Day 68-76

Net loss - 4.2, total - 64.0

This has been a long week. I know I should keep posting more regularly, but I keep putting it off. I have had some bad days (as shown on the weight chart on the right), but I am maintaining. I keep working out, and I am trying to stick to my diet.

One thing I have noticed is how hard the middle 1/3 of my workouts are now. I am running now, well slowly jogging, and using that demon elliptical machine more and more. When I use the elliptical, I will use it for 60 minutes on days I don't lift weights. When I run, I have been building up to this, I run 15 laps on the outside lane of a track. The last time I went, I ran on the straight-aways and walked on the curves. Anyway, minutes 20-40 on the elliptical or treadmill and laps 6-10 are so hard to get through. I always try to talk myself out of the extra laps/minutes, but when I get through those, I know that since I have completed 2/3, I can finish what I started.

I really appreciate all of the support I am getting and all the people reading this. I will try to post more often. And cheers to my sister, who has started her own diet and has lost 15 pounds so far. Keep going.

Nothing really exciting has been happening since last week. I drove up to LA this morning to have breakfast with my friend Aesea. Her name isn't really Aesea, but when I met her Freshman year in high school, she told me that was her real name and, young, innocent gullible me totally bought it. It was good to see her and catch up.

I am sure there is more I could say, but that is all for today. And to whoever posted the comment to my last post, you are correct.

100 Day Challenge Update

I am so sorry for the delay in posting, I have been lazy. Of the 3 things I am focused on for this diet (food, exercise and blog), the blog comes last. The past few days I have done extra workouts and have ignored this blog. Tomorrow, I will be posting a new blog and updating all the numbers and the weight loss chart.

More tomorrow, but for now, please enjoy this video:

Day 67

Today - 0.8, total - 59.8

I am officially 2/3 of the way through this diet. I am really excited about all the changes and progress I have made. Losing almost 60 pounds and becoming much more active is really amazing. I am also really happy that I have been able to inspire people. I am the last person to think that when I started this diet, it would have gone so well. I do not have a good work ethic, honestly. One of my friends from college once described me as "lazier than dirt" (surprisingly, I still talk to him). I have worked out every day, hiking, walking, lifting weights, and I even tried running (I lied about that...it is really slow jogging).

I have even inspired other people to start dieting. One of the guys I work with wanted to lose weight, so he started my diet last week. I have not seen him yet, but from talking to him, he is sticking to it and really liking it. My sister has started working out and has already lost almost 7 pounds. And I know there are people who read this blog to maintain their diets, stick to it.

33 more days to go and 40 more pounds....

Day 66

Today - 1.6, total - 59.0

I dropped a lot today, of course, that has to a lot to do with how much I dropped yesterday. It was really weird. Yesterday, I voted, early and with no line, and went to see DM. It was pretty uneventful. Afterwards, I went grocery shopping and then went home. All in all, nothing special. I made salads for the rest of the week and cooked my chicken and ate dinner (a salad). I was really bored with all the election coverage so I went to the gym again to walk for an hour. This is where it got a little weird.

I was on the treadmill for about 20 minutes when the urge to pee hit me. I tried to ignore it, but after 27 minutes, I was in pain and had to go. I went to the bathroom and I must have peed for about 1.5 minutes. I just kept going. I thought, ok, I must be empty now, I will walk for another 45 minutes. Once again, after about 25-30 minutes, I felt to the urge to pee again. I thought this was really odd as I was working out and had just peed....a lot. I held on until the end of the 45 minutes though and went back to the bathroom and peed for about another minute, if not longer. I have to say, it felt really good though. Have you ever had to pee so badly that when you finally started going, you shake because you feel so relieved? That is how I felt BOTH times. It was strange, but whatever water I was retaining was all gone.

The sensation actually reminded me of when I was in France. The summer between high school and college, I was in France for 2 weeks. I went with 3 friends from high school and we were staying just outside of Nice. It was an amazing trip. Every night, we would walk down to this bar and it seemed like every round we ordered was a shot and a beer. I was 17 and had no taste, so all the water downed beer seemed tasty. Anyway, about 2-3 times a night, I would get up to go the bathroom, slightly buzzed. The bathroom light was set on a timer, so you hit it once, and when you were done, it would turn off. This is fine, except every time I went to the bathroom, I would pee so long the light would turn off, and I would have to reach back and find the switch and hit it again all while still peeing...in the dark. And when I was done, I would be completely sober. This was very annoying, but I was young, and didn't spend too much time thinking about it, I would just order another shot. And on that note, more tomorrow.....

Day 65

Today - 0.6, total - 57.4

ELECTION DAY. I went to vote around 9.30 today convinced there would be a line. I was so stoked when I got there and walked right in, signed in, voted and left all within about 10 minutes. It has been a long time since I voted, the last time was in 2000, so it felt good to do it this time. I am curious to see what happens and who wins.

As for the diet, I finally broke through a barrier. The last time I was working out and trying to get in shape, 2005, the most I lost was 57.2 pounds. I finally broke through that number on this diet and have lost more than the 2005 diet. It is a really good feeling especially since this time it took just over 7 weeks and last time it took 19 weeks. I have been much more disciplined about the diet this time though.

This is not a long post, I know, but if you have not done it, get out there and vote.

Day 62-64

Net loss - 1.4, total - 56.8

I apologize for not posting over the weekend. My internet is still not working, thus, I cannot post from home. Halloween was ok. There was a lot of build up, then it kind of fell flat. I still dressed up though. On Saturday morning, I tried running for the first time. OK, I lied, it was more like slow jogging, but definitely faster than walking. I went to a track and walked 3/4 of a lap and then jogged the last 100 meters. I did about 10 of those and for the last 3, I walked half a lap and jogged the last 200 meters. It was not bad, but it was not great. I have never really run in my life, even when I played baseball. The total distance of the walk/run was 4 miles, so it was a good workout.

Saturday night was interesting. I went out with DM and my friend AA. For those of you who don't remember AA from a previous blog, read this before continuing. She once again confirmed her nervous farting and told more stories about it. I actually felt a little bad, because as she explained more about it (she hates meetings because she can't control her flatulence), the more me and DM laughed. DM was laughing so hard she was crying. Then it got weird. AA began to tell us, in detail, about colonoscopies. She has had 2, so she knew quite a bit about it. I don't feel it is necessary to go into detail, but let's just say, if you ever get one, get the kind were you are put under, unless you like the feeling of air blowing up your ass.

We went to Hennessey's in Laguna again, hoping to see The Creepers, who are a really good cover band. Once again, we were disappointed because there was a different band playing. They were ok. We saw some crazy stuff at the bar though. There was a guy, who either forgot Halloween was the day before and decided to dress up Saturday night as a douchebag, or really was a douchebag. It was hard to tell. It was too dark to take a pic, but I will try to describe what I saw. He was wearing torn jeans (with a huge hole in the knee), a sport coat, a dress shirt (unbuttoned to the middle of his chest and with the sleeves unbuttoned and way too long), and a lame silver chain. The best part was his hair. It was not that long, but it was greased back to his scalp and he had it pulled into the one of the smallest ponytails I have ever seen. He was an expert dancer though. In one 10 second span he went from air guitar to air drums and at the end, he even threw in some air piano. AWESOME. Oh yeah, and he was dancing with a chick who had the word "STARLET" airbrushed on the ass of her pants (we couldn't figure out the word at first, and had to stare at it for quite some time to figure out what it was). I think they got along because her hair was shorter than his, and pulled into an even smaller ponytail (which after I saw her, became the smallest ponytail I have ever seen).

Sunday was not that interesting. I had the day off, so I went to work out twice and watched a lot of football. Anyway, here are some of the pics from Halloween.

Day 60 & 61

Net loss - 1.2, total - 55.4

HAPPY HALLOWEEN. This is one of the best holidays of the year (besides my birthday and Christmas). I will be posting pics of my costume, but for now, what I will be is a secret. So I could not post last night as my Internet is not working at my house and I have to go to my friends to post (ultra annoying). But I am still here, and I am still working out. I want to thanks those of you who are still reading even after the week off.

It has been a few weeks, and I tweaked it again, so I will list my menu again. I have tried to cut out a lot more carbs again to break through a plateau, and it is working. Also, I am still trying to eat every 3 hours, but obviously, the meals are remaining pretty small. This is what I eat on a daily basis now:

Breakfast
1 banana (before I work out, this will not change)
2 eggs scrambled with onions, hot sauce, spinach and parsley (I also add 1/2 a piece of low-sodium chicken sausage (from Trader Joe's) and a slice of low-fat cheese on the the days I lift). I was adding peppers, but I found them to be too much. I really like the eggs and onions breakfast.

Snack 1
1 apple or pear
1 yogurt (it was Activia, but I switched to Dannon Light & Fit)

Lunch
Salad with lots of lettuce, spinach, parsley, broccoli, peppers (red, green and yellow), cabbage, and low sodium salad dressing spray.
3-4 oz of chicken - this I barbecue after using a no sodium marinade and then cut up and put on the salad.

Snack 2
1 low-fat string-cheese
4-5 oz of celery sticks and baby carrots (not 4-5 oz of each, 4-5 oz total)

Dinner (Snack 3), but this is not everyday,
2 turkey/lettuce wraps - 2 slices of low-sodium turkey, some spinach, mustard, 1 slice of low-fat cheese, 2 romaine leafs.

And that is all I am eating these days, as well as drinking lots and lots of water. I think I am drinking about 3 liters of water a day. I have been on this diet for 61 days now and I am wearing pants that are 3 sizes smaller (comfortably) and shirts that are 2 sizes smaller. I feel really amazing when I put on clothes now, and that makes it so much easier to maintain.

Sometimes working out is really difficult though. For example, yesterday, I was going to go the gym in the afternoon for a second workout. I came so close to talking myself out of it. Even as I was driving there, I kept thinking I could just turn around and go home and it would be ok. As I drove in the parking lot of the gym, I thought about driving through to the other side and going home. When I got out of my car, I wanted to get back in. By the time I stepped on the demon elliptical machine, I was really close to calling it a day after 2 minutes, but somehow, I stayed on. I pushed through and went the 3 miles I wanted to go and I was happy I stuck with it. The feeling of pushing yourself through a workout and getting that extra mile, that extra minute, that extra incline is pretty amazing. I feel so good when I done working out, I just have to get through that first 5 minutes.

Like I said above, my clothes are shrinking as well, so I wanted to show off. I am a nerd, I know, but I wore some new clothes yesterday and I was really proud of it, so I was telling everyone who would listen that what I was wearing was much smaller than what I was wearing before.

Me, ready for work (shirt 2 sizes smaller and pants 3 sizes smaller)...striking a pose

Really, though, you might need to see the outfit again

This is my new sweater (I have never worn a V-neck before)

and pants that I have not worn in about 3 years:

WHAT? WHERE? Is Timmy trapped in a well? Who is Timmy?

Are you sure? I didn't see anything...

Over there?

I think you might be wrong, I am going to look the other way...

I hope you have a good, scary Halloween.