Birth of a comeback...

My last publishing date was July 6, 2009.

For the two of you that read this, essentially:



So I gotta start doing this again and counting points. Luckily, I haven't gained back more than 10 pounds since I stopped - I think. At the very least, I'm still under 300.

TUE 06/16/2009

Today's weigh-in looks the same as yesterday's. I went over by 1/2 a
point and didn't exercise. I ate well and slept crappy.

Weigh-In: 2009-06-15

Went to WW this morning and after a few instances of computer malfunction, they were able to get to me and weigh me.

Weigh-in on 06/08/2009: +3.2.
Today's weigh-in: -2.4 pounds. Weight: 293.2 . Total lost: 38.8

I did a ton of walking last week and I can't believe I lost despite all my margarita and tequila take-in. This week, I absolutely have to track and not let my weekends turn into train-wrecks. Friday, I stopped tracking after heading up to the bay area and I ate a lot and started tequila-ing up. Saturday, despite walking a ton around San Francisco, Gretchen took me to some chinese food I really wasn't into. Sunday, I wrote down what I ate, but didn't really pay too much attention. Also, tequila-ing continued and I got nice, trashed, and made no phone calls or angry tweets on the twitter.

Weekends with Iggy are magical

This one doesn't count

I weighted in on my brother's scale this afternoon, after waking up.
His scale is off from mine by a few pounds. Stopped tracking last
night but had In-and-Out Burger and a lot of tequila. That I'm alive
is a miracle.

Going to San Francisco with my lady as I type this right now. Should
get a lot of walking in :)

Today's Weigh-in and 06/11/2009 overview

I ate well yesterday. All 42 POINTS also and I didn't go overboard. I
also exercised for an 80 minutes and banked 5 activity POINTS. All in
all, a good day :)

Something new

I log my weight every single day on my iPhone app, weightbot and have consistantly tracked my weight since buying the app on 01 JAN of this year.

So I'll end up doing a quick summary of the day before, I guess. Let's see how far I get with this.

Yesterday was alright. I tracked everything, went over by a little bit, and did not exercise. I did go to sbux with @MikeTheTech and had a non-fat caramel macchiato. That was delicious. Otherwise, same ol' routine. I did buy a honeydew melon, so that should last me until payday :)
---
Sent from my iPhone

I work better when I'm angry

Weight progress chart (via WeightBot): Start: 332, Now: 293

For work-related reasons I can't really discuss, I have been incredibly pissed off the last few days and have been taking it home with me. I have been incredibly irritable.

Eating has been relatively good, although today I was craving a donut. I gave up on that dream when I saw some stale ones at the main office (HQ) this morning and instead, had a serving of cinnamon Puffins, which has sorta diminished my want for a donut. I'm feeling okay right now, but breakfast didn't satisfy me - my usual egg, egg whites (x2), ketchup, english muffin, and coffee.

I've sorta plateaued in the last few weeks. I intend to get back into exercising now that my human biology class just finished. I have time to exercise now. Yesterday andn Monday, I spent an hour each, walking. I really need to lose another thirty. I want to and I'm doing half the
work [eating right] to get there. I just need to step it up a notch.

I packed some killer foods today for while i'm at my office. I am anticipating that work will not suck as bad today

I'm glad I had that cigarette

I just drank three beers and I'm feeling tanked.

While drinking those beers, I consumed beef jerky and that's about it. My eating is/has gone to hell today. Sorta. I think I went over by a few WW POINTS.

Oh yeah, I'm still on it. This is week 13 of being on it. I am doing my damndest to stick on it. I can't believe that I've lost as much as I have, and while I still have a long way to go, I am kicking ass. My mom's house is a death-trap for my WW - a few weeks ago, I spent one afternoon and fucked my week over. But I have managed to maintain and stick to my program, for the mostpart. There's this box of Honey Bunches of Oats that's staring at me but I'll have to decline.

After drinking tonight, I smoked a cigarette, from a pack I had purchased that aforementioned afternoon at my mother's house. Appetite is lost. Eating and drinking more sounds like a pasttime I want partake in, but would rather much avoid. 

On the front of my mother's house, I just spent some time reflecting. I love my mom and that's why I'm here. I love my woman, too. I have been blessed with a beautiful and wonderful woman that she is. I love her so much and I don't deserve her. But she loves me so much and I really want to not fuck this up, willpower and all.

I fucked my life for the next two years. But we'll get through it.

My posts here have been few and far between. I just haven't gotten into the mood for blogging. Like every single blog I have ever had, since LiveJournal in high school to the MySpace, I have deleted every blog. I say what I need to say and then I have this need to move on with my life.

My stress levels have been ever-present, but I am handling them better. I'm writing a little stressed out right now, but I am making changes to behavior that is going to make me successful in my weight loss journey. I have added routines like power naps at work, naps at home, and what the Weight Watchers program likes to refer to as "activity".

Yesterday, in the midst of finishing up this application for a stipend I have applied for, I realized that time was running short and that my local coffee shop was going to close in thirty minutes. I put on my running shoes and walked there and back - in the dangerous streets of Salinas' white and safe side. I got a thirty minute walk in and also got my dairy intake for the day.

I finished twelve weeks on weight watchers. I have lost 32.4 pounds and am doing it slowly. I still indulge, but I am also trying to get exercise in. Last week, due to school work I had to do, I didn't get any activity in. I made sure my gym bag was packed today before heading to work, with the intention of getting on that g-ddamn elliptical for an hour after I finish here.

I'm feeling relatively well, considering everything. With school, I am almost caught up and where I need to be. Work... is work. Handling the stress as best as I can here.

Man, bananas are pretty tasty.

Dees Juan Tine

I've been going at this, slowly, for the last 11.5 weeks. I'm on week 12 of Weight Watchers and after having lost 32 pounds, I gained one back on Monday's weigh in. I'm just taking it slow, taking it easy. This one lady I admire once said, "inch by inch, life's a synch!" I'm trying to take it down to that level.

The eating. I eat the same foods every day. I have an egg, two egg whites, two english muffins, 2 TBS of ketchup, and coffee (with 4 TBS of 1/2 and 1/2 and 1 TBS of sugar). For dinner, it's usually a salad with my favorite 2 tablespoon dressing and asian dumplings (1 point each), fried in olive oil. Being that I'm a big mang, I get 42 points per day. I went down by two points since starting this thing. In between the two meals, I try to mix in variety.

I'm trying to maintain my stress. Lucky for me at work, we have a therapy room with a couch. I took a power nap in there and it helped me out immensely. I'm worried about grad school and how I'm going to pay for it. I am waiting for my financial aid package to come, which should take (hopefully) three more weeks. I'm also waiting for my tax return from Uncle Sam and Uncle Arnie... trying to figure how to allocate that between savings for this move with my girlfriend and the NEVERENDING FUCKING CREDIT CARD DEBT THAT WILL EVENTUALLY TAKE LIFE AND MURDER THE LIVING SHIT OUT OF MY LIFE, DREAMS, SAVINGS, and CREDIT SCORE.

The future is uncertain, but it's where I'm putting my better days. Inch by inch, I'll get there.

Also, if anyone is interested in six inches, please inquire with management of this blog :P

Goal 1: Check

I got under 300 lbs. Yay!

I hope I don't die from heatstroke.

All Kinds of New Stress

I got into grad school :) While I'm very happy about this, it's only a
matter of time before the wheels come off this motherfucker.

I don't handle stress appropriately.

P.S. I am 27.2 lbs down after 10 weeks. Stoked about that.

The Gorge

At zero points, I binged tonight:
- Cookie (3)
- McDonalds Ice Cream Cone (3)
- Red Wine - 1/2 Cup (1.5)
- Beer - 24 oz (6)
- Carrot Sticks and Hummus (4)

It was all good. Still gots 10.5 Weekly Points left.

Quick Update

So an update for me, since I'm the only one that reads this thing and will probably delete this blog eventually.

Since starting back a few weeks ago (Feb 9, 2009), I have lost 20.8 pounds. I believe. I could be wrong and I don't have my paperwork in front of me. It's definately 20 pounds with a decimal afterwards.

Right now, I'm at zero points. Prior to my last item of intake, I had 3.5 points left and that's how much one measured cup of red wine is worth on the WW. So I'm fucking content and sleepy, which is good because being awake means that I will eventually eat.

Bean Sprouts for Midnight Snack

I'm stressing out right now. I am in the midst of hiring a lawyer... total white people status. Without getting too much into detail, I was wronged and I'm trying to get fairly compensated. Those little fucking cockroach insurance companies... I hope they all go bankrupt after I'm through with them.

Anyways, my stress level correlates with my eating behavior, typically. I have this stressor plus my car is fucking up. While I'm way above income-level for a single man (I should be making more money), I don't have much to show for it except for 3 iPods and a laptop. I don't have a car payment, thank God. My car is fucking up right now. Something about a hose leaking fluid from my radiator. My dad came down with my uncle and they tried to fix it. I'll see tomorrow the end result of their efforts.

I rocked the gym on Monday... I did a high intensity workout on the elliptical because it's easier on my back. Well, it's supposed to be easier, but my back was fucking killing the shit out of me. I hope that this pain gets better because I can't do painkillers for the rest of my life and I don't smoke pot.

With my dad helping me out, I went over. He took me and my uncle to Denny's and I adhered to my Weight Watchers as diligently as I could. I believe my meal was like 18 points. Add to that a Snickers bar (7!? points) and a soy latte (I thought was supposed to have 3 points, but it turned out to be 5... WTF!?). It's all good. I got off track a little and I went over by 3.5 points (so far) for my day (still Thursday).

So I'm eating bean sprouts. A whole cup for 0 points. I'm feeling less-hungry, too.

I need to focus on eating all my veggies. Fuck me in the ass.

Rocking the WW

My favorite treat is ice cream. McDonalds vanilla cone or low-fat ice cream. Was feeling hungry so I just nommed on a skinny-cow ice cream sandwich. It was delicious. Have been kicking ass on the Weight Watchers. I'm on week 4 with three months before the June... I have lost 15.8 pounds and I am going full-speed ahead. The weight loss is slow but speeding :P

My clothes feel looser... significantly. I am about 16.3 pounds away from my first goal of getting my ass under 300 lbs. I'll get there. I want to get there sooner than later, but it took me a while to puff up when I gained all my weight back. I am being more active, especially with utilizing my gym membership. Gym changed venues because 24-Hour Shitness decided not to continue their franchise in Salinas and a newer, better, gym took over my contract. Very very nice. Can't wait till they get their jacuzzi installed.

The one mantra that I'm living by is that I gotta burn more calories than I ingest. I'm really trying my ass off. That whole thing they talk about at the WW meetings, as far as mentally rehearsing, is what is working for me. Today, someone bought Round Table Pizza for lunch and I ate only one slice (at 8 points) with a salad to fill me up. I ate out at this work-related dinner and made sure to fill up half my plate with the steamed greens and salad, while also being mindful of my portions. I was able to tally things up right and I'm not regretful for my eating behaviors.

Just a quick note: I've given up posting my deepest thoughts on the internet... blocked or not, I am afraid that they will come back and bite me in the ass. The closest thing I got going is micro-blogging, which I am good at instantaneously lamenting my disdain.

I am in love with my girlfriend. She is a huge motivator for me. I want to look good for her, make her look good, and be healthy so that I can enjoy my time with her. She is a sweetheart and I know she loves me. I can't wait to move in with her, though I have my fears. We still have a lot of things to work out before I am fully set on making her my betrothed. While my girlfriend is not a Christian, thus not sharing my faith, she is also not a whore or hypocrite. I'll take that straight to the bank.

My mood is good. Getting organized and losing the weight is definitely going to affect my happiness... positively affecting it. That's really, all I want.

Busy Saturday

So today, I'm trying to do the following:

- Laundry

- Study for two hours

- Pack an overnight bag

- Figure out my Points for today

- la la la la la

For it being a Saturday, start of a 3-day weekend, I'm a little overwhelmed... it's okay. Unofficially, I have lost eight pounds since Monday.

I have a reservation for dinner tonight with my lady at this place that's going to cost a lot. It's no bother for me because I love her to pieces.

I'm surprised how well I'm doing with the new Weight Watchers Momentum plan. It's working for me really well. They have this little chart in the booklet that tracks your hunger level (y-axis) and time (y-axis), which means everything I log, I also track the time I do. I have exercised (brisk walking) 3 times this week and I am getting ready to go out in a little bit for my fourth walk. Yesterday was the first time I used my Weekly points, having gone over by three on my Daily points for Friday.

I mapped out my eating for today. I have 32 Weekly points to use for today (and tomorrow) if I need them. I'm just trying to eat light (soup, veggies, coffee, coffee, eggs) up until the feast tonight. I'm not sure whether I want the barbeque chicken or a steak (www.rocky-point.com).

Right now, I'm hungry so I am thinking about going to make some eggs, toast an english muffin, get the salsa ready, and make some coffee.

Short Sentences That Should Help You Get The Jist

I restarted the Weight Watchers.
Why? I am fearful of the diabeetus.
I am paying for it.
I like their new program.
I ate all but two points today.
I didn't work out today like the last three.
I did get physical.
I love food.
I'm proud for tracking all my points.
I just saw a mini Burger King commercial.
Want to nom.

Posted with LifeCast

I lasted 15 days

I lasted fifteen days of counting points until I crashed and burned tonight. I had 22 points(c) left when the girly calls me up at 5, causing me to leave work. I was really burned out and I knew that I wasn't going to get anymore work done so I left. We went to the Penny Farthing, a kick-ass English pub down the street from me and I had a beer (probably six points) and a penny burger (beef, cheese, bacon, condiments, and your typical burger veggies). I had the waitress substitute a side salad for fries.

But it didn't end there. I was good until I got a little stressed a few hours ago. I had some Healthy Choice fudge pops (1 point each), a twinkie, the rest of the champagne from New Years, some OJ, and about a quarter-tube of Pringles. So yeah, I slipped up and took it to the max.

And then my friend with a Guy-Fieri fetish sends me this link, which makes me drool for more fucking food:

This is what Dragon Ball Z would look like with a thyroid problem.

In counting points, I lost about 8 pounds, which is good, but god damn staying on target is hard. Tomorrow is a new day and I should start anew.

Oh, and the rest of that bottle of champagne... it crept up on me. So this was a semi-drunk rant.

Edit: in case you're wondering, I got my MSW application in on time. That paper was a bitch but for whatever reason, I didn't stress out enough to fall off the wagon.

Edit 2: This is for Brownie

I literally barfed in my mouth at 1:47. I wonder if this is a look at how fucker eats kitty.

Sunshine

Today's check-in:

It was good to have four days off. It was even better to be driving to work with what felt like sunshine on my shoulders. The four day break was good and I got a lot of stuff done. Not nearly enough, though. I still need to write this autobiographical statement.

My eating was good today, too. I'm proud of myself. My eating has primarily consisted of brew coffee and oatmeal for breakfast, a salad and Smartone's entree for lunch, and then I had some dumplings, more salad, and coffee for dinner. In between, I hit up sbux and got one of their tea infusions (it was supposed to be free due to buying a pound of coffee with my registered sbux card but I didn't get the discount). I didn't like this new drink and was expecting something with way more corn syrup than I got.

I did some snacking, consisting of bananas, the Weight Watcher cakes, and these delicious fudge pops that went on sale at Costco. I stuck within my points and I still have 1.5 left, which I am going to "spend" on Jell-O.

Overall, it's been a good day. Tomorrow's going to be hectic and I hope to get a lot of stuff done.

iPhone and Me

As many of you know, I love my iPhone. 

I have touched it more than I have ever touched my ding-dong.

Anyways, I love this thing because of some of the apps that help me organize aspects of my life. Other apps help me to get information that I need, quickly.

Today, I want to talk about FoodScore [iTunes - $4] by Bizmosis

Take most of your favorite national-chain restaurants that you frequent and most of them are covered here. The database has about 147 restaurants, some of which are exclusive to the east coast and mid-west. [tangent: we need a Dunkin Donuts out here]. The people who put this up pretty much have taken the guesswork out of determining the score (ahem) of your food. Some of the restaurants I have saved on my favorites are Chipotle Mexican Grill, Chevy's, El Pollo Loco, In-N-Out Burger, Starbucks, and Wendy's. A complete listing can be found here (just clicked on it and they say that CPK is on the way!)

It seems that Chipotle doesn't want to be a part of my life lately.

The practical use of this application is not to bust it out during meal-time at the restaurant, but for pre-game planning to determine what you will probably want to eat when you get there. I don't know how many icy stares I've gotten when playing with my phone during meal time. If I know that I am going out to Olive Garden, it's good pre-game to know that a breadstick has a value of 3, so that I can indulge, yet limit myself. 

Cool thing about it that I like is that the database has the ability to update via the download feature on the application. Apparently the last update was in late December 2008.

The downside to this application is that not everything is listed. As a Starbucks lover, this can be a little hectic because the application is not going to list a "Venti Iced Soy Latte with Extra Caramel Sauce" which has a *score* of 8. They're constantly changing their drinks. They released some sort of tea infusion drink this week. That's not on the application, although Starbucks does update their nutritional information as fast as they release their drinks so you can determine the POINTS(C) of most their drinks by going to their website. Other restaurants like In-N-Out don't have a 100% complete listing (Animal Style Fries!?). 

Also, it seems as if your miles may vary depending on restaurant and geography. BJ's Brewpub and El Toritos are two west coast restaurants that have not hit their radar. It also seems as if restaurants with extensive menus have many things omitted... which is to be expected if you have ever been to a restaurant that has a menu with more than five pages worth of listings.

Originally, when I bought this application, it was called FoodPoints, but then WW went all kinds berserk and pulled it. Somehow they managed to copyright the word "points" (which is why I always follow it with a (c) upon any mention on my blog so that they don't get off their walkers, call up their lawyers and have this blog shut down). Anyways, I had bought the previous version (which was pulled) and it wasn't updating. Bizmosis quickly resolved it by getting me a copy of the application in its newest incarnation. I appreciated them resolving it.

This application gets the Iggy seal of approval for it's ease of use for reference. I use it all the time when I feel like getting fast food and saves me time for not having to check websites for nutritional information.

Open Wide Lament

Okay, so here's a brief intro.

Today's weigh-in looks like:

Food at the moment looks like:

(I ate more than this, but these are the last items I've eaten that appear on the screen shot. The POINTS(c) are correct) [tangent: version 2.2 of the iPhone firmware totally killed the kick-ass WW application that Park East had to pull. I downloaded iLog It [iTunes] and it's almost just as sweet]

I didn't exercise today, although I logged three points for two hours worth of shopping/standing-in-line-at-little-Tijuana-also-known-as-Wal-Mart-and-Costco.

Right now, I'm in an okay place. [Tangent:]I'm one frenetic motherfucker, which is why I prefer drinking over smoking. Drinking brings me down. I'm high strung and weed, for whatever reason, always fucks up my head and I always feel like I have lost control with being high on top of me being high strung.

Anyways, I'm in an okay place but I am worried. This stupid grad school application... I'm almost done with it... probably putting in 8 more hours of work and I'm done. For better or for worse, this is going to fuck up my life for the next few years. For better, if I get in it's an opportunity for me to grow in my career and eventually settle for the pay that I want and deserve. For worse, I'm putting all my eggs in one basket and if I don't get in, it's going to mess with me. One good thing about getting rejected will be that I have other schools to consider next year.

A few months back, I applied for this position and I totally got railroaded and feel as if I was not being giving a fair opportunity to be considered for the job. I took that rejection pretty hard and I really don't want to be feeling like that if I get a negative response from applying. 

I'm worried about moving in with my girlfriend. It's going to happen this year. The last time I moved in with a girl I loved, it did not go well. Not. One. Bit. (Thank you, Joker). So anyways, what better way to solidify this whole "Marriage Trial Run" thing than to do it in the midst of an intensive graduate school program. I mention that wretched M-word because I see a future with my girl.

Anyways, that's one of many things on my mind. How this relates to this blog is because I'm lightly stressed. Thankfully, I'm not stress eating, which is surprising. I'm gonna go get a starbucks before they close to perk up... yeah, that sounds about right.

Rejuvination

Today is the day I restart everything... again... for (it seems like) the 10th time since I went astray.

But it's okay.

Yesterday, I was checking out this 99 cent app for my iPhone called WeightBot [iTunes] and I decided to play around with it.

In my complacency of checking my weight every day or so, somehow it all went by the wayside. So when I got on the scale, this is the number that I saw:

Today's "weigh in" was a pound less, but still... I'm not freaking out but I am determined to do something about it. [Editor's note: This is not a New Year's resolution... I hate being cliche. ]

So thankfully, I have some Smartones and frozen vegetables in the freezer and nothing too sabotage-y in my fridge right now. Today, Friday, I am going to start counting my POINTS(c) again. I need to get down to 3 hundo because this is fucking lame.

On the positive side, I haven't drank beer in a while, although I got all kinds of crunk for New Year's Eve... So yeah, eating and exercising... we'll see how it goes. So long as I get my eating down, I'll be okay. I am not going to go apeshit and go all out on the exercising - I know it'll burn me out.

I just gotta decide what my first meal is going to be.