Friday, April 27, 2007

Day 83: Everyone's Doin' It

Update: 217.8 lbs, 40.4 lbs so far, 38 lb Goal Reached Day 74. - 9.6 lbs to NEW 50 lb goal.

Real quick this morning, I gotta get on the road and get out of town. I wanted to go for a ride this morning, but after three 12 mile loops in a row, sad to say, too much sore booty to get back on today. Not terrible, just didn't want to cross over into can't-sit land...so I decided to go walking instead.

While I was out on my little 3 mile loop, I was amazed at how many people were also out walking, running and biking this morning. I saw at least 5 walkers and another 6 people on bikes. Some in complete workout garb provided by Nike, and other with the more Frumpy Paul-esque look of sweat pants, old windbreaker and hat pulled over nappy-just-woke-up-hair.

Recently my kids pulled me off to a Switchfoot concert, and I've been thankful ever since as that has now become some of my favorite workout music. Meant To Live is a great kick off to any ride, and they have tons of songs that help me keep the pace up. Without getting too touchy-feely this morning, one song came across the old shuffle that I've listened to a million times already, but made me just kind of stop and think for a few. The song says 'this is your life, are you who you want to be?' I can honestly say that on the inside, yes, I've been the person I want to be, but finally, from the outside I'm doing something about the person I'd like to be.

I've taught on more than one occassion that it's not the outside that matters as much as the inside, but you might as well put on a fresh coat of paint if you can! I can now personally say that if you're not who you want to be...you can do something about it. (I'm starting to sound like a Dear Dr. Kristi post here....)

Off to try to squeeze in 18!

Hasta!

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Day 82: Mile Marker 40

Update: 217.8 lbs, 40.4 lbs so far, 38 lb Goal Reached Day 74. - 9.6 lbs to NEW 50 lb goal.

Well whaddayaknow, woke up today to a new milestone reached. If you remember back on Day 53, I crossed the 30 lb mile marker, and today I hit the 40 lb mile marker. Sweet Mother of Science. I know I just made a big hubbub about hitting my 38 lb goal, which got me to an even 220, but that 40 lb marker is also very encouraging, even though it's only 2 more lbs than my recently posted goal.

It's Take Your Kids To Work Day, or as it's more commonly known, A Great Reason To Skip School Day, so our three oldest will be hauling down Macs in various shapes and sizes, and builing web pages today. I should make a movie of the day and send it to Apple...might get some free press, but those little Lopi will be putting their noses to the grindstone just like the rest of the team. I saw two other kids we knew, with their folks, on their way to work this morning coming in from my ride, so looks like attendance will be down all over the district.

That's it for me, gotta go get the child sweat shop labor moving.

Hasta.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Day 81: New Geeky Toy

Update: 218.8 lbs, 39.4 lbs so far, 38 lb Goal Reached Day 74. - 10.6 lbs to NEW 50 lb goal.

As I mentioned yesterday, I picked up a geeky new toy this weekend as part of the ongoing process to add exercise into my life to help along the weightloss effort. Well, I actually picked up two new things, but I'm not going to put up pictures of me in cycling shorts for y'all -- way too much ice cream cone effect going on there - and they're staying under my regular shorts. Yes, I believe they officially pushed me over into weird, geeky bike rider, but the padded booty makes the 12 mile loop much more enjoyable. And yes Nick, I supported the LBS.

The toy I got was a Garmin Forerunner 201. It's a wearable combo GPS and workout watch which tracks all the things you'd expect like speed, distance, average speed, lap time, pace, etc. It also has cool functions for biking like altitude and grade so you can know how steep of an incline you're going up or down. It also tracks calories burned, which I really like, and the GPS part maps out where you've been, and can guide you back to a starting spot or any location you input to.

You can also export the trips you take and merge them with Google maps to see where you rode, which is probably useless, but just geeky enough for me that I was sold. Great thing was, I kept watching Craigslist and finally found one for $50, which was about a quarter of what it sold for new. Turns out it the guy didn't have the data cable, so I'll have to cough up another $9 to get my data to my computer AND I'm going to have to use a PC to get the data off since they hadn't built in Mac support yet, but it'll be fun to play with. It's an older model, and the new ones support Macs and have other cool features like heart monitor and cadance attachments. If I find it useful, I may upgrade later, but this was a great way to get into one.

Of course, yesterday, when I went up the Son of Ravena (the optional hill right next to Ravena -- not as steep, but still really stout, and a little longer) I was working too hard to change the mode over to grade, which I should have done before the climb. I didn't dare take my hands off the bars to change the mode.

Well, that's it for the geeky post. I'm sure I'll post some routes when I get my data cable, but for now I'm just happy to track my basic workout info. Crossed into that 218 area today, so just .6 lbs to the 40 lb milestone...whoohoo! On to 50!

Hasta!

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Day 80: Roasted Garlic Jelly Belly

Update: 219.0 lbs, 39.2 lbs so far, Goal Reached Day 74. - 10.8 lbs to NEW 50 lb goal.

This weekend me and a couple of the chitlins headed up to Wilsonville to meet a guy who I was buying a new/used today from, which I'll get into tomorrow. The dude was 10 minutes late when I finally called, and then made us wait another 30 minutes while he drove down from N. Portland, to make the handoff.

While we were waiting, I ran into Fry's and snagged some Jelly Belly jelly beans, which as you may or may not know, are only 4 calories per bean. You can snack away and not feel too bad. Totally empty calories, but you won't get into too much trouble with them.

If I remember correctly, on some packages, they even offer 'recipes' of different flavors you can create by eating two different flavored beans at the same time -- well, just call me the Bobby Flay of jelly beans because I stumbled on a doozy there in that Wilsonville parking lot. I tossed two in my mouth, not paying attention, when the overwhelming essense of Roasted Garlic flooded my tongue. Egads! I pulled two partly mushed beans from my mouth to see if I could identify them, and turns out one was Buttered Popcorn (a sure sign something bad is coming, no matter what you mix it with,) and the other was Juicy Pear (which I thereafter continued to call Prickly Pear for some reason.)

In one of those classic 'this milk is sour, taste this' moments, I passed along the bag and said 'oh man, this is gross, you gotta try this.' Sure enough, the consensus was that every jelly bean after the Roasted Garlic Experience basically tasted bad. It was a taste sensation that is really hard to put into words.

So Jelly Belly, Inc, if you're reading, please print up some new bags that say Buttered Popcorn + Juicy Pear (although I think you should rename it Prickly Pear) = Roasted Garlic. Trust me, those Turkey and Gravy Soda guys ain't got nothin' on you.

Hasta.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Day 79: Brings A Tear To My Eye...

Update: 219.8 lbs, 38.4 lbs so far, Goal Reached Day 74. - 11.6 lbs to NEW 50 lb goal.

Well, yesterday was a big day. I've had a lot of big days in my life -- days that hold a special place in my heart. I'll never forget the day I first met my wife, our first date, the day I asked her to marry me, or the way she looked walking down the isle to me. I won't forget holding any of our newborn babies, or the way their little heads smelled with all the newborn goodness while they were still tiny. And although yesterday will probably not rank as high in the recall-o-meter years down the road, it was a pretty darn good day.

For the past 80 days or better, I've not had one of my most favorite foods in the world, a Paddingtons Humdinger. I won't go on and on about it's crisp, crunchy crust, or the perfect blend of pepperoni, sausage, olives and canned mushrooms. I won't drag out all the details like how the only thing its lacking for true pizza perfection is a drizzle of taco sauce, but you can get that from the old guy at the bar. I won't even make you listen to the story about how the manager (now co-owner, I believe) told me it was my fault her employee wrote down the wrong pizza, and insisted I'd have to pay twice to get the pizza I actually ordered, so I lfeft the one I paid for on the counter and walked away. I won't make you sit through all that. I'll just say, the pizza is dang good.

Take a look at it, it's beautiful. I'm not even embarrassed to carry my camera into Paddingtons and take pictures of pizza. Is anyone embarrased to snap photos at the Grand Canyon, Niagra Falls, The Washington Monument, or the Largest Ball of Yarn in The World? No. Objects of beauty and attraction, so it's normal. So it is with the Humdinger. In fact, I'm pretty sure I saw at least two other cameras, and one video camera recording their orders as well.

But I digress...yesterday was the first day in a long time to actually sit down and enjoy one of these little slices of heaven. I passed up the option to have it on my birthday to save it for my celebratory meal after hitting my 38 lb goal. K-biz, asked me earlier if I was going to 'wuss out' and get some plain cheese pizza, or maybe just a salad, but I see no real point in going to Paddingtons if you're not going to order the Holy Grail. In fact, I had already thought about just doing 'halfsies' (as she so accurately put it) before heading down, so as not to completely jump off the wagon. (I may not have wussed out at the pizza parlor, but saying halfsies right there may have dropped me down the manly man scale a few.)

And so, that's what I did. Ordered the Humdinger and a salad. Started with the salad and honey mustard dressing first, then had at the Humdinger. I actually was kind of nervous...I made the comment earlier that I felt like an alcoholic with a bottle of Jim Beam placed in front of me. Drinking only half would be tough, but at the halfway mark, I pushed the pan away. Now, I did go back once more and had this one little, not quite a full, sliver of a slice before we left, so it was halfsies, plus a half a slice when all was said and done. And as best as I can figure out, really not too terrible on the calorie count. Probably somewhere in the 800-1000 calories for half the pizza and a salad. (And if you look at the picture, you can see they made me a diet version, with a scrunched crust.) With a nice walk/job in the evening, and some nice light chicken basil sausage for dinner, was able to stay under the count for the day, and didn't even have to feel guilty about it. Much love to the Withers for being there on one of the special days of the year.

When I hit 50 lbs, maybe I'll eat the whole thing!

Hasta!

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Day 78: Crazy Sunday...Hovering

Update: 219.8 lbs, 38.4 lbs so far, Goal Reached Day 74. - 11.6 lbs to NEW 50 lb goal.

Another Sunday, another crazy schedule, but in an effort to keep the updates coming, and track the daily progress, here are just a few quick momentos.

As has become the norm, progress is just slow these days...I continue to hover around the same weight for a while then make slow progress..which is still good, just not very exciting. I have big plans for today, which could impact tomorrows update since I haven't made any big plunges downward in the past couple days. Hopefully tomorrow and Tuesday won't be ugly...we'll see.

Yes, you can stay within your target calorie goal when forced to have corn dogs for lunch, burritos for dinner and squeeze a box of fruit snacks in between at the movies, but I don't recommend it...not filling, and generally unsatisfying.

Also, for those following the saga of the Plastic Pizza, turns out it was stolen - not from our little one, but by by our little one. When getting picked up from Sunday School weekend before last he apparently exclaimed "I have pizza in my pocket!" - to which we kind of said "ok, whatever," but turns out he actually did have pizza in his pocket...stolen plastic pizza. So, sadly, the love affair with his plastic pizza is over, it's back in his classroom. Now we just have to keep an eye out to make sure he's not carrying out another heist this week.

"I have pizza in my pocket!" That just sounds like a party-to-go to me...

Hasta.