Lose a car, gain some pounds?

I'm moderately worried about tomorrow's weigh in.  I'd be really worried if I hadn't exercised too much this week, but at least I've kept that up.  Otherwise, I'd be headed for true disaster.

My wife works close to a 10 minute walk from our home.  This year, I moved to a school that's less than 10 minutes driving from our house.  It only made sense to go down to one car.  On Thursday, consider it done!

Thursday

As I've intimated above, Thursday was "get rid of your car" day for me.  This is a very good thing.  It will save us close to $500/month, not including maintenance and gas.

The problem was that I had to drive down to London right after work to transfer the car.  I also needed to squeeze in a squash game before I headed down -- which ended up being cancelled -- so time was cramped.  I caved in and had a Teen Burger and fries from A&W on the way down, my last fast food for the old Civic.

Oh yeah, I also decided to use up the leftover bacon from last week's bacon-wrapped shrimp and make myself a homemade egg mcmuffin, plus about 4 strips of bacon.  Oh lawdy, a bad day, but what a tasty one!

Friday

Breakfast and lunch today were pretty much OK.  It was the Terry Fox run for our kids at school today, so I managed to get in a few laps during the day.

The after-school meeting at Boston Pizza left me down one schooner (think BIG) beer and some calamari.  Came home, passed out, and woke up a couple hours later to down a great homemade chicken burger.  Late night pick-up hockey -- who knows, call it a wash?

Saturday

Had an absolutely amazing perch (deep fried, I think) sandwich with fries for lunch, and a nice Nova Scotian-style chili with biscuits at the in-laws.

Sunday

Pancakes for breakfast, soup for lunch.  I'm just about to have a couple of pieces of lasagna with a couple of glasses of wine.  Preparation for the week ahead.

My spidey-sense is tingling for tomorrow morning's weigh-in. 

Wish me luck, blog!

It's hard to be good when someone's sick

Overall, this week is going well. The routine of the schoolday helps me to stay on track.

The biggest problem for me so far has been the weekends.  It's harder to be good when there's the schedule is more lax.  This week has been a bit different, because my wife is pretty sick.  It gives me a great excuse to go crazy on junk food.

Monday

Cereal for breakfast, salmon sandwich with some fruit for lunch.  Excellent so far.

My wife LOVES Kraft Dinner when she's sick.  More power to her -- I'm thinking comfort food that doesn't upset my stomach when I'm ill.  So we had some KD together. 

Then I went to get medication for her.  Why do they put the chips right beside the nasal sprays?  And why is it so easy to eat most of a bag in one sitting?

Tuesday

Actually quite a bit better today.  Same as yesterday for breakfast and lunch.  Limited myself to only KD tonight -- no snacks.  If Monday was the only blip, I think I'll be fine.  Also a 5km run tonight, so that should help.

Wednesday

Homemade pizza again tonight.  This time I cooked it for 20 minutes in a 500 degree oven.  Hopefully, that cooks it through nice and hot in the middle.  Breakfast and lunch same as the last few days.  I'll try to limit myself to 2-3 pieces. 

Well, I'm off to my weekly squash game.  Wish me luck!

Blog you later!

The Beat Goes On

This past week can be summarized in two bullet points:

• good food (maybe too much!)
  
• lots of exercise

We tried out some homemade pizza one night, right down to the dough made in our breadmaker.  It turned out well, but it wasn't quite crispy in the middle.  I'll turn up the heat next time to see if I can fix that up.

Everything went quite well until the weekend.  My squash ladder started on Thursday.  It was great, but I realized I didn't eat dinner at all and was starving when I got home and ate an assortment of crappy stuff.

Friday night -- hockey and pizza
Saturday -- pizza for breakfast and lunch, and dinner with the in-laws (ribs on the bbq.  tasty but not low fat!)
Sunday -- 5km Toronto Island Tom Longboat Run, and an incredible lunch at The Rectory Cafe.

Basically every day was lots of exercise, and lots of food.  Luckily, I managed to maintain my weight, so I'm still on track for 40 in 40.  This week I'm ready to attack!

Blog attack!

Monday Success!

Hey there blogosphere!

The last few days have gone by so quickly.

Friday night went really well.  I was tempted to get a meatball sub and just pig out, but I managed to get back home and have some leftover curried chicken from a couple of nights ago.  Then I remembered that it was the first night for my Friday night hockey league.  What a workout!

Saturday

Had a nice low-fat homemade egg mcmuffin for breakfast.  It was low fat compared to a regular egg mcmuffin, at least...

Dinner was

Sunday

Breakfast: Alton Brown's french toast recipe.  Try it -- it's delicious!

Dinner:  leftover meatloaf

30 minutes jogging

Monday

Breakfast: apple cinnamon cheerios
Lunch: sandwich, avocado, apple, nectarine, small cookie
Dinner: homemade pizza -- not too great for you, but not bad
 
And the best part:I lost 2 pounds!

Last night I had a nice dinner of baguette with brie.  A nice treat every once in a while! 

It's been a good weekend and a pretty good week so far.  Looking forward to losing another few pounds this week.  As long as I keep blogging, I think I'll do well.  My goal is to blog every night until the end of the weekend, and then take it from there. 

Blog on, Wayne!

A Very Good End To A Very Good Week

The first week of school is over!  I've got some great kids in my class, and the teachers at my new school are fantastic.  The routine of the school year has really helped me stay on track, eating healthier food more consistently.

I've got a couple of days to update you on:

Wednesday

Today was a great day on my journey to healthy eating.  Started off with a bowl of apple cinnamon cheerios, and made a sandwich on homemade bread -- right on! -- with some yogurt and an apple for lunch.

Erin and I found these great little light cookie bars for a snack.  I snap them in half and bring one in to school each day.  It satisfies my sugar craving, which isn't huge for me but still needs to be satisfied here and there.  Each of these 1/2 portions is 90 calories and is pretty cheap, too.

Dinner was a fantastic stir-fry curry and a spinach salad.  I didn't get to exercise today, but I'm positive I'll keep that up.

Thursday

Today I went a bit overboard on great food for dinner, but it wasn't as unhealthy as it could have been.

Breakfast was cereal, and lunch was the same as yesterday.

Dinner was homemade spaghetti, with fresh garlic bread and a spinach caesar salad with homemade salad.  The spaghetti sauce was amazing thanks to Pastor Ryan's Bolognese Sauce recipe.  I never would have thought of putting in a cup of milk.  It gives it a nice creamy taste.  I use lactose free milk and it works really well.

I did have a bit too much -- it was just so good! -- and a couple of glasses of wine, but overall it was a good evening.  I didn't eat so much that I felt bloated and just wanted to sit around.

We also booked a christmas cruise on Thursday.  We're going with Carnival Valor to the Western Caribbean.  They had one balcony space left, and we got it!  It's going to be a nice, relaxing trip right after school is over.  It's something to look forward to in those dark days of November.

Friday

Quaker harvest crunch for breakfast.  I haven't had that since I was a kid.  I didn't even know it was still in production, but I guess they just don't sell it at our local Loblaws (Zehrs).  Found it the other day at Food Basics.  So tasty!

Lunch was a bit different.  Brought in the leftover spaghetti, yogurt, an apple, and an avocado. 

If you haven't had fresh avocado, you'd better start now.  Make sure it's ripe, but not too ripe.  It should be just barely squishy to the touch.  Slice it in half with a knife.  You'll have to cut around the big pit.  Discard the pit and eat the green goodness with a spoon.  It's the best snack ever!

Dinner tonight will be some leftovers from the last two days.  Didn't exercise for the last couple days, so I'll have to go out for a long run with the dog tonight.

It's been a great week.  I'm looking forward to my weigh-in on Monday.

Blog out!

You got to admit, it's getting better...

...maybe not such an apropos title, since this journey is starting to turn in a positive direction, and NOT actually getting worse.

Sunday worked out pretty well.  Went to the in-laws for dinner, and had a quite healthy dinner, and managed to limit myself to a couple of glasses of wine.  They alway pick great reds, so that's a big deal!

Monday was quite good as well.  I did have a cookie with my morning coffee, but the rest of the day was fairly healthy.  I did split a cereal-sized bowl of salt n vinegar chips with Erin as a snack, but I think I was feeling stress about the first day of school.

Today was great!  I had a couple of popovers for breakfast with a little bit of jam, a nice sandwich for lunch on homemade bread (YUM!), and chicken meatloaf with a broccoli/cheese side for dinner.

I feel positive that this week will turn out well.  I'm counting yesterday as my first weigh-in, so I'll update my "pounds to lose" this coming Monday.  Stay tuned!

Blog ya tomorrow evening!

Life in the crap lane (crap food, that is)

This week hasn't been a great one.  I'm hoping that my Monday morning weigh-in is only moderately disappointing.

The last 2 days in review:

Friday

Went down to Toronto to visit Carlos and Andrea -- university friends -- and watch the Blue Jays vs. the Yankees at the Rogers Centre.  I knew it would be a tough day food wise.  I should have made a plan for eating so I didn't have to eat food that was really bad for me.  It's pretty tough when you're both visiting friends AND going to a sporting event.


Pros:
-had a relatively decent breakfast of a piece of homemade bread
-Roy Halliday pitched a 1-hit shutout against the Yankees.  Great game!
-didn't eat any junk food
-5km run with Scooter -- felt great!
-had some salad for lunch to help quench my hunger cravings



Cons:
-not only did I have that salad, but 2 pieces of leftover pizza.  Not so healthy now, are you, salad?
-ate what can only be described as a cheese-fest of chimichanga, some plain nacho chips and a couple of beers.  Not on the diet agenda!
-croissant on the way home to try and keep myself awake

What lesson can I take from today?  Making a plan for a day that will be hard on a diet might help me to eat the right stuff.  I'll try that next time.
Saturday


Here's a morning problem for you:  nothing goes better with a cup of decaf coffee than one of those toll house cookies from Thursday.  Man are they good!  Breakfast was a disaster -- coffee, cookie and a piece of pizza.  Won't be doing that again.

One problem this morning was that I got in a rush when my wife found out there was a half off sale on men's pants at Sears, but only until 11am, and it was 10:00 at that point.  Stuffed my face with easy, crappy food to save money on pants I probably won't fit into soon if I keep eating like this!

Next was dinner.  My wife's youngest sister just got a job at Boston Pizza, so we went to visit her there.  That pizza goes down too easy -- they must put some kind of hunger-exacerbating herb on top so you don't feel full!  My wife had to look at me and say: "You know, we COULD take some of that home.  You don't have to eat the whole thing!"

Yep, it was that kind of day.  With a couple of glasses of wine to boot, I wasn't doing myself any calorie favours.  

Today's a new day (Sunday).  We're going to the in-laws for dinner, which always means wonderful, healthy food, and an unending supply of red wine.  So two things to remember for tonight:

1.  No more than 2 glasses of red wine.
2.  Don't reach for that second helping.  (It's not worth it -- only makes your stomach rumble and your butt mumble!)

Signed up for the Toronto Island 5km run today.  I've got a buddy running with me, and I'm hoping to do a competitive run with him once a month.  Hockey season starts now, and I'm joining a squash league once a week.  So I've gotten back to exercising 3-4 times a week -- it's the food I have to master.

Also, school starts again in earnest on Tuesday.  I can use that as a new beginning!

Blog you later!

Day 1: A day of setbacks

Well, today didn't go so great.  I'll make a list of pros and cons for you:

Pros:
-apple cinnamon cheerios for breakfast
-had a big salad for lunch
-had salad with 2 pieces of pizza for lunch (it's better than 4 pieces!)

Cons:
-went back for 2 more pieces of pizza and felt way too stuffed!

Actually, now that I reflect back, that's not so bad!  Today was a full day of P.D. meetings with the staff at my new school.  They were all jazzed to go out for lunch.

That's always a problem.  It's so easy to order a bacon double cheeseburger with fries.  So tasty.

Instead, I got a thai chicken salad.  It was huge -- they must have put a whole chicken on there!  But overall, better than a jerk burger with deep fried sweet potatoes.

I don't think we'll ever stop ordering pizza.  We don't do it often.  I'm ready to start making pizzas at home to make sure of what's in them and try to make them healthier.  More importantly, I need to remember that I feel like crap when I overeat.  Next time just the 2 pieces and some salad.

Finally, tonight I made some delicious Toll House cookies.  Next time, I need to cook them a little longer and use 1/2 the salt.  But I managed to eat just one, and they are TASTY!

I'll end tonight's blog with a lesson for the lurkers:

Overeating sucks.  The second helping sounds so succulent... but it just makes you fart.

Blog you tomorrow!

So it begins...

Hi, I'm Kevin.   I love my job as a teacher and I've got a wonderful wife and a funny little Havanese.  Life is good.

That said, I'm 5'9" and 200lbs.  BMI-wise, that's right on the line of overweight and obese.  My darlin' and I are working on having kids, and I'd like to be healthy when that happens.  A role model for my kids, to show them that you can love food, enjoy cooking, and still be healthy and fit. 

In the past I've had success at losing weight.  2 years ago, I was at 175 lbs.  I really got into running, and ran a few 5 and 10 km races.  I was making many healthy food choices.

The exercise was pretty easy once I got into it, and I don't think I'll have any problems getting out 3-4 times a week to jog, play squash, or throw around the ultimate disc.

Did I mention that I love food?  That I love to cook? 

That's not going to change.  I love trying new recipes, experimenting with new foods, and... I love to eat.  This is going to be the hard part.

I'm going to keep cooking, and I'm not going to change my love of eating well prepared, tasty food.  But my choices have to become healthier and I have to eat less of what I make.

I also enjoy writing, so my first thought was to keep a food diary.  The food diary is easier to keep up than a daily food log, and it engages me more, allowing me to reflect more concretely on challenges.  I managed to keep it up for a few days, then I'd forget where I kept the diary and then I'd have to update it for days at a time.  And my memory just isn't that good.

So now we've arrived here... a blog.  There are many things that make a blog seem like the right answer for my food diary:

1.  It's all the rage, what with Julie & Julia out in the theatres. 

2.  I've got a laptop in front of me at work all day, and I almost always go on it at night. 

3.  I won't misplace it.

4.  You wonderful people can give me advice... if anyone reads it!

40 lbs in 40 weeks.  Here we go!