Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Back-to-Back

Because my schedule was slightly askew, I was faced with a dilemma ... skip a day, or double up.  I haven't run in back-to-back days yet, but have been feeling pretty comfortable with my running lately (and have eaten a truckload of soft pretzels)... so I figured I'd give it a shot.

I ran a solid 5k yesterday (no post, thought I'd get ya up to speed), and was feeling good today to start out.  Probably because of that, I got a little cocky.  Don't get me wrong, I know I'm slow, but still in my limited scope of speed, I decided to push it.  (that's my second female R&B reference in as many paragraphs...)

I have a certain (undisclosed) time goal I'm trying to reach.  And today I thought "let's just set the speed for that, and see if I do it."  In retrospect, a mistake.  I was good for the first 2 miles (which, considering where I started a month ago, is a minor accomplishment in itself), but ultimately, I was gassed and couldn't finish at that pace.  Had to limp down the homestretch with an ever-so-wimpy run-walk.  I made myself finish the last quarter mile at my starting/goal pace, just out of principle.  But ultimately, was pretty disappointed that I didn't either a) finish my run and hit my goal, or b) never start my run at that pace and just take an easy 5k since I ran yesterday.  Oh well, lesson learned.  It would have been a nice confidence boost if I had hit my goal in my first month of pseudo-serious running (in my first back-to-back effort), but this also adds a nice kick-in-the-butt for me to keep training.  I think I'll still work on endurance (maybe increasing some mileage) in the next couple weeks... and then start some light speed/interval training.  We'll see...

Distance: 5k (and 5k yesterday)

I'll give myself a two-day aggregate score for food, too, I guess.  Basically, mostly healthy with a caveat.  We went out to eat with friends last night and I kept it light with some tilapia and spinach on the side.  But I've pretty much finished off the pretzels from the other night... truth be told, that's pretty much been "lunch" for me for that last two days.  Probably not my proudest dietary moment there.  Food: B-

Magic number = 229.2 lbs ... a number I'm sure I still owe to my pretzel binging...

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Pretzels!

A beautiful thing happened today.

wait... just a quick background (and ever so subtle foreshadowing): if you didn't know this about me, I love pretzels.  Love them.  In all their wondrous forms:  twists, rods, sticks, nuggets, bites, sourdough, honey wheat, "olde" fashioned, crackers (yeah, that's right pretzels crackers. they're delicious. get your facts straight)... and of course, the grand daddy of them all... The Soft Pretzel.  I get 'em at movies, I make 'em at home (you can buy a box of 10,000 of them--or some similar number--at costco), I get 'em wherever available from fine local retailers (formerly Einstein Bros until they bailed on that Cash Cow... fools!).  Most notably, they're a staple at the ballpark, even moreso that the ubiquitous hot dog.  I really love pretzels.  ... and with that in mind...

A beautiful thing happened today.

In what can only be construed as an obvious confession of guilt in response to my recent post exposing her as a diabolical genius, a heartfelt plea to make amends, and a desperate attempt to regain the upper hand in our battle of wills... all wrapped up into one undeniable act of love, Kelly decided to make homemade soft pretzels when I got home from work (I worked at REI... not the norm for Sunday, but a store meeting demanded my attendance).

The night began to unfold when I got this text driving home:



poop?  wait... that's guessing too far in advance.  umm... something unhealthy for me?  Well... yes, but not as bad as some alternatives (cake, cupcakes, pie, cookies, granola-bars-of-death, etc).

That's right.... PRETZELS!!!

I got to help make them when I got home.  It really was a fun little "couple project" (the kind of canned crap you would see on some lame dating show... except it was actually fun) ... rolling dough, twisting the pretzel, poaching, salting, baking, and of course ... eating.  mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... fresh-baked pretzels.

pre-poach/bake:


lots of pretzels

and post-bake:


Three things I'm "repping" in this image: the ludicrously useful "Ove'-Glove", a simply unfettered almost unthinkable amount of excitement, and... um... yep, a thumbs-up.  That's a winning photograph.

As you can see, they come in all shapes and sizes.  You might say this is because they were not rolled and twisted expertly.  But I'd like to think of it as an analogous object lesson...
"You see, son, pretzels are just like people... they come in all different shapes and sizes"

"Is that why you're so fat, daddy?"

"No, that's because I'm lazy.  Oh, and because I'm about to down this whole pan of pretzels in about 4 minutes"

... hmmm, my analogy is breaking down... let's move on... (cue "Cat's in the Cradle" outro)

Are they healthy?  I'm really not sure.  Obviously, they're pretty high in carbohydrates... but not much else.  It's mostly flour and water.  I did of course insist, after baking, that we give them the "Auntie Anne's treatment"... which mainly consists of brushing on some melted butter.  And then I may or may not have eaten a LOT of them.  Really, a jarring amount of pretzels.  So let's retry the above question with a more honest and accurate answer... Are they healthy?  I don't really care.  They're delicious.

Great day.

I didn't run like I was hoping, but between church, some work around the house, watching some basketball, and working at REI... I sort of ran out of time... in a cowardly, weaselly, wimpy sort of way.  Distance: 0

Food was good for the first half of the day.  Cereal for breakfast, veggies and hummus for lunch.  Had some pizza at REI at the all-store meeting (management splurge), and then of course ate half my weight in pretzels when I got home... might have even washed it down with a beer (c'mon... pretzels and beer!  I would say "that's like such and such foods together" and make some comparison, but literally nothing compares to the combination of pretzels and beer.  Who could blame me?!)  Food: B-

Weight: 228.4 lbs. (I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that number rises for tomorrow, considering I had roughly 40 thousand grams of carbohydrates after 10pm).

Saturday, March 26, 2011

The Culprit (Part 2): Wife

(Welcome back to another installment of my multi-part series, "The Culprit", wherein I blame various individuals and societal sectors for my lack of fitness.  After all, blaming others to assuage one's own personal guilt is the American Way)

Just when I thought I was safe in my own home... naively assuming I had a wonderful, beautiful, supportive wife who is a constant source of reassurance and encouragement, having my best interest at heart... or at least, so it seemed.......... (duh duh duhhhhhh)

Did you know that men who marry in their 20s gain an average of 30 pounds in the first 5 years of marriage?

Allow this anecdotal evidence to be a microcosm of that larger meta-narrative.  The other day, Kelly sweetly says, "I think I'll make you some home made granola bars".

Awesome.  I love granola bars.

And home-made ones will certainly be better than any of the other alternatives.  So she gets some ingredients, mixes 'em up, and bakes a pan of golden brown scrumptious granola bars which she then cuts into uniform rectangular size and even takes the time to lovingly wrap each individual bar.  Sounds great, right?  She's the best, right?  Yes, I thought so too... and that's just what she wants us to think....... ........ (duh duh duhhhhh)

So I try a granola bar.  It's seriously delicious.  Just the right amount of crumbliness and crispness, sweet and savory.  It's perfectly balanced, and it doesn't have anything stupid in it like raisins.  (I hate to be the one to break it to you if you were unaware, but raisins suck).  She even put extra healthy stuff in there, like flax seed.  It was so good that I wanted to eat several more.

.... her plan was unfolding perfectly................... (duh duh duhhhhhhhh)

Until, a sudden hitch, "Hey Kel, what's in these?"  She starts to list ingredients, and there are a few in there that are red flags to the wimpy dieter in me.  I'm not a nutritionist, but I hear "butter", "honey", "peanut butter", "sugar", and "corn syrup"... and I start to wonder... hey, wait a second, there might be some fat and sugar in this delicious tasting food item.  So I get the full recipe and enter it into fitday.com, a handy nutritional calculator I use from time to time. Here are the results for the whole batch:

  • Calories: 5,766

  • Fat: 396g

  • Carbs: 469g

  • Protein: 166g


Well a couple things might stand out here, but because this is for the whole batch we don't really know anything until we consider what a serving size is.  One bar.  How many bars did this batch make?

12.

That's right, twelve.  Quick math: One serving size (a bar a little smaller than a deck of cards), carries the following nutritional sledgehammers:

  • Calories: 480

  • Fat: 33g

  • Carbs: 39g


FitDay doesn't track sugars, which is unfortunate because that's something I'm specifically keeping an eye out for.  I can only estimate the sugar content as "high".  Now we have some nutrition information, and it doesn't seem "great"... but how bad is it?  What can we compare it to?  How about something that is viewed universally across the world as "an unhealthy meal".  A McDonald's Big Mac:

  • Calories: 590

  • Fat: 34g

  • Carbs: 47g


So essentially, the plan is for me to consume a big mac ever morning (in a much more compact package)...

SHE'S TRYING TO KILL ME!

The best case scenario is that this is a long-standing, complex, diabolical plan to get me to fail, and somehow break my will.  The worse case scenario, of course, is that she tries to kill me to capitalize on my lucrative life insurance policy.  Or fakes my death, gets a light conviction, only to escape and ACTUALLY kill me in some sort of elaborate Double Jeopardy scenario... I can't really remember the details of that movie very well.  At any rate, if it's a battle of wills she's looking for, then she's come to the right place:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZ8GdV9GdlA&w=640&h=390]

"in the warrior's code, there's no surrender..."

Rest day today. Distance: 0

Food was good so far, little cereal for breakfast, veggies for lunch.  Food: B (pending)

Weight: 229.6 lbs. A significant and inexplicable rise.  Not sure why... but I'm sure it's Kelly's fault somehow...

Friday, March 25, 2011

Encouragement

It's not always easy to eat healthy, or eat less, or lift pitiful amounts of weights, or run embarrassingly slow in front of strangers... that's why I'm so thankful for the encouragement I get from friends.

Like this gem from my friend Matt:



The ole "offer Dan Los B's before we sit and watch basketball" trick. Nice try, Matt. (his next comment may or may not have been a derogatory joke about my eating habits.) For the record, we had delicious spinach/mozzarella/ricotta filled tortellini in a basil marinara sauce. It was excellent.

And while I might get some temptation from friends (see my frosting fiasco last weekend), it's nothing compared to my local health club. Seriously, this is right outside the men's locker room:



Welcome to HealthTrack... where no matter what we say, we care more about making money than your health!

Not as appealing as Los B's perhaps, but it offers such immediacy, with the added bonus of almost unlimited hypocrisy. Brilliant. Anyway, I will never buy anything from this vending machine (and I never have)... but lest you think I'm strong-willed in regards to my eating habits, I feel compelled to admit the reason is pretty much because I'm cheap. Vending machines are a terrible deal.

My run, directly preceding my vending machine avoidance, was excellent (relatively speaking). Basically, I'm becoming comfortable running 5k, and just keep trying to run it faster. Once I plateau, I think I'll start doing some interval training to build speed (or whatever else Coach Jeff suggests)... but for now, I just want to figure out where that plateau is. This week I ran a 5k Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and dropped about a minute of time each day. Distance: 5k

Instead of Los B's (yesterday) I had a bowl from Chipotle. Really pretty good & healthy stuff, if you're looking for hot food on the go. Especially if you are a master of avoidance like me and you pass on the (otherwise delicious) chips. Nutrition facts on the Chipotle Chips: 570 calories & 27g of fat. Ouch. Like I said... avoidance. If you stick with just a bowl, avoid the cheese, sour cream, guac, and tortilla, it's just chicken, a little rice, black beans, and some salsa... and still pretty delicious, considering it's really just half of the ingredients for a good burrito at that point. We had a grill-out at work, just grabbed a burger and then mostly fruits and vegetables, trying to keep it healthy-ish... but that will still dock me some points. Food: B+

Weight: 228.6 lbs ... I've been at this for about a month now officially, so I thought I would start posting this chart showing progress. Unfortunately, I don't have a *real* start point... but a couple weeks before my first official weigh it, I think it was around 245. (yikes!) So that first point is just an estimate... and could plausibly be a good bit higher. I'd say decent progress over the first month-ish. Honestly, I'd like the weight loss to be more aggressive, but I'm told this is "healthier"... you don't want to lose much more than 1% of your weight per week... according to people who know more than me.

Anyway, nice to see progress... and having a decent start (both with dropping pounds and gaining speed with running) is encouraging.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Cranking it to Eleven

I've been planning on incorporating some weight training with this whole fitness "thing"... mostly of the high-rep low-weight toning (or "wimpy") variety, but haven't really followed through because I wanted to make sure I was in a bit of a running grove first.  Well, yesterday was my half birthday (28.5 is an important milestone)... and I figured that's as good a day as any to start (I'm sort of a numbers geek).

So I ran a good 5k... actually a PR (again, not sure if I'm yet allowed to use "runnerspeak"), and felt good, and then went to go try to get slightly stronger.  I want to keep it pretty basic... abs, then just a round of upper body: bench, row, pulldown, butterfly, curls, tris.  Sure, Ideally, I would do more, but am slightly apprehensive to start too much, being worried that I won't carry it through.  So this will be sufficient for now, and we'll build from here...

Anyway, for abs I was doing reps of an exercise I'm unqualified to accurately describe... but it looks sort of like this (only more attractive, albeit a good deal sweatier).  Anyway, just when I thought I couldn't do anymore...

I was saved yet again by the ultimate motivator:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eij5IGNNcc&w=480&h=390]

The Rocky IV soundtrack.  Incidentally, this is my 4th favorite song on the soundtrack... making it my 5th favorite song in any movie ever, just a notch behind "Don't You" from the end of Breakfast Club, and one notch ahead of "Your Eyes" from Say Anything.

Anyway, the song is right, not only situationally for me in that moment, but existentially for all of us in life in general... There is no easy way OR shortcut home (unless you mean from Escondido Elementary School, where I went attended the 2nd grade... then there's a sweet shortcut home through the woods).

So I completed what I would conservatively estimate were about 8000 more medicine-ball-crunch-things (see previous photo), and went on my way to grunt wimpishly while looking wimpy, trying to lift wimpy amounts of weight.  I assure you... whatever it LOOKS like I can lift (and I'm not under the assumption that you think it's a lot)... it's less.  So much less.  I'm frighteningly weak.  Trust me.  I know things.

That said, I had a good run, and wimpified my way through some extra weight training, so I fully anticipate not being able to use my arms tomorrow.  Can't wait.  But for now, I feel pretty good.  Distance: 5k

Food was good today.  Small bowl of cereal, salad for lunch, veggie stir fry for dinner.  Bam.  Food: A- (only a minus because, on an enjoyment level, I could have used some chicken on that stir fry)

And the Magic Number: 229.4 lbs.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Spring

Spring is here (yesterday, officially).  Which means, among other things, that I get to ride my bike to work (note: it does not need to be spring for you to ride your bike to work!  just if you're a wimp like me).  My bike, in this case, being Grandpa Greenzo...



not to be confused with Greenzo...



who, if I may remind you, is being callously carved to pieces by the soul-less employees of Cannondale.

Anyway, I will certainly add more on this later... but for the sake of brevity and simplicity, I want to impress one simple fact: I love riding my bike.  Even if that bike, for the time being, is older than I am and has wheels that are most certainly NOT round.  There is just nothing better than being able to transport yourself wherever you need to go.  Especially in this case, it's just a short jaunt to work... which I can (and do) take at a leisurely pace.  By happenstance, this also coincides with the aforementioned wheel issue.  Due to age, lack-of-roundness/integrity, and rider weight, I am fearful that massive failure of the wheels (the front in particular) is an inevitability.  Considering this fact, the potential subsequent effect, and the overall geometry of the bike, I prefer to assume a casual riding demeanor (allowing me ample opportunity to "disengage" should the bike essentially crumble beneath me).

Today, I rode to work, home for lunch, back to work, and then home.  That's a solid 8 miles (2 each way).  Then I had dinner and went for a run... 5k.  Felt pretty good.  Although I'm getting a blister from my new shoes... not ideal.  Distance: 8mi (bike) 5k (run)

Small bit of granola/cereal for breakfast, a smoothie for lunch, and homemade mac & cheese for dinner (Kelly made a big batch for the YL team) Delicious, but not super healthy.  Side of broccoli helped... (thanks Kel).  Food: B

The magic number this morning: 229.8 lbs. Finally under than 230 mark... about a week late... but good to see progress (not sure how that's possible after this weekend, but oh well... looking to really see some improvement over the next couple weeks).

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Weekend Confessional

In contemplation of my actions this weekend, I feel the stirring need to confess.
Forgive me, blogosphere, for I have sinned...

I watched a lot of basketball this weekend (an action, for the record, I am NOT sorry for), but also ate a lot of junk, and pretty much didn't exercise.  I really meant to, in fact, I was going to punish myself with a long run on Saturday, but my sister was in town and she ruined everything.  Oh wait... this isn't one of those posts where I blame everyone else (don't worry, Emily, you'll get your turn).  For now... the confession:

  • I had Chipotle on Thursday, and not the healthy kind... the delicious quac and chips kind (my go-to at Chipotle, bowl with all the fixin's, throw some quac in there, stir it up, and it's an awesome chip-dip.  This is old hat by now, but just thought I'd mention it in case you've not partaken... it's a gamechanger).

  • I ate at a place called Flip's on Friday... I had a huge delicious greasy gryo with a side of fries

  • On Saturday, I tried to eat healthy... I had a small bowl of cereal, then a salad for lunch, and then some veggies and hummus for dinner.  Success?  Wait for it... then I had some chips and salsa while watching basketball.  And THEN someone (Lindsey Hankins) wanted "something sweet" for dessert and had frosting but not enough eggs to bake a cake, so someone else (wife) suggested graham crackers for dipping in the frosting (funfetti frosting, mind you).  The solution, thanks to my friends/family: dipping chocolate teddy grahams in funfetti frosting.  I must have had half the cup myself, and that was trying to restrain myself AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.  I mean, everyone in the room knows I'm trying to lose weight... and I. just. keep. dipping.  You can almost hear them thinking "Isn't Dan trying to lose weight?  How come he's consumed 250 teddy grahams and half a cake's worth of frosting?  How can any one man be so undisciplined?"

  • On Sunday, I had pizza from Gino's East.  This has not been scientifically confirmed, but I am almost certain that there is not a more unhealthy recipe for pizza anywhere in the United States of America (and thus, the universe, since we're #1... U! S! A! U! S! A! U! S! A!)


and did I mention I didn't work out?

Yessir, it was a banner weekend for fat Dan Nicholas.

Unbelievable.

Distance: 0

Food: D

Weight: 230.0 lbs (according to Fat Friday's weigh in.  Saturday and Sunday both weighed in at 230.2)

Friday, March 18, 2011

Madness

Well this is it... the beginning of the best time of year.  Really, March Madness constitutes a high holiday for me.  Especially the first weekend.  It's the greatest weekend in sports, hands-down.  My enthusiasm is only tempered by the fact that I am writing this post a bit retroactively, after my beloved Spartans lost.  Pretty typical for the season really... terrible shooting, not capitalizing, and defense was lacking (at least early).  UCLA tried their best to give it away, and MSU still couldn't pull it off.  The comeback made it only that much more painful.  That said... I still love March Madness.  It's awesome.  (just wish the Spartans were still in the mix)... *sigh*

I ran yesterday and felt pretty good.  Knees still felt okay. Distance: 5k (although zero today)

Food (for the last few days) was pretty good.  Cereal, chipotle, a salad here or there.  Stayed pretty healthy for the most part, with a little cheating here or there.  Food: B-

Weight... first weigh-in since Colorado... frustrating.  231.4 lbs. Didn't really drop any weight with all that skiing.  I think that ancillary snacking hurt me more than I was expecting.  Damn.


Monday, March 14, 2011

Colorado!

This will have to be a multi-day blog, as I am out skiing in the beautiful state of Colorado.  Seriously... how did I come to be a resident of Illinois.  Folly of follies.

At any rate, vacations are always err... "interesting" for diets and fitness discipline.  Here is the goal: always eat healthy at home (and we're staying in a beautiful home, thanks to friends, so we'll be staying in quite a bit), always watch portion sizes, and ski really hard.  When we go out to eat, I'm allowed to be a little more relaxed, although still looking for a healthy option.  As far as beer... it's vacation.  I'm not having tons of beer, but I want to be able to enjoy some good craft brews here and there without worrying about it.  I'm hoping I can keep diet under control enough that I'll be burning significantly more calories on the slopes and have some expeditious weight loss.

---

Okay... That post was from a few days ago.  Ha.  Too busy having fun with friends and skiing to post on a blog... I think we're all okay with that.  Believe it or not I have not been flooded with reader emails lamenting "Dude, where is the blog today?  I've been reading every day, NOW what am I supposed to do?!?"

Anyway, at this point the vacation is wrapping up and I can begin to evaluate my efforts out in the glorious mountains.  Three amazing days of skiing... and I went pretty hard at it.  Chalk up three days of what I can honestly call "all day interval training".  Not necessarily incredibly aerobic... but a great work out.  Distance: ?

As far as eating... I did NOT go with the healthy choice when we went out to eat.  I couldn't find any in-between that looked good, so I just ordered something that I knew I really wanted... beer battered fish 'n' chips, with a Breckenridge Brewery IPA to wash it down.  Delicious.  Not healthy.  Also, I've been snacking a lot at the house, sometimes healthy snacks, but definitely some chips and dip here and there.  Breakfast and slope food were both very healthy... Overall grade: Food: C+

Weight?  At the risk of seeming uncommitted, I didn't actually bring my scale out here.  But I weighed myself on Thursday before I left, and the magic number is 231.6 lbs.

Oddly, I feel like I've actually gained weight this trip, despite the skiing.  I was really hoping to be below 230 when I got home... I guess we'll see...

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Exploratory Surgery

I know people that have had exploratory surgery.  Personally, I'm not sure if I can think of anything more horrifying.  Even with all the progress of modern medicine, the concept of a doctor telling me "hey, I'm not sure what's wrong with you, so I'm just gonna cut ya open and fish around until I figure it out... "  No thanks.

And yet... I have tragic news.  I have received word that my beloved Greenzo will be having exploratory surgery.  For those of you not "in the know"... Greenzo is my half-joking-but-caught-on name for my bicycle.  This is a photo from the first day of RAGBRAI... you can probably tell from the photo the inspiration for the name:



and here we are at the Field of Dreams, almost all the way across Iowa...



don't worry... I was having a lot more fun that it seems... I'm just trying not to cry in the picture.   "Dad... wanna have a catch?"

Anyway, I love my bike.  And while that, in one sense, is a silly sentimentality... there is a certain nostalgic emotional connection between a boy and his bike.  When you get your first bike, it opens a whole new world of possibilities.  It is, in a very real way, freedom.  (which I've also been told is apparently "not free")

I recently read this article about the liberty that a bicycle provides... it's not incredibly well written, but hey... neither is this blog.  Clearly you're standards aren't too high.  Check it out.  It's a professional cyclist discussing how owning a bike changed his childhood.  Quote I like:
The ride is still about the adventure, the camaraderie and the sense of accomplishment. Whether it’s a trip to the end of the block, or across the Alps, the sensation is the same

My big trip with Greenzo is somewhere in between "end of the block" and "across the Alps"... it was a ride across Iowa called RAGBRAI (see link above).  I ended up cycling over 530 miles in a week across what is now one of my favorite states.  Yeah, that's right... I just said that Iowa is one of my favorite states.  Go ahead and let that marinate.  But seriously, it was an outstanding experience that I'll never forget.  Also, not our only adventure together.  I rode about 2500 miles in 2010... that's a lot of time in the saddle.  I have rich deep memories, a lot of time alone with my thoughts, and a lot of books on tape... and yes, an irrationally emotion connection to an bicycle.  But here's where it gets nostalgic...

My bike is sick.  There are some small cracks in the head tube.  I've been VERY careful with it (at this point, it's undoubtedly nicer than my car)... but the cracks developed, and I've contacted Cannondale.  I guess I assumed the response would be "Oh wow, hey, sorry about that, the bike is less than a year old and still fully warrantied against frame defects... so let's get you a replacement ASAP".  If I could drop some twit-speak: #assumptionfail



Ironically... or perhaps fittingly, the cracks are all over the Cannondale logo.

Cannondale has informed me that the bicycle is unsafe to ride (carbon fiber can fail rather catastrophically mid-ride... the results of which I'm told are highly unpleasant) and I will need to send it back to them.  Upon receipt they will cut it in half to inspect the carbon overlay in an effort to determine if it was an manufacturing default.  Or to put it more transparently "it's probably not our fault, but we'll pretend to double check in case you ask later."

I think the situation is more poignant and tragic because it's not going to a new owner or something... it's just going to be torn to shreds to "inspect the carbon overlay", and subsequently thrown into some scrap heap.  It's not even really exploratory surgery as much as an autopsy.  And aside from the tinge of nostalgia... there is the acute pain of having to pay for a new replacement frame... a very real possibility... and not a pleasant one considering what this frame cost less than 12 months ago.  Hopefully someone at Cannondale takes some responsibility and is able to replace the frame at no additional cost.

I hope I hope I hope they make it right.  Because I really can't wait to start riding again.  Right now there is no where I would rather be than on an sunny empty country road... churning away those gears... taking in the sights, sounds, smells around me... sweet sweet freedom.  I miss my bike.

---

Rest day today.  Gotta save up knees for skiing, plus no time to work out with YL stuff tonight, and packing/getting ready the rest of the night.  Distance: 0

Food was not great today.  Oatmeal for breakfast, soup for lunch (delish, still), but Kel had made a (frozen) pizza when I got home so I had a small portion of that (not too much because I know it's unhealthy, but wanted to have some so it doesn't go to waste... cheapness and fitness... battling again).  I will be going to bed hungry, and a little guilty.  Food: C+

Magic number: 233.6 lbs still right there... we're a couple of days from me chopping off a couple fingers just to see a drop.  I mean, still in the 233's... c'mon!

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Indecision

If you know me, and especially for those who know me well... you know that I am perhaps the most indecisive person in the history of existence.  I waste hours of research to buy pretty much anything that costs more than $25 (also, those who know me know I'm... err... thrifty?)  At any rate, that research time is compounded when I am looking at something more significant (both in usage and price) like camera gear or a bicycle.

Well, lately the item of my indecision has been running shoes.  Moderate stability?  cushioning?  blah blah blah... I'm sick of it.  In fact, the only person more sick of it is probably my friend Jeff, who I have been bothering on almost a daily basis.  Sorry Jeff.

Anyway, today I finally got some running shoes.  The ones I had been running in were at least two years old (probably closer to three), which apparently is bad, so I was due.  The shoes feel good... grabbed 'em at Dick Pond thanks to Groupon (and the fact that we were out of some stock for an REI prodeal).  I took them for a spin... and ran a good constant 5k with a strong finish.  Actually, a PR... but still slow enough that I'm not even sure if I'm allowed to type the phrase "PR".  Maybe we'll save track-speak until I'm sub-220... or I run a time I'm not embarrassed to share.  Anyway, still... felt good to run, and the knees held up.  Still a bit of a twinge of sorts, but not the significant pain of the past couple times.  Distance: 5k

Food was good... oatmeal, home-made chicken noodle, and stir fry over a 5-grain blend from Trader Joe's which I would *highly* recommend.  Only complaint is that I probably had too many Goldfish as a "side" to my soup.  As the song goes "I love fishes - so delicious.... I could eat goldfish all day, and my mom says that's okay... except when I eat like 400 because I can't stop".  Like just a couple of other things in life: not bad in moderation... probably not a super healthy thing to binge.  Food: B

Weight: 233.8 lbs. Am I plateauing at 233?  Because that would be crazy.  Crazy depressing.  I might work out again tomorrow (I wasn't originally planning on it - lots to do in prep for our flight out to Colorado for skiing... where I'm also hoping to drop some weight). We'll see...

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Biathlon

I completed a biathlon today.  No, not the awesome winter Olympic sport (the most watched winter sport in Europe, incidentally).

I am still not running, thanks to the knees, but today I completed the first two lengths of a triathlon.  I got to watch the Bulls sweep the Heat while I spun through 22km (about 13.7 miles... took about 44 minutes... decent pace, actually).  Then I went for a swim.

Unfortunately there really doesn't seem to be a "norm" swim distance for the Sprint Triathlon... I've seen everything from .25km (crazy short) to .75km.  Specifically, the Naperville Triathlon does a 400m swim.  So I swam 500 meters.  In your face Naperville.  But really, that's not very far.  Nothing too crazy.  Eventually, I'd like each "workout" to be the distance of one leg of an Olympic Triathlon ... .75km swim, 40k bike, 10k run.  But not yet (at least not with running, that would have been a nice short bike ride last summer).  Distance: 13.7 mile bike / 500m swim

Food was good today.  Small granola bar for breakfast, big salad for lunch, and amazing home-made chicken noodle soup for dinner, prepared by the remarkably talented @KellyNicholas.  Home-made legit... I'm talkin' noodles from scratch over here!  Deeeeeeelicious!  Food: A-

I'm certainly improving from my Ron Swanson diet (although I did have eggs yesterday):

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOzOxPtYFsg&w=640&h=390]

Weight ... 233.4 lbs

Saturday, March 5, 2011

The Culprit (Part 1): Girl Scouts

I had a realization today.  I live in America... and as long as I am an American living in America, nothing is my fault.  So, the fact that I gained an embarrassing amount of weight since August can't be *my* fault... it must be the fault of others.  But who?

In this, the first installment of an investigative weblog mini-series dubbed "The Culprit", I will attempt to place the blame of my poor dieting and lack of fitness on other entities to assuage myself of guilt... and after all, it's the American way.

The first Culprit under investigation?  The Girl Scouts of America

That's right.  The insidious clan of pre-pubescent girls who sell impossibly delicious (and arguably addictive) cookies with a merciless efficiency that would turn even the brightest Hitler Youth green with jealousy...

Yes, it's Girl Scout Cookie season.  Or as we call it in my house "another reminder of Dan's inability to exercise will power."  Not only do the Girl Scouts have a fool-proof system of having adorable little kids selling cookies (for $27 a box, or whatever they're charging these days), but the cookies (drugs?) they are delivering (dealing?) are so addicting that the word "addicting" simply does not suffice.  They have a business model that would make Stringer Bell beam with pride.  Notably, they report $700 million profit and some former members have been known to use their considerable cultural and political influence to leverage a lucrative career with non-profit organizations... and the untold fame & fortune that comes along with it.

And I, like Bubbles, simply cannot resist.  When was the last time you had a Samoa?  I submit to you that it is, simply put, the best mass produced cookie in the history of cookies.  Delicious chocolate and caramel, a wonderful cookie crunch (like twix), and just the right amount of coconut.  I think, if left to my own devices, I could eat 7 boxes in an afternoon of watching basketball.  No, seriously, seven.  Somewhere in the high single digits (8 or 9 boxes... approaching that 120 cookie number) I might think "hmmm... this has been a lot of cookies, maybe I should take it easy", but I'd plow through at least the first 5 without even giving it a second thought.  I love cookies.

resistance is futile...

---

Food day was so-so... delicious scrambled eggs for breakfast, Chipotle-lite (last day of the 2-for-1) for lunch, and a healthy frozen dinner from Kashi while working at REI.  Also, I finished the Samoas.  Oops.  Food: B-

I was going to go for a swim today, but got caught up with some errands, watching MSU finish out the worst regular season I can ever remember, and then had to work at REI.  Distance: 0

Weight: 233.8 lbs - probably as a result of not eating much at all yesterday.  REAL hungry when I woke up.  (note: I do not believe starvation is a good/sustainable method for weight loss)...

Friday, March 4, 2011

Fat Friday!

I will keep this short today, mostly because I'm exhausted (pulled the REI post-work shift tonight).  I will have some more thoughts tomorrow.

I was reminded of it being Fat Friday at REI when I bought a pair of swim trunks for tomorrow's swim (trying to alleviate my battered knees)... This is what the tag looks like, courtesy of our friends at Patagonia:



If you can't tell (perhaps my hangnails are obstructing your view)... the size is XL.  Unless you live in Europe or Asia (Eurasia) ... then it's XXL.  Subtext: "Welcome to America, if this was any place else, you'd be fat!" ... or more aptly, perhaps "Welcome to America where you're already pretty fat, but anywhere else and you'd be REALLY fat!"  (as an aside, you might have noticed a few continents are missing from this tag... my guess is there is a chance they aren't selling a lot of Patagonia swim trunks in the continents not already mentioned).

Anyway, food wasn't great today, oatmeal for breakfast was good, but then a quick lunch on the run ended up being hardly anything, and dinner was a hamburger patty at REI (employee grill out to celebrate bonus checks) and a clif bar.  Not ideal.  Food: C+

I didn't work out today, just work.  Distance: o

Weight: 235.4 lbs ... 3 pound drop from last Friday.  Not bad.  "They" say you shouldn't lose more than 1% of your body weight per week (in the context of healthy weight loss), which makes sense to me, but I'm so far over what I normally weigh that I don't think it would hurt to lose a little more than that for the first few weeks here.  Anyway, decent progress... on we go... (I forgot to get a resting heart rate this morning, maybe I'll try tomorrow)

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Ode to Blender

Only one beloved appliance in my kitchen truthfully supplies me with the following illustrious sentence:
I just ate half a bag of raw spinach, and it tasted like blueberries

Oh, Vita-Mix, how do I love thee? let me count the variable speeds...

Shall I compare thee to a swiss army knife of delicious nutritious food prep?

You blend in beauty, like the night... although usually in the morning for breakfast...

Really, I love my blender.  I would say returning a bunch of my unwanted wedding gifts to get the money to buy a refurbished Vita-Mix was one of my savvier purchasing decisions in the whole "registry" process.  (note: if you are reading this and gave us a wedding present and are contemplating whether you ought to be offended that I perchance returned it, rest assured: I did not return YOUR gift... I would never do that to you).

The Vita-Mix is one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century.  It has 2 horsepower.  TWO!  Think of the power that two horses generate... and that is what is spinning the blade that is dicing my fresh/frozer fruit/veggies.  Really, 2hp... that's pretty close to lawn mower power.  And those two horses spin the blades 240mph.  If the Vita-Mix were a car, it would be tied for #5 on this list of the fastest production cars in the world just ahead of the Ferrari Enzo.  At this point, you might be thinking "Dan, this is overkill"... to which I respond "no... this is Amuricka, where there is no such thing as overkill."  And if I want to belt out most of the words to the star spangled banner everytime I start my blender, and then let it run for an extra 20 seconds so that is pulverizes every raspberry seed so I don't get seeds between my teeth... then so be it.  (yes, it demolishes all the seeds in an extra 20 seconds.  really, this thing is unbelievable.)  It can also make hot soups, homemade almond/peanut butter, pesto, salsa, and about a million other things.

As I mentioned above (and in previous posts) I've been on a smoothie kick for breakfast (and sometimes lunch).  I go with a mixture of berries (blue, rasp, and/or straw) a little juice or sometimes unsweetened soy milk for blending purposes, and then sometimes a light "greens & whey" protein/vitamin supplement powder that helps it be more of a meal replacement.  Delicious & healthy.  But lately I've been upping the ante by including some fresh vegetables.  Really, it's the same principle as when I used to hide my dog's heart worm medicine in peanut butter... the idiots never see it coming!  I can dump a ton of fresh greens in the blender and sure my beautiful red smoothie turns a bit of a weird grayish brown, but it still tastes the same.  When you have that strong berry flavor, it overpowers pretty much everything... spinach, broccoli, & sprouts included.  Check it out.  Volume = mostly spinach, taste = mostly berries:



Yup, tastes like berries.  Delicious.

Food was good today... oatmeal for breakfast, smoothie for lunch and seared tuna steak on a salad for dinner: Food A-

I had to stop short (not a Frank Costanza reference) on my run.  Knees were REALLY hurting... think I will take a few days off and try swimming/biking for my planned workouts... need to save the knees for an upcoming ski trip.  Distance: 2 mi.  (and I walked a decent bit of it... limp/ran the rest... it hurt a lot)

Weight: 235.8 lbs (my first rise... no doubt thanks to the unstoppably delicious cheesy rolls at our anniversary dinner... wooooorrrrrth it.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

3 Years!

That's right, today is our anniversary... 3 years!  Wow... time has flown (and other various clichés).  But in all seriousness, Kelly is a truly amazing person.  It's been a great three years and each has been better than the last.  She is so gracious, patient, caring, and supportive almost to the point of foolishness.  She is a remarkable person, and I'm thankful for her far beyond my ability to express in words.  I'd be a mess without her.

So how to celebrate?  Well, can I interest you in a little mercury poisoning?  That's right, we went out to our favorite seafood place!  Yahoo!  (and don't worry, we're still way behind our parents' generation as far as heavy metals currently in our system... thanks to lead paint/gasoline and other fun industrial shortcuts).  It was, in the words of Tyler Florence, "absolutely delicious".  Can't wait to go back.

Today will be a difficult food grade because, as a quick reminder, I'm grading on enjoyment as well as nutritional value.  With that in mind, we went out to seafood and I had the parmesan-crusted grouper with a side of broccoli instead of going out to a steakhouse and getting a steak with a side of twice-baked potatoes.  While I knew I was going healthier... it was still a "night off" so to speak, as evidenced by overall consumption in general, and specifically one particular pre-dinner item...

Reel Club also serves these diabolically delicious cheese roll-puffs before the meal, and I might have eaten about 83 of them.  I don't know how they make them, but they're a little bigger than a golf ball, and it's a bread-type-roll-thing... but is pretty much hollow and the inside is delicious buttery cheesy goodness (not filled, but just sort of lining the inside of the "puff").  I realize this is not well-described, but I've also never seen/tasted anything quite like it.  They are crazy delicious, and while I did not scour the restaurant for nutritional information, I suspect they might not be excessively healthy... especially when consumed by the dozens.  We also had some seared ahi for the appetizer and I had a beer (Noble Pils from Sam Adams... paired well with the fish).  I'm not sure if I could have enjoyed the meal any more... it was spectacular.

So... A+ for enjoyment, obviously, but I'm in a conundrum for nutrition, and thus, overall grade.  I'd say nutrition is about a C or so, and brought up a bit by me having light/healthy breakfast and lunch.  So, final for the day?  Grade: B (but a weird B... like acing the final after not turning a single paper all semester).

I ran before we went out.  Knees were killing me.  Not sure if that's just "hey you're fat and your knees aren't used to this" or "hey you're slowly destroying your knees, maybe you should do something else for a little bit".  I'm maybe about a week from having someone look at them... most of the pain is along the inside portion of the knee (like between the kneecap and the side of the knee... that area), which is a weird spot to have knee pain.  Distance: 5k

Starting to see some progress, I'm in one notch on the belt already... 235.4 lbs

(This post was partially written on the morning of the 1st, and finished up on the 2nd.  It was meant to be posted on the 1st, but I wasn't about to blog instead of celebrate our anniversary.  All this to say, I'm back-posting it a day so it will show as written on the 1st)