couch to 5 cough....

couch to 5 cough....

c25k week 3 effot in weight loss

This morning has started off to a not so great start and I have been drinking my Green tea hot with some Easy Jesus and honey as I could not out run this sore throat that my daughter had, it is hard to breathe and my throat is raw. I do not think that I will be running W3D1 of C25K tonight unless some miracle of miracles happens and this goes away by then so I will just push it to whatever day this week my throat feels better and more importantly I can breathe.

This weekend was a pretty nice one with my getting to meet Heather on Saturday and have a nice long walk through a local park with her and Wify and then Sunday we just ran errands all day because it was suppose to rain but that never came so it turned out to be a pretty nice weekend as a whole. My calories for Saturday were a bit high because of the popcorn that I mentioned in an earlier post but other than that my calories were in check all weekend and I was hydrated enough as well. I am a little down because of this throat and non breathing thing because I was looking forward to starting week 3 of the program but I figure that I am not going anywhere and the road will be there when I am not under the weather, so it is what it is.

I will probably make today a ST day with some light dumb bell exercises and some push ups since I do think I won;t be up to running this evening, did I mention that it sucks that I can't start week 3 today? I will keep this post short and sweet as I need to run out for some cough drops of some kind so that I don't go nuts today.

Thanks for reading along and thanks for the support.

As Ever
Me

C25k and 200 pounds lost, will tomorrows weigh in be the day I hit the mark?!

C25k and 200 pounds lost, will tomorrows weigh in be the day I hit the mark?!

c25k week 2 effot in weight loss

Things have been going pretty good this week, but yesterday was pretty stressful (non weight loss related) and I did not feel like running W2D2 of C25K because I got home late which meant a later than normal dinner (7:45PM I finished dinner) and I usually run around 8:30PM so I was thinking about skipping it. I did end up going out for day 2 and when the time for the first interval came around I began running and quite literally felt like I was shuffling along and thought about stopping and calling it a night. I figured I would at least go to the second interval before I let that happen so I did and when it came time to run again I was taking large strides and felt pretty good about continuing on and by the third interval had forgotten all about what was stressing me out. I was ahead of my fastest pace and I knew this by the 5th interval because I ended the 5th where I began the 6th on day 1 of week 2. I started interval number 6 and it was on a spot that dips down pretty steep and then gets steep uphill so I had to run on that uphill portion but I convinced myself that it was the last interval and I could push myself on it so I did and ended up going 2.212 total miles last night and felt good at the end of the run, though I still find myself questioning Mr.Ullrey's ability to count to 90 seconds at times during the running portions of the program.

Now that the C25K report is out of the way I am thinking about the weigh in tomorrow, will it be the day that I join that 200 pounds lost club? will I be a part of that crowd that can say "I lost 200 pounds" on pure determination (does that club even exist?) will I prove myself wrong? once upon a time I said "no one can lose 200 pounds just by eating right and exercising" that was fat Tony talking, or should I say "fatter Tony" because I am not quite the svelte specimen of a young man that I would like to be just yet, but either way will tomorrow be that day? I sure would like it to be, because its going to be hard to cancel the fireworks show that I have arranged! 527 days ago I decided to get healthy, that's slightly more than 17 months ago and I am on the edge of having lost 200 total pounds, did I mention that I am amazed by this? yes I think that I did but I wanted to say it again.

Intake for Wednesday was 1695 total calories and I drank just under 1 gallon of green tea and 1.5 gallons of straight H2O, exercise for the day was W2D2 of the couch to 5k program. Things are right where they should be lately with diet and exercise and I am happy with the direction I am heading with the running, the only question left is will tomorrow be THE day that I hit that 200 pounds lost mark? since I am not stepping onto a scale until then, both you and me will have wait until then to find out.

Don't forget to drink that big ol glass of H2o that you just earned for reading through all of my morning ramblings, and keep in mind that if I can do this weight loss thang, you can do it as well.

As Ever
Me

C25k week 2 start and a Free MP3 player.

C25k week 2 start and a Free MP3 player.

c25k week 2 effot in weight loss

This weekend went well and over all I feel great about the coming week, tonight I will run W2D1 of the couch to 5k program and am looking forward to finding out whether I will struggle with it or go right through it. Over all I am pretty happy with how the program went within the first week and am starting to look forward with some things that I think that I will need to continue running including an MP3 player and yesterday during an impromptu visit to the mall with Wify and the animals kids I walked past a display with tiny little MP3 players hanging on it in Jcpenny with a sign that said "Fathers day sale $19.99 PLUS a $9.99 rebate" and the price tag that was on the box said $39.99 so I thought "hey I'm a father" what do I have to lose with a $9.99 MP3 player that was originally $40 right? I get up to the counter and wify has a coupon from Jcpenny for $10 off any item regardless of price and long story short I got the player for $0.00, so I am a happy camper. There was one condition set upon this purchase by the Bill and Teds excellent adventureesque cashier whom said, and I quote "The only thing is that you can't return this {insert short pause here} like ever, because you didn't pay for it" No problemo pal! and off I went with my brandy spanking new FREE mini MP3 player and one thing crossed off of my "need to get" list.

I used a quarter so that you can get an idea of scale when I took these photos the SPI is on the left and the shuffle on the right, click on the image to get a full sized picture.

Upon returning home I opened the package and followed the directions in the box and was charging it up so that I can use it tonight on my week 2 debut, 4 hours later I loaded the C25K series of podcasts onto it and tested it out, worked perfectly. Obviously I have not yet had a chance to test it out and give a good solid opinion about how it works yet but I will do a full review after I use it a few times. My son has an Ipod shuffle so I will have something to compare it to but on my initial observations I am already liking the SPI MP3 player a bit better purely because it has a display that lets you see the current track playing as well as the elapsed time of that track (which will help with C25K) and this is something that the shuffle lacks. The Ipod is slightly smaller but not so much that this SPI feels big, this thing is tiny and only weighs 20g vs the 16g of the Ipod, hopefully the new toy proves to be reliable, and honestly there is no beating the price that I paid.

My weekend went well where intake and movement were concerned, I did not go over my calorie limits all weekend and Sunday Wify and I got out for a 2 mile walk and some fishing at the lake earlier in the day. my hydration was on par with at least 1 gallon of green tea and 1 gallon of straight H2O each day along with a couple few Fuze Cranrasberry drinks randomly inserted here and there.

A pretty good week all in all besides the fact that my daughter was sick just about all weekend, She started feeling better Sunday afternoon and was inspired to do some "ekersizes" on our living room floor which brought a smile to my face. Knowing that I am effecting my kids in the way that I am (I should say we are because wify is doing the same) is an extra bonus to me getting fit and dropping this weight. With that comes the end to another page of ramblings from the one time quarter ton man, I will leave you with a quote that I heard over the weekend, this one is very special to me so pay attention to who I am quoting.

"When you watch tv then you have to get up and move your body, that's called ekersize"
~My Daughter~

As Ever
Me

C25K week 1 DONE! and I learned some things about myself.

C25K week 1 DONE! and I learned some things about myself.

c25k c25k week 1 effot in weight loss

Last night I completed Couch to 5k week one, I was sore, it was raining but I decided that anything worth doing is worth doing 100% so I did not let either of those things stop me. I got dressed and headed out in the rain for my final run of week 1 not knowing whether I would finish it, as I walked out the door I told wify "I will either start and come back in 10 minutes because of the rain and or soreness, or I will run the whole thing, see ya in 10 minutes" once the first interval came around I knew that it was going to be a good run because I was taking long strides and was well ahead of where I have been ending after the first interval. I was far enough ahead of where I have been running by the 4th interval that when I reached the hill that I dread running up I had walked about 1/4 of the way up it before the I had to start running, usually I stop running before the top so again I knew that I was ahead of my pace. I was feeling good, the rain was heavier than a drizzle but not too hard by New England standards and honestly it somehow energized me and by the last interval I was so far ahead of my pace that I started running in the spot where my last interval usually ends.


I learned a couple of things about myself last night, as long as I stay focused and remember that I am choosing to do this I can and will. The second thing that I learned is that I LOVE to run in the rain! this is so odd to me because I was that guy that if it was raining outside would stay indoors and avoid the falling water like I was the wicked witch of the west when I was bigger. Running in the rain is almost like the world is mine at those moments, no one is around and its just me and the wet road and we get to have the rain all to ourselves. The cooling affect that a light rain provides is just enough to make running a bit more comfortable in the being hot department and I am already starting to appreciate this.

My calories for Friday were at 1720 so says my excel sheet but I was up a little later than usual last night and ate two oranges around 10:30pm so I am over by that much, I have the feeling that I will have to raise my caloric intake because of the running and I say that because I have been hungry this whole past week and I can't help but think that its my body letting me know a change is needed because of the extra work that the running is taxing my body for. I drank 1 gallon of green tea, 1.5 gallons of water and a Fuze fruit punch so to say that I am hydrated is an understatement and of course W1D3 was my exercise for the day, I did go my furthest distance last night which was 2.162 miles in the 29:45 that week one takes.

I was going through some comments that were left for me and one of them stood out to me and the simplicity of the statement caught me off guard, and actually gave me a smile. Andrew said "You've got to have the right gear when you're a runner I reckon!" as a response to This Post where I mentioned buying a compression shirt and the "when you're a runner" part really stopped me for a second and I thought about it, Never in my life has someone referred to me as "a runner" and I realized that I have made substantial changes in my life that will almost certainly mean that I will have that many more years to spend how I wish, doing what I want to with my wife and children.

With that I will end this post, I have a bird house to paint with my daughter so off I go into Daddy duties, make sure to get that H2O down and if someone can refer to me a "a runner" anything is possible.

As Ever
Me

Weigh in, into the 330's he goes! 200 pounds lost is almost here..

Weigh in, into the 330's he goes! 200 pounds lost is almost here..

effot in weight loss Weigh in

Weighing in has almost become secondary to me because of the C25K program, I have convinced myself that it does not matter whether I lose or not this week and maybe that is what I needed to get me in a downward direction again. Last week I was 341.4 pounds which was up from my lowest weight as well as up from the week before, this morning I woke up and I weighed 339.6 pounds! I am back into the 330's and I must say that it was a pleasant surprise this morning because I was not expecting a loss with all of the soreness. Today I am 1.8 pounds lighter than I was last week, with that I am stronger physically because the soreness in my muscles means that I am building muscle and pushing myself past where I was before I started running which will set the mood for my day quite nicely.

One bag of flour away from 200 pounds lost.

My calories came in at 1725 for Thursday and I drank more than a gallon of green tea along with about a gallon of straight H2O and a Fuze fruit punch man are those things good, and exercise was absent besides all of the stretching that I did. Over all I am feeling good but still seem pretty sore, I am suppose to run W1D3 tonight but I may put it off until tomorrow night just to give myself an extra day rest for the soreness to go down a bit, I haven't decided which I will do and the decision will purely be based on how I feel tonight when the time comes.

With this weeks weigh in I am again within 5 pounds of having lost 200 total pounds and this is something that I have not really focused on for the past month because of the docs orders for me not to run/bike and it seems that as soon as I started back in on the exercise the weight came back down. Will this be the week that I join the ranks of the few that can proclaim losing 200 plus pounds by making healthy choices in food and adding some exercise to their days? I certainly hope so. This week is doubly positive for me with the start of C25K and now dropping back into the 330's bringing be within 5 pounds of that double century mark, this time the difference is that I am cleared for exercise so I'm just going to say it Nothing can stop me now!

A good week for sure, the only thing left to do is duplicate it again this week so that's the plan. Don't forget that big ol glass of H2o for reading all of the way through this post and remember that you are the one that decides what you do with your time, sit on the couch? complain how hard everything is? eat chocolate when you feel sad? or make good food choices and exercise daily, it really is up to you, make the choice.

As Ever
Me

C25K week 1 day 2 fini, and some new gear for my running.

C25K week 1 day 2 fini, and some new gear for my running.

c25k c25k week 1 effot in weight loss

Yesterday was time for W1D2 on the C25K program and sore quads and all out into the rain I went to get day two under my belt. Earlier in the day I was out and about and thought that I would look around for a compression shirt to run in, the last time I went out the highest size was a 2xl and I already knew that I was a 3xl so why bother trying one on? I walked in and again looked at all of the 2xl shirts and wify said "are you going to at least try one on?" so I thought about it and decided why not and off I went into the changing room with 3 different shirts. To my surprise a 2xl shirt fit me, in fact it was a bit long on me which was awesome in itself as this was something that I wanted in a compression shirt so I was happy to find a shirt, the shirt that I bought is a Rebok play dry compression shirt. I put the shirt on at home and wify took a look and we both agree that I am a lot smaller with it on, in fact my regular tee shirts that I wear look too big when I have the compression shirt under them. The amazing part about that shirt is that it shows me just how much extra skin that I have on me, if a compression shirt can make me look as small as it does I do think this is just the beginning of my skin issue woes, but that is a bridge yet to be crossed so I will not dedicate too much attention to it just yet.

The run itself last night went well for the most part, I started off and after the first interval the compression shirt rolled up and I thought to myself "this is wonderful, now I get to play with this shirt for the next 30 minutes" so as soon as the first interval was done I pulled the shirt down as I walked and prepared for the roll up again when the next interval came along, but I sort of kept an eye on it and I did not roll up this time and every interval after that it seemed ok because the dampness of my sweat gave it some grip. Along I jogged thinking about how my wife had said that after the 2nd interval when she was on day 2 that she had no more soreness in her legs and I started interval number 3 and still sore. The 4th interval is the hill, you know that steep one that I mentioned in the last C25K post? man did I feel it going up that hill, when I hit the top of the hill I looked back at it and said some profanities at the defeated hill and continued on my way. This is about when I was coming down a longish straight downward sloped section and someone in a car was not considerate enough to turn their high beams off and I was pretty much blinded, the only thing I could see was the lights! it was as if I was in space or something and everything was perfectly black except the lights and I got too close to the edge of the road and twisted my ankle a bit on the edge of a driveway, I felt no pain so off I went and the rest of the run/walk went smooth and nice.

I felt great during this entire run besides the soreness in my quads (which never went away) I found that I was not as winded as the first time out and the difference in this compared to the first run was that my sore legs were my limiting factor where the first run was limited by my being out of breath. I did remember to check my heart rate immediately after 5 of the 9 intervals and it averaged out to 168 beats per minute which as far as I can tell is slightly higher than it should be for my age but maybe I am wrong, chime in with a comment if you know what it should be. I covered more ground on day 2 compared to the first run, the first day I ran 2.049 miles in the 29:45 that the podcast lasts and last night I went 2.095 miles according to Gmaps, so ever so slightly further but further none the less, and there is always room for some inaccuracies but I am pleased either way.

Onto my intake for Wednesday, I consumed a total of 1610 calories and drank just under 1 gallon of green tea, 1 gallon of straight H2O and 2 bottles of Fuze fruit punch. My exercise for the day was the C25K program and other than the slight twisting of the ankle I feel like I am on my way with this program and feel good about it so far. I am less sore this morning than when I went to bed last night, in fact I am less sore this morning than I was before I ran last night as well which I hope means that the soreness will continue to get less and less from here on out, I do have some pain in my ankle but nothing that is even close to real pain, its more like a discomfort that is letting me know that something happened so I am going to keep an eye on how that feels and if it is even slightly sore come time for Fridays run I will skip it until Saturday giving it an extra day worth of rest.

Week 1 day 2 is fini and I look forward to completing week 1, I have not decided whether I will do week one twice or if I will move right onto week 2 when the time comes and I will decide on Monday when I actually head out for that run, it will all depend on how day 3 goes. Tomorrow I weigh in and even with the new exercise this week I am not expecting a big drop if any mostly because of the soreness and I know that I have to be retaining a bit of water because of it but it honestly does not matter if the scale shows progress this week because the running IS showing progress and as long as progress is being made in some aspect of my new healthier life I am happy with that, which is not to say that I am not looking for losses but I am pleased with myself this week to say the least.

Check out tomorrows post to see if the fat man has lost some weight and of course keep on keepin on and all that.

As Ever
Me

C25K start and a lot on my mind.

C25K start and a lot on my mind.

c25k effot in weight loss

Today is the day that I am planning on starting the C25K program and I woke up with a sore back but I am running anyways. I am planning on doing my runs in the evening and because of that I will have to post how each run went on the day after the run. I may add a C25K ticker or tracker on the side bar but I have not decided on that just yet and you will see it appear one day if I decide on doing that. Besides tracking my time etc for this program I want to track the distance that I go each day as well as how I felt during the run so that I can see if my pace is getting faster or slower each day, I am sure there will be an excel sheet snapshot posted after I get it made and some data into it.

My plan of attack is that I have no plan, I am just going to start walking and when the guy on the podcast says run I will do it and see how well I fare. a while back just for fun while I was walking I timed out week one and almost completed the whole thing without any real issues but I have not been riding my bike and only walking for exercise so I do not know if that will effect the way I feel tonight when I do day 1 week 1, all I can hope for is that I complete the entire 30 minutes. I did not exercise all weekend, I did not do anything that would even remotely be considered exercise honestly so I should be fresh for this new routine.


Since I mentioned the weekend I want to share how it went, Friday my sheet says 1370 calories but we went to the drive in theater and I had a small apple and a big bowl of pop corn (air popped from home) during the movie so I am slightly over maybe by 150 or so if my estimate is right. Saturday was fine and well where intake was concerned and a quick look at my excel sheet says that I had 1695 calories so I was within the limit and the weekend was off to a good start. Sunday I did not count my calories and I know that I went over, by how much I am unsure, my Father stopped by along with a couple of wifys friends and we cooked chicken and fish out on our grill, we had corn a salad some watermelon and corn tortillas & salsa with dinner out on the picnic table. I decided that I would load up on fruits early in the day because I knew that I was going to eat some fish (it was fried) and ate nothing but apples, oranges and bananas before dinner. I drank enough fluid all weekend and on Sunday I drank more than 2 gallons between my green tea and straight H2O so I stayed hydrated throughout the weekend and all but Sunday was decent on the calories.

Starting C25K is a step into uncharted territory for me and not only since losing the weight, I have run randomly throughout my life but I have never really run further than a mile straight in a row and the thought of running more than 3 miles is a bit daunting to me. A lot of the people that might be reading this right now that run 1/2 marathons or 10k's or even 5k's may be thinking "a 5k daunting?" To that I answer yes! I am the fella that less than a year and a half ago could not walk 200 feet without pain in his back, sweat spraying out of every pour sounding like a heavy breathing prank caller and I can honestly remember having the thought "why would anyone want to walk unless absolutely necessary" Now I am going to try and run 5 kilometers in a row? I recently walked 5k all at one time so the natural thing in my mind is to now run it.

If I when I pull this 5k thing off I will be crossing a line that I have never had the privilege of being on the other side of physically, and honestly I think there will be a mental line being crossed at the same time, if it has not already been surpassed. Imagine going from a state of mind where I created an animosity for people who could would walk any distance further than me to the mindset that I am in currently where I am actually thinking about running a 5k distance as a stepping stone to distances beyond that, I have not yet run a single mile yet and here I am thinking about going further than 5k already.

Today I leave you with a quote.

"Sanity may be madness but the maddest of all is to see life as it is and not as it should be"
~Don Quixote~

As Ever
Me

200 pounds lost? did he make it this week?!

200 pounds lost? did he make it this week?!

effot in weight loss Weigh in

As expected this week is not going to be the week that I bust that 200 pounds lost mark, I have to admit that I am a bit confused about this weeks weigh in but it is what it is and like I said yesterday I am stronger this week from last and that's the important part. When I stepped on the scale it said 340.2 pounds so that's exactly 2 pounds up from last week and I said that I was confused but I do have a couple theories to go with that plate of confusion. I have eaten perfectly within my 1700 calorie limits all week so that's a non issue I think besides the fact that I probably could have had more fiber, I have drank at least a gallon of green tea every day this week along with about a gallon of straight H2O each day as well so hydration is there. The two things that I suspect are hindering the loss this week are the fact that I have/had jammed up docks for almost the entire week and the fact that I have been going to bed later than usual, after midnight and as late as 1:00 am for the last 4 nights or so.

Now that I have analyzed the week it is time to plan for the coming week and I will keep it simple.

1.) Eat no more than 1700 calories per day and watch the fiber intake.

2.) Drink at least 1.5 gallons of Green tea or straight H2O per day.

3.) Now that I have the all clear from the doc, I will hit the cardio hard this week.

4.) Work out every day this week, no days off until the next weigh in.

I know that looks a lot like what I already do, but the two major differences are that I will not be taking a day off of exercise this week and I will really amp up the cardio because I have been holding back and only walking since the doc told me to do so until an ECG was done. Honestly the mere fact that the ECG results came back clean has relieved a huge amount of stress that I was under for the past 3 to 4 weeks and I feel like a weight has been lifted off of me and I plan on taking full advantage of my stress free high by hitting the exercise hard this week to try and make up for the lack of any real cardio work in the last few weeks.

This weeks weigh in shows a positive number as far as the raw number goes but I honestly think that I will hit that 200 pound mark my Friday if not sooner. I did everything that I could do this week including extending my walking distance because of feeling like 2 miles wasn't enough when walking was the only exercise and it was upped to 3 miles, My raw weight may be up by 2 pounds (even if its the docks or lack of sleep) it is up and I have to accept that fact, the other fact that I accept is that I have done everything that I could given the circumstances of the last month and the halt of movement by my doc so I am happy with the scale this week even though it is not a loss.

This week was not the week that I become the fella that can say that he lost 200 pounds, but next week I think that little fact will not be a fact any more. Don't forget that H2O and always remember to keep on keepin on because if you don't nobody else will do it for you.

PS: C25K coming to a theater near you very soon!

As Ever
Me

Weigh in, 196 pounds lost so far!

Weigh in, 196 pounds lost so far!

effot in weight loss lost 200 pounds Weigh in

I was worried that I would not have a loss this week because of an earlier in the week look at the scale and the fact that last Saturday I ate pretty bad but this morning I was pleasantly surprised. I will get right to it, I stepped onto the scale and it said 338.2 pounds, that's a 3 pound loss for the week and I am more than happy with that three pounds. 196 total pounds lost since Jan 2008 and a mere 4 pounds separates me from being able to say that I have lost 200 pounds, maybe I will actually get there by next Friday, maybe not, either way when I think back to day one (which is as clear as yesterday) I can remember how I felt that I was starting in on another attempt to lose weight that was bound to fail and here I am 4 pounds away from having lost 200 pounds, here are the Friday photos for your viewing pleasure.

No flash in a dim room but there it is! 338.2 pounds!

This is Laura Vukov and she weighs 196 pounds, I lost a whole her!

Over all I am feeling good about what I have accomplished but then who wouldn't feel good after losing close to 200 pounds? It is a bitter sweet feeling if I am being honest, on the one hand I have just lightened my body by just about 200 pounds and have been living healthy for about 17 months, more than likely I have added years to my life and I feel awesome! on the other side of the fence is the years gone that cannot be gotten back, 200 pounds ago I was unhappy and how many years have I wasted by allowing myself to get to that size? I mean its awesome that I have lost this much but at the same time is that really a title someone should try to attain? "the guy that lost 200 pounds" (do not think for a second that I dwell on this, it is merely a thought in the many that enter my head daily) The fact that I have lost this amount with nothing more than determination is the awesome part to me, I did not use any miracle diet plan or pills, I did not have to buy into a plan that offers pre made meals, and I did not buy any books or cards that tell me how much to eat and when, and the best part is that I did this without surgery.

The reason that I started doing this the way that I did was because I feared for my life, I was honestly afraid that I would walk down the street and bamn! dead from a heart attack. Imagine living a life where you honestly thought that any day could be the day, just from walking up stairs to go to bed, or carrying something heavy up stairs for your wife could kill you because of the strain that was on your heart, hell, just walking up the stairs I was carrying something heavy! Myself! Now imagine that you were responsible for that condition only because you could not control how much and what kinds of food you were eating, imagine.

I do understand that losing weight is much more difficult than anyone that has never struggled with it knows but at the end of the day we are responsible for what we choose to eat, we are the one responsible for whether we do some exercise or not, I am responsible for my actions and you yours, everything else is an excuse. I have heard people say things like "but I can only walk 5 minutes before I cannot walk any more" ok, then walk for 5 minutes per day until you can walk 6, so on and so on. When I started off I could barely walk a 1/3 of a mile trot around the block and that was at a 2 year olds pace! now I walk just under 2 miles 5-6 times per week and can walk more than 3 miles straight without feeling anything but relaxed. "but I can't afford a gym" I have never belonged to a gym in my entire life, which may explain a few things! but my point is that its not needed, body weight exercises, walking, yard work, anything can count as exercise when you are as big as I was! "I have a limited budget and cannot afford to shop the way I need to in order to lose weight" as my Grandfather use to say "awe horse puckey" I am by no means well off, in fact I am a stay at home dad so we live off of one income currently and let me tell ya with 2 kids and one of them special needs I do not have money to burn! smart shopping along with bulk shopping will do the trick every time, give it a shot.

I will get on down off of my soap box for now because I want to get out there and get a walk in this morning, 3 pounds down and that much closer to that 200 pound lost mark and I am feeling pretty good this morning. Anyone reading this for the first time, know that it is possible to lose the weight and live healthy with a little determination and discipline, toss in a bit of smart shopping, exercise and recipe planning and well, ya get what we got right here!

Thanks for following along and thank you all for the support that you leave me daily.

As Ever
Me

Some things on my mind, a long post and a weight chart.

Some things on my mind, a long post and a weight chart.

effot in weight loss lost 200 pounds weigh in 200 pounds lost

Monday morning quarterback once again, not too bad though but things could have gone better this weekend. On Saturday My mother in law had us over for dinner along with Wify's sister's family and I decided early on that I was just going to enjoy the meal and that's what I did so I was over by a lot on Saturday, I did go for a walk and do some light strength training so it wasn't all bad. Sunday went perfectly with intake and exercise, I went on a 2 mile walk and completed it in 35 minutes flat so that is a pretty good pace @ almost 4mph so I was happy with those results, the plan was to walk around the entire lake (more than 3 miles) but it was getting dark and I was not going to make it to the wooded part of the walk before it got dark and I am still unfamiliar with the trail so I took a shorter route. Squeezing in some strength training (mostly body weight movements) is becoming a part of my day that I look forward to, after my walks I have been doing a light dumb bell routine along with some push ups and squats and feel good about how it is going so far.

Last week I was inputting my weight for the past 2 months into my "weight graph" which is an excel sheet that we made and I have been keeping track of my weight on it so that I may have a visual depiction of what I have done, yea I know that a mirror serves the same purpose in my case but the graph really is eye opening to see trends. I thought I would pop a screen capture up here showing my progress from January 2008 until last Fridays weigh in just for kicks so that anyone interested could see it in graph form, the image is clickable so that a full sized view can be had.

Click the image for a full sized view

Over the weekend I got more than a few comments pointed in the direction of "you really look good" or "it's amazing how you have been able to maintain this for so long" and I have to admit that I enjoy hearing things like that, but then who wouldn't? I started thinking about it though and "being able to maintain it for so long" is something that I have even heard in comments on this blog and is kind of the point of this whole thing, I mean thin people maintain it all of the time don't they? fit people maintain this lifestyle on a daily basis without flinching right? how come no one says to a very fit person "Hey that's amazing that you are able to maintain a healthy lifestyle like that" I love getting complimented, C'mon we all do but isn't that one kind of a back handed compliment? Like the fat guy should be praised for being able to not eat cake, I guess the way that I look at is like this. I don't think it is amazing that I have maintained this eating right moving more program for the last almost 17 months, I see it more as I have re-learned how to not eat wrong, I am not really maintaining a "diet" so to speak, I am now maintaining what every other person on the planet that does not have a weight issue does daily, the only difference is that I was once 534 pounds.

I think that is the mindset that we as over weight people need to get over, we are no different than any other person in this world, besides the fact that we weigh twice as much as most of them! but hey we're working on that part right? right?? yes I am talking to you! I am no different than the very nice woman that I walked about 1/4 mile with yesterday while out on my walk, I am no different than the very fit very intense looking woman that made me think twice about my discipline a couple weeks ago, That older fella that runs around the lake that I live on like he is Forest Gump? no different, not one bit. If we walk through a crowded store or park and randomly choose 6 people based on nothing other than they happened to be the next random person, each and every one of them would be capable of choosing to eat properly and exercising enough to maintain a healthy lifestyle but no one would ever call it amazing.

Myself, the woman from last night, very fit very intense woman and Forest are all completely different people on completely different levels of fitness/health and at the same time we are all very much the same. I have no clue whether any of those other people have ever been over weight or not, for all I know Forest may have started running because he too was once a quarter ton man, but I have learned that I don't find that the fact he runs around this lake seemingly for hours some times amazing, He is just a man doing something that he is capable of for unknown reasons to me. At 534 pounds that feat would have been amazing to me, at my quarter ton weight I had honestly loathed people for walking! seriously! I can remember thinking to myself as I sat on the couch "why would anyone want to walk around with no where specific to go?" I honestly had that thought at one point in my life and shortly thereafter I decided to lose weight and get healthy again, I at some point realized that the statement above was the statement of someone that was giving up, and I was not going to give up, that was a state of mind that is not a good place to be.

I believe that anyone can do whats right for themselves, Losing 200 pounds is a feat for sure, I am just unsure that it is amazing because once we are in the right mind set it becomes second nature to eat correctly and exercise more. I do not smoke and never have but is it amazing that I am more than 30 years smoke free? no because smoking is not something that we need to do to survive and neither is over eating. I often hear people say that eating is something that we need to do to survive so it is somehow different than other addictions and though I can agree with that concept and I know first hand how hard getting over that hump is I cannot agree with that philosophy for more than one reason that I may get into in a later post. Its almost like those dead beat dads out there that expect people to give them praise for paying their tiny little child support payments, saying things like "I pay my child support I am doing my part man" There is nothing special about paying child support, it is expected and it is our duty as fathers to support any children that we bring into this world and I look at it that way. its just eating right and exercising and is what should have been done from the beginning, I am just late to the party!

Day by day things are getting better and easier in the world of me where my health is concerned and I blame myself for that, just like I blame myself for getting into a situation where saying "I weigh a quarter of a ton" held truth. I am a changed person just 16 months later and that to me is what is amazing, I like to think of it as I am just becoming part of the normal crowd.

As Ever
Me

A new low, almost to 200 total pounds lost!

A new low, almost to 200 total pounds lost!

effot in weight loss weigh in 200 pounds lost

Last Friday I weighed 349 pounds which was five pounds higher than my lowest weight to date and I was hoping that I could get to 344 again so that I can start to record losses once again. Hoping? me hope for weight loss? nah I did something about it because hoping things will happen instead or making them happen is how I got into this mess in the first place! The decision to make something happen this week was made and the scale confirms that fact, I weighed 341.0 pounds this morning, yes that's more than an eight pound loss for the week! I am three pounds lower than my lowest weight and only seven pounds away from having lost 200 total pounds! Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

The toe nail color is not part of my Saturday nights! it is part of having a daughter that doesn't realize that daddy's don't wear nail polish!

This 1981 Suzuki GSX250 weighs in at 341 pounds just like me.

Finally this Mio 50 scooter weighs 193 pounds which as we know is what I have lost so far.

I could not be any more pleased than I already am with this mornings weigh in, I have stayed strict with my exercise and with my intake this week and it has paid off. I am pretty excited that I am only seven pounds from hitting that 200 pound lost mark and for some strange reason it feels like its going to feel like starting over again when I get there, I had that same feeling when I hit 100 pounds lost. It is almost like because I am hitting a whole number that I am starting off at 1 again and as crazy as that sounds it really is how I felt at 100 pounds lost and now that I am almost to 200 pounds lost that same thing is happening again, and this morning is the first time that I felt that way, in fact the feeling came while writing this post.

My intake for yesterday was good coming in at 1570 total calories, for exercise I went for a 1.5 mile walk on a very steep hilly section around my house and I think I will incorporate this route into my walks at least twice per week from now on because the hills made a difference in the way I felt, it made the walk feel like exercise, I also did 50 push ups and some dumb bell curls earlier in the day. I consumed 1 gallon of green tea and 1/2 gallon of straight H2O along with a diet coke that I shared with my daughter at lunch again so I am hydrated.

A good week for sure and the plan is to keep on with what I am doing until I hit my goal, I have lost 36.14% of my total body weight since starting in January 2008 and gained much more than that in other aspects of my life. To say that making the decision to drop all of the weight that was holding me back was the best thing that I could have done does not strongly enough state that fact and explain how it feels to have lost the amount of weight that I have lost. My next goal will be to drop that last 7 pounds so that I can hit that 200 pound lost mark and after than I want to be under 300 pounds, the goals will never stop coming even after I hit my ideal weight either and that is the attitude that has driven me through this process thus far.

Keep on keepin on and all that and don't forget that H2O!

As Ever
Me

A little effort can go a long way, ask me how I know..

A little effort can go a long way, ask me how I know..

effot in weight loss Weight Loss

Yesterday was another good day in this fight for a smaller me, I came in at 1645 total calories total for the day, I drank 1 gallon of green tea and 3/4 of a gallon of straight H2O. For exercise I did 50 push ups and did some light weight lifting with some dumb bells and my shoulders are sore today for my efforts.

I think that part of the problem with losing weight and keeping it off is that it takes more effort than not doing it and when you are heavy a lot of times effort equals bad, less work equals good. Someone left a comment on my post yesterday where I posted a photo of some grilled trout with potatoes and green beans that said "If only people knew that you could eat delicious food like that and lose weight - I think everyone would do it!" I thought to myself about how it really is that easy, I then started thinking about why people don't and came up with effort, in the case of the trout dinner I caught the trout, cleaned it then I seasoned it and grilled it along with making red potatoes and green beans on the side and it did take some effort to achieve that meal. In all honesty that particular meal took me roughly 30 minutes to completely prepare and cook from start to finish and cost me roughly 530 calories, imagine that, grilled trout with baked red potatoes and green beans, 30 minutes time minus the catching and cleaning of the fish and getting a meal that you would pay top dollar for in a restaurant. the difference between that and a pre packaged calorie and sodium heavy meal is a little bit of effort in the kitchen.

which brings me to another point, cost of food like that. In all honesty that entire meal cost me roughly $4.50 plus what ever amount of spices and the olive oil cost me so lets say an extra $1.00 which is probably high, so $5.50 (including spices etc which I already had in the kitchen) and a morning out on a lake fishing with my son to get the trout, which I will also add can count as some exercise because of the walking around the lake and 4 hours fishing that we did so more than one good thing comes from this. I want to mention that for that $5.50 worth of food I fed myself, my wife, my two kids and Wifys step father, for $5.50? Yes for $5.50 and 4 Rainbow trout that I caught, figure about $7.00 to $8.00 per pound extra for the trout if you were to buy it at a market we cooked about 2 pounds worth. Lets compare that to ordering a pizza, I would guess that an average large pizza is in the $10.00 range delivered ie: no effort required besides dialing the phone and lets be honest, though a large pizza could probably feed 3-4 people until they are full it never goes quite that way. A quick google search came up with 290 calories per slice of a Pizza Hut 14 inch regular crust pepperoni pizza, so for less than 2 slices of pizza you could have the same calories as the trout dinner. It took less effort, but cost more (even if you break it down per person if buying the trout, the pizza cost more for a full meal of pizza) and it does not have that "bang for your buck" where nutrition that the trout does, now I picked pizza because it was an easy comparison but do it with anything that takes no effort and it usually works out that the more effort that goes into our meal planning the more we can get out of our food where nutrition, taste, calories and even cost is concerned.

A little bit of effort can go a long way where our food choices and preparation is concerned, grill instead of frying, bake instead of frying, yes it takes a little more work but the difference in taste is marginal and the nutritional benefits are huge. cooking your own meals and seasoning them yourself also means that you can eat it how you like it every time, why order something that some 16 year old pimple faced kid that is sweating all over himself prepared hastily in a kitchen that has probably not been properly cleaned in 4 months when you can make it yourself? Have you ever seen a 16 year olds bedroom? and you are cool with them preparing food that you plan on eating? I can honestly say that I enjoy being the one that chooses how and what I eat, I would not consider myself a chef by any means of the word but I can say that I get lots of compliments on my cooking, and more so now than when I was 534 pounds and frying everything (though I make a mean eggplant parm that is probably not too low in calories) but putting the effort into our food preparation really can make the difference in how nutritional and tasty it is, everything does NOT have to be deep fried and slathered in butter.

I do not feel deprived of good food and I have lost more than 190 pounds to date so I am in the mindset that if I can drop more than an entire person and still eat well and feel that I have eaten very satisfying food that anyone can do the same. I used the trout dinner as an example here but I have made just about all of my old recipes into new recipes by changing some of the ingredients or cooking methods and have a slew of recipes that I regularly make that are all low calorie highly nutritional meals from meatballs, hamburgers (Turkey burgers), grilled chicken, faux fried chicken, rice dishes, mashed fauxtatoes (cauliflower), a few different soups and the list goes on and on. I am working on an eggplant parm recipe but the old one is just too good so I have not tried too hard to change it yet. So you can see that with just a bit of effort we can eat all of the things that we enjoy and still lose weight, if I am not proof of that I don't know who is!

I am saving money, getting healthier and eating great home prepared meals all while dropping weight pretty consistently at the cost of a little bit of discipline and effort, still think you can't do it?

As Ever
Me