Day 902: Thursday Yo!

Posted on March 7, 2013 by theffkid

You guys, I’m seriously addicted to Freaks and Geeks. WHY IS IT ONLY ONE SEASON????

So I really don’t know why I haven’t been posting. It’s been kind of crazy around here, but things are starting to slow down. One thing I have been doing is lifting like a boss! It feels good to work out! I think it’s going to really help with my running too. I can’t wait to run another race (I’m kind of addicted to that too.)

As far as food today, I did really well! I brought my food to work, I portioned out everything and I made sure I had enough points for dinner with The Wolf and Phil (no, that’s not a 70’s folk band name.)

Here is the breakdown of the day, followed by photos of my ridiculous life.
Breakfast: 5 points
Lunch: 5 points
Snacks: 5 points
Dinner: About 24 points
Exercise Points: 10 activity points
1 Weekly Point used

I LOVE BEING ON TRACK!!!!

Let the photos commence!

Day 901: Wordless Wednesday

Posted on March 6, 2013 by theffkid

35 points.

Posted on March 2, 2013 by theffkid

From the FFK Vault….
The FFK and the case of the Phantom Farter.

Day 894: Wordless Time!

Posted on February 27, 2013 by theffkid

(Click here for more awesomeness)

Day 893: Weigh In Day

Posted on February 26, 2013 by theffkid

So this morning, I didn’t know what the scale was going to say. Sure I had tried to be on point with counting a stuff, but last night I overdid it a little at a reception. (If we weren’t suppose to eat cheese, then why was it created???) Anyway, I knew that whatever it said, I am in an awesome place with everything. I’m actually holding myself accountable again. Something I haven’t done in a long time. I’m just ready for a change. I’m ready to look different. For a Large to truly fit. For there to be a one in front of my weight and not a 2. It’s coming and it’s going to happen, but in order for it to, it’s be patient with my body while being proactive and disciplined. I’ve worked too hard to get to where I am now not to finish this journey I have started. Now I’m ready to start.

This morning, I was up .6 pounds. Big whoop. I’m at 233.8…but not for long.

Let’s rundown the menu for today shall we?
Breakfast: Eziekiel English muffin, 2 tbs of pb and a banana (8 points)
Lunch: Quinoa with black beans and corn (6 points)
Snack: Voskos greek yogurt with granola (3 points)
Snack: Four Wheat Thin flatbread crackers with a little chow-chow relish (2 points)
Dinner: Three tacos with black beans and ground turkey (11 points)
Exercise: (Which felt amazing!) Leg day, 15 minutes on the Stairmaster and 30 minutes on the ARC Trainer (Burned 631 calories)

So today I got to 30 points. 2 points over my 28 point limit (reminder: using an old system). With my exercise points, I’m good! Here’s to an awesome Wednesday! See ya tomorrow.

[PRODUCT REVIEW] Hanadas!!!

Posted on February 24, 2013 by theffkid

(I was trying to think of a clever title like “Raise Your Handana if You Like Handanas!” or something like that. Awe well.)
Like most of you know, I live in Florida. A hot, humid, and incredibly sunny, state that can make life miserable. While I did grow up in the furnace known as Texas, it was a dry and miserable heat, none of this “oh hey, let’s go live in a sauna from May to October” business. What I’m trying to say is…I sweat. A lot. Even though I have lost 125 pounds, I still profusely sweat like George Constanza eating Kung Po (George likes his chicken spicy!) What’s worse is that sometimes (well…all of the time) sweat gets in my eyes and it hurts so much that I have to stop exercising for a few minutes. This happened countless times on my long runs when I was training for my half marathon. IT SUCKED.

After this happened a couple times, I finally tried a few different things.
I wore a hat. Fail.
I wore a sweatband. Fail.
I wore a bandana. Fail.
I wore my hood up on my hoodie. Fail.

Nothing seemed to do the trick. Then, I found the Handana.
26 years ago, Katie Niemeyer suffered from a horrible disease called Stevens-Johnson Syndrome that caused her skin to blister out in to second and third degree burns all over her body. Unlike a lot of patients afflicted with this condition, Katie survived with minimal scarring and she wasn’t blinded from it, which is common. However, SJS did make her eyes very sensitive. So like me (except for the fact that I’m just a crybaby and Katie is a stud) when she was able to exercise again, getting sweat in her eyes was incredibly painful. Since she was training for an upcoming marathon, she needed a solution.

That is when she invented the Handana! A moisture-absorbing sweatband that wraps around your hand! The Handana is like a glove with a space for your thumb and your fingers. It’s soft. It’s durable. And man, does it mop up your sweat! I think the biggest advantage of the Handana is its mobility per se. You can absorb any sweat on your body that you can reach. Definitely awesome for me since I can’t stand having sweat on the front and on the back of my neck.

Product Testing Time!
You may not know this, but I’m a HUGE Cook’s Country and America’s Test Kitchen fan. One of the coolest things they do on the show is product testing. Since this is my first equipment review, I’ve taken their testing model to review the Handana. So, I tried the Handana in three sports that I regularly do: racquetball, spinning, and running.

I could wear it with my Polar watch with no problem too!

In racquetball, you sweat like a maniac. It’s useless to try to wipe the sweat off of your shirt…because it’s full of sweat too. I wore the Handana on my non-racquet hand, not because I was worried about gripping the racquet, but because I knew I would need it. It mopped up the sweat perfectly. A great thing about it is even if you’ve used all the places on the Handana, you can go over it again and it still feels dry. No gross sweat-on-sweat action here!

Spinning is another thing I used the Handana for. At first, I was a little worried about gripping the handlebars on the bike, but that wasn’t an issue at all! It perfect for a quick swipe here and there to feel human again.

Post-race photo.
Photo Credit to Andrea Wolf of Wolf Industries.

Finally, I used the Handana for running. Lots and lots of running. It was perfect for those times that I needed a quickly swipe the sweat on my forehead to prevent it from getting in my eyes. This kept me from having to stop which in turn kept my run times accurate. I used the Handana during the Tallahassee Half Marathon, which made sweat one less thing to worry about. That way, I could worry about other things…like my calves cramping or my toenails falling off.

Overall, I have been impressed with the Handana. If you think about it, it just makes sense! When I first read about it, I was worried that it would be a nuisance, but it feels like you’re wearing nothing at all! Nothing at all! Nothing at all! (Stupid sexy Flanders!) Frankly, my only complaint is that I needed a size smaller. I thought I would need an XL Handana, but in reality I needed a large. It wasn’t an issue, but it was just a little too loose for my liking.

So, now that you know all about Handana, go to www.myhandana.com and check them out! They are available in five sizes and a copious amount of color combinations from red and black (like mine) to burnt orange (ewww) and black. Also, be sure to like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter! Start your own Handana story today!

Note: I have received products from Handana. All thoughts and opinions are honest and are my own.

Day 886: Hello Weigh In Day!

Posted on February 19, 2013 by theffkid

Today was a new day.
A new start.
It felt refreshing and liberating.
I finally feel like myself again.
What an awesome feeling.

So I gained .8 this week, but that was an incredibly welcomed number. I’m finally back in the low 230’s after being close to the 240’s all week. It’s crazy how my body fluctuates.

Now, obviously a gain is a gain, but I have a big plan to change all that. Starting tomorrow, I am going back to counting Weight Watchers points. I figure that I should go back to what got me to where I am today. With that being said, I’m going to try to incorporate more of the Skinny Rules in to WW. More sprouted grains, little to no carbs after lunch and A LOT of Greek Yogurt. Sounds delicious to me.

Sorry to cut this short, but it has been an exhausting day, and I’m ready for some serious sleepage. 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 858: Weigh In Time!

Posted on January 22, 2013 by theffkid

Howdy! (I used to start each post with a salutation in a different language. Maybe I should start doing that again…)

So today I wasn’t sure how today’s weigh in was going to go, but it ended up going meh. I gained .8 pounds which means I’m back up to 230.4 pounds. Am I mad bro? Nah. In fact, I weighed in after work and I was still that weight. I think I just had some retained water which is just the circle of life. Like I said yesterday, I torched some serious calories last week and I plan on doing the same thing this week. Calorie burning feels awesome!

I have homework and other stuff to do before bed so let me do a quick quick rundown with photos tomorrow.

Breakfast: I had a sliced hard-boiled egg on an English Muffin. Awesome proteintasticness.
Snack: Apple and a cheese stick.
Lunch: I had some chicken I had grilled last week with some Uncle Ben’s microwavable brown rice (which tasted like cardboard.)
Snack: I had a packet of Justin’s Peanut Butter with a banana. I was impressed with how it tasted! I’ve heard mixed reviews from people, but I think the regular PB was delicious and the perfect pick me up for the afternoon.
Dinner: Megan made this delicious Pesto Chicken from SkinnyTaste! YYYYYEEEEERRRRMMM!
SAWS: Megan and I went to the Health & Wellness Center to work out. In August, FSU opened a new Health center which includes a new workout center. It’s smaller than Leach, but it has nicer machines, not as many meat heads, and overall is just a better facility. (But don’t tell your friends about it. I don’t want people to know about it…SSSSSHHHHHHHHHHH)
Snack: After we worked out, I had some Fage yogurt with some deliciously ripe blackberries. Awesomeness.

So that’s it for the day. If feels to be back on the healthy wagon. See ya tomorrow.

Posted on January 21, 2013 by theffkid

“You’re just at the beginning of your fitness journey. It’s going to be a long and painful road but you are going to feel so much better for making these steps today…So Dear Overweight Person out there who may be too afraid to invest in the gym, just do it. The gym is there for you. People buy memberships to the gym to better themselves. Not to judge others who come through the door.”