100 Days

November 8, 2006

Here we go again

Where was I? Throwing up of course.

I am climbing back on the wagon once again, I just didn’t realize it went up so high.

By my count, it has been nearly three months since I last posted something on this blog. I tried posting something in late August, there was some sort of technical problem. That gave me an excuse to be lazy and, well, I ended up putting the blog in the background.

As happens so often with me, I am somewhat content doing nothing until inspiration, with no real rhyme or reason, strikes me. So the blog went untouched, if not unread, for the better part of 75 days. Maybe it was something about election day Tuesday, something turning me on about the citizens of this country claiming back, finally, their government and restoring checks and balances to Washington. I did, in fact, spend about seven hours watching the elections tonight. Maybe it was Annie, a girl I know, absolutely demanding that I start up the blog again tonight. She knows my struggle to maintain. She hears about it often. But inspiration came Tuesday.

So August 17 is the last dated entry, and I am not about to start counting days for you. Let’s just say that half of August and all of September and October have passed since you had any new material.

In that time, I’ll admit, I haven’t eaten like I should. There have been too many Taco Bell trips. My new home state of California has opened my eyes to the wonders of Jack In the Box, and, lately, I’ve had a craving for pizza. Yet, all scales tell me I am still at 275 (including one a few weeks ago that claimed I was a solid 255….riiiight).

Now, that 275 might be from a loss of muscle, since I haven’t been lifting like I used to. But I also suspect that it still takes a lot of calories for me to actually gain weight (remember, the jaunt to 370 took about three years. The run to 275 took six months).

So what am I doing now, with this entry? Starting up again.

Well, here’s the thing: Granted, for most of the last two months I haven’t really been trying to lose weight. I had a tricky battle with stomach pains and I wanted those gone. I wanted to reclaim the freedom to eat whatever I wanted without immediate repercussion. The stomach pains, which were happening about three times a week during September and early October, were really getting to be a pain in the ass. In short, my logic, faulty as it may be, dictated to me that, just as I had to train my body to reject fatty foods, I also had to retrain my body to accept them. I always want to have the occasional (!) burger or slice of pizza. It got to the point where just a little bit of any high fat food would set off the stomach pains.

That lead to a bulimic-like state where every bad choice, no matter how minor it might be, had to be regurgitated to avoid the stomach pains. I will rationalize here by saying that I wasn’t bulimic, because I wasn’t throwing up to keep my weight down. I was doing it preemptively so I wouldn’t be bed-ridden the next day. It had to be done, especially when I kept making poor eating choices. I made my bad choices, and I kept making them. It was not the best thing for me to do. The stomach pains, however, became elongated, lasting up to 12 hours on some occasions. So you can see why the quickness of regurgitation was a pleasant option at the time.

After a while, I realized that was no way to live. So I decided I had to wean myself back onto fatty foods. I ate healthy otherwise, but a few times a week I would tinker with something new, be it a chicken-based Taco Bell order or a bowl of ice cream. I began to accept the stomach pains as they came, facing them head on. I tinkered, figured out what worked best. A few weeks ago, it became clear to me that the stomach pains, and therefore the regurgitation, were in the past. So that’s all good.

So I was free to begin another stage of this quest to lose weight. I am at 95 pounds right now. I want to take it down another 30 or so. I am still trying to figure out the best way to do this without repeating the last two months of misery. I need to keep an element of fatty foods in my diet, perhaps once a week or once every two weeks. The fact that I am still 6-3, 275 and a relatively young 27 years old (I had a birthday in August!) should make it ok to handle the occasional fatty meal and not gain much, if any, weight. Still, I’d like to get back to the old routine. I liked that routine. Can we do 1,500 calories per day? Maybe we can. We’ll see.

I was supposed to begin this last week, and I tried hard to do so. But I kept finding myself back at the fast food restaurants every night after work. I tried to figure out what was wrong. My motivation isn’t where it was in January. I need to find that. The other big void in the quest was the lack of the blog. And, since it has been sitting here for the last three months, untouched, I figured it couldn’t hurt to start it up again.

The main difference, though, is this: Last time, I did this blog for the readers. This time, I am doing it for me. Feel free to follow along, if you’d like. There is always room on my wagon.

Posted by west at 4:42 AM | Comments (0)

August 17, 2006

We're done counting days

I'm back and ready to rumble

I'm back! And I am sure my readership has dwindled down to nothing. That's ok. Word of mouth will pick up again and this will be the most popular weight-loss blog run out of my bedroom ever!

Oh, by the way, I have a bedroom now. Not just a studio apartment. So you could say I am living in the lap of luxury. You could say that, but you would be wrong. Also, there is a new photo of me underneath this entry. Check it out.

Ok, so it has been nearly a month since I have last posted and there is one very good reason for that: My internet connection was non existent. For the last three weeks I have been living life with a high speed connection at work, where i didn't have the necessary web address to update the blog (a result of a lack of foresight in not emailing it to myself). At home I have been using my roommate's dialup connection, where I also didn't have the necessary web address to update. But now the high speed is back on, my computer is up and running and this blog can resume.

And resume it will. I am hoping for updates at least three times per week, if not every day. Maybe it will morph into something other than a total weight loss blog, but that is the chance I am willing to take.

As for the weight loss, let's set some goals that aren't really in stone. I would like to get to 240 by Christmas. If I don't get there, then so be it. As long as I take off some significant weight between now and then I will be happy. The idea here is that I want to look better going home in December than I did going home in June.

The plan is to recapture the magic from the first 100 days. So I am gonna go back and look at the food journals and devise the best plan I can. There will be, however, more leeway in the diet, meaning that I can go out and have a few beers now and again or I can go out to dinner. I am preparing for an eventual social life here in California.

Oh yeah, California. I haven't even brought that up yet. In case you weren't following the last few days before the dropoff, I moved to California, more specifically the East Bay, 30 miles north of San Francisco, in July. I am three weeks into my new job and it is going pretty well. It is a much better place that Colorado. Now, if I could only meet some people to go drinking with.

Actually, I do have someone to go drinking with. I have a roommate named Chris who is a pretty cool guy. We both like the ladies, but have trouble getting them to touch us in our special places. It's ok. I feel a breakthrough for both of us. We've been out around here a few times and, sad to say, the town I live in is not happening. However, the reason that is ok is very simple: There are a bunch of cool towns within 20 minutes of here. Napa is just to the north (That's wine country) Berkely is 20 minutes south. Also, San Francisco is about a 40 minute drive. So everything works out. In Colorado, there was nothing to do and the nearest cool place was an hour and a half away. So you can see that this is a better social situation.

I have to admit, the transistional phase has not been good to the diet. However, an odd thing has happened in the last few weeks. When I was packing everything, I tried some of my tighter clothes on and they were still tight. About a week ago, I tried them on again and everything in my wardrobe - and I mean everything - fit perfectly. The tightest thing I had - a long sleeved t shirt that comemorated the 1980 US Olympic hockey team (I got it in 2000 while I was doing my internship with USA Hockey and when, coincidentally, I was also 270) is now almost baggy. I wore it to work one day last week.

So what happened? It seems that I have lost some weight, even though I haven't really been sticking to a regimen. I haven't been eating shit for three weeks, though. I have simply relaxed the diet. But still, every morning I have a bowl of oatmeal and there have been a lot of tuna. Also, exercise isn'texactly happening right now. There is no more free gym membership. That means the next time I work out it will be on my own dime. Right now I am just trying to figure out how many dimes I have to put towards that. I definitely want to start working out again. I think there is a hot body inside me somewhere. Just gotta find it.

So all is well here. I may be going to San Fran on Thursday. If not, I am hitting the grovery store. But I just want y'all to know that I'm back.

Posted by Dan Nied at 12:42 AM | Comments (0)

July 18, 2006

Day 193

Mired in progresslessness

I am basically treading water right now, putting together some good days of eating with some not so good days of eating, never really totally fucking up.

In short, I am doing enough to maintain my weight or, at most, lose just a little bit here and there.

For the last month I have gone back and forth between 280 and 276, never really making a huge breakthrough, but always staying under the dubious 280 mark.

But it is safe to say that this diet has lost momentum since I came back from Detroit.

What that means is that it is no longer the most important thing of each day. It has become routine. I know exactly what I am going to get at the grocery store. I know exactly what I can have for lunch and I know exactly what I can cheat with.

Bagels are a very guilty pleasure. At restaurants I almost always order a salad, but don’t hesitate to use all of the dressing. I think I could go on eating along these lines for a good long while, but of course I am thinking there will be at least one more major push towards 240. When that push will come, I don’t know. Hopefully it will be soon, but in a week I will be embarking on one of the biggest unknown adventures of my entire life.

This move is bigger than college, but similar in many ways. First, I will be moving in with people I don’t know, in a setting I am not familiar with. Second, I won’t know anyone at all, save for two friends who each live an hour away in different directions. Third, different things will be expected of me in my studies/job. Fourth, at the end of a period of time (three years in my head) I will know where I stand as a professional.

This is a big stepping stone job for me. It will either kill my career or propel me into the big time of sports journalism. What I have on my side is what I didn’t know during college: hard work will eventually pay off. I didn’t do a journalism-class assignment for my last three years of college. I flunked two easy classes just because I didn’t feel like doing the homework. But now, I understand that if I might have done those things, then the last few years of all around near-depression may not have ever happened.

So all I can do is go out there and work hard and make sure I am one of the best writers they have ever had.

But at the same time, I have to remember to work hard in other aspects of my life. Namely, the weight loss. To be what I want to be, I need to be under 250. That’s all there is. And I need to do it soon. I don’t need to go back to 1200 calories per day, but I have to be much more careful about what I put into my body.

So really, that’s where I am right now. I started packing my stuff today and I have a lot of work to do before I get done.

Posted by Dan Nied at 2:08 AM | Comments (0)

July 14, 2006

Day 188

Cleaning is not my specialty

With eight day left before I begin the move to the greater San Francisco area, the hard part has officially begun.

Now, to make everything clear, the hard part is not the saying goodbye to the countless friends I have made here in Colorado. I don’t have that many. Nor is the hard part trying to do all the stuff I always enjoyed doing in Sterling. Actually, I didn’t enjoy doing anything in Sterling. Nothing here is conducive to anything. You know how most towns have at least one cool thing? Like a town will have an awesome park with a bunch of trails that you can walk around for hours? Or it will have a sweet sports complex with batting cages and stuff? Well that shit doesn’t exist here. Nothing in this town is top notch. Everything is below standard. Everything sucks.

Nope, it will be easy to tear myself away from this town. But that hard part is cleaning up my apartment. See, I am gonna be poor in California. I need every damn cent of that security deposit back. Unfortunately, in the nearly two years that I have lived in this space, this is the first time I ever actually cleaned.

The concept of cleaning is quite foreign to me. It wasn’t until I moved into this apartment that I realized the difference between cleaning and straightening up. I am pretty good at making the place presentable. Of course, I haven’t had company since Feb. 2005, so I predictably fell behind in the straightening up department. But anyway, I used to think that clearing the floor of debris and straightening out the coffee table was sufficient cleaning. Same with doing the dishes and taking out the garbage.

Well, apparently, something called dust collects all over the place. Also, something along the lines of grime just accumulates in nearly-impossible-to-get-off deposits on all kinds of surfaces. Who knew? Not me.

To my credit, I began a few days ago, cleaning the kitchen counters and the stove. So I got a head start. But then I couldn’t carry over the momentum to subsequent days. So that kind of sucked. Thursday night I decided to attack the bathroom with a passion. The bathroom, because I am generally a dirty scrub and because I have neglected it for a long, long time, figured to be the most daunting task of cleaning.

My attempt to clean my crapper was comedy at its finest. First, I decided to use the all purpose cleaner WITH BLEACH. I didn’t really figure that it might almost make me pass out, even with no windows open. So imagine my surprise when my eyes started watering and I got so dizzy I almost fell down. I think it was the fumes. I know this because it was definitely the fumes. What else could it have been? Certainly not the effort, since that was lacking.

I had to scrub every inch of that fucking bathroom. And still, it wasn’t totally clean. Perhaps the most embarrassing part, which I will enthusiastically recount here, was the mopping. See, I don’t really know how to mop and I think that sort of came back to bite me in the ass. I read the Pine Sol directions and everything and I tried my best to figure out how much to use and how to do it. But I think I did it wrong. I ended up with puddles of dirty water all over the floor. Is the mop water supposed to be brown? If so, then I am a natural. But really, somehow I don’t think it is.

So it became apparent to me that I had to sop up this water somehow. I really had nothing to do it with except for me last clean (read: only) bath towel. So I sopped up all this filthy water with the towel. I did one of those things where you throw the towel on the floor, stand on it and dance your way to clean tiles? I was listening to the Arctic Monkeys at the time, so the floor got extra dry. All in all, the bathroom doesn’t look too bad right now. So I guess I did ok. Perhaps a little unconventional.

Anyway, that is my first adventure with cleaning this week. I am sure there is more.

I need a little help here. Since I am about to embark on a three-day road trip halfway across the country, I am looking for music to burn. I want to make about 10 mixed CDs. At least two will be comedy-based. The others will be music-based. So, I need some suggestions that I might not think of. So, if you people have any ideas feel free to post them in a comment below. However, if you want to be super awesome, then you can attach the MP3 file in an email to nieddan@yahoo.com. There is an example of what I am looking for below.

All right, gotta get back to cleaning.

Posted by Dan Nied at 12:22 AM | Comments (0)

July 13, 2006

Day 187

I don't want to gain it all back and be airlifted out of my home

So here’s what happened today: Not a whole lot actually.

I got to the gym, but for an interview with a new coach. But after the interview I managed to get on the elliptical for a half hour. So that was nice. However, I did not come close to working out, which puts me a day off schedule.

Working out has been very beneficial for me. In the four months since I started, there is a noticeable difference (to me at least) in my muscle tone. My arms are much more muscular than they were before. There are muscled that I didn’t really know existed. By the way, my forearms are fucking sexy right now. All this from lifting for about 25 minutes two to three times per week. Its not that hard, its not that exhausting, it burns calories and it works for you.

See, lifting is good for you.

But, of course, if I don’t keep losing weight then lifting won’t make a damn bit of difference. After the elliptical today, I was down to just under 277 pounds, which marks a new low point, actually. So yeah, that is pretty sweet. Look, it might take a year or two to get down to 240. There’s no doubt about that possibility. But I’ll keep saying it: as long as the numbers keep going down, one tenth of a pound at a time, I’ll be happy as hell. The key right now is to continue going downward. It doesn’t have to be 70 more pounds in 100 days. More likely, it will be 10 pounds in 40 days. That would be a fantastic leap right now.

Why? Because I couldn’t have been expected (by myself or anyone else) to keep up the pace I was going at in the initial 100 days. That time was lightning in a bottle and I really believe it changed my life.

I was watching something on the discovery channel Sunday night about a guy that lost like 700 pounds. It was the most weight any man had ever lost. But a few years after that, he had gained all the weight back and then some. And for all of his accomplishments, he could never really give anything up.

And I don’t want to be like that guy. I just can’t really do it. But some parts of my story line up with his. He said that, after the got under 200 pounds, he went to Coney Island and had four hot dogs with chili fries. Well, I’ve gone on similar binges (probably bigger ones) in the past few months. I manage to control myself the rest of the time, but those binges signal to me the possibility of recessing back to my old ways.

Basically, I don’t want to get down to 240 and then say “Hey, let’s celebrate” and have that celebration last until the weight comes back. I don’t want to be 240 for a day, then go up to 241, 242, 243… That’s kind of what happened when I hit 265 in college. I started going up immediately before I hit 335 not long after.

So I guess all I can really do is remain strong in the cause here. I can’t avoid eating shitty sometimes (nor would I want to) but I have to realize that I am bigger than that fourth slice of pizza.

Posted by Dan Nied at 2:30 AM | Comments (0)

July 11, 2006

Day 185

I'm pumped

If you had to sum up my mood today in one word, that word would be “enthused.”

First, I put together a second solid eating day in a row, taking in about 1,200 calories and working out when I said I was gonna take the day off. I am enjoying this whole habit I have gotten into of working out when I am bored. Before, I would take a nap or plan an elaborate take out dinner. But now, I just go work out. I think its better for me that way. Also, getting two good days in was important, considering the rut I had fallen into of basically eating well only every other day. Momentum is coming back, hopefully.

Second, I lost a little bit of weight. Remember yesterday I said that, at this point, I don’t care how fast or slow weight comes off, I just want to see continuous progress. Well I am about a pound down today (roughly 277.5) and looking forward to weighing in tomorrow.

Third, I think I have found a place to live in California. There was a lot of stress about where I would live and how much money it would cost. But I managed to find a place (I think) that is only $435 per month with manageable electric bills additional. All told, my math says it should add up to just a little bit more than what I am paying now. So maybe I can actually make use of the $6,000 raise I am going to get from this new job. But then, it IS California, so they’ll probably find some crazy way to drain my money. Oh, the best part about this place I found: It is a half mile from work. So that should save heavily on gas.

Yup, things are turning up Dan. So that’s pretty fucking good right now.

After I found out I have the room (which is in a large Victorian house that will be shared by two 30 year olds that I have never met) it hit me that I am heading to California. I was pumped up like a kid who just hit a little league grand slam. To someone who has never been out west before, which is a category I fall into, there is something magical about the idea of living in California, especially within close proximity to San Francisco. And after this utterly cultureless experience of the last two years (This town feels like a seventh-grade math class) I can’t really contain my feelings about how happy I am to be moving to one of the most culturally progressive areas in the country.

Sure, I might be a half hour out of San Francisco, and I don’t really have any first-hand knowledge of the town of Vallejo, but I have seen the worst America has to offer. It is called Sterling, Colo. So no matter what Vallejo can throw at me, I’ll be ready. It can’t be worse than this town.

The one major obstacle left before the move is cleaning my apartment. If any of you would like to help, please do. I have been putting it off for a week now and things aren’t exactly getting any better.

And the other major worry about the move is the diet. I’m sure I can buy healthy things in the grocery stores, but I am also sure that part of me will want to explore the town and the area as much as possible upon arrival. That could mean restaurants and nights at the bar. Of course, maybe I won’t have anyone to do that with. But let’s hold out hope that my roommates are cool. Of course, I’ll have to find a place to work out. But I probably won’t have the money for a membership for a few months. So I guess I may have to start paying a day rate.

The best thing about living in Colorado is that none of that stuff was a concern. Basically, this was the perfect place to lose weight. There are no good restaurants and no good bars. Plus, I got a free gym membership from work. So everything was kind of set up for success.

But now, I think I might be in a situation more apt for failure.

Interesting.

Posted by Dan Nied at 12:53 AM | Comments (0)

July 10, 2006

Day 184

Struggling with a stagnat presence

There is no doubt in my mind that this is most difficult part of my journey to day.

Right now it is very easy for me to use my past success to rationalize taking days off. After all, I’ve come this far, right? So what kind of big deal is it if I go out to lunch or have a few bagels as a snack? Well, its kind of a big deal.

Now, the occasional meal off isn’t such a bad thing. Its when that one meal leads to the fuck up of an entire day. That’s the bad part.

That’s what happened Saturday. I was covering an event and, without asking, the concession people just served me up a dish of cherry cobbler. It was delicious, sure. But I wasn’t really planning on having it. I took it to be polite.

And that would have been ok, in my mind. But that led to a trip to Subway for a Spicy Italian. Then later that night I had another big sandwich and gave myself stomach pains this morning.

I managed to get back on track Sunday, having a pretty decent day. But still, unless I can string together a long streak of healthy days, I won’t ever get down to 240. And I very much want to get down to 240.

The biggest worry for me right now is my mental state. My lifestyle has changed a great deal, but I still screw up more than I would like. Also, with a move looming in the next two weeks, and no real idea of what my health options will be in this new city (where will I work out?), I have no clue what the next few months will bring.

But that’s part of it, right? A lifestyle change means incorporating those habits into any typical situation. That’s what I am gonna have to do. And you know, there is no timetable for me to get down to 240, but the most important part is that I see continuous progress in the effort. For the last three weeks, I have shuttled between 280 and 277. I am losing and gaining the same three pounds. That’s not progress, that’s nothing.

But hey, at least I am not going up.

Posted by Dan Nied at 12:46 AM | Comments (0)

July 7, 2006

Day??? I've lost track

I'm here

I just wanted to stop in today to tell everyone that I haven't fallen off the face of the earth or anything.

I just got a little lazy this week and kind of decided not to do any blog entries after Monday. I know, sorry.

Basically my week in a nutshell: I have worked out three times so far, eaten ok not great and am definitely seeing this stage of the diet as the most challenging so far.

I am also in the midst of planning a move to San Francisco, and finding a place has been kind of shitty. I have no idea what to say to prospective landlords. I have no idea how much I should pay. Maybe I will just go live in a youth hostel and try to scam some weed and sex from hippie girls. Not THAT's a plan.

So I will be back Monday with something very very interesting.

Posted by Dan Nied at 1:46 PM | Comments (0)

July 3, 2006

Day 178

Movin' on up, movin' on out

What did I eat today? Hmm. I haven’t thought about it in a long time. Let’s do a quick rundown

Breakfast
1 pork chop
Calories: 100
Fat: 1 gram

Lunch
A pound of ground turkey
Calories: 470
Fat: 4 grams

Dinner
Subway Club
Calories: 640
Fat: 12 grams

Snack
2 servings of baby carrots
Calories: 70
Fat: 0 grams

Total Calories: 1,280
Total Fat: 17 grams

It wasn’t a perfect day, but it wasn’t far off. Go me!

Anyway, there is some big news to report. So for the last five months I have pretty much bitched about my situation in life, much of it having to do with the town I live in.

Well, I will only be living here for about two more weeks. Before the end of July, I will be moving about 30 miles North of San Francisco, to a town called Vallejo. Am I pumped? You better fucking believe it.

In a job search that took all of about two weeks, I got one callback, one interview and the desired result. I think I sent out about six resumes total. Contrast this to the last job search, where I sent out at least 50 portfolios, got three callbacks, went on two interviews and got one job after about a year. I guess experience does pay.

My new job will be as a sports reporter for Vallejo’s fine newspaper. I will be covering mostly high schools, but with some college and pro sports mixed in. So it is definitely a step up for me.

This job also relieves some very heavy burdens from my shoulders. First, I get to leave Sterling (before known as Shit Town). That makes it much easier to deal with the people I hate here. Second, it keeps me in the sports journalism business, which I was seriously considering leaving for more money and less rewards. I didn’t get that much more money, but I do get to keep the rewards.

Third, I get to leave Sterling! Actually third would be that I get to move to a place that is a mere 30 mile drive from one of the most culturally influential cities in the country. I actually get to see buildings that are more than three stories high. I won’t have to drive two hours to go see a movie and I might actually meet people who are between 18 and 40. So even though the money is pretty crappy and I may have to get a second job to maintain the cost of living, I am going to an area where I hope to set up shop for at least the next 10 years. And really, all I ever wanted was a second home. Hopefully now I have it.

As for the diet, it might get a little rocky during the move out there It also might get a little rocky on my Sterling farewell tour, which I picture with a few free dinners and more than a few beers. But I know how to maintain, and I’ll be working out as much as I can before I leave. Actually, I am hoping to drop another 5 to 10 pounds before the move. Of course, once I get out to California I’ll probably have to live on tuna sandwiches (with fat free mayo) for a good amount of time. So that might hasten the weight loss. Oddly enough, one of the most important parts of the move is finding a gym to work out in.

I wouldn’t have said that five months ago.

Posted by Dan Nied at 3:09 AM | Comments (0)

June 30, 2006

Day 175

I think I might be bleeding

I think I might be having my period.

Take today, for example. The day after going through a somewhat depressing “date”, which included me, the girl and 7-10 other people that I didn’t know but she did, drinking at a bar that I’ve never been to which just happened to be 40 miles away from my home, where I had interesting conversations with everyone BUT her and listened to them talk about work for four hours, I was pretty moody.

I woke up just fine and even shot her off an email thanking her for inviting me to hang out with her. Then at lunch with coworker Jen, I freaking lost my mind. I don’t know if Jen could tell, but I was pretty damn testy. Actually, it was pretty obvious to all while I was spewing slurs and epithets about my neighbors in this town. The backdrop was horrible drivers. But the actual reason I was miffed was because, at 26, I still have to borrow the occasional car payment from my parents and I am actually hoping for a job that would make my financial situation worse. At this point, shouldn’t I be making at least $30,000 per year? And that’s all I’m asking for. I just want to pay the bills and have some left over. That’s it. I don’t want every meal to break me financially and I don’t want to have to drastically alter my normal budget for a weekend trip.

So that made me mad enough. And then, I started thinking about the one thing I actually had before I came out here: Friends. I’d say that I have three actual friends in this town, though I can barely name them off the top of my head. There is one person I like to drink with and two people I like to have lunch with. Everyone else is an awkward conversation that I don’t really need to participate in. Oh but back in Detroit with my high school friends and in Columbus, Ohio with my college friends, the perils of real life vanish among the warmth of friendship every weekend. That doesn’t happen here. Basically, when I am with my friends here, we talk about how much we hate this town.

That’s what the town does to you. It makes you think about what is happening in other places. Today I just got fed up with it, especially knowing that the coming weekend, which used to be one of the funnest of the year, will consist of absolutely nothing besides the occasional workout and perhaps a few movies. My Detroit friends will be heading up north to a cabin in central Michigan. There, the single ones will try to get single girls to touch their private parts. I will most likely be touching my own.

So what did that do to my diet? Well, it put me in an even further rut. Quick note here: Yesterday I went to the gym and weighed in at 277. That is four pounds lost in a not-that-healthy week. So I might still be losing weight, but I can’t really keep eating like I have been. There were many bagels today, and maybe even a can of ravioli. I don’t feel particularly good as I write this and I am telling myself that Friday must be a good day, just like Saturday and Sunday have to be.

I need to stop this recent slide as soon as possible. Yes, these have been interesting times, with an unexpected upward swing in my social life, or at least the amount I have gone out to get drunk. But I am still not at the target weight of 270. It is kind of pathetic that in the last three and a half months I have lost only 23 pounds. I guess it’s better than gaining 23 pounds, but you would figure that after losing 70 in the first 100 days, I would at least be able to bang out 40 in the next 100. But it certainly is no secret that I have relaxed a little bit. But I really want to get back to basics here. I can’t throw out any more numbers because I’m not sure how my body is reacting at this point. But what I do know is that nothing bad can happen on 1,200 calories per day.

Ok, I’m out.

Posted by Dan Nied at 2:22 AM | Comments (0)

June 27, 2006

Day 173

They don't have a Rice-A-Roni restaurant in San Francisco. Bummer.

All right, here’s how I feel right now. After two days of not really eating that well I feel like I am right back at square one. I can’t seem to put together a string of good days. Is it possible that I have totally regressed mentally into what I was before this began?

And here’s the kicker: Wednesday, I am supposed to go on something of a blindish date. I say blindish date because I am not really sure exactly what it is. A friend from work set me up with her friend. I’ve talked to this girl on the phone several times, we seem to get along pretty well and we exchanged photos today. So that’s all cool. But she, for some reason, doesn’t want to meet one on one. So tomorrow I get to go out drinking with her and her work friends, none of whom I have ever met. It could be awkward, but I guess I’ll just have to rely on the good old Dan Nied charm to get by.

But anyway, the point is, I’ll have to drink a little bit. Also there is the possibility of food. If I order a salad, then I’ll look like a total pussy. I think the way out of this one is to eat before I go and then go really light when it is time to order. That will save money, too. I am very smart.

So anyway, yeah I kind of have a date tomorrow (I think). So that is pretty sweet.

I’m sure you all are wondering where I was Monday that I couldn’t post anything. (At least I am sure those of you who don’t know me are wondering. Well, at least you are now, since I brought it up.) I took a one-day trip to San Francisco for a job interview. I hadn’t ever been to California before, so I was pretty excited to head out there. I also met up with Jeff, a friend from college who happens to work for a prominent newspaper in the Bay Area. Jeff is much more successful than me, so I made him pay for drinks (Not true. He paid for drinks voluntarily). So, since I am really good at looking for excuses, I will go ahead and say that I was on a mini-vacation Monday night when I has some very rich fettucine alfredo (I have no clue how to spell these words, hopefully I am right) at one of the finer restaurants in San Fran.

It was a good time all around. I’ll hear about the job in the next few weeks and I will keep you all posted.

But now my main concern is getting back into rhythm. I must work out Wednesday, since I haven’t since last Thursday. Also, I must put together some good eating, even if I am going to have a few beers later on. One screw up doesn’t mean the whole day is a wash.

I am starting to get a little bit worried about regressing physically. I came a long way, and now I seem to be on a big plateau. But I have to remind myself that if I keep doing what I was doing, then everything will be fine in the long run.

Posted by Dan Nied at 11:47 PM | Comments (0)

June 26, 2006

Day 171

My head hurts

So I got absolutely obliterated last night. I mean stone cold motherfucking drunk. I started early, closed the bar down and somehow ended up at Wal-Mart at 2 a.m. buying pre-made macaroni and cheese, flat bread and hummus.

I woke up this morning with a terrible hangover (which hasn’t gone away) and I can’t for the life of me piece together the happenings of last night. I know where I was, I know what I was thinking about doing, but I can’t really tell you much more than that.

In short, I probably have to be a little more responsible on the rare times I go out.

What’s more, I obviously wasn’t very healthy last night. The mac and cheese was fantastic, and I don’t have a clue why I bought hummus. But none of it was really needed.

So that was a fun night. It is 10 p.m. right now and I am still a little bit hungover. That’s pretty rare and kind of depressing at the same time.

Other than my little bender last night, the weekend was ok. I bought some groceries Saturday and, well, that’s about it. By the way, no entry tomorrow because I have to go out of town for business. I can’t really say much more than that right now. And no, I am not a spy.

So the rush down to 240 is getting off to a bit of a slow start and I am starting to get frustrated. There are few feelings more helpless than being frustrated with yourself. At least if you are frustrated at someone else you can badmouth them and thank God you don’t have whatever characteristic they are using to annoy you. But in this situation, I’m the one letting myself down. That’s pretty shitty. So hopefully when Tuesday comes around I need to force myself to buckle down and eat right. That is of the utmost importance.

Anyway, since I am still hung over and getting ready to go out of town, I am gonna call it a night.

Posted by Dan Nied at 12:03 AM | Comments (0)

June 23, 2006

Day 168

Thinking about the diet plan

So today I had what basically amounted to an impromptu day off. For certain reasons, a sports reporter was not needed at the paper for most of the day. So I did some other work, which didn’t take all that long, and sat around for the rest of the day.

One sign that your lifestyle is changing: When you have done nothing for most of the day, you decide to give yourself a break by going to the gym for the fourth straight day.

That was about the most exciting thing that happened today. I was in a position where I could have easily ordered a pizza, but I decided to ellipticize instead. So way to go Dan! But that doesn’t change the fact that I have been cooped up in this apartment all day, save for the hour I was somewhere else. That’s not too fun.

I will spare you the normal bullshit about being lazy and such. I think it gets kind of old since everyone hates something about their life. And I’m not gonna go off on a tangent about being alone and wondering if I’ll ever find someone to love me.

Basically, today I think we should get back to talking about the diet. I must ask forgiveness if this blog becomes more about life than weight loss. After 168 days, everything has been covered. So I will probably move away from talking about what I ate on a certain day and instead give some views on stuff while tying it all into the ongoing project which, at the current pace, could take at least a year to complete.

So anyway, in the four days I’ve been back in town, I’ve done average, not great. Weight is coming off more slowly than before and, to be honest, I am sort of frustrated. I had a classic fuckup night on Tuesday, eating four lean pockets at 9 p.m. and wondering why I didn’t lose any weight the next day. I guess the only good thing I can say about Tuesday is that 1) I worked out 2) those lean pockets put me at about 2,200 calories for the day. So it could be said that it wasn’t a terrible day since the calories still were under the base. But that would also be total bullshit.

I am trying to get my mindset back to the point where I can easily take in 1,200 calories per day without any problems. I think that is probably going to be pretty easy, as long as I go shopping on a regular basis. Since I haven’t been to Wal-Mart since I got home, I have been living off of tuna and Subway. It’s not the best way to go. I’ll head over to the grocery store tomorrow to buy a few things (money is tight right now) and at least get through the weekend.

I am kind of sick of trying to convince myself that 280 isn’t fat. Look, I carry 280 pounds as well as anyone could, but it is still overweight and hampers my ability to live the life I want to live. So I have to keep reminding myself that 280 is fat. And I’ve been at this point before. I know what it is like to be 280. But what I don’t know is how it feels to be 240 and muscular. I think it might be nice to have that kind of confidence in your body. I don’t know that I can ever be fully confident in my body, but it might be nice to have a body that works for me instead of against me.

So it makes no sense to ease up right now, especially as I’ve found this stage to be the most difficult in the process. I need to get tougher, cut calories back to where they were, and work out on a regular schedule. Maybe that sounds maniacal or obsessive, but believe me, it isn’t. I am trying to avert my laziness by painting this as something I have to do.

One day I will move out of this town and I will probably still have some good years ahead of me. Do I want my body to be an issue to whatever new people I meet? Nope. And if I am successful, that would be the first time ever that my body wasn’t hindering my daily life.

Posted by Dan Nied at 1:29 AM | Comments (0)

June 22, 2006

Day 167

The reactions and the one that got away

Brace yourself. It’s one of those reflective moods tonight.

But first, I must fulfill a promise to those of you who might care a little bit. I said yesterday that I would detail some of the more interesting reactions of my friends and family to my weight loss.

As you can guess, Thinner Dan was a big hit with everyone. However, it also seemed to give people the green light to trash Fat Dan. I was cool with that, but you know, I’m still me. I am still the guy that weighed so much. So that was kinda not that cool. But really, I am perfectly ok with it.

The best reaction, as I can tell, came from an unlikely source. That would be Martha, girlfriend to old friend Guy. When Martha saw me she freaked the fuck out. She didn’t go all crazy and everything, but she was definitely impressed. We did some pre drinking over her place on my last night out and she greeted me with a big hug. She informed me a little later on that she was so happy she could actually get her arms around me now. She also asked me questions for about 20 minutes. Not about what I ate, but my motivation, my current feelings, how I think weight loss will affect my future.

In those 20 minutes I pretty much laid everything out about my hopes and dreams. I want to lose weight so the woman I eventually fall in love with will be able to fall in love with me too (I envision my future mate as a picky bitch who will only admit the best and brightest into her life.) I don’t feel any lighter, I told her. I am proud, but not finished yet. It wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be. I was never worried about my health, I was only worried about never getting laid again.

And all the while Martha, who by the way can do much better than one Guy Vendittelli, kept reminding me of what a fatty bombalatti I was just six months prior. And while that kind of stung since Thinner Dan is pretty much the same guy as Fat Dan, it certainly gave me a sense of accomplishment. So that was nice.

Ok, now on to some other people of note:

Mom – Impressed, but she had seen the pictures from the previous week so she wasn’t taken aback.

Grandmother – Very taken aback but, at 93 years old (I think) she didn’t have much energy to get all worked up.

Friend Guy – “You look kinda weird”

Friend Kevin – Not as much of a reaction as I expected. He was the guy I figured would jump for joy with me, fawn over how I look. But at first, he was pretty mellow. But Kev and I talked a lot about the process and the results as time went on.

Friends Jacob, Cameron, Kostic, Ed and Chrissy: Most of them have been reading, I believe, so they knew what was up. With those people it kind of became something of a “Lookin pretty good Dannyboy” marathon. That, however, was appreciated.

So you know, nothing too spectacular. I think people were impressed. I think people enjoyed what Thinner Dan brought to the table. By the way, I slept on couches three different nights during vacation. I slept very soundly each time. I don’t know if it had anything to do with the weight loss, but for the record, pre weight loss meant Dan didn’t sleep well on the couch. So maybe there is something to this life improvement stuff.

Last note about vacation: Guy and I went to Old Navy one day. I got three shirts off the rack and a pair of jeans that was one size smaller than what I have been wearing since 8th grade. That was pretty sweet. Gotta love Old Navy, with their XXL sizes. That’s the way to go.

Anyway, on to the other stuff. There is no other place to start than Myspace. Yes, I have a Myspace page, and if you can find me I will be your friend. But this isn’t just about Myspace, this is about the shrinking of the world as a result of that site. This is about finding people you knew back in the day and remembering whatever memories are worth remembering.

So earlier tonight I was searching through the Bowling Green alumni, roughly around my age. I wasn’t looking for anyone in particular (That’s not true, but for the sake of not wanting to seem creepy, let’s pretend it is) but I came across some old friends and drinking buddies.

And then I came across her. The absolute epitome of the one that got away. We’ll call her Kate, because that is a very lazy variation of her name. Now, if you don’t want to hear my sob story, stop reading.

Ok.

I must have been a sophomore when I first saw her. It was the first day of some crappy class and I did the usual scan across the room for hot girls. Normally, this was a quick look, to see if I should change seats. Every girl gets a look, then I make a decision. So I was in mid-scan, my neck muscles moving so swiftly, I almost missed her. I actually passed her up, but had to come back. That is the sign for me. When I have to take a second look, I know I have found something. She was perfect. Tall, cute, everything that I would ask for in a woman.

So a few weeks went by and I managed to strike up a conversation with Kate. How did I do this? The patented walk behind her out of class then, once everyone has kind of cleared out, say something like “man, I hate that class” to no one in particular. She probably hates the class too, so she turns around and you discuss how much you hate that class. You go on your marry way. Next day, walk next to her out of class and do some more talking. Eventually you’re walking her all over campus, to places you never had any intention of ever going.

So that’s how I broke the ice.

I liked her a lot and for some reason, I think she kind of liked me. But she had a boyfriend at the time, so nothing ever worked out. Next semester we had no class together. However, I saw her just about every day in the halls, so we would talk for a little bit at a time. One day she mentioned breaking up with her boyfriend a few weeks prior. A few weeks later, I asked her out.

She said yes, enthusiastically as I recall, with a smile that possessed the finer points of alchemy. I was pumped up. But, in my excitement, I left for class without getting her number. I was pretty disappointed in myself, but I figured I would see her again the next day and then play it off like a joke: “Yeah, I kinda forgot to get your number yesterday, can I have it now?” And everyone would have laughed a hearty laugh and we would have gone out and world peace would be the next logical step.

But she wasn’t there the next day. Or the day after that. Or the day after that. In fact, she wasn’t there again that semester. I fucked up. In the back of my mind, I figured the worst: that she was dodging me. Maybe she was. I don’t know. But I do know that the next time I saw her was probably a year later. She was in a serious relationship and I was left to wonder what would have been.

In the five or six years since that moment, I have occasionally been reading in bed when my mind would wander to Kate. The instant reaction is to close my book and pound on the pillows (in a playful way, albeit) and curse probably the worst mistake I have ever made. See, the possibilities that I envisioned make it impossible to totally let this girl go. Sure, I forget about it, but she will always be around me somewhere, smiling at me, saying yes and leaving without contact information.

So fast forward to last night when I am looking through the BG alumni on Myspace. Of course, who do I come across? Kate. I get excited because she looks the same and a second chance is better than no chance. I get excited because I remember instantaneously what I liked about her instead of how I let her go. She surrounds my world for that fist instant of recognition, looking like a woman should look, being what a woman should be, smiling at me and no one else, knowing my pain and happiness, sharing my dilemmas.

So I click. I look for it, look for it, look for it, see it.

Kate is married.

Like it would be any other way.

And perhaps this is silly or creepy or just a big bucket of tears. And sure it might be crazy for me to be in Colorado and fantasize aimlessly about a girl in Ohio. But it might be something deeper than that. To me, this is a lesson of how I’ve lived my life, getting close, but never taking the necessary steps to success. I live with talent, but do I use it? I might be a good looking guy, but I hid it under layers of fat. I made bad decisions that shaped the life I live and probably provided me with enough insecurity to doubt that I can even ride a bike anymore. And why did I do that? Was it stupidity? Was it laziness? More importantly, how do I change. Have I changed? Is it possible to really be old at 26? And do I really feel that life is a race to 30 and I just got lapped for the third time?

And that’s what I really felt when I looked at Kate in all her glory. I felt like a stagehand, quietly building the sets where the actors will shine.

Posted by Dan Nied at 1:36 AM | Comments (0)

June 21, 2006

Day...??? What fuckin' number day is this? I have no clue.

I'm back and ready for more punishment.

Wow, here I am. Back in good old Colorado and loving every minute of it.

In an effort to spare you any mundane details about my vacation, I’ll offer only a few essential happenings:

Drank, Drank, Drank, Drank, hit on lots of girls while drunk, got rejected by lots of hot girls while drunk. Got several numbers, but nothing of particular interest. Rocked out, went to a Tigers game, ate crappy, stomach pains only once (a chicken burrito) drank, drank, drank, gained only 1.5 pounds.

So that’s where I’m at right now. Monday I clocked in at 281.5. Today 280.8 So not bad for starting the road to 240. Now, for this one, there is no time frame. I just want to get back to basics, 1,200-1,500 calories per day, working out at least four times per week.

Basically, I’d like to be ripped one day. That would mean good things. At this point, my curiosity is peaked as to what I would look like 40 pounds lighter. I have no idea. I might be one of those people who actually looks better fat (think Al Roker). Or I might be an underwear model. I guess it could go either way.

Now, I am gonna stop here for reasons I don’t feel need to be justified for you (but if you must know, my back hurts and I wanna go read.) But, since it just occurred to me that some of you might want to know how the new and improved Dan was received by his loved ones over the last week, I’ve decided to make that tomorrow’s post.

Also, sorry about the two-day delay in getting the blog started again. I hope you find it in you hearts to forgive me.

Posted by Dan Nied at 12:39 AM | Comments (0)

June 8, 2006

Day 154

Gettin' on a plane to Motown

So it is 8:44 p.m. on Thursday night. I am all packed and ready to go to bed in an hour, get up at 5 a.m., drive two hours to the airport and fly to Detroit for my much deserved 10-day vacation.

We’ve got a big week planned. Needless to say, I am pretty pumped up.

We had a big day today, even without much diet success. I paid a few bills and got a snazzy new haircut.

I went to the gym and lifted. No cardio. During the morning, I was so jittery to start vacation that I decided to relax the rules of the diet today. So basically, I cut out cardio at the gym, had some bagels and got cheese on my Subway club. My theory behind it is that no matter what, I will look the same tomorrow as I do today. So nothing will really matter.

That’s why I was ok with weighing in at 281 today, a two-pound increase from Tuesday. (Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, I think, that I got under 280 this week. That was actually a pretty big deal. But I didn’t make much of it because I pretty much know that the upcoming week of home cooked meals and ice cold beer will put me over that mark when I come back). So anyway, I wasn’t too upset with 281 because I had a pretty big breakfast today and drank some water and a diet Mountain Dew before weighing in. So figure the weight is more like 280.

And that is almost a perfect number. Coming back to Detroit, I weigh 90 pounds less than I did when I last left. There are people waiting for me who whispered to mutual friends about how Dan let himself go. Now, they all know what I am doing these days. And they have all seen the pictures. I won’t be surprising anyone, but I will accept congratulations and compliments with great pride.

I will walk off the plane and hug my mother and she might actually be able to get her arms around me. I will go to the bar tomorrow night, maybe see a pretty girl, and I might not have blown the whole deal upon eye contact. See, these are big things to me.

Looking at the newest pictures, which are posted below this, I am amazed. My face has almost disappeared (and yeah, that may have something to do with my supersweet haircut.) I compared these photos with the Thin Dan photo my friend sent a few months ago and the difference is amazingly minimal.

Honestly, I don’t even know what to say here. All along I have treated this diet like a game. It was in the forefront of my mind, but I tried not to take it TOO seriously. While it did invade my life, I always acted with a sense of mystery to the outcome. And now, 90 pounds later, I am almost overwhelmed at what I have done. Amazing. I can’t say for certain that I have improved my health, but I have taken a big step forward in living the life of a 20-something male.

And I am so proud of that.

Also, how can I put into words how much you readers mean to me? Every single one of you helped me out along the way, everyone who clicked on this site over the last five months (nearly 40,000 people to date) or read the post on Blog Critics has played a pivotal role in this entire process. You guys gave me support that I have never had before. You slapped me into shape, you congratulated me on tiny victories. I lost pounds for you. There is no doubt about that.

Of course, I am not done yet. As I said yesterday, when I return to Colorado, I will resume my quest. The new mark is 240 and I don’t care how long it takes to get there. We might be here for another year as I inch closer and closer. We might be here only another two months. But I know my work isn’t done, yet.

I hope you stay with me as I go somewhere I haven’t been since my freshman year of high school – sub 250. And I hope, somehow, that I stay with you.

Thank you.

Posted by west at 10:43 PM | Comments (0)

June 7, 2006

Day 153

I wish I knew how to quit you

All right here's the deal. I had a few drinks tonight, I am a little sauced. I do love the sauce.

So really, i ain't got my writin' shoes on today. Let's just say that today was a pretty ok day, nothing too special, nothing too bad. I did have four beers around 5 p.m., but they were Miller Light, which, as we all know, is the lowest calorie, lowest carb light beer there is.

So yea, Dan!

Anyway, I have been thinking about a few things lately and I have decided that it might be best for me to continue this blog for at least a few more weeks. Yeah, I change my mind on this a lot, and I guess you can never really tell what I am gonna think of next. I am, after all, half drunk as I write this. However, in a few ways, this blog helps me tremendously. And I just don't think it to be a good idea to give it up right now.

So anyway, I am going to attempt to update this once or twice when I go home. Then I will come back and do at least semi-regular updates in the coming weeks.

The only trade off is that you let me go to bed right now.

So here I go.

Posted by Dan Nied at 10:32 PM | Comments (0)

June 6, 2006

Day 151

This is kind of a serious one. But not really

I’ll be totally honest here, I am sick of doing the food journal. Sorry, it is a pain in the ass. I had about 1,500-1,700 calories today. Maybe you see this as a sign of weakening, I see it as liberation.

Exercise: I did an upper body workout with 20 minutes on the elliptical.

So after the workout today, I weighed in at 280 even. It was a bit disappointing for two reasons 1) Last Thursday, I weighed in at 280.8. While I know I haven’t been super healthy the last few days, I figured I had lost at least a full pound. Apparently not. 2) After weighing in at 280.8 before today’s workout, I was really hoping to crack the 270s. But if I had gone five more minutes on the elliptical, I would have cracked it, so I can’t be that upset. We’ll see what the scale says tomorrow.

I couldn’t sleep last night, so I laid in bed thinking about where to take this diet. You’ll remember yesterday when I suggested that I might just get back to 1,200-1,500 calories per day and up the workouts in an effort to take off 40 more pounds by the end of summer. I still don’t know if I am going to do that. However, last night, while I was just lying in bed, I all of a sudden jumped up in an enthusiastic outburst. The reason was that I wanted to begin that rush to 240 immediately. I was pumped up. It was very similar to the feelings I had back in December, when I got my mind set on this whole diet.

So maybe that is a sign.

I had lunch with my friend Melissa today. She started working in my office about three months ago. She said something that kind of made me cringe.

“When I started working there,” she said. “I thought to myself ‘wow, what a shame that guy is so young and so overweight.’”

I figure I was around 340 when she started. That kind of depressed me a little bit. How did I let myself go so much? And if she was thinking that, how many other people thought it, too? Obesity is a lonely place where no one is ever honest with you. It is a world of smiles and nods and the elephant in the middle of the room (which just happens to actually be you). As a fat person, you serve to make people feel good about themselves, if only for the fact that they are not you. Perhaps it would be rude for someone to say “hey, why don’t you stop being so fat.” Perhaps feelings would be hurt. But at the same time, it would be logical for the haves to push the have-nots, for the attractive to goad the ugly for reasons of hard-line inspiration. Why not?

We talk about mindless things in our daily lives, things that have no bearing on anything. So what is wrong with saying things of substance, even if a psyche is shattered? Perhaps that psyche wasn’t that good, anyhow. Perhaps that psyche needed to be broken down, stripped for parts and built back up into something sturdy and confident.

We worry what people are thinking, because we have no way of knowing. We wonder if our flaws are as obvious to others as they are to us. And sometimes the only thing keeping us from changing those flaws is that that we believe, through the silence of others, that we’ve been successful at hiding them.

And that’s not doing anyone any good.

Posted by Dan Nied at 12:34 AM | Comments (0)

June 5, 2006

Day 150

Just checking in

We had some major tech problems today, so I am just checking in before I go to bed.

By the way, we had some comment problems. So now you have to be registered in order to leave comments. Hopefully this won't be a huge problem.

Basically, this was a boring weekend wihtout anything going on. I watched a lot of baseball and ate relatively health, though I still definitely seem to be in a bit of a slump right now.

It occured to me that I will be somewhere between 275-283 when I go home, and thats ok with me. But what happens when I come back? The blog will be done, for the most part and I'll be 90 pounds lighter than I was in January. But still, there will be some work to be done. What would be the best way to go about that work? I have been saying since Day 1 that I would lose the rest very slowly. But then I would be like a kid waiting for christmas. You know, 240 is only three good months away right now. I could get there by the end of the summer. How tempting is it to just ratchet this stuff up, follow a workout program and get back to 1,200 calories per day in an effort to actually look as good as I ever have? If I could do that, I would be amazed.

So I am going to think about that tonight and talk about it more tomorrow.

See ya then.

Posted by Dan Nied at 1:54 AM | Comments (0)

May 31, 2006

Day 144

Weighing in on weighing in

What I ate today

Breakfast (9 a.m.)
2 servings of low fat oatmeal
Calories: 200
Fat: 2 grams

Lunch (noonish)
2 cans of tuna
2 slices of bread
4 servings of fat free mayo
1 serving of cottage cheese
Calories: 570
Fat: 9.5 grams (the cottage cheese wasn’t lowfat, a shopping mistake I shouldn’t have made.)

Dinner (5 p.m.)
1 Subway footlong club
Calories: 640
Fat: 12 grams

Snack (7 p.m.)
1 can of some sort of soup
Calories: 180
Fat: 2 grams

Total calories: 1,590
Total fat: 25.5 grams

Exercise: Started to do upper body, got some back done. However, I got paranoid about someone getting on my elliptical machine at the end of my workout, so I hopped on it and went for 40 minutes, burned 700 calories. I will finish the upper body workout Wednesday.

So my weight today was 280.8. Not bad, I suppose. It’s a two pound drop from last week. However, a reader comment made me think about this a little bit more:

From: Htom
Your weight is going to change during the day (and night) as long as you're alive. You're going to sweat, exhale moisture, drink, eat.

The best way to deal with these swings is math. Try www.physicsdiet.com; here's a sample page (not mine, I haven't entered the data yet), scroll down to the charts and notice how the green dots (scale readings) bounce up and down, while the smoothed average keeps falling: http://www.physicsdiet.com/Public.aspx?u=matt

All right, so let’s tall about this. Htom is absolutely correct. Your weight will fluctuate, sometimes violently, throughout the day. That is why I wouldn’t recommend weighing in every day. This website he gives is very detailed, and kind of goes hand-in-hand with the Hacker’s diet, which has been suggested to me several times and looks to be of sound reasoning.

The physics diet site relies on numbers and average losses to more accurately determine the success of your diet. It accounts for the fluctuations and features very pretty charts. It almost seems too perfect … like they are trying to take over the world. Hmmmm.

If you are looking for some very good insight on losing weight, I would suggest both the physics diet and the hackers diet. However, I haven’t yet been able to work up the energy to really read the sites.

As for me, I do have my own semi-daily weigh-in plan going, and I am pretty happy with it. I don’t necessarily weight myself every day in order to get an accurate reading of my progress. I try, at least, to take it week by week and I also take into account whatever variables may go into the daily reading.

One thing daily weigh-ins tells me, though, is how the previous day went. If I can take into account the variables (what time I am weighing in, what I ate that day, how much water I’ve drank to that point, how bad I need to pee or poop …) I can figure out if the previous day was good or bad. If it was good, I reflect on what I ate that day and store that information in my mind. Case in point: One day last week the variables combined with poor eating choices made me gain three pounds one day. After I weighed in and worked out, I went to the coffee shop and had two plain bagels with plain cream cheese for lunch. The rest of the day I stuck with the diet. The next day I went back and was four pounds lighter, a full pound less than the original weight before the gain. So after that workout I had two more bagels for lunch and I lost more weight the next day. Does that mean bagels are good for me? No. It means that plain bagels with plain cream cheese won’t kill the momentum if handled correctly. You can’t say that about a stuffed-crust pizza.

The other main reason I weigh myself every day is entertainment. When I weigh in, I do it two times. The first time is right before I work out. The second time (which is the reading I use to determine weight loss) is right after I work out. I kind of like the fact that you can lose up to two pounds during a workout. Yeah, I know it is water weight, but still it makes you feel good and can give you a nice motivational edge.

But that doesn’t answer why I don’t just weigh in once after the workout. Why put myself through the charade of weighing in before the workout when I know that number isn’t going to be recorded? Well, that weigh in gives me something to think about while I am working out. It actually makes the workout go faster and makes it less likely that I will just give up out of boredom. Also, there is a certain amount of motivation that comes from seeing how much you can lose during the workout. So today, before the workout, I was at 282, a half-pound drop from the last post-workout weigh in. So the tone of today’s workout was happy and joyous. I knew that I had probably lost about a pound and a half in actuality.

So throughout the workout, my mind was concentrated, using 282 as the start, on figuring out how much weight I could actually lose in the next week. I figure that I could probably get down to 275 in the final push before I go home. I also set a mini-goal of getting under 280 by the end of Thursday’s workout.

So that’s how my mind works during weig-ins. And that is why I do it every time I go to the gym. And I feel comfortable with that because I understand the swings.

Posted by Dan Nied at 1:23 AM | Comments (0)

May 26, 2006

Day 140

I suck at losing weight and picking up chicks

So I went to work out today, and climbed on the scale to a 286.6 reading. Thats two pounds more than the last weigh-in. (After the workout, the scale said 285.6. Monday, post workout, the scale said 283.6). So what gives? Well, variables for one, but also the fact that I had a pretty bad day on Tuesday and a so-so day on Wednesday.

So that was a big wake up call. At this point, I am confronted with the posisbility of going back home at 290, which would not make me happy. At the same time, with exactly two weeks left to get to the 270 pound mark, it is looking very unlikely that that will happen.

So my options are this: Be happy with simply being under 290 when I go home and then get back over 290 during the trip. Or get as close to 270 as possible (275 is reasonable, right?). That is a 15 pound swing that could make a big difference in my plans. While I don't think there is much difference between 280 and 270, I definitely believe there is a difference between 270 and 290. A big one. I think for a man of my weight, 20 pounds makes a difference. However, when I began, I think it took 50 pounds for people to really notice. So that is progress.

But anyway, I am hoping to get to the gym every day (excluding Sundays, the gym is closed on Sundays)for the next two weeks. We'll see how that goes, but there is no reason not to do it. None. I am no longer busy and my afternoons are totally free and boring.

Now, while I was at the gym today, I realized that my confidence is not where it needs to be. So I am working out, doing some biceps, getting huge. And, since my elliptical was taken, I was thinking about getting on the treadmill for the first time ever. So, like clockwork, as soon as I start thinking about it, someone walks in and gets on the treadmill.

So I get a little bit pissed off. But then I get a look at the person on the machine. A woman, 25-33, blonde cute face, thin, no ring, tight shirt, volleyball shorts. Also, if I may be frank, she had a certain endowment that men find pleasing.

So I am kind of stunned by this, because I didn't think this woman existed in this town. She must have been passing through and just decided she needed a workout.

Anyway, I get on the other elliptical and this girl is on the treadmill directly behind me. The entire half hour, I am catching glimpses of her in the mirror, thinking of opening lines. I decide my opener would be "Hi, I'm Dan." Pretty simple, I think. So once I get off the elliptical, I can't get up the nerve to talk to her. Now, my workout was done at that point. I was ready to go home and have lunch. Instead, I walked around, got about five drinks from the water fountain and even did two sets of leg presses, all while trying to get the nerve up to talk to this girl. I couldn't fucking do it. I could not get it into my head that she might not hate me.

After a few minutes two of the womens basketball players I cover come into the gym and we start talking. Now, dream girl is about seven feet away from us. I mention that I am 26 and single (it didn't come up in conversation, I was just trying to give her some information about myself, in case she was listening. I think I even mentioned my height and the fact that I didn't have a receding hairline.)

Finally, I give up. I go down to the locker room and get my bag. Then, I get this adrenaline rush. I say to myself "Fuck this, go up and talk to her you fucking pussy." So I go back up to the weight room. I am determined to talk to this girl. She is just standing there, not working out, just taking a rest. Perfect opportunity. I go and stand about three feet beside her. She sees me. I know it. I turn aroud, she isn't facing my direction. I shit my pants. I leave with my tail between my legs.

Now what the fuck is that? What is my freaking problem? Seriously, did that happen? Yes it did. Holy shit I am such a douche. But my confidence, at least sober, isn't where it should be right now. Damn!

So I went home and ate lunch and forgot about the whole thing. Maybe I'll see her again tomorrow.

But probably not.

Posted by Dan Nied at 1:32 AM | Comments (0)

May 25, 2006

Day 139

Announcing my resignation

Ok first thing: I took in about 1,500 calories today, so it was a pretty good day. I could have spread it out a little bit better, but what are ya gonna do?

I came to a decision tonight about this blog. It had to end sometime, right? I mean, how many times could I possibly rehash the same shit over and over: Yes, I feel good about what I've done. Yes, I believe it is all about calorie intake. Yes, I believe that anyone can lose weight if they truly want to. Yes, I am doing this to try to meet girls. Yes, I am still looking for a new job. Yes, I still want to get down to 240 at some point in the future.

These things have all been covered.

This blog isn't the smash broadway musucal Cats. It's not gonna run for 30 years. So I have decided that the final entry will appear on Friday, June 9.

Why Friday, June 9 you ask? Well, that is the day I leave for home. I began this whole thing two days after I returned from my last trip home. That was the trip where my brother told my mom he was worried about me because I had gotten so big. That is my brother, who moved back in with my parents at the age of 31 and barely has a high school diploma, worrying about me. That was some motivation right there.

Anyway, it makes sense to end there, because this period of time is sandwiched between the times that I get to see the people I really care about. And it is only their reactions that I am really interested in (and hot girls at the bar, but they don't know me yet). So as I left them in early January as a full-fledged Super Chunk, I return much less chunky and with some real promise in my battle to get down to a reasonable weight.

So between now and then, that's two weeks from tomorrow by the way, there will be regular updates as I try to get down to 270 by my trip.

I am, however, toying with the idea of turning 210west.com (the main page) into my personal blog. It wouldn't be updated every day, but it would be a nice continuation of this project. There would also be weight loss updates from time to time. That is, if I decide to do it.

So anyway, just wanted to let you guys know that.

I'm out.

Posted by Dan Nied at 1:52 AM | Comments (0)

May 24, 2006

Day 138

Back in the gym

Ther wasn't a whole lot that went on today, so let's go back to Monday.

Finally, I got in the gym. I had a pretty sweet workout, too. I did the basic upper body work and got on the elliptical for about 33 minutes and burned 600 calories. After the workout, I weighed in at 283.6 pounds, about 1.5 pounds less than last week.

So that means that I got through the workoutless week losing more than a pound. I can be happy with that. A little over two weeks remain until I go back home and I have just over 13 pounds to lose. So this will be an interesting time for me. Will I buck up and get it done? Or will I be happy losing just a few more pounds and going home around 275 or 280? That's going to be interesting.

I'm not sure what the consequences for going home at 277 would be as opposed to 270. Would those seven pounds really make a big difference? I doubt they would. But then, wouldn't there be a certain amount of pride in being able to tell people I lost 100 pounds since they last saw me? Sure 93 would be impressive, but 100 is a sweet, sweet number.

Finally, though, I am almost looking forward to a plane ride. Usually around this time I would be worried that the seatbelt might not fit (I've had some close calls before). But now, I'm pretty sure I'll be comfortable enough. Also, there is a good chance I won't spill over onto the guy sitting next to me. That's always good. I always felt sorry for the people who had to sit next to me on a plane. I mean, I wouldn't want to sit next to a guy my size. Actually, I still wouldn't want to sit next to a guy my size.

But while that poor sucker next to me on this trip is cursing me out in his head, he won't have any clue how bad it really could have been.

Posted by Dan Nied at 12:18 AM | Comments (0)

May 22, 2006

Day 136

Settling in

What I ate today (Fuck, what did I eat today? My memory is shit. Ok, best guess.)

Breakfast (10 a.m.)
1 Healthy Choice smoked sausage
2 slices of bread
Calories: 370
Fat: 9.75 grams

Lunch (1 p.m.)
1 bag of beef jerky
Calories: 280
Fat: 1.75 grams

Snack (4 p.m.)
4 slices of turkey
2 slices of bread
Calories: 230
Fat: 6 grams

Dinner (9 p.m.)
1 Subway club wrap
1 Special K cereal bar
Calories: 320
Fat: 7 grams

Total Calories: 1,200
Total fat: 24.5 grams

Exercise: I went to something called the Overland Trail that runs across the river here. There wasn’t much of a trail, but I did wander around for an hour trying to find it.

First of all, I have to give it up to my DEEEEETROITTT PISTONS. Now, as a Pistons fan, I should not be all giddy that they had to go to seven games to beat Cleveland, but I feel like they dodged a big time bullet there. Also, it was good to see the Pistons play the way they are supposed to in the playoffs. They shut down LeBron James in the second half and none of the other Cavs could hit a shot. So I am happy for right now, at least until Miami comes into Detroit Tuesday.

Anyway, I did not work out one time last week. Can you believe that? Not one time! Wow, I am ashamed of that. Granted, it was my busiest week of the year, but that is no excuse. I hate to say anything about the always-present tomorrow, but tomorrow is when I get back on that horse.

The weekend was pretty good, I suppose. I went out Friday night and even met a girl. (However, I am pretty sure that I blew it at the bar. When I get too many beers inside my stomach, I don’t talk so well to ladies. I called her Sunday. We’ll see if she calls back. Though, I am not expecting her to. I know, I know, it sounds like I am being very pessimistic, but I am just looking at it logically. But the point is, she was very cute and wasn’t repulsed by my fatty tissue. You know why? Because there isn’t as much fatty tissue as there used to be. That’s called progress.)

Saturday I went to the Colorado state track meet in Denver. Good times all around, I suppose. I also had to drive a seven-foot basketball player to the airport afterwards. So I brought him to the track meet with me and made him hold my camera. I bring this up only to say that walking around with a guy who is 7 feet tall is very amusing. All day people were staring at him and wondering way too loudly if he played for the Nuggets. Quick note: he doesn’t.

Then Sunday I watched my Pistons and worked. Eating-wise, I was pretty good this weekend, outside of the trip to the bar Friday night. On the way to Denver, my giant passenger got hungry and made me stop at Wendy’s. He got the classic triple. I got the black forest ham and swiss frescatta sandwich. Now, there is a lot of mayo on that. I didn’t really know that going in. I enjoyed it and I didn’t stray from the diet the rest of the day.

Earlier today I also realized something. Since the 100th day, I have kind of loosened the strings on the eating. I tended to feel guilty about those days, but now I see that I am not really doing anything wrong. See, the lifestyle has changed dramatically from what it was. Now, when I go to restaurants (not very often) I automatically look for salads with dressing on the side. If I go to the coffee shop, I limit myself to one plain bagel where it used to be three parmesan bagels.

You know how I always wondered how I would adjust after the 100 days and the 100 pounds were over. Well, I’m doing it. This is how it is going to be. I am still burning more calories than I am taking in and I am actually very happy eating like this. Right now, the only frustrating thing is that I went to this pace before the 100 pounds were off.

And I know that this sounds like rationalization. But really it’s not. It was imperative for me to find a happy medium between the hardcore diet and where I was five months ago. I wasn’t going to have 1,200 calories per day forever. And I couldn’t really afford to have 4,000 a day either. So I am cool with that. I now know what life will probably be like on the underside of 270. However, I need to wait until I get under 270 to truly enjoy it. So I was definitely happy to eat only 1,200 calories today and get in a little bit of exercise.

Posted by Dan Nied at 2:18 AM | Comments (0)

May 19, 2006

Day 133

Cosider your questions and comments answered

I’m not sure how totally lame it is that any decently written movie can turn me into a reflective bastard.

At the same time, I’m pretty sure it is really lame that whenever this happens (By the way, I just got done watching She’s the One on HBO and yeah, I am in one of those moods.) I immediately start listening to lame hippie music. So here I am, basking in the melancholy of a well-written dramedy that was made 10 years ago and starred Ed Burns and I am listening to the Dave Matthews Band cover of Long Black Veil. Up next is #41, then Granny, then Pig, then Lie in our Graves. And if I am not done with this post by that point, I will probably go to Two Step, Grace is Gone and then whatever sad bastard songs the Dave Matthews Band has come up with.

Even in inspired times I am hopelessly uncool. I’m not even asking for good taste in music, I am asking for current taste in music. It is all I can do to not pull out Blues Traveler’s Save His Soul and think about all the girls that rejected me in high school.

So anyway, sad bastard Dave Matthews music is the soundtrack for this post, which promises to be incredibly long.

Why? Well, I am answering questions and comments today. Before I have even written a single answer, the word total on this is 1,400.

So let’s not waste any more time.

From: Bryce
You should cut coupons. Seriously. I've become a bit of a coupon addict in the past few months. You'd be amazed at how much money you can save when buying groceries. I know this doesn't sound like a Dan Nied type of activity since it requires some forethought and organization.

Buy a Sunday paper and look through all the coupons for things you eat or might be interested in eating. Then, get a sale paper for the grocery store you shop at. The local Wal-Mart I believe.

Try to find some items that are on sale and that you have a coupon for. This will maximize your savings. At my local grocer (Giant Eagle) they do what is called the "Super Double". This is when they take your coupons up to a $1.00 and double the value of it. I actually get things for free quite often. Last time I went to the store my bill went from $88 to $59 after the coupons where scanned. Anyway, just an idea to save some money. It really doesn't take that much effort, just a little planning.

No, cutting coupons is certainly not a “Dan Nied type of activity” And thanks, Bryce for insulting me while reading my blog. That makes me feel good about the friends I’ve picked for myself. In actuality though, you prick, that sounds like a good idea. However, the reason I don’t cut coupons is because I live in this town. I’m not saying there aren’t any available coupons for Wal-Mart, I just haven’t seen them. When I move closer to civilization, I will certainly look into the idea. Wal-Mart does not advertise in our paper because they don’t care about local businesses. In fact, it seems like their main goal is to destroy local businesses. (Quick story here: From what I am told, before I got here, our paper busted Wal-Mart for a very devious act. Apparently, they putting up a toy donation box outside their store one Christmas. So while people were shopping, they would buy these cheap toys for poor kids and donate them on the way out. Well, apparently, once the people donated their toy and left the parking lot, Wal-Mart employees would put the toys back on the shelves so they could be sold again. Now, this is just hearsay, but I believe it.)

From: John
Dan why did Heritage Newspapers fire you? Perhaps you could tell us some of those insightful anecdotes next? Your career roller coaster will perhaps help us understand why you are you are here today.

Heritage Newspapers didn’t really fire me. Technically, they laid me off. What happened was this: It was my first job out of college and I worked for 10 months total for two of their newspapers. First, I worked in the news department of a paper in Dearborn, Mich.

Then, since I really wanted to be a sportswriter, I took a pay cut to get that job at a smaller paper they owned. About seven months into that second gig, the president of the company came down to visit and tell us that they were eliminating the editorial sections and turning the paper into a shopper, which means it is nothing but adds.

They kept the staff photographer for some reason. Then there were three of us in editorial. The other two were the editor and a staff reporter. The editor moved to another paper as the business editor, I believe. The staff writer took a similar position at the same paper the editor was reassigned to. They told me that they didn’t have any sports openings at any other paper, gave me two weeks severance, some unemployment forms and a pat on the back.

Apparently they had forgotten that I was a pretty decent news reporter for the company for about three months. It doesn’t matter, though. In the exit meeting, I left with a great big smile on my face. I was still a cocky youngster and thought I would find a better job very quickly. However, I can’t say I blamed them for letting me go. I might have been a decent writer and I may have done a pretty good job for them, but I was arrogant and had a bad attitude. I resented the fact that I had to start at a weekly paper and work my way up. I spoke my mind at the wrong times and to the wrong people. If I was them, I would have let me go, too.

Unfortunately, that layoff led to a year of temp work and freelance jobs. It was the worst time of my life, I can safely say. It was a harsh slap in the face for a guy less than a year removed from being a star on his college newspaper.

Not to make this story longer, but I have to mention this. No matter how much I complain about my current job, I have to say that I am incredibly grateful for this situation I am in. Two years ago I was about as close to depressed as I could get, and now I at least have some sort of stability. So I am appreciative. About a month after I began here, my publisher invited me to his house for Thanksgiving dinner. Before dinner everyone at the table said what they were thankful for. I swear to God I said: “I am thankful for this paper and the people here who gave me the opportunity to work again.”

I wasn’t even sucking up, either.

From: Cara
My very wonderful friend Jennifer Klein recommended that I check your blog out, so I've been following it pretty steadily for the past two and a half months. Very inspirational- hell, it has even convinced me to make quite a few changes.

My older sister, who lost 85 lbs, said that the most difficult part of losing weight was changing her self perception - altering your mindset and insecurities to realize you are no longer "the fat kid." Sounds like you are already on your way to changing your perspective.

Congrats on the progress thus far and keep it up!

Thanks Cara. I hope I can at least entertain you every day. Thanks also to Jenn Klein for spreading word of mouth. I still feel like the fat kid, by the way, but at 286, I still kinda am.

From: John
Hey Dan,
Good job so far but what you’re doing is still NOT healthy. Sunshine and I watched Oprah and then a program on discovery health about a doctor who wrote a book called "YOU: The Owner's Manual" By Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz

It tells you how to live a better life and how to grow old in a healthy way. The first step is eating right. If you have Discovery health look for the show called the same as the books title. We watched it and have decided to completely change our eating habits. It was scary what these processed foods do to your insides. They had graphic examples of organs healthy and not healthy side by side. The basic concept is this: minimum 30 minutes of walking every day, 60 minutes of sweating every week, and 30 minutes of weight training. On top of that do NOT eat food if it has these things in the top 5 ingredients:

Partially Hydroganiated Oils, Enriched Flour or anything enriched, High Frutcose Corn Syrup, Salt, Sugar

You should STAY away from these as much as possible. I can tell you more if you are interested but you will be amazed at the bad ingredients in everything you are eating. Just take a look at your bread. Mine had all of them in the top 5! Buy the book Dan it's like 10 bucks and good luck. Love ya dude.!

John, it’s called culture of fear. Get off of it. Maybe what you should do is throw away all the food in your house and get a 100-gallon barrel of plain oatmeal, a measuring cup and a kettle. Just eat that every day for the rest of your life. Then, when you and Sunshine are 130 years old and we are all dead and gone, you can sit there on your front porch and say “I’m glad we listened to Oprah.”

From: Michelle
What about trying Weight Watchers? It truly works, and it's not so much a diet as a change of habits. You wouldn't have to actually go to the meetings (although you COULD end up meeting girls there), but read up on how to figure the points and aim for a set number every day. You can eat anything you want, as long as you stay within your point range. It isn't rocket science - the internet is really helpful with the point thing.

Good suggestion, but probably not for me. Just like Bryce’s South Beach Diet suggestion, it is certainly worth a look. But at this point, I will stick with the diet on which I lost 85 pounds. Still, Weight Watchers has done some great things to help people and certainly their results should not be taken lightly. But in the end, all these diets involve simply cutting calories.

From: Eric Berlin
Re: Bulemia
Dan - You should seriously see a doctor ASAP, man, from what I understand the area you're getting into can be quite dangerous.

From: Vicki
Dan, keep them fingers away from your throat - your teeth will lose the enamel and then the new skinny you won’t be able to smile at the girls cause they will look shit. Keep up with the weightloss and leave bulemia behind you.

True, true. The fingers haven’t gone to the throat in a long time. I like my teeth too much.

From: Some dude
I lose weight quickly too. I don't think it's a big deal, the heavier you are, the quicker it falls. It will slow down the lighter you get. I say 'nay' on the whole bulimic thing I'd rather be fat than dead...but hey, that's just me

From: Jake
I'd rather be dead than fat.

Jake always has to get his comment in. He hates fat people. Anyway, I totally agree. A lot of people are incredibly impressed with how fast I can lose weight. I’ve actually had 130 pound women get jealous of me. But you know what? I had 85 pounds to lose. And you know what? I still have 45 more to lose. According to the online calorie per day calculater, which can be found Here , I still burn 3,935 calories per day. Meanwhile, a 26-year old woman at 5 foot 6 and 140 pounds who is moderately active burns 2,144 calories per day. So if we both go on a 1,200 calorie per day diet, I will lose weight much more quickly. Why? Because I can. That is about the only advantage life gives fat people.

From: Liz
I want at least five entries a week. Come on, I look forward to them!

Ok, ok. You can have your five entries per week Liz. The three posts per week idea was a little crazy. Basically, I just wanted more freedom in the blog. I didn’t want to feel like I had to post something even if there was nothing to post. I don’t feel that way now

By the way, Dave Matthews and John Popper doing John Lennon’s Imagine is on right now. I may actually pause to belt this one out with the boys. --- Ok, done. Wait, somehow I inadvertently downloaded the Who’s the Boss theme song. While I am a little surprised by that, I can’t say I’m not singing along.

From: Christina
I am currently on diet, and it makes me angry all the time. Also, I went to Divine Child 92-96, I'm sorry I don't remember you.

I am sorry you don’t remember me either. I need a last name here, feel free to email it to me: nieddan@yahoo.com. By the way, I checked out your blog and I like it. Just wanted to let you know.

From: Victor Plenty
Congratulations, Dan! I find it fascinating that your 100 day journey ended so precisely on the target you set for it. You spent months thinking about the number 300, and you got exactly the number 300.

Of course, the target you were thinking about more often than any other was not actually the target you really wanted. This happens to people all the time. To your credit, instead of giving in to disappointment as so many people do, you made an extra effort to hit your readjusted target, and got the results you had truly hoped to see.

Thanks for the good words, Victor. The even numbers were not lost on me, either. It was kind of creepy. But for the record, the final tally was 299.2 on Day 100. But still, that was eerie. I guess 70 pounds in 100 days wasn’t too much to ask.

From: Chantal Stone
As long as you write about it, Dan, we're going to read about it. Keep up the great work!

Chantal, I hope you make the transition from Blog Critics to the actual blog. I hope a lot of the BC readers do.

From: Christina
Hey, some of my favorite people are from Bumfuck Neb. and I love Middle of Nowhere Colo. Seriously, as someone who is forced to spend sometimes a month a year working in farm country in Nebraska, its not that bad. Well, you can mostly get by if you are willing to "appear" to take the strait and narrow. It sucks that one has to do this, but for centuries that has been the strategy of the outsider. I don't think I would want to live there year round, but the people once they get over you being a stranger, are some of the nicest folks. Still, I agree that the politics, priorities, and dental work can be a bit messed up. I love a lot of places in Colorado. Have you ever been to Cortez? The state after my heart is New Mexico. I have to say that although there are crazy people in the West, some towns are full of libertarians, and in these places I get a freeing sense of live and let live.

Here you are again DC alum. Good to hear from you again. Yes, small town America can be charming in small doses, even up to a month. However, live here for 18 months and see if you can find your soul at the end. Granted, I can’t say whether my problems lie in small towns in general or just with this specific one. However, something is not right in this place. Something, in fact, is very wrong. Luckily for me, I’m not going to church on Wednesday’s quite yet, so I don’t think this place is rubbing off on me too much.

As for your other questions, no, I have never been to Cortez, I think it is on the other side of the state. Also, some of my favorite people live here, too. I have few problems with the people I interact with on a daily basis. It’s the peripherals that make my skin crawl. I actually feel less safe in this town than I do walking in downtown Detroit. When I was a kid, we never locked our front door. Now that I live here, I am quite seriously afraid that a meth-mouthed crazy will randomly charge into my apartment and bite my eyeball out.

But then, maybe I am just paranoid.

Posted by Dan Nied at 2:01 AM | Comments (0)

May 18, 2006

Day 132

Look who's under 290

I really have to apologize here. I've been kind of lazy with the posts this week. Work is freaking crazy right now. It always gets a little bit nuts towards the end of the school year.

The good news is that all high school sports in Colorado end Saturday. That means my summer vacation can officially begin on Sunday.

All right, as for the diet, things are ok. Could be better, could be worse.

I weighed in on Tuesday to the tune of 286 (before working out, 285 after.) That is phenomenal. So we are happy with that, no doubt. However, there has been a real problem getting to the gym this week. I managed to slip in 20 minutes of elliptical on Tuesday, but had a work engagement pull me away prematurely.

So I can go one of three ways on this. First, I can give up lifting altogether. Second, I can resume normal working out as soon as possible. Third, I can ratchet up the workouts for the next three weeks and become a stud in the process.

I should go for No. 3. I will probably go for No. 2. However, these things have a way of making me do whatever is hardest, so I may end up going to No. 3. By the way, the website that will provide you with a full body workout (for free) is www.fitrex.com. Just looking at the workout scares me. That is my option No. 3. That workout would probably give me the best chance of actually getting into shape, but it would also take three hours a day to do. I am still contemplating it.

I did something kind of crazy today. I got two sandwiches from Subway. That, of course, goes against my goal of only getting wraps. I got a foot long and a six inch. I ate the three six inches at three separate times. So it wasn't all that bad. All told, it came to about 1,000 calories for the three of them. And all told, I had about 1,600 calories today.

Really people, I am telling you this as proven fact. It does not matter what you eat. if you want to lose weight, it is all about calorie intake. And if I want to eat three foot long Subway sandwiches per day ...

Break for a sex scene on skinemax. Ooh this one is called "The Sex Spa." This is a good scene, The music is in the background. The music in the forefront just mucks it all up. It is such a hack move by the director. You hired the actors to pretend like they are screwing on camera, let them do it. By the way, how can I get into the business of writing softcore porno movies?

BACK ... then I will have three foot long Subway sandwiches per day. And you know what? It will be good for me because I burn more calories per day than the three sandwiches will put in me. If I want chocolate, then I can have chocolate as long as it is less calories than I burn.

I've said it before and I will say it now. Most of this is about portion size. Everyone gave me advice on what to eat when I began. But no one ever really said how much I should eat. Everyone has their own way of losing weight, I guess. And I really enjoy hearing people's suggestions of what is good and what isn't good. But at the end of the day, I kind of like sticking to the plan I used to lose 84 pounds in 130 days.

Now, why did I get all militant and angry there? I don't really know.

Posted by Dan Nied at 1:35 AM | Comments (0)

May 16, 2006

Day 130

A question about sexual relations and my role in them

What I ate today

Breakfast (9 a.m.)
3 chicken breasts
Calories: 300
Fat: 3 grams

Lunch (12 p.m.)
2 weight watchers dinners
Calories: 490
Fat: 7 grams

Snack (4 p.m.)
1 blueberry bagel with plain cream cheese
Calories: 400?
Fat: ??

Dinner (7 p.m.)
1 Subway club wrap
Calories: 230
Fat: 6 grams

Total Calories: 1,420
Total fat: More than 16 grams

Exercise: None. At this point I am just not exercising to piss Cameron off. No, actually Cameron can feel validated today. I totally talked myself out of it. (By the way, Cam, you ride me hard and I really appreciate it. Keep it coming). But, in place of working out, I did manage to spend two hours making photocopies of my articles for my portfolio. It’s the first step in getting a new job! I am pumped. But, since I didn’t work out today, that means I didn’t weigh in. Official weigh will come tomorrow. It should be really interesting. Am I actually under 290? Or did I gain five pounds over the weekend? Who knows.

You know, I think some people might be having a little too much fun with the comments section. But I like that. Here is one I just received:

From: “Joey Freshwater”
You mentioned that you want to lose weight to meet women and I assume sleep with them...assuming you are straight. Are you sexually active? I mean with others...not counting jerking off. My question is when you were fat and having sex I assume it was with fat chicks...will you continue nailing fat chicks and describe the biggest one you hooked (nailed)...if you did do a Fatty.

I personally still like banging fat chicks even though I've lost a few hundred pounds.

Now, this was probably sent to get laughs, but since I am always open to talking about sex, I’ll answer as best I can. It has been awhile since I had sex. The reason is a combination of high fatness and a lack of options here in Colorado. Of the girls I have had relations with, some were big, some were not big. I have never had relations with a girl under 5 foot 7, to my knowledge. Almost every girl that I’ve dated has been a non-fatty. My ex girlfriend (who reads this) was pretty hot, actually. She was hot enough that people were surprised she was with me.

As for the second part of the question: I will have relations with whoever I deem worthy of having relations with. I don’t really know how that will develop. I am probably at a time in my life when hooking up just for the sake of hooking up isn’t very fun anymore. But then, that last sentence was a gigantic fucking lie. I’ve been out of the game long enough, though, that I don’t really know what I’ll do when the opportunity for hooking up comes. It will be a combination of a lot of things. I wouldn’t mind actually having a verbal connection with a woman, rather than a physical one. And see, this losing weight thing may or may not help the physical connections, but I know it will help the verbal connections (i.e. a girl I think is attractive will be more inclined to get to know me if I am less fat.) But I don’t think my taste in women will change at all. It hasn’t yet. I just think I’ll be more confident.

That was probably too much time, space and information to devote to that question. Sorry.

So let’s look at today’s menu, shall we? I still haven’t gone shopping, so I had to buy food and eat chicken for breakfast. The Subway wraps are really good and, surprisingly, I wasn’t craving more when I finished it tonight. I had an impromptu stop for a blueberry bagel in the afternoon. I don’t know the calories in those things, but as long as it wasn’t 2,000 I’ll be ok with the day. After all, it was probably better to eat that than nothing at all.

So, other than not working out, Day 1 of the newest 26-day plan was pretty good.

By the way, there is a full mailbag entry coming sometime this week. Hopefully Wednesday. So keep a look out for that.

Posted by Dan Nied at 1:23 AM | Comments (0)

May 15, 2006

Day 129

Getting back to basics

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.

Posted by Dan Nied at 3:01 AM | Comments (0)

May 11, 2006

Day 125

A blog entry about nothing

I am neither excited nor disapointed in anything right now. It's kind of a strange feeling. I think most of us rely on those emotions and feel lost when nothing comes.

Basically, I lost another pound today, down to just under 291 (Previously I bottomed out at 291.4, then went up to about 292.5 and now I am down to 290.8. But that's probably all water weight anyhow.). I worked out for 40 minutes on the elliptical, too.

There is nothing for me to be disapointed in. But I can't really get excited about things either. I am looking at June 9, the day I head back home, and I really would like to be 270. So that is just under a month away and I am not really sure I can lose 20 pounds in that time. Yeah, so what if I head back between 275 and 280? Certainly that would be pretty good. Honestly, that wouldn't make much of a difference to me. At my weight, five or 10 pounds really don't make a difference.

I am thinking about drastically changing the workout plan. Shep, the baseball coach here who turned up briefly in earlier posts as kind of a consultant, tipped me off to a website that will tailor a workout for you based on size and need. However, that workout is much more thorough than the one I am doing now. It makes sure that every muscle in the body gets some action at least twice a week. Right now, I am basically focusing on arms, chest and back. I'm not even thinking about lower body.

On one hand, taking on this new workout would mean at least two hours in the gym three times per week, and that is without cardio. On off days I would have to do cardio, which would certainly take some self-motivation.

But on the other hand, I am about to embark on a summer filled with nothing to do. My plan is to find a new job, work a few hours a day and then pretty much do nothing. So what would it hurt to fill in that nothing time with a solid workout? You know, it might be nice to actually have a good body for once in my life. I've been embarrassed to take my shirt off since I was five. I went to Cancun for spring break in college and went swimming two times in a week (And made it to the ocean only once, on the last day. Also, there are rumors that my friends and I spent that week smoking the finest ounce of Mexican weed $50 can buy. That was kind of during my month-long stoner phase in college. Six years later, I haven’t really touched the stuff since.)

But anyway, picking up the workout might be really good. But I worry that I don’t know what I am getting myself into here. If I become super healthy guy, does that mean I can never go back to being a fat slob? I mean, I don’t want to be a fat slob anymore, but I also don’t want to paint myself into a corner here. Dilemmas, man.

So anyway, that sums the day up. I'm not really pumped about anything, but I have no reason to be upset. I'm kind of in a happy medium, which is not really happy at all.

I think I am going to go cut myself to make sure I can still feel pain.

And sorry if that offended all you cutters out there.

Posted by west at 2:42 AM | Comments (0)

May 10, 2006

Day 124

Some thoughts about working out

I’d say today was pretty good. Though I am too lazy to do the food journal. I know, I know. I need to get back into the habit of doing that.

In some ways, I still fear I am self-destructing. I can’t seem to make it a day without Subway and the same goes for diet pop and one helping of too many calories from something in the house.

Right now I am a man without urgency. Even my workout today had no urgency. I decided early on that I would just lift today, along with a quick elliptical warmup. I got my 10 minutes in on the elliptical, but got distracted three times during lifting and left without doing shoulders. Yes, I know that one day missing shoulders isn’t the end of the world, but shouldn’t I be taking workouts more seriously?

But on the bright side, I did get back to the gym for the third day in a row. Wednesday will be a hard elliptical day and then back to lifting Thursday and, hopefully, more elliptical Friday. I would be pretty fucking stoked if I made it to the gym six days this week. I guess that would show some commitment.

Still, working out is kind of becoming a burden. I want the results of cardio and lifting, but I don’t really want to do it. It feels almost like high school football practice. You always dread it during the day, don’t really wanna go. But you go anyway because you know you have to or you won’t be on the team (in this case, being on the team means looking good). But while you are there, you are always wondering how long is left before you can go home.

Sometimes I look at the overly ripped guys at the gym and wonder what their mindset is. Certainly few, if any, of these guys are lifting for any practical reason. It’s not like this is the western capital of the body building world or anything. They don’t have any seasons to get ready for. Basically, as far as I can tell, these guys just want to be ripped. So do they look forward to working out every day? Is it fun for them to isolate certain areas of the body? Do they get sort of a natural high from working out? Do they go home and beat off while rubbing their triceps?

I’m sure they do. But I have to believe that somewhere there is a muscular guy who doesn’t like working out all that much.

But you know what? it has to be done, so I do it. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate it. Actually a lot of it is used as social time. With a town this small, you are guaranteed to see at least one person you know every time you leave the house. And, since the gym is built into the community college basketball arena, I know pretty much everyone there. I think they might even like me a little bit. So that’s good. Also, with the community college setup (the coaching offices are literally right next to the leg press machine) working out is good for my job, too. I have gotten a few scoops while ellipticising.

But my main problem right now isn’t the will to work out. It’s the will to go shopping. I have become scared of the grocery bills, which can easily top $70 for about a week and a half of food. See, my convoluted logic tells me that I would rather spend more money over the long haul, but in smaller doses (i.e. Subway) than spend a big chunk of cash all at once. Anyone else think I should rectify that line of thinking? I need to go grocery shopping in the worst way. I think part of the current eating problems I am facing is that there are no options in the house. Obviously, that must change.

Alright, that’s about it for today. Just a note, the Blog Critics people finally got fed up with my shit and told me to reduce my postings to them to once a week. That will probably cut out a few thousand daily readers from this blog. But then, I am the guy that pushed a 100 day experiment into a 124 day marathon with no end in sight. So I should have seen that coming.

But that means that I will need more comments from the site in order to make me feel good about myself. So come on, be an enabler.

Posted by Dan Nied at 12:51 AM | Comments (0)

May 9, 2006

Day 123

A weekend of questioning

Sorry I left you guys in the dark Monday. A big story broke Sunday night and I had to bump the blog entry to actually do work that I get paid for.

Unfortunately, that story has also taken up most of my Monday, so this might get kind of short.

For the record: I had kind of a bad weekend, eating-wise. there were not major fuck ups, but I didn't exactly follow the diet. Sunday I sort of had to sit down and remind myself of the reasons I started this in the first place. It wasn't to get below 300 pounds, it was to get to 270. Since I still haven't done that, I can't relax now.

But even with some relatively bad eating over the weekend, I managed to get to the gym for a long-overdue workout Sunday. Afterwards, I weighed in at 291.4 pounds. So I at least ate smart enough to lose a little bit of weight.

And while 291 (we'll round down) is a good spot to be in right now, I couldn't help but think that it was a full three weeks after my trip to Colorado Springs. I was 300 on the dot for that trip, so in three weeks I've lost nine pounds. While typing that out, I feel pretty good about it. But then, when I really think about it, I should be so much lower than 291. Sure an average of three pounds per week is pretty fucking good, but I know that if I had actually been devoted for each of those 21 days, I would probably be down to at least 285 right now, with 270 just a good two weeks away.

See, you have to realize that I am taking off weight at an astonishing pace right now. I don't know why that is, but the scale is dropping like a rock on days when I eat the way I should.

So I took some time to question my commitment to sparklemotion (sorry for the random, vague Donnie Darko quote. It had to be done) and this diet. Over the weekend, I actually had to ask myself if I was going to be able to lose the rest of the weight. I was continuously hungry, and not for Subway either. I wanted burgers and sausage and chocolate and fried ice cream from Chi Chis. I didn't have any of those thi