Stressed and self-destructive. And yet I lost a pound:

• 221 pounds
• 29% body fat
• Blood Pressure 138/80

Oi. Things aren’t going to get any better for me until I finish something for MobyGames that I’ve been putting off.

Bad week; I was somewhat self-destructive.

• 222.5 pounds
• 28.5% body fat
• Blood Pressure 139/80

0.5 increase in both.  I’m going to start running when I get some mobygames and demodvd obligations finished.

Did some exercise, but had a very stressful week that I coped with by self-medicating with food. So, we have the puzzling results of:

• 222 pounds
• 28% body fat
• Blood Pressure 125/79

2 pound increase, 2% body fat loss. Joy. I think my days of dieting only are just about over… I can feel my metabolism slowing down to cope with the lack of calories I’m ingesting.

Normally I take my blood pressure on Monday using a machine at the office, and then edit it into Sunday’s measurement post so I can keep the measurements together. But I got a shock when I took my blood pressure today:

• Blood pressure 117/75

I didn’t believe it, so I took it again, and got a similar result. Took off my sweater, did it a third time — similar result.

So what happened? How did I go from Hypertension Stage 1 (last week’s 135/79) to Normal (117/75) in a single week? The only thing that changed that I can think of is that I exercised last night — for a grand total of 10 minutes joking around with Melissa during her actual workout. 10 minutes.

That can’t possibly be it, right? That’s the only thing different between last week and this week!

No surprises:

• 220.5 pounds
• 30% body fat

Half a pound loss for the week.  This isn’t a surprise to me; I slacked off a bit. I’m getting back up on the horse for the next week and see if it helps. If not, it’s time to get physically active.

Pleasant surprise today:

• 221.5 pounds
• 30% body fat
• Blood pressure 135/79

Lost pounds, body fat percentage, and blood pressure. Looks like there’s still life in the program I’m following (which has no formal definition, just “eat less, eat healthier, eat more often”).

One of my favorite places to eat around my workplace is a neat little place called Baja Fresh. It’s a texmex place that makes your orders from fresh ingredients (you can watch them preparing it, they’ll chop up a tomato then immediately put it on your food, etc.). Black bean burritos, nachos with grilled chicken, everything you can think of texmex is made fresh on the spot and it tastes wonderful.

Well, they’re evil. I’d like to think that I’m not completely ignorant regarding nutrition, but I used to think that, since everything was fresh and non-processed, it was really good for me, right? How can I possibly gain weight eating it? Lo and behold, I went to Baja Fresh’s website and looked up the nutritional information for my favorite Nachos, and sweet mother of crap it tops the scales at over 2000 calories! That’s more than I eat in a single day!

On hearing that, Melissa joked that I could probably eat more food, that was better for my weight, and cost less at Taco Bell — and even though she was joking, she’s right. Two soft tacos are 430 calories, according to their website. Hell, a chicken Gordita Supreme (sour cream, three cheeses) is only 290!

So now I’m left thinking how ironic this is: freshly-prepared, organic, chemical and preservative-free food at one place is bad for you, while friggin’ Taco Bell is better.

Whether this is progress or scale variance is up to the reader:

• 224.5 pounds
• 31.5% body fat
• Blood Pressure 145/82

The Red Robin Bleu Ribbon Burger I had last night (1250 calories) for Sam’s birthday dinner probably didn’t help :-) I think that exercise is around the corner because my blood pressure is getting worse, not better. Next week will probably be obvious (in terms of course of action to be taken).