Holy Guacamole!

Happy Halloween everyone.  I hope all of you enjoy a safe and fun Holiday.  Here at work people are dressed up.  I am sporting my brand spankin' new Michael Scott's Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Pro-Am Fun Run For The Cure T-Shirt.  The thought of being Three Hole punch Jim passed my mind but, I needed to wear this bad boy.  Thanks to my awesome girlfriend for picking it up for me.

The other thing going on today is goodie day.  Lets just say it is 10:30 am and I am already 10 pts down for the day.  It is not looking good.  I will do my best to hold my own, maybe try to get a quick run in this afternoon and be as good as I can tonight.  However I was tasked with making the guac for a Mexican Halloween Celebration.  Not to brag but my guac kicks but and has addictive qualities.  Now I know that Avocados have the "good" fat, but lets face it.  Calories are Calories.  Oh and did I mentions the chips and tacos and cheese and not to mention all the sweets about the office.  Ugh... 

Tearing myself away from the bowl of guac now and trying to strategically plan my path through the office to avoid all the goodies.  Happy Halloween y'all. 

Gobbler Grind 5k

On November 23rd I will embark on my second 5k.  I should get a tech shirt for this one which is a big bonus.  The only goal I have for this one is to not freeze my butt off and to attempt to beat my previous time. 

Care to join me?

Reduced fat?

So I was at the the grocery store picking up some necessities and was going to pick up some Oreo's.  I picked up the reduced fat as an good weight watcher should.  Then I noticed that the full fat variety was on sale.  Well this Weight Watcher also happens to be broke so I took a look at the labels.  Are you kidding me!  Only 10 calories difference?  Granted the 2.5 grams of fat is pretty substantial but to me I felt like those 10 calories should have been more like 70.  True the calories are reduced, but I feel like if your going to offer a product that you are claiming to be healthier than your original version, it should be considerably healthier.

Just my 2 cents.

Huh. Isn't that strange

I am thanking the weight loss gods today.  Somehow I managed a Biggest Loser like 8 pound lose this last week.  Even after all the beer and pizza and just poor choices from the weekend I lost and lost big.  It may still catch up with me and I am prepared for that.  However I am back to tracking and should be able to get back to the gym again soon.  I did however manage a run last night.

I RAN to the Weight Watchers meeting.  How nuts is that.  It was a 3.25 mile run that kicked my but.  I was slow and was reminded very quickly why I like to keep to the side roads.  I had to stop 4 different times for traffic.  I just hate that.  There were other things that were more of a factor.  For instance, not running since the race.  The other was the hills.  Oh my goodness.  I had no idea it would be that brutal.  I made it though even with a little kick at the end.

So you might be wondering what I did the rest of the week to lose 8 pounds.  I wish I could tell you exactly.  I cut out most of the diet coke and all of the frozen box lunches and I tracked everything during the week.  More than anything I think my body was ready to be done with the weight.  I looked at a line graph of my weight loss and found that on 2 previous occasions after a stall I have losses come up in successive weeks.  And the first was generally pretty significant.

So I cannot explain it.  I just go with the flow and try to keep the train rolling. 

Why do I do that to myself?

I am beginning to think that I have a problem and this is not a good one to have.  After having a very positive week on plan I "celebrated" over the weekend.  I had a card game Friday night and then the Mizzou game on Saturday.  The problem is not so much with food although I did not make great decisions I did not really over indulge or binge on any food.  I lost control of what I was drinking and 2 days later I am paying for it.

Let me detail this weekend.  Friday was poker night at Matt's house.  Good friends telling stories and losing money.  It was a great time.  I had a beer in my hand ALL NIGHT.  I was drunk.  Not felling down but definitely well past tipsy. 

Then Saturday I went to my sons basketball game and then we were off to Columbia for tailgating and the Mizzou game.  It was Homecoming weekend and we always stay Saturday night for Homecoming weekend.  We tailgated before the game and I always have a drink in my hand, at halftime, more beer, after the game, um you guessed it, MORE BEER.  Back at the Hotel, MORE BEER, of and a few margaritas.

Noticing a pattern here.  I am not sure it was binge drinking, but I defiantly did not know when to say when.  My entire body still hurts.  My mind is a bit foggy still and my stomach is still churning away.  I believe it is going to be necessary for me to forgo alcohol in situations like the.  Situations where I can drink in such excess that I am just hurting my body.  I seem fine having a couple drinks with dinner, but when I am in a social setting where everyone else is drinking I guess I feel the need to partake in excess.

Obviously this has only a bit to do with weight loss.  Alcohol does not help your weight loss efforts.  I feel though that this is more about control.  There are times when I feel out of control when I am eating as well.  There are times when I think we all need to loosen up a bit.  This was not one of those times.

Not quite sure why I am post this other than to be fair with my readers.  I feel like sometimes I omit my struggles from my blog and I think you guys need to know the everyone I have ever spoken to about weight loss talks about struggles.  So I am posting this one.  I also think that by putting this out there and admitting this problem to you guys then maybe I will think better of it next time I am in that situation.

A much much better week and a look at the last month or so

Well I will quickly tell you that this last week has been so much better.  I have been staying within my points, I have given up diet coke (again), and have been eating pretty clean.  I did have Papa Johns Garden Fresh pizza for dinner last night because it was easy and I had the parent teacher meeting and all.  But other than that I have been pretty much on track.  I think I will have a decent loss coming up on Tuesday as long as I do not blow it this weekend.  I will be making every effort to not over indulge on the beer and tailgate goodness.  We will see how that goes.

Looking back over the last month or so I can tell you a couple of things that happened to me that caused me to stall out.  Or at least things that I think contributed to me stalling out.  The first is frozen box syndrome.  Be it Lean Cuisine, Healthy Choice or Weight Watchers, they all have these froze meals.  They are pretty small in size for a guy of 300 lbs on a 6'2" frame.  I have been eating those primarily for lunch over the past couple of months.  I think that lead to more binges and definitely lead to an increase in sodium intake.  Combine that with the fact that I had began to drink more and more diet coke and it was a recipe for disaster.

Factor two is more psychological.  I was training for the 5k.  I was really putting a lot of energy into that training and put my dietary concerns on the back burner.  I stopped tracking my food intake and was not all that concerned.  I needed fuel to run right?  Well maybe if I were an elite athlete maybe, but for a guy who was just heading out to try to finish.  I needed to focus on both.  I to restate.  I lost sight of the real goal which is to loss weight and get healthy.  The 5k was awesome and I will continue to run and run in races, but I will remember that I need to keep my priorities straight.

In the coming months I will be running at least one if not 2 races before the end of the year.  Both will be 5k's.  I will get back to the gym and start my weight training again.  I will also get reacquainted with the elliptical.  Most importantly I will be tracking my food again. 

On a side note-
I write this blog primarily for myself and try to make it as readable as possible for those of you who happen across it.  So given that I do have a pretty loyal readership I will throw it out to you guys.  Is there something you want me to discuss, a question I can answer?  My readers are always great and I appreciate all of you, even you lurkers out there. :-)

If I don't see you prior to Monday, have a great weekend!

Eggs are good!

Its funny how we can get off track and forget what worked so long ago.  This morning I made eggs.  2 eggs fried (in pam) served atop a plain piece of toast.  A total of 5 points for you weight watchers out there, but for those of you non weight watchers.  Those 2 eggs only have 160 calories and are loaded with 13 grams of protein.  Bingo!  What a difference getting in more calories and protein to begin my day made.  I should take my own advice more often.  Now if I could just get back to the gym.  Does anyone have a map?

Race Pics!

Below is pre-race at my house.  To the left is my brother Zack, down front is our Dad (Ken) holding Chuck Norris, To the right is my buddy Jay and of course in the back is the bearded wonder.  That would be me.

The rest of the pics are near the finish.  I had never saw my peeps taking pics.  I was focused on finishing strong


 

New weigh in day up 3.2 lbs

Well I am not going to lie that just kinda sucks.  That said I am not to worries about it.  I am back to tracking and I am trying to cut out the diet coke again.  I feel like I will probably rolling down the track again by next week and have the 300 number fading away in my rear view mirror.

I have changed back to Tuesday meetings.  I guess I feel more at home on Tuesdays.  The Thursday meeting is big and the leader is full or energy, but to me it is just not the right fit.  Last night I was able to identify why I like Tuesdays better.

At last nights meeting I was able to share my experience with people and get some conversation going.  With all the people and the dynamic of Thursday meetings that was more difficult.  So my move to Tuesday may be selfish, but I think it will make a difference.

In other news.

I am looking for another race before the end of the year.  I might be a bit hooked on the racing thing.  I am looking at couple of different runs nearby I just need to look at dates and see what might work out.  I plan on doing 5k races through the end of the year and another one in the spring and then move up to a couple of 10k races and get ready for the half marathon for this time next year. 

Who would have ever thought?  Matt Keeling is a runner.

What a great race! Race Report 5k - 33:54

So for those of you just joining me I am going to recap a bit. About 3 months ago I had this idea that I could run a 5k. I trained for a a couple of months and signed up the the 5k race of the Kansas City Marathon. I will tell you that I was nervous the week leading up to the race but I ended up running and doing pretty well. So on with the race report

The night before the race I did not sleep all that well, but I woke up feeling refreshed and ready to roll. My dad, brother and best friend Jay were at the house by 6 am and we were out the door by 6:15 and to the race by 6:30 or so. Upon arrival we were met by about 7500 people all preparing to run either the full or half marathons and the 5K. I must say that it is a completely impressive to watch about 6000 people running down the street as they took off down the street. 6000 half and full marathoners took off before the 5k runners. About 15 minutes later the 5K race began.

Once the race began I concentrated on not starting to fast and probably could have gone just a couple of seconds faster for the first mile. The second mile is mostly uphill and I felt like I ran that pretty well. Then what goes up must come down and mile 3 was pretty much all downhill so I was able to cook through that pretty quickly. I was somewhere near the middle of all of the 5k people and near the lower 3rd of all the men running it. Over all I am very proud as I was able to set a personal record and ran the race in 33:54. I think maybe I left 5 or 10 seconds out there but over 33 minutes I feel ok about that.

I crossed the finish line with my best friend Jay. My brother was about 3 minutes behind us and my dad was about 3 minutes behind him. I first want to thank Jay for running with me and holding back a bit so he and I could finish together. I will work hard so when we run our next race he will not have to hold up. I then would like to thank my dad and brother. I am so proud of both of you. My brother went out and ran the race basically with no training. My dad at age 65 ran the race in 39:11. He did his best to train a little and signed up at the last minute along with my bother. I am so proud of my brother, dad and Jay I am not sure I can express it.

At the finish line I was met by my girlfriend, her mother, my mother and Jays wife (who is also one of my very best friends). I was so happy to cross the finish line. Now I feel like it is time to start over again. As mentioned before I intend on getting back to my original plan and write stuff down and my plan also involves getting back to the gym. I am going get back to the elliptical and weights. I am going to cut back on the running for right now. I intend on increasing distance but only running once or twice a week while hitting the gym 3 or 4 times a week. This time next year the goal is to run the half marathon. And maybe even a full marathon in 2010. We will see as alot can happen between now and then, but for now that is the plan.

Overall I loved running the race and will run another soon. I now consider myself a runner. Thank you to all of you out there who have supported me both virtually and in person. I think you all know who you are. Not to get all sappy but I love you all and you all have a special place in my heart.

Just really quick

I was successful in my race. I ran the whole thing and likely set a new personal record. I am waiting for the results to post and they should be up by 3pm. I will give you the full rundown on the race later on today once I have the results. Thanks to everyone for all your support!

It's Go Time!

In more ways than one.   I have less than 24 hours until I will be running in my first organized 5k race.  If I look back at where I was when I decided to do this here.  I mentioned that I would have to train my butt off on Aug 20th just to run the whole thing.  Then on Sept 27 I was bragging about running a sub 35 minute 5k.  I might just break a personal record tomorrow.  I might not.  I will definitely accomplish my goal though.  I will run the whole darn thing.  So with 20 some odd hours to go it is GO TIME!

In what other way is it GO TIME?  I am glad you asked.  As you can see by the weight loss tracker to your right I have been stuck right around 300 for a while now.  I have been very lax in my efforts to write all of my food intake down and my exercise has consisted exclusively of running.  Beginning Monday I am going to begin anew.  I am going to rededicate myself to tracking and getting to the gym.  I will not give up running, but it is going to be a weekend endeavor.  I am going to get back on the elliptical and hit the weights.  The most important thing is going to be to track.  Not exceed my daily points and get this train rolling.   I feel very lucky that I am still on the tracks, I just need to move.

If any of you out there are struggling I invite you to join me in rededicating your efforts.  I think we all know what needs to be done, we just have to get our heads right.

ITS GO TIME!  

Nervous?

What if I am not at the right place at the right time?   What if I start of to fast and end up having to walk?  What if I sleep through the whole darn race?  And then there is the what if I look like a fool? 

But on the flipside, What if I do really well and break my own personal record?  I am just nor sure how I am supposed to feel leading up to my first official 5k.  I am excited and nervous and all of those things combined.  I feel like I am ready.  I have tremendous support from everyone around me.  So I guess that leaves it to me to get through the nerves and do it.

Tag! Well ok I will play.

Alright I got tagged by SuperDave to tell 6 random facts or interesting things about myself. I am going to play along, but I am not sure how interesting this will be. However random I can do. In turn I think I will tag, Will, Craig, and Tony

1. I am a big fan of fly fishing. My buddy Jason and I stopped in Missoula MT for an impromptu fly fishing excursion and it is absolutely one of my favorite memories. Fly fishing is peaceful and exhilarating all the same time. The small trout that you catch on a fly rod on 2lb test line is pretty rewarding.

2. I am an IT guy by trade, but never really want to do anything with computers when I go home. I just prefer not to think about it. I would much prefer to do something with my hands. One day when I am rewarded with retirement I hope to take up woodworking and build furniture or something.

3. I can play poker for hours on end (if I am winning and have the cash to stay in the game). Hopefully I can get a game together soon. I miss playing cards. Once upon a time I was pretty good.

4. This is probably true of everyone who has written a blog, but I never thought it would really get read. In the great big world that is the Internet we found each other and the blogging community is a very cool and supportive bunch.

5. I lived in Gurnee IL during 2005-2006. I took a job as IT Manager at Community Trust Credit Union. I ended leaving that job to return to KC to be closer to my son. I am happy with my decision to return to KC but I regret leaving that job all the time. The was by far the best job I have had. It was a great opportunity with great people. Thank you to Madeline for the shot, I am just sorry I was not there longer.

6. Back when I was a kid I would run wind sprints with the likes of formal Kansas City Royals, Frank White, Amos Otis, George Brett, Hal McRae, and others. Back when I was a kid the guys would come outside the stadium to the natural grass to run before the games because at the time they had Astroturf on the field. I would guess they did not want to get injured, but I would also guess that it was much cooler on the grass. My dad always wanted to make sure we got there when the gates opened so we could see batting practice and maybe snag a ball or an autograph. That gave me the chance to run with my heroes of the day. Little did I know my hero was the one taking me to the game in the first place. Thanks Dad.

Wow.

What a weekend.  First lets just get it out there.  My Tigers lost.  They got beat and they looked bad the whole game.  Another night game on tap for the now #11 ranked Tigers and this one will match us against the #1 Texas Longhorns.  Umm that could mean 2 weeks of PFLDS (Post Football Loss Depression Syndrome).

Lets talk for a moment about PFLDS.  I am not sure what to do about this.  I am so invested in this team, both financially and emotionally.  I woke up yesterday and was just numb to it.  I was in a bad mood for a lot of the day yesterday and today I don't want to be around people much at all.  PFLDS is an epidemic which has no cure other than for your football team to sack up and get a victory.  Thank goodness I separated myself from the chiefs a few years ago or else I would in a world of hurt.

But all is not lost.  Friday evening I went out for a 2 mile run, that ended up being a walk run because of an asthma attack and I did not have my inhaler.  But then I turned around the next morning and ran the course for the upcoming 5k this weekend.  The course good and I am sure I will run it a bit faster with a crowd.  The second mile is almost all uphill but it is not too steep so it was not bad, but going back down the same hill a couple of blocks over was awesome.  I finished in 35:15 and did not put in a kick in the end.  I figure I will get it under 35 without much of a problem. 

Then this was the best exercise of all.  I went here. I went to the corn maze with my son and my dad and we had a great time.  We made our way through the longest maze and then through the one of the others.  I would guess a total off about 4 miles of walking and running a back tracking and just plain fun.  If not for going to the Corn maze with my dad and son...  PFLDS would have taken over my weekend. 

Sometimes it just makes no sense.

So I was heading in the the WW meeting last night expecting a small gain, hoping for a small loss and what did I get...

2.4 pound loss

Holy crap!  Immediately I was thinking back over my week and wondering what I had done.  I literally had not run a step and had not worked out at all the entire week.  I ate decent, but nothing like I ate those first several months on plan.  So what happened?

Honestly I think that there is very little explanation.  I did what I could to make good choices but that was about it.  I think my body was just ready to give up those couple of extra pounds.  We get so tied to the scale and what it says and no matter what anyone says we still go back to it and look at it as our judge and jury.  I would love to tell you that I am no longer going to be that way, but I will tell you that I think I have come to the conclusion that continuing to move forward is the right thing.  Do your best and move on.  Don't concern yourself with a small gain, just move on.  Track trends and learn from them but do not obsess over them.

I hope you all have a great weekend.  I know I will!  We have a great slate of college football this weekend!  I will be at the Mizzou vs OK St game tailgating and screaming till I have no voice and I cannot wait.  My buddy Will over at 4XLT is on the side of the Cowboys of OK St but I cannot hold that against him.  He is doing great in his weight loss efforts too.  Check out his blog, you will be happy you did.

Almost Famous

Nah, not me, but I did get mentioned in as a Top 100 weight loss blog here.  Funny thing is that a number of the blogs I read are on there.  I am not sure what authority this blog has, but I will certainly take kudos when they come my way.

On to weight loss or lack there of.  Oh motivation where have you gone.  I feel like a big bowl of blubber lately.  I am running a couple of days a week and my diet has been suspect.  My plan is to complete my training for the 5k, run it as beast I can and then get back in the gym.  I think my knee will appreciate the rest as they have been buggin me lately. 

I am also think I will be pretty content to maintain my losses for a while.  I will be trying to lose, don't get me wrong, but I feel like I need a bit of a break.  I need to let my body and mind adjust before making another big push.  Or at least that's my story.  I will still blog and update you on what is going on.  I will still head to WW meetings.  I will focus on my exercise and trying to stay healthy.

Of course my plans may change tomorrow, Stay tuned.

What a weekend!

Not really on a diet front, but did you happen to see the Missouri Tigers take the Cornhuskers out to the woodshed. Most lopsided loss at Lincoln since 1955. Folks I am just gonna tell you now. If the defense happens to be even halfway for real this Missouri team will be playing in January.

So what the heck does football have to do with weight loss? Well basically that food log I promised got thrown out the window on Saturday and Sunday. I did not make great choices, particularly with the booze.

Saturday was great until dinner. I ended up with pretzels for breakfast, boiled shrimp for lunch but then came dinner. I had what I call Cajun Rangoon with Ala mer dipping sauce (look for more info on that below), Etouffee with rice and some cajun butter and bread. Now I did fine with the etouffee. I had maybe a cup and a half, so that was fine. And the rangoon was pretty light and I did my best to limit the sauce. But the beer. Lets just say I probably blew over 20 pts in beer. I was drinking Bass and then a couple of local brews that are stronger than your average beer. 9.0% and 10.5 abv respectively.

Sunday morning was breakfast out with our best friends Jay and Kelly! I had and omelet and some hash browns and a biscuit. That was more brunch so we ended up with chicken and shrimp with a twice baked potato for dinner. BUT.... in the middle of that was half a pint of Ben and Jerrys. Yikes! This sweet tooth thing is just brutal. Maybe it is an ice cream tooth. I also had some evening chips and salsa, but it was baked scoops so I feel a bit better about that.

So that was the weekend. Looking back I do not feel quite as bad about it, but it was definitely not that great weekend I thought it would be on the diet and exercise front. Oh yeah.. I have not run since Wednesday.

So back to it this week.

Now on to the Cajun Rangoon Recipe -
I would love to take credit, but Roni over at Ronis Weigh and her cooking site Green Lite Bites Gave me this idea. Here is the link to the recipe that got me started. Wonton Pizza Bites.

Basically I followed the same idea I just stuffed the wrappers with dirty rice and Cajun shrimp or dirty rice and Cajun turkey. Use some water to get em sealed up and put them in a mini muffin pan. Note: I think you could probably get away with a cookie sheet if you sealed them up well. Bake them at 375 for 15 minutes or so and bing bang popcorn! Appetizer! Oh but the Ala mer sauce....

Basically I put a TBS of butter in a pan and sautéed green onion, garlic, and fresh parsley until just br0wn, added about a 1/4 cup water and cooked it down to get all the goodness from the pan. Then add 1 pint heavy cream and Cajun seasoning to taste (for me that would be alot) and begin to stir, add parmesan cheese to thicken. I always end up using some cornstarch to get it thicker and in this case a I got it to a glue like consistency. And there you have it.

I have now typed another novel.... sorry guys. See you tomorrow.

Friday food

Not the greatest, but points are good.

Morning
2 item egg	4
1 large banana(s)	2
Subtotal	6
Midday
1 large banana(s)	2
1 6-inch Subway Club® Sandwich (with less than 6g of fat)	6
Subtotal	8
Evening
1/2 serving pringles (28)	4
4 oz cooked chicken fillet	3.5
1 cup cooked carrots	1
1 small apple(s)	1
2 Tbsp feta cheese	1.5
olive oil - Quick-added food	2
1 1/2 large potato(es), baked	4.5
3 items Reduced-Fat Chips Ahoy	3
Subtotal	20.5
Anytime
No entries for this meal time.
Subtotal	0
Food POINTS values total used	34.5

The Chocolate shake incident of October 2nd 08

A good day, and a weigh in that was even.  I gained nuttin and I lost nuttin.  A delicious taco dinner and I was well within my points.  I had points to spare.  I was golden!

Then it happened.  We went to Target to get some jeans for the kido and what is right across the street????  McDonalds.  I was in the drive through and had ordered a chocolate shake before I knew what had happened.  To make matters worse I ordered a large, 32 oz chocolate shake.  The one of 1160 calories and 27 grams of fat and a scant 2 grams of fiber.  Oh is was so good.  And I felt like crap after both mentally and physically.

So now that it is over I am back to the plan.  I am making a commitment to write everything down from today for 1 week, then I will try to start over.  I pay for the damn website I might as well use it right.  I will also list my daily food journal on the blog for increased accountability.

On that note.  I will see you all later tonight!  Have a great day. 

GO TIGERS! 

On the importance of exercise - A month in review

So over the course of September I lost a grand total of 3.4 pounds.  That is about what weight watchers wants you to lose.  So why did I lose them.  I certainly was not because of my stellar eating habits.  While they were not bad, they were not great either.  I do not anticipate them improving until after the first of the year.  As I have mentioned football season is upon us and there is serious tailgating to be done.  So how did I lose the weight this month???

I will tell you.  I ran 40.3 miles in September.  I burned an estimated 9652 calories.  So what does that tell me.  It tells me that I burned enough calories running to create a calorie deficit to allow me to lose some weight.  Somewhat plain and simple.  If I lost 3 pounds I would have had to create a deficit of 10500 calories.  I did the mostly with exercise.  More to the point if I had not got in the exercise my loss would have been pathetic.  Now I should probably factor in tomorrows weigh in and if I gain I will.  But I think is is important to remember from time to time we overcomplicate this whole battle. 

The battle breaks down this way.  You have a Basal Metabolic Rate.  This the number of calories you burn at rest over the course of a day.  Mine is 2631, you can find yours here.  So basically that is my jumping off point.  If I want to sit on my butt all day I can only take in those 2631 cals and maintain my weight.  So if I want to lose I have to create a calorie deficit.  So I do it by running.  You could do it by walking or biking or dancing or whatever makes you happy.  The point is that you have to create that calorie deficit.  Doing on diet alone is very difficult.  So get moving y'all.

I did want to comment quickly on running.  I would have never thought I would feel ready for a 5k race.  at this point I feel like I probably could have trained for a 10k but let not put the cart before the horse.  I am completely ready to roll on this 5k.  I ran 40 miles in September.  I will easily eclipse that in October and hope to maintain through the winter.  I still look at that number of 40 miles and shake my head.  I thought I was destined to be the guy who could never run a mile at one time.  Now I am trying to get faster while running 3 miles at a time and from time to time more.