Bob the Anteater...means nothing but hey its a title!

Bringing things back into more of a strict structure again is happening as I type this, not that I wasn't being strict but I was going easy on myself where recording intake was concerned and I want to grab hold of the disciplined way that I was doing things just last month. a I said the weight is still coming off just at a slower pace than it has been and I have been less aggressive with my regimen lately partially because of things unrelated to my weight loss that have kept me focused in that direction, I have to keep this going because I have come too far into this game to slack now and I use the term slack loosely because I am staying under my intake range, I am getting in some exercise and I am making good eating choices, its more like I am relaxing and I decided this morning that I can't let that happen at this stage.

I have been counting my calories and logging them into my excel sheet but have not been writing the times I have been eating and sometimes its just the calorie amount and no what it was listed, today I started logging the times in again and am keeping track of every detail again. I am doing this because as I stated in earlier posts I still have just over 100 pounds more that I would like to lose and being anything but 100% dedicated will slow the process down and I want to hit that 200 pounds lost in 1 year goal that I set for myself. In all honesty I think its a bit more ambitious than I want to believe but I am sticking with that number and time frame until Jan 1st 2009.

Its that time of year again to make a trip or two to the apple orchards and that usually means that I would make some apple pies from scratch but I will have to hold off this year as they are very naughty where calories are concerned and weigh about 8 pounds each! so no pies this year, maybe I will experiment with some low calorie treats with some of the apples we get and I can post up what I made. Ok now I feel like I am rambling so I will end the post for now, I will have my menu to post from today on tomorrows post but for now its just numbers on my excel sheet so posting them would not show anything. My intake for Monday was 1580 total calories and it was spread throughout the day pretty good, its just not recorded so I won't try and make sense of it and figure out the times. As always I thank you for following along with my trip to the half, check back tomorrow for a new post as things have calmed down here and I have the time to post daily again.

As Ever
Me

Day something with a side of some of that.

Everything is everything and still going in the direction that it has to. I have lost a whole lot of weight in the past 9 months and gained more than that in other aspects of daily living. Lately I have not been exercising much but am keeping the intake to good levels and slowly but surely the weight is still coming off, I do anticipate that the exercise will start coming into play again with the cooler weather starting to peek into the days but lately I have been slacking.

I find myself comfortable with how things are going, so comfortable that I have been taking more and more days where I don't count the food for a given day and this has got to stop because it can only be hurting me. I am still a significant amount heavier than I want to be or have to be and by becoming laid back this can only be negative at this stage of the game. Even though I am still losing weight every week I do believe that I need to stay as strict as I have been from day one until I hit my main goal of 275 pounds or else I could put that proverbial monkey wrench in the works. Now thats not to say that I am not doing what I have to do, all it means is that I have been making the choice to have that piece of carrot cake after dinner rather than turning it down, or having the extra 1/2 serving of rice with my chicken or some popcorn with a movie instead of having nothing or maybe some carrot sticks (I saw righteous kill this weekend), could that mean that I am slipping? I guess I could see where someone could say that but I don't think its slipping at all, its more like getting comfortable with what I am doing and knowing roughly by sight not scale how much food I am consuming at a given time without over doing it, which is exactly what I am trying to accomplish anyways isn't it? with all of that said I do think that I have to stay strict because of the amount of weight that I still have to take off and thats what the plan is going to be until I am where I want to be.




A milestone is quickly approaching, I am just about to that point where I will have less than 100 pounds left to lose! This fact is completely insane to me because when I started I wanted to lose 259 total pounds and I had set a goal of losing 100 of those pounds in the first year and I am only 9 months in and have surpassed the goal of 100 pounds by almost 60 pounds now, and all on my own! when I say on my own I mean with no supplements, surgeries or Miracle plans, of course the support that I get from my lovely Wife and all of the people that read and respond to this very blog is key in the success so far so thanks for that.

A pretty random post fell off of my fingers this morning but it is what it is and thats all I can offer, kind of like Popeye, I yam what I yam and thats all that I am. Thanks for reading and look for a new post tomorrow.

As Ever
Me

weighing in..

I am dealing with a couple things not related to my weight loss and have been neglecting this blog for week or so because of it but i want to get in here and leave a weigh in post for the week so here it is, sorry its so minimal and to the point. I weighed 379.8 this morning so I will round it up to 380 pounds which makes a total weight loss of 154 pounds and 2 + pounds lost this week.

This Ducati 1098S weighs 380 lbs like me.

I will try and get a more detailed post up a bit later for those interested. Thank you for following along.

As Ever
Me

Yata!!

Well well well, look what the cat dragged in. my intake for the last few days has been on par for the most part and yesterday I had a total of 1674 calories. I have not exercised this week with any kind of regularity and honestly have been pretty busy hence the lack of posts on ye old blog. fear not, I am still here, I am still dropping the weight and making good choices with what goes into my mouth, I have just been busy researching a couple things not weight loss related thus have not posted, Also Heroes is back on! Man I love this show, Hiro is awesome and ya just gotta love Sylar, don't ya? anyways I won't get into it too much but the premier was really good but I don't know how I feel about the "serum" that gives people powers, and I do think that I figured out a key element of the ENTIRE series that was not obvious until last nights episode! I will keep that to myself for now but if I am right I like the show that much more! anyways were getting off track so here is a look at yesterdays menu.

09/22/08

Breakfast
7:45 AM
2 slices whole wheat bread 140
1 T miracle whip 35
3oz deli turkey breast 90

Lunch
12:30 PM
3 slices whole wheat bread 210
1.5 T miracle whip 50
3oz deli turkey breast 90
2oz roast beef 100

2:00 PM
1 pear 85

4:30 PM
1 laughing cow cheese wedge 35
6 ritz crackers 84

Dinner
6:15 PM
2 80 calorie rolls 160
8oz ground turkey 320
6oz sweet potato fries 150
condiments 40

8:30 PM
1 pear 85

Oh we left off at a weigh in huh? Friday I forgot to weigh myself until after breakfast so no go, then Saturday morning I weighed in and was just under 1 pound over my last weigh in of 381.6 I was 382.8 so not quite a pound gain BUT in my defense the ferries had not left port for 3 days at that point so to say that I was full of... well you know, would have been accurate Saturday, then came Sunday, an aircraft carrier left port and ferries have been leaving port daily since then and this morning I weighed in at 381.2 pounds so I am below last Fridays weight and feeling better internally. In the words of Forest Gump, Thats all I have to say about that.

As Ever
Me

Weighing in, or the lack there of.

So here I sit, I just ate my breakfast and had just about a quart of green tea and it dawns on me, I did not get on the scale and since I can't really get an accurate number I will weigh in tomorrow morning for my "official" number. I still do not think it will be a good drop but after eating I do weigh only slightly higher than last weeks weigh in so I do think there was a loss, no worries, we will get that weight recorded tomorrow morning. Otherwise Thursday was good, the intake was a bit low again coming in at 1530 total but I did manage to get a ride in on the stationary bike so I feel good about the day over all. I will leave this post a short one because of the non weighing myself this morning.

Thanks for reading and look for a weigh in post in the am Saturday.

As Ever
Me

Monomyth, the journey is not quite over yet.

The day before weigh in looming over me and I feel that I will not have a drop this week, does it matter if I don't drop any weight? in the long run no, but in the short? still no but it is nice to see the numbers drop. I have had barely any green tea today because I forgot to brew some last night and didn't get to it until late this morning and now it is cooling off so I feel a bit off today and I know that its mental because I have only had 20oz give or take all day and by now I usually have at least half a gallon. I have been either taking a walk or riding the bike every day this week so far and feeling good about that but I have had a heavy day food wise and I am grilling chicken out on the grill again so dinner is not light either. lots is stacking against my weight being below last Fridays weight, I know that it is not below right now as I type this because I just stepped off of the scale but typically the week after I have a big drop I have a not so good week where the raw pounds dropped goes. My calories for yesterday were low coming in at 1485 total for the day and I had to drink 12 oz of 1% milk right before bed to even get that number! it was just a light day.


I was compared to the Monomyth or "The Heroes Journey" by someone that reads my blog where my weight loss is concerned, I think it is pretty cool and thought I would mention it here. I would never put myself in that light because I decided to take my life back and drop the weight that has been holding me back and I actually smiled when I read what she had written and hung my name on, so Thanks Veejay. When I started this blog it was for accountability and it seems to have become more than that and others are able to get nuggets of information or inspiration from what I have written or people relate to what I have gone through or am going through where weight loss is concerned and its a side effect that I never expected, I never once thought that me writing my thoughts and experiences down would or could help other people, and I have said that before. I wanted to say Thanks to everyone that has ever taken the time to write a response comment on my blogs because that is something that I appreciate, I also wanted to say thanks to everyone that has emailed me with words of support and with questions, it helps me stay focused with the task at hand which is to drop this weight and get healthy for myself and my family.

Thats it for today, I will be posting the weigh in results sometime tomorrow morning so look out for that, hopefully there will be a drop in the number, but if not? it is what it is.

As Ever
Me

Because Mr. T says so..

Well well well, what do we have here, I'll tell ya, we have a fella that ate pizza for dinner and surely went over calories for the day, if only by a slight bit. I am not too worried about it though if I am being honest and just thought I would mention it, ok now that I have that out of the way I did have a good day otherwise, intake was really good and I did get out for a walk early in the day so in all honesty the pizza was probably not really a bad thing (yeah keep telling yourself that fat boy) I do plan on going out for a walk again today as the weather is insanely gorgeous out right now, its a cool low 70's with a breeze and sun breaking through fat white rolling clouds and I can't let that get away from me.

The biggest loser premiered last night and of course I watched and something kind of struck home with one of the people on the show this year, the older gentleman on the yellow team as he walked into the gym said something to the effect that his back was burning and knees hurt as he walked into the gym and he hadn't even done anything yet and he was wondering if he bit off more than he could chew. I 100% related with what he was saying and it could have been something that I would have said just 9 months ago and a corny as it is going to sound, I felt for the guy because I knew exactly what he was talking about and I feel that a lot of people will see that and think that he is being over dramatic or that the show is making a bigger deal about it than it is, and its not. before I decided to lose weight I was that guy, I would walk up a flight of stairs and by the time I hit the top I would be winded and my back would be hinting at some pain, standing for more than a minute or 3 would result in back pain and just plain old being uncomfortable and this was just how daily life went for a long time. I think a lot of over weight people get the rep of being "lazy" and I do not think it is the case as much as unable to do the things that seemingly make them (us) lazy, so anyone that is in the opinion that fat people are fat because they are lazy, please try and understand that it is not the case in all situations. I am not what you would call a lazy person (though my wife might have a different opinion at times) and yet I was 534 pounds at my heaviest and would make excuses for why I was not doing the most remedial tasks, might I be called lazy for that? have I been? you betcha and all because I was (am) fat, its a foolish point of view in my humble opinion to equate fat with lazy when its more like unable to do the task, an excuse is made up (mostly to save face) and bamn! a label is applied.


I am also in the belief that people need to take control of themselves and be held responsible when they are at fault for their weight or the lack of their weight loss, and I am not talking about the person putting fourth the effort and still not succeeding, if effort, real effort is being applied and the results are slow or just not happening thats not who I am referring to, I am talking about the people that are not eating healthy and not exercising on a regular basis and fully expect to lose weight on the basis of because I said so dammit, it just doesn't work like that. We have to put in what we want out of it, we have to expect to work hard to get big results, and thats just the way things work. That fella on the biggest loser when all was said and done was put on a limited exercise routine of no more than 30 minutes per day because of health issues and still managed a loss of I believe 17 pounds (I might be wrong but it was a big number) so it can be done even with limited exercise which I am actually an example of as well with my back injury limiting my exercise as well. I enjoy watching that program because I am finding that I can relate with a lot of what some of the people on it go through and the things they say are all too familiar, and to think I didn't watch season 1 because I did not agree with the name of the show "the biggest loser" a show about fat people, I thought about just whats being implied here? are they calling fat people losers? and I get that the name is because they are losing weight BUT I do believe it has a dual message going on even today as a huge fan of the show. the good out weighs that slight negative IF it is even a real negative, so alas I watch faithfully and enjoy every minute of it.

Last night as we watched the show Wify and I had a conversation about that if I had applied for the show and got on that I would surely win, now whether thats true or not I don't know but I think it is, and honestly I am still heavy enough to be on that show! another thing I was told by wify last night is that I am not to mention her "plumbing" in my blog any more like in yesterdays post so I will try and refrain from doing so, oh dear looks like I just did it again, ooopsies.

Thanks for reading

As Ever
Me

Catching up and the weekend stuff and all that.

Over the weekend I didn't eat especially well, I did manage to stay under my calorie range both Saturday and Sunday but on Saturday I ate one meal in the morning and a huge dinner with nothing more than a few Guinness Draught's in between and after dinner, and then on Sunday we went to a Friendly's restaurant with my Mother in law and I did almost the same thing as on Saturday by having one meal in the am and then a large, more like a calorie filled dinner by having the chicken basket which subsequently I believe was tainted or bad in some way as I woke up Sunday night round 12:30 am with terrible stomach pains with no other reason for them besides maybe the food I had eaten earlier, wify also had some problems with the plumbing the next day so I do believe it was the food.

By the time Monday came around I had got my game together and had a good day intake wise if not a little bit lower than it should have been. I ended up consuming 1425 calories for the day which is slightly lower than my actual calories because I did eat a chicken wing off of the grill while the rest of the chicken grilled up, so whatever calories a chicken wing has should be added to my intake but I was low so no worries. I have a feeling that I will be grilling lots of my food outside for a while because we just got a new gas grill and I told my wife yesterday that food off of the grill makes me feel like I am cheating because its so good! I quartered up a whole chicken for dinner Monday and diced up my fingers pretty good while I was at it, the chicken came out very yummy and I have a thigh left over that I will likely have for lunch today, maybe I will make it into Chicken salad and make a sandwich.


Last night I started writing a post when wify asked if I would be interested in taking a walk around the neighborhood and the walk won out is partially the reason for no post yesterday, we walked just under a mile with the kiddos so it was a short walk but a walk none the less, I am going to start walking again as its starting to get cool outside again and the bike can get boring after a while so breaking it up will be nice. also there is a 5k race locally that I would like to at least walk in, I don't think there is a chance that I would run it, mostly because I don't think it wise for a 382 pound guy to be putting that responsibility on his knees, but walking it would be possible and I think it could be fun. The race is still a bit off so I have some time to decide if I want to do it or wait a little longer and I am posting it here so that I will have more "pressure" to go through with it because I just made it public that I am interested in doing it.

Here is a look at the menu from Monday.

09/16/08

Breakfast
9:30 AM
1 Granola bar 100

11:00 AM
1 zone bar 200

12:30 PM
1/2 small vanilla cone (ice cream only) 80

Lunch
3:00 PM
progresso soup 160
1 english muffin 90
1/2 T smart balance 25

Dinner
6:45 PM
6.5 oz grilled chicken breast 325
3/4 white rice 150
1 cup green beans 35
1/2 T smart balance 25

8:15 PM
2 slices whole wheat bread 140
1 T peanut butter 95
1 T jam

Grand total of 1425 calories for the day, sort of, remember that wing. The biggest loser premiers tonight at eight PM so I have an alarm set on my cell phone to remind me, is that bad? I think so but at the same time I enjoy watching the show so whatever. All in all it has been an ok week/end if you take out the Friendly's, the Guinness, the Huge meals late in the day and a single small one in the am and the fact that I really didn't exercise. I will admit that i am up slightly from Fridays weigh in but I have not been drinking how I should and I had that late night stomach problem that threw me off so i am not worried about it and its less than a pound anyways, no worries.

Thank you for following along and I want to again thank everyone that left me comments and sent me emails to support and congratulate me on the 150 pound lost milestone, the email response that I got was crazy! I sincerely thank all who took the time to do that.

As Ever
Me

150 pounds lost! Milestone? Hell yeah it is!

Just over eight and a half months ago a guy made the decision to lose weight, Today is the day that he can say that he has lost more than 150 pounds in that time, yes I said more. upon waking up this Friday of course I jumped right onto the scale to see what the results for this week were and to say woah! I am putting it lightly, the reading on the display said 381.6 pounds, ok off to a good start, next go says 381.8, then a final 381.6! I am going to roll that up to 382 pounds which is a 7 pound drop this week and brings me to 152 total pounds lost, what can I say to that other than wow. I can also say with one hundred percent certainty that I did not expect to have lost this much in the time it has been. in Jan I had a conversation with my wife and remember telling her that I wanted to lose 100 pounds by Jan 2009 and here I am it is September 12th and I am down 152 pounds. what else is there to say really? here is the compare photo that I promised I would post when I hit 150 pounds lost and a snap of the scale this morning.

The above photo shows a 152 pound loss. click the picture for a full sized view.

Here is a picture of the scale this morning, yes that is light pink nail polish on my toe nails, any of you with daughters will understand this one.

This Yamaha YZF-R1 weighs in at 382 pounds and is what I currently weigh.

Here is a picture of Robyn she weighs 150 pounds in this picture and is one of if not my biggest supporter on this blog since I started it, the plan was to have her weigh what I lost at the same time for the compare shots so lets pretend she has just drank a HUGE glass of water and we will say I have lost a whole Robyn! She has lost 50 pounds in the same time that I have lost my weight, and for the record Robyn is not my wife lol (got lots of emails about that).

With this weeks loss I am within 7 pounds of having less than 100 pounds to go until I hit my goal of 275 pounds. so I will be shooting for that number in the next couple weeks. the more I think about what I have accomplished the more unbelievable it is to me, I mean seriously, think about this for a second, if I would have not decided to lose the weight I would still be a 534 pound unhappy fella thinking about doing it. to anyone out there that is thinking about dropping some weight and either cannot decide, or cannot commit to doing it think about this, what were you doing eight and a half months ago? what did you weigh eight and a half months ago? now think about this I just lost 152 pounds in that time, and with no drugs, miracle pills or miracle plans, I did it with good old fashioned determination, discipline and drive and if I can do it anyone can, so what are ya waiting for?

Thank you for reading along and for those of you that have supported me with your comments and e-mails Thank you doubly.

As Ever
Me

A buffalo chicken recipe, and anticipating a big weigh in moment.

I have a feeling that tomorrows weigh in will give me the 150 pounds lost notch in my belt, I am really close now and its just a gut feeling that I will in fact hit that number in the am. IF I do I will post up a few more compare pictures @ that 150 lost mark and I will be within 9 pounds of having less than 100 pounds to lose and that is yet another milestone for me, so I may have a couple of milestones to report in the next couple weeks, with the first one starting tomorrow hopefully.

Everything else is on track for the most part but you will notice that the deficit tracking section to the left ha not been updated, thats because I have not exercised for the most part because my foot has been bothering me for almost a week now and I don't want to do anything that can hurt or injure it, so until the pain goes away exercise shall be non existent.

On a different note I did fool around with making a buffalo chicken sammie recipe which came out very much better than I had expected it to and wanted to share that with you.

what you will need.

shredded chicken (I used thigh and breast meat mixed which was seasoned)
light Italian bread
Franks hot sauce or the equivalent
low fat mozzarella cheese light ranch dressing (blue cheese for those who like it) olive oil cooking spray sandwich maker

Shred the chicken into a bowl and shake on as much Franks hot sauce as you like (I like a lot) mix it up so that the chicken is covered in the sauce, next lay the bread on a plate and put 1/2 oz shredded low fat mozzarella cheese onto it, put about 2oz of the shredded chicken on top of the cheese and give it an extra shake or 3 of the Franks to keep it moist throughout cooking, then cover the chicken with another 1/2 oz of the mozzarella cheese and place the second slice of bread on top of that. spray your preheated sandwich maker with a light coat of the olive oil cooking spray and lay the completed sandwich into the maker and grill it up, three minutes later you have a buffalo chicken sandwich that is oh so tasty, remove it from the sammie maker and serve with some light ranch dressing to dip it into. A single sandwich made this way costs about 280 calories and then add whatever calories that the ranch costs (would depend on brand I think what we have was 60 calories per 2 T) and just like that an under 300 calorie buffalo chicken sammie is created. for those of you that are thinking "mozz cheese on buffalo chicken?" yessir, it adds a bit of texture, makes it feel naughty and most importantly it helps to hold the whole sandwich together, I hope you enjoy it if you try it, I thought it was pretty good as did wify, I think some finely chopped red onion would be good in this as well I just didn't have any so they were not used.

With that another post has come to an end, and I hope to be able to post up some new pictures in the morning of me at 150 pounds lost. Thank you for reading and don't forget to check out tomorrows post.

As Ever
Me

Day 254 or 6096 hours or 365760 minutes or...

Wow, it has been 254 days since I decided to drop some weight, it has been 254 days since I changed the way that I eat and exercise, it has been 254 days since I decided to live my life on my terms. I have lost almost 150 pounds in those days and have met some pretty cool people along the way via this blog and a couple forums that I read regularly, lots of things are different now and its becoming quite obvious to me that I must have missed out on a lot of things because of my weight. I am guilty of letting weight control me for a portion of my life and I am guilty of turning a blind eye to the things that were being taken from me with every pound that I gained, I am also guilty of making a decision to lose the weight, guilty as charged for staying on track and making good choices and staying disciplined with the regimen I set for myself. I want to mention that I received an email yesterday from someone saying that they have read my blog for some time now and cannot do the things that I have done and it went on to mention how some days they read a few blogs and things to stay on track and that mine was one on their list to visit. I did answer the email with a return message of my own but thought that I would mention it here with the same kind of message, We are responsible for what goes into each of our own bodies, no one makes us eat the cake or extra serving of mashed potatoes, the decision to stop at "McNasty" or "Burger Clone" is ours to make there is no one making us eat that way there is no one making us stop and order a "value meal" or those extra tacos on the side at "Jack in the Crack" when a person can realize that this is not how our body works, it is not the fuel needed to be productive in every day life is when the mindset creeps in and good things start to happen. nothing good can come of deep fried processed food, unless clogged arteries and thick waist lines is what you consider good. It all comes back to the "A" word, addiction, our bodies do not need the greasy foods and on top of that we "supersize" everything! it certainly does not need mass quantities of the same, it is easy to become addicted to things that are good but once a person can get past the "I MUST HAVE!" part, the rest is easy and this is coming from the fella that was committing the crimes of Fat people for many years because it was easier to eat bad than get past the addiction part of it. food is fuel in the most rudimentary terms and no one would wonder why their car was running rough if the wrong fuel was used and yet people wonder why they are fat when they eat like this and move less than old folk do, which is my next point.

Exercise, ie: movement, we MUST move daily to keep things working, we must get that heart rate up, we must because its what we were built for, the "A" word comes up again here, a way to look at is this, Trade the addiction the enslavement of food for the addiction of exercise, indeed addiction to exercise is a fact, ya ever hear of a runners high? its true. I have been addicted to movement at one point in my life and that movement was weight lifting, I needed to do it, I craved it, I wanted not to miss one workout or I felt that I was missing out on my guilty pleasure, imagine that? trading being addicted to big macs to being addicted to the pump that comes from lifting a heavy object over and over until your muscles ache burning with pain and sweat runs into your eyes but you must get that last rep in, knowing that the morning will bring more pain with the soreness that "good soreness" that people talk about and actually craving this feeling, imagine that. but the decision to do it has to come from you, it has to be something that you want so much that you can taste it or else its just the next thing that is being tried, without determination its just another diet, without the right mindset, again its just a diet. Make the decision to do it and follow through, make the commitment to do this for yourself and stay with it until you get what you want. without those things I am afraid that we will be doomed to be overweight indefinitely.

We have come a long way, burned about 518000 calories and my movement is up 200% from where it was just last Dec, if I average my calories per day at 1500 I have consumed approximately 381000 calories in the last 254 days and most is better food than I was eating previously, all in all I would say my body has had a pretty busy year so far and the plan is to keep on keepin on. a bit of a rambly post for today and a tad random and the point is where? but hey, its my blog right? it is what it is and I thank you for reading along.

As Ever
Me

Day something or other, and a query of sorts.

I seem to have lost track of the fact that this is "a lifestyle change" or a "diet" and it just is how I live. there is no more thinking about every bite that goes into my mouth and hoping I got the weight right or added the calorie content correctly, I know that I did. I can estimate my meals pretty much within a few calories just by looking at the food on the plate and I honestly do not crave anything thats "bad" for me. When I have a slow week where dropping the weight is concerned its no worries for me and its just another week in the string of weeks that I have chosen to live healthy and I do know that I have done something good for my body on any given day of any given week, which includes the days that I slip and have a treat or go over my limits.

Robyn who has been with me on this trip to the half from almost day one left a comment on one of my older posts today and when I got the email notice I took a look at a few of my posts from when I first started this blog and I read a post about the Ice cream that has become so significant in this thing that I am doing, when I started this back in January and decided to put that quart of Ben and Jerrys in the freezer instead of my pie hole, I honestly thought that it would just be another attempt by a fat guy to lose weight and the final result would just be another failure, well that fabled quart of Dublin mudslide still lives in the freezer just waiting for Jan 1st 2009 to be eaten up by a guy that weighs substantially less than he did when said quart of goodness was bought and on his terms this time unlike so many quarts that came before. To say that I am a different person would be too light a way of saying it, I guess though its more like I am back to the real me because at 534 pounds I just was not me and it is that simple.

Here is the menu from yesterday, it was slightly low but over all not so bad.

09/09/08

Breakfast
7:30 AM
1 banana 105
1 T peanut butter 95

10:00 AM
2 pears 170

Lunch
12:30 PM
1 Progresso soup 200

3:00 PM
3 slices light Italian bread 120
1.5 T peanut butter 140
1.5 T Jam 75

Dinner
6:30 PM
7oz chicken breast 385
2 cups green beans 70
3/4 cup white rice 150

8:00 PM
1 pear 85

Grand total of 1595 calories for the day so not too bad, I also have a question for anyone out there reading this, I have a stainless steel Salter scale model 1010 that goes up to 5lbs and I am getting an error on it, the error is "out2" and I cannot find any info on what it means and am out my scale until I get it worked out. I checked their site and it said it was down so if any of you kind folks out there know what the error "out2" means Please help a fella out, the photo posted is what it looks like though I suspect they all have similar if not the same error codes.

Thanks for reading.

As Ever
Me

Fried dough, cheese steak and four hours of walking around.

Sunday has come and gone and I find myself at the keyboard, its time to report how the day went and all that. we ended up going to a Harvest Fair (I was talked into going) and walking around for about four hours or so and I have to admit even though I vowed to have an incredible week intake and exercise wise if we were going to judge that on todays start I failed miserably! we got to the fairgrounds around noon on what I will call the most perfect and beautiful New England day and started walking around looking at some of the attractions, I said to myself as we walked past a fried dough stand "ignore the tasty goodness" and thats what I did as I took a swig of green tea from the gallon jug I brought along with me. we walked past a pig race (I kid you not pig racing) and they had some displays around with farm animals in them as well as a predatory bird show with eagles hawks and falcons etc and then it was getting around 1:00 pm and wify suggested we get something to eat, I had packed an apple for myself but we were near a stand selling cheese steak sandwiches, long story short 3 minutes later I was in front of a stage listening to a folk singer with a guitar enjoying my cheese steak sammie, not even caring or thinking about whether it was cloned or not, wify did have a clone sandwich comment though.

Me and the boss lady stopping for a photographic memory.

After the folk music and steak sammie we headed over to meet my Father in law who happened to be there unknown to us and we ended up walking over to where some rides for the kiddos were and bought a packet of tickets and let them have at it, and here is where the fried dough enters the picture, yep I bought myself some fried dough and it was damn good if I do say so myself, and after we were done there it was onto some more walking around just looking at all of the craft tables and animals, rides etc etc etc that were there for our amusement. there was everything from truck pulls to pig races right on up to 3 different stages with 3 different bands playing at any given time and the sunburn was free of charge! here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure.

A humorous sign mounted near the predatory bird area.

Some of the goodies that were tempting me all day and some of the crowd on one of the main walk ways.

Wify snapped this photo of me while the kids ate their lunch.

All in all it was a good day out with the family, lots of fun was had by all and other than indulging in some fried dough the intake wasn't really that bad, the cheese steak was literally some roast beef tossed on a grill with a couple slices of American cheese melted over it and the dough, well there was nothing good about that where diet is concerned! on the drive home I asked wify, half kidding and thinking that I already knew the answer "Do you think I would have gone to this fair if it was last year?" and her response was eye opening, she said "We did go last year, you stayed home" I guess I did know the answer and didn't even remember or chose to forget because I did not go, all of the things that I must have missed out on and don't even realize, it really was eye opening to think about that, and the only thing that has changed is my weight. Who wouldda thunk?

Thanks for reading along.

As Ever
Me

Apples, Tropical storms and the ferries have left the docks.

Saturday posts have been rare for me but today I am home and were expecting some weather so I figured I would pop one up. we have a flash flood warning up and apparently Tropical storm Hanna is on her way, fun fun. I got a good nights rest in last night and my weight is a good amount lower than it was for weigh in yesterday and I am hoping to hit that 150 pound lost mark this week, and if I do I will post up some 150 pound lost compare photos up. I am keeping on track with the food intake and plan on hitting the cardio hard again this week to get that 150 pounds lost under my belt. Calories for yesterday were a bit low coming in at 1375 total which I am trying to stay away from doing but sometimes it happens that way, no worries. I did experiment a bit with a snack that turned out very good, I sliced an apple into sections put some cinnamon and splenda into a sandwich bag add said apples shake, then place the slices into a preheated 400 degree oven for 14 minutes and bamn! baked cinnamon apple slices all for 100 calories, it is a bit of work for a snack but very tasty and I told wify that it felt like I had something bad for me so it all works out. here is a look at the menu from Friday as well as a Radar photo of whats heading towards me.

The storm looks like its just about here.

09/05/08

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

11:30 AM
2 raisin english muffins 180
1.5 T grape jam 75

Lunch
2:30 PM
1 can progresso Minestrone soup 200 (My new Favorite)
1 multi-grain english muffin 100
sliced tomato 20
1 serving turkey pepperoni 70

Dinner
6:30 PM
3 slices whole wheat bread 210
6oz deli turkey 150
1.5 T miracle whip 50
sliced tomato 10
dill pickle 10

8:00 PM
1 baked apple 100

Things are still going in the direction that I want them to go in, which is down so all is well. That pretty sums up the day so far as well as the menu for yesterday, nothing more to report really so I will end this post here. I need to gather up a few candles and check the batteries in the ol Mag light, Thanks for reading, hopefully I don't lose power and can check back in later.

As Ever
Me

Of course you can't see me for I'm not my former.

Learning from what a person does is the best form of education in my opinion, nothing can beat experience where learning is concerned. with that said I have in the past 8 months learned my limits on exercise again, I have learned how to eat properly and moderately and I have learned how to feel comfortable with myself again as far as my size goes. I can read one thousand books about weight loss & health and have that knowledge inside my cranium and be able to answer any question tossed at me by anyone and yet still weigh 500 plus pounds, BUT until I try it out for myself its not really worth as much as if I had the experience under my belt and lived it, now a combination of the two would be optimum. Random is my head this morning as I type and last night I was browsing at some photos of people that have lost weight and I noticed something about a lot of them, in the before weight loss photos the person generally does not look as happy as in the after shots, now I know that doesn't exactly seem hard to figure out, one, the before pic the person was heavy and likely uncomfortable with themselves, two, the person likely picked the worse photo to show the most dramatic difference possible (I know I am guilty!) but the thing that caught my attention the most was that the person looked comfortable with themselves in the after, and what I mean is they look like the size of their body is not something that is floating around the gray matter at surface depth, there is no tugging at clothing to make it feel right, there is no constantly pulling the pants up and just a generally happier look to them. I can remember a time in my life when it would not be totally uncommon for me to be walking around with shorts on with a button up shirt on but totally unbuttoned, that is when I was comfortable in my own skin and I can remember a time when even though I may have been a pretty good sized piece of real estate walking through the crowd I was none the less walking through the crowd. Something dawned on me a while back, I thought about my former self and I am the guy that cleared the pit at Woodstock 99, and what I mean is that mid song I found myself all alone in the middle of the pit demanding that I be joined so that I had someone to slam against but no one wanted any more of what was being handed out, one of my best friends that was there with me said to me shortly after that happened and I quote "I've never seen that side of you and I think I am a little scared now", How could I let myself go from that to a 534 pound guy that couldn't even walk 1/4 mile without making excuses to go back? I walked around Rome NY quite literally for four days all while participating in other physical activities for that event and went to work the day afterwards with no issues! that was only 9 years ago! but yeah like I said randomness is in my skull this morning.

This was taken I want to say on day 2 or 3 of Woodstock, and as a disclaimer that is NOT wify up on my shoulders.

Oh yeah I weighed in this morning, I am going to call it even with last week though there is a slight loss. Last week I weighed 389.4 pounds and this morning I weighed 388.8 pounds so its a .6 loss for the week which I will just round up to 389 pounds so no loss no gain for the week as far as recording it goes. this is actually good news in a way because it lets me know that I can indulge a bit and not gain anything, I did nil exercise this week barring a single ride on my bike on Wednesday and I ate at restaurants twice this week as well as had birthday cake a sundae and a rather large piece of chocolate silk cherry cake at my aunts house and my sleeping was way off this week as well, there was even a few beers in there and no weight gain, but rather a slight loss so can I be upset at this weeks number? no way, no how. I won't put up a pic of what weighs the same etc because its the same as last week for the most part and I did give ya that Woodstock photo instead. I will be back on track this week and plan on exercising daily, My Mom has returned home to CA and there will hopefully be no distractions this week.

That is how do they say? all she wrote for todays entry, thanks for reading along.

As Ever
Me

Better late than never!

I totally forgot to post this morning! so a late post it shall be and a weigh in is lurking in the next few hours, I do not expect to have lost much with the week that I have had, I have been out to dinner twice, have had cake twice and there was even a sundae in there at one point. exercise was all but not there with me riding the bike a total of one time this week, if I have a loss its not because of anything that I did.

On a different note I have been worrying about the loose skin issue a lot lately but there is something at work in that area of my body. Something that I do not post on this blog is that I take bi monthly photos of myself for comparison purposes and the last one that was taken was on August 12th so it was time for the beginning month photo, and when I put them together I noticed that the picture taken on the first has a noticeable difference in the way I look and more so how I am shaped. in the month of August I lost a total of 11 pounds and in July the total was 16 pounds so a 27 pound difference in the last 2 months total and if I were looking at photos that were taken two months apart and a total of 27 pounds I would think "oh ok its a 27 pound difference and two months" but we are talking about a 20 day difference and on August 15th I weighed in at 394 pounds which is only a 5 pound difference from the 12th to the first and yet the difference in the two photos is clear and obvious. I would post the pictures up to show you exactly what I mean but I take the bi monthly photos in my skivvies and shirtless and I would not want to subject any of you to that sort of thing. So, with all of that aid I feel as if maybe the difference in the way it all looks to me is that skin is shrinking slowly but surely and that is why I appear to be in photos smaller. now is this even possible? hell if I know, but I do know that the 4x shirts that I just bought within the last couple months fit looser on me already and a significant amount of weight has not been lost in that same time period. maybe someone with some experience on this subject can chime in and let me know if I am crazy or not.

but alas children call so I must end this post here, check in tomorrow for the weigh in post and until then keep on keepin on.

As Ever
Me

I am living proof, and I ain't talkin oatmeal

Let us start with a quote this morning, "What this power is, I cannot say. All I know is that it exists...and it becomes available only when you are in that state of mind in which you know exactly what you want...and are fully determined not to quit until you get it" -Alexander Graham Bell- this quote defines my state of mind where losing this weight is concerned, and that may seem like a heavy quote for a thing such as losing some weight to some people, likely the people that have never had to lose the amount of weight that I and many other people have had to lose but heavy none the less. I have always treated this as something that I have to do instead of something that I want to or am just doing and that in itself may be the driving force behind what I have accomplished in the last eight months. I started off at a whopping 534 pounds and in just eight short months with nothing more than raw determination and discipline have dropped 145 pounds of unwanted body weight from my 6'5'' frame and still have more than 100 pound left to lose, imagine that, a guy that has lost 145 pounds still has more than 100 pound to lose before a respectable weight is realized, thoughts like that floor me.

I have grown up around a few family members that have struggled with weight loss and all of them have handled it a little differently than the next, from Atkins diet to taking the latest and greatest miracle pill right on down to basic calorie counting and some have had some good results and some have had less than good but they all have had the same end result for the most part which is to put the weight back on at some point. I think that anyone can be a success where losing weight is concerned and it does not take the next big diet buzz or miracle pill to do so, I have said this before but I think it is worth repeating, we all have what it takes to lose weight and its something that is free to all of us, its called willpower others call it determination and still others call it drive but you do have it and its free for the taking and it is all that you need to successfully drop the pounds. I know that things are tempting and I know that sometimes are harder than others but the fact is that you make the choice to put the food in your mouth and you make the decision to exercise or not to do those things. can it be difficult sometimes to not eat that piece of pie? will that chocolate covered cherry call to you now and again? maybe but it still comes down to whether you have the willpower to not take it or will it be eaten with extreme prejudice? the choice is always ours to make.

Now THAT would take some serious willpower to stay away from.

Sometimes you just have to stop and ask "what am I doing to myself?" and when the answer is obvious a decision needs to be made. are you ready to begin the rest of your life? or maybe the more important question is are you ready to stop killing yourself? Make the decision...

As Ever
Me

I want my baby back, baby back, baby back...

Tuesday has come along with a new month and I have been a very bad boy where intake is concerned. On Friday since my mom is in town we treated her out to dinner at Chili's where when I walked in I had all intentions of eating well and by well I don't mean lots of good food but more in the sense that I would watch myself closely but alas that is not what happened, I did order the guiltless salmon dish which has calories listed as just under 500 and I ordered my obligatory unsweetened tea, not bad right? but then we ordered an appetizer of southwestern egg rolls and I had a Blue moon before dinner got to the table. wify ordered the chicken fajitas dinner and I ended up having one of those before the night was finished too, there was also a birthday cake in there at one point as well, so yeah lets just say I went over on Friday, Saturday went well enough and I kept the calories low because of the previous days number and only had 1318 total calories and then Sunday I took my mom to visit her sister where I was tempted with a chocolate silk cake with cherry filling and home made whipped cream and I did not resist and had a pretty good sized piece of that heavenly goodness almost immediately after arriving at her house, we ended up eating at a Friendlys restaurant for dinner that night, and besides the cake I was within calorie range, I had a total of 1550 calories before the cake but I am sure it brought me over. Mondays intake was pretty good besides the fact that I drank almost no fluid (which means about 3 quarts total all day) I did come in at a total caloric intake of 1660 for the day so I am happy with that and over the entire four days 2 of 4 days I did bad which I really am not too worried about because giving up going out to dinner with family and friends every now and again is not something I am interested in doing for the rest of my time on earth and well yeah, its just a part of life, because I eat healthy does not mean that I cannot enjoy dinner out or a piece of cake now and again, Here is Mondays menu.

09/01/08

Breakfast
9:15 AM
1 banana 105
1 T peanut butter 95

Lunch
2:00 PM
4 slices light Italian bread 160
2oz low fat Mozz cheese 160
1 serving turkey pepperoni 70
light parm cheese 10
pizza sauce 30
jalapeno 5

Dinner
7:15 PM
9.5 oz Atlantic salmon fillet 420
lots of brussel sprouts 225
3/4 cup pilaf rice 220

8:45 PM
12oz Dannon light and fit yogurt 160

Exercise, whats that? I have not ridden my bike since my Mom got here but we have done a good deal of walking around (malls etc and random walks with my daughter) but nothing in the way of real cardio, I do plan on riding today and getting the cardio back on track to finish up the week. otherwise its business as usual around here and the weight is hopefully coming off this week, I was down a pound from Fridays weight on Sunday but have not weighed myself since then and forgot this morning until after I ate breakfast. nothing spectacular to report today I am afraid but it is what it is and there you have it. Thanks for reading along and remember that its just life, enjoy it while you can.

As Ever
Me