Just a fat guy with a laptop..nah....

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

In eleven days I will have been writing in this blog for three years, I appreciate everything that I have learned in those three years and to say that my life has been changed in that time would be an understatement. Back when I began down this road to better health I thought about how far away a year was, then thinking about how much I weighed I wondered how many it would take for me to get where I needed to be with my weight and came to the conclusion that it didn't matter as long as I took that first step, so I did. Remembering back to when I was up above 500 pounds and the way that I felt all of the time could upset me if I let it because the state of mind that I was in back then was not where I should have been, imagining that I could lose the weight was just that, it was an unreal feat in my head.

Today I am probably as healthy as I have ever been in my life and am completely happy and appreciate everything that I have because of the decision to do something about the extra weight. This blog has served as a platform for me to anonymously in the beginning and not so anonymously after about the first year lay it all out there and put my thoughts and struggles as well as the triumphs into type written word. Trust me when I say this, it is not really my personality to put things out there for anyone to see I am for the most part a pretty private person which is why a lot of my life that is not weight loss related does not make my blog. I have a feeling that this year will be very interesting for me on the health front as well as personally and the two may clash or meshing perfectly could be in my stars but that's to be found out in a few months.

Making my goal weight of 275 pounds in 2011 is important to me, something personal that is happening makes it that way and I am going to do everything in my power to make it so. It's simple right? as long as I eat right and do my part with the exercise the weight should come off and it will. In the three years of me writing this blog I have received so much support from people that I don't know on a personal level past the comments and email that I get from you all and there is even 377 of you that chose to click the follow link on the sidebar of my blog! I can remember when I hit 100 followers and it felt unreal that there were 100 people that cared enough to follow along with my random fat dude typage each day and I am now approaching 400 "followers" not too shabby for a fat kid from a bad neighborhood.

Nine days from now we will have reached the last day of 2010 and I will post up the weight for the month, I have put in the work and am sticking to the plan so I am expecting a decent drop from the beginning of the month weigh in. In the grand scheme this is just another post from the fat kid, but for today it serves as the chicken scratch that will make up post number 816 and with that the end has come to this episode of as the fat guy turns.

As Ever
Moi

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Decisions and a new project for the winter.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Keeping on track has become less of a chore lately, food equals fuel and that's all is how I see it right now. Wake up, eat breakfast, do chores, hit the gym at some point, drink enough water/Green tea and get enough sleep is my life and I can't let anything get in the way of that. Christmas is here in a few days and there will be a huge dinner I am sure but I will not go over my calorie limit and will make the best choices from the dishes made, in the past I gave myself the Holiday dinners as a day to just enjoy but I want to show myself that food is fuel and I can enjoy the time without over doing the intake. Changes need to be made if success with a weight loss plan is to be had no matter what plan that is, counting calories, south beach, low carb even miracle pills have limits, if you are not willing to change things up a bit then the weight will not come off period.


1995 Specialized Hardrock Sport, its in pretty decent shape besides a broken twist shifter.


Back view of the new Specialized.

Find something that you love to do and make it a form of exercise, sometimes that's easy as in a person such as myself that loves riding a bicycle or someone that finds joy in running but even walking is enjoyable! I honestly believe that whole once it becomes a habit its easy thang but I also believe that ALL habits are hard to break even the good ones so once we make exercise a habit it becomes just as hard to break that habit as any bad habit that helped get us into a rounder shape. Speaking of biking, I came across another Specialized Hardrock for more than a great price so it's added to the fleet and I will enjoy refurbishing it over the winter and will likely sell it at some point for a decent profit. From my best guess using Bikepedia and going off of components on the bike it is a 1995 Hardrock sport and the only issue that I see with it is a twist shifter that will need to be replaced which shouldn't be too hard to fix and lots of cleaning it up so that it looks as new as possible.

I am lucky, I find working on older mountain bikes almost as fun as cruising down a rails to trails path so I can really get caught up in what I do for exercise in more than one way. By making what I enjoy a part of my weight loss efforts I think that I give myself a leg up when it comes to staying strict with the intake and exercise because if I let myself go backwards riding my bicycle down the trails may not be possible. My life has completely changed since deciding to take control of what went into my body and adding a good solid dose of exercise to just about every day and I wouldn't trade what I have created for myself for anything.

I believe that anyone can do what I have done if the effort and discipline is put in, I was a 534 pound guy with a disk injury in his lower back eating whatever, whenever he wanted to, exercise was but a dream and a shortened life span was surely in that guys future. Making excuses for why I was that way is what was keeping me there and the day that I put it into the simple terms of eat less move more is the day that I began healing myself. Do I have days where my back literally feels like it wants to lay me down on my ass? you bet I do but dwelling on that will only get me into a place where I know that I don't want to ever revisit and it ain't happening. Making excuses got me in a place where I weighed more than a quarter of a ton so I don't do that any more, Being negative and focusing more on that than what I could do for myself also helped me to get there so its just not how I get down these days.

We all have the power to make the right decisions regarding each of our own health and all of the choices that go along with that, will it be cake? or a piece of fruit for dessert tonight? I got my apple ready.

As Ever
Me

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How do ya like them apples?

Monday, December 20, 2010

So where were we, oh yeah, I was losing weight and getting healthy and you were reading along with your morning cup O tea. I found something this weekend that was pretty sad, it was my sons birthday and we decided that laser tag would be a good idea so a party was set up and and the big day came but alas I had a problem. On the menu was pizza and unlimited pitchers of soda not to mention the cake, of course I had a solution which was to bring a Turkey subway and a gallon of green tea, easy right? You would have thought so but the small fellow behind the counter with an over exuberant smile and high pitch voice said "sorry sir we don't allow outside food" I explained that pizza and unlimited soda wouldn't work for me that I have certain things that I need to eat and they didn't offer anything he got on the phone to "make an exception" but the party planner came by at that point so we went to our room. Again it was explained to me that "no outside food" was allowed so I said ok and put my tea on the counter in the room, yeah sure I will eat the pizza and drink soda because the smiling people say so.

Long story short of course I ate my contraband food and drink while the kids had their pizza but I found it kind of sad that the only options at a kids party was pizza and soda. I understand it, I mean I am not a food snob in the way that some people are saying things like "pizza is bad therefore no one should have it" and I don't believe having a food that is not exactly good for us once in a while is all that bad of a thing, I love me some rum cake and that's just the way it is but having some healthier options should always be offered. I did get to feel like a bad ass for sneaking in some healthy food to replace what came with the party package and we did joke about how how I was being a bad example to the kids playing the rule breaker role and eating healthy even though it was against the "rules"...wait, not a bad thing. When George Thorogood stopped playing for me and I tossed the wrappers in the trash I did have a tiny piece of the cake and got an earful from Wify for that because of all of the debating with the smiley twins about why I needed to bring the green tea in, but I put it into my excel sheet so its all good.


That is one of the biggest apples I have ever seen next to a normal sized apple.

After the party we ran a few errands while Grandma took my sons friends home after playing an extra game of bowling at the laser tag place and we ended up at the supermarket where I found some super sized apples. Buying one of these behemoth Fuji apples of course had to happen and it weighs more than a pound! 18.4oz to be exact for the one that I brought home and it wasn't even the biggest in the box! I love apples and cannot wait to dig into this thing.

Saturday was a good solid day of um...work! I helped my father move from the first floor of his house to the third floor so to say that I was walking some stairs would be putting it lightly. I woke up Sunday and felt a bit sore from it but not in my legs, my biceps were tight and sore, but this morning my calf's and thighs are feeling it and my weight bumped up a couple pounds from yesterdays weight which I am sure is just water retention from the soreness so no worries. I have 11 days until I post a weight for the blog and we see (well you see) how well I did or how sucky I did for the month on the losses. I know that it's going to be a good month mostly because I know the tight ship that I have been running where my health goes but also because I do check in on the scale for myself almost daily.

The month of December seems to be a long one for me and I am unsure if its because I set myself up with that 31st date to weigh in again or if its Christmas but it will be in the past all to soon and the good food choices that I will be making will be a lasting look for me. Once upon a time I was 534 pounds, now I can literally run up and down 3 flights of stairs all day and only have a little soreness in my legs for my effort where as 3 years ago I wouldn't have been able to help at all. Lives change when we change our lives and make better choices with simple things like what fuels our bodies, put $hit in and we will feel like $hit, put in good solid food choices and its amazing the way we feel, I live it every day.

You CAN live how you like, it does not take a ton of money, it does not mean that you have to join in on a pre-paid weight loss plan, you don't need Jenny Craig, Weight watchers, Doctor knuckleheads next greatest thingamajig or book, or have pre-packaged food delivered to your door step, a little commitment and a lot of discipline goes a lot further than you might think. I can't tell you that the way I lost weight is the best way or the only way but I can tell you that I eat awesome tasting foods, I indulge now and again and have had great success with the way I do it. Whichever way you decide to hop on the better health train just do it! and do it today not tomorrow and don't wait for January 1st! start now! what have you got to lose besides weight?

That's all I got.

As Ever
Me

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Progress? perhaps and the push will be harder.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

I know a guy that took a peek at the scale and could not be happier with the progress that has come in the last two weeks, its the same fella that looks back at me in the mirror each morning. Sometimes I like to look at old pictures from when I weighed 500 plus pounds just to keep me grounded as to how far I have actually come in the last couple of years, every time I look I am amazed. Though the memories are mine, I can clearly remember the struggles as if they were yesterday but somehow I have a hard time believing that it was me in that body. To think about just how much 534 pounds is and then imagine that I use to lug it around with me everywhere that I went may just be the most insane thing that I can think of because it was in fact a feat in itself that I was able to walk up the flight of stairs to get to my bed room.

I have been so focused lately that even though Wify took a day off from work yesterday so that we could finish up Christmas shopping I told her that I needed to be dropped off at the gym at some point because I wasn't willing to miss it for anything. I brought my own food along to carry me through the morning and we had Subway for lunch, my calories for the day came in at 1745 total and there were no huge gaps between meals. Seeing that photo that I took a couple weeks ago photoshopped next to the one where I was down to 305 pounds really kicked my ass, it forced me to realize that no matter how comfortable I am right now in my own skin, and the extra skin, that I need to keep going hard until I get where I need to with my health.

The gym for me has been mainly cardio with some light weight lifting tossed in for good measure, I have started doing push ups at home again like in the beginning and that's been my workouts. I miss riding my bike, That bike is sitting lonely in the bedroom begging me to take it out for a ride but I am afraid when the man in the magic box says that its 2 degrees outside with the windchill I must pass. Yeah yeah, I know that I should HTFU and just get out there and at least take a short ride but that's not what I want! I need to take a nice 20 mile ride down the trail again, I miss it and has become one of my passions. The gym doesn't touch the bike in enjoyment factor but that doesn't mean that I don't enjoy my time at the gym because I do! some of the staff could use some training with their people skills lately but I am not there for anything other than bustin' my arse so no worries on that...for now.

Focusing on myself again I know that I will be where I want to be in short time, pushing myself to get down to that goal weight of 275 pounds in basically my job right now and I am not planning on stopping until I get there. The goal is just that, a goal, I have a feeling that I will get below that initial low goal weight and I have a goal of hitting 267 pounds too because at that weight I will have lost 50% of my total high weight.

Will he get there? will this once 534 pound man be able to remove 50% from his highest weight? I have a feeling that its just a matter of time so stick around and watch.

That's all I got.

As Ever
Me

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Dream a little dream.

Monday, December 13, 2010

You will have to say no to the cake, the Cheetoes and perhaps even the pint of Ben & Jerrys Dublin mudslide on this road and there will be blood sweat and tears, not necessarily in that order along the way. Losing weight in my opinion has to be a full time commitment otherwise we lose site of what it is that we are attempting to accomplish, its like being pregnant you either are or you aren't there is no "kinda" when you have close to 300 pounds to lose, Kinda is fine for maintaining but to lose its got to be more than that. Getting comfy on the couch with your sweet heart is one thing, please enjoy! but getting comfy and slacking off with a weight loss plan just ain't gonna cut it Francis so slowly drop the Doritos onto the floor and step away from the bag.


I saw this in the supermarket and I am not sure if this is "diet food" BUT I can tell ya I ain't touchin' the stuff! even if it is "Microwavable".

As of late my "kinda" has turned into down right "holy hell get out of that guys way" on the diet front, to say that I am focused does not even begin to describe where I am currently. I refuse to miss a day at the gym, which really is par for the course but I have been focusing on Cardio mainly with limited but still present weight training lately because I am still above 300 pounds and feel it has to be where I focus for now. Getting ahead of myself could slow me down and until I get below 300 pounds its the cardio first train for this guy because like that photo from August 2007 that started me down this road the image that I took last week pissed me off. My life has changed in more ways than I can put into type written word here for you since making the decision to work on my health and get the weight off and I can only imagine how it will change when I get down to my goal weight and below.


Just me at the gym workin' on me at the gym.

I Honestly cannot remember when exactly it was that I weighed less than 300 pounds but I know that it was younger than my Freshman year in High school. I am pretty certain that there will be no fireworks or parades when I get to my goal weight but I am 100% sure that I will be in a different place than I was when I weighed 500 plus pounds, and almost certainly things will be different than they are now even. I am looking forward to pulling an XL shirt over my head and having it fit, The idea of wearing a pair of jeans where the waist is smaller than 40 is something that I can't wait for and these are things that more than most of the people on the planet take for granted every morning when they get dressed. Silly little goals in a big mans head that mean more than he will ever say aloud is part of the drive that keeps me pushing onward even when stress tells me to give in and strap the bag of Doritos to my face and inhale its contents.

I believe that as long as I keep what I know about losing weight and getting healthy in the front of everything that I do in a day that I will be successful in reaching all of the goals and expectations that I put in front of myself. Any person can have a healthy life if they want it, there will always be bumps in the road and we all have our "issues" but living healthy can happen as long as we stay disciplined because no matter how bad the injury in my back hurts I can eat healthy and do what I can with exercise. Excuses are just that, they are made up reasons as to why we won't can't eat right and or exercise for any given day, put the excuse on the floor with that bag of doritos from earlier and start livin' because no one else can do the work for you.

I'm itching to get to the gym so for today, That's all I got.

As Ever
Me

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