Tag Archives for losing weight

Soup Sunday

The event is called Soup Sunday and it’s been going on in Memphis for 20 years now. It’s to benefit Youth Villages, a fantastic non-profit that has a tremendous impact in the lives of kids in the Mid-South. I think it’s important to support charity, but even more important to support the charities you think do the most important work. YouthVillages is great and I feel great about giving them my money. That, and they put on quite an event at Soup Sunday.

This was my second time to go and I still made two rookie mistakes.

  • I filled up on so-so offerings. So much good food, why mess around with something average.
  • I forgot to bring home the list of booths so I can see what restaurants I need to go to. There was one booth that offered a Spinach and Feta soup with Rosemary-Garlic bread that was out of this world. For the life of me I can’t remember where it was from and I’m afraid that today was the last time I’ll ever have that soup again. It was just that good.

I also got to get in some time playing a new board game with Mom & Dad. It’s called Ticket to Ride and it is quick to learn but can involve several different winning strategies.

This was quite a start to my week of vacation. My plans to last-minute catch a plane to Cactus League Spring Training are all but called off, since the Mariners signed Ken Griffey Jr. and all preseason tickets got snatched up. I just can’t justify buying a ticket to a spring training game from a scalper. I still need to get in some running this week and I’d like to also hang out in White Bluff for a day and Louisville for one or two days. I need to remember that just because I’m on vacation from work doesn’t mean I’m on a vacation from diet and exercise. I’m still pondering other things to do with my time off, like taking two days and skipping off to The Gulf or Chicago or St. Louis, but I just don’t know. I’m still not a fan of traveling by myself to do nothing more than sight-seeing.  It’ll be next Monday before I know it and I promised a coworker I’d come back with a tan, so I need to find something worthwhile to do.

Running vs. Never Running Ever Again

Back in December in a moment of pure ambition and one-up-man-ship, I committed to running a half marathon in April. I’ve been in the gym 3 or 4 days a week for the last two months getting started on my training regiment. Some days I am amazed at what I’ve accomplished since starting my diet. That’s usually only 1 day a week. The other 6 consist of aching.

I have no idea what raceday will be like. It’s still around 3 months away and I can’t even finish on a treadmill what looked like manageable goals. The only way I’ve been able to start building my legs is using an eliptical and that’s an entirely different experience. I need to start running outdoors before raceday gets too close, but it’s not going to be until winter passes. I don’t want to think that my ambition has gotten the best of me, but there’s no way I’m going to quit. Unfortunately, too many people would hold it over my head for too long. I guess that’s what friends are for.

New Diet

So about 3 weeks back I was challenged by one of the company directors to lose some weight. He pulled $20 out of his wallet and put it in front of me to buy this book called The Beck Diet Solution. I’ve been reading the first couple of chapters and it has a few pointers, but I can’t say I’m swept away by it. But I have learned two very important lessons thus far:

  1. Food tastes too good to eat such little variety. Eating less volume (1400 calories a day) means I can’t satisfy myself with how much I’m eating. On my cheat day last weekend I ate lunch at Sonic and mostly regretted it. It all tasted the same. Fruits and vegetables are where the flavor is at.
  2. I want other things more than food. Last week we celebrated a coworkers birthday in the office with a birthday cake. I really didn’t want any. Someone was being kind and cut a piece and put it on my desk. I didn’t think twice; I brought it back to her saying I appreciated the thoughtfulness but I wasn’t going to eat it. “You don’t want cake?” “There are things I want more than cake, like lowering my risk of dying of heart disease by age 60″

I couldn’t believe the words were coming out of my mouth. Still can’t, but I guess this is just the new me. I’m going to bed a little hungry tonight, I know I’m going to wake up ravenous and I’m looking forward to starting the day with a healthy breakfast.

I’ve lost 10 pounds in the last three weeks. It’s the easiest 10 pounds I’ll lose, but there’s more to come.