Weight Check: 255
Current eating habits: 1 power bar 8 oz. chicken, 2 slices bread,
Date started: 07/09/02
Exercise: Jogging 1 mile (2 down, 2 back: 20:15)
Mistakes: None

While it is true that I really shouldn't be eating all this food, I don't think it is all that detrimental to my diet. Today, however, marks the end of my weekend so I'll be going back to power bars and fruit while I'm working. All I can say is I hope I've built a lot of muscle this weekend.

Actually, I'm sure I've built a lot of muscle this weekend. My thighs are bulging with muscle. Ok, so it's just a mosquito bite, but it is getting a lot easier to jog. Yesterday marks my first real time, and it's pretty close to my estimate, but I'm actually of the opinion that I was slower than usual. Maybe I can improve on that time today. I remember this point when I was jogging earlier in the year: instead of stopping because my legs get too tired, I stop jogging because I am too winded. I suppose now would be a good time to quit smoking. Hmmm.

Today also marks the day that I officially consider putting a little variation into my routine. By variation I mean I'm considering an upper body workout now as well as jogging. I haven't decided if I'll be doing it in addition to jogging, or if I'll be alternating between the two. I like the idea of doing both, but I'm worried about whether that will cause me to quit doing both. Well, whatever happens I'm going to keep on jogging.

As for the food portion of my diet, well I'd like to think that I'm not losing weight because I'm gaining muscle, but it's hard to think that. I have been eating pretty fattening foods, but I think for the most part that it is staying within "parameters." In other words I think if I was eating like this normally, I wouldn't be gaining weight. But it's not exactly diet faire. Well maybe things will speed up with the coming work week (They'd better. Or else).

Weight check: 254
Current eating habits: 1 power bar, 1 hot dog, 1 slice pizza, 1 piece cake
Date started: 07/09/02
Exercise: Jogging 1 mile (2 down 3 back: 20 min)
Mistakes: See above

Boy I sure suck at dieting when I'm hanging out with friends. What are they doing leaving out free pizza and cake for me anyways? Jeez! What happened was I went over to Kelcey's house and found out that his mom brought home some food from a party, and it all smelled so good. So I ate some food there since I didn't have any of my food with me. That was the main reason I chose a diet like this, too, so I could bring this stuff with me anywhere. Then we stopped at this meat market thing, and I got a polish sausage. Bad me! and yet somehow I managed to lose a pound. I guess when I get right down to it, I only ate about 2000 calories, it's just that it was mostly fat, and that's what bugs me.

I'm doing better and better with jogging. My legs don't hurt any more, and yesterday I jogged further and stopped less than before. The way the routine goes is I go half a mile down the trail and then turn around. Yesterday I stopped twice down, and 3 times on the way back. I should probably keep track of this at the top as well. When I first started jogging, I stopped like 4 times each way at least. I think I'll add that today to the Exercise section...

Whatever it was I ate last night really played hell with my system. I'm inclined to think it was the pizza slice I ate, because it has cheese on it (I'm lactose intolerant, you uncaring bastard). But it got me thinking about what I eat. At first I thought maybe it was the Polish Sausage, because it was meat, and I haven't eaten meat (at least not red meat) in awhile. This diet effectively makes me a vegetarian, hell it makes me a vegan. Hahahaha I find that really funny for some reason! I am sooo not a vegan in any way at all, yet here I am not eating red meat or dairy products. I guess what this really means is that when I do go off my diet (whether by design or by accident) I'll have to take this as one more factor in deciding what to eat. Not because I have an "image" to uphold, but because it just wouldn't be worth the pain.

Well, it's time to go jogging, hopefully I can increase my time, and decrease my stops. Hmm I think I'll add time to that section, too. today will be a generic time, but hey, it's a start...

Weight check: 255
Current eating habits: 1 fruit, 1 chili dog, 1 bag chips, 1 potato
Date started: 07/09/02
Exercise: None
Mistakes: See above

As you can see, last night was a lot like last saturday. A lot worse, actually. I'm just guessing, but I think I ate around 1700 calories yesterday. Not a terrible number, but look at my choices in food. Cursed German hot dogs, grrr. Oh well.

I also didn't go jogging yesterday, but my legs are still thanking me for that. they feel a lot better today, but won't in about an hour, because I'm going jogging again right after this. I seem to recall hearing somewhere that jogging everyday isn't good for you because you don't give your body time to build the muscles. Too bad. I think the best way keep myself jogging is to do it every day I can. Otherwise I might stop.

Speaking of stopping, it looks like I've stopped losing weight again. Obviously, there's a reason I didn't lose any weight yesterday, but it is still dissapointing nonetheless. Oh well, I'm still confident that I will overcome. After all, the numbers bear me out. I'm eating about 1000 calories a day, my body needs about 2600 (3200 if the numbers are to be believed, but I want to stay conservative. Ha, not many times you'll hear me say that!), so I should be losing a pound every other day or so. Not a world record, but a good speed nonetheless.

Bear with me as I run through some numbers here real quick. I'm 255, I'd like to get down to 195, so that means sixty pounds, which is (3500x60) 210,000 calories (that's hot). so if I'm doing this at a 1600 calorie/day loss, losing 6 days a week, then it's going to take me 131 "diet" days to lose all that weight, which is 21 3/4weeks. Ouch! if I go by the 2200 calorie/day loss losing 6 days a week, then it's 17 1/2 weeks. hmm that's not much better. lets see that works out to over 5 1/2 and 4 months respectively. but if experience bears me out, I lost 15 lbs in 10 days. drop that down to a pound a day, that means that I will be down to 195 in 60 days. that's 2 months, a much better number. Unfortunately I doubt that that will happen. It will probably be somewhere between 3 and 4 months, if I'm lucky. But then again as I get down to 225-215, that calorie loss number will also drop to probably around 1400 or 1800. Not to mention the fact that I'm gaining muscle too. Definitely an interesting game.

Which brings me to my next point. I'm really glad I'm doing this journal. It's doing exactly what it's supposed to do, which is keep me motivated. Whenever I think about going off my diet, I think "Man, then I have to post it in the journal, and this'll be staring me right in the face every time I look at it." Plus I can look back and see what I did, and how fast I'm losing weight. It's a great tool, and I highly recommend to anyone who has a long, arduous task ahead of them.

~N