Category Archives: Frater Sodalis

Day 548: Monday With Things And Stuff Edition

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I have no clue how my bracket turned out, but I’m sure it was bad. All I know is that Anthony Davis has a legit unibrow. Thanks for making it popular again bro. Now I can stop plucking mine every morning.

So this morning, I got on the scale and I was down to 235.7, which was way more than my 237 yesterday. It’s so weird how your weight fluctuates like that, and I think it supports my theory that your body doesn’t respond to an intense workout until the day after next. That would make sense because I was incredibly sore on Sunday from my Saturday SAWSathon with Joe the Trainer. Anyway, I don’t know what the scale will hold for me this week, but either way I feel awesome right now. Obviously I’m ready to lose more weight, but I think back to how life was at 357 compared to now and just my quality of life has improved drastically. I know I don’t say this enough, but if you are thinking about changing your life for the better, do it. I will always support you.

Alright where were we?

Breakfast: This morning, I went with the classic wafflewich with banana. I bought some new peanut butter yesterday and it seems like the first scoop of peanut butter out of a new jar is always the best. It that just me? Oh well. So between that and a cup of Starbucks Blonde, it was a good morning.

Lunch: Yesterday, I got a Lean Cuisine because they were on sale at Publix. I always like diet food that feels like your cheating, so I bought the sweet and sour chicken. It was amazing! I was really impressed with not only how filling but also how DELICIOUS it was! Well done Lean Cuisine. Well done. (Sorry for no pic. I was too busy eating to look for my iPhone.)

Snack: I had some delicious animal crackers. Yumtastic.

Dinner: (Finally a picture!) Tonight, we cooked up a frozen margherita pizza from Publix. We even added some fresh basil from our little herb garden! We both agreed that the Publix Greenwise pizzas are definitely better than the Kashi pizzas so take that for what it’s worth.

After dinner, I had some popcorn and some chips and salsa. Yumness.

So that was about it for today. Overall not too bad. I will now leave you with this parting shot of Doak Campbell at Florida State. Such a beautiful campus. See ya tomorrow.

Day 547: April Fools Weigh In!

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Gather ’round young children and hear the tale of The Fotographing Fat Kid!

Okay, I’m back. It was a very long and stressful week; sadly the fun has just begun. I am now on the homestretch of grad school. 28 days until I walk across the stage (I wonder who my commencement speaker will be… I’m hoping for Oprah or Al Roker. OR the greatest Seminole of them all: Burt Reynolds.) Anyway, there is a lot to do in 40,320 minutes and it is going to be a strain on my weight loss. Have you may have noticed (for those of you who are doing content analyses on my eating habits) I have eaten out a crapton the past few weeks which may have been to the lack of counting points. Well, my awesome dietary architect of wife has created a two week rotation of meals to cook to minimize the amount of eating out ergo better use of points ergo more weight loss! Hooray! As you’ll see in a bit, we know how to cook delicious comfort food for less calories. (All the comfort food without the greasy Southern Old Woman taste)

So I was actually not too bad this week. Dare I say I was good. But I think my intense Saturday morning workouts are skewing my weigh in numbers a little bit. Yesterday I actually cramped up in the middle of a station of the circuit I was doing. Joe the Trainer said I need to rehydrate more. It was shocking because I have always been the promoter of clear pee, but I guess I need to work on that. Anyway, whether that’s the case I don’t know, but what I do know is that I had a body comp test done on Thursday and I found out that I only have a 23.8% body fat count! Last semester I was at 33%! 23.8% is like borderline obese/acceptable! It feels so great to be far away from morbidly obese. This is so awesome! Finding that out gave me a lot of confidence to keep at it this week. Although my quads and glutes are more sore than ever, I have did awesome things for my body this week and I’m going to keep that trend alive! OKAY! So back to the weigh in, I lost 1 pound exactly. I’ll definitely take a loss and I almost made up for last week’s gain (by .2. Close enough) So now I’m back to 120 pounds lost. It’s a pretty awesome feeling. If I could get to 125 pounds lost by graduation I would flip. April is going to be a month of work. No foolin’.

Breakfast: this morning I had two waffles and a little peanut butter. Then at church, my good pal Julie made some delicious pumpkin muffins so I had two. They were epic! Thanks for being awesome Julie!

Lunch: So the plan was to go home and eat leftovers, but since we haven’t been to the grocery store in a while, we didn’t have any leftovers to eat. So instead, we ended up going to Bandido’s for lunch since it is about as cheap as eating at home. I had the chicken burrito with their legendary chips and salsa. They are even more cheap from 4:20-7:20 everyday when they have $1 tacos that are the size of your head. Today I realized that I need to start eating like I am 235 and not 275. I’m still eating the same portion sizes that I was half a year ago. They way my diet is, I should be able to eat two tacos and be fine because that’s within my points. Has anyone else had that issue when they have lost weight?

Snack: Megan made homemade lattes and then after grocery shopping she made pineapple floats (just like at Magic Kingdom! I’M SOOOO READY TO GO TO DISNEY WORLD AGAIN!!!!) She is awesome.

Dinner: Tonight, Megan made the Oven “Fried” Chicken out of the WW cookbook with some mashed potatoes and brussel sprouts (which is a new favorite in the MacDonald household.) Anyway, all April Fooling aside, it may have been the best meal I have ever eaten (except for when we went to The Salt Lick with my parents and our awesome friends Scott and Tabitha last June. Sorry Megan, but you know thatTexas BBQ will always be the great equalizer in our marriage.) The chicken was perfectly not-fried-but-tasted-fried, the mashed potatoes had the perfect amount of lumpiness and the brussel sprouts were cooked to perfection. AND IT WAS A FREAKIN’ DIET MEAL! Everything was light! For those of you who think you have to sacrifice taste for calories, you are dead wrong. While you do have to get creative every once in a while, the benefits are astronomical.

So that’s all I have for tonight. It was a rejuvenating Sunday for my weight loss journey and for me. It’s a new week with new obstacles. Bring it on. See ya tomorrow.

Day 541: Redemption Monday

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So yesterday was bad. I ate 4 bowls of cereal and 3 slices of pizza. It was rough. I’m not really sure what the deal was. Today, I knew that I needed to do better. And. I. Rocked. It!!!!

I was really proud of how I did. It’s proof that you can have bad days in your weight loss journey (they are bound to happen) and then you can bounce right back and do well the next day. My advice is to let yourself be a little wompy, then brush that dirt off your shoulder, and get back at it! Alright, let’s talk food.

Breakfast: I was running a little late this morning, so I threw two waffles in the toaster and well all nom nom on them on the way to work. They were only 3 points. It was a surprisingly filling breakfast. It held me over for at least a couple of hours which was impressive because I was full as I usually am with a 7 point breakfast. I really need to figure out my breakfast plan of attack. Maybe more fruits like bananas…

Lunch: So here is where the real turning point of the day weight loss wise happened. I didn’t bring a lunch with me and I had already been up to the vending machine in Westcott (it’s really hidden, like the Secret Garden, except without the sick kid) and bought a granola bar. I knew if that was my going to be my only lunch, I would end up eating something I would regret later in the day. So, I got on the Jimmy John’s website, took a look at their sandwich builder thingy, and started to play around to find a sandwich that wouldn’t dominate my points and/or my waistline. I came across the Turkey Tom which, without the mayo, is really low in fat! I decided to add their avocado spread for my condiment and went with that. It was only 331 calories and 1.5 grams of fat! That was only 7 points! Way better than what I usually get there and I was just as full. If you go to Jimmy John’s, definitely play around with their sandwich builder. You will be shocked the difference a few simple modifications will do to cut your calories. (The mayo alone is 193 calories and 21 grams of fat!)

 

 

Snack: I ended up eating that granola bar this afternoon because I was going to eat dinner until around 8ish. It held me over really well. In answer to your question, yes, this was taken in class and yes, I was caught by Deborah and Lauren when I was taking it. You caught me girls!4 points.

Snack: Before I started dinner, I had a small bowl of corn flakes. At that point I was pretty hungry. Am I the only one who likes their corn flakes a little soggy? Not mushy, but to the point the wet to crunchy ratio is high? Just curious. 3 points.

 

 

 

Dinner: Tonight, Megan taught me how to make that delicious Creamy Stovetop Mac n’ Cheese that she makes every once in a while! When we were at World Market last week (aka our second home) I found these Adventures of TinTin pasta that were shaped like different forms of transportation. The giant bag was on clearance for 75 cents so I had to get it! So, if you were like me growing up (yes, I am only talking to those who were obese children who lived on the snowy plains of Canada) our family didn’t get the mac n’ cheese shaped like cool things. We were an elbow family. In fact, come to think of it, the only time I can remember eating cool-shaped mac n’ cheese was when we went to our friend’s house and they had Mario shaped noodles. It’s incredibly sad that I still remember that. I’m making it sound like I grew up in the book Angela’s Ashes. What the crap am I talking about? Oh yeah… ANYWAY! We made our mac n’ cheese with the cool shapes and I felt like a kid again. It was just as good as I always imagined. For a serving and a half and a glass of dark chocolate almond milk, dinner was 11 points.

So that was today. I got to 28 points exactly! Hooray! I’m back on track, and it feels great. See ya tomorrow.

 

Day 539: Saturday Soreness

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I’m sore. My body feels like lead. Know why I don’t mind? Because it’s not from carrying around 357 pounds. Boom.

(I should just stop right there, the post is all downhill from here…)

Hello!

I’m super sorry I didn’t post on Thursday and Friday. On Thursday, I hadanotherfriend that I haven’t seen in nine years come through and stay with a mutual friend! (If you ever want people to come visit you, move to Florida. Lie and tell them you’ll take them to the beach where they can swim on some dolphins.) Anyway, so on Friday we randomly ended up going to a late IMAX showing of the Hunger Games. The movie was really good, it stuck really close to the books overall, but the cinematography gave me really bad motion sickness. Little known fact about me, I left the theater when I sawCloverfieldclose to 10 times because I thought I was going to die. I still don’t know what that movie is about, a large parrot or something?

SO… With that all being said, today was pretty good! Had a killer workout this morning and then did homework by the pool. Pretty hard to beat… although I do miss winter, since it didn’t exist this year. I blame Al Gore.

Breakfast: Before this morning’s training session, I had a wafflewich. It’s good, and it’s good for you! (Name that movie.)

SAWS!: So Megan and I have personal training at the same time on Saturdays. When we got to Leach this morning, we found out that Joe and Megan’s trainer Greg decided to pair up today for a cardio circuit of doom. The circuit included: ropes, medicine ball slams, chest presses with resistance bands and last but certainly not least: box jumps. Today, I did my first ever box jump… ever. I was in athletics for 6 years and I was never able to do them. Joe the Trainer, being the shaman of swagger that he is, kept reminding me that it was all mental. Then I did one, then another, then another, then another… well you get the idea. After four rotations of that, (yeah, we weren’t done after that…) we did abs. My favorite. Ab crunches on a ball, ab twists, and then planks. It was beastly. After we were done, we both felt awesome.

Lunch: Needless to say that after that fun mess, we were hungry. So later we decided to go to Earth Fare for lunch! They have an awesome lunch deal: half a sandwich, a cup of soup and a bowl of fruit for $5! Today I had their ultimate grilled cheese that had brie, pamento, and some other delicious dairy, a cup of tomato basil soup and a great bowl of strawberries and pineapple. I know I’ve said this before, but if you want to convert to organic but are still skeptical, smell and eat organic fruit compared to conventional. The difference is ridiculous.

 

 

Dinner: Tonight, I fired up the grill for some grilled chicken and veggie awesomeness. We bought some chicken thighs, seasoned them with a few special ingredients and then threw them on the grill along with some veggies. If you are a grillmaster apprentice like me and you want to cook veggies, I would suggest a nifty basket like mine. I have the Kingsford version and it has held up really well since I bought it!

So today was a pretty good Saturday. School and life are about to get interesting, so the calm before the storm is kind of nice. Tomorrow is weigh in. It has been an uneven week, but if anything, next week will be better. No matter what the scale says, I worked out super hard four times this week which is better than I have been. There is definitely some to be said for that. See ya tomorrow.

Day 536: Tuesday Tiredness

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It has been an exhausting day. It’s crazy that graduation is so close and there is so much to do before then so it’s starting to take its toll. With all of this stress comes the urge to emotionally eat. No matter how much weight I lose, eating my feelings always has, and will always be, a struggle for me. Sometimes just a big plate of food (such as a delicious plate of nachos… FORESHADOWING???) is what you want. It’s tough, but not a killer. What I’m learning is that you can make modifications to your favorite pig out foods. It’s an adjustment, but worth it!

Breakfast: I went to Subway like I usually do on Tuesdays and Thursdays and went to town on my Bacon, egg and cheese on an english muffin. It was fantastic as always and I at least know that was 4 points. I also went to Atomic and a Thai Iced Coffee. It has half anf half, sugar, and some spices. I skipped on the whip cream. Basically it was a an iced coffee with cream and sugar. That being said I’m still not sure how many points it was. Breakfast was about 7 points 

Lunch: I went to 501 Cafe for their delicious curried chicken sandwhich. It is the best sandwich in Tallahassee. The only way for you to know is to try it yourself. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!?! GO THERE NOW! With chips, lunch was about 10 points.

Snack: I had some chips and salsa. 3 points.

 

 

 

 

Dinner: The prophecy of the nachos has been fortold! Yeah, I had some nachos for dinner. The plan was to have mac n cheese, but neither of us had the energy to cook. So, I popped some chips in the oven with some cheese. Luckily, it was mostly crumbs so the points went further, in a way. Anyway, I put a 100 calorie pack of guac on there and some black beans. It was epic. It was about 12 points (6 points for chips, 2 for the guac, 2 for the black beans and 2 for the cheese). I know these are kind of an approximation, but I know I’m pretty close. I know nachos look bad, but I didn’t have steak on it or anything like that. Considering the situation, it could have been much worse, but these small changes are what make the difference yo!

So today I got to 32 points. Four points over. It is what it is. If anything, I have been able to cut down my grazing which is a huge thing! See ya tomorrow.

Day 535: Monday Stuff!

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A lot to do. Not much time. Let’s get crackin!

Breakfast: Wafflewich. You know it’s how I roll.

Lunch: I had a little time to go home for lunch today so I went home and hung out with my sick wifey (no bueno.) I had some veggie tenders (Morning Star Chik’n Tenders) and some tomato soup. We also had a little WW sundae. It was epic.

Snack: During class, my friend Lauren brought some brownies for her birthday (Happy Birthday Lauren!) and she offered me on. Not gonna lie, the brownie I had was delicious. The sugar in it kept me awake in class. After class I had chips and salsa. A dieters best friend!

Dinner: We made some penne pasta with the leftover spicy marinara and some ground turkey. It was delicious.

So that’s about it today. I know, intriguing right. That’s my Monday for ya. I’ll be less boring tomorrow (actually, there is no way I can promise that.) See ya tomorrow.

P.S. in lieu of a lackluster post, here is an awesome video I did for my Visual Media class in undergrad. Yeah, I look a little different now… Okay, NOW I’ll see ya tomorrow.

 

Day 534: Weigh In Day!

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First off:

GO NOLES!!!

Alright where was I? Oh yeah, the epic day I had. So I was good pretty much all week and my body was introduced to new and exciting exercises. Sometimes when that happens, your weight can do weird things. This time however, it was a good thing! I lost 3.4 pounds this week! Holla! So what does that mean you ask? Well… plenty. I am now in uncharted waters with weight again. I don’t think I have weighed below 237 yet but I am now. 236.8! (Barely, but who cares?) SO… that means I have officially lost 120 pounds! It’s pretty nuts! I can’t wait to get to 125 soon. That’s going to be epic. Also, today I looked and at this point, I am 30 pounds away from being out of the obese range according to the BMI scale! That’s pretty cool considering I was 150 pounds away from it when I started. Awesome stuff.

Breakfast: I just had a banana because I knew my friend Julie was going to bring breakfast for our class at church. I had one of her sweet rolls. It was probably around 3 points. Then during the sermon, our good friend Chris preached and mentioned my blog. He was talking about accountability and staying the course. I was honored that he mentioned. Thanks for such a great lesson Chris!

Lunch: I didn’t have much time, so Julie, Stacy, Emma and I went to Bandido’s Burritos for lunch. If you may recall, they have THE BEST chips and salsa in Tallahassee. It was epic. I had the chicken burrito with chips and salsa. I’m not sure exactly how many points it was, but with the next paragraph in mind, I was okay with points today.

 

 

 

 

 

SAWS! So the plan was to play racquetball, but the person I was going to play got tied up so I decided I was going to still workout. As I was walking around, I saw Joe the Trainer. He asked me what I was going to do in the gym. Since I had two rough training sessions, I was going to just do my thing on the elliptical. “Don’t do the elliptical” he told me. I thought he was telling me to not overdo it, but instead he told me to do something intense like the bike or something. It was so awesome to be pushed like that! It’s so easy to get complacent in the gym and just do what you are used to. So instead, I did 20 minutes on Stairmaster which is a record for me. My heart was pounding and I was sweating buckets, but it felt so legit! This happenstance of a meeting with Joe reminded me that I need to up my workout game. I’m not 357 anymore! I need to workout like it!

In here somewhere I had some dark chocolate almond milk and popcorn. Yum!

 

 

 

Dinner:Megan is finally home! So I picked her up and we went to… where else? Jason’s Deli! I had the salad bar but they didn’t have light ranch! AAAAHHHH!!!! So instead I had the low cal honey mustard. It was fantastic! It even has a little zing to it! It was a great dinner. (When isn’t it awesome at Jason’s? Except for the time when my dad was at a Jason’s in Waco and the police took down and arrested a person in the parking lot. That’s awesome in a “COPS is still a show?” kind of way.)

So that was my day. It was a pretty epic Sunday. This week is going to be bananas, so it’s going to be important to plan out my meals and at least have eating down to have some structure in my life. Usually when you have that, everything else falls in to place. See ya tomorrow.

 

Day 533: St Patricks Day Edition

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(I was going to have an epic line of Gaelic right here but I couldn’t find a translator… or a leprechaun.)

Today was a pretty good day. Unlike the rest of Tallahassee, I just decided to stay in tonight and watch basketball and stuff about Ireland on PBS. I know, I’m awesome. It also doesn’t help that my arms are incredibly sore from this morning’s workout. More on that in a second…

Breakfast: I actually slept in this morning (which felt amazing. I hate Daylight Savings.) and then woke up a little bit before my second personal training session today. I wanted to have a protein-packed breakfast so I had a wafflewich! Hooray for deliciousness! I packed two tablespoons of peanut butter on that bad boy so it was 7 points.

SAWS Session: So when I first met with Joe, he told me that we would being doing ropes and other fun stuff during the cardio days. I was stoked. I was not disappointed. I started out with a four station circuit with four rotations total. The stations were: squat jumps, slamming ropes (this kind of thing), resistance band pull, and the inverted row (which I have seen on Biggest Loser. Yeah, I actually did this, but with better form.) After that mayhem, which was really hard but thanks to Insanity it was bearable, we did some ab exercises aka my super weakness. I did curls with my legs elevated on a balance ball, rows in a V-position and then plank. On the last set of holding a plank position, I was timed on how long I could hold it. Before that, Joe and I were talking about the mental blocks we have that hold us back when working out. So I really thought about that when I was in the plank. Keep in mind this was the absolutely last thing I had to do that day. I was tired, I was sweaty, but I still had swagger. I got in to the plank position, play Hotel California in my head to block out my thoughts about how tired and awful I felt, and held it for 54 seconds. I felt awesome.

My conversation with Joe about mind over body reminded me of how much more control I have over my mental battle with eating than I used to. When I was big, I would eat no matter what. When I was done with a meal, I would already be planning what I would be eating next. Iletfood control my life. I absolutely didn’t need to eat that much to survive, but that side of my brain had so much control over my life. When I was in the plateau for the past few months, I was creeping back to that. I was okay with eating those fries or eating that cake, because I felt I deserved it. You don’t eat because you’re rewarding yourself. We’re not seals at Sea World, we don’t do tricks for food. We are suppose to eat for survival. Now do I love a good meal with friends or with my wife? Absolutely! But it shouldn’t come at the cost of my health. Anyway, I felt I like I learned a lot about myself today in the gym. I’m in a good place right now.

Lunch: When I got home, I blasted some Floggin’ Molly (after all, it is St. Paddy’s Day!) and made some lunch. I microwaved two Bocca burgers with a little cheese in between and made a delicious double pattie cheeseburger. I also had some Cape Cod chips with a glass of chocolate milk. It was epic and only 8 points!

For a snack I had some chips and salsa. Another delicious 3 points.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner: I was jonesin’ for some protein to reload after the past couple days of new exercises, plus I wanted to eat some of the random stuff in our freezer. Win-Win baby! (My omage to Dick Vitale) So, I cooked up a chicken breast, then boiled some ravioli and topped it with some spicy spaghetti sauce. It was easily the most delicious thing I have ever cooked (except for burgersaurus, remind me to explain in my next video.) Dinner was about19 points.I know a little high, but I could tell my body needed the calories to reload.

So today I got to37 points.I had about 10 workout points so I am good! Not too shabby.

This week was a good for rebuilding. I didn’t crash and burn during the second half of the week like I have been which is super huge. I’m really curious to see what the scale will have to say about it. See ya tomorrow.