Starting weight (7/15/08): 279.8
Friday: 264.6 Today: ??? No scale available
Change today: ??? Loss-so-far: 15.2 lbs.
We’re back at home from our Labor-Day-Weekend-getaway. It was good! Wasn’t at ALL what we’d envisioned or planned, but overall it was good.
We planned to leave Saturday morning. By the time we got up and packed, it was pouring rain outside. We waited out the storm and by the time we got the bike rack and the three bikes on the back of the Jeep, it was already well into the afternoon, so we skipped the 7.25 mile trail we’d planned to ride on that day and drove straight to our hotel. Oh well, we’ll explore that trail another time.
We stopped to eat at Cracker Barrell not too far from the hotel. I had six little grilled chicken tenderloins, green beans, a side salad, and turnip greens (which I’d never tried before and decided immediately I did not like ‘em) but poor Kevin - who does not eat green stuff - was served four little pieces of grilled chicken and that’s all. I thought he was going to burst into tears. We got him the other two chicken tenderloins and also a side order of bacon. He was definitely not full when we left, though.
We unpacked at the hotel and then Mike and I went out in search of a grocery store. The hotel room had a microwave and refrigerator so I wanted to get some low-carb food we could keep on hand to supplement the restaurant food we’d be attempting to order. There was a WalMart Superstore just a block away and we got hot dogs and pepperoni and cheese and grilled chicken slices. Oh, and some barbeque pork rinds. Kevin was pretty happy with our purchases.
We wanted to go for a swim but the sign said that the pool closed at dusk and it was well after dark already. I asked the lady at the front desk about it and she said that as long as no one complains about the noise, we could swim out there all night. Yay! It was still raining out, but no thunder or lightning, so we went for it. The water in the pool felt warm compared to the rain and the wind (from Gustav), but it was still cold enough to take your breath away. Once we got in, though, then the challenge became getting out into the cool night air! Brrrrr! We had fun though. Mike and I got out and sat under a tiki-hut-thingie to wait for Eric.
Our other son, Eric, had to work until 10pm and then he drove over to join us at the hotel. Since we met him out at the pool, he changed real quick and joined Kevin in the water.
We got up the next morning with plans to explore the other trail - the 30-mile one, but Gustav was still making its way past and there was a huge storm coming straight at us. We decided to wait until the storm passed because the wind was picking up (not bad, just 20-30mph gusts). We went out for lunch at a Clock restaurant and both Kevin and I had a hard time ordering. We’re both sick of eggs, we’re both tired of grilled chicken and bunless hamburgers. We ended up ordering hamburgers anyway and mine of course had onions and lettuce and mayo and cheese and pickles - kind of like a hamburger salad, but his was just a hamburger patty. That’s it. He definitely walked away hungry, thank goodness he could have more food back at the hotel room.
It was still raining after lunch so we watched TV for a while and then went swimming again. It was raining a little bit but it sure wasn’t the big storm that we’d been waiting to arrive. We checked the weather channel and they still said there was a 90% chance of rain, so fine, we decided not to try heading out to the trail. Our poor bikes stood there, unused, in the corner of our hotel room, the whole time we were there.
That night we had pizza - well, Kevin and I had the cheese and meat toppings and left a pile of discarded pieces of crust.
This morning we packed up the room, hauled all our stuff down to our vehicles, and put the bike racks and bikes back up on each (Eric brought his own bike rack and bike with him on his car). We stopped at Burger King to pick up some fuel (burger patties for Kevin, a salad for me) and then headed - finally! - out to the trail we’d planned to explore.
We started at one of the middle points of the trail and headed north. It was hot, sunny, hot, humid, and oh-yeah-did-I-mention—hot!! We each had a bottled water on our bikes and then extra waters and Gatorades in the cooler on the back of Mike’s bike. Mike and I put sunscreen on - and we all got sunburnt. We were only out there on the trail for about two hours but man! What a workout, out there in that heat!
We went north for seven-and-a-quarter miles. We stopped for the fourth time to rest and drink — and given that most of our drinks were already gone, we opted to turn around and head back. On the way back we only stopped twice, the second time just two-and-a-half miles from where our vehicles were parked. We all shared the last bottle - a Gatorade - and then picked up the pace for that last stretch. I, for one, was happy to see the Jeep … and the water fountain in front of the restrooms!
So, the sum total of our biking weekend was… drum roll… Fourteen-and-a-half miles! Not quite the 34 we were hoping for, but a noble effort nevertheless.
On the way home, we stopped at Ruby Tuesday’s for dinner. I got to enjoy a lovely selection from the salad bar and a bowl of broccoli cheese soup. Kevin was served a very small portion of bonesless cajun-spiced chicken breast. Ridiculously small. So we had a discussion about the whole diet thing.
He doesn’t want to do this particular diet anymore, and I actually don’t blame him. He can’t supplement what he eats with salad or veggies like I can because he just doesn’t eat that stuff, never has. It’s not so bad when we’re at home and Mom is there to make him food like low-carb snacks and muffins and bread and filling low-carb meals, but eating out is a nightmare for him.
He wants to go back to calorie-counting AND keep his carb intake low but not THIS low. He’s thinking like 80-100 carbs a day. My input was that if he wants that to work he’s going to need to use FitDay or something like it and keep track of everything he eats - and keep his calories to 1500 per day. Kevin agreed.
So I ordered him a grilled chicken sandwich on a whole-wheat bun. He didn’t want any fries, just the 2nd piece of chicken on a bun. And for the first time since Friday, he ate a meal and walked away - not hungry.
Me, I don’t know. I don’t mind the low-carb as much but it can get old. Like I said, I’m already sick of eggs and meat. I liked the low-carb because the progress was faster and I don’t know if it will continue to be faster but if it’s still faster than the calorie-counting was, then I’ll probably stick with it. Maybe.
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