The Weigh In - Week 3

Read it and rejoice! The scale said 265 this morning. That is a 4 lbs. loss for the week. Heather had the first guess of the day and she hit it right on the nose, making Heather this weeks big winner.

We only had 8 votes yesterday. Well, 9 if you include mine. The rules clearly state, we must have 10 votes for a prize to be given. I am going to bend the rules just this once however because Heather is so awesome and deserves a prize. It won't happen again, so be sure to vote next week!

Heather will be receiving a pound of JENNIE-O TURKEY STORE® Lean Turkey Burger Patties so she can make here very own Hawaiian Turkey Burgers.



Tony
6/27: 265 lbs.
Goal: 220 lbs.
45 lbs. to go

Guess How Much I Weigh Contest - Week 3

Last nights dinner was a huge success! My parents joined me for dinner and said they enjoyed it very much. I can only assume they were not lying. My mother found it very amusing that her picky eating son was trying to get her to eat grilled yams. She dug right in though and was pleasantly surprised. I think my lovely wife and I may try again Friday night and add a little brown sugar to the yam recipe.

And now to the contest!

Step right up, step right up. Guess how much I weigh and win a fabulous prize.

To Recap:
Every Thursday I give you my stats for the week and you guess what you think the scale will say on Friday morning. Go ahead and click on comments at the bottom of this post and leave your guess.

I will post the winner when I post my weight on Fri. morning. If we get ten or more guesses I will have a prize for the winner.

Stats for the week of June 24th.

Walked: 10.4 miles

Calories Consumed: From Friday morning through Wed. night I have consumed aprox. 11133 calories.

Calories Burned: From Friday morning through Wed. night I have burned aprox. 24807 calories.

30 % of my calories have come from fat.
9% of those calories came from Saturated Fats.

45% of my calories came from carbs.

22% of my calories came from protein.

As a special bonus, for today only, here is what I looked like this morning.






Let the guessing begin. Good Luck!


Tony
6/27: 269 lbs.
Goal: 220 lbs.
49 lbs. to go

Soundpedia

This is not "healthy living" related per se, except that it makes me happy and being happy is part of living a healthy life.

The musicphiles among you seriously need to check out Soundpedia. It is basically an on-line music library filled with full CDs streaming directly from the ether of the Internet to your earphones. The sound is not CD quality, but it is a great way to check out a CD before you buy, hear that song you have had stuck in your head all day or reconnect with a long lost guilty pleasure .... A-ha anyone.

Frankly, it is the coolest site I have seen in years.






Tony
6/27: 269 lbs.
Goal: 220 lbs.
49 lbs. to go

Recipe Wenesday

This weekend my lovely wife told me I need to expand the kinds of food I eat. She is right. I am a picky eater. I like meat and potatoes, a few fruits and maybe two vegetables and that is about it. Heck, before I met my lovely wife I didn't eat eggs, lettuce, Chinese food or cream cheese. In the first few years of our relationship she worked these things into my diet and now I enjoy all of them.

I am going to try and make Wednesdays, Recipe Wednesdays from here on out. The goal will be to find a good healthy (at least healthier) recipe each Wednesday to try that night. Then I will report back on Thursday as to the success or failure of said recipe. If we can't get to the recipe on Wednesday night, I will save it for the weekend. I'd love it if you guys sent in some recipes as well. Send me old favorites or stuff you have always wanted to try. Let's start slow. Nothing too adventures and no sea food. I just can't do sea food!

Welcome To The First Recipe Wednesday!

Today's recipe is:
Hawaiian Turkey Burgers and Grilled Yams


Hawaiian Turkey Burgers
Ingredients:
1/4 cup Sweet and Sour sauce
1 pound Lean Turkey Burger Patties
4 slices pineapple
4 hamburger buns

Directions:
Brush pineapple with sweet and sour sauce. Grill burgers and pineapple. Place burgers on bun and top with sweet and sour sauce and grilled pineapple.


Grilled Yams
Ingredients:
Red Garnet Yams
Olive Oil

Directions:
Clean and boil Yams for 6 - 10 minutes. Slice yams into 3⁄4” thick slices. Toss yam slices with enough olive oil to coat them. Grill until slices are browned on one side. Flip and repeat until done.

Tony
6/27: 269 lbs.
Goal: 220 lbs.
49 lbs. to go

My Daily Walk

I am doing my best to walk everyday. During the week I do a 2.28 mile loop along the Mississippi river from Riverplace to the Stone Arch Bridge and back to Hennepin Ave. On a day like today it is a beautiful walk in the heart of the big city.

Last week I added a new leg to the journey. Excel Energy just opened Water Power Park. Located on Main Street, right in front of St. Anthony Main, it gives you a chance to get up close and personal with St. Anthony Falls. If you live in Minnesota, it's worth a day trip to come down and take a walk around the area.

Check out the extremely lame website here.

A Few Pictures From My Weekday Walk:

















Tony
6/26: 269 lbs.
Goal: 220 lbs.
49 lbs. to go

Iron Man

No not the metal man of super hero fame or the Black Sabbath song of guitar shredding fame. I am talking about the Iron Man triathlon.

Don't worry, I am not planing on running one any time soon...or ever.

A friend of mine competed in an Iron Man over the weekend and finished 32nd over all. 5th in his age group! He has now qualified for the Koan Iron Man in Hawaii this spring. It has been a dream of his for a long time. It's a dream very few people can achive. Congratulations Anthony! I am in awe of what you have accomplished.

Anthony's amazing feat got me thinking about the number of calories burned during an Iron Man. So I did a little calculating. By my estimates, at my current weight and age, if I were to complete an Iron Man in under 10 hours, I would burn 12961
calories. I know there is no way I would be able to complete an Iron Man at my current weight and age. Heck, I don't think I'd be able to complete an Iron Man at any weight and age. But hyopthetical speaking, 12961 calories in 10 hours? That is insane!

To put it into perspective, last week from Friday to Wednesday I only ate 11261 calories.

So next time you see a triathlete nearing the finish line, don't give them a tiny paper cup filled with water, give them a ham and cheese hoagie with the works. They need it!

Speaking of Iorn Man, check out the Bad Plus version of Iorn Man sometime. You'll be amazed at how well Black Sabbath translates to jazz.

Tony
6/26: 269 lbs.
Goal: 220 lbs.
49 lbs. to go

A Symbolic Victory

I had kind of a rough weekend this weekend. For the most part I ate well and kept moving...and I continued to avoid snacking. Actually, the majority of the weekend was good. My meals were larger than they have been in the past few weeks but the were still relatively healthy. Lots of chicken, potatoes and salad.

The problem was Sunday morning. My lovely wife's family was in town, along with one of her oldest friends, so we decided to do brunch. We ended up at this great place called Ike's in downtown Minneapolis. I was cautious going in. I knew this would be my biggest challenge yet. But I was not prepared for what waited at the table.

As soon as we sat down, the waitress brought two caramel rolls that were literally as big as my head. And I mean that literally , literally! These caramel rolls were meant to feed 6 and they brought us two for our small party of 7. And two of those seven were toddlers! So I picked and picked and picked, and by the time it came to order I was starting to fell a little full and a lot guilty.

The brunch was heavily egg based, omelets, scrambled eggs, McMuffin type thingies. I am not a huge fan of eggs, except when my lovely wife makes them, so I choose to go a different route. I ordered the only other thing on the menu... a hamburger. For brunch. At 10:30 in the morning. At the time it seemed like a logical choice. I could both skip the eggs and avoid the temptation of the bottomless pancakes and hash browns.

Then, the burger arrived. It was massive! And the pile of fries was literally as big as my head. OK so this time I don't mean that literally, literally. But it was a gigantic mound of greasy, delicious fries.

Here is where the tiny, little symbolic victory comes in. I ate until I was stuffed and then I stopped. I left a quarter of my burger and a quarter of my fries sitting on the plate. Sure, I most likely consumed two days worth of calories in that one meal, but I didn't use that as an excuse to give up and finish the whole plate. And I was tempted. I had to give the plate to someone to move away from me so I would stop picking at the fries. But I did it!

In the past I would kept on eating, and I would have most likely kept on eating for the next three days, undoing all the good I have done in the past two weeks. Not this time! This time I am dedicated to eating well today and getting out for my walk, even though it's going to be 92 degrees and the air quality could kill small children. Despite all that I will walk today!

And that is my small victory. At some point today I will do my best to tally up my calories for the weekend, but regardless of what they say, I feel good this morning. Actually, I feel fat this morning, but I feel determined and that makes me feel good!

Tony
Tony
6/25: 269 lbs.
Goal: 220 lbs.
49 lbs. to go