On & Off the Wagon. Also It's Freaking Cold at 8:21 PM

There's been some talk of weight loss in the previous post/comments, and I'll keep that theme going for a little bit.

My boss was in town this week, which put me a little bit behind on...well, life. So I was a day late with my MMATorch column (it's up now), and I'm a day late here. Besides putting me behind on my writing, that little fact also makes me eat badly. An excuse? Of course. But she buys us lunch more often than not, and what am I going to do, get a salad? Please. I'm not that far gone. So yeah, it's been a bad week for being on the wagon. I haven't actually weighed myself, but I'm surely a couple pounds heavier than last week. That's considering also that I've been at work more hours than usual, preventing me from going to the gym. That's the first week I've missed since November. So I'm getting on that train again next week, and getting the discipline back in my eating habits.

Speaking of which, his Shoelessness asked about any recommendations. I don't know what this will do for you, but I can tell you what I've been doing, and it's really simple.

1. Count calories

I never did this in any prior diet. But when I'm really going strong, I'll eat anywhere between 1200-1500 calories a day. Not a whole lot. It's actually pretty easy when I'm working because of some habits I changed. I never used to eat at work. That meant that I ate a whole lot when I got home or before I went in. So I started eating a lot of lean cuisine/healthy choice frozen meals. Most of them are actually pretty tasty, and they're usually under 300 calories, and they're quick to eat at work. Also to keep the calories down, I drink almost none of them. I usually have a glass of orange juice or milk at breakfast, and then it's water and Crystal Light the rest of the day. I'm a big drinker, and I actually hate water, so this was an adjustment. But it definitely works. Drinking a lot of water keeps me from being really hungry, and of course it's nice to be hydrated (especially when working out). I also stopped grazing. I don't walk through the kitchen and grab a cracker, or a cookie, or a handful of chocolate chips, or all of the above. That's all stuff that I'd have to keep track of, and it takes away from what I can eat at dinner.

2. Eat breakfast, but not a huge one

I don't like cereal, so I never used to eat breakfast. Now I have a banana (sometimes with some peanut butter to get the metabolism going) and a glass of orange juice or milk. When I keep it low-cal at breakfast and lunch, it makes dinner a lot easier to deal with because a lot of times it's tough to count calories in recipes. Usually by dinner I've only eaten between 350-450 calories, so I've got lots of room.

3. Don't eat late

Nothing after 7:00. I've always struggled with this because I love to eat, and I love to eat while watching TV, especially sports. So this is a tough one, but also important.

4. Portion and self control

This was the biggest thing. I didn't want to "go on a diet." I wanted to change my eating lifestyle. I figure if I go on a diet and lose a bunch of weight, but never change my eating habits in general, I'll just gain it back. So the key to all of this was to control myself. The non-grazing, not eating after 7:00...all that stuff. That's why the portion control is also important. I would usually eat 2 or 3 servings at dinnertime, but now I keep it at one. The best thing about that is I can recognize more easily when I'm not hungry, and that's when I stop eating.

So no magic tricks or anything. Just change. Also there are no dumbbells. (At least until I lose some more weight.) (And yes, that was for Joel's benefit.)

So as you can surmise from the post title, it's freaking cold here in North-central Indiana. Last night it got down to -4 with a -26 wind chill. That is coldness of ridiculous proportions. I know it's cold in Minnesota and North Dakota and stuff, but this is not there. We are not used to living in a freezer. My garage door doesn't work because it's so cold, and I get up to five employees a day calling me because their cars won't start when it gets like this. At least there's not ice on the roads to go with it, because I'd have no one left to work.

As an illustration of the numbing frigidity of this joint, Jessica saw the cable outlet out of the corner of her eye yesterday and noticed that one of them was white. She was about to get annoyed because one of the boys put Desitin on it, but when she took a closer look, she saw this:



That's right. Ice. In my house. Such a thing is not cool in my book, literal interpretations of that phrase aside.

I mentioned the boys earlier , and it occurs to me that I haven't posted pictures of them in a while. So here's something for you. This is them on Christmas day, showing off their new pajamas in front of the awesome Christmas tree that we turned into a prelit tree ourselves (pictures of that may come later as well.) I guess that kind of makes it a post-lit tree, but it's prelit for next year now, so whatever.



As a side note, the ice picture was taken with our new camcorder, which is awesome. It's a Canon HG20, and it's most excellent. We'll be taking it on our 10-day trip to Europe (more on that next week), and if I can figure it out, I'm thinking about a series of vlog posts while we're there. We'll see if I can do it, and if I'm up for it when we get there. But that's it for now. Till next time.







Ooooooohhhhh!! I totally fooled you. You thought I was leaving without talking about the Eagles? Please. I'm not going to say much because I'll get myself all lathered up, but let's just say that if we can't beat the Cardinals to get to another Super Bowl, it will not be a good day. If the Birds can get into the big game, I'll be headed to Delaware to watch the game with the family. But in short, here's my prediction: Larry Fitzgerald (the best receiver in football) will have a few awesome catches and perhaps get the Cards a touchdown or two. Anquan Boldin will also have one or two nice plays. But they won't be able to run the ball, and Kurt Warner will lose at least one fumble, maybe two. McNabb, meanwhile, will be able to use short passes to the quick receivers and tire the defense out. Westbrook may be hurt, but he'll still command a lot of attention even if he doesn't get the ball a whole lot. Buckhalter will get some carries and he'll also make a big play as a receiver. The Eagles will seal the game in the fourth when DeSean Jackson makes a big catch for the winning touchdown, but the outcome of the game will never be in doubt as the Cardinals will not be able to consistently get anything going on offense against the Eagles' suffocating D. They'll be shut out completely in the second half as Philly takes over and finishes off an improbable run to the NFC championship.

Bank on it.

Random Thoughts Without Segue at 7:58 PM

So I've finally broken down and joined Facebook. I did this about a week ago. I figure hopefully it'll help me get back in touch with a bunch of people that I haven't talked to in forever, and I'll also have more people checking out the blog (and hence perhaps some more motivation to update it.) That also means I'll probably break out a "what I've been up to for the past 10 years" post, so the three of you who are regular readers of the blog will have to put up with a bit of repetition.

Those of you who are both Xbox 360 owners and Netflix subscribers like myself have noticed that the 360 can now stream movies from the Netflix Watch Instantly catalog. How awesome is this? Extremely. Am I a nerd? Absolutely. But it's still fantastic. I just put on an episode of The Office for the heck of it, and the video quality is great.

You know what's underrated? Two things: Tater tots and Heath bar. You might never include either of them in the pantheon of great foods, but neither ever disappoints. It also holds true when you combine either one with other elements. Case in point: Heath bar pieces in ice cream or on a cake? Wondrous. Tater tot casserole? Delicious.

I've decided that I'm not going to make a long-term decision about facial hair. I've had a goatee for almost five years with the occasional full beard interlude thrown in for good measure. Then in September, before the Outer Banks vacation (about which I criminally never blogged) I shaved the whole thing off and went with bare face for a little bit. And now I've got the full beard going again. So basically what I'm saying is that if you see me on a regular basis, you'll never know what's coming at you. Is it stubble today, or do I still have the beard? Perhaps I shaved it down to a handlebar mustache (I did that for two days after Halloween.) You just don't know.

I've also decided that it's probably time for the Eagles to move on without Donovan McNabb. It hurts me just to say it, because I love McNabb, but I think he's reached a point where we're not going to win it all with him. He's been horrible in the first half of almost every game this year, and then he hit a low point (maybe a career low point) with a horrendous performance against the Bengals on Sunday. I mean, really? They couldn't score more than 13 points in 5 periods? The defense is still pretty good, and the only reason the team isn't terrible right now. On the other hand, I'm not nearly as devastated about the Eagles this year as I normally would be, because the Phillies have lifted my sports spirit for the next year. What? The Sixers already have a losing record? That's alright. The Phillies won it all. The Flyers are in fourth place in the Atlantic Division? It's okay. The Phils are taking care of me.

Finally, the boys proved my theory again that toys are not needed. We bought a new upright freezer on Saturday and brought the box inside for them to play with, and that's all they've been doing. Luke brought all the toys upstairs from the basement and put them in the box, but not necessarily to play with them. Just to have them there. Jessica's parents were here over the weekend, and her dad cut windows in it for them. It's big enough that Ronin can walk upright in it without ducking, so he can't stick his head out of the window in the top, but he still enjoys it. So basically toys are a waste of money. Just buy large cardboard boxes. Or just magazines and wrapping paper for smaller kids.

For those who may have followed the link here from my Facebook page, you may not know about the boys yet, but I'll have pictures up soon enough.

Mmmmm.....Steak. at 12:43 AM

Zimm and I drove up to Fort Wayne today for the meeting that we have tomorrow and Friday. To start things off, we all went to Eddie Merlot's, a steak and seafood restaurant. The meal lasted about three hours between the appetizer, salad, main course and dessert. I started things off with some calamari and spinach & artichoke dip. Both (especially the dip) were fantastic. The salad was good, but a little heavy on the red onions. I've never been a big fan of red onions (too strong for me.) Then of course, the steak. Good grief, the steak. I had two four-ounce fillet medallions. One of them had a bleu cheese crust, and the other had a peppercorn thing going on. I've never had good experiences with bleu cheese, but this was an exception. It was very, very delicious. The peppercorn, though, was the highlight. The steak was seasoned and cooked perfectly (medium) with a nice kick. Fantastic. Along with the steak, we had some asparagus, sauteed mushrooms, mashed potatoes, and fries. Good stuff. Finally, I got the apple and peach crisp for dessert, which was an enormous container full of apple and peach crisp, topped with vanilla ice cream. All in all, everything was excellent. The steak, though, may have been the best I've ever had. I've been eating healthier this year so far, but man that was worth the lapse. Gotta love business dinners.

Tomorrow and Friday will inevitably be annoying, as the meeting is all about planning the year and setting goals. But hopefully the food will continue to be the highlight. I had to do some work when I got to the hotel room tonight, so hopefully that won't continue either. Until tomorrow.