Day 935: Welcome to Weigh-In Day!

Posted on April 9, 2013 by theffkid

I’M ALIVE!!!!!!!!

My awful bronchopneumonia (yeah…that’s what I had) has finally subsided and I feel sooooo much better. Hooray for NyQuil and antibiotics!

So I didn’t really post my weigh in last week pseudo-unintentionally. Frankly, I wasn’t sure if it was going to “take”. You see, when I REALLY sick, I tend to drop weight pretty quickly (like the time I lost 9 pounds in 24 hours from the Great Flu Fiasco of 2011). I thought this was the same case. I was down to 226.6, which is was my lowest recorded weight. I had FINALLY gotten past the 227 threshold that I’ve been flirting with since this time last year, and I figured I would just go back to where I was.

Well…that wasn’t the case!!!

I stuck well within my points last week and I drank water like it was going out of style! I really didn’t exercise much since I was sick, but I did randomly run a 5k on Saturday which was awesometastic as well! Anyway, with all of that I got on the scale this morning and I did a double take I weigh 224.6 freakin’ pounds! I lost 2 pounds this week!!!! I cannot describe how much better I feel! I was wondering if I was ever going to get through that 227 barrier that really has been haunting me. (Oh yeah…I’ve lost 132.4 pounds since September 2010. WHAT UP!!!!!)

Today, I started to evaluate my weight loss journey so far and how things are going. Like a lot of people, after I broke through the 100-pound milestone, my weight loss start to slow down quite a bit. I thought I had hit a plateau (which was half true) but the other part of it was that I got complacent with the whole journey. I started to let some things slide. An extra piece of dessert here and there, that kind of stuff. The biggest thing was I kind of just stopped counting points for a long time. It was just getting strenuous. All I knew is that I wasn’t going to backtrack back to 357, but what happened instead was I just got stuck: first in the 240’s and then in the 230’s, which is where I have been for about a year now. I was dieting but not dieting. I wasn’t fully committed. Now, I’m back at it. I realized that if I wanted to see results, I have to be a lot more stringent than I ever have. I’m not depriving myself, I’m just actually tracking and being sensible (that’s why there’s weekly points.) Sure counting and configuring points does take some work, but when you just think of it in the context of just another step in your food prep, it makes it easier. So to summarize, I’m back, baby! And it feels great. Thank you all for being so awesome. Your support means much more than you ever know. Thanks for being awesome.

Now, in lieu of photos of food and things, here’s a Vine of me making delicious Healthy Cookies from Skinnytaste.

Enjoy!

Click Here To Watch Me Make All The Delicious Things

See ya tomorrow.

Day 843: More Biggest Loser and Skinny Rules!

Posted on January 7, 2013 by theffkid

So Biggest Loser is over on the East Coast and the BCS game might as well be over so it’s time for some FFK awesomeness!

Also, I have no clue how people on the West Coast deal with not having a show spoiled by being three hours behind. Do you guys just stay off Facebook and Twitter during the 5-8 pm PST hours? Can’t wait to have that problem one day because that will mean that I will be living on the Best Coast. Worth it.

In other news, tonight they showed Biggest Loser contestant Joe Ostaszewski working out in the weight room inside of Doak Campbell at Florida State! Then I found this article by the Tallahassee Democrat from December about how he was going to be on the BL and how he was a lineman for the Noles from 1988-1991. I’m really hoping that he will go pretty far because when Antone Davis was a finalist, he went back to the University of Tennessee, where he played college fooball, and they had a huge thing for him. That would be awesome if they did that at FSU. Either way, I’m going to try to meet him at some point. I know I sound like a Biggest Loser-crazed loon right now, but it’s such an inspiring show to me. Always has been. I remember watching it when I was newly married and eating a fast food cheeseburger thinking “shoot, I would beat them all” then I probably started wheezing because I used to eat so much so quickly that I would lose my breath. However, there were other plans for me. I took a different path to weight loss awesomeness and I have never looked back.

Oh yeah…and Bob Harper replied to one of my tweets tonight. Consider myself swooned.

Alright, let’s talk food!

Breakfast: 1/2 cup of oatmeal with a pinch of brown sugar (an actual little pinch, not a grab) and a 1/2 cup of nonfat greek yogurt with blackberries. This was definitely a “stick to your ribs” kind of breakfast, but not the “stick to your ribs” kind that sticks to your internal organs and kills you. What I’m trying to say is that it’s super filling.

Snack: A string cheese and an apple. The best snack for the 11:00 am hour.

Lunch: So for lunch we made what I’m affectionately calling “Bob’s Dump Soup” since it doesn’t have an actual name (even though it’s a recipe in Skinny Rules.) All it was was chicken broth, a bag of frozen gumbo mix veggies (Publix brand), a can of cannellini beans and a can of chickpeas. All it was missing was the pasta and it could have been the minestrone from Olive Garden. I added some red pepper flakes and crushed red peppers for a little more flavor. It was incredibly filling for only being something like 100 calories for a cup! Then I just had a piece of bread for dipping and a pineapple spear for dessert!

Snack: I had a banana with a tablespoon of peanut butter. I didn’t have a decent container for the pb so I put it in a ziploc which was pretty weird. I cut the corner with my scissors and spread the pb on the banana like I was frosting a cake. Props to my friend Melanie for giving me that idea a looooong time ago. She said that’s what she does with her hummus so it made sense for pb too!

Dinner: At this point, I hadn’t really eaten a ton of calories but I wasn’t starving at all during the day. Pretty awesome feeling. It’s nice because when you eat an afternoon snack, you don’t come home hungry and crazy. You can actually relax for a while and then think about dinner. Anyway, tonight I grilled some salmon and some squash. I brushed a little olive oil on both (I used a total of three cap fulls for three sliced up squash and three large salmon steaks) and put the salmon on some aluminum foil in the grill. I was absolutely thrilled with how it turned out. (Another reason to move to the Best Coast: I LOVE salmon. Especially the good stuff from Alaska.)

So as you can see, I did pretty well!

Okay…LAST FIVE SKINNY RULES!!!!

Rule 16: Banish High Salt Foods
I’m not really a fan of adding salt to food anyways so this isn’t a huge issue. What is an issue is how much sodium is in most foods. That’s why it’s important to read your labels!

Rule 17: Eat Your Vegetables-Just Do It!
Well…you heard the guy.

Rule 18: Go To Bed Hungry
We usually eat dinner around 6 or 7 so since that is the last thing you eat, it’s easy to go to bed hungry. I’ve always been bad about late night snacking, but I’ve just been keeping myself accountable not to snack after dinner. Even if that means not going back in to the kitchen for the rest of the night. Does that sound crazy? Probably. Awe well, it works.

Rule 19: Sleep Right
Trying to get in to that habit so let’s wrap this up so I can go to bed…

and finally…

Rule 20: Plan One Splurge Meal A Week
We did our splurge meal on Saturday at lunch which kind of turned in to a splurge day, but like I said yesterday, we weren’t crazy or anything. I am going to have to pick my splurging carefully this week because my birthday is on Sunday and I don’t want to overdo it and put me back a few steps. Food isn’t worth it to me anymore.

So that’s the whole list. What do you think?

See ya tomorrow.

Day 837:First Post of 2013!

Posted on January 1, 2013 by theffkid

GO NOLES!!!!!!

If we don’t win…well, let’s not even go there.

So today was the first day living under the tyranny of the Skinny Rules! (I use the term “tyranny” psuedo-lightly, and by that I mean it’s going to be quite the adjustment.) It probably wasn’t the right day to run 7 miles while burning 1,200 calories. On paper, I should be emaciated. But the way the rules work, I feel pretty full. I think it’s the combination of A LOT of fiber and protein along with a gallon of water.

Here are rules 6-10:

Rule 6: Eat Apples and Berries Every Single Day. Every. Single. Day.

That’s a lot of fruit. Good thing we live in Florida: the delicious fruit capital of the USA. (I made up that, but the fruit is good.)

Rule 7: No Carbs After Lunch

I can see this being rough eventually. Like you, yes you, I heart carbs. I love crunchy things like chips and cereal, things I would always eat after work. It’s going to be important to have my snack planned out before I come home from work to avoid being tempted by the carb beast. (There are carbs in fruit, but thankfully Bob says that’s okay…because it’s fruit.)

Rule 8: Learn to Read Food Labels So You Know What Are Eating

I’ve been doing the whole reading labels things for a while, but I haven’t paid close attention to looking at ingredients. Since I’ve had to do that because of Skinny Rules, it makes you realize what you really are putting in to your body.

Rule 9: Stop Guessing About Portion Size and Get it Right-For Good

It’s so easy to just guestimate your portion sizes because it doesn’t require a a measuring cup or a food scale. Time to get back to that.

Rule 10: No More Added Sweeteners, Including Artificial Ones

This might be the hardest one for me. I LOVE Diet Coke. No more sodas…well no more a lot of things. This will be a challenge, but if it’s off limits, it’s off limits!

So here’s the breakdown of the day…

Breakfast: We started the morning right with a glass of water, followed by another glass of water and then breakfast! A delicious veggie omelet with strawberries and an Ezekiel English Muffin made with sprouted grains. The muffins taste more like a thick bread but tastes great! Not to mention high in fiber!

Snack: I had a sliced apple and one ounce of Cabot’s Seriously Sharp Cheddar. Great snack to keep you full.

Lunch: Bob is a big fan of ground turkey. It’s a great alternative to beef, especially when you get the ground breast. (That means it hasn’t been ground with dark meat.) Anyway, Megan made these delicious turkey burgers with diced tomatoes and a spring mix salad with light dressing. The turkey patty was juicy and the salad…was salad.

Run: For the first run of the year, we decided to do it in style and run on the St. Mark’s Trail. I’ve been having issues with my toes bruising on my right foot so I looked up some remedies. One of them is relacing your shoes a certain way. I gave that a shot and my foot was in even worse pain. No bueno. I think I might just go back to the way I had them. Anyway, the run was rough since I haven’t ran in about a week or so. Either way, the first two miles were solid 8:34’s but then the others weren’t as awesome.

After Run Drink: We made a kale green drink that was gross-looking but still drinkable. I’ll spare you from posting a photo of it.

Dinner: Tonight I grilled some chicken and had a mountain of green beans. It felt like a lot of food…because it was! I also had a glass of milk.

So that’s all I’ve had today. A big difference from the last few weeks in December. I was not doing too well with the whole eating well thing.

Weigh In: This morning I weighed in at 236.2 which is up 6.4 pounds from two weeks ago. I know that’s bad, but before we went to Texas, I was already up to 235 that morning we left. It was a combination of stress and just plain eating bad. I feel lighter and healthier than I have in a long time today which is awesome.

So what’s the deal with the number 58?: So I haven’t really laid out my New Year’s resolutions yet, but I do have one big goal for 2013: to lose 58 pounds. I am 58 pounds away from being half the man that I used to be. That will put me past the 178.5 pounds mark which is the half way point. I was shooting for it in 2012, but I honestly didn’t put in the work that it was going to require. After a year oh just being meh with weight loss, I’m ready to melt off some weight! Time to get busy. See ya tomorrow.

Day 836: New Rules For the New Year

Posted on December 31, 2012 by theffkid

I hate clothes that fit.

I’ve spent the majority of my life wearing clothes that were to snug, that made me feel uncomfortable. In 2010, after having to buy a pair of size 54 pants, I decided it was time to make a serious change in my life. I revolutionized my diet, I started to run and I started this food journaling on this little blogernio.

Fast forward to now. On the threshold of 2013. My life has been completely changed and has even been elongated by a few years. Now instead of worrying about dying while incapacitated in a hospital bed, I worry about being attacked by a mountain lion while hiking or taking a racquetball to the temple and/or jugular. (Or insert some other awesome way to die here.)

So although I have been exercising like a boss in 2012, my eating was less than awesome. I cheated…a lot. You can ask anyone who has been doing this weight loss thing for a while and they will tell you that it just gets tough. It gets hard to choose the steamed veggies over the mac n’ cheese, it gets hard to not eat that second serving and it even gets hard not to eat fast food when you are in a rush on a road trip. The old me (the Year One of losing weight me) would not have stood for it. It’s time to get back to that. I’m sick of my clothes fitting. That first year I was having to buy a new pair of jeans every few months. I’ve been wearing the same pair for seven months now. Time to break out of these 40’s into the pair of 36’s I bought this summer.

Enter Skinny Rules.

A few weeks ago, Megan downloaded Skinny Rules by Bob Harper and got inspired. She said “We should totally try this” and naturally I gave an apathetic “sure.” Then I started to read through what I had signed up for. Oh boy. In his newest book, Bob lays out a set of 20 rules that will make your friends think you’ve turned in to a crazy-mung-bean-eating-nature-loving-wheat-hating health geek. So I guess that’s my new year’s resolution: to become a crazy-mung-bean-eating-nature-loving-wheat-hating health geek.

Not gonna lie, I haven’t done well with being restrictive with what I eat. Like most people, I like having the freedom of eating what I want (i.e. the dieter’s dream.) In the past, I have had that had that freedom with Weight Watchers, but with WW you have the responsibility of recording what you eat. For about a year now, I haven’t been doing that. I have eaten what I wanted and then acted like I was recording it with an imaginary pen in the sky. This hasn’t gotten me anywhere. I only lost something like 10 pounds this year. I act like I’ve been plateauing while in reality I have just gotten lazy and have gotten good at maintaining. So this is the next logical step to kickstart my weight loss. From what I’ve read, a lot of people who have been in the same situation as me have gone through the Skinny Rules and have lost some serious weight.

Now…I’m not treating this like some fad diet. I know the keys to successful weight loss, and these rules are it. With that being said, I’m trying this out for the month of January to see how it goes. I fully anticipating it become my lifestyle from here on in. Either way, good things are going to come out of it. Between new dietary outlines, my new spin bike (your butt stops hurting from the seat eventually right?), my access to Leach once again and the half marathon in Feburary, I’m ready to demolish some goals in 2013!

The Rules!

So there are 20 rules, and I’m going to go through them over the next four posts. Here are 1-5…

1) Drink a Large Glass of Water Before Every Meal-No Excuses!

Seems pretty easy to me. Lately I’ve been drinking a ridiculous amount of Diet Coke and when that happens I don’t drink the amount of water I should. Luckily, we have a few big Tervis cups lying around the house and my folks bought us an awesome PUR water filter that’s attached to our faucet. So there’s no excuse not to gulp down some water before dinner. Not to mention you feel full so much quicker after you’re all H20’ed up!

2) Don’t Drink Your Calories

This is definitely an issue for a lot of people. Between drinks of the libatious nature and such, it’s easy to drink all of your calories and not even realize it. I know that can be something that you “forget” to record when you’re tracking calories. Normally I don’t drink things like tea or coffee with any sugar or milk so I’ll definitely be drinking more of those.

3) Eat Protein at Every Meal-or Stay Hungry and Grouchy

When you’re not eating a meat-heavy meal, it’s easy to choose carbs over other protein to get full, even if it’s only for a while. As you’ll see in the rules later on, carbs are restricted down to where they probably should be in our diets anyway. Eating more protein will be rough for a while, but your body eventually adjusts. Plus, I love things like canned tuna and peanut butter which are both packed in protein (and no, I don’t make peanut butter and tuna sandwiches).

4) Slash Your Intake of Refined Flours and Grains

This is what Bob has to say about refined flours and grains:

Grains-mainly in the form of refined flours-dominate our modern diet. Pasta is king. Bagels are everyday. Grains in all kinds of shapes and sizes are cheap and tasty and everywhere. (Yes, he wrote that run on sentence…not me.) They might be marketed as ‘low in fat,’ ‘all natural,’ ‘whole’ and even ‘heart healthy.’ But if they are all refined-from rice to bread-they make you fat. That’s because grains are a lot like liquid calories once your body processes them.

He’s not really saying anything different from what we’ve heard for years, but for some reason we always return to our delicious master: the grain seed. (That was kind of a Seinfeld reference. Except in the episode it’s about the cocoa bean. BOSCO!) Anyway, Bob suggests breads with sprouted seeds like Ezekiel Bread (the kind you find in the freezer at the grocery store.) In reality, they are not much more than regular bread. In fact, the Ezekiel English Muffins (that I’ve only seen at Earth Fare) were only 20 cents more than the Thomas English Muffins at Publix. Not to mention they look a lot yummier than the Thomas muffins.

5) Eat 30 to 50 Grams of Fiber a Day

It’s a lot of fiber.

So those are the first five rules. You think you could handle them? See ya in 2013!