Start of a late spring

I am on the fence of about continuing my diet. I have lost 25lbs since I started and honestly, I feel like I'm at a good stable weight. And I'm REALLY enjoying eating naughty foods again and having milk-based coffee drinks, too. What a treat!

But on the other hand, I don't want to GAIN any weight and I'm still in a no-man's land with regards to PANTS. That's right: my size 36 pants practically fall off of me but my 34s are just a scooch too tight. And I hate wearing pants that are too tight.

So I'm going to try to continue and lose those last five pounds. I guess. I might change my mind next week, pants be damned.



But starting approximately now, I can use my new mountain bike to burn calories. Yesterday I went for a one-hour ride and burned 300 calories while getting some fresh air. Here's the route I chose. I ran into some of my Youth Group kids while I was out.

The Hacker's Diet - March 2008

Excellent Progress in March. Down 3.8 -- Nearly a pound a week lost again. This brings me to 165 and change -- over 24lbs down from where I started at 190. 3.8lb is 13,000 calories more that I burned than I ate.

So I am nearing the end of the campaign. At this rate, it will be about another 8 weeks until I reach my first goal of 160. We'll see what happens then.

This week marks 6 months that I've been on the hacker diet. Over 6 months I've lost 24.25 lbs. I do not feel like my "eating life" has been very negatively impacted. Sure, 5/7 of my lunches are boring but that makes me savor the weekend lunches that much more! I could definitely live this way forever if I needed to with nary a complaint.

I guess that's what they mean by lifestyle change.

Due to some unrelated stuff, my Doctor had some blood tests run, and as part of those my HDL cholesterol is under 200 (normal) for the first time ever. I shouldn't be surprised but I wasn't expecting it.

Also, "Healthy Choice Steamers" pretty much kick ass if you add some salt to them. They are way delicious and I can't believe how much food it is for only 260 calories. I bought a stack of them and they get me by.

The Statistics:

Lost in March: 3.8 lbs

Lost since starting diet: 24.25 lbs

Pounds still to lose: 5.75lbs to go.

18 days working out or exercising (out of 31).

235 calories burned per "workout".