Back down to earth with a weigh in.

Being sore and stressed over the last week had me back peddling and this week I used my time wisely, I ate within my calorie range, I drank enough and I slept well all while taking it easy on my back. I did return to the gym yesterday and did an easy 40 minute cardio workout split between the bike and the treadmill and it felt good to get back in there and get my heart rate up. This morning it was time to get on the scale to get an "official" weigh in number for the blog and though I did not get a new low weight today I am back down to my lowest number again, I came in at 309.2 lbs and that's just fine by me.

Not making that May 1st goal stinks a little bit but there is really not a whole lot that can be done about it now so I ain't gonna sweat it but I will just for the sake of sticking with it post up what my weight is tomorrow morning for an official end to the challenge. I am predicting that I will be under 300 pounds within two weigh ins unless something outside of my control happens and I was thinking about it and I am at a point in this whole process that in the beginning I had wondered if I would ever get to. When you weigh more than 500 pounds and are starting out on a weight loss plan things can look almost impossible, in fact when I started out and didn't know what I weighed I was afraid that I was closer to 600 pounds so imagine that frame of mind, staring down at 275 pounds and thinking you are at 600.

The plan for today is to hit the gym, eat within my calorie range and stay hydrated and I am well on my way to having a great day already. I have a pretty active weekend planned as well and I am hoping to have a new low weight come Friday, actually I am betting that I will have a new low weight by tomorrows May 1st weigh in. This episode of Fat man and Blobin is a quickie, short and to the point as Wify is home from work today and we have some errands to run so that's all I got for today.

If you are in the beginning of a weight loss adventure and think that its impossible, know that if you want it bad enough you can do it, I am down 225 pounds and once weighed more than 500. I know that it looks like an impossible task but its not and in fact the longer you do it the more you want it so make today the day that you put down the fork and pick up your movement and just start living the life that you know is there for the taking.

Now that's really all I got for today.

As Ever
Me

A walk through time, and a ton of pictures.

Once upon a time in the 70's a little boy was born, he was the most beautiful kid that had ever been born up until that point in history, Ok so I may be embellishing on that bit about being the most beautiful but trust me he was a darling. Anyways, there was a kid, he was a happy kid from all angles of seeing him, he played outside and he went fishing with his dad quite often, nothing abnormal about him, he fit in but perhaps there is more to this than we think after seeing this photo.

A normal kid in every way and honestly looking back at some photos, he was not what I would call a "fat kid" at all but from early on the label was attached and since they are my memories I know that he felt like the fat kid. Playing with his brother and his cousins that felt more like a brother and sister than cousins was on the menu every day, he was a very spiffy dresser and wore all of the latest fashions for the time, He set the trends and looking at this next image you can see what I mean, He just wanted to walk through the world minding his own business at this point.


There was this amazing concoction that kept popping into his life each year called cake and he was amazed, it was so good, so chocolaty so.....not really but man! lots of this kid sitting in front of chocolate cakes in the old albums, perhaps I was destined to carry the label though my life.


I did mention that he was a spiffy dresser right? but still not exactly what you might call a fat kid, and whats with the serious look on his face all the time? I remember this time in my life, I want to guess that I was about 4 or 5 here and there wasn't a bad thing that I could say about it, did we have lots of money? nope, did we live in a high end neighborhood? quite the opposite actually and everything in my world was playing with and picking on the little fella in this picture with me, what else are big brothers for?


Time for school, this is the first day of kindergarten, that's my brother in the purple get up, the blond is my cousin and of course me. Cowboy boots and a happy days lunch box I was ready to begin the first day, of course after this picture was taken I reportedly balled my eyes out because I didn't want to go to school. This is where some of my earliest memories of that "F" word come into my life, I haven't a clue when it was first said but I know that it impacted me more than anyone knew.


After the school system chewed me up and spit me out this is what we ended up with, long hair, a dense look on my face and the beginnings of a 1980's porno mustache. The leather jacket that I have on in the image is the one that I wore in high school and apparently didn't fit me quite properly at this point but that wasn't stopping me from wearing it. This was probably a year or two after high school and looking at it now I don't wonder so much about how I wasn't a ladies man back then, honestly I was in a good place in my head at this point. I was big, I had the hair of an 80's hair band front man though it was the 90's but I was not really limited, I did what I wanted to for the most part and I wasn't much different in size when I met Wify, though I had cut my hair and grown a goatee by then. The jacket was custom made for me my sophomore year so I don't know what the size would be and the shirt is about 3xl at this point.


The happy couple, This is a few years after we met, she is heavier, I am way heavier and my back injury had already occurred and I obviously had blown up by this point. Sporting a 5xl shirt at this Christmas party lets just say that I was not shaking my ass out on the dance floor though I was begged to and that is something that I can add to the regret pile. I missed out on so much because of the extra weight that I could write 50 posts on the subject and not even come close to touching on half of it, I do have some pictures of Wify and her girlfriends shaking their asses at this same party but for fear of getting clubbed to death I won't post any of those up. I can remember dancing a single slow dance at this shindig and half way through the song I was soaked in sweat and my back was on fire, it sucked ass to have to lean on Wify so hard and it was only the one song and I felt like shit for it but as per usual just made a face and an excuse to go sit back down. This was not a fun time in my life regardless of the big smile on my face in the below picture, making excuse after excuse to not do things when I really did want to do it all, it is what it is and I ain't ever going back to it.


A mountain on a mountain, This picture was taken in Texas and that's Mexico in the background, I don't remember what the little scenic spot we were on was called but I was at my pinnacle where weight goes and I wouldn't doubt if I was heavier than 534 in this picture. That is a 6XL shirt that is snuggly fitting on my rotund body there and I can remember taking this photo and upon seeing it thought "wow I look good here lets frame this one" and in fact there is a set of frames in my house right now with pictures from this trip that wify put together and I now look at them and can see just how big I actually was compared to now. I am happy that I have images like these to remind me where I was at one point in my life because taking a look at them lets me know just how hard I've worked to get myself back down to a healthier weight and I know that I won't ever go back.


This one is of my brother and myself at my cousins wedding, I don't remember the year but its earlier than the picture above, that jacket that I am wearing is if I remember right a 72 long and was special ordered. Now if you didn't do the math that's 6 feet around, I stand 6'5'' and my brother is 6'4 1/2'' and you can see our height in this picture now imagine my jacket is just 5 inches short of being that big around if it were unbuttoned. its the same jacket that I have on in THIS compare shot when I was down 165 pounds and I am planning on either selling it at a DEEP discount to someone or finding someone to just donate it to because I know how hard getting clothing like that is.

If you have read this blog you have probably seen this image, this is when I was 200 pounds lost and I am 25 pounds lighter now than in this picture, I have gone from literally round to sort of round in a matter of 2 years. From 500 plus pounds and back again I know that I will never be in that position again where I HAVE to say that I can't have a dance with the woman that I love, I will never have to tell my kids that I can't go do an activity with them because I just can't make it up that tiny little hill or walk that far, I won't do it.


No real point to this whole walk though time other than I was going through some old photos and thought I would pop them up with some words. Tomorrow I weigh in officially for the blog and that weight will go onto the side bar, I don't think that it will be a new low but crazier things have happened and I am kind of close enough that its a possibility so make sure to pop on in to see how I did. This afternoon I am back to the gym and hopefully it will kick start me into a workout frenzy that gets me rolling in the right direction on the scale again, either way I am glad to be going back.

This post has been brought to you by the number 10

As Ever
Me

Zeusmeatball featured in Woman's day? oh me oh my!

The week is looking decent and I was lower in weight this morning than I was yesterday, I haven't got back to the gym just yet but today I am planning on poppin in for a ride on the bike perhaps more a little later. My intake was on par and I have upped my calories just to see what happens, I am eating around 1900 calories per day all week so far and I want to see what happens for a week or two at this rate just for kicks. Oh yeah and as the title of this post may lead one to believe, I was featured in a Woman's day article with Wify and 6 other couples in a "couples edition" weight loss before and after which was pretty cool! Here is the link for the article Woman's day article featuring Zeusmeatball. I was contacted by Grant from sparkpeople asking me if I was interested in a National magazine opportunity and I thought that it could be fun so I agreed and shortly after I was contacted by Woman's day and viola! there you have it.

We were asked a few questions by Woman's day and while we were answering them Wify started crying when she said that "I feel like I got my boyfriend back" which is quoted in the article and I had a moment of raw happiness because I know how much I've effected not only myself but the person that I consider the only gal for me. I have said this before and I have to reiterate it so much because its the truth, I started this blog 2 years ago as a way to possibly stay on track because one or two people might just find what I was writing interesting enough to give me some accountability and its become much more than that for me. From being asked to go to the Dr Oz show to now being featured in an article for a national magazine article its more than I would ever thought could come from a fat guy trying to get healthy and I still have a long way to go.


I needed something like this to get me back into the full swing of why I am doing this whole health thing, and I don't exactly mean the article. My wife being happy because she feels like she got her boyfriend back is more than enough to get me rolling in the right direction again, not that I was rolling in the wrong direction but I was in a stress situation and not moving forward when I still have so far to go in order to get to that end game that I am looking for. I (we) have come a long way since that cold day back in 2008 when a decision was made, more than 300 pounds have been lost between my wife and myself, 225 of that off of my bones alone and things are getting back to normal all because of a whole lotta discipline and bust assedness that is being applied on a daily basis.

I am going to post up a weight come Friday and unfortunately it does not look as if I will get under 300 pounds by May 1st but I am ok with that as I have come to understand this isn't a race and as cool as its going to feel to get under that milestone I can wait. The plan is to eat well, drink a plenty and start hitting the gym regularly again and I think that I will have a big drop in the next week or two just because of the calorie change and the getting back in the gym after almost a two week hiatus.

Thanks for following along while this fat guy gets slim and thanks for all of the support that you give me along the way.

That's all I got

As Ever
Me

Hey look what just walked through the door..

Sometimes life just happens in a way that nothing can be done about it but hold on and hope that the ride ends well and other times we have to take control and make it go our way. The last week and a half has sucked ass to put it as plainly as I can without getting more into it and to summarize, everything is working itself out and it looks as if the ride ended without too much damage. Now onto that second scenario, you know the one where the 534 pound guy took control and is making it go his way? I have not been on the scale all week until this morning and I am slightly up from my lowest weight which is actually unexpected because I thought it would be WAY up after the week that I had with my devouring everything in sight eating.

Last Sunday my good old back injury from 2000 decided that it was going to intervene in my life for the week and while putting a jar of jalapenos into the refrigerator it almost dropped me to the floor. This is pretty much how the last 10 years has been for me but on a much more frequent basis when I was heavier but it goes to show that no matter how much weight that I drop the most remedial task can get me if I bend just right, er wrong. This is a big part of my misery for the last week though I have had no issues since about Friday of last week with my back there were other things in my equation of torment that were keeping me not interested in basically anything. As you can guess the sore back kept me from the gym and that right there just added to my mood and honestly I learned that once an addict always an addict because turning to extra food jumped right in about mid week, but in my man Forrest Gumps words, That's all I got to say about that..

I got a ton of emails asking if I was ok so thanks for that! yes I am alive! someone asked me that in an email, I suppose that I should have answered that one very quickly as to not reinforce the possibility that I wasn't! This is a blog about a 534 pound guy getting his shit together and dropping 225 pounds so far and still has a way to go before getting to the end of that proverbial weight loss road and not about any personal non weight loss/health hurdles that are in my way. We all have shit to wade through in our personal lives, some deeper and thicker than others but shit none the less so I won't put any of that here as it was never my intention when I started writing this blog, this is about better health and weight loss.

I said once an addict a couple paragraphs up and that goes for my working out as well, I am starting to get miserable because I couldn't/can't work out! I mean bat shit fuckin nuts! I know that I am addicted to the exercise at this point because I am bouncing off of the walls as a result of not being able to do anything past walking when my back was sore and now my daughter gave me a bit of a chest cold thingy that seems to be going away but I am still taking it easy until tomorrow because of that. I am on day 11 of no gym, no bike rides, no anything but a short hike last Friday at a 4 year olds pace and to say that I have a case of cabin fever would be putting it very much too mildly but we will get there again.

My intake has been dragged back to normal and I am drinking enough green tea and H2O again, I am making a couple changes to the program in the coming weeks but I will write more about that later. I should be back to daily posts now so check in tomorrow for another mind boggling episode of as the fat guy turns and remember that sometimes life is gonna kick us in the gut but that doesn't mean that we give up, we may take a break but giving up isn't an option.

As Ever
Me

1730 calories looks just like this right here, yep sure does.

This episode of The 1700 is brought to you by Harvey McDullardsonfengenden and the Jujuberry 7.2 people in an effort to get us in a frame of mind that promotes good eating and more movement in place of miracle diet plans. We will bring you through all the phases of a regular run of the mill day in the life of a fella getting healthy from the inside out. Lets start with an omelet made from 1 whole egg, 4 whites, Jalapeno, red onion, green peppers grape tomatoes, turkey pepperoni and some Asiago cheese with a side of a multi-grain english muffin. If you think that this dish is anything but a big ol pile of yum and more filling than almost any breakfast you need to rethink how you look at food.


Next we have a Zone perfect bar and this was the pre-gym snack? meal? whatever you call it, it had pecans, chocolate and caramel and let me tell ya, yeah let me tell ya. These little beauties run between 190 and 210 calories depending on which you choose and give me the boost that I need to make it through my trip to the gym. This is the point of the day where I am starting to feel like I am a tad hungry and honestly this is the only time of day that I get that feeling but after that omelet I ate it just because I knew that I was going to bust arse in a bit so down she went.

And then there were none...


Post gym meal looked a lot like a Turkey sandwich, an apple and a Yoplait yogurt, oh wait...anyways I am trying to eat bigger lunches lately and saving less calories for dinner ie: later in the day so that I give my body a chance to burn off the calories in the day. Harvey would have eaten this from a blender with 7 scoops of the miracle powder and subtract the apple and yogurt but wait! if you order right now you can have 12 weeks worth of meetings and a workout video that will shape your buns into a perfect rump O steel for free!


Nothing special here, just a few ounces of baby carrots to keep something processing in the gut, Sponge Bob square pants plastic kids bowl $1.45, Bag of baby carrots from the market $2.99, Having those baby carrots taste sweet like candy? Priceless!


Dinner I indulged in something that though I don't eat it often I do eat plenty when I do eat it, that's my chips, choosing something to say that I am addicted to it would be chips. This meal was a can of Tuna with red onion chopped into it served on whole wheat bread with some lettuce and 2oz of Lays light potato chips and I love these because they are cut super thin so it feels like a lot and really helps with that salty urge that I get. This portion of the 1700 is brought to you by the Storm trooper cows as no bovine were hurt, injured or cloned in the making of this post or any of these meals.


There always seems to be a grip of something in my day, its sort of um a tradition? sure, lets call it a tradition. This was 1/2 oz of Turkey pepperoni as I made a pass by the fridge and heard it calling to me, honest I did! and when I opened the door it was being held hostage by a a couple of bad apples and a cornish game hen so I did what I needed to in order to make sure it was safe.


The end of the night came and there was 70 calories left in the daily budget and this Blueberry pie was staring me down so I asked mommy if I could borrow 30 and bamn! I was set to have a nice treat to end my evening by and my day came in at a total of 1730 calories.


Once again I would like to add that 1.25 gallons of green tea went down the hatch throughout the day as well as 1 gallon of H2O, I think that I have again shown that a person CAN have a good amount of food on a budget of around 1700 calories. I will restate that this is a lot of food and if you don't think so you may just want to reconsider the way that you view food because it is merely fuel for our bodies to function on a daily basis.

That's all I got for today.

As Ever
Me

Day 836 and a weigh in.

As predicted by my daily weigh ins this week its not one for the record books, I did show a slight loss but nothing that would match the effort that went into this week and that can sometimes be a bit frustrating but it is what it is. I stepped onto that cold black measurer of flab and it said 309.2 lbs the first time on, blah! that's only .2 lower than last week but better than a gain I suppose, second time on it said 308.8 lbs so onto the kitchen floor for the tie breaker and it said 308.8 lbs once again so that's what we'll call it for today. I am down just slightly more than a half of a pound from last week with a .6 loss and though I should be happy that its a lower number I am a bit annoyed by this number today, I am not down or anything about it just annoyed a bit because I know what went into this week. I seem to cycle one great week followed by a not so great week and back again and I am not too worried about what the scale said today as there is always next week.

Having a week like this where I do everything 100% and have a .6 loss makes me think about what I am doing and am I missing something but then I have a week like last week where I had more than a 5 pound loss doing the exact same thing and I just chalk it up to there will be variations. I averaged my calories per day for the week and I am pretty much perfect with an average of 1760 per day when added together and divided, I made it to the gym five days this week not including today so that will be six days this week and I got in good solid work outs every day. Sleeping was good this week and there was only one night that I got less than optimal rest and I drank more than enough fluids so biology is to blame this week for the less than stellar drop and again I am left thinking about whether I need to adjust my calories from the 1700 that I currently eat per day.

This orange represents .6 of a pound and that's what I lost this week.

Onto how Thursday played out, I ate 1705 total calories, drank 1 gallon of green tea and 1.25 gallons of H2O and I slept my 8 hours last night so that was all good. My trip to the gym was slightly different than usual and I decided that I was going to do 45 minutes on the arc trainer and let me tell ya it kicked my arse! When I got off of that thing I was soaked and knew that I had worked out, upon getting to the gym there was a fella on the arc trainer that I wanted to use so I hopped onto the bike to warm up a bit and I ended up riding for 15 minutes while he finished up. Onto the arc I go, set it to level 85 and I started in on myself, 15 minutes in I started thinking "I should just do 20 minutes" after calling myself a pussy ass punk for even thinking that I brought up the rpm's to punish myself for letting a weak thought into my head. At the 30 minute mark I did drop the resistance down to 80 and I finished off my 45 minutes there and my new gym play list that I put on the mp3 player yesterday helped because I wasn't sure what song was coming next or its duration, I finished up with a 10 minute cool down walk on the treadmill and back home I went.

The play list.

Fall out boys - Dance Dance Dance
Gia Farrel - Hit me up
Gwen Stefani - Holla back girl
Rob Base - it takes two
Justin Timberlake - Sexy back
Live - I Alone (acoustic)
Limp Bizkit - Livin' it up
Busta Rhymes - Pass the Courvoisier pt 2 (jump jump)
Lynard Skynard - Simple man
Ludacris - Stand up
Limp Bizkit (feat Eminem) - Turn me loose
DMX - up in here

That play list is a bit different and kind of mixed but then that's what I was going for when I loaded it and it did the trick of making me not really notice the time. My May 1st goal is now 8.8 pounds from being realized and that means that I need to do an average of 4.4 pounds per week for the next two weeks and honestly that looks like quite the task. Everyone of you reading this knows that I am going to push myself to the limit to try and hit that number that is a long time coming and I will get sub 300 pounds to show up on that scale at some point but I do think that I may need to consider either less exercise which we all know won't happen, or I need to adjust my calories somewhere and I don't think down is the direction they need to go in. I burn a ton of calories at the gym each day and according to the burned calorie calculator on the sidebar I burned 1200 calories yesterday in the 45 minutes on the arc and I didn't even input the bike or treadmill time into that 1200 so perhaps I need a few more calories to keep the engine running efficiently but its not an easy change to make for me.

Over all the week is a success because I did not gain anything and did show a loss even if it was a mere .6 of a pound, I am a week stronger and I proved to myself that I can do sprints as well as go 45 minutes on the arc-trainer without too much fuss other than a soaked shirt. Figuring out the calories in vs calories burned along with what the scale says at the end of the week will be the plan for this weeks adventures, perhaps I leave it alone for a week and see where the weight goes before I make any changes or maybe some time mid week I switch things up, all to be found out but I do know that I will eat within whatever range I have, I will workout at least 6 days this week and I will sleep enough because its what I have to do to get where I am headed.

Since the loss is less than a pound and I round up for the most part no images of what I have lost total will be posted today and I will call it 309 lbs still. Thanks for reading along as this fella drops literally an entire person worth of weight off of his body and brings himeslf into a healthy body, your comments and support mean more than you know.

As Ever
Me

Pre weigh in thoughts, what will the scale say...

Something funny going on with the weight this week because upon waking up this morning I am actually up in weight by about half a pound its more than I was last Friday and that's just not cool. This up on the scale is odd because I have done everything right this week, my calories are in check and I have been to the gym every day this week, the only thing that I can think of that could be messing with me is the fact that I lifted weights on Monday and my chest is still sore a tad and sore muscles usually mean there is some water retention. I am on the fence with what I should do today as far as the gym goes, on the one hand I feel that I should go and beat the hell out of myself on an arc trainer and take a loss on the scale tomorrow with a show of force but on the other side is taking a day off to see if I am over training as I have been getting in some pretty decent workouts this week. It would be too easy to stay home today and knit so of course I will go beat the shit out of myself in an effort to come in lower tomorrow than I am as of 10 minutes ago but man, what the...

Anyways...nothing good shall come from getting stuck on a slight up on the scale when I know how hard I've worked, I am stronger for the week of exercise and hey! its nor Friday just yet so we shall see what happens. I tried something a little different at the gym yesterday in the way of sprints/intervals on the treadmill, it was different and I knew that I was working out if being out of breath and sweat count as a gauge. I started off at 3.0mph for 2 minutes to warm up and then put the machine at 6.1 mph, yes I know that is hardly a sprint but at just over 300 pounds believe me when I say that its enough! I ran one minute on, one minute off for 6 intervals at 1% incline and then finished the remainder of a 20 minute session walking at 3.3 mph on a 3.5% incline. I liked it! I am adding it to my workouts twice per week and will either increase the number of intervals or the speed as I get stronger at it and I am now starting to get myself quite the little repertorie of workouts that I use regularly.

Wednesdays menu.

Breakfast
7:15 AM
2 cups honey combs 220
8oz 1% milk 110

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

12:00 PM
1 apple 85

Lunch
2:30 PM
4oz grilled chicken breast 200
rosemary wrap 100
1/2 oz American cheese 55
onion/tomato 20

Dinner
5:45 PM
4 slices whole wheat bread 280
2.5oz American cheese 275
1 can green beans
60 smart balance
45 diced onion 10

8:15 AM
10oz strawberries 80

A total of 1740 calories for Wednesday which is just about perfect in my book, and I have been upping my fruits and veggies all week because I noticed that I was lacking in that department. Whatever that scale whispers to me in the morning I know that I have done my part this week, if this slight gain stays I feel good about my week, if its a loss, I feel good about the week because in all honesty there was nothing that I didn't do right according to everything that I have done from the get go. My feeling is that its the early in the week weight lifting that's hanging onto some extra fluid weight and once I am not sore any more it will drop down a pound or so and next week I will have a decent sized loss, OR I will have a loss this week, to be found out I suppose.

Tomorrow will be another weigh in for the record book and I am hoping for a loss so that I might be able to post some "what I have lost" images and honestly I am planning on kicking my ass at the gym today and perhaps I will go for a post dinner bike ride as well just for good measure. Making good decisions has become the norm for me and it is inevitable that I am going to come down in weight because I demand it, I insist to my body that it let go of the fat and enjoy the ride that I am taking it on because its just how its going to be and there is nothing that it can do to stop the punishment.

Make sure to pop in and check out the weigh in tomorrow morning because whether its a gain or a loss it will be put out there and into the tracker, will I make that goal of being 300 pounds or under by May 1st? I honestly don't know but what I do know is that I am going to bust my ass trying to get there and that's all that I can do aside from lopping off a limb or something. Thanks for the support and thank you for following along with this fat man getting thin, That's all I got for today.

As Ever
Me

300 pounds lost and some pictures of the proof.

Yesterday was one of those days for me, you know, feeling a bit run down and early in the day thinking about skipping the gym and ordering a pizza for lunch kind of days. 10:00 am my daughter says "Dada, lets go play" and that tiny sentence from that beautiful little girl changed my whole thought pattern for the entire day because there was a time in my life where I would not have had a choice, the answer would have had to be "I can't" and I am glad that I did something about the weight before it ever had to come to that with her. Those kinds of days come around for everyone on occasion and what we do next is what defines us I believe, I could have sulked in my funk or I could go jump on the bed with my daughter, guess which I did. I had all but decided that I was going to lay low for the day and skip the gym but I was reminded that this is not something that I can do half assed and I ultimately ended up with a great workout at the gym, jumped on the bed for about 30 minutes, well the kid did I just played with her, read about 7 books to her and like I already said had a good day over all.

I cannot think of this better health thang as anything less than something that I must do because before I made the choice to change things daily tasks were not exactly peachy and I struggled to do the most remedial things and I ain't goin back to that folks. Changing the way that I think about health has been the best thing that I could have done and is a critical part of my success as far as I am concerned because without changing the mental the physical is only temporary in my opinion. The physical differences are so amazing to me and I almost forget where I once was until I look at an old photo or an old piece of clothing that seems like it is so big and I can almost not imagine fitting into it yet it was mine. It is amazing for me to look at my more than 5 foot long belt now and know that it was once almost too small to fit me, I have a pair of shorts that I saved that I can stand inside one leg and a shirt that I am sure can fit my entire family in and I look at these things and have memories of completely filling them out.

Thanksgiving 2007, Fat n Happy.

April 2010, 300 pounds lost between the both of us.

That first picture is from Thanksgiving 2007 and I have posted it before Here with a picture of wify and me in the same shirts on, but its pretty much 2 months before we started eating right and exercising, I was 500 plus pounds and I am not sure what Wify weighed but judging by the looks on our faces we were fat and happy. That second picture is from this past weekend and I am 225 pounds lighter than I was in the first and Wify has lost 74 total pounds to date from her highest weight and that's 300 total pounds between the two of us and honestly, that's just insane! The first picture I have a 6XL shirt on and in the second that is a 2XL shirt, I am still amazed that I can fit into and wear outside a 2XL shirt because the last time that I was able to do that I was unable to grow facial hair. The fact that we have lost 300 pounds together is crazy to me but it shows what can be done with some hard work and dedication to something and all without any surgeries or Miracle diet plans.

Every aspect of my life has been enriched from making the decision to drop the weight and get healthy, and I will never say that it was/is an easy thing but I can say with 100% confidence that everything that I do now at just over 300 pounds is easier than it was at over 500 pounds. Every ounce of blood sweat and tears, yes there have been tears were worth the results that I have gotten so far and I am not even close to finished with this process, I have weight goals that I need to reach, I have weight lifting goals that I want to reach and I have over all fitness goals that must be reached so I will be here for a good long while whilst I get there.

Move more, eat less and drink a plenty, this is what I do, this is my mantra and if you want it you can have it as well.

As Ever
Me

YOU make the decisions..

Heading into the week full on and expecting to have at least a decent loss come Friday I am on track to do so thus far if my intake and exercise is the gauge. Getting right to it I made it to the gym yesterday and did 25 minutes on the stationary bike, 30 minutes on the treadmill and 40 minutes of weight lifting and I feel good about the workout. My intake was 1730 calories total and I drank, um, I lost count at almost 3 gallons, yes I said 3 gallons, I was up in weight Monday morning from my off kilter Sunday intake schedule and wanted to sort of flush the system and make sure that hydration was not an issue so that I did. After dinner we made it out for a walk while my daughter rode her new bike so it was more like a walk/jog along with her and was about 1.25 miles total so that was relaxing, but enough about that have a look at yesterdays menu.

Breakfast
7:15 AM
2 cups honey combs 220
8oz 1% milk 110

8:30 AM
banana 105

11:45 AM
zone bar 190

Lunch
2:45 PM
2 slices wheat bread 140
4oz turkey breast 100
1 T miracle whip 40
1oz chips 75
4oz baby carrots 45

4:15 PM
apple 85

Dinner
5:45 PM
1 hard roll 180
4oz turkey breast 100
1 T miracle whip 40
1.5 oz light chips 110

8:30 PM
Yoplait yogurt 110
10oz strawberries 80

Making my way towards a healthy weight one day at a time I am getting closer to that coveted 2XX weight that I seek and I have a good feeling that it will be sooner than later that it shows up on my scale. If you think that its an impossible task to lose a massive amount of weight and keep it off you have to get past that overwhelming feeling and push through, if I had stopped at my thoughts about how impossible it seemed I don't know where I might be today. It is not easy, it is not a walk in the park but I can tell you that all of the hard work that goes into a healthy lifestyle comes back ten fold in the rewards that are there for the taking when success comes. The hard work starts feeling less like hard work and more like just the way things are and I think its at that point when we start feeling more normal and I can see just how clear of a line there is between living healthy and living the way that a 500 pound guy has to be living to maintain that weight because it is night and day.

You can drop the weight, you can get healthy and you do have the willpower to make it happen, the biggest question is will you take your health into your own hands and make that choice to live a life that is full of what you want, or will the choice be to sit back and feel bad for the situation. I chose the latter for all too long and it got me where I was, the choice really does fall on my shoulders to make sure that it does not happen again and every time that I look into a mirror I can blame that fella for everything that I have done for my health in the last two years but on the other side of that its the same guy that was there at 534 pounds so he gets the blame for his part as well.

Today I will eat within my calorie range, today I will go to the gym, today I will drink enough to assure that I am hydrated and tonight I will get a full nights sleep, what will you do today for YOUR health?

That's all I got.

As Ever
Me

Appreciating exercise and an answer to why I love it so.

Moving right along and the start of a new week is upon us, Over all I did very well this weekend with all aspects of this whole better health thang, almost. Saturday was date night with wify and Clash of the Titans was decent, I felt that it didn't stick to the story exactly but a good watch none the less, call me a movie nerd but Bubo needed to be a character in the flick and he wasn't so it was lacking for me. Anyways, I did get to the gym Saturday afternoon and made an awesome BBQ chicken on the grill with a honey pecan sauce that was pretty amazing with some of my rice and beans but I ended up going over on my calories because of the movie treat. Now before you start snapping your fingers and rolling your eyes because you think that I ate popcorn and chocolate know that I bought an apple, a gallon of green tea and a bag of light sour cream rice cakes to have as a movie snack so though I went over it was by about 250 calories because of the rice cakes and I actually woke up Sunday lighter than Friday.

Sunday we went to a flea market and that messed up my eating program as it was hours between breakfast and lunch and I did not bring anything to drink and refused to pay three dollars for a 12oz bottle of water. I did stay under calories for the day but by 3:00pm I was sunburned if only slightly, tired and hungry and we bought some Turkey breast for lunch and headed home to a picnic lunch out on our picnic table. I did get a couple decent scores at the flea market in the way of a new collapsible fishing pole for my back pack and an old school Starr X bottle opener to put out on my porch as someone is always looking for a way to crack a Corona open for the low low price of $11 for both items, $8 for the pole and $3 for the opener. My father came up for a visit so we didn't really do anything that could be called exercise besides the few hours walking around the flea market but I felt good about the day over all and everyone seemed to have a good time.

My rod and opener.

close up of the bottle opener.

I am heading into this week with high hopes that I will have a great weigh in again come Friday and will do everything in my power to make sure that if I don't that it was not for lack of bust assedness. Being so close to that 300 pound mark has gotten me all Ornery and I am planning to bombard my body with exercise this week while staying within my calorie range which should produce a good number come weeks end. Making good choices where food is the subject is a HUGE part of why I have been able to take off 225 pounds and keep it off, even when I slowed way down with the pace I was still not gaining which showed me that I can maintain without too much change in what I was doing and that really is one of the most important things. If I were to lose all of the weight that I need to lose because I was starving myself and doing an unrealistic plan then when the time came to maintain I would be lost. I am confident that I will keep every last pound off once I reach my goal weight and I will continue to get healthier and stronger every day because I truly have changed the way that I see food and exercise.

In five days time we shall find out how much closer to my goal that I am, in five days time will be another "official" for the blog weigh in and every day that I follow my plan I will be stronger than I was the day before. This is just how it is for me, I don't want to know anything else, I don't want to be on the wrong side of health ever again and I am refusing to walk over there again. I get asked often in emails and or comments about my exercise and the way that I feel about it, in fact just this morning I got an email saying " How did you come to love it as you do?" referring to exercise. I suppose the only answer is that when you have seen 500 plus pounds and what that has to offer, being unable to run with your child, or walk with your wife without turning 12 shades of red and getting soaked with sweat, sore back for 3 days after, or just being left out of most of the things that happen daily and go unappreciated by somebody that's never been as good as tied to a couch an appreciation for the movement occurs. I would compare it to caging an animal for years and making it watch the other animals run care free and untethered while it sat in the cage unable to do anything and then one day opening the cage and letting it go, that animal appreciates the freedom more now than it did before the cage and that's the only way that I can explain it. That and the fact that I love the way that I feel after a good solid workout, my wife says to me when she notices that I am in a not so good mood "Go outside and run around for a few minutes or something" and she says that about 30 minutes of hiking/walking that I suddenly get a case of diarrhea of the mouth so there is obviously more going on than just the un-caging but it is how I feel about it.

My day is starting and I have lots to do so this episode of as the fat guy turns has run its course, Thanks for following and thanks for all of the support. Make sure you drink that H2O and the rest is up to you so before you slip that brownie into your mouth think about how its gonna look on your ass and then decide if you want it, I bet ya put it down.

As Ever
Me

This is what 1700 calories looks like, lots of pictures!

The Story you are about to see is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent....This is a day in the life of just your average Joe living and eating with a healthy lifestyle, It was Friday April 9th it was raining in New England and I was assigned to the vice squad working a case, more like a bowl, a bowl of oats to be exact. There was 430 nutrition filled calories in this bowl of goodness and its phallic yellow friend not to mention the splash of Milk,"Vitamin D, calcium, essential for good strong bones and healthy teeth. But that's all Greek to you, isn't it, Mr. Gingivitis?" No not you, I was talking to Streebeck there.


11:30 am, subjects stomach made an odd sound, a rumble if you will so something had to be done, I witnessed a short stroll to the cabinet from my hidden position behind the curtain where the last Cadbury egg was and I got ready to make my move. There was something in his hand, Making out the shape of it was difficult but then I saw the red flesh of the apple in his hand and I relaxed, its only 85 calories and that's good enough for this fella.


A simple enough childs treat of a lunch minus the cut off crusts, not much I could say here, it is what it is I can't fault anyone for a good old fashioned peanut butter and strawberry preserves sandwich, 275 calories and went down as fast as it was built up, not the most satisfying meal but it did the trick and the sounds from the subjects gut had subsided.


An hour later I heard a conversation about some "Red velvet cake" so decided to take a look and since it was only 100 calories it was good to go and hit the spot.


Sesame seed and honey candy from the local health food store, something that no fat kid can ignore, wait did I just say that? I mean its sesame seeds and honey mixed and shaped into a rectangle right? seeds? yes they are indeed delectable and at 25 calories a piece I ate 2 of them on the way out to dinner, and I have come out of the theme I was going with for this post...


When I decided to start taking pictures of everything that I ate Friday for a post I had no clue that Wify was going to say "Hey hon lets go out for dinner tonight, how about Applebees?" so I agreed because of their under 550 calories meals and off we went with Camera in hand. I ordered the Asiago cheese Steak (which I ordered med rare) and veggies to drink? an unsweetened tea! the steak was more medium than rare, I kept the steak as is so that I would not have to wait for a new one to be cooked (it took a long time to come out) and the manager came over and offered us free dessert because of the mistake. I passed on the dessert but we let the kids get sundaes on the house and all in all it was a nice meal that shows that someone on a limited calorie budget CAN go out to dinner and not go over. I counted this meal at the 550 calories that the campaign would lead you to believe that it is but when looking at Applebees nutritional information it claims that the meal is 390 calories but the steak is a 7oz steak so the cals don't exactly add up to me so I just used the 550 calories on my spreadsheet.


Ok back in character for a minute.."My partner and I witnessed that little torchlight picnic you threw last night, we're gonna put you where your kind always ends up - in a seven by seven foot grey-green metal cage in the fifteenth floor of some hundred-year-old penitentiary, with damp, stinking walls and a wooden plank for a bed." Since we know that you're not perfect and it was just a couple fries off of the kids plate you get a pass this time fat boy, but don't let it happen again understand? I have no idea how many calories were in this little grip of fries that I stole off my daughters plate but with a smirk and an insisting voice Wify said that I needed to take a picture of it since its what I was doing so there you have it.


Roughly 9:00 pm I was at 1495 calories (not including the fries) and that's just not acceptable to be that low for me so I needed to make up some calories and a quick table spoon of peanut butter spread over a banana gave me 200 calories bringing me to 1695 for the day.


In addition to all of the tasty goodness that has been presented before you I drank 1 gallon of home brewed green tea, 2 glasses of unsweetened tea and a glass of H20 at Applebees and another 1.25 gallons of straight H2O at home. My calorie total was 1695 for the day and this is pretty typical for me as far as food goes besides the Applebees steak and steak in general as I tend to steer away from red meat usually. There you have it, one random day picked out of plenty of days that look very similar and I think I will do a post like this again as it was interesting, even if the waitress looked at us funny when I was taking pictures of my plate. If you think that this is not a lot of food then you may want to rethink the way that you look at food because honestly I could have stopped at the 1495 pre that banana with peanut butter on it after dinner, its easy when you look at it all spread out like this I think.

1695 calories plus some fries, 8 photos and just the facts ma'am.

As Ever
Me

I lost 225 pounds to date?? when did this happen? New low weight for the weigh in!

I was not expecting much this week because of Easter and my date with some Cadbury creme eggs, I should actually say egg because I only had one but I ate a considerable amount of Easter colored M&M's and some marshmallow peeps. I decided that I would play mister strict this week and weigh, measure and basically be perfect with my calories as well as getting to the gym daily and apparently busting my ass all week has paid off. Last Friday I weighed in at 314.6 pounds and that was up from my lowest ever weight but down from the previous week and I needed to drop 3.7 pounds to stay on course for my under 300 pounds by May 1st goal and I am just going to say that I am more than happy with what the scale said to me today. I will get right to it and say that the number that I saw first was 309.4Lbs, THREE ZERO NINE??? ok lets try this again, 309.4Lbs, I say to Wify "I am going to move the scale to a different part of the floor because that can't be right" into the kitchen and 309.4Lbs so it would appear folks that I have a 5.2 pound drop this week and a new low weight! I am now down a total of 225 pounds, or 42.13% of my total body weight, saying that out loud is nuts to me.

It says 309.6 but I promise it said 309.4 before I picked up the camera! my new low weight!!

This 1969 T250 weighs in at 309 pounds just like moi!

Finally this Zero S electric bike comes in at 225 pounds which is of course what I have lost to date.

With today's weigh in I am a mere 34 pounds from my initial goal of weighing 275 pounds and I have to say that honestly it does not seem right to me that the number is only 34 pounds. Staring down the barrel of having to drop 259 pounds and now that number is only 34 pounds and clearly remembering the feeling of "Oh shit, there is no way I am going to be able to do this" to being 34 pounds from that goal is kind of surreal if I am being honest. I was once this guy that said "its time to do this the right way and not stop until I get there" all while thinking in the back of my head "You know that's just some bullshit to try and keep you motivated Tony" but here I am 225 pounds lighter than I was when I began this whole trip to the half.

When I started writing this blog I literally did not expect to be writing it past maybe the first month and now I write in it just about daily and I have 674 posts including this one to date. I called my blog "One mans trip to the half" because I literally had to lose half of my body weight to be even remotely close to a healthy weight and I adjusted my goal to that number which is 267 pounds, at a 267 pound loss I will weigh 267 pounds and be at 50% total body weight lost. I am 42 pounds from having lost half of my total body weight and again that seems fake to me, it feels like it was someone else and I seriously cannot believe that I am accomplishing something of that magnitude because this has been one of the hardest things that I have ever done in my life.

I have changed my life as well as everyone in my families lives by making the decision to get healthy and there is more to that than I write about here in this blog. I did it with pure determination and discipline, I researched weight loss like it was my job, like my life depended on it mostly because it did and I believe that I have changed more than I want to admit in the way that I look at things in general. I did not pay thousands of dollars to some drug company for weight loss pills or the next new thing, I did not go the route of Harvey McDullardsonfengenden and do the jujuberry 7.2 thing, I simply applied what I had learned to my daily life and over the last 2 years changed everything for myself. Today's weigh in caught me by surprise, I was honestly expecting to edge just past 314 pounds and maybe hit 313 but coming in at 309 lbs really put me into a mood this morning. I need to drop about 3 pounds per week from now until May 1st to get to my 300 pound goal on time and I am going to do everything that I can to get there because I honestly feel like once I get there that I will sort of explode into some kind of insane hyper kill every cell in my body workout mode because I never thought it was something possible to do for myself.

I want anyone out there that might be reading this to know that you can lose whatever you need to where fat is concerned with nothing more than hard work and bust assedness yes I just made up a new word because that's what its gonna take to convince you! I am down 225 pounds and I have done it without any miracle plan by just eating less and moving more and I started off at 534 pounds so if I can do it anyone can! after all I WAS voted laziest in my high school year book you can read that post and see the high school picture that proves it! Here. Another week down and 5 more pounds gone with the wind, keep on keepin on, drink that H2O and make sure to tune in again for more mind blowing action in the next episode of Fat man and Blobin!

That's all I got for ya today.

As Ever
Me

Day 828, pre weigh in and my weight chart.

This week has gone well and its time to get on that scale tomorrow morning, will there be a loss? a gain perhaps? break even? I have a feeling there will be a loss but unsure exactly how much as its been an odd week. Making great choices with my food has been easy besides on Easter Sunday and I know that I was up in weight on Monday but I have been to the gym every day this week as well as taking an after dinner ride on my bike so I have the movement covered. I need to lose 3.7 pounds by tomorrow to be on track where my 300 pounds by May 1st goal goes and I just don't think its going to happen because of last weekend and all of the Easter goodness.

My plan when I began was simple, I was going to count my calories and move as much as I could and I had incredible success with that, I dropped weight like it was my job and did not enjoy my exercise but I did it. Eventually I started lightning up on myself and letting calorie amounts slip slightly, 50 here 75 there but I was amping up the exercise so it was ok that I ate a little more and my weight graph showed a downward trend so I was happy with how I was doing things. Now I am working out 5-6 times per week sometimes 7 days per week and am leaps and bounds ahead of where I started, I do lots of cardio daily and I can see results in the way that I look and feel. I am eating strictly within my calorie limits again, not that I ever really stopped as much as giving myself some wiggle room but I am focused on an end goal of hitting 275 pounds and getting under 300 by May 1st.

This is my weight progression chart starting at day one, click it for a larger image.

Here is a look at yesterdays menu which came in at 1765 total calories.

Breakfast
7:15 AM
2 cups honey combs 220
8oz 1% milk 110

10:00 AM
1 apple 85

11:30 AM
Dark chocolate zone bar 190

Lunch
2:30 PM
3oz dark turkey meat 150
2 slices whole wheat bread 140
1 T miracle whip 40
Yoplait yogurt 100

Dinner
5:45 PM
4oz turkey breast 120
3 slices whole wheat bread 210
1 T miracle whip 40
1 oz dark meat turkey 50
1 eight oz tomato 40
2 pickles 15

7:45 PM
1 hard boiled egg 70
1 apple 85

9:00 PM
Yoplait yogurt 100

Tomorrow I weigh in and though I don't think there will be a huge loss I do believe that I will weigh less than I did last Friday, whatever it is I know that I am a week stronger than I was. My daughter has no school for the next couple of days so I will be forced to go to the gym later than I normally do which may be a good thing breaking up the rhythm of going at roughly the same time every day so maybe not a bad thing. The mornings number will be another tick mark on my graph, a new number for the record book and hopefully closer to my end goal of weighing less than I do today. Thanks for following along while I whittle my arse into a smaller version of what it is right now, that's it for this episode of as the fat guy turns so make sure to pop on in tomorrow to see what that magical number is.

As Ever
Me

Express yourself

Falling into a groove with my program again and the weather is nice so I have been getting in an extra bike ride after dinner, all is going well. My intake was 1695 for the day, I got to the gym for 55 minutes of cardio and some weight lifting and I drank 2.75 gallons of green tea and H2O but I did fall short on sleep last night by staying up a bit too late, no worries but it should be mentioned. I really have nothing too profound to write about this morning besides the just about perfect day that I had yesterday and the fact that I feel like awesomeness in a box for it. It’s not what you look like, when you’re doin' what you’re doin'. It’s what you’re doin' when you’re doin' what you look like you’re doin'! and that's where I am, the threshold of not caring about whats around me when I workout is being crossed daily and I dare ya to get in my way.

There is a comfort level that seems to come the more weight that comes off and the more that I can see the hard work thats being put into every day that does not exist when you are 500 pounds. Its a hard thing to explain but in my head I call it "being comfortable" creative eh? but what I mean is that with being fat comes the tugging at clothing to make sure a roll is not sucking a shirt in or twisting jeans so that boxers are not riding out of them, its a constant adjustment battle with clothing and rolls that turns into a real hassle that is there all of the time. I see people that are not over weight walking and they look so comfortable and what they are wearing is just that, its clothing and not a sparring partner which is something that's far and in between for us more rotund folks. I think about the chub and what its doing pretty much 24/7, its like it has a mind of its own and I just want to walk down the street without adjusting clothing one time! the day is coming I assure you.

I have tunnel vision right now, I hit the top of a hill and am on the way down and the brakes are not enough until I get the bottom which is hopefully 275 pounds. There is something about the warmer weather that makes me want to just bust ass with the exercise and this week I have been on point with that but am afraid that its not going to show come Friday because of my Easter day escapades with the indulgences. Its funny how one day can completely set a whole week back where the scale is concerned but I find it equally amusing when I have that perfect week and the weight falls off so I ain't crying about it because it is what it is and well, yeah. I have been getting a lot of emails and inquiries about posting up my menus again so I have been doing that and here is yesterdays for you to ponder, notice a pattern from day to day?

Breakfast
7:15 AM
2 cups honey combs 220
8oz 1% milk 110

11:45 AM
Dark chocolate/almond zone bar 190

Lunch
2:30 PM
3oz turkey breast 90
2 slices whole wheat bread 140
1 T miracle whip 40

Dinner
6:00 PM
6 slices turkey bacon 150
4 slices whole wheat toast 280
lettuce/tom 30
1 T Miracle whip 60
12oz mashed turnips 150

7:30 PM
1 apple 85

8:30 PM
1 Yoplait yogurt 100

8:45 PM
1/2 Yoplait yogurt 50

That's a total of 1695 total calories and I drank 1 gallon of green tea and about 1.75 gallons of straight up good old fashioned H2O, I am noticing that I am light on the fruits and veggies lately so that will be adjusted accordingly. Today is going to be the same as yesterday, I will go to the gym, I will drink like a fish, I will eat my allotted calories and I will try and get out for a post dinner bike ride I figure why mess with what works right? Until then stay the course and keep on keepin on and all that, YOU are the only thing holding yourself back so remove the mental from the equation and get moving more and eating less.

As Ever
Me