After the diet

Quick entry.  On the last day, I broke the diet....hard.  Since then, I've been on a bit of a binge.  KFC, MacDonald's, etc... On Friday, I easily had about 3,000 calories.  McDonalds "Big Breakfast", A club sandwich with chips and soda for lunch, and Subway sub for dinner.  Hopefully, I can get back on track on Monday.  I managed to end the school year with nothing but compliments about my weightloss, and now, I'm inching back up in the weight gaining dept. 

In fact, I think I'm going for my morning run.  Even though it is almost midday, and we are in a bit of a heatwave, I need to get out of this chair.  It would be nice to do an hour, but I will have to settle for my regular 30 minute.  Starting on Monday, I'm going to have to really get my act together.  I don't want to return to work having regained all the weight that I've lost. 

I also need to go pay my bills.  AT&T has cut off my service for a 15 day late bill.  Unfortunately, I've grown accustomed to having a smart phone.  My diet program, Foursquare, and other social networking apps, are on my phone and tablet.  Strange -- in a good way, I haven't been obsessing about the lack of mobile connection.  I miss the programs, but I having been going stir-crazy, nor have I been motivated to get off my rearend to go pay the bill.  I guess in a strange way, that is a good thing. 

Time to go do my run.  I'll try to post an entry this evening about whether or not I did the run.

Normally, I power down and turn off my desktop computer, but having the speed and convenience of a smartphone, I don't feel like waiting the 7 or 8 minutes for my desktop to turn on, so I'm going to put it in sleep mode. 

Time to run and see if I can loss at least one pound.

To be continued...

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back...

Quick update.  Once again the title says it all.  Thursday morning started off rainy, but I didn't let that stop me.  I rode my stationary bike to keep up my daily morning exercising routine.  Unfortunately, I've had a couple of setbacks in the dieting department.  The day before,  I had a spaghetti dinner with a 5 piece chicken tender appetizer (with BBQ dipping sauce).  Friday evening I went to a retirement party for a couple of colleagues who will be retiring this year.  I ordered a baby back ribs and chicken combo plate (with a large piece of chocolate cake).  After returning home, I fell asleep on the couch and now I'm up at 2am.  Old habits die hard.  So far I haven't missed a morning of exercising since I started at the beginning of this month.  I'm about to head off to bed, and see if I have the strength to run in the morning.  If I do the run, I want to move up to a modification of Stage 9 (walk for 3 minutes/run for 12 minutes and repeat).  If I can keep up with the running routine, I should be able to run for a solid 30 minutes by next weekend.

 Later on today, I will be attending a social networking event that I planned.  The event is to see the Broadway show "Wicked" and see "X-men: First Class" afterwards.  Unfortunately, no one signed up, so I will be seeing the shows alone.

Quick Update

Quick update.  Yesterday, I didn't do too well with my calorie consumption.  I did better, but still over my maximum daily goal.  Yesterday I had a total of 1,790cal.

Today was a bit better.  I told myself that I had to stop eating with my old habits of trying to fill up the belly.  Results?

7am - 200cal. Quaker Instant Grits
11am - 70cal. V8
12pm - 200cal. Campbell's low sodium Chicken Noodle Soup
7pm - 730cal. Healthy Choice Steamer (Spicy Chicken), Minute Rice(cup), & Stonyfield smoothie.
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Total = 1,100 calories

I am also still sticking with the running.  I am currently at the 9 minute run / 3 minute walk (repeated 3x).  Oh, and today, I saw a young deer walk onto the sport's field as I did my running.  It keep an eye on me as I ran around the perimeter of the field, but it didn't run away. 

Now, I'm going to head to bed. 

Summer vacation is almost here.  Yippee!!!

The attached photo was taken off of the internet.  However the deer I saw was very similar. 

The End

This blog entry will be short.  The title says it all.  I knew it.  Once I had the taste of food, the liquid diet was history.  Today, I decided to end the liquid diet.  I was dying for something hot, greasy, and fattening.  KFC was calling. Once the idea popped into my head, I couldn't get it out.  For dinner, I had a KFC dinner, and needless to say, I went over my daily calorie limit.  Below are the damages:

1, 440cal. - 2pc. chicken dinner (leg and thigh with a biscut)
570cal. - mashed potatoes with gravy (less than1cup)
640cal. - Cole Slaw (also about less than a cup)
80cal. - Green Beans
250cal. - Soda (about 16oz.)
300cal. - Welch's Grape Juice (about 16oz. [I was still thirsty])
-----------
Dinner came to about 3,280cal. alone

Today I also had an imitation (store brand) Ensure and a V8
250cal. ShopRite Energy Drink (8oz.)
70cal. - V8 (11.5oz.)
-----------

Total Calories consumed today (assuming I don't eat or drink anymore tonight) is
3,600cal.

So, what is the next step now?

The liquid diet is dead for now.  I will still stick with "being on a diet".  My goal now is to count calories and grams of sugar.  I will try to stick with the calorie numbers I've been working with while one the liquid diet.  And barring any injuries, I will of course continue with the morning running.

Relapse

I lost about 14lbs.  I've been keeping up with the running, I'm now at Stage 6 (walking for 3 minutes, running for 7 minutes, repeating 2x).  As for the liquid diet, I was doing okay until today,  for some reason I couldn't take the liquid anymore.  I had a bit of an eating binge.  For dinner, I had 2 Healthy Choice Dinners, and one Stonyfield smoothie.  In total, I ate about 1,000 today.  I'm a bit disappointed, but not too upset, since I managed to stay within my target daily calorie intake goal.  Hopefully, I will be able to get back on track for the liquid diet.  My plan was to finish this Friday.

Quick Entry

I've slipped into my regular vacation mode(being lazy). Hopefully, I will be able to break out of it. I'm going to try to make this quick.

Playstation 2
On an impulse, I resumed playing with my Playstation. I've been playing "Fantastic Four - Rise of the Silver Surfer" for the last few days. Before this, I hadn't touched my Playstation console in 2 years. The last game saved on it was July 3, 2008.

The Medical Results
Just my luck that the day I had two different doctor's appointment, it rained...hard. My first appointment was for the toenail removal. I arrived soaking wet, in a lobby with the air conditioning cranked up high. So high, the elderly waiting in the waiting area went to stand by the main door.

Anyway, the minute I arrived(on time), I knew I wouldn't make the other appointment on time. I was told that "they were a bit backed up" and I would have to wait. For the 15 minute procedure, I had to wait about an hour. However, once the doctor (podiatrist) arrived, I was very pleased. The doctor was very polite and professional. Although the tools she had looked a bit intimidating, she was very careful. She told me that the whole toenail didn't need to be removed. She told me that a blood blister under the nail was the cause of the toenail growing out of place. She cut down the toenail with what looked like a pair of wire cutters, and used an electric drill to file the nail down. She told me that a new nail will grow in about 9 months, but I shouldn't expect it to grow completely normal. She told me to keep the nail area cleaned and rub antibiotic ointment on it. I am scheduled to returned in October for a check up. No pain, and no discomfort. I was very pleased.

The next stop was another clinic in another part of Manhattan. Although this place was further "downtown", the behavior, attitudes, and responses seemed a bit more "Uptown". People skills were sorely lacking. However, there was a quite a bit of loud "chitchat" going on around me. Here (luckily), I didn't have to wait long. I was at this clinic to have an ultrasound taken of my groin area. I was attended to by a medical technician or a nurse, (either or, the woman lacked people skills). I was out in about 15 minutes.

My Diet
Since my doctor told me that I needed to "added a bit more protein and carbohydrates" to my diet, I fell of the diet wagon. I translated the doctor's statement as, "Your diet's wrong start over". I think I mentioned in a previous blog entry that I was looking for any excuse to stop the diet...and I found it. So, what have I been doing for the last couple of days? I've had a couple of dinners from a buffet-styled takeout restaurant, a meal at MacDonald's, a spaghetti dinner from a local takeout restaurant, fried chicken and beef-fried rice dinner, and a few pints of Hagen Daz ice cream. The plan is to resume the liquid diet (with modifications) on Monday. I also plan to start working out on Monday at the local Y.

Twitter
Today, I reactivated my Twitter account. I don't remember when or why I got it in the first place, but I never really used it. With Tracfone (my old prepaid service), I could use the mobile twitting feature, so I didn't use Twitter at all. Now with AT&T, I can send twits with my cell. I also signed up for a couple of Twitter services. I now have CBS and NY1(a local 24 hour news channel here in NYC). I also added NY1 Weather to my cell phone. I now get weather updates in the form of a twit. I just hope the weather reports are not as annoying as the Notify NYC. I signed up for automated "emergency" reports that was suppose to tell me about important things like school closing due to snow days", but now I get almost daily reports about what seems like every delay and incident that occurs in the 5 New York City boroughs. Today, the report was the temporary suspense of the Path Trains (New Jersey trains that travel to downtown Manhattan).

Well, I think I'm done. I also just finished two pints of ice cream. I will have my work cut out for me when my diet resumes.

Post Date - Friday, July 16, 2010 11:118PM

Health Update

Today I had a walk in appointment at 3:45pm to see my healthcare provider. I went to have a groin check and a toenail check as well. After about an hour and a half waiting time, the nurse called me in to "check my vitals". Summary:
Weight - 224lbs
Blood Pressure - I don't remember, but she said it was borderline high.

Finally, the doctor called me into his office and asked me to explain my problem. After checking the groin area (and asking for the cough), he told me that I probably didn't have a hernia. But when I told him that there were times when I had a soreness in the area, he told me that I might have pulled (or strained) a muscle there. He also said that the discomfort was probably due to me lifting heaving items -- I suppose he meant like moving a classroom for summer storage. He told me that he would refer me for a sonogram just to make sure there was no damage in the area.

For my toenail, the doctor told me that my nail was growing in crooked and it would have to be removed. Both procedures were able to be scheduled for tomorrow, so I was feeling very happy.

Then, I decided to take Paperback's advice (a fellow blogger)and mention my liquid diet. He mentioned that I should be eating something solid like fish or a slice of wheat bread for protein and carbohydrates. However, I only heard the liquid diet is wrong, stop it. So, I went out and bought a dinner from a buffet-type restaurant along with a caramel, walnut, and chocolate topped brownie. I think I mentioned in a previous blog about looking for any and I many any excuse to break the liquid diet. Well, I found on. Sorry to say, I was really getting annoyed with people eating around me.

So what now? (in terms of the diet), I will of course try again (hopefully sooner rather than later). Considering, I actually weigh 224lbs. For the last couple of months I was under the impression that I only weighed 200lbs. Although, I didn't like the taste of the vegetable juices, nor did I like the hungry feeling I have day after day, nor did I like the annoyed feeling I have walking past people eating. I do have to be honest, I did like the simplicity of the only liquid diet. Before the diet, I would (very easily) rationalize myself into eating unhealthy foods:

"I'll only eat small portions..."
"I'll only eat some of the bad foods..."
"I'll start tomorrow..."
"I'll eat some vegetables with..." Etc...

Even though I didn't have a scale, I could see that I was losing some weight. I'll have to modify my liquid diet. But, my new diet will have to be just as simple as the "liquid only diet". For all the things I didn't like about the liquid diet, I did like the structure. I also liked the idea that I could stuff myself with all the fruit I wanted -- vegetables too, but let's be real, how many people like myself raised on sugar, salt, and greasy foods, really what to stuff their faces with vegetables.

I think I've lost another epal. My new epal wasn't too happy with the liquid diet I was on. He kept wanting me to eat some fast foods with him. After I told new epal that I fell off the wagon, but I still didn't want to go out for a ravioli dinner. I got the impression that he was no happy.

Well, gotta go. Doctor's appointment tomorrow (later today actually).

About the picture. Since I didn't have a photo for this blog entry, I found the attached photo using a toenail+cartoon search.

Post Date - Tuesday, July 13, 201012:39AM

Movie Day

Today my social networking event was a bit of a bust...as usual. The one person who said that he would come was a no show.

The event was to see the movie "The Last Airbender". I was surprised. The critics didn't seem to like the movie, but I was sure I was going to love this movie. Unfortunately, I wasn't too impressed with the movie. It was okay, and visually very nice, but for a sci-fi lover, I kept wanting to look at my watch wondering when the movie would end. The movie seemed a bit sloppy with gaps in the plot (and in character motivations as well). I found the older brother annoying. I also thought there was waaay too much arm flapping and rotating. I could go into more negatives, but I'll just end my review here.

After the movie, I sat in the park for a while. This diet was really doing a number in my willpower. Both in the movie and out, I found myself feeling annoyed at those people eating near me. I started thinking about getting a milkshake since it was a liquid. Luckily, I didn't. Well, the 7 days is just about up. The original plan was to have a strictly liquid diet for the first week, and then modify the diet (see previous entry). I should have been exercising, I would have seen better results. However, I need to wait for my doctor's appointment. Hopefully, my doctor will tell me it was nothing, and I'll be free to work out.

Quick Entry

I have a to try to keep this short. One, I'm tired. Two, I have a social networking event tomorrow morning. We will be seeing the Last Airbender.

Today, I started the day with washing my fruits and vegetables. I forgot to mention in my previous blog entry that the fruit and/or vegetables need to be dried before using the juicing machine. The excess water on the f/v seems to add to the pulp, but not the juice.

I experimented with the using a red bell pepper; I liked the kick it gave the juice. The juice still tasted awful, but the red bell pepper help a lot.

After a midday nap, I went out to pay my bills, and then visited my foster father. The difficulty I encountered was stepping out while on a diet. WOW!!! I couldn't take 3 steps without food (in one form or another in my face). I was so annoyed at those around me eating. I can't count how many times I wanted to have a slice of pizza, or stop in the many fast food places I walked passed.

I returned home and managed to do my laundry. I also started reading "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum. Originally, I bought the book because I was interested in reading the sequels written. However, after reading 2 or 3 chapters of the original "Oz" book, I got bored. I'm really not a literary person, but I found the story a bit too repetitively simplistic. Instead, I started reading "The Sea of Monsters"(book 2 in the series) by Rick Riordan.

The photo is a picture of my fruits and vegetables.

Post Date - Saturday, July 10, 2010 11:42PM

Health Update

Today was one of my less than productive days. This morning after checking my email (and blog comments), Jeff (one of the blog readers) mentioned that the pain I've been having in my groin area might be the start of a hernia. After checking a couple of medical websites, I started to stress out (something I do very easily). I finally called my health care provider. The earliest slot was a Monday "walk in" appointment. The next step was for me to cancel my rowing lessons. I was prepared to "try it" and see what happens, but with the idea of a hernia operation (involving surgery) firmly planted in my head, I was in no mood to risk any physical activity. I cancelled because I would be missing the first lesson and with a waiting list, I didn't want to hold a spot that someone else could use. I can always sign up at another time. Anyway, after cancelling the lessons, I was a bit depressed, so I didn't do much else for the rest of the day except watch a few YouTube videos, clips, and slept the day away. I finally got out of bed about 4pm.

I was hungry having not eaten anything all day. I only had a cup of water and a vitamin. The problem was that I didn't have much in the way of fruit. I've been able to fill up on fruit, but not the vegetables. I'm going to have to moderate my fruits much better. I went through about $40 dollars worth of fruit in a couple of days. I have a big appetite and I would usually have a full plate of food. Now on this liquid diet, I've been trying to fill up a stomach that is very, very used to being very full. the other problem is that the vegetables are not really tasty. My so-called liquid diet has been a bit out of balance with me consuming much, much more fruits Not even a little. Spending decades on sugary, fried, salty, and greasy foods, it will be a while before I can tolerate a vegetable drink. Today, with 3 apples and a handful of spinach made the drink somewhat tolerable, unfortunately, it only produced about 8 oz of juice.

Dietary Changes
I'm adding whole fruits to my diet(as in eating not just juicing them). Considering I haven't been totally on a liquid diet this week. I cheated with eating grapes, peaches, pineapples, and raisins, so the "addition" isn't a big change. Next week, I'm adding oatmeal and cream of wheat to my diet. I will continue with drinking ENSURE to fill up, but I will have to drink much less. I went through a couple of six-packs in two days. I also need to add plain tea to the diet. I should have been drinking tea (as part of the liquid diet), but I got lazy with boiling water. I will dust off my double-insulated thermos -- I might have mentioned it in a previous blog entry (months, or years ago). With the double-insulated thermos, I only need to boil water once, and it will keep it pipping hot for about 6 hours (and keeps cold drinks ice cold for 12 hours). It also has a convenient pump on the top.

I think that's about it. Below is a slideshow I made of the photos of my juicing machine. I don't know if I gave a review of the machine, but if I didn't here it is:

I really like the machine. I like the idea that I can get a good dose of vegetables on a daily basis (something I haven't really been doing). I also like that the machine is relatively quiet. The blender is much, much noisier. The cleanup of the juicer is fairly easy. I originally timed the cleanup of the juice at about 16 minutes. Today, the time was closer to 12 minutes. The half of the time clean comes from cleaning the shredding/strainer disk. The cheap brush provided really isn't doing the greatest job. I'll probably have to use one of my extra toothbrushes to clean the shredding/straining disk. Oh, I noticed that the juicer really should be clean soon after using. Today, I wanted to go to the store. I was smart enough to leave the shredding/straining disk soaking, but leaving the machine with the pulp in cause condensation of the pulp juice into the area under the pulp-collection basket and spinner. I think the juicer is fairly easy to clean if you don't let the food sit in it too long. I can see it becoming a nightmare to clean if the food hardens and dries out.



Post Date - Saturday, July 10, 2010. 1:08AM

This and That

A New Diet
Starting tomorrow (I hope), I will be starting a new diet. I'm going to try a liquid diet. Originally, I saw a news report about a liquid diet. When I visited the site, they had a 3 day diet plan that cost $58 per day. I actually considered it, but considering my financial situation at the moment (college, credit cards, etc...), I changed my mind. I decided to buy a juicer, and try making my own juices. The plan is to try 3 ~ 7 days of a liquid diet. I also joined up for 8 lessons in rowing. I also have my unused membership to the local YMCA (due to expire in November).

Reading
I recently finished reading, "Star Trek Voyager - Unworthy". I'm not sure what novel I'll start with for my summer reading. Over the past few months of feeling a bit stressed, I'm been buying and collecting books, but not reading them. On my bookshelf at the moment are the following possible choices for my summer reading:

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
2 of 3 books from the boxset of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson & the Olympians
Book 2 - The Sea of Monsters
Book 3 - The Titan's Curse
2 of 3 books from the second boxset of Terry Goodkind's "Sword of Truth"
Book 5 - Soul of The Fire
Book 6 - Faith of the Fallen
Book Five of The Age of Fire "Dragon Rule E. E. Knight
Legends of the Dragonrealm by Richard A. Knaak
Into A Dark Realm by Raymond E. Feist
Ananzi Boys by Neil Gaiman
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

Recent comic book purchases:
Incredible Hulk #610
Hulk #23 "Who is the Red Hulk?"
Brightest Day #2 "Dead Sea King"
Brightest Day #3 "Why Have They Returned?"
Brightest Day - Green Lantern Corps #49
Amazing Spider-man #621
The Invincible Iron-Man #27
Avengers #2
Fantastic Four #580

Jigsaw Puzzles
I keep saying I would try to complete one, but I have yet to try. I just had a thought of modifying my social networking group to include jigsaw puzzles. I have this felt roll that would let me transport incomplete jigsaw puzzles.

Social Networking
I will be trying to plan activities during this summer that will force me to learn to socialize more and try meeting new people.

Well, I think that is about it for now.

Bill Paying Day

Wednesday, July 9th
Bill Paying Day. Today I should have been cleaning my apartment, but instead I went bill paying and shopping.

I showered and was out the door about 12:30p.m. I took the MN train to Yonkers to go to the bank. My plan was to pay some of my monthly bills. Since they only take cash, I had to get the cash out of my bank account. If I had waited until I got to the check cashing place, then I would have had to take cash out of the ATM machine and have to pay an ATM fee. First bills were gas and telephone, then credit card, and finally Target charge card. Since my bill due dates were today and tomorrow, I need to pay in person so that I would not be charged a late fee.

I took the MN train back home. Then decided that I would go shopping for a few items. Since it was nice out, I decided to walk to the supermarket. About a 25 minute walk. I ended up buying fresh fruit and fresh vegetables. Now, my plan is to try eating a vegetable salad at least a couple of times per day. I also bought a salad spray to hopefully make eating the vegetables easier to eat. After I finished shopping, it started to rain. I waited out the rain, then decided to walk back home, instead of taking the MN train.

So, I ended up spending about $112 in healthy foods. So, when will I start my healthy eating diet and exercising.

Tomorrow. Today, I had an order of fried chicken wings and beef fried rice from a local Chinese Take-out.


Post Date - Monday, July 28, 2008 12:45PM
Completion Date - Wednesday, July 9, 2008 11:17PM