Category Archives: Grad School

Day 472: Monday and a Late Weigh In

Posted on by

I’m kind of a slacker and I was out and about with friends last night. My bad.

So yesterday, I was hoping for a big loss, but the last half of the week was full of eating out and overindulging. Either way though, I still lost .4 pounds so basically half a pound. Overall, I’m happy about my loss. I’m ready to drop in to the 230’s (which is 1.2 pound away). Hopefully with all of the Insanity this week I’ll be able to drop below.

NSV: There is a silver lining to all of this. To the left is 2011 Nathan who was barely below 300 pounds and the right pic is from last night. I can’t wait to see what I will look like in January 2013.

 

Breakfast: I got to sleep in this morning (which was glorious) so I had a quick breakfast. I just had an English muffin, a little pb and a banana. Yumness!

Lunch: After wishing on every shooting star and rubbing every lamps with genies religiously, they have finally opened a Jason’s Deli in Tallahassee!!! While they have awesome sandwiches and potatoes, their salad bar is the best thing on this earth. I stacked up that salad like a boss, not to mention dominating their awesome roasted red pepper hummus. I can’t wait to go back… like… tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner: When we were out and about, we went to Black Bean for a quick dinner. I just had some black beans and rice and some tostones. Pretty good stuff.

Insanity: Tonight was the second fit test for Insanity and overall it went pretty well. I improved in most of the areas so that’s a good sign. Either way, I was exhausted. After my workout I had one of those awesome one point Healthy Choice fudgsicle bars. And now I’m watching Arrested Development (going through the series for the third time. STEVE HOLT!) See ya tomorrow.

Day 470: Post Birthday Post!

Posted on by

Hello dear reader! Thanks for being awesome!

So no post yesterday [awkward pause here] even though I had planned on it. Last night, we decided to make the drive down the gulf coast to the small town of Apalachicola, home of The Owl Cafe. It was amazing as always, and it made up for the crap I had eaten earlier that day. You see for lunch earlier that day I had a Fat Elvis burger at Tomahawks in Tallahassee. I know what you are thinking, and yes, the burger had fried bananas, peanut butter and bacon on it. I don’t know why I ordered something so fattening but I thought I wanted to treat myself. Little did I know that I was eating regret and grossness. That’s the last time I reward myself with food. Anyway, let’s talk about today.

Breakfast: Nothing like some awesome bacon and eggs for breakfast! I’ve missed that old standby for breakfast and I forgot how filling it was! Yumtastic awesomeness. 9 points.

 

Lunch: After running errands around town (AND WATCHING THE SEMINOLES FREAKIN’ DOMINATE THE TERD HEELS!) and before I played racquetball, I had a Boca chicken patty with an English Muffin. 4 points

 

 

 

 

 

Workout and Stuff: So I’ve been working out in my Zigtechs for the past 6 months or so and recently that have been really hard on my feet. I feel like my feet have been clamped in a George Foreman grill. Anyway, we went to the Shoe Box store to get our feet analyzed to see what would be the best fit for us. The salesperson suggested a pair of Vibram Fivefingers. I have wanted a pair for years so I decided to give them a shot. When I got up and moved around, I could immediately feel the difference. My weight was equally displaced on my entire foot instead on my heels and the balls of my feet. She told me to take it slow at first to adjust to them, so what did I decided to do? Why play racquetball in them of course! I didn’t know how that was going to go, but it turned out really well. I feet felt great and I had the right amount of traction. For my birthday, Megan bought me a pair of FSU Under Armour basketball shorts. They are freakin’ epic. (My wife is better than yours.)

Anyway, as I was saying, I played racquetball with my friend Alex who is in my department. One day in class, he had mentioned that he had came across my blog and that we loved racquetball. We had a blast playing and I burned a crapton of calories. Plus, I was in the fat burn stage the entire time. SAWS!!!

 

 

 

 

Dinner: Tonight, we tried a new recipe from Cooking Light magazine and it was EPIC! We tried the Maple-Mustard Glazed Chicken and had a side of green beans with almonds. The chicken was only 6 points a breast so it was a fantastic 7 points. I also had a Healthy Choice fudgsicle which was only 1 point. I also had 3 points of pretzels when I was watching football.

So today was really good in hopes it would offset a rough Friday. We will see how tomorrow goes, but whatever happens, I will keep on keepin’ on to drop those lbs. See ya tomorrow.

 

Day 468: My Last Hours as a 24 Year Old Edition

Posted on by

I feel old. Let’s just leave it at that.

So this time last year, I was hoping that I would finally break through in to the 200 pounds for the first time since I was in middle school. I can’t believe I have come that far in a year. I’m not gonna lie, this is awesome. Tomorrow, I’m hoping to break in to the 230’s which is where I have been flirting with for a while now. It would be pretty awesome to be down 70 pounds exactly since my last birthday. I’m dreaming big, but why not right? Alright, let’s talk about food and stuff.

Breakfast: I had about 5 points of Nutty Nuggets because that was left in the bag. Yum cereal!

Lunch: Today, I decided to try Tropical Smoothie for the first time today, and while my turkey and guac sandwich was really good, the service was epically terrible and the service was just plain awful. Why is the customer service in Tallahassee terrible at pretty much every eatery/store? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!!!! GET OFF YOUR PHONE WHEN I’M ASKING YOU QUESTIONS ABOUT THE MENU YOU STUPID IDIOT!!!!!!! (Deep breaths Nathan…) Anyway, the sandwich was massive and 12 points.

Dinner: I went super BOGO at Publix today! I bought two things of Boca products, two things of english muffins and two things of these Healthy Choice fudgecicle bars which are the best ice cream bars I have ever had. Anyway, I made “Diet” Chick-Fil-A sandwiches which was absolutely delicious. I also had some stale chips and an ice cream bar. 9 points. 

So today wasn’t too bad. Sorry this blog wasn’t great, but I still need to do Insanity and make a lesson plan. I promise my Birthday post tomorrow will be much better! See ya tomorrow.

Day 467: Wordless Wednesday With Video!

Posted on by

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 466: Titillating Tuesday

Posted on by

Today, I realized how ready I am to join the workforce, make a respectable amount of money and not have to worry about homework anymore. It feels like the end of the semester and it’s only the first full week. This is going to be a photo-finish, but what else is new?

(Deep breaths Nathan…)

So today was a pretty awesome day until it started to pour and I was sans-umbrella. No bueno. Overall though it wasn’t too bad, the class I TA didn’t start a mutiny or anything so that’s always a win. Okay I’m rambling. Let’s get to it.

Breakfast: I had a pomegranate Chobani with a 1/4 cup of Nutty Nuggets (Grape Nuts’ inbred cousin from Walmart.) This is a great breakfast when you know you won’t have a lot of time during the day because the protein from the yogurt makes you feel good and the fiber from the cereal helps you poop fills you up. 5 points

Lunch: Megan and I met up on campus for a quick lunch in between classes. We went with our old standby Pollo Tropical in the student center at FSU. I went with one of favorite meals, the 1/4 chicken with rice and beans. As always, I ditched the roll (empty calories are for trolls.) and went to down on some poultry deliciousness. Pretty awesome (but kind of greasy) lunch. 13.5 points

Snack: I got a late Christmas present from work today that had a few Hershey kisses so I had at most 2 points of candy this afternoon. Not gonna lie, I needed the sugar pick me up.

 

 

Dinner: So my birthday is on Friday (please note: I love Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Pokemon cards) which means FREE BIRTHDAY SWAG! Megan and I decided to go out tonight and redeem some of the awesome stuff I’ve gotten so far. We went to Qdoba for dinner since I had a BOGO meal. I went with the Queso burrito, now I usually avoid the queso, but I remembered that it wasn’t too many more points so I went for it. I came not thinking much of it because what I get at Chipotle is bad..ish but bearable. Not to smear Qdoba, but holy caloric intake Batman my pathetically crappy birthday burrito was a whopping 26 points. I know what you are thinking and yes, my daily allotment is 28 points in the old Weight Watchers system. The worst part is that it didn’t even taste good. Also, I might add that only 100 calories of this 1150 calorie monster was queso. This is further proof that you need to have a strategy and do your homework before you go out and eat out. It also proved that this is a learning process, no matter how many days you’ve done this whole weight loss thing. On the bright side though, I found this awesome owl lamp at World Market. The Owl’s name is Hudson.

Workout: So unbeknownst to me, I had a lot of calories to burn tonight, so I’m glad I went crazy on some Insanity tonight. We did the Pure Cardio session tonight and while it is pretty brutal, the burn is addictive. I felt awesome after. I think the best thing about Insanity is that it makes the most out of your work out time unlike at the gym when you say you’ve worked out for 40 minutes while in reality you used a machine for 3 minutes, looked at yourself in the mirror for 10 minutes and you texted for 27 minutes. 8 exercise points

Post Workout: I had another Chobani and Nutty Nugget combo for 5 points.

So overall, except for the glutton burrito from Qdoba, today wouldn’t have been that bad. We were going to eat at home, but we didn’t have a lot of time so we went out instead. I’m not mad about the burrito, this is the biggest mess up I’ve had in a good while, but it’s just a part of the learning and growing/shrinking process. So today I ate a ginormous 51.5 points. With the work out points that brings it down to 43.5 (which is still grossly over) but luckily I still have weekly points! In my program, you have 35 weekly points so I have about 15 weekly points left. Awe well, here’s to a healthy Wednesday (a Wordless Wednesday I might add!) See ya tomorrow.

 

Day 464: Weigh In Day Time!

Posted on by

Why Hello!

Sorry I didn’t post the last couple days. Even though I haven’t been blogging, I have been really good with my points and I’ve been drinking water like a fish. So last week I burned a bunch of calories and I can feel my body changing (no, not like puberty change) and it paid on the scale. This week I lost 1.8 pounds this week. Like I said earlier this week, I kept telling myself not to get mad or down if I didn’t lose a lot this week, but all things considered I’m really happy with my loss this week. I mean, I did lose three times as much as I did last week. I am down 115.4 pounds and I’m at 241.6 pounds. I feel like I have been stuck in the 240’s for a looooooooooooooooooong time and that’s because I have. My birthday gift to myself (which is Friday. Take note.) is to break through the 240’s for good and never go back. I know a while back I was hoping to be in Onderland by my 25, but you have to respect and understand your body because it will do its own thing (whether you like it or not.) I feel like we have a good thing going with Insanity right now. It is (very) hard, but you make really good use of your exercise time and when you work out like that, your body begins to crave healthy fuel which makes the diet portion of our lifestyle a whole heck of a lot easier. It also helps that our lives are going to be grad-school-strength crazy for a while so we have had to plan out our meals so we don’t eat out every day. The crockpot is going to be used a lot this semester. Yumtastic awesomeness.

Breakfast: I just had two low fat Eggo waffles (much better for you than the Walmart brand) and a tablespoon of peanut butter. It was a pretty good breakfast for being on the go. 4 points.

Lunch: After church, a couple of the young professionals from church went out to Red Elephant for lunch. I had the standard awesome Oriental Salad with seared Ahi Tuna. It was magical. 10 points (from what I calculated)

Snack: I had 4 points of chips and salsa. Hooray for awesome stuff!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner: Tonight, we decided to hit up Super Perros for a little Colombian awesomeness. I decided to go with the veggie plate which had rice and beans, salad with honey mustard (random I know) and sweet plantains. I also had a chicken empanada which was good but a little greasy for my liking. Pretty awesome and filling dinner.

So overall today was pretty good food wise. This week is the first full week of school which will be insane, but it will be fun nonetheless. We also start back up Insanity tomorrow (Sundays are a rest day. A much needed rest day might I add.) which will be awesome. Should be an interesting week. See ya tomorrow.

Day 461: Thursday!

Posted on by

Greetings!

About this time usually in the week, I begin to think about the good ol’ Sunday weigh in and what it might bring. I’ve worked out more this week than I did all this Winter Break and I’ve hardly tapped in to my weekly points so far. I’m worried that the scale won’t necessarily correspond with my success this week. I’m trying to comes to grips with that so I won’t get discouraged and derail off of the awesome progress I have made so far this year (yes, I am looking at it in the context of a year.) Whatever happens on Sunday, I am taking solace in the fact that good habits are being implemented towards the greater goal of losing weight like a boss!

Breakfast: I was in a bit of a rush this morning so I just grabbed a Nature Valley bar and a cup of coffee. It worked for the busy morning I had. 4 points

 

 

 

Lunch: So today I came to the sad realization that I had been calculating my favorite sandwich at Jimmy John’s wrong recently. I thought my Beach Club with half of the mayo was only 9 points but then I recalculated it and it’s actually 14 points. I have been recalculating to make sure I’ve been doing things write so I can stay on point.

 

 

 

 

 

Snack: I had some Nutty Nuggets (4 points) one serving of chips and salsa (3 points) half a Hershey’s Bar (2.5 points) and a partridge in a pear tree (too early for Christmas humor?)

Oh yeah, I had some fruit too. Super filling.

Dinner: For dinner, Megan and I met up with our friends David and Ana for dinner at Sonny’s. Sonny’s use to be a gluttonous orgy of deliciousness with plates full of meats and sides and other fantastic delights, so I’ve had to make adjustments to my eating habits there. Luckily (and ironically) they have a really awesome low point salad called The Big Salad. Even with the chargrilled chicken and the fat free dressing, dinner was only 7 points! And yes, that is half as much as my lunch.

SAWS!: Today was Cardio Recovery for Insanity. When you hear the word “recovery” you think “relaxation.” When I hear “recovery” I hear “death and sadness.” There is a lot of stretching and intense yoga. All I know is I feel much taller than I did this morning. 3 exercise points.

So today, I got to 34.5 points so with my exercise points I was a few points over today which is more than fine. Tomorrow is going to be another brutal day of Insanity, but I can wait for it! BRING IT SON! See ya tomorrow.

 

Day 460: First Wordless Wednesday of 2012

Posted on by

[meow]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 458: Monday Post

Posted on by

It’s Monday and there isn’t school. That is awesome. I’m basking in its glory before life gets fun, complicated and kind of sad. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some grad school, but I’m ready for a J-O-B! (You hear that future employers?) Anyways, I’m also ready to get my weight loss back in gear so my blog will be worth reading. That started all today by clearing off my dining room whiteboard made space for a place to tally my points and exercise points. Alright, here we go.

Breakfast: When we were out and about at Earth Fare this weekend, I found this dried raspberry granola cereal in the bulk food section so we decided to give it a shot. I had half a serving of the cereal and half a serving of Stoneyfield yogurt. It was really good and really filling. I miss yogurt and cereal as breakfast. It was 5 points (what’s with the bold numbers? I actually use to tally my Weight Watcher points back in the day. I’m back to that.)

Oh yeah, we also had press pot coffee. It was deliciously strong.

 

 

 

Lunch: Since I’m still kind of stuck on West Coast time (three hours behind) we didn’t have lunch until around 3ish so we went to Subway. Megan and I went with the classic Black Forest ham sandwich. It was really good with some light mayo and spicy mustard. It was 8 points for a six inch sub. Hooray!

Insanity Day 1… Again: So we have tried to get through Insanity a couple of times, but we have fizzled out since it is pretty rough. Today was take two (or three or something like that) of our Insanity excursion (that is if our friends The Wards still let us borrow their copy…) and it was brutal. Day 1 is the Fit Test which you wake every couple of weeks to track your progress through out the program. What I tested today is if I can survive. The results was yes, I can survive. Thanks to my new Polar FT7 heart rate monitor watch/chest strap, I am able to accurately track my average heart rate and calorie burn. In 27 minutes, I burned 284 calories. It’s good to know how many calories you are actually burning in your workouts so you don’t under or over eat. After our workout we ate a delicious salad with 1 point of this awesome Annie’s honey mustard. I forgot to take a picture but I’ll be eating a lot more salad so you’ll see it soon enough.

Dinner: For dinner I had two Boca burgers with the scrapings of what was left in a chip bag. On my WW plan (an older one, not the Points Plus plan) one Boca burger is only 1 point which is awesome. So with the bread, the chips and the burgers were 8 points. I was impressed (plus they are cheap at Walmart too!)

 

 

 

 

 

Snack: Tonight, we went to see The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (also known as our generation’s The Silence of the Lambs) and they had $2 candy. We were planning on getting froyo after but instead we decided to split a box of Reese’s Pieces. As I looked on the back, it scared me a little bit because I would demolish boxes of candy like it was going out of style. An entire box was 12 points! Yikes! So Megan and I decided to split the box. Still kind of high, but not a bad treat for tonight. I had about 6 points worth. To quote my hilarious friend Sarah “No wonder ET was so lumpy.” Oh yeah, and these are my new glasses from Seattle Optical. You like?

After we got home, we had some popcorn (which is way better and healthier than theater popcorn) which was only 2 points (we are now watching Gilmore Girls to mentally decompress from a super intense movie… yes, we are watching the Gilmore Girls. Don’t hate.) I also had 3 points of waffles.

So today, out of my 28 allotted points (which I have over done ever since I was down to 28 points) I got to 33 points which isn’t at all bad especially since I have workout points. A great day. See ya tomorrow

 

Day 450: Christmas Edition

Posted on by

Well another Christmas has come and gone. It will be one that I will not soon forget. First things first though, according to the scale at Megan’s parents house, I have lost 3 pounds which means I am unofficially down to 241. I feel pretty good about it, but I know I’ll have to make up for today (more to come on that) and I just want to see it on my own scale. Either way, I have a good incentive to work out not only because I’m shooting to get to 225 by my birthday, but Megan’s parents bought me an awesome Polar heart rate monitor watch that I can’t wait to use! It also counts calories which will really help maximizing my workouts. Anyways, so today was definitely not what any of us expected, but it was a blast nonetheless.

 

 

 

Lunch: So Christmas dinner was planned out and the plan was to have a Christmas breakfast before or after church. Well, after church we decided breakfast didn’t sound that good at that point, so we decided to go to eat out for lunch. The only place open was Jack in the Box. It was epically delicious and epically gluttonous. The nice thing (or bad thing, depending on your point of view) about Washington state is that it’s required to have the calories posted on the menus at chain restaurants like Jack in the Box. It helped guide me kind of in the right direction. For better or worse, I had a burger, half of my fries and two tacos. Yeah I know, it wasn’t pretty. All things considered though, I ate at fast food restaurants a total of three (yes… three) times in 2011 so that counts for something? Maybe? Either way, it was an adventure and it felt like our own version of A Christmas Story except with a smiling duck I have a sad colon full of taco deliciousness.

 

Dinner: Megan and my Mother-in-Law Pattie were super busy in the kitchen making an epic and organic Christmas dinner. Everything was made with organic or fresh ingredients, along with shaving off calories here and there to make a dinner we will not soon forget. We had a massive rib roast, fresh green bean casserole, sweet potato slices and home made rolls. Like I said, it was delicious and I am still stuffed.

So like I said, it was a great and filling day full of delicious food along with great family. Although I still missed my parents and sis in Texas, it has been a fantastic Christmas. See ya tomorrow and Merry Christmas.