That title is sort of misleading.

Today, I weighed in... and this is what I saw:


It couldn't have made me happier.  Knowing that I have been eating so healthy, I was expecting to continuously drop more weight but I had (previously) stalled.  Now I am showing signs of progress again.   Thank goodness.

How encouraging.

To my joy and surprise, I was down a pound this morning (167.5) when I weighed in.  I wrote last week about how I had plateaued... and it looks like there was some good news in store!

I am continuing my dieting and portion control, and because of my schedule in recent weeks, alcohol has been all but cut out of my diet.

Also, I've sort-of picked up a little bit of the Atkins Diet.  I (by choice) will not give up carbs completely, but I have limited the amount I take in.  It might make me a bad Italian, but I don't even have pasta once a week! (Don't tell Grandpa!)

I hope to see more progress by implementing just a little of Atkins and sticking with my health portion control.  Here's to more loss on the way!

Wow.  That was fast.

It's been a month since my last post.  I told myself I wouldn't constantly be posting... mostly because so much of this journey is about me reestablishing health habits and forming better routines, so many of the posts were going to look the same.

Lucky for me, I've been doing the same thing for about a month now.  Fruits and a small breakfast in the morning (the occasional egg, ham and cheese wrap as a brunch) and a health lunch wrap.  Not too much of any one thing.  Portion control.  I feel better, and way less groggy or slow.  Last week at football I actually ran around, playing offense and defense.  It felt good.

The catch is, I haven't lost anymore weight.  I am right at 168.5 pounds.  The good news is that I've been able to maintain this lower weight.  Now I have to take the next step and do more to lose more pounds.  The working out has to happen more frequently now, and it has to be a mix of cardio and lifting.

The biggest thing for me and figuring all of this out was to really figure out what I can and can't do.  If I was going to try to change my eating habits and my exercise habits all at once... I was going to fail. It would have been too much of a change for me to buy into regardless of how much I want this.  Instead I'm am comfortable with my food choice, from buy the groceries to food preparation.  I've changed my entire "culture of thinking" and now it's time to move on...

...to the the next step. 

I used to look forward to weekends... but in terms of my journey, they are not my friend.

My weekends are often filled with late and less frequent meals, less sleep and usually worse food.  Oh and alcohol.  This was the first weekend that I had some extra free time to really notice the changes I need to make in terms of my weekend routine.

The biggest ones are sleep and beer.  I try not to drink much anymore, I can't afford to and I just don't want to... plus it doesn't help my weight.  But, still come the weekend if I go out with people I'll have a beer in my hand and take my world-famous "ghost sips™"  ...but its still empty calories.  Now, I'll just have to order a water and offer myself up to be DD.

Secondly, sleep sucks.  Going out usually means staying up late and getting up late.  When I'm up late I get hungry and when I get hungry I'm used to eating... especially when you're the one driving everyone to get food after a night out.  I caved and got a single slice of pizza and I complete regret it.  I'll work out extra to make up for that single slice this week... but over all, going without any beer and one item of "bad" food in two weeks I guess I'm doing okay.

Weekends are still rough though...

A little less than a week has gone by and I decided to step on the scale to take a peek.  I was expecting bad things... as last night was Valentine's Day, and my girlfriend surprised me with an amazing, but less-diet friendly meal.  To my surprise, this was my weigh-in.

It was a little shocking.  When I put on all my weight that I had lost two years ago, seeing me dip down past 170 lbs. seemed next to impossible for me.  This is encouraging.

The best part is... again, I've only worked out once this week (unfortunately) because of my work schedule and my complete inability to wake up insanely early.  It's good to know that portion control is working for me and that my metabolism is speeding up and thus I'm losing some weight.  I do know however that this will not last.  I will plateau at some point and I will actually need to include a real workout routine into my life if I want to continue with my progress.

For now, these baby steps feel rewarding.

Whelp.  It has been a week since I started on this slow journey but I've already lost 2 pounds.  I know the body can fluctuate a few pounds a day, but I've consistently weighed in at 170 lbs for the last 2 days.  Throughout the course of the last week I made some very minimal changes... I worked out a few times, but more importantly changed my eating habits.

It's been tough and there were times when I had been hungry. All week long I made some healthier wraps to eat, and I essentially cut out all of the bad foods.  The big thing that I am working on is portion control. I know myself, and I know that I will never be able to completely cut my favorite junk foods out of my life.  I love chicken wings and cookies... the key for me is to not eat so many of them.  If eat chicken wings, I'm eating 4 to get a good taste instead of a single order of 10 or 12.

Portion control is already working.  Over the weekend I ordered a steak at a restaurant and I could only finish a third of it. I'm becoming gradually less hungry through out the day. These wraps are filling me up now.  I also haven't been as tired already.  I even ran the football during my flag football game this weekend.  What a difference some healthy food can make in your everyday life...

That's where I'm starting this endeavor at 172 lbs.  That means I essentially have 30 pounds to lose.  It's a long, far away goal, and I'm really planning on taking it 10 pounds at time.

Anyhow,  I got my workout in yesterday.  I did a half hour on an elliptical, and worked out my back and my upper abs on a machine.   I'm sore today, but I went to bed at 10:30 pm and slept the entire night.  At one point I woke up at 5:15 am totally awake and energized.

I'm expecting to feel weak and drained over the next few days as my body isn't getting as much food as it's used to, and then is being put under the stress of physical activity... but it should only last a few days.

Now I'll just start loading up on water throughout the course of the day to help avoid those crazy hungry feelings.

I honestly thought I would burn more calories throughout this exercise...

One of the nice things about my place employment is that it provides me with a free personal trainer.  I have a friend who already has an appointment scheduled for today with her, and I'm tagging a long to see what I can accomplish, and then tomorrow morning myself and two co-workers are starting p90x.

I'll have my thoughts on today's work out a little later...

This kid looks a lot like my brother but with a non-Italian/Irish nose...

I'm hungry. Like really hungry.  Yesterday I ate all of my meals at normal people times.  Ya know... in the morning after waking up, lunch around noon and dinner around 6 pm.  No snack before bed anymore, especially because I didn't get to workout.  No more 8 or 9 pm dinners.  I need to be sure to make the time for meals at the appropriate hours and establish a solid routine.

That being said... I'm starving today.  I'm looking forward to this lunch meal.  It's got everything I love about a meal, a little sweet, a little salty and crunchy.  There's even something spicy in the V8 juice.  I lost 7 pounds before just by establishing better dietary habits.

I'm already off to a poor start.  I was supposed to start p90x today.  Work got in the way, and I was just too tired to do anything.  I started back to my healthy eating after the Superbowl though, so at least that was a small win.  Getting on track tomorrow.  No excuses.

Below today's MyFitnessPal entry.  I have to be more conscious about what I'm eating.

I can't say that I'm too pleased with myself.  I'm almost ten years removed from high school where I was at my physical peak.

I had played a variety of sports in my youth, from soccer and wrestling, to a comedic try at football and then years on the track team. I would run for hours after school, eat what I wanted, when I wanted to... without any consequence.

I was young, and things obviously change.

Then I went away to college.  I at endlessly, trying to make the most for every time I swiped my meal card in a dinning hall.  Meals were expensive and I wasn't going to waste my parent's money. I stopped going to bed at a normal time, and instead developed the habit of rarely sleeping at all.  I started drinking too.  The freedom of being away at school gave me chance to try some things that I had never done before.  I was honestly, your very stereotypical college student.

I didn't gain the freshmen 15.  In fact I was fine up until my Junior year. My metabolism hadn't slowed down yet, and despite not exercising anymore I really hadn't gained much weight.  Then, that third year of college came and a series of events happened that didn't mesh well with the gradual changes happening to my health...