Wednesday, December 31, 2008

One year ago a quarter ton man decided...

Finally there is a connection to the net in my home! Apparently we live far enough out in the boonies that they had to connect us to a remote box to get our signal to us and the box was full so no room for Mister Meatball, too bad they were not just honest from the get go about the whole thing I could have been less annoyed with the whole process. Anyways onto the post and I warn you in advance, I have a feeling it will be lengthy, It has been an entire year since I started on this path to a healthier me and I am astonished with the results. When I began eating and exercising last January, I weighed 534 pounds, thats more than a quarter of a ton! My shirt size was 6XL and I was starting to make those look like they were too small and my pants size was a stout 56 at the waist which is slightly less than 5 feet around! insane, I know, but facts are facts and that was me just 365 days ago. I could not walk for more than 5 minutes or so without excruciating pain in my lower back from an injury that I suffered years ago and being red faced and out of breath, walking to my car was far enough for me and sitting activities out was the norm.

Here is a look at me at my largest size, actually this was taken in the beginning of Jan 2008.


Another of my finest moments and the picture that started it all, this is August 2007.


Here we are just one year later, lets look at those measurements now, As of this morning I weighed 369 pounds which is 6 pounds higher than my lowest weight which was 363 pounds just before Thanksgiving and I have to admit that with the new home and all of whats been going on and toss in the holidaze I have been less than strict with my intake and the only exercise has been house work so maintaining is possible it would appear. My pants size is somewhere in the 44-46 area currently, I know that I would fit into a 44 but since I have no jeans in that size its only an assumption going off of how the 46's fit so 10-12 whole inches difference there. My shirts are no longer a "on the big side" of 6XL pushing a 7XL but rather on the small side of a 4XL and actually my Wify bought me a nice new hoodie for Christmas that is a 3XLT that fits just about perfectly so I am down three whole shirt sizes as well. For exercise I now walk for 30-40 minutes and that takes me between 1.6 and 2 miles on average with me stopping only because of the time and not the distance. To say that the differences are extraordinary simply does not describe it.


Here is a shot of me in that 3XLT hoodie


Here is a comparison that shows last Dec up to today, thats the 3XLT hoodie again in the second shot.


This past year has taught me a lot, I have learned that food is not for entertainment but in fact it is simply nutrition and fuel for my body. The most important lesson of the year that was learned is that I am responsible for what goes into my body, I am the one that decides whether I will put that bacon double cheeseburger down my pie hole or not, nobody else makes that decision. In 2008 I have lost a Grand total of 165 pounds as of this morning and I did it simply by watching what I ate and exercising often but not as often as you would think I have to to drop that kind of weight. As I sit here typing this out I can remember writing my first post and thinking about how it would be great if I could stick to this for a couple weeks and thinking about how great losing 100 pounds in 2008 would be and all the while in the back of my mind thinking about how far fetched that idea felt yet feeling driven beyond anything I have ever known before.

Then there is this pint of Ben & Jerry's that started it all in a way, a lot of you that read this blog regularly know of my pint that has waited an entire year to be eaten, It now has become an empty pint and I had some of it, I split it into 4 portions and it was shared between myself, wify and the kiddos. That statement alone speaks volumes, "some of it" last year it would have been ALL of it had I not decided that enough was enough and changed my life for the better. I have actually thought about how if Wify had not bought those two pints of Ben & Jerry's goodness 365 days ago I may not have even made that decision last year, I might have had a few drinks and woke up Jan 1st 2008 and went right back into auto pilot fork in hand and ate until there was no more. Sitting on the couch as Wify walked through the door with the ice cream seemed just plain old lazy and nasty to me and add that to the actual fear that I had about the possibility of death and here we are 165 pounds healthier than I was last year at this time. I must say for year old ice cream it was pretty good!



Last year the plan was to stick to the program and try to lose 100 pounds and that was not a resolution, it was simply just the breaking point for me to realize that I had to do something. This year I am going to hit my goal of weighing 275 pounds and I hope all of you fine people that have been following along and cheering me on will continue to do so and hopefully we can get a few more readers this year because support is something that there will never be in surplus. So a whole year has past and a lot of weight was lost, I have learned a lot about myself and about my body and 2009 can only be better. This appears to be my last post of 2008 but I have my internet back so there will be a post tomorrow at some point I am sure, I hope everyone has a great New Year's eve and heres to another great year of losing weight and getting healthy.

As always if you have made it through this post, which was especially long tonight, you deserve a big Ol glass of water so get on up and grab one before the alcohol starts a flowing for the evening, you will need it! Thank you for following along and thanks for the support. Lastly, if I can drop 165 pounds in a years time you can too, it is a matter of determination and drive with a splash of discipline added for good measure so start right now if you have not already begun to get healthy and if you have begun then stay the course.

As Ever
Me

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

An update from the big guy..

I still have no internet! I am at my mother in laws again so I thought I would bring my lap top and just pop in for a quick update as to why I have not been posting yet. AT&T was suppose to install my internet at the new house on Dec 23rd and here I am on the 30th and still no net! but don't worry about me I am on track with the eating ....sort of..and I will be eating that Ben & Jerry's tomorrow night! on MY terms this year! Here is a link to the first post about that now significant pint of goodness, http://zeusmeatball.blogspot.com/2008/04/reflecting-back-to-start-of-it-all.html If you search "Ben" you will find a few posts on my blog about this pint.

I have been what we shall all maintaining the past couple of weeks, I go up a few then come down a few like a see saw, and in all honesty I have not really been doing my part on the intake. Our house is still a mess and boxes are still around but we are getting there and I think once everything is settled in it will be much easier to get back into a strict groove. The good thing about these past few weeks is that it proves that I can maintain with barely any effort! but that I not the idea here, I still have a lot of weight to lose to hit my goal weight but have come a long way indeed. I hope to have my internet back in my home very soon and I WILL be posting regular like when that happens.

I have lots that I want to post with this being a full year of eating better and exercising and not having my internet is driving me nuts! Keep checking in and before you know it I will be back to posting daily and keeping everyone that cares to read this blog updated with my progress. Thank you all for your continued support as well as the E-mails that I am still getting, I do apologize that I cannot respond to them all at this time but I will when I have a permanent connection to the internet again. Now drop and give me 20! then get yourself a big tall glass of H2O and call it a night!

Thanks for following along

As Ever
Me


Sunday, December 21, 2008

Long time no write! I should be back on the 23rd!

I am currently sitting in my mother in laws house using her internet service and I wanted to get a post up. We are officially all moved into our new place and everything is going well, the paint has dried and the boxes are dwindling, I have not moved my body this much in years! between all of the painting, moving, fixing things, rearranging rooms 14 times each, Christmas shopping and now all of the shoveling of the snow its been very movement filled for me It has been snowing since Friday and there is a foot or more of snow around my house, I am loving every minute of it if I am being honest.

Now to business, I have not weighed myself in days, probably a week, I have not been eating bad but it has not been good either, partially because my lap top was not out in the open so I had to find it to use my excel sheet to track my food, yes I know that is no reason to not track it there is after all this stuff called paper that can be used but honestly like I mentioned and you can probably imagine I have been busy, and partially because I have been so busy and the refrigerator just has not been full to capacity with good for me eats. This afternoon I hopped on the scale after breakfast and lunch and was 369 pounds which is 6 pounds heavier than my lowest weight of 363 but I am not worried about it at all. I have not been drinking how I should be and the exercise has been up because of all of the things I have been doing, food is like I said not bad but not good. We did get a chance to go out and shop yesterday so there are now bananas, pears, grapes, apples and green tea in the house and I have my lap top out and available so its back to the norm and I am hoping to hit my 363 pound mark again within a week which may be wishful thinking but you know me. Here are a few pictures Wify snapped this afternoon.


The beginnings of our snow man, and me in a jacket that I have not fit into in some time.


This is shot off of my back porch looking into my back yard


The snow man is coming along.


This is a Hallmark ornament I bought for my wife because of the new home.


I should have internet service in the new place on Dec 23rd by 8:00 pm so I will surely be back to regular posting very soon again. I have to admit something, I miss posting on this blog and reading all of your comments as well as reading all of your blogs too! so I am happy to be getting my connection to the net back.

I look forward to getting back on track with the blog and writing daily again, until then stay hydrated and keep on keepin on.

Please excuse any spelling errors etc as I have a limited time online right now so I will not be checking this post.

As Ever
Me

Friday, December 12, 2008

The verdict is in, weigh in time once again.

This is likely the last post that I will make from this location, tomorrow is the big day and we are moving! I don't expect to post tomorrow but who knows, I don't know when I will have my internet set up at the new place but I can probably use my Mother in laws service to make a post if it will be a long period before I get it set up. Let me get right to the weigh in this morning, yesterday I said that I expected to get to 369 for this mornings weigh in and would have been happy with that but I have to say that I did not get 369 like I predicted. When I came downstairs I walked right past the scale not remembering that it was weigh in day and made myself a cup of green tea, sat down and raised the cup to take a drink and then remembered that I should weigh in before consuming anything. I stepped onto the scale and it flashed 367.0 across the display, so I thought ok thats wrong and moved the scale on the floor just in case it was not level, attempt number two revealed 367.4, hmmmm so onto the third time and 367.4 again so it looks like I am firmly back into the 360's again and I have surpassed what I expected to see this morning. That is four pounds less than yesterday morning man I must have been retaining a lot of fluid from all of the soreness, it seems odd to actually be holding that much fluid just because I was sore but the proof is in the pudding I guess. I am not going to do the whole "I lost this much" photos until I get back to 363 which was my pre Thanksgiving weight, instead I will just continue to report the weights as they happen, with any luck I will hit or exceed that number by this coming Friday.


Today and tomorrow I will be getting my share of movement, but tomorrow I do plan on a pizza lunch but I don't plan on over doing it so I am not worried about it. I know I know why "plan" for a pizza lunch? why not if there will be planning involved "plan" for a healthy lunch? welp because planning for a pizza lunch actually means not planning at all, its a simple phone call away where as a planned healthier meal would take a trip to the supermarket at some point because the cupboards are in fact bare at the present time because of the move as well as some prep, excuse? nope just the facts Ma'am. The following week or 2 will be a lot of busy work for me as well with getting the new place in order and making sure all of the boxes are stored where they need to be etc. Then there is Christmas right around the corner but unlike Thanksgiving I am only allowing myself to indulge for Christmas eve and day instead of the entire following week! this should be easier to accomplish as well because we are not cooking a dinner at our place for either event thus no left overs!

I am looking forward to having a room that is a dedicated exercise room or as my daughter calls it "The Yoga room" this will make getting my cardio in easy because I can head up there, close the door and not have to deal with distractions. Hopefully Wify can get into a rhythm and keep her yoga going on a regular basis as well, right now when she does her yoga she has to deal with the kids wanting to join in and our living room just does not work for her to get into it while two kids fumble around her legs asking "like this mom?" so hopefully the larger space in the new room will either allow the kids to fumble around in their own space or let her close the door behind her and now allow them in, though she is excited that my daughter wants to join her.

Thank you for following along and wish me luck because tomorrow I will need it! it is suppose to be clear and sunny but only about 30 degrees so a bit cold but at least it should be dry for the move.

As Ever
Me

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Busy busy busy

This will be a quick post as I have lots to do today but I wanted to get something up here. This morning I jumped on the scale and it read 371.2 so down almost 2 pounds from yesterdays morning weight, I am less sore today and I am figuring that I will settle around 369 by tomorrow morning, we shall see. At 9:57 am as I type this I am half way through a gallon of green tea and I have been emptying the second floor of our apt of boxes all morning (there wasn't a lot up there) and I am going to make a trip to the new place with a load of odd shaped things and fragile items pretty much as soon as I hit publish on this post. yesterday I came in at 1560 calories and had to drink some milk before bed so that it wouldn't be 1340 calories, that is just too low for my liking but then again with the week I have had it probably wouldn't have hurt me.

The plan for today is to consume no more than 1500 calories and drink 1.5 gallons of fluid most of which will be green tea. I don't think that I will find the time but I want to ride the bike today if possible but like I said I will be doing a lot of busy work today getting loose ends in boxes and making sure everything is where it needs to be so when Saturday gets here all we have to do is load the truck and go, ahhh that will be a full on exercise day for sure, so with that this post has concluded and I am off to run a few errands and get those fragile items into a closet at the new place. Thank you all for reading and you all deserve a big glass of water, also if you read all of this why not give yourself a treat and do either 10 push ups, 10 sit ups or 10 squats!

As Ever
Me

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

A fat squirrel told me the pizza was ok..

As I stood in my front doorway looking out through the half moon shaped window at a squirrel eating a nut in my drive way I noticed that he was twice the size as he was just a few weeks ago. Now I know that it might not have been the same one that I was looking at a week ago but all of the squirrels are fat right now, I feed them our old bread smeared with some peanut butter now and again and enjoy watching them chase each other around the yard. While I was watching him enjoy his nut it dawned on me that he was storing fat for the cold winter months for warmth as well as nourishment and I thought about how I seem to be doing the same thing right now because I am up in weight, theres my confession. I am not up in weight by a pound or even two, this morning I weighed in at 372.6 pounds which is just about but not quite ten pounds higher than my lowest recorded weight since starting this losing weight game. If not for me rationalizing the gain by comparing myself to the squirrels that I watch chase each other around my yard I think I would be upset with the gain. I know that I am retaining some fluid because I am sore all over from all of the work I have done in the last week and I am holding lubrication in for damage control, I weighed three pounds heavier yesterday morning than this morning and there is no way that I dropped three pounds in a day, hydration is key.

In the last day or so I did bring back the basic routine of eating 1700 or less calories in a day, I have also dropped the diet mountain dew that I have been drinking and am back onto pure water and or green tea exclusively again. yesterday I had a banana with peanut butter on it for breakfast and a Subway for lunch, then we brought a container of turkey soup to the new place and heated it up for dinner. I drank 2 gallons of green tea yesterday and put in a full days work painting and working in the new place, I feel good about the day. I am back to normal again, I relaxed on being strict because of how hectic its been with working on the new place and boxing the old place up, this was all coming off of Thanksgiving as well. See that ball on the ground? guess who dropped it, yep it was me and I honestly don't feel bad about it, life happens and I would not have finished the improvements on the new place had I nickel and dimed my intake all week, I know that I could have made better choices but I didn't so no need to dwell on it.


Like those squirrels I guess the cold weather came and my body felt the need to pack some away for a rainy day, or maybe it was just a fat man taking the first chance he had to grab some goodies and shove em down his pie hole. Honestly I don't think its either of those, it was the convenience of being able to order a pizza and keep on working that got me. In the last 5 days we totally refinished the interior of an entire four bedroom house and if I had spent the time that I would have needed to on buying and packing then preparing meals that would have fit within my 1700 calorie limit the honest truth is that I would not have finished what I needed to. The fact is that I am moving this coming weekend and there is barely food in the house that is not canned or bought on the day that we plan on eating it but I should be able to stay within my limits all week, I fully expect this weekend to be some of the same with the intake because it will just plain old be easier to finish moving in in a single day if I do not concern myself with stopping for a meal, its much faster for me to grab a slice or two out of an ordered pizza box and keep moving than it will be to stop everything and run out to buy something healthy or prepare it fresh all while measuring each portion like I do normally. You may say, "These sound a lot like excuses fat man" but to that I say just remember I am the guy that has lost more than 160 pounds this year on sheer determination and hard work, I make no excuses I just do what make sense at the time.

I want to thank everyone that has continually given me support and left me some great comments throughout this entire process of dropping an entire human being, I want you all to know that I do read every one and I try respond to most if not all of my emails and comments, this past week excluded with the responding back to everything because I have had next to no "Me" time, it has just been as hectic as hectic can possibly be around here. once we are all moved in and settled and my new rec/exercise room is completed and filled up with our equipment (which is not very much) I am sure that I will be back to my regular ol self.

Sincerely, Thank you all who keep me on track with your comments and support.

PS: drink some water!

As Ever
Me

Monday, December 8, 2008

Soreness and some pictures of why.

After a Long weekend Monday is here and I wish I could say that I had an awesome weekend where nutrition is concerned, but I can't. I have been eating take out food pretty much all weekend mostly so that we could keep on moving forward with the projects in the new place, and I know that I am not drinking as much as I should be. I can say that I am sore from the tips of my toes right on up to my head! man this painting, wrecking, rebuilding, cleaning and on and on is a lot of work! I have sore on top of sore and I don't know if its just a lot of work or if I am not as active as I thought I was! I am honestly having a lot of fun making this new place ours and I think its starting to look more like "Us" as far as the colors etc go. I thought even though it is not weight loss related that I would pop a couple pictures up of our progress.

This is a shot out the bay window in the living room, we had snow yesterday and you can see that the half frozen lake is now covered in the white stuff, I like the view out this window.


This is the Living room, we are not a fan of bright yellow so we went with a color called "Spiced Gingerbread" and that second picture shows a first coat so its blotchy, the trim in this room will be a color called "Bittersweet Chocolate", we did finish this room and it looks great but the batteries died on the camera so we didn't get any shots of the completed walls.


This closet really turned out nicer than I expected it to, when we first saw this room we thought we would take the whole closet out of the room as it was only some clap board nailed up against some braces. It really took up more room than we wanted to lose in the room but after thinking about it we decided to keep the inner half in tact and brace it up and put new trim on it and keep a closet in this bedroom. We will be adding a curtain in front of it instead of a door for simplicities sake. though its still green in the room it is less of a pale green and the color we chose is called "Frosted Pine"


So you can see we have been very busy around here but as I mentioned it is taking a toll on the weight loss progress because of the take out food factor. we did buy some apples and bananas and are keeping them at the new place as snacks, and I have a small supply of Arizona diet green tea on hand at the new place as well so it is not all bad! but yesterday for instance I had a Chicken parm grinder for lunch and then because it was late and we have kept the supplies down at home I had Mcdonalds for dinner yuck! Today I am going to be home all day so I will be under 1700 calories for sure, I will also drink double water today to try and make up for the weekend a bit and help hydrate my aching muscles.

Some more good news is that we ended up with an extra room that we have no need for so it will become a rec room slash exercise room of sorts, My daughter calls it "The Yoga Room" because Wify told her that she was putting her yoga equipment in there so they can do it together. My stationary bike will go in that room along with my free weights as well along with a couple desk top computers to keep the kiddos busy while we get movement into our days. The room has a view out the back into the wooded area behind our back yard and trough the front window is a view of the lake so a nice place to exercise or relax with some yoga for Wify. There are lots of places to walk at the new place as well, from all of the rural up and down roads to the wooded area behind the house where a hike would be a possibility as well.

As always if you have made it this far into my post you deserve a glass of water so slide out from behind your desk, get on up off of your behind and go grab a glass! I myself have a gallon of green tea sitting beside me and am half way through it and I am only 2 hours into my day! look for more update pics on the house and of course updates on how I am doing on my weight loss, Thanks for reading and more than thanks for the support that you give with your comments and emails.

As Ever
Me

Friday, December 5, 2008

Weighing in on weighing in

I have a few minutes so I thought I would pop on and toss up a weigh in post for this week. if you read my blog you probably know that we were in the process of buying a home, we closed yesterday and now the fun begins. I am swamped with chores and tasks and will be painting and patching all weekend starting in a couple of hours from now so thats why the posts have been slim lately. this morning I weighed in at 367 pounds which is 4 pounds higher than my lowest weight 2 weeks ago but down 3 from my day after Thanksgiving weigh in, I am not thrilled at this but it is what it is and all I can do is my best to stay on track with home cooked low cal meals. It has been hard to get good low cal nourishment in the last week or 2 because I have been running around like a chicken with its head cut off and thats not an excuse, just the facts. I am responsible for my health and weight and it will be what it will be, I am not off track and I am not slacking, I have honestly had hardly a minute to myself to exercise but when we are all moved in I am back to the old regimen like white on rice, yes I just said white on rice.

I have 4 bedrooms a living room and a kitchen to prime and paint this weekend along with a fireplace mantle that will need to be sanded and refinished so movement will be happening. The remainder of the packing needs to be done and then we will be moving in a week as long as we get all of the cosmetics done inside the house by then. fear not I am still here, I am still on board with my blog, its just my time has been spent elsewhere lately. everyone that reads this needs to get a glass or 2 of water at this time and drink it down, I made myself a 32 oz glass of green tea with lime right before I sat down to type this out so have a drink with me.

Thank you for all of the support and thank you for following along with my weight loss story.

As Ever
Me

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

It all happened so fast.

It has been almost a week since my last post, it has been hectic around here to put it mildly. between the holiday and just being busy with getting a house together I have had no time to write here. We are in the process of purchasing a home and its getting to the nitty gritty of it and we are closing this week, but since this blog is about my trip to the half and getting healthy it was never mentioned, so let us get to the past few days, this will likely be a longer than usual post so get comfy.

Thursday, Thanksgiving, We had an awesome holiday and dinner was great, it all turned out exactly as planned and I ended up having a bit of everything that was made along with a few Guinness Draught's a good time was had by all. I did not count calories at all on that day but instead I watched what I ate all day until dinner and did not count the few brews at all, I ate until I was full and then a bit more for good measure. Over all I think I did good on Thanksgiving considering that its a food holiday but the little guy on my shoulder, you know the good guy not that little red one with the horns is telling me that I could have done a little better. I am glad I just enjoyed the holiday either way and it was in my plan from day one so no worries, its the following days that I should have been better with.

Friday I thought "Ok time to get back on track!" but nope! I started out good enough and was tracking my intake. I had my usual banana with a tablespoon worth of peanut butter on it for breakfast followed by a Turkey sandwich for lunch, sounds good so far eh? then we went out to run some errands etc I grabbed a Dark chocolate and Almond Zone perfect bar for the road, we ended up buying some paint for the new place and were out for longer than we wanted to be so that zone bar was a good idea but we did get in a little later that expected and I was hungry, well the delicious food proved too much for my resolve and I made a big ol plate of goodness and dug right in without measuring anything. After the carnage that was Fridays dinner I did think about how I did ok all day and blew it at dinner but it is what it is and I stopped worrying about it whats a fella to do.

Saturday, This day was just so busy that we were not really home at all pretty much all day between shopping for paint supplies and looking into paint schemes and hitting up the "ooops paint" at Home Depot and Lowe's that I ate when I could and didn't count any of it, also have you noticed I make no mention of green tea? I was very dehydrated from drinking a beer here and there and drinking diet mountain dew as well as not taking my Daily vitamins which I realized about half way through Saturday so I took a vitamin and bought a gallon of Arizona Green tea and drank in in about 2 hours. Now I am feeling like I have a bit of control back but there is still all of this great food in the house so I blew it for dinner again and so the wise one says.

Sunday I actually stayed below 1700 calories but I had not exercised since Wednesday, I was home pretty much all day packing boxes and situating the basement in a way that would make it easy to move come moving day. I made two pots of turkey soup which came out better than any soup I have made in some time, we had that for dinner on Sunday and were able to put almost 2 gallons away in the freezer so were stocked up on the good stuff. I was feeling great that I was back on track after a couple days of not caring and starting to rehydrate myself properly and off to bed I went.

Monday, off track again and not a drop of green tea in sight for me, I was slipping and it was easy to not count, to not exercise (besides all of the packing and moving boxes) and to not sound like a broken record (is that possible at this point) let us just say this trend carried into Tuesday as well and enough is enough. Today is Wednesday and I have to get back on track so thats what I am doing. Did you notice that I didn't do a "weigh in" last Friday? thats because I had not been on a scale until Saturday night, and surprise surprise I was up! my last weigh in was on Nov 21 and I weighed 363 pounds, well Saturday night I was 368 pounds! up 5 pounds?! and that trend has been maintained throughout right up until this morning, I did weigh 365 pounds on Monday morning but this morning I am back up and weighed in at 369 pounds. Now I KNOW this is likely mostly retention weight because I have not stayed hydrated but not all of it and I have to accept that, because its at my own hand that I am up in weight. Jumped at the first chance to say "awe its a Holiday imma enjoy it dammit!" this mindset is what got me into this situation of being a fella that weighed more than a quarter of a ton, sounds crazy when you say it like that but I was 534 pounds and facts are facts Ma'am.

I have still had an impressive run I think and I have to keep that in mind because a bump in the road on a Holiday is not the end of the world, I also feel that this blog helps me to stay on track because it helps me stay accountable. I will weigh in on Friday and that will be the official weight once again because I feel that I am off balance right now because of the bad weekend and not being hydrated. Right now, this moment that I type this I am back to the strict Me that has gotten this far, I do want to thank everyone that has sent me messages or emails within the last few days they do help and I do appreciate them. For those of you that read this blog because it helps keep you in line or just because you find it interesting enough to tune in each day to watch the fat man get thinner, I am back and you can expect more of the good old Me that doesn't let anything stop what I want to accomplish.

If you made it this far into the post You deserve TWO glasses of water because it was a long one! I will join you and have a 32 oz of glass myself as soon as I hit publish. I welcome any comments and or suggestions on this post that may help whip me back into shape and keep me on track, don't hold back and remember no matter what that I will meet my goal of weighing 275 pounds. I predict that I will hit that goal within the 2009 year. I plan on being under 300 pounds by the end of June 2009 which will give me 6 months to get that last 25 pounds until goal off by the end of the year. I would like to be at my 275 pound goal by September 1st 2009 at which time I will have lost a total of 259 pounds and when I hit that 275 pound goal I am sure I will set a new goal for myself, there we go, I sound like me again.

As Ever
Me

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving!

I decided that I would pop on and leave a pre Thanksgiving post, I wish I could say that I was going to eat 5oz of turkey breast meat and a couple oz of mashed butternut squash and was sticking to my 1700 calorie limit for Turkey day but I cannot. Tomorrow I will not over eat at all but I will enjoy my meal, I will have a couple Guinness Draughts and I will finish the meal off with a piece of pumpkin pie and then Friday I will be back on track. I believe that I can enjoy a day of not counting calories and still not over do it, I will do my best to eat a normal sized meal if only to indulge in a few beers with my Father throughout the day, it will not mean that I failed, it will not mean that I am weak, I have lost more than 170 pounds in the last 11 months weak is not something that I think can be attached to me and my willpower, drive or determination.

On the menu for the day will be, a 23 pound Turkey which I will season and roast to perfection, Baked sweet potatoes with butter and brown sugar, mashed butternut squash with black pepper and butter, Green bean casserole topped with French onions, Cranberry sauce, seasoned mashed Turnips, Corn bread stuffing with sausage, corn with butter and seasonings, turkey gravy, and to finish off the food will be some fresh baked rolls and a pumpkin pie for dessert. To drink we will have of course Green tea, Guinness Draught with lime and sugar, Amaretto sour made with raspberry ginger ale, egg nog and some juice for the kiddos. this is pretty much a standard Thanksgiving meal round here, I am keeping the regular mashed potatoes out of the mix this year for no real reason and I replaced them with the squash, hows that sound?

I have done good this week as far as intake goes but I do not expect a loss come Friday, mostly because of Thanksgiving but partially because I haven't exercised like I should pretty much all week, and because of this weeks food holiday I will workout every day from Friday on. This means that I will either do my 2 mile walk or ride the stationary bike every night, I will do at least 50 push ups every day, and I will stick to my 1700 intake limit from Friday on, leftovers or not. This lifestyle that I choose to live allows me to have my cake and eat it too on limited occasions of course and thats the best part of how I now choose to live. I don't think its wrong to have a good old fashioned thanksgiving dinner just because I am on a weight loss program. I hope you all have a great Turkey day and can return to the grindstone come Friday without feeling too much guilt for whatever tomorrow may bring you.

Keep on keepin on and have a glass of water, your body will not be worse for it and probably needs it.

Thanks for reading along.

As Ever
Me

Monday, November 24, 2008

Pizza and beer, Now bring on the green tea!

This weekend was less than a good thing where intake comes into the equation, but first let me mention that Saturday I did ride my bike split into two rides to make good on my bike challenge, now let me get to the bad. Friday My calories were fine right up until dinner time when somehow ordering a pizza became a good idea, I figured it was a weigh in day and I was coming off of two good weeks so why not, bamn! 20 minutes later a bacon pizza and cheesy garlic bread from a local pizza house was on the table. though the pizza probably should not have been in my plan it was and I don't think it brought me too far above my daily intake allotment, but above none the less. then later in the evening it was movie time, Wify rented Run fat boy Run, I recommend this movie! it was funny in that subtle humor kind of way as well as that just plain old funny kind of way, anyways back to being a bad boy. Wify made our signature Giant bowl of popcorn to munch on during the movie and that certainly brought me above my caloric range for the day.

Saturday, started out ok and I rode the bike for the first 36 minutes after breakfast which was a Banana with peanut butter on it with a diet mountain dew, and the remanding 33 minutes was done after lunch and intake was average for a Saturday and somewhere along the way it was decided that we would head on over to my Mother in Laws and have dinner, now this is usually not a bad idea and she usually cooks a nice balanced meal but we all decided that ordering from, yes you guessed it the Pizza house would be a good idea. I ended up having a Chicken Parmesan grinder and a slice of pizza for dinner with a side of 3 Guinness's and some E&J Brandy. Have I yet mentioned the fact that drinking anything that resembled water or Green tea was pretty much not there since about mid day Friday. So on top of eating poorly I had not been drinking correctly, see Guinness and Brandy above. Dessert on Saturday was some sort of quadruple chocolate fudge cake filled with chocolate pudding and topped with mini Hershey's bars and you just know that I had a piece of that right before another Guinness & Easy Jesus.

Sunday, I had decided to get things together intake wise and wouldn't say that I failed miserably or anything but it was not good either. I pretty much stayed within my calorie range almost all day besides a couple pieces of chocolate candy, oh my! and then we decided to go grab an extra Turkey to put in the freezer for after Thanksgiving, Hey who can pass up $.48 per pound Fresh young turkey right? so we got a nice 26 pounder that will likely get canned at some point. while we were at the Supermarket Wify bought some double chunky chocolate chip cookies to bake for the kiddos and well, my daughter just couldn't wait so at 8:00 pm into the oven they went and 16 to 18 minutes later a plate full of moist chocolaty goodness staring me down, Two cookies and a glass of milk later I was done for the weekend.

Which brings us to Now, Monday morning, There are ships holding in port and I have eaten a banana with a Tablespoon of peanut butter on it for breakfast and I just finished my first 32oz of green tea for the day, I have three days to rehydrate myself and get back on track so that I can totally toss the plan out the window again for Thanksgiving day. I am up in weight today and I mean up! but I am fairly sure that it is more just water weight from me not staying properly hydrated all weekend and the fact that I ate lots of cheese and drank some beer and brandy so I am not really worried about it. Just because I threw caution into the wind and dug into some of the good stuff this weekend doesn't mean that I have failed at this weight loss game and it doesn't mean that I have to start over, hell its not even a case of falling off of the wagon, I just enjoyed my weekend without worrying about eating properly, thats just called life and it happens. I am back on track for at least the three days it will take for Thanksgiving to get here and then I am not counting a single calorie and I am not worrying for a single second about whether I am drinking enough or eating the right thing for a day.

Hows that for a plan?

Thanks for following along, as for the drink of water today goes, I think I will drink a glass for you and for me now! God knows I need it today.

As Ever
Me

Friday, November 21, 2008

Weigh in and a Beautiful lady..

Right on schedule Friday has come again and its time to tally up the weight lost for the week, Again I will get right to the weight. Upon waking I walked down stairs and stepped onto the cold black scale and the first number that popped onto the display said 362.8 lbs I was pleased with that figure so off I stepped, reset, and back on to read 363 even, and the final step onto the scale said 362.8 once again and since I round up it will be counted as 363 pounds which comes to a 3 pound loss for the week. That means I have lost 171 total pounds since starting in Jan 2008 or 32.02% of my total body weight. Here are some photos to show you just how much I have lost as well as something that weighs the same as I do.

This 2005 SV650 weighs in at 363 pounds, I would love to own one of these.


This is my beautiful wife, she happens to weigh in at 171 pounds in this photo taken last night, which is what I have lost so far, it is crazy to think that I was carrying a whole beautiful woman on my back for all of that time!

Finally! a child's toy motorcycle is what I have left to lose, this toy bike weighs 88 pounds.


Since Wify came up in this mornings post I want to say that she has been my hugest fan as well as my most enthusiastic supporter in this weight loss game that I have been playing for the past almost 11 months. She has kept me on the straight and narrow and has reminded me to get my exercise in some of the times where I was less than enthusiastic about doing so, She has lost a great deal of weight in the same amount of time and as you can see by the photo looks great for her efforts, I am proud of her. She and I were talking about how much weight I had lost and she hopped on my back so that I could feel what I use to weigh again, man! that was an eye opener for me to feel that weight back on me and realize that I was carrying that around on a daily. While she was on my back I walked towards the staircase and she did not protest so I walked up the stairs with her piggy backed on me and when I hit the top I was breathing heavy, I said to her "wow that took a lot out of me, I don't think I got that out of breath back then" She just looked at me with that "who the hell are you kidding fat man" look and then I realized, Yes I did get that winded when I was that heavy, saying night and day does not give enough contrast to the situation.

As I stated in last weeks weigh in post as well as yesterdays I am tossing up another challenge for myself, for every comment that I get on this blog before Midnight tonight 11-21-08 stating that the poster drank a glass of water (we shall go on the honor system of course) I will ride 3 minutes on my stationary bike on Saturday. So anyone that reads this and is willing to drink a glass of water has the power to make me make my legs burn on Saturday, so what say you? how long will I be riding tomorrow?

If you read this far into the post you deserve a tall glass of H2O so get on up and get yourself some, even if you choose not to leave a comment to make a fat man move, you deserve that glass anyways so what are you waiting for?

As Ever
Me

Thursday, November 20, 2008

You owe it to yourself..

This week flew by, and I mean flew! its Thursday already and I feel like the week has just started yet tomorrow is a weigh in day. I feel good about this weeks number, I have a feeling it will be a decent number again, I have been diligent with my eating for the past 6 days besides a lunch at Friendly's mid week but even on that day I ate within my 1700 calorie allotment once again proving that a fella can have a "bad" meal now and again and still stay within limits. Over all I feel good about the week and I have snuck some push ups in pretty much every day. I ate a total of 1570 calories on Wednesday and ended up going for a walk all by my onesome around 7:30 pm, let me tell ya its cold in New england already! it was about 25 degrees and windy but I decided that I was going to go anyways. My usual route for my evening walk is 1.7 miles and I walk that in just about 30 minutes exactly but my times have been getting less and less every time I walk that route, the first time I walked, it took 32 minutes and its slowly been getting faster with last nights walk lasting 27 minutes for the same 1.7 miles. I don't know if it was the fact that I had ice in my nose and these Saucony running shoes are made of mesh that made me hustle, or if it was just me staying aware of my pace and trying to go faster but I am happy about the pace going up, thats 5 whole minutes I shaved off of my evening walk since starting a couple weeks ago. I did mark out a 2 mile route which was just a few blocks added to the route that I already walk but honestly it was just too cold to add last night.

have a look at yesterdays menu.

11/19/08

Breakfast
7:45 AM
1 banana 105
1 T peanut butter 95

9:00 AM
1 pear 85

11:00 AM
2 slices whole wheat bread 140
3oz roast chicken breast 150
1 T miracle whip 35

Lunch
1:00 PM
1 cup Organic chocolate soy milk 120

4:45 PM
1 large apple 110

Dinner
6:15 PM
3 slices whole wheat bread 210
4oz roast chicken breast 200
1.5 T miracle whip 55
sliced pickle 10
4 small peppercinis 5
1 small chicken strip 100

8:30 PM
1 cup home made soup 150

That cup of soup was very good after my walk and helped warm me back up, it was home made chicken chili soup that I had cooking on the stove pretty much all day so it was nice and fresh. Dinner was a quick chicken salad I made with peppercinis and pickles which was a good combination of flavors all together with the sweetness of the miracle whip and I believe I will make that again very soon. I also like these challenges I have been doing on this blog for myself and last week I found out just how evil some of the people that read this blog can be and I ended up doing 150 push ups for the comments received, my chest thanks you all! since I like evil people and I enjoy the pain of exercise even more I think I will extend another challenge to myself this week. Since I have been doing push ups all week and my chest has as I type this some soreness I would have to be a mad man to try the 10 push ups per comment this week so instead I will for every comment that I get do 3 minutes on my stationary bike, now that may not seem like a lot but if it was the plan last week it would have added up to 45 minutes so I think its a good number to choose. So for every comment that I get on my weigh in post tomorrow by midnight stating that the responder drank a glass of water, I will do 3 minutes on my stationary bike on Saturday, lets see how cynical you all can be this week! make me make my legs burn! Wify thinks I am crazy but likes these challenges she says "They make you do it" maybe I can talk her into doing the bike challenge with me this week. There you have it, another successful day in the life of someone who learned how not to be 534 pounds, Tune in tomorrow for another mind chilling episode and find out how long of a ride I will be taking.

Thanks for reading along and don't forget that glass of water you owe yourself for reading this far into the post, see, you have no excuse now because I reminded you! blame yourself if you don't get that tall glass of hydration.

As Ever
Me

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

You are just a machine..

Winter is here in New England! This morning it was single digit weather with the wind chill and here I was planning on taking a walk today! I guess that won't be happening now, especially with these Saucony running shoes that I have, they are really just a mesh on top of a mesh which makes for a very light weight breathable running shoe perfect for good weather but the air blows right through them and I just know that I would be on blocks of ice by the end of a walk today o we shall forget about that right now. I have felt good all week about my weight and it seems to have a downward trend this week a I am down from Friday and its only Wednesday so I am feeling awesome about the week so far. I am very optimistic about this weeks weigh in and I do believe that I will be happy with what I see on the scale, now don't go reading too far into that and guess that I am having a great week because its average at best so far but I have come to appreciate any loss as a good thing. when I started down this road and was dropping six seven even eight pounds per week I would feel let down when I had a 3 pound week, that insane! a 3 pound drop in a week is awesome work especially considering that I have no trainer besides my buddy Will and his girlfriend Desire and the fact that I am doing this 100% on my own meaning I don't have someone making meal plans for me and or portioning my intake or guiding me in any way. This is all being done on pure hard work and I am reaping the benefits from all of the time and effort that I put into reading EVERYTHING that I can get my hands on concerning weight loss and applying what seems like it would work and trying things out for myself and constantly tweaking the program as I learn more, though I do admit that at this point I am almost on auto pilot and have created quite a groove for myself to ride down and the tweaking ha been minimal for a while now.

When its all broken down we are just a machine but instead of gears, wiring, oil, nuts and bolts we are made up flesh, bone, nerves and blood, simple right? well it is. if you take care of a machine it will last for years and usually will outlive you or me! lets use a car as an example, regularly change the oil, get it tuned up when the time comes, keep the tires inflated to proper pressures, change the air filter, keep it lubricated properly change all or the fluids accordingly and a car will last forever and run smoothly, but if you don't do all of those things the life of that engine, the bearings on the car and all other related parts will fail catastrophically in a very short amount of time and our bodies are the same way, Take care of it and it will serve you well and give you a long happy life and if you don't well, you know the rest. I like I have said in the past on this blog just wish I would have made the decision to get and stay healthy years ago.

A few things not on the same subject, yesterday we stopped at a Friendly's restaurant for lunch at my daughters request and we ALWAYS request a table so that I don't have to squeeze into a booth, So as we sat at the table waiting for our lunch to come out I looked to my right at the booth and decided to hop on over for a, we shall call it a "test fit" and well a bit to my surprise I slid right in and told Wify that it appeared that we wouldn't have to request a table all of the time anymore, like a glove I tell ya! Later in the day we were home and I was thinking about how I have a very nice leather coat that was bought the same year that I met Wify so about 9 years ago and it hasn't fit for a good 6 years now and since its getting cold outside I tried it on and bamn! like a glove! or should I say like a jacket. It was actually a bit too big on me! which is good because I like to wear a hoodie or a fleece under it so it looks as if I have room for that now, the odd part about the coat is that I tried it on about 3 months ago and it fit but not comfortably and if I were to zip it then it was snug, now I can over lap the front by about 6 inches. I want to guess that I tried it on last in the beginning of Sept which means that I am only about 25 pounds lighter now than then and the difference in how it fits is much more than a 25 pound loss, I can only come to the conclusion that the skin is tightening up to the point where its making a difference in my size, and for that I am excited.

A bit random today but as always its just me rambling on so I hope you enjoyed. Also if you made it this far into the post you ought to get on up and go grab yourself a glass of water because if you don't you are only hurting yourself.

As Ever
Me

Monday, November 17, 2008

Yes you can...




Tis Monday, I have a chicken carcass going in the kitchen making some broth because I am being lazy and don't want to make a soup with it. I am right on track were the weight loss is concerned and have a good feeling about the end of the year number coming up, anyone that reads regularly knows that I was going to shoot for 200 pounds lost by the end of the year which would have been 200 pounds in one year, but this is a bit ambitious. A bit more than 4.5 pounds per week until the end of the year actually, though I don't think that number is a probability I have already stated that I will treat the end of the year as if I am going for that goal but know in my heart that I won't make it. It is all about attitude and I do believe in the power of suggestion or in this case the power of believing will play a huge role in me getting as close to that end of the year number as possible. I was chatting with my father on the phone over the weekend and he asked me "how many bags" to which I replied "a little more than 33" and we talked about how I would like to drop 200 pounds by the end of the year and he said "you do know you aren't going to make it right?" and I said "yep but that doesn't mean I can't try" it is after all not impossible, I admit not probable but impossible? go ahead and say impossible and I will do everything to prove you wrong!

The point is that people always seem to have an excuse to not lose weight, be it no time, they don't know how to or the willpower doesn't exist. All false of course and all just the next excuse in the line of excuses that brought them additional weight on their bones. In the beginning of the year I decided that excuses did not a single person good and I am not excluded from that club, the only thing that will get the weight off and keep it off will be moderate eating and a regular exercise schedule. if you don't like that equation then you are most likely destined to be heavy for the duration of your time here on this rock we call home, or at least unhappy with your results. Each and every one of us can do this weight loss gig, and each and everyone of us can be successful at it as long as the time and effort that it deserves goes into it and we are honest with ourselves about what we are eating and whether we are getting the exercise in that we should be.

Anyone can lose weight, anyone can exercise daily, I guess the question is do you want it bad enough? I do. I actually get excited sometimes about trying to lose weight and at this point in the game its just that, a game. Now that I realize that losing weight is not actually anything more than mind over matter, if you can take the excuses out and replace it with a little bit of drive I believe we would find that none of us would have weight issues.

Thanks for reading along.

As Ever
Me

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Drop and give me 150!

It is 4:59PM Saturday and I have made good on my challenge, I just completed my push ups from the comments yesterday, I did a total of 151 push ups broken into six sets 20 and two sets of 15 with an extra one at the end for good measure. I took about a minute to 90 seconds between sets and I KNOW that I will regret doing this tomorrow or even later this evening, my triceps and chest were pretty much numb when I started the sets of 15 but I had to finish so I did. There you have it, I made good on my challenge and I am 151 push ups stronger than I was yesterday so it was a good thing, ask me tomorrow how I feel about it and you may just get a different answer though. If I were to even attempt this just 10 months ago I would have failed miserably and basically was not capable of accomplishing 150 push ups even done in sets like I just did them. Let me tell you that life at 534 pounds is a struggle, making sure that you get your daily exercise can be a chore, watching what you eat 24/7 is a lot of work and can also be a struggle at times but the results that can be had for doing just that are more than worth that effort, trust me when I say that, I have been on that side of the yard and it ain't no picnic.


The last place anyone wants to be is in an eternal struggle with anything and everything within this short sliver of time we call life. Having extra weight on your body can cause all kinds of turmoil physically and mentally within someones image of them self as well as cause health issues and an uncomfortable outlook with the world that just has to be experienced to fully understand it, I do not wish this uncomfortable feeling on anyone. I am not really talking about being 20 or even 30 pounds over weight, when you are 200-300 pounds over weight the things that a person misses out on out of the pure fact that they cannot do them is insane. Imagine not being able to walk for more than 5 minutes at a time without severe pain in your back and being out of breath, feeling your body struggle with every step yet trying to keep a tiny piece of pride for yourself and pushing through it obviously doing so to anyone that looks in the direction where you are standing but you convince yourself that no one can tell. Perhaps your family is going to a ball game or concert and time and time again you have to decline going not because you dislike loud music or baseball but because you have zero chance of fitting into a stadium seat. How about having to turn sideways to go into a bathroom door? the list is much longer than you would like to know and is filled with things that a person might never even think could become an issue unless they were one of the unfortunate that had to walk in those shoes.

534lbs to 366lbs in just over ten months and a world of difference in every aspect of my life is what has been done. I do not feel hungry almost ever, and my energy is up 100%. I eat what I want to and am not on a special diet, I eat well and often and even enjoy going out to restaurants without going outside of my calorie range or feeling like I am eating less than a great meal and if I do go above calories now and again thats alright too. I have the nutritional information from most of if not all of the eateries that I enjoy and feel no guilt when I eat there. If you are struggling with weight because you cannot afford a gym membership or because you cannot afford special meal plans and packets you are doing so needlessly, I spend less money on food now than when I was not eating correctly and I am eating more than ever and healthier than ever, and I have no membership to a gym. It takes a lot of planning and reading and preparation I will admit that but it is worth every second that you choose to put into it and I am finding that the more work that I put into being healthy the healthier and more successful I am with the losses.

I do thank all of you that were evil enough to leave me a comment yesterday and added to the total of my push up challenge, maybe I will do this again next week IF my chest has recouped by then! now all of you that read this go grab a glass of water and relish in the fact that my chest is very weak right now and will be sore in hours, but also know that that soreness drives me to do more so its a win win!

As Ever
Me

Friday, November 14, 2008

I weighed in today and.....

A bright and early post for your eyes, and I will get right to it with the weigh in numbers. Upon waking of course I went straight for the scale and the first number that I saw was 366.4lbs, woohoo! I thought, so I stepped off and back on again and 366.2lbs flashed across the display so once again for third times a charm and it was 366.2lbs again so it will be recorded as 366 pounds! Thats a 4.4 pound loss from last Friday and this is the lightest I have been yet since starting this weight loss regimen. I have lost a total of 168 pounds to date and I have 91 pounds left to lose to get to my goal of weighing 275 pounds and that fact is simply insane to me seeing that I was 534 pounds just 10 months ago, so needless to say I am happy with this weeks weight number and just in general am feeling great about the entire process thus far, here are some photos so that you can have a visual reference for these figures.

This 2003 GSX R 750 weighs in at 366 pounds like me.


This is Dana, She has lost 122 pounds and weighs 168 pounds in this photo taken on Halloween 2008 which is what I have lost so far, she is a fellow blogger that I met while on my weight loss journey and someone that I find inspiration in from time to time. She looks great eh?


This fine young pitbull weighs in at 91 pounds which is what I have left to lose to reach my goal.


I am happy to be back on a downward swing with the weight and ill be trying my best to keep it that way because as we all know Thanksgiving is on the way and after that Christmas is just around the corner and I know I will be slipping on those days, I say slipping but its not really slipping as I am going to just enjoy myself and not count calories those days. I don't plan on gorging myself for the holidays but why can't a fella enjoy some good eats along with everyone else? yep hes gonna! once again if you made it to this point in my post you deserve a glass of water so go get it and I will put the challenge out there again this week and do 10 push ups on Saturday for every comment that I get on todays post by midnight Friday Nov 14th stating that you got that drink! last week I had 7 comments before midnight so I ended up with 70 push ups on Saturday, it was a fun challenge so I am tossing it out there again and Wify can confirm that I did them again via a comment on a weekend post but remember the challenge is that you drink a glass of water and then post that you did, so go get hydrated.

Thanks for reading and for all of the support.

As Ever
Me

Thursday, November 13, 2008

As the fat guy turns...and thigh meat!

Thursday is here and that means I will be recording my weight for the week tomorrow morning, I am hoping for a three pound loss for no other reason than I have a picture I want to post up and it only get posted when I get to that number. I think the past few days of being strict has done me some good, I actually feel better than I have in a week or so and I honestly think its all of the tea that I am drinking again, diet soda just doesn't have the same effect on a fella. My intake yesterday though good was slightly higher than it should have been coming in at 1740 total calories which is not really all that bad but it is still above the range that I set for myself so I thought I would mention it. I have nothing extraordinary really to post today other than I am feeling back to normal where being strict yet reasonable with my intake goes, actually strike that I did see something that I cannot ever remember seeing in my life last night and that would be my belly and hip being at the same height while laying on my side. I was laying in bed on my side and couldn't help but notice that my hip bone was there, while this is nothing that seems out of this world it is in fact not something I am use to having so close to the surface so I laid directly on my side and my love handle was only slightly higher than my thigh meat! and I really do mean slightly. So that was kind of cool to see because it wasn't something I went looking for, it kind of just happened, ok enough about my hips and thigh meat.



As I walked down my hallway upstairs I was glancing at a series of photos we have hung along the hallway which is a bunch of cool sunsets that I have taken over the years, and in the middle of them is a picture from when we drove to CA about 9 years ago of Wify and myself standing on a bridge in Colorado with the sunsetting behind us, which is right around the time we met and something I noticed is that I am smaller now than in that pic. I asked Wify if she thought I was smaller now than in the pic to see if it was something that I was just hoping for or if it was in fact true and she concurred that I was indeed smaller now. As I mentioned in yesterdays post I want to get down to 300 pounds by the end of June, actually I want to get to 303 pounds by then and you might be wondering why 303 pounds, well thats what I weighed in High school so I figured its a good number to shoot for. Now I know that I weighed more than that by the end of high school but the weight was 303lbs from Gym class and I remember the number because its what Shaquille O'neal weighed back then and I would always say "if I was stretched out to his height I would be ok" so there you have it.

Tomorrow is weigh in day and I am hoping to be able to report back that a big loss has come but we won't know until tomorrow, and I didn't even weigh myself this morning so I don't know if I am close or up from the last 2 days so I will be surprised in the morning myself. Tune in tomorrow same bat time same bat channel to find out if more fat has been evacuated on the next bone chilling episode of as the fat guy turns. Thanks for reading along , which reminds me, You need to go get a glass of water now that You have reached the end of the post and as a primer for tomorrows weigh in I will again do 10 push ups for every comment that the weigh in post gets. Last week it was 70 what will this week bring my poor chest?

As Ever
Me

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Back to business.

Tuesday went smoothly and I felt like I was back in the game with all of the dedication that I have had earlier in the year. Calories came in at 1515 total and I drank about 1.5 gallons of home brewed green tea, the only exercise that I did was some push ups but I am not worried about that, the frame of mind is most important. I can honestly say that I feel better just from the one day that I got back on track and I feel good about restarting with the strict regimen again. I plan on riding the bike today and doing the push ups again and so far I am on track for the day with intake, also I am down in weight this morning so like I mentioned all is well and I feel like I have control of the helm again. As I type the flavor of green tea laced with lime juice is on my lips and my chest is sore from the push ups and this is back on, and I mean its on in the way that I plan on a big loss this week and even if I don't get a big loss its still going to continue in a downward direction where weight is concerned and I want to try and get down to 300 pounds by the end of June 2009, I just do not think hitting that 200 pounds lost by Jan is going to happen because it means that I need to lose 5 pounds per week until Jan 1st, so though I will still try my best to get as close as possible I know when something is just not going to happen and thats ok because I have changed my lifestyle and the weight loss that I have realized so far is proof of that and the weight will come off eventually. Have a look at the menu from Tuesday.

11/12/08

Breakfast
8:00 AM
1 banana 105
1 T peanut butter 95

10:00 AM
2 slices whole wheat bread 140
1 T peanut butter 95
1 T jam 50

11:45 AM
1/2 med pickle 10

Lunch
2:15 PM
1 can Progresso soup 160

Dinner
6:45 PM
6oz baked BBQ chicken 360
3/4 cups white rice 150
1/2 cup black beans 105
2 T light sour cream 40

extra bites 120

8:30 PM
1 pear 85

Let me explain "extra bites" in the menu, my daughter had french fries with her dinner and I grabbed a couple that were left over on her plate after dinner, and while I was making the bbq chicken I tasted a tiny piece to make sure it was seasoned correctly and in the interest of counting as accurately as possible I estimated higher than I thought the calories were and onto the menu they went. Stress or no stress I have to stay on track with this intake and exercise plan that I have created for myself because it is necessary for my health to continually get better and without our health what do we have ultimately? With that said, I'm off to get two more gallons of green tea going so I will end this post here for now, know that before my next post I will have ridden the bike for at least 20 minutes and I will have done at least 50 push ups as well as drank more than a gallon of green tea, what will you have done in the same time? oh! and again if you read this far into the post, get up and get a glass of water, whats it going to hurt? exactly...so just do it!

As Ever
Me

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Oh look, its a horse! I think I will get back on.

Stress~
-noun
the physical pressure, pull, or other force exerted on one thing by another; strain.

This is the problem, sometimes when stress introduces itself into a situation things tend to go awry and not on the path for which we would like them to. The last couple of weeks have been anything but smooth sailing around here and it is in fact affecting things where the weight loss is concerned. I had a slight gain last week and finally yesterday I got back down to 369 pounds which was my weight the week previous so I am back to where I was a week and a half ago and am going to try and get back into focus with the weight loss. I have not exercised at all for the past week or so and though I have been staying within my calorie range I have not recorded it for the same time period and I know I am not eating and drinking the way I need to be to keep the weight moving in a downward direction, the bottom line is that I need to get this thing rolling again in a positive direction stress or no stress.

Plan~
noun,verb
a scheme or method of acting, doing, proceeding, making, etc., developed in advance: battle plans.

The plan, I have decided that the only way to get this rolling as I need it to is to do what I did in Jan, whats that you ask? well I am glad you asked! I have to just do it, thats it, simple right? well it is. In Jan I knew that I had to do something about the weight or else it was going to do something about me, though I have made a huge dent in the health issue by losing 165 pounds so far I am far from done I am afraid, so I need to keep that in mind. As of today November 11th 2008 I am going to attempt to go back to the strict Me that I know is there. I have not been exercising like I should, I have not been recording times that I eat like I should and I have been drinking a lot of Coke Zero and diet mountain dew in place of my green tea, I have not been taking my daily vitamins. thats all done now, I made 2 gallons of green tea last night and am more than half way through one of them already at roughly ten am. Between the stress that is going on here and the fact that I have gotten comfortable with myself, meaning that at 369 I am very much able to do pretty much anything that I want to and am happy with it, BUT as I said I still have a long way to go before I am at a weight that I would call healthy.

* At least 50 push ups daily
* At least 20 minutes on the stationary bike 5x per week
* Stick within my 1700 calories per day, no exceptions
* Drink at least 1 gallon of green tea per day
* Take my multivitamin daily no exceptions

Stress happens, life happens and neither stop or get out of the way because we have things to do or a program to stick to and the only way its going to get done is if we do it. I don't feel bad because of the last couple weeks and I don't feel like I am failing at this whole weight loss thang because of a stressful situation rearing its head, it is what it is and if I am going to drop this weight its exactly that, "I" have to do it.

Thanks for reading along.

As Ever
Me