Slimdude

Hi BSers. You know what? The scale says I am One Hundred and 47 pounds today. I do not know WHEN I have been this low but I think it has been at least a year. I am not going to Update my official weight until this weekend, but I am ahead of my goals and feeling good.

I am even wearing my “smaller fit” uniform pants today and they are still snug, but I can fit into them.

Okay so my tip for the day is this : if you have some exercise equipment like a treadmill, a bike, or in my case my trusty Gazelle and you REALLY don’t feel like working out… tell yourself if you work out for just 15 minutes…. about a mile or 100 calories burned… you can have a little treat.

Now the treat has to be something that IS GOOD but also less calories than 100. For me I use “No Sugar Added” Fudgesicles. I usually have one after my first mile but I am eating eat while working on my second. Even if I eat two or three I am only taking in 70-120 calories but two miles will burn about 200 calories.

 My point is, be kind to yourself and compromise…. give yourself some indulgences but don’t over indulge. You can’t really sit there and burn off a bucket of fried chicken in just half an hour but a sweet little sugar free fudgesicle will lick a chocolate craving… PLUS it has calcium and fiber!

Have a great Monday!

I’m having a great Sunday. The Boy is great, my wife is great, the House is great. Things are groovy. The doctors don’t know what to tell me really about my back and spine issues. I just have some sort of severe osteoarthritis. Hopefully it will not cause me to get discharged.

 My shoulders and neck and back always hurt. And then sometimes my feet and knees slightly ache.

 But I am in such a great mood, who cares? I’m on Dayshift this coming week. I have decided to visit 10 Buddyslim blogs everyday and offer encouraging comments everyday. 10 per day is my goal.

 Hope you all are doing great. I’m doing awesome in my walking challenge. I’m upset for tatiana that she has been injured but hopefully she’ll mend up and be back for this challenge or at least whatever one we undertake next.

 We’ll definitely have to up the ante for the next go-around.

Also I am down to 148 pounds and that has me super-psyched.

—Matt

 P.S. Has anybody seen any good movies lately? There are so many but mainly Elisabeth I really want to see. I saw the first one in 1998 and it blew me away. Has anyone seen the new one?

I feel so tired tonight. Like, unbelievably level “10″ tired, and I have to go to work in less than an hour… I got home today and fell asleep by 9am but by noon I was back up again.

This past weekend I decided to take a road trip and visit my Mom on the other side of the FL panhandle and my wife had to work so it was just me and The Boy and we had a pretty good time but my sister , who is about 12 or 13… well she spent the night with us while I was out there and she is so good but she was sick and she just got sicker as the night went on so there was that… and also for her age she seems so UN self reliant. Maybe I’m wrong but I think by the time you get that old you can start doing things like get your own drinks and food and snacks and … I don’t know. She just makes you do everything for her. She’s nice about it and polite but I don’t remember being that sheltered by my mom. She’s definitely raised her daughter differently than my brother and me.

 Yeah I’m 27 and my brother is 25 but my Mom had a girl later on and I think she’s 12. Maybe 11. Maybe 13. I forget. Like I said she’s a good girl but she just… she doesn’t do things for herself. Plus she was sick so that made it worse.

At least The Boy was good. But anyway I had Sunday nite off for Columbus Day so I returned home on Monday but I knew Monday morning at 9am when I felt exhausted from the weekend that it was going to be a tough one… oh yeah and my car got stuck in some mud and I had to get a tow truck to pull me out which cost 115 bucks!!

So yeah I was exhausted driving home on Monday and then my wife was sick but she went to work ANYWAY when I told her just to call in sick. I napped from 8pm to 10pm but I was dead tired all night I had no motivation to fix anything and all the jobs I got assigned I never could do because of some reason or another so then at 7am, like 30 minutes before I’m supposed to leave they give me some BS job and I was feeling tired and sick and I was pissed that they waited until 7am to even give me this so I didn’t end up leaving until after 8am and I missed an appointment I’ll have to make up later but anyway I got to sleep by 9am and woke up and fought off one binge at about 10:30am but around noon I got up with just a slight craving and I gave in… what’s worse is I wasn’t even really hungry at all and I remember thinking the food wasn’t even that good.

I’m so retarded I should have just gone back to bed but instead I felt too full and sick to fall asleep… I added up the extra calories and it seemed to be about 1600 so I decided to walk 8 miles = 800 calories plus skip the first two meals of the day… another 800 and I’d be okay. Up at noon?? Am I crazy? I’m running on THREE HOURS of sleep.

I know it seems a little weird but with everything else going badly the last thing I wanted was to gain weight. So I decided just to do it and then start fresh. And you know, the scale still shows me steady at “150″ and “151″ depending on when I weigh.

Argh.

I know this seems like a downer post but I’ll get thru this. It’s just that right now I’m tired and I’m not eating right and all… but it’ll get better.

It always does.

—Matt

P.S. Here’s one more Positive Note: my back is killing me. (note sarcasm)

you know, BSers… after having such a fantastic week, the last thing I wanted to do was crawl on here on Sunday afternoon and have bad news on the diet front.

Long story short, I had the grand-daddy of all binges last night. I can’t even explain why. I got up at maybe 11pm or so… I was not even that hungry. A diet soda and some Saturday Night Live would have easily satisfied me. And yet… I gave in… in a major way. I know I was not hungry because I did the “hunger test”. That’s where I ask myself if I could eat some celery or carrots or even fruit. You see, my theory is, If I am really hungry and it’s not just a craving you’ll eat those things. But no… I started with some OREO crisps and it was a massive downhill slide from there.

The scale numbers were incredibly cruel this morning and I am extremely dissapointed in myself that I blew my streak.

BUT! I refuse to let it get me permanently down for the day. I was too full to eat breakfast so I just had some coffee with some sugar-free creamer and for lunch I had a spinach salad with tofu which was very good. I have also Gazelled ten miles today. I have to do some things for “damage control” and also the exercise makes me feel better in mood.

I’m watching The Truth About Food on Discovery Health.

You know what? Taking it one day at a time again, and I’m going to see if, just one day at a time… October can be a completely binge-free month!

BTW, had a great time yesterday with my parents and when I took The Boy to the store to look for CDs, he walked right up to the display of “Best Sellers” and picked out the last copy they had of Kanye West’s “Graduation”, which I did not even see!! He grabbed it and held it up to me and so I let him play extra long in the toy car things in front of the grocery store.

Gosh it was so hard to get on here and admit to that terrible binge last night… I was riding such a high and I was so damn proud of myself. I always think I’ve got that habit licked and then… gee… you know… the kind of things I was telling myself last night : “I’ve been so good this week, I deserve this.” <—  That is the thought that triggered it. And then once I started, it was “Oh heck, I’ve already eaten three bagels, cookies, etc… might as well have some peanut butter and waffles…”

I’ve got to learn not to listen to that kind of thing in my head. And I’m not gonna let it keep me down. I refuse to do that!

—Matt

Well, BSers… the results are in, and I gained four pounds this week to put me back at 158. Now, I could choose to be all broken up about it, but instead I am pushing forward with a positive mindset.

I tell myself all I have to do is get back on track this week, and for me that means I have to “Just Say No!” to raiding the kitchen at night. And I will. I think I can shave this four pounds back off in a week.

And then it’ll be just four more pounds to my mini-goal. 150.

I had a blast last night at the AF Ball and today is going to be super-busy in terms of moving all the furniture. I’m still going to sneak in some Gazelle-ing before we start, though. I’m thinking of doing six miles.

Tonight will be our first night in the New Place and I think it’s a great time to face down that Night - Time Binge Goblin and start fresh. But I won’t have the internet again until Tuesday or Wednesday. So this might be my last post for a few days.

Take care of yourselves!

—Matt

Well, BSers… I have had what seems like a very long day. But also pretty fun. I’d be in an even better mood if I wasn;t in pain. I know you get tired of hearing it. Believe me, I get tired of feeling it.

Despite that, I am proud of myself for the things I do even with this problem. Marathon Girl asked if I had an injury. If you haven’t read my background blogging entries : I have some kind of arthritis that affects my feet and it has also caused degeneration in my neck spine discs. The discs slightly press on my nerves and they cause pain in my neck and shoulder area and back. Anyway. I am always in some kind of pain, it’s always a matter of degree of pain. I usually start the day at about a “5″, take some Celebrex and it goes to a “3″ or so before I exercise.

I’m on Robaxin during the day, and then at night I take Flexeril. But the point of this post was not to complain about my aches and pains. I still feel lucky to be able to do what I can.

And Today that was This : My son woke up extra early at 5am, so I layed down with him but neither one of us really slept. At 6am we got up and had breakfast and then we watched SpongeBob until it was time to get him to school at 7:30. I cleaned the house a bit until 8:30 and then I did The Gazelle for six miles while watching Regis and Kelly, and Kathie Lee was on there…

Then I had a small break and a small nap before packing up the car with my closet stuff mostly… you know, clothes… and since both my wife and I were off today we decided to go out for lunch. On the way out to the New Place we saw a turtle in the road and decided to rescue it. I don’t know anything about turtles but now I own one.

So we dropped off the Stuff at the New House and put the turtle in the bathtub and then we went to Sonny’s for lunch and I had a grilled chicken salad with fat free ranch. Then we went to Pet Smart for turtle stuff and also to the Mall so my wife could get some gloves to go with her dress.

Then we came back to the Old Place to get ready for the Ball and even though it wasn’t terrible, I felt chubby in my blues. Because I weigh around 160 and they were issued to me at 140 and I keep refusing to buy new pants. I knew there would be pictures taken and there were and they are nice photos but I can’t help but feel as if that is NOT ME in those pics!! Oh well. More motivation to lose 20 pounds, I suppose.

We picked The Boy up and took him to our friend’s house because she was babysitting for us, then the Ball itself was fabulous. My wife looked stunning and we met a lot of interesting people and I even danced for about 30 minutes to some old school funk and disco before I just had to sit down.

And here I am getting ready for bed and I wanted to share with you my day. Tonight I may indeed get back up and if I’m right, it’ll be about midnite when my Urge first hits because that’s about an hour or two from now. But I am tired of this habit and I know I can lose the weight if I stop eating at night. Also I don’t want to carry this habit… this demon… over into the new house and tomorrow is our first night over there. I want to leave that Poltergeist in this house, the Old Place and not taint the new Place with this!

Goodnite!

—Matt

—at some point. I could not make it last night. As a matter of fact, I gave in super-duper easy last night. I didn’t put up a fight… no “Maybe I shouldn’t do this…” “Maybe I’m not hungry…” “Maybe I should consider stapling my mouth shut…”

Nope. Nada. I went right to the kitchen and started eating.

It would be very easy for me to punish myself today and over-do my exercise or undereat. But I’m not. I lost seven pounds that one week and I did not take any shortcuts. I ate healthy meals three hours apart, I exercised, I stayed active and I established an Eating Cut-Off Time. The ECOT. And now this week I have not adhered to that.

But I am sitting here Blogging dutifully. I walked the 2 Mile DVD and then I did The Biggest Loser Strength workout. My son woke up very early so I got him out of his crib and got him some juice and he watched me workout and helped me a little. He wanted to lift the weights too so he was holding one of the 3 pound weights we have which i think is pretty impressive for a 21 month old. I was only worried he would drop it on his bare feet but he didn’t.

Anyway. I am inspired by blogs like Marge’s Blog and Lena M where they are so encouraging about the night time snacking and bingeing. But I have not been able to conquer it yet.

BUT! As long as I’m still alive and breathing there is time to change! It’s a new day (and a new night to try again!)

—Matt

Today is almost seems silly and flippant to write anything about weight loss and diet and fitness. Today is the anniversary of the day those terrorists flew the planes into our towers and changed the course of American history. I’m sure there will be lots of Blogs, on CNN and other channels about everything.

I just feel like sharing a few thoughts : America and Americans are strong. We are stubborn and courageous. A few planes into some buildings is not going to stop us. Let me tell you, I work with some of the smartest, most motivated people on the planet. America is never going to give up, and we will never lose the fight… because what we fight for is so precious.

The freedoms we want, and we want our parents to have… our children and our grand-children. I could probably come up with a lot more to say but I am in a time crunch this morning.

This morning I watched Depeche Mode’s “Exciter : Live from Paris” concert while doing the Gazelle thing. Knocked out five more miles so I’m up 25 total and I need to get to 300 by Thanksgiving. I really like Depeche Mode. I think they are my favorite band.

I also did 19 push-ups and 22 sit-ups. They are not as hard on my neck and back as you might think. But I am still pretty weak. In BAsic Training I could do nearly 100 of each in one minute. I really would like to be able to do about 50 in a minute for my test in November. So I am trying to practice them as often as possible. Push-Ups and Sit-Ups are the types of exercises that you only get better at them if you do them often. You don’t need to take “rest days” from doing just one set of push-ups.

I think tomorrow I will do Leslie Sansone’s 2 Mile Walk DVD  followed by the Biggest Loser DVD STrength workout DVD. It automatically has a warm-up and a cool-down and the actual weight part is 20 minutes which is about the most I can do these days before I am in too much discomfort to continue.

This Friday is the Air Force Ball and for those who do not know, the USAF turns 60 this year! It became a seperate service from the Army in 1947. I am happy about the Ball because my wife has a wonderful dress and she will look stunning.

I hope I will be 152 pounds… mind you that my “Blues” were issued to me when I was 140 pounds, so it will still be a tight fit, but at least it won’t be like it was before when I was in the 160s. Talk about sucking in your gut!

I’m just sitting here chilling and reading Blogs. Can’t believe the weekend is almost over already! The Boy and The Mommie are watching SpongeBob on DVD. I think we have five different ones including “Tide and Seek” and The Christmas Special and SpongeBob : The Movie.

I really like SB. I know not everybody does, but I do. He’s crazy and funny and such a nice guy… er… sea creature…

So today I initially felt a little… I dunno… not really depressed but just so stunned that I got up and let myself go nuts at 2am. That was so weird. I usually do so well if I can just get past the midnite section of the night. Oh well. I had a bit of coffee with sugar free creamer instead of breakfast. It’s not so much about depriving myself, but I’m just not hungry after I stuff myself only a few hours earlier, ya know? I walked a little bit while The Boy ate his breakfast and then his Mommie left for work so we played all morning and also I did little chores like clean the microwave, the fridge, the dishes, some laundry… you know.

For some reason I have this weird thing where cleaning up stuff is a peaceful activity for me. I see the fridge needs to be wiped down and organized so I go after it and then 20 minutes later it’s all clean and I feel great. I think that might be weird for a guy, and believe me I can be a total slob at some things. But dishes and laundry we keep on top of it. That’s why sometimes at night instead of eating I’ll organize something or clean something. It really distracts me.

Well I had The Boy help me as much as possible, and he was watching cartoons too… but he would stop and we would take “play breaks” every once in a while. he likes to play with blocks, cars and balls.

After our morning snack, we went grocery shopping and he was so good he sat in the little car they have attached to carts these days. The store had just opened so there was hardly anybody there and we had a great time racing around the store and getting the stuff on our list.

BTW… I posted a list of the type of things we buy at the grocery store on my main page under “Matthew’s Grocery List”. Just because there are still so many people out there who have no idea how to eat right at all. They still don’t know you are supposed to stay away from sugar and white bread and stuff like that. So that’s to help them.

Well we had my version of chili dogs for lunch. I buy the SmartDogs which are made out of soy. They are only like 45 calories and I like them but I’ll be honest with you : a lot of people don’t. I guess you have to try them to see… and I used Boca Chili and whole grain bread and fat free sliced cheese. And he ate it up! I was so glad after yesterday’s failed tuna cheese experiment. He also ate green beans and fruit coctail. I had an apple to compliment my two chili dogs.

Then he napped and I talked to my Mom on the phone while I walked 6 miles. I’m trying to keep up with my co-horts Ellen and Tatiana. I’m a guy and I’m very competitive so this challenge is working out very well for me. “Fat March” finale is tomorrow night, and The Biggest Loser kicks off on NBC Tuesday night!!

We are going to visit my Mom for her birthday on Columbus Day weekend and I hope I’ve lost a little more weight by then. I’m happy everyone was so happy for me here at BuddySlim about me losing 7 pounds but I didn’t really intend to lose that much at once. I’m hoping it will be more normal this week. 2 pounds. 3 at the most. I never felt starving :I ate about 1500 calories every day. It’s hard not to eat at night but the feeling isn’t really one of H U N G E R. It’s just this crazy urge to eat sweets. If I think about eating things like chicken or fruit or veggies, my body doesn’t want that stuff. So that’s why I think it’s so effective when I drink diet soda or chew gum. My body gets the sweet flavor it wants but without major calories. Also I’ve been known to use sugar free popsicles or sugar free Jell-O. It does work, I just have to get past that initial panicky feeling for 10 minutes or so.

This week is “Moving Week”. My wife is off a lot of this week and I am, too. We will try to get all our stuff taken care of for the new house, and then Saturday we are moving all the big stuff like furniture over there. And Friday is the AF Ball. It’s going to be a fun and busy week.

Later!

—Matt