Day 651: Monday Time Awesomeness.

Posted on July 16, 2012 by theffkid

One day down… only 13,505 to go.

Today was my first day in the real world. It feels pretty darn cool. If anything, it’s just nice to have some structure in my life that I can build my weight loss around. I know that sounds weird but it’s the truth. Speaking of weight loss, today was definitely a win the in the weight loss column. I ate really well and even got some good exercise in there! Awesomeness!

(How do you like my jacket?)

Breakfast: I was awoken early with a call from my dad (thanks for the wake up call Pops) followed by the smell of delicious eggs being cooked. I had one breakfast burrito with some homemade salsa. Yumtastic.

Lunch: I went home and a little chili. I didn’t eat that much and only a little rice. I was proud of my portion size!

Snack: I came home to a ginormous salad. It was amazing and filling. That’s all that needs to be said.

Dinner: Megan made another amazing recipe out of the always-awesome Skinny Taste. She made the Grilled Flank Steak with Black Beans, Corn and Tomatoes. She grilled it on the George Foreman since it was thinly sliced. The steak was juicy and the black bean concoction was cool and delicious. You definitely need to try it. NOW!

Exercise: After a while, Megan and I went down to the pool and swam some laps. It was nice because there wasn’t anyone down there. After an hour, I had a little (emphasis on a little) peanut butter and a banana along with some watermelon. It feels good to fill up on healthy things.

So that’s about it for today. Pretty awesome. See ya tomorrow.

Day 650: Weigh In Day Yo!

Posted on July 15, 2012 by theffkid

So yesterday was an epic turn in our weight loss. Megan and I have re-comitted ourselves to weight loss and the importance of heathy eating. No better way to start off this new chapter in my weight loss journey than with a loss! I lost 2 pounds this week! I am back in to the 230’s to stay. It was pretty cool because yesterday morning I was 242 so it feels like I had lost even more! I can’t wait to see what will happen at my next weigh in!

Breakfast: I switched up my breakfast routine with a breakfast burrito with two egg whites and one whole egg! We actually bought these La Tortillas that are 45 calories and 7 grams of fiber, making them 0 points! It was perfect with some of our homemade salsa. 4 points.

Lunch: After church, most of our young pro’s group went to Jason’s for some healthy deliciousness. Most of us are trying to lose weight so we talked about how we can hold each other accountable. Some of us are actually going to start training for some half marathons down the road. There is a Disney Half Marathon on the weekend of my birthday in January so I think I’m going to DESTROY IT!!!! Anyway, I made an epic 15 point salad with a 3 point ice cream dessert. Hooray for healthiness!

Snack: I had a glass of milk with coffee ice cubes. It was 2 points.

Dinner: I had a leftover burger and instead of a side like fries (which is what I wanted) I decided to heat up some brussels sprouts and ate them instead. It was awesome and so filling. 6 points

Run: Megan and I decided to go for a walk/run since our pool was brotastic and annoying. We ended up going for about four miles. There was a lot of sweat involved, but at least it is cooling off in the evening.

Snack: When I got done, I went to town on some watermelon while dicing up my finger in the process because I’m awesome like that.

So today I got to around 30 points and with the exercise I am in good shape.

Tomorrow I start my new job! So stoked for all of the awesomeness that will ensue. See ya tomorrow

Day 649: The Time I Met a Biggest Loser Edition

Posted on July 14, 2012 by theffkid

There were about twelve different ways that I wanted to start this post. Some were funny, some were emotional and some were like the opening of the first episode of “The Newsroom.” Sometimes when you write, you wish you could just visually reenact a moment rather than having to describe it in words. Today was just one of those days.

It feels like I am about to start my weight loss journey all over again which is an excerifying (exciting and terrifying combined) feeling. Today, I got to meet one of my favorite reality show contestants of all time (except for Colby Donaldson in Survivor Season 2. He was the Chuck Norris of reality show contestants.) The 11th season of The Biggest Loser had one of the most diverse casts that a weight loss show could ask for: an olympic gold athlete, a 5’5″ 500-pound stud, a Biggest Loser Fangirl from the Midwest and a pair of sisters who no one betted on from the start. Little did anyone know at the start that Hannah Curlee and Olivia Ward would wind up in the No. 1 and 2 spots in the finale that year. Since Megan and I love a good underdog story, we rooted for Hannah and Olivia almost from the get go. So when we heard that Hannah was going to be speaking at a women’s wellness event in Tallahassee a few weeks ago, we started to flip!
Hannah’s story is a lot like most of ours: she had done Weight Watchers off and on for years and every time she would lose on weigh in day she would go celebrate with more eating (which I am super guilty of,) she also chased every fad diet and would buy every As Seen On TV weight loss miracle available. Between a severe back injury and surgery, Hannah started to rapidly gain weight until she couldn’t fit in to booths and the other awkwardnesses that go along with been extremely obese. Then she started in on the many adventures of The Biggest Loser. How Jillian is insane but awesome, how much of a dump the Biggest Loser Ranch was (the exercise room didn’t have running water nor did it have real walls) and how she awesome it is to have that fraternity of Biggest Loser contestants. It is always interesting to hear about the reality of reality shows. The funniest thing she said about the Biggest Loser was that everything was either mic’d or had a camera hidden in it from the grass to the bathroom. It made me glad that I never ended up trying out for the show (but I thought about it a couple of times. In fact, Megan and I almost drove to a casting call in Dallas for the couples edition in 2010. Safe to say it all worked out regardless.)

So after Hannah spoke, she opened it up for questions. A lot of questions about calorie intake, how many times to weigh a week and a whole bunch of other good questions to ask a weight loss guru like her. Now as most of you know, I have been in a slump this past year. I lost 100 pounds in under a year and have been struggling ever since because I have been just running out of steam or if I take a few steps forward, I take more back. I wanted to know how to get passed this halfway block that I have created for myself. I started out with “hi! I am halfway through my weight loss journey and…” then she stopped me and asked me how much I have lost. I told her 117 pounds and then she said “that’s awesome! Let’s give him a hand!” Then she came over and shook my hand. Now, I get star struck when celebrities even just Tweet me. I was dumbfounded at this point. Anyway, I continued with my question “I know the points and the calories of stuff, I get the formula, but I need that push to get out from being stuck. What should I do?” The first thing she told me was that I wasn’t stuck and that being able to maintain that weight loss was a big deal (which I haven’t really thought about it in that context until then) and then she gave me three awesome tips that are absolutely applicable to anyone who is looking or is trying to lose weight.

Change Your Food. I have been eating the same breakfast and have been eating the same lunch almost all summer (pb and toast for breakfast and a Smart One of lunch) so this was good to hear. The only change I have been doing is going from making healthy choices to eating a lot of bad things and then immediately regretting them. After the event, Megan and I went on a crazy healthy shopping spree at Publix and bought some delicious stuff that you will see next week!

The next thing was to Mix Up Your Workout Routine. Since I haven’t really had access to a gym this summer, I have done a lot of running and swimming which has been about it. Luckily, since I’m about to start a new job at FSU, I’ll have access to Leach again and all of its awesome classes. She said to find out what workouts your friends are doing and ask to join. If you are doing some awesome workout, sport or any type of exercise, let me know and I’ll be happy to join you!

Finally, Hannah said to Tell Your Story. Yeah, I have this blog and yeah, most people who know me know my story, but I could still be more of a weight loss evangelist than I am right now. This might even just mean being a better example to those around me. It’s just hard because you don’t want to be that “oh hey! I have a blog! Have you read my blog? I was just talking last night on my blog that…” guy. With that being said, I want to help people and reach out to those who I know who are struggling so telling my story through my actions is going to be my goal from now on.

After the Q&A, Hannah had a meet and greet so we stopped by and said hi. She remembered that I had Tweeted her earlier this week which was really cool. We talked about the importance of a support system like the one Megan and I have and how important it is to have everyone in the family on board which is so true. We left the event feeling rejuvenated and even convicted about our weight loss. It truly was what I needed. Tomorrow, I might not lose any weight. In fact I’m pretty sure I have gained this week. But I feel like I’m back at that first step all over again where I got on our scale and realized that I didn’t want to be 357 pounds any more; that this wasn’t the life I was suppose to have. It’s time to get over this halfway point and finally reach the top of Mt. Fitintoskinnyjeans. See ya tomorrow.

Day 647: Thursday Run and Stuff

Posted on July 12, 2012 by theffkid

Today was a day of getting stuff done.

You know the kind I’m talking about. When you go all Tasmanian Devil on your house and donate the majority of your old fat clothes to Goodwill and run six miles? Yeah, it was one of those days.

Run and Stuff: So this morning I just had a two pieces of toast with peanut butter, a cup of coffee and a glass of water. I would go on to greatly regret that I did not eat more around mile 3 of my run when it felt like I was literally running on empty.
For those of you who are new to the blog (if so, welcome!) I live in Florida, where the humidity is above 100% more than 90% of the year (why yes, that is a made statistic I just made up.) I decided to go on a run since I had taken a gander at the weather and it was suppose to be in the 90’s the majority of the day. So, I suited up… in to my workout clothes… and took it to the streets! (Michael McDonald style!) My first two miles were both under 10 minutes and then the someone turned up the heat in Tallahassee [insert global warming joke here] and it got brutal. I pushed myself like crazy and it paid off. Lately I have been battling with the mental aspect of the weight loss game. When you’ve been “dieting” this long, you begin to rest on your laurels and think of it all in some formulaic way that takes the passion out of it. Today, I put my heart back in to it and it started with conquering this run. So, my time wasn’t too bad considering the heat and the hills. I obviously want to get better, but that will just come with time. I also burned a crapton of calories which was awesome as well.
One thing that did suck was that my hip/left leg started to give me trouble again. It was fine during the run, but later in the day it would hurt to walk. It felt like it was seizing up or something. Whatever it was, I wasn’t a fan of it and I need to go get it checked out soon. Either way, I got my SAWS in today which is what matters!

Post Run Re-Fueling: When I got home, I immediately drank a ginormous glass of water followed by a glass of chocolate almond milk. I have always heard that drinking chocolate milk after a run was good for you, I just figured that almond milk would do the trick too. Anyway, I also made salad with peppered turkey deli meat, a cap full of olive oil, a pinch of parmasean and some balsamic vinegar. Needless to say, it was delicious.

Lunch: Megan, being the awesome wife that she is, made some French onion soup with low fat swiss. It was epic and really hard to describe. You’ll just have to come over sometime and try it yourself!

Smoothie Time: Megan is the Smoothie ~~King~~ Queen of the household and since it’s summer, she whipped up some of her classic super berry smoothies! It was actually more a delicious sorbet so I ate it with a spoon. All she did was put a banana, frozen mixed berries and a little orange juice in our Ninja and whipped it up! Awesomeness!

Dinner: For dinner tonight, I whipped up some quarter-pound burgers and cooked them on my grill pan. I also ran over to Wing Stop and ordered one basket of fries and had them as a side which is only 5 points for half a basket which is a normal point amount for a side. The burgers turned out amazing. Not to mention we just used low-cal bread instead of a bun. Pretty awesome “cheat” day!

So overall, today was pretty good! I’m going to try to swim or some sort of exercise for the rest of this week to drop some pounds! See ya tomorrow.

Day 646: Wordless Wednesday

Posted on July 11, 2012 by theffkid

Day 644: Monday Time People

Posted on July 9, 2012 by theffkid

Why hello!

So today was a little different than planned with the food, but that’s how that goes sometimes right?

I don’t think it was necessarily horrible, but I realized that all you can eat places are not good for me. More on that in a bit.

Breakfast: I woke up this morning to the beautiful aroma of pancakes wafting through the house. Yes, my wife is awesome. I had five silver dollar pancakes with a little maple syrup. It was a nice surprise at 6:30 in the morning. Awesomeness.
Surprise!: During the weekly Monday morning meeting, Jill the Boss brought some mini cupcakes to celebrate my departure. (Does that mean they were celebrating me leaving?) Anyway, they were intensely sugary but awesome.
Lunch at The Suwannee Room: My friend Juan wanted to go to lunch to celebrate my leaving. (Seriously, are people just happy for me to leave?)

Anyway, I haven’t been to a college cafeteria since the good ol’ days in The World Famous Bean. (Yes, that was the name of our old food trough at Abilene Christian.) I have only been to one other All-You-Can-Eat joint since my weight loss journey began and that was for a birthday party. I didn’t anticipating it being a challenge, but it was. Growing up, eating at an AUCE was a place to get your moneys worth. I didn’t get that mentality from anything that a parent had said, it is just the inherent nature of the buffet, plus I wanted to try out what they had. I ended up eating a burger, a slice of pepperoni pizza, two chicken kabobs, two small glasses of skim milk, three slices of watermelon and two chocolate chip cookies. Yeah, that’s quite a bit of food. The scary thing is is that I wasn’t super full after. It all goes back to eating what is in front of you. I would have been fine with the Chicken Suaza I had in the fridge at work, but I was also fine with all of that food. Now don’t get me wrong, the food was really good and the Suwannee Room kind of looks like Hogwarts, but I’m just not that disciplined. Which sucks, because it’s only $7.99! If I could hold myself to a burger, a salad and some watermelon, it wouldn’t be that bad. At this point though, I still have some things to work out until then.

Dinner With The Wolf: (Any time I write The Wolf, I imagine Harvey Keitel in Pulp Fiction. Sorry Andrea, but you are no Harvey K.) So for dinner, Megan made some awesome split pea soup. It was awesome and super filling! Then, Megan also made this faux cookie dough dip with chickpeas. I know it might sound weird, but us three all loved it! (Unless Andrea was just being polite…)

So like I said, today was a little weird with food. My bruise is finally healing up so I’m going to at least go for a wog tomorrow morning. Either way it’s going to be 800,000 degrees outside so sweat will be abound. See ya tomorrow.

Day 637: Let’s Catch Up Shall We? Edition

Posted on July 2, 2012 by theffkid

So the time between last Wordless Wednesday and now has been a whirlwind. I’m talking “Auntie Em! Auntie Em! It’s a twister! It’s a twister!” awesome craziness.

On Friday, I was offered the media specialist position in the Office of Admissions at The Florida State University! It has always been my dream to work in higher education in some capacity and especially for my childhood dream school: Florida State. (For more on my affinity for FSU, click here.)

Since then, I have been incredibly giddy about this new chapter in my life. It’s my first “grown up” job! I know it will be a challenge, but hey, I like a good challenge 😉

Speaking of awesome challenges, sorry about the lack of posting last night. We hung out with our friends Stacy and Julie all day yesterday talking about life, love and other mysteries. (Whoever gets that obscure reference will get a gold star.) We also celebrated Canada Day. The only day that I celebrate my Canadian roots (other then the Winter Olympics.) Anyway, I was good last week overall and it paid in the end. I lost 5.2 pounds this week!!! I haven’t lost that much in a long time. I think my body has been in a stressful state during this whole job hunt so now that I have some direction, my body won’t be as out of whack as it has been. So now I’m back down to 238.4 and I’m happy to be back out of the 240’s. I’m going to be good this week so I can lose some weight. I have been stuck in the 230’s/240’s for a long time so I feel like when I finally get in to the 220’s, my body will start to really change. I’m ready for that. I’m also ready to get back in to the gym. If anything for the air conditioning.

This is all I have for now. More later tonight. See ya later.

Day 632: Wordless Wednesday!

Posted on June 27, 2012 by theffkid

Day 616: What A Beastly Monday

Posted on June 11, 2012 by theffkid

(The Kings just won it. What an awesome series and season of hockey.)

Today has been awesome. I feel like I am back to where I was before my vacation. I might not be down to where I was before (since I just wrote about that yesterday) but it feels like I’m back on the right track and it feels awesome. Alright, let’s talk…

Breakfast: I had two pieces of toast with a tablespoon of peanut butter. I then had a little Dove Chocolate that said “Happiness looks good on you” late at work. Good stuff.

Lunch: I didn’t bring a lunch (which I will start doing again) so I just walked across campus and had Pollo Tropical, which is quite possibly the best on campus restaurant in the nation (hyperbole aside… and except for the Taco Cabana that’s on campus at the University of Texas.) Anyway, usually this comes with a roll, but I immediately threw it away to stave off any temptation of eating it. What an awesome lunch.

The Rundown of the Run… Down: I didn’t run in the morning… and I immediately regretted it. I ran 5 miles this afternoon when it was cooler (cooler being 90-something with a heat index of 8000 degrees.) I found this new trail that goes from my place right on to campus. Anyway, mile 1-3, I was running 10 minute miles exactly, but the heat and the sweat searing my retinas was really getting to me. I also thing I pseudo-strained my left groin muscle a few weeks ago so around mile 3 or so , my body gets mad at me. It totally worth it though, I ran 5 miles in 53:31 and burned 926 calories. I have already gotten some of my running swagger back which is awesome. Last Monday I ran 4 miles in 48:30 so I’m already shaving time off like a boss. SAWS!!!

Dinner of Awesomeness: For dinner, Megan made her awesome not fried fried chicken with squash and acre peas. It was magical. Then, she made this awesome blackberry cobbler from the Pioneer Woman blog. It was perfect with a scoop of Edy’s Slow Churned.

So that’s it for the day. Here’s to another awesome one tomorrow.

My gift to you: the Alabama Shakes. You’re Welcome

Day 615: A Weigh In and Stuff

Posted on June 11, 2012 by theffkid

I honestly can’t tell you why I haven’t posted at all this week. I want to act like I have a reason like I was starring in the stage production of the movie Cliffhanger or something, but that simply wasn’t the case. Even though last week I had a lot of drive to lose some weight this week (which I was really good with my food! Honest!) it didn’t happen on the scale. To make matters worse, I realized I’m back up to where I was at Christmas. It’s like I’ve taken one giant step back. I feel like there are certain foods that are particularly hazardous to my weight loss. WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE BBQ!?! It feels like every time I think it’s okay to splurge a little, the floor caves in. Maybe my addiction to food (well… certain foods) is a lot worse than I think and that I can’t tempt (splurge) myself like that. I used to think that it was okay to eat bad because you can lose it, but I’m now realizing that is much more of a slippery slope than I thought it was. I should have realized that last November when I left for Thanksgiving weighing 235only to gain 8 pounds in 4 days. I worked up until this May to get back down to 235 only to come back from vacation gaining it all back. Weight loss is a fickle thing like that. I am responsible for what I eat and how I treat my body. It’s time to be better to myself. It’s time to break that 235 barrier for good.

Okay… now that I have that off my chest…

I created this blog for accountability with the objective of being completely transparent. I feel that I have failed in that regard. I don’t report the handfuls of this and that that I eat every once in a while which is what really gets you in dieting. So with that being said, I’m going to change the format of the blog up a little bit. The food is going to be more of a list for a while. I’ll still keep my witty banter and what have you, but I need to keep that portion simple for a while. It’s hard to explain, but I need you to go with this for me. And yeah, today I don’t have points up (because Genghis Grill is hard to calculate) but that will also be a part of it once again. I feel like I learned how to ride the bike but then needed the training wheels again so I can re-learn the mechanics of it all. I had a really good thing going for the first hundred pounds, time to keep at it.

So as far as weight loss this week Ilost .2.It’s a bit of a downer, but at this point I’m just glad it wasn’t a gain.

So here is the epicurean rundown of the day:

Breakfast: I had two pieces of toast with 1 tablespoon of peanut butter. Recently, I have been just shellacking my toast with pb which is a caloric code red so no more of that.

Lunch: Today after church, a group of us went to Genghis Grill for lunch. I made a beautifully monstrous bowl that others were jealous of (the old people behind me where ooowing and awwing like it was the world’s largest ball of twine.) I could only stomach half of the bowl and I took the rest home! I also had two pot stickers and two small spoonfuls of vanilla ice cream.

Snack: Later this afternoon, I had a bowl of slow churned coffee ice cream with a small scoop of cookies and cream. Both of them are lower in fat and calories than regular ice cream.

Dinner and Dessert:Since I still had a trough of leftover Genghis left in my fridge, I just had that for dinner. Personally, leftover Genghis (does it sound like I’m talking about eating a guy named Genghis? Man, I need to lay off the bath salts…) is perfect cold with some Asian mustard. Perfection, thy name is leftovers.