Well, bye bye June, I'll remember as the month when the weather started to suck.
I should have said something about Sunday. On the way back from showing my buyers, I drove north on Buford Highway, a 2-lanes-each-side stretch of road that goes from the retail heart of Atlanta to the 'burbs of Buford some 25 or so miles north. I live of a street at about the mid-point. Because Buford Highway runs pretty directly north-south, there are a lot of streets that cross and intersect with it. One such thoroughfare is Pleasant Hill Road, which is about 2 miles south of my neighborhood. The way that you get from Buford Highway to Pleasant Hill is by way of a little cloverleaf/spaghetti junction affair.
Got that little geography in your head? Good. So...I'm driving north and I'm in the slow lane, which is also the exit lane for the cloverleaf, and out of nowhere, an SUV with California plates drives past me and cuts me off, making a sharp turn onto the Pleasant Hill off-ramp at the last moment. Thing is this: the tag on the SUV was a vanity plate that read "DENNIS Q".
Think for a moment, and name me three people you know whose first name is Dennis, and whose last name begins with Q.
Thought about it? Can you think of more than one? Me neither. And so I have concluded that I was cut off, by a swerving, veering, Dennis Quaid.
This crazy Dennis, one presumes, and not:
This Dennis "normal" looking Dennis, who is apparently playing the worlds two tinest violins for me and my lack of progress towards 230lbs.
So, that was an uncontrived segue, huh?
I weighed myself before dinner tonight, and I was thrilled when the scale read 230.1lbs. An hour ago all the good food and wine had put me back to 233lbs. Which is why Dennis is playing the tiny violins.
For those interested enough, breakfast was a chicken salad sandwich, lunch was chicken salad and dinner was...
...actually, raise your hand if you know what Rotolo is...
No wait, your pants are on fire...
Rotolo is an Italian dish that blends, in this case, a sauce made with zucchini (courgettes) and bacon (or prosciutto), with spaghetti.
You make the pasta and the sauce and then lump them into the same pot and stir them together, then you get a giant fork (we used a meat themometer fork), and you twist it in the spaghetti mixture to make a ball, like wool.
Then you drop the wooly spaghetti onto a plate and consume it. It was good, and no one was more surprised than me, when I finished a food that includes zucchini. Then I had a yogurt and a couple of brownies. Then I weighed myself with the aforementioned distressing results.
Still haven't had my daily walk, but I'm not hopeful that it will shed 3lbs for me.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Day 4 - June 29th
I'm going to write this before I go out walking tonight, just because I'm only watching TV and when I get back from my walk I don't know that I'll have the motivation to do it.
Today was a pretty full day, by my usual standards. I kept up with a couple of clients, painted the home office so I can move into it in a few days, moved all my junk out of the office at work, which is now almost deserted. Oh, and I got the last prize bubble in LittleBig Planet. That's probably my greatest achievement today.
As for food...well, any of you who work from home will know that it's just so hard to get off the couch and make something, so for lunch I had some grapes, a pot of yogurt, and some honey roasted peanuts - healthy, huh?
When I got to the office there was pizza. There's something almost sinful about eating pizza that someone else ordered, makes it all the more delicious. Twice as delicious when you eat two slices.
Thinking ahead (for once), I made chicken salad so I don't have to think about lunch tomorrow, and Jen made pasta with tomato, prosciutto and feta. It's nice to eat real food while I'm trying to lose weight.
We're watching American Gothic, which I only vaguely remember from when it originally aired back in the mid-90s. Mostly it stands up to re-watching without looking too dated, but sometimes...well, not so much. Everyone looks much much younger, but then I suppose I would, too.
So I've eaten a couple of brownies and downed a glass of milk over the course of tonight's two episodes. I haven't stepped on a scale today, and I'm not sure I'm going to. That's something that can just wait till another day.
I'm feeling like this has been easy so far, but I don't know if I've lost a single ounce, and I haven't taken a walk this evening - so I'd best do that.
Today was a pretty full day, by my usual standards. I kept up with a couple of clients, painted the home office so I can move into it in a few days, moved all my junk out of the office at work, which is now almost deserted. Oh, and I got the last prize bubble in LittleBig Planet. That's probably my greatest achievement today.
As for food...well, any of you who work from home will know that it's just so hard to get off the couch and make something, so for lunch I had some grapes, a pot of yogurt, and some honey roasted peanuts - healthy, huh?
When I got to the office there was pizza. There's something almost sinful about eating pizza that someone else ordered, makes it all the more delicious. Twice as delicious when you eat two slices.
Thinking ahead (for once), I made chicken salad so I don't have to think about lunch tomorrow, and Jen made pasta with tomato, prosciutto and feta. It's nice to eat real food while I'm trying to lose weight.
We're watching American Gothic, which I only vaguely remember from when it originally aired back in the mid-90s. Mostly it stands up to re-watching without looking too dated, but sometimes...well, not so much. Everyone looks much much younger, but then I suppose I would, too.
So I've eaten a couple of brownies and downed a glass of milk over the course of tonight's two episodes. I haven't stepped on a scale today, and I'm not sure I'm going to. That's something that can just wait till another day.
I'm feeling like this has been easy so far, but I don't know if I've lost a single ounce, and I haven't taken a walk this evening - so I'd best do that.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Day 3 - June 28th
In case anyone is wondering why there isn't a daily update of my weight and the appropriate celebration/mourning of the weight I've lost/gained, it's because that kind of reporting is tedious for you guys, and is also unhelpful to me. For the last year my weight has been in the 232-238lb range. My immediate goal is to get under 230lbs and stay there, then we'll see what's next. Rest assured, skinny people, that when I do get under 230lbs, I will let you know. :)
It was, and let me not understate this, effing awesome to sleep in my own bed last night, with the fan on and the A/C running. If you've never been to Georgia, it's hard to convey how oppressively hot and humid it is. Let this screenprint from AccuWeather.com illustrate for you:
And yes, that's the temperature and humidity at 11:59pm, as I'm typing this.
Last night was some good sleep.
And I needed it because I was showing houses today for a few hours, which I stupidly did on no breakfast, and wound up eating mints to feel less like I'm starving myself. Surprisingly it worked, more or less.
At home, a BLT with cheese sandwich was lunch.
In the afternoon Jen and I figured out what paint colors to put on the walls of my home-office. That's been pretty big news: my brokerage is down-sizing it's offices and asking all the agents to work from home - that means that I need to have a functional office in the house 100% of the time, which I really haven't had till now. I'll take pictures when it's done so you can ooh and aaah.
Anyway, we really didn't get much more than laundry done (you know those days), and then ate scrambled eggs with onion, tomato and cheese for dinner, before playing LittleBig Planet with a couple of friends. I used up the last of the brownie dough that I made a couple of days ago and restrained myself - I only ate two of them.
We rounded the day out by walking the dog for half an hour - I think that Murphy enjoys the exercise less than I do.
ANyhow
I'm feeling like this is achievable. Not soon, but not too far off, either.
It was, and let me not understate this, effing awesome to sleep in my own bed last night, with the fan on and the A/C running. If you've never been to Georgia, it's hard to convey how oppressively hot and humid it is. Let this screenprint from AccuWeather.com illustrate for you:
And yes, that's the temperature and humidity at 11:59pm, as I'm typing this.
Last night was some good sleep.
And I needed it because I was showing houses today for a few hours, which I stupidly did on no breakfast, and wound up eating mints to feel less like I'm starving myself. Surprisingly it worked, more or less.
At home, a BLT with cheese sandwich was lunch.
In the afternoon Jen and I figured out what paint colors to put on the walls of my home-office. That's been pretty big news: my brokerage is down-sizing it's offices and asking all the agents to work from home - that means that I need to have a functional office in the house 100% of the time, which I really haven't had till now. I'll take pictures when it's done so you can ooh and aaah.
Anyway, we really didn't get much more than laundry done (you know those days), and then ate scrambled eggs with onion, tomato and cheese for dinner, before playing LittleBig Planet with a couple of friends. I used up the last of the brownie dough that I made a couple of days ago and restrained myself - I only ate two of them.
We rounded the day out by walking the dog for half an hour - I think that Murphy enjoys the exercise less than I do.
ANyhow
I'm feeling like this is achievable. Not soon, but not too far off, either.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Day 2 - June 27th
So I got very little sleep last night - the bed at the lake is very soft, and it has a pillow-top - for those of you unfamiliar with the concept, it's like a 2inch thick pad on top of the mattress. Anyway, between the soft mattress, the lack of air conditioning and the over-80-degree temperatures we had, I didn't get to sleep till after 2am, and then I was awake again around 4am and 7am. I even tried taking a shower, but those of you who remember the showers in M*A*S*H will have a good idea what the shower at the lake is like. All in all not a good night.
I have clients tomorrow, and so our choice was either a) stay the night at the lake and then run around like a crazy person making sure I get home to meet my buyers; or b) come home tonight, sleep in my own bed, with aircon and a fan going. Can you guess which choice won, boys and girls?
To throw another hurdle in my own way, my food today was: 2 scrabled eggs, one sausage patty and an english muffin with butter (please, English people, don't ask me about this, I think it's as odd as you do). Lunch was guacamole and chips while I worked on the gumbo we ate for dinner with cornbread and a salad made using tomatoes grown from our garden. I ate the last two table spoons of chicken salad, and a slice of cheddar sourdough bread, and just finished a yogurt.
It's not so much the food, I think, as the lack of exercise. My exercise today consisted of walking around the supermarket, which hardly counts, and cleaning out the car in 95degree heat. And while that made me sweat a lot, I can't record any weight loss yet.
Tomorrow I'll be showing houses till lunch time, and then probably picking a paint color for the office, whoch will become my permanent, full-time workplace from Tuesday afternoon. So I have some stuff to do.
Right now I'm feeling tired, but that's probably lack of sleep. Oh well, back at it in the morning.
I have clients tomorrow, and so our choice was either a) stay the night at the lake and then run around like a crazy person making sure I get home to meet my buyers; or b) come home tonight, sleep in my own bed, with aircon and a fan going. Can you guess which choice won, boys and girls?
To throw another hurdle in my own way, my food today was: 2 scrabled eggs, one sausage patty and an english muffin with butter (please, English people, don't ask me about this, I think it's as odd as you do). Lunch was guacamole and chips while I worked on the gumbo we ate for dinner with cornbread and a salad made using tomatoes grown from our garden. I ate the last two table spoons of chicken salad, and a slice of cheddar sourdough bread, and just finished a yogurt.
It's not so much the food, I think, as the lack of exercise. My exercise today consisted of walking around the supermarket, which hardly counts, and cleaning out the car in 95degree heat. And while that made me sweat a lot, I can't record any weight loss yet.
Tomorrow I'll be showing houses till lunch time, and then probably picking a paint color for the office, whoch will become my permanent, full-time workplace from Tuesday afternoon. So I have some stuff to do.
Right now I'm feeling tired, but that's probably lack of sleep. Oh well, back at it in the morning.
Friday, June 26, 2009
June 26th - Day 1
Weight (lbs): 236.4
So day one of the Great Loss began with the promise of some exercise in the form of helping our good friend Meg to pack up and move house.
The drive is a little less than an hour and a half, and we had whole grain toast and home made chicken salad for breakfast. Hitting the road a little later than planned, we arrived a little before eleven - in time for lunch, which was BBQ pork from Bar H. This was not how I had planned to lose weight, so I ate until I wasn't hungry, but less than full.
The next two hours were all about moving boxes and furniture into the living room of Meg's house, where the truck, when it arrived, would be loaded from. By 2pm we couldn't realisticlly fit anything else into the living room, and so we slowed our activity and waited for the moving truck. And waited. And waited. I don't know how poor Meg wasn't more frustrated than she was showing, because I'm pretty sure she'd have liked to get the boxes into the truck, which didn't arrive until after 6pm.
Once the truck was in position to be loaded we...went out for dinner at Siblings in Hartwell, where I ate Bacon-Wrapped Chicken in a Bourbon Glaze, a large baked potato and some green beans. It was, as you might imagine, fantastic. Feeling quite full of delicious food, I declined dessert, and we headed back to Meg's.
By now it was getting dark and there was no way we'd get all the boxes into the truck tonight, so we called it good and got in the car to come to the Lake, where I'm sitting writing this.
Tomorrow we will be picking blackberries and probably washing the car. Sunday is our day to head home because I have clients who want to look at houses. We'll see how things go, then.
I am feeling: Like I didn't make any progress today. :(
So day one of the Great Loss began with the promise of some exercise in the form of helping our good friend Meg to pack up and move house.
The drive is a little less than an hour and a half, and we had whole grain toast and home made chicken salad for breakfast. Hitting the road a little later than planned, we arrived a little before eleven - in time for lunch, which was BBQ pork from Bar H. This was not how I had planned to lose weight, so I ate until I wasn't hungry, but less than full.
The next two hours were all about moving boxes and furniture into the living room of Meg's house, where the truck, when it arrived, would be loaded from. By 2pm we couldn't realisticlly fit anything else into the living room, and so we slowed our activity and waited for the moving truck. And waited. And waited. I don't know how poor Meg wasn't more frustrated than she was showing, because I'm pretty sure she'd have liked to get the boxes into the truck, which didn't arrive until after 6pm.
Once the truck was in position to be loaded we...went out for dinner at Siblings in Hartwell, where I ate Bacon-Wrapped Chicken in a Bourbon Glaze, a large baked potato and some green beans. It was, as you might imagine, fantastic. Feeling quite full of delicious food, I declined dessert, and we headed back to Meg's.
By now it was getting dark and there was no way we'd get all the boxes into the truck tonight, so we called it good and got in the car to come to the Lake, where I'm sitting writing this.
Tomorrow we will be picking blackberries and probably washing the car. Sunday is our day to head home because I have clients who want to look at houses. We'll see how things go, then.
I am feeling: Like I didn't make any progress today. :(
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Day 0 - June 25th
Okay, so Diet-Eve is here.
The plan is simple.
The plan is this:
Eat healthier, and healthier portions (which means smaller).
Exercise
The exercise will be doing yoga 5x a week and walking or running every day. That's the drill till we go pick up a puppy for Jen's grandmother on July 8th.
From the 9th, the goal is to do cardio/strength workouts and continue the walking/running. Keep doing that for a month, until Jen's birthday, then reassess.
The first weigh-in will be tomorrow. After that I will post my weight, food consumption and exercise every day.
If you're not morbidly interested in this, it will, most likely, bore the crap out of you. But I think that writing this stuff will keep me focused.
Now, just one last brownie - after all, it starts tomorrow, right?
The plan is simple.
The plan is this:
Eat healthier, and healthier portions (which means smaller).
Exercise
The exercise will be doing yoga 5x a week and walking or running every day. That's the drill till we go pick up a puppy for Jen's grandmother on July 8th.
From the 9th, the goal is to do cardio/strength workouts and continue the walking/running. Keep doing that for a month, until Jen's birthday, then reassess.
The first weigh-in will be tomorrow. After that I will post my weight, food consumption and exercise every day.
If you're not morbidly interested in this, it will, most likely, bore the crap out of you. But I think that writing this stuff will keep me focused.
Now, just one last brownie - after all, it starts tomorrow, right?