Category Archives: God

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.

 

Day 765: Weigh in and a fresh start edition

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Why hello!

After yesterday night’s post, Megan and I got to thinking about what we were going to do about this whole weight loss thing. It’s easy to get side tracked when you’re incredibly busy and have been trying to lose weight for a while, but Megan and I are back on the same page. Starting tomorrow, we are going to be more strict with our calories and exercise more. Since January 1 is only 10 weeks away (I know, crazy right?) we are both shooting to lose 20 pounds each which would be epic. This week, I gained 3.8 pounds so I am staring at 232 pounds. The idea of being around 212 by the start of the new year is awesome. So here we go. A new chapter in the weight loss game. See ya tomorrow.

Day 753: Jacob is a Jerk Edition

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Hello my friend (except that I mean actually mean it).

So today, I did really well with food and I conquered an eating out challenge which has always been an issue for me. Let’s get started shall we?

We weren’t going to be able to run tonight (more about that in a second) so Megan and I decided to run this morning. We went over to Lake Ella around 6:30 and I ran with Megan and her Couch25k run program. It was still dark, but the stars were out and the weather was perfect. It was amazing. We ran two minutes on, one minute walk which was a great recovery run for me after a couple of really brutal runs. I think I might start doing that down the line, especially on the Tuesdays after long Saturday runs. Fun stuff!


Breakfast: I had had a piece of toast before running so by the time I got to work I was starving! I had a honey Fage yogurt and when that wasn’t close to being enough, I ran and got a bagel from the little convenient store by my office.


For lunch, I made a Lean Cuisine the Hungry Girl way: I cooked up a sweet n’ sour chicken LC and then microwaved a steam in bag of broccoli to not only make the meal more filling, but to get more veggies in my diet! It made the meal go a lot further! Give it a try sometime!

For an afternoon snack, I just had an apple and some peanut butter. More than enough to keep me full. I also had some sunflower seeds which aren’t bad, but can be high in sodium.


So tonight, I said adios to one of my great friends from grad school. Jacob has always been a huge supporter of my weight loss journey and is a big fan of the blog (or that’s at least what he tells me…:)) He has accepted a job in Fayetteville, Arkansas and Megan and I couldn’t be happier for him and his awesome wife Emily. It’s been great to have had support from the guys who were there from the beginning, who were there when I arrived to orientation, having just bought my first pair of 54 sized pants hours before. It’s been awesome to have gone through the weight loss journey and the joys of grad school together at the same time. Thanks for being an awesome cheerleader yo!

(Alex and Andrea, when you guys move, I’ll gush over you too.)

Anyway….

So tonight, we had a celebration dinner for him and his wife Emily. We went to a seafood shanty called Calico Jack’s and it was AYCE boiled shrimp! Since shrimp are surprisingly low-cal, I ate my share. Thankfully, fried seafood isn’t really my thing so there’s not temptation there. I did however eat a lot of saltines with cocktail sauce (because that’s one of the most delicious things in the world.) Anyway, so I ate two plates of peel and eat shrimp which isn’t as much as you think and then a side of cole slaw which wasn’t that great (but I still ate anyway…)

So that was it for today. Like I said, pretty good food-wise. Now it’s time to stick with it this weekend. Like I said the other night, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays have been my downfall so far. That’s changing this weekend. See ya tomorrow.

 

P.S. Now matter what your political leaning is, you have to admit these pictures are hilariously weird. (Personally, I like “Pouty Paul” on the left the most.)

Day 749: Sunday and 10k Recap

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Courtney Warren is a stud. Holla atcha girl.

Yesterday was a roller coaster of emotions. I ran in my first 10k race and it took a toll on me. The course didn’t have any flat surfaces, it was all grass and it was hot and humid the whole race. It was insane but what an awesome experience. It made me realize how far I have come in the past two years. At 357 pounds, I didn’t even know how far a 10k was. I had dreams of running a marathon, but I knew that would never happen. Now, I’m on track to run a half marathon in less than 5 months. I’m so blessed to have friends, family readers who have been so supportive. Thanks for being awesome.

So I actually did really well for how beastly the race was. I also had another first this race… I PLACED IN MY AGE BRACKET! I got third with a time of 1:01:16. I was super close to getting second though, the second-place jerk ran it in 1:00:32! LESS THAN A MINUTE!!! Overall, I placed 55th out of 123. Either way, I’m super happy with this being my 10k baseline time. No matter how I place, I’m ultimately racing against myself every time. It was an epic first 10k. Whabam.

Oh yeah…I got two medals. Only 20 behind Michael Phelps.

Anyway…what was I saying?

Oh yeah…

So today I was pretty good with food, but yesterday I wasn’t great. I ate McDonald’s for the first time in almost three years but it’s not what you think. As I crossed the finish line, I went straight to the water station and then over to the abundance of free food everywhere. My body was yelling FEED ME NOW!!!!! so I grabbed the first thing I could find which was a sausage McMuffin. I actually only ate about 3/4 of it when I said that was enough of that. Then I found some bananas and oranges. For the rest of the day, I was just trying to recuperate so I ate my share of random stuff. It is what it is.

So today, Megan and I went to Olive Garden for lunch. I ordered the shrimp primavera and the lunch portion was only 10 points. I had two bowls of minestrone before we got our food because the soup is actually less calories than the salad (because of the dressing). Anyway, I asked for a to go box when I got my food and I brought most of it home and had it for dinner. I also ate four small apples (but not at the same time). They were amazing.

So that’s about it for today. I’m going to start a pushup challenge this week. More about that later. (Thanks for the push Jeff.)

See ya tomorrow.

Why Weight Loss is Like Flopping in the NBA

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This week, David Stern and the overlords in the NBA stated that it will begin to fine for flopping starting this season. There has already been outcries from the flopingest of the floppy such as Blake Griffin. For those of you who don’t watch the NBA, flopping, like in soccer, involves faking a foul like a hit in the face. This usually results in a fall to the ground, which reminds us all why we all hate fakers.

Here’s some of the worst of the worst…

So how is the Fotographing Fat Kid going to parallel this to weight loss? (I’ve never used third person before. Hmmmm…)

When you are trying to change your diet or trying to exercise more, you tend to start out really strong and full of excitement. Then around week 6, you tend to give in a little. Maybe you’ll skip a day at the gym, you might eat that piece of cake that you wouldn’t usually eat, or you do both. Then, you flop. Something goes wrong and you throw yourself down to the floor like a kid going in to a tantrum. “OMG MY DAY WAS TERRIBLE! A BIRD POOPED ON MY CAR AND THE CASHIER AT THE BANK DIDN’T TELL ME TO HAVE A NICE DAY WHEN I LEFT AND MY DOG TOLD HIS THERAPIST THAT HE WAS SICK OF MY ANTICS!!!!!!!!” That’s when you go to the fridge, look at that tub of ice cream and say “you’re all mine.” Then… you binge.

It’s easy to get tied up in thinking about what you think deserve when you want something that you know you shouldn’t have. Usually, you know deep down on those kinds of days that you want to cheat on your diet or your exercise. You want to find a reason not to keep your routine. So, you flop and while you think you have earned it, you are just pushing yourself further away from your goals. These are the kinds of days that make or break your health fortitude.

My advice on how to handle these days? Really think about whether you need that cheating trigger. Odds are, you can talk yourself out of it. Right now, I can hear the internet trolls wringing their hands, “but FFK, you shouldn’t deprive yourself!!!” Well know what? Half of my success so far has come out of doing things that others think are crazy, like having self control on things like full-fat dessert and things like that because I knew how much extra time running or lifting I would have to do to burn that off instead of burning off the weight that I have already gained. I’m absolutely not saying I’m perfect, but I have seen what works for people and it usually involves going outside of the “if it feels good, do it” mantra.

So the next time you’re ready to flop, think to yourself “is my healthy really going to benefit from this?” and then remember you’re ultimate goal and move on. You got this!

Day 746: Why Jennifer Livingston Is Awesome Edition

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Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words will hurt our hearts.
-Mrs. Robinson’s Classroom

This quote was on the wall of my homeroom class in 6th grade. It was my first day at a new school in a new town where I didn’t know anyone. “You see, sometimes we don’t realize how powerful our words can be” Mrs. Robinson explained after reading the quote. “Even if we don’t mean them to be. That’s why we need to watch what we say.”

This week, a viral video spread this week with a brave news anchor who stood up to a bully. She told her viewers that it was okay to be comfortable in their own skin.

I know a lot some people don’t think that the e-mail he said to her wasn’t bullying and if anything she was the one bullying him. These people are defining the word “bully” as someone abusing their position of power to control or harm others. To those people, I have to whole-heartedly disagree with you. Words are powerful. We can wield them to do great things and we can abuse them to hurt others, even driving some to end their own lives. In this “golden age” of communication where everyone has their own personal soapbox (also known as a Facebook page,) we all feel the need to share our opinion, not matter how ill-informed or toxic it will be received. We have reached a time where bullying is no longer exclusive to some, but accessible to all. We have to be better as a society. We need to be okay with people standing up for themselves. This anchor didn’t swear, she didn’t insult this man or his family, heck she didn’t even use his name on the air. She retaliated by creating a teachable moment out of it. She reassured us that it’s okay to be us.

Last night on my run, a guy on a bicycle called me fatso. (“How’s it going fatso?” to be exact.) how did I respond? Did I yell back at him? Did I hurl personal insults at him? Did I throw a stick in his spokes? No. I retaliated by running faster, pushing myself harder. In fact, I broke a personal record last night. I made myself better. That’s what we need to learn from Jennifer Livingston’s response, that we should make something great out of other people’s ugliness.

I’m proud of her courage and the example she has set for all of us. If I had heard an anchor say the things she said when I was little, I would have been a different person. Thankfully, I turned out okay anyway.

Thank you Jennifer. Way to brush them shoulders off.

 

See ya tomorrow.

Day 745: First Wordless Wednesday in October

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Sick of the debates? Me too. Here’s picture of food I eat and stuff.