Belt mean no need rope to hold up pants

Yesterday's Results

The scale reads: 145 lbs. Goal: 137 lbs.

The stupid Wal*mart pedometer reads: 3375 steps, 0.852 mi., 140 calories (Lies again - the pedometer reset with my notice)

Other aerobic activities:

• Snoring :(

My ma has one. My future mother-in-law has one. According to one website, "Neoprene belt helps shed inches and fat around the waist. Lose weight naturally around the waistline." So far, no offense to them, I haven't seen it work for either one of them.

I honestly never worn belts. Even at a slimmer physique, I didn't care or need to wear belts. To this day, I love wearing baggy jeans, but I never sag. My hope is even if I lose weight, I wouldn't need to go purchasing new baggy jeans.

What fitness accessories can help (I do know there are no one-stop-cure-alls out there) lose the weight "naturally?" So far I have ankle weights and small weighted gloves.

Problem: Attitude

Yesterday's Results

The scale reads: 147 (It was a digital scale today, yay! Oh my goodness, I gained weight, boo!) Goal: 137 lbs.

The stupid Wal*mart pedometer reads: 10304 steps, 2.602 mi., 427.5 calories (That's more like it)

Other aerobic activities:

• Climbed some more flights of stairs at the Regatta (but I don't feel like it's enough)

I think I have the wrong attitude towards this whole endeavor. I think I subconsciously believe that through some mystical, magical way I can shed the weight without conscious effort. I believe I can easily summon the motivation to eat right and be physically active.

Today proved the last statement wrong. I thought I can do portion control at Little Napoli's brunch buffet. Yeah, the word "buffet" should have raised 4 alarms of panic. I gorged on an omelet, breakfast standards (sausage, pancake, eggs, etc.), and 1 1/2 16-oz cups of OJ. Afterward, I walked around the 99 Cents Only Store and Dollar Tree in hopes of negating some of the calories consumed. Again the pedometer failed me and I have no idea how many calories I truly burned or the steps I've taken in that 15 minute trip. Bleh, I ended up having an afternoon siesta and all intents of taking a brisk walk went out the window. Now I'm grumpy.

I have a weird attitude towards food. I tried using online calorie trackers to scare myself with numbers, but I end up being frustrated because the foods I eat are not in the database (and I hate spending the extra time looking around for the data) or their data looks sketch. Do I just give up eating "ethnic" food just because I can't find data on it? I write down what I eat, but it doesn't scare me into eating less because I just end up thinking fondly about what I just ate.

It doesn't help that work work and schoolwork is conducive to a sedentary lifestyle. I try to walk around every hour (as opposed to the recommended 20 minutes because I get so caught up in stuff) to take a break. It still doesn't do anything for me because I end up eating more at the desk (I do keep food away from the desk, but I always end up walking to the kitchen and bring back food every time).

What can I do to develop a more serious attitude besides trying to get people to hold me accountable?

Man who catch fly with chopstick accomplish anything

Yesterday's Results

The scale reads: 145 lbs.??? This analog scale is probably off from 3-5 lbs. (I guess I have to put a +/- 3 tolerance level on these readings?) Goal: 137 lbs.

The stupid Wal*mart pedometer reads: 3065 steps, 0.773 mi., 127.1 calories (LIES! How could almost an hour's worth of walking yield only these numbers?)

Other aerobic activities:

• Power walking across Johnson Space Center to get to furthest parking lot in a 1/2" heels
• Climbed a couple flights of stairs

My chopsticks skills are going downhill. Catching a noodle or a single grain of rice would be an accomplishment already. No, I wasn't using one of those waxy, plastic ones. I'm even talking about those wooden or bamboo ones. No go. I guess it's a good thing? It's like a mini exercise of patience and dexterity. I guess it's a struggle to exercise the forearms? I guess using chopsticks is a vehicle for portion control - as long as I don't use it as a tool for shoveling or spearing food into the cavernous palate. If I took all the painstaking time to use chopsticks properly, the food would settle in my stomach much faster and I'd probably be full much faster.

I ate the whole friggin' steak-with-cilantro-lime-rice-and-cilantro-ranch-sauce-on-a-spinach-tortilla Bullrito yesterday. I couldn't help it. It was my first time trying it and the chain has been sitting across the street from me with wild fanfare for the last 3 months.

Everyone was telling me it was worthwhile. It's not Chipotle, but I still enjoyed it. It doesn't matter if it gets messy, I feel weird forking a burrito. I feel like the fork helps me eats it faster. If I had to eat any burrito with chopsticks, it would be awkward, but it would have prevented me from eating the whole thing (out of frustration and poor motor skills).

Have you ever tried catching a fly with a pair of chopsticks? It actually sounds kind of disgusting, but it is impressive, nevertheless. I wonder how much wisdom is in this Miyagi-ism. What do you think?

First learn stand, then learn fly.

Oh, Mr. Miyagi, you and your crane technique. I'll learn how to stand, all right. And I'll definitely fly my own air/spacecraft during some point in my career.

Even though I haven't really watched "The Karate Kid" all the way through, I'll draw some inspiration from the movie and its sequel to be the best... around... and drop down to my high school weight. I'm in a friendly competition with my mom and cousins (again) to see who can lose the most weight by August 2011.



A former co-worker back at my first paid job (in the UCSD days) would go around cubicle to cubicle, declaring, "You're the best!" Please join me in my (mis)adventures to help me reaffirm that "You're the best!" in shedding the weight.