Day #180 - Same Food, Different Result

As all of you know, yesterday was Thanksgiving. And when you think of Thanksgiving, food is the first thing that comes to mind. Well, yesterday did bring some good tasting food to the table. However, yesterday's Thanksgiving Dinner was a little different than last Saturday's "Friends Thanksgiving Dinner." The food was basically the same but there was a different result after. Last week I managed to escape "Friend's Thanksgiving" without gaining any weight. But unfortunately after yesterday's "Thanksgiving Day Dinner", I managed to weigh-in this morning at 228.4 lbs. Which is a 2.6 lb difference than what I weighed in at yesterday morning.

Now I am not going to jump to any final conclusions why my weight had changed this time and did not after last week's dinner. There are a few factors that could be considered in play this time around. I had been doing a ton of cardio around the time of last week's dinner. The reason was because I was traveling and I had not seen a weight room since the Tuesday before. Which means I had gone almost a week of just doing straight cardio. And without building muscle and doing just cardio, it could of made it easier for my weight to stay the same. That brings me to the current Thanksgiving Dinner that took place yesterday. After not being able to lift weights for a while, you could only imagine how much I wanted to get back into the weight room. And the last 2 out of 3 days have been weight lifting days for me. Those weight lifting sessions, combined with the more than normal eating amount yesterday, could have led to the weight gain. I am not sure if these factors are enough to explain this morning's outcome but I just wanted to bring them up. Who knows maybe I just ate more yesterday than I did last Saturday and that is why I weighed in more this morning. In that case, I could use this as a reminder of how fast things can change, if I let my guard down just for a little bit.

Regardless, the damage has been done and it is time to move on. I ate healthy the entire day today and got my cardio workout in as well. I am still feeling great and I am not going to let this small change in weight affect my attitude or determination. There is much more work to be done before my wedding day arrives. And I am extremely motivated to push forward! Here I come 222 lbs.....one step at a time!!

With that being said, let's get to the details of the day:

Meals of the Day (The Heavy Man - 35 Points)
(I am currently following the Weight Watcher's Points System)

Breakfast - 4 Eggo nutrigrain waffles = Points 4
Snacks During the Day - 2 granola bars = Points 4
Lunch - 1 foot long Chicken Teriyaki sub on whole wheat bread with 2 slices of american cheese and a serving of baked chips (Subway) = Points 18
Dinner - 2 grilled cheese sandwiches (All Weight Watcher's Ingredients) with a serving of baked chips = Points 7
Dessert - 1 Weight Watcher's ice cream cone = Points 2

Total Points Eaten Today = 35 Points

Exercise

Today I ran for 35 minutes on the treadmill. Tomorrow I will be executing my 3rd weight lifting day in the last 5 days! I am back to my routine... finally!

Day #180 - Weigh-In = 228.4 lbs

Day #180 Weigh-In

Day #180 Front Shot

Day #179 - A Very Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!!! I hope everyone had a safe and very happy day. I know I did, sharing it with family. Patty and I had to split up today because we both had commitments to fulfill with each of our families. I went to my mother's house and she went to her sister's house down in Delaware. And then next year we will have to figure out how to split time between everyone when we are married. But we will figure that out when we get there.

Anyway, I was excited to see my mother because I hadn't seen her in a while. She has been following my progress on the blog but that can only go so far. It is much better to see her in person. I was also excited about what her reaction would be when she saw me today because I have lost some more weight since I have seen her last. And her reaction was what I thought it would be. She had a huge smile on her face as she hugged me and then she said that I look skinner in person than I do in my blog pictures. I have to admit that it was awesome to hear her say that!

I had prepared for the meal today by eating small for breakfast and working out right after I woke up this morning. I knew I was going to be eating a little more than usual because my mom is a pretty good cook and of course it is Thanksgiving. And let me tell you, the smells that were coming out of her kitchen were amazing. I hoped that if I took the same approach I did this last Saturday at "Friends Thanksgiving" I would come out of this holiday still weighing the same as I went into it. So I made sure that I ate good portions during the course of the day. I actually ended up eating small pieces of turkey during the course of the evening with only having the sides during the main meal. Of course I had a piece of apple pie at the end. I think I managed to keep myself under control because I only got that "full feeling" in my stomach once. And I made sure to take a long break after it happened.

When all is said and done, it was a great over all day with family. I worked out this morning and made sure that I did not stuff myself today. I hope the scale will be as kind to me in the morning, as it has been to me the last few days. I hope everyone has a great night and I will talk to you tomorrow.

With that being said, let's get to the details of the day:

Meals of the Day (The Heavy Man - 35 Points)
(I am currently following the Weight Watcher's Points System)

* I did not count my points today because it was a holiday and I had a little more to eat today than I do during the course of a normal day.

Breakfast - 4 Eggo nutrigrain waffles
Snacks During the Day - 2 pears, 1 serving of yogurt pretzels, and a few small servings of turkey
Dinner - Turkey, Stuffing, cranberry sauce, green beans, sliced potatoes, and corn bread
Dessert - 1 slice of apple pie

Exercise

Today I executed my weight lifting routine: Alternating Cable Chest Press, Pull Downs, and Side Dumbbell Lunges (4 sets of each x 15 reps each), Stability Ball Push Ups, Cable Upright Rows, and Alternating Dumbbell Hammers (4 sets of each x 15 reps each), Bent Over Cable Rows, Side Raises into Flyes, and Alternating Leg Extensions (4 sets of each x 15 reps), and Knee Ups, Alternating Dumbbell Skull Crushers, and Side Dumbbell Bends (4 sets of each x 15 reps each). Tomorrow I will be doing cardio.

Day #179 - Weigh-In = 225.8 lbs

Day #179 Weigh-In

Day #179 Front Shot

Day #178 - Preparing Mentally for the Holidays

It was a very busy day at work today because the holiday is right around the corner. So it was very important that I got as much done today as I possibly could because everyone I have to deal with is going to be out of reach until Monday. It was a little stressful, but none the less, I got everything done that I set out to do. I really can't believe that it is almost Thanksgiving and you all know that means Christmas is right around the corner. But even more unbelievable is that my big event is coming up soon as well. It has been a long 6 months with this new company but I think all of the hard work will pay off. Or at least I hope it will.

Anyway, Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner. And that means I will be facing my hardest challenge to date because we all know that the worst time to try and stick to a weight loss program is around the holidays. But I think I have built up enough motivation and inspiration over the last 5 and a half months to get me through the next month. Plus I have all of you, with your constant words of encouragement, to keep me going strong. I also noticed that I can use my stomach to my advantage as well during the holidays. I have been able to go longer without eating cheat meals because my stomach as changed during the last few months. I used to be able to put a ton of food away without even breaking a sweat. But I struggle to finish meals that are larger than the portions I am used to eating now. And even when I eat something that is unhealthy, my stomach starts feeling it before I finish eating. It is another way I can tell that a piece of food is good for me because my stomach doesn't hurt after eating it. Anyway, I think I can use my stomach to my advantage because I do not like getting those types of stomach aches.

Well Thanksgiving is tomorrow I am a totally prepared to take it head on. With the food portion of the day I mean. I say this because my mother called me up today to express how excited she was that she is making a Thanksgiving meal that will be very friendly to my weight loss program. She bought me fruit for snacks, fresh cut potatoes instead of mashed potatoes, weight watcher's bread for turkey sandwiches, and vegetables as sides. I think tomorrow is going to be awesome and stomach ache free!! I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving Day!!

With that being said, let's get to the details of the day:

Meals of the Day (The Heavy Man - 35 points)
(I am currently following the Weight Watcher's Points System)

Breakfast - Egg whites on a multigrain bagel with a slice of american cheese = Points 9
Snacks During the Day - 2 pears = Points 2
Lunch - Grilled Chicken on a multigrain roll with a slice of american cheese and a serving of baked chips = Points 15
Dinner - 1 serving of homemade Chicken Parm (Weight Watcher's Recipe) and a serving whole wheat pasta = Points 9
Dessert - 1 Weight Watcher's ice cream bar = Points 1

Total Points Eaten Today = 36 Points (1 point over my daily limit)

Exercise

Today I ran for 35 minutes on the treadmill. Tomorrow I am going to play basketball in the morning and then weight lift before I go to my mother's house for Thanksgiving.

Day #178 - Weigh-In = 225.6 lbs

Day #178 Weigh-In

Day #178 Front Shot

Day #177 - I Love Being Home!!

This morning's event went well in Washington, DC. The atmosphere was great and everyone who was in attendance had a great time. And that is all fine and good. But the drive to come home today was another story. If any of you have ever driven from Washington, DC to New Jersey, you know that the almost 5 hours of driving can cause a person to go insane. Now take that 5 hours and add traffic to the mix and you have a recipe for the longest trip home ever. I hit traffic outside of down town DC, I hit traffic right between Baltimore and Philly, and of course I hit traffic on the New Jersey turnpike. I left the hotel at 12:30pm to come home and ended up walking into my apartment at 7:00pm. That is over 2 hours of traffic that I had to sit in today. And the only thing I could think of was getting home, eating dinner, lifting weights for the first time since last Tuesday, writing my blog, and going to sleep.

I especially wanted to get into the gym tonight. Now don't get me wrong, I love doing cardio and starting to play basketball again is a great feeling. However, I felt like I was missing something for the last week and I couldn't wait to get it back. As I walked into the gym tonight, I had that great feeling of being back home. And let me tell you, even though I have been working out every day, the body does know when it hasn't lifted weights in a while. I just know I am going to be waking up tomorrow morning with that great workout soreness, that lets you know that it was a good workout the night before. I also expect to have a little spike in weight during my weigh-in tomorrow. However, I have been wrong on my last few weigh-in predictions. But being wrong and still losing weight, is something I would take more times than none.

The last few days have been extremely long. Going to Orlando from Thursday to Saturday and then having to drive to Washington, DC and back, from Monday to Tuesday night, has sure been exhausting. But I am still looking on the bright side because I managed to workout every day, lose weight just about every day, and Patty and I are now heading into some family time with Thanksgiving right around the corner!

With that being said, let's get to the details of the day:

Meals of the Day (The Heavy Man - 35 Points)
(I am currently following the Weight Watcher's Points System)

Lunch - 1 foot long Chicken Teriyaki sub on whole wheat bread with 2 slices of american cheese and a serving of sun chips = Points 20
Snacks During the Day - 2 granola bars and 1 serving of yogurt pretzels = Points 6
Dinner - 2 cups of steamed chicken and broccoli with a serving of brown rice = Points 8
Dessert - 1 Weight Watcher's ice cream bar = Points 1

Total Points Eaten Today = 35 Points

Exercise

Today I executed the weight lifting portion of my workout routine: Alternating Cable Chest Press, Pull Downs with Band, and Side Lunges (4 sets of each x 15 reps each), Stability Ball Push Ups, Cable Upright Row on Half Ball, and Alternating Dumbbell Hammers (4 sets of each x 15 reps each), Bent Over Cable Rows, Side Raises into Flyes, and Alternating Leg Extensions (4 sets of each x 15 reps each), and Knee Ups in Roman Chair, Dumbbell Skull Crushers on Stability Ball, and Side Dumbbell Bends (4 sets of each x 15 reps each). Tomorrow I will be doing cardio.

Day #177 - Weigh-In = 226.6 lbs

Day #177 Weigh-In



Day #177 Front Shot





Day #176 - Cardio Has Been the Name of My Game

I woke up this morning fully expecting my "Friend's Thanksgiving Dinner", from Saturday, to have caught up to me. But it did not happen at all, I actually weighed in this morning at 227.8 lbs. This weight is the lowest I have weighed-in to date for my mission. I guess bringing back the early morning basketball with my friends yesterday morning, really helped to get my metabolism going for the day. To tell you the truth, I have been doing a ton of cardio lately because I have been traveling a lot. And the places I have gone or the past few days have not had any weights in their fitness center. That means I have not done any weight lifting in roughly 5 days. And the weight continues to come off at a nice healthy pace. I guess this does prove the point that my spikes in weight, here and there, can be attributed to my weight lifting. Which is not bad at all, because I would rather have good weight gain instead of bad. But I still can't wait to get back into my gym at home for a good weight lifting session.

Today was a very busy day. I am traveling again with Patty and we are currently down in Washington, DC for an event happening at Dunbar High School. So you can only imagine the turn around we had to execute today, after just getting back from Orlando on Saturday. But that is my life for right now. And amongst all of the busy work today, I did manage to get a few comments from some people about how I was looking. I still feel great every time someone goes out of their way to comment on my progress. Even my brother said something tonight to me. He hadn't seen me for a week because he has been sick and he kept on saying how great I was looking!

Anyway, it has been a long day and we have to wake up at 8:00am for another event tomorrow. Until tomorrow my friends, have a great night!!

With that being said, let's get to the details of the day:

Meals of the Day (The Heavy Man - 35 Points)
(I am currently following the Weight Watcher's Points System)

Breakfast - Egg whites on a whole wheat bagel with a slice of american cheese = Points 9
Snacks During the Day - 1 Pear, 1 serving of yogurt pretzels, and 2 slices of Weight Watcher's whole wheat bread = Points 4
Lunch - 1 serving of homemade Chicken Parm (Weight Watcher's Recipe) and a serving of whole wheat pasta = Points 8
Dinner - 2 pieces of grilled chicken, a serving of whole wheat pasta, and 3 reduced fat crescent rolls = Points 13

Total Points Eaten Today = 34 Points (1 point under my daily limit)

Exercise

Today I played basketball for 2 hours. Tomorrow I will be executing the weight lifting portion of my workout routine.

Day #176 - Weigh-In = 227.8 lbs

Day #176 Weigh-In

Day #176 Front Shot

Day #175 - A Very Pleasant Surprise

Yesterday I mentioned that Patty and I had a special engagement to attend with all of our friends from college. We have been calling it, "Friend's Thanksgiving" for the past 4 years. It is a Pre-Thanksgiving dinner that we usually hold a week before Thanksgiving Day. It was a very fun and relaxing time yesterday, that was much needed. However, I did put my Weight Watcher's Points aside yesterday to enjoy the day with everyone. And knowing how my body reacts, the day after a cheat day, led me to believe that I would be weighing in this morning, heavier than I have been the last few days. But that assumption was actually the opposite of what happened.

As I stepped up onto the scale this morning, I still weighed in at 228.8 lbs! My first reaction was that my scale was broken again but it is brand new and has been accurate every single day since I have purchased it. After that thought passed through my mind, I continued to think back on the order of events from yesterday, trying to figure out how in the heck I managed to stay the same weight. I did eat healthy the entire day leading up to our main meal, so I didn't eat crappy the whole day. The meal was around 3:30pm yesterday and I didn't eat anything else for the rest of the night, except for a Weight Watcher's ice cream cone. And I did end up going to the gym last night after everything was over. Did these 3 factors play a role in me not gaining any weight after the largest meal I have eaten in a while? I honestly don't have an answer for anyone because I really don't know. It was a very pleasant surprise to me this morning. All I know is that I am not complaining at all. Now who knows if it ends up catching up to me tomorrow, which could happen. But for now I am going to stick to the mission and hope that I escaped yesterday without any weight gain at all.

I also did something this morning that I haven't done in a long time. I woke up at 7:00am to play basketball with a bunch of my friends, that I use to play with every Sunday morning. This was a huge accomplishment for me because I am not a morning person at all. Well, I am extremely happy that I weighed in the same this morning as I did before my "Friend's Thanksgiving" meal. Let's hope that I keep this momentum going into the next week!

With that being said, let's get to the details of the day:

Meals of the Day (The Heavy Man - 35 Points)
(I am currently following the Weight Watcher's Points System)

Breakfast - 4 Eggo nutrigrain waffles = Points 4
Snacks During the Day - 2 servings of yogurt pretzels = Points 4
Lunch - 1 foot long Chicken Teriyaki sub on whole wheat bread with 2 slices of american cheese and a serving of baked chips (Subway) = Points 18
Dinner - 1 serving of homemade Chicken Parm (Weight Watcher's Recipe) with a side of whole wheat pasta = Points 9
Dessert - 1 Weight Watcher's ice cream cone = Points 2

Total Points Eaten Today = 37 Points (2 points over my daily limit)

Exercise

Today I played basketball for an hour and a half. Tomorrow I will be executing the weight lifting portion of my workout routine.

Day #175 - Weigh-In = 228.8 lbs

Day #175 Weigh-In

Day #175 Front Shot

Day #174 - Travel Series Part 12c - A Pre-Thanksgiving Celebration

Patty and I are finally home!! This morning's travels started at 6:00am in Orlando, FL. And I can honestly say, that this particular travel day, might have possibly been one of the worst travel days I have ever experienced. Waking up at 6 am was the easy part, it was returning the rental car, and getting to the gate that was frustrating. The rental parking lot was like a maze and after 15 minutes of searching for the car company, we finally found it tucked in a corner. We then had to carry all of our bags, for what seemed to be, about 2 miles to the ticketing counter. After we managed to get our tickets, we made our way to the security check point, which was out of control. There were no defined lines to stand in, there was only a large group of people standing in a gigantic cluster, trying to get into the security gate. After waiting about a half an hour, Patty and I finally made it to our departure gate. However, Patty's seat was no where near mine and we had to ask the gentleman, that was sitting next to her, if he would switch with me so we could sit next to each other. The man was kind enough to do so. After all was said and done, we finally arrived home at 1:00pm, which calculated to 7 hours of traveling. But the good news is that we got home safe and sound.

The reason we were so anxious to get home was because of a very special engagement we had today. Today was our Pre-Thanksgiving celebration with our group of friends. Patty and I have been celebrating Thanksgiving for the last 4 years with a group of friends that we have known since college. And since everyone spends Thanksgiving Day with their families, we decided 4 years ago, to celebrate the holiday, the week before with our group.  We call it, "Friend's Thanksgiving." So, I actually have 2 Thanksgiving dinners each year. And for those of you who don't know me, Thanksgiving Dinner is my favorite meal of the entire year. And being that I have not cheated in a while, I decided that today was a special enough day, that I would not keep track of my points. I did not go crazy today with eating, but let's just say that the food that is in my stomach right now, can probably last me until tomorrow evening because I am used to eating several smaller portions during the day.

Having "Friend's Thanksgiving" today was very relaxing and fun. It has been a while since I have seen all my friends because I travel way to much. And I know I am going to be dealing with the consequences tomorrow because of my food selection and intake for today. But I take full responsibility for whatever happens on the scale tomorrow morning. I have a feeling that I will be back in the 230s for a short period of time, come tomorrow. And I will bust my butt to get back into the 220s if it happens. Life is too short to be letting small things, like weight fluctuation, get me down. When all is said and done, I had a great time today with a group of people that I love very much.

With that being said, let's get to the details of the day:

Meals of the Day (The Heavy Man - 35 Points)
(I am currently following the Weight Watcher's Points System)

Breakfast - 2 granola bars
Snacks During the Day - 2 eggo nutrigrain waffles, 1/2 a serving of popcorn chips, and some crackers with cheddar cheese
Dinner - Turkey with gravy, small serving of mashed potatoes, carrots, serving of sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and stuffing
Dessert - Hot chocolate with Baileys, 1 slice of apple pie, and 1 brownie

Exercise

Today I ran for 35 minutes on the treadmill. Tomorrow I will be attempting to play basketball in the morning and weight lifting in the afternoon.

Day #174 - Weigh-In = 229.6 lbs

Day #174 Weigh-In

Day #174 Front Shot