Curse You Cookies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had four cookies today. And six peanut M&M's. I couldn't resist. I curse you cookies!!!!!!!!

A picture from last summer.....

This was taken last summer at my family's cabin in the Sierras. We had just spent the weekend painting and repairing. The feast that was grilling was well earned, as was the beer, and despite my face, I was quite happy. Until I got home and saw the picture of my gut. Granted I was sitting, which accentuates a gut, but still. That is gross. Strong incentive to stick with the program. It was a good beer though.

This Week

Yesterday I went to the gym and ran on the treadmill for almost an hour. It was raining otherwise I would have run on a trail somewhere. Today I lifted weights before work. I have come to the conclusion that if I have to drag myself to the gym, it will probably be a good workout. Not that when I'm looking forward to working out it is horrible. It just seems that when I REALLY DON'T WANT TO GO, it is always pretty good.

My family and I are heading to Morro Bay for a few days while our kids are on spring break. I'm not sure if there will be workout facilities where we are going. If not I will make an honest attempt to at least run while we are there. Far more important though will be my eating habits while on vacation. Going to Disneyland didn't kill me like I thought it would, even though we ate out a TON. On this trip we will be cooking most of our meals as well. I will be weighed in by The Masochist as soon as I get back which is a little scary.

Pizza From Heaven

Yesterday my family and I went to my nephew's first birthday party. Because of potential weather the party was held in a pizza/pub/restaurant. GOOD PIZZA!!!!!!! While I didn't eat my weight in pizza, I certainly wasn't shy. Today is a weigh in with Stacy and I might be in trouble. But that was some of the best pizza I have had in a long while. In fact, I have been craving pizza for a long time. Not Round Table (good, just had too much in my life), but a "microbrew" kind of pizza. The kind you get in a hole-in-the-wall kind of place, where it's piled so high with stuff you can't see the crust kind of pizza. Yesterday could very well have been pizza nirvana. I have told myself that I don't pay tooooooo much attention to food on Sundays and yesterday I decided to dive into that rule like an 8 year old into a pool on the first day of summer screaming YEEEE HAWWWWW the whole way.

According to everything I have read, doing pizza (or anything) like that once in a while shouldn't be THAT big of a deal. Scarry thing is, I used to eat like that a few times a week. On the other side, I haven't had that much rich food in a while (or beer for that matter) and my gut is a little angry at me. Could have been the cheese stuffed bell peppers too.................

Post Script:
I just got back from my work out. Thankfully it wasn't a measure/weigh day. That was last week. I did learn a valuable lesson; that pizza and beer (with cheesy garlic bread and stuffed bell peppers) will cause you to feel like vomiting a day later. I didn't vomit, but it was close.

Addendum

I went back and looked at my first weigh in, wich was in January after two weeks or working out. I weighed 248lbs. This week I weighed 237. So, 11 pounds of scale weight, which is another way of saying 11 pounds of FAT. Yuck. So, two ways to look at this.

BAD WAY- I had 11 pounds of fat to loose. With more to go. That is gross.

GOOD WAY- I LOST 11 POUND OF FAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stacy told me yesterday that I' one of the larger guys she has ever trained. She called me one of her "challenges". Sheesh.

Weigh In This Week, and Thoughts About Cookies and Booze

At my weigh in on Monday I was down 4lbs, and my waist was 1 1/2 inches smaller. My hips were smaller too. What's up with that? I thought that was only chick-type stuff. Pants are still fitting better, and I had to tighten my duty belt again. I realized it was loose when I was walking around work and found that it was falling down. This morning I ran on the treadmill because it was raining outside. I tried the interval style thing again. I worked my way up to a sprint about 4 times over 40 minutes.

Eating is an interesting thing. I read something the other day that has stuck with me about eating, which was, "We should eat so we are not hungry. We should not eat so that we are full." I didn't pay much attention to what that meant at the time, but the next time I had a meal, I found myself thinking about what that really meant. And I stopped eating when I wasn't hungry anymore. The next day I planned my meals and snacks around how much food would keep me from being hungry. That doesn't mean that I ate bad all day. Dinner was an 8oz grilled New York Strip Steak with a HUGE salad and some brown rice. Lunch was a sandwich with about 6oz of turkey, cheese, etc. Breakfast was my stupid eggs and oatmeal, which I'm actually starting to like. Plus snacks like yogurt, string cheese, and so on. But I made sure to stop eating when I quit being hungry.

A few posts ago I mentioned my rule about cookies. That rule didn't stick around like the others did. I really like cookies. I have found that my will power goes away around cookies. I can put aside booze, I have had one bowl of cereal in the last two months, I haven't had any Hostess crap in years, chips don't call to me (while I do enjoy them occasionally, they don't have near the pull of cookies), crackers, meh. I don't have a bread addiction. Sometimes the fresh baked loaves from Safeway are good with dinner, but rarely. When it comes down to it, cookies are it. All kinds. Oatmeal, chocolate chip, peanut butter, white chocolate/macademia nut, Girl Scout Samoas ( I refuse to call them by the new name), you name it, I LOVE IT!!! They will be my downfall if anything is.

My New Workout From Tuesday

Well, this one is definitely different than the last one. She upped all of the reps for each set, so that I"m doing 15 reps of each exercise, 4 times. You wouldn't think that just three more per set was that big of a deal, but it is. Also, for legs this time she has me doing just one exercise. I hold a 10 pound dumbell in each hand, and have to step up on a 16" box 15 times for each leg, then do 30 squats. That is one set. I could only make it through 3 of those the first time I tried before I told her I felt like I was going to chunder. She told me after we were all done that she has made 3 people actually puke with that particular exercise. Normally I will run for about 20 minutes on the treadmill after weights, but Stacy said I don't have to after the leg workout this time.

I'm back for more tomorrow, and my friend Bryan will be there as well. He told me that after working out with me last week it took 4 days before he could lift his hands above his head. Gotta love it.

The Treadmill Tried to Kill Me Today

Today I got on the treadmill at work. I was feeling pretty ambitious so I started to increase the speed. Problem was, the belt of the treadmill didn't move as fast as the display indicated it should. Eventually I had increased the speed until the display read "11" and wouldn't go up any more, but he belt was moving decidedly slower than what I thought "11" should be moving at. I continued at that speed for a while until I needed to cough. I took my feet off the belt and straddled it while I dealt with the gunk in my throat. Little did I know, that when I stepped off, the treadmill finally decided to get up to "11". When I stepped back on, I was prepared for the slower speed. "11" is significantly faster than what I had been running at. Thankfully I had my hands on the bars, because the belt flung my feet up about 3 feet in the air behind me, and when I came back down I almost lost my balance again and had to sprint to catch up. I wish somebody had been there to see it because I'm sure that the look of abject panic and fear on my face was priceless. Had I actually fallen, the speed the belt was moving at would have pancaked me into the wall that is behind the treadmill.

That all happened towards the beginning and I finished up with about 40 minutes of cardio. I'm working on Monday so I will have to get my new workout on Tuesday if the Masochist has room.

Weights Today

I met my friend Brian at the gym this morning and we lifted weights together. Today was the last day of my current weight lifting workout. Stacy will give me a new one on Monday. She always tells me to be prepared to be really sore after the new one.

This isn't my first time lifting weights, but it is the first time I have changed up the workout this often. In prior bouts of fitness, I would do the same exercises for a few months and then get bored. Not so this time. I really helps to change stuff up. Yesterday I tried an "interval" style workout on the treadmill. Really slow for a short time, then run really hard for a bit, recover at a slower speed, and then just when you feel like you got your breath back, really fast again. Repeat, over and over and over again. Even that little bit of change up helped break up the same boring regularity of the treadmill. A few people have asked how I can stand the treadmill, and I had to think about it. What I came up with, was that while on it, nothing is trying to get my attention. I have music (obviously), but that is it. My mind is free to wander without other things jumping in. I don't read on the treadmill, and watching TV is not very motivating. I like running outside just as much, but for some different reasons. It all probably comes down to the variety in your workouts idea.