10% of the way there

I've lost five pounds, a full 10% of the 50 lbs I'm trying to lose in "step one." Water and fruit, baby. Water and fruit. When I park my car at school each night, I take spaces that are just a bit further from the door each day. I heard that helps.

Water and fruit

Those words describe my day. I've been drinking as much water as I can stomach, and I think it's helping. I've been working a great deal, but this time of year makes me homesick. Keep it up, Justin.

I had a good Thanksgiving

And it made want to try this again. So, here goes. I weigh 10 pounds more than I did a year ago, but they say the first ten is the easiest to lose. Here goes attempt #37. The only good thing about trying to lose weight again after having failed before is that I've learned from each attempt, and each time I try, I get smarter and cleverer about how to do it. Maybe this time, I've become smart and clever enough to do it for real this time. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to eat my fruit.

Another pound down at the end of four weeks

After a full week of diet cheating, lounging around the house, and general apathy towards my goal, I was surprised to see that I had still lost a pound.  One pound.  How is that possible?

I tend to get cocky with stuff like this.  After my 6.2-pound loss last week, I had a voice in my mind saying things like, "You've already lost 15 pounds, you can afford to have that taco salad."  I'm fortunate to not have regained any weight, but I've got to keep my goal in my sights from now on.  Distraction leads to disaster.

I've been looking for a new place to live here in Kansas City, and my search isn't going well.  I've begun to look outside Kansas City, and I've been seriously considering moving to either Louisville, Ky., or Nashville, Tenn.  They seem like nice places.

Now that the winter blast is over (at least for now), I've taken advantage of the 50˚ temperatures and gone out to walk.  I'd like to get a bicycle someday, but I'll have to learn to ride one first.

Okay, here's the deal...

I was all set to sit down for some healthy blogging right after work yesterday afternoon.  I got home, turned on the computer, typed in the URL, and... network problems.

So, anyway, I'm here now, at 9:00 on Sunday morning, trying to reconstruct my week.

I lost 6.2 pounds last week, and I'm trying not to get too cocky because of it.  I'll admit I used that as an excuse to cheat once or twice this week.  Work has been unbelieveably busy this week, and the opinion of my co-workers is: "busy workday = let's buy everyone lunch."  I participated, albeit tangentially, but I did.

I've also been trying to get in some walking for a few minutes each day.  I'm hoping that can counteract my slight cheats.

School has been busy as well, working full-time and being a full-time student is not easy.  I'm also looking for a new place to live, and hopefully I can get into a new apartment or house by May 1.  Good times.

I will...

spend some time this afternoon catching up on my blogging.  I promise.

No complaints after 21 days

I weighed this morning, and I have lost 6.2 pounds this week.  Grand total: 14.8.  Today certainly started off well, and it's just gotten better with that news.

This past week, I started walking.  I think that definitely contributed to my loss.

I ate a cookie...

and it was good.  I made a conscious decision that I was going to eat a cookie at work, and I can honestly say I have no regrets.  I'll set the scene:

Fridays at my job are always crazy.  We converted to a new software system yesterday, and the people hired to train us stayed just long enough to get us through the first round of problems.  Today, the second round came, and we were all on our own.  We performed exceptionally well in my opinion.


So anyway, at around 3:00 pm, I was feeling the pressure.  For about a half hour I contemplated whether or not I would break the diet and eat any one of the thousands of snacks that sit around the office.  Finally, I caved.  I remembered something from the "28 to Motivate" CD I got: "if you're going to slip, and you've made up your mind to let it happen, do it a way that makes it as easy as possible to recover, mentally and physically.

Basically, I ate a cookie.  No regrets.  It was the best 130 calories I spent today.

Payday Tomorrow

Today was a challenge, but we've done well.  At work, we switched to a new computer software system, and we all exceeded everyone's expectations.  Tomorrow, another department makes the switch, and I think we've set the bar very high.

Because we were all so busy today, everyone volunteered to bring in snacks.  There were four dozen donuts, 2 dozen bagels, chips, crackers, cookies, etc.  I'm proud to say I didn't cave.

To add to the already hectic week this has become, today was two of my co-workers' last day.  One is moving to another department within the company; the other is going to work at a lawfirm.  It seems like they got lost in the shuffle, because everyone was so busy.

Of course, anytime we need to implement a new system, we get a visit from the brass.  They were around most of the day, and I was proud of the way each of us conducted ourselves.

I'm very tired, and it's time for sleep.

Laundry before work

Every now and then, I plan my time so awkwardly that the only time I have to do my laundry is right before work.  That's what I'm doing right now.  It's 7:30 AM here in Kansas City, and I'm waiting for my dress shirt to finish drying.  Today is a big day at work; we're switching to a new computer software system.  No one really knows what's going on–I was only trained on it yesterday, and the first time anyone at my company saw it was on Tuesday.  We're a smart group, though.  We'll figure it out.

Otherwise, things are going well for me.  I'm down almost 9 pounds in two weeks, and I'm feeling pretty good.  On Tuesday, it got up to about 53˚F here in Kansas City, and everyone was wishing to be outside, including me.  Unfortunately, yesterday we were given a more seasonally-appropriate high temperature of 26˚F.  Today looks like more of the same.

On a side note, has anyone noticed the rotating pictures of smiling people on the top of the website don't include any fat people?  I find that interesting.  There's (1) "Skinny Guy in Red Shirt with Laptop," (2) Two Skinny Women with Laptop, and  (3) "Three Skinny Women Cheering."  Oh well.  Hope everyone has a good Thursday.