Memoirs of a Soon-to-Be Former Fat Guy

Upcoming challenges… it sounds a lot worse than it is.

Let’s look at what’s coming up.

First off, its tomorrow’s picnic and the abundance of picnic food. Especially as I have a cousin who invariably brings a tray from the Philly Pretzel Factory. Pretzels have long been a weakness for me… especially soft pretzels. In the bad old days, I’d eat an entire box of Superpretzels in one sitting. The ironic thing is that I wouldn’t use the salt packets… guess I was trying to be healthy or something. Probably something. I’m lucky in that I’m not a huge fan of potato salad and the like. Not quite enough carbs, I suppose. Not sure what’s on the menu, but I will do my level best to stay the course.

Next week I’ll be struggling to do five days a week at the gym. I know I’m going to have motivation issues… I always do. Luckily, Ryan has pointed out a little fact. If you tell yourself you’re just going to do a little, you more times than not will wind up doing the work you normally do. And besides, even if you do an abbreviated workout, you still have done more than you would have done otherwise.

Speaking of workouts, I did get to the gym today, as did Supportive Partner Woman (queen of the crossramp!). There were a few changes to the facility, but the equipment is still where it was. I started on a CrossRamp with fixed handlebars. I’m not a huge fan, but the ones with moving handlebars were occupied. I did five minutes as a warm up, then went to the arc trainer for another five. I noticed that the regular ellipticals were open and did another ten minutes before moving over to the weight room. I worked my chest and shoulders, but managed to throw in some back and leg work as well. All told, about 50-60 minutes and it felt pretty good.

Afterward, SPW (and I headed home and I watered the plants outside, then threw together a couple of veggie pizzas for lunch. These are so easy to make and they are pretty tasty. I take two of the FlatOut Italian wraps, some pizza sauce, a little mozzarella, and cut up some Roma tomato and green pepper. Put the flatbread in the oven for five minutes at 350, take it out, spread two tablespoons of sauce and around 1/4 cup of mozzarella. Sprinkle with the cut vegetables and throw it back into the oven for five more minutes. You have a tasty lunch coming in at around 200 calories. Not too shabby. Actually, between that lunch and my bowl of cereal and banana for breakfast, I was at negative calories for the morning. Oddly, I didn’t feel too hungry.

This brings me to the final challenge. As many know, I’m pretty addicted to Diet Pepsi. I managed to get from six bottles a day down to two. I’m going to try to wean myself off of it completely in the next couple of weeks. See, Dr. Ku and Dr. McPhee mentioned that studies have shown for whatever reason, both Diet Pepsi and Diet Coke seem to stimulate the appetite. Not saying that’s my only issue, but it’s worth a shot. Until I can get to total water, I’ve been drinking Propel Zero and little pouches of 4C. I love these things and have recently turned SPW (drinker of caffeinated beverages!) on to the half and half. Between that and the Propel, I’m doing better on my beverages, plus, since the 4C is sweetened with Splenda, I don’t need to worry about the aspartame melting my brain any more than it already has.

Anyways, that’s all I have for you this evening. Hope to report back over the weekend on how my face off with the picnic food went.

Have a great weekend