Today - a lot more like my normal day...which is bad.

So, today was more like what I get to deal with on a daily basis. Woke up at 4am, and my workday officially started. E-Mails, catching up, day planning...you name it...I was on it by 5am.

By the time I went upstairs to get the girls up at 7:15, the day was already in full swing - pot of coffee on brewing, Bloomberg on TV, working at the dining room table, calls coming in.

I had a couple cups of coffee before showering and running out the door to drop Ruby off at school. Asked Kells to make me a peanut butter sandwich to take with me. Scarfed half of it on the way to Ruby's school, the other half once I got to the office.

Meetings and commitments for Extreme Makeover pushed me through til 1:45, constantly downing water the whole way, not so much conscious of my diet, but more because I was drying out from talking so much. ;-).

By 1:45, with a call scheduled for 2:00, I said goodbye to some of my staff and sprinted up the street to the local store. Grabbed a Kind bar to tide me over. On the walk back, dad called and said he was coming back to the office and was going to bring me lunch. I asked for a grilled chicken sandwich from Chick-Fil-A (somewhat healthy and fast, since he was at the mall). He brought me Chicken Teriyaki from Big Easy in the food court. Not a bad substitute. I mostly stayed away from the rice, even though I wanted to attack it like it had just punched my kid in the face. Restraint 1 - Rice 0.

Downed the second half of it before leaving and heading home for dinner. Kells greeted me with wine when I got in. BIG glass. I was tired and fried, so naturally, I indulged. I enjoy the un-wind and being able to talk to her in the kitchen while we prep dinner and listen to Pandora. It's tough to say "no" to a nice glass of red wine, even harder to say "no" to Kells at the end of a hard day. ;-). But in the back of my mind, I was thinking..."take it easy on the empty calories."

Well, 24 hours of hardcore diet + empty stomach + long day = 3+ glasses of wine. Not the end of the world, but also not the beginning of the diet. Good news is, I ate a huge salad for dinner. Bad news is, we got through almost 2 bottles of wine - which may be scary if you're a nerd - but is fairly common in a place I like to call "America".

Overall, not a great showing, but not a terribly poor showing. Managed to juggle the insanity of my schedule - literally not a minute to breath - with a more than typically healthy diet. Details below - and it looks like I'm still somewhat on track. Let's see how we do tomorrow, when I'm on the road part/most of the day.

Big problem - booze.
Bigger problem - schedule...need to find some time to slow down.

Food Summary
Meal	Calories	Fat	Carbs	Protein
Breakfast	395	25.5g	30.5g	17.0g
Snack #1	170	11.0g	16.0g	5.0g
Lunch	280	7.2g	6.5g	45.1g
Snack #2	102	2.1g	0.0g	20.4g
Dinner	966	42.1g	54.0g	27.5g
Dessert	111	6.3g	10.5g	5.6g
Total Percentage of Calories 1	2024	94.2g 40%	117.5g 22%	120.6g 23%

   ¹  Typical Percentages: Fat 20-35%, Carbohydrates 45-65%, and Protein 10-35%.

Exercise Summary
Exercise Description	Duration	Calories
Basement Schwinn	35 min.	384

Calories Remaining to ...
Goal	Calories
Maintain Weight	1070
Lose 2 lbs. per week (maximum safe)	70

†	You earned 384 extra calories through exercise.

If every day were like today ...

You would lose 2.1 lbs per week. You would reach your goal weight of 190 lbs on 2/10/2012. In one month, you would weigh 228.8 lbs. In three months, you would weigh 210.5 lbs.

At a glance ...
	Notes
	Exercise!  You burned 384 calories.
	A high-fiber breakfast can help you lose weight and reduce your risk for heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.
	Saturated fats only accounted for 7.4% of your calories.  Good job staying below the 9% limit!
	You consumed 5403 IU of vitamin A.  This is 232% of the recommended daily value for men.
	You consumed 14.1mg of iron.  This is 176% of the recommended daily value for men.
	You consumed 44g of alcohol, which exceeds the maximum recommendation for men (28g).  Alcohol can increase your appetite and decrease the metabolism of fat.  It also decreases testosterone levels, which can harm the muscle-building process.

Late night snack...

Working on the computer and watching football on TV.

The question is, how much water can I drink, to fend off the urge to eat a whole chicken and sleeve of Chips Ahoy, and not have to get up 100 times in the middle of the night to use the bathroom?

Guess that's my body's way of telling me, "go to bed before you talk yourself into that chicken, you silly fat man."

Ok, I'm listening. But have to make it through the game.

Day 1 - In the bag.

So, started out with a little light exercise in the morning. A little mix of jogging and walking while pushing Nova around. Very light, but surprisingly, felt pretty good. Probably because I started with a granola bar instead of a 4 egg omelet...

Wasn't very hungry during the day, probably because I ate a metric ton of food yesterday. NOT a good approach. Also, was very conscious about drinking lots of H2O. It's surprising how much water can do to keep you from wanting to go face first into a bag of Doritos.

Had a productive work day too, didn't sacrifice my normal work pattern to exercise and didn't have an emergency cheeseburger. Of course, it was labor day, so almost no one else was working, but still a good start.

Here's my day, in detail.

Food Summary
Meal	Calories	Fat	Carbs	Protein
Breakfast	180	6.0g	30.0g	4.0g
Snack #1	0	0.0g	0.0g	0.0g
Lunch	180	6.0g	30.0g	4.0g
Snack #2	230	18.0g	9.0g	7.0g
Dinner	782	43.1g	59.0g	45.2g
Dessert	0	0.0g	0.0g	0.0g
Total Percentage of Calories 1	1372	73.1g 47%	128g 36%	60.2g 17%

   ¹  Typical Percentages: Fat 20-35%, Carbohydrates 45-65%, and Protein 10-35%.

Exercise Summary
Exercise Description	Duration	Calories
Neighborhood Walk	31 min.	320

Calories Remaining to ...
Goal	Calories
Maintain Weight	1658
Lose 2 lbs. per week (maximum safe)	658

†	You earned 320 extra calories through exercise.

If every day were like today ...

You would lose 3.3 lbs per week. You would reach your goal weight of 190 lbs on 12/15/2011. In one month, you would weigh 223.8 lbs. In three months, you would weigh 195.4 lbs.

At a glance ...
	Notes
	Exercise!  You burned 320 calories.
	No dessert!  You easily saved yourself hundreds of empty calories.
	You have eaten fiber-rich foods.  This is a good indicator of a healthy diet.
	Saturated fats only accounted for 4.8% of your calories.  Good job staying below the 9% limit!
	No alcohol!
	You consumed 7620 IU of vitamin A.  This is 327% of the recommended daily value for men.
	You consumed 12.7mg of iron.  This is 159% of the recommended daily value for men.
	Too few calories.  It is very difficult for an adult male to receive adequate nutrition with fewer than 1400 daily calories.
	Not enough breakfast calories.  Research has shown that skipping breakfast or eating a very small breakfast may increase your risk for obesity by as much as fourfold.  We recommend eating a minimum of 200 calories for breakfast.  You consumed 180 calories.

Labor Day - Laboring to push back from the table, the snack cabinet, the bar...and everything else.

So I've chosen Labor Day as the kick-off of yet another weight loss event for me.

A couple of quick points.

This blog is not going to be about crash diets, fad diets, carb diets, or anything you read in a book. It's simply going to be about how, through a balanced diet and moderate exercise, I'm going to get back to a healthy weight.

You see, I don't believe in crash diets. I believe in balance, not in eliminating particular elements in a diet, like carbs, or fat, altogether. I've done all that, and though it works temporarily, it's impossible to follow in the long term.

What I'm looking for is the same thing a lot of "Average Fat Dads" are looking for - a way to be healthy without sacrificing work, family or recreational responsibilities.

I'm going to look for ways to exercise WITH my family, not in a gym somewhere. I'm going to look at how WE can eat better, not one plate for Dad and a separate plate for the family. And most importantly, I'm going to focus on a program that integrates INTO my day-to-day activities - not something that requires 2 hours a day of time I don't have to get into a gym, get a workout, shower, and back to my desk or office.

Bottom line - it can only work if it doesn't disrupt the normal course of my life - otherwise I will abandon it the first time I need to divert my attention to work, family, relationships, etc...just as I have done with every other diet I've undertaken in the past.

So feel free to follow me through the process. Admittedly, I'm kicking this thing off at probably the most hectic and demanding time I've ever experienced in my personal and professional life - but I think that's what makes it the most important time to do it. If I can manage it now, then I should be able to manage it when life returns to what many would consider a "normal" pace.

So let's get on it!