A Quick Look Back

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Tony
7/12: 258.4 lbs.
Goal: 220 lbs.
38.4 lbs. to go

Weigh-In Week 5

258.4! That's what the scale said this morning.

I passed a couple of big milestones with this weigh-in. I am under 260 for the first time in a long time. Multiples of ten always feel more significant than other numbers. I am also 30 lbs. lighter than I was in January. Another milestone and another multiple of ten. I found an old resume from when I was acting. It's from 2004 and has my weight listed as 255. So that is my next milestone, getting back to the 2004 me.

This mornings weigh in makes it 21.6 lbs. lost in the past 5 weeks.

All the hard work is paying off. I especially love being rewarded for sacrifice. Skipping that pie on Wednesday night may not seem like a sacrifice to most of you, but to me it was a huge deal. Whether I was hunger or not, I wanted pie. I'm not saying I am never going to eat pie again, but on Wednesday night I was full and knew that I had already ate a lot of calories for the week and I found the willpower to skip the pie. And for that my scale said "good job little buckaroo."

Our big winner this week is D.C. Viking! Congrats Matt! If you were in town you would have won a free pitcher of Sangria served up cold on the patio. Since you are a long distance guesser, I'll be sending you something....umm fabulous. Let's call it a surprise, at least until I figure out what this weeks prize is. Unless you want to make another trip home this summer ?

Have a great weekend everybody and thank you for all the support. Just knowing people are following the journey makes the uphill climb so much easier!

Tony
7/12: 258.4 lbs.
Goal: 220 lbs.
38.4 lbs. to go

p.s. Don't forget you can now subscribe to this blog via e-mail.

Guess How Much I Weigh Conest - Week 5

I can't believe it is week five already! Time is flying by.

Last night was a lovely evening on the lake. The company outing turned out not to be as crazy as I expected. Instead of a dinner cruise it was an appetizer cruise and the appetizers were pretty well picked over within the first hour and a half. Which made it real easy for me to not over do it with the whole stuffing my face. It also helped that I stuck to my plan, I didn't worry about tracking what I ate and I stopped when I felt full. I even skipped the pie buffet! Now that is willpower.

As best as I can put it together this morning, I had 7 Cream Cheese Won Tons, 7 small chicken skewers, 3 plates of tortilla chips , 5 beers and 1 Seven and Seven... and I let my lovely wife drive home. The last two items are the reason I say "the best I can put it together. Actually it was spread out over the course of five hours, so that makes it a little better.

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 July 9th.
Walked: 8.86 miles

Calories Consumed: From Friday morning through Wed. night I have consumed aprox. 12578 calories.

Calories Burned: From Friday morning through Wed. night I have burned aprox. 24564 calories.

31% of my calories have come from fat.
10% of those calories came from Saturated Fats.

47% of my calories came from carbs.

19% of my calories came from protein.

Let the guessing begin. Good Luck!


Tony
7/12: 262.2 lbs.
Goal: 220 lbs.
42.2 lbs. to go

Subscribe Via Email

My mother has been asking me for a while how she can keep updated on my blog without having to keep checking the site all the time.

Mom this one's for you!

I finally found an email subscription service I like.

If you would like to receive updates from this blog via email, simply enter your e-mail address in the box to the right and click subscribe.

The service is provided by Feedburner, which is owned by Google, so it should be pretty safe.

Tony
7/11: 262.2 lbs.
Goal: 220 lbs.
42.2 lbs. to go

Recipe Wednesday

I can't believe it's recipe Wednesday already. This week you get:

Two Recipes For The Price Of One

We are doing recipes for the weekend this week. I have my company summer outing tonight, so there will be no cooking until Saturday. Thursday and Friday will be needed to recover from tonight's trip aboard the infamous Love Boat.

Tonight will be my biggest healthy lifestyle challenge yet. We tend to do things up big, which means the food and the drink will be flowing freely. Hopefully I can make some smart choices tonight. My plan is to enjoy the evening without worrying about watching what I eat and drink , but at the same time acknowledge when I am full and stop eating. We will see how it works.

Without further ado, I bring you:


Recipe Wednesday

Recipe 1:
This one is for my lovely wife. She has a long, hard week ahead of her and I think she'll deserve a little treat on Sunday morning.

Almond Blueberry Coffee Cake
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup toasted almonds, crushed
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup milk
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1-1/2 cups blueberries

Topping
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons almonds, chopped
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350F

2. To make batter, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl, whisking to mix. In a mixing bowl, combine sugar, almonds, olive oil, milk, eggs and lemon juice, beating until well blended. Gradually and the flour mixture and fold in blueberries.

3. Spray a 9-inch square pan with nonfat cooking spray and spoon batter into pan.

4. To make topping, combine ingredients in a small bowl and sprinkle over batter.

5. Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

6. Cool and serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 16 servings
Per serving: 166 calories, 3g protein, 22g carbohydrates, 1 g fiber, 8 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 67 mg sodium, 27 mg cholesterol


Recipe 2:
This one is for my new friend Em who has a drinking problem. It's the perfect summer sipper for those of us watching our tummy. If you are one of those Weight Watchers, it's only 2 points per glass...only 16 points per pitcher if you are mixing one up on a Friday or Saturday night.

Summer Sangria
2 cups rose wine
2 cups sugar-free lemon-lime soda
1/2 cup of brandy
1/2 cup of rum
2 apples, sliced
1/2 red grapes
1/2 cup green grapes
2 to 3 sliced limes

Mix all ingredients in a large glass pitcher. Add ice. Garnish each glass with a slice of lime.

Makes 8 servings.
Per serving: 129 calories, 0 g protein, 7 g carbohydrates, 1 g fiber, 0 fat, 13 mg sodium, o cholesterol

Both recipes are from Healthy Cooking Magazine

Don't forget to send me your healthy cooking recipes as well!!

Tony
7/11: 262.2 lbs.
Goal: 220 lbs.
42.2 lbs. to go

My Scale Is A Big Fat Jerk

I think our scale is possessed! At the least, it has a really bad sense of humor. We have one of these fancy digital scales that records weight losses and gains for up to four people. I am Person Two on this fancy scale. I assume my lovely wife is Person One, although I have never asked her. Hmmm. I hope someone isn't sneaking in to use our scale in the middle of the night, like some Brothers Grimm weight loss elf.

Anyway, for the the last three weeks our scale has been messing with my head. After pressing the person two button, I step on the scale and rejoice at the massive weight loss. Then I think to myself, "There is no way I lost 7 pounds again this week." So, I step off the scale, rezero it and step back on only to be smacked in the eyeballs with disappointment as the real weight is revealed. I can almost hear those little circuits laughing.

Last week the scale said 257 when I first stepped on. For a brief moment tears of joy started to well in my eyes... and then I remembered, stepped off the scale, took a deep breath and tried again.

The biggest problem with this whole scenario is it makes my very respectable losses of two and three pounds initially disappointing because I have been tricked into the false hope that I am some sort of super loser.

Curse you, you mean old scale.

Man I hope my scale doesn't read this. It might get ticked off and really start messing with me. And, if you are that Weight Loss Elf who has been using person one on my scale, you better keep your trap shut...or else!

Tony
7/10: 262.2 lbs.
Goal: 220 lbs.
42.2 lbs. to go

Weekend Wrap Up

Here is the view I woke up to every morning for the past five days. The lake was like glass everyday. As it turns out, little girls waking up at 6am does have it's advantages.

We had the girls feed by 7 and were on the water by 7:30am almost every morning. I got plenty of exercise behind the boat this weekend.


And I ate pretty well too. Here is what my Recipe Wednesday Spoon Bread looked like before we dug in on Saturday night.


Once again the Recipe Wednesday recipe was a big hit. I recommend trying it.




Here are last weeks weigh-in photos as promised. These were taken just minutes after getting off the lake from our first wake boarding session.














I know they're not pretty, but they are a lot prettier than they would have been 6 months ago.












My daughter Ellie helped me update the Blog this weekend. I blame all the spelling errors on her.











I am doing my best to promote an active lifestyle for my girls.










And to promote safe boating.








Tony
7/9: 262.2 lbs.
Goal: 220 lbs.
42.2 lbs. to go