100 Days

Alright peeps, what’s goin on?

Tough weekend for ‘ol Danny boy here. I had a bit of a road trip (4 hour drive) for a baseball tournament. The tournament kinda sucked and the trip basically took me from Shittown, USA to Shittown Heights, USA. Colorado has some sort of racket going with the rest of the nation. Everyone thinks this entire state is one big ski resort. Well, from what I’ve seen, 85 percent of this state is poor towns with one blinking yellow light and a main street filled with nothing but fast food restaurants.

THERE IS NOTHING IN MIDDLE AMERICA! There is nothing here, yet these are the people who are most worried about terrorism. I don’t really get that. These are the people who reelected Bush because they thought he could do a better job protecting the country. But there is absolutely no chance that a terrorist attack would ever hit one of these shitty towns. For one, they already fucking look like they’ve been hit by terrorists. For another, no one outside of Colorado, let alone outside of the United States, has ever heard of these towns. And yes, I realize that we all live in the same country and a massive terrorist attack on New York or Washington DC would be devastating to all of us. But in the tiny town of Bumfuck, Neb. shouldn’t the primary political concern be in the protection of the small farmers, or at least the installation of a public dental program that would stop these people from losing their teeth at 25?

Sorry to preach here, but that’s just how I feel.

Whew. Got that out of the way. Ok now, there is some serious business to get out of the way. But first, we’ll start with a comment that Jacob left me:

From: Jacob
Cameron's right, you lazy humanized jabba. Quit talking yourself out of this. We do all have jobs and most of us find time to get to the gym. You're not 22 anymore when you can just lay around, eat whatever you want and be a cool 3 bills without gaining weight. Those glory days are over. And the whole "to protect against malicious comments" delay in posting these comments is effing lame man ... effing lame.

Ok. Cameron and Jacob like to leave posts like this. I am perfectly fine with that. However, he must be refuted: Last week I went to the gym five straight days. And I also worked 50 hours without a day off. However, I did skip out on Thursday and Friday because of a heavy workload. I think that’s ok. What bothers me is that I’ve talked myself out of working out on Thursday and Friday a lot recently. That’s a problem. I don’t like taking four days off between workouts.

Also, the “malicious intent” screening is put up there by Moveable Type, which is what I use to post. For purposes of this blog, it has nothing to do with malicious intent. You can call me a child molester and I will still approve the comment. But that is turned on to protect against spam comments, with which we had a very large problem on the main page of 210west.com. I just deleted 60 spam comments that were left over the weekend on the blog. So things have to be weeded out.

There is one more comment I want to get to before I actually get to my point today.

From: Keslea
Hey my name is Kelsea and I am 13 I wish I could lose 20 pounds or so but I can’t. I am being invited to a pool party in 6 days and I wanna lose 10 pounds at least by then!!!

Well, assuming this comment is on the up and up, it is good to see I am reaching the kids with this. Although, I am a little troubled by this whole teenage self-image thing, especially when this comment was left on Day 112, the bulemia entry. Kelsea, you won’t lose 10 pounds in six days. It’s just not going to happen. But you can get a good start on losing 20 pounds if you eat right in the next six days. Also, exercise more. That’s the key. When I was around 13, I lost 16 pounds in a pretty short amount of time. It’s not hard to do. And whatever you do, please don't make yourself throw up. It's not fun. It doesn't taste very good coming up and your eyes are all red afterwards. Those are only the short term effects. In the long term, your stomach goes to shit and you lose your teeth (like the people in Bumfuck, Neb.) No matter how thin you are, no guy wants a girl with no teeth who throws up all the time. Trust me.

All right. Now we can get down to business. The newest goal date is June 9, the day I go home for 10 days. That is 26 days away. The last time I weighed in, I was a shade under 290. So, let’s use 290 as the starting weight. Obviously, the goal weight is and has always been 270. If subtraction isn’t your strong suit, 270 is 20 pounds away.

So that’s the idea: 20 pounds in 26 days. It is an uphill task, but doable. Here’s my plan: I gotta get back to basics. I need to rekindle the original plan of 1,200-1,500 calories per day without cheating. I need to go grocery shopping regularly and I need to work out every chance I get. What’s more, Subway sandwiches are out for the next 26 days. Subway wraps are in, though only in a reasonable amount. (By the way, I found out Friday that Subway Girl quit. She is now just Girl). Hopefully, I won’t be going to Subway five times a week anymore. That should help me limit sodium and calories. Meanwhile, a bigger emphasis will be placed on salads, grilled chicken and eating five times per day. In short, I will do what I should have been doing all along.

See, the key here is motivation. After the 100 days, I couldn’t really find the required motivation. Yes, I stayed on the diet, but I strayed enough to limit my weight loss to only 10 pounds in a month. I’ll be the first to admit that those 10 pounds were more a result of carry-over momentum from the 100 days than my actually trying. Yes, I still worked out and I still ate pretty well, but it wasn’t in the same way as before. To an extent, it was also a product of a lifestyle change. But there wasn’t a ferocity in my intentions. The final goal wasn’t totally in sight. Now I can challenge myself again. 20 pounds in 26 days. It should be interesting.