Biggest Loser - One Week Down

And the magic number is...

177.4

That's 8.8 pounds lost in Week 1 ALONE!!! Can you believe it? I'm sure most of it was water weight but shit, man. That's still a lot of weight.

I'm sure things will slow down next week and the coming weeks. I only have so much to lose, you know?

18 of 365 | 12% (6 of 50) | 0 of 128 | 176.11 lbs. (173.5 lbs.) | 39.91% | 4.726% (8.8 lbs.)

Heavy

Wow, so much can happen in 24 hours. I seems like last week that I made my last blog entry. And I'm talking really about anything of consequence. Just been busy. First thing is first though - no heartburn! Yay. Everything from this morning until now was important in its own right but just not really that blog-worthy. Maybe after blogging everyday for six months I will be reduced to telling you that I went to Lowe's and then the grocery... but not today. Today, I have something a little more interesting to share.

"Heavy"

This is the name of the new TV series that I think I'll be watching (Archer and Justified are on their way, mind you). This show is an hour-long show chronicling the lives of two morbidly obese folks over the course of six months as they try to find ways to lose their weight. I am guilty of watching fatties on TV - this is true. But my problem with the Biggest Loser is it is a two-hour investment every week. This show is like an abbreviated, miniature Biggest Loser season each week. I think I like!

Speaking of "Loser" and "miniature", anybody else notice that I've dropped 4 pounds in 6 days? Kinda weird. I feel like I've lost about half of what I am capable of losing during this Biggest Loser competition in the first week alone.

17 of 365 | 12% (6 of 50) | 0 of 128 | 176.26 lbs. (174.5 lbs.) | 39.91% | 0.00% (0 lbs.)

Little Taco Caeser Bell = Heart Burn Level 10

I woke up this morning at 4:10AM with SEVERE pain in my chest. After kind of waking up and realizing what was going on I figured I was either suffering horrendous heartburn or my esophageal sphincter was slipping up and letting some stomach acid come out to play. A Zantac didn't do the trick. We are out of Protonix. So a trip to Walgreens was warranted to see how many, if any, refills I had. By this point it was 5AM. The system at Walgreens was in Update mode so they couldn't do anything besides send me home with Tums and some other meds. I ate 4 Tums. I waited 30 minutes. I took the other meds. I tried to sleep sitting up. Around 7AM I think I dozed off. I woke up at 8AM to whimpering dogs.

Don't know what brought that on. I haven't had an episode like that since living on Ellis. Maybe it was the 2 Steak Burrito Supremes from Taco Bell and the 3 Hot-n-Ready Pizza Sausage slices from Little Caeser (I know what you are thinking... "I thought this fatty was on a diet?" Yeah, I am - I worked it out and managed to stay under for both calories and fat).

Whatever the reason, I hope it doesn't happen again. I can't stomach another episode - pun *totally* intended.

16 of 365 | 12% (6 of 50) | 0 of 128 | 176.37 lbs. (175.5 lbs.) | 39.91% | 0.00% (0 lbs.)

TurboTax Redux

Jooj got her W2 yesterday so I was anxious to get those numbers into TurboTax. We were upset that we were apparently going to owe. And while I was not convinced that we were in bad shape the thought of paying Uncle Sam was still unsettling.

On January 4th I said this: "So there is hope, I suppose, that in the end things will right themselves. We'll see."

We'll see, indeed. I compared the first field in TurboTax to Box 1 from Jooj's W2. - different numbers. JOOJ!

In the end, it appears that Uncle Sam will be handing over money to us now. I can't say for certain how much since I do not have my W2 yet. But things are looking much brighter than they were 10 days ago. We'll see once I receive my W2.

(Lesson learned perhaps - Jooj promised never to jump into doing taxes without W2s.)

15 of 365 | 12% (6 of 50) | 0 of 128 | 176.43 lbs. (176.0 lbs.) | 39.91% | 0.00% (0 lbs.)

Big payment

Raise your glass. Today Jooj and I made quite a significant payment on the credit card we want to pay off this year. It's nice to see that little number in the footer go up from 17.18% to 39.91% (which means that big number on the bank statement is going down). We've been living rather lean these last few weeks so it's nice to see that effort pay off.

Going to enjoy this Martin Luther the King three-day holiday.

Oh, and Jooj and I have been married today for 3 1/2 years. Yay us!

14 of 365 | 12% (6 of 50) | 0 of 128 | 176.46 lbs. (177.5 lbs.) | 39.91% | 0.00% (0 lbs.)

I just don't get the Prodigal Son story

So a particular bible story always perplexed me as a child. I've wrestled with it from time to time. And I must admit I still don't get it. It's the Prodigal Son story. I'm going to assume you know the story as I go on.

So the loser son comes home and begs to be taken back. The father not only takes him back but forgives him of his wastefully sinful ways and then throws a party on top of it all. The son that stayed with his father and worked the fields is a little pissed. His father pish-poshes him and argues that he is always with him and what is the father's is the son's.

Okay, so I get that the father is Gawd. The dumbass son is the common sinner. And the older son is the do-gooding, holier-than-thou Christian. The do-gooder is miffed 'cause the dumbass was wasteful and sinful and yet the family (i.e the congregation) applauds him when he "comes back into the flock." The do-gooder is jealous 'cause he is always doing good and never gets his own party. Gawd shakes a finger at the do-gooder and scolds him for not being thankful for just being close to Gawd in the first place.

I think that sums it up pretty nicely, yes? Please jump in and correct me if I'm not reading into it correctly.

So... how shall I start? Well, I don't like the dumbass - 'cause he's an ass... and probably a little dumb. Now that he is back what is keeping the dumbass from running off and doing it all over again? And if he does how many times are we going to throw a party? The penniless dumbass has come home! Let's party! How do I know this screw-up won't just screw it up? Forget that - let's move on.

So the father tells the do-gooder to take solace in the fact that he is always with him and that what is the father's is the son's. Let's hit up that first part... first. He is always with him? Yeah, maybe going out and blowing a bunch of money on bitches and blow sounds like fun - maybe it doesn't. But I bet the do-gooder wouldn't mind unwinding sometimes. Maybe heading over to Sodom and Gomorrah for a crazy weekend would be nice but just isn't in the cards. Maybe the do-gooder wants to let loose sometimes but he has no free time anymore 'cause who else is going to work the fields? Okay, I can go on but let me go on the my second gripe.

What is the father's is the son's... except now that dumbass is back it's kind of his now too, right? So the do-gooder was a do-gooder and played the responsible card. Dumbass shows up and now what? What if he asks dad for another slice of the pie?

I don't know. I guess I'm the jealous do-gooder and I just don't buy what dad is telling me about my dumbass brother. Oh well.

Oh, and I knocked out 6 paintings all at once. Nice way to start out the "Paint 50 pieces in 2011" New Year resolution!

13 of 365 | 12% (6 of 50) | 0 of 128 | 176.38 lbs. (177.5 lbs.) | 17.18% | 0.00% (0 lbs.)

So many weight-related posts these days

A big reason I attribute to allowing me to win the Biggest Loser last year was the calorie and fat counting I did for each meal. I followed it to the letter. I was strict. I like to number-crunch so it makes sense that I was able to stick to it. But I had to enter all of the nutritional information myself. I had to read off the side or off the bag in each case and manually insert it. It was tedious but necessary. No more!

A fella at work showed me myFitnessPal.com a while back. I had stopped tracking nutritional information but tucked that gem away in case I needed to. Well, the need is here and I'm in, baby. This thing did everything I did on my own, while making it easier, plus more! I'm now tracking cholesterol. And I can "earn" calories back by exercising. This little puppy should help me maintain the healthy diet that I'll need to be in contention.

I'm mucking with my footer a tad more too. I'm still keeping my daily weight (in parentheses). But more importantly, I'm keeping a running average of my weight for the year. I think as I make progress on my other categories I will also convert them to percentages.

12 of 365 | 0 of 50 | 0 of 128 | 176.29 lbs. (178 lbs.) | 17.18% | 0.00% (0 lbs.)