Day 794: Weigh In Day and Stuff about Thanksgiving

Posted on November 20, 2012 by theffkid

Greetings Yo!

So the past couple of weeks have been up and down with two massive trips back to back, but things are finally getting back to where they need to be for this Fotographing Fat Kid. This week, I flippin’ lost 4.4 pounds!!! Which is insane! I know a lot of it was that I have been drinking my water and keeping my calories in check, but I also ran around 15 miles this week which isn’t a ton but more than the previous weeks! It was pretty crazy though, I bought a button up shirt last Tuesday at Old Navy and when I tried it on, it was tight in some areas. Yesterday, it was already loose. It’s crazy how much difference even just 4 pounds makes for your body!

As we all know, Thursday is Thanksgiving. A time to be thankful for what we have by eating a lot and then to go by massive TV’s at rock bottom prices…or something like that. Two years ago, I made it a goal to not gain weight on this week of gluttontastic awesomeness and I succeeded! I even lost a pound or two. But last year, it completely threw off my weight loss for a month or so. This year, I’m going back to mindful about my eating and remember that this won’t be the last time I’ll ever eat turkey dinner again (since we bought a 15 pound turkey and there are only three of us…who are all in a weight loss competition with one another.) Mind you I’m not saying this in a preachy “you shouldn’t eat a lot on Thanksgiving!” kind of way. This is just how I am approaching Thanksgiving this year.

With all of that stuff out of the way, let’s talk Turkey Trot! While I’m still stoked for the 15k, my knees are still a little sore. I’ve tried to stretch out everything, but there’s still a little stiffness. My arthritis medicine does help (oh yeah…I have arthritis. Another important reason to lose weight, because even if you are obese and have good cholesterol like I did, you are still wrecking your joints.) but it’s still there after a while. Basically, I’m going to just run as much as I can of that brutal 9.3 miles and then walk when I need to. My issue is sometimes during races I get super competitive and try to pass people even if that means completely breaking my pace. Then I end up slower and falling back behind. It’s kind of embarrassing and annoying. On Thursday, I’m just going to set my 15k record with the intention of breaking it next time. The race is projected to have more than 5,000 runners in a relatively small neighborhood so there are always bad bottlenecks (insert rant about people running with strollers even though the rules expressly forbid them here) so with that and the difficulty of the route (even though we run there every Tuesday and Thursday) it’s going to be an awesome run, not so much a race. It will also be nice when the 10k and the 15k races split off. That’s going to make life a lot easier. It’s going to feel like a normal Thursday run…minus the brutal falling.

Okay, time to take a 23 and a half hour break. Wordless Wednesday. Get stoked. See ya tomorrow.

Day 772: Weigh In Day And An Announcement About #Movember

Posted on October 30, 2012 by theffkid

I’m the Whiz! Nobody can beat me! Because I’m the Whiz!

I’ve lost my mind.

So my weight has fluctuated like crazy this week. At one point I’m hitting my lowest weight yet, and other days I’m up about 5 pounds. It’s just weird. I drink a lot of water, I’ve been trying to keep my eating in check. I just don’t really get it. So when my weight was up .2 this morning, I wasn’t really shocked. I’m not really concerned about it, but it just means that I need to be better with everything from eating to exercising.

Alright. Let’s Talk

So I’ll have a special Halloween Wordless Wednesday tomorrow, but I wanted to explain why I am going to be growing a disgusting mustache for the month of November.

It’s called Movember, a movement to raise awareness about a disease that will affect almost a quarter of a million men in the U.S. this year alone: prostate cancer. Now, I don’t have prostate cancer, nor do I really know anyone who has had prostate cancer. But ever since this weight loss journey began two years ago, I have become so much more aware of the importance of men’s health. Up until this point, all of my concerns were weight related. So with that all being said, I want others to know about this terrible form of cancer.

Again, here are some more facts about prostate cancer from WebMD:

Prostate cancer is typically a very slow growing tumor, often causing no symptoms until it is in an advanced stage. Most men with prostate cancer die of other causes — many without ever realizing that they have the disease. But once prostate cancer begins to grow more rapidly or spreads outside the prostate, it is dangerous. This aggressive type of prostate cancer can occur at any age. Although the disease tends to progress slowly, it is generally fatal if it spreads beyond the prostate gland itself.

Prostate cancer in its early stages (confined to the prostate gland) can be effectively treated, with very good outcomes for survival. Fortunately, about 85% of American men with prostate cancer are diagnosed in an early stage of the disease.

Cancer that has spread beyond the prostate to distant tissues (such as the bones, lymph nodes, and lungs) is not curable, but it may be controlled for many years. Because of the many advances in available treatments, the majority of men whose prostate cancer becomes widespread can expect to live five years or more.

The article also goes on to say that diets that contain a high amount of fat, red meat and other animal fat can also be a factor.

So what am I asking from you tonight? On Thursday morning, shave off what facial hair you have and get growing. Start clean shaven on November 1st and shave everything but your ‘stache for the rest of the month. Then on November 30th, a month from today, post your sickly awesome ‘stache pic on The FFK Facebook page! Gals, post your pic with your fake ‘stache on Nov. 30th too! Finally, go to movember.com and join my Movember team #Mustachesarecool. You don’t have donate any money, just create an account and join our team! Throughout the month, I will have updates about prostate cancer and some mustache-related awesomeness.

So let’s get to it! Join tonight, start a ‘stache, and raise awareness about this disease. See ya tomorrow.