Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Healthy Eating....and Stuff

So far the hardest thing about losing weight is the eating healthy part. I can make it to the gym 5 days a week no problems (I actually enjoy going most of the time). I can even eat under my calorie count with little trouble. So why do I have so many problems with eating a healthy meals? I've never had much of a problem with eating snack foods (with the exception of ice cream...man I do love me some ice cream). My problem is eating too much of the bad foods, like fried stuff, red meat, pastas and starches like potatoes. Now, I have pretty much cut out fried foods, but I'm still not doing good with the other stuff and I know you can't out train your diet. So my question is....

How does one make healthy eating a habit when bad eating has been part of their whole life?


I'm afraid my eating habits are killing my progress. The problem is I don't know how to cook healthy. Don't get me wrong, I love to cook and I think i am pretty decent at it, but I have no idea how to do it healthy. Walking around the store I can come up with a dozen different recipes in my head for dinner I shouldn't be eating, but when I try to do that with stuff that is good for me I can't come up with one.

I realize I should plan my dinners beforehand, but when it comes to dinner it's hard. With breakfast and lunch I am pretty much on my own, but for dinner I need to come up with stuff that both myself and my girlfriend like.

Am I just being lazy, should eating better be easier? What are some of the problems that everyone else has had to overcome in terms of eating better and how did you do it? We are all in this because we are/were overweight. So that means for some time we were all making bad eating choices. How did you break the habit?

Well, I am off to the gym. We finally have a nice day here where you don't melt when going outside, so I think I am going to take advantage of it. 

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Almond Milk...and Stuff

So last night I bought some Almond milk. Yes, yes, I Vinny of the high fat double cheeseburger mashed taters double everything diet, bought a milk substitute product that I had never heard of until sometime last week. 

I saw a few of my fellow bloggers talking about it on Twitter (@Tidbits_of_Tara and @HalfOfJess) and was very curious after hearing how good they thought it was. I figured I could at least give this a try and if I didn't like it I would blame it on peer pressure and give a stern finger waggle to Tara and Jess. So like I said, last night I decided to give it a try and bought some. This is what I bought:


This morning (actually 5 minutes ago) I finally got up enough courage to actually try it. Now due to my lack of bravery of trying healthy stuff, this was a process. I took it out of the fridge when it was nicely chilled and shook it per instructions. I also read on the label that it must be used within 7-10 days after opening BUT if I did not open it, I had until March of next year to get up the courage to try it.


After briefly considering the March of 2011 option, I stared at the carton for a few more minutes and shook it again. Then the phone rang (reprieve...whew), then I came back to the bottle and shook it again. I looked at the bottle some more and decided it was a good time to give my dog water (I kid you not....I am a freak). After getting him water, I shook the carton again (this thing is well mixed by now I am sure) and I got out a small glass. I considered using a shot glass for this obviously major experiment, but decided against it seeing as that might be breaking some kind of alcohol rule and I do not wish to answer to those gods. Finally, I opened the top, pulled the tab off and started the 7-10 day clock (Pressure!). I poured me a little bit....and I mean a little bit, smelled it a few dozen times and rolled it around the glass like I was about to drink a fine wine. The smell was ok, there was a hint of almond and it looked like milk.

The time had come to try this nutty concoction. I slowly put the glass to my lips and sipped. Well....it was a bit nutty in flavor, sweet, but not too sweet, it was cold and......

it was good!

I was surprised. This is something I will most certainly buy again and I will be trying it as a substitute for milk in my fruit smoothies and protein shakes. I definitely recommend this to anyone who wants a tasty alternative to milk (only 90 calories and the unsweetened only has 40), and for anyone who is lactose intolerant.  Next time I think I will try the chocolate flavor just for kicks. 

So, thank Tara and Jess. There will be no finger wagging at you for this tip, I am glad I tried it. Now on to Nutella, although I looked at that on the shelf and I was unsure about picking it up. 

Next post will about eating healthy and my lack thereof. So stay tuned for my next healthy food experiment. I'm not sure what it will be, but I'm sure it will take me just as long to try as this Almond milk took.
 


Monday, June 21, 2010

Awards and Stuff

WOW, this is cool. I get back to my blog after a long week away and find out I was nominated for a blog award.....SUPER COOL! I was nominated by Patrick over at Responsibility 199. It's the Beautiful Blogger award and I'm not really sure I deserve it, but I will take it none the less.


There are some rules to this award and they are as follows:

Rule 1. When you receive/accept this award you must then pass the award on to 7 other bloggers you consider to be beautiful bloggers. Ok here you go...I bestow this award on to those whom which I consider interesting blogs: (There are more but 7 is the max here and most of other have this award already)
 
Molly over at  Fluffy Girl and her Twitter name is MollyMFNitka
Jess over at Half Of Jess and her Twitter name is HalfofJess
Chris over at Fuck You Cookie
Dave over at Roly Poly Boy
Josie over at 35 and Shrinking
Newcomer Emily over at EmilyFIT
Ed over at Monday 315

Ok, I checked those sites and I don't think you have the award, if you do, sorry :p

Rule 2. You have to list 7 things about yourself that others did not know.

1. I was Born and raised in Rhode Island but now live in Missouri.
2. I suffer from psoriasis which leads me to not wearing shorts due to all the stares and questions. 
3. One of my biggest dreams is get a a chance to fly in a fighter jet. So I figure I have to lose weight, and get famous or rich.
4. I am a tech addict. I love gadgets and love reading about all things tech.
5. I have a fear of spiders :p
6. While driving, I miss turns all the time and have to turn around. My girlfriend has affectionately dubbed them Vinny Loops.
7. I would love to visit the upper West coast...ie, Washington, Oregon.

Well, there you have it. Thanks again for the award Patrick and I hope to be able to live up to it.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Last Week in Review

Wow....last week was disastrous as far as my weight loss/running/gym/health goes. I jumped on the scale this morning just to see how bad last week really was and POW.....307 lbs! That's a 4 pound gain. In a week where I was supposed to be getting out of the 300's and setting up this week to be a push to my next goal of 260, I failed and now have to get 7 pounds off this week. I know I know...I said I was not going to look at the scale for a while, but I just needed to see just how bad this week was.

How did the week end up like this? Well, what it boils down to is many bad choices and some mental breakdown as far as my journey goes, but I will take you through the week anyway.

Starting last weekend (4th) we had a friend come into town for a visit and she was staying with us for a week (leaving tomorrow). I will make a long story short and say this made for a bunch of eating out and a very lazy week as far as the gym goes (I went twice). I made a bunch of bad eating choices while eating out and just kept making excuses as to why it was OK.  As for not going to the gym? Oh I had excuses or that too. I'm sure you have heard them all. I was too tired, it was too late, it was too hot, I didn't feel good...blah blah blah blah blah. I had them all lined up, it was like I was shooting a automatic excuse gun at my weight loss goals. I had let myself slip back to my old self and was actually trying to convince myself it was OK. Really Vin...is it really OK? I had also slipped on keeping up with my blog, my calorie counting, reading up on the other blogs. You name it and if it involved sabotaging this journey, I did it. I can deal with slipping up for a meal or even a day, hell I know there will be hiccups. But this whole week thing....CAN'T HAPPEN AGAIN. Seriously, if you see this kick me out of it! Actually a couple of you tried to poke me a bit and I will thank you for that later in this post, but seriously, I'm not kidding, call me, e-mail, if you are close enough, literally kick me if you see this behavior rising again. 

So today, I got out of bed and immediately started catching up on my blog roll. You know, the people I told you to read up on because I feel they are filled with awesome and will motivate you if you give them a chance? Yeah...those people. After doing that, I started writing this. After this I am heading to the gym. After that....well, after that I don't know what I am doing but it won't involve sabotaging this journey I can tell you that.

I also wanted to thank a few peeps for trying to poke me a bit during this week. It means a lot that they keep up on my blog and notice when I don't post. Really, I do appreciate it a bunch. Also, I am not kidding when I say to follow these people and what they write. Like I said via Twitter this past week...some of them will make you laugh, some of them will make you think, but ALL of them will make you smile. They are truly worth reading up on.

In no particular order, thanks to:

Molly over at  Fluffy Girl and her Twitter name is MollyMFNitka
Jess over at Half Of Jess and her Twitter name is HalfofJess
Tara over at 263 and counting and her Twitter name is Tidbits_of_Tara
Patrick over at Responsibility 199 , I'm not sure if you use Twitter Patrick, so if you do let me know.

Thanks again for keeping tabs on me. I didn't listen like I should have but it's nice to know that someone does care to read this boring stuff I put out there. :p

Back on the wagon.....

Thursday, June 3, 2010

My first Weekend Warrior Challenge!

Nice!! My first WWC (Weekend Warrior Challenge) is set and ready to go. This one is hosted by Jeremy over at stellarpath.net. Basically you come up with 3 goals for your weekend and try to hit them. If you want to know more and sign up for the challenge, head on over to Stellarpath.net and check it out.

Here are my goals:

1. To drink 1 gallon of water each day to stay hydrated. For some reason this is tough for me. I drink water almost exclusively, but I still find it hard to get my gallon in. I will do it everyday this weekend.
2. I am going to a Renaissance Faire this weekend and the food and drink around there will be plentiful. My goal here is stay within my daily calorie allowance of 2300 calories.
3. I usually slack off on the weekend with the gym after hitting it everyday during the week. This weekend I will go the gym at least 1 hour everyday.

I'll let you all know on Monday how I did. Until then enjoy your weekend.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Champion of the Universe Contest/Results

So today was the Champion of the Universe contest that Molly over at Molly-fluffygirl.com challenged everyone too. Basically you had to burn as many calories as you could today while working out and then post a picture of it on your blog.

Well, I am not sure how I am going to do against everyone but here are my results:



Now I worked out pretty damn hard for about a hour and 15 minutes and this is all I could muster up. I am assuming I will get my but kicked in this contest because there are some pretty dedicated runners and elliptical nuts in this too, but I gave it my best today with the time I had.

I am looking forward to the next contest so I can become...Champion of the Universe!!!!

HalfofJess's Matrix Guide To Running

I don't have much to say except head on over to Halfofjess.com and read her latest post on running. It has a wonderful Matrix idea to running that you must read...even if you are not a Matrix fan.

Seriously...I wasn't kidding...head on over there now, you have to read this. HalfofJess.com

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Monthly Official Measure-In

It has been a long month. A month of ups and downs as far as my weight, but also a month of great progress as far as exercising goes. I started off the month still worried about the scale and ended with not worrying about it at all. I also went into this month not watching calories and ended the month tracking them all.  I went from walking 100% of the time to running part of the time.

After a long month today is the day I weigh in and measure in. I am doing this once a month, not weekly not daily. Will doing it like this work? I don't know, but I am trying it anyway for a few months to see how it  goes.                                       
So without further ado, here are my results.
 At the beginning of  May I weighed 314 pounds. Today I weighed in 303 pounds - 11 pounds lost in May! Almost out of the 300's.

I am also proud to say I lost inches in all areas...except 1.

I lost:
1/4 inch in my neck
1 inch in my stomach
1 1/4 inches in my waist
1/2 inch in my thighs
Somehow I gained 1/4 inch in my chest but we will blame that on working with weights LOL.

I found a LBM (lean body mass) calculator online and got my results from that also.

My LBM is - 40% with 121 pounds of that being body fat and 186 pounds of LBM. Awful results but I will work really hard on improving that by next month.


So there you have it...my results for the month. Not great, but I am happy with them.  I am also looking into buying a fat caliber to better measure my fat loss.

How did you end your month?

Holiday Weekend

Holiday weekend + great food + Keeping my eye on the prize = 4 pounds lost!!!

Today is also the day I do my official "measure-in". I will post the results later today. I am so hoping for good results. My pants are hinting at some lost inches...we'll see if they are right.