There are ramifications.

I say, ramifications to modifying your diet.

Ramification #1 - drinking a lot of water can cause unintended consequences.
Ramification #2 - eating a lot of fiber can cause unintended consequences.

Those were numbered that way on purpose.



Good day!

-Silas

Back again for more.

Breakfast this morning - a bowl full of fresh fruit (FREE!!!) and some light cheese.

Had an early morning snack of wheat toast with peanut butter (1 tablespoon) and a cup of skim milk.

Time to go get some lunch. Hopefully some lean meat and steamed or roasted veggies - the cafeteria here at work has been pretty darned good about that kind of thing ever since the new year.

Before going home I'll have an apple and probably a bit more cheese.

This is my menu while at work. Yes, I'll mix it up sometimes with some oatmeal/yogurt/fruit concoctions, but in general this is what I eat now.

I am hoping that once we get into a groove at home I'll have more and more healthy leftovers to bring from home, but still, if I don't, I will have cheap, healthy food here at work.

Yes, I'm passing on the burgers. And yes, I'm passing on the cookies. And I'm even passing on the free frozen yogurt.

And while I am not allowed to step on the scale as per my trainer's orders...

I feel it working.

-Silas

Body fat? What body fat?

OK, there is a significant amount of it.

However, it turns out that that there isn't as much as I thought.

I have a handheld body fat percentage calculator. It was telling me recently that I was up in the 35% range. That's kind of high, but really (with my weight and how I feel) it was quite believable.

Well, this weight loss competition that I've joined uses rather precision equipment. I stand on the scale (a heavy-duty looking thing) and it weighs me. Then they put a couple of sensors on my right hand, and a couple on my right foot.

Turns out that my body fat percentage was 23.

Slightly lower than 35, I know.

After discussing this with our trainer, I've decided to take my wife's advice (that she seconded...) - I'm taking this lower percentage as a good thing. Really, this means that I'm not as unhealthy as I probably SHOULD be based on not really trying for a long time.

I'm taking quite a few positives from this...

1. I am healthier than I thought I was.
2. I probably have a pretty good metabolism.
3. I have a lot of bone/muscle mass. See #2. 
4. If I really try, and keep it up, I will lose the weight I need to lose.
5. When I get to goal, I should be able to keep the weight off.

I've lost the weight before. And then let my addiction to food ("I can't go a day without it!") creep right back in. Old habits, etc, are able to just pack the weight on. Probably because I love food. I love BBQ. I love cooking in my dutch ovens. (I am a Scoutmaster...)

So it's time to start finding a balance. I really don't think that giving all of this up forever is realistic. But neither is eating anything and everything I want and expecting to be healthy. My brother has recently lost 50 pounds, and he's feeling great. He is STILL posting all the time about the wonderful food that he is eating. I guess what he is NOT posting is all of the healthy food he is eating between those posts, and the exercise that he is doing.

I know there's a way. And you know what?

For the first time in a while, I have the will.

-Silas

I hate to say it again, but Bill Phillips was right.

I don't necessarily like everything that he said in the Body-FOR-Life program, but maybe I should. I think that I don't want to become a body builder, which is where he and I part ways just a little. But frankly, if had been running with his program for the last 10 years, I would certainly like my body more than I actually do.

There is a lot to like. The diet/nutrition plan that he advocates is a lot like what my personal trainer is advocating right now - eat a lot of small meals often, mostly containing lean protein and complex carbohydrates. I do know that this is good for you.

The workout schedule differs, at least so far. I do know that my trainer is going to be adding is a significant amount of resistance training, at least in comparison to what I have been doing.

But the thing that I am specifically referring to is not pertaining to the nutrition. Or even the workouts.

What I love is what he refers to as "The Power of Positive Pressure." The idea that when you tell your family and friends (and in my case co-workers) about the changes that you are making, you put some pressure on yourself to stick with the changes.

Case in point...

I am a Scoutmaster. Last night we had a Court of Honor. It was a great one - a few advancements, talking with the scouts about why they should be scouts, and discussing the next year with the scouts and parents.

At the end, as usual, there were treats for the boys. (Hey, it's how you get 11-13 year olds to show up.) I ate exactly zero treats. Instead, I came home and had some pineapple for dessert.

It's not that I couldn't have fit a cookie in. In fact, in the future, I think that a healthy balance includes a cookie (ONE COOKIE, SILAS) at a Court of Honor.

But I know myself. And for me, right at this moment, I need to detoxify. That is, I need to really eat well for a while so that my body will decrease the cravings on the crap food. These never go away, but from my past experience, I do know that the cravings will decrease.

Anyway, I told an Assistant Scoutmaster of my joining the competition that I have joined. So it was going to be a lot harder for me to grab that cookie...even the white chocolate macadamia cookie...and put it into my mouth. I know that he would be watching.

What about the law of unintended consequences, then?

This same Assistant Scoutmaster told me that he had been inspired by me telling him of my competition that he joined one at his work. It was starting this morning, so he was having his final cookie that night, but really, it's a great thing. We'll see how much we can lose together.

-Silas

*tap tap tap* Is this thing on?

All the time I find myself needing to reboot. How many times (just in the life of this blog, let alone my life) have I had to start over, to "recommit," to become disgusted with how I am living and feeling and have decided to begin anew?

Well...let's count:

Including this time...

This blog: 5.
My lifetime: 500.

I might be exaggerating that last one.

Regardless of how many times it takes, I know that I have to just keep trying. Over and over again. So here we go again...

What is different this time? Well, I'm a new me.

Also, I have joined a weight-loss competition! It is at a recreation center near my house. It lasts for 6 months, and the winner gets a pretty good prize...

Other incentives?

I paid for it. It actually cost a fair bit of cash. If I slack, that cash is wasted. I won't waste it.

But the big one?

I am going to have before/after photos posted publicly in the gym where I work out. If that isn't incentive, I don't know what is!

So right now I'm starting over. I've been working hard this week getting back into a good groove. It's good...and it's working.

We'll see what happens over the next 6 months...

Stay tuned!

Sore feet.

I was approved for some running on Monday! So this morning I got up early and pulled on my brand spanking new running shoes and went to the gym. I'm SOOOOO glad that I did - this past week hasn't been as good for me as it could have been.

I am authorized to do 90 seconds of jogging followed by 30 seconds of walking, for up to 30 minutes. So I did a 5 minute warm up, followed by 15 90-second/30-second splits. After that, I kept walking for another hour and a half.

Ended up with 8 miles. It felt pretty good. With new shoes, there are a few tender places on my feet, but they're doing well now.

Tomorrow I think I'm going to either jump in the pool or get on a bike. I need to let my knees rest a bit, take it easy. But they're feeling well.

As for the past week...well, with Mother's Day, my wife wanted me to cook some chinese food. So I did. It was good. I think I might have underestimated the calories a little. Needless to say my weight loss stalled.

Still, back in the saddle again. I've already burned almost 2600 calories today, and I've eaten MAYBE 300. I'll have enough for a small snack later, and a good dinner, and come out with 2500 to 3000 in the deficit column.

Less than 4 weeks until that Hawaii trip...time to buckle down and get to 240!

First things first...250 before the end of next week. 240 after that.

-Silas

12 miles in 24 hours.

Friday evening I strapped the little one on my back again and went for a walk. It was pretty fun. I needed to go to the ATM, so I did, and right after stopped by the local big-box retailer to pick up a headphone splitting jack. The thought occurred to me that the little one might want to listen to some music, so I bought the cheapest pair of headphones I could find and pulled out the iPod. I plugged us both in. It was quiet enough that we could still talk, so it was pretty fun.

The store was at about mile 1.75. By mile 3.5, he had fallen asleep. It had to be rather comical to see him on my back, completely out.

Anyway, by mile 4.5 he had woken back up, and we had a grand old time for the rest of the 6 miles. All in all, it was pretty good. We were out from 7:00 to 9:00 all told, including the store stop.

Saturday, we had a dance competition at a local amusement park. It was awesome - my daughter had finished both of her dances by 9:15, which meant that we were done before the rides even opened up. So we got to spend the rest of the day on roller coasters and everything else. It was awesome. The exerspy told me that I got in another 12,000 steps, which ROUGHLY translates to 6 miles for me. This all happened before 6:00 PM on Saturday.

So that means 12 miles within the 24 hours. VERY cool.

Physical Therapy this morning was good - and painful as usual. They had me back running a little. I did 4 minutes of running, interspersed with walking. I'm trying to get my gait to be in the right form. It is so frustrating, because there is no pain involved...NONE. But I can't do any more yet. But for those 4 minutes, it felt incredible. I really have found the endorphins that come from running.

So far so good. I get to do 6 minutes of running, interspersed with walking tomorrow evening, and we'll see what he says on Wednesday.

-Silas

OW! Ow, ow ow ow.

Also: ouch.

But it helps, they say, so I keep doing it! More physical therapy, in case you hadn't guessed.

It wasn't too bad today, except for one part of my hamstring which was pretty darned sore. But it's all good. I still think things are getting stronger.

Down to 258.7 this morning, which is down two pounds from yesterday, which was only down .2 pounds from last Sunday, but a grand total of three pounds down from last Saturday.

I've been frustrated the past few days. I've been working hard, and actually depriving myself of a certain amount of food (on purpose) to try to get down in weight as quickly as possible before going on the Hawaii trip. I'm usually eating between 1200 (not often that low) and 1700 calories, usually hovering around 1500. I burn around 3,100 if I do no exercise, and I can burn up to 4,000 if I walk for 5 miles.

However, things just don't seem to be working fast enough.

What? I've lost over 40 pounds in two months, and it's not fast enough?

I've decided that I am worrying too much about numbers. Or at least some specific numbers. I'm been so concerned with this short term loss, with 2,000 to 2,500 calories per day deficit, that I haven't taken into account the other variables.

Like not burning as many calories when you lose weight.

Like what happens when your knees don't support running for a while.


Like life.

And like the fact that even though my scale may not be showing the results, I can truly see differences in how  I feel, how I look, and how my clothes fit.

I think I started to get irritated that I'm not burning as many calories anymore. Such as yesterday. There was a celebration at work, and they brought in cupcakes. Not a horrible problem, especially since they were actually rather small cupcakes. But I was getting angry that I couldn't have a cupcake and still get my burn in, unless I did two hours of walking.

I have been starting to lose my focus some, being bitter about what I can't eat, and how the skinny guy in my neighborhood gets to brag about the giant burgers he eats all the time.

Boo-hoo. Cry a little more. And suck it up.

So I am going to start moving my focus a little bit more toward the long term. I am going to focus on some of the basics again. Back to thinking about the water that I'm drinking. Back to making sure I get enough fruits, and even more importantly, vegetables in my diet. Keeping my calorie intake to under 2000 every day, 1700 most days, and 1500 some days.

I don't need to be at 230 when I go on vacation, as long as the mindset that I have is long-term. This isn't a sprint. This isn't even a marathon. This is a way of life. Keeping healthy, keeping active, eating less than I burn...it's the way life needs to be.

What this decisions is telling me is that my best is enough.

And I am at peace with that.

-Silas

Such sweet pain...

If you've been to the physical therapist in the past few years, chances are you've run across something called astym.

http://www.astym.com/default.asp

Apparently it is a way that they've come up with to stimulate healing. I've had it multiple times over the past few years when I broke my ankle, when I had tennis elbow, and then today.

If you're not familiar with it, the therapist takes what amounts to a very hard plastic spatula and digs down deep through about every layer of tissue that there is.

IT HURTS LIKE CRAZY. But to tell you the truth, if it can help me keep running, I'll sit and endure as much of it as necessary.

It's not nearly as painful as when they were digging right into the pain location when I had tennis elbow. That was just bad. However...I do not have problems with my elbow today, so I'll take it!

Took another walk last night with the scouts. They are some good kids. We did a mile and a half (OK, the other scoutmaster and I did a mile and a half, I think the scouts did like 36 miles what with all of the zig-zagging they did). I had them paying attention to find 10 different native plants and animals. Left to their own devices, they certainly came up with some interesting answers. (They wrote them down on papers).

So I have been having some cravings recently. I'm trying to figure out why. Every day before work, I have the urge to get some crappy food. (Did you know that the bag of "pretzels" that I used to eat daily has more than 1200 calories? I already mentioned that?) The good news is that there is nothing that I want to get that I am willing to spend the calories on. So I grab my apple and come in to work.

Every day for lunch, I want to just forget everything and do whatever. But again, there really is nothing that is worth it.

I'm down more than 40 pounds. It has not been easy. I have EARNED this weight off of me. I have WORKED for it. Hard. When it would have been easy on Monday to just take it easy when my wife and the older kids were at a play, instead I strapped the youngest to my back and hiked for 5 miles. When it's 11:00 at night and I only just then remember to do my stretches, I do them, even if I'm exhausted. When the work lunch comes up, I go to the gym early and do 90 minutes of swimming.

And every single time I put something into my mouth, I account for it. When I want the candy bar, I remember the 2,281 calorie average deficit for the past 2.5 months.

Add those up? 152,835 extra calories burned. That's 43.66 pounds, by the numbers, and over 40 by the scale. I didn't weigh myself this morning, but I'd would not be surprised at all if I was at 257.

Anyway, I'm sticking to my plan. I'm WORKING THROUGH THIS. While I want the crap, while the donut would be good, while the chips are calling my name, I refuse to give in.

I will beat this.

Thanks for letting me rant...

-Silas

My kid is heavy.

He's only three, and he only weighs 33 pounds or so (skinny little dude), but after you strap him to your back and carry him for 5 miles, he gets HEAVY. It was a good 5 miles. It took 96 minutes and burned over 700 calories.

Frustration for the day? Since losing 40 pounds and really increasing my cardio fitness, I'm burning way fewer calories. I would have been up over 4,200 or 4,300 at LEAST for the day when I put in 14,000 steps and over an hour and a half of walking. Now, it's under 4,000.

Yeah, I know. Bad problem to have.

I'm still excited to get back into running. Walking (even with my kid on my back) just doesn't get my heart rate up enough to burn a lot of calories. I'm fairly sure that running will do it.

My knees are feeling stronger. The other day I was here at work, needing to hurry to the second floor. Without thinking, I just ran up the stairs. Between being much lighter and the stretches/strengthening exercises for my knees, it was effortless.

That's the good news.

I'm going to start getting on my bike at lunches a couple of days a week with my brother. I was going to start today, but it is going to rain pretty much all day. I'm also going to be walking a couple of miles with some boy scouts, so I'll at least get SOME exercise in.

Was at the grocery store this morning. I'm going to go eat an apple that I bought, instead of the OVER 1200 CALORIES of pretzels that I would have bought in the past. Oh - and those pretzels were just one package that I would have brought in. Usually way more crap.

Feeling good, fighting cravings, moving forward.

-Silas

Upset, pleasantly surprised, then WOO-HOO!

That was my Saturday with the scale.

When I first got up, I had a place to be, so I quickly jumped on the scale. It said 264.3. What the heck? Down .4 since last week? With an average calorie deficit of nearly 2000? Didn't make sense.

Anyway, I took off for a couple of hours, and being busy, I didn't eat anything. When I got back home, I got back on the scale. 261.7. MUCH better! That made 2.9 down from last week. It actually close to matches the calorie deficit. That is what I used for my official weigh-in for the week.

I ate a small breakfast, and then went to mow my lawn.

Afterwards, I took a shower, and just for fun, jumped on the scale again. 259.9 Hence the woo-hoo.

Yesterday morning I was still at 259.9. Making a total of 40.1 pounds down since mid February.

Did more physical therapy this morning. It was good. I'm getting WAY more flexible than I had thought possible in a very short amount of time. I'm not as out of shape as I had thought.

Also, the grinding noise in my knees (the left one in particular) is noticeably less than even a week ago.

Hopefully on Wednesday I can get some good shoe recommendations from the PT, and find out when I can start the running again.

So good news for the day. That makes it even easier to stick with the plan

Moving forward...

-Silas

More therapy this morning

It's only been two days since the first appointment with the physical therapy office for my knees, but I have actually done all of the exercises that they have asked me to do. The PT is a runner/triathlete, and his office specializes in helping athletes, so this looks like the right place to go for me.

Here is my official diagnosis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chondromalacia_patellae

"Chondro" meaning cartilage, "malacia" meaning malady, or sickness, and patellae, meaning under the kneecap.

The bad news is that the PT has told me not to run for now, that we'll ease back into it, but for now, to not run. The good news is that Chondromalacia Patallae is apparently 100% reversible. Which is news to me, who thought that my knees were pretty much just shot forever.

Walking is just fine, so last night while my wife and the older kids were at a school function, I took our youngest to the gym. We have some pre-paid babysitting there, so I dropped him off for 45 minutes. (I wanted to go longer, but they were closing). I did three miles on the track, walking rather quickly. It was fun, but I realized something last night.

I absolutely love to run.

No, really! I do! I was walking along, and I just wanted to break into the slow, plodding jog that I like to call running. I missed it, SERIOUSLY missed it for the first time in a few years now.

There was a time about 6 years ago that I was very seriously into running. Enough that I actually started to train for a marathon. I had lost all of my weight - down to 203.5, I think, but then had gained back about 25 or more. So I thought that training for the marathon was a great way to get back down. And in reality, it was a good idea.

However, I got my training program from the wrong location. There's a neighbor of mine who runs tons of marathons. She is one of those people that would probably blow away if I sneezed too hard. She's not any sort of fitness person - no knowledge other than that she does work on staying in shape and she runs a lot of marathons.

The problem is not, I think, that I was marathon training. The problem was that I was doing the same thing that a VERY tiny woman was doing, and it wasn't good for my knees.

It was after a 14 mile run that I think that I first started having knee pain. I was pushing. And I overdid it.

To be honest, I think that might be when the crunchy-grinding noises in my knees started as well. It makes sense.

Time to stop rambling...

Anyway, I may never be a marathon runner, but I WILL get back into running.

What I will also do is to start thinking about/training for a triathlon. Because smaller/shorter runs, with biking and swimming...

Now THAT I can do.

-Silas

Did it work? DID IT???

After leaving the restaurant with my co-workers yesterday, I was feeling very good about how I had done. It seemed that I had really been able to keep to my plan. I also did my best at estimating the calories in the food that I ate. I am not 100% sure how many calories it was, but I really felt that I was pretty close.

How close was I? Well, I may never really know, but I DO know that I was down yet another pound this morning. Today's weight was 262.6.

So close enough for me.

Heading to the physical therapist this morning, we'll see how that goes. I can't believe I didn't bring my running shoes - I hope that they can do the evaluation without them.

Anyway, hope it's a good day.

-Silas

ETA: Also - new blog layout. :)

Doctors, and more work food.

I forgot to mention that I went to visit the orthopedist yesterday. He gave me some VERY good news. I had thought that the crunchy/grinding noise in my knees was on account of my cartilage being gone. Turns out that's not the case - it may not be the healthiest of cartilage, but it's there. I'm going to see another physical therapist about my knees - a guy who specializes in helping athletes. He's going to do a "gait study" to see how I run to help me correct any problems, as well as give me exercises to help strengthen my knees. He will also recommend some shoes. At this point, I'm not sure I care how much the shoes cost - if the shoes allow me to keep running, and I can lose the rest of the 53 pounds that I need gone, it will be worth every penny.

So I can keep running. Last night I got on my treadmill and did 4 miles. Not running yet, mind you. I walked/very QUICKLY walked, but I didn't want to pound on my knees until I get some help. I'm relieved about this. I may never be a marathoner - I am fairly sure that my knees will probably not support that - I am going to start getting into triathlons, I think. The orthopedist said that swimming and biking would be very good to do as well, so I will get into it.

About work food - here at work, we've had this massive project that we have had to get shipped out (I work for a Software company - I'm a professional geek). It took some work, and the team as a whole performed spectacularly. So our boss is taking us all out for lunch today at a Brazilian Grill. One of those places that, if you are not careful, can put you into a MEAT COMA. Basically, you go in, and they keep bringing you out different kinds of roasted meat until you can't stand any more.

 Lovely.

What am I going to do about it? Well, to start, I went to the gym already this morning. Turns out I swim slowly, but I can do it indefinitely, or so it felt. I swam for 90 minutes. It was over a mile and a half. According to my fitness website, I burned almost 1400 calories. That excites me. I feel it, too. I'm pretty much exhausted. But in a good way.

Also - the very first thing I am going to do when I get in there is to eat an ENORMOUS plate of salad. I can fill up a very large amount of my stomach with lettuce and vegetables, and a low-fat mustard based dressing that they have, for under 300 calories. I seriously plan to do that.

And then I'm going to eat some of the meat. I will skip the bacon wrapped stuff. There is a possibility that I will consume 1000 calories of meat. But I am going to stop myself before I gorge. I just won't do it. After three pieces of meat, I'm going to go back for a small salad again, if I'm still hungry. And frankly, I can't pass up the grilled pineapple. :) But at the end of today, I plan to have at least a 2000 calorie deficit. This can be done. It will be done.

Why? Because right now, for whatever reason, it is more worth it to me to NOT eat the food. I was not mortified when I jumped in the pool today. Yes, I'm overweight. (Technically still obese, but even at goal, I'll be classified as overweight by the idiotic BMI scale) But I know how far I've come. This morning's weigh-in was 263.6. WAY better than 300.

So while there is another obstacle to overcome, I have planned for it, and I will overcome.

 -Silas

Ups and downs over a weekend

There was a lot of good and bad about this past weekend. While it all ended up quite well, it did show me how much I still have to work on things, most especially my relationship with food.

 To start off: official weigh-in was 264.6. Making 35.4 pounds down since February 22, and a total of exactly 70 pounds down since my highest ever weight. It is also 4.4 pounds down since last week's official weigh-in.

 The bad? Well, a couple of months ago, our kids brought home a fund-raiser from school. It was tubs of cookie dough. Basically, all weekend long there were cookies in my house. THAT REALLY SUCKED, as I appear to really love cookies. Somehow, they magically found their way into my mouth...

 OK, all joking aside, I did make the choice, every single time, to eat the cookies. I didn't gorge. I didn't binge. But I also ate more than I know that I should.

 And really, I did well, all things considered. I ended the weekend with a calorie deficit for each day - 2,124 calorie deficit on Friday, 2,713 deficit on Saturday, and 1,568 deficit on Sunday. But it could, and SHOULD have been better.

 Why am I freaking out over some cookies? Because it's not just the cookies. It's the indication of the larger issue that I have with food - I know where I go when I allow myself to cheat without accountability. And that place is not pretty.

 That place is stopping at the grocery store in the morning, picking up three donuts, two bags of chips (well, one is pretzels, and those are healthy, RIGHT???), 4-5 20 oz bottles of full-sugar soda, and something sweet to much on after "breakfast." For lunch, it's chinese food. Or a burger and fries. Or...

 You see where that place is? I can go on. I know I have issues with food. I really do. I just don't want to go there. The ONLY way to keep myself from that place is to stay accountable right now - each and every day, and when weekends with too many cookies happen, I have to ratchet up the guards for the next few days, make correct and purposeful choices again, and get right back on track. IMMEDIATELY. So here I am. 

What really kind of saved this weekend was strapping my 35 pound toddler to my back (we've got a backpack built for carrying small children) and hiking around my neighborhood. I did 3 miles or so on Thursday, a mile on Friday, 4 and a half on Saturday, and three more on Sunday. All walking, but it was good. Yesterday's calorie deficit would have been significantly smaller had I not burned those 500 calories during that hour.

 Also, we bought a trampoline on Saturday. Putting that dang thing together took three hours, and you take more steps than you'd expect when assembling one of those. Add to that mowing the lawn in the heat, and the deficit was big, even with the cookies.

 Anyway, Friday's obstacle course at work was just fine. It turns out the big obstacle was at home. It did slow me a little, but I'm not in this race to beat anyone - just to get to the destination.

 And more than ever, that destination is in sight.

 -Silas

Obstacle course

Today should be interesting. We're having a different kind of day at work. Over the past 24 hours, anyone who was interested has created a team and worked on a small project - something that they thought might be useful for the company. Well, of COURSE they are going to have to bring in crappy food.

It's so funny how there are two diametrically opposed forces in the company - one that keeps wanting to bring in really bad things to eat, and the other side that does things like pay for a subscription to a website that helps to keep track of my calories.

Anyway, it's interesting, because yesterday, for the first time in a few weeks now, I sort of wanted to hang the whole weight loss thing up. Not go nuts and eat everything in sight, but to just stop paying attention to what I was eating. Yep, the cravings have returned.

I did well - I kept to what I wanted to eat, but in thinking about what I was craving, it really did occur to me how fast empty calories can really add up.

So yes, there are obstacles put up all over the place today, but I can overcome them. I am stronger than a craving, I am more than just a receptacle for food.

What makes it all worth it is that I am now wearing shorts that are two sizes smaller than when I started two months ago. And the pants that were two sizes larger did not fit back then - they were too small.

Hard? Yes. Worth it? I'd say so.

-Silas

Thank goodness for bleu cheese.

That vile substance kept me from eating cafeteria food this afternoon. It was befouling the potatoes.

Last night I strapped my three-and-a-half-year-old son to my back (in a backpack carrier) and basically hiked around my neighborhood for about three and a half miles. He's a skinny kid, so he only weighs about 35 pounds. It hit me about half an hour into the walk, just chatting with my son about every little thing on his mind, that he weighs about what I have lost.

Kinda eye-opening.

So needless to say I hit my calorie burn yesterday.

I ended up burning 3,876 calories, and I had consumed 1,447. Total deficit for the say of 2,429 calories. My average for the month of April is 2,175 calories.

I like information.

-Silas

A new low.

Total down since February 22: 33.9

It's interesting...I've been going up and down between the mid 280s and mid 290s for so long - probably two or three years now. I even had a stint all the way up over 310, I think. Finally getting back down to 266.1 is exhilarating.

My highest of the highs was 336.4. That means that I'm officially back down over 70 pounds from that. Quite excited about that.

All the work is paying off. All of the times that I am NOT eating that candy bar, NOT doing the donuts with co-workers, NOT overeating when we finally order pizza...

It's paying off. Woo!

-Silas

One more day closer...

Currently there are 55 days left until the our trip, and I'm doing well. Last week's official weigh-in was 269, but this morning I was at 267.4, which was even further down from the lowest last week. This is a good thing.

My knee is feeling rather good this morning. It has all weekend long. I think I'll strap my knee braces on (the kind that are supposed to keep your kneecap in place) and try a SHORT run this evening. My daughter wants to do it as well, so I'm going to attempt it.

I'm still going to the doc's office next week, but since it's doing well, I'm going to try to see if I can ease back into some good exercise.

Part of my problem is that I know that I usually push myself too hard. I need to stop that, and just keep to the slow, easy, short runs until I can get things worked out.

So - according to my spreadsheet, I'm right on track for being at about 235 or so when I get on the plane. I can SERIOUSLY handle that.

I've been thinking more and more about the actual trip, as well. I am not going to try to lose weight in Hawaii. I just am not. But I am also hoping not to gain a ton. And while I do intend to eat some good food, I am becoming more and more certain that I will be different on vacation than I would have.

For instance - I really do not think that I am going to drink any calories. In the past, I would have gone for shakes/smoothies/soda/etc. (I'm a teetotaler, so no alcohol either way...) But it's coming to the point where such things just aren't worth it. I am going to try to embody the phrase that I've always liked to say - I can eat anything that I want to, just not everything.

We'll see how the mindset is there in Hawaii, but it's looking good for now. What I want to come back to is no more than 30 pounds until goal. If I can keep from gaining more than 5 pounds on the trip, I will be right where I want to be.

With all of the walking/hiking/swimming/snorkeling I intend to do, I think I will be fine.

-Silas

That awkward moment...

...when you get to the Doctor's office, even a little early, and the receptionist tells you that you are a week early...

DO'H!

So the doctor's office didn't happen yesterday. Silver lining? I get to lose a little more weight before they weigh me!

The knee is actually doing significantly better than it was. I was wearing a knee brace that keeps the kneecap in place, but in retrospect, I think it is meant to be worn only during exercise, and not all the time. I think it made the swelling and pain worse.

I'm still quite worried about it, so I have made an appointment with an orthopedic specialist. It's in two weeks. Until then, I'm going to take running out of the lineup. I think (with how it's feeling right now) that I will continue to walk, because it doesn't pound the knees. And I'm going to get back into the lap pool as well. That should give me enough exercise to keep doing well.

The bummer is the couch to 5K with my daughter - that has completely stalled out. I will have to find something else to do with her. She might like swimming laps! I'll ask.

Total calorie deficit since the end of February: 108,381.

-Silas