Category Archives: Weight Loss

[GIVEAWAY] Earth Fare Deliciousness!

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Hello dear reader!

It’s truly amazing how awesome your body feels when you treat your body like the temple that it is. Like I read today on someone’s post, “treat your body well because you’re the one living in it!” When I look back and think about how I treated my body for so long, it just makes me even more thankful for that bold decision I made on September 18, 2010 to change my life. Almost three years and 130 pounds later, it was still the best decision I have ever made.

So enough about that. Let’s talk about Earth Fare AND MY AWESOME EARTH FARE GIFT TO YOU!

I have always been some sort of a foodie. When I was obese, I dreamed of going on to Man v. Food and showing Adam Richman how to really eat like boss. I was all about going to all you can eat restaurants and getting my money’s worth and then some. I treated like every meal was my last meal. At the rate I was going, it easily could have been.

But that all changed when I began this weight loss journey.

I’ll never forget the first time I walked in to Earth Fare. “What is that smell?” I asked. “It smells…fresh.” Produce. I was smelling produce. The fruits and veggies were like nothing I had smelled before. I mean, I had had fresh vegetables before, but WOW! Then…I saw the meat market. It was beautiful.

I was so happy with Earth Fare, I e-mailed them about my experience and my story. Then, they published it on their page! (You can read it here!)

So a few months ago, I applied for their Earthlete program, their ambassador program that celebrates athletes that are fueled by eating healthy. I’m not gonna lie, I really didn’t think I was going to get it. BUT I DID!!!!! and it has pushed me to get fit in the gym and lose weight in the kitchen.

Which leads us to today.

This weekend, I got an email from Earth Fare that said they had something waiting for me at Earth Fare: COUPONS!!! Now I love a good deal. Like The Wolf always says, “You gotta be a Baller on a budget yo!” (Okay, she doesn’t say it exactly like that…)

CouponSo I am giving away some coupons and some delicious Earth Fare swag!
That’s right! I have a giant stack of these bad boys and I’m ready to give them out to you, dear reader!

What does that include, you asked? (or read, I guess…)
Organic DealWell, for only $5, you get:

Earth Fare Organic Jelly
Earth Fare Organic or Natural Cookies
Earth Fare Organic or Natural Peanut Butter
Earth Fare Organic or Natural Applesauce
Earth Fare Organic or Natural Crackers

That’s a savings of more than $15!!!

All you have to do is:
Like The FFK FB Page and then comment below with your favorite FFK post!!! To be eligible, you have to do both!

There will be five randomly-selected winners. Each winner will get to pick the item of their choice from those five items!
The deadline for this giveaway is Sunday, July 28th at 11:59 p.m.
If you don’t win, no big! I will be happy to give you a coupon for your own 5 dollar Organic Deal!
(Note: if you would like a coupon, you must live in the Tallahassee area but anyone can win the items!)

Plus, I’ll have another giveaway soon. Stay tuned for that! 

This week, starting tomorrow, I’ll highlight each of the items in the deal.

See ya tomorrow!

Sunday Stuff!

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(Not sure what day it is…I need to figure that out.)

Hello everyone!

I’m watching the King of the Hill episode when Bobby has to buy clothes at the fat kid store H. Dumpty’s and I’m having childhood obesity PTSD right now. I’m so glad I’ll never have to shop at a Casual Male or any of those incredibly uncomfortable palaces of stretchable polyester ever again. 

Alright, back to other things and stuff.

Today was a bit of a food challenge but we totally got through it! I forgot how counting points makes such a difference instead of just saying “merh…I’ll just wing it.” I’m also not as tempted to peek on the scale anymore. I don’t have to. I know that if I stay within my points, the rest will follow. This feels amazing. Weight Watchers Points Plus is the bomb!!! (And no, I’m not getting paid to say that.)

So here is the breakdown of the day:

Breakfast
A delicious cookie from my friend Cynthia: 2PP
Maple Ginger Dreaming Cow yogurt: 3 PP
A slice of Ezekiel bread with spray butter: 2 PP

Lunch
We went to lunch at Bandido’s with the always-awesome Julie and Melissa the fantastic!  My eyes were bigger than my stomach so I ordered a breakfast burrito and a bean burrito. I ate the breakfast burrito and was ridiculously stuffed (Mexican food is my kryptonite…or gluttonite). So after I was done, I added it all up in my Weight Watchers app. I didn’t feel guilty, I felt good knowing the points of what I was eating. I felt accountable to myself. Something that I haven’t been in a while. 33 PP

Dinner
After a doing a good chunk of housework, I just made a Smart One since I didn’t have too many points left at that point.
Teryaki Smart One: 6 PP
Cereal: 3 PP
Two peaches: 0 PP
Non-fat French Onion dip with sliced cucumbers: 1 PP

Total for the day
50 PP 

I ended up using 2 PP which is fine. That’s what they’re there for!

Tomorrow’s a new day. Make it awesome. See ya tomorrow.

It Feels Like Day 1 All Over Again…

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Welcome to the beginning of something great.

I woke up this morning with purpose. This was the start of a new chapter of my journey. And I’ve never been so excited.

Welcome to Day 1…again.

Let’s start at the beginning!

Breakfast
A White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Clif Bar that actually tasted like a doughnut! (Or maybe it did because I wanted it to so badly…) 7PP

Snack
3 tbsp of almonds which was perfect for a snack with my straight-black coffee around 10 am  3PP

FishLunch
I had a 8PP Lean Cuisine Parmesean Baked Fish with pasta. It was surprisingly delicious! I also has two servings of Chick-O-Sticks which was 4 PP. For a pre-workout snack, I had a 3 PP serving of peanut butter with celery!

So excitedExercise!!!
I know…I love ridiculously insane in this photo. I think I was just that excited to work out after work! Today, I did 15 minutes on the row machine until my arms starting spelling out words with my veins under my skin. After that, I went over and climbed the Empire State Building on the Stairmaster. No big.
When I got home, I drank all the water and ate two peaches (which were no points!)
9 Activity points!

Dinner
Megan cooked up some delicious rotini with some spaghetti sauce and these awesome chicken sausages from Sam’s Club. Oh yeah, and A LOT of broccoli (also no points!) For dessert, three little Chick-O-Sticks which were just enough sweetness to feel like actual dessert. 15 PP

So today I got to 40 PP today which is 11 under my goal. I’m not really hungry because the fruits and veggies keep me so full! I might have a little something later, but right now I’m good! Awesome first day!

Now…about the weigh-in situation

A lot of you had a lot of opinions and suggestions and I thank you all for commenting!
After thinking it over and talking to Megan (always ask your best friend for advice!) I will officially be weighing in at our Saturday morning Weight Watchers meetings. The more I thought about, the idea of having multiple weigh in’s every week would get incredibly annoying and ridiculous. I have committed to Weight Watchers and this new chapter in my weight loss so I need to give it all over to it which includes weighing in. I’m also going to avoid getting on my scale through out the week. There’s no reason to do that to myself (thanks for helping me realize that Brooke!)

So here is the skinny of it all. Yesterday’s weigh in is my weigh in for the week. I was 237.8 which means I was up 11.4 pounds from the Tuesday before last (yikes…) Saturday is my new weigh in day so expect a weigh in day post this Saturday, the start of a new weight loss week. See ya tomorrow.

Have a question for the FFK? Ask me in the comments below! I have a feeling tomorrow’s post will have a video… 🙂 

 

The FFK Goes to a Weight Watchers Meeting

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Have you ever had one of those mornings where I wake up and think “I wonder what’s going to happen today…” not knowing that your day would turn out to be potentially life changing? Well…that happened today.

Here we go…

You ready?

Of course you are.

W ClubNo. The W doesn’t stand for Wonder.

Today, Megan and I officially joined Weight Watchers!!!

For the past year and a half, I have been needing a push to get through these last 60 pounds to reach my goal weight (which is 167 pounds, aka 190 pounds lost). I haven’t been keeping track of everything like I should be and I haven’t held myself accountable. I needed a shift to something new. Weight Watchers PointsPlus is that next step.

Keep in mind, I wasn’t planning on this happening when I wrote last night’s post. The plan was to talk about possibly doing this down the line a little. But then at lunch, Megan and I discussed it and decided now is the right time because why should we wait?

My WW StartSo after work, we went over to the Weight Watchers location in Tallahassee and signed up. Then they asked if we were going to stay for the meeting at 6:00. “Why not?” we said! We also weighed in with my new “starting weight” which was rough (keep in mind that was in the evening with completely clothed). Basically, I am up 12 pounds from two weeks ago. Sooooo glad to be back on track!

The meeting was absolutely great! It was educational, supportive and convicting all rolled in to one. The challenge for this month is ask yourself when eating “is this worth the Points?” which is incredibly serendipitous. In my first post when I started my weight loss journey, I called my readers to hold me accountable and to ask me if what I was eating was worth the Points! (You can read that post here!) After the meeting, we met with our leader one-on-one and she gave us some more insight and explanation about the PointsPlus. We told her about about our own weight loss journeys and how excited we were to get started. When we asked her about switching from the old points system to the PointsPlus, she said, without missing a beat, “You’ve got a brand new car. Drive it!” And she was right! The eTools are awesome, the app is better than Calorie Counter and other apps I’ve used in the past, and I can tell that the meetings will make such a huge difference for my own accountability.

So logistically, I will be weighing in at meetings meetings, which will be Saturday mornings. I’m not sure if I’m going to count that as my official blog weigh in, but I’m leaning towards still weighing in on Tuesdays (I would love to get some feedback on this. Do you consider your WW weigh in as your official weigh in or do you weigh in at home first?) Either way, I will have a weigh in tomorrow. (I didn’t weigh last Tuesday because our scale had a battery problem and we were installing a washer and dryer where the scale usually is. Long story.)

Pretty crazy day. Can’t wait to report to you tomorrow with PointsPlus. See ya tomorrow.

So I’ll have more about everything this week.

Who is the FFK?

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I am a lot of things…

I am…
a Canadian-born Texan who now lives in Florida.

I am…
a proud graduate of Abilene Christian University and Florida State University

I am…
a Brother in Frater Sodalis

I am…
Megan’s husband
Brittany’s brother
Nancy and Glen’s son
Molly the Dog’s best friend

And since September 18th, 2010, I have been a loser. 

Prior to that date, I didn’t let my weight define me, but it was defining my future.
You see, my whole life then was about my weight in some way or another. Conversations with strangers would eventually lead to it within just a few comments. While I was as incredibly charming and ridiculous as the man writing here today, most people still saw my weight first. Like I have said before, I was letting my whole life pass me by.

For the past three years, I have been working hard to lose this weight and it has hit a score of snags along the way. I have been blessed with minimal injuries and other physical setbacks even when training for the Tallahassee Half. With that, there has been little to no reason why I don’t go out every day and kick my weight loss in the nards. I don’t do it because I have made other things in my life top priority. One of them is my career, but in a lot of ways that makes complete sense <no job/no money/no food/no internet/no means to show readers what I eat>. When in a lot of other ways it doesn’t make sense because I have the means and the constraints to make better decisions with my health (not to mention racquetball being a useful cathartic device after work). For the past year, I was slowly sinking into a hole of listlessness with my blog and other aspects of my life. I needed a jolt, because these weren’t things that defined me anymore. I wasn’t the same legalistic (in a good way) weight loss evangelist I had been and it made me sad.

Then, Fitbloggin’ took over my newsfeed. Last week, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and essentially every blog I read was inundated by this amazing conference. And I was jealous. Ridiculously jealous. I wanted to be there so bad because not only was it in Portland (#Dreamtown) it was the revival that my weight loss could have used. So instead of becoming inspired from photos like this and blog posts like that, I sat at home and sulked…while holding a slice of pizza like it was a newborn made of cheese and pepperoni.

(I am well aware of how weird that analogy is. Let’s just move on and act like it never happened. Unless you thought it was funny and dark and in that case continue to laugh, Julie Dow.)

 

After days of my pity party of one, I have made some fantastic self realizations. The biggest of them being that  I have a new job where being incredibly passionate about what you do and the causes you believe in is job 1!!! I work with people everyday that want to make this world a better place! In my interview, I told my now-boss that my dream job was to work somewhere that promotes good, which is hard for someone to find in PR and Marketing. His response was “well…that’s what you’ll be doing.” That’s when I knew this was the beginning of something great. Now that I have been there for a few weeks, I have had to let it all sink in a little. And I realized that it is time to invest my heart and soul into this position because it is what I’m being called to do. When I made that decision to fully invest in this job, the spark to continue my weight loss journey was rekindled.

Now, the journey continues and I control my future. I have worked way too hard to plateau the way I have for the past year and half. I have been resting on my past victories for too long. I’m ready to post some new victories and go into unchartered weight loss waters.

So what does that mean for the blog?

Well…that’s a good question.

You see, I like writing these long self-reflecting essays about my life, but I have been trying to do that with every post. That’s not feasible for a daily blog (yes…this blog used to be daily.) I like writing them because it’s the kind of thing I like to read, but it’s not the best for me as a blogger because writing 800+ words a night gets exhausting.

So the new blog layout until further notice is the following

Monday, Thursday and Friday: Entries with points with a little reflection. It might now always be interesting, but I need that kind of accountability right now. I’m brining back the food journal side of the FFK.

Tuesday: Still my Weigh-In Day. I’ll reflect on how I feel and how I can do better.

Wednesday: Still Wordless Wednesday. Get stoked.

Saturday and Sunday: A post like this one. More reflective on the week, along with other cool things like giveaways, reviews, guest posts, and more!

It feels good to be back. See ya tomorrow.

Why You Shouldn’t be Afraid of Success.

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Tonight, I’m reflecting on a few other things I’ve realized after 1,000 days in to this crazy weight loss adventure. I’ll have more tomorrow night too! Enjoy.
Also, a quick shout out to the NSA agent reading this while tapping in to my data. Read as much as you want. I could use the views :).
Don’t be afraid of success.

For most of my life, I have been afraid of success. I used to be scared to get out of my comfort zone. When I did, I would freak out one way or another. A lot of the times, I would do and say crazy things (like yelling/singing the Disney song “A Whole New World” to a group of girls I didn’t really know. One of which I ended up marrying…) to hide away the fact that I was incredibly insecure in my own skin. If people were laughing with me, they weren’t laughing at me, right? But with that came the inevitable backhanded comment: “You know, you sure don’t act like you are fat. You are fun and comfortable in your own skin!”

Ouch.
I tried to not let that comment affect me, but people have said it to me way too many times in my life not for it to hurt a little. I felt that the only success I could achieve was under the provision that I was successful…for a fat guy. That didn’t sit well with me.
For most of my life, I was an average student. In fact, I had a teacher in high school that told me that I was a B student and I always would be.
Well she was wrong…I did worse than that in college.
Sure I did decent in my majors classes, but I slacked off in everything else. (Why did I have to take Geology? More important, WHY WAS GEOLOGY ONE OF THE HARDEST CLASSES I EVER TOOK???) In my hard classes, I strived to just pass because that’s what I expected of myself. At that point, grad school sounded like a great experience (the idea of just learning about social media, PR and marketing sounded amazing) but it was a pipe dream.
I left ACU with a crappy GPA. I knew I could have done better, but I was scared of succeeding. I was scared to put it all out there, to really study and actually act like I cared. What if I had put it all out there and I failed? What would be the point? I wish I could go back to that younger me and say “So what if you fail? You at least gave it your all!” (Then I would probably say “Oh yeah, you’re going to lose 130 pounds one day” to which Younger Nathan would have laughed and then ate a whole bag of Skittles in one gulp (yes, I have done that before.))
So when Megan got in to Florida State University, my dream school ever since I was in 7th grade, I was incredibly excited for her. One day when I was looking for a job in Tallahassee when we were still living in Abilene, she said “I think you should apply for grad school at Florida State.” At this point, I had been on their website 1,000 times, wishing and dreaming for the chance to apply. I knew I was a long shot, but I was going to give it my best.
Then, I took the GRE. I didn’t do well…at all. My dream was slipping away.
Fast forward to July 2010. We were sitting a Starbucks (since we didn’t have cable for our new place yet) and I got an email from FSU.
I didn’t get in, but they invited me to apply as a non-degree seeking student and to take two classes to prove my way in to the program.
“Maybe this isn’t for me,” I thought.
So I took two classes that first semester: Hispanic Marketing and an entry level stats class. I was scared of the unknown. How was I going to do in these classes? I finally said to myself “give it your best shot. Don’t worry about if you fail. What if you succeed?” So I did the work.
Not only did I pass both classes, I was even offered an assistantship for the following semester.
Three years later, I now work for my dream school and I will be starting an amazing new position within the university next week. This all began with me putting it out there and not being afraid of falling flat on my face. It was that step of confidence that lead to me taking an even bigger step months later: my weight loss journey.
Be bold. Give it your all. Don’t be afraid of success.
See ya tomorrow.

Weight-Loss Journey Reflections: What You Can Learn From 1,000 Days of Choosing Veggies Over Chicken-Fried Chocolate Pork.

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Friday was a milestone in my life. I have been proud of many things in my life, but I think this is one that I haven’t emphasized enough in my mind as I should.
It’s a well-known fact that most diets crash and burn in a glutinous rage of glory. Until September 2010, I was a part of this statistic. It’s also a well-known fact the overwhelmingly majority of obese children remain obese for the rest of their lives. Until September 2010, I was a part of this statistic as well. On Friday, I celebrated that I have risen above these statistics and have broken out of these sad norms within our culture for 1,000 days. It hasn’t been easy, and I have had my share of setbacks, but at its core, losing weight is inherently easy and possible for every single person.
As you can imagine, I have learned a lot about weight loss and about myself over these past 1,000 days. While most of it has been positive, there are some things that I think we could work on as a society. Here are just a few of those realizations. Enjoy.

Don’t glorify food.

We’ve all done it. Late night when the family is asleep, we turn on the TV and turn it the to dirty channel.
That’s right: Food Network.
We sit and stare at the mounds of sloppy, greasy burger, stacked with gooey cheddar, mounted with piles of bacon and sautéed onions.
It’s lust at first bite.
I am here today to say that food porn is wrong.
When I was obese, I would sit and watch hours and hours of Man vs. Food. Adam Richman was my hero. Getting paid to go across the country and eat as much as possible? I wanted to find a way to be his understudy! You see, for most of my life, I have treated every meal like it was a contest. I wasn’t good at a lot of things, but I was good at eating. I was undefeated in every single Whataburger Milkshake Drinking Contest I ever competed in. I would could go round after round at every All You Can Eat restaurant. I would eat until I was physically ill. That is what shows like Man vs. Food promote, that that kind of eating is okay. The worst part of it was that when I would watch that show, and others like it, I would want to eat something gross like that. Because I thought that that’s what comfort food was. I thought eating that way was my right and something I deserved. (Meanwhile, there were homeless people not knowing where their next meal was coming from…) This was a vicious cycle that I had to break out of and it’s still something that I struggle with daily.
With that realization about the power food shows have over me, I’ve had to reassess how I look at food in my life. Is it fuel? Is it pleasure? What is it? I have realized that at the end of the day, it’s just calories. For my whole life, I have been letting my tongue and tastebuds dictate the success of my weight loss and my overall health. In order to be successful with weight loss, you need to be okay with every meal not being your “last meal” meal. I was most successful with my weight loss  when I ate a sensible breakfast, a frozen meal with veggies for lunch, and a grilled chicken breast with veggies for dinner. Did I always want to eat that? Heck no! But I knew in the grander scheme of things that I wouldn’t remember one boring meal when I had a low number on the scale. I would think, “man, I’m glad I ate well this week!”
You can still be a foodie and lose weight. I’m proof. You just eat less of it. What I have been doing is eating simple meals throughout the week and on the weekend indulge a little or try a new recipe at home. Programs like Weight Watchers fit that kind of thought process into their points system. Obviously you don’t go crazy, you just eat less than what you would eat regularly. Yeah, it’s that simple.
So, I still have a lot more to say about what I have learned over the past 1,000 days, and I’m going to share it with you this week. Each night will be a different lesson so stay tuned.
I want to truly thank you for reading my blog. When I first started blogging about my weight loss, I had my share of reservations. I remember when I tired to lose weight a few years ago, I thought “what if I just posted my weight as a Facebook every day. What if I wrote ‘Nathan weighs ______ pounds.’ Man, that would be weird. That’s terrifying. I’ll never do that!” At the beginning, I didn’t post my weight. But I had so much support from every single one of you, that I eventually did. That speaks volumes to the level of love I have felt and the amount of accountability I have with you. I love you, dear reader. Thank you for making this weight loss journey so special. Here’s to another 1,000 days of weight-loss awesomeness. See ya tomorrow.

Monday on Reset

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You know that blog you read where the writer always says “I’m going to do better, I’m going to do better, I’m going to do better”? Well, that has been me for a while. My weight loss has had its issues over the passed few years, but during that time I have still been able to maintain my within 10 pounds or so. This week, we are back to the basics: simple meals during the week, counting points, and some solid exercise. One thing I’m throwing in to the mix is tapping in more of my foodie side on the weekends. My issue is that I want to make all the delicious things to break from the same ol same ol during the week. So hear we go. Let’s get to it.

FFK FB
SHAMELESS PLUG TIME!
Y U NO LIKE MY FACEBOOK PAGE??? 
I’m trying to get to 1,000 likes! Help a blogger out! 
Click here and like! 
(Also, if I get to 1,000 likes, I’ll stop blabbing about this ridiculous self promotion… well, maybe…)

Breakfast: I had two eggs and a piece of toast. Simpletastic! 5 points

Lunch: I had leftover mac n’ cheese from yesterday’s lunch along with one Hebrew National 94% ff hot dog. 9 points 

Snack: I had some celery sticks with a tablespoon of peanut butter 2 points 

Dinner: I just had a cajun-seasoned chicken breast with some delicious squash (seriously, Becky knows how to grow some serious squash!) 8 points

Nike Plus Run time!
Since it finally cooled off tonight, I went for an awesome run!
So. Many. Hills.
I’m still in love with my Brooks shoes. It’s like wearing pillows on my feet.

Dessert: When I got back from my run, I could feel my blood sugar getting a little low so I had a little pie with a little low fat ice cream. 5 points.

So today I got to 29 points which is awesome. Interested to see how tomorrow’s weigh in goes. See ya tomorrow.