Day 11 Footlongs and Daydreams

Day 11

Footlongs and Daydreams

I had Subway for dinner tonight. I felt just like Jared walking into the Subway and ordering that footlong black forest ham with no cheese and a very, very small strip of light mayo. I could've had the cheese, but I saved the calories for that small strip of light mayo. I actually had enough calories left to eat the whole thing, but I just couldn't do it. It's almost as if I don't trust the nutritional information at subway dot com. I know what it says, but man...that's a lot of sandwich for 600 calories! I did eat 2/3 of it and I still have 190 calories left for the day. What's funny about this Subway trip is that I've always had stand-up material on Jared and Subway. How thanks to Jared, every time I go to Subway, everyone looks at me like I'm next! I would go on to say that Jared has made it perfectly acceptable to eat a loaf of bread and a pound of cold cuts and still lose weight...”Hey Sean, is that another footlong? Good to see you're finally cutting down”. I would talk about my plan: The Pizza Hut diet. A large Pizza Hut pizza everyday and a two liter of Pepsi, and I bet I would still lose weight...And everyone would ask...”Sean, what's your secret?....”duh, THIN crust”. Big laugh, and goodnight, I'll be here all week. This tired old stand-up routine of mine has a lot of truth in it. You can lose weight on just about anything, BUT...is a diet with a limited variety of food or all of one food really teaching you to eat right? That's my biggest problem with Jared's plan. Eating a sub for lunch and dinner everyday helped him lose weight, and after USA Today broke the story, it made Jared a millionaire as a Subway spokesperson. But I don't think eating the same food everyday would teach me how to eat right once I had reached my goal. Of course Jared has had plenty of financial incentive to keep the weight off but I bet he really had to get a crash course on eating normal once his daily Subway trips were over.

Every now and then someone will ask me...”so, what diet are you on?” or “what are you doing to lose the weight?” I tell them I'm counting 1500 calories a day and exercising. And they accept that. But if I told them I'm on the “hamburger, fries, sour cream chicken enchilada, deep fried chicken nugget, footlong ham sandwich, oatmeal, taco, tostada, burrito, steak, baked potato with sour cream, mashed potato, corn, rice, ice cream, and birthday cake with butter cream frosting diet” they would think I was crazy. But I've had everything I just mentioned at some point during the last eleven days. That's the beauty of counting calories. Counting calories allows you to eat whatever you want while forcing you to make wise choices and having controlled portions. It's really helped me understand the definition of a serving. If I were eating a pre-packaged bar for breakfast and a couple of shakes a day I wouldn't be getting the same nutritional education and real world eating experience. I still have a lot to learn, and it's never boring! And I can't wait to weigh on Tuesday.

I actually found a scale today that said it had a capacity of 800 pounds. My wife had a doctors appointment today and I accompanied her back to the room. On the way back they stopped at the scale to weigh her. I noticed the scale said “800 pound capacity”...then the nurse said, “oh, it weighs everyone heavy”. What? This is a doctors office! Shouldn't you demand accuracy in just about everything? What does “weighs everyone heavy” mean? She said it adds about five pounds to everyone. Is it a video camera too? Well, forget that! I'm not weighing on a dishonest scale. I was still tempted to step on. But I didn't. I'll weigh on Day 16, this coming Tuesday as planned...And I'll be weighing on the same scales that weighed me on 09/16/08. Irene did have a good idea. She suggested I weigh on the “heavy” scales first, then weigh on the old reliable scales in Stillwater and see the difference. I'll do that. But I'd rather just find a scale that has a little more integrity. An honest scale, one that I don't have to subtract pounds from because it likes to “weigh heavy”. And the good news is, in not long, I'll be at a weight where I can easily weigh just about anywhere...and the YMCA has some good, honest scales!

I always carry with me my motivating thoughts. And if you're trying to lose weight too, you should always have a daydream ready to go. I daydream about what I will see when I look in the mirror someday. I daydream about buying clothes that look good, fit perfectly, and don't cost a bunch extra. I daydream about seeing people I haven't run into in years and them walking right by, not recognizing me. Maybe I didn't want to talk to them anyway...how convenient that will be! I daydream about flying on an airplane without any worry about the size of the seat, flying without hoping that they put me next to a really slender person, so I can bully away a third of their seat. Flying with my wife without her giving up all of her comfort because my elbow is embedded in her ribs (we've only flown together once in our lives, and that poor girl was squished most of the way—yet I don't remember her ever complaining about it---she loves me so much!) I day dream about getting into any vehicle without worrying if I'm going to fit. I daydream about going to an amusement park---and I don't even like rides---But I still daydream about going and riding on rides without being embarrassed because the bar can't “click”. But you know what daydreams motivate me most? Daydreams about growing old with my wonderful wife, daydreams about watching my kids grow into successful adults, daydreams about walking my daughters down the isle, daydreams about being there for my grandchildren, daydreams about seeing my family and friends getting in shape, being healthy, and living longer too. These are the daydreams and motivating thoughts that keep me going strong everyday. Soon those daydreams will become reality because I've decided they will. What do you daydream?

Good Choices,
Sean