Further updates:

On April 18 (the Boston Pizza day) I managed to only take in 2308 kcal. And I busted my butt that day and burned an extra 1000 to still put me at a 1700 kcal deficit for the day.

On April 19 I took in 2220 kcal, and burned enough for a 1300 deficit.

All continues to go well, I think.

Wooo, congrats! Of course, these are just the first few weeks of the rest of our lives, right? We're getting used to our new habits still, but in a few months, we should be golden.

it is awesome to see all the tickers go down. and that were really committed to this! well done and keep it up!

April 20

Had a really good day yesterday, feel quite happy about it.

Started by getting up an extra hour early before work, to get 45 min on the stationary bike. The during work I took my lunch break to get 30 min of nordic walking.

Breakfast - steelcut oats with agave nectar

Snacks throughout workday - 1 banana, 1 orange, 2 cups dry cereal, 1/4 cup almonds

Was hungry after work so I got home and had 2 graham wafers and 2oz of deli roast beef

Supper was whole wheat spaghetti in tomato sauce with organic grass-fed ground beef, and a small salad. Most excellent - I piled my traditional serving size (lots!) on the plate, got half-way through it and decided I was full. Put the rest away for supper at work tonight. Score one for restraint!

My wife made corn muffins (yum!) later that night and I had one with a little margarine as an evening snack.

Total kcal 2091 - no worries.

With the exercise I had this day I am in a happy place.

Not the best day. I overate, but I overate _mostly_ good foods. Calories were high, but only one thing was a really poor choice.

Breakfast - steelcut oats with agave nectar and hemp seeds, 1/4 cup milk

Midmorning snack -A&W Mama Burger, no cheese (yeah, I had a weak moment)

Lunch - 3-egg omelet with cheese, smoked salmon, and pan-fried potatoes
(potatoes in the omelet, not on the side, so not too much - 1/2 cup), 2 slices rye toast w/butter

Afternoon snack - handful of dry cereal

Supper- big heap of raw veggies (1 tomato, 1 carrot, 2 celery stalks, 1/3 cucumber), and a huge pasta feed (whole wheat spaghetti with tomato sauce and grass-fed ground beef).
Remember yesterday when I restrained myself from the massive pasta feed? Well, restraint was out the window today. I ate the whole damn thing.

I took in 2622 kcal, which is almost 400 over my target.
I'll survive, but I do have to be more careful. That one fast-food burger made all the difference between an on-target day and a way-over day.

I busted my ass a bit on the mat to make up for it.

Exercise - 45 min walk in the morning

At work I tried to push myself with the calisthenic-type stuff. I decided to keep trying to do pushups until failure in-between the other things I was doing:

Set 1: 30 pushups
30 squats
15 pushups
50 crunches
15 pushups
50 back raises
15 pushups
15 bench dips
15 bench dips
Tried pushups again after this and failed on the 2nd one.

Set 2: (2 hours later, with the 10lb dumbbells) - tried to make it a little harder by doing sets of 15 instead of 10
2x15 arnold presses
2x15 curls
2x15 front raises
2x15 tricep kickbacks
2x15 overhead presses
2x15 hammer curls
2x15 tricep extensions
2x15 lateral raises
2x15 dumbbell punches
2x15 lunges (those were quite difficult to finish)

So I still kept myself in over a 1000 kcal deficit, but it would have been better without the stupid burger.

i ate some fresh salmon over the weekend. potent.

did you know it aids in fighting off depression, well its more like the omega 3's but yeah.

anywho, you are doing good sir. great work fo shizzle.

Weighed in this morning.

I only lost one pound this week.

But any loss is good.

I guess those cancel each other out to leave me in a neutral place.
I know that my diet has been off, and I have to get that straightened out. Less starchy carbs, less fat, more protein and vegetables.

Once I finish breakfast I'm going to have to break out the poles and go do some serious nordic walking.

April 22

We're going to call this The Day I Ate Mostly Starch.

Breakfast - 2 scrambled eggs, 3 slices rye toast with butter and peanut butter, pan-fried potatoes
Late morning snack - corn muffin w/margarine, 1 cup milk
Early afternoon snack - 7 perogies, 1 cup corn, 1 tbs butter
Supper - Save-On chicken pie, potato wedges
Evening snacks - 1 apple, 1 orange
Before bed - 20g chocolate

Exercise - 30 min walk in the morning.
At work, I tried to push the calisthenics a bit:
Set 1:
30 pushups
40 squats
20 pushups
60 crunches
20 pushups
60 back raises
20 pushups
10 toe touches (I can touch my toes!)

I'm really noticing some improvement in the number of pushups, crunches, etc that I can do now. Three weeks ago I could only do 10 pushups. Last night I did a total of 90 (not all at once, but doing other exercise in-between).

Set 2: (an hour later, with the 10lb dumbbells)
2x15 curls
2x15 overhead presses
2x15 lateral raises
2x15 tricep extensions
2x15 lunges
2x15 hammer curls
2x15 arnold presses
2x15 tricep kickbacks
1x15 front raises
1x15 hammer-grip front raises
2x15 punches

Tonight I may bring the 15's and try them out to see.

Edit: punched it into FitDay, which says I ate 2694 kcal (450 over my target), and burned 3753 kcal. I clearly overate, and too much fat and carbs.

April 23

Has a really awful day today. I had to have my cat put down (he had been fighting inoperable stomach cancer for the last 5 months), and got some extra unpleasantness dumped on me at work last night. So I'm not in a good emotional place right now.

Breakfast - steelcut oats with agave nectar and hemp seeds, 1 cup milk

Lunch - 3 pieces ryvita crispbread with light cream cheese, 1/4 cup milk

Supper/snacks - (I kind of grazed my way through my shift at work last night, rather than eating discrete meals) - a Subway 12" chicken teriyaki sub (had half at 5:30 and the other half at 7:00), 2 carrots, 2 stalks celery, an apple and an orange.

Late night stress reliever - buffalo burger patty and a slice of bread w/butter, 1/2 cup milk

Exercise - day started good (before I took the cat in), and ended with me just not feeling up to much.

Took a 30 in walk with my wife in the morning, then went nordic walking for an hour on a nice walking trail. The trail markers say I went 5 miles in one hour, but I find that hard to believe. That would mean that I was walking at 5mph! I know I was really going at it, but that seems way too fast. Maybe the markers are off and I was only going 4mph. Felt good though, and I did break a good sweat and get my heart rate going pretty good.

At work, I wasn't feeling so good. I just had ot cut back a little on the calisthenics compared to what I did yesterday. I may have overdone it a bit yesterday and my body wanted a break. I don't know.

22 pushups (planned to go for 30 but failed at 22)
50 crunches
20 pushups
40 squats
15 pushups
50 back raises
15 pushups
20 1-legged calf raises (each leg)
20 2-legged calf raises
15 pushups
10 toe touches
15 pushups

After that I wasn't feeling too well, so I decided to skip the dumbbells.

Edit: punched it all into FitDay, which says I ate 2430 kcal (200 over my target), but burned 4141 kcal, keeping me in a good deficit position. But this is the 3rd consecutive day I blew my food limit.

Today I am going for another walk with my wife, but I think my body needs a day off otherwise.

hell yeah dude. if your body aint feeling it, you are more apt to slack off then hit it hard like usual, gotta listen to what its saying.

mine always says feed me

I am sorry about the loss of your cat.

Sorry about your cat

Maybe it would be a good idea to take a day off exercise just to get your mind back together and give your whole body a break.

Yeah, I probably will. Just a nice walk in the sun with my wife for today.

Then get back on the horse.

April 24

This was supposed to be my 'day off' form exercise. It only sort of worked out that way.

I just switched over to midnight shifts last night. I have trouble deciding how to account for night shifts in my daily log. Do I change days at midnight? Or do I go between sleeps?
After some deliberation, I have decided to count my days as being between sleeps. This means that my first night shift actually covers 24 hours of waking time, as I wake up at a normal hour on the day of the shift, and go to bed when I get home the next morning.

So, this entry, for April 24, covers up to 7:30 AM on April 25.

Breakfast - 2.3oz lean buffalo sausage, 1 cup brown rice, 1 tbs teriyaki sauce
Lunch - 1.5 cups of Heritage O's (a Cheerio knock-off using organic kamut, spelt and quinoa - very hearty), 3/4 cup milk
Afternoon snack - 1 slice bread, 2oz deli roast beef, 1tsp light caesar dressing
Supper - 1 cup regular pasta, 1 cup cooked corn and peas, 2oz oven-roasted chicken breast, 1tbs teriyaki sauce
Grazing thoughout midnight shift - 1 banana, 1 orange, 1 cup dry cereal, some raw veg (sugar snap peas, a tomato, pea shoots and a little cucumber), 2 corn muffins, 1 tsp butter

Exercise - I had planned on taking a day off from any real workout, only having a nice 30 min walk in the park with my wife (we keep up a pretty decent pace, but not as fast as I go when walking for a workout).
However, during my night shift, my 10lb dumbbells were just sitting there, mocking me, so I showed 'em who's boss:
5x10 curls
5x10 tricep extensions
5x10 overhead presses
5x10 front raises
5x10 hammer curls
5x10 arnold presses
5x10 tricep kickbacks
5x10 lateral raises
5x10 squats (I was surprised at how much difference 20lbs makes)
2x25 punches
5x10 bench presses
2x25 bench presses
5x10 flat flys

It felt good, but it is clearly time to move up in weight. Definitely bringing in the 15's tonight.

No calisthenics as my body rebelled at even the thought. So that was my day off I guess - no calisthenics.

Total kcal in : 2076 Total kcal out: 3514

cord's gonna be throwing around 100 lb dumbells soon. I need to workout. haha

I may be working my way (slowly) upwards, but I don't think I'm ever gonna be a threat to ya, Mike.