Category Archives: FitBlog

Day 534: Weigh In Day!

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First off:

GO NOLES!!!

Alright where was I? Oh yeah, the epic day I had. So I was good pretty much all week and my body was introduced to new and exciting exercises. Sometimes when that happens, your weight can do weird things. This time however, it was a good thing! I lost 3.4 pounds this week! Holla! So what does that mean you ask? Well… plenty. I am now in uncharted waters with weight again. I don’t think I have weighed below 237 yet but I am now. 236.8! (Barely, but who cares?) SO… that means I have officially lost 120 pounds! It’s pretty nuts! I can’t wait to get to 125 soon. That’s going to be epic. Also, today I looked and at this point, I am 30 pounds away from being out of the obese range according to the BMI scale! That’s pretty cool considering I was 150 pounds away from it when I started. Awesome stuff.

Breakfast: I just had a banana because I knew my friend Julie was going to bring breakfast for our class at church. I had one of her sweet rolls. It was probably around 3 points. Then during the sermon, our good friend Chris preached and mentioned my blog. He was talking about accountability and staying the course. I was honored that he mentioned. Thanks for such a great lesson Chris!

Lunch: I didn’t have much time, so Julie, Stacy, Emma and I went to Bandido’s Burritos for lunch. If you may recall, they have THE BEST chips and salsa in Tallahassee. It was epic. I had the chicken burrito with chips and salsa. I’m not sure exactly how many points it was, but with the next paragraph in mind, I was okay with points today.

 

 

 

 

 

SAWS! So the plan was to play racquetball, but the person I was going to play got tied up so I decided I was going to still workout. As I was walking around, I saw Joe the Trainer. He asked me what I was going to do in the gym. Since I had two rough training sessions, I was going to just do my thing on the elliptical. “Don’t do the elliptical” he told me. I thought he was telling me to not overdo it, but instead he told me to do something intense like the bike or something. It was so awesome to be pushed like that! It’s so easy to get complacent in the gym and just do what you are used to. So instead, I did 20 minutes on Stairmaster which is a record for me. My heart was pounding and I was sweating buckets, but it felt so legit! This happenstance of a meeting with Joe reminded me that I need to up my workout game. I’m not 357 anymore! I need to workout like it!

In here somewhere I had some dark chocolate almond milk and popcorn. Yum!

 

 

 

Dinner:Megan is finally home! So I picked her up and we went to… where else? Jason’s Deli! I had the salad bar but they didn’t have light ranch! AAAAHHHH!!!! So instead I had the low cal honey mustard. It was fantastic! It even has a little zing to it! It was a great dinner. (When isn’t it awesome at Jason’s? Except for the time when my dad was at a Jason’s in Waco and the police took down and arrested a person in the parking lot. That’s awesome in a “COPS is still a show?” kind of way.)

So that was my day. It was a pretty epic Sunday. This week is going to be bananas, so it’s going to be important to plan out my meals and at least have eating down to have some structure in my life. Usually when you have that, everything else falls in to place. See ya tomorrow.

 

Day 531: That Time My Arms Hurt Alot Edition

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My arms hurt so much that it hurts to type. I wish I was exaggerating. I’ll post the pictures but in short: the first day of personal training was epic. Joe is fantastic to work. I want to learn the mechanics of weight lifting and exercising and he really takes the time to explain it all to me. Today we did chest and triceps right in the “Bro Den” (if you go to Leach or go to the gym you know what I mean.) While I was doing chest flys with 12 pound weights, Mark McGuire’s offspring was next to meet doing curls with 90’s. When I was big, the only time I would feel tiny and scrawny was in the weight area. Today, I just focused on me. I went in there, didn’t care what other people thought and just focused on this guy. It was a confidence I never had in the gym. It was an awesome feeling.

Alright, well to summarize the day, I didn’t have breakfast, but I had a great lunch and then an epic dinner. With the workout, I was well within my points. Deliciousness. Again, sorry this was short, but I’m fading fast. See ya tomorrow.

Day 529: Terrific Tuesday Time

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(I wonder how many more T’s I can add to the title…)

Greetings my fine viewing friend! Today was pretty awesome, well for me anyway. I guess you can read about it and be the judge of that.

Breakfast: (I just need to point out that the Walker Texas Ranger theme song just started to play. Imagine this paragraph with an awesome background song. To be even more adventurous, find it on YouTube and listen to it.) Okay, yes I’m super ADD tonight. My bad. ANYWAYS! Megan and I went to Subway for breakfast. I had the bacon egg and cheese sandwich. They are really the most filling 4 points. I don’t know what it is. I was fuller longer after eating that than eating 7 points of Kashi with milk. I really need to re-evaluate breakfast…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lunch: So my class had a field trip to visit the fine folks at VisitFlorida, the marketing entity for Florida tourism. The plan was that my friend Andrew (that’s Mr. Cullen to the vampire horde) and I were going to go to Jason’s Deli before class. Unfortunately, it was packed. So we went across the street to Bada Bean. The last time I was there, I had their epic black bean burger (it’s the best Jerry! The best!) so I had that with potato salad. It was pretty epic and delicious. After we were there for a while, my No.1 cheerleader/hater Alex stopped by too. (How many shout outs is that now Alex?) Anyway, lunch was about 14 points. The sides are kind of limited there so it was potato salad or bean salad, which seemed kind of redundant. For a snack later in the day I had a 1 point English muffin with some honey.

Meeting Joe: So as you may have saw on Facebook, I found out today that I have now have a personal trainer through Leach and FSU! I got the call today and we set up a time just to meet and talk about the fun/death that will ensue. We talked about my weight loss and all that fun stuff and how I’m ready to get more muscly and less flabby. We are starting on Thursday night with weight lifting. He said at one point we will do a high intensity cardio circuit with boxes and ropes and stuff, the kind of things I’ve been really wanting to try. I think my eyes were wide the whole time we talked like his head was made out of chocolate cake or something. (I know that comparison was obscure and perhaps creepy to some readers. What I meant was I AM SO FREAKIN STOKED TO START TRAINING!!!) I’ll have a full recap on Thursday and I’ll talk about it a little more tomorrow night on Wordless Wednesday.


Dinner (THIS PART INCLUDES READER PARTICIPATION SO LISTEN UP!): So even though we didn’t go Jason’s for lunch, we ended up going there for dinner (I know, I’m ridiculous.) I challenged Megan to see who could make the more epic salad. When I mentioned the idea, she became an intense architect of salad awesomeness! Now, YOU HAVE TO VOTE ON THEM! Just say either the top salad or the bottom salad! (Please vote in comments section below and please, no betting.) Anyway, so Megan ordered a French Onion soup with her salad and they accidentally brought two (all right! Double prizes!) Dinner was great! We both found dressings that were low cal and low sodium and we both had our share of their delicious hummus. Fan-freakin-tastic! It is super tedious to figure out a salad, but I did it one time when we visited our friends in Abilene   (This was one of my favorite posts to write! It includes an Old man motivating me! Check it out!) and I figured it out to be about 10 points. I think I’m safe to assume that since I don’t deviate from my salad making prowess. The soup was also 5 points. I could have said no to the soup and had been okay. Awe well.

So that’s about it for today. I got to about 34 points which is really good because only one point was snacking. I think if every day could be like this I would be able to live eating only 28 points. While I know I might be a little off on dinner, either way I’m making much better options with my food which means I just plain feel better. I don’t feel slouchy like I have been. It’s an awesome feeling. See ya tomorrow.

PS (I’ll announce the winner tomorrow of the Epic Salad Battle on my Facebook page!)

Day 528: Monday Adventures

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Sorry for a late night post. We were watching a TLC show about removing excess excess skin after extreme weight loss. It was… interesting. Anyway, Monday was a good day! Monday’s are one of those days that you are worried they will suck but then are much better than expected. Holla.

Breakfast: I had a bowl of Kashi Awesomeness. Hooray! 7 points.

Lunch: Today, I ate lunch at work. Nothing too exciting, just a leftover slice of pizza and a Kashi bar. It was a pretty good 8 pointlunch. Oh yeah, and a delicious apple.

So it was a long time between lunch and my dinner plans, so I came home and had a Lean Pocket (6 points) and 2 points of corn flakes. I need to get some better snacks in the house. Scratch that, I need to eat the delicious fruits that we keep in the house that are free points. (I feel like I’m starting this thing all over again…)

 

 

 

 

Dinner with a Wolf: Today was my friend Andrea’s birthday so a couple of us went out for her birthday! We went to this place called Sahara in Tallahassee. The food was great! I just had a bowl lentil soup. For how much you get, lentil soup is a great low point meal. Sometimes it does taste like dirt, but Sahara makes it right! The soup was only about 3 points but with the pitas it was about 7 points.

I wasn’t kidding when I said (or wrote) that I feel like I’m starting this thing all over again. It has been rough and I’m already close to using all my extra points for the week. In a way though, this really is starting over, just from a different point. I have been stagnant since November so this is technically a new starting place. It’s not easy, but I’m going to make a few adjustments like better use of points for breakfast (eat more fruits, etc.) and better snacking options through out the day. No matter what, I have been more disciplined than I have been in a while and it’s truly a refreshing feeling. See ya tomorrow.

Day 522: Tuesday Post!

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Hello!

Sorry for a random weigh in post and then disappearing for obscure amount of time. The second half of last week was crazy in a good and bad way. It was bad because I kind of crashed hard with counting points and the semester was getting crazy. It was awesome because my great friend Patrick and his girlfriend Jennifer drove through and spent the night on Saturday. Patrick and I were best friends when I lived in Louisville for a short amount of time. Since then, we have kept in contact regularly. However, this was the first time we had seen each other in nine years. It was pretty awesome to see old friends.

Anyway, after they went on their way (in Patrick’s epic Corvette) Megan and I headed down to Apalachicola for a little Spring Break trip. We stayed in a little Inn, hit the beach, saw some dolphins, and then went to Destin for some outlet mall shopping (I bought a bunch of $5 bow ties from the Saks 5th Ave outlet. So flippin’ stoked!) Now, we are back and super ready to get back to counting points. I have even more motivation because after doing the math, if I want to reach my year end goal of 178.5 (half my of my starting weight) all I have to do is average 1.5 pounds every week! THAT’S DOABLE!!!! That’s motivation enough at this point. Get stoked. (Please note: I know the food eaten today will not reflect point counting. That’s why tomorrow is a new day.)

 

Breakfast: This morning, we had breakfast at the Inn we were staying at. Breakfast was a few slices of bacon, toast, fruit and an egg scramble. It was pretty good!

When we were driving to Destin, I had a Kashi bar. Yum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lunch: So a little known fact about me: I flippin’ love Pei Wei and PF Chang’s. It may be my favorite chain in the universe. So when we found out there was a PF Chang’s in Destin, we jumped on it. I went with the lettuce wrap, my favorite, and we shared an order of steamed pot sickers. The food was lukewarm and disappointing because our service sucked. Lame sauce.

 

 

 

Dessert:After a day of crazy shopping, we worked up an appetite for froyo! I went back to the basic small cup with not extra toppings and all that fun stuff. Yum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner: There wasn’t much around the house so we just had nachos. Shredded cheese and chips. Yum.

So that’s about it. There will be a ton of pictures tomorrow and I’ll report getting back to WW via video! Get stoked. See ya tomorrow.

Day 515: Tuesday Time G!

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Why hello awesome people!

Today had a lot a ruge (a combo of rude and good) awakening. We’ll talk about that in a bit. Food time!

Breakfast: So if you recall, last week I ate a really really really really bad breakfast sandwich that substituted bread with waffles. Yeah, it was epic, but no, it was not Weight Watcher friendly. Instead of Atomic Coffee, I went a healthier route and went to Subway! I had the Subway breakfast club with bacon and shredded cheese. The coffee wasn’t Atomic Coffee good (by a long shot) but it was really good! 4 points.

 

 

 

 

Lunch: I had to work through lunch but luckily my awesome wife had the foresight to make lunches before we headed out the door this morning. I had a chicken sandwich with a banana and a Kashi bar. YUM! 6 points.

Snack/Wake Up Call: So after class I was pretty hungry but it wasn’t quite time for dinner so we went for some froyo at TCBY. It was a bittersweet affair. (The froyo is not bittersweet, it was fantastic.) I had a parfait and I thought it wasn’t going to be that bad because it was basically the same thing I get regularly. Anyway, I plugged it in to the calculator on the TCBY website… and it was bad. Like 14 points bad. It was a rude awakening because I have been underestimating my points like a boss. Megan made a good point when she said it was kind of cathartic and relieving to know so we can move on and avoid it from now on.

Later in the day, I had a serving of PopChips. They are awesome. I’ll dedicate a post to their awesomeness someday. 3 points.

 

 

Exercise!So tonight, my bro Alex and his intramural team needed an extra player for their basketball team. I hadn’t played intramurals in years so it made me felt young again. It was awesome. We won the game. Hooray.

Dinner: I just had some fake chicken tenders and barely a serving of PopChips. Awesome. Then I had a thing of string cheese (I want to call it a slice but I know that’s not the case…) so dinner was overall 4.5 points.

So today I got to 31.5 points which isn’t that far over and with the game I was probably okay. See ya tomorrow.

Day 512: Back From a Hiatus

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It has been another long week. While I didn’t blog because I was pretty busy, I’m worried that I was sub-consciously not posting because my eating was just bad this week. What made it worse was that I saw pictures of myself and I really didn’t like what I saw. I haven’t had issues with body image at all this far in my journey, but I think that I have been stuck in this 238-243 pound range for four months it is starting to wear on me. It’s time to really start counting calories and to actually hit the 220’s. I hate feeling this way. This week has been eye opening.

Breakfast: This morning, the MacDonald family encountered quite a tragedy… we have officially ran out of peanut butter. I had to scrap through a few bottles for my waffles this morning. I guess it’s time buy some more!

Workout: This morning, I was ready to hit the gym. I didn’t get to play racquetball this week so I was super extra ready to burn some calories. I tried my hand at lift weights for the first time in… I don’t know when. I then realized how inept I am at lifting. Luckily, FSU offers free eight  personal training sessions to a limited number of students. Sign up is next week so I’m going to try to get in on that. Anyway, I did a few machines and then went to my old standby of the stairmaster. It was beastly and felt awesome. After a few laps on around the indoor track. I did a beastly 10 minutes on this arm cycle machine. MY ARMS ARE STILL SORE! So overall it was a pretty awesome workout.

Lunch-ish:I had a Lean Pocket. Yum.

 

 

 

 

Chili Cookoff Time!: Today was the Second Annual Meridian Woods Church of Christ Chili Cookoff! This year, some our friends (Megan, Stacy, Emma, Becky, Julie, Ben and I to be exact) decided to put together a team of awesomeness. Our brilliant friend Julie suggested that we go as Occupy Protesters and we went all out. Not only did we dress up as super hipsters, we had a tent, fliers to pass out and I took pictures of us with signs about the #OccupyMWCCChiliCookoff movement. (I’ll post them in this weeks Wordless Wednesday!) Anyway, I had some of our chili and then sampled the other awesomeness that other people had. There were a few awards and we walked away with “Best Team Name” (even though we never registered an official name so we were know as Occupy Chili) and “Most Creative Booth” We were super stoked! It was a great time of fellowship and delicious chili. (And yes, I know my award is upside down.)

Snackage:Since we were still pretty full of chili, Megan popped some popcorn so we are eating that while watching Aladdin.

So I don’t think tomorrow is going to be pretty on the scale, but I have hit a turning point and it’s time for The Fotographing Fat Kid to drop some pounds. See ya tomorrow.

 

Day 506: Weigh In Day Time!

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Hello!!!

So the 500th episode of The Simpsons was on tonight… it was disappointing. Awe well. Anyway, so after Wednesday night, my stress level went down considerably which in turn made the rest of the week much better. I only got to work out once this week, but I was good with my food. With that all being said, I lost 2.2 pounds this week! This doesn’t get me back down before last week’s super gain, but I’m going to work really hard this week to get down to where I was two weeks ago (but if I lost more I would be cool with that too 😉 ) I’m really ready to even just be at 237 because that will mean I would have lost 120 pounds which would be pretty sweet. Also, I looked back in to my blog and I realized I have been stuck in the 240’s region since October… OCTOBER! In a way, I kind of feel I haven’t lost really any weight for a while. It’s time to get crackin! I know today wasn’t great, but this week is going to be Healthfest 2012! (Whatever the crap that is…)

Breakfast: This morning, a small group at church hosted breakfast before Sunday School (did I ever mention I’m teaching a Sunday morning class called “The Legit Women of the Bible?”) so we hit up that deliciousness. As you can see, I had a muffin, a piece of banana nut bread and fruit.

 

 

 

 

 

Lunch: So the plan was to just go home and eat whatever leftover we had lying around in the fridge. As we were taking our awesome friend Julie home, I thought about this one place really close to campus that was suppose to be pretty good called Bandidos Burrito Company.  Since we have moved to Tallahassee, we have been on the hunt for some decent Mexican food or at least decent chips and salsa. Our epicurean prayers have finally been answered! Their salsa was fantastic and chips were epic. I had the chicken and bean burrito (which was the size of a roll of paper towels) and Julie tried this really cool sampler of mini burritos (chicken, beef and bean) that I thought would be noteworthy as well. (Or Julie did, I can’t remember…) Anyway, it was reasonably priced, they had a $1 Taco Tuesday and it’s within walking distance to my part of campus. It’s pretty hard to beat. I can’t wait to go back!

Snack: When Megan and I did some clothe shopping at the mall (where I bought this studly blazer and new jeans a size smaller!) I had a skinny caramel machiatto from Starbucks. Pretty good stuff.

So yeah, about that new jeans thing… I’m down to 40’s! Pretty awesome considering about 17 months ago I was year size 54 pants. (At one point I was even wearing 56’s…) Anyway, so since I bought my new jeans from Old Navy, they are having a promotion that you can buy another pair between March 1-31st. My goal is to buy a new pair of 38’s on March 31st. This is going to require a lot of core workout and sadly… more Insanity. Better get started…

 

(Somewhere in here I had some hummus and chips…)

 

 

 

Dinner: I just had some leftover chili with some basmati rice. I also had some light strawberry shortcake. So today wasn’t too bad, but there is always room for improvement. Last week, there literally wasn’t enough time to work out, but this week there is a little more room in my schedule so I’m going to work out more to get some inches off of my body. See ya tomorrow.