36 hours no sleep and some bike talk from the fat guy.

We are doing well and are on plan as far as the eating and drinking are concerned but Sunday I woke up at 11AM because of staying up late and it threw off two whole days. Sunday night when I went to bed I just laid there, staring at the ceiling thinking about bicycle light options because of a post on a bike forum I read. An hour later I decided that since I was just laying there I may as well get up because sleep was not an option and before I knew it 6:00 AM Monday morning was here. It would appear that an all nighter was the result of a late morning and a restless night, no worries. I'll just take a nap with the baby when she goes down and it will be a meh kind of day but at that point my options were slim so onward the day went. 

 My Sigma micro led mounted on the back of my Giro helmet. 

  

 

 

I have a white one for the front that was not on the helmet when I took these images.

The school called and said short day for my other kids so there goes the nap, oh well and I ended staying up for 10 minutes shy of 36 hours from Sunday morning until Monday night. I did manage to stick to my calories yesterday but I did not exercise a single bit and though I slept a solid 7 hours last night I feel it today and think its going to be a two night sleep fix. 

The weather outside has been frightful, so working out inside has not been delightful let it snow let it... no wait.. sub zero temps are replaced with what? rain of course.. it is currently 34 degrees outside at about half past noon New England time and if the rain holds off I may just hop on the K2 for my short "workout route". I do not mind riding when its cold, I don't mind riding when its dark, I don't even mind riding when its cold AND dark but when you add wet into that mix I'll pass and as long as the rain is not falling when the boss lady gets home later I will go for that ride and if not then it's the trainer.

I need to start riding more often so that I have my riding legs when the weather warms up and I am looking for regular rail trail rides again because if I miss the spring season I will not be a happy camper. My weight is coming down and I feel much better than I did 3 months ago, I don't see why I can't be back to a decent weight by say? June and that's the date that I gave wify for me to shave this critter hanging onto my jaw otherwise known as the "puppy" or my beard.

Over all everything is going well though I would like to add more exercise and I am feeling good about where things are headed. Thanks for following along with me while I drop the weight from my bones and get back to where I was so that I can get to where I was heading when I started writing this blog. 

Tune in tomorrow for the newest edition of as the fat guy turns.

As Ever
Me

Just a quick little diddy for the people in the back.

Lately I have been getting a ton of comments from spam, please don't waste your time and mine posting links to your lose 50 pounds in 10 day adverstisements, I will not let them get published to my blog. The only "instant look like a movie star" diet that I can get behind is THIS ONE  that I posted about back in 2009 and its a humorous shot at those kinds of diet plans that I wrote about in a blog post.

 

So if you have the miracle diet pill, or some mineral from the far East feel free to use it on your own if you so choose but please stop trying to get a comment posted here, it just ain't gonna happen.

 

As Ever

The guy tired of clicking spam on comments.

In my best Richard Dawson voice.. The Scale says!

So today is Friday, big secret eh? but it means that I post my weight for the blog today and we do have a loss this week but I am skeptical at how accurate it is and at the same time it doesn't really matter if its off a tad as the trend is down. Last week I came in at 399.0 pounds and that was a loss from the week previous and this week am down to 396.4 so a 2.6 pound loss for the week and I'll take it. Yesterday morning I was a pound lighter than I was this morning, scale variance? fluctuation? perhaps I need to visit the little boys room? I don't care really and its a big part of the weight loss game because we depend on that number each week to drop and when it doesn't it can wreck our whole week.

This 2013 Honda Raptor weighs in at 396 pounds.

As long as my week to week trend is down I don't care about the fluctuations too much unless its a huge number and even then I realize that I may have lifted weights or not drank enough the day before so it happens. I have been at this game for a long time now, this is going to be how I need to live in order to keep the weight off and I'm cool with that. When I got down to 305 pounds I was on cruise control, I knew what to eat and when to eat it in order to stay where I needed to and keep on losing pounds while getting healthier. Enter stage left copious amounts of stress and to a guy like me that reaches for the nachos as soon as stress peeks its head out that's a death sentence.

I do believe that I have this all under control once again and the weight is coming down and I am down about 15 pounds since just before the beginning of January so I am pleased with that but I need to stay focused and this blog helps me do that. Somehow putting it out there for Joe Public to have a looksie at makes me stay in line almost as if I fail a crowd will gather around my house and point while laughing hysterically, which has never happened yet thank goodness but you get the point. 

The bottom line is that I need to keep my shit together and get back down to where I was so that I can continue being around for my kids and my wife for a very very long time. Yes yes, I know, do it for yourself Man! I think at this point if you have read any of my blog you know that I understand that part of it and I am very much in tune with that fact and the bottom line is that I have not done everything in life that I want to and if its cut short because I am unable to control my intake or am too fat to do something I will have failed in this health venture.

I'm back, this is what matters, I don't think anyone should get in my way as they are likely to get run over.

That's all I got for today.

As Ever
Me

Pre weigh in blah blah and a video for your AM coffee.

Tomorrow is the day, you know what day I mean, the day that I record my weight for the blog of course and though the scale has been playing with me I think I got it figured out as to why I was getting different weights. Of course we will see if it stays accurate but all I did was move it into the living room to weigh in on the hard wood floors, which is odd because the bedroom has hard woods to but when I moved it into the living room I got the same weight reading four times in a row. For now I will keep this scale and if it continues to be a practical joker with me it will find itself sitting inside the cold lonely container at the local transfer station.

Over all I am doing well, I am not hungry for the most part even though I have my moments where I feel like cookie monster and want to open the fridge and empty its contents into my mouth but they are few and far between so I can deal. I do need to incorporate more exercise into my days just for the fact that well.. I ain't doin' enough in my opinion and I don't want to use this as an excuse but when its 4 degrees and windy outside going for a walk with the 2 year old is probably not the best plan of action in any case. I have been toying with some dumb bells that I have around the house and that's not a shot at anyone in particular, I mean lifting some light weights. 

A short video of the trainer and some different tires that I posted last year, I figured I would pop in up here for fun, that Bontrager SR1 tire is still doing great by the way!

I have a set of dumb bells that I am doing things like curls with no rest meaning 4 sets of 10 but not resting between arms, the rest is the time between switching arms. I am also doing shoulder presses the same way, lateral raises, front raises, bent rows and a stretching routine almost daily so I am getting some exercise in just not the cardio that I want to. "Why aren't you using the trainer fat boy?" I don't have an answer for that besides its hard to find time to do it because during the day with the kiddo its rough to expect her to just stay alone watching tv or something for the 20-30 mins I would be on the bike and then later my home sort of implodes on itself.

With everything I said considered I am going to do my best to get a trainer ride in today, I have not gone for a walk in a couple days because of the bitter cold outside and think I would benefit from a short spin on the bike. I will weigh in tomorrow morning and report what the scale said to me here, I am expecting a decent loss for the week but the scale could be pulling my leg again so we shall see. The trend is downward for my weight and that is really all that matters, I am not getting hung up on a number but it does help to see it get lower each day so a  good tool it remains. 

Check me out tomorrow morning to see what the weight gods bestow upon me, drink more green tea too guys! 

Until then..

As Ever
Moi

150 calorie meal that is amazing, also frustration.

So, I have been doing just awesome for a few weeks now, I track my food, I am walking more again and I finally got to weigh myself but alas! that last part is oh so important for moral and focus for me and the scale is refusing to play nice. I am not saying that its not playing nice because I am not losing, no no, I am indeed losing but its not playing nice in the way that I got on it 5 times this morning and I got a different weight every time! This has been happening more and more and I have a feeling that the scale may be defective or it might just be telling me to get the hell off that it cannot breathe when I am on there. The fact that I cannot get a solid accurate number each AM is messing with me in ways that I don't need to be messed with right now and I believe a new scale is in order because to get frustrated 5 minutes after I wake up because of something that is suppose to help me is not a good start to any day. 

The last couple days I have been struggling with feeling hungry and I can;t decide if its just my body trying one last time to convince me that I need to eat the junk not unlike a five year old would do for fifteen more minutes before bed? or if my frustrations are projecting into hunger. I am not diggin' on this hunger any more that I would enjoy listening to a Justin Bieber CD from start to finish so we gotsta figure this one out. Wify said this morning "Go get a new scale" so I believe its what I will do as this needs not be more frustrating than it has to be and speaking of Wify, she came to the rescue last night with the dinner that you see above. 

My calories were approaching a number that was starting to mean no dinner for the big fella or at least a very small unsatisfying dinner so I started going through options and mentioned that egg whites might not be a bad idea. Wify said something to the effect how would egg whites with spinach on whole wheat wraps sound? since we had some baby spinach left in the fridge and a short conversation later I said "Make me your vision then and I appreciate it" so it was made so. As it turns out we had no wraps left so I decided that having it on light whole wheat toast open faced would be good so as Wify was cooking the spinach with some garlic I made the toast. She was going to dice the tomato up and put it on top cold but I decided that popping it into the pan with a bit more garlic ~I mean who doesn't like MORE garlic?~ would be better than cold and the result was amazingly simple to make and tasted awesome for a tiny amount of calories.

We made enough for three open faced sandwiches but I decided that I would have two and let her try one so for three open faced sandwiches the calories would have only been 225 calories which is insane because it was quite filling. Over all I am doing fine with my restart but the last two days have been a little less than peachy because of the hunger and my obviously  mismanaging of my AM calorie intake meaning eating more heavily early on. We will make adjustments as necessary and as long as Wify kicks in her creativity every now and again maybe we will get back down to a fighting weight by the summer. 

That's all I got for today, the support is greatly appreciated so please feel free to comment or email me and for Gods sake keep on reading along! 

As Ever
Me

Cupcake crisis walking Crisscross a weekends review.

Over the weekend I was offered a challenge, a challenge in the way of a couple plates of cupcakes, challenge accepted and beat. Sunday my daughter spent some time with her Grandma and upon returning to the nest she came bearing treats "Look  dad, I made these" "awesome honey!" was my reply but I was thinking Oh damn! I dodged the cupcake mines and moved on with my day unimpeded by anything that is food. Its funny because I had just told my wife on Friday that I have hit a point where food is not a distraction for me right now, I view it as fuel and nothing more which does not necessarily mean I am not tempted but it means that I am able to not react and start chowing on the contents of the cupboards when the feeling hits.

Over the weekend I stayed within my calories and got out for a nice walk with my daughters, over all it was a pretty nice weekend and now today Wify has the day off so is home with us for a long weekend. Walking was a huge part of my weight losses on the first go around so with the concept if it ain't broke don't fix it in mind walking has to be a part of this. I do enjoy walking for what it is, it allows me to think, look at the scenery and just get away from things for a time but I also view it as something that I couldn't do for very long time without being in pain so I appreciate the simplicity of just going for a walk these days. There once was a guy that actually thought "why would someone want to just walk" as he watched from his window and I look back at that guy and am sad for him. When you are limited you create excuses and reasons for why you aren't doing things and get somewhat bitter with certain things and all along its the outlook that is creating the bitterness towards a situation that we seemingly have no control over. Walking is an important thing for me and whenever I start getting down on myself I think about it for a moment and decide to go for a walk because once upon a lullaby going for a walk was not an option and I recommend it to anyone starting off on a path to better health.

This weekend also afforded me some time with my bicycles, I don't mean riding, I mean working on them. I have a 1991 Schwinn Crisscross that I picked up some time ago and though I have slowly done some work to this bike it mostly sat waiting for its turn. This weekend I decided to pull it out, install some new bars on it, remove the too small rear rack and "finish" it up so I could call it a useable bike. I would like to install a set of fenders on it but otherwise its done besides some small details like removing the discolored disk on the rear wheel etc and I think it came out pretty good too. A quick ride around the neighborhood proved that it fits me good and is a keeper for sure. If you are interested in more details on the crisscross or would like to check out another blog that I started that is more cycling related, which basically means that I only really write about bikes that I am working on or cycling news etc you can Visit Two Wheels and a Fat Guy HERE and please do!

Over all I am doing well on this restart and the weight is coming off which makes me more than a happy camper, cupcake crisis averted a bike is complete and walking for health is a key element.

Until next we meet, keep on keepin on and all that. 

As Ever
Me

My scale snickered at me this morning... weigh in day is here.

Tis Friday and that means time to report what the scale said to me, I can't complain since it is in fact a loss for the week but man is it coming off slowly! Needing to get some more workouts into my days is apparent if I want faster results and that I do so it shall be done. I am doing everything right as far as my intake goes, I am eating within my calorie allotment, I am drinking my green tea and H2O, no coffee, no diet soda and lots of veggies there is something that I am not doing that I believe can make a difference. 

Sleep, this is an important ingredient to losing weight, without sufficient sleep weight loss is harder and I am a night owl which means I am not in bed until midnight typically. When I was beginning my trip to the half back in 2008 I made sleep a priority and this time around I am neglecting that part of the formula so perhaps its the element that is slowing my progress and it will be corrected. Over all I am feeling so much better than I did  a month ago because of the changes I have made in my intake so its now time to take it to the next level and get more walking into my days and get to bed at a more reasonable time. 

This Aprilia RSV4 weighs in at 399.0 pounds like yours truly.

Back when I started this blog I posted images of things (mostly motorcycles) that weighed as much as me and in May 2010 I got down to a point where I had lost a scooter and weighed as much as a small cafe racer bike. January 2013 I am back up to sports bikes and it is what it is I still enjoy the visuals, they help me to gain a prospective on things in a way not to mention I made a deal with Wify back then that when I hit my goal weight of 267 pounds that I would buy myself a motorcycle so its fitting that I use bikes to compare. I am thinking about changing my official "weigh in day" for tha blog to Saturday for no other reason than I weighed in on a Saturday for the restart but we shall see with that one, I may just stick with Fridays.  

Last Friday I weighed 400.4 pounds and this morning the scale said 399.0  which if you are as good as a 2nd grader with math is a 1.4 pound loss for the week, I should be ecstatic because a loss is a loss right? but I am not, the work I am putting in feels like it should be coming off faster but hey I'll take it either way. I think what the snail like pace the weight is deciding to take is doing to me  is pushing me to work a bit harder so that is whats going to happen. More walks, more trainer rides and though I don't mind riding in the cold its 19 degrees here currently and that's just not going to happen as I lack the proper wind blocking clothing for a bike ride in that kind of cold.

I am glad to see a sub 400 pound number but until its closer to 390 I am not counting on it staying away but as stated, this week is going to be an ass busting kind of week so we shall see what happens come next Friday. I am also thinking about talking to my Doc as since my gallbladder surgery back a few years ago it seems 3 ties as hard to get weight to drop and I have a feeling there is a link there, if anyone reading this has any insight to that I would be all ears so don't be shy and drop a comment or email my way.

That's all I got for today, so stay on track, eat well and get out and move dammit!

As Ever
Me

Day something or other.... Get out of my way.

We're moving right along, my intake for yesterday was 1800 calories on the button, I got an hour and some worth of shoveling snow into the morning followed by some push ups and Calisthenics I am feeling pretty good about how this week is turning out. The one thing that I need to add into my days is more bike time, I mean more riding the trainer, more taking the short loop and I mean working on my bikes that I have collected so that I may either sell them or ride them. Cycling has become such a big part of my life and I neglected that for at least 8 months give or take because of things not in my control getting to me, if they are not in my control why do I let them determine what I do? such is life I suppose when stress enters. 

Me and wify on Mt Sunapee in 2011

Between some calisthenics and the shoveling I am sore right now as I type, my lower back is tight, my abs hurt, the chest is compromised and my shoulders feel like I was boxing for 3 hours, I love this kind of sore! Its the kind of sore that makes you know that the muscles were used, a good solid stretch wakes the body up when you have soreness like this and I am craving more which means we are getting back on track. Working out has always been something I enjoyed, I mean when I was five hundred pounds plus that statement was debatable but just getting up to take a piss was a workout back then and I don't know anyone who would consider taking a piss pleasurable unless you're on a road trip. That feeling during a stretch when you are sore from exercise for me wakes me up, I find myself searching for something to make the rest of my body feel this way, my upper back is not sore right now so some bent rows may be on the menu for today, it truly is amazing how this works.

This gig that I call weight loss has been full of ups and downs and I don't only mean the actually bulk weight, emotionally I have learned a lot about myself along the way and its eye opening in some instances. I am learning that my physical limits are far from what I thought them to be back five years ago when I was much heavier and even at my current weight I am light years from at my highest weight. 

There is a difference between this moment in time and where I was back in late 2007, back then I only had my imagination to think about what being lighter would grant me access to, right now I have solid memories of being 300 pounds and hiking around on Mt Sunapee in NH, or a 30 mile trail ride. As I wrote that last sentence it dawned on me that at 300 pounds I am in awesome shape even if I need to lose more from that point but considering the amount of loose skin involved I would be willing to bet I am not far off of a healthy weight at 300 pounds. Having current memories and photos pushes me harder, when I think back to times when Wify and I would hike to an outlook on a trail not far from our home and how insanely rewarding it was to be able to reach the top of a 3.5 mile ascent and not feel dead but very much alive and NOT out of breath. Sitting at the top of that ascent and eating a packed lunch with my wife has more benefits than anything else could ever give, this is how people should spend their free time and when you are 500 pounds its just not a possibility.

 Making my way back down to 300 pounds and below is not going to be easy but it is necessary because I refuse to miss the mark when I know how to get there, it is a matter of discipline not a matter of not knowing what to do. 

The naysayers and nonbelievers will have to step aside for a while, I have a feeling we're breaking through barriers...

As Ever
Me

The Boomarang effect that is weight loss.

In yesterdays post I was projecting frustration and upon waking this morning I stepped on the scale and poof just like that I am back down to Saturdays weight. It is truly amazing how the scale can dictate a persons outlook on how things are progressing and even though I have been doing this since 2008 and should know the ups and downs. I should be thanking my Wife for the scale this morning as we had an um.. problem arise yesterday that was pretty stressful and she asked like she does every day "Whats for dinner Hon?" my reply? "Pizza, what do you want on it" and though I was half kidding if she had said "peppers, onions, mushrooms and sausage" I probably would have been on the phone. Wify said, "Make a salad, or how about Tuna on a wrap? I can make you an egg white omelet if you want" I did opt for the omelet and this morning my weight reflected that having support is a huge part of success for many people me included.

Last night I decided to put some knobby tires on my K2 so that I can start taking it on my "easy loop" route to start getting my legs back so that come spring I am ready for the trail. Of course the fact that I made this decision angered the weather gods and there is six plus inches of snow outside right now but they will not stop me. The fact that it snowed last night meant that Zeusmeatball got to have an hour and forty five minutes worth of cardio this morning shoveling my driveway and clearing my truck so that Wify could get to work this morning, so take that weather gods! I am not opposed to riding with snow on the ground and since I am doing my shorter loop it won't be a big deal anyways so looking forward to some rides in the net couple weeks. 

Over all I am feeling decent about this restart with the weight loss/health thang and I keep coming back to sensible eating, some exercise and a positive outlook as what works. I am looking forward to fitting back into the whole wardrobe that is hanging in my closet right now unused, I am looking forward to this fall and the leaves on the trail as I wind off 25 miles on a Sunday morning and I am looking forward to getting my juju back so that I am doing what I need and want to do on a daily again with my physical self. 

Hanging in there with some rough patches but its all smoothing out, discipline, determination and some hard work will pay off for me as long as I do my part. 

That's all I got for today. 

As Ever
Me

Frustrating isn't it? the woes of a fat man and his Bew.

Today I find myself a little frustrated where my weight loss is the subject and its silly because weight loss is so dynamic and never the same from one day to the next but the amount of food that I am putting in compared to what the scale is doing doesn't add up to me. I went old school with my weighing in and hop on the scale daily after I empty my bladder, I keep a document with the date and what I weighed on my desktop and update it daily. Typically I trend one way or the other, either I am going up slightly for a day or two or steady down or, or, but there is zero trend in how the scale is responding to me. I made it a point to eat light yesterday because of my Sunday and in the past this would kick me down to where I was the day before the overage of calories and though I did go down from Mondays weight it was minimal. Saturdays weight was awesome and I left the 400's and maybe that's why this frustrates me, You know, getting out of the 4XX's and bazinga! just like that I am visiting again, silly I know but like I said it doesn't make it less frustrating. 

Moving on, now that I complained er.. I mean shared my slight frustration lets get back to the gettin'. I am doing very well with the eating correctly, I am not going over my calories other than Sunday and feeling awesome over all. Getting walks back into my daily has to be a priority, though I am walking more than I was I am not walking every day and that needs to happen as when I walk weight seems to melt off. I suppose huffing 400 pounds two to three miles will do that eh? I had begun taking on traits of that Fat guy that you all met back in January 2008, not exercising daily, eating what I wanted to, staying up late for no apparent reason and that shits a huge part of why I think many people struggle with weight loss.

Getting past this whatever it is with my weight not coming off as fast as I need/want it to is easy for me its still frustrating though but I think I will use that frustration to push me a little harder. Now you may say "need? why do you need to lose at a certain rate?" well, let me Splain Lucy. I started growing my beard out a couple months ago and when I got serious about dropping pounds again I said to the Boss lady that is Wify "I ain't shavin' this here beard till I hit 334 pounds again" and well... she is making me stick to that challenge. Now I like the beard, I enjoy it when my daughter grabs it and says "Daddy's Bew" and growls like a bew.. um I mean Bear and I like the way it looks. Also remember its winter here in New England and unlike the people in San Diego 50 degrees is warm to us up here but its when it gets sub teens and single digits that we take the flip flops and shorts off and well the beard is nice to help stay warm when that happens. If summer gets here and I have not reached that line that I drew in the sand I will be paying for it because of the "Bew" hanging off of my face so time is very much of the essence with this one.

I will likely post an image of the bew in a later post and come Friday I am still posting my weight whether it be up or down. The plan remains the same, eat less, add whole foods, move more and definitely get my ass walking EVERY day again because as far as I am concerned that's the formula that will get the weight off again.

With that I bid you a farewell until tomorrows post, remember I started a twitter account so if you're interested in following that there is a link at the top left of the blog or just add @Zeusmeatball. 

As Ever
Me

Over eating and twitter oh my!

Monday has come again and for whatever reason loads of people use Monday as the day to recover from a weekend of bad eating and no exercise, a silly concept but I think we have all done it at least once in our lives.My weekend went as planned for the most part but I did indulge Sunday a tad more than I should have when a friend came by. For dinner I made a Balsamic vinegar chicken dish which is low calorie and very tasty, I will be sharing that recipe soon but with dinner I had a Heineken and my daughter made cake lollipops and ummm yeah its like that. I may or may not have fell down and a couple few of the cake pops may or may not have slipped into my mouth  accidentally with the fall but I am ok! I did not get hurt on my fall so be calm people! but seriously 3 cake pops a Heineken and some extra chicken with dinner was over my calorie limit for the day.

Offsetting the extra calories I did go for a 2 mile walk, this does not mean that it was ok to go over calories for the day! and the scale just shook its head at me when I stepped onto its soulless white plastic body this morning. Like the pet dog who just got caught tearing up a couch cushion I tucked my tail and walked away with eyes drawn at the floor while the scale pointed at me exclaiming "NO!, Bad human" Fuuuck... Its not a big deal but the first time in three or more weeks that I went over my allowed calories and the scale this morning was a reminder that no matter what I must remain vigilant and stay strict with my intake. It is what it is and nada I can do now so no need dwelling on it, I will stick to the plan for today and do a little extra exercise today.

On a different channel we find that Zeusmeatball now has a twitter account @Zeusmeatball, a friend told me that I should make one so I did in the beginning of December and I couldn't figure it all out so it stayed unused until yesterday. Another friend was over and he uses Twitter so I asked him to show me some of the features and it was a duh moment for me because its really kind of easy though I am sure I am still missing some of the features. Please feel free to add me or follow me or whatever you do on twitter there is a link at the top left of the blog, I have 4 followers at the moment and will be using twitter more often now that I have a basic understanding of how it works.

So far this "restart" is going well, I have had the one slip up yesterday and it was not a huge slip so all in all I think we are doing good. Adding regular bike rides back into the schedule will surely help the cause and the K2 will likely be the bike that gets used for now until I drop a few more pounds and get my cycling legs back because let me tell ya, I am not in the shape I was in a year ago as far as my stamina and endurance goes. Regular walks are on the menu for this week as well, Normally I would walk around the lake that I live on and it was a nice mid range walk for me that made me feel like I did something but I am currently walking a 2 mile loop and its about right for feeling that I did something and not over doing it. 

Over all we're doing awesome, feeling awesome and now again I will mention on Twitter so follow @Zeusmeatball if you were interested in whats going on there. 

Thanks for reading along with my walk down a path to better health. 

As Ever
Me

Weighing in on weighing in, Return of the motorcycles..

Today is one day shy of when I got a number for my weight, tomorrow will be a week but I did say that I would post my weight for today on this post so I will. I will be honest I am not feeling motivated today and its partially why the post is a little later than usual, now don't read into that unmotivated thing as I am not liking what the scale said its a loss I am ecstatic about that! When I said that very same thing to Wify she said "just start typing" so thats what I am doing. 

I wanted to start off by saying that when people say weight is just a number I think that's as my grandfather would say Horse pucky, Seeing 400.4 pounds on the display instead of 3XX does not translate well in ones head. I am down 3 pounds this week from last Saturday and a loss is a loss in my book so I am happy with that, was I expecting? hoping? for more? absofuckinloutly I was but hey it is what it is. My biggest issue that I am experiencing right now is the way that I feel physically because I have to tell you 400 lbs is eons away from 350 pounds and 350 pounds is light years away from 305, I suspect that this trend keeps on going but since I have no first hand knowledge it remains an assumption for now. 

 BMW F800S comes in at 400 pounds like yours truly

Having gone from 534 pounds down to 305 pounds with a decent stay around 330 pounds and now back up to 400 pounds I have a good idea of how each feels on my body with very recent experiences to compare. I have to say that life is different at 330 vs 400 in so many ways and I am bothered that I allowed myself to get back up this far but it is what it is and the time to power back down to 300 has arrived.  

This is my favorite view..

When I weigh 300 pounds I feel unstoppable and for the most part I am, 25 mile ride on a whim? just need enough time to air up the tires, ya say you want to hike the 5 mile loop which is mostly uphill? let me grab my boots and backpack is the way it goes. Now at 400 pounds my bike collects dust partially because I don't want to break it which is mostly a silly thought but at the same time holds some validity and a hike? shhhure as long as its the short flatter route I am game and this bothers me more than any number on the scale because hiking and riding my bicycles is my escape, my "me time" and having had the choice to do anything I wanted to physically just under a year ago and now limitations are slowly entering in again just isn't sitting well with me. 

 Speaking of hikes.. I was just over 300 pounds in this image sitting at an overlook at a favorite hiking spot.

 There are two choices for me and my health, I can say fuck it and hop in the truck, take a ride to McNasty for a Mcrib or I can pull my big boy pants up and full on get my shit back together and get my ass back into shape. Obviously the latter is the direction that I am heading in but the thing that keeps popping into my head is where I was not so long ago riding my bikes pretty much ALL OF THE TIME and I gotta tell ya the taste that it leaves in my mouth is not a good one. 

I allowed myself to gain this extra weight back, I allowed myself to slip backwards and I am the one that needs to fix it, I will not fail and I will not complain, its my life and if I want it back I need to be the one to snatch the weakness up by the throat and shake the life out of it. 

And that right there is what came out when I took the advice to "just start typing..." 

No one can stop me but me...

As Ever
Me

Soup is good for the soul, not bad for my ass either.

Halfway through the week and feeling great, I am officially off of my AM cup of Joe and feeling better early in the days, it really is amazing how eating better foods will do that. Eating better was priority and as I get a handle on that its time to start thinking about some "real" exercise as I have been doing very short rides on the trainer and my Baby Calisthenics. With the more real exercise in mind I have to remember that I have a problem with my shoulder that I need to keep an eye on, I am not sure why but my shoulder hurts and its been that way for a while but getting better so just something to keep an eye on. 

Incorporating daily walks back into my routine is a must, when I dropped most of my weight the first time  around I was walking daily, no excuses, no cold or rain stopped me it was as important as breathing to me and I need to get there again. The problem that I am having is that I either take the toddler out in the cold for a brisk walk in January, wait until the evening and walk the narrow DARK country road and hope that I don't get hit by a car or walk in a mall during the day. I am not driving to a mall that's 20 minutes from my house so its going to have to be one of the other options, and the first time around my other daughter wasn't much older than this one and she walked with me so perhaps we will try that.

On the food side of things, We had a ham bone from Christmas that I stuck in the freezer to make something with and yesterday I decided that I would try a ham bone and white bean soup. I have never in my life made a soup out of a ham bone and beans so this was an experiment as much as a meal and I gotta say I think it turned out awesome! I made stock with the bone, removed all of the remaining ham from said bones added a bag of white beans, a finely diced onion, one medium potato and finished it off with spinach, this was seasoned with black pepper, rosemary, thyme and 2 cloves of crushed and minced garlic. Wify picked up a loaf of french bread to have with it that I stuck in the broiler for a few minutes and man this was some good soup if I do say so myself and very simple as far as ingredients and prep goes. 

We wanted to figure the calories out per cup so we added all of the ingredients together, divided by how many cups were there and I was extremely surprised at the number we came up with, this very hearty soup comes in at about 120 calories per cup. After we all had dinner and sent some to my mother in laws there are about 12 cups left so plenty for me for the rest of the week as lunches etc and I will likely freeze a small container to have next week.

This next statement may be a bit premature but I have to say I feel like I am in a good place and feeling very motivated to keep this going in a good direction. Next on the agenda is to get the walking into my days and come slightly warmer weather climb my ass back onto my bike and hit the trails on a regular basis again, good plan eh? 

With some discipline, dedication, exercise and maybe some luck I am hoping to get back down to a weight where I feel healthy and am able to do everything in my days agenda without issue once again. 

That's all I got for today, make sure to pop back in tomorrow to see where the next installment of as the fat guy turns takes you!

As Ever
Me

Vegetables that look like what did you say?

On the subject of juicing and that movie I watched Fat Sick and Nearly Dead I started and still am considering trying a variation of what is suggested in the film with my intake. I believe that getting nutrients via vegetable juice or smoothies is a very solid way to incorporate more veggies into ones diet and I am playing with some ideas. It dawned on me that I would not need to buy a juicer to try this out when I remembered that I have a small blender called the magic bullet, I have had it for years and used it primarily to mix protein drinks so that they were smooth. My discovery of this under utilized appliance brought me to the internet, of course! the internet! and I found something called the nutribullet which was being used for making fruit and veggie smoothies and the funny thing is that its the same appliance that I already have. 

I pulled the blender out, washed it up and decided to add some smoothies to my intake mind you this is only the second day I am doing this but so far the drinks are decent. Last night I made a spinach, grape, strawberry and apple smoothie and it was honestly really good even with the slight grass after taste so I decided that this morning I would try a breakfast blend. 

Two Roma tomatoes, a handful of spinach, 7 baby carrots and a slice of onion turned into the concoction that you see above. Something funny that I found was that in the first image it looks like the beginnings of a good salad, very appetizing, and in the second image the veggies all chopped up in water gives a fresh clean aura and in the last image, the final product looks like it came out of a sick baby. I will admit that this was very spinach heavy and its where most of the flavor came from, I also added a small amount of sea salt and black pepper after taking a sip and I think that tomorrow I will add more tomato and less spinach and try to bypass the salt and pepper. 

I am not going to go full on with this but I don't think adding veggie smoothies to my routine is going to effect me in any kind of negative way and if it gets me eating more veggies then so be it. I am considering becoming Vegetarian again as well, since my gallbladder surgery a couple years ago I have found it very difficult to drop weight even when I am eating within my allotted calorie range, if there is fat involved and I mean the smallest amount the weight just does not want to budge.

Over all I am doing well with this "restart" if you will, I am finding it easy to stay within my calorie range and honestly feel better. I wanted to say thanks for the support since I started writing here again, it helps more than you know and the personal emails I have gotten have been great! loads of support in the comments as well and truly, it is appreciated. 

Time for some baby calisthenics so in the words of the eternal porky pig..

That's all folks!

Until next time.
As Ever
Me

Baby Calisthenics and a workout is behind me.

Here we are a few days into me getting back to the regularly scheduled programming where posting to my blog goes and I am feeling pretty decent as to where I am. My intake is going well and I am almost done with coffee again, next on the agenda is getting to bed early again as I end up staying awake until at least 12AM most nights. Sleep is a very important ingrediant in a solid weight loss better health plan and I know this yet I am still staying up late because its what I have been doing, it will come together.

 

What I need to do is ramp my exercise again, I am currently just doing what I am calling "Baby Calisthenics" as I am home with the 20 month old all day I may as well incorperate her into my exercise rght? so today I did crunches in 3 different positions while she beat on my abdomin and dove across my mid section. Following the crunches we did some "Baby Bench presses" This is where I lay on my back on the living room floor and do exactly that, I bench press the baby! She counts along and laughs and since my hands are very close together I can actually feel it a bit in my arms with the high reps. After the presses we did some squats, I held her in front of me and when I came up I tossed her into the air and caught her then back down for the next rep, talk about making getting some light movements into your day fun! I closed with some push ups, she mainly watched me and tried to mimic what I was doing but it was fun and thinking about how I may be installing good habits into her gray matter made it that much sweeter.

 

Over all I am feelig better than I was 2 weeks ago and its amazing how just eating better will do that, go figure! who wouldda thunk? As I sit here typing this post out I am thinking about my bike riding or I should say the lack of my bike riding in the recent months, this must be remidied. My trainer is set up with my K2 and the Trek scowles at me as it sits next to my bed for tha lack of riding time its gotten last year. My legs are far from what they were when I was riding regularly but I am going to slowly get them back so that hopefully I can get back out there sooner than later and hit the trail.

 

Later than normal this post floats into the blogosphere but alas! Baby Calisthenics was more important and truly more fun! Making batter choices with my intake once again is proving positive of course and hopefully the pounds will start dropping from my bones and I can get to posting images of items matching what I weigh. Friday I will post my weight good bad or ugly and I am so far from where I was that its gonna be ugly any way its cut! BUT it is what it is and it shall be so.

 

Thats all I got for today, check me out again tomorrow and remember don' be shy! leave me a comment, opinion, reccomendation in the comments, its always good to get those.

As Ever
Me 

Vegetables and weighing in.

I did not get a chance to post yesterday as life got busy but I wanted to get on today and get some chicken scratch added to the blog so here goes. I did well on the intake for Friday and ended up with a total of 1775 calories for the day which felt good, it didn't take long for me to stop with the hungry feelings so this is awesome.

After flipping through netflix last night I found a documentary called "Fat sick and nearly dead" which follows a man from Australia on a Juice diet trying to lose weight and cure a chronic illness that he has. It was late but I figured what the hell and dialed the program up, I have to say that it was interesting if not obvious that he would drop weight bu juicing only but as I was a vegetarian many years ago it does hold validity as an option. After watching the program I found myself searching the web for some info on the subject and will be exploring a sort of hybrid plan which incorperates some of the theories and ideas that I have about how to drop weight and some of what was said in the show.

 

Sometimes we can be inspired by something that we did not expect to try, something new even if its an old idea that already been tested, meaning if I was a vegetarian so long ago why would it not work again? and why have I not explored the option since starting on my drop the pounds campaign? I suppose its as I said, we gain inspiration or get an idea sometimes randomly.   

 

On an different note, this morning I was able to weigh myself which is awesome even if I did not appreciate the number that I saw. This coming Friday I will post what I weigh at that point and will also reveal what I weighed this morning through letting you know what the loss for the week is as long as there IS a loss. Instead of giving the number right now in this post lets just call it a wake up call and shit just got real, not that it wasn't real already with much of my wardrobe not fitting but seeing the number plain as day was a kick to the face that I needed to open my eyes.

 

Wrapping up I wanted to say that I will not let anything get in my way, I need to take the weight off and I need to do it in lieu of anything happening around me or any negativity that flows in my direction because without the discipline to let it roll from my back the other options are not good. I do not believe that everybody understands just how fragile the situation is and how negativity effects outcome of any given day, but we must stay on point because no one else can do it for us, we ate the food thats hanging from our bones and we need to be the one to take it off.  

 

Random perhaps, maybe not, either way the train is rollin again.

As Ever
Me

A menu and some insight.

We hopped back on that wagon so in the spirit of that I've decided that posting my daily menu couldn't hurt and maybe give you all a window into what went into me yesterday. This is something that I use to do and found it helpfull to look back for ideas on meals as well as giving me an online base to look back on and find trends in the ups and downs of weight when compared to the weight chart that I keep. The idea behind what I do is counting calories while cutting out as much processed foods as possible, if I can acheive a completely whole foods intake I am where I want and need to be and the weight seems to come off steadily, this is my goal. Going from where I am currently to a mostly whole foods intake is not an over night process, sure I can cold turkey go to whole foods but I find that weening off of them slowly "hurts" less and sticks in a more permanant way so it begins and transitioning into whole foods has begun.

 

Throughout this process I have kept to a lot of whole foods even when eating badly, it seems that I just eat the junk in addition to the good stuff and this I believe will make things easier to get back where I need to be as I do have a love for whole foods. You will see with my intake that I currently have a cup of coffee in the am, this has got to change back to a cup of hot green tea but like with the whole foods I am weening off of it this week and am hoping to be done with it by next Friday or so. With that long lead in here is the menu from yesterday.

Breakfast   
7:00 AM 
        Coffee/light creamer  75
   
8:45 AM 
        7 egg whites  105
        7oz potato  175
        Onion/Green pepper  35
   
11:00 AM 
        1 Banana  125
   
Lunch   
1:15 PM 
        1 can of Tuna  120
        < 1T Miracle whip  45
        2 deli slims  200

2:00 PM 
        Greek yogurt  120

4:30 PM 
        Green Giant Cauliflower/cheese  150
        2.5oz potato  65
   
Dinner   
6:15 PM 
        2 Tortillas  200
        3oz Ground turkey  150
        1 T lite sour cream  15
        1 T salsa  25
        1/2 cup kidney beans  100
        1oz shredded cheese  90
        onion/jalapeno  15

That list comes to 1810 total calories and thats not too bad as I aim for 1800 per day, when I began losing weight I had no idea how many calories to take in and started way too low and eventually came to 1700 which worked for well for me. I decided on 1800 for now because even though I did have awesome results with 1700 I thought it was slightly low but this is subject to change as I go and may ultimately drop back down to 1700.

 

Getting  daily walk back into my day has to happen as well and its the plan, I set up my Cycleops trainer so that I can get my biking legs back but for now at least the rides are short to save my arse from being sore all the time and walking is such a fundimental exercise I need to make time for it.

 

Weighing in, as soon as I get a scale that works I will post my weight, for me I need to weigh myself often to stay in control of what I need to do day by day, some people do it once per week some don't weigh themselves at all, I am that guy that wakes up and steps on the scale to see the trend day by day. Making time to write in this blog is in my lans as well, when I started off I had zero readers like any new blog but before long I had support coming from many directions and its so important to have support that I would be doing myself an injustice if I did not utilize this as an option to connect with like minded people so the blog is going to become a priority again. Please subscribe to the blog if you are a new reader and if you are an old reader finding me on your feed again add me to your things to do list again, You can also follow me on facebook via the link at the top of the page or just search Zeusmeatball.. and add me.

 

Straight forward and informative is the way this post went, just something to sort of layout the plan, getting back to my old self on this blog is coming so grab a big ol glass of Green tea, sit back and watch me drop the weight.

 

Thanks for all of the support, it is more than appreciated.

As Ever
Me

Day 1 .... which really means Day 1826

Today marks the fifth year to the day since I started writing this blog, when I began this journey I was a 534 pound man that had not many options as far as what he could do physically and things felt pretty hopeless when weight loss was the subject matter. I had worked my way down to a low weight of 305 pounds "new low its weigh in day" in May of 2010 and then leveled off at around 320 pounds and stayed there for a bit while I honed my bicycle riding skills while falling in love with cycling once again. The yoyo game which many of us call weight loss/dieting began sneaking into my way of life as I got more comfortable, this is something that I noticed so I took measures to counteract it. I ate mostly whole foods, stuck to my low calorie high nutrition eating plan which was working but I came up to roughly 330 pounds as cycling became a huge part of my life everything was awesome in my world as far as health went.

 

I have mentioned in this blog in the past that there are some stress points in my day to day that I cannot do anything about and will not talk about in this blog but have worked through them the best that I could, most of the time I am able to keep my Diet/Health/Workouts out of the way but many times its a turning point for me and I found myself "stress eating" because of it. Yes yes, get over it fat boy, figure it out and work around it... if only it were that easy. June 2011 I was doing awesome again, that unstoppable kind of awesome, my weight had stablized around 330 pounds again and I was on a warpath to get under that mythical line in the sand that I had drawn so long ago..299 pounds. An extremely stressful day became so much worse when I learned that I had lost my mother, I was in California less than 24 hours later to be with family and handle all that comes with that and held my own with staying mostly strict while there.

 

Slowly but surely I put weight back on, the loss of my Mom impacted me as it would anyone but what it meant for me was weight was coming back on and I did not know how to get back into a mindset that would allow me to be successful with my health program. The day that I learned about my mom I weighed 339 pounds and had written this post  "you fat fuck" earlier in that day and was on a roll with getting my shit back together as far as my health went. Today as I write this I am unsure what I weigh because my scale in the house is broken and I haven't cared to replace it yet but I am fairly certain that I have crossed out of the 300's even if only by a couple pounds. The fact that I allowed myself to slip back so far after beating the hell out of myself and getting down as far as 305 pounds pisses me off to no end.

 

For the past few weeks I have been getting myself back into the better eating thing once again and while I feel better as I said I need to get a new scale before I know an exact weight to see just how far I allowed myself to slide backwards. I cannot and will not blame anything or anyone but myself for the backslide and have to remember that I am human and will screw up, we all do but making my way back down the path and reaching a healthy weight that lets me live how I want to live must be a priority for me. As hectic as my life has become I am going to try to write here as often as I possibly can as I believe this blog was a major part of my previous success, having a place to draw on my own words and feelings as things change is an awesome tool for anyone.

 

I am planning on posting my weight as soon as I have it and going back to my oldschool style of posting a weight with objects that weigh what I have lost each week etc, any of my old readers will understand this but the visuals are amazing motivators!

 

Five years ago I decided to change my life for the better and I have by leaps and bounds, this is just another chapter in that story and I hope that you will follow along and cheer me on or tell me to buck up and get a workout in, either way here we go...

 

As Ever

Me