4XLT

Today’s Weigh-In: 416lbs

(We begin today’s blog with a moment of glass-half-emptiess: I shouldn’t have slacked off for those few days last week. Otherwise I would have won the bet today. Grr.)

I’ve eaten right on the money the past two days, worked out the past three (Lifting, HIIT / Cardio, Lifting plus Cardio), and it pays off. I’m a pound away from winning the twenty pound weight loss race. And even better? It looks like I’m going to make goal number one (under four hundred pounds by March 24th, my birthday) and then some (cross your fingers).

I watched the Biggest Loser last night (because House – my beloved House, MD, the only TV show I regularly watch – got bumped by that trash of pop culture, American Idol!). On occasion I’ll watch parts of the show. This week, the contestants went home for a week. The assumption built in was that they would blow all their gains and revert to poor nutrition and a lack of exercise. Some did, particularly the Black Team, but the fellas of the Blue Team all went home and dominated their routines and came back to register double digit weight loss!

It got me pumped and thinking crazy thoughts: can I put up a double digit week? The real question is, I suppose, what would prevent me from hitting double digits? This is somewhat akin to Rob’s recent thoughts on pitfalls and the like. If I want to make big gains (or, more litterally, big losses), what are the roadblocks that are standing in my way?

For me, it’s a lax in keeping my mental game up, which leads to lapses in my healthy eating. See last week’s absent minded Burger King run for an example. Another pitfall for me is a lack of food preparation. When I get hungry, I want to eat right away. Thus, the lure of quick and easy fast food. I need to take the example of some different folks and gameplan out my nutritional needs days in advance and have my food prepped, stored, and ready to go the day of. That’s helped me a lot so far, with cooking up turkey and chicken (made some awesome breadcrumb and walnut chicken meatballs off of the leftover herbs and such from Valentine’s, yum). I need to keep it up.

The only thing that worries me on the lifting side of the health triangle is my shoulder. Ever since I played racquetball last week, it’s been killing me. Sore as all getout in my workouts, especially my shoulder presses (for obvious reasons). I’m pushing through my lifts, so it’s obviously not that bad. I just don’t want it to get worse and turn into a major injury because I didn’t allow a minor injury to mend. But, it’s not killing me yet, so maybe I’m just looking for an excuse to ease up.

At any rate, double digits, ahoy!

Today’s Weigh-In: 419lbs.

Normally I weigh in on Wednesdays, but I got finished up with my workout today and zipped by the hospital on a whim. In truth, the past couple of days haven’t been really great. That no-weight loss weigh in last Wednesday really put a dampener on my work. I hauled myself outta the rut Sunday, but still, there was a few days of pretty crappy eating and lack of exercise.

No excuses to be made other than my own laziness. And yeah, I know I should be looking at the big picture rather than the short term, bla bla bla. It’s true. At least I’m back in the saddle again, and my three day lapse didn’t turn into another week or multiple week voyage off the deep end, as it has in the past.

Under 420 – awesome. Time to get under 400.

Over the course of the past few years, I’ve steadily got larger – much larger. That’s old news for everybody reading the blog and a pretty common story for us fat folks. Along with that weight loss is that rather simple fact of old clothes not fitting. In fact, my last round of plus one size purchases up to four-xlt was my wake up call for weight loss.

So, I’ve got some really cool shirts that don’t fit any more. All of which is my prologue to my Valentine’s Day story!

I’m single and, to be honest, don’t know anyone in Portland that I’d particularly want to get really involved with, so that’s just fine by me. But, my good friend Jesse and I concocted an idea to cook for some of our single lady friends for Valentine’s Day. Without boring you with the play by play, let’s just say we pulled it off and it went awesome. I almost bit off more than I could chew for my part of the meal, but my breadcrumb and crushed walnut crusted chicken was a-mazing. It could have used a crispier crust, but hey – there’s always next time.

Apart from my culinary conquest, the highlight of the evening for me was one of those shirts that didn’t fit anymore. I’ve had it for about two years now (in fact, I wore it to my 23rd birthday party, now that I remember), and for at least the past year, it’d been sitting idly by in my closet. In the midst of figuring out what to wear that would be all manly and suave, I thought to myself, “What if?”

What if, indeed. The shirt fit, and that was a great feeling. Because, hey, I always liked that shirt.

Today’s Weigh-In: 423lbs

I am just a big, angry, frustrated ball of bitter vitriol right now. Somehow I’ve not managed to loose any weight this week, and I don’t see how that’s possible (at least in my moment of frustrated rage).

I made it to the gym and worked my rear off through my weight routines three times, even adding in a fifteen minute HIIT session today. I made it in for cardio twice. I played racquetball for the first time last night for an hour and a half (and holy cow, my shoulder is ridiculously sore – no fun for my bench and shoulder presses today).

This still all sounds so fishy. No weight loss at all? I ate better than I did the past two weeks. I worked out more than the past two weeks. How’d I not drop anything?? The only thing I can figure out is that there was a bag of laundry or something hanging on the scale at the hospital that might have thrown the reading off. Granted, the scale was defaulting to zero before I stepped on, but there could have been something there. Also, I grabbed some Subway (healthy! under 500 cal!) right before I went to weigh-in, but how much could a sub sandwich and Sun Chips throw me off?

The only thing I can figure is that even though I ate better this week than the last, my handful of recent slip-ups must have somehow cost me big. The Burger King Monday night, the Red Robin (turkey burger and fries) with a pretty girl Sunday night. I haven’t been super dillegent about grabbing breakfast, missing it about half the time – maybe that’s caught up to me. Still, I just don’t understand how it adds up to me not loosing anything.

I dunno. I just dunno. I’m going to weigh in again tomorrow after my cardio, too, and make sure to toss that bag off the linen scale I use at the hospital. Just to make sure.

My Pop has a saying that my sister and I have heard numerous, numerous times growing up (and still hear today): “one dumbass will destroy ten attaboys.” Well, I had a dumbass moment last night.

It’s all the more frustrating considering that I totally, 100% dominated yesterday. I had a great lifting routine at the gym working with Romanian Deadlifts for the first time (ow). I was working through my twelve rep day of my periodization schedule (running through 12, 8, and 5 repetition days) and feeling the pain. I ate well – totally clean and right on the money. Drank my water and zero calorie beverages; it’s all great!

And then I couldn’t sleep. So, I decided to hop in my truck and cruise around Portland, praying at 1:30 in the morning. In all honesty, the spiritual side of things was great. Getting out and spending some time in prayer, being with my Heavenly Father was something that I needed.

What I didn’t need was getting hungry in the middle of the drive and seeing a Burger King with twenty-four hour drive through. Burger, fries, Dr. Pepper? There goes my ten attaboys and a pretty much blown day. Needless to say, I’m pretty chapped with myself right now.

My only recompense is to eat 100% right again today (which I’m on track for – gonna heat up my turkey chili / corn / black beans / rice 500 calorie man meal after I post this blog), get in some good cardio (by playing some racquetball with Ben), and get in anothe rgood lifting session before tomorrow’s weigh-in.