Hey, at least I wrapped it in a whole wheat tortilla.
After my workout yesterday, I jumped in my car and high-tailed it to Centralia, Wash., about 100 miles north of Portland. A crew was tearing down an old home on some property adjacent to our mobile home park and I needed to be there to supervise it.
This also gave me the opportunity to remove several heaps of trash on the property that have been dumped illegally. A truck was onsite hauling the debris from the old home to the landfill, and the excavator had given me permission to throw unrelated trash into his truck.
This is all actually immaterial to the point of this blog entry. The point, really, is that for 24 hours I was going to be extremely busy, extremely tired, performing labor and nowhere near a kitchen.
I didn’t plan ahead for this. Normally, I wouldn’t even need to “plan ahead,” but my new diet follows the Glycemic index and requires me to eat approximately five to six meals a day.
Right after Monday’s workout, I downed a protein shake and quickly packed my suitcase. I was about out the door when I realized I hadn’t packed any food. So I opened my fridge, grabbed a small cooler and filled it quickly with items that might get me through 24 hours on my meal plan.
I got to Centralia about two hours later and was hungry. It was about time for my third meal of the day, and my cooler didn’t have any protein that I thought would satisfy my appetite, so I hit a mini-mart to find some meat.
The best I could come up with was a hot dog, and my instincts told me, “Paisely would probably not approve of this.” So I discarded the bun, skipped the condiments and wrapped it in my own whole wheat tortilla. Hey, don’t say I’m not trying.
After busting my ass for three hours removing trash at our worksite, I had a snack from my cooler: Greek yogurt, a small apple and a handful of walnuts. For dinner, I hit another mini-mart and grabbed a pre-made chicken-bacon wrap with a flour tortilla. I capped the night with a hard-boiled egg from my cooler.
The West Africa bowl. Yummm.
This morning I warmed up an egg wrap I’d brought from home (2 scrambled eggs in a whole wheat tortilla). Then I worked for five hours on our property again, skipping a snack without even thinking about it until I found myself starving at 1 o’clock. I looked in my cooler and wasn’t satisfied with anything, so I headed to a favorite restaurant of mine in Centralia: The Olympic Club.
I almost chose the grilled chicken salad, but then the very last item on the menu caught my eye: the West African Bowl with spicy peanut-tomato sauce, veggies and brown rice. Add chicken for $4.25!
Chicken = protein. Veggies and brown rice = carbs. Peanut sauce = fat. Perfect, right?
It tasted almost too good. It tasted illegal! But that wasn’t the problem. I’d skipped my snack, and I was starving. And restaurants always give you an oversized portion. I didn’t eat it all, but I came close and 20 minutes after I left the Olympic Club I felt bloated.
The point of this blog, I guess, is that following the diet is not always easy, especially when you’re on the run and you haven’t planned ahead. Paisley told me to spend a couple hours in the kitchen every weekend planning for the week ahead, and this is an aspect I haven’t been following well.
I have an embarrassing secret to confess: my mom helped me prepare a lot of my food these first three weeks, but she’s in California now until late March, and I’m really on my own.
And if I stop getting wasted every Friday, and spending the rest of the weekend hung over, I might even have time to plan ahead.
Food Jounal:
Breakfast: Scrambled egg wrap.
Snack: (missed)
Lunch: West African Bowl with spicy peanut-tomato sauce, veggies and brown rice.
Snack: Jack Links Jerkey from mini-mart; whole wheat mini-bagel with peanut butter and one stick of low-fat string cheese
Dinner: Pork chops, brown rice.
Exercise: 30 minutes of interval training on a treadmill at the Lloyd Athletic Club. This was a little out of my routine as I did it at 6:30 p.m. after getting home from Centralia. Normally I exercise in the morning.
“When you lose this contest, I’ll take you out and and buy you a Tic-Tac!”
That’s what my trainer, Paisley Ann Meekin, told me this morning. Last week she cut me some slack and told me to forgive myself for straying from my diet and exercise regimen. This morning she was a little less sympathetic
Paisley wasn’t serious about taking me out for a Tic-Tac. She was mocking me, my choice of drink and my decision to get wasted this weekend.
“You made a commitment to this program, and to me,” she said.
“Yeah, but .. but … but …” I was a little bit whiny this morning. And I felt like shit.
Friday morning things were great.
Weighing in at 246 pounds Friday on my home scale.
I weighed myself on my own scale at home and was greeted with 246.4 pounds. That’s the lightest weight I’ve seen on my scale since early 2009. I felt great, too. And I’ve been feeling thinner — especially in my stomach and my face — and I’m noticing little changes in my body. It seems like dormant muscles are beginning to come back to life. I also have great energy levels and never get tired or drowsy during the day, with the exception of last week’s white rice and teriyaki sauce incident.
Friday night things were not so great.
Great, no, not if we’re talking diet and excercise. Great, yes, in the context of seeing old friends and spending the evening with two lovely ladies.
My old pal Matt Bagley from grad school was in town for the weekend, and we hit downtown Portland Friday night with my close friend Karli and another fine lady in Lindsey. For some reason, the topic of whether a Tic-Tac really tastes like a Tic-Tac was raised, and several rounds later the four of us were four sheets to the wind and dancing.
Yes, those are Tic-Tacs in our hands.
Seriously, if I’m out on the dance floor then you know I’m drunk.
The night didn’t end when the bars closed. The four of us kept things going well into the night. We went back to Karli’s house and continued the party until around 5 a.m.
What followed for me was a 2 1/2-day hangover. I woke up fairly early Saturday, but then slept most of the day until waking up at 8 p.m. I only ate twice and for some stupid reason told myself that Saturday would be Eat Whatever The Fuck You Want Day. I indulged in a meal that has been the death of me: Panda Express. Why? I don’t know.
On Sunday I still felt hung over and watched the Super Bowl at my friend’s house. I ate only three tiny meals (not the six I’m supposed to eat) and felt like crap. When I looked in the mirror on Sunday the thinning face I’d seen Friday looked puffy, and as I sat on the couch the stomach that had been flattening was now bulging.
Monday morning I still didn’t feel right. I decided to weigh myself on my own scale before going to the gym and was shocked by what I saw: 252 pounds.
Did I seriously gain 7.6 pounds in three days !?!?!
I had my head down when I got to the Lloyd Athletic Club to face Paisley. I knew that when I stepped on her scale, I wouldn’t like what I saw, and neither would she: 259 pounds.
Holy Shit WTF?????????
“I did not take care of myself this weekend,” I told Paisley, as I began to list my excuses. “I got hammered Friday night and felt the effects all weekend.”
“What did you drink?” Paisley asked.
“Cocktails, some wine and a bunch of Tic-Tacs,” I said.
“Tic-Tacs? What the hell is wrong with you?” Paisley said. “What kind of drink is that!”
Even when Paisley is riding my ass, she’s hilarious. Weight training would not be so fun if she was all business.
“You can win this contest if you want to,” Paisley said. “But you won’t if you do what you did this weekend.”
If these girls invited you to go out on a Friday night, would you say "No, I'm trying to lose weight"?
Paisley told me during my first consultation not to drink at all during the 10-week Just Lose It! competition. I agreed in principal, but three weeks in I have consumed alcohol at least once every week, always on the weekends. And always with friends.
Hey, I’m fun to be around 🙂
My dilemma right now is whether I want to live my life and have fun with my friends, or just focus on winning the contest.
“You didn’t have to drink this weekend,” Paisley said. “Or you could have drank and not got totally wasted.”
“Yeah, but I was hanging with a friend I hadn’t seen in years and two attractive women,” I responded.
I don’t know if I can cancel socializing for seven more weeks. Truth is, my social calendar is filling up fast. There is even another Vegas weekend planned due to a promise I made to a friend months ago. My birthday is quickly approaching and there’s another weekend bash with friends at the beach in mid-March.
I guess you can take a guy out of the frat, but you can’t take the frat out of the guy.
Paisley surmised that when I weigh myself in a couple days I’ll be back down to the range I saw on Friday. I didn’t drink enough water Saturday or Sunday and my body was probably retaining fluids. That’s why I felt puffy on Sunday, and appeared to have gained 7.6 pounds in three days.
“Why don’t we do our unofficial weigh-ins on Friday,” I suggested to Paisley.
“Nope,” she said.
Then began Arms Day, and Paisley punished me severely.
Food Journal:
Breakfast: 2 eggs (scrambled) in whole wheat tortilla; handful of walnuts
Snack: Protein shake with banana. One stick of low-fat string cheese.
Lunch: Circle K hot dog without the bun, instead wrapped in a whole wheat tortilla; small apple. One stick of low-fat string cheese.
Snack: Greek yogurt (pomegranate flavor with 12 grams of sugar; Paisley, is this OK?) small apple.
Dinner: Grilled chicken wrap (flour tortilla)
Food Journal:
Breakfast: Three tacos at Por Que No at 3 p.m.
Lunch: Panda Express at 9 p.m.
Dinner: A couple glasses of wine
I’m going to let my trainer, Paisley Anne Meekin, write today’s blog. Not because she wants to, but because I’m going to steal her wisdom, word-for-word, and share it with you.
This is an e-mail she sent to all her client’s doing the Just Lose It! contest. As all of us attempt to better our lives, we sometimes stumble, too (see also: last weekend). Read up. Because after Paisley finds out I’m using her e-mails in my blog, they’ll probably stop coming.
From: Paisley Meekin
Date: Thursday, Feb. 3, 2011
To: Troy Foster
WEEK THREE!
How Ya’all do’in?! I am still so proud of all of you for making this commitment to yourselves and your health and fitness 🙂 Everyone is working so hard and I really appreciate it!
As some of you experienced this last week….Lapse from the program WILL happen. You are human and you cannot be perfect 100% of the time. What I want to mention is that these lapses from the program are HUGE learning opportunities! Take the time to dissect what happen?….how you reacted?….what emotions came up for you? This is NOT a time to be critical on yourself!!!! please. Just understand yourself. Understand your thought processes and inner dialogue. You will be more likely to handle the same situation better if you UNDERSTAND it. Understand it and then release it and get back on track!
Food Journal:
Breakfast: scrambled egg in whole wheat tortilla
Snack: Protein shake!
Lunch: Tuna salad
Dinner: Sushi at Soho Sushi
Snack: Tic-Tac’s (several, but not the kind you’re thinking)
Snack: Part of a pita from a food vendor in downtown Portland
Snack: Jack & Coke (several)
Snack: Macaroni & Cheese at 5 a.m. (allegedly)
I wrote the main text of yesterday’s blog right after my morning workout and the unfortunate nuts incident.
Today, I want to take a moment and mention what happened with my so-called “lunch” later that night. My meals got all kind of screwed up yesterday, with bizarre effects.
Let me explain:
I made an unplanned trip to Vancouver in the afternoon to clean a new manufactured home we set up in one of the parks we manage.
I spent six hours there working my ass off, and the last hour or so was hastened by an insane hunger that overwhelmed me. I finished up and jumped into my Jeep to head home, but decided that a 30-minute drive was too long to wait to have my third meal of the day, otherwise known as “lunch.”
So I drove to a teriyaki place that’s always been a favorite of mine — one of the many places on my eating out circuit from the pre-Just Lose It! days.
There are few things in life I like more than teriyaki chicken. Fortunately, grilled chicken with teriyaki sauce is not off limits in my new diet that follows the Glycemic Index. It’s a meal I’ve already feasted on several times.
The teriyaki sauce they served me at this restaurant, however, was more like syrup. I could taste the sugar in it and, of course, the portion of chicken they served me was way too much. The dish also came with two scoops of white rice, and I told myself “Just a little bit, Troy. Just a nibble.”
But I was starving. I’m on a diet where I’m supposed to eat 5-6 times a day, no more than three hours apart. And here I was at 6 p.m. having “lunch” six hours after my second snack/meal.
I devoured it. Couldn’t stop myself. It was soooo good. All that chicken covered in thick teriyaki sauce. Both scoops of starchy white rice. Mmmm. I felt guilty, but it felt so right.
Everything was fine until I started heading home. The food started to settle about 10 minutes after I left the restaurant. I felt so incredibly full.
And bloated.
And sleepy.
I got so drowsy driving home that I stopped at a Starbucks. By now it was after 7 p.m., and I was loading up on caffeine. Under normal circumstances, evening coffee is something I never do.
When I got home, I started doing chores around my house that kept me standing on my feet. I didn’t want to sit down, because I thought I’d conk out. But eventually I made it to the couch and TV, and within minutes I was out. It was only 8 p.m.
It didn’t feel like sleep as much as it felt like passing the fuck out.
I’m not a scientist, and I’m not an expert on this like my nutritionist-trainer, but what I believe happened was my blood-sugar level got out of whack. The diet she’s teaching me is supposed to keep it even all day long. That, combined with weight-training and cardio, is supposed to make my body burn everything it takes in.
The insanely large portion of chicken teriyaki syrup with white rice put me into what I think people call a “food coma.” Like I said, this did not feel like sleep. It felt like I was passed out. The coffee had no chance.
I was in my food coma for more than an hour. When I woke up, it was after 9 p.m. and I felt like shit.
And it was past time for my fourth meal.
Food Journal:
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs in wheat tortilla, glass of milk
Snack: Two whole wheat mini-bagels with peanutbutter. Small apple.
Lunch: Protein shake, celery sticks.
Dinner: Grilled chicken, brown rice, salad. (3 hours after lunch)
Snack: Hard-boiled egg. Greek yogurt
Look, I like nuts.
My diet requires me to eat meals that are 40 percent protein, 40 percent carbs and 20 percent fat.
I often carry nuts on me, and when I’m not sure whether my meal has the 20 percent fat, I just have a handful of almonds, walnuts or pecans.
Nuts really don’t bother me.
But after Paisley put me through an intense leg workout today, which I followed up with a 60-minute, 4-mile power walk on a treadmill at an incline, I was confronted by some nuts I didn’t like.
You see, there’s a nice black pleather couch at the Lloyd Athletic Club that I occasionally like to sit on. It faces a TV that’s usually turned to ESPN, or some other sporting event. I’ve sat on this couch when a basketball game piques my interest, or they’re showing highlights of the Blazers game.
This nice black couch happens to be in the men’s locker room, and as I walked in there today for my post-workout piss, I couldn’t help but notice a man sitting on it totally naked. Look, nudity in a men’s locker room is about as weird as the sun rising. But this guy had no towel, and was not protecting his junk.
Just bare nuts on that nice black couch I used to sit on.
Pass the walnuts.
Food Journal:
Breakfast: Peanut butter on whole wheat toast (two slices), Greek yogurt with blueberries.
Snack: Protein shake with banana.
*Lunch: Teriyaki chicken, salad and white rice at a restaurant
Snack: nope
Dinner: Grilled marinated steak in whole wheat tortilla, small apple
*My so-called “lunch” was six hours after my snack and it was at a restaurant. This was a disaster I will cover in tomorrow’s blog.
Across the gym, I spotted a woman huffing and puffing.
She is pretty overweight. Her face was red and sweat was pouring down her cheeks. Her shirt was damp, accentuating the parts of her body she’s trying to get rid of.
I have some serious competition.
Rumor has it someone in the Just Lose It! contest has already lost 12 pounds. I’ve lost about 6 in 14 days. Today was my fourth day of interval training, although it should have been my fifth. I was too busy last Thursday misbehaving in Utah.
My legs ached as I got started with my run. It wasn’t shooting pain, it was discomfort in all those parts where stringy material holds things together — the tendons and the ligaments, especially around my knees.
Hard to believe, but I was once a very skinny young man who weighed 155 pounds and had somewhere between 2 and 3 percent body fat. That was when I was 18 and a letterman in track and cross country. I’m nearly 33 now and just over 256 pounds.
I was actually too skinny then and as I began to fill out in college people told me I looked so much better with some meat on my bones. Even if I wanted to be as thin as I was in high school, I don’t think I could get down to that weight, unless I was sick with a grave illness. My mom complained back then that I was too skinny. I didn’t have any muscle mass of any significance.
But the comparison is still staggering: 32-year-old Troy is 100 pounds heavier than 18-year-old Troy.
In high school, one of my cross country coaches always described warming up as “getting the kinks out.” During the thick of cross country season, my legs never felt quite right. Every time I took them out for a spin there’d be some discomfort. Some of those strings that hold things together would bother me for a few minutes. Then they’d go away, after warmups helped me get the kinks out.
Which brings me back to today. I had some serious fuckin’ kinks that brought two things to mind as I tried to get going on the treadmill. First, I think I have so much excess weight that it’s making it hard to get the full benefits of these exercises, which are tempered by the jarring sensations I feel as my feet make contact with the treadmill. It’s like 18-year-old Troy is trying to run a race with a 100-pound backpack. My legs weren’t built for this.
The other thing I thought about was Dave Robbins, my old cross country coach at Sunset High School, ordering his runners to “Go get the kinks out, then let’s all meet back here when you’re ready.”
Five minutes into my interval training I wasn’t sure the kinks would come out. I’d stepped on the treadmill intending to do 30 minutes. I’ve done only 20 minutes during the previous three sessions at my trainer’s advice, even though her workout book calls for 30. She probably questioned whether I could even do 30.
All I had to do to gather inspiration was look across the gym at the red-faced woman sweating profusely. She has more weight to lose than me, and judging by her red face and wet shirt, it looks like she’s trying harder than me, too.
I went for 30 minutes. The kinks never came out.
Food Journal:
Breakfast: Oatmeal with dried cranberries, milk and a hard-boiled egg.
Snack: Protein shake with banana.
Lunch: Grilled chicken in whole wheat tortilla, apple
Snack: Chinese-style barbecue pork, hard-boiled egg
Dinner: Grilled chicken in whole wheat tortilla, brown rice, celery sticks
“How’d your weekend go? Good?”
My trainer asked me this question at 10 a.m. this morning, right as I was about to step on the scale for my unofficial weekly weigh-in. I didn’t quite know how to answer her question.
“It went very well, actually.” I said. “Every part but that whole exercise thing.”
Sundance was awesome. My old newspaper colleagues and I bagged several movies, including one of the most moving documentaries I’ve ever seen: “How to Die in Oregon.”
But the exercise did not go well. Rather, it did not go at all.
I missed an opportunity to do interval training Thursday. I had intended to spend some time in the afternoon at a 24 Hour Fitness near our hotel, but instead spent it in my hotel bed, trying to catch up on 4 1/2 hours of sleep.
I was awakened from a two-hour, mid-day nap by a phone call saying “Let’s go already.” Then we were off to two movie sessions and an appointment with Jack Daniels at a nearby piano bar.
Friday wasn’t any better. We jumped in our cars and drove 30 minutes to Park City for a morning movie called “Pariah.” My friend Katie and I were supposed to catch a ride back to Salt Lake City in the afternoon, where we had planned to hit 24 Hour Fitness together. But I sensed that a special trip just to drive us back would be an inconvenience to the two in our party with cars, so we didn’t push it. Our group spent the majority of the day in Park City, caught several more movies and didn’t get back to our hotel in Salt Lake City until after midnight. Then we had a date with cabernet sauvignon.
Saturday, same thing. We carpooled to Park City in the morning for a movie called “On the Ice.” We didn’t get back to Salt Lake City unitl the evening, and by then I felt too tired to hit 24 Hour Fitness. I was behind on sleep, too. I’d been up till 5 in the morning the night before with wine and cheese (of the string variety).
Now I felt like I needed to explain this to Paisley.
“I wanted to work out, but things were kind of out of my control,” I told my trainer. “I didn’t have my own car and I wasn’t the master of my own destiny.”
I was stalling before stepping on the scale. I felt like I needed to give Paisley a plausible excuse as to why the scale was about to indicate I’d gained weight. This reunion had been planned for at least six months, long before I committed to the Just Lose It! program. I’d tried to stick to the diet as best I could, be we ate out almost every meal. I’d even picked up some food at the grocery store and kept it in my hotel fridge. I felt really bad that I …
“LET IT GO!” Paisley interrupted.
I was a little surprised by her reaction.
“You need to forgive yourself,” Paisley said. “Take a moment if you need to. Now put it behind you and let’s move forward.”
I stepped on the scale.
And wouldn’t you know it, I’ve lost another 2 pounds:
Food Journal:
Today:
Breakfast: Oatmeal with milk and dried cranberries
Snack: Protein shake
Lunch: baked salmon, salad
Snack: Hard-boiled egg
Dinner: Grilled chicken, salad, brown rice
Exercise: Arm Day plus 1 hour brisk walk on treadmill at 4 mph at 2 degree incline
Sunday:
Breakfast: Greek yogurt, banana, low-fat string cheese
Snack: Apple at the Salt Lake City airport
Lunch: Chicken stir fry with brown rice
Dinner: Chicken stir fry with brown rice
Exercise: What do you think?
Just Lose It! and Vacation don't mix as well as Jack & Coke. So says Matt and Katie (pictured).
It’s getting a little crazy around here. Most of the movies are good (or maybe I’m just sayin’ that). My old journalism pals from college are still crazy, and the smiles are as abundant as the alcohol come midnight.
We found out that tonight is the last night the hotel we’re staying in will ever be open (isn’t that insane?). It’s going out of business tomorrow. I have a feeling we will behave tonight as if this were the last night this hotel will ever be open.
I designated today Eat Whatever You Want Day, but in reality this is more like Eat Whatever You Want Weekend. I’ve tried to eat well, but I am mostly captive to the car I’m in, the places we go as a group and the restaurants my friends choose. I’m mostly indifferent.
Exercise has been an EPIC FAIL.
I will try to regroup Monday. In the meantime, does anyone know what happened to the corkscrew?
Food Journal:
Lunch: Fish & Chips at restaurant in Park City
Dinner: “Alberto’s Meat Lasagna” at Italian restaurant (it was actually a reasonable portion, which is rare)
Snack: Merlot and cabernet sauvignon
Exercise: Nope.
An e-mail exchange between me and my wonderful trainer, Paisley Ann Meekin:
That would have been an awesome workout, Paisley.
Thanks for taking the time to put that together for me.
Food Journal:
Breakfast: Apple and Jack Link’s Beef Jerky
Snack: A couple cough drops
Lunch: Two small chicken tacos at El Chewbasco restaurant
Snack: 1 stein of Hefeweizen (27 ounces)
Dinner: Three small mahi mahi tacos in Park City
Snack: Several glasses of cabernet sauvignon
Snack: 4 sticks of low-fat string cheese at 5 a.m. (in bed)
Exercise: Ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!
