40wp+(3*2m)+h2o=-5.5

Last year between September 2009 and May 2010, I lost about 65 pounds following the Weight Watchers plan.  I hit a plateau and found my weight loss stagnating.  I knew that dieting alone wasn't going to cut it anymore.  I needed to exercise.  One would think spring and summer time would be the best time to exercise.  Longer days, warmer weather.  Activities one could join.  Sports to play.  For multiple reasons, the exercise didn't materialize and my eating habits relaxed.  The result was I gained 16 pounds in the last 6 months.  Still down almost 50 pounds, but I was starting to feel ugh again.  This past Sunday, Cute Fan Girl and I decided to start dieting again.  We figured out our Weight Watcher points (40 for me) and I decided to go hard-core.  I started drinking more water and decided that I needed to exercise.  I looked into the Couch to 5K program and figured that was going to be the best method.  I'm not joining a gym, so running is it.  With my schedule, there really is no good time for this.  We're up at 6:00 every morning and I'm either out the door before 7:00, home with the kids or we're running errands (if only running errands involved running!).  We're home by 5:00 or 6:00 and by the time the kids are in bed it's often 8:00 or later.  

5:00 AM!  Of course!  Why hadn't thought of that!  Monday morning, I got up and dragged my butt out of bed.  I looked outside and it was sleeting.  Nope.  No way was I going to start in the freezing rain.  I went back to bed.  Tuesday, though, I got up and went out.  I started walking and knew instantly that my body wasn't ready to run.  Was there a Coma to Couch program available to get into shape?  I am proud to say I walked hard for 30 minutes.  Wednesday was a rest day (the Couch to 5K people recommend 3 days a week) and my body needed it.  My shins ached.  Yesterday morning I again got up (at my usual 6:00 AM-I didn't need to be to work until later) and walked 2 miles.  Again a very brisk pace.  Threw in some hills and was feeling good.  This morning, Loki was up at 5:00 AM and I decided that I might as well go for a walk.  I got out there and walked another 2 miles.  Towards the end of the walk, my body felt good.  It felt like running.  So I did.  For about a minute, before my body decided that was good, we could stop now.  My feet also agreed-I need to get proper running shoes if I'm going to run.

All in all, I feel good.  I've been following my Weight Watchers points (actually left 8 points on the table yesterday) and drinking gallons of water.  I'm down 5.5 pounds in five days.  I know this trend won't continue long, but I feel great about the start!

34 Points

Sometime ago, my wife joined Weight Watchers and I decided to tag along as support.  I don't actually go to the meetings, just follow along at home.  I have found the program to be amazingly helpful.  It forces me to take a look at exactly what is going into my body.  Based on your age, weight, gender and activity level you are given a point threshold.  My point total right now is 34 points a day.  Every food you eat has a point value and you can eat whatever you want as long as you don't go over the point threshold.

Pretty simple, huh?  It is, but in the first few days of the program it took a lot of adapting.  Just as an example, my usual Taco Bell meal consisted of 2 bean burritos, 1 chicken chalupa, nachos and a Mountain Dew.  That adds up to 36 points.  And that used to be just my lunch!  How about a Mac & Cheese Breadbowl from Dominos?  It's one item, it certainly looks like it should be one serving (Dominos only provides one fork per bowl).  Wash that puppy down with a Mountain Dew and I just consumed 42 points.  Again, just one meal.  I estimate my daily intake pre-diet point totals had to be easily 75-80 points.

Since "joining" Weight Watchers in September I have lost 51 pounds.  As I said in my resolutions I would like to lose 40 more pounds.  With the holiday season and work being so busy, I got away from calculating my points.  I didn't slip up so much as I didn't lose as much as I could have.  I'm OK with that; I needed to survive the holidays.  So as of this morning, I'm back to calculating points.  Breakfast was two homemade breakfast sandwiches (each sandwich = 1 egg, 1 slice turkey bacon and 1/2 slice of cheese on a multigrain english muffin) for a total of 9 points.  Compare that with 2 Bacon, Egg & Cheese Biscuits from McDonalds: 20 points.

Here's a chart of my weight loss since I started (thanks to my wife!)

Now that we're exercising more (played Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort last night for an hour), I'm hoping to see the progress continue!

2010 Resolutions

With the quick approach of the 2nd decade of the 21st century, I have decided that 2010 is to be a very productive year.  The last 5 years of the Aughts have been the single best 5 years of my life.  I'm happy.  I'm madly in love.  I have 3 wonderful children.  I have an amazing job.  I am losing weight.

I want to build off the last 5 years and have decided to come up with 10 resolutions for the new year.  I will blog about my journey (conveniently, one of my resolutions is to blog daily) and detail my successes and my challenges.

1) Continue losing weight.  I have lost 60 pounds and am still considered obese.  I am at 225.1 pounds as of this morning.  I would love to be at 185 pounds.  Lose 40 pounds.

I realize this may be a tough goal to hit as I feel I have lost all the "easy" weight.  I am at the lowest weight I have been since the early 1990's.  To make the final push, I need to...

2) Exercise.  I'm hoping to devote 30 minutes 3 times a week to some kind of exercise.  Whether it's 30 minutes of Wii Fit or taking a walk on my lunch break, I need to get in shape.  As the year progresses, I hope to add cycling and/or hiking to this list. 155 work-out sessions of 30+ minutes.

A fit body is all well and good, but I need to exercise my brain more also.  I find myself forgetting things and the synapses are not firing as quick as they used to.  I see signs in my both my parents of very early Alzheimer-like symptoms and I don't want that to happen to me.

3) Read more.  Currently, 80% of what I read is comic books/graphic novels.  There's nothing wrong with that, I just need to re-expand my reading horizons.  One year in the mid-Aughts I read over 50 prose books in one year.  Since my time at Barnes & Noble, though, I have lost the love of reading that marked the first 30+ years of my life.  I doubt I could read a book a week, but I think a book every two weeks is an achievable goal.  Read 25 prose books.


4) Research my family tree.  I have dabbled with my family tree, tracing my paternal branch all the way back to France in the 1600's.  I have traced other branches back to upstate New York in the mid 1800's, Lithuania in the late 1800's and Central Massachusetts in the mid 1800's.  I want to spend at least five hours each month devoted to genealogy.  Ideally, I would love to give family trees to my family for X-Mas next year.  60 hours of genealogy research.


5) Write a novel (or a collection of short stories).  I have always fancied myself a writer, but don't have much to show for it.  I don't hazard to think I am publishable, but I would love to be able to point to something and say "I wrote this."  Write a book.


All work and no play makes Mad Dog madder, so I should do something about that too.

6) Re-connect with my peeps.  With us moving to Central Mass and the two little ones, it's far too easy to not see our friends.  Kim and I both have the best group of friends in the world, but we never ever get to see them.  So in 2010, I am going to make a concerted effort for us to see our friends.  In addition to our monthly board game night (first Friday of the month, unless it's a holiday-You're invited!), I would like to make plans to socialize once a month.

7) Censored.

8) Adopt a comic book character.  As I said earlier, 80% of what I currently read is graphic novels and comic books.  One of the podcasts I listen to is the Collected Comics Library.  Chris Marshall, the host, "adopts" a comic book character each year attempting to read all the storylines that the character is in.  I really like the idea and hae decided to borrow it.  I will be attempting to collect every DC Comics story that the Silver Age Blue Beetle appears.  Collect a complete run of Blue Beetle appearances.

9) On the comic book front, I have collected comics off and on for 30 years.  At times I find myself buying both the monthly comic (for instant gratification) and then getting the collected edition (for permanency).  This has been a constant struggle as I end up paying double for my fixes.  I don't "collect" comics, so much as I collect the collections.  I do have 7 short boxes of comics, but for the most part these are all un-collected storylines and/or have sentimental value.  I need to cull my pull list of monthly books and wait for the trade.  The only exception to this will be the Blackest Night storyline that is currently being published.

Doing this in some part save me some money, which isn't a bad idea...

10) Start saving.  I would like to be more financially secure.  I think putting aside $20 a week isn't asking too much.  It'll take a bit to get into this habit, but it would be nice have $1000 in the bank by the end of the year.

All this fun has to be paid for, so I should concentrate on work...

11) Last year, my store won Store of the Year.  This year, we had a very good year, but not up to Store of the Year standards.  It's be nice to bring Bricky back to Burlington in 2011.  Win Store of the Year.


And finally,

12) Blog about it all.

I started out hoping to get 10 and finished with 12 resolutions.  Not bad.  We'll see how it goes!