I’ve read several times this week (and heard a few times on the news) that doctors now think that what and how much you eat is more important than exercise when it comes to weight loss.  I don’t know if that is right or not but I’ve always been more consistent with exercise than with eating right and I have not been very successful at losing weight.  So there’s one data point for you.

That said, I am cautiously optimistic at the moment.  I’ve been exercising all week and my diet has not been as bad for the past week as it was for December.

Everyone at home has caught the nasty crud that has been going around (although Dad may just have the nasty chemo side effects - Mom’s not really clear when she is sick).  I was planning on going home this weekend but she wants to wait and see how they feel tomorrow.  If they’re still sick, she doesn’t want me to come because they’ll need me to help out more the next weekend and she doesn’t want me to get sick.  I’m thinking if they’re still sick, I should go this weekend so they can rest and get better for next week (when Dad starts 2X a day radiation).  We’ll see.

I need to take my Christmas tree down

Today’s activities:

• Walking to/from parking lot to work, 10 minutes
• Elliptical Trainer, 30 minutes

Eating:  Eh…

Water:  2 liter

Current Weight:  252.0 lbs

Today’s delta: -0.5 lbs

Total delta:  -4.5 lbs

Note to self:  talk about diet v. exercise articles tomorrow.  Too sleepy tonight.

Today’s activities:

• Walking to/from parking lot to work, 10 minutes
• Elliptical Trainer, 45 minutes

Eating:  Not too bad except for the chocolate chip cookie.  Does a chocolate chip cookie count if you’ve been trapped in a meeting since 9 am and it’s 3:30 pm and your stomach is growling so loudly that people on the other side of the auditorium could hear it?

Water:  2 liter

Current Weight:  252.5 lbs (a surprise there)

Today’s delta: -3.5 lbs

Total delta:  -4.0 lbs

If you wear heavy warmups (pants and jacket) while you are exercising in a boiling hot gym, you are an nitwit.

If you wear heavy warmups (pants and jacket) with a hood tied tightly over your head so no one can see your face while you are exercising in a boiling hot gym, you are a nitwit.

If you wear heavy warmups (pants and jacket) with a KNIT CAP on your head while you are exercising in a boiling hot gym, you are a nitwit.

If you are screaming in agony like you are giving birth to a child while lifting weights, it is not impressive.  This is doubly true for guys.  Really.  I’m just saying.

If you spend more time strutting around the gym (in your heavy warmups with your hood up or wearing your stupid KNIT CAP), it is not impressive.  You are not exercising.  You are a nitwit.  You are also wasting valuable space in the gym that could be utilized by people who are actually interested in improving their health and who have sufficient brain cells to be trying to do something about it.

NITWITS GO HOME AND TAKE YOUR STUPID KNIT CAPS WITH YOU!!

Not that there’s anything wrong with knit caps.  I have a knit cap.  I wear it outside when it is freaking COLD!

Seriously, is ‘gangsta gym’ a new fad or something?  Actually, this look is so stupid that it is an insult to ‘gangstas’ to refer to it by that name.

Today’s activities:

• Walking to/from parking lot to work, 10 minutes
• Yard Work, 15 minutes
• Elliptical Trainer, 30 minutes

Eating:  I am also a nitwit.

Water:  2 liter

Current Weight:  254.5 lbs

Today’s delta: -1.5 lbs

Total delta:  -2.0 lbs

5 January 2008 (I’m just slow today/yesterday/whatever)

The *grunt* is so appropriate today.  It is time for annual evaluations at work.  I’ve done the secretary’s so far.  Now I just have to do mine and an evaluation for everyone I’ve worked with this year.  Hate it.

The *grunt* is also appropriate to stuffing my face today - pastries and pringles.  What is wrong with me?  I know that I have a hard enough time making any progress without deliberately screwing it up.

Today’s activities:

• Walking to/from parking lot to work, 10 minutes
• Grocery shopping, 30 minutes
• Elliptical Trainer, 30 minutes

Eating:  *grunt*, soooooo, piggy!

Water:  1 liter

Current Weight:  253.5 lbs (back on my scale)

Today’s delta (from last weigh-in on my scale, 20 Dec): -2.5 lbs

Total delta:  -3.0 lbs

Well, “vacation” is over and it is back to work tomorrow.

Today’s activities:

• Put out feed for heifers, 2 bags @ 50 lbs each
• Put out feed for calves, 2 bags @ 50 lbs each
• Walk around the farm, 1.5 miles

Eating:  could have been better, too much fast food

Water:  1 liters

Current Weight:  252.4 lbs (Mom’s scale)

Today’s delta: +1.2 lbs

Total Holiday delta:  -3.1 lbs

Sorry, snowbound folks, but it was another beautiful day here today.  Ended up wearing shorts and t-shirt for most of the day.

Dad felt good enough this afternoon to walk around the farm for 1.5 miles, slowly but he made it.  It is really strange - this morning he was pretty much gasping for air just sitting at the table for breakfast.  Today his jaw and tongue were really hurting at times but not consistently.  We’ll have to talk to the doctor to see what he can take so he can get more sleep.

Today’s activities:

• Loaded hay for calves, 4 bales @85 lbs each
• Put out feed for heifers, 2 bags @ 50 lbs each
• Put out feed for calves, 2 bags @ 50 lbs each
• Unloaded cattle feed, 16 bags @ 50 lbs each
• Unloaded horse feed, 4 bags @50 lbs each
• Walk around the farm with Dad, 1.5 miles
• Walked to workout hill, approximately 0.75 miles
• Walked up and down workout hill (177 yards (or 0.1 miles) each way, est. 4% grade) 3 times
• Walked past barn back to the house, approximately 1.5 miles

Eating:  perfectly decent

Water:  3 liters

Current Weight:  251.2 lbs (Mom’s scale)

Today’s delta: -1.4 lbs

Total Holiday delta:  -4.3 lbs

Today was a beautiful day, weather-wise.  A little foggy this morning but we missed that anyway since we were with Dad at radiation/rehydration.  This afternoon was sunny, clear, and 70 degrees.  Short sleeve shirts!

I took our measuring wheel out this afternoon to see how far we’ve actually been walking.  The bad news is that I’ve overestimated the distances on most parts.  The good news is that I underestimated the distance and incline of the workout hill.  I updated yesterday’s activity with the more accurate distances.  It still came out to over 4.5 miles.

Not so busy today but I still got some good activity in.

• Loaded hay for calves, 4 bales @85 lbs each
• Loaded hay for feed store, 33 bales @85 lbs each
• Walked to workout hill, approximately 0.75 miles
• Walked up and down workout hill (177 yards (or 0.1 miles) each way, est. 7% incline) 5 times
• Walked past barn back to the house, approximately 1.5 miles

Eating:  perfectly decent

Water:  3 liters

Current Weight:  252.6 lbs (Mom’s scale)

Today’s delta: -0.6 lbs

Total Holiday delta:  -2.9 lbs

Welcome to 2009!  Fortunately, Mom’s wacky scale gave me a break today, making it easier for me to have a more positive outlook today (I know, bad idea to let the scale set your mood for the day - it usually doesn’t unless I’m already stressed about something else).

2008 summary - I needed to lose weight.  I gained weight instead, even though I was trying to eat right and exercise right all year.

My overall goal is to lose at least 100 lbs.  Note - that is not my goal for 2009 because for me, that would be completely unrealistic.  I would just like to get this done sometime before say, 2015.  That should be doable.  Since this is a big, scary goal, I’m just putting it out there and mentioning it no more.

2009 Goals

1.  Lose at least fifty pounds - that’s a little less than a pound a week, so surely I can do that!  Of course, I thought the same thing about my 1 1/2 pound a week goal last year : )

2.  Increase my exercise and activity levels - I was active fairly consistently in 2008 but I need to do more (I also need to fix the ‘d’ key on my keyboard since it keeps skipping)

My first mini-goal is to get to “Severely Obese” - that’s 248 lbs for me.  Seems easy enough, right?  Keep in mind that Mom’s scale weighs at least 1.5 lbs lighter than mine.  I’m going with mine for the “official” results.

Today’s Activities:

• Put up hot wire fences, 2.5 hours, walked approximately 1 mile with cable reel, set up hot wire posts, etc.
• Sorted bulls, moved to new pen, walked approximately 0.75 0.5 miles
• Loaded hay for calves, 4 bales @85 lbs each
• Weighed calves, walked approximately 0.5 miles, opened and closed gates about 50 times
• Moved baby bull to new pen, walked approximately 0.75 0.3 miles
• Walked to workout hill, approximately 1 0.75 miles
• Walked up and down workout hill (100 177 yards (or 0.1 miles) each way, est. 7% incline) 5 times
• Walked past barn back to the house, approximately 2.5 1.5 miles

I would describe all of the ground around our farm as gently rolling to rolling hills.  The distances are really rough estimates - I may break out the survey tomorrow and see if I can get it a little closer.

Eating:  perfectly decent

Water:  3 liters

Current Weight:  253.2 lbs (Mom’s scale)

Today’s delta: -2.6 lbs

Total Holiday delta:  -2.3 lbs

So, it’s a little early for most of us but I may be an old stick-in-the-mud and go to bed soon - I’m tired!  We had to get up really early this morning to get Dad to chemo.

I was busy all day feeding the animals, running errands, etc.  I also made it to the gym for another good workout.  I say good workout because I’m certainly working hard enough to be doing some good on the weight-loss front.  Unfortunately, the scale is just not cooperating at all this week.

I am really happy for (and jealous of) all of the people that are looking forward to losing weight/getting fit starting tomorrow.  Everyone is so excited and positive and I’m just not.  I know I’ll keep plugging away at it, I’m just afraid that this time next year, I’ll be exactly where I am now (actually, I may wish that I were exactly where I am now ).  I have an appointment with another endocrinologist at the end of January.  I’ve managed to wear down two endocrinologists in the Boston area already.  Both of them felt certain that it should be no problem at all to lose weight.  After months of no progress, numerous tests and trials, and results consistently the opposite of what the endocrinologists’ expected, we all kind of gave up on the endocrinology hope.  Maybe Dallas endocrinologists are hardier stock (or more pig-headed, whatever works!).

I may not have much hope for my particular weight loss future but I don’t understand why everyone is so down on 2008 and ready to get rid of it!  Sure there were bad things that happened, but it seems a little negative to just want to consign a whole year to the trash can of history (yes, I can see the irony here - pot, kettle, meet Reality!).

I’m sure 2009 will have its highlights too so good luck to everyone and happy new year!

Current Weight:  255.8 lbs (Mom’s scale, really, was that necessary?)

Today’s delta: +2.2 lbs

Total Holiday delta:  +0.3 lbs

Current Weight:  253.6 lbs (Mom’s scale)

Today’s delta: -0.6 lbs

Total Holiday delta:  -1.9 lbs

Stayed pretty busy today.  Worked on cleaning the house and went to the gym.  The gym was like a sauna - I should have sweated out any water weight!