Confidence

In the past few days, I've bumped into 2 people from my past. One, a nurse that worked with my on a unit at a nursing home for three years. It was during the time I was actively losing 80 pounds. She just happened to now work at the same nursing home as I do once again, even on the same unit. I saw her working in an office, took a double take and confidently went up to talk to her. Usually in the past, I would just walk past without saying a word. If she noticed me, that would be when I would interact.

The other happened while I was shopping for a certain Mother's Day present. I know it's early and all, but thought I better get a jump on it. I was shopping at a store that shall remain nameless cause it would give away what I was there for ;) On my way out, I noticed someone I played volleyball with for years. We played for at least 5 years together, but with children and changing lives, we all decided to break the team up. That has been a good 5 to 6 years ago and I hadn't seen this friend for several years. I greeted her and we had a good chat. This too would have been an encounter that 80 pounds ago, I probably would have tried to avoid.

I am proud of my weight loss and enjoy telling people when given the opportunity. Why shouldn't I be proud, it's darn tooting hard to lose and maintain a loss!

I got the not-so-friendly-you're-over-your-goal letter in the mail yesterday. Weight Watchers watches us employees and wants us to be good role models. In an email last week, the Territory Manager stated that 50% of the receptionists and 35% of the leaders are above their goal weight. I would love to not have to worry about that scale, and actually I don't worry about it much as long as my clothes are still fitting. Unfortunately, if I want to continue working with WW, it's one of the things I need to keep aware of. They rarely do much of anything, just friendly reminders to keep us motivated and encourage us to keep working at it.

Looking forward to a 70 degree day, too bad it's a tad bit windy.

Saving Up

My 8 yr old has been checking out all the nutritional facts in the house. She's studying nutrition right now in Health and has had fun checking out calories, fat, etc. Unfortunately, she's a huge salt freak and adds seasoning salt to most anything. I don't mind as long as she eats the veggies she's adding it to, but I'm afraid now that she's checked out the nutritional facts and learned that there's no calories, she'll be pouring it on even more. I have made a point already to let her know that there is more to food than just calories, and some things need to be used in moderation.

During dinner last night, she announced that she will not be eating seconds anymore. She has decided that she wants to "save up" for our Disney trip this summer. We'll be headed to the most magical place on Earth once again this summer and she has a long list of things she'd like to try. Last year, seems someone put two large plates of nachos in front of her and she felt that she needed to eat them all! This year, she's hoping to tackle an Earthquake, which is a huge at least 10 serving ice cream explosion. So, it's probably not a bad thing that she's attempting to "save up" for the big event. Didn't go so well last night. She still had more chips and Sloppy Joe's. Initially, she said no seconds; then, she said seconds only on "small things" like pickles; then she said "can I have more chips!" We'll keep trying ;)

We've had beautiful weather and I have loved sitting outside now in the 50's-60's. By summer, I'll be too warm to sit out for long, so I'm soaking in my kind of weather right now.

Trip to the Post Office

I rarely need to show my picture ID, but yesterday I went to pick up a package at the post office and was asked for my license. The post office employee did a double take and right away said, "You must have lost at least 50 pounds!" I just smiled and kept keeping the 1 yr old busy. I haven't really looked at my ID for a long time and when she handed it back, I did a quick check.

Of course, I lied about my weight on my license just like everyone does. My listed weight is 240. I'm sure when I got that license renewed, I was no where close to that low. It's good to know that people are still noticing and gives me a little nudge to keep going.

A few times this week, I've parked the car by no other cars and when I've come back to the car, there's been cars within inches of my driver seat car door. I couldn't imagine trying to squeeze into the van if I weighed anymore than I do. I great reason to keep going.

Have a great weekend, looking like a very rainy one here.

Plugging Along

I am enjoying the Spring weather more than ever it seems. I'm not a huge outdoor kind of guy, but I have been outside with the kids more than ever. I think a big reason is because when we're outside, our inside doesn't get messy. Not saying our inside is clean, but still it doesn't get more messy.

We've enjoyed trips to the zoo, many neighborhood walks and just plain vegging in the backyard. I love our backyard especially since it is fenced in. I hear "over the fence" from my neighbor all the time calling for her 2 yr old to "come back", "don't go in the street", "stay here!" and then she shouts out, "We need a fence!" I just smile as I love our fence and maybe a big reason for that is because I did it myself!!

Eating, exercising and all things healthy have been going along fine. Seems mangoes are back in season by the price in the store and I've enjoyed my fair share lately. I just wish I knew exactly when to eat them. I've cut up a few that have just not been quite rip enough and then they are "stringy." I love my a perfectly rip mango though!

Have a great Wednesday.

"Why Don't You...

just go exercise?"
~Wise Words from my 5 yr old.

Yesterday, I was beat. My wife had been gone Wednesday through Saturday afternoon and I was just tired. I hadn't formally exercised on Friday or Saturday and I really didn't feel like it on Sunday either, but something happened.

My 1 yr old just went down for a nap, my 4 yr old was snuggling with me and shouting out all the Brewers names and numbers while we lazily watched the game. My wife and the 5 yr old just plopped on the couch and it turned into a rest time for the 4 yr old and 5 yr old. I was forced to the "Back Room" to watch my Brewers. Unfortunately, the 8 yr old was already staking claim to Disney channel on that TV. Where did that leave me? No choice but to go exercise if I wanted to watch the Brewers. So thanks to the 5 yr old for "forcing" me to exercise on Sunday.

Eating has been fine lately, but I still am having trouble tracking the entire day. I make it through lunch and afternoon snacks and then just keep a mental note the rest of the day. I'll get there, when it's important enough.

Enjoying the Spring weather.

What Doesn't Get Written Down

I have done a good job of tracking this week. I have tracked even the stuff I'd rather not track, but still have counted the points. My week ends on Wednesdays, it just happened to be when I always weighed in while losing. A few things never get written down, like "Why I am eating!" Yesterday, was a stupid eating night. I had done awesome all day and had 3 points left for an evening snack. Unfortunately, that 3 point snack turned into another 3 point snack and another 3 point snack and probably one more 3 point snack just for good measure.

I am one of those people who eat so well when others are around, but once everyone is in bed, I eat! Crazy!! Not sure why I did it, just did it. It's the old, if no one's around, they won't know I'm eating. But they will, they'll see it later around my waist!

I am proud that I continued to track, but what the heck was up with the late night binge. I blame it on my wife! Why not, she's out of town.

I've been watching the new season of "Ruby" lately. This past Sunday's episode dealt with Ruby eating only when her boyfriend/roommate Denny wasn't around. She felt like he made her feel guilty when she ate, so she only ate when he was gone and then she ate as much as she could and whatever she could find, mostly fatty, calorie laiden foods. Like me, she was "good" in front of people, but packed it in when alone.

Oh well, I know I always have things to work on and those darn Brewer jerseys were looking mighty nice in the store this morning when I took the kiddo to Sam's Club for some necessities.

Don't Fall in the Toilet

I have always been the one to intuitively "put the seat down" after going to the bathroom. Recently, I've found myself not doing this especially since I'm home all day with the boys and we use the bathroom a lot during the day. Alex usually does a little potty dance for a good half hour before having to rush to the bathroom, so keeping the seat down is sometimes a must. My wife has gotten spoiled by my habit over the years and never checks the seat until it's too late ;)

My habit of putting the toilet seat was a relatively easy one to form and I'm sure it'd be easy to keep putting it down, but I really see no reason to take the extra step during the day when I know I'm the only one around. Why then was this habit so easy to form while the habit of tracking my food is so hard to form and keep? I tracked diligently for over two years, but now have had difficulty doing so for the last year or so.

I'll keep working at it. Maybe if I keep my tracker in the bathroom I could work on both habits at once.

Check out the "Man of the Day" at Two Fit Chicks today. These gals are a great inspiration.

Another Shot of P90X

I had done a complete 12 week round of P90X back in October thru December, but got tired of waking up at 4:30 and missed my cardio on the elliptical. Sometime after Christmas, I had a 30% off coupon from Kohl's and purchased a pull-up bar since I know they never go on sale and thought this would get me excited to start another round of P90X.

Only a few months later, I've finally gotten around to trying it. I tried Day 1 yesterday and today I am extremely sore. It's a good kind of sore, like I accomplished something. I think I'll try to make my P90X experience a hybrid experience this time. I like the strengthening workouts, but really enjoy my elliptical, so I think I'll stick with the elliptical and add in the power workouts every other day.

What got me motivated? One of my Facebook friends, who I went to high school with, was starting a round this weekend. She commented that it was somewhat addicting and I remembered how much I did enjoy my personal time with Tony Horton, but I hated the fact that I woke up so early to do it. Lately, I've been riding the elliptical during naptime while my 4 yr old rests in bed watching PBS. Why not try P90X during this time? I'll give it a try and see how it goes.

Back to the routine today as everyone is back to school and back to work this week. My wife is leaving me again this week to head to New York for a few days for a business trip. Could make for a stressful week, but it has started out well.

Tracking: Has gone well since last Wednesday. I have tracked everything. Kathy, mentioned setting a goal and rewarding myself afterwards. A goal for me now is to track daily for three months. If I've tracked at least 5 out of 7 days weekly at the end of those three months, I'll buy myself a new Brewer Jersey. It is something I have wanted for a while, since the one I have is still a 2X and has tons of stains on it, mostly because I love to wear it and it's white. This time, I'll shoot for a dark one.

The Guys Have It

Something funny happened to my wife this morning. I sent her to the bank to deposit a check and exchange some change for my cashbox for WW. She tried to take some money out and had trouble doing so. Why? Seems some how she morphed into a child. I am listed as her custodian on our joint checking account. She could have taken money out if she knew our pin number, but she never using our ATM card. She could have taken money out of our savings account, but I think she was too flustered to realize that. So she was forced to come home and ask "Daddy" for some money.

We ended up going back to the bank and signing some papers to get the account back to where it should have been all along.

Having a good week this week. I've enjoyed listening to "Two Fit Chicks" podcast about the "boys" of healthy liver blogging (their words, not mine). I agreed with much that their guest Ryan had to say on behalf of all men. I also enjoyed D's link about losing weight like a guy. However, I tend to eat lots of sweets. I wouldn't consider myself an emotional eater until my eating faulters and then I just eat more. I usually can keep my emotions in check, till I eat something I wish I didn't and then it just snowballs.

Hoping for a good weekend. I have been able to ride the elliptical much more this week as the wife has been home all day and it's much easier to exercise with someone to watch the little people. Last week, I skipped ALL exercise so this has been a step in the right direction once again. Now, if I could only get myself to track honestly.

Spring Break

It was a different kind of week last week, as the kids had a few days off and continue on with Spring Break all week this week. I'm staying away from the computer this week and trying to stay away from the leftover Easter candy too. The kids made a great dent in it yesterday, but somehow we managed to have a lot left for today!

Today is opening day for baseball and it's a beautiful day here in Milwaukee. It will be the first opening day that Miller Park will have it's roof open ever. Can't believe Minnesota has gone roofless!! I'll be sitting outside enjoying the weather.

The rest of the week, we'll try to get along with each other. I'll check blogs throughout the week, but probably won't be posting.

I had an interesting week last week at the WW meetings. Lots of emotion as a few WW members came back after gaining much of their weight back, one member hit the 100 pound lost mark and a new member came Saturday. Same age as me, and starting at about 420. It's got to be intimidating to even start a process and got me thinking as to how I felt the first time I came to a meeting. I will try to get that feeling of "I can do this, a little at a time!" feeling back this week.