Decorating!

Audrey and I are finally putting stuff up on our walls.  Our house might slowly become a home.  We have designs to basically cover all the walls with cool stuff and photos of friends and family.  We have a few photos up now, and some random cool stuff, but there is still sooo much wall left.  We have some photos already in mind, and later this month I'll get a painting from my Grandma to frame and hang, but if anyone has some suggestions of either cool stuff or photos, let me know!

We also want to get some shadow boxes to throw up some various cool things that can't be hung normally.  What those are, I have no idea, but I think Audrey has some plans.  We're slowly making this place what we want it to be, and I'm excited to get it there.  I'm also trying to convince Audrey to let me get a small compressor and nailer so I can build some things.  Like, I would like to make both a coffee table and a dining table.  And whatever other cool things I can come up with.

I don't have any pictures of it right now, but our yard is slowly coming around.  Audrey's dad is working for a landscaping company, and on fathers day he brought his big weed spraying rig over and sprayed all over the front yard, and all the weeds int he back yard.  So now all the weeds are dead and dying, we just need to pull 'em out now.  With any luck, his secret concoction will keep new weeds from popping up.  They also helped us gather up all the stray bits of garbage and wood that has been tossed around our yard thanks to the dogs and the wind so our backyard is looking much better than it has in awhile.


Aside from that, I'm looking forward to Saturdays weigh-in and measurements, things have been going pretty good on that front, so I'm thinking my goal of sub 220 is within reach.

New Progress Post!

No GIF's this week, they take a bit of time to set up, plus I need to make it on the desktop and not the chromebook which is what I'm writing this with right now :)  Sorry that the mirror is a little dirty, I'll clean that up for next week too.  But I digress, I'm down to 223.9 as of this morning.  I'm losing weight a lot slower now, which I guess is to be expected, but is still lame.  I am definitely getting stronger, my workouts although are increasing are getting easier.  I'm really hoping to be sub 220 by next week.  Last week was a pretty good week for food, with one notable exception.  I had a dentist appointment on Wednesday, and I was planning on having lunch after at subway, but after the appointment, I was told I could only eat on one side of my mouth, plus I didn't have much time, so I got some nuggets at Wendy's.  But other than that, I made all good choices.

On the house front, I got the swamp cooler fixed, I had to replace the water line from the spigot to the cooler, also had to fix the bbq, the regulator on the hose was bad, so I had to replace that too.  The floors may get pushed back a little bit.  We have some more dental stuff we both need to do that's probably a bit more important than getting rid of this awful awful carpet.  

Schools out for summer, I think I did well enough for an a-, but we'll see.  

Progress as of 6/20

Alright, so progress thus far.  I'm kind of hanging around the 226-227 range for the better part of 2 weeks, though I think some of that has to do with how crummy last weekend was.  This week went pretty well, no crazy binges.  Did all my workouts, adding an extra circuit to each one, which was alright except for Friday, that was extremely tough, but it all helps so at least there is that.
Wednesday Audrey wasn't feeling well, so I got her a pizza from her new favorite place.  It's thin crust, and held myself to only three slices.  Last night we were hanging out with Audrey's family, and after a more sensible dinner of Chipotle, we went out for ice cream.  I initially wasn't planning on getting any at all, but I thought the cookie ice cream wouldn't be too bad.  Unfortunately, I should have looked it up prior to ordering because when I logged it, it was over 700 calories.  I was still under for the day, but should have stood firm and got nothing.

Pictures this week are in GIF form so it will be easier to see improvements.  I know that the longer I keep this up, I'm going to have to limit how many photos I put in, but for now, here's all of 'em.  I've also set up my spreadsheet and graphs for the measurements, but it will still be a few weeks before I'll post those, as I need more data!  Also, it is clear that I need to do better measuring as there are already a few outliers.  I'm not sure if I mentioned it in a prior post, but I've added in protein shakes to my diet, as I wasn't getting nearly enough in through basic eating.  I'm using optimum nutrition's isolated whey protein from costco, and it's pretty tasty.  Especially since I invested in a cheap blender so I can add in a banana, some peanut butter, and some ice.  Like I said very tasty. 

Progress around this house and getting my bike up and running has stalled somewhat as my speech class is getting more intense and it's getting very hot here making it very difficult to motivate myself to do anything, hopefully that changes soon, at the very least, only one more week left for class!

On the Audrey front, her job sucks more and more all the time, apparently one of her coworkers got fired, and they're not going to replace him.  So more work for everyone, plus is will be unlikely that she will be getting a Saturday off  again anytime soon.  Hopefully we can find her something better soon.

Well, that didn't go well.

So, remember when I said I was going to be good, and eat all the bad stuff we got last weekend sparingly?  Yeah, that didn't happen.  Cookies are gone, pies are gone, most of the fruit is gone.  Also a good portion of the beers Audrey got me are gone, along with a fair bit of wine from Sister M's house is also gone.

The weekend went about how weekends prior to my fitness effort went, lots of food, going out for most meals and a good amount of alcohol.  I did a little better than I used to I suppose.  When we got the Costco pizza to feed us and Audrey's family for lunch yesterday, instead of eating half of the pizza, I had two slices.  Unfortunately I had two more for dinner, along with a package of brussels sprout steamers.  Saturdays sushi went a little better than usual too, but still not awesome.  Had more yakiton than usual, still got my usual gyoza, but I ate probably half as much sushi as I would usually eat and I skipped the desert the all you can eat comes with.  So I'll take the wins where I can from last weekend and learn some lessons too, like my will power is not at the point where I can have so much unhealthy food around me.

Over the weekend Wayne told me my protein intake was very low, so I picked up some protein powder for some shakes.  Had my first one this morning.  It tastes Ok, better than I assumed it would, however, I took it about an hour before my workout this morning, and it made me feel like I was going to be sick the entire time, though that might have something to do with the crappy weekend of eating and drinking I just had, so we'll see how Wednesday goes.

Here's to a better week, and a reasonable weekend!

Whats going on

Our anniversary on Wednesday went well, Audrey got me an assortment of beers to try, and I got her her favorite salted caramels and a mini pie from her favorite bakery.  I had to give my informative speech on Thursday, and it went smoother than I expected.  It was on the benefits of cycling.  I also picked up a chromebook that I dig quite a bit.

It's super easy, very fast, and does everything I want it to.  My only real complaint is the track pad doesn't have buttons, which means if I want to right click something, I have to hold alt then tap the pad.  I've hooked up a wireless mouse to solve that minor annoyance.

Today we had some fun going to a local bakery called the Sugar Bug and picked out some cookies.  These cookies are life changingly good.  Almost makes me want to just be fat and eat cookies all day.

So Good!

I'll be good though and have only one a day.  Next we hit the farmers market and got some good fresh fruit.

Fresh Strawberries and Blackberries!

Rainier Cherries!

Peaches Apricots and Plums!

Also while we were there, Audrey found Levi Pies, which is the bakery that makes the pies she loves, so we got some mini pies too.

Apple, Strawberry Rhubarb, Peach, and Hoosier Daddy

So between all the sweet fruit, cookies, and pies, I'm going to have my work cut out for me in being good this week.  Wish me luck!

For lunch we're finishing up our anniversary celebration with a trip to our favorite sushi place, Hiroba.

Tundra (My Favorite!) and Golden Gate

Haven't had sushi in months!  Which is odd for us since we used to go just about every week.  (which might be part of the reason I'm so fat now :) )

After that, clean the house a little, then onward to Dayton for some boxing and salmon with Sister M.  Going to be a good weekend!

This weeks progress

Another week down, did pretty well except for last night.  I need to learn that going all day without eating leads to bad decisions.  I went into work early yesterday, at noon, and I brought a lunch, but by the time it was time to eat, the 4oz chicken breast and apple sauce cup just wasn't going to cut it, so I went to Wendy's.  Chicken sandwich and double cheeseburger.  It hit the spot, and worked out to be 1300 calories, which isn't bad for a whole day, but still not healthy.  Got all my workouts in, and everything else went well.

Weighed in this morning at 227 on the nose, the weight is coming off, slowly but surely. 

So without further ado, this weeks pictures...

Shorts are a little tight which pops the belly out a little bit, but still gives an idea of where I'm at.  Depending on the pants, 38" waist pants either fit very nice, or just a hair tight, which is better than the 40" pants that were all getting too tight.  I was also stepping into a XXL shirt size and am firmly in the XL right now with dreams of L in there nearish future.  I am feeling pretty good about my progress and future.

50 days and 5 years

Big day today in a few different ways.  First, it's been 50 days since I started eating better and exercising.

Terrible picture...

MyFitnessPal is kind of irritating because it uses your first log in as your starting weight no matter how many years ago that was.  I haven't lost 11 pounds, I've lost 31 pounds.  I definitely feel and look better.  This is easily the longest I've ever done this kind of thing for, and it's starting to feel more like the way it is and not some divergent diet behavior.  Here's hoping for another 50 days and another 30 pounds, though looking at how this one broke down, it will probably take longer than 50 days for the next 30.  The first 20 or so came off very quickly, the last 10, particularly the last 5 was a little more hard fought.  Though since I've been following Wayne's workouts, the decline has picked up a bit again, so that's good.

A few months after we started dating

Even more important than 50 days, is 5 years.  I've been with my beautiful girlfriend now for 5 years today.  I'm really at a loss for words.  I love her very much, she makes me happy, keeps me on track and inspires me to be great.  I can't imagine life without her.  5 years down, 50 to go.  I love you Audrey!

More recent, a couple of months ago

After class today I'm going to pick up her favorite pie and salted caramels.  We're going to go out for sushi, but not till Saturday, since our schedules are so opposite right now during the week.  Today is a good day!