I've purchase The Ultimate Meal from MOM the other day to make my life simpler. 16 - 20 oz of the Ultimate Meal is supposed to be a complete meal replacement. I will probably drink the shake at nights when I don't feel like cooking :) or I will integrate the Ultimate Meal as a part of my daily diet. Everything in it looks very good to me.

I've tried so many different meal replacement shakes before, but I like this one the best. It is actually tasty. I mixed it up with a cup of soy milk because it make the shake taste better. You can use water with either banana or apple to enhance the taste, but I just go with soy milk.

Yesterday, I had a cup of the Ultimate Meal shake and some oranges for dinner. Not bad!

One of the challenges with my weight loss journey was the fact that I was doing it alone. My wife has joined me finally. She doesn't need to lose weight, but she wants to eat healthier and exercise more. She really didn't have the time to take care of her own body since the birth of our daughter.

She was always supportive, but many times, we had to cook two different meals because she didn't want my awful food :) I'm not a great cook when it comes to cooking a healthy meal. I just throw-in whatever I can and usually mix them all. Over the last few months, I've learned to cook better by using simple recipes from other bloggers. I think I actually enjoying cooking now. My wife doesn't want me in the kitchen that much because I make a mess when I cook.

Anyway, my wife has decided to eat simpler meals with me and she will exercise with me as much as she can. I'm really glad we are on the same page.

In December of last year, I lost roughly 10 pounds and kept it there for weeks.  I thought it would be a permanent change unless I go back to the way I used to live.  I was motivated and on it.  I felt better and I was more confident than ever.  Even my wife noticed the difference in my attitude.

In January of 2009, my elliptical broke.  I stopped working out and gained back everything I lost and some more.  I was so depressed I almost abandoned the blog and gave up on the weight loss journey.  Back in September, I weighed at 205 pounds but now I'm 210.  It's amazing how easily the weight can come back.  It's even scary.

Yes, I'm 210 pounds, probably one of the worst moments in my life.  No one failed me, I failed my self.  I discovered that I lack self-discipline when it comes to weight loss.  That's the most important thing that I need to work on.  When the exercise equipment broke down, I could've found different ways to exercise.  But I made excuses and got lazy.

I know I failed once again.  I think it's third attempt since I started this blog.  I'm ashamed, but I have to admit my failures and move on.  I'm going to start again and try my best this time.  I really want to make it happen, but if I ever fail again, I will stand up again.

Thanks for your emails and encouragements while I was down.  I really appreciate your thoughts and support.

Wow, it's been more than a month since I've written my previous blog post.  I've been keep journaling on my notepad, it's just that I didn't have the time to update my blog.  Since then, as usual, I've struggled because of many many dinner invitations from family and friends.  It was really challenging.  Rather than refusing the food, I had to stick with portion control.

The Thanksgiving dinner wasn't that bad because my family understands that I'm working on weight loss.  I ate healthy and ate only a small amount.  I even ate fruits and vegetables before I went for the dinner so I don't binge.  It worked!

The most challenging day was when we had a group meeting at a chinese buffet.  It is "the" biggest buffet in town.  I knew I was in trouble.  As usual, I ate first at home so I don't binge again.  It sorta worked.  I ate only two dishes, but still, I'm sure I ate more than 1,500 calories from the two dishes I've emptied.

But I want to point out that Tyson Buffet, where we had the lunch, actually provided some healthy food.  Unlike other Chinese buffets where they serve American-Chinese cusines, Tyson Buffet serves more Chinese-Chinese dishes with less sugar.  I don't know if you know or not, but the Chinese food that you see in a typical Chinese buffet isn't really Chinese food.  Real Chinese food is less sugarly.  Anyway, I had a good time there.  I don't think I've gained any weight from that lunch, but my weight loss progress isn't anywhere near "fast"  It's slow and boring.

Someone emailed me and convinced me that I should record other measures of changes in my body.  Because I'm also doing light weight training I could be gaining more muscle mess plus I could be losing some inches near my belly.  Maybe that's why my weight loss is slower than I've expected.  I really expected that I'd lose more than a pound a week even though it was my goal to lose a pound a week.  But as I progress, I've noticed losing a single pound a week is really really hard! (at least for me)

I've actually increased my exercise level gradually, doing more jump ropes, doing more weight training, increasing the resistant level on my eliptical, and yet, my weight loss is slower than ever.  Not discouraged or anything, but I say to myself over and over again, when I lose all the weight, there's no way I'm going back to where I am right now.  It's just TOO HARD.  A lesson learned.  I'm going to post some pictures taken from our Thanksgiving dinner at my parent's house as I end this post. Thanks for reading.

Finally!

I'm officially under 200 pounds! My weight stayed under 200 lbs last 3-4 days consistently. Looks like it's real. I'm ahead of my weight loss schedule by a fraction, but I know I can ruin it ten times faster if I'm not sticking to what I'm doing right now.

It feels really good to see the number "1" in the front of my weight again. Gosh, I don't remember the last time I saw "1" on my scale. This morning, I weighed at 196-7, but I know I tend to weigh less in the morning hours. But I do understand that my weight loss is here to stay, not a temporary loss.

When I break 15 lbs weight loss mark, it will be a greatest achievement for me because I've never successfully lost over 15 lbs from my previous attempts. I still have over 30 pounds to lose, so it's not the time for a celebration.

October was tough. But it was a great start. To be honest, I started without a clear plan. I thought I would just start my weight loss journey once again anyway and figure out the plan as I go. I'm not regretting that I didn't have a clear plan at the start. I still feel that it was a huge step for me to stand up again and just walk a step at a time.

Now that we are approaching November, I'm ready to implement a few more steps to my weight loss plan. In October, I realized that every calorie counts, even veggies and fruits. I've started counting every single calorie I eat. For example, I ate exactly 353 calories this morning: 4 egg whites, 1 whole egg, mixed veggies, 1 tbsp of olive oil, 2 slices of mini pita, and a cup of detox tea.

I will be using my food journal until I get a clear sense of what I'm eating constantly. So in November, I will try to be more systematic with my weight loss plan and hope to cross my 200 lb borderline for the first time in many years and stay under 200 lbs.

Two weeks ago, I lost 5 lbs and I gained a little bit last week. I was worried that 5 lbs that I lost was temporary, but looks like it was real. Although I didn't meet my goal by a pound in October, I have high hopes for November.

I'm always looking for ways to make a different dish with the same ingredients.  Today, I came up with an idea to make a pizza out of whatever I had in my freezer.  I saw this recipe from some fitness forum long time ago, but I just couldn't find it today.

Anyway, I don't know if I missed anything, but it ended up pretty good.  It actually tasted good.  I didn't measure grams or anything, but it should be roughly 300-400 calories total.  The only thing I know for sure is that I used 4oz of 99% fat free chicken breast.

Ingredients :
4 oz organic chicken breast, sliced (not on the photo)
2 tbsp of low fat spaghetti sauce (not on the photo)
1 organic whole wheat tortilla
1/2 tomato, sliced
1/2 cup of Baby Bella mushrooms
1/2 cup of organic mixed pepper strips
Little bit of low-fat cheese

It took me about 10 minutes to make this healthy pizza. I only used healthy ingredients and used very little olive oil. About 1/2 tbsp. So try it. It is easy and tasty!

Yesterday was my week 4 since the new start.  During week 2 and 3, my weight topped at around 208 from 204.2 then it went down to 205.8.  That was the weirdest week.  I kept everything the same but I gained almost 2 lbs.  I was sad.

But this week, I lost 5 lbs! totally unexpected.  Maybe jumping ropes helped a little.  But what I did was since week 3, I exercised extra 30 minutes everyday and stopped eating 2 snacks that I usually eat during the meals (nuts and yogurt).  I didn't expect it to make this much difference, to be honest.  I don't know if this was a temporary weight loss due to the change in my meal plan, but I hope I can keep this weight and stay ahead of my weight loss schedule.

November will be really tough for me because there are at least 4 birthday parties to go plus the big Thanksgiving dinner.

I'm currently doing 30 minutes of elliptical at home and stretching for about 10 minutes everyday. I think because of my long history of yo yo dieting, my body is just not responding to exercise. At least, that's what I think is happening.

I've decided to add more exercises. Since last week, I'm doing jump ropes every night. I started with 500 jumps and will be adding 50 more every week. I'm currently doing 550. When I had a membership at the Lifetime Fitness Center, I exercised at least 1 hour each session, but exercising at home, for more than an hour is pretty challenging.

13 days have gone already since I re-started my diet. So far, I'm doing OK. Not losing weight fast, but I see some progress with my eating habits. To start with, I didn't plan on drastically reducing my daily food intake. I was more focusing on replacing unhealthy food with more healthier food.

Today, I visited the Tysons Galleria in Norther Virginia with my wife to exchange a gift that we've received. We planned on eating out. We ended up eating at the food corner in the mall. Fortunately, because Tysons Galleria is a upscale shopping mall, there was plenty of gourmet food available.

I ended up eating Gyro platter with Greek salad. It wasn't bad at all. Gyro smelled like...hmm Gyro.. if you know what I mean. Anyway the food looked healthy and my stomach was full! When I left the house, I was really concerned about the lunch, but it worked out pretty well today.