Wednesday Is More Than Hump Day

I love Jesus Christ more than anything. I love His people. I love to fellowship with them, pray with them, study with them. But, although I can't speak for everybody, it seems in southeastern churches, God's people REALLY love to eat.

There's an old joke:

The first grade class had show and tell to teach a multicultural lesson about religion. First was little Ed. He brought a Koran. "I'm Muslim", he said. Next was little Mary. She brought prayer beads. "I'm Catholic", she said. Next came little Johnny. "This is a casserole dish", he said. "I'm a Methodist".

The joke rings true, especially amongst southern Protestant denominations. My church has a Wednesday night supper almost every week, with a schedule roughly following the school year. Of course, being a church with "Belle Meade" in the name, it is prepared by a team of our members who are professional caterers.

Needless to say, Wednesdays are the valley of the shadow of death every week for my diet. This past week was the first one this year that I ate sensibly (one serving, leaving food on my plate, more salad than entree). Not surprisingly, it was the first week I lost weight.

I decided it's better if I go and resist temptation, rather that remove myself completely from it and remain as weak as ever. (Come to think of it, isn't this the main difference between Chistianity and Islam over sexuality?). I'm doing better, but I've got a long way to go.

X-Alt plays a lot of Baptist churches, and they love to feed us. They always serve the absolute best, but most fattening food possible.

Except for what I'm facing this weekend. We are playing "Soul Food Sunday" at Telent's Coffeehouse in Springfield. The owner is also a prominent member of a local church which is comprised primarily of African Americans. Oh, my Lord! The Food! There is so much, and it is SOOOOO good! And they always insist that we eat. Hoo-boy...

If I make it through this week without gaining any weight, I'll be lucky.

G.K. Chesterton said, "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried". Little did I know, the "difficult" part was constant fried-chicken temptation.

Weigh In Number 3

That's more like it.

I lost 4 lbs. this week. For those of you plotting along (why doesn't Blogger have a charting feature?) I'm at 216.5 And that's with, shall we say, slight exercise (which I ramp up again this week).

It's just good to get movement again. Now I can start chasing my Sista. No, not literally "chasing" her, but trying to match her weight loss. She isn't announing her actual weight, only loss. That's OK, we could have a Gimli/Legolas type contest. I've got the advantage of being a man. But she's got the advantage of being on a real program, whereas I am just using the Force.

On the hair side of things, I'm in a quandry. I've let it grow out everywhere to kind of get in pre-mullet mode. The only thing is, I like it like this. It's got kind of a Shaun Cassidy look, and there's a part of me that doesn't want to cut off the top and sides. After all these years in the corporate world, I had forgotten how good hair feels. I probably look like an idiot running my fingers through it.

But cut it I will, because I'm following through with all my goals this year.

Weigh In Number 2

Ugh.

No change.

What am I doing wrong?

For those of you plotting: 220.5

Bad Day

Yesterday was not a good day.

For my plan, that is. Yesterday, I was a little hungover from getting only 4 hours sleep the night before (darn football!), and I used that as an excuse not to exercise. Also, I varied off the food plan as well, the extra soup I had (on top of my regular lunch) was most likely about 400 extra calories. Then I snacked a little too much when I got home.

I'm trying not to beat myself up over this too much; after all, it's not like I went to Burger King and got a double-Whopper combo meal.

Today, I'm back on the plan.

To make myself feel better, here's a picture of Mr Mullet himself:

First Weigh-In

Well, I promised, and here we go...

This is very difficult. I've posted very personal information about myself in the past, but for some reason, I'd rather post my financial statements that my weight. It's the height of vulnerability. BUT, what the heck:

220.5

Funny, every single time I've got on a weight loss tear, 225 was my starting weight. I'll gurantee you, I've lost 5 lbs this past week. That's just weird. I thought I weighed more. I'm in the biggest pant size I've ever been in. But, I'm one of those me whose weight gain is almost totally in his belly, so that might explain it.

Some of you might think 220.5 ain't that bad, and I guess in the great scheme of things, it isn't. BUT, I'm not a tall man (5' 9 1/2"). I've got a lot of work to do.

Now that I have all my measurables, I can state my goals:

175 lbs . This seems to be a 'maintainable' weight for me.
A 36 inch waist. I give up on trying to get back to a 34 or 32. It ain't happening.
The ability to walk-run 5 miles without feeling like I'm dying.
Regain my definition in the old abs,pecs,biceps and triceps.

I don't think any of these goals are unreasonable. Now, I've put them "Out There", so hopefully, that's be more motivation, on top of the mullet.

Speaking of: today is haircut day! I'll let you know how it goes.

Breakfast

For lunch and dinner (or dinner and supper for my fellow southerners), I try to have as much variety as possible. Keep yourself offguard, and maybe you won't binge eat (at least that's my theory). But when it comes to breakfast, I'm a creature of habit. This is my same brakfast every work day:

6am: A South Beach Diet Breakfast wrap. I prefer the southwest style, but sometimes the grocery store is out and I have to get the "American" style. Still great. 200 calories.
7am: A bowl of Quaker Lower Sugar Apples and Cinnamon Instant Oatmeal. This one actually has fewer calories (110) than the "weight control" version (160). Go figure.
9am: A ZonePerfect bar, usually Chocolate Coconut Crunch. THis gives me just the energy I need for my lunchtime exercise. 210 calories.

As you've noticed, I've spread my breakfast out over several hours. I don't know why, but this seems to work for me. I'll also drink about a liter of water. (See you in the men's room!)

One Down...

Just finished my first lunchtime exercise: a brisk, two mile walk. I actually felt pretty good during the walk, but it's almost an hour later, and I'm still breathing heavy.

I've got a long way to go. But it sure feels good to have gotten off my butt and started. During my walk, I passed the spot where, as recently as a couple of weeks ago, I would sit in my car and eat my super-sized combo meals. It felt nice to be walking, and to keep on walking by.

Tomorrow will be the REAL challenge.

Happy New Year!

I want to wish everyone a happy New Year. If you made resolutions (as I did), don't be too hard on yourself at first. Of course, you can do whatever works best for you. As for me, with my weight and fitness, I am handling things like this:

I'm not going to get my benchmark weight today. This is important: weigh weekly, at the most! Therefore, I must pick a day of the week for my morning weigh in (more on this in a minute), that will work THROUGHOUT the year. Monday mornings just won't cut it for me. I prefer Saturday mornings.

Why mornings? If you do your weigh-in as soon as you get up (after going to the bathroom), you have a good benchmark because the variables are always the same. If you weigh any other time of the day, you have to account for meals (which can be different form day to day), and the fact that you may not be available at the same time every week on your weigh-in day. I'm ALWAYS available for a few minutes on Saturday morning.

So, I won't be weighing in today. It doesn't matter - even if I follow my plan perfectly this week, I'll only lose between 3-5 lbs between now and Saturday. And when you're dealing with 50-60 lbs to lose, that's not that big of a deal.

My activity level won't be very high today, I'm still recovering from last night ;) . I'll start walks tomorrow (the exercise rooms at work will be WAY too full for a few weeks). It's going to be nice this week in Nashville, so I can walk outside for my exercise. Won't be picking up the weights for at LEAST a week; I have to get my body used to moving again first.

I'll also try to get to my barber sometime this week, and see if she can trim the hair. Once I do, I'll post a picture from the back. Then as the year goes by, I'll post more from time to time, and we can all watch my hair grow.

One caveat: my employer MAY ask me to cut it eventually. Since I really like my job, I'll oblige, but I'll continue to push it all the way to the limit. we'll see.

Here's to the New year! May it bring you all you've resolved, and more! Mullet on!