Mark: 20 weeks on the Lifestyle Modification Planand my trip to Olive Garden

Today marks 20 weeks on my Lifestyle Modification Plan. As of Friday's weigh in I've lost 96 pounds.

That's not too shabby! That's almost 5 pounds a week over a five month period. Just goes to show what diet and exercise can do for you.

I had decided that for my birthday I was going to reward myself with a birthday dinner. Yesterday I went to Olive Garden with Scott, Danielle, and their mom. Olive Garden was having their Never Ending Pasta Bowl which we all like.

It should be noted the last time we went to Olive Garden I was so big I could not bend over the table! This is something I am not at all proud of. Yesterday I was quite comfortable eating with the bowl on the table and I had room to spare.

Needless to say I was quite pleased to be able to enjoy a large meal!

I had salad as my side while the girls had soup and Scott just munched on bread sticks, and we ordered our first bowls of pasta.

Normally they bring you your first bowl in a large plate and then subsequent bowls come in a smaller size. I had them start out my traditional first bowl, which was Angel Hair pasta with meat sauce in the smaller bowl. I also ordered sausage with my meal. Having the protein helps slow the digestion of carbs, and I knew I was going to really blow my carb allowance! The past five months I have been religious on what I have been eating both in caloric and nutritional areas.

I managed to get through three bowls of pasta and think I could have done a fourth (I've done 6 in the past starting with the larger big bowl) but I did not want to be a total glutton.

The only thing marring the meal was the really poor service of the waiter to the point I had to talk to him about how displeased I was with his service. Sadly for him, the tip really reflected this.

We departed after biding farewell to the kids mom and as we approached the Mustang Scott pointed out that evidently some very large mutant avian creatures had quite befouled the rear trunk deck of the Mustang quite voluminously! So, we made an unscheduled swing by the car wash before swinging by Blockbuster to drop off Inkheart.

This morning after arising I had my usual nutrition shake before burning off 1100 calories on the exercise bike, I'm getting ready to have my second now for a total of 200 calories for the day thus far. Tomorrow is my birthday, we'll be heading somewhere for lunch that my older boy Chris likes, since he loathes pasta he did not join us for the festivities yesterday. My goal upon my next two week weigh in is to not have gained any weight, though I'm really striving to drop at least a pound or two in spite of the extra eating this week. We will see just how much exercise I can handle!!