This is a Rooster..The scale says??

Its that time of the week where the number on the scale counts towards the blog tally for weight lost or gained. This being the first full week of the 2000 calorie bump up I wasn't sure what would happen this morning so when I woke up I staggered into the living room and stepped onto my scale, and.... All week I have been weight lifting on a regular basis and have been diligently working out whether it be at the gym or out on a trail, I have done my part is the point that I am trying to get at and yes I did have a single day where I mussed up the program but even with that I should have lost something. My feeling has been that eating more calories to lose more weight feels counter intuitive, I always say "eat less move more" right? so this eating more thing just didn't jive with me mostly because I have eaten 1700 calories for so long that its become habitual for me to stop when I hit that number. Oh! wait, I stepped on the scale so I suppose before I get into anything else I should share what it said right?

Points to you if you get this reference.

I could say that the scale was kind to me but I would rather say that I was not kind to the fat on my bones instead, seems more fitting to me. I this morning weighed in at three hundred twenty seven and four tenths pounds and that is a 2.8 pound drop for the week, coming in at 327.4Lbs was pretty cool because its a pretty good drop for the week and I feel like I am on a roll again which does wonders for the positive attitude. I don't want to say that the up in calories was the key because I have upped my exercise routine along with it but the extra calories certainly doesn't seem to be hurting the cause, If we get a few weeks in a row with decent losses i will call it the new calorie allowance, for now its still on a trial basis.

Last week at my gym there was a fella doing body fat percentages with a little gizmo that I held in front of me after he input my height, weight and age, he offered me a free evaluation and offered to show me a few movements with weights that I may not be doing, sort of a fine tune for my workout so I will be doing that this afternoon. This is something completely out of my comfort zone because I have always been self sufficient in that respect and have always just researched things on my own to create my workout plans and calorie allowances. Could it hurt to have this fella walk around though the free weights with me? nah, I am sure that he will be showing me everything that I am already doing but in the spirit of doing something different I signed up, what could it hurt? right?

Today was not going to be a lifting day for me because I have an appointment tomorrow that I don't want to be sore or fatigued for but I think that just going through the motions and getting the "fitness eval" from a trainer could be good for my mental. This week has been good and starting off by stepping out of my box (even if it is ever so slightly out of that box) will hopefully keep me going at the same pace that I have been at because I feel good and the weight is coming off again and that's the point. I am down 2.8 pounds this week for all of the hard work, I am stronger than I was last week and I know that as long as I put in the work that I am destined to succeed straight to my goal, no excuses, no whining, just going to keep the momentum for as long as I can and try to get to that April goal of being 275 pounds or less.

Halloween is here and it will just be another day for me, no candy, no sweets and nobody will stop me from getting to my goal, the way I see it is that I will get some extra exercise in by walking the kiddos around the neighborhood, I suppose its all about how you look at things, don't let it be an excuse to eat badly, capisci?

As Ever
Me

Every journey begins with a step...

I am heading into my second week of raising my calories to 2000 per day, this is the first whole week that I will have eaten that many calories per day and am going to see what the scale says about it. Sticking to my plan has been fairly easy this week besides one day where some stress stepped in and for the life of me I can't seem to control the snatching of extra calories when I am stressed in certain ways, that shits gotta stop. I have made it to the gym every day for the last almost two weeks barring Tuesday which is the same day that the little stress bomb hit me in the face and I was on a good roll with the weight to that point too so I am doubly aggravated that it happened but it did and there is no good in dwelling on it. I had signed up for a fitness evaluation at my gym which was suppose to happen Tuesday and I rescheduled that because of my mood and lack of interest in anything healthy so I have that to do tomorrow after I weigh in for the blog, lets see what the fella says about my general health status.


Curiosity has got me thinking about what the scale will tell me in the AM, I was steadily going down in weight until Wednesday morning, this morning its coming down again so tomorrow I will either level out and show a small loss or no loss depending on whether I am still sore from the weight lifting. I am still not completely assimilated to my weight lifting program and have been adding movements to each workout so I am still feeling a tad sore afterward but that soreness is lessening so perhaps another week before I am in a rut and chugging along where I want to be. I mentioned my intake being on par besides Tuesday and I have been recording every bite that goes into my body diligently into my excel sheet and I still get emails asking me to keep posting the menus so I want to try and get those out there as much as possible and with that have a look at Wednesdays intake.

Breakfast
7:15am
2 cups honey combs 220
1 cup 1% milk 110

10:30 AM
1 Dark chocolate/strawberry zone bar 180

Lunch
2:00 PM
2 deli slims 200
3oz deli turkey 100
1 T Miracle whip 40
1oz lays light chips 75
1 pickle 10

3:00 PM
1 Nectarine 70
1 Banana 105

4:15 PM
2 Plums 60

Dinner
6:15 PM
2 80 calorie rolls 160
5oz sloppy joe 225
11oz potato 275

8:30 PM
1/2 cup 1% milk 55
1 scoop whey protein 130

Grand total of 2015 calories for the day which is right in there, I am getting comfortable with the extra calories and am finding that its allowing me to keep my normal day to day but I am adding more fruits to my days along with some whey shakes so that's all good news. Adding more fruits and veggies is on my mind constantly and I think that I normally do a decent job of getting enough into my days but I also think that I could use a little more so look for that in the menus in the next few weeks. With the addition of the more regular lifting schedule and the extra calories I am feeling that seven days from tomorrow the scale will jump down more than a couple pounds because of the normalizing of the lifting and the extra calories but of course that is to be found out.

Almost anything is possible if we put out minds to it, that statement isn't something that I believed back when I was heavy enough to consider that it would kill me but after battling with my health and weight for the last couple years I know it to be true. Somewhere out there is a man or woman that is reading this for the first time or for the 300th time and feeling that its impossible because of this or that or the other thing that's ailing them and I tell you that you are the only thing holding yourself back.

I started out at 534 pounds, a disk injury in my back which caused me more than a little bit of pain EVERY day of my life sometimes to the point of leaving me laying in bed with tears in my eyes. Unable to walk further than a few hundred feet before pain and being winded would make me stop dead in my tracks. The only person that was holding me back was myself, no one was forcing me to drink a 2 liter of coke with my sack of Taco bell, no one was making me order a Super sized double quarter pounder with cheese meal with a side of another quarter pounder for lunch at McNasty and nobody was making me drink a gallon of milk per day so even with the extreme pain in my back from the disk injury that still gets me some days I was the person holding myself back. I will never claim that its an easy process because its harder than anyone that has never struggled with it will ever know but I will say that we need to be stronger than whatever it is that holds us back in life or we will always measure less than we could in the grand scheme of life and it will be at our own hands.

YOU control what goes into your mouth, YOU control how you live your life and YOU are the only one holding yourself back, just like me and every other sack of meat and bones walking this planet so put that cookie down and go for a walk today, even if its only a few steps.

That's all I got.

As Ever
Me

Man in the mirror.

Once upon a time there was a kid, he was your average kid growing up in your average not so great neighborhood but for the life of him he didn't know it. Every day he would play outside, ride his bicycle around the neighborhood and get into his share of kid trouble but it was just what it was and nothing out of the ordinary as far as he was concerned. Somewhere around 5th grade some of the other kids noticed that he was bigger than they were and when I say bigger I mean slightly, sure he was a good deal taller than most of them and a little bit chubby but not really what one would call a fat kid yet its the tag that was applied. Years went by and the neighborhood stayed the same for the most part, it was getting worse but since it was gradual he didn't notice really, it was just the neighborhood and this was much like the boy. Being called the fat kid was just how it was, like that bad neighborhood its how we see things that make them what they are because to that kid it was his playground yet looking back I know the neighborhood for what it really is and was now.

That kid grew up knowing not some of the things that were not so good about his neighborhood because it was normal to him, its where he grew up and its where he lived so he never really knew anything else. That kid grew up with the tag "fat" attached to him and because of that it is and was just normal day to day that he was the fat kid of the group. Imagine that, knowing nothing other than being the fat kid, even when that kid wasn't really fat he had that title embroidered into his persona for better or worse. Sometimes I think about that kid and about how things may have been a little different if not for that, if that stigma of being the fat kid hadn't been attached perhaps he wouldn't have walked the path of the more rotund. I know that that kid never knew anything but being "the fat kid" of the group because that kid was me, I don't have a memory of not being the biggest one in the group, I mean sure I have a cousin that was also big but since I had him by a few pounds I got to wear the badge.

Right now I am as small as I have been in 20 or more years, I am healthier right now than I have ever been and I still have that tag of being fat. This doesn't bother me like it use to, It doesn't bother me because I know that I am doing what I need to do to get down to a healthy weight and get rid of that "fat" tag. This afternoon in the gym I was lifting weights and caught a glimpse of myself in one of the full length mirrors and thought "I need to get there and I will feel like I am getting somewhere" and almost as fast as the thought popped into my head I realized that I was there because it was my image staring back at me. After realizing that it was me in the mirror I immediately started seeing the flaws instead of the "I need to get there..." that was just floating in my head, its like a tennis match for me, I go from feeling like I have completely changed but have I? if I keep falling back to that "fat guy" feeling?

With all of that said I know that physically I am a different person than I was at 500 plus pounds, I say physically but mentally I am different too because the current mindset that I carry around would never let that kind of weight return to my bones..ever. I suppose its all about perspective because catching a glimpse in a mirror and thinking that I need to get to that and then realizing that I am there causes nit picking and finding faults it would seem that there is still some soul searching to do within myself and I bet that a lot of people that have worn these shoes feel the same way about it.

My workout at the gym was good, 45 minutes on a stationary bike and about an hour and fifteen minutes with the weights and that is a far stretch from a one third of a mile walk around a block which is what made for a hard workout in the beginning, I am leaps and bounds away from that former version of myself and its time that I start giving myself full credit for the effort.

That's all I got for today and it is what it is.

As Ever
Me

Appreciating the hard work.

When I began down this road to better health back in 2008 I was a 500 plus pound guy that was in pain from the second he woke up to the second that he fell asleep, I couldn't walk a quarter of a mile and was unsure how long that pace could be kept, In a word I was scared. The way that I ate on a daily basis was as I see it today disgusting, sacks full of processed greasy food one after the other while I attempted to fool myself that it wasn't that bad. That person was me, I wore those shoes and walked them daily, When I think back to then and who I was compared to who I am today it is unbelievable that I allowed it. Over the weekend I how do you say? Busted ass with my workouts and stuck to my calorie allowance stricter than a boarding school teacher having a bad day. Saturday I did 45 minutes on the stationary bike at the gym averaging 99RPM's which was awesome and I was so close to getting that 100 RPM average that I have been hunting, after the bike I did an hour weight lifting routine and as I type this am still feeling my chest. Sunday I was feeling it and was deciding on whether I would go to the gym or take a bike ride and Wify came up with the idea of a hike, We ended up hiking part of the bike trail that I ride and ended at 5 miles total for the day.

The guy that struggled to walk a quarter mile now hikes 5 miles for fun, an old stationary bike bought off of craigslist that kick started some extra movement has turned into mid to high 90's RPM rides on gym stationary bikes and being held back by weight isn't something that I get down with any more. I can't tell you what exactly it was that did it, and what worked for me was simply sticking to the plan that I made for myself and I know that this sounds like I am simplifying things but eat less move more is pretty much what I did. I set a goal for myself and tried to stick to that plan, The things that I do these days that come naturally to me are the things that I had to train myself to do back when I was a couple hundred pounds heavier. Reaching for a piece of fruit instead of a grip full of cookies or potato chips is what I do now, I rarely miss a day where I do at least something physical for exercise verses back then it was rare for me to miss a day with the PS2 controller in my hand, I much prefer the trails and the gym to killing Notorious Monsters in Final fantasy 11 online.

My intake limits are now 2000 calories per day and I am still struggling to get there on some days, Saturday I was ok but on Sunday I only made it to 1885 total and somewhat forced calories for the day. Last night we made turkey sandwiches for dinner last night and half way through my second sammie which were made on Deli slims I was very full, I finished the sandwich and looked at my excel sheet only to find out that at 6:30 pm I had nearly 500 calories left for the day. Adjusting to the new 2000 calorie limit that I have now is odd to me because I have been eating 1700 for the last couple years and that number is whats sort of ingrained into my head and its just natural for me to feel when I have reached that limit. I changed my excel sheet to reflect the 2000 calorie budget now and am still taking double takes when I input numbers because the remaining balance of calories always looks high to me now.

Ounce upon a time 2000 calories stuffed into a brown bag with greasy corners and cellophane wrapped processed meats was a single meal, perhaps even a before meal snack in some instances and here I am struggling to get myself up to 2000 for an entire day because of habit. My life has changed in so many ways that I couldn't even begin to tell you all of them because I am sure even I don't know how completely different things are for myself. However it's cut I am glad that I am here and not there right now in my life, I have no clue who said this but even though I am not quite there I have to agree with it these days "Nothing tastes as good as thin feels" I guarantee that it was someone who was formerly fat that created that gem. Being able to remember how 500 plus pounds felt compared to where I am now is night and day and I can only imagine what 275 pounds will feel like because the last time I was there I was not even a teenager. What does thin feel like? that question will go unanswered by me for now but I can tell you that "thinner" is more than an amazing feeling when 500 is the number that you started at and I honestly appreciate everything that I am able to do now because of the hard work.

With that the end will come to this episode of as the fat guy turns, I'm off to see the wizard or at least the stationary bike and some weights so for today? That's all I got.

As Ever
Me

Who you tryin' to get crazy with Ese? don't you know I'm....

It has come once again, the time to step onto the scale for the blog again so lets get to that straight away and then we shall talk about my weight lifting from yesterday. Upon stepping on the scale I saw something that was not unexpected yet at the same time was bleh, the display flashed a 330.2 and that was that a .2 gain this week but in all honesty I am not too worried about it as it is in fact down from when I started the 2000 calories per day. No worries and I am pretty confident that next weeks weigh in number will be a good one, I upped my calories this week to 2000 per day and if that is added to the fact that I lifted yesterday I am sure the number is padded this morning if only slightly. My calories for the day were higher than expected by 100 because of a miscalculation and a spontaneous idea from the Wife lady to get a small cone from Dairy queen as a treat after dinner, i for whatever reason remembered that a small cone was 120 calories but when I checked after getting home it turns out that it is actually 230. Grand total for the day was 2100 which isn't too bad but I will be shooting to hit 2000 on the button all weekend, here is a look at yesterdays menu.

Breakfast
7:30 AM
2 cups honey combs 220
1 cup 1% milk 110

10:00 AM
1 banana 105

11:00 AM
1 Dark chocolate & Strawberry Zone bar 180

2:30 PM
5 whites 1 whole 145
4 turkey sausages 140
4oz potato 100
peppers/onions 40
smart balance 25
olive oil 25

3:45 PM
1 T peanut butter 95
1 banana 105

6:00 PM
Turkey subway 580

6:45 PM
small DQ cone 230

My trip to the gym was a good one and I tried out the 5x6 program a bit just to see how it felt and I wanted to see what weight range I would need to use and I feel it today. I did the 5x6 on the seated row machine, preacher curl machine, triceps push downs and leg press machine and found out that I need to add weight to the seated rows and preacher curls and need to lessen the weight on my leg press and triceps push downs. I sort of did an all over workout yesterday hitting my back, biceps, triceps, shoulders and legs and I like to do that kind of workout on Fridays because I have two days off between my next weight training day so adding push and pull exercises feels ok to me. Before I lifted I rode the stationary bike for 25 minutes at a 96 RPM average pace which always gets me warmed up nice, after the lifting I did a brisk walk on the treadmill with a 5.0% incline @ 3.5 MPH for 15 minutes to finish up the day, I was going for 20 but after leg pressing 410 pounds I was feeling it in the ol legs. Over all it was a good solid workout and I got to test out my capabilities with the 5x6 plan that I am implementing and come Monday I will have fine tuned the workout on paper even further and will start working muscle groups together.

Even though the scale showed a .2 gain this week I am feeling good about how things are progressing and with the new lifting plan being tossed into the mix I am expecting some decent losses to come in the next few weeks. There is always the possibility that I will stall here at this weight for a week or two and I am prepared for that but at the same time I couldn't imagine the stall lasting for too long because doing the math I am at a deficit with my calories in vs out and remain very active. I for the most part eat a lot of whole foods with the random treat of an ice cream cone tossed in and that should equate to losses in weight and gains in strength, of course I am not a doctor so I could be wrong but I have a hunch that I'm right on track. My weight has come down daily from Monday until this morning and I am expecting to show a loss tomorrow morning when some of the swelling from yesterdays weight lifting session goes down. The plan is to hit the gym both days this weekend as I have been skipping the weekends for gym workouts and they will both be cardio days, Monday will be weights and cardio and the perpetuation of my drive will go from there.

What the week to come will bring me I am unsure but I will make the best decisions where my intake is involved, I will workout with the weights as well as getting in cardio each and every day and my fate will be decided on those terms, my terms.

That's all I got.

As Ever
Me

A workout plan, A menu and a fat man.

Yesterday I mentioned that I am going to raise my calories to 2000 per day and after adding that 300 calories to my allotment I have to say that it feels like a lot of food to me! I have been eating 1700 calories per day for the last two and a half years and changing it isn't easy for me, I feel like I am over eating even though my menu was awesome for the day, I still feel like its too much but I suppose that's the mental side of it. My day ended with a grand total of 2065 calories and I drank a whey protein shake to make up that balance and I am unsure if it is in my head but I felt really good yesterday over all, Here is a look at yesterdays menu.

Breakfast
7:15am
2 cups honey combs 220
1 cup 1% milk 110

10:00 AM
1 mango 120

11:15 AM
pecan zone bar 190

Lunch
2:30 PM
1/2 T Miracle whip 25
2.5oz deli turkey 75
1 deli slim 100
1 can Progresso clam chowder 220
sesame candy 45

4:00 PM
1 apple 100

Dinner
6:15 PM
5 egg whites 1 whole egg 145
6 turkey sausages 220
6.5oz potato 165
peppers/onions 40
smart balance 25
olive oil 25

8:30 PM
8oz 1% milk 110
1 scoop whey protein 130

The gym was good yesterday as well, I did 25 minutes on the stationary bike with an average RPM of 96 and then 25 minutes on the treadmill at 5% incline and 3.6mph pace. Today is a weight lifting day for me and I may change that because of the fact that I weigh in for the week on Fridays and though it should all even out in the end I did mean to lift on Wednesday this week but because of my hike on Monday it got switched. With my weight lifting I need to finish writing myself a solid program and start strictly following it because right now I am just working muscle groups together but its different every time and I am using a weight that feels comfortable depending on where in the program an exercise falls. Back more than a few years ago when I was in my early 20's I had a handle on things like writing workout programs and had myself all set up, I even wrote workout plans for other people from time to time but this time around I am finding it a bit difficult to get something together that I like.

I use a pyramid style workout program which means that I do 5 sets of 6 reps, sometimes 7 depending on the movement and at the end I throw in a light set to failure just to finish myself off. I haven't been following the pyramid style program lately but starting Monday it is what I will go to because its how I have always seen results, an example of how it works is this. I will use preacher curls as an example.

Warm up 12 reps with a light weight
1st set - 75 pounds x 6 reps
2nd set - 90 pounds x 6 reps
3rd set - 105 pounds x 6 reps
4th set - 90 pounds x 6 reps
5th set - 75 pounds x 6 reps
Failure set - 50 pounds to failure.

You would of course use a weight that you can handle, I used roughly what I estimate that I will be using for the example. Normally I choose a weight range that makes the 4th set a struggle to complete and you should be able to do the max weight or third set to completion without too much issue, If the final set is a real struggle or you need a hand to finish the 6th rep that's probably the weight you will want to use. In the past I have had great results using this pyramid style workout and it will be the back bone of my lifting starting on Monday, I wanted to condition my muscles a bit before I got back into more serious lifting but now that I am not overly sore after my weight training workouts its time to implement whats worked in the past for me. I generally use this method as long as I am seeing gains in strength and when it slows down I go to a more traditional three to four sets of ten reps for a couple weeks and go back to the 5x6 plan when that feels easy with whatever weight I was using.

Something else that I am going to be adding to my workouts is going to be a daily core exercise because in all honesty it is one of the places that I don't work out specifically on any kind of regular basis. Riding a bike out in the trails works my core for sure, some of the weight lifting works the core secondarily or even thirdly but I rarely ever do what I would call a "core workout" and that will change beginning Monday along with the more serious strength training routine. My core training workouts will be a lot of calisthenic movements along with a personal challenge to complete as many crunches as I can and I will create goal numbers to reach each month that will hopefully grow every month as I get stronger.

I still have a good amount of weight that I want to lose but because of the success that I have had so far I have some skin that I am not diggin' on too, I believe that I can enlarge my muscles to take care of a lot of the "sag" in certain places so that will become my secondary goal for my health. Eventually I hope to make the weight training my main goal as the weight issues become more of a maintenance thing and we shall see if I can get myself back into some kind of a muscular build to offset some of the collateral damage that the 500 pound version of me left behind.

Now that you used your entire morning reading my longer than usual post you deserve a big ol glass of H2O so grab that and I will be on my way as I have to get to the gym and show my body that it has no choice in what happens. Thanks for following along with this fat dude getting slimmer and healthier and for today, That's all I got.

As Ever
Me

Counter intuitive shimmy shake.

Changing things up just slightly enough to mess me up or to kick start something into working again, I am going to try upping my calories to 2000 per day which is 300 more than I am currently eating. The reason for the change is that I am weight lifting more than I was in the past and am finding myself hungry, "so what fat man? we all get hungry and that's why we're fat! because we give in!" well...sort of. I have not felt hungry for most of my weight loss, meaning that I have not struggled to not eat something because of that grumbling in my gut, that is until recently since I've started weight lifting more seriously and I am in the belief that I may be starving my muscles calories that they need to do what I want them to. I have been on 1700 calories just about from day one and am down more than 200 pounds because of that but I am now changing what I am doing because of the taking weight training more serious so I think that its time to switch it up goals be damned.

"Goals be damned? what are you talking about man??" By changing my calories I run the risk of actually gaining a little weight but in the interest of the long term I gotsta try it just so that I know. My wife proposed that I do the 2000 calories per day for a whole month before I give up on the idea so that will be the plan for me, I am going to attempt to stay with this higher calorie allowance for the whole 30 days and if it works it shall be adopted as my new allowance, if not? back to 1700. Something that I attribute to my success with losing and keeping off 200 plus pounds is the way that I have never over analyzed the weight loss, I look at it very simple move more, eat less and drink my green tea and that's it! I don't ever want to over complicate my health or eating plan because then it becomes a chore and eating/exercising/health should not be a chore no matter which direction we take it.

Loving the colors.

Part of the hiking trail that we took Monday uses the bike trail to connect the more wooded parts of the hike, this is one of the bike trails that I ride on.

Found this carved into a tree on the trail.

I enjoy eating the way that I do, I enjoy my workouts and I especially take pleasure in that post workout high that I get each and every time that get my ass moving. Figuring out the balance between how many calories will fuel my body as to build and keep muscle yet burn fat feels like a single colored, no patterned jigsaw puzzle to me but at least for the next month I will be at 2000 calories per day in an attempt to get things going full steam again. Switching up my exercise plan is on the menu as well, Monday Wify took the day off of work and came up with the idea of going on a hike together so that's what we did, we walked about a 4 mile loop with lots of uphill sections. My bike riding is always a favorite for me and then of course I have the gym but I am thinking about maybe a few times per week hitting the gym a second time later in the day for a second dose of cardio.

I am driven to get this last 50-60 pounds off to get down to my goal weight and will do whatever it takes to get there, If beating myself up at the gym and on the trails is whats going to do it then so be it. If I need to do this counter intuitive move and add 300 calories per day to my menu than I will give it a shot because the math makes sense because of the weight lifting and all of the biking I can probably afford the extra intake as long as it is healthy and not a "Hey! I have 300 extra calories give me that cake!" kind of thing.

In 30 days we will find out if this adding calories thang is going to work, I will continue to post the weigh in each Friday regardless of the new 2000 calorie menu and hopefully it continues to show losses throughout. Now that all of that is out there, the time has come for me to get some things around the house done so that I can get out to the gym or on a bike ride, so with that the end has come to todays broadcast of the emergency weight loss system, if this had been an actual emergency.......

Won't you join me in sweat on this fine October day?

As Ever
Me

Meeting a-(nother) biggest loser.

The weekend has come and gone, there were ups there were downs but we made it unscathed for the most part. Nothing in the way of exercise was experienced but busy was the flavor of the day on both days so with that a new week begins. Saturday I had the opportunity to head on over to a health and wellness fair in Hartford CT we got to check things out, from a local EMT bicycle patrols whips and gear to a past biggest loser contestant. I met Bill Germanakos from season 4 of the biggest loser back in October of 2008 at this same health fair and this time around I had a chance to meet Rudy Pauls from season 8 of TBL. Nichole Brewer from season 7 was there too but I didn't get the chance to meet her as she was not quite at the booth when I went through , she is in the background of a photo that wify took of me talking with Rudy so I just missed her and hadn't noticed that she was setting up until I got home and looked at my pictures.

Me and Rudy Pauls from The biggest loser season 8 in Hartford October 16th 2010.

I Talked with Rudy for a few minutes and as we were chatting I said to him "I've lost more than 200 pounds so far" to which he responded "I can see it in your face" then said "I mean you can see it everywhere but I mean...yeah you can see it" and then went into talking about the loose skin that he has to deal with and how it bothers him. This told me that yes indeed I have "that look" of someone that has lost a lot of weight, you know the look right? the one where from the chest up I look perfectly normal almost like a fella with a little more on his bones than he should have but over all looks healthy and then the skin is an obvious flag hanging from those same bones stating loudly that the Sharpei is all up in the house. I am not all hung up on the fact that the skin is there because the alternative is much worse, you know, that other life where I weigh 500 plus pounds, yeah that one so the fact that its there though it bugs me I am happy that its not what it was 3 years ago.

Rudy was pretty nice and I have found of all three of the contestants that I have met from the biggest loser all share that, every one of them was more than willing to chat and talk about what was successful for them and offer advice. I met Neil Tejwani who was also on season 4 not at a fair or event but in an every day place which I will not disclose exactly where that was but I have had more than a few conversations with him over the past year. When you share something like dropping 200 pounds with somebody they know just as much as you do just how hard it is to live at the higher weights and I find that most people are more than willing to share their experiences with others who may be struggling or need help. My daughter wanted to get a picture with Rudy "Dada, I want to take a picture with the exercise show guy" but changed her mind when it came time for the shot "Nah, I don't wanna" at the last minute.

Sunday we pretty much gutted a room in my house that was being used for storage because we want to use it for a rec room kind of thing and because of the gutting I was in the house almost all day. I did go over calories on Sunday by a slice of that home made apple pie that I made and possibly a small pile of trail mix and I didn't drink as much as I normally do either, about a gallon and a quart but that's ok, hopefully the week brings me a loss come Friday. Today I have an opportunity to go to the gym with Wify as she has some appointments to take care of and took the day off of work so that should be fun and we will see if she pushes me or I push her.

My day is beginning so the post has to end, I will this week push myself at the gym, count every calorie that goes into my body and enjoy every minute of it, won't you join me?

As Ever
Me

Weigh in and a 5 pound apple pie...oh my!

Is it Friday already? that of course means that its time to post up the scales number for the week which is a little off this time around but it is what it is. I will get right to it and say that the display flashed me with a 330.0 this morning, I am happy with that number because it reflects a loss and that's where I am going with my motivation. What do you mean when you say "which is a little off this time around" man? how can it be off? that's talking like a fat person! Let me splain, Yesterday morning I weighed 328.6 pounds but weight lifting day fell on Thursday this week and instead of playing games and skipping it or doing it today I thought about what was more important a low number for the weigh in day? or making sure I trained the way that I need to and well the training won that battle. My back, shoulders and triceps are feeling somewhat fatigued as I type this and I am sure that I am retaining more fluid because of it, now don't read into that as some kind of excuse because its not, I knew that my weight would be higher than yesterday and honestly I thought that I would show no loss so I am very happy with the 330.0.

My 5.5 pound orchard fresh apple pie.

We have many choices to make throughout our days, all of us do, even the skinny people of the world and when we make good decisions most of the time things go our way. This week I got out there and did what needed to be done almost every day by either getting to the gym or taking a bike ride, for my efforts I am a pound lighter than last Friday. The weekend has some things in store for me that could end up being pretty fun and possibly motivational so I am actually looking forward to that and I will do my best to get to the gym at least one of those days, perhaps a Sunday bike ride down a path or trail.

Last night I did something that could threaten to derail me on some level, I made a five and a half pound apple pie from the apples that we picked at the orchard. I make this pie every year after our trip and I won't stop making it because I am eating better, my kids love it, wify loves it and it gets my daughter all kinds of excited when she helps me make it. I will have a slice, perhaps two but I will count it into my calories for whenever I have it and I do use splenda in place of sugar and smart balance in place of butter so it is a lighter version even if it isn't exactly light.

We have a one pound loss for the week and I am looking for a better number next week, I am down 4.4 total pounds since my run at 275 restarted and that's right on track so I ain't gonna sweat a smaller loss this week. Continuing down the road that will ultimately lead me to having the thinner body to go with the healthier me that I have worked so hard to get is what I will focus on daily until I get where I need to be. We can all achieve our goals as long as we keep on keepin' on and do what we must, the alternative is to not do anything and keep on wishing that things would be different, the thing about wishing is that if you shit into one hand and wish into the other the hand with the shit always seems to fill up first.

Do what you need to do and the rest will fall into place, this is how I choose to live my life.

As Ever
Me

Suck it up buttercup.

Yesterday I had the chance to go out on a ride so that's what I did, I took the regular trail that I ride that is about a 15 mile round trip but at every trail head where it crossed a street I explored a bit up and down the roads. The bike computer said that I did 19.5 miles so a new long distance for me was made but my ass paid for it because man was it begging me to get off of the bike by the end of the ride. I need to figure out my what to eat needs if I am to keep going on longer rides because I started feeling low on energy around an hour into the hour and 28 minute ride, the last time I took a longer ride which was 18 miles and an hour twenty minutes I ate a Zone bar about halfway through the ride and I didn't feel anything negative the entire ride. I figured that I had the camera with me and was taking a break at the end of the trail before taking on the hill to my house and decided to make another video to post so here it is.

Today will be a gym day because I like to alternate between the longer rides and the gym, plus I want to lift weights so I won't be on the bike today unless you count the stationary at the gym. The plan is simple, 25 minutes on the stationary bike followed by 45 to 60 minutes worth of weight lifting and a cool down either on the treadmill or a spin bike depending on whether there is a class going on when I am there. My weekend sort of steered me off course a bit because of some not so good decisions and lack of working out but I am still looking to pull off a loss come tomorrow mornings weigh in.

Tomorrow I weigh in, keeping focused is going to be my main concern in the coming weeks, I need to get down below 300 pounds and I need to get to that 275 pound goal and I would like it to be sooner than later. With a lot of face time at the gym and on the trails I will get there, I will need to keep my intake where it needs to be and I will have to remain diligent and complete the task at hand, I will do those things and I will do them decisively. There will be weeks that I lose more, there will be weeks that I lose less, then there will be those weeks that nothing will be able to get in my way as I excel into the physical me that I am aiming for, I am taking matters into my own hands and when that happens nothing is stronger than that.

My time, your pain, I reign on you....

As Ever
Me

Random randomness from a fat guy on a mission.

Choices are what we make of them and every day of each and every week we will be faced with decisions on whether to workout or stay home, eat this or not eat that and each and every one of those choices are ours to make, we own every last one of them. Deciding to do what we need to is not always the easiest or most convenient of things, we have to miss out on a slice of birthday cake or pass on a beer with a buddy sometimes and these little things though not so important in the grand scheme are in fact things that we enjoy but making the good choice to enjoy them in moderation is key. The alternative is missing out on almost everything that life has to offer, of course I am talking about when a person weighs north of 500 pounds like I did not so long ago but I am sure that it applies to lighter people as well. The things that I am capable of at this very moment in life are more opposite than day and night and making good choices is how I changed where I was in life with my health.

Going to the gym at night is sort of odd for me because I love going at that time because I feel like I get in an awesome workout yet it means that my sleep will suffer because I am all kinds of pumped up and getting to sleep is impossible. Last night I was faced with a decision to go to the gym and have my sleep be less than optimal or stay home and miss out on working out for the day so off I went about 8:30 last night to get a workout into my day. I thought about how the biggest loser was on and I usually watch it and going to the gym I would miss it as it was a weight lifting day and I could either watch fat people work out or be a fat person working out so off I went. After 25 minutes on the stationary bike I headed over for some weight lifting which lasted about 50 minutes then back over to the treadmill for 25 minutes at a brisk pace on a decently steep incline. I must be neglecting my walking/running because my feet started hurting in the places where they hurt when I don't run for a while and the inside of one of my toes feels rubbed this morning, I suppose that means I need to do some more sprints at the gym in the coming weeks.

Two days from now I will weigh in again for the blog, I need to drop 2 pounds to stay on track with my goal of weighing 275 or less by April 1st and I am planning on doing everything in my power to get there. The food gods are not on my side though if I am being honest, I mentioned our annual trip to the orchard and some 30 pounds of apples that we have and its that time of year for me to make my 9 pound apple pie. Now I don't know if the pie actually weighs 9 pounds but its damn close and I have to make it as I have been making it for years and my family enjoys it. I have in the last couple years changed the recipe a tad bit by using Splenda in place of the sugar that's in it but it is still a hefty slice of yumminess, decisions decisions.

I am at some point today going to be riding down a bike trail somewhere because the days of doing so are numbered with winter on its way and these rides really are therapeutic for me. I found a section of a trail that I want to try out but its a bit of a ride to get to the trail head so perhaps next week as a planned ride leaving early or perhaps a weekend ride. A weekend slip will not derail me, nothing will derail me because I have something to finish and that's going to be the plan until I get to that 275 pound goal. Making goals is kind of silly yet they do so much for us as we tread forward with our healthy living plans, When I began I could not walk 1/3 of a mile comfortably and riding a bicycle was not an option. My goal was to be able to actually live and I am doing that so in that respect I have accomplished what I set out to do which is to not feel caged in my own body but now its tome to get into a place with my health that I will have surpassed just living comfortably and excel in a way that I am above average with my physical self.

Wow fat man! you are going for above average physically? indeed I am my good people and I will do it right in front of your eyes so that you can see that it is possible to do so without any fancy pay as you go diet plans or surgeries or or or... With that said its time to end this post because I need to start getting ready for a bike ride this afternoon and I have some chores around the house to get taken care of before I am off so that's all I got for today.

When faced with a decision to do something for your health or do something for leisure, will you choose your health above all else?

As Ever
Me

Hi my name is Tony and.....

Moving right along we are at Tuesday already, My weekend if I am being honest was very much less than stellar with the diet and exercise. I did not get out on a bike ride all weekend and I went over on my calories Sunday and Monday because of a hectic day on Monday but Sunday was just being lazy with the caring about counting. Saturday we went on our annual apple picking day to a local orchard and ended up with about 30 pounds of freshly picked apples, I figured that walking around at a fair/festival for more than 4 hours counted as some movement but I still felt bad about missing out on a real workout. Sunday turned into an all out clean the house kind of day and I did ok until one of my daughters friends stopped by for a "play date" and brought a big ol plate of m&m cookies that were still warm, lets just say that I could not resist. I was very restless yesterday and we ended up taking down our awning out in the back yard and doing some yard clean up while the kids jumped into the pile of leaves that was raked up but I ate too much throughout the day and this morning when I weighed myself I am more than up and feel stupid for my poor eating choices over the long weekend.

Its funny how eating is still a "demon" for me, it is a constant struggle to resist the bad stuff while packing the good stuff in even at this stage of the game. I will recall part of my yesterday and show you how it just happens and then an instance where its plain and simply just stupid decisions which when I step out of that it was me and look at it could use the word addict to describe it. Wify and myself were boxing some stuff to pack away for the winter in the knee wall upstairs and she was upstairs while I was down at this point, I had a pot of chicken soup cooking on the stove and had just eaten a banana with peanut butter as a between lunch and dinner snack. I look up on the shelf and see a bag of trail mix that wify bought the day before and reached in, took a handful and started munching on it, now you should know at this point my calories for the day are always figured out and that banana was all that I could afford yet here I was eating trail mix?

After I finished the trail mix I quickly did a calculation in my head and figured out that I had just eaten about an extra 200 calories so I justified it and thought "ok so I will end at 1900 today no worries". My dinner was about 600 calories, we made breakfast for dinner, I made a scramble with onions, peppers, potato and egg whites and with that we had turkey sausage to which I had given myself six of the little breakfast sausages to have with dinner. I could have skipped the sausages and come in right at 1700 calories, skip breakfast sausages? on what planet would this be acceptable? ummm this one fat boy! but alas I did not skip them, instead I had eight instead of six! Holy fuck?? really? hmmmm yes indeed so my dinner was now instead of 605 calories it came in at 675 when I was already over for the day by 200! that isn't even the bad part of the day.

Dinner was finished and I was now at 1975 calories, it is what it is, lesson learned and tomorrow will be perfect because it has to be after this monstrosity of a day. Wify hit the sack early and I decided that I would watch "The Event" before following suit and when it was finished I wasn't tired so Pawn Stars it was, I wandered into the kitchen to fill my bottle of water up and made myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich while I was in there, Wait!? what?? Yes a peanut butter and jelly sandwich at 10:15 PM on a school night, Calvins in a ball on the front seat....skip that last part. The worse part? after slathering the peanut butter onto the bread I thought "Don't do it stupid" I shit you not I actually thought that! yet down the hatch it went. Lets us add that 285 calories to the already over budget 1975 and I come in at a grand total of 2260 for my Monday, Mama would be proud! bleh.. I am completely disgusted with that decision mostly because I caught myself as I was making that late night ass padding and still ate it.

This is the point where understanding that food can be and is for many people an addiction is important. I have been at this for what will be three years this January and am motivated beyond belief currently yet consumed a 285 sandwich on top of an already calorie dense day about 30 minutes before bed. Why? what was the driving force behind the late night snack? was it like a shark when it smells blood? it just reacts, is peanut butter like blood in the water to us fatties? is this something that will be with me forever? at this point I have to suspect that yes it is and will be because if I am almost three years down the road of eating better and living a healthy lifestyle yet eat a peanut butter sandwich before bed even after catching that it was happening this runs deeper than just liking the way something tastes.

Slip ups will happen, this is just something that has to be understood because when they happen it can do one of two things, we can see it for what it is and realize that each and every one of us is human and will slip from time to time or we can allow it to become the hard center of a giant snow ball rolling uncontrolled down the slope. Even after habits are made these things can happen and I refuse to beat myself up, make excuses or hide the fact that there are times where I struggle with making the best choice. What I will do is continue to reach towards my goals and bust my ass in and out of the gym to help it all along, I believe that most people that fail with weight loss do so because one small failure like a late night peanut butter sandwich snow balls into an oh woe is me state of mind and when that happens its all over.

That's all I got for today.

"Failure is not falling down, its refusing to get back up."

As Ever
Me

Wanna go see a dead body? a Video post.

So I decided that today I would try and go to the end of the shorter trail that I ride and see how far I could get, google pedometer showed it as almost a 20 mile round trip so I figured it would be fun. I left down the trail and was feeling good until I found the "Warning bridge closed" sign at one of the trail heads so of course I rode down the over grown trail to see what this bridge looked like and they were right, it sure was out! so I had to settle for 15 miles round trip.

My ride may have been cut short but it was still a nice ride on a sunny fall day, I had a tail wind on the way out which means a head wind on the way back and man did I feel it. Tomorrow I am taking the day off from working out partially because I feel beat between the ride and the weight lifting yesterday, that and I have some things planned with the kiddos tomorrow.

My bike at the bridge out sign.

Reminded me of the movie Stand by me, "anyone wanna go see a dead body?" this thing was tore up!

Moo cows!

Over all it was an awesome ride and the new pedals worked like a charm and MUCH more grippy than the cheap resin pedals that came with my bike. I ended up riding through an over pass that was flooded with water about 10 inches deep at one point and my feet got splashed a bit but my feet stayed put unlike with the old set of pedals so I am happy with that purchase. I took the video and had a few minutes tonight so I thought that I would share, I am still happy with the loss for the week and will do my best to get that number even lower come next Friday and if I continue to push myself with my riding I have no doubt that I will have another loss come next week.

That's all I got for this late edition of as the fat guy turns, I hope you enjoyed the second video post by lil ol me and I wish you all a great weekend.

I'm out.

As Ever
Moi

Weigh in time, how did he do folks?

Lets get Friday off to a good start shall we? Of course as soon as I got up I headed for the scale, warm feet hit cold hard wood and I was off after a brief stop in the little boys room. Last week I weighed in at 334.4 pounds as my starting point and I gave myself a goal to be at or under 275 by April 1st 2011, that equated to a 2.26 pounds per week average that I will need to drop to reach that goal. As per usual on weigh in days I step on and off 3 times just to make sure that the same number is displayed and all three times the scale flashed a 331.0lbs on there and that is a 3.4 pound drop this week! not a bad start giving the fact that I need 2.26 to stay on track for my goal.

I haven't a clue what this bike weighs but wanted to put one up here today just because its a weigh in day and who doesn't like an all chrome motorcycle?

This week I stayed within my calories, I went to the gym every day and the scale is telling me that I did it right this time around and to think that I almost skipped going to the gym yesterday. The day was gloomy, it was unseasonably cold outside and I was feeling very tired but I made myself go because its what I need to do and the old me would have stayed home so with those two things I decided that it was time to get up off of my ass and do something. I got to the gym and did my 20 minutes on the stationary bike and decided to punish my chest, shoulders and arms with some weight training and that I did! after about an hour and some minutes later it was back on the bike for another 15 minute ride just for kicks. I was feeling awesome about half way through the weight lifting and was glad that I went. Walking out of the gym it was like I was in a movie, the gloom had gone, the sun had come out and I was in an incredible mood, I got in my car, popped in a mixed CD and was caught getting into "when doves cry" a little too much by a fellow gym goer on my way out of the lot.

This week was a good week for the health and weight loss in general, I got some weight lifting in, lots of cardio and am down 3.4 pounds for my efforts. The rain has stopped and we're suppose to have some fantastico weather here in New England for the next week so perhaps another ride report soon! I will finally get to go give the new pedals on my bike a real test and I think that I am going to go for a new personal distance record on my next ride. I mapped out a 20 mile ride on the rail trail which will be 2 miles longer than my previous long ride with the option to make it 24 miles by going to the next trail head depending on how I am feeling. Over all I am pleased with the 3.4 pounds that has been dropped from my bones and the plan is to keep on keepin on until I get to where I want and need to be with my health and weight.

With that, I have nothing more for today and I need to get some things done this morning before I get out for some movement, will it be the gym? perhaps a bicycle ride? not sure yet but rest assured that I will be out there sweating more pounds off before this day is done.

What is your plan for the week? how will you better your health?

As Ever
Me

Pre weigh in blabber and some eggs?

Ahhhh a whole week down in this new "goal" that I have set fourth for myself, will I be down the 2.26 pounds that I need to be in order to stay on track? will I fall short? surpass the goal? honestly I don't know because the weight has been toying with me on a daily basis all week. If going off of this mornings weight I should make that 2.26 pound mark but yesterday I was lower than this and the day before higher so I don't know what to expect for the weigh in tomorrow morning. Have I done my part? absolutely I would say yes I have, My calories have been perfect other than going over a bit yesterday, hydration has been right where it should be and I have been to the gym every day this week so if going off of that I should be where I need to be but only tomorrows scale reading shall tell.

My intake for Wednesday was a little high coming in at 1890 total calories because of an upset stomach right before bed which I drank 8oz of 1% milk in an attempt to settle it but its not much over at any rate. I started my day off with a HUGE scrambled egg plate which held me over pretty good as I didn't feel hunger until almost dinner time!

What I started with

This is the end product, and of course I had hot green tea with it.

Here is a look at the whole menu from Wednesday.

Breakfast
8:45 AM
5 egg whites 75
1 whole egg 70
4oz potato 100
pepper/onion 40
smart balance 25
3 slices turkey bacon 105

11:30 AM
oatmeal cookie zone bar 170

Lunch
1:15 PM
1 deli slim 100
1 cup eggplant/beans 135
2oz roasted chicken breast 100

4:00 PM
1 banana 105
1.5 T peanut butter 140

Dinner
6:15 PM
5oz roasted chicken breast 250
3/4 cup white rice 150
1/2 cup black beans 110

7:45 PM
1 banana 105

10:00 PM
8oz 1% milk 110

My day today will follow suit with what I have been doing, I will be at the gym at some point today where I will do at least 30 minutes of cardio followed by 45 to 60 minutes of weight lifting and probably some kind of light cardio to cool down. My intake will not exceed 1700 calories and I will drink at least a gallon and a half of fluids, more than likely more than that even. The scale will whisper softly into my ear tomorrow morning and whatever it says shall be posted here no matter what it says and I will update the goal tracker thingy that I put on the side bar.

Any way that its cut my life has completely changed from how I was living it just over two and a half years ago, I can honestly say that I have done more physical activities in those same years than I had done in the 7 years prior to starting down this path to better health. Won't you join me in living a healthier life? if you are on the fence about making the choice to better your life by losing some weight and or getting healthier I say swing that leg over and hop on down because the longer that you wait the longer it will take for you to get there.

That concludes this episode of as the fat guy turns, now get up off of your ass and do something about that fat on your bones.

As Ever
Me

Why be fat when you can live healthy?

Chugging along I am hitting on all cylinders with my nutrition and exercise, and its showing on the scale! of course I get on the scale almost daily and have done that for the last two and a half years, I'm liking what I see thus far for my "week 1" of the run at 275lbs. My calories for Tuesday came in right on the button at 1700 even while I drank a gallon each of straight H2O and home brewed green tea. The gym was fun too! I started off with 20 minutes on a stationary bike ending with average 99 RPM's followed that up with about 45 minutes of weight lifting and finished up my workout with a 15 minute go at a spin bike. We're rolling right along with this and I am hoping to see a good loss come Friday's weigh in, I think that if I can get off to a great start with the raw numbers that I am losing that it will just perpetuate my momentum and I believe they call that the snow ball effect my good people.

Wify is not happy about where the bikes are right now but she said and I quote "I am just glad to have them out of the bedroom" its all about compromise I suppose.

I got a few emails in the past couple of weeks asking me about my daily intake menus and why I don't post them as often as I use to in the beginning and the honest truth of it is that I use short hand these days to show me what I ate for any given day. I think that its a good thing to post some menus up so I have started writing them out again and will try my best to post as often as I can what the daily menu was, and with that here is yesterdays intake.

Breakfast
7:30 AM
2 cups corn pops 220
1 cup 1% milk 110

11:45 AM
1 banana 105
1 T peanut butter 95

Lunch
1:00 PM
2 deli slims 200
1/2 oz American cheese 55
Miracle whip 60
2oz baked haddock 70
2oz deli turkey breast 60

3:00 PM
1 plum 30

Dinner
6:15 PM
7oz roasted chicken breast 350
7oz baked potato 175
2 T light sour cream 40
1/2 T smart balance 25

8:00 PM
1 banana 105

I have been at the gym every day this week and the end of last and am really missing my bicycle rides! The last real ride that I was on was that 18 mile rail trail run that I did a little more than a week ago when I busted a pedal and its been raining since I got the new pedals installed on my bike. As I type there is a steady rain outside and I have two bikes sitting not more than 12 feet from me on the other side of the room and I really can't wait for this to stop so that I can go out and hit that trail again because I want to go a bit further this go around, that trail is like therapy for me. I rather enjoy the gym as well, there is something about being in a room full of equipment that is designed for health while people all shapes and sizes work out, every single one of them has issues with themselves, goals to reach and personal triumphs already reached, its almost like a collective mindset where each individual is getting something more out of being there than just the actual work out. My bike though is my me time, 15 mph down a dirt trail with the sound of the bike below me, staying alert is a must and the sounds of the woods around me as I get an awesome workout all at the same time, yeah I can't wait for the rain to stop.

The fella in the little plastic magic box says that the rain should stop some time tomorrow and Friday should be sunny and clear, this means that by Saturday the trail shouldn't be all mud any more so a ride should be had this weekend for sure. Eating well and balanced while maintaining an exercise regimen that will nurture a better lifestyle is how I get down these days and how I have been doing it for the past couple of years now, it has changed my life and it has changed the lives of those closest to me. Making the decision to get healthy was possibly the best decision that has ever been mad by me, of course there is a close race between that and marrying the woman that I did because she is a huge part of why I have been able to achieve what I have to this point in the game. As an over weight person you can have a healthy life if you choose it, You can live the life that you have dreamed of but only if you make the decision to do something about your situation right this minute, so what are you waiting for?

The success of each and every one of us is completely dependent on how much work we want to put into it.

That's all I got for today.

As Ever
Me

You could spend your entire life walking around in the nowhere land of self doubt.

Or you can get your ass up and do something about a situation that you ultimately do have control over, I mean it, YOU control how you live life and there is only one go at it so why not make it count? In the beginning I was doubtful that I would be successful with this whole weight loss game yet I kept going and upon doing so I found out that as long as I did my part the rest sort of happened, when I didn't do my part, well the rest stopped happening, simple right? sort of.

There are challenges that each and every one of us face on a daily basis and we somehow make it through to the next day each and every time but with weight loss it feels different, the word that comes to mind is impossible. It takes months or even years to put the weight on and we expect it to come off over night and honestly in the beginning it felt like it was! My experience with weight loss and gaining a better place within the health spectrometer has been very eye opening for me. When I was 500 plus pounds and feeling like there was no way out compared to how I see things now I sometimes can't believe that is how I felt after coming to the realization that my health is heavily dependent on what I do to keep it where it needs to be.


Its hard when you weigh 500 pounds and almost everything hurts, emotionally and physically to get up and do something about it but if you are wearing those shoes and are reading this trust me when I say that the pain only lasts as long as you let it. We doubt ourselves every day when we weigh as heavy as I did when I started down this road and that doubt will keep us from our goals all day long, know that when we apply a healthy eating regimen along with some movement then follow through with that plan that the weight has no choice other than to evacuate from our bones. There is a lyric that resonates through me almost daily, it goes like this "When you start to doubt yourself the real world will eat you alive" in many of our cases where we are extremely over weight while the real world is eating us alive we are eating ourselves to death, its as simple as that.

I am not super weight loss guy and I only know what I have learned in the last couple years about health and weight loss, I hold no degrees in this field and I am not a doctor but I do know from my own experiences that as long as sitting on my ass was my sport of choice that things were getting worse by the day. Losing weight and keeping it off is a full time job and not an easy task by any means, it is a daily struggle and takes a shit load of dedication along with a lot of hard work so when you start down that road don't expect it to be bunny rabbits and baby chicks else you are setting yourself up for a let down. I will say that how you will feel and all of the things that are possible after losing a sizable amount of weight is more than worth the struggle, sweat and pain that needs to be put into the process.

Stop doubting yourself and what you are capable of this very second and get up off of your ass right now, not later, not in a minute and certainly not after you finish your muffin! and do something for your health, for yourself, for your life!....ANYTHING! but do it now because we only get one go at this ride called life and its shorter than we want to believe.

As Ever
Me

Bicycle! bicycle! I want to ride my...

Thursday turned out to be a good day for me as far as the biking goes, The pedals that I ordered for my K2 came in and I found a smokin' deal on a Trek 750 Multitrack hybrid so there is a new ride in the house. Of course as I was checking Craigslist out when I found the new bike so I called the gal up and an hour of a drive later she was mine! the bike, not the gal selling it and the best part you ask? its my size! I originally was going to pick it up for Wify as she doesn't have a proper bicycle right now mostly because she doesn't enjoy bike riding but I want her to have the option if the urge to take a ride ever overcomes her. The new bike has a 19 inch frame which is a size smaller than I would normally ride depending on brand but a 19 inch fits me just as well as the slightly bigger 20 inch, I have short legs so I am thinking this one won't get sold because I kind of like it and its in like new shape.

My obligatory snap shot next to the fence that every new old bike gets upon coming home, I think that Mongoose brand springy seat will have to go.

Then when I saw that the brown truck had been by I was pretty excited because the last ride that I went on was the 18 mile trail ride that I posted about last week. I unpacked the box and found a Schick razor and thought "did I get the wrong box?" so I kept digging and sure enough My Odyssey Trail mix pedals were in there! I felt like Ralphie when he got his red ryder bb gun. The pedals were out of the box and onto the bike as fast as I could get them on there and it would appear that we are back in business again with going out on a ride so I am looking to beat that 18 mile distance as soon as the weather clears up.

Its my Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle!...umm er I mean Odyssey Trail mix pedals.

My intake for Thursday came in at a total of 1520 which is WAY low but thats ok with me because I did go out on a date with wify Wednesday night and had a good share of white pizza and spinach artichoke dip with some corn chips so this will even out. The low calories are fine by me doubly because I didn't get out to the gym yesterday because of going on that drive to pick up the new Trek and then the day just got away from me so it is what it is and I shall punish myself at the gym today for missing out yesterday. Next on the list is my fluid intake, I downed just under a gallon of green tea and just over a gallon of straight H2O so I be hydrated, or as my daughter says "I'm full up to here" you will just have to picture me holding my hand to my forehead as a visual.

Today my body will beg me to stop, my legs will burn and my lungs shall get a workout like they haven't felt in a couple days, I owe it to myself to punish myself for missing the gym yesterday and that's just how its going to be. The punishment shall be rewarded with more punishment on Saturday because the weather is suppose to clear up a bit and I am hoping that I can take the K2 out on that trail again to test out the new pedals and freshly scuffed brake pads. It is a reward because I love riding on the trails, it relaxes me all while I bust my ass and burn fat from my bones so it is in fact what they would call a win win situation thus a reward and a punishment all wrapped up in one.

Whilst I kick my ass at the gym today what will you do for your health today?

As Ever
Me