Something interesting happened the last few days… I kept getting more and more comments about how much more weight I had lost, even though I knew I was the same or slightly higher than two weeks ago. At first, I thought it was the new clothes that actually fit. Then, I thought it might be the fact that I hadn’t seen anyone at school for two weeks. But, then, I noticed how really loose my pants were. So I tried on the size 18 pants I’ve had in the back of my closet since the last time we did the liquid diet five and a half years ago… and they fit. Maybe the break from exercising and being so hard core on the diet gave my body a nudge. Hard to say at this point.

CARLA -
Official Weight (after forty-two weeks): 223.0 lbs – loss of 58.0 pounds
Home Scale (after forty-two weeks): 220.8 lbs – loss of 57.2 pounds

TOM -
Official Weight (after forty-two weeks): 341.8 – loss of 92.2 pounds
Home Scale (after forty-two weeks): 338.6 – loss of 86.2 pounds

Well, we’re back from our travels and we each gained about 3.5 pounds as of Sunday morning. By this morning, I was down 1.6 pounds and Tom is down 4.0 pounds. We’re both back on shakes and trying the best we can. I was under the weather most of yesterday (I blame the salad bar at Ruby Tuesday’s), so no work out today. I’m feeling much better today and looking forward to being back in the pool tomorrow. I leave a week from tomorrow for my Disney Cruise Line training so I want to lose while I can since many of my food choice next week will be out of my control. Of course, right now, I’m sitting in the AAUP office with mini cinnamon rolls, pound cake, cookies and chips. I did have one mini cinnamon roll, but it wasn’t that good so I think I can ignore the rest.

Carla

Greetings from Herndon, VA! Tom is here for some training for work and, since I’m on my term off from school, I decided to tag along. We drove here over the weekend and stopped in Pittsburgh to visit our friends Steve, Pam and Hanna. We had hoped to see a Pirates game, but it was too bloody cold to even consider. Instead, we were treated to a tour of Pittsburgh which was lots of fun. Appropriately enough, there was a beer theme to the day. We had lunch at the fabulous Fat Heads South Side Saloon which has something like 200 beers available and about 50 of them on tap. Tom and I split a pierogie appetizer and a kielbasa reuben sandwich (can you tell he’s Polish and we both like Polish food?). It was on to the Duquesne Incline next. What a great view! Dinner was at Six Penn which is just up the block from our hotel, the Renaissance Pittsburgh. If you ever watch a Pirates game, look the building across the river from PNC Park with the large arch in the middle. That’s where we stayed. Dinner was more splitting and sharing: seared scallop appetizer, lo mein salad for me and white bean soup for Tom.

With all this traveling (and there’s more to come), we’re trying to do the best we can to maintain at this point. We were up at 5 am to work out this morning and will be again every day this week. We’re also trying to keep on the shakes as much as possible, but sometimes it just isn’t realistic. Because of all of this, I’m suspending this first round of the Sprint for the Goal. It may be back or may stick with our “slow and steady” method. Either way, we’re never going back to the way we were before July 4, 2007.

Carla

Many of the regular readers of this blog already know that Tom was recently named one of the inaugural Streaming Media All-Stars by Streaming Media magazine. They say they wanted to “honor the people who’ve done the most over the last ten years to advance both new technologies and sustainable business models” in the field of streaming media. The article will appear in their April/May issue, but it’s live online now. Check out the baseball cards they created for each of the honorees.

Main Article Link –
http://www.streamingmedia.com/article.asp?id=9954

Direct Link to the part about Tom –
http://www.streamingmedia.com/article.asp?id=9954&page;=6&c;=31

I can’t begin to express how proud I am of him!

Carla

Before anything else, I have send thanks out to Annette for sending me this message:

“As Thomas the Tank Engine famously says: ‘Slow and Steady…..Slow and Steady….’
(I guess all those movies Kyle used to watch came in handy!)

Annette“

As you can tell from the last few posts here, I’ve been having problems with the diet lately. Part of it is a denial of food, but a bigger part is the loss of the social aspect that comes with eating out. The first ten days on the “Sprint to the Goal” when we were being 100% compliant was hellish. We’re trying to come up with a better balance now. We’re not quite there yet. Due to several reasons, I was only down 1.2 pounds this week and Tom was up 1.4 pounds.

But, we’re moving on and back on track. We leave for the DC area on Saturday (via Pittsburgh) and we’ve definitely taking shakes & bars. The hotel has a pool and a very nice looking fitness center. I realized something in the pool this morning. I’m only 17.6 pounds away from my goal of 205 which is what I weighed when I graduated from high school 28 years ago. I have a list of weight landmarks from my many diets. I only have two more to go: 205 from August of 1980 and 217.5 from April of 1990. That second one is only five pounds away… I would loved to come back from DC close to that 217.5 landmark.

CARLA -
Official Weight (after forty weeks): 222.6 lbs – loss of 58.4 pounds
Home Scale (after forty weeks): 220.8 lbs – loss of 57.2 pounds

TOM -
Official Weight (after forty weeks): 339.4 – loss of 94.6 pounds
Home Scale (after forty weeks): 337.2 – loss of 87.8 pounds

Carla

Well, we thought we were being really good this weekend. Worked out in the pool on Saturday to make up for missing Thursday. Planned a trip on Sunday around where we could go and walk (Kentucky Horse Park). We did go back to Shakey’s Friday night, but it was our usual “Tom and Carla Specials” (hamburger patty, hard cooked egg and hot slaw). And Sunday, we packed our own lo-cal tuna salad with rice cakes. Somehow, we’re just about where we were Wednesday morning and I was even up .2 this morning. Not… fair… Not very happy with the diet right now.

It’s my last day of school before my term off and I can’t really celebrate. Yeah, I’m going to be cranky today.

CARLA -
Official Weight (after thirty-nine weeks): 223.8 lb – loss of 57.2 pounds
Home Scale (after thirty-nine weeks and five days): 220.6 lb – loss of 57.4 pounds

TOM -
Official Weight (after thirty-nine weeks): 338.0 lb – loss of 96.0 pounds
Home Scale (after thirty-nine weeks and five days): 334.6 – loss of 90.4 pounds

Carla

So we think we have the balance right now. Stay mostly 100% compliant and eat when our bodies tell us that we need to eat. I also learned that I have to avoid greasy foods or my body rebels. The treat this weekend? My tuna salad: water packed tuna, light Miracle Whip and lots of veggies on rice cakes.

CARLA -
Official Weight (after thirty-nine weeks): 223.8 lb – loss of 57.2 pounds
Home Scale (after thirty-nine weeks and two days): 220.6 lb – loss of 57.4 pounds

TOM -
Official Weight (after thirty-nine weeks): 338.0 lb – loss of 96.0 pounds
Home Scale (after thirty-nine weeks and two days): 332.8 – loss of 88.2 pounds

Carla

So we got the official weigh-in results today and Tom is down ten pounds and I’m down five. If we keep that kind of ratio up (Tom losing twice as much as me), we may reach our goals close to the same time. It’s back in the saddle again today with a treat of dinner at Shakey’s with our friend Diane tonight.

Weight loss (according to home scale) from the first leg of the sprint (3/24-4/2) – Carla down 7.2 pounds, Tom down 11.6 pounds

CARLA -
Official Weight (after thirty-nine weeks): 223.8 lb – loss of 57.2 pounds
Home Scale (after thirty-nine weeks): 222.2 lb – loss of 55.8 pounds

TOM -
Official Weight (after thirty-nine weeks): 338.0 lb – loss of 96.0 pounds
Home Scale (after thirty-nine weeks): 334.8 – loss of 90.2 pounds

Carla

So, the pool at the Y yesterday was freezing cold, too cold to work out. Tom ended up working out with Diane and me at school yesterday afternoon. Afterwards, he was feeling shaky and lightheaded again so we went to Famous Dave’s for salads. Okay, big ass salads with BBQ pork on them. But they were good… This morning, I’m up 1.4 pounds and Tom is up 2. Now, our weight loss on the sprint is 6.0 and 8.4 pounds respectively. Today will be 100% compliant and pushing water as we head towards weigh in tomorrow morning.

CARLA -
Official Weight (after thirty-seven weeks): 228.8 lb – loss of 52.2 pounds
Home Scale (after thirty-eight weeks and six days): 223.6 lb – loss of 54.4 pounds

TOM -
Official Weight (after thirty-seven weeks): 348.0 lb – loss of 86.0 pounds
Home Scale (after thirty-eight weeks and six days): 338.0 – loss of 87.0 pounds

Carla