Introducing #FFKFitby30

Posted on June 28, 2015 by theffkid

For the past few weeks, Megan and I have binged watched the entire series of Game of Thrones. You know, that show with the dragons, ice zombies and Peter Dinklage. The show is simply amazing and I can’t believe it took me this long to finally watch it. Anyway, while we were watching the fifth season the other night, I thought to myself “wow, I wonder how old Kit Harington (John Snow) is. He must be like…37 or something.” So, like any good TV consumer, I went to IMDB to look for his age. Aaaaaaaand he’s 18 days older than me. That means we graduated high school at the same time, we were in awkward puberty at the same time and we probably secretly even loved Nickelback at the same time. When I told Megan, all she could say was “we’re old.”

While this might mean that I’m just not good at guessing the ages of people, it just reaffirms my false belief that I’m younger that I actually am. (At this point, I’m waiting for some red head to come up to me and say “you know nothing, Nathan MacDonald.”) The reality is that I am an adult and life his happening right now. This all kind of came to a head when I realized that as of June 13th, I am a year and a half away from turning 30. My twenties are almost gone. And I’m kind of sad about it.

At this point, I know you’re ready to comment with a remark like “ummmmm…you’re not that old. Stop whining!” or something like “dude! 30 is the new 15!” But for me, it’s more than that! I’m seeing that 3 number as a finish line for goals that I set nearly a decade ago. (Yes, the FFK is turning 5 years old this year.) I need to think of my journey in those terms so I mentally keep going. More importantly, I need to breath new life into this journey.

With that, I would like to introduce you to #FFKFitby30.

Below is a manageable list of goals that I will conquer before January 13th, 2017 (you know…when I turn 30). Some are serious, some are silly, and others are just plain cool. My plan is once I complete one goal, I will add another! So here we go!

Exercise for 30 minutes four times a week.
Complete a marathon
Run a race every month
Do a pull up (yes, one pull up. I can do a tenth of one right now…)
Weigh in below 200 pounds (199.8 lbs totally counts!)
Get certified in a fitness program like TRX of kettlebells
Track my food six times a week

So seven reasonable goals that all benefit one another in some way! I’m going to start tracking food tomorrow in a food journal on my phone and Megan and I also started Insanity Max 30 (check it out! It’s awesome!) last week! I’m ready to begin this journey to 30 and using these goals as my map!

Here. We. Go.

Trying to Get it All Aligned

Posted on April 6, 2014 by theffkid

“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.

Day 595: The One Where The Fotographing Fat Kid Went To Boot Camp Fitness

Posted on May 21, 2012 by theffkid

cIt’s Monday. Monday. Gotta get down on Monday!

Today was pretty good stuff! I ate well and worked out like a boss.

P.S. I’m addicted to Downton Abbey. Does anyone else think that the theme song kind of sounds like the X-Files theme song? Anyway…

For breakfast, I had two eggs seasoned with pepper and cayenne, two breakfast veggie patties and two pieces of dry toast. For some dipping, mixed some ketchup and sriracha. A lot of spicy deliciousness.Between breakfast and lunch I had an apple and a banana. It kept me full all morning. Awesomeness.

Lunch: For lunch, I just had a Smart One Chicken Suaza which was as good as a frozen meal can be. For dessert I had two fat free Fig Newtons which were awesome. For a snack after I got off work I had some of the epic salsa that Megan had made this morning.

(I know the food part was short so I could get to the fun part!)

Bootcamp Time!: So last week I called Laurel over at Boot Camp Fitness and Training about trying out their classes for a trial run now that I don’t have Leach to rely on anymore. Megan and I then signed up for a week free trial. Boot Camp is located in a warehouse off of Capital Circle and has been open since 2005! The facilities are really nice and definitely get the job done. While there are 5:30 and 6:30 am sessions, we opted for the 5:30 pm class which was the much hotter decision. When we got there, we Laurel and the other instructor Dave showed us around and gave us the rundown of Boot Camp. I felt like a kid in a candy store (no, I’m not trying to promote childhood obesity with that simile) beteween the kettlebells, the TRX setup and the boxes, I knew I was going to have a blast with this. There were around 25 of us in the class and we started out with stretching as a group, then we numbered off in to two groups. Then, there were two decks of cards in the middle of the room. Come to find out they would be the death of us for the next 45 minutes. On the wall (which all of the walls were whiteboards where you could write down quotes and your goals for the 4 week session. Such and awesome idea!) there where the card suites with a workout next to it. For example, a Diamond would be a TRX Row. You had to do as many reps as the value of the card. Faces were 10, Aces were 11, but Jokers… were wild. If someone in your group got a Joker, then you did suicides outside in the parking lot! So you would pick a card, do the reps (the lowest value in the deck was 9) and sweat like you were in a sauna. Although I have done Insanity and personal training, it was brutal but so much fun. Dave and Laurel were super nice and helpful. There were there to give you encouragement and help you out if you were doing something wrong. There was no yelling or any of those weird drill instructor hats and no R. Lee Ermey did not show up and ask me if I could suck a golf ball through a garden hose. It felt like a bunch of friends going through a really hard workout. Kind of like pledging.

Although I’ll have some more later in the week (the classes are Monday, Wednesday and Friday) so far I have been really impressed with Boot Camp! Most of the people there have been doing the four week sessions for years, including a lady who has been there since day one! So far, it was the best workout environment that I have ever been a part of. I can’t wait to go back!

Okay…

So for dinner, Megan made a jambalaya recipe from the 100 Days of Real Food website which promotes… real food. It was full of deliciousness from andoullie sausage to shrimp to brown rice. Unlike most Cajun food, it almost light and it wasn’t sodium stacked at all! After that beastly workout, two heaping helpings of it really hit the spot.