Day 10: Mark Your Calendar — I Was Wrong!

morning weigh-in: 152.4 lbs.

For the life of me I can't figure out how I gained only one pound yesterday. Must be the clean living! If I was a totally irrational guy, I'd say "Full steam ahead!" today. But I'm pretty level-headed (or, flat-headed, as some might suggest), so I stuck with my usual routine, which for Sunday is

grits & eggs
coffee (2 cups, 1 w/half-and-half, 1 black)

It's an unusual Sunday, in that I'm not going to church. Attending the backyard Mass at the Bertie Bay Bash yesterday — in a foreign country, yet! — fulfilled the obligation. That sounds pretty crass; like we only go to Mass because we have to. But I'm just takin' what they give me.

Reading the Sunday paper, doing the crossword puzzle, and getting back to the living room project took up the rest of the morning. Leading up to a light lunch of

Yoplait yogurt, red raspberry (6 oz.)
Swiss cheese, cracker-sized, sans crackers (five thick chunks)
water (2, 12 oz. each)

and then it was back to the living room, where as yet (knock-on-wood) there have been no major surprises. Found some really dumb construction in the side and front walls, but after living here for 11 years, and re-doing more than three-quarters of the house, that no longer qualifies as a surprise. A little pick-me-up along the way came in the form of a

John Sleeman IPA

John Sleeman India Pale Ale (341 ml)

obtained during yesterday's trek to Canada. When we crossed the border coming home, the Customs' Officer asked if we were bringing anything back. "Six bottles of beer," Tracy told him, seeing that she was driving. "Six bottles of beer?" he repeated, as if he'd never heard of such a thing. "It's a six-pack," I chimed in. "Oh, okay then," he answered back. What the heck was that all about? Anyway, dinner consisted of

cabbage-free cole slaw (huge bowl)
Lay's Dill Pickle Potato Chips (manly-sized fists-ful)
John Sleeman India Pale Ale (341 ml)

A little television, a little time wasted on the internet, a

Fit & Active Mint Ice Cream Sandwich (1)

and it was time to wrap-up another day.

Day 9: Oh my!

morning weigh-in: 151.4 lbs.

Third day in a row at the same weight. And if it stays the same again tomorrow, there's definitely something wrong with the scale. It's Canada Day weekend, which will find Tracy and I crossing the border to join some old friends at their summer home in Bertie Bay (which is between Fort Erie and Crystal Beach). Past performances tell me we may be letting the pants out tomorrow.

I shouldn't have bothered, but I started the day with the usual Saturday breakfast of

grits and eggs (1/4 cup of grits with 2 soft-boiled eggs stirred in)
coffee (1 Folger's Caramel Drizzle w/half-and-half, and 1 Columbian, black)

Then it was a bit of deviled egg-making before heading across the border. How many people in the world can be in another country after a 15-minute drive? Ya gotta love living here. Arriving at the Bertie Bay Bash I was immediately confronted with about seven different beer coolers. After mulling it over for a bit, my beer choice for the day was

Old Vienna (5, 341 ml. bottles)

Now mind you, that wasn't five in a row. There was some eatin' thrown in there also. Eatin' like

Peg's veggie platter

cheese platter

stromboli
veggie platter w/bleu cheese fondue 
white pizza

At 4:30-ish — and where else would this happen — Father Francis shows up with Brother Ed from St. Bonaventure University and says Mass in the back yard. And just when he finished saying "The Mass is ended, go now in peace..." doesn't a can of Labbat Blue pop open in the back of the crowd. Well, he did say the Mass was ended! Just in time for dinner. Choices, choices... I walked out of the kitchen with

buffalo pulled chicken sandwich on a hard roll (1)
home-made potato salad (2 helpings, eventually)
antipasto (1 mound)
deviled egg, of course! (2, eventually)

And naturally there was dessert

brownie (1)
chocolate chip cookie, thin soft large (1)
chocolate chip cookie, thick soft small (1)
chococlate cookie, thin soft large (1)
scrumptious, indescribable peanut butter chocate-ly thing (1)

Which should have been enough for the night. But when Tracy and I got home around 8 p.m. we decided the watch the DVD of "Quartet," and there was a bag of

corn chips w/ French onion dip

calling our names. The question now is: Will I actually step on the scale in the morning, or just sleep in 'til Tuesday and hope it all goes away?

Stay tuned...

Day 8: Gus Macker Fouls Friday Evening Parking Plan

morning weigh-in: 151.4 lbs.

Fridays are tough, because I know that dinner time will be a four-hour-long temptation. So I tend to slack-off a bit during the day. But I did manage to scarf down the

Lance's Capt... oh hell, the Lance's cracker snacks, Peanut Butter & Honey 
     (1 pkg. of six)
Tim Horton's coffee, black (medium)

That actually held me over for the morning. I skipped the gym to get home early enough to throw the turkey breast in the oven for later. And put together the cranberry mayonnaise. While all of that was going on I finished off a

Yoplait Light yogurt, raspberry lemonade (6 oz.)

Looking back on the day so far, I might agree with what a friend mentioned at dinner: that I don't eat enough to survive. But, survive I do (so far), so who's to say? Anyway, we'll see tomorrow after factoring-in tonight's intake, beginning at the Statler City lobby bar:


Great Lakes Brewing Co., The Wright Pils (2 pints)

The Gus Macker basketball tournament was being set up right outside, and it threw off our usual parking plan on Delaware Avenue. Paying five bucks to park in a lot is painful when street parking is free after 5 p.m., but pay we did. Ugh. Once Happy Hour was over we trekked the block up to The Old House Downtown, and the bring-yer-own buffet, where I feasted on

Mary's white beans and greens minestone (1 bowl)
roasted turkey breast sandwich on Howard's home-made wheat
        bread, with cranberry mayonnaise (1)
Labatt Blue Light (1 can)
more bread, with Lynn's Amish butter 
       (1... okay, maybe 2 slices)
romano cheese wedges (2-ish)
Ryan's home-made ambrosia (2 healthy helpings)

After parking it for a while, we headed outside to watch the Gus Macker set-up continue, and I took a few pics of Howard shooting baskets in his suit and fedora. We then finished off on the front stoop with

espresso (a shot or two)

And then it was home to slave over this and the YAK blog, which always goes better with at least

water (12 oz.)

Sweet dreams.

Day 7: Is "Red" a Flavor?

morning weigh-in: 151.4 lbs.

At least it's going down. I'm really afraid it's the beer... er, lack of beer that is causing the loss of poundage. Oh my! Or maybe it's the gum! Today I had no gum again for the second day in a row. I'm starting a novena, hoping someone up there is on my side. But I did have yet another 

Lance Captain's Wafers (Umm.. crackers. They're crackers for God's sake!),    Cream Cheese and Chives (1 pkg. of 6) 

Oh. My. God. Did I really buy an 8-pack of these things? The flavor-of-the-day today was Cream Cheese and Chives. The filling wasn't quite an orangey as the first two... or was it three, packages. And it even tasted different. Not much, but there was something there.

Also today, the usual 

medium black coffee 

from Tim Horton's Cafe and Bake Shop. Personally, I liked it better when they had the guts to called themselves a doughnut shop. Cafe and Bake Shop is just too PC. And a doughnut shop is just the thing that sends many people off to join a gym. It's not why I joined, but I saw some of them there while I was on the treadmill, polishing off a

water, (12 oz.)

  

Tim Horton

before coming home to a lunch of

turkey and Swiss on Mom's Basic White Bread
Tops Fruit on the Bottom yogurt, raspberry (8 oz.)
water (12 oz.)

I think I may have mentioned a while back that cherry was my favorite flavor. But thinking it over, I take that back. My favorite flavor is actually "red." Anything red — cherry, strawberry, raspberry. Even cranberry.

Dinner was a little more dinner-ish than it's been lately. Fired up the grill and had

hot dog, with bun and Weber's mustard (1)
hot dog, naked (1)
tater tots (who counts tater tots?)
oven-roasted asparagus
water, (12 oz.)
Diet Cherry Pepsi, (12 oz.)

Sat around the television later on, watching the DVR'd Stephen King mini-series "Under the Dome." Read the book when it came out, and we're all looking forward to watching this 13-episode-long series. Yikes! That's like, all summer! Tracy popped some corn, and we sat and ate it out of the same bowl, movie theater style. Nice. And during the course of the evening,

water, 12 oz. (2)

And it was Good-Night Nurse!

Day 6: Waterlogged

morning weigh-in: 153.0 lbs.

I certainly didn't plan it this way, but I think I drank more water today than I ate food. I didn't even start the morning drive with the traditional piece of gum. Sell your Wrigley's stock! I did though, manage to have

Lance Captain's Wafers, real cheese Grilled Cheese (1 pkg of 6)

You remember these from yesterday, in the Peanut Butter and Honey flavor. Well, these tasted the same. I think Lance got a deal on some orangey filling, and splurged on packaging, making it look like there was a variety of flavors.

These were dutifully washed down with a medium black, to go, Tim Horton's coffee. Respectfully double-cupped by Tricia at the NCCC kiosk. And then a 12 oz. bottle of water, followed up by two — count 'em, TWO bathroom stops before hitting the gym. Where I consumed another

water (12 oz.)

All of this talk about water is giving me the urge again. So let's change the subject to lunch. Which on this day was on the light side,

Yoplait yogurt, Strawberry (6 oz.)
Mom's Basic White Bread, buttered (1 slice)
water (12 oz.)

Glug...glug...glug

Dinner was even more pathetic

leftover pork chop, naked (1) (see Day 1 for explanation) 
turkey and swiss on Mom's Basic White Bread
water (12 oz. x 3)

(I know, I keep pushing the Mom's Basic White Bread. In case you missed it, that's the name given to a recipe out of the cook book that came with our DAK Auto Bakery bread machine.)

And that, was that.

Day 5: Blackberry Fields Forever. Not.

morning weigh-in: 153.0 lbs.

No beer yesterday, and the results are in: a net loss of nearly two lbs. — I'm not so sure I'm gonna like this whole thing.

It's a work day, so as per custom we started our morning drive with the usual piece of gum. You'll still never convince me it has five calories. An hour or two in I found myself at the Tim Horton's kiosk at NCCC, where I walked away with

medium coffee, black, to go (1)

It's a habit I've gotten into; not every day, but two or three times per week. And what could go better with the TimmyHo's than a package of

Lance Captain's Wafers, Peanut Butter & Honey (1 pkg. of 6)

You may recognize these better as cracker sandwiches, or, better yet — some sort of sticky substance smeared in between two slabs of extra-dry cardboard. Yet, who doesn't love 'em? A 12 oz. bottle of water afterwards helped turn the cardboard to mush in my digestive system. Or one would hope.

After work I made it to the gym again, and maybe erased those crackers with a 4.53-mile walk on the treadmill (and burned 446 calories according to the digital readout which never lies). And another 10 oz. of water which is probably about how much sweat I lost (TMI?).


Lunch was late, and quick:

hard-boiled egg (1)
Mom's Basic White Bread, from the bread machine, w/butter (1 slice)
blackberries (11) - that's all there was :( 

Dinner was a mish-mash of leftovers:

pan-fried pork chop from the night before (1)
cabbage-free cole slaw from last week (1 blob)
grill-roasted potatoes from I don't remember (a manly-sized portion)
water (12 oz.)

We had some errands to run, so I popped in another stick of gum (I guess it could really add up over the course of a lifetime), and came home to a generous slice of chocolate cake and one more slice of Mom's Basic White Bread, dry.

And it's off to bed.

Day 4: A Hard Day's Eating

morning weigh-in: 155.2 lbs.

Good grief, this is certainly going in the wrong direction. And looking back on the past few months, Monday weigh-ins have been the worst. I've come to the conclusion that it has to be — sorry Dad! — the beer. So this week's experiment is no beer until Friday. Yikes. This morning, being a Monday and therefore a day off, started with the usual

grits and eggs

If you've never tried it, I highly recommend it. Soft boil the eggs (two is about right) and break them into a bowl of grits. Add salt and butter to taste. I also had a cup of Folger's Caramel Drizzle coffee, with a wee bit o' half-and-half. Then somehow the morning disappeared (Monday is bill-paying day, and the mound of papers on the desk is getting obscene). Which means it's already time for lunch, so let's open up a

Yoplait Key Lime yogurt, 6 oz.

and a just-out-of-the-bread-machine slice of Mom's Basic White Bread, with a smidgeon of butter. We haven't used the old DAK bread maker for a while now (we bought it 20 years ago, and it still works!), but this morning seemed like the perfect time to fire her up again. Right after that I found a chocolate cake lurking about in the cupboard and carved a thin slab (if there is such a thing) to hold me over 'til dinner. Which was:

pan-fried pork chop (1)
mashed potatoes (1 serving)
steamed green beans (1 mound)
water, 12 oz. (2) or if you prefer, 24 oz. water (1)

And that was it. A pretty unexciting day. I did manage a stop at the gym in the afternoon, where I visited my old friend the treadmill for an hour, and managed to walk 4.15 miles and burn 439 calories. While walking I finished watching the Beatles' movie "A Hard Day's Night" on my iPod Touch. I've only seen it about 10 times (including the initial showing at the Palace Theater in Hamburg back in 1964). These days I find myself identifying with Paul's grandfather (at left).

'til tomorrow...

Day 3: Don't Fire Until You See the Whites of Their Eggs

morning weigh-in: 154.0 lbs.

Well, that was refreshing. I mean, weekends are tough, eating-wise (and beer-drinking-wise) but I woke up holding my own.

And immediately fired up the Keurig and threw in a:

Folger's Caramel Drizzle 

to sip whilst enjoying the usual grits 'n softly boiled eggs. The eggs in this new carton seem to be larger (even though both the old and the new are marked large — hmm... I wonder if there's a law firm I can contact about this), so I guess I need to adjust the cooking time. My whites were a bit on the runny side, and that's no way to start the day.

After working on the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle for a while (also no way to start the day unless you actually enjoy looking stupid) it was off to church, where I received 

one communion wafer with wine 

Do I count these in with my daily caloric intake? I think not; and hopefully this little exclusion won't send me down the path to weight-losing hell.

It was another beautiful summer day in the neighborhood, so Tracy and I climbed into the Poofersmobile and headed north to Old Fort Niagara. I'm ashamed to say that I've lived 99 percent of my life in WNY, and had never been to the old fort until yesterday. And we're thinking we'll probably go back again. It's humbling to walk around those great stone edifaces and imagine what life must have been like for those soldiers. Especially seeing that the weather certainly wasn't like yesterday's every day. If you ever go, don't miss the musket firing demonstration (above); it's a real eye- (and ear) opener.

Seeing that we'd driven that far, and passed the fort's restaurant without buying anything, we decided to head east to Olcott Beach, where we had a late lunch/early dinner at the Lighthouse Grill 'N Spirits. I had a very satisfying turkey club wrap (the wrap was cheddar jalapeño), with a side of home-made mac & cheese (did someone really bring it from home?), and a bottle of Corona Light. With lime wedge, thank you. Oh, and two dill chips; can't leave out the dill chips.

By the time we got back home I didn't think I'd be hungry for the rest of the evening. Hah! Tracy put together some home-made (yes, really) guacamole and also some from-scratch salsa, which we ate with some round white tortilla chips. A can of Genny Light helped it all go down.

When we finally planted ourselves in front of the television later to watch the HGTV show "HGTV Star" (I don't know why I put myself through this, as for the past three series of this show I've disliked just about every contestant) I headed to the freezer and dished out three scoops of raspberry sherbet. Hey, it was still 84°, I had to do something! And for some reason, just before bed, another Genny Light and three (yes, three) handfuls of Tops Ridged potato chips — just the sort of thing I'd hoped that writing this stuff down would put a stop to. 

We'll see how that turned out tomorrow.

Day 2: It's An Aroma, Not A Smell

morning weigh-in: 154.0 lbs.

Curse you, digital scale! Years ago I would have stepped on the old analog, watched the numbers spin by, and approximated today's weight as being the same as yesterday's. Bah!

What could have caused a .6 lb. increase? Well, no stop at the gym for one thing. Weekends, according to the Bible, are not for exercise: "On the sixth and seventh days, God created the couch. And the neighborhood restaurant which serves huge portions." More on that later. That non-gym stop is almost 500 calories right there (not that I'm counting calories). You do the math.

The morning started out innocently enough with my usual bowl of grits with two softly-boiled eggs gently broken in. Then stirred madly with butter and salt. The Keurig often works overtime on Saturdays, but this time I held myself to one cup of Joe. Black. No wait, it was two cups, then I was off for a little bit of living room deconstruction (which I don't consider exercise — the whole-house remodel, now in year 11, is an on-going, lifelong "hobby").

Lunchtime rolled around and I found half of a leftover grilled chicken breast, which was accompanied by a Tops Fruit-On-the-Bottom 8 oz. yogurt, boysenberry. Washed down with 12 oz. of water. They say drinking enough water can be an appetite suppressant, but that doesn't sound like much fun at all.

Later on, after standing back and admiring an afternoon's work, it seemed like a nice night to go out to eat. No kids around, just me and The Wife. So we were off to Wiechec's Lounge, where I was presented with the largest beef-on-weck I've seen in a while. Not so large that I couldn't finish it, of course — although the huge basket of fries proved to be too much, and I actually left some for the kitchen help to polish-off. The two dill spears weren't a problem though, nor was the pint of Sam Adams Summer Ale.

After all that it seemed like a good idea to go for a long walk, so we headed down to Canalside and walked towards the First Ward, behind the old DL&W terminal which sits across the river from the Cheerios plant, past the Swannie House, and into the new River Fest Park on Ohio Street. What a great job they're doing down there! And the Cheerios' plant was making its presence felt olfactorially. Luckily the aroma of Cheerios is calorie-free.

A few more long, tall glasses of water at home during the course of the evening, and that, was that.

Day 1: Does Gum Count?

morning weigh-in - 153.4 lbs.

I'm not much of a breakfast person on work days, partly because I leave the house too early, but mainly because I'm too lazy. So the first entry in my little pocket notebook will often be:

gum, 1 piece

I wasn't sure at first if I should even bother, but then looking at the package I notice in the — ahem — nutritional information, that one piece of gum is five calories. Now I don't know if that's five calories just from chewing it or if they assume you'll swallow it eventually. But there you go.

Later in the morning I had a medium black Tim Horton's coffee to go. When I say "to go," I mean that soon after my last sip I'll be searching for the nearest bathroom. But that's another whole blog for another day.

After finishing work I consumed a 12 oz. bottle of water while on the treadmill at the gym. Oh, didn't I mention the gym? I joined in February mainly for cardio exercise. While there I tend to look around a lot at the guys over in the weight-lifting end of the room and think to myself "That looks like a lot of work. They'd have to pay me to do that."

Finally got home around 1 p.m. and actually ate some real food. I started writing in the notebook:

one used pork chop

then realized it wasn't used, it was left-over from the night before. I ate it naked. Not me, the pork chop, naked is my own euphemism for no knife, no fork, no plate. Also had a Tops Fruit-On-the-Bottom yogurt, 8 oz. container, cherry. You may notice as the summer wears on that cherry is one of my favorite flavors.

Seeing that yesterday was Friday, it was spent, as are most Fridays, downtown with friends. The 2-for-1 special at the Statler City lobby bar was still in effect, so I happily downed a couple of pints of Leinenkugel Summer Shandy, a lemonade-flavored beer (yeah, I know, but I'm not a beer snob). Then we headed over to The Old House Downtown a block away, where a recurring cast of friends enjoyed a bring-your-own style buffet featuring Howard's machine-made whole wheat bread, along with the ham which he single-handedly unspiraled, Mary's greens-n-beans crock-pot dish, some really sharp Romano cheese, Ryan's store-bought peanut butter brownies (we cut him some slack here, as he's admirably taking the summer off from cooking), and our own cabbage-free cole slaw. We won't go into portion details here — suffice it to say when I eat a meal it's a regular-sized meal. That said, I had two brownies. And a can of Diet Pepsi Lime. Hey, summer is supposed to be citrus-y.

Upon returning home later in the evening, I refrained from eating anything, mainly because of the stupid notebook. (It's working already!) I did have another 12 oz. glass of water before bed though. And then dreamt about eating — which is calorie-free.

The Official Intro

Before anyone else mentions it, let's just put it out there right now: No, I'm not overweight, and I probably don't need to lose weight. But...

A year or so ago, as my cholesterol count started to go down (due in part to medication, and in part to a dietary "adjustment"), my physician agreed to lower the daily dosage of my med. "Can we just stop it at some point?" I asked. He gave me a weight that, if reached, and with the cholesterol count kept in check, yes, perhaps we could end the daily medication.

The first ten pounds went away fairly easy. But with six or seven more to go, I can't lose an ounce. And I refuse to try any fad diets. So here's what I'm going to do: write down everything that I eat or drink. Everything. Somewhere I read that by doing this we eat less. I'm hoping I'll only eat less of the crap I seem to stuff into my face every day, and continue to eat enough of the good stuff to stay healthy.

So this blog will be a daily diary of what I eat and drink this summer, along with a daily weight update. And hopefully it will be interesting enough to read. If not, I'm hoping that it at least helps me reach my goal.

Let the eating (and drinking) begin!