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Two months into my diet, and in the last month I’ve lost 1.6 pounds. But, its been one hell of a roller coaster for the diet. A camping trip up to Algonquin, and then a trip down to San Francisco; both times not adhering to the diet, both times coming back with extra poundage, and both times losing the extra weight gained once I got back on track.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

Now that the warmer months are upon us, I’m sure it will be FAR easier to get more and more exercise. I already have Ultimate Frisbee and spinning classes to help get the heart pumping, so I guess now it’s time to start biking to and from work again. I stopped because we had a cold snap, and would have started again last week, but I had a bunch of things going on that were just easier to get to via the TTC.

Anyway, thanks again to all of you for your kind words and support. You all rock!

About two weeks ago, Adam, the captain of our Ultimate Frisbee team, and all around good guy and friend, got me thinking about “spinning” (for those of you who don’t know what that is and don’t want to click on the link, spinning is basically indoor cycling, but an actual class rather than an individual endeavour). Molly and I agreed to give it a shot this Wednesday, as we were looking for something that would help increase our stamina for when we played Ultimate Frisbee, and basically get into better shape.

I will admit, while I have lost a bit of weight recently, I am still somewhat out of shape, and I huff and puff when I’m running around, trying to get open for a pass, or even cover my opponent. Biking to and from work has helped a bit, but in the long run, I want to add a bit more to my exercise regimen, and spinning seemed to be both an intense workout and a lot of fun.

Well, initially no.

For the first 20-25 minutes, my thighs were burning something fierce, I was out of breath, I found the room to be too hot and stuffy, and I started getting some serious cramps in my calves to the point where I would cry out from the pain and spend a minute or two massaging them. Honestly, I hated it, and wondered what the fuck I was doing there in the first place. But, this was pretty much my first time ever spinning, so I was being a tad bit judgmental. Molly and Adam kept going, and only two people in the class left halfway through, but I wasn’t about to give up. Hell no. I had something to prove… mostly to myself.

The last 20-25 minutes of the class, my thighs weren’t burning at all, and while my calves were slightly cramping, I ignored the pain, and just shifted my legs so I wouldn’t feel it as much. I was sweating like crazy, downing water, and mostly just closed my eyes so I could focus on what I was doing (and also because the sweat was burning my retinas; note to self: get a sweatband). Our instructor, Quintin, near the end asked how many more songs we should go through, and some people mumbled one or two, and I was in the zone and was about to yell out “Five!” (mostly to be a smartass and force myself to put my money where my mouth was), but Adam beat me to it by shouting “Two!”, so two it was.

Next time, Adam, next time we’re doing FIVE.

In the end, it was a great workout, and never once did I feel that I was competing against anyone or felt like I was being judged by anyone, which is usually the case when you go to work out. Everyone there was friendly, and even Quintin said to go at your own pace, don’t go crazy, and just enjoy yourself… and I did. I’m definitely going to go back, and perhaps after a few months, I’ll be able to spin as fast as some of the other hardcore spinners there, as a few of them were going nuts. We’ll see about that, though.

Adam, many thanks for letting me know about Quad. I’ve passed the place hundreds of times on the streetcar and never knew what an awesome environment it was, or how fun it could be. Can’t wait for the next class!

For my own info:

• Handlebars: Two
  
• Seat height: Two
• Seat horizontal: Half of one

So, here we are, one month after I started my diet, which isn’t really a diet… more of a lifestyle change… and I’m about 16lbs lighter. I’m still amazed at how easy this was, and also the rapid results thus far. Obviously, I know that from here on in it’ll be slow going, but still, the rapid loss of weight is in itself motivation to continue.

Other sources of motivation have been Molly and my friends. Without their support, and their stories of what they’ve done in the past and are still doing to maintain a healthy lifestyle, this would have been all the more difficult. Molly and I cook at home a LOT more than we used to, and have discovered new dishes that taste amazing, and we find more every day that we’d like to try.

The increased activity in my life is also a major contributor. Soon I’ll be playing Ultimate Frisbee again. In the meantime, I’ve taken to riding my bike to and from work, which not only saves me the cost of a monthly pass for the TTC, but also allows me to explore the city a bit more. In the past, I’ve always seen cars and bikes and modes of transportation; I only used them when I had a reason to go from point A to point B. I didn’t see the allure of simply just going out and walking or riding around the city… what was the point? I didn’t need to go anywhere, so why bother? Since riding my bike around, I have discovered something a lot of you already knew: its FUN to explore the city. Kind of liberating in a way.

Also, I was just recently advised of this dude:

http://www.johnstonefitness.com/

This guy started out just like I did; sick of what he saw in the mirror, and decided to do something about it. He weighed 220lbs, complete with gut. Over the course of his routine to get back into shape, he tracked what he ate, when he worked out, and even took pictures of himself. I’m pretty much doing all that on my site, except the pictures (who needs to see another picture of a fat man on the ‘net?), and I’m also not going to the extra trouble of listing all the calories and other nutritional value of the food I eat, but it’s still kinda neat to know that I’m not the only one who has had this idea.

In the end, thank you all for your support. You all rock!

It’s odd… but for the longest time I **HATED** salads. Whenever I would eat out, and the dish included a side of salad, I would substitute it one of the other side dishes, more often than not an extra heaping of fries. Now that I’m trying to eat healthy, I’m finding that I’ll usually opt to eat a salad more than anything else (as noticed by those who have been reading my meal logs).

The one salad I can’t seem to get enough of is a chicken Caesar salad, and so far, the small one available at Dominion. This is loaded with chicken, “real” bacon bits (not sure about how healthy THEY are), traces of cheese, lettuce (duh), and I grab the free Caesar light dressing provided. Even though it says that it is a “small”, and only 250g on the package, this is not a small bowl. Generally, it is enough foliage and bird meat to keep me full for a while. I’m also a fan of balsamic vinaigrette dressing, but I have yet to get a salad that I can put that on. Perhaps this coming week.

However, I should point out that while I am trying to get used to eating salads (which those of you who know me is a massive uphill battle), I am stating right now, for the record, that I **WILL NOT** eat a mixed green salad. This is the salad that includes green and purple leaves, some sort of white branches, and to me, looks and tastes like something fished out of Lake Ontario, right next to Harbourfront. Nasty! One of Molly’s favourite stories is when we first started dating and were going to have brunch at Kilgour’s, and I warned her not to get the salad as I found it disgusting… and sure enough, she apparently likes mixed green salads. Go figure. Thanks Universe.

Anyway, we’ll see how this goes, and I’m going to try and stick with it in the long run as a diet always fails because it is seen as a temporary thing. This is not a temporary thing for me. I am now 30 years old, feel like a fat bastard, and I need to change what I eat, drink, and at what amounts. I don’t like having a small planet for a belly, and I’m going to do whatever it takes to slim down. I’ll talk about my exercise plans at a later date, but needless to say, now that spring is finally arriving, the options are endless.

Lastly, let me say that whenever I think about salads, I always remember one line from “That 70’s Show”, where Kitty forces Red to eat a salad when what he really wanted was a steak:

“This isn’t food! This is what food eats!”

After the success of last night, you’d better believe that I have a craving for steak again!

I’ll be stopping off at Dominion on the way home and picking up a flank steak (if they have one) and a top sirloin for Molly. She said she was going to make some roasted vegetables tonight (peppers, zucchini, asparagus, etc) and will be picking up the fixings for that.

I tell ya, some of you may have known all about broiling food in the oven, but I sure as hell didn’t. All this time, I could have been eating steaks and other such foods which usually could only be made on the BBQ. For those of you saying “Yeah, I knew that… you didn’t?”, I ask you:

WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME!?!?

Okay. Time to get those steaks. My mouth is watering just thinking about them.

*Homer drooling sound*

For the longest time, I’ve thought that living in an apartment sucked as I couldn’t have a BBQ, and thus, couldn’t cook a decent steak.

Well, I was wrong. All this time, and I’d never tried broiling a steak.

Molly and I are taking steps to try and eat better, which should hopefully result in loss of weight. This includes cooking more, and ordering out or eating out less. For this to work, we’ll need to eat more of the foods we like that are good for us, but there are so many that we thought we couldn’t cook in our apartment. Steak was one of them.

The law here in Toronto is that you are not allowed to have a gas BBQ on the balcony. I can understand why from an insurance standpoint; the owners of the apartment complex want to reduce the chances of a tenant affecting the structural integrity of the building should there be an accidental detonation. But, when was the last time you heard of any BBQ equipment blowing up? There are safety values on the BBQ tanks and the BBQs themselves, and the tanks are usually exchanged when you refill them. However, I can argue this until I am blue in the face, and it won’t change the fact that if I want to stay in my apartment, I can’t have a BBQ. I have a George Foreman electric BBQ that my Mom got for me, but I’ve never been able to cook anything on it but burgers (which taste amazing, BTW).

So, tonight, Molly and I wanted steak. She had bought two strip loin steaks for us, and I came across this on the Food Network site:

Preheat oven on broiler setting. Make foil ’snake’ out of aluminum foil to use to keep oven door slightly ajar so that broiler won’t turn off if it gets too hot. Brush steak with oil and salt and pepper, to taste. Place a piece of foil on the bottom rack as a drip pan. Place another rack in the position above this and put the steak directly on this rack. Cook steak in this position for 5 minutes. Flip steak and cook for another 5 minutes. Move rack with steak to top position in oven, moving rack with foil and drippings just underneath, and cook for 3 minutes. Flip 1 last time and cook for another 3 minutes. Transfer steak to wire rack and rest for 3 to 5 minutes. The above times are for medium doneness. Adjust cooking times up or down as desired.

So, we just did up the steaks as we wanted them, heated up the oven to “broil”, and put the steaks right onto the oven grill with a cooking sheet below for the drippings. I set the timer for six minutes per side, and they came out all crispy, juicy, and for me, medium-rare. I had some mixed vegetables as a side, and we ate while watching “Enterprise”. Good lord, did my steak taste good. Not as good as on a BBQ, but on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being a BBQ cooked steak, it was an 8.5. Leaps and bounds over a pan-fried steak (which is just WRONG in my opinion), and any other way you can cook a steak sans BBQ.

We’ll be having steak MUCH more often now. Awesomeness!