The View From Drew

Chicken pot pie + chilly Autumn day = warm, tummy goodness.

I've never really shrugged off the fever from last weekend and last night it flared up again.  It leaves me fatigued after I take some aspirin.  I'm going to the doctor today because I'm concerned with that and my lack of appetite.  I've dropped two more pounds in the last week.  I'm at 198.  It sounds nice, but such rapid weight loss gain at this stage is not good.

I'm so close to 200 now, I can taste it.  Well, I guess I shouldn't. 

Just jogged 5.292 miles on the Wii Fit. That's a record for me. I'm still hovering around my ten pound loss with no loss or gain at the moment, but I figured that would happen. I use the free run game where you start out at a starting line and run around the island. You can change channels and watch tv while you run and the Wii Fit will give you updates on your progress. Every once in awhile, I switch back to see what part of the island I'm on and who's running with me.

At one point I switched back and saw popfiend just ahead of me. He suddenly fell and rolled to a stop. I ran past him as he got up. About thirty seconds later he's running like the wind past me and looks at me with a big grin. He gets ahead of me and thirty seconds later he falls again. I pass him again. I never see him again.

Between the walks in the morning, my Wii Fit exercises and watching what I'm putting in my body, I'm down eight pounds!  I'm at 207 at the moment.  I haven't been below 210 in years!  And I was about to blow off exercising this morning as I have to mow the lawn later and that counts, but then I saw the weight loss and had to do it.  I'm hoping to hit 200 by the end of the month!

I mentioned in my last post how I gained some of my lost weight while on vacation. Now, I'm not going to fret about that, but I also stopped using my calorie counting chart on My Calorie Counter.com during that time as I knew I was overdoing it and didn't want to worry about it. Now, when I got back, I wasn't so good about getting back on track with recording my calories. The website had changed some of its features during the time, including removing the actual counting of calories entered. It was up to you to tally the total on your own. Between the lack of doing it while away and having to do the math myself, I lost interest. But then I saw I was gaining weight even at home, so I went back to the website. Someone must have complained or maybe I was grandfathered, but the totals were back.

Now that I'm doing it again, I feel better as I plan what it is I'm putting into my body.

Often, I like to have two bowls of cereal.

I don't need two bowls of cereal. I just stuff my face as I like Frosted Flakes.

Not good.

I know one can make the argument that keeping such careful track of what I eat can ruin the eating experience and it does take away some of the fun, but I have two boys I want to see grow up. With my now 211 girth, I wind easily and find it difficult to keep up with them when we play in the backyard.

I know there will be times where I will not worry so much about it, like this Saturday when I celebrate jafinnola's 40th birthday. I'll just be more careful the rest of the day.

I'm down four pounds. I was down six, but I gained back three on vacation. The downward trend has begun again though. My goal is to get back to 180, but the Wii will only let me record a goal of 193 at the moment. It seems to only allow for a 22 pound loss. That's all right, I can adjust my goal every two weeks.

So, the Wii and WiiFit arrived in the mail today.  My nice little royalty check for Creative Couplings paid for it.  I wasn't going to set it up as I thought Sue needed me to help with the packing and getting ready for the morning, but she had everything covered, so Eddie and I went into the basement and just set up the Wii.  We'll worry about the WiiFit when we get back.  I got an internet signal, so I'm getting a kick out of the news and weather reports.  I also set up my Mii character and have determined my Wii Age as 44.  Need to work on that.  It's very addictive to play this thing.  The only sport I haven't tried yet is golf.  I really liked the workout I got boxing.  Eddie was upset as he went to bed because he won't be able to play with the Wii for a week now that we're leaving for vacation.  Oh well.  I'm sure we can distract him.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, exercise can reduce negative emotions.  I found it in my daily health email.

In anticipation of the Wii and Wii Fit, I've started going for walks again.  From my house and down Peaceable Hiil through the town and up route six takes me about an hour.  It's nice as it also gives me some time to think.  I listen to my iPod with my daily podcasts.  I think my attitude is always much more positive when I engage in some sort of exercise. 

I've also signed up at My Calorie Counter.  It features a blog where you can put your thoughts on the weight loss journey, a pretty extensive list of foods and their calories so you can keep a journal of what you have eaten, and a list of physical activities and the calorie loss when engaging in them.  Now, if I cut out my snacking of bad foods and keep up with the walks and the Wii Fit workout, I could lose some serious poundage.  I need to.  I'm about thirty pounds overweight and I think it has a great deal to do with the depression bouts I deal with.

Right now, I feel on top of the world.  I'm ready to take on anything.  And all it took was a simple hour long walk. 

I ache, yes, but I still feel good.

I'm awaiting arrival of a Wii and Wii Fit.  I was wondering if you can purchase an extra balance board and have two people doing exercises at the same time.  I've tried looking up the balance board separately, but all I keep getting are the Wii Fit set.  Any suggestions?

A very nice weekend spent relaxing and not worrying about school as I have this week off.

Saturday was spent purchasing a new Curious George book for Eddie as he saw the movie last weekend and really likes the book series. There is also a Best Buy closer to home now. In the past, that would have excited me more as Best Buy used to have really good deals, but now they've joined the rest of the crew of media outlets by offering very little in the way of bargains. I did manage to snag He-Man & the Masters of the Universe, Season One, Volume One on sale though. Eddie wasn't that impressed with it when we watched it. If it ain't got Tom & Jerry in it, he's pretty much lost interest. I returned home to find a belated birthday gift from kradical waiting for me in the mail. It was the complete series of Lenny Henry's Chef. Very cool and a very generous gift. Thanks kradical.

Sunday was a get a few things done around the house day that was capped off with a trip to the gym for the whole family as we used the swimming pool.

We've been putting this off for ages and now we've determined it's going to be our Sunday evening thing from now on. Eddie is a water rat as he moves quickly about the pool and sinks himself again and again to the bottom of the deep end only to pop up moments later. Sue enjoys the feeling of weightlessness she experiences floating in the pool and I must admit that I get a different kind of workout swimming laps and the payoff is the hot-tub afterwords. It certainly will put me in better spirits for a Monday trek back to school next week.

As I write this, I am in extreme pain. I have just returned from my first gym session in almost three months. I've been away due to the gynocomatia. Before the operation there was the pain and the fact that I became self-conscious that I jiggled. Yes, I jiggled. The after operation pain was just as bad.

I went the distance on the treadmill, managed to lift my pre-operation leg weights, most of my arm weights and none of my abdominal weights.

All in all, I'm more than satisfied.

Am going to have to undergo a gynecomastia in the near future as I have developed too much breast tissue on the left side of my chest. Don't know how it happened, but it hurts like anything and until I have the procedure, there's no coffee, chocolate, tea, or soda. I also have to watch the stress levels.

Did I mention I'm a high school English teacher?

Anyway, as a means to cheer me up, I thought I'd share these two Doctor Who videos. The one labeled Invasion is the trailer the BBC started running right after the last episode of the first season. Do not watch it if you have not seen the entire season and don't want to be spoiled. The other is just silly.



Invasion

The Emperor Dalek Makes Its Proclamation

Well, no change in weight this week, but I think that has more to do with me gaining muscle than losing fat. I'm pressing 190 pounds now on the leg press and I'm finally starting to make progress on the arm and torso machines. (I've never had much upper body strength.) I did notice I slipped into my dress pants very nicely yesterday for the mass at school. At the end of the last school year, I was using struggling to keep the button from popping. Sweet.

Got in a little more writing while listening to Doctor Who. Totals include what I did this morning.

1,345 / 2,900 (46.0%)

10,247 / 100,000 (10.0%)

And I finally looked at my weight for the first time since I started working out last month. I'm down four pounds. I was a little disturbed by this at first, thinking that I've been doing this for a month and I should have more to show for it, but my trainer pointed out two things: 1) I didn't gain all that weight in one month and 2) I'm gaining muscle as well now and it does add to the weight. My waist is getting somewhat slimmer and I'm finding it easier to get into some jeans I struggle with, so I must be doing something right.

The rest of my post didn't get posted. Oh well, here it is:

On the workout front:
1) Still haven't gone swimming yet. I never checked out the locker room and the lock I purchased was all wrong for the doors of the lockers.
2) I've been upping the weights as I'm getting more used to the circuit training. I get through all my arm reps without fatigue or buckling. I have also increased the speed on the treadmill and am doing thirty minutes. I don't know what my weight is at the moment. I can tell you I started two weeks ago at 213. My goal is to hit 190, but I would love to hit 180. I have to get a scale this weekend.

On the school front:
1) Tweaked another cycle's worth (eight days) of lessons for the sophomores.
2) I started mapping out another cycle's worth of lessons for the juniors, but didn't complete it. We're going to be doing a couple of poems as well as an introductory lesson to get the students ready for selections from Beowulf.

On the house front:
1) Bar reorganized for now until I get the shelving up, which is not going to happen this weekend as originally planned as I forgot about two events I must attend with family. But I do love having the fridge behind the bar now.
2) Put the towel rack that Eddie accidentally ripped out back on the wall. The kid is a skinnymarink, but he is strong.
3) Put up vent covers on walls in the bar.
4) Replaced several light bulbs that weren't vital to sight in the house, but it's nice having all our ducks in a row.

On my video collection front:
Cleared a number of video files I've had stored on my computer for some time by burning them to DVD. Now I'm going to whittle down some of my VHS tapes by transferring them to DVD. I also have two special DVD projects to complete for two old friends of mine.

On the writing front:
1) The novel is almost ready to go. I've been reading a couple of chapters a day, If I try to read the whole thing in a sitting or two I will definitely miss things as I've read it so many times already. I figure another week or less.
2) Began plotting out a new novel idea. Actually, it's an old novel idea, one that I think is really good, but I lost interest in it when I attempted to put something together a few years ago.
3) Am going to make an attempt at the Phobos Challenge once again. I've not had the time to really focus on developing a short work in such a short period of time as the Phobos Challenge requires (which makes it a challenge, right?).
4) Have completed the corrections to the second Dome script. Will be sending out copies to those whose opinion I value by the end of the day. Want to get a recording date going now that I have recording facilities set up here at home.

On the workout front:
1) Didn't get to go swimming this week. I needed to purchase a lock for the locker room in order to leave my dry clothes. When I'm working out, I simply show up in my sweats and leave in them. Will definitely go next week.
2) Had my second workout session last night. Certain areas of the circuit training are proving easier this time around. My legs are still my strongest feature. I was pushing 150 pounds on the leg press and that was easy. My weakest feature, my arms, didn't buckle as quickly this time around with the arm curls and bicep machines. My gut didn't explode until I got near the end of my reps with the abdominal machines. I'm making progress.

On the school front:
1) Tweaked a cycle's worth (eight days) of lessons for the sophomores.
2) Put together a cycle's worth of lessons for the juniors. Will be starting with a selection from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, as well as an evaluation of their vocabulary skills and an introduction to their Regents exam tasks.
3) If I can do this once a week, as I did it yesterday morning, I will have the first half year of lessons ready to go in the fall and won't have to spend all day on Saturdays putting together lessons as I did last year.

Just got back from my first gym session. I'm a hurting puppy. Sue and I have opposite ideas of what stinks when it comes to working out. I like the cardio - doing the treadmill, the stairs, etc., while she hates it. I'm not too fond of the circuit training which targets areas of your body, but she loves it. I don't mind the leg workouts, as I have strong legs to begin with, but my upper body strength is all in the shoulders and I can't use them for most of the exercises. I also hate abdominals, the one area I need to focus on most.

My workout regimen will consist of four days. Mondays, Wednesday, and Saturdays will be cardio and circuit training while I'll hit the pool on Thursdays. The pool looks great and I can't wait to get in there.

So, the physical part of my summer odyssey got kicked up a notch today. Sue and I joined a gym. We committed to a year package which includes three consultations. The first one was today where I got weighed, measured and had my lung capacity and body fat tested. One interested fact I discovered is that whole BMI that many people fret by is entirely subjective. It was conceived by insurance people to determine health benefits. I will state that I am overweight and could stand to lose about twenty to thirty pounds. I'm told if I stick to my plan of four hours a week, I will see noticeable results in eight weeks. It would be kind of cool to return to school with my shadow looking a little more like The Thin Man.