100 Days

What I ate today

Breakfast (9 a.m.)
½ cup of steel cut oats
Calories: 320
Fat: 6 grams

Lunch (1 p.m.)
1 foot long chicken breast sub from Subway
Calories: 640
Fat: 10 grams

Snack (5 p.m.)
1 can of Campbell’s vegetable beef soup
Calories: 60
Fat: 1 gram

Dinner (6:30 p.m.)
1 Healthy Choice smoked sausage
2 slices of multi grain bread
½ cup of brown rice
Calories: 690
Fat: 11.75 grams

Snack (9:45 p.m.)
Assorted amounts of Broccoli and Cauliflower
Calories: 100?
Fat: 0 grams

Total Calories: 1,810
Total fat: 28.75 grams

Exercise: none

One thought on the above totals. That’s not a bad day overall. Although, I am not sure what kind of fat intake I should have. 65 grams is recommended for a 2,000 calorie diet. So, I am less than half of that today. But how much is too much? How much is too little? Dan does not know these things. Can anyone offer any answers.

Now, on to the point of today’s post. Since I haven’t done it in awhile, I will answer some comments and questions from the last week or so.

From: Karen
RE: You are the greatest person on the face of the earth right now … no, ever!
So cool! I like what you have written and you do seem quite brilliant. You have set some goals for yourself, quite large ones actually. I have found that when I set many goals for myself to accomplish, sometimes I don’t finish anything! You want to lose weight, you want self control, and you want to excel in your career. Well I would say, pick one and do it. Like the weight loss. Once you lose weight, you will have learned how to have self control to a major extent. Once you learn self control, maybe you will be able to give your career the right kind of focus? At any rate, good luck to you!

See that? Karen thinks I’m brilliant. I can’t really argue with her, because, like Zack Morris, I got a 1502 on my SATs. Actually, I didn’t even take the SAT. I took the ACT and got a pedestrian 22. Still, she sees the brilliance. Anyway, Karen nailed the whole reason I am doing this. On some levels it is about just fixing what is wrong with my life. When I hit 270, my life won’t be perfect, but I will have gotten one major thing out of the way. And hopefully, by starting with the physical, I can then move on to the not so obvious: The job problem, the deep down fears of never being able to get close to a woman, the disconnect I have with my father (bastard!) and everything else that is wrong. That is why, when I am through with this, my next blog project will be entitiled “Dan Nied fixes his credit in 100 days”. I think anything can be done in 100 days.

From: Zingzing
Re: God?
Good job Mr. Nied. 34 lbs in less than 6 weeks is great. As you get more stamina and can exercise more (you'll need to, or else you will continue to plateau.), you should lose more weight, I guess. Don't quote or believe me. Well, don't trust my word as gospel. Are you a religious man? Gospel (other than the music) sucks. Anyway, keep up the good work. Remember to put a little money aside for new clothes, unless you've been wearing tight fitting clothes for the last couple of years. Of course, the ladies do like tight fitting clothes.

Alright, he asks about God, even though it was in a bit of a subtle way. I can tell that the Zinger wanted to know my religious beliefs. I do believe in God. I am not a zealot, nor a church-goer, nor a thumper of bibles, nor a Jesus freak. Basically I am a Catholic-school kid who believes that God A) is all-knowing and ubiquitous. b) is willing to forgive all sins based upon true sorrow of the sinner. and C) gives us all the right to make out own choices. Based on C, It is my opinion that God has no part in this weight loss plan. I’m sure he is helping me somehow, but I think this is all on me. But then, what do I know? Maybe it was my time to try this. Maybe God put me on earth to help combat obesity in this country. Who knows?

As for the clothes, I have no money, but will hopefully be buying off the rack soon enough. And I have many tight fitting clothes in my closet. They have been out of rotation for a long while. I am excited to actually be able to fit into some of them again. My wardrobe has been very limited for the last five years. It has been a combination of having no money and not being able to buy things off the rack.

From Matt Sussman
RE: Baby Carrots
If you're looking for extra money, perhaps when this is over you can moonlight as the Jared-like spokesperson for the International Association of Baby Carrots.

Suss, that is an option, I hope. Although I eat Subway much more often than baby carrots. I love both. However, I think that Subway was the greatest thing that ever happened to chubbies. If you are trying to lose weight right now, and aren’t enjoying Subway at least once a week, then I can’t believe your quest will ever succeed.

Here is a message for the people at Subway: I love your restaurants. I am smart, articulate and soon to be very handsome. I need money and I am willing to eat nothing but Subway Clubs to earn it. I am the pulse of America, young and happy with a full set of teeth. And, while it seems that your weight-loss add campaign has tapered off recently, should you ever choose to rehash it and are looking for a new spokesman, just know that I am here and there is no way I would have come even this far without your sandwiches.

Was that whorey enough?

From: Scott
RE: How tall are you Dan?
How tall are you Dan?

Scott asked on Blog Critics and I have already answered him. So I just copied down my response. If you have seen this already, feel free to move on: I stand at a formidable 6-3 with a very large bone structure. I was sort of built like an offensive lineman. So if I get down to 270, I will look pretty good, at least I used to at that weight. But that is the reason I don't want to get down to 190 or anywhere below 230.

From: Jake
RE: Protein Powder is good for you
Plain oatmeal is good for you, but pretty damn nasty. I would recommend buying some flavored protein powder. Avoid the stuff that is high in cholesterol, but if you add a scoop to the oatmeal it makes it taste a lot better plus you get the benefits of around 20 extra grams of protein. Just a suggestion.

From: Jake
RE: I take offense to Guy’s comment about protein powder
In response to Guy's post. General health and nutrition is not for gays. It is for people who try to live a better, healthier lifestyle so they don't die of a heart attack at 35. That is what this whole 100 days is about and most posts should be health related. So Guy, suck my balls.

Those above comments are from my friends, who are all a little bit retarded. I actually tried a small packet of protein powder the other day. It didn’t do anything (although, I don’t know what I thought it would do. I mean, one packet in a bowl of oatmeal isn’t going to make me explode.) I don’t have any problem with protein powder or any supplements. But right now I don’t think they are for me. So I am going to stay away for the time being.

From: Chantal
RE: I’m fat, no I’m not.
I'm 33 yrs old, 3 kids, 5'5 and I weigh about 175. I wear about a size 14. In short, I'm your average American woman. My age bothers me. I HATE being "mid 30's". Although I really think, and am often told, that I look a lot younger. But you know that woman who's about 45 and looks 30, then she loses 50 lbs and her shape looks great, but the fat that was filling in the wrinkles is gone so now she looks 55? I am scared to death of being that woman. I like looking younger. And I really don’t think I'm all that fat. I'm well proportioned - hour glass figure. Well maybe hour-and-a-half glass figure. And to make it worse (or better) I work with a bunch of college age people who tell me all the time how young and hot I look. I've become the resident MILF. Maybe I need to remind myself that most of them are gay, and would say I look fabulous no matter what.

Anyway, when I try to go on a diet, after about day two I start thinking "I don’t need a f-ing diet, I look great and my legion of college-aged fans think so too". Then after a huge lunch and an even bigger dessert, I might wander into my closet and see all the great clothes that I LOVE but can no longer fit in. Maybe I need to pull out my "skinny" jeans as a constant reminder. Because, honestly, sometimes I just FORGET that I'm trying to lose weight, and go ahead and get that Big Mac.

Chantal goes on to describe her plan for losing weight. Someone on Blog Critics mentioned this and I have to agree: The picture of Chantal in my mind is one of a very hot woman. I think it might be the name. Chantal is a good name. Sshe has been one of the more regular posters on BC, I hope she doesn’t mind me using a very personal comment. I use it because I have found that these kinds of decisions are all about how much you want it. Obviously Chantal isn’t morbidly obese. And, from her description, she isn’t even that noticeably big. Plus, she is married (boooo!). But she still wants to lose weight. My motivation came from A) worrying about my future health. B) Not having had a girlfriend in the last three years. C) Not having had sex in the past year. D) Having been overweight for most of my life and wondering what it would be like to be a normal person.

I don’t think Chantal would share any of those motivations. And I know that I probably can’t share any of hers. But it doesn’t matter where the motivation comes from, it just has to be strong enough to sustain you throughout a long, sometimes torturous process. If you want it bad enough, you will make it happen. But you have to figure out why you want it so bad. And if you are worried about physical deformities as a result of weight loss, then I think you are trying too hard to talk yourself out of it.

When she talks about the college aged-guys who think she is hot, I can relate to that. Most gay college guys think I am sexy as fuck. That’s not true (well, maybe it is, I don’t know). But affirmations can sometimes be a smoke screen. Most people think that it helps to tell someone they are attractive or that they notice they are losing weight. Those things feel good, but can sometimes hinder the progress. For me, any sort of breakthrough will likely be met by a few days of “celebration”. I am going through that now after getting down to 331. The thinking is that, because I am doing so well, I can afford to stretch the diet a few days. I’ve earned it. But, I haven’t. I have to realize that, while I have lost close to 40 pounds, I am still not where I want to be. I can afford to relax once I hit 270. I think it is key to figure out where you want to be and to not accept anything short of that.

From: RJ
RE: Motivate me
Dan, I really think you are motivating people here! Just yesterday, I went to the hated Wal-Mart, and instead of buying frozen pizzas, corn chips, popcorn, pretzels, and all the rest, I bought the following: (goes on to list nothing but health food.)

RJ, that is great. I never really thought about the possibility of motivating people when I started this. I just wanted there to be people who would be disappointed in me if I failed. But, you know, I am a very normal guy who has self control problems that everyone can relate to. So I can see the motivation aspect because I don’t even own fucking gym membership let alone have access to trainers, chefs or the Biggest Loser Ranch. So I guess it is great that I am proving that anyone can lose weight.

From: Diana
RE: Choices
You've realized some important things at the ripe old age of 26 (I'm 43, many are young'uns to me) so it's a good bet that you'll get to skip a few steps when others are having a mid-life crisis. A lot of people don't realize their choices (or that they even have them) until much later.

This was a response to the post about choices from last week. I guess that I learned a valuable lesson through all this. And apparently I am a very smart man. But really, as far as the choices went, I think it is all common knowledge. We all are responsible for our situations. Maybe it takes something drastic to bring on that realization, though. I have definitely learned a few things from this entire process, and I am thankful for that. Hopefully, as I sweat off the next 60 pounds, I will learn a few more things along the way.