Tough day

So I've been doing really well over the past 3 weeks at clean eating, only eating high quality, nutritious foods. Today was tough, however. I found myself craving carbs late this afternoon, and I did down some goldfish crackers and some cheese crackers as well, not the best choice. Also had to really fight the urge to eat some of the Halloween candy! I've been cruising for so long that I kind of forgot what a life long committment eating well takes.

I was listening to Howard Stern this morning. For those of you who don't know, Howard eats very well and is very consious of his health, and has been that way for 20 years. They were talking about the fact that someone had brought in cupcakes, and Howard was talking to a less healthy guy on the show. The less healthy guy made an assumption that it was "easy" for Howard to not eat the cupcakes, since he's been healthy for so long. Howard disagreed and said that it's always a struggle, and that cupcakes taste great, but he has made the decision that he's not going to eat "that shit". This made me realize that no matter how long you are healthy, you still need to have the discipline to stay the course.

Another 2 lb loss, but I've been in a holding pattern around 196 for the last 5 days, so let's hope things start going downward again.

Weight Average: 196.08 - loss of 2.12 pounds this week (10.7 lbs total)

Measurements (Losses/Gains are for the week, not total)
Neck 15- Loss of 1/8"
Chest 40.625- Gain if 1/8"
R. Bicep 14.25 - Loss of 1/4"
Gut 38 - Loss of 5/8"
Waist 38 - Loss of 1/2"
Thigh 23.875 - Loss of 1/8"

Sorry I haven't posted last week, I've been busy at work. But I'm still chugging away. I'm trying to decide whether or not to start lifting again this week or to keep letting my muscle pull heal...

Monday morning update

One goal down, seven to go!

I lost 3 pounds this week, which is great. But the measurements weren't any better than last week, when I lost 1.5 lbs. I might have lost some water from my muscles as they got used to not working out...

Weight Average: 198.2 - loss of 3.08 pounds this week (8.6 lbs total)

Measurements (Losses/Gains are for the week, not total)

Neck 15.125- Gain of 1/8"
Chest 40.5- Loss of 1/2"
R. Bicep 14.5 - Loss of 1/8"
Gut 38.625 - Loss of 3/8"
Waist 38.5 - Loss of 1/4"
Thigh 24 - Gain of 3/8"

I probably won't lift any weights this week, my neck/head still feels tender. So I'll keep with the endurance training...

Cookie Cake, are you kidding?

Look people, there is food in life that tastes good, there is food in life that tastes great, and then there is cookie cake (Mom's chicken divan is a step above, but that's it.) .

So it was my beautiful daughter's 2nd birthday party today (she actually turns 2 on Oct 26). We had a bunch of kids over to the house and my wife got a cookie cake, which is Lily's favorite. Luckily, I only had a few bites. Lily had more than a few bites, as the photographic evidence shows.

I've really started losing weight since I stopped lifting weights and concentrated on endurance training. I've cut back to 1900 calories/day instead of 2100 to compensate for not lifting.

Weighed in at 197.2 this morning, big weigh in/measure tomorrow. If I get 197.4, that would be 3 pounds this week...

Good Morning!

Weigh in today: 198.6

5 day average: 199.92

Looks like the head muscle injury has caused some weight loss! :)

Head update

My doctor emailed me back and says it sounds like I pulled a muscle in my head. The trap muscles in your neck are connected to muscles in your head. He told me to take it easy on the weights (don't strain), and put heat on it twice a day.

200.0 again today...

Ouch! (**$*)(#*#@(*&

So I'm at the gym Monday, pounding out the weights. I am on my last exercise, leg presses. I'm pushing up my last rep and POW! I get this sharp pain in my head, above and behind my left ear. It hurt like a sumbitch. But I was at the end of my workout, so no biggie. So today (Wed), I go to do my first exercise, pull-ups. I get to the 5th rep, and POW, there it is again. I have a good pain threshold, but I could NOT have this pain happen every set! So I went to the elliptical machine and did 40 low impact minutes. It seems that this pain recurs when I'm doing something high intensity.

I've emailed my doctor to ask him what the hell is going on, but it looks like I should spend at least the next week doing low impact stuff (walking, elliptical, etc).

I won't let this stop me...

Yesterday I was 200, today I was 200.2. Isn't it cruel?

Monday morning update

Boy, even though I weigh myself every day, I still look at Mondays as the milepost days, I guess b/c I measure on Mondays (No, I will NOT measure every day )

Weight Average: 201.28 - loss of 1.5 pounds this week (4.5 lbs total)

Measurements (Losses/Gains are for the week, not total)

Neck 15- Loss of 1/8"
Chest 41- Loss of 5/8"
R. Bicep 14.625 - Loss of 3/8"
Gut 39 - Loss of 5/8"
Waist 38.750 - Loss of 3/8"
Thigh 23.625 - No Change

I'm feeling that I'm getting into the groove, let's hope it continues.

Brittle

Today's Weight: 201.4 (new low)
Average Weight: 202.2
Weight Lost so far: 3.6 pounds

So one of the many reasons I'm doing this is that over the last few years, I feel like my body has become brittle. I've developed tendonitis in both shoulders (left from golf, right from racquetball), and this past January I developed a bad case of tennis elbow (again, tendonitis) from r'ball. Over the months, I got a cortizone shot in it, did physical therapy, rested, iced, and still it did not go away.

After reading Dr. Weill's book, I have to think that the crap I was eating was harmful to my body's healing process. Since I've started eating healthier, the elbow has started feeling better, even though I'm using it to help lift some heavy weights when I work out (it's really the tight grasp on the weights that isn't good for the elbow). I've got to think that I'm giving my body the ability to heal faster by eating good, clean food. I'm still nervous about getting back on the court at this point, but I'm hoping that in a month I can make a return. R'ball is great exercise and I truly enjoy it.

At 36, I shouldn't be this prone to injury, and I think that making this lifestyle change, I'll be able to avoid some problems in the future.

Some good news

Well, it's been a week since I adjusted my strategy, let's take a look at the results for the week:

Weight Average: 202.84 - loss of 2 pounds this week

Measurements (Losses/Gains are for the week, not total)

Neck 15.125 - Loss of 1/4"
Chest 41.625 - Loss of 3/8"
R. Bicep 15 - Gain of 1/2"
Gut 39.625 - Loss of 7/8"
Waist 39.125 - Loss of .5"
Thigh 23.625 - Loss of 1/8"

Feels good to finally be headed in the right direction!

Tightening up

Well, things are going better now that I'm tracking the calories with NutritionData and trying to keep to 2000/day. Last 5 days:

205
204
202.8
202.8
203.4

Off to work...

New Screen name and Goals

To make it easier on the "other" Jay and myself, my new screen name is BrotherJay. Glad I could help.

Nothing much new to report, I'm tracking calories with NutritionData and trying to keep to 2000/day. 204 this morning, not bad.

Here are my long awaited goals:

Long Term:

· Be healthy enough to enjoy my early retirement (another goal) and be able to engage in activities (golf, racquetball, etc) that I enjoy for many years.
· Be a healthy role model for my children and wife · Be happy with my body image for the first time ever.

1 Year
· 12% body fat
· Good bloodwork.

Short Term Goals

· October 22 : Under 200
· December 17: 190 lbs,
· March 3: 174 lbs, 18% body fat
· June 1 : 160 lbs, 12% body fat

I don't know about the body fat %'s yet, I may change them once I get a good idea where I am.

Now I need to figure out how to put the ST goals in a fancy pane in my blog like the rest of you!

Progress Report

OK, it has been three weeks since I started this journey, let's look at how things are going:

Weight:

Well, here are each Monday's weights: 205.8, 205.6, 205.8, 205. Yay, 1 pound! Pain in the ass.

Body Measurements

24-Sep 1-Oct
Neck 16.00 15.40
Chest 42.50 42.00
R Bicep 15.50 14.50
Gut 41.25 40.50
Waist 40.00 39.57
Thigh 24.00 23.75

So this is keeping me off the ledge, a pretty consistent loss of between .25" (Thigh) and 1" (Bicep, gee thanks!). Most important to me was the .75 loss on the Gut and the .4 loss on the waist.

I have to deduce that I'm losing fat and building muscle, but I know that I can do better. In each week, there has been at least one event where I strayed big time (dinner with friends, golf outing, birthday party). In the past, I've been able to do that and still lose weight.

For any of you that measure this way, have you seen times where your weight stays the same but your measurements go down?

So here is what I'm going to do:

1. Eat more carbs! Gasp! Shock! Everyone relax. I think I'm eating too much protein. It results in me not feeling energetic. So I'm going to add the Optimum Power Cereal to my routine for breakfast, and I'm not going to be so freaked out by adding good carbs to my diet through the day. I think my body will respond well to this, but if not, I'll scale back.

2. Tighten up the diet. Let's try a few weeks where I don't stray from my program at ALL and see how that goes.

3. Incorporate fat burning workouts. All of Berardi's workouts are weight lifting and cardio. I'm going to incorporate fat burning workouts in addition. In the past, this is how I've lost fat. Playing racquetball, jogging, walking. I can't play R'ball yet (elbow), but let's try to get a 30 minute walk in there at least 3 times a week.