The Scale...

Today is Friday and we know what that means, its time to see what the scale says and just as suspected I did not see a loss this week, I did in fact see a small gain. Last week I was at 340.2 pounds and this week I was 341.4 so just over a 1 pound gain for me this week but I am ok with that because it is what it is and this is not an over night process. I have seen ups and obviously seen downs since starting but the over all vibe has been and will remain me getting healthier and stronger.

The scale, this inanimate object becomes the bane of so many people trying to drop a few pounds, it also becomes the light in the dark to many others when a lower number flashes across the display on that magical day of the week that is chosen to record progress. The scale has no feelings, it has no care about what the display says, it merely records what it feels step onto it at that magical hour. We as people losing weight rely on our scale to tell us how we are doing, we rely on that cold piece of metal and plastic with a bit of electronics tossed in to tell us "ya done good" and sometimes when is doesn't we feel like killing the messenger. It is important to see the scale move down BUT it is not the only thing that is important, in the last couple weeks my weight seems to have stalled (I am sure that this week will be different) but in those same weeks I have walked more on average than I have since starting on this weight loss regimen, so I could say that my walking has improved instead of saying that I did not lose any weight this week, its all how you look at it.

My calories for yesterday came in at 1660 and I got in 2 gallons of fluids, 1 gallon of Green tea and 1 gallon of straight H2O. It did rain all day so I did not get out for a walk because I had my daughter all day and I won't make her walk in the rain with me so I did not get any exercise into yesterday. Have a look at yesterdays menu, I think it was decently balanced if a little light on protein.

05/29/09

Breakfast
8:00 AM
2 multigrain english muffins 200
1 serving turkey pepperoni 70
2 wedges laughing cow 70
tomato/pickle 20

11:00 AM
small apple 80

Lunch
12:15 PM
1 lavash bread 100
4.5 oz Capicola 225
1 T Miracle whip 35
lettuce/tomato 35

2:00 PM
1 orange 65

Dinner
5:45 PM
4 slices whole wheat bread 280
6 slices turkey bacon 210
lettuce/tomato 40
miracle whip 50
1 pretzel rod 35

8:15 PM
small apple 80
1 orange 65

Over all I am ok with how the week went besides breaking my stationary bike anyways and I am planning on starting the C25K program come Monday I am also thinking about maybe making a section on the side bar to record progress etc but that will be decided later. I am up one pound this week from last and up three pounds from my lowest 2 weeks ago, the plan is to get below where I was at my lowest for this week and I have a feeling that as long as I start C25K on Monday that I will be able to get there. I am going to make a push for that 200 pounds lost this week but honestly most of my focus will be on the C25K program for the next couple of weeks and I think that the second part of the equation will happen as a result.

With that the plan is in place and the post comes to an end, make sure you get that H2O into your day, that's all I got for this morning.

As Ever
Me

C25K start date and some random fat dude stuff.

This week flew by and I am pretty sure there will be no change in my weight, unless its up and last week I said that I was going to bust arse and get under that 200 pound lost mark but a few things happened that have hindered that push. This weekend was not the best in the world where eating was concerned which was my fault, and my back injury was acting up a bit, then there is the fact that the pedal came off of my bike again so I was without that as a tool. I did get in a few good solid 2-3 mile walks which I feel good about and I am planning on starting the C25K program on Monday and the docks seem to be clearing up the last two days so in the right direction we are headed but where tomorrows weigh in is concerned I just don't think I will be at a negative number.




My wife started C25K a few weeks ago and has been doing a great job with it, seeing her stick to it the way she has makes me want to do the program even more. The plan for me will be to do week one twice and then try and stick with each week once unless I am struggling more than I think that I will, I am going to try and catch up to Wify and where she is in the program and hope that we can run together at some point. One thing that is bothering me a bit with this running idea is the fact that I have some loose skin and it does move around when I run, I am planning on getting a compression shirt to wear under my tee shirt while running because its a bit uncomfortable the way it is currently, both physically and just knowing that its whipping around under my shirt like a couple of puppies fighting over a bone, a lovely visual I know but hey! I tell it like it is.

All of the walking that I have been doing over the past weeks I believe will help me complete the C25K program with success. Once upon a time I bought a pair of running shoes to walk in and after about a mile the balls of my feet would hurt thus ending the walk, then the old feets started realizing that I was not going to stop any time soon so they submitted and I could make it 1.5 miles with no worry about my feet hurting, and now a 3 mile walk has no ill effect on my dogs at all. Leaps and bounds ahead of where I once was I am going to begin running, I fully expect to hit some bumps but then what fun is anything that's a given right? a challenge is more rewarding than something that is handed to you on a platter, and when I run a continuous 5k distance I can think back to the days when walking upstairs to go to bed winded me and smile.

Whatever the scale tells me tomorrow will be fine by me, I do have a strong feeling that I won't be lighter than last week but then that doesn't matter so much to me anymore, I feel like I have hit a point where being able to do more physically is as important as the raw number of my weight and as long as that advances the weight will keep coming down.

That will bring us to the end of another post by the rambling fat dude, check me out tomorrow to see what the scale says to me, as I said I don't expect it to be lower but it is what it is.

As Ever
Me

Walk, Run, Bike, whatever Just do it!

Tuesday was a good day where diet and exercise were concerned, I ate a total of 1635 calories and I walked 2 miles in 32 minutes so my pace is improving, in addition to the walk I rode my stationary bike for 17 minutes. Why would I take a mere 17 minute ride on my bike you ask? well because that's when the pedal broke off..Again! I think that it is time for me to either upgrade to a bike that was made within the last 10 years or join a gym so that I can stop playing games with an old bike. I did take a slam on the wrist with the handle bar when the pedal sheered off, it is bruised and hurts this morning so I will skip my push ups and weights today as a precaution but I plan on a 3 mile walk this afternoon as long as the rain holds off, here is a look at yesterdays menu.

05/27/09

Breakfast
7:45 AM
2 cups honey combs 220
1 cup 1% milk 110

Lunch
12:15 PM
2 80 cal rolls 160
1 T peanut butter 95
1 T Jam 50

3:30 PM
1 can progresso soup 160
1/2 cup white rice 100

Dinner
6:15 PM
8oz grilled chicken 400
3/4 cup white rice 200
1 cup green beans 40
1 T sour cream 20
pueblo sauce 15

7:45 PM
1 orange 65

I mentioned joining a gym, my daughter starts school in August and I do believe that I will be joining a gym at that time because it will be the perfect time for me to drop her off at school and go to the gym for a few hours. I have been thinking about joining a gym for a while now and now that some time is freeing up its looking like a better idea than ever. Lately I have this feeling of actually being somewhat able to do more than I have been able to in a long while, what I mean is that I do not feel limited by my weight any more in the way that being 500 plus pounds can make a person feel. The feeling lately is more like I can do anything that I want to instead of "no way men I need my knees for a few more years" The weight that I am at now is the weight that I have been comfortable at for most of my life, or should I say my life from about 19 to 28 or so, just before I blew up so lately I have been getting this feeling that I am coming around to new ground where my physical ability comes into play which brings me to my next point.

I am planning on starting the C25K program on June 1st, me running? me? the fella that was 534 pounds not so long ago? Yes! Me running. Now I did run a bit in my mid 20's but it was more like when I had some thinking to do (which back then there was lots of that!) and at about 300 pounds or so (an estimate for my weight as I don't know what I was) which is about what I weigh now, I was running 3 times per week about 2 miles but never 2 whole miles in a row, I do believe that one mile was the limit before I walked back then and now I have it in my head to run 5 kilometers continuously. Will my back hold out? (the injury) will my knees hold out? after all I was 500 plus pounds at one point and am still 300 plus, will I be able to run continuously for that long without passing out? I do not know the answers to any of these questions but if I don't try how will I find out? I do know the answer to that one and it's I won't know until I try, so its all I can do.

I am heading out for a walk before the rain starts again so this post has come to an end, thanks for following along! tune in tomorrow for the next mind riddling episode of as the fat guy turns, and don't forget that H2O because it is one of the most important parts of a successful weight loss plan.

As Ever
Me

The long weekend report, did I mention it was long?

Working towards a goal that has been almost 17 months in the making has taught me a few things about myself and about weight loss in general. I in the last five hundred eleven days have made changes in my life and created habits that will hopefully trickle down and become habits of my children as well, My wife has become more health conscious and has recently started running to go along with her better eating habits as well and I can say with 100% certainty that my choice to lose all of the weight and get healthy will mean that I get a little more time to enjoy with my family as well as enjoying things a bit more myself.

Thinking back to Jan 2008 I can't remember being 534 pounds, when I think back to that time I can remember being out of breath from walking up the stairs, I can remember not being able to walk very far without sweating like I had just run a marathon, I can remember how it felt to say no to going out because I was uncomfortable but I cannot believe that I was 534 pounds. I weigh almost 200 pounds less than I did back then and still feel like I am big, mostly because I am but what I mean is that I look at photos from then and I do not see me in the pictures, maybe more like a me suit. My day literally went the same way every day, well there are two versions really and the first version went like this, wake up around 10am (I worked nights at the time), play some video games while rotting on the couch with my 64oz double gulp cup filled to the brim with whole milk or coke, eating a breakfast that consisted of more calories than I eat all day now, 3pm drive to work and basically sit there until 1am, drive home grab del taco and stay up until 3 or 4am watching tv or playing more playstation. Then version 2 was after my daughter was born, wake up 6:30 am and sit on the couch, play time was on the bed, not like a new born could run around too much which worked out perfectly for me at the time but as she started getting older I noticed that I could not keep up with her very well and would need breaks from playing, or we would sit in the yard or should I say I would sit in the yard while she played on the playground set that was in our yard at the time the entire time me not enjoying the fact that I could not run around with her.

That was the me that I do not want to remember, I should actually say that I want to remember enough to not go there again but not remember because it was like a bad dream. I was thinking about this weight that I have lost and something dawned on me because Wify came and sat on me while the thought was in my head, She was on my lap and if I were to stand on a scale it would read a lower number than it would have with just me on it less than one and a half years ago. As I sat there I felt a tug and before I knew it my daughter had climbed up onto us now making it s pile and I thought about how there are 3 of us sitting here now and I am just about the same weight as I was when I started this weight loss regimen, Me my wife and my daughter all piled up and the couch was holding the same weight as it would have if it were just me a short time ago, I don't think Wify even knew what I was thinking about at that moment but imagine that, 3 people and that is just about exactly what I weighed all by my onesome.

Ok enough of all of that, lets get to how the weekend went intake and exercise wise and I will attempt to keep it to the point. Friday went as planned with the food but my back was bothering me so I did not workout at all so food was good no exercise, not so much. Saturday my intake was perfect up until Wify told me that she got a movie for us to watch and a rule that I made a long time ago is that it does not matter what my calorie level is at I will have a big ol bowl of popcorn with a movie, so I was at 1650 calories and went over by whatever that jumbo bowl of the good stuff amounted to, again no exercise on Saturday besides some light yard work. Sunday was going good enough and then I found out that my brother in law who is a vegan was coming down for Lunch and my Mother in law cooked a completely Vegan lunch for the occasion and I decided that I wanted to try some of the vegan dishes and ended up not counting calories at all because it was a lot of things that was like salads etc that I couldn't really judge. after lunch my father in law stopped by for dinner and he brought hot dogs, potato salad and macaroni salad with tuna and once again I decided that I was just going to enjoy the meal, I did stick to only water and tea for the entire weekend so that was good but Sundays calories were way over. Monday I was within my calories coming in at 1695 for the day but then later on in the evening I was very hungry for whatever reason and I gave in and ate a Fiber bar which cost me an extra 140 calories so I did go over on Monday slightly as well.

Zero exercise all weekend besides rearranging a walk way made of stone in my back yard and some random light yard work, the docks are very backed up and I for the life of me cannot figure out why. The situation at the docks is hindering my ability and desire to get a good solid workout in and I am starting to think that the pain in my back may be related to the clogged pipes but after I click "publish post" I am going to head out for a walk around the lake and plan on riding my bike this afternoon. I also wanted to mention that I am tentatively penciling in Monday June 1st as my C25K start date since the doc cleared me, I wanted to start this week but with the pipes and the raw back I have decided it was not the best week to start something that I am anticipating will be a challenge.

Now that I have typed out this epically long post it is time for me to get on up and get outside for a walk, don't forget that H2O and keep on keepin on, it is after all the least we can do for our own health.

As Ever
Me

200 pounds lost? did he make it this week?!

As expected this week is not going to be the week that I bust that 200 pounds lost mark, I have to admit that I am a bit confused about this weeks weigh in but it is what it is and like I said yesterday I am stronger this week from last and that's the important part. When I stepped on the scale it said 340.2 pounds so that's exactly 2 pounds up from last week and I said that I was confused but I do have a couple theories to go with that plate of confusion. I have eaten perfectly within my 1700 calorie limits all week so that's a non issue I think besides the fact that I probably could have had more fiber, I have drank at least a gallon of green tea every day this week along with about a gallon of straight H2O each day as well so hydration is there. The two things that I suspect are hindering the loss this week are the fact that I have/had jammed up docks for almost the entire week and the fact that I have been going to bed later than usual, after midnight and as late as 1:00 am for the last 4 nights or so.

Now that I have analyzed the week it is time to plan for the coming week and I will keep it simple.

1.) Eat no more than 1700 calories per day and watch the fiber intake.

2.) Drink at least 1.5 gallons of Green tea or straight H2O per day.

3.) Now that I have the all clear from the doc, I will hit the cardio hard this week.

4.) Work out every day this week, no days off until the next weigh in.

I know that looks a lot like what I already do, but the two major differences are that I will not be taking a day off of exercise this week and I will really amp up the cardio because I have been holding back and only walking since the doc told me to do so until an ECG was done. Honestly the mere fact that the ECG results came back clean has relieved a huge amount of stress that I was under for the past 3 to 4 weeks and I feel like a weight has been lifted off of me and I plan on taking full advantage of my stress free high by hitting the exercise hard this week to try and make up for the lack of any real cardio work in the last few weeks.

This weeks weigh in shows a positive number as far as the raw number goes but I honestly think that I will hit that 200 pound mark my Friday if not sooner. I did everything that I could do this week including extending my walking distance because of feeling like 2 miles wasn't enough when walking was the only exercise and it was upped to 3 miles, My raw weight may be up by 2 pounds (even if its the docks or lack of sleep) it is up and I have to accept that fact, the other fact that I accept is that I have done everything that I could given the circumstances of the last month and the halt of movement by my doc so I am happy with the scale this week even though it is not a loss.

This week was not the week that I become the fella that can say that he lost 200 pounds, but next week I think that little fact will not be a fact any more. Don't forget that H2O and always remember to keep on keepin on because if you don't nobody else will do it for you.

PS: C25K coming to a theater near you very soon!

As Ever
Me

You can do a triathlon if you like, who me??

Today is a good day, and what I mean is that a worry that has been on my shoulders for about a month now is gone. About a month ago I had a docs appointment and he heard a heart murmur and told me that I needed to get an ECG done to make sure everything was ok with my ticker, he also told me that I could not run or work out too hard until that was done hence all of the walking in the last month instead of other things. Today was my follow up appointment to see what the blood tests from the initial appointment said and to find out about how the ECG went and apparently everything is good with the old ticker, he used a term that I cannot recall right now to explain the murmur and said just as a precaution that we will look at it in 2 years but it was something about a valve being a little loose or something like that but he said that and I quote "You can do a triathlon if you like, everything came back great" then he repeated that he was impressed with what I have done so far with the weight loss. I will tell you that having a doctor tell me that I am doing everything right and then tell me that all of my blood tests came back "great" and when I asked him if I can run now his reply being "You can do a triathlon if you like" really does something to reinforce in my mind that I have to keep on keepin on with what I am doing.

Onto this week and tomorrows weigh in, though I have eaten perfectly (besides not enough fiber apparently) and exercised daily I do not think I will be at a lower weight than I was last Friday, but then where have I heard that before? this morning I weighed more than I did last Friday, not by much but more none the less so I do not think that I will cross that 200 pounds lost barrier this week but who knows. I have consumed an average of 1650 calories per day when I do a 7 day average off of my excel sheets so I am right where I should be with intake, I have drank 1.5 to a little more than 2 gallons of fluid per day every day this week and I have exercised every day except one in that same time, and if I don't weigh less than I did a week ago it doesn't matter to me.

I am stronger than I was last week, I am a week healthier come tomorrow morning and 7 days wiser where health in general is concerned. I have the all clear to run to my hearts desire from my doc so I plan on starting C25K most likely come Monday and there is a nice long stationary bike ride in my immediate future. As I write this I am 3/4 of a gallon worth of green tea into my daily hydration and have eaten a nutritious breakfast and dinner, things are as they should be at the moment. I am expecting to either break even or be slightly above my last weeks weight come tomorrow morning going off of this mornings weight but like I mentioned yesterday the docks are clearing out so I guess anything can happen.

The bottom line is that I am in control of my eating and now can do what I want to physically with the all clear from my doc this morning so once again the sky's the limit and I will be at my goal weight before years end. Make sure to remember that H2O and keep on keepin on, tomorrow I weigh in and there is a possibility that I will break that 200 pounds lost mark but I just don't think this will be the week.

Until then...

As Ever
Me

Close to 200 pounds lost update, and a few pictures of what I have been doing.

I seem to have forgotten that I write in this blog every day! I have been a busy little boy playing outside in the dirt the past few days and just have not had the time to write a post but here I am! taking a break so I thought I would post up. In the past few days I have pretty much spent my entire days outside in the yard making it look how I want it to instead of the previous owners vision of beauty, which happens to be in the eye of the beholder in this case because this yard was jacked up. I removed a brick patio and neatly stacked the 8x16 paver bricks for later use, reshaped and moved a stone edged gravel filled path that ran through the back yard while retaining any plants and or shrubs that were to be moved and tilled the soil and planted grass on all of the bare spots from where I pulled up the patio and moved the walk way. I now have a new tomato garden that I cut into the yard and edged with stone and some railroad ties, its a tiny little spot holding only 3 tomato plants but it took more than an hour to complete and plant into, I hope I get a few tomatoes off of them, here are a few pics that I just snapped after I started writing.

Here is my tiny little tomato garden, the two on the left are Beefmaster and the one on the right is a better boy, they probably could have been planted a bit further apart but hopefully they do well there, the entire thing is 5 feet across.

A shot down the fence line at part of our garden, you can see the tomatoes at the top left.

Just a random shot of the little bird house that lives in our yard, you can see the still bare butterfly bush on the right side of the purple flowers.

This week is going well and I have stayed within calories every day this week, with all of the yard work I am definitely getting some exercise into the days but on top of that I have walked every day besides yesterday this week with my shortest walk being 1.8 miles and the longest was 3 miles. I am lifting weights and doing my push ups every other day and staying thoroughly hydrated drinking 1 gallon of water and 1 gallon of green tea per day over the past 5 days or so. We did have a hold out on the docks, I think that the teamsters were asking for more fiber and I just was not listening because the docks were jam packed and not moving for almost 4 days so I don't know how that will effect Fridays weigh in. I am actually up from last Fridays weight at this point in the week, I have done everything right this week but I have a couple of theory's on why I am up. I have been doing a lot of work around the yard and I am sore in a few places that are not usually sore so I may be retaining some fluids because of that, or it may be that the docks are still jammed up a bit, though the teamsters have agreed to let the ships unload I have a feeling that there are still a lot of ships waiting to land at port and unload so that's theory number two.

Either way I am doing everything right this week and Fridays weigh in will be whatever it is and I will keep going, will it be the week that I hit that 200 pound lost mark? I sure do hope so! BUT if its not, then it is not and that's all. When I do hit that 200 pounds lost mark I plan on posting up a few more comparison shots because I have not posted any in a while, I believe the last time I put one up was at 150 pounds lost but I could be wrong and I don't feel like searching to find out right now but its close if not 150. For me to say Two hundred pounds is what I have lost seems so bizarre to me, and only because of the pure size of that number, there are whole human beings that do not weigh that much and have lost that amount of fat off of my body? just insane to me if I think about it for too long.

Apparently my time is up because my daughter just finished her lunch and wants to go back outside to play some more so I will end this post here and off I go to do more yard work, make sure you stay hydrated and drink 20 extra oz for me today! keep on keepin on and all that.

As Ever
Me

Weigh in, 196 pounds lost so far!

I was worried that I would not have a loss this week because of an earlier in the week look at the scale and the fact that last Saturday I ate pretty bad but this morning I was pleasantly surprised. I will get right to it, I stepped onto the scale and it said 338.2 pounds, that's a 3 pound loss for the week and I am more than happy with that three pounds. 196 total pounds lost since Jan 2008 and a mere 4 pounds separates me from being able to say that I have lost 200 pounds, maybe I will actually get there by next Friday, maybe not, either way when I think back to day one (which is as clear as yesterday) I can remember how I felt that I was starting in on another attempt to lose weight that was bound to fail and here I am 4 pounds away from having lost 200 pounds, here are the Friday photos for your viewing pleasure.

No flash in a dim room but there it is! 338.2 pounds!

This is Laura Vukov and she weighs 196 pounds, I lost a whole her!

Over all I am feeling good about what I have accomplished but then who wouldn't feel good after losing close to 200 pounds? It is a bitter sweet feeling if I am being honest, on the one hand I have just lightened my body by just about 200 pounds and have been living healthy for about 17 months, more than likely I have added years to my life and I feel awesome! on the other side of the fence is the years gone that cannot be gotten back, 200 pounds ago I was unhappy and how many years have I wasted by allowing myself to get to that size? I mean its awesome that I have lost this much but at the same time is that really a title someone should try to attain? "the guy that lost 200 pounds" (do not think for a second that I dwell on this, it is merely a thought in the many that enter my head daily) The fact that I have lost this amount with nothing more than determination is the awesome part to me, I did not use any miracle diet plan or pills, I did not have to buy into a plan that offers pre made meals, and I did not buy any books or cards that tell me how much to eat and when, and the best part is that I did this without surgery.

The reason that I started doing this the way that I did was because I feared for my life, I was honestly afraid that I would walk down the street and bamn! dead from a heart attack. Imagine living a life where you honestly thought that any day could be the day, just from walking up stairs to go to bed, or carrying something heavy up stairs for your wife could kill you because of the strain that was on your heart, hell, just walking up the stairs I was carrying something heavy! Myself! Now imagine that you were responsible for that condition only because you could not control how much and what kinds of food you were eating, imagine.

I do understand that losing weight is much more difficult than anyone that has never struggled with it knows but at the end of the day we are responsible for what we choose to eat, we are the one responsible for whether we do some exercise or not, I am responsible for my actions and you yours, everything else is an excuse. I have heard people say things like "but I can only walk 5 minutes before I cannot walk any more" ok, then walk for 5 minutes per day until you can walk 6, so on and so on. When I started off I could barely walk a 1/3 of a mile trot around the block and that was at a 2 year olds pace! now I walk just under 2 miles 5-6 times per week and can walk more than 3 miles straight without feeling anything but relaxed. "but I can't afford a gym" I have never belonged to a gym in my entire life, which may explain a few things! but my point is that its not needed, body weight exercises, walking, yard work, anything can count as exercise when you are as big as I was! "I have a limited budget and cannot afford to shop the way I need to in order to lose weight" as my Grandfather use to say "awe horse puckey" I am by no means well off, in fact I am a stay at home dad so we live off of one income currently and let me tell ya with 2 kids and one of them special needs I do not have money to burn! smart shopping along with bulk shopping will do the trick every time, give it a shot.

I will get on down off of my soap box for now because I want to get out there and get a walk in this morning, 3 pounds down and that much closer to that 200 pound lost mark and I am feeling pretty good this morning. Anyone reading this for the first time, know that it is possible to lose the weight and live healthy with a little determination and discipline, toss in a bit of smart shopping, exercise and recipe planning and well, ya get what we got right here!

Thanks for following along and thank you all for the support that you leave me daily.

As Ever
Me

pre weigh in post, concerns and what not.

Yesterdays calories came in at 1685 total and though pretty balanced I think there is something amiss this week, I drank 1 gallon of green tea and another gallon of straight H2O throughout the day. I did zero exercise on Wednesday, not even a short walk, I tend to like to have at least one day off per week where exercise goes just to sort of recoup (not that my workouts have been intense lately) but all the same that day off is nice once in a while, here is a look at yesterdays
menu.

05/13/09

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

11:00 AM
1 banana 105

Lunch
12:00 PM
1 lavish bread 100
3 hebrew national hot dogs 120
1 wedge laughing cow 35

3:00 PM
2 small oranges 120

Dinner
7:00 PM
9oz grilled chicken 450
6oz broccoli 60
2 slices wheat bread 120
smart balance 25

9:00 PM
2 small oranges 120
2oz grilled chicken 100

I said that something is amiss this week and what I mean is that I have done everything right besides a HUGE not so good nutritionally meal on Saturday and yet the scale is not cooperating with me. I think at least partially to blame is the 8 pound drop last week, though I came down 3 pounds below my lowest weight last week it was an 8 pound loss for the week and I think that the large drop has slowed things down this week as the trend has been a small drop after a large one since I have started this weight loss regimen. Looking at my menus for the week another thing that I have noticed is that my sodium is way up this week and I can't help but to think that has a hand in the slow dropping numbers over the past few days but with 2 gallons of fluid per day you would think that it would not be a factor, I fully expect to break even this week with the poundage and I am ok with that, its just odd that the weight has not budged at all.

Tomorrow when I weigh in I am not expecting to be below the 341 pounds that last Friday produced, if I am it will be a bonus to what I am expecting. this week I am going to actively watch my sodium closer to see if it is playing a part in this slow week because throughout this weight loss process the weeks that I have done everything correct I always saw a result no matter how small and the weeks that I had no losses I had a good idea why. The scale may surprise me in the morning and record a loss and that would be optimal and I do hope that is the case, we shall see in the morning.

Over all everything is going well and I have started doing more strength training again in the form of push ups and dumb bell exercises. I don't know if its the power of suggestion or just my muscles remembering what to do when pushed but I feel stronger and I have only been doing the ST for 2 weeks now. Whatever the scale says will be what I have to take because it is what it is and either way I am stronger mentally as well as physically for all that I have done this week and that's what makes the weight loss possible. Being mentally prepared for losing weight is more important than anything else related to the subject because if a person is unable to sustain a consistent positive state of mind, failure is right around the corner.

I am prepared to go the distance and see this weight loss through to the end, here's to tomorrow.

As Ever
Me

Reflecting backwards, hind sight is 20/20 eh?

Tuesdays intake went ok if a bit high, I consumed 1725 calories says my excel sheet but I did have a couple mini pretzels as I walked past an open bag on the table which are not on that sheet so only slightly more than that, not bad either way. The green tea was flowing with slightly more than a gallon of that going down the hatch along with a gallon of water and I am planning on drinking the same amount today. Yesterday I went for a walk earlier than normal because it was suppose to rain and about 1/3 of a mile into my walk it started drizzling but I kept going but I did pick my daughter up on my shoulders, so for the rest of the walk (about another mile) I had a 40 pound little girl up on my shoulders and to my surprise it was not at all a burden to have her up there, in fact I felt pretty good considering it was drizzling on me and I was up 40 pounds! on the way back we decided to walk down to the waters edge and when we got there we saw a swarm of little flies or something just above the water and there was fish everywhere! back to the house we went to grab a fishing pole and if I cast the line into the water 15 times we caught something or had a bite EVERY one of those times, we caught 7 sunfish and a small bass on my daughters Disney fishing pole so the decision to walk when I did turned out nice, and just in time because it started thundering and raining almost immediately after we got back in the house. Have a look at yesterdays menu, and as you can see compared to Mondays menu I am a creature of habit.

05/12/09

Breakfast
8:15 PM
2 multigrain english muffins 200
2 wedges laughing cow cheese 70
1 serving turkey pepperoni 70
sliced tomato 15

Lunch
12:45 PM
1 lavish bread 100
4 hebrew national hot dogs 160
1 wedge laughing cow 35

2:45 PM
1 scoop whey protein 130
1 cup 1% milk 110
1 banana 105

Dinner
6:00 PM
6oz roasted chicken 360
3/4 cup white rice 150
1/2 cup black beans 100

7:00 PM
2 small oranges 120

Grand total of 1725 calories plus whatever 4-6 mini pretzels comes to, not so bad and I know that I was hydrated enough so I am doing my part. Making these changes in my life has been the best thing to happen to me since my daughter was born just about 4 years ago, in fact she is a part of why the decision was made. Funny how the inability to walk more than 200 feet from my front door wasn't enough, or that sack of Del taco that I was bringing home after work every night, not to mention the 3 cheese burgers that I would eat BEFORE I got home so that wify would not see me eat them did not scream to me that there was a problem. Right now it is so clear that there were signs and what those signs were that I cannot believe that it was me doing some of the things that I was doing.

It was almost like I needed a warm up meal before I ate my already too large supersized double heart attack burger and grease fries with a ginormous tub of sugar laced fluid, going to Jack in the box? yep I will have 4 of your 2 for 2 tacos to go with my meal please do you have a trough that I could eat out of to go with that? Wendy's? sure thing, drop a couple of those Jr. bacon cheese burgers in there to warm me up to my triple cheese burger meal after all they ARE Jr. sized right?, McNasty? hey pimple faced high school kid can ya toss a couple few cheese burgers in that bag to go with my supersized stroke in a shiny yellow wrapper? and the list goes on and on and on. I had a prerequisite starter meal to go with every meal that I would eat at a fast food drive through window and if I had my way I would eat it before I got home if I was alone and if wify was with me I would say "what? I am hungry leave me alone about it" thinking about eating that way honestly right now floors me and I cannot believe that was me not so long ago.

In just under 17 months I have completely changed the way I live where my health is concerned, I have come from a person that didn't realize how unhappy he was at 534 pounds to a fella that appreciates every minute that he has to spend on his own terms at 340 pounds.

As Ever
Me

Day 497, wow its been a while!

Monday went as planned where diet and exercise were concerned, I ate a total of 1650 calories which included my whey protein so calories were pretty much right on the button, I drank 1 gallon of green tea and more than a half of a gallon of straight H2O and for exercise I took my daughter on a 1.8 mile walk (her in the stroller) in the afternoon as it was a pretty nice day yesterday, Have a look at the menu from Monday.

05/11/09

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

Lunch
12:00 PM
1 lavish bread 100
3 hebrew national hot dogs 120
1 wedge laughing cow 35

3:15 PM
1 scoop whey protein 130
1 cup 1% milk 110

Dinner
6:15 PM
8oz roasted chicken breast 400
3/4 cup white rice 150
1 cup green beans 40
pueblo pepper sauce 30

8:15 PM
18oz watermelon 180

Walking has quickly become my relax time, I get to have no particular place to go and many times its just me myself and I having a conversation with ourselves as the thoughts just randomly jump from subject to subject. I am lucky enough to live where I live and walking around the lake really does make getting out and exercising easy, in fact it does not feel like exercise at all most times, maybe its just because I have a nice place to walk or maybe its because I for so long was trapped inside a 534 pound body and limited to what and where I could go so now that weight is not such a factor I can appreciate the simplicity of a walk.

Which brings me to my next point, hiking, I have not hiked yet this year and it is about time that I go out and get hiking! the difference this year is that wify has agreed to join me and has even suggested that we come up with a way to do "date hikes" imagine that, a hike being someones idea of a date. I think the idea of calling a hike a date is an awesome idea and I see it this way, a date is suppose to be something fun, something that is enjoyed by both people, time spent together doing something that bonds the two or brings them closer through a common interest so actually hiking should be on everyone's list of things to do for a date! I am really looking forward to getting out there with wify and just wandering around through some trails in the near future.

This week has been good so far besides Saturdays picnic at my mother in laws and I am hoping for a loss come Friday, The man in the plastic magic box said it would rain this afternoon so I am going to end this post here so that I can get out for a walk this morning before it starts. Don't forget to get that H2O into your day and thanks for following along with me as I change my life as well as those around me all for the better.

As Ever
Me

Some things on my mind, a long post and a weight chart.

Monday morning quarterback once again, not too bad though but things could have gone better this weekend. On Saturday My mother in law had us over for dinner along with Wify's sister's family and I decided early on that I was just going to enjoy the meal and that's what I did so I was over by a lot on Saturday, I did go for a walk and do some light strength training so it wasn't all bad. Sunday went perfectly with intake and exercise, I went on a 2 mile walk and completed it in 35 minutes flat so that is a pretty good pace @ almost 4mph so I was happy with those results, the plan was to walk around the entire lake (more than 3 miles) but it was getting dark and I was not going to make it to the wooded part of the walk before it got dark and I am still unfamiliar with the trail so I took a shorter route. Squeezing in some strength training (mostly body weight movements) is becoming a part of my day that I look forward to, after my walks I have been doing a light dumb bell routine along with some push ups and squats and feel good about how it is going so far.

Last week I was inputting my weight for the past 2 months into my "weight graph" which is an excel sheet that we made and I have been keeping track of my weight on it so that I may have a visual depiction of what I have done, yea I know that a mirror serves the same purpose in my case but the graph really is eye opening to see trends. I thought I would pop a screen capture up here showing my progress from January 2008 until last Fridays weigh in just for kicks so that anyone interested could see it in graph form, the image is clickable so that a full sized view can be had.

Click the image for a full sized view

Over the weekend I got more than a few comments pointed in the direction of "you really look good" or "it's amazing how you have been able to maintain this for so long" and I have to admit that I enjoy hearing things like that, but then who wouldn't? I started thinking about it though and "being able to maintain it for so long" is something that I have even heard in comments on this blog and is kind of the point of this whole thing, I mean thin people maintain it all of the time don't they? fit people maintain this lifestyle on a daily basis without flinching right? how come no one says to a very fit person "Hey that's amazing that you are able to maintain a healthy lifestyle like that" I love getting complimented, C'mon we all do but isn't that one kind of a back handed compliment? Like the fat guy should be praised for being able to not eat cake, I guess the way that I look at is like this. I don't think it is amazing that I have maintained this eating right moving more program for the last almost 17 months, I see it more as I have re-learned how to not eat wrong, I am not really maintaining a "diet" so to speak, I am now maintaining what every other person on the planet that does not have a weight issue does daily, the only difference is that I was once 534 pounds.

I think that is the mindset that we as over weight people need to get over, we are no different than any other person in this world, besides the fact that we weigh twice as much as most of them! but hey we're working on that part right? right?? yes I am talking to you! I am no different than the very nice woman that I walked about 1/4 mile with yesterday while out on my walk, I am no different than the very fit very intense looking woman that made me think twice about my discipline a couple weeks ago, That older fella that runs around the lake that I live on like he is Forest Gump? no different, not one bit. If we walk through a crowded store or park and randomly choose 6 people based on nothing other than they happened to be the next random person, each and every one of them would be capable of choosing to eat properly and exercising enough to maintain a healthy lifestyle but no one would ever call it amazing.

Myself, the woman from last night, very fit very intense woman and Forest are all completely different people on completely different levels of fitness/health and at the same time we are all very much the same. I have no clue whether any of those other people have ever been over weight or not, for all I know Forest may have started running because he too was once a quarter ton man, but I have learned that I don't find that the fact he runs around this lake seemingly for hours some times amazing, He is just a man doing something that he is capable of for unknown reasons to me. At 534 pounds that feat would have been amazing to me, at my quarter ton weight I had honestly loathed people for walking! seriously! I can remember thinking to myself as I sat on the couch "why would anyone want to walk around with no where specific to go?" I honestly had that thought at one point in my life and shortly thereafter I decided to lose weight and get healthy again, I at some point realized that the statement above was the statement of someone that was giving up, and I was not going to give up, that was a state of mind that is not a good place to be.

I believe that anyone can do whats right for themselves, Losing 200 pounds is a feat for sure, I am just unsure that it is amazing because once we are in the right mind set it becomes second nature to eat correctly and exercise more. I do not smoke and never have but is it amazing that I am more than 30 years smoke free? no because smoking is not something that we need to do to survive and neither is over eating. I often hear people say that eating is something that we need to do to survive so it is somehow different than other addictions and though I can agree with that concept and I know first hand how hard getting over that hump is I cannot agree with that philosophy for more than one reason that I may get into in a later post. Its almost like those dead beat dads out there that expect people to give them praise for paying their tiny little child support payments, saying things like "I pay my child support I am doing my part man" There is nothing special about paying child support, it is expected and it is our duty as fathers to support any children that we bring into this world and I look at it that way. its just eating right and exercising and is what should have been done from the beginning, I am just late to the party!

Day by day things are getting better and easier in the world of me where my health is concerned and I blame myself for that, just like I blame myself for getting into a situation where saying "I weigh a quarter of a ton" held truth. I am a changed person just 16 months later and that to me is what is amazing, I like to think of it as I am just becoming part of the normal crowd.

As Ever
Me

A new low, almost to 200 total pounds lost!

Last Friday I weighed 349 pounds which was five pounds higher than my lowest weight to date and I was hoping that I could get to 344 again so that I can start to record losses once again. Hoping? me hope for weight loss? nah I did something about it because hoping things will happen instead or making them happen is how I got into this mess in the first place! The decision to make something happen this week was made and the scale confirms that fact, I weighed 341.0 pounds this morning, yes that's more than an eight pound loss for the week! I am three pounds lower than my lowest weight and only seven pounds away from having lost 200 total pounds! Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

The toe nail color is not part of my Saturday nights! it is part of having a daughter that doesn't realize that daddy's don't wear nail polish!

This 1981 Suzuki GSX250 weighs in at 341 pounds just like me.

Finally this Mio 50 scooter weighs 193 pounds which as we know is what I have lost so far.

I could not be any more pleased than I already am with this mornings weigh in, I have stayed strict with my exercise and with my intake this week and it has paid off. I am pretty excited that I am only seven pounds from hitting that 200 pound lost mark and for some strange reason it feels like its going to feel like starting over again when I get there, I had that same feeling when I hit 100 pounds lost. It is almost like because I am hitting a whole number that I am starting off at 1 again and as crazy as that sounds it really is how I felt at 100 pounds lost and now that I am almost to 200 pounds lost that same thing is happening again, and this morning is the first time that I felt that way, in fact the feeling came while writing this post.

My intake for yesterday was good coming in at 1570 total calories, for exercise I went for a 1.5 mile walk on a very steep hilly section around my house and I think I will incorporate this route into my walks at least twice per week from now on because the hills made a difference in the way I felt, it made the walk feel like exercise, I also did 50 push ups and some dumb bell curls earlier in the day. I consumed 1 gallon of green tea and 1/2 gallon of straight H2O along with a diet coke that I shared with my daughter at lunch again so I am hydrated.

A good week for sure and the plan is to keep on with what I am doing until I hit my goal, I have lost 36.14% of my total body weight since starting in January 2008 and gained much more than that in other aspects of my life. To say that making the decision to drop all of the weight that was holding me back was the best thing that I could have done does not strongly enough state that fact and explain how it feels to have lost the amount of weight that I have lost. My next goal will be to drop that last 7 pounds so that I can hit that 200 pound lost mark and after than I want to be under 300 pounds, the goals will never stop coming even after I hit my ideal weight either and that is the attitude that has driven me through this process thus far.

Keep on keepin on and all that and don't forget that H2O!

As Ever
Me

You have to read this! not really but do it anyways..

Tomorrow is the big day so to speak, it will be my official "new start" weigh in, I already know that its a good week because I peeked at the scale yesterday morning but I am kind of excited because if I lose more by tomorrow am it will be a VERY good week. Yesterday I came in at a total of 1580 calories which included a whey protein shake after dinner, I have been taking these after I work out for the past week but last night I had forgotten to actually drink the shake so had to add it later than normal because I had allotted the calories for it already and I would have been way low for the day if I skipped it. I did skip working out yesterday besides relocating a Japanese maple tree in my yard so no exercise, partially because I am still very sore from Tuesdays strength training session and I didn't want to push it too soon. I drank 1 gallon of home brewed pomegranate green tea, 1/2 gallon straight H2O and I did share a diet coke with my daughter at Subway for lunch, so I am hydrated properly. Have a look at the menu from Wednesday.

05/07/09

Breakfast
7:45 AM
2 cups honey combs 220
1 cup 1% milk 110

Lunch
12:15 PM
6 inch turkey subway 280

2:45 PM
2 slices whole wheat bread 140
1 T peanut butter 95
1 T jam 50

Dinner
7:00 PM
1 can tuna 120
3 slices whole wheat bread 210
1 T miracle whip 35
sliced tomato/jalapeno/dill pickle 25
1/2 oz pretzels 55

9:00 PM
1 scoop whey protein powder 130
8oz 1% milk 110

Yesterdays menu was sort of carb heavy looking at it again, it seems there was bread at every meal but that is ok because I will balance it out today with a heavier protein consumption. As I get closer to an ideal weight I think I will have to tweak my intake a bit more paying closer attention to carb/fat/protein levels as much as calories, not that I am close to an ideal weight currently but I am getting there and preplanning can't hurt. I am sitting just around the corner from 200 total pounds lost and I want to be bold and predict that I will get there within 2 weeks, now remember I was 349 pounds last Friday so saying 2 weeks feels like it will be a challenge but I want to push myself with some strength training for the next couple weeks and I think the change in the program will shock my body into a couple of good weeks of losing.

Unfortunately it is STILL raining here in New England but I have been walking regardless so I am not too bothered by the presence of the wet weather, but this morning it is pretty steady and I would have to drag the kiddo along with me so instead of a walk I will head out to run some errands and I may end up at the mall just to do a few laps (30 minutes worth with the kiddo in her stroller) and that feels like such an old lady thing to do but hey! I gotta get my walk in and if that will allow it without a crying 3 year old so be it. I am also planning on doing some light weight training again this afternoon along with 40 or so push ups.

I am really looking forward to tomorrows weigh in and I think you will agree that I had an exceptional week where weight loss comes into the picture after I post the weeks results tomorrow. Make sure you get on up and grab yourself a glass of H2O because you need and deserve it for reading through this entire post and with that the end has come to yet another brain twisting episode of as the fat guy turns.

As Ever
Me

A little effort can go a long way, ask me how I know..

Yesterday was another good day in this fight for a smaller me, I came in at 1645 total calories total for the day, I drank 1 gallon of green tea and 3/4 of a gallon of straight H2O. For exercise I did 50 push ups and did some light weight lifting with some dumb bells and my shoulders are sore today for my efforts.

I think that part of the problem with losing weight and keeping it off is that it takes more effort than not doing it and when you are heavy a lot of times effort equals bad, less work equals good. Someone left a comment on my post yesterday where I posted a photo of some grilled trout with potatoes and green beans that said "If only people knew that you could eat delicious food like that and lose weight - I think everyone would do it!" I thought to myself about how it really is that easy, I then started thinking about why people don't and came up with effort, in the case of the trout dinner I caught the trout, cleaned it then I seasoned it and grilled it along with making red potatoes and green beans on the side and it did take some effort to achieve that meal. In all honesty that particular meal took me roughly 30 minutes to completely prepare and cook from start to finish and cost me roughly 530 calories, imagine that, grilled trout with baked red potatoes and green beans, 30 minutes time minus the catching and cleaning of the fish and getting a meal that you would pay top dollar for in a restaurant. the difference between that and a pre packaged calorie and sodium heavy meal is a little bit of effort in the kitchen.

which brings me to another point, cost of food like that. In all honesty that entire meal cost me roughly $4.50 plus what ever amount of spices and the olive oil cost me so lets say an extra $1.00 which is probably high, so $5.50 (including spices etc which I already had in the kitchen) and a morning out on a lake fishing with my son to get the trout, which I will also add can count as some exercise because of the walking around the lake and 4 hours fishing that we did so more than one good thing comes from this. I want to mention that for that $5.50 worth of food I fed myself, my wife, my two kids and Wifys step father, for $5.50? Yes for $5.50 and 4 Rainbow trout that I caught, figure about $7.00 to $8.00 per pound extra for the trout if you were to buy it at a market we cooked about 2 pounds worth. Lets compare that to ordering a pizza, I would guess that an average large pizza is in the $10.00 range delivered ie: no effort required besides dialing the phone and lets be honest, though a large pizza could probably feed 3-4 people until they are full it never goes quite that way. A quick google search came up with 290 calories per slice of a Pizza Hut 14 inch regular crust pepperoni pizza, so for less than 2 slices of pizza you could have the same calories as the trout dinner. It took less effort, but cost more (even if you break it down per person if buying the trout, the pizza cost more for a full meal of pizza) and it does not have that "bang for your buck" where nutrition that the trout does, now I picked pizza because it was an easy comparison but do it with anything that takes no effort and it usually works out that the more effort that goes into our meal planning the more we can get out of our food where nutrition, taste, calories and even cost is concerned.

A little bit of effort can go a long way where our food choices and preparation is concerned, grill instead of frying, bake instead of frying, yes it takes a little more work but the difference in taste is marginal and the nutritional benefits are huge. cooking your own meals and seasoning them yourself also means that you can eat it how you like it every time, why order something that some 16 year old pimple faced kid that is sweating all over himself prepared hastily in a kitchen that has probably not been properly cleaned in 4 months when you can make it yourself? Have you ever seen a 16 year olds bedroom? and you are cool with them preparing food that you plan on eating? I can honestly say that I enjoy being the one that chooses how and what I eat, I would not consider myself a chef by any means of the word but I can say that I get lots of compliments on my cooking, and more so now than when I was 534 pounds and frying everything (though I make a mean eggplant parm that is probably not too low in calories) but putting the effort into our food preparation really can make the difference in how nutritional and tasty it is, everything does NOT have to be deep fried and slathered in butter.

I do not feel deprived of good food and I have lost more than 190 pounds to date so I am in the mindset that if I can drop more than an entire person and still eat well and feel that I have eaten very satisfying food that anyone can do the same. I used the trout dinner as an example here but I have made just about all of my old recipes into new recipes by changing some of the ingredients or cooking methods and have a slew of recipes that I regularly make that are all low calorie highly nutritional meals from meatballs, hamburgers (Turkey burgers), grilled chicken, faux fried chicken, rice dishes, mashed fauxtatoes (cauliflower), a few different soups and the list goes on and on. I am working on an eggplant parm recipe but the old one is just too good so I have not tried too hard to change it yet. So you can see that with just a bit of effort we can eat all of the things that we enjoy and still lose weight, if I am not proof of that I don't know who is!

I am saving money, getting healthier and eating great home prepared meals all while dropping weight pretty consistently at the cost of a little bit of discipline and effort, still think you can't do it?

As Ever
Me

Grilled Trout and an Eagle oh my!

My intake for Monday was spot on again coming in at 1665 and was pretty well rounded, I got in 1 gallon of green tea and 1/2 gallon of water as far as hydration goes that was on point as well. Earlier in the day the weather broke long enough for me to take the little one out on a walk around the lake and I went 1.7 miles @ a little faster than 3mph and that's just what I was going for so I am happy all the way around with how the day went.

During my walks I always bring my camera to cut down on those "man I wish I had my camera" moments and yesterday I was glad that I did. The lake I live on has an interesting animal that lives in the area and we sometimes have the pleasure of seeing it cruise around in the sky looking for fish in the lake and that animal is an American bald eagle. Yesterday while I was walking he flew over head and was pretty low so I pulled out my camera and zoomed in out and clicked off a couple of photos hoping to get lucky enough for a decent picture and I managed to get a picture so I thought I would share it, I zoomed in on the Eagle so that you could see it better and the photo is clickable to get a look at the larger photo.

Click the image for a full sized image.

For dinner I threw some trout that I caught on the grill and I have to say that everyone loved it! including wifys step dad that I invited over for dinner, it came out very good and 6oz worth only has 250 calories so its low calorie to boot. I prepared the fish with some black pepper, rosemary and some Grillmates Salmon seasoning, coated it in a very light coat of olive oil and straight onto the grill they went. For sides to this dish I made red potatoes seasoned with olive oil, rosemary, thyme and black pepper then placed into a 400 degree oven until they were brown and green beans with black pepper and Smart balance, simple right? I find that the simple ones are usually the best tasting ones and this will be my go to prep for trout from here on out. I snapped a picture of my plate before digging in so that I cold share here on the blog, have a look.

The blue plate does nothing to make this look better but here it is.

Everything that is happening this week is how it should be where losing weight is concerned so I am looking forward to Fridays weigh in number, I have walked almost every day, I am eating right and I am staying hydrated and that is the recipe for fat to burn. I feel good and am down in weight since Friday so off to a good start for my goal to hit 344 pounds this week, will it happen? it is a possibility but if it doesn't happen this week it will happen the next so no worries. I have decided that I am going to focus on strength training more than I have been and want to start doing my daily push ups again if my shoulder holds up, it has felt good for about 3 weeks now and I am getting itchy so today I will test it out with a few short sets just to test the waters.

The end has come to another post in a long line of posts and I am going to keep on ding what I am doing because it has worked to this point. Thanks for following along and don't forget that H2O!

As Ever
Me

walking, eating and some of this and that.

This week has been pretty good so far and I am looking forward to Friday because I suspect that there is a possibility that I can dip back down to that lowest weight again and hit 344 by then. To hit 344 pounds again I will have to have a 5 pound loss this week but I believe that if I stay on track with the food for the rest of this week that I can get there with a shake of luck and good food choices.

This week has been extremely wet outside so getting exercise in has been a challenge, I even walked in the rain last night because I know that I need to get movement into my days or else I am not doing my part to maintain an ever slimming waist line. I am currently using walking as my main source of exercise for reasons that will be mentioned at a later time so I need to stay consistent with going out and making sure that I am walking at least 25 minutes 4-5 times per week. The weather warming up has also opened up more chances to go hiking, if only the rain would stop! and Wify has agreed to come with me and has even said that we should make a "regular date" to go hiking so that we go often and I have to say that I was happy to hear that from her and am looking forward to getting out in the woods with her. I mentioned in an earlier post that there was a bit of a snafu with a pack that I ordered and as soon as the new pack arrives I will have the means to go on longer hikes and I plan on filling the pack up with whatever I will hike with and wear it when I go on my walks as well for conditioning, so to say that I am looking forward to getting the new (correctly colored) pack from the guy in the brown truck is an understatement at this point.

Over all my intake has been pretty good this week and I am eating a pretty well balanced mixture of meats and veggies lately, I also remembered recently that I love hard boiled eggs made into egg salad! so I have added them back into the menu. I am starting to weight train with light dumb bells on a more regular basis now as well and because of this have decided to add a Whey protein powder to the days that I use the weights at least for now, I may decide that I do not need it or feel that the calories are not worth the extra protein and go with just eating more meats etc and get some extra protein that way but for now its the powder. My hydration has been perfect this week besides Saturday when I forgot to make green tea so it was just water and not as much of that as I should have consumed.

There is a break in the drizzle right now and since I have to push the little one in the stroller I am going to head out for a walk before the rain starts back up, so this post will end here. don't forget that H2O and of green tea and remember if I can drop the weight by sensible eating and exercise so can you. Thanks for following along and all of the support over the last 16 months or so, and remember kids, keep that hand out of the cookie jar!

As Ever
Me

Having options.

I just got in from a nice walk in the drizzling rain and thought I would throw a weekend post up here before Monday came around. My intake for the day is right now at 1690 total ending with a large orange about 5 minutes ago, I have to say it feels good to be back on track with the food, which has got me thinking. I have not really done too much in the way of exercise in the past few weeks besides a couple of walks here and there so I decided to take a walk tonight even though it is raining outside. Walking all alone in a light drizzle actually does wonders for calming down and just relaxing even though I was walking at about a 3.4 mph pace for just under 2 miles I was totally relaxed and cleared my head while just listening to the rain fall between my footsteps. I also walked around all afternoon in the mall with wify and the brats so I guess I have been walking more than I want to count towards my movement tally, and while in the mall something dawned on me, I had the option to buy some clothes if the need struck me.

I was walking around in the mall and I thought about how I could use a few pairs of jeans and meandered on into a JC Penny half in the old 534 pound state of mind thinking "I'll just look and if I see something I will pull out the good old big and tall catalog" so I walk into the mens section and there in front of me is a size 42/32 jeans and I literally could feel myself smile. I then walked further into the mens section noticing that there were plenty of size 42 jeans to be had if I really wanted to walk out with some and then it hit me, I had the option to walk into a store and walk out with some clothing that fit me. At 534 pounds and sitting on the edge of fitting into a 7xl shirt that is a feeling that is left outside next to ones pride before even walking into a store, the option to buy something in a store that does not have "Big and Tall" in the title just does not exsist at that size and honestly some of the big and tall stores didn't exactly have a lot of 6-7xl stuff on hand all of the time either. In order for me to buy a shirt indeed I would have to walk on over that line to the big and tall section in JC Penny BUT that section only goes up to 4xl so I was without that option as well for a long time as well.

Living in the 340's is a whole different game when compared to living life in the 530's, I do not ever want to be in a position again where I can say that I weigh more than a quarter of a ton and not be exaggerating! I know that I will never see that zip code again and its a pleasure to have moved on from such a large size. I know that i have changed my life for the better and because of that decision my family will have me around a bit longer and that's the only reason that I need to stay on track and finish what I've started with this weight loss project, yes project seems fitting for a feat this large, or should I say a belly this large!

Thank you for reading along and I hope you are getting that H2O into your day because it is one of the most important parts of this weight loss game, that of course is just my humble opinion but hey! its my blog right? Keep on keepin on and all that, and until next time keep your goals in sight and know that nothing tastes as good as healthy feels.

As Ever
Me

Hydroxycut being pulled off of shelves because of liver damage, FDA says STOP using it now.

This is a weight loss blog so I thought this was related enough to pop in with a quick post because someone reading this somewhere may have not heard about the recall and is using this as a weight loss aid.

Hydroxycut is being pulled off of shelves by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) because it is causing liver damage among other serious health conditions, There has been one death linked to hydroxycut so far and I saw on the news that someone had to get a liver transplant because of it as well. Hydroxycut is manufactured by Iovate Health Sciences Inc. of Oakville in Ontario, Canada, and distributed by Iovate Health Sciences USA Inc. of Blasdell, N.Y. who has agreed to pull the product from the market. “The FDA urges consumers to discontinue use of Hydroxycut products in order to avoid any undue risk," Here is a list of the products being recalled.

Hydroxycut Regular Rapid Release Caplets
Hydroxycut Caffeine-Free Rapid Release Caplets
Hydroxycut Hardcore Liquid Caplets
Hydroxycut Max Liquid Caplets
Hydroxycut Regular Drink Packets
Hydroxycut Caffeine-Free Drink Packets
Hydroxycut Hardcore Drink Packets (Ignition Stix)
Hydroxycut Max Drink Packets
Hydroxycut Liquid Shots
Hydroxycut Hardcore RTDs (Ready-to-Drink)
Hydroxycut Max Aqua Shed
Hydroxycut 24
Hydroxycut Carb Control
Hydroxycut Natural

I do not use this myself but if anyone that reads this does You should stop using it immediately and return it to where you purchased it. Hopefully if you are using it you caught it in time, Thanks for reading.

As Ever
Me

He weighed in today and the scale said...

Weighing in? whats that? it has been so long since I was on the scale regularly but it has returned! I weighed myself last Friday and the scale said 349 pounds and at one point this week I was up to 363 pounds! that 363 was at night after dinner though so it was not a real number BUT it was what made me say to myself "what the hell man, 363?? get your ass in gear" Tuesday I made the decision to rehydrate and get the intake back on schedule and by doing that showed that I was very much dehydrated and retaining water weight because this morning the scale said 349 pounds again.

I am within 15 pounds of that lost 200 pound mark again and do not plan on making that number larger again in the near future, I have recommitted myself to this weight loss/health routine and that's just how it's going to be. I have though decided that I am going to focus on fitness a bit more than weight loss for a while just to see how that fits on me and what I mean is that I will set fitness goals for myself and focus on them as much if not more than actual pounds lost. Some goals will be "feeler goals" which means that I have no clue how challenging that particular goal will be because I have nothing to gauge it against, an example would be that I have never walked the entire length of a 5k, I think I could do it but have never done it so that's the first "fitness goal". Then there will be goals that are added onto current routine segments to better said segment, like if I currently walk 3.2mph during a 2 mile walk the goal could be to get to 3.4 mph consistently or once I walk the 5k distance to work on the time that I do it in.

My intake yesterday went a tad bit over but nothing that will be life altering so no worries, I came in at 1745 total calories for the day and not more than 3 hours passed between meals or snacks. I drank 1 gallon of green tea, slightly more than a 1/2 gallon of H2O and shared a diet coke with my daughter at Subway for dinner so I am hydrated. Nothing in the way of exercise besides playing outside with my daughter after moving some big cement sand dollars to the front of the yard that the previous owner was using as stepping stones. All in all a decent day besides no cardio really, I have been considering joining a gym for a few reasons one of which is that I want to start weight training again.

Just another day in the life of a one time 534 pound fella, get on up and grab yourself a big ol glass of H2O and don't forget to drink about 9 of those today! in the iconic words of Porky Pig, Th th a'th th That's all folks!

As Ever
Me