Derrick's ongoing journey

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Yeah, I have a lot of their nutritional info memorized. LOL Ironically Panera is partly responsible for both my weight gain over the years and my weight loss over the past year. BTW, I am still here. Just got done organizing financials and now I'm checking email and WLF one more time before I head out.

From 2003 through early 2008 I would eat breakfast here everyday. I would have a large coffee everyday...and...either a cinnamon chip scone, a cinnamon roll, a blueberry muffin or a cinnamon crunch bagel with hazel nut cream cheese. Each and every one of those are over 500 calories and 20 grams of fat or more. Then at lunch I would have a you-pick-two consisting of an Italian Combo and Cream of Chicken & Wild Rice in a Bread Bowl, a large soda and a chocolate chipper cookie. That meal was well over 1500 calories if not close to 2000, maybe even more.

Now they are partly responsible for my weight loss because it has been a place of refuge for me. After my morning workouts I come here and do some work on my laptop. I still eat here too but I stick to their healthier items now and rarely allow myself a high calorie meal here. Every once in a while I do but not very often. When I get to a weight I want to maintain, I will eat here on my cheat day each week and maybe allow myself to eat like old times on just that day.
 
Derrick said:
So I just got off the scale a little over an hour ago and...

:willy_nilly: 193.0 :willy_nilly:

So after reaching 194.0 on April 3rd and then slowly creeping up over the next two months to a high of 200.5 just two weeks ago I have FINALLY reached a new low. Gosh darn the 190's are so dang hard for me to conquer. But I feel like I'm finally on my way to the 180's. :gnorsi:

Hey Melissa, I am at STL Bread Co right now. I just made sure the Power Sandwhich is in fact on wholegrain and it is. However, they told me there are two types of cafes across all the Paneras in the country, a traditional and a artisan. The ones I go to have the artisan cafe. Yours may be traditional. I'm not sure how they determine which locations get what. Either way, Panera is gooooood. Lots of calories though with almost everything they make. I now limit myself to Power Sandwhich, Steel Cut Oats, Chicken Noodle Soup and the Smoked Turkey Breast on Sourdough.

I plan on working out this afternoon. Today is legs.

Derrick
Click to expand...

AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! The pressure is ONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!


congrats though!!!! whoo whoo!!!:hurray: great news for ya! happy to hear you made it AND some!


I have been so stressed and running around like an idiot lately... hopefully i see some good news on the scale tonight....:willy_nilly:
 
Ha! Congrats on the new low!

This Panera thing sounds good.. we don't have that here in Utah, but we have a Paradise Bakery, which sounds a lot like it....
 
I did NOT work out last night. I was very sore and tired. I did eat well though. I worked out this morning but I was extremely fatigued. I am not sure but it could be this new medicine I tried last night to help me sleep. I did sleep well but I was too lathargic this morning so I may pitch the rest of the pills if they continue to have this effect on me. I have ate well today so far but I am going to some red carpet event tonight with my wife and there will be lots of alcohol and appetizers so I am a little concerned about that.

I weighed 193.5 this morning. Hoping for 192.0 some time next week.
 
So last night was a lot of fun. It was a red carpet event with a live auction, a silent auction, gambling, dancing, drinking, ouerderves (sp?) and there were a lot of wealthy people including celebrities. It was at a fancy dealership with Lamborghini's, Lotus', Ferari's, etc. My wife and I got to go because my dad's company bought a bunch of tickets from Roland Williams, a retired NFL football player who won a superbowl with the Rams in 2000. He has a charity for underpriveledged youth and the money raised helps send them to summer camps where they get to learn academics and sports, in particular football.

The funniest part of the night was I brought my nice camera and ended up getting a media pass from one of the greeters out front. Every one I knew there was like, "how the heck did you get a media pass?!?" Every once in a while strangers would come up to me and ask me to take their photo. I was like sure, you can see the photos on our website on Monday. :biggrinjester: Just kidding, I didn't tell them that.

I did munch a lot on all the goodies and I probably drank 6 or 7 drinks over 5 hours. I was lucky to weigh only 194.0 this morning. My wife and I both had hangovers this morning. Luckily our daughter was at grandma's so we got to sleep in. We had a cheat breakfast at STL Bread Co and then we went and worked out.
 
that sounds like such a fun time!!! what a nice little date you had!!! :) What kind of camera do you have? ive been wanting a nice one for quite sometime!!!! :)


I am back to the gym tonight! I am excited to push it again!!!
 
The funniest part of the night was I brought my nice camera and ended up getting a media pass from one of the greeters out front. Every one I knew there was like, "how the heck did you get a media pass?!?" Every once in a while strangers would come up to me and ask me to take their photo. I was like sure, you can see the photos on our website on Monday. :biggrinjester: Just kidding, I didn't tell them that.



That is funny. You should of told them that and handed them a biz card. to your blog(well thats what I would of done : ) Thats what I do though so kind of makes sense. I have done a black tie silent auction/gala for St Judes with the rams. That was fun. Im guessing what you did was the same type of thing. The coolest thing was seeing my name on all the signage(it was a surprise from celebrate stl)I work for fair st louis live on the leeve every year and I covered the event for free so I got my name on the sponser pamplets & signs(it was worth it to me). I'll be covering fair st louis friday. I'll be backstage with counting crows so that should be fun/intresting. If you will be there look for a chubby chick with a camera in the pit in front of the stage and that would be me. lol
off topic I noticed a photo of your wife on your profile. Holy crap shes smoken too. Were you two always fit when you started dating? I ask because my hubby used to be thin..now not so much & has no motivation to change. He was thinner than me when we started dating. I dont know why everyone blows up after marriage.
 
Wait, you have a website... like a Blog? Invite me! I need to start a Blog for me and the hubs! Wow, Ferraris, drroooooollll!
 
Mel, I have a Nikon D300 DSLR camera and a Canon XL1s standard def video camera. I need to sell my video camera and get a professional high def if I want to film more weddings.

Bansheebabe, I don't have a website. I've been talking about starting a photography/videography business for years now. I need to do it or stop thinking about it. My land management job is great for giving me time to workout but not so great for making money. However, I'm not convinced my business idea is good enough to make decent money either. It could be but I'm lacking the confidence I need to go forward.

Lea, thanks for complimenting my wife. She's a really good person too. She has never been over weight but she did go through a year or two in college where she gained weight with me but not a lot. I pretty much remember our weight fluctuations through the years. We did go up and down together a few times but she never got over weight like I did. After marriage I worked my way up to obesity by most standards of measurment. I have plenty of opinions on why married people do that but I'm sure they are not unique opinions.

Maybe this entry I'll just try to summarize my weight fluctuations over the years.

I was 5'11" and 145 when I met my wife at age 17.5
I have not grown any taller since. I am pretty good with numbers but I may have to guess on some of these. They are really close though. I remember numbers even when I don't want to remember them. :banghead:
By age 18.5 I was 160
By age 19.5 I was 185
By age 20 I was up to 215
By age 21.5 I was down to 202 (1999 Body of Work contest)
By age 22 I was back up to 215
By age 22.5 I was down to 192.5 (2000 Body for Life contest)
By age 23 I was back up above 200 and climbing
I got married at age 24.5 and weighed 214
Ever since I gained 5 to 8 lbs per year until I was 251 at age 30.5
Finally, today of course, at age 31.5 I am around 193 and falling :coolgleamA:
 
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I've mentioned several times I would post my wife's Before and After photos. I wanted to show how difficult it can be to lose "the last ten." It took her a year. Did she need to lose 10 more pounds? No. Did she want to and did she work hard for it? Yes.

I do have some summer 2006 and summer 2007 photos of my wife but they don't compare well to the photos below as far as shot angle goes. She was around 145 in summer of 2006 and upper 130's in summer 2007. That's my best guess anyway.

I only posted 2008 and 2009 photos though because the previous two years of slow weight loss was simply from small changes in her diet over time. The last year is when she added resistance training and cardio to try to tone up and burn off the last bit of stubborn fat that was still bothering her.

The first photo is from May 2008, just a couple weeks before she started working out with me. She weighed about 133.
The second photo is from May 2009, after continuing to eat healthy and working out about three times per week on average for one full year. She weighed 122.

Just a week or two ago she was 121 but she is trying to hold steady around 122 or 123. She is not trying to lose weight anymore. Just trying to stay fit and eat healthy.
 
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Haven't seen any replies from my WLF buddies in a while so I will give an update.

Workouts are still going great. Diet has been C+ at best simply because of too many parties, holidays, etc. My weight lifting strength and muscle definition seems to have improved as well as my cardio stamina just in the past few weeks. So that makes me feel great. However, my weight is still fluctuating more than I would like. I am back and forth between 194 and 198 throughout the week. I have not seen below 194 this week. That is fine, I will eat really good next week and get back to 193 or below. The thing that is bothering me is my belly though. I really want to get to 36" and it has been stuck at 38" for two months now. At one point it got very close to 37" but now it has seemed to settle in at 38". I'm not defeated though. I will figure it out.

I also wanted to invite anyone looking for a challenge to join my triathlon challenge for July. Go here: http://weight-loss.fitness.com/club-challenges/32450-triathlon-challenge-july-2009-a.html
You can do either swimming, biking or running. So if you like to do any of those, perhaps you will be interested in the challenge I proposed for this month.

Finally, I am going to start recording my lowest weight of the week and also my lowest body fat % reading according to my Tanita scale. I do not believe the scale is accurate because it fluctuates too much but as long as the lowest reading goes down as the months go by, I can assume my body fat really is dropping.

So for the 1st week of July:
Lowest weight: 194.0
Lowest BF %: 15%
 
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Hey there!
Sorry I have been MIA lately.
Between all the graduations, grad parties, VBS, camping and work it just seems like I have no time to get on here.
Sigh
I joined your triathalon challenge.
Don't know that I will actually run/walk a marathon but every bit of exercise counts, right?
Okay I gotta get going......again! haha
Got a lock-in for 1st-4th graders tonight that I need to prepare for.
Busy, buys, busy
 
Hey Derrick! Just checking in after a LOOONNNG weekend... Your wife looked and does look amazing! You can tell a difference between the shots, as her legs stomach and arms look a lot more toned and rock hard! I wish I could look like that.... some day!! By the way, I definately think we last "10-20 pounds" peeps are having a hard time losing it. I'm struggling these days... You have great determination and I know you will get there!
 
Hi Dawn! Thanks for joining the challenge. You can do it! We have all month so it is not as hard as it first seems. Just challenging, that's all.

Bansheebabe, you are so right about the last 10 to 20 lbs. It does seem like a lot of us here at WLF are having a tough time with the last 10+ pounds. I keep reminding myself my wife was able to do it so I just keep on plodding. I hope it does not take me a full year to lose the last 10 but if it does, so be it. Next May, when I'm walking on the beach at 10% body fat, I won't really care how long it took. For now though, I'm going to assume if I keep working my butt off I will get there soon. :coolgleamA:
 
Well today was a lousy day. I'm sore, tired, eating too much and I lost my temper several times today. I have not done that in years perhaps. Time to toss out the medicine I have been trying since last week. Too many bad side effects present already.

I only worked out a little bit today. I did stretch for about 15 or 20 minutes so that was good as I have been very tight in my ham strings lately. But I was very low on energy and only biked for about 11 minutes. I have pain in a lot of places right now and I'm not sure what the heck is going on. I have had a headache all day, my neck has flared up again (injury from April, see posts from that time period), my right knee is hurting, my lower back is hurting and sending pain down my siatic nerve, my arms and chest are sore, my shins are sore and so are my freaking feet. I know I have not been getting good sleep so maybe I just need lots of rest and time off this week. I have also been binge eating all weekend and again today. Thankfully I have not put on any weight...yet. I need to stop the binge eating and just eat healthy and get some rest.
 
Well, today has been a lot better so far. I had a slimfast shake with whey protein at 7am. Then at 10am I had oatmeal, fruit and a coffee at STL Bread. Then I worked out at 11:20am. I swam 1250 yards, stretched a lot, kicked the bag a little, stretched some more and then jogged 2.25 miles. The swimming and jogging went well but I was really exhausted when I was kicking the bag. It really takes a lot out of you.

When I got home around 1:30 I had another slimfast and whey protein shake. I then weighed myself and the scale said 195.5. Hopefully by the end of the week I will be below 194 again, maybe even lower. I just need to make sure every meal is healthy and I do not eat junk food or binge again.
 
Wow, you sure bounce back quick! Sorry you have been so sore lately! Maybe the rest helped? I need to get back on track quick!
 
I fluctuate a lot depending on how I eat and how much I work out. This morning I did HIIT on the treadmill for 25 minutes. I have ate very well today so far.
 
Jogged 1.60 miles last night, then lifted upper body with my wife.

Swam 1000 yards at lunch today.

Feeling really tired right now.
 
Well I did jog 3.1 miles yesterday but I ate really bad all weekend and I have shin splints.

I am going to admit I need help with my diet. I am not going to lose any more weight if I keep eating like I am. It has been 13-1/2 months now since I started my weight loss journey and I am just worn out from eating the same things over and over again. Either that or these bleeping meds I am taking are causing their dreaded side effects...hunger, tiredness and weight gain. I am also losing my drive. This is why I hate anti depressants. They save one part of your life and ruin another. I am not depressed. I haven't been ever since I started my weight loss journey. I am bipolar. A mild case according to my current psychiatrist. It's hard for me to talk about because even some of my own family members do not even know. I won't tell them because some of them think people with biploar disorder are freaks. :rolleyes:

I was in a depressive state most of high school so the psychiatrist diagnosed me with depression, not biploar disorder. Ten years later I was finally diagnosed with bipolar disorder by another psychiatrist but I hated the medicine because it made me tired, overly hungry and I hardly ever had any drive or energy to do even the most simple tasks. I gained a lot of weight also. The only good thing was nothing ever bothered me back then. I stopped seeing that doctor because her secretary was one of the most abrasive and hostile persons I had ever met.

The next psyciatrist I saw diagnosed me with paranoia. I never believed him and I never liked him. He would put words in my mouth and say "that's what I am hearing you say." I could never understand him either due to a very strong foreign accent. I finally told him I was done with him, the meds and psychiatrists in general. I told him I was going to try getting mentally healthy by first getting physcially healthy. His exact words were "You can do what you want but you'll be back in less than a year." That was 16 months ago so I guess I held out longer than he anticipated because I did not go back until a month ago. Not to him though. :D

Good diet and exercise was working great and I had never been better in so many areas of my life with the exception of hypersensitivity to many noises (dogs barking, fireworks, diesel trucks, cars with obnoxious mufflers, radios playing too loud, motorcycles, and even the #1 most unsolved pheonomena in the world called "the hum"). Thank God I do not hear "the hum" anymore but many of the other things still bother me to this day. With the exception of barking dogs and the dirt bikes at my dad's farm, most of those things do not bother other people I talk to. I have been bothered so much that I sleep with ear buds in my ears, listening to a sound track of rain all night long. I also get very worked up in the evenings when I want to relax at my home but I hear some of the noises mentioned above.

So needless to say my wife made me go see another psychiatrist about a month ago. After talking with him for about 45 minutes he said he believes without a doubt that my second pyschiatrist was correct and I have bipolar disorder. When the visit was over he asked who the doctor was. It turns out she is one of his best pupils. He told me to go back to her because they recently fired her secretary. Can you say justice? :reddevil: Unfortunatly the doctor is so popular I do not have my first appt with her until early August. So for the 7 weeks leading up to my appt with her I have been and will be "experimenting" with some mood stabilizers and calming medications. Fun fun.

I do believe the diagnosis this time but I am not sure medicine is going to work for me. I told my wife I would try the psyciatrist and medication route one last time but I would not accept the horrible side effects that often come with. So far not so good. As mentioned, I am overeating, even binge eating for the first time in a year. I am so tired during the day that I am literally falling asleep wherever I am at the time even if it is a crowded restaurant. I have less energy at many workouts. Things that should bother me do not but at the same time I have totally lost my temper several times. I have not done that in years. The positive list is short. The noises don't bother me as much but they still do more than I would like. I also sleep very well now. No more waking up a dozen plus times a night and being wound up all the time.

Well, that's all for tonight. Perhaps I'll talk about this some more another time. For now and for those of you who don't think people with bipolar are freaks, I sure could use some ideas for meals to try. ;)
 
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