Day 850: First Day of Being 26

Posted on January 14, 2013 by theffkid

Fact: 850 is my area code. Random.

I’m so stoked for Day 1,000!

So today was the first full day of being 26. So far, so good!

Let’s do a quick break down the day shall we?

Breakfast: A cup of oatmeal AND (yes…and) a 1/2 cup of greek yogurt with blackberries.

Snack: I had an apple and an ounce of white sharp cheddar cheese. So filling!

Lunch: I had leftover chili from last night and 1/2 cup of instant brown rice. Epic meal indeed.

Snack: I had a banana and a tablespoon of peanut butter. It was scrumtralescent.

Dinner: I made an FFK classic: Monterey Cheddar Turkey Burgers. We ate them without the bun and with Brussels Sprouts. It was sooooo good! I forgot how amazing those burgers were!

I know this is a short post, but I have a couple things I need to do tonight. Tomorrow is weigh in day! I’m not sure if my body has completely recovered from the combination of my birthday weekend and running a half marathon, but either way I’m keeping strong with the Skinny Rules and that will mean next week will just be even better! See ya tomorrow.

[ONE MORE THING]

Have you been watching The Biggest Loser this year? What do you think so far?

Day 844: First Weigh In On Skinny Rules!

Posted on January 8, 2013 by theffkid

Timon and Pumbaa make eating insects sound so appealing. Or is that just me?

Hello everybody!

So today, it was time to get on the scale and see if my hard work had paid off. By that I don’t mean “I hope this hippy-dippy eating is worth it” but more of “I pushed it hard on the bike and one my runs. I’ve torched my share of calories this week.” Well boys and girls, my hard work paid off! I lost 6 pounds this week! So I am down to 230.2 pounds and have lost a total of 126.8 pounds. I am 52 pounds away from my 2013 goal. Things are going awesome so far! Like I said last night, my birthday is this week so I’m going to do what I can to stay on track because this hard work is totally worth it. Time to keep on keepin’ on!

Breakfast: I had a hard-boiled egg, a handful of strawberries and a piece of toast.

Snack: An apple and string cheese.

An Oops Moment: So Jimmy John’s brought a sleigh of delicious mini (like a quarter-sized) sandwiches. I accidentally grabbed a Turkey Tom without thinking about it. I ate it in all of its white flower glory and I moved on. It is what it is and I am totally okay with it.

Lunch: After my class (which is going to be awesome) I had leftover chili with brown rice. It was even better as leftovers like all good chili batches.

Snack: A banana and some peanut butter from a bag. That I found on the ground.

SAWS: Did a 5k run out at Southwood. It was a rough run, but my time was still decent. I’ll take it. I’m running a crapton on Saturday so that should be interesting.

Dinner: I had some delicious leftover salmon and peas. YUUUUUUUUMMMMM!!!!

That’s all I got for tonight. Take it easy yo! See ya tomorrow.

Day 842: Biggest Loser and Stuff

Posted on January 6, 2013 by theffkid

We’re watching Biggest Loser instead of Downton Abbey tonight and we don’t have DVR. We are dedicated.

So Skinny Rules are still going strong. Yesterday we had our first splurge meal which really turned in to a splurge day. We went to Momo’s and we shared a medium pizza (I had about four slices of pizza) which was really my real splurge other than “splurging” by having a Subway sandwich for dinner. (CARBS FOR DINNER???? AHHHH!) So really my splurge day would just be another day before Skinny Rules.

Today I was back to my new normal and it felt great. Clean eating just makes me feel better, so much lighter. I feel like it has cut out the calories that were just waste in my diet. I wasn’t counting those extra handfuls of chips or that extra plop of peanut butter which kept me from losing the weight. It’s those extras that you see on the scale. Can’t wait to see what the scale will say on Tuesday! Either way, I’m going in the right direction for me!

Breakfast: I had a sprout grains English Muffin with a tablespoon of peanut butter and of course a cup of water when I woke up and a cup of water before breakfast.

Snack: Like I was a toddler, I had my own little snack while sitting in church. Instead of Cheerios in a ziploc, I had a cut up apple and a stick of string cheese. It was perfect, because after church you go in to “I’M SO STARVING! LET’S EAT OUT RIGHT NOW! I’M SO HUNGRY I COULD EAT THE LINT IN MY BELLY BUTTON” (Don’t worry, it never came to that.) But what usually happens is we go eat out and not always at the healthiest place. Since I had had a snack, I was thinking clearly and we made lunch instead of undoing anything.

Lunch: Megan made a small batch of chili. It was glorious and I didn’t overeat which was even more glorious.

Snack: During the Seahawks game (BEAST MODE!!!!) I made a protein plate of deliciousness. Now, I’m notorious for hating hard boiled eggs by themselves. The smell drives me nuts (just ask Megan or our friend Julie who eats them in our car sometimes.) But they have slowly grown on me. I’m starting to really like them sliced with a little cheese on my apple that I use as a cracker. Pretty delicious looking plate huh?

SAWS: Also during the game, I did 40 SAWStastic minutes on the bike. I would speed up during certain plays. I was really pushing it when Marshawn Lynch was beasting out those runs. I heart the bike.

Dinner: Megan made a tofu stir fry. It was the first time she had ever cooked with tofu and she rocked it! Deliciousness.

So that’s it for tonight. I’ll talk about the rest of the Skinny Rules tomorrow night. For now, watching the Biggest Loser weigh in. Fun stuff. See ya tomorrow.

Day 839: Thursday and Rules and Stuff!

Posted on January 3, 2013 by theffkid

Why hello!

I didn’t post last night because Megan and I were having an in-home date night. Sometimes cuddling with your wife while watching Fellowship of the Rings and eating kale chips is more important than blogging :).

So let’s get to it!

Here are Skinny Rules 11-15

Rule 11: Get Rid of Those White Potatoes

I heart potatoes. Sooooooooo much. I thought this was going to be an issue, but it hasn’t been yet! Plus I love sweet potatoes and there’s always purple fingerling potatoes which are awesome too!

Rule 12: Make One Day a Week Meatless

We’ve been trying to do that for a while and sometimes it just ends up happening.

Rule 13: Get Rid of Fast Foods and Eat at Fried Foods

Fried food has been an issue in the past. Sometimes it’s just easier to get something “healthy” from Wendy’s. It’s probably my biggest trigger food. With that being said, when I first started Weight Watchers, if it was fried brown, I would not eat it down. I’m just getting back in to that mindset. That’s been the biggest deal with these rules. I would have handled them fine when I first started losing weight 120-some pounds ago. There’s no reason why I can’t do them now!

Rule 14: Eat a Real Breakfast

I also heart breakfast. A lot. I love an excuse to eat breakfast. I’ll take it.

Rule 15: Make Your Own Food and Eat at Least Ten Meals a Week at Home

This has been pretty awesome. We haven’t eaten out at all since we started which is pretty crazy. We love to eat out and it’s so easy when school is going on. This is going to be a challenge when school starts back up because there is a lot of prep for these rules. We’ll probably do a lot of it on Sunday afternoons so we’re ready for the week!

So that’s about it for tonight. What do you think about these rules so far? Doable or just straight-up cray?

I know it’s a short post. More on Friday. 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!

Day 818: Thursday Time!

Posted on December 13, 2012 by theffkid

For the interest of time, let me break this food down:

Breakfast: Toast with peanut butter 4 points

Snack: Fiber One bar (that was oddly juicy…) 2 points

Lunch: Leftover delicious chili! 11 points

Snack: Fiber One bar 2 points

Dinner: Peanut Butter Sandwich 4 points

SAWS: Played Ultimate Frisbee with some friends from work. (Shout out to my Admissions peeps!) Followed by going for a very very cold run in Southwood. There were also some awesome Christmas lights out there!

Snack: Popcorn 5 points

So today, I totaled out to 28 points! Hooray for being back on track! Megan and I did a lot of planning about how we are going to be weight loss studs in 2013. Get stoked. See ya tomorrow.

Day 753: Jacob is a Jerk Edition

Posted on October 11, 2012 by theffkid

Hello my friend (except that I mean actually mean it).

So today, I did really well with food and I conquered an eating out challenge which has always been an issue for me. Let’s get started shall we?

We weren’t going to be able to run tonight (more about that in a second) so Megan and I decided to run this morning. We went over to Lake Ella around 6:30 and I ran with Megan and her Couch25k run program. It was still dark, but the stars were out and the weather was perfect. It was amazing. We ran two minutes on, one minute walk which was a great recovery run for me after a couple of really brutal runs. I think I might start doing that down the line, especially on the Tuesdays after long Saturday runs. Fun stuff!

Breakfast: I had had a piece of toast before running so by the time I got to work I was starving! I had a honey Fage yogurt and when that wasn’t close to being enough, I ran and got a bagel from the little convenient store by my office.

For lunch, I made a Lean Cuisine the Hungry Girl way: I cooked up a sweet n’ sour chicken LC and then microwaved a steam in bag of broccoli to not only make the meal more filling, but to get more veggies in my diet! It made the meal go a lot further! Give it a try sometime!

For an afternoon snack, I just had an apple and some peanut butter. More than enough to keep me full. I also had some sunflower seeds which aren’t bad, but can be high in sodium.

So tonight, I said adios to one of my great friends from grad school. Jacob has always been a huge supporter of my weight loss journey and is a big fan of the blog (or that’s at least what he tells me…:)) He has accepted a job in Fayetteville, Arkansas and Megan and I couldn’t be happier for him and his awesome wife Emily. It’s been great to have had support from the guys who were there from the beginning, who were there when I arrived to orientation, having just bought my first pair of 54 sized pants hours before. It’s been awesome to have gone through the weight loss journey and the joys of grad school together at the same time. Thanks for being an awesome cheerleader yo!

(Alex and Andrea, when you guys move, I’ll gush over you too.)

Anyway….

So tonight, we had a celebration dinner for him and his wife Emily. We went to a seafood shanty called Calico Jack’s and it was AYCE boiled shrimp! Since shrimp are surprisingly low-cal, I ate my share. Thankfully, fried seafood isn’t really my thing so there’s not temptation there. I did however eat a lot of saltines with cocktail sauce (because that’s one of the most delicious things in the world.) Anyway, so I ate two plates of peel and eat shrimp which isn’t as much as you think and then a side of cole slaw which wasn’t that great (but I still ate anyway…)

So that was it for today. Like I said, pretty good food-wise. Now it’s time to stick with it this weekend. Like I said the other night, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays have been my downfall so far. That’s changing this weekend. See ya tomorrow.

P.S. Now matter what your political leaning is, you have to admit these pictures are hilariously weird. (Personally, I like “Pouty Paul” on the left the most.)

Day 745: First Wordless Wednesday in October

Posted on October 3, 2012 by theffkid

Sick of the debates? Me too. Here’s picture of food I eat and stuff.

Day 744: Weigh In Time!

Posted on October 2, 2012 by theffkid

So I’m back!!!!!!!

I have eaten well all day, I got a little exercise in and I’m back on the awesome wagon!

So like I thought, I did gain this week, but it wasn’t near as bad as it ~~could~~ should have been. I gained .4 pounds so I’m back up to 228.4. At least I’m still in the 220’s. I’m shooting to lose a good amount this week but we’ll just see! Either way, it won’t be for a lack of trying. Good stuff!

Breakfast: I just had an English muffin and peanut butter 3.5 points

Snack: Today, I made sure that I had plenty of snacks at my disposal to snack on to fight off the candy around the office. So, in the morning, I ate a banana and a Fage yogurt with honey. It was fantastic. 3 points

Lunch: We had some leftover taco meat from taco and cheesecake night (yeah…that actually happened) on Friday. So I weighed out 4 oz of meat, and put it on two delicious La Tortilla tortillas that are only 50 calories and 7 grams of fiber. Oh yeah, and a TON of salsa. For dessert I had two oranges. 8 points.

Snack: I was offered half of a rice krispy treat from my boss, couldn’t say no to that (not gonna lose my job over refusing a rice krispy treat 🙂 ) plus, they are the beast dessert option while on a diet. It was only 1 point!

Exercise: Tonight I had a softball game which was fun! I got a couple of hits, a couple RBI’s so that was fun. Sure we lost, but it’s still fun to get out there. Anyway, I really really really really really really really wanted to go for a run when I was done because I wanted to try out my new shoes. I guess I’m going to go out for a run in the morning since it will be in the mid 60’s (is it sad that I’m thinking about wearing a hoodie since it will be “so cold?”)

Dinner: I had some leftover chili and chips with a little cheese. It was only 11 points.

So that’s it for the day! I got to 26.5 points which is awesome. I haven’t eaten so little and been so full in a while. The key? fruits and veggies yo!

See ya tomorrow.