Michael Da Vegas Blog

Viva Las Vegas

2006-08-09T20:38:00.000-07:00

There is a new website called Weight Loss Tips and they asked me to do an interview for them, bascially to know how my journey has come along so far and what program I'm using. If you want to read mine or any other people's interviews be sure to check them out!!!! Here is the link my Interview.

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This is Elvis week in Las Vegas. It was 29 years ago on August 16th that Elvis died. There are those days in your life where you know exactly where you were and what you where doing at the time of that event. For me it was when man first walked on the moon, I was just a little kid but for some reason that event stands out in my mind. Then the next as the death of Elvis and the last was 9/11.

When Elvis passed on I was still living in So.Cal and my dad had this motor home and used to take us (the family) on long vacations. I was in high school and we were heading back to California so I could get back in time for the new school year. We were spending the night at a campground behind Circus Circus here in Vegas of all place. I remember I was in the motor home, getting my swim suit to head out to the pool when the news came across the radio my sister had on that Elvis was dead.

For those of you who are old enough, do you remember what you were doing the day Elvis died???

In honor of "The King" I've put my Elvis video back for this week.

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Saturday

2006-08-05T10:17:00.000-07:00

Went out to dinner with some friends last night. Ended up not getting home until almost midnight. But I ate well, I had crab legs with no butter and no sauce. I enjoy just the taste of the crab legs so to me I can eat just those.

Wow, Vegas is having a cold spell. It's like 98 today!!!! brrrrrrr...... I need to dust off my winter clothes I think. :)

Well, football starts tomorrow night and that usually is the unoffical end to my summer. However, this year I'm taking a five day trip to where I grew up in the San Fernando valley area of Los Angeles. I'm going on the week of my birthday from August 21 to the 26. I'm going to rent a car and drive since I like driving trips anyways. I'm also going to Bakersfield to visit a friend I've known since the 7th grade.

I know I can bring my NS meals with me to LA, but I can only hope I will be good. One place I used to love eating was this little breakfast place in Chatsworth that had the best cinamon swirl french toast. I'm sure there were like 1000 calories in that breakfast. I just need to stay away from there.

Plus I never go to LA without visiting the Farmer's Market on 3rd and Fairfax. I love that place and again it centers around food. They have wonderful open air restuarants. Damn, all my favorite places involve food. Then there's Cupid's hot dog stands and who can miss out on Pink's!!!!!

And I have to stop at Mann's Chinese theatre. Until you've seen a movie in this historic place, you haven't seen a movie. And they have wonderful hot dogs and popcorn.

Maybe I will stay home afterall. :( Just kidding. I need to learn to have fun doing those kinds of things without the food being the focal point. I don't know how I can go to Farmer's market though without eating something!!!!!

August already!!!

2006-08-01T09:27:00.000-07:00

I know some of you out there (Emily) are already counting the days to Christmas vacation!!!! Well, it's 137!!! Can you believe it's already August!!! Where does the time go?

Ok, I can't actually complain too much about the heat here now. It's still hot, like 100, but the humity has gone down since the Monsoons have shifted further East and it's actually bearable. I just hate that humidity. I know you East Coasters are laughing at me for complaining about 30-40% humidity, but we are spoiled in the desert, it's only like single digits normally.

For me, this is my busy time of the year. I work in the sports field and football officially gets underway this Sunday with the Raiders (yuk!!) and Eagles. Ok, I'm a lifelong Broncos fan, it's bred in me to hate the Raiders!!! Even though I was born in Denver I became a bigger fan when Elway went there. I played football in high school against Elway and I've always admired him. Ok, so their high school kicked out butts and I hated him on those nights, but after high school I always followed his career. So for you football fans out there you can buckle down your helmets and get ready for another season. For me, it's my busy time of the year and I will be busy from now until March when the Final Four in basketball are done.

Hope you all are doing great on your respective programs and thanks for spending any time reading my boring blog. (great new name, Mike's Boring Blog)!!!!

Week 14

2006-07-31T09:07:00.000-07:00

Well, week 13 wasn't very lucky and not productive at all. I guess once the honeymoon is over you have to work at bit harder. At least I slept a bit better last week, getting about 6 hours a night and for me that's pretty darn good.

I decided to stay away from the gym last week too. It was such a hot and humid week here (which the entire country seems to be in the grips of) that I just didn't feel like going out. That and eating out too much didn't make for a good week.

But, this week no matter of the temps, I'm heading back to the gym, doing just my NS foods and making week 14 another good one.

My gym workouts aren't back up to the same intensity I was at last November, but they are getting close. Last year I was doing about 40 minutes on the treadmill and then a circuit of 9 different weight machines. The entire time at the gym was about 90 minutes.

Right now I'm doing about 20 minutes on the treadmill at a lower setting and I'm still doing the 9 machines of weights, but the weight was less. I'm just about back to the weight levels from last year but the treadmill I'm increasing at about 5 minutes every few weeks. I know I could go longer on the treadmill than 20, but I'm not pushing it, not over doing it. I'm still heavier than I was last year when I was working out harder. I figure by October I should be back to about the same place I was last October. What a waste of a year!!!! That's another one I'm never getting back......

Well, my NS foods are easy today. I have a NS bar for breakfast and a NS bar for lunch. That's it for my daytime meals. I'll include veggies and fruit tonight.

Sleep, is it over-rated???

2006-07-25T12:29:00.000-07:00

Ok, I sure hate when I have battles with Insomnia, which lately seem to happen more often than not. Last night I was up at 3am and couldn't go back to sleep. I can do very well on as little as 3-4 hours of sleep, but it does catch up to me and then I need a day (usually Thursday) to get extra sleep. And when I got up at 3am I was a bit hungry so I did have a NS bag of Pretzels. i didn't feel guilty since I came in around 250 calories under my 1800 for Monday. Still, I hate snacking in the middle of the night, a very bad practice to get into.

Without having to resort to Ambien or any other prescrip sleeping pills, does anyone have any tried methods of improving their sleep? Warm milk, camomile tea, counting sheep.... been trying them all. I did take 2 of those over the counter PM meds and it did help, but I get up so groggy that I hate that feeling. This has been hurting my gym workouts too since I am so tired at the end of a work day that I just want to go home and collapse.

Anyways, NS has been good so far this week and yes, I didn't forget my NS foods today. I had the frosted oats with skim milk for breakfast and lunch was the Pasta Parm. With the added fruit and carbs I'm at about 700 calories through lunch. I have one NS pizza left so I think that will be dinner tonight. I will add some lean sliced turkey I got yesterday, onion and maybe even some polenta. Stir fry some spinach, onions and tomatoes and that will be dinner.

Week 13 Begins

2006-07-24T10:55:00.000-07:00

Ok, as Paul said, the first "Dirty Dozen" weeks are behind me. I'd like to say week 12 was great, but it wasn't. I made some poor choices last week, mainly eating out too many times. But this week I'm committed to only doing my normal one time per week eating out - and that's for breakfast which is simple for me. I didn't get on the scale today.... ok, I'm chicken!!! I will, but I need to sneak up on it first. I'm thinking of a stealth attack tonight after dark.

So, week 13 has already begun on a bad note. I left home this morning, had all my food for today and tomorrow ready to go...... guess what? yep, left it sitting on the counter. I even had my non-fat milk in a thermos in the fridge along with my fruits and veggies. So here I sit, no NS foods for today. DOH!!!! I do have some oatmeal in my office, so I will likely have that, but it's nearly 11am and I haven't eaten a thing yet today.

I called Fedex to see what they would do with my computer since I won't be home. First, Paul suggested (a good suggestion) that I call and see if the package could be re-routed to my office. So I called Fedex and they said I had to call the shipper to re-route. So I called HP and they said to call Fedex, there was nothing they could do since it already left their facility. So I am SOL!!! But, I was able to convince my sister Vicky to go to my place and wait for the package to come. Otherwise Fedex said they would bring it back to the facility and then try to re-deliver tomorrow, which I will be at work again. Deja Vu anyone!!!

Hmmm, I wonder if my sister would be willing to drive across town in 110 degree heat and bring me my NS foods???? I seriously doubt it!!! Sisterly love has its bounds. :)

Anyways, when she calls me to tell me it has arrived I have already decided to drive home and get it. The faster I get rid of this piece of trash I'm using now, the happier I will be. If I didn't say so before, I use that laptop for both home and office use. I take it with me back and forth, so this one I'm using now is really getting on my nerves. I have to keep my fingers crossed that the new keyboard does the trick and it's not a motherboard problem. Don't think those thoughts Mike!!!!! Happy thoughts, Happy thoughts!!!!!

Ok, I will let you know how the PC turns out when I get it today.

Can't post a menu, since I haven't eaten yet today.

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AFTERNOON UPDATE :

The Good news is I have my own Laptop back again, fixed, new keyboard and everything seems fine. I feel like I just went from a Ford Pinto to a Corvette. It sure is nice having my own computer back.

Well, I did finally eats something around noon. I went up the street to Smith's Grocery and got a bag of lettuce, some low fat turkey slices and made a salad. I had dressing in my office (low cal). No NS entrees to go with it, but at least it was something. I did go home and get my computer after my sister called to say it arrived, but I decided not to bring back food since I had already eaten lunch. I will just eat dinner tonight when I get home.

Week 12

2006-07-23T10:08:00.000-07:00

Today closes out Week 12 on NS. I had a couple of days last week that weren't very good, but you have to expect those on occassion. It's how you handle those days that really count. I attribute those bad days to more eating out. But this week I'm back to my regular schedule and I won't be eating out except one morning on Wednesday.

The good news is that HP has shipped my computer to me. It shipped Friday night but I won't receive it until Monday around 3pm, according to their web site. I didn't figure to get it until later in the week, so it will be nice to have it back. The only problem is that Fed Ex will likely leave it on my doorstep and I will be at work. I hate to have my expensive laptop sitting on my doorstep for any passer by to pick up. I think I will keep monitoring the Fed Ex site and when it says it has been dropped off, I will drive home and get it.

At least by tomorrow evening I should (hopefully) be back on a computer that doesn't need five minutes to load pages. Then I can begin posting more regularly and also visiting other blogs again.

Till then.

Thursday

2006-07-20T20:11:00.000-07:00

Well, no word yet on a new delivery date for my laptop. They didn't have my keyboard at the repair center so they had to order it from another one. Mine has the 10 key attached so it isn't as easy to replace. All I know is that I'm getting sick of this computer I'm using now.

Every day has been so humid here with lots of storms around but not much rain being dropped. It's still like 108 and humid. DOH!!!!

I did make it to the gym today, had a good workout. I'm still not up to my full treadmill workout, but I'm about 70% there. The weights are about back to normal and I've added more ab work. I figure once the fat is finally gone, there might be some muscle under there!!!!

I have been holding at the same weight, but that's because I've been eating out too much and I'm sure taking in more calories than I should. But I'm stopping that and will only allow myself one time eating out per week and that's breakfast.

Today I actually am way below on calories. I had breakfast (440 cals) and dinner (485 cals). So I'm not even to 1000 yet and it's after 8pm. I will have some fruit in a bit and my NS dessert, but I doubt I will come close to my 1800 calories I try to stay near.

Light Show!!!

2006-07-18T17:02:00.000-07:00

Vegas might have lots of lights on the Strip, but last night we got a light show from mother nature. Big Thunderstorms rolled through Vegas and I haven't seen that much lightning or heard that much Thunder in ages. A few shots sounded like they were right in my backyard. And, with the high winds my power went out for a few hours. Ok, no T.V, no Internet access..... I can live with those, but NO A/C!!!! Yikes!!! Finally a few hours later my power came back. It's amazing how spoiled we are with power. Take it away and we almost can't function. The picture at left was taken last night from Pecos and Windmill on the Southeast side of Las Vegas!!!!

Then today I called HP and was told that my keyboard was not in stock so it's going to take another week!!! So I'm stuck with this piece of junk at least another week. I'm not very happy.

So my updates will be smaller and maybe a few days in between until I get my laptop back.

I will get to read other blogs hopefully in the next few days.

Computer Woes!!!!

2006-07-17T12:02:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't been posting much the last week. I am waiting to get my PC back from HP, hopefully on the 20th as they state on the web page. This replacement pc I'm using really sucks and it's slow and for some reason the blog doesn't like it. Takes forever sometimes for me to get a post up. So I'm just doing some small ones until the 20th. Things are still going well, the weather has been hotter than anything. It's been 110+ the last week, now we are getting the humidity back with some storms around. Only 45 days left until October!!!!!

As soon as my pc is back I will spend more time on your blogs, sorry for not visiting lately. I try to use the computer for email and that's about it. Till then, stay cool!!!! Literally, not figurtively!!!

Thursday

2006-07-13T10:38:00.000-07:00

I hadn't posted for a few days since I had to get a loaner computer and then load everything I needed on it. I had to send my four month old laptop back to HP to have the keyboard replaced. I like HP computers, but this is the second straight laptop I've had from HP that had terrible keyboard problems. This loaner I'm using is an HP too and it has keyboard issues. What's up HP? Use some better keyboards, will ya!!!!

I'm home today so I'm having pancakes. I went and got some nice blueberries yesterday so I will make blueberry pancakes and maybe a egg white omelette with spinach and fat free cheese. It's almost 11am and I still haven't eaten, so this might be a brunch.

Not much else to report today, pretty boring.

Wow!!!!

2006-07-10T23:12:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine from the healthsteward site came out last September and I took her to Hoover Dam and then we met some other friends for a drink. At the time she was right around 300lbs and struggling with her weight loss. The reason I bring this up is because since December 2005, she has lost 140 pounds. Yes, that is right, almost half her total weight. She did it with a medically supervised liquid fast. She is only 20 pounds from her goal. Great work Sarah!!!! Here are the pics of the "new" Sarah!!!!

Here is a picture of Sarah and me at Hoover Dam, she was 300lbs.

Here she is today, 140 pounds lighter!!!!

Week 11 Begins

2006-07-10T10:04:00.000-07:00

Today begins week 11 on NS. I came into work a little later so I ate breakfast at home, which means PANCAKES. I really like the NS Pancakes so I have them whenever I'm home for breakfast. I put some sugar free jam (5 cal per Tbspn) and Sugar Free syrup (30 cal 1/4 cup). The total cals for the pancakes come to 180 calories and it's yummy!!! I also had a egg substitute omelette with onion and fat free cheese and two slices whole wheat low fat bread. My entire breakfast came to 340 calories. Not bad for a big breakfast like that. If I ate that breakfast out, the syrup for the pancakes alone would be close to 300 calories. NS proves you can eat good and still eat low cal and healthy.

Lunch I brough the Black Beans and Rice. I like that NS lunch. I may get a Mickey D's Asian Salad too, but I'm not sure. The two items would bring me to about 460 cals for lunch, which is still very good.

I will be on another small vacation starting Tuesday (my last of the summer). I have a bunch of things I need to get done around the house and outside too. Hopefully this will be a productive vacation. I know I will be eating out more, but I am confident in making wise, portion controlled decisions.

Closing out week 10!!!

2006-07-09T09:16:00.000-07:00

Week 10 is about over, in fact today is the end. That makes 10 weeks and 71 days on NS. I have been very happy with the program so far and I can see how people needing to lose 20, 40 or more lbs like the program. It also helps to re-establish portion control. Just seeing the difference between the cereal they give you and what I used to eat is amazing. I have also learned to eat a lot more veggies. I eat a lot of veggies with dinner and as the Jazzman says on his site, "no one ever got fat from eating vegetables." I eat salads once in a while, not as much as I did when I first started the program. Though I do love the Asian salad at McDonalds. It's about 340 calories with the low cal dressing, but I use it for my fruit, salad, protein servings when I include it. With the NS lunch entree it bring lunch in around 500 calories, which isn't bad.

Last night I saw a commercial for Jack in the BOx with their new double sour dough patty hamburger, huge fries and huge ice-cream chocolate shake. I know the shake alone has around 1300 calories (according to Calorie King), the burger is likely around 1100 and the fries are about 500. That makes that meal worth 2900 calories. That's more than any of us need for one entire day. It's no wonder America has gotten fatter. I know I could have eaten that lunch and then had dinner and dessert and don't forget breakfast. And you wonder how you can get to 400lbs. It ain't difficult in this day and age. You just have to ask yourself, is it worth it? I know for me it isn't.

I just had my NS bran cereal, also brought a strawberry apple sauce (4 oz, 45 cals). Might have some oatmeal later.

Lunch I brought today is a boca burger sandwich and the pasta with beef lunch.

will- post later my dinner.

Dinner!!

2006-07-08T17:47:00.000-07:00

Ok, here is my review of the new item I tried tonight for dinner.

This was the first time I found fish on the dinner menu, so I ordered one. It's Poached Salmon in a White Wine sauce with Rice.

I really like Salmon and while the piece they give you is about 3 1/2 inches by 1 inch, I found it to be a very nice and moist piece of fish. I have no idea what kind of salmon it is, Pacific, Atlantic, Sockeye.... or any other variety. But for a NS prepackaged meal I recommend this highly. Especially when you don't get a lot of fish items on the menu. I made mine with some Polenta and some veggies with included spinach, onions, tomatoes and garlic.

The NS entree has 290 calories. If you can find it, I would recommend trying it.

Weekend

2006-07-08T12:14:00.000-07:00

Hope you are all having a fun weekend. I work so you know I am. :)

NS is going great, got the new shipment with a few new items. Today for breakfast I tried the Chocolate Crisp cereal. It was good, I'd order it again. But after I emptied the contents into my bowl I was amazed. Here is a standard sized bowl and the cereal barely covered the bottom. In the past that bowl would have been filled to the rim with cereal. It is amazing how off our portion control can be. That was 130 calories of cereal just covering the bottom. But afterwards I was satisfied, I didn't need the bowl filled to capacity as I would have in the past.

I am also trying the Salmon tonight. It's the first time I saw it on NS and I'm anxious to give it a shot since I love fish. Paul told me he couldn't find it on his listing, and thought maybe it's only a West Coast item. I will take a picture of the box tonight and post it here so you can see it Paul and I will give you my opinion on how it tastes.

The weather has been crappy here. I'd rather have the 105 and single digit humidity than this stuff we are having. It's threatened to rain every day for the last 10 days but barely a drop has hit. Instead, we are stuck with humidity levels from 25 to 50 percent. Great if you lived in Michigan, but lousy if you live in Vegas or Arizona!!! If it's going to be this humid, please just rain!!!!

I'll post this evening with my daily menu and my review of the Salmon. Oh, and for lunch I'm having another new item I'm trying, the Cheese Tortellini. I have always loved Tortellini, so this better be good.

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Lunch Update : I tried the Tortilinni for lunch and it was very good. Too bad I only ordered one this shipment. One thing I LOVE about NS. Being Italian and loving Italian food (partly why I am overweight), I have always stayed away from Italian food when I went on diets. Ulitimately I gave into my heritage and splurged on Italian food and then the diet wend bye-bye. But on NS, I can have all kinds of Italian foods. Sure, they aren't like mom used to make, but none-the-less, it ain't bad either.

I think half of my dinners this last order were Ravioli, Lasagna and Pizza. Now how can you not love a diet where you get to eat that stuff!!!!

Ok, if you go to the NS boards and ask everyone how they like anything.... say the Ravioli, you are going to get some that love it, some that don't like it and many that fall somewhere in between. That's the beauty of NS, they have a wide variety to satisfy everyone's palettes.

Well, with one exception.... those darn poppy seed muffins. Can't say I've found anyone that's actually liked them. They really taste like Milk Bone dog biscuits. Ok, yes when I was in college I had the pleasure of sampling a few of the Milk Bones. But don't laugh at me, if you are on NS and tried the poppy seed muffins.... guess what!!! You now know what Milk Bones taste like!!!

Friday!!!

2006-07-07T11:03:00.000-07:00

Well, for most of you it's your Friday, for me it's my Monday.

I received my NS delivery yesterday. I counted everything this time and I did get a full order. I got a lot of Italian dishes for dinner. I think at least half of the dinners are Ravioli and/or Lasagna. I think they are both two of the best dinners. I'm trying a few new items this time. I received the salmon dinner, hopefully that will be good since there is so little fish other than tuna.

It's been over 2 months since I started NS. Time sure does fly by doesn't it!! So far this has been a great program. I have been very happy with it. But, as so many of us know all too well, it's not just about losing weight, it's about losing weight and NEVER finding it again.

It's too early to be up!!!

2006-07-06T04:34:00.000-07:00

This picture is my mood today, indifference? Bordom? Who Cares? I think this picture was taken about 2 months ago when I was just starting out with NS, about 45 pounds heavier than I am now. Not that you can really tell the difference from today since it's just a head shot.

I am having one of my bouts of insomnia and it's only 4:30am, can't sleep. I hate that I have always been such a poor sleeper. I can function really well with just 5 hours of sleep usually. Been that way most of my life, though usually Thursday is a day when I sleep in, get some extra sleep and make up for the rest of the week. But today, nope, just can't sleep.

Thursday is always NS Pancake day. I do like the pancakes but since I am only home for one breakfast of the week, it has to be Thursday. I will also have a egg substitute omelette with onion, spinach and two slices of fat free cheese. This is one of my favorite breakfast days.

I didn't get my NS shipment yesterday, but according the the tracking I should get it today. Which is good since I should be home all morning. I have to go to my sister's sometime today and hook up her new digital cable box. The cable co wanted 50 bucks to send someone out, what a ripoff for 10 minutes of work.

My final vacation of 2006 will begin on the 11th. I have 13 days off. Since I work in the sports field, we have to have all our time done with by the start of the preseason football season in August. I will still have three more days to take, and I will do that in August, but no more longer vacations.

I'm watching MSNBC right now and the beach boys are performing. I can't believe they are still around. Some things never change, well, they just get older. Is Mike Love ever going to call it a career? What is he, about 70 now?

Now that the Beach Boys are playing a song I may finally be able to get back to sleep. I will post my meal menus later.

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Late Thursday Update : I had a good day. My ear seems to have cleared up, well maybe not 100%, but 90%. Hopefully it will not relapse.

I had my NS pancakes for breakfast with egg substitute omelette and 2 slices of toast.

I didn't eat lunch. Rather, I went to the gym about 12:30 and got done close to 2pm. When I was working our regularly last year, after each workout I had a smoothie at the juice bar. My favorite is the Juicebar Punch, which has nonfat frozen yogurt, 1/2 banana, cinnamon, honey and protein powder. The small one I estimate to be around 400-500 calories. Little did I realize that I was putting back the calories I just worked off which was slowing my weight loss. So this time around I only allow myself one Juicebar punch about every 2 weeks. And, it has to replace my lunch meal.

I did get my NS shipment today so I had the NS Ravioli tonight with Polenta and spinach.

Dessert was carmel corn and peanut butter on toast.

Total cals came in right around 1700 for the day.

Hopefully I can get a decent nights sleep since I have to be up early to go to work tomorrow. Take care everyone.

Hump Day

2006-07-05T19:37:00.000-07:00

Today is my day off and I've had a good day on NS. I always eat out Wednedsay morning and I always eat the same. I had my egg white omelette with veggies, one Tbspn of Guacamole and Chicken breast (no skin). I usually have oatmeal, but skipped it today.

For lunch I had the NS Entree (beef patty) with two slices of wheat toast, onion, tomato and two slices of fat free cheese. IT's the first time I've had the beef patty. You have to put boiling water on it. It was a bit bazaar, but it actually tasted pretty good.

For dinner I had the NS Entree (Chicken Pasta Parm) with 2 slices of polenta and stir fry veggies.

I'm only at 1100 cals for the day and I know I won't make my 1800. I will have a dessert around 9pm but that will only be around 200-300 calories.

Today was a pretty boring day. Ran some errands, didn't do much other.

Happy 4th

2006-07-04T09:09:00.000-07:00

Hopefully everyone is having a happy and safe 4th of July. I'm actually working today. My job I have to be here on holidays unless they fall on my days off. But it's ok, I'm the only one in my section so I have the TV on and it's all good.

I changed my weigh -in for Monday. I got on the scale today and liked that number better. :)

Last night's dinner party at Rocco's was real nice. I thought it was going to be just a few people, ended up being like 20. So much food and all kinds of fattening stuff. But I was very good, I had two pieces of chicken (no skin), some salad, fresh asparagus and 1/2 of a corn on the cob. I did have one tiny, tiny piece of my sister's Lasagna, but it was like two bites. Then for dessert, I had some fresh strawberries with just a dab of Cool Whip. I was very satisfied with what I had and didn't feel deprived at all. I'm trying to enjoy the atmosphere and not let the food be the focal point of the evening.

Today it's back to three NS meals. I still have enough meals for another week (except lunch) so no hurry on my NS shipment. I will likely get it either Wednesday or Thursday. Strange thing is that both my previous shipments have arrived on a Wednesday, which is good since that's my day off and I don't want that box sitting on my porch in 105 degree heat. So hopefully this one will arrive Wednesday or Thursday also.

I will go to the gym today. I should have gone yesterday but just didn't have a chance. i worked all day and then went to the dinner party until almost 10pm last night. But today I will.

Week 10 Begins

2006-07-03T08:17:00.000-07:00

Today begins week 10 and day 65 on NS. I can only hope the next 10 weeks and 65 days go as smoothly. I didn't lose too much last week, just 2lbs, but any loss is a good loss. I should receive shipment number 3 this week from NS and I think it will be my last order. I will attempt my own foods using some recipes from the Jazzman site and from Amy's site. Amy has lots of good recipes using your own food. But I think for dinner I will see about using entrees from either South Beach, Weight Watchers or Healthy Choice. Find what's on sale and get two weeks worth. I like the convinience of being able to pop an entree in the microwave and be done with it. Plus most of those I've mentioned have similar caloric totals to the NS entrees. Then for breakfast I will use the Kashii Go Lean cereals, oatmeal and my egg white and egg substitutes for the main entrees. THen just add some fruit, a carb and protein.

Lunch will be the thing I will struggle most with. I like bringing the NS foods to work and not having to prepare anything. I bring 5 days worth at the beginning of my week and as Tony Soprano always says, "forget about it!!!!"

So if anyone doing your own NS style foods has any lunch ideas that are handy to bring to work, let me know.

It's still early on Monday (well Thursday in my work week). I'm going to eat breakfast in a bit:

Oatmeal, NS Entree (bar), two small pieces of fruit and non-fat yogurt. Shoudl come to about 440 calories.

And, my stupid ear has flarred up again. I really am thinking it's A/C related. It never gets really bad enough to go to a doctor, then it clears up and I'm fine for a few days - then it comes back. The worst thing it does is make me a little light headed or dizzy. Last night I was dizzy for a few hours, nothing terrible but enough to make me think I was hitting the bottle for a while.

Have a great day, I will post the rest of today's menu this evening.

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Afternoon Delight!!!

Menu for Monday.

Breakfast : NS Entree (Frosted Nutricrunch), 8oz oatmeal, non-fat yogurt, one sm plum, one sm peach. total cals : 420.

Lunch : NS Entree (Chili) I didn't have a lunch entree so I borrowed from the dinners. Vegan Boca Burger, 2 slices of light wheat bread, 1 slice fat free cheese, one peach.
Cals : 440.

Dinner is going to be a trial though. I am invited over to a friends house for a big barbeque. However, I told him I can't eat most things so he's making sure there will be chicken for me and then I just remove the skin. I might try one small, small piece of a Lasagna I know is coming. I enjoy the NS lasagna and I know this one is made with veggie stuff so I will have a very small piece, some chicken and any veggies available.

one thing I'm trying to teach myself is to enjoy get togethers like this without having to indulge in all the wrong foods. This isn't an excuse to overeat.

Week 9 almost in the books!!!

2006-07-02T08:25:00.000-07:00

Today ends week 9, day 64 on NS. It's been very good so far. My third order shipped on July 1st, so I should get it this week some time. I still have enough food for another week at least. For some strange reason though, I have run out of lunches. I still have breakfast and dinner, but lunch only one left. I wonder if I got shorted on my last order. I didn't even check the count, but I will be sure to this time.

My ear had totally cleared up the last few days and I was feeling fine. Today I woke up and it's ringing again, which is how the other episodes started. I wonder if it could be the A/C? I noticed today on my way to work that my right ear (the bad one) was very cold from my car's A/C blowing on it. Maybe that is causing a problem? We'll see. It's not bad, but I hope it doesn't return either.

Tomorrow begins week 10 on NS. I have eaten out quite a bit, might be why I have so many breakfast entrees. But I am always true to my healthy eating. I've had 1 1/2 bad meals during the last 10 weeks so that isn't too bad.

The weather here is still kicking my butt. I don't know why I'm suffering from the heat more this year. I've been in Vegas 20 years, you think I would be used to it by now. But the humidity was up the last week and that really hurts me.

I've been to the gym three times last week. I will get it up to four times a week by August and then hopefully 5 times a week by Sept. I want to gradually increase my workouts per week.

Do any of NS'ers out that are veterans longer than me have any tales. I am wondering if you started to waver from NS as time went on, you start substituting more of your own foods or if anything else you might want to add. I'm still holding pretty strong and true to the NS plan. Though I find myself not using the little book as much anymore to mark off my protein, salad, fruit and carbs. I really need to get back to more of that bookkeeping.

Daze off!!

2006-06-29T09:38:00.000-07:00

Mid-day update : Had a productive morning, loaded two big boxes of old clothes into the car brought them to the donation center, then went to the post office to mail bills and then took out the trash.

Had this all planned so that after the donation center I was right down the street from the gym. I get to the gym, get all my stuff and wouldn't you know it, couldn't find my gym id. Then I started thinking..... where did I have it last. I had it at the gym earlier in the week.... put it in my sweat pants pocket and where are they now? Where else, in the load of laundry I just put in the washer before I left the house. So I decided to come back home and low and behold, there it was in the washer. None the worse for the wash I might add. So I still haven't been to the gym, but will go in a bit. I haven't decided if I should eat lunch before or after my workout. I'm not really hungry so I think i will just have some water and then eat when I return.

The Virgo in me had this whole morning planned out perfect, but Mr Murphy had other plans.

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I think I finally am about over this ear infection. I got through Wednesday with no ill affects and today I'm feeling pretty good. I am doing some Spring.... errr...Summer house cleaning. In a bit I will head to the gym and then drop some old clothes off for donation. About time I got rid of those 32 inch waist pants..... come on Mike, it's not like they will come back into style even if you could squeeze into them one day. :)

I had a good breakfast today.

NS Entree (Pancakes) with some sugar free jam and sugar free syrup.
Egg substitute omelett with fat free cheese and onion, two slices light wheat toast.
1 glass of ruby red light grapefruit juice.

Total cals : 447.

I did make it to 1700 calories on Wednesday, so another good NS day.

I will post the rest of today's meals this evening. I'm about to head out into the humidity and heat of Vegas.

Rain, Rain, Go Away.......

2006-06-28T16:40:00.000-07:00

I like rain, but in the desert it's usually no rain or flash floods. And when those darn clouds start building so does the humidity and that's what we got today. I'd rather have 108 and 7% humidity than our 98 degrees and 30% humidity. Oh well, at least I lose more weight this time of year by sweating more in this humidity.

I think this ear thing is finally getting better. Still lingering, but not quite as bad. So hopefully in the next day or so it will be gone.

NS has been good today, I ate out for breakfast like I usually do on Wednesday but I stay true : egg white omelette with one tspn of guacamole, skinless chicken breast and 8 oz of oatmeal.

Lunch was two of the NS turkey dogs on whole wheat bread with some mustard and onions. Some left over stir fry veggies from last night.

Not sure what dinner will be yet.

I did go to the grocery store today, got some veggies and fruit. Also got some V8 juice which I hear a lot of NS people substitute for the veggies. Sounds good some times.. I also got some light Ruby Red grapefruit juice. It's only 50 calories per 8 oz which will replace one of my fruits per day and works out perfectly. One of my health magazines said that drinking that particular kind of grapefruit juice actually helps with weight loss. And I can use all the help I can get. So I will replace one fruit serving a day with it.

Well, ok, here's the bad news.. I've been weighing myself with a old mechanical scale I've had for years since my digital scale batteries were dead. When I started NS I listed my weight at 440. Got my new batteries and I actually came in at 11 pounds more with the digital scale. I weighed myself on the mechanical scale and then the digital scale - 11lbs more on the digital. And i know the digital scale is acccurate since in the past it has been right on with the doctor's digital scale.

So I'm upping all my figures by 11 pounds. The good news is that figuring this all in, I've lost 10 pounds since my last weigh in since I was 411 today. So as long as I'm losing I'm happy.

Week 9

2006-06-27T19:04:00.000-07:00

I have taken the last few days off work, enjoying relaxing and trying to get over this ear infection I have. It doesn't seem to bother me all the time, but when it acts up I get light headed and dizzy. Today the weather got humid. Ok, it's about 20% humidity but for Vegas that is high and I can feel it. I hate the humidity, even at 20%. I was out a bit today and it really drained me. I'm home enjoying the cool, dry central air of my place and I won't go back out. Though we are entering Monsoon season and that means from now until around mid-September we can expect higher humidity and more rain.

Today has been good on NS. I went out for breakfast but still ate well. I had a egg-white omelette with a small, very small piece of ham and about half a piece of toast and 8 oz of oatmeal. Approx 440 calories.

Lunch was NS Entree (vegetarian sloppy joes) over wheat bread mixed with some polenta. Cals 300

Dinner : NS Entree (salisbury board steak and rice), polenta, and stir fry veggies with some seasfood medly mixed in. Cals. 550.

So another good day in the NS world.

I haven't updated my weight for a while because I have to get batteries for my digital scale and just don't feel like going out to get them. But I will soon.

Week 9 begins

2006-06-26T09:22:00.000-07:00

Today starts Week 9 on NS and my third order will ship shortly. I've modified it a bit again, adding more of what I like most, trying a few new items and getting rid of a few things that where ok, but not great. I am adding the chocolate cake for the first time. I'm a bit leary of this item since it is likely the size of a half dollar and well, I guess I will see. I have always been a big fan of carmel corn and they do have it on this diet, so I got like 5 of those for my next order.

I ate breakfast at home today so I made pancakes, added some sugar free jam (5 cal per Tblspn) and some low cal syrup. I also had 1/2 cup of egg substitute with some fat free cheese and low cal whole wheat bread.

That took care of NS Entree, 1 protein, 1 carb and about a 1/3 a fruit

total cals : 337.

What's amazing is that if I went out to eat and had that same breakfast, it would likely be around 1300 calories. It is amazing what you can save when you eat healthy alternatives to your favorite items.

I'm off, will post lunch and dinner later.

Hey, we are in for a cooling trend this week, it's only supposed to be around 105!!! Now where did I leave those sweaters I save just for these kind of days!!!! ;)

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Despite not feeling great I had a pretty productive day. Took the day off work, ran errands, went to the gym and then cleaned house all afternoon and evening. Much nicer and cleaner now.

I finished up with a nice dinner.

NS Entree (Rotini) over Polenta. Spinach with onions and a salad. about 540 calories.

For dessert I had the NS chocolates (still don't know if I like these or not) plus a pbj sandwich. total calories 290.

All in all I came in around 1650 calories today, below my 1800 calories I like to hit.

Off to bed now.

Ears to Sunday!

2006-06-25T12:23:00.000-07:00

Ok, this ear thing is getting me a bit PO'd. I start the day feeling well and as the day progresses the ear starts acting up which in turns makes me light headed and dizzy and then I am forced to forgo my gym workout. That's what happened Saturday. Today I am so far so good, but I can hear the low humming starting in my ear and that is usually the indication that it's starting to act up. It has to be allergies since my eyes have been very sensitive, my nose gets stuffed and I sneeze a lot. Hopefully the Clariton will help.

Today ends week 8 on NS and day 57. So far today I've had my NS breakfast entree (bran cereal) with skim milk and my NS Lunch entree (beef vegetable soup). I will have a salad a little later.

Yesterday in Henderson Nevada it was 119 degrees!!!! Henderson is basically attached to Vegas and shows how much hotter the South East part of this valley can be compared to the North West part. And I live closer to the South East so I know my place had to be around 115. That's just too darn hot, even for Vegas!!!

Thank goodness for air conditioning. Though I wouldn't be surprised if all this A/C is what's kicking up my allergies too.

I will update this evening with my full days NS menu.

Another Day in Pair-a-dice!!!

2006-06-24T08:58:00.000-07:00

If you love the heat, COME TO VEGAS!!! I love the heat, as long as I'm in an air conditioned place with some nice ice tea. :) It was officially 114 according to the guy on the weather phone yesterday. Today and Sunday they have already issued excessive heat warnings. What, 114 yesterday doesn't make it to excessive heat warning status?

Ok, sorry about my being in heat. That didn't come out right did it? You know what I mean.

Well, yesterday was the first day in a long time (sans the hamburger day) that I went over 1800 calories. I was at 2100. If that's the worst I do, then I will be happy.

No, I didn't make it to the gym yesterday. I was still too sore from Thursday's gym day. But I am definitely going after work today. I'm still a bit sore, but I know that will improve with each visit.

I am at work right now, still haven't eaten anything, though I will have my NS entree soon. Not sure what I have in the drawer but odds are it's a cereral or bar. I leave the pancakes and egg items at home for my days off. Difficult to make the eggs or pancakes here.

Well, guess I should do some work. today shouldn't be as long as Friday was, but I will likely be here until 5 or 6.

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Didn't make it to the gym tonight. I have been battling allergies and it has affected my right ear. Today I became dizzy in the afternoon and my ear was bothering me more than it has. So I came home and just rested. Feel better now, but the ear is still acting up. I will have to see if I can get some Clariton tomorrow.

I ended up finishing with about 1600 calories for today. when I got up from a nap this evening I had the beef tacos, which are pretty good actually. then I just had some BBQ soy chips for dessert.

Thank God it's Someone's Friday!!!

2006-06-23T09:35:00.000-07:00

Ok, your Friday is really my Monday. My work week starts on Friday so I can't be too enthused about Friday's. And usually Friday is my busiest day at work. I got to the office about 6am today and I will likely be here until around 6pm. I'm taking a break at the moment. It's only 9:30am and it feels like I've been here an entire day already.

I did eat my NS Entree, which was the mini-shredded wheat cereal with some skim milk. That's it so far. Today marks Week 8, Day 55 on NS.

I've been debating on going to the gym tonight. Friday evenings are the least crowded of any night (I wonder why???) ;) But I went yesterday and I hate to do a weight workout two consecutive days. I can do the treadmill tonight, but I might have to find some alternative weight machines as to not work the same groups I did yesterday. I'll likely go!!!

We are supposed to be near record temps over the next few days. They are saying 110 officially, but you need to add 5 degrees for where I live. I'm always hotter than the readings that take at the airport. Then again, once it's over 110, what's another 5 degrees. It's not like I'm going to drive to the airport and say, "Gee, how much cooler it is here than at my place."

This is really the first year I've gotten into watching the TV show "24." It's really good. I missed the first few episodes of this season so tonight they are showing one of the early ones. I have seen a episode here or there in past years, but you have to really get into the story to appreciate the show.

I will post my lunch, dinner and snacks later this evening.

Broken record(s)

2006-06-22T16:56:00.000-07:00

Sorry to keep saying this, but it's FLIPPIN' HOT!!! It's has to be over 110 today. I ran errards all afternoon and then I went to the gym. It was actually pretty cool in the gym. That's one thing I like about Las Vegas Athletic clubs, they keep the temps right around 72. The drive home wasn't fun, but at least I'm in my nice A/C now.

Haven't eaten much today yet.

Breakfast : NS Entree (scrambled eggs with cheese) with Spinach and onion added , one slice of FF cheese, 2 sclices of Polenta, and two slices of low cal whole wheat bread. Total calories : 337.

Lunch : Since I was running around I brought a NS bar with me and that's all I had. 140 calories.

It's about 5pm and I guess I will eat dinner in about an hour. Not sure what I'm having yet, but I will post later.

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Dinner posting: I had a good dinner. NS Entree (some kind of meat) over 2 slices of polenta, Salad with string cheese, stir fry veggies with added fresh spinach and some seafood medley. Total calories about 600.

Late Snack : NS Dessert (garlic pretzels). Peanut butter on a slice of bread with low sugar jam, fruits. Calories 350.

I still stayed under my 1800 calorie ceiling for today. I have to be up early for work. In fact tomorrow is a long day at the office, likely 12 hours.

The Heat is ON!!!

2006-06-21T15:30:00.000-07:00

Wow, talk about the blow dryer affect, that's what it's like in Vegas today. Probably 110 around my home and just dry as can be. I will still take this dry heat anyday to the humid stuff.

It's nice to be back into my routine. Did my usual Wednesday morning stuff, church and then breakfast with my sister, Rocco and his neice Heidi. I stuck to my NS meal plan.

Breakfast : egg white omelette with spinach and onion (no cheese), skinless chicken breast, 8 oz of oatmeal and today I added 2 slices of melon and 1/2 peach. Total about 500 calories.

Lunch : Fit n Free pizza topped with low fat cheese, 2 slices of chicken, spinach and one slice of Polenta. My own little concoction. Total calories : 320.

I will post dinner later.

I did lose three more pounds during the last 10 days. Not as much as I would have liked, but still, 3 pounds is 3 pounds.

I am still really sore from the gym, but I gave myself a day to recoup so I'm going this evening. I will increase all my workouts by 5%. Mabye in another 2 weeks I can at least get back to the sets I was doing 4-5 months ago.

I am sure going through the water though. I get one of those 24 pack of bottled water and I'm drinking about 7 or 8 a day (16 oz bottles). That doesn't include the water I have when I go out or any other drinks. Here on the surface of the sun you have to stay well hydrated.

I will post my dinner later.

Herrrrre's Johnny!!!!

2006-06-20T13:28:00.000-07:00

I have returned and I am beat like a red-headed step child. I think I will need a few days to recoup now. I didn't get hardly any sleep and there were some long boring days.

Nutrisystem Update : Today is Day 52 of Week 8. I was 99.9% good to NS the last 10 days. I ran out of food and though I still stuck to a 1800 calorie or less eating schedule, I did have one bad meal. Everyone went to a burger place and I did get a burger. But in a way I was glad I did..... it was terrible. Not because the place was bad, they are well known for great burgers. But, with each bite I became more and more aware of the sodium in the burger. I didn't think NS was low sodium, but I must have become accustomed to eating a lot less sodium because I felt like I ate a salt-burger. Even the fries didn't taste good, I could taste the cooking oil or whatever trans-fat they cooked the things in. And afterwards I was physically ill. It just taught me to stay on plan and eat good food. That was my only bad meal.

I was able to work out in the gym a bit, and I have the sore muscles to prove it. It's amazing at how fast your body can lose any conditioning you have built up. Just 4 months ago I was doing 40 minutes on the treadmill and about 9 different upper body weight machines. Just getting 20 minutes on the treadmill was a workout and I had to cut the weights on my circuit by about 40% just to make it through three sets of 15 on each machine. It's hell to get old!!!

Anyways, I can now get back to my NS foods and I will do the gym 4-5 nights a week. Hopefully it won't take too long to get back to where I was.

Until we meet again.

2006-06-12T07:33:00.004-07:00

All in all, I'd rather be in Colorado! I really don't feel like going to TX, would much rather be spending a week fishing in the Rockies of Southern Colorado. But, what ya gonna do!!

I will be leaving early this afternoon, wanted to get one last post in before then. Again, not sure how long I will be gone, but if I can post from there I will - otherwise as soon as I get back.

I don't know if 7 days worth of NS meals are enough, but then I got to thinking about the availability of a microwave. I have no idea about the place I'm staying and what they have available. Guess I might have to make treks to the 7-11 to use theirs. :) I'm sure they will be happy about that.

Today is actually the beginning of week 7, Day 44 on NS and I've been 100%. I haven't made my 1800 calories in..... well, I can't remember the last time. I never thought it would be so difficult for me to eat. I'm just not hungry. (insert Twilight Zone theme here). This has really been a very good program for me. I'm hoping the low gly diet is what's making my appetite so poor. If that's the case, I'm sorry I didn't do NS a long time ago. I have quite a ways to go, so I'm sure I will be a NS client for some time.

I'm off!! Be good, be healthy and be safe. See ya when I get back!!!

Off to Bush Country

2006-06-11T09:04:00.000-07:00

Went to Rocco's birthday party last night. It was at Carluccio's in the Liberace Plaza. The food wasn't bad, moderatly priced. I stuck to my NS though, I had a cup of Chicken soup and 1/2 baked chicken which I removed the skin. I was a bit surprised they didn't serve any vegtables with dinner. They did give me a side of pasta, but I gave that to my sister. There were quite a few people there, around 30, most of which I didn't know, but it was nice meeting his family and friends. It was a long day though, hard day at work, home to shower and change and then 3 1/2 hours at the party. By the time I got home around 10pm I was beat.

I still had trouble making my calories for the day. I came in around 1600, still 200 below where I should be. I think it's running me down a bit so I need to get those calories up to where they should be. If only I had an appetite. Yes, not having an appetite is a good thing is you are trying to lose weight. Guess I shouldn't complain about it.

Well, looks like I'm off to Texas. Not ever sure what I'm going to do there, but it's not a vacation. I'm taking enough NS foods for a week, if it's longer than that then I guess I will have to do NS on my own, which I know I can. I have this down pretty good I think. I wonder if the airport will search my bag and see that food. Maybe they will think I'm smuggling drugs in NS sealed containers? Then again, I have the perfect alibi, I'm fat!!!!

I have been told not to expect internet access, just intranet, so I might not be able to post here until I return. I do apologize to those of you who email me if I don't respond for a bit. But I will post and reply as soon as I return or if I can from there I will.

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Today ends week 6 on NS and that makes 43 days of 100% adherance. I am really amazed I am doing so well, then again I am so comitted to changing my life and getting on with things I haven't been able to for so long. By losing this weight it will make all aspects of my life so much more enjoyable. God has blessed me in so many ways in my life, now I have to do my part.

NS Menu for Sunday :

Breakfast :
NS entree (low fat granola) with 1/2 cup oatmeal and 1oz string cheese. I mix the granola into the oatmeal for a crunchy texture. Total calories : 360

Lunch :
NS entree (Pasta with beef), 2 light slices of wheat bread with one boca burger, cole slaw (no mayo) with low cal dressing and strawberries. Calories : 350

Will post dinner tonight.

*****************************************************************************

Dinner was very good, I had a plate of vegtables (tomatoes, onions, squash, mushrooms) with the NS Entree (Lasagna) and 2 slices of Polenta. calories : 460

Late Snack : Biscotti with peanut butter, almonds, low fat cheese. total calories : 350

Total calories for the day, 1550. Another day under my 1800. I just can't seem to hit that target range anymore of 1800 to 2100.

I'm off to bed, I have to get up early tomorrow.

Week 6, Day 41

2006-06-10T08:13:00.000-07:00

Week 6 on NS is almost in the books and it's been 100% all the way. I am still struggling with having an appetite. On Friday I only got in 1300 calories, 500 below my minimum. I am unsure why I have this loss of appetite, but I guess I'd rather be this way then ravenous all the time.

I will be doing my NS for breakfast and lunch, but tonight I'm going to Rocco's birthday party. He's my sister's friend, but he is becomming mine too. He's a good guy. Today is his 34th birthday and they have reservations at an Italian place for dinner. I'm sure there will be a lot of people and since I've never eaten there I have no idea what NS friendly foods I can order. Chicken is always a good thing for me, so hopefully they have some good chicken dishes. Maybe I will feel like eating by tonight. I've never had this feeling in my life, I've always had a healthy appetite and that is why I gained so much weight. Well, that and lack of exercise. Oh well, not going to dwell on it.

Looks like I'm going out of town for a week or so. This isn't a vacation, though I do have that to look forward to at the end of June. Or so I think I do, never know around this place what changes from day to day. Now with the merger on life support, that might change things around here again.

I will post my NS meals later today, I'm at work and all alone as no one is in the executive offices on the weekends. Hope everyone has a great day.

To Merge or not Merge - that is the question.

2006-06-09T08:33:00.000-07:00

Well, we aren't moving to the new building in July, but I guess the merger may still happen. Just not sure yet. I may have to go out of town too. I wanted to go to LA for 4-5 days and see friends and some relatives. I still have so much time off and I need to get it all in by August. I have a vacation schedule for the end of June, but a small trip to LA would be nice. Though, I may have to go out of town on this merger business and put off my LA trip. I hopefully will find out today.

Thought for sure I was going to get hit with a serious bug on Thursday. I felt run down all morning and in the afternoon I started to get the chills. I like to keep my place cool, so you know if I'm cold there is something wrong. I had my place in the 80's and I still had a blanket on. I was feverish and not feeling well at all. My sisters got me some juice and while I don't like drinking fruit juice (I don't like drinking my calories), I had eaten so little during the day that I drank half the container and will drink the other half today at work. I will just count it as my fruit servings for today.

I was supposed to go to an Embarq/Sprint conference at the Orleans Hotel on Thursday. But, as bad as I felt on Thursday evening I wasn't going anywhere. The only reason I wanted to go anyways was because Ervin "Magic" Johnson was quest speaker. Oh well.

But I feel SOOO much better today. And I'm thankful, I have a ton of work to do at the office and if I was sick there is no one to do it. With my boss and his boss out of town and two other guys on vacation, I am really IT!!!

I didn't come close on my calories yesterday. I think I got 1100 in for the day, though I did eat my three NS meals. I just didn't have much else. My appetite goes south when I'm not feeling well and it was already non-existant.

I did bring my NS meals to work today so hopefully I can get some calories back into me.

I will update later with my meals for today.

Singin' in the Rain!!!

2006-06-07T20:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's actually raining in Las Vegas. Sorry for being so giddy about that, but rain here is like finding a winner in the casino - few and far between. But, as usually happens, when it rains here something wierd has to happen. I was driving down the road on Maryland Pkwy and a power pole blew over. Yep, right into the road. We had to be detoured around a mall parking lot and that took about 30 minutes. But, it was still nice to see the rain and it dropped our temps from the 100's to about 80.

Today was day 38 on NS and another good day. As I usually do on Wednesday morning , I went to breakfast with my sister and her friend Rocco at Texas Station buffet. I had my usual, egg white omelette with spinach and one tspn of guacamole, skinless chicken breast and 8 oz of oatmeal. Total calories about 420.

Lunch : NS Entree (meatballs in sauce), 2 slices of light bread, mozerella, parmesean.... see where I'm going with this..... yep, meatball sandwhich, and it was yummy. I also had a salad with low cal dressing. Total calories : 390

Dinner : NS Entree (ravioli with cheese and spinach), two slices of polenta, stir fry veggies with added tomatoes, onion, mushrooms. total calories : 490

I still have about 500 calories to get to my 1800 target, and I have three servings of fruit to make up for today, so it looks like a nice fruit plate tonight with some yogurt and a NS dessert entree.

I am finding this diet very easy so far, which really frightens me.

I was going to the gym tonight, but ..... well, just didn't. But I am for sure going Thursday. I won't do my usual 90 minute circuit, but I will do all my exercises, just at a lighter pace until I build back up.

Merge No More!!!

2006-06-06T13:45:00.000-07:00

Found out today that the merger our company was supposed to go through in July isn't likely to happen. Can't say I'm upset about that. I didn't want to move further from home anyways. Plus I've only been in my new executive office for a few months now. At least I can now unpack my boxes. Until now I left all my stuff in boxes since I thought we were moving in July.

Today is Day 37 on NS. I incorrectly said yesterday was, but it's today.

My breakfast today : NS Entree (Chocolate Chip bar), 1/2 cup oatmeal, fruit cup and non fat yogurt. Calories 440.

Lunch : NS Entree (cream of broccoli soup) and an Asian Salad with grilled Chicken and low cal dressing from McDonald's. This salad is really good and I use it for a protein, fruit, low gly carb and salad. Total calories : 490.

Dinner will have to posted tonight, but I think I may try one of the newer NS thin crust pizzas. I know it will be small, but I liven it up with some lean ham, extra cheese, tomato and onion.

I tried the Beef tacos for the first time yesterday and they were pretty good. They really weren't tacos, they were really mini tostada shells and you spread the mixture over the top. Don't know where they got "taco" from. But still they were pretty good.

So far I've liked most everything on the NS menu, with the exception of the muffins which I don't care much for. The price is a bit steep, but I look at it as an investment in my health.

I will check back in tonight after dinner and snack with the final day's tally.

Have a healthy and safe day.

The Verdict's in!!!

2006-06-05T20:02:00.001-07:00

Today was Jury Duty day. What a procedure, it's as close to complete chaos as the situation can get. First, the justice court is near downtown Vegas. Parking is the first problem with this procedure, as the only place they will validate your parking is at the Freemont Experience garage, which is about a 1/2 mile away. Not so bad if this were February, but when it's 108 outside the last thing you want is a leisurly stroll in the heat. Plus, I talked to at least 2 people who had handicap's and had to make that long walk. You would at least think they would give the handicapped parkers someplace closer to the courts.

So, I get to the courthouse at 7am (reporting is 8am). I like to get places early and I know there is security and such. There are a bunch of people milling around the security checkpoint before they open the doors. They announce that we should form two lines, take off our belts, everything from our pockets and jewelry. Had I known this I wouldn't have worn my belt since it has a big end and is difficult to get out of the small loops on my pants. After taking about 10 minutes to get through security you head to the third floor where you enter the "big room" as they call it. This is where all potential jurors get orientated and wait for their assignments. The place had to hold between 300 and 400 people and by 8am it was nearly full.

After a brief welcome and what to expect today, they showed us the standard juror movie where we are told what to expect and what an honor it is to serve. At 10am the baliffs start coming down to take groups of jurors to courtrooms. Now, this is where the chaos starts. They call the first group of numbers, juror ID's 101 - 256. Now, I've done this process before and I've never seen more than about 40 jurors called to a courtroom at once. They tell us we have to line up in the "big room" in order of our id's. My ID was 219 so I was near the back of the line. This room, though "big" wasn't big enough to hold one single-file line of nearly 150 people. And of course you had people with id's 120-130 back with us in the 200's. I wanted to ask if they could count. The lady in charge then starts at the first of the line checking our id badges and checking off our names on a chart. After this the baliff tells us what he's going to do (which he doesn't) and then starts the line towards the elevators where we are to go to the 15th floor. Now, here are 150 people in line and they assign us one elevator that holds maybe 20 people. You do the math, it had to take 30 minuetes before the baliff got to my end of the line. My question is, why don't they call 20 people at a time, check off their names and take them up. Come back down and the next 20 people are checked off and ready to go up. NO, they have to line all 150 up first, check the names and then we just stand their waiting for the elevator.

I felt like Iwas in Kindegarten again, lining up by our names to go into class. Now, the baliff said once we ALL are on the 15th floor we are to then go into the courtroom by our id numbers. We get to the 15th floor and he tells us to sit where we can find seats. About 20 minutes later he says to come into the courtroom (no mention of our id's). So now you have everyone mixed as we file into the courtroom and take seats in the audience. The judge welcomes us and begins to tell us the procedure (which we already know by the movie). The plaintiff and defense introdue themselves and the nature of the case. This one was a malpractice suit where a guy had his appendix taken out and then a year later had to have major surgery to correct something the doctor didn't take out he was supposed to the first time.

they call Id's 101-107 into the jury box and then start the questions. "How long have you lived in Vegas, where do you work, what do you do, are you married, what does your spouse do, what's your education level and background, can you fairly judge this case, have you ever been involved in a law suit, do you have relatives in the medical field, have you ever sued anyone, have you ever been a witness before, have you ever served on a jury." And those questions came from the judge. then both attorneys added their own questions. After one hour they finally got through the initial 8 potential jurors. Let's see, they just called juror 107 and I'm 219.... only 112 more to get to me. At 8 per hour that means I may be out of here....... BY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Ok, last time I did this procedure they only called about 40 people into the courtroom and they didn't even get through all those. So why the frickin' hell are there 150 jurors in this courtroom when you know the attorneys only get 4 acceptions and the judge maybe excludes another 5. That comes out to about 25-30 people, not 150. It was agonizing.

At 1pm the attorneys where out of acceptions and the juror was sitted. How many id's did they get through? How about to number 140 and there were some abscenses in between 101 and 140.

We, the remaining 100 or so were excused to return to the "big room" and maybe reassignment. When I got back they told me to take an hour lunch break and come back. At 2:15 I returned and the lady announced I could leave, my duty was done. What duty!!!! I didn't do anything. Why did you let me go to lunch when I was being let go afterwards???? ARGH!!!!

I made my way back through the Sahara desert to my car and only saw one set of bones along the way. Got home by 3pm and decided I was too tired from my "duty" to go to work.

At least I'm done with jury duty for 18 more months.

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Today is day 37 of NS. I didn't weigh in today since I was up early and gone. I will tomorrow.

Breakfast before I left for jury duty was French toast and my NS entree (shredded wheat) with 4 oz of milk. Calories : 347

Lunch : Since I didn't want to eat at the court cafe, I brough along one of my Nutripeptide bars and that was my lunch. 170 calories.

When I got home I made a nice salad and had a sandwich : calories : 200

Dinner : NS Entree (beef Tacos), stir fry veggies with Polenta, mandarin oranges. 460.

So another good day on NS and jury duty is done. Now I can go to bed a happy camper.

Week 5, Day 35!!!

2006-06-04T10:54:00.000-07:00

Week 5 on NS comes to an end today.... that's makes 35 days staying on plan. I work on Sundays, but I try to make 8am mass. Today at 8am it had to already be near 90 degrees and they are predicting 109 today, which means my home will likely be around 115. But during mass there was some comotion in the front pew. Soon after mass stopped and here comes the paramedics. Some older woman had fainted. It wasn't very hot in the church, they had the A/C on, but she must have been dehydrated and when she was standing, just passed out. She seemed ok, but they took her away just to be safe.

One thing if you visit Vegas in the summer, drink water ALL DAY LONG!!! It's so easy to dehydrate in this hot, dry desert climate. Your sweat evaporates so quickly you don't realize you are dehydrating and before you know it you can get into trouble. On my last visit to Michigan in the summer, it was 90 degree and 90% humidity. I was soaked and never seemed dry. Everything and everybody was wet all the time. Here, you are bone dry because our humidity is so low. The other day it was 4% and 105 degrees.

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Well, don't ask me why, but I joined a singles site today. It's a Catholic Singles site. They gave me a really bargain price so I said why not. I did join one of these after my mother passed away last year and I must have received 20 messages from Russian women. What a racket. I may have been born at night, but not last night. Ok, some of these women may actually be trying to find someone, but I have watched 20/20 and dateline, there are a lot of scams going on out there. I also received replies from the Phillipines, Malaysia, Indonesia and some from other parts of the US. I was a bit put off after that experience.

But, I will try again with no expectations. I really do want to find someone, but I do have my one hesitation. Since most of you are coming from the NS or HS sites, you probably know what I mean. It's the weight. I don't like being this weight and I don't know if I can be with someone else while I'm overweight. Being romantic and overweight just bothers me. It doesn't really bother me about her though. It bothers me about me!!!! Do you understand that? Now that I've had some time to myself after my parents passings, I would like to find that special someone. I just don't know if I can until I lose the weight!!!! I guess if she accepts me for who I am knowing that I want to be the best I can, then ????? It's just getting it right in my own head. I think this is only something only other overweight people understand. I'll likely get my Russian replies from 20 year olds again anyways.

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I'm at work now, had my breakfast of NS entree, non-fat milk, oatmeal and some fresh pineapple. Total calories : 380.

Lunch will be NS Entree (Cream of broccoli soup) with a Boca Burger sandwich and fruit cup. Should come in around 440 calories.

Stay cool!!!!

We be settin' records!!!

2006-06-03T10:34:00.000-07:00

It's only the first week of June, not even summer yet, and we are supposed to set a record high temp today.....107!!! Yikes. And, since I live in the lowest part of the valley, it's always about 4-5 degrees hotter than what they officially report from the airport. So my house could be in 110+ temps today. Oh joy, I can see the meter spinning now on my electricity.

I'm back at work today and since I have a ton of stuff to do, I put it aside to write here. Actually, some things are now working, others hopelessly in limbo. I am alone today. I recently moved to the executive suites and since all the exec assistants are off on Sat/Sun, I have the entire place to my self. That's good and bad. I have to hold both ends of any conversation, though I usually win any debate. Usually!! It does get a bit lonely here on the weekends though.

I called jury services today and I do have to report on Monday at 8am. What's really nice is that you have to park like four blocks away and walk to the Justice center. Not bad? How about doing it in about 105 degrees??? Why didn't I just do my jury duty in March when I had the chance.

I bring both my NS breakfast and NS lunch to work each day. Though this week is a bit abbreviated so I only had to bring three days worth of meals. I have Sat, Sun & Tuesday. Plus I have some of my additions like oatmeal here. Usually breakfast and lunch additions are always the same when I'm at work. Breakfast is a protein (usually a hard boiled egg, string cheese or non-fat yogurt) plus my oatmeal a fruite and NS breakfast. Lunch is usually a NS entree with a sandwhich and a fruit. The latter has lately been boca burgers, but I also will bring sliced turkey or chicken. I also have a salad I can have for lunch, but it's just too much so I save that for later.

Today's menu :

Breakfast : NS entree (Nutricinamon squares), 1/2 cup oatmeal, fruit cup, string cheese. That's two carbs, one fruit, one protein, one NS meal. Total calories 380.

Lunch : NS entree (cheesy pasta w/broccoli), two slices light 9 grain bread, one fat free slice cheese, one boca burger, one fruit cup. That's NS entree, 1 protein, one fruit, one carb. I still have a salad left for lunch, but will hold it until dinner. Total calories : 470.

Dinner : NS Entree (cheese and spinach ravioli) over 2 slices of Polenta. Stir fry veggies with light soy sauce and mandarin oranges. total calories : 559

Late Snack : NS dessert (chocolate biscotti) with 1 tspn of peanut butter, 1/4 cup non-fat cottage cheese topped with 1/2 cup mandarin oranges and a spear of pineapple, 6 almonds. Calories : 360

Today's total calories come in just under 1800, which is perfect for me.

Sunday will be the end of week 5 and 35 days on Nutrisystem. I will report my weigh in Monday evening after I return from jury duty.

Off to work I go!!!

2006-06-02T22:17:00.000-07:00

Dinner : well, I didn't use my NS foods for dinner. I went out with a bunch of friends and we ate out. But I did eat well. I had my old standby, egg white omelette with mushrooms and spinach, tomatoes and dry wheat toast. Only bad thing was I forget to tell them no cheese so that boosted my calories almost double. Still came in around 500 calories for dinner. Everyone else had nice Prime Rib steaks, but I was fine, I am not really hungry so he steaks didn't bother me.

Snack : I'm finishing off my day right now with some NS Carmel popcorn. It's actually very good.

that will finish my day at about 1500 calories, quite a bit below my 1800 calorie floor, but that's ok. But I really need to hit my daily target of 1800-2100 calories. I can't beleive I'm saying this, but I have to force myself to eat a bit more to get those calories up, or I run the risk of my body slowing down its weight loss.

Well, back work tomorrow and we'll see what comes with it. I hate to see what awaits me, but it will get done one way or the the other.

I heard a great saying on the radio tonight, wish I would have thought of it, but credit goes to Delilah. She said, "if God leads you to it, he will see you through it." That is so true and I have a strong faith in just that. Well put Delilah.

It's too hot to be cold!!!

2006-06-02T16:36:00.000-07:00

I think I have licked this head cold in just 2 days. The Cold Eeze really seems to help if I catch it early. I feel pretty good today and it's a good thing, I have to go back to work tomorrow. It has to be every bit of 105 degrees today. It's like Africa hot!!! Ok, I borrowed that from Biloxi Blues, but it really is hot!!!!

Not really looking forward to going back tomorrow, not sure what I will find when I get back. Plus, my boss (the VP of Ops) is leaving for 2 weeks tomorrow and his boss (the COO) is also leaving tomorrow for a week's vacation. So it's just me, I'm high man on the totem pole and I don't like the view. Our IT dept is such a shambles right now and things are breaking down and not getting fixed...... oh well, I'm not going to fret about it tonight. Like Scarlett O'Hara says, "Fiddle dee dee, I'll worry about that tomorrow."

My 2nd month of NS foods arrived today. Seems like I got everything I ordered. I am trying a few new items and re-ordering some I liked a lot. I didn't order any more of the shakes or drinks. I never liked those no matter what brand they are.

Today's menu so far:

Breakfast : mini-shredded wheat with 4 oz skim milk, french toast (2 slices of 9 grain bread with egg beaters) and a fruit cup. Total calories 415.

lunch : Since I was out running errands today, I had to eat lunch out. I ate at Panda Express, had the veggies and the chicken garlic with string beans and mushrooms. Total calories : 350. (my Calorie King software said 310, but I like to overestimate just to be on the safe side.)

I have to go to Albertson's to pick up a few items. Hey, gasoline was actually under $3 a gallon here today. Ok, it was $2.99, but that's better than it has been.

The Blahs!!!

2006-06-01T11:08:00.000-07:00

Ok, I have a head cold. It's not terrible, the sore throat is gone. Now it's just the watery eyes and runny nose. I'm still going to stay home today and just rest. Nice way to finish off the last 2 days of vacation. I did need to go to the Social Security office today, but that will have to wait until my next vacation. I still have three vacations left, one at the end of June, one in the middle of July and one in the middle of August. So I still have lots of time left off to get done all the things I need to.

Still not much of an appetetite, though I know I have to eat to force this head cold out. I had my NS breakfast (pancakes) with a low cal syrup. I had two slices of 9 grain bread and some egg beaters. total calories about 350.

Lunch will be NS entree (chicken soup) plus a nice salad and maybe two slices of Polenta.

Dinner : Not sure what that will be yet.

Still haven't received my next shipment of NS foods. I still have at least 4 days of food left so I'm not concerned. I have lots of breakfast items since I have eaten out a lot for breakfast during my vacation.

A bunch of friends and I were planning to go to Mandalay Bay's Coral Reef lounge on Friday night for a show, but I think even if I am feeling better I will not go. I have to work on Satuday and need some extra rest now.

If you do visit Vegas, I have two very good non-gaming events you should see.

The first is the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay. It's a tour of their aquariums and it is very nice. They even have a pool where kids and adults can touch different fish or aquatic life. The price is about $16 per person unless you get a coupon or know a Vegas resident, then you get in for about $13.

The next tour I recommend is the Titanic Artifact Tour at the Tropicana Hotel. I saw this last year and it was very educational. When you first walk in they give you a boarding pass with a real passenger's name. I was the guy who owned Macy's dept stores. At the end of the tour you look up on a big board to see if you were rescued or not. Alas, I didn't make it, but at least for one hour I owned Macy's and was rich. My luck!!!! :)

The Titanic tour even has a large ice berg so you can touch it and and see how cold the water was on that April 14th evening. I always remember the night the Titanic first hit the iceberg sine April 14th is also my mom's birthday. Though if I remember correctly the Titanic actually sunk in the early morning hours of April 15th.

Two excellent attractions to see on your next visit to Vegas. And, don't forget to gamble a bit, I need my state taxes paid for by you tourists. :)

Weather Underground

2006-05-31T21:36:00.000-07:00

Feeling crappy tonight as what appears to be a head cold tries to grab hold of me. I haven't been ill in ages so I really hate it when I do get something. I have a very good immune system, but the affects of the calorie reduction from >4000 a day to about 1700 has likely knocked my immune system down a bit. But I'm not fretting, I will knock whatever this is out quickly, if it even gets ahold.

Dinner was good tonight, NS entree with brocolli and polenta. My snack consisted of the NS dessert (pudding) with a teaspoon of peanut butter mixed in and some almonds. My daily calories topped out just under 1800, so another good day. That ends day 31 on NS.

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I recently got a reunion notice from my old college team. I would love to go, but then again it's this weight thing. I hate seeing people at this weight when the last time they saw me I was in top physical condition. Again, I think this is only something overweight people can relate to. It's the same reason I have stayed away from Colorado the last years. As much as I love all my relatives and they love me, I hate for them to see me like this. I'm probably making too much out of this, but this weight really plays with your head. So I think I will pass on the reunion and hopefully with God's help next time I can go and be proud.

2006-05-31T16:35:00.000-07:00

After today, I have two days left on my vacation and wouldn't you know it, I feel like I'm coming down with a cold. Figures, just as I'm about to go back to work. And then on Monday I have Jury duty, so I hope I can get over this very fast. I went to the drug store for some Cold Eeze. That usually helps knock out my colds altogether or gets rid of them faster. I was going to the Social Security office on Thursday, but now I will wait and see how I feel in the morning. I may just have to stay home and rest.

So far today NS has been good. It's Wednesday and that's the day I go to morning mass with my sister Vicky and we meet Rocko and Heidi. Afterwards the four of us go to breakfast where I have my usual, 8 oz of Oatmeal, egg white Veggie omelette, skinless chicken breast. That's about 420 calories.

For lunch I had my NS entree (chicken salad) on two pieces of light 7 grain bread with a nice big salad and a banana. Only about 300 calories.

Not sure what I'm having for dinner yet, will post that later this evening.

It's a hot one today in Vegas, over 100 degrees. In fact the next several days are supposed to be over the century mark. And June is just starting. July and August are our hottest months, and we can get some nasty thunderstorms during that period also. Though the last few years have been quite tame with storms. I like a nice thunderstorm, as long as we don't get flash floods that can be quite bothersome here in the high dessert.

Well, best get some rest and think about dinner in another few hours. Don't have much of an appetite, but still, have to eat - especially if I'm fighting off a cold.

Mental Exercise

2006-05-30T18:01:00.002-07:00

Ok, minor setback with the exercise as I pulled a muscle in my back. I was dead lifting 400 lbs at the gym and felt something strange. What!! you don't believe me? Ok, would you believe 200lbs on the military press? (insert your best Maxwell Smart voice here)..... Would you believe the juicebar waitress over my head? Ahhh, would you believe a beer from the fridge...... Ok,Ok, I tweaked it getting out of the shower. So I really did tweak it deadlifting 400lbs.... just that it wasn't at the gym, it was out of the shower. I hear you laughing over there, but it's true. And before you judge me so harshly, just remember, most home accidents occur in the kitchen and bathroom. Showers can be dangerous. In fact, I'm thinking I should just give them up alltogether. Just kidding. So my back really doesn't hurt too much, just when I THINK of going to the gym. So no more of that negative thinking. :)

So I went to Albertson's for some veggies and a few other odds and ends. Three bags of groceries, $47!!! Geez Louise. Of course nine bucks of that was on contact solution. We complain about the $3 per gallon gasoline prices,when we should be protesting the price of contact solution. $9 for about 12 oz. What does that come out to, over $100 per gallon of contact solution!!!! And it's not even refined or supplies being disrupted by wars or hurricanes.

I'm watching "Secret Smile" on BBC America. It's a two-part miniseries . This woman (Miranda) dates a guy for 10 days and then finds out he's a psycho. She dumps him but he doesn't take it well and to get back at her he starts dating her sister. He proceeds to get her manic-drepressive brother to kill himself, dumps the sister at the alter, marries Miranda's best friend, kills best friend, makes everyone including the police think SHE'S the one that is the stalker and then moves on to another woman he terrorizes. Miranda not only wants to get him for pushing her brother to suicide, but also to save this new victim of his. All in all not bad, but the ending was kind of predictable. Miranda was played by Kate Ashfield, of Shaun of the Dead fame.

Dinner update : 2 slices of Polenta covered with the NS entree (Chicken Pasta Parmesan). Stir fry veggies with extra snap peas. calories 461

Snack/late meal : chocolate biscotti with 1 tspn peanut butter, 1/4 melon, 3/4 cup pineapple and light yoplait yogurt. Calories 350

Today's total calories : 1500. Below the 1800-2100 target, but oh well.

2nd Month begins

2006-05-30T11:16:00.000-07:00

Today is the 2nd month of NS and day 2. I only have 4 days left on my vacation. I'm not looking forward to returning. Don't get me wrong, I have enjoyed my job for many years, but this has been a tough last four months. We laid off about 40% of our staff and now are going through a merger that who knows where it will take us. I have a lot of problems to fix when I get back and some of which I don't know how we will fix. Oh well, I will worry about it when I return to work. All you can do is your best. But the work environment has changed and for the first time in my 20 years at this company I feel like the future is uncertain. I am going to make plans just in case though. I plan on returning to school in the fall and I'm going to study for and pass the real estate test. I have a few contacts in the real estate business now so I may try to become a loan processor. I know a realator who is very successful and can possibly bring some business my way. I make a good living, but I'm tired of being at the mercy of an employer. Even though my background is in computers and mathematics, I think a career change is in need. I do have a standing job offer as a math teacher. I have thought about becomming a teacher, maybe teaching geometry or trig.... maybe even calculus, but with kids today...... it's just different than when I was in high school. But, we'll see. Right now I want to plan on something in real estate, but I won't discount teaching - though I'd be poor all the time. Not that there is anything wrong with that ( don't you hate Seinfeld). :)

Anyways, NS is going well, though I have eaten out way too much on my vacation. I have still eaten healthy, just too much away from the NS foods. When I return to work on Saturday I will resume my eating out just once a week for breakfast on Wednesdays.

I still have many items on my vacation to-do list, but I don't feel like doing any today. I think I will have lunch in another hour then maybe go to the movies. Not sure what I will see, but that's what I feel like doing.

I should be getting my 2nd shipment of NS foods here any day. It was shipped on the 27th and it usually takes about 4-7 days. I still have four or five days of NS foods left, so it should be fine.

Here is what my menu has been for today :

Ok, I ate out breakfast again, but I had my usual : Egg white veggie omelette with 1 tspn of guacamole and salsa topping. 8 oz of plain oatmeal, one skinless chicken breast.

Lunch: NS Entree (Nutripeptide drink), salad with tomato, onion and 2 slices of Polenta, melon.

Dinner : (not sure yet).

Day 28

2006-05-29T15:06:00.000-07:00

Just returned home from the Veteran's Cemetary. The place was packed, nearly impossble to find a parking spot. On the way home we stopped at the A&W stand and I had a diet Root Beer. Would have been nice to have a Root Beer float, but that's a no-no.
Day 29 of NS and so far I've lost 24 pounds. That's just over 5.7 pounds per week which is actually just above what I mathmatically figured I should lose based on weight and calories consumed. I was very satisfied with the first four weeks of the program. If anyone decides to use NS for themselves, I would be more than happy to help you with any additional items.

My menu so far today :

Breakfast (at Texas Buffet) : egg white omelette with spinach topped with a tomato salsa. Salad with a tiny bit of Italian dressing, shrimp (took the place of my normal chicken breast) and 8 oz of oatmeal. It was actually brunch so I had some breakfast and some lunch. Still, only came in around 500 calories.

Lunch : NS lunch (chicken noodle soup), 5 slices of low fat Chicken on two pieces of light wheat bread, 1/4 of a melon and 1/2 cup of pineapple. approx 420 calories.

Dinner : NS Entree over 2 slices of Polenta, spinach, mixed veggies, salad with tomato and onion.

Late snack/dessert : NS dessert (biscotti with 1 tspn peanut butter), 1/4 cup FF cottage cheese with pineapple. 6 almonds

Gone but not forgotten

2006-05-28T14:02:00.001-07:00

Memorial weekend is here and while I remember my loved ones that have passed on EVERY DAY, this day is always special for the ones that served their country. Monday morning I will pick up my sisters and we will go to a Memorial day mass at Our Lady of Las Vegas (my parish). After 9am mass I will pick up my uncle Al (mom's brother) and the four of us will go to breakfast. Vicky's friend Rocko will likely be at mass so he usually joins us for breakfast. After breakfast I will drive the four of us to Boulder City, which is about 25 miles East of Las Vegas. Mom and Dad are buried at the Veteran's Memorial Cemetery. We go to the cemetery quite often, but Memorial Day they have special ceremonies that are attended by both State Senators, local officials and other notables. I have attended the last two years. Dad served two tours in the Army Core of Engineers from 1938 to 1946.

Dad got out in 1946, the same year he married mom and then began an insurance career that saw him become Western Regional Director for Prudential Insurance. He worked there until he took early retirement in the 1970's. Dad passed on Jan 2, 2001 at age 83.

Mom was a homemaker, took care of her kids and family, though she did start out as a teacher. I thank God every day for the great parents he gave me. I only wish every kid could have had the parents I did. Mom passed away on May 1, 2005 after a long battle with Parkinson's disease. Parkinson's is a terrible way to go and I only hope they will find a cure or better treatments for it in the near future. You can help cure Parkinson's by making donations to the American Parkinson Disease Association.
I just got done writing an article about my mom for her "Class of '42" newsletter. There aren't many graduates left in her high school grad class. But the publisher wanted me to write something on mom that he will put in the next newsletter. I will post of copy when it comes out.

Life goes fast, enjoy it and make sure you tell those special to you how much you love them EVERY DAY!!!!

One Month down......

2006-05-27T21:48:00.000-07:00

There you have it, four shots of the traffic at 9:45pm on Saturday night from the Stip and Flamingo Blvd. All those lovely tourists paying my state taxes for me. Ok, so I can still love them for that at least. Meanwhile I'm home enjoying a movie on cable. My sisters came over to my place and we watched "Rent." I also went to the movies today and watched "X-Men." It wasn't bad, though way too croweded. I usually go to movies on my days off (Wed/Thur) so going on a Saturday I forgot how crowded it can be. I also went to see "Over the Hedge" which was really cute. I'm a big kid at heart anyways, I still like Scooby Doo and Bugs Bunny.

Sunday marks day 28 on NS and the end of the first month. I have to say, I've had a 100% compliant month on NS and it's been extremely smooth. Too much so in fact. The food has been good, I haven't been hungry and I have felt well. Tonight's dinner was another pizza (they sure are good) with tomato, onion, extra cheese and chicken. Total calories, 350. I added a nice salad with some Polenta and that brought dinner to about 550 calories.

My late snack/dessert was some Melon, non-fat yogurt, almonds and NS Dessert (pudding), for 350 calories. That brought my day to 1805 calories, a perfect day in my calorie range.

I'd like to say my vacation has let me forget about work for a week or so, but so far I've had to do some work from home on about 3 nights. I guess the only way to get totally out of the work is to leave town.

Weigh-in day will be Monday morning. I'm hoping for at least 4 pounds this week. I should get just over 5 if I stick to my calories perfectly, which I have. I don't expect the 10 pounds I've been seeing, but I would be more than happy with 4-5 a week.

I think I will go to the gym on Monday. I know my weight routine will really have had a setback. I will have to reduce the weights quite a bit. It's so easy for your muscles to lose any tone you've built up.

It's a Mad Mad City

2006-05-27T08:15:00.000-07:00

The calm before the storm. This picture was a live snapshot of the traffice on one of the busiest intersections in the country, Las Vegas Blvd (Strip) and Flamingo. This quite Saturday morning traffic (8:30am Sat) will be a madhouse of bumper to bumper cars for miles come tonight.

I hate Vegas on holidays. This place normally is croweded with tourists, but even more so during the holidays. You'd think $3.40/gallon gas in LA would keep them away, but nope, they come here in record numbers. I was going to go to Mandalay Bay's Coral Reef lounge show tonight until I remembered this was a holiday weekend. You won't catch me within miles of the Strip this weekend. It's bad enough I have to cross the Strip going to and from work each day. No, I don't work in a gaming related business. My job is in sports and I mainly work on Internet and statistical/software related projects. That's why I have to take my nearly 6 weeks of vacation time from May 1st until July 30. We aren't allowed vacations during football season and most of basketball.

I have to get some things done this week. Here's my to-do list for the upcoming week of vacation.

1. Oil Change
2. Replace my stolen Social Security card.
3. Replace my stolen car title.
4. Clean house
5. Clean yard

Ok, number 2 & 3 relate to a home breakin that happened to me back in January. I returned from church one day and found my house had been burglarized. First time in my life this had happened and my private space felt so violated. They took my laptop, external backup drive, dvd recorder, scanner, printer, lockbox with important papers (including items 2 & 3). They also took some items that had great sentimental value, like my dad's 60 year old Longines watch. That one really PO'd me. So I made sure I signed up for a credit watch service that alerts me to any inquiries on my credit with the three credit agencies. They send an alert to my PDA and an email to my computer. But they got my SS card and that's just a hassle to replace. That and my car title. Oh, and they took my DVD player and about 200 DVD's I had collected.

Oh well, it's just stuff, no one was hurt and that's the main thing.

It's about 8:30 am and I have to get going to breakfast with my sisters. Have a great day, I will post my meal menus later today.

Up early

2006-05-27T05:56:00.000-07:00

Ok, so why is it that when I'm working I hate getting up before 6am and now that I'm on vacation I have been up before 6am almost every day. Damn internal clocks, now if I can just find the internal snooze.

Ok, up early again today. I am meeting my sisters for breakfast at Arizona Charlies East today. It's the buffet but they don't serve chicken for breakfast so that means oatmeal, my egg white omelette and some fruit. They have one of the smaller buffets in town, but it's not bad for the price. Unfortunately, for breakfast they have all the artery buster foods and little of healthy stuff. That's ok, my three items will be more than enough.

I have been having trouble hitting my target calories that last week. I am supposed to be between 1800 and 2100 calories a day. Here is what I have been hitting.

Monday : 1749
Tuesday : 1600
Wednesday : 1563
Thursday : 1431
Friday : 1544

I use Calorie King software on my PDA to keep track of actual calories. I need to get these up a bit or my weight loss might slow. You'd think that eating less = losing weight faster. But that equation doesn't actually hold true. Eating less = losing weight slower. At my weight, it takes approx 4620 alories (weight times 11) to maintain. So by cutting to 1800 a day I am in a deficit of 2820 calories a day. 2820 x 7 days = 19740. 19740/3500 (calories in 1 pound) = 5.64 pounds lost per week. That's the mathmatics of what I should be losing once I get rid of excess water weight. As you lose weight your base calories per day goes down which also decreses your weight loss, but not by that much.

Well, I guess I should get up, shower and get ready to leave. I think I may go to the movies today, maybe "Over the Hedge" or "X Men." I ordered a copy of "Vegas" on ebay today. Got it for 7 bucks on VHS. I wish it were on DVD, but it's still one of those shows that hasn't oome to dvd. That is one of my favorite old shows. Mainly because I get to see "old" Vegas before the mega-resorts started taking over. Vegas isn't the same since. I like the show too, though they can be a bit corny at times. Rockford files is also one of my favorite 70's shows.

Almost 1 month

2006-05-26T16:15:00.000-07:00

Today is day 26 on NS and everything is going fine. I put in my second order today and this time I ordered what I wanted. So we'll see if I get everything. I hear that NS substitutes what they want if they are out of something. I finally found Walden Farms products at Albertsons. I got the Alfredo sauce, Bleu cheese dressing and Marshmallow dip. I know it's diffcult to believe, but all three products have ZERO calories per serving. Ok, there likely isn't a smidgen of bleu cheese in the dressing, and I don't want to even know the chemicals they combined to make Alfredo sauce. But I hear so many raves on the NS boards about them that I had to try. Now I doubt they actually have zero calories. By law, any product with under 5 calories per serving can list the calories as zero. so they likely have at least a few calories per serving. And they aren't cheap. I think for all three items, they totaled about $15. I plan on trying the Alfredo sauce on my veggies and the marshmallow dip for my fruit.

I really didn't do much today. Today was technically the first day of my vacation since my regular days off are Wed/Thur. I go back on Saturday, January 3.

I usually only eat out once per week and that is Wednesday morning for breakfast with my sister Vicky, her friend Rocko and his niece Heidi. But since I'm on vacation I've been eating breakfast out much more. Today Rocko, Vicky and I all went to breakfast, but I had my usual, egg-white omelette, skinless chicken breast and 8oz of Oatmeal.

For lunch I had a NS fudge graham bar (190 cal) and a big salad. I'm stuffed right now and still have quite a bit to get in for the day.

** Dinner Update ** I had a very nice dinner tonight, my NS Entree (Ravioli with Spinach) along with a side of spinach and peas. Oh, and I had the Ravioli over two slices of Polenta. I used my Walden Farm's Alfredo sauce over the spinach and it added a nice touch. Not bad. Usually I add Mrs Dash or hot sauce to spice up my veggies, but the Alfredo sauce added a nice touch.

One thing I've noticed about myself is that once I get into a rhythm of healthy eating, I can usually stay in it quite well. That's why I try not to let myself have a "off" day and eat badly. Those can spiral into 2 days, a week and then before you know it, it's nearly impossible to get back into the healthy eating mode.

I have to say, I really enjoy those Fit'n Free pizzas. I had another one for dinner last night. I jazz it up a bit with a nice tomato, some onion, mushrooms and a little more light cheese. But they are really excellent. Then again, maybe some of you getting the high octane stuff might not like them, but those of us on diets, it's like nirvana of food.

Technically, day 28 is the end of the first month of NS, but since it was my first month they sent me a FREE week. So I have about 10 days of meals left. I have to make room in the cabinets to keep all this food. Right now it's spread out on my dinning room table. I need to organize it better, sorry that's the Virgo in me.

Feelin' Alive on Day 25!!!

2006-05-25T17:26:00.000-07:00

Today is day 25 on NS and it's been another good day. Breakfast was french toast (2 piece of light bread with one egg), and the NS breakfast (frosted oats) with 4 oz of FF milk. I didn't have my fruit, but will get that in later. Lunch was a big salad with tomato and Onion on top and the NS lunch (tuna salad) on two pieces of light bread. I am leaving soon for a few hours and will eat dinner when I get home. Again, I hardly have any appettite so I don't mind waiting until 8pm for dinner.

I took my car to my mechanic today to have an oil change and he was too busy. Now I've been taking my care to this guy for 10 years and likely have funded one of his kids college education. He couldn't squeeze me in for a 20 minute oil and lube? He wants me to come back Saturday morning. I should just bring it to one of those quicky lube places, but I liken them to those carpet cleaners in Seinfeld. George wanted them to clean his carpets for the cheap price but new he'd get pitched on converting to their religion. Those quickly lube places will change your oil for 20 bucks but then they bring out the laundry list of things wrong with your car that you really should have fixed NOW for the low price of $750!! But, that's the price you pay or a cheap oil and lube.

Well, Taylor won A.I and I didn't care either way. He's ok but lets face it, Kat is pretty nice looking. I actually liked the show with all the rejects making appearances and some stars too. I'm not a big Prince fan, but the Purple clad crooner did add a nice ending to the show. The awards were a bit hokey, but it was different.

Have to run, but I will post my dinner menu later this evening.

Pizza Night!!!

2006-05-24T20:00:00.000-07:00

So you're on a diet and you say you can't eat pizza? Think again, Fit'n Free Pizza is a great way to add this usually diet no-no and not be guilty about doing it. Nutrisystem did ship me three, thin crust pizzas, but they are about only 4 inches in diameter, about the size of one small slice of regular pizza. Many NS followers are using this great substitute from Fit'nFree Pizza. A 7 inch cheese pizza has only 212 calories, 0 grams of fat and 24 grams of protein and 0 cholesterol. So guess what showed up at my door today..... yep, my shipment of 6 pizzas. Actually they aren't too expensive, about 4 dollars and change per pizza (including shipping).

So I decided to give them a try tonight. My dinner was a salad of broccoli and cabbage, topped with my cooked tomato-onion mixture and tonight I added a cup of fresh snap peas. I also included two slices of Polenta and what a huge salad. You can eat the pizza with just the cheese, but most people add their own toppings. I added a oz of low fat cheeze (60 calories), 4 slices of chicken (60 calories), 1 sliced tomato and some onion. The entire Pizza came out to about 350 calories. The salad was another 190 calories (including the peas and polenta). Total dinner calories, 540 and I'm stuffed. I still have nearly 600 calories to get to 1800 for the day and I know I'll never get that many in between now and bedtime.

It's been a long day. Got up early, went to mass with my sister, met her friend Rocko there and his neice. Afterwards the four of us did breakfast at Texas, I had my usual, egg white omelette with veggies, one skinless chicken breast and 8 oz of Oatmeal. After that Vicky came over to my place to do her laundry (her condo doesn't have a washer/dryer). Then I went to Circuit City to get some blank DVD's so I can burn a documentary for some friends that want to see it. I also have to get a new DVD player but I didn't see one I wanted.

After that I had to go to the grocery store for some veggies and odds and ends. I was going to get gas today, but I didn't have my Platinum Visa with me and I was afraid my regular Visa wouldn't hold the charge. :) Can you beleive the price of gas! Here in Vegas it's about $3.11 a gallon.

Anyways, day 24 on NS was great again. Still no hunger pangs and I'm still struggling get in my 1800-2100 calories a day. Well, American Idol is on so I guess I should see the conclusion, though I may switch to Lost.

Oh, I temporarily took the Elvis video off the page. I get tired of the same song so until I find a few I can rotate I will leave him off. Elvis has left the blog!!!

I almost forgot. While I was at Texas station and waiting for Heidi and Vicky to return from the restroom, I put $20 in the video slot and looky what Mikey got!!! $500 bucks baby (four Aces with the kicker)... I hardly ever gamble. When you live in Vegas gambling is a quick way to the poor house. These casinos didn't net over a billion dollars in profit last quarter on winners. So the only time I allow myself to play is when I have visitors in town and I want to be social or on the rare occassion like today. That's $500 bucks they won't be getting back. Hey, now I have enough to fill my tank with gas tomorrow. :) Ok, maybe two tank fulls.

I snapped a picture with my cell phone so I can remember this moment. Last time I ever won this much money gambling, Elvis was on the marquee at the Hilton. Ok, so I'm exagerating a bit, but it's been ages. I really would love to hit Megabucks, it's nearly 18 million right now. Only problem is I haven't played it in about five years. Guess you have to play if you want to win. Oh well, my little $500 win makes me very happy.

Hope you all had a wonderful and blessed day!!

Another Day in Sin City

2006-05-23T21:42:00.000-07:00

I didn't make it to the movie tonight, I had to stop by Lowes and pick up a few items so I was running late. I also didn't get to dinner until around 8pm and I still wasn't hungry. If I could clone the last 23 days on NS, I would never be overweight again. But, if I've learned one thing from the past, it's to not get overconfident and think this is easy. It's day by day.

I did have one of the best NS dinners tonight, Lasagna. Now, it isn't as good as my dear Italian mother's was - God rest her soul - but it's actually pretty darn good. I would rate it my favorite NS dinner right now. I'm still struggling to get in all my calories. It's almost 10 pm and I still have about 400 calories just to get to 1700. I will have some pineapple and one of the NS desserts soon, but I'm afraid I won't get to 1700 today.

On a non-NS note. Tonight was the last night of American Idol. If only Kat McPhee could make a living singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," she'd be a star. I think this is one of the weaker final two pairings since A.I started. I don't know which one will win though I am leaning towards the old guy. Though I should be rooting for Kat since she lives about 3 miles from where I grew up, in the San Fernando Valley of LA. She went to Notre Dame High School and I went to Birmingham, which was only about 4 miles away or thereabouts. We never played them in sports, they were in a different league than we were. I wish we were in their league when I went to high school, then I wouldn't have had to play football against the likes of Charles White and John Elway. Yes, John Elway went to Granada Hills High and they kicked our butts every year. Charles White went to San Fernando High and they did likewise. Good times!!!

Well, officially day 23 on NS is in the books and I've had 23 perfect days on the program. Here's hoping for 24, God willing.

Vacation time

2006-05-23T11:28:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day of my vacation. I might be going to LA for a few days, but mostly staying in town. I have a large "to-do" list and I really need to get some of them done. Since I didn't work today my sister and I went to mass at 8am, met her friend Rocko there and then the three of us went to the Texas Station buffet for breakfast. Ok, I know what your thinking, "aren't you on Nutrisystem?" Yes, but one nice thing is that you can eat out on NS if you do it right. And, buffets can be perfect for any dieter. Yes, you read right.... buffets are excellent venues for people on diets. IF, you can control yourself. All Vegas buffets, from the cheap to expensive, have lots of fresh salads and veggies, lots of cooked veggies, low fat meats like turkey breast, baked chicken and fish. You can eat a lot of good food and not have tons of calories. For dessert, there's always a selection of fruit and even sugar free jello on most buffets. Most people who visit Vegas go wild in the buffets and way over eat. But for me, it's the perfect place when I do want to eat out.

For breakfast I had an egg white omelette loaded with tomato, onion and spinach (no cheese). I asked the cook to use a vegtable spray and not that butter/oil mixture they slather on the pan. I had about a cup of cooked oatmeal, one skinless chicken breast and for dessert, three slices of melon. How this translates into NS is this : The omelette is the NS breakfast entree, the chicken is the protein serving, the oatmeal is the low gly carb and the melon is the fruit serving. Calories : about 450. Oh, and I topped the omelette with a tomato/basil/onion mixture they serve fresh. See, you can eat at Vegas buffets and not consume 3000 calories in one sitting.

For lunch today I will have a NS bar and that will be it. The only reason I'm not having the salad and protein is because I will be running errands all afternoon and the bar is good for on the go. Plus, in 22 days on NS I would rate my hunger pangs as ONE on a scale from 1 to 10 (10 being ravenous). I have literally had to force myself to eat most of the time. And it's important to eat since if you don't your body will think you are trying to starve it and start conserving calories. That's not what you want to do. So I have to get in my 1700-2000 calories a day - even if I'm not hungry. It's amazing.

For those who don't eat Polenta or know what it is, I highly recommend it. I use this corn meal concoction as the base for my NS dinner entree every evening. Two, 1/2 inch slices, count as one low gly carb serving. I could get in a third slice but two works fine. Albertsons has a very nice Organic Polenta with dried tomato and garlic. Very good. Trader Joe's has a very good plain Organic Polenta which is actually much cheaper than the one at Albertsons. My maternal grandmother came to this country from Northern Italy and they used Polenta as a daily staple in their diets. Southern Italians, where my grandfather came from, they didn't eat polenta - or at least like they did in the North. So from the time I was a small child I remember my Nona Bella cooking us polenta. Prepackaged Albertson's brand is a far cry from hers, but what's a guy to do. Oh, and don't freeze it. I tried that and it takes like 3 days to thaw and when it does it changes the texture. It becomes dry and crumbly instead of moist.

I have twin sisters and they are going to their friend Rocko's home tonight along with a few other friends and watching the life story of Sister Faustina. I have been invited too so I may go. They are having dinner there also, but since I ate out today for breakfast I won't eat dinner out. They know I'm on NS and won't be offended by my not eating dinner at their home. I could bring a prepackaged dinner, but considering I won't likely be hungry, I'll just eat before I go or later in the evening.

Lots of errands to run so I best get going.

Today's Cartoon

2006-05-22T12:34:00.000-07:00

Now this would really make Nutrisystem a great diet...... if only!!!!

1 down, 1 to go Soupy!!

2006-05-22T08:58:00.000-07:00

Today is my last day at work before a short vacation. I work weekends so for me today is actually Thursday, though for everyone else it's Monday. My vacation starts on Tuesday and I will be back on June 3rd. I'm not going anyplace, I have lots of projects to do around the house, plus I want to get to the gym more often if my knee will hold up. I'm sure once I get enough weight off I will need surgery on it. All the injuries I sustained playing sports in college, I'm surprised it works as well as it does.

Today starts week 4 of Nutrisystem and I've been 100% compliant. I'm not going to use the word "easy" since every time I get overconfident I seem to get bit in the ass and then things go South. I'm just taking it one day at a time. I will be placing my next NS order in about a week. This time I'm ordering what I want and not taking the one they send me. There are certain things I just don't care to eat, though I have to say so far nothing has been terrible. The muffins come close though. I have spent more money than I thought I would on the additions. For those not on NS, they supply the main entrees and you supplement them with vegetables, fruit, low gly carbs, protein and fat. What you add is actually not much, but I try to get a lot of FF (fat free) items and low cal versions which the grocers always mark up. I spent $70 at the grocery store the other day for this week's add-ons. So this isn't a cheap diet, but the price is worth it if I continue to have success.

It actually looks like rain today in Vegas, a rarity. We were 100 degrees yesterday and today we are 75. Crazy weather.

Today's Menu:
Breakfast: 1/2 cup oatmeal, NS breakfast, LF string cheese and fruit cup. Thats' about 400 calories.
Lunch : Boca burger sandwhich on FF whole wheat bread, NS lunch, apple. I don't have my salad today for lunch, will have to get that this evening. about 440 calories

Dinner : NS Entree over 3 slices of tomato/basil Polenta, cole slaw (no mayo) with balsamic vinegar topped with sauteed onion and tomatoes. Fresh carrots and radishes. Cooked spinach and zuchinni. approx 550 calories

Late Snack : NS dessert, 1/4 cup FF cottage cheese topped with mandarin oranges, one slice of light wheat bread topped with 1 tspn of Peanut Butter and 6 almonds. approx 280 calories

On NS you don't need to count calories, just use their guidelines. but I like to count and see where I come out by the end of the day. today should be about 1700. My range should be 1800-2100. So today's menu will be very good.

Any of you on NS that might be struggling a bit, one thing that works great for me is planning the entire day's menu the night before. I know what I have for all four meals and that's it. Works out good for me.

Back to the Gym Part II

2006-05-21T11:38:00.001-07:00

I need to get back to the gym. I have a membership at Las Vegas Athletic Clubs but haven't used it for months. From July of 2005 until December I was hitting the gym 3-4 times a week for an hour and a half. It's amazing how long it takes to build muscle tone but how quickly it goes away when you haven't been working out. It's always difficult those first few days back at the gym. I have played sports in front of huge crowds, but it was very intimidating going back to the gym when I was overweight. All those buff bods working out. But then you realize that there are others who are not in good shape or even in just as bad shape as you. And most everyone is in their own little world anyways. I got over my intial apprehension in a few days and then it never bothered me again.

***********************************************************************************

My cousin Paul passed away recently. I can't believe how many people in my life I have lost over the last year. It started last April with my cousin Mike, then my mother passed in May, my Godmother Angelina in July, then FOUR work friends passed away including LA Rams great Jack Snow. Jack hosted our TV show for many, many years and he was a very nice man. He was so healthy and vigourous. Then in December my Uncle Sil passed (dad's brother), then it was my Aunt Florence in January (mom's sister) and now my cousin Paul at age 49. Whew!!!!

Week 4 begins

2006-05-21T09:17:00.000-07:00

This picture is from last September when I was around 350lbs. Health Steward Sarah visted from San Diego and I took her to Hoover Dam. NOTE : Here is a link of Sarah 105 lbs lighter than that day at Hoover Dam. click for updated Sarah photo
Sarah isn't on NS, she's on a liquid fast. Excellent work Sarah!!!

Well, this is the end of week 3 on Nutrisystem. I must say I'm very satisfied so far. The foods are very good, with the exception of a few items. I don't like the muffins, won't order those next time. I'm not much for shakes and drinks so the cocoa and milk shakes are out too. The pudding is pretty good so I will get a few of those. So far my favorite breakfast item has been the pancakes. I add blueberrys or corn and make one big pancake - add some fat free syrup and your good to go. Lunches are all decent, no complaints. Same with the dinners. My favorite dessert are the biscottis. They are a bit hard, but I top them with a tspn of peanut butter and it makes a nice dessert.

I think what is most amazing so far on NS is that I am not hungry. I have to remind myself to eat. I don't know if it's the low glycymic diet that keeps the hunger away or what, but since day one I haven't wanted to chew the legs off the sofa or anything like that. But I do get to eat quite a bit too.

Here is my typical day's meal when I am at work:

Breakfast : 1/2 cup (uncooked) oatmeal, one fruit (60 cals), one protein (usually a hard boiled egg or string cheese) and the NS breakfast. ~400-450 calories total

Lunch : two slices of light wheat bread, a protein filler for the bread (usually a boca burger or slices of chicken or turkey), one slice Fat Free cheese, veggie of some kind (usually carrots, green onions), fruit, NS lunch entree. ~450 calories

Dinner : NS entree, polenta (one of my low gly carbs), veggie (usually spinach or broccoli), another low gly carb (usually corn or peas), a big salad of sliced cabbage (cole slaw) with fat free dressing topped with sauteed onions and tomatoes. I like to make a hot salad, I enjoy the onions and tomatoes after they release their sugars, makes for a very good salad. I also top the polenta (70 calories) with the NS entree. Makes a very nice main entree. Then with my veggies I may add some hot sauce or soy sauce to liven them up a bit. All in all, it's a very large dinner with lots of vegtables. ~500-600 calories

Late Snack (I usually combine my snack and dessert here for a fourth meal) : NS Dessert, 2 fats (usually either peanut butter and/or almonds), protein (usually FF cottage cheese), fruit (usually mandarin oranges or fruit cup) and if I have a left over low gly carb I will add a slice of light wheat bread. I like to save my two fats from dinner for my late fourth meal. This way I can have a peanut butter sandwhich if I desire or top a biscotti with peanut butter and still have some almonds. I enjoy takine a 1/4 cup of FF cottage cheese and topping it with some Mandarin oranges. Very nice. ~400 calories.

As you can see, I usually top out between 1700 and 1800 calories, give or take depending on entrees. But I also get a lot of food and have not been hungry. I just hope this continues this way.

Today is Sunday, just got back from mass, must feed the soul too. It's going to be another hot day in Vegas, likely around 100. Though we may get some storms in late tonight and into Monday. I like a good thunderstorm, but I hate the flash floods we can get so easily. Though I will say it's much better than 1999 when we got hit hard by floods. This city has made a lot of major flood improvements but they still have a long way to go.

The Journey Begins!!!

2006-05-20T20:38:00.000-07:00

Well, today is my first day of my blog. Why am I doing is and will anyone actually ever read it? I don't know, but it will help me keep a record of what I am up to and my weight loss journey. Growing up I played lots of sports and didn't have a weight problem. When I was 26 I weighed 175 lbs and had a very low body fat %. Now, at 45 I'm over 400lbs and though I'm still pretty healthy, I have to get this under control now. I am more committed to becomming healthy and a reasonable weight than I can ever remember since being overweight. Life is short and I want certain things from life and I know I can't enjoy them being overweight. With God's help, I am going to lick this thing once and for all.

Between June 2004 and February 2005 I lost about 85lbs. By July 2005 I was down to 342 which was over 100lbs lost. Then pressures at work and losing so many people in my life really started to work on me and I gained back quite a bit of weight. But before I gain it all back plus more, I am determined to conquer this. For me, being healthy in body, mind and spirit all starts with my weight. When I'm feeling good about myself and my body, it makes me closer to God, friends and family.

What am I doing different this time? After doing some research I found Nutrisystem. I thought, "why not." So on May 1st 2006 I received my first food shipment and after studying their program I got started. I will talk more about the system as time goes by, but so far as of this writing (May 21) I have lost 20lbs and been very happy with the program. In fact, some days I find it difficult to eat all the food I'm supposed to, which come out to about 1800-2100 calories a day.

So my 2nd weight loss journey begins, hopefully I have learned from mistakes that saw me regain so much weight and I can succeed at this. My life depends on it.

The picture of me in the Santa hat is around age 30 and weighing in at 175 lbs. I will post my "fat" pictures as I go along. It's very sad when you need to lose as much as you once weighed.