2011 New Year's Weight Loss Resolution Week 17: Down to 179

Last Saturday I was stuck at 185. My goal for today was 183. I did 4 pounds better than that, shrinking to 1 pound less than my 180 pound goal.

In other words, my New Year's Weight Loss Resolution is now resolved.

If past experience is any predictor, I will continue to shrink, due the fact that the factors that have caused the shrinkage are not going to change all that fast.

I'll continue getting a lot of exercise. I'm not going to suddenly start going to restaurant buffets. Or putting melted butter on my air popped popcorn.

Now that I have shrunk to my desired level of shrinkage I am resolved not to let stress and aggravation cause me to forget about watching what I eat.

I have to say, this current bout of shrinkage went on way longer than I had planned. I figured by March I'd be done with it. I'd grown real tired of these Saturday morning weigh-ins. And then blogging about it.

Police Women From Around the World & America

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2011 New Year's Weight Loss Resolution Week 16: Down 2 to 185

I think for the first time during these months of trying to shrink to 180 pounds, I met my goal for the weekly Saturday weigh-in.

I got down to last week's 185 pounds goal.

I am getting a bit bored with this weekly weigh-in thing.

Maybe I should just decide that 185 is my ideal weight and call a stop to this.

The lowest weight I have shrunk to in my adult, post-30s years, is 168.5.

In April of 2006, five years ago, I'd returned from a visit to the Pacific Northwest feeling very aggravated about how aggravating that visit had been. To put my mind in a better place I went on an extremely vigorous bike ride, pretty much every day. Soon I was shrinking.

That bout of shrinkage continued until July of 2008, when I shrunk to the aforementioned 168.5.

In July of 2008 I was back in the Pacific Northwest. For a month. And again it was very aggravating. More so than the 2006 visit.

In August of 2008 I returned back to my safe place, but did not react to being aggravated like I had in 2006.

My mom and dad visited the first week of 2009. They wanted to go to a Sweet Tomatoes restaurant. I had not been to Sweet Tomatoes before.

From 2006 til 2009 I very rarely ate in restaurants. Eating out a lot is a surefire way to weigh more.

After my mom and dad's visit I found myself re-visiting Sweet Tomatoes many times. And returning to my favorite Indian buffet, Tandoor, for the first time in a long time, with many follow-up visits. I discovered Zorro's Buffet. I had Riscky's BBQ all you can eat ribs. Twice. I discovered Town Talk, which had me suddenly having a steady supply of real good cheese.

By the time the New Year of 2011 showed up I had bloated up to 217 pounds. 48.5 pounds heavier than my July of 2008 low of 168.5.

Appalling.

I guess I am still aiming to shrink to 180. Let's make next Saturday's goal 183.

The American Cat & Dog Obesity Epidemic

All my siblings, but one, has at least one dog. Half my sibling's dogs have issues with being overweight, ordered by their vets to lose weight.

I got in trouble in 2008 for feeding one of my sibling's slightly chubby poodles a McDonald's cheeseburger. That poodle, his name is Max, loves McDonald's cheeseburgers. Max is not obese, just a bit overweight.

Also in 2008 the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention (APOP) issued a report that reported that 44% of dogs and 57% of cats were either overweight or obese or both.

With this shocking revelation regarding all the fat cats, cat people apparently put their cats on diets, because the 2011 APOP report reports that now 55% of dogs are fat with 53% of cats being fat cats.

I'm guessing there is some statistical wiggle room in these statistics.

2011 New Year's Weight Loss Resolution Week 15: Down to 187

Well, another Saturday weigh-in and again I did not hit my target of 185. But, unlike last Saturday, when I'd gained a pound, this week I am down a pound, 2 above my 185 goal.

Even though I'm not lighter, I do seem to be shrinking.

I can now easily do the Yoga Plough Position. About 2 months ago I was shocked to discover I could no longer get into that particular Yoga position, something that previously had always been easy for me.

I can tell I am lighter and stronger when I go hill hiking. I've been zipping up steep hills with ease. And not getting at all winded by the effort.

Most days in the past 2 weeks I've gotten in 2 swimming sessions.

So, I've got 7 pounds to go to get to my 180 goal, that, at the start of 2011, I thought I'd easily get to within a couple months.

During this current bout of shrinkage it has become real clear to me that the older you get the more difficult it is to melt away excess adipose tissue.

I guess the goal for this week will be the same as last week. To shrink to 185 by next Saturday.

Obamacare Health Care Reform's Restaurant Calorie Content Mandate

I did not know, til I read it this morning, that the health care reform known as Obamacare, signed into law in March of 2010, mandates that restaurants with 20 or more locations and vending machines with more than 13 locations, reveal the caloric content of the food they are making available to the calorie clueless public.

This part of Obamacare is part of the "community health" umbrella of the health care reforms.

It's not just restaurants and vending machines that will be required to post caloric content. Grocery stores, coffee houses and bakeries will also have to abide by this new law if they have 20 or more locations.

McDonald's has long had calorie/nutrition information available for the asking.

Nutrition information is already on most of the food products you can buy in a grocery store. That's been the case for a long time.

A lot of restaurants already point out the healthy options on their menus.

The Food and Drug Administration estimates this new law will impact around 280,000 of America's 600,000 restaurants.

Which means more than half of the restaurants will still be able to serve the public steak and bacon without revealing the fat content.

Some food purveyors have been getting exemptions to the new law. The movie theater industry got an exclusion by claiming they don't serve full meals. So, movie theaters will not be forced to reveal that that large bag of buttered popcorn they are selling you has 58 grams of fat and 1,050 calories.

I really don't think making nutritional information available in some food purveyor's establishments is going to alter eater's eating patterns.

I know a lot of people are a bit dumb when it comes to what they eat.

But, really, most obese people know what is making them fat.

Why does the government not be even more intrusive? How about a law mandating that you have to get a license to purchase certain types of food? You go in for a checkup, the checkupper determines you are not over weight, issuing you an All Clear To Eat card, that you must swipe into some sort of card reader before you are allowed to buy a 540 calorie Big Mac.

Makes sense to me.

2011 New Year's Weight Loss Resolution Week 14: Up a Pound to 188

This week my gut zone shrunk to less than 32 inches.

Yet on this Saturday's weekly weigh-in I weigh a pound more than last Saturday.

I think I may be losing fat and adding muscle, hence shrinking, yet weighing more.

Such are the conundrums and vicissitudes of losing weight.

The key is to stay steady and the shrinkage will continue. Or so it seems.

Lately I've been getting in 2 swim sessions a day. Once in the early morning. Then again in the afternoon.

My goal for next Saturday is the same one as last week's goal. 185.

2011 New Year's Weight Loss Resolution Week 13: Down to 187

Well, this week's shrinkage goal was to melt down to 185.

I missed that goal by 2 pounds at this week's Saturday weigh-in.

At 187 I have now shrunk 30 pounds since my body recession began.

Due to nice weather I amped up the exercise this week with longer swimming and hill hiking bouts.

I have also been under some personal stress this week which is always good for burning calories.

I've amped up the fruit and vegetable consumption, along with lean protein products.

My gut zone has now shrunk to just over 32 inches. At its biggest my beer belly topped out at 37 inches.

The less fat one has to lose the more difficult it is to melt it off. So, I'm going to be real conservative with this week's goal, making it only to shrink 2 pounds to 185, the same goal I had last week.