At the core of it.. weight loss for the guy I use to know

Sometimes we lose sight of things and others its like we snatch it up by it's throat and handle it immediately, then other times circumstances dictate where the boat goes and it gets me thinking...

I am who I am, and I know I stole that from Popeye but its the truth so I'll use it, but my point is that no matter the circumstances I am who I am. The environment can change and at times environments can change us but at out core we remain. I am the same guy who dropped 229 pounds like it was my job but I have gained a significant amount of that back, and lost it again then gained it back... again, and this cycle is ridiculously unfortunate and infuriating all at the same time. 

I'm capable of eating within my calories, I am capable of exercising (perhaps not up the point that I want to but I can) yet I find myself doing the opposite more times than not lately and well yeah.. I told my wife "After the 1st its on like Donkey Kong baby, I'm losing it again" now I find myself eating less but not counting like I should and I am definitely not exercising as I should be but why?

I compare weight loss/healthy living to a train rolling down the tracks and if you look above you'll see the banner reflects that as its been there almost since conception of this blog. A train takes a lot to get it rolling, chugging along sputtering and spitting making lots of noise, bellowing smoke and dragging the immense weight of itself down the tracks. Slowly but surely it gains momentum, picking up speed and it gets easier for the train to keep rolling until its up to speed and chugging along almost effortlessly, efficiently and I dare you to stop it. 

The thing about trains is that if it does derail its typically disastrous, freight all over the place, rail cars smashed and crashed and all of the momentum is lost. Talking about derailed, I started off with Popeye.. So, my point is that I am the guy that lost all that weight, I am that guy who sputtered and chugged along the tracks and I did it, I was as healthy as I have ever been in my life and well, you guessed it, derailed but I'm thinking that just because I was derailed doesn't mean that I am done for yet I think I've been looking at it that way because of all of the I will use pain for a summery kind of word as to a big part of my lack of momentum again. but I think its time, time to say to hell with it and get back on that horse because the alternative hasn't been so fun. 

At my core I am that guy, the one who loves his bikes, the guy who can hike all day and be happy about it, the very same guy who teamed up on his friend reprimanding him for eating "cloned beef" thats me and I'm tired of wearing this other guy suit and ignoring who I am at my core....

Lets get this train rolling again. 

As Ever

Me

Calorie days

Another menu, another day and another pound lost (I hope) Yesterday was a bit of a struggle for some reason, I felt hungry at the end of the night but made it. I did go over by 160 calories partially because I grabbed a Greek yogurt from the fridge and didn't realize it was not a light yogurt until I took a bite and I didn't want to waste it so it is what it is.

Breakfast
2 slices light rye bread        100
.5 oz cheese        55
4oz ham        130
       
2 light Italian bread        80
2oz turkey pepperoni        140
1oz American cheese        110
               
Lunch       
2 servings pops cereal        240
8 oz 1% milk        110
       
2 Dannon light Greek yogurt        160
       
Dinner
2 La Tortilla factory wraps        200
2oz Light cheddar        90
1/4 cup black beans        55
onion/salsa       40
3 oz ground turkey        120
2 T light sour cream        40
1/4 cup white rice        50

Oikos Greek yogurt        150
       
4 Brazil nuts        90

Total calories 1960

Still trucking along and I am hoping (there's that word again) that I see a loss on the scale come Friday, either way, I'm going to keep on doing what I'm doing and see where the wheel ends up. 

As Ever

Me

Day something, calorie record.

 Something not totally new, Posting my daily intake. I have been doing fairly for a bit so I wanted to share the menus from my days, for now it will be simplistic with my intake but perhaps I will start writing again, we shall see.

I allow myself 1800 calories per day currently


Breakfast
2 servings pops cereal        240
8 oz 1% milk        110

Snack    
2 Dannon light Greek yogurt        160

Lunch     
Applebees Steakhouse Bruschette Sirloin        530
a few sweet potato fries from wifes plate of fries        150
     
Dinner
3 light mozz cheese sticks        180
olive oil        40
2 La Tortilla factory wraps        220
pizza sauce        30
diced peppers/onions       20
parm cheese        20
1/2 oz pepperoni        40

Evening snack       
2 Dannon light Greek yogurt        160

Total intake for 5-25-15 is 1900 calories.         

I am weighing myself again and perhaps that will start making appearances here on the blog again too.

As Ever
Me

What we've got here is failure to communicate.

My mind says forward all engines captain yet my body refuses to comply with the order, whats a guy to do. Being negative is not how I dropped 230 pounds and is a huge part of why I have not posted lately, hows that saying go? if ya ain't got nothing nice to say? something like that.

Things OUT of my control dictate the gray matter and this is not how it should be but how does one separate the things that cause stress and the things that need to be done while making them work together if not in harmony just simply get out of one anothers way? If I knew we would be in a different place. 

With spring finally arriving in New England I realize that my hoodie is no longer a hiding place for the extra large version of myself any more and like a ton of bricks I am pissed, upset and feeling let down by myself all together. Yes its easy to say "start now" but alas here in lies my problem, I start at least 3 times per week because stress fucks with my noggin in ways that I wish it did not and like I said what to do when you are putting fires out constantly or dealing with complete frustration from more than one direction? I wish I knew. 

The old me... which was the new me.. who has now become the guy I use to be is so close in memory that being this guy that I am now seems foreign yet at the same time he is who is here at the moment. Now that I have thoroughly confused you, basically I am pissed and its time to do something about it because the guy that was doing 25 mile rides on his bike hasn't been around for a while, that guy who hiked all week, I haven't seen him in a bit and I miss him so looking for him is going to be a priority for me now. 

Less than inspiring? down? blah? perhaps thats how this post will be interpreted by anyone who takes the time to read it, maybe it will be seen as a guy whose had enough and is attempting to change a situation again in hopes that it sticks, I'm unsure as its literally just thoughts written as they came. This blog helped me drop 230 pounds once, maybe it can help me drop what I've gained back, at any rate, its worth a try. 

Thats all Igot for now, I'll try and post more often so check it out.

As Ever
Me... or is it.

Day 1, an inch at a time... Kicking and screaming if I must.

Baby steps.. that's what they say right? This oh woe is me shit doesn't look good on me so I've decided that I am going to try and pull that old me.. err or is it the new me? or maybe the new old me, well whatever it is hes coming back out in the front of the line. Its hard, I won't lie but when has it been easy? so if I drag myself an inch at a time eventually that will be a foot, then a mile then.... 

I am tired of this shit, I am tired of being tired and I am aggravated with myself for allowing the back pedaling with my health and weight, in that order because with good health comes the weight loss. I was once a completely sedentary 500 pound man, I became an extremely active 300 pound super hero and I have slowly but surely inched my way back up to over 400 pounds and inactive. No fucking way am I going to let myself stay here, I deserve better and like I said, if I have to drag my ass an inch at a time so be it. 

There will be slips, there will be days that I don't feel the way I feel as I write this but working through those times is what I need to relearn to do because if I don't I let people down and not just myself. When I started this blog I was completely lost, it was an experiment as much as a desperate man forcing a change so that death was not peeking into his windows every night and this time around I have a little more experience and I have to apply that to my daily so that we're back where we need to be.

Today I decided that this would be my Day 1.

Today I am recommitting myself to myself.

Today I take back what I worked so hard to get and what I deserve to have. 

This train is no longer idle, please step aside, I would hate to run over any innocent bystanders.. 

As Ever
Me

Stepping on the scale, sometimes its so rewarding.

After a week of walking and eating the correct foods my weight has come down again and I am feeling good again. I say feeling good "again" because no matter what I do when my body is not getting what it needs in the way of exercise and intake I never feel as good as when I am eating correctly and moving more. 

I'll keep this post simple and to the point as I want to get out for a walk before it rains, I am down to 397.0 pounds this morning, yesterday morning it was lower but I had a late dinner and barely any sleep last night and it shows on the scale this morning. 397.0 means that I am down 2.6 pounds from last Friday, I'll take it! If I can continue to drop an average of 2.5 pounds per week I will be 330 pounds by my goal date of April 1st and I hope I can get it off faster than that but I do think that 2.5 pounds per week is an achievable goal.

 Making my way back down to a healthier weight, Feeling good again and with some discipline and hard work I will get there again. 

That's all I got for today as my walk calls. 

As Ever
Me

It's your process, fuck the rest.

Walking, riding, eating right and staying hydrated, welcome to my life right now. This is the way it needs to be, I enjoy life like this better than any other way so that makes being a stress eater very frustrating. I see motivational sayings posted all over the internet and facebook etc and I think most of them are pretty silly mostly because I think every person struggling with weight loss though sharing THAT common denominator is in a different place.

5?? pounds.

I can state "The decision is yours! You have the fork in your hand! just put it down!" and some of the people will completely relate and say "hell yeah!" while others will want to say it and feel that way but truth be told they are not at that stage in their process. I find that weight loss and better health is less one dimensional than that and one day to the next can be completely different experiences not from different people but from the same person. When I am on point I feel unstoppable, I am a weight loss superstar dammit and this fat will not continue to loiter around on my front step and that's the end of it, but when a bad day peeks in well yeah. When I am off its a struggle, I mean every minute of the day, Staying true to the process is not easy in those moments and no matter how much I want or need to stay dead solid on track something inside is trying to get me to fail at that task.

I know life, if you want to call it that at more than 500 pounds, I know life at 300 pounds and I know life at 400 knowing how the other two feel after being there so recently and frustration is dug in deep on all levels. When I was 500 pounds I thought there was no fixing it on my own, I felt like it was a hopeless venture and I would be stuck there forever so I tried. That adventure brought me all the way down to 300 pounds, I got invites from talk shows to appear on them and I even went to the Dr Oz show because of it, I have made friends because of the weight loss, I rode my bikes constantly became very active and felt amazing. Then less than a couple years ago I lost my mother, I was 330 pounds on that day and I know because I posted a blog post here and got the call immediately after I posted and days like that tend to stick out in a persons mind. Some other "stresses" dominated my life and I put on at least 100 pounds over the last year and a half or so, currently I am just under 400 pounds after losing at my best estimate about 30 pounds.

320 lbs

Losing weight and better health is not a one size fits all kind of thing, BUT in general if you eat less (and healthy foods) and move more the weight should come off even if its not as fast as you would like. I am extremely motivated and pig headed once I get something in my head and for the life of me I could not drop any weight in the last almost two years no matter how hard I tried or pretended to try or or or.... 

I think that its awesome that blogger X, Y and Z are at that point in their process that they can tout how easy it is as long as you put the fork down or how YOU ARE IN CONTROL OF WHAT YOU EAT! rah rah sis boom bah! awesome... but.. Something I have learned is that no matter who we are, we all struggle with the same problem in very different ways and that is why there is no "miracle pill" that works or will ever work. 

 320 lbs

I am at a point in my process where I can see things from so many angles all at the same time and I almost feel like this is what I needed on a personal level to get and keep the weight off permanently, you know, to see 500, 300 and then start coming back up again so that in a way its like that whole not missing something till its gone thing. I am just under 400 pounds, I need to get back down to a maximum of 300 pounds and I almost feel like I needed to taste that freedom so that I can appreciate it the way that I should have when I was there the first time around. 

Walking with my children, riding my bike with my daughter, riding my bike alone on a trail covered in dead leaves on a cool Autumn day, appreciating everything that I can do effortlessly because I am not carrying the equivalent of another human being on my bones  are just some of the things that I enjoy about not being super obese. 

305 lbs, I need to get back here like NOW!

This post is purely written for me, I contemplated not posting it to the blog but I use the blog to reflect back at moments and how I felt at a given moment so it shall be posted. Take from it what you want to, take nothing at all if that works for you but remember we are all walking a road that is filled with obstacles, we all struggle and though the end results that we all seek may be the same, the road taken is rarely even close to the same.  

Stay focused, Stay as positive as the moment permits and with a ton of hard work I believe that we can all meet at the end of that road and share our stories of how we got there with one another. 

That's all I got. 

As Ever
Me   

Weighing in on weighing in. A less profound but more factual post from your favorite fat man.

So a couple weeks ago I weighed in at 403.6 pounds on my scale that only goes up to 400 pounds so I questioned its accuracy from the start but at the same time seeing a number was good for the mind. After that day I didn't get another weight to show up so my questioning it was warranted but since I am a gotta see the numbers kind of fella my lovely wife went out and got us a new scale that  goes to 450 pounds... eeeeeek! I never thought a scale that robust would be needed again but alas, here we are.

In the beginning of the week I weighed 404.6 pounds and this morning I busted through that 400 pound barrier and weighed in at 399.6 pounds. I will give it another week before I celebrate getting out of the 400's but damn I gotta say its a weight lifted off of my shoulders and I mean quite literally along with the figurative part of that statement. 

I have been walking daily 1.8 miles on my "short walk" and a more average 2.3 miles but at least twice per week I do my "long walk" which is 3.2 miles. My calorie intake is @ 1800 per day currently and will remain there until I stop dropping weight. Evening rides with my daughter have slowed down since she started school again but I am trying to get them going again before it gets too cold for her to ride. 

I am feeling like myself again, focused, on point, determined and disciplined with everything that I do. Food is once again merely fuel for my body instead of a "treat" or something to "reward" myself with  and I am embarrassed along with aggravated at myself for allowing things not exactly in my control to beat me back into an unhealthy way of living. 

I am determined to get back down to my low weight and beyond..

As Ever
Me

Be your own hero dammit.

When we set our minds to something, we can accomplish almost anything at all in life, I truly believe that statement wholeheartedly. 

Motivation, now that is the key because without proper motivation it is very easy to lose sight of the end game, but how about of you made it to the end game and slid back? then what? We all struggle with things in life, for some of us its money, others its health and that list goes on and on and on. When it comes down to it ain't no one gonna do shit for you in life and why should they? if you do not do it for yourself its just not going to get done and when we can realize this all of the things that make us smile all start falling together until one day we're standing at the top of a peak looking down at the world that was once so much smaller than it is now.

Having positive role models is an awesome tool! I know all too well how strong the feeling can be when you are reaching to be like someone or are attempting to emulate what someone has done but I find myself asking why lately. Why? why does it need to be somewhere else that we find strength? why does inspiration need to be found in others? why? Find it in yourself and it will be ever lasting and I believe this to be key because if you are finding inspiration in yourself then we are forced to hold ourselves more accountable, we are forced to make better choices in whatever we do not only because it effects us directly but because you want to be the best you can for that person that finds you an inspiration. 

That person is You..

Be your own fuckin' hero dammit, put that cape on every day and hunt down everything that makes your struggle difficult and work through it, kick down the doors and demand whats yours. When you can be your own hero you will work to impress that guy and he will work to impress you, it will become a viscous cycle of trying to one up each others awesomeness until one day you will look back at what once was and be satisfied with what you have accomplished. 

what YOU have accomplished.... 

Be your own hero dammit....

As Ever
Me

Suffer, it is the only option.

See that wagon over yonder? yeah, the one that I fell off of about a week ago, that's the one, keep your eye on it because I am hoping back on. When stress enters stage left its devastating for my ass, I immediately go to the "stress eating" and nothing helps it. Figuring out how to deal with stress in a different way has to be a priority for me as it is how do they say? my down fall. 

Not getting into exactly the source of stress because its nothing that I can fix or change, I need to change the how I deal with it factor more than the stress itself because life will always include stress on one level or another. I am not making excuses for my lack of control with the eating and I am not blaming "stress" I am just straight up stating the why part of the equation that lead to a screwed week of poor choices when it came to my intake.

Me and my beard full of ice.

My poor Truck

My driveway after using the snow blower and its still not down to black top! to give you a point of reference, that's a Ford Expedition and the snow is higher than the tire.

With that said, I have ridden the trainer more this week than I have all year and with the snow that came down over the weekend I haven't stopped moving with all of the shoveling but that will not make up for the lack of discipline in the refrigerator department. When my weight loss is the subject my intake is more important than any exercise that happens, from the beginning I lose weight faster when I eat within my calories and walk at least a mile 3-4 times per week and this has to go back into place as my basic program.

Making sure that my calorie limit is not disrespected will be my main focus in the coming weeks, I will also be utilizing the trainer and walking to get some movement into each day. I was talking to Wify last night and told her that I really wished that I could figure out why as soon as stress pops its head into my daily that I immediately turn to my old pal food, it is the most frustrating aspect of my life. No matter how hard I try, no matter how far I come or how much weight I drop when it comes to stress in my life the same fix pops into the picture, snatch something up and shove it down my throat, fuck....

This whole weight loss thang is not a race so it truly is just a start over from now kind of a feeling but I have to tell you, looking back at photos of me at 305 may as well be a kick to the throat because its where I want to be. Looking at my closet full of a wardrobe full of clothes that just don't fit me currently pisses me off and yet stress pops in? you know where to find me.

Only one thing to do and that's to put my big boy pants on stop acting like a Nancy and harden the fuck up, allowing food to have this hold on me is weak and fighting with that fact is not easy but its my life and weighing close to 400 pounds is NOT in the fucking plan. 

That's all I got for today, time to ride the trainer. 

As Ever

Me

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

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

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

Who runs Bartertown?

When you learn to put yourself first and do something incredible then that incredible thing gets taken back because of a lack of focus I can tell ya its not good feeling. There was a time in my life when I struggled to walk up a flight of stairs without feeling like I was going to die before I reached the top and some time around then I decided that I had to completely change the way that I was doing things, and I did. Losing 229 pounds at my lowest weight I came in at 305 pounds, now 305 pounds may sound high and it is but at the same time I am about 6'4'' tall and built large so its not so far off where I want to be and the way 305 feels compared to where I am today is an insane difference.

I think that not having something to reference was easier on the gray matter than having been there such a short time ago and knowing exactly how it feels. On my way down from 534 pounds I had no real idea of how 305 pounds felt, I was probably a Freshman in high school the last time I was that weight and not close to being an adult. My adult life had never seen that weight before so now that I had a short visit down to see the family living in room 305 it aggravates me that I let it go, take everything else out of the equation and it boils down to the fact that I was not disciplined enough to keep what I worked so hard for. I am left with a do-over if I want to see the other side of 300, I have to re-lose about 65 pounds JUST to get where I was already and if I let myself I could get pretty annoyed at that fact but instead I am going to attempt to turn that energy into drive that will get me back down to where I need to be with my weight.

I have to take control of what goes into my body, letting stress or aggravation get the better of me has not been good for my waist line so its time to get back to the basics. I created the perfect plan for myself, for my health and was beating the pounds into submission while making my body stronger than it had ever been so I do know how and what to do. Years of practical research and application of that research into my daily life turned a 534 pound man who struggled to do the most menial physical tasks into a 300 pound man whom had the world in his grip, there is no way that I can let that go.

Where my health is the subject, I have to be the one running the show.

That's all I got

As Ever
Me

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

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


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

And then there were none...


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


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


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


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


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


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

That's all I got for today.

As Ever
Me

Weighing in and the setting sun..

Let us get to the weigh in straight away this morning, I cannot complain with what the scale said to me, It said that I am down to 355 pounds on the button and that's a good number for me considering that on Sunday it said 360 pounds so 5 down from there and two and a half down from last Fridays weight so either way its a loss and that's the point! From here on out I am in full steam ahead mode again and plan on getting under that 350 mark that's been teasing me for the last couple months.

I haven't been posting many photos up lately because of a couple reasons, my camera broke, my laptop broke and its been stressful BUT I have a new camera, I have a new laptop and I am back on track so with that said I took a couple pictures yesterday on a very short walk that I thought I would share, have a look.

Here is a shot across the still partially frozen lake that I live on, this was just before sunset and I happened to have my camera with me.

This is taken from my back yard looking back into the wooded area, I wanted to try and get the moon in the pic.

Same as the above pic but zoomed in on the moon.

Finally a shot across the lake again, I liked the way this tree was silhouetted by the setting sun.

Today it is suppose to get to the 50s and tomorrow should hit 60! so it would appear that the walks shall be back in the schedule again and I will start bringing my camera and popping some pictures like the above photos up here on the blog. The warmer weather means that I can start doing more outside and that can only be positive when talking about weight loss and better health, hiking, walking, running and all of the landscaping that I need to do this year will all add up into weight loss and I can't wait.

With that said it would appear that I am back to where I should be with this weight loss thang so its back to business and moving forward. Don't forget that glass of H2O that you earned for reading along and remember to check in on my mini update later tonight.

As Ever
Me

Lions and Tigers and Sloppy Joes Oh My!

Last night I was watching The biggest loser and having a conversation with my wife about our weight loss to date and how she was out of green tea and that I needed to make her more for the am, so I will use her to make a point. She said to me that since she started back on a more strict intake level and started the green tea that she feels more hungry during the day for the past couple of days and then she said "I ate a whole pack of bubble gum today between breakfast and coming home from work" I laughed and told her that it was going into the post for today! I think its the perfect example of empty calories and is probably why a large part of the people that try to lose weight have issues doing so. She also mentioned that she has been eating animal crackers at work, animal crackers? so now we are getting to the root of the problem here, bubble gum and animal crackers does not a good meal plan make, so She has decided to make pre-portioned baggies of popcorn to bring to work so that when that urge to munch comes up she has something to grab instead of bubble gum or animal crackers, this is something that She and I did when we first began our weight loss. That brings me to the next point, the hunger that she and many others that eat like that have as a result, eating animal crackers and bubble gum or things like that pile on the calories and then when dinner time or lunch time comes around calories are limited and tiny portions are eaten because the calories were already wasted on the sugary snacks earlier in the day. The sugary snacks have another side effect, they boost you up higher than you actually are for a short time and then you crash and burn when the sugar rush goes away.

Indeed Jillian is a tad hot, dare I say I have a crush?!

Last night I tried something a little bit different for dinner, I used ground turkey and made sloppy joes with 80 calorie hamburger buns from Stop & Shop, my daughter has been picky with dinners lately and says that she doesn't eat chicken any more (which means chicken and turkey), She is age 3 and is saying things like that! I am doomed when she becomes a teenager! so with a little bit of daddy trickery ground turkey got turned into a meal that she had no clue what it was and she ate her entire sandwich! I learned that this is a good low calorie alternative to Turkey burgers an already low calorie meal, and I have not had sloppy joes in quite some time, each sandwich had about (and I say about because I estimated the calories of the tomato paste) 205 calories, broken down like this. 2 eighty calorie hamburger buns 160 calories, 5.5 oz ground turkey (which included the tomato paste so it was actually less than 5.5oz of meat but I counted it as 5.5 whole oz of turkey) 220 calories, The tomato paste said 30 calories per serving and there were approximately 5 servings in the small can, I guessed one serving in my 5.5 oz of meat so 30 more calories there for a total of about 205 calories per sandwich, now that ain't bad at all! I think this will be added to my meals again and I think it shows that with a little bit of thinking things out people can eat things that may seem bad for them and not have the negative side effect of gaining weight. The fact that we use less also means that there was left over mix and will be lunch fr me today so money will be saved as well and in todays economy thats always a plus.

My intake for Tuesday ended up at 1630 calories and I did get a 25 minute ride on my stationary bike into the day and I think thats a good day where my weight loss goes. I always seem to do good on Tuesdays and I don't know if its because Monday is gone and I am looking at my program closer, or if its because its The biggest loser night but I always wake up Wednesday morning feeling good about the menu and movement that was done. Maybe its the way Jillian screams at the people on that show to get them moving that gets me, I do know that when I start going to a Gym to do weight training (when I am closer to 300 pounds) if I decide to try out a trainer or something I hope that I find someone like Jillian from TBL because I already push myself so whoever does the pushing in my direction HAS to be aggressive, I am too stubborn to quit or not try to prove someone wrong when they say "you can't do that". All in all I feel as if I am on track and doing well with my new healthy ways, My endurance is up to levels that I cannot even remember having and I feel like I have tons of energy most of the time. I hope to start walking again soon but the snow has to stop before I can really do that, yes it is snowing again here in beautiful New England and it is suppose to turn to freezing rain later then into and I quote the man in the plastic box "the ice will be as thick and hard as concrete" so it is my bike until the snow stops.

The end has come to another post and I am that much stronger mentally and stronger physically because of the movement that I put in yesterday. Thank you for reading along and don't forget to get on up and grab that glass of H2O that ya deserve.

As Ever
Me