My Weight Loss Blog

I did a couple of things yesterday at work that I rarely do individually, and probably have never done together.

I packed a lunch and took a walk at work over the lunch hour.

Monday night was my birthday and I made dinner of T-Bone steak (I had the 4oz fillet part), grilled asparagus, chopped garbage salad and gazpacho. I actually have my own gazpacho recipe but since I was reminded of making this wonderful cold soup by the Pioneer Woman recently I went ahead and tried her recipe, although I omitted the sour cream. Not because I was being health conscious but because I forgot to buy it! Not used to buying sour cream when I make gazpacho.

Anyway, the meal was great and we had plenty of leftovers. I put the rest of the chopped salad into a container, filled a small mason jar with gazpacho and included a piece of birthday cake my wife made – and then I'll be darned if I didn't bring that meal to work yesterday. I really should do that more often. The salad was worse for the wear the next day, mostly because of the avocado, but it will tasted great. Sipping gazpacho out of a mason jar was a fun way to have soup. Only downside to bringing a lunch is taking home the dishes, but that's something I should be able to deal with.

I travel around to a number of different offices so I don't have this opportunity every day, but outside of my main office we have a lake with a walking path and yesterday I explored it for the first time. I ended up not walking around the entire thing as I didn't have enough time for that but I did end up getting a 30 minute walk in. Oh I forgot to mention, I actually brought running shoes to change into, so I was totally planning to do this. The problem is the shoes I grabbed were ones that have been sitting in my closet forever and there was something wrong with them that I didn't rmember and once I got into my walk I realized what it was – they cause blisters on my heals. So after the walk I pitched the shoes in the trash and will be buying another pair of my current running shoes to keep at work.

I sure felt the burn of the walk and because of the humidity it made the sweat even worse. I'm not used to working up a sweat in my work clothes, and frankly that shouldn't be happening in a 30 minute walk. But I can't let that scare me off – more walking means less sweat eventually!

I don't know that this is totally a new habit yet, but the fact I planned to walk by bringing shoes and then actually did it is a good sign. It will be an even better sign if I go through with buying the new shoes and keeping them at work.

Small incremental changes have helped me in the past and they will do so again.

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My 12 year old son has been cajoling me for a couple of years to take him paintballing, and yesterday I finally gave in. After 5 hours of paintball play at Splat Tag I can tell you that not only is paintball fun, it is good exercise too. I've played paintball once about 15 years ago, and because of that experience I knew a little about what I was getting into. But man, the first time you rush out to get behind a bunker or a downed tree in the woods, you are reminded how exhausting this really can be. (It didn't help that in the morning I mowed the lawn and pulled a huge bag of weeds. Or that I played 18 holes of golf the day before!)

If you aren't sure what paintball is all about, check out some paintball videos, then do a search in your local community for paintball fields. Since I live out in the country, or at least close to the country, the fields around here are typically on untillable farmland like the woods in between farm fields. They do have indoor paintball fields in the cities or outdoors in small fields strewn with manmade barricades, but for me there is nothing better than playing in full woods. Basically what it is all about is splitting into two teams, getting a gun that fires paint at 300fps, donning protective face mask and playing games like capture the flag. It's pretty intense!

The mix of people yesterday was very interesting – we played in an open game and the skill levels ranged from people like my son and I, who just wore jeans, long shirts and rented our equipment, to absolute fanatics who had full combat armor, high-end equipment and participated in tournaments. One guy was in full SWAT gear including a shin holstered pistol and the car he drove to the game was a used police car. This guy was hard core! I also liked the guy who had a sawed-off shotgun strapped to his back. Regrettably, I never saw him pull it out to shoot but I assume it fired multiple paintballs at once.

The first game we played I stuck close to my son and we stayed pretty far back guarding our base. We moved up a little from our initial position, but really didn't move a lot. But even with that I recognized I was going to be in for a hot, tiring day. As the day went on we got a little more involved in the action and moved around a lot more. The most tiring moment for me was when I got pinned behind a tree and then shot from my flank, and once you get shot you need to walk off the field. Instead of going back down the path I came from I took another path that sent me up a VERY long and steep hill, and I was really breathing hard when I got to the top. The facemask made it even harder to breath, and you can't take it off while on the field so I had a long walk where I was huffing and puffing until I could get to safety.

I don't know that this is something I'll be doing a lot (although my son may force the issue as he really enjoyed it) but it really was fun and working up a sweat in any way is good. Looking to mix up your fitness routine? Maybe try shooting a little paint at someone!

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Contest update: As of today 31 people have entered with a total of 71 entries. Still not too late to get in! With 7 prizes up for grabs you still have good odds of winning a prize, and remember, the top three prizes are cash. One thing I have learned in hosting this contest is that there are a LOT of blogs that do nothing but post about blog contests, so the vast majority of entrants are those kind, which is kind of a bummer – next time I have a contest I'll be sure to limit it to weight loss bloggers only. So if you have a weight loss blog be sure to enter so we increase the odds of an actual reader winning!

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I am hesitating to even write this post on the off chance that some of my readers don't know Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman – her cooking site, The Pioneer Woman Cooks is not a site for anyone trying to lose weight. I try to stay away but I am drawn back daily by her tantalizing, butter laden, recipes. Not to mention her giveaways! The top prize of $250 cash in my weight loss blog contest this month is nothing compared to Ree, who routinely gives away thousands of dollars worth of stuff.

I thought I was being so good. My wife was hosting a bunco party and I thought Ree's Peanut Butter pie that I had just read about would make a great dessert to surprise my wife with. So after work I bought the few ingredients needed (it really is a simple pie) and after she went to bed I went to work making this lovely creation (the picture here is Ree's, not mine – even though I do have a new camera, a Canon EOS 50D, I am not yet ready to start shooting food photography).

I did a great job while making the pie, very little nibbling. I will admit only to a couple of Oreos, a lick of the peanut butter knife and a couple of samplings of the filling. In general I did pretty good. After the pie was done I wrapped it up, stuck it in the refrigerator and expected that the next time I saw the pie tin it would be empty after the party so I wouldn't be tempted to dig in myself.

Wrong.

As it turns out, bunco parties are more about drinking wine than eating much food. My pie stayed in the refrigerator and didn't get touched! My daughter, who helped me make it, said we should each have a small slice and I agreed with her – so we tried a little bit of the rich chilled pie. And it was good. But rich, oh my.

The next morning my wife said that she would bring the pie to work so as not to have it sitting around the house where she knew I would probably end up eating the whole thing. I was glad to be rid of the horrible, nasty thing (I mean that in a good way!).

But when I got home from work last night there it was, my nemesis, sitting in the refrigerator. It didn't leave the house and now I have this wonderful tasty thing tempting me. I had a slice after dinner. It was devine. Very rich, thin slices are in order. I didn't have a thin slice. I've got to find someone else who will eat this thing, or it is going to get eaten by me slice by wonderful slice.

Help!

P.S. – Just to show you how bad I am I have already formulated a couple of different related pies I have every intention of making just because I want to see how my creativity works – substitute ripe bananas for the peanut butter and vanilla wafers for the Oreos and I'll bet you have one heck of a pie. Or Nutella for the peanut butter and graham crackers for the Oreos. Yummy. Help!

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I had just finished up a little shopping with my son tonight (a TaylorMade Men's Burner Rescue Utility Wood for me, but nothing for him because they were out of the kids' sets in his size) when I got the call from my wife that one of her friends was stranded on the side of the road with a flat tire. So of course I drove over to help, although I was pretty sure some good Samaritan would have already helped her in the 20 minutes it took for me to get there but I was wrong – there she sat in her minivan with a good ole flat tire.

I parked my car, set the hazard lights and got to work. She drove a Dodge Caravan with the spare tire held under the van and held in place with some sort of cable system that required me to use the lug wrench to lower the tire to the ground. I must have turned that thing a couple hundred revolutions and it just wasn't coming down. The idea of the cable was so that you didn't actually have to go under the van – the idea was the tire would drop to the ground and you would then pull it out by the cable but I suspect 7 years of storage had caused it to lock up and I ended up having to wiggle it from underneath – and almost breaking a finger for my troubles when the tire finally came down.

At this point I was already pretty tired – way too much work just to get the spare out. And it didn't help that I had fast food for dinner (chicken club at McDonald's, with fries – ish), so I was already starting to feel a little icky.

The rest of the operation was pretty standard – loosen the lug nuts while the tire was still touching the ground, jacking the car up enough to get the flat tire off and the spare on, getting it off the jack and tightening everything up. It's the dirtiest and most tired I have been for a long time and it took me way too long to recover from it. After 30 minutes when we got home my heartrate was normal but my stomach was really not feeling well and I would say it was over an hour before I felt normal.

All from changing a tire. That aint right.

We know I've got some work to do. Playing golf tomorrow but I'll be riding in a cart so that won't help much. I will try to just drink water.

Try, try, try – that's what I've got to keep doing.

I just hope I don't have to change any more tires any time soon.

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A few days after I wrote my post questioning whether I could have Deep Vein Thrombosis I went ahead and scheduled a doctor's appointment since my sore and swollen calf had not been getting any better. As this week progresses and it started to feel a little better I thought about canceling the appointment but I decided not too – even though it was not as sore as it had been there is no question that it was still getting swollen every day and that something was not right. Best to have it checked out.

Yesterday I had the appointment with my doctor and after getting everything checked out she scheduled me for an ultrasound later in the day, in order to officially rule out DVT as a possibility. According to her there were a couple of possibilities for what was causing my swollen calf – DVT or swelling in the injured knee that was constricting the vein in some manner. So the ultrasound would be used to eliminate DVT as a problem.

The only ultrasounds I've seen where on my wife's pregnant belly but this was pretty much the same – get lubed up with some warm gell and have a transducer run up and down the leg. It was interesting when she would squeeze my calf you could hear these noises coming from the machine which I guess was bloodflow, not a baby.

The technician who did the ultrasound told me she didn't see any clots and my doctor later confirmed it. Prescription? Ice, elevation and support socks or Ace bandage. I feel good to know it isn't DVT, going on blood thinners and worrying about the clot breaking free did not sound like something I wanted to go through. So, thanks for everyone who pushed me to get it checked out – I'm good to go.

On another note, I was contacted by a casting agency looking to cast for a new show. I thought it could be interesting for some of my readers. Here is how they describe it:

"LOVE HANDLES"

Now Casting Brand New Show!!

Doron Ofir Casting in association with 495 Productions is currently casting overweight couples who are at least the age of 18 and appear younger than 35 to compete in the dramatic new weight-loss and relationship competition series.

Think you both have what it takes to get healthy and re-ignite the romance in your relationship? Can you work together and as a team and strengthen not only your body but your relationship too?

One couple will go home with the grand prize, starting their new, healthier life.

We want to hear from you!

Please go to www.lovehandlescasting.com and submit your application today!!

Let me know by leaving a comment here if you apply and of course if you make the show.

Finally, don't forget about my June Weight Loss Blog Contest with a top prize of $250 in pure cash. So far there have been only 14 entries so your odds of winning one of seven prizes (2nd and 3rd is cash money too!) is pretty good. Read the rules for how to maximize your entries. So far only one person has earned the maximum 4 entries.

Good Health!

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