Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Day 101: Sloppy Joe

Update: 216.0 lbs, 43.2 lbs so far, 38 lb Goal Reached Day 74. - 7.8 lbs to NEW 50 lb goal.

Really, that's what you should just start calling me - Sloppy Joe. The past few days I feel like I've gotten a little sloppy on the old calorie cutback. Between nice weather, special events, and even being a little over-tired, it wasn't the best past 3 days. A few things I've realized, in nor particular order:

1. If it's in the house, and bad for me, I'll be tempted.
Saturday wasn't horrible, especially considering I had the 24 mile ride in the morning, but too often I think I eat into my net calories when maybe I should leave more of them on the table. Having donuts in the house left over from the girls sleep over was too tempting. I had one before my ride, one after, and half of another sometime later in the day. I had enough calories to cover them, but I could have made better choices for food. Even one donut and something healthier would have been a better choice. Same thing is true if we have leftover pizza, that old temptress, if it's in the house, I'm gonna be tempted.

2. If we have a family or friend get-together, I'll be tempted.
Even with a family where a bunch of us are all giving our best effort at cutting back on the calories, we still love to eat. An afternoon of smoked brisket, pork butt and too many other goodies to mention still tempts me. Follow it up with an evening of friends and food and I'm going to be tempted. Throw in caramel banana chimichangas and you might as well call my local Jenny Craig sponsor to come with the intervention team.

3. Mix numbers 1 and 2 from above, and things get sloppy.
Having both treats in the house, and a couple of family and friend get-togethers makes it too easy to be tempted. In my earlier days of the cutback I was much more disciplined. I might have passed on the Chimi alltogether, or at least only had one. I also was better about not grazing on leftovers from the fiestas, but have done a little in the past couple days.

Now, the real concern is that sloppy doesn't turn into slopey. Part of the reason for the blog is just accountability for myself, and in the past, these days could turn into a slippery slope where I ease on back into a reserved table at Paddingtons every other day. I don't think that's what's going on, but better to catch it ahead of time, so I'm making a concious effort to count the past couple days as a couple slack off days, and get back on the serious wagon again. I'm up almost a pound, and it could be a combo extra food-not enough water-lean muscle gain-natural fluxuation pound, but I just want to stay on top of it so you don't find me passed out in an easy chair with Dominos and Krispy Kreme boxes all around.

Gonna start off with riding into work today...another beautiful day!

Hasta

4 comments:

Michael said...

Alright dude... here's my take.

I just read the last two guilt ridden posts about falling off the wagon, and I have to throw in my two calories. (ha!)

I started doing this February 26th. So.. roughly 2 1/2 months. And during that time I've been less than desciplined on more than one occasion. I've lost 17 lbs and have plateau'd for the last 2 weeks (approx) teetering between 189 and 191. And on the days that I've fallen off the wagon... I don't just fall off. I fall off, get my shoes tangled in the wheels, get drug behind the wagon, and ran over a few times.

I'm getting off course.. the point that I'm trying to get to is that you have to enjoy your life. Losing the weight is not going to me a whole lot if you're miserable doing it. I would bet money that your metabolism is much higher as a daily average now, than it was before you started all this stuff.

I've discovered that when I do go around the bend, my body recoveres from it much, much faster.

Work all week, and enjoy the weekend. Or take a few days off. Don't pig out, and set up a tent at paddingtons or anything silly, but relax a bit, and ejoy some of what you like... then pick a day.. and get back on the horse.

I'm no doctor or nutritionist or dietician or whatever... but everyone seems to hit these barriers after a while of doing this. Just comes to a halt. I almost think the body needs to take a break, rest on the bench for a bit, and then get back at it again later.

Half time is about over for me.. and I'm about ready to take the field again. I've lost 17 lbs, and am only 10 lbs away from my ultimate goal. The last few days, and the next week or so (give or take) I'm being conscious of what I'm eating, but not really following the game plan, but not going overboard either. I weigh myself every day to make sure I'm holding steady and not accelerating skyward and after a week or so more I'm going to head back out on the field and tackle these last 10 lbs.

paul said...

All true comments, and I agree with everything you said. Two thoughts that probably drive the current train of thinking are:

1) This is where I've found myself slipping back into Fat City before if I'm not careful, and

2) I'm still on the Trying To Hit A Goal path, so I'm naturally going to be more driven.

Long term, I hope my thinking is such that I can maintain with a couple of 'normal' days, or even heavier food days, and not have it be the beginning of the end. I also won't get so hung up about counting everything every day, but hopefully my awareness is such that I just mentally have a good understanding of what's going in. I already feel that's developing well.

I was getting my swing analyzed yesterday and was surprised to see how pronounced the old gutteral area still is, so that probably is also part of the serious motivation I'm still feeling.

Points all well taken though, and things that will become part of my long term plan!

Michael said...

You also gotta figure that your general generic daily habits are so much better now. Just beind educated in certain food that you're probably now avoiding.. even if you don't follow a strict caloric plan, you gotta figure you're doing better just by NOT DOING some of the things you were doing before. Throw in the fact that your excersicing on top of that, and you're even better off. I would bet that a Humdinger here and there, or a couple second helpings of the world greatest brisket known to man wouldn't stick to you like it did before.

Whatever you decide to do... just remember that your 30-something years old. And in the 100 days you've undone the last.. what?... 10 years? So 10 years of build up undone in 100 days is pretty good. And you've got an estimated 40 - 50 more years to go. So don't get to upset if it doesn't happen right away.

Like the Slowsky's said, "Where's the fire?".

Anonymous said...

I had 12 cookies today. It's only 6pm... who knows how many more I will eat before I go to bed. That's all I really have to say.
-Kristi