Friday, February 12, 2010

Calorie successes

Hey bloggers!

Since starting my calorie tracking on January 19th, I've eaten an average of 1800 calories a day.  Theoretically, I should lose 2 pounds per week if I'm eating 2000 calories a day, so I'm very hopeful that I will be happy with my next weigh-in. 

Checked out a blog today where a guy's trying to shape himself into a Vin Diesel clone.  He's been at it since May 2009, and he's achieved some great results, going from 190 lbs to 165 lbs -- pretty close to what I'm looking to do.  His success is very motivating.  If he can do it, I can too!

Tomorrow morning I'm checking in.  Wish me luck!

Blog you later!

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Saturday night... ba da ba dee ba da ba dee... pretty good week...

Hey hey hey blogosphere,

Things are going pretty well in calorie land.  I'm getting the hang of counting calories on the hacker's diet spreadsheet.  It's taken me a week or two to figure out proper calorie counts.  For the first while, I was sure that I was undercounting, and sure enough, I was.  I'm using Calorie King to figure out calorie counts, but it's just not right for some dishes.

On the low side, my Mr. Pita pockets show up there as around 90 calories, but the bag says 170 calories.  But then, on the high side, the fat-free yogurt cups I eat show up as around 75 calories, and it says 30 calories on the packet.  I usually eat similar stuff, so I'm getting used to it.

Oh, the punishment for eating out or for drinking too much wine!  I like to have a few glasses of wine when I go to the in-laws for dinner, and I'm just not sure it's worth the 500 calories for 4 glasses of wine -- but maybe it is, it just goes down so well.  And 4 pieces of pepperoni pizza at Domino's is 1200 calories, but if I make homemade pizza, it's only 800 calories for 4 pieces.  And my homemade whole wheat pizza is BETTER! 

Counting calories continues to reinforce the fact that making food at home tastes better, and it's better for you.  Even the high calorie dishes at home are better for you than the good stuff when you eat out or order take-in.  It's a great reinforcement, because I love to cook. 

I'll weigh in tomorrow.  Hope it goes well -- I've been exercising like crazy this week, between Wii Fit and an absolutely crazy game of squash on Wednesday.  I was up 2 games to 1, up 8-2 in game 4, and my partner comes back and beats me 10-8 in that game and wins the next one 9-3.  I'll continue to get back in shape and lose some pounds, and then I'll beat him next time I play him.  I know it!

Blog you soon!

Monday, January 25, 2010

Lose a little bit...

...lose a little bit of your weight for me...

So I've now lost somewhere between 2-5 pounds total, all in the last week.  I'm definitely seeing the results of exercising more and keeping track of my calories.  Really, it's been quite easy.

The hard part will be keeping with it.  That's always REALLY hard for me.  Let's see if I can break a year of tracking calories.

I say that I've lost between 2-5 pounds because I weighed myself twice on the Wii Fit and the first time it said I didn't lose anything, and then I moved the balance board 2 inches and it said I lost 5 pounds since last time.  I'm going to try to keep the balance board at the same place each time -- I could put down a piece of tape I suppose.  The 5 pounds is much more motivating, so I'll go with that one.

Squash starts back up on Wednesday.  I've moved up to Group J.  Hope I can compete with the big boys!

Blog you later!

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Calorie KING!

I'm feeling very motivated right now by filling in my calorie tracker excel spreadsheet.  It's really very easy to find all of the calorie information on Calorie King, and it doesn't take long to update the spreadsheet with the information.

I've averaged about 1800 calories per day for the last 5 days since I started counting.  That's probably a bit low because I don't necessarily count every single thing -- I don't add the little veggies that I eat during the day (carrots, celery, that kind of thing).  Since it should take me about 2000 calories to lose 2 pounds per week, I should be good to hit my target.

I'm also enjoying getting back on the Wii Fit.  It's a much harder workout than I remember.  By using the strength building activities and really punching hard on the boxing trainer, I can really exhaust myself.

Going to see Avatar tomorrow.  Can't wait!

Blog you later!

P.S.  Hello?  Is there anybody out there?

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Hacking it with the Hacker's Diet

I think things are looking up using this new spreadsheet.  I feel like I can control myself more when I see the results -- a lower calorie count!  It helps me to take the extra 10 minutes after eating to see how full I really am.

Got on the wii fit last night for 40 minutes or so, and I'm finding it a nice light workout.  Man, I must be out of shape, because I didn't find it a challenge at all before!  Those pushup and side planks are HARD.

I'll update the weight count on Monday.  Blog you tomorrow!

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Reboot the challenge

It can be done!  I feel like I can lose 2 pounds per week... I can do it!

Today I started using Jeremy Zawodny's Hacker Diet Spreadsheet.  The hacker diet's main philosophy is to put less in than you're putting out.  I've been using CalorieKing's food search to figure out how many calories each food contains.

It didn't take long to fill out tonight, and hopefully it'll help me to figure out how to eat more reasonably and healthy.  I'm feeling confident!

One of Jeremy Zawodny's tips (from the hacker diet) is to stop eating until you're full, and instead stop eating when you're not hungry.  It's a small distinction, but I understand what he means.  You don't have to feel stuffed, just satiated.  I'll work on that this week.

Spent 1/2 hour on the wii last night punching the virtual punching bag.  Felt good.

Blog you later!

Monday, January 18, 2010

The Hacker's Diet

Back in my programming days, I remember reading about The Hacker's Diet.  This guy lost 50 pounds using the hacker diet and using a spreadsheet to track his results.  I think I may try this and post my results and my spreadsheet graphs here.

Blog on!