Weighing In Again

A few months ago I talked about wanting to lose some weight. My maximum weight since the beginning of 2007 was 195lbs. Now, I'm 5'11" so I was carrying the amount I was overweight pretty well. Still, I didn't like dancing that close to 200 and decided to do something about it.

First, and foremost, I really focused on counting my calories to stay under 2000 a day. That meant making some dietary switches.

I went through the regular soda 12-packs that were in the garage (Coke and Pepsi) and switched over to a zero calorie drink instead - Coke Zero. I know, a zero calorie is a diet soda but for years I never liked the taste of diet sodas. Coke Zero, however, tastes much closer to original Coke than Diet Coke does, so making the switch wasn't so hard on my tastebuds. Now, instead of one can of regular soda a day I drink one can of Coke Zero, lopping 150 calories off my bottom line right there. While it is a little bit, over a week's time it'll add up.

The next change was in my sandwich for lunch. I switched over from PB&J on white-wheat bread to a turkey sandwich on wheat bread. The turkey is thinly sliced and I only use two pieces (less than a serving). I put in a low-fat cheese slice and use very little (a thin slide across the bread) low-fat mayonaise - just enough for the flavor. I could even throw in the occasional lettuce or tomato slices if we have them fresh in the house. I'm probably pulling in the same amount of calories here, but it is more healthy for me in a lot of ways. So, another good change.

I've also made sure to add in three pieces of fruit to my lunch box for through out the day. Coupled with drinking only water at work, that's also helping me more.

With dinners, we're really trying to eat a lot more healthier as a family. More vegetables are on tap for each meal. Meat portions are scaled back in serving sizes, and we often do a lot cooking of those in our George Foreman Grill (again, to let the fat run off).

All these changes seem to be helping. Over the past month or so I've had a pretty steady drop in the weight on the scale. As of this week, I'm sitting at 185lbs - which is only ten pounds off the goal I had for next summer (I wanted to be at least at 175lbs or less for my 25th High School reunion). The challenge, naturally, is getting through the holiday season coming up - when it seems like there is a lot of parties and celebrations with food involved. That's where will-power, heavy monitoring of portion control, and perhaps a few extra exercise sessions per week are going to come into play. The nice thing is that the weather is going to start cooling off soon (hopefully - who needs temps in the 90's in October?) and that means I can do some laps around the parking lot during lunch at work to help burn a little here and there.