No witty title, just a new post and a comparison photo

Thursday is upon us and that means yet another weigh in day is coming up, I have managed to stay very active this week but I have gone over calories or have not been eating exactly the best food in the world for me, in the last week I have had peanut butter cookies, a vanilla cone, late night popcorn, and a Chicken parm grinder, but like I said I have stayed extremely active this week by hiking and walking A LOT and I hope to at least have a small drop in weight this week because currently I am the same weight as I was on Friday but the ship yard is a bit crowded right now but a ferry departed this morning and hopefully another is on schedule for later today. I am sore today from my hike yesterday but it is the good sore so I am actually enjoying it, I will ride the bike today because its suppose to rain outside for the net 3 days and is at 11:00 am already above 82 degrees and climbing and the humidity is creeping in so I will take an air conditioned ride on the stationary bike for 200 Alex.

I also noticed that the picture of me that I have at the top of my blog currently is 43 pounds ago and I do think a new one is in order so here is a comparison for you, the first pic was taken on Dec 28 2007 just a few days before I decided to drop the weight, the second one you might recognize from the top of my page and was taken on May 06 2008 and is about 45 pounds ago, and the last one was taken today July 31 2008 about 30 minutes before I hit the post button for this entry and shows a 134 pound loss. what do ya think?

This 3 way photo shows a 134 pound loss and goes from Dec 07 to Jul 08, I know that I was going to wait until a 150 pound loss was realized before I put up more compare shots but I was talked into posting this one, yes that is a jaw line in the last one lol. click the pic for a full sized view.

My intake for yesterday was good at 1383 before the bowl of popcorn I had while watching a movie late last night so I am over by exactly 1 large bowl of popcorn for the day. otherwise all is well and I look forward to tomorrows weigh in and I am hoping for at least a small loss for the week even though I am very sore from all of the hiking I have been doing and am likely retaining a bit of water because of it but we shall see. Thanks for reading and tune in tomorrow same bat time same bat channel for the weigh in.

As Ever
Me

More Hiking for Wednesday

I missed a post for yesterday because I got too busy and never really made it to the computer for long enough to post but here I am and a Wednesday post. the intake has been good for the past 2 days besides the Dairy queen vanilla cone I had on Monday, hey a guy needs his treats right? but otherwise right on track, and I have been going hiking all week, Monday Tuesday and Wednesday we went with the hike today being the closest to a real hike, its kind of hard when ya bring the kiddos along BUT with that said today was a lot of uphill, it was through the woods and then into a bird sanctuary where the path sort of wound up the top of a hill ending in a field of wild flowers and tall grass, it was a very pleasant sight. by the time we made it almost to the top my son had had enough and wanted to rest but we pushed him to keep on going and I said to him "you are not going to let your old fat dad out hike ya are you?" while carrying my daughter on my shoulders, he just looked up at me with a very tired look and said "well I can't keep up so..." then he smiled. he also made a reference to Frodo from LOTR he said "I don't know how Frodo did that, I would have just died" he did make it all of the way but we did have to stop for about 5 minutes to let him rest on the way back down. it was a good hike and wify got to join us this time as she got out of work early today so that was nice, we also talked about making "dates" to go hiking just the two of us so I am looking forward to that. I think I am going to attempt to make hiking my main source of exercise as it is very much a cardio workout all while keeping muscles conditioned and lets not forget the views and sights are worth the hikes alone even if there was no health benefit, we started this one at 2:00PM and got back to the car at 2:56PM so just about an hour and it was non stop unlike the previous hike that I posted about and called a "walk" and I carried my daughter on my shoulders much of the way today. here is a look at what was on the menu for Tuesday, it was not the best in the world but it did the trick and that soup is insanely good to me.

This is where I hiked today.

07/30/08

Breakfast
9:15 AM
2 cups honey comb cereal 173
1 cup 1% milk 110

Lunch
1:00 PM
2 multi-grain english muffins 200
2oz low fat mozz cheese 160
2 T pizza sauce 40
1 serving of Turkey pepperoni 70
Parmesan cheese 15

5:15 PM
1 peanut butter cookie 104

Dinner
6:45 PM
3 cups home made soup 450
1oz tortillas 140

Grand total of 1462 calories for Tuesday, and thats the post for the day, I had a few minutes and thought I would hop on and leave some words on my little spot in the vast internet, I wanted to thank you for reading once again and I want you to know that the support is greatly appreciated. so Until next time....Keep on keepin on!

As Ever
Me

An afternoon hike, and a post to go with it.

Finally a day that is not Humid, raining, hot or anything negative here in New England, it is low 80's not very humid but still a bit humid at the same time and a breeze so I decided to take the kids out for a short hike that turned out to be anything but short. we first went to the playground and let the kiddos play a bit and then onto the hike, I figured a quick 30 minute walk through the easy paths was in order, not that there are especially hard paths where we went, but there are more traveled paths through the woods so thats where we started. about 20 minutes into the walk my daughter had to go to the bathroom and before I could get her pants down to let her go in natures rest room she went a little into her shorts and I left her spares in the car, doh! so back we went to the car I changed and cleaned her up and we went a different direction to continue our adventure, and we chose a more how do I say, rough path, more up hill sections and less of a beaten path if you will. I ended up carrying my daughter on most of the uphill parts and we ended up walking for a good solid 45 minutes, looking at deer tracks in the mud we saw a raccoon family a few chipmunks obviously some squirrels and we came upon a small pond with a few ducks where we took a rest while the kids stared down the feathered fellows taking a swim.

I did not bring my camera this time but this is a picture from the last time I was here and is part of the trail we were on this afternoon, I wish I had brought the camera because we saw a lot that I would have liked to take photos of and this section of the trail is very full of brush right now, not as clear as this photo shows. click the photo for a full sized view.

We later came across a section where two paths crossed and changed direction where I caught a small frog that hopped across the path and I decided that since we were 45 minutes out that well we would have to get back to the car and I did not feel like carrying my daughter all that way so we took it slow on the way back and cut through a section of woods and ended up closer to the car and came back to it the back way, we filled our water bottles back up had a nice big drink and came home, it was a very relaxing day out in the woods and adds up to about 2 total hours of walking between the first short walk when the kiddo had an accident and the longer more "rough" hike so I did my part for exercise for today, and I still plan on riding the bike for 20 minutes after dinner. I just thought I would pop on and post up my little adventure in the woods. Thanks for reading.

As Ever
Me

Monday morning and thinking about things.

Today will be a good day, I don't know how to describe the feeling I have as I awake today but it will be a good day where my diet and exercise are concerned. its cool outside yet cloudy and were expecting rain today but I feel like I am energized and I cannot explain why. things have been going good and since I have started riding daily on my bike I feel like there is a new fire under me, since hitting 399 pounds it feels like I have made some real ground in tearing away all of this extra weight that has been holding me back for the last years of my life. to be back in the 300's is an amazing feeling, imagine that, almost 400 lbs feeling great?! the fact that I can say "almost" before the 400 lbs is the part that makes me feel like I made real ground with this weight loss. I cannot honestly remember the last time I weighed this much or should I say this little, in fact I do believe I weigh less today than when I met my wife 9 years ago, and if not less than I am very close to being less than when we met. My wedding band falls off of my finger and my jeans slide off of my arse, I found My tuxedo shirt that I wore at my wedding and it is too big for me, so I am definitely smaller than when I got married, all of this just floors me and I caught myself wondering if I really accomplished all that I have or if it was a joke on me some how. which of course it is not, it boils down to a lot of hard work and determination and making ground is bound to happen when you have those two things.


I plan on riding the bike today and I plan on adding a few push ups into the mix again as well because my back is feeling a bit better this week. I also have this feeling that I have made it, that I am done with the weight loss and I think its coming from the fact that I weigh the same as when I was 100% happy in life so it feels like I have crossed an imaginary finish line and that I am slowly jogging past the crowd with the blue tape on my chest flapping behind me, and the truth is that I have a very long way to go to get to a healthy weight and to hit that goal of 275 pounds that I set for myself, so I do know even though I have this feeling of accomplishment that there is a ways to go until I am actually at that finish line that I feel like I have reached.

This post just sort of flowed into how I am feeling this morning and lately so I will leave it at that. it is what it is and I am where I am in the way that I feel and its a good place. since I have reached the major goal of getting under 400 lbs I need a new goal to shoot for, I am shooting for 350 lbs but a shorter term goal is needed to keep it interesting and I am sure I will post it when I think of one. as always I thank you for reading along with my trip to the half and I will see ya at 350 lbs soon enough.

As Ever
Me

A Sunday evening post, peanut butter cookies and lots of walking.

I just wanted to pop on for a quick Sunday evening post, it has been a busy weekend for me and lots of movement into the days with almost no exercise. I did ride the bike yesterday but today I went to the mall with wify to run a few errands and we needed to buy a new food scale because ours had an interaction with me chasing a fly around the kitchen, swat! and bamn! and welp we needed a new scale, we needed a new one anyways, the old one was a cheap mechanical scale that was bought for about $6 a couple months before I started this eating better thing and we have been wanting to get a salters scale, so thats what we did. It was not terribly expensive at $50 but we had a store coupon for 40% off or something like that so we got a good deal on it.

104 calories each for these home made peanut butter cookies, there were more than pictured but the kids kind of attacked them.

My daughter has been asking me for peanut butter cookies for a few days now so we got what was needed and put a batch together, I have to admit they came out very good and I had 2 of them as I had calories to spare today. I used splenda in place of the sugar to save a few calories but they came out to 104 calories per cookie after all was into the batter which I guess is not too bad. I also ate vegetarian all day today and I think I am going to try to do that once or twice per week from here in out, it may not happen but I will try. tonight to stick within the veggie menu I made English muffin pizzas with fresh, onions, peppers, mushrooms, and garlic on it with some black olives crumbled on it all, and I have to admit they did not taste like english muffin pizzas at all, they were awesome. I am at 1443 calories for Sunday which is perfectly within my range and I will count the almost 3 hours of laps in the mall as exercise for the day, all in all it was a good day where my weight loss is concerned. think about this next thing that I say only for long enough to have the mere simplicity of the answer sink in, If I were to tell you that You could have Pizza for dinner and home made peanut butter cookies for desert and still drop weight at the rate of 134 pounds in less than seven months would you believe it? I know that seven months ago I wouldn't have yet this is how I eat daily and how I have eaten daily for the last seven months and have consistently dropped weight, I believe that moderation and exercise is key to a successful weight loss regimen, I just wish I had come to that conclusion many years earlier than I did, and with that this post has come to it end, Thanks for reading.

As Ever
Me

Just a post.

So I have been thinking about some things that go along with weight loss and people that have a large amount of weight to lose and over weight people in general and thought I would write a few of my thoughts down to type written word. I sometimes don't think that the rest of the non over weight population understands just how difficult being over weight can be and is. The things that normal sized people take for granted are some of the things that are on heavy peoples mind more often than a normal sized person realizes or cares to realize and a lot of the things are things that you might not even think a big deal until it is you wearing the proverbial shoes of the other person. since I mentioned shoes let us talk about clothing for a bit, I as an over weight man have to get my clothing in a special store just for large people and pay twice as much for the same tee shirt or pair of jeans except it is some off brand label or a knock off, meaning that it says Nautica on the front of the shirt, its a Nautica label but it is made somewhere else by a company that is not Nautica, and yet I paid twice as much for it because it is of a larger size and the variety just is not there either, I can't tell you how many times I have been somewhere and seen a big fella walking by and noticing that he has one of the very same shirts that I have, not because it is an especially fashionable piece of clothing but because it is something that fit so he bought it.

another thing small people take for granted,being able to walk in a restaurant and slide into a booth and order up a coffee and a slice of pie, this is not a possibility for many larger people because the booth does not accommodate their size, so the heavier person is forced to find an establishment that has tables or not stop in after a movie or concert with his or her friends to grab a late night after event bite, which brings me to the next thing, concerts, sports events or plays etc are either 4 hours of discomfort in seats that are sometimes even not too comfortable for average size folks or not going at all and missing out on events that the entire family or a group of friends might be attending, all the while trying to convince themselves that they really didn't want to go. when the truth is that the person would very much like to attend the event with their friends or family but to save feelings and to save an uncomfortable or embarrassing conversation about how they are too fat to fit into stadium seats the person just says that they do not want to go so that they can avoid the embarrassment, and people that have never had to deal with things like not being able to sit in a seat at a stadium or having to ask for a table at an eating establishment every single time and some of the time waiting an extra 20 minutes to be seated in a busy place instead of just taking the booth just cannot understand the frustration that comes with not being able to do every day things as bigger people. A Dad missing a school play, a Mom missing a trip to the diner with some old friends, or maybe its not getting on that roller coaster with your brother at the amusement park, and all the while to save face excuses are made to validate why the choice to sit this one out was made and the entire time feeling embarrassed because all of the above.

Just something to ponder the next time you are at a restaurant and see that big fella standing around, instead of silently cracking a joke to your buddy's know that he is more uncomfortable than he looks and has likely been waiting much longer that you have to be seated because he is waiting for a table that has chairs. The next time you see that large woman squeezed into a stadium seat, don't smirk or frown at her, know that she is very much not comfortable sitting there and she did pay the same ticket price and does not appreciate the giggles and snide remarks coming from behind her. and that fat guy in the slightly off shirt? well he really didn't have many choices when he went shopping. I am not saying to pity anyone or give anyone more slack, just give them the same respect that every other person deserves and gets.what is the point of all of this? nothing really, My blog is about weight loss and this is in that ball park and its what I felt like writing today. sometimes I think about things like this and these few examples are exactly that, a few examples in the sea of uncomfortable moments that overweight people deal with on a daily basis.

Thanks for reading.

As Ever
Me

Made it, Ma! Top of the world! a century mark has been reached!...again!

Ok I will get right to it, this morning upon waking up I went to the scale directly and the first time on it whispered into my ear that I weighed 400.0 pounds! so as the grin crept across my face I stepped off for the second go at it and it said 399.8! so wify was sitting in the living room still as I was up earlier than normal today and I called her in to see and got on for my third time as I do every Friday and 400.0 again! Made it Ma! Top of the world! that is a 4 pound loss for me this week and a century mark is reached! again! this is the second century mark that I have realized since starting this weight loss adventure seven short months ago. let us just say that today is a good day for me and a new fire has been sparked underneath me to work even harder than I have been, is that even possible?! I am unsure but today I feel like I can do anything and come out on top. so yeah there ya have it, I have done it, I made it to another century mark and I don't plan on stopping any time soon. I thought that getting under 500 lbs was an amazing thing and that was 100 pounds ago! getting to 400 feels amazing, and the fact that I did it in less than seven months floors me.

This 1992 Katana 400 weighs in at 400 lbs

and this cheese burger weighs in at 134 lbs which is what I have lost to date.

All together I rode the bike yesterday for 47 minutes in two sessions, my calories came in at 1437 for the day and I am very happy with how my week turned out, a 4 pound loss, I hit a century mark and I am back to exercising daily because the back pain has gone down enough to allow it, and the fact that I dipped into the 399's is the icing on the cake I got back on the scale again after my usual 3 and it w 399.8 again and have to admit that I felt good seeing that 3 in the front spot. I would also like to mention that wify hit 180lbs this morning and was excited to see it, after all it was her goal weight from the start, and that makes 56 pounds that she has lost since Jan 1st, so combined we have dropped 190 pounds! woah! yep, I can say its a good day round this house today.

So there ya have it folks, I shall call it a 4 pound loss for the week and I shall call it 400 lbs on the nose for the weight even though I did have 2 solid 399.8 weights, I always round up so the 399 remains as a smile on my face for now. Thanks for following this large fella on his trip to becoming twice the man that he can be by becoming half the man he is.

As Ever
Me

The calm before the storm, yep its the eve of weighing in again.

Once again were here a day before weigh in and I am wondering if I will see a loss this week, it has been a little rough with the back acting up earlier in the week but it seems to have corrected itself and the exercise has resumed. I did get a bike ride in yesterday afternoon, I rode for 21 minutes and wanted to do another 15 later in the day but that never happened, 2 kids doesn't always allow for extras, but I will try to ride twice today to make up a little bit and just for the fact that why not twice? I figure if I can find the time its all good for me right?

Intake was good for the day and I ended up consuming 1415 calories and enough brussel sprouts to put them on some kind of an endangered veggie list. I am awaiting on a ferry to leave port as it did not leave yesterday and that is the first time in a while that it has had problems at the dock, hopefully it works itself out (no pun intended) and I can have a decent weigh in come morning. I am not expecting a giant loss because of the lack of exercise this week but I am expecting a loss none the less.



I have finally come to the conclusion that its time to buy some more clothing regardless of the fact that they will likely not fit correctly in a few months, I walked past a mirror in a shirt that I have always thought fit good and welp it just plain old does not fit any more. it is a 6xl as are most of my shirts and I am comfortably in a 4xl now, I don't know what the size difference is in measurements between 4 and 6x but its huge as far as the way it looks. jeans are not as big a problem because I just poke a new hole in my belt and cinch it up a little more, though the size 56 are unwearable at this point I do have an abundance of size 50-52's that can be worn with a belt still BUT remember I am in a size 46 now so they are still big. once I hit my goal of 275 I was going to donate my big clothes to someone that could use it as I know how expensive big fella clothing can be BUT I want to make sure I won't need it any more before I do something like that, so some lucky big guy will get a care package when I hit goal weight, I figure its better than making it into rags to wash the car with. and of course I will keep 1 pair of jeans and one tee shirt to remind me how hard I worked, even to get to this point.

Another thing that has been on my mind lately is that I am thinking about looking into a profession either counseling or helping obese people to lose weight and gain control of their lives again after I hit my goal weight. from time to time through comments or emails as well as from family members I have been told that I should look into something like this and at first I thought "man I am just a fat dude trying to get healthy" but the more I think about it the more it makes sense to me to at least explore this idea and see what would be entailed in such a venture. I mean who would understand better about being 500+ pounds than a guy thats been there and worked through it? I think I could be a help to people in a field such as that so if anyone out there has an idea or has done this before I would love to hear from you on this matter.

There ya have another Thursday post by me, I do thank you as always for following along with my little adventure to thinness and hope to see a loss by the am tune in to the same bat channel at the same bat time for my numbers.

As Ever
Me

Sometimes I think..and the levee breaks..

This at times feels unreal to me in the way that I look at a photo of myself and think about how large the fella in that pic is and then have to realize that it is me that I am looking at, I was laying on my bed last night and wify came in and said "where is your belly?" joking with me and I looked down and saw my ribs poking out. so we started chatting about how far we have both come in these last 7 months and we both agree that we cannot remember the bigger me. I think that I choose to not remember subconsciously because I don't feel that that guy was me in the physical and certainly not the mental. lots has changed and I am back to the old me that use to be there before all of the weight was gained, and I say that with tongue in cheek sort of because I have always been a big guy and an over weight guy, the difference is that I was always able to do what I wanted when I wanted to until the recent blow up in weight of course. but yeah there is some reflecting going on lately and I am not liking what I see in the past and I will not go back to that weight again.

As my previous post stated I did get on the bike last night for 20 minutes and rode nice and easy just to test my back out and we had a success, I rode and woke up this morning feeling great and zero back pain because of the ride so I will be riding again today. my intake for the day was good ending at 1495 calories. everything seems to be back on track given that just a few days ago I had back pain so bad that I could not stand, hopefully I can pull a loss out of the week. as of this morning I am up from Fridays weight by about 8 tenths of a pound weighing in at 405 on the nose today. with that I give you the menu from Tuesday.

07/22/08


Breakfast
8:30 AM
1 cup 1% milk 110
1.5 servings blueberry mini wheats 270

Lunch
1:00 PM
3oz roasted chicken 150
1 80 cal roll 80
1 slice whole wheat bread 70
dill pickle 10
1 tbsp miracle whip 35

3:00 PM
dannon light and fit yogurt 60

Dinner
5:30 PM
2 cups home made soup 350
3/4 cup white rice 150

7:15 PM
Mint zone bar 210

Grand total of 1495 calories for the day but I will admit to having a few taste bites of the soup that i had been cooking all day so its likely that its just a tad more than that, noting that will make or break me. also as I stated in my late night post I will hold off on the calisthenics for a week so that I give my back ample time to recoup from whatever it was dealing with and there you have todays post. I am still shooting to be under 400 lbs within the next couple weeks if not by next week, we shall see.

As Ever
Me

Late post and a bike ride proved the back stable again...for now

Later than normal I find myself posting today, partially because I was busy cooking all day (roasted a chicken and made 2 pots of chili chicken pepper soup) and partially just because I was outside most of the day and just didn't get to it until now, so here it is. My intake from yesterday was good coming in at 1500 on the nose and I did not exercise a bit because of the back, I figured I would give it a day more off before I got back into the exercising. It seemed to be what was needed to do the trick because I just got off of the bike 5 minutes ago and took a nice easy 20 minute ride and feel no discomfort at all in my back so we shall see what the morning brings, if it is no pain then I will resume the bike this week and put the push ups back into it starting next week. so it would appear that all is back on track as long as there is no pain in the AM, we will know soon enough.

Here is the menu from Monday.

07/22/08

Breakfast
9:15 AM
2 multi-grain english muffins 200
1 serving turkey pepperoni 70
2 wedges laughiung cow cheese 70

Lunch
1:30 PM
1 can Progresso soup 120
1 80 cal roll 80
1 serving turkey pepperoni 70
less than 1 tbsp miracle whip 25

Dinner
6:15 PM
2 gortons fish fillets 340
1 cup white rice 200
ketchup 20
salsa 10
light sourcream 20
1 dannon light and fit yogurt 60

8:00 PM
1 pear 85

9:00 PM
1 raisin english muffin 90
less than 1 tbsp jam 40

Grand total of 1500 calories for the day, and my back feels good enough to get away with a nice easy 20 minute ride that brought my heart rate up but not way up. intake is on par and I am hoping to have a drop in weight this week, so far its up from Fridays weight but the week is early so we shall see. thats all for the later than normal post I need to head upstairs for a shower, thank you for reading along with my journey.

As Ever
Me

A long weekend, a sore back and now we have reached Monday

This weekend I did not get a chance to post on the blog, it was hectic to say the least, between driving all over the state looking at homes to possibly buy and the fact that on Saturday my back injury acted up to the point where I could not stand straight and the pain was more intense than it has been in years so its been as I said, hectic. the intake for the weekend left something to be desired only because we watched a couple movies and there was late night popcorn on the menu, Fridays popcorn was within calories, but Saturdays bowl brought me over my limit, I am not too worried about the extra calories.

A little more detail about the weekend, Saturday and Sunday we looked at a couple homes and there are s couple prospects so we will see how that turns out, and on Saturday I could feel that my back injury was a little tweaked so it was decided that we would take it easy for the rest of the day, while sitting on the couch I could feel it getting more and more sore so I stood up to maybe stretch it out a bit and bamn, I could not stand straight up without excruciating pain within my lower back. the level of pain that was there has not been present in years, it literally brought me to the floor, where I sat for 5 minutes or so before standing up (still bent over) and made my way up stairs to lay down, I laid down for a few minutes and was able to stand straight up after about 5 minutes, I took a few Motrin an stood for 20 minutes to let it feel better. Sunday the pain was gone but I could feel that it was tender and today (Monday) I know it was sore but almost zero pain as I type this, and as a result of this I did not ride the bike Saturday or Sunday and I am going to take a break today, but will be back on tomorrow as long as the pain doesn't return.

Here is the menu from Sunday.

07/21/08

Breakfast
11:00 AM
2 sliced whole wheat bread 140
1 tbsp peanut butter 95
1 tbsp grape jam 50

12:00 PM
1 Dannon light and fit yogurt 60

Lunch
3:00 PM
1 zone bar 210

Dinner
6:00 PM
8oz ground turkey 320
2 80 cal rolls 160
condiments 30
9oz sweet potato fries 225

9:00 PM
1 apple 100

10:00 PM
1 small cookie 80


Grand total of 1470 calories for the day, and Saturday I was probably over by about 200-300 total which I am not too worried about, even though I am up in weight this morning, doh! anyway the pie is sliced I will keep doing what I am doing and the end result will be a thinner me. thanks for reading my ramblings once again.

As Ever
Me

Today is the day that..

I weigh in, but first lets talk about the intake and exercise, the intake for Thursday was a bit on the low side because I waited too long last night and it got later than I wanted to eat the remaining 200ish calories that I was allowed so I skipped them all together. calories came in at 1298 for the day and I had a very good dinner as you can see in my previous post. Exercise for the day was 20 minutes on the bike and 60 push ups so I feel good about that as well. Over all the day went well where intake and exercise are concerned.

Now to the weigh in, I did post when I hit 405 lbs because it was my half way mark and since it was a milestone I thought it worth an early weigh in post, but I wanted to keep the regular weigh in day post on par with the rest of the weigh ins so I hopped on the scale this morning to find that I indeed have lost an additional pound since the 405 showed up this week and came in at 404 pounds today, so that is a 6 pound drop from Last Friday, and with that extra pound it also means that I have lost more weight than I have remaining to lose. 130 pounds total has left my body since the beginning of the year and I honestly look at pictures even from just last Christmas and think to myself "how did I let it get so far" and the photos do not even look like me to me, so thats the weight for today.

This Honda shadow 500 weighs 404 lbs.

Maria Sharapova weighs in at 130 lbs which is what I have lost so far, and she happens to be my favorite female tennis player so I had to put her up here.

Here is the Menu from Thursday.

07/18/08

Breakfast
9:45 AM
1 multi-grain english muffin 100
2 slices light Italian bread 80
sliced tomato 15
2 wedges laughing cow 70
1 serving of Turkey pepperoni 70

Lunch
1:00 PM
1 can progresso soup 120

2:30 PM
1 pear 85

Dinner
6:15 PM
8oz ground turkey 320
2 slices whole wheat bread 140
Hickory BBQ sauce/onions 40
2 wedges laughing cow cheese 70
3/4 cup white rice 150
1/4 cup corn 38

Grand total of 1298 calories for the day and I am down 6 pounds this week, I feel great and have been exercising all week and I think its to blame for the good drop this time around, well that and all of the hard work that went into meal preparation along with the commitment to better living that I have made with myself, things are looking good and I will be at my goal weight of 275 before I know it. let us cross our fingers for that last part there, but I do feel confident that it will happen. Thanks for reading.

As Ever
Me

An evening interlude and recipe of sorts.

I had some time and was just sitting around after dinner relaxing because its still at 6:45 pm 87 degrees outside and very very humid so I am hanging in the living room with the AC on for the time being. like I said I just finished a very good dinner, I made open face BBQ Turkey burgers with fried onions topped with laughing cow swiss cheese and on the side I had some seasoned white rice with 1/4 cup of whole kernel corn mixed into it. though what I had was not low calorie by any means coming in at 750 calories it is within my calorie range (I had a light day today) and I did have 2 open faced sandwiches, this could have easily been changed to 465 calories total if one sandwich was eaten instead of two, which is what my wife had. very quickly I will run through how I made this delicious dinner.

Click the image for a full sized look, this whole plate is 750 calories and was very good.

I mixed Grillmates mesquite seasoning, garlic powder and black pepper into the ground turkey and separated it into 4oz patties and tossed them onto the grill where I already had half of an onion frying up (in a low cal cooking spray). toast 2 pieces of whole wheat bread and put it aside. when the burgers are just about done I put a bit of Hickory BBQ sauce onto the toasted bread with some of the fried onions and place the grilled burger on top of that and spread a wedge of laughing cow swiss over the burger drop a dab more BBQ sauce onto the cheese and spread it out just a bit and top with a few more onions and enjoy! the rice is just seasoned with black pepper and Goya Adobo and topped with a little corn, and of course you can see my green tea in the back ground. My wife just rolls her eyes when I take photos of my meals, but she also asked "did you want me to load these pics onto your computer for ya?" welp there ya have my little intermission, hope everyone had a good day intake wise and got some movement in.

Until next time..

As Ever
Me

Point blank range.

Just another day in the life of, intake and exercise are good and hopefully the pounds keep dropping. though I weighed in yesterday I will also post a Friday weigh in as well just for uniformity of my posts this is an eve of a weigh in once again. eating right and adding more movement into my each and every has proven to be the dose of reality that my body needed to drop the pounds that were holding me back and start on a path to healthy living. Today I weigh 24.15% less than I did just 6.5 short months ago and hopefully when I am done I will have lost half of my body weight, 48.50% to be exact if 275 pounds is achieved, that is amazing to me that when I hit that goal of 275 I will be just about half the size I was at my highest weight and is where I came up with the name to my blog. thinking back to the months before I decided to make this change I can remember feeling lethargic and unmotivated or in pain all of the time and now that is just not the case anymore, I feel like I have the old me back and its only getting better every day, in fact just a few days ago we had sat down to dinner and I forgot my drink on the counter (which is a total of about 11 feet from where I was sitting ) and I didn't realize I had forgot it until I reached for something that was not on the table and my wife said "I will get it for ya" to which I replied "I can get it" she then said "I really don't mind and it not like it was before, I hardly do anything for you any more" and what she meant was that the pre 2008 me (yeah thats what I will call it) was not able to do those every day things and be fully comfortable, and I started to think about the things that I would not want to do because either it was a chore or I would get out of breath doing it or wondered if it meant a sore back for the rest of the day and as small as grabbing that drink off of the counter seems, it was a chore at 534 pounds and I never realized it until now.



My intake has changed drastically in the past 6 months, I went from eating 1500 calories or more in a single meal to eating no more than 1500 calories in a whole day and I feel great for my effort. I am in the belief that once you get past the addiction part of over eating that the rest comes naturally and healthy living follows directly. yeah thats right I said it, addiction. I started gaining most of my weight after an injury and then the comfort in the food I was eating was there to hold my hand when I was down, being addicted to food is the number one issue with gaining weight in my certainly humble opinion, I stand 6'5'' tall, and currently weigh 405 pounds, I eat 1500 calories per day and exercise almost daily and feel great, I am full of energy and do not feel hungry 95% of the time. if you were to ask me could I eat 1500 calories per day and exercise daily and not feel hunger or dissatisfaction with my physical self or still be tired all of the time 6 months ago my answer would have been "no way man what are you nuts?" and yet here I am, 129 pounds lighter and feeling better than I have in years. I eat a nice rounded diet including all food groups, I know I lack on veggies now and again but reminders from friends and family get me back on track with it when I slack, I take Multi-vitamins daily, exercise almost daily and I drink enough fluid to support all of that and thats it. the one thing that IS missing would be the addiction to food that once lived within me and I can admit it at this point in the program because it is clear now that its gone.

Here is the menu for the day.

07/16/08

Breakfast
10:00 AM
1 multigrain english muffin 100
2 slices light Italian bread 80
sliced tomato 15
2 wedges laughing cow cheese 70
1 serving of Turkey pepperoni 70

Lunch
2:30 PM
1 zone bar 200

3:00 PM
1 pear 85

Dinner
6:00 PM
2 gortons fish fillets 340
1 cup corn 150
3/4 cup white rice 150
1/2 tbsp smart balance 25

8:45 PM
1 cup corn 150

Grand total of 1435 calories for the day which means I have done my part as far as intake goes now lets see what my body does with it, hopefully I can eek out another pound by tomorrow morning and end at 404 pounds for the weeks weigh in, if not? I have done a good job this week with exercise and intake so it is what it is. Thanks for reading my ramblings once again today, it is always appreciated.

As Ever
Me

Half way to goal, a Milestone reached, today feels a little different.

I shall start with my exercise and intake for the day, exercise was as follows, 15 minutes on the stationary bike, hop off and do 70 push ups and a short stretch routine and back on the bike for another 15 minutes, so thats 30 mins on the bike and my calisthenics routine and I am happy with that. something I will mention is that I split the bike time up because my thingamajig starts to feel it on the longer bike rides and I researched this a bit and apparently it happens from the penile artery being pinched by the weight of the rider and can result in erectile dysfunction, welp we can't have that now can we? Um no we can't. so I break it up into 2 shorter rides to give the old artery a break and save my love life. Now onto the intake, I had a good day ending at 1460 calories and I had some cereal for breakfast, that was the first cereal and milk that I had in a long while. and that pretty sums up exercise and intake.

The title of this post says that today is a little different, and what that means is that a milestone crept up on me this morning and I am a tad more than excited about it. when I started losing weight this year I weighed in at 534 pounds and my goal is to get to 275 pounds now that means that I need to drop a total of 259 pounds to hit my goal and over this past 6.5 months I have chipped away at that number to the point that I have lost as much as I need to lose to be half way there and when I lose just one more pound I will have lost more than half of what I need to hit that 275 pound mark. I know its not a weigh in day BUT becaue its a milestone sort of I will post the weight for the day, I weighed in at 405 pounds this morning which brings me to 129 pounds lost and thats close enough to the 129.5 lbs that I need to be at half to say I am there, so there it is I am half way to my goal weight and am down 129 pounds to on this day.

This Suzuki GSX 400F weighs in at 405 pounds

Mark from the biggest loser lost 129 pounds while on the show.

Here is the Menu from Tuesday.

07/15/08

Breakfast
8:30 AM
1 apple 100

11:30 AM
2 cups puffed wheat cereal 120
1 cup 2% organic milk 130
1 banana 105

Lunch
1:00 PM
1 slice light Italian bread 40
1/2 tbsp peanut butter 50
1/2 tbsp Grape jam 25

Dinner
6:30 PM
7oz grilled chicken breast 350
3/4 cup cole slaw 150
3/4 cup potato salad 275


9:00 PM
1 light raisin english muffin 90
1/2 tbsp Grape jam 25

Grand total of 1460 calories for the day and I am half way to my ultimate goal weight of 275 pounds, it feels a little different to me now knowing that I have lost more than I have left to lose (or in one pound I will anyways) and there you have my day summed up in a couple paragraphs. Thanks for reading along and thanks for the support.

As Ever
Me

The day after tomorrow is now.

Day after day the same thing happens lately, I wake up and I figure out what I will have for breakfast, lunch and dinner and I figure out my day give or take and I follow that menu for that day, I try to exercise daily and have been failing in that dept lately but not totally and it is being rectified. I did ride the bike yesterday and tossed in 55 push ups as well and the same is on the exercise menu for today, I told my wife after I worked out last night "honey I have no clue why I stopped, I love the way I feel afterwards" she just laughed at me in that kind of way that people do when they already know what you just told them. getting the gears turning and the fluid pumping through the machine is always the way to get motivation flowing through ones body, we are after all machines and if you let a machine sit too long without moving it will rust and become a useless pile of metal and hydraulic fluid, or in this case bone and guts. I am reminded of something Phil said "Immovable stone in your world of the weak" This is where I was mentally at a point in my life when I weighed 300 pounds, its all coming back lately and I like it.

Intake for the day was pretty good as well coming in at 1395 calories for the day and included a couple pieces of fruit and some chicken veggie soup so I am happy with the menu from the day. I said it yesterday and I will restate it today, eating right is coming as natural to me as walking these days, at one point I thought to myself "how in the hell am I suppose to eat that way and stick to it daily" and now I wonder why it was such a hard thing to do because it isn't and its just that simple, The power of knowledge is an amazing thing. Something else I will mention is as I passed a mirror in the bathroom last night I removed my shirt and caught a glimpse of something that I had not seen in a while, so I stood facing the mirror and I could see the wall behind me through the gap between my arms and my torso, "WTF" I thought "when did that happen??" and I didn't look like myself to me, the upper half of my body actually looked completely different than I had remembered it for so long but my gut remains if not much smaller. there are collar bones and bulges from where muscles are now showing on my upper body again and I honestly cannot remember the last time I remember seeing that, maybe 10 plus years ago before I even met my wife. Now I am not saying that I looked like some young Adonis but wow I can see and recognize Muscle groups in my chest shoulders and arms again and it was sort of a wow moment for me. Ok enough about that for now here is the menu from Monday for your viewing pleasure.

07/14/08

Breakfast
8:15 AM
2 multi-grain english muffins 200
turkey pepperoni 55
sliced tomato 15
2 wedges laughing cow cheese 70

10:30 AM
1 apple 100

Lunch
3:00 PM
2 multi-grain english muffins 200
1.5oz light mozz cheese 120
2.5 tbsp pizza sauce 40
1 serving turkey pepperoni 70

Dinner
6:30 PM
2 cups home made soup 300
1oz tortilla chips 140

9:00 PM
1 pear 85

Grand total of 1395 calories for the day and the stone keeps on rolling. The results keep on coming in and the weight is dropping like it should be, I am happy with what I am doing and I know that what I am doing is great for me and my physical self. things are indeed good right now and I hope to be able to give you all a post come Jan1st 2009 where I can say that I am down 200 pounds in a years time, which is a goal of mine that I don't think I have ever mentioned here and will put me at 334 pounds, that number is unbelievable to me when I think about it but I would have to lose 12 pounds per month until then to hit that goal so I do think it is an attainable goal without being a sure thing. Thank you for following along with my weight loss and thanks for the support.

As Ever
Me

One incredible clock and time is the answer.

I believe I am back on track with the blog, I know that I missed a couple days here and there and the internet issue paused me for a while but I am back to daily posts now. Sunday went good as far as intake goes coming in at 1380 calories for the day and we made a trip to my Father in laws place for some turkey burgers on the grill. I did not exercise at all Sunday and I am posting daily when I do not exercise to hopefully get myself back into the groove of things and start hitting it hard again, today I WILL ride my bike. I am finding that lately that things are very natural to me where this eating right thing comes into play, I know I know you ask, But what about the cake you have been eating man? welp thats just it, I can have my cake and eat it too so to speak, I did in fact have some very yummy Italian cakes in the past couple weeks but so what? thats life right? Birthdays will happen and cake will be there and I will eat some, the key is moderation and once a guy can figure that part out the rest is cake! pun intended. so this last 6.5 months has been an extremely information filled portion of my life where I learned that doing is the only way things are going to happen where weight related issues are concerned.

I will now give you a quote "Dost thou love life? then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of" ~Benjamin Franklin~ , if we spend our time thinking about doing something or procrastinating the days away there is a lot of things that get missed. in the last 6 or so years before I decided to take control of my weight I know there are things that I missed out on because of the extra baggage that I had been carrying around for so long and it took a little girl to make me start thinking about it on a daily basis enough to start looking into weight loss options and I was sold on getting a gastric bypass until I read about death as a side effect. then it hit me, am I that weak that I cannot control what goes into my body? and I knew that I was not that guy so it began and here we are, now I can say with all honesty that I do not regret doing this sooner but that doesn't stop me from wishing I had, but then you know what they say about wishing, wish into one hand and shit into the other and tell me which one fills up first. time is a funny thing because most things just take a little time and you can have whatever you want in life if you can accept that fact, including a healthy lifestyle. such basic concepts escape us all too often and when the spiral starts it seems as if nothing can stop it but the plain truth of the matter is that we are responsible for our own actions and thats that.

Here is the menu from Sunday.

07/14/08

Breakfast
12:15 PM
2 80 calorie rolls 160
2 eggs 140
Turkey pepperoni 70
1 tbsp miracle whip 35

Lunch
2:00 PM
1.5oz pretzel sticks 155
crystal light 35

Dinner
6:30 PM
8oz ground turkey 320
2 80 calorie rolls 160
pasta salad w/apples and tuna 200
condiments 20

9:00 PM
1 pear 85

Grand total of 1380 calories for the day, and it was a late start eating because I was playing that silly game in the morning and basically forgot to eat doh! things are still moving in a good direction and the band plays on. Thank you for reading and know that it is possible to drop the weight that you may be carrying around and know that it is possible to do it with nothing more than determination.

As Ever
Me

Day CXCV

Looks like I missed a post yesterday, so I will double up here today. Friday was a Turkey kind of day, I had it for breakfast, I had it for lunch and I had Turkey pepperoni with my dinner (English muffin pizza) I noticed that I had zero fruit or veggies so I ended the evening with 26 oz of chopped watermelon to make up the final calories and get at least some vegetation into my body and the night ended with 1476 total calories. and here is the exact menu for Friday.

07/11/08

Breakfast
10:00 AM
4oz turkey deli breast 120
3 slices light rye bread 120
1.5 tbsp miracle whip 50

Lunch
2:15 PM
4oz turkey deli breast 120
2 slices light rye bread 80
1 tbsp miracle whip 35
1oz Jax 140
dill pickle 10

Dinner
6:15 PM
1.5 large English muffins 285
1.5 tbsp pizza sauce 45
2oz low fat mozz cheese 160
Turkey pepperoni 90

9:30 PM
26oz watermelon 221

Grand total of 1476 calories Friday.

Screen shot of Fran and Balthier from Final fantasy 12 above, and below is another of them with Vaan (you can see his back) and Basch far right.

Yesterday (Saturday) we had a full day waking up bright and early and taking a class until about 5pm and then we came home cooked dinner and I say "cooked" loosely as we had Tuna sammies, and my lunch was less than desirable for a person that is on low calorie diet but since I was out because of the class I stopped at a pizza house that was near by and got half a chicken parm grinder with peppers and onions on it, I do not know the exact calories for it but I counted them at 600 on my Excel sheet. the rest of the day was not that great intake wise though it did start out well enough with a good solid breakfast, I did share the last piece of Tiramasu from wifys Bday and it was counted at 350, a total guess. I then played Final fantasy 12 for a little while, yes I am a Final Fantasy geek, and I played FFXI for more than four years on Asura server and was throughly addicted to it for quite some time (as was wify), and we then ended the night by watching Walk the line, welp the first half anyways as I fell asleep so I will have to watch the rest of it at some point because it was pretty good until I passed out. and with that I give you Saturdays menu.

07/12/08

Breakfast
7:45 AM
2 multi-grain english muffins 200
1 serving turkey pepperoni 70
sliced tomato 15
2 wedges laughing cow cheese 70

Lunch
12:30 PM
Chicken parm Grinder 600

Dinner
6:30 PM
1 can tuna 150
3 slices light rye bread 120
1 tbsp miracle whip 35
onion/tomato/pickle 25
1oz jax 140

Some time after dinner
Tiramisu 350

10:30 PM
1 apple 100

Grand total of 1875 calories for Saturday and I feel ok about it because I was out all day and very beat from my class and I know that I burned a good amount of calories throughout the day. Today (Sunday) I started out late with the intake but I will make sure I get what I need to, also I did not have one drop of green tea yesterday because we were out all day and it just plain old slipped my mind. so there you have it, the last two days in a nutshell and you found out that I am a Final fantasy geek too boot. keep on keepin on, eat moderately and come back tomorrow for the next episode of as Zeusmeatball turns.

As Ever
Me

Weighing in after a couple weeks worth of a plateau.

Today is the day that the AM weight gets recorded as progress and I am happy to say that I have finally lost a couple pounds, its been about 2 weeks since a real drop has happened and last week I was 413 lbs on Friday, this week I am 410 pounds so thats a 3 pound drop from last Friday and a 2 pound drop from my lowest weight to date which was 412 lbs we will just call it a drop this week, something I do know is that I have lost 124 pounds to date. now within 10 pounds of being under 400 I am excited about that fact. I think I am past the whole body image thing this week as well, and what I mean is that everyone that loses weight (or a lot of people anyways) seem to have a hard time either believing or accepting that they have lost a large amount of weight and still see themselves as their former Huge selves. Now I am not even close to dainty or small, hell I am not even average sized and because of my 6'5'' frame I likely will never be BUT with that said I can honestly say that I see the difference in myself. None of my clothing fits but not because of being too tight, which is a new thing for me and when I look at the comparison pictures I take of myself every month the difference is huge! I also catch myself walking past the mirror and thinking "wow I just look like a big dude now and not a giant fat guy" (I honestly had that thought a few days ago) so things are looking good and my father had a very uncharacteristic comment to my wife last night that even made my wife think twice and make sure that it was him she was talking to, she was messing with me for my ginornmis piece of Tiramisu to him and he said "He has done a lot with his weight and a really good job and should be able to have that kind of stuff when he wants it, he deserves it" now that may not sound that far out there for a comment BUT if you knew the man you would understand, we are just not the type of fellas to say things like that and it took my wife by surprise. so with the above paragraph you can see things are going well.

This Suzuki SV1000 weighs in at 410 pounds.


This week I have lost a Porn star! Aria Giovanni weighs 124 pounds, this is one of the more mild pics I found of her, just google her name and you will see what I mean lol.

Since I posted my menu up last night when I got my new Modem installed I have nothing to post for you today as far as a menu goes, I am glad to have my internet connection back and to be able to get back on here and posting and researching things weight loss related. I will also be posting a recipe later on today or some time tomorrow for the nachos that I made a few days ago, though it is nothing spectacular or hard to figure out I figured I would post it anyways. Thanks for following along with me and keep on keepin on, because I sure am.

Until next time

As Ever
Me

Were back in busines a bit early and ready for weigh in.

I am back baby! My new Modem came in a bit early so I have had it since this afternoon and just got around to reconnecting it and thought I would pop on for a post. It has been hot and humid here in New England for the past few days and today it was all gone and I ended up playing in the back yard with the kiddos for a couple hours and it was good to leave the house without turning into a ball of sweat. I have not really exercised this week besides some push ups but I did finally break that 412 mark that was drawn in the sand a couple of weeks ago and tomorrow is weigh in day so i am eager to see where the wheel stops in the morning, will I break that double digit ending to my weight and get to 409? let us hope so but if not then it is what it is. I did indulge in a piece of Tiramisu today, it was wifys Bday and welp I made a deal with myself when I started this new way of eating that I would not give up things like Birthday cake or a nice Holiday meal so within the last couple weeks I have had my two favorite cakes with the Italian Rum cake last week and now the Tiramisu, I am not worried about it because this is not a diet it is a life change and well, these things happen in life, so be it.

My intake has been good this week Monday I came in at 1486 total calories, Tuesday was at 1500 on the nose, Wednesday came in at 1330 and today (Thursday) I was at 850 calories and then I had a pretty big piece of the Tiramisu cake, big enough that I am pretty sure I hit my goal of 1500 for the day, I saved up because I knew the cake was going to be in there. I am happy with my intake for the week and I have to step the movement up for this coming week so that I can make my goal of being under 400 lbs by mid August. here is the menu from Today.

07/10/08

Breakfast
8:00 AM
2 multi-grain english muffins 200
1 serving turkey pepperoni 70
sliced tomato 15
2 wedges laughing cow cheese 70

10:30 AM
1 apple 100

Lunch
2:00 PM
1 progresso soup 120

Dinner
5:45 PM
4oz turkey deli breast 120
3 slices light rye bread 120
1 tbsp miracle whip 35

6:45 PM
big piece of Tiramisu cake I have no clue what the calories were for this.

Grand total of, oh I dunno, but I do know that the cake was good! things are still going good and I still know what I must do to get where I need to where my weight is concerned, I also wanted to mention that I am watching my fiber intake now and have added some ground flax seed to my diet because I was just having way too many long breaks before ships were sailing and I am happy to say that since I started watching it there have been launches every day, in fact today was the first day that I did not have a ship leave dock in a week, and there you have my later than normal post because my internet was down, hopefully it does not become a problem again, I honestly missed writing in this blog and sharing my journey with whomever finds themselves on my page. Thank you for reading and look for my weigh in post in the am.

As Ever
Me

Oh deary me a three day post because of an internet issue.

Today is Tuesday July 8th, and I still have no internet at home, I am at my mother in laws house feeding her snakes so I thought I would hop on and post up how stuff is going. my internet has been down since Saturday and will not be back up until this Friday so I do not know if I will be able to get a new post up until then, hopefully I can. I do have a post typed out in word for today but for some reason it didn't make it onto my thumb drive when I loaded it up so I will post it when I can. so without further delay here is a post. I hope to see many comments when next I return :)

I wrote the following on Monday as if I were posting it.

From here down is from Monday 07-07-08

So, I guess you heard, I had an internet problem and could not get online almost all weekend so here is the make up post, it may go a little long and I am typing it out in word as if I were posting it a soon as I am done. So Saturday was your average day as far as Saturdays goes I made a pot of my chili chicken pepper soup which was started around noon and was finished by 5:30pm just in time for dinner and a little more rearranging in the living room. My intake for this day was 1030 calories before the popcorn that I had later in the evening which I estimate at roughly at 305 calories, 12 cups air popped popcorn at 240, 1 tbsp of Smart Balance omega 3 spread at 50 and a couple shakes of Cheddar cheese popcorn seasoning at 15, so I guess its not an estimate after all. So with my quick addition it brings Saturday to 1335 calories with the late night popcorn. I will admit that I slacked in the exercise dept on Saturday, but it was more because I was very busy and by the end of the night was just plain old beat from moving furniture around all day but I did nothing that would be considered an exercise routine next to a few push ups.

Here is the Menu from Saturday.

Breakfast
9:00 AM
2oz grilled chicken 100
2 slices whole wheat bread 140
1 tbsp miracle whip 35
small dill pickle 5

Lunch
3:45 PM
3/4 cup peas 80
3/4 cup white rice 150
1.5oz grilled chicken 75

Dinner
6:45 PM
2 cups home made pepper chicken soup 300
1/2 oz corn chips 60

7:45 PM
1 pear 85

10:30 PM
Big Ol bowl of popcorn 305

Grand total of 1335 calories.

My son was pouting because I let his sister play with his clay and the baby said "why he sad Dada?" and I made this bust of my son out of said clay. I thought I would post a random picture for you just for fun.

Sunday was another busy day because it was bulk shopping day and we were out shopping for groceries for a couple hours and let me tell you, pushing a cart around a store for more than 2 hours filled with 7 gallon jugs of Arizona diet green teas, 6 whole chickens, 6 gallons of water, my daughter in the seat of the cart and my son standing on the front of the cart along with all of the rest of the things we were buying, that cart was HEAVY! And I sort of stacked it heavy on purpose to get a little extra exertion into the day while doing my daily. My intake..ahhh my intake, although I did make it under calories I do not feel like this was a good day intake wise, I came in at 1346 calories for the day and was not hungry all day but I know that I ate a lot of sodium and a lot of crackers, I woke up late and ate a pear to start the day but then it was laughing cow and Ritz for a late breakfast and add some turkey pepperoni for a lunch, I need to lay off the laughing cow! Dinner was some Nachos that I decided to make sort of spur of the moment while we were in the market, I bought what I though I would need to make a low calorie Nacho plate and it turned out very good. One serving turns out to be about 340 calories and includes Corn tortillas, refried beans, tomato, shredded Mexican style cheddar cheese, onion, olives, jalapeno peppers, a southwestern style salsa and light sour cream. The serving size I made was Huge and half of it would have been enough for a dinner or a good sized lunch, so when you look at the menu for Sunday the dinner slot has the nachos in it and that is 2 servings which I figured out after I made it. I will post exactly what I used and the amounts of each ingredient in a later post.

Here is the menu from Sunday.

Breakfast
10:30 AM
1 pear 85

11:00 AM
12 ritz crackers 168
2 laughing cow wedges 70

Lunch
4:15 PM
12 ritz crackers 168
2 laughing cow wedges 70
turkey pepperoni 100

Dinner
6:15 PM
2 oz Tortilla Chips 240
1/2 cup Refried Beans 90
Tomato/Onions/Olives 40
4 tbsp Salsa 30
2oz Mexican Style Cheese 160
2 tbsp light sour cream 40

9:00 pm
1 pear 85

Grand total of 1346 calories.

There is my weekend all typed out, there was much more but since its not exactly related to weight loss I won’t bore you with it. I did buy some ground flax seed to try, I hope it helps out with the ferry leaving on time and daily, and I have to admit that after looking at my intake for the past week or so I do see that I am not eating as many veggies and fruit that I use to and should be. So the refrigerator is stocked with pears, apples, watermelon and a bunch of veggies so that I may get my ruffage into each day and help that boat leave on time. Between adding ground flax seed to my diet and taking note of the lack of vegetation lately I think I will be back on track in that department soon enough, or so I hope. Another post has come to an end and hopefully another pound has been shed, I thank you for following along with this mans “trip to the half”.

As Ever
Me

Ding Dong The Witch is dead, but she took my internet with her...

Today is Monday, July 7th. I had a quick second from a friend's house, and I thought I would update anybody who cared real quick. Which means you, because you're obviously reading this. I have an internet problem at home right now, but a technician is coming to check it out tonight, so hopefully I'll be able to put a full post for Saturday and Sunday up later tonight. Until then, know that I'm still on track with everything. Something else I want to mention real quick, I was playing around with my food again, and no I don't mean making mountains out of mash potatoes because aliens were involved. I made some low calorie nachos last night that came out pretty good, and I'm sure I'll post that up when my net is back.

Thanks for following, until next time...hopefully

As Ever

Me

A night at the Hospital and a late weigh in.

It is Saturday the 5th of July, I missed my weigh in post for yesterday because I was out all day and was up late the night before because of spending 4 hours in the ER at the Hospital, a day or so before Thursday I had noticed that when my daughter went poop there was something that looked like blood in it but since we had crushed tomato in dinner the night before we did not want to panic and decided to check the next time she went, and then Thursday we were at my Mother in laws place and kiddo went to the bathroom and it was red again so we drop everything and off to the ER, we ended up sitting there for about 4 hours to thankfully find out that the red was because of what she was eating and they said it was a combination of all of the watermelon that we have been eating and that some of it was undigested melon and the dye from some fruit snacks that wify had bought last week, though I was not thrilled at the 4 hours we were there 3 of which were spent waiting to see a second doc for a whopping 3 mins, I was thrilled that it was just dye and lotsa melon, alls well that ends well and my heart is back in my chest instead of my stomach and we now have a funny story for our daughter when she gets a little older.

Some of the Chicken I grilled on the 4th, yes it was good!

Now onto the weigh in for this week, I did not weigh myself Friday morning, I was beat from the Hospital visit and we were heading out for the day and I just forgot that it was even Friday because wify was home for the holiday and before we get to what I weighed lets cover yesterday for a moment. 1685 calories were consumed and there was a dairy queen cone in there at some point, we grilled BBQ chicken on the grill and had a salad , dirty rice and corn for dinner and then went fishing for a couple hours, it was a nice easy day and just what I needed. we also had some fireworks for the kids later that night so we set those off and the kiddos loved running around with sparklers, or what passes for sparklers these days. this morning when I woke up I wanted to get right on the scale and see what the damage was because I knew I was not less than last week and I was right, I came in at four hundred thirteen pounds today which is up one pound from last week, but I do believe that last weeks weigh in was lower than it should have been because of dehydration so I am not worried about the 1 pound up that I see. We also watched a movie last night after the kiddos went to sleep, A river runs through it, I will admit that it was a good movie, I had never seen it before last night which wify couldn't believe. I did have a handful of her popcorn while watching it but I did count it on my intake so I feel no guilt for it.

Heres the things to consider with my weight this week and it will get a little nasty (poop talk coming up as well as advice needed) so if you do not wish to read about poop skip this paragraph. Houston! we have a problem! lately I have not been lets say regular, before yesterday it had been more than 2 days but less than 3 that I had a movement. and yesterday (after some fluid loading and BBQ chicken) the earth moved and septic systems everywhere groaned at what had occurred, just after dinner I had a knot in my stomach and every part of my body screamed at the same time to get into a bathroom NOW! I honestly had the image in my head from Lord of the rings where Gandalf was fighting Balrog and tells Frodo "Run you fool!" so that I did, and 30 minutes and 12 flushes later I walked downstairs weak and dazed from what had just happened looking enough like I had just run a marathon for wify to ask "are you ok? you are covered in sweat" and the rumbling subsided. with that I do want to ask for opinions and ideas as to what I can do to become more regular again, anyone that would like to take a look at my menus and maybe see something that I am missing that would cause this please all opinions will be read, just know that dehydration is not an issue 95% of the time and everything I eat is on my menus. The other thing to consider as far as my weight this morning goes is that I drank a gallon of green tea while watching the movie last night so I do believe that some of the weight has to do with that little fact.

Here is the menu from Friday.

07/04/08

Breakfast
9:00 AM
2 multi-grain english muffins 200
2 eggs 140
1 tbsp miracle whip 35

Lunch
12:15 PM
3oz roasted chicken 150
2 slices whole wheat bread 140
1 tbsp miracle whip 35
dill pickle 5

1:00 PM
small dairy queen cone 230

Dinner
6:00 PM
8.5oz chicken 425
green salad w/Newmans own light honey mustard 120
3/4 cup dirty rice 185

11:00 PM
hand full of popcorn 20

Grand total of 1685 calories for the 4th and my weight is at 413 this morning, and I am good with it all. I know this week is going to bring a big drop in weight and I honestly believe that the huge drop off at the bowl in addition to the huge amount that I drank yesterday will make a difference in what I weigh tomorrow when it all regulates a bit. Thanks for reading along.

As Ever
Me