Week 3: The Fast & The Foodiest [J39.9 BLOG]

NOTE: This blog was previously published under the [JESSE 39.9] blog at http://jesse399.blogspot.com/ but has been absorbed into Jesse's main blog for archival purposes.

Week 3 of Jesse 39.9 is complete. Three weeks with less than 1 soda and very little sugar. I'm now at 220 lbs, 10 pounds down from when I started (remember, you have to subtract clothes from the scale numbers that I show here). The lightheadedness from last week is getting better. I don't feel as tired from the carbs that I used to eat either though. Basically I used to get tired mid-morning, then drink soda, get wired for an hour, then tired again; repeat mid-afternoon. Now I'm just normal all day. It's a gift and a curse.

If I continue to lose 2 pounds per week, I'll be to my goal of 39.9 pounds in another 15 weeks, or around the end of February. That's probably not going to happen, because I may not lose weight Thanksgiving and Christmas week (though I'll try) and I'll be in NYC for a week in February. But I'm not turning 39.9 until May 2014, so I've got time to spare.

This week's hurdle was going out of town. We visited Kristi's parents in York, Pennsylvania, which we do every couple of months. Typically I drink a soda and maybe have a candy bar on the way down so I can be cognizant while driving. This time, I had a water and some seeds & nuts, and I did fine. While there, we had a birthday dinner with soda, cake & pie but I only had a water and 1/2 a piece of key lime. Like the movies, I returned home much less out-of-it than usual.

The next day, before our trip back, we ate at a steakhouse. That usually means a burger, fries and a soda for me, but I didn't want the carbs to make me tired on the drive home, which would in turn make me need to drink soda. So I got a grilled chicken salad and a water (I was too sad about that to take the obligatory picture of my dinner, so I took a picture of the window (see above). I was able to drive home without getting tired. I have to remember these benefits when I get tempted.

I continue to ramp up the exercise... I'm up to 30 minutes on the Elliptical in the garage, and 10 minutes of the Bow-Flex with six different exercises. I'm shooting for once a day for that workout, so if I miss a day or two over the course of a week, I'm OK.

Week 2: Gravity [J39.9 BLOG]

NOTE: This blog was previously published under the [JESSE 39.9] blog at http://jesse399.blogspot.com/ but has been absorbed into Jesse's main blog for archival purposes.

The second week of Jesse 39.9 is going well. I lost about 5 pounds, from 230.2 to 225.4 (subtracting for clothes). This is more than I expected to lose.

As we move forward, I'm going to discuss several "hurdles" to weight loss. Excuses, if you will, that I would have used in the past to eat badly.

The weight loss hurdle this week was: THE MOVIES.

I go to movies in a theater half for the big screen, half for the popcorn. But when Kristi and I went to see "Gravity" last weekend, I was determined to only have a few pieces of popcorn, two cookies I had brought with me, and a few sips of soda (the first soda I'd had in two weeks, which coming off of a 3-4-a-day bender is amazing).

It was a great movie, and I came out of it feeling much less "brain foggy" than I usually do after reaching the bottom of a big bag of popcorn, a large soda, and a large box of Junior Mints.

Halloween 2013

Halloween 2013 has happened. See Facebook:

Week 1: Success! [J39.9 BLOG]

NOTE: This blog was previously published under the [JESSE 39.9] blog at http://jesse399.blogspot.com/ but has been absorbed into Jesse's main blog for archival purposes.

The first week of Jesse 39.9 is going well. I lost about 5 pounds, from 230.2 to 225.4 (remember on the photos of the bathroom scale, I have to subtract the weight of my clothes). I'm not really surprised, because this always happens when I stop drinking soda and eating bad food. Next week will be harder.

My body is punishing me a bit and I'm going through a bit of withdrawal from lack of caffeine and sugar. I've been tired this week and a bit listless. It doesn't feel good. But, as they say, no pain no gain.

I literally have not had a sip of soda during the last week. I can't remember the last time that happened and it's quite unlike me. I'll be talking a little more about that demon later on.

I did, however, decide to have an orange scone and 1/8 a cup of so-called "Iced Cream" this weekend. Here's hoping that doesn't kill me.

Jesse 39.9 [J39.9 BLOG]

NOTE: This blog was previously published under the [JESSE 39.9] blog at http://jesse399.blogspot.com/ but has been absorbed into Jesse's main blog for archival purposes.

I've decided since I'm going to be 40 next year, that I need to solve my weight issues now. I'm sure a lot of people say that and don't last long. I will succeed where others (including myself over the last two years) have failed. I'll tell you how, but first, some history.

The biggest changes in my weight during my adult life are shown on the graphs below, first showing the last 7 years, then the last 20 years:

Generally, I have struggled losing weight since I got my first apartment in college in 1994. The Great Stomach Flu of 2007 knocked me down to 187 pounds, the lowest in 13 years. After I got divorced in 2010, I started running 20-30 miles a week and eating a carb-free diet. The reward from this was a loss of 40 pounds (the diet also caused kidney stones, but that's another story for another day). When

I started getting back in the dating game in December 2010, on my doctor's advice, I stopped losing weight. After meeting Kristi in April 2011, I became much happier and started eating more (plus Kristi is a really great cook and butter has something to do with that). Although I never really recovered from the gain, I managed to keep it in check during early 2012 when I upped my exercise schedule (we'll go more in depth with exercise graphs later).

That brings us to today; I'm now 75 pounds heavier than I was two years ago. By May, I'll be 39.9 years old. Between now and then, I intend to lose 39.9 pounds... hence the name of this blog (it's also an inside joke on my divorce blog which was called "Jesse 2.0." This blog (like Jesse 2.0) is mainly for me to keep me on track, but if some of the techniques I use help you too, all the better.

Reasons I think I'll succeed this time:

- I know that I have done this before; I know I am capable of losing this much weight.

- My wife Kristi and her daughter will be there for me. It's easy to lose weight when you live alone, not as much when you're both tired and neither wants to cook. But she has committed to using less butter, helping me portion control, and keeping us out of the drive-thru.

- I still have Sudafed on my side. Without it, I probably wouldn't have lost the 40 pounds back in 2010. I take it for my allergies, but a side-effect is loss of appetite. I'm never hungry, I'm just used to eating too much.

- YOU will also be on my side. I'm reactivating the "J-CAM," a webcam at my job, to keep myself honest (I decommissioned it in 2012 due to technical problems). The whole world can now watch me at work and lambaste (mmmm... basted lamb...) me on Social Media if a candy bar or soda can ends up at my desk.

So here's where I'm starting (subtract 2-4 pounds for clothing)... around 230 pounds. Tomorrow I'll discuss how it's going so far, and bad habits that led to my 75-pound gain. You can keep up with my progress here on Blogger, on my Runkeeper profile, or on my public Facebook Feed.

We Went to New York City -- And Survived!

Kristi and I have just returned from our first trip to New York City together (and my first trip there ever). It was a whirlwind tour. Because my travel life can be summed up on one Google Map, I was concerned, never having been to the big city. I don't really like not knowing how to do things I need to (like check in and out of hotels, park, get a taxi, etc.), and I don't particularly like people, so, while I was looking forward to the trip, I was a bit anxious. After the first couple days though, I was navigating the city like a pro.

We arrived Monday afternoon (my boss drove, fortunately) and left Friday afternoon (on the MegaBus). The ride and accommodations were paid for by AccuWeather; in turn, I attended about 15 events at Social Media Week 2013. I hoped for a hotel with a view, and I got one. The Hampton Inn in Soho is a 19-floor building (we stayed on the 15th floor). As if the view out our window wasn't crazy enough...

The view from the 19th floor balcony (which Kristi discovered on Tuesday) was even better...
Our hotel, and all the SMW events, were in Manhattan, so I didn't actually set foot on Long Island (which is mostly residential and not as tourist-trappy, but also more drab and dangerous, according to locals). Manhattan has come a long way in the last 10 years. Giuliani really cleaned the place up and Manhattan is a great place to visit today. Most tourist attractions, including but not limited to the Empire State Building, Times Square, 9/11 Memorial, New York Public Library, Central Park, Penn Station and Grand Central Station, and the American Museum of Natural History are all there.
I'll attempt a day-by-day description of our adventures here, though I'm sure I'll forget something. I didn't want this vacation to be one of those where I take a lot of good pictures, then forget about the whole thing. So here goes... (time-lapse video of our car ride near the city below):


MONDAY FEB. 18, 2013:
It's about a 5-hour trip from State College. We stopped at a Subway (in a CostCo) in the Poconos for lunch. Before you know it, we were starting seeing signs of the city. That's when I adhered my GoPro HERO3 wide-angle camera to the rental car's windshield and started taping. Here's what it the approach to Manhattan (through the Holland tunnel) looks like at 200x speed:

Our hotel room was TINY (but of course, this is New York City, so all stores & rooms are tiny. That was the biggest difference I noticed in our hotel. The view out the window though, as noted above, was great -- and a little overwhelming.

My first task was to go uptown to the Radio City building where AccuWeather has an office.

Fortunately my boss helped me flag down a cab. I've probably been in a cab a couple times in my life, but I paid great attention, knowing I would have to do it on my own the next morning. Cabs have come a long way in the last 20 years. In NYC, they have TVs in the back which provide local news and (of course) the AccuWeather forecast. You can also bring up a map with a GPS tracker of the taxi's location.

You should also know this: The roads in Manhattan are TERRIBLE, the experience is akin to continually running over railroad tracks. And the cabbies FLY, sometimes at 40-50 mph (even though the city speed limit is 30). We ended up with a nice melting pot of cabbies over the next 24 hours -- from Pakistani and Indian to Russian, German, and Jamaican (the last fellow who brought us back to the hotel, who, while engaging in small talk with us, said "I luv da city doh. Wouldn't give it up for the world, mon.")

Disappointingly, the AccuWeather office wasn't open, so we took a cab right back to the hotel. My boss had a dinner date, so Kristi and I began walking uptown, looking for a place she had heard of called "Papaya Dog" (claiming the best hot dogs in the city, although of course it isn't the only one that boasts this). We were also determined to find the Lomography camera for Kristi, because she's super into film cameras (blame the hipsters for bringing those back).

Our walk was interesting and we wanted to stop and take pictures of everything. I couldn't believe it, here I was in the biggest city in the nation. 8 million called this place home - more than Los Angeles and Chicago COMBINED. Much of the city's patrons were tourists, and it was a great cross-section of people. English wasn't heard as much as other languages.

First we stopped at a Record Store (yes, kids, a real record store). It was super campy and had two cool gray cats.

We then found the Lomography store first, and I took pictures within while Kristi investigated their wares. After emerging from there, we went to the Papaya Dog (so named because of a famous Papaya drink, which I had, but was not overwhelmed by). The hot dogs were great, as advertised: Gourmet Hot Dogs. One of our goals when we came to New York City was to eat cheaply. A lot of people said it couldn't be done, but a soda and two hot dogs for both of us was only $10 at Gray's Papaya. The next night we came back, and discovered that you could get two slices of pizza for $2.50, so it's possible to eat there for as little as $5.

NOTE: Predictably, I was never able to finish this blog. Here's a GoPro Hero2 video that compiles my various cab trips and (I think) gives you a flavor of the city:

The Life and Times of Starlight, My Longest Companion [L@FT Blog]

NOTE: This blog was previously published under the [LOVE @ FIRST TOUCH] blog which I wrote with my wife Kristi at http://loveatfirsttouch.blogspot.com/ but has been absorbed into my main blog for archival purposes.

Last month I lost a companion who had been with me longer than my previous marriage. His name was Starlight.

Fresh out of college, I moved from the University of North Carolina campus to Raleigh in the Summer of 1995. I was striking out on my own, working for a start-up Internet service provider (meteorology jobs were few and far between after the government put a hiring freeze into effect). I was living single in the big city, I was young and loving it.

But something was missing, and in late Fall 1995 I took a trip to the local SPCA to look for a companion. I was shown to a cage full of kittens. Most were meowing; many were active, but one little black and white ("tuxedo") kitten stuck both arms out of the cage when I approached as if to say "Take me! Take me!" And for about $50, I had my first pet. And the rest, as they say, is history.

At the time, I was working on a Macintosh computer at work which had a starlight desktop pattern, and I noticed my new cat had a similar pattern on his forehead, so I decided to call him Starlight. Raising a kitten was a challenge, and there were sleepless nights, but he was a wonderful companion -- young, single, and full of energy, just like me. I didn't know many people at the time, so he typically came home with me to visit Mom & Dad and their cat Bootskie every couple of weeks.

I had grown up around many cats but few dogs, so I had always been a "cat person." At the age of 7, I befriended a stray cat lost in the woods near where my parents were building our house. She turned out to be pregnant and Rocky had three kittens: Blackie, Spots, and Tiger, who provided me friendship throughout my youth and a warm lap when needed on cold mornings waiting for the school bus.

Star continued to provide companionship and occasional antics worthy of a submission to "World's Craziest Pets" for the next 17 years, lasting longer than my first wife and stepdaughter. He moved up to Pennsylvania with me in Summer 1997 when I got a job here (one of my fondest memories is him sitting on the dashboard watching the cars go by in the middle of the night at an Interstate rest area).
During the middle of his life, he contracted diabetes at 25 pounds and fell to less than 10. I had to give him a shot in the neck with insulin, twice a day for about 8 years, (which led to an amusing story about Wal-Mart paging "Star Ferrell" to the pharmacy) but he had recently recovered from the disease. After the separation in Summer 2010, he helped me survive the loneliness of an empty house by being the only thing living and breathing there, who would greet me at the door. He had, indeed, been through it all.

He even was lucky enough to meet my new girlfriend and her daughter, who moved in 16 years later (nearly to the day) after I had welcomed him into my apartment. But Kristi was allergic to cats (as am I, but mine can be overcome by medicine while hers is life-threatening) and Star was becoming incontinent in his old age, so I moved him into the upstairs bathroom for a couple months while Kristi and I were dating, then again to the downstairs laundry room in preparation for Kristi and her daughter to move in.

In December 2011, we started talking about moving Kristi's dog into the house. Star had lived with a dog before, and didn't think it was so grand (she put his head into her mouth routinely and he once scratched a major artery in her leg causing it to spray blood). So I was a little worried about how it would work out.

But, it would seem, he had different plans. Around the holidays, he stopped eating and started to look sick, though his little smile was still there as always, and he would still purr to be stroked. Dogs may howl, but cats loyalty to their masters dictates that they don't let you know when they are in pain. (They actually believe that the pain is external so they run away or hide in a corner to try to get away from it).

And on the evening of January 3rd, 2012, four days before we were to move the dog in, Star decided it was time to let go. After hearing a wanton meow unlike those we had heard before, Kristi and I decided to make time to give him special attention that evening. We petted him for a while. He purred and smiled, looking much better than he had in weeks, looking so happy, then I held him in my arms as he passed from this world.

We were thankful that it happened that way, with our love, and without an expensive trip to the vet, which we both knew would only extend his life for a few weeks, at great expense. The next day, I made the last cold drive to the vets with Star (wrapped up in the blanket he used to sleep on), and for roughly the same price as I had obtained him, I let him go. A few days later I received a heart-tugging poem and his footprint in clay from the vet, and this chapter of my life closed.

I've been working for the last few weeks on going through old videos of him, and getting the collage of photos shown above together, and have now hung it in the laundry room in memoriam, to decorate his last home. Here's how it looks:

R.I.P. Starlight "Star" Ferrell 1995-2012. He was a Good Kitty.