Onward, and downward.

Today's Weigh-in: 225.4

Pretty disappointed in the weigh-in today. Although I haven't been perfect, the last 8 days I've been pretty damn good, especially considering the fact that I've been eating dramatically less than I have been for the previous several months. I only worked out 2/3 times, but I need to ease my muscles back into things lest I become sore to the point where it impedes my daily functioning.

But I know this game well. Despite what the scale says, I know that I'm doing OK and on the right track. I can do better, too. Just gotta hang in there and not let the scale get me down...

Here I go again...

Today's weigh-in: 224.8

Yeah, yeah. I know. I've said it before. Really trying to get back on track after putting on about 10 lbs since my last post over a year ago. I've got at least 25 lbs to lose so here we go again. Just wanted to provide you with an update in the spirit of honesty and transparency. I probably won't be posting very often but felt that my first weigh in in a long, long time warranted a post. Got a home gym setup now so let's do this.

-Billy

20 Pounds...

Today's weigh-in: 215.6

In our quest to achieve and maintain our ideal weights, my girlfriend and I have tried lots of things. Contests, competition, compliments, criticism. None has worked very well. We really needed to figure out a way to make it work together. To stop being lazy and ordering pizzas, to get to the gym regularly, and to support each other rather than enable each other to cheat and otherwise get off track.

I came up with a new idea. Commitment. We agreed to make a Commitment to each other to lose 20 lbs by January 1. That's 20 lbs in 16 weeks, which is certainly a reasonable goal.

The idea is all about not letting the other person down. If January 1 rolls around and one of us (or both) haven't achieved our goal, it means that we've failed not only ourselves, but each other. Pretty good motivation in my book.

Anyway, I weighed in for the first time in a century this morning. I was expecting 220+, so I was somewhat relieved (although still not thrilled) with my weigh-in of 215.6. This is realistically about 30 lbs more than where I had been happily sitting in the mid 180's about a year (?) ago.

Anyway, here's to that first 20...

Puffy.

Yep. It's what I'm becomin'.

Just thought I would drop by and say hello and give a quick update. It's been a while since I've officially weighed myself, but after some ups and downs, and a 3 week vacation in France, it's official: I'm puffy.

So, this week I'm re-dedicating myself. I'm not going all hard-core-gung-ho right out of the gate. Just making smarter eating decisions, and getting slowly back into the gym.

I'm hoping to slowly, but surely, deflate.

Hope you all are doing well!

Sardine-a-licious

Today's weigh-in: 196.6

So the weight comes down steadily. She's a long, slow, but steady progress I be after.

A friend recently turned me on to the deliciousness of Sardines. These are one of those "superfoods" that are pretty much all benefit. High in protein, omega-3's, and one of the very few natural sources of vitamin D (which is severely lacking in america and europe. Learn more about the benefits of sardines here.

Anyway, at first I was like "gross" but I tried one. They come canned, packed in oil, like tuna. And as long as you get boneless/headless ones, it pretty much tastes like tuna too. Not sure why they have such a bad rap.

Anyway, here's a great recipe I found, courtesy of Alton Brown:

Alton Brown's Sardine-Avocado Sandwiches
Or the "sardicado" sandwich.

- makes 4 open-faced sandwiches -

Adapted from Good Eats

Ingredients

2 (3.75-ounce) tins sardines in olive oil
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
Zest from one lemon, and the leftover (naked) lemon cut into 4 wedges
Freshly ground black pepper
4 slices good bread
1 ripe avocado
Sea salt

Procedure

1. Drain the oil from 1 tin of sardines into a small bowl and set aside.

2. Drain the oil from the second tin into another small bowl and mix it with 1 tablespoon of parsley, vinegar, lemon zest, and black pepper. Add the sardines and stir. Let sit for a bit so the flavors marry.

3. Toast your bread in a normal toaster or, if you want to be all Alton-style fancy, heat the oven to the broiler setting on high and place oiled-swiped bread (using the remaining sardine oil) on the rack. Only keep them in there for 2 to 3 minutes, otherwise they will go from golden brown and crisp to charred and sad.

4. Halve the avocado and remove the pit. Smoosh the flesh in each half with a fork. Spread this green goodness evenly onto the toasted bread, then top with a nice scoop of the sardine mixture.

5. Pour any remaining sardine oil dressing on top and garnish with the remaining parsley. Season with sea salt and a nice big squeeze from the lemon wedges.

Welcome back

Today's weigh-in: 198.6

Some good news today, as I finally dipped below the 200 mark. I was all over the place last week, starting at 200.4, going up somehow to 201.8, and yesterday I was at 200.2. I think my body was just fluctuating around and trying to find it's groove.

Anyway, things have been going well on the eating front. Nights are tough, and I find sometimes that going to bed early is the best defense against night/boredom eating. (getting IN bed, not sleeping). I know it's lame, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

On the gym front, I was only able to go once last week. I took it relatively easy, but ended up getting so sore that I couldn't go on Friday. Going back tonight with my friend Zach, I still need to solidify a routine for us to do. This is an area where things aren't moving as quickly. I really need to get used to going back to the gym.

Other big news, I reserved my RV for le Tour de France 2010. We're going from July 8th to the 26th so we'll have about a 2.5 week adventure which I'm super excited about. I was worried about availability for renting RVs, because if you watch the race, pretty much all of Europe is out there in RVs, and I wasn't sure how far in advance people were booking them. Well, we've got one now, and I've got about 6 months to get my French up to speed and get my ass back in shape!

Never buy bigger pants.

Today's weigh-in: 200.8

Not too worried about the weigh-in today, yesterday I was 201.4. I think my body needs to "normalize". My diet and exercise has been pretty much right on.

Just something I wanted to share, and Brian's comment on my last post reminded me of it:

"I went up to a 36" pants from a 34" about a month or two ago and I'm not happy about it."

I'm in no way trying to call Brian out here, I am pretty much exactly where he's at right now. However, it reminded me of a rule I thought of long ago: That I will never buy myself a bigger pair of pants.

My waist size is (ahem... should be) between a 32-34, depending on brand and my own fluctuations. Right now I'm wearing 32 jeans, and yeah, they're tight. But if I buy bigger pants, what am I really saying? That it's ok? I'm making room for my new friend, fat?

No. I want fat to be uncomfortable. This is why I refuse to buy bigger than size 34 pants. If I stick with this one rule, either I'll always keep my weight to a certain level, or I'll simply be unable to wear pants. Either way, I think it's a good rule.

Over the line

Today's weigh-in: 200.4
Analysis: Actually, I was prepared for 205+
Time since last weigh-in: 3+ months
Time since last gym-hitting: Same
Waistband status: Tight

Hello, if there's anyone out there who still reads this blog. Hope there are still a few of you, but that's not really too important. What IS important, is that this morning, I weighed in at over 200 lbs for the first time in a long time. The good news is, that I'll be back under 200 before weeks end.

Maintenance is a bitch.

You're doing great, working out regularly, eating well but not killing yourself, enjoying life. Slowly, imperceptibly, you start allowing little things. A pizza here, 10 beers there. Then you fall into a slump and things get worse. As you start eating like crap, you stop working out. Once you stop, it's VERY hard to get back in there. Especially for a person like me: someone who needs everything to be "perfect". (E.G., "what's the point of going to the gym if I'm eating like crap?") I know this is a bad attitude to have, but it's the way I am. In order for me to get into the mindset, I need to be immersed in my "character" of a healthy, fit person. It's like method acting. Strange, yes. But I do what I can, I know myself.

Anyway the bottom line is, I was going to the gym religiously with my friend Zach. It was great motivation, I was sort of training him, as he was new to the gym. (He's in good shape, but wanted to start lifting weights). Anyway, having a gym partner is a huge help. Not only does it motivate you to go in the first place, once you're there, your "man-stincts" kick in and you're constantly trying to outdo each other. Leads to killer workouts.

Well, 2 things happened.

1, I started hurting myself. Every couple of weeks I would be laid up with back pain. It started to become clear to me that I was overdoing it on the "big" exercises and that I needed to dial it back or try a different approach. This led to a gradual decline of me going to the gym. And 2, Zach also stopped going. Once that happened, I had no accountability, and I simply stopped going. Like I said, I haven't been there for 3 months or longer.

On the eating front, it's just been a disaster. I am in a relationship with a girl who, while great, unfortunately has pretty much the same eating disorder that I have/had. Emotional eating, bored eating, and eating absolute crap. Not that she doesn't battle it (albeit in a different way than I do), the bottom line is that when we're in a rut, we enable the hell out of each other and end up ordering pizza and crap just about every night. And drinking. The end result is that over the course of the last 4 months or so, between the holidays, winter depression/boredom, and a Parisian vacation, we managed to each pack on about 15 or so pounds.

So that's that. The good news is that I (we) are still here fighting the good fight. 15 pounds? That's nothing really. And while I don't want to live a life of yo-yo dieting, I see it more as a pendulum swinging. Hopefully with each swing the variance will decrease, and eventually I will reach a point of balance.

So my goals this January, in no particular order:

-Get back to eating only healthy, whole, natural foods in smaller amounts
-No alcohol during the week
-"No-drunk" rule means that on Friday or Saturday, I can have 3 or 4 drinks, but that's it
-Hit the gym 3x a week. I'm starting off a bit slower, and I need to figure out how to move forward and make progress without hurting myself. May add in some yoga.
-Limit television viewing. For now, this means trying not to turn it on until 9pm
-Work harder on dog training
-Reign in my spending and get back on budget.
-Do Rosetta Stone (French) every day

That's it. Thought I'd put it out there for y'all, but even more, for me. I'll try to post periodic updates, but probably not too much.

Bonne nouvelle année!

The Circle Game.

And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and dawn
Were captive on the carousel of time
We cant return we con only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game. -Joni Mitchell

Today's Weigh-in: 193.6

Well folks, here I am again. I took a month to lose about 8 or 9 pounds, then completely let go for about a month and a half. And here I sit again, having re-gained that 8 pounds.

First off, I'm not TOO upset about this. So many people lose weight, and then just gain it back. Or find themselves gaining back 20 or 30 pounds. While it's less than ideal that I've been bouncing around this same 10 pounds for a while now, it certainly isn't too bad either. In the bigger scheme of things, I'm doing pretty well. At least I'm catching it before it gets too out of hand and doing something about it.

But, the fact remains, I'm flabbier than I'd like and it pisses me off and annoys me. So, here we go again.

The good news is, I've been hitting the gym good and hard and consistently for about 3 weeks. A friend recently moved to town, and I've been training him. It's fun to have a gym protege, and it keeps us accountable for going 3 times a week. Not to mention, it pushes me while I'm there, which is huge.

The bad news is, it's summer, and all I want to do is drink beer, beer, beer, and eat burgers, burgers, burgers. This is my battle and I need to find some sort of place that allows me to get in shape and lose some fat/build some muscle, while at the same time not avoiding summertime activities, and more specifically, beer. I enjoy beer. I just need to try to confine it to the weekend, and try to limit the sheer volume.

So here we go again. Sorry it's been so long since I've posted, but it's also been a while since I've weighed myself. At least I manned up and stood on the scale this morning. It's a start.

Target achieved!

Today's weigh-in: 185.8

Just wanted to check in and let you all know I'm doing great. As of yesterday, I achieved my June goal of 186 early, and this morning came in just under.

Seeing how there's still about a week and a half until June is over, I'm setting a new unofficial goal of 184 by months end.

My eating has been great, but I haven't been able to get to the gym as much as I'd like because my back was hurting a bit. However, I'm committed to getting there as much as possible, I went yesterday, and plan to go back either tomorrow or Saturday.

Hope everyone else out there is also on track this month.