Constant Reminders

It has been a good week. Yes there was the first official snow storm dumping over 8 inches of snow on us. Yes there was the constant barrage of "holiday goodies" (for the love of pants, will someone please get all the fucking cheesecakes out of the freezer?!?!) Yes I was only able to make it to the gym a couple of times this week. But we are under 50 days, 7 weeks left and then it's sun and sand. That is what I focused on. The morning after this post, my wife asked me if I really wrote the calories on each kiss. I said, "you betcha!" She then asked if it was because I wouldn't be able to remember that each kiss was 23 calories. I do have shit for memory, but that's not the reason. The reason for me is that I want to know every time I pick one up and see that 23 on there, I know what I'm putting in my body. I need a constant reminder. For the last 35 years, I haven't really been thinking, I've just been eating. There are consequences for everything I eat and each 23 I see reminds me of that. There were days when I had trouble eating to my full calories. One night we were even able to go to a burrito place and have a fat ass burrito and chips. But I had to do the research first and get all the calorie info figured out and I kept track of what I was eating and I logged it all. I was low on calories that day, so that granted me the opportunity to splurge a bit without going nuts. My goodness, only 7 weeks left. We are over half way done! It seemed like an eternity away when this started 8 weeks ago and it will be here before I know it. Keep your eyes on the prize Fatty Boom Batty, you are almost there.

Current Weight: 307.5
49 days left

Fightin' but not writin'.....

Unlike what you've seen on the news, I am not taking an "indefinite hiatus" from the this little experiment in weight reduction. It's just that time of year. I've been fighting but not writing. Still going to the gym when possible. Last night I totally flaked out and didn't go. It's been witch's-tit-cold here and that makes it hard. Still watching the intake and counting the calories of EVERYTHING. Still trying to not partake in the holiday food fiasco. Just today, I was at the freezer at work and grabbed my 300 calorie frozen meal as it sat next to a stack of holiday personal cheesecakes. I'm still doing it. I just haven't taken the time to sit down and write about it. I will leave you with this little golden nugget; Current temp outside my window, 10 degrees. Current temp in Oahu, 81 degrees.

50 days left

Tis the Season Round 2

You have got to be fucking kidding me....I got these two emails at work today, literally 2 minutes apart:

Email #1:

Hello everyone-

I brought in 8 mini cheesecakes today. They are in the freezer over by the coffee maker. I will bring in more on Monday and Tuesday. (I don’t want to take over the whole freezer).

Please take one today before you go! First come, first served! Cheesecake will keep very well in your freezer for over a month.

PS For those of you new to the group, this is my Christmas present to all of you. Please take one home!

Merry Christmas!

Dave

Email #2:

Sorry for the late notice, but if you are interested, I’d like to see if we have enough people to do a cookie exchange over the lunch hour on Friday 12/18. I believe last year, each person brought 3-4 dozen cookies. Once we have a total head count, I will sent additional details. Please feel forward to invite others who may be interested!

Fa-la-la-la-la-la-fuck-ing-la. Yesterday I just gave the canister of chocolate and "special glaze" soaked popcorn to a friend, today I just won't walk by the freezer (if it was legal to marry a food, my Christmas cards would be sent out with "Holiday Wishes from the Cheesecakes!"--yes I would take on the Cheesecakes last name, that's how whipped I'd be by it, and if it's like a toffee/chocolate cheesecake-forget about it) for the rest of the day and I'll delete the invite for the cookie exchange. It's only 14 days to Christmas and then hopefully this barrage of holiday calorie explosion will be over. Hopefully.

54 days left

Tis the Season

With all the recent snow that's been dumped on us, I got into the office early this morning to avoid any traffic. As I was booting up my computer a couple of people from my department were delivering some holiday goodies to every one's desks before they got in. Every single person in our department go a 22 oz container of chocolate drizzled clusters of almonds, pecans and popcorn covered in an "amazing glaze." It looks like one of those fireworks that fires off 160 shots, but instead it's chocolaty popcorn "glazed" goodness. 20 servings per container, 160 calories per serving. If I ate the whole container 3200 calories...Half the container 1600 calories. They are bringing the war to my front door. These containers were put on every one's desks. It's like driving to your AA meeting and seeing a bar advertising free shots. The tests just keep coming. Being couped up for the past 2 days and all the snow and stress of this time of year, it would make me feel better to rip into this canister like there was a million dollars at the bottom. But would it though? My mind is telling me that it would. My addiction is running on all cylinders, trying to get to me crack the seal. I have a measuring cup in my desk (don't ask) so I could easily dish out a serving or two. Could I stop at a serving or two? I pick it up in my hand, it's heavy, must be all the calories. It's heft reminds me that I'm trying to decrease my heft. Focus on the goal, the sun, the sand, the comfortable 8hr plane ride, not crammed into the seat like some overstuffed pillow stuffed a cubbyhole. I'm not going to lie, it's tempting as fuck, but I will refrain (for now). Nice try, but not this time.

55 days left

Snowed In....

Feeling very blah today. We've been snowed in our house for two days now. Starting to burn the furniture for warmth. 8 short weeks away...56 days away from Hawaii. Days like today I have to focus on it more than ever. Weighed in today, down 1/2 a pound. I think we might need a new scale...the first couple of times I stepped on it, it said 264.5, which would have been awesome, but then that would mean I lost 46.5lbs in one week and that doesn't seem quite possible...so I waited a bit and then stepped on again and I'm down 1/2 a pound. Not quite 46 but I'll take it. Got to focus on the good stuff. I'm so tired of fucking snow and blowing cold ass wind I can't stand it.

Current Weight: 310.5
56 days left

Motivation

I thought that since we are officially under two months from departure, let's take a minute and regroup.....It's currently 18 degrees outside my window, with the wind it feels like 9 degrees. There are 3 inches of snow already on the ground and we are supposed to get another 6 inches tonight. Then the blizzard-like winds are going to start tomorrow night and the high is supposed to top out at 10. As if I didn't have enough motivation already. There comes a little voice from deep within, kind of small at first, but it grows in power (like Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings), "Keep your eye on the prize Fatty Boom Batty. As you are bundling up to go to the gym the next three days, keep the goal in site. Don't let a little chill in the air and some white stuff on the ground prevent you from busting your ass. For this is what you have to look forward to..."













58 days left

In GaGa We Trust

I've got just about every type of music on my workout playlist on my iP0d. Hip Hop. Gangsta Hip Hop. Cock Rock. Metal. Rap/Metal Fusion. Justin Timberland. Johnny Cash. You name it. What is my favorite? Well my friends, right now I can't get enough of Lady GaGa. During my last workout at the gym, I was huffing along and one of her songs came on and it was like a shot a lightning to me. I was pumped and my pace increased. I can get motivated by the "this is what goes on in the mind of a lunatic"s or the "beautiful people, the beautiful people"s or the "killing in the name of"s and the "bringing sexy back"s even the "gimme fuel, gimme fire, gimme that which I desire"s, but there's something about her "groove slam work it back, filter that, baby bump that track" or her having fun cause the beat is sick and her wanting to take a ride on the disco stick that get me moving. Hello, my name is Fatty Boom Batty and I'm a fan of Lady GaGa. Proud to say it, a big fat hairy fan.

59 days left

Calorie Nazi

So I've officially become that guy that looks at the nutritionals of EVERYTHING. Since I've started keeping track, I've become relentless. I've got an app on my Crackberry that helps me keep a daily log of what I've eaten and the caloric value. I've got another app that helps me look up caloric info of foods if no nutrition labels are available. I've become that annoying guy that emails restaurants asking for their nutritional information if it's not available online. If I don't know the calories, I won't eat it, plain and simple. I've become a Calorie Nazi. We had a meeting after church and there was food out for the meeting, all I had was water. I've started driving the people around me nuts when we eat. I have to know what the calories are, or I won't eat it. The other day at work, everyone got a little stocking with chocolates in it. There were mini III Musketeers, mini Ree$e'$ PB cups, and a bar of solid Ru$$el $t0ver'$ chocolate in the stocking. Luckily the nutritionals were on the bar of chocolate, 310 calories for the whole bar. I took out my trusty $harpie and wrote 310 on the packaging. Then I divided the bar into eighths, by drawing 7 equal-distant lines on the box with my $harpie...that's 39 calories per section. Breaking it down into baby steps, my friends. I went online and found that there are 24 calories in the mini III Musketeers and 38 calories per Peanut Butter Cup. Again, the magic number written in $harpie on the packaging. My wife brought home a bag of Almond K!sses and has them sitting in a crystal Christmas tree bowl as part of the holiday decorations. 23 calories each and yes, I took 10 minutes to write "23" on every single Kiss in that bowl and the remaining smooches still in the bag in the drawer. The more you know the more you can prepare. All I want to know is how many calories are in it...that's all, not too hard to ask. Every good mission starts with reconnaissance...and a $harpie.

59 days left

Output > Input

So the "aha moment" for me in this journey came during a discussion with a friend of mine. He's seriously one of the smartest people I know, if not the smartest. He's a doctor, for Christ's sake. We were talking about losing weight; what he's been doing; what I've been doing, etc. This discussion came about 4 weeks into my journey and to be honest I was swinging in the dark hoping to hit something. I was trying to get more active and then watch what I was cramming into my mouth, but you can see from the early part of the blog, it was very hit and miss. He was saying it's all about how many calories your body needs on a daily basis. I know, what you are going to say, "Well no shit, that sounds simple, right?" Yes, it's a very well known concept, but I wasn't really paying that much attention to the number of calories I was taking in. Sure I thought I was eating healthier, and I was, but I was still not gauging was I was taking in. So I did a little research and came across this article that shed a lot of light. It also allowed me to figure my BMR, which is the daily amount of calories I need to have for my body. Your body will roughly use 60% of your daily calorie intake just to fuel the necessities, like breathing and such. So I figured my BMR by the following formula:

Men:
66 + (6.3 x weight in pounds) + (12.9 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years)

And that let me know that if I wanted to maintain my current weight, I needed to have around 2700 calories/day. If I cut out 500 calories/day I will average about a pound a week loss and if I'm exercising and burning an additional 500 calories/day, that will give me my 2 lb per week average.

Quick side note for all my female reader (yes it's singular, I'll be shocked if there's more-but I digress) here is the formula for the ladies:

Women:
655 + (4.3 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)

So anywho, I decided to try and only consume 2000-2200 calories per day and continue to work out. When I work out at the gym, I'm averaging about 650 calories burned per 45 minutes, so the workouts are right where I need them to be, it's just getting my calorie intake figured out.

Last week was the first week I've really kept track and I was down 4lbs so something is working. It's all about keeping track of what you are putting in your mouth (insert joke here, go ahead, I teed it up for ya, swing away....I'll wait....you done?) whether it's counting calories or working on a point system. I find the better I keep track the better I do. When I lost all the weight before I was doing "Girth Gazers" and they have a point system, again as a way if keeping track of what you are consuming. You get so many points per day and everything has a point value based on the the "Girth Gazer" formula. So it's really six of one half dozen of the other, whatever floats your boat. Figure what your output needs to be and then adjust your output, no matter what the input is, just write that shit down.

59 days left

Have Scale Will Travel...

First and foremost, sorry for the delay in postings. It's been a crazy couple of days and I was going to do some posts from my Crackberry, but what can I say, I'm lazy.

Yesterday marked officially being 9 weeks away from Hawaii. Holy shit, single digits! So that meant a weigh in. Now for a little back story; yesterday we were about 150 miles from home on a quick overnight getaway for a concert. My wife asked me if I was going to weigh in early or what I was going to do. I said, well, we can just take the scale with us, and that's what we did. Why not right? Officially down 4 lbs for the week! Yeah, buddy. I've got a system down, it will be shared in a later post (like the next one). But it feels good to see that number drop!

Current Weight: 311
62 days left