Day 23: Monday Stuff

Posted on May 26, 2014 by theffkid

Happy Memorial Day Everyone!

It felt awesome to actually count my points today. Was it easy? Not always. Was it a pain? Kind of. Will it be worth it in the long run? Yes, because I actually knew what I was putting into my body. When I don’t keep track, things can go south…like last night when I ate 500 calories worth of Corn Nuts because they were there. I didn’t record them so they didn’t count, right? WRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOONNNNNNNGGGGGGG SON! Like my blogging buddy Dani posted this morning with Weight Watchers, or any plan, we are responsible for it all! It might sound crazy, but that kind of crazy helped me lose over 100 pounds once upon a time!

So today, I got serious with it all. Thanks to the awesome WW app, I could check most of the food easily with the barcode scanner feature! I’ve never really talked about how much I love the app, BUT I’M A HUUUUUGE FAN! But I digress…let’s talk food!

Breakfast: I’ve always been a proponent of breakfast. Frankly, bacon is 90% of the reason why I wake up every morning (the other 10% is combination of my love for coffee and Megan). Anyway, this morning I made a delicious breakfast sandwich with three perfectly cooked slices of bacon (if I do say so myself. BTW, the key to cooking perfect bacon, in the words of Michael Bolton, is time, love and tenderness. Seriously, cook your bacon low and slow and then pat it down with a paper towel. You won’t regret it!) and two over easy eggs. Gotta love some yokey goodness! 10 points
Activity: So since we had the day off, we decided to head out to FSU’s awesome outdoor facility called the Rez (yes, short for the Reservation) for some paddleboarding and kayaking, or that’s what we had planned for at least…So since I’m a staff member, it’s $10/hour to rent a paddleboard, which is super reasonable and I was willing to pay it.
Well, for some stupid reason, they only took cash. They use a computer system to check in and out equipment, but they don’t have the power to take debit. I wouldn’t have been so disappointed about it, but they didn’t mention that on their website. So since we had already paid to get in, we decided to play a round of frisbee golf out there which was actually a lot of fun! It was a relatively easy little 9 hole course through the woods. It ended up being a pretty awesome trip! I’ll just bring cash next time…;)

Lunch: For lunch, we just made some simple sandwiches and just relaxed around the house. 13 points

Snack: While we were watching Goldeneye (aka the inspiration for the best video game ever (yes, ever) created) I had some light brie from Trader Joe’s and some water crackers. It’s easily my favorite afternoon snack! Oh yeah, and I even weighed my brie to get an accurate amount. That’s a non-scale victory…kind of…I guess that uses a scale so I’m not sure if that counts….5 points

Dinner: So last week, Megan and I had some pretty big ideas about what we were going to cook today. We were thinking about smoking ribs, maybe grilling steaks, or something delicious and monstrous like that. No matter what we were going to make, it was going to be unhealthy and plentiful. Now, it’s no secret that we love cooking. It’s something that we love to do as a couple, but in this case, it was going to be a meal that was going to take up most of our day. When we were buying food for dinner tonight, I told Megan “I don’t want the rest of our day just to be about food.” That was a really big deal for me! I knew that eating healthy needed to be a priority for me today so I made it one! It felt good to put my health ahead of my tastebuds. Win one for the FFK!
Anyway, we had some Johnsonville brats with potatoes and sour cream. It was a delicious 21 points!

Today, I got to about 49 points out of my 48. Win!
So this week, I’m starting my Start to Fitness workout class again! I’m so flippin stoked. Between that and my new swimming regimen thrown in there, (oh yeah, when we were at the beach yesterday, I did some laps in the open gulf. That was awesome!) I can tell good things are on the horizon :). See ya tomorrow.

Day 22: Weigh In Day!

Posted on May 25, 2014 by theffkid

Hello kids!
I’m still reeling from a long day at the beach and an epic season finale (except back in my day, 7 episodes did not a season make…) so I’ll keep this brief!
This week, I started swimming and was overall pretty active. However, my eating wasn’t always the best. I started strong, but I let life get in the way and used it as an excuse to eat bad food. What I’m slowly learning is that you really can’t out-exercise bad eating. I’ve heard that for a long time, but I never really took it to heart. Now, I’m a firm believer and I’ve learned my lesson. With that being said, I lost 1.6 pounds this week! I’m still in the 250’s, which I am not thrilled about at all, but I’m slooooowly getting there! That’s the only way I can look at it to keep it going. Slow and steady right?

So, elephant in the ~~room~~ blog, I haven’t been posting my food like I said I would for a while. Well, that’s about to change…starting tomorrow! I am sick of being at this weight and I’M READY TO HIT MY FREAKIN’ GOAL!!!! Like I’ve said recently, I am the most active I’ve ever been and my eating is close to being on track. It’s time to get it all going and to treat my body the way it deserves to be treated. Get stoked for awesomeness. See ya tomorrow.

P.S. This is a cute kitten.

Trying to Get it All Aligned

Posted on April 6, 2014 by theffkid

“When the mooooooooooooon is in the seventh house
and Jupiterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr lines with Mars…“

Wait…that’s not what I mean…

You hear it all the time “get fit in the gym, lose weight in the kitchen.” While I have fought with this notion for a long time, I’ve seen how true it really is through out my weight loss journey. With that, it’s been easy to have one component of that statement down and have the other one completely lopsided.When I lost my first 100 pounds, my eating was at the forefront of this journey. Sure I worked out, but making smart decisions helped peel off the weight. Some time after that, I lost sight of that. I got caught up in the fitness side a little too much and it seemed to throw me off because I didn’t know how to refuel properly with my eating. Then, I started training for my first half marathon which kind of put my weight loss dead in the water because, contrary to popular belief, you don’t always lose weight when you train for long distance races like half marathons. So right now, I’m not training for a specific race. I’ve put on about 15 pounds since December so I want to get that off ASAP to get my weight loss momentum going.

Since I’ve been working out regularly, usually a combination of running and circuit training classes 3-5 times a week, I feel awesome and actually strong for the first time in close to forever. In the past, I’ve been quick to beat myself up when I want to go work out in the “bro den” (the part of the gym that has free weights, benches, awkward grunting) because I don’t feel like I belong. But how can I make progress if I don’t work out in there? (I’m going to talk about more on that in a post I’m working on. Stay tuned.) Anyway, the point is that good things are happening. After working out regularly like this for the past ten weeks, it would be really hard to stop. I just love it too much!

So now that I’m in such an awesome place with my fitness, I’m really working to change my eating. I’m eating fruits and veggies like they’re going out of style and I’m incredibly intentional about drinking water (#alltheclearpee).

But I’m not perfect…
Can I still pound down a bag of potato chips? Yessir.
Do I hoard candy sometimes like those spoiled brats in Willie Wonka? Sure do.
But…Do I immediately regret it? Now more than ever.

I really hate that feeling of regret after a mini-binge, so I’ve been trying to combat that with just abstaining as much as I can. I tell myself that I won’t miss it in 5 minutes because all they are are just impulses. For example, we walked by a cupcake store in Tallahassee and I thought I really wanted one.

I knew I had two options:
1) Keep walking and go on with my day
or
2) Go in, spend money on a dessert that I’m generally kind of ambivalent towards, and then sulk because I could have spent those Weight Watchers points on bacon.

So, I’m making progress with my eating! I really feel like I’m on the verge of everything lining up for some serious weight loss awesomeness.

Speaking of weight loss…

I lost 2.8 pounds this week! After losing 3 pounds or so two weeks ago, I gained it back last week. (Between kidney stones and traveling, the MacDonalds have been a little cray…) This week, I wasn’t perfect at all. In fact (and if you try to troll me on this, so help me…) I had McDonald’s for the first time since we’ve lived in Tallahassee. I drove to Jacksonville twice this week and I really needed some coffee and breakfast. So, I had an Egg McMuffin and a hash brown. It was 12 points. I counted it and I moved on. I also ate at Hardee’s for breakfast one day and I counted it too. So I wasn’t perfect, but I counted my points and I exercised to bring balance to the Weight Watchers force. This past week was once again proof that when you count regardless and exercise, everything will fall into place.

First Weigh In Post In A While

Posted on March 23, 2014 by theffkid

Soooooooo…

This used to be a thing. Back in the days of yore when I would post daily in a food journal format, I would also post my weigh ins on Sundays. Since I’ve made some changes to the format (call it, FFK 2.0) I have stopped doing that. Why? A healthy cocktail of laziness, poor time management and just being exhausted sometimes. I really liked posting weight (no really) because it gave me some accountability through out the week.

Then…life got cray.

We joined WW in July and after that, I had my weight in my app for internal keeping. I would post it occasionally, but it wasn’t consistent. Then my new job also got cray and my weighing just went on the back burner. Going in to Weight Watchers on Saturday mornings to find out I had gained was like a guiltier version of church. At WW, it felt like I had to care that I was gaining and losing, but I was just too exhausted to care. But that’s all in the past! Now, I’m back to my trusty scale that has seen me through it all. I finally feels like my weight loss is aligning back to how it once was.

So on to this week…

So this week, I was pretty good! I tracked the majority of my points and I exercised a lot. For the first time in almost ever, I was smart with my snacking! I packed low point snacks and was sure to throw in a lot of fruits and veggies too!

I wasn’t sure if it was going to translate on the scale, but I realized that there was no use worrying about it. Regardless of the number, I knew that I has established some great habits that are serving as a foundation towards successful weight loss!

#FFKWIN

So it all paid off!

I was shocked this morning when I got on the scale! I mean, yeah I was good for most of the week, but I also ate a lot of pizza on Monday night and on Friday night we made massive burgers topped with poblano peppers and guacamole (#yum) so it easily could have gone another way. But the rest of my week was in check, giving room to actually use my weekly points for what they are intended to be used for!

So today I was a little over my points. Megan and I made some delicious red beans and rice (check out a delicious NSFWW (Not Safe For Weight Watchers) photo here) that wasn’t entirely WW friendly, but the rest of our week is planned out. No matter what the scale says next week, I’m definitely on the right track!

In other news, my bracket is…

~~broken~~

~~fractured~~

~~busted~~

~~demolished~~

~~shattered~~

~~disintegrated~~

~~mutilated~~

eviscerated.

How about you?

‘Biggest Loser’ Winner Rachel Frederickson Admits She May Have Gone Too Far

Posted on February 12, 2014 by theffkid

Interesting update to Rachelgate2014. At least she admitted that she might have taken her regimen a little too far. Hopefully she truly believes that and is not just saying it to save face. Thoughts?

(You can check out my original response to the Biggest Loser finale here.)

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 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.

My Top 5 Favorite Things From #FLBlogCon13

Posted on October 6, 2013 by theffkid

Why hello, dear reader!

I know my posts have been a little random as of late, but I am working on trying to change that. This blog has been kind of a ball of malleable goo ever since I first posted about how weird I thought Taco Bell salsa packets were. (You can read that gem of a post right here!) The FFK blog has gone from obscure to food journal to posts about running to periods of silence to serious posts about issues like binging. I have to admit, I have been in a bit of a funk when it comes to blogging. In fact, my life has been in kind of a funk for a while. I have been frustrated with my lack of progress and frankly I have had really bad body image issues. Thankfully, I have been blessed with a wife who has been there for me through better and worse. Yesterday, I realized that I really have come a long way and I shouldn’t let myself get in the way of my own success. After I came to that realization, I felt free of that burden and frustration that I have been towing around for the past couple of months. I’m ready to make some serious progress with my health and to look to more than the scale for milestones of success. The Kid is back!

So you’re probably wondering what any of that has to do with the title of this post. Well, the impetus of this revelation started when I went to the Florida Blogger & Social Media Conference in late September in Orlando at Full Sail University. I didn’t know much about FLBlogCon before I signed up, but I knew some of my blogging heroes were going to be there and I knew that I wanted to take my blogging to the next level. The one-day conference was absolutely phenomenal and I can’t wait to go back and back and back and…well, you get the idea. So without further adieu, here are my top favorite things about FLBlogCon13!

No. 1 The Surprises
So yeah, I won a trip to the Bahamas in the first 30 minutes of the conference. Not a bad way to get things going.
Before Pat Williams, the opening keynote, took to the stage, Bahama Breeze spoke about their upcoming #Rumtoberfest extravaganza along with their other specials going on. Growing up, Bahama Breeze was always a must-eat wherever we were. My mom was kinda obsessed. Anyway, so then they were giving away three trips to the Breezes Bahamas resort right then and to look under our seat for a lizard. Well look what I found…

Why hello, little lizard!

I kind of lost it. I was ridiculously shocked. I tried to take a picture of the audience when I got up there, but I was too shaky for me to even take it. The craziest part about it was that I was sitting a row back before the conference started, but then I thought “I should sit a little closer to the stage.” And I did. And I won a trip to the Bahamas. Megan and I are looking at going in May. I can’t wait. Thanks for the awesome trip, Bahama Breeze!

No. 2 The Friends

Hooray for ridiculously awesome improv photos

Like I said before, there were a few bloggers there that I have been digital friends with for a long time. One of the first blogs I came across when I first started my weight loss journey was Katy Widrick’s blog. For a long time, especially in my formative weight loss years, Katy was the facilitator of Fitblog Chat, an Twitter chat where weight loss/health bloggers like me could talk about everything from eating issues to what kind of running shoes to buy. It got me through some pretty hard times. Anyway, I went to Katy’s session and then I went to talk to her, not 100% sure if she knew who I was. After she was done talking to someone, she turned to me a screamed “AAAAAHHHH YOU’RE HERE!!!” It was pretty awesome. We talked for a while about pretty much everything. It was just awesome to see one of my online buddies in real life!

Then later on, I saw another online buddy!

When I was waiting in line for lunch, I turned back and saw my friend Nanci Cernak from This Crazy Life of Mine! Nanci and I are online running buddies who always like each other’s running pics on Instagram. I ate an awesome lunch of shrimp and grits from Bahama Breeze with her and her husband Mike. It was awesome to catch up with her! It was so exciting to see familiar faces. I’m not sure how I’m going to be able to handle Fitbloggin’ next June in Savannah. I might just pass out from being completely starblogshocked.

No. 3 The Swag
One thing I didn’t was how much swag we were going to get! I came home with two bags full of stuff from a shirt from Ford to a spatula from Florida Dairy Farmers! I paid to get a swanky new head shot from Macbeth Photography! (I know, I know, I should have worn a bow tie…)

No. 4 The Food
Let me tell you about the food!!! IT WAS AWESOME! When I first walked in, there was a yogurt bar provided by the Florida Dairy Farmers (well, I mean they’re weren’t actual farmers there…but you get the idea.) Anyway, I made a serious parfait with chocolate chip and raspberries. It was epic and filling. Later on in the day, they brought out a freezer full of Blue Bell ice cream bars. It was magical.

Then, I went over to the coffee station of deliciousness. They were making coffee about a million different ways. Each one more delicious than the next. I became close friends with them and their Kenya AA blend. They were also giving away they brew to go packs that you just add to water and ice iced coffee packs. I can’t wait to try it out! Thanks Barnie’s for some legend-wait for it-dary coffee!

Oh yeah, Ford put on an amazing after party in the back lot area of Full Sail. One of the many stations involved mini cupcakes from Gigi’s Cupcakes. After the Banana’s Foster and the S’mores cupcakes, I went in to a sugar coma. They were that awesome.

No. 5 The Sessions
Now for the reason I went: the sessions! I have been blessed that my passions and my job almost completely align with one another. While I did go to this conference for my blog, there were a couple of sessions that bled that applied both to my academic interests and what I do at the Center.

The first session was “Media Kits: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” by my friend Katy! She provided some great examples of how to, and how not to, put together a media kit for your blog, which essential for the business side of blogging. I knew how to do this from my PR classes in undergrad, but it was awesome to see it in action. Katy is also a producer so she has experience from both sides of the process. Can’t wait to put mine together!

The second session was about the communication law side of blogging and the important of being upfront and honest about when you are advertising with a post. If you do that, be sure to use a hashtag like #ad or #sponsored so the reader is aware. This is also important in blog posts too!

After lunch, there was a bonus session. I was planning on yoga outside, but it was ridiculously hot and I was full of delicious food from Bahama Breeze (that was not an ad. It’s just a fact that Bahama Breeze has delicious food.) so I went in to the Google Glass sessions. One of the session leaders actually worked for Disney. He said that he had been on all the rides and had recorded the ride with his Google Glass. I left early, but they evidently let people try them out. Easily the only fail of the day. But I figured one day Google will take over the earth like Skynet and I’ll be forced to wear them at that point anyway since we will all be half cyborg half slave to the almighty Google Master. (I guess that’s one way to look at it…)

Anyway, the third session was one that you would usually have to pay a lot of money to go to: “Social Media Tips From A Ford Brand Strategist.” Karen Untereker is the U.S. Social Media Manager from Ford aka the ultimate social media job. She explained Ford’s grassroot/user-content driven campaign for the new Ford Fiesta. Ford gave the Fiesta to about 100 Gen Y’s and had them document their experience socially while completing certain “missions.” She showed some of the user-generated content that, according to here, was better than anything they could have come with on their own. It was amazing that Ford gave the users so much control. But they knew that letting go of control in this realm would have positive outcomes. The one thing that surprised me the most about this case study was that the corporate executives were on board throughout the whole process. They were willing to give this a go and it paid off. I was incredibly impressed with this session and how Ford is such an innovator in the social realm. I guess the only criticism I would have is that I was the target market for this campaign and I didn’t know about it. Now, just because I didn’t know about it doesn’t mean that it wasn’t effective. But it emphasizes the important for the integrated marketing model where different methods and channels are being used to create awareness. An example of this would be an engaging TV ad that encourages me to get online and check out the campaign. Ford has done their research, so they would know that I have multiple screens at my disposal while I’m seeing this TV ad. Anyway, I just completely nerded out on you. All in all, it was a pretty freakin’ awesome session that made me miss my ’73 Ford truck “Ol’ Red” that sounded like the apocalypse. I miss that beast of a thing…

Moving on…

After a session about how Full Sail University uses their social media, which was applicable to every job I’ve had at FSU, I went to this amazing session called “The Business of Blogging: Building Relationships With Brands” which was presented by three very successful Latina bloggers including Yadira Ambert of El Club de las Divas. They talked about how to reach out to brands by utilizing the strengths of your blog. Their case studies involved International Delights coffee and a blogging event for the Hispanic community for McDonald’s. They went through the process step-by-step. They had some great suggestions that I hadn’t thought of like quantifying your outreach and then creating a presentation to send to the brand. Since my focus in grad school was multicultural marketing and I did a paper analyzing the potential to market to Hispanics through social media, I nerded out again with some questions about Latina bloggers and the use of Spanish, code switching and Spanglish in blogs and how brands react to that. It was a great final session!

So this conference pretty much knocked my socks off. Bess Auer and her team put on an amazing conference that completely recharged me. I can’t wait to go back next year. I laid out some personal blogging goals for myself after the conference that I want to achieved before FLBlogCon14.

Also during that trip, I hung out with my awesome sister Brittany and I stayed with my friend Alex! Thanks for an awesome time too!

Oh yeah, then I went to Magic Kingdom and acted like a weirdo on Space Mountain.
See ya soon.

Eating Local and Other Things

Aside

Why hello, dear reader!

I would like to tell you that I am out of this weird weight loss/blogging funk that I have been in, but I would be lying. I really have no clue what’s up. Luckily, I think things are starting to slow down at work (or if anything, reach a normal pace) so that should help with the blogging and such. Where I have been lacking in writing, I have been making it up with exercising! I have been working since the beginning of the month to to active for at least an hour a day. Even if I’m not getting ripped, I just feel better. It’s been a great way just to decompress from the day. Like tonight, instead of watching a two-hour block of Seinfeld, I went for a walk in the nature trail behind our house. It felt amazing to just reflect on the day and think about my goals, both weight loss related and not weight loss related.

Weight Loss Update
So this past week, I did my share of scale peeking. I checked out the scale every morning. It didn’t help me at all, it just made by Saturday morning full of angst and frustration. Then, I got on the scale at Weight Watchers and I had lost 1.6 pounds this week! I’m still a little that I’m the 230’s again, but I’m getting there. I’m okay with being patient as long as I’m making progress. Not just with the scale, but with my actions as well.

With that all being said, I had a pretty epic and brunchtastic cheat day on Sunday. I’m still kind of reeling from eating all the things. I’m definitely working on self control. To help recover from the week, I have decided to stay out of my weekly points as much as possible. I still have Activity Points if I need them (all the more reason to exercise this week.)

Weekends are going to be a challenge from here on in because it is FOOTBALL SEASON!!! Tailgating is about eating all the things. It will be a challenge, but I have been able to handle it in the past. Why should it be any different now?

So Nathan, what’s this whole “eating local” thing you’re talking about?
Great question!
So over the past (almost) three years, we have tried to make the shift towards eating organic more produce and meat. For me, it’s more than the avoidance of using antibiotics and pesticides, it just flat out tastes better and when it tastes better, you’re going to eat it!
One thing we love about living in Tallahassee is the amazing system of farmers markets. We can get in-season Georgia peaches, fall squash and even grass-fed beef for about the same price of regular beef at the supermarket! This week, we took our locavoring a step further by joining a community farm share. Before you ask, no, we are not joining some farming commune where we recycle our own toilet paper. Simply put, we paid for three months worth of locally grown fruits and veggies from organic farms around the area. Every other week, we will go to the farmers market and pick up a reusable bag full of deliciousness. What’s in it, you ask? It depends on the season!

Here is our spread for this week. Some of it you might recognize, some you might not.
This week, we had:

Eggplant (Orchard Pond Organics)

Okra (Orchard Pond Organics)

Sweet Potato Greens (Orchard Pond Organics)

Basil (Orchard Pond Organics)

Muscadine Grapes (Ladybrid Organics, Monticello,FL)

Bell Pepper (Orchard Pond Organics)

Along with: Avocados, Gala Apples, Pears, Nectarine and Pluots

The fun part of this farm share is that it forces you to try new things like Muscadine grapes (a sour fruit that is usually turned into a preserve) and sweet potato greens (which you cook with oil like collard greens). I love a good challenge.

When I opened the bag and saw okra, I thought “we have to pickle these!!!” So we got on the interwebs, found a pickling recipe and got to work! We also added a sliced jalapeno (also from the farmers market) and some garlic cloves to give the okra a little more flavor. They are delciously hot and it was soooooo easy! It’s just another great way to have fun with your food and to appreciate where our food actually comes from.

So that has been my week. I’m running a 5k tomorrow night to support the FSU College of Criminology & Criminal Justice and their efforts to raise money for a fallen officer memorial on campus. Should be a blast! Oh, and hot. See ya later.

Back on Track

Posted on August 6, 2013 by theffkid

Why hello everyone!

So I haven’t been posting because my family has been in town and I’ve been at Disney for the past few days. It was such a blast and a blessing being with my parents and sister! It has been too long!

This trip definitely felt more like a vacation than past Disney trips: we were staying on property (in the freakin’ Polynesian!!!!!), we ate in the parks and I was in the “I’m going to treat myself” mode from the first meal on. If I did anything right on this trip, it was that I found the closest Weight Watchers location (which is super close) and weighed in on Saturday like I would any other Saturday morning. It kept me accountable, so even if I did overindulge on a cookie or three, I was in the mindset of how could make better decisions at the next meal. I did have access to free fruit all weekend which was awesome (club level yo!) so I took full advantage of that. Then…we walked all the miles and we swam in all the pools (not to mention going up all the stairs to get to the water slide. My Dad and I easily went on the slide 15+ times.)

I think if I would do it over again, I would have:

stuck with my snacks of celery and peanut butter
ate more dry salad before every meal (which I did the first day. Via Napoli in the Italy Pavilion has an amazing family salad…but they also have pizza made of crack and unicorn tears)
did a little morning cardio or something to pad the ol’ activity points
and limited myself to one splurge meal a day instead of splurging a little each meal

I absolutely do not regret how I did because it was a vacation and sometimes you have to splurge to get back to where you need to be. With that being said, you have to be okay with the consequences, good or bad.

When I was driving back to the resort before the sun came up on Saturday, I realized how much I really do want to reach my goal. For a long time, I have been just letting myself plateau while making some progress here and there. What I know is that I like seeing the scale going down. So I’m back on track and ready for action. Wednesday’s post will be full of Disney photos and a video announcing our Earth Fare winners! See ya tomorrow.