Category Archives: Grad School

Day 222: Out at the Beach!

Posted on by

Sup everybody!

So, sorry about last night, I was going to post, but I was grading until 3 am to be done with it once and for all. It is officially summer! That is until the week after next when I start summer classes 🙂 Anyways, today we went out to the beach with some of the people in Megan’s department. It was such a blast just chillin and swimmin (yes that was suppose to rhyme) with knowing that nothing is due on Monday. As far as eating, today was the last day with this no points recoding crap. Tomorrow, I’m getting serious about this and I’m going to get back on track and stay on track.

Breakfast: Just a wafflewich of happiness.

Lunch: Before we got to the beach, we stopped at Subway to grab some lunch. I tried the orchard chicken salad sandwich with spinach and cucumbers. It was really good for being Subway.

Snacks: We packed some grapes, oranges, chips and granola bars with us so we could snack sensibly on the beach. It really made the difference having healthy options with you like that.

Dinner: After an exhausting day of swimming, horseshoeing, bocce balling, and lounging around we were all ready for some food. So we went in to town and have some great Florida seafood. I had fried oysters that were lightly fried (oxymoron much?) and I really wanted to get the potato salad which was suppose to be the best in the world, but I made a small but smart decision and had a side salad with this amazing Tupelo honey mustard. It really wasn’t a bad dinner and it really hit the spot.

Snack: when we got home, I had a Popsicle, some banana chips and some peanut butter.

So I know this whole week I’ve been saying “I’m going to get on track tomorrow, I’m going to get on track tomorrow…” well, this is it. It’s actually going to happen. I’m going to get out of this funk that was caused by a combo of being sick and finals and lose some dang weight! Tomorrow, I really don’t have a clue if I will lose any but if I do I will be surprised. Regardless, next week it’s going to be back to the basics with a lot of hard work. I’m way too close to losing a 100 pounds not to keep on track. I mean, at 100 pounds, I’m only halfway to my goal! I still have a long way to go and it’s going to happen. See ya tomorrow.

Day 220: Done With Year One

Posted on by

Yes it’s true! I took my statistics final and I am cautiously optimistic about it. I knew the stuff and followed the steps which in statistics is all you can do so we will just see what happens! Either way, I’ll survive another day. I wouldn’t survive, however, if I keep eating the way I have been. I know I said I was going to do a better job this week with food, stress does some crazy things to your body (can I get a witness?) so I have eaten bad and have drank way too much diet soda and coffee instead of water so my I think my body is going in to reserve mode which eguals weight gain. I’m hoping to turn this rig around by Sunday so I’ll actually lose weight this week, but I’m also craving some bad food, like really bad (as you’ll see) because with the stress I’ve been craving comfort food and all I can think about it places to eat (which is what I used to always do which obviously didn’t turn out well.) I need to really detox my body and start fresh. I’m on a mental plateau and I need to get my head back in the game. This brainwash back to awesomeness will start tomorrow: summer.

Breakfast: I had a wafflewich because they are awesome and make me happy.

Lunch: So my final was from 12:30 to 2:30 so after we were done, we went to this cajun place called Po’ Boys to celebrate getting through the test and the semester. It’s a pretty awesome place with good, but super rich, creole cuisine. I had the Creole Sample with crawfish in this creamy sauce, bayou gumbo which was also cream based and red beans and rice. It was all delicious but I was stuffed after. Not sick, but just a lot more full than I’m use to.  As you can see, they didn’t skimp on the portion sizes either.

Dinner: I just had the other half of my burger from Monks yesterday which was just as awesome as it was yesterday. I also had some rice krispy treats.

Exercise: After an afternoon of cajun food and some residual stress from the final, I really wanted to hit the gym to burn some calories. (Warning: I am going to have a TMI moment, feel free to skip a few lines down… or you can just get over it.) So I haven’t bought new boxers in a while so as you can imagine they kind of look like I’m wearing a kilt when I’m wearing them. Well, I usually wear compression shorts to work out in but I forgot to put them on before I went to work out so I wore these flowy cotton boxers. When I got on the elliptical, the wedgie was unbearable, like turning into a sumo wrestler’s thong bad. So I had to quit, I went over to the bikes but it was still bad, then I did the rowing machine for around 15 minutes and by then I needed to go. I was a little frustrated that it was kind of a sucky workout but I’m playing racquetball tomorrow with Matt D. so that should make up for it.

So today was did have bad eating, but since you don’t get exercise points for using critical thinking during a final, I’m getting back on track tomorrow. Alright, time for bed. Royal wedding coverage starts in T-minus 3 hours and 35 minutes. See ya tomorrow.

Day 218: Tuesday of Finals

Posted on by

Howdy!

It’s been a pretty good day! I’ve been studying really hard so between that and grading my week is set. I’m just ready to get this semester over with. Fun stuff. Anyways…

Breakfast: I had the breakfast of champions: pomegranate chobani and an english muffin with honey. It was awesome and really charged me up for racquetball. 4 points

Exercise: For the first time since… well, you can look it up (whoever does gets a gold star!) I got to play racquetball! I’ve really missed playing so last night I sent out a Facebook challenge for anyone brave enough to take me on. Within 5 minutes I got a call from Adam, our campus minister at church. We had a blast! I won 3 games to 2 so it was a blast. Fun stuff.

Breakfast II: When I got back from racquetball, I had another english muffin with almond butter. I think I have a news love, and her name is almond butter. 3 points

Lunch: After studying until around 2:00, I went over to Jimmy John’s for some sub awesomeness. I went with the veggie without the mayo and one of their awesome whole pickles. Since I ate it at home, I just put some light mayo on and it tasted just as epic. 9 points.

Snack: while grading, I had a bowl of rice krispies. Only 3 points. 

Dinner: Megan’s class of four had their big final presentation tonight so they decided to go to Mellow Mushroom. (I know, poor me. Mellow Mushroom twice in 24 hours. Ah, the life I live.) Anyways, it was $5 cheese calzone night so we ate really cheap! 13 points.

So today I got to 32 points which is over but I’m getting closer to getting back to my 30 point allotment. I really need to get it back down so I can actually lose weight! Tomorrow is going to be better. See ya tomorrow.

Day 216: An Easter Weigh In!

Posted on by

HAPPY EASTER!!!!!

I hope everyone had a great time with their friends and family and Easter eggs. I have to admit, I did miss my family and our awesome Easter lunch, but it was still pretty awesome! So, I knew it was going to happen and it did, I gained 1.6 pounds this week. Am I surprised? No. Am I mad? Not at all. Was it a wake up call? Yes. If you remember from yesterday, I was talking about this mindset I had of “I have the whole summer to work off whatever I eat this week so it’s whatever.” I didn’t realize how dangerous that was for my personal journey. You see, my whole life I have said “I’ll lose weight later” “I’ll lose weight in high school” “I’ll lose weight in college” “I’ll lose weight after I get married.” That was my mantra for so long and it it snowballed in to me weighing 357 at 23 years old. So today, I was still bad and the worst part I knew I was being bad, but I didn’t stop! I didn’t come to this realization until after dinner so from this point on, I’m going to really stick to my points and exercise this Temple of Awesomeness (if I was cool enough for a tattoo, I would totally get a tramp stamp tattoo of that.) I want to start the summer of right so for all intensive purposes, my summer starts tomorrow. [Insert the Phineas and Ferb intro here.]

Breakfast: We were running late for church but luckily when we got to Sunday School (is there an age limit to call it Sunday School?) there were some awesome apple cinnamon muffins so I snagged one of those bad boys.

Lunch: We were invited to our good friends, the Schuberts, house for Easter lunch and it was awesome! Mrs. Schubert made this awesome ham with a Paula Deen glaze so yes it had both brown and regular sugar and butter (the three staple ingredients in any PD recipe) then there was potato and macaroni salad from Publix. Then I had something that I have never had together, much less for Easter: carrots and guacamole. Mrs. Schubert swears by the combo and she says the carrots are a good alternative to chips because the chips are what’s bad in that combo. (Short of spinach artichoke dip, when it comes to chips and dip, the chips is the bad part.) So I know that doesn’t look like a lot of food, but against my new normal eating habits, I ate seconds and thirds. It went in to this bizarre old pattern and it really alarmed me. I’ve read the calories and fat for the Publix macaroni salad, I know how bad it is. That wasn’t stopping me. I just ate it. Regardless, it was a great lunch with great fellowship.

Snack: We had to run a few errands around town and I had a 20% off Easter coupon at Yogurt Mountain so we went there for a little Easter dessert. I was pretty indulgent with mine (I justified it as it was my Easter candy. I didn’t eat any candy for Halloween! Why is Easter different?)  I even added a little (like the surface of a quarter) hot fudge. I don’t know what emotional hole I was trying to fill with food, but my soul has a pothole in there somewhere. It tasted good but it wasn’t worth how sick I was after.

Dinner: We wanted to make chili but since we haven’t grocery shopped in a while and Publix was closed, we went to Super Perros for dinner. We split the Godzilla and ordered an extra order of beans. It was freakin awesome.

Exercise: I drove to Leach to go work out because I thought they were open until 11:00 but they were open until 9:00… and I got there at 9:15. Lametastic. I got home and did a 20 minute workout on Wii Fit and I was actually worn out from it. Frankly, it was embarrassing. It’s time to get my workouts back in line.

So it was an interesting day full of introspection but it was much needed and I’m in a much better mindset than where I was. I think I got really caught up with my long term goals this week and the excitement of being in the 150’s someday meanwhile overlooking the great amount of work I still have ahead of me. Here’s to a better week. See ya tomorrow.

Day 215: Im Back!!!!!!

Posted on by

In case you forgot, my name is Nathan MacDonald and this is my blog. Nice to meet you.

Sorry for my lack of blogging this week. It was the last week of classes and I had two massive papers due on the same day. I’ve written and read a crapton this semester. Hooray fro grad school. Anyways, I just have a final on Thursday and then my first year of grad school will be done!

So I was sick with a bad cold, got better from that, got pink eye, got rid of that, and then I had a mutant canker sore (100% from stress) right next to my molars so eating anything hard was so much pain. A lot of this week I have been eating soft foods like mushy rice and beans. It has been a lot better today, but that had a lot to do with what I ate which I have a feeling will playing in to my weight numbers this week. My weight has super fluctuated this week and however bad it is tomorrow I have the summer (and the rest of my life) to make up for it. If I gain, how could I be mad? It will be Easter, and we have A LOT to celebrate that day.

Breakfast: I actually got to sleep in today (which hasn’t happened at all this semester) so I got up and made some bacon and eggs. According to Megan, it was the best breakfast she has ever eaten. Anyways, it was a pretty big breakfast and so it was 10 points. I think I was starving.

Lunch: Before heading over to Megan’s departments end of the semester party, we went to Subway to get some lunch. We split Subway and it rocked. 8 points.

Party/Dinner: The party was delicious. There is always a bounty of delicious ethnic foods so it was hard not to try everything. Overall, what I ate wasn’t too bad… except for the 3 blondies I ate. Oh, and cold sesame noodles which were basically peanut butter and  ramen. The food wasn’t bad per se, but my portion control was just off today. I avoid eating cookies and brownies usually, but I think today I was just so relieved after 72 hours of straight stress and writing about Cold Stone (yes, I wrote a 18 page strategic marketing plan about Cold Stone yesterday Ironic huh?) I was just ready to indulge a little bit.

Workout: I haven’t had a chance to workout at all this week, even though I desperately wanted to. Luckily, Leach was open so I headed over there while Megan was working on her mutant papers. The gym traffic was light, as expected, so I hopped on an elliptical and went to town, I did a cross training program for 40 minutes. I was going at it pretty hard, but then I realized the girl next to me, who got on around the same time as me, had burned a good hundred some calories more than me. Not to be outdone, I added more resistance so I would work harder. That’s how I burned a beastly 601 calories in 40 minutes. Thanks random girl next to me on the elliptical for unintentionally pushing me harder. When I got home I had some rice krispies.

Non Scale Victory: This is a weird thing to celebrate, but today it’s my shadow. (Yes, my shadow.) My shadow was always a reminder of how big I was, I would look down at my arms, think “oh, I’m not that big! I’m fine! [Insert other naive comments here]” but then I would see my shadow and think “well.. this sucks.” It never lied, it always showed who I was and what I looked like. Also, it was always round. Very round. Today while at the party, I looked down at my shadow and I didn’t recognize it, my shoulders were a square shape and I wasn’t near as wide. It was pretty insane. So no matter what happens with the weigh in tomorrow, it could be worse, I could be round. See ya tomorrow.

Day 210: This is Where it Gets Fun

Posted on by

This week is going to suck.

I have a lot due and somehow I’m going to cram a lot of time and energy in to some important papers and tests this week. This is going to be epic.

Breakfast: I just had an English muffin and a blueberry Chobani. They were delicious with a capital holy crap this is good. 4 points.

Lunch: I got home from class and errands around 1:00 so I was starving. I had two pizza burgers on bagel thins with some rice chips. The chips were chipotle cheese so they really complimented the flavor of the burgers. [Insert some variation of “yum” here.] 9 points.

Dinner: I picked up Megan from school and we headed over to the other side of town to set up camp at Starbucks to study. But first we decided to get dinner. We wanted to try somewhere new so we went to Black Bean, a Cuban place on Apalachee. It’s a humble abode with vintage Cuba travel posters through out the place and the condiment holders were cigar boxes which won me over right there. Anyways, I wasn’t sure what to order, but for some reason Steak and Fries sounded good. I was thinking small portions and steak fries or something like that. Instead I got this. Pretty much a basket of fries covering half a cow underneath. Not what I was expecting but it happens. I immediately asked for a to go box to move the fries so I wouldn’t eat my way down to the steak. I started by eating the moros (black beans and rice cooked together in beautiful harmony) and by then I was almost already full. I ate about half the steak and maybe an 1/8th of the fries. I’m not going to lie, it was amazing, but I was really proud of how much food I brought home. Back in the day I would have eaten all of it with out a blink.

Snack: This morning, I was reading my blogging pal TJ’s blog and she talked about something she got at Starbucks called “Dirty” coffee which was iced coffee, a pump of mocha and a splash of half and half. From then on, I was dying to try this concoction of awesomeness. It was fantastic. Since I am a Green Level member at Starbucks, I get a free refill on iced coffee so I got a second one free! For both ventis it was a total of 6 points so not bad at all! (What is bad is that right now I should still be bouncing bouncing off the wall and instead I’m super exhausted. No bueno.)

So today I probably went over a little bit, but if I had been smarter at Black Bean I would have been fine. Awe well, that’s life yo! See ya tomorrow.

Day 209: Weigh In. Big New Goals. Pink Eye.

Posted on by

Sup yo.

So yes, we are still sick. To make things even more interesting, I have lost my voice (and I can’t find it guffah guffah) and I sound like a bad-Marlon-Brando-in-the-Godfather-who-has-pink-eye impersonation. Anyways, with the crapton of work I have, I’m really ready to get better to get through the end of the semester. I guess being sick does has its benefits, I  lost 3 pounds this week! Although I did indulge a little bit at the end of the week, I kept within my points which pays off. So… as of today I am 15.2 pounds away from losing 100 pounds! I’m sooo close! That’s right boys and girls! I have lost 84.8 pounds since September. I’ve come a long way and I have you to thank dear reader. Since I’m now below 275 (for the first time this millennium) I am now at a new point limit: 30 points a day which is not a lot considering when I started I had 34 points a day.

Breakfast: Just a 5.5 point wafflewich. Legit

Snack: For a mid morning snack I had a rice crispy treat and a cup of coffee.  2 points

Lunch: For wanting to be in the advertising business, ads really do work on me. I saw a Jimmy John’s commercial and after that it was all I wanted for lunch. So we got them to deliver (and yes, it was freaky fast) since the idea of going outside at that point was awful. Anyways, their subs aren’t great for you, but their not that bad if you cut the mayo. I have the vegetarian sub and it would of had 30 grams of fat but then I cut the mayo and I was only 9 grams of fat. Pretty insane. Anyways their veggie sub has avacado spread, lots of lettuce, sprouts and cucumbers. It was amazing. Also, I but a little bit of our light mayo on it and it tasted pretty much the same! 8 points

Snack: Around 3 I was getting pretty hungry so I had a 3 point veggie patty chicken sandwich. It. Was. Awesome.

Dinner: Yesterday, we bought some mahi mahi from Earth Fare to have for dinner some time this week. I wanted to make fish tacos (my favorite thing in the world. Seriously.) So Megan made a pseudo deconstructed version of fish tacos and it rocked. She made her own pico de gallo, baked the mahi mahi, and then served it with a dolip of light sour cream and blue corn chips. The best part was that the fish was only 125 calories with 1.25 grams of fat so most of the points came from the chips. Probably the best 7 point dinner I’ve ever had. 

Dessert: We had to return a movie at Publix, so we went to Yoga Berry for a little dessert. (I know what you are thinking and don’t worry, I Purrell’d the tar out of my hands before I touched anything.) I had some taro with crushed up waffle cone, strawberries and blackberries. A pretty awesome 4 point dessert. 

So today I’m up to 29.5 points so that will work!


GOAL TIME! So I know I’ve rolled out some goals earlier this month, but today I’ve thought a lot about adding some more goals to serve as a timeline to keep on track with my weight loss. I know a lot of people think that you have to have small goals mixed in with the large goals and I agree with that, but when I have a big goal, like getting under 300 by my birthday this year, it made me work really hard to get to it. As far as goals go, toy around with both and find what works for you! Anyways, here are my new goals:

Be at 250 by the 4th of July

Be at 200 pounds by December 31st, 2011.

Be in Onederland (below 200 pounds) by my 25th birthday.

Looking at these numbers, I know they look kind of far fetched from now, but that’s about losing 2 pounds a week so that is doable. I know that is going to get harder as I get thinner (I just realized I’ll be thin soon. Legit!) but I have the whole summer to work out, run, and hopefully surf  to get down to my goal weight. So far, this journey has been a blast and I can’t wait to see how it will all pan out. Get stoked. See ya tomorrow. 


Day 207: The Time I Got Pink Eye Edition

Posted on by

[Enters nurse stage right]
[Nathan takes off sunglasses]
“Ouch! Pink eye!”
“No no no you don’t understand, I had something in my eye last night and I couldn’t get it out…”
[Nurse leaves]
[Enters doctor stage right]
“Oh man… you have pink eye”
“Dang it!”
 

This is how my afternoon went. No bueno. I couldn’t blog last night because I couldn’t open my left eye. It was gnarly and gross and now… it still is. I’m ready to stop being ill, with this upcoming week being the last week of school the last thing I need is for my body to be out of whack.  Awe well. I have the weekend and hopefully it will help the process. Alright, food time.

Breakfast: I just had a wafflewich for 5.5 points.

Lunch: The other day Megan bought some Buitoni tortellini so we had that with some spinach and cheese marinara sauce. It was delicious and 9 points. 

Comfort Food Snack: After both of us went to our respective doctors, we needed some comfort food to make life feel a little better. We went to Wendy’s for a frosty and some fries. I just got a small frosty and we split an order of small fries. This was a far cry from what I would of had back in the day. The only race I used win was drinking milkshake races at Whataburger with my friends. Hooray. Anyways, a small frosty is 7 points and half a small fry is 3.5 points so not bad and it could have been way worse.

Dinner: Megan made these awesome flat bread pizzas with Flat Out flatbread (BOGO at Publix, Holla!) and soy pepperonis that were only 50 calories and .5 grams of fat. A whole flat bread pizza was only 4 points so with some salad with balsamic vinegar was an awesome dinner. 

Snack: (Sorry if this picture gets burned in to your mind and it gives you nightmares) Megan (did I mention my wife is super awesome?) made some rice krispy treats that were super delicious. That much of rice krispy is only 1 point. Pretty cool stuff.

So today I got to 31 points even today which isnt bad since it involved a frosty and fries. Good times. See ya tomorrow.

Day 204: Tuesday Times

Posted on by

Sup yo!

So I went to the doctor and I found out that I just have some weird cold virus that is going around the school. The doc just said just drink a lot of water and to get some sleep and that will take care of it. It’s good to know that I’ll survive, but in the process, I got Megan sick! So we are in a bit of a role reversal where I’m playing nurse now instead of her (that sounded a lot weirder than it was suppose to…) Anyways, the last time I went to the doctor, my blood pressure was really high like 150/80. The nurse was a complete jerk and gave me a lot of crap about being big… but that’s for another blog. Anyways.. again, today my blood pressure was 108/50 and this nurse was thrilled! She was like “what ever you are doing keep it up you are doing awesome!” Then I told here about my weight loss and she was even more impressed. Pretty awesome trip to the doctor. Anyways, good times.

Breakfast: I was in a rush to get to campus to get in for an appointment so I brought a Fudge Brownie Clif Bar for breakfast. The Fudge Brownie one tastes a lot like those no bake haystack cookies that mom used to make. Pretty good 4 points.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lunch: After being cooped up in the doctors office, I was pretty hungry for good lunch. I went to Pollo Tropical for some chicken and black beans and rice. It had been a while since I had the good ol’ 1/2 chicken combo so it was a good lunch. 13.5 points.

 

 

 

 

 

Snack: Before my marathon of classes, I needed some caffeine to get through. I had a skinny iced caramel macchiato and it was delicious. 3 points. (P.S. this might the weirdest face I’ve ever made on this blog.)

Snack: When I got home, I had matzos and cheese. 2 points

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner: Since Megan wasn’t feeling well, she said that she wanted some Pizza Hut for comfort food. We had thin crust pepperoni, onions and tomatoes. It was delicious but, 16 points for four slices.

So I got up to 38.5 points. Ouch! I was going to work out today, but it did not happen. I am going tomorrow morning though and I am going to give the rowing machine a whirl. Should be a good one. See ya tomorrow.