Day 948: Run Recap and Such!

Posted on April 22, 2013 by theffkid

Before I start, I have to get something off my chest that I have been struggling with. While I used to definitely have binging qualities when I was severely overweight, a lot of those issues have been surprised. I guess I put all that chewing energy in to running or something…Anyway, while the super binging isn’t so much an issue, I am a leftover eater. After we are done with dinner and it’s left on the stove or whatever, I will sleuth my way in to the kitchen and just go to town on what is left. Usually it’s chili or pasta. When I do it, it’s really hard for me to stop. What’s worst is that those bites taste better than my actual dinner. (Maybe that means I’m eating dinner too fast?) It has always been an issue for me, except I don’t have my sister here to tattle on me when I do it now lol (I remember that specifically happening when we were eating at another family’s house when I was in middle school. You know I love you, Brittany :)) I really feel like that’s my biggest struggle to overcome. It doesn’t happen as much now as it used to. I think it means that I need to eat more filling foods through out the day instead of just carbs and things like that. If you have any suggestions, I would gladly listen to them.

Phew, glad to get that off my chest.

SO LET’S TALK RUNNING!!!
This was the weekend of running all the things. First stop: The Palace Saloon 5k, one of the oldest races in Tallahassee. It starts at a park and ends at, you guessed it, a bar called The Palace. The race boasts itself as the fastest and flattest 5k in Tallahassee. They were half right. The race was flat for the first 2 miles or so, then I notice people running up in to the clouds like it was the Transfiguration or something. Instead, people were just running up a massive hill. When I say that, it was a massive hill in the context of the race. It actually wasn’t that big. Anyway, what goes up, must come down. The last mile or so was pretty much straight downhill which was epic. I looked down at my Nike+ when I was crossing the finish line and I was rocking a 7:05/mile pace which was crazy for me. So the downhill awesomeness helped my time. One thing that also helped (I think) was that I took Energybits for the first time before a race. You can click on the link to learn more, but basically they are all-natural protein tablets made from algae that give you a nice little boost of energy when you’re running. (Don’t worry, they’re not some HGH or anything. A lot of runners swear by them…although Barry Bonds, Mark McGuire, and Roger Clemens all endorse them…hmmm…. :)). Placebo or not, it definitely helped me get up that hill when I thought I had nothing left in the ol’ tank. Anyway, I set a 5k PR of 26:04 which is SO AWESOME! I’m really wanting to run a sub 25:00 5k before the end of the summer. Time to start training!

Run 5.2 For Boston

I know you’ve heard me talk about it all week, but on Sunday, we finished the race for those who couldn’t. You see, most of the Boston Marathon runners were stopped at Mile 21, not getting to finish what was most likely was an ultimate goal for them. So some people in Tallahassee started to plan a 5.2 mile run to finish the race. What started out to be 50-60 runners quickly turned in to a run of more that 1,100 people! There was not a race fee, but donations were accepted and stores from across Tallahassee donated gift certificates and such to be raffled off (I won $50 for a running store in Tallahassee! So stoked to get some new shoes!) Overall, the run raised $13,000 that is going directly to the Boston One Fund and the Boston Red Cross. People truly are good. We might fight over things like religion, politics, or even the Great Pumpkin, but when we see others in desperate need, we are there to help. It’s pretty amazing.
The actually running part was pretty awesome as well. I was making killer time (but the run wasn’t officially timed) and then around Mile 2.5ish, I thought “you know, it’s not too often you can stop in the middle of a race this size and just cheer on people…” so that’s what I did. I got to the side and gave high fives, made silly running jokes and spurred my fellow runners on. One guy thought I was drunk, but that’s okay :). Anyway, I ran some more and then I stopped again right before the last big hill (the race was in Southwood so I knew the route like the back of my hand) and I encouraged people up the hill. I hope I gave them that final push that they needed. I’ve never volunteered at a race before, but now I really want to. The biggest advantage is that you can tell the same silly joke every time and no one will hear it twice :). Anyway, I ended up running it in 49:03, but that’s with long periods of me pausing my Nike+. It was an honor to cheer everyone on like that. For a lot of people, it looked like it could have been their first race. I hope this was a catalyst for them to run in the future.

All in all, the two races this weekend provided some much needed closure to what was an incredibly stressful week. I know the road to recovery for Boston is far from over, but see all the amazing philanthropy for both those in the Northeast and those in my old backyard in West, Texas, you can’t help but have some of your faith restored in humanity. Like I said on Monday, good was going to come out of that tragedy and so much already has. What a great way to end a week and begin a new one. See ya tomorrow.

Day 922: Wordless Awesomeness

Posted on March 27, 2013 by theffkid

Day 909: 30in90 Explained

Posted on March 14, 2013 by theffkid

Sorry if I cut off anyone midfunk…

So if you are my friend on Facebook or on Twitter OR if you Like my FFK page on Facebook (only four friends away from 800! Like it now! Please?) you saw that I hinted at a new thing going on on the blog called 30in90. What does that mean you ask? Well it’s pretty simple.

You see, 90 days from Friday, I will be reaching the 1,000th day of the start of my weight loss journey! Pretty crazy huh? It has had its ups and downs, but it has been a pretty epic journey so far. As most of you know, I have kind of been on a plateau for a while now. The 230’s have been my home base and 227 is still my weight loss threshold. I just can’t seem to break it. So when Megan brought up the 1,000 days thing, we started to plan our attack on our weight. Thus, 30in90 was born.

Tomorrow morning, we will weigh in. Our objective is to lose 30 pounds in 90 days. Day 1,000 is June 15th. It seems far away now, but it’s closer than we think. By then, I’m planning (not hoping) to be weighing in the 200’s, knocking at the door of Onderland. What’s even more of an encentive is that our 5-year anniversary is June 22nd. We really wanted to get new wedding photos done to show just how far we’ve come (and no, I will not be wearing my size 60 wedding suit…yes, I wore a size 60 suit jacket at one point. That’s five feet around. It still bothers me when I write that out loud.)

So how are we going to do this you ask? Simple: I’m going back in to crazy, dedicated, super weight loss mode. I was just thinking the other day about how my new friends/coworkers didn’t really know me when I would only eat the stuff I knew the calories of and stuff like that. This is a goal I am striving for. I’m going to work as hard as I can to get to that point. It might mean two-a-day workouts sometimes and not eating if I go out with friends, but it will totally be worth it. I’m doing this for me and my health, which also means I’m not going to starve myself, but rather taking the healthy path no matter how much it might suck sometimes. I can’t wait. Challenge accepted. So what do you think? Are we crazy? Or do you think we can do it? See ya tomorrow.

Day 872: Half Marathon Recap

Posted on February 5, 2013 by theffkid

I woke up at 5 am the morning of the race. I sat on the couch with my feet propped up, drinking a cup of coffee. I sat there and asked Megan if she ever thought we would get this far. I thought back to our old, 400 square foot apartment in Abilene and thought about how uncomfortable my life was. How getting off the couch was a chore, how no shirt every really fit well no matter how much I would try to stretch it. I realized how those burdens aren’t holding me back any more. That’s when I started to cry. It was just an overwhelming feeling of joy to reinforce that freedom. When you’re morbidly obese, your life is restricted whether you know it or not. Now that I know this freedom, I will never go back to that old way of living, because that wasn’t living.

Yes…there were a few other runners.

Becky and Erin came by the house and we made our way to FSU. It was a beautiful morning. A little cold, but we had all ran in worse. The crowd was huge, but still not as bad as the Turkey Trot in November. Everyone was ready to book it.

The sirens blared. It was time to run. Feet, don’t fail me now.

The first mile: piece of cake!
Second mile: hey…this isn’t so bad!
Third mile: what a beautiful day
Fourth mile: I’m actually running with some athletic-looking people!
Fifth mile: just kidding…the real athletic people just passed me because they have already reached the half way point.
Sixth mile: WHERE THE @#%#$ IS THE HALF WAY POINT???

I cropped out the marathon runner in the background.

Then on the ninth mile…misery. I hit a physical wall like you wouldn’t believe. My toes were forming a blister for the first time, my IT bands started to get sore, then the calf cramps kicked in, which never (and when I mean never, I mean even when I was 357 pounds and running 5 miles) ever happens when I run. I had thrown my body into confusion. Mile 9 is when this Sunday morning race turned into a battle.

My mantra became “I will finish…I will finish…I will finish.” Every other step was a struggle. A normal stride followed by a cramp, a normal stride followed by a cramp. Along the way, I met some nice people like a first time half marathon runner like me who was struggling. We talked, I cramped up, he kept going (I somehow still beat him though. We met up after the race.) Then there was the girl who ran up next to me, put out her first and said “pound it!” So I did, followed by me stopping to stretch out.

Before I knew it, I was already at mile 12. The miles had just peeled away. I could see Doak off in the distance, but I knew I wasn’t out of the woods yet. After throwing down cups of Gatorade and packets of GU, (which were interesting) I kept going. Every motion forward was a struggle, but I knew I was closer to the finish.

Still not sure how this photo came out so well.

Finally, I reached the track. The last little chunk of raceway left. After running on miles of concrete and asphalt, running the last almost quarter mile on a rubber track felt incredibly wonky. It was like running inside of a bouncy castle. I could hear all the cheers, my race was finally drawing to a close. I felt amazing.

Final time: 2:11:50.59. I was 434th out of 728 runners. Fastest time? 1:13:40.43. Next half, I’m breaking the 2-hour barrier.

Check out my groundhog bling yo!

I hear a lot of people who’ve lost a lot of weight, both bloggers and even people on The Biggest Loser, say “I did it to prove everybody wrong! I’m doing this for all of the people who said I couldn’t do it!” While I thought that way for a while, I realized while I was training for this half that I shouldn’t be looking at it like that. I should be doing this not for the people who said I couldn’t, but for the people who said I could. I did this race for every one of you who have liked my hundreds of running statuses, who have dropped me a line telling me how proud you are of me, and for all of those who tell me how I have inspired them to change their lives. I was able to do this race because of you. You, dear reader, have been my fuel to carry on. For that, I thank you.

Day 867: #FFKPLANKADAY YO!

Posted on January 31, 2013 by theffkid

So much to talk about!

First of all, I went to an amazing presentation on social media by Inside Higher Ed writer Eric Stoller tonight. Mind. Blown. Check him out.

So at this point, between that, other crazy social media things I have been working for work and for the FFK if you will, I am about to reach cerebral critical mass.

AND I’M RUNNING A HALF MARATHON IN A FEW DAYS!!!!! MY MIND IS GOING BIZONKERS!!!!!!!

In lieu of talking about my food, here is a photo of me eating a sandwich.
Okay… #FFKPLANKADAY TIME!!!!!

I have to start off by saying this is not my original idea. I know plenty of bloggers who put on PlankaDay challenges, but I thought it was time to bring it to the FFK community!

Here are the basics:

What is PlankaDay?

Every day in the month of February, you are challenged to hold a plank position for as long as you can. Your first one might not be a great time, but it’s your starting point. Your launching pad to greatness if you will. Each day, you’ll begin to see progress as you get stronger. Did I mention that a plank is amazing for your body? It works almost all of the major muscle areas! (Search for a video on YouTube if you need instructions on how to do it.)

Since I am a social being, I want people to post their times, their feelings, their success and their issues. I’ll be posting photos and Tweets and posts about it all through out the month using the hashtag #FFKPLANKADAY AND YOU SHOULD TOO! I’ll be collecting the creative posts and putting them in my Wordless Wednesday posts!

HOW TO JOIN:
Go to the event page (https://www.facebook.com/events/593172934031314/)
Attend said events page
Get planking!
It’s as simple as that!

Any questions? Comment below. GET STOKED! See ya tomorrow!

Day 865: What A Weigh In Day Edition

Posted on January 29, 2013 by theffkid

What a crazy day.

Today has been a whirlwind of social media insanity for this kid (this Fotographing Fat Kid that is…)

It all started this morning when I put out a possible weigh in spoiler alert on my Facebook page if I received 8 more Likes.

Well…those 8 turned in to more than 150 over the course of the day. Thanks to the super awesome Michelle and her FB page “Leaving Obesity Behind”. She posted my little challenge on her page for all her 12,417 likes to see. (It’s good to have friends.) I just want to give a shout out to her. Her and I share a special over a special number: 357. Her and I both started our weight loss journeys at that ridiculous number. Awesomely enough, we both have the same goal weight too! What are the odds? Anyway, thanks Michelle for being awesome and thanks for all of the new likes everyone. Welcome my the craziness.

Okay, moving on. So like I said on my FB page this morning, I lost 2.8 pounds this week! I’m down to 227.6 pounds which is crazy! I’m so stoked to break through that 227 barrier and I’m ready for that to be my next weigh in! AAAAHHHHHH CAN’T WAIT!

So let’s get to the whole food tracking thing!

Breakfast: This morning, I started out with an Ezekiel English Muffin with 2 tablespoons of sunflower seed butter. Yes, it’s the sunflower seed version of peanut butter. We saw it at Earth Fare the other day and thought “why not?” It was delicious and ridiculously filling. I really want to try it in oatmeal. Yumtastic.

Snack: I didn’t have time to eat my snack before my class since I was at a FSU social media meeting (a lot of social media on my plate today) so I stopped by Starbucks and had an iced coffee with non-fat milk.

Lunch: I had some leftover chicken breast with some brown rice followed by a banana and some peanut butter. Lunch of champions.

Dinner: I made some tuna salad with two small cans of tuna and a dolip of lite mayo. It was good, but not enough. Megan made some whole-wheat noodles with a little olive oil and veggies so I nommed on some of that.

So that’s it for today! Tomorrow is Wordless Wednesday! Hooray!

In lieu of decent photos of food, here is a shot of where I work. I love FSU. See ya tomorrow.

Day 857: Back Blogging

Posted on January 21, 2013 by theffkid

Why Hello!

It’s been such a long time!

Here’s what’s been going on with me:

Haircut.

Eating.

Spinning.

Racquetballing.

Running

And most importantly…

Being awesome.

While I have been eating a good amount of food, I have been exercising like crazy all this week. I have burned a total of 2,972 calories this week (according to my HRM) which has felt awesome. Now it’s time to get combine the Skinny Rules with torching more than 3,000 calories a week to seriously peel off some weight. Like I said a few posts ago, I’m reading for my clothes not to fit anymore! I want to have my pants fall off! (I know what I said…) It’s time for a new outfit and a new me! Time to get crackin’!

(Anyone watching Biggest Loser right now? Did you see Joe doing bleachers at Doak? I really need to meet this guy!)
(Also, did you notice how many times Jillian dropped the F bomb at Jeff? That was intense. Don’t piss off the Jillian.)

Anyway, so I’ve had my splurging fun, but now I’m ready to get buckle down for the next two week BECAUSE I’M RUNNING THE FREAKIN’ TALLAHASSEE HALF MARATHON THE SUNDAY AFTER NEXT!!!!! It still hasn’t really set in that that’s actually going to happen on Sunday February 3rd! (Come cheer Erin, Megan and me on! It starts at FSU and ends at FSU. If you want more details let me know!) I’ve been training so much for it that’s it’s like I’ve forgotten that it’s for a race! So that’s all the more reason to drop some weight this week and next week, to have less of a stress on my body. Every little counts.

So let’s talk about food shall we?

Breakfast: Egg breakfast sandwich. YERM!!!!!!
Lunch: For lunch, we went over to our friend Julie’s apartment for some chicken n’ dumpling awesomeness! Our friends Tony and Tara brought some delicious acre peas and these cupcakes made with applesauce instead of oil. Hooray for healthy swaps! Overall, it was a pretty fantastic meal with even more fantastic friends!

Dinner: I grilled some salmon with some grilled zucchini. There are no photos of the zukes because they are better right off the grill. Have I mentioned we love salmon?

So that’s all I got for tonight.

Couple things:

Updated my Runs I’ve Done page so check that out!

Also, read the reblogged post from earlier today. It is one of the best weight loss posts I’ve ever read. It truly hit home for me.

Weigh in Tuesday. Stoked to see how it goes.

See ya tomorrow.

ONE MORE THING! Facebook has unliked some of my FFK Facebook Page likes. Be sure you are up to date with all things FFK by Liking the FFK FB Page right now! Okay…that is all.

Day 844: First Weigh In On Skinny Rules!

Posted on January 8, 2013 by theffkid

Timon and Pumbaa make eating insects sound so appealing. Or is that just me?

Hello everybody!

So today, it was time to get on the scale and see if my hard work had paid off. By that I don’t mean “I hope this hippy-dippy eating is worth it” but more of “I pushed it hard on the bike and one my runs. I’ve torched my share of calories this week.” Well boys and girls, my hard work paid off! I lost 6 pounds this week! So I am down to 230.2 pounds and have lost a total of 126.8 pounds. I am 52 pounds away from my 2013 goal. Things are going awesome so far! Like I said last night, my birthday is this week so I’m going to do what I can to stay on track because this hard work is totally worth it. Time to keep on keepin’ on!

Breakfast: I had a hard-boiled egg, a handful of strawberries and a piece of toast.

Snack: An apple and string cheese.

An Oops Moment: So Jimmy John’s brought a sleigh of delicious mini (like a quarter-sized) sandwiches. I accidentally grabbed a Turkey Tom without thinking about it. I ate it in all of its white flower glory and I moved on. It is what it is and I am totally okay with it.

Lunch: After my class (which is going to be awesome) I had leftover chili with brown rice. It was even better as leftovers like all good chili batches.

Snack: A banana and some peanut butter from a bag. That I found on the ground.

SAWS: Did a 5k run out at Southwood. It was a rough run, but my time was still decent. I’ll take it. I’m running a crapton on Saturday so that should be interesting.

Dinner: I had some delicious leftover salmon and peas. YUUUUUUUUMMMMM!!!!

That’s all I got for tonight. Take it easy yo! See ya tomorrow.

Day 843: More Biggest Loser and Skinny Rules!

Posted on January 7, 2013 by theffkid

So Biggest Loser is over on the East Coast and the BCS game might as well be over so it’s time for some FFK awesomeness!

Also, I have no clue how people on the West Coast deal with not having a show spoiled by being three hours behind. Do you guys just stay off Facebook and Twitter during the 5-8 pm PST hours? Can’t wait to have that problem one day because that will mean that I will be living on the Best Coast. Worth it.

In other news, tonight they showed Biggest Loser contestant Joe Ostaszewski working out in the weight room inside of Doak Campbell at Florida State! Then I found this article by the Tallahassee Democrat from December about how he was going to be on the BL and how he was a lineman for the Noles from 1988-1991. I’m really hoping that he will go pretty far because when Antone Davis was a finalist, he went back to the University of Tennessee, where he played college fooball, and they had a huge thing for him. That would be awesome if they did that at FSU. Either way, I’m going to try to meet him at some point. I know I sound like a Biggest Loser-crazed loon right now, but it’s such an inspiring show to me. Always has been. I remember watching it when I was newly married and eating a fast food cheeseburger thinking “shoot, I would beat them all” then I probably started wheezing because I used to eat so much so quickly that I would lose my breath. However, there were other plans for me. I took a different path to weight loss awesomeness and I have never looked back.

Oh yeah…and Bob Harper replied to one of my tweets tonight. Consider myself swooned.

Alright, let’s talk food!

Breakfast: 1/2 cup of oatmeal with a pinch of brown sugar (an actual little pinch, not a grab) and a 1/2 cup of nonfat greek yogurt with blackberries. This was definitely a “stick to your ribs” kind of breakfast, but not the “stick to your ribs” kind that sticks to your internal organs and kills you. What I’m trying to say is that it’s super filling.

Snack: A string cheese and an apple. The best snack for the 11:00 am hour.

Lunch: So for lunch we made what I’m affectionately calling “Bob’s Dump Soup” since it doesn’t have an actual name (even though it’s a recipe in Skinny Rules.) All it was was chicken broth, a bag of frozen gumbo mix veggies (Publix brand), a can of cannellini beans and a can of chickpeas. All it was missing was the pasta and it could have been the minestrone from Olive Garden. I added some red pepper flakes and crushed red peppers for a little more flavor. It was incredibly filling for only being something like 100 calories for a cup! Then I just had a piece of bread for dipping and a pineapple spear for dessert!

Snack: I had a banana with a tablespoon of peanut butter. I didn’t have a decent container for the pb so I put it in a ziploc which was pretty weird. I cut the corner with my scissors and spread the pb on the banana like I was frosting a cake. Props to my friend Melanie for giving me that idea a looooong time ago. She said that’s what she does with her hummus so it made sense for pb too!

Dinner: At this point, I hadn’t really eaten a ton of calories but I wasn’t starving at all during the day. Pretty awesome feeling. It’s nice because when you eat an afternoon snack, you don’t come home hungry and crazy. You can actually relax for a while and then think about dinner. Anyway, tonight I grilled some salmon and some squash. I brushed a little olive oil on both (I used a total of three cap fulls for three sliced up squash and three large salmon steaks) and put the salmon on some aluminum foil in the grill. I was absolutely thrilled with how it turned out. (Another reason to move to the Best Coast: I LOVE salmon. Especially the good stuff from Alaska.)

So as you can see, I did pretty well!

Okay…LAST FIVE SKINNY RULES!!!!

Rule 16: Banish High Salt Foods
I’m not really a fan of adding salt to food anyways so this isn’t a huge issue. What is an issue is how much sodium is in most foods. That’s why it’s important to read your labels!

Rule 17: Eat Your Vegetables-Just Do It!
Well…you heard the guy.

Rule 18: Go To Bed Hungry
We usually eat dinner around 6 or 7 so since that is the last thing you eat, it’s easy to go to bed hungry. I’ve always been bad about late night snacking, but I’ve just been keeping myself accountable not to snack after dinner. Even if that means not going back in to the kitchen for the rest of the night. Does that sound crazy? Probably. Awe well, it works.

Rule 19: Sleep Right
Trying to get in to that habit so let’s wrap this up so I can go to bed…

and finally…

Rule 20: Plan One Splurge Meal A Week
We did our splurge meal on Saturday at lunch which kind of turned in to a splurge day, but like I said yesterday, we weren’t crazy or anything. I am going to have to pick my splurging carefully this week because my birthday is on Sunday and I don’t want to overdo it and put me back a few steps. Food isn’t worth it to me anymore.

So that’s the whole list. What do you think?

See ya tomorrow.

Day 837:First Post of 2013!

Posted on January 1, 2013 by theffkid

GO NOLES!!!!!!

If we don’t win…well, let’s not even go there.

So today was the first day living under the tyranny of the Skinny Rules! (I use the term “tyranny” psuedo-lightly, and by that I mean it’s going to be quite the adjustment.) It probably wasn’t the right day to run 7 miles while burning 1,200 calories. On paper, I should be emaciated. But the way the rules work, I feel pretty full. I think it’s the combination of A LOT of fiber and protein along with a gallon of water.

Here are rules 6-10:

Rule 6: Eat Apples and Berries Every Single Day. Every. Single. Day.

That’s a lot of fruit. Good thing we live in Florida: the delicious fruit capital of the USA. (I made up that, but the fruit is good.)

Rule 7: No Carbs After Lunch

I can see this being rough eventually. Like you, yes you, I heart carbs. I love crunchy things like chips and cereal, things I would always eat after work. It’s going to be important to have my snack planned out before I come home from work to avoid being tempted by the carb beast. (There are carbs in fruit, but thankfully Bob says that’s okay…because it’s fruit.)

Rule 8: Learn to Read Food Labels So You Know What Are Eating

I’ve been doing the whole reading labels things for a while, but I haven’t paid close attention to looking at ingredients. Since I’ve had to do that because of Skinny Rules, it makes you realize what you really are putting in to your body.

Rule 9: Stop Guessing About Portion Size and Get it Right-For Good

It’s so easy to just guestimate your portion sizes because it doesn’t require a a measuring cup or a food scale. Time to get back to that.

Rule 10: No More Added Sweeteners, Including Artificial Ones

This might be the hardest one for me. I LOVE Diet Coke. No more sodas…well no more a lot of things. This will be a challenge, but if it’s off limits, it’s off limits!

So here’s the breakdown of the day…

Breakfast: We started the morning right with a glass of water, followed by another glass of water and then breakfast! A delicious veggie omelet with strawberries and an Ezekiel English Muffin made with sprouted grains. The muffins taste more like a thick bread but tastes great! Not to mention high in fiber!

Snack: I had a sliced apple and one ounce of Cabot’s Seriously Sharp Cheddar. Great snack to keep you full.

Lunch: Bob is a big fan of ground turkey. It’s a great alternative to beef, especially when you get the ground breast. (That means it hasn’t been ground with dark meat.) Anyway, Megan made these delicious turkey burgers with diced tomatoes and a spring mix salad with light dressing. The turkey patty was juicy and the salad…was salad.

Run: For the first run of the year, we decided to do it in style and run on the St. Mark’s Trail. I’ve been having issues with my toes bruising on my right foot so I looked up some remedies. One of them is relacing your shoes a certain way. I gave that a shot and my foot was in even worse pain. No bueno. I think I might just go back to the way I had them. Anyway, the run was rough since I haven’t ran in about a week or so. Either way, the first two miles were solid 8:34’s but then the others weren’t as awesome.

After Run Drink: We made a kale green drink that was gross-looking but still drinkable. I’ll spare you from posting a photo of it.

Dinner: Tonight I grilled some chicken and had a mountain of green beans. It felt like a lot of food…because it was! I also had a glass of milk.

So that’s all I’ve had today. A big difference from the last few weeks in December. I was not doing too well with the whole eating well thing.

Weigh In: This morning I weighed in at 236.2 which is up 6.4 pounds from two weeks ago. I know that’s bad, but before we went to Texas, I was already up to 235 that morning we left. It was a combination of stress and just plain eating bad. I feel lighter and healthier than I have in a long time today which is awesome.

So what’s the deal with the number 58?: So I haven’t really laid out my New Year’s resolutions yet, but I do have one big goal for 2013: to lose 58 pounds. I am 58 pounds away from being half the man that I used to be. That will put me past the 178.5 pounds mark which is the half way point. I was shooting for it in 2012, but I honestly didn’t put in the work that it was going to require. After a year oh just being meh with weight loss, I’m ready to melt off some weight! Time to get busy. See ya tomorrow.