Goat Brains & Baby Octopus (Day 76)

Ok, obviously (from the title of this post) today was not an "on plan" day for me. We had to go to Atlanta for most of the day so we took the opportunity to eat at our FAVORITE Indian restaurant, Tandoor. It's a little hole in the wall kinda joint with outstanding food. The owner grew up in India & Pakistan, so you end up with a blend of both types of cuisines. So that's our first stop. I've always wanted to try the goat brains, but have never had the courage. Being Halloween, I couldn't think of a better day to try the brains so I ordered Goat Brain Masala. Kim ordered Chana Masala (Chick Peas in Masala). We shared a piece of Naan (Bread). The brains were served with some ginger and jalapenos. Utterly delicious! I figured I'd like it, but I was still a little tentative with the first bite. I think that if anyone ate this dish and didn't know what it was they'd like it. If you're even a little adventerous and have the opportunity, take the plunge and give a brain dish a try. Anyway, I only ate 1/2 the order and Kim and I combined ate about 2/3 of the bread. I don't think I really overdid it eating with the brains. By the way 1g of brains has about 39 calories.



Dinner tonight was an insta fav. We had baby octopus, marinated in balsamic vinegar, a little olive oil, and pepper (we heard about it on NPR). Outstanding. The little baby octopus kinda looked like the aliens on "The Simpson's" and they were delicious. We had the little octopus with a salad.



The rest of our day in Atlanta was spent either at my sister's house or between two different farmers markets. We went by my sister's so we could see her son in his Halloween costume (he was a little chick) and shoot some images of him. Cute.
After leaving her house we headed to the Buford Highway Farmers Market. We bought some fruits and veggies and a little European Cheese. We left there and went to one of the Harry's locations to continue shopping. We ended up with more veggies & fruits as well as more, dare I say better cheeses. I found a double cream gouda, some various other cheeses including a Parmesan Kim is crazy about (we had it on our salads tonight & it was great). But the most interesting cheese we bought is called Tommes Des Bois Noirs Herve Mons. It is a cheese made from raw goat milk. It has a beautiful whitish rind. The cheese tastes great. The rind smells at first like ammonia. Then after smelling it for a second you realize what it really smells like.....It smells like a big vat of cat urine. Yup, cat urine. Stinky, but the cheese smells and tastes great.





So today was a good day (I'm listening to Ice Cube as I type this) even though I was off plan. I didn't over eat. I actually think I was near or under my calorie allotment for the day. Without a doubt, I'm sure I had the strangest meals today out of everyone that is now, or has ever been on NS. I'm kinda proud of that. I was very proud of our choices at both markets (carts full of vibrantly colored fruits & veggies). 3 months ago I'd have filled the carts full of cakes, meats, cookies, candies, pastries, etc. So different now. Back to NS meals tomorrow & back my usual exercise routine as well.

Happy Halloween!

PS. Scariest thing this Halloween? UGA Football. Scary bad.

Falling UP the Stairs (Day 75)

Friday. Leg day. My favorite, yet most dreaded workout of the week. The past few weeks have found me having to wait in line to train, which is not cool. Years ago (when I trained with some bodybuilders) people knew not to train the same thing as we were training because if you got in the way the bodybuilders would eat you. Actually, we would drive to another town to train legs, so no one would bother us during the workouts (we were all trainers at our home gym and there was always something going on that needed attention). Anyway, today I trained later than usual (after lunch) and only had one other guy training at the same time. It went so smoothly. We stayed out of each others way. We left weights on the machines we knew the other was going to use. Perfect. Except I felt weird training so late. Out of sorts is the best way to describe it. I was able to concentrate on each exercise, and had a relatively good workout, I just felt like I was not there the entire time. Weird. As I sat trying to recover a moment before leaving the gym and taking the long walk to my car in the parking lot I was kinda upset and mad at myself for not having a good workout. I was thinking what a waste of time. I was here, I shoulda pushed harder. Typing this 3 hours later I'm not worried about that anymore. I tried to walk upstairs to my bedroom a little bit ago and I actually fell up the stairs. 'Nuff said, good workout in my book.

The actual workout was fairly quick, for a leg workout. I began with 6 minutes on the bike to loosen up my legs and knees. I began my quads workout with 3 sets of true squats, followed by 3 sets of leg presses, next up was 3 sets of hack squats, and finally 3 sets of leg extensions. Hamstrings started off with 3 sets of seated leg curls, followed by 3 sets of standing leg curls, and ending with 3 sets of weighted hyper-extensions. The only cardio at the gym other than the bike was the hurt legged stumble to my car after it was over.

Again I had another "on plan" day. I began with lowfat gronola cereal, facon, a banana, and a slice of multigrain bread. My morning snack was yogurt & some banana. Lunch was 3 servings of broccoli with cheese sauce & a chocolate graham fudge bar. I forgot how good those are (heated up). Gotta remember that. My afternoon snack was a chocolate crunch bar (I like chocolate). For dinner I had the zesty cajun chicken rice and sausage. Tonight's dessert was a white chocolate chunk cookie along with a cup of tea.

Less Than a 1/4 Inch To Go (Day 74)

Today I decided to try on my Cardillo weight belt again and see how close I was to being able to fit back into it. SO CLOSE! I can almost get it fastened! Maybe another week or two and I'll be back in it. When I started NS the belt wouldn't reach all of the way around me. I'll shoot a pic when I make it back in it.


I had another good day at the gym today. My HIIT cardio has gotten easier each day. Today I again did 15 minutes (1 minute walk/2 minutes run). After the treadmill I trained arms. For triceps I did 3 sets of press downs, 3 sets of overhead presses, and finally 3 sets of rope press downs. For biceps I did 3 sets of seated dumbbell curls, 3 sets of hammer curls, and finished with 3 sets of rope curls. Next I was back to the treadmill for 3o minutes of cardio @ incline 12.9 with a speed of 3.9.

Today was another 100% on plan day. For breakfast I had cluster crunch cereal, facon, raspberries, and a slice of multigrain bread. My morning snack was a banana and a cup of yogurt. Lunch today was a large salad and a chicken salad sandwich. Today's afternoon snack was a fudge brownie. Dinner tonight was a hamburger topped with melted sheep's cheese along with a salad and broccoli and cauliflower with cheese sauce. Dessert tonight was a peanut butter cookie with a cup of tea.



Tomorrow is leg day! I have to help dad in the morning so I'm gonna train after lunch and see if I still have the same problem with people camping out in my way on the leg machines. To bad I can't use the Cardillio. NEXT WEEK!

Coyote, Raccoon Tracks, & Vomit Cleaning Duties (Day 73)

This post is for Wednesday, Oct. 28th, 2009.

Nice weather returned today! I was able to go on a walk this evening as a result. I noticed last evening that I was, well, fussy because I missed my evening walk. Jumping Jack Flash was irritable as well. We are much happier this evening, though slightly muddy (Jack is very muddy).

I had to train alone again today (which is now the unfortunate norm). Mom never joins me if my sister and her son are in town visiting. My old partner was again unable to train, so I hit back solo. I began the workout with 15 minutes of HIIT (1 minute walk/2 minutes run) on the treadmill. After finishing up there I moved to the pull up bar. I strapped myself to the bar and began my first rep. All of the sudden the music stopped and I heard something crash to the ground. It was my iPhone. Wonderful. I keep it in a rubber case so it was undamaged. I kicked it to the side and again strapped myself to the bar. I managed 7 full, good reps, plus the first rep before the iPhone bailed on me. So I really did a total of 8 reps (1 rep, pause then 7 more). I moved on to the hammer strength back machines and began with 3 sets of front high rows, then 3 sets of hammer strength pull downs, then 3 sets of hammer strength seated 1 arm rows, moving next to the T-bar for 3 sets, and finally finishing with 3 sets of body masters seated rows. I returned to the treadmill for 30 minutes at incline 12.9 speed 3.9. By the time I was finished I looked like I had been in a swimming pool. Absolutely exhausted as well. My only other exercise was the aforementioned walk this evening with Jack. Kim was on call and working late so she didn't get to join us. Hopefully she'll be able to join us again soon.

I had another easy, productive (hopefully) day with my meals. I began with a blueberry muffin, facon, a banana, and a slice of multigrain bread. My morning snack was the rest of the banana from breakfast and a cup of yogurt. Lunch was a large salad and chicken noodle soup. My afternoon snack was a chocolate peanut butter bar dipped into some sugar free, fat free, calorie free caramel flavored sauce. It ended up being OK. Certainly not to be confused with real caramel, but it kinda reminded me of caramel. Dinner was another large salad, broccoli & cauliflower in cheese sauce, wedged potatoes with beef, and a slice of multigrain bread. Dessert was a white chocolate chunk cookie with a cup of tea.

The only other things of note that happened today were when Kim and I saw a coyote while coming home from cleaning vomit out of her car (she works for DFACS and one of the children she was working with got upset and puked all over her back seat) & Jack and I spotted some raccoon tracks while walking. We've trapped around 15 raccoons from my grandmother's garden and released them on our property, so we're always happy to see signs of them around the lake. The coyote was very handsome. He crossed the road in front of us, then turned to look back at us as we drove by. I wish we could find one as a pup and have our very own lake 'yote. I couldn't resist naming him Wiley.

Random Compliments (Day 72)

Rain has returned to Georgia today, ruining my evening walk. It also ruined my dogs' entire day, they had to stay inside the entire time.

I received some nice compliments during my gym visit today. First I ran into another gym member who has lost around 75 pounds. He asked how much I had lost (in a very nice, polite matter) and congratulated me on my success. A little later I ran into my insurance agent (still at the gym) and he also congratulated me. He was with his trainer (who I've know for years) who was also very complimentary. He did inquire as to whether I thought I'd lost any muscle during the diet. This is something I've thought about quite a bit. I don't think I've lost much if any. My strength has declined slightly this week, but I think this is due to the exhaustion from all of the cardio I'm now doing before my workout. Years ago I would have stopped anything that I thought was causing even an ounce of muscle loss. Now, while I still don't think I'm loosing any muscle, the goal is not muscle building but overall health and weight loss so I'm not going to worry about any potential minor muscle/strength loss. Even if I do loose some, I can always build it back over time. Anyway, it was nice to get some compliments from non fremily (I do count my insurance agent as a friend though).

My morning workout was again a 1 man event. My old partner was going to try to make it in today, but he was unable to escape from work. I began with 15 minutes of HIIT on the treadmill (walk 1 minute/jog 2 minutes) before starting my workout. The workout started with 3 sets of shoulder presses, then 3 sets of dumbbell side lateral raises, then 3 sets of upright rows, followed by 3 sets of rear delts, and finally finishing up with a 3 set super set of machine shrugs & barbell shrugs. After shoulders I returned to the treadmill for 30 minutes of incline 12.8, speed 3.9. With the rain setting in I only got in 3 of my usual 5 miles of cardio work today. Hopefully it'll dry out tomorrow and we can walk tomorrow evening.

Today was another 100% on plan day for me. I had maple brown sugar oatmeal, raspberries, facon, and a slice of multigrain bread for breakfast. My morning snack was a banana and a cup of yogurt. Lunch today was red beans and rice with sausage, and broccoli & cauliflower in cheese sauce. My afternoon snack was a peanut butter cookie (with a cup of vanilla caramel tea). Dinner tonight was macaroni and cheese with beef, a huge salad, broccoli & cauliflower in cheese sauce, and a slice of multigrain bread. Dessert this evening was a double chocolate almond cookie (with more tea).

Another good day. The only thing that didn't go the way I wanted was tonight's episode of "The Biggest Loser." Why can't Tracey go home. GO HOME TRACEY, GO HOME!

Start of Week 11 (Day 71)

After weighing in this morning (I lost 3.5#'s this week for a total of 51.5#'s lost so far) I made my way to the gym for my morning workout. Before training chest I knocked out 15 minutes of HIIT cardio on the treadmill. Today I increased my speed a little and instead of walking 1 minute/jogging 1 minute I walked 1 minute/jogged 2 minutes. After the cardio I began my chest workout & I was already tired. Today I noticed I felt a little weak during my warm-up set so I decided to train a little lighter and concentrate on an exagurated squeeze of the muscles and increasing my reps a little. I began with 3 sets of incline presses, then 3 sets of decline presses, followed by 3 sets of seated machine presses, and finally 3 sets of machine flies. I next made my way back to the treadmill for 30 more minutes of incline 12.8, speed 3.9. While on the treadmill my old workout partner put in an appearance. We're gonna try to train tomorrow and pick back up a regular morning workout. Killer! Late this evening Kim, Jumping Jack Flash & I walked our usual 2 mile route around the lake. We were lucky, it started raining on us 1/2 way through, but the rain held off and we made it home dry, but cool.

I had a great "on" plan day today. For breakfast I had a apple strudel scone, facon, a banana, and a slice of multigrain bread. My morning snack was 2 small (tiny) nectarines and a yogurt. Lunch today was 2 servings of broccoli with cheese sauce and vegetable beef soup. My afternoon snack was a golden pound cake. Dinner tonight was a hamburger topped with a little smoked goat cheese, corn and peas, and a huge salad. Dessert this evening was a chocolate chip cookie (dipped in my vanilla caramel tea).



Tomorrow takes me back to the gym to train (with my old partner, I hope) shoulders and get in the morning portion of my cardio. The rest of the day is wide open (I might need it to rest a little) until Biggest Loser time.

10th Weigh In

Monday morning and time to grab a weight check. This morning I am down to 223.5. That's a loss of 3.5#'s over the last week. Not to bad at all considering I had to alter my typical routine, eat one off plan lunch, and discovered smoked goat cheese and sheep cheese. I've now lost a total of 51.5 pounds. That's 5.15 pounds per week on average & .74 pounds per day. With today's weight I now qualify for a 50# Nutribear! Next week's goal is to try to break outta the 220's!

Time to eat breakfast, have my single cup of coffee and make my way to Fire House Gym.

End of Week 10 (Day 70)

Quick post for today.

I made it to the gym as it opened this afternoon to make up my missed workout from Thursday. I began with 15 minutes of HIIT cardio on the treadmill. Next I trained triceps. 3 sets of press downs, 3 sets of overhead presses, and finally 3 sets of dips. Biceps followed. 3 sets of seated incline dumbbell curls, and 3 sets of machine preacher curls. 15 sets total in just about 15 minutes. After arms I returned to the treadmill for 25 minutes at incline 12.8, speed 3.8. Late this evening Kim, Jumping Jack Flash & I walked our usual 2 mile route around the lake.

For breakfast I had pancakes, OJ, facon, and a slice of multigrain bread. My morning snack was grapes and yogurt. Lunch today was something a little different. I had a dinner serving of chili along with broccoli in cheese sauce. My afternoon snack was an oatmeal raisin cookie. Dinner tonight was one of my favorites, vegetable fajitas with fake chorizo along with a huge salad. Dessert this evening was a white chocolate chunk cookie.

My weekly weigh in is tomorrow morning. I'm clueless as to what it'll be. I had to eat off plan while in Atlanta on Thursday plus I discovered smoked goat's cheese and sheep's cheese this week. I think I stayed within my calorie allotment each day, and I trained every day (a little out of order, but I got the workouts in) so I should be good for some weight loss. I'll see bright and early in the morning.

I Couldn't Help It, I Put Sheep's Cheese On My Pizza (Day 69)

Saturday October 24th post. I'm still a day behind.

I woke up early to release the hounds and let Kim sleep late. I made the mistake of drinking a pot of coffee instead of my usual single cup. It made me feel like a ferret crawled into my back and tied my muscles in knots. No more of that. Either a single cup only, or a cup of vanilla caramel tea. I planned on trying to get to the gym but after getting geeked up on the coffee I decided to push the workout to Sunday. The only exercise I manged to get in was a 2 mile walk of the Pug around the lake with Kim. Kim shot the photo of the Pug (Belle) below with her iPhone.







I had a good day eating. For breakfast I tried something new, the scrambled eggs from NS. I made them into an omelet and added a little 2% cheese. Pretty good, about like egg beaters I guess. With the eggs I had facon, a banana, and a slice of multigrain bread. My morning snack was the rest of the banana from breakfast and a cup of yogurt. Lunch was a Morning Star Chicken Patty (I used it as two veggies, probably not exactly accurate) with broccoli parmsean pasta. My afternoon snack was a chocolate peanut butter bar. Dinner was a thick crust pizza with fake pepperoni (soy) and a little sheep's cheese (I counted this as my fat and carb for dinner, again not nutritionally accurate but close on the calorie content), broccoli and cauliflower with cheese sauce. Dessert was a chocolate crunch bar.

Easy day all in all. Gym on Sunday & get in at least one walk around the lake. Weigh in on Monday. Hope to push past the big 50# milestone. I don't know if I'll make it or not. I had a day where I was completly out of my routine when I had to go to Atlanta for a meeting which may have dirupted my progress. Not to mention the discovery of Sheep's cheese & Smoked Goat's cheese this week. If I have gained weight the dogs will get a nice cheese treat on Monday.

Ended the Day with a Rainbow (Day 68)

This is for Friday, October 23rd.

Today I woke with a plan for the day. I was gonna have a "on plan" day, I was going to have a great workout (which I had been thinking about all evening yesterday), and I was NOT going to sneak and have any (no matter how thin) slices of goat or sheep cheese. My plan didn't make it past breakfast. As I was preparing my pancakes my father called and informed me that I was going to help hm move some appliances around from some of our apartments to the repair shop and back. So now I'm gonna have to train later in the day, alter my eating (I wanted to train within 25 minutes of breakfast), and hope nothing else altered my day.

Dad and I load an old refigerator and take it to the shop and on the way home we get pulled over by a sheriff's deputy (in another county). Of course Dad doesn't have a tag on the small trailer we were using, nor any lights. Unbelievably, dad only gets a warning. Had it been just me in the truck with my bad luck I'd have been pulled out through the window, tazed, cuffed, made to lie on the side of the road in the mud, watch as the K-9 officer and dog destroy all of our gear in the truck, observe the dismantling of the trailer and truck, and then given a ticket for no tag/lights on the trailer. Dad has incredible luck. I used up all of my luck by dad living long enough for me to be born. To quote dad, "If it wasn't for BAD luck, Zane wouldn't have any." How true.

After returning from our short appliance run I ate my morning snack, changed clothes, and headed to the gym. Being Friday and Leg day I have to train alone. I always Tweet/FB an open invitation for anyone in the area to join me, but I never have any takers. I began the workout with a 15 minute HIIT workout on the treadmill followed by about 3 more minutes on the bike to make sure my knees were warmed up. My first quad exercise today was something I haven't done in years. A variation of Smith Squats. I loaded some weight on the Smith Machine, put the bar on my shoulders to squat like usual, but today I placed my feet far out in front of me and very close together. I only squatted to parallel (I usually squat very deep, as in my ankles sometimes hit my butt) and concentrated on keeping all of the weight on my quads. I did 3 sets on the Smith Machine. This was where my workout ground to a halt. A couple of lovely Latino ladies were training on two machines at the same time, exactly where I need to be next. Back and forth, back and forth. They did train reasonably quickly & hard, but they did a crazy number of sets. 3 sets with both legs, 3 sets with 1 leg, 3 sets of a modified lunge, etc. Finally (about 15 minutes) they moved on and I was able to continue my workout. 3 sets of relatively heavy true squats, then 3 sets of horizontal leg press, and finally 3 sets of leg extensions. The weird thing is after I train quads, no one even looks at the machines for the rest of my workout. I think there is a conspiracy of people training in my way just to annoy me. Next I trained hamstrings (no one is ever in my way training hams, weird). 3 sets of seated leg curls, 3 sets of standing leg curls, and 3 sets of hyper-extensions while holding a medicine ball. I made it home and managed to walk upstairs to the bedroom where I (and the Pug) collapsed into the bed for some much needed rest.

I had another on plan day meal wise. I began with my pancakes, facon, banana, and a slice of multigrain bread. My morning snack was yogurt and a banana. Lunch was home-style potatoes with a morningstar chicken patty. My afternoon snack was a double chocolate almond cookie. Dinner was beef and noodles in teryaki sauce along with carrots, broccoli and cauliflower in cheese sauce with a slice of multigrain bread. Dessert was a chocolate crunch bar. I managed not to eat any cheese until I was preparing my dinner, so I counted it as a fat (I know it's not a fat, but I'm sure it has enough fat in it!).

I finished my evening visiting with my parents and nephew. Shot some video and photos of the baby and also shot a few frames of a very nice rainbow. Enjoy.

A Pumpkin Patch To Far (Days 66 & 67)

I have had a busy couple of days and didn't get to post yesterday. Yesterday afternoon I traveled with my parents to meet my sister and her family at a pumpkin patch somewhere in the back woods of North Georgia. My dad drives like a race car driver, so setting in the back seat of the vehicle while racing along old country roads was not really the way I planned on spending the day, but what the hell. I would get out of the house and get a chance to take some nice fall photos.



We arrived and waited on my sister then it was off to pumpkin land. Ultimately, it sucked. The nephew was way to young, the drive was way to long, and unless you have some sort of unhealthy pumpkin fetish, it's really not worth going to. I did shoot about 400 frames of the baby though.

Wednesday I trained back at the gym (before the car ride to the pumpkin patch). I managed to do 7 pull-ups at the beginning of the workout. #7 was ugly, ugly, ugly, but I got it. From there I went on to do 3 sets of pull downs, 3 sets of t-bar rows, 3 sets of hammer strength pull downs, and finally 3 sets of body masters seated rows. Before the workout started I did 15 minutes of HIIT cardio and after the workout I finished up my cardio with 30 minutes on the treadmill, incline 12.8, speed 3.8. Kim, Jumping Jack Flash & I walked about 2 miles around the lake last night before dinner (in the dark) for my final cardio workout of the day. I was very proud of Kim and I for making ourselves go ahead and walk. 3+ months ago we'd have been setting on the sofa eating after deciding it was to dark/cold to walk. Yay us!

Wednesday was a 100% on plan day. Breakfast was nutriflakes cereal, raspberries, facon, and a slice of multigrain bread. Morning snack was a banana and yogurt. Lunch was tomato and corn chowder with a salad. My afternoon snack was a chocolate crunch bar. Dinner was a huge salad (with smoked goat's cheese!) along with spaghetti with meat sauce and a slice of multigrain bread. Dessert was a white chocolate chunk cookie.

Today I had to travel to Atlanta for a meeting after which I had to eat a restaurant, so no 100% on plan day today. Breakfast was lowfat granola cereal, a banana, facon, and a slice of multigrain bread. My morning snack was a banana and yogurt. Lunch was my meal out. We ate at Papadeux. Normally I'd have ordered oysters, a warm appetizer, maybe a sushi roll since they now have those on menu, an entree, and most def a dessert. Today I had a lobster salad with the dressing on the side. I ate less than 1/2 and only dipped about 4 bites of the salad into the dressing (used less than 15% of the dressing provided). I consider this to be a complete success. My afternoon snack was a chocolate crunch bar. Dinner this evening was rotini with meat sauce, part of the left over salad from lunch, and a slice of multigrain bread. Dessert tonight was a peanut butter cookie along with my nightly cup of tea.


I was unable to get to the gym today (I refuse to go to the gym at night, it turns into a social club, well, it used to anyway) due to my meeting in Atlanta. Kim and I did walk Jumping Jack Flash for our usual 2 mile walk for my only cardio workout of the day. I'll pick back up where I left off tomorrow at the gym. It might even be good for me to miss a workout and have an extra day of rest before training legs tomorrow. I'll catch my missed arm workout on Saturday.

The worst thing I've done in the past two days is discover the joy of smoked goat's cheese, the deliciousness of sheep's cheese, and finally remembered to buy some smoked gouda. I add a small amount of cheese to each salad (like 1/2 an ounce or less) but I made the mistake of trying the sheep's cheese all alone yesterday. Lovely. I had to force my self to quit eating it. I've been shaving a thin slice for me and one for the Pug a couple of times since. Back to the strict 100% days tomorrow. But the cheese sure is good.

Are You Cooking These Meals Or Is It a Job For Someone? (Day 65)

Today was kinda a weird day, timing/scheduling wise for Kim and I. She didn't have to go into work today so she got to sleep a little late. I woke and went downstairs to release the hounds only to find a great coffee mess. The coffee maker had, for lack of a better term, jammed. Kim has switched us to normal coffee (the kind you scoop, measure, and use a filter with) from what I've used for the last 15 years or so (pre made filter packs). I'm not used to fooling around with filters and the potential mess so she fixes the coffee at night and sets a timer. Somehow the coffee spilled out and clogged the maker and coffee & coffee grinds went everywhere. The worst part is there was no coffee available in the pot! I had to clean up the mess WITHOUT COFFEE! So I walked the Pug, released the remaining hounds, cleaned up the mess, brewed another pot, and finally had my first cup of coffee. After the great Mr. Coffee incident this morning the rest of the day went rather smoothly.

I went to the gym a little late (Kim had an appointment so she needed to get ready before me) and began with 15 minutes of HIIT cardio on the treadmill. Walk a minute, then run a minute. Next I trained shoulders. 12 total sets today. I started with shoulder presses, moved on to side lateral raises, next were upright rows, and finally shoulder shrugs. I returned to the treadmill for 30 minutes at an incline of 12.8 and speed 3.8. This evening Kim and I walked Jumping Jack Flash about two miles around the lake before dinner.

After the gym I had to hang around the house waiting on some of our new furniture to be delivered. When they arrived I put all of our cats into our bedroom and the Pug had to go into her crate as the delivery men brought our new sofa and chair into the house. We're still short a section of the sofa and an ottoman for the chair, but it looks pretty good. I've placed two ancient ugly green leather chairs in place of the missing piece of sofa for the time being. The sales person said the delivery date on the back-ordered items would be late this month/early next month. The customer service rep I talked to today said late DECEMBER. Oh well, we're so happy with our new furniture (which doesn't smell like cat/dog urine/vomit). Now if we can keep the cats & dogs from destroying the new furniture.

I had a contact on Flickr post a great message/question today concerning one of my photos (all of the photos I post on this blog are also posted to Flickr). Below is the thread:

Q:"Damn man you are getting good with this food photography. Iam always looking at lunch time and its making my mouth water. What type of setup are you using for these. And are you cooking these meals or is it a job for someone?"
A:"Thanks. You're not going to believe it, but these "meals" are part of my Nutrisystem Diet. I prepare each meal (microwave the meal, microwave my veggies and then throw them onto a plate), place the meal onto a piece of white foam core board and get ready to take the photo. I have a smallish softbox behind the food shooting back at me about +2 stops over exposed, and a second snooted light more or less behind me about +0.3 stops over for some fill. The lights are SB800's triggered via CLS (Nikon's TTL wireless system). Easy and I get the lights setup as I prepare the food. The entire process takes less than 5 minutes (usually).
I have a blog about my weight loss experience with Nutrisystem that features my food photos, if you interested it's here

Thanks again!"

So I'm doing my part to spread the word about Nutrisystem, one mouthwatering photo at a time!

Of course I had another on plan day. Breakfast was a blueberry (did anyone else notice that we now get 1 larger muffing with more calories instead of the 2 smaller lower calorie muffins?), facon, a banana, and a slice of bread. My morning snack was yogurt and a banana. Lunch today was bean and ham soup, broccoli and cauliflower with cheese sauce. My afternoon snack was a fudge brownie. Dinner was, to quote Kim, "an Epic salad" (she prepared all of the fresh veggies for our salads), and a pizza with fake soy pepperoni (hereafter referred to as fake-eroni), onions and spinach. Dessert was one of my favs, the chocolate crunch bar.

Finally, this evening we watched "The Biggest Loser." I still hate Tracy. Nothing else to say.

Start of Week 10 (Day 64)

I fell asleep watching MNF last night and didn't get my daily post in. So this is for yesterday, Monday, October 19th, 2009.

After weighing in (down 6.1 for last week, 48 lost on plan so far down to 227) I made breakfast and headed off to the gym to train with my mom. She was running a little bit late so I started out with 15 minutes of HIIT cardio. She arrived just as I finished and we started our chest workout. Sorta easy workout since she has missed a good bit in the last two weeks. 3 sets of incline, 3 sets of decline, and finally 3 sets of machine flies. Back to cardio afterward. 35 minutes on the treadmill, incline 12.7, speed 3.8. My final cardio event of the day was a 2 mile walk with Jumping Jack Flash. 1/2 way through the walk I heard him go bananas barking and turned to see two baby rabbits racing across the dam we were walking on. They ran directly at me until they were about 15' away and then made a hard left turn and vanished into the woods. Jack chased for a bit, but he caught up with me before I reached home. He looked very pleased with himself! Kim was unable to walk with us last night because she had to work late at her terrible, horrible, despicable job. Boo, bad job, bad job.

After the gym I spent the rest of the day either driving back and forth between my house and my parents house, working on my computers (still), and moving my mom's treadmill from one room in their house to another. Computers are still frustrating me, but I did get the treadmill moved, set up, adjusted, and running like new. I told mom the treadmill would have to die in the UPSTAIRS room we moved it to 'cause I am finished with moving it.



I had a 100% on plan day, again. Breakfast was maple brown sugar oatmeal, raspberries, facon, and a slice of multigrain bread. My morning snack was yogurt and a banana. Lunch was pasta with beef, broccoli and cauliflower with cheese. My afternoon snack (which mom tried a small bite of & actually liked) was a chocolate crunch bar. Dinner started with an arugula and spinach salad (add onions, hicima, olives). I've found a new love, arugula. How have I been missing out on this for so long (cue Kim saying "I told you so", she wouldn't do that, much)? The rest of dinner was chili with beans over a slice of multigrain bread, broccoli and cauliflower with cheese sauce. Dinner was a white chocolate chunk cookie.

The only other things I got accomplished for the day were preparing some deposits for the bank (without a working accounting program), buying a new wireless mouse and keyboard for our living room computer that supposedly has a 30' transmission range (it does not, maybe 10' accurate, beyond that it picks up every other letter typed and the mouse jumps all over the screen). But the best thing I found on the day was some very inexpensive earphones which came with foam ear pads. I bought two pair just for the ear pads. I need to find somewhere online that just sells the ear pads so I can quite buying the POS earphones. And........ I just found a site online where I can buy them in bulk for 90% less than I pay for two (that come with the crappy earphones).

Tomorrow our new sofa arrives (most of it anyway, I think one piece and an ottoman are on back order for a bit longer) so we get to move the old sofa & love seat out of the way and prepare for the new. If all works out and looks good maybe I'll post a photo or two.

9th Weigh In

I jumped onto the scales this morning (again, that's a lie, I very carefully stepped onto the scales while holding onto the bathroom counter top for balance, & yes I did let go of the counter before weighing) to check my progress. I lost 6.1#'s last week. I did get a hair cut, so that may contribute a little, but still, not to shabby. My current weight is 227. I think this is the first time I've been in the 220's since around 2005. One of my main goals was to get back to college weight which was typically around 215-220. Closer every day. So I'm down 48#'s since starting the program, and down 61 from my all time high of about 288.

Time to eat and then off to the gym!

Clothes I Almost Gave Away (Day 63)

Last night I decided to try to find some jeans/pants that fit. When I started NS I wore size 40. Friday night I visited with my parents and my mother kept telling me that I needed to get some clothes that fit. I had on size 36 jeans and only and XL shirt that night. So back to the closet last night. I decided to try on a pair of jeans that I almost gave away. They are size 34. They fit. Actually almost a little big. Crazy. Just crazy. I was so thrilled I decided to try on some of my old pants. They fit, just a little to tight still. I guess jeans are cut a little differently. Either way, 62 days ago I couldn't get my legs into either of these. I almost gave all of these clothes away. Now I'm so glad I didn't. I next decided to check in on one of my mini goals, fitting back into my old Cardillo training belt. Not quite there yet, but less than 1" to go. When I started I had about 7" (in other words the belt didn't even touch when I tried to wrap it around my waist). My other training belt (the Valeo) now fits. Killer. I'll start using it again until I fit into the Cardillo.

Other than trying to find clothes that fit, I spent the better of last night and today working on some of our computers. My main business computer had a hard drive fail & somehow or another the repair center not only couldn't repair it, they managed to break the second hard drive in the computer that worked fine when I took it in. So I've spent hours & hours trying to move data, restore data (I'm a backup freak, I have multiple on & off site backups of everything), yanking hard drives out of one machine and installing them into others. I'm sick of it. I'll never buy another PC. I have a Mac Book Pro that has never given me 1 second of problems. I'm gonna buy a crazy big, fast, Mac Pro Desktop and live a happy computer life.

The only exercise I did today was a 2 mile walk with Kim and Jumping Jack Flash this evening. Tomorrow I'm back to the gym for my regular Monday morning chest workout. I think I'll try some more of the HIIT cardio, followed by my typical uphill treadmill work.

I had a 100% on plan day. Breakfast was one of my new favorites, the NS Apple Strudel Scone toasted in a toaster oven. Along with it I had facon, a nectarine, and a slice of multigrain bread. My morning snack was grapes and yogurt. Lunch was a NS chicken salad sandwich, broccoli and cauliflower with cheese sauce. My afternoon snack was a chocolate chip cookie (I've discovered a new love of the cookies, I now heat all of them in the toaster oven). Dinner was a salad with spinach, arugula, peppers, and olives, Cheese and Spinach Ravioli with Meat Sauce, broccoli and cauliflower with cheese sauce, and a slice of multigrain bread. Dessert was a double chocolate almond cookie (again heated up) along with a cup of tea. Yum.

I weigh in again in the morning and begin my 10th week on NS. I couldn't have asked for a better, easier, more productive experience. Hopefully I'll have another good # in the morning followed by another productive week.