sweetpilot79

Hello all,

It’s been a while since I’ve been on here. Since my last update, I got a job at a large law firm, and have been very busy. I’m not complaining, I certainly missed working.

My lovely wife, Jennifer, decided that we needed to get back on the bandwagon and lose this darn weight. She decided we were going to join a gym, which we did. That was about a 6 weeks ago. Since then, I’ve lost 3 pounds. I’m not losing weight as quickly as I had hoped, but I’ll take progress in any way that I can.

The past couple of weeks didn’t see much gym time, as we had our HVAC unit fail, our sewer line go out, and we were informed our house had termites. Of course, those priorities took over our gym time, but thankfully, those problems have been resolved and I’m back on a semi-normal routine.

Feeling healthy, and adventurous, I found a little recipe for some portabello mushroom burger/sandwich kind of thing. It’s basically a seasoned portabello mushroom cap with grilled bell pepper and onion on a toasted hamburger bun. I experimented with the seasoning on the mushroom (used soy, worcesterchire, and beau monde) and it was AWESOME! I should have cooked it a bit longer, but that’s for next time.

So this morning, I declare that I am working out, dieting, and will strive to give you folks my morning sense of humor on a weekly basis. I don’t have much spare time, but what I do have will be share with you, my favorite dieting buddies.

On a side note, if any one knows of any workout buddies in the Corpus Christi area, let me know. I have no idea what I’m doing at the gym, and I’m not thrilled with the idea of paying someone a ridiculous amount of money when I’m already paying a ridiculous amount of money to have access to the gym….. Where I have no idea what I’m doing.

If you’ve read my profile, you know I live in Corpus Christi. Hurricane Dolly hit south of us near Brownsville (US/Mexico border), and we had a good douse of rain and wind. Luckily we didn’t get a direct hit as it was a category 2 when it hit. I think the winds were just over 100 MPH. My wife didn’t go to work, and I didn’t abide by the diet. Hard to diet when you’re watching the weather outside. We were able to get a little video with our digital camera of the view outside our apartment door. All is fine now. The weather is starting to clear up a bit, although there are spats of rain and wind here and there. Enjoy.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3O_-V3cxe0

The scale today read 206.8. Up 1/5th of a pound. Not a big deal today, since I did a lot of housework and it’s probably muscle (yeah, I’ll stick with that). I figured I lost some belly weight over the past week due to a seriously exciting event.

You know when you misplace your keys, and you walk around, scratching your head, saying “I know they’re around here somewhere”? I hate that feeling. Especially since I only put my keys in one place: in the bedroom in front of the ridiculously expensive TV I bought myself.

Well, last year, I lost my feet. I was standing in the bathroom (my office), I looked down, and they were gone. That’s when I knew I was fat, although I didn’t do anything about it back then. Oh sure, I could bend over and visit them any time I wanted, but they didn’t make any additional effort to say hi. They didn’t call, or write. It’s like they never knew I was gone from their sight.

This morning, when I went to my office and I did my morning routine (scratch, fart, pee). I looked down at the porcelain god, aimed, and saw my FEET! I was shocked. It wasn’t my whole foot, just the tops of my toes, but I could see them! They’re hairier than I remember, and they have a funky tan line, but they came out to say hi. I told them I had been working hard to lose the belly. I guess they appreciated the gesture. Maybe they’ll stay out longer and we can take a walk together.

I know many of you know this feeling. Many of you will have it soon. Your feet miss you. They may be stinkier than before they left, but that will pass. Let this be an inspiration to those of you on this journey, and a happy memory for those of you who have completed it. Eventually, the reunion happens.

Last night, when my wife said “I want IHOP”, I started to fear the fattening selections I would be craving to have. I walked in with the best of intentions to have a cup of coffee, and a bowl of fruit, or some other healthy alternative.

Yeah… like THAT would happen with chocolate chip pancakes staring me in the face.

I caved. I had a super duper meaty omelet, with a huge stack of chocolate chip pancakes… extra butter please. SYRUP… gotta have the butter pecan syrup. Load it on there… oh heck, I’ll just drink the syrup. Here hun, slather that butter all over my body. Oh it’s so good… it’s so wrong, yet so right. YEAH, slap me in the face with those pancakes. Make me your little pancake monkey…….. whoah.

The other day, I weighed in and lost a half a pound. I figured I would have gained a pound yesterday. Instead, I lost ANOTHER half pound. I’m almost to my lowest weight since I started this endeavour. My lowest is 205.8, and today I was 206 even. It’s odd. I ate crap that’s bad for me, and I lose weight. Yet, when I eat healthy, I gain.

So, today, I’m eating some dry cheerios (cause we’re out of milk), some OJ, and I think we’re having some spaghetti for dinner. I’ll have some baked apples for lunch. We’ll see how that big bad scale feels tomorrow.

Last night, Jen wanted some broiled fish. We’ve never done that before, but figured it would a healthy alternative to the rest of the crap in the fridge. We spiced it just the way she wanted it, put the oven on broil, moved the oven shelf to the highest position, and threw the fish in. The package said to cook for 5 minutes. Since we don’t really trust our oven temperature gauge, we added another minute or so.

At the end of 7 minutes, Jen tells me to take the fish out. No problem. I grab the oven mitts, open the door, and grab ahold of what I thought was the pyrex pan. Immediately after sticking my hand in there, I wonder “what’s that burning smell, and why does my hand feel hot”. I quickly pull my hand out to realize that I didn’t grab the pan, I grabbed the BURNER. It burned right through the glove and burnt my hand. I didn’t burn it too bad, but you can certainly tell where I touched the burner. I put it under cold water, and all is fine, it’s just a little sensitive to heat right now.

So, today, I get to go to the store to get some more oven mitts, as the ones we have aren’t any good anymore obviously. Just goes to show that you better pay attention to what you’re doing.

If you read my blog last week, you know my wife took me to some event where there was free barbecue, and then to a ball game where I love the nachos. It wasn’t setting up to be a good weekend for the diet. Well, it WASN’T a good weekend for the diet. I gained two pounds on Friday, and jumped back on the diet bandwagon Saturday morning. I started at 210 at the beginning of the diet, dropped to ALMOST 205, now I’m somehow back to 208. I was able to get down to 207.6 this morning, but this last pound just won’t go away.

I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. Yesterday, for example, I had an english muffin for breakfast, a lean chicken sandwich for lunch, and broiled fish for dinner. This morning, I ate a peach for breakfast along with a glass of 100% orange juice, and I’m hopping on the exercise bike this afternoon (I have a broken leg, otherwise I’d be on there every day).

I’m loosing speed here folks. When I started this diet, I looked forward to hopping on the scale every day. Now, the numbers are either decreasing VERY slowly, or increasing very quickly. It feels like I’m going in the opposite direction. Maybe if I went back to eating my old favorites of ice cream, barbecue, and fast food I’d lose weight again. Nah… I know that’s not the right way to do things… but darn it, I’m fat, I’m hungry, and I’m pissed.

Well we figured out how to get Sam to sleep through the night: Take her swimming. We also figured out that I’m not any good at putting sunscreen on myself.

Apparently, Samantha really enjoys going in the pool. At first, she was understandably hesitant, but she got used to it, and eventually started splashing around. We picked up a floaty thing she can sit in, and it has a small part in the front for toys, and water to splash with. She’s become very good at splashing Mom and Dad.

Of course, it’s good exercise for Jen, and good physical therapy for my leg. If we keep this up, we’ll be a fit, tan, and walking family in a few months. I wonder why Sam tans better than I do. She must have her mothers skin.

I hear a voice. It’s a tiny voice. I can barely hear it, but it’s there. That darn cookie jar, calling my name again. I gave in. I had a couple six cookies. They were good. REALLY good. I hadn’t had cookies in two weeks. Then, in a vain attempt to rectify the issue, I ate three apples. Now it feels I just threw some more calories on the junk food I already ate.

My wife now tells me that we are going to some event where there is all sorts of free barbecue, and later we’re going to a baseball game, where the nachos are to die for. She’s not helping any. According to the scale this morning, I gained a pound. I’m not looking forward to what it says tomorrow. Maybe I’ll skip weighing in over the weekend, and pretend the scale is actually my friend.

Oh well. Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

My wife started a diet. That means WE have started a diet. I’m really not too concerned about it. I just lowered my food intake, and do 30 minutes or so a day on our bicycle machine. I’ve noticed an improvement. It’s not earth shattering. Only 5 pounds in a couple weeks so far, but it’s better. I’ve put daily results on my main blog site located at http://www.weitzelsintexas.net/timsblog. Let’s see how I do.

This past Fourth of July weekend was an eventful one. We took our daughter to the pool, went out to dinner, visited family, and went to see the local fireworks show. I had never been to the fireworks here in town, even though I’ve lived here almost 8 years. It just never excited me. This year, my wife told me we were going to see them. I ended up getting excited over the idea. She described them as exploding over our heads, and the colors were amazing. She even had a spot picked out for the best viewing.

Apparently, the city changed their minds this year.

Normally (I’m told), they float a barge out on the bay, and shoot the fireworks over the bayfront. That works well since the bayfront is one long strech, and there would be a lot of good viewing areas. This year, they fired them off the Lexington aircraft carrier museum, and shot them over downtown. We were amongst hundreds that were expecting the prior plan. The view from our end was horrible. Tiny explosions in the sky, blocked by skyrises. Couldn’t even hear the boom from the fireworks. Needless to say, I was dissapointed. We faught traffic, and drunks to find a good viewing spot, just to get frustrated. As we drove home, we went further along the bayfront, away from the fireworks “display”. There were MANY more people, and you know they didn’t see anything at all, because they were behind even more tall buildings.

One local television station said the event was a success, but a “few” people were upset because they were hard to see. Almost everyone I spoke to agreed that they were upset that they wasted time to see the display. I’m not sure if they just plan to talk, or do something about it. I emailed the city, and told them my views on the event. I even went a step further to volunteer for the Parks and Recreation committee. We’ll see what the city council does with my bio. It would be fun to have some input on city events.