). Unfortunately they have to go there, they can't use the wrist like the return. So another nurse tried again, and once more it started to bruise immediately. So they stopped. After an hour and a half, 6 vials of blood to test from the return tube - and no donation.

I can deal with the pain of getting stuck multiple times, and missing a couple hours of work - I just hate to do that and end up where they don't get a donation - or worse when I was there for nearly three hours and they had to stop because it was taking too long - and couldn't use what they had gotten.

And of course I had to give up my workout for this as well - hate to be pumping away at the elliptical and have my arm start spurting - that would be a bit rude!

Then Diane calls and gives me a box of HUGE chocolate covered strawberries and apples from Edible Arrangements just to throw off my diet. It was a really sweet anniversary present (four years tomorrow) - but of course we had agreed not to get anything for each other. I had an apple and strawberry, but gave the rest away, so as to attempt to stay somewhere in the vicinity of my diet.

Which brings up another point (which, if I have so many things to spew out, why aren't I updating more often?) as well. This week, point wise, has been pretty crappy. I haven't been good at all. First was Friday night playing D&D with the boys and their friends (no, I won't bore you telling you about my character (a 4th level Vaneran Favored Soul (2) / Sorcerer (2), complete with monkey familiar, who, once I get enough ranks in Knowledge(Religion) will become a mystic Theurge - spitting a huge amount of spells a day), but we had pizza for dinner - and a 'reasonable' serving of pizza just doesn't even touch it for me. So used way too many points.

Then Saturday night we went to a surprise birthday party for a friend / co-worker of Diane at a local bowling alley. We don't bowl (Diane can't with her torn Meniscus in her knee, and I wasn't going to leave her sitting by herself) and we ended up with the pretzels and chips sitting in front of us, just begging - nay DEMANDING to be eaten.

Of course Sunday we were already planning ribs - so I made some sweet, juicy, wonderful barbecue ribs. But all my weekly points were far gone. I ate them (well too many for my points) anyway, so I'm actually 7.5 points OVER this week - a bad thing.

But this morning when I weigh myself (a bad thing, I know), I'm down, and down good. Like 3 lbs or more. WTF!?! We'll see what happens tomorrow night, following my usual routine.

Ok, I'll shut up for now!

Down a pound, down a point

Ah yes, yet another disincentive to losing weight. Actually I have been expecting this for several weeks - apparently the point calculator rounds, so I kept the point for two extra weeks, but not that I'm down to 188.6 it is definitely gone.

"You are doing great - so eat less and work out harder just to keep going!"

Oh, and your clothes are all loose and baggy and you look crappy in them, so you get to go spend more money buying new ones.

Even my shoes are loose. I decided to grow a brain yesterday, and figured why not wear sandals for weigh in to make it easier to take them off. So I put my old ones in my gym bag, didn't think about it. Put them on after my workout and they almost fell off. I had to tighten all the straps because my feet were skinnier :-)!

I must be looking better though, because the woman at registration was asking about my goal, and suggesting that their goal ranges were a bit low for men, and I could get a doctor's note to set a goal above their range.

So I guess I'm really doing well (64.2 lbs down, 15.8 to go!). However I don't think I want to change my goal - I like the idea of not being overweight, even based on the unrealistic BMI insurance tables (i.e. getting a BMI under 25). Right now it is 26.2. To get to the 'normal weight range' I need to be under 179, and 172 is actually at 24. This being down from 35.2 when I started. Not only that, but I like the 'round number' of 80 lbs lost, though 75 would be a good number as well.

Part of me is simply stubborn - I set a goal, which when I set it was the maximum allowed by the program, and I don't want to change it to make it easier. I still have a bit of a gut, and feel a bit flabby in my thighs. I don't know if I'll ever have six-pack abs (instead of the current 12 pack I'm carrying around), but I want to get it as flat as I can, even when I'm sitting.

Right now it is just keep working at it. I'm concerned about my upcoming vacation and what it will do to my weight loss as well. I so remember the Hog Jowls Dad has a Lambert's - and anything there is going to really be hard to fit in (what with all the pass-arounds etc.) And I know the reunion will be a fish fry and barbecue. And it will be really hard to get good workouts in.

I'm less worried about the other times I'm taking vacation - the game conventions and seminars. I can work out on the seminar (I did it before), and at the conventions (if I'm not too lazy) - but also at Origins I can do a lot of Subway, and probably something similar at GenCon.