snissors’s BodyBlog

Another pizza day for the Office Eaters.  I resisted - left the building, came back 30 minutes later, got situated into my cubicle and answered my phone a few times.  The odor of pepperoni pizza was still heavy in the air.  The third time I answered my phone, the Office Eaters could not hold back from laughing any longer - my phone had been rigged.  I was talking directly into a slice of pepperoni that had been taped onto the mouthpiece of my phone.  Thus the persistent aroma.  Very clever, and very funny - even to me.  What’s next??

I’m glad I’ve got some momentum going to help me resist - the Office Eaters have shown up again.  Office Eaters, in my definition, are those people you work with who go out and fetch a good pizza or two (today it is five), or tubs of chinese food, or cheesy meaty italian sandwiches piled high on oily, fresh-baked focacia bread.

I used to be an Office Eater. 

 I divorced the Office Eaters a few months ago.  For the third or fourth time.

 They don’t like it when I leave them.  They (at least some of them) work surprisingly hard to woo me back to them.  Isn’t that funny?  Indulgences that I’ve given up suddenly appear on my "desk" in my cubicle while I had stepped away for a moment.  Neatly placed on a paper plate or napkin.  I can usually see an Office Eater from the corner of my eye, watching to see my reaction to what they’ve left for me.

When I refuse the easy pickings they dangle in front of me (which I usually do), they change their tactic and come at me in the form of the Serpent in the Garden.  "Who told you that eating something like that is a bad thing?  It won’t kill you.  Partake and be happy."

I’ve learned that happiness does not follow the indulgence.

Made it through the week with only one cheat day.  Actually it was a cheat "night".  Went out with a friend to a show and ended had a few beers and a lot of food during the show.  This is something I eventually want to get rid of (significant cheats), but at least I did not cheat beyond what I had planned. 

Today I also succeeded in going out to eat for lunch and making a smart eating choice.  Grilled chicken breast sandwich with no mayo.  Only ate half the bread.

 I’ve also lost 3 pounds this week.  I know scale numbers aren’t the true measure of fitness, but at least it is one of the markers of success (especially at my weight), and I’m 3 pounds closer to my short term goal of 200 lbs by Christmas. 

Ok then.  I can be a turtle.  If I can win the "race" by getting there slowly but steadily, then that’s what I’ll do.  This week I had two cheat days.  Only one cheat day was planned.  Last week I had three cheat days.  That’s improvement, right?  Let’s go for the 3-2-1.  This week, only one cheat day.

I’m learning something here - my unintentional cheats are usually the result of allowing myself to go out to eat with good intentions.  Once I sit down in the restaurant and see all that is available to me (I’m a sucker for good beer and a calorie-rich meal to go with it) - more often than not it is over.  On the other hand, my wife does a great job at restraining herself at a restaurant, so she enjoys going out to eat while not ruining her eating plan.  My dilemma is - do I continue to go out to eat with my family with the intentions of learning to control myself at a restaurant, or do I just not go down that road at all when I’m not there for a cheat meal?

Hmmm…

It has been a while since I’ve posted anything here, and it has been just about as long since I’ve made significant progress toward my long-term goal of fat loss and muscle gain. 

After yet another diet-blowing day yesterday, I sat at my computer early this morning between lifting sets and browsed the web for "sticking-to-it" ideas.  I came upon an article posted on about.com by Hugo Rivera.  He was regugitating what Lee Labrada had laid out as the top ten reasons people don’t make progress in bodybuilding.  One of the tips got me thinking that I might benefit from a short-term goal.  I tend to lose my fire when I focus on one goal for too long.  So - the goal is now 200 lbs by Christmas this year, 2007.  That is easily attainable if I "stick-to-it", it seems reasonable in terms of rate of fat loss, and would be the lowest bodyweight I’ve been at in over ten years.

Haven’t seen much weight-loss in the past 7 days - almost one pound.  When I work hard and eat right, and only lose a pound or less in 7 days, I start to whine.  People then tell me that during those kinds of weeks, you may be losing fat and inches without losing much overall body mass, thus the "disappointing" report from the scale.  I don’t know whether this is true, or just something that everyone hears and passes along as a cheap motivational piece.  I’m hoping it is true (of course!)

Turtles and snails aren’t my thing, but here goes the mantra chant.  Slow and steady wins the race.  Slow and steady wins the race. S–l–o–w   a–n–d  s–t–e–a–d–y.

As mentioned in my first post, I dug up my Fall 2006 pictures.  I was expecting to see a more noticable difference between those pictures and my current pictures.  Doesn’t look like I lost 24 pounds.  I’m not one to get excited about the number I see on the scale, but since I don’t look much different, I’ve only got the number (24 lbs) left to be excited about.  I’ll just have to work harder.

June 13, 2007 and I just remembered that I had started a bodyspace page - back in Sept 2006!  I’m happy to see that as I’m editing my page for the first time since last year, that I’ve lost 23 pounds!  I’ll have to re-post my before picture (left it up for a week or so, then removed it - looked bad!!), and take a current picture.

For a few months, I’ve been walking 2-3 miles almost daily during my lunch break at work.  That combined with a somewhat reduced caloric intake (I have one planned cheat day per week, usually ends up being 2 and sometimes 3 days per week in reality) and weight training 4 days per week has produced some results.  I’m not even halfway to my fatloss goal, but just seeing some significant results over the past few months has given me some mental momentum. Onward!

Welcome to the Bodybuilding.com BodyBlogs. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!