New way of eating - one day at a time

[JohnLarson]

~Beth~ yep, I knew you were successful before. That is why I like reading your journal.

[JohnLarson]

BS: 122

B: 1/2c oatmeal w/banana
D: salad, steamed zucchini, yellow squash, onions and lots of mushrooms served with spaghetti sauce and a little bit of spaghetti.
S: gardenia mix, radishes and carrots

E: 1h treadmill

I had a pretty good day today. I enjoyed work. I posted some clothes on eBay for sale. They are work clothes that I have not worn in almost four years, dockers and dress shirts. The dockers are 42" waist. The shirts are 18 1/2 neck. I can't see myself at that size again. I am glad my current job is causal dress. A friend suggested keeping the clothes "just in case".

The idea that I will one day be able to eat SAD has to be smashed. The more I read, the more I see that is true. I do like the idea that I can go off plan and not ruin everything. I was talking to my only friend who listens to me about this WOE, he was still under the impression that I was going to go off plan on Thanksgiving. I am amazed how my thoughts and attitudes have changed and how easy it has been to accept not eating meat, dairy or oil during Thanksgiving. I will have plenty to eat. I think he was a little taken back by my change in position. Right now, my plan is to go out for Sushi on my Birthday if I am under 200. My birthday is Jan 11th. I am sure this is subject to change.

My next milestone is 220. That will put me just overweight. I think it will be just before Thanksgiving for that. After that it is 204. That was my MAW (maximum allowable weight) while in the Air Force. Then it is 200. Even being 204 on my birthday would be awesome. Heck being 204 anyday would be awesome. At 220 I will post a before and after photo. I found a good before picture from April.

[JohnLarson]

BS: 108

B: 1/2c oatmeal w/banana
D: salad, steamed brussel sprouts, left over mushrooms, onions, zucchini and squash, refried beans wrapped with romain lettuce.

E: 1h treadmill

Busy day, full of energy. I am still digging through boxes of stored clothes trying to find old clothes that I outgrew. I think Saturday is going to be very busy sorting stuff out.

I might mess with the dumb bells before I call it a night.

[JohnLarson]

B: 1/2c oatmeal w/banana
D: salad, gold potatoes, sauerkraut, california mix with mustard
S: apple

E: 1h treadmill

I forgot to check BS this morning, it was sort of hectic. Lately my wedding band has been slipping off. Last night while taking a shower, I noticed my ring was not on my finger. I had just gotten in and knew it did not come off in the shower, so that was good. I had no idea when it came off, it felt like it was still on. Six years of wearing it. I looked a little bit inside, but was pretty sure it was out in the storage building.

This morning my wife took the news of the missing ring pretty good. I had mentioned to her before that it was slipping off. I went back out to the building and found it in the first box I looked in. I decided to go get the ring re-sized. Well, I guess this ring can't be changed down because it is hollow. I talked it over with my wife and we decided to get a replacement. We looked at the same one, but that did not seem right. We picked out a different one that I like a lot. My original one is safe in my wife's jewelry box. I am fairly sure I would have lost it at the rate I was going. So I am down one and a half ring sizes and had to take a big link out of my watch (it has big and small links) and might need to take a small link out soon.

Anything else is going to need to wait until Christmas (or after). I would like a new jacket. I sold my fairly new 3x jacket to a guy at work for $20, he offered $50. I told him the price was $20. I was just glad it fit him. I donated some other 3x and 2x jackets that I had. Most of them had been stored for more than 4 years. I also got rid of my 3x shirts. I am wearing some 2x shirts, but they are feeling a little loose. I tried on one of my wife's XL shirts. It fit, now I still have a gut, but the shirt fit. I am fairly sure the next shirts I buy will be XL. I am excited about that. I have a denim jacket that is an XL, it fits great. I am sure it is 15yrs old. I still have a bowling shirt I can't find. Maybe I will find it this weekend.

My big guy clothes are gone. I will not return to where I came from. It is not an option. I do not know how lean I will get, but I do know that I will not be as big as I was. Heck, from everything I have read, if I do go back to SAD, I will gain it all back and more. More? Forget that. If the pants I am wearing get tight or if my ring gets too small then I hope and pray that I take action. I try to learn as much as possible from the ones that were successful and reverted back, but then came back. I am glad they come back and share. Besides the journals, I really like the Star McDougaller stories.

[JohnLarson]

BS: 98 (new record!)

B: 1/2c oatmeal w/banana
D: large salad, gardinia mix, leftovers from yesterday, russet potato with zucchini, squash and carrots.

E: dumb bells, 1h treadmill

I am feeling good about my BS. I checked it this morning and it was 100, I told my wife and she told me that it had to be an error and to recheck it, the second reading was 98. She was kidding, but I rechecked it anyway.

I spent the day with my wife. She had a few medical appointments. During lunch time we went thru KFC, I was not hungry and she wanted a chicken sandwich. I did eat two small nibbles of her chicken little sandwich and had one potato wedge. The potato wedge was pretty greasy, I do not see myself eating potato wedges again. The little nibbles of chicken was decent. It did not make me want to go out and eat a bucket of chicken. I asked for the nibbles and my wife was shocked. I felt like having a taste and knew I was not going to eat any more because I was not hungry, plus we had left the drive thru.

I have liked my numbers on the scale this week and I am looking forward to my next weigh-in. I might change my weigh-in day to Fridays to be more in line with the MWL weekly thread.

I have to go to the VA for blood work tomorrow, so a late breakfast. I might have lunch plans, but they might stand me up. So I might skip breakfast and if I get stood up, come home and eat some oatmeal. My wife's work gave her a gift card to Texas Roadhouse (I think or some other chain steak place), so we are going out tomorrow. I will find out which chain and look at the menu. I am thinking salad and baked potato. "Our place" is a Mexican resturant, I am glad we are going to a steak place. No worry about me getting a nibble of her steak, she likes them well, well done. I was a rare type of guy.

Watching football you see all sorts of commercials. The pizza commercials looked really good. During my first week of this WOE, I took my daughters to a concert and they wanted Pizza Hut, I got a pizza with no meat and cheese. Plenty of oil in it. It was okay, but not all that. I have not really wanted pizza, but the commercials caught my attention. I do not see myself having pizza anytime soon (maybe a nibble). I have told myself that I will have a feast day if I am under 200 on my birthday. Pizza will not be the feast.

[~Beth~]

98!!
Woohoo!


There is a place here that makes a pretty good vegan pizza, piled high with veggies. We also make our own homemade ones sometimes. Lots of garlic, zuchinni, spinach, onion, tomatoes, kalamata olives, and whatever else we have

[Dechen]

Congratulations JL!!! Are gigging around singing, " O, I feel good (dadadadadadadaaaaa) I knew that I would (dadadada)..."?

We are having vegan, no added fat pizza tonight with the kids and air popped corn for afters. Friday night is movie night!!! YUM!!!

[JohnLarson]

I am in a pretty good mood this morning!

Weigh-in day! Down 7.8lbs. I am now no longer obese, just overweight. 217.8. I have been more MWL the past few weeks and have been good on exercising. Being under 200 by Jan 11th seems very reasonable. I just need to keep it one day at a time.

BS: 95 (new record!)

Yep, I am in a pretty good mood!

[JohnLarson]

I posted in the testimony section also, but wanted to have it in my journal also.

[~Beth~]

I am in a pretty good mood this morning!

Weigh-in day! Down 7.8lbs. I am now no longer obese, just overweight. 217.8. I have been more MWL the past few weeks and have been good on exercising.

BS: 95 (new record!)

Yep, I am in a pretty good mood!

Congrats on the weight loss and on the new low blood sugar reading. What an inspiration! Keep up the good work

[JohnLarson]

~Beth~. Thanks

Friday:

No breakfast, had a fasting lab
L: Salad, steamed veggies over gold potatoes
D: (Texas Roadhouse) peanuts, fried pickles, house salad w/honey mustard dressing, baked potato, mixed veggies, broccoli. three small bites of steak, two yeast rolls

E: none

My lunch plans canceled so I came hoe for lunch. I did not eat it all. I enjoyed my meal at Texas Roadhouse, we had a gift card. I was real happy with my weigh-in and blood sugar. I considered ordering a steak. I had checked online and knew they had a vegetable platter, which I told my wife about. She encouraged me to get the platter and not have a steak. She ordered a steak and I had some nibbles. I did eat some fried pickles dipped in some sour cream based dip. I enjoyed my meal and have no regrets. We had a great time out.

Saturday

B: 1/2c oatmeal w/banana
L: left overs from yesterday
D: salad, one gold potato, steamed green beans with onions and mushrooms.

E: none

Pretty busy day. I went to the produce store. They know me now. The owner asked if I was a chef, so that was a complement. I buy lots of stuff there. This week I did not need any potatoes. Besides that I got plenty. I finished up sorting my clothes out. I took a few things to a clothing drop off. I have to figure out what I am doing with a few more items. Some of my eBay listings have sold, but most have no bids.

I saw some of my wife's friends that had not seen me in a while, they were pretty amazed with the weight loss. I think my wife was pretty proud also. She told me not to get a big head. She also told me not to get too skinny.

I am going to change my treadmill program to 30 minutes, but increase the intensity. If I feel like doing an hour, I can just do it twice. I also want to try just walking outside. It feels odd to not have done it in the last two days. I am also going to stop checking BS and weight in the morning, I will do it just on Friday mornings. I want to be a little less obsessive about the numbers.

[JohnLarson]

B: 1/2c oatmeal w/banana
L: salad, roasted potatoes, leftover green beans with onions and mushrooms
S: three buffalo wings, ranch dip, celery
S: apple

E: 1h treadmill (2 x 30min), dumbbells

Back to drinking lots of water. I forget sometimes. The weekend is over, no more meat snacks until I am under 200. My celebration of no longer being obese is over.

I might do another 30min session on the treadmill during the late game. I had not done the treadmill since Thursday. The 30min sessions were pretty intense, lots of inclining. I might start doing 30min in the morning and 30min in the evening.

I might start checking my sugar in the morning, my wife likes to know the number. I am pretty sure I will be under 125 from here on out. I will post my results. I put all my meds in a bag and put them in storage. My next appointment with my doctor is in April. They will do blood work again then. I should know by Tuesday my results of my blood work from Friday. My A1C was 10.5 in September, I am sure it has dropped a bit. The VA knows I am not taking my meds and has me listed as non-compliant. They also know I have lost over 50lbs since April, that I am exercising and changed my diet. The nurse has seen people lose weight and become non-diabetic. I feel I have as much support from my clinic team as possible from the VA. I sometimes day dream about being at my goal by my next appointment in April. I am sure that will be hard as I am sure things get harder about now. I do expect to reach my goal by August of next year. That will be a year. I just need to do what is in front of me and not worry about dates and numbers.

[~Beth~]

Where in the world did you get buffalo wings? Were they leftover from Texas Roadhouse?
I love buffalo wings, the hotter the better. But no more

It will sure be interesting to see if your A1C has come down. I would imagine it has come down a lot

[peasouper]

Hi John

Nice up to date picture! You are doing so well, keep up the good work. I am looking forward to your bloodwork results.

Best wishes Sue

[JohnLarson]

~Beth~ I made the wings for football. Most Sundays I am making something. These were plenty hot. Everyone enjoyed them and were surprised I had some. Tonight I grilled hot dogs at work for the midnight release of a video game. I did not eat any. I still like to grill and cook for friends. If I had not have such a great week before, I would have not ate the wings (or the steak and fried pickles on Friday).

peasouper Thanks, I am getting more people noticing the changes. I think I will get the results tomorrow, anything with an A1C below 10.5 will be good.

-------

BS: 85 (Yep)

B: 1/2c oatmeal w/banana
D: Salad, bean tacos on low fat flour tortillas
S: granola bar
S: apple

E: 30min treadmill

The 30min treadmill was good. I worked up a sweat. I think I will keep up with that. It was a good day.