Well, we managed to officially survive the Thanksgiving weekend with a loss. Just .6 for me and .4 for Tom, but still a loss. It was a bit of a shock for me when I realized that I STILL have .2 of a pound to lose from our cruise and WDW trip. That pretty much smacked me back into full compliant mode. There’s nothing unusual scheduled this week so hopefully, we can get back into full force weight loss mode. Especially since I leave for my girls weekend at Walt Disney World in just a week! I’m already planning to walk in the mornings to work off the extra food…

CARLA -
Official Weight (after twenty-one weeks): 242.6 lb – loss of 38.4 pounds
Home Scale (after twenty-one weeks): 240.4 lb – loss of 37.6 pounds

TOM -
Official Weight (after twenty-one weeks): 367.0 lb – loss of 66.0 pounds
Home Scale (after twenty-one weeks): 366.0 – loss of 59.0 pounds

Carla

Well, first of all, forgive me for the bad Neil Young paraphrasing that I used to title this entry. Thanksgiving actually wasn’t that bad for us. After two turkey meals (Thursday and Saturday), I’m only up .4 of a pound and Tom is only up .6 of a pound. We’ll have that gone in no time, definitely by our next weigh-in on Wednesday. I’m guessing that all the working out we did paid off. And, to be honest, we were pretty darn good about our food choices. Now, it’s back to the shakes and back to racking up the pounds lost!

Carla

In years B.N.Y. (before Nutri-med and YMCA), our Thanksgiving day would begin with us making and eating lots of biscuits and sausage gravy while watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. Then, the turkey would go in the oven and the sides would be assembled while the turkey started to roast. We’d sit on the couch and watch the Lions lose and root for the Cowboys to lose too. Whenever the turkey and everything else was done, we pile up our plates and eat and eat. And then it was more sitting on the sofa and staring at the television before rolling our stuffed bodies to bed.

Year One A.N.Y. is very different. Even though the alarm was set for 8 a.m., I was up soon after 6:30 and, of course, checked the scale first (down another .8 of a pound – 240.6 now). I checked email and listened to Lou Mongello‘s WDW Radio podcast until 8 when Tom got up too. We watched a bit of the Today Show and then got dressed to go the Y. We were the first ones in the pool and we worked out for the longest time ever – 90 minutes. We didn’t want to stop! Back home, we had a shake and started watching the Macy’s Parade on TiVo. Ah, the joys of skipping commercials and insipid interviews! Soon, we’ll leave for Diane’s and we may go see “Enchanted” after that. What a difference a year makes…

At this time of giving thanks, Tom and I would like to thank all of you who have been supportive throughout this lifestyle change for us with all its ups and downs. There have been many days that you have made this possible.
THANK YOU SO VERY, VERY MUCH!!!

Carla

Twas the night before Thanksgiving and all around Cincinnati, not a creature wasn’t preparing for the feast the next day… That evens applies to people on liquid diets. Now, we’re going to our friend Diane’s tomorrow and my parents’ on Friday. I’m taking an apple butter pumpkin pie each place and they are in the oven now. (Side note: I am SO looking forward to having a better oven when we move somewhere else.) There was leftover pumpkin and apple butter so I tried to make a low calorie “custard” from them (and clean some things out of the pantry at the same time). I’m not thinking they are going to turn out though.

Tom is down an amazing 8.2 pounds this week so he lost the cruise week and three more pounds on top of that. According to the home scale, I lost my cruise weight, but the official scale says I still have .8 of a pound to go. My official loss for this week was 5.4 pounds. 3.2 pounds more and I get another hot stone massage!

CARLA -
Official Weight (after twenty weeks): 243.2 lb – loss of 37.8 pounds
Home Scale (after twenty): 241.2 lb – loss of 36.8 pounds

TOM -
Official Weight (after twenty weeks): 367.4 lb – loss of 65.6 pounds
Home Scale (after twenty weeks): 364.6 – loss of 60.4 pounds

Carla

The scale was my friend again this morning. My day of 100% compliance resulted in a 2.4 pound loss. Tom and I discussed going to Shakey’s and decided to skip it since I’m only .6 of a pound away from losing all of my cruise weight and Tom may have a 10 pound weight loss going this week.

We met for lunch at Frisch’s today with Diane. I had my favorite pecan cranberry chicken salad and Tom had the salad bar. Both were very satisfying! So it’s back to shakes for the rest of the day and then we cross our fingers for tomorrow’s weigh-in.

It’s almost hard to believe that tomorrow will be 20 weeks on the diet. I know I’ve said it before, but it really does feel like a lifestyle change rather then just a diet.

Carla

UPDATE: Well, we ended up going to Shakey’s after all, but I just got the hot slaw and Tom had his usual Bubby’s Special (side salad, hard boiled egg and hamburger patty). It was a nice kick off for my Thanksgiving break.

You know you’ve been told all your life that life isn’t fair. Heck, I’ve told my students that. But, in life, weight loss really isn’t fair some times.

I’ve been pretty darn good since Tuesday night. Working out, drinking the shakes and “making wise choices” the few times I was actually eating. As you can read below, Tom wasn’t being good on Friday and yet managed to lose 4.4 pounds. On the other hand, I’m up. Not much, but enough to be frustrating (.4 on Sunday and another .8 this morning). I know that men lose weight easier than women and so on and so forth. And usually I don’t care. Today is different.

The temptation to say “Why bother?” and eat my way into nirvana is pretty great right now. I haven’t, but I’ve thought about it… more than I’d like to admit. I am very lucky to have Tom as my in-house support system and my friend Diane is so good here at school (and Annette is my/our online cheerleader). I think that’s the only reason I haven’t gone off the deep end.

I’m shooting for a 100% compliant day and that means not even salad and a grilled chicken breast tonight. And if I’m up again in the morning, we’re not going to Shakey’s tomorrow night. That one will hurt, but I think it has to be that way. I only hope that I (we) don’t start resent the diet. I believe now that’s what happens five years ago and that’s why we quit.

Wish me luck…

Carla

Ahhhh… the weekend… Yesterday was a day of football, TiVo and hanging out in our pajamas. Oh, and trying to lose the last bit of the cruise weight. I’m getting closer and closer but I still have about 2 pounds to go. It might be good to hit the pool again today.

CARLA -
Official Weight (after nineteen weeks): 248.6 lb – loss of 32.4 pounds
Home Scale (after nineteen weeks and four days): 243.4 lb – loss of 34.6 pounds

TOM -
Official Weight (after nineteen weeks): 375.6 lb – loss of 57.4 pounds
Home Scale (after nineteen weeks and three four days): 370.6 lb 366.2 – loss of 54.4 58.8 pounds

Carla

And updated by Tom who doesn’t know why he lost 4 pounds since yesterday but isn’t going to to argue.

It doesn’t sting as much today (mentally. Physically nothing happened anyway). My metabolism must be up because the stuff I ate yesterday hasn’t shown up at all. I was down, in fact. I don’t recall exactly what I was before the cruise — it was 370 point something. Point three I think. This morning was 370.6 and that was down a pound. So the cruise is effectively gone. I still have at least 100 pounds to go. It’s going to be a long road.

I have a long way to go. I was getting cocky. I’m no longer cocky. I worry about what’s going to happen when we’re done with this thing months down the road.

That’s all.

Updating my Mac to Leopard today. Watching lots of football (Go Dawgs, Illini, and Bearcats!).

(And thank-you Annette, your kind words are much appreciated!)

So I was getting into the pool this morning after grabbing a float belt because I wanted to do some deep water stuff. When I hit the second step from the top I went right through the step. Broke it right in half (OK, 2/3rds and 1/3rd). Ass-over-teakettle in to the water.

I thought I was done breaking things. I’ve broken chairs. I’ve broken couches. I’ve broken toilet seats. I once broke a concrete step and a boat dock.

But I thought I was past that.

Maybe Scott Adams is right and free will is a crock. Maybe we are just all moist machines, doomed to whatever our genes and chemical imbalances dictate.

All I know is that now at the Y I’m always going to be the fat guy who broke the ladder in the pool.

So yes, I stopped at Burger King for breakfast this morning, and had a very nice lunch of pasta left over from some catered event over here. Why do you ask? What else do you expect from the morbidly obese? What else CAN you expect?

We had a VERY good time last week on vacation. I’m officially up 6.2 pounds and Tom’s up 5.2 pounds. It’s going to be several very compliant days this week. On the good news side, we found out that our Y is going to be open on Thanksgiving day so we’ll be able to get in five days of working out at the pool next week. Very nice!

CARLA -
Official Weight (after nineteen weeks): 248.6 lb – loss of 32.4 pounds
Home Scale (after nineteen weeks): 247.0 lb – loss of 31.0 pounds

TOM -
Official Weight (after nineteen weeks): 375.6 lb – loss of 57.4 pounds
Home Scale (after nineteen weeks): 372.8 lb – loss of 52.2 pounds

Carla