FASHION POLICE ON HIGH ALERT

The question today: Should a 58 year old man be wearing spandex shorts?  This 58 year old man did wear spandex shorts for his 10 mile trek through Chicago yesterday morning.  In fact, I had my most successful effort yet... I completed my 10 miles in two hours, forty-five seconds.  I do not attibute this improvement to the spandex shorts.  I do attribute it to an improvement in my leg strength and endurance. I thought it was OK for me to wear spandex shorts.  Nevertheless, the FASHION POLICE WERE ON HIGH ALERT!

One thing that I unambiguously know for sure:  The Fashion Police would certainly have arrested me if I had been wearing spandex shorts back in the days when I weighed north of 300 lbs.  Back in those days, that was not an issue that concerned me - I never would have owned a pair of spandex shorts.

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I set out today for my 10 mile walk with the idea of walking straight in one direction as long as I could.  The first part of my walk had me walking north on Halstead Avenue and then sliding over to the lakefront trail to return home.  The weather was beautiful, and I was able to wear shorts for the first time in a week.

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Your Food Diary For:

Sunday, November 15, 2015

BREAKFAST	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar
Kashi - Dark Chocolate Coconut Bar, 3 bar	360	63	11	12	150	21
General Mills - Kix Cereal, 2.5 cup	220	50	2	4	360	6
Sage - Red Delicious Apple, 3 medium apple (170g)	285	75	1	2	5	57
	865	188	13	18	515	84
L U N C H
John Mc Cann's - Steel Cut Irish Oatmeal (Certificate of Award Uniformity of Granulation), 160 g (1/4 Cup)	600	108	10	16	0	2
Kashi - Dark Chocolate Coconut Bar, 1 bar	120	21	4	4	50	7
Central Market - Chipotle lime Salmon, 6.4 oz	304	3	18	29	1,168	0
	1,024	132	31	49	1,218	9
D I N N E R
Sage - Red Delicious Apple, 3 medium apple	285	75	1	2	5	57
Campbells Home Style Soup - Italian Wedding Soup, 2 cup	200	26	5	12	820	8
	485	101	6	14	825	65
S N A C K S
WHOLE FOODS 8738 - DRIED MANGO SLICES, 52.0 g (approx 6 pieces)	143	36	0	3	1	26
Whole Foods - Garlic Sesame Sticks, 0.5 cup	160	12	11	3	350	0
	303	48	11	6	351	26
Totals	2,677	470	61	85	2,910	183
Your Daily Goal	5,412	676	180	271	2,300	203
Remaining	2,735	205	118	185	-610	19
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar
	*You've earned 3,482 extra calories from exercise today

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       Your Exercise Diary for:

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Cardiovascular	Minutes	Calories Burned
Walking, 5.0 mph	121	2,173
Walking, 3.5 mph, brisk pace	175	1,562
MFP iOS calorie adjustment	N/A	-253
Daily Total / Goal	297 / 30	3,482 / 590
Weekly Total / Goal	1190 / 210	16,424 / 4,130

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TOTAL CALORIES CONSUMED 2677 CALORIES
TOTAL CALORIES BURNED (10 MILE WALK @ 5MPH) 2173 CALORIES
TOTAL NET CALORIES 504 CALORIES

With the return of my daughter from her trip to Paris, we were able to take 10 mile stroll in the afternoon.  We visited Millennium Park, Maggie Daley Park and Navy Pier. We certainly were not motoring along at 5mph (but still accumulating plenty of steps to 'feed' the fitbit.)   The beautiful morning became a picture perfect, stunningly warm November day. Picture perfect days require pictures.

No special camera effects were used to enhance the blue color of the Chicago sky.

Father and Daughter happy to be re-united after daughter returned home from Paris less than 24 hours ago.

A brand new TARGET recently opened in the Streeterville section of downtown Chicago, along with a brand-new Starbucks.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Setting aside that I was wearing spandex shorts... It was nice to be wearing any type of shorts on a November day in Chicago

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fitbit day 74

35075 steps

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JABBA THE HUTT - NO MORE

In the same way that a person is usually incapable of being a fan of the New York Yankees and the New York Mets, or the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox, or CNN and FOX NEWS... I am a Star Trek fan (not a Star Wars fan.)  Nevertheless, today I will use a character from Star Wars to illustrate that I no longer look like I recently did.

On August 21, 2014 my family spent the day on the world famous Jersey Shore, specifically the Asbury Park Beach before attending a beautiful wedding of our friend Jack and his bride, Esther.  My wife took a picture of me that I did not treasure.  In fact, I wanted no part of it. The photo made me feel ill. And here it is:

GREETINGS FROM ASBURY PARK, AUGUST 21, 2014 (309 lbs)

As you can see, I could have easily played the part of Jabba the Hutt in any of the Star Wars films:

I look at my photo form August 2,1 2014 - and Jabba don't look so bad....

Fast forward to yesterday, the first day of the Memorial Day Weekend in Chicago.  The weather was glorious, and the temperature finally tipped over 80º F. (27º C)  I thought that this would be a good opportunity to try to replicate my August 21, 2014 photo - so I did.   My 13 year old daughter, Sara,  was the photographer.  Here is me today (well, actually yesterday.)

May 23, 2015 North Avenue Beach, Chicago, Illinois (218 lbs)

In the August 2014 photo, your Jabba the Hutt impersonator is (un)proudly wearing 50" waist khaki shorts and an XXL (extra extra large) t-shirt and a one-size-fits-all, Glenn Beck baseball cap.

In the May 2015 photo, your intrepid blogger, weighing 90 pounds less,  who much more closely resembles a normal human being is PROUDLY wearing a pair of 36" waist khaki Columbia™ shorts and simple L (large North Face™ t-Shirt) and just to be consistent, the same Glenn Beck baseball cap. Have I mentioned before that I am a fan of Glenn Beck?  

SATURDAY MENU

breakfast   Steel Cut OatMeal w/prune, two eggs, two strips turkey 'bacon'              505 calories
lunch        *Huge Supermarket Salad w/chicken, imitation crab, ham, egg, etc
                 red delicious apple, 4 Medjool dates                                                       1109 calories
dinner       Spinach salad w/hearts of palm, beets, cucumber, tomato, mushroom
                 4 ounces Black Angus Sirloin                                                                     339 calories

total calories   1953 calories

calories burned
elliptical 32 minutes 518 calories**

*One thing I know is that I really make a feast of a supermarket salad.  I add imitation crab, ham, chicken, tomato, onion, cucumber, beets, small portion of sunflower seeds, baby corn, small portion of chick peas, artichokes, sometimes maybe even ten croutons, hard boiled egg.  THE THINGS THAT I DO NOT INCLUDE ARE CHEESE AND DRESSING.  Previously I had estimated the calories of such a salad at 500 calories.   I am going to start estimating it at 750 calories.   I am extremely confident that at 750 calories I am wildly OVERSTATING THE CALORIES.   However, I believe it is better to overestimate than underestimate.  So, I will just assume 750 calories and 'know' that the actual number almost certainly has to be far less.

**today after my workout, I took the elevator 5 floors lower than my floor in order to WALK UP five flights.   I remember so well, when I was 300+ pounds attempting to walk up twelve floors from ground level to my floor, and although I managed it - I was winded beyond winded, and in order to complete this I needed to rest multiple times along the way.  Today I bounced up those five flights like it was absolutely nothing. So the next time I exercise, I am going attempt to WALK UP THE THIRTEEN FLIGHTS OF STAIRS from the 12th floor to the 25th floor where the fitness room is before I workout on the elliptical machine.  I know that I could barely accomplish this a year ago when I tried it.  And I better start doing some stair climbing if I am serious about training for and hiking up HALF DOME at YOSEMITE. STAIR CLIMBING WILL BEGIN IN EARNEST THE VERY NEXT TIME I EXERCISE.  My building does not have a stair master machine, but I now intend to become a STAIR MASTER. Right now, I am a stair apprentice.

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More information regarding Jabba the Hutt (from Wikipedia)

Jabba the Hutt is a character appearing in George Lucas's space opera film saga Star Wars.  He is depicted as a large, slug-like alien.  His appearance has been described by film critic Roger Ebert as a cross between a toad and a Cheshire Cat.

Jabba the Hutt - profile
Species	Hutt
Gender	Male
Position	Crime lord
Homeworld	Nal Hutta;  resident of Tatooine
Affiliation	Hutt Cartel The thing is.... I really did resemble this creature when I was 309 lbs.

BEFORE/(no after) PICTURES

Do you share this concern? Every time you see a before and after set of photos from someone who has lost weight - the before photos are always fuzzy and your are never really sure if the photos in the  after are even the same person? I don't have have the after photos yet. My weight loss journey only started 48 hours ago, right around the time I visited my doctor for a 'Wellness" visit and discovered that I weighed nearly 315 lbs. When I returned home to measure my waist and neck - I was more dismayed to discover that the measurements were 52" waist and 18.5" neck. I didn't need to visit the doctor to discover that I was overweight - mirrors that I passed as well as my belt were extremely effective in transmitting this data to my mind. I always figured that I could start a new diet (lifestyle change) 'tomorrow.'  Tomorrow was yesterday. It should be obvious that I only have the before photos. I am aware that this journal could become a bit more interesting with some comparative after photos.  That is the plan.  Marc