I'm back.... sort of

I'm out of commission for a few days but I've been meaning to share that I've reached my lowest weight so far. It looks flat but that's because I don't have access to a scale. It may have changed though. Maybe I'll have to average it all once I weight again on Friday. We'll see what happens.

I definitely ate too much yesterday and I'm paying for it. I won't share the junk with you but, I'm doing better now. Whew!

I bought a new watch online. I decided that I needed a waterproof, shockproof watch with intervals. That way I can use it for training and racing. My running training calls for running/walking intervals of 5 mins, 1 min, stretch, 5 mins, 5 mins and then a walk/run ratio that increases each outing. New training start date is Saturday. I can't wait. I'm going crazy!

Hump Day

If you look at the chart, click it to make it bigger, you'll see a tiny little hump on the green line. Let's hope it doesn't grow. 

I felt good this morning and was surprised that I had gone up 0.6 pounds. I won't go into the details of bodily functions that I believe attributed to this bounce. Suffice to say that after a delightful morning, I may be back down below 196 again. 

Bought a handy little scale the other day so I can weigh my food by grams and really see what I'm eating rather than something like "large naval orange". I buy jumbo naval oranges from the store and today I weighed one in at 275g. After calculated the calories from a "verified" entry on Livestrong.com, I discovered that I'm eating 150 per jumbo naval orange whereas the large naval orange I was using showed 100 calories.

What I find is that most servings sizes that I see, like a cup of rice is a little over 100 calories, most fruit is 100 calories. So they key is to just eat 10 things per day and I'm set. Or, I'll just continue to use the LiveStrong.com software on my iPod Touch and wait for a BlackBerry Storm version to come out.

I Like Tuesdays!

Ah ha! Damn water-weight! Look at that green line at it's lowest point yet and I feel good. New target date is March 6.

I wish the rain would stop! I see blue sky to the west but who knows what's out in the ocean.

Don't forget you can click on the chart to see a larger version.

I love Mondays

On Mondays I'm usually motivated because I made it through another weekend of temptation unscathed. Well, maybe not unscathed, but I survived. Let's keep it going!

The Tour of California finally got things fixed and I'm watching the online live video feed. The problem really was the weather because cycling.tv had problems yesterday and their feed is back on today as well. Now, if we could just convince the Tour de France people to use this technology. Hopefully the GPS tracking of the riders will start working soon.

Another interesting technology development is the live updates on Twitter. I'm following a number of news organizations, photographers, race teams, and riders with live texts from the course. Johan Bruyneel was the first one to break the news yesterday that the GC leader had withdrawn from stage 2. You may have seen the news articles where Lance Armstrong's one-of-a-kind bike was swiped. Lance first broke the news via a tweet. Lance is the most followed Tweeter with over 117,000 followers. Yesterday I saw it was at 108,000. A couple of weeks ago it was at 10,000. Needless to say, Twitter just got another $35 million dollars of funding. Watch out. If you're not on Twitter, you should be! Follow me!

The Bounce

Am I on my way back up? Let's hope not! Friday and Saturday were bad days for calorie counting (unless you like to count a lot) but Saturday ended up with a few pints and stogies. That made me forget I was trying to shed a few. 

But today was good. Although I was a little ticked off that I could not watch the Tour of California live online because of weather and server-load problems. I did catch the end of stage one live on VS. A crazy race with pouring rain, wind, flat tires, leaders withdrawing, breakaways that survived, and bike thefts! I need to watch the recap at 8 so I can see the podium ceremonies and post-race interviews. Here's a tweet from Lance.

Feeling good about my calorie intake today. I'll be a little over but I'll be okay. Driving to La Jolla tomorrow. Let's hope it doesn't rain too bad!

Flat-lining

I'm flat-lining. I've hit a point where I'm having trouble continuing my weight loss. Part of the problem is that I'm inactive right now. I was counting on my triathlon training starting on February 2 but I've had to postpone that while I sort out some issues. 

My original weight loss goal date was today. It's been revised to March 8, based upon my current 5 day rolling average weight loss. Look at that green line. A few ups and down but really going now where. 

I had a difficult Thursday and Friday while I sorted out my phone problems. Windows 7 and Blackberry beta software do not mix. I'm back to Vista and Blackberry 4.7.0.75 and I already miss 4.7.0.113 but it wasn't authorized by Verizon so I couldn't browse the web. Maybe that's why the battery life was so much better.

Great prologue in the ToC today. Levi 2nd. Lance 9th. I have them both on my fantasy team!

Do it Belgian Style!

I survived the Belgian beer tasting last night. Even ate a few egg rolls before joining a friend for tasting and smoking at the 8EightyEight - Diamond Crown Lounge. Turns out, the tasting was of a Belgian "style" beer brewed right here in The OC by The Bruery. You'll find a complete run-down of the tasting at Beer, Bikes & Butts.

The night was not a total loss. I enjoyed a few cigars, a few Stella's, the Laker's game from the recliners in front of the 73" HDTV, and wonderful high-tech conversation. I believe I brought another bird into the Twitter flock, or as some call us twitterers, the twibe!

Speaking of total losses. After 3 pints of beer, five 4 oz. tastings, and 3 egg rolls, I managed to weigh in 0.2 pounds lighter this morning. A good very night!

There just may be a Diamond Crown Lounge in your neighborhood.

Belgian Ale?

Feeling good. I should be down to my lowest tracked weight in a day or so. Although.... there is a beer tasting tonight. Belgian ale? I can't resist.

Back on Track

Ate too much yesterday and was full but still under 1,000 calories. Vegetables are great! Mushrooms, onions, zucchini with garlic, curry, basil & pepper. Interesting combo but good.

Looks like the rain has stopped for a few days. The mountains are covered with snow. It was in the 30s in the valleys last night. Saw lots of frost on the ground this morning on the way to work. 

Working all day today from 7:30 am to 10:00 pm with only a 1/2 hour break. Is that legal? I wonder if they will pay me overtime pay. Probably not. I think my contract precludes that but this work is sub work. I wonder....

The Lost (Gained) Weekend

I was away for the weekend. Ate too much to track so I estimated 3,000 calories per day. In the past, I would have fallen off the wagon completely but things are different now. I have a goal and I'm sticking to the program. My goal has been pushed out 2 weeks. I'll get there.

Found a inexpensive little kitchen food scale at Sur la table. Now I can weigh the food I eat to really see what the caloric content is.

Still raining here in Southern California. Supposed to clear up tomorrow. I'll stop at the grocery store tonight to stock up on fruits and vegetables. Bought tomato juice by mistake last week instead of V8. Similar but I like the V8 better. Now I need to choke down 11 cans of the tomato juice unless I can find some vodka.

The demons won the fight

No In-N-Out!

Fought a lot of demons today. Thought about In-N-Out burgers. Looked up taco calories on the Internet. Taco Bell tacos = 110 calories. Not too bad. 3 for lunch would be within my limits. But Taco Bell? Gross. Need to find another place. Maybe the Crazy Chicken?

But I pushed those demons to the side and went with my standard fare as per Jared. 6" ham sub (290 cals)... Filling. I'll finish the other 1/2 for dinner. I'll probably go for a large naval (110 cals) and a nectarine (90 cals) when I get home later tonight. 

Now, I need another coffee (5 cals). The weather has taken a turn for the worse. From sunshine to completely overcast in a couple of hours, and this Starbucks is freeeeeezing!

Back to pre-Super Bowl Weight

It took three days but I got rid of what I gained on Super Bowl weekend. I'm back on track. Feelin' good.

Adjustments

Not a bad day yesterday. Still feeling the effects of overeating on Super Bowl Sunday. I didn't really overeat like the old Dale would have. Actually, compared to the old Dale, I ate very little, but the new Dale can't handle such a big meal. That's good.

Two changes to the chart. 

1. I've had to push out the goal date to 2/24. That's a gain of 10 days added to my original forecast. That original forecast didn't include the weekend blimps. Now that I've had 3 weekend blips, I think this forecast is more accurate. I still make progress. That's good. 

You can see the weekend blips in red. The first big spike, a smaller spike the next weekend and a HUGE spike on Super Bowl weekend. 

2. I've also added trend lines. Easy to do in Excel. I'm sure my weight loss trend line will flatten a bit over time. My goal is to keep it steep until I reach my goal. The calorie intake trend line is on the way up. The Super Bowl spike helped as well as the fact that I find I can eat around 1,300 calories a day and still lose weight. So when I'm hungry, I don't starve myself but hunt down a piece of fruit. I just discovered that white peaches have a lower calorie content than other fruit. I had one last night. Tasty! That's good.

First to 6

Keeping it simple with the chart. Don't get lost in the details. 

The predicted calorie spike occurred on Super Bowl Sunday, along with a Steelers win. I didn't track everything I ate. I just estimated 3,000 calories. It could be lower or higher. Not sure but it doesn't matter. I'm back on track today. The weight is a bit higher but I think I'm still carrying some of yesterday's intake.

Did you know that Beck's Premium Light only has 64 calories per bottle?

Today also starts triathlon training. I'm not sure if I'm going to race, but my brother threw a challenge my way for August 22. I found a Couch-to-5K (law school has sent me to the couch - it's time to get up) and Sprint Triathlon training plan at Beginner Athlete and I start today. The plan looks complicated at first but after analysing and inspecting closer, it's not that bad. 

I start with with a 25 walk today. I may skip the Couch-to-5K part or at least accelerate the training a bit. The point is, anyone can do this. I challenge you to do it as well.