losing weight

I don’t know why this is so interesting to me

/ Shane / 1 Comment

I saw this on CNN today, you can track obesity in the U.S. over time.

It is amazing how far we’ve come! 

1985: Look how skinny we were back in ’85! Although to be fair, the white states are “no data available” not 0%. 
1991: Michigan jumping right out there in ’91.  Still, everything pretty uniform across the U.S.
1995: Holy midwest!  It was like some sort of fat black hole!
1997: Apparently that fat black hole is centered in Indiana/Kentucky.
2001: You go Colorado!  Look, I’ve been down there to New Orleans and they have some good food.  So I can’t blame them.  Best steak I ever had in my life!
2004: Finally got Colorado.  I guess all the fatties migrated down south (except for you Michiganders!)

It is just amazing to me how we went from < 10% obese to > 25% obese in so many areas in less than 10 years.  Amazing! And the fact that there were so many places with so few obese people back in ’85 seems amazing to me too.  I’d like to see the same thing in other countries just as a frame of reference.

Weekend update

/ Shane / 2 Comments

So we want to Casey and Margaret’s wedding this weekend.  Fancy Fort Wayne wedding!  The ceremony was at the Catherdal downtown and then the reception was at the Summit Club which is on the 25th floor of a building downtown so you have a nice view of the city.  The only problem was that we went to find our table (lucky #13) and it was already full!  It turns out there were two tables worth of 13’s so they had to set up another table in a different section from everybody else.  Later we found out no one was sitting at table #3.  Mystery solved!  Since Casey and Margaret both went to Dwenger and Casey and Margaret’s sister (and Casey’s dad for that matter) all worked at Dwenger, it was like a Dwenger reunion!  It was great to see everybody again though.  Schafer lost a TON of weight!  He looked like a Greek god!  He said he was under 200 lbs.  It’s definitely the first time he’s weighed less than me.

Then, after we came home, I attended the self-proclaimed “largest booksale in the midwest” at the Hyde Park co-op.  It was okay.  I only bought 6 books (for a grand total of $3.75!).  There were a lot of books there, but I was spoiled by the Wayne library’s book sales, where the selection was much better.  In particular, the sci-fi section at this book sale was pretty much non-existant, the fantasy section literally was non-existant, and what little horror there was was just mixed in with the fiction!  Since that pretty much encompasses all I read, it wasn’t that great for me.  To be fair though, this was the second day of the sale.

So, if you recall, we were trying to lose some weight between Jeremy and Casey’s wedding (61 weeks).  Sara and I both blew our goal’s out of the water!  My starting weight was 219.6 lbs. and my goal was 209.0 lbs.  Here are the final statistics:
                   Original          Final            Difference
Weight:        219.6 lbs.      204.6 lbs     -15 lbs (6.83%)
Upper arm    36 cm           35.5 cm       -0.5 cm
Forearm       29.8 cm         27.9 cm      -1.9 cm
Thigh            67.6 cm         64.7 cm      -2.9 cm
Calf              39.0 cm         38.0 cm      -1 cm
Chest           113.7 cm        110.6 cm    -3.1 cm
Waist           100.6 cm        96.2 cm      -4.4 cm
Low waist     105.8 cm       102.0 cm    -3.8 cm
Hips             114.3 cm        111.9 cm    -2.4 cm
The whole thing went pretty well.  Aside from working out more (which I kind of slacked off on at the end), it was really just eating better.  I watched what I ate some, but also we just started making more meals at home and making healthier things (read not 100% frozen food).  So that’s that.  After seeing Schafer at the wedding I’m sort of inspired to try to lose a little more!

Okay, check this out, here’s an honest to goodness serious science article about teleportation.  I mean, it really sounds like they’re actually making advances in that field!  It’s not a joke, check it out!  That just blew my mind, very strange.  Speaking of which, way to go America!  Sweeping the science Nobel prizes for the first time since 1983!

And finally, here‘s a nice time wasting game.  Basically, you are a stick-figure archer.  Click and shoot the bad guys.  Straight forward.  Just the way I like it.

Mixed Bag

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Random things today to catch up on:

From: Sara
Sent: Monday, July 31, 2006 9:59 AM
To: Shane
Subject: doctor
“there is a doctor here named kori feldman.  how unfortunate.”

Sara and I are going to try to lose 10 lbs. each before Casey’s wedding in October.  I could stand to lose some weight and also I think I will feel better in general if I do some modicum of exercise. I ran on the treadmill tonight for the first time in like 5 months.  So, as of this morning, here are my vitals:
Weight:        219.6 lbs.
Upper arm    36 cm
Forearm       29.8 cm
Thigh            67.6 cm
Calf              39.0 cm
Chest           113.7 cm
Waist           100.6 cm
Low waist     105.8 cm
Hips             114.3 cm
I also took some “before” pictures, but I’ll spare you from those.  ::shudder::  I’m probably not going to go all out like I have in the past for weight loss ventures, but I do fully intend to do whatever it takes to get to the goal. 
So we went over the weekend to see Jeremy and Jamie get married on Mackinac Island. It was a really great trip. We had a really good time! Our hotel was great, we went hiking, we rented bikes and rode around the outside of the island (it’s only 8 miles around), we went on a dinner cruise and we had some fun with some Irish singers and a pub. It was great seeing all the guys again, especially since Rupley leaves for Colorado on Wed. and Casey leaves for Texas on Friday. Talk about the old group breaking up…I think only Dan, Rody and Schafer will be left in Fort Wayne.

And finally…Oregon Trail.  (Didn’t work in Firefox for some reason)

 

51

/ Shane / Leave a comment

I feel like there’s not much to do now that I don’t have school!

I came home from work and made a bunch of phone calls. First I called the guy in charge of the place where we’re having our reception. Sara gave me a list of questions to ask him. You know, it’s quite amazing, every time we have something we want to do, he says yes. No matter what it is, he makes it happen. Maybe I shouldn’t be so amazed because that’s the way people should be when you’re giving them lots of money, but frankly they aren’t. This guy though…he’s awesome.

Next I called 7 apartment complexes. I have 3 appointments set up but most of the places either didn’t answer or I left a message on an answering machine. I’ve decided that I’m going to make my decision after the places I see on Thursday. If I don’t hear from anybody else before then, so be it. I’ve looked at about 7 places, I’ve got 3 more for sure to look at and another 6 or so that I’ve called but haven’t seen. Nobody can say I wasn’t thorough!

Other than that I’ve just played guitar and watched T.V. tonight. I feel like there are things I should be doing, but I really don’t think there is. Oh, I was going to put a little extra in my final but the info I found didn’t really change anything, so I didn’t resubmit it.

Oh, one more thing, I weighed myself today. I was expecting something really bad since 1) I’m not working out AT ALL, 2) I’ve been eating easter candy like crazy, and 3) I’ve been eating bad things and going out to eat. I think I forgot to mention it in here, but on Friday night I had a full cheesesteak from both Pats and Ginos!! NOT on the diet plan. But you know what? I was down 4 pounds from the last time I weighed myself! I was 208, which was only 1 pound heavier than at the end of the contest.