Today was my return visit with the nutritionist. I haven’t written much in the last few weeks. I have been busy with work and slightly discouraged at the fact that things have been harder this time around. My weigh in today put me at 2 pounds less than my visit last month and the past two weekly weigh-ins have showed no change from the last one I posted a dew weeks back. I haven’t stuck to the walks on a daily basis. Although I am still taking them, a few issues have made it difficult to stay with them every day. The first being the weather. The town I live in must never have heard of snow plows. When we get snow, it stays on half of the roads until it is gone. Makes me wonder why it is I pay taxes. Another issue has been my back. I have been having problems with my back for years. I finally had some X-rays last February to figure out what was going on. I always figured it was just from being a fat ass that caused the pain and once I started losing weight, it would diminish. Was I wrong. I found out that I have an issue with my lower back called Lumbar Spondylolisthesis. Here is the information from my doctor about it.

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I made my monthly trek to the nutritionist today. It wasn’t the monthly weigh in I had hoped for but I still showed a loss. I dropped two pounds since my last visit. Im not exactly sure how that is, since I lost 5 pounds on my home scale making a 3 pound difference in there somewhere. In any case today I had my Resting Metabolic Rate tested so I knew how many calories my body burns in a day just by doing nothing. If you have never had this test done. You should. It’s tons of fun. First you get to clamp your nose shut with this tight plastic clamp. I wish I had a mirror handy so I could have seen that! Then you get to sit with a small plastic machine with a mouthpiece attachment sticking out of your mouth for the next 10 minutes or so while you breath through it. I wasn’t in the best of moods today. So, I was too pissed off to be bothered by how ridiculous I might have looked and just read through some papers the doctor gave me on weight loss tips and diet suggestions while I sat and breathed. In the end it said my Resting Metabolic Rate was 2550 calories. So, if I were to do nothing every day and set my calorie target at 2000 I should see a 2 pound per week loss. Now I have something to set my mark at and all I need to do is get myself tracking calorie intake on a daily basis and I will be better off.

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Well, I had my weekly weigh-in post typed up this morning and wrote about my 5 pound loss. I had forgotten to post it and just did that now. After getting it typed up I went for my daily walk. It was probably the worst day so far for the walk. Not because of the walk itself but, because it snowed last night and the roads were a mess. It made for a slip sliding not-so-good time. After getting back from my walk, my wife and I headed out to get some things done. While we were out, we decided to get something to eat and went to, you guessed it, the Chinese Buffet. So, I lasted about two weeks without going and already broke my rule about only going after my monthly visit with the nutritionist.

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I have been sick for the better part of 3 weeks now. It started with our daughter bringing home a nasty cold and wicked sore throat which I was lucky enough to catch and then carried into my son getting a nasty cold and pink eye which I was even luckier to catch right as I was getting over my first cold. So now I am in my third week of having a nasty head and chest cold, sore throat, poor sleep and more. To make it better, I have had pink eye for the past three days. I have been trying to treat it with over the counter meds and taking it easy. It almost worked for the first cold, but this second one is holding on and kicking my butt! I finally gave in and went to see the doctor today so I could get some antibiotics and get rid of this sick.

On the plus side, I have noticed that I tend to choose healthier foods when I am sick. So, I have eaten better during the past three weeks than I have in a few months. One big thing is that I haven’t has any beer or wine. Who wants to drink while they are sick? Not me! I have been drinking a ton of tea. And I do mean a TON! I have also been drinking a lot more water and eating a ton more fruit. I haven’t been quite as hungry as usual, so I have also been eating less. That a plus. I noticed myself buying more fruit and salad today when I went to the store to get my prescription filled. We’ll see if I can keep this ball rolling once I get healthy. One thing I noticed in the past when I got sick is that once I start feelign better, I get HUNGRY! So we’ll see.

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It has been awhile since I last wrote in my journal. I have been busy and facing my continual lack of motivation as well as serious issues dealing with old habits and temptation. Halloween this year was a horrifying experience. Not because of the ghost and ghouls, but because of the candy! I dove right in and didn’t stop for a week. To top it off, my food choices for the past few weeks haven’t been very good either. They are coming to know me on a first name basis at the Chinese buffet and I might as well have a parking place with my name on it at the liquor store. More about that later. We decided on getting less candy this year so there would be non leftover after trick or treat night.
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Well, here I am again. Two weeks ago I was writing about my motivation being at a new high and as quickly as it went up, it sank back down. I had an excellent week or two and basically stopped doing what made it an excellent week. I have a feeling that when I weigh in tomorrow, it isn’t going to be very excellent. I’m starting to think my motivational issues are being affected by my mood and my mood is being affected by my lack of daytime activities, among other things. The week before I had my best week, I spent 4 out of 7 days outside walking around at the fair. But the weeks following the fair, I have been swamped with work, so I haven’t really had the chance to get out much. Monday was my first real time outside in a few weeks with the exception of a few hours a week for soccer games and driving the kids around. Monday and Tuesday were better days. So, it would seem that the more time I spend outside getting fresh air and exercise, the more motivated I am to try and eat better and lose weight.
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My son had a soccer game this morning which meant everyone getting ready and heading out quickly. We had a light breakfast and packed into the van to head off to the game. The game started at 11 and was over by noon. The games are pretty quick seeing as the kids are 6 years old. After the game was over, my son wanted to go to a local restaurant with a food bar. I didn’t really want to go, because the last time the service wasn’t all that good and the food isn’t always the best either. I also didn’t want to go seeing as how well I did last week with my eating and watching my calorie intake. But, everyone was hungry and my will power cracked… and temptation won out. We decided not to go to the first restaurant and instead went to the local Chinese buffet. Then my fat cells rejoiced. Whenever we go to the Chinese buffet, I like to mainly eat the chicken or beef dishes with vegetables but I just can’t resist some of the fried food either. Especially considering there is usually so much of it. One thing I took notice of today is how much grease is on all of the food, vegetable dishes included. My fat cells soaked it all up and said gimme more! I can’t imagine how many calories are in all of those dishes. Guess I will have to do a little less work this coming week and a little more working out and do better with my meals throughout the week. Still, there is nothing quite like the Chinese buffet for a good weekend lunch.

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The biggest problem I have been dealing with the past few months is staying motivated. When I started this journey. My motivation was simple. I wanted to feel better and be able to move around more so that I could spend more time with my family and do more with my son. I felt like I was cheating him out of his childhood by not doing anything with him. Not because I didn’t want to. But, because I could barely move. I always felt sick and run down. So, I set out to lose weight. I figured if I could lose just two pounds each week, I would be losing weight at a rate of 100 pounds per year and in just a few short years I would be at a healthy weight. It was pretty easy at first. My motivating factor was a good one and I was reminded of it every day when I would think about all the things I wanted to do with my son and my family. When I started eating better and counting my calories, I started dropping a good deal of weight over a short time. I started feeling better and doing more throughout the day. It was nice to be able to get around more and not feel like I needed a nap halfway through the day. I started going for walks in the woods, doing more outside and just enjoying life more.

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Summer vacation has come and gone…The kids are back at school and things are getting back to normal. I noticed during the summer break that I strayed from a lot of my rules and lost sight of my goals. I fond myself eating later at night, eating junkier foods and eating more. I stopped tracking my calorie intake and just pretty much gave up. It sounds pretty bad huh? Well, not really. I noticed that even though I didn’t eat the best food or always make the best choices, that I did make better choices and eat better than I used to. I also maintained my weight and dropped a few pounds as well. The biggest thing that made it hard for me was having the kids home from school.

The days just go so quick and before you know it, dinner time has come and gone and you are trying to figure out what to make that is quick and easy and can feed everyone. It seemed more often than not we ended up ordering out. That was the first of my issues. I think we ordered out more times int he past three months than we did in the previous 8 months. It was just all around easier. No prep time, no pots and pans to clean up and it was easy enough to find something everyone liked.

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The last few weeks have been pretty tough. My motivation took a serious hit since the holidays and I just have not really been trying much at all. In my attempts to re-motivate myself, I have been reading some of my initial posts. When I started I had some serious drive to do this, and I did very well, losing 15% of my body weight so far. Which is why I really wonder why my motivation is taking such a huge hit. I could understand being less motivated If I was not loosing weight each week when I get on the scale. But, with consistent losses I am still finding it hard to eat right lately. After reading some of my first posts, I am feeling a bit more motivated and feel like at least making an effort. So, we will see what happens this week.

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