The Great Outdoors

Ahhh, the great outdoors! Had a much-needed change of pace this weekend. I packed up the ol' family cruiser, and took my three little boys camping this weekend. Just dad and the boys. I'm not a big outdoorsy-type, but I have to say, this trip was exactly what I needed. For forty-eight whole hours I didn't need to go anywhere, do anything, worry about what anything costs, look at a computer, or think about my diet!

What we did do was:

Built campfires!

Looked for bugs!

Swam in the pond!

Frolicked in the river!

...and generally goofed around.

Dang, we had the rootin'est, tootin'est greatest time we've had in a long time.

Anyway as far as the diet goes, I fared pretty well. We did, after all, have to eat:

I am proud to say we did not persist merely on hot dogs and marshmallows (well, the kids may have). No sirree, I packed some sensible vittles for this outing. Friday night was campfire-roasted chicken sausages (yum!). Saturday breakfast was whole wheat cranberry muffins, bananas, and oranges. Lunch was peanut butter and jelly. And dinner was a low-fat ziti and broccoli with cheese sauce (very tasty recipe from the Alli cookbook). We did attend a pancake breakfast on Sunday, but hey I'm not sweatin' it. Meanwhile and needless to say, I got my share of "movement" throughout the weekend - hauling gear, climbing hills, and generally chasing after the kids all weekend.

All in all things are cookin' along here just fine. My next weigh-in is Wednesday, we'll see if those pancakes went straight from the lips to the hips or not...

We Have Liftoff

Well here I am, it's launch day. Day 1. The Big Drop officially begins today.

Above is the obligatory "before" picture. This shot was taken 2 weeks ago whilst I was on vacation with the fam in upstate New York. Fortunately it's not a full body shot, so it shouldn't crash your browser. One can clearly see the massive second chin and missing neck, indisputable evidence of my fatness. At some point I will take the embarrassing and hideous full body bathing suit before shot, to be promptly encrypted with a secret password nobody will ever know until I am wicked buff and can reminisce about my "old" self. Conveniently our camera is busted at the moment (there is a God) so that photo will not be weighing down my hard disk anytime soon.

I'm feeling good. I've got my food plan totally set - menu done, shopping done, everything locked and loaded. This is key for me. From past experience I know, the NANOSECOND I open the fridge or the pantry not PRECISELY sure what I'm looking for, I'm TOAST. I know myself. Browsing leads to tasting leads to grazing leads to a major problem. With a plan (i.e. a menu), I'm safe. If it ain't on the plan, I ain't eatin it. Hungry? No problem, I know when and what my next meal is. I'm good.

Exercise plan is still not totally baked. The crabby manager at my old club wanted to charge me a $199 "joining fee" to resume my membership, which - by the way - I had only cancelled THREE MONTH AGO. I asked her if they could waive the fee - she said they'd reduce it to $99 bucks. Sorry, not doing it, on principle. Health clubs perplex me. Here I am ready to pay them $75 bucks a month and having been a member in good standing (really good from their perspective: I paid my dues and never went!!!) and they want to rip me off. Forget that, I'll go to Gold's for $44 a month and no joining fee. Gold's isn't as cushy but who needs cushy, I'm there to sweat, right? Anyway I'll get this on track later this week. Friday. I'll do it Friday.

By the way, I did my first official weigh-in this morning. Dumb stupid scale registered 330 pounds. Remember all that stuff I said a couple days ago about scales? Forget that, this frickin scale is evil. Anyway whatever I'm not going to get hung up on it. 330 it is. Get ready to rumble...