Busy week thus far….

I haven’t logged an entry for awhile; it’s been a busy couple of days. Tuesday evening was softball night where I work and our team lost 21-20. We killed ourselves in that game; at least 10 runs were from errors. I normally take over after the 3rd inning and take third base. I did pretty well; 1 single and a walk for 4 RBI’s (a walk gives men 2 bases and knocks in runs if there are runners on second and third) and handled a grounder well enough to throw a woman out at first base. I burned a ton of calories playing softball.

Tuesday also brought some dietary challenges to me; I normally go home for dinner but couldn’t due to softball being so far away and work being so close. I took leftovers from the excellent, healthy Mexican dinner and tore into that. I also tried an Amy’s Bean, Rice and cheese burrito for lunch. It tasted pretty decent for 310 calories. This week I’ve been taking it slow on the cardio side. I’ve been going for 20 minute walks daily, playing softball or mowing (which surprisingly burns lots of calories). I’ll be stepping this up next week after I see the cardio Doc. Wednesday was salad with chicken strips night and that was also surprisingly decent. No red meat as of yet; I’ll likely have a Laura’s lean beef burger for dinner on Friday.

I’m already seeing a positive change to my appearance; I look much less bloated and my face looks more normal and less puffy. My clothes fit better (looser) and I feel like I’m starting to get more energy and focus at work, as well as at home. I do tend to crash when I mentally shut down for the evening, but that’s been leading to a better night of sleep. We’ll see on Sunday if I’ve lost some weight or if it’s just mental.

A huge downside to eating healthier is the amount of time I’m forced to use the restroom. It does make sense; I’m consuming quite a bit of fiber and grains. It’s just annoying to have to do a “status check” every couple of hours before I go anywhere. The gas is more prevalent as well; at least it doesn’t smell. It does scare our cats at times though; our black cat is scared of thunderstorms and has run in terror a few times after some particularly loud ones. I even have startled our little grey cat when he lies next to me. Angela is of course disgusted, but what can I do? I need that device they showed on the “Mad TV” a few years ago. It transformed the sound of gaseous discharge into cell phone ring tones. Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB-qtqt7Kj8

Some people might be wondering about what tools I’m using to lose weight. I am lucky enough to have an I-Touch (if you don’t have one, or an I-Phone, get one; best purchase ever) and I use some great apps.

Lose-It: This app is spectacular for tracking food and calorie consumption, calories burned via exercise, as well as setting and updating goals. It saves all food entered so you can add it to future meals, and you can even look up fast food, restaurant, or supermarket foods for caloric intake. It also tracks nutrients consumed (that’s a bit more complicated) and you can view your progress online. The one drawback is the website data can only be seen by you and the supermarket/restaurant database needs updating.

Eat this/not that: a handy app that allows me to find a much healthier alternative to foods I eat or while in restaurants like Applebee’s a much better item on the menu.

How to cook everything: I’ll be using this next week; more to come

Couch to 5k: Ditto

I-Fitness: Awesome app. Has workouts for all levels of exercise, shows proper form and methods of said exercises and has a built in log. Must have.

ShakeSmoothie: trying this out over the weekend

Simply Organic Recipes: Ditto again.

I’m sure I’ll be using and describing some other apps out there in the near future. I’ll also mention EA Sports Active for the Wii as well as Fitness USA, the gym I attend.

See you soon…