Author Archives: theffkid

About theffkid

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

Day 4: A Worded Wednesday

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So I know Wednesday’s post are usually wordless, but today was a little boring. Next week, I’ll make sure my Wednesday post is completely wordless! :).

photo 1Breakfast: I stayed home from work today after a night of feeling sick and not being able to sleep (which is why I started yesterday’s post at 5:30 this morning…). I’m feeling better today, but I’m still not feeling 100%. Either way, I’m going to go in tomorrow after I take my car to the shop. Joy. Anyway, I made this super delicious PB&J Smoothie that I made up this morning. Sounds delicious right? Good thing I’m posting the recipe soon! 8 points.

photo 2Lunch: Leftover spaghetti. Noms. 13 points including a little chocolate for dessert.
photo 4photo 3
Afternoon snack: I had a Morning Star quinoa burger and a little watermelon. It was swell. 9 points

photo 5Dinner: Megan made these killer chicken cutlets with sherry garlic red pepper sauce and some garlic parmesan red potatoes. It was 21 points of pure deliciousness!

So today, I got to 52 points out of 48 which is better! I also drank a lot more water today compared to the rest of the week. That’s a win of its own. See ya tomorrow.

Day 3 (A Little Late to the Game)

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What do you do when you’re sick at 5:30 in the morning? You post your points!

Shout out to all of my friends and readers who are cheering me on. You all rock!

So Tuesday was kind of a weird/awesome day. My eating though? Merh. (Hey, at least I didn’t eat pizza at the gym amirite?)

beachMy Trip to PCB: Since I have the coolest job ever, I got to go to Panama City Beach yesterday! My office is putting on an all-week leadership camp for college students called LeaderShape and yesterday they needed help shuttling students to service projects. So at 6:30 am, I made the trip to PCB, shuttled students to Catholic Charities of Northwest Florida where we sorted donated items in their food bank, took the students back to the camp, ate lunch, and drove back to Tallahassee. It was a whirlwind of a day, but it was a blast! So here are some photos of the day…

photo 1

breakfastphoto 2photo 3So I had two breakfasts yesterday. When I was leaving town, I had a 12 point breakfast from McDonald’s (honestly though, I went there for the coffee. The McMuffin and hash brown were just collateral damage.)
When I got to the camp, I actually was pretty hungry again. I had the breakfast items in the photo above which was about 8 points.
For lunch, they were serving chicken sandwiches with salad. Instead of eating the bread, I cut up the chicken and made it in to a killer salad! I also had a delicious cookie. It was camp food. Pretty hard to beat! 12 points.
When I drove back, I stopped for a soda and found this little pecan turtle beauty. 5 points.

Dinner Last night, we celebrated the birth of Brian Wilcoxon because he’s awesome. We went to Midtown Pies for dinner and it was pretty delicious! I had a calzone which probably wasn’t the best decision since I’m pretty sure cheese is messing up my stomach. 30 points
(To quote Uncle Buck “Do you have a plunger?…I’ve been eating a lot of cheese lately.”)
photo 4So on Tuesday, I got to 67 points which is a ton! It was a weird day, but I counted. I’m anticipating the rest of week is going to be a little better. Either way, I’m tracking and I’m being transparent for the first time in a looooong time on this blog. Thanks for being awesome and supportive. See ya…later today!

BONUS READ!
Screen Shot 2014-05-07 at 7.24.15 AMMy blogging buddy Brooke Birmingham is a stud.
A few weeks ago, Shape Magazine asked for a before and after photo so they could highlight her AMAZING weight loss journey where she has lost 170 pounds. When she sent them this photo, they responded with a request for a photo of her fully clothed. As you can imagine, this did not go over well. After a few more email exchanges, Brooke decided not to do the interview. Her post about the experience went gangbusters on social media. So far, she has been featured on Buzzfeed, Yahoo! Shine, and multiple new sources. I’m so proud to call her my friend.

Day 2 Kind Of

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Why hello!

I’m not feeling 100% and I have kind of a crazy day tomorrow. Regardless, I’m still posting.

Here we go!

Breakfast: Chorizo burrito. Yum.

Lunch: Leftover spaghetti. Yum again.

Dinner: TACOS with delicious dips from my buddy Christi’s awesome blog Food&Fam (check it out now!!!!)

So today I got had about 60 points which is high, but tacos are delicious. Done and done.

Seacrest. Out.
See ya tomorrow.

May the Fourth Be With You…And My Weigh In

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StarWarsA long time ago in an FFK blog far, far away…

I used to write Sunday weigh-in posts.

They were a place for me to report my successes some weeks and to discuss my shortcomings other weeks. It is something that I have really missed. Even if I didn’t post at all that week, I still made the effort to touch base with my awesome readers (yes, you are said awesome readers).

I haven’t posted in a while for a couple of personal reasons, but the biggest reason is from just being stressed and exhausted. I’ve been coping with that stress by eating all the things. I felt like I was losing control of my life, the way I used to feel back when I was 357 pounds.

(I was in a bad way, folks.)

So today, Megan and I got our lives back on track. We mapped out a few guidelines in our lives to create better and healthier habits! When we both get stressed, we lose that much-needed structure that you need to be healthy. We finally have that back in place and we are ready to ROCK!

So here’s the weigh in for this week!
This week, I actually lost .8 pounds which is good, but it does offset my 7 pound gain from last week’s weigh in.
So right now, I weigh 253.8 pounds.
Yes, that is a high number. I’ll make no bones about that. But I can’t keep sulking about where I am. I’ve been doing that for the past month and it’s gotten me nowhere.
So this week, my goal is to count every day and to make small changes that will eventually add up to a great success! My large-scale goal is to string together a few weeks of counting and (hopefully) loses. Prior to this journey, I had never gotten through six weeks of a diet. I would always crash and burn before then. So I knew that if I could get passed that point, it was going to stick. Now, I’m putting myself back at Day 1. I’m finally ready to do the work to get to my goal weight.

So here was Day 1…
photo 1Breakfast: This morning, I made a breakfast burrito with chicken chorizo sausage from Earth Fare, two eggs and a little cheese wrapped in a  high-fiber tortilla. It was fantastic and definitely worth the 11 points! It was an awesome alternative to your standard restaurant-style breakfast burrito.
photo 2Lunch: Megan made this delicious curried chicken salad made with canned chicken, greek yogurt, curry powder and golden raisins inside half of an avocado. We had it with a side salad with balsamic vinegar. 11 points.

For dessert, I had a few marshmallows and then later I had a piece of sourdough toast with this yummy maple butter we got a while back. 5 points of snacking!

photo 3#StarbucksSelfie
Afternoon Noms: Since frappucinos were BOGO this afternoon, we went over to Starbucks for a little coffee date. I had a java chip frap with no whip. It was 7 points but next time, I make sure it’s nonfat to shave off even more points. Also, it was beautiful outside today. If it’s still snowing in your neck of the woods, I’m sorry.
photo 4Dinner: I made some spaghetti with meat sauce and green beans. A simple 22 point meal that was super filling.

So it came out to a 56 point day out of a 48 point allowance which isn’t bad because I actually tracked on a Sunday! That’s a really big deal for me!
Small steps. That’s what’s going to make this Fat Kid a Fit Kid! See ya tomorrow.

All the Zoodles: An Unsolicited Review of the Kitchen Basics Spiral Vegetable Slicer

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I guess I should start this post with the statement that I am not a vegetarian (If the moon was made of spare ribs, I would eat it), I am not vegan (diary is delicious bliss in any form…except cottage form), nor am I a paleo (I am not a Flinstone), but I am a guy trying to lose weight who loves to try different kinds of food. That’s why after almost everyone I knew became obsessed with spaghetti squash and zucchini (colloquially known as zoodles) (fun fact: I actually can’t pronounce “colloquially.” It’s really weird.) I had to give them a shot!

A while back, Megan and I made this killer baked spaghetti squash and cheese recipe from SkinnyTaste so we knew that we liked the taste and the texture which wasn’t as big of a jump for your palate as you might expect. Last week, it felt like my Twitter feed was clogged up with zoodle recipes and Tweets about how easy and delicious it was to make. Even the Huffington Post wrote an article about it! So, I took to the interwebs on the hunt to find the right spiral slicer. After reading a few reviews and avoiding the As Seen on TV model, I went with the Kitchen Basics Spiral Vegetable Slicer. It had the best reviews and it was on sale when I bought it.

How do I like it, you ask? WELL KEEP READING, SON!

First of all, it’s essentially a pencil sharpener.
Spiral Veggie SlicerThere is a cap that goes on the end of your vegetable of choice, but I found it easier just to grab it and turn. It’s in an hourglass shape so as your turn the veggie, it cores on the other side. You don’t have to apply a lot of pressure either! Even the skin of the veggie is easy to get through. I would also make sure to cut off the ends and cut off any blemishes if needed.
IMG_2751This is all I got from one squash…
IMG_2752and this is what I got from a pretty big zucchini!
IMG_2753This time, we only did two veggies which ended up being more than enough for the two of us. Since most of it was just a giant strand of vegetable deliciousness, I gave it a rough chop to before I put it in the pan.
IMG_2755I had seen a couple of different ways to cook up the veggies if you want them to be like spaghetti. While I think about of people boil them, I just added a little olive oil and sliced garlic into the pan on medium to high heat. Pretty soon, they started to sweat and pretty much saute.
IMG_2758It took them about 4-5 minutes to get soft. A LOT of water came out so it would be smart to drain them before serving.
IMG_2760AND HERE’S THE FINISHED PRODUCT!
When it was cooking, I whipped (opened) up a simple spaghetti sauce for a topping and we dug in.
The result? Delciousness!
Megan said it best though; “pasta” made this way is not really a substitute for your typical grain/carbtastic pasta. It’s really a dish of its own. Now that we have this nifty gadget, I can’t wait to put it to good use! The possibilities are endless…and delicious!

Do you have a veggie slicer?
How do you like it?
Any good recipes to pass along?

Self Pity Rant (AKA The Real Reason Why We All Blog)

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I can’t even think of an analogy or metaphor for how lost I feel right now…

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Earlier, well…when I started writing this post, I tweeted this. It has just been one of those mucho frustrating weeks where I feel like I’m doing well because I’m exercising but in reality my eating is nowhere close to where it needs to be and I just am sick of it all. My weight shouldn’t be able to fluctuate 10 pounds every week. That horrifies me to no end because I know if I can’t change it, I’m in some serious trouble.

I mean yeah, I have my days of eating poorly, but I have narrowed them down considerably compared to even a few months ago and I’m still 20 pounds heavier. It was like my body was sick of being at the 225-230 plateau and just shot up 20 pounds. It’s insane.

At times I think “maybe you should take a break from Weight Watchers…” but I don’t really know if that’s the problem. Maybe I just need to track everything and then just actually be proactive about the many audibles my life throws at me. But I know there is more to it than that. My issue is how I look at not so much food, but how I treat meals and the importance of meals as celebrations and fellowship are to me. That’s something incredibly delicate that I have to explore, but I have no clue how to actually navigate that internal conversation.

I’m just mad that this isn’t coming easy to me when it never really has. I try to act like it is as simple as just tracking and being active, but it’s not nor has it ever been. On paper, weight loss is easy, but there are times when you are just pissed at your metabolism and genetics (no offense, ancestors).

I feel trapped in my own head. If I’m not eating, I’m planning my next meal. If I’m not exercising, I’m thinking about what I’m going to do at the gym or how many miles I’m going to run. I do all of this worrying and planning for the 5 seconds I spend on the scale every Sunday morning. There is no end goal any more. I’m just trying to get through the day and the week. At this point, I can’t even fathom the thought of being below 200. I guess I’m losing hope.

At this point, I’m so lost. I’m praying this is some rock bottom that I have to hit before my life goes in to some Rocky-style montage where I train and get in to shape so I can avenge Apollo’s death. All I know is tomorrow is another day and I’ll have to deal with it no matter what. Might as well try my best and see where that gets me.

Trying to Get it All Aligned

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“When the mooooooooooooon is in the seventh house
and Jupiterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr lines with Mars…“

Wait…that’s not what I mean…

You hear it all the time “get fit in the gym, lose weight in the kitchen.” While I have fought with this notion for a long time, I’ve seen how true it really is through out my weight loss journey. With that, it’s been easy to have one component of that statement down and have the other one completely lopsided.When I lost my first 100 pounds, my eating was at the forefront of this journey. Sure I worked out, but making smart decisions helped peel off the weight. Some time after that, I lost sight of that. I got caught up in the fitness side a little too much and it seemed to throw me off because I didn’t know how to refuel properly with my eating. Then, I started training for my first half marathon which kind of put my weight loss dead in the water because, contrary to popular belief, you don’t always lose weight when you train for long distance races like half marathons. So right now, I’m not training for a specific race. I’ve put on about 15 pounds since December so I want to get that off ASAP to get my weight loss momentum going.

Since I’ve been working out regularly, usually a combination of running and circuit training classes 3-5 times a week, I feel awesome and actually strong for the first time in close to forever. In the past, I’ve been quick to beat myself up when I want to go work out in the “bro den” (the part of the gym that has free weights, benches, awkward grunting) because I don’t feel like I belong. But how can I make progress if I don’t work out in there? (I’m going to talk about more on that in a post I’m working on. Stay tuned.) Anyway, the point is that good things are happening. After working out regularly like this for the past ten weeks, it would be really hard to stop. I just love it too much!

So now that I’m in such an awesome place with my fitness, I’m really working to change my eating. I’m eating fruits and veggies like they’re going out of style and I’m incredibly intentional about drinking water (#alltheclearpee).

But I’m not perfect…
Can I still pound down a bag of potato chips? Yessir.
Do I hoard candy sometimes like those spoiled brats in Willie Wonka? Sure do.
But…Do I immediately regret it? Now more than ever.

I really hate that feeling of regret after a mini-binge, so I’ve been trying to combat that with just abstaining as much as I can. I tell myself that I won’t miss it in 5 minutes because all they are are just impulses. For example, we walked by a cupcake store in Tallahassee and I thought I really wanted one.

I knew I had two options:
1) Keep walking and go on with my day
or
2) Go in, spend money on a dessert that I’m generally kind of ambivalent towards, and then sulk because I could have spent those Weight Watchers points on bacon.

So, I’m making progress with my eating! I really feel like I’m on the verge of everything lining up for some serious weight loss awesomeness.

Speaking of weight loss…

I lost 2.8 pounds this week! After losing 3 pounds or so two weeks ago, I gained it back last week. (Between kidney stones and traveling, the MacDonalds have been a little cray…) This week, I wasn’t perfect at all. In fact (and if you try to troll me on this, so help me…) I had McDonald’s for the first time since we’ve lived in Tallahassee. I drove to Jacksonville twice this week and I really needed some coffee and breakfast. So, I had an Egg McMuffin and a hash brown. It was 12 points. I counted it and I moved on. I also ate at Hardee’s for breakfast one day and I counted it too. So I wasn’t perfect, but I counted my points and I exercised to bring balance to the Weight Watchers force. This past week was once again proof that when you count regardless and exercise, everything will fall into place.

Count all the points