Eläköön punnita päivä!

(That’s “Hooray for Weigh in Day!” in Finnish)

I can’t believe it’s been 17 days since this blog started. So far, it’s been awesome thanks to you dear reader (give yourself a pat on the back.) Well as you recall from yesterday, I was cautiously optimistic about the results from Señor Scale. This morning when I got on the scale, I was still pretty nervous, but then I knew it was going to be good when Megan was like “Oh Snap!” I lost 3.8 pounds this week! I was so happy! It’s awesome because it felt like I was cheating with how well we ate this week lol. I know that working out really helped too but even that felt like cheating because I was doing activities with friends. Megan lost 1.8 pounds and I’m so stoked for her because she’s back down to her weight from when we were working out a ton in March! Good times!

Breakfast: So how do you celebrate a successful weigh in? Bacon and eggs of course! (I don’t think I ever ate this much bacon when I wasn’t dieting.) I had 2 eggs over medium for 4 points and 3 slices of bacon for 2 points. I was awesome. I do miss not having toast, but I’d rather have the points for later.

Lunch: We had planned on just eating leftovers at home, but we decided to look around town for something healthy (which has been an issue wherever we have lived.) We decided to go to Olive Garden to just do soup, salad and bread sticks. That always seems like a good idea on the way there, but then you look at the menu and everything else sounds so much better than just salad (even though their salad is amazing!) Anywho, as we were looking at the menu, we saw that Olive Garden has their nutritional information available upon request so we asked for it and they brought out a pamphlet. Also, their menus have a symbol that indicates their lighter meals. After some investigating, we decided on splitting the Shrimp Primavera which is one of my favorite dishes anyway. Instead of salad (which isn’t bad points wise without the dressing, but the dressing is the best part!) I got the Zuppa Toscana which was 3 points. Instead of eating like 5 bread sticks, I just broke one (3 points a bread stick, yep they are that bad but that delicious) in half and ate it with the soup and then with the Shrimp Primavera. Anyways when they brought out our entree they had already split it in half for us! It was awesome because it’s hard to evenly split an entree yourself (and frankly you’re sad/angry the whole time you are splitting it) so it’s nice to have them accommodate to their customers who are trying to be health conscious. I think another thing about having them split it is that I didn’t miss that other half at all. We have become so conditioned to eat what is in front of us that if even half of it isn’t visible, we don’t miss it. So our servings of the Shrimp Primavera was only 5 points! Even though the service was okay, I was really impressed with Olive Garden and it was exciting to find another place that we could go to and not have to worry about getting killed with points. Oh yeah, their Andes mints are 1 point. SO WORTH IT!!!! (Next time I blog about Olive Garden, remind me to tell you about the time my Uncle Ken accidentally burned my arm with candle wax at an Olive Garden when I was 5. Actually, that’s all there is to that story so nevermind.)

Dinner: Well, you can never fight off leftovers no matter how hard you try, but it’s okay because chili is my favorite leftovers except for maybe pizza. I had 2 cups of chili for 5 points and 9 chips for 3 points. That is the best 8 point dinner in the universe.

So today I’ve eaten a total of 26 points so I’ll eat something a little later when I’m working on a paper (but I promise it will be healthy!)

Goal Time! So yesterday I mentioned that I have planned on a goal for my weight loss. I think setting goals are a good way to give yourself some direction especially with weight loss. Every time I’ve set pretty much unattainable (unless I was on Biggest Loser) goals for myself, and I know the one I have in mind might even be pretty lofty, but this journey needs a finish line. So here it is: I want to lose 100 pounds before I graduate from grad school in May 2012. I have figured it out and that’s 83 weeks from today. In order to do that, I have to lose 1.2 pounds per week from here on in to achieve this goal. I know this is not going to be a cake walk (or since I’m dieting: a low fat ice cream walk) but I know that this is going to be the best way to get rid of my fat once and for all. I also want to prove to people that you can successfully lose a significant amount of weight without having to go on Biggest Loser, I want to prove that you control your own destiny (and density.) I’m excited for the challenges that lay ahead, because I know that the reward will be great not only for me, but for my wife, my family, and for my future children. However, most of all I’m doing this for the glory of God as it says to in 1 Corinthians “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” So here’s what I need from you: please pray for me for patience and discipline during this journey. If I look down (or hungry,) just give me a thumbs up and if you need someone to exercise with, give me a call and we will figure something out. Thanks again for reading and the encouragements you have already sent my way.  See ya tomorrow.