SVG (Scalable Vector Graphic) Question

Here's a techy question that I need help on...

Many of the roadsigns that I am using for my weigh-in graphics are saved as .SVG files. For the ones I actually use, someone on a page has already converted the SVG to a JPG file...

But I could use so many other signs if I only knew how to convert SVG files to JPG files...I could put up a roadsign from Nevada, Nebraska, or even Minnesota (how exciting!).

Does anyone out there work with SVG files and knows a easy and, more importantly, free way to convert these files to a format usable by blogger?

Your assistance is greatly appreciated!

Weigh In - Week 9

9 weeks in and 28 pounds down...

28 divided by 9 equals 3.1 pounds lost per week...

I wanted to lose 30 lbs by week 30...

Based on my track record thus far, I am going to lose 30 lbs by Week 10...

Pretty excited about it...

Once again, I'm a little surprised as well...I was pretty good about my eating / exercise habits up to Memorial Day weekend. On Sunday evening, I ended up getting a little crazy with the drinking...I'm guessing I had 1 glass of whiskey, 1 glass of wine, 2 bottles of cider, and ohhhh...7 or 8 glasses of beer...yeah...I was feeling pretty bad the next day...and alcohol has a way of making you eat bad as well...I didn't eat too poorly on Monday, but I didn't do myself any favors either...

Still...I ended up 3 lbs lighter...I'll take it and hopefully I can come in at an even 30 lbs loss or better next week...

Proud Father Video

More of the newest addition to our family...this was taken on Saturday, 5/26 @ roughly 7AM when it was my turn to change AJ and spend some quality time...

Progress Photos - 25 lbs lighter

By popular demand (for the one person who requested in comments):

It's funny...you probably don't see too much change due to the clothing covering most of the noticable changes...On the flip side, most people say that I really don't look overweight when I was up in the 230's...

Enjoy!

Healthy Choices - 5/24

Food:

B: Weight Control Oatmeal (switched from Maple Sugar to Cinnamon)
L: Grilled Chicken Sub from Genaurdi's (local supermarket) w/ mozzarella, roasted peppers, lettuce on a roll.
D: Rotini Spinach Salad Leftovers

Exercise: None

Comments: Hmmm....if you read my previous post, you can see I wasn't too happy yesterday. That translated into a bad evening with Carolyn. Nothing really to note from a food and exercise standpoint. Overall, pretty healthy...at least this type of food has been working for me. Been eating a lot of cherries for snacks lately...which is odd as I never ate them growing up. I read somewhere that cherries have a very low glycemic index. I'm not specifically attempting to eat low GI foods, but I figure if I keep the blood sugar low and regulated that will help with the overall diet as well...And I never realized that cherries were so tasty or fun to eat (I've only ever really eaten the maraschino type you put in drinks)

Depressed Rant...

I've been trying to keep my personal thoughts, per se, out of this blog. Instead, I've tried to strictly focus on weight loss inspired topics...

Today, I'm going to veer a little off course and just write about my generally depressed state as of late. This is going to be more of a "stream of consciousness" thing, so bear with me.

It's funny actually...if you read my first post, I noted I was depressed then...and I thought that losing weight would solve my problems...well, I've lost more weight over 8 weeks than I would have ever imagined (doing it the right way as well) and yet I still feel this way...why?

When I was in high school, I said that if someone would pay me six figures to be a fry cook, I would do that in a heartbeat. It was always about the money with me and not about doing something I actually enjoyed. As a a matter of fact, I've never really found something that I both enjoy and could make a decent living at. So, I got my BA in Business and took the first decent job that came across my path...and did well enough to get promoted...and then left that job to take another job at better pay...and then more jobs and more promotions, etc...I even went back and got my MBA so I could keep the better jobs and promotions coming...

And here I am at 32 in a corporate director's position with my own office, people working for me, and a six figure income...and I pretty much hate the position I'm in...and I have no idea of what to do next...

I think part of the problem is that I currently have no boss to work for really...the person who promoted me into my current role has moved on to another role in the company and his position has been vacant for *9 months*. The person who is filling the role on an interim basis is on the opposite coast from me and she has enough on her plate without worrying what I am doing for the company (If anything). Honestly, I could probably take the next 2 weeks off, not tell anyone, and just dial into the bi-weekly staff update and no one would know the difference (except for the people working for me )...

You might be saying, "You're telling me you make 6 figures in a job where no one cares whether you actually perform or not, and that is a bad thing?" And I think that takes me back to my earlier statement about being happy being a fry cook for $100K. I think I underestimated the importance of actually getting some satisfaction out of your job...

But the problem still remains as to what I want to do that will provide some satisfaction in my life? I'm pretty sure that being a corporate director is not going to make me happy, but what will make me happy...and if I find that profession, can I make enough $$$ to be the sole provider for my family (now of 3)?

That's all I want to write for now...I'm not really loooking for answers from the crowd. Sometimes it helps to just write it all out....you know?

Healthy Choices - 5/23

Food:

B: Weight Control Oatmeal

L: Slender Fender Bender Meal Replacement Shake

D: Kitchen Sink Quesadilla & Salad (recipe can be found here)

Exercise:

Cardio: Elliptical Machine (30 minutes)
Abs: Crunch Machine (100/25, 115/15, 130/10)

Strength: Seated Press (75/20, 80/15, 85/10, 100/5)

Comments: I was able to work out over lunch again today (and I'll try again tomorrow as well). Extra bonus when you work out over lunch: There is hardly anyone there! Although I didn't take advantage yesterday, it's a great time to try out new machines without looking like too much of a jackass. My wife is trying out the "happy homemaker" thing and made another new recipe again last night...and she is now 2 for 2 in making tasty meals. This one was a little messy (and I usually require some kind of meat in a dinner), but these were satisfying and mostly good for me...

Healthy Choices - 5/21, 5/22

Let's get to it, shall we?

5/21 Food:

B: Weight Control Oatmeal

L: Cosi "Spring Wheat Salad" w/ Multi grain Bread

D: Chicken on Rotini Spinach Salad (Recipe wife found in Real Simple)

5/21 Exercise:

Cardio: Elliptical Machine (30 minutes)

Abs: Crunch Machine (100/25, 115/15, 130/10)

Comments: If I can find an online version of the recipe, I will post on here. It was pretty awesome! It had spinach, ricotta, scallions, golden raisins all mixed with whole wheat rotini pasta. I wasn't feeling all too great today, so I cut the workout short and ditched the strength portion of the evening. I would have cut the workout all together, but I needed to get my weigh in number.

5/22 Food:

B: Weight Control Oatmeal

L: Chicken Caesar Salad from Boston Market (no dressing or croutons)

D: This chicken and rice dish given by friends

Exercise: None

Comments: As I've noted before, I'm not keen on adding dressing to salads. Besides, Boston Market throws enough shaved Parmesan into the mix that I felt like I adding enough taste. Visited friends on Saturday and they gave us a decent portion of the chicken and rice dish they were making...I ate the chicken but the rice did not hold up too well. Instead, I went to town on a bag of cherries I bought...

Update: That recipe wasn't hard to find at all...

Weigh In - Week 8

8 weeks is a little under 2 months...How did I do after a week where I drank heavily Friday night, ate Taco Bell, had a Moe's Burrito, and had a plate of fried chicken wings?

I lost another 2 lbs :)

I've lost 25 lbs since I've started this :)

Total Weight loss is now at the 1/2 way point...17 weeks early :)

I'm still averaging over 3 lbs lost per week :)

And I found a cool Michigan road sign this week! NY road signs were starting to get a little stale.

I attached the personal chart I am keeping to show how awesome I am doing. I am a full month ahead of where I need to be to achieve my aggressive goal (60 lbs in 30 wks). I am over 4 months ahead of the 50 lbs in 50 wks plan I had originally set...

Can you tell I am psyched?

I *heart* Craigslist & Rssfwd

Why? Because, as a kid, I loved looking through the classified ads to see if anyone was looking to get rid of something I wanted on the cheap.

For those in the know, Craigslist is essentially a classified ads section where the interface is minimal and easy to use and the ads are free. If you live in our just outside a metro area, like Philadelphia, you will find tons of people looking to sell their used wares or themselves (through personals, community listings, resume listings, etc.). Unlike Ebay, there isn't some frantic bidding (I hate to bid). Someone wants to sell item X for price Y and you decide whether the price is acceptable (The trick at times is to be the first to respond if the deal is good...more on that later). And...since you are usually dealing with people local to you, you can save by not paying tax or shipping (Beware the price you bid on ebay...is it really such a good deal when you factor in the shipping costs?)

Today, as a matter of fact, I purchased a set of 500 11.5g poker chips in a nice felt lined case for $15. A set like this would sell new for $75 - $100. How did I beat out fellow craigslist folks to close the deal? This is the "more on that later" part. Here is what I do when I am looking for a craigslist deal:

• First, go to craigslist.org. Find your local metro area on the right hand side
• Click on the "For Sale" hyper link. You can choose a subcategory, but I personally like to keep the net as wide as possible
• Once there, you can filter by keywords. Location may be important if you're only willing to travel so far for items or descriptive terms like "poker" if you're looking for a poker set. They've upgraded recently to allow you to filter by price or ads with images. I prefer to keep my filters minimal. Narrow too far and you may miss out on something.
• Click search and you should see a bunch of ads...some good and some bad. Perhaps you see the deal you are looking for and you are done at this point. If you want to keep this search active and have an email sent to you every time an ad fits your criteria, here's what I do (here comes the magic!)
• Scroll all the way to the bottom of your filtered list. You should see a RSS link in the lower right hand corner. Click on this link. On the next page, copy (Ctrl-C) the url address. It should look something like this: http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/search/sss?query=weight&minAsk=min&maxAsk=&format=rss
  

• Go to the following url address: http://www.rssfwd.com/
• Paste the craigslist RSS address from before into the text box and click submit.
• It will verify that you are submitting a true RSS link and then ask you for an email address. Give them the email address that you slavishly check into every minute. Click subscribe.
  
• Presto! You should start receiving emails every time someone posts an ad that fits your criteria. Once you find your special deal, you can easily choose to unsubscribe to the feed (similar to unsubscribing to any reputable email solicitation).

There you go. Since you are getting new deals soon after they are posted, you have the best shot of being first in line with a reply. And being there first in Craigslist (or any classified ad) is half the battle.

Have any other Craiglist tips? Share with the group please! :)

Healthy Choices - 5/18, 5/19, 5/20

The weekend edition!

5/18 Food:

B: Kashi Go Lean Crunch Cereal
L: "Slender Bender Fender" Meal Replacement Shake from gym
D: 3 Slices of Broccoli Pizza
S: 6 Light Beers at the Bar

5/18 Exercise:

Cardio: Elliptical Machine (30 minutes)
Abs: Crunch Machine (100/25, 115/15, 130/10)
Strength: Leg Press (100/20,115/15,130/15)
Leg Extension (60/15, 65/10, 70/10)
Leg Curl (80/20, 85/15, 90/10)

Comments: I actually went to the gym over lunch today. Lesson learned: I need to bring spare, clean undergarments. Although I'm taking a shower after working out, my clothes can not and I tend to sweat. I also need to figure out a what to do with a wet towel and workout clothes...Felt I did OK until I decided to head to the bar with friends for once. They were light beers, but I know I drank too many...Another little joy I haven't done in a while...We'll see how all my little joys this week effect my weigh in on Monday...

5/19 Food:

B: Kashi Go Lean Crunch Cereal
L: 2 Slices of Broccoli Pizza (Friday leftovers)
D: Moe's Southwest Grill "Triple Lindy" Burrito - Chicken, Steak, Sour Cream, Cheese, Lettuce, Onion, Rice

5/19 Exercise: None.

Comments: Also went to visit friends and had 2 beers along with some cheese and crackers. Combine that with the Burrito and now I am worried that I may end up with my first week of no weight loss or *gasp!* potential weight gain...Am I being paranoid?

5/20 Food:

B: Kashi Go Lean Crunch Cereal
L: Tuna marinated with Lemon and Oil, Sugar Snap Peas (Raw)
D: Trader Joe's Shrimp Stir Fry Meal Bag

5/20 Exercise:

3 Sets / 15 Reps of 15 lb Arm Curls

Comments: Much better today on the food choices and I managed to grab the dumbbells, add some more weight, and put a little bit of exercise in...Hopefully that stems the tide of questionable choices this week.

Healthy Choices - 5/17

Holy crap! I'm actually remembering to get this written (for once)...

B: Weight Control Oatmeal (I'm getting a little tired of it)
L: Taco Bell! (2 Chicken Chalupa Supremes, 1 Hard Taco, 1 Large Pepsi)
D: Spinach & Ricotta Tortellini w/ Sauce and Chopped Spinach

Exercise: Nothing

Comments: This was the first time since Day 2 of my project that I have eaten true fast food! Which is a nice run (roughly 50+ days), but I still feel guilty about it. I checked my weight at the gym today and I'm holding steady to lose 1 lbs this week. I have to start thinking of a new way to hit the gym. I usually go right after work, but that isn't going over too well with my wife in the new AJ world. I need to get there over lunch more...

Tips and tricks - Snacks and drinks edition

I've been meaning to put together a post with the things I have been doing to help keep me on track. I know a lot of these things are common sense, but perhaps someone out there will gain something from them:

• Have "good" snacks around at all times - I believe on a previous post, I mentioned some of the snacks I keep with me at work. I'm a big believer in almonds these days and Blue Diamond has some great varieties out there. I personally like things spicy and go for the "Jalapeno Smokehouse" variety. I also buy bananas (and other fruit that doesn't need refrigeration) and beef jerky (not Slim Jims...the good stuff). Keeping this around keeps me from using the two vending machines that are right outside my office. I used to drink 1 - 2 cokes a day...since I've done this, I haven't had 1 since...
• Bonus "good" snack tip: If you work in an office environment, there is a good chance there are lots of catered business lunches with leftovers put in some general area. For some reason, people will always snag the "bad" leftovers first (i.e. big, soft cookies) and leave the "good" leftovers (i.e. fruit) behind for the suckers. Be that sucker and snag that fruit! If you don't eat it now, hold on to it to eat a day or two later!
  
• Learn to love iced tea - I will never acquire a taste for diet soda. I grew up drinking full strength Pepsi and Coke. The artificial sweetners in cola leave a bad taste in my mouth. As you all know, having one cola is like eating 10 teaspoons of sugar (and if you didn't know, now you do!). By drinking unsweetened iced tea, you can either reduce sugar altogether or at least add less sugar than you are consuming through cola. I was never an unsweetened tea drinker growing up, so my taste buds never had a preconceived notion of taste. I generally will add a packet of Splenda in a restaurant or nothing at all! And if you're a cheapo like me, you always get free refills on tea. Some restaurants will charge for another soda.
  
• Bonus Iced Tea Tip: Buy this machine (I get no royalty or commission for suggesting). I get bored very easily with your standard unsweetened iced tea. These days, there are so many different varieties out there that have additional health benefits and taste great without sweeteners. I take 8 bags of this tea (any mint green tea will do though) and follow the instructions on my iced tea maker. I put the taste of this up against any sweetened drink I was having before. I love it and it is healthy and promotes weight loss! *And* the machine makes it quickly (<10 minutes). *And* it's cheaper or equal in price to soda. Why are you not already getting this?!?
  

That's it for now...I was going to post more tips, but this took a lot out of me. I'll come back later with some other areas that have helped.

Proud Father Pics...

Because I know you all love them...

Here is happy AJ:


And here is sad AJ:


Which one do you think I like to see when I get home?

Healthy Choices - 5/16, 5/15, 5/14

Another three day lapse...ugh...

5/16 Food:

B: Weight Control Oatmeal
L: 10 Hot Wings w/ Bleu Cheese & Celery
D: Sushi Rolls (Spider Rolls & Salmon Rolls) w/ Miso Soup

5/16 Exercise:

Cardio: Elliptical Machine (35 minutes)
Abs: Crunch Machine (90/25, 105/15, 120/10)
Abs: Also tried doing some leg lifts today...
Strength: Seated Press (75/20, 80/15, 85/10, 100/5)
Strength: Seated Row (70/20, 75/15, 80/10)

Comments: I finally broke down and had deep fried food for lunch. In my defense, I told myself I was going to get a plate of wings 3 weeks back as a celebration meal for AJ. I think my guilt from the wings translated to the gym where I did an additional 10 minutes of cardio and tried out some new machines.

5/15 Food:

B: Weight Control Oatmeal
L: An extremely delicious Grilled Chicken Sub from Genaurdi's (local supermarket) w/ mozzarella, roasted peppers, lettuce on a wheat roll. (Note to local Philadelphians: Highly reccomended!)
D: Baked Ziti (Last of Mom's leftovers)

5/15 Exercise: None

Comments: All the delicious, but not so good for me, Ziti from Mom is gone. I'm both happy and sad. Mom did say she put in skim ricotta and mozzarella in. Did I mention the sub already? It was huge and had tons of good stuff that's good for me. I'll be going back and getting that more often!

5/14 Food:

B: Weight Control Oatmeal
L: Chicken Caesar Salad / Fruit Salad
D: Leftover Night (Leftover Chicken Pad Thai & Leftover Shrimp / Clam Dish)

5/14 Exercise:

Cardio: Elliptical Machine (11/2,14/8,16/10,14/5)
Abs: Crunch Machine (90/25, 105/15, 120/10)
Strength: Seated Press (75/20, 80/15, 85/10, 100/5)

Comments: Let's see...this morning I had a physical and I had to fast 12 hours prior. So breakfast didn't occur till around 9:30AM (Normal breakfast 7:30AM). Got to work and had to participate in a department "town hall meeting". Upside is that, for once, they provided a lunch that was pretty healthy. The only options were chicken Caesar or fruit salad. I took a bit of both and both were awesome. I'll have to remind the admin to use that meal more often. Dinner was a refrigerator cleaning extravaganza! You can actually see shelf space now!

Help! Crying baby!

I know I'm a little more than 2 weeks in to being a father, but the crying thing has me on edge.

I understand babies have to cry. It's the only way for them to communicate at this point in their lives. But man...my guy cries in such a way that I can not focus on anything except for stopping him crying. He's not crying all the time (i.e. colic), but I would like to hear your thoughts on how you get your baby (or someone else's) to stop.

Obviously, I know to check him for dirty diapers and feeding / burping. Anyone else have the magic key to keeping a newborn soothed? Please comment!

Reflections & Other "Non Scale Victories"

I'll be honest...I feel kind of dumb writing "Non Scale Victories" on my blog. It is still the best way of defining those health and weight loss breakthroughs that don't occur in a purely weight loss manner. There are two, in particular, that I want to highlight:

• I can't pinpoint the exact date, but around 2 - 2 1/2 weeks ago I just started feeling better. I think this has more to do with the healthy eating and exercise than the actual weight loss. When I would have to get up from a seated position or when climbing stairs, I would feel winded and tired. It sounds weird, but I feel more energized. I don't feel like I'm laboring when I do simple chores anymore. That feeling alone is worth the effort.
• Back in March, I couldn't even suck in my gut to make myself look good. I could always do things with my fat to make myself look decent for at least as long as I could hold my breath. Now, I'm back into that realm. Yay! It's a small victory, but not even being able to convince myself for a 30 seconds that I looked good was a problem for me. I long for the day when I don't even need to suck in my gut to have it look good

Update: If you're ever looking for an extremely large "happy face" graphic, click on the face above. I don't know where the guy found that graphic, but that is one large happy face. Scary!

Weigh In - Week 7

Have I really been doing this for 7 weeks now? I guess 7 weeks isn't a long time when I've committed myself to this for 50 weeks, but there has always been (and will be) a nagging thought that I can stop this at any time...It helps to have a goal and a vision to aspire to that keeps me motivated.

As you can see from road sign graphic, I came in at 213 lbs this week. A very respectable 3 lbs loss. I also like that I found a road sign that was not a NY state road sign.

The compliments are also starting to come in a little more frequently. Yesterday, an account rep came in for a meeting and asked if I had lost weight. I obviously shrugged that compliment off as a salesperson doing what they do best. But, after work, my neighbor asked the same question. I thought perhaps my wife told her about my weight loss goals, but she said no...she was also very jealous that I've lost 20+ lbs in 7 weeks, while she has trouble losing 5 lbs...

I guess you Weight Watcher types would call those Non Scale Victories...they definitely make the journey worthwhile.

Healthy Choices - 5/13, 5/12, 5/11, 5/10

I swear to someone that I am not supposed to put this post up. My computer has spazzed on me multiple times as I tried to write this. It's not bad enough that I'm 3 days late...Let's go:

5/13 Food:

B: French Toast (Wheat), Strawberries, Turkey Bacon
L: Nothing :(
D: Grilled Salmon, Asparagus, Brown Rice

5/13 Exercise: Nothing!

Comments: Carolyn's sister decided to make breakfast for Mother's Day and it ended up being made closer to lunch. Tasty, but took way too long. As a result, I didn't have an appetite for lunch. I made Mother's Day dinner for Carolyn. Lucky for me she likes to eat healthy normally. The Salmon and Asparagus had an Asian theme. Tasty and healthy...

5/12 Food:

B: Kashi Go Lean Crunch
L: Turkey and Swiss on Rye w/ Lettuce and Mayo
D: Shrimp and Clams over Pasta in a White Wine Sauce, Arugula Salad w/ Oil and Vinegar

5/12 Exercise: Nothing!

Comments: Carolyn's family came into town for Mother's Day weekend and her sister wanted to make a fancy dish for dinner. Hey, I'm not arguing. Since her parents are on a health kick as well, the meal was mostly healthy. No exercise really this weekend. Planned on doing a bike ride, but little AJ takes up a lot of time these days!

5/11 Food:

B: Kashi Go Lean Crunch
L: Spinach Calzone / Chicken & Broccoli over Pasta (& a Cherry Coke!)
D: Drawing a blank...

5/11 Exercise:

3 Sets / 15 Reps of 10 lb Arm Curls
3 Sets / 15 Reps of 10 lb Arm Lifts


Comments: Funny story for lunch...went to a local pizza joint with a co-worker and had plans to eat healthy. It's a cafeteria style place...so I got in line and ordered a nice Spinach calzone...as I move further down the line past the pizza related options, I see this chicken & broccoli pasta dish and thought, "This is healthy too. I'll get a side dish". I asked for a small plate. Apparently, a small plate could feed an army of 4 (thank goodness I didn't get the large) and I felt silly asking the owner to put it back...so I paid for $12 worth of food! To my credit, I threw most of the pasta away and focused on the chicken and broccoli only...

5/10 Food:

B: Weight Control Oatmeal
L: Sushi! (and lots of it)
D: Pulled Chicken Sandwiches on Wheat Buns w/ a Salad

5/10 Exercise:

Cardio: Elliptical Machine (11/2,14/8,16/10,14/5)
Abs: Crunch Machine (90/25, 105/15, 120/10)
Strength: Seated Press (75/20, 80/15, 85/10, 100/5)

Comments: First, I am impressed that I can remember 4 days of food and exercise with the exception of 1 meal. Funny story of the day: I've been collecting a lot of pennies over the years at my job and I decided to finally cash in. I took them all to the local Superfresh where there is a Coinstar machine and dumped them in. I had 937 pennies! After Coinstar took thier cut, I still ended up with $8.58 in credit to spend. I decided to treat myself to the deluxe sushi option they had. 8 pieces of sushi and 2 rolls....yum!

I'll stop now...I feel like I'm pressing my luck with this post....the dreaded "Blue Screen of Death" is lurking around the corner...

Holla Back...

For those keeping score at home, I blogged a while back about participating in a weight loss challenge at a fellow blogger's site: Flip This Body. The goal was to lose 15 lbs between 4/1 and 7/15.

Here is Julie, blogger at Flip This Body --------------------->

I thought the challenge was to lose the most pounds by 7/15. It was a nice surprise to find myself already featured in a post as the winner. Thanks Julie. I certainly was motivated to lose the pounds before, but having the challenge out there certainly made it more fun!

I hope you keep the challenge going until 7/15...or start a new challenge!

I also wanted to thank Julie for putting my blog on her site. It is the biggest contributor to my small audience...I hope to send a few people your way someday...

Argh!!!

I had a very large, 4 day "Healthy Choice" post pretty much all typed up when my laptop hit me with the dreaded "Blue Screen of Death".

So 30 minutes of blogging has to be re-written...

Just thought I'd put that out there in case you stopped by and wonder where I've been

Healthy Choices - 5/9

Food:

B: Weight Control Oatmeal
L: Cosi Toasted Fennel and Chicken Salad (Highly Recommended)
D: Chicken Pad Thai (TJ box mix w/ grilled chicken & snap peas)

Exercise: None

Comments: Nothing much to say. The Pad Thai was Carolyn's idea and sounded good to me. Enough for a leftover lunch. If you have a Cosi near you, I recommend their salads (although they are a little pricey). The one above is very low in fat and calories and the fennel seeds add a nice crunch and licorice taste.

Healthy Choices - 5/8

Food:

B: Weight Control Oatmeal
L: "Smoke Stack" sandwich (smoked turkey, cheese, lettuce, onion, mustard on roll)
D: 2 Nathan's Hot Dogs w/ Cheese and a mix of Macaroni Salad / Cole Slaw

Exercise:

Cardio: Elliptical Machine (10/2,13/8,15/13, 13/2)
Abs: Crunch Machine (90/25, 105/15, 120/10)

Comments: I thought I did OK until dinner rolled around. Carolyn decided it would be an easy meal to finish up the rest of the hot dogs we had from a previous family meal. I have to admit that the dogs were tasty, but I'm glad we finished up those leftovers. Except for 2 frozen helpings of Mom's Baked Ziti, I think all of the leftovers are used up now!

Healthy Choices - 5/7

Food:

B: Weight Control Oatmeal
L: Chipotle Glazed Chicken Salad from Baja Fresh (right where I left off)
D: Mom's Baked Ziti (skim ricotta, mozzarella, meat sauce) w/ Salad and Bread (and a beer)

Exercise (back at the gym!):

Cardio: Elliptical Machine (10/2,13/8,15/13, 13/2)
Strength: Leg Press (100/20,115/15,130/15)
Leg Extension (60/15, 65/10, 70/10)
Leg Curl (80/20, 85/15, 90/10)

Comments: Felt good to be back in the old rhythm. Work really helps to keep me on track with this whole thing. Can't say no to Mom's cooking, but I know it wasn't great for me. I've had a lot more red meat than normal this week. Gotta get back on the chicken and fish game. It was nice to get back to the gym as well, although I would have liked to have seen at least 1 more lb of progress on the scale...

Healthy Choices - A week and a half recap

Now that I am back to work and both sets of parents are back in their respective states, I can hopefully get back on track with the daily blogs. This would include my daily healthy choices where I chronicle the previous days choices in food and exercise. When I missed a day or three before, I would actually try to remember and document everything, but I missed 1 1/2 weeks this time. There is no way I'm remembering all of that (plus my schedule was all over the map as previously noted). Instead, I'll just provide some bullets of notable choices:

Food:

• At the hospital, my breakfasts turned into brunches as I could not get down to the cafeteria before 11AM. That meant either a healthy salad or a sandwich. I was surprised at how diverse a hospital salad bar could be. I ate beets, peas, chickpeas, hard boiled eggs, chicken in addition to the normal lettuce, onion, etc...If I grabbed lunch, the meal was the same.
• Funny note: Carolyn's parents know that I am trying to lose weight. So what do they bring me in the hospital? A pretzel dog and large Baskin-Robbins Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Milkshake. I mean...c'mon! I kind of understand...if you're bringing comfort food to your daughter and son-in-law, it's always better to go with a milkshake than a head of lettuce. If you're going to bring the shake, make it a small. If you're going to bring a pretzel, just bring a pretzel...not a pretzel wrapped hotdog. Full disclosure: I drank the shake (very tasty!), but kept the dog at bay.
• Post hospital: Back on the Kashi Cereal / Oatmeal train for breakfasts. Cold cuts on wheat with lettuce and onion for lunches. Chicken and vegetables for dinners.
• Notable bad choice exceptions: Got Moe's Burritos for dinner one night. Had an actual regular coke with Moe's as well. Popped a bottle of champagne to celebrate the newest addition (not good for me, but worth it). Drinking beers with Dad since he's been in town. Had 2 Nathan's hot dogs (another weakness) and a hamburger. Went out to dinner at a local Chinese restaurant and had a little more than my fill of dumplings, noodles, and wantons.

Exercise:

• In anticipation of being in the hospital, I got my 3 gym days in earlier in the birth week. Once in the hospital, there wasn't an opportunity to really exercise (not that I had any desire to).
• Post hospital: I pulled out the old mountain bike and biked around Lansdale for over and hour on 2 separate occasions. Saw parts of my town that I did not know about and biked on roads that were probably more high traffic than I would have liked. Felt awesome though...Hopefully I'll be able to do that more often with the summer upon us.

So I tried to keep on track on the whole and I managed to lose 6 lbs over these past 2 weigh-ins. Now I can get back to the one a day journaling that everyone loves so much.

Weigh In - Week 6

Well, I guess I can take a few things away from this week's weigh in. On the negative side:

• This is punishment for being lax on the blogging end of things.


• This is punishment for not getting to the gym (I was home all week and the gym is 45 minutes away where I work)


• This is punishment for having probably close to a 12 pack of beer this week with my Dad who was in town to see the new baby.

On the positive side:

• A pound is a pound is a pound. All I wanted to do when I started this was lose 1 lb a week. Perhaps, I'm getting greedy with losing close to 4 lbs a week to over the first 5 weeks.


• I still managed to eat pretty healthy throughout the week with salads and lean meats for the most part.


• I managed to get in 2 1 hour bicycle jaunts through Lansdale to partially fulfill my exercise quotient for the week.


• The women over at Flip This Body should be happy that they can catch up a bit on an off week for me.

Now with all the relatives away, I can hopefully get somewhat of a normal eating and exercise routine back in place. We'll see...

One more pic...

This time I'll put a closeup of just AJ:



Cute, isn't he?

Weigh In - Week 5

As I am off this week to care for our newest addition, I was unable to get to a scale on Monday. On Tuesday morning though, I took a trip to the doctor's office specifically to get on the scale that started it all...

To my surprise, I weighed in at 217! I thought for sure that this week of being totally out of whack from my normal schedule. Instead, I matched my best weeks to date...
To my credit, I did work out the first three days of last week anticipating the induction date on Thursday. I also, did not have anything bad from the hospital cafeteria (Just sandwhiches, salads, and iced tea)...Of course, my breakfasts were at 11AM, my lunches were around 3PM, and my dinners were either non-existant or around 8-9PM....Not my normal schedule by a long shot...

At any rate, I'll take the 5 lbs for what its worth...I'm thinking perhaps the loss was due to the stress I've been under for the past week or so...I think I'm due to put a little back on...The whole "50 lb in 50 weeks" thing is turning into "50 lb in 20 weeks"...and I'm not looking to crash diet...