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So it’s been three weeks since I started my diet. Overall, my progress is decidedly so-so. Last week wasn’t the easiest time for a diet, since I ate most meals out and thus couldn’t really count calories. But here are some basic stats.

Weight (6/25): 198.5 pounds, which is up 2 pounds from 6/25’s low of 196.5. However, I actually managed to gain ~three~ pounds before I left for Seattle, meaning I was still able to lose a pound while noshing predominately on restaurant foods. I’m pretty okay with that.

Exercise: Worst week ever. I averaged around 200 extra calories burned a day. That average is sucked down by two exercise-less days: Wednesday due to 12 hours of travel on my way out to Seattle, and Sunday due to 11 hours of travel on the way back. The only exercise I got on the days between was walking around the city. I’m glad Justin lived a mile and a half from the convention center, or that average would have been a lot lower.

Intake: Also a pretty damn bad week, although the numbers are a little fuzzy because I had to estimate pretty much everything. I’m saying I consumed just over 1500 calories a day on average, but most of those calories were carb-heavy, and as such, more willing to turn into fat. Over 2000 of those calories came from alcohol alone. ;)

So my goal for this week is to get back to 196 or so. It’s going to be tough, as my diet of late as gotten a little more calorie-heavy, yet my exercise has also decreased. I’m going to have to do something about one or the other… I just don’t yet know which.

Oh, and I plan to blog about Seattle very soon, just not this moment. Probably tomorrow afternoon sometime.

So I got to hang out in southern Iowa (outside Osceola, for those counting) at my Grandma Glazebrook’s place over the weekend. I had a really good time, and got to see a lot of family I hadn’t seen in over a year. My uncle Rod was back (family in tow) from Ohio, and uncle Rick came all the way down from the next house over to join in the festivities as well. Amanda came with, making the trip her first time meeting That Side of the family. They treated her nice enough. Then again, that ~is~ the nice side. ;)

Things done in Osceola: I ate a hamburger, followed almost immediately with a steak, cause I’m hardcore like that. I played briefly with the chickens, because I always liked the chickens when I stayed with Grandma Glazebrook back in the day. Amanda got to see her first baby calves up-close, and even got them to suck on her fingers, so that was pretty cool (though I have no idea how I forgot to take a picture of this!). I neglected to have any cake, because I’m doing that whole diet thing, but Amanda assured me that the cake was horrible and dry and the frosting tasted an awful lot like calf saliva - of course, she may have just forgotten to wash her hands. I also got to see cousins (second cousins? Aunt and uncle? Beats me) Diana and Heath for the first time in a long time: it seems they’ve grown up in my absence.

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So I got a haircut today. I know you can’t see it, but I did. I don’t have a picture of it yet, but it turned out pretty well, I think. If I get bored at home later tonight (highly unlikely), maybe I’ll post a photo of the cut to this here entry. We’ll see.

The rest of my evening? Well, after work Amanda and I are going to head home, be-leash the dog, head to obedience class, drop the dog off after class, remove the topmost layer of dog fur from our clothes, and head out to Centro to ~finally~ celebrate our anniversary, 10 days late (the family barbeque took place of our previous celebration plans). After that, we’re going to head home, whereupon I’ll start doing laundry and packing bags like a madman in preparation for my lil’ trippy-poo tomorrow morning. If anyone feels like stalking my flight, I’ll be taking Northwest flight #4726 from Des Moines to Minneapolis at noon tomorrow, then sitting around for four hours and probably eating unhealthily before taking flight #161 from Minneapolis to Seattle around 5:15pm.

I doubt I get a chance to write again before I’m in Seattle, so until I return… miss me! :)

Before we get into the rant of the day, I thought I’d take a moment to update you-all (who, I am sure, are as equally obsessed with such things as I) on my diet! Wait for it…

Weight lost (6/11-6/18): 4lbs, bringing me to 196.5 pounds, or 8.5 pounds lost so far.

Calories consumed (6/11-6/17): 9787, or right around 1400 per day.

Caloric deficit (6/11-6/17): 10183, or a little over 1400 per day. A lot of that is due to extra calories burned during exercise.

Notes of… note: I actually gained weight one day last week, which I’m deciding to attribute to muscle gain, as I’ve exercised in some fashion every day for the last two weeks. Yesterday was the least I’ve exercised so far, with a 2.1-mile dog walk in the evening, preceded by a nap and followed by a movie. Next week, my major goal is simply not to gain weight.

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In the Triathletes-Nearly-Killed-Me department: So I mentioned I was swimming last Tuesday. I get to the pool, and it’s not all that busy. It’s just me, two guys practicing scuba in the corner, and Four Freaking Triatheletes. Now, I have nothing at all against triathlons in general, but when I’m swimming for the first time in three years, I don’t want to be in the lane next to four super-humans, all hairless and flawless, seemingly sculpted out of stone. Lighter-than-water stone, at that. Pumice, I guess.

So the pumice people were already engaged in their last big practice before the big triathlon this last weekend when I waddled in, all flabby and awkward and squinty (my glasses were waiting for me in the locker room, where I was wishing I’d stayed). After a few seconds of scanning, I figured out how to get into the damn pool, and then took off for a lap. One lap later, my heart was pounding, my arms were aching and I had a momentary fear of drowning for the first time in my life. I paused at the end of the pool to catch my breath and watched the triathletes race past, trying to figure out what they were doing that I obviously wasn’t. Unfortunately, they were going too fast and I couldn’t see far enough. So I gave it another go.

I ended up doing 8 laps in all, or 16 side-to-side. I proudly estimated this at nearly a mile before I asked one of the chiseled swimmers how long the pool was. 25 yards… really?! From my vantage, I would’ve sworn it was the length of a football field. So in reality, I only managed to thrash my way to 400 yards, or 1200 feet, or less than a quarter of a mile. Pathetic no matter how you slice it.

To make matters worse? I pulled something in my left arm, and couldn’t use it much Tuesday - Friday, making it one of the most longest-lasting injuries I’ve had since early in college when I messed up my ankle. Insult to said injury? Amanda went to the pool the next day, and even without the driving presence of the pumice people, still managed to go over three times further than me.

I’m going back to the pool tonight. Presumably, the triathletes will all be recovering in their respective spandex-swathed beds, leaving me to work on my stroke without giving myself one. I don’t know how hard I’ll push myself; at this point, getting from one side to the other, sans-death, is still a major accomplishment. But I feel the need to try a little today, considering my exercise for the rest of the week will probably be limited to walking to and from the convention center and Justin’s place (mapped above). That, and I think I’m going out to eat with friends tonight, and then with Amanda tomorrow to finally celebrate our 6-month anniversary 10 days late. And then, I’ll be spending the rest of the week in Seattle. As I said, the goal this week is simply not to ~gain~ weight. :)

Because it occupies a nearly unhealthy portion of my thoughts, here’s an update on how my diet is going so far (Monday morning the 4th - Monday morning the 11th):

• I lost a total of 4.5 pounds (205 - 200.5). My weight loss has slowed from earlier in the week, which could be because I’m just hitting my average loss rates now, or possibly because I’m gaining muscle. Either way, I should be under 200 pounds some time this week, for the first time in a couple of years.
• I consumed an average of roughly 1600 calories per day, which combined with my estimated resting metabolic rate (~2300) and my average additional exercise burning ~600 calories/day, gives me around a 1300 calorie daily deficit, or right around what I was shooting for.
• My spreadsheet is still really cool.
• I burned over 2300 calories using Dance Dance Revolution alone, although I’m currently a little bored/frustrated with it (it doesn’t always work right). So I jogged 6 miles in the last two days to compensate.
• I walked the dog over 9 miles last week. Luckily for both of us, it wasn’t all at once.

So yeah, I’m a little weight- and diet-obsessed. Part of that is because I’m a little hungrier than usual (need a more fibrous diet, I guess), and part of it is my spreadsheet: when I have all of this statistical information at my fingertips, it’s tough ~not~ to check it out and add it up. ;)

In only slightly related news, last night Amanda and I got a membership at Des Moines’ Central Campus to use their pool and weight areas. Between splitting the cost in half (we have a family membership) and August Home picking up half the tab, it’s an extraordinarily cheap way to gain access to a pool, and thus, a new form of exercise. I’m planning on heading to the pool after work tonight for my inaugural swim.

After my swim, I’m going to be heading north for a little Mandate action (or a MANage-a-trois as Scott and I have started calling it) with Quinn and Scott, meaning Amanda is stuck taking Miles to his obedience class by her lonesome this week. I think the plan is to barbeque at Scott’s place, hang out for a while catching up, and then watch a hypermasculine movie at the dollar theater. The current plan is to see Shooter. And let’s face it: nothing says hypermasculine like Marky Mark.

The rest of the week is shaped thusly: Wednesday night I start my Spanish class with AnneJanotta. Thurday night, Amanda’s playing sand volleyball and I plan to get in another swim and mow the lawn. Amanda will be gone most of Friday on a business-type trip in Kansas City, so I’ll be self-entertaining. Saturday, we’re going to a barbeque at Lindsay Rees’ place. And Sunday, we’re hoping to celebrate our six-month anniversary, eight days belated (Amanda spent last weekend in Minnesota with her parents, so I spent it hanging out with all of her friends instead). :)

I feel like I’ve had a fairly productive week so far, life-wise. To celebrate, I made you this list.

One: I started a new diet this week in an attempt to lose a bit of nonessential body fat. To make the diet more fun and exciting, I created a spreadsheet. Perhaps I’m the only one (on earth) that thinks spreadsheets are cool, but whatever. I could use the additional motivation. My spreadsheet automatically estimates my resting metabolic rate (RMR) based on my age (to the day), height, and weight (to the day), and then estimates my caloric deficits or surpluses (jebus forbid!) based on what I eat and how I exercise. In short, it rocks. I’m shooting for a 1000 - 1200 calorie deficit per day, which would mean I’d lose 2 - 2 ½ pounds a week. It’s only day four, but so far I’m doing pretty good, and I’m feeling optimistic.

B: I’ve booked my flight to Seattle. :) I’ll fly out of Des Moines around noon on Wednesday, June 20 and land in Seattle around 7pm (following a 4-hour layover in Minneapolis). I’ll spend Thursday and Friday attending the ever-so-awesome An Event Apart conference, and Saturday seeing the sights and hanging out with Justin. I fly out of Seattle at 7-o-freaking-clock the morning of Sunday (June 24), change plans in Memphis for reasons beyond my understanding, and land in Des Moines around 3:30pm. Sucky flights aside, the trip itself should be a blast.

Tres: I’ve signed up for an 8-week Spanish class starting next Wednesday evening through the Des Moines Public Schools Community Education program. I’ll be taking the class with friend AnneJanotta, so it should be fun. This class will be useful for many reasons, including 1) Friend Hannah and Girlfriend Zinger already speak Spanish, 2) Amanda and I said we’d join a club each this summer and I’m counting this as mine, and 3) Hannah is importing her boyfriend from Costa Rica some time yet this summer, and since I hear his English is pretty bad, I figure to be fair my Spanish should be equally bad.

4: I planted four pepper plants of various toxicity today. This probably isn’t as big a deal as the other three, but it still made me happy. :) They’re a little droopy, so I’m hoping they’ll rejuvenate in the next few days. Even if they don’t, our tomatoes are looking great, the green peppers are doing well, and all of the herbs have pulled through a shaky start. Go team Robanda!

Infinity plus one: Oh, and Miles had his first obedience class Tuesday. They loaned us a gentle leader collar to try out, and let me tell you, it makes a ~huge~ difference. My initial reservations have faded.

Adios!