Dearest Friends and Fellow Flaabers,

Just wanted to say thanks for all the fun and support I received here during my arduous struggle with the weight. Unfortunately, work has kept me very busy and I haven't been able to blog as much as I would've liked to here. 

Keep up the good work, I plan on changing up my diet and excercise routine and will continue with the epic struggle.

To those about to diet, we salute you!

What a difference one day can make...

Monday night I prep the ingredients for a hearty beef stew from scratch, bag it and place it in the fridge. I scratch out some instructions for the wife to drop it into the crockpot when she gets up.

I get to work on Tuesday morning, enjoy a cup of tea along with a yummy peanut butter Clif Bar while I patiently wait for Windows XP to finish loading on my computer. The day flies by and now I'm driving home. The news radio gal mentions something about a peanut butter recall, yada yada. I'm not paying attention.

At home, dinner's ready and we all enjoy the tasty beef stew. Very delish. After dinner I go for a brisk two mile walk.

On the way home I start to not feel so good. I make it home just in time to spend the rest of the evening in the bathroom, doubled over in pain. A classic case of food poisoning.

At first, I suspect the stew, but everybody else is fine. Plus I made the stew myself, I know I didn't contaminate anything or use any dicey  ingredients, everything was fresh. No problems with any of the family either. Eventually I manage to get to sleep.

The next morning on the way to work, I hear more details about the peanut butter recall. Seems some of that tainted PB made its way to the Clif Bar factory. You know, the place where they make those wholesome, organic, lots of rolled oats and soy goodness, nothing artificial here. No sir, Clif and his son just hanging out making tasty energy bars with all natural ingredients for you and me...

Well, salmonella is natural, I guess. But look on the bright side, I lost three pounds.

Cheers,

G.

The latest big-time think group has come out with yet another study on the eternal diet vs. excercise struggle. Their conclusion? Dieting yes, excercise not so much...

The soul destroying article is here.

Cheers,

G

Pizza is still a kind of diet-killing kyptonite for me. Maybe it's my Italian ancestry or just the fact that pizza is one of the best damn foods ever invented! How many great foods can you customize to suit your taste?

Pizza, is there nothing it can't do?

I bake. You decide.

Number Ten: A new episode of House is on.

Number Nine: The garage is too cold.

Number Eight: All out of Monster energy drinks.

Number Seven: Work out t-shirt is in the hamper.

Number Six: Busy making brownies for the kids.

Number Five: The garage is too hot.

Number Four: Two words: Sangria y nachos.

Number Three: Misplaced my tube of Icy-Hot.

Number Two: Dumbells not aligned with Feng Shui.

Number One: Pizza's here!

I use this old walking stick to do ab twists. Cost of the stick: 0. Not paying for a useless gym membership: Priceless. (okay maybe like three or four hundred bucks a year but you get the idea)

Just me, my iPod and my old weights, working out with a little help from Thomas Dolby's 'Hyperactive'. (I took the headphones off for the photos. I know, Vanityville. Population: Me.)

Pumping iron the way Real Men do, in their garages. Take that, 24 Hour Fitness!

Nothing to do with dieting really, but there's something about a wife holding up a piece of bulletproof glass in front of her face while her husband "tests" the glass that just made me long for the good old days...

I mean, I can't drive the one mile from Costco back to our house without my wife questioning the speed, turn signal status and seat belt tension. I just couldn't see me saying, "Hey hon, how about you hold up this piece of bulletproof glass while I shoot at you with my rifle."

Hmm maybe we could bet our spouse and/or significant others that if we don't make the weight we'll get some bulletproof glass and... On second thought, my wife is a lousy shot. So, nevermind. Continue dieting with the money thing...

I'm a big news junkie and over the last few months have been saving articles I ran across that dealt with food, vitamins, diet and excercise. Really just for my own edification, but since we're all in this boat together I thought I would share them with you. Here they are in no particular order:

Sunlight is good for you, who knew?

We should all eat more cherries. (insert joke here)

You need more vitamins!

The secret to losing weight. Shhhh.

Gym memberships suck! (I've known this for years.)

Why your workouts don't work.

There you have it. Remember, don't let the Media tell you what's good for you. A few simple keystrokes will give you all the information you need directly from the source. No filters, templates or editors required. Make informed decisions based on your research, not Katie Couric's.

Cheers,

G.

I do a lot of the cooking at my house, and the meals are, of course, delicious (you would expect no less from an Italian guy) but they’re also pretty healthy. Lots of chicken and salmon, lean meats and tilapia, stuff like that. Portions are not too large, any leftovers I take to work for lunch, so I’m not sure exactly where I’m going to cut back on the diet to shed the weight.

The thing about dieting, as we all know, (I’m not a doctor but I play one on the interwebs) is that if you don’t make the diet changes permanent, you will regain all the weight you lost and more. So I’m pondering what foods I can eliminate to make a dent in total calories consumed. And then what do I replace them with?

Here’s a partial list off the top of my head:

Breakfast: Granola bar or bagel, yogurt, tea.

Replace with: Jennifer Aniston, flavored water.

Lunch: Roast beef sandwich, chips, energy drink.

Replace with: Keira Knightley, carrot sticks.

Dinner: George’s Greek chicken, saffron rice, white wine.

Replace with: Irreplaceable! A Man’s gotta eat for Chrissakes!

Workout routine and pics coming this weekend, hopefully...

Cheers,

G.

Everybody knows that to lose weight you need to diet and exercise. My plan for losing weight (at this juncture) is going to be about a 70/30 ratio of exercise to dieting. The reason for this is simple: I like to work out with weights and enjoy walking long distances. I also enjoy eating good food. Especially since I like to cook good food, as well as the occasional foray into one of the many fine dining establishments hereabouts. Therefore, heavy on the weights means I don't have to count calories and worry over the size of my portions, (in theory anyway). I'm not a nutritionist but I play one on TV.

I know I need to reduce carbs like pasta, bread and pizza, problem is they’re so darn tasty. Much easier for me to give up sweets since I'm not big into candy and desserts. Once or twice a month I’ll crave some chocolate or frozen yogurt, but overall I do fine without the sweet stuff. No it’s bread, butter and anything salty that does me in around here.

So here we go. I'll have some pics of the work-out regimen tomorrow. Now its dinner time.

Cheers,

G

Who Do I Hate? The only person I could think of was a former boss, who was, (and as far as I know, still is) a petty vindictive bureaucrat, and a lawyer. (that last bit may have been redundant) An arrogant megalomaniac (again possibly redundant) but it’s hard to ‘hate’ a person like this.

I mean it’s in the guy’s nature to be a major asswipe, hardwired in genetically or maybe by law school. It would be like hating a drug addict for becoming a prostitute to feed her habit. Although comparing an attorney to a drug ravaged crack whore is demeaning and insulting… to the hooker. (and definitely redundant!)

But I digress… I like to think of myself as a positive guy and since I don’t hate a person enough to motivate me to lose weight I thought maybe hating a ridiculous pop culture theory reminiscent of the Puritan’s belief in witches would do the trick. An especially stupid, moronic, theory foisted upon the general public by the most hypocritical of overweight front men. Of course I’m talking about Al Gore and his Global Warming show.

If I don't lose the weight, I will have to grit my teeth and shell out one hundred dollars to Al Gore or whatever Lear jet owner has taken over as shaman for the Cult. This should be incentive enough, other than being tied behind a Toyota Prius and forced to jog down the I-5.

Cheers!

G.