Day 787 and a new low weight.

Out of bed I stepped and straight to the scale I went, of course I was looking for 319 or lower to flash across the display but before I go there let me say that last night was maybe one of the worse nights I have had in a while because of the rain and a potential flood in our basement paired with me being sick right now! I won't get too much into it because this is after all a weight loss/health blog but wify and myself took turns every hour and a half going down stairs checking and clearing the drains and sump to make sure that we didn't end up needing to build a boat to get around the basement so to say that I feel like crap this morning is an understatement. Where was I? oh that's right, its a weigh in day and I busted ass all week until I got sick and I was looking for the three teens on the scale.

I stepped onto her cold black platform and I could see in her eyes that she was thinking that after the night I just had that I needed to see something good on that display and the first number that flashed was 319.0 lbs oh my! I did it? of course I check three times on weigh in day so off I stepped and the second time on it said 319.4 lbs and finally the third time 319.0 lbs once again and with that I dropped 5.4 pounds this week and I am 3 whole pounds lower than my lowest recorded weight to date. I have since January 2008 lost 40.26% of my total body weight or 215 pounds and am within 44 pounds of my original goal weight of 275lbs, that's kind of exciting! I will say though that I am a bit worried that its only a temporary number because I am sick right now and our bodies do some funky stuff when we aren't feeling good but we shall see. Lets get to the photos of the things that weigh the same as me and as what I have lost, I am so happy to be putting images back up here as its been a couple of weeks!

This Goose 350 weighs in at 319 pounds like yours truly

My plan for this week is to hit the gym as hard as I was before I got this terrible cold and sore throat and I will be looking for a good sized drop in weight again come next Friday. I have been meticulously recording my calories and not going over budget all week and apparently its paid off with this weeks weigh in. I have forty four pounds to go to hit my original goal weight and honestly that feels somewhat surreal to me because its been so long since I started down this road and when you are looking at 275 pounds from the back row of 534 thems is what ya might call nose bleed seats people! I have worked my way down the stadium stairs and am looking at the stage from the floor at this point and I gotta say I like the view.

This is copied from my "Day 1" post.

"Hi there, this will mark the start of something that I expect not to be an easy road traveled, I am your average every day fellow in every respect besides the fact that I weigh twice as much as your average construction worker, that may be pushing it but I believe it to be close.

I decided that I would blog about it to give me a sort of record as to how it is going and to give me something to look back at when I succeed or fail at this attempt. I will try and update this blog daily with my food intake and how I felt on that particular day along with any exercise that was done."

From 534 pounds to currently 319 pounds in just over 2 years and its been an experience for sure, I have learned more about health and exercise in these last 2 years than I would have expected. I can still remember day one, waking up and walking into the living room and being greeted by wify and my normal GIANT cup of coffee with enough sugar in it that the spoon could stand up on its own and I look back and read the above paragraphs and "when I succeed or fail at this attempt" stands out now more than ever. That paragraph has carried me through this process more than one time when I clicked that "Day 1" post and reread that line and decided every time that I would not fail this attempt.

5.4 pounds lost this week, 3 pounds under my all time low weight, and 44 pounds away from my original goal I can still look back at every post that I wrote and remember how I felt as I typed the words out. I still have a ways to go but looking at it from 44 pounds away seems less daunting and there is no doubt in my mind that I will get there and beyond as my goals have changed since day one. After 275 pounds is realized I am going to aim for another 25 pounds and shoot for 250 pounds as I think that weight will be close to what I should ultimately weigh and who knows? perhaps I will adjust the goal down from there when I get it. My brother stands 6'4'' tall and is about 220 pounds and much smaller than me frame wise and looks like a bean pole at 220 pounds so I do think that I can weigh more than that and look half way decent.

My weigh in saved my mood from the night of getting up every few hours tending to a potential problem and I want to say to anyone out there reading this who is starting out 100, 200 or even 300 pounds over weight that you CAN do this if you want to. No surgeries, no pills, no meals in a box and no paying someone else to tell you what to eat! A lot of planning, a lot of counting and weighing food and being a pain in the ass when eating at other peoples houses, lots of exercise and discipline but its all worth the end result when looking back at a former life at 500 plus pounds.

Thats all I got for today.

Fini

As Ever
Me

Salsa Tilapia recipe and pre weigh in thoughts.

Making my way through my week and here it is Thursday already, that of course means that tomorrow is a weigh in day and I am really hoping for a new low weight this time around. I had been to the gym 9 days in a row on my quest for the three teens and then on Monday night it happened, my daughter who has a bad cold couldn't hold back any more and gave Dada a nose kiss and bamn! Tuesday morning sick. I went to the gym Tuesday anyways as it was just the beginning but yesterday there was no way I was making it out to the gym, instead a trip to the doc for my daughter and by last night I was achy and went to bed way early and was unable to complete the yoga routine that I have been doing with Wify in the evenings. This morning I feel terrible and don't see a trip to the gym in my near future for today as my daughter will not be going to school again anyways so my workouts in the early part of the week will have to carry me through until tomorrow mornings date with the scale.

I know that I am lower than last Fridays weight but I am unsure if I will hit those teens this time around but I figure if I eat perfectly clean today and try that yoga routine again tonight that maybe just maybe I can hit 319 tomorrow. I am not looking at this as even a bump in the road, people get sick and there is always next week if I don't get there this week but man I was seriously looking for high mid teens this week. Something happened to me and I have become motivated beyond where I have been the last couple months and I want that sub 300 pounds really bad, the way I see it is that if I am sub 300 pounds I am only 25 pounds from my goal and there is something about being so close that gets me in a mood to just get er done already.

Salsa Tilapia with seasoned rice and corn, 490 calories.

Enough about the weigh in, I made a new Tilapia recipe last night and everyone seemed to like it a lot and I think that I will add it to my bag of tricks because frankly I am starting to lose my love for Tilapia but this spiced it up a little different. I haven't done a recipe in a while so I thought this one would be a good one to post up, I found it by searching around on the net but I did make a few changes to it to lighten it up so that each 3oz fillet cost roughly 105 calories each salsa topping included.

What you will need.

1 to 1.5 pounds of Tilapia fillets
1/4 cup Parmesean cheese
1/3 cup Salsa
1 T light mayonaise
Black pepper
Adobo spices
Non stick cooking spray

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees and put the salsa, Parm cheese and mayo into a bowl and mix it up, shake some black pepper into the mixture and set it aside.

Rinse off your tilapia fillets and place them into a baking dish that has a bit of non stick cooking spray in it and shake some adobo and black pepper to taste onto the fillets. Once that is done spoon equal amounts of the salsa mixture onto each fillet to coat them evenly and into the oven for about 20 minutes and thats it!

We had 8 fillets all about equal size and the bag was a 1.5 pound bag of fish so I figured each fillet was roughly 3oz or 75 calories and after adding all of the ingredients in the salsa topping and dividing by 8 we came up with 30 calories per serving of the topping for 105 calories per cooked fillet. I made seasoned white rice and corn with this meal and the plate in the image is 490 calories total and it was more than enough for me to feel full. The changes that I made to the recipe I found online is I used half of the mayo that it called for as well as I used light mayo and the recipe called for 1/4 cup of salsa, I used 1/3 cup so that the volume would be the same because of the lack of mayo in mine. I also seasoned the fish with black pepper and adobo spices because it didn't make sense to me to not season the raw fish, there's nothing like under seasoned fish to ruin a good plate of food for me. The only thing that I would change about the recipe is the next time I make it I will stick it under the broiler for a quick minute to brown the top a bit more, otherwise it was pretty good.

All around this week has been good in lieu of me getting this wonderful cold from my beautiful daughter and I have a good feeling that I will have a new low weight come the morning. I am not happy about having missed the gym yesterday and the fact that I will very likely miss it today but hey! what can I do. I hope that if you try this Tilapia recipe that you enjoy it as much as my wife did and make sure that you check in tomorrow to see what I have lost this week, hopefully there will be some pictures posted of items weighing the same as me and what I have lost and if not? then there is always next week. I have a cup of hot tea with honey calling to me from the kitchen so that's all I got for today, as always thanks for following along and thanks for all of the support it is always appreciated.

As Ever
Me

Real men of genius..I salute you Mister weight loss with no miracle pill guys!

I usually write about how my trip to the half is going and I love getting all of the comments that you all leave, they really do mean a lot to me and I appreciate every one of them. I sometimes get comments that say that I have inspired someone or helped someone get through a rough spot and I get lots of advice and just plain old support and today I wanted to write a post and give a shout out to a couple other bloggers that I follow and get tidbits of inspiration and information from now and again.

First there is who I refer to as "The other Tony" He calls himself "The-Anti-Jared" and has dropped more than 200 pounds and has been maintaining that weight while bulking himself up with weights. I don't know who found who first but we have been following each others blogs for a good long while now, he likes to write little rhymes from time to time and the man loves his Cauliflower and apples! if anyone that reads my blog hasn't already checked him out I would recommend adding his blog to your line up.

If you are a runner or want some inspirational views via New Zealand then Andrew from "Andrew is getting fit" is the guy for you to check out. He has lost more than 100 pounds now and is a runnin fool! Forest Gump ain't got nothing on him! he runs 10 and 20k's for breakfast and always has a good outlook on things, he posts images from his running ground in New Zealand that make me drool with envy because of where he gets to run, he is a big part of why I want to run.

Then there is the fellow that I relate to most, Sean Anderson from "The daily diary of a winning loser" and I relate to his story most because his start weight is very close to where I started, this man was 505 pounds! he currently weighs 265 and has done an incredible job getting to a healthy weight. He like me has done this with no miracle pills and no magic formula, his plan and mine are very similar and I read his recollections of his former life and many of his posts could have been written by me.

I started this blog as a place to stay accountable and post for the world to see what I was doing so that maybe I would stay on track and it has become much more than that. I read other peoples accounts of being fat, I ain't sugar coating it we were and some of us *looks in the mirror* still are fat, and it lets me know that I am not alone with this struggle. I have made friends through this blog both physically where I have been to their homes for dinner and they mine as well as through email and chat and that in itself is a great thing. The biggest and only difference between me and the three fellows that I mentioned above is that they are at or close enough to their goal weight that no one in their right mind could look at them and include the word "fat" in the description. I will join them soon enough but I just wanted to put it out there where I go when I need a kick in the ass because these three gentlemen have earned the reward of a thinner, healthier life and I know it was no picnic getting there. I like them have learned what hard work and discipline can give to a person who is on the edge of life and death because of a weight issue and I am not going back to that old me.

So I salute you bust that ass instead of taking magical pills weight loss guys! YOU are real men of genius.

As Ever
Me

Fat guy meets yoga oh my!

This week I feel so focused that even the fact that I am right now as I type this sick with an itchy throat and all groggy feeling I am looking forward to my trip to the gym later. Today will be nine days in a row with no break from the gym and I did some yoga last night with wify right before bed and I have to admit that the yoga took more work than I had anticipated. I was totally relaxed after the yoga workout which lasted 20 minutes and my muscles felt loose so I may add this to my evenings tasks as wify does this every night anyways. Sara Ivanhoe is the woman on the yoga routine that we did and her voice is distractingly sexy as the backdrop of her silhouetted figure sits on a dock slowly describing the movements while there is a chant in the back ground that sounds not unlike Darius Rucker, as I said its quite relaxing and I do think I will be adding this to my evenings.


My goal for this week is to get a new low weight, if I can get out of the 320's while doing that I will be more than happy with myself. Something was brought to my attention by my loving wife and that is that my weight loss has slowed down at roughly the same time that I started lifting weights more seriously so I am beginning to think that I will have to slack off of the weights a bit to get the chub coming off faster again. This makes me a sad sad boy because I am starting to see gains with the weights, For example when I started off lifting more seriously again I was warming up with 50 pounds on a preacher curl and then working out with 70 pounds and it was a challenge. I am now warming up with 70 pounds and working out with 90 pounds flirting with 95 pounds on my middle set so definite progress is there but I am still above 300 pounds and I think that taking weight off should be priority one right now so I may lighten up on the weights for a while and see what I get but since I am really enjoying the way my arms are starting to look we shall see what happens.

I am very exercise driven as of late and that can't be a bad thing, I don't think anyways! I look forward to getting my cardio in for the day and I crave the feeling that I get after a good solid workout. Not so long ago, just about 784 days ago now the cravings were for cake, cookies, greasy fast food and bacon pizzas and if you would have told me that I would some day honestly crave exercise and that feeling afterward I would have called you crazy and laughed in your face. I swear that if you do something for long enough it becomes second nature and does not feel like work like it did in the beginning, for me a once 534 pound guy to look forward to working out each day like a kid at Christmas and to be doing yoga poses?! I say anyone can get to this point if the time is put in.

My regimen is simple, eat less, move more, stay hydrated, sleep 8 hours per night and essentially that's all I am doing! no surgery, no miracle pills, no super funky sports drinks and no one elses plan to follow. It's not a miracle, and its not amazing, I am just doing what I need to do if I want to stay on this planet a little longer while being able to do everything that I want to.

From five hundred thirty four pounds to three hundre....wait right there! that number will have to wait until Friday! and seven hundred eighty four days later I am a changed person mentally as well as physically. I will get to my goal and I will be healthier than I have ever been in my life so pull up a chair and a plate full of baby carrots and watch me as I get there.

That's all I got for today.

Fini

As Ever
Me

Still not a morning person...

Every morning I wake up and I say to myself "no way I am going to the gym today" and yet every day I go, I am definitely NOT a morning person. Yesterdays workout has left me sore and tired this morning despite me getting eight and a half hours sleep last night and like most mornings I woke up in a foul mood but as I write this I am already planning my workout for today so it passes quickly. I will admit that I will not be lifting weights today, I can also admit that today's workout will be very much not intense at all, in fact I may not even go to the gym as it looks like it will be a nice day outside and as long as there is no wind I might just take a walk around the lake but that is to be found out later.

This is an image from that same folder so the before is roughly the same guy in the picture that I describe below. The second image is from the day that I hit the 200 pounds lost point.

I did something on the 20th that I had not done in some time, I took my shirt off nothin but skivvies compare pictures and I just had the chance to load them onto my laptop and merge them with my Jan 6th 2008 images and I have to say wow! This is the first time since I started down this path that I looked at that Jan 6th 08 image and honestly thought "that is not me, I never looked that big" and I think that may be a turning point in this journey for me as far as body image goes. I was somewhere between 512 and 534 pounds in that photo and I look uncomfortable which is something Wify has said to me before about that very image but I can see it now after not looking at those pictures since October of 09 when the last compare picture was taken. I will of course spare anyone reading this the actual image of a 500 pound guy standing shirtless in his boxers as I am sure the mental image is enough at this hour of the day but when I get to my goal weight I may just be brave enough to post them.

The guy in that picture was afraid that he was going to suddenly die at any given moment because his heart would give out, the thought of having to be pulled through the side of his house through a fire department made hole was a fear that he had. Imagine thinking this way, I actually thought that if I started having a heart attack that I would do whatever I could to get myself out on the lawn so that hole would not have to be cut in the house and my family would be spared the humility of having that happen, even if it cost me a more severe heart attack to get out on the lawn. Its not that I didn't fit through a door at that size but on a stretcher with 8 guys carrying me? I just didn't see it happening.

When I was 500 plus pounds there was a routine to waking up, I would open my eyes and lay there for a moment before attempting to sit up which was really rolling to my right and swinging my legs off of the bed so that I had the leverage to sit up. After I was upright I needed to sit there for a couple of minutes to let my back realize that I was awake and about to hand it the task of supporting me once again then off to the living room I went for the next stage of being able to function. Sitting on the couch leaned forward stretching my back I sat for a while more flipping through channels or starting the PS2 up and then it was off to the kitchen for my half a box of cereal and the entire time felt groggy and all fuck the world like. These are not fond memories but they belong to me and looking at that compare picture made me start thinking about all of the things that I had to deal with at that weight.

I suppose I have never really been a morning kind of person but the comparison from then to now is so different and honestly back then I wasn't an any time of the day person! so not being especially chipper in the am now is something that I will take and smile about it every time.

That's all I got for today kids, remember to drink that H2O and to eat well, we make our own choices and the results of said choices belong to us.

As Ever
Me

Sunday punishment..

The Sunday Exercise update is as follows, 20 minutes on the bike at 95 revs per minute on level 11 the whole time followed by 45 minutes of weight lifting. The weights was kind of a whole body workout, sort of but more because it was all over the place and consisted of bench presses, triceps pull downs, over the head triceps presses, a row machine, preacher curls, calf raises and lastly some leg presses on a press machine. After the weights I walked at 3.2mph with a 3.5% incline for 30 minutes which I have to admit was not fun after the 375 pound leg presses and 300 pound calf raises but hey! its not a workout unless I am punishing myself this week.

I have been perfect with my calories for three days now and am hoping that this week brings me a new low weight. I am going to keep this post short as I have to get started on my healthy take on fish and chips for dinner, I am making Panko breaded flounder fillets with sweet potato fries on the side and either a side salad or some Parmesan green beans. I need to figure out a low calorie coleslaw and I will be all set for that meal but for now a salad or beans will have to do.

That's all I got for today, I hope you all have enjoyed your weekend and good choices have been made, perhaps I will snap a couple pictures for tomorrows post, Until then!

Fini

As Ever
Me

This is not an emergency, it is just a test...

I wanted to pop in with my exercise for Friday and Saturday as I mentioned in my last post that I would do so. Friday I was in a mood so I decided that I would go to the gym and punish myself into a better frame of mind and it worked. I headed out to the gym around 6:30pm and was there until almost 9:00pm, first I rode the bike for 25 minutes on level 11 at around 90 revs per minute to get all warmed up and then it was over to the weights I went. I did my chest, shoulders, triceps, biceps and back while Phil Aneslmo's Down played through my headphones as loud as it would go. I decided that I would add more weight that normal to every movement and honestly it felt like old times down in my cousins basement back when I was about 17 years old pushing myself to be the hardest rotund kid on the block. I know that I over did the weights but it didn't matter at the time, I was blowing off steam and getting some god solid weight lifting into my night all at the same time. After the weights I went back to the bike for another 20 minutes at just over 100 revs per minute on level 12 and it was off to pick up a 2 pound tub of whey protein before heading home.

Today I had to run out and run some errands which included getting a couple tires put onto Wify's car so I dropped the car off and walked to the gym. When I got there the gym was pretty empty for a Saturday afternoon but it was a beautiful 41 degrees and sunny today so perhaps more people took advantage of the day instead of hitting the gym. I went in and got on my bike and rode for 25 minutes around 95 rpm's half on level 11 and the second half on level 12. After the bike came the treadmill where I walked at 3.3 mph and 3.5% incline for about 10 minutes then ran for 3 minutes at 6.0 mph and finished the remainder of the 30 minutes back at 3.3 mph I walked back to pick up wifys car and finished up my errands.

Thats my exercise for the last two days in a nutshell and I am going to have a new low weight this week if I have to literally cut the fat from my bones! Thanks for reading along and look for an update tomorrow, don't forget to drink that H2O and remember who makes the decisions when that fork is in your hand.

Fini

As Ever
Me

Weight right there young fella! its weigh in day.

Back to the regularly scheduled weigh in posts for Friday, This morning I am sore, I am tired and I am guaranteeing a new low weight for next Friday. Lets start with what the scale had to say to me this morning, per usual I wake up and walk to the scale after the bathroom of course and I step on and the number that I saw was not what I wanted but was what I expected. After the scale looked at me with that "ummmpphhhh" look on its face she whispered the number 324.4 to me, she rolled her eyes in disappointment as I stepped off preparing for the second take. She had the same thing to say to me three times in a row and as I walked away from her she sighed in dissatisfaction knowing that I have not crossed that 320 mark yet. I make no excuses for the number on the scale it is what it is and I seem to be falling into that "I'm comfortable" place again with my weight because since just before the Dr Oz show I have been doing what I need to for the most part but not perfect.

I said that I am guaranteeing a new low weight next Friday and I mean that, I will have a new low weight in seven days and that's just going to have to be. There are no distractions in my near future that could give me an excuse to eat poorly or miss going to the gym, "did he just say that he had an excuse?" not exactly. I don't make excuses for not losing weight or not meeting a fitness goal but I do have to say it out loud in order to process it in my head, I didn't lose anything this week (which is actually 2 weeks because I did not weigh in last week) and ultimately that's on me.

This week will be a hard one for me on the gym front, I am planning on going every day this week for no less than 60 minutes of cardio and lifting weights at least 4 days. Some of you may be thinking "well that's just my normal week man no biggie" let me tell ya when you are three hundred some odd pounds 60 minutes of cardio kicks your ass! and actually I do 50-60 minutes of cardio daily as is but its usually only five days instead of seven. To make that April 2nd goal I need to lose exactly 4 pounds per week from today until then and though it sounds like a big number or as someone said in a comment that it is "aggressive" I have seen numbers like that before, and not only in the beginning. If ever there was a person that understands how to be aggressive towards weight loss I am that guy and this week I have something to prove to myself so we shall see where that wheel stops on Friday.

324 pounds is not an acceptable number for me at this point, I should be much closer to that 300 pound mark by now and I am letting myself get distracted and going easy on myself because I am nice and comfy at this weight. I am eating right most of the time, I am going to the gym almost daily but what I am not doing is pushing myself past my comfort level and this week we will see what happens when I do that. This week is done and it is what it is, Next week I have a feeling that I will be posting some images of things that weigh as much as I do and as much as I have lost while reporting a new low weight.

Another week bites the dust and I am closer to a goal that I set for myself not in poundage lost but in time this go around and that's not necessarily a good thing. I am going to try and post every day this week and include an exercise update for each day for your reading pleasure and with that the end has come to today's episode of as the fat guy turns.

Fini.

As Ever
Me

When I said that I want to be Skinny this ain't what I meant!

I was standing in the bathroom getting ready to take a shower and I looked at the guy in the reflection and saw someone that I was not use to seeing. This guy had shape to his shoulders, his chest looked like a guys chest should look and there were very prominent collar bones all the way across, biceps that looked like biceps and I looked at him for a minute to make sure that I was seeing him right. popped into a muscle man pose and a flex later I was smiling but it didn't last long as I glanced down and the rest of what I saw was all flying squirrel in a hurricane. This looking at the wrapping paper around the package all started when The Dr Oz show that I was invited to attend aired and I saw myself sitting up there in the studio audience. I was not totally put off but I looked bigger than that guy in the mirror and it dawned on me that when I am sitting down I look bigger than I am. When I stand up everything seems to be in a better place than when I sit and it has somewhere to rest, I have a feeling that this little skin problem and myself are going to have a long bitter relationship.

Don't get me wrong, it is what it is and I will take this over being on the wrong side of 500 pounds any day of the week but man! I bust my ass and there is nothing that I can do about this problem. I am in the gym 5 days a week sometimes more, I eat right and clean most of the time I drink like a fish and get my sleep like I should and here I am not looking the part, frustrating much? I suppose that putting too much thought into something that I can't change would be counter productive but it's hard sometimes! especially when I catch a glimpse of myself with my shirt off and can see what I would look like sans the extra stuff. Looking on the bright side I guess that I could find a drum maker and get a couple of amazingly unique drums made from the skin when I am all done losing and its time to start thinking about removing it, but that's a totally different discussion.

Lifting weights will surely help me fill some of the deflated outer shell left behind by the older me, I know that it will take time but its the only productive thing that I can do to try and counter some of the damage. I have a couple options here, I can sit around looking at this in a way that will drive me insane trying to think of a way to fix something that can't be fixed, or I can just accept that this is a part of the process for me. I can say that I will just accept it until the moon falls out of the sky but the truth is that it bothers me and there is nothing I can do about that either but making it into something that I will waste time worrying about isn't the direction that I'm going to go in either so it seems I am at an impasse with this as far as the mental part goes. I figure I took about ten years wrecking my body and I am just over two years into the repair process and down more than two hundred pounds for my efforts and I have to understand that this isn't something that will fix itself over night and possibly never be fixed without a surgery.


I will take the glimpses of my hard work in the mirror whenever I am afforded one of them and will have to deal with the extra luggage I am carrying around. The fact that I can see some of my hard work is actually awesome because its been a long time since I was able to see anything that could be considered even close to definition but here I am three hundred some odd pounds and its there, even if only for brief moments in the mirror as I step into the shower. I know that part of this process is to get skinny but this isn't exactly what I had imagined when I thought that back about 2 years ago!

Such is life I suppose, I am healthier than ever and doing what I want to physically without any restrictions for the most part and THAT is the point of this whole process. Give me a year and I will have bulked up a bit and filled in some of this looseness with some mass, until then If anyone needs a new drum just shoot me a message and we can work out some pricing, That's all I got for today.

Fini

As Ever
Me

Step back, look at that picture from an older angle and think about it.

The thing about weight loss on a large scale is that it must consume you, it must become like a job, it is something that is on the mind of the loser 100% of the time and it has to be this way. I would suspect that people with less weight to lose experience this on a smaller scale or perhaps I am wrong and they experience it just the same as a one time mammoth such as myself. I am finding that the closer I get to my "goal" weight which that number was basically pulled from a hat that it is harder to get the weight coming off in as big of chunks as it once did. I am still three hundred twenty some odd pounds and its slowing down but I don't think that its a physical thing, what I mean is that I believe I am doing what I need to do for the most part but I am letting myself get away with more than I have in the past during this trip to a slimmer me.

There was a time during this process where I was the biggest pain in the ass in the world if you had invited me to dinner, I would walk in with my salter scale asking a ton of questions about how the food was prepared. Under one arm would be my light salad dressing and under the other the remainder of my gallon of green tea for the day and I would weigh every bite of food and writing it down so that later I could transfer it to my excel sheet. My mother in law would call and ask "How do you want this prepared? what sides can you have? if I use x amount of butter is that ok?" so on and so on, and this helped immensely more than she probably knows but a pain in the ass I was none the less. Now a days I "eyeball" lots of things and honestly there is no doubt in my mind that I am as close as a person can be to the actual measurement without actually using a measuring tool but it still leaves room for error..um yeah we will call the extra scoop of this or that error for todays discussion and I need to get back on the strict wagon at least until I get under 300 pounds.

Random insert of last nights salmon dinner, 475 total calories for the plate.

Lately I am relaxed where my intake is the subject matter, I was in NYC last week and started off well enough by going to Fresh & co after the Dr. Oz show and got some whole wheat crusted veggie pizza and a bottle of water but after that not so much. We ordered a pizza up to or room and I had 3 slices that night which is leaps and bounds better than how it use to go down and the fact that we would have ordered 2 pizzas but still, pepperoni pizza? I know that I am doing this and its because I am back to the way I use to be, you know that I am unstoppable feeling, well its back. I have written in this blog about how I was always a bigger guy but that people had an image of me as that big guy that could do anything, I ran, I climbed, I worked 12 hour days digging holes and pouring cement and I worked in a lumber yard stacking, loading and climbing racks like a monkey, when I say that I did not let being a big guy get in my way I mean it. I am at a point where I am doing whatever I want to again and perhaps its getting in the way of my end game because its been too long since I got some big numbers off and kept the momentum, it seems that as of late I get a roll going and then something happens that gets in the way, and by something happens of course I mean I relax.

I set a goal for myself to be at or under 300 pounds by April 2nd 2010 and looking at the numbers I do believe that I will fall short but that doesn't mean I will not try to get it. I was on a roll and doing great but have had some distractions that kept me from staying 100% focused on that goal and I am left with having to lose 3.4 pounds per week until April 2nd to make this goal and thats going off of my this mornings weight. I will have some big numbers in the coming weeks as I am going to amp up the cardio a bit at the gym because I can taste sub 300 pounds at this point. Breaking out of this "I'm comfortable" mode is proving harder than I thought it would be, I knew that it would come at some point but man I gotta get it out of here so that I can get to that tape waiting for me at the end of the road.

I talked about the weight loss game having to consume a person for it to work and I think that it was an easier thing when I was worried about death on a daily basis than now. I am getting stronger by the day, I am physically capable of lasting longer in something that takes good cardiovascular conditioning to accomplish and my clothing keeps getting looser despite the fact that the weight has slowed. I think that its time for that pain in the ass that use to carry his salter scale around to return for a while because I am going to get to my bottom goal weight in 2010, not "going to try" not "I hope" but I WILL be there before too long. My habits have changed completely in the past two years, I have gone from a guy that sat around wishing that he could do things to a guy that does the things now, I make excuses to move now a days and look for things that will get me moving instead of sitting on my posterior.

That's all I got for today, make sure to tune in tomorrow for the next adventure of Fatman and Blobin, thanks for following along.

As Ever
Me

Reflections of a quarter ton guy.

Who is this guy that calls himself Zeusmeatball? Who is he? The short answer is that he is just a guy that was fatter than he is now once upon a time and decided to lose some weight and get healthy. The slightly longer story has a man scared of sudden death at the hands of an encasing layer of fat that covered his body to the point of ceasing normal every day life being forced to doing something about his dwindling health because of that fear, that's the Zeusmeatball that started writing a blog on January 1st 2008. I wish that I didn't know him so well, at times I hoped it was a dream and that I would just wake up sitting on my bed looking down at the smaller me from my past but it never happened, instead disappointed at myself I sat there wondering what I could do about this situation that I had gotten myself into while the answer was there the whole time.

The answer was there the whole time? indeed it was, Stop wishing and start doing even if it was just cutting back on some of the shitty food that was or is being shoved down just stop it. Wow what a simple concept that is! why didn't I think of that? its what every person that has an eating problem wonders about while they are standing in the kitchen shoveling calories into their pie holes at O dark thirty, and it really is as easy as just stop. I didn't say that just stop was easy, but its as easy as that statement. It does take a huge amount of will power and determination but at the very most basic level if the calories are not going in they can't exactly attach themselves as fat so I am stickin with my its that easy statement, I just wish I had talked myself into that a long time ago.

I can remember a time in my life when I would wake up and have to sit in bed for 20 minutes just to let my back warm up and stretch enough so that I could stand without extreme pain from an injury that I got back in 2000. I was on my way up to the 534 pounds where I stopped at that point and it was a daily thing for me, wake up, roll over, sit up and stay there until the pain went away finally dragging my big ass out of the bed. After that it was time to sit on the couch for a while so that my back pain would go away a little more and I could start functioning the best I could at 500 plus pounds. I worked evenings at that time in my life and it was a good thing because I used the day to get my back ready to be able to do what I needed to in order to get to work and complete my day there. At work I sat in a chair all day and that wasn't really a good thing or a bad thing as sitting hurt just as bad as standing sometimes, it was literally pain 24/7 in my back the only difference was the level of pain at any given time and still I ate the Cheetos and strawberry milk every time I had a break.

We had a Ford Focus at one point and there was a time or three where I had to take that car into work in place of my Mustang and I literally had to squeeze into it for my 45 minute commute and I mother fucked that car the whole way. It was Wify's car so when we bought it and I test drove it I didn't care that it was a tight squeeze for me because I never thought that I would have to drive it. My gut hit the steering wheel in a way that I did not have to hold the wheel and could literally drive using my girth to steer if need be and still on the way home I stopped at Del Taco for my sack of greasy burritos. Driving is something that I have always been passionate about, I LOVE driving and I LOVE my Mustang and there was even a point in my life where I hated driving that car too, shifting sucked at 500 pounds because of the lack of room in the cockpit when you are 6'5'' and weigh as much as a pony.

My Mustang this afternoon, I swear I heard it cuss at me for moving from California.

I can remember the day we brought our daughter home from the hospital and I pulled that mustang around to the pick up area, a prouder dad there will never be and has never been. I was brought home from the Hospital when I was born in my parents 65 mustang and here I am bringing my daughter home in my 97 mustang so many years later and there was something cool about that to me. That time of my life I hated cameras, I would never allow anyone to take my picture and if they did I would confiscate their camera and either delete the image if it was digital or remove the film if it was a regular camera, yes I said confiscate. On that day I didn't even notice my wife was taking pictures, I was just making sure that the beautiful little girl was strapped into her new seat perfectly for her maiden voyage in a mustang. A month or so later the pictures were developed and I saw myself squatting down next to the baby carrier and I loved that the picture was taken because its a snap in time that will never happen again but I despise that picture because of my size. My daughter whom means more to me than anyone has ever meant to another will now have to see how weak her dad was at that point in his life and how I let things get out of control and that's something that I cannot change. There is another side to that coin that plays completely different and is totally positive but that's a conversation for Me and her when she is a bit older.

I am the same guy that I was two years ago the difference is my outlook on certain aspects of my life and the way that I live them. I mentioned earlier in this post that it was easy and I stand by that because once you realize that you are slowly killing yourself by doing nothing about the situation its easy to fix it, its easy to change the way that you think about food and your relationship with it when death is on one side of the line. That photo of me and my daughter coming out if the hospital? I am in fact looking forward to the day when she sees it and says "Dad that's not you" because all she knows is the healthier me and she would be right because physically its not going to be me, I am glad that I stopped wishing and started doing something about the weight because if I had not who knows where I would be today and what my relationship with that little girl would be.

Zeusmeatball is no one special and soon enough he will blend into a crowd and not a single person will be the wiser that he once weighed more than a quarter ton.

Then all we will have is pictures to prove it because I ain't goin back.

Fini

As Ever
Me

Day 776, Panko breaded Haddock and some new hikers.

Making good choices has been the thought of the week for me it seems, I have been finding myself thinking about things a little more than I have lately and not in any way other than looking at my choices and deciding on which would be the best. This afternoon I have the pleasure of having wify with me at the gym as she has the day off and my Mother in law has agreed to watch the kiddos for us so I have a running partner if you will for the day.

Last night I made a particularly good dinner of some baked Haddock fillets which I lightly breaded with panko bread crumbs that I seasoned myself, I made some seasoned rice with peppers and onions and green beans with pepper on the side. The total for my plate was 405 calories and the fish was a hit with everyone, wify loved it and my son couldn't get enough so into the bag of tricks it goes. I seem to be on a roll with snapping pictures of my meals and this one was no different, I am getting odd looks at the table but hey! have a look.

405 calories panko breaded Haddock, so good!

I am again craving a ride on my bike so I cannot wit for the weather to warm up a bit so that can happen, My son has a new mountain bike that Santa brought him so maybe he can keep up a bit better with the new ride. I have been preparing for spring to get here for the past month or so buying things that I need here and there and I always take a look at "the bargain cave" in Cabelas just to see whats there and yesterday I scored a pair of Columbia hiking shoes for the low low price of $12.50 after all discounts were applied. There are plenty of trails in my area that are not too far off the beaten path yet provide lots of scenery and fair distances and then I am not too far off from the Appalachian trail if feeling bold, Man I can't wait for spring.

Can't beat these for $12.50! and they were in my size too and that's lucky considering that I am a size 14!

Over all this week seems to be starting off well and off to the gym I go to start it off! Eat well, drink much and bust my ass at the gym is my plan and barring any road blocks unforeseen will be what happens. My drive has not changes, my determination is unmatched and the only thing left to do is execute for me to get where I must go. I need to get my ass to the gym so thats all i got for ya today, thanks for following along and remember that if you don't decide that its time to do something about your own health there is no one else thats gonna do it for you.

As Ever
Me

Low calorie weekend meals, and some choices.

Things is things and my weekend is progressing nicely, Valentines day is upon us and another Hallmark Holiday will have bitten the dust in some hours. I did not really do well while in New York with the food and hydration, oh the sleep and exercise lacked somewhat as well but I am back home and immediately straight back to the program. I did go over my calories by about 100 because of a late night snack of a fiber one bar but its nothing that I am worried about at all. I say that exercise suffered but I did get two roughly hour long walks in while in the city and with all of the hurry up and wait at the show I suppose I wasn't stationary all that much but it wasn't what I would call a workout so there you have that.

I thought that I would snap a couple pictures of my lunch and dinner from yesterday and post them up to demonstrate that fairly large meals could be had for minimal calories and maximum impact on hunger. I did not however take a picture of my breakfast as we all know what a bowl of cereal looks like and that is a typical breakfast for me, either cold cereal or some steel cut oats. Lunch was a chicken wrap that I made with left over teriyaki chicken that I had grilled out on our gas grill Friday, I love grilling in 18 degree weather. The wrap had 4oz of grilled chicken with a sesame teriyaki sauce on it, some chopped lettuce and a couple cherry tomatoes sliced in half on a 100 calorie whole grain wrap and a shake of black pepper, simple right? I did have a dill pickle spear and my obligatory giant glass of green tea with this as well and the entire lunch hit the spot perfectly and for only 285 calories, have a look.

285 total calories for this plate, and thats a full size dinner plate.

For dinner I forgot to take something out of the freezer so I asked wify if breakfast for dinner would be ok with her and of course she loved that idea and I started in on some pancakes for the kids while she started breaking eggs. I had an omelet which was 4 egg whites, 1 whole egg, chopped onions, red bell peppers, jalapeno, tomato, 1/2 oz turkey pepperoni and 1oz of sharp cheddar cheese. With the omelet I had a multigrain english muffin a dill pickle chopped up and 4 slices of turkey bacon and let me tell ya wify can cook a mean omelet! The entire meal was 565 calories and of course once again that big ol glass of green tea on the side to wash it all down.

565 total calories for this plate of deliciousness.

Today I am planning on making some panko breaded Haddock fillets for dinner with roasted red potatoes and garlic and Parmesan green beans on the side and I will try to get a shot of that to post up later. I am going to focus on food for a while and try to get the biggest bang for my calorie buck with every meal, not that I haven't done this all along but lately I feel like I am settling for fast meals over quality meals that take a little more time to prepare, not that either of the meals above were fast or not good.

We are planning on taking the kids out later today for some Sundaes because of Valentines day and I will be passing on one of my own and having a glass of tea instead. I am unsure if making it to the gym is in my near future for today but I will attempt to make it at some point but if I don't I am not too worried about it and will be back in the full swing of things again come Monday, I missed going on Wednesday and Thursday because of going to the Dr. Oz show but I am ok with that.

They are our choices to make and our choices dictate where we will ultimately end up and that goes for health, wellness and just about every aspect of our daily lives, Lets make the best choices that we can.

Thats all I got for today I hope everyone enjoys the weekend.

Fini

As Ever
Me

The Dr. Oz show 100th episode, yep I was there! and Richard Simmons kissed me, oh my!

So since last I posted a trip to The city was had, I was asked to be a part of The Dr. Oz show's 100th episode which was 100 people that have lost 100 pounds or more with special guest none other than Richard Simmons. The plan was to hop on the train to NYC at 4am to be at Grand Central station by 7:16am and walk on over to NBC Studios for the taping of the show and head home that afternoon after lunch in the city but alas its not how it went down.

Snow was expected on a large scale and we started questioning whether we would be able to make it out to the city for the show not because of getting there but instead getting home was the worry as the snow was suppose to start a little later in our neck of the woods. While debating on whether it would be worth it to go I got a call from the Travel coordinator chick Sarah from the show and she said that she could offer us a Hotel for the night if we were interested because of the storm and traveling in it would not be good. Long story short we arranged for my mother in law and brother in law to help out watching the kiddos and packed a day pack with enough to last us through our stay and off to bed we went at midnight-ish. Did I mention that we had to be at the train station by 5:40 am? and that we are a little more than an hour away from said station? which meant leaving the house at 4:00 am! yep that's about a 2 hour sleep that I had before heading out for NYC, the train ride was uneventful.

Upon arriving at Grand Central I get a text from the driver that NBC sent and headed out to where he was and I met Ramon outside and he drove us to the studio where I was greeted and brought inside to hurry up and wait for a couple of hours. I met lots of great people who have all gone through the weight loss process including Bonnie Matthews who blogs for the Dr. Oz show as one of the Wellness warriors. I also met Ann from I'm a Phoenix ,Baby who saw me and mentioned that Sean Anderson from The daily Diary of a winning loser said that she should say hello if we bumped into one another, we got the chance to get a shot of the two of us together a little later after that first hello. I met Don from Sparkpeople as well and I also had more than a few conversations with a great lady (I am so sorry but I cannot for the life of me remember her name but she was the assistant of the day on the show) who we ran into at our Hotel after the show and chatted with in the lobby for a bit if you by chance read this please send me an email! EVERYBODY that I talked to from the guests right to the staff of the Oz show was very nice.

Me and Ann from "I'm a Phoenix, Baby" pre show

Me and Don shortly before heading into the taping.

We were all corralled into a line which apparently had some sort of order as we each had letters on the back of our tickets which dictated our position in line and ultimately placed us into our seats in the audience. Like trained puppy's we stood when the fella raised his hands, we applauded when the sign lit and it was cool to be in Conan O'Brien's old studio, HUGE Conan fan I am. The taping was ok but felt seriously long and I kept thinking "Man just one glass of H2O would be great!" once we were in that was it and I had not drank nearly as much Water as usual and no green tea all day the Horror! I was not properly hydrated, not even close and man I felt it, that paired with the lack of rest and the coffee that I was running on at that point left me a bit off to say the least. Something funny about the whole thing was that it was a show about people that have lost a lot of weight and were getting/staying healthy and I did not eat good while there, I mean C'mon, I was in NYC for the first time since moving back from California and it had been 8 years that I was in Cali, you do the math it was too long to go without a slice of real NY pizza! but more about that later.

The show ended and I won't say exactly what they had "The Oz 100" do with Richard Simmons to "wrap up the show" but lets just say the words "Hey man I didn't sign up to dance with Richard Simmons to no oldies!" came out of my mouth, to which the producer replied "try and fake it" but yeah....it was an experience and over all a good time. While they had us lining up on stage apparently I wasn't smiling enough and Richard Simmons taunted me with "whos that big sewious man back there...look at that sewious man" as he walked towards me, I did end up laughing and that's all he wanted, he was awesome. My wife and I were waiting in the lobby after the show for the car to take us to the hotel and out ran Richard (yeah we're on a first name basis now people) and I got get a few pictures with him as he teased Wify for fumbling the camera "C'mon Phyllis press the damn button! I don't think you know how to use that thing!" while taking said pictures hence my big shit eatin grin, I was cracking up he was hilarious.

Me and Richard Simmons in the lobby of NBC studios.

Ok lets get to the food for the excursion, after the show wify and me were starving all I had to eat to that point was an orange and a coffee and here it is 1:30 pm! so we get to the hotel after chatting with another fella in the lobby who had lost 150 pounds for about 30 minutes (I can't remember his name I met so many people that day!) where the very nice lady says "I'm sorry but your room isn't ready yet, it should be ready by 3:00" I really didn't care as food was what I wanted and we headed out to Fresh & co where I got 2 slices of whole wheat crusted pizza covered in veggies and a big bottle of Poland springs. We headed back to the Hotel after our lunch and it was about 2:30 now, our room still wasn't ready but the lady said "let me just give you a better room that is ready now" and off we went to an apartment sized room that had a Bedroom, kitchen, 2 bathrooms, a living room and dining room and more closet space than I have ever seen in a hotel room and at this point I was happy that we decided to come for the show.

I snapped a shot of our dinner before digging into the best pizza I have had in 10 years!

We took a nap for a couple hours and when we woke up decided that it was time for some dinner and supplies, we headed out around 6:30 in search of some water and a place to eat. There was a drug store in Penn station and we were right across the street so we walked through the slush, wind and snow and got a couple gallons of water and some breakfast stuff for the next morning only after we walked down to time square. To say that we were soaked for our efforts would be putting it lightly but I suppose walking around in a storm for 45 minutes will do that. We ended up bringing our newly aquired booty back to the hotel and ordered a pepperoni pizza to be delivered to our room, this was the most amazing pie I have had in a long time, I figured I was in NY and it was a once in a while thing so really didn't care that it was probably not the best food choice in the world, it is what it is.

Thursday morning came and we woke up, decided on which train we would take home and headed out to walk around while making our way towards Grand Central station which was just over a mile away but we took our time. I snapped a few photos of me and wify for the photo album along the way and onto the train we went for a very relaxing ride home.

Wook at the big sewious man...Me and wify near time square.

Waiting for our train in Grand Central station with my second coffee of the trip, oh my!

I would have to say that I enjoyed the whole trip and it was nice to get away for a couple days with wify. It was awesome to meet Richard Simmons and other than spending the time with the love of my life I would have to say he was the highlight of the trip, Everyone from the Dr.Oz show was great as well! and the hotel was a very nice addition to the trip, it was a good time and I am happy that I decided to do it. The show that was filmed will air on Feb 16th 2010 and as I mentioned earlier is the 100th show, I don't know how much I will actually be on the show as I was just in the audience as one of "the Oz 100" but I will be recording it either way.

Today is Friday and thats usually a weigh in day but I figured this trumped that so no weigh in for today, you'll have to wait until next weeks edition of as the fat guy turns to see how it went! Thanks for stopping by and remember to watch the show on Tuesday!

Fini

As Ever
Me

A big pile of random to chew on..

Once upon a time I would have to be dragged kicking and screaming to do anything physical past daily functions, those days I was a lot heavier than I am right now. The only veggies or fruit that would enter my body were the ones that came in the tin of General Tso's chicken and fried rice or the warm dilapidated lettuce on my 3 pound burrito. A 64oz soda would accompany most meals breakfast included and throughout the day close to if not an entire gallon of milk would go down the hatch and looking back at those old habits I have to wonder how I did it. Since making positive changes in how I look at food and exercise everything has changed from my health and fitness right on down to everything that goes into my mouth for nutrition, I am not the same person that I was at the pinnacle of my days of bad choices and it shows in every aspect of my life.


These days I look for things to do that are physical because I see it as a chance to do something that I was unable to do just two short years ago, from stacking firewood to digging around in the yard making planters for some tomatoes I jump at the chance. When I think about what would be an awesome meal to have it is now not even close to a sack of McNasty with a side of bubbly sugar laced cola syrup but instead a Salmon steak with a side salad and some baby red potatoes with a big glass of green tea and lime. The norm around here is to eat reasonably, exercise daily and reap the benefits and these habits are starting to show with my kids and I have to say that as great as it is to have dropped the more than 200 pounds that I have so far, seeing my kids following suit with their habits is my favorite part of this process.

Losing the equivalent of an entire person does great things to a fella in every aspect and I suspect that this is the same for any person that drops a good amount of weight. These days I look forward to my trip to the gym, or that hike on a local trail, taking a ride on my bike is one of my favorite things to do and making the choice to drop the weight 2 years ago was one of the best decisions that I have ever made in my entire life.

I believe that anyone can do it if they put their minds to it.

I am feeling random today and I get a good amount of emails saying that posting my menu's and workouts helps so lets have a look at my menu from yesterday, it came in at 1950 calories for the day and I was not hungry at all pretty much all day.

Breakfast
7:45 AM
1/2 cup steel cut oats 300
1/2 cup 1% milk 50

11:30 AM
1 banana 105
1 T peanut butter 95

Lunch
2:30 PM
1 Scoop whey protein 130
1 cup 1% milk 110

3:30 PM
1.5oz turkey pepperoni 105
hard roll 170
1oz american cheese 110
pickle/tomato 15

Dinner
6:45 PM
Big salad 365
8.5oz salmon steak 340
2 wheat ritz crackers 30
smart balance spread 25

Fluid totals
Green tea - 1 gallon
H2O - 1.25 gallons

My trip to the gym Monday included 25 minutes on a stationary bike, 25 minutes on a treadmill alternating between 3.5% incline @ 3.5mph for 1/4 mile followed by 1% incline @ 6.0 mph for 1/4 mile until the timer stopped, 10 minutes on an arc-trainer and 35 minutes of weight lifting. This afternoon when I get to the gym I am planning on doing my 15/15/15 cardio routine which is 15 minutes on a stationary bike, 15 minutes on an arc-trainer and 15 minutes on the treadmill and no weights today but it doesn't always work out the way I plan and I get in a zone sometimes and up the times so we shall see.

I have experienced almost immeasurable changes in my life since beginning this trip to the half and changed my life surely for the better with all of my efforts.

That's all I got for today so with that the end has come to another episode of as the fat guy turns, thanks for the support and thanks for following along.

As Ever
Me

The 300 pound 12 year old..

If you would have asked me whether I was happy or not at 534 pounds I would have said proudly "I am happy with everything that I have" it would have been a lie but the funny thing is that at the time I wouldn't have known it. Last year we went to a local apple orchard for a festival type thing and a picture was taken of me and my daughter walking up the road, when I saw that picture I thought about how different I looked from what my minds eye showed me, I was happy with how I looked in that image. Fast forward a year and back to the orchard we went and I stood on the side of the road in the same spot and had a photo taken of me to compare, the second year again I was happy with what I saw but when compared to last years photo I thought "wow I was big in that other picture" and yet can totally remember thinking about how small I looked in it just last year. I see myself today at this weight and honestly feel great about what I see regardless of the fact that I am still a big guy, I wonder if this time next year I will look back at photos and feel that I look big in them once again.


Things change so quickly now that a successful plan has been executed for so long, I have been at this for more than 2 years now and daily life is completely different from back then to the point that thinking back to how it was feels like someone Else's life. Almost as if I was in another persons body back then and I am now returning to the real world, it is that different when a fella weighs more than 500 pounds. Chatting with a friend of mine this weekend we were talking about the weight I have dropped in the past 2 years and how I have lost what he weighs, I joked with him saying imagine how it would feel to carry a whole him around on his back and that's what I was living day to day. I told him to imagine that and here I was the guy that was living it and honestly it was hard for me to imagine carrying that around today, I don't know how I was functioning honestly and the simple answer is that I was barely able to.

This year will most likely be the one where I hit and surpass my weight loss/fitness goals and I am looking forward to the day when I can look in the mirror and see the guy that dropped more than 50% of his body weight. I will have to lose a total of 267 pounds to get to that 50% lost mark and the more that I think about it the more I think that I will go beyond that point because as I lose more and more weight I am gaining double that in strength and endurance and truthfully I could probably get below 267 pounds easily and still be considered over weight according to one of those silly charts. My father stands slightly taller than six feet tall and weighs anywhere between 270 and 285 pounds and one of my goals for this year is to weigh less than he does because at those weights he does not look like what I would consider fat, could he stand to drop a few? sure but not fat.

I have never been at that stage where someone could look at me and say "That guy needs to drop a few pounds" and literally mean a few, somewhere along the way I am sure I went straight past that point and the statement "That KID could stand to lose a few pounds" but I was probably 12 or so when that happened. I have never in my adult life been not a fat guy, I mean I have been at different stages of big, from slightly big to huge and everything in between but I was a 300 plus pound freshmen in high school and it only went up from there. I am already lighter than then and its only getting lower and lower from here on out, yes I just said that I weigh the same now as when I was 12 years old.

Looking back at the past 2 years forces me to realize all of the work that has been put into this whole new lifestyle that I have taken on and the changes that come with it. I hear people debating over the semantics of calling it a "diet" verses a "lifestyle change" verses whatever else you want to call it but I will say this, calling it a lifestyle change is most accurate to me not because of anything other than lives do change because of taking on better eating and more movement when you start out well over obese, and for that reason I call it a lifestyle change. Fast food, video games and missing out on the simple things in life like walking through a garden or missing a ball game or concert have been replaced with healthy whole foods, running around the yard with the kids, working out, riding my bike and never missing out on anything and that is in fact a change in lifestyles at its very core.

Which life will you choose?

As Ever
Me

5 pounds gone with the wind..a weigh in tale

This week's "official weigh in" for the blog does not offer up a new low weight BUT the old low weight hath return, upon stepping onto my scale this morning 322.2 flashed across the display the first time on, 321.8 the second and finally 322.0 so three hundred twenty two pounds is the weight for the week. Last week I was 327lbs so this is a 5 pound drop for the week but since its not a new low weight there shall be no what I have lost images, hopefully I can get a new low next Friday and finally get into the teens. This week I am going to attempt to get to the gym every day until next Friday and see what that gets me, I have gone every day since Monday of last week where I usually take a mid week day off I did not last week. I already spoke with da boss lady about trying to get a sitter for Saturday and Sunday so that we can go together and it looks like I will be able to go all week so I am looking forward to beating the twenties down into nothing.

Skin issues becoming more apparent, to me at least, I have made a decision to hit the weights a little harder to try and fill up some of the space that was formerly being used to house fat with some muscle. I have been lifting for a while now but nothing that I would call a really hardcore workout and I have really just been focusing on my chest/shoulders/biceps for the most part tossing in some leg movements here and there I want to write up a complete workout for myself that will get everything involved a bit more. My cardio is doing very well, on average I have been doing 20-25 minutes on a stationary bike followed by 20-30 minutes on a treadmill at variable inclines and speeds ranging from 3.5% grade to 13% grade and speeds range from 3.2mph tp 6.0 mph on running days and I sometimes hit the arc-trainer for 20 minutes or go back to the bike for a 2nd 20 minute ride so anywhere from 40 to 60 minutes of cardio per day.

Each day at the gym a spinning class starts just about when I arrive and I have been contemplating giving it a try because I focus so much on the bike while I am there anyways. As soon as it warms up a bit and more importantly the ice, snow and sand is off of the roads I am looking forward to getting back on my mountain bike and going for some rides and I figure a spin class could improve my stamina while on a bike. With all of the cardio that I do my endurance is improving and I am hoping that with the addition of some more serious weight lifting I can bulk up a bit and take care of some of the skin stuff that's just hanging around, literally in places.

A five pound drop for the week is great! the fact that I can do cardio an hour of cardio and feel awesome afterward is an amazing thing to me considering where I began with my 5 minute walk then rest plan. To say that I have changed my life for the better with the decision to get healthy is the understatement of the century and from the looks of it things just keep improving so as long as I do my part I am expecting good things. That's all I got for today so this episode of Fatman and Blobin is fini, keep on keepein on and all that and don't forget that H2O.

Until next time...

As Ever
Me

Simple truth.

Negativity breeds more of the same and this is the thorn in the side of weight loss, until that thorn is pulled out and we begin to look at our health or lack there of for what it is the fat wins and on we waddle down the road. I see people beating themselves up for not being able to reach a goal or keep weight off and truth be told as long as we make the best choices possible and honestly look at what we are doing weight loss really isn't that monster in the dark that so many of believe it is. After years of "trying" to lose weight what I have learned in the past 2 years is best said by Yoda "You must un-learn what you have learned, try not, do..or do not, there is no try" though good old Yoda was talking about the force it does stand as a true statement in my eyes for us not in the world of Star wars. Start out strong and have in the back of your mind that you will fail and guess what? ultimately you will fail, at whatever the task is, something that I have learned since starting down this path is that weight loss is more of a mental game than anything else. Wrap your head around the concept that this is how life will be lived from now until forever and its an easy thing to accept, its when you start looking at it as less than how life goes when people fail, not a hard concept.


I have changed my life in the past 2 years after years of being "the fat kid" all of my life and then leveling off at a robust weight for many years I was hurt and gained a lot of my 534 pounds. I hit a point where it was too much for me and my family and made the decision to do something about it and I did it, I did not talk about it, I did not say that I would try. My wife brought me that HUGE cup of morning coffee like every other morning in a string of bad mornings and I told her that I was done with all of that and it was time to start doing instead of trying. I know people that have tried to lose weight for years and I have watched them drop weight and then yo yo right back up again and this cycle is how they have lived for as long as I have known them, this is not how it works. I have attempted to drop weight before with varying results mostly made up of failed attempts and the difference from then until now is the fact that a decision was made this time around and that's that.

Don't lose weight because I am, don't do it because someone else wants you to do it, you have to do it for yourself and your own reasons first and this means putting your needs ahead of other peoples needs at least for a while until some habits are formed. Focus on the negative side of weight loss and all we would have to talk about is non fitting over priced clothing, breathing heavy from a trip to the toilet, Lots of thinking about exploding hearts, 5 feet long belts, greasy fingers covered in synthetic cheese dust and how fun it is to not be able to go to the movies at 500 pounds. Fat people already know all this shit and if we keep crying over the spilled milk on the counter instead of just wiping it up soon it will curdle, stink and be a bigger mess than it already is, instead I say get off your ass and walk if its all you can do, eat clean, drink water instead of sugar laced carbonated drinks and stop all of the complaining, it doesn't look good on you.

The moral of this little tale? don't worry about what cannot be done but what CAN be done and then execute and like Nike, just do it and leave the negativity out. The same situation can be seen by two individuals in completely different light, its like the two guys that work in the same office with a strict dress code and the one fella looks at it as "I have to get all dressed up in this monkey suit and tie to walk around with people that I play softball with on the weekends just so I can talk to people on the phone? blah I want my tee shirt and jeans! this is stupid" followed by the other guys opinion which is "This is great! I get to dress my best and walk around feeling like a million bucks in my silk tie all day! and I get paid for it?!" its all how we look at it. I see my weight loss program as "This is awesome! I get to eat fresh food that was prepared by me and drink as much tea as I want to! AND I get to workout and get that post workout high every day??!" as opposed to "I wish I could just strap this feed bag full of chicken mcnuggets to my face and drink a gallon of pepsi so that I don't have to get up from my couch and playstation!" yeah that second guy weighed 534 pounds and sat out of lots of things that he probably shouldn't have and I am choosing to not miss out on anything else.

What will you choose?

As Ever
Me

You ain't got the balls son.

If you are going to try and lose weight, especially from a hyper obese state (yeah I just said hyper obese) You have to do it with everything that you have inside of yourself, if you don't you are just kidding yourself because there are no halfhearted attempts with success. Walking for 5 minutes is all that some of us can do at first yet pride stops us from doing it, somehow pulling back into our shells and hiding from the world is a better option and to that I say bullshit. I can only now say it so strongly just how bullshit being that way is because I powered past the self pity and decided that I did not care what anyone else might say or think of the 500 pound guy waddling around the block, every day I got dressed and I did it until I was the 400 pound guy and with every pound I was able to do more and the weight keeps dropping off. I don't give a shit about what the next guy can do, I have to care about what I can do and more importantly perhaps what I cannot do because of the fat that was and is hanging off of my bones and keep that in mind with every step taken towards better health and the end game result that I am looking for.


Joining a gym was huge for me, I was scared of what the next person might say or think about what I was doing or not doing and I honestly thought it was going to be an all eyes on me thing but to my surprise it wasn't. Nobody cared what I was doing and I couldn't care less what any of them are doing because its me that I am there for. I sing out loud from time to time at the gym and I don't care, I cannot do a pull up yet, notice that I said yet because I will do a pull up before I am done and it will be the first one of my life when I get there but I will in fact do it. There is no one that will stop me because I need to complete what I have started and I am in the opinion that anyone can do what I have with nothing more than a decision. Doing what is right for our health is easier than not doing anything about it and ending up having diabetes, to be carried out of your home through a hole in the wall cut by the fire department, bad knees, sore backs, heart problems, a bitter disposition and tons of smaller problems that are with us on a day to day.

Deciding that living is a better idea than slowly killing yourself with a lack of care for the most important and basic item in your life is something that all people who are over weight should look at closely. If we don't take care of us the rest of whats left really doesn't matter so much because without our health we miss out on the most elementary of things. Without our health what do we have? sure we can live and have a life but is it the life that we want? does anyone really want to gasp for air because they had to walk to the bathroom? I think not.

I use to care what someone else might think of me as I huffed and puffed around attempting to get healthier, I hid in my house on my stationary bike for the longest time and honestly it did serve its purpose but I am at a point that if someone doesn't like what they see that's on them. I will get where I am going and there is no one that will stop me, something clicked at the gym a few days ago as I sat on a leverage shoulder press machine listening to my mp3 player and I have been a zone since then. Taking a line from Phil Anselmo "I live it every day, While you’re mind’s far away, I’m out here putting pride on the line And you case on me with pure respect, One chance at one thing, Hard time is coming, My time, your pain I reign on you" is the place where my head is right now, water is wet, ice is cold I am going to get where I need to go, all of these things are facts.

If you are contemplating starting a better health/weight loss program do yourself a favor and stop thinking about it and start with the doing because at the end of the day when we look into that mirror the person staring back is the one responsible for everything that we do.

As Ever
Me