Lose the Weight and the Trip Will Be Great - Our Disney Trip for Easter Week '10

[ryansall]

Welcome, everyone! Ours is a complex story, that really focuses not on the adorable family you will see shortly, but on the progenitor, provider and provicator of that family....me!

That's me in December of 2008, on our trip to Disney World for my DS's 7th birthday. At the time, I weighed 248 pounds, the heaviest I had ever been. My beautiful bride, meanwhile:

Had dropped from a post-pregnancy high of 172 pounds down to her fighting weight of 135. As you might imagine, this made me feel rather, um...inadequate and like I wasn't living up to my end of the marriage contract. What to do?

So, January of last year, I started dieting. Then, I started exercising. We schedule a trip to the World for Memorial Day week, staying at the Poly. My goal was to get down to 215 pounds by the time we left, so I could enjoy my trip without dieting. With lots of this - - from the wifey, I made it!!!!

You can read about that trip at the link in my siggie, but suffice to say it was a dream come true. Unfortunately, the rest of the year did not follow suit.

I gained back 5 pounds, but managed to keep exercising throughout the year, and stayed at 220, the lowest I had been since 2002, for the entire year.

Here's the after picture, during our Halloween trip:

(On a side note, is that a hot woman or what? Love ya, baby!)

So, over the holidays in 2009, I ate what I wanted, when I wanted, how I wanted. I can't deprive myself at Christmas!

When I went back to work in January, I was at 227.5, the highest I had been since the previous April. I screwed up my determination again, and decided that I would lose those 27.5 pounds before I went to Disney again.

So, you would imagine, having been through a rather rigorous time last year, that I would set a reasonable and achievable goal for myself, like mid-summer or something like that, right?

Yeah, right! Spring Break was the week after Easter, and I didn't have another break at work until mid-summer. Couldn't hold out that long, so we scheduled the trip for April 5-11. So, only 27.5 pounds to lose in 3 months and 1 week. No sweat?

Next time: how did I do it, or did I? And what is our plan?

 

[ryansall]

So, my mind made up to start losing weight, I began the task of figuring out how to do it. When I started in January, I had 13 weeks to lose 27.5 pounds before our trip. That's just a little over 2 pounds a week.

But, the weight I put on over Christmas was going to be easy. Quick to put on, quick to get off. Last year, when I lost all that weight, it was by running on our treadmill 4-5 nights a week for 30 minutes at a time, so that was my plan this time.

Well, throughout January, I did okay, but not great. As I predicted, the 7.5 pounds of peppermint, Xmas cookies, turkey dinners and more came off rather quickly. By the end of the month, I was down to 219 pounds. But that was still 19 pounds away from my goal, and I only lost 0.5 pounds the last week of January.

Something had to change. So, I restricted my diet even more, and...bought a Wii.

Long story, but we had extra money and we had always wanted one. We set up family Wii night with the kids, but DW bought the Wii Fit with her birthday money. This was a revelation!

Once we got it set up, it was a simple task to incorporate 15 minutes of Wii Fit into my workout routine, along with the treadmill. Along with the newly restricted diet, the pounds started coming off again. But I was up to 45 minutes a night, and no cheat days on my diet.

I was used to having one cheat day a week from last year, but the weight wasn't coming off when I did that, so I cut out the cheats and buckled down. It was working, too...

By Valentine's Day, I was down 5 more pounds, to 214. With 7 weeks to go until the trip, if I could keep up the 2 pounds/wk loss, then I would be all set. Until February 22...and the treadmill died.

It was the end! No treadmill, no gym membership, no way to workout except the Wii Fit! What would I do?

 

[crazyforgoofy]

I'm hooked. What WILL you do????

 

[ryansall]

It's 9:30 at night, February 22. I'm sitting, head in my hands, having just weighed. I was at 212 pounds, still 12 pounds away from my goal. But, in my treadmill session only moments earlier, the treadmill had gone wild, switching from 5 mph to 10 mph and then shutting down altogether. Later reports would confirm the time of death at 9:14 pm. 8 years together, and it was gone.

What now? I didn't want to go to Disney and have to eat diet food. What fun is Disney World without school bread, Mickey bars, Dole Whip, fish and chips, Butterfinger cupcakes and beers of the world?

"What can I do?" my dear wife asked.

"Nothing," I said. "I guess it just wasn't meant to be. I'm headed back up to 220."

"You can't do that," she said. "You've worked too hard."

I nodded, but what could I do? I went to bed that night sad as could be. All I could figure was to step up my Wii Fit time, but it would take an hour of Wii Fit a night to burn as many calories as I was doing on the treadmill, let alone the combination of the two.

The next night, I came home, unsure of what to do. It was 29 degrees outside, so I couldn't run outside, and besides, running on pavement was really hard for me. Bad back, you know.

After dinner and putting the kids to bed, the wife told me to change into my workout clothes. I started to protest, but she refused to listen.

I changed, came into the living room and she was there with the Wii Fit.

"Do about five minutes of Yoga or Strength Training," she said. I gave her one of these and did as she asked.

When I was done, she dragged me to the back of the house, opened up the door to the upstairs bonus room and pointed at the stairs.

"Up and down. Seven times. Even pace."

I looked at her confused again, but she wasn't asking! So, up and down the stairs I went. Then, back to the Wii Fit for five more minutes, then back to the stairs, etc. This went on for the better part of an hour, until I had done 4 rounds on the stairs and 30 min of Wii.

I was skeptical, to say the least. But the next morning, I woke up, dragged myself to the scale, and weighed. 210.5! I had lost 1.5 pounds in one day doing the stairs and Wii!

My new workout routine is 5 sets of 10 times up and down the stairs, with 30 minutes of Wii Fit interspersed. It's a lot, taking me about an hour and fifteen minutes every night, but it's worth it. I've managed to avoid having to replace the treadmill, and as of this morning, I'm down to 205! 5 pounds to go, and three weeks to get there!

 

[ryansall]

So, woke up this morning at 204.5! Got 1.5 pounds to go this week, and 4.5 before April 4.

Our plan for this trip was to scale back the budget a bit, and try to keep it under $2,000. For reference, our last big trip, to the Poly last May, was over $3,500. We had to cut back this year.

So, knowing that we had to be in church on Easter Sunday I started looking at check-ins on Monday, April 5, checking out that Sunday, April 12. We found out that staying on property wasn't going to happen. I have an AP, but DW and the kids don't have tickets, so a 6 nt pkg with tickets and DDP was over our budget.

What to do? We had not stayed off property in years, but it looked like the choice was off property or nothing, to stay in our budget. So, here we go:

We found a 3 bdrm villa for $550 checking in Sunday, leaving Sat morn.

Hotel on Sunday nt the way down and Saturday nt the way back was $150.

I got tickets through Undercover Tourist - 6 day MYW tix for DW and both kids came up to $600.

That put us at $1300 before the most important thing - FOOD! How would that go? Well....

 

[ryansall]

So, with $700 to play with, we started looking to see how much Disney food we could afford. Research time!

With my AP, we could get Tables in Wonderland for $75, which would save us 20% off, or basically take care of the tip at a sit down, or take some of the alcohol off at bars/lounges. So, here is the plan we came up with:

Sun, Apr 4
B&L - with the family at home for Easter
D - On the road ($20)

Mon, Apr 5
B - Included at Cabot Lodge in Lake City
L - PBJ in the car before we arrive in WDW
S - Garden View Tea ($80) - expensive, but we really wanted to do it
D - Pizza off property ($20)

Tue, Apr 6 - DHS
B - Groceries at the villa ($10)
L - 50's Prime Time ($60)
D - Counter Service at DHS ($40)

Wed, Apr 7 - MK
B - Groceries ($10)
L - Pecos Bill's ($40)
D - Off Property ($25)

Thurs, Apr 8 - AK
B - Groceries ($10)
L - Yak and Yeti ($65)
D - Cooke's of Dublin ($35)

Fri, Apr 9 - Epcot
B - Boardwalk Bakery ($20)
L - Biergarten ($60)
D - Snacks around WS ($50)

Sat, Apr 10 - MK and road home
B - Kona ($30)
L - Pinocchio Village Haus ($40)
D - Off property as we hit the road ($30)

So, add it all up, and we come out to $635, plus the $75 for TIW = $710, putting me $10 over budget. We'll cut back as much as we can, but that's our plan. What do you guys think?

 

[ryansall]

So, woke up this morning to weigh...and I'm still at 204.5!

My goal at the end of the week is to make it to 203, so I'm behind the 8 ball. I have to lost 1.5 lbs by Saturday morning, and I'm not sure it's going to happen.

My issue is that it's a domino effect - if I don't make 203, it'll be harder to make 201 by next week, or 200 by the time we leave. Then, it'll be hard for me to enjoy Disney because I won't be able to eat the same way.

I could use a few of these this morning:

 

[Disneychix]

Here are some for ya but I have to tell you to not be so hard on yourself! What you've accomplished so far is amazing!

Think of all the walking you'll do in WDW to make up for some of the 'extras' you'll be consuming!

Our treadmill died a few years ago while DH was running on it. It speed up to level 10 and threw him off! I heard the whole thing happen from the floor above. Dh told me the treadmill tried to kill him!
We just replaced it this year after a 1.5 year lapse. It turned out to be cheaper than joining the gym and we love the convienence of it!

 

[ryansall]

Posted by Disneychix
Here are some for ya but I have to tell you to not be so hard on yourself! What you've accomplished so far is amazing!

Thanks. I know I shouldn't be so hard on myself, but it would just be awful to work this hard, and be on track to make my goal all the way up until 2 weeks to go! I'm trying harder today. I had an egg white and cheese sandwich on an english muffin for breakfast, then an apple, and a small spinach salad and veggie soup for lunch. I have a protein bar for a snack and will have chicken chili for dinner.

Hopefully, I can get to 203.5 by tomorrow morning. If I do that, I think I can make it.

Here's a monkey wrench - I'm going to a Miranda Lambert concert tomorrow night, so no working out, and I'm likely to have an adult beverage or two. I'm going to try to resist, but c'mon, it's a country concert, in a country bar.

Keep your fingers crossed for me that things go well tonight and tomorrow morning!

 

[ryansall]

So, I worked my tail off last night, and I made it to 203.5 this morning. If I can lose a half pound between now and Sunday, then I'll be on track. That'll be tough with the concert tonight, but I think it's doable.

I have to say, though, that the Disboards has been a godsend in this quest. I'm someone who needs goals and tangible rewards at the end of a process like this. So, browsing the Restaurant board for pics has been the best thing. My wife laughs, but I think I lose more weight looking at food p0rn than I do exercising!

With that in mind, here's some of my favorite pics from our last long trip in May of last year.

This is the taco salad from El Pirata y el Perico in Adventureland. This is a favorite of DW. She thinks it's one of the best counter service joints in the MK, behind Pecos Bill's, which is usually too crowded for us. I don't like it quite as much, but the taco "salad" is pretty good. I put salad in quotes because when you take it away from the counter, there's no lettuce in the shell! Just meat! You have to add the lettuce and everything else. And of course, on vacation, we all love to add healthy stuff to our meals!

My first plate at Tusker House for lunch. This was the only part of the meal I really liked. I love African style cuisine, but the salads and dips are my favorite part. The hummus, salads, etc. are divine. Didn't care for the rest of the buffet as much, but that might have something to do with how hot it was!

Breakfast plate at Akershus! This was my favorite meal of our last trip. The eggs, bacon, etc. were super fresh, better than Chef Mickey's or anything else we had, and the pastries were divine as well. Plus, there was this:

Adorable, isn't she? I think this trip she's dressing up as Tiana instead. She loves Princess Tiana.

Dole Whip. 'Nuff said.

Pizza and mac n' cheese from Wolfgang Puck Express. Real healthy, right? This was a new find for us last trip. We'd never even seen it! But the kids loved it and so did I!

Frozen Coke from Scuttle's Landing and the new Figaro Fries. I never got to experience the old Figaro Fries with the lettuce and tomato, so I didn't have anything to compare this to, but it was pretty good for a snack. Especially with the ranch dressing on it.

I'll keep looking, but please feel free to share your motivating pics here! 3.5 pounds and 2 weeks to go!

 

[ryansall]

Good morning, everyone! Don't know if anyone's reading, but I'm having fun posting, so I'm going to keep going.

It was a crazy weekend here in the ATL. Friday night went to Miranda Lambert concert, and she didn't go on until 11:30! Managed to avoid adult beverages and lost down to 203 on Sat morn!

Saturday was 75 degrees and sunny, then Sun was 55 and rain, and today it's 34 and snowing.

The good news is, as of this morning, I lost down to 201.5 pounds!

That leaves only 1.5 pounds to go in the next two weeks! I varied up my workout routine, not working out Friday night, then doing an afternoon workout on Saturday, then only doing Wii last night. It worked!

So, I think I'll make my goal of 200 before we leave. Here's my next dilemma:

We spend the night in Lake City, FL on Sunday, April 4. We'll be driving down to WDW the next morning, on April 5, with plans to head to a park first, before checking into our vacation home. We have reservations for the Garden View Lounge Afternoon Tea at the Grand Floridian @ 3:40. It should take us about 3 hrs to get to the World, so realistically, we'll probably get there around 11 a.m.

What park should we go to? At first I thought MK, because it's right there, but we're going to MK for two full days, Wed and Sat. So now I'm thinking maybe Epcot, knowing that we would lose time in the drive over to the Grand Floridian. What do you guys think?

 

[Anna114]

I would go to EPCOT. This way you can take the monorail to the ttc and switch monorails to the GF. I would keep to future world so it won't take you so long.

 

[ryansall]

Posted by Anna114 I would go to EPCOT. This way you can take the monorail to the ttc and switch monorails to the GF. I would keep to future world so it won't take you so long.

I thought about that. But since we're driving I don't want to have to go back to EPCOT to get our car. We want to leave the GF and go over to DtD and get some Goofy's Candy Co treats for later that night.

Maybe we could park at TTC and take the monorail over. That might work!

On another note, this morning I'm at 201 lbs! Only 1 lb to go.

So, I'm looking around for what I'm going to eat in town to celebrate. I'm thinking Five Guys Burgers and Fries! (drool). Probably tomorrow if I keep this rate up!

 

[Anna114]

I thought about that. But since we're driving I don't want to have to go back to EPCOT to get our car. We want to leave the GF and go over to DtD and get some Goofy's Candy Co treats for later that night.

Maybe we could park at TTC and take the monorail over. That might work!

On another note, this morning I'm at 201 lbs! Only 1 lb to go.

So, I'm looking around for what I'm going to eat in town to celebrate. I'm thinking Five Guys Burgers and Fries! (drool). Probably tomorrow if I keep this rate up!

Having a car changes everything. Go where ever the heck you want lol. Congrats on the weight loss! I know the great feeling 43 down and 32 to go (Only 12lbs to my goal for Disney!)

 

[ryansall]

Originally posted by Anna114 Having a car changes everything. Go where ever the heck you want lol. Congrats on the weight loss! I know the great feeling 43 down and 32 to go (Only 12lbs to my goal for Disney!)

Congrats yourself. 43 pounds is awesome!

It's been a rough week for me. I thought I was going to hit my goal by Wednesday and be able to have a treat meal, but I've been pretty slow to lose weight. In fact, I'm up to 201 today. No big worries, because I was scheduled to be 201 on Saturday, so there's still time, but if I'm not at 200 on Saturday, I have too much going on to work out over the weekend.

Anyone else go insane the weekend before their trip starts? We have to get new tires, I need new clothes (mine don't fit anymore), we have a soccer game Saturday and Sunday, dinner with our Sunday School class on Saturday night, our son is singing in church Sunday, and we have lunch with my parents on Sunday. Whew!

It seems like no matter how hard I try, we always end up going nuts the weekend before our trip, trying to get things together. Is that just me?

 

[Disneychix]

Wow, you are busy in the next few days!

Please don't beat yourself up over the last couple pounds! I think you are driving right? Just tie a rope around your waist and jog next to the car for a few of the miles! You'll be at 200 in no time!
Seriously, enjoy you trip and enjoy the feeling of being so light and walking around the parks!

 

[ryansall]

Originally posted by Disneychix Wow, you are busy in the next few days!

Please don't beat yourself up over the last couple pounds! I think you are driving right? Just tie a rope around your waist and jog next to the car for a few of the miles! You'll be at 200 in no time!
Seriously, enjoy you trip and enjoy the feeling of being so light and walking around the parks!

Yeah, I didn't even include the fact that my alma mater (Tennessee! Go Vols!) is playing in the Sweet Sixteen tomorrow night, or that I need to get Braves tickets for the weekend after we get back sometime on Saturday. That also doesn't include packing, getting my emissions tested on my car before next Thursday, and cleaning up our house, which is a disaster area right now.

I like your idea! It would make the trip go faster!

I'm not too worried, as I was supposed to be 201 by Saturday, and I've been there all week, so I know I'll get that last stubborn pound off. It's just a matter of if I do it today or tomorrow and can take the weekend off from working out or not. Here's hoping!

 

[mousetravel]

Subbing! We're gonna be there the same time as you! And we're practically neighbors! I'm also driving there, but we're not staying in a hotel on the way there, maybe coming back we will! We won't have the Disney adrenaline to keep us going!

 

[ryansall]

*********** Subbing! We're gonna be there the same time as you! And we're practically neighbors! I'm also driving there, but we're not staying in a hotel on the way there, maybe coming back we will! We won't have the Disney adrenaline to keep us going!

Cool! Have a great time!

So, some today. Woke up at 202! I was supposed to be 201 this morning, and I've gained 1.5 lbs since Tuesday! I can't keep gaining weight, or I will be over before we leave. Not panicking too much, because I could easily lose that one pound today, but since Friday is my non-exercise day, I'm a little worried.

Regardless, I have a tough road ahead this weekend and next week, so thanks everyone for your positive vibes.

 

[ryansall]

As of this morning, I made it to 200 pounds! It is time for the Disney week to begin!

Great weekend, but really busy. Over the weekend, I managed to do the following:

Get new tires for our car
Get emissions tested and pay ad valorem tax
Get my Braves tickets for 2010
Get new jeans for our trip
Get Easter baskets for the kids
Watch my Volunteers win Friday, lose Sunday
Go to 2 soccer games for my son
Have dinner out with friends on Saturday
Go to Sunday School then watch my son sing in church
Have lunch with my Mom and Dad
Finish a book

Whew!

Now, it's countdown week. My birthday is Thursday, and we leave on Sunday. I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to make it through the week. My usual mode is Disney dreaming all week, but it's a busy work week, so that's not going to happen. What do you guys do to make it through that last week before your trip?