well...

I attempted to get back on the eat right wagon yesterday. Through 6 pm I had only had an orange and green tea. I had this brilliant idea to fast for the day since I ate so badly over the weekend. Bad idea. While making chicken breasts for the next couple of days I began eating. It started with about an ounce of beef jerky. Not bad, only 80 calories and low fat/carb. Then I had a few crackers with jalapeno pimento cheese. Not great, but not terrible either. Alas, the floodgates of gorging opened and by 10 pm I had consumed chicken and veggies, a slice of leftover pizza, half of a leftover Taco Bell item, 2 marshmallow Easter eggs and quite possibly the wrappers of all said food. I'll know for sure on that last part soon.

Today was better...eating wise. Chloe is home sick. Usually I'd want to snack the day away, but not today. While our doctor was looking Chloe over, he complimented us on our weight loss. He reassured me that my no refined foods rule, eating mainly veggies and lean proteins, exercising and drinking lots of water was the way to go. I admitted that I have had more frequent cheat days than I should, but he didn't scold me. He just offered a suggestion that I try to cut it to one day a month. Turns out that is how often he allows himself to eat a Big Mac with no sauce, but he doesn't eat the fries. He also does not each much bread, which is what I am incorporating in my eating plan too.

After the doctor, we had a Subway breakfast sandwich and I had the other six inches for lunch. Dinner will be chicken breasts and veggies. My calories should be well under 2000. While I was off today with Chloe, a friend of mine texted me that I won the "Healthy Hero" award at work. Coworkers nominate people that they see living healthy and helping others do the same. I wish I could've been there, but it's still cool to know that others see that I have changed my old ways. That's all for now friends.

Happy Easter!

I haven't quit the blog, just been busy...sorry.

The good: As of Friday the 22nd, I had lost the weight gained while on my long weekends earlier in the month and was at 360.2 on the scales at work!

The bad: Since Friday afternoon I have ate pizza buffet, chinese buffet twice, Taco Bell, McDonald, quick fix chimichangas, cookies and candy.

The ugly: I took Chloe down with me and contributed to her having a bad eating extravaganza.

As always, not going to let it get me down for long. It was a bad weekend...so what! Tomorrow is a new day and I know how to eat and exercise so I'm good. Have a good rest of your day peeps!

Wednesday and a good day!

Last night I made about 3 days worth of chicken breast to have on hand. I never usually prepare this much in advance, but after today I see how handy it is. Of course what I thought would be 3 days will be more like 1 1/2 after Chloe having one and me taking one for a high protein snack...and having one for dinner. Oh well, was still nice not cooking dinner and having tomorrow's lunch already packed.

So I tried out a new podcast yesterday and am still catching up on it. It's called Cut the Fat Podcast and they have a website Cutthefatpodcast.com that has some pretty good info. Just like diet books, there are some great nuggets of info mixed with some complete crap in these fitness podcasts. This one seems about 75 percent on the good side. Remember, even though I am a big dude I have many years of research in my head. I would definitely recommend giving them a listen. The hosts are Dr. Raymond Hinish and Blythe Alberg. Dr. Ray is a pharmacist, certified personal trainer and nutritionist. Blythe is a certified personal trainer and figure athlete. Both have great chemistry and knowledge. There are a few things that I can critique. First off, there are times when I feel like I'm listening to fitness for dummies and then at times I feel like I need a degree to understand the lingo. There's also times that one podcast seems to kinda contradict an earlier episode. For instance, in one they recommended low carb and then a few episodes later they seemed down on the low carb plan...only to be okay with it again a few episodes later. They are really good about not preaching all should do one certain "diet", but the large amount of diet plans covered are kinda overwhelming. Well, enough review. It's a good podcast so listen and see what you think.

Today at work I lifted weights and did some other weight machines during my first break and part of my lunch. It was too rainy to walk outside with my buddies. I also realized that I need to protect my muscles from potentially decreasing mass during my weight loss. I am planning on doing weight exercises 3 or 4 times a week for about a half hour a day. I also have drank over 100 ounces of water the last 2 days. To wrap this up, exercising is going well, I'm eating healthy food, decreasing my diet soda and drinking more water. I'm incorporating fitness research materials in my everyday life an leaning more on friends and family than I ever have. The weight loss adventure is going well! I am not worried about the scales as much as I am focusing on my clothes getting baggier and me feeling fit. Eventually the scale will catch up. I will be weighing in tomorrow to just see where I'm at after these past 3 really good days.

That's enough for a Wednesday night. It's late (for me at least) and I'm ready to pack it in for the night. If you are on your own fitness adventure, stay the course and if you fall off the path get right back on. I'm here if you need a hand along the way! More to come later friends.

It's gone!

The weight I gained from the three week stupidity is gone! Today I weighed at our gym at work and was 11 pounds lighter than Friday!!! My weight is now 362 pounds. That is 41 pounds lighter than my 11/29/10 startup. I got to looking at my little notebook of weigh in totals, I was actually 405 pounds back in December of 2008. I thank God that I got my crap together and am going down the right path now!

I have found two new podcast that are pretty good. They cover some things I personally found do not hold true, but do offer a lot of good info. Once is called "Cut the Fat" and the other is "Dr. Fitness and the Fat Guy". These podcast, along with Fat 2 Fit Radio are great tools to use while I'm at work listening to the IPod.

A good friend of mine had a great idea for us to email each other what we ate and how we exercised each day. Even though I use myfitnesspal.com to track calories, it doesn't keep me accountable like showing someone else. Since we both have the common goal of health and fitness, this will be a good method of support. It's nice to have the encouragement and help of friends and family.

I am going to tweak the way I eat based off some of the info I have looked at. I am cutting out white bread, white rice, enriched pasta, potatoes, sugar, crackers and chips. I am also ditching any other processed junk food. I am going to commit to get back to eating only unprocessed foods and cut out fried foods. My diet will consist of baked/grilled chicken, turkey, fish and eggs and low fat cheeses for my protein. My carbs will primarily by brown rice, wheat pasta (occasionally) and oatmeal. All veggies and most fruits will make up the rest of my foods. I guess it will be a modified low carb diet, but no high fat meats and I won't be eliminating all carbs. It may sound like a complicated eating plan, but really I am just avoiding refined and processed foods. Lastly, I will be drinking at least 64 ounces of water a day and exercising at least 30 minutes a day.

As I said before, I have until July 23rd to lose as much weight as possible before vacation. I gotta get stricter and do this! That's all for now peeps.

First yard mowing of 2011

Ordinarily, I would want to forget about mowing. This time last year I was gasping for breathe and thinking I was having a heart attack after each yard mowing. Even though Crystal or Chloe had another push mower helping out. Last year we needed an hour and a half to do all the mowing. Thankfully, things are better this year. We have had a lot of rain and between our schedules and just not being home to mow, the yard was WAY high. Even with that tall grass, we managed to mow it in less than 50 minutes! I am sure that this is in part to being about 40 pounds lighter than last year. I only took a 1 minute and a 2 minute break and have not had to take a hit on my asthma inhaler. Oddly enough, my knee doesn't even hurt too bad. Just more fuel to keep my weight loss fire burning.

Now the not so good. After church, we went to a mexican restaurant where I ate a lunch size chicken taco salad...including the fried tortilla bowl and chips with cheese dip. BAD Mike, bad! No worries though. Except for an orange for dinner, that is all I have ate today. Myfitnesspal.com estimates my lawn mowing burned 677 calories for my size and my total calories are only 1400 for the day. I'm not hungry and I feel good that I passed on ice cream while we were out. All in all, it's been a great day! Have a great night friends, I'm about ready for bed ;-)

Back again

As I write this entry, I am about 8 pounds heavier than I was last time I wrote. Between a 3 day weekend in Ohio and just not having my healthy food here at home, I have not ate well. I am just glad to not have gained more than I did. We ate at a restaurant outside of Cincinnati that was on Food TV last weekend. My meal was a double decker roast beef and corned beef sandwich, fried pickles, chili bun and some of Crystal's fries. The deli sandwich had over 2 pounds of meat on it. That weekend we also had pizza buffet, double cheeseburger, ice cream, and countless bad things. Enough of that.

Two days ago I got batteries for my scales and yesterday me and Chloe weighed here at home. I weighed 366 pounds which was the highest I have been in over 6 weeks. Chloe was only up about 3 pounds. At work I weighed for the first time in almost a month. I was 373 in full jeans, shirt and tennis shoes. So basically 10 pounds gained within the last 3 weeks. Thursday I had chinese food as kind of a last meal (the same last meal that all overeaters enjoy before "dieting") and the sodium really contributed to the high water weight. This morning I was down 5 pounds overnight. I am having a rough time not wanting to give into the junk cravings. I did have peanut butter with graham crackers and 70 calories worth of chocolate chips sprinkled on them. I have my oranges, apples and grapefruits handy for snacking, but urges for pop tarts and ice cream echo every few hours. Just like before, I gotta take it one meal at a time.

There is new motivation to get back to eating right and lose my weight. Today I reserved our hotel room in Myrtle Beach for our July 24th vacation check in date. I have got to lose all I can by then. Fourteen weeks until we leave out for SC and my goal is to weigh 299 pounds...but I'll be happy if I am at under 325. I know what to do and how to eat to lose it, I just have to stick to it and stifle old Mike from making crappy decisions. My knee is still giving me fits, but each day seems a bit better. As soon as the pain is more tolerable, I will start back my walking and basketball.

That's about it. I fell off the healthy living wagon, but have gotten back on track. I'm not discouraged though. Remember, this is a weight loss adventure. With the amount of weight I want to lose (have to lose), there will be meals and days that I regret. The key is to make these meals/days that I regret happen less and less as I go. I'm going to succeed and become the new man that I want to be. My outside will match my personality. Gone will be the lack of self confidence and shyness around others. My self esteem and confidence will increase with every pound I shed. I will still be Big Daddy, but not because of my weight. Take care my friends!

Unpleasant surprise this morning

Before I get to the unpleasant surprise, let me recap yesterday. I was so busy organizing and cleaning up our bedroom, that I didn't even eat until 3pm. It consisted of a fat free turkey hot dog wrapped in a low carb tortilla with reduced fat shredded cheese. Yep, was too tired to cook something better. For dinner we had veggie pasta with alfredo sauce. About 11pm I had a huge rice krispie treat, but still was under 1800 calories for the day. The only drawback to all the work is my knee that has been giving me fits for about a week is killing me. I'm going to try and get moving on it today since that seems to help. Sitting around makes it hurt, so might as well do some yard work today.

My surprise this morning was weighing on my scale. I weighed 354. Then I got back on them and weighed 357. Then I got right back on them and weight 351. Yep, my scales are not accurate at all. Probably the batteries, but since they are about 8 years old I'm just going to pick up a new set this next weekend. Since I haven't weighed at work in a while and our scales are wrong, I have no clue what I weigh now. I go back to work Tuesday, so I'll weigh then. Lots of sun and warm weather today, so going to get some much needed yard work done. Have a good day friends.

TGIF!

Today I am off work and will have a four day weekend. Unfortunately, I still had to be up at 6am to get the kids up and take them to school. I would like to just chill around the house all day, but got some errands to run. I was a bit discouraged this morning. I weighed here at home and was 361 pounds. This is almost 5 pounds higher than 2 weeks ago. I completely blame my eating choices last Friday thru Monday. Even though I was in check with my calories, it just shows that 2400 calories of healthy and 2400 calories of crap makes a difference in weight loss...or gain. No worries though. I have a slow metabolism and it will just take a few days to lose it back. I've already had two bottles of water and am even more enthused about getting back to a "if God didn't make it, I'm not eating it" attitude. I'll post more tonight since I am a night owl who gets bored when everyone goes to bed. Just wanted to take a minute to post while I had a moment and a thought. Well, off to be son of the year and run errands for my momma. Adios.