HotBlonde's Blog
HB's Weight Loss Week 4
So I weighed myself this morning and my new weight is 236.6 pounds. I’ve lost a total of 14.2 pounds so far with an average weekly weight loss of 4.7 pounds.
Well I’ve been doing great and have stuck to my diet and my exercise program 100% so far. The cool thing is I’ve now done the same routine for 21 days and this is good news to me. They say it takes 21 days to create a habit and it’s great to think that what I’ve been doing will become more automatic. The process has been easy so far for me and I can’t imagine how cool it will be to now feel like my schedule just flows naturally.
I adjusted my diet very slightly and this was in an attempt to lower my daily sodium intake from what it was. I have successfully lowered it from 2222mg/day to 1985mg/day. At the same time by swapping out a few foods it has concurrently lowered my daily calorie intake to 1266.
I’m continuing to exercise each weekday morning and usually head out the door around 7:30am or so. The cool thing is I took note of how many calories the machines said I actually burned after each workout last week and it came out a little bit higher than I expected. This is good as it shows that my weight loss is a little more expedited than I previously estimated.
I just bought a bicycle helmet so I’ll feel safer knowing that if I happen to get in a car accident that I’ll do less damage. That is key as I don’t want any distractions coming in my way from now till my weigh-in in October. Just as an update I actually won’t be coming out in April as originally planned but I feel good about this. Before I started this challenge I had wanted to go visit my dad in Chicago this summer but I’ve put off any and all distractions as I am maintaining my laser focus on the October 17th goal date. I don’t plan on straying off my program or doing anything that may jeopardize my success. Although I can trust myself to pack my food and take it with me if I go anywhere I am trying to minimize my ventures away from home as much as possible. EuropeanHottie invited me to go with her this week to Universal Studios (she and I both have annual passes and it is only 4 miles or so from my house) but I’m not sure if I’ll take her up on it yet. I’ve kinda gotten into a groove here and not sure if I want to go just yet.
So I taped myself for about a half a minute exercising this week. I apologize about the limited amount you can actually see of me since the video was taken by my self but you can see my embarrassingly big ol’ booty working out. Since I never plan on being this size again I wanted to capture some of me now on tape to look back on. I know my progress will be astounding as I think I’ve mentioned before my ultimate goal is to weigh around 134 pounds. And the cool thing about having this little video, although it doesn’t show much, is that they can possible use it on The Dr. Oz Show which is where I want to go on after I lose all my weight. Dr. Oz has inspired me in so many ways and I use countless amounts of his advice in my every day life. I want to be featured in a segment on his show for my weight loss success. You can see how confident I am about getting to where I want to be!
And for those of you who think it looks like I’m doing easy work in this video I slowed down the speed so I could try to tape properly and also I am on that machine and at higher speeds for 55 minutes total. I love the StairClimber and it has been a favorite of mine for years. Here’s my video.
And in regards again to wanting to be on The Dr. Oz Show, I originally wanted to send in my stuff to them now but have decided to wait until just before or just after I hit my weight goal. I just wasn’t sure how long it would take to get through to producers and get all the pre-production stuff done before taping. Maybe I can send in my stuff not long before my weigh in and maybe they can actually be a part of my October 17th weigh in!
I honestly with all my heart can already see my success in my mind’s eye. And if you look at the picture below you can still see the similarity between the old me and the current me. Not only do I look forward to looking as great as I do in the picture on the right but I plan to look even more amazing than ever before! By Oct 17th I want to be completely decked out physically. My nails, hair, tan, teeth, etc. I can’t wait to go bikini shopping for the first time and am looking forward to proudly wearing it at my weigh-in!
HB's Weight Loss Week 3
So I weighed myself this morning and I weighed in at 241.0 pounds.
That's a 2.8 pound weight loss from the previous week. It's a bit of a bummer since I planned on losing a little more than that this last week (3.1 pounds was my projected estimate but was hoping to lose even more than that like I did my first week), but it's not a big deal. I'm hoping it spikes up again. So a bit of a bummer plus it's raining outside which means I won't be riding my bike to the gym. I'll walk instead which is fine but I hope not to get too wet. Plus the sidewalks on my street are sometimes non-existant and pretty funky. But I'm not gonna let these things start off my week negatively, I'm still staying head strong! Plus overall it's a 9.8 pound loss over 2 weeks and that's not something to complain about.
So this week I’ll go in more detail about my diet. At last count I eat approx. 1307 calories per day. I forgot to include the calories I consume from the Pam spray so that’s why it has gone up 27 calories from what I previously calculated. As mentioned before, I eat 6 small meals a day: 1 breakfast, 1 morning snack, 1 lunch, 1 mid-afternoon snack, 1 dinner and 1 evening snack. Before each meal I mix 1 tsp of psylium husks with 8 oz. of water and drink it except at dinner where I triple it and mix 1 tbsp of psylium husks with water. I basically follow the diet guidelines in the book you saw me reading on the first page of this thread, YOU On a Diet by Drs. Mehmet Oz and Michael Roizen. They give options to choose for each meal but recommend picking a meal and eating that same meal every single day except for 1 meal where you can vary each day. I chose to vary my dinner each day. And although I do that, I do eat the same thing each Monday, same dinner each Tuesday, etc. It just changes from day to day during the week. The only thing I tweak from their recommendation is that I eat a higher protein meal M-F before my workouts and eat oatmeal instead on Saturdays and Sundays.
Here is my meal plan:
M-F Breakfast:
EGGS WITH VEGGIES AND COFFEE
Ingredients:
3 egg whites from large eggs
1 whole large egg
1/8 tsp ground cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
1/8 tsp ground turmeric
2 roma tomatoes
4 oz. sliced white mushrooms
¼ tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb seasoning
1/8 tsp Mrs. Dash Onion & Herb seasoning
Pam Original Spray
1/5 tsp Celtic sea salt
Coffee made from 2 tbsp coffee beans and 6 oz. water
Notes:
I used to eat oatmeal with fruit every day for breakfast but after going over my meal plan with a personal trainer he recommended I eat a high protein meal before my workouts, which I do just after breakfast.
I add cayenne pepper to my eggs cuz in the book it says as little as 1/8 tsp of cayenne a day added to my diet can help with weight loss. Same goes for the turmeric.
I normally don’t like to drink caffeinated beverages but I drink a cup of coffee a day with breakfast for the antioxidant benefits. I find that this small amount of caffeine does not affect me and I drink it early enough in the day that it doesn’t affect my sleep negatively.
Weekend Breakfast:
OATMEAL WITH FRUIT AND COFFEE
Ingredients:
¼ cup quick steel cut oats (cooked with 6 oz. water)
1/8 tsp artificial sweetener
½ tsp cinnamon
½ cup fruit
Coffee made from 2 tbsp coffee beans and 6 oz. water
Notes:
I add the ½ tsp of cinnamon to my oatmeal cuz the book suggests it for blood sugar-related purposes. Since I don’t add this to my egg breakfast I take a cinnamon supplement in capsule form.
Morning Snack:
FRUIT AND NUTS
Ingredients:
1 serving fruit
½ oz. raw walnuts
Notes:
Although I have raw almonds and raw peanuts at home as well as raw walnuts, the book recommends getting in a certain amount of Omega-3 in my diet per week so I usually choose walnuts each day to take care of half of my week’s recommendation (the rest I get from my salmon and shrimp). Also I soak my raw walnuts in water for 24 hours before I consume them.
Lunch:
VEGGIE SANDWICH
Ingredients:
1 double-toasted sprouted grain and sprouted lentil English muffin
1 heaping tbsp marinara sauce
1/8 tsp turmeric
1 veggie pattie
1 thick slice of heirloom tomato
½ very, very thin slice of red onion
½ oz. raw spinach
Notes:
The book recommends this sandwich but with a spicy chik’n pattie. To vary this meal I switch between 3 different veggie patties each day, all lower in calories and sodium than the spicy chik’n pattie recommendation. I also switch up the color of the heirloom tomatoes I use. The marinara sauce is all-natural with no added sugar. The book recommends consuming at least 10 tbsp of tomato sauce each week, I think because of the lycopene from the tomatoes, so that’s why I do a heaping tbsp each day. Even though the book recommends only 1/8 tsp of turmeric added a day I add it to the marinara sauce as well.
Evening Snack:
COTTAGE CHEESE AND VEGGIES
Ingredients:
½ cup low-fat cottage cheese
dill weed
chives
¼ tsp red pepper flakes
½ cucumber spears, peeled
Notes:
The book recommends fresh veggies to dip in the cottage cheese but I usually just stick to cucumbers. If I get bored I may switch it up with halved grape tomatoes. Here you see I add more red pepper to my diet, again to up my weight loss efforts.
Monday Dinner:
HUMMUS WITH CARROTS
Ingredients:
2 oz. hummus
2 oz. carrot chips
Tuesday Dinner:
CHICKEN AND GREEN BEANS
Ingredients:
3oz. – 4oz. chicken breast
Mrs. Dash seasoning
1/8 tsp Celtic sea salt
4 oz. steamed green beans
Wednesday Dinner:
SALMON AND BROWN RICE
Ingredients:
3oz. – 4oz. wild salmon
Mrs. Dash seasoning
1/8 tsp Celtic sea salt
¼ cup (before cooking) brown rice
Thursday Dinner:
HUMMUS WITH CARROTS (again)
Ingredients:
2 oz. hummus
2 oz. carrot chips
Friday Dinner:
CHICKEN WITH PASTA
Ingredients:
3oz. – 4oz. chicken breast
Mrs. Dash seasoning
2 oz. (before cooking) whole grain pasta
¼ cup marinara sauce
Saturday Dinner:
TURKEY TORTILLA ROLL-UP
Ingredients:
1 small sprouted grain tortilla
½ tbsp prepared mustard
1 thick slice of heirloom tomato
½ very, very thin slice of red onion
½ oz. raw spinach
Sunday Dinner:
SHRIMP AND CORN
Ingredients:
4 oz. cooked shrimp
½ cup corn
Evening Snack:
AVOCADO SALSAMOLE AND PITA CHIPS
Ingredients:
½ Haas avocado
3 oz. salt-free salsa
1/5 tsp Celtic sea salt
1 sprouted grain pita pocket, cut into triangles and toasted
Anyway, surprisingly I haven’t experienced any hunger. I feel kinda funky here and there but I would not classify it as hunger. I look at it as my body adjusting to my new diet. The exercise has been fine and fun… who doesn’t love that natural “runners’ high”? The only thing I haven’t felt too positively about is the noticeable dip in energy I’ve been feeling. It doesn’t happen every day but I’ve found a dip in my energy mid-day and most of the time my energy levels don’t recover. I set my alarm to get up at 6am and although I plan on going to bed around 10pm I find that I’m ready for bed hours before then and often have to push myself to stay awake till at least 8pm before hitting the hay. It’s hard cuz I have work and other things to take care of and my lack of energy makes it difficult to get stuff done sometimes. But I’ve made my diet and exercise programs my number one priority right now and all else has to come second. I’m guessing that my body will get used to all this and all will be well. They do say that it takes 21 days to create a habit. And although that’s more of a mental thing I’m looking forward to my body getting used to all this and being able to live my day to day life normally.
I’ve now completed 5% of this program. When I finished my final workout of this week on Friday I thought about that and that how I’d have to do what I just did in terms of exercise over the course of the last 2 weeks 20 times total. So I have one 2-week stretch down and 19 more to go. Easy peasy. I look forward to it.
Comments
No hunger is a great sign. You havent hit a plateau yet? that's the biggest challenge to get past.
It is not as easy as you make it seem. But congratulations and GO GIRL GO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The body will get used to it and start processing things better. This is good (more energy) and bad (in terms of increased effiencency means work outs and eating will have less benefit (which is good in the long term)).
Far too soon to plateau. I reckon the 220lb marker will be the first hard one to break through. For me the first 20lb came off alright (nothing like as fast as you), but I'm "stuck" at 225. However, my waist line isn't stuck, and nor is my cardio and strength conditioning. Time for me to look at what I eat carefully again so I can try and keep ahead of you for a bit longer.
Are you planning on changing up the exercise routine? I'm interested to hear what you have a routine...
My daughter got a kick out of the tortilla photo. She thought it was a blunt.
Go Girl!
You will do it!
Hey, paint those nails! hehe
I started a day or 2 after you. Was at 214 on a 6ft frame. ALWAYS USE THE BIG FRAME SECTION ON WEIGHT CHARTS lol
Now down to 213.2. Hoping for 165-175 by time you reach the finish line. GO GIRL GO !!!!
OOPS starteed at 221 LOL
HB's Weight Loss Week 2
So, I finished my first week. I weighed my self on Monday morning and it came out to 243.8; a 7 pound loss! Yeah, I know that most of it was water weight but, heck, who cares?
Changes I've made to my chart this week:
In regards to the exercise, the numbers in my "Ex Brnd" column because I am basing these numbers on what the exercise machine actually told me I burned. So what I did is day 1 I got on the elliptical machine that doesn’t have moving arms and I typed in my weight. Did 55 minutes of cardio (5 min warm-up, 45 min high intensity cardio at an average of 149 bpm, 5 min cool-down) and the machine gave me a number of how many calories I burned (732 as evidenced in the pic I posted). The next day I went on that same machine, but typed in 134 instead (my actual goal weight). Did the same workout, keeping my heart rate at 149 bpm (I wear a hear trate monitor every workout) and it said that I (would’ve, at that weight) burned 534 calories. So with this info I figured out, given the info from the machine, approximately how many calories I will burn by doing the same workout at all the different weights I will be between 251 and 134. Did the same thing on the elliptical that HAS the moving arms, cuz I figured I’d switch between the two just to switch things up.
Now I did 2 days on the StairMaster and was really surprised. Found it much harder to do than the elliptical, and watched my heart rate skyrocket (I took very short breaks to put my heart rate back to a 149 bpm average), but yet it said I only burned a measly 334 calories! That’s less than HALF of what it says I burned on the elliptical! And the second day when I entered in 134 pounds instead and worked out just the same as the day before, it said I would’ve burned only 171 calories. That’s now less than a THIRD of what I would’ve burned at 134 pounds on the elliptical keeping my heart rate at the same level. Now I’m assuming that this has to be wrong. There is no way I only burned 334 calories after busting my butt like I did on that machine. I’m almost tempted to call StairMaster and ask them for an explanation on how they came up with those numbers cuz it just seems ridiculous.
Anyway, you will see that next week the numbers in my “Ex Brnd” column will once again change as this week I will be using my favorite: the StairClimber. For those of you who don’t know what this is it’s the machine that looks like an escalator so you’re literally continuously walking up actual stairs (or steps). I will be using my same method with figuring out the calories, by imputing my current weight of 244 in on the first day and 134 in on the second day. I am assuming at this point that these numbers will be closer to the numbers given to me on the elliptical, but you never know. The StairClimber is made by the same company as the StairMaster so hopefully they don’t use the same bonehead formula.
Nevertheless, for most of the 9 months I plan on alternating between those 3 machines: the elliptical (switching between the no-arms and added-arms machine), the StairMaster, and the StairClimber. My “Ex Brnd” column will reflect the average calories burned of those 3 machines, assuming I use all three modes equally.
Anyway, so my exercise plan is to do 45 minutes of high-intensity cardio 5 times each week, Monday through Friday.
I will give you a general rundown of my diet plan. I plan on keeping specifics for future blogs as it’ll give me something to talk about each week.
Basically, I plan on and have been eating 6 meals a day. My meals will range anywhere from 125 calories to 438 calories. My first 4 meals of the day and my 6th meal will be the same every single day, 7 days a week. My 5th meal, which is my dinner, will change every evening. My diet consists of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and healthy proteins. I take a women’s multivitamin every day, half with breakfast and half with my evening snack. I also consume cinnamon, and chromium picolinate and turmeric and cayenne pepper to my food. I eat my last meal at 7pm. I aim to go to bed at 10pm so there is a 3-hour window where I won’t be consuming any food. Also before each meal I currently mix 1 tsp of psyllium husks in 8oz. of water (before dinner I consume triple the amount of husks and mix 1 tbsp. with water). Psyllium husks are mostly fiber and I consume this to help fill me up.
I entered in everything I will be eating in a typical day and got a nutritional breakdown from Nutritiondata.com of what everything I will be consuming. I’m sharing the results with you here:
If you notice it says that my diet consists of, on average, 42% carbohydrates, 32% fats and 26% protein. My sodium intake is at 2222mg per day which I find strange since I carefully inspect the nutritional labels on any processed food I purchase and mindfully choose those that are lower than others. I also do my best to add the most minimal amount of salt to my food and actually by Celtic Sea Salt that only has 330mg sodium per ¼ tsp.
A couple other things about my chart this week. If you noticed a difference in the “Eat Cals” column between this week and last week let me explain. First of all between weeks 13 and 14 you’ll see a 30 calorie increase. This is because I will be adding more psyllium husks to my diet to up my fiber intake. That was already reflected in Week 1’s “Eat Cals” column, but the new thing you’ll notice is that starting at Week 22 my calorie intake will start dropping consistently each week. The reason I chose to do this is because I heard that on the Biggest Loser Diet book they recommend you take your current weight and multiply it by 7 to determine how many calories to eat while following your weight loss plan. At 251 pounds I would have had to eat 1757 calories per week which was way more than I expected to eat and hit my Oct 17th goal. So I decided that when my weight came down to the level where multiplying it by 7 would equal less than what I’ve been eating that I’d start adjusting my calories to that formula. You might also notice that during the last 3 weeks the “Eat Cals” show 1051. The book recommends not going below 1050 calories per day (which is 150 pounds times 7 calories) so I don’t plan on consuming less than that for safety reasons. Plus I’ve heard that if you eat too little your body starts eating your own muscle and I don’t want that to happen. The last thing I wanted to point out was that it shows this week that I will hit my challenge goal of 160 or below by Aug 27, which is a week later than what was previously expected. This may change again, as all of my expected weight numbers may, since there is a possibility that I may still lose extra water weight or whatever for another week or two. But maybe not. We’ll see.
So, in all this week it shows that on Oct 15 (2 days before my weigh-in) I will weigh 1 pound less than previously expected from the week before. I’ll be happy at that weight for the weigh-in but as I’ve said my ultimate goal is to hit 134. I plan on grubbing during my Vegas trip and not worrying about calories or anything like that so I plan to lose my final pounds after that trip.
Comments
You are probably on to something with grazing 6 meals a day instead of eating 3 major ones. Assuming 10 hours for sleep and grooming before and after sleep that leaves 14 hours a day for meals. So you never need to wait more than 2 hours or so to the next meal. Constant digestion may help the metabolism work harder.
That's the trick! It keeps your metabolism fired up and helps keep you from getting hungry since you're eating all day long. I eat approximately every 2.5 hours.
Just one recommendation: add a column for actual start weight and expected start weight; also expected weekly loss and actual weekly loss. Then you can also add columns for how far ahead/behind your desired trajectory you are and/or make course corrections along the way.
Exercise machines are notoriously inaccurate when it comes to measuring how many calories you have burned. Do a google search and you'll find plenty of information on this, such as here. As you have noticed, a lot of it depends on what particular formula they are using to calculate the calories burned.
The only accurate way to measure how many calories are burned has to deal with measuring the amount of oxygen you take in and the amount of carbon dioxide you put out. This is obviously unreasonable to do for the average person working out.
While the machines may not be an accurate sampling of the calories you have burned, they do work to measure your progress, as long as you are using the same machine. In other words, if you burn 700 calories today on an elliptical, and tomorrow you use the same elliptical and burn 800 calories, while those numbers may not be the actual number of calories burned, at least you know you burned more tomorrow than you did today.
Measuring heart rate comes closer to being accurate. Many machines have a heart rate monitor, but of course if you take your hands off the sensors for even a second to wipe away sweat or any other reason, then your readings will become inaccurate.
You mentioned that you have a heart rate monitor. You might look into getting a heart rate monitor strap that sends readings to a watch or reader. The strap is always measuring heart rate and isn't interrupted. The watch or reader will calculate calories burned. The proprietary formula used for this may not be known, but, you will have a more consistent reading across various exercises. So, if it shows you burned 600 calories on the elliptical, or shows you burned 600 calories on a stair stepper, then you will know the exercises were mostly equivalent as far as effort goes.
But, it's also important to remember that while heart rate monitors come close, they are still far from perfect. There are many factors that can increase your heart rate other than exercise, and a heart rate monitor won't be able to determine between those. This happens a lot to people who give up caffeine while they go on a diet/exercise plan. At the start of the plan, their heart rate is higher, due to their caffeine intake, thus giving a higher calories burned for an average exercise. When they stop taking the caffeine, the heart rate dips, and the same exercise now yields fewer burned calories. Despite all that, however, it's still a good way to benchmark your progress, and again, while it may not be totally accurate as far as how many actual calories burned, you can utilize it to determine how you are progressing.
ME- Don't know if that really matters to me that much. I figure if I'm curious to know the difference between how much I actually lost and how much I expected to lose I can always refer to my week one chart.
konceptum- I wear a strap and a watch that it sends info to. The combo I purchased only shows me Length of Time I worked out, Average Heart Rate, and Maximum Heart Rate. The one I bought does not tell me the total calories burned. I had a watch like that and someone stole it at a gym I used to go to. I bought this new one cuz it was super cheap. I guess I coulda sprung and got a more niftier one with the Calories Burned feature. I was trying to just spend my money on the bare minimum. So I'll never know exactly how many calories I burned but as long as I'm losing weight consistently according to plan and not dropping too far below what I plan on losing each week then I should be safe. I think I'm good so far but we'll see.
HB's Weight Loss Week 1
So I apologize about the size of the text above, hopefully you all can read it. I had started to make a table of my numbers above with the formatting codes but it would've taken a long time to put all the details in. Plus I would be changing the numbers weekly and it would've been a pain in the butt to redo each week.
Anyhoo, I'm not going to post much this first week because since I am still looking for "investors" for my weight loss challenge. I don't want to give away too much of my game plan. But I probably have already. I did want to share the above info to show why I believe I can not only win but actually surpass my goal of 160.8 by Oct 17th by close to 2 months. If all the numbers I used are correct calculations then this is approximately how everything should play out provided I am 100% disciplined enough to stick to it. Diet and exercise. That's it, baby. I'm guessing if anyone else is going to bet against me it's because they feel that I won't be able to stick to my plan rather than them feeling that the plan itself doesn't make mathematical sense.
Anyway, I'm off to bed.
And the race is on!................
Comments
You have inspired me to try to lose some weight.
Impressive! I might have to try to figure out how to take the action on the $100 end of that bet!
I could help you, but I'm not interested in merely helping you win a fucking bet - stupidest shit I ever heard of. You should pay US if you are fortunate enough to do whatever.
I'd take your bet (and I'm still thinking about it), but 10/17 is my birthday. Losing $900 on my birthday to anyone but a casino just seems Wrong...:-)
Glad to hear you've decided to get healthy...although I hope it's not just for the money...
Good wishes and good luck! As you noted on the board, win or lose the bet you still win.
I wish you success, whether or not we make a bet.
I'm going to have to throw the penalty flag for excessive profanity, personal insult, and general ungentlemanly behavior by dm above. Three-day suspension.
Good luck. I'm making it my own personal motivator for you to pass me as late as possible (I estimate you'll be below me around mid-March based on my current progress). My approach is not as scientific as yours.
I have absolute confidence she'll do this easily.
I can tell she's serious and losing
weight where there is a time limit is actually
easier than doing it without one. You can see
the light at the end of the tunnel at all times.
Its kind of like boot camp. You survive it because
you know exactly when it'll end. If you didin't
know that, and thought it might go on forever,
nobody would ever finish.
For those of you who have mentioned the money thing either here or on the weight loss challenge thread or wherever else I want to say a couple things. I am not losing weight just for the money. I've been wanting to lose the weight anyway and have attempted time after time after time after time (just ask the Wizard... I've tried at least 3 times before this on my own in the short amount of time I've known him ) but I just didn't stick with it long enough to see the results that I ultimately want to hit. The chance to win $9,000 if I succeed is a huge motivator to keep me on track throughout the entire process where in the past I would fall off course so to speak. If any of you think it's wrong or bad or whatever that I need a huge chunk of change to motivate me then I don't know what else to say. How is it a bad thing either way? I could still lose the money bet and pay out $1,000. But at least it will get me as close to my goal as possible and there's nothing wrong with that. It's motivating me to a great extent and we all here on the forum get to have fun along the way.
Also think about people on The Biggest Loser. Do you think all of them would sign up for that show and show their bodies like that on national television if there wasn't the $250,000 and $100,000 cash rewards? I'm sure some of them would still sign up but just to be crowned "The Biggest Loser" wouldn't be enough for them to kick ass for that long. That's hard, hard work. And they all want to lose weight and be healthy again but there's no way most of them would take on a program like that at home on their own either just to get into shape.
I'm looking forward to a fun 9 months. :)
Does this mean after you go from hot blonde to sizzling hot blonde, we will be seeing less of you ( pun intended) in this forum ??
Chumash Casino August 2011
So I've been meaning to write about this for a while, I just haven't had the time to dedicate to writing on this.My good friend Karina told me that she and a friend of ours (a guy she had started seeing who she met through me who is now her boyfriend) was planning on going to Santa Barbara for a couple days. I had asked her if it was a romantic getaway or just a fun trip. She said it was just a fun trip and after I expressed my interest in getting a way for a few days as well. She extended an invite to me and later that evening she booked the rooms from my computer. Although the original intent was to actually stay IN Santa Barbara to be right by the ocean (we both live in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles which isn't too close to the water) we made the decision to choose the Solvang - Santa Ynez Valley area since I had always wanted to go to Solvang and knew it was near the Chumash casino. Also if we chose the specific Santa Barbara area it would have cost us a lot more money, and the rooms at Chumash were not only $250/night and up, but they were sold out and we were booking last minute (Karina and I do most of our activities spur of the moment). We were booked at the Marriott in Buellton which is right next to Solvang.
We left pretty late that night and after a 2+ hour drive (there was a lot of late night construction we hit unfortunately) we were too pooped to do anything and we retired to our rooms.
Since my friends are extreme night owls and I’ve been in the habit of getting up early on most days, I woke up relatively early and by noon I decided that rather than waiting for them to get up and get going, I would hit the town of Solvang and get in some sight-seeing and hit up some of the wine tasting rooms. (I often go out by my self and have no problem doing solo activities). I caught a cab which was $15 I think with tip which I found to be surprising since it was only a 5-6 minute cab ride. I was hungry and hit up a place to eat lunch and then I hit up a couple of wine tasting rooms and a chocolate shop. (Wine tasting is one of my favorite hobbies).
Somehow, and I don’t remember how, I found out that the Corque hotel in Solvang, just a couple blocks from where I was tasting, has a free shuttle that goes from there to the Chumash Casino which was about a 10 minute drive or so from there. I didn’t know if it was dishonest of me or not to take this shuttle since I was not a guest at the hotel (you know I’m all about honesty) but I boarded the shuttle and no questions were asked and we were off.
I got to the casino and was finally able to reach my friends. They told me that they would be meeting up with me soon enough. I decided to gamble while I waited.
The casino was nice. Decorated nice, some nice glitzy touches but not too much.
I usually play blackjack but like to hit up the progressive slots here and there just for fun and to change things up. There were 2 there that kinda had a waiting line on both of them. One was the Wizard of Oz and the other was the Mega Bucks. I don’t remember what the progressive amount was on the Mega Bucks, but I think it was pretty close to the amount on the Wizard of Oz. If I remember correctly I was told that the Mega Bucks one was new.
I hit up some of the blackjack tables there. I was not happy to find that no alcohol was allowed anywhere on the floor. There are a few eating options there. A café with a pick-up-and-go section next to it where you can pick up a sandwich or chips and pay and sit and eat. The other 2 options were the buffet where you could purchase and consume alcohol and also their very nice The Willows restaurant that’s a classy and somewhat pricey place that has a bar inside. I hit up the bar at The Willows for a couple of stiff ones before hitting up the blackjack tables. They offered blue cheese-stuffed olives martinis which is one of my faves and I was happy.
I was pleasantly surprised at the liberal blackjack rules here. I don’t remember the specifics off-hand but I will add them once I get a response back from the casino.
I played a while and my friends met up with me. We were all hungry and decided to hit up The Willows restaurant so we could get some good food and good drinks.
I was in an adventurous mood and decided to spring for one of their more pricier glasses of wine and I was well rewarded by the most delicious flavors. When I drink a good glass of wine I literally get shivers!
The food was a bit pricey but super, super yummy! We had no complaints when it came to that restaurant. We ordered several items off their menu including a Kobe beef burger with white cheddar which was delicious.
Anyway, we hit the floor and did pretty well. At one point our friend JoJo was playing the electronic roulette machine and I was trying to get them to come sit and play blackjack with me instead. He handed me a $20 bill and told me to put it in a machine and just play. I put it into the electronic roulette machine next to me and made the decision that when I looked up, whatever number first caught my eye would be the number I would put the whole $20 on. I saw the number 35. I chose 35 on the screen and then decided last second to split my bet between 35 and my favorite number, 13. I selected 13 as well then hit the spin button. The ball rolled around and hit – 13!! Boy, I screamed so loud people were staring and probably thought I had won thousands of dollars! I couldn’t believe it and was happy to win $360 on my $10 bet. I kindly gave my friend JoJo his $20 back and kept my winnings.
When we left the casino that evening all three of us were up in winnings. I think I was up over $400 at that point if I remember correctly. Not too shabby. We cashed out and during the car ride back to our hotel we discussed whether or not we would come back the next day or not since we were all up.
We stopped at the famous Hitching Post from the movie Sideways for some wine and a snack. I am easily excitable and was excited to be sitting up at the bar where they filmed a part of the movie. My friend Karina had never seen the movie so she was not as excited as me, and actually not at all. JoJo wasn’t as excited as me either but I like to have fun with the little things in life.
(By the way, that’s our friend JoJo beside me who’s hiding from the camera.) And I do have to say that although my friends were less nostalgic than I was, there were several people posing and taking pictures in the bar as well. I thought was cool but I was surprised that there were a lot of picture taking by the guests since it was closing time on a weekday. It just made me think, "Are there just a ton of people who come here all day every day taking pictures here?" I'm assuming so.
Well… we couldn’t fight the urge to come back the next day and pass up all that fun! We hit up The Willows again and it started to get crowded there. There was a country concert going on there a few hours from then and lots of people were wearing cowboy boots. A couple of guys got to talking with me and told me they were part of the band’s crew and that they had something to do with Maker’s Mark which was a sponsor for the band. They talked with me and comped me some drinks. I think JWB and the similar labels were a part of the company’s production line and I was able to have a couple of drinks.
After that we were off to gamble more and boy…! Let’s just say I don’t remember whether they lost money or not (I think they did) but in just the 1-2 short hours that we all played I lost $700! I hit up the Wizard of Oz machine before we left just for good luck but did not win anything off of it. What a downer! So I left being down like $300 or so. Not too bad but still a bummer.
Overall we still had fun and I would have like to stay in the area longer in order to hit up some actual local wineries, which was an idea of ours while we were there, and to take more time to walk around and check out Solvang. They seem to have concerts at the casino regularly and I was tempted to go back and see Hall and Oats and Tears for Fears.
I had fun and would definitely go back to Chumash any time. Even though we weren’t big winners we had fun and left with smiles on our faces.
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I had an acquaintance who would book this rinky-dink motel in Santa Barbara that offered nothing but the room and the parking space. He would bicycle around the area's roads and tasting rooms, make use of all the nightlife offerings of bars and restaurants and have great fun on the cheap. He reported that several wine tasting rooms got worried about serving even the cyclists as the afternoon wore on. He'd ride to the Stage Coach Inn doing the San Marcos bypass on a bicycle but all the bikers loved it. (Its an old stage stop bar with probably the second best restaurant in California right next door). With the money he saved by staying at the rinky dink No-Nothing-Motel, he could afford to splurge on wines and the various restaurants. Solvang is fun but very high priced for lodging and has some sort of tax surcharge if its actually in Solvang rather than near it. I always felt that movie was too strange for my taste but I liked recognizing some of the landscape.
It may be that the casino contracts with the hotel but often its just that the hotel is a stop for the shuttle and you were not actually freeloading, but its fun to feel the freeloading adventure anyway.
I've heard some bad things about that Chumash casino but it was probably from someone who just lost alot of money there. Indians are often dry in attitude and most reservations are legally dry. Sometimes the entire reservation is dry for Indians even if the casino does serve alcohol to non-Indians.
I hope those couple of free drinks from the band didn't impair any gambling judgment. Glad you had fun. Karina is hot too!
Nice TR.
I went to Chumash a few years ago...because I was intent to visit all indian casino's in California.
Went through Solvang...went to Chumash and found nothing worth playing, so I promptly left.
Glad you won there.
All I remember from the trip was lots of drinking and not much gambling :(
Next time I'm sleeping in HotBlondes's room so she can wake me up!
Overall the trip was good and I'd like to go again.
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Super start! I have the $1350 already sitting in a drawer. Will I have to kiss it goodbye on October 17? Or will it be joined by $150 in new friends? Only the shadow knows......
Haha, yesterday I told my dad about this challenge and he told me I better start saving up now to pay out in October. I told him no way cuz I don't see myself losing!
Slow and steady wins the race. Don't let anything
throw you off, even the plateaus when they come.
You'll be laughing all the way to the bank..
Wow! Keep it up. I won't wager because I think you're going to do it. On the other hand, maybe your dad could put up a wager.
CM- That's a smart idea! I think I'll ask him but he'll probably decline since my dad doesn't have any money to give away like that.
Think about the great clothes and shoes you can buy with all that hard-earned fairly-won money !!
Congratulations on your success so far. May I suggest a thong?
buzz- If I win I plan on using my winnings towards cosmetic surgery.
Wizard- Even in peak condition my rear end is not my best asset and is not something I like to show off. I've considered doing it topless because I want to be weighed in with as little clothing as possible. If I do it topless, though, I will be covering up my chest with my arms.
Geez, I am really starting to feel less guilty about posting that picture. Great news though that you are indeed getting it done!