Day 973, The most wonderful time of the year.

Back from my camping trip with the wife she is complaining about her sore back because of where she was forced to sleep but it will all be ok dear, the bike was safe and warm. This week affords me the opportunity to get back to the gym on a regular basis and I decided that its time to blast through this 300 pound barrier that I have been looking at from the distance. Somehow I have become easy on myself and that's because I am comfortable right now where I am with my health, I have not been left out of anything because of being too big in quite some time but we have come now to a point where I want to get to the other side of that 300 pound line in the sand.


Walking into the gym yesterday for the first time in a month felt good, I belong there and I am happy that is how I feel about it. Saying that I haven't been to the gym in a month doesn't mean that I have not been getting in some movement, I am on a bike at least 4 times per week and as much as I am on a bike I enjoy going to the gym almost the same I have decided that September 30th will be the next weigh in for the blog and then its back to normal with Friday weigh ins as I have done in the past, I find that having those weekly posts with the weight helps me a lot more than when I don't do it.

I started this blog a good long while ago now and when I did I made an image for the header that depicted the way I felt when faced with my weight loss, a train bearing down on me with nothing in my hand to stop it besides my willpower and wits. The last year I have become compliant because of getting to a place where I am not limited and I have settled into a routine that allows me to have a beer now and again, not weigh and measure every bite that goes into my body and miss workouts without any real negative besides not losing any more weight. I have maintained my weight for the last year without gaining more than a few pounds which come back off on their own and that my friends is called fluctuation but it shows me something, it shows me that I am very capable of maintaining a weight and that is kind of important because at some point I am going to have to maintain for good.

I am ready to slam my shoulder into the front of that train and finish what I've started, The children are back to school and the summer is coming to an end so forward momentum must be gained again. Enjoying the summer without adding the stresses of being as strict as it takes to drop weight the way I like to the stresses of every day life as is was a necessary evil this time around. The gym will be my second home for a while and I have a feeling that sub 300 pounds is right around the corner for me and I am proving to myself that living a healthy life is possible even when lifes not so fun moments poke their head into our personal business.

Its that time again folks, step to the side or get run over.

As Ever
Me

I have an addiction thanks to my weight problem.

Addiction is a funny thing, for some people its the burn in the back of their throat from a stiff drink and others get it from drugs and then there the people that get it from a good solid workout. There is a group of people that are addicted to food and I do believe that I fell into that group for a good long period of my life. Addictions can control us in ways that no one would ever want to admit because they show our weak side, something that can control us, decide our fate for us. This weekend my wife has discovered that I have an addiction, and this addiction is not made of ground beef a hardy roll and a half pound of toppings, this addiction is not made from plastic and electronics that display digital characters running through Batilla downs on the tv and computer screen, it is much different.

My daily rider K2 ZED that started it all.

1988 Specialized Rockhopper Comp which I cleaned up and it is tuned and ridable, it has new tubes and tires on it now but I haven't taken a new photo yet.

Old Murray Legacy, this is no where near big enough for me but the price was the same as a 6 pack so I couldn't pass it up.

1990 (dated from component dates) Specialized Hardrock sport, This bike is very fun and I have been riding it twice a week or so in place of the K2 just for kicks.

This is a Trek Mountaintrack 220 that I picked up yesterday from craigslist, its a kids bike but fits my son perfect so I will likely clean it up and let him ride it a little bit as he is riding on a Next MTB currently.

I have in the last year been consumed by bikes, reading about bikes, buying bikes, and most importantly riding bikes, I have come to love bike riding once again. I see biking as a huge factor in how I lost most of my weight on this trip to the half as I started off on a used stationary bike bought from Craigslist back in the beginning and I loved it even back then on that old used monstrosity of a bike looking thing. I ride a stationary bike at the gym and then come home and ride my bike around the lake that I live on, When you are caged and unable to participate in something that you know is enjoyable it hurts. Biking was something that I knew I loved because when I was a kid I rode everywhere on an old Schwinn Super Le Tour with my best friend, like clock work we meet in front of the house and headed over to the corner store to fill our bike bottles with 25 cent juices and off we went.

Missing something and not knowing that you miss it is unfortunate because it could have been a huge motivational tool for me with my weight loss a lot sooner if I realized how much I actually enjoy riding a bike. This is an addiction that I am proud to say that I have, I love my bikes and am planning on a few more before the summer is over which should make the boss lady happy as she tells me daily to move this one or that one out of her way. I would love to find myself an old Super le Tour in dark blue with the chrome fork tips like back in the day for nostalgia's sake so I am always keeping my eyes out for one of those to pop up, mine was stolen from my back porch back in about 1993 or so. Last night I told Wify that having all of the bikes was a lot better than having all of the video games and systems with a side of big fat cheeseburger addiction and she agreed wholeheartedly so they get to stay.

Finding something that we love to do that will keep us fit while we spend precious time doing it is more than a good thing, its the absolute to sustain a healthy life. If we enjoy what we do for exercise then it becomes a hobby more than exercise and we want to do it every day if not every minute.

So I am more than proud to say that I have an addiction, that addiction is going to help me excel with my health and fitness level all while giving me views that I have not had for quite some time on top of a frame and some wheels pedaling my ass off every day.

Hi, my name is Tony and I am an addict...

As Ever
Me

Eggplant parmesan recipe for the calorie conscious.

Today we have a recipe, this is something that I have been missing since I started down this road to better health and that thing is eggplant parmesan. The way that I was shown how to make this dish is to thinly slice the eggplant, dip it in egg followed by seasoned white flour fry the be'jesus out of it, layer it between mozzarella, parmesan cheese and sauce which was always followed by greasy smiling faces and full bellies. Since I had some eggplant growing out in the garden I thought I would try a lighter version of this all time favorite for us calorie conscious folks and I have to admit that it turned out pretty amazing if I do say so myself.

Fresh from the garden.

Here are the ingredients.
21oz fresh eggplant
2oz low fat mozzarella cheese
3 T parmesan cheese
1.5 cups spaghetti sauce
1 cup Panko bread crumbs
2 egg whites
Less than 1/4 cup 1% milk
Garlic powder
Black pepper
Goya Adobo
Olive oil cooking spray

1.) Preheat your oven to 375 then start off by separating two egg whites into a bowl and add the milk, beat that up and set it to the side. put the panko bread crumbs into a second bowl and season them with the Adobo, black pepper and garlic powder to taste, I like a lot of garlic so I went heavy on that, now place that to the side.

2.) Next thinly slice the eggplant into about 1/4 inch thick pieces, I cut them at an angle as I had thin eggplant and wanted to give them some area for the crumbs to stick to. Dip the slices into the egg/milk mixture and bread them with the seasoned panko. Spray a cookie sheet with the olive oil cooking spray and lay the breaded eggplant slices in a single layer on the pan (I used 2 pans) then spray the tops of the layered eggplant with a light coat of the cooking spray, I find that spraying the panko before it goes into the oven results in a crispy golden brown finished product compared to not spraying. Place the eggplant into the oven for 25 to 30 minutes until the eggplant is tender time will depend on how thick your slices are.

3.) Measure out your cheeses and sauce while the eggplant cooks in the oven, when the eggplant is done baking it should be crispy and starting to brown. Start the first layer of sauce in your baking pan and when the eggplant is done baking make a layer of the eggplant on top of the sauce.

Straight from the oven

Here is the first layer in the pan after baking the breaded eggplant.

4.) Keep layering eggplant, sauce, and the two cheeses in the pan until it is full, top it with the rest of the two cheeses and loosely cover the pan with foil. Place the pan into the 375 preheated oven for 15 minutes then take it out and uncover it, put it back in for an additional 15 minutes uncovered. The cheese will be starting to brown at that point and the delicious smell of your eggplant parmesan should be filling the air.

Ready for the oven.

The completed dish.

5.) After letting it sit for 5 minutes, make a plate and enjoy the work! eggplant is one of those dishes that I don't make too often because of having to bread each individual slice of this magnificent vegetable not to mention the high calorie count in the fried version but all of that breading is worth it on this one.

The entire pan had a total of 1040 calories in it which translates to 260 calories per serving if split in 4 equal parts which was a very good size portion as you can see from the photo above. If the pan was cut into sixths the calorie cost per serving would be right at 175 per piece and as a side dish going off of what I got with my quarter pan piece a sixth would probably be a decent portion considering that the plate above is a full size dinner plate. The calorie counts are based on the measured ingredients and the final product I did have slightly less calories that that total, I did have some panko and the egg wash left over when all was said and done but for the sake of simplicity I divided all measured ingredients and used that number for my calorie count. The dish was incredibly tasty for being baked instead of fried and I can honestly say that everyone loved it! I will be making it again.

If you try this recipe I hope you enjoy it as much as my family did and please leave me a comment to let me know that you tried it!

Roses are red violets are blue this eggplant recipe today is all I got for you!

As Ever
Me

Day 953 and a menu.

Making better choices in my diet and exercise for nine hundred fifty three days now and loving every minute of it, I promise you I am! Starting off not being able to walk a half mile to where I am today hiking, biking and hitting the gym regular like my life is completely different than it was when I began down this road paved in low calorie meals and sweaty bike rides. Living life on this end of the spectrum is a lot nicer than where I started, the view is much better from this side to put it simply. Something that has happened recently is that since the kids have been off of school my exercise has slowed way down and I know that having them here makes it more difficult to have a strict exercise schedule but I should honestly be able to get something into every day regardless so my lack of movement sits squarely on my shoulders, it is what it is. My weight has sort of whats the term the kids are using these days? plateaued? for the last couple months...hey! exactly when I stopped going to the gym every day, who wouldda thunk?? but its the reason that I am not too worried about it too. What it shows is that I can maintain my weight pretty easily because I am not really up in weight in the grand scheme but I am fluctuating within about a 10-15 pound range that hasn't changed in a couple months.

Did somebody mention the view being better on this side?

Here is my menu from yesterday, I did go over slightly but I swear its not my fault! those rice and beans that I make are seriously addicting for me and I really should stop making it! but I can't! I must!! there is no way that I can't have them! think of your ass man! but! but! no pun intended! or was it? oh I don't know any more....see?? I've gone crazy talking to myself in my own blog over them..... here is the menu at any rate.

Breakfast
8:15 AM
onion/peppers/tomato/1T smart balance 87
6 egg whites 1 whole egg 160
1 whole grain deli thin 100
1 garlic pickle spear 5

11:30 AM
1 banana 105

12:30 PM
1 med tomato 25

Lunch
2:00 PM
1 T peanut butter 95
1 T strawberry jam 40
2 slices whole wheat bread 140

2:30 PM
1 Yoplait thick and creamy yogurt 100

3:45 PM
1 med tomato 25

Dinner
6:15 PM
1 1/3 cup rice&beans 400
6oz panko breaded baked haddock 250
tartar sauce 50

8:00 PM
1/2 cup rice & beans 150

That comes to 1732 total calories for the day which is not bad at all and pretty much on the button but truth be told I did take a bite or two more than the measured portions that are listed so it is a tad bit higher than the 1732 on my excel sheet. I've started weighing everything again too which means that all of my chopped veggies and smart balance etc is getting itemized into my spreadsheet again, its sort of just a check system for myself to make sure that my visual scale skills are still sharp. I never stopped weighing portions of meat and I never stopped measuring my rice or pasta etc on my salter scale or in measuring cups but my diced veggies, whole fruits etc I have been eyeballing for a while now. before I weigh anything now I take a guess and I am happy to say that I am still pretty much right on so my eyeballing skill has held up.

I am working out a schedule to make sure that I can get to the gym every day because I must do it, I miss going regularly to the gym and my weight hasn't budged since I stopped going daily so it must resume. The problem that I run into when I go to the gym later in the day, meaning early evening is that I am all kinds of pumped up and awake after my workout that I end up staying up until after midnight because of that high so my sleep suffers. When sleep suffers everything suffers because I am tired and not at my best so its hard for me to commit to a late workout but I am thinking that I have to because besides the fact that I am not getting in the cardio that I would like to be I just plain old miss it.

Today I will be at the gym at some point, the plan is my 15-15-15 workout but I changed it to 20-20-20 so that its an hour of cardio instead of the 45 minutes. I have 4 eggplants out in the garden that are ready to be picked so perhaps a healthy version of eggplant parmesan will be born today. My day must begin so that's all I got for now, the one thing that I ask of you is that if you made it all the way to this point of my post is that you get up now and go grab a glass of H2O to start your day off right, I am already down 1/2 a gallon of water and 30 seconds after I hit publish I will have a glass of Green tea in my possession.

Keep on keepin on, its all that we can do..

As Ever
Me

YOU are the one...

Don't tell me that you can't do it, if you do I will not believe the words weakly falling from your pie hole.

That sounds a lot like an excuse to me, perhaps you should reevaluate your stance before making the decision to not workout today.

I understand that its just a tiny amount of cereal grabbed from the box but you don't need it so put it back right this very moment.

I will start being strict again tomorrow, do in NOW not later.

Making the decision to get and stay healthy has to be all of the way, it has to be how we live each and every day of our lives, we need to eat real foods and exercise our bodies in order to be at the top of our limits every day. I can tell you that at 500 plus pounds nothing is easier, not a single thing in life is made more simple because of weighing more than a quarter ton unless we are talking about anything gravity related, or perhaps breaking the inner structure of a couch. Being chained to an uncomfortable life because of our weight is not a fun thing, I do not wish it on anybody and I feel for people that I see walking around or in a lot of times rolling around in motorized chairs breathing heavy while struggling to appear as if they are in control of things. I honestly at times have to stop myself from offering help to random people that I see struggling to breathe because of their weight, I know first hand how it feels as well as knowing that a hand reached out would feel like an insult because at my highest if someone offered to help I would have insisted that they were crazy and that I was just fine.


Making the decision to snatch our lives from an almost certain heart attack or hand grenading our knees isn't easy, its not something that is a snap change in the way we eat and exercise but when a person weighs 500 plus pounds its time to start making it a priority. I don't think that anyone can just flip a switch and be mister super weight loss eat right guy but over time and lots of research that can develop and a healthy life can be his. Nobody forces us to eat badly, there is no giant with a club holding our mouths open while he shoves greasy morsels of artery clogging food down our gullets, it just doesn't happen like that. We have to be our own police, when its food that is the addiction its hard because we need to eat, and we need to do it every day so how do you police that effectively all while not obsessing over it? You have to want it more than you want the handful of cereal or the bacon double bacon cheeseburger pizza dipped in chocolate sauce and melted cheese.

When I was 500 pounds I was the very same man that I am now but there was a difference, that difference is that I hid behind the difficulty of what was in front of me where as now I take responsibility for whatever I do, they are my decisions and mine alone. Nothing is going to change if we don't make it change, in some cases we must force a change because if we don't then it will always be our downfall and when you are (if you read my blog regularly you know I hate this term) Morbidly obese time is against you. I wish that someone would have told me that I had a case of being a little bitch and prescribed me a heavy dose of man the fuck up a long time ago because that's what it comes down to for me, and its how I look at my health these days. I have to do what I need to in order to assure that I am around a very long time so that I can show my kids that there is a right way and a wrong way to approach their health so that they will never have to concern themselves with the struggles of being an extremely heavy individual in a society that just does not accept it not to mention all of the health risks involved with weighing as much as a silver back gorilla.

Make excuses or make your mind up to do something about the weight, it is your choice, your decision and your life. I can't tell you that its easy because it really has been one of the most difficult things that I have done in my life but I can tell you that I am happier right now than I have been in my entire adult life because of making that decision to live life on my terms.

I can and am doing it..

I will workout today...

I did walk past that cereal box without dipping into it....

I am on plan and full steam ahead NOW not tomorrow.....

Won't you join me?

As Ever
Me

From the bottom of the pile to mountain tops!

This weekend afforded the Boss lady and myself the chance to get away on a little weekend retreat just the two of us so we did! I got an email from Wify listing an entire weekend full of stuff to do with a simple question "How does this sound?" I thought it sounded great so the room was booked and we were off. I always talk about not limiting myself during "special occasions" and this kind of fell into that but I did pretty good on the eating front and as far as exercise is concerned we walked for more than 5 hours on Saturday on Mt Sunapee at a craftsmen fair followed by about 2 1/2 hours on Sunday at a HUGE flea market that was on our route home.

Oh no! I ate the whole thing!

We started out on our trip and I had all day Friday where I ate how I should have, we decided to go to the supermarket for a snack for the ride as it was a few hours and some stuff to drink. I decided on a bag of Quaker Quakes rice snacks which is 70 calories per serving BUT I ended up eating the entire bag on the ride up! no worries I thought as I had a very light day so on we went. It was decided before we left that we would do a late dinner when we pulled into town and we found a little bar/restaurant which was surprisingly good where the service and food was concerned. We ordered nachos for an appetizer and I got an 8oz NY strip with a loaded baked potato and sauteed zucchini, I passed on the veggies, ate the whole steak and the potato came back to the hotel with us so again not so bad of a dinner where calories are concerned. Wify ordered a pasta dish with artichoke, spinach, grilled chicken and a light red sauce and she only ate half of it and that meal from Friday fed us for dinner again Saturday and one meal for two nights dinner would have never happened in the past.

A shot of the Healthy eating vendors sign.

Saturday morning we woke up early and started our day with breakfast at the restaurant in the hotel just to make things easy, I had an eggbeater omelet with veggies, whole wheat toast and some home fries. I asked for half of the cheese that they normally use as I didn't figure they used low fat stuff like I do at home, the home fries were baked and I opted for H2O as my drink, over all I was off to a good start. We headed up to the Craftsmen fair and I was pleasantly surprised at what I found there as I was a little skeptical that it was going to be intriguing enough to keep me interested in staying all day. There were glass blowers, blacksmiths, wood carvers, painters and silver smiths along with any other kind of craft type persons that you could think of there, we walked straight away to a fella that was carving logs into sculptures with a chainsaw and immediately bought a mask off of him for our wall of masks at home. After walking around for a few hours we decided that it was time for lunch so we walked on over to the food area to be faced with things like Philly cheese steaks, cheese burgers, pulled pork sandwiches and all other sorts of "fair" type food stuff but then noticed the "Health smart" booth! I ended up with a Turkey sandwich on whole wheat with lettuce on it with a bottle of H2O to wash it all down with so I was still on par with making good food choices to go with all of the walking that we were doing.

Half of my lunch.

and the other half! along with my chipmunk like cheek!

After lunch I was forced we decided to take a ride on the ski lift to take a 10 minute ride to the summit of Mt Sunapee to check out the view and walk around a bit up on top of the world, the brochure said there were trails up there so it sounded fun. The ride up was really fun with lots to look at and the view from the top was even better, it was almost story like as we got to the top and were greeted with what seemed like hundreds of shiny purple dragonflies gliding around the wild flowers and trees. We spent about an hour on the summit before heading back down and to say that I was relaxed at that point would not be close to how I was feeling, Just two and a half years ago a trip like this one would not have been possible just because of the walking that was involved never mind anything else.

My feets on the ski lift, its further down than this pic lets on!

Me and Wify on the summit, another hiker offered to take our photo for us.

This is off of the balcony on the lodge at the summit.

Wify snapped this as we were walking away from the ski lift after coming down.

When we came down off of the summit we decided that it was time to head back to the hotel after a quick trip to the supermarket for some green tea and supplies. I was craving Cheese for some reason, is there something in cheese that my body needed? or did I just want some?! I don't know but we picked up some low fat pepper jack and a box of wheat thins which we used as an appetizer to our main course al la left overs. Saturday night dinner was the loaded baked potato, Wifys pasta and the remainder of the nachos split between us, we did indulge in dessert at the Italian restaurant in the hotel in the form of some Gelato and a small piece of cheese cake which was also split between us after dinner.

Sunday is where my eating went down hill as I feel that I made decent choices throughout the whole weekend until that day, breakfast was at a diner and I got a cup of coffee which I did use splenda in so props to me there but that's where the props stop I am afraid. I ordered hash and eggs, which had 3 eggs over easy on top of a small pile of hash along with some whole wheat toast, the meal was delicious and I haven't had hash in ages but probably not the best choice in the grand scheme. We had decided that we were going to stop in Massachusetts for dinner at a random Italian restaurant that we found on restaurants dot com as we had a few coupons and we were going to kind of skip lunch grabbing a soft serve ice cream at some point after a flea market that we stopped at. Well we did get soft serve at a place called Poor boys drive in, this place was amazing! they had flavored soft serve ice cream in the way of like 30 different flavors! I ended up getting a large rum flavored and wify opted for the cheese cake and that rum soft serve tasted just like rum cake and though I thoroughly enjoyed the cone I am quite relieved that it is so far from me. Our "skip lunch" idea turned into "lets just grab a side and split it" which we did, we ordered something that they called tumbleweeds which was just very thinly sliced onions cooked like onion rings but it was a huge plate! and off we went.

At the place in MA I ordered the chicken parm which was served on top of pasta and again was not the best choice but I knew that when I ordered it, the menu was sort of lacking and nothing else really caught my attention. I knew that another blogger Ann whom I met when I went to the Dr. Oz show lived in MA and she had given me her cell phone number at the time so I thought I would shoot her a text and see if she wanted to meet Wify and myself for dinner at said random restaurant. As it turned out she was only 30 minutes away from where we were eating and accepted so that was a cool surprise to end our weekend. Ann found out that I do in fact drink crazy amounts of tea as she watched eight or was it nine glasses of unsweetened tea come to the table one after another, we did joke about that. After dinner back into the car we went and homeward bound once again we drove as I tried to make the "time of arrival" on the GPS get lower and lower until finally we made it home.

Over all it was a great weekend spent with Wify, I made some good choices with my intake, some not so good choices but in the grand scheme it was good. Eight hours of walking/hiking squeezed into two days and some great memories added to the collection along with the three hundred some odd photos that we snapped while making those memories. This entire weekend would not have happened if I had not decided to change my life just two and a half short years ago and I know that I am happier because of that decision.

That was how this fella spent a weekend because of a two and a half year old decision, what are you able to do now because of healthier choices? and with that, the end has come to this edition of as the fat guy turns..

As Ever
Me

I lost 229 pounds and still a round boy

Can you imagine how frustrating that is? can you imagine working as hard as I do and still looking like you eat cheeseburgers for breakfast lunch and dinner? There are times that I feel like a million bucks and then there are other times that I grab a glance of myself in the mirror and think "Holy hell! am I still THAT big??" It really is a double sided battle for me. I know that I am not even close to what I was at 500 plus pounds but I am not close enough to my goal yet that I can say "yep, couple few more pounds and I'm there" either and I think that a lot of the frustration comes from the skin that's literally still hanging around because of the big losses.

I currently wear a 2XL shirt, well most in that size fit now a days but the top of the shirt usually fits slightly loose while the bottom half is more snug but the skin likes it that way so it is what it is. I think about how big I look to myself at this point sometimes and I can get lost in that until I am feeling like a complete round boy, now this is rare but it still happens. I have to remember that just two and a half years ago I was wearing a 6XL shirt and thinking about a 7XL because the 6XL was starting to snug more and more. This next thing may sound odd but I still have a lot of the clothes that I wore back when I was 500 plus pounds but I keep them to remind me where I was because though I have come more than 200 pounds down a road that's leading me to being fit I still need reminders to keep me pushing. Yesterday we took the kids to the mall for a haircut and a wash, I was walking through the mall and saw that my gym is opening a location in the mall so I was reading the sign but there was a weird angled window next to me and I caught a glimpse. I looked about how I thought I did, sexy fat dude came to mind but when I turned I looked bigger "holy hell! round boy!" and I know that I need to just get over it but I am always looking for my reflection to judge myself, imagine that? judging myself!

The green shirt is one of my old 6XL's while the black Under Armour shirt is a 2XL and fits me now, putting them on top of one another really shows just how big of a difference there is, I promise that black one is not a kids shirt!.

We go through life with people judging or prejudging us and here I am having successfully lost more than 200 pounds and keeping it off for more than 2 years and I am doing to myself something that I loathed as a heavier person. I got over it pretty quickly but the thought entered my gray matter center stage if only for a second or two, it did enter. I walked into GNC and read a fitness magazine for a minute or two and didn't question me being in there or look around to make sure there wasn't more than one person in there like I did back when I was heavier and needed to use their scale. Two things need to happen for me, I need to just stop thinking about the bigger me and by that I mean the version of my current self that looks bigger whether in my minds eye or in reality sometimes, and I need to realize that I look extremely different than I did when I began my better health campaign.

That image above shows me a lot, it is proof positive that I am leaps and bounds ahead of where I started because when I thought to lay one shirt on top of the other I didn't think that it would look as different as it does. Maybe I should just accept the fact that I am much smaller now, perhaps if the new me was to lay on the old me the difference would be just as dramatic. Maybe I should stop caring about those odd angles where I look bigger than my minds eye shows me I am? I wish that it was that easy. Having memories of wearing that green shirt that is above and those memories being so close in the grand scheme it would be like forgetting something that happened yesterday, even though today is a completely different day, what happened yesterday is still there. Hopefully sooner than later I can get past that feeling of being a round boy because I do know that there is a huge difference but all at the same time I see a bigger me than people say is there now from time to time.

947 days after starting down this path to better health I am much lighter, stronger mentally and physically, I eat better than I ever have in my life and still I battle with seeing myself smaller. Perhaps this shall pass, perhaps it won't but how ever it goes the plan is to keep on keepin on until I reach all of my health goals. My feeling is that I am not the only one that has fought or is fighting this self image battle but I will take this fight over the other any day because this is much easier than weighing 500 plus pounds and struggling with EVERYTHING.

As the fat guy turns has come to a conclusion for the day, make great decisions when it comes to intake and drink much for all you have to gain is your health!

As Ever
Me

Decisions...Can you make the right one?

We make decisions every day of our lives which takes us down our own path ultimately deciding where we end up for the end game, These are the decisions that mold our very existence. At every Y in the road there is a choice to make and that is no different than when a person struggling with weight has to decide whether to skip the brownie or not, there is a choice and what we decide will dictate where the path takes us. I have literally had to take pause and think to myself "is this cookie really worth the end result?" sometimes I eat it but most times I choose to not take the empty calories and grab some baby carrots or a glass of H2O instead because I know that making better choices most of the time is how I will succeed with my health goals.

The choice to workout each day falls on each of our own shoulders, there are days that I do not no way ain't gonna happen have the time to get to the gym or out for a ride on my bike and a lot of those times I go without any exercise for that day. Instead of skipping a workout there is always something that we can do to get at least some exercise in, now it may not be a vigorous 30 minute cardio session followed by weight lifting and a nice calming stretching routine but something is better than nothing. Push ups and crunches are some of my favorites, I can do either of those exercises in the spare seconds between chores, or right before bed even, they don't take long at all and help us keep or add some muscle while we shed weight. These decisions are the key to success when it comes to our health, if we make the wrong decision too many times we can end up weighing in excess of 500 pounds and unable to do many remedial tasks that most people take for granted.

I suppose what I am getting at is what I have said from the beginning, well, the beginning of this blog anyhow, and that is every one of us holds in our hands the power to change our rotund physiques into a healthier version with our choices. At the end of the day it is each and every one of us that is responsible for ourselves so when 10:30 pm comes around and we are sitting on the couch before bed, every decision that was made where eating and or exercise is the subject falls squarely onto our own shoulders. Eating is an important thing for us as human beings, I mean we can't live without eating but I don't think that any one of us should live to eat, in the grand scheme there is not a food on the planet that tastes as good as being free to do whatever we want to on our own terms. That is a fact that I have learned first hand and I never want to be on the wrong side of that equation ever again.

I'm just another fat guy getting healthier but I can tell you first hand that making better decisions one day at a time has changed the way that I live completely and you can do it too, if you want it.

Thats all I got.

As Ever
Moi

What do you mean there is no magic???

Last time we met, our man of interest Zeusmeatball had acquired a new means of transportation in the form of a fat burning, muscle building dual wheeled crank driven vehicle or..um..a new old bike which was added to the fleet. A long weekend that included more eating than should have happened because of going to a HUGE car show and frankly not caring about having a burger and a hot dog from a vendor at said show, the Holy Grail of cars was found and a good time was had by all. He walked for more than two hours looking at classic cars which evoked more drool on his chin than any cheeseburger could ever hope to achieve, now plans for a new old car are floating through his gray matter. This weekend was decent on the movement front but the eating properly was lacking as the trip to the car show paired with an adventure to a Drive in movie relaxed the usual stern resolve that normally resides within me.

1969 Shelby GT500, they don't get much nicer than this.

My neighbors 1951 Plymouth Concord with the Shelby in the background.

The fact that I was able to walk around a car show for more than two hours much of that time with my 47 pound daughter bouncing around on my shoulders is a testament to what can be done when we take things into our own hands where health is concerned. I was unable to walk a quarter mile to see a broken bridge not so long ago and now my little girl gets to have great memories of riding around on Her Daddy's shoulders with her red balloon in hand dripping ice cream onto my shiny dome. Things could have ended up so differently for me if I had not hit that turning point where I decided to change my lifestyle up, This is a much better option for everyone involved if ya ask me.

I believe that anyone can lose weight if the time and effort is put into it, once upon a lullaby I was that guy sitting in the couch thinking about how impossible losing the weight was and had all but given up hope of ever being smaller. That guy felt defeated and backed into a corner where his health was the subject and started looking into alternative options to help with the weight loss but what he found out was that there is no such thing as magic and nothing but hard work was going to change things. Without putting work into ourselves we can not hope to accomplish weight loss or any health goals, If I had chose to continue sitting on my ass with a joystick in my hand..lets keep our minds out of the gutter kids that's not what I meant! who knows where I would be today? perhaps that couch would have collapsed by now and the wood floor would have the beginnings of an ass shape forming into the very fibers of the wood itself! I don't know and I don't want to know, I am just happy that I made my mind up and stuck to it.

If you are reading this blog for the first time or the 700th time know that you can change the way that you eat, no disability, no problem and no lifestyle requires a person to mindlessly shovel food into their face, those things are just excuses. Even now after two and a half years of doing it right I still struggle with eating more when I am stressed but at the core of that I am the one that lifts food to mouth no matter what else is going on in my life so I am responsible for my own actions each and every time, just like you are.

Eat less, move more, hold on tight and enjoy the ride is what follows, go ahead ask me how I know.

As Ever
Me