Week 5 in the Books

I guess I'm going to need to deal with some adversity now. Weighed in today and lost 3.4 lbs. Not what I wanted, not what I thought it would be, but it's what I got. Not to get to "icky" but we talked about upping my fibre...if you don't know why look it up because this is a family blog.

My BMI has gone from 53.7 down to 48.3 and things are looking up. I am going to need to up the exercise amount as I thought I was doing enough but can definitely add more. I learned today that a person burns 5-10 cals/min with exercise. That equates to 300-600 cals/day, and with one pound of fat equaling 3500 cals, you would need to exercise 1-2 hrs/day, for the week, to lose one pound. All of this would happen, even if you never changed your diet.

For the five weeks I am down a little over 45lbs and I'm going to concentrate on that and see the bigger picture. My family and I were at the dollar store yesterday and Zack and I broke off from the girls and we were going up and down some aisles. I jokingly asked him about us buying some snacks and sneaking off to the car. He looked at me and said "Dad, you can't, you need this for your health and I want you to be here".

This somewhat confused me because I could not understand why we had to stay in the dollar store. When I questioned him further, he proceeded to tell me that he and Allie had been talking about how Dad couldn't eat any food because something bad could happen. All this time I knew I needed to get myself right, but my son and daughter needed it more. So guys, all these walks will be for you!!

People Have Noticed

Let me preface this by saying that my wife and my mom have both told me they can notice my weight loss. They see it in my face, neck and shoulders. I also should tell you that I cannot notice a thing. I know my pants are looser, and don't even get me started about needing a new belt already, but when I look in the mirror I see the same guy I always have.

I'm sure it's a brain thing and at some point I'll see myself for what I'm becoming, but it's just not visible to me. However, the past two days at work I've had people come up to me and say the words everyone always wants to hear, "Hey, are you losing weight"? Seeing as I haven't heard those words being directed at me in quite a long time, I wasn't sure how to act.

So, I talked to them about what I was doing, and what I've accomplished. It's very liberating to tell people that you are succeeding at something they believe they could not do. Telling someone new about the program is always a fun thing because you get to see their reaction when you tell them you haven't eaten food in four weeks.

I'm almost five weeks in and I'm getting visible results. I'm spending more time now noticing the different scenarios which would have me eating. I am really starting to believe that I will be able to turn to things other than food when the time comes. I'm really starting to like what other people are seeing, and hope that soon, I will see it too.

399.8

So, I've learned some valuable lessons this week, and a few were painful. I lost 6.6 lbs which is a little less than what I wanted. I've tried increasing my activity, but the major issue was that I didn't have all  my shakes. In my warped mind, I thought I could help myself, but what I did was make my body store most of what I was putting in. In other words, I f@#$ed up.

This is a regimented program and apparently I don't know as much as doctors and dietitians!!  Who knew? So we will chalk this up to my general dumb-assery and make a stronger, concerted effort to have the four shakes/day.

I also learned that I don't deal well with frustration and anger - most of you are shocked by this as it is obviously brand new information. So yesterday was a difficult day and my first reaction was to grab my keys and head out for something to eat. Off I went to grab some lunch at Costco - don`t judge me; the hotdog and fries there are pretty strong - and thankfully it is 15 minutes from my house.

Normally, the ride would only fuel my anger so by the time I get there I'm ready to eat the place out of food, but this time I tried a different approach. I relaxed myself and made a point of thinking through all my choices and decided to drive a little further. Eventually I ended up at a shopping centre and walked around a bit and felt pretty good because I upped the number on my pedometer.

Well, it's four weeks in and I'm down over 40 lbs and feeling pretty good about my choices. I think I've walked more in the last two weeks than I have in the last two years, and I have not compromised myself by having some food. There are some tough weekends coming around - Thanksgiving, seriously? - but I've got some plans for myself and turkey, gravy, ham, and mashed potatoes will have to wait.....what was I talking about?

Lastly, I've been asking for some recipes and so far you guys suck - notable exceptions to Mrs Kilby (great site, can't wait to try them out) and my Mom. She said to cut up some potatoes, mix them with egg whites and some seasoning and bake them in the oven. She says they taste just like fries, so I'll have to give it a whirl....not anytime soon, but you know what I mean.

Healthy(er) Fried Chicken?!?!

It looks like I'm gonna need to throw out the first recipe, and after doing some checking online, I found a few. The nice thing about being on the OptiFast is I can get the many people reading this to try them out first - I have someone in South Korea reading this bad boy!!

Before I give you the recipe, I would like to acknowledge the site I got it from. They have some really great stuff on there, and if you're the adventurous type there will be things that you can try. www.eatingwell.com is the site and it was a fun 15 minutes until I realized I couldn't eat any of the recipes for two months, then I went to check my crappy fantasy football team....

Oven-Fried Chicken

4 servings
Active Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 35 minutes (including marinating time)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup nonfat buttermilk, (see Tip)
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon hot sauce
• 2 1/2-3 pounds whole chicken legs, skin removed, trimmed and cut into thighs and drumsticks
• 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
• 1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste
• Olive oil cooking spray

 

Preparation

1. Whisk buttermilk, mustard, garlic and hot sauce in a shallow glass dish until well blended. Add chicken and turn to coat. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes or for up to 8 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with foil. Set a wire rack on the baking sheet and coat it with cooking spray.
3. Whisk flour, sesame seeds, paprika, thyme, baking powder, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Place the flour mixture in a paper bag or large sealable plastic bag. Shaking off excess marinade, place one or two pieces of chicken at a time in the bag and shake to coat. Shake off excess flour and place the chicken on the prepared rack. (Discard any leftover flour mixture and marinade.) Spray the chicken pieces with cooking spray.
4. Bake the chicken until golden brown and no longer pink in the center, 40 to 50 minutes.

Tips & Notes

• Make Ahead Tip: Marinate the chicken for up to 8 hours.

• Tip: No buttermilk? You can use buttermilk powder prepared according to package directions. Or make “sour milk”: mix 1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar to 1 cup milk.

Nutrition

Per serving: 226 calories; 7 g fat (2 g sat, 2 g mono); 130 mg cholesterol; 5 g carbohydrates; 0 g added sugars; 34 g protein; 1 g fiber; 258 mg sodium; 400 mg potassium.
Exchanges: 1/3 starch, 4 very lean protein, 1 1/2 fat

 

Other People are Doing This Too

So, today is Tuesday, which means weigh-in day. I thought I would change things up this time and talk about some other people. Firstly, we will get some house cleaning out of the way and let you know I dropped another nine lbs, bringing the three week total to 35. I have to tell you, it feels great. I'm walking further and am genuinely excited for each day to start.

But I am taking this opportunity to talk about three women who are doing their thing. I have known the first woman for almost 17 years, basically as long as her husband. Without a doubt, she's the nicest person I know and always has a kind word to say about everyone - except some co-workers. Well, Carol has lost 50 lbs through sheer force of will and I wanted to tell everyone how proud I am of her. All of your hard work has paid off and I can't wait to see how unbelievable you are going to look - we'll just make sure Brent's not around!!

The next strong woman hit her goal about a month ago which is an extraordinary accomplishment. As a stay-home mother of three with lunches, dinner, homework, and all the other responsibilities, she has made sure to make enough time for herself to eat right, at the same time having her kids eat healthy too. She goes to the gym every Monday to Friday to work at getting to, and now maintaining, her goal. While I'd like to think Michelle and Ang are working out the whole time, I know they are expressing any "frustrations" they have with their husbands at the same time.

Finally, the last woman has had as difficult a summer as anyone could imagine. I've written about my admiration for her strength and perseverance before, but she still fit in her gym time as best as she could and tried to eat good meals, all while constantly on the go. My wife has lost over 50 lbs and I couldn't be more proud.

So there you have it; three more people making changes in their life and they are all people I can look up to. Now, since I started this I am getting quite a bit of traffic. What I would like to do is have people share some recipes or food tips and we can all benefit. If you've come up with a great way to make  a dish healthier, than lets share it. There is a comment section in this blog, but I think you have to become a follower and some of you may be concerned about giving your e-mail because you will get spam and offers for pills to enlarge your penis - after this weekend Ken, you should consider thinking about it. Most of you know me on Facebook and you can message me and I will put them in my entries and we can share them all together.

Russ

Back Home

I had my annual Guy's Weekend this weekend, and what a blast!! When I decided to do the OptiFast plan, I contemplated as to whether I would go or not. I used to leave at 1pm on the Thursday and get up there to the cottage and sit out on the deck and catch up with the guys with a few drinks. On the Friday we usually go golfing in the morning and head back to cottage for a few drinks and BBQ and repeat the same for Saturday.

This year we left a little later but were able to see the Vikings/Saints game - sorry, but that game sucked!! We waited eight months for that??? - and played some cards and talked a bit of junk as we tend to do. I had my couple of shakes and the fellas had their beers. We golfed on Friday and came back to play some horseshoes. As dinner was starting to get prepared, things started to get a little tough for me.

I could smell the ribs on the BBQ, and the burgers and the sausages and it was all a little over-whelming. I decided to go lie down for awhile and get myself away from the kitchen and clear my head. Thankfully, they all decided to eat at the same time, and quickly cleaned up and put everything away and asked me to come back out. I appreciated their looking out for me and was able to eventually snap out of my destructive desires.

All-in-all I'm glad I went. We left the cottage a few times through golf and some other attempted adventures and played horseshoes out back. Being able to get away from the all the food instead of having it stare me in the face was a nice break. Through some well timed power naps and some pep talks from amazing friends - and one "reminder" text from my wife - I came out the other side sticking to my plan and not eating, nor drinking, anything. 

I also took some time to think about how I will approach next year's Guy's Weekend. I realized I don't need to start having some drinks til later in the day. I also thought of some healthy snacks I can sneak in along with chips. Also, there's nothing wrong with a nice salad to go beside a healthy size of steak. I also realized that when I woke up every morning, I didn't feel like I was in a car accident, but I probably shouldn't get used to that. I think my friends loved it, only because their sleep wasn't interrupted by my chainsaw snoring. I'd say that's a pretty successful weekend.

Thanks for all the help boys.....and see Hasse, I didn't even bring up you getting hit in the beans with the golf ball from 140 yds.....oh, almost didn't.

Tempering Expectations

Well, I went in for my second weigh-in, and we will start with the positives. I lost weight. I lost the most of anyone in my class. I still haven't eaten food - not sure how this slipped into the positive column!!

So, I lost Drew Brees - or, for the old-timers Maurice Richard. Half of last week, with double the steps output of last week. As I stood, dejected and distraught, I was told to expect 3-6 lbs/week, and that nine was phenomenal. Sadly, I can't see the forest for the trees right now.

I am still happy about what I'm doing, but I think this means I'm going to need to ramp up the activity. Perhaps adding some swimming and maybe even using this gym membership I've been paying for. Most of all, I need to realize that I'm not on Biggest Loser and losing 100lbs in five or six weeks is not in my future. It may take a little longer but I'm 26.2 lbs down and the needle is pointed in the right direction.

Russ

When did you..

When you take a look at yourself, what do you see? I've learned long ago not to speak for anyone else, so I can tell you that when I looked inside it was a pretty big eye opener. I realized that I had given up on myself. In our weight loss classes they talk about your support group and sometimes there will be a person who is not the most helpful soul. What do you do when that person is you?

I had a pretty productive week last week yet I spent a good portion of time thinking how I could never do it for a second week. Here I am, busting my ass not to eat anything, and I'm sabotaging myself?! I spent some solid thinking time - no, not in the bathroom - and I asked myself when I gave up on me?

So many people have sent me public and private messages wishing me luck, sharing their struggles, and being real supportive. Some of these messages have even made me cry. My brother has been pumping me up and my kids want to have a shake day every week to show daddy they are with me the whole way - of course theirs will be ice cream, but it's still fantastic.

As I continue on this journey, I am beginning to realize my pant size isn't the only thing that needs to change.The guy that hasn't followed through on anything in a long, long, time is going to have to take a back seat to the guy that hasn't eaten food in 10 days and really does not want to be given up on; he really likes what he's done....