The Battle of ________

So work is driving me up a wall, the Caps are giving me bi-nightly heart attacks, life in general could be going better, but all is not lost! My weight is going back down. I'm now within 3 lbs of my ending weight after getting up to as much as 9.

Tonight is Game 7 of the Eastern Conf Semis against the Pens. I'll be leaving work at about 4:30 to go down with Megan. Tim is stuck in Ohio for business. Going to hit up the bar for something but I may not drink. Too nervous. We'll see.

BTW last night I didn't eat a real dinner. Just had a coffee milkshake and fries from Wendy's and then an iced coffee. Spinning this morning had me just about puking my guts out. Had to stop a couple times to focus on the task at hand and trying not to require a clean-up on isle four.

Anyways... I'm going to write something about my addiction to the Caps to get it out of the way tomorrow. Hopefully there will be good news to include and a preview of who we might be playing next... but I wont get too ahead of myself.

keep your fingers crossed! /crosses fingers

Still here

but no time to write... must get much work done before splitting to watch the Caps win game 7. Weight is still at 234... but I'm getting a ton of exercise to combat all the bar associated stuff I've been consuming.

More later.

A Delayed Post from a Delayed Winner...

Sorry I'm such a tardy poster but I've been scrambling for the last week or so. I won the Biggest Loser pretty handily. I ended up losing 43 pounds of total weight and saw a 27% decrease in my body fat. I'm pretty happy to say the least but I've still got unfinished business.

Right now I'm writing from Megan's parent's computer in South Carolina. The last week has been, while not the most unhealthy I've ever been, not exactly my ideal New Mac. But I guess that's to be expected. I'm having a little fun with no restrictions.

Jason and Megan both tried to pry out of me what I wanted for my first guilty meal but I didn't have anything in mind. There was no craving. I just wanted a smoothie and a salad and I would have been happy. J wasn't having any of that so we went to Chipotle. Megan certainly wasn't having any of that so we went to Taco Bell. I didn't go crazy at either place as my body and mind knew I couldn't take too much junk but I was kinda sketched out as to why I didn't want anything. Lifestyle change is good and all but I figured I'd still want a burger or something.

My moment came at work on Tuesday or Wednesday when the cafe had some hot lunch options for a Spring Break Camp we were hosting. I ignored the adult fare that was prepared for us working stiffs and immediately locked on to the steaming pan of oven baked mac-n-cheese.

This was an orgasm on a plate. Fucking simply fantastic.

My co-workers that were walking with me in line said my face was priceless. My face froze in this huge wide-eyed smile. Kinda sounded like the people in the "Blackhole Sun" video by Soundgarden back in the day. Anyways.... My stomach is still my stomach and it was quite happy being filled with heavenly cheese.

Since I've been down visiting Megan's parents we've been eating like it was going out of style but mostly its been snacking. The Kelly's are infamous for it. So I've been enjoying myself but all the while knowing that when I get back to DC, on Wednesday morning I'll be back at spinning class to make up for all these Easter goodies.

It doesn't help either that the Caps start their playoff push on Wednesday night and Tim and I will be in our seats at the Phone Booth. I promised my bartenders at Bar Louie that I would make up for lost time so there’s another bunch of calories I'm going to have to make up.

Bottom line is this. I'm going to allow myself to eat "good" stuff but it has to be countered with a hard day at the gym. I still have a personal goal now that the Biggest Loser is over so I can't go back to my old self or even just get into a maintain mind set. I want to be down to 220 or so by my beach trip in August. This will allow for a slower loss schedule than the 3lbs/week I was shooting for the last three months but will still require effort on my part. I'm actually kinda excited to see if I can do it now that there's no money on the line.

Oh yeah I don’t think I ever mentioned... I pulled down $1280 in this whole thing. :)
Megan, her sister Ashley, and I are about to go out to the outlet mall near her house and I'm looking for a new backpack so my flight home tomorrow morning wont be quite so cumbersome.

The blog will continue with entries once or twice a week. I think that is pretty obtainable. Thanks for all the support and well wishes through this whole thing. I found out that far more people are reading this thing than the "fans" I have listed so I guess I owe you guys some of my prize money.... who am I kidding... those greenbacks are all mine!

Once I get back into town and actually have stats in front of me I'll recap this whole thing. And setup the next round of fun.

Talk at cha later!

Music is my road... into a pair of 36 jeans... maybe.

I'm totally in a massive funk right now. Not for any particular reason. I’m sure some of it has to do with not eating much, some with only losing .5 lbs last week, our CEO coming straight out and telling us no raises this year (in April when raises are in JULY!!!), feeling under qualified to leave this pop stand, wanting to be home working on the yard, having my current client continually miss payment deadlines, etc.

I basically just want to shoot anyone that walks near me right now. (please don't use this in a police report later... I'm not seriously going to kill anyone.... might maim um a bit tho)

Last night I did get to see Wynton Marsalis at the Nancy Hanks Lecture put on by Americans for the Arts. It was a flash back to Erdmann's jazz history class + Ken Burns on Jazz + every book on jazz history I've ever read all rolled into one for the purpose of realizing how much American music has helped develop our culture and other cultures around the world without most people ever knowing it.

So afterwards to try to get off the depressing topic of music appreciation in public schools I started to think how I could relate what I heard from Wynton to what the subject matter of this blog is. I actually came up with something.

I'm paraphrasing here (but I'll post the transcript when it is made available) but he basically said how people need to know where they've been and where they are so they can make sure they don't just circle around and repeat everything all over again. He made a very spot on comparison to early 1900's minstrel shows and the degrading lyrics about women and blacks and then rapped lyrics from Dr. Dre's "Ain't Nothing But a G Thang." It was startling how similar the content was between the two considering the later claims to hate and rightfully should hate everything related to the whole black-faced debacle and that whole segment of American history.

My fattiness point is this… I’m good at losing weight it seems. I’ve done it three times now. The first time was junior year of college when I lost 40 some due to a long relationship ending badly. Second was 18 months ago when I lost 23 in the first biggest loser competition. Now I’m down 38 and nearing the end of this biggest loser run. Calculating the net gain/loss of weight over those 6 years and I’ve lost over 100 lbs and still manage to stay in the 235-255 weight range when I should be well under 200. I’m a yo-yo’er that can’t keep the weight off. This cycle of obesity needs to stop. I need to learn moderation. Most importantly I need to remember how tiresome, tough, time consuming and overly obnoxious the whole weight-loss process is. If I can manage all of that… I might actually be able to keep off all the hefty spare tires and learn to not repeat this shit again… as much as I love this blog and all, its just not worth it.

Me no likie the fattie...

So I went to copy the 3 paragraphs I had written in the editor so I wouldn’t lose it and what did Blogger do? F’n deleted my shit. BAH!

Anyways, long weekend of not so good foodstuff (I love that word… so underused) and not as much exercise as I had hoped for. Megan’s sister Ashley came into town though and it was awesome to see her. Because of the gym and a trip to Raleigh, NC to see the Caps, I didn’t get to see as much of her as I would have liked too but there will always be next time.

12 days left.

That’s all I have before this damned contest is over. There is some real competition around the office this time too. I thought that with the executive mandate of no outside contestants would make this a shoe in for me but a pair of girls are bringing it. Now, to be fair, one of them (Alison) got engaged right after we all weighed in… so she has motivation on top of motivation. Ana in marketing, is just working her arse off to get back into college shape. She’s where my money would be if I had to pick a winner right now. No one will agree to occasional weigh-ins because they don’t want any influence to let up or to give up so I have not idea where they are in comparison to me.

A pair of guys are making some serious strides but I’m sure I have them both topped at the moment…. I think. While I’ve lost more weight than anyone else here, that doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m in the lead. Because we’re going off of % change of fat percentage it’s impossible to eye-ball.

A person can lose all the weight they want but if the fat % isn’t dropping then its not going to get them the money (please give this man his money J). So for the next 12 days fat content is going out the window. This means:

-Nothing mass manufactured (where all the darned saturated fat is)
-Nothing with much sugar (because it’ll turn to fat)
-Nothing that tastes good (because it can’t be good for you… can it?)

So salads, bananas, and whatever else I can think of along the way.

Imma gonna be a cranky guy here in a minute.

But in the meantime… this still makes me happy:

What pisses me off: Part 1

...Fucking people who say "gee lets go to the gym" and then sit idle in their cars in a small circular parking lot with their hazards on only to grab the first spot that someone leave from. Not only does this back up cars sometimes 10 deep as they try to get around but its absurd that they just cant park in the HUGE empty lot on the side of the building.

If you're going to the gym yet too lazy to walk an extra 100 ft you deserve to be fat the rest of your pathetic life.

That is all. :)

And I'm BACK... briefly.

I’ve been razzed therefore I’m blogging. It’s a horrible thing that its come to be this way. I really do want to write daily. I just don’t have the gumption to fit everything into my home time. The blog gets voted off the island. Sorry!

But I am constantly thinking about cool “feature article” type stuff for content throughout the day. Things like “Eating out on a Diet” which would include all my concerts and sporting events I’ve gone to, “You might be in a Biggest Loser contest if…” which would include all the embarrassing/humorous moments in public, “Recipe of the Week” which would focus on my culinary side (lol), etc.

When will I ever write any of these things? About that….

So to be brief, I was sick all last week and only went to the gym once. Sinus infection/flu plus a ton of work hours and = good weight loss apparently. 3.5 lbs fell off me just by not having an appetite and sweating off the flu. I’m alright with that… As long as it stays off.

My appetite hasn’t really come back since I started feeling better either (knock on wood) maybe the stomach is shrinking. About dammed time!

I just want to say that despite behaving once this contest is over; I look so forward to allowing myself a beer or two at Bar Louie. The bartenders are so disappointed in me. Laura and I were at the bar pre Caps game the other day and Tracy (my fav bartender) came up to me and ask if I wanted my regular, which I turned down for a sugar free Red Bull, free burgers and fries which I couldn’t touch, and FREE BEER which I abstained from. All I got were sad looks from bartenders that are used to me throwing several sheets to the wind and tipping them their monthly rent.

Oh ya… if anyone is dying, I’m CPR certified again. Just a FYI.

Watchmen kicked ass despite sitting in the third row. That’s a good sign IMO.

Lastly, this tune had me rocking far more than I would like to admit last week when Bernie, the 65 year old spinning instructor that I’m not all that fond of, pumped it up:



Brings me back to my childhood. /sigh

Catch up!

So let me start off by apologizing for the slacking on my part Blog. I know you enjoyed spending time with me and I’m such an asshole for neglecting you. Lisa Facebooked me last night and said that she spent hours talking with you about how hard its been being alone these last couple of weeks. I can’t promise that I can change all that much but I can assure you that I’ll never go completely away. I’ll leave that up to you whether that’s a good thing or not. Now, let me catch you up on my life.

I don’t remember a lot of individual details for the last 10 days but on Saturday the 7th we were able to get in our first game of Frisbee this year. I was stoked. To boot it was like 68 degrees out. This was my first time back at the field of my ankle injury since October. There was about 18 of us to start the game which was a solid number. I was able to sprint a bit but as the game went on, I could tell that my ankle was not doing too well with all the uneven ground. Apparently my arse needs some new shocks. I had to split two hours in so I could make the Caps game that night against Florida. I’m glad I did. It was fantastic stuff.

Since then, the Caps have been on a 3-game road trip which has me longing for some Phone Booth action. Mike Green solidified himself as a Cap to remember and FINALLY I know who my next jersey is going to be… Hopefully before the playoffs. I think its time I add a real current caps jersey to my collection so I can actually rock the red. Now for a short “Get to Know Mike Green” segment (watch out for those simpletons from Regina!):





Broke down and went to Circuit City to check out the liquidation and of course, talked myself into buying a Xbox360 Elite. Still expensive at $315 but that’s $85 dollars off the retail ticket price. Picked up NHL 09 too. Don’t have a HD TV yet but that will come with time.

Eating has been a mixed bag as of late. I’ve been doing okay during the day. It’s been a mixture of healthy leftovers and Harris Teeter. Unfortunately for the diet, Megan and I have been going out and actually attempting to not be hermits. We’ve done Macaroni Grill, Chili’s several times, and a couple other places I can’t think of at the moment. I’ve managed to stay fairly obedient but things like bottomless tortilla chips at Chili’s is tough to say no to. On the flip side, I’ve been banging down vegetables, whole grain pastas, and lean meat so as long as they don’t use 2 sticks of butter per meal, I should be alright.

Went to the gym for cycling on Saturday morning and a fight almost broke out between two women and the manager of the gym. Apparently they’ve been saving bikes for friends who hadn’t signed up for the class yet and people getting to the gym early couldn’t get a bike. It was one of the most childish things I’ve seen from fully-grown adults. On weekends now they’re going to call each one of us to enter the studio in order of sign-up. Fine with me as I usually get there with time to spare but damn people… It’s a fucking spinning class not the war on terror. Had another KICK ASS new teacher that day too. I like my man David but these two chicks the last two Saturdays have been a whole new experience. I am literally less of a man when they’re done with me. Good stuff.

Valentines Day was good. Not quite as planned but good nonetheless. Megan and I were planning on going ice skating at the Wheaton rink and then to dinner at Macaroni Grill. Well the geniuses at the rink decided that Valentine’s Day would be a great opportunity to close the rink, and cancel their adult skate. So much for all those hopeless romantics looking for something to do. Does anyone else think that’s weird? We decided that instead of the cheap option, we’d go to Best Buy and buy Guitar Hero World Tour for the Xbox so she and I could play something together on my new toy. After a horrible customer experience at the Wheaton Best Buy (I’m not longer going to shop there), we went home and got a couple rounds in before dinner.

Dinner was awesome because despite the hostess screwing up our reservation time, we got seated immediately in a VERY packed restaurant while the line out the door cursed at us passionately. The waiter, despite bringing us water glasses for our glasses of wine, left the whole bottle of house Chianti on the table and then only charged us for one (1) glass of wine @ $4.99. Can’t complain about that one bit.

I guess I should address the weight issue since this is a weight-loss centered blog. With all the eating out I thought I was going to be screwed but after a good spin this morning and some light weights, I came in at 248 lbs! I didn’t think there was a shot in hell I’d be under 250 and in fact was preparing myself for my first gain of the competition. With this bit of good news, I’m down 21.5 lbs in 6 weeks which keeps me slightly above my goal of 3 lbs a week. Solid.

Anywho… got staff meeting here in a couple minutes which reminds me, I never told you why I disappeared. My blogging schedule had me doing most of my penmanship during work hours… usually around lunch. Well on the 2nd of February, Strathmore laid off 6 people including 2 people from our department. Put those on top of Veronica, our Ops Assistant, who left earlier in January for another job, and that gives Miriam and I 5 jobs to split between the two of us with no relief in sight. My only work time to write now is when I get in early on spinning days and can get most of my narrative done by 9.

Hope whoever reads this finds it in their heart to forgive my laziness and are doing well personally.

It may not be the right venue for you....

But it is for me!



This is my current inspiration.

First Goal ACCOMPLISHED!!

I don't have jack time this week to write as we've had a bunch of lay-offs at work and those of us that are still left are scrambling.

Didn't go to the gym Monday or Tuesday but after back-to-back workouts Wednesday night and Thursday morning, I weighed in at 254 lbs with 27.3% body fat.

That's one pound past my initial goal of getting back to where I was when I started the last biggest loser.... Now to continue to average 3 lbs a week the rest of the way and the money will be mine!

Catch up with ya'll later. Hopefully this weekend.

Well this has been one long week....

Here's the cliff's notes to get us all back caught up:

-Monday- Eat decently, Went to the gym after work.

-Tuesday- Went to a spinning class (a good instructor), ate decently during the day but as the night went on... and the Caps lost in OT after leading the entire game, I ate a bigger dinner than I should have and had some xmas cookies

-Wednesday- Couldn't get to the gym because of the ice and the laziness. Took this day as my day of rest. Went to Starbucks in the morning. Ate some banging Japanese style veggies for lunch at work, went to Cosi for a 180 calorie Tandori Chicken salad (amazing) and a caramel latte. Then went over to Marco and Lisa's to see the kidlets and play some rock band.

-Thursday- On 4 hours sleep I went to a spinning class (fucking old man Bernie again!), did some upper body and abs, had the staff birthday lunch (fresh fruit and salad with "healthy tuna salad") and stayed away from the chocolate cake from Silver Diner (damnit I hate this crap). Got a haircut and swung by Subway for a 6 inch roast beef. I believe Jared made my sandwich so I'm sure it was healthy. Sitting here, writing to you, watching reruns of Highlander: The Series

-This weekend I have a planned break from the diet for one meal as Megan and I are going to Benihanna's for our anniversary. Other than that I plan to hit up the spinning classes and watch what I eat.

-Next week is going to suck and I'll tell you why on Monday night. Its going to involve lots of hours and ton of stress for the forseeable future... but hey... It could be worse. I could still weigh 270. :)

-I leave you with my new favorite friends... If you'd like to meet them they'll be protesting at Strathmore on Feb 15th. Oh boy!

Yet Another Weekend...

First off, Megan got up on Friday night and we made the 10:15 viewing of the Wrestler at Bethesda Row. I miss that theater. It has so many good movies. I need to pay more attention to the movies showing there. I'll add that to the list of resolutions. I highly recommend it. Marisa Tomei and Mickey Rourke were both amazing and, who knew, but Marilyn Manson's girlfriend was in it (Evan Rachel Wood). Don't go see it if you can't handle violence and nudity tho.... definitely a lot of both.

Onward with the liquidation of my obesity...

Saturday...

I got up WAAAAY earlier than I would have but it was for a good cause: my first experience watching my buddy Brian coach high school hockey. Carly kept me company in the surprisingly too-cold-for-my-liking rink at Cabin John. We had Starbucks to keep us warm for a while. I had my regular.

I was supposed to go to a house warming party at BJ's and Lisa's in Gaithersburg and was all siked about it. Too bad I thought it was at night and it was really at 1pm. DOH. I had already made plans to help move some things out of my grandmother's old apartment at Riderwood Village (she's now in an assisted living unit). My Christmas present to her and the rest of that side of the family was to work on digitizing all of grandmom's photos. I have about 12 boxes full with um. Needless to say I'll be sharing many of them as time progresses.

Also managed to get some decent furniture that I remember from my childhood that she couldn't fit in the new place. My prized possession from the search was her old table-top Asian lantern lamp. Its a perfect desk light.

Came home and had a Indian veggie burger from Trader Joe's on half a pita. Megan then went off babysitting (a job I'm glad Im not a part of), and I caught up on BSG, True Blood, Dirty Jobs, and watched the NHL All-star Skills competition while doing a good amount of laundry. During this time I was snacking on pretzel crisps from T.J.'s (insanely low calories!!) and some salsa. Megan came home at like 11:30 but I was already passed out.

Sunday...

Got up at 7:30 or so and went to a spinning class. Of the three I've been to, this was the first with a different instructor. His name was Bernie. I was expecting a big athletic black dude. I got a 60 y/o spindly white dude. He played a couple of P!nk songs and some Black Eyed Peas but for the most part his music selection sucked, there were awkward breaks between tunes, you couldn't understand a word of what was coming out of his mouth, and what you could wasn't enough to really keep me engaged. I ended up pushing myself through it harder than was intended which was good I guess. Good news is now I know he is always here on Sunday mornings... so I just wont come to them. Bad news is, other than saturday morning (David who is awesome), and Sundays with Bernie, the rest of the classes throughout the week are a random draw of 4 instructors. Guess I'll have to keep my fingers crossed I don't end up with him too often.

Came home, took apart and put away the Christmas tree, and ate another veggie burger and 1/2 pita. Ran some errands (grandmom's, Kohls, and SuperFresh) and now here I am getting ready to watch me some NHL All-Star game.

In case you missed it I'll leave you with Alexander Ovechkin's skill shot winner from last night. (BTW they didn't mention it at all but Ovi's a right-handed shooter... he shot this with his left.)



Weigh-In is tomorrow. Keep the fingers crossed for me!

Yikes

So now with our assistant Veronica gone, the work has piled up and for the last two days I haven't even had the time to breathe, eat lunch, or read any blogs. My normal tradition of writing a blog entry sometime during the day has completely gone out the window. Let me briefly catch up and then hopefully, its off to a night on Bethesda Row.

Tuesday was nuts. NUTS. I made a ton of $$$ but I worked hard and some crazy hours down at the National Harbor. Cool place. I might actually check it out once it warms up a bit. We were loading out the Texas Inaugural Ball with, I believe, Bette Middler as the talent (from the previous night). Had a clif bar at about 12:30 during a 15 minute break. We got lunch break at around 3:30pm. We got some pulled pork and pasta salad. I had some of both with some pickles. I knew the day wasn't over and I needed my energy. Luckily, I was working all the bad calories off. Got sent home until 1 am when we were scheduled to load out the African Ball that had Patti Labelle as the talent. While I was home I watched the Caps lose to the Sens (damn you Semin and your stupid penalties) and had a wrap with lunch meat and mustard. Got back to the Harbor at around 12:30. The show wasn't over until about 2 and we worked until about 6am. Got home at about 6:45 am. Slept until about 8:45 and went to my normal job. Needless to say I told the gym to fuck itself this morning.

Jacked up on a sugar free, heavily caffeinated energy drink and a frozen clif bar I found in my car, I made it to lunch where I had a salad with some boiled spinach type stuff and a couple pieces of lamb. Not the leanest meat but it wasn't much. Went home insanely jittery and unable to sleep I cooked up some homemade pasta sauce and boiled some potato and onion perogies. Not great but not bad either and I just needed the carbs so I wouldn't be dead the next day. Watched lost and it was pretty good... but don't get me started on my opinion of them re-inventing time travel. I don't think I like where they're going with it.

Thursday brought the first day without Veronica and I hadn't really felt it too much because myself, the Director and the EVP of Ops were in meetings all day. We didn't get back to our desks much before 3. Sometime during that span I had a turkey burger salad with some mushrooms and onions. It was bueno. Went to the gym for about 90 minutes and got a smoothie afterward. Came home and ate the rest of the perogies and sauce. Went to Trader Joes to pick up my favorite flax seed pasta only to find out it was discontinued and that they had no clif bars that I hadn't tried already (the point was to buy a new flavor). I did find some really healthy salty snack foods for those tough nights and some cool veggie burgers. All for $28 bucks to boot! Not too shabby. I fell asleep at like at 10:15, fully dressed, smelling of gym sweat. Woke up the next morning. Way to go tough guy!

Friday had me crawling to the gym but made it. Used the treadmill for a bit and didn't like it. Didn't burn the kid of calories I wanted versus what my body could handle and my ankle didn't like all the impact. I finished with a hard cardio program on the elliptical. Had a smoothie to boost my pathetic energy level. Work was one from hell today... Worked at my desk ALL day minus one 20 minute tour around 11:30. Had a lean steak and cheese pocket. There was some crazy baby shower that there were leftovers from so I had some salad with grilled chicken breast and a little pasta salad... oh and a bite of a veggie quiche because I was curious. I ate more pasta than I should have (which should have been none) but I was having a rough day. Give a brother a break.

Here I am now about to finish the blog. Haven't had dinner yet. Megan is passed out. We were going to Cafe Deluxe for dinner but I guess thats not happenin'. Hopefully we'll still go to the Wrestler tonight. If not I may go see it myself tomorrow while shes babysitting.

Oh and throughout this whole contest I have been drinking a minimum of 64oz of water a day. Thanks to the Lipton tea-to-go packets I actually enjoy it (one even has caffeine in it as a main ingredient)! Gotta run but I'll add pics and crap later... maybe.

3rd Weigh-In... Kinda

So I didn't get a chance to weigh-in on the scale at Strathmore (the one that everyone is using for the contest) but after a vicious 6am spinning class I get home and weigh in on my bathroom scale... definitely says I only lost a 1/2 lbs for the week. Despite my food intake over the weekend, I doubted that was right. I used the scale downstairs before taking my shower and SHOCKER it says I was 10 lbs lighter. TEN! Not a chance that was right either (that scale is older than I am so w/e). So I'm hoping that I'm down 5 but no one will know until tomorrow when I get back to work. It may be a little late but I'm sure no one will grill me.

Happy Inaugural. I'm off to the National Harbor. Opposite of all the traffic. How money is that? I leave you with Mandy Moore.... and someone even cooler.

And a weekend followed...

So alright… I hate doing multi-day blogs but yet I keep finding myself without the proper time to devote to the endeavor so I wait until “tomorrow” which of course turns into several days and thus here I am straining to remember each day of the weekend and cursing to myself that I am certain that I lost valuable stories and details to Old Man Time.

But I digress… Let’s get started.

Friday cont.

We ended up taking Veronica, our assistant, to a farewell lunch at Fuddruckers on the pike. It was freezing so I couldn’t handle another salad so I got a Veggie Burger on a whole wheat bun. No cheese, bacon, additional burger, nada. I did take a bunch of the fixins and made a mini salad on the side but that’s it. No fries, onion rings, malt, etc.

Of course the day couldn’t be complete with another meal that I couldn’t control. My Uncle Pete was in town for three weeks from Australia. Because my grandmother is a creature of habit at the fine age 85, we eat where she likes, which is a Chinese place in Four Corners. I get there and wanted the spicy garlic vegetables but no. The rest of the table didn’t want to share those… So I got the beef and broccoli and did my best to drain the sauce. I stayed away from the egg rolls. I did have a small bowl of wonton soup and a ton of black tea.

I came home from that, had some Tostitos and salsa while I watched the new episode of Battlestar Galactica. Holy shit did some stuff go down! And all in roughly 45 minutes. Dizamn! If you don’t watch the show because you think its some crazy Star Trek rip off, please Jesus put away your bias for one episode and you’ll love it. I promise.

Saturday

I will quote a post of mine on TheNHLArena.com’s weight loss thread. I wrote it right after I got home from my first spinning class at Bally’s.

“Just got home from my first spinning class and all I have to say about it is: OH.... MY.... GOD.

I haven't sweat this much since high school football two-a-days. The instructor was good tho he didn't bike much which bothered me but I guess when you get paid to teach you don't have to do the actual workout. Lol”

It really was that intense and I wasn’t going 100%. The instructor tells you to increase and decrease the tension knob as you’re doing all this hellacious peddling and I gotta be honest, I refused to not finish the session so I only did about 85% of the increases. I had no fucking clue what I was in for so I decided that human preservation was the most important. Next time (tomorrow morning), its on like Donkey Kong.

I then had to shower and get ready to go have lunch with my good college friends Katie and Gavin at Katie’s new townhouse in Alexandria. On the way there I figured that I should eat a bit of what I could control not knowing what would be there once I arrived. I swung by Safeway and in addition to some toiletries, I tried one of those Mojo Clif Bars and washed it down with a venti skinny caramel macchiato from the Starbucks there. Mike, you’re right they’re good. Bad thing is they’re sticky. By the time I had gotten my coffee Im sure I had smeared sticky residue all over the cashier at Starbucks… I’m gonna have to stick with the original creature. I picked up some new flavors so I’ll report on my findings.

Got to Katie’s before either Katie or Gavin got back from errands so I let myself in an started guzzling water in anticipation of what was to come. I was pleasantly surprised as Maria, a friend of the house, made me a vegetarian meal to die for: Pumpkin soup and a Rueben with (im sure Im fucking this up) Tofurkey. Other than the dressing on the sandwich, it was all really healthy, and I only ate half the Rueben. So ya… winner.

Jason and I met up afterward for my first exposure to Dungeons and Dragons so just in case, I had a sugar-free Red Bull to keep me on my game. It was interesting, and something worth doing again, but it was no World of Warcraft. That’s for certain. When we called it, which was pushing 10 pm, we swung by Qdoba and had a burrito bowl and I did my best not to finish all the rice but I failed. It was just so f’n good.

Finished off the night with some reduced fat cheese-its while watching the Caps/Bruins game at Tim’s. I suppose they were VICTORY reduced fat cheese-its so let me call them that.

Sunday…

Was a clusterfuck of herding 518 Chinese and one 7’1 American around backstage at Strathmore. On my way in at around 9:30 I stopped by Starbucks again and had another venti skinny caramel macchiato and much to my dismay they have SHIT for healthy breakfast food options. As I was paying I noticed a bowl of bananas so I bought one. Im sure it was like 3 dollars but whatever.

When I got there I had one of the few remaining Clif Bars at my desk and started pounding the water. I prob went thru 5 or 6 32oz Nalgene bottles of water of the course of the day. Had the last Clif Bar for lunch. Had some homemade sushi the renters brought us for a mid-day snack, and then had the Chinese food they brought us for dinner at around 8:30 or so. It was mostly all tofu based stuff which can’t be too bad since there was no sauce. There was also a few General Tso’s chicken nuggets in there… which I had… and felt shame. But whatever, I was on my feet yelling at people for 13 hours. I deserve a treat.

Came home. Went to bed.

Monday

Got to work at about 9:30 and on the way ate half my energy bar that I had bought from Bally’s the other day. The whole bar is like 420 calories so usually half is good for breakfast for me. Didn’t have anything else at work believe it or not and got out of work at about 1 for the day. Did some shopping at JCPenny’s and then hit the gym. Did about 45 minutes of faster pace elliptical and burned 775 calories and then did upper body and inclined sit-ups. Im sure Im going to feel it tomorrow for spinning at 6am. Im such a fucking masochist.

Got a protein smoothie and stocked up on Clif Bars for tomorrow’s long day. I’m taking the day off from Strathmore to go work as a stagehand at the National Harbor for some inaugural ball they’re having. I’ll report on that after I know what I did. For now, I know very little about what is going on.

Dinner was finishing off the not-so-healthy pasta and meat sauce from the other night and while I was writing this blog I had the rest of the salsa and some Tostitos.

In addition to a potentially grueling day of spinning and work, its also weigh in for me. Keep your fingers crossed because after writing this weekend down on paper, there’s no way Im going to be as low as I want to be. We’ll see.

And as always… I’ll leave you with a clip from the land of Brown Bear and Gizmo

I’M A MAN AND A MAN DOES NOT CARRY A PURSE!!

A crazy game of catch-up...

Well its been a few days… My bad. I don’t like it anymore than you do. Lets be honest, ya’ll don’t care and it only bothers me slightly but regardless, here I am.

Last entry was on Tuesday before I went off to watch one of the worst performances by the Washington Capitals in recent memory. I mean really… 28th on the PK and couldn’t score more than twice? We made Dwayne Roloson look like frickin Marty Brodeur. Anyways. I behaved myself and had nothing other than a $4 bottle of Dasani at the arena and a glass of water at Bar Louie. I got home rather late but still ate the rest of the salad sitting in the fridge and some club crackers. I know it’s breaking one of my rules but eating late is far worse than not eating at all.

Wednesday

I got up and despite my mind telling to get my ass up, I didn’t. I slept in and decided to go to the gym after work. I did my day, had another turkey burger salad and a clif bar, went to the gym, did 40 on the elliptical (42 to be exact which=exactly 2 episodes of Scrubs), did upper body the best I could (the place was swamped at 6pm… I guess I should have known) and got home just in time for some turkey pastrami wrapped in a tomato basil wrap with mustard (late AGAIN. Its mighty tough to eat before 9pm). I did also try the Bally’s smoothie station and had the fairly unknowledgeable girl behind the counter fix me up a dreamsicle type protein shake. Not bad. It even had soy milk in it (YUCK) but tasted… well… dreamy.

Oh ya and the Caps beat the shit out of the Pens in Pittsburgh. AO had two goals. I spent a good amount of time yelling at the TV… so that should count for some exercise as well.
For good measure:



Thursday

I wanted to get up early enough to make the 6am spinning class but ya… that didn’t happen. Went the gym (later than normal) and pounded out 10 minutes of intense cardio on the elliptical, did about 30 min on the lower body weights and then got another shake. This time there was a uber nutritionist behind the counter that fixed me up a $7 shake that was going to last me until a late lunch. The thing had oatmeal, bananas, soy milk, vanilla protein whey and for good measure a dollop of peanut butter. Weird but mighty tasty. I don’t think I’ll keep that habit up though… its too damn expensive.

The three things I did learn from her that I will have to remember are:
-Try to eat every 3 hours.
-When you eat, strive for about a fist full of protein and an open palm worth of carbs.
-When you're out in the cold you burn calories considerably faster as your body is attempting to keep itself warm.

Of course I wont live them to the letter but still nice guidelines.

Now back to me…

Spent a good amount of the morning running around outside in the windy 20 degree day making sure an event for an important donor didn’t overwhelm our parking lot. Once that was done I took a couple of hours off to go get lunch and a movie with my dad who had the day off. We went up to the Rockville Regal and went to Giuseppe's where I had a salad with steak and onions on top. Very tasty stuff but the salad was really plain. Pretty much just a bed of lettuce.

We saw Grand Torino which was fantastic. Not the best movie I’ve ever seen but Clint Eastwood is still SOOOOO good. He’s way more versatile than a lot of people give him credit for. It wont let me embed this clip but it was classic. Check out this link

Got back to work and remember snacking on something but cant remember what. At 6pm I was out of the office and back outside for an art reception that was supposed to be huge but ended up being 4 of us directing cars and about…. 50 cars. Did I mention my fingers fell off? Ya well they didn’t but sure as hell felt like they did. What a waste of time. My boss approved for my kids I hired to get time-and-a-half… too bad I’m salaried. BAH.

Got home and Megan met me at the curb. She sure is a sweetie when she wants to be… and even sometimes when she doesn’t. Went in and smell the wonderful aroma of my dad’s spaghetti sauce. As I was still frozen to the bone, the hell if I was going to have another cold wrap or salad, so I had the worst meal of the diet up to date, a bowl of tri-color pasta with a couple of spoonfuls of meat sauce. No cheese tho. I got that going for me… which is nice. Oh and hey… I ate before nine. Go me!

Fell asleep watching TV and woke up at 3am. Whoops!

Friday

Got up and went to the gym. Still later than I would like as I only had time to get in my 42 minutes on the elliptical. I guess I’ll do weights after my spinning class tomorrow. I’ve also started doing the traditional push-up right before my shower as a test of progress I suppose. I did about 10 pushups before calling it quits (they weren’t full either… only about ¾ of the way to the floor). We’ll see how much better I am in 3 weeks.

Don’t know what imma gonna do for lunch yet but I think we may be going to take our assistant out for lunch. She gave her two weeks and her last day is Wednesday. Hope its someplace calorie friendly as the fam (including my uncle from Australia) is meeting at the Chinese place tonight for dinner and I think it’ll be much harder to behave there.

And for your moment of Scrubs zen…

Just cause.

Another Terrific Tuesday

I'm horribly irritated at work so I figured I would write a bit to get my mind off of it.

Last night I stayed up far too late playing Snood Deluxe. It cock blocked me about half way in so I, of course, spent 20 bucks to buy the registration code. On a positive note, its good to know that I haven’t lost my touch. All those late nights playing Snood instead of writing term papers really paid off.

I got up surprisingly with little issue… I guess it helps that Megan has put me in charge of her old school metal alarm clock that could wake the dead… well everyone except Megan. This thing is evil incarnate I tell ya. Anyways, I get out the door and steal one of Megan’s Curve granola bars. It was damned tasty for 90 calories and got the metabolism going.

Got to the Rockville Bally’s at about 7:15, did my two episodes of Scrubs on the elliptical. One of which is the one where J.D. eats Eliot’s mango body butter while in the bath tub singing “Africa” by Toto.

Classic.

Remind me to write out the rules to the Scrubs Drinking Game sometime. This episode would have had people on the floor.

Did some lower body work… focused on my calfs/ankles and, as long as I have my brace on and aren’t cutting, my ankle feels great. Hopefully that means Frisbee will be in my future as soon as it gets a tab bit warmer (tho I would play any time of year… people who don’t are pansies). On my way out I bought a cookies and crème protein shake. I know they are unnecessary and overpriced but I was famished. It wasn’t bad in a pinch.

I’ve decided that, despite the racquetball courts, I am going to take my fat arse over to the Wheaton Bally’s permanently and I’m going to check out the spinning class this weekend and see if I can keep up. Im quasi excited to be pushed my someone other than myself. Im too easy on me. Go figure.

Had a Clif Bar at like 11 am or so and then went over to Grosvenor Market for something healthy which turned out to be some spicy tuna sushi made with brown rice. Not too shabby. Had half a bottle of Naked Energy Juice too. It wasn’t bad but not worth the sugar.

So ya, other than that I sat at my desk and slowly got more irritated as the day progressed. Now I’m going to go change out of my suit and into my hockey jersey and jeans and head down to the Caps/Oilers game. Meeting Tim and Bar Louie. Not sure why because I wont drink or eat anything on the menu… Im hoping my bartender Tracy isn’t there. She normally brings me a beer as soon as she sees me. I don’t want to have to tell her no. I was never good at turning down good beer from a cute girl. Oh well.

Oh ya, check out the BMR widget I added. It’ll tell you what caloric intake you need to maintain your weight or how much you need to cut back on to lose X amount of weight. Tis nifty.

Thanks for listening to not much of anything. I promise to bring something interesting to the table tomorrow.

As promised, I present to you... The Teet!

So here it is.... I'm sure no one will be as excited as I was to see this beast of a grocery but I'd go out of my way to shop here and have several times since I first went last week. I would go here over several local restaurants. Its not the cheapest grocer but with any foodstuff place, if you shop the sales and utilize coupons, you're gonna spend as much here as any of the competition.

As you can see its open 24-hours but all the good stuff on the second floor pretty much closes up tight at 8pm. The Starbucks, which seems to be an increasing staple in every grocery store nowadays, is up there as well.

Did I mention that everyone I met working there must have been on something good because they were INSANELY nice.

The whole lower level is the "meat and potatoes" (pardon the pun) of the store. Produce, frozen goods, dry goods, toiletries, and the seafood/butcher station are all in abundance, in fact, in my opinion it may be a bit too big but its a preference more than a complaint I suppose.

The upper level consists of:
-A deli counter with a large variety of fresh side dishes as well
-A sandwich works with pre-mades and MTO's
-Massive cheese display
-An Asian pay by the lbs buffet
-Sushi Station
-Huge Salad Bar
-Bakery (I haven't explored it at all but it smells lovely)
-The Starbucks

I have only partaken in the salad bar (obviously... it might as well be renamed the "Mac Bar") and taken goodies home from the deli but I've heard the pizza is quite decent.

The most impressive thing, which I've yet to explore, is the sushi station. I mean they had three guys going to town on the sushi for the to-go display but they take orders for sit-down service at the bar surrounding the station as well.

I guess Price Club were geniuses when they decided to feed people at the store... when else is someone thinking more about eating then when they're at the grocery store? Instant revenue. Brilliant!

Anyways, pardon my obsession but its just a new standard in groceries in this area and dag gummit I'm going to give credit where credit is due.

Sunday and Monday and Bears... oh my!

Sunday
So I woke up on Sunday at like 11am. Felt like a body cavity full of butter so of course... I didn't go to the gym. I was, however, going to do some yard work and cut some wood. It did, however, start to rain and sleet. Figures.

So I fixed some of the salad I got from Teeter (I swear that post will get written soon!) and turned it into a wrap on a lovely Tomato-Basil tortilla. I cut up some of the left over steak from Old Europe and a hardboiled egg and BOOM! Instant protein.

My dad, Megan, and I watched the football games and I kept a fire going all day (I thank Les Stroud and Bear Grylls for teaching me). During the half-times we took down all of our Christmas stuff and loaded it into Megan’s car. I was hoping to break a sweat but alas… all the stuff was very light.

Had a small salad with more steak and egg, this time in a bowl, while watching last week’s E.R. Damnit Imma miss me some ER next season. I also had a couple of Pringles. But don’t worry. Not a whole serving. Just like 6. So that’s only like 70 calories and 40 from fat. Still bad but I needed something crunchy and covered in salt. Helped Megan whip up some macaroni salad but we did it without mayo of any kind and just used a little cheese, garlic, pepper, celery salt, and olive oil.

Continued to drink a butt ton of water but have yet to have that truly epic, “League of Their Own” piss…. I must be broken.

Went to bed later than I wanted but wanted to listen to a little of C2C before I went to LaLa Land.

Monday
The last few days I had been debating with myself if I was going to the proper gym. The Bally’s in Rockville is closer to work, gets me there quickly after my workout, and has racquetball. However, it takes me over 20 min to get there in the morning, thus my workout is shortened, the weight machines are lacking my preferences, and often times the cardio shit is out of order. I took a shot and tried the newer Bally’s at Wheaton Plaza. The pros: Only took me 9 minutes and 24 seconds to get there, had much better lighting, equipment, a TON more classes and at better times (I think if I change Im going to take spinning classes in the morning 2 days a week). The cons: The adjacent parking lot was small and packed, I found one of the few elliptical not being used, and it took me a little over 15 minutes to get to Strathmore from there. Not sure if the last one is a con or not until I time my trip down 355 tomorrow morning. This problem would all be mute if I didn’t want to save money and not get the all local club membership.

Weighed myself this morning. I’m down 3.5 lbs but not as much fat as I’d like but I’ll take 1% considering all my transgressions this weekend. My buddy Augie lost 8 but only moved two tenths of a percentage. So maybe 1% in a week isn’t all the bad. I’m going to need more if I’m going to win, what now is confirmed as, $1260 for first place and $340 for second. Gittyup god damnit. (BTW if you’re blind Im keeping weekly track of my stats in the side bar… over there ------------------>)

Tonight I’m going straight home to wait for Megan take the xmas crap to storage in Takoma Park and then come home for what seemingly looks like salad with some thin slices of filet or if I have the patience, my first helping of my diet standard of spaghetti squash with tomato sauce.

If I don’t get to another post tonight, I’ll be back tomorrow to report on my scientific findings and my ultimate gym selection.

Recapping the last few days

So lets see where did we leave off... Thursday finished off with a walk to Starbucks and I got to thinking how I could still incorporate the lovely coffee bean in my diet. While I had an apple chai and a regular chai (the guys treated me to a free drink so I would try the new apple chai), which wasn’t all that great for me, I’ve now found the Starbucks nutrition page and can check what everything is before I drink it. The skinny sugar-free caramel macchiatos aren’t the worst for you. Good thing. I need it. Badly. All the time.

I also wanted to find out what the verdict on caffeine was diet-wise. The opinions seem to be all over the place from it being a metabolism booster to it dehydrating anything it touches. Bottom line is, it seems to not make that much of a difference, as long as you drink it in moderation.

I did find an interesting diet myth busting list on web-md in the process. Read it here.

Friday had me hitting the gym and then sitting at my desk most of the day. Had a small thing of chicken salad and a lean pizza pocket which, surprisingly, really doesn’t taste different from the regular version at all.

Had a Capitals game to go to(although it was horribly disappointing). Instead of going to our normal spot, Bar Louie, we went to an old favorite Finn and Porters for sushi happy hour. Had about 9 pieces of spicy tuna and a diet coke.

After the horrible shut out by one Mr. Steve Mason, it really is a habit we must break btw, Tim and I met up with Megan and his girlfriend Karen for drinks at the Brick Brickskeller. Had a cobb salad with chicken (no cheese) and 1, count um, 1 beer. I thought I should treat myself to my newly-found favorite (obtainable in the US) beer Schneider Weiss. Got home… passed the fuck out at about 3.

Saturday…

Got up at around 10:30 and went to the gym for 2 hours. Its so nice not having to limit/rush what you do because of work. I guess that’s one plus if I get laid-off… well that and I wont have money for food.

I drove across the street and went to my new addiction, The Teeter. I got a protein Fresh Samantha (yes I know they’re called Odwalla now but I don’t care), a salad, some turkey pastrami, and took a bunch of pics for my next blog entry. All I ended up eating was half the smoothie. Saving all the rest for tomorrow during the football games.

Low calorie day right? WRONG.

Tim’s birthday took us to Old Europe. The place was full of everything wonderful that is German. I did my best to behave myself: No beer, ½ a diet soda, and didn’t finish my dinner. I then failed by having a shot of jager and half a piece of hazelnut crème cake. I suppose it could have been worse. I could've had the Wiener Schnitzel.

This entry is too long so I’m calling it a night. I’m hoping to hit the gym up before the games so keep your fingers crossed for me.

Tunes to sweat by...

So I got to the gym roughly the same time this morning after stopping by Giant to pick up some travel toiletries. You never realize how much you value a shower in your own home until you have to do it consistently somewhere else. I said “screw it,” and did the elliptical on a slower setting despite not having my ankle brace and it worked out pretty well. 430 calories killed there and along with the lower body workout on weights, I felt pretty okay with eating a salad with a grilled turkey burger, mushrooms, onions, and fat free 25 calorie Italian dressing.

I didn’t have time to convert season 5 of Scrubs onto my Ipod so I went to my other go-to Podrunner. It’s a pretty popular podcast on Itunes that sets each 60 minute track to a specific BPM (beats per minute) so you can work consistently with the music. For some reason however I wasn’t feeling the tracks at all. No vocals and I was in a vocals kinda mood. I switch to another podcast that isn’t meant for working out but still kicks the shit outta the llamas ass . Matt Darey had a special place in my heart during my stoner college days so when I found his “Nocturnal Podcast” on I-tunes, I jumped all over it. Check it out. He really is one of the best trance/house DJ’s out there.

Tonight I hope to go on a walk with Megan and finish it off with the hardboiled eggs that I didn’t have the time or patience to peel this morning. I still have to tell you guys about the Teet but maybe I’ll wait until this weekend and I’ll take some pictures. Its that cool.

A "No Fail" Day Three

So off I go to the gym this morning at 6:30 (see picture to right). Unfortunately due to the commute from 4 Corners to Rockville I didn't get there until pushing 7:15. I sprained my ankle back in October pretty badly so I still can't rock out on the elliptical so for the next few weeks I'm going to just do my cardio on the bike (I hate bikes btw).

My way thru the early, "you're fat", cardio is to download stuff to the ipod to watch. Today was the pilot of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Funny stuff. I suggest a viewing to all.

I'm going to blog tomorrow hopefully on my experience last night at the new wondernus that is the Mega Harris Teeter in Rockville. Needless to say, I could never go to another restaurant again and be totally happy just eating in their eatery.

I've been good foodwise after night one's meltdown. Got Pho with Donny and Jason (only 650 calories... not too bad for heaven in a bowl), had a small salad last night, for lunch, and dinner tonight with a portioned Clif Bar throughout the day. Yes it still gave me heartburn even in smaller portions.... oh well its still tasty.

Tomorrow brings more salad and some hard boiled eggs.... don't know what Im gonna be having for dinner but I have some chicken and thin cut filet that could go well on... you guessed it... salad.

Hoping to get to bed soon to ensure an ontime departure for the gym tomorrow morning.

I want to go over my current weight stats and competition in the Biggest Loser too but I guess that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Night all!

If this is a sign... I'm screwed.

EDITORIAL NOTE: As a newbie blogger I just learned a hard lesson. Don’t use the damned webpage editor to write your crap because if the stars are aligned correctly with the eight rings of Hell, your entire entry will go *poof* and be unrecoverable. The rest of my writings will be done in Word. /grumble

________________

EPIC FAIL

So as I mentioned yesterday, as planned I got home late from work and I guess I wanted to see how many of my personal diet rules I could break. So here goes:

1. Heated up dinner at 8:30 which means I ate later than I wanted to since I’ve been trying to get to bed earlier. STRIKE ONE

2. As it was leftovers and I didn’t want it to go bad, I had a far larger portion that I should have. STRIKE TWO

3. And because I felt guilty for my mom making me specifically a large batch of cream cheese xmas cookies, I had a couple handfuls of those… which in turn made me feel guilty for breaking the no sweets rule. STRIKE THREE. YOU SUCK AT DIETING

Now albeit the meal wasn’t bad… A pork chop with cooked potatoes and onions, it was still a bad call. /hits self on nose with newspaper. It should have been a salad and that’s it. Well luckily very few people have weighed in so I’m probably not hurting my chances much…. Just hurting my soul.

Did I mention I woke up late this morning, didn’t make it to the gym before work, and have a grocery trip scheduled to the Teet (last day of 2-for-1 specials) so I don’t have any time for any exercise tonight? Does this sound counterproductive to anyone else? Thought so.

And with a **thud** it begins...

Well shit.... The above picture can be looked at in two ways. One: "You're a fatass Mac and how you managed to put on MORE weight than you lost during the last biggest loser is beyond comprehension" or Two: "Hells ya my man. With all this extra lovin' you packed on winning this contest is going to be like taking candy from a baby."

I'm thinking I'm going to go with the later.

The second Strathmore's Biggest Loser is starting today and once again, I feel like I'm in desperate need of a change at my waistline. Last April about 20 people got together and I managed to finished on the bubble (3rd place overall and 1st one out of the money). So far I'm the only one to have weighed-in but I'm expecting about 10-15 people to give it a go. Last year my buddy Jason and his friend Gabi took 1-2 respectively. Every seen "White Men Can't Jump?" Ya... I think I got schooled by Woody Harrelson. But I digress.

To give myself a little bit of a competitive edge I went hog wild over the last two weeks of vacation and put on at least 5-6lbs just by sitting on my ass and eating Christmas goodies. I ate a honey bun for good measure on the way into work this morning and here I am at 268.5 lbs!!

(Shit do I have my work cut out for me or what?!)

Got a long day of work ahead of me with zippy chance for the gym tonight but starting tomorrow morning, I'll be back in the gym seeing what can be done about this abomination that I call a torso. (I mean that in the most loving way possible)

While this go around of the Biggest Loser isn't accepting any outside-the-building competitors, my girlfriend Megan is supporting me by going on a diet too. It'll be interesting to see where her will to lose weight stops versus where my will to win money begins. Either way, I don't think I would be able to do it at all without her support (and not eating McDonald's in my face). So I got that going for me... which is nice.

Tomorrow I'll give a full tail of the tape as well as a report on how the gym went... its been so long that I wouldn't be surprised if they've changed the wallpaper on me. Hell... the gym might not even be there anymore for all I know. Oh boy I'm excited!