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Day 610: Terrific Tuesday

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So I know yesterday’s post was a little crazy and a little womp wompy, but I am finally out of it. I have changed my outlook on life a little bit to make it more positive. Life will be okay, it always is. Anyway, what made life even better today was I was asked to have my story submitted for this awesome blog Transformation Pics which required, you guessed it, submitting a before and after picture. I came across the picture on the left. I remember when this was taken. On the inside I didn’t think I look that bad, but then I actually saw myself in the photo and what a hot, big mess I was. Little did the Nathan in that photo know that awesome things were on the horizon. At that point, I didn’t know I was going to get in to grad school, I didn’t know I was going to meet certain people in Tallahassee that would make this journey so much better and I didn’t know that losing more than 100 pounds was even possible. All I knew was that life was wide open and in a way, I was looking in to the future. (I was actually just trying to look artsy, but that’s beside the point.) Now, that old me is looking at the new (much lighter) me and he is saying “Keep up the awesome work kid!” I may not be perfect. I still eat a lot of BBQ and I still get tired of counting points, but I have come a long way since then and I feel dang proud of it. Thank you all for the encouragement and the 138 Likes of this picture on Facebook. You all rock.

Well it’s late and I’m going to run a 6 miler tomorrow morning so I need to sleep. Overall, today was pretty normal food wise except for the fantastic pork chops we had at Julie’s house tonight. They were freakin’ fantastic. I’ll post some pictures in tomorrow’s Wordless Wednesday post. See ya tomorrow.

Day 609: A Super Case of the Mondays and a Weigh In Edition

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Have you ever felt like your life is just passing you by? That everything is going in fast forward and you have no control over anything?

That is exactly how I feel this week.

Job hunting is such a waiting game that makes me so frustrated, confused and frankly a little scared.

I know that something will work out and that the right door will someday open up, but in the meantime I am just excerified (yes, that is the combination of excited and terrified.)

With all that being said, I have felt really held back this week. For the first time in a long time, I feel fat. My the button-up shirt I’m wearing is pulling for the first time, I feel lethargic and I abso-freakin-lutely hate it. Well I should feel fat. I deserve to. I somehow gained 14 pounds on my vacation! What the crap? I mean yeah, I did eat a lot of BBQ, I did enjoy myself but 14 pounds? Are you flippin’ kidding me!?!?!?!?!?!?

Well, luckily (and I use that term loosely) a lot of that was retained water, so when I weighed yesterday (sorry about not posting last night. That was wrong and dumb.) I still am up 7.2 pounds from two weeks ago. This is not okay with me. What makes it even worse, I have no one else to blame but myself. I should cut my portion sizes in half, I should have exercised more, I should have done a thousand things differently. But there is nothing I can do it about it now except learn from it and move on. My addiction to bad (but delicious) food is still far from over. I need to keep at it. I have high goals for myself and I aim  to reach them and beyond. Time to get to work.

Breakfast: I had two servings of the always awesome Kashi Go Lean. Awesome and filling.

Lunch: I had the last SmartOne that we had in the freezer. It was okay, but not the best choice. The one delicious thing about lunch was eating cinnamon roasted almonds and biting in to an apple at the same time! It was awesome! It was a symphony of awesomeness in my mouth. Fantasticness.

Snack: I had some chips and a few wasabi peas. Nothing special

Dinner: Tonight we had Uncle Jim’s chili, but better. Last night, Megan soaked the beans instead of using canned. It made all the difference, it wasn’t near as salty as it usually is. It was even better with some rice, some cheese and sour cream, not to mention some fantastic green Tabasco sauce. Yumtastic.

Run Time: A little after dinner, I went on the first run of my 10k training. Tonight was a 4 miler and it was brutal. Thankfully, it wasn’t 97° outside like it was earlier today. The wind was cool and the humidity was low. I ran a new route tonight that I can’t wait to go run again. Like most trails in Tallahassee, it was hilly and beastly. So much sweat and some many calories burned (710 to be exact.) I love running, and even though my time was meh (48:30) it was a stepping stone for a better time soon. At this point, it’s all about building that endurance back up to where it was in the fall.

Oh, and one more thing… celery is awesome.

So that was my day. A lot of highs and lows but it ended well. Tomorrow should be better. It always is. See ya tomorrow.

Buying New Running Shoes? Here Are Some Things You Need to Know!

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I love infographics, especially when it’s from a company that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Thanks REI for making something so awesome!              Are you looking for shoes? Did this help? Let me know!

Day 594: Hooray For Another Weigh In Day!

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Before I talk about today, I have to give a shout out to an awesome dinner last night with our friends Brian and Kimi! Brian grilled up some cajun chicken and veggies. It was so good that I’m talking about it today (not to mention it made for an awesome photo!)

Okay, back to today!

The following is a list of things I did today that made me feel old:

  • Read a newspaper
  • Clipped coupons
  • Watched Downton Abbey
  • Really got in to Downton Abbey
  • Watched golf

Anyway, where was I?

So this week I was pretty good with food, but not as good as I had been doing. Either way, it all worked out! I lost 1.2 pounds this week! I am down to 235.4 which is the lowest number I have seen on the scale so far! That’s really exciting! I am slowly breaking through my plateau that has been holding me back for so long! Truth be told though, I’m sure I would have made better strides with it if I had stuck to my points better. Anyway, this week is hopefully going to be an epic week of weight loss. I’ll talk about that soon. Get stoked.

Lunch: I didn’t have breakfast so after church we decided to go to Pho7 like last Sunday. Today, I tried the pork version of pho which had pork broth and egg noodles with slices of tender pork. I think it was better than their actual Pho (that and this time I didn’t accidentally make it so spicy that I was sweating profusely.) I looked up pho and it’s about 8 points which was probably about the same as what I ate today. If you ever want to go there, let me know and I will go with you!

Snack: When Megan and I were sucked in to the portal of awesomeness known as Netflix all afternoon. In the meantime, I had 4 points of popcorn, 2 Georgia peaches that we got from the farmer’s market yesterday and then a 5 point slice of this Skinny No Bake Cheesecake that Megan made earlier this week. Not too bad!

Dinner: So the last couple of times we have gone to Wingstop we have been getting our own 10 piece meal with fries. That shouldn’t have been the case considering when I went there when I first starting my weight loss journey (when I was still in the 350’s mind you) I was able to share that combo and still be full. Eventhough I have been doing this weight loss thing for a while, my mind still gets in the way of letting me know that I’m full. It sucks when you order more food because you are scared of leaving a restauraunt hungry. When does that ever actually happen? NEVER! Anyway, what I’m try to say is tonight Megan and I split a combo at Wingstop and it was plenty of food. Neither of us left feeling disgusting, we both left comfortable and satisfied. It was 14 points which is high, but a nice comfort meal.

So that’s about it for today! I got to 31 points which is only 3 points or so over.

 

Teaser: this week is going to be epic.

 

See ya tomorrow.

Day 589: The Time an Owl Flew Over my Head Edition

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More about the title in a bit…

So today was good, but a little more snacky than I wanted it to be. Know what I mean? A few chips here, a few almonds there, not bad by themselves, but together they add up pretty fast. Let’s get to it shall we?

Breakfast: I had two servings of Kashi Honey Sunshine which is super duper filling. Not to mention delicious! 4 points 

Lunch: So the plan was to get Jimmy John’s for lunch which is usually around $9 (you pay for their freaky fast delivery but it’s worth it) but today I figured I would go get a Nature Valley bar from the bookstore across from where I’m working part time. Come to find out, half of the food in the store is 50% off! So I bought some FiberOne bars for 45 cents and Fig Newtons for 38 cents! Awesomeness! So anyway, I had a Nature Valley bar pack and two fat free Fig Newtons. They are delicious! My pseudo (but cheap!) lunch was 8 points. 

Snacking Galore: Like I said, overall today I did about 14 points worth of snacking. I would keep a mental account, but it’s still a dangerous thing because you can overeat pretty easy. I used to be really easy for me to be okay with the counting out what I wanted to eat and that was it. Now, it’s a little hard. It just requires a little more willpower which is still a work in progress!

Dinner: Speaking of cheap meals, we decided to go to Bandidos for dollar tacos which happens every day from 4:20-7:20. They have some of the best tacos in town and for a buck how can you pass that up!?! I had three tacos with cheese lettuce and tomato. That’s it. No sour cream or anything like that. I kept it simple. After doing a little research, we figured they were about three points each so it came out to about a 9 point dinner. 

Owl Time: So there was an awesome thunderhead north of Tallahassee tonight with some really bright lightning shooting around it. Megan and I decided to go out for a walk to watch this awesome storm pass by (it was clear where we were. Don’t worry mom, we weren’t out in the rain or anything.) When we were walking up to our house, a giant winged brown bird with talons flew directly over our heads! It felt like I was at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in the Flights of Wonder show! This creature flew up in to a tree above our car AND IT WAS A FLIPPIN’ BARRED OWL!!!!! It was so cool. It looked down at us and we looked up at it in a stare off like fashion. We stood out there for a good 10 minutes before the owl flew off in to the woods. We have heard owls out there a lot, but we’ve never seen one. Tonight was our lucky night. That dot that looks like a star is actually the owl’s eye! Spooky huh? It’s been a great day with a great night to finish it off. See ya tomorrow.

Day 587: Saturday Stuff

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Tonight, I”m blogging by candlelight on my back porch. It is kind of warm, but the tall trees with hanging Spanish moss remind why I love my place. Florida is not a bad place to be unemployed.

So I didn’t wake up until 11 am this morning. I cannot remember the last time I slept in that late. I think it’s still some residual sleep deprivation from last semester. (Makes sense to me at least…) Anyway, so needless to say I didn’t eat any breakfast. Instead, Megan suggested the Crepevine for lunch! I had the Gooleys which is a smaller portion crepe with bacon, chicken, chicken and romaine. For sauce, instead of ranch. which is what comes on it, I got honey mustard. I was really impressed with it. I usually get the bigger portion, but there is no need to! The smaller one is big enough as it is! It’s weird that our brains crave the bigger portions because it terrified that the smaller portion isn’t going to be big enough. Thankfully, the portion sizes in America are massive, so that’s something we should never have to worry about.

Speaking of massive portions… after Crepevine, we decided to get some froyo at Yogurt Mountian. Sadly, I think froyo places are becoming my enemy. When I started my weight loss, I would be really good with my portion sizes and my toppings. Now, I think it has become a place where I can get away with eating candy since it’s on top of nonfat yogurt. I’m like Newman when he discovers “non-fat yogurt” and then finds out that there is in fact fat in the yogurt. While I am responsible for my actions, I have to give some of the blame to the cups that they give you at the pay per ounce places. They are huge so you don’t really have a grasp on how much yogurt you are getting. I just got a few different flavors, a few scoops of toppings and before I knew it I had 13 ounces of yogurt and toppings! Holy cow! That’s insane! That’s almost a pound of frozen deliciousness! No bueno. I think I need to go back to places that have actual serving sizes so I can measure it out and become the good little weight loser that I know I am! That’s life I guess.

So after that debacle, I knew I needed to go on a run or something so I could undo some of that damage. For those of you who don’t know, a summer day in Florida almost always includes an afternoon shower. It will get overcast and then boom a 20 minute shower. Then it either cools off or get unbearably humid. To me, the best time to run is right before it rains because it will cool off for a few minutes and there is a cool breeze. That’s what I did today. I was planning on just doing a little 5k around the block, but then the running spirits challenged me to go a little further. I am slowly getting my running endurance back to where it was in the fall when I was training for a 10K. I ran around 4 or 5 miles (I didn’t have a pedometer on) with terrain ranging from steep hills to a track around the high school football field by our house. It felt awesome to go running. It helps me think and brainstorm about different problems and ideas. So in about an hour of running, I burned a beastly 668 calories. Ihopethat burned off my yogurt…

 

 

 

For dinner, I made some of Uncle Jim’s famous chili and it was awesome as always. Speaking of portions… again, I used to eat two cups of chili which is only 5 points for my first bowl along with a cup of rice. Then I would usually eat half that much again for seconds. Tonight, I ate two cups of chili and a cup of rice total! And I was stuffed! That’s a really good sign! That’s the ebb and flow of changing your eating habits, your body eventually gets the picture and it adjusts!

 

 

 

 

 
For dessert, I had five little iced oatmeal cookies that we bought from Publix. five of them are only 3 points! Yum! They go perfect with a cup of coffee on the back porch.

So today was good and bad. I am frustrated about the yogurt, but it was a teachable moment for me. I have learned my lesson and I’ll move on from it. Tomorrow is weigh in and I have high hopes for it. I was overall pretty good this week so we’ll see what happens. Either way, I’m in a good place with my weight loss and I have nothing but time. See ya tomorrow.

Day 583: Tuesday Stuff!

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This week, the Institute of Medicine has addressed the issue of The Weight of the Nation in Washington. I have been keeping track of it as much as I can and while there are some really good suggestions being made like making school lunches better and encouraging mayors to create healthy initiatives for their cities, some of the rational behind this conference is a bit skewed. Here is a quote that kind of bothered me.

“The traditional view that blames obesity on a failure of personal responsibility and individual willpower “has been used as the basis for resisting government efforts – legislative and regulatory – to address the problem,” says the report. But the IOM panel argues that people cannot truly exercise “personal choice” because their options are severely limited, and “biased toward the unhealthy end of the continuum.”

This is ridiculous. MacDonald’s, Burger King, or the Government doesn’t force feed people the last time I checked. Everyone is responsible for what they put in their bodies. You cannot blame others for these kinds of things! The issue is that people don’t want to take the extra steps to become healthy. It requires work to count calories, to buy fresh ingredients, heck to even exercise. Some people act like they want to lose weight, but they want to eat exactly the same things and not sacrifice taste. Losing weight does take work and it is absolutely worth the extra steps. Read the article and let me know what you think!

Alright, so although I didn’t post last night, I can tell you that Day One of Nathan cooking went really well! Our friends Stacy and Emma came over and they brought some Spanish Mackerel that Emma’s family caught while deep sea fishing in Destin. I fired up the grill and cooked up it. It was the first time I have grilled fish and it turned out really well!

So today I did pretty well. I didn’t bring a lunch to my work which leads to late afternoon snacking.

Breakfast: I had two servings of Kashi Honey Sunshine. It was filling and fantastic! I had a banana and a Special K bar for my morning snack.

Lunch? I had a massive bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios. It was a few servings…

Snack: I was doing some freelance work so I decided to go to Starbucks for some iced coffee. As I went to sit down, there were no spots left. Since when are coffee shops so popular? Anyway, so I drove over to Panera which had plenty of seating. I sat in there with my iced coffee from Starbucks. I felt like I was loitering. Awe well.

Dinner: So for Night Two of Nathan making dinner, I made some burgers out of the grass fed beef that we bought from the farmers market on Saturday. I grilled up a chopped up jalapeno and put it on top of the burgers along with some of the mustard cheese that we bought a while back from Earth Fare. I also got some fries from Wingstop. They actually aren’t bad when you split them.

Dessert: I cut up some strawberries from the farmers market and put them on my Breyer’s ice cream. It was magical.

So overall today wasn’t bad, but it definitely could have been better. Tomorrow, I’m going to finally try to run at some point. I feel like I haven’t worked out in weeks (probably because I haven’t.) See ya tomorrow.

Day 581: Weigh in Day!

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What is up yo!?!

I don’t understand how Tallahassee doesn’t have a normal coffee place. There have been numerous times that we have traipsed around the city to find a place that isn’t too crowded or too loud or too cold or closing too early! Even though college is officially out this summer, we had to leave a Starbucks because there weren’t any tables available. It was like all of the non-college residents of Tallahassee realized it was finally safe to come outside. So Anyway, our internet is down because of the storm so we are at a coffee shop by Lake Ella. I’m trying to blog and Megan is trying to study for her comprehensive exams that are this week. We got a prime table, my chai latte was heavenly, then like clockwork a duet of old people start to play the guitar and a harmonica directly perpendicular to our table. Usually this kind of thing isn’t an issue, but this place is smaller than my house so I might as well be on the stage of this coffee shop concert. Sometimes our lives are some much like a sitcom. I can hear the laugh track playing in the background. Either that or I’m having a stroke.

Where was I?

Oh yeah…

So this week, even though I didn’t blog that much, was pretty good food wise. I stayed within my points four days out of the week which isn’t too bad. I ended up losing 1.4 pounds! I’m back in the 230’s (239.8 so barely) and I’m ready to finally break in to the 220’s, which hasn’t happened yet. I’m ready to get in there!

I’m also going to exercise more this week. I’m going to start running again. It has been a while and it’s not too hot in the mornings or evenings yet. Not to mention Tallahassee is beautiful so trail running is just awesome.

Another fun thing about this week, I’m going to cook all week! Megan is defending her thesis tomorrow and then will be doing her comprehensive exams all week so I’m going to help out in the kitchen. If you see smoke coming from Tallahassee, that’s all me. We’ll see how that goes.

Alright, let’s talk about today.

Breakfast: I had two pieces of toast with two tablespoons of peanut butter and a banana. The whole wheat bread from Target is only 50 calories a slice so it’s only 1 point for two slices! Score! Breakfast was 6 points. 

Lunch: So today for lunch I wanted some comfort food for lunch. I think the term “comfort food” is used frivolously nowadays thanks to certain chefs and such. I’m okay with comfort food every once in a while, but my issue with people like Paula Deen who is gung-ho about comfort food is that they are okay with having it every meal. (Am I alone in that?)  Anyway, my comfort food is BBQ. Always has been, always will be. So we went to Sonny’s for lunch after church. I had the lunch portion brisket plate. I know the turkey would have been only 4 points for the meat, but I was craving brisket at that point. I also had the baked beans (which are only 2 points) and the baked sweet potato for my sides. What really got me was the two pieces of garlic bread, which were 4 points apiece. All in all, I know it was bad, but at least I’m counting the points and recognizing my mistakes instead of just saying “hi-ho” and not caring. Plus, that’s why we have flex points. 24 points

 

Snack: Yesterday, we made our way down to the farmer’s market on Market Square and one of the vendors had strawberries that had been picked on Friday. They are delicious. So I put them on top of my Breyer’s ice cream that is only a point for a few scoops. I also put a little honey on top, which made it even better. Fantasticness.
Dinner: While we were down at the farmer’s market, we also bought some grass fed beef from the same Georgia farmers that we bought it from a few weeks ago. Tonight was my first attempt at cooking dinner this week. I made tacos with beef and they rocked! Earlier this afternoon, we made a batch of salsa so we used that and I even made some guacamole. They turned out great and they passed Megan’s taste test. So now I’m one for one on the week. Dinner was about 10 points.

Latte: As I mentioned earlier, part of this post was written at Black Dog Cafe. I always get their chai latte, which is hands down the best in town. 4 points.

 So today I racked up my share of points, but like I said earlier, at least I am actually counting now which is a step in the right direction. Can’t wait to see how this week goes. See ya tomorrow.