Two Guys Lose Weight: Jimmy has vegetarian stir-fry -- better than beer and cigarettes

NOTE: This is a blog about two guys attempting to lose weight over a six-week period. They kicked off their weight loss “strategies” on Monday.

It sounded safe to eat…

Originally, the plan was just to grab a salad. But the line was too long. Just up the street though were two more restaurants: a pizza parlor and a noodle place. My colleague and I went for the noodles.

I ordered something that sounded healthy and low in calories: vegetarian stir-fry noodles.

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Once I tasted it, though, I knew I was toast. And although some people can stop halfway through a meal and have it boxed or actually just stop, I can’t. Or, more accurately, I won’t. Discipline in the middle of a meal? Nope.

Having no idea how many calories were in the dish (but numerous Google results indicate a lot) and that my goal was to drop 2 pounds per week over the next 12 weeks, I decided I would just abstain from eating for the rest of the day.

I e-mailed my former trainer Teri in Arizona for advice. She said the noodles weren’t a great pick and further did not endorse my decision to go without food for the rest of the day to make up for it.

Maybe it wasn’t a good idea. But it’s a vast improvement over one weight-loss strategy I employed in Washington, D.C., a long, long time ago.

A friend and I figured out that, using the Weight Watchers points plan, we could still drink 13 ½ beers per day and lose weight. Plus, all the cigarettes you could smoke.

Of course that left no points for any food…

Not a problem.

In the few days that we actually employed the “beer-and-cigarettes diet,” we were impressed to see that it actually worked. We were losing weight. And we weren’t all that hungry.

We even decided that we were going to write a book: “Smoking and Drinking Your Way to Health.”

Maybe we could have co-authored it with golfer John Daly. In his book he talked about losing 65 pounds with his cigarettes-popcorn-whiskey diet.

The one main problem with our diet was it really wasn’t sustainable. And although I’m not a doctor, I doubt it’s endorsed by the AMA.

Thinking back on that less-than-stellar decision, I decided that I would eat again after all.

After a vigorous hourlong workout session with my trainer, Mike, I headed home and cooked up some low-cal crab soup. Total calories: 320.

Total calories for the day? Who knows. I’ll be a better calorie counter today.

By the way, congrats to my partner, Tony, who joined a gym Tuesday (note the blistering 15-minute workout).

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