Vectors to Final: My Diet

[CTIgrad]

So I suppose since there isn't an introduction section on this board, this will have to do. Here goes...

First off my name is Chris and I'm a recent college graduate. I grew up in a small town South of Seattle and moved to North Dakota for college in 2006. I complete a Bachelor of Science in Air Traffic Control in December with honors and hope in the near future to be hired by the Federal Aviation Administration as a controller. Currently I'm still living in North Dakota while I await a career opportunity. I deal Blackjack at a local casino and also teach some Air Traffic classes at the University of North Dakota.

As far as my weight history, is has had its ups and downs to say the least. I remember in 7th grade my weight hit 200lbs and never looked back. I briefly hit 315lbs last Christmas then dropped to 250 by April, however the last two semesters of college and the stress of trying to retain academic honors ballooned me back up to 313 this winter. Currently im sitting just below that, and hope with the help of atkins to drop to a normal BMI weight range. This would require me to hit roughly 180lbs.

I've used atkins to some success in the past, however never really stuck with it long enough to get real results. Today is day one.

[CTIgrad]

Today is day 5. Down 15.5lbs

Over all I am losing weight, however not as fast as I had hoped. I think for slow down is due to the fact I didn't go to the gym over the weekend. Today I head back to start with my weight routine. Here is what I'm following:

Fat Loss Workout

I've used a very similar plan a few years ago and added a lot of muscle, plus if you do this correctly, you can actually sub this for a cardio routine as your heart rate should be high enough for 30min or so.

As far as eating goes, eggs have constituted the majority of my diet, with a bit of chicken and steak thrown in there. However the dollar menu at McDonald's is helpful too, double cheeseburgers with no bun

I made a pretty good chicken last night. Took chicken, thawed it, added some jerk seasoning to it, threw in some green onions, olive oil, and white wine vinegar in the pan and cooked it up.

Progress chart:

[CTIgrad]

Today is day 6.

The last couple of days have been interesting for me to say the least. Between some big screw ups at work, dealing with the FAA, and still trying to find a better job in the mean time, the stress level has been very high. I have wanted a Wendy's double stack so bad. However I've held on and am still doing well.

Yesterday for lunch I made a KFC twister wrap thing with a low carb wrap, some tenderloins, a piece of lettuce, and some mayo. tasted pretty good, gonna make another one tomorrow to make sure it tastes good.

So far I am down to 296 which is a 17lb loss. Im pretty happy with myself, however it doesn't 'feel' like ive done anything. The tell tale sign is my belt though. I dropped a loop today in one and the other belt I've yet to try on.

Now to survive the coming weekend.

[pri17cess72]

Hey Chris! Just dropping by to say hello and let you know you are doing a wonderful job. Hang in there! You can do this.

I will be by to check on you often.

Take Care!
Liz

[CTIgrad]

Thanks for the stop pri17cess72. I'll be looking forward to talking with you in the future.

[CTIgrad]

So this has nothing to do with my diet, but I needed to vent a bit. Tonight coming home from work, road conditions were pretty bad (its -20 or so here and with wind chill is hovering about -45) and very slick. So I pull into our parking lot and begin to back into my garage, and wham. Back right into the wall. Busted up the whole passenger side of my rear bumper.

Its not so much the damage to the car, I know my way around wrenches and sandpaper, but the fact that no matter what I fix in my life, make progress, something else comes along and just rains on my parade. I want Papa Johns and a 6 pack of coors right about now.

[cdn_gal]

STEP AWAY FROM THE BEER!
Seriously, you have done so awesome so far and if you have the beer, it will only set you back... How about some vigorous exercise for 30 minutes to curb the craving... Hang in there, you can do it!!

[pri17cess72]

Ugggg...I had a bad day at work once and rammed the side of my car into the garage. I too, wanted pizza and sweets, I decided I needed to learn how to control my emotional eating and realized I couldnt indulge myself. I agree with Lei, you have done a great job and come to far to eat pizza and beer! Sorry to hear about your car. (((Hugs)))

So what is the verdict? Did you have pizza and beer?

Hang in there Chris!

[CTIgrad]

Hey all. Well as an update, I didn't get the pizza or the beer, even though I have a fully stocked liquor shelf and about an 18 pack in the fridge. I think my motivation keeps kicking in and diet helper for me. I want to be able to ride this summer, and the max allowable weight on my bike was pretty close to what I weighed. So I threw some pictures of that, and the airplane I want up on my desktop and see em every day.

Made pizza in a bowl last night, pretty good over all, though it was kind of runny. Yesterday was a long day, I had to teach in the morning, after that, hop in the car and run to Fargo for an interview, come back, make dinner and head to the casino. Finish at 2am and back up at 8am. Another long day awaits.

[pri17cess72]

Yay for no pizza and beer! Good job!

[CTIgrad]

Since its the beginning of a new month, here is an updated chart of my diet.



Over all I am ahead of plan, however I know that the more I drop the hard it will become so this is just kinda like poundage in the bank if you will. Had a small bump this morning of about a pound, not sure why. I think I am attributing it to the 1 1/2 pots of coffee and a 32oz diet coke. Hopefully after the gym today, and a little stricter on my intact today and tomorrow I'll see a change in that.

Also hoping to hear back on an interview I had Wednesday. Hopefully I'll get his job so I can quit dealing blackjack. I think the smoke and the noise is starting to get to me. The hours suck too, Im usually not in bed before 3am any more.

[CTIgrad]

Well the last couple of days has been interesting. Although it feels like I've been really busy I haven't done a lot. I had to drop my girlfriend off at the train station at 3am, she had gone home Thursday for the Sioux/Gopher series in MSP. Good hockey series over all, the fights tonight were pretty impressive. Since she was gone and all my other buddies left for Purdue for the weekend, I took advantage of it, and slept int ill about 2pm on Friday. No work Friday or tonight so I had them free to do whatever, which consisted of playing some games, watching a couple of movies etc.

Got to the gym though Friday, and did 2 miles on the elliptical as well as my bicep/back/forearm weight sets. However it doesn't seem like my gym sessions are really adding or detracting from my loss. If I work out or not, it seems I lose about the same, so the motivation to go outside into the frozen tundra is pretty tuff to come by.

Also ran into a bit of a sticky situation yesterday. After my gym session, I came home and weighed myself my my scale. After three attempts, it gave me three different numbers. So I stole my roomies scale and tried his, and it gave me the same number 3 times. I weighed today on his and mine again. Mine gave me a different number yet again, and his gave me the same. Now I'm lost and not sure which number to go with. I'm thinking I'm going to scrap my scale, and go with his for now. Plus his scale weighs me less

Total loss for Jan (with a bit of help from his scale) is 27 pounds!!!

On to February now.....

P.S. My buddy came over tonight to watch some movies, had a lieter of diet coke and about 4 shots of Jack. Hope I didn't screw myself over....

[pri17cess72]

Just checking in on you. What an awesome loss for January!

[CTIgrad]

Well its been awhile since I last posted and not much has happened i'm sorry to say.

Im still at the same weight I was last Friday, (actually +1 but its been bouncing around so Im calling it the same). I think its due to several factors. 1) I'm lifting a lot so I think Im adding a great deal of muscle and that is taking the place of the fat Im losing. Im still losing inches as my clothes are getting looser. or 2) since I've kinda been fringing on cheating a bit (went out drinking a couple of nights) and I've been out to Hooters and Applebee's for wings a few times. Add to that a bit more cheese, some sugar free candy, and a couple of new recipes and I think that may also be playing into it.

The question is how to fix this. I think I'm going to keep the same work out and try to buckle down on the eating, and try to stick to only chicken and eggs for this week. Maybe a steak or two....

As far as life goes, its been interesting. I've been trying to fidn a job up here to fill time and keep my savings account intact till I get hired by the FAA. I was hoping to get a gig with a utility company locating under ground power cables and stuff, but they still haven't called me back. So for now I'm still dealing blackjack, teaching, and unless this company calls me by Tuesday, I'll also be driving a forklift. This is going to be fun. Black jack from 9pm till 1:30am, forklift from 4am till 9 am, teach from 10 am till 12. Sleep and social life, non existent. Lets just say I hope to get the utility gig.

[wall]

Originally Posted by CTIgrad

First off my name is Chris and I'm a recent college graduate. I grew up in a small town South of Seattle and moved to North Dakota for college in 2006.

Where in WA?
I finished high school in Marysville.


Howdy, nice going on the Jan loss

[CTIgrad]

Originally Posted by wall

Where in WA?
I finished high school in Marysville.

Small town by the name of Buckley. About 25 miles SE of Seattle. Right at the base of Mt. Rainier (15 miles or so east of Puyallup).

Thanks for the loss encouragement. I cant seem to pull even close to those numbers right now.

[CTIgrad]

Wow, the last 24 hours have been pretty intense. I started my third job this morning at a loading dock driving a forklift. Over I think this job is going to be pretty sweet. Extremely fast paced, lots of moving around, and some minor physical activity. Good side, pay is awesome. Bad, the hours suck, and the girlfriend isn't to happy. Oh well.

Today is also a very exciting day. I got my interview letter from the FAA today. The next step in my process to become one of the few that keep you safe in the skies.

As far as the diet goes, I'm down one more pound. Im pretty tired from this job, so going to the gym today was pretty tuff. Did get there but only did a light workout. Tonight was steak for dinner. I'm off to throw some cards, night people.

[wall]

Originally Posted by CTIgrad

Small town by the name of Buckley. About 25 miles SE of Seattle. Right at the base of Mt. Rainier (15 miles or so east of Puyallup).

Thanks for the loss encouragement. I cant seem to pull even close to those numbers right now.

Buckley 'eh?
Sounds nice.....never heard of it.

Take care of yourself.

[terri73]

Hiya Chris! What an impressive January loss you had! With all the working and stress you have right now how in the world do you even have time to remember to eat? HaHa. Hang in there!

[CTIgrad]

Originally Posted by terri73

Hiya Chris! What an impressive January loss you had! With all the working and stress you have right now how in the world do you even have time to remember to eat? HaHa. Hang in there!

Thanks for stopping by Terri! Feel free to stop in as often as you want.

As for me, I'm off for a nap before work. Just made some Mizithra for dinner, gotta say I still love it, even the LC version. I'll post up a recipe for it in the recipe section later. Nite all!

[CTIgrad]

Last couple of days have been pretty intense. So here goes.

Work has been interesting. Monday was my first day solo on the dock, and it was kinda rough. However today was worse. A hose busted and sprayed fluid all over the dock and created a mess like non other. My 4 hour **** turned into a 7 hour one. Needless to say, I am dead tired and sore. I think I might go buy my a massage.

On another note, I did the math and it looks like I can drop one of my jobs. After a bit of thought, I've decided to resign from dealing blackjack. Not so much because I want to, but because working 50+ hours a week, in this temp, and with these hours, was driving me into the ground.

I was already feeling it. Over the last few days I think I've been getting sick. Spent a lot of time in the bathroom and have hardly even ate. Non stop coughing also plagues me. But I've still made it to the gym, and over all the weight battle is going well. I am now down to 278 with is a total loss of 37 pounds in 27 days. Not bad in my book. Now to keep it up!

[CTIgrad]

Here for my weekly update.

Over all last week my diet went very well till the weekend. I was actually down several pounds then the weekend hit. I had a spring banquet dinner on Saturday, and then on Sunday went out to a Sioux game. Ended up having all kinds of bad stuff at the dinner, and then the next day at the game had a hot dog and some beer too. Ended up gaining a buncha weight, but due to some last minute extreme exercise I ended up only gaining about 2 pounds.

Besides that, I got a call this week by the FAA, and I'll be interviewing next week for a position at Seattle center. I fly out Friday, and will be out there till the following Wednesday. Hopefully the weather holds, and I'll get some riding in too.

That little cold I had last week, I ended up giving it to my girlfriend. She went into the doc today with it, and the told her it was the Fly, type A which is the bad kind. So she is in isolation for two weeks, and out of school for awhile too. Guess I lucked out.

Im out for now.

[CTIgrad]

Well, Its been a long long long time since I've posted anything here so I think I'd due. Life has been pretty crazy the last few weeks. It all started with a call from the FAA and a trip to Seattle for an interview. Over that 4 days trip I went off plan twice and didnt do to well. However upon weighing in on my return I had lost 2lbs during that time.

When I got back to North Dakota, I discoverd that somehow my computer acquired a virus, which ended up frying my hard drive, and me losing everything from the last 4 years or so. Basically all my college work, pictures, my web sites that I manage, and some software that I cannot get anymore. Working on trying to get it all back, but it looks like I might have to shell out about $600 in addition to the $600 or so I've already spent getting my computer back up and running.

However, the silver lining is that I called the FAA today, and found out that I've received the recommendation to be hired, and now am awaiting a tentative offer. Last I knew they were going to be offering my Seattle Center, however I am attempting to work with people in OKC to get that switched to a different facility in WA.

Mean while, the diet goes on. This last week I was down another 3lbs. The gym has been lacking, my job as of late have become more intense so I have had less energy to make it to the gym on a daily basis. While I was home my mother put me on her Sams club membership so I have been making the rounds there. I gotta say buying chicken wings in bulk is so much cheaper.

A few new recipes are under my belt now, and I even made a LC cake last week. Hoping to tighten up over the weekend and break the 270 mark on my Monday weigh in. Im off for a quick nap before work. I'll check in next week.

[pri17cess72]

Hi! Just checking in on you. You sound like a very busy guy. Glad you got the reccomendation to be hired. Sorry to hear you GF and you got sick. You seem to be doing very well, despite some of the stress.

Take Care and hang in there!

[wall]

congrats on the positive job hunting

its rough being that busy in life...make sure you take care of yourself first
no one else will

[CTIgrad]

So it has been awhile since I've posted anything about my progress so I guess you all deserve a bit of an update.

Since my last post, I hit 50 pounds lost, and now am actually sitting closer to 54 lost. I constantly post in the Boot Camp Carlie thread, ( http://www.lowcarbfriends.com/bbs/lo...8-edition.html) and here are my most recent weigh in stats:

1-5-2008: 315
3-10-2008: 272
3-17-2008: 268
3-24-2008: 262
VFZ: 253

3-31-2008: 261

This week loss: -1
Total Loss: 54lbs
Average lbs lost per day: 1.37

That start date is a bit off. On that I just realized, so those numbers are truly accurate. If I use the start date of this thread (my journal) which is when I'm pretty sure I actually started dieting, those numbers (especially the average pounds per day) change quite a bit. Lets do a bit of math here and see what my real numbers are; 68 days on the diet, with 54 lbs lost give me an average of 1.26 lbs a day.

Still not to bad. I definitely can handle that. If I keep going at this rate I should hit my goal in about 48 days, or the middle or may. Hope fully I can do that, it would be a real treat for the summer season if I was under 200lbs. It would actually be the first time since 7th grade I think that I would have been under 200.

I cant really see the difference yet. My friends around here though tell me that they can see a real change. My girlfriend keeps telling me how good I look, and when I went home with her over easter, her family had lots of compliments.

As for the rest of life, things groan on at a very slow pace. The FAA still hasn't called, or emailed so I continue to grow more frustrated. My job at the freight dock isnt much better. I had a forklift run over my foot last week, luckily I have steel toe boots and I ended up walking away with out anything. However the guy I work with really doesn't have his head in the game, and yesterday he hit me three times with freight coming off the truck.

Also to supplement my income I've started to donate plasma here in town. Not to bad a gig really, the first time in a week you come in they pay you 20 bucks, and the second time depending on all kinds of stuff can range from 30-65 bucks. For two hours or so a week, I walk away with about 60 bucks usually.

Also I just realized that the title of this might be kinda weird for you all and I dont think I have really explained what it means. I went to college to be an air traffic controller. When you're working in an approach control, basically within 45 miles of an airport, the first time you turn an airplane within your airspace you have to give them a reason why. The usual reason is, "vectors to final approach course" which means turns to get him lined up with the run way. The final approach course is usually defined as intercepting the beacons for the ILS (instrument landing system), which allows planes to land in low visibility. So I'll stop talking about air traffic stuff, but there is a bit of the back ground to the name of this. Basically the final course to being where I want to be in life.

[NewYorkGiants32]

Originally Posted by CTIgrad

Small town by the name of Buckley. About 25 miles SE of Seattle. Right at the base of Mt. Rainier (15 miles or so east of Puyallup).

Thanks for the loss encouragement. I cant seem to pull even close to those numbers right now.

I am in Federal Way...about 20 min from Seattle (depending on traffic) I love it here, nothing beats WA.

Hope you don't mind I just jumped right in......very impress with your weight loss, great job. Would love to see your menus.

[CTIgrad]

Originally Posted by NewYorkGiants32

I am in Federal Way...about 20 min from Seattle (depending on traffic) I love it here, nothing beats WA.

Hope you don't mind I just jumped right in......very impress with your weight loss, great job. Would love to see your menus.

Hey sorry I haven't wrote back sooner, I've been kinda busy, and haven't really paid much attention to this thread.

Thanks for the words of encouragement, they are always welcome. As far as my menus, they echo what I can afford. I recently just graduated from college, so money is tight right now, so I tend to buy things in bulk, and let them sit around.

Right now, I am having one or two egg cream shakes a day, depending on how hungry I am. For meals I keep salmon, chicken, turkey, flank steak, and hot dogs always on hand. Depending on what I'm feeling I'll usually grill/fry one of those up with some seasonings. I use a lot of wine in my cooking as it adds a lot of flavor, but all the bad stuff in it boils off for the most part.

Frozen hamburger patties work wonder too. Throw two on the George Forman, and I'm full. I'll make pizza in a bowl every other week or so, and divide it into two portions, eat for two meals off one of those. LC chicken alfreado, and mac n cheese from time to time.

I drink a lot. Not booze, thou I used to, but tea and crystal light. I'll probably go through a gallon of tea/crystal light a day. I've been using the Lipton cold brew stuff as its quick and I dont have to do dishes from boiling the tea bags.

A main staple of my diet has been chicken wings. Primarily buffalo wings from different restaurants around town. My friends always want to go out for dinner, and I refuse to go unless the place has wings on the menu. My favorites are in this order 1) The Green Mill (dixie wings there are awesome) 2) Buffalo Wild Wings (tons of good stuff to eat here) 3) Ground Round (good price during happy hour for their wings) 4) Applebees (kinda expensive and you dont get very many).

Thats pretty much what I live on. Every now and then I'll make some oopsie's but really they are to much work for me. I made a LC cake using a modified oopsie recipe, and have been eating off that now for almost 3 weeks (its probably bad by now, but I dont want to look in the pan).

Almost forgot, flaxsnax. For some reason Im hooked and those things and cant get enough. Throw in some nuts and thats about it.

An update on my weight loss; Im now down to 258, just shy of 60 lbs lost. I've upped my bench press and leg press quite a bit, and am starting to show some definition of muscle in my pecs and upper arms. Now only if this gut would drop off....

[NewYorkGiants32]

Is that a 60 pound loss since you started this journal in Jan? That's really good!

[CTIgrad]

Originally Posted by NewYorkGiants32

Is that a 60 pound loss since you started this journal in Jan? That's really good!

Yea it is, I've been really surprised at how fast its going. The trick now is to keep it up.