After a great experience on eDiets, I feel like have learned alot, lost some weight (7-10 pounds depending on the day), and had an overall great experience.  My focus on my diet has been lacking the last few weeks (as evidenced by little to no blogging), so I have decided to start a new plan to re-invigorate myself.  Please see my new blog under the title "My Sonoma Diet Experience: Eating For Life." 

    The July 4th weekend is upon us and I have a friend visiting my girlfriend and I for the weekend, some parties, and other activities planned.  It probably would not hurt to lay out some ideas to moderate my food intake while I go out to all of these fun "special" events. 

    Since I live in Texas and have a visitor from out of town, it is very likely we will have Tex-Mex food for dinner one night this weekend.  The keys will be to moderate my eating during the day, not eat too many chips, avoid the margaritas if I can, drink plenty of water, and eat slowly.

   I hope to do at least one physically active activity both Saturday and Sunday.  A walk at a festival, a bike ride, swimming, or maybe a good old fashioned workout would be great!  If we go to a festival, I plan on trying to split food with my girlfriend so that we can both try foods that we don't get to eat very often, but also not fall off the wagon. 

    As you know if you have been following my blogs, I am going through the process of braces as a 25 year old in a highly competitive corporate environment.  My braces don't bother me much except for the fact that I look young even without them and now the jokes just multiply.  My co-workers are all 40+ years old and my customers are nearly all 40+ and Senior level as well.  Getting them to listen to my sales pitch is pretty challenging without the braces, but having them really forces me to be 100% on top of my game.  My top teeth are pretty much done moving now and my bottom braces will be put on next week. 

     Someone once told me a story that I would like to share with the weight loss posse today:

     There is a traveling performer that takes plates and spins them while balancing them on the top of broomstick.  Once he gives it the initial push to spin, he needs to keep the plate level but still move the stick around to keep the plate spinning on top of it.  After he gets one plate spinning, he adds another through the same process.  He must maintain focus on plate #1 and now start up plate #2.  This guy is amazing, so he pulls it off with out a hitch.  Then he goes on to add two broomsticks/plates to each hand and works his way up to 4 plates spinning.  After he get them going, he adds a broomstick that he balances on his forehead.  All this while never losing the other 4 plates spinning atop 4 feet long broomsticks.  As you watch him add each broomstick, the other spinning plates gradually begin to slow down the speed at which the spin and wobble a little.  He moves quickly to add the new plate and then regain focus on his previous spinning plate.  This guy is a genious, so he pulls it off with ease (and a little drama for show).  The end.

I beat myself up in my last entry, so this week I thought I would make fun of myself by listing the foods that are gradually undermining my eDiets plan.  Here are my toughest foods to go without or at least limit how much I eat:

1. Pizza

2. Chocolate Chip Cookies

3. Cheese

4. Goldfish Crackers or Pretzels - gotta have my salt fix.

5. Alcohol - not that I feel a need for alcohol, but in social situations its tough to drink water

6. Pasta/bread - it can be good for you, but I eat too much of it.

7. Mexican food - enchiladas normally

8. Chinese food - carryout style

9. Steak/beef - I don't like fish very much and you can only eat so much white meat.

     The equation for my weight loss is pretty simple.  When I workout regularly and eat reasonably, I can lose a few pounds.  I dropped off the 7-9 pounds that I was most concerned with and have reversed my pattern of gaining more and more weight.  Lately, I have lost the little bit of extra edge to push myself to keep losing weight.  This may be do to burnout, laziness, or something in between.  My challenge is to find something that will invigorate me to keep focused on losing weight but not make the "diet" process so stressful and exhausting that I lose focus on other goals I have in my life. 

After a weekend of some working out, but also of pizza and chinese food, I thought it was time to get back on the horse today.  To change it up a bit, I went outside to run as opposed to my normal inside the gym on the elyptical machine type cardio workout.  It was relatively cool outside today, only about 90+ degrees at 1pm, but that is pretty good for Texas where it can be 100+ degrees on a regular basis.  The run was pretty fun.  I feel like the workout went well and I know I sweat off a half pound to take me down to 176.5. 

The office area I work in has nice fountains and landscaping that is not too bad to run through once in awhile.  This past weekend, I led off my softball game with a homerun, but I don't think I stretched out well enough because my knee was stiff all weekend.  Today's run was as much about losening up my knee as anything else and it seems to have done the trick. 

My standard day on the eDiets plan consists of the following:

Breakfast - Slimfast - I opt out of the eDiets suggested breakfast since I don't have time, but this is the same amount of calories and nutrition generally.

Mid morning snack - 1 piece of fresh fruit (usually and apple, pear, or banana).  Another alternative is one light yogurt cup (50-100 calories).

Workout

Lunch - Protein shake for athletes (180-200 Calories, but more protein) or another slim fast.

Mid afternoon snack - another piece of fresh fruit or a yogurt.

Dinner - a suggestion from the eDiets recipe plan.  Portion size is the key here.

Since I haven't been doing very well on my eDiets plan and have spent most of the last month looking for more inspiration, I thought that we could lighten it up a bit today by having the Weightloss Posse online karaoke challenge.  The challenge is simple, come up with a list of the 10 most inspiring workout songs of all time.  Here are mine:

1. Rocky Theme

2. Right Now - Van Halen

3. Any school song from my college's marching band

4. Kasmir - Led Zeppelin

5. Rocking Roll All Night - Kiss

6. O Fortuna/Carmina Burana - Carl Orff

7. Elevation - U2

8. My Hero - Foo Fighters

One of my teachers in college always used to say "you are either getting better or you are getting worse."  This is very true in terms of our diet process throughout life.  If you stay the same in terms of weight, athletic ability, ect, but get older, you are inevitably getting worse in terms of health as the process of staying at that level becomes harder and harder as you age.  This is something that I am fighting deep down inside of me as I linger around my halfway point on my weight loss path. 

When I first began my eDiets plan, I felt the competitive edge that comes with something new and exciting.  My mind would be running with thoughts of how good I would look and feel, how my athleticism would improve, and how that would affect all of the other parts of my life.  As I reached for my halfway mark of 175 pounds (8 pounds gone from my initial weight of 183), a sense of satisfaction came over me.  To anyone who has played or watched sports, this is a dangerous time in the competitors process.  As I look back at this, it is totally clear that I have become complacent in following my eDiets plan.