First American Idol post of 2009

Unfortunately, thanks to joining the concert band, I no longer have Tuesday night TV. That means that I will not be a regular watcher of AI this season, so I won't be able to do my usual analysis on my blog.

Thanks to our new President, however, this week I was able to see what was up since he pre-empted AI on Tuesday and Fox decided to go on Wednesday instead.

My impressions are that the guys are really good this year and the girls are pitiful. I think the best singers are Adam Lambert and Matt Giraud, with Danny Gokey and Kris Allen right behind. Based on this week's voting which put Matt in the bottom two, however, I'd have to say that Adam and Danny are probably the most popular.

Allison Iraheta is a wild-card at this point, and her future performances will tell whether she can figure into the competition. It looks like with the exception of Matt, the voting each week is more about the performances rather than favorites so far.

My rankings of those who remain:
1. Adam Lambert
2. Matt Giraud
3. Danny Gokey
4. Kris Allen
5. Allison Iraheta
6. Anoop Desai
7. Lil Rounds
8. Scott McIntyre
9. Meghan Joy

I firmly believe that Meghan and Scott will go down in the next two weeks, leaving a very good competition between the other seven. Lil is talented but pales in comparison to similar singers from previous seasons and I think she won't make it past the two weeks following. Allison is intriguing and will have to show versatility and consistency to make it into the final five. Anoop is popular but will need to show something more spectacular than he has so far to crack the final five. I believe it will be Adam and Danny at the end, with Adam winning. If Adam somehow loses out earlier, I think the judges will save him because he is the most marketable of the bunch.

I Found Another One

We went walking last night around the neighborhood, and I discovered that a neighbor had gastric bypass 3 years ago. We talked for almost an hour, comparing notes. Apparently, spaghetti is going to be a problem for me. Last week we had some and it got stuck ,and last night we had angel hair pasta and it got stuck. The neighbor said that he had the same problem with pasta today - 3 years after his surgery. I guess I'd better put off that trip to Italy for a few decades.

254 today, by the way. More clothes are being bagged for a big yard sale in our future. I am seriously reducing my wardrobe while I'm at it. At this rate, I'll lose 100 pounds before I see the surgeon for my second post-surgery appointment in April.

I think I have the skin sag under control at the moment. The secret is weight training targeting the muscles under the places where the sag is starting.

This Week...

I took the day off work today - and not to watch basketball, either. I fully expect my Tar Heels to lose and go home to rest before the NCAAs, so I'm not wasting my time with the ACC tournament this year.

No, I'm just tired. This started with daylight savings time, which forced all of us on this half of the USA to lose an hour of sleep to reset our clocks ahead an hour. I have been sleepy and lethargic all week. I noticed on Wednesday that I seem to revive for about an hour after a meal, and that alarms me a little, because it means I'm burning the food I eat immediately for energy and not utilizing stored fat for energy. I'm guessing that I'm eating too many carbs and not enough protein, though I've been drinking my protein drinks like usual. I still have a tiny bit of nausea when I eat something heavy, so eating meat is not as easy as I would like.

Anyway, today's vacation will consist of shopping for smaller pants, getting a passport photo taken so I can send it off for renewal, lunch at Mama Fu's, and then going to see a matinee of Watchmen.

I weighed in at 258 today. Pants size is now 42, and XL shirts now fit comfortably. Aside from the energy problem, I feel healthy.

This weekend's activities

We're going to Wilmington (the beach, for you non-NC natives) for a birthday party. The first domino in a stack of 40th birthdays has fallen, and all my buddies from high school and college will shortly be having them. Mine's in August, but by then I'm sure I'll be tired of parties with black balloons.

Anyway, the weather should be great, as Monday's snow has all melted and the temperature should be near 80 degrees on Saturday and Sunday.

I'm down to 262, if you notice on the tracker at the right. Very shortly, I'll be entering the 250-range, which was the first point I said I would be satisfied with back when this all started. Of course, I'm not satisfied at all yet, and I hereby renounce those statements.

I'm losing all the fat on my arms and the skin around my triceps is flapping. I'm concentrating on that area in the gym and I think it's getting better. The stuff I've been reading says that weight training will get rid of the fat that clings to the loose skin and allow it to tighten up, so that's the goal. Lots of pull-downs, tricep dips, and butterfly exercises.

I'm eating pretty much whatever I want now, and my portion size fluctuates from "tiny" to "oh my god, did I just eat all of that?". Obviously, some things are going down better than others. Today's un-diet was a ham biscuit for breakfast which took a couple of hours to finish, a quarter of a french dip sandwich for lunch, and a tiny bit of spaghetti with a piece of garlic bread for dinner, followed by a little sugar-free ice cream at 9pm. Dinner took awhile to go down for some reason when logic would dictate that it would be the easiest thing I ate all day. There is still no rhyme or reason to what foods agree with me or not.

So here I am, almost 90 days post-surgery. This is still the second-best decision I've ever made.