Jason's Diary

Yeah, I have not updated this in a few days. Things have been going well. I have been eating healthily, but my portions have been a bit large. This week I should make my primary goal to eat standard size portions.

I should figure out something for lunch for tomorrow at work. I did not really cook anything this weekend, so there are no leftovers. Perhaps I can put together some sort of mix between Bento box and buffet. A little cottage cheese, a little pesto bread (from the store, not homemade this time), some fruit, and whatever else I have around. I am sure I can figure something out.

Have a good week, all.
 
At least you realize that you are eating more than your body really wants/needs. That is always good. Congrats on the whole eating healthy thing. That is sure difficult at times. You should update more often!
 
I just had a wonderful dinner! Tofu sandwich on marble-rye bread with pesto, a little mayo, and freshly cracked pepper. On the side was a little cottage cheese, some Triscuits, and some honeydew mellon. To drink: freshly brewed chai tea.

The tea was a wonderful find yesterday at the tea store that I do not go to often enough. They have their own chai mix that you add to sweetened condensed milk. You take a glob of that and mix into some Assam black tea. It is absolutely wonderful.

YUM!
 
Yeah, I have not been updating as I should. Things have been going well. I have not been eating too much, but I have not really been eating as well as I should. The past week or two I have not really been inspired to do anything at home or work.

Blah. I will put a real update together this weekend perhaps.
 
Okay, I was going to leave for the gym about six hours ago, but instead I woke up late and decided to dick around here for a while playing video games and perusing the net. I now have my shoes on and my gym bag ready, but I want to get this down while it is fresh in my head.

I have decided on the next step for my goals. I am going to keep the idea of getting a tattoo at 240#. I am leaning towards a , which I know has a slew of meanings, but what does not have unintended meanings nowadays? Anyway, the second level 225# and I am thinking of getting a lens for my camera. That goal is a little ways off, but the lens is about $1000 and I need some time to find that kind of spare cash.

A little off-topic, I really hope my dad is indeed getting me that 50mm lens for Christmas he has brought up a couple times about not being able to find. If he does not, I am surely going to get it myself (it is less than $90) and is a great portrait lens.

I am getting a little excited talking about this. Maybe tomorrow morning I will take my camera out for a walk somewhere if it is nice out.

Off to the gym!

-J
 
Yeah, I have been around, but have not posted much. Gym time has been sketchy and will be until after Christmas. I hope to go a bunch after that and around the beginning of the new year.

My friend that now lives in Boston is in town and we went to the gym tonight. I was on the elliptical machine for ~45 minutes and burned 800 calories by its measurement.

--Jason
 
That's quite an elliptical run! That's great you and your friend went to the gym together, and hopefully you'll make it more than you think before the holidays!
 
I have let this sit for too long without an update. I have thought about updating it more regularly -- maybe a couple times a week at minimum. I have been going to the gym a bit and did not over-do anything while home for Christmas.

I am a little behind schedule for my next goal. My four-month plan between Nov 1 and Feb 29 was to go from 265# to 240# averaging 1.5# loss per week. Until this last week (I weigh-in on Fridays) I have been below the curve. Actually in looking at it closer, I have been at 255# throughout December. The curve is at 251.5# this coming Friday, so maybe I can get closer to that this goal.

I changed my routine at the gym a bit again lately. I like to keep mixing it up to not become bored, not get in a rut where my body gets used to one exercise. My plan now is to use the rowing machine for a bit (I am starting with just 1000m, which takes about 4 minutes and I am winded at the end, but will move up) followed by 25 minutes of weights and 2 miles on the the treadmill (~30 minutes). On non-weights days, I am going to use the rowing machine and then 4 miles on the treadmill (~55 minutes). Yesterday was a non-weight day and I burned 75 calories on the rowing machine and 900 on the treadmill at 4.5mph over four miles.

I have been eating less lately, but not nearly as healthily. I need to make more well-rounded meals. Today I am going to pick up ingredients for a lasagna with sliced tomatoes, mushrooms, and probably zucchini. I will either make that tonight or tomorrow.

Other than that, life has been pretty good. I have been spending a bunch of money on my photography. Hopefully one of these days I will be able to get some nice prints made. Work has been slow since we put a freeze on systems upgrades this time of year when people are out for vacation. Things are slated to be super busy in February.

I should make lunch, get things together, and go to the gym and run errands. Hopefully I will keep updating this and not have such epic entries. :)

--Jason
 
Today is January 4. I just weighed in at 255#. I also weighed in at 255# on December 4. There has been a fluctuation of +/- 1# during that time. I like to weigh in first thing Friday mornings so all is even. It seemed like such a reasonable goal on November 1 to average 1.5# loss per week through the end of February -- but now I am just wishing for half that over the past month!

I have been going to the gym a lot. I have been eating smaller portions.



What the heck?!
 
I broke that plateau a little bit. Oddly I did that while not going to the gym. Work has been crazy-busy and I must be getting my exercise by running around the office putting out fires and helping with various spur-of-the-moment-I-need-this-right-this-minute type projects. I did put in a few hours yesterday of catch-up and I feel sooo much better.

After work yesterday I spent four miles on the treadmill with an incline of 1.5 at 4.6mph. Today I spent another four miles at 2.0/4.6 with a bit of running. If anyone needs a new album for workout music, I highly recommend Way Out West (Jody Wisternoff and Nick Warren of various fames) and their album Don't Look Now. I love the track Fear, which helps me run much longer than I normally could.

To get back on track for my closest goal, I need to get down to 248.5# by Friday. I was 252# just two days ago. Maybe ignoring this goal and trying for 247# by 1/25 is less crazy, but is the same loss rate. Meh. I will keep pushing and see where I land.

Tomorrow at the gym stars the next challenge. I signed up for the most difficult level this time. I need 300 points before March 31 to hit all three goals. Each point is 100 calories burned. Four miles on the treadmill the past two days was 930-950 calories each. Each goal has a prize and they are a t-shirt for the first level (I have the "Summer Meltdown" and "Holiday Explosion" shirts now, this one is called "FC Madness" for Fitness Crossroad, the name of the place, and it is basketball themed, like March Madness), a towel or backpack for the second level, and a 30 minute massage or 30 minutes of personal training for the third. I earned the third level for this last challenge, but I really do not want to use either. I think by reaching the third level there is also a drawing of all winners for a grand-prize of something special, like a hoodie or the like. Overall: 300 points, 11 weeks, 28 points per week, 4 visits a week, 7 points per visit. I can totally handle this.

I have a few days of Paid Time Off at work that expire in March, so I might take a day or two off this week and/or next. I think I will get some good workouts in and get a few more points than normal for this challenge, which will help me get back on my goal.

My journal here has been ignored lately. Maybe I will keep track of my points here, which will inspire me to ramble on about other things. If you are still reading this, you completely understand the ramble part. Maybe I will try to hang out in the chatroom more often, too. I have talked with a couple interesting people in there. I have been monitoring new posts with the RSS feed, too.

--Jason
 
Ramble on is one of my favorite songs... and one of my favorite things to do - generally to myself:)

that gym challenge sounds like a lot of fun - I wish my gymwould do stuff like that.. but i think the members are all too cool for such things :) /note to self - make a suggestion -i'll do pretty much anything for a tshirt :)
 
Mal, you t-shirt whore you! :D

That contest sounds good. My gym does them from time to time, but unless you are the individual winner or your team wins (I've come in 3rd in the individual out of 40 people), you don't get anything. Plus, it costs $5 to sign up for the contest. I'm sure it will give you lots of motivation. A free massage sounds good to me! :D

That's great that you maintained over the holidays. It's much better than most people do--myself included! :nopity: haha

Have a good week!
 
Bah. I had full intentions of going to the gym tonight, but found a blister on the end of my toe. As it is not all that comfortable to just wear socks, I had to miss tonight. I was really hoping to get a few points to start out the competition well. I would rather not make it worse, but am rather bummed out. Instead I called my mom and got a recipe for a coworker. It was not a bad night. :)

-J
 
Points: 9 of 300

I made it to the gym tonight. I got there later than I had hoped, but that is because I was playing around with some audiobooks trying to get them on my iPod for said trip to the gym. I did not get them on there, but will one of these days. I think I am going to listen to Dune first.

Tonight was the 4/2.0/4.6 routine (4mhp, 2.0 incline, 4.6mph) again (which does not include the quarter-mile, five minute gradual slowdown). I think next time I am going to bump it up to 2.5. On Sunday after I ran a bit, I realized that I was running at 2.0 and that is why I wanted to die. One of my goals (I have a whole sheet of them) is to run 5k in less than 30 minutes. I have never tried, but I do not think I could handle 6.3mph for that duration yet. At any rate, the machine said I burned 935 calories, so that is nine points.

Today on the wall they had a giant piece of paper with a college basketball style bracket. There was the D1 (300 point) bracket with six lines and the D2 (210?) bracket with about 30 lines. I did not see a D3 (120?) bracket anywhere. The strange part is that at least a dozen people were marked in the D3 category already. I am not sure if it is a competition between members (which would just be for fun anyway) or what the story is. The last competition was each person had a thermometer-style holiday-themed piece of paper (mine was a candy corn, the others were a turkey and... something else) and calories were marked accordingly. The competition before that was a communal eight-foot-tall thermometer to see if we could burn a million calories. I think we hit about 2.2mil at the end. They underestimated us as it was the first big competition.

I should get weights back into my routine. One of these days maybe.

-J
 
Points 19/300 (74 days remaining)

Tonight was 4.0/2.5/4.6. I was a hair under 1000 calories, but yesterday I was the exact same size hair over 900. I averaged those together and have my nineteen points now.

The competition bracket was updated today. There are probably twenty people in the D1 group and we all seem to be paired up. I like my anonymity at the gym and have no idea who this Jeff guy is. He could be one of the guys I recognize by sight, or could be someone who is there during the day. I hope to get a crapload of points stored up before the first tally to get ahead in the game. As of right now, I have full intent to win this thing outright. I hope to have my shirt (100 points) by the end of next weekend (1/27, 11 days from now). I can do that with nine points per day over nine of those days.

I am surely taking Friday off from work and might also take off Monday. I think on Friday I am going to sleep in a little bit (but not too late), go to the gym, go to a museum with my camera, and then go somewhere for lunch. There is something extra nice about doing things like that when I know everyone else is at work. I think I might do something similar on Monday, but take my camera for a walk at Como Zoo (smaller zoo in the area) and their indoor area. A daily high temperature of between -3º and +10º F over the next several days is a good reason to visit the indoor area.

-J
 
Wel, this is my fist time here. Once I was a binge eater, especially when I was not in mood. Facing food is really challenge because every day you must face this problem, you cannot avoid it. Now it has been 5 years, I will still eat a large mount of food on one meal, but I try to decrease the frequency.
Come on, Jason, you can do it!
 
Points: 28 of 300

Thanks, zizijun. And thanks also to you, shani, bikini, and mal. :)

They put the first round of points up today. It seems all points Monday morning through Wednesday night were tallied and I did have my 19 showing. A couple other people had more than 25. I can only figure that we have the same plan (8-10 points per day), but I had to miss Monday. Maybe I will catch up over the weekend.

I am taking Monday off, but I then realized it is MLK Day and all the kiddies will be out of school. Dang. I am surely not going to the zoo then. My co-worker suggested I go to the bar if I want to avoid the kids. Sounds good to me. :)

Tomorrow is weigh-in day and I hope to see 250#.

-J
 
Points: 38 of 300

Weigh-in was 250#. There is a +/- 1# range of discrepancy on my scale on any given day (when I step off it does not always go back exactly to zero), but today it did hit exactly 250# and 0# twice in a row. I was happy to see that.

I think this week I am going to switch to the elliptical. I programmed it for one of the cross training routes (two hills, big valley in the middle) for 50 minutes plus the cooldown. At the end it said I burned 1006 calories. I think I am going to try to do that this coming week and then switch either back to the treadmill or try something else.

Hmm... doing some more math, there are 32 more weeks between now and the end of August. If I could average 1.25#/week, that would be 40#.

Jeopardy! is on. I have to go. I so rarely get to see this show now. :)

-J
 
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