Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Week 3 -- Slowin' Down a Little




























Start Weight: 226.0
Week 2 Weight: 217.7
Weekly Loss/Gain (+): 1.8
Program-to-Date (PTD) Loss: 8.3
% Weekly Loss: 0.82
% PTD Loss: 3.67
Program Goal Weight Loss: 36.0
Program Goal % Loss: 15.9


Well.... here we are again, another week has come and gone, and yes it was somewhat rougher this week than the last two. To be expected, but still the realization of slow, gradual changes hit home a bit. I thought I'd stick with the swimming pool theme as it's been very hot (102 degrees today). The pictures still aren't too flattering (honestly do I look that... uh "round in the middle" jumping in the pool?), suppose it's time to accept that. Clothes fit just a little looser, but still miles to go before I sleep. Interesting week... Hurricane Dean on Steven in Mexico, Elvis at the State Fair, and even an Alliance formed in opposition to all of our good names ... http://wwwjaben-alliance.blogspot.com/ ) So... here we go....

RESULTS: Another 1.8 lbs came off this week for a total of 8.3 lbs so far. There goes the "10 lbs in 3 weeks!!!" infomercial I had planned. I'm still on the tuna/mayo/relish/pepper/onions and Diet Pepsi for lunch with a handful of Wheat Thins. Got a lecture at home on how the diet sodas, any sodas for that matter, are just horrible for you.....had no rebuttal for that. I think they're right. Staying with the yogurt and bananas for breakfast, I did go overboard with the pistachio nuts though. One trip to In-N-Out, had a double burger, no cheese, light spread and extra veggies. Trouble is you can't even see those thin slabs of beef on the burger, let alone taste them... and yep, I had a boat of fries. And... one day I went into Winco for some bananas... happened to be at lunch time, and I came out with a slice of combo pizza and a few Elvis Pressley peanut butter/banana cups.



















Elvis and I both loved peanut butter and banana sandwiches, they had 'em deep fried at the State Fair this year. No matter how much that sounded mucho delicioso, I couldn't do it...let's just say the radio show I heard on the coroner's report of Elvis's 40-lb colon at time of his death, kind of put a damper on my appetite..... but I did pick up, let's say a few of these PB cups. Still doing the 45 minutes at work on the trainer/treadmill, about 50/50 now. I'm planning on mixing in some weight training after we come back from Utah on Labor Day.... mix up the routine for the winter months coming soon. So, all in all, I got what I deserved this week. Busted my butt at the gym, but offset that with some questionable diet. Goal is to hit 215 before we head out to Provo next Wednesday morning.

On the Bike: Nothing really except that the fund went up by $75 to $399... I rec'd a $150 safety bonus at work, if you had no reportable safety incidents for the year, $150 reward. Since I'll see about half that after taxes and such... fund now near $400. I think I better commit those funds to the bike before they happen to go somewhere else. I followed a few Craigslist leads, but bikes were not the right size and/or already sold. So, the urgency has died down a bit, but that hasn't stopped the bike brigade from piling on. If you have nothing better to do, check out their site.... and to think at one time we rode in peace and love together, they were my support group. Their tactics have now gone beyond riding.... see what they brought into a church meeting and plopped right in front of my face:



















Really leaves one speechless... decency, human kindness, etc,. have gone right out the window. I will press on with or without them.




ODDS N' ENDS: We haven't heard from Steven yet.... all the news reports we've heard is no loss of life on the Yucatan from Dean, property damage wasn't as bad as predicted, tourists got out OK, etc,.... except for this one gem and I quote, "
Officials said they had received
no reports of deaths in the Yucatan
Peninsula, though driving rain,
poor communications and impassable
roads made it difficult to determine
how isolated Mayan communities fared
in the sparsely populated jungle.
Earlier, Dean killed 13 people in
the Caribbean...."

Doesn't exactly instill complete confidence, I'm sure we'll hear soon. We're off to Provo next week, school and seminary started this week... life is pretty good.


FAQs:

I'll just pick one out this week that I'd like to respond to:

Q. I hear there was a huge party, celebrating the last episode of "So You Think You Can Dance" at JaBen's house, started at about 10:00 PM and the after-party went until about 3:00 AM. Reports are the crowd got out of control and it ended up not being very pretty. All of this on a weeknight.... were you there? and if so, what really happened?

A. I knew about the party, but was not invited... this was about the time of the bike threats I rec'd last week. I was privy to the party invite conversations, I heard that I was not "hip" enough to be there, way too old to stay up that late, etc... have been completely cast aside byJaBen.... but just as well... with all that partying going on, I understand there were eight children under the age of nine in various stages of (non) supervision at the all-nighter. I really can't comment further.

'Til next week...... Brian



5 comments:

Kaci said...

Ben usually has me read your blogs a few days after you post. But last week was so funny, I thought I'd take the initiative and read it myself first. I feel that as a wife of JaBen, I must say something.
I was a witness when you were invited to the viewing party. I have a full transcript of what actually took place and I am prepared to sell it to the JaBen Alliance website unless I am given a better offer. I must also clarify that this so-called party you were not "hip" enough for was completely safe as we were supervised by the Primary President. If she cannot be trusted with five other adults, can we really trust her with our children?
I should get back to my household chores that I must complete before the tyrant gets home, but I thought I would also leave you with these tips (as I have been on my own baby weight loss journey):
100 calorie packs (great for when you know that you wil eat a cupcake at 10 p.m., at least this way it is 100 calories vs. 500
Nursing: Ok, maybe not your area...
Yes, cut back the soda, even diet-- I drink a full bottle of water before I drink a soda if I am having too much soda and I know it. By the time I drink the bottle of water, the soda doesn't sound good at all. Good luck!

Stacie said...

Though I don’t claim to be any kind of expert on the matter, I have recently had some personal epiphanies by way of helpful dietary information from my nutritionist. So, let’s talk about what’s been on my mind lately regarding weight loss:

Food is life. And everything we eat is either medicine or poison for our body. Calories are another story, so let’s set that aside for now and just talk about the health of the body. I believe the healthier our body, the more it has a natural ability to shed unwanted pounds.

The last couple of days I’ve been extremely interested in learning more about pH. What I’ve found out so far is that our bodies are designed to operate at a certain pH level. Everything we ingest has its own pH level, thus affecting the overall pH of our body. I did a little research on diet sodas this morning – take a look at http://www.dherbs.com/articles/dangers-drinking-soda-127.html for a comprehensive article about why soda is so bad for you. But for now, here is a quick excerpt:

[Soda pop (regardless of the kind or brand) is 100% acid forming! It has a pH balance of 2. This is a very low pH number.

Our bodies were made to have a natural pH balance of 7.3, which is slightly alkaline. A pH of 6 is ten times more acidic than a pH of 7. A pH of 5 is 100 times more acidic than a pH of 7. A pH of 4 is 1,000 times more acidic than a pH of 7. A pH of 3 is 10,000 times more acidic than a pH of 7. And a pH of 2 is 100,000 times more acidic than a pH of 7.

One can of soda pop greatly lowers your alkalinity. Once can of soda is 100,000 more acidic than your natural pH level.]

So, my suggestion for the am/pm lunch routine is to buy a bottle of water (I’ve read that Aquafina is the best bottled water as it is filtered using a seven step filtration process) instead of the regular giant diet soda to go along with the tuna condiments.

I also came across this quote in my pH research:

“If you had a pet fish and the fish was sick what would you do? Treat the fish or change the water?” –Patrick M. Sobota

Also, apparently veggies are the most alkaline of all foods (big surprise!), and that is one reason why they are so good for your body. Another thing my nutritionist said was what we eat has a ricochet effect. I had never heard that before, but it is an interesting concept. He told me to eat lots of protein and veggies for breakfast and that about 12 hours later I would be feeling the effects of a good (and mostly alkaline) breakfast. This was in reference to trying to stop late night cravings for sugar.

Well, that’s all the diet advice I have for today. And just for the record – the cinnamon rolls in the clerk’s office were a low blow! :)

Unknown said...

Wow, are the women coming out with fisty-cuffs, or what? I'm afraid to post anything in fear that the JaBen's might send their wives out after me, too. So I'll just say "way to go honey" and be on my way.

Brian Sprague said...

To Kaci... thanks for the tips, but those 100 calorie packs.... I just don't see it, maybe later on when and if other stuff's not working... but the soda thing I can do, I will make an effort to stay off of all of it this week.....and thanks to Stacie for the continuation of what I got at the dinner table on the pH discertation... About the goldfish...um if it got sick... I'm thinking a trip to the bathroom..I know you're real tight with JaBen, but I can't be blackmailed on the whole party thing... you and I were both there when the invite was made and JaBen's groupies were hoverin' around, it was even a little uglier than what I let on... if you want to go to the dark side... well, have a good life.

If Arthur's out there, thanks for the comments..I'm getting ready for the 9/7 game.. I'm not quite to the point of wagering dinner again. What was the gist of your conversation with BV's AD??

Unknown said...

B-Spraguu,

Congrats on the Blog! Loved the advertising of JaBen for you. It helped me find your site that much quicker. Keep up the great work and don't let "Sin"namon peddlers get you down.

Team A-10