You are just a machine..

Winter is here in New England! This morning it was single digit weather with the wind chill and here I was planning on taking a walk today! I guess that won't be happening now, especially with these Saucony running shoes that I have, they are really just a mesh on top of a mesh which makes for a very light weight breathable running shoe perfect for good weather but the air blows right through them and I just know that I would be on blocks of ice by the end of a walk today o we shall forget about that right now. I have felt good all week about my weight and it seems to have a downward trend this week a I am down from Friday and its only Wednesday so I am feeling awesome about the week so far. I am very optimistic about this weeks weigh in and I do believe that I will be happy with what I see on the scale, now don't go reading too far into that and guess that I am having a great week because its average at best so far but I have come to appreciate any loss as a good thing. when I started down this road and was dropping six seven even eight pounds per week I would feel let down when I had a 3 pound week, that insane! a 3 pound drop in a week is awesome work especially considering that I have no trainer besides my buddy Will and his girlfriend Desire and the fact that I am doing this 100% on my own meaning I don't have someone making meal plans for me and or portioning my intake or guiding me in any way. This is all being done on pure hard work and I am reaping the benefits from all of the time and effort that I put into reading EVERYTHING that I can get my hands on concerning weight loss and applying what seems like it would work and trying things out for myself and constantly tweaking the program as I learn more, though I do admit that at this point I am almost on auto pilot and have created quite a groove for myself to ride down and the tweaking ha been minimal for a while now.

When its all broken down we are just a machine but instead of gears, wiring, oil, nuts and bolts we are made up flesh, bone, nerves and blood, simple right? well it is. if you take care of a machine it will last for years and usually will outlive you or me! lets use a car as an example, regularly change the oil, get it tuned up when the time comes, keep the tires inflated to proper pressures, change the air filter, keep it lubricated properly change all or the fluids accordingly and a car will last forever and run smoothly, but if you don't do all of those things the life of that engine, the bearings on the car and all other related parts will fail catastrophically in a very short amount of time and our bodies are the same way, Take care of it and it will serve you well and give you a long happy life and if you don't well, you know the rest. I like I have said in the past on this blog just wish I would have made the decision to get and stay healthy years ago.

A few things not on the same subject, yesterday we stopped at a Friendly's restaurant for lunch at my daughters request and we ALWAYS request a table so that I don't have to squeeze into a booth, So as we sat at the table waiting for our lunch to come out I looked to my right at the booth and decided to hop on over for a, we shall call it a "test fit" and well a bit to my surprise I slid right in and told Wify that it appeared that we wouldn't have to request a table all of the time anymore, like a glove I tell ya! Later in the day we were home and I was thinking about how I have a very nice leather coat that was bought the same year that I met Wify so about 9 years ago and it hasn't fit for a good 6 years now and since its getting cold outside I tried it on and bamn! like a glove! or should I say like a jacket. It was actually a bit too big on me! which is good because I like to wear a hoodie or a fleece under it so it looks as if I have room for that now, the odd part about the coat is that I tried it on about 3 months ago and it fit but not comfortably and if I were to zip it then it was snug, now I can over lap the front by about 6 inches. I want to guess that I tried it on last in the beginning of Sept which means that I am only about 25 pounds lighter now than then and the difference in how it fits is much more than a 25 pound loss, I can only come to the conclusion that the skin is tightening up to the point where its making a difference in my size, and for that I am excited.

A bit random today but as always its just me rambling on so I hope you enjoyed. Also if you made it this far into the post you ought to get on up and go grab yourself a glass of water because if you don't you are only hurting yourself.

As Ever
Me

Yes you can...

Tis Monday, I have a chicken carcass going in the kitchen making some broth because I am being lazy and don't want to make a soup with it. I am right on track were the weight loss is concerned and have a good feeling about the end of the year number coming up, anyone that reads regularly knows that I was going to shoot for 200 pounds lost by the end of the year which would have been 200 pounds in one year, but this is a bit ambitious. A bit more than 4.5 pounds per week until the end of the year actually, though I don't think that number is a probability I have already stated that I will treat the end of the year as if I am going for that goal but know in my heart that I won't make it. It is all about attitude and I do believe in the power of suggestion or in this case the power of believing will play a huge role in me getting as close to that end of the year number as possible. I was chatting with my father on the phone over the weekend and he asked me "how many bags" to which I replied "a little more than 33" and we talked about how I would like to drop 200 pounds by the end of the year and he said "you do know you aren't going to make it right?" and I said "yep but that doesn't mean I can't try" it is after all not impossible, I admit not probable but impossible? go ahead and say impossible and I will do everything to prove you wrong!

The point is that people always seem to have an excuse to not lose weight, be it no time, they don't know how to or the willpower doesn't exist. All false of course and all just the next excuse in the line of excuses that brought them additional weight on their bones. In the beginning of the year I decided that excuses did not a single person good and I am not excluded from that club, the only thing that will get the weight off and keep it off will be moderate eating and a regular exercise schedule. if you don't like that equation then you are most likely destined to be heavy for the duration of your time here on this rock we call home, or at least unhappy with your results. Each and every one of us can do this weight loss gig, and each and everyone of us can be successful at it as long as the time and effort that it deserves goes into it and we are honest with ourselves about what we are eating and whether we are getting the exercise in that we should be.

Anyone can lose weight, anyone can exercise daily, I guess the question is do you want it bad enough? I do. I actually get excited sometimes about trying to lose weight and at this point in the game its just that, a game. Now that I realize that losing weight is not actually anything more than mind over matter, if you can take the excuses out and replace it with a little bit of drive I believe we would find that none of us would have weight issues.

Thanks for reading along.

As Ever
Me

Drop and give me 150!

It is 4:59PM Saturday and I have made good on my challenge, I just completed my push ups from the comments yesterday, I did a total of 151 push ups broken into six sets 20 and two sets of 15 with an extra one at the end for good measure. I took about a minute to 90 seconds between sets and I KNOW that I will regret doing this tomorrow or even later this evening, my triceps and chest were pretty much numb when I started the sets of 15 but I had to finish so I did. There you have it, I made good on my challenge and I am 151 push ups stronger than I was yesterday so it was a good thing, ask me tomorrow how I feel about it and you may just get a different answer though. If I were to even attempt this just 10 months ago I would have failed miserably and basically was not capable of accomplishing 150 push ups even done in sets like I just did them. Let me tell you that life at 534 pounds is a struggle, making sure that you get your daily exercise can be a chore, watching what you eat 24/7 is a lot of work and can also be a struggle at times but the results that can be had for doing just that are more than worth that effort, trust me when I say that, I have been on that side of the yard and it ain't no picnic.


The last place anyone wants to be is in an eternal struggle with anything and everything within this short sliver of time we call life. Having extra weight on your body can cause all kinds of turmoil physically and mentally within someones image of them self as well as cause health issues and an uncomfortable outlook with the world that just has to be experienced to fully understand it, I do not wish this uncomfortable feeling on anyone. I am not really talking about being 20 or even 30 pounds over weight, when you are 200-300 pounds over weight the things that a person misses out on out of the pure fact that they cannot do them is insane. Imagine not being able to walk for more than 5 minutes at a time without severe pain in your back and being out of breath, feeling your body struggle with every step yet trying to keep a tiny piece of pride for yourself and pushing through it obviously doing so to anyone that looks in the direction where you are standing but you convince yourself that no one can tell. Perhaps your family is going to a ball game or concert and time and time again you have to decline going not because you dislike loud music or baseball but because you have zero chance of fitting into a stadium seat. How about having to turn sideways to go into a bathroom door? the list is much longer than you would like to know and is filled with things that a person might never even think could become an issue unless they were one of the unfortunate that had to walk in those shoes.

534lbs to 366lbs in just over ten months and a world of difference in every aspect of my life is what has been done. I do not feel hungry almost ever, and my energy is up 100%. I eat what I want to and am not on a special diet, I eat well and often and even enjoy going out to restaurants without going outside of my calorie range or feeling like I am eating less than a great meal and if I do go above calories now and again thats alright too. I have the nutritional information from most of if not all of the eateries that I enjoy and feel no guilt when I eat there. If you are struggling with weight because you cannot afford a gym membership or because you cannot afford special meal plans and packets you are doing so needlessly, I spend less money on food now than when I was not eating correctly and I am eating more than ever and healthier than ever, and I have no membership to a gym. It takes a lot of planning and reading and preparation I will admit that but it is worth every second that you choose to put into it and I am finding that the more work that I put into being healthy the healthier and more successful I am with the losses.

I do thank all of you that were evil enough to leave me a comment yesterday and added to the total of my push up challenge, maybe I will do this again next week IF my chest has recouped by then! now all of you that read this go grab a glass of water and relish in the fact that my chest is very weak right now and will be sore in hours, but also know that that soreness drives me to do more so its a win win!

As Ever
Me

I weighed in today and.....

A bright and early post for your eyes, and I will get right to it with the weigh in numbers. Upon waking of course I went straight for the scale and the first number that I saw was 366.4lbs, woohoo! I thought, so I stepped off and back on again and 366.2lbs flashed across the display so once again for third times a charm and it was 366.2lbs again so it will be recorded as 366 pounds! Thats a 4.4 pound loss from last Friday and this is the lightest I have been yet since starting this weight loss regimen. I have lost a total of 168 pounds to date and I have 91 pounds left to lose to get to my goal of weighing 275 pounds and that fact is simply insane to me seeing that I was 534 pounds just 10 months ago, so needless to say I am happy with this weeks weight number and just in general am feeling great about the entire process thus far, here are some photos so that you can have a visual reference for these figures.

This 2003 GSX R 750 weighs in at 366 pounds like me.

This is Dana, She has lost 122 pounds and weighs 168 pounds in this photo taken on Halloween 2008 which is what I have lost so far, she is a fellow blogger that I met while on my weight loss journey and someone that I find inspiration in from time to time. She looks great eh?

This fine young pitbull weighs in at 91 pounds which is what I have left to lose to reach my goal.

I am happy to be back on a downward swing with the weight and ill be trying my best to keep it that way because as we all know Thanksgiving is on the way and after that Christmas is just around the corner and I know I will be slipping on those days, I say slipping but its not really slipping as I am going to just enjoy myself and not count calories those days. I don't plan on gorging myself for the holidays but why can't a fella enjoy some good eats along with everyone else? yep hes gonna! once again if you made it to this point in my post you deserve a glass of water so go get it and I will put the challenge out there again this week and do 10 push ups on Saturday for every comment that I get on todays post by midnight Friday Nov 14th stating that you got that drink! last week I had 7 comments before midnight so I ended up with 70 push ups on Saturday, it was a fun challenge so I am tossing it out there again and Wify can confirm that I did them again via a comment on a weekend post but remember the challenge is that you drink a glass of water and then post that you did, so go get hydrated.

Thanks for reading and for all of the support.

As Ever
Me

As the fat guy turns...and thigh meat!

Thursday is here and that means I will be recording my weight for the week tomorrow morning, I am hoping for a three pound loss for no other reason than I have a picture I want to post up and it only get posted when I get to that number. I think the past few days of being strict has done me some good, I actually feel better than I have in a week or so and I honestly think its all of the tea that I am drinking again, diet soda just doesn't have the same effect on a fella. My intake yesterday though good was slightly higher than it should have been coming in at 1740 total calories which is not really all that bad but it is still above the range that I set for myself so I thought I would mention it. I have nothing extraordinary really to post today other than I am feeling back to normal where being strict yet reasonable with my intake goes, actually strike that I did see something that I cannot ever remember seeing in my life last night and that would be my belly and hip being at the same height while laying on my side. I was laying in bed on my side and couldn't help but notice that my hip bone was there, while this is nothing that seems out of this world it is in fact not something I am use to having so close to the surface so I laid directly on my side and my love handle was only slightly higher than my thigh meat! and I really do mean slightly. So that was kind of cool to see because it wasn't something I went looking for, it kind of just happened, ok enough about my hips and thigh meat.



As I walked down my hallway upstairs I was glancing at a series of photos we have hung along the hallway which is a bunch of cool sunsets that I have taken over the years, and in the middle of them is a picture from when we drove to CA about 9 years ago of Wify and myself standing on a bridge in Colorado with the sunsetting behind us, which is right around the time we met and something I noticed is that I am smaller now than in that pic. I asked Wify if she thought I was smaller now than in the pic to see if it was something that I was just hoping for or if it was in fact true and she concurred that I was indeed smaller now. As I mentioned in yesterdays post I want to get down to 300 pounds by the end of June, actually I want to get to 303 pounds by then and you might be wondering why 303 pounds, well thats what I weighed in High school so I figured its a good number to shoot for. Now I know that I weighed more than that by the end of high school but the weight was 303lbs from Gym class and I remember the number because its what Shaquille O'neal weighed back then and I would always say "if I was stretched out to his height I would be ok" so there you have it.

Tomorrow is weigh in day and I am hoping to be able to report back that a big loss has come but we won't know until tomorrow, and I didn't even weigh myself this morning so I don't know if I am close or up from the last 2 days so I will be surprised in the morning myself. Tune in tomorrow same bat time same bat channel to find out if more fat has been evacuated on the next bone chilling episode of as the fat guy turns. Thanks for reading along , which reminds me, You need to go get a glass of water now that You have reached the end of the post and as a primer for tomorrows weigh in I will again do 10 push ups for every comment that the weigh in post gets. Last week it was 70 what will this week bring my poor chest?

As Ever
Me

Back to business.

Tuesday went smoothly and I felt like I was back in the game with all of the dedication that I have had earlier in the year. Calories came in at 1515 total and I drank about 1.5 gallons of home brewed green tea, the only exercise that I did was some push ups but I am not worried about that, the frame of mind is most important. I can honestly say that I feel better just from the one day that I got back on track and I feel good about restarting with the strict regimen again. I plan on riding the bike today and doing the push ups again and so far I am on track for the day with intake, also I am down in weight this morning so like I mentioned all is well and I feel like I have control of the helm again. As I type the flavor of green tea laced with lime juice is on my lips and my chest is sore from the push ups and this is back on, and I mean its on in the way that I plan on a big loss this week and even if I don't get a big loss its still going to continue in a downward direction where weight is concerned and I want to try and get down to 300 pounds by the end of June 2009, I just do not think hitting that 200 pounds lost by Jan is going to happen because it means that I need to lose 5 pounds per week until Jan 1st, so though I will still try my best to get as close as possible I know when something is just not going to happen and thats ok because I have changed my lifestyle and the weight loss that I have realized so far is proof of that and the weight will come off eventually. Have a look at the menu from Tuesday.

11/12/08

Breakfast
8:00 AM
1 banana 105
1 T peanut butter 95

10:00 AM
2 slices whole wheat bread 140
1 T peanut butter 95
1 T jam 50

11:45 AM
1/2 med pickle 10

Lunch
2:15 PM
1 can Progresso soup 160

Dinner
6:45 PM
6oz baked BBQ chicken 360
3/4 cups white rice 150
1/2 cup black beans 105
2 T light sour cream 40

extra bites 120

8:30 PM
1 pear 85

Let me explain "extra bites" in the menu, my daughter had french fries with her dinner and I grabbed a couple that were left over on her plate after dinner, and while I was making the bbq chicken I tasted a tiny piece to make sure it was seasoned correctly and in the interest of counting as accurately as possible I estimated higher than I thought the calories were and onto the menu they went. Stress or no stress I have to stay on track with this intake and exercise plan that I have created for myself because it is necessary for my health to continually get better and without our health what do we have ultimately? With that said, I'm off to get two more gallons of green tea going so I will end this post here for now, know that before my next post I will have ridden the bike for at least 20 minutes and I will have done at least 50 push ups as well as drank more than a gallon of green tea, what will you have done in the same time? oh! and again if you read this far into the post, get up and get a glass of water, whats it going to hurt? exactly...so just do it!

As Ever
Me

Oh look, its a horse! I think I will get back on.

Stress~
-noun
the physical pressure, pull, or other force exerted on one thing by another; strain.

This is the problem, sometimes when stress introduces itself into a situation things tend to go awry and not on the path for which we would like them to. The last couple of weeks have been anything but smooth sailing around here and it is in fact affecting things where the weight loss is concerned. I had a slight gain last week and finally yesterday I got back down to 369 pounds which was my weight the week previous so I am back to where I was a week and a half ago and am going to try and get back into focus with the weight loss. I have not exercised at all for the past week or so and though I have been staying within my calorie range I have not recorded it for the same time period and I know I am not eating and drinking the way I need to be to keep the weight moving in a downward direction, the bottom line is that I need to get this thing rolling again in a positive direction stress or no stress.

Plan~
noun,verb
a scheme or method of acting, doing, proceeding, making, etc., developed in advance: battle plans.

The plan, I have decided that the only way to get this rolling as I need it to is to do what I did in Jan, whats that you ask? well I am glad you asked! I have to just do it, thats it, simple right? well it is. In Jan I knew that I had to do something about the weight or else it was going to do something about me, though I have made a huge dent in the health issue by losing 165 pounds so far I am far from done I am afraid, so I need to keep that in mind. As of today November 11th 2008 I am going to attempt to go back to the strict Me that I know is there. I have not been exercising like I should, I have not been recording times that I eat like I should and I have been drinking a lot of Coke Zero and diet mountain dew in place of my green tea, I have not been taking my daily vitamins. thats all done now, I made 2 gallons of green tea last night and am more than half way through one of them already at roughly ten am. Between the stress that is going on here and the fact that I have gotten comfortable with myself, meaning that at 369 I am very much able to do pretty much anything that I want to and am happy with it, BUT as I said I still have a long way to go before I am at a weight that I would call healthy.

* At least 50 push ups daily
* At least 20 minutes on the stationary bike 5x per week
* Stick within my 1700 calories per day, no exceptions
* Drink at least 1 gallon of green tea per day
* Take my multivitamin daily no exceptions

Stress happens, life happens and neither stop or get out of the way because we have things to do or a program to stick to and the only way its going to get done is if we do it. I don't feel bad because of the last couple weeks and I don't feel like I am failing at this whole weight loss thang because of a stressful situation rearing its head, it is what it is and if I am going to drop this weight its exactly that, "I" have to do it.

Thanks for reading along.

As Ever
Me

Weighing in and a gain!

Today is Friday so that means its weigh in day again, honestly I expected a gain this week, I did next to no exercise this week and slipped more than once over the past 7 days, I had some candy on Halloween and I have been eating a candy bar here and there all week, albeit they were fun size bars still candy none the less. I have been binging on sweet chunks of chocolaty goodness because its been a stressful week (non weight loss related) as you can see from my lack of posting this week But I won't try and make excuses, it is what it is. I did stick to my calories for the most part but I as I mentioned did next to no exercise and the result is that I am up slightly more than one pound from last week, 370.6 is what the scale said more than once so thats what it will get recorded at. Yesterdays calories came in low at 1405 and I ended the day with some very yummy Kiwi fruit the lowness of the total is no biggie but it is much lower than it should have been and I will be back on track today and this week.

For reasons unknown the ships are all docked and have been there for two days now, today making day three and I believe that may also be partially responsible for the gain this week because when they decide to leave port I am sure I will be back at or at least closer to last weeks 369 weigh in. Could it be the candy? could it be that I haven't been drinking enough? or maybe the lack of movement this week has something to do with it? no pun intended. I might attempt to go all veggie this weekend with the intake just for kicks and see if it helps with getting the frigates out of the yard on a more regular schedule again. For the most part everything is still all good and well but we all hit a speed bump here ad there and I am no exception to the rule unfortunately for me. Sometimes the drama of plain old living gets the better of us and knocks us off course, the only thing we can do is get back on that horse and try again, please don't take my less than enthusiastic post this morning as anything more than I am in a blah mood which has been the case for a couple days, I AM still on board and I AM sticking with the keep on keepin on, ain't nothing changing that, like I said sometimes we have these weeks. I will not post a pic of what I weigh today because I don't feel like going backwards with the weight in the photo and I apologize for being less than an inspiration this week, sometimes its me that needs the support and it appears this was that week. Thanks for following along.

As Ever
Me

Voting, exercise, and meals...

Cold weather seems to have come and does not look as if its leaving until spring again, this is my favorite time of the year. Last night I took a walk instead of riding my stationary bike, 1.6 miles in 28 minutes equates to just a tad over 3mph. upon walking through the door when I was through I noticed that I was wearing the same hoodie that I had taken some pictures back in Jan in and asked Wify to take a pic of me to compare it to the one taken in January, man what 10 months can do to a fella! The jeans in the before pic are 6 whole sizes too big for me now! and the jeans in the after (the ones I am wearing) are 4 sizes too big and cinched up with a belt, the hoodie and hat are the same. I remember taking the before picture very clearly, it was when I had just began walking for exercise and we took the kids outside and were going to walk to a small playground thats only about 2 blocks from our house and I remember saying to Wify once we got to the playground "looks like I got my exercise in for the day" I had walked a total of 2 blocks! and felt that was exercise! have a look at the side by side for yourself.

My intake was at 1685 total calories for Monday with dinner being turkey burgers cooked outside on the grill with sweet potato fries on the side which is pretty much one of my favorite meals since starting to eat better. Tonight I am planning on making BLT's with turkey bacon and whole wheat bread and meal planning comes naturally now. Exercising just happens and I feel bad if I miss a day, this is such a change from how things were for far too long.

Since today is election day my son is home from school and I have two kiddos to deal with so I will keep this post short. Everything is on track and were still trucking along with the eating better and living healthy and I am hoping that I can report a big drop this week. The last thing I will leave you with today is, Go Vote! it doesn't matter who for, just do it.

As Ever
Me

Push ups and candy oh my!

I just wanted to plop a quick post down to let all who responded to yesterdays post adding to the push up tally for today that I did in fact do the 70 push ups for the 7 comments where people drank their water. I did 2 sets of 20 and 2 sets of 15 with about a minute rest between sets this afternoon and then we were off to my Mother in laws house for dinner, we had Salmon, butternut squash, seasoned baby red potatoes and steamed broccoli with a Halloween cake for desert, it was a good solid meal that I only went slightly over calories on because of a pumpkin beer and the cake. We walked for more than 2 hours last night trick or treating and the kids had a blast, we had a Mad scientist and an Ice princess that ended up with more than 7 pounds of candy combined! I weighed it on my salters scale, not a bad haul for a family that includes two people on a low calorie intake plan, one child with diabetes and the other is just three, we will be donating the candy at my wifes job where they do a collection each year.



We just got in and like I said I thought I would pop up a quick post letting anyone that cares enough to read that I made good on my push up challenge. I did et too many candies and I will admit that up front but hey its once per year and I am after all only human right? tomorrow (Sunday) I am back on track 100% and no more candy unless it goes onto my Excel sheet and even then I am planning on limiting what I eat, that concludes tonights update.

Thanks for following.

As Ever
Me