Author Archives: theffkid

About theffkid

I've always wanted a blog. Now I have one.

Day 787: Weigh In

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I suck at blogging. Feel like I just need to get that out there.
Full disclosure time: my laptop is knocking on death’s door. It freezes up when I even try to blog on it. It’s a sad situation. No fun. So I’ve been blogging on my iPad recently which is okay since I have a nice case/keyboard, but posting pictures in to the WordPress app is a nightmare. It’s just not an intuitive app and the mobile site isn’t blogger friendly. Because of that, sometimes it’s easier just not to post. I know that makes me sound like a complete tool (I hope you don’t feel that way dear reader) but I’m doing the best I can to make this work because I flippin’ love this blog and I flippin’ love you guys!

Alrighty, now that the mushy stuff is out of the way…

So I’m running a 15k next Thursday. I’m so exercified (excited/terrified) about it at this point. My leg is still not 100% from wiping out last Thursday and my body has just been a little out of whack since. I was going to run tonight, but it turned in to a much-needed night of cleaning and resting because life has been cray cray at Casa De MacDonald. I’m going to run in the morning because I need that alignment in my life. Running (or any exercising) centers you so much. Since it’s already pretty much pitch black by the time I’ve been getting out of work (since I’ve been working late recently) it’s easy to just shove it off until later/some other time/never. Time to get things back in order.

Speaking of which…

So before I went on my super awesome Young Pro’s church retreat to Panama City Beach this weekend, I was down a pound or two from our trip to the N to the O. I was relatively good the majority of the trip! I ate a ton of fruits and veggies, swam A LOT in the freezing-cold Gulf of Mexico, and even got a solid barefoot run in on the beach. Then on Sunday I had some not-calorie-friendly Chinese food and then yesterday we went to Red Robin: home of the all you can eat fries. You read that correctly, they serve fries like they were chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant. It’s delicious but a caloric/sodium nightmare. When I weighed in this morning, I was up to 235.2 so I gained 2.6 pounds which is insane since I only gained .6 pounds at New Orleans, home of the deep fried breakfast pastries with a canoe-load of powdered sugar. I don’t get it. I’m not happy about it. I feel like I have reached critical mass. I was good today, but could have been better. Tomorrow is back to counting, mindful eating, drinking plenty of water, and just being awesome at being the weight loser I know I am. I’ve still come a long way, but I’ve got a long way to go.

#10poundsdownbyXmas

See ya tomorrow.

Day 780: Weigh In Day

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The elections are already over?

I voted for Mayor McCheese because he was delicious.

I’m going to keep this incredibly quick because I still have a bit of a toothache and I need sleep.

I only ended up gaining .6 pounds so I am up to 232.6. I am going to stay the course, eat less, run more, and drink a ton of water.

Beautiful photos of New Orleans on Wordless Wednesday.

See ya tomorrow.

Day 778: Reflections on New Orleans

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So unless we aren’t friends at all on any social medium, you may have noticed my awesome amount of statues from New Orleans this week! Megan had a conference in the Big Sleazy so I had to tag along for the ride. It was ridiculous on multiple levels. I had a blast walking around the town, checking out the street art on Jackson Square, exploring the little stores in the French Quarter…and then eating. So much eating.

Here’s what I learned on my trip…

Beignets and I have got a groovy kind of love. I ate them three times this trip…every morning. It’s hard not to just go down there and just soak up that quintessential New Orleans experience. There was something so calming about walking around a city before it wakes up, before it becomes the tourist trap that it kind of is. It was a delicious decision every morning to get powdered sugar all over your clothes while reading the local weekly newspaper and slowly drinking a cafe au lait in hopes that you wouldn’t sear off your tastebuds.

I’m more adventurous with food now than I have ever been. Although I think it helps that I was actually somewhere that deserves the label “a foodie town” (unlike Tallahassee…no offense Tally.) I tried some pretty exotic stuff from head cheese (Wikipedia it and the first sentence involves the term “meat jelly”) to rabbit jambalaya. Oh yeah… and smoked duck quesadillas, pork belly sandwich, pancetta mac n’ cheese and even duck confit ravioli. Like the beignets, it was hard not to just go nuts and try everything and anything that sounds rich and delicious.

Working out in a new city and while on vacation is a lot of fun! I’m going to do a big post about this later this week or so, but I still put 30-40 minutes in to exercising a day in to the hotel gym and running around the city this morning (although there is seriously nothing grosser than taking in a deep breath while running and inhaling the stagnant scent of last night’s vomit.) Granted I needed to spend about an hour or so more in the gym, but I still easily walked a good 5 miles a day around the city.

I have some awesome fans in Austin! I met up with Megan’s best friend Bethany who goes to school at UT which is where I met Heather. Come to find out Heather and her awesome co-workers at Capstar Parkers are big fans of the blog and have been doing their share of SAWSing it up and losing weight like ballers! It was so encouraging to know that I am hopefully helping people out there in the blogosphere! It really makes me want to be a more consistent blogger and to be more accountable because that’s what this blog is about. Thanks for reading Heather and gang! The next time I’m in Austin, let’s go for a run!

So I have no disillusions about how my weigh in is going to go on Tuesday. It’s going to be rough. But I learned from this trip about the importance of “treating yourself” when it is warranted. I truly feel like I would have missed out on a lot of the New Orleans experience if I hadn’t tried the local food which in this case is rich and delicious. On the other hand, eating stuff like cookies and a whole bag of chips isn’t treating yourself, it’s cheating on your diet and cheating yourself out of a healthier life. This trip made me want to be good so I can explore and try unhealthy stuff like on this trip. See ya tomorrow.

Day 772: Weigh In Day And An Announcement About #Movember

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I’m the Whiz! Nobody can beat me! Because I’m the Whiz!

I’ve lost my mind.

So my weight has fluctuated like crazy this week. At one point I’m hitting my lowest weight yet, and other days I’m up about 5 pounds. It’s just weird. I drink a lot of water, I’ve been trying to keep my eating in check. I just don’t really get it. So when my weight was up .2 this morning, I wasn’t really shocked. I’m not really concerned about it, but it just means that I need to be better with everything from eating to exercising.

Alright. Let’s Talk


So I’ll have a special Halloween Wordless Wednesday tomorrow, but I wanted to explain why I am going to be growing a disgusting mustache for the month of November.

It’s called Movember, a movement to raise awareness about a disease that will affect almost a quarter of a million men in the U.S. this year alone: prostate cancer. Now, I don’t have prostate cancer, nor do I really know anyone who has had prostate cancer. But ever since this weight loss journey began two years ago, I have become so much more aware of the importance of men’s health. Up until this point, all of my concerns were weight related.  So with that all being said, I want others to know about this terrible form of cancer.

Again, here are some more facts about prostate cancer from WebMD:

Prostate cancer is typically a very slow growing tumor, often causing no symptoms until it is in an advanced stage. Most men with prostate cancer die of other causes — many without ever realizing that they have the disease. But once prostate cancer begins to grow more rapidly or spreads outside the prostate, it is dangerous. This aggressive type of prostate cancer can occur at any age. Although the disease tends to progress slowly, it is generally fatal if it spreads beyond the prostate gland itself.

Prostate cancer in its early stages (confined to the prostate gland) can be effectively treated, with very good outcomes for survival. Fortunately, about 85% of American men with prostate cancer are diagnosed in an early stage of the disease.

Cancer that has spread beyond the prostate to distant tissues (such as the bones, lymph nodes, and lungs) is not curable, but it may be controlled for many years. Because of the many advances in available treatments, the majority of men whose prostate cancer becomes widespread can expect to live five years or more.

The article also goes on to say that diets that contain a high amount of fat, red meat and other animal fat can also be a factor.

So what am I asking from you tonight? On Thursday morning, shave off what facial hair you have and get growing. Start clean shaven on November 1st and shave everything but your ‘stache for the rest of the month. Then on November 30th, a month from today, post your sickly awesome ‘stache pic on The FFK Facebook page! Gals, post your pic with your fake ‘stache on Nov. 30th too! Finally,  go to movember.com and join my Movember team #Mustachesarecool. You don’t have donate any money, just create an account and join our team! Throughout the month, I will have updates about prostate cancer and some mustache-related awesomeness.

So let’s get to it! Join tonight, start a ‘stache, and raise awareness about this disease. See ya tomorrow.

Day 771: Monday!

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Confession: I am addicted to Gossip Girl. Nothing better than irrational children dealing with adult problems.

So I’ll keep this brief because frankly it was a little boring. Overall, I was pretty good with food even though dinner was pretty high calorie.

For breakfast, I had a SmartOne breakfast sandwich and then had a banana and an apple for a snack. It kept my metabolism up throughout the day.

For lunch, I had two Boca chicken burgers on two english muffins. I also had a slice of pumpkin pie that Megan had made yesterday. It was even more delicious than it was last night!

So up until this point I had only had 15 points, so I was in good shape up until that point. For dinner, Megan and I went to Bella Bella, this awesome local Italian restaurant that blows the water out of your fly-by-night Olive Garden. Anyway, I had the blue crab ravioli with vodka sauce. I also had a salad with a gorgonzola vinaigrette. Yeah, it was probably on the unhealthy side, buy holy smokes was it delicious.

So tomorrow is a weigh in. It’s probably not going to be great, but I’m going to have the opportunity to work out pretty much every day the rest of this week…but more on that later. See ya tomorrow.

Day 770: Sunday Funday

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Hocus Pocus is on. It’s that movie where Sarah Jessica Parker is transformed in to a horse…oh wait…she always looked like that? Geez.

So today has been pretty awesome here in North Florida! IT’S FINALLY COLD in the Florida sense of the word. It was in the mid to low 50’s all day.

Also, I broke my PR this weekend at the Trick or Trot! I ran a 27:01 which was 25 seconds faster than my PR and and did 3:37 better than last year’s Trick or Trot! I’m feeling really good about my running right now. It’s helping me stay focused on my weight loss, particularly what I eat. When I want to eat something unhealthy, I think “do you want to carry these extra calories on the half marathon?” I want to be as lean and fit as I can be by the big race in February so this mindset is going to help me out a lot for the next few months. Anyway, my next big race is on Thanksgiving. Doing the 15k (9.3 miles) Turkey Trot in Tallahassee. I’m pretty stoked. Good stuff.

Alright, let’s talk food. For breakfast, I had a SmartOne breakfast sandwich. Yum.

For lunch, we had a young pro’s event after church to get to know one another. I had  a turkey and cheese sandwich, a bowl of potato soup and 15-bean soup, and two cookies and a small slice of cake.

We decided to rest yesterday since we had ran Friday night, so we braved the cold and went for a run out at Lake Ella. The wind was whipping around off of the lake so it was flippin cold, especially in my new Under Amour running shorts. (Yeah, they’re short…) Anyway, considering the wind and the first time running in the cold since last year, I ran a 29:22 5k which was still pretty good. I’ll take it.

For dinner, Megan made her super awesome mac n’ cheese with broccoli and then made her even more awesome pumpkin pie. Pretty delicious way to end the night.

I know this was short, but we’ll talk more later. See ya tomorrow.