Category Archives: God

Day 803: My Awesome Interview With Another Biggest Loser

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Hello!!!!

So it has been a crazy week on the interwebs for me! First, my weight loss story  was featured by the awesome blogger Reinventing Danni, then I have helped raise $130 for prostate cancer through Movember (which there is still times to donate here!) and today, my interview with RetroFit Ministries came out. For those who don’t know, RetroFit Ministries was created by the awesome Biggest Loser duo Austin and Ken Andrews (they were on Season 11 along with some other awesome folks like Courtney Crozier and Hannah Curlee who I met this summer! I’m working my way up the Biggest Loser social ladder!) Anyway, a few weeks ago, I had written something about my journey on Austin’s wall and then after a few exchanges, he asked me about being interviewed for his website! It was such an honor! Here’s the interview. After you’re done check out the other amazing stories! If it doesn’t make you want to do push ups and go on a kale cleanse I don’t know what will. Check it out. Thanks again for the awesome opportunity Austin. See ya tomorrow.

 

THANKSTORIES: THANKFUL NATHAN

Nathan MacDonald Sheds some light on his story of becoming healthy. I have to be honest, I have had an enjoyable time hearing his story, and he has described it in a pretty amusing way! It has been a pleasure to hear Him describe his journey, and I think you’ll enjoy it as well!

CLICK HERE FOR OTHER AMAZING THANKSTORIES OF REAL PEOPLE CHANGING THEIR LIVES! 

AA: Nathan- When did it hit you that you were obese?

I wore XXL shirts in 5th grade

NM: Kindergarten? Lol I was always the fat kid growing up. I wore XXL shirts in 5th grade and I am actually a smaller jean size now than I was in middle school. My weight was always a constant struggle. Sometimes I would get on the right track and it felt like I was really going to make a change, but then something would happen like moving to a new school or something like that.

AA: How would a school change affect you moving forward?

NM: Well being the new kid always came with its own issues. Being an overweight kid made it even more fun lol.

AA: I love the sarcasm! Ha! You struggled all through school, but you never hit your point of not return- when did you hit that tipping point of change?

NM: The tipping point for me was right before I started graduate school at Florida State University in 2010. I had to buy size 54 khakis for orientation. That’s when I realized that it was time to make a significant change, or just accept the fact that I was going to die at an early age.

AA: Do you look at your childhood and think, “My weight makes sense,” because people or bullying?

NM: I was always bullied in elementary, and although I was bullied some in middle school, I was able to deflect a lot of it by playing the “funny fat kid” card that most overweight kids know all too well. I did have two dear friends who died when I was in college and that really took its toll on me. I turned to eating a lot during that time.

AA: You took to eating when your friends passed away?

NM: It was what I was use to. Food had always been there for me so my initial reaction was to eat my feelings. It was much easier to eat over talking out my feelings to my wife and to my friends. It was a truly hard time.

AA: What do you look to for that same feeling if you hit a hard time now?

NM: Well now it’s a lot easier to work out my frustration whether it’s running or an aggressive game of racquetball. I burn calories instead of eating them lol.

AA What happened to give you hope that you could change?

NM: I have been blessed with such an amazing wife, Megan, who has always been there ready to cheer me on when I decided it was time to change my life. It’s also been awesome to have friends from across the world sending me Facebook posts encouraging me. It has really held me accountable and has given me the strength to keep on keepin’ on.

AA: When you discovered that change was possible, how did you decide on what path to become healthy?

NM: Well I had tried Weight Watchers a few times, only to quit a few weeks later. It wasn’t until I really bought in to the system (like counting, calculating, researching restaurants, etc.) that I became successful. I also always liked racquetball and running, so that became a huge part of my cardio which melts the pounds lol. I still do a lot of both now, but I have taken it to a whole new level. I was just happy to finish a 5k, now I want to place in my age bracket and I am training for a half marathon. Losing 130 pounds changes your prospective so much!

AA: Speaking of perspective, I have called this blog series ThankStories, because we are in November and thankfulness is big this time of year- What are you thankful looking on your journey and future?

NM: This year, I’m running in my first 15k. I’m thankful that I have been blessed with a body that can take all of the abuse I have given it from one extreme of being obese to the other by testing its limits every week through working out lol. I’m incredibly thankful for my community of friends and readers who have been with me through thick and thin. It’s been so encouraging to have friends even from elementary comment on the blog telling me that they’re cheering me on. It’s been an amazing journey so far!

AA: Given that you have lost 130 lbs, are you Finished? Is this the end of your journey?

NM: Not even close. I am still a good 50-70 pounds away from where I want to be and I still have struggles with food. Although I still have a ways to go on this journey, I’m loving every minute of it. The hardest days on my weight loss journey are still infinitely better than the days of being 357 pounds. This journey has been such a blessing and it’s not ending any time soon.

Day 801: Weigh In Day

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I’M BACK!!!!!!

Sorry it’s been a while. Thanksgiving is a crazy time. A lot of planning, a lot of turkey, and a lot of fun!

A quick thing about the 15k…IT WAS AWESOME! It was 9.3 miles of crazy awesomeness! The course had a lot of ups and downs (literally) but I felt really good about my time. I maintained a 8:30-9:45 minute mile the whole time. I was going to buy the photos from the racing photography company, but they are flippin’ expensive! I’ll still post the race results on my race results page soon!

So I was working to not gaining this week so I exercised, tried to watch what I ate and drank plenty of water. I ended up losing .2 pounds lol (total 126.4 pounds) which isn’t much, but I really lost 6 pounds in a weird way. You see, at one point I had gained 6 pounds but I lost it all by this morning. Hooray for weight fluctuation!  Anyway, last year I gained something like 8 pounds and didn’t really get it off until the summer so losing is a pretty big deal. The best part is is that I still ate what I wanted, just not as much of it. And there in lies the key for weight loss.

Today I was pretty good with food and tomorrow will be even better. I feel awesome about where I am and I’m ready to lose some serious weight before the end of the year.

Before we end tonight, I just wanted to make another push for Movember.

As you know, the end of Movember is near! Friday is that last day to donate to Movember. So far, you have helped raise $40 which is totally awesome! My goal is to have raised a total of $100 by this Friday! No matter how small or large, any donation is appreciated. I don’t see a dime, it goes directly to prostate cancer research. Even if it just means giving up a meal out this week and donating, that’s $5 closer we are to ending this disease. You can donate here. If you keep donating, I’ll keep growing this itchy, yet legit, stache! Thanks! P.S. Please share with your friends, your family and your co-workers! Spread the stache love! See ya tomorrow.

Day 794: Weigh In Day and Stuff about Thanksgiving

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Greetings Yo!

So the past couple of weeks have been up and down with two massive trips back to back, but things are finally getting back to where they need to be for this Fotographing Fat Kid. This week, I flippin’ lost 4.4 pounds!!! Which is insane! I know a lot of it was that I have been drinking my water and keeping my calories in check, but I also ran around 15 miles this week which isn’t a ton but more than the previous weeks! It was pretty crazy though, I bought a button up shirt last Tuesday at Old Navy and when I tried it on, it was tight in some areas. Yesterday, it was already loose. It’s crazy how much difference even just 4 pounds makes for your body!

As we all know, Thursday is Thanksgiving. A time to be thankful for what we have by eating a lot and then to go by massive TV’s at rock bottom prices…or something like that. Two years ago, I made it a goal to not gain weight on this week of gluttontastic awesomeness and I succeeded! I even lost a pound or two. But last year, it completely threw off my weight loss for a month or so. This year, I’m going back to mindful about my eating and remember that this won’t be the last time I’ll ever eat turkey dinner again (since we bought a 15 pound turkey and there are only three of us…who are all in a weight loss competition with one another.) Mind you I’m not saying this in a preachy “you shouldn’t eat a lot on Thanksgiving!” kind of way. This is just how I am approaching Thanksgiving this year.

With all of that stuff out of the way, let’s talk Turkey Trot! While I’m still stoked for the 15k, my knees are still a little sore. I’ve tried to stretch out everything, but there’s still a little stiffness. My arthritis medicine does help (oh yeah…I have arthritis. Another important reason to lose weight, because even if you are obese and have good cholesterol like I did, you are still wrecking your joints.) but it’s still there after a while. Basically, I’m going to just run as much as I can of that brutal 9.3 miles and then walk when I need to. My issue is sometimes during races I get super competitive and try to pass people even if that means completely breaking my pace. Then I end up slower and falling back behind. It’s kind of embarrassing and annoying. On Thursday, I’m just going to set my 15k record with the intention of breaking it next time. The race is projected to have more than 5,000 runners in a relatively small neighborhood so there are always bad bottlenecks (insert rant about people running with strollers even though the rules expressly forbid them here) so with that and the difficulty of the route (even though we run there every Tuesday and Thursday) it’s going to be an awesome run, not so much a race. It will also be nice when the 10k and the 15k races split off. That’s going to make life a lot easier. It’s going to feel like a normal Thursday run…minus the brutal falling.

Okay, time to take a 23 and a half hour break. Wordless Wednesday. Get stoked. See ya tomorrow.

Day 793: A Quick And Delicious Post

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Why Hello!

I’m using Megan’s computer so I’m going to keep this brief. This is more of a food journal update.

Breakfast: Toast with peanut butter. What else is new?

Lunch: I had two tuna salad sandwiches with a little mayo (because there wasn’t much left), a little mustard, and some lemon juice. I usually add pickles, but we’re out. As per usual, I didn’t post a pic because it looks like I’m on a cat food diet or something. A delicious…delicious cat food diet.

Snacks: I had two handfuls of pistachios.

Dinner: CHILI! Except I accidentally made it pretty hot. I only had two cups (one serving) of chili with one cup of rice and very little sour cream and shredded cheese.

Snack: After dinner, I had a serving of Honey bunches of oats.

So I did really well today, not to mention I’ve drank about a gallon of water (or that’s what it feels like at least). Nothing much else going on really. My knees is really sore today so I’ve been trying to stretch it out. Hopefully it won’t give me any trouble but we’ll see. Also, I’M GOING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!! Pretty stoked about that as well.

Weigh in tomorrow. Those girls are going down. See ya tomorrow.

Here’s a picture of an owl.

Day 792: Catching Up and a Challenge!

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Before I begin this post, I would like to start with a haiku.
The bird has been bought.
Ready to go on a Trot
Almost Thanksgiving

Alright…back to our regularly scheduled boring blog post.

 

HELLO EVERYONE!!!!!

It’s been a while, but luckily things are slowing down…until they all get crazazy once again. Hooray for the holidays!

I feel like I need to catch you up on life because a lot of awesome stuff has been going on!

Thursday: Meet Alfred. He’s a fish…and he was delicious.
On Thursday night, we went over to Julie’s house for some Chinese deliciousness. Julie is one stud of a cook and knows how to make some epic Chinese food. She cooked up Alfred, along with a variety of vegetarian and meat dishes. I even tried something called a Century egg. A gelatinous duck egg. It was…interesting. It tasted like a hard-boiled egg dipped in coffee. Yum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday: On Friday, our awesome ACU friends Phillip and Leah were driving through Tallahassee so we met up for dinner! We suggested the pizza mecca known as Momo’s (if you ever come through Tallahassee, that’s where we’ll take you!) Anyway, we got the XL Philly cheese steak pizza that’s the size of a small UFO. We all had our fill with leftovers to spare. It’s always awesome to see old friends, catch up on old times and to eat pizza.

Also, when you’re done reading this post, head on over to Phillip and Leah’s fantastic blog The Front Poarch! It’s full of awesome and creative projects that would even make Tim Taylor jealous!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Saturday: Saturday was a doozie. It started with a ten-mile run. The longest run yet. I was only going for since I have the 15k Thanksgiving morning, but I really needed to see if I could actually run around nine miles. Challenge Accepted. We ran on the St. Marks trail that goes all the way from Tallahassee to the Gulf. The trail is beautiful, nice and flat, and the weather was fantastic. When I was done, my knees and ankles were sore, but I could have done 3.1 miles more to do a half-marathon distance if I wasn’t racing on Thursday. When I was obese, I always dreamed of running in a half marathon, but I knew that it would never be possible. Then, I put one foot in front of the other, and soon I was walking across the floor. Moral of the story: nothing is impossible.

Since I had burned around 1700 calories, I figured it was as good as ever to eat my last Twinkie. It was terrible. Should of had a Ding-Dong. RIP Hostess.

Then we went to Buca Di Beppo for dinner and ate meatballs the size of boulders.

Today! So today was pretty normal, ate tacos, ate leftovers. Nothing special.

Challenge!
So you might remember the hashtag #TenpoundsbyXmas on a post a few weeks ago. Well, that has become our mantra for a while. Then Megan was talking to our running buddies Erin and Becky about it, to which Becky said “want to make it interesting?” So now it has turned in to The Three Girls, A Guy And A Scale Challenge (name cred to Julie!) We have each put in $10 bucks and weighed in this morning. We are going to weigh in every Tuesday and whoever loses the most by January 4th wins the pot! But we were also thinking about basing it on either most weight lost or percentage lost. What do you think? Comment and let me know!!!! That’s seven weeks for those playing at home. I’ll have an update every Tuesday starting next week. I’m pretty stoked to be in this challenge! It’s going to hold me accountable during Thanksgiving and Christmas and I’m going to be really good with my points. Either way, we will all come away a little skinnier and a little healthier. Bring it on girls!!! 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.