180 pounds lost, Weighing in on weighing in once again.

Friday just jumped up on me, I had not even realized that today was weigh in day until I woke up and Wify asked how much did I think I lost this week, so onto the scale I went. No building up today its plain and simply a 2 pound loss, the scale said 354 pounds and that means I am down 180 pounds since starting this path to better health. Fifteen pounds in the month of January is not a bad start to the year, when I started 2009 I would have had to lose an average of 2.8 pounds per week to reach my goal of being under 300 pounds by the end of June but with the 15 pounds that I lost in Jan that average just dropped to 2.5 pounds per week until June to hit that mark, it appears that I am ahead of the original schedule! 20 pounds until I have lost a double century, 54 pounds to reach my June goal and 79 pounds left to hit that magical number that I set when I started this whole thing, seventy nine pounds until I am at my goal weight sounds like a large number, it sounds like an impossibility to say "I have 79 pounds to lose" or it did anyways before I dropped 180 now its just the home stretch. With that 2 pounds this week I have lost a total of 33.70% of my total body weight to date, I set a goal of weighing 275 pounds but I am officially changing that goal to weigh 267 pounds, heres why. If I go for 267 pounds it is only 8 pounds more than my current goal and if I can hit 267 pounds I will have lost 50% of my total body weight and there is something about being able to say that I have lost 50% of my highest weight that appeals to me. Now when all is said and done I suspect that I will actually strive to get even lower than that figure but I think that is a good solid number to shoot for.

This Suzuki GSXR 600 weighs in at 354 pounds just like me.

I have lost more than 1/3 of my total body weight in the past year, that number will be 1/2 by the end of this year or sooner, ideally I would like to be under 300 pounds by the end of June which will give me 6 months to lose that last 25, actually 32 now pounds with the new target weight of 267 lbs which I believe will be a nice obtainable number to reach, When I If I can hit that 300 by June I will need to lose just over a pound per week for the rest of the year to hit my 267 pound goal. Honestly the mere fact that I can say I have lost 180 pounds and that the possibility of me weighing 267 pounds is just around the corner in the grand scheme is amazing to me and something that I have thought a lot about in recent years. Imagine this, a fat kid that has known nothing but being "the fat kid" is now coming pretty damned close to being a weight that will be considered pretty healthy for the first time in his life, for the very first time that fat kid will know how it feels to be able to walk around and not feel as if his gravitational pull demands that every eye in the room be drawn to him merely for the rotundness of his body. My best friend once told me as we talked about being fat (He had lost a bunch of weight at the time, we were about 20 years old) that "being too skinny will always be better than being too fat" and I honestly at the time thought "no way man, I would rather be the way I am than to be skin and bones" I honestly believed that back then and I think its because it was all that I knew, so like that poor kid that lives in an old worn down house where the income is feeble at best doesn't know that his family is "poor" because its what he knows I think I was that fat guy that was living life and doing what I wanted to and could not see the logic in the statement. I have to say that I can agree with his statement that was made so many years ago if not completely I have to admit that being "too fat" Sucks ass, so I think I will see what being skinny feels like for a while.

As Ever

Me

Madness? This is....

Carrying yourself around at 534 pounds is not easy, walking up a flight of stairs may as well have been going for a run because by the time I reached the 13th stair bliss was how it felt that there was not 14 stairs and my heart was racing, beating very hard all while pride was held in by trying to breath slowly so that my wife would not pick up on the fact that my chest felt like it was going to explode. Sliding into a car and having my belly touch the steering wheel in a full sized car sucking it in when first entering to not let anyone see that it was happening was the norm only letting it out after pulling away because no one would notice while the car was moving right? Life was not fun nor easy at 534 pounds, it was not what one would call peachy. Many nights I would wake up and have heartburn so bad that I could do nothing but get up and eat a couple slices of bread, drink a glass of milk followed by a handful of Tums, Constantly fidgeting because sitting too long in one position started making things ache or in some cases just plain old hurt. I literally had days where my chest felt like it had been pressurized just from minimal movement and have had the thought "Is my heart going to give out today?" and that folks is not a happy happy joy joy moment and if I am being honest it was scary and is what ultimately made me decide to do this weight loss gig.


How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. making promises to myself and my children and my wife to eat healthy to make sure that I will be around to show my son how to drive a car, walk my daughter down the aisle one day, to hold my Wifes hand while we take a stroll at 70 years old all of these things were but questions not so long ago, will I be here to teach my son to drive? will I be here to walk my beautiful daughter down the aisle one day? will my wife have my hand to hold in her golden years? now that answer is leaning towards the yes column because I am taking control of my health and dropping the unwanted weight that has attached itself to my body over the past few years of neglecting it. Movie theater seats are no longer my nemesis, I have conquered the booth and can honestly say that I have enriched my life as well as my families. I took my weight problem and "This is Sparta" kicked it into oblivion along with many of my fears that I had before making this decision.

I make my own decisions now where health is concerned, food addiction? whats that? while I was writing this a song comes to mind because of the lyrics, Pearl Jam "Elderly woman behind the counter in a small town"

I seem to recognize your face
haunting familiar yet I can't seem to place it
cannot find the candle of thought to light your name
lifetimes are catching up with me
all these changes taking place
I wish I'd seen the place
but no ones ever taken me.

hearts and thoughts they fade, fade away

I swear I recognize your breath
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising
of course you can't see me for I'm not my former
its hard when your stuck upon a shelf
I changed by not changing at all
small town predicts my fate
perhaps thats what no one wants to see
I just want to scream hello
my god its been so long never dreamed you'd return
but now here you are and here I am

hearts and thoughts they fade away.

Apparently so does fat! Now of course that song is not about a fat guy that has lost an entire persons worth of weight but surely you can see where there are parallels that could be applied to how I feel about what I have gone through in the past year. I Know that in my excitement I posted that picture above in a post late last night but I honestly felt that it should be posted again so there it is! a quote from my brother "I cannot ever remember you looking that way, you look like a different person" My cousin said that "You should stop losing weight now so that I can recognize you again" and I am smaller than when I met my wife so she is also seeing me this way for the first time in her life, and it made my mother cry, all of that feels better than you can possibly know if you have not lost a substantial amount of weight. I mean C'mon these are all people that have grown up living with me, next door to me or are married to me, I would be lying if I said it didn't feel good, it was a lot of hard work that was worth every minute and more.

If you are over weight and feel like it is impossible to drop the extra baggage, if you feel like I use to, like there is nothing that you can do to help make yourself a more healthy and happy person please know that you can and there IS a way to do it, the first couple of steps can be hard, and there will be times that you feel like its just not worth the effort but trust me, I was in that position just 394 days ago and it feels much better to be on this side of the fence. I have heard the saying "nothing tastes as good as thin feels" and as a 534 pound guy I always despised that statement and thought "now how can thin feel better than an extra large double bacon pizza? C'mon now" but I always knew that there was some truth to it and I have to admit though I am not "thin" by any stretch of the imagination that "thinner" DOES in fact feel better than any double bacon pizza that I have ever had in my life time and I can't say it any plainer than that.

As Ever
Me

A picture and a late night double post.

I took a couple pictures of myself tonight and just had to share, when I started this weight loss thang I initially said to myself that I wanted to drop 100 pounds and had no clue how that would look on me because I didn't even know exactly what I weighed on day one. Here I am 178 plus pounds lighter than just over a year ago and I am honestly humbled by what I have accomplished, I never thought that I would be 178 pounds lighter in the time frame that I have done this in. I still look in the mirror and see that other guy that was lumbering along struggling to make it up the 4 stairs that was on his front porch all while carrying a sack of cheese burgers from McNasty or an extra large double bacon pizza (yeah I have actually ordered an extra large double bacon pizza!) but tonight I decided I would take a picture or two to photoshop into a compare shot and I actually just sat here and stared at it for a minute or 3 when I was done. You see these "before and after" pictures and sometimes ya gotta wonder if they are real and then you see some and they are just insanely awesome in the differences and when I saw the photo below I Know that I have made HUGE changes in myself and I think it looks significantly different enough that if it wasn't me I might doubt it was real!

That first picture was taken on Dec 29th 2007 and I can remember the day like it was yesterday, it had snowed and we brought the kids out to play in our back yard and I am actually holding my daughter in this picture but I cropped her out, but I can remember thinking "take the picture take the picture take the picture" as my wife was shooting it because my back was starting to tighten up. I was in a frame of mind at that point which said that if I was to lose this weight a surgery would be how it happened and it was literally 2 days before I started this blog and my new lifestyle. That second picture was taken tonight, Jan 28th 2009 just 393 days later and I honestly don't recognize that guy from Dec any more, and he is not allowed back here so I don't think I will be reacquainting myself with him any time soon.

That ends this late edition of as the fat guy turns, I just HAD to share this photo with you all, thanks for reading along and if this picture doesn't prove that it can be done on willpower and drive alone I don't know what can.

As Ever
Me

Lions and Tigers and Sloppy Joes Oh My!

Last night I was watching The biggest loser and having a conversation with my wife about our weight loss to date and how she was out of green tea and that I needed to make her more for the am, so I will use her to make a point. She said to me that since she started back on a more strict intake level and started the green tea that she feels more hungry during the day for the past couple of days and then she said "I ate a whole pack of bubble gum today between breakfast and coming home from work" I laughed and told her that it was going into the post for today! I think its the perfect example of empty calories and is probably why a large part of the people that try to lose weight have issues doing so. She also mentioned that she has been eating animal crackers at work, animal crackers? so now we are getting to the root of the problem here, bubble gum and animal crackers does not a good meal plan make, so She has decided to make pre-portioned baggies of popcorn to bring to work so that when that urge to munch comes up she has something to grab instead of bubble gum or animal crackers, this is something that She and I did when we first began our weight loss. That brings me to the next point, the hunger that she and many others that eat like that have as a result, eating animal crackers and bubble gum or things like that pile on the calories and then when dinner time or lunch time comes around calories are limited and tiny portions are eaten because the calories were already wasted on the sugary snacks earlier in the day. The sugary snacks have another side effect, they boost you up higher than you actually are for a short time and then you crash and burn when the sugar rush goes away.

Indeed Jillian is a tad hot, dare I say I have a crush?!

Last night I tried something a little bit different for dinner, I used ground turkey and made sloppy joes with 80 calorie hamburger buns from Stop & Shop, my daughter has been picky with dinners lately and says that she doesn't eat chicken any more (which means chicken and turkey), She is age 3 and is saying things like that! I am doomed when she becomes a teenager! so with a little bit of daddy trickery ground turkey got turned into a meal that she had no clue what it was and she ate her entire sandwich! I learned that this is a good low calorie alternative to Turkey burgers an already low calorie meal, and I have not had sloppy joes in quite some time, each sandwich had about (and I say about because I estimated the calories of the tomato paste) 205 calories, broken down like this. 2 eighty calorie hamburger buns 160 calories, 5.5 oz ground turkey (which included the tomato paste so it was actually less than 5.5oz of meat but I counted it as 5.5 whole oz of turkey) 220 calories, The tomato paste said 30 calories per serving and there were approximately 5 servings in the small can, I guessed one serving in my 5.5 oz of meat so 30 more calories there for a total of about 205 calories per sandwich, now that ain't bad at all! I think this will be added to my meals again and I think it shows that with a little bit of thinking things out people can eat things that may seem bad for them and not have the negative side effect of gaining weight. The fact that we use less also means that there was left over mix and will be lunch fr me today so money will be saved as well and in todays economy thats always a plus.

My intake for Tuesday ended up at 1630 calories and I did get a 25 minute ride on my stationary bike into the day and I think thats a good day where my weight loss goes. I always seem to do good on Tuesdays and I don't know if its because Monday is gone and I am looking at my program closer, or if its because its The biggest loser night but I always wake up Wednesday morning feeling good about the menu and movement that was done. Maybe its the way Jillian screams at the people on that show to get them moving that gets me, I do know that when I start going to a Gym to do weight training (when I am closer to 300 pounds) if I decide to try out a trainer or something I hope that I find someone like Jillian from TBL because I already push myself so whoever does the pushing in my direction HAS to be aggressive, I am too stubborn to quit or not try to prove someone wrong when they say "you can't do that". All in all I feel as if I am on track and doing well with my new healthy ways, My endurance is up to levels that I cannot even remember having and I feel like I have tons of energy most of the time. I hope to start walking again soon but the snow has to stop before I can really do that, yes it is snowing again here in beautiful New England and it is suppose to turn to freezing rain later then into and I quote the man in the plastic box "the ice will be as thick and hard as concrete" so it is my bike until the snow stops.

The end has come to another post and I am that much stronger mentally and stronger physically because of the movement that I put in yesterday. Thank you for reading along and don't forget to get on up and grab that glass of H2O that ya deserve.

As Ever
Me

Questions answered and a little fun.

Since starting this blog I have made lots of "blog friends" and sometimes within the comments there are a few questions and in the emails I get lots of questions and with the emails I try and respond to every single one of them but the comments sometimes slip trough the cracks so I thought it would be fun to answer a few of the comment questions and some of the more common questions that I get asked, so here goes.

1.) Stages of change asked,

"I'm interested in why you started the green tea thing, and admitting my naivety about the topic, what is the benefit of it, why do it, etc?"

When I started this losing weight gig I was literally scouring the net and some health books that I have for information on common sense weight loss and I came across a page where a study was done on some men in Japan, some who drank 32 oz of green tea per day and some who did not and the study showed that the men who drank the green tea extract lost more weight (5.3 pounds vs. 2.9 pounds) and experienced a significantly greater decrease in BMI, waist size, and total body fat in a 3 month period, since I already loved green tea it became part of my routine. Then there is this "green tea is particularly rich in a type of polyphenols called catechins. These substances have also been shown to have anti-inflammatory and anticancer properties, but recent research in animals show that catechins may also affect body fat accumulation and cholesterol levels" quoted from the article. more answers and reasons are in This post that I wrote a while back.


2.) Linda asked

"What is your special concoction with the green tea?"

I brew my own green tea as most who read this blog know and my "special concoction" isn't really special at all, I take an empty gallon bottle from an Arizona green tea and I fill it with cold water, I then place 2 Arizona green tea bags into the bottle with 1 generic bag of green tea that was bought from a Chinese market along with 2 black tea bags, so 5 tea bags in one gallon of water. I do this before I go to bed and its done when I wake up, I make 2 gallons at a time so there is usually a couple of gallons of tea sitting on my kitchen table. I also drink whats called gunpowder tea when I want hot green tea, cold tea is sweetened with splenda and a squirt or squeeze of some lime juice in and the hot tea is either drank plain or with very little splenda.


3.) This is a question that I get in many of the emails that I get. "Do you celebrate mini goals or give yourself rewards? and how?"

Easy answer to that one, No I do not. when I started the blog I said when I get to goal that I will buy myself a motorcycle (that is still the plan) but I have honestly not really given myself a reward for getting healthy, the reward is living life to the fullest.


4.) Mizfit asked

"did you NOT wanna dance around the restaurant and sing IM IN A BOOOOTH IM IN A BOOOOOOTH. or would that just be me?"

This question was in response to This post, where I sat in a booth for the first time in years and the answer is yes! I know that I was grinning ear to ear and I just kept looking down at the room between my gut and the tables edge, I stayed composed but I may have been singing that in my head.


5.) Thecoolestsarah asked

"How much has your wife lost?"

This post prompted that question, and my wife started on the same date that I did Jan 1st 2008, she started on the 2nd actually when she saw that I was serious this time. She has lost 65 pounds in that time but the last couple months she has just been maintaining the weight loss from 2008 and doing a good job because she has not gone up more than the few pounds that comes off the following week.


6.) Which brings me to a response to the picture in This post from Tomato "Dude, you so rock!!!!! And where would you like us to send marriage proposals?"

Comments like these always make me smile, and do wonders for a guys self image you can send the proposals to.... oh wait, no I am married! and I love her with all of everything that I have in my heart, but seriously send them to... (I'm going to get smacked if I keep that up!)


7.) Another common question from emails, "Do you track fat/carbs/protein etc? how many calories per day do you eat?"

I do not track anything but my calories, I did track those other things for a couple months a while back and there was no benefit other than knowing the figures so I don't track them any more, and I aim for 1700 calories per day, a little less is common and if I go over slightly I don 't worry about it at all but this is a number that will need to be adjusted as weight comes off and when I start lifting weights again will likely need to be heavier on the protein but thats for another day.


8.) Another common question from blog comments as well as Emails is "Where are you from I know that you mention CT but what part?"

The most I will say about my exact location (especially in a public place on the net) is that I am in CT.


9.) Mizfit asked

"would your wife ever consider doing a guest post here?"

Yes, and she has Here, I believe she has done another one but I can't seem to find it right now, in fact we are working on a post together as of last week so look for that one soon too. Many times I get an idea for a post from something wify has said to me the day before so many times there are little pieces of her in my posts.

10.) Fatty Mc fat-fat asked

"what no challenge this week? It is Friday right? :)"

Ahhh yes the challenges that I sometimes do on Fridays, I usually pop a challenge up when either a.) I had an extraordinary week and feel like a freight train, or b.) need a kick in the ass to get moving again, or c.) I am just looking for some punishment for the weekend. I think its a great way to interact with the people that read my blog and see who is paying attention and EVERY time I post a challenge You guys show me that You ARE paying attention and make this large fellow move his arse! so thanks for that!


I hope I have answered some of the questions that some of you may have had, or were curious about and remember I don't mind them! in fact they help me to keep in line lots of the time, and I also wanted to mention that yesterday (Monday) the intake was 1700 calories on the nose and I did not get a ride in on my bike so no movement was had yesterday, I usually take a day or two off per week so I am right on track. Thank you for reading along and don't forget that big glass of H2O that ya just earned by reading my jibber jabber. You know the time, You know the place so see ya tomorrow!

As Ever
Me

A picture of "the" belt! and beans that will make ya drool!!

The beginning of a work week and for some its the beginning of a new week of working on healthy living and habits. I have many times posted about this or that and then I have posted my menus along with some recipes and such and I have said from the beginning that this is a way for me to stay accountable because of all of the eyes watching or reading in this case and it has worked wonders for my boyish figure. I was speaking to my cousin last night on the phone whom lives in California and has not seen me in about two years, I emailed her a copy of the photo that I posted in This post and she said to me that she cannot ever remember me that small, now understand this is a girl that I grew up with living next door to me ALL of my life, in fact we lived in the same house together for a couple years when I was about 19 years old and she says that she cannot remember me being this small (Me small?!?) she said that I needed to gain the weight back so that she could recognize me. That is a pretty amazing feeling to have someone not remember me being this size because its been a long time since someone used the word "small" and me in the same sentence.

There are things changing daily for me and how things fit and the ease at which I can do certain tasks since dropping this weight, for instance that 3XLT shirt my wife bought me for Christmas that fits now and I can hold that shirt up and don't get the feeling that I am holding up a sheet but instead a shirt. Then there is my belt, and this belt is something that I keep wearing because it reminds me how far I have come, I wore this belt when I was at my biggest size and I wore it on the second hole, meaning one more hole until it would have been too small for me to wear. This belt now wraps around me and is just about to the belt loop thats in the back side of my jeans, in other words I keep poking holes into it so that it can get tight enough to hold up my pants, have a look for yourself!

Yes I need a shave and please excuse the poor picture I took it with the timer, but man would ya look at that! I use to have to feed the very tip of the belt through the buckle and force it to the second hole all by feel because it was under my gut to get it on! I didn't measure it but that piece is more than a foot long!

Since I have a new camera I thought I would take a few pictures of dinner from last night, I baked a whole chicken after perfectly seasoning it, made a pot of pinto beans with pork neck bone in the crock pot and served it with white rice that had pueblo pepper sauce and sour cream on it. 6oz of the breast meat, 1 cup of the beans and 3/4 cup of white rice and the calories ended up at about 720 total which is a heavy meal as far as calories go but well worth it and it fell within my limit of 1700 total, have a look at some pictures that got my wife smirking at me and my son looking at me with that "why is dad taking pictures of dinner" look.

Pork neck bones $3.35, two pound bag of pinto beans $2.00, five hours in a crock pot on a cold winter day perfection! (I know I know I didn't say priceless)

Here is a look at my perfectly seasoned chicken just before I took it out of the oven, cooked to a perfect 181 degrees! man that camera makes our oven look dirty, trust me its not!

The finished product, white rice with some Pueblo pepper sauce and a tiny bit of light sour cream, 6oz of breast meat and some chopped onions on top of the pintos, it was much better than the photo lets on! and I just might be addicted to the beans.

I had a total of 1690 calories for Sunday so right on where it should be and I did get a 25 minute ride in on my stationary bike. I feel good and got a LONG nights sleep in to start the week off right, I am going to shoot for a loss this week (duh!) even though I seem to have hit a bump with this dehydrated thing or whatever it is. A Cargo shi.. ship has left port this morning and I am feeling better in that dept, lets see if it stays on schedule for the rest of the week, some more pintos for dinner tonight should help that along. As always as the post comes to an end so does your hydration or lack there of, hop on up and grab yourself a big ol glass of H2O, you deserve it. Thanks for following along and thanks for the support.

As Ever
Me

A cold lazy Sunday.

Lazily sitting around the house on this cold Sunday afternoon, we had a high of 38 degrees yesterday so it was a beautiful January day here in New England, but such is many a day here in the good ol North East we had a 29 degree swing over night and we woke up to 9 degrees. I have the crock pot full of pinto beans and pork neck bones cooking since 10am and we are having a whole chicken roasted for dinner so thats helping keep the house nice and warm, well that and I have the wood burner going in the basement. Something is amiss with my body though, I am unsure if that steak dinner threw my body into some kind of rebellion or if its the Cargo ships holding in port but I am up 4 pounds since Friday's weigh in, I know that I did not gain 4 pounds in a day and a half so I believe that its a combination of those things along with the fact that I only drank about 32 oz of water Friday and a pair of cherry cokes at dinner and then yesterday I had only one gallon of green tea and nothing else so I may be slightly dehydrated which I believe to be the case.

My guess is this week will be one with a small loss and if it is, no worries because I am already ahead of schedule with my goal of hitting 300 by the end of June though I am a little anxious to hit that 200 pound lost mark thats going to happen in about 20 pounds. As I type this re-hydration with my special blend of home brewed green tea is happening and I have 2 gallons made in the kitchen and ready to go, Wify has finally seen the light and has decided to bite the bullet and hop on my green tea train, she asked if I would start making a gallon for her when I make mine because of this plateau she has hit with her weight loss. She does not enjoy the taste of green tea (shame on her!) but she sees what its done and is doing for me so she is sold.

Otherwise everything is where it should be and I am on track, before the day is up I plan on filtering that 2 gallons of tea through me and making sure that I am hydrated to proper levels. I will ride my bike just as soon as I hit the post button on this entry and thats all a fella can do. What will you do today to assure that you are doing all that you can to drop some weight? or just get healthier in general? you can always start with a glass of water and move up from there, it works..

Thanks for reading.

As Ever
Me

Zeusmeatball will be out of the office..

I wanted to get a post up before I ran out because I don't know when I shall return from a busy day of errands. Last night I was, well...naughty where the intake is concerned Wify and I had a chance to go out on a "date" because my Mother in law agreed to watch the kiddos for us so we decided to go to a local steak house. I told my wife that I was not on a diet for our date and was just going to enjoy whatever struck my fancy on the menu and well here is how it went. when we are being seated and walking towards (get ready for this) a booth! I shoot my wife that look that says "oh boy here we go we did not specify a table when we made reservations did we" but I slid right in no problems and that is the first time I ate in a booth at a restaurant in YEARS or should I say first time that I FIT in a booth! The waiter comes over and asks us what we would like to drink and I asked if he had unsweetened tea "yes" cool do you have splenda? "we have sweet and low?" ok give me a cherry coke (see I told ya naughty) we ordered an appetizer of mushrooms stuffed with crab meat which had too much celery in it but was decent. I ordered a NY strip steak with a baked potato on the side with sour cream and butter (the real kind! so naughty again) which came with a green salad also, the steak was maybe the second best steak that I have ever had, and I don't know if its just because I haven't had one in a while or if it really was that good but man was it! Now here comes the kicker my wife says to me "are you getting a desert?" and I said "nah I ate pretty bad today" and then she says "they have fried ice cream" Ok what the hell, she brings me to a place that has "fried ice cream"?? this concept defies common sense to me to fry ice cream (as if its not fattening enough alone!) so I asked wify "are you getting some?" she said yes but that she wouldn't share! (half kidding but serious enough that I decided to get one for myself) now what this is, is a scoop of vanilla ice cream and apparently it gets dropped into a deep fryer and then placed on a plate and covered in either chocolate sauce or honey, yeah evil I know but it was good and I only ate part of it but I would say that I was a very naughty boy last night when it comes to eating.



Other than the HUGE meal I did good for the day sticking to calories and had about 800 to burn on dinner but obviously went over, no worries though that is how do you say? calorie cycling! yeah uh thats what I will call it. Seriously though one bad meal in a sea of good ones will not derail the program, it will not kick me into a downward spiraling binge cycle, it is what it is and thats a life style change. I don't plan on never eating cheese cake again, I do not foresee a future filled with never having a bacon pizza again, it is all about moderation and steady as she goes. I can afford to eat that way once in a while, I can have my cake and eat it too per se. Its sort of like my birthday, I have had a rum cake on my birthday since I can remember and this year I will have one again just like last year and every year before going back more than 30 years, but then maybe thats what got me into this mess in the first place! I honestly look at this as a lifestyle change and not a diet so that steak is no worries at all. I think thats how many people that are on "diets" sabotage themselves back into bad eating, I had been craving a steak for a couple weeks so I had it and now that craving is gone and even if its not I can talk myself into the fact that I just had one of the bes steaks of my life, for those that do not know Steak IS the end all of meals for me and I now do not eat red meat so its been a while. When we eat bad and then think that it somehow justifies that next morsel of goodness and the next and the next is where the failure to lose the weight happens, moderation is the king of weight loss.

Thank you for reading along and don't forget that glass of H2O that ya just earned, and remember folks, YOU have to make the decision to drop the weight, there is no one else that can make you do it.

As Ever
Me

Weigh in, a weight watchers lawsuit and a couple of pounds gone!

Upon waking I had low expectations for my weigh in, now don't misconstrue that for anything but I didn't think it would be a decent amount. I as per every Friday walked into the bathroom and did my thing then straight to the scale, first time on 355.8lbs flashed across the display and I thought to myself "thats not so bad at all" so onto attempt two and 356.0lbs showed its face so onto number three and 356.0lbs again so it appears that I have a 2 pound loss this week and I will take it! I would say I am off to a good start for the month of January and have lost thirteen pounds since the first. I have lost a total of 178 pounds since starting and I have done it with nothing but determination, willpower and a lot of reading and that in itself is amazing to me. I will have lost 200 pounds 22 pounds from now, say it with me, two hundred pounds! I was carrying that around with me on a daily basis, go ahead pick up a 200 pound barbell lay it across your shoulders and take a walk and that was what I was dealing with when I had to use the bathroom, walk to the kitchen for dinner, walk upstairs to my bedroom every minute of every day that was stuck to my body, every minute and everything that I did it was there. Menial tasks were a chore, and anything past that was a lot of times an impossibility at 534 pounds, if you read this and think that you need to have special pills, or pay for pre-made meal plans to see success I am proof that all you need is the will to do it.

This old Triumph weighs in at 356 pounds which as you know is what I weighed in at this morning.

Hows that for a Halibut! he weighed 178 pounds which of course is what I have lost to date.

Some of these weight loss plans may not always be as they appear, A lawfirm in Washington DC has filed a class action law suit against Applebees restaurant and Weight Watchers for meals served at Applebees on their "Weight Watchers menu" and these are two well known entities in our lives and the consumer is apparently being duped with the Weight Watchers logo and name. their Cajun Lime Tilapia Weight Watchers menu item claims to have six grams of fat, but when tested at Analytical Labs of Boise Idaho 12 grams of fat was the actual fat content that came back from their test. Applebees Garlic Herb Chicken also from the Weight Watchers menu should have six grams of fat, but that came back as having 18 grams of fat when tested, I just saw this on the morning news as I was typing this post out and it really makes a fella think about going out to a restaurant for a meal, I will be interested to see how this plays out.

All the more reason to buy fresh food at local markets rather than eating out and trusting that you are being fed what you are being sold on. I think with weight loss when it is in the amounts that I and many of you reading this have lost comes personal responsibility for what we eat and how we exercise and with that comes the knowledge of how to do both consistently. I think in the past 388 days I have grown in knowledge as I have shrunk in physical size and have relearned a lot of things about myself that had been forgotten with the weight gain and that is a positive side effect of this process that I did not expect. With that another post has come to an end, but fret not! tomorrow is another day and another post shall emerge! I may even give ya an afternoon nugget to nibble on as I am feeling in a mood to write today, keep on keepin on and don't forget that glass of H2O that you deserve for reading along.

As Ever
Me

Ships in port and realizations, what say you!

I had to pick up a few things at the supermarket last night and while I was walking around the store with my 3 year old screaming jingle bells the whole time providing entertainment for the entire store I was taking notice of the things in peoples carts and I started noticing a trend, virtually every person had a cart full of processed food items. Ho-Ho's, Hostess muffins, soda of all types, pre-packaged fish and tv dinners and it became clear to me why so many people are over weight these days, myself included. I use to be that guy walking through the isle (well my wife was that person I usually stayed home) with all of those things in the cart and now here I was with a bag full of apples, another full of pears and a bunch of bananas sitting next to some green tea a carton of eggs and a package of light multigrain english muffins not to mention the skinless chicken breast in my cart. I was waiting in line at the deli counter for some American cheese and next to me was a woman with a kid in her cart and he had a box of cheese nips in the little seat next to him and his fingers were covered in cheesy goodness and he was digging in, but so was mom so its just what normal life is to the little guy. I thought about that kid and how he may just turn out to be a 534 pound fella like I was some day, I thought "She should have given him a bag of grapes to graze on while they shopped" and then thought about how I was that person once upon a time, I was that guy with the open bag of chips in the cart while walking through the isles just munching away and not so long ago my thought may have been closer to "Ohhh cheese nips! now there is an idea!" as I dropped a couple boxes into my own cart, It is amazing how we perceive things depending on the state of mind we are in.




I like to believe that I have turned myself around 180 degrees where health and my eating habits are concerned, I know that I will live longer because of my decision, I know that my kids and wife will have me around just a bit longer and we will do more in that time because of making the choice to get healthy again and lose this weight. It is not only my family that is getting a benefit from this change either, I get email messages from total strangers telling me how something I wrote made something click inside them and they have been eating better because of it and I have to admit that messages like that make me want to stay on track even more than I already do. I have made friends through this blog that if not for my weight I would not have had the pleasure and I have received some great messages from people from all over the place asking me questions or telling me of their success and in what way my blog has helped them in that and thats not something that I expected to happen when I started writing in this blog. I started writing because I wanted a place to stay accountable and I left it public because then I knew there was a chance someone would see it, then on my 4th post there was a comment by "Anonymous" and I thought "wow someone read this? pretty cool" and then in the next week a couple more comments came in and it really made me want to write more on this blog that I started on a whim. Now I see that 49 people have added themselves to the "follow" part of this page (I know there are more of you that are not on that list too) and I thinks thats very cool! there are a few of you that have emailed me and we chat often and then there are others that have never left a comment and I appreciate each of you that choose to follow along with me as I get healthy again, this blog has helped me stick to plan more than you know, so Thanks. Ok ok before I start getting sappy or something have a look at yesterdays menu.

01/22/09

Breakfast
8:00 AM
2 light english muffins 180
1 serving turkey pepperoni 70
sliced tomato 15
2 wedges laughing cow cheese 70
1 dill pickle 5

11:45 AM
1 pear 85

Lunch
2:30 PM
1 banana 105
1 T peanut butter 95

3:15 PM
2 slices whole wheat bread 140
1 T peanut butter 95
1 T jam 50

Dinner
6:45 PM
1 can tuna 150
1 T miracle whip 35
2 80 cal rolls 160
1 dill pickle 10
sliced tomato 15

8:30 PM
1 Pear 85
1 Apple 90

Thats a grand total of 1455 calories for the day, I did get in a 25 minute ride on my stationary bike last night as well but I am afraid I have to admit that the ships have not left port in a couple of days. I do hope thats on the schedule for the day at some point because tomorrow is weigh in day and I am afraid its looking bleak if some of these ships don't clear out. Otherwise this week has gone well enough that I think there will be at least a small loss tomorrow morning and if not? no worries there is always next week right? Thats it kids, another episode is behind us and hopefully another pound or 3 gone for good, You know the place so be here tomorrow for the next episode of as the fat man turns.

Don't forget that H2O that you deserve for reading the post.


As Ever
Me

She's a maniac, maniac on the floor...Neckholes!

Stepping out of the shower yesterday I had grabbed one of my 6XL shirts out of the closet because I was just going to be watching some boob tube (the biggest loser of course) and then heading to bed, as I was walking from the bathroom I noticed that my entire shoulder was hanging out of the neckhole like some 80's chick. I couldn't help but laugh as I walked through the hallway and into the living room feeling like Molly Ringwald in sixteen candles or Jennifer Beals in Flashdance to show wify. It is amazing that I at one time filled these shirts in to the point that I was wondering when it was going to be time for a 7XL or maybe a trip over to Charlie the tent makers place for a fitting. Now I just about fit perfectly into a 3XLT instead of being on the cusp of a Coleman 4 Man tent and that folks is what they call a good feeling, I have a 3XL shirt (a small 3x I might add) that I have had since before I met my wife that is from an old job and I have held onto that shirt all of these years because I have always said that I would wear it again and I am so close to fitting into it right now that I cannot believe it, I was 22 years old the last time that shirt fit me and I know that I will be able to comfortably wear it this summer.

Which brings me to my next point, I have a lot of clothing that ranges from 56 waist jeans, slacks and dress pants down to shirts from 6XL on down to my current size that I will need to get rid of at some point. It has been suggested to me to drop them off at good will or the salvation army but something dawned on me while pondering that, Big guys don't or won't look at those places for clothing because it would be a fruitless venture to seek out used clothing that large, its just how it is. Most clothing in that size has to be bought at specialty shops, Casual Male (most of my clothing is from here) or from online places like King size direct and thats just the way of the fat man. So back to my point, I will have all of these clothes that are way too big for me when I reach my goal weight and I was thinking about donating them to someone that could use them after I hit that mark of 275 pounds, I also am NOT the heaviest guy I know any more so I can ask the two fellas that I know if they could use any of the clothing as well. A lot of the stuff that I have in those larger sizes are brand new and not even worn! I have some dress shirts that were bought online (King size direct) a long while ago that are still in what they came shipped in, and some T shirts hanging in the closet that still have tags on them all in around 6XL size. Then there is the jeans and shorts etc, I have jeans that were bought right before I started losing this weight that are still folded with tags on down to dress pants and a suit that is WAY too big for me currently (maybe the suit can be taken in? I don't know) but I do think at some point I will offer some of it here on this blog to some of the larger fellas that may be reading as well as my friend and my wifes friends Hubby whom are both a bit larger than me currently.

I went over my calories yesterday, and I went over because of weak willpower. We were not going to get home until a little later than normal so we decided on Subway as dinner and wify grabbed a bag of doritos to have on the side, so I came home and like a good boy figured out that I could have my subway (turkey/veggies) AND 1oz of doritos (which is like crack to me btw) and still be at my limit, Perfect! or so I thought. after I was done I grabbed a couple more out of the bag and ended up eating an extra oz worth of the cheesy crack that is called doritos so I ended up going over by 140 calories which is what the bag says 1oz is equal to. Bah! I went over? so I immediately felt guilty for doing it and told my wife and I quote "since I can't go throw it up imma ride the bike to make up for it" to which she responded "but your back hurts" "yes dear but I feel like crap for going over on a binge food" and off I went to ride, and 25 minutes later I didn't feel as bad though it was not a shining moment. I know not an exemplary example and certainly not my normal rock of a self where deciding against such things goes but I did workout to try and offset it a bit so I am good with it. Here is a look at the menu.

01/20/09

Breakfast
8:00 AM
2oz honey combs 220
8oz 1% milk 110

10:30 AM
1 pear 85

Lunch
11:45 AM
2 slices whole wheat bread 140
1 T peanut butter 95
1 T jam 50

1:15 PM
1/2 T peanut butter 45
1/2 banana 50

3:45 PM
progresso soup (pot roast) 160
brussel sprouts 45

Dinner
6:15 PM
turkey subway 560
2oz doritos (crack) 280

Thats a grand total of 1840 calories and 140 above where I should have been, I rode the bike for 25 minutes even though I was going to skip it because of a sore back. I am not going to sweat an extra 140 calories though I do feel like I let myself down a bit only because it was a binge situation and I just wanted the extra crack...er I mean chips. With that an end comes to another broadcast from the emergency fat loss system, tune in tomorrow for more details on how a fat guy got (is getting) not so fat, keep those glasses full and the movement constant and fat loss WILL happen.

As Ever
Me

A woah moment compare photo.

Sunday wify and I decided that we were going to move a few pieces of furniture around and one of those pieces was an old dresser that had been in our basement for a couple of years and it was in the basement at our new home too so it had to be brought up. As we were coming up the stairs with it I took most of the weight of it as she brought it up one stair at a time and I could feel my back start to twitch at my injury and then yesterday right before we left to go sledding I had some pain in my back and took a couple aleve and it was fine all day but just before bed I could feel that it was sore, welp this morning I woke up and its thumping so I will refrain from riding my bike for a day or two, hopefully it will go away as the day progresses but not the best start to a day that I have had in a while.

A couple weeks ago my Mother in law made a disk with some images on it that flashed by with some music playing of the whole family and as I watched it with wify an image flashed across the screen that made wify hit pause then back it up and she was floored at how she and I looked in that photo. So onto the phone she went and asked her mom for a copy of the picture, it turns out that it is a picture she took during Thanksgiving 2007 and we just never seen it. This was the first year that we were back in CT so we were both very rotund at that time and I have to say when I saw the photo I do not remember my wife being that heavy, ever! so last night we got a copy of the picture and I thought it would be cool to take a new picture in the same clothing that we had on in that old picture, the resulting comparison picture just floored me have a look for yourself.

Same shirts on the both of us, you can click on the image for a full sized view, I have a neck in that second one! Wify is beautiful in both pics if ya ask me.

My intake yesterday seemed to me like it was going to be rough to keep under my goal limit but I did it by having a light dinner, early in the day because of going sledding I had eaten a zone bar while there and it threw me off a bit and I was coming in low for the end of the day so I made Tuna sandwiches on light rolls for dinner and it worked out good. I came in at 1580 total calories for the day and other than the soreness in my back the week is off to a good start, have a look at yesterdays menu.

01/20/09

Breakfast
8:00 AM
2 cups honey combs 220
1 cup 1% milk 110

12:00 PM
1 zone bar 210
1 packet hot chocolate 110

Lunch
1:45 PM
2.7 oz ground turkey 110
1 80 cal roll 80

2:15 PM
1 serving of mac n cheese 300

Dinner
5:45 PM
1 can tuna 150
1 T miracle whip 35
2 80 cal rolls 160
1 dill pickle 10

9:00 PM
1 pear 85

Not so bad of a day intake wise and a bit of pain in my lower back but I am optimistic about this week because even though I am taking it easy on the bike I will make sure that I fall below my intake limits every day. Thank you for reading along and thank you for all of the support that you all leave me every day, it does more for me than you know. I am well on my way to meeting my goal of weighing less than 300 pounds by the end of June this year, and I hope to maybe give someone else a push into a healthy lifestyle by staying on top of my posts here, and now its time to drink that glass of H2O that you earned for reading this post.

hop to it!

As Ever
Me

Pictures, sleds and almost a goal!

More snow fell on us last night so Wify came up with the idea to meet one of her friends and go sledding this morning, right after I shovel the driveway. We bundled the kiddos up and into the car they went and we get to the hill and I had decided that I was not going to go down on the big tube we had but that did not last long and I said to myself "just one ride down" which turned into about 12 rides down! which means 12 walks back up the hill for me as well. Right after I walked back up after the first trip down I started thinking about how last year I probably wouldn't have went down that hill on the tube and maybe I would have stayed home all together and yet again I had one of those moments that shows me just what I was missing out on at 534 pounds. I then thought about why I was hesitant to go down in the first place, I mean I was there, the hill was there, I had a big ol tube sled thingy and there I stood thinking no way am I going down that hill, when it dawned on me why not? I am not 534 pounds any more and there is NO reason to not go down that hill and a good time was had, relearning how to just do things again instead of going through every outcome (will the tube pop?, will I roll off and tumble down the hill and be the blunt of everyones joke for the next 3 years? will I slide right into the woods because of my weight?) is something thats happening more often these days. My son was annoyed that I slid further than everyone else and kept trying to beat my distance with no success, we all had a good time, and walking back up the hill gave me some movement that was unexpected. I mentioned the possibility of sliding into the woods earlier and I almost made it into a soccer goal that was in the field we were in! here is a couple pictures.

Here I am on the way down the hill, if ya ever see a 358 pound fella sliding down a snowy hill in your direction get out of the way!

Thats where I ended up on that slide down! notice I have the only marks in the snow because I was went about 50 feet further than anyone else's attempt! and almost into the goal.

Sunday I came in under my calories at a total of 1595 for the day. We had turkey burgers for dinner and I seasoned them with Grillmates Hickory, chopped garlic, a shake of Parmesan cheese and topped with lots of veggies and I know that I mention this every time that I post it but that has got to be one of my favorite meals since starting to eat in a healthy manner, unfortunately I did not get a picture of the meal. Here is a look at the menu from Sunday.

01/18/09

Breakfast
9:15 AM
1 Banana 105
1 tablespoon Peanut Better 95

11:00 AM
6.5 oz Grilled Chicken 350

Lunch
2:15 PM
1 can progresso soup 160
1 pear 85

Dinner
6:15 PM
8 oz Ground Turkey 320
2 80 Cal Rolls 160
brussel sprouts 100
Onion/Pickle/Tomato/Lettuce/Ketchup 55
green salad 45
1 T newmans own salad dressing 35

9:45 PM
1 pear 85

Over all things are looking good this week where movement and intake are concerned, today I did indulge in some hot chocolate when we got in from sledding and I have a feeling that I will go over on calories today if not come real close to doing so because of bad planning this morning with intake, but I will attempt to keep it under. The week is off to a decent start and a fun morning was had, I plan on riding the bike a bit later today and I may do a bit more time for the next few days just to kick it up a bit. That concludes this latest edition of as the fat guy turns, I thank you for reading along and don't forget your glass of H2O!

As Ever
Me

Challenge accepted and done!

With Sunday comes some snow, I woke up this morning to about 4 inches of fluffy snow and saw a chance to get in some movement so out I went and shoveled the driveway and parking areas outside our home. Yesterday got a bit busy and I did not have a chance to post the results from my challenge, I did the 26 minutes that I owed from all of your comments (thanks guys!) and then I got off of the bike and did some push ups and stretched a bit then it was onto the 20 minutes that I owed for the 4 pound loss this week. The break was needed between the minutes so that blood flow could resume in my arse, I really need to figure out a way around that because a 46 minute ride is not beyond me I could have ridden all 46 straight easily but apparently my rump says otherwise.

I mentioned that we got busy yesterday, well during that I bought a new digital camera so I can resume posting photos of my own again. our old digital camera was dropped while we were painting before we moved in and it would not focus and since it was a couple years old we decided it was just time to buy a new one instead of getting the old fixed. This also means that I can start getting compare pics again for my shirtless skivvys months end pics again, and I am excited about the first one since it has been a couple months since I took one, and wify says that she can see a difference from the last set of pics until now! I bought a 4M SD card and the display says that I can take 3400 pictures and have them on the card all at once so plenty of room for new pics which like I mentioned means more for the blog. When I first started this blog I would post photos of my meals, quick snaps of where I was along with pics of yours truly more often and I look forward to doing that again. The new camera we bought also takes video with sound so maybe look for a video message soon from me as well! ahhh the things that excite me are sometimes small.

My intake was right on schedule Saturday coming in at 1685 total calories and wify made breakfast for dinner last night, She made me maybe the best omelet that I have ever had! 3 eggs, 1 oz mexican blend light cheese, mushrooms, onions, chopped up turkey pepperoni, crushed garlic, sliced tomato and enough jalapeño to fry someones guts, and man it was good! I had a sliced dill pickle on the side along with my green tea. Todays dinner menu will include turkey burgers and a veggie and of course my green tea so two great dinners in a row this weekend. I have to go downstairs chop up some wood and get the wood stove burning so I will end this here for now, Thanks for all of the comments turned minutes and don't forget to drink that glass of H2O for making it through another one of my posts.

As Ever
Me

Weigh in! a challenge and one happy guy!

This morning I actually woke up earlier than my alarm with a Christmas morning vibe floating through my head because of the notion of me making it into the 350's, Dork eh? but anyways, it was 1 degree outside when I woke up and there is wind so its below zero outside, so the floors were COLD! I walked to the bathroom to get any thing that isn't part of me out of me and straight to the scale. I stepped on and bamn! 358.0 lbs I know I smiled so onto weight two and 358.2 lbs showed up and now I know I was smiling, third times a charm and 358.0 lbs flashed again and with that I have lost 4.6 pounds this week! 7.2 last week and 4.6 this week, think I am happy about the last two weeks? Yes I am! I am officially into the 350's with a total of 176 pounds lost total to date, that number is insane to me sometimes when I think about it, one hundred seventy six pounds! GONE! and I am into a weight range that I consider not so bad.

I am on a mission to weigh less than 300 pounds by the end of June this year, I have had two good weeks where weigh in goes so I expect next week to be not so grand, but then again after the 7 pound week last week I thought this would be a low week too so who knows. Here are some things that weigh as much as I do and as much as I have left to lose.

This Yamaha outboard motor weighs 358 pounds like me.

This is Chloe Marshall and she weighs 176 pounds and was competing for Miss England, I have to say she looks awesome and shows that a woman with some meat on her bones can be as hot as any!

I have 83 more pounds to lose to get to my goal weight of 275, which is now penciled in @ 265 so that I can weigh the same as my father, but the goal stands at 275 for now. I am down enough that its getting difficult to find interesting things that weigh what I have left to lose so from here on out I will just show what I have lost and what I currently weigh. this weigh in brings me within 24 pounds of having lost 200 total pounds, yep thats right when I lose 24 more pounds I have lost 200 pounds! That is insane to me that I am so close to dropping that kind of weight, and just imagine this, when I get there I still have a lot to go! something else happened last night to go with my 4.6 pound loss this week, I told someone other than my wife my current weight, I was talking to my brother and I sent him the photo of me in the jacket that I wore to my wedding (I posted it a few days back) and he couldn't believe it and the conversation progressed to where I just told him, all he could say is "you must feel so good right now" and my response was just "yup".

Now onto this challenge that I set for myself, I said that I would ride my stationary bike for 5 minutes for every pound that I lost and I am counting this as a 4 pound loss this week (sticking to whole numbers from 362 to 358 is 4 pounds) so thats 20 minutes that I will ride for the weight, now here comes the part where you come in, for every comment that I receive on THIS post by midnight Friday (today), I will do 1 extra minute on my bike for tomorrows (Saturday's) cardio session. I have done these challenges in the past and they turn out pretty good and it has never failed to get me a good workout, and since I am feeling on top of the world these last couple weeks its time once again for a challenge. The only catch? you mention that ya drank a glass of water for your comment, so its a win win, I get to bust my ass because of you and you get to be hydrated because of me, sound fair?

Thank you for following along while I get healthy and don't forget that H2O!

As Ever
Me

An evening interlude for this mornings post

It is 8:20 pm, I just rode my bike for 25 minutes and I am feeling good about the mornings weigh in, I don't want to get onto the scale tonight (I usually do so I can estimate what I will weigh in the am) because I want it to surprise me, I have a feeling I will be pleasantly surprised or not surprised I guess if I am expecting a good drop in the weight. I have done everything right this week, I ate within my calorie range, I exercised every day for 25 minutes per day, and maybe most important I stayed positive about the entire week. every pound that that scale tells me that I've lost tomorrow morning was earned and every ounce that I have lost I deserve this week (every week but this week I was very good about EVERYTHING) I have a feeling that I WILL make it into the 350's this week and that is insanely awesome to me because its what I have been telling everyone that I weigh forever! My Drivers license says wt:350, my fishing license says wt:350, and I have a few other pieces of ID with the same thing on them, I think very soon I will be less than any of those things say that I am! when I got my fishing license the fella was going down the list and he got to weight, "weight sir?" to which my reply was "350" he looked up from the counter at me but held his tongue (good thing for him) and when he looked back down to write in the weight I said "as far as you me and that license goes I am 350 anyways" he just laughed and patted his gut and had some yeah us fat guys type comment, this year when I get it I will tell him "300 pounds" because come June thats what I will be.


I am looking forward to the weigh in this time around because of that, so heres to tomorrow morning!

As Ever
Me

Weigh in eve and the chalenge is set.

Weigh in time has come around again, its funny how that happens every week, Last week I dropped 7.2 pounds which brought me to 362.6 pounds and I wanted very much to get into the 350's this week and that is still my goal. To be in the 350's I think will be surreal to me because I cannot remember a time in my life that I was actually "in the 350's" and yet that has been the weight that I have used on my license for years, it has been what I say to people when they asked if they asked, "so waddya think ya weigh?" to my "about 350" which I always knew was not even close to correct and now if can hit that weight I say it and be right on the money!



My intake was below my allowed 1700 yesterday coming in at 1665 total calories and I did get in a gallon of the good stuff AKA Green tea. I am also craving bananas, which is not a big thing normally but wify bought a bunch of bananas about 2 weeks ago and they were really green, nothing odd about that right? wrong! they are still green! some slight yellow is showing up on a couple of them but they are still not ripe, I think they are magical non aging, non ripening bananas or something, its driving me nuts because I am stubborn and won't throw them out, and before you say 'well are you sure they are bananas ant not plantains or the likes" I am sure they are bananas! one got yellow and I ate it a few days ago but the rest are still green (why did only one get yellow!?) and I am at a loss as to why so on the fridge they sit (now in a brown paper bag) and when they ripen I will enjoy them if only to prove to the banana gods that I won. Ok ok enough about the bananas, 25 minutes on the stationary bike along with some push ups and a stretching routine was how part of my afternoon was spent yesterday and will be in my plans for today as well. Will I make it into the 350's? I sure hope I do but if I don't it just means that its one more week before joining that clubhouse, but I will get there. Have a look at yesterdays menu.

01/14/09

Breakfast
8:00 AM
2 multigrain english muffins 200
2 wedges laughing cow cheese 70
1 serving Turkey pepperoni 70
sliced tomato 10
dill pickle 10

Lunch
12:00 PM
2 slices whole wheat bread 140
1 T peanut butter 95
1 T jam 50
1 dannon yogurt 80

2:30 PM
1 pear 85

Dinner
7:00 PM
4 slices whole wheat 280
1 can tuna 150
1 T miracle whip 35
1.5 oz jax 225
dill pickle/tomato/lettuce/onion 25

8:00 PM
1 WW Ice cream Sandwich 140

Grand total of 1665 calories for the day, and a challenge is set for tomorrows weigh in, I mentioned it in yesterdays post and here is how I shall work it. for every pound that I lose I will ride 5 minutes on my stationary bike and in addition to that, for every comment that I get before midnight Friday on tomorrows weigh in post I will do an extra minute on the bike. That means that the length of my Saturday cardio session will be dictated by anyone that leaves a comment! 10 comments, 10 extra minutes! 40 comments (gasp) 40 extra minutes! (I see 40 people following this blog now which I think is awesome so I used that for my gasp number) bring it on! make this big ol hunk of a dude sweat his arse off! the only catch is that I ask that for every comment that I get that the poster drink a glass of water, sound fair? heres to a good weigh in, wish me luck!

Thank you for following along and if you regularly read my blog you know that its time to grab yourself a nice big drink of H2O, and if you are new, get on up and grab a glass of water you deserve it for making it to the end of my post.

As Ever
Me

New goals and a challenge for Friday.

I started this blog a bit more than a year ago, I started it to stay accountable with my weight loss and it has become more than that for me, I enjoy writing every day and I love hearing input be it negative or positive, most is positive but there are always the people that see it wrong."are you trying to be like most overweight people that say, "I'll start exercising tomorrow" and then never do?" That is a comment someone left for me after reading my post yesterday where I mentioned that I want to start seriously strength training when I hit 300 pounds. That comment floored me and then I realized that this person probably has not read my blog or at least paid attention to it if they have. I almost let myself respond with a snarky comment of my own but then realized that my mantra is negativity breeds more of the same and well thats just not me. If I was "trying to be like most overweight people that say, "I'll start exercising tomorrow" and then never do?" I would no doubt still weigh 534 pounds and I will leave it there.

Things are on track here, this week is coming along nicely says the scale this morning so I am in a great mood today despite the 13 degree windy day we have here in good old New England. I am planning on indoor cardio for the day in the way of a ride on the good ol stationary bike because of the weather and thats fine by me but I do have to admit that I am starting to get a bit of cabin fever and really would like a nice walk, as soon as the weather cooperates a bit it shall be so.

Since I have my bike set up in its new home I think it is time for another Friday challenge as well, I will for every pound that I lose ride my stationary bike for 5 minutes and one extra minute for each comment that I get before midnight on Fridays weigh in post. The last time I did one of these challenges to myself my legs hurt for a week! but it is time for another one. I will pay these minutes on the Saturday following weigh in and I will post when it is done, so here you have he chance to make me move more and help me get that 300 pound by June goal. How does that sound? feel like making a fat man work for his waist line? Oh, the only catch is that you need to drink a glass of H2O along with your post, so its a win win!

Intake for yesterday went as follows.

01/13/09

Breakfast
8:30 AM
1 banana 105
1 T peanut butter 95

11:00 AM
2.5oz ground turkey 100
1 80 cal roll 80

Lunch
1:15 PM
2 80 cal rolls 160
1 T peanut butter 100
1 T jam 50

4:15 PM
dannon yogurt 80

Dinner
6:15 PM
2 gortons fish fillets 340
9oz sweet potato fries 225
kidney beans 170

8:00 PM
1 pear 85

8:45 PM
1 pear 85

Grand total of 1675 calories so again right on the money if not a bit heavy on the carbs its not too bad of a menu. I usually don't eat many pre packaged meals lately but my daughter loves those Gortons fish fillets and we haven't had them in a while so onto the menu they went. This is no longer something I have to try to do, I AM doing it, I am eating properly and exercising daily and waddya know? health is happening right before my eyes! Yesterday while talking to a friend I found out that I personally know two people now that weigh more than me so I am no longer the heaviest guy I know! that in itself is very cool to me. I was also talking to My father who weighs 265 pounds and stands 6'2" tall last night, we were talking about my weight loss and I told him that I would weigh less than he does soon and his response was "no way" so I think I may just set a new goal weight to be 265 pounds, because you know I gotta prove the old man wrong! Thats the end todays post, make sure to tune in tomorrow, same bat time same bat channel, and don't forget that glass of H2O that you just earned for reading!

As Ever
Me

An afternoon interlude to go with this mornings post.

22 degrees outside, the lake is frozen, 25 minutes on the stationary bike, some push ups and a nice long stretching routine later I feel energized. this morning I was thinking about how I still have more than 85 pounds to lose to get to my goal of 275 pounds (see the post below) and how I have already lost 172 pounds since last year but thinking that 85 pounds is still a lot of weight. With that said I know that I will hit my mark this year and I know that I will be that much more informed and knowledgeable on the subject in that same time. cool air, a sweaty back (sweaty fat dude image for ya there, enjoy!) escalated heart rate and I am 25 cardio minutes stronger than this morning and a tad bit more flexible, do you want to try and knock me off of the hill? nah come on up with me, there is room for all of us here.

Cold glass of Green tea with splenda and lime to go with the sweat and warm fuzzy feeling and no other reason for this interlude.

that is all.

As Ever
Me