Category Archives: Halloween

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

 

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.

Day 558: Thursday and Stuff

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Hello!

I love all of you. There, I said it.

I still can’t believe my Facebook Page got to 200+ Likes last night!

This week I was feeling a little sluggish and lazy. Luckily I was able to pull myself out of it and have an awesome day! Good things. Alright, let’s get at it.

Breakfast: This morning, as per usual, we went to Atomic Coffee before class and school and stuff. I just had a bagel with butter and a little honey. It was fantastic and filling. Awesomeness.

Lunch: Today I had to go to a luncheon for a class. I walked from campus uphill both ways (yes, like your parents did when they were kids) to the downtown Double Tree. The menu had a lot of awesome healthy choices, but I was still thinking about getting something a little heavier. That was when my friend Andrew (the Edward Cullen lookalike) told the whole I was his dietician and then asked for a healthy option. It was the conviction I needed to make a much better decision. I ended up getting a grouper sandwich and instead of fries I got a salad with honey mustard. It was delicious, but it was also hard to conceal my picture taking ability in front of a bunch of strangers. When I got home I had a 100 calorie Klondike ice cream sandwich that was awesome. Then I ate two servings of chips.

Awesome Non Scale Victory: So today I was organizing my old fat clothes in order to sell them online (anyone want size 54 khakis or some really nice XXL polo t-shirts?) and then I found these bad boys. I bought these plaid shorts a few weeks before I started grad school. It was like folding up an American flag. Those things are huge. I was huge. Anyway, I held them up, thought for a second, and then got in one of the leg holes. They fit me in the waist. I know I’m not half them man I used to be, but I am making awesome progress. It was seriously the motivation I needed to get focused on losing weight. It also made me proud because this kind of picture is usually in an infomercial for some weight loss cookie or some shake that tastes like ground up chalk. This is proof that all you need is a healthier diet, a good pair of running shoes, a little patience and a persistent attitude. Oh yeah, and a bunch of awesome supportive friends doesn’t hurt either ;).

SAWS:So after that moment of NSV clarity, I decided I needed to keep it up so I can no longer fit in my current clothes and went to the gym. It’s kind of sad because it was one of my last times working out at Leach. I’ve burned a ton of calories in that place. Anyway, I wanted to keep up the same intensity I had when I was working with Joe so I went after it. I divided my hour into three 20 minute segments. The first 20 I did a circuit that involved stairs, burpees, box jumps, jump squats, push ups and running up and down stairs. It was awesome. Then, I got on the ARC Trainer and did 20 minutes on the weight loss setting which was a hill climb pattern of awesomeness. Finally, I did 20 minutes of abs. Elevated sit ups, this weird leg lift row and then holding a plank position. I felt like I made really good use of my hour, I did what I came there to do: sweat through my shirt.

 

 

 

 

Late Night Dinner: After staying on campus to try to get some work done, Megan and I went through the drive thru at Jimmy John’s (the only thing faster than their delivery dudes) and had a Turkey Tom sans mayo and a nice layer of avocado spread. Not to mention their classic pickle. The healthiest drive thru around.

So that was my day. Not too shabby. Although I didn’t write them down, I’m definitely back in the mindset of counting points and being better about what I eat. I was looking at an older post and I realized it took me 4 months to lose the last 15 pounds to break the 100 pound mark. It was because I was kind of a slacker and wasn’t strict with my points. With my new-found love for weight lifting, sticking with my points should be the perfect recipe for some serious weight loss. If anything my body would feel better, and isn’t that what it’s all about? See ya tomorrow.

 

Day 464: Weigh In Day Time!

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Why Hello!

Sorry I didn’t post the last couple days. Even though I haven’t been blogging, I have been really good with my points and I’ve been drinking water like a fish. So last week I burned a bunch of calories and I can feel my body changing (no, not like puberty change) and it paid on the scale. This week I lost 1.8 pounds this week. Like I said earlier this week, I kept telling myself not to get mad or down if I didn’t lose a lot this week, but all things considered I’m really happy with my loss this week. I mean, I did lose three times as much as I did last week. I am down 115.4 pounds and I’m at 241.6 pounds. I feel like I have been stuck in the 240’s for a looooooooooooooooooong time and that’s because I have. My birthday gift to myself (which is Friday. Take note.) is to break through the 240’s for good and never go back. I know a while back I was hoping to be in Onderland by my 25, but you have to respect and understand your body because it will do its own thing (whether you like it or not.) I feel like we have a good thing going with Insanity right now. It is (very) hard, but you make really good use of your exercise time and when you work out like that, your body begins to crave healthy fuel which makes the diet portion of our lifestyle a whole heck of a lot easier. It also helps that our lives are going to be grad-school-strength crazy for a while so we have had to plan out our meals so we don’t eat out every day. The crockpot is going to be used a lot this semester. Yumtastic awesomeness.

Breakfast: I just had two low fat Eggo waffles (much better for you than the Walmart brand) and a tablespoon of peanut butter. It was a pretty good breakfast for being on the go. 4 points.

Lunch: After church, a couple of the young professionals from church went out to Red Elephant for lunch. I had the standard awesome Oriental Salad with seared Ahi Tuna. It was magical. 10 points (from what I calculated)

Snack: I had 4 points of chips and salsa. Hooray for awesome stuff!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner: Tonight, we decided to hit up Super Perros for a little Colombian awesomeness. I decided to go with the veggie plate which had rice and beans, salad with honey mustard (random I know) and sweet plantains. I also had a chicken empanada which was good but a little greasy for my liking. Pretty awesome and filling dinner.

So overall today was pretty good food wise. This week is the first full week of school which will be insane, but it will be fun nonetheless. We also start back up Insanity tomorrow (Sundays are a rest day. A much needed rest day might I add.) which will be awesome. Should be an interesting week. See ya tomorrow.

Day 422: Thanksgiving Recap!

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Happy late thanksgiving everybody!
It’s weird how long a trip can feel even though it’s actually only a few days long (I mean that in a good way of course!)  On Wednesday morning we flew to Dallas to see my family in Texas. My aunt from Montana and my cousins from Arkansas also came down for thanksgiving which was awesome because most of them actually hadn’t met Megan before. Needless to say we all had a lot of catching up to do.
Since it was Thanksgiving time, there was enough food to feed a small country and then some. My dad, my brother-in-law Andrew (Megan’s brother) and I stayed up until 3 am Wednesday night out in the cold to smoke a turkey. It was totally worth the frostbite and hypothermia, easily the best turkey I have ever had. Anyways, for thanksgiving dinner I did have seconds and such  but I did not stuff myself within an inch of my life. I was diplomatic with my dessert and had about a third of a normal slice of three pies. However, I did eat my share leftover pie through out the week. (Stream of consciousness writing moment: I’m writing this on a plane and the people behind us just changed their babies diaper while in their seat. Nothing like a plane ride that smells like a dirty diaper. Smelly passengers are fragrant enough. Anyways, where was I?)  My mom also made a chocolate chip cheesecake for my sisters birthday so I just asked for half of a slice.
A lot of people ask me about how hard it is to diet and give up the foods I love. Well, I still eat a lot of what I want, I just eat less of it. That’s what keeps you sane. Now granted, I still eat things I probably shouldn’t, but this is all still a work in progress.
When I was home, my drive to lose weight has been regenerated. I’ve been in kind of a lull recently thanks to a combination of school and stress (which is usually caused by school) but I felt really encouraged by everyone I saw, especially from my cousins who haven’t seen me in at least five years. It was the right amount of encouragement and conviction, if you will, to keep at it and drop the rest of this weight. Speaking of weight, one of my goals was to not gain any weight over the week of thanksgiving. Before I left for DFW, I was already up a pound or two (hooray weight fluctuation!) so we will just see where I’m at tomorrow morning. I’ll have an actual weigh in tomorrow. This should be fun.

Here are some pictures of the trip including my awesome animals Shadow the cat and Molly the wonderdog. Enjoy!

See ya tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 398: Thursday Stuff

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I’ve been really tired today so let’s do this thang!Overall, today I wasn’t feeling too well which lead to a little overeating and stuff like that. I’m not mad about it because it was Thursday and it’s kind of been a stressful week. Not too worried, but we’ll see.

Breakfast: I had some grapenuts because they are awesome.

Lunch: I made my lunch (smart move of the day) which was just a sandwich and an apple. It was pretty fantastic. I’m getting a lot better and sandwich making so that’s making it easier to bring a lunch. PS honeycrisp apples are my lifeblood.

Snack: I was feeling a little light headed and off after my class so I picked up a Nature Valley bar for an afternoon snack.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snack II: When I got to work, I still wasn’t feeling well. I was thinking I was still hungry and when I was complaining to my co-worker Andrea, she offered me a packet of oatmeal, so I took her up on that and I had apple cinnamon oatmeal. It was good, but since I’m microwaved instruction impaired when it comes to oatmeal, most of it ended up in the microwave (don’t worry… I cleaned it up) so it was about half a serving. Delicious nonetheless.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner: After work, we went with some of our friends from Megan’s department to Tomahawks which is a sports bar and grill close to campus. The majority of the menu is off limits (especially the 15 patty high cheeseburger) but I think I did okay. I had a 1/4 pound cheeseburger with a house salad with a raspberry vinaigrette. I then had two wings which were awesomely delicious.

Umm.. Yeah: While the burger was okay, it wasn’t that filling. So when I got home, I had about a serving of leftover pasta from last night and about 2 cups of rice krispies. I’m not really sure why that happened… but it did. I guess dinner wasn’t the “right” kind of filling. We also made some immaculate baking company cookies which aren’t that bad and are delicious.

So like I said, it was just one of those days but I have no bad feelings about it. Tomorrow I’m running 5 miles so hopefully the calories burned from that will offset it a little bit. Good times. See ya tomorrow.

Day 395: Halloween Edition!

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Happy

Halloween!!!

I cannot believe it’s already almost November! I also cannot believe how much I love Halloween! It was a pretty awesome Halloween even though no trick-or-treaters came to visit our house. Awe well, maybe next year. Anyways, today was another of grazing and my metabolism being kicked in to high gear. It feels like I am just continuously hungry and I’m hoping it is my metabolism instead of something bad. I don’t know. My body has been in it’s own world ever since I went down to the 28 point daily allotment. I don’t know if it’s enough because I have been really bad about counting or staying within my points. I’m really going to start working on that.

Breakfast: I had a wafflewich sans bananas. It was a good start to the day as always.

 

Lunch: Today was the Halloween lunch party/costume contest at work! I wasn’t really sure what to wear, but I eventually came up Tom Cruise in Risky Business. (I think I pulled it off pretty well if I do say so myself.) Anyways, we had Gumby’s Pizza which was pretty good (first time Gumby-er) and then I had half of a little divinity bar with reese’s pieces on top. I know I have been whining about everything in regards to this lull/rut in my weight loss journey, but you you can see from this pic in 2009, you can tell I have made some strides when you compare these pics. Pretty awesome stuff.

 

Running: I was going to go run in the morning, but sleep is so much more in vogue right now in Switzerland so I went the trendy route and slept in. So this evening I went out for a 3 mile run for my 10k training. I decided to do a 5k (what’s more .11 mile?) and it was rough because my quads were sore, but I’m still okay with my time. I’m going to try to keep my 5k time down below 33 minutes from now on so we’ll see how that goes. Anyways, overall it was a pretty good run! I have another 3 mile run on Wednesday and then a 5 miler on Friday. That should be fun…

Dinner: I had some leftover chicken and rice which wasn’t really filling enough because I was starving. This led up to mass grazing. After I ran I did have a pb sandwich, and then I had some pistachios, a piece of pie, some pumpkin seeds and other stuff. Then I went and picked up Megan from a long meeting so we went to Moe’s so she could have dinner so I had some chips and salsa. I think I need to eat more protein or something because I’m just not full after meals. Hmmm… Well tomorrow, I am going to actually count my points and see where I’m at. Wait… count out points? Who does that? Oh yeah… See ya tomorrow.

Day 393: Saturday Recap of the Week

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So I didn’t post on Thursday because the Rangers had ripped out my heart to the point of exhaustion. By then, I had realized I had wasted four and a half hours of my life  in the respect that I could have been doing plenty of homework in that time frame. (Yes, I know that sounded pretty nerdy. It is what it is.) Friday, I wasn’t able to because we were at our young pros and college annual Halloween bash. It was a blast to chill by the fire after the race. Oh yeah…

RACE RECAP! The Trick or Trot was my first evening race (which I was nervous about since I had been sedentary all day) and it was awesome! I blew my records out the water yo! The race started downhill and since it wasn’t a big race, I was able to book it the first mile and set a good pace. It then started to even out and before I knew it, mile 1 was done… in 8:40! WHABAM! Through mile 2 or so, the hills were bad but still not as bad as the ones I’m use to so I just pushed through it. The last .1 was straight uphill which really sucked but again I just worked through it (even though at that point I was losing steam fast) and I’m glad I did. I busted out a 30:38 5k time. I was secretly hoping to break 30 minutes, but I was pretty freakin’ close. I was also wondering if I was going to place in the 20-29 mens bracket, but considering the thrid place time was a little over 18 minutes and the first place time was 16:25, I didn’t have a shot :). Overall, it was a pretty awesome race! Starting on Monday, Megan and I are going to start a 12 week Nike+ 10k training program so I’m pretty stoked about that too!

 

 

 

Alright let’s get back to today.

Breakfast: I just had a wafflewich of awesomeness. Fantastic.

Lunch: This morning, the Farmer’s Market downtown had owls!!!! The St. Francis Wildlife Refuge brought out the owls they use for educational purposes. It was pretty awesome. Anyways, that had nothing to do with lunch, but who cares. For lunch, we just came home and I had leftover chili from the other night. Awesomeness.

 

 

 

 

Oh yeah, we found bacon flavored syrup at Wold Market. Bacon lattes anyone?

[Insert this time of the day with intermittent rice krispy treat and pistachio grazing. Ruh roh…]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner: Tonight, we carved our massive pumpkins and roasted pumpkin seeds. Megan carved out a super awesome jack-o-lantern and completely overshadowed mine that looked like a seven year olds. Anyways, Megan made the Southwest quinoa recipe that we know and love for dinner. It was delicious as usual.

So today wasn’t too bad. Like I said I did graze a little bit and we will just have to see how that affects tomorrow’s weigh in. Either way, I feel pretty decent about this week so we will see how it goes. See ya tomorrow.

Day 286: Saturday Time!

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I was going to blog after the Rangers game, but it’s gotten pretty ugly so I’ll just multitask.

So today, the residual stress of this week weighted me down for part of the day, but I broke out of that so I could enjoy this gorgeous Saturday in Florida. I did homework instead of going to the game, which was a good idea in hindsight because life is about to get B-A-N-A-N-A-S! Alright, food time.

Breakfast: I had two pieces of toast with the last of my Central Market Organic Peanut Butter :’-(. Good thing my parents will be here in a few weeks… (Hint Hint Mom and Pops!)

Lunch: We wanted to avoid around campus for lunch, so we ended up going to Super Perros for some Godzilla burrito. It was awesome as always, but I think I’ve gained every time I’ve eaten at Super Perros the Saturday before my weigh in. I don’t know what that’s all about, but we will just see what happens.

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner: After studying, we got some yogurt at TCBY, went over to a pumpkin patch, bought some little pumpkins and then went over to Earth Fare for some stuff for dinner. We bought some grass fed ground beef and some Italian sausages that they make every morning. We wanted dinner to be an epic cookout to celebrate getting through the week. Instead of just using charcoal tonight (Hank Hill is right, with charcoal you really taste heat not the meat) I bought some mesquite chips (more like chunks) that you light up with your charcoal. It made the fire a lot hotter and it gave everything a much better flavor. I cooked up two burgers with some white cheddar on top with some caramelized onions on ciabatta. We also had some leftover french onion soup (random deliciousness) and also some grilled corn. I cooked up the sausages for spaghetti later in the week, but I tried one of them tonight and holy crap it was soooooo spicy! I can’t wait to eat it some time this week!

So today was okay I guess. It’s been a nutzo week with a lot of stress eating, but I think today might have been the worst. I don’t know. Either way, life will be a bit better next week and I really need to run to get ready for the 5k on Friday. We will just see how it goes. Oh yeah, I’m not going to be able to blog tomorrow night (TV ON THE RADIO IN CONCERT!!! I’M SO STOKED!!!) so I will post tomorrow’s results on my Facebook Page. So if you want to hear all about the weigh in, like my page yo! See ya tomorrow.