My NROL Experience

[LisaS]

Basil Steak, done medium rare, and Thai hot: Grilled rib-eye with sauteed garlic, chili, onion, bell peppers and basil leaves

This sounds wonderful. How is it served? A whole steak with the remainder as a hot condiment/salsa/relish smothering the steak?

[tkinsley]

Originally Posted by stingo

233.25 - Not bad at all considering I was out last night with friends. I think that may be due to the reintroduction of carbs I've been experimenting with this past week. The five day average is up a little, but looking at the graph as a whole, it's still part of the trend (level off/go up a little, then decrease a bit, then level off/go up). Also, I'm getting an idea of how much having beer affects my weight. When I don't have it, the changes are much more gradual than when I do. Still, this morning when selecting what to wear to work today, I'd inadvertently picked up the tight pants. Everyone has a pair of pants that they can just fit into and keep around because they know that eventually the tight pants will become loose. Well, while not exactly loose, they are less tight than they were before, which is an improvement.

Wait, so you're saying that beer helps you lose weight, Tom? You're a medical miracle....

[stingo]

Originally Posted by LisaS

This sounds wonderful. How is it served? A whole steak with the remainder as a hot condiment/salsa/relish smothering the steak?

Yup that's exactly how it's served. Very tasty indeed.

Originally Posted by tkinsley

Wait, so you're saying that beer helps you lose weight, Tom? You're a medical miracle....

Yes, I'm going to start the Beer Diet, once I can get one of those long, long webpages to pimp my book. I'll just put that it's beer that puts on the weight that you take off in small print. Because, as Tom Waits sang, "What the large print giveth, the small print taketh away."

[stingo]

Originally Posted by Mahler

Workouts are looking great. Dinner sounds wonderful. It's so difficult at times to hold back and not have the extras like appetizers and desserts (creme brule), but (creme brule) you feel so (creme brule) much more satisfied (creme brule) the next day.

It's funny you should mention that particular dessert. We were out at another restaurant and had finished a very good dinner. Nobody was going to order dessert until one person saw there was creme brulee on the menu and ordered it. After that it was like dominoes - bananas foster, brownie sundae etc orders followed in due course.

[Espi]

LOL.

I even know tons of people who always decide on the dessert first and then see if they can fit in something else. Some even EAT & order the dessert first, but past experience (at home) tells me that eating sweet stuff before dinner ruins the appetite for savoury & protein-rich foods.

[stingo]

230.5 - I'm glad that my weight is down, but it usually is on Fridays. I'm hoping to use this as motivation to stay the course and be good with the beer and bad foods this holiday weekend, but admittedly there's a part of me that just wants to say screw it and enjoy it without worrying about everything that goes into my mouth. Regardless, I'm going to implement my diet soda/beer plan today and see how that goes (diet soda for drinking, beer for sipping).

[tcoy777]

Good job on the weight. Its always tough on Holiday's to stay focused, but you can do it. Maybe just let yourself go for one day and add a extra day of some cardio. It might help balance out things.

[kfisherx]

I am rooting for you Tom. Remember that NOTHING tastes as good as thin feels.

Take time this weekend to take extra long walks instead of going out for beer with friends. Also seek out some new friends at work or elsewhere who might do the long walks with you. On craigslist there is a board desined for people who just want to meet up and do activities together. Then they have the board for people who want to do that one "special" activity together. Both are cool features for us "active" folks.

[tcoy777]

wow this log is turning into a pimpin one!!

Have great Holiday weekend!!

[stingo]

Well I wish I could say I was good, but I wasn't. However, taking Karla's and Julie's suggestions I think I'm going to stop the happy hour outings and focus on getting my weight down. The exceptions will be a party on the 4th of June (at which I don't plan on drinking) and the 28th of June (where I do plan on drinking). In other words, roughly a month without beer. As a side note, the diet soda plan worked pretty well, but for the taste of the soda interfering with that of the beer. So perhaps water next time.

[Lost Dog]

club soda

[stingo]

Warm-up

I V-ups 2x10
II Cable Core Press 2x20

Workout

A Dumbbell Power Clean and Press 3x12

B Cable Lat Pulldown 2x30

C Circuit x 4
C1 Dumbbell Rows (Left Side) 1x5
C2 Dumbbell Incline Presses (Left Side) 1x5
C3 Mountain Climbers 1x10
C4 Dumbbell Rows (Right Side) 1x5
C5 Dumbbell Incline Presses (Right Side) 1x5

D Push-ups 1x20

I V-ups - I still suck at these. Legs come up fine, but torso mainly stays on the ground. I guess I have to lose more weight to make this one happen.

II Cable Core Press - an interesting exercise, which I mainly feel right at the base of the sides of my core.

A Dumbbell Power Clean and Press - What this basically is is 2 squats with a press in between. Squat down to pick up the weight and clean it to your shoulder. Then squat again and press the weight up to full extension. My legs were tired at the end of set 3.

B Cable Lat Pulldown - I balked at this one at first simply because of where Tim had set the weight stack, but it proved to look worse than it actually was. The 30 rep sets were challenging indeed.

C Circuit - I started out with a 55lb db for the first two times through, but then Tim had me use the 45 instead because he said he didn't like my body mechanics when I was lifting the 55's. Still, it was challenging because there was no rest in between exercises or circuits. I was pretty pleased because I wasn't sucking wind as much as I thought I would be, and Tim said I had some good calf muscles.

D Push-ups - I was originally supposed to do 2 sets AMRAP, but Tim had me do the one after he saw how my shoulder was responding.

Overall - A good workout - and interesting because of switching things up a bit, particularly the circuit. Same exercises as I've been doing, but grouped in different ways. We got off to a later than usual start because of a mishap that occurred while we were prepping. A woman was doing step-ups on a weight bench and apparently lost her balance and fell. I don't think she hurt anything other than her pride, but Tim went over to assist her/see if she was ok. I couldn't help but feel for her, because I've nearly keeled over myself when doing step-ups. On that note, Tim said it looked like I was becoming more comfortable/getting used to this new body - that I was getting more graceful when performing the exercises.

[tcoy777]

Nice workouts. Its good when your trainer sees your improvements.

[kfisherx]

Originally Posted by stingo

Well I wish I could say I was good, but I wasn't. However, taking Karla's and Julie's suggestions I think I'm going to stop the happy hour outings and focus on getting my weight down.

Obviously I am pleased to hear this. But don't just stop doing the outtings. Find another outlet that you can enjoy that is good for you. Hiking comes to mind, or volunteering somewhere or take up a musical instrument. Don't leave a hole where the happy hour outtings once was or it will be very hard.

[Lost Dog]

Tom,

Obviously, we're all different, but please realize that you don't have to give it up to lose fat.

I went from 225 to 195 without low carbing it at all. I had beer two or three times a week (maybe 4-6 bottles total), plus a half a bag of low fat microwave kettle corn virtually EVERY night. EVERY night. All I did was count calories and work it all in.

Find a diet and way of eating that makes you happy. Is it the beer or those people that make you happy? (you don't need to answer, btw.)

[foodfromafar]

Good for you, Tom, on being so close to breaking 230. I agree with Lost Dog. Find a way of eating that works for you and makes you happy. We're all different.