Wii Fit Challenge: week 5

Condition 2: 79 pounds to lose.

Ah, my first week at Condition 2 on the fattiness scale. While there is some sense of accomplishment, I can clearly see I have many months of work to go. The weeks of gargantuan weight loss are gone, and now I am seeing 1-2 pounds a week in weight loss.

The issue with this is, like many I like instant gratification. I hate that about myself (and most others I encounter), because it can get me frustrated. It makes me wonder if it’s worth it just to lose a pound or two a week. Thankfully this time around, I’ve been able to keep my motivation up, and not look at the small weight loss as a failure, but as a small success.

See, the thing is, society tells us what we are to be in all things. Watch TV, and you’ll see it all over. Reality TV loves to tell us ‘What Not To Wear’, we watch people lose 200 pounds on The Biggest Loser and we are made to expect that we can do the same. There are constant ads out there that tell you how easy it is to lose the weight with just a pill, or a surgery, or a fad diet.

The truth is, it’s all bullshit. I had to laugh, that even on the page for the Wii Fit Challenge are ads that sell products that ‘can help you lose weight without dieting’. At this point, I think the only way you can lose weight without dieting and/or working out, is to be dead.

If I sound a little angry, it’s because I am. I can’t turn on the television without seeing ads for some of the most horrible fast foods imaginable. A friend at work asked me if I tried the KFC ‘Double Down’ the other day. He proceeded to tell me all about it and how good it was: Two boneless fried chicken breasts, with two slices of cheese and two strips of bacon in between, with a little special sauce. There is no bread to speak of, the chicken has replaced the bread.

He got this ‘sandwich’, with a side of fries and a humongous Pepsi (the next larger size wouldn’t fit in the trunk of his car). Total calories for his meal:1600. At this point in my diet, I don’t even eat 1600 calories a day, so watching him glom this in one sitting was amazing.

But it also made me do a lot of thinking. Five weeks ago, I would look at that as a delicious lunchtime meal. Now it looks disgusting.iI literally made me nauseous just to look at it.

We took the kids out to the movies for Iron Man 2 this weekend, but beforehand had to stop for lunch as we didn’t have time before we left. wrangled the kids while my wife went up and ordered, and she inadvertently got me a Chick-fil-a combo meal consisting of a spicy chicken sandwich, an order of fries, and a large sweet tea. This was my typical meal there for years..I have no idea how many times I have ordered that exact meal.

So now, the conundrum. Do I eat the food and hate myself for it, or piss off the wife and essentially throw it all away?

Well, life is a compromise, so that’s what I did. In the end, I was actually proud of myself. I ate the sandwich, skipped the fries, and had a sip of the drink. Total calories for the meal were under 500, and I didn’t piss off the wife. There was a little guilt there, but that was rectified with a Wii Fit workout that night. So, thankfully, my first fast food meal since the beginning of the diet didn’t have any negative effects, and thankfully. it didn’t weaken my resolve. I haven’t been back to a fast food place since, and honestly I have no desire to.

As for the Wii Fit, I am having a harder and harder time getting on the balance board. In the beginning, I was able to step on for a work out just about every day. Three weeks into it, I would at least weigh in once a day. Now I am at the point when I am stepping on the board three times a week. Don’t get me wrong, I am not quitting or losing interest, but with such a limitation on my time these days (work is killing me), I’m just finding that by the end of the day I am more interested in sitting down, letting my puppies take a break, and if I am lucky, getting 30 minutes in on Star Trek Online.

I’m averaging five hours of sleep per night, just because I am so damn busy. Thankfully, I haven’t fallen off the wagon when it comes to the diet, so at least I have that going on, and the weight loss is staying at the rate I’ve had the last few weeks. Now it’s time to do the numbers:

Starting Weight: 262 lbs Ending Weight: 260 lbs (loss of 2 pounds) Starting BMI: 34.6% Ending BMI: 34.3%

At least I am still on track and losing weight. I’m hoping that in the next few weeks things will get easier, and I will be able to get back on the balance board. I haven’t been able to play hockey either, so my physical activity has dropped dramatically, so I’m sure that has a lot to do with the lower performance in my weight loss.

One thing I have going for me is I am finding even better choices when it comes to food. Here are a few recommendations as alternatives to my old self’s food choices:

Juice: I love fruit juice. I could suck down a gallon of orange juice in a day. As an alternative, try the V-8 Fusion Light. It’s only 50 calories a serving, tastes pretty good all things considered, and has veggies in it. See, I’m not a big fan of eating my veggies, so if something makes them taste remotely better, I’m in. This is also a great alternative to drinking regular V-8 which, in my opinion, tastes like ass.

Breakfast: Generally, I had two schools of thought when it came to breakfast: binge, or don’t eat. The drive-thru was a good friend of mine back in my Condition 1 days, and breakfast was no different. Before I started on the grand experiment, my doctor told me my cholesterol was pretty bad. Not quite bad enough to lube engines, but it could be tested for viscosity. He recommended oatmeal, so I found these instant oatmeal cups from Quaker. Just add hot water and you’re good. And they taste pretty good too, certainly better then a McDonald’s Breakfast Burrito or three.

Lunch: I’m on the run constantly due to my job, so that is when I would frequent fast food the most. I would generally hit a drive-thru at least 4-6 times a week. But now I have discovered the Campbell’s Soup on the Run or whatever the hell they call it. It’s a pretty good tasting cup of soup that you just nuke and run with, and generally it is very low fat and low calorie. I’m especially a fan of the Parmesan Basil Tomato Bisque. It’s fantastic, and though it’s the highest calorie of all of the soups they offer like this, it’s still not bad for you and it rocks.

Dinner: I still tend to eat whatever I want at dinner, but I still make good choices when at all possible. Like I’ve mentioned before, if I’m eating poorly (pizza etc), I limit my portions significantly. If I’m eating well, I try to go for extra veggies, and less of the meat and potatoes. I have discovered the wonders of hot sauce. If there is a veggie I don’t really like, I slather it with hot sauce and it’s all good. Generally, hot sauce has little to no calories, so feel free to pile it on and feel the burn.

Snack: I’m noticing that sticking with spicy foods curbs the appetite. Before, I would snack on chips, cookies, anything I could get my hands on. Recently I discovered Famous Kirby’s Red Hot Chili Pretzels. First off, pretzels aren’t too bad for you, and the spicy ones curb your appetite very well. I generally go with the Third Degree Burn pretzels, the Second Degree are good, but not hot enough to curb the appetite, and the Four Alarm Fire are more of a party prank r than something to munch on. I haven’t laughed so hard in my life when my stepson popped four of the Four Alarm ones in his mouth at a time. Every part of his body that could leak did as he ate them. It was scary.

Dessert: I could eat ice cream till the cows come home, then when they got there, I would milk them to make more ice cream. My choice now is frozen fruit pops. Make sure you pick the no sugar added ones made from pure fruit juice. They are awesome, low calorie (my fave, the grape are only 70 calorie) and a great summertime treat.

I hope that in the next week or so things will clear up and I will be able to start working out a bit, but at least I haven’t blown things with the lack of activity. We’ll see how the Memorial Day weekend went with the cookouts, drinking and copious desserts that holiday brings.

Remember, you can always write me at Jason@ironotaku.net. I generally get back to you, although I am currently catching up, so it might take a few days or more.

See ya all next week.

Last week’s challenge details and results are here.