Friday, May 30, 2008

Fat Fuck v. Food - Week 17

I weighed in at 247 pounds this week and don't really have too much to say about it, for once. Right now I am just looking forward to weighing in next Friday. I expect to continue to be below 250 pounds and thus able to declare this phase of my weight loss plan done with. For shits and grins here is a chart of my weight loss per week:



Friday - 5-23-08
The Drink
Yoplait yogurt
Bottle of chocolate milk
Sausage, cheese and egg sandwich on toast
Bacon Cheeseburger
Fries
Tazo Giant Peach Green Tea
2 egg rolls
3 chocolate chip cookies
4 Ironically delicious Cuba Libres
2 soft chicken tacos
Regular order of steak fajita nachos
45 minutes on the elliptical

Saturday - 5-24-08
The Drink
Yoplait yogurt
1 can of Coke
5 pieces of large Papa Johns Spicy Italian pizza
Medium salad with chicken chunks and Ranch
Walked 4+ miles

Sunday - 5-25-08
The Drink
Yoplait yogurt
3 pieces of large Papa Johns Spicy Italian pizza
Chips and salsa
Medium salad with 1/2 hard-boiled egg, ham, turkey and Ranch
90+ minutes ice skating

Monday - 5-26-08
The Drink
Yoplait yogurt
Chips and salsa
Medium salad with 1/2 hard-boiled egg, ham, turkey and Ranch

Tuesday - 5-27-08
The Drink
Yoplait yogurt
Medium salad with chicken chunks and Ranch
Chocolate chip cookie
Medium salad with chicken chunks and Ranch
1 bottle Odwalla Vanilla Al'Mondo protein drink
60 minutes on elliptical

Wednesday - 5-28-08
The Drink
Dannon Activia Light yogurt
Medium salad with crutons, chicken chunks, bacon, mandarin orange slices, almonds, apple chunks, raisins and honey mustard dressing
Medium salad with chicken chunks and Ranch
60 minutes on elliptical

Thursday - 5-29-08
The Drink
Dannon Activia Light yogurt
Large nachos with cheese, beans, beef and jalapenos
Medium salad with 1/2 hard-boiled egg, ham, turkey and Ranch
60 minutes on elliptical

Friday, May 23, 2008

Fat Fuck v. Food - Week 16

So this morning I stepped on the scale and it read 248.4 pounds.* For the first time that I can remember I am below 250 pounds. Also, I am done with this whole diet thing until I get back from Star Trek camp. Of course that is a bit of a lie since I am not going to officially declare victory until I have been either at or below 250 pounds for two consecutive weigh-ins. Ok, maybe it is more than just a bit of a lie as I am not going to change my eating habits that much. I am comfortable doing what I am doing, however I will be less strict with myself and actually start enjoying nacho day in the cafeteria again rather than just being surly on Thursdays.

Anyways, here is the progress I have made since beginning this back on February 1st:

Starting weight: 320 pounds
Current weight: 248.4 pounds
Total weight loss: 71.6 pounds

Elapsed time: 112 days

Beginning waist: 48
Current waist: 40

It is kind of funny, somehow I was expecting to feel different once I hit this goal. A sense of accomplishment, perhaps, or a sense of jubilation but that really came along with the photo comparison I shared this past week. This is not to say that I do not feel a sense of accomplishment, because I do, but I was just expecting something more this morning when the scale told me I was done. Of course since I had some serious stress in the office yesterday and ended up having bad work dreams because of it, I am kind of just worn out today so that could be contributing to the lack of umph in the morning.

Oh well, the one thing I am excited about today is my reward. There is a cigar in my box with the magical words Habana, Cuba on the band that has been waiting for this day. I think tonight I am going to Hemingway it up with the cigar and an ironically delicious Cuba Libre. That should just about hit the spot.


* I actually had a joke here about the scale asking me who the hell I was but it was SO not working that I decided not to try and force it. In shrinking I think I have grown.


Friday - 5-16-08
The Drink
Dannon Activia Light yogurt
Banana
Mr. Brown's Iced Coffee
Med. salad with 1/2 hard-boiled egg, ham, turkey and Ranch
11.5 oz. Spicy Hot V8
CLIF Banana Nut Bread bar
Yoplait yogurt
1/2 order of nachos
Chili Cheeseburger
Fries
Iced tea (no sugar)
Fuck off HUGE dessert with ice cream and whipped cream
45 minutes on elliptical
60 minutes of ice skating

Saturday - 5-17-08
The Drink
Dannon Activia Light yogurt
Large salad with roast chicken
3 dinner rolls
A metric ass load of food including pulled pork tacos, brisket, and corn pudding
Iced tea (no sugar)
Walked 4+ miles

Sunday - 5-18-08
The Drink
Dannon Activia Light yogurt
Large salad with chicken and parmesan dressing
Bowl of chili
Whataburger with cheese and bacon
2 large fries
60 minutes ice sakting

Monday - 5-19-08
The Drink
Dannon Activia Light yogurt
Large salad with crutons, chicken chunks, raisins, mandarin orange slices, almonds, and honey mustard dressing
Medium salad with chicken chunks and Ranch
60 minutes on elliptical

Tuesday - 5-20-08*
The Drink
Yoplait yogurt
Medium salad with 1/2 hard-boiled egg, ham, turkey and Ranch
Chocolate chip cookie
60 minutes on elliptical

Wednesday - 5-21-08
The Drink
Yoplait yogurt
Cup of Crab Bisque
Bread
Salad with fried chicken strips, tortilla strips, and honey mustard dressing
Medium salad with 1/2 hard-boiled egg, ham, turkey and Ranch
60 minutes on elliptical

Thursday - 5-22-08*
The Drink
Yoplait yogurt
1 serv. Metamucil
Medium salad with crutons, chicken chunks, bacon, almonds, mandarin orange slices, raisins and honey mustard dressing.
60 minutes on elliptical

*I swear I had dinner both Tuesday and Thursday night but for some reason I did not write what I ate down in the diary. Wierd.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Fat Fuck vs. Food - Week 15

ARGH! 1.6 pounds! 1.6 LOUSY FREAKIN' POUNDS! Is all...that remains to be lost before I hit my goal of 250 pounds. I lost five pounds this past week and after the jackassery surrounding my eating this weekend, it being Mother's Day and all, I am surprised as the next guy. (Well, maybe the cat two seats over.) This is a little bit of a lie. Due to the eating jackassery from this weekend I did four things this week to help my weight loss along. First I pushed my workout on the elliptical to a full hour on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. 45 minutes was not ragging me out like it had back at the beginning of April so I thought it was time for me to make the next jump. I went ahead and only did 45 minutes today because I am not planning on blowing things out of the water food-wise this weekend AND I am planning on going ice skating for an hour or two tonight. Second I decided to go ahead and try something I have been contemplating for a while; I ate nothing but salads for my meals this week. I made sure to include chicken, turkey, or ham with each salad so I was getting a dose of protein at each meal. As I said this is something I have wanted to try for a while just to see how my body reacts and I have to say that I did not like it. For the most part I was okay however I found myself very tired in the evenings and hitting the sack around 10pm, which is just CRAZY early for me plus I had some headache and occasional vertigo issues when I stood up too fast. Clearly that was a bad plan. The third thing I did was drop the shot of Metamucil from my morning routine. I think it is better for all of us that we observe a "the less said about this the better" moment here. The fourth and final thing I did was give the Dannon Activia yogurts a try in the morning instead of the Yoplaits I have been eating since I started this crazy thing. I actually like the consistency of the Dannon yogurt a bit better and, while I am not a calorie Nazi it is something I am aware of, they have about 30 less calories per serving so I may replace the Yoplaits with the Dannon full-time as soon as I plow through the Yoplait back-stock I have in the fridge.

Now for the future. I am really expecting to be down to 250 or below by this time next week and some people have suggested I start thinking about what I need to do to maintain my weight. Since this has been so easy and I have broken the 20% loss plane without plateauing (I am SO tempting the fates with this statement) I am going to go ahead and shoot for 220 pounds. My goal date for this is going to be October 1st and I am going to start seriously working towards this goal once I return from the Star Trek shoot (or Nerdvana as I have started to refer to it) in early July. Once I get back from that I am going to consult with one of the trainers at my gym and try to design a program that is going to continue to promote weight loss while increasing my upper body strength. I want to play ice hockey this fall and will need to replace the mass I used to use to push people around with muscles in order to properly goon it up. Until then I am going to keep doing what I am doing right now and I am going to do my best to be good over the shoot, however the exigencies of filming being what they are I am not TOO confident about my ability to continue losing weight while I am in New York.

Oh well, this has run on FAR longer than necessary! Apparently I am in a chatty mood today. One last thing. The new pants I bought about a month ago? Now they are too big and that? That is awesome.



Friday - 5-9-08
The Drink
1 serv. Metamucil
1 Yoplait yogurt
Bottle of chocolate milk
Sausage, egg, and cheese snadwich
Chicken Teriyaki
Rice
Boiled Cabbage
2 Egg Rolls
Tazo Giant Peach Tea
Med. salad with 1/2 hard-boiled egg, ham, turkey, and Ranch
4 Peanut Butter Twix bars
45 minutes on elliptical

Saturday - 5-10-08
The Drink
1 serv. Fiber One Raisin Bran Clusters
1% Milk
Gyro
Small fruit smoothie
1 bottle Snapple Peach Mangosteen
Fried Calamari
Fried Mozarella
Small Caesar salad
Bow-tie pasts with chicken, mushrooms, and cream sauce
Cinnamon Apples with Ice Cream
Walked around the Ren Faire for 3+ hours

Sunday - 5-11-08
The Drink
1 serv. Fiber One Raisin Bran Clusters
1% Milk
Steak
Potato Salad
Deviled Eggs
Fruit Salad
Angel Food Cake
Whipped Cream
Nature Valley Peanut Sweet & Salty Nut Granola Bar

Monday - 5-12-08
The Drink
1 Dannon Activia yogurt
Large spinach and romaine salad with mandarin orange slices, raisins, apple chunks, almonds, chicken chunks, bacon and honey mustard dressing
11.5 oz. Spicy Hot V8
Medium salad with chicken chunks and Ranch
45 minutes on elliptical

Tuesday - 5-13-08
The Drink
1 Dannon Activia yogurt
Medium salad with 1/2 hard-boiled egg, ham, turkey and Ranch
1 chocolate chip cookie
Medium salad with chicken chunks and Ranch
11.5 oz. Spicy Hot V8
60 minutes on elliptical

Wednesday - 5-14-08
The Drink
1 Dannon Activia yogurt
Iced tea (no sugar)
Large salad with chicken, avocado, bacon, olives and Ranch
Medium salad with chicken chunks and Ranch
11.5 oz. Spicy Hot V8
60 minutes on elliptical

Thursday - 5-15-08
The Drink
1 Dannon Activia yogurt
Iced tea (no sugar)
Large salad with chicken, avocado, bacon, olives and Ranch
Medium salad with 1/2 hard-boiled egg, ham, turkey and Ranch
1 Clif Chocolate Brownie Bar
60 minutes on elliptical

Friday, May 09, 2008

John Edwards Thinks I Am Right

(And I don't mean right wing, either.)

Fat Fuck vs. Food - Week 14

So freakin' close I can TASTE it! (That might be an unfortunate turn of phrase but there it is.) I weighed in at 256.6 pounds this morning. On the somewhat annoying side the loss of only 2.8 pounds represents the smallest weekly loss I have had since I started this back at the beginning of February, however the flip side of that is that I am still loosing weight despite messing up a little this week. The part of me that is a bit of a, well, I can't really say that here on network TV wants to be bummed about this. To some degree I feel like I failed this week, however to get that out of my head all I have to do is look at what I have done so far. 63.4 pounds in 14 weeks is some pretty decent progress.

I had something funny happen to me the other day which I thought I would relate. I get a salad for lunch from the same place pretty much every day. While the salads are not great, they are just the right size and it takes me almost no time to zip down and get them as the place is in the basement of my building. Apparently my weight loss has been the subject of discussion for the past few weeks. Yesterday I went and ordered a fresh salad rather than just grabbing a prepackaged salad, which is what I do probably 99% of the time. While the young lady was making the salad we talked a little about what I was doing to loose weight. Then the other two young ladies who were working starting asking the girl I was speaking with some questions. They were speaking in Spanish. I speak menu and bar Spanish but nothing really beyond what I need to order food or find a bathroom. I did understand the one thing the girl with whom I was speaking kept saying and that was "I don't know." Finally one of the other girls broke down and asked me how much I had lost. I told them I was down 60 pounds since the beginning of February. This led to a little more discussion and then my salad was done and I took off. One of the paralegals came by my desk a little later and told me that they were still talking about me about 10 minutes later.

Oh well, back to the trenchs!



Friday - 5-2-08
The Drink
1 serv. Metamucil
1 Yoplait yogurt
1 bottle of chocolate milk
Sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich on toast
2 donuts
Space club sandwich
Fries
Bacon cheese fries
Med. salad with 1/2 hard-boiled egg, ham, turkey and Ranch
1/2 order of nachos
Chicken tortilla soup
45 minutes on the elliptical
60 minutes ice skating

Saturday - 5-3-08
The Drink
1 serv. Metamucil
1 serv. Whey protein
2 serv. Kefir
Med. salad with 1/2 hard-boiled egg, ham, turkey, and Ranch
6 pieces of sushi
California roll
Hawaii roll
Spider roll
5 piece of gyoza
Iced tea (no sugar)
Large popcorn
2 Nature Valley Honey-n-Oat granola bars
Walked 4+ miles

Sunday - 5-4-08
The Drink
1 serv. Metamucil
1 serv. Whey protein
2 serv. Kefir
1 pint Guinness
Medium Spicy Italian pizza
Walked 6.5 miles

Monday - 5-5-08
The Drink
1 serv. Metamucil
1 Yoplait yogurt
1 biscuit
Large spinach and romain salad with raisins, mandarin orange slices, bacon, chicken chunks, almonds, crutons, and honey mustard.
Med. salad with chicken chunks and Ranch
11.5 oz. Spicy Hot V8
2 Nature Valley Honey-n-Oat granola bars
45 minutes on the elliptical

Tuesday - 5-6-08
The Drink
1 serv. Metamucil
1 Yoplait yogurt
11.5 oz V8
Med. salad with 1/2 hard-boiled egg, ham, turkey, and Ranch
2 tortillas
1/2 blueberry bagel
Kimchi stew
Rice
45 minutes on the elliptical

Wednesday - 5-7-08
The Drink
1 serv. Metamucil
1 Yoplait yogurt
1/2 Apple turnover thingy
Med. salad with chicken chunks and Ranch
Kimchi stew
Rice
Med. Sprite
popcorn
Walked 1 mile
45 minutes on the elliptical

Thursday - 5-8-08
The Drink
1 serv. Metamucil
1 Yoplait yogurt
Med. spinach and romain salad with raisins, mandarin orange slices, bacon, chicken chunks, almonds, crutons, and honey mustard
Hard-boiled egg
Med. salad with chicken chunks and Ranch
45 minutes on the elliptical
Walked 4+ miles

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Scatter-brained

I have been pretty scatter-brained of late however there are a couple of things I have seen today I feel are worthy of comment.

Gas Tax Holiday = Idiocy
The whole concept of a gas tax holiday sounds like a terrible plan. I am saying this as a person who just bought a rather fuel-hungry vehicle and plan on putting somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000 miles on it right when the proposed tax holidays would be in effect. Clearly it is in my best interest in the short term for the gas tax holiday to happen however I think the negative long term effect of the holiday will FAR out weigh any positives (which I think would be minimal anyways.)

The biggest problem I see with the gas tax holiday is that by lowering prices you are going to increase demand of an already scarce resource. I believe the current high in oil prices are due to several factors including increased demand from developing nations such as China and India, a weakening dollar, and the fact we operate in a very narrow margin of consumption versus refining capacity. (While there may be some douchebaggery in the prices charged by the companies I believe this is a smaller percentage of the recent price increases than these fundamental supply versus demand issues.) This narrow margin is what concerns me. There is already an increase in demand during the summer along with a commensurate increase in prices. What the proposed holiday will do is decrease the price without bringing any more supply to the market. The decrease in prices will most likely lead to an additional increase in demand which will then lead to an increase in the base price. It is not out of the realm of possibility for the entire difference made in dropping the gas tax will be figured into the price by the end of the holiday therefore making gas more expensive in the long run.

Another down side to the tax holiday is that we will be tacking on an additional God only knows how much to the national debt. We have spent the last eight years under an administration who, rather than tax and spend, has cut taxes and increased spending. This has led us to the current issues we have with the weak dollar which contributes to the high gas prices we are currently seeing. We do not need to incur additional national debt at this point. The other option would be to cut back on programs which the gas tax funds, however as I understand it these are mostly programs which fix up things like the road on which you damn Earth-hating suburbanites feel the need to drive. Seems like increasing the usage of these resources while cutting their funding, while a very conservative move, is not a good plan.

I won't even go in to some of the issues mentioned in this New York Times article, such as hording and the tax break not actually figuring in to the final price at the pump (I typed pimp).

I guess I want your take away* from this to be that the idea of a gas tax holiday is political pandering in the short term and a recipe for even more problems in the future. I would much rather see politicians discussing long term solutions to this issue as well as more consumers making better decisions regarding energy consumption.**


Another Shot at Hillary
I have a HUGE amount of respect for Wil Wheaton and find myself nodding my head at many of his points, however now I feel the need to pick on him a little due to this post, which I think illustrates a larger problem in today's Democratic Party. I agree that the race for the Democratic nomination is over and, in the interest of full disclosure and all that, I have been backing Obama from the start. (Hell when I saw Obama speak at the Democratic National Convention back in 2004(?) I knew I would be voting for him as soon as he was in a race where I had a vote.) I even agree with the people who are calling for Hillary to bow out at this point, what I cannot agree with is the tone with which some of the calls are being made.

Whether she is staying in, and there by prolonging, the race due to her ego or because she truly believes she is the better candidate is immaterial. I happen to think she honestly believes she is the better candidate and, again with the full disclosure, I admit to having an irrational dislike of Hillary. Something about her just bugs me and thus I am prone to think of her actions in the worst possible light. This line of thinking seems to run contrary to the majority of Obamites I am reading online who are ascribing Hillary's endurance to her, apparently Holmesian***, ego.

What I mean to address is the tone of the comments coming from the Obama side of things. Rather than being magnanimous and gracious they have become just as full of venom and as destructive as the attacks which we Obamites claim to hate. Wheaton's recent post contains a more restrained species of this vitriol however the post he links to, "Hillary Clinton: The Psycho Ex-Girlfriend of the Democratic Party" is just the sort of thing I am talking about. While I may agree with the sentiment expressed, wish Hillary would get out of the race so we can start to heal as a party, and think the post is funny as hell, I am concerned that all these sorts of things are doing is making it more difficult for us to come back together as a party. Some posts go even further and leave me wondering if somehow the right wing blogosphere has switched sides, just as professional dillweed Rush Limbaugh encouraged the voters to do in recent primaries.

Hillary will get out of the race when she is ready to get out of the race. What us Obamites need to concentrate on is being gracious in victory, and not in a condescending way, either. In some ways I am surprised at how divisive this primary has turned out. While there are differences between the two platforms, I suspect many of these differences will be washed out by the construction of a national party platform over the coming months and then further washed out over the ensuing four years as the President works with Congress to enact this platform.

Oh well, I have wandered off my original point which was I do not like the tone of the Obama side of things right now. I think this tone is representative of the worst face of politics today and I expected better from us. At least when talking about other Democrats. If you want to bag on that wishy-washy douchebag John McCain then have it. (But not his service. Regardless of whether I think he is right or wrong, his record of service to this nation is an example to which we ALL should aspire.)

(As a WAY tangential aside I wonder why I refer to Obama by his last name and Hillary by her first name. The first justification was that there are two Clintons in the public eye and thus I have to use her personal name to identify her. That is just hogwash as contextual clues, such as feminine pronouns, should almost immediately clue the reader in and if you can not pick up on those then I am surprised you have stayed at this particular party for ANY length of time.)


* Fuck yes I just used a buzz word. Bite me.

** And before you try and pull my card on the sort of car I drive you better remember the following: I have used public transportation to get to and from work every day for the past year and plan to continue to do so for at least the next twelve months. For the last five months I have not owned a car AT ALL and only rented one when my list of chores got to be large enough that I could justify having a car for the weekend. I walk to the grocery store, book store, comic book store, and some bars these days so I am doing my part.

*** This is, in fact, a penis joke and not a Sherlock joke.

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Thunderbird is GO!

I spent last weekend in Galveston photographing the Lone Star Flight Museum's annual Spirit of Flight airshow. The crap weather which greeted me Saturday morning turned into a beautiful afternoon. You can click on the photo to view my Flickr photoset from the airshow:

Friday, May 02, 2008

Fat Fuck vs. Food - Week 13

Lucky week 13. And let me tell you after the Munching of Weight Destruction I did this weekend in Galveston I thought I was not going to loose any weight this week. Fortunately for everyone I was WRONG! I dropped another 3.6 pounds this week which takes me down past the 260 point to 259.4 pounds. That is a total loss of 60.6 pounds or 18.9375% of my starting weight. Most importantly this leaves me with just over 9 pounds left to loose before I hit 250.

I rewarded myself with a couple of donuts and a thing of chocolate milk this morning and even though it was crap Schepps chocolate milk it was the BEST chocolate milk I have EVER tasted. It tasted like victory. The result of my reward is that I am so jumped up on sugar right now I can hardly type, let alone think straight.

As always we thank you for your support. (Although I guess I should stop referring to myself in the plural.)



Friday - 4-25-08
The Drink
1.5 serv. Kefir
1 serv. Whey protein
1 serv. Metamucil
Wendy's triple cheeseburger
2 large fries
Sprite
Black Bean soup
Bread
More fried stuff than you can shake a Heidi at
Iced tea (no sugar)
45 minutes on elliptical

Saturday - 4-26-08
The Drink
Orange Juice
Hashbrowns
Cinnamon Roll
2 eggs, scrambled
2 sausage pattys
2 hot dogs
Bacon cheeseburger
Waffle fries
Iced tea (no sugar)
Pecan pie dipped in chocolate

Sunday - 4-27-08
The Drink
Orange Juice
Hashbrowns
2 eggs, scrambled
2 sausage pattys
3 slices of bacon
3 pancakes
1 Tazo Giant Peach Green Tea
1 Yoplait yogurt
1 serv. fat free chocolate pudding
Beff fajita nachos
2 soft chicken tacos
Walked 4+ miles

Monday - 4-28-08
The Drink
1 serv. Metamucil
1 Yoplait yogurt
Medium salad with 1/2 hard-boiled egg, turkey, ham, and Ranch
1/4 box Fried Rice Chicken Helper
Asparagus
1 serv. fat free chocolate pudding
45 minutes on elliptical

Tuesday - 4-29-08
The Drink
1 serv. Metamucil
1 Yoplait yogurt
Small salad
4 pieces goyza
6 pieces of sushi
California roll
Iced tea (no sugar)
Medium salad with 1/2 hard-boiled egg, turkey, ham, and Ranch
45 minutes on elliptical

Wednesday - 4-30-08
The Drink
1 serv. Metamucil
1 Yoplait yogurt
Medium salad with 1/2 hard-boiled egg, turkey, ham and Ranch
11.5 oz. V8
1/4 box Fried Rice Chicken Helper
Asparagus
45 minutes on elliptical

Thursday - 5-1-08
The Drink
1 serv. Metamucil
1 Yoplait yogurt
Large spinach and romaine salad with raisins, mandarin orange slices, almonds, bacon, apple chunks, chicken chunks, and honey mustard dressing.
Medium salad with chicken chunks and Ranch
45 minutes on elliptical