10 in 10 - Mission Accomplished! (Kind of)

Roughly 10 weeks ago I started a diet. The goal was to lose 10 pounds in 10 weeks. A pound a week should be pretty easy right?

From the start I knew I wouldn't have the time or discipline to workout consistently enough to see results so I had to be diligent with counting calories. I hear now that is the hard way to do it.

Anyways, I downloaded an app on my blackberry called 'MyFitnessplan' to help me out. Nearly every day, I kept track of what I ate using the MyFitnessPlan app. Based on my starting weight and my goal, I was only allowed to eat 1,700 calories a day. 1,70o calories!! I can do that in one meal EASY. I can do 2,000 calories in 10 minutes. Not kidding.

So I weighed myself once a week every Monday morning. My starting weight 187. Friends that haven't seen me in awhile would be shocked to hear that I was 187 (actually hit 200 a few years ago). For most of my life though (High school to about 6 years ago) I weighed 155 and was trying to gain weight.

I jumped out the gates fast! After week one I was down to 185.4. This is going to be easy!

Week 2 - 184.8

Week 3 - 183.0 I'm on a roll 4 lbs in 3 weeks.

Week 4 - 183.2 Screeeeeeeeeeeeech!! What the hell? This would be a good time to point out that my scale is not always accurate. I can weigh in twice within seconds and come up with two very different results. I'm thinking it wasn't accurate in week 3.

Week 5 - 182.2 Back on track!

Week 6 - 181.4

Week 7 - 179.2

Week 8, 9, 10 - ?

What happened you ask? I stopped losing weight!! I got so frustrated, I stopped keeping track.

Actually I was still losing weight, just very slow. I think I hovered around 179 in weeks 8 and 9 and I got down to 178 by the end of week 10.

I didn't complete the mission in 10 weeks, but I didn't give up and 5 days later I weighed in at 176.8. Sweet!

Mission Accomplished!

Even though the goal was to get down to 177, my real goal was just to get down to 180. That may be why the weight lose slowed down when I got under 180. Lost the motivation.

Now that I'm under 180, I kind of want to try for 175. 5 in 5 starts next Monday!! (I will have gained 3 lbs by next Monday because I've been eating like a pig).

Ciao!

2010 New Years Resolutions - 1 month to go

Failing!!!

Fore!!

I can tell by my girlfriends' face after she reads my blogs that she is wondering why I don't talk about her more. In order to avoid sleeping on the couch, I will do that in this blog. But first...I have some other things to get to.



Minutes after posting my last blog, I received my new golf bag. (Amazon pulled through!) I didn't need a new bag, but there is a reason for the purchase. A few months ago I was at a sporting goods store in the golf section looking at some iron sets. The Calloways and Adams sets were cool, but I fell in love with the Mizunos. I don't remember the model. I only remember that when I picked them up, they felt right. I decided then, my next set of clubs will be Mizunos. I don't, however, feel like I'm good enough yet to own them. So, I set a goal for myself. Once I am able to hit under 100, I will get myself a new set of Mizuno irons. For motivation, I bought a Mizuno golf bag to remind me of the task. I'll get there this summer.



To help me accomplish this goal, I have a new Golf Instructor. I had an instructor early last year, but I didn't get much from him. He was trying to teach me his 'specialty' swing. I think he called it the 'tornado' or 'hurricane'.... Or maybe it was the 'tsunami'. I don't remember. All I do remember is that I was not progressing at all. (Was is called the 'twister"?) Anyways, late last year I switched to Stacy Mapel a certified PGA Instructor. After only one lesson with Stacy I was swinging better than the 3 hours of lessons with the previous guy. Stacy is great! He tapes my swings at the end of the lesson with a high speed camera so I can watch it at home later and compare it to my previous lessons or pro golfer's swings. When I go a long stretch without a lesson, I can catch up pretty quick just by watching the last lesson video and listening to the commentary. Anyway, if you live in Dallas/Fort Worth area I highly recommend contacting Stacy for lessons at stacymapel.com. You won't regret it. I have no doubts he will help me start hitting in the 90's.



If my road to hitting under 100 is too boooring for you, follow pro golfer John Raser on his journey to the PGA Tour. John is fun to follow on twitter (@johnraser) and he has an interesting website and blog (gospeedraser.com). Holla! If anything, read his February 19th blog and see if you can contribute in any way.



Alright, That was too much golf for one blog. There was something else I was supposed to talk about. My diet! My diet is temporarily on hold because my mom is in town. I can't say no to real German cooking right? I've consumed more carbs and sugar in the past 3 days than I did all of February. I'll have to start making up for that starting this Sunday. My weight goal is in sight.


There was one other thing I was supposed to talk about. Oh well, guess I'll get to it next time.

Later.


P.S. Sleeping on the couch isn't that bad. :-(

New Year, 1st Blog, Old Resolutions

I've always wanted to start a blog, but never had the time to write one. Not to mention I'm a horrible writer. What better time than now though, because the girlfriend is at work, the baby is asleep and it's the first day of 2010!

2009 went by fast! When filling out dates on paperwork at my job, sometimes I still write 2008. 2009 wasn't too bad of a year for me. I didn't get laid off, didn't catch H1N1 (knock on wood), didn't foreclose on my home. I wasn't too excited about who was elected President, but that's a blog for another day. My biggest failure for 2009 was that I failed to accomplish most of my New Years Resolutions.

My first New Years Resolution for 2009 was to Lose Weight and Get in Shape. Around this time I believe I weighed around 194 pounds. My goal was to get between 180 and 185. This Morning I weighed 191. Mission failed! I know I can accomplish this goal. It's not something out of reach or unattainable. I just need to workout and ease up on the food. I have a 24 hour fitness membership ($99 a year) that I never use. Never! As far as the food, I admit I have an addiction. It doesn't help that I live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. There are so many very good restaurants in this area. The DFW area definitely does not get enough credit for it's restaurant offerings. I'm rolling over this resolution for 2010. Get In Shape and get my weight down under 185.


Next for 2009, I wanted to improve my poker game. My goal was to just get in more playing time to improve my overall game. Poker is just a hobby to me, but it's a hobby I really enjoy. I played less poker in 2009 than I have in the past 3 years. What happened? A little thing called having a baby happened. With a new baby of course I had to make some sacrifices and poker was one of them. Towards the end of 2009 I started to get back on the felt a little and I plan on increasing that a bit in 2010. I'm not officially going to include Improving my poker game as a 2010 Resolution, but I will always thrive to improve.


This is a big one and the only one I was successful at accomplishing. Become debt free (except for mortgage)! A couple of years ago I read Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. It changed my way of thinking. I followed his program and as of December 2009 I have no debt outside of my mortgage. The last debt I paid off was my student loan. It felt great! I don't ever plan on getting in a situation again where I have credit card or any debt other than the mortgage.


The final New Years Resolution for 2009 was to improve my Japanese. This one hurts, because it doesn't just affect me. I have a daughter who lives with her Mother in Japan. She can't speak English anymore and I speak very little Japanese. I visit her every year in Japan and we occasionally speak on the phone. When I visit we do fine because we find a way to communicate. But for the other 51 weeks a year when we are just talking on the phone it's tough. I don't understand most of what she is saying and She doesn't understand most of what I'm saying. In 2008 I tried to take some Japanese lessons at the Fort Worth Japanese Society, but all we did was read through a book. I can do that on my own. I need to practice speaking. In 2009, I didn't do much studying at all. It's tough to learn a language on your on, but I'm going to trying harder in 2010. I really need to find a Japanese person (preferably a male so my girlfriend doesn't trip) that I can meet up with and practice speaking. We'll see. This is definitely a Resolution added to the 2010 list.


So here are my New Year's Resolutions for 2010:

1. Improve speaking in Japanese
2. Get in Shape, Get under 185 pounds (I always lump these two into one)
3. Improve Golf game (My addiction for Golf is stronger than my addiction for food)
4. Keep Blog going (At least two blogs a month)


-Tony


P.S. I'm not a very good writer. If you notice errors in any of my blogs, just let it be. I will not be proof reading them. I will quickly type them up, run a spell check and publish.