Operation Make Josh Attractive: Week 5

Week 5 is over and here is the weekly update.

If you haven't read week 1, go to Operation Make Josh Attractive: Week 1. If you haven't read weeks 2 and 3, go to Operation Make Josh Attractive: Weeks 2 and 3. If you haven't read week 4, go to Operation Make Josh Attractive: Week 4.

I was able to get back on track this week. My breakfast was back to Total, milk, and a piece of fruit. I finally found a good apple: Granny Smith. I also had bananas and strawberries. My morning snack was a chocolate chip rice cake. For my afternoon snack I found some dried fruit: peaches, apricots, and a mixed fruit. The apricots turned out to be the best of the three. For lunch I made ham and turkey sandwiches with Sun Chips. We ended up going out to lunch on Thursday and Friday. Thursday we went to Albert G's Barbecue and I ordered the two meat sandwich with turkey and pork, and had a bag of Lay's potato chips for the side (I believe this was the best option). Friday we went to Arby's and I got the chicken club with a bag of Sun Chips.

For dinner I had pork chops and fillet mignon on alternating nights. I also got around to making some pasta one of the nights. I found Barilla whole wheat pasta to be one of the healthiest and I found some pasta sauce to go with it that was 60 calories per serving. I also had soup with one of the meals, but it was not very good at all.

My craving this week: french fries. I decided that The Brook would be a great place to get some fries and I got a bunch of people to go there with me after church on Sunday. One of my friends and I split an order of loaded cheese fries (jalapenos, bacon, and chives) for an appetizer (his meal actually). I ordered the bacon cheeseburger for the meal with a side of regular cheese fries. I almost finished the cheese fries but didn't get near finishing the burger (it didn't taste very good to me). I also used a lot of ranch with the fries.

This week's exercises were the same as last week's. Tuesday I had a friend join me for a walk around the neighborhood. I had a lot of energy that day and was able to jog most of it and run the last 3 minutes. Thursday I also walked around the neighborhood, but this time by myself. I don't know why, but I had a lot less energy on Thursday and struggled most of the way.

The weights went basically the same, maybe a little easier now. My crunches slowly became sit ups, and I now do sit-ups instead of crunches with my roommate holding my legs down. I had to do some new stretches which are extremely painful for me. I sit down on the floor and stretch my legs out as wide as I can (i.e. where I am in a lot of pain), and then I have to stretch toward the right leg, the left leg, then down the middle, with my roommate pushing me farther than I can force myself. The only benefit to these stretches is that I don't feel dizzy afterward.

My weight on Sunday, April 18th at 8 AM was down to 364.0 lbs. That's down over 10 lbs from last weeks weigh-in. So I think my theory about the timing of the cheat meal is probably right. So far I haven't hit any kind of barrier and the weight is still coming off. Let's keep this going.