The Wife Weighs In...Week 12

Good morning, GHMIW fans!

This week has been a good week. I feel like it's been the beginning of the next phase of my healthy living journey. I've really grown to love my time at the gym in the morning. Granted, I haven't gotten my strength training program off the ground, but the treadmill and I are becoming best friends.

I've spent over four hours on the treadmill over the last seven days and approximately 45 minutes of that time was spent running. That's right, I have been RUNNING! It's been no more than 10 minutes at a time but, trust me, bragging about running is not something I ever thought I would do.

Tony and I took the day off from work yesterday to get some Christmas shopping done. While out, we went to Banana Republic, a store in which I would normally never set foot. Here's why...

When a woman who wears a size 20 steps into a store like that, the sales associates take one look at her, assess her size, and conclude that she doesn't belong there and is not worth their time. Those of you who have never been plus-sized may think I am making it up or imagining things, but I have seen it happen time and again.

So, back to Banana Republic. Tony was looking at sweaters and a male associate was pointing out all the "promo items" in the men's section (apparently, Banana Republic does not have "sales," only "promos"). After he finished giving Tony his spiel, he looked at me and said, "And I can give you the run-down on the promos in the women's section if you venture over there."

This associate had looked at me, assessed my size, and concluded that I belonged there! I have to be honest, after he walked away and Tony went to the fitting room, I actually almost teared up.

On to my update...when I stepped on the scale yesterday morning, I was set up to have a sizable loss today. But, I went caroling last night with my music group (for those of you who don't know, I sing at our church's contemporary Mass every Sunday night) and we all went out for a little socializing afterwards. The caroling itself wasn't a problem, but the beer and the salty popcorn and the appetizers at 8:00 p.m. was a problem. So, I had a slight gain...but it's okay. It was worth it.

Have a great weekend!

Laura

My update:

12/07/2007: 191.6 pounds

12/14/2007: 192.4 pounds (a gain of 0.8 pounds)

Total loss: 36.0 pounds

New mini-goal: 182 pounds by February 1

7 weeks and 10.4 pounds to go

(YIKES! Challenging, but not insurmountable...I'll reassess next week)

The Weigh-In Week 27

What is up with that cheesy smile?

217.2! That's what it said on the scale this morning. A loss of 1.2 pounds!!!

214 here I come.

Here is my feel good story from yesterday.

My lovely wife and I took the day off to try and get all of our Christmas shopping done in one day. A task we almost succeed at.

We took a few minutes out of power shopping for others to do a little power shopping for ourselves at Banana Republic. Banana Republic is a store I have been in maybe once in my life . That trip lasted all of 3 minutes. I left once I realized the only thing in the place that would fit me was a $90 cashmere scarf.

This trip was a different story. I browsed around for a few minutes before a sales person approached. Being unaccustomed to the ways and fits of the "Republic", I asked the salesman about their sizing. I believe my exact words were, "Are your sweaters slim fitting?"

The salesman took a moment to size me up and then uttered these magic words.

"You look like you'd wear a large."

not. "Ha, Why would you want to know?"
-or- "They're too slim for you!"
-or- "You wouldn't even fit in to our Double XL"

Simply, "You look like a large."

And it was casual and nonchalant, not incredulous or surprised.

I was so overwhelmed at the world of choice now open to me that I left the store without purchasing anything. I am having to readjust my whole fashion world view. This is going to take sometime. But fear not Banana Republic I will return... and soon, there is this slim fitting red zip up sweater that I have my eye on. Size large please.

This weeks winner is Teresa. Teresa nailed it with the first guess of the day. Nicely done Teresa. Only 9 votes this week. Nearly their for a prize ...but not nearly enough.

How about this for this weeks prize, you all win my thanks and gratitude for helping me get through a big week. Pretty good prize, huh?

Have a great weekend everybody.

Tony
12/14: 217.2lbs
Goal: 220 lbs. ACCOMPLISHED
NEW GOAL: 214
3.2 lbs. to go

Guess How Much I Weigh Contest - Week 27

I feel good about this week! What could have been a disastrous let down after last weeks triumph is shaping up to be another victory.

I successfully avoided the mounds of holiday temptations at the office this week. In fact the last 3 days have been some of my lowest calorie days in a month. On top of that I worked my butt of in the gym these last 3 days. I didn't make another 5k today but I did kick the speed up a half mile an hour and still made 1.5 miles before my legs gave out.

Regardless of what the scale says I am proud of the way this week has gone. No resting on my laurels for me.

Thanks for all the congrats and encouragement this week. It continues to do wonders for keeping me on track.

Check out the awesome congrats vid my buddy Scott sent me. Does that sentence make me sound like a 14 year old?


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. The winner is the first person who guesses my weight / weight loss for the week without going over or the person who is closest without going over. 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 December 10th.
Walked / Ran: 11.5 miles

Calories Consumed: From Thursday morning through Wednesday. night I have consumed aprox. 13937 calories.

Calories Burned: From Thursday morning through Wednesday night I have burned aprox. 26397 calories.

38% of my calories have come from fat.
12% of those calories came from Saturated Fats.

46% of my calories came from carbs.

16% of my calories came from protein.

Let the guessing begin. Good Luck!

Tony
12/13: 218.4lbs
Goal: 220 lbs. ACCOMPLISHED
NEW GOAL: 214
4.4 lbs. to go

p.s. Don't forget you can subscribe to the e-mail edition of Guess How Much I Weigh . Simply enter your e-mail address in the space to the right.

Another Milestone

Ha-Ha! Get it ? It's a pun. "Milestone" and this post is about me running.

Sorry you don't know what this post is about yet do you?

I RAN FOR 3.1 MILES YESTERDAY.

I know I am shouting. I'd do it from the roof top if they hadn't barred the door after that unfortunate naked bird watching incident this summer.

I made my first ever 5K yesterday. Way ahead of schedule. I guess I am trying to cram all the victories in before the end of the year.

I still can't believe it. I ran for 34 minutes straight...without even stopping once. It may not seem like a big deal, but to me it's like I've accomplished the impossible dream. This is my Everest.

Now I have to build up to running 5K consistently and work on upping the speed a little. All in good time.

Another nice thing happened yesterday. A friend gave me a gift to celebrate reaching my goal. I hope she knows what a wonderful gift it was. It was the perfect thing at the perfect time.

I am on a precipice here. This week is going to be a busy one, full of lots of temptations. All ready our office is stuffed to the rafters with holiday gifts from clients and vendors. All most all of them involve popcorn or chocolate or both. Plus I am going to have to go out of my way to get 3 of my workouts in this week, a situation that would make it very easy for me to skip working out all together.

But thanks to a simple act of kindness I'm not worried anymore about getting through the week. It was a reaffirmation of what I have worked so hard to accomplish and it made me realize how much I don't want to disappoint all the friends that have come along for this ride... and how much I don't want to disappoint myself.

That simple act of kindness was the inspiration I needed to push through to 3.1 miles yesterday and to push away handfuls of popcorn and chocolate and cookies.

I plan to be a very good boy this week. I want next Friday to be as happy as this past Friday was. Heck I want the rest of my life to that happy!

Tony
12/11: 218.4lbs
Goal: 220 lbs. ACCOMPLISHED
NEW GOAL: 214
4.4 lbs. to go

Cookie In Hand

This weekend I narrated a Christmas concert at my church. Afterward, there was a very nice candlight reception with punch and fancy Christmas cookies. There were a lot of people there that I hadn't seen in a while , so a lot of folks were shocked at the new, slimmer me.

It felt good to have a night of compliments and gushing after reaching my first goal. It kind of brought everything full circle.

Except... every single time someone came up to compliment me on the weight loss, I had just taken a bite of Christmas cookie.

Which lead to this exchange.

Complimenter: "Wow you look great. How did you do it.?"

Me: (With mouth full of cookie) "Watched what I ate and exercised."

I can't imagine the answer was to convincing as cookie crumbs flew from my mouth.

Sadly I kind of over did it on the cookies that night. But I redeemed myself with just two small cookies after Sundays performance.

I guess that's not really redeeming myself is it? I probably should have skipped the cookies all together. Just more proof that reaching the goal is only half the battle.

Tony
12/10: 218.4lbs
Goal: 220 lbs. ACCOMPLISHED
NEW GOAL: 214
4.4 lbs. to go