Jan 26-28 ---- Thoughts from Business Trip #3

Well I'm back from trip #3 on plan. It's been a light travel schedule which is great over the last couple of months.

I'll start with some griping, this trip just stunk. The whole thing start to finish was a pain.

First of all I had to travel to Detroit, it was insanely cold (I am from the warm sunny south). Then my hotel was oven an hour from the airport. Then despite the fact it was close to 0 outside, my hotel had the A/C turned off and the windows wouldn't open so my room was so hot the first night that I couldn't sleep. Then it was my first day with a new client which meant that I had to be extra nice, happy, perky, etc which is a big energy drainer. Then I was mildly sick, so after the first day I went completely and totally hoarse (could not make sound come out of my mouth). Then it was still unbelieavable miserably cold. Then I got to the airport to fly home and had a middle seat. Then there were huge delays at my home airport after we took off so we spent an extra hour in the air and another hour sitting on my home runway. So I was in that middle seat for over 5 hours without moving. Then when I got home it was pouring rain, which is rare for where I live.

So the whole trip pretty much sucked.

Why is that relevant, besides venting?

I think it is clear that staying on plan takes energy, physical energy, mental energy, willpower energy, etc. When there are a lot of things in life that sap available energy it makes it so much more difficult to stay on plan. For some this might be work stress, home stress, physical pain/limitations etc.

I think I did pretty well on this trip overall, but it was hard. I really wanted to to just say "screw it", esp Wednesday night. Couple of comments/observations...

1. I went to the grocery store on my way into my hotel to stock up on some food for both days. This was great as normally I would have stopped and picked up fast food. Also since I was on expense account I could get pretty much whatever I wanted and it was cheaper than a restaurant. And all it really "cost" me was about 15 extra minutes.

2. I've started to notice the behaviors of "skinny" people more. Several of my clients are small women, and they just eat differently than I do/used to. They order different food, eat it more slowly, half portions before they even start, etc. Some of this isn't obvious, but not that I'm thinking more along those lines it is easier to spot.

3. Wednesday night was rough. I was tired, somewhat sick, and all I wanted to do was order a large pizza and pop a movie into my computer. I was browsing this site actually while I was having this mental struggle in my head. I ran across a thread in the Maintainers forum about "Things maintainers do well". I was hit by several posts, notably one by Mandalinn who has similar travel challenges to me, and all said something along the lines of "I work out even when I don't feel like it". That provided just enough encouragement to get out of my room and go get in a light workout. Also since I had gone to the grocery store I still had plenty of healthy food available so was able to eat well for dinner also!

4. At this client apparrently Thursday is "Thai Thursday". This is a problem since I don't really love Thai and know there are only a few things (none of which are remotely healthy) that are safe, especially since I was going to be flying that evening. So I ordered a normal meal which stunk, but happens. One interesting thing happened. It was a pretty large portion, which never has been a problem for a 260 lb guy in the past. I was eating, and trying to convince myself to be good by leaving some on the plate (a behavior I never do). I ate about 3/4th's of it and actually didn't want any more. This might sound small to some of you ladies, but this is pretty monumental to a big guy like me. I don't know why, but I actually felt pretty full and left the rest on my plate!

5. My airport behavior has changed significantly. I got to the airport with about 90 minutes to kill. I used to go to a TGI Fridays or a Chili's or something and have some massive calorie fried appetizer with several beers. Instead I chose to walk for about 45 minutes from one end of the terminal and back several times (probably 2 ish miles, like 4.5k steps on pedometer). While I was doing it I was scouting every single restaurant to identify the best food option for me to take and buy on the plane. So sort of combining diet/exercise behaviors in one. This is a relatively subtle change but between the food difference and the walking I probably saved 1000+ calories just in this hour alone.

Anyway just wanted to put down some thoughts after this trip. Working to recover today. Still feel pretty bad, flying with even a minor cold seems to really exacerbate things.

Tonight's challenge. BBQ restaurant with a friend for his birthday. Any suggestions?

excellent
 

Sounds like you turned a terrible trip into a pretty good one, health wise!!!! Sounds like you are doing a really good job at being consciencious of your eating habits and patterns, good and bad!!!! That is what it is for me noticing and stopping old behaviors before I start. The biggest one is the beers, but I have switched from 110 calrie beer to 55 calorie beer, so right there is half!!! and only one or 2 nights a week not 4 or 5 like I was, something about having a cold one afterwork, but instead I head for exercise!! Good luck tonight BBQ, hopefully they have salad with like smoked chicaked, or maybe a smoked fish, smoked is good, its the damn sauces that get me everytime, like you I am going to a reverse raffle for a local charity, $100 dinner raffle with all u can drink and ribeyes!!!!! I will do my best

Good Luck Tucker

Friday Jan 29th - BBQ Bomb

Well let's just go ahead an move on from last night;)

We had agreed to go celebrate dinner with a friend to celebrate their birthday with 10 or so folks. And it was our church's free child care night so it was a nice adults only meal!

We found out is was going to be BBQ so I was planning in my head...keep the meat reasonable...light on bbq sauce....green beans/corn for sides instead of potatoe salad and bread, etc....

Well we meet up, and come to find out we are going to this special place that is only open 3 nights a week. It is an all-you-can-eat rib buffet:devil:
Not a restaurant with a buffet option, just the buffet.

Good game me:(....

So we get there and here was the buffet...
Ribs (which is the main feature)
Sausage
Brisket
Turkey
Potato Salad
Coleslaw
Bread

So in general I had a pretty bad meal, to give myself some credit I could have pigged out more, I ate a fair bit of turkey (instead of sausage) to go along with a few ribs. And stuck with coleslaw for the side, which I'm sure wasn't great, but it was actually not too mayonaissy (yes I know that is not a word).

The only real failure was going back for a small plate of seconds. I really didn't need it, and I'm pretty sure that half the reason I did it was just because half the table was getting up to do the same thing. Peer pressure I guess!

I was pretty low on calories for the day heading into that meal, so don't think it killed me, but I haven't calculated yet. On to the next day!

Weekly Update - Week 8

Starting Weight - 260 lbs
Current Weight - 221 lbs
Loss This Week -5 lbs
Total Loss - 39 lbs

Wow! Big time happy dance. I was expecting a 3 this week, hoping for a 4, and not really thinking about a 5. How exciting. That puts getting into the 210's squarely in sight for next week.

I had a very random week, with 3 days of travel, a mild cold, and a few other wrinkles so was not really sure what would happen. The mild cold I had from wed-sat might have played some with the results this week, so I'm not going to get my hopes up too high for next week.

Let me stop for a minute and say that I feel really blessed with the scale results thus far. I know there are probably some people who read this that work as hard or harder at this than I do and hope for a 5 in a month. I recognize that I have been very blessed to see 39lbs through 2 months and feel very grateful about the whole thing.

I've gotten a few compliments here and there, but Sunday was crazy. I probably had a dozen people make a comment to me, and at least that many made a comment to my wife. It's nice, but really awkward for me. When someone says "are you losing weight, you look great" I tend to respond with a casual remark like:
a) No, I'm just ungaining weight
b) Meh, I'm trying to get to the gym more often
c) You're just comparing me to my 8 mos pregnant wife;) (as a joke only with close friends and yes it gets me play slapped anyway)

I am noticing that my appetite is decreasing. It's causing me to not be as focused on my between meal snacks as much. It might just have been the fact that I was a bit sick, but I used to feel like cutting down to 1800 cals I needed to eat every couple of hours, and I haven't felt that in the last week which is making it harder to stay disciplined in breaking up my meals and spacing my calories.

I've been thinking some about my calorie defecit. Losing 39 lbs means that eating the same calories/exercise, means my defecit is something like 400-600 calories lower each day than it was when I started. However I have no plans of lowering my calories at this point, the results have been great, and I have no need to continue to lose as fast, so am fine if it slows down. I've found that 1800-2000 range to be "livable" and not a strict diet, and that is important to me. I should be able to lose down into the 190's in this range, it'll just be slower than my current progress.


Nutrition Observations

Mon - 1392 cals
Tue - 1776 cals
Wed - 1675cals
Thu - 1578 cals
Fri - 2031 cals (ate way too little + huge cheat meal)
Sat - 2073 cals
Sun - 1334 cals

I'll give myself a B this week on diet. The really good part was I went to the grocery store on my trip and as a result ate miles better than my normal trips. Really proud of that effort. The other good part was staying in a decent calorie range all week. I did the following things wrong...
a) No breakfast on Thursday
b) Not great on snacks/calorie spacing Wed-Sat
c) Friday was 400 calories until dinner followed by a whopping 1600+ cheat meal that included competely unnecessary seconds at a buffet


Exercise Observations

Monday - Gym
Tuesday - Gym
Wednesday - Short/light Gym (slightly sick)
Thursday - ~2mi casual airport walk (slightly sick)
Friday - Nothing (more sick)
Saturday - Gym
Sunday - Rest

To be honest, my lighter workout schedule this week probably helped my # this week. I'm probably carrying a little less "muscle water" than previous Monday's. I did ok on exercise this week and was glad I made a difficult and conscious effort to move on Wed/Thu when I wasn't feeling 100%. I'm really starting to notice my upper body be more pronounced, and shirts that used to be tight around the belly are feeling more tight around the chest/shoulders (which is good!). These first 39 lbs have made a pretty big difference to a casual observer, but I don't feel like I look ton's different proportionally with my shirt off. But I can tell I'm on the cusp of making huge strides there and I bet the next 20 lbs will be less noticeable to others, but huge difference in muscle definition, etc.

Looking forward to next week
Have another week at home so nothing too special or complicated. Should be able to stay focused on another good plan week and hopefully getting into the 210's next week!

Tuesday 2/2 - Cheating and ok with it?

Today for the first time in 2 months on plan, I purposefully and intentionally cheated. I've cheated over the last 2 months but this was the first time I thought about it and planned on doing it. I've been doing really well and have been thinking over the last week about having a cheat item or meal, many many choices came to mind;).

What I've been missing the most is chips, and I've specifically been really craving a bowl of chips and salsa from Chili's (I dig both the thin chips and salsa).

So I decided tonight was the night, I was in great shape calorie-wise for the day. I actually ate some about 90 minutes before I went, as my goal wasn't to have a huge Chili's binge (hello TriplePlay!) but specifically to treat myself to meet a craving.

So I had Chili's chips and salsa, my wife had a dessert, and it was awesome. We had fun, and it tasted as good as I hoped it would. And the best part is that I don't feel bad about it at all since I really thought about doing it and it was a conscious and planned for choice.

I'll be curious to see if this indulgence triggers any other cravings over the next several days, but hopefully not.

Wednesday 2/3 - Type 2 Diabetes???

So I was having a nice day until I stumbled upon this innocent thread about how much water was appropriate to drink...
http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/weig...uch-water.html

Anyway I realized that I used to have the severe thirst (even right after drinking a lot) described as a very common symptom of Type 2 diabetes. I have no idea how I never discovered that before. It didn't seem like a big deal at the time, I've always liked water a lot. I now remember somtimes being so full of water at night that I would be uncomfortably bloated, but still getting up several times to drink a full glass of water...

Let me interject here one of my biggest personal weaknesses...I HATE going to the doctor. I have been to the doctor one time in the last 12 years, and that was for a well visit my wife forced me to go to. My thought was always "I know I'm overweight and have high blood pressure, and I undersand the implications of that"...

In my original post at the top of this thread one of the reasons I listed for starting this journey was...

"8. Knowing that I have high-blood pressure, and probably have gotten to the point where I am pre-diabetic. I for sure have unbelievable energy swings, and some periods during the day where I "crash" so hard I almost can't get off the couch."

So today after that thread of course I went to my main source for any medical problems, my personal doctor....webMD:D

Symptoms of Type 2 Diabetes
1. Increased Thirst --- huge check
2. Increased Hunger --- ??I was super overweight and ate all the time so I guess???
3. Dry Mouth --- huge check
4. Nausea and Vomiting --- Haven't thrown up once since childhood so no
5. Fatigue --- huge check, this was a big problem for me
6. Blurred Vision --- ??I have been very nearsighted since childhood so wear glasses all the time, haven't noticed anythin unusual here.
7. Numbness or tingling in hands/feet --- yes, not frequently
8. Frequent skin infections/slow healing infections --- not frequent, but I've had one or two that stuck around forever


So I can't really come to much other conclusion that especially in the last 6 months before I started the plan that I was either right on the verge or fully in Type 2 land. Kind of a bummer.

The Good News
The good news is that I haven't had any of the symptoms since I started the plan. None. This took a while to think of since I didn't really think of the things like out of control thirst as a symptom. But I have not had any of that since on the plan.

Also my blood pressure has dropped over 30 points since the last time I checked (which I'm sure wasn't the highest).

So What Now
I don't know really:?:, this sort of snuck up on me unexpectedly. The obvious answer is to go to the doctor for the simple test to see if my levels are out of whack.

But I'll probably convince myself that I am already solving the problem, and haven't had any symptoms since eating right and exercising which is what the doctor would probably say. So I'll probably not go unless I have more symptoms come up...I know that's not the right answer...aarrrggghhh I HATE THE DOCTOR!!!

I guess it also gives me more motivation to stay on plan. More at stake:(

Hey randomcards,

I had another thought. These days a lot of drug store chains have in-store clinics where you can go and get some tests done, like blood pressure, blood glucose, and so on. They aren't free, but it's an alternative to having to make a dr. appointment. Usually they are staffed by nurse practitioners or physician assistants.

I think you did dodge a bullet by starting your new program! :bravo: But find out some numbers anyway?

Jay

yes!!!! but oh no!!!!
 

I am in the 200's!!!!!!!!!!!! granted it is 299 but hey what the ****, the kicker though is it is Superbowl weekend, and it will probably all go to ****!!! I am planing on taking healthy snacks this weekend, but I know there will be several adult beverages consumed!!!!!!!!!

I will post Mon or not???

:woohoo:

Hang in there, tuckr!!! Stay together today and tomorrow, and keep with the idea of healthy snacks! And enjoy the SB!

Jay

Great idea Jay, that's a bit more paleatable for me. I'll look around and see if there is one around here that does something like that. Thanks!

Nice! I had no doubt you'd make it there sooner rather than later. What a huge milestone, hopefully that will give you good motivation to stay on track over the weekend.

I'm about to make a post with my plan for this weekend. I would encourage you to at least think about what you are going to do and try to stick with that. That might well include snacks, beer, etc. But at least think about it ahead of time and decide what you do and don't want to do. That way you are controlling your food, not vice versa. And don't make your plan include anything dumb like only eating carrot sticks. Yeah right, not on Superbowl weekend.

Friday Feb 5th - Preparing for the Superbowl

I'm really trying to continue strong attention on this concept of me happening to my life and avoiding my life happening to me which is a subtle but important difference.

For example this weekend is the Superbowl. Here's what I know.
-I enjoy watching the Superbowl
-The Superbowl is usually a weekend-long bingefest
-I am attending a party with lots of friends and ridiculous amounts of unhealthy "Superbowl party" type foods

I know this today, so there is really no reason for me not to think about it now and try to decide how I want to handle this. So far I've ruled out....

---Staying on plan on Sunday :devil:

But here's what I'm thinking of doing. I think this is reasonable...

A) Friday and Saturday: Go a little below normal calories somewhere in the 1600-1800 range.

B) Saturday: Go for a longer than usual workout, really kill it at the gym with lots of weight training.

C) Sunday (before Superbowl party): Try to stay at <600 calories up to the Superbowl party.

D) Sunday (right before party): Drink a protein shake shortly before party. These fill me up decently and I think will help me limit the amount of junk food I eat to a less horrifying amount. DO NOT GO TO THE PARTY STARVED!!!

E) Sunday (during the party): Don't stress about the plan. Attempt to do the following.... Only use small plates.... When small plate empties wait until end of quarter to refill... drink diet beverages.

F) Monday AM: Count all my calories from the party as well as possible so I can own and be aware of my choices from the night before.

K that's all I've got, I think that's doable.

Quick Update

Ok I've pulled off A-C of my Super Bowl post thus far. Of course those were the easy ones, now I've got to pull off D-E the rest of today....I can do it!

Well Tucker, I hope to see you post today regardless of the "sins" of yesterday;)

I did really well up until the party and probably a little worse than I wanted to at the party (and I was already planning cheating:D). But on to a new week. And even better I put Drew Brees on contract for the next 3 years in my FF league at the beginning of the season!

Monday Feb 8th - SuperBowl wrap-up observations

Well, glad to get that out of the way.

So I did really good on my plan the whole weekend. Even drank a protein/fiber shake on my way to the party to help.

It didn't help much:devil:!

I had definately planned to cheat, but still ate more than I had expected to. Our friend potluck parties are an orgy of unhealthy food. What really got me were those stupid peanut butter cup cookies again (same as New Years Eve grrr!) and mini-pigs in a blanket. I mean they are mini so I can have like 20 rights:)

So the net was my second biggest "cheat" day on plan.

But here's the good news, I compared yesterday to my largest binge day (New Year's Eve) and my behaviors thorugh the weekend made a big difference. Because I was very good on plan the whole weekend up until the one party, the net was I only came out at just under 3K calories yesterday. Which I'm ok with, not thrilled, but a marked improvement from my performance on New Year's Eve under very similar circumstances.

On to another week.

I'll post tonight from my hotel the results of this week and how the SuperBowl feeding frenzy did or didn't impact my results this week...stay tuned;)