I went to my second weight watchers meeting today and once again, I was the only guy there in a room full of teenage girls and women. But first the good news:

I have lost 5.4 pounds over the week! Which means I got my Five Pound Sticker and received a Bravo Sticker as well.

Not too shabby and as the title says, the results are not typical according to the leader of the meeting. So even with my two days of really bad eating, I did okay.

The next goal for me is the 5% goal of 18 pounds. We'll see how long that takes.

The topic for today was BBQ Grilling. Knowing what I love to eat, and believe me, putting all of the food up on the board, especially when I hadn't eaten since 3:00 was killing me! But learning all of the point values for the correct portions made me stop and think. No wonder I am so fat! My portions would have made the typical BBQ well over 40 to 50 or more points just for that meal! We discussed healthy alternatives and one of them is shrimp. How about 8 ounces of shrimp for the same points as three ounces of brisket? No contest. This 4th I think I will opt for the lighter fare, even if I have to bring it myself.

So that's it for this week ladies and gentlemen. 5.4 pounds lighter and I am out of here to go for my walk.

Have a blessed day.
Eric

I've thought long and hard about this particular post, but I suppose that for those that do read this blog, it's time to see the person behind the writing, the person attempting to lose this weight.

This picture was taking about 6 to 8 weeks ago at my oldest daughter's piano recital. I'm not proud of it, but it shows just how much weight I need to lose.

So (drum roll please) here is the picture. Try not to lose your lunch. (Yes I do not like pictures taken of me.)

I happen to love Chipotle's food. So does the rest of my family, but up until yesterday, I never really gave the nutritional aspect much thought. I gave it a lot of thought yesterday and I did not like what I read. The burrito I had was over 1100 calories and was worth 26 points of my day!

Needless to say I was in shock as I watched my day's points virtually halved in one meal. Luckily I still had some of the weekly points left over so I could finish out my day.

So far I am doing fairly well on the diet this week. I have, so far today, 12 activity points, 11 weekly points remaining and for today I have 23.5 points left. Tomorrow is weigh in day at the meeting, so we'll see how things are progressing. I konw that this morning I weighed at 345.7, so hopefully that will stay near that mark for the weigh in.

One thing this diet has taught me so far is to actually weigh and measure out the portions. We have the Weight Watchers Food Scale and measuring spoons, so we are fine in that aspect. Yesterday was when I started weighing the foods and today was begun in earnest with this portion of it.

So anyway, that's it from the fat guy trying to lose weight and the daily round up.

Have a blessed day!
Eric

For the last two days, I attended a conference for management training. That was the good part. The bad part? Lunch.

Lunch was at the hotel restaurant, which only served a buffet style meal. They would not do anything off of the menu. The first day was fine, and I came in at .5 points under my daily allowance of 44. The second day was a nightmare. We had 40 minutes to eat lunch, I had already had a McDonald's breakfast that morning, which was 18 points (which I will NEVER do again) and the buffet was catfish, coleslaw, hushpuppies, rice pilaf, and beef tips. so I over ate.

Let's just say that I am very glad for my weekly point allowance of 35 extra, because my point total for yesterday was over 60.

I really need to plan out my meals now.

So it is now the end of day one and I survived. I even did everything I could to watch my portions, and made sure I wrote everything down. Of course writing it down meant using the online tools they have for men and women. (Yes the tools are separated.) I will definitely will have to do a post on the tools alone, as they are well worth the price of admission per month. That said, out of the allotted 44 points per day I have, I still had 3.5 point left over for today.

I even have 3.5 activity points for the day. I did 17 minutes on our treadmill and did a very high activity exercise on it. (Meaning I was going about 3.0 mph on average, with an incline of 10 and warm up and cool down.)

All in all, not too bad. I need to plan out my meals now, and snacks as well, and I need to make sure I time my times to eat. That way I am not hungry all the time.

It is late and I have a conference to go to for the next two days. Since I will have to eat out those days, we'll see how that goes.

Have a blessed night.
Eric

Well, guys, if you are looking for a place to meet women, then this is the place. Out of the 20 or so people at the meeting last night, there were two men there. Me and another married guy who was there with his wife. (DISCLAIMER...I am happily married and not looking. Just making an observation.)

I have to say, that the WW meeting was part WW grocery store, part pep rally, part motivational speaking and part contest. How you say?

As I walked in, the first things I noticed was the three ladies at the counter who greeted me. (After waiting outside for a while because the website was wrong on their meeting time, but that is another story) In front of the counter were scales. Now the scales look like they could hold a small elephant up if necessary, but the actual readout of the scales are behind the counter. You have to take their word for it. I am not sure I really like that, but oh well, not my rules.

Now after the scales, you turn and see the grocery/book/utensil sections. Here is all the WW foods, books and utensils you could ever hope for. They are very proud of their items, as the price reflects. I would highly suggest that you buy the food at Walmart or somewhere like that, the books at a used bookstore or online and as for the utensils you can find equivalents elsewhere. Some of their merchandise is expensive!

I weighed in, at 350.8 and so from now on, Tuesdays will be my official weigh in date. After weigh in I went in and waited on the meeting. Ah yes the meeting. That was the interesting part. I did get a lot of good advice from that meeting. Some things that I had not really thought of, such as putting the point values on the outside of packaging, that way you know just how much that candy will cost you if you so desire it.

The leader talked to us about planning ahead, which is a good topic. She had quite the bubbly personality and when it came time to hand out stickers for achieving certain goals, like showing up for your second week and for losing five pounds, she became both a dancer and cheerleader, playing MC Hammer's "Can't Touch This" and handing out the stickers.

I felt like I was in my youngest daughter's class for a while.

Don't get me wrong, I know why this is done this way, but I am saying that I am not that Rah Rah Sis Boom Bah type of guy. Not yet anyway. (For you youngsters out there, look it up.) But overall, I think this will be the challenge I need to get my lazy butt off the couch and into weight loss mode.

Oh, and I went with the forty dollar a month plan, with unlimited meetings and the online option as well. Now the Online option is definitely worth it! (again, another post.)

So that is it for now. I am "Officially" doing WW now, and not just on my own.

Have a blessed day!
Eric

I have been talked into it, sort of. I am going to be going to my first Weight Watcher's meeting this afternoon. I am hoping I am not the only guy there.

I'll let you know how things go.

Oh, and I weighed in this morning at 348.2.

But that will be the unofficial weigh in. The one that counts will be the one at the meeting today.

Have a good day.

Eric

There are many struggles that people deal with when losing weight. Binge eating, eating due to emotions, lack of time due to life happening, etc. But I have a couple of new ones for you: Camping and Sunburn.

We went camping for four days this past Memorial Day weekend, camping at wonderful Eisenhower Park at Lake Texhoma. It was a good time, and we mostly had fun doing this. When I started camping I weighed in at 351. I thought that camping would be good to me; I'd be hiking, fishing, doing the outdoors things I like to do. But I also apparently ate like a pig and did not even realize it. When I came home and weighed in, I had gained seven pounds! I was beside myself in disbelief.

To top that, I had decided to wear shorts for the first time in 3 years outdoors and went fishing with the kids at the Red River, actually doing some fishing while standing in the water. Can you guess what came next? That's right, I became sunburned.

I was sunburned so badly that my legs from my knees down to my feet swelled to two and one half times their normal size. I went to the urgent care clinic and they were actually advising me to make sure I came back if the skin started splitting open! Needless to say, I didn't do any exercising (i.e. walking) for the rest of the week.

So, a little over a week later, I weighed in at 349 this morning. A small victory, but a victory none the less.

Believe me, I learned my lesson from this one.