Day 502: Wordless Wednesday!
Category Archives: Grad School
Day 499: Weigh In Frustration
So this was a frustrating week. Every time I felt like I was making progress, I would peek on the scale to keep myself honest, I would be up. I know, I know don’t peek, but that was the key to my success the last couple of weeks. I would weigh on Wednesday and change my habits accordingly. So this week, I flippin’ gained 3.6 freakin pounds. As you can tell, I’m really frustrated about it but I think I know why it happened.
First, I’m in a midterm paper part of the semester which had lead to stress-induced eating. Second, I think I had issues with sodium this week. I had three turkey bratwursts and each was 23% of your daily sodium. Third, I didn’t drink my water. Finally, I didn’t fuel my body well after my workouts. I worked out plenty this week, but I’ll just do more this week. So yeah I’m mad, but I’m hoping I’ll be able to catch my breath in my class after Wednesday along with get to work out more. I want to keep doing Insanity, but when I did the Max Recovery session, I got really really bad carpet burn on my arms (no bueno) so I might go buy a yoga mat for the recovery days to make it bearable. Also, I’m going to cut back on my diet soda intake. I need to be keeping that pee clear yo!
After this gain, I’ve thought a lot about my points and how much I have deviated from them recently (which has directly correlated to my ups and downs.) This week, I’m really going to stick with my points and not go over my weekly points. Between that and exercising, I might just lose some weight this week!
Breakfast: This morning, I had two waffles with peanut butter and honey. I put a lot of peanut butter which was dumb because I could have used those points in the day. I know breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but I should have added a banana and had less peanut butter. 8 points
Lunch: Our freezer is a frozen mosh pit of random food that needs to be eaten, so for lunch we tried to eat down on the freezer stuff. (Freezer stuff not being the ice shavings on the side of the freezer.) Anyway, I had a Smart One Chicken Suaza. I was good enough, but I was hungry for more. I wanted to go back in to the kitchen and eat anything I could find. After I just chilled and drank some water, I felt fine and I moved on with my day. Recently, I have just acted on those impulses which has lead to a lot of binge eating on chips and other snacks. The worst thing about those binges usually is that you don’t really count those calories. They are annex calories or something stupid like that. Anyway, it was 6 points.
This afternoon, I camped out at Panera to read and mooch off of their free Wifi (side note: Evernote is an awesome app.) I just had a cup of coffee (or six of seven) but every time I would refill my cup, the aroma of cupcakes, cinnamon rolls and cookies would waft in my direction. It took a lot for me not to buy one, and prior to my revelation this morning I probably would have, but I stood my ground and kept to my coffee. I survived a big temptation which has made me a little stronger!
Dinner: For dinner, we continued to raid the fridge and freezer for some leftovers. The other night, I bought these Morning Star buffalo chicken tenders to give a shot. The serving size is 5 pieces so I made some for Megan and I to sample. They were really good! They’re kind of small but they are big on flavor. That was a good little 2.5 point appetizer. Then I had a leftover burger from last night with one serving of Cape Cod reduced fat chips. I was really proud of myself because I actually weighed the patty and then found out the nutritional info online! My 3 oz 97/3 patty was 3 points, the chips were 3 points and the bun was 3 points. A pretty awesome 9 point dinner!
Dessert: So even though it’s freezing here in Tallahassee, we still went to get some froyo after a marathon of grading and studying. I was good and got a little white chocoloate mousse froyo and chocolate froyo (both 98% fat free) along with some sno-caps which are the best topping to get because all they really are are chocolate chips. I went to the TCBY site (which is awesome) to add everything up and I was really impressed with how I did. My froyo was only 3 points! I only took one scoop of topping and when I was dispensing the yogurt, I just counted to three and then stopped even if I thought it wasn’t a lot of yogurt. I left feeling full and good!
So even though this morning was frustrating, it ended up being a pretty good day. I feel back on track and no matter where I’m at this time next week, I have at least made some good progress. I totaled out at 28.5 points which is only .5 over! I’m really stoked. Now off to write a paper. See ya tomorrow.
Day 497: 11 Things About Me Edition
What’s up everybody!
Sorry about no post last night. I went to the midnight showing of Star Wars Episode I in 3D. (Yeah, I’m a nerd.) So I won’t be long tonight. I have two papers I need to be working on so I need to get at it. Today has been pretty normal, except that I SAWS’d it hard at the gym today! I did a cardio circuit of my own that felt awesome: 20 minutes on the spin bike (hello wedgie!), 30 minutes on the elliptical and 20 minutes running. I burned 730 calories. It was brutal but awesome. Nothing like doing homework high on endorphins.
So my good blogging pal Jennifer from A Girl Who Loves Cupcakes added me to this 11 question list so I thought I would respond to it and that would be it for tonight. I promise tomorrow will be an epic blog!
- What’s your favorite fashion accessory?
Ummm… you know…
- If you could only save 1 picture that you’ve ever taken, what would it be of?
This one of Megan and I right after I proposed with a ring made of grass. (Real ring to follow.)
- What book are you currently reading?
“Multicultural Intelligence” and a bunch of journal articles. I really want to start the Hunger Games though!
- What’s your favorite place to visit?
Any one of these counties
- What’s THE one thing you can’t leave the house without?
iPhone. iCantdoanythingwithoutit
- What’s your favorite movie?
Dumb and Dumber… hands down
- What color best represents your wardrobe?
Since 90% of my wardrobe is a shade of blue, I’m going with blue.
- What’s your favorite breakfast food?
Bacon. In any way, shape or form. (I know it’s made of pigs, but I can’t help myself…)
- What’s your favorite kind of exercise?
Racquetball. My record might be something like 5-60, but I has been the single biggest factor for my weight loss other than eating better. True story.
- What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
I have received plenty of good advice while drinking coffee with old coots growing up (you know, those guys who drink coffee at Whataburger in every small town in Texas/America.) Most of it was emphasized doing what you love which makes work not so much like work. Good advice.
- What’s your most expensive purchase?
My undergrad education. Thanks ACU!
Thank God I won’t look like this for my FSU graduation…
See ya tomorrow
Day 495: Wordless Wednesday Stuff!
[#meow]
Day 494: A Not As Epic Post
No, I didn’t meet the President or anything today, but I did torch a crapton of calories in racquetball. That’s pretty cool too!
Alright, so as some of you know I’m a huge Biggest Loser fan. I’ve been watching the show off and on for about six years and I wanted to be a contestant for a long time… that is until I just lost the weight with no show needed :). Anyway, this week, amongst all the annoying drama that has been added this season to make the show more soap opera-ish, the theme of this week was “No Excuses: I Can’t Lose Weight On My Own.” One team had to work out on their own without their trainer and overall they did pretty well. While I see where they were going with it, I think it misses the bigger picture. For me, even though I have a ton of support on multiple levels, I’m losing this weight on my own.
I’m the one who decides whether to work out when I’m tired
I’m the one who is deciding whether or not to eat that extra piece of cake
I’m the one who said “it’s time to lose weight”
Obviously it is helpful and important to have your friends and family’s support, but that can only get you so far. They only need to be a source of support, not a crutch for your excuses. Granted, this is a harder path, but it will make you all the more stronger in the long run. Once YOU make yourself a priority, everything will fall in to place. You got this yo!
Alright. Where was I?
Breakfast: I had two eggs over hard and two pieces of toast. I always dread making eggs until I just do it and it takes like a total of three minutes. It’s a super filling breakfast!
Lunch: We decided to go to Monk’s for lunch since it was nice outside and they have a really cool outdoor area. We split the artichoke dip and I had the vegan burger with jalapenos, onions, creamy havarti and a hot BBQ sauce. It was the best custom burger I have ever made there. I ate all of my fries and half of the burger. While Monk’s is really good, it’s pricey and the service is hit and miss. I’m kind of ready to just eat at home for a while. It’s usually way less calories (and less sodium) and it’s way cheaper.
SAWS!: Last week, my friend Andrew (the one that kind of looks like Edward Cullen) told me he wanted to play racquetball this week so we set up a time and our other friend Alex joined in on the monotony. We played for a little more than an hour and after five or six games of cut throat, we were all pretty beat. While I love singles, cut throat is more entertaining to me because it’s 2 on 1 so the game gets pretty intense (not to mention there are three uncoordinated out of shape grad students flailing around a small room with racquets attached to their wrists.) Anyway, I burned almost 700 calories (694 to be exact) in a little more than an hour which is an awesome burn.
I still want to do Insanity, but honestly I’m a little scared of the second phase of Insanity. I need to at least give it a try because the results have been epic (it seriously reduced my love handles in a few days) and it’s not that long of a work out. But running and racquetball are so much more fun (he said like a 5 year old while complaining to his mom). I’ll see what mood I’m in tomorrow morning and go from there. Any words of encouragement out there?
Dinner: So after that craziness, I came home hungry. The danger for me when I work out in the afternoon I want to come home and eat dinner but it might night be quite time for dinner so I’ll graze. Today, I took a few bites of the rest of my burger and that was about it (but it’s usually worse.) Anyway, Megan made this awesome skillet of spaghetti so we had that with some bread and an awesome salad with honey mustard. I only ate a serving or so of spaghetti, but I kept creeping in to the kitchen to snag a few fork fulls. That is definitely the worst habit that I have yet to break. I would be much better off just to have another serving. I really need to work on that because those are just pointless calories.
So today was good-ish. I ate too much bread for dinner (and the worst part was it wasn’t really that good. Again, pointless calories.) but overall it was okay. I need to drink more water and less soda and I need to eat out less which is hard because this is the semester for both of us. Between Megan working on her thesis and my teaching, going to class and working, making meals at home isn’t always a top priority. We are both committing to work on that so we can save some money and lose some weight in the process. I have some big goals for myself (like being at least in the 210’s by graduation on April 28th) so each cookie, that extra sprinkle of cheese or that extra helping of spaghetti is going to make a difference. Time to blitzkrieg some calories. See ya tomorrow.
Day 493: The Time the Vice President Came to Town Edition
What up G!
So today was an adventure. I could just leave it at that, but I’ll humor you and continue.
Today, Vice President Joe Biden spoke at Florida State regarding the cost of tuition and other fun things. I work in the University Communications office at Florida State and we worked side by side with the White House media relations staff to help direct and control the media. It was really cool to watch them work and it reinforced my belief that I am in the right profession. Anyway, I was a press volunteer so I while I answered any questions the press might have, I ended up with other roles as well. First, I played hero by saving a Secret Service agent from a giant (okay… tiny) spider that was crawling on his back. Don’t worry, I made him aware of the spider before I brushed it off of his shoulder so he didn’t think I was karate chopping him. (If that were the case, this post would have been called “That Time The Fotographing Fat Kid Ended Up in Guantanamo Edition”). I also played the role of “Seat Filler.” Some silly student left their post of sitting down in the rafters so I ended up sitting in (pardon the pun) for them. (That’s me. My non-scale victory is that I honestly didn’t recognize myself when I first saw this picture. That’s such an odd yet awesome feeling!!!) Anyway, so while I didn’t get to shake his hand, I got dang near close to him which was cool on its own merit. It was an exhausting, yet really cool experience. I’ll post a lot more pictures on Wordless Wednesday!
Lunch: So I had been on my feet basically from 8 am to around 2:00 and I was spent. Our awesome boss Jeanette offered us lunch at Mellow Mushroom as a token of her appreciation. Since I had two pieces of toast with pb early this morning, I was starving so I had and destroyed a cheese calzone. I spend the rest of my day in class praying that a hammock would appear in an Old Testament-like fashion. (“Then the Lord saw favor in his servant the Fotographing Fat Kid and laideth beforeth him a hammock made from the finest strands of fibers and the finest cotton. The Fat Kid relaxethed and found favor in his sight”) Where the crap was I going with that? Oh yeah, I was full the rest of the day. It was delicious.
Dinner: So we didn’t get home until kind of late and since we both weren’t incredibly hungry, I made some Spaghetti-O’s and two ham sandwiches. Yes, oh so exciting. At that point, I was up for anything so that’s what I went with. Yum!
So as you can see, it was quite an eventful day. And to top it all off: IT’S MY DAD’S BIRTHDAY! Yep! He’s… older than he was yesterday ;). My parents have been such an encouragement to Megan and I through out this weight loss journey (this is Dad and I from the Turkey Trot in 2010.) It has been such a blessing to have such support. It has also been awesome to hear from other people and to hear them say “yeah, your Dad always talks about how awesome you are doing with your weight loss. He is so proud of you.” It’s really a great feeling. Happy birthday Dad. I love you.
See ya tomorrow.
Day 492: Super Weigh In!
GO COWBOYS!… oh yeah.
(Well this is awkward…)
Ahem… So the Giants won and since I had absolutely no dog in that fight, I was able to enjoy the game stress free that turned out to be pretty epic. For me, the true fun was the socialmediasphere that was blowing up with tweets and post about every thing from people’s favorite commercial to the Puppy Bowl (oh yeah, and some about the game.) Super Sunday always reminds me why I love social media so much and why I believe it can be so effective. Granted with the Super Bowl you have a pretty captive audience, but with such big events its as if you are at a party with your friends from across the country. It’s something special and I’m glad Mark Zuckerburg stole the idea from those Winklevoss twins to make social media the powerful communication that it is today.
Okay, moving on. So I wasn’t really good this week, but I worked out and drank my water and it really paid off! I lost 1.2 pounds this week! I have lost 119 pounds so far! I can’t believe how close I am to 120 pounds! I’m going to have to be extra careful this week because I have a developed a “two steps forward and one step back” pattern (yes, the Paula Abdul pattern.) Since I have made such good progress the past few weeks (five pounds in two weeks to be exact!) I need to keep the ball rollin’ to avoid being stuck in that 239-241 plateau region. I’m glad my body finally decided it was time to lose weight again! Huzzah!
Breakfast: I had two pieces of toast with peanut butter and honey. It was nomtastic!
Lunch: After church, we ran to Subway and split a Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki (hooray $5 footlongs!) and then went to the TCBY next door and had dessert. I was bad and had a parfait which had your choice of three toppings and two scoops of yogurt. My toppings were epic, but contextually wrong: hot fudge, peanut better cup and heath bar. Not my brightest moment.
Snack: I had a piece of low fat cake that Megan had made with applesauce. I was really impressed! It was fluffier than regular cake and less fat and calories! (True story: I was in a Facebook group called “I Brake For Cake” actually I probably still am.)
Super Bowl Progressive Dinner: This year, we stayed at home because we both had homework and really we are just exhausted from school. Anyway, we found a few different recipes off of Skinny Taste to try… and we didn’t make any of them 🙂 (We will make them this week though so stay tuned!) We started off with chips and salsa during the pre-game/Puppy Bowl, then Megan made these twice baked potatoes with light sour cream, bacon bits and low fat cheese. They were basically a meal in themselves. During the game, I fired up the grill and cooked up some turkey Italian Sausages and suited them up with sauerkraut, spicy mustard and ketchup. After that, we were both in our own food comas. Then the game was over, The Voice came on, I was still trying to figure out if Cee Lo Green was a warlock or not, and then I started this post. Now you know Nathan’s complete life in real time!
So that’s about it. Pretty good day. Great weigh in and a great day of socializing on the interwebs. See ya tomorrow.
Day 491: Saturday Yo!
Greetings!
So I just tried on this Calvin Klein button up that I have had since July that hasn’t fit… UNTIL NOW BOY! Not gonna lie, I be lookin’ fine. The awesomeness just keeps coming and it is flippin’ fantastic.
Breakfast: I had a group meeting this morning so I got up, made some press pot coffee and had some dry toast. Yum.
Brunch: After my meeting, I came home to breakfast! Megan had made some eggs, cheese and bacon. It was awesome as well. (A lot of awesomeness going around today.)
SAWS!: I was in the mood for a run so I strapped on the ol’ five fingers and hit the trails. Recently, it feels like I’m running a lot faster than I was even since October. I’m doing a 5k in April and I can’t wait to see how that goes. Anyways, I when I was running, my form felt a lot better and frankly I felt like another awesome guy who ran in the forest… I ran for about 40 minutes and torched 602 calories. Legit.
Dinner: We had some ground chuck from The Fresh Market that needed to be eaten so I made the best burger I have ever made. I have finally figured out my Weber and how to wield its awesomeness. Megan made some killer guacamole and we also had some Publix macaroni salad left over (which was not worth the calories.) It was a pretty epic meal.
So overall today was a pretty awesome Saturday. Got a lot done and got a fantastic run in. I have a decent feeling about tomorrow, I did eat my share of guac but not a lot of chips but the macaroni salad was just a bad choice. Won’t be doing that again. See ya tomorrow.
Day 489: Thursday With Pictures!
Sorry for no post last night… As you can see, last night was not good. I didn’t post last night because I was just exhausted. For the past couple of days I have been stuck in a feeling that could be related to that moment when you get off of the merry-go-round and everything is disoriented and you are wondering what you got yourself in to. I think I’m just mentally fried. I be slowly getting out of this funk this evening, but it’s lingering like that weird black hole thing in that antidepressant commercial. I don’t know. But, you aren’t here to read about my stress-induced life (or are you…)
Breakfast: I had coffee for breakfast, yes… the breakfast of champions. Nothing like starting off your day with 21 ounces of caffeine scorching through your veins. I had a “dirty coffee” (name penned by my good blogger friend tracey) which is an iced coffee with a shot of mocha syrup. It was particularly good this morning.
Lunch: Megan and I went to this awesome place called Bada Bean that we have never to before. The “bean” works on multiple levels (well at least in my case) because they serve some awesome coffee and they make the best black bean burger in town! I had the steak fries with it (should have picked a better side. Fail on my part.) and it was topped with avocados on ciabatta bread. It was epic.
Snack: I bought some peanut butter from Earth Fare and some local Tupelo honey (evidently if you eat local honey once a day it will cure your allergies) so I combined those two delicious entities to make a delicious wafflewich.
Dinner: We didn’t eat until around 9:30, but it was worth the wait. While we were at Earth Fare, we also got these chicken thingamabobs that look a lot like chicken cordon blue but not as heavily breaded on the outside. They have different variations, but we went with the chicken stuffed with feta and spinach. They turned out really well. We were both really impressed.
So that’s really about it today. Although I am incredibly tired, I’m off to do Insanity because I didn’t last night. At this point, Insanity is like going to your friends house every day and when you ring the door bell, your friend comes out and slaps you in the face. It’s not fun right now, but I can’t argue with the results (the results part doesn’t apply to my analogy.) Anyway, here are the pics I would have posted yesterday. I hope you like them (if not, don’t tell me. At this point I would cry with the force of a hundred waterfalls.) See ya tomorrow.
Day 487: That Time I Got an iPad Edition
Yes, it is true. My life is complete. I guess that’s all I can say.
I’m going to keep this quick because my battery icon looks like that which means I have no clue when my computer will shut off. Awesome right?
Anyway, today was obviously pretty good, but I discovered my kryptonite: rotisserie chicken.
Breakfast: I had to be up on campus a little kind of early so I went for some coffee and bagels and cream cheese. Their Vanilla Hazelnut is usually spot on but tonight was a little burnt. Awe well. Overall it was pretty good.
Lunch: I know I know, animal crackers and Diet Coke: the lunch of champions (and grad students.) I didn’t have much time between classes so I grabbed that out of the vending machine. Yummy stuff.
Dinner: I wasn’t really hungry until kind of late so we went to Publix for some food. They had a deal where you got a rotisserie chicken and two sides for pretty cheap. We kept the sides small and the portions of chicken regular, but that temptress also known as leftover chicken kept calling my name every time I would go in to the kitchen. What was even worse was that I would eat the dark meat and the skin which is the worst part! AHHHHH! It was no bueno. I need to work on that. If I could conquer rotisserie chicken, I would be able to conquer anything.
Insanity: This week is the calm before the storm: Cardio Core and Balance. After this is when Phase Two and it gets just plain sadistic. Anyway, the workout was bad, but it hurt so good. I feel nice and stretched out.
So that’s about it. Tomorrow is Wordless Wednesday! If you have a question for the video, post a comment below or on The Fotographing Fat Kid Facebook Page. See ya tomorrow.