Once I got out of the gym, I was famished… my stomach was rumbling and I just wanted something to eat.  I wanted to get some carbs in me since I’d just done a pretty intense workout.  I also wanted some pretty good protien to help with muscle recovery.  I decided to go for some Subway.  I got a footlong oven roasted chicken loaded with veggies.  I didn’t want it loaded with yellow mustard, so I added some creole mustard once I got home.  It hit the spot and was a perfect meal.  I just hope I didn’t blow it with the carbs..

That brings my calorie total for today up to 1806 calories… right at my minimum goal level.  Lets see tomorrow what effects this might have.   I’m curious to see how the calorie level plays with the workout..

Tonight, I really started pushing my exercise regiment… I really wanted to kick in and push my fitness to the next level.  I recently came across the following article over on the Gold’s Gym website.  http://www.goldsgym.com/healthy/article.php?id=145.   It says for beginnings, I should do about 4-5 minutes of light cardio to warm up, followed by 12-15 minutes of weight training.  That should then be followed by 8-10 minutes of intensive cardio.   I decided to push this up a little more, and doubled the recommended amounts.   Here’s the breakdown of my workout:

10 minutes – Treadmill – 2.8 mph average

Leg Press – 15/50, 15/50, 15/50, 15/70, 15/70, 15/70 (one minute of rest between sets)
Leg Extensions – 10/50, 10/30, 10/30, 10/30 (one minute of rest between sets)

20 minutes – Treadmill – 2.8 mph average

The leg presses weren’t too bad… so I decided to up the weight after the first few sets.  Next time, I’ll start at 70.  As for the Leg Extensions, I tried starting at 50, but it was extremely difficult for me to get through even 10.  I lightened it up to 30 and was able to get through a set, feeling the burn, but not straining.  When using the treadmill, I also used the “Forest” program which randomized the speed and incline…  it was pretty good overall, but I’m not sure if it was because of the weight lifting, or the actual walk, but by the time I got through my 2nd walk, I was exhausted!   I felt like this might have been my most successful gym visit so far!!  Lets see if it shows!

Today, my team wanted to get out of the office for a bit and get something that we don’t usually have a chance to have.  Lots of ideas went back and forth, but in the end, we finally decided to have Red Lobster for lunch.  I always enjoy having Red Lobster, so I was pretty sure of what I was going to get before I even got there.  I went for the Lunch portion of the Salmon with a side of steamed broccoli.  I also got a garden salad with the Red Wine Vinaigrette dressing.  I topped it all off with a cheddar bay biscuit.  Overall, lunch was good, but the iced tea didn’t taste right… once again, I think I got “sweetened” tea…  I’ll have to double check that in the future.  Overall, it was a good, filling lunch. 

That brings my total so far today up to 1066 calories. So far,  I seem to be doing pretty well as far as making my total… going to be heading to the gym tonight, and I’m looking to really starting my weight training.  I’ll post about that later..

As I mentioned yesterday, I was looking forward to getting a Breakfast Souffle from St. Louis Bread Company.  This morning, I made sure to get up early enough to be able to stop in on the way to work and pick up the breakfast I’d been wanting.   I decided on the Four Cheese Souffle as it was the 2nd least in calories.  (The lightest one was the Turkey Sausage and Potato, at 460 calories.)   I ordered it and a large coffee to go.

The souffle had been everything I wanted.   The best way i could describe it is a egg and cheese pie, with a croissant crust!   It was absolutely awesome, and well worth the calories for this morning.  I’d much rather have this than the garbage I picked up from QuickTrip the other day.   I’m going to not make it a habit, but I’ll look to add this to my breakfast one or twice a week.

Also, I wanted too note that this morning I broke 290… coming in at 289.2 lbs! I’m really hoping to keep this level of progress up over the next week or so…

Once I got home from the gym tonight, I grabbed a chicken breast from the freezer as well as a bag of the Green Giant Asian Style Medley.  I’d been somewhat disappointed in the Steamfresh brand, so I thought this might be a welcomed changed.  This version was made of snow peas, broccoli, red peppers, and water chestnuts.   It was decent, though it felt kind of “soggy” overall, as if there was no crunch whatsoever.   The chicken I gave a healty dose of cajun seasoning… it came out absolutely perfect!

That brings the total for the day up to 1415 calories.  That’s a bit low overall, and I’ll have to see about getting closer to where I need to be tomorrow.

During most of the TV I watched, I kept seeing commercials for the new Pita Snacks that Jack in the Box has to offer.  I’d become intrigued with them and found at least two were very reasonable as far as calories were concerned.  The one thing I was worried about was getting something the size of the Sammies from Quiznos, which were woefully small, especially for their calorie count.   I decided to counter this by getting a side salad with balsamic vinaigrette dressing.  Overall, everything was very good.  The pitas themselves were very tasty, and the actual size I would expect a pita to be.   I also realized if I got several of these, and dropped the “pita”, it would make a pretty good lunch without as many carbs.  It might be something to consider in the future.  A little later in the afternoon, my sweet tooth started calling, so I decided to have 2 pieces of candy.  6 were 160, even though they were different sizes and shapes, so I estimated 2 at about 60 calories.  Now… what’s for dinner!

This morning, I actually woke up wanting to get a slightlier heavy breakfast to kickstart the day.  The one thing I was looking to get was a Four Cheese Souffle from Bread Company.  It’s about 480 calories, but sounded like a pretty tasty way to start the day that would be both rich in protien and dairy.  It didn’t work out that way though so I ended up grabbing two granola bars on the way out, and a cup of coffee once I got into the office.  It was good, but I was still craving the souffle afterwards.

I did it… I don’t know how, but I did it!!  This morning, I came in at 290.0! That’s almost a 2.5 lb drop from last week’s gain, though still only 1.8 lb down overall from my last low.  Still, that’s not bad… bringing my total loss since day one up to 33lbs! Last week, I think I did pretty good, as far as going to the gym and keeping my days healthy.  Right now, I’ve got several ideas on what could be stalling or helping my diet, and I’m not sure which one is the direction to go, or whether I should combine them, or take even another direction altogether.   Here are the current hypotheses that I have:

1) During the week, because I’m dining out more and not fixing my own meals, the overall quality of the food is not nearly as good as I should be having, even if the calories overall are down. On the weekend, I “usually” eat most of my meals at home… so that meals less grease and fat overall, much more “controlled”.

2) I’m not getting enough calories during the week, so my body slips into starvation mode by midweek. On Friday, or whenever I have “Free Day”, it slips out of starvation, and for the rest of the weekend, I get results!

3) I’m usually spreading meals out on the weekend. I’ll usually have a decent breakfast, then have something light for a snack a few hours later, followed by lunch, and then dinner. So, 4 meals instead of the 3.

Each seems plausible… and I’m curious to “test” each to see how it works… 1 week, eat everything from home… bring in my lunch everyday… 1 week, beef up the calories… get it to the 2000 – 2200 range. Make sure I get there each day. 1 week, start bringing in 2 snacks to have mid morning and mid afternoon. Then I can see which one had the least or biggest effect. Just not sure if a week would be enough to really call it an accurate “test”.

I discussed this with a friend earlier, and she seemed to think the first one would be the best route overall, also making sure that I do hit my 1800 or so calorie minimums.  So, I think that’s the direction I’m going to go, though I might have to wait until later this week to fully put that into testing.

For dinner, I decided to grill up a chicken breast and nuke up some of the Asian Medley that I had a few nights back.  The chicken came out fabulous, and I’m really liking the Weber “Kickin’ Chicken” seasoning, though I did add some mesquite to it as well.  Once again, I enjoyed the Asian Medly, but found there was far too many calories.  Also, I think the flavor of the carrots or the mini corns was a bit off… I think I’m going to pass on this one for future meals…

That brings my calorie total for the day up to 1530 calories. One downside of the day is I was lazy.  I wanted to get to the gym, but ended up falling asleep and taking a pretty major nap.  I’ll have to get back on the wagon tomorrow evening.

I started getting hungry again around 2 or so.  I decided it was time to have a real meal.  I wanted some burgers, so I decided to make up another batch of my favorite turkey burgers.  Overall, they were nice and filling.. which I really needed.  This was a little too early to be considered dinner, so I’m going to probably have to have something else a bit later in the evening.