Big D's Journal - Facing the Giants

Alright, I decided to go early. so this month's weigh ni net me..*drum roll* a 6 pound loss. Not that bad considering I'm been slowly incorporating better foods into my eating plan.

Recalculating this, if I can maintain that rate of loss, I'll be within relative spitting distance of my goal weight in a year.

So far, I haven't really had to deal with hunger issues much at all. Main issue is finding the time or more precisely the drive to exercise more. I've mostly blown that part of my plan so I have to work on it. I've been side tracked lately by some of my side projects. as a programmer, web designer as well as other things, like moderating other forums and administrating 2 sites in my spare time, life gets busy and its easy to get absorbed in what I'm doing until I drop. I laugh and say I'm lucky there's no games lately that have been interesting me, otherwise I'd be dead.

So.. 6 down, 94 to go. Onward and downward
 
Got bored and weighed myself again today. Wow, glad I did, I dumped off another couple of pounds somewhere.

Ok, its either that, or my scale is playing nice now that I threatened to jump up and down on it if it didn't start telling me nice things. I'm kidding, I'm a cheap ass and don't want to have to buy a new scale.

So I broke down a bit last night in a bit of hungry and lazy and got some late night McDonalds. Ok, I didn't even get halfway through the burger before I just started spitting it out. Holy jumping Christ in a french maid outfit, that crap is saltier than Satan's balls to me now.

An old friend heard about what I've been doing sent me a song for a bit of inspiration. A person I knew a while ago and since fell out of touch after she moved out of state. - said whenever they heard that song, they always thought of me. Sometimes its little boosts like that that really make your week.

"Forget you're blood and bone, stand like you're made of stone"
 
You know, in ways, I think I might come through this thing alive.

I noticed one habit changed today. To me, a major one. I got some bad news at work, the main job/client I work on here is pulling out. No fault of our own, they just don't want all their eggs in one basket. I can understand that, but at the same time, it makes me wonder of my position here is sketchy or not. In this economy, and at my pay scale, it'd be a rough time without this job.

As you can imagine, this is stress for sure.

And you know what? I didn't have that gnawing urge to see how many soft batch cookies I could eat, or drown my sorrows in pizza or whatnot. I took a walk at lunch to clear my head and just started writing a bunch of code (yeah programmer, duh). If I can keep that one thing up, I'll be ahead of the game in the long run. Emotional eating, I know I'm susceptible to it. I'm sure it's not completely gone, but I'll take damped down any day of the week.
 
I've seen an interesting trend, a lot of people talking about how they feel on the inside, from being lost down a well to buried and so o n. it's good to get those feelings out. Me, I used to think I was in hell, but really, that was my own odd self pity. whether I'm thin or fat or somewhere in between, or hell, even a head in a jar, I'm still the same Old Rich that everyone knows. I'm just getting rid of all the extra unneeded bits. It's like engineering, the machine is perfect not when there is nothing left to add, but nothing left to take away.

Had some awesome fish today. For one, I love mixing textures and flavors but also, I just love taste.

So let's see here.. Slightly modified from another recipe, so hopefully the calorie counts are close.

2 5oz cod fillets
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
2.5 tblspoons low fat mayo
1.5 tblspoons stone ground mustard
lemon zest
1 tblspoon chopped parsley
1 teaspoon dill
1 teaspoon vegetable oil

preheat oven to 400

in a pan, toast the panko with the oil. This gives a nice fried flavor with very few calories.

cool breadcrumbs, add zest, parsley and dill

separately, mix mayo and mustard and spread thinly on one side of the cod.

put cod mayo side down into the bread crumb mixture. Really cake that stuff on.

line a shallow pan with parchment paper and place fish on top

bake till flaky and done ~12 min

I had this with a cup of my famous Tomato Basil salad (look back a few pages for recipe) and pan roasted Irish new potatoes

for the fish part... ~200 cal each.
 
something interesting I found as I was playing with numbers. I'm sure they're not entirely accurate, but hey, its all in the scale.

Assume:
without walking, my calories in == calories out
1lb of fat = 3500 calories
My weight = 310 lbs
My BF Percentage = 43%
My fat = 133.3 lbs
Thus my lean mass is: 176.7
if I lost no muscle, @ 10% body fat, I'd weigh: ~194
Pounds of fat to lose: 116
I have 406,000 calories to burn

Online calculator said my 2326 steps was 210 calories.
That's 0.09 calories a step
I'd have to walk 4,511,111 to lose that 116 lbs

my walk was 1.3 miles
that's 1789 steps per mile

I'd have to walk 2521.6 miles

@ 1 mile per day = 6.90 years
@ 2 mile per day = 3.45 years
@ 3 mile per day = 2.30 years
@ 4 mile per day = 1.72 years
@ 5 mile per day = 1.38 years

Now, that's just straight numbers.

Some scale: 2521 miles
Approximate driving distance in miles from Seattle Washington to Bangor Maine is 2521 miles

Approximate driving distance in miles from Sunset Beach California to Manhattan New York is 2449 miles

The approximate distance as the crow flies from Los Angeles, CA to Honolulu, HI is 2552 miles.

The approximate round trip from my house in Oak Forest, IL to Key West, FL is 2444.4

Some scale: 406,000 Calories
2388.23 Spicy Chicken soft tacos from Taco bell @ 170 cal per
751.85 Big Macs @ 540 cal per
597.05 Whoppers w No Cheese @ 680 cal per
451.11 Foot Long Italian BMT from subway @ 900 cal per
302.98 Chicken Strip Basket, 4-piece Wild Buffalo from DQ @ 1340 cal per

How does a man move a mountain? One stone at a time.
 
This week, 3 lbs down.

I realize I've been pretty low on teh vegetables which I'm planning on addressing this week. Main change has been going out for a 1.5 mile walk daily. That seems to be moving things along much easier, and I feel better.

Problems this week? I have no idea what I did, but damn my back has been killing me. One of those "slept wrong and got a draft in it" kind of aches. Tried some stretching, some light lifting (in the past, some tiger balm then doing some rows usually got it to release) and so on but its not going away. If it stays any longer, I'll have to name it. I think I'll call it Herbie.


I'm looking forward to Tuesday, got an awesome rainbow trout fillet at the fish counter, to it's trout time! Too bad it isn't summer, or it'd be time to pull out the cedar planks and grill smoke that puppy.

Fried Trout:
1 fillet boneless, skinless rainbow trout cut into 2-3 pieces (Pan sized)
2 teaspoons soy sauce
celery salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
4 green onions, chopped

rub the soy sauce into the fillet, season with salt, pepper and sugar and set aside.

Heat a cast iron skillet medium high and add the sesame oil, count to 10, and then add the garlic, ginger and green onions. saute lightly then add the trout. Cook for about 3 minutes per side. if not browned enough, I usually put under the broiler for a minute or two for that steaming crackle.

I think I'll have this with a salad and some Irish new potatoes


Tip for you fish lovers, if you don't know already, you can really perk up the taste and freshness of your fish by defrosting it in milk.
 
Ah yes, still around, still here, still progressing.

Slipped off the wagon a bit. Haven't gained but haven't really lost either. I can tell I'm retaining water, so I'm getting my intake back up so I can get it to flush.

Just hasn't been a good couple weeks. Things have been slowing down, I've been slowing things down, and in the end, that gives me time to think, to analyze and look inward. This isn't always a good thing sometimes since I will find my faults and try to come up with solutions, even if that solution is that there isn't one yet. These things are sometimes on my mind.

If there's one thing that gets me more and more as I get along in years it's hearing that I'm one of a kind. Believe it or not, that's not a place I want to be. Maybe when I was young, it was a nice little ego stroke and it got me through the day, but as time goes on I start to witness a stark and horrifying reality that I am or at least feel like I'm unique and one of a kind, and that in itself is a very lonely lot in life.

It's difficult relating to people in anything but the barest of superficial things as it is. Knowing that the gap between where I am and where most of the rest are is widening just fuels a bigger fire within me. Thing I'm into, most others aren't, and I just can't seen to find any interest in most popular things. , nor am I uniform enough to 'belong' to any real kind of social grouping and such.

I just kind of accept that with most people, my interest in them will fade in a short period of time. They might look forward to me being around, but the feeling ends up being one way. When the conversations begin to repeat, when the outcomes are always the same or when someone else, who's more hungry for attention and more adept at getting it comes around, I know its time to move on. That distance I feel beginning to widen and then snap, my connection to that person is gone. Even after a good time later I can run into that person, and mostly see the same person, crystallized and the same.

I start to think, what the fuck, am I mental or something? The answer keeps coming back a resounding no, even when I've gone to see the professionals about it. Basically, the answer becomes I'm just very different than most, and have a very strong sense of self and no real desire to be something other than me. Some have noted that in fact, increasingly so, I find the very concept completely abhorrent. This is something I know to be true.

Time and time again, I come to terms with the knowledge that real friends and even interesting lovers will be far and in between, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

So, what does this have to do with weight loss? Well, besides venting and getting it off my chest (hey, thanks for reading this far lol), I get increasingly frustrated with people. Why the hell do people have to think so slowly? Why do I have to keep saying some of the same things over and over before people finally remember things? No, I don't expect perfection out of people, and even I need an occasional reminder but fucking Christ, when it's all the time it eats at me. I mean, they get it when I'm there, they are able to do it themselves, and a week or so later; whoomp, there it ain't!

Now, we all have things we excel at, and things we suck at, but it's hard for me to comprehend things like this on scale they happen. It literally starts draining the life and energy out of me, so I find myself returning to my old nemesis... energy drinks. Oh yeah, they're bad for me.. all the sugar, all the other stuff... and they calm me down.

It's difficult to think I've passed people up so much at these levels, honestly, I do. I'm still amazed at great personal achievement or talent, but it gets further apart the interval in which that happens. I begin to wonder if this is part of why I find it so hard to relate to people.

I remember an episode of House where he ran into a genius that was robotripping just do dumb himself down enough to be happy with people, and seriously, it looks attractive at times. ... of course, my instincts come roaring in and start to squash and suppress that thought pretty quick. Same thing with that whole sense of self deal, so just by my wiring, it takes that option out.

anyway, vent, rant.. down a pound or two and hoping for the snow to break so I can get back to walking, otherwise, it's time to start heading to the gym.

damn, I just want to pound on something.
 
Big D!!! Thinking about you!! You haven't updated me with you wild life lately! Come back come back where ever you are! ;)!!
 
Back
Top