why so little calories?

Just the way it turned out when I added everything up today. I certainly didn't feel unusually starved or anything.

As for a reason - possibly the fact that life is a little upside-down at the moment. Midnight shifts mess me up at the best of times, plus my wife is painting our daughter's room, and that is just throwing any kind of order out the window in our life right now.

Back on days tomorrow, and expect that things will start straightening up again.

April 10:

Not too bad, considering that I was working the midnight shift and everything is a bit chatoic. Also note that due to the night shift, today's entry also included the night before, and covers about 24 hourso f waking time.

Midnight shift - 2 wraps (whole grain torillas and deli roast beef, 1 with lt. cream cheese, 1 with hummus), 2 handfuls of mixed dry cereal and pretzels.

Brunch (more of an extended nibble session) - 1/2 a whole grain tortilla (daughter's leftovers) with lt cream cheese, 2 girl guide cookies, 1 piece of Purdy's chocolate (daughter got some easter goodies in the mail), 1.5 cups milk.

Supper - 2 wraps (whole grain tortillas, caesar dressing, cheddar cheese, tomato , lettuce, M&M chicken strips), 1/2 cup milk.

Cals: 2307

Main problem today was no fruit and very little vegetables, which often happens to me when life is chaotic, like on midnights. Must try to consciously eat more veg.

Exercise: I brought some 10lb dumbbells to work for extra stuff to do on night shifts. Did 4 sets of weights and calisthenics scattered throughout the night.

Set 1: 10 curls, 3x10 arnold presses, 10 lateral raises, 10 triceps extensions

Set 2: 3x5 lunges, 3x5 curls, 3x5 tricep kickbacks, 3x5 overhead presses

Set 3: 20 crunches, 20 shoulder shrugs, 10 bench dips, 2x20 squats

Set 4: 3x10 hammer curls, 10 arnold presses, 30 crunches

Before going to bed last nigth, I did 60 min. on the stationary bike.

Today is a day shift, so things should be more on track.

I should really get into calisthenics and weights... all cardio and no strength training makes Jack a floppy boy. Plus, muscle mass burns calories like crazy.

And it feels great.

I went on a similar odyssey back in 2005, and lost 40lbs in 4 months. In addition to watching my food intake, I was doing a lot of weight training, alternating with cardio and calesthenics. It really helped, I think. I know I felt really good, and was definitely a lot stronger, faster, more flexible and had greater stamina.

I'm not doing a lot of resistance training yet - still getting my body used to moving. Also, I sold most of my weights, and my custom built rack. All I kept was dumbbells ranging from 5 to 25 lbs.
Nordic walking gives me a bit of upper body exercise, and I also like to pound on the heavy bag for a nice all-over workout.

What exactly is Nordic Walking?

Nordic Walking is walking using 2 short poles (mine are 115cm long). You push through with the poles as you walk, which gets your whole body involved in the walking process. You get somewhat of an upper-body workout while you walk, it burns about 20% more calories on average than walking at the same speed, and it takes some of the stress off your knees.
It comes originally from Finland, where it was first used as a way for cross-country skiers to train during the off-season.

Admittedly, I feel a bit like a dork walking around with these poles, but at my weight I feel a bit like a dork just walking down the street, so no loss.

If I do it for about 45 min (at a speed of about 3.5mph), I can work up a sweat and I feel like I got a better workout than if I had just walked the same distance.

that kicks ass dude, bring your workout with you, hellz yeah.

Trying this again - seems like if I don't write and send my post in 5 minutes I get logged out and it eats my post. Grrrr.

April 11

A pretty good day today, I think. This was the first time I had less than total control of my food, but the food offered to me was good, so all is well.

Breakfast - 2 slices ww bread w/almond butter, 1 cup milk

Mid-morning snack - 1 orange

Lunch - roast beef sandwich w/lt cream cheese, big green salad

Mid-afternoon snack - 1 apple

Late afternoon indulgence - handful of M&M's and a little Easter candy - maybe 2oz total

Supper (at a friend's) - bowl of miso soup and 3 vietnamese wraps (rice noodle wraps with various combos of rice noodles, various vegetables, tofu and smoked salmon), 1 slice of some sort of spice cake.

I haven't entered it into FitDay yet (and the wraps will be a task to figure out), but looking at the list I'm happy with the day.

Exercise - 45 min nordic walking in the morning, and in the afternoon took my daughter to the playground for an hour or so (pushing her on the swing must burn _some_ calories, right?).

Today is Easter, and the challenge will be controlling my intake of cake after supper. Maybe I can get an extra workout in before bed.

Good news - a buddy and I are going to start playing tennis together when we get a chance. That's going to be great exercise, especially as I chase down all the balls I miss!

Happy Easter, everyone!

Took a bit of a holiday from posting over Easter, so I have a couple of days to catch up on. I don't feel like I did too badly overall, although I have yet to enter the last 3 days into FitDay as of yet.

April 12

Breakfast - 2 scrambled eggs, 1oz mennonite sausage, 4oz milk
Mid-morning snack - 1 orange
Lunch - 2 wraps (whole grain tortillas, roast beef, lt. cream cheese)
Afternoon snack - 1 apple, 1 cup dry cereal
Supper - I pan-fried (in a little cooking spray) some wild sockeye salmon w/herbs and admittedly pigged out on it (didn't weigh my portions but I'd say 8-10oz.), with 2 cups of mashed potatoes and some broccoli
Indulgences - made an Easter cake that night and cleaned both the batter and icing bowls. Also had a little Easter chocolate - maybe 1oz. Oops - almost forgot the 1/2 cup of ice cream.

Exercise - 10lb dumbbells and some calisthenics: I made a decision that day that whatever I did I would do 30 of, just to see if I could, and as a challenge.
Set 1:
30 curls
30 arnold presses
30 lateral raises
30 tricep extensions
30 lunges
5 minute rest
30 curls
30 tricep kickbacks
30 overhead presses
30 hammer curls
30 front raises
Then I took a 45-min break (I was at work, have to do some work, right?).
Set2:
30 pushups
30 squats
30 crunches
30 back raises
2x15 bench dips (couldn't do 30 straight - they're too hard)
15 minutes of fast office walking (office only big enough to take
13 steps before turning around)
It felt like a pretty darn good workout.

April 13:
Breakfast - 2 cups cooked steel-cut oats with 1tbs brown sugar, 1tsp white sugar in my tea
Lunch - 3 egg omelet with 1.5oz mennonite sausage, 3 large slices of honeydew melon
Supper - pasta primavera with the leftover salmon tossed in - it tasted amazing with the salmon added.
Indulgences through the day - 2.5 pieces of chocolate cake, 2 small handfuls of M&M's.

To make up for the cake, I did a heavy workout: 45 minutes of steady, unrelenting pounding on the heavy bag, followed by 45 minutes on the stationary bike. Damn near killed me.

I think I got through Easter without going too insane for the candy. I certainly made sure to get some good exercise in.

Easter candy is a killer.

But luckily we didn't buy any before I started this life change, so my wife only bought the one Reester Bunny for each of us, and that was it. There's no more easter candy in the house.

Sounds like you're still doing well. Keep up the good work!

One comment: did you make the three-egg omelet yourself? If you can, I recommend cutting just one yolk. You could even do two eggs and two whites, which is the same amount of food as a three-egg omelet, more or less, but with much less fat and cholesterol.

Of course, that's just a suggestion. Try it if you haven't before.

I'm struggling with motivation. You'd think that my progress would be a motivator, but I think I need some support. Seeing you do well helps.

I used to eat egg white omelets a few years back, I should indeed cut out the odd yolk.

And hey, we're here to inspire and support each other. You're eating well, you're getting good exercise in the gym - I think you are doing great. You keep at it!

Punched my food into FitDay for the last 3 days:

April 11: 2159 kcal
April 12: 2693 kcal
April 13: 2240 kcal

Yeah, I pigged out just a bit on the 12th - the combo of wild sockeye and Easter chocolate was too much to resist. Still didn't do too bad, though.

Considering my target of 2245 kcal, I'm keeping pretty much on track. Not to mention I worked out like a crazy person yesterday.

Thursday is my 2nd weigh-in. Interested in finding out how things are going.
I'm feeling good, my endurance is improved - will that translate into change on the scale?

Good luck with the weigh in! keep it up your doing really well!

That's doing pretty good for the easter w/e. Compare the @2600 "pig out" to what you may have pigged out on before you started looking at how you eat. It would be a lot more than 2600 I reckon!