Lee's Wednesday Weigh-in (for real) - Week 5

So this is what murder feels like.

For the last two weeks, it's been nothing but gluttony. There has been a lot to celebrate. In the last week or so, my father and my niece both turned a page over in the calendar. And I got myself a little job in DC. My Philadelphia-based grandparents came out to the Bay Area to talk part in all of this celebrating.

The last ten days have involved a lot of eating, a lot of drinking, a lot of cake (duh), and not a lot of working out. In fact, there has been NO working out. And over the course of the last few weeks, I've met up for drinks multiple times with high school friends. Being this idle, drinking this much and eating this poorly should result in me looking something like this. Actually, looking like this could only be considered a victory.

I'll freely acknowledge that I didn't step on the scale last week because I expected to see a horrifying number on the scale. I couldn't pull that shit two weeks in a row.

Thus, I made a special trip to the gym, just so I could use the same scale, got down to my skivvies, and stepped onto the scale. I slid the balance down to 212 -- my starting weight -- with the hopes that I hadn't fallen that far. Mercifully, 212 was too heavy. This was a win in itself. At least if I put on weight, I wouldn't be starting from square one. Still, I know there's some serious work to do...

Starting Weight: 212

Week 1 Weight: 208

Week 2 Weight: 208

Week 3 Weight: 206

Week 4 Weight: mystery

Week 5 Weight: 209

Lee's Wednesday Weigh-in (not really) - Week 4

Okay, so I didn't weigh in this week. Not that didn't want to or feel the need to. I'm sure that this week was a bad week. What I do know is this: I feel lighter.

I feel lighter for a simple reason: the weight of unemployment has finally been lifted off my shoulders. I've looked for a good job for the last five months. For those months, I certainly felt like I was carrying around some extra weight. The weight of rejection, the weight of stress, the weight of not knowing. The longer it went, the heavier that weight felt. And now, instantaneously, it's gone.

So for now, I will not weigh in. I'll check in next week and go from there.

Lee's Wednesday Weigh-in: Week 3

Apologies for the delayed Wednesday Weigh-in. I didn’t have the opportunity to get to the gym on Wednesday.

There’s the Atkins Diet and the Southbeach Diet, WeightWatchers and NutriSystem. But after this week, I would like to propose the Cake Diet. As I noted earlier this week, with all the cake I have consumed this week, I would have been happy just to break even. But after working hard in the gym, I couldn’t believe what my eyes saw.

I put the scale on 208 – my weight from last week – and would have been perfectly content just to see the scale remain balanced. I was shocked to see that 208 was too heavy. It was way too heavy. The scale didn’t even move to the center. I nudged the balance bit by bit until the scale settled right at 206 pounds.

With that, I present the Cake Diet: eat relatively well, eat a little cake, work your ass off, lose weight. Seems perfectly reasonable.

Starting Weight: 212

Week 1 Weight: 208

Week 2 Weight: 208

Week 3 Weight: 206

Ugh. This week has been a killer. Between a bachelor party and having a happy hour with all the new fellows, taking care of my weight has been priority number 4325. It's been tough though. Last week i had three demo lessons last week which all but surely locked up my time due to preparing for them and then the rest of the week which consisted of going to NH and eating lots of pizza,hot dogs, and hamburgers(along with drinking some beer) to honor my friend Vic.

I'm finding that the hardest part is still making the time to work out. The good news is many of my fellows seminars end around 4 during the summer which gives me no excuse to NOT go to the gym across the street. I've been a glutten and frankly it has been really,really fun, but the time for all that is over now and I need to re-dedicate myself. I know this entry isn't as funny as it should be but this is what's going on. My motivation and energy has completely gone to getting job and studying,which is fine, but the true test will always be the daily challenges in life. We will always be busy and so it's about how i use my time now. Maybe I won't be able to work out after a ten hour day but what's stopping me on the weekend? What's stopping me right now?

Playoff beards, Guilt, and Jorge Posada

These first few weeks have been difficult weeks to start a diet. It’s not because there are a slew of restaurants that have been opening near me. No, these weeks have been difficult because it’s playoff time for the National Hockey League. For the third time in twenty years, my beloved San Jose Sharks have advanced to the Western Conference Finals. However, this is the first time that I have been in the Bay Area while the Sharks were in the Western Conference Finals. The side effects of this month-long (so far…) playoff run have been extraordinary.

1) One of the most beautiful hockey traditions is the playoff beard. Most hockey players – and a lot of fans – will grow out their beards for the duration of their team’s playoff run. I have joined this group of men and, I must say, the beard is quite fantastic. I didn’t know how a full beard would look with a bald head, but short of my sister, it has received nothing but compliments. Growing a beard of such length has forced me to also use shampoo and conditioner for the first time in ages. As itchy as this thing is, and as much as I can’t wait to get rid of it, I sure as hell hope that I have to continue growing it through mid-June.

Playoff beard in all its glory

2) I wouldn’t say that I have been an emotional trainwreck, but there has been a fair amount of in-game yelling (mostly directed at the pathetic refereeing) and post-game drinking, of both the celebratory and depressed types.

3) There have been copious amounts of cake devoured during the last month. What does cake have to do with playoffs? For most of these playoffs games, we have hosted or been hosted to viewing parties. Either during or after the games, we would eat dinner, which would be followed by cakes from all sorts of places – Icing on the Cake, Nothing Bundt Cakes, and Costco. And there are few things that are harder to resist than cake. Just ask Jim Gaffigan

That third factor is the critical one that is affecting my efforts at dieting (although I’m convinced that this beard has added at least a little weight on the scale). Eating cake at least three days a week will set a person back a bit. Nothing like a little butter, sugar, and flour to help put the pounds on.

The same cake is also a huge motivational factor. Every time I put a serving of cake on my plate, I’m also serving myself a slice of guilt, something that us Jews do very well (although I’m sure that Anthony would assert that while Jews created guilt, Catholics perfected it). Every time I take a bite of cake, I know I have to spend a little more time at the gym, if only to maintain my current weight. Because I am convinced that if I continue to eat the way I’ve been eating without exercising, I would be closer to 220 pounds than 210.

Given what I’ve been doing, it’s hard to expect that my weight will drop like Jorge Posada’s batting average (you’re welcome, Anthony). So, for now, I have a feeling that I may be stuck in neutral. I may even put on a pound or two. But in the meantime, I am working my ass off. Maybe not literally, but certainly figuratively.

Now let me at that cinnamon pound cake!

Lee's Wednesday Weigh-in: Week 2

I learned to play blackjack when I was a toddler. My grandmother thought it would be an effective way to teach me how to add. It was. Along the way, I also learned all the rules and nuances of blackjack. By the time I was five, I knew when to double down and what cards to split. Of course, I might have also become slightly addicted along the way. I first played in Vegas when I was 16. And over the course of the last nine years, with the exception of one magical weekend in Vegas, I have done nothing but lose. It was the course of these years – when the money was on the table – that I learned that breaking even isn’t all that bad.

Unless you are some kind of MIT genius card-counter, nobody comes out ahead in Vegas every time. Most people lose, and everyone is thrilled just to break even. Similarly, no one on a diet loses weight every week. It doesn’t take a lot – a Chipotle burrito here, a double cheeseburger there – to really mess up a dieter. And yet, that’s exactly what I did this past week. Over the course of about thirty hours last weekend, I ate a Chipotle burrito, went out drinking, ate a double cheeseburger, then ate steak, followed by cake. Eating like that is how a thin person becomes fat.

So basically, the way I ate during the first part of the week was like catching a bad shoe of cards. I really wanted to play my cards right, but never even had the opportunity because the deck was stacked. I’m absolutely screwed. But then, half way through the shoe, the cards turn. The table gets hot. I split when I can, double-down at will, work my tail off. By the end of the shoe, I’ve seen the worst cards possible and the best cards possible, but I still broke even.

And so, on this week, I would be happy just to break even. Following my weekend of bingeing, I busted my ass harder than I ever have. I put together a new workout that makes me sweat so hard that I look like I’ve stepped out of a swimming pool. I got back to eating relatively healthy. And when cake was again put on the table, I simply sampled.

The hard work paid off. Half a week of gluttony followed by half a being on the program resulted in a push: no weight gained, no weight lost.

If only I did that well in Vegas.

Starting Weight: 212
Week 1 Weight: 208
Week 2 Weight: 208

My demise: social eating

The end of this week was a brutal couple of days on the “let’s not be fat” program. It started with Cinco de Mayo. My friend, Michael, and I got together for this truly American holiday. I knew I was in trouble when Mike proposed that we go to Chipotle for dinner. Seemed to make perfect sense: Mexican food on a Mexican holiday.

“You know you could get a salad,” Mike told me with a half-smile on his face.

Right. I’m also going to drink water at a bar.

If I’m going to Chipotle, I’m getting a burrito, diet be damned. I remember when I was in college, my friend Joe faced the same conundrum. Being on Weight Watchers, a Chipotle burrito with guacamole was 34 points, an entire day’s worth of food for Joe. It didn’t stop him from getting his burrito and it sure didn’t stop me either.

After dinner, Mike and I went out drinking. I was perfectly content to drink rum and cokes or vodka-sprites in order to avoid high-calorie beer. That changed immediately when I saw that the bar had a beer-pong table. Not a table used for beer-pong. An actual beer-pong table. Four games (and one aforementioned rum and coke) later, I was feeling pretty good.

Both of us woke up the next morning feeling pretty miserable. Of course, the only solution for a hangover is a greasy good, and Mike recommended the perfect solution: a place called The Habit, a burger joint. The thing came loaded with two patties, two slices of cheese, caramelized onions, and avocado. This was a heart attack in a bun and it was delicious. It was the first fast-food hamburger I’ve had that could give In-N-Out a run for its money.

The food fest continued while I watched Game 4 of the Sharks-Red Wings series. Not only did our hosts put out dinner, but they also put out such healthy appetizers as salami, cheese, and a bowl of guacamole big enough to drown in. Figuring my dieting for the last twenty-four hours had been on hold, I didn’t hold back.

My weekend of gluttony ended on Saturday with my friend Matt at the Berryessa Art and Wine Festival. I spent the afternoon drinking one of the most delicious red zins I’ve ever had in my life. The wine wasn’t so bad for me; the pizza that followed did me in.

This is my demise. This will be my demise throughout this process. When I’m by myself, I am a model dieter. I eat well and I exercise like a maniac. But when I’m with friends, things go downhill quickly. I eat poorly, drink excessively, and don’t work out. This is not to say I’m blaming my friends for my weight – that would be downright irresponsible. It’s just so much harder to be healthy when I’m with my friends.