Category Archives: exercise

Day 580: A Special Afternoon Post!

Posted on by

I have always been a huge fan of the show Frasier. His high class arrogance and antics always cracks me up, but the one thing about Frasier that I have always loved is his belief that people are inherently good. There is an episode where his identity is stolen by a character played by Nathan Lane, when Frasier catches him at a bar, Frasier gives him the opportunity to turn himself in. This goes south immediately, as you can imagine, which lands the real Frasier Crane in jail. Comical as it may be, I can relate to Frasier in this regard. I have always done my best to remember that people deep down inside (heck, even The Grinch had a heart even before the Whoville caper!) That belief was challenged last month when someone stole my Vibram Fivefingers instead of taking them to the lost and found in Leach. It hurt me, because they were something that I had been saving up for for a long time. I’m in no way materialistic, or at least I don’t try to be, but when they were stolen, it was like they were stealing something a part of my weight loss journey. I spent a lot of time and burned a lot of calories in those shoes. To have them taken from me really hurt.

So fast forward to about a week ago. I got a message in my Fotographing Fat Kid Facebook message box from a stranger named Heather. She empathized with me about how people could be so selfish. She told me that it bothered her so much that she couldn’t get it out of her head, so she wanted to buy me a new pair of Fivefingers. I was floored. I sat in front of my computer speechless. I re-read the message I don’t how many times to make sure I had read the message right. So this morning, I got a visit from our postwoman and she was carrying a shoebox. I now have a new pair of gorgeous yellow Fivefingers once again. They are just as comfortable as I remember. Thank you Heather. You have shown that there are still good people in the world.


Day 575: Monday Master’s Guy

Posted on by

Hello!

I forgot how awesome eight hours of sleep felt. It’s glorious.

Like I said last night, today I started to count points again and it was a great feeling. After being off any resemblance of a wagon for so long, I’m glad to have regiment again. It has been hard the first third of this year and I’m sure the fun has just begun, so since I have something of a “down time” right now, it’s going to help to have good habits established for me to lose some serious weight. Onderland here I come!!!

Breakfast: This morning, I had two servings of Honey Sunshine, this delicious cereal from Kashi that looks like Captain Crunch but without that razorblade sensation on the roof of your mouth. Anyway, for a cup and a half of cereal with milk it was only 4 points. I also had a banana about an hour after breakfast to keep me full until lunch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lunch: I had some leftover quinoa and black beans from last night. I usually heat up my leftovers (except for that weird period in my life when I have cold mashed potatoes with ketchup) but it makes for a great cold salad too! 6 points. 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Snacks: I had a packet of Orville’s finest 94% fat free popcorn for a snack because I just wanted to munch on something. A whole bag is only 4 points! Then I had a Kashi chocolate granola bar which was 2 points. 

SAWS!!!! Today, we started Insanity… again. We did the fit test and it went pretty good! I can already tell the difference. I think having Joe the Trainer whip me in to shape this semester is going to make Insanity a lot more bearable (or at least as bearable as it can be.)

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner: Megan made this awesome veggie pasta dish with zucchini and squash from the farmer’s market along with some snap peas. It was magical. 9 points. 

So today went pretty well! I got to 25 points and I also had some exercise points too. I wasn’t hungry really at all today, but I think that had a lot to do with drinking a bunch of water too! I have been horrible about that this semester so that is a habit I’m going to get back in to. See ya tomorrow.

 

P.S. Thanks for being awesome! Don’t forget you’re MY FAVORITE READER!!!  (Just you… no one else.)

Day 568: Monday Time!

Posted on by

So this was me the last time I graduated. Saturday, I will be looking a bit different in a cap and gown. I needed this picture this week. I needed to remember how far I’ve come. When I really look back, it makes me proud. I don’t look back to tell myself I will never look like that again, I already know that. What I do need to remember is that I can do it. This is my inspiration for the summer. My goal is to break in to the 100’s (yes, 100 with a 1) by my second blogoversary: September 18, 2o12. It’s going to take a lot of work, but I know it can be done. I mean, three years ago I had to order the biggest gown available. This year I ordered the middle sized one, the one normal people wear. I got this.

Breakfast: I had an english muffin with some peanut butter. Awesome.

Lunch: mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm… Megan made this delicious tortellini with a veggie marinara sauce for lunch. It was super filling and awesome.

Workout: This afternoon, I played racquetball with my friend Matt and Brian. It was the first time we had played all semester and it was insane. I sweated a crapton and I only collied with someone once. I love racquetball.

 

 

 

 

 

 

FroYo: This afternoon, I got a haircut on the other side of town where a new froyo place called Rainbow has opened up. Being the froyo fanatic I am, I had to give it a shot. I had the cupcake flavor mixed with vanilla along with some crushed up waffle cone, butterfinger and chocolate chips. It wasn’t too bad, but the decor is awesome and in the corner they had Hello Kitty iPad covers for sale. It can’t be that bad of a place. Plus froyo is 1/2 off on Mondays. Hard to beat.

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner: Tonight, we made a meal that would convert anyone in to believer in eating organic. On Saturday, we went to the Farmer’s Market on Market Square and we bought grain fed ground beef from a farm in South Georgia along with acre peas and green beans. Megan cooked the peas with some bacon from Earth Fare and a chopped onion. They were the best beans I have ever eaten. For all of my friends who can’t eat legumes, (Richard Keker) I am truly sorry. Anyway, I fired up the Weber and made burgers our of the beef and topped them with this awesome gouda that has mustard seeds in it. It didn’t taste mustardy, but it gave the burgers a great taste. Topped the burgers with some bacon too. It was a fantastic meal. It was fresh. It felt right. I know remember the joys of eating healthy.

So that’s it for tonight. Sorry this is such a late post. My computer has the Y2K. See ya tomorrow.

Day 558: Thursday and Stuff

Posted on by

Hello!

I love all of you. There, I said it.

I still can’t believe my Facebook Page got to 200+ Likes last night!

This week I was feeling a little sluggish and lazy. Luckily I was able to pull myself out of it and have an awesome day! Good things. Alright, let’s get at it.

Breakfast: This morning, as per usual, we went to Atomic Coffee before class and school and stuff. I just had a bagel with butter and a little honey. It was fantastic and filling. Awesomeness.

Lunch: Today I had to go to a luncheon for a class. I walked from campus uphill both ways (yes, like your parents did when they were kids) to the downtown Double Tree. The menu had a lot of awesome healthy choices, but I was still thinking about getting something a little heavier. That was when my friend Andrew (the Edward Cullen lookalike) told the whole I was his dietician and then asked for a healthy option. It was the conviction I needed to make a much better decision. I ended up getting a grouper sandwich and instead of fries I got a salad with honey mustard. It was delicious, but it was also hard to conceal my picture taking ability in front of a bunch of strangers. When I got home I had a 100 calorie Klondike ice cream sandwich that was awesome. Then I ate two servings of chips.

Awesome Non Scale Victory: So today I was organizing my old fat clothes in order to sell them online (anyone want size 54 khakis or some really nice XXL polo t-shirts?) and then I found these bad boys. I bought these plaid shorts a few weeks before I started grad school. It was like folding up an American flag. Those things are huge. I was huge. Anyway, I held them up, thought for a second, and then got in one of the leg holes. They fit me in the waist. I know I’m not half them man I used to be, but I am making awesome progress. It was seriously the motivation I needed to get focused on losing weight. It also made me proud because this kind of picture is usually in an infomercial for some weight loss cookie or some shake that tastes like ground up chalk. This is proof that all you need is a healthier diet, a good pair of running shoes, a little patience and a persistent attitude. Oh yeah, and a bunch of awesome supportive friends doesn’t hurt either ;).

SAWS:So after that moment of NSV clarity, I decided I needed to keep it up so I can no longer fit in my current clothes and went to the gym. It’s kind of sad because it was one of my last times working out at Leach. I’ve burned a ton of calories in that place. Anyway, I wanted to keep up the same intensity I had when I was working with Joe so I went after it. I divided my hour into three 20 minute segments. The first 20 I did a circuit that involved stairs, burpees, box jumps, jump squats, push ups and running up and down stairs. It was awesome. Then, I got on the ARC Trainer and did 20 minutes on the weight loss setting which was a hill climb pattern of awesomeness. Finally, I did 20 minutes of abs. Elevated sit ups, this weird leg lift row and then holding a plank position. I felt like I made really good use of my hour, I did what I came there to do: sweat through my shirt.

 

 

 

 

Late Night Dinner: After staying on campus to try to get some work done, Megan and I went through the drive thru at Jimmy John’s (the only thing faster than their delivery dudes) and had a Turkey Tom sans mayo and a nice layer of avocado spread. Not to mention their classic pickle. The healthiest drive thru around.

So that was my day. Not too shabby. Although I didn’t write them down, I’m definitely back in the mindset of counting points and being better about what I eat. I was looking at an older post and I realized it took me 4 months to lose the last 15 pounds to break the 100 pound mark. It was because I was kind of a slacker and wasn’t strict with my points. With my new-found love for weight lifting, sticking with my points should be the perfect recipe for some serious weight loss. If anything my body would feel better, and isn’t that what it’s all about? See ya tomorrow.

 

Day 515: Tuesday Time G!

Posted on by

Why hello awesome people!

Today had a lot a ruge (a combo of rude and good) awakening. We’ll talk about that in a bit. Food time!

Breakfast: So if you recall, last week I ate a really really really really bad breakfast sandwich that substituted bread with waffles. Yeah, it was epic, but no, it was not Weight Watcher friendly. Instead of Atomic Coffee, I went a healthier route and went to Subway! I had the Subway breakfast club with bacon and shredded cheese. The coffee wasn’t Atomic Coffee good (by a long shot) but it was really good! 4 points.

 

 

 

 

Lunch: I had to work through lunch but luckily my awesome wife had the foresight to make lunches before we headed out the door this morning. I had a chicken sandwich with a banana and a Kashi bar. YUM! 6 points.

Snack/Wake Up Call: So after class I was pretty hungry but it wasn’t quite time for dinner so we went for some froyo at TCBY. It was a bittersweet affair. (The froyo is not bittersweet, it was fantastic.) I had a parfait and I thought it wasn’t going to be that bad because it was basically the same thing I get regularly. Anyway, I plugged it in to the calculator on the TCBY website… and it was bad. Like 14 points bad. It was a rude awakening because I have been underestimating my points like a boss. Megan made a good point when she said it was kind of cathartic and relieving to know so we can move on and avoid it from now on.

Later in the day, I had a serving of PopChips. They are awesome. I’ll dedicate a post to their awesomeness someday. 3 points.

 

 

Exercise!So tonight, my bro Alex and his intramural team needed an extra player for their basketball team. I hadn’t played intramurals in years so it made me felt young again. It was awesome. We won the game. Hooray.

Dinner: I just had some fake chicken tenders and barely a serving of PopChips. Awesome. Then I had a thing of string cheese (I want to call it a slice but I know that’s not the case…) so dinner was overall 4.5 points.

So today I got to 31.5 points which isn’t that far over and with the game I was probably okay. See ya tomorrow.

Day 477: Saturday Stuff

Posted on by

Hello. Welcome to my blog.

So the Seminoles dominated another ACC rival today. Please file this under things that the Fotographing Fat Kid loves. I’m soooooo ready to go to a game! Okay, I know this isn’t a sports blog, either way it’s still an exciting time in Tallahassee.

I also have a confession to make: I haven’t done Insanity in the past couple of days. On Thursday, I wasn’t feeling that well and I went to bed early. On Friday I played racquetball with my friends Jonathan and Alex and burned about 900 calories. Today, I just kind of ran out of time. I’m at that point in Insanity when it has gotten a little repetitive (this is nothing new to anyone who does workout videos. It’s the circle of life) and eventually the program shifts to a different set of videos that are incredibly harder. For now though, I guess I’ll bear through it until then. Hmmmm… The issue is I love the results I get from Insanity, but the 40 minute workouts dominate the rest of your day if you don’t do them early in the morning or really late at night. It’s tough. Any suggestions? Has anyone else been in the rut I’m speaking of? Help a brotha out!

Breakfast: This morning, I went with Megan to Breugger’s Bagels which is pretty close to our house. They had a “healthy” bagel sandwich option with egg whites and turkey sausage with some red pepper pesto. It wasn’t bad, but then I read online that is was 9 points and had 38% of your daily allotment of sodium. I say healthy in quotations because while it’s still better than other breakfast sandwiches, 6 points of Kashi Go Lean is waaaay more filling and less points. Just kind of how it is. I also had a 3 point plain bagel later in the day. Even if you’re not on a diet but you are just watching what you eat, it’s still important to look at nutritional information online. The term “low-cal” and “healthy” are all relative. Just a thought.

 

 

That Time Megan and I Made TCBY Change Their Rules: (No, seriously.) So Megan and I are froyo fiends. It’s a little cray cray. Anyway, we have this coupon card that gives us BOGO at any TCBY and the one next to our house has a 30 cents an ounce promotion right now. Basically, we were getting froyo for 15 cents an ounce… that is until they issued a decree banning our extreme couponing of sorts (we also bought $122 worth of stuff at World Market today for $14, but that’s for another blog.) So I know what some of you are thinking “Coming Fotographing Fat Kid! They couldn’t have made that rule for just you and Megan!” Well get this JACK! So we go to pay and we told them we had a card and before we explained it the cashier said “BOGO right?” It’s like they had a picture of us behind the cash register or something. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

Oh yeah and the yogurt was good and that’s what we had during lunch time. We weren’t really in the mood for an actual lunch. Around 3 I had some spaghetti.

 

 

 

Free Pizza and Iced Coffee: While on our expedition out and about in the burg that is Tallahassee, we went to RedEye for some coffee and we found free pizza (don’t worry, it wasn’t on the ground. IT WAS IN A DUMPSTER! DUMPSTER PIZZA IS THE BEST!) Actually, there is a little place in Midtown called Luna’s  that had a trailer/pizza oven parked out in front giving away free pizza. They told us they were going to be selling pizza there on Friday’s and Saturday’s from now on and they were giving away free samples today! It was fantastic! The ingredients were fresh and their meat pizza was sinful. So many animals on one slice of deliciousness. I was impressed and I can’t wait for next Friday, Friday, getting good pizza on Friday!

Dinner: So after free pizza and afternoon spaghetti, we were pretty full for a good while. It worked out though because I was marinading some chicken breasts from Fresh Market in Stubb’s chicken marinade. They had been soaking in his delicious concoction of spices in the fridge for about 8 hours so it was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good! Before though, we had a delicious salad with Bolthouse honey mustard that’s made with yogurt. It’s only 45 calories for a serving of dressing! We also had some sweet potato fries which were good but random :).

 

Overall, it was a good day. As always though, the first half of my week was good and then after Wednesday I make some bad decisions with my meals and my snacking. I really need to work on that! Anyway, I’m about a pound and a half away from being in the 230’s which would be so awesome. Just seeing a different second number would be so much more encouraging. I guess we’ll see. See ya tomorrow.

Day 474: Wordless Wednesday Yo!

Posted on by

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 466: Titillating Tuesday

Posted on by

Today, I realized how ready I am to join the workforce, make a respectable amount of money and not have to worry about homework anymore. It feels like the end of the semester and it’s only the first full week. This is going to be a photo-finish, but what else is new?

(Deep breaths Nathan…)

So today was a pretty awesome day until it started to pour and I was sans-umbrella. No bueno. Overall though it wasn’t too bad, the class I TA didn’t start a mutiny or anything so that’s always a win. Okay I’m rambling. Let’s get to it.

Breakfast: I had a pomegranate Chobani with a 1/4 cup of Nutty Nuggets (Grape Nuts’ inbred cousin from Walmart.) This is a great breakfast when you know you won’t have a lot of time during the day because the protein from the yogurt makes you feel good and the fiber from the cereal helps you poop fills you up. 5 points

Lunch: Megan and I met up on campus for a quick lunch in between classes. We went with our old standby Pollo Tropical in the student center at FSU. I went with one of favorite meals, the 1/4 chicken with rice and beans. As always, I ditched the roll (empty calories are for trolls.) and went to down on some poultry deliciousness. Pretty awesome (but kind of greasy) lunch. 13.5 points

Snack: I got a late Christmas present from work today that had a few Hershey kisses so I had at most 2 points of candy this afternoon. Not gonna lie, I needed the sugar pick me up.

 

 

Dinner: So my birthday is on Friday (please note: I love Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Pokemon cards) which means FREE BIRTHDAY SWAG! Megan and I decided to go out tonight and redeem some of the awesome stuff I’ve gotten so far. We went to Qdoba for dinner since I had a BOGO meal. I went with the Queso burrito, now I usually avoid the queso, but I remembered that it wasn’t too many more points so I went for it. I came not thinking much of it because what I get at Chipotle is bad..ish but bearable. Not to smear Qdoba, but holy caloric intake Batman my pathetically crappy birthday burrito was a whopping 26 points. I know what you are thinking and yes, my daily allotment is 28 points in the old Weight Watchers system. The worst part is that it didn’t even taste good. Also, I might add that only 100 calories of this 1150 calorie monster was queso. This is further proof that you need to have a strategy and do your homework before you go out and eat out. It also proved that this is a learning process, no matter how many days you’ve done this whole weight loss thing. On the bright side though, I found this awesome owl lamp at World Market. The Owl’s name is Hudson.

Workout: So unbeknownst to me, I had a lot of calories to burn tonight, so I’m glad I went crazy on some Insanity tonight. We did the Pure Cardio session tonight and while it is pretty brutal, the burn is addictive. I felt awesome after. I think the best thing about Insanity is that it makes the most out of your work out time unlike at the gym when you say you’ve worked out for 40 minutes while in reality you used a machine for 3 minutes, looked at yourself in the mirror for 10 minutes and you texted for 27 minutes. 8 exercise points

Post Workout: I had another Chobani and Nutty Nugget combo for 5 points.

So overall, except for the glutton burrito from Qdoba, today wouldn’t have been that bad. We were going to eat at home, but we didn’t have a lot of time so we went out instead. I’m not mad about the burrito, this is the biggest mess up I’ve had in a good while, but it’s just a part of the learning and growing/shrinking process. So today I ate a ginormous 51.5 points. With the work out points that brings it down to 43.5 (which is still grossly over) but luckily I still have weekly points! In my program, you have 35 weekly points so I have about 15 weekly points left. Awe well, here’s to a healthy Wednesday (a Wordless Wednesday I might add!) See ya tomorrow.

 

Day 460: First Wordless Wednesday of 2012

Posted on by

[meow]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 459: Tuesday Before Life Gets “Fun”

Posted on by

The semester is going to be insane.

Tuesday through Friday I will be teaching a Public Speaking class. I’m a little nervous about it, but pray for those poor little students (maybe squeeze a prayer there for me too.) Anyway, it was day two of Insanity and… wow. More about that in a bit.

Breakfast: This morning, instead of granola I had Nutty Nuggets (a Grape Nuts knock off. Thanks Dave Ramsey for ruining regular Grape Nuts for me!) with some Stoneyfield vanilla yogurt. I had a 1/2 cup of yogurt and a 1/2 cup of Nutty Nuggets. It was really awesome. I also had a cup big cups of water and a cup of coffee to hydrate for the literal Insanity that was about to ensue. 6 points.

SAWS!: Day two was Plyometric Cardio Circuit was just as bad as I remembered. Working out when you are sore is terrible but the sweat that was gushing out of my pores like that wave pool at Schlitterbahn where you can jump out in front of the wave generator and get sucked under the current (anyone have a clue what I’m talking about?)  felt completely amazing. I burned a whopping 526 calories which means I got 8 exercise points out of it. Fantastically awesome workout.

 

Lunch: We had some leftover Hoppin’ John for lunch, which is super filling after a rough workout, and a glass of milk. Lunch was about 7 points.

Snack: After a meeting this afternoon I came home and had two Walmart waffles and two tablespoons of peanut butter. I was kind of stressed so I made a dumb decision and had that instead of a snack that would have been worth the points. My snack was 9 points! Kind of pointless snack but awe well.

 

 

 

Dinner: Tonight, we decided to go out for dinner because we didn’t have anything lined up. I forgot how hard it was to calculate points and even find a place that has nutritional information available, much less have meals that are calorically friendly. After much research, we decided on Chipotle. I cut out the guac (which I haven’t done in a long time) and Megan and I were going to split a cup of sou cream and we only got halfway through it! WE ARE BACK TO GOOD HABITS!  I feel like I’m back at Week 1 or something! Anyway, Dinner was still high, but the exercise points made it alright. Dinner was 14 points.

So today I got to 36 points which is just about exact with my workout points.

First Wordless Wednesday of the year coming up tomorrow! Get stoked. See ya tomorrow.