Biffster’s WeightJournal.com

Here’s an example of why nutritional information is so important. For a while now, I’ve been having a power bagel with peanut butter from Einstein’s Bagels for breakfast. This seemed like a pretty good breakfast to me. The power bagel has a lot of protein in it. And if it has protein, then it has to be good for you, right?

Well, not exactly. Thanks to an Einstein’s Bagels nutritional information guide, (Warning: It’s a PDF file) I now find that the power bagel is not very good for weight loss at all. With peanut butter, it weighs in at 750 calories! HOLY CRAP!! Subtract the peanut butter, and it is still 560 calories. That’s one damned expensive bagel!

From now on, I’m switching to a whole wheat bagel with blueberry cream cheese. That’s 410 calories, which leaves me with enough calories for my cinnamon latte.

Here’s one of the main reasons I gained so much weight over the holiday season: A venti Starbucks eggnog latte has 630 calories per serving. And I was drinking these things like water! There were a few days when I had two egg nog lattes in the same day. That’s 1260 extra calories, on top of the other bad stuff that I was eating.

My goal for this year is to find a way to kick my egg nog habit. I’m addicted to the stuff, and I really cannot afford to be. Between my lack of will power and my slow metabolism, I am doomed during the holidays!

Anyone know the number to egg nog drinkers anonymous?

On the plus side, a Grande nonfat cinnamon latte from Starbucks weighs in at 200 calories. I am so down with that! The grande latte has 14g of protein, so it’s actually a fairly nutritious drink, too. I am altering my meal plan specifically to allow one of these beasties a day. Yummy!

Weight: 314. Difference from last entry: -5

Yay me! lol. I was a good boy this week, and my weight shows it. I have to be happy about that. Being a good boy obviously isn’t an easy thing for me to do. Never has been. So allow me to pat myself on the back one more time. YAY!

Okay, seriously, this weight loss was not unexpected. I did things that I needed to do to lose weight. I knew I was going to lose weight. I got back into the habit of drinking over 100 ounces of water in a day. I stopped sneaking to the break room and eating a donut. I stopped having a cinnamon roll with my morning coffee. I replaced quarter pound burgers with sensible lunches. All of this work shows on the scale.

It is funny the difference that a week makes. Last week, I was extremely disappointed with myself. This week, I am right back on track and feeling motivated.

Weight: 319. Difference from last entry: +4

Wow. All I can keep saying is that. Wow… and that’s not a good wow. What exactly happened here? How did I gain 4 pounds in a week? My immediate reaction was, of course, “Can’t be! I’ve been good!” But that’s crap, I haven’t been good. I’ve been cheating, adding in deserts and snacks. My same old downfall throughout all of these years.

On the plus side, the shock from the scale got my butt moving back to eDiets. While I’ve had a harder time than expected getting back onto track with eDiets, I am slowly working my way back in. I’ve gotten myself back to drinking about a gallon of water a day. I am watching the number of calories that I am eating and I am trying to substitute in healthy snacks instead of empty-calorie snacks. I will recover from these gains. And I’ve learned something from them: I have to be on a weight management program.

Actually, I’ve known this all along. When I am on some type of weight management program, be it Weight Watchers, the AHA’s Fit For Life, or eDiets, I’ve done a good job of managing my weight. When I go off a program, I gain weight. I am not disciplined enough to do this on my own. When I am off program, all of my bad habits creep back in. When I am on program, I stick to what the program says.

So now I am coming to grips with the fact that I’ll have to be on a weight management plan for the rest of my life. It’s a weird concept. I don’t like thinking of anything as “have to do this for the rest of my life.” Yet I really want to get into better shape and then stay there. This yo-yo dieting is pissing me off.

So I will. I’ll agree to stay with eDiets for the rest of my life. I’ll use their weight-loss plan ’til I get down to 220 or so, then use their maintenance plan to stay there. That’s my happy thought for today.

You might’ve noticed the new tools that I’ve set up on the side bar. I wanted to add these in as inconspicuously as possible, but I also want to explain to my loyal readers what they are and why they are there. Starting from the top of the Tools section:

RSS Feed: Use this link if you want to add my journal entries to your news aggregator (ie AmphetaDesk, NewsDesk, TinderBox) or your website. This links to a standard RSS-compatible XML document. If you don’t know what that means, you don’t need to follow the link.

Get updates via email: This is for those of you who are tired of checking back here every week to see if I’ve updated the site or not. Click on this link to join our new email list. You will receive every new journal entry emailed to you the minute it is posted to this website. And fear not: I will never send you spam nor sell your email address.

Make a Donation: I am not looking to make any money with this journal. It is here for my personal use, and as a method of support for those of you who are also trying to lose weight. However, I do have to pay money to keep this website up and going. If you’d like to donate a buck or two to help defray some of these costs, click on this button. PayPal accepts donations, no matter how small. And I’ll forever appreciate your support.

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Thanks for sticking on with me throughout the years. It’s been an exciting and often-frurstrating journey for me. I hope that everyone has been able to learn from my mistakes.

The holidays have passed, and I survived with only a three-pound gain. I can live with that. I’m not happy about it, mind you, and I wish that I could rewind time and change a few things. But I can live with it.

I am actually already making changes to stop gaining. I gave up on egg nog a couple of weeks ago (that was so very hard to do; I don’t know why I am as addicted to egg nog as I am). I am reducing the number of sweets that I eat. And I am starting to get some exercise back into my routine.

I see the nine pounds that I gained since Colin was born as exactly what they are: a slight bump in the road. I fully expect and plan to get back into the swing of things, starting this week.