Saturday Weigh-In: June 27, 2009

Weight: 367 lbs.

Not sure if I'm losing weight or just breaking even. To avoid feeling discouraged I'm not going to start tracking weight loss until I'm sure I'm losing weight.

Going into this week I was planning to go to the store to pick up frozen tilapia filets and single-serving microwave packs of frozen vegetables. The idea was that every day around noon I could bake a filet and zap a vegetable pack for a light mid-day meal that would tide me over until my parents decided to eat, making it easier for me to make healthy choices at whatever restaurant we go to. I should just clean up the kitchen and start cooking for the three of us but Dad seems resistant to eating home cooking these days, they'd both probably want more variety than I'm likely to want to make, and I'll admit I enjoy eating out.

Anyway, when I got to the store I decided instead of getting the fish and vegetables I should just get some frozen entrees since it would be less work, not that we're talking a lot of work to begin with, and provide more variety. Now if you're trying to lose weight there are three basic frozen entrée brands to consider; Stoufer's Lean Cuisine, Weight Watchers, and Healthy Choice. Though it's been quite some time since I bought any, I remember Lean Cuisine and Weight Watchers to both be decent choices. Healthy Choice, on the other hand, tends to have about as much flavor as the cardboard box it comes in. The only Healthy Choice product I've found to be edible are their hot dogs. Everything else is pretty tasteless. So I picked up a mix of Lean Cuisine and Weight Watchers. So far I've had one Lean Cuisine, a tortilla encrusted fish, and it was alright. Nothing to get excited about but not terrible. Unfortunately the three Weight Watchers entrees I've had have been pretty vile, largely consisting of low quality chicken meat smothered in various sauces that try to overpower your taste buds so you don't notice how bad the chicken is. So it looks like I'm down to eating Lean Cuisine. We'll see how they do this coming week.

Of course the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray and mine certainly did this week. I was able to get a couple of grilled chicken dinner salads this week but mostly my parents wanted to eat at places like Taco Bell where there aren't really any good healthy choices on the menu. We'll see how this next week goes.

Saturday Weigh-In: June 20, 2009

Weight: 369.4 lbs

I was afraid of something like this. I'm either gaining weight or, at best, breaking even. The optimal eating schedule for weight loss is to eat 5-6 small meals a day. My parents only eat twice a day. They have breakfast and then a lunch/dinner that can be anytime from 2:00 pm until around 5:00 pm. Of course they're in their 80s, they have significantly less muscle mass to support, and they spend a lot of their time sleeping. Their caloric needs are a lot lower than mine. Eating twice a day is fine for them. I, on the other hand, am usually starving and frequently have a headache from low blood sugar by the time they get around to having their lunch/dinner. This leads to between meal snacking and when we do eat I tend to go for high calorie dishes with high carbs and fat. Even when there are healthy choices on the menu, such as a grilled chicken salad, I'm hesitant to get them because they are relatively low in calories, compared to the others things on the menu, and I'm worried about not eating enough. Keeping calories down is good but you don't want to make your body think you're starving or it becomes a harder to lose weight.

My goal this week is to come up with some light, healthy meals I can eat in the early afternoon and late evening to keep me from getting overly hungry during the day. Right now I'm thinking a baked tilapia filet with some steamed veggies would make a good mid-day meal and might make it easier to eat a lighter meal when my parents do go out for their lunch/dinner.

Saturday Weigh-In: June 13, 2009 – Starting Over

Weight: 268.4 lbs

It's been about 4-5 months since I last posted a weigh-in. I've just been through a rather stressful experience as I had to give up my apartment and, at the age of 47, move back in with my parents. They've reached a point in their lives where they need the extra help around the house but at the same time I really hated to give up my own place. Anyway, I figure now is the perfect time for me to get back on track with my weight loss plan.

I find it interesting that I'm a few pounds heavier than I was when last I weighed myself. During the month of May I didn't eat right but I was very active physically. Lots of running up and down stairs and moving heavy objects, mostly running stuff out to the dumpster. I didn't eat right partly because I was stressed out and wanted comfort food and partly because I was just too tired to make anything. Nevertheless I've had a couple of people tell me I look like I've lost weight. I'd put it down as a placebo effect from them knowing I've been getting a lot of exercise except I've also taken my belt in another notch and I've noticed some of my clothes have gotten a little looser. So I'm hoping I've exchanged some fat for muscle.

The good thing about living with my parents is that their house is in a nice residential area so I can get up and go walking first thing in the morning without having to worry about cars constantly whizzing by. This week I've walked a mile every morning and I intend to gradually increase that distance. I should get some exercise videos to work with on days that I can't go walking because of the weather. Since my floor is no longer someone else's ceiling there's no reason I can't jump around in front of the television.

The bad thing is that my parents only eat twice a day. They have breakfast and then sometime mid-afternoon they go out for lunch/dinner. I suppose that's fine for someone in their 80s but for me it's not working as well. I need to find something to healthy to eat around lunch time, not a full meal but just something to tide me over until they're ready to eat, and then again around dinner time. As it is I've been getting into their candy and potato chips which I need to stop. This morning I bought some peanuts as a healthy alternative to the potato chips so we'll see how that goes.

Saturday Weigh-In: February 28, 2009

Weight: 364.4 lbs

Total Weight Lost: 27.4 lbs in 42 weeks (0.6 lbs / wk)

It's really kind of depressing. I started out doing well on my weight loss plan but since Hurricane Ike I've been hovering around the mid-360s. On the plus side, that means I've adopted a way of eating where I'm happy with what I'm eating but I'm not putting on any weight. On the minus side, I haven't reached my ultimate goal of getting down to around 200 pounds.

So what has gone wrong? Basically when things have gone wrong I've used them as an excuse to indulge myself in foods that I like but that I shouldn't eat quite so much of. With Ike, of course, it was phrased as I didn't have much choice but to eat what food I could get. Then I got sick in January and again in February and that was a convenient excuse to stock up on lots of pasta. I mean, making dinner doesn't get much easier than boiling a pot of water and tossing in some spaghetti. It's something I'll have to watch out for in the future.

I'm better now and there's no excuse for not eating right. I've even got new shoes specifically for going out walking in so we'll see how well I do at getting back on track.

Saturday Weigh-In: January 3, 2009

Weight: 363.6 lbs

Total Weight Lost: 28.2 lbs (0.8 lbs per week)

As expected I gained weight last week after Christmas but this week I'm down again. With the holidays over I should be able to get back to eating properly.

Saturday Weigh-In: December 20, 2008

Weight: 364.8 lbs

Total Weight Lost: 27 lbs in 32 weeks (0.8 lbs per week)

Thought I was doing well this week but in retrospect I wasn't. The recent bout of cold weather has brought an increased desire for hot food and beverages. Picked up a box of a hot apple cider drink mix that I thought would be just the thing but looking at the ingredients I see it's mainly made out of sugar. Other hot foods I've given in to the craving for this past week have included English muffins, pasta, and potatoes. All too much starch. I also still haven't really gotten into exercising like I should though with the weather it ought to be easier to get out and do it.

I'm going to work on being good this week but it will be difficult with Christmas. Saturday was the 10^th anniversary of my brother's death so my family doesn't feel particularly festive at this time of year but we'll still gather and Dad will want to go out to eat and the only place we know of that's open on Christmas Day is Brady's Landing over on the Houston Ship Channel. It's a long drive, the restaurant will be crowded, the service is usually poor, and the food on their Christmas buffet really isn't all that good despite it being rather expensive. But it will make Dad happy so we'll go and we'll enjoy each other's company and hopefully I won't do too much damage to my waist while I'm there.

Saturday Weigh-In: December 13, 2008

Weight: 383.4 lbs

Total Weight Lost: 28.4 lbs (0.9 lbs per week)

As expected I gained weight over Thanksgiving, then dropped back last week and lost more weight this week. I made a couple of mistakes this week.

Wednesday night I had dinner with my parents. Because the weather has been cold, I was craving hot food. I normally don't order pasta, except on my cheat day, but since I was going to be standing out in the cold ushering at church I thought it might be nice to have something warm and dense in my belly. As an added bonus, pasta came with a bowl of soup so that was something else to raise my core temperature. Well, the French onion soup was as good as it always is. The shrimp scampi, on the other hand, left something to be desired. It wasn't particularly hot by the time it got to the table, the pasta was overcooked, and I really didn't need the starchy carbs.

Then the next day I was at the store and saw some sea salt and pepper cashews which I decided I wanted to try. Figured it would be okay as long as I limited myself to a reasonable portion a day but wound up eating most of the package that day.

I'd also like to point out that just because you have a cheat day doesn't mean you have to cheat. Last Sunday night I wasn't feeling particularly hungry but kept thinking about what cheat I could have for dinner. Fortunately I came to my senses and wound up not having anything bad for dinner. Why stuff yourself with food that's bad for you when you're not even hungry?

Saturday Weigh-In: November 22, 2008

Weight: 364.6 lbs

Total Weight Lost: 27.2 lbs in 28 weeks (0.97 lbs/week)

Okay, this time I'm just being lazy. It was a good week for getting back with the program. This week I'm going to try to be extra good since I'm making Thursday an extra cheat day. (Hard to be good on a holiday built around a lavish meal.)

Saturday Weigh-In: November 15, 2008

Weight: 367.4 lbs

Total Weight Lost: 24.4 lbs in 27 weeks (0.9 lbs/week)

I haven't been doing a good job keeping up with these entries of late. It's largely because I've been feeling ashamed.

One of the challenges that people trying to lose weight face is their own capacity for denial that a problem exists. I used to work with a woman who was significantly overweight and wanted to shed some pounds. She dieted and exercised but never seemed to make any headway. The thing was, she kept a candy dish of M&Ms on her desk and every day she had to refill it with a 1 or 2 pound bag. If you suggested that the M&Ms might be connected to her inability to lose weight, she'd deny it. The M&Ms weren't the problem, she'd say, because she only ate 4 or 5 at a time. She'd go on to insist that the only reason she had to refill it every day was because other people would come by and grab handfuls. The thing was, while she might only eat 4-5 at a time, as soon as she finished those she'd reach over and grab another 4 or 5 and she'd do that all day long. Yes, other people would come by and get some candy from time to time but she was eating most of it. You can't eat a pound of candy every day and expect to lose weight. It just isn't going to happen.

In my case, I've been letting myself get into the food that I buy for my weekly cheat day. When I first started this weight loss plan, I'd only buy "single serving" size food for my cheat day. For example, I would buy a pint of ice cream instead of a half gallon and I would buy it a day or two before my scheduled cheat day. It was expensive to do that since it's always cheaper to buy in bulk but I knew if I had the food on hand, I'd be eating it all the time. As time went on, I found that I'd built up enough self-discipline that I could start buying bad food in larger amounts and yet only eat it on my cheat day.

Since Hurricane Ike, that's changed. During Ike I broke discipline because there wasn't a lot of food around and it was best to eat what was available when it was available. Then I continued to break discipline because I was eating a lot of meals with my parents and I wanted them to be able to eat wherever they wanted to eat. Since then I've found I no long have the discipline to not eat bad food if it's in the house. If I buy a candy bar to eat on Sunday, it's gone the day I buy it. Usually within an hour of my getting home from the store. So I'm returning to the early stages of my weight loss plan to reestablish my self-discipline.

This is the first week I've been back on the plan and it's been a good one. Starting next week I'm going to start forcing myself to go to the park and take walks in the morning. Rain is the only acceptable excuse for not going. We'll see how that goes.

Saturday Weigh-In: November 1, 2008

Weight: 363.2 lbs

Total Weight Lost: 28.6 lbs in 25 weeks (1.14 lbs per week)

Felt like I made some progress this week. The bagels and cream cheese are gone and I'm mostly managing to resist the temptation posed by the ice cream in my freezer. Definitely got my exercise yesterday as I helped a friend move out of a third floor apartment into a second floor apartment in a different complex. Lots of schlepping things up and down stairs. I was worried that I'd be too sore today to want to mess with cooking anything but it doesn't seem to be a problem.

Saturday Weigh-In: October 18, 2008

Weight: 365.4 lbs

Total Weight Lost: 26.4 lbs in 23 weeks (1.15 lbs per week)

Saturday I had a job I had to get to bright and early so while I had time to weigh myself, I didn't have time to post a journal entry. I'm a little disappointed to have only dropped one pound but not too much. My eating is still a little off but I'm getting closer to being back on track with it. I really need to start getting some exercise and the weather here may finally be starting to cool down to the point where it's not too hot to go walking in the middle of the day so maybe I'll start doing that.

Saturday Weigh-In: October 11, 2008

Weight: 366.4 lbs

Total Weight Lost: 25.4 lbs in 22 weeks (1.15 lbs per week)

It continues to be a struggle to get back into the groove post-Ike. When it comes to bread these days, I eat a whole grain wheat bread but I find myself missing other types of bread, particularly sourdough. Which lead to my picking up a loaf of cinnamon brown sugar swirl bread. It's good stuff but not the sort of bread I should be eating and I've gone through it much faster than I should have.

Saturday Weigh-In: October 4, 2008

Weight: 367.6 lbs

Total Weight Lost: 24.2 lbs in 21 weeks (1.15 lbs per week)

My weight continues to bounce around in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. I'm still spending a fair amount of time at my parents' house and thus eating at the places they like to eat at the time they like to eat. Not the most ideal of circumstances but at least I've managed to steer them to places that have healthier choices. (It helps that one of their favorite places is currently closed while repairs are made to the roof.)

Saturday Weigh-In: September 27, 2008

Weight: 371 lbs

Total Weight Lost: 20.8 lbs in 20 weeks (1.04 lbs per week)

Not sure what to make of today's weigh-in. I'm hard pressed to believe that I gained 6 pounds this week though I have been eating rather poorly.

Hurricane Ike continues to make itself felt. For several days after I returned home and restocked my fridge, I found myself feeling ravenous all the time. I'm assuming it was a side effect of my "starvation" diet during the previous week. I wasn't overly hungry when food wasn't available but once food became relatively plentiful again, my body wanted to replenish itself. At least that's my theory but not I'm not a physician or nutritionist or anything like that so I don't really know.

It also didn't help that stores tended to be short on a lot of perishable goods, such as fish and chicken, because loss of power for an extended period of time meant having to throw those things out. So instead of being able to buy the sort of foods I normally get I wound up eating a lot of peanut butter and other such foods. That didn't help.

Finally, since my parents had no power until this Thursday, I went over to their house every day this week and wound up eating lunch with them. Unfortunately not every place they wanted to eat at was conducive to eating in a healthy manner and this was aggravated by the fact that a fair number of places still aren't open, limiting our choices as to where to eat. It also didn't help that they tend to combine lunch and dinner into one meal eaten around 3:00 pm which usually meant I was really hungry by the time we ate and consequently tended to load up the wrong kinds of foods.

Things should get better this week. The freezer is finally restocked with fish, chicken, and frozen vegetables and my parents have their power back so I won't be going over there every day which means I should be able to finally get back on track.

Saturday Weigh-In: September 20, 2008

Weight: 364.8 lbs

Total Weight Lost: 27 lbs in 19 weeks (1.42 lbs/week)

No weigh-in last week because I spent the day at my parents' house, away from my scale, listening to the radio while Hurricane Ike passed through the Houston area. To say I've been off my healthy eating plan since then would be an understatement.

Friday, the day before the storm, I went to my parents' house and we had lunch at a Chinese restaurant, one of the few places that we could find that stayed open past noon as people headed to their homes to wait out the storm. On our way home we stopped at Antonio's Flying Pizza to pick up a pizza for dinner. Oddly enough, that looks like it may become a tradition for us since we did the same thing when we were expecting Hurricane Rita when we had dinner (pasta) at Antonio's and then took a pizza home for later.

Anyway, after Ike passed we were without power so for the next few days my diet consisted of two slices of pizza a day. We had other food available, such as cereal and cans of soup, but I couldn't stop thinking that any food I ate was food that wasn't available to my parents if they needed it and I've inclined to think I'm better prepared to go without food for a few days than they are. Once businesses started to reopen we started going out to eat at whatever place we could find open without driving around and wasting gas. Since it would be our meal of the day, I'd deliberately choose food that was high in calories.

I'm at home now and have power again. One of the benefits of living in an apartment complex where the power company could get a bunch of people back online with relatively little effort. My parents are still without power so I'll be spending a lot of time at their house and still eating with them though now I'll start choosing healthier foods.

I want to call people's attention to the fact that even though my caloric intake this past week has been the lowest it's been since I started trying to lose weight, the rate at which I'm losing weight actually dropped this past week. That's because when your body doesn't get enough food, and two slices of pizza a day is not enough food, it starts to shut down in order to preserve energy. It will even burn muscle instead of fat in order to slow the metabolism and lower the number of calories you burn in a day. The slowing of my rate of weight loss is a pretty graphic demonstration that starving yourself is not a good way to lose weight.

Saturday Weigh-In: September 6, 2008

Weight: 366.6 lbs

Total Weight Lost: 25.2 lbs in 17 weeks (1.48 lbs per week)

Perhaps not my best week but certainly nothing to complain about. I still need to do something about getting some exercise but at least my healthy eating plan is going well and I'm not having too much trouble sticking to it.

Saturday Weigh-In: August 30, 2008

Weight: 367.8 lbs

Total Weight Lost: 24 lbs in 16 weeks (1.5 lbs/wk)

Things continue on schedule though I seem to be in a dangerous phase where I've gotten comfortable enough with my healthy diet that I'm letting my guard down and then finding myself craving something unhealthy. Fortunately Sundays are cheat days so I can deal with those cravings and not feel bad about it.

Saturday Weigh-In: August 23, 2008

Weight: 369.4 lbs

Total Weight Lost: 22.4 lbs in 15 weeks (1.49 lbs/wk)

Not a bad week at all. Had a few days when I went longer than I should have without eating and consequently was tempted to eat bad stuff but I stuck with healthy food. Can't help but feel good about seeing my weight drop below 370 lbs and I'm on the verge of being able to take my belt in another notch so overall I'm pretty happy.

Saturday Weigh-In: August 16, 2008

Weight: 371.4 lbs

Total Weight Lost: 20.4 lbs in 14 weeks (1.46 lbs/wk)

Not a bad week. I'm feeling pretty good right now since I've got a shot at breaking 370 lbs next week. I know that's 20 lbs shy of my next milestone, 350 lbs, but you still can't help but feel good every time you pass a 10 lb mark. However, it's worth noting that I could have done better this week.

Wednesday and Thursday night I went over to some friends' house for a small gathering of people. We engaged in what I think of as "Dueling Diets." While we weren't gathering specifically for dinner, we were getting together at dinner time so we ate together. Four of the other five people were on the Atkin's diet plan while I'm doing my own thing. The Atkin's folk get to have fat while I get to have carbs and it's kind of difficult finding something that will satisfy everyone. The first night we ordered fajitas with the usual trimmings. The Atkin's folk had beef fajitas while I had chicken. They got the guacamole, queso, and sour cream while I got the rice, refried beans, and tortillas. Really more starch than I should be eating but otherwise not too bad. Of course there was a lot of rice and beans left over and they got sent home with me since the Atkin's people couldn't eat them at all so I wound up having them the next day for breakfast and lunch.

The next day one of my friend's cooked and she made a tasty soup and chicken with whole wheat pasta. I generally try to avoid pasta because it's a starch. Not really sure how that's affected by it being whole wheat but I can't shake the feeling that I would have been better off with steamed vegetables instead.

In hind sight, it would have been a better idea, since eating was only incidental to our gathering, if I had just had an early dinner and eaten something before going over to my friends' house. It's something to keep in mind for the future.

I will say this. I'm glad I'm not doing Atkin's. On the one hand, my friends' get to have eggs and bacon or sausage for breakfast every day which is a good bit tastier than my usual low fat cottage cheese with raisin bran. On the other hand, one day a week I get to eat whatever I want while one of my friends has had to give up his favorite food, chocolate. Personally I think I've got the better end of that deal. But I think it helps showcase the difference in what we're doing. I'm working on developing eating habits that I can stick to for the rest of my life. They're doing something to lose weight and will probably go off it once they reach their targets. At least I hope they will because I can't imagine a life without chocolate.

Saturday Weigh-In: August 9, 2008

Weight: 372.8 lbs

Total Weight Lost: 19 lbs in 13 weeks (1.46 lbs per week)

Not much to say. Fairly standard week for me. Got a little more exercise than usual since I took my car in to the shop on Wednesday and walked home after dropping it off and then walked back when it was time to pick it up, about 1.5 miles each way.