So busy....

I am sooo stinking busy. I'm stage managing the play The Sunshine Boys right now for Theater for a Change at Grandview College's Viking Theatre.
Here's a glimpse at my schedule right now:

5:40am - Wake up
5:40am -5:55am - Breakfast
5:55am - 6:10am - Shower
6:10am - 6:25am - get dressed and gather my stuff and head out the door
6:25am - 6:45am drive to Mercy to work out
6:50am - 8:15am - workout
8:15am - 8:30am - shower at gym and get ready for work
9:00am - 6:00pm - work
6:00pm - 6:20pm - drive to rehearsal at Grandview
6:20pm - 9:30pm - rehearsal
9:30pm - 10:00pm - drive to home and probably store
10:00pm - 11:30pm or midnight - make dinner and lunch for the next day, do laundry, watch TV
11:30pm or Midnight - 5:40am - sleep

As you can see, not a lot of spare time Monday thru Friday. This week the play opens, so not a lot of free time on Friday night, Saturday or Sunday, either!

Clothes....

Ugh. I need new clothes so bad.
A lot of my shirts are 3x which I can't wear at all because they're just HUGE. I've given away a couple of 3x dress shirts. My jeans are too big, but they'll do for now. My 2x shirts are too big. Heck, even the 1x dress shirt that I bought like a month ago before my speech at Mercy doesn't fit. It's too big.
I have NO money to buy new clothes. I can barely afford gas for my car, groceries, and utility bills. Not only do I have no extra money, but I'm ALWAYS overdrawn as of late just trying to keep fed and getting to work, etc. It's tough. I never buy things for myself, so it's not like I'm being frivolous with my money.
I should be getting my stimulus check from the gov't soon. I'll be buying some new clothes with some of that money, but with another 28 pounds to go, I'm a bit apprehensive to buy much.

Last night's weigh-in....

So for the past few weeks or so I've only been losing 2 pounds a week. When I say only, I'm not saying it in a disappointed way, but in a relational way to how much I lost this week: 3 pounds! I'm pretty happy with that. I don't know what I did differently this week other than I think I had the flu Saturday night into Sunday and Monday. My eating didn't change, so not sure how I lost that extra pound, but I'll gladly take it!
I'm down a total of 88 pounds now with only 28 to go! Awesome!

I'm for sure having a big party when I reach my goal. People have asked, "Are you going to eat whatever you want when you hit the goal?" My answer? First off, I eat what I want already. I just WANT healthy, good foods. Second off, this is for life. I'm not doing this just to get to a certain weight and then stop and slowly put it all back on. This is for good. This is going to last me forever because I'm making sustainable changes. Now I sure as heck will probably have a lot of tasty beer that night, but hey!

Last Thursday's weigh-in....

So last Thursday I weighed-in. I lost another 2 pounds, bringing my total loss so far to 85 pounds! 31 left to go....

Today's workout....

So normally we have class on Tuesdays, but Abby had a presentation to give and she told me class was cancelled as I walked in. Well, I rallied the troops to play a game of walleyball. We tried to figure out how to put the net up as none of us put it up Friday since Deb did it. We couldn't figure it out, so we put the volleyball net up in the gym. It was me and 2 older ladies vs. 2 older guys. Blah. I ended up finally playing middle for my team because nobody would move more than a couple steps to get the ball. Not a good workout.

After the game ended at 7:30, I decided to kick the volleyball around like soccer. Shoot it some, dribble some, etc. Then I drug out the punching bag. It's one of those with water in the base to weight it down. Well, I punch pretty damn hard; I had a 70lb heavy bag hanging from the basement ceiling as a teenager and worked out on it some. I bruised my knuckles a bit hitting it because I had no bag gloves to use on it. I was punching through the padding to the middle. Ouch. I wish I had a heavy bag and a speed bag again like I had when I was younger. Both of those give you a tremendous workout, both cardio and muscles...

Friday's workout....

So I continue to work out 5 days a week, Monday thru Friday.

So Friday at class we decided to play walleyball on the racquetball court. Racquetball courts, for those that don't know, have very high ceilings and are pretty narrow. We strung the volleyball net up in there and essentially played volleyball. You're allowed to use the ceilings and walls, so there's essentially no out of bounds. It's meant to be fast-paced. Think of it as the Arena Football of the volleyball world.
It was a blast. If we were playing with more people my age, it would've been even more fun. Not to knock the older folks in my class (which is everyone but me) but they're a bit older and not as competitive nor as mobile. Fun, fun game. I hadn't played it in YEARS!

Last night's weigh-in.... Nice comment the other day from a stranger....

Last night's weigh-in....

I weighed-in last night. Down another 2 pounds. I'm happier with two pounds than I used to be. I understand that I have less to lose, thus it will come off slower. It will also be easier to keep off since it's coming off a bit slower. It's also in the 1-2 pounds a week healthy target range.

I'm down a total of 83 pounds now since the end of September. :)
33 more to go....


Nice comment the other day from a stranger....

So I was in the parking ramp on my way into Mercy to work out the other morning and a lady approached me with a man, whom I'm assuming was her husband. She said, "I just wanted to let you know how well you're doing. I pass you most mornings and you're doing really well."
How nice of someone to say that. :) It's those little comments that really help you keep going.

I told my friend Carrie about my new numbers last night and she said she was proud of me. That's nice to hear as well. :)
Everyone always says such nice things. It's one of the great things about making a positive life change. :)

Too much sodium today!!!

So I try to eat a diet fairly low in sodium. I add very little salt to my food these days. It's quite an accomplishment, really, because I'm a salt-aholic. I used to salt everything a lot!
Well, I'm broke and can't buy a 6-pack of low sodium V8 right now, but I scraped together $1.50 for a bottle of regular V8 at the convenience store today for my morning snack.
Well, normal V8 has 70% more sodium than low-sodium V8 has. It's like 30% of your recommended sodium intake.
I feel kinda weird today after drinking it. I feel edgy and maybe a bit grumpy. Kinda agitated. Not like myself. Blah. I blame it on the sodium. :(

I weigh-in tonight. Let's see how I do...

Potpourri of stuff....

Recognizing me....

So I'm getting recognized a lot lately. It's kinda weird....

Friday night I went with some friends to see a play at the Civic Center's Stoner Theatre. I walked up to the box office to buy my ticket and immediately the lady at the ticket counter said, "I'm following your progress on the news."

Saturday night I was at the bar and this guy kept looking at me. I kept noticing and was like, 'Ok, whatever.' Well, finally I was walking to the bathroom and he came up to me as he was walking out of the bathroom and said, "My wife and I watch you on the news all the time after The Biggest Loser. You're doing really well..." etc etc etc. We talked for a few minutes about how it really helps to have a trainer, if nothing less than to just have a workout buddy to motivate each other, etc. It was really nice.

Last Saturday night I was at the bar and a girl came up to me and said, "I thought I recognized you and when the waitress was mentioning watching you on the news, I knew it was you. I saw you on the news when you first started; you've lost a lot of weight! You look really good!"
Man, now that I'm single again, I need to come up with a pick up line based on all of this.... hahaha

People all the time at the grocery store tell me that they've been following me on the news and I'm doing so well, etc etc. It's such a nice feeling.


Inspiring people....

So Saturday night I was at the bar and an acquaintance approached me and told me that my success had inspired him to lose weight. He said all he's changed are his eating habits and he's lost 30 pounds.
It's nice to know that we can inspire one another with things that we do in our own lives that others notice.


Busy....

So between stage managing Neil Simon's "The Sunshine Boys", starting my new sktech comedy group, and joining another sketch group, and all of my working out M-F, I'm just a wee bit busy! I'm going to have to start making dinner and lunch the night before again and eating my dinner at rehearsal or right before I leave work like I was doing during rehearsals when I was in "High School Reunion".


Noticing muscles....

So I wore shorts the other night and noticed that when I flexed my calf muscles, they're pretty damn big now. Big and rock solid. I'm quite impressed. I was also looking back at my last measurements the other day and was thinking about how I've lost 5 1/2" just in the last month alone out of the 21" I've lost total. I think that's probably mostly due to gaining a lot of muscle as of late.
I still have 35 pounds to go to my current goal, and still am not totally comfortable with my body, but I'm definitely getting there and it's a great feeling. My confidence level is soaring, really.

Go for a walk this weekend?

It's going to be beautiful out this weekend. I might take a walk this weekend on the trails in Clive or somewhere. A nice leisurely walk. I do enough of the hard work on the weekdays that this might just be a nice leisurely stroll...
I need to find some things to do for exercise this summer on the weekends and weeknights. I know I want to get into Ultimate Frisbee. I love frisbee anyway, but add the word 'ultimate' to it and who can resist?! Really, though, I wanna try some ultimate frisbee. It's not a lot of exercise, but it gets me off of my butt and doing something outside for at least a little exercise.

Any ideas of fun things to do? New outdoor hobbies to try? Leave me a comment!

I don't think I blog enough about all Mercy and Channel 13 have done for me....

I don't think I blog enough about all Mercy and Channel 13 have done for me.
Mercy's Center for Weight Reduction and Mercy's Wellness Center have been awesome to me! All of the help that they give to their patients is tremendous. Everyone is awesome from my trainer, Deb Fisk and her boss Gene and the other trainer Abby, to my nutritionist/dietician Amy Clark, to my behaviorist, Peggy Palmer-Johnson, to the director of the clinic Marcia Flattery and Doctors Sutcliffe and Tingle... Everyone has been awesome. Gregg Lagan, who is Mercy's PR guy, and Sonya Heitshusen's former news director when she was at WOI is awesome! He's giving me some tickets to a symphony on April 18! How cool is that?
Sonya Heitshusen has been great as have all of the camera folks! It's just been an awesome experience thus far, and I don't think I thank people enough. Especially those that you see frequently, you tend to not thank those people.

Anyway, THANK YOUS all around!

Need new clothes bad....

Man...
I need new clothes. I knew the time would come when I'd need to start buying new clothes, and that time has come. I was wearing a 3X shirt back when I started. I recently bought a new dress shirt and it's a 1X and it fits a bit loose. Crazy.

All this time I had some 2X shirts from back in the day. A bunch I had given away right when I started (no clue why I did that!). Some of those I can still wear.

I have NO money to buy clothes. It sucks. Pretty much all of my money goes to groceries, gas, car payment, rent, phone, and utilities. Once I pay those, I have very little money left. I don't spend much money at all on myself. I might go out to the bar once a week with some friends and will spend maybe $15-$20. Of course that adds up over the course of a month, but you need to blow off some steam and do some karaoke!

I'm still working out in some of my 3X t-shirts! Ha! I'll wear them and will remember, "WOW! This used to fit me and was even a little tight." Yikes...that's a little embarrassing!

It'll be nice once May comes. I can't wait for my economic stimulus check from the government. Some of that is going to a past due bill or two, but I'll have a little left for some clothes that will last me a little while til I get to my goal.

Last night's weigh-in.... Inches lost as well....

Last night's weigh-in....

So I weighed-in last night. I never know what numbers I'll pull anymore. Last week was 1 pound. I think the week before that was 1 or 2. I haven't changed anything in my routine, really. I think we did a bit more treadmill and a little less cross-trainer this week, but that's about it. I was quite anxious to see what number would come up...

I lost 2.5 pounds this week! 2 1/2! Not bad. Much better than 1 pound last week!
35 pounds to go!

That brings me to a total weight loss, thus far, of 81 pounds! That's about an average of 16 pounds a month. Of course it's slowing down now, but I'm coming to terms that that's to be expected. I have less to lose now and am definitely building muscle. I can definitely tell that my muscle mass is increasing. I'm noticing muscles that I used to have when I lifted weights a lot in high school.

My confidence level has definitely increased a lot! I still have the sort of endearingly (I think) shy quality to me, but I've grown much more confident. I really wasn't nervous at all about my speech last Friday.


Inches lost as well....

I've lost a total of 21" since the end of October! That's awesome! I just compared my numbers, and I have lost 5.5" in the last month! Wow.

I was on the news Tuesday night....

So they aired the bit about my speech on Tuesday night.
After the bit, they kicked it to Keith Murphy for a quick sports teaser before the commercial and Keith says, "If he shaved off his beard, he'd lose another pound!" Erin Kiernan says, "Hey! I love Dave!" Keith says, "No. I mean he seems like a really nice guy!"
It was really funny. I didn't think Keith was making fun of me in the least. Erin seemed to be sort of defending me like she thought he was taking a shot at me. Anyway, funny stuff. :)

The show I'm stage managing....

So a bit more about the show I'm stage managing....
It's for Theater for a Change and will play at Grandview College I think the beginning of May. Mike Pace from the Iowa Lottery commercials is in it along with one of the guys from the Radio Garage which is a recording studio that does commercials.
Both of those guys are friends and have a great chemistry together. It's a Neil Simon show (The Sunshine Boys) and is hilarious! I just watched 30 minutes or so of rehearsal last night and laughed so hard!
My roommate is in it, too.

Should keep me really busy for a while. I'm going to start having to prepare my lunch AND dinner ahead of time like when I was in High School Reunion. I'll have to eat dinner at, or on the way to, rehearsal.

Today's workout....

Worked out today as usual.
Treadmill for 7 1/2 minutes before aerobics class then treadmill for another 7 1/2 after class. Total of 45 minutes of cardio today.