T - 88 - Mean Green Machine

Its been a productive day.  Had a good breakfast, signed up for myfitnesspal to track my calorie intake, and worked out in the evening.  I also did some research online to get some meal ideas.  Out of all the things I did today, I'm the most proud about dinner.  Not only did we endup eating at home, but we had freshly made juice.  Not just any juice, it was green juice.  Oh yeah, the good (aka yukky) stuff.  I feel like hulk.  I wasn't as hungry as I normally am after a workout.  Maybe it was the fact that I didn't cardio.  Whatever it was, it helped break the eathing out streak.

I feel like I'm back on the wagon, after not working out for 3 days.  The workout was great.  Spent all the time on weights.  Upperbody mostly.  I'm fairly certain I over did it.  So I know I'll be sore for the next couple of days, I just hope it doesn't throw me of the wagon again.  Well, tomorrow is another day.  I'm planning to go to sleep early tonight, meaning now.  It earlier than usual, so that's a good start I guess.

Taking Control

I've decided to take full control of my calorie intake, and by that I mean knowing exactly how much calories I eat per day, and where it came from.  So far I've been just eating what I want, as long it seemed healthy.  I didn't count calories, carbs, fat etc.  Its only been a week or so and I've lost 4 lbs following this method, but I know sooner or later I'll need to start paying more attention to the counters mentioned above. 

So, I signed up for My Fitness Pal, after hearing good reviews about it.  I went back and entered what I ate since I started dieting and was shocked to see the numbers.  Even though I've been trying to eat 'healthy' and my calorie count is under what my goal is, my carb and fat intake was huge.  Almost 80% of my calories are either carbs or fat.  I'm sure most of it was the bad kind too.  Protein only makes up about 20% of my diet.  I had no idea it was that bad. 

If the numbers are this bad when I'm eating healthy, how bad was it when I was eating like a pig.  I don't even want to know.  The past is in the past, and now its time to take control of the present and change the future.  Who is with me?

T - 89 - Yet Another Night

I had promised yesterday that I was going to workout today morning to make up for skipping the workout. Well, I couldn't wake up early like I had wanted, but I did mange to workout once I was up. Same routine, 60 minutes of cardio. I haven't lifted weights in a while now, so tomorrow I plan to dedicate more time to it.

I'm sure you are used to hearing me complain about eating out every night by now, so I know it won't come as a surprise when I tell that tonight was no different. It was Chipotle night once again. This time was a little better though. I had a chicken burrito bowl with a little bit of brown rice, fajita veggies, black beans, and hot sauce. Not too bad, I think. Though next time I should ask them to put the hot sauce on the side.

T - 90 - Opposite of Exercise

I'm afraid my fears of falling off the wagon after the long weekend maybe coming true. I was supposed to workout today, but that did not happen.  Now that's 3 days in a row without having worked out.  I don't feel too guilty about not working on Sunday and Monday, because I did a lot of house maintenance work.  However, today, it was just pure laziness.

Came home and decided to go to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner, instead of working out.  I know, the exact opposite of what I should have been doing.  I almost didn't want to write this post tonight, because I was feeling so guilty, but I had to do it.  I didn't want one bad behavior to influence another.  It was a mistake and now I have to own up to it.

T - 91 - Long Weekend Recap

I know, I know.  I'm a day late on this update.  I went to pickup my wife from the airport last at night, and completely forgot to blog once I got back.  Oops!  I'll have to start keeping a reminder for this on the weekends.  Besides, I didn't do all that great with the goals yesterday, so that was probably another reason why I "forgot" to post the update.  Shame on me!

In any case. the dreaded long weekend is over.  I can't say I got through it unscathed, but I did better than expected.  If you read my previous, 'The Dreaded Long Weekend' post, you know I came up with a plan for each day of the weekend.  Let's she how I did.

T - 92 - Down 4 lbs!

I started the blog this time last week, and this has been the longest week I can remember in a long long while. When I started this, the goal was to loose 2.5lbs a week. Aggressive goal, I know, but I think it's doable. So far I've lost 4lbs, and that's with eating out 3 nights last week.

Now, I know there is no way I can keep up this rate of weight loss. Sooner or later it will slow down and plateau. I've got a couple of ideas on how to fix that problem when it happens.  I'll fill you in on that in a later post, but for now, I'm feeling pretty freaking awesome.

T - 93 - An Apple a Day

I've got James Brown's 'I Feel Good' playing in my head tonight.  I do feel good. No it's not because today was my cheat day and I had 10 super hot spicy wings and French fries, and nor is it because I've been sitting on my butt playing video games all day.  It's because I actually worked out today.  I know that doesn't seem like a big deal, but it is to me.  You see I almost didn't make it.

I started playing game this afternoon and all of a sudden, I had no will get up and workout. I just wanted to sit there and keep playing. It seems my plan of playing games to keep me distracted from eating, works, though a little too well. I played straight through lunch time and when I realized it, I was too hungry to workout.  So I grabbed an apple and started munching on it while I was coming up with creative excuses on why I shouldn't work out today.

T - 94 - The Payne Begins

I was off to a rocky start today, woke up late due to staying up late last night, but things improved as the day went on.  Had a good breakfast, a Greek egg white omelet.  Ate a vegetable wrap for lunch and came home early.  I had to work some more once I got home, but it did give me the opportunity to get right on my elliptical once I was done with work.  I was done with the workout, shower and dinner by 7:30PM.  It was great.

I also came up with a complete plan on how I'll spend this long weekend.  If all goes as planned, I'd be pretty proud of myself.  I don't plan on sleeping early this weekend though.  I want to stay up late and enjoy myself, but I do plan to wake up relatively early, like 10-ish so I can squeeze in breakfast.  The challenge with staying up late though, is trying not to give into unhealthy snacking late night.  I'm prepared for it.  I shall prevail.  Anyway, I'm posting this update a little earlier than usual, because I'm sure once I get started on Max Payne 3, I won't be stopping for a while.

The Dreaded Long Weekend

I've been dreading this long weekend ever since I started this journey.  Usually I look forward to time off, like every one else.  However, this time I'm more nervous than anything else.  Why?  Three reasons.

1) Diet - My wife is going out of town to visit her parents this weekend.  Though she has prepared some meals for me to survive the weekend without her, I do need to fend for myself some of time.  Translation - I'll be eating out at least once a day.  Having seen how much of a struggle it has been this past week, to make healthy choices while eating out, I'm dreading this the most.  Plus, my cheat day is also this weekend.  I'll have my cheat meal at lunch, though I haven't decided which day its going to be.  This weekend will be a great indicator of whether I will succeed in this 99 night challenge or not.

T - 95 - An Epic Battle!

Yet another night and yet another battle. I named the blog Next 99 Nights, because I knew the nights would be the toughest in this journey.  However, even I didn't anticipate how tough they were actually going to be.  Looking at the picture, I'm sure you can guess the wife and I went out for dinner ... again.  Its the same old story, that even I'm tried of repeating, so I'm sure you tried of it too.  I was doing good throughout the day, worked out, came home and everything fell apart.  Sure, I've got my excuses, but that's all they are really, excuses!

That one night of working late has lead to a string of bad choices.  It started with a salad, yesterday was a steakhouse, and tonight it was Italian.  Carrabba's Italian Grill to be precise.  I almost ordered the Chicken Alfredo.  Took a deep breath, drank a whole glass of water, regained some sanity and made the decision to go with Grilled chicken instead.  I even asked them to substitute the mashed potatoes with asparagus.

T - 96 - Better and Worse

I'm exhausted tonight, more so than the previous nights.  Not sure why.  I was off to a good start.  Had a decent breakfast, split up my lunch into smaller portion, just like yesterday and ate throughout the day.  Even went to the gym in the evening.  So the day was going pretty well, until I got home.

    I did better at the gym today than prior days.  I was able to do cardio for more than 40 minutes today, but still didn't make it to a full hour.  Though, this time it wasn't due to lack of energy.  I easily completed the first 45 minutes, but I simply was too hungry to continue.  It was obvious even on the way home, that I wasn't in the mood to eat home food.  By the time I was done working out and taking a shower, I was ready to eat a horse.  However, I didn't want to ruin all the effort I put in during the day to stay on track.

A Man in a Woman's world

It's a woman's world.  No really, it is ... at least when it comes to weight loss.  If an intelligent alien species decided to learn about our civilization using the internet, they would come to the conclusion that only women are affected by obesity.  That's what I've come to learn over the past few days, while hunting the web for weight loss tips, healthy food recipes, and support groups etc.  Only women are fat, and men are not. 

At first, I thought, that's so great for women.  They have so many sites, blogs and forums for weight loss geared towards them.  They've got a huge support system, and so many of them willing to help each other out.  I felt like the odd 'man' out.  At one point I even felt a little embarrassed to be blogging about weight loss.  Now, I know I'm not the first guy to blog about this, but the numbers are overwhelmingly one sided. 

T - 97 nights - Disappointed

Hats off to all you early birds out there, especially those who workout in the morning.  Not only did I not wake up on time, but my legs refused to obey my commands once I woke up. The first 5 minutes of this morning's workout was probably the hardest I've been through in a long time.  I spent just as much time on the elliptical today as yesterday, but only burned half the amount of calories.  I'm not sure if I can keep up with the morning workout routine, but I'm going to try and make it a habit... though not tomorrow.

      I've got some good news and bad news. The bad news is that I ended up having to work late tonight, which means the wife and I went out for dinner.  We just got back and I'm still full, so I won't be sleeping early tonight nor waking up early tomorrow. I'll have to workout in the evening tomorrow. The good news, all I had for dinner was some salad and clear broth chicken soup. Working out in the morning, eating smaller meals and snacking through the day certainly helped me stay on track with the diet.

T - 98 Nights

T minus 98 nights to go.  Feeling pretty good tonight.  Not great, but good.  Accomplished most of what I wanted.  Started going to the gym close to work.  I figured if its close to work, I won't be able to use the excuse that its out of my way.  However, I'll have to rethink my workout schedule.  By the time I get to gym, start/finish working out, shower, get home and finish eating dinner its almost 9PM.  If I'm to accomplish task # 3 on my list, then I'm left with only an hour before I need to hit to bed.  So the plan is to start working out in the morning.  I'm not sure how successful I'd be, but its worth a try. Wish me luck!
   
On a side note, check out the temptation I had to resist on my way to the gym. Link.

Night 1 - Part 2

I was supposed to post this last night, but I was too busy writing my first welcome post, so this didn't get done.  So here it is now. 

Yesterday was night 1 of 99.  I spent the morning thinking about what my first goal should be.  I wanted the goal to be one that would energize and excite me.  A goal that would make me feel good about myself.  Soon it became obvious that first and most important thing I wanted to do, was be more active and lose weight.

Time to be more specific.  I weigh 202lbs, and I know the ideal weight for my body is 168lbs.  The deadline for me to reach my goal weight is Aug 27th.  That means in 14 weeks I have to lose 34lbs, which translates to about 2.5lbs a week.  Sounds do able.  Now, I know that the weighing scale alone is not going to a good judge of my progress.  So periodically, I'll be using other methods (such as checking my BMI at the gym etc.) to accurately chart my progress.

Going with the theme of nines, I made a list of 9 activities I could do daily, that would help me achieve this goal.  Below is what I came up with, in no particular order:
1. Spend 1 hour everyday being active - It could be going to the gym, biking, or doing chores that require physical exertion. 1 hour is the minimum, not the maximum time.
2. Spend less time watching TV - I spend at least 4 hours a day watching TV now.  I want to cut that down to 1 or maybe 2 hours max.
3. Go to sleep and wake up early - This is the biggest obstacle I have.  I'm usually like staying up until midnight, and I hate waking up early.  I need to change that so I can start my day off right.
4. Eat breakfast - My breakfast usually consists of 1 cup of coffee (yum Starbucks) and.... that's it.  I've always heard how its the most important meal of the day, especially if you are trying to loose weight. So it made the list.
5. Eat healthy snacks during the day - I need to do this, so I don't feel ravenous by the end of the day.  That is probably one of the biggest reasons why I eat out so much during dinner time.
6. Eat a healthy dinner - Easier said than done.  This will probably be the second biggest obstacle in the challenge.
7. Drink more water - I wanted to throw in an easy task in here, so I can at least have one things I can accomplish easily.  The plan is to drink 100 ounces a day.
8. Plan my day/week - Another biggie.  None of the items on this list will get done, if I don't do this step.
9. Blog everyday - I must blog everyday and report on how I did with the list above, to hold myself accountable.  I'm afraid that I will give up and go back to my old ways if I don't.

Welcome

Hello and welcome to my blog - Next 99 Nights.  What is it about?  I'm glad you asked.  Its about attaining my goals, whatever they may be, 99 nights at a time.  Why 99 nights?  Before I can get into that, I'll need to give you a little bit of background about myself.

    I'm a 30, soon to be 31, year old male.  I've got (almost) everything a guy could ask for.  A good job, a fast car, a nice house and a beautiful wife who adores me.  You'd think will all these great things, I'd be pretty happy with my life, and I was, until recently. 

    You see, about a year ago, I started getting this feeling of dissatisfaction.  I guess you could even call it depression, but I feel that's too strong of a word, though some of the my symptoms are similar.  It usually starts in the evening.  I start feeling restless when I'm home and not doing something.  So my wife an I would decide to get out of the house, which usually means going out for dinner.  That leads to overeating, which in turn makes me feel lazy and lethargic, leading to excessive sleeping.  This has become a cycle that I can't seem to get out of.