Day 1,158 Monday Mania!

Posted on November 18, 2013 by theffkid

Why Hello!
So as you may have seen on the interwebs yesterday that I ran 11 miles. It was glorious. I needed a gut check kind of run to really test not just my endurance, but my pain tolerance to see how far I could go. I walked maybe a half mile, but that’s being generous. Overall, I was impressed with my average pace. If I keep this up, I’m on track to beat my 2:11 half marathon PR in Feburary. Pretty stoked to see how it goes!

Today was a pretty good day foodwise, but I’ll you be the judge of that… (actually, don’t judge. That’s not nice.)

Breakfast: I started off with a Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwich (we bought what felt like a pallette of them from Sam’s Club this weekend.) They are the perfect supplement for my Starbucks breakfast habit. What’s even better? They are only 5 points!

At my staff meeting this morning, there were apple fritters out and I had half of one…then a whole one. (Like I said, don’t judge.) Now in the past, I would just not count it, but I stuck to my guns and recorded the 17 points of deliciousness. Totally worth the points.

Lunch: Last night, we grilled some delicious steaks along with some chicken for the week. We got a thing of a spicy greens salad mix with mustard greens and arugula. I added some of that grilled chicken with a litle olive oil and basalmic vinegar. A pretty filling 7 points.

Exercise: Group fitness class at FSU. A lot of strength training and ab workouts. I’m going to be soooooore tomorrow.

Dinner: I finished off the day with a footlong ham sub from Subway. It was so filling! Definitely made it worth the 20 points.

So today I got to 49 points out of my 51 allowance. Huzzah for good habits! See ya tomorrow.

Day 1,154 Fair and Other Stuff

Posted on November 14, 2013 by theffkid

Alright, I’ll keep this quick, but I’ll reward you with some awesome photos of the fair!
Here we go:
Breakfast
Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Yogurt 5 points
Everything Bagel with light cream cheese 10 points

Lunch
Pollo Tropical deliciousness. I only ate part of my meal! THAT WAS HUGE! I usually clean my plate like a crazy person. Boom. 13 points I had a skinny caramel maccihato this afternoon too. 4 points

Dinner
Went to the Grain for dinner and had a Quesadilla made with Bradley’s Sausage (this delicious butcher shop in nearby Monticello.)

North Florida Fair!
For the first time since we’ve lived here, we went to the fair! Where there’s a fair, there are cute animals, a hurricane simulator, and yes, fair food. I tried the fried Oreos and Megan had the fried Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. I’m going to go with… 9,000,000 points I also had some Frito Pie in a chip bag just like a Friday night football game. True story: a girl walked by when I was eating it and she talked about how Texan it was and then asked me if she could take a photo of it. Good times.

So today was 80% healthy. A once a year serving of fair food is worth it. Also, my toe is feeling better. I’m planning on running this weekend. Get stoked! See ya tomorrow.

Dead ActiveLink, Bruised Toes & Other Adventures in Weight Loss

Posted on November 12, 2013 by theffkid

It’s funny when you leave open your blog post in your browser and how what you are planning on writing will be completely different in a matter of hours.

So it’s been a pretty crazy week. In fact it’s been a pretty crazy start to the month. I am in a pretty rotten place when it comes to weight loss. My weight has been fluctuating like crazy, but I physically look smaller. My Start to Fitness cross training class twice a week is getting me ripped. I especially see and feel it in my back, my arms and around my stomach. Between that and my running, I have been getting fit in the gym (and track), but haven’t been losing weight in the kitchen.

As you can see from the graph, I’m struggling. It’s hard not to go a little overboard when your favorite team (i.e. my FSU Seminoles) are going gangbusters for the first time since…well…since we were worrying about Y2K. It shouldn’t be an excuse, but it’s been the reality of the situation. My eating is out of whack in the week and then it’s not much better on the weekends. At this point, I feel like I need to have just one good week of eating right, exercising and drinking all the water, I could kickstart my weight loss into gear!

So what’s standing in my way?
Well, like I said, I have had a couple of crummy weeks and days.
First, my ActiveLink fell off my pants. I run with it on my waistband all the time, but some how it got knocked off my jeans when I was walking to work. Crazy right? Where did it fall? It fell on to a busy intersection without me even realizing it. When I was in a meeting, I realized that it was gone. I thought I had left it at home, so I went and looked for it in an attempt to assuage my fears. It wasn’t at home. After lunch, I came back up to work while retracing my steps. Then, I saw it…in pieces…on a busy intersection of campus. It was pretty sad, and I’m pretty sure I looked crazy picking up the pieces while cars were driving by. Anyway, in a way it was a little comical. It’s just a part of life. It could be worse…someone could have stolen my shoes (oh that’s right, that’s happened before…). I know that not having an ActiveLink doesn’t physically stop my from being active, but it’s awesome to have that gauge to know how much more active I need to be during the week. It was just kind of a bummer.

Well that sucks, what else is going on, FFK?
Do you have a piece of furniture in your house that loves to destroy your toes? So do we. We have this black chair that has a leg that has bruised many a toes. Yesterday, I slammed my left foot in to the leg of the chair and as you can see, my toe swelled up almost immediately, followed by turning a black/purple/blue/redish color all around. Followed by pain while walking. It wasn’t fun. So today I went to the doctor and got some x-rays done. I usually wouldn’t go for something like this, but I am training for the half AND I have Stachetastic Run Sponsors depending on me! I found out that my toe wasn’t broken, just has a bad contusion. She suggested taping those piggies together (according to the doctor’s sheet, “taping to the buddy toes”) and it should heal in the next two to three weeks. Not awesome.

So what does that mean for your running?
Well…I’m not sure. My toe has felt better since it’s been taped. I’m already a little more mobile and I think I would feel a lot better if I had taken some pain meds today. So I’m going to rest it tomorrow and just listen to my body. That hasn’t failed me yet. What sucks is that I haven’t ran since Thursday because I was resting my body for some long runs this week. For those of you that don’t know, I am raising money in a special way this month. Last week, I challenged my Facebook friends to donate a dime (yes, ten cents) to Movember for every mile I ran this month. So far I have 14 Stachetastic Run Sponsors and have raised $18.20 by running 13 miles. My goal was to run at least 50 miles, but that might be an issue considering my toes. That’s why I need more sponsors, so that every mile counts. If I could get six more sponsors, I will been raising $2 for every mile. If you are willing to help change the face men’s health, this is a motastic way. No if you will excuse me, I’m going to burn a chair to the ground.

Turkey Two Ways and Other Stuff

Posted on October 27, 2013 by theffkid

So my ‘Noles are awesome. I really think that’s the best possible way to start this post. I mean, have you seen Jameis Winston???

I know it has been a while since I’ve posted on the old blog. I have been super busy with life, work and other craziness.

Here’s a brief recap:

I joined an AWESOME workout training group for faculty and staff at Leach, the gym that started it all (I still want to but a plaque next to the first elliptical I used on the second floor that says “anything is possible.”) It’s mostly circuit training with some TRX and cardio thrown in there. I have only done it for three weeks, but I can already see muscle definition in my arms and my clothes are fitting better even though the scale is still in the same region. (More on that in a moment.)

I’ve been training for the Tallahassee Half Marathon in February. I haven’t done as many races this fall because our Weight Watchers meeting is at the same time most races start. I was a little concerned about where I was physically and where my running was. That was until I beast’d out a 6 miler on Thursday at about a 9-10 min/mile pace. Basically the same pace I was running this time last year. I think that I could have ran more pretty easily, but it was getting dark and I had a hot date waiting for me ;). I’m planning on running the 15k (9.32 miles) Turkey Trot again this year and I’m feeling pretty good about it. I still need to get a few more long runs under my belt, but I think I’ll be in good shape thanks to the cross training I’m getting with my workout group. I also think I’m going to just keep training after the half in February and look at possibly running a full in the spring. Maybe in May, but we’ll see!

I have been getting ready for Movember. More on that later this week.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, Megan and I have already planned out our healthy Thanksgiving meal. It’s not only going be epically delicious, it’s going to be healthy and point friendly! My first Thanksgiving on Weight Watchers was well planned out and actually lost weight that week. The other Thanksgivings haven’t been like that. Time to get back to that healthy mindset. So in the spirit of the season (which at this point it might as well be Christmas according to the stores in the mall. I even Valentine’s Day stuff out at World Market. What the heck????) we made turkey twice this weekend!

Turkey Meal No.1 Last night, after the Wolfpack beat down had been complete, we got busy smoking! We took a rub recipe from Cook’s Illustrated and modified it.The night before, we rubbed the 2.5 pound turkey breast with a salt and brown sugar mixture, wrapped it in saran wrap and put it in the fridge. The next day, we added some more brown sugar along with some Cooper’s BBQ seasoning. I light up my lump charcoal in my chimney and made two piles of charcoal in the grill. We added a aluminum foil packet of pecan chips on to one side and then put the bird on the grill skin side up. About an hour of low and slow later, we had some epic turkey. We also put some gouda sausage from Whole Foods on the grill as well. It felt like Texas BBQ! (But I’m ready for the real thing soon…)

Turkey Meal No.2 Skinnytaste strikes again. After church, we seared a turkey breast and then put it in a crockpot along with veggies and other deliciousness. We put it on low and ran our 3k race in the All Saints district in town. It was a blast! Anyway, six hours later, we took it out of the crockpot, made a gravy and then roasted some potatoes. It turned out all kinds of amazing! Basically, Skinnytaste is awesome. End of story.

So that’s about it. I’ll be posting more soon. Things are kind of normalizing, but until then, thanks for reading! See ya later.

My #FSUPhotoWalk Photos!

Posted on October 4, 2013 by theffkid

Dealing With Binging

Posted on September 30, 2013 by theffkid

I’m going to start this post with a jokes:
How many slices of pizza can you eat from a box while driving from Point A to Point B? The answer: all of them.

(OK, I was never good at telling jokes…)

I know I’ve talked about this before, but I have binging tendencies. It’s something that randomly happens and when it does, I have little control over it. Tonight, it was pizza. And not good pizza, I mean generic, fast food, could be cardboard, pizza. (I won’t mention where it came from, but I will say that roman emperors shouldn’t make their own pizza…pizza.)

Now on any given night, this would be a part of my diet. In fact, I was set to have a pretty awesome day food-wise. However, some nights just don’t go as planned. Tonight, I worked at an event at a residence hall on campus. I was going to a healthy dinner when I got home. When I got there, I saw that there were skyscrapers of pizza boxes stacked ready for consumption. “That pizza doesn’t sound appealing at all,” I thought to myself. Towards the middle of the event, the pizza started to sound more appetizing. “I might eat just a slice if they offer it to me. I have the points…” I said in my head, in a bargaining fashion.

Nice student: “Would you like some pizza?”
Me: “Sure.”
Brain: “WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU? THAT ROMAN EMPEROR MAKES TERRIBLE PIZZA…PIZZA!”
Tastebuds: “We love that crappy pizza. It’s been a while since we’ve had that disgusting deliciousness.”

So…I had two slices of the pizza and I thought that was it. But before I left, I got greedy. I asked for just a slice to go.

Different Nice Student: “Why don’t you take a box home with you!”
Me: “That’s OK. I just want a slice.”
Different Nice Student: “This pizza is delicious as leftovers!!!”
Me: “Yeah…I think I’m good.”
Different Nice Student: “Well here. Just take this box with four slices home!”
Me: “Well…OK sure. Thanks!”

I intentionally left the box in the backseat to avoid any extra eating, but that was until I was at a stop light. I put the car in park and reached around for the box. Then, I binged on all the pizza. It was like my brain shut down except to drive. I really do hate that pizza. We were forced to eat every Friday at the high school I went to my freshman year. But there was a small flavor that my tastebuds just went crazy over so I kept eating.

I’m posting this because I need to document it when it happens in as much detail for myself, but also to shed some light on a topic that doesn’t get talked about.

Now I know I am completely responsible for my own actions and body, but I think we all need to work on being OK when others don’t accept our food. For some people, self control is an incredibly hard thing to deal with and when we are offered a potential trigger food, we’ll eat it no matter what. I didn’t want to look rude to those nice students so I took their food. It’s safe to say that in the US, the cultural norm is to accept the food you’re offered and if you don’t, you’re a jerk or you don’t think the food being offered is acceptable. When a sweet grandmother-like figure offers you a cookie, you eat it because you don’t want to see the sad look on her face when you reject her cookie that actually represents a piece of her soul. (I know this all sounds like a bit of a stretch, but you get what I’m saying.) What I’m trying to say is let our no’s be no’s. For some of us, we can’t help ourselves and we don’t have the control to stop eating even if it hurts. I just want us as a society to reduce the currency we put on food. If I come to your house and don’t eat your block of fried chocolate and cheese, it’s not a reflection on your hosting skills, it’s just something I can’t eat.

Thankfully, unlike a lot of bloggers that I know, binging is a random occurrence for me now. I still have childhood memories of eating seven or eight hot dogs or five plates of spaghetti because I couldn’t stop myself. Some part of my body felt good when I was eating, so I kept going. After all this time, it is the biggest issue I have to face. It’s not something you are ever completely cured of, but it’s something I am working on trying to control. If you have had experiences with it and have any suggestions, I would gladly take them. But for now, I’ll just keep going.

Eating Local and Other Things

Aside

Why hello, dear reader!

I would like to tell you that I am out of this weird weight loss/blogging funk that I have been in, but I would be lying. I really have no clue what’s up. Luckily, I think things are starting to slow down at work (or if anything, reach a normal pace) so that should help with the blogging and such. Where I have been lacking in writing, I have been making it up with exercising! I have been working since the beginning of the month to to active for at least an hour a day. Even if I’m not getting ripped, I just feel better. It’s been a great way just to decompress from the day. Like tonight, instead of watching a two-hour block of Seinfeld, I went for a walk in the nature trail behind our house. It felt amazing to just reflect on the day and think about my goals, both weight loss related and not weight loss related.

Weight Loss Update
So this past week, I did my share of scale peeking. I checked out the scale every morning. It didn’t help me at all, it just made by Saturday morning full of angst and frustration. Then, I got on the scale at Weight Watchers and I had lost 1.6 pounds this week! I’m still a little that I’m the 230’s again, but I’m getting there. I’m okay with being patient as long as I’m making progress. Not just with the scale, but with my actions as well.

With that all being said, I had a pretty epic and brunchtastic cheat day on Sunday. I’m still kind of reeling from eating all the things. I’m definitely working on self control. To help recover from the week, I have decided to stay out of my weekly points as much as possible. I still have Activity Points if I need them (all the more reason to exercise this week.)

Weekends are going to be a challenge from here on in because it is FOOTBALL SEASON!!! Tailgating is about eating all the things. It will be a challenge, but I have been able to handle it in the past. Why should it be any different now?

So Nathan, what’s this whole “eating local” thing you’re talking about?
Great question!
So over the past (almost) three years, we have tried to make the shift towards eating organic more produce and meat. For me, it’s more than the avoidance of using antibiotics and pesticides, it just flat out tastes better and when it tastes better, you’re going to eat it!
One thing we love about living in Tallahassee is the amazing system of farmers markets. We can get in-season Georgia peaches, fall squash and even grass-fed beef for about the same price of regular beef at the supermarket! This week, we took our locavoring a step further by joining a community farm share. Before you ask, no, we are not joining some farming commune where we recycle our own toilet paper. Simply put, we paid for three months worth of locally grown fruits and veggies from organic farms around the area. Every other week, we will go to the farmers market and pick up a reusable bag full of deliciousness. What’s in it, you ask? It depends on the season!

Here is our spread for this week. Some of it you might recognize, some you might not.
This week, we had:

Eggplant (Orchard Pond Organics)

Okra (Orchard Pond Organics)

Sweet Potato Greens (Orchard Pond Organics)

Basil (Orchard Pond Organics)

Muscadine Grapes (Ladybrid Organics, Monticello,FL)

Bell Pepper (Orchard Pond Organics)

Along with: Avocados, Gala Apples, Pears, Nectarine and Pluots

The fun part of this farm share is that it forces you to try new things like Muscadine grapes (a sour fruit that is usually turned into a preserve) and sweet potato greens (which you cook with oil like collard greens). I love a good challenge.

When I opened the bag and saw okra, I thought “we have to pickle these!!!” So we got on the interwebs, found a pickling recipe and got to work! We also added a sliced jalapeno (also from the farmers market) and some garlic cloves to give the okra a little more flavor. They are delciously hot and it was soooooo easy! It’s just another great way to have fun with your food and to appreciate where our food actually comes from.

So that has been my week. I’m running a 5k tomorrow night to support the FSU College of Criminology & Criminal Justice and their efforts to raise money for a fallen officer memorial on campus. Should be a blast! Oh, and hot. See ya later.

This week’s cover: Buckle up for the end of ‘Breaking Bad’

Posted on September 4, 2013 by theffkid

I don’t think I’ve mentioned how much I have come to love Breaking Bad over the past few months. It was waaaay too dark and stressful for me to watch when I was in grad school, but I am completely caught up. I have a few crazy theories about how it’s all going to end (or come crashing down I should say) but so does everyone else. Any ideas?

The Return of the FFK

Aside

If you were to ask me about what it’s like to lose weight, the answer would have varied throughout this almost-three year journey. When I first started out, I would have said “it’s simple! You just don’t eat the bad things, work out whenever you can and drink a crapton of water.” When I hit a pretty massive plateau after I hit the 100 pound mark, I would have said “it’s kind of miserable when your friends who are eating what they want while you’re eating celery in the corner and fighting to lose half a pound.” This morning, I got on the scale, cringed at the sight of myself in the mirror and said aloud “I hate weight loss so much right now.”

Since I have joined Weight Watchers, I have lost as much as 12 pounds, but really I have lost a total of 17 pounds. My weight fluctuates….badly. If I have learned anything in the past three years, it’s that my body hates sodium and will retain and hold water like the Hoover Dam. I will do really well and then I’ll eat a unseemingly salty meal and then BOOM, five pounds up.
(Before you start to write a comment about importance/unimportance of the scale, let me stop you there and say it is just a part of the equation because I can feel that extra weight and see that extra weight in the mirror.)

At this point, it is more than the scale or retaining water, at this point I just mad at myself for eating bad things that aren’t inherently bad. For example: Cheerios. In the world of cereals, Cheerios would not be on George W. Crispies’ list of Cereal Axis of Evil. But when I binge on two-larger-than-normal bowls of those delicious O’s, it is bad news. Last night, I just binged snacked all night when watching TV. It was just mindless eating. I saw the carrots and the apples when I was getting the milk for my cereal out of the fridge, but I still went the other way.

I think the fact of the matter is that I’m tired. It feels like the past three years of grad school, work, church responsibilities, exercising, being social, and counting points have finally caught up to me. I was on the verge of just burning out on life. Yesterday, I did a lot of thinking about where to go from here because I had two options: just quit and see where that would take him (spoilers: emotional breakdown leading to the demise of my weight loss journey) or reflect on how blessed I truly am and how I should quit taking it for granted and then make that the catalyst for my continued success. Fortunately, I went with the later. After I put this whole weight loss/life thing in to that perspective, that so far, it has been such an awesome journey, it has challenged me to make the most of it and to keep going!

So What’s Been Going On With The FFK?
Well I guess I should update you on what’s going on since it has been so long since I’ve posted.
First, I bought a Weight Watchers ActiveLink that tracks your daily activity. The goal is to reach 100% of your baseline activity. For me, that’s about an hour of activity (walking, running, swimming, etc.). At the end of the day, you plug it in to the USB port of your computer and it tells you how many Activity Points (or Weight Watchers Points) you have earned for the day. My goal this month is to reach at least 100% every day. That is going to force me to do some sort of activity because one the days I was just working and then going home, I would only do 9 minutes of activity on those days according to the ActiveLink.

Second, I signed up for the Tallahassee Half Marathon in February! Not only is this the 40th Tallahassee Half Marathon, the featured speaker this year is one of my running heroes, Bart Yasso from Runner’s World. I read his book last summer that documents his journey from being a drug addict to a world-renowned runner. He is truly inspiring! I had thought about doing the full, but I’m going to hold off until I hit my goal weight. The arthritis in my knees and my hips is still an issue, but my doctor said a lot of those problems will be reduced when I lost the rest of my weight. Plus, I feel like I would have needed to have started my training in April to feel truly prepared for a full marathon.
When I trained last time, I didn’t do near enough cross training or weights to get my body in shape for the run. I had the endurance, but I knew there was room for improvement. That if my body was in better shape, then my form would have been better and my finishing time would have been better.

Finally, I have a job that I absolutely love, but it takes up a lot of my time…in the best possible way. I work in a place that not only promotes service, leadership and inclusion to the Florida State community, it fosters a community of passion where its workers are encouraged to be themselves. I get to go to work every day doing what I love. When you do something you love, you are willing to stay after hours and go that extra mile for your job. That does, however, take its toll. When I get home, the last thing I really want to do is look at a computer screen and type some more. So what does that mean for this blog? Probably not daily posts, but an integrated approach where my reporting will be both on here and on my Facebook page. I’m definitely going back to a weigh-in day post on Saturdays that recaps the whole week as well. I love blog writing. I really do. But now I’m just going to have to fit it in to my schedule better than I have.

I hope this hodgepodge of a post makes some shred of sense. It’s been a weird time for me, but I still love being a weight loser and I still love being awesome. So I guess I’ll keep doing that. See ya tomorrow.

***Editor’s Note***
This post was written in two different stages: pre-stressed Nathan and post-self reflection Nathan. If there seems to be an issue of flow, that is why. Nathan would also like to add that he appreciates all of his readers and friends who have checked up on him during this long period of absence. He hopes he is as good to his friends as they are as good to him.