George's Feast and Famine

2006-09-08T20:16:00.000-04:00

Sorry about not posting, but I had the medical procedure I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, and even though I was a little worried about it, it turned out to be a non-event. Really guys if you are 50, like me, you should have this done. The only bad part is this foul liquid that you have to swill the day before the proceedure in order to clean you out. So anyway I had been a little worried and preoccupied about this, this week. I did have an absolutely no-cheating fast day yesterday and I am shooting for another one tomorrow.

The doctor said that I couldn't go to the gym, but I plan on getting some walking in over the weekend; I don't think that should be a problem

I am taking my son to the Airport on Sunday Morning for a Class Trip to Maine. They are going up to the coast of Maine to do a zoological field trip, which is a tradition for the Senior Class at his high school. He goes to a Waldorf High School here in Atlanta, which has a very creative curiculum, including stuff like this as well as a lot of involvement in the arts. So he will be gone for a week, so the house will be quiet.

2006-08-27T15:37:00.000-04:00

Back in the ATL after a quick trip South. Got all my grass cut and worked on two ceiling fans on our screen porch. One good thing about Hunter Fans is that you can order parts for them. When we had the house painted last year ( actually the trim since it is a brick house) the painters broke off two of the fans blades. Actually the fan irons ( the hardware holding the blades were worn out, either due to weathering or due to poor design. I was able to snap another one of these in my hands!. Pretty scary, since these could have hurt somebody if this happened while they were running. So I ordered new irons and screws. The screws didn't fit so I had to order some more. Then I found out that they had changed the blades layout so I had to orderall new blades. I thought this was going to be simple and cheap but none of my household fixit projects ever seem to be simple or cheap. So I got both fans assembled and operating and attempted to attach the light kits. You have to fish two little screws up into the weather proof light assembly into the fan, into a hole that seems about the size of a pinhead. The screw kept dropping out and then when I got it in the light assembly it would get lost in the assembly. All this while work in the head, overhead, and on a ladder. I worked on one light with Cathy about 30 minutes and decided to try again when the weather is a little cooler. I did this about 11 or 12 years ago when we built the house and had forgotten what a bear it was. I would like to meet the fool responsible for this design!

Back into town on Saturday night and got up to go to church on Sunday. It 's been a very fast and busy weekend.

My BMW is not running. I am hoping to get it going so that I can get it into the shop sometime next week. It is a good car but at 23 years old, any car of this vintage is a challenge. I is a blast to drive however. I am headed out to the car port to see if I can get it running.

Did pretty fair with my eating this weekend but not perfect by any means.

So long...

2006-08-24T20:07:00.000-04:00

Had another very busy week, with two or three meetings a day every day this week. We are driving down to our place in South Georgia tomorrow. Cathy is going to drive while I work on the laptop and handle my voice mail and e-mail with the Blackberry, so I can work "on the run" We haven't been down in several weeks, so I have many chores to do.

My dad asked me to do some research for him on laptop computers. At age 82, he is looking at buying their first computer! Talk about a late adapter, even my in-laws have a computer. I am seriously leaning towards recommending an Apple computer, even though my experience with Apples is very limited. I just think that in terms of viruses, spywear and adware they are probably much simpler and cleaner. And I think they can run windows programs now, so why not?

I went shopping for lawnmowers today for our place in South Georgia. I am leaning towards getting a John Deere. Our last riding lawn mower lasted for about twelve years and actually the engine still worked when we had to retire the mower. We had a bent drive shaft that was going to cost five or six hundred dollars to fix. We are big about keeping and using things a long time. We gave a car away to charity last year that was 21 years old and still running. We only got rid of it because we had, at the time three very old cars ( the youngest of which was 16YO ), all of which could need to go in the shop at any moment. We went from three old cars, to two old cars, one old car and then no old cars ( one car had terminal mechanical problems in excess of it's value and the other was hit from behind). Luckily we have one "new" car (six years old) that we bought used and are about to pay off. After next month, no car payments. I think this habit of using products an extremely long time is more environmentally sound than buying new products that get better gas milage. I believe that if people held on to and maintained their cars for at least twenty years, it would reduce the use of resources and reduce contributions to landfills by a substantial amount.

Today was an eating day:

Breakfast:

Two egg whites, two sausage patties, one piece of whole wheat toast

Lunch

Turkey sandwich, on whole wheat with salad and chips

Dinner

Pasta, with Alfredo sauce, mushrooms and sliced chicken breast

Snacks:

Frozen Custard ( was doing pretty good up to now ) and handful of chips, apple

Drinking diet cokes and herb tea and staying away from adult beverages. Mowed the lawn at the Atlanta place after work with the old push lawnmower, which is quite a good workout. Weigh-in for better or worse takes place on Monday. I think that I have put on a few LBS the last few weeks through laxity on my "non eat" days but I am feeling like I am coming out of the other side of this.

2006-08-20T20:17:00.000-04:00

Well happy Sunday everyone. We had a busy weekend. First, we switched cellphone service from Nextel to Cingular, and I got a box of phones(three!) in the mail Friday night. I had to read the instructions, get them charged up and then see if they would get operating, which none of them would do. An hour on customer service on Saturday and we we were squared with phone service, but then the voice mail would not work. Another 45 minutes and we were square. I must say that the Cingular folks were all very helpful and friendly and surprise, surprise were nice folks from the midwest and not in Bangalore India. I was very impressed overall. I had a Blackberry for work and my wife and son had a cell but believe it or not this is my very first personal cell phone. It has a lot of Gee Wiz features; like you can push a button say a name and it will automatically dial the number. Absolutely amazing!

Today we had a very eventful day. My wife Cathy, my son George and myself were all baptised into and joined the Methodist Church this Sunday. This was a long journey for me, probably over the past ten years or so, and I don't come from a family that believes in God. We have always avoided joining a Church but finally felt the calling to do so. This was a moving and significant event for me and I feel like I am beginning a spiritual journey. Sorry if this is too heavy but this is where I am in my life.

My weight has been less of a preoccupation the last couple of days; I need to be more consistent but I also would like to be more focused on something other than myself. I also recognize that I need to take better care of myself and that means eating what I am supposed to eat when I am supposed to eat it and exercise every day.

I just checked a website called eons.con, which I would strongly recommend for anyone who is 50 or older. I learned that I have an estimated life expectancy of 92, meaning that I am just a little more than middle aged. This was a significant relevation to me and a wake up call that I need to be thinking and planning for a very long future.

So long for now...........

2006-08-16T20:36:00.000-04:00

This week has been extremely busy having been out of the office last week. Three meetings today and three meetings tomorrow. Friday, I am teaching a session at Chateau Elan, which is sort of an imitation french chateau and vineyard just north of Atlanta. It used to be out in the middle of the country, but Atlanta has extended to the point that this is now part of the Atlanta suburbs. Their conference center is beautiful and a great place for a meeting.

Today was an eating day and I need to be stricter on my fasting days (like yesterday). The last couple of these I have fallen short and I need a fresh start. What happened yesterday is behind me. Tomorrow is a new day. I plan on listing everything that I eat tomorrow on the blog and hopefully this will motivate me to be more faithful.

I truly feel like this last year has been such an interesting, unusual and blessed year for me. It has been a year for changes and new things in both my personal and professional life. Losing some weight has been an added bonus and something that I would like to hold onto and hopefully build on during the rest of this year.

2006-08-15T20:49:00.000-04:00

Have a very busy week after having been out of the office most of last week. Went to the Gastro-enterologist today. Having passed the 50 year mark this year, I get to have a highly intrusive procedure in a few weeks, which modesty forbids me from describing in greater detail. I have a very nice doctor and will be out during the procedure but I am still not looking forward to it.
I got three "to do" projects done today, so I feel pretty good about my day. Will keep you posted...

2006-08-13T19:29:00.000-04:00

Had a peaceful Sunday, after a busy week. I had the best night of sleep in a week, being back in the eastern time zone. Got up and went with the family to church. Then went out shopping with my son for school clothes. Came back considerably poorer but I should consider myself lucky since my son is fairly preppy and isn't into black clothing, body piercing and tatoos.

Foodwise, I had some vegies and chicken at about 5:00 but otherwise haven't eaten. Did about five miles of mall walking today.

I read a blog posted by one of my fellow bank regulators in another State who is a dear friend and has a serious form of cancer. She has always been the most lively and vivacious person that I know and is in a very bad way. I am saying a prayer for her and I hope that everyone reading this does the same. Every day that we have is a gift and we need to appreciate all that we have been given.

So long for now..

George

2006-08-12T22:26:00.000-04:00

It's Saturday night and I just got back to the east coast. I was a little unsure of what to expect with the new travel restrictions, but it really went pretty smoothly; the only problem is everyone is checking luggage now. Used to be that most savy travelers (like me) took all their gear on the plane and skipped the baggage check-in. No longer. But the security check is actually quicker now, in my opinion, since there are fewer carry-ons. I have learned from experience that if you are flying into Southern CA, always fly into John Wayne/Orange County Airport and not LAX, which is much more crowded. I had a clear trip back for most of the way so I enjoyed seeing the views of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma. I still am still just a kid on the Airplane, when I have a clear day like today. I had a busy day yesterday, started meetings about 8:00 AM and pretty much had things going continuous until 6:30 PM, when we had a reception. I had the honor of getting elected to the Board of Directors of this organization yesterday for a three year term. The the name of the organization is the National Association of State Credit Union Supervisors or NASCUS. I have been on several committees for them but never have been on the Board so this was sort of neat.

I sort of ate on the run today. Early to the airport, Micky D's for breakfast and just some snacks for lunch on the plane. Remember when they used to feed you mystery chicken on the plane? I really think the crackers and cheese may be an improvement. Watched an animated movie on the flight back, somethings about Hedges, I can't remember exactly. I finally got home around 8:30 PM and had fish sticks, fries and cole slaw with my wife. I am very happy to be home; next year I have to swing a way of taking Cathy with me. I think she just didn't want to leave our 17 YO alone by himself for a week.

I saw that Curly got back from her trip and checked in. I don't blame her for letting loose a little bit on the diet; if I were in France and Italy, I would have done the same, and it sounds like she was able to get some exercise walking.

I got some great exercise this week walking up hill. Everything in California seems to be up hill in my experience (both ways!) but it was great exercise and my calves look very developed as a result of doing this all week. I am very lucky that I get the opportunity to travel fairly frequently and see so many beautiful parts of the country. I would like to come back and spend more time and see everything that there is to see in places like California and New Mexico where we went last year. I had several things that I hoped to do but my schedule just didn't give me the time.

Tomorrow is a fasting day, so wish me luck...

2006-08-11T01:34:00.000-04:00

Greeting from the left coast. I am here at Dana Point/Laguna Cliffs at my conference. A beautiful hotel overlooking the ocean. I got here on Tuesday night late and grabbed a bite and hit the sack after a long trip across country. I had a meeting early at eight AM on Wednesday but it was really 11 AM Eastern time, so this worked out fine. This lasted about three hours and then I had the rest of the day to myself. I miss my wife but otherwise, I'm having a fine time. I love visiting CA, particularly Southern CA, but I don't think think I could live here. The positives are the beautiful climate, wonderful ocean views and pretty mountains. The things I find difficult are the high population density, stratospheric real estate prices, lack of open space and traffic noise.

We had a full day of meetings today, (Thursday) and then they took us to Newport Beach, which is just up the road for a dinner cruise. It was very nice and smooth and I didn't feel a bit queasy. Convention food today, sausage bisquit and fruit for breakfast, steak, salad and vegies for lunch and Cornish Game Hen with rice, salad and vegies for supper. And a couple of adult beverages, not to mention desert for both lunch and supper. I plan on largely following my fast tomorrow with perhaps a little fruit for breakfast and salad for lunch. I have been hiking around and since the hotel is at the top of a hill, I get a great workout everytime I go out. I saw Jason's weigh in on his website and I hope that he doesn't give up the program. I think that a few adjustments can be made to turn the program into a maintainence program. Think about it Jason....

2006-08-08T00:01:00.000-04:00

Had a good semi fasting day today. Green Salad with carrots and green pepper for lunch. After work today, my son and I went for a 5 1/2 Mile hike around Stone Mountain, a huge Granite Outcropping about five miles from where we live. There is a trail around the mountain which goes by all these pretty little lakes. The only problem was that several folks were late to the hike and it was between 10:30 and 11:00 before we finished. I was famished and must admit that I had a bowl of cheese doodles and a diet coke after I got back, after I managed to avoid getting anything at Wendy's with my son. Still all in all, considering my overall food intake, eating a healthy salad for lunch and the amount of exercise not a bad day. I should sleep like a baby tonite.

I am heading out to California tomorrow in the afternoon. I plan on getting to the airport early enough so that I can get some exercise walking up and down the concourses, which can burn off the calories. I would prefer to be flying on a no eating day, but will do my best to enjoy my eating day tomorrow ( within moderation.) I will have a laptop with me so I will try to do a blog posting at least one day, and check on what you guys are up to. I don't know about Curly; she is sort of MIA and I don't know if she is going to do any more posts on her blog. Hope everyone has a great week until I get the chance to post again.

George

2006-08-06T22:35:00.000-04:00

Happy Sunday everyone

I have had a great day overall. Got up early about 8:00 made a large breakfast ( toaster waffles, hashbrowns, sausage and eggs (no yolks) and then got my son up for church youth group. I got my wife up about an hour later. I don't know if I mentioned this previously but my wife is a night owl and doesn't like getting up in the morning. She very sweetly agreed to go to church with me at 11:00 but like she says, sometimes "nightgirl" makes promises that "daygirl" can't keep. Anyway after three attempts, I finally managed to get her up with the promise of coffee. We made it with 5 minutes to spare.

I am very excited that the church is starting a Habitat for Humanity House in September to be completed by December. I have always wanted to work on one of these and for some reason have never done so, so I am looking forward to this. We are partnering with three other churches and have to raise $25,000 to cover the cost of materials.

I was in a cooking mood today, made homemade navy bean soup for lunch and roast beef and vegies for supper. Also I had some frozen custard as a snack. I went by the gym to work that off and had a great workout, with the weights and the treadmill.

This is a short week for me. I have a conference in Laguna Beach, CA that I am flying to on Tuesday. So, I am working on Monday and working a half day on Tuesday (probably telecommuting) and coming back next Saturday. I had hoped to take my sweetie with my but it just didn't work with everyone's schedule. Last trip the program worked really well while I was traveling, so it is my goal to weigh in one week from tomorrow (Monday week ) and be at 201. In order to do this, I will need to exercise some everyday and stay away from the alcohol at least on my no eat days; in fact I think I do better just staying away from this altogether, it tends to cloud my judgement.

I hope everyone has a good week...

2006-08-05T22:37:00.000-04:00

It Saturday night, and my wife and I are getting back from a quick turnaround trip to our house in South Georgia. Really I just went down to do yardwork, which was getting really behind since we haven't been down in two to three weeks. When we got down there there last night there was a huge rain storm, which was no walk in the park to drive through. I got up early this morning and was out in the yard about 8:00 AM. In addition to cutting the grass and blowing out the carport, I trimmed several bushes that were threatening to overtake the front of the house. My riding lawn mower went belly up a couple of months ago, so I had to use a push mower, which is no picknic. We have a big yard, 1.6 Acres, but the back is sort of natural, with ground cover, trees and shrubs, and the so I only have grass on about half of that. Still, I felt pretty whipped, and then I had to drive us back to Atlanta, which takes a little more than three hours. All this and it is a fasting day. I plan on getting up early in the morning for a nice breakfast.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend...

George

2006-08-02T22:19:00.000-04:00

Well I had a good fasting day yesterday, which I really nailed. No slip ups, just a little carrots for lunch. I weighed this morning and was at 202 which is good, considering all the slipping and sliding that I have been doing over the past week. Today I had a great eating day ( and when are they not great) with the usual suspects including Chinese for lunch ( and leftovers for supper). I am feeling good and looking forward to a day a fasting tomorrow (really).

George

2006-07-31T15:53:00.000-04:00

Well I guess it is Monday again, the start of another week. I am at home telecommuting today, and I got quite a stack of work done. My usual program gotomypc.com was not working for some reason ( I think they are working on the firewall) so luckily I had my blackberry to check e-mail with.

I got an invitation to judge a barbeque contest in November today, which is on top of another one that I just got for October. The one in October is one that I have done for the past three years, but the other one is a new contest in Central Georgia, so this is exciting. I am hoping that maybe next year I will get an invitation to the Memphis in May contest, which is like the world championship, now that I am a trained and certified judge.

I had a fairly quiet eating day today, with two whole wheat toaster waffles, and three sausage patties for breakfast, two hamburgers cooked on the grill and a handful of salad for lunch and a bowl of chips and a glass of milk for a snack. I haven't decided on supper as yet.

It's hot as a fire cracker outside today, and I have been hunkered down in the basement with my work. I have another 30 to 40 minutes of work to get under my belt. I hope everyone is hanging in there and has a great week.

George

2006-07-29T09:12:00.000-04:00

Greetings all:

Just saw Jason's post about hitting the 200 day mark, which has got me pumped up. I have to say in the interest of full and fair disclosure, that my week has been a mixed bag in terms of the program. I have been having some difficulty in the evenings with urges to snack, after a day of fasting. I think some of this may be due to being so involved in my last project ( which shall remain nameless) that I still haven't gotten out of my head. I have decided that the key to turning this "slippage" around is to have some good old mindless entertainment this weekend, a little vigorous exercise and a really solid fasting day tomorrow, from sunup to sundown. Maybe I'll even get to church tomorrow for a little spiritual intervention. It's Saturday Morning and everyone else is sleeping in so the house is quiet. I made a modified breakfast: a two egg omlet with ham and cheese, two sausage patties and a whole wheat toaster waffle. I only ate about half the omlet and shared the rest with the three amigos ( My three cats, Tiger Woods, Riley and Mother K) Read the Wall Street Journal that I didn't have time to read yesterday. Now I am thinking that maybe a movie would be a good start for the weekend. I was thinking maybe the new Miami Vice Movie with Colin Ferrell and Jamie Foxx. Since it is only 9:30, it would make sense to squeeze in that workout at the gym first, since the Movies don't get cranking until 11:30 or 12:00. We have one of those 24 theatre multiplexes down the way, so I don't even bother looking at movie times anymore, as long as its after 12:00. In light of my week, I think the key to my eating day today should be moderation, a diet coke at the movie and maybe some Sushi for lunch.

I checked on Curly's blog and nothing posted since Saturday the 8th. I hope everything is going well for her and that she is staying well away from the war zone.

I hope everyone has a good weekend....

George

George

2006-07-26T22:36:00.000-04:00

In looking over my last post, I hope that I didn't sound like a narrow minded yahoo. I like the west coast, I love when I get to travel to different parts of the country. I went to Chicago last year and had a blast. I have a trip to Boston planned for next year. I get to see all these places and I think they are great; I guess that there is something about the place that we have defined as home that defines us as a person. And however beautiful a place is, it never is the same as coming home.

2006-07-26T18:36:00.000-04:00

Well things are pretty much back to normal. I have been trying to eat salad on my no eat days, to improve my nutrition. I think I am going to weigh in tomorrow more, just to see what the damage is. Had a relatively slow day a work today, although even on a slow day I probably handle more than fifty e-mails and a dozen phone calls. And the boss was telecommuting today, so I was in charge of the office. Still overall things have been fairly quiet. I have several meetings scheduled next week and then the following week I am headed to Laguna Beach, California for a supervisors conference. I was there about ten years ago but haven't been back since. I have been fortunate to have visited Southern CA several times, including San Diego a couple of times, Anaheim, Los Angles, Newport Beach, Santa Barbara, and Laguna Beach. I have also been to Northern CA a couple of times. While I love to visit, and always have a great time, I prefer the Southern States, due to the lower population densitity, which I always find disturbing when I visit in CA.

So long for now,

George

2006-07-25T21:04:00.000-04:00

Sorry about the delay in posting. Things went much smoother on Saturday with my exam, but it was still by far the most difficult test that I have ever taken. I was not alone in this assessment. I worked extremely hard and will be proud of this effort regardless of the outcome. I feel strongly that now that I know more about the test that I will prevail, either this time or the next. I can't tell you how exultant I was after the ten hours was over. I felt like I was on top of the world. I had a eating day on my last day of the test on Saturday. I got a large Steak for Supper and one for my son. My lovely wife does not eat meat so I got her a baked potato and some salad. Sunday we went to church, partly to say a prayer about the results but really just to give thanks for getting back to my normal life. Being able to read a book for pleasure ( I read the new Steven King book, Cell, in a day ), get out the golf clubs ( which I did on Sunday) and even just get back in the pattern of work this week. I still find it difficult to get the process out of my head, after studying eight to ten hours a day for a week solid. But life is getting back to normal.

This is absolutely, positively my last comment about this, at least until I get my test results back which should take about 8 weeks.

I have been exercising intermittently, but plan to get serious and lose some serious weight. Tommorow I am fast, except for salads. Wish me luck.

George

2006-07-21T19:49:00.000-04:00

Well, Just damn. Pardon my french, but I got through my first four hours of my exam. Only six more hours to go. As I overhead one of my fellow test takers exclaim, as we exited the testing site this afternoon, if someone would kindly hand me back my ass, I would be greatly appreciative.

I plan on relaxing this evening, on the theory that I can't cram anything useful into my brain at this juncture. By the next post that you read, this should be over.

I was too shell shocked to eat anything today until I got home at about 6:00 PM and I have eaten some left overs for supper, in spite of this technically being a non-eating day. I will have all next week to get right with the program. Tonite I relax a little, waiting the storm to come.

Thanks for your forbearance. I understand that these things are hugely important to the person in the middle of the meatgrinder but of precious little interest to the person reading about the process.

Keep those positive thoughts and prayers coming,

George

2006-07-20T22:43:00.000-04:00

Well it's 10:30 PM and tomorrow is the big day. I studied for about 12 hours today and I am done. My pencils are sharpened. My supplies are all laid out. My first exam section is four hours tomorrow, starting at 12:30, with two three hour sessions on Saturday.

Today was an eating day, and I took my son out for lunch. He is just recovering from his surgery and gradually getting out of the house. I really haven't been able to focus on the important things recently I hope to have perhaps a short post tomorrow night and a longer post on Saturday evening after this is over.

I plan on having some fruit tommorow, but otherwise trying to stay on the program and keep everything on a normal keel.

Thanks for all the positive thoughts.

G

2006-07-19T20:53:00.000-04:00

Well, I had a couple of busy days. First, my son had some outpatient surgery yesterday, so we went to the hospital yesterday morning early about 8:00. He did very well, but I have been been back and forth to the drugstore and the grocery store getting special stuff for him. Plus I am getting down to the wire on my exam. Today, I went to scope out my exam site(s), actually there are two, since they are moving the location on Friday and Saturday. I have a four hour exam on Friday and two three hour examinations on Saturday at a different location on the same University. I went to graduate school there ( at Georgia State University) about thirty years ago, but I don't know where anything is now, so I decided to do a dry run today.

Also my inlaws were visting this week, which probably has something to do with why I have a bottle of scotch in the pantry. They took off yesterday afternoon. Having said this, I also recognize that I tend to do much much better with my program when I don't consume alcohol to any significant extent, so I have a plan to go back on the wagon within the next week or ten days.

I recognize that I have been under huge pressure this week from everything going on and I plan on focusing on my program and getting some weight loss on the board starting next week. Sometimes you need to be realistic about what you have going on, which is what I have attempted to do. I am glad that I have been holding on to my weight loss, working hard on my immediate personal targets and working towards further improvement in my weight and overall health.

Keep your fingers crossed for me. Hopefully if everything works positively, I will have passed the Certified Financial Planner (TM) exam by this Saturday. If things work my way, I will be a
CPA and and CFP, which open up many opportunities for me. Tomorrow is my last full day of studying. I can't believe everything is this close, after starting this process nearly two years ago. My instructor recommended that I not talk about the examination until it is over, so I won't mention anything specific on Friday.

I don't know if I will get to post anything tomorrow. I have a monumental study day planned for tomorrow, probably 12 hours or so. Then Friday will be ground zero.

I haven't focused as much attention on food but today has been a non eating day and I was on track until this evening when I had a few snacks. Hopefully I will have better luck over the next couple of days, but I am cutting myself some slack until Sunday of this week, when the exam process is over for good and I don't have any excuse, good, bad or indifferent.

George.

2006-07-17T17:51:00.000-04:00

Had a pretty good non-eating day, all things considered. Studied for four hours and then went to the gym for an hour. Did 720 Calories worth of sweating on the treadmill and a little weight training and I haven't eaten much today other than a hand-full of baby carrots.

My son has some minor surgery in the AM, and we have a pool party for boy scouts that we are going to this evening. Also my in-laws came in from South Georgia to vote ( they are registered to vote up here ) so we have more than the usual excitement. Tomorrow is primary election day in Georgia, with several fairly contested races this year, mostly on the Democratic side. Since I tend to lean Republican, and I am registered to vote in South Georgia, I don't plan on voting in the primary, but I will be voting in November.

I worked very hard today studying; I must really say that I have really done everything possible in my power to pass this examination on my first try. The bad thing about this whole thing is that everyone in my family is waiting for me to take the exam, so they can get free financial planning advice. Oh well, I guess that goes along with the territory.

As usual, looking forward with anticipation to an eating day tomorrow.

George

2006-07-16T23:15:00.000-04:00

Had a great Sunday. Got up and made a large breakfast, got my son up for youth group at the Church and Cathy and I got up and went to Church ourselves which was the first time that we have done so in several months. I really enjoyed going and would like to do this more often, but I have a hard time getting my lovely wife up on Sunday morning. The sermon was very inspiring and I figured I needed some spiritual intervention with my test coming up this week.

My son an I went out to the chinese buffet for lunch and then I studied for about five hours and cooked supper on the grill, barbequed chicken, baked beans and roast corn, everything cooked on the grill. Quite outstanding. I am ready to face a non-eating Monday tomorrow, which is another day of intensive studying. T minus four days and counting.

George

2006-07-13T21:41:00.000-04:00

I am "off work" starting tomorrow, studying for a week before my exam. The good thing is that tomorrow is an eating day, so my first day will start off with a nice breakfast. I see from Jason's site that he has a similar goal in mind.

One week from Saturday, after all of this is behind me, I will be dusting off my golf clubs and generally slacking off for a while, which will be very nice. I also plan on stepping up the exercise program big time, and try to do an hour a day. After seeing Jason being able to go on vacation and hold his weight loss, it definately got me inspired.

Well time to check on my wife upstairs and have another cup of tea. Looking forward to tomorrow. There is nothing quite like waking up in the morning and realizing that it is an eating day. I know you know what I mean.

George

2006-07-12T22:53:00.000-04:00

Sorry no post last night, but I came home from work, got roped into seeing the new Superman Movie with my son and came up with a Migraine. I think it was a combination of a stressful day at the Fed, no food and then too much light and music at the movies. Anyway I came home and went to bed which is the only thing that works for me when this happens, which is pretty rare. We got lunch at the Fed, and I was very proud that I only ate a salad and some steamed asparagus for lunch with just a pinch of oil and vinagar dressing.

Woke up this morning feeling fine, (headache gone ) like most eating days. My weight seems stuck and with the studying, I haven't had much time for exercise. I had a typical busy day at work, with two meetings. I did get a brisk 30 minute walk in this afternoon. Breakfast was two sausage bisquits, Lunch was a hamburger, fruit and ovenfries. Supper was leftover chili, rice and an apple for desert. Came home and did some studying, cooked super and messed around on the computer.

Tommorow is booked pretty solid, because I am off starting Friday for a week studying for my big exam, which is a two day exam, that starts a week from this Friday. Hopefully after next week, there will be no further references to studying in my posts.

I am serious about getting down below 200, although I may put the big push on this off until after the exam. I may start doing lighter suppers and trying for at least 45 minutes of exercise a day.

Glad to see that Jason is hanging in there; I know it tough "going back to work" after vacation, and we all know that keeping an eye on what you eat is like a second job.

George

2006-07-10T23:27:00.000-04:00

Had a quiet weekend with my sweetie as my son was away at the Lake. I did quite a bit of studying and also went to the new Pirates of the Caribbean Movie, which was pretty good. Also on Sunday, I went to the gym and did a pretty monster workout.

Had a busy eat day today. I had to get ready for a panel that I am on tomorrow at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Also had two conference calls today, each for at least an hour. It was an eating day but I had a fairly small breakfast since my stomach was feeling well but I was better by lunch. Brought home some chinese food for the family for lunch between conference calls. I am lucky enough to live near home, so I often come home for lunch. Came home after work and had to do some computer work for my wife. We are finally getting Apple to pay for a new battery for my old Ipod. I had bought another one and wanted to get the old one fixed up for Cathy. Went with my son to Boy Scouts tonite. He is working on planning his Eagle project, but he needs to get on the stick since he turns 18 in December. Not much time left. Then after we went by the grocery store and came back to cook at late supper. A Hamburger, oven fries and salad. Watched Anthony Bourdain on the Travel Channel, did a little studying and now it is about bed time.

Plans for tomorrow are as follows, get at least 30 minutes exercise at some point, stay on my no-eat plan but eat a salad for supper and maybe a piece of fruit for lunch. Generally try to have a medium to low stress day.

George

2006-07-07T20:20:00.000-04:00

Had a busy day at work, which is always good on a non-eating day. On my lunch hour I ran some errands and walked in the Mall for about 45 minutes in air conditioned comfort. I came home after work visited with my wife for a little and then headed off to the gym for a good workout on the treadmill, so I figure I got my exercise today. Picked up a couple of Liter bottles of diet coke on the way back from the gym, to get me through the evening.

I am debating whether to get on the scale tomorrow or not. I think I should, even if I am not expecting a loss.

Nothing big planned for this evening: a couple more hours studying and maybe a netflix movie.

So long....

George

2006-07-06T21:41:00.000-04:00

These short holiday weeks really blast by. Tomorrow is Friday, exactly 15 days left until my examination. I feel reasonably confortable with where I am right now, although I have some pretty intense work coming up particularly the last week before the exam, which I am using to study full time.

Foodwise, I had a good no-eat day yesterday, except for a small diet coke and scotch after studying last night. Bad George. Otherwise I am doing well.

Today, I had three pieces of sausage and two whole wheat toaster waffles for breakfast with Coffee, A turkey breast sandwich on whole wheat and for supper I made home made Turkey a la King, with puff Pastry, which my wife pronounced excellent. The Turkey breast that I cooked on Sunday, is now alas, no more. As far a junk today, in the interest of full disclosure, I did get a box of whopper, those little malted milk balls. I had a craving that I had to scratch.

My goals for tomorrow are the following:

To have a gold star no eating day. No junk food, no eating other than perhaps a salad and no, absolutely none, nada adult beverages.

Also, I need to squeeze in a workout at the gym. No excuses permitted.

Jason looks like he is having fun on his vacation and I certain understand his wanting to take a break. Although I must say that I like this program even better than usual when I am traveling. Particularly if you are traveling on a no eat day, you are on the airline anyway and then if you are eating the next day, you can eat without worrying about your weight.

So long..... George

2006-07-04T22:32:00.000-04:00

Hope that everyone had a capital 4th. There is nothing like having an eating holiday. I had a moderate breakfast; a small serving of hashbrowns and five pieces of country style bacon. For lunch I had a hot turkey sandwich and dressing using the Turkey that I cooked the other night. I got up at 7:00 AM and studied until about 2:00 PM. Had lunch and then studied from about 3:00 until 5:00. I went to my sister's house to have supper with them and my parents. Cathy was feeling a little under the weather so she didn't join me which was a bit of bummer. Everyone is doing well and looking well. We had traditional 4th of July fare: Nathan's hot dogs, hamburgers, coleslaw, baked beans, chips, macaroni salad, tossed salad and fruit salad. A brownie and Georgia watermelon for desert. Excuse me while I let my belt out a notch. I made the brownies and I left them over there, so I wouldn't be tempted tomorrow. My sister wanted me to make desert but then she wanted me to take the leftovers home with me. Sorry but I can't have those calling to me all day tomorrow. We were supposed to go watch the fireworks in the square, but the weather got a little threatening and I missed my sweetie back at home so I headed back and just got back ahead of the rain. My son, the social butterfly had alternative plans ( two invitations ) and did not join me. Jason, you better enjoy it while you can, because by the time they are 17, you get to see them coming and going, and that is about it. And I tell you my friend it seems like five minutes ago he was six or seven years old.

Anyway, the thunderstorms are blowing through Atlanta, the Satellite TV is coming and going and we aren't even sure if they are going to be able to do fireworks tonight. Hope everyone had a safe and satisfying 4th. So long for now...

George

2006-07-02T22:03:00.000-04:00

Hope everyone had a good weekend. I had a quiet Sunday, although today was an eating day. I did pretty good yesterday except I got mixed up with can of smoked almonds yesterday evening. It was just one of those things and you have to put those things behind you as long as you don't do it very often. I eased back a little on the eating today. Had three sausages and one bisquit for breakfast. Lunch was some corn chips with dip, and some red bean soup ( leftovers from the red beans and rice earlier in the week ) Supper was a roast Turkey Breast, rice, dressing peas and cranberry sauce. I went by the gym today, which I haven't done in a while and did 2.5 Miles on the treadmill. Also did about eight or nine hours of studying in today. I am heading to work in the morning but it probably will be a pretty light day, with the holiday. Hope everyone has a wonderful 4th.

George

2006-07-01T17:37:00.000-04:00

After the huge blow out yesterday, today has been quite a change. I got up at 7:30 AM and started studying and have continued studying most of the day. I drank the better part of a pot of coffee and Cathy got up late and lucky for me I saved her a cup. My son flew off to Indianapolis last night with a friend and his father to watch a car race, so it is sort of quiet around here. I took a break around 1:30 to go pick up a birthday card for my Dad, who is 82 today. Still in good shape, and play golf most days, so maybe there is some hope for me:)

One issue that I have run into on my no eating days is a big time growling stomach; I don't seem to be able to do anything about this. I guess this is just a minor side effect of the program. I was happy to note that the 4th falls on an eating day ( hot dang) so I will be able to celebrate in style and won't have to worry about noodling around with my days. I know Jason has talked about this but I think you really, really need to avoid messing with your schedule for special events. Before you know it, you are adjusting your schedule for Ground Hog Day. Speaking of Ground Hogs, one of our Cats, Mother K, got into the trash can last night. We normally have a wooden spoon inserted between the cabinets, referred to as the Homeland Security Spoon, in order to deter such feline incursions into the trash can. Unfortunately the homeland security spoon had not been deployed and said cat knocked over the trash can and removed a chicken bone and my wife proceeded to chase the cat around the house. Finally cornered under the table we had to pry the bone from her teeth and claws, and by then the other two were also trying to take possession of the bone. Too much excitement...

Anyway, back to work. I am also trying to refinish a piece of furniture, so I am going down the basment to remove some finish, between problems. I hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday.

George

2006-06-30T22:05:00.000-04:00

Can't believe that it is Friday already. Where has this week gone? Got up at 6:30 for a 7:30 appointment to get me teeth cleaned and checked. Everything was A-OK. Strong teeth, good hair and weak eyes run in my family. I hung around home and did some desk work for about an hour after the dentist appointment and had a modified breakfast ( less than usual) I had the responsability of picking up barbeque for the 4th of July party at the office, which was today. I picked up seven Lbs. of Barbeque and 1/2 Gallon of Brunswick Stew. I don't know if you folks from North of the Mason Dixon line know what brunswick stew is but it is a unique Southern concoction that originated in Brunswick, Georgia ( on the Georgia coast) that includes several kinds of meat, tomatoes, potatoes, corn, and spices. It goes with Barbeque like peas and carrots. I got to the barbeque place and found out that it wasn't open, so I went to buy some chicken for the non-pork eaters around the corner. Let me also state as a matter of cultural reference that if you are in the deep South, ( Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina or Louisiana ) that when the term barbeque is used, you are referring to pork. I know that a variety of other things are barbequed elsewhere in the country. I have even had some barbequed beef brisket in Texas that was quite tasty and enjoyable, but this is a matter of near biblical reverence to a true Southerner. So anyway, my mission today was to purchase the aforementioned items and bring them back to the office. We had a good old 4th of July party at the office, with a foot race carrying eggs, a water balloon toss and a watermelon eating contest. I was the judge in the watermelon contest, being a non-participant and second-in-command in the office. We also ate barbeque and all the fixings brought by everyone. The weather was surprisingly mild today; in the 80's so it was a lovely day for an outside picknic. I was so full after eating that I haven't really eaten supper tonight. I had a piece of coconut and some snacks. Just haven't felt the need for a full supper. Looking forward to a no-eat day tomorrow (really) although I do have some serious studying on tap for this coming weekend.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. I will be working on Monday but will have off on Tuesday the 4th.

George

2006-06-28T23:11:00.000-04:00

Had a good day today. Started off with a weight loss, which is also a good thing. I am down to 200 Lbs from 224, for a total of 24 lost. This is excellent as I have felt like I have been in a rut for the last week or so.

Had a nice breakfast, with some sausage, a small portion of hash browns ( running out of potatoes) and two egg whites, sharing the yolks with the cats.

Lunch was a small portion of chinese roast pork and frozen yogart with Almonds.

I had two cookies at work and also had two peanut butter cups.

Supper as I planned yesterday was New Orleans Red Beans and Rice. My beans actually ended up soaking for almost two days. As Promised here is my never fail recipe for this:

2 Tbs Olive Oil
1 Cup Onion
1/4 Cup Green Pepper
1/4 Cup Red Pepper
1/2 Cup Celery
Better than Bullion (Chicken) to Taste
1/4 tsp Cayenne pepper (some like it hotter but this suits me)
1/4 tsp Black Pepper
1 Tsp Thyme fresh or dried
4 Bay Leaves
1 Tbs. Italian Parsley, fresh
1 Lb Ham cut into cubes
1 Smoked Turkey Wing (Cut into pieces)
6 Oz Andouille Sausage ( You can use other kinds but this makes it better)
1 Lb Dried Red Beans, soaked at least overnight
4 cloves of Garlic
8 to 10 Cups of Water
2 Cups of White Rice Steamed.
1 Can of refried beans ( optional )

Drain and rinse the beans after soaking overnight. Cook the Onion, Peppers and Celery in the Olive Oil. Add the the ham and sausage and cook these until lightly done. Add all the seasonings except the parsley. Add the Beans, Smoked Turkey Wing and Garlic. Add suffient water to cover the beans. Cook for two to two and 1/2 hours. At this point you can do one of two things to thicken the bean mixture. You can either take some of the bean mixture, mash it up against the side of the pan and use this to thicken the mixture. Alternatively, what I like to do is use a can of refried beans which mixes with and easily thickens the bean mixture. Cook for another hour and check the bean mixture to make sure that it is of the proper consistency and that the beans are fully cooked and soft. The last ingredient to add is the parsley. Serve over white rice. This recipe should feed 8 people with no problem.

This is good stuff and good for you. I feel comfortably full and I am looking forward to a lite day tomorrow. I do have a breakfast for a friend at the office that is retiring and I will be cooking but not eating ( unless there is some fruit, which I will sample.

Talk soon...

2006-06-27T18:01:00.000-04:00

Well I did well on my eating on this no-eat day but I didn't get to exercise like I had planned at lunch. I had forgotten that I had a business lunch today ( and I had planned on using this time to walk at the Mall). I am very proud of myself that I had a salad with fresh fruit on top. Before going on this program I can't tell you the last time that I went to a restaurant and ordered something like this. I not only feel good about this, but I also feel good about all the vitamins running through my system.

I am doing great on my no-eat days, but I am going to see if I can ease up on the eating on my eating days a little, particularly late in the day. I plan on cooking New Orleans style red beans and rice tomorrow for supper ( I will put the recipe in my post tomorrow) which is high in fiber and relatively low in calories. I started them soaking yesterday, but never got around to cooking them, so they are on the menu tomorrow.

Sorry about the extremely long post on Sunday, but had a lot of junk going on. Will try and keep things more concise.

George

2006-06-26T18:57:00.000-04:00

Today was an eating day, although I did have some lunch yesterday as I indicated in my last post. I had a small breakfast ( for me) with two whole wheat waffles and three pieces of sausage. Lunch was a little Chinese food. I think I am going to go light on supper tonight, to make up for yesterday. Telecommuted today, so it was a little bit of a strange day. Got quite a bit of work done and did some studying as well. I am less than a month away from my examination, so it is crunch time. Also watched a really good western last night with Robert Duvall about some Cowboys back in the old west that rescue a wagon full of girls from China that are being shipped to the gold fields. This is a two parter with the rest of this tonight.

I need am going to get an hour's excercise in tomorrow. I really had a slack weekend and I need to start doing a better job here. Tomorrow, since it is a no eat day, I plan to get in at least a 30 minute walk at lunch and maybe one later in the afternoon. I 'll let you know how my good intentions worked out.

George

2006-06-25T18:23:00.000-04:00

Back in tonight ( Sunday evening) after a whirlwind weekend.

Got into Hilton Head on Friday afternoon/evening. Fixed Cathy a Glass of Wine and I had a Cocktail, which I really was not supposed to do, since this was a no eat day. Went for a walk on the beach around Six PM with my lovely wife, which was quite excellent. The weather was warm, but since the sun was in the process of going down, it wasn't too hot and we got to walk in the surf to cool down. I had another cocktail when I got back to the room, and I took a nap. I guess the long drive from Atlanta, combined with no food and two drinks sort of combined to make me sleepy. Woke up and we decided to take a late night dip in the pool. I got up on Saturday at 7:30AM, but I didn't have to give my presentation until 10:30, so I got my powerpoint projector hooked up to my laptop and had a sweet roll and coffee ( unlike my normal big breakfast on an eating day) I studied for about an hour and a half, read the Wall Street Journal and then it was time for my presentation. I did my presentation for 40 minutes, which went very well and then I was done for the day except for the evening social get together. Cathy and I decided to go to a place that Rachel Ray had gone to on her $40 a day show on Food Network. We went to lunch at a place called the Sea Shack. It is sort of a hole in the wall type of place where you place your order and then find a seat. Their seafood was extremely reasonable. I would highly recommend the seafood combo, which we both ordered. It was excellent and the price was a relative bargain for Hilton Head. A little hard to find, unless you know where it is but worth finding. We went back to the Hotel and hung out by the pool. My wife truly enjoyed herself as they were having a wedding by the pool and she had a front row seat. What is it about women and weddings? It's like men going to a baseball or hockey game. Although I must say, that if I could attend weddings while sitting in a lounge chair in my bathing-suit with a beer, like today it might take some of the sting out of it. They did seem to be having a nice party after the wedding ceremony. We hung out by the pool until 6:30 and then went back to the room to get ready for the reception and dinner that they aways do at these meetings.

I was able to get Cathy to go with me, ( which sometimes she is not crazy about doing ) and she looked stunning as usual. The meeting brochure indicated that the dress was supposed to be suitable for cocktails. I had a golf shirt and kacki pants on, since I thought that it would say business attire if we were supposed to wear a suit. I went down and of course, everyone had a suit and tie on, so I asked Cathy if she would mind if I went back and changed. She found a friend and a glass of wine and I did a five minute change. It never fails at these things, it aways seems that I am either overdressed or underdressed. I need obviously need a social director. I got back just in time, since everyone was headed in for supper. Dinner was OK, typical hotel food ( but beef instead of chicken ) , but a good desert, and I was sitting next to my sweetie and our friend Elizabeth so, we had a good time. We were both pretty bushed after this so we turned in early.

This morning it was time to head back to Atlanta. Cathy slept in for a while and I sat out on the balcony reading until it started to rain. It would clear up for a while, until people went out on the beach and then the rain would come in again.

We got packed up and into the car, again in the rain, and everything cleared up. We decided to have lunch at another restaurant that Rachel Ray ate at, which is called Hudsons. It is right on the intercoastal waterway, right when you first come on the island. It is a little more classy and a little more expensive than the Sea Shack, but it has a lunch menu which is considerably cheaper than supper. I know this is a no eat day, but I did decide to have lunch and skip breakfast and dinner. Had fresh shrimp right off of the shrimp boats. I would definately have either shrimp or oysters, since they are both very fresh here. We then headed back to Atlanta, and pulled in after 4 and 1/2 hours. Cathy did split the driving with me, which let me get a little studying in, and I felt a lot more relaxed when we got back home. My son and cats looked happy to see us. Good to be home...

2006-06-22T21:29:00.000-04:00

Had a good food day today, relatively speaking. I made a big breakfast for my son and myself, (although I am not sure when he actually got up, since he is on summer break.) Whole wheat waffle, three egg whites, four sausages and a quarter cup of grits. Then I headed off to my continuing education session in downtown.

After sitting through six hours of CPE today, I have decided that I have no interest in doing accounting full time after I retire from my current career. This is in spite of being a CPA. I am just not interested in doing this long term. I am much more interested in doing what I am currently doing which is studying financial planning; helping people with investments, retirement and estate planning. Accounting is just too boring.

I don't do that much accounting in my current job, career but I do get asked my opinion quite a lot so I have to know what is going on. One reason that I like my job is that I get to be a generalist, I don't have be be an accountant or a lawyer full-time, although my job incorporates these areas.

But getting back to food, I had a Turkey Club salad and Chips for lunch and pasta, meatballs and alfredo sauce for supper. I also had a double scotch on the rocks, which is probably not helping the weight loss but it was quite excellent.

Got out the suitcase and starting to pack for our trip in the morning. We have a 4 and 1/2 hour drive to Hilton Head. With any luck, Cathy and I will be walking on the beach tomorrow evening. I don't have anything on the agenda tomorrow, which is a no eating day. I give a speech on Saturdy morning and then I am free the rest of the day until that evening when there is a social function. Luckily that will be an eating day.

My son will be holding down the fort for us while we are gone. We are really looking forward for a weekend away.

2006-06-20T23:15:00.000-04:00

Great eating day to you. I had a nice breakfast two whole wheat toaster waffles, two egg whites, four sausages and a biscuit. Lunch was left over shrimp and potatoes. I had a frozen custard for a snack. Supper was Pork Tenderloin, Rice Pilaf and Steamed Broccoli. Also in the interest of full disclosure, I had some corn chips and dip when I got home, with a diet coke. I really am going to see how I am doing by the end of this week. If I don't drop a couple of Lbs, I think I am going to ease up just a little on my eating days, and get rid of any snacks between meals. I have been really good on the no eating days, but eating a little more on my eating days. I have been on a bit of a plateau and I want to see some more results.

I have a tough day on the schedule tomorrow, a good day for a non-eating day.

2006-06-19T21:04:00.000-04:00

It was a typical busy Monday at the office, with a meeting in the AM and a conference call in the PM and still getting ready for my meetings at the end of the week. It was a no-eat day for me but it breezed by due to all the work. Tonight I am studying ( again) and drinking herb tea. Cathy, my son and I had huge salads for dinner, with the same ingredients as Saturday. I feel great so I think all these veggies must be good for me. This is the first time that I can remember using up a package of Spinach. Usually you get one or two good salads and the rest turns into green mush in the veggie bin.

Looking forward to a great eating day tomorrow, patterned after Jason's last eating day. I might even go get a Steak for Supper and have a carnivore party with my son.

I had to Order Barbeque for a 4th of July Barbeque party on June 30 for my office. I ordered 7 Lbs of pork, a 1/2 Gallon of Brunswick Stew and hot and mild sauce. Everyone is bringing the fixings including slaw, watermelon, beans, deserts etc. Good thing this is an eating day. We are doing this outside and will be having other party activities.

The day before is ( of course) a non eating day, and I have to cook something for a retirement party for a dear friend that is retiring from our Department after 30 years. And I can't even legally taste what I am cooking! This will be a real test of will.

Hope everyone is doing well on the program. I seem to be holding tight around 202, but I may weigh tomorrow and see how I am doing. I did a little excercise over the weekend, but my schedule has cut into my gym time, which really helps with the weight loss. I do think the pants are a little less snug, so I am holding in there. This is a marathon not a sprint....

2006-06-18T23:24:00.000-04:00

Greetings:

I tried to post last night but my ancient Windows 95 Computer and dial up modem at the South Georgia house wasn't up to the task so this is my first chance. Drove down to the South Georgia on Friday night after work. We visited with my in-laws on the way down and sat by the lake and socialized until about 11:00 PM and then headed to our place at 11:30. We were both pretty zonked by the time we got in and unpacked. Saturday I got up early to do some yardwork, went shopping at the grocery store and then settled in for studying ( sorry but this is going to be the routine until July, when I take the exam. ) I probably did a good seven hours on Saturday. I did squeeze in a one hour walk. Saturday was also a no eat day for moi, and I stayed on board. Cathy was a real pal and she had a huge salad with me for supper; spinach, brocolli, onion, tomato, cucumber and carrot, with balsamic vinegar. That was it for me calorie wise. Sunday, I had a nice breakfast, three egg whites, four pieces of sausage and one bisquit( the other one for my wife the vegetarian). And three cups of black coffee. I studied for a couple of hours and went for a another walk on Sunday morning, before it got hot, to walk off breakfast. We packed up to head back to Atlanta, and stopped off at Cathy's parent's. It was a pretty day at the lake. My father-in law had some excitement that morning. A bass boat started to sink about 500 yards from his dock. He had to go out in his boat and rescue a man and his wife, who was eight months pregnant. The boat was actually under water by the time he got there. He said that the man seemed more concerned about his boat than his wife, but he got the people and the boat back to the boat ramp safely. We brought my Father-in-Law some boiled peanuts as a fathers day present, along with a card. Anyway, my mother-in-law who loves to offer food, was happy that I was eating and I had a chicken salad sandwich and a salad for lunch.

We proceeded north for 2 and 1/2 hours to Atlanta. My son was there and glad to see us and even washed my car for fathers day! I made a Low Country Boil for supper, another one of those southern specialties. I got some of these fresh florida shrimp (never frozen, and much, much better than those vietnamese shrimp that you find in most stores) and some smoked sausage, fresh corn and new potatoes, boiled with crab boil. The only trick is when to add the various components of the receipe. You add the the potatoes and sausage first, then the corn and finally the shrimp. Serve with cole slaw on the side. Um Um, and since it is boiled not fried a moderate serving is not bad from a calorie standpoint. Also in the interest of full disclosure and since it was Fathers Day, I got a piece of lemon pie for desert. I think all in all , I did pretty darn good this weekend.

Monday makes a great no-eat day IMO. You are coming off the weekend anyway and things are usually busy at work anyway. I have got to get my desk clear for the end of the week. I have a CPA meeting on Thursday and then Cathy and I are headed to Hilton Head Island, S.C. for a bankers meeting on Friday and thru the weekend. I have to give a presentation on Saturday, but it's a pretty good deal for getting a nice weekend getaway with my wife. I will have to be careful about staying on program this week, but actually I find it easier to work this program than to stay on a diet when you are at a hotel.

2006-06-15T17:49:00.000-04:00

Well more info on the fugative alert in my last posting. The fugative is apparently someone that was working as a home-health care worker down three or four houses from us, that was targeted as being an illegal immigrant as well as having an outstanding felony warrant. She was interviewed by federal law enforcement and apparently bolted out the back, leaving her automobile and her purse at the house. Cathy says they towed off the car today. Cath knows the lady being taken care of by this individual, ( she knows everyone on the street ) so I am sure that further details will follow. There was an announcement of a national crack down on illegal immigrants that were either felons or had previously been deported, and I think they said that over 2,500 had been detained on a national basis. This whole thing is really a crock; they could cut off illegal immigration in six months if they wanted to, by having a tamper-proof ID card and by punishing people that hired undocumented workers. But this is a huge business in our area. Certain industries like the restaurant industry and construction industry would be severely bottom line impacted without these folks in the labor pool so I don't see anything happening on this.

Anyhow, I had another busy day at the office and today was a no-eat day and I have been a good boy today. Cathy joked at lunch that when she saw the police in the back yard yesterday, that they heard that someone was being starved in the house and that they were checking to see if I was being mistreated :0)

I went to the Mall this afternoon to get a little exercise in air conditioned comfort. It wasn't a back breaking work out but it is the first real exercise that I have got in a while, since I have been studying in my spare time. I do plan on getting some real exercise on Saturday, either at the gym or outside.

My 17 year old son went to the lake yesterday, with an old canoe strapped to the top of his truck. He then thought it was amusing and humorous to tell his mother, with me listening that the canoe had come off the truck while he was traveling down the interstate. I thought he was serious and almost blew a gasket until we realized he was "joking". Jason, see what you have to look forward to? He is a good kid, but I don't know where he gets this warped sense of humor. Anyway he came back after camping out, and appears to have picked up a bug. I need to do my best to stay down wind.

I can't believe that another week has almost flown by. I have another hugely busy week on tap for next week and I'm looking forward to some down time this weekend. Tomorrow is an eating day and I am looking forward to my usual big breakfast. I don't know if I should weigh in the morning and wait and weigh on Sunday morning.

2006-06-14T20:18:00.000-04:00

Well it has been another busy week. We had an accreditation team in from out of town and they finished up on Wednesday. Also I have been attending strategic planning meeting remotely since Monday using Skype. Jason, since you are a tech savvy guy you probably know about this but it is the first time I had tried this. You can make free long-distance phone calls and even use video conferencing which I had on the call. I did this Monday afternoon, Tuesday and Wednesday morning. And you can do this absolutely free over the internet, as long as the other person has a Skype account. No wonder Vontage stock is in the tank. Why pay when you can get this for free. You need to try this if you know any internet connected folks that you make long distance calls to on a regular basis.

Anyway I had to take our guests out to lunch yesterday on my non-eating day. I had a Spinach salad with Cucumber and Tomato and a pot of fancy Earl Grey Tea ( something called Silver Tip, what ever that is) So I figure my total for the day was probably less than 100 calories. I need to start doing this regularly ( eating healthy salads ) since I felt a little more human than when I don't eat anything at all.

Last night it was about 8 or 9:00 PM and I realized, to my horror that I had no breakfast meats in the house and the next day was an eating day. I rushed to the grocery store to remedy this potentially tragic situation. I had to make an 8:00 meeting so I had a slightly abbreviated breakfast ( three pieces of sausage, two eggs and two whole wheat waffles) this morning with no grits or bisquits and the three cats finished off my egg yolks. My previously ailing cat Tiger Woods (aka T-Bone) is back in fighting trim. We are still at a loss what could have made him so deathly ill. He is going back to the vet next week, to see if his blood levels have improved. He is eating like a horse, so we feel like he has recovered.

I had chinese food, rice and an apple for lunch. For supper, which I cooked, we had a roasted chicken with Mustard Tarragon sauce, white rice and carrots . Right after I served up supper to Cathy and myself, we found ourselves in a strange situation. There were helicopters flying over the house ( no I am not one of those black helicopter guys) and my wife looked up and saw four federal law enforcement officers in our back yard, walking up to the house. They told us that there was an excaped fugitive, a black lady that was sighted just outside of our neighborhood and that she was considered armed and dangerous. There was a police car parked on the street for about 15 or 20 minutes. My wife was on the phone talking to all the neighbors about the big doings. This is a quiet older suburban neighborbood and this kind of stuff never happens here. We locked all the doors and took other appropriate defensive measures and it appears that she must have moved on elsewhere.

Jason, my wife came down and turned on the Ednonton/Carolina Hockey game. I had just typed you a message on your blog about the game and then she just came in talking about our neighborhood fugitive and turned the game on without us even talking about it. I really think she is mindreading psychic sometimes. It is a really intense game; right now Carolina is up 2 points to 1. Wait, Wait Edmonton just tied up the game on a power play. I might have to stick around and see how this turns out. Another score and Edmonton is up 3 to 2. You might not be out of it yet...

2006-06-11T22:50:00.000-04:00

Greetings:

I had a nice weekend, after an extremely tough week. I am actually looking forward to going back to work after my week last week. Still, I know it will be piled higher and deeper, from having been out a week.

I had a quiet non-eating day today. Studied for about seven hours today. I took a break this afternoon and went to see the Davinci Code, which was pretty good movie. It was a difficult book to make into a movie and I think Ron Howard did about as well as anyone could do. Had a huge diet coke and nothing else. Kept to the program very strictly today.

Yesterday I had a good eating day after my Saturday post, although I didn't get my barbeque as planned. Cathy was feeling puny so I made supper at home. Cajun style red beans and rice with anduoille (hot) sausage. Also I had Receese Peanut Butter Cup. It was all very good but I still wish that I could have had some barbeque. Oh well, tomorrow is another day. It felt good to have a good day today after getting a little sideways on Friday. It was a beautiful day in Georgia today. I put the windows down and opened up the sunroof and enjoyed the sunshine, coming back from the movies.

Looking forward to a big breakfast in the AM. Hope everyone had a great weekend.

George

2006-06-10T10:05:00.000-04:00

It appears that my blogger is back in the pink, after having all sorts of posting problems this week. I am really stoked about Jason's weigh in and have decided to get serious, particularly after having a few cocktails last night, thereby breaking two rules in one: busting my no eating day and my informal rule about staying away from alcohol. I have decided to just forget this and move forward. I am going to try and be inclusive about what I eat and please forgive me if this is boring or repetative. I think Jason, Curly and other folks would tell you that it is helpful to put down in paper ( or cyberspace ) what passes through your lips; I think it keeps you honest.

Therefore, today I had a wholewheat toaster waffle, with butter and syrup, one bisquit and three pieces of sausage along with two cups of black coffee. I think I might take a break today and go to a movie in the early PM. I would like to do two or three hours of studying today. And tonight we have been invited to a barbeque. For those of you not from the Southland, a barbeque means pork, slow smoked for many, many hours usually with brunswick stew and cole slaw on the side. As a certified Memphis in May Barbeque judge, I will give you my official opinion on the barbeque tomorrow ( although I have rarely had bad barbeque, just different degrees of good :) Again, I am going to keep my food intake reasonable today, and maybe even try and sneak in a trip to the gym.

Also, I know I need to put a picture or two on my website. I have been having some problems with my digital camera, so I need to determine if it's the battery or the camera.

Finally thanks to everyone who sent kind wishes about my cat Tiger Woods. He continues to improve, and is eating up a storm, and the Vet just called a minute ago and indicated that his blood work was negative on Feline Lukemia and Feline Aids, which we were worried about due to his symptoms.

Happy weekend everybody...

George

2006-06-09T23:34:00.000-04:00

Well:

I have been trying to post for several days and have lost two or three posts that never made it on line. So here is my week. I have been taking a test review course for the Certified Financial Planner Exam. Almost more than my 50 year old brain can stand. I have been at it from 8:00 AM to 5:30 AM with 30 minutes for lunch since Monday. My last day was today, Friday and I had to go to a high school graduation this evening. My son is not graduating this year, but this is the first graduating class of our new high school. It is a Waldorf school in Atlanta, very artistic and right brained. My son is sort of a left brained kid, but it has really been good for him and I think it is great to have the kind of close relationships that he has with the other kids.

The other major situation this week is that my favorite cat, Tiger Woods, ( we have three) has been deathly ill, but appears to be on the mend. We really thought he was a goner for a while and he is not totally out of the woods ( no pun intended) . He was not eating for several days, but miracululously this morning, he was at his plate as usual. He is actually in my lap right now as I am typing, which is great and he is purring which is a good sign. I have been giving him lots of goodies trying to build up his strength.

Food wise I have been very good this week, however I went out a bought a bottle of 12 year old single malt scotch this evening, which I really was not supposed to do, it being a no-eat day, but hey, what the hell. In the words of Scarlett O'Hara, tomorrow is another day. ( And I think she also said "As god as my witness I shall never be hungry again" )

2006-06-08T19:07:00.000-04:00

I tried to post yesterday twice and apparently the system was down. I know I have been remiss in posting on the blog but I have been taking a killer test review course this week, using a week of my vacation. This is to review for the Certified Financial Planner examination in July. All in all, I am pretty fried right now and sort of feel like I should have gone to the beach instead. Only one more day left. I have managed to stay on my program very strictly this week, in spite of working 8 AM to 5 or 5:30 PM in the classroom ( and often a couple hours review in the evening. I weighed this morning and found that I had actually gain a little over a Lb. Not surprising since I have done absolutely zip/nada exercise this week. I am enjoying an eating day today, although I had a slightly streamlined breakfast due to having to be on the road by 7:00AM to get to class.

I am also sort of depressed because my favorite cat, Tiger Woods ( we have three) has been sick and my wife did the rounds at the vet today. His symptoms are troubling and we are worried that he is seriously ill. We should hopefully have the tests back from the vet tommorrow and hopefully we will know what is wrong with him. All of us are very attached to him and are worried. It is amazing how attached one gets to these animals.

We have to go to a graduation at my son's school tomorrow, although he is not graduating ( he is a Junior.) He goes to a small private high school and the kids and parents are all very close to each other, so it will be a party. Unfortunately, this parent will not be eating and drinking ( other than maybe a diet coke.) Oh well, l guess I better get out my violin.

So long for now...

2006-06-02T20:11:00.000-04:00

Well I decided to get some exercise the last couple of days and it made a big difference. I went to the gym last night ( a non eating day) and late the day before ( an eating day ) as I alluded to at the end of my last post. I did about 800 calories on the treadmill on each day. Last night, I was feeling draggy but going to the gym and putting some jump up music on the Ipod got me energized.

I jumped on the scale this morning and I was delighted to be down to 200.5 Lbs, which means I lost 2 and 1/2 Lbs from my last weight, when I was up 1/2 Lb. So I am closing in like a laser on the big 200. This is a big barrier that I am looking forward to breaking through, but my weight tends to go up and down, so I try not to get too emotionally wrought up if I gain a little. I still have a long way to go on this journey. I feel at this point that I could lose 30 Lbs, maybe even a little more. My dad is my height and weighs 145, which I think is too skinny for 5' 11"". Anyway, I won't worry about this right now; also I am sure that the more I lose, the slower the weight will be to come off.

I always weigh on the morning of an eating day and today was no exception. I had my usual breakfast ( sausage, grits, egg whites (yolks to the cats) and 2 buscuits. Lunch was a steak, potatoes and carrots. For Supper, I had a burger ( no bun), beans, carrots and mixed fruit.

Tomorrow is a no eat day but I promised to go to my sister's birthday and my mom is cooking, so not eating is not an option. I talked to Cathy about this and I think I will not eat breakfast and lunch tomorrow, eat lightly for supper and skip breakfast the next day. I think this will all even out, and if I gain 1/2 a Lb. so be it.

I am going to the gym tomorrow as well, so hopefully this will be uneventful. The ability to deal with these situations and roll with the punches is what makes this work. I recognize however that if you are not careful, you can "nickle and dime" this program to death and make so many exceptions and adjustments that you screw everything up.

So long for now...

2006-05-31T19:33:00.000-04:00

Well I visited my folks on Memorial Day. Both my folks are getting up there and my Dad is going to be 82 at the end of the month and he just had a little surgery. They just drove up from South Florida to their place in North Georgia to get away from the heat. Anyway, I had to give him a hand with yardwork because of the surgery, but I still got a good chance to visit. Had a big breakfast, a light lunch with them ( including some of my Mom's homemade cookies) and drove home and picked up Chinese for Supper.

The next day at work was a no eat day. Even though it was not a weigh day, I could resist not checking out the scale to the damage. I jumped on and I was right where I was, last time I weighed, nothing more and nothing less. Not bad for a big eating weekend. Yesterday seemed to drag, and I went out late to make sure that I had some goodies for breakfast the next day.

This morning I had my usual big breakfast, with four sausages, two egg whites, two bisquits and some grits. I was so full that I really couldn't eat the grits. My son observed that he eats a lot better when its an eating day and I am cooking. Lunch was left over chinese vegies, chicken and rice. Supper was Texas Style Chili, rice and cornbread, all cooked perfectly by your's truely. As a snack I had some Rolo's which I know I shouldn't have eaten but they were good.

I have slacked off the gym and I didn't get to go on a walk today, because of afternoon meetings. We had a delegation from Kenya come to meet with us at the office to talk about procedures to detect money laundering, which is one of the things that we are responsible for. The weather has finally gotten into the Summer zone down here and I guess that most of my exercise will be in the gym from now on. I still have time to go if I leave within the next 30 minutes.

So long...

2006-05-28T23:09:00.000-04:00

Sunday

Spent my no-eat day doing fun things after doing yard work yesterday. Went to the lake this afternoon and went Seadooing ( I guess that is a word) which was great. It was about 92 degrees so the wind and the waves made a great way to cool off. My son has a Waverunner which goes about 50 miles an hour and beats the stew out of you. I was running the "old man" Sea-doo which is about 20 MPH slower, which is plenty fast for me. Anyway I had a blast and then we packed it up and headed back to Atlanta. We made a wise decision; after all the problems getting down here on Friday, getting back ( a day early) was a breeze and we were back in 2 and 1/2 hours. Again on the theory that you should reward yourself with fun non-food stuff on your non-eating days, we went to the new X-man movie, which was, by the way, very good. I think it is the best X-man movie so far.

Well, its getting pretty late. I am going to turn in, and I will be looking forward to a tasty breakfast. I am going to visit my folks tomorrow on my day off, and will be able to do so on an eating day.

Night Night,

George

2006-05-27T21:52:00.000-04:00

It's Saturday night, and my family and I headed out yesterday afternoon to spend the Memorial Day Weekend in the country. Traffic was gridlocked and we had to get off the interstate and onto a state road. It took us about four hours instead of the normal 2 and 1/2. Dropped my son off at his Grandparents on the lake for a little seadooing and my wife and I headed to our house in the country. It was a non-eating day, but I was forcefed a cocktail by my father-in-law. Otherwise, is was a hot tea, water and gum day. This morning I woke up bright and early to do my yard work before it got too hot. We are in South Georgia, so the weather was right warm today, around 90 degrees. Luckily it was an eating day today. I stopped at a country butcher shop to get some country sausage. It was great; I got the mild, which is still pretty spicy for me. I am saving the rest for breakfast on Monday. Lunch was a hamburger and fries. For supper we had boiled shrimp, roasted potatoes and cole slaw. We are lucky down here in South Georgia; being close to the Florida, we can get fresh Shrimp, which bear little comparison to their frozen counterparts. Also I am feeling much improved from Thursday, when I had a bug...

I got the scale out down here, one of those old manual scales and I haven't been down in the 200 range of the scale for some time. The last time I got on that scale I was north of 225. It definately felt good.

Tomorrow is another non-eating day and I feel fine. After a day like today where I got to eat lots of good stuff, I am fine with taking a day off, which is how I look at things. If I can just avoid my mother-in-law who tends to be a good natured food pusher. I haven't tried to explain this eating plan to her or my parents for that matter; I am just indicating that I am on a diet. It makes life a whole lot easier.

I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend....

George

2006-05-25T21:45:00.000-04:00

Greeting:

Like Jason, I am feeling a little under the weather with an upper respiratory thing and mainly it make me feel draggy and tired. Luckily, I get to telcommute tomorrow so I can work in my PJ's if I want to. Looking back at my previous posts, I actually didn't indicate that I had lost another Lb., I guess I was so happy that I got to have breakfast that I forgot to post this. So I am now down from 224 to 202.5 or 21.5Lbs. Is this a great program or what!

Today I had my usual breakfast, being a creature of habit with hashbrowns instead of grits and two whole wheat toaster waffles. For lunch I had a small leftover serving of pasta, about 1/2 a cup with sauce and carrots and a glass of 1 % Milk. As a snack I had a small cup of chocolate frozen custard that I had been lusting for. Supper was a small boneless chicken breast roasted, a small serving of potatoes ( maybe 1/2 cup), a spoonful of stuffing and green peas, with a little gravy for the chicken. It was just enough not too much

Normally I would either go for a walk or go to the gym, but this coughing and hacking and lack of energy make this the last thing I want to do. I might hold steady this week or even gain a tad, but that is understandable with my level of activity.

I hope I feel better tomorrow and I hope you do too Jason. I want to be in good shape for Memorial Day weekend.

G

2006-05-24T21:12:00.000-04:00

I am at the end of a non-eating day and feeling a little bit under the weather, ( I think I picked up a bug from my son ) so I am glad that I have been able to stick with the program. Came home at lunch and napped for an hour and came home at the end of the work day and took another nap. Looking forward to an eating day tomorrow.

Jason appears to be going though a rough patch, which we all do from time to time. It becomes more of an issue, I think, the longer you have been on the program, and he has been on the program twice as long as me. It looks like he is getting back on track, which is great.

Yesterday was great but I need to learn that even when I eat less I still need to be careful about eating certain foods late in the day. I really have trouble with Italian food, anything with tomato sauce that I eat late. I have learned from experience to eat this stuff for lunch or I will be up all night with stomach problems and acid reflux, even if I don't eat that much. I did my usual breakfast ( with grits instead of hashbrowns) and had a treat for lunch. I was in the mood for something Mexican, so I went by and bought a Burito for myself and one for my wife. I got a veggie one for her and a chicken one for me, with rice, beans, lettece, onions, salsa, cheese, sour cream and hot peppers. It was huge, but really hit the spot. Got this a a restaurant called Moe's which is a chain that is big in Atlanta. Don't know if it is outside of GA. Supper was pasta with sauce and meatballs, which as I mentioned, kept me up all night. Probably why I had to take two naps today.

Looking forward to a long Memorial Day weekend, eating on Saturday and Monday, and doing lots of yard work in between.

2006-05-20T20:07:00.000-04:00

I am back home in the ATL tonight. Had an uneventful flight, although it is hard to get used to not eating the snacks on the plane. I almost have a instinctual response to devour these when they are handed out on the plane. Did a little shopping for my wife and son before heading out today.

Yesterday was a good eating day, although I did sort of break my informal deal with my self on alcohol by having a couple of cocktails at the reception last night. Nothing dramatic happened; and don't feel particularly inclined to do it again, but I plan on going back " on the wagon" again, not because I have a drinking problem, but because it clouds my judgement regarding eating ( and I think it messes with my matabolism.) We had Steak and Shrimp for supper and got to see the Capital Steps as our suppertime entertainment. They were very funny and best of all they held up both political parties for ridicule.

I am debating going to the Gym, but it will only be open until 10:00.... I know I need to go. Ok Ok you convinced me. Really, I am going....

I don't think that I will weigh tomorrow after being out of town and eating rich all week. I will wait until Tuesday morning...

2006-05-18T16:50:00.000-04:00

Greeting from Norfolk VA:

I had a fairly nice day after a shaky start. I got dressed for my conference, left my hotel room and realized that my room key and wallet were locked in my room. I trudged down to the front desk, thinking that I would be told 1) that I was an idiot or 2) otherwise having to go through some crap in order to get back into my room. Instead, the lady at the front desk handed me a new room key and I was on my way in 15 seconds. The folks at Marriott really are great and I am going to have to write a glowing recommendation to her boss for this.

I got into town on Tuesday evening and had a dinner meeting on my no eating day. Managed to stick to salad and veggies ( and one bite of steak). Then the next day, was a eating day. I got up early and went to the gym and did about an hour on the treadmill and crosscountry ski machine. Got to eat a big breakfast at the conference buffet: scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, hashbrowns, assorted fruit, a quarter of a belgian waffle with syrup and butter and Corn Flakes with Milk. Whew! We had a sit-down lunch in the PM with Fish stuffed with Crabmeat and Apple Pie for desert. Then a cocktail reception in the evening next to the Battleship Wisconsin, and I skipped the cocktails, but had various seafood snacks, meatballs, chicken wings and mini deserts. Everyone else went to dinner, but I was stuffed and called it a night.

Today was a light day at the conference. We had a guy that recreated Thomas Jefferson ( actually a descendent of his ) and then a conservative/liberal presentation by Cal Thomas and Bob Becham, two commentators that are on CNN and Fox Network. I got to meet each of them and shake their hands after the presentation, which was very thought provolking and stressed their common ground rather than their differences. We also had a several other presentations and ended up breaking at 12;30. I decided to do a walking tour of Norfolk in lieu of going to the gym, and I saw the Battleship Wisconsin (stem to stern), the Navy Museum next door, an oriental garden and the MacArthur Memorial, where Gen. Douglas MacArthur is buried. I am something of a history buff, so I found all of this very interesting. They were having a ceremony for a U.S. Navy officer that was retiring on the Battleship that was very moving to observe. He was about my age and had his wife and two sons present along with his shipmates and other officers. There were more than a few tears shed at the end of a long career and deserved retirement. I know his family is glad to have him home for good.

Anyway I am dog tired after walking several miles today and I am writing this at the Starbucks across from the hotel. I am normally too cheap to go to Starbucks, but for the price of a small coffee ( not one of those fancy ones) for $1.67, I get to use their wireless network. Would you believe the Hotel wants $9.95 a DAY for this service? Not in this lifetime! So now I am going back to my room and relax. The Work-out area has a series of hot tubs that look out over Norfolk bay, so I think I am going to do this for a while and then take a nap. We have a full agenda day tomorrow, including a reception and banquet in the evening, so I don't know if I can sneak away to post on my blog. I am heading out of here on Saturday morning, back to the ATL. Also tomorrow is a eating day. I am feeling good on my non-eating day today, although a little buzzed from all the caffine.

So long for now....

2006-05-16T09:34:00.000-04:00

Just a quick note as I am trying to get ready to get out of town. I am flying to Virginia this afternoon on a non-eating day. It is always my preference to travel on a non-eating day, since airline food is non-existant now and airport food is usually not worth eating. My son is not feeling well today, but went off to school anyway. I hope that I don't come down with his bug. I took a super vit boost of Multi Vit, Vit C, Calcium and Potassium. My plans are to stay on my fast until this evening, when I have a dinner for a committee that I serve on. I will stick to a salad, and maybe veggies for supper.

I didn't post yesterday; I don't know how folks find the time to do this everyday. With my schedule this is really hard. I had a great day. After my 1/2 Lb. gain on Saturday, I thought I would weigh today and I found to my delight that I had not only lost this 1/2 Lb. but 2 more Lbs. as well, bringing me down to 203.5. I am getting within splitting distance of 200Lbs. My today loss thus far is 20.5 Lbs. I am convinced that the workouts at the gym on Saturday and Sunday were key to securing this weight loss and I am now feeling fired up about going to the gym. I went last night and did 50 minutes on the treadmill and four sets on the chest machine. I am going to try and do a workout or a walk every day this week and see where I am on Sunday. I won't be flying back until Saturday, so this will be my first opportunity to weigh. It will be after being on the road for a week, so I will take this with a grain of salt what ever happens. I don't feel sufficiently confident about my belly to put a belly photo on the site, which Jason did. I thought that was a gutsy move ( I'm sorry Jason, I couldn't resist the pun) But I will try and post a regular phone when I get back into town, as well as trying to place some links on dieting sites, to maybe get some more visitors. I still haven't figured out how to place links on my own site, which I need to do...

Yesterday, I had my usual breakfast (Eggs, Sausage, Grits and a Whole Wheat toaster Waffle). I went to lunch with a Coworker and had Dim Sum. This is probably my favority food in the world. They wheel these carts by your table with little dumplings and different small servings of food, steamed, baked or fried. Yum Yum. Supper was a Chicken Breast, cooked in the Roman Style, with Roast Potatos and onions. I got these off of Everyday Italian ( see the web site for food network ) I was proud that I only had one piece of Chicken where formerly I would have had three. Then I went off to the gym for an hour to work it off.

I will try and do a better job keeping up the Blog this week. I got a new laptop at work yesterday, which I am taking on my trip, so if I can find a hot site, I will be in business. So long for now.

George

2006-05-14T19:21:00.000-04:00

Had a quiet non-eating day, and after having so much good food yesterday, I was fine with not eating, although my stomach was making a lot of growly noises. We had a nice Mother's day, with flowers for my wife and some books that she had been wanting from her favorite author. Also I check with my Mother ( and Dad) in Florida, and she had got her flowers as well. I studied a good bit today, and did go to the gym for a heavy workout after challenging myself yesterday. My lovely wife did say that she thought I looked skinnier, but quite frankly I don't see it yet although my clothes fit better. I usually can't tell at all until I get below 200. It's 7:30 PM and I am feeling pretty good, might do a juice smoothie since I had a pretty good workout and I don't want the batteries getting drained. I have been drinking herb tea like crazy today and chewing gum. We usually watch HBO on Sunday nights: The Sapranos and Big Love. I have a big day planned tomorrow, since I am going out of town on Tuesday and have to get everything caught up at work to do this. Plus having an eating day, including Dim Sum for lunch. I will let you know how it goes.

George

2006-05-13T23:15:00.000-04:00

Nothing better than an eating day on Saturday. I started the day with a weigh in after my big weight loss at the last weigh in, I actually put on a 1/2 Lb, but hey this goes up and down, so I was fine, although like my wife said, it would have been better to have lost.

Next was breakfast. I had two egg whites, three and a half pieces of sausage, a few left over hash browns ( probably 1/2 a cup or so) and two whole wheat waffles with syrup and butter. And some coffee. My wife slept in and I studied for about 3 and 1/2 hours. My son was off this morning taking his exam to become a Red Cross Life Guard. He came in about 12:00 and announced he passed with flying colors. We decided to celebrate by going to the Chinese buffet, which is the first time that I have done this for a long time. My stomach has shrunk so I really did take it easy. We both went home to do some more studying ( 2 hours or so) and then I went to the gym for a great aerobic work out. Our gym is only about 1 and 1/2 miles from the house so I have no excuse not to go more often. Had two new albums ( I guess I am dating myself again) on the Ipod, the new Prince album, 3121, and the new album from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, called Stadium Arcadium. The Prince album was OK, with a couple of great tracks and several other so so tracks. The RHCP album ( actual two since it is a double album) , was unbelievably good, in my opinion and great for working up a sweat. Anyway, I got into the groove so well that I put an hour in on the treadmill on the hill climber routine, so I was sweating pretty good. Then I stopped at the store to pick up a few goodies to make my wife a Mothers Day Supper, a bottle of wine for her and some Roses. I know, I know, Mothers day is tomorrow, but hey I gotta eat when I can eat. My Mom is in Florida, so I have her covered with a flower delivery for tomorrow. Anyway, I made a great Hungarian Goulosh, with sour cream, noodles and fresh corn on the cob. Again, unlike my old self, it was reasonable portions and one piece of corn. Cathy said everything was great. I also got a little desert, one of those mini-deserts from the deli, so that I wouldn't have it haunting me tomorrow. I feel great and really after eating all this great food, I am looking forward to an eating break tommorow ( in a way). I have plans for Monday, going out with someone from the office to eat Dim Sum at lunch. Tuesday I will be leaving on a trip to Norfolk, Virginia and will be gone until Saturday, so I will get another chance to see how I do with the program in travel status. I will see if I can do a little bit better keeping up with the blog. Hopefully the hotel will have a wireless connection.

By the way, I have thought of another reason to add to why I like the every other day eating program. I think by eating this way, on your eating days, there is less mindless eating. I really appreciate what I eat on my eating days and I plan my eating days to eat things that I want. And although you would think I would be starving, I know intuitively that I am eating less on my eating days than I used to eat on a normal eating day

I don't have any major plans tomorrow, other than studying and going to the gym for a major workout: another 1 hour workout on the treadmill and thirty to forty minutes on the machines. If I get really ambitious maybe ten laps in the pool. And since I said I am going to do it, now I have to!

Good night, sleep tight..

George

2006-05-12T21:53:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was an eating day, and I had two egg whites, three sausage patties, home-made hash browns and a whole-wheat toaster waffle. I have to do a toaster waffle or piece of toast to tide me over while breakfast is cooking. The lunch I had a Cup of Pasta with Meat Sauce, a bit of salad and a whole-wheat pita. Supper was Fish, a crab cake, coleslaw with honey-mustard dressing and some over cooked potatos. I also had a treat by stopping at the frozen custard store (Sheridan's) and I had a regular size custard with Heath Bar pieces mixed in, which they call a concrete. I was careful not to eat too much at Supper, and with my smaller stomach I still felt very full.

I had a reasonable no eat day today, except we had an ice cream social at work today, that we put on for staff as a thank you for everyone's hard work. I was virtuous and had a couple of Diet Cokes instead of a Sundae. ( And as you read above, I got to have a nice treat on Thursday.)

Then we let all the ladies off early after this afternoon, in honor of Morthers Day. I took a long walk at lunch, instead of eating, and unlike most days, I didn't go home at lunchtime to see my wife. After I got home she sent me out to do a small grocery shop, and I have some goodies set aside for tomorrow.

Here are a few reasons that I like every other day fasting:

1) It works for me. If you are reasonable in staying on the program you will lose weight.

2) It's really not as tough as it sounds. I know looking at this from the outside it sounds punishing but it really isn't that hard.

3) I have been doing this or something like this for 20 years. The only difference is that I haven't been consistent and after having a "normal" eating day, I felt so remorseful that I didn't go back to the program. If I had figured this out earlier, I could have saved myself a lot of heartache.

4) I really think it is good for your body to take a break from eating. It allows time for nutrients to be fully used and I think it helps the Glycogen levels in your body, which interrupts the fat formation cycle. Look at some of the links elsewhere on the web.

5) It helps your blood pressure. I tested at 119/78 this afternoon at the store. I don't know if it is the program or just losing weight that has helped. I suspect that my cholesterol has also gone down but I haven't tested this since being on the program. I will keep you posted on this this

6) I have acid reflux and I have noticed a considerable improvement since I started the every other day fasting. I thought I was going to have to go on a more expensive prescription to handle this and I have been able to stick with my cheaper OTC medicine.

7) I think your other senses are heightened when you are on your no eating days. I am very concious of hearing, sight, smell and touch when I go out for walks on my no eating days, like today.

8) I haven't felt guilty about anything that I have eaten on this program, with the understanding that I will not be eating the next day ( or eating just salad and a little fruit). This is probably the first time in more than twenty years that I can say that for an extended period of time.

9) This program is so simple that anyone can do it. You don't need special food, books, or other items that the diet industry charges you money for.

10) For someone like me that has business luncheons, conventions and the like, this program fits into these situations like a glove. One your no eat days, you either don't eat or have a salad, no dressing or some fruit for breakfast. No special diets or arrangements are necessary. And on your eating days, you can eat what everyone else is eating. And you don't feel deprived.

11) There is no calorie counting, no restrictions on protein or carbs or any forbidden foods. I know that diets always tell you that there is no such thing as forbidden foods, but in this case for the first time it is true.

12) Once you take deprivation and forbidden foods off the plate ( no pun intended) the pressure to overeat, binge and fall off the wagon go away.

13) On my absolute worst day, I figure that I can tough it out for 24 hours. And most of my days not eating are pretty good

14) It gives you more time in your life. I realized by being on this program that thinking about food, buying food, preparing food, eating food and cleaning up after eating take up an enormous amount of time. You can spend this time, reading, studying, watching Survivor ( like Jason) or contemplating your navel.

15) It is not a diet to me. My definition of a diet is a restricted eating plan, with strict rules, with no end in sight, with no logical method of maintenance and eating 1500 or 1000 or 850 Calories until such time as you have a relapse and start eating like a crazed grizzly.

16) It saves a ton of money, depending on how much fast food and restaurant food you normally eat. If you a frequent user of outside eating establishments, you cut your usage in half overnight. If you do like I did and largely give up alcohol (except for very special occasions) you can easily double your savings. You can put that money is tax advanted retirement account or spend it on something frivolus, like gasoline.

2006-05-10T19:21:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I had a telecommuting day, working at home using gotomypc.com, which I installed on Monday. If you have never used this program, it is extremely cool, allowing you to use your work computer from home, even if you don't have the same programs loaded into your home computer. And there are double passwords and full encryption to protect your data.

This way, I was able to spend my eating day at home, which allowed me to have a large leisurely breakfast, a nice lunch including leftover chinese food from Sunday and I was able to make a home made chicken pie for supper. And I also got tons of work done, without the phone ringing every five minutes and people coming in and out of my office.

Today was a no eat day and another busy day at work for me so the day pretty much flew by. I went home at "lunch" to get my wife to follow me to the auto service place to have my brakes serviced on my new/old BMW ( 1983 529e) which is otherwise in great shape. My wife noticed that her check engine light in the Toyota Van was on, so we actually ended up taking her car to the shop instead of my car. Our mechanic is absolutely great; it is too bad he doesn't work on German cars, I have to take the Bimmer somewhere else. We picked up the car after work.

Anyway, I seem to be having a good no-eat day, but I am going to have some juice, which will be the only thing I have had today other than gum, diet coke, water, tea and coffee. The only time this gets tough for me is at the end of the day and being able to write comments in the blog is really helpful here. I would like to do more with the blog like trying to put some links in, but being semi-literate in computers (hey remember my age: I did computer programing in college on punch cards!) I haven't quite figured out how to do this.

I noticed that Jason had sort of a tough day, with a slight gain on his weigh-in day. I had the same thing happen to me on my next to last weigh-in, so I understand him being bummed about this. He has really done great however, and I hope he doesn't get discouraged, since putting one foot in front of the other long-term is really what this is all about.

Later, George

2006-05-08T22:57:00.000-04:00

Woke up on Sunday Morning and weighed in and I was pleased to note that I have dropped from 209 to 205.5. You may remember that I had dropped to 207.5 and actually gone up to 209.5 which I figured was probably just a digestion thing. I feel really good about this since I was traveling this week and didn't know how this would work out. I can't even tell that I have lost weight until I get down to 200. I can tell my pants are fitting much better. I have decided that when I lose 5 more Lbs, I am going to get some of those custom jeans from lands end that are a little tighter than my present 38 jeans.

Had a great eating day yesterday with Sausage, hashbrowns, a bisquit and two whole wheat waffles. Lunch was chinese food: Pan-Fried Noodles and chinese dumplings. I couldn't eat that much lunch and brought the leftovers home for my wife to finish. After my lunch, I went to the Gym for a 50 minute workout, about 40 minutes on the treadmill and 15 minutes working with the weight machines, which I haven't done in a while. I really enjoyed the Ipod, which really takes the sting out of the workout. I studied for about six to seven hours, four hours in the morning and another 2 to 3 hours in the afternoon. For supper I roasted a chicken, with bread dressing, potatos, peas, gravy and cranberry sauce. A veritable feast. I didn't eat that much but it was rich and a woke up about 3 in the morning with a little of that acid reflux. A sure sign that I ate too much fat for supper.

Today I had a busy day at work and I hardly even noticed that it was a no eat day. I did sort of crash and burn a little this evening; I probably should have had a little juice to tide me over and adjust my blood sugar. It's almost bed-time and I am feeling much better now. Watched Anthony Bourdain on the Travel Channel after getting home from Scouts this evening. Thinking about breakfast tomorrow ( Yum). I am about to sign off so that I can play a Black on the Playstation. It is an infuriating game, very tough on even the easy setting.

Take Care, George

2006-05-06T22:26:00.000-04:00

I almost forgot, I was really stoked to get my first invitation to judge a new barbeque contest since becoming a certified barbeque judge in Memphis. I received an invitation to judge a contest in Alexandria VA, in June which is across the river from Washington D.C. Unfortunately, I have a conference out of town that weekend, so I will have to send my RSVP, but getting this means that I am officially on the Memphis in May list. As a Memphis in May member and a certified Judge, I hope to be getting more invitations.

The nice thing about the eating program that I am on now is that I can accomodate eating barbeque, provided that I don't do so two days in a row. When I went to Memphis, I got to eat on one day provided that I towed the line the next. I can live with this, if it means being able to eat a few pork products.

I have to say that I did feel a little crabby on the program today, at least until I had a little OJ tonight. My wife sent me over to the Wal-Mart to pick up some supplies and the typical waiting in line which I usually don't get excited about just seemed to get on my nerves. I noticed that the WM seems to have more Mexican related food items than the last time I was at the store. This must be related to the fact that 80% of the customers are hispanic, at least at the store in my neighborhood. I did buy some of that Coke Zero, which is no calorie but to me tastes more like regular Coke. My wife Cathy doesn't like it as much as I do. She had left over Cinco de Mayo mexican goodies for Supper, which is good because I didn't have to get in the kitchen. I don't like cooking when I can't eat, and I have told the troops that they have to forage for themselves when I can't eat, and they have been pretty understanding.

I probably do need to do some salads and perhaps a few fruits on my no-eat days next week. I have another meeting out of town the week after next, in Norfolk, Virginia, which is right on the Ocean, the site of a large navel base. I was there about 10 years ago, but don't remember that much about the town. I guess I will need to see if I can find some decent seafood, at least on the days that I am eating. I hope that I am able to stay on program like I did this week and maybe I can figure out how to update my blog with my Blackberry.

2006-05-06T18:48:00.000-04:00

Today is a non-eating day, plus I have been studying most of the day, so it has been a real pity party around here. I did take off for a few hours to see the new Tom Cruise move for a few hours. While he is not my favorite person, he certainly does a good job as a mindless action movie star and a recommend the movie for anyone looking for a good summer blockbuster ( or spring blockbuster as the case may be. A had a huge diet coke with no popcorn or candy so I am feeling very virtuous ( and hungry.) Also mowed most of the lawn, but saved some for my son.

I haven't decided if I do better eating salads or fasting, but today, I had nothing more than gum and non-calorie drinks. I will weigh-in tomorrow so we will see if a week on the program but eating in restaurants had any impact on my weight. If I gained a little I must promise not to be hard on myself. Nothing is worse than beating up on yourself, since the next stage is to say what the hell and start eating like a crazed polar bear. That is certainly going to help make things better :)

Well I need to put in at least another hour or two of studying before I knock off for the day. Then I can take another break, go to bed and wake up and have a great breakfast. I think I might make some hash browns to go along with the Maple Sausage that I bought. Looking forward to it...

George

2006-05-05T21:59:00.000-04:00

Well today was an eating day and I indeed enjoyed a good ole Southern breakfast with three pieces of sausage, a bisquit, a half a cup of grits and two egg whites ( the cats ate my egg yolks and some of my grits.

I guess grits are just one of those southern foods, that you have to be from the south to truely appreciate. Another one is boiled peanuts, which most folks I know from the north can't stomach. Anyway I was gone up north for a week and didn't see hide nor hair of a single grit. Hash browns seem to be more prevalent for breakfast, which are excellent as well. Had a small lunch ( some leftover Chinese food and rice. I am fortunate enough to live close enough to work to be able to come home to have lunch with my wife, unless I have a meeting or something else on my schedule. Tonight my son has a Hockey game with the church league so my wife and I are alone. I just cooked a Cinco do Meyo (?) meal of mexican food, homemade tacos, enchiladas, beans and rice and all the toppings. Mucho magnifico, but I didn't overdo. Three taco and one enchilada and I am stuffed. Looking forward to the weekend after a busy week ( things are always crazy at the office when I have been out for a few days)

I plan on weighing in on Sunday after my no eat day on Saturday. I actually like having a no eat day on Saturday, since I can do fun non-eating things; which is sometimes tougher at work. I do have to do some studying probably five or six hours tommorow, and also hopefully mow some lawn. My son was supposed to mow the grass this week but it rained most every day. He is in lifeguard training most of tomorrow, so I told him I would cut about half the grass. I might try and go see the new Tom Cruise movie tomorrow as a non-eating treat.

We are going to watch a netflicks movie tonight while my son is out. It is still hard to get used to the idea that he is out on his own, driving at night. But he is a really good kid and a safe driver, so I don't worry ( not too much anyway.)

Later,

George

2006-05-04T22:53:00.000-04:00

I have been away on a business trip in Pennsylvania and I just getting back. Today is a non-eating day. I did pretty darn good on my trip, keeping myself to salads and some fruit on my non-eating day. I did have some fairly heavy meals on my eating days, so I will be curious to see how I made out overall. I will be weighing in on Sunday. I really fell good about how I did over all on the trip, although I didn't go to the gym, I did do quite a bit of walking.

I had a business luncheon today and had a small salad and some green beans and tea for lunch. Again, I don't think people really care what you eat (other than you).

I didn't realize what a monkey on the back this blog thing can be. It is tough when you are away for a week. I kept up with my E-Mail's on my Blackberry, but I couldn't update my blog this way or at least I haven't figured out how to do this yet.

Looking forward to a healthy breakfast in the AM

George

2006-04-28T20:57:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we went with my son to do a college tour at the University of Georgia. He is a junior in high school but making plans about where to apply next year. I got to have a hearty breakfast, including homemade hashbrowns and turkey sausage, which I shared with the family. We had lunch at the Varsity, which has locations in Atlanta and Athens. They are a Georgia institution, famous for their chili dogs, fries and onion rings. I had two dogs and some fries. I had a a salad, a cheese burger and oven cooked potatoes for supper. I guess I overdid things a little today but I didn't feel overstuffed at the end of the day.

Today was, of course a no eat day and unlike on Wednesday, I am not having a salad, although I probably will have an OJ smoothie with protein powder tonight to tide me over. Looking forward to breakfast and a being able to eat on Saturday. Sunday, I am traveling on a business trip and will be gone until Wednesday, which will be my first time doing the on/off program for an extended business trip. I will be with other folks, so I probably will be doing fruit for breakfast and salads for other meals on these days. Sunday and Tuesday are my no eat days, and I will get to eat on Monday and Wednesday. I am really excited about trying this and seeing how if works. I have had a huge problem in the past controlling my food intake on business trips because: I am in situations where food is usually plentiful and either free or covered by an expense account, ditto on alcohol ( although I am not drinking now) and drinking tends to support a "what the hell, let's eat" attitude and also there is social aspect of eating at these meetings. My strategy is the following:

1) Stay away from alcohol and drinking club soda with a twist,

2) Remember that Hotel food and Airline food aren't that great anyway,

3) Remember that on Monday and Wednesday, I get to eat what I want within reason,

4) Take some workout clothing and go to the gym or take a walk on Sunday and Tuesday.

5) Remember that no one cares what you eat except you. If you eat little or nothing on Sunday and Tuesday, folks won't care or will probably applaud your dedication.

Tomorrow is a weigh in day for me and I am prepared for any eventuality, having lost three Lbs at my last weigh-in which sort of floored me after several weeks of very slow weight loss. To me it is more important to stay on program than it is to lose weight consistently right now. I also have noticed pants are getting looser and I may have to invest in some 36's once I drop below 200 Lbs, as a little reward...

2006-04-26T18:52:00.000-04:00

Today is a no-eat day, although I did have a business luncheon today, where I had a naked salad, with no dressing, as an option to sitting there and not eating at all. As I have indicated elsewhere, I tend to lose more weight doing this, based on my weigh-ins compared to eating nothing at all. Maybe it is digestion.

I am starting to study for a Certification examination in July, and this will be a real test of whether I can sustain this lifestyle under a high stress situation. In the past, I have used this as an excuse to throw limits to the wind, but as I have indicated, I think by keeping my focus narrowed, and not thinking out further than 24 hours, that I can sustain this program. It is now approaching 7:00 PM EST and I have to stay on program another 3 1/2 hours before bed. Then I will wake up and have a great breakfast!

2006-04-25T23:36:00.000-04:00

Great day today. I lost 3 Lbs and am now down to 207, for a total loss of 17 Lb. Managed to make it through a challenging weekend, with a scout outing, and managed to stay on program, although I did eat a salad for supper, which worked out well for me.

Today I had a big breakfast with Sausage and grits, and eggs and Steak and Shake for lunch, which was definately a splurge. I had a piece of salmon, a baked potato and cole slaw for supper.

Feeling very positive about my program and ready to have a no eat day tomorrow. I have a strategic planning conference tomorrow and probably will have a salad and nothing else for the day. I know it sounds strange but I almost look forward to the breaks in eating. I think they are healthy for me.

2006-04-20T15:20:00.000-04:00

Greeting from the Southland:

I had a great day yesterday with my program. 1^st I started off the day with a ½ Lb weight loss and any loss is better than a gain. Now I have lost a grand total of 14 Lbs and I am feeling very good. Secondly it was an eating day, which is always a good thing.

Here was my Menu:

Breakfast (aptly named)

Four turkey breakfast sausages

Two Eggs (with the yolks to my cats)

1 Toaster Waffle with Syrup

1 Piece of Whole Wheat Toast

Lunch

Stouffers Turkey with Dressing (only 280 Cal!)

Two pieces of leftover cornbread

1 Cup of Strawberries

A handful of chips left over from an office party

Snack

A piece of chocolate

Dinner

Three pork ribs

Oven potatoes

Corn

The ribs were a great treat. I normally cook them on the grill but ran out of propane so I had to cook them in the oven, but they were still outstanding. I felt full but not overfull, since I moderated my portion size compared to what I used to eat. Again I think my stomach seems to be shrinking, due to the every-other-day fasting.

I have been keeping fairly mum at work and other places about being on this program. It is usually not obvious that I am loosing weight until I drop below 200, so I still have ten Lbs to go before this is noticeable. Also I have lost (and gained) weight so often before that I really would like some time to pass before talking about it, so that it is an ingrained habit.. My wife has been talking about joining me on this program, but I have been neither positive nor negative about this idea. I don’t think that this is for everyone, but I think it fits me.

I have a scout trip this weekend (shotgun and rifle shooting and a campout) where I am going to have to be doing some of the cooking, at least one night on a non-eating day. I am thinking that I will cook something good but not something that is so good that I would have to eat it. Tomorrow, Cathy and I are going to pick up our “classic” BMW 5 Series (circa 1984), which should certainly hopefully give us some more transportation flexibility. Someone ran into the bank of our Taurus SHO and totaled it, and then our other car headed to the crusher so we have been down to one car. Wish us luck. Plus tomorrow is another eating day!

2006-04-18T19:36:00.000-04:00

Yesterday:

Turkey Bacon - 5 Slices
Two Egg Whites
One Toaster Waffle with Syrup
One Piece of Whole Wheat Toast

Lunch

Stoffers Lasagna
1 piece of whole wheat bread
1 apple

Snack
French Bread
One piece of summer sausage
One left-over easter egg

Supper

Bowl of Chili
Rice (1/2 Cup)
Three pieces of cornbread

Today, of course, has been a non-eating day. My wife found a interesting article on the internet last night about possible health benefits for everyother day fasting. I have seen several similar articles in the past, including some on the QOD website. Still, makes me feel good about what I am doing; at least it doesn't appear what I am doing is harmful. I also tested my blood pressure today and was pleased to note that I had a 116 over 74 blood pressure, which is quite good. I don't know if it's the weight loss or a benefit of the "diet". I have also noted that any initial food cravings on my non-eating day have lessened considerably after having done this for a while. I had a somewhat stressful day today, since I found out that our "classic" Mercedes Benz, 1984 280SE is headed for the parts bin. This is a European model, and after putting in a fairly good chunk of change, I found out that I might have to invest another $5,000 to get it back in running condition, due to the scarcity of parts. Anyway, we decided to pull the plug and give the car to charity, so hopefully some good karma will come from this bad situation. Also I have another old car lined up, a BMW 528E, that we are picking up on Friday, which hopefully will make up for sending "Miss Daisy" to the boneyard.

Tommorow is another weigh-in day, but I am prepared to possibly be at the same weight, since this program, at least for me, has been characterized by fairly slow, steady weight loss, which is fine with me.

2006-04-16T17:41:00.000-04:00

Happy Easter:

This is a non-eating day for me, but I had a good day eating yesterday. I had a big breakfast, a fairly moderate lunch and Pizza ( New York Style with Pepperoni, 2 1/2 big slices) for supper. I have managed to stay out of my son's Easter Basket today ( but I did have a chocolate egg yesterday on my eating day.) My son is 17 but the Easter Bunny still brought him a basket. It makes me realize that my wife and I only have about a year and a half and my son will be off at college. Those of you with kids need to hold on to these times as you can, as they are precious and fleeting.

This has been a fairly quiet day. Went to the movies ( Inside Job) with my son; a very good movie and not a typical Spike Lee movie. I am looking forward to watching the Sopranos tonight on HBO.

I plan on going to the Gym shortly, assuming that it is open. I often do some light excercise, usually aerobic on my fasting days.

Ever since my wife's comments about me being cranky on my fasting days, I have been trying to be a little bit more considerate, so I will check with her tonight to see if I have been successful.

I read something in a comments section on the web about periodic fasting possibly being bad for the liver. Has anyone heard anything about this?

Hope you all have a joyous Easter...

George

2006-04-13T15:48:00.000-04:00

April 13, 2006

Today was weigh-in day and I lost two more LBS, which was a very positive way to start off the day. I am now 210.5, 11 Lbs from my short-term goal and (gulp) and 35.5 Lbs from my long-term goal of 175 Lbs. I was sort of blue when I hadn’t lost at the last weigh-in so I am feeling better about things now.

Today was another great eating day:

Breakfast

Two eggs ( the cats ate my yolks)
Four Turkey sausages ( great stuff)
One whole wheat toaster waffle with syrup
½ Cup of Grits ( It’s a southern thing)
Herb Tea

Lunch

Stouffers Spagetti with meal balls
Apple
Twix Candy bar
Herb Tea

Supper

French Bread
Cheese
Piece of Summer Sausage
Sushi

Went for a 1/2 hour walk this afternoon to walk off my lunch. The day sort of got away from me and it is too late now to go to the gym today, as it closes in an hour.

My wife said I was acting a little cranky and hungry yesterday and was wondering out loud if this was the right program for me. I indicated that I usually act cranky or hungry on any diet or food limitation program. I indicated that I would look at the program again when I get to my next short-term goal, but I am not really inclined to make a change if it is working. I is sometimes difficult to not eat, when I have a stressful day, but I always have the promise of an eating day the next day.

I know I indicated yesterday that I would list some of the diets that I have been on in the past.

I have been on weight watchers four times, went to a weight-loss physician twice, have been on Atkins, South Beach, Vegetarian, Cabbage Soup, Salad only, GrapeFruit, Liquid protein, high carb, low carb, no carb, Sugar Busters, Whole Grains. I know I must be forgetting a few.

I can tell you without exception that it is possible to lose weight on any weight loss program. The kicker is coming up with something that you reasonably can do 3, 6 or 12 months from now and for the rest of your life.

2006-04-12T11:20:00.000-04:00

April 12th

I started my April 11th posting yesterday, but didn't post to the blog until today, so you will see two postings for the 12th. Yesterday was something of a personal disaster, so my food choices were emotional and not rational. I had a high level meeting and had a flat tire on the way to the meeting and was late. Then to add insult to injury, I got to the meeting location and some yahoo was parked in my assigned and paid for parking spot. Needless to say I was not a happy camper yesterday and I ate some things that I probably should not have, even though I am careful to always say that I can eat anything I want to eat. Eating based on emotion, be it positive emotion or negative emotion is not a good thing.

Today is a no-eat day and this gives me the opportunity to slow down and consider some of these issues more carefully. I find this to be very helpful to me and one of the positive aspects to this program.

One thing that I don't think I realized until I started doing this was how much time is spent in the prepartion of, eating of and cleaning up of meals. When you don't have this responsabilities on your day off from eating, it frees up quite a bit of time.

I don't seem to be obsessing about food on my noneating days like I normally do when I diet. I assume that this is because I know I will be eating the next day.

I think tomorrow I will plan on my usual large breakfast but try and do something relatively light for lunch with maybe some fish or seafood for supper. I would like to be full at the end of the day but also feel good about the choices that I made for the day.

It is a bit of a cloudy day today in Atlanta, about 70 degrees, but I am using my "lunch" hour by taking a long walk, with my water bottle and gum in hand.

I think tomorrow, I would like to consider some strange and unique diets that I have been on, since all of us have been on a million of them. Take Care, George

2006-04-12T11:15:00.000-04:00

Tuesday, April 11th

Breakfast

Two whole-wheat toaster waffles

1 TBS Syrup

5 pieces of Turkey Bacon

2 Eggs ( gave the egg yolks to the cats)

Herb Tea

Lunch

Pasta with meat sauce
Bread

Supper

Stew ( Beef with Vegies)
Egg Noodles
Water

Snacks

Potato Chips
Two pieces of chocolate

(I really need to watch the snacks, if I am serious about losing weight. I will need to make an effort to make better choices on Thursday.)

I want to say for the record that I am not recommending this program for anyone but myself, so if you try this you do so at your own risk. I have read some materials elsewhere on the web that tend to support some positive health benefits from reduced caloric intake, but I would recommend doing a little self research before embarking on such a program. I figured that it certainly couldn’t be any less safe than being 50 LBS overweight and eating excessively, so I decided to give this a try.

I feel like I am finally getting back into the groove after two unusual out-of-town weekends in a row. I decided to have some Turkey Bacon and my eating day today after I saw how much I was eating calorie-wise with four pieces of regular sausage. I know that smoked bacon is probably terrible for you so I will probably keep this to no more than once a week.

I saw on Jason’s blog that he lost another 11 LBS and dropped below the 200 LB mark. This is a huge accomplishment and it is something that I have as my next major goal. Being at 212.5, I figure this could take anywhere from 4 weeks to 8 weeks, depending on how conscientious I am on my program. I need to make an effort to be moderate and nutritionally balanced on my eating days. Just because I can eat anything doesn’t mean that I should eat everything and certainly I need to watch the quantities that I eat.

Age and other factors weight control

As somebody that has been involved in this process for a long time, I have observed that as I have gotten older, the effort involved to lose weight has been increasingly more difficult. I believe that I am more mindful of this now and hopefully this will make a greater impression once the weight is off. I have been told by my wife that this is even more of an issue for older women that are trying to lose weight. I believe for this reason that I need to try and focus on some exercise every day, even if it is light exercise like walking.

I also think that sometimes the choice of employment or profession can be a difficulty in losing weight. I really think this program is a lot easier for me, since I attend meetings and conferences where it more difficult to make food choices since the meals are often provided. I think it is often easier to be able to eat what is offered in moderation on your eating days and to just not eat at all on your non-eating days. This use to be a huge issue for me and now it seems to be much simpler.

I also am very blessed to have an understanding and sympathetic wife that I can talk to and who is very supportive of my efforts.

My Goals

I think it is important to have short-term and long-term goals. As I indicated above, my immediate short-term goal is to get below 200 LBS, which will occur when I lose 12.5 LBS. My longer-term goals are to reduce my weight to 175 LBS or such other weight feels normal based on my body type, to reduce my waist size to 35’ (currently 38 inches) and reduce my BMI to 24 from the current level of 29.7.

My ultimate long-term goal is to determine a method to maintain a level of weight with a sustainable lifestyle. I believe that I have found a lifestyle using these cycling fasts that would permit me to maintain my weight, so I am feeling pretty optimistic about being able to meet this goal.

We all have issues like this that we struggle with and I wish you all the best with your personal goals

George

2006-04-10T16:38:00.000-04:00

Greetings:

I was out of pocket over the weekend at a golf tournament and I didn’t get a chance to update the blog. Today is a noneating pay, which so far has been pretty smooth. I don’t have to deal with making choices, counting calories and general dieting issues on these days, which is a relief after doing this for the last 25 plus years.

Last post I indicated I would talk a little about exercise and alcohol. First on exercise, I have been walking on my days off and going to the gym on my eating days, although my time at the gym has mostly been aerobic exercise since starting this program. I probably need to incorporate some strength training as well, but I figured I was doing pretty good trying to stay on the program and do a little aerobic excercise on the side.

As far as alcohol, I decided about two months ago to give up drinking, not because of having a drinking problem, but because I determined that it is difficult for me to lose weight while I am drinking, even a modest amount. This also follows the advice I received from a doctor specializing in weight loss. So on my eating days, I am still choosing to not to drink. I feel much better health-wise since I made this decision.

Well that's about it for now.....

2006-04-07T13:55:00.000-04:00

Breakfast

Whole Wheat Toaster Waffle 95C

Whole Wheat Toast 120C

1 Egg and 1 Egg White 92C

4 oz. Sausage 500C

Coffee, no cream or sugar 0C

Syrup for Waffle 53C

Total 860C

Lunch

Piece of Pizza 380C

Chicken Breast 281C

Mixed Chinese Vegies 50C

1 TBS Oil 123C

Sauce 75C

½ Cup White Rice 102C

Total 1,011C

Total Breakfast and Lunch 1,871C

Snack 2 oz baked cheetos 260 C

Dinner

Pasta 1 Cup 196C

Sauce with Meat 3/4 Cup 250C

Salad 30C

Salad Dressing 50C

Bread 110C

Total for the day 2,767C

As you can see, today is an eating day for me:) I thought I would log my food for the day and include the calories. I don't plan on logging the calories as a routine as this is too much work and too much like a diet. Let me pass on a tremendous resource for folks that are looking for a FREE diet and exercise logging tool. This is available at www.Fitday.com . This site also has a great tool in the logging feature for figuring out the caloric and nutritional content of foods that has been very helpful to me.

Let me say at the outset that I am torked off generally at people and organizations that are trying to make money off of the weight loss business. Just do a google search on weight loss and see what I mean. I understand that some of these programs can help certain folks to lose weight but to me this is generally a racket and a rip off, based on the abysmal track record of these programs regarding permanent weight loss. I know from personal experience that weight loss is a personal issue and ultimately it is the individual that does the “heavy lifting” of weight loss. I do think there are some great resources on the web for providing assistance and support to folks that are fighting this good fight and I certainly applaud these sites. OK, I’ll climb down off my soap-box now.

I weighed this morning and I am holding steady at 212.5 LBS. Part of me is happy and gratified that I am not gaining weight, particularly since I spent last weekend in Memphis, Tenn., the barbeque capital of the world, and I must admit I was a little like a sailor on shore leave. But the best thing is that instead of sliding off my eating program, I got back on the horse. The other part of me, the little devil on my shoulder is upset that I didn’t lose any weight and is whispering discouraging comments in my ear. Maybe weighing once a month might be better for me.

Here is an interesting web link, listing the absolutely worst for you fast foods. I tend to stay away from fast foods as a rule, and probably don’t eat traditional fast food more than once every couple of weeks, not counting Subway. I like the description: death traps in cardboard boxes.

http://channels.netscape.com/homerealestate/?floc=ns-tos-toda-h-02

Let me talk a little about what I am doing on my days of non-eating. I am largely doing what Jason has been doing (see previous post), drinking mostly water, herb-tea, a little diet soda and chewing gum. I have been taking a multi-vitamin, a calcium supplement and a potassium supplement on these days, based on what I read elsewhere on the web, in order to keep my mineral content up. I do have a cup of fruit juice or fruit, sometimes in the blender with protein powder and ice. Most of the time I feel surprisingly good on my days off; usually I only feel lightheaded in the morning, right before breakfast.

Tomorrow morning, which is a no-eat day, I am headed to Augusta, GA to go to the Masters golf tournament. Usually this is a very high calorie event for me involving mucho eating and drinking, and tomorrow is a no eat day. Also tomorrow I will be around my folks who are both slim and trim and don't really understand my problems in this area. So tomorrow will definitely be a challenge for me and I am doing some planning ( and praying ) to help me get through it and to also keep things within reason on Sunday as well. I probably will be out of pocket for a couple of days and won’t get a chance to update the blog until late Sunday or Monday.

I hope that it isn’t too tedious for me to be posting what I am eating, but it is helpful to me to be mindful of what I eat, while not necessarily being constrained with what I eat ( at least on my eating days.) Putting this out for the world to see is certainly an incentive to be a little more careful. It was a little shocking to me that between the breakfast sausage and the piece of pizza I grabbed out of the fridge, this amounted to almost 900 Calories. I think I will be going with the turkey bacon (35 C a slice ) next time.

Topics for the next post - Exercise on this program and the impact of Alcohol on weight loss.

2006-04-06T20:50:00.000-04:00

Well this is my first post, so let me introduce myself. I am George, a 50 year old guy from Atlanta. I start this blog to chart my progress on my way to making some lifestyle changes and hopefully losing some weight. I am using a program that I stumbled on during my internet ramblings and in particular I have to tip my hat to Jason, who started doing this in January of 2006. His blog is located at Every Other Day Fasting Diet . As the name of Jason's site indicates, this involves eating more or less like a normal person one day and then doing a modified fast the next. I have been doing this for about three week now and have lost 11.5 LBS during this time, starting at 224. I have been able to adjust to this pattern of activity fairly easily and I am contemplating this as a lifestyle rather than a temporary diet. More to follow on how this works and on long, sad history with diets over the past 25 years or so..