Back to Sunday Basics

Posted on January 26, 2014 by theffkid

First, I want to thank you all for the love and support you showed me for after my somewhat cathartic and emotional video I posted last week. Sometimes, it’s just easier to talk it all out in a vlog in one take than to hide behind editing my thoughts. I have been quite the emotional wreck about my weight for the past month or two so talking it out that way helped me arrange my thoughts better. Now, I have a much better vision of where to go from here.

Which leads me to my next announcement…
Megan and I have decided to switch to eTools exclusively. We are now longer going to go to the weekly Weight Watchers meetings. While we liked our meetings, we have really benefited from the eTools and how resourceful it is. One of the issues we had was that the only meeting that worked for us was Saturday morning…which never really worked. Saturday mornings are really our only morning to rest during the week. That was also when we would do the majority of our long runs for training. Finally, we travel a lot on the weekends so we were missing a lot of meetings (aka losing money). And I have an amazing support system that was more powerful than any meeting: I have my readers and my friends. You all have been here from the very beginning and I love the support I get from you all. This decision took a lot of thought, and we weighed out the pros and cons thoroughly, but we both felt that this is the right course of action for the time being. Please note that this isn’t against our local Weight Watchers branch. Dee and the group at our Tallahassee WW branch is awesome, but this is just what we need to do right now.

So with that change, we have made a change back to a classic original. We are back to weighing in on Sundays. When this all began, we weighed in on Sundays on my scale. The special scale we had to buy because I wouldn’t fit on a regular scale. Even when we started WW in July, I was hesitant to not weigh in on my own scale…even though it was fairly accurate to the WW scale. There was just a comfort to it, and I could react how I wanted when I lost…or when I gained.

So today’s weigh in went…well it’s going in the right direction. I have lost 2.6 pounds this week. I’m down to 244 which is still high, but again, it’s in the right direction.

As far as tracking goes, I’m getting there. Today was an awesome day that even included a little indulging into some delicious cookies. I tracked them and moved on.

And that’s that. Another post full of big changes back to basics. I’ve spent too much time trying to expedite this process with different tricks, while in fact the basics helped me lose 120 pounds.

Time to get tracking.

See ya soon.

Day 1,205 Sunday Stuff

Posted on January 5, 2014 by theffkid

Fair warning: my fantastic Florida State Seminoles will be playing in the National Championship tomorrow night. Blogging may not happen, but I will be making healthy choices and running around like a crazy person all night because that’s what I do when I watch football.

Now that that’s out of the way…

So here’s what’s going on with the FFK! Weigh-in: Yesterday, we went to Weight Watchers for the first time since December 7th. At that point, I was down to 235.4 after a crazy Thanksgiving week of overeating. Well, the month got even crazier and involved a TON of stress eating and other craziness and while I exercised when over the holidays, I still got up to the 240’s (fudge is delicious.) On Saturday, I weighed in at 236.8. which is still high, but I’m one a killer hot streak of eating well. I finally have that “eating well” killer instinct back. It’s time to reach my goal weight.

Alright, so let’s talk about today’s healthy decisions!

Breakfast: I have been juicing and smoothie-ing like a crazy person ever since we got our awesome Nutribullet from Megan’s parents. For breakfast, I made a deliciously filling banana/kale/apple/carrot/superfood powder smoothie. So with WW Plus, fruits and veggies are no points so it’s only a 1 point smoothie because of the superfood powder. Some people say that you should count the points in the fruits and veggies in a smoothie. Any opinions on that, other WW members? Well, for now I’m counting it at a point because all it is was fruit, vegetables and water. And delicious. It was delicious too.

Lunch: for lunch, Megan and I went to one of the eight million pizza joints in Tallahassee (the joys of living in a college town!) and went to Joe Mama’s for lunch. The name is kind of deceptive. With a name like Joe Mama’s, you think it would be kind of a dive. Well, it’s actually pretty swanky and plays awesome blues music, along with a wood fire pizza oven. The last time we ate there, we both ate our own pizza, because pizza is our delicious kryptonite. Today, we just split a pizza and we were both super full. Holla! I figured out it was about 16 points.

Snack: I made 3 points of popcorn. YERM!

So today I got to 29 points out of 50. I have eaten well and more importantly very healthy today. If I get hungry, I will eat some snap peas or something. Time to go. Downton Abbey is on. See ya tomorrow.

Other Snack: before dinner, I made another smoothies THAT WAS FRUITASTIC!!! It was a blueberry/mixed berry/pineapple/banana smoothie that tasted a lot like the Razzmatazz smoothie from Jamba Juice without all the added sugar! 0 points but CRAZY filling!

Dinner: For dinner, Megan made pork chops and green beans. They were fantastic and that plate was only 9 points!

Day 1202: The Awesome Things That Happened On My Trip

Posted on January 2, 2014 by theffkid

I’m back and I’m ready to lose.
This is the year I hit my goal weight. It’s going to happen.
Now that that’s out of the way…

I’m going to do this post in a Buzzfeedesque style to describe this trip. Enjoy!

And now…

THE 18 AWESOME THINGS THAT HAPPENED ON MY TRIP!

1) Got a new iPhone 5s! (Prototype. Real phone was yet to be purchased. Thanks again Mom and Dad!)

2) Wore a Boy Scouts shirt from when I was in middle school.

3) This is the same shirt. (Circa 1998)

4) Ate (multiple) breakfast burritos at this awesome place.

5) Watched my brother-in-law graduate at my alma mater.

6) Sang “What’s Up” by 4 Non-Blondes with my buds Josh and Jeremy

7) Met Daniel the Baby!

8) Played with Shadow the Cat and Molly the Dog.

9) Played with Serena the Dog, and then got food poisoning (unrelated…I think).

10) Found out I raised $307 for Movember this year! (THANK YOU ALL FOR DONATING!!!)

11) Flew to Seattle and went to the top of the Space Needle

12) Went to Pike Place Market and did the touristy things like drink coffee at the original Starbucks and watch people throw fish; all while loving every minute of it.

13) Ate this delicious plate of sausage from Uli’s Sausage. (One of them was bacon sausage…#heartattack)

14) Helped cook this delicious ribeye roast.

15) Made Christmas cookies.

16) Grilled even more delicious meats.

17) Had a pack of wolves stare me down at the Woodland Park Zoo.

18) And flew back over Dallas on the way back to Tallahassee.

For more photos of my adventures, check out my Instagram account! See ya tomorrow.

Vacation Reflections (So Far)

Posted on December 17, 2013 by theffkid

Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” -Matthew 9:17

Since I have gotten off the plane on Wednesday, my inner foodie has been released like a gluttonous kraken. “YOU CAN AND SHOULD EAT ALL THE THINGS!” said my inner gluttonous foodie kraken. “YOU ARE ON VACATION SO YOUR BODY IS IMPERVIOUS TO CALORIES AND WEIGHT GAIN!”

This past weekend, I ate a lot. My meals were as followed:Friday: three meat plate of greasy BBQ
Saturday: greasy Mexican food from a place that I haven’t eaten at in four years
Sunday at lunch: even more greasy BBQ
Sunday at dinner: a fantastic burger with bourbon bacon onion jam and other greasy topping
Monday morning at 3:39 am: vomit central

I ended up getting food poisoning from one of these items. My guess is the medium-cooked fantastic burger. (I haven’t eaten a medium-cooked burger in a long time. I usually avoid undercooked ground beef unless it’s organic. Even then I’m a little leery.) But to me it was more than that. It was body saying “this is not you anymore. You can’t abuse me like that any more.” For most of my life, I lived with the consequences of becoming physically ill from food as long as it tasted good when I ate it. I wasn’t just addicted to food, I abused my body with it. That’s not me anymore. I’m not the guy that can clear a buffet, I’m the guy that tries to count his Weight Watchers points and makes healthy decisions. I’m the guy people don’t recognize anymore (that happened multiple times in Abilene). I’m the guy who has friends tell me how proud they are of me. I’m a new wineskin.

Day 1,178 Weigh In Time!

Posted on December 8, 2013 by theffkid

Hello!
So Thanksgiving week was a little crazy. I eat my share, I avoided pooping myself during a race, and I played caretaker for a flu-ridden wife. I weighed in at 241.4 last Saturday and it nearly killed me. I sat in that Weight Watchers meeting feeling humbled and frustrated. Our group talked about remembering why were trying to lose weight in the first place and what our goals are. I realized that I had lost sight of why I was trying to lose weight. I have stayed in the 225-235 weight range for the past two years because I’m just happy to be this small! Going beyond that seemed a little scary. (Call it fear of success.) But I’m still in the obese category and I really do want to get below 200! So for now, my short-term goal is to get to 213.2 pounds which will put me at a 10% loss since officially starting Weight Watchers. This is definitely possible, but I need to do what I did this week: track my points, drink my water and be as active as possible. Here’s to another awesome week! See ya tomorrow.

Day 1,173 Tuesday Time

Posted on December 3, 2013 by theffkid

So I’m going to keep this quick. Here we go!

Breakfast: Jimmy Dean Breakfast Sandwich 5 points (I really need to change up my breakfast…)

Lunch: Had to scrap my initial lunch plans and ordered Jimmy John’s (I know, there are worst things, right?) I had a Turkey Tom with Thinny Chips. I should have scraped the chips. Tomorrow is going to be about making those small changes that are costing me like that. 15 points total.
One healthy choice I did make was I didn’t go to Starbucks because the line was waaaay too long (last week of classes problems) so I came back to my office and ate carrots! Way better option! Not to mention, it was in the high 70’s today. Pleasant, but lame.

Dinner: If you haven’t figured it out yet, I love to grill…like…a lot. Tonight, I grilled up boneless and skinless chicken thighs with a baked potato. It was a pretty epic meal. It ended up being about a 25 point dinner because I had seconds on the chicken. YERM!

So today I got to around 45 points which is liveable. I ended up missing my workout group because of a meeting so I’m super stoked to get in to the gym for the last time with my workout group this semester! See ya tomorrow.

Day 1,172

Posted on December 2, 2013 by theffkid

SEAHAWKS!!!

Okay…now that I have that out of my system…

So today was full of random eating, but I counted it all which is important! I used a few weekly points and that’s okay! Here’s the breakdown of the day:

Breakfast: A 5 point Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwich. An easy breakfast choice when you’re on the go.

Lunch: So I usually try to come home for lunch, but today I stayed on campus. I was planning on just getting cheese pizza from Papa John’s. I even put it in to Weight Watchers before I went to lunch to make sure I didn’t deviate. Then when I got there, they were swamped and out of cheese pizza (I guess that’s possible…). Anyway, I ended up with pepperoni pizza which was just a few more points per slice. Not idea, but it is what it is. 18 points

Dinner: Tonight, we ended up at Moe’s for some burrito deliciousness. I accidentally ordered the wrong thing which sucked, but was delicious (go figure…) I didn’t order the jr. size and I didn’t realize it until as I was plugging it in to their nutrition calculator. Lame. So with chips it was 31 points. Oops.

Dessert: The Moe’s was next door to Cold Stone and Megan and I both felt like a little cold treat. The last time I had been inside a Cold Stone was when we lived in Abilene. I remember going in there and getting a Gotta Have It calorietastic sugar bomb of craziness on a regular basis. I also remember the first time I tried Weight Watchers back then and getting their sinless sweet cream. It was like eating poison to me back then. I felt so robbed and horrible. My body and my taste buds were sick. Anyway, I gave their Like It sized Skinny Vanilla with Oreo and Heath mixins. It ended up being 12 points (6 of that was the actual ice cream which isn’t that bad) and it was waaaaay more ice cream than I’m used to. It was just a reminder of how far I’ve come.
So today was kind of a bizarre day and it had its share of issues, but that’s just the way the process goes. I racked up 66 points which is a lot, but I tracked it and that’s a huge thing! It was worth the extra points. I’ll shoot to be better on Tuesday. That’s all I can do. See ya tomorrow.

Day 1,171 Sunday on Track

Posted on December 1, 2013 by theffkid

It has been kind of a whirlwind of a Thanksgiving week. So much so I’m not really sure where to begin…

This poor sap has no clue…

Let’s start with a bitterly cold 15k on Thursday that was unforseeably miserable. This year’s Turkey Trot was easily the coldest one I’ve ran in. In fact, it was the coldest race I have ever ran in. It was in the low 30’s at the start of the race and I didn’t know how my body was going to respond to the conditions. Well, as usual, my body surprised me in an awesome way. I started off the race with an amazing pace of 9:00/mile. Now usually I start to taper off after the second mile and jump up to about a 10:00/mile, but I consistently conquered the first 5 miles with a 9:00ish/mile pace! I was on the way of destroying my 15k time from last year! I was soooooooo stoked!
Then, I had to poop.
Out of nowhere, my body started to scream “find some bushes” which was impossible since a) I was in the middle of a subdivision and b) there were way too many runners that I knew to do something weird like that. And of course, thanks to the way this route was laid out, I was literally the furthest away from the finish line (for those of you who have ran the 15k, I was around the turnaround on Biltmore at the bottom of the giant hill). I’ll avoid being graphic, but I was in physical pain to the point that I could only run a few steps without having to stop. With about 2 miles left, I was close to a community center that I had been to that had bathrooms. I deviated from the course by about 100 feet to get to it. Doors are locked. I see some people and I ask them if they have access. They didn’t, but they pointed to the Southwood Clubhouse which was another 200 feet away off the route. Thankfully, they were open. I went it, used their facilities, looked incredibly out of place, and got the heck out of there (and no Alex, I didn’t ask any of the caddies if they knew you. I didn’t have the time to make small talk 🙂 ). Anyway, after that I was back on track and I finished the race while tacking on an extra .65 miles on to my run. The thing was, I wasn’t too far from the finish line, but I panicked and didn’t know what to do. It was something I’ve had to deal with during a race. It was miserable. I’m planning on running a 15k in December (anyone doing the Magnuson Holiday Fun Run in Seattle on the 21st?) so I’ll have to redeem myself then. Anyway, other than that, Thanksgiving went off without a hitch!

So let’s skip to this weekend, shall we?
I also had an amazing Weight Watchers meeting where our leader Dee encouraged us to re-think about why we are trying to lose weight. I opened up about my weight loss journey (something I hadn’t talked about with the group before) and how I have been at the same weight for the past almost 2 years. I explained that I’ve been comfortable both physically and mentally in the 230’s because I haven’t been at this weight since…elementary? This weight has allowed me to run 10 milers on a whim and keep up with my compadres in my workout classes. That’s so awesome to me! Now, I want to take it to the next level. I don’t want people to look at me and not understand how I’m such a fast runner (my response is “yeah, I don’t get it either”). I want my outside to match my inside while both becoming more fit. One of the biggest roadblocks with this is fueling my body right after a big run or workout. I think that looks like more water, more protein and just staying within my points. Once I get that in line (which I have been researching. Any suggestions are welcomed.) I know that I’ll be back within striking distance of getting below 200 pounds for the first time in decades.

So that’s about it. Today, I was well below my points and was super full. I even weighed out my leftover turkey on our food scale before I turned it in to a delicious BBQ turkey sandwich. It was magical. See ya tomorrow.

One more thing…
Don’t forget to donate to Movember if you are a Stachetastic Run Sponsor! (I know a lot of you are still reeling from the weekend, but don’t forget!) I have provided super easy setp-by-step instructions here!

Day 1,166

Posted on November 26, 2013 by theffkid

Still not completely sold on The Biggest Loser this season… It’s all feeling kind of forced. Not sure how many more seasons the shows has left. The issue is, I love what the show does, but I just doubt that it will be on much longer. It’s a shame the Biggest Loser Ranch wasn’t a RIDICULOUS amount for people to go to. Anyway, Biggest Loser rant over.

Let’s talk food. Delicious, delicious food.

Breakfast: Jimmy Dean Breakfast sandwich followed by a non fat Honey Bear latte from Atomic (pretty, huh?) and then delicious container of Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Yogurt. YERM!!!!

Lunch: We had to go pick up our racing packets and shirts for the Tallahassee Turkey Trot (which is going to be FREEZING COLD. That will be interesting…) at Capital City Runners which is next to our brand-spankin’ new Whole Foods! So we stopped in for lunch. I have to say this photo did not do this meal justice (my dinner photos on the other hand…) The cheese on the burger was muenster and it was scrumdulescent. I’m so glad that we have a Whole Foods in Tallahassee…:)

Dinner From Heaven: When we were at Whole Foods, we bought some deliciousness for dinner. We bought a pound of grass-fed sirloin along with some organic fingerling potatoes. I put chunks of mesquite in my BBQ chimney and lit up! I then cut the sirloin in half, padded it down with paper towels, sprinkled sea salt and some Cooper’s BBQ seasoning on the steaks and let them sit for a while. They were on the grill for about 25-30 minutes since they were cooking with indirect heat. I finished them off with a sear on the heat. I usually cut into my steaks to see if they are done, but this time I a meat thermometer which retained the juices a little more. When they were done, we tented them with foil and finished up the collard greens and potatoes. It was probably the best steak I have ever cooked. The meal was about $7 a person which was actually less than our lunch. The joys of eating at home…

So today was pretty awesome. Let’s finish off this post with a photo of a hand turkey. See ya tomorrow.

Day 1,165 Monday Update

Posted on November 25, 2013 by theffkid

I’m going to keep this kind of brief because I’m working on a few different things…

First: This morning, I took the Keep It Up, David’s Thanksgiving Pledge to: not have seconds, photograph what I eat, not to graze (a HUGE deal for me) and exercise! Read the whole post and take the pledge here! More on that later.

Second: Megan’s brutal semester is finally coming to an end so we celebrated by going out for some delicious sushi and seared tuna salad. It was flat-out delicious. Love me some Jasmine’s! (Looks good, doesn’t it Chris Williams? Let’s do lunch sometime.)

Third: We continued our date night by seeing Catching Fire. I was really impressed. I think if I was chosen, I would immediately go to the Biogenesis Lab and roid up on A-Rod strength PEDs and then find those bath salts that made that guy zombie crazy (which also happened in Miami…WHAT THE CRAP IS WRONG WITH THIS STATE???) and then just destroy everyone. No trip to the Cornucopia needed. I’ll let my roids-rage-fueled blood lust do the work (yeah…I thought this a lot during the movie. I also thought about the possibility of Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s character was actually his character in Doubt and how that would play out.)

Finally: It’s not too late to donate to my Movember page or to become a Stachetastic Run Sponsor!
Donate here and help us find a cure for prostate and testicular cancer!

See ya tomorrow!

P.S. the Fotographing Fat Kid actually foto’d yesterday. More on that soon! 🙂