No Thank You

Whoops, haven't updated in a bit!

Last week, I spent the entire week on vacation. Actually, when you're trying to be careful and aware of your healthy eating habits, that should be ON VACATION. It's a treacherous and danger-filled situation, and one that I've historically not had the best of luck in coming out victorious in the past. For me, being On Vacation means a complete break from routine; it's good for my mind, but not for my eating habits. It means eating out almost exclusively, and it's my personality as a wannabe foodie (you have no idea how much Food Network I watch) to plunge in head first when the food is good and high-quality.

I still did that, to an extent, but I think I made some better choices than before. Maybe not necessarily the best choices available, but better. More importantly, I was in constant use of three important words:

"No, thank you."

You see, when I was a kid, I was the family Mikey. The one who ate the leftovers or what other people weren't having. Mikeys get a lot more food than they mean to, and when your family has one, the rest of the family gets into the habit of having one. So when I go out to dinner with my family, those old habits come up-- food comes in front of me, is offered to me, is brought home and my old habits respond in kind.

But this time, I put up a fight.

"No, thank you."

As much as I wanted that extra helping of fried calamari, or would have been happy to split that dessert, I stood my ground, at least for the most part. Maybe I wasn't exactly the Immovable Object, but did better than before, and when it comes to long-term changes, any progress is triumph.

I don't begrudge my family their old habits. I was polite and cheerful in my refusals, and I made it about how I was full, or I was choosing to stop eating. I'm sure that eventually, their habits will change to match mine. We all just need time and practice.

Weigh-in is tonight, and I know I've gained some, but I know it's not as much as it could have been, and I accept that.

Mmmm, carbs

Bless you, Western Bagel.

Your mysterious formulae make it possible for carb-lovers such as myself to partake of starchy goodness without fear of Point overload.

This post inspired by the Indian feast I was able to prepare last night, with extra-lean turkey breast, tikka masala sauce, brown rice and Alternative Pitas standing in for naan. Yummy.

Look for those options, people.

Minefields

Just finished tracking my Points from yesterday. Since my wife had to be out in the evening, the roommate and I decided to go for the Guy Thing and order in some wings. I will say I exercised more restraint than I used to when I ordered delivery wings back in college, but the final tally was pretty serious. Three days into my week, and I've got less than half my Points allowance left.

It's definitely one of my challenge times: opportunities to have food that I don't often have, like the Filipino breakfast from Saturday. There's a strong tendency to go overboard on it, which I suppose is human, but not the best way to go, obviously.

I guess the moral of the story is 1) try to keep the "every now and then" indulgences to just one instance a week or so and 2) to never leave the boys at home alone. :)

Hence the title

It's interesting that I'm starting a food and weight-loss related blog right now. The one thing I was looking forward to this weekend was making a "traditional Filipino breakfast", an urge brought on by my roommate's purchasing of real eggs rather than egg substitute. Also, starting a week from today, my wife and son and I will be visiting by parents on the East Coast, and you all know what vacations mean.

My wife says this blog will be a good way to keep me honest while we're away. I hope she's right.

Especially because I did indeed make that breakfast, and I'm already one Point over for the day. Ha.

Anyway, the reason I mention that is because of a philosophy I've come to embrace (perhaps a little too fondly) from Weight Watchers: the program isn't a diet, it's a lifestyle. When you mess up on a diet, it's a failure. When you don't maintain your lifestyle for one instance, it's okay-- you've got the whole rest of your life to maintain. Basically, days like this when I have one meal-- a meal I haven't had in ages, and that makes me feel good simply by association-- that nukes my day's worth of Points? Is just a part of life, every now and then.

A beginning is a delicate thing

That was Dune. Maybe some Babylon 5, too: "And so it begins..."?

Neither one's really that accurate, I guess, since I've been on this particular leg of my journey since 2005, but it is the first post in a blog, and you kind of have to do that sort of thing. I'm Eric, and in October, 2005, which was two months after the birth of my son, I weighed 249 pounds, a new high(low?) for me. With a good friend extolling the benefits of Weight Watchers to me and my lovely wife, we joined up.

I was unlike most of my meeting-mates. I had not previously attempted dozens of diets (just shakes and "metabolism" pills) and... I'm a guy. But between great results those first few weeks and liking my Leader, I stuck to the program. As happens, things went really well for a while. My wife hit Goal and earned Lifetime Membership within about a year and a half, having about 60 some-odd pounds to remove. My goal was a lot further off, since I'd be basically trying to shed a whole extra me that I'd started carrying around since fourth grade.

The first 50 pounds dropped in about a year. Since then, I've been stuck at a plateau. In September 2007, I recorded my best showing and since then have been hovering right around 200.

So, I'm hoping to do what I can to shake things up and rejuvenate my motivation. In this blog, I'll keep track of how I'm doing and what I'm doing about it, my thoughts on food and weight loss as well as health and exercise... and other things that might sneak into my posts. I want this to work.

Now for the traditional stats.

Height: 5'7"
Starting weight: 249.0 pounds (October 7, 2005)
Low weight: 188.4 pounds (September 28, 2007)
Current weight: 202.6 pounds (April 10, 2009)
Goal weight: 145.0 pounds (yup, trust me-- that's right in the middle of pretty much every range I could find)

And the traditional pictures. Oooh, this won't be fun.

"Before"

"During"

So there's the introduction. Wish me luck, world.