Week 2 Weigh-In January 26, 2006
Posted by The Veteran Dieter in Progress Report.3 comments
Four more pounds gone!
For those of you playing along at home, that brings the total to eight pounds!
The Biggest Loser Exercise DVD January 24, 2006
Posted by The Veteran Dieter in Exercise.add a comment
…kicked my ASS this morning! I stumbled out of bed at the ungodly time of 5:30 am, ate a banana, drank about 16 ounces of water, and proceeded to torture myself for 30 minutes.
Well, it wasn’t that bad. I do believe, however, that I need to take in a bit more protein and water before starting morning routines. I felt a little shaky, as if I were dehydrated or my blood sugar was low.
And I did the LOW-intensity workout! 
I’m afraid to see what the high-intensity workout is. I didn’t complete the whole cardio part because I think I pushed to hard at the beginning. I skipped to the cool-down after 20 minutes.
I still plan on doing my yoga DVD when I get home, which is 60 minutes long, and according to SelfDietClub.com, 60 mintues of gentle yoga burns 350 calories for someone of my weight.
I think tomorrow I’ll try my “Walk Away the Pounds DVD.” I think that one might be a bit easier on me. We’ll see. 
What I Turned Down This Week January 20, 2006
Posted by The Veteran Dieter in Food.2 comments
…a piece of birthday cake
…an offer to choose a piece of candy from a coworkers candy dish
…a chocolate-covered peanut butter candy
…a whole spread of munchie foods at a baby shower — including sausage balls, cake, cocktail weenies, chips and dip and other assorted rich foods
And I didn’t agonize over this either. I flat out said no and kept right on going. I knew that if I ate something, it would have to go on my food diary, and I didn’t want to know how many calories it would add.
Now, tonight I did splurge with Mexican, but I’m not feeling guilty about it. I didn’t do it as a reward for being good.
Tomorrow, I add the exercise routine. 
Quickie Progress Report January 19, 2006
Posted by The Veteran Dieter in Progress Report.2 comments
Just to let you know…
FOUR POUNDS GONE!
I’ll update more later! 
Day One: So How Did I Do? January 16, 2006
Posted by The Veteran Dieter in Progress Report.add a comment
So here’s my food diary for the day. With items that I made or items that aren’t on their list, I entered them in by hand. I actually went and computed the totals for my homemade chili because I just felt what they gave didn’t an accurate total. I was 100+ calories over their recommended average of 1374. That third chicken strip and the honey mustard dip were what did it. I could have gotten by with just two pieces and used less dip, but I’m still within the 1259-1499 calorie range that they recommend.
And here’s what else is cool about SelfDietClub.com — these breakdowns:
It’s like Quicken for losing weight! 
Some of these photos will be cut off, but you get the idea.
Now, the nutritional computations aren’t going to be totally accurate, because they don’t know what vitamins/minerals are the items I entered in myself. But, I also take a women’s multivitamin every morning, so that just adds to all those numbers as well.
Anyhoo, that was my day. I didn’t go hungry. I ate a tiny piece of chocolate during the afternoon and it was totally enough to satisfy me. All in all, a day worthy of a pat on the back!
Temptation Is Everywhere January 16, 2006
Posted by The Veteran Dieter in Temptations.add a comment
All morning long, something in the area of my desk at work smells like cotton candy! Good grief! How am I supposed to stay away from sweets? 
Must be strong… must be strong…
On Your Mark, Get Set… January 15, 2006
Posted by The Veteran Dieter in Planning.add a comment
Okay, I went to the grocery store today and stocked up on some veggies for stir-fry and some fruit for snacks. Then I came home and made a huge pot of my three-bean chili and a dozen cornbread muffins. I also took a container of vegetable soup from the freezer and put it in the fridge to thaw.
So between the chili beans and the soup, I’m all set for lunch this week. There will be no need to eat out, and these dishes are filling, lean and healthy.
We’ll see how it goes. I’ll keep ya posted.
Getting Motivated January 13, 2006
Posted by The Veteran Dieter in Weighted Issues.add a comment
At my therapy appointment Monday, I told my therapist about my joining the Self Diet Club Web site. I told her all the cool things it did. Then I told her all I needed to do was to start using it. Because I haven’t done that yet.
She told me that this stall is evidence of a mental block that’s still lodged in my brain that keeps me from actually DOING something and that I’m going to have to figure this out.
I told her straight out that I believe my block is the fact that I HATE the Long Haul. I know this change has got to be for good, and I’ve struggled so much before that I dread the thought of struggling again. I’m not a patient person. I want to see results immediately. It’s hard for me to realize that I didn’t get this big over the course of one day, one week, one year — hell, even a whole decade — so the struggle will always be there. Sometimes that makes me think, “Why bother?”
But one of my friends at work put things in a different light this morning. She’s lost 72 pounds since January 2005. It’s amazing the difference. I’m so excited for her; I really am. And she did it the old-fashioned way with good eating habits and good exercise — no fancy diets, no nutritional supplements, no prescription medication.
We talked this morning about exercise, and I told her that I bought two exercise DVDs from Amazon yesterday — The Biggest Loser routine DVD (the guy trainer, not the woman) and this Walk Away the Pounds DVD set (Her name is Leslie something). Anyway, I got around to explaining my dilemma, and she said that looking back on it now, she knew she just had to do something.
“I know that if I had not started last January, I would probably be another 20 pounds heavier.”
That’s what hit me. The thought crossed my mind that if I don’t do anything this year, I will be heavier when next January rolls around, because I have been gaining between five and ten pounds a year.
On the plus side, I have done pretty good this week. I haven’t had any French fries, which are a HUGE weakness of mine. I’ve had yogurt at breakfast, soup for lunch and small meals at dinner. Snacks have been either yogurt or nuts. Tonight was my first real splurge of the week — dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant.
So, I feel pretty good about things right now. Those DVDs should be here midweek next week, and I plan on putting those to use!
I’m a Member of the Self Diet Club January 1, 2006
Posted by The Veteran Dieter in Cool Tools.10 comments
I have a subscription to Self magazine, and last year they started a diet club Web site. I was all excited, so I logged on to the site and found that it wasn’t compatible for Mac. Bummer So I sent a little note to Self politely saying, “WTF? You think Mac users don’t need to lose weight?”
Well, perhaps it wasn’t that nasty. I think it was something to the effect of “I’d love to use this weight loss tool, but I have a Mac, and I was wondering how long it would be before you got this site compatible for Mac users.” I got this equally polite letter saying that I would be contacted when the site was compatible for me.
Fast forward at least nine months to last week, when I got that e-mail saying that Safari or Firefox users could not access the Self Diet Club. About freakin’ time! I had totally forgot about it!
So I’ve been to the site and signed up, and I have to say, it’s really cool. You create a profile with your age, height, current weight, goal weight etc., and the site calculates how many calories you should shoot for each day in order to lose two pounds a week.
It has a Meal Planner tool which allows you to choose foods you want to eat from a list, and it configures how much of chosen foods you can eat to meet your daily calorie allotment. Then you can print out a shopping list to take with you to the grocery store. Way cool, in my opinion.
You can enter everything you’ve eaten for the day in the Food Log to see how many calories you’ve taken in, and enter your physical activity you’ve done in the Exercise Log to see how many calories you’ve burned. Another “way cool.”
Track your progress with a line graph that will hopefully go lower and lower, and a community board area helps you find support and encouragement with fellow participants.
The drawback would be that it is for Self subscription holders only, but the magazine is a good one, and it’s rather inexpensive to get. Guys, however, might feel a little emasculated reading it.
