Re-purposing

When I started this blog in May 2011, it was never intended to remain a diet/weight loss blog. . .and indeed the scarcity of posts since 2012 have shown the wisdom of not naming it something like "How to lose weight" or "Changing your diet"

For some time, my interests have returned to Scouting (specifically Cub Scouting) with my sons, and nowadays, I'm beginning the plan to move them to a Boy Scout troop (in as little as 13-15 months - wow!  Where did the time go?)

So, today I'm re-launching my blog, to deal with more scouting issues.

Thanks for your patience!

Patrick

Long weekends are NOT the dieter's friend

I took Friday off from work, giving me a four-day-weekend, and we did the usual 4th of July things.  (Including a visit from my brother-in-law.)

Karen and I had been making excellent progress down the scale . . . we "got serious" again on June 15, and had each lost significant weight.   My peak weight loss for this time around was 8 pounds on the morning of July 4.   Half of my weight loss since June 15, evaporated in a lovely weekend of fried-chicken, birthday cake (my nephews turned 1 and 4 over the last week, and we celebrated on Saturday) and a couple of big meals as we hosted my brother-in-law.   So . . . digging in again, at 232.  We'll see what a week of being back on the "normal" Phase II diet does for my weight.

Hopefully your long weekend didn't do such damage to your waistline. . . .

The Perils of Cheating

Today is supposed to be the day where I crow about the joys of finishing week 2 of Phase I, and share our wonderful results.

In reality .  . . we "cheated" last weekend, with family and an upscale burger place.

I'm also guilty of partaking of a snack day at work on Thursday ("mmm, doughnut" -- H. Simpson) and Friday was the last day of the Fiscal year.  That mean's the accounting software guy (that's me) gave in to a bit of stress eating mid-morning.

So......at the end of week two, we're exactly back where we were at the end of week 1.   I'm down 8 pounds and Karen is down 6 pounds.

We're not behaving particularly well today either -- we re-introduced carbohydrates at breakfast (pancakes with blueberries and bananas) and we're attending a pot-luck today at church.

We're promising to behave tonight -- we have a beautiful eggplant that's going to become dinner.  But we're going to be strict at least the first half of the week.

First Week's Results

This morning marks Day 8 on the South Beach Diet "Phase I"  -- I put that in quotes because we're hosting company today, and don't feel it's fair to make them follow our very strict diet.

So, after 7 days of being totally carb-free, we're unbending a bit.  I got "extra" wild this morning and wrapped a one-egg omelet and a strip of turkey bacon with a single flour tortilla.   Lunch will be wraps for Karen and I and sandwiches for everyone else.  (We have tomato-basil tortillas for that purpose -- a single tortilla has about 1/3 the carbs of the deli rolls every one else will use, and we don't think anyone else will complain about 98% fat-free meats).

Dinner will be a bit more problematic -- the boys have chosen Pizza Hut . . . I'm pretty sure that there aren't any low-carb options there -- other than just a salad, and I'm not willing to limit myself to just salad at Pizza Hut.   Dessert, I'm told, will be the local frozen yogurt shop . . . if the boys behave.

Even with the "transgressions" we're about to commit, I'm pleased with progress.  After week 1, my lovely wife Karen is down 6 pounds, and I've lost 8.

Progress is where you find it.

This morning I was recording my weight (day three of our two-weeks on Phase I) and noticed the cycle of numbers involved.   First, I was down a pound from yesterday -- Phase I is like that.   Second, this brings my total since Saturday to 3.5 pounds.  My total weight loss since May 15 (2nd anniversary of starting the South Beach Diet the first time) is 4 pounds.

And the one I take comfort in the most -- today's weight is 232.0 . . . exactly 50 pounds off of my peak weight on May 7, 2011.

I've backslid my way away from some of my other goals, but they're coming back . . . for example, I can still wear my size 40 slacks, down from a size 48 two years ago.   But I can't wear my size 34 belt from 1984.  I'm working on it though . . .

Hope to see 230.0 by the weekend.

We're going to "bend" a little bit over the weekend, since we have company coming.   I'll let you know how it goes.

A new beginning

As many of you know, I kept this blog from May 2011 through Summer-ish of 2012 as I was working on losing weight.

Here's the summary, for those who don't remember or weren't along for that journey:

In late 2010, I had been walking for exercise, and my sons had managed to injure my left knee . . . so I stopped.   At the same time, years of overeating had caused my weight to balloon to 278 pounds (I wrestled at 167 pounds as a senior in high school, so being 100 pounds heavier than that was a bit of a wake-up call).   In dealing with my leg injury, my doctor heaped upon me insults and lectures.  (I'm saying this good-naturedly, honest.)    His greatest hits included two comments:  1.  "You used to be an athlete, didn't you?" and 2:  "If you want to see your sons graduate high school, you need to lose significant weight."

So on May 15, 2011, with me at 278 pounds and my lovely bride at 196 we began the South Beach Diet, and started to exercise with a purpose (although the exercise has been limited mostly to walking).  In a mere three months, I was down to 244 pounds.   We plateaued briefly during the winter, but got back to serious weight loss in spring 2012 and our weight loss peaked last summer, with me at 217 on July 4, and Karen at 164 on July 1.  (Ahem -- motivation is where you find it . . . my 25th High School Class Reunion was July 13)

By Autumn, as you can see in my previous post in September, we had resumed a number of bad habits, but were generally sticking with smaller portion sizes, and eating better than we had before the diet. . . . but -- I hit the two year anniversary of the big lifestyle change (May 15) having put back 20 pounds.   So, today, June 15, we're starting Phase One of the South Beach Diet anew.

We're hoping to drop below our previous lows, and hoping you'll come along for the ride.

Breakfast this morning was the South Beach Staple . . . one egg, a strip of turkey bacon and no carbs.  We're getting ready to head for the grocery store, and the plan is to be totally carb-free for the remainder of the week.  We have family commitments next weekend, and we're going to hold to our previous policy of "bending" the rules a bit when with family -- THEY'RE not on a diet.

I'm planning to make regular updates to this blog -- and probably to go back and re-read the whole thing for inspiration tonight.

Continuing on

I titled my last blog post "The Lost Month" and suggested that I had considered calling it the "Lost Summer."   Since that post on August 5 was my only post for the month, maybe I should have.

Anyway, I started the month of August a half pound lighter than my one year anniversary of the diet on May 15, and ended August a pound heavier than that.

Proof we'd slipped into all sorts of bad habits was abounding. . . so the last week of August and the very first few days of September, we celebrated our return to being serious about the South Beach Diet by finishing off all of the carbohydrates in the house.

We returned to Phase I of the diet (basically eat only meat and vegetables) on Tuesday morning the 4th of September, and it's worked as advertised once again.  As of this morning, I'm 215.8 pounds, which is down about 5 pounds from last weekend, down 5.2 pounds from "Day 1" of the second year of the diet and down 66.2 pounds from where I started in May 2011.

We're still not going to be as strict as we were last year, but we ARE still dieting.  (For example, the boys have asked for Papa John's Pizza for tonight, as a reward for good behavior the first two weeks of school, so we're relenting and ordering.)

Here's a product plug, for those who've stuck with me. . .

We stumbled upon Jennie-O's "Turkey Ham" a few weeks ago and tried it.  The boys not only didn't realize it wasn't the genuine article, but Joshua (my pickiest eater) actually asked during the meal if we could "have this again soon."   It comes in about a 2.25 pound block and we roast it in the oven for 30 minutes at 350 degrees and carve at the table like you would a normal ham.

A 58 gram slice is a proper serving, and 4.5 grams of fat with 2 grams of carbs.   Works great for the diet.