July 31, 2009 Last day of the first month of newness!

Hello all. It's the end of July. I started this blog last month and I am pretty proud of my progress. Was I perfect? no. Did I get back on the "bike" after falling off? yes. I made much smarter choices, fought temptation, got busy, made changes, started living right. I want to thank Lisa and all of my new friends on the internet that let me watch there own personal victories! I will be one of the winners!!
Thursday was almost a carbon copy of Wednesday. Fiber one bar, bag of pretzels, Subway for supper. Today I had a fiber one bar for breakfast, bag of pretzels for lunch (all this while watching my girls at work eat and entire Rocky Rococo's pizza) They offered me some, I declined. Suprisingly, it wasn't that hard to resist. I stopped at Target on my way home and ended up getting low fat Maine/crab soup, carrots, mushrooms, pretzels, salsa, yogurt and some school supplies for my friend Leah. The soup was really good. I put some raw mushrooms in to give it some texture. I got some baked Lays (it's so amazing how much less fat are in these). That still doesn't give me the right to eat the whole bag :-) My calorie count it still pretty low. I saved room for some pretzels and salsa when I got to my brother's house for the weekend to dog sit.
Tomorrow my dad is making the spaghetti that he is famous for. It is made with wheat noodles, turkey sausage and lean ground beef. I will have a small plate I'm sure. I just won't go back for seconds!

Have a great weekend.
Better tomorrows
Scott

July 29, 2009 Wii-endsday

Hello all!! It's Wednesday and I just got home from Subway (oven roasted chicken breast/no cheese/yellow mustard on 9 grain wheat. 670 calories. I opted for the baked lays chips (140 calories) Along with the Fiber one bar I had on the way to work, that puts me at 950 calories for the day.
Yesterday I was greeted at work by a friend that has been off sick since March 1st. It was really great seeing her back. I was also greeted by (you guessed it) tons of "welcome back goodies". There was donuts, cake, ice cream, home made pies and cookies. I am lucky that I don't have a sweet tooth. I didn't touch a crumb. I am also lucky that it wasn't welcome back pizza, chips, dip, cheese, nachos..etc. I am getting better at the temptations. I could have probably gone for a bowl of ice cream :-). I went to band practice after work and up to that point I had just had a Fiber one bar for the day. It was about 9:30 and altho I wasn't really hungry, I knew I should eat something. I stopped at the Pick N Save on the way home and walked to the produce department. I picked up a pint of cherry tomatoes. I thought I should get something with some protein, so I headed to the lunch meat area. I ended up with 3.5 oz of Oscar Meyer Natural Turkey Breast. There were 210 calories in the whole package. I was trying to find the one with the lowest sodium as well. I also bought a 46 oz low sodium V-8 juice. Total calories for that "meal" was 510 calories. It might have been more, I don't know the calories of the tomatoes, if any. I was surprised at how good the meal was. The only thing I would have changed would be the time that I ate it. I am trying not to eat anything past 6:00. That's when I used to eat my first meal.
Today Lisa and I met up after work at the Best Buy. Lisa ended up getting a Wii system and the Wii fit game. I am going to get one as well. (I need to make some room first :-)

Better tomorrows!!
Scott

July 27, 2009 A new week begins

Hello all. Another week has begun. My day started great with no pain. I had a Fiber One bar on the way to work and another one for lunch. At 140 calories a piece, I didn't feel I did too bad. On the way home I decided to stop at the new Target and Pick n Save. I bought 5 more boxes of Fiber One bars and a 8oz pack of raw mushrooms. For dinner I had a salad. I decided to go back to Target to get some more bars. They had 4 boxes left, so I bought them all. I figured this would be a good breakfast. I have went many years not eating breakfast, so this would be a good way to get the fire burning. For dinner I had 2 bean burritos at 350 calories a piece, I was up to 1300 calories for the day. It's getting easier to stay on this "diet" over other time I was on one. I think it has alot to do with all the wonderful bloggers and also Lisa being on the "diet" with me. I just need to incorporate more after work exercise in my daily routine.

Better tomorrows
Scott

July 26, 2009 Fun Weekend

Hello all. Had a real fun weekend. Went out to my parents place with Lisa for a weekend of fishing. On the way we stopped so Lisa could get her license and pick up some odds and ends for the weekend. We both avoided the salty treats aisle. I picked up some mushrooms to munch on later and some lite lemonade. We got to my parents and we decided to go to the Family restaurant in Delavan. I ordered the spaghetti and meatballs. I knew before I started that I was going to take half of it home. Funny thing is, I was full after half of it anyways. Went back to the cottage, went fishing until about 9:00. My mom had chips and dip out and neither Lisa or I had any. I got out my raw mushrooms and proceded to eat those while we watched Gran Torino.
This morning I woke up and had a Fiber 1 bar and a yogurt. At about 2:00, I had the rest of my dinner from last night. We did some more fishing, and came back in. I made salads for everyone, and my mom made lean turkey burgers on wheat buns. I chose to just eat one and skip the shrimp salad. For dessert we had some frozen fruit with lite yogurt on top. Over all it was a pretty good food weekend.

Better tomorrows!!
Scott

July 24, 2009 Part 2

OR

Hello all. Tonight was a pretty good night. I kept myself busy and wasn't hungry. At about 9:00 I started getting "Old Habit Hungry" That means my habit of eating at night was starting to kick in. I went upstairs to see if there was something healthy I could eat. I didn't want a shake. Last time I was on a diet of just shakes, I lasted 2 weeks and couldn't take it. I went off of them and didn't touch them for 18 months. Its just going to take me a little longer I guess. Anyways, I was going to make some spaghetti with wheat noodles and low calorie sauce. It was a little more calories than I wanted to eat this late at night. I opened a can of tuna in water (100 calories), ate that, and was still a little hungry. I was really fighting the old habit of just going to Wal Mart and getting pizza or chips and dip. I was allowed a bad night....right? WRONG!!! I drove to Wal-Mart anyways planning on getting some salad fixin's. Thank the lord that the Papa Murphy that is conveniently located inside the store was closed. I might have caved. Not for the Cowboy, but one of there De-Lites. They are still too much. I went over to the produce area (I used to walk past there on the way to the chips) I am lucky that I like all vegetables (no onions). I bought 2 bags of lettuce/carrots/spinach mixes, mushrooms, 2 tomatoes and some fat free peppercorn ranch. I went right to the checkout. I didn't want to make the familiar trek down to the salty treats. I am eating my salad as I write this blog. Not bad if I do say so myself!!

Better Tomorrows!!
Scott

July 24, 2009 Finally Friday

Hello all! It's finally Friday! I have 2 days to report on, so here we go. Thursday I woke up with no pain. I went to work and had a shake at lunch (the girls had McDonald's). Had another shake at 3:15 and made sure to take a packet with me to the fair. We got to the fair about 5:30 and we walked around before we were to set up the band equipment. Once again I was greeted with the aroma of carnival food. Everywhere you looked deep fried this, deed fried that...cheese curds, fries, burger, gyros...you get the picture. I was determined to have my shake so I had to find some water. I did find a seller that was also selling nuts and candy. I almost bought some soy oil baked sunflower seeds. I just went with the water ($1.00 was the cheapest I found). Went back to the car and had a strawberry shake. We had a great showwith a great crowd. Dropped Lisa off at 1:25 and was determined to get to bed by 2:00. I was starting to get dizzy from not eating. I wasn't hungry tho which was a good thing. There was a Taco Bell up ahead, so I decided to go through the drive through and see if there was anything lite or low in calories. The old me would have bought a whole bunch of stuff, ate it, drove home and went to bed. I saw the new grilled chicken burritos for .89. I bought 2 of those and ate them on my half hour drive home. The funny thing is, I was about as full eating those, as I was at the all you can eat chinese buffet I went to last Sunday.
Friday I woke up from the little sleep that I got. I was in a little pain. I don't think it was from the burrito's, I just think it's the way that I sleep that determines if I will be in pain. Went to work and the pain went away. Had my shake at noon (I bought the girls Wendy's). It was my first Friday after work without buying pizza or something like that. It also helped that I left my wallet at work. I have a $100 bill that I hope to have unspent when I go back to work on Monday. This will keep me from eating out (I don't want to break that Benjamin) Lisa and I are going to my parents cottage, so all I need is my fishing license for the weekend. Luckily that wasn't in my wallet.

Time to upload the pics from last night's show.
Thanks for reading!
Scott

July 22, 2009 Wednesday...back to Cardinal

Hello all (3 of you). Today was a great day of dieting (I hate that word). I should say this was a great first day of the rest of my life. I woke up not hurting (yay). Work was busy and physical (getting paid to workout is always a plus). I had decided last night to meet Lisa and Cardinal Fitness for a workout after work on Tuesday. I normally would have blamed my work workout as the reason that I didn't go to the gym. It's been awhile since I've been to the gym altho I have been a member for about 2 years. I think they should thank me for the new carpet that my monthly payments have provided :-) I started off riding 5 miles on the bike. It took a little under 15 minutes. I would like to see that number go down, or see the distance increase. I then went over to the eliptical for a 10 minute .5 miles workout. I was actually sweating...thats a good thing. I went out to the car and had my 4th shake of the day. I went to Barnes and Noble and bought Lisa and myself a calorie counter book. This book has almost every fast food restaurant that I have visited and then some. WOW.... I knew I was eating bad, but I didn't really know how terrible some of this food was. I like Papa Murphy's Cowboy pizza. The book lists 1/12th of a pizza 345 calories. WHAT??? That's like 4,200 calories for the whole thing. Geez!!! So many foods that I have eaten are in there...I can add up a normal bad day calorie wise and its totally disgusting. I blame no one but myself. It's not even tempting knowing how bad that stuff is. I can see how moderation lets you eat anything. It's the over indulging that hurt me. As the days pass, this is all getting easier. I even went to the Big and Tall mens store and just walked around. I told myself that I will never buy from this store again. I held up a 6xl shirt and just smiled. Thats where I was headed. I can wear a 3xl from there, but I have like 200 t-shirts waiting for me at home calling my name. I have about 10 shirts right now that I rotate between and a closet full of someday clothes. Time for bed. Big show at Washington County Fair tomorrow!!!

Goodnight and better tomorrows
Scott