Trying to Get it All Aligned

Posted on April 6, 2014 by theffkid

“When the mooooooooooooon is in the seventh house
and Jupiterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr lines with Mars…“

Wait…that’s not what I mean…

You hear it all the time “get fit in the gym, lose weight in the kitchen.” While I have fought with this notion for a long time, I’ve seen how true it really is through out my weight loss journey. With that, it’s been easy to have one component of that statement down and have the other one completely lopsided.When I lost my first 100 pounds, my eating was at the forefront of this journey. Sure I worked out, but making smart decisions helped peel off the weight. Some time after that, I lost sight of that. I got caught up in the fitness side a little too much and it seemed to throw me off because I didn’t know how to refuel properly with my eating. Then, I started training for my first half marathon which kind of put my weight loss dead in the water because, contrary to popular belief, you don’t always lose weight when you train for long distance races like half marathons. So right now, I’m not training for a specific race. I’ve put on about 15 pounds since December so I want to get that off ASAP to get my weight loss momentum going.

Since I’ve been working out regularly, usually a combination of running and circuit training classes 3-5 times a week, I feel awesome and actually strong for the first time in close to forever. In the past, I’ve been quick to beat myself up when I want to go work out in the “bro den” (the part of the gym that has free weights, benches, awkward grunting) because I don’t feel like I belong. But how can I make progress if I don’t work out in there? (I’m going to talk about more on that in a post I’m working on. Stay tuned.) Anyway, the point is that good things are happening. After working out regularly like this for the past ten weeks, it would be really hard to stop. I just love it too much!

So now that I’m in such an awesome place with my fitness, I’m really working to change my eating. I’m eating fruits and veggies like they’re going out of style and I’m incredibly intentional about drinking water (#alltheclearpee).

But I’m not perfect…
Can I still pound down a bag of potato chips? Yessir.
Do I hoard candy sometimes like those spoiled brats in Willie Wonka? Sure do.
But…Do I immediately regret it? Now more than ever.

I really hate that feeling of regret after a mini-binge, so I’ve been trying to combat that with just abstaining as much as I can. I tell myself that I won’t miss it in 5 minutes because all they are are just impulses. For example, we walked by a cupcake store in Tallahassee and I thought I really wanted one.

I knew I had two options:
1) Keep walking and go on with my day
or
2) Go in, spend money on a dessert that I’m generally kind of ambivalent towards, and then sulk because I could have spent those Weight Watchers points on bacon.

So, I’m making progress with my eating! I really feel like I’m on the verge of everything lining up for some serious weight loss awesomeness.

Speaking of weight loss…

I lost 2.8 pounds this week! After losing 3 pounds or so two weeks ago, I gained it back last week. (Between kidney stones and traveling, the MacDonalds have been a little cray…) This week, I wasn’t perfect at all. In fact (and if you try to troll me on this, so help me…) I had McDonald’s for the first time since we’ve lived in Tallahassee. I drove to Jacksonville twice this week and I really needed some coffee and breakfast. So, I had an Egg McMuffin and a hash brown. It was 12 points. I counted it and I moved on. I also ate at Hardee’s for breakfast one day and I counted it too. So I wasn’t perfect, but I counted my points and I exercised to bring balance to the Weight Watchers force. This past week was once again proof that when you count regardless and exercise, everything will fall into place.

First Weigh In Post In A While

Posted on March 23, 2014 by theffkid

Soooooooo…

This used to be a thing. Back in the days of yore when I would post daily in a food journal format, I would also post my weigh ins on Sundays. Since I’ve made some changes to the format (call it, FFK 2.0) I have stopped doing that. Why? A healthy cocktail of laziness, poor time management and just being exhausted sometimes. I really liked posting weight (no really) because it gave me some accountability through out the week.

Then…life got cray.

We joined WW in July and after that, I had my weight in my app for internal keeping. I would post it occasionally, but it wasn’t consistent. Then my new job also got cray and my weighing just went on the back burner. Going in to Weight Watchers on Saturday mornings to find out I had gained was like a guiltier version of church. At WW, it felt like I had to care that I was gaining and losing, but I was just too exhausted to care. But that’s all in the past! Now, I’m back to my trusty scale that has seen me through it all. I finally feels like my weight loss is aligning back to how it once was.

So on to this week…

So this week, I was pretty good! I tracked the majority of my points and I exercised a lot. For the first time in almost ever, I was smart with my snacking! I packed low point snacks and was sure to throw in a lot of fruits and veggies too!

I wasn’t sure if it was going to translate on the scale, but I realized that there was no use worrying about it. Regardless of the number, I knew that I has established some great habits that are serving as a foundation towards successful weight loss!

#FFKWIN

So it all paid off!

I was shocked this morning when I got on the scale! I mean, yeah I was good for most of the week, but I also ate a lot of pizza on Monday night and on Friday night we made massive burgers topped with poblano peppers and guacamole (#yum) so it easily could have gone another way. But the rest of my week was in check, giving room to actually use my weekly points for what they are intended to be used for!

So today I was a little over my points. Megan and I made some delicious red beans and rice (check out a delicious NSFWW (Not Safe For Weight Watchers) photo here) that wasn’t entirely WW friendly, but the rest of our week is planned out. No matter what the scale says next week, I’m definitely on the right track!

In other news, my bracket is…

~~broken~~

~~fractured~~

~~busted~~

~~demolished~~

~~shattered~~

~~disintegrated~~

~~mutilated~~

eviscerated.

How about you?

My Vlog Update

Posted on January 23, 2014 by theffkid

Day 1,165 Monday Update

Posted on November 25, 2013 by theffkid

I’m going to keep this kind of brief because I’m working on a few different things…

First: This morning, I took the Keep It Up, David’s Thanksgiving Pledge to: not have seconds, photograph what I eat, not to graze (a HUGE deal for me) and exercise! Read the whole post and take the pledge here! More on that later.

Second: Megan’s brutal semester is finally coming to an end so we celebrated by going out for some delicious sushi and seared tuna salad. It was flat-out delicious. Love me some Jasmine’s! (Looks good, doesn’t it Chris Williams? Let’s do lunch sometime.)

Third: We continued our date night by seeing Catching Fire. I was really impressed. I think if I was chosen, I would immediately go to the Biogenesis Lab and roid up on A-Rod strength PEDs and then find those bath salts that made that guy zombie crazy (which also happened in Miami…WHAT THE CRAP IS WRONG WITH THIS STATE???) and then just destroy everyone. No trip to the Cornucopia needed. I’ll let my roids-rage-fueled blood lust do the work (yeah…I thought this a lot during the movie. I also thought about the possibility of Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s character was actually his character in Doubt and how that would play out.)

Finally: It’s not too late to donate to my Movember page or to become a Stachetastic Run Sponsor!
Donate here and help us find a cure for prostate and testicular cancer!

See ya tomorrow!

P.S. the Fotographing Fat Kid actually foto’d yesterday. More on that soon! 🙂

Dead ActiveLink, Bruised Toes & Other Adventures in Weight Loss

Posted on November 12, 2013 by theffkid

It’s funny when you leave open your blog post in your browser and how what you are planning on writing will be completely different in a matter of hours.

So it’s been a pretty crazy week. In fact it’s been a pretty crazy start to the month. I am in a pretty rotten place when it comes to weight loss. My weight has been fluctuating like crazy, but I physically look smaller. My Start to Fitness cross training class twice a week is getting me ripped. I especially see and feel it in my back, my arms and around my stomach. Between that and my running, I have been getting fit in the gym (and track), but haven’t been losing weight in the kitchen.

As you can see from the graph, I’m struggling. It’s hard not to go a little overboard when your favorite team (i.e. my FSU Seminoles) are going gangbusters for the first time since…well…since we were worrying about Y2K. It shouldn’t be an excuse, but it’s been the reality of the situation. My eating is out of whack in the week and then it’s not much better on the weekends. At this point, I feel like I need to have just one good week of eating right, exercising and drinking all the water, I could kickstart my weight loss into gear!

So what’s standing in my way?
Well, like I said, I have had a couple of crummy weeks and days.
First, my ActiveLink fell off my pants. I run with it on my waistband all the time, but some how it got knocked off my jeans when I was walking to work. Crazy right? Where did it fall? It fell on to a busy intersection without me even realizing it. When I was in a meeting, I realized that it was gone. I thought I had left it at home, so I went and looked for it in an attempt to assuage my fears. It wasn’t at home. After lunch, I came back up to work while retracing my steps. Then, I saw it…in pieces…on a busy intersection of campus. It was pretty sad, and I’m pretty sure I looked crazy picking up the pieces while cars were driving by. Anyway, in a way it was a little comical. It’s just a part of life. It could be worse…someone could have stolen my shoes (oh that’s right, that’s happened before…). I know that not having an ActiveLink doesn’t physically stop my from being active, but it’s awesome to have that gauge to know how much more active I need to be during the week. It was just kind of a bummer.

Well that sucks, what else is going on, FFK?
Do you have a piece of furniture in your house that loves to destroy your toes? So do we. We have this black chair that has a leg that has bruised many a toes. Yesterday, I slammed my left foot in to the leg of the chair and as you can see, my toe swelled up almost immediately, followed by turning a black/purple/blue/redish color all around. Followed by pain while walking. It wasn’t fun. So today I went to the doctor and got some x-rays done. I usually wouldn’t go for something like this, but I am training for the half AND I have Stachetastic Run Sponsors depending on me! I found out that my toe wasn’t broken, just has a bad contusion. She suggested taping those piggies together (according to the doctor’s sheet, “taping to the buddy toes”) and it should heal in the next two to three weeks. Not awesome.

So what does that mean for your running?
Well…I’m not sure. My toe has felt better since it’s been taped. I’m already a little more mobile and I think I would feel a lot better if I had taken some pain meds today. So I’m going to rest it tomorrow and just listen to my body. That hasn’t failed me yet. What sucks is that I haven’t ran since Thursday because I was resting my body for some long runs this week. For those of you that don’t know, I am raising money in a special way this month. Last week, I challenged my Facebook friends to donate a dime (yes, ten cents) to Movember for every mile I ran this month. So far I have 14 Stachetastic Run Sponsors and have raised $18.20 by running 13 miles. My goal was to run at least 50 miles, but that might be an issue considering my toes. That’s why I need more sponsors, so that every mile counts. If I could get six more sponsors, I will been raising $2 for every mile. If you are willing to help change the face men’s health, this is a motastic way. No if you will excuse me, I’m going to burn a chair to the ground.

My Top 5 Favorite Things From #FLBlogCon13

Posted on October 6, 2013 by theffkid

Why hello, dear reader!

I know my posts have been a little random as of late, but I am working on trying to change that. This blog has been kind of a ball of malleable goo ever since I first posted about how weird I thought Taco Bell salsa packets were. (You can read that gem of a post right here!) The FFK blog has gone from obscure to food journal to posts about running to periods of silence to serious posts about issues like binging. I have to admit, I have been in a bit of a funk when it comes to blogging. In fact, my life has been in kind of a funk for a while. I have been frustrated with my lack of progress and frankly I have had really bad body image issues. Thankfully, I have been blessed with a wife who has been there for me through better and worse. Yesterday, I realized that I really have come a long way and I shouldn’t let myself get in the way of my own success. After I came to that realization, I felt free of that burden and frustration that I have been towing around for the past couple of months. I’m ready to make some serious progress with my health and to look to more than the scale for milestones of success. The Kid is back!

So you’re probably wondering what any of that has to do with the title of this post. Well, the impetus of this revelation started when I went to the Florida Blogger & Social Media Conference in late September in Orlando at Full Sail University. I didn’t know much about FLBlogCon before I signed up, but I knew some of my blogging heroes were going to be there and I knew that I wanted to take my blogging to the next level. The one-day conference was absolutely phenomenal and I can’t wait to go back and back and back and…well, you get the idea. So without further adieu, here are my top favorite things about FLBlogCon13!

No. 1 The Surprises
So yeah, I won a trip to the Bahamas in the first 30 minutes of the conference. Not a bad way to get things going.
Before Pat Williams, the opening keynote, took to the stage, Bahama Breeze spoke about their upcoming #Rumtoberfest extravaganza along with their other specials going on. Growing up, Bahama Breeze was always a must-eat wherever we were. My mom was kinda obsessed. Anyway, so then they were giving away three trips to the Breezes Bahamas resort right then and to look under our seat for a lizard. Well look what I found…

Why hello, little lizard!

I kind of lost it. I was ridiculously shocked. I tried to take a picture of the audience when I got up there, but I was too shaky for me to even take it. The craziest part about it was that I was sitting a row back before the conference started, but then I thought “I should sit a little closer to the stage.” And I did. And I won a trip to the Bahamas. Megan and I are looking at going in May. I can’t wait. Thanks for the awesome trip, Bahama Breeze!

No. 2 The Friends

Hooray for ridiculously awesome improv photos

Like I said before, there were a few bloggers there that I have been digital friends with for a long time. One of the first blogs I came across when I first started my weight loss journey was Katy Widrick’s blog. For a long time, especially in my formative weight loss years, Katy was the facilitator of Fitblog Chat, an Twitter chat where weight loss/health bloggers like me could talk about everything from eating issues to what kind of running shoes to buy. It got me through some pretty hard times. Anyway, I went to Katy’s session and then I went to talk to her, not 100% sure if she knew who I was. After she was done talking to someone, she turned to me a screamed “AAAAAHHHH YOU’RE HERE!!!” It was pretty awesome. We talked for a while about pretty much everything. It was just awesome to see one of my online buddies in real life!

Then later on, I saw another online buddy!

When I was waiting in line for lunch, I turned back and saw my friend Nanci Cernak from This Crazy Life of Mine! Nanci and I are online running buddies who always like each other’s running pics on Instagram. I ate an awesome lunch of shrimp and grits from Bahama Breeze with her and her husband Mike. It was awesome to catch up with her! It was so exciting to see familiar faces. I’m not sure how I’m going to be able to handle Fitbloggin’ next June in Savannah. I might just pass out from being completely starblogshocked.

No. 3 The Swag
One thing I didn’t was how much swag we were going to get! I came home with two bags full of stuff from a shirt from Ford to a spatula from Florida Dairy Farmers! I paid to get a swanky new head shot from Macbeth Photography! (I know, I know, I should have worn a bow tie…)

No. 4 The Food
Let me tell you about the food!!! IT WAS AWESOME! When I first walked in, there was a yogurt bar provided by the Florida Dairy Farmers (well, I mean they’re weren’t actual farmers there…but you get the idea.) Anyway, I made a serious parfait with chocolate chip and raspberries. It was epic and filling. Later on in the day, they brought out a freezer full of Blue Bell ice cream bars. It was magical.

Then, I went over to the coffee station of deliciousness. They were making coffee about a million different ways. Each one more delicious than the next. I became close friends with them and their Kenya AA blend. They were also giving away they brew to go packs that you just add to water and ice iced coffee packs. I can’t wait to try it out! Thanks Barnie’s for some legend-wait for it-dary coffee!

Oh yeah, Ford put on an amazing after party in the back lot area of Full Sail. One of the many stations involved mini cupcakes from Gigi’s Cupcakes. After the Banana’s Foster and the S’mores cupcakes, I went in to a sugar coma. They were that awesome.

No. 5 The Sessions
Now for the reason I went: the sessions! I have been blessed that my passions and my job almost completely align with one another. While I did go to this conference for my blog, there were a couple of sessions that bled that applied both to my academic interests and what I do at the Center.

The first session was “Media Kits: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” by my friend Katy! She provided some great examples of how to, and how not to, put together a media kit for your blog, which essential for the business side of blogging. I knew how to do this from my PR classes in undergrad, but it was awesome to see it in action. Katy is also a producer so she has experience from both sides of the process. Can’t wait to put mine together!

The second session was about the communication law side of blogging and the important of being upfront and honest about when you are advertising with a post. If you do that, be sure to use a hashtag like #ad or #sponsored so the reader is aware. This is also important in blog posts too!

After lunch, there was a bonus session. I was planning on yoga outside, but it was ridiculously hot and I was full of delicious food from Bahama Breeze (that was not an ad. It’s just a fact that Bahama Breeze has delicious food.) so I went in to the Google Glass sessions. One of the session leaders actually worked for Disney. He said that he had been on all the rides and had recorded the ride with his Google Glass. I left early, but they evidently let people try them out. Easily the only fail of the day. But I figured one day Google will take over the earth like Skynet and I’ll be forced to wear them at that point anyway since we will all be half cyborg half slave to the almighty Google Master. (I guess that’s one way to look at it…)

Anyway, the third session was one that you would usually have to pay a lot of money to go to: “Social Media Tips From A Ford Brand Strategist.” Karen Untereker is the U.S. Social Media Manager from Ford aka the ultimate social media job. She explained Ford’s grassroot/user-content driven campaign for the new Ford Fiesta. Ford gave the Fiesta to about 100 Gen Y’s and had them document their experience socially while completing certain “missions.” She showed some of the user-generated content that, according to here, was better than anything they could have come with on their own. It was amazing that Ford gave the users so much control. But they knew that letting go of control in this realm would have positive outcomes. The one thing that surprised me the most about this case study was that the corporate executives were on board throughout the whole process. They were willing to give this a go and it paid off. I was incredibly impressed with this session and how Ford is such an innovator in the social realm. I guess the only criticism I would have is that I was the target market for this campaign and I didn’t know about it. Now, just because I didn’t know about it doesn’t mean that it wasn’t effective. But it emphasizes the important for the integrated marketing model where different methods and channels are being used to create awareness. An example of this would be an engaging TV ad that encourages me to get online and check out the campaign. Ford has done their research, so they would know that I have multiple screens at my disposal while I’m seeing this TV ad. Anyway, I just completely nerded out on you. All in all, it was a pretty freakin’ awesome session that made me miss my ’73 Ford truck “Ol’ Red” that sounded like the apocalypse. I miss that beast of a thing…

Moving on…

After a session about how Full Sail University uses their social media, which was applicable to every job I’ve had at FSU, I went to this amazing session called “The Business of Blogging: Building Relationships With Brands” which was presented by three very successful Latina bloggers including Yadira Ambert of El Club de las Divas. They talked about how to reach out to brands by utilizing the strengths of your blog. Their case studies involved International Delights coffee and a blogging event for the Hispanic community for McDonald’s. They went through the process step-by-step. They had some great suggestions that I hadn’t thought of like quantifying your outreach and then creating a presentation to send to the brand. Since my focus in grad school was multicultural marketing and I did a paper analyzing the potential to market to Hispanics through social media, I nerded out again with some questions about Latina bloggers and the use of Spanish, code switching and Spanglish in blogs and how brands react to that. It was a great final session!

So this conference pretty much knocked my socks off. Bess Auer and her team put on an amazing conference that completely recharged me. I can’t wait to go back next year. I laid out some personal blogging goals for myself after the conference that I want to achieved before FLBlogCon14.

Also during that trip, I hung out with my awesome sister Brittany and I stayed with my friend Alex! Thanks for an awesome time too!

Oh yeah, then I went to Magic Kingdom and acted like a weirdo on Space Mountain.
See ya soon.

Why it’s Important to be a Foodie While Losing Weight

Posted on September 19, 2013 by theffkid

“Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
Fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand way”

-Pink Floyd

We spend so much of our lives on the run: we post our thoughts instantaneously on Facebook, we eat lunch at our desks, and we even buy microwaves on Amazon to avoid going to the store and picking one out. Humans have become machines of efficiency, or so we think. We do these things because we value our time so much and so we will do whatever it takes to be “efficient” so we can cherish that precious free time. And let’s not kid ourselves, that precious free time ends up being lost on hours of looking at cats on Buzzfeed. With this desire for control of our time by being efficient comes a potential decrease in quality of life. And yes, since this is the FFK, I am talking about food.

In 1953, Swanson (no, not my boy Alex, the Legend) created the first TV Dinner, a compartmentalized food tray chocked full of your essential food groups. Your serving of vegetables, starch, protein, and dessert were all prepared in one fell swoop. No need to use and wash multiple pans and utensils, when you were done, you just threw it all away! When the TV Dinner was a commercial success, some people cried foul and compared it to a chemistry set. In order to preserve these meals, not only would it lose its nutrients, they would have to inject it with partially hydrogenated oils and trans fats. Sure the convenience made the TV Dinner, but at what cost?

We see the same issue with fast food in the 40’s with the first McDonald’s (no relation). Brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald utilizes the classic Henry Ford assembly line production model to build their food at a fasted speed. Thus, fast food was born. And our waistlines have been growing ever since. Just ask the FFK from high school who would go a few miles out of his way to order four double cheeseburgers a day at McDonald’s because it was fast and it was cheap.

Somewhere along the way of my life, I completely lost my appreciation for food. Like I’ve said before on this blog, I was proud of my eating accomplishments. I ate a whole large Pizza Pro pizza in 6th grade because I could. I couldn’t beat anyone at a race, but I could sure as heck beat them at eating something. Until three years ago, I abused food the way other people abuse drugs. I don’t say that to make light of drug abuse, it was truly something I did. I would eat until it hurt, and then kept eating because it made me feel good.

When I took a step back and evaluated my eating, I recognized the need for a balance in my life. I needed to be okay with eating pseudo-boring meals like chicken and veggies or turkey burgers so I could enjoy the meals that mattered like eating out with friends or making dinner at home with my boo. I needed to be more judicious with my food intake. With that selective mindset, Megan and I were on the path to a complete overhaul of our eating. One of those ways is by eating more local and organic foods. (Read about our Orchard Pond farm share here!) My Earth Fare brand ambassadorship has been instrumental in that process.

Tonight, we bought grass-fed NY strip steaks from the Earth Fare butcher, along with some potatoes for baking. Instead of using charcoal, the easier and quicker way to grill, I used pecan wood chunks that I bought at Academy for almost nothing on Memorial Day. I essentially started a campfire in my Weber and let it burn until the wood transformed into beautiful glowing embers. Then I put on the steaks, that had just a pinch of sea salt and seasoning on the opposite side of grill and opened the top vent. Then I added the baked potatoes wrapped in aluminum foil. The whole process took probably close to an hour, but the finished product…well, the photo speaks for itself. Not to brag, (but I will) it was one of the best steaks I’ve ever had. Maybe it tasted better because of the whole process that it took to get it on the table, but it was worth it.

Tonight was one of those nights where I truly appreciated every bite. You have to appreciate your food so you don’t abuse it. Treat your body well by fueling it right because you are worth it.

The Return of the FFK

Aside

If you were to ask me about what it’s like to lose weight, the answer would have varied throughout this almost-three year journey. When I first started out, I would have said “it’s simple! You just don’t eat the bad things, work out whenever you can and drink a crapton of water.” When I hit a pretty massive plateau after I hit the 100 pound mark, I would have said “it’s kind of miserable when your friends who are eating what they want while you’re eating celery in the corner and fighting to lose half a pound.” This morning, I got on the scale, cringed at the sight of myself in the mirror and said aloud “I hate weight loss so much right now.”

Since I have joined Weight Watchers, I have lost as much as 12 pounds, but really I have lost a total of 17 pounds. My weight fluctuates….badly. If I have learned anything in the past three years, it’s that my body hates sodium and will retain and hold water like the Hoover Dam. I will do really well and then I’ll eat a unseemingly salty meal and then BOOM, five pounds up.
(Before you start to write a comment about importance/unimportance of the scale, let me stop you there and say it is just a part of the equation because I can feel that extra weight and see that extra weight in the mirror.)

At this point, it is more than the scale or retaining water, at this point I just mad at myself for eating bad things that aren’t inherently bad. For example: Cheerios. In the world of cereals, Cheerios would not be on George W. Crispies’ list of Cereal Axis of Evil. But when I binge on two-larger-than-normal bowls of those delicious O’s, it is bad news. Last night, I just binged snacked all night when watching TV. It was just mindless eating. I saw the carrots and the apples when I was getting the milk for my cereal out of the fridge, but I still went the other way.

I think the fact of the matter is that I’m tired. It feels like the past three years of grad school, work, church responsibilities, exercising, being social, and counting points have finally caught up to me. I was on the verge of just burning out on life. Yesterday, I did a lot of thinking about where to go from here because I had two options: just quit and see where that would take him (spoilers: emotional breakdown leading to the demise of my weight loss journey) or reflect on how blessed I truly am and how I should quit taking it for granted and then make that the catalyst for my continued success. Fortunately, I went with the later. After I put this whole weight loss/life thing in to that perspective, that so far, it has been such an awesome journey, it has challenged me to make the most of it and to keep going!

So What’s Been Going On With The FFK?
Well I guess I should update you on what’s going on since it has been so long since I’ve posted.
First, I bought a Weight Watchers ActiveLink that tracks your daily activity. The goal is to reach 100% of your baseline activity. For me, that’s about an hour of activity (walking, running, swimming, etc.). At the end of the day, you plug it in to the USB port of your computer and it tells you how many Activity Points (or Weight Watchers Points) you have earned for the day. My goal this month is to reach at least 100% every day. That is going to force me to do some sort of activity because one the days I was just working and then going home, I would only do 9 minutes of activity on those days according to the ActiveLink.

Second, I signed up for the Tallahassee Half Marathon in February! Not only is this the 40th Tallahassee Half Marathon, the featured speaker this year is one of my running heroes, Bart Yasso from Runner’s World. I read his book last summer that documents his journey from being a drug addict to a world-renowned runner. He is truly inspiring! I had thought about doing the full, but I’m going to hold off until I hit my goal weight. The arthritis in my knees and my hips is still an issue, but my doctor said a lot of those problems will be reduced when I lost the rest of my weight. Plus, I feel like I would have needed to have started my training in April to feel truly prepared for a full marathon.
When I trained last time, I didn’t do near enough cross training or weights to get my body in shape for the run. I had the endurance, but I knew there was room for improvement. That if my body was in better shape, then my form would have been better and my finishing time would have been better.

Finally, I have a job that I absolutely love, but it takes up a lot of my time…in the best possible way. I work in a place that not only promotes service, leadership and inclusion to the Florida State community, it fosters a community of passion where its workers are encouraged to be themselves. I get to go to work every day doing what I love. When you do something you love, you are willing to stay after hours and go that extra mile for your job. That does, however, take its toll. When I get home, the last thing I really want to do is look at a computer screen and type some more. So what does that mean for this blog? Probably not daily posts, but an integrated approach where my reporting will be both on here and on my Facebook page. I’m definitely going back to a weigh-in day post on Saturdays that recaps the whole week as well. I love blog writing. I really do. But now I’m just going to have to fit it in to my schedule better than I have.

I hope this hodgepodge of a post makes some shred of sense. It’s been a weird time for me, but I still love being a weight loser and I still love being awesome. So I guess I’ll keep doing that. See ya tomorrow.

***Editor’s Note***
This post was written in two different stages: pre-stressed Nathan and post-self reflection Nathan. If there seems to be an issue of flow, that is why. Nathan would also like to add that he appreciates all of his readers and friends who have checked up on him during this long period of absence. He hopes he is as good to his friends as they are as good to him.

[GIVEAWAY] Earth Fare Deliciousness!

Posted on July 22, 2013 by theffkid

Hello dear reader!

It’s truly amazing how awesome your body feels when you treat your body like the temple that it is. Like I read today on someone’s post, “treat your body well because you’re the one living in it!” When I look back and think about how I treated my body for so long, it just makes me even more thankful for that bold decision I made on September 18, 2010 to change my life. Almost three years and 130 pounds later, it was still the best decision I have ever made.

So enough about that. Let’s talk about Earth Fare AND MY AWESOME EARTH FARE GIFT TO YOU!

I have always been some sort of a foodie. When I was obese, I dreamed of going on to Man v. Food and showing Adam Richman how to really eat like boss. I was all about going to all you can eat restaurants and getting my money’s worth and then some. I treated like every meal was my last meal. At the rate I was going, it easily could have been.

But that all changed when I began this weight loss journey.

I’ll never forget the first time I walked in to Earth Fare. “What is that smell?” I asked. “It smells…fresh.” Produce. I was smelling produce. The fruits and veggies were like nothing I had smelled before. I mean, I had had fresh vegetables before, but WOW! Then…I saw the meat market. It was beautiful.

I was so happy with Earth Fare, I e-mailed them about my experience and my story. Then, they published it on their page! (You can read it here!)

So a few months ago, I applied for their Earthlete program, their ambassador program that celebrates athletes that are fueled by eating healthy. I’m not gonna lie, I really didn’t think I was going to get it. BUT I DID!!!!! and it has pushed me to get fit in the gym and lose weight in the kitchen.

Which leads us to today.

This weekend, I got an email from Earth Fare that said they had something waiting for me at Earth Fare: COUPONS!!! Now I love a good deal. Like The Wolf always says, “You gotta be a Baller on a budget yo!” (Okay, she doesn’t say it exactly like that…)

So I am giving away some coupons and some delicious Earth Fare swag!
That’s right! I have a giant stack of these bad boys and I’m ready to give them out to you, dear reader!

What does that include, you asked? (or read, I guess…)
Well, for only $5, you get:

Earth Fare Organic Jelly
Earth Fare Organic or Natural Cookies
Earth Fare Organic or Natural Peanut Butter
Earth Fare Organic or Natural Applesauce
Earth Fare Organic or Natural Crackers

That’s a savings of more than $15!!!

All you have to do is:
Like The FFK FB Page and then comment below with your favorite FFK post!!! To be eligible, you have to do both!

There will be five randomly-selected winners. Each winner will get to pick the item of their choice from those five items!
The deadline for this giveaway is Sunday, July 28th at 11:59 p.m.
If you don’t win, no big! I will be happy to give you a coupon for your own 5 dollar Organic Deal!
(Note: if you would like a coupon, you must live in the Tallahassee area but anyone can win the items!)

Plus, I’ll have another giveaway soon. Stay tuned for that!

This week, starting tomorrow, I’ll highlight each of the items in the deal.

See ya tomorrow!

Who is the FFK?

Posted on July 8, 2013 by theffkid

I am a lot of things…

I am…
a Canadian-born Texan who now lives in Florida.

I am…
a proud graduate of Abilene Christian University and Florida State University

I am…
a Brother in Frater Sodalis

I am…
Megan’s husband
Brittany’s brother
Nancy and Glen’s son
Molly the Dog’s best friend

And since September 18th, 2010, I have been a loser.

Prior to that date, I didn’t let my weight define me, but it was defining my future.
You see, my whole life then was about my weight in some way or another. Conversations with strangers would eventually lead to it within just a few comments. While I was as incredibly charming and ridiculous as the man writing here today, most people still saw my weight first. Like I have said before, I was letting my whole life pass me by.

For the past three years, I have been working hard to lose this weight and it has hit a score of snags along the way. I have been blessed with minimal injuries and other physical setbacks even when training for the Tallahassee Half. With that, there has been little to no reason why I don’t go out every day and kick my weight loss in the nards. I don’t do it because I have made other things in my life top priority. One of them is my career, but in a lot of ways that makes complete sense <no job/no money/no food/no internet/no means to show readers what I eat>. When in a lot of other ways it doesn’t make sense because I have the means and the constraints to make better decisions with my health (not to mention racquetball being a useful cathartic device after work). For the past year, I was slowly sinking into a hole of listlessness with my blog and other aspects of my life. I needed a jolt, because these weren’t things that defined me anymore. I wasn’t the same legalistic (in a good way) weight loss evangelist I had been and it made me sad.

Then, Fitbloggin’ took over my newsfeed. Last week, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and essentially every blog I read was inundated by this amazing conference. And I was jealous. Ridiculously jealous. I wanted to be there so bad because not only was it in Portland (#Dreamtown) it was the revival that my weight loss could have used. So instead of becoming inspired from photos like this and blog posts like that, I sat at home and sulked…while holding a slice of pizza like it was a newborn made of cheese and pepperoni.

(I am well aware of how weird that analogy is. Let’s just move on and act like it never happened. Unless you thought it was funny and dark and in that case continue to laugh, Julie Dow.)

After days of my pity party of one, I have made some fantastic self realizations. The biggest of them being that I have a new job where being incredibly passionate about what you do and the causes you believe in is job 1!!! I work with people everyday that want to make this world a better place! In my interview, I told my now-boss that my dream job was to work somewhere that promotes good, which is hard for someone to find in PR and Marketing. His response was “well…that’s what you’ll be doing.” That’s when I knew this was the beginning of something great. Now that I have been there for a few weeks, I have had to let it all sink in a little. And I realized that it is time to invest my heart and soul into this position because it is what I’m being called to do. When I made that decision to fully invest in this job, the spark to continue my weight loss journey was rekindled.

Now, the journey continues and I control my future. I have worked way too hard to plateau the way I have for the past year and half. I have been resting on my past victories for too long. I’m ready to post some new victories and go into unchartered weight loss waters.

So what does that mean for the blog?

Well…that’s a good question.

You see, I like writing these long self-reflecting essays about my life, but I have been trying to do that with every post. That’s not feasible for a daily blog (yes…this blog used to be daily.) I like writing them because it’s the kind of thing I like to read, but it’s not the best for me as a blogger because writing 800+ words a night gets exhausting.

So the new blog layout until further notice is the following

Monday, Thursday and Friday: Entries with points with a little reflection. It might now always be interesting, but I need that kind of accountability right now. I’m brining back the food journal side of the FFK.

Tuesday: Still my Weigh-In Day. I’ll reflect on how I feel and how I can do better.

Wednesday: Still Wordless Wednesday. Get stoked.

Saturday and Sunday: A post like this one. More reflective on the week, along with other cool things like giveaways, reviews, guest posts, and more!

It feels good to be back. See ya tomorrow.