Category: John’s Little Problem

Challenge 1: Catering To My Needs

Last Tuesday, my job had three meetings with an unholy amount of catering, and they stacked it all in the common area when they were through. Worst of all, they had my favorite thing in the world: cobbler, in two flavors — peach and apple. Who doesn’t love apple cobbler? Crazy people, that’s who. I avoided the cobbler and settled for a few pieces of chicken (breaded … ugh, I know).

Challenge 2: Dining And Whining

The wife and I went out a few too many times last week (see her Sunday blog post). The problem, I think, is we don’t have a lot of friends in the area. Ok, none, really. Our closest friends live about thirty miles away, and we only see them about once a month, tops. So the wife and I tend to go out. There’s background music, atmosphere, drinks-drinks-drinks (whiskey or wine, not beer), food we don’t have to make, cheerful waitstaff, etc. And way too many opportunities to over indulge.

Challenge 3: Revenge Of The Cobbler

On Saturday, I ended up breaking down and eating some blackberry cobbler on one of our little outings. I felt bad about that. Not the end of the world, and not in unlimited amounts (like those giant vats at the office…), but definitely the end of ketosis for about 24 hours. Sigh. Something to work on.

This Coming Week…

This week’s challenges are mostly unknown, except for Friday. The wife and I joined a meetup group that’ll be going to a bar for happy hour. “Are you out of your mind?!” you say. Not entirely. We’d probably go out anyway at some point. At least this way we can meet a few folks, make new friends. Also, it’s scheduled fun — for Friday. Not “I’m bored, let’s go mess up” fun three days in a row. And we do need more friends in the area. We’ve joined a few other meetup groups as well. Each will have its food challenges. One’s a bowling group. The other’s an eclectic group that does all kinds of odd things, from board games to happy hours to going to museums.

I’m feeling pretty good about where I am. Five pounds is an awful lot to lose in a week, and I’m sure next week will be more realistic. We always lose the most weight in the first week of a “diet,” whereas “lifestyles” produce less spectacular (though longer lasting) results.

See you next week!

6 Comments April 4, 2016 John

Since my last weigh-in, I’ve gained 3 pounds, and now weigh 305.

At the urging of my overworked plumber, I’ve decided it’s time to take my weight loss seriously. Ok, that was a joke. The first part, not number two.

*cheers, laughs, and cries of encore, encore*

Everyone likes a jolly fat man. Especially coroners and morticians. Which is why I’m writing this post, quite frankly. I just turned forty-five, I’ve had a small scare recently with some very odd heartburn that’s lasted way too long, and I’m worried about my health. The doctor says the heartburn is probably some damage at the bottom of my esophagus, so any amount of acid (even normal) is probably the cause of it, and I just need to heal. But here’s the scary part: if it doesn’t heal, he’s asked that I come back to find “other causes.”

Yeah. Scary.

How I Got Here

A few years ago, after my wife, Dot, quit her job and got serious about her weight loss, I got serious too and did the low-carb thing with her. We both lost a lot of weight right off. She lost like fifty pounds and I lost about the same. Then she kept losing, and for two years I stayed right around three hundred pounds.

There are a few reasons for this. One, I work in an office, and however well I ate at home, when nobody was around to tell me “no!” and swat me with a rolled-up newspaper, I’d go to town on pizza, cakes, catered sandwiches, cookies, chips, and doughnuts. Sometimes I’d resist and eat what I’d packed for lunch that day. Other times I’d eat what I packed that day and go to town anyway. Still other times I’d go out and pay for lunch.

“But isn’t going out to eat super expensive?” you hypothetically ask.

“Not usually,” I reply to the suppositional you.

At the office I work at, there are always vendors or staffing reps to take me out for free, or team-building outings to all-you-can-eat places, or vendor-paid happy hours with both drinks and appetizers. And yeah, sometimes I’d just go out on my own, rather than stick to the lifestyle I’d turned into a diet.

So basically, what I’m saying is: I can’t be trusted. And that’s where you, gentle Dot-2-Trot blog reader, come in.

Confessing My Three-chin Sins

For the next however-many months, years, whatever, I plan to show up here every Monday and confess my eating sins (if any) and successes (if any). I don’t plan on going into a lot of sciency stuff, like Dot, but I may post something I find once in a while. I like the science too, but before I start with the talking, I’d like to pack a little success under this overstrained belt of mine … kind of thing.

Each week, I’ll post my current weight and maybe talk a little about the challenges I overcame, or the positive things I’m doing. For example, I plan to join the free gym at my job—not to lose weight, but to gain health. I’ve noticed in the past that when I work out, I’m more likely to pay attention to my eating, and that results in positive change.

By confessing on my wife’s blog like this, I hope to keep myself honest and add a little public pressure/shame to my daily grind. Dot can’t watch me all the time, but I know you guys will be there the following Monday to give me grief if I screw up, because that’s what anonymous friends on the internet are for.

I’m really looking forward to it…