Category Archives: Frater Sodalis

Day 617: Chip Reed’s Here Edition

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Why Hello!

I’ll keep this brief tonight, because I have a big day full of awesomeness ahead tomorrow!

Breakfast: I just had toast with a tablespoon of peanut butter. Yumtastic.

Lunch: I had the best leftovers ever for lunch: not fried fried chicken with acre peas! Then I had a rice krispy treat, a serving of almonds and a Special K bar that found deep in the bowels of my lunchbox.

When I got home, I had some cobbler, some lunch meat and a handful of chips. I need to figure out a way to avoid that kind of snack (except the lunchmeat is a really good snack option because it tastes fantastic and it’s super filling!)

 

 

 

 

 

Chip Reed Here:(That’s how he answers his phone because he’s a legend.) One of my good friends from grad school, the legendary Chip Reed, came down from Virginia  for the week. So tonight, we all got together at Alex’s parent’s house for a cookout to catch up and reminisce the good ol’ days of grad school. Alex’s parents made an awesome spread with some delicious fruits and veggies along with Mrs. Swanson’s classic monster cookies! It was a great dinner and I made sure to eat my share of fruits and veggies to fill me up. Awesomeness!

 

So that was it for today. It was a good one. Get ready for an awesome Wordless Wednesday! See ya tomorrow.

Day 616: What A Beastly Monday

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(The Kings just won it. What an awesome series and season of hockey.)

Today has been awesome. I feel like I am back to where I was before my vacation. I might not be down to where I was before (since I just wrote about that yesterday) but it feels like I’m back on the right track and it feels awesome. Alright, let’s talk…

Breakfast: I had two pieces of toast with a tablespoon of peanut butter. I then had a little Dove Chocolate that said “Happiness looks good on you” late at work. Good stuff.

Lunch: I didn’t bring a lunch (which I will start doing again) so I just walked across campus and had Pollo Tropical, which is quite possibly the best on campus restaurant in the nation (hyperbole aside… and except for the Taco Cabana that’s on campus at the University of Texas.) Anyway, usually this comes with a roll, but I immediately threw it away to stave off any temptation of eating it. What an awesome lunch.

The Rundown of the Run… Down: I didn’t run in the morning… and I immediately regretted it. I ran 5 miles this afternoon when it was cooler (cooler being 90-something with a heat index of 8000 degrees.) I found this new trail that goes from my place right on to campus. Anyway, mile 1-3, I was running 10 minute miles exactly, but the heat and the sweat searing my retinas was really getting to me. I also thing I pseudo-strained my left groin muscle a few weeks ago so around mile 3 or so , my body gets mad at me. It totally worth it though, I ran 5 miles in 53:31 and burned 926 calories. I have already gotten some of my running swagger back which is awesome. Last Monday I ran 4 miles in 48:30 so I’m already shaving time off like a boss. SAWS!!!

Dinner of Awesomeness: For dinner, Megan made her awesome not fried fried chicken with squash and acre peas. It was magical. Then, she made this awesome blackberry cobbler from the Pioneer Woman blog. It was perfect with a scoop of Edy’s Slow Churned.

So that’s it for the day. Here’s to another awesome one tomorrow.

My gift to you: the Alabama Shakes. You’re Welcome

Day 615: A Weigh In and Stuff

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I honestly can’t tell you why I haven’t posted at all this week. I want to act like I have a reason like I was starring in the stage production of the movie Cliffhanger or something, but that simply wasn’t the case. Even though last week I had a lot of drive  to lose some weight this week (which I was really good with my food! Honest!) it didn’t happen on the scale. To make matters worse, I realized I’m back up to where I was at Christmas. It’s like I’ve taken one giant step back. I feel like there are certain foods that are particularly hazardous to my weight loss. WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE BBQ!?!   It feels like every time I think it’s okay to splurge a little, the floor caves in. Maybe my addiction to food (well… certain foods) is a lot worse than I think and that I can’t tempt (splurge) myself like that. I used to think that it was okay to eat bad because you can lose it, but I’m now realizing that is much more of a slippery slope than I thought it was. I should have realized that last November when I left for Thanksgiving weighing 235only to gain 8 pounds in 4 days. I worked up until this May to get back down to 235 only to come back from vacation gaining it all back. Weight loss is a fickle thing like that. I am responsible for what I eat and how I treat my body. It’s time to be better to myself. It’s time to break that 235 barrier for good.

Okay… now that I have that off my chest…

I created this blog for accountability with the objective of being completely transparent. I feel that I have failed in that regard. I don’t report the handfuls of this and that that I eat every once in a while which is what really gets you in dieting. So with that being said, I’m going to change the format of the blog up a little bit. The food is going to be more of a list for a while. I’ll still keep my witty banter and what have you, but I need to keep that portion simple for a while. It’s hard to explain, but I need you to go with this for me. And yeah, today I don’t have points up (because Genghis Grill is hard to calculate) but that will also be a part of it once again. I feel like I learned how to ride the bike but then needed the training wheels again so I can re-learn the mechanics of it all. I had a really good thing going for the first hundred pounds, time to keep at it.

So as far as weight loss this week Ilost .2.It’s a bit of a downer, but at this point I’m just glad it wasn’t a gain.

So here is the epicurean rundown of the day:

Breakfast: I had two pieces of toast with 1 tablespoon of peanut butter. Recently, I have been just shellacking my toast with pb which is a caloric code red so no more of that.

Lunch: Today after church, a group of us went to Genghis Grill for lunch. I made a beautifully monstrous bowl that others were jealous of (the old people behind me where ooowing and awwing like it was the world’s largest ball of twine.) I could only stomach half of the bowl and I took the rest home! I also had two pot stickers and two small spoonfuls of vanilla ice cream.

Snack: Later this afternoon, I had a bowl of slow churned coffee ice cream with a small scoop of cookies and cream. Both of them are lower in fat and calories than regular ice cream.

Dinner and Dessert:Since I still had a trough of leftover Genghis left in my fridge, I just had that for dinner. Personally, leftover Genghis (does it sound like I’m talking about eating a guy named Genghis? Man, I need to lay off the bath salts…) is perfect cold with some Asian mustard. Perfection, thy name is leftovers.

For dessert, I cut up two peaches that I got from the farmer’s market on Saturday. South Georgia peaches are amazing, ’nuff said.

Before the underwhelming season finale of Mad Men, I had a serving and a half f chips and salsa. Yum.

So that was it for the day. Pretty cut and dry.

This is going to be a good week. I can feel it. See ya tomorrow.

(P.S. I was just kidding about the bath salts. The Fotographing Fat Kid condemns the use of illegal drugs. Crack is whack kids!)

Day 610: Terrific Tuesday

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So I know yesterday’s post was a little crazy and a little womp wompy, but I am finally out of it. I have changed my outlook on life a little bit to make it more positive. Life will be okay, it always is. Anyway, what made life even better today was I was asked to have my story submitted for this awesome blog Transformation Pics which required, you guessed it, submitting a before and after picture. I came across the picture on the left. I remember when this was taken. On the inside I didn’t think I look that bad, but then I actually saw myself in the photo and what a hot, big mess I was. Little did the Nathan in that photo know that awesome things were on the horizon. At that point, I didn’t know I was going to get in to grad school, I didn’t know I was going to meet certain people in Tallahassee that would make this journey so much better and I didn’t know that losing more than 100 pounds was even possible. All I knew was that life was wide open and in a way, I was looking in to the future. (I was actually just trying to look artsy, but that’s beside the point.) Now, that old me is looking at the new (much lighter) me and he is saying “Keep up the awesome work kid!” I may not be perfect. I still eat a lot of BBQ and I still get tired of counting points, but I have come a long way since then and I feel dang proud of it. Thank you all for the encouragement and the 138 Likes of this picture on Facebook. You all rock.

Well it’s late and I’m going to run a 6 miler tomorrow morning so I need to sleep. Overall, today was pretty normal food wise except for the fantastic pork chops we had at Julie’s house tonight. They were freakin’ fantastic. I’ll post some pictures in tomorrow’s Wordless Wednesday post. See ya tomorrow.

Day 609: A Super Case of the Mondays and a Weigh In Edition

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Have you ever felt like your life is just passing you by? That everything is going in fast forward and you have no control over anything?

That is exactly how I feel this week.

Job hunting is such a waiting game that makes me so frustrated, confused and frankly a little scared.

I know that something will work out and that the right door will someday open up, but in the meantime I am just excerified (yes, that is the combination of excited and terrified.)

With all that being said, I have felt really held back this week. For the first time in a long time, I feel fat. My the button-up shirt I’m wearing is pulling for the first time, I feel lethargic and I abso-freakin-lutely hate it. Well I should feel fat. I deserve to. I somehow gained 14 pounds on my vacation! What the crap? I mean yeah, I did eat a lot of BBQ, I did enjoy myself but 14 pounds? Are you flippin’ kidding me!?!?!?!?!?!?

Well, luckily (and I use that term loosely) a lot of that was retained water, so when I weighed yesterday (sorry about not posting last night. That was wrong and dumb.) I still am up 7.2 pounds from two weeks ago. This is not okay with me. What makes it even worse, I have no one else to blame but myself. I should cut my portion sizes in half, I should have exercised more, I should have done a thousand things differently. But there is nothing I can do it about it now except learn from it and move on. My addiction to bad (but delicious) food is still far from over. I need to keep at it. I have high goals for myself and I aim  to reach them and beyond. Time to get to work.

Breakfast: I had two servings of the always awesome Kashi Go Lean. Awesome and filling.

Lunch: I had the last SmartOne that we had in the freezer. It was okay, but not the best choice. The one delicious thing about lunch was eating cinnamon roasted almonds and biting in to an apple at the same time! It was awesome! It was a symphony of awesomeness in my mouth. Fantasticness.

Snack: I had some chips and a few wasabi peas. Nothing special

Dinner: Tonight we had Uncle Jim’s chili, but better. Last night, Megan soaked the beans instead of using canned. It made all the difference, it wasn’t near as salty as it usually is. It was even better with some rice, some cheese and sour cream, not to mention some fantastic green Tabasco sauce. Yumtastic.

Run Time: A little after dinner, I went on the first run of my 10k training. Tonight was a 4 miler and it was brutal. Thankfully, it wasn’t 97° outside like it was earlier today. The wind was cool and the humidity was low. I ran a new route tonight that I can’t wait to go run again. Like most trails in Tallahassee, it was hilly and beastly. So much sweat and some many calories burned (710 to be exact.) I love running, and even though my time was meh (48:30) it was a stepping stone for a better time soon. At this point, it’s all about building that endurance back up to where it was in the fall.

Oh, and one more thing… celery is awesome.

So that was my day. A lot of highs and lows but it ended well. Tomorrow should be better. It always is. See ya tomorrow.

Day 607: Saturday Time!

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My glutes hurt so much. That’s all that needs to be said about that.

Yesterday, I went back for a second helping of craziness at Bootcamp Fitness. Laurel wasn’t there so DK, another instructor, gave us the business. A alot of planks, a lot of pushups and a lot of running. All within this warehouse of awesomeness. It felt awesome to work out again. I’m really glad I went. Being sore feels right.

Alright, so today was pretty good food wise. I know a lot of people say it, but fruits and vegetables are the best thing that has ever happened to weight loss. Your body just feels better when you snack on celery and bananas. Give it a shot sometime!

So this morning I slept through breakfast. That’s what Saturdays are for right?

Lunch: When I first got up, I had a banana and then we made some salads for lunch! Instead of some heavy dressing, Megan suggested to use seasoned rice vinegar. It was awesome! It’s really light and has a little sweetness to it. It went well with the salad of sliced turkey breast, cucumbers, green bell peppers and romaine lettuce. It was no Jason’s Deli but man was it close. 4 points. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snack: I said a while back that I was going to hold off on froyo after I went to a self served place and created a 20-something point yogurt monster. Today, we went to TCBY and decided to get a pre-portioned sized froyo treat. I got the kid’s sized cup of mocha almond. It wasn’t a ton but it was enough. Like a lot of people, I will eat whatever is on my plate, but I don’t miss it if it’s not on my plate (does that make any sense?) so having a small 2 point treat was perfect.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snack: later in the afternoon, I had some Fage fat free yogurt with honey. It was awesome and the best thing to eat to hold me over until dinner. Yumtastic. It was only 3 points and then I had 1 point of these really good white cheddar cheesy poofs we got at Central Market while in Texas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner: We haven’t really grocery shopped since we have gotten back so we decided to go to Chick-Fil-A since we both had a good amount of points. (Not to mention that we haven’t been to the good ol’ CFA in a loooooooong time.) I had the 8 piece chicken nuggets combo meal which was just as awesome as I could remember. To make things more awesome, it was customer appreciation night and they were giving away a four pack of their breakfast chicken minis. (Nuggets in these delicious little biscuits.) While the free four pack was good, that didn’t mean they were free points. Dinner was 21 points and 8 points of that were those little “freebies.” The moral of the story is that free food isn’t worth the cost.

So today I got to 31 points which is only 3 points over. So tomorrow I get back on the scale. I’m sure it won’t be pretty, but I’m in a really good place with my exercise and weight loss which means I’ll be back in the saddle again. I’m also looking at running a 10k in a few months. Having a goal to train for will make it easier to work out. See ya tomorrow.

Day 599: A Picnic With The Marshall’s

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Last night, we met up with our good friends Scott and Tabitha in Waco for dinner and to catch up! Since they live in Austin, it was a good place to meet in the middle. Instead of eating out at a restaurant in Waco, Scott and Tabitha suggested a picnic on Baylor’s campus. To make it even more awesome, they brought Salt Lick BBQ from Austin (it’s the BBQ place that Adam Richman goes to in the Austin episode of Man vs. Food. It has also been declared the best BBQ in Texas.) Anyway, it was phenomenal. The brisket melts in your mouth, the sausage is a symphony of flavor and the beef ribs were the best I have ever had (and I don’t particularly like beef ribs. I won’t even bother gushing over the baked beans and the potato salad. I think I’ve gotten my point across. Anyway, I know this was a short post, but I just thought I would make you all jealous and remind everyone that Texas BBQ in the best in the country. Sorry other states. See ya tomorrow.

 

Day 598: That Time We Drove 904 Miles To Say Hello To My Parents

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Let’s just leave for Texas.

It all started with this sentence in a text to Megan Tuesday morning. It kind of ended there and then.

Eight hours later, we packed up Malibu Stacy (our car) and were on the road to Texas. We stopped in Biloxi, MS that night and then got back in the car and drove 11 hours more to Hillsboro.

Oh yeah, did I mention that we didn’t tell my parents that we were coming to visit?

We pulled in to Hillsboro around 6:30 pm, right in the middle of Wednesday night church. I walked in to the auditorium and my dad looked at me for a solid five seconds before he realized that it was me! Then he freaked. I walked up to my mom, she turned around and immediately started to cry. It’s really hard to surprise my parents (like the time we tried to have a surprise birthday party for my dad and then he threw his hat in to the dark room full of guests about to surprise him except his hat hit a guy in the face which lead to a loud “Ouch!”) but we got them really good. We stuck around, said hi to everyone at church and then got back in to the car and drove to Waco (yes, more driving) to eat some delicious Mexican food called Chuy’s. It was fantastic.

So I have some pictures below of the trip (since I didn’t post anything along the way so I could surprise my parents. Not posting was a challenge. I’m such a social media lady of the night) but I have a few nuggets of wisdom that I learned along the trip.

  • Mobile, Alabama smells like cigarette smoke
  • Mississippi smells like a port-a-potty at the carnival
  • Rock 92.3 in New Orleans is an awesome radio station
  • Nickelback is still terrible
  • So is Creed
  • Going on a roadtrip with your boo (whoever that may be) is worth the gas money
  • If you can surprise your parents, do it

See ya tomorrow… or tonight.

Day 595: The One Where The Fotographing Fat Kid Went To Boot Camp Fitness

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cIt’s Monday. Monday. Gotta get down on Monday!

Today was pretty good stuff! I ate well and worked out like a boss.

P.S. I’m addicted to Downton Abbey. Does anyone else think that the theme song kind of sounds like the X-Files theme song? Anyway…

For breakfast, I had two eggs seasoned with pepper and cayenne, two breakfast veggie patties and two pieces of dry toast. For some dipping, mixed some ketchup and sriracha. A lot of spicy deliciousness.Between breakfast and lunch I had an apple and a banana. It kept me full all morning. Awesomeness.

 

 

 

 

 

 


Lunch: For lunch, I just had a Smart One Chicken Suaza which was as good as a frozen meal can be. For dessert I had two fat free Fig Newtons which were awesome. For a snack after I got off work I had some of the epic salsa that Megan had made this morning.

(I know the food part was short so I could get to the fun part!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bootcamp Time!: So last week I called Laurel over at Boot Camp Fitness and Training about trying out their classes for a trial run now that I don’t have Leach to rely on anymore. Megan and I then signed up for a week free trial. Boot Camp is located in a warehouse off of Capital Circle and has been open since 2005! The facilities are really nice and definitely get the job done. While there are 5:30 and 6:30 am sessions, we opted for the 5:30 pm class which was the much hotter decision. When we got there, we Laurel and the other instructor Dave showed us around and gave us the rundown of Boot Camp. I felt like a kid in a candy store (no, I’m not trying to promote childhood obesity with that simile) beteween the kettlebells, the TRX setup and the boxes, I knew I was going to have a blast with this. There were around 25 of us in the class and we started out with stretching as a group, then we numbered off in to two groups. Then, there were two decks of cards in the middle of the room. Come to find out they would be the death of us for the next 45 minutes. On the wall (which all of the walls were whiteboards where you could write down quotes and your goals for the 4 week session. Such and awesome idea!) there where the card suites with a workout next to it. For example, a Diamond would be a TRX Row. You had to do as many reps as the value of the card. Faces were 10, Aces were 11, but Jokers… were wild. If someone in your group got a Joker, then you did suicides outside in the parking lot! So you would pick a card, do the reps (the lowest value in the deck was 9) and sweat like you were in a sauna. Although I have done Insanity and personal training, it was brutal but so much fun. Dave and Laurel were super nice and helpful. There were there to give you encouragement and help you out if you were doing something wrong. There was no yelling or any of those weird drill instructor hats and no R. Lee Ermey did not show up and ask me if I could suck a golf ball through a garden hose. It felt like a bunch of friends going through a really hard workout. Kind of like pledging.

Although I’ll have some more later in the week (the classes are Monday, Wednesday and Friday) so far I have been really impressed with Boot Camp! Most of the people there have been doing the four week sessions for years, including a lady who has been there since day one! So far, it was the best workout environment that I have ever been a part of. I can’t wait to go back!

Okay…

So for dinner, Megan made a jambalaya recipe from the 100 Days of Real Food website which promotes… real food. It was full of deliciousness from andoullie sausage to shrimp to brown rice. Unlike most Cajun food, it almost light and it wasn’t sodium stacked at all! After that beastly workout, two heaping helpings of it really hit the spot.

So that was it for today. Overall, it was pretty epic. See ya tomorrow.