Wordless Wednesday Fitbloggin Edition

Posted on July 2, 2014 by theffkid

#alltheselfies
#seeyouinDenver

Dinner with blogging friends!

Oh yeah…I met Arian Foster

AAAHHHH it’s Fit and Free with Emily!

Holy Crap! It’s THE Steve Gray!

A fuzzy me and an awesome 300 Pounds and Running

Run Bang Run, 300 Pounds and Running, and the FFK

The Fitbloggin mastermind Roni Noone

It’s No Thanks to Cake!!!!

Our marathon training session selfie!

ERMAGHARD!!! IT’S FAT GIRL VS THE WORLD!!!!

Sarah from Losing Weight and Having Fun!

Oh yeah I FREAKIN’ MET MICKEY!

Alan from Sweating Until Happy!

Brooke “The Stud” Not On A Diet!

My Top 5 Takeaways From Fitbloggin’

Posted on July 2, 2014 by theffkid

Oh man…so much to say…along with so many feels and ideas and challenges and thoughts and other awesome stuff.

So this past weekend, I finally got to do something that I’ve wanted to do for the past four years: attend Fitbloggin’. Even though I haven’t been able to go for one reason or another in the past, I have never really pushed to make it happen because I didn’t feel like I belonged. I mean, only blogging juggernauts who make it rain off their AdSense payouts attend blogging conferences, right? So for years, I have been fighting off that feeling, only to find out that I was the only one holding myself back.

I’ll never forget walking into the conference and having some of my favorite bloggers like DubyaWife and Alan from Sweating Until Happy come and give me a hug and then meeting some of the bloggers that I have followed ever since the beginning of my journey like Robbie from Fatgirl Vs. the World, Brooke from Brooke Not On A Diet and Kelly from Curvy Fit Girl. It was this beautifully weird sensation of embracing people that I’ve never met in person but I’ve known for the entire part of this new life. Simply put, Fitbloggin’ truly is the cat’s pajamas. (No, there was no feline nightwear involved at Fitbloggin.)

So without further adieu, I present…

My Top 5 Takeaways From Fitbloggin’

1. If You’ve Been to Savannah, You’ve Stood on a Dead Person.

Photo Credit: carriedphotography

Half of the fun of Fitbloggin’ was being in the swashbucklin’, old south, and gorgeous city of Savannah, Georgia. Being originally from Texas, it is rare to be in a place with such beautiful 18th century architecture and being in a space that was a part of the original 13 colonies.

But with that kind of historical impact comes a lot of dead people. Lots of dead people (the kid from the Sixth Sense’s head would have probably exploded if he had lived in Savannah. Which is kind of funny since Haley Joe Osment was the little kid in Forrest Gump and he lived in Savannah. Weird…)

Anyway, so due to building over old cemeteries with urban sprawl and some rampant pandemics of yellow fever, a lot of today’s Savannah is built on stacks of dead people. Then there were the scores of poor souls that never made it into the city from Fort Jackson, the gateway into America, thanks to a red light district that was actually a front for a SAWS-like Thunderdome of mutilation that even turned sick people into chum for fishing boats (insert obsolete HMO joke here). I know all of this thanks to the AWESOME ghost tour we went on the first night. Yes, we rode in hearses and no, we didn’t see any ghosts, put others did!

2. I Flippin’ Love Zumba!

DubyaWife and me about to party like it’s 1985.

You all know how much I love to try new workouts! Well, I finally got to do one that I’ve wanted to do for a long time: ZUMBA! One of the sessions this year was a Zumba class with an 80’s flare! There were fluorescent legwarmers and side ponytails (along with Monica from Run Bang Run‘s AWESOME Jaws shirt) as far as the eye could see. I really didn’t know what to expect, but I did expect that I would be very uncoordinated and fall down numerous times. I surprised myself and made it through the whole class without completely embarrassing myself :). The energy in the class was amazing and the sweat was abundant. It felt nice to do a class and just work out and not care about how ridiculous I (most likely) looked. While I love working out at FSU, it really is weird being the only guy (and an older and awkwardly shaped guy at that) in a class of pretty fit folks. I tend to get pretty uncomfortable so it was awesome to just let loose and shake it like a salt shaker!

From that class, which was awesomely taught by Simplifying Sam, Mrs. Fatass and a few other instructors, I realized that I really want to get certified and teach something, whether it be Zumba, Tabata, spinning, or really anything. I want to motivate people and burn some calories while doing it! I think I would do really well with people who are just starting on their journey too!

3. The Number on the Scale Isn’t Everything, but Living Your Life is

One of my favorite sessions was about what is like after you reach your goal weight, which was led by my buddy Kelly, but it also had some weight loss rock stars like THE Roni Noone and Sarah, who has lost 200 pounds! The session quickly turned into a call for a paradigm shift on how we view the “after” stage of weight loss. Sure, there is a honeymoon stage, but life doesn’t end there. It’s as if you take on a new identity. Thinking about it now, I definitely feel like I already have a new identity from the life I used to have. I used to be the person that was going to die early and was close to becoming immobile and now I’m the active half marathoner who has shed more than 100 pounds off of his body. With that being said, I am ready to reach my goal of getting to a healthy weight. Which means I’m not chained to the scale like it’s the Biggest Loser or something like that. The true end goal is to be healthy. And I’m absolutely on the right track.

4. Bloggers Are Even Cooler In Real Life

Seriously, can we all run together all the time now?

I have to admit that I do tend to have some issues with hero worship which can sometimes lead to becoming very disappointed after meeting said hero. Like the time I met the bands Relient K and OC Supertones.

Both bands were kind of jerks. And it made me sad.

So really, I didn’t know how Fitbloggin’ was going to go in that regard. We all have our online personas that sometimes contradict our real selfs. Well, that wasn’t the case at all! I know that sounds kind of weird, but what I’m saying is that I met some of the most genuine, sweet, and awesome people who are dealing with the same issues I am dealing with. Really, my favorite part of the whole conference was running a 5k through Savannah with some awesome people! Like Zumba, it was fun to just let loose and be silly and not have anyone judge how good or bad you are doing. Especially when you decide to yell “WE’RE FAMOUS ON THE INTERNET!!!” at innocent bystanders and they don’t think you’re a jerk, just an awesome weirdo like the rest of them!

and finally…

5. Some of the Best Takeaways Happen After You Leave Fitbloggin’

As we were driving back to Tallahassee from Savannah, I was mentally gleaning through the weekend and trying to pinpoint the definitive takeaways. I left unsure about how I truly felt about my weight loss progress. A while back, I made the declaration to lose 75 pounds by next June, and I was trying to decide whether or not that was a good idea. In one of the sessions, DubyaWife talked about how she needed a goal in order to get laser focused with her weight loss and that definitely resonated with me. Like her, I need that attainable goal to use as a framework for my actions.

When it came time to dinner, we threw dietary caution into the wind and went to Cracker Barrel. All I wanted was a giant plate of chicken n’ dumplings, macaroni n’ cheese, mashed potatoes with gravy, and green beans. Almost immediately after I ordered, I panicked. “WHAT DID I JUST DO???” I thought. “I’M COMPLETELY UNDOING EVERYTHING I’VE LEARNED THIS WEEKEND!!!” Like I was in some weird time vortex, I could forsee the consequences of my actions: overeating, feeling sick, getting angry. Then the food came and I ate. But halfway through my meal, I was full. Usually, I just suck it up and keep eating. But this time was different. I told my body that I was done. It was like the fork in my hand had some electromagnetic connection to the rest of the food, but I resisted. It physically hurt to not eat the rest of my food. Finally, the server walked by and I told her that I was done. And then I sat there and started to tear up. This was the first time I have stood up to food in years and it has set the tone for the rest of my week and really my life. I feel like that I will look back at the time I stood up to food at a Cracker Barrel in Jacksonville, Florida as a pivotal moment in my weight loss journey. That it was the moment where the finish line to this race was finally in sight. That is, and will always will be, the biggest takeaway from Fitbloggin’ 2014.

Getting Real About the Scale and Vacations

Posted on June 24, 2014 by theffkid

Why hello!

So after a weekend full of ridiculously delicious food, I could feel my body say “okay kid, you’ve had your fun. Now it’s time to get back to business.” I haven’t checked the scale since Saturday morning, but I now that I am back on track so there’s no real reason to. It’s really really really easy to treat the scale like some life raft that I hold on to for some sort of validity instead of being a compass that is guiding me in the right direction.

The issue is that I won’t be able to do official weigh ins for the next few weekends because of fitbloggin and various vacations in July so I won’t have that pressure to be good (which is a bad way to look at it, I know). I guess I wouldn’t feel so clingy to the scale if I wasn’t still in the 250’s. Frankly, I am terrified of getting about 257. If I got above that, I would be out of the Century Club.
While my weight has fluctuated a bit over the past year, I can still say that I have lost 100 pounds. I’ve been able to say since August 14th, 2011 and I’m incredibly proud of that. I know that if I slip up when I’m on vacation and things like that, my weight could go crazy. So I’m going to have to challenge myself to be as strict as possible. I know it’s possible to lose weight on vacation because I’ve actually done it multiple times. It’s really easy to get caught up in the joys of pigging out on your hometown foods, but I know that I have an ultimate goal laid out to lost 75 pounds by next June. I can’t afford to spend time undoing what I gained on a vacation. I have a lot of weight to undo already! The other thing is that I’ve been making some killer strides in my eating and how I look at food so I don’t want to undo that progress as well.

So that’s kind of where I am mentally right now. I had full intention of doing a post full of food from my day, but sometimes I need just need to get some thoughts on to paper…er…screen. See ya tomorrow.

Day 50: French Cooking and Other Awesomeness

Posted on June 23, 2014 by theffkid

The Amy’s Baking Company episode of Kitchen Nightmares. Wow.
I know that I’m a year late, but still…it’s awkwardly magical.

Anyway, let’s talk about food and stuff!

So this weekend was our sixth anniversary. Not only have I been incredibly blessed to be married to my best friend, I have had the best supporter and encourager in the entire world. Megan MacDonald, you are the cat’s pajamas. I love you.

After six years of wedded bliss, we have taken up cooking as couple. It has been quite the delicious pastime. So when we were trying to decide on how to celebrate, went decided to try to tackle the holy grail of cooking: Boeuf Bourguignon from Julia Child’s The Art of French Cooking with a dessert of crème brûlée. Now, we knew this wasn’t going to be an easy feat. In fact, it was going to be a six-hour ordeal. But we knew that it was going to be totally worth it. And holy Moses, it was. Think about the most tender roast beef, add a richly delicious wine sauce along with carrots and pearl onions and you’ll have a a pretty good idea of it. Oh yeah, and the crème brûlée tasted like angel’s wings.

Here are just a few photos of the awesomeness!
So tomorrow, I’ll get back to my regularly scheduled blogging! That is, UNTIL FITBLOGGIN’ THIS WEEKEND!!!! AAAAAHHHHHHHHH I’M SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!

See ya tomorrow.

Day 43 Weigh In Day

Posted on June 15, 2014 by theffkid

I don’t feel like I’m going to do my Dad justice in this post. He has been nothing but an amazing man in my life. I have been incredibly to have parents who have laughed, cried and prayed with me during my 27 years on this earth. Thank you for being my biggest cheerleader, Dad.

So, now that I’ve bawled all over my keyboard…

I have a pretty big presentation at work tomorrow and I’ve been working on it all evening so I’m pretty wiped and I’m going to keep this relatively brief.

This week, I was incredible with my eating and my fitness! Until Thursday, that is.
I was on point for most of the week, and I just let my guard down on Thursday and Friday. While I was actually pretty good on Saturday, it couldn’t make up for the damage of the other days. Because of that, I gained 1.4 this week. I’m not really thrilled, but it is what it is and I’ve already moved on. After I weighed, Megan and I sat down and talked about some of the issues we had last week and then talked about how we could do better this week. So after church, we got our grocery shopping out of the way and now we are set for the week, armed with healthy and delicious meals!

Today, I ate a total of 43 points (my lucky number. BT.) and I feel great and not deprived at all. According to WW, I’m supposed to eat 53 which is just insane so I modified it down.

So here’s to another week of healthy choices and a little better follow through! See ya tomorrow.

Now go! You chicken fat! Go!

Day 37 A Declaration

Posted on June 10, 2014 by theffkid

This morning was hard for me. I woke up just feeling like crap about my weigh in and just how I kind of trashed my body over the weekend. I know I’m human and I like to indulge, but at what cost? Is it worth eating until I’m physically sick all night into the next day? No. My body deserves much better than that and I’m the only one in control of it.

While I have made some awesome strides in the past few weeks, I have realized that I need direction with my weight and health. After losing 100 pounds in the first 11 months of this journey, I have been in a weird lose/gain/plateau cycle for the past three years. Am I just going to stay some terminal weight loser who keeps losing the same weight all the time? To quote Brooke Birmingham: I want to be an “After.” You see, I have big plans for this body. Loose skin and all. I have already taken my current body to the limit. It’s time to take it up a notch.

I am at a point where I have completely lost sight of the finish line and that scares me in a lot of ways. This is my pivotal moment to take that turn around the trail and finish the race.

So…

Starting today Monday, June 9th, 2014, I am committing to lose 75 pounds by June 9th, 2015. Which means I will weigh 180 pounds.

Now this might sound crazy to some of you and that’s fine, I know your heart is in the right place, but the fact of the matter is that I need a long-term goal to focus my energy towards. I can’t just run around in a circle like I have been. While I have lost a lot of weight, I’m still considered obese. I need to fix that.

So this is it. It’s time to get to a healthy weight.

So this it, dear readers. I need your support now more than ever (I seriously hate that phrase. Sorry I used it).

If I don’t accept your offer of cookies and chocolate covered pork rinds, please don’t take it personal.

If I decline an invite to a restaurant full of my favorite trigger foods, it’s not you, it’s me.

If I look like I’m phoning it in at the gym, call me out on it.

So here we go. The final push towards my goal. See ya tomorrow.

Day 36: Weigh In Day Time!

Posted on June 8, 2014 by theffkid

Hello kids! It’s been a while!

So here’s a quick weigh in for you. I was pretty good most of the week, but went a little overboard on Saturday. With that being said, I counted 6 out of the 7 days of last week which is pretty awesome for me. So when I got on the scale this morning, I wasn’t hopeful. I gained 1.6 pounds but I was outside in the miserable Florida heat all day so I was super dehydrated. Either way, I was pretty proud with how I did and it’s something to build on! See ya tomorrow.

How Adam Richman Lost to Food But Won in the End

Posted on June 5, 2014 by theffkid

[UPDATE]
In light of recent events, Adam Richman is sadly no longer my hero. I know that it is kind of common for people to let their weight loss go to their head, but that doesn’t make it OK. I am incredibly disappointed at how he treated someone who just wanted to educate him on the weight and controversy the hashtag #thinspiration carries in the weight loss community. No matter who you are, you should never treat someone like that.
Kudos to the Travel Channel for pulling his new show that was supposed to air tonight.

Hey Adam, don’t mess with the digital weight loss community.

Adam Richman Eating All the Things

Adam Richman Losing All the Weight

Adam Richman used to be my hero.
In fact, I idolized him. The idea of being the host for Man v. Food where I could take on those titanic tasty feats of food sounded not only awesome, but possible considering how much a 357-pound man can eat on a regular day. You see, I used to (well…still do) have the sick habit where I would eat as fast as I could so I could eat everything on my plate before I would get full. It was like a race between my taste buds and my stomach. Who won? Nobody. Ever. I would just end up being physically sick for the rest of the day. So when I would watch a show like MvF or Bizarre Foods, I would treat every meal like it was my last. I wanted my meals to be the highlight of my day. When we would eat something light or boring, I would get depressed. Yes, I was addicted to food porn.

Thankfully, after nearly four years on this weight loss journey, my views on food have completely changed where I see it as fuel more than anything else.

So today, there was an article about Adam Richman and how he has lost 70 pounds and how Man v. Food took its toll on him. You should absolutely read the article from TODAY Entertainment, but I want to just post one quote that is so true.

In the article, Richman talks about how he justified the health risks of the show:
“I figured that as long as my blood work and heart were good, I was good. But those efforts were no match for the thousands of calories I’d eat over the course of a shoot.”
Boom.

If you remember anything from this entire blog (not just post, the FFK blog as a whole), remember this: the most damaging thing you can do for your health is to try to justify your unhealthy actions. Sure, I used to have good cholesterol levels and I could run a whole 5k when I was over 300 pounds, but I was still over 300 pounds! I was still very sick in a lot of ways! Like Adam, I had to have a reality check of my own to realize that a cholesterol number didn’t compare to the rest of my chart topping numbers. It wasn’t until after I became real with myself about the direction my life was heading that I could make a real change.

The beautiful moral of Adam’s story and my story is that you can always still do something about your health! How beautiful is that? It’s never too late. If you want to eat better, start with the next thing you put in your mouth. Make the change, and the rest will follow.

So, Adam Richman, in case you ever read this, I just wanted you to know that you were my hero then and you’re my hero now…for completely different reasons. Thanks for showing us all how change is possible.

Day 31: My Tallahassee Democrat Debut!

Posted on June 3, 2014 by theffkid

What a day!
So a while back, I became a community blogger for the Tallahassee Democrat thanks to a run-in with the awesome TD editor Bob Gabordi. On Sunday, I finally posted my first first article about New Year’s resolutions and how it is never too late to make a change. (A lot of it was inspired from this post I wrote a while back. It’s a personal favorite.) Anyway, I was told yesterday that they were considering putting it in today’s newspaper. So this morning when I was driving to work, I made a short stop to buy a paper and sure enough, it was on page 6C! How awesome is that!?! While I love the visibility of my work online, there is always something kind of validating to see your name and work in ink. Even when I covered golf from The Optimist, my paper in undergrad, I still loved reading my work hot off the press. So, yeah. Pretty awesome way to start off the day! Read the article here!

On the other end of the spectrum, I was interviewed last night by Adam and Devon Bate from the Lifestyle Accountability Show: Health and Fitness Podcast! We talked a lot about my journey, the blog and everything else in between. I said the other end of the spectrum because I frankly can’t stand the sound of my voice. So future apologies for when you listen to my terrible voice and my awkward banter. (But seriously, you should listen to it!)

So on to today!

I had one of those awesome days where I thought I was going to be uber over on my points, but I ended up being okay! Here we go!

Breakfast: PB and toast. Always a winning combination! 8 points

Their tables have comics on them. I take a photo every time. This time: Transformers

Lunch: For lunch, I met with with one of my marketing buddies Louise at my absolute favorite place in the world: Gaines Street Pies. I also ran into Monica from Running Happily Ever After! Incidentally, I won a Sport Kilt from her blog on Sunday! Anyway, I had two slices of delicious pepperoni and meatball pizza. YERM!!!!! 19 points

Dinner: After work, my buddy Tim and I decided to hit up the driving range. There’s nothing more cathartic than aggressively hitting golf balls and them traveling to upwards of three….feet. Before I went, I had a 6 point pb sandwich.

Anyway, after we were done we went over to Tallahassee’s favorite delicious shantytown Barnicale Bill’s. I decided to go delicious and healthy with a grilled grouper sandwich. Yes, I did have fries (what? I said delicious too!) and they were fantastic. Dinner was about 16 points.

So today I got to 49 points which is only a point over! I got around 3 exercise points from golf so it all evens out in the end! See ya tomorrow.