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 808: Monday and Stuff

Posted on December 3, 2012 by theffkid

Hello my reading minions!

(Okay… I guess you’re really not my reading minions. If you were, I would have commanded you to recreate the Stay Puffed Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters to fulfill my dream of assembling, then eating, the world’s biggest s’more of all time. I wonder how many calories that would be…anyway, where was I?)

Let me give you a recap of this past week: Christmas.

That’s right! Although it’s been in the mid to high 70’s and even the 80’s for the past few days, Megan and I have been deckin’ our halls like a couple of bosses! Like a lot of you, we are both Pinterest nuts but aren’t the craftiest people. (Even though I should be. My mom had her own craft business when I was little. I wonder if crafting is a recessive gene…) Anyway, we have been making different Christmas knick knacks and such for ourselves and others. It’s been nice to do something with my hands. It’s weird to have actual free time. I have spent the past 25 years studying, working, and up until a few years ago, eating and abnormal amount of calories. It’s nice to leave work at work and have a little time to twiddle my thumbs. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m trying to find a hobby, something physical or tangible. I love to write and I love to blog, but I do both for my job so I’m not sure this is really a hobby anymore. This blog has turned in to more of a lifestyle which is completely awesome!

So that’s where I’m at. I’m trying to find a hobby that I can do when I create a product. Something different. Something challenging. Any suggestions?

Anywho, along with all of this knick-knack-pattywhacking, I have been trying to lose weight. I don’t always make the best decisions, but I’m doing my best without going nuts. But the fact of the matter is I need to go nuts with weight loss. I’m in this weird place where if I would just push a little harder I would make some crazy strides. I have been in this 227-235 zone for almost a year, breaking through to the next level but then reverting back. The thing is, I know that I will look and feel so different in 30 pounds. The difference between 235 and 265 is insane so I can only imagine what I might look like and feel like. And I don’t mean that in a vapid way, more in the way of I want to be healthier way. Looking better is just an added bonus.

Not that this is an excuse, but it really has been hard not having a gym. It was just one of those things where getting a pass to the gym at FSU is more complicated than it should be. (Well, if you want the married discount. Long story.) Luckily, that’s going to change next semester so I’ll be able to play racquetball, lift and do other fun gym stuff very soon. On the other hand, it’s been bearable because I do run three times a week which has taken a lot out of me. The long runs on Saturdays are about to get longer too. It’s more of the toll they take on my joints. 10 miles of the same repetitive movement becomes painful. But on the other hand, if I was 30 pounds lighter, would my body heal quicker? As you can tell I’m dealing with a lot of chicken/egg scenarios that I have thought about a lot but haven’t put down on paper…or blogosphere.

My issue is that I have played the weight loss game for a long time. It’s like on the Biggest Loser when the players start the play the game where they know what to do that week to win. Granted sometimes that just means drinking a gallon of water the throw a weigh in. That’s been me. My trend recently has been to weigh in on Tuesday, get stoked and eat a lot of what I want, then do the same thing Wednesday through Friday, and then really hit it hard on Saturday and Sunday like drink a lot of water to rehydrate and eat what I’m suppose to eat. Because I’m up four or five pounds. Before I know it, I’ve lost a little to have a “loss.” So I’m not really losing, I’m just maintaining. The thing is is that I have proved myself that I can maintain..at around this weight. I have kept more than 100 pounds off since I hit the 100 pound mark in August 2011. I think I might be scared to take it to the next level. To break that 200 pound mark eventually. Even 225 pounds on is such unchartered territory that is excerifying (terrifying and exciting) for me to even think about. Time to keep counting, running and blogging. The rest will follow. See ya tomorrow.

Day 803: My Awesome Interview With Another Biggest Loser

Posted on November 29, 2012 by theffkid

Hello!!!!

So it has been a crazy week on the interwebs for me! First, my weight loss story was featured by the awesome blogger Reinventing Danni, then I have helped raise $130 for prostate cancer through Movember (which there is still times to donate here!) and today, my interview with RetroFit Ministries came out. For those who don’t know, RetroFit Ministries was created by the awesome Biggest Loser duo Austin and Ken Andrews (they were on Season 11 along with some other awesome folks like Courtney Crozier and Hannah Curlee who I met this summer! I’m working my way up the Biggest Loser social ladder!) Anyway, a few weeks ago, I had written something about my journey on Austin’s wall and then after a few exchanges, he asked me about being interviewed for his website! It was such an honor! Here’s the interview. After you’re done check out the other amazing stories! If it doesn’t make you want to do push ups and go on a kale cleanse I don’t know what will. Check it out. Thanks again for the awesome opportunity Austin. See ya tomorrow.

THANKSTORIES: THANKFUL NATHAN

Nathan MacDonald Sheds some light on his story of becoming healthy. I have to be honest, I have had an enjoyable time hearing his story, and he has described it in a pretty amusing way! It has been a pleasure to hear Him describe his journey, and I think you’ll enjoy it as well!

CLICK HERE FOR OTHER AMAZING THANKSTORIES OF REAL PEOPLE CHANGING THEIR LIVES!

AA: Nathan- When did it hit you that you were obese?

I wore XXL shirts in 5th grade

NM: Kindergarten? Lol I was always the fat kid growing up. I wore XXL shirts in 5th grade and I am actually a smaller jean size now than I was in middle school. My weight was always a constant struggle. Sometimes I would get on the right track and it felt like I was really going to make a change, but then something would happen like moving to a new school or something like that.

AA: How would a school change affect you moving forward?

NM: Well being the new kid always came with its own issues. Being an overweight kid made it even more fun lol.

AA: I love the sarcasm! Ha! You struggled all through school, but you never hit your point of not return- when did you hit that tipping point of change?

NM: The tipping point for me was right before I started graduate school at Florida State University in 2010. I had to buy size 54 khakis for orientation. That’s when I realized that it was time to make a significant change, or just accept the fact that I was going to die at an early age.

AA: Do you look at your childhood and think, “My weight makes sense,” because people or bullying?

NM: I was always bullied in elementary, and although I was bullied some in middle school, I was able to deflect a lot of it by playing the “funny fat kid” card that most overweight kids know all too well. I did have two dear friends who died when I was in college and that really took its toll on me. I turned to eating a lot during that time.

AA: You took to eating when your friends passed away?

NM: It was what I was use to. Food had always been there for me so my initial reaction was to eat my feelings. It was much easier to eat over talking out my feelings to my wife and to my friends. It was a truly hard time.

AA: What do you look to for that same feeling if you hit a hard time now?

NM: Well now it’s a lot easier to work out my frustration whether it’s running or an aggressive game of racquetball. I burn calories instead of eating them lol.

AA What happened to give you hope that you could change?

NM: I have been blessed with such an amazing wife, Megan, who has always been there ready to cheer me on when I decided it was time to change my life. It’s also been awesome to have friends from across the world sending me Facebook posts encouraging me. It has really held me accountable and has given me the strength to keep on keepin’ on.

AA: When you discovered that change was possible, how did you decide on what path to become healthy?

NM: Well I had tried Weight Watchers a few times, only to quit a few weeks later. It wasn’t until I really bought in to the system (like counting, calculating, researching restaurants, etc.) that I became successful. I also always liked racquetball and running, so that became a huge part of my cardio which melts the pounds lol. I still do a lot of both now, but I have taken it to a whole new level. I was just happy to finish a 5k, now I want to place in my age bracket and I am training for a half marathon. Losing 130 pounds changes your prospective so much!

AA: Speaking of perspective, I have called this blog series ThankStories, because we are in November and thankfulness is big this time of year- What are you thankful looking on your journey and future?

NM: This year, I’m running in my first 15k. I’m thankful that I have been blessed with a body that can take all of the abuse I have given it from one extreme of being obese to the other by testing its limits every week through working out lol. I’m incredibly thankful for my community of friends and readers who have been with me through thick and thin. It’s been so encouraging to have friends even from elementary comment on the blog telling me that they’re cheering me on. It’s been an amazing journey so far!

AA: Given that you have lost 130 lbs, are you Finished? Is this the end of your journey?

NM: Not even close. I am still a good 50-70 pounds away from where I want to be and I still have struggles with food. Although I still have a ways to go on this journey, I’m loving every minute of it. The hardest days on my weight loss journey are still infinitely better than the days of being 357 pounds. This journey has been such a blessing and it’s not ending any time soon.

Day 802: Last Wordless Wednesday of Movember!

Posted on November 28, 2012 by theffkid

http://mobro.co/nathanalbert

Day 801: Weigh In Day

Posted on November 27, 2012 by theffkid

I’M BACK!!!!!!

Sorry it’s been a while. Thanksgiving is a crazy time. A lot of planning, a lot of turkey, and a lot of fun!

A quick thing about the 15k…IT WAS AWESOME! It was 9.3 miles of crazy awesomeness! The course had a lot of ups and downs (literally) but I felt really good about my time. I maintained a 8:30-9:45 minute mile the whole time. I was going to buy the photos from the racing photography company, but they are flippin’ expensive! I’ll still post the race results on my race results page soon!

So I was working to not gaining this week so I exercised, tried to watch what I ate and drank plenty of water. I ended up losing .2 pounds lol (total 126.4 pounds) which isn’t much, but I really lost 6 pounds in a weird way. You see, at one point I had gained 6 pounds but I lost it all by this morning. Hooray for weight fluctuation! Anyway, last year I gained something like 8 pounds and didn’t really get it off until the summer so losing is a pretty big deal. The best part is is that I still ate what I wanted, just not as much of it. And there in lies the key for weight loss.

Today I was pretty good with food and tomorrow will be even better. I feel awesome about where I am and I’m ready to lose some serious weight before the end of the year.

Before we end tonight, I just wanted to make another push for Movember.

As you know, the end of Movember is near! Friday is that last day to donate to Movember. So far, you have helped raise $40 which is totally awesome! My goal is to have raised a total of $100 by this Friday! No matter how small or large, any donation is appreciated. I don’t see a dime, it goes directly to prostate cancer research. Even if it just means giving up a meal out this week and donating, that’s $5 closer we are to ending this disease. You can donate here. If you keep donating, I’ll keep growing this itchy, yet legit, stache! Thanks! P.S. Please share with your friends, your family and your co-workers! Spread the stache love! See ya tomorrow.

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 746: Why Jennifer Livingston Is Awesome Edition

Posted on October 4, 2012 by theffkid

Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words will hurt our hearts.
-Mrs. Robinson’s Classroom

This quote was on the wall of my homeroom class in 6th grade. It was my first day at a new school in a new town where I didn’t know anyone. “You see, sometimes we don’t realize how powerful our words can be” Mrs. Robinson explained after reading the quote. “Even if we don’t mean them to be. That’s why we need to watch what we say.”

This week, a viral video spread this week with a brave news anchor who stood up to a bully. She told her viewers that it was okay to be comfortable in their own skin.

I know ~~a lot~~ some people don’t think that the e-mail he said to her wasn’t bullying and if anything she was the one bullying him. These people are defining the word “bully” as someone abusing their position of power to control or harm others. To those people, I have to whole-heartedly disagree with you. Words are powerful. We can wield them to do great things and we can abuse them to hurt others, even driving some to end their own lives. In this “golden age” of communication where everyone has their own personal soapbox (also known as a Facebook page,) we all feel the need to share our opinion, not matter how ill-informed or toxic it will be received. We have reached a time where bullying is no longer exclusive to some, but accessible to all. We have to be better as a society. We need to be okay with people standing up for themselves. This anchor didn’t swear, she didn’t insult this man or his family, heck she didn’t even use his name on the air. She retaliated by creating a teachable moment out of it. She reassured us that it’s okay to be us.

Last night on my run, a guy on a bicycle called me fatso. (“How’s it going fatso?” to be exact.) how did I respond? Did I yell back at him? Did I hurl personal insults at him? Did I throw a stick in his spokes? No. I retaliated by running faster, pushing myself harder. In fact, I broke a personal record last night. I made myself better. That’s what we need to learn from Jennifer Livingston’s response, that we should make something great out of other people’s ugliness.

I’m proud of her courage and the example she has set for all of us. If I had heard an anchor say the things she said when I was little, I would have been a different person. Thankfully, I turned out okay anyway.

Thank you Jennifer. Way to brush them shoulders off.

See ya tomorrow.