The Cowboys make me sad.

(Yes, that is my greeting of the day.)

It has been a great day here in the 850. Woke up this morning, got on the scale, and I lost 4.4 pounds this week!!! So I blew my 1 pound goal out of the water and I have lost a total of 23.4 pounds and I am 92.8 pounds away from my goal. Whenever you have had a successful weigh in, have you ever gotten on the scale like 3 more times to make sure it was right? Because I totally did that and I hope I’m not the only one. Anyways… More about weight to come.

Breakfast: This morning, we opened the windows and let cold Fall air breeze through the house as I made some bacon (2 points) and eggs (4 points.) I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, there is nothing better than getting up early and enjoying the peace and quiet before the day commences. I’m sure you’ve noticed that I have the same coffee cup in every picture. It’s not because we have only 1 cup it’s just because it’s awesome. That’s about it.

Lunch: Thanks to a gift card to Olive Garden from my folks, after church we went to the good ol’ OG for a Sunday afternoon lunch. Like last time, we split the Shrimp Primavera which was only 5 points! After years of avoiding it, I finally had the minestrone and it was fantastic (when I was in the 3rd grade, I got sick from minestrone so I have abstained from it since then.) It’s a great appetizer over the salad which is only worth it points wise if you eat it dry. A bowl was 1 point so I had 2 glorious bowls for 2 points. I was good again and only had one breadstick which was 3 points (depressing right?) What I did was I broke it in to thirds and used it for each part of the meal. Then the Andes mint was 1 point. Super duper worth it. (How can you not like Andes mints? If you don’t like them, don’t tell me so we can stay friends.)

Sad Days: I just saw this in Wal-Mart and it made me sad because I should probably never eat Oreo’s again because I use to eat about 7 at a time. They are my glutinous Achilles Tendon. I know some people feel like they are missing out when they do the life style change thing, but it’s so worth it. When you read the bottom section, you’ll see how worth it it can be. (But read the whole post!)

Exercise: I got a call from my bud Matt and we went and played racquetball this afternoon. Earlier this week I got owned but today I held my own and after I just felt great. According to Calorie Count, I burned 1060 calories for 1 hour of casual racquetball. If you want to get a good cardio and sweat a disgustingly satisfying amount, play some racquetball. It’s addicting like a healthy crack. (Plus, according to the WW exercise points formula, I was suppose to have 16 extra points today. Did I further prove my point?)

Dinner: So there are a lot of things that you buy at the grocery store that look good in theory, but then are just bad? Well this was one of those. We bought a Zatarain’s Jambalaya mix and we added some shrimp. It was a sodium nightmare, you could taste the salt and it was just a weird tasting dish. I usually love jambalaya so I was severely disappointed. To make it worse: it was 13 points. Why does it seem like that the stuff that you don’t enjoy eating are also high points? So lame.

Dessert: After my Men’s small group study, I came home to the house smelling of delicious pumpkin pie. Megan had been wanting to try the Sour Cream Pumpkin Pie recipe from the WW cookbook (page 409) and holy smokes was it good! It was the first time she had made a pie, much less a crust, and she dominated. We have been looking for WW dishes and such to serve at Thanksgiving and for only 4 points for a slice, I think we have found our dessert! It was delicious.

So Down To Brass Tax: if you haven’t noticed, I have never actually mentioned my weight since I’ve started blogging. To be honest, it was something I wanted to keep hidden because if this didn’t work (as in if I gave up) the insult to the injury would be that people would not only know that I had failed, but they would know something that personal. So now, I feel really comfortable and encouraged about this monumental change in my life thanks to my friends, family, and the blogging community that is fighting the same fight as I. So here we go…

A few weeks before I started WW on September 14th 2010, I looked like this. I weighed an  astonishing 357 pounds. I’ve never really felt limited in activity, but I was slowly going in that direction. I felt gross, uncomfortable, and worst of all: fat. This was the first time in my life I was closer to 400 pounds than 300. I was scared. A long time ago I read that John Candy (my comedic idol) was 300 pounds most of his life and he died 44 so I knew that I’ve needed to change but somehow that wouldn’t do it. In 8th grade, I was 275 pounds and that was after I had lost some weight in football. I needed to change then and I knew it, but for some reason I didn’t. So what makes this time different? Accountability. I have had people I haven’t talked to in years text me, fb chat me, and call to tell me they enjoy the blog. If that’s not inspiration to keep it up I don’t know what is. I’m not doing this for attention or credit. I’m doing it for God, my family, and so you can enjoy my awesomeness for a little while longer on this earth.

(Photo cred to my bud Gerard!)

So here is where we are today. This is me this is me today at 333.8 pounds. I am back to being closer to 300 than 4oo which is a win in itself to me. As you can see, I have man boobs. Big ones. I’m like the Pamela Anderson of man boobage. But they have shrunk considerably (To quote Homer Simpson “I’m wasting away to a B-cup!”)  Also a win. Something also awesome, when I get to 321, I will have lost 10% of my body weight which is so cool! I’m hoping to break 300 by my birthday (January 13th. Don’t forget!) which I think might be doable so it’s a goal I’m setting for myself. Even if I get close I’ll be stoked so I come out awesome in this either way.

So today’s post (as promised) has been a doozie, but it’s a big deal for me to expose my weight like this, but I honestly wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t for your amazing support. Thank you again, and please keep it coming. It does not go unnoticed. See ya tomorrow.