The Path of RandomCards

Entry October 16th

General Comments
I had a really wierd schedule today and somehow it worked out well and I had about as perfect of a day as I'll ever have. Feeling good. I had a major report to complete today that I over procrastinated on as usual. So I spent the morning at Barnes and Noble to remove myself from distractions. Instead of working out from 10-12 as usual I was way busy and didn't work out until like 1:30 to 3:30.

Anyway things worked out well because I ate 4 times today and the timing worked out well. Kept me full and away from temptation all day. I had breakfast as usual, then a powerbar for "lunch" before going to the gym. Then I had a medium chicken salad after the gym at like 4, then had dinner at like 7:30. That worked fantastic, but it will be a hard schedule to replicate unfortunately.

Also on the plus side I just finished my report several hours earlier than I thought I would. Tomorrow I fly to the midwest for 24 hours or so, see if I can keep my eating reasonable on the road.

Food
Breakfast: Slimfast (what else)
Lunch 1: Powerbar before gym
Lunch 2: Chicken salad from McDonalds (substituted my own healthy dressing)
Dinner: Turkey Chili (no beans) and 2 Turkey Burgers

Total Calories 1600-1700 healthy calories

Probably was low on carbs today only thing with carbs was the power bar, all other meals had virtually none. On the plus side I had about a billion grams of protein.

Exercise
Another solid day at the gym. Hopefully I can get in another one in tomorrow. Looking at my schedule it might be impossible to go Thu and Fri
20 Minutes on Stair Stepper level 6 (this seems to be hardest cardio I do)
30-40 Minutes weights and core
20 Minutes on elliptical constant HR
 
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Random Question of the Moment

Breakfast

I NEVER ate breakfast growing up that I could remember. We were a cereal household and I'm not a big cereal fan. For most of my life I just flat out never at breakfast.

Since my first round of weight loss a year ago I made it a point to always consume breakfast knowing that was best.

Problem is the ONLY thing I can consistently do for breakfast is a chocolate Slim Fast can. I can pop it out of the fridge and drink it down no problem. I just will not consistently do anything else breakfast wise.

So clearly this better than nothing. I haven't really gotten tired of them, I just sort of down it like my multi-vitamin each AM.

But is this an ok breakfast every single day?
 
It will work, but you're missing out on healthy antioxidants and other trace nutrients with your lack of fruit. If I were you, I'd try to get some (preferably organic) fruit in with your Slimfast--I try to eat berries everyday. It's expensive, but worth it to me. I strive for a b-fast with healthy carbs like whole grain cereal with soymilk and berries. That's what I'm planning on eating tomorrow, actually! :D Also, fiber is a big one. I dunno that the fiber is for Slimfast but fruit and/or cereal or whole grain waffles or something is probably healthier, if higher in calories. If you're worried about calories, eat an apple. :)
 
Agree fruit is great. Easier for me to eat with lunch and for snacks rather than breakfast. For some reason I am so not hungry at breakfast that "eating" just seems gross.

The only exception is going to the inlaws for country breakfast. Ham, bacon, sausage, homemade bisquits and gravy, potatoes, etc. Of course that causes other problems:)
 
Entry Oct 17

General Notes
Chilling in a Hilton in Ohio. Should go to sleep but for some reason I never seem to be sleepy in hotels.
Another quality day. Tomorrow and Friday are going to be hard for a lot of reasons so I'm glad I had a great M-W.
Had a good standard 90 minute serious gym workout which was great.
At the airport I was attacked by my favorite pre-flight temptation. Frozen yougurt. I was proud of myself, I ended up getting a mango smoothie, only 90 calories.

I'm trying to to talk myself into getting up early and work out, sooo tough in a hotel especially when switching timezones. 50/50 chance depending on when I fall asleep.

Food
Breakfast: Slimfast

Lunch: Giant spicy pickle (man that burned); some broccoli salad

Dinner: Made up taco salad including salad, ground turkey, baby corn, black olives, some light sour cream, and 100 calories of southwest dressing. It was a lot of food and very filling for the total calories (prob 800).

Airport: Mango smoothie 90 calories

Right now: Hungry hungry hungry. Glad the hotel restaurant is closed.

Exercise
90 minutes at the gym
40 minutes cardio split into 2 segments, rest weights
 
Question of the Moment

So for myself here's my question

Choose between the following meals each with the same calories

Meal A
Large meal/large portions of really healthy low calorie food. For example my dinner tonight tons of salad, 10 oz of baby corn (50 cal), 1/2 lb ground turkey with taco seasoning(350 calories), small can of black olives (60 calories), light sour cream and dressing (150 calories). Very large filling meal.

Pros
Fills me up, makes me less likely to want to eat inappropriately at other times or binge on snack food.

Cons
Less sustainable, fewer choices, when healthy choices are not available it makes it much harder to eat "reasonable" portions (which to me seems tiny)

Meal B
We'll call this "normal meal" which means what I picture a dietician saying are good portions.
Example meal, first class airplane meal I had the other day. Small/reasonable portion of salmon with a sauce, some noodly side dish, small side salad, small roll, and cookie. Prob same calories as meal A, but pretty well balanced and 1/2 the total size of meal A

Pros
Maybe someday my stomach will shrink and Meal B will be filling and satisfying. These portions open up a much wider food selection and might be more sustainable in the long run.

Cons
Can leave me hungry. This makes me much more tempted to binge on something later. I hate being hungry and it makes me overall a lot less likely to stick with a eating/exercise regime. In the past I have always seemed to be better at limiting types of food than limiting quantity of food.

HMmmmmmmmm your vote?
 
Entry Oct 18th

General Comments

Alrighty, confession time. Really really poor day yesterday, almost an F. Again the stupid travelling screws me over. I knew I wasn't going to be able to work out yesterday, early meetings, and plane trip home.

First the only good part of yesterday, I had a small portion of fruit for bfast at the hotel. Passed up bacon, sausage, and biscuits and gravy (my bfast kryptonite).

So I'm in Cincinnati for the first time and my co-workers ask me if I've ever had Cincinnati chili like it's some big deal. I hadn't and they insisted on taking me to this place that does Cincinnati chili. I didn't put up too much of a fight because A)They were really insistent B)I love chili and C)I love eating local things on the road you can only eat so much applebees etc

So at this restaurant the "thing" to have is chili 3 way. Basically it's chili over spaghetti noodles topped with a ton of cheese with oyster crackers and hot sauce. Mmmmm it tasted a lot better than it sounded. Only positive thing is that I ordered the smaller portion instead of the bigger one.

Then on my way home I was starved and stopped at the Bueno, bad me.

So I tend to either have good days start to finish or bad days start to finish

Food
BFast: Canteloupe and honeydew

Lunch: Chili 3way: chili, spaghetti, cheese

Dinner: Bueno, burrito, muchacho, party taco about a gallon of bueno salsa

Inexcusable end to the day: Graham cracker with PB on top and mini hershey bar. Those freakin' smores from last weekend still haunting me

Exercise
None, but I knew that going in.

On the plus side at the airport there was this part where I had to go up 7-8 flights of stairs and the up escalator was broken. So I ran up the whole thing with my backpack and small carryon. Burn!
 
Random Question of the Moment

The Scale

So I think the scale impacts everyone differently. You need to understand how it does/does not impact your overall motivation and use it appropriately. My goal is to look better and not drop as many pounds as possible. I am happy if I lose a lb of fat or if I gain a lb of muscle.

I think there are so many causes of physical body weight that you have to take BOTH scale increases and decreases with a grain of salt. You have.

-Water in the body
-Food in the body
-Waste in the body
-Fat in the body
-Muscle in the body

So two examples.

Example 1 - Gain 2 lbs yest to today (good diet/exercise) could be
+1 lb water
+.5 lb food
+.5 lb waste
+.5 lb muscle
-.5 lb fat

The first 3 are sort of irrelevant, so overall isn't the above awesome?

Example 2 - Lost 1 lbs yest to today (bad diet/exercise) could be
-.5 lb water
-.25 lb food
-.5 lb waste
no change muscle
+.25 lb fat

Example 1 is a lot better, but the scale doesn't show it


I actually like to weigh myself multiple times each day, I think it's kind of fun. The key is that I only focus on the macro changes not the micro changes. I like to weigh myself at different times to try to learn more about things like what happens overnight, before/after the gym, etc. But I understand that it varies wildly and I am only interested in the overall trend.

There have been times where in a week I have had 3 great days, with little to no scale change, then a horrible weekend, and come the next monday I've dropped 3 pounds. I frequently have days where my weight varies as much as 8 pounds due to water, food, etc.

I think of it like a stock ticker, lots of little ups and downs, but overall I want it to be down.
 
randomcards said:
Basically it's chili over spaghetti noodles topped with a ton of cheese with oyster crackers and hot sauce. Mmmmm it tasted a lot better than it sounded. Only positive thing is that I ordered the smaller portion instead of the bigger one.
Click to expand...

GEEZ! What a dish! Well, even dieters need things like this to keep them happy, the smaller portion was a good idea.

There are even more reasons why scale numbers go up and down:
 
Entry Oct 19th

General Comments
I give myself a B today, it could have been a lot worse. Had a solid workout in the AM. All afternoon I participated with our church group to throw a BBQ and carnival for an under-priveledged apartment complex. I somehow ended up with grilling duty. I managed to not eat anything all afternoon while cooking over 100 juicy hot dogs! Go me. Plus a lot of activity involved in the event so more calories burned.

So all was good till I caved and had pizza for dinner:( lol. Still a decent day

Food
Breakfast: Slimfast
Lunch: Don't remember but it was healthy
Dinner: Pizza boo on me

Exercise
Solid 90 minute workout, 40 minutes cardio, rest weights. My standard gym workout
 
Entry Oct 20-21

General Comments
Well my kryptonite (the weekend) got me again. Can't seem to lick the weekend thing. Plus my wife was out of town so that makes me lazy and not want to do anything.

Saturday I laid around all day, and ate leftover pizza and some taco bell

Sunday I had a busy day, but no exercise and not healthy eating

Food
Bfast - Saturday pizza, Sunday sausage and biscuit thingies
Lunch - Saturday none, Sunday calzone at restaurant
Dinner - Saturday Taco Bell, Sunday dinner with friends (cranberry chicken, green beans, potato casserole, and slice of pie)

Exercise
None? Nothing that should count anyway.
 
Weekly Weigh In

Results
Down to 218 this week. Making 2 pounds last week. And total of 9 pounds in 2 weeks of trying to be better. Should have been 4 if I could conquer the weekends. Last week I had probably 4 great days, 2 bad days, and 1 medium day.

Next Week
Tough week upcoming. Will be in Cincinnati again Wed-Fri. Good news is that I am not terribly busy while I am there so should be able to force myself to get in some good workouts. Hard part is always eating right on the road when on expense account:( If I come down another 2 pounds I will be happy
 
Great effort! I think you're doing wonderfully. I hope you recognize this as a lifestyle change and not just a diet. I believe you can handle the tough week--have a great evening!
 
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