Knock Knock Knockin' on 180's Doooooor...

Hey forum,
I kinda realize after the last post that I've already gotten away from the whole point of this blog, which was to describe the process and challenges in losing 30 pounds. So I'll start off this time with the weigh in as of 2/5/11. I weighed in at 190.2 lbs, making a total loss of 12.2 lbs! Not that bad but I'm only a third of the way there! I need to make it to 170 by December 6th, and the challenges will only get harder from here on out. Nicole put it awesome not too long ago. "Think about your weight loss in sticks of butter!" Losing twelve pounds is like losing 48 STICKS OF BUTTER from your body... yyeeeeaaaah, pretty cool huh?

x 12! 

My hardest difficulty in losing weight is mental. I could honestly eat salads all day long and enjoy it. But after losing those first ten pounds, I start telling myself what a great job I'm doing and it's not so bad if I take it easy from here on out. I'm reversing my thinking from here on out. I have to realize how absolutely difficult it is to stay on the right track. How EVERY DAY, you have to make the right decisions for yourself. How ultimately, making the wrong (well... irresponsible choices anyway) means I'm only cheating myself.

NOW for some amazing news. Shrimp! Yeah, shrimp. did you know that 12 pieces of medium sized shrimp is ONLY 80 calories?!?!?! I LOVE shrimp! I've taken to making some caesar salad with garlic, dijon mustard, salt pepper and a dozen pieces of shrimp flash fried with some cajun seasoning. Wicked low on calories and tastes amazing. See, the other thing I'm learning is you really don't need to sacrifice taste to lose weight! You just need to make the RIGHT CHOICES.

Sorry for all the caps today by the way, feel like I need to MAKE A POINT today after those last couple pointless blogs.

For those of you following this blog, you all look great the way you are and are perfect as long as you are happy. But if you feel like you want to make a couple improvements, I invite you to join me. Set a goal date with a reasonable amount of weight to lose. I'd love to start sharing results on this blog and have this be a place of support for all of us. I certainly don't have all the answers, but we can all find them together! Having a tough day? Tough week? I'm here, tracking comments on my blog at ALL times, and we can talk about it!

SOMETHING NEW: I'm going to make a concerted effort in following blogs on posting some low calorie recipes that Nicole and I have tested and approved for taste :)  Stay tuned for some good eats!

Let it snow...

Needless to say, it's been snowing like mad. I really don't want to spend most of this post complaining about the snow... so instead I will complain about SHOVELS!!! Now... I was up on my roof (no not like the Elton John song), shoveling snow off to avoid a possible cave in. Because, let's face it, it's possible.... Close to being done my shovel got jammed into the ice bank and... SNAPPED. I finished the rest off with my feet, and that same night spent over an hour looking for another shovel at ANY store. I checked a 7Eleven for God's sake. I finally found one in the back of Stop & Shop... and now I know why it only cost me $10...

We're hit yet again with another huge storm just last night... and let's just say the maiden voyage of El Shovel Pequeno (that's what I named it, I'm sure you can translate) ended in tragedy. I wasn't NEARLY done shoveling the end of the drive way, where you know, the mountains of hard packed snow are left by plows, when I heard that oh so familiar SNAP... "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" I cried out as I threw the decimated handle not unlike a javelin into my yard somewhere... never to been seen again until Spring.

Invest in a good shovel...

The up side is I got an awesome deltoids workout shoveling the rest of my driveway using the actual shovel part with no handle.

Canada... I understand your pain now... Alaska... you have worse problems than snow. There some disease spreading out there called Palin, like a really bad STD. You should look into that.

BUT, this is not a political blog. It's about losing weight, which I have been doing! This past Saturday I weighed in at 191.2 lbs. Then proceeded to celebrate the entire day with my beautiful wife in Newport, RI! So... I'm still bouncing back from whatever beer I drank down there. Speaking of beer, if you are ever down that way, I suggest stopping at the Coddington Brewery where Nicole and I had one of of our top favorite nachos EVAR, and an amazing beer called Doppelbock. We loved it so much we spent the $16 to get a growler of it.

Well, that's been on my mind forum. Drive safe out there and stay warm!

Tempting, buuuuut...

This one's going to be a short post since I'm waiting for my poor wife that is stcuk in the middle of downtown Brockton in a traffic stand still. Sorry babe...

OK, so I weighed in this past Saturday and it looks like I'm already hitting a small plateau. I weighed in at 193.8, so almost 9 pounds gone. Once the weather gets a little warmer I'll start the whole jogging bit... which I completely and utterly hate.

I did go climbing with a couple friends on Saturday, which was a nice little activity to get the arms and back pumping. I always love the kind of workouts that are activities. I HATE being in a gym... and I hate jogging.

Anyways, I've also been dealing with some major candy cravings, which carrots can only hold off for so long. Time to switch it up to some apples w/ peanut butter I think.

Sorry this one's so short guys, I'll write more soon. I appreciate the support!! Nic & Bellerina are finally close by. Feel so bad for them. : (

"Click Click Bloody Pancakes!" / Addictions

Wow, I'm a total jerk! I said I was going to post my results on Friday from my weigh in and... four day later... nada. And there you are... hitting the refresh button over and over again, waiting, just WAITING to hear: "How much does Dan weigh now?!" And now... all of my followers, ALL SEVEN, will hear. Now go forth and spread the news!

Wow... I can really go on a rant... and I'll continue!

There is a reason I weighed in on Friday. Friday, was a HUGE cheat day. 'Twas the Fat Kid Tribute Day. A day where buddies hang out drinking beer, eating Chinese food and playing video games. It was glorious. We also saw the movie TRON Legacy in 3D, and I must say Jeff Bridges is quickly becoming one of my top favorite people... and I really want to see True Grit. And what was my beer of choice on this momentous cheat day? Blue Moon... oh yeah, I'm a fan.

(Have they noticed yet I'm saving the weigh in for later?)


After a day of debauchery and shooting bad guys on TV, Nicole and I took Bellerina down to the cape for the weekend for some quiet family time. It was nice to get away and spend some isolated time. And on Monday morning, Nicole made possibly the most amazing pancakes I ever had. They were pancakes with some apple compote (which is basically warm apples with cinnamony goodness) with walnuts topped with some brie cheese. Before you say anything, you must try them first, then comment below and tell me how your face melted from exposing yourself to the food of the gods. Like Prometheus bringing fire to man, Guy Fieri from Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on the Food Network made us aware of a small restaurant makes these pancakes. And I'll never eat another kind of pancake. AND not that bad for you either as long as you portion it out right. This IS a blog about losing weight after all.

Here guys, you're going to need something cook those pancakes with... oh shit, Zeus is watching.

(Why do I think I'm clever to leave the weigh in part till the end since everyone can see it on the left bar anyway??)


Second I want to talk about my addiction. I have an addiction to video games. And I'll be short about this one cause I'm still not entirely certain it's an addiction. It just keeps me up at night, but it doesn't like... keep from going to work or watching Annabelle play or anything. I do it after Belle and Nicole go to bed and I have a little me time. And... some times... I stay up until about 1:30 in the morning playing. It's not like I'm going to stop playing them all together cause that's just dumb, but I do need to get more sleep to help me with this whole losing weight thing.


Anyways, I'm signing off for the night... good night.


Oh yeah, I weighed in Friday morning and lost another four pounds exactly. So last weigh in was a total of 194.4. I know, I know, I'm sorry. I'll try to slow it down and drag this out for the rest of the year and dramatize the whole thing.


OK, I'm falling asleep (since I stayed up late last night). To those of you not following yet... don't be afraid... I won't hurt you. 

I'm Too Sexy For This... Oh Wait

Hey there Sexy People,
Yeah, I called you sexy. I'm snowed in my house today with my happy family. It's been snowing since midnight last night and hasn't stopped. Forecast says up to 17 inches... so I get a work out today from shoveling! See, someone out there knows I'm trying to lose weight and they're just helping me out.

Things are getting a little easier. I still have my cravings for sweets because that was my daily routine. Work, drink 5 gallons of coffee, eat lunch and eat a small something packed with sugar. And when 2:30 rolled around I'd eat something else cause I was hungry again. So, I'm trying to be better by bring that afternoon snack with me in the morning. I've been munching on carrots and Nicole has been good enough to make hummus to go along with them, but that will only last so long. I'm thinking apples with some peanut butter will be a nice switch up.

I'm also dealing with another issue. I need to get more sleep, but I always find a reason to stay up late. Whether it be working, watching Dexter or playing video games, it's always something. So I'm trying harder on getting to bed earlier... though Nicole would say otherwise...

I'll post again on Friday. Friday is my cheat day this week since I'm taking the day off for the long weekend. Considering my Friday will also be my semi-annual Fat Kid Tribute Day (FKTD for short) with my friends. As you may guess, we don't exactly work out all day, so I'll be weighing in a day early this week : )

See you then!

The Program/ 1 Week Gone

Hey there Forum,
Ok, so one week into this, and I'm shaky, foundations are crumbling and my hand keeps on slipping towards the Reeses Pieces candies like Thing from the Addams Family... kinda creepy actually. However, an easy fix of tying my hand to my waist with my belt has worked quite well.

I weighed in first thing Saturday morning at exactly four pounds lighter than original weight: 198.4. I will weigh in every Saturday morning and post the results. Every Saturday will be my cheat day where I let myself have a few beers and a not so healthy meal. BUT here's the trick: Nicole is great in the kitchen and can make a completely healthy meal taste like it's not :)  Last night we experimented and made a couple Indian dishes: Garlic Naan, Tandoori Chicken, and Matta Paneer. Tasted fantastic and pretty darn healthy. I completed the meal with a couple Magic Hat #9s and a couple White Mountain Weasel Wheat Ale brewed at the Woodstock Inn in NH.

...I can see this blog easily turning into a beer blog since I'm now only drinking once a week and trying to drink interesting beers. I'm already planning on drinking my favorite beer next week!

This Libra application I downloaded on my droid measures a trend of losing 2.6 lbs a week. That, obviously, is way too early to tell. I've done this before and I know what's going to happen, like a Biggest Loser re-run. I'm going to drop a lot of weight in the beginning, that will taper off and I'll hit a plateau. Then I'll up my game and throw in a little jogging and heavier workouts. As of now I'm only working out a few days a week.

By the way, I've gotten a few comments saying that 30 pounds is too easy to lose. Look, I'm not trying to look like Christian Bale from The Machinist:

Soo huuuungrryyyy...

I just want to get back to 170. It's a reasonable goal, but I need your support through this blog to make it. I'm just not there yet to do it on my own! And for your entertainment, I promise not to get there too quickly. I promise to make this as suspenseful as possible and stay chunky for a few months.

Chunky... reminds me of:

TRUFFLE SHUFFLE!!!

Please leave a comment. I would like this to be as interactive as possible. If anyone wants to join me feel free to post weight loss or just your thoughts. Most importantly, click that FOLLOW button so I can get some traffic on this. I'll get into future plans for this blog at a future date, but I need followers!!

The Path Beset...

Hey there Forum,
OK, so I am probably the 90,483rd person to start writing a blog about trying to lose weight... but I'm going to do it anyway. I'm brand new to blogging so I apologize in advance for future ramblings and blog taboos and whatnot.

So let me first explain the blog title. 30 in 30: fairly self explanatory. I just turned 30 years old and my goal is to lose 30 pounds by the time I turn 31. So, for those of you proficient in math, that means I have, like... 437 days left... right? You'll see on the left ( <---- ) bar my starting weight, current weight, and weight lost. Ultimately, I would like to reach 170 lbs and maintain that... so forgive me for taking some creative freedom on the title.  32.4 in 30 doesn't roll off the tongue quite as well.

THE SERIOUS PART:
So all of my life I have been fluctuated in weight, and I can probably say that this is probably the most weight I have gained my whole life. I can give all the excuses, like having a busy job and being a fairly new dad, but I'm sick of them. I'm sick mostly of telling them to myself. So... no more excuses.

I'll be honest, going into this I don't have that much faith in myself. I am constantly surrounded by temptations and I'm not strong enough to resist them. My weaknesses: beer, french fries, candy, and beer...

And that's why I'm starting this blog. I feel like if I put myself out there to my friends and family, there is some public accountability. So this is my tool to stick with my goal. My wife is really into blogging and I can only hope to be as clever and funny as her blog: Momalary. <insert shameless plug here>

THE FUNNY PART:
I'm fat and my man boobs are sticking out just a liiiittle too far for my liking. They're screaming out, "STOP IT, FOR GOD SAKE STOP IT!" And some days they sing, "My milk shake brings all the boys to the..." you get my point:

SIGN OFF:
So there you have it. I'm going to press this PUBLISH POST button here and the whole thing starts... Part of me doesn't want to do this but I'm hoping that will change and I'll WANT to do this as I go along.

I have future plans for this blog but I need all your help to accomplish them. So please feel free to comment if you like (I could use the support) and please click the Follow button. I promise future posts will be shorter and less whiny. Thank you all for your help. It's going to be an interesting year!