Day 1,172

Posted on December 2, 2013 by theffkid

SEAHAWKS!!!

Okay…now that I have that out of my system…

So today was full of random eating, but I counted it all which is important! I used a few weekly points and that’s okay! Here’s the breakdown of the day:

Breakfast: A 5 point Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwich. An easy breakfast choice when you’re on the go.

Lunch: So I usually try to come home for lunch, but today I stayed on campus. I was planning on just getting cheese pizza from Papa John’s. I even put it in to Weight Watchers before I went to lunch to make sure I didn’t deviate. Then when I got there, they were swamped and out of cheese pizza (I guess that’s possible…). Anyway, I ended up with pepperoni pizza which was just a few more points per slice. Not idea, but it is what it is. 18 points

Dinner: Tonight, we ended up at Moe’s for some burrito deliciousness. I accidentally ordered the wrong thing which sucked, but was delicious (go figure…) I didn’t order the jr. size and I didn’t realize it until as I was plugging it in to their nutrition calculator. Lame. So with chips it was 31 points. Oops.

Dessert: The Moe’s was next door to Cold Stone and Megan and I both felt like a little cold treat. The last time I had been inside a Cold Stone was when we lived in Abilene. I remember going in there and getting a Gotta Have It calorietastic sugar bomb of craziness on a regular basis. I also remember the first time I tried Weight Watchers back then and getting their sinless sweet cream. It was like eating poison to me back then. I felt so robbed and horrible. My body and my taste buds were sick. Anyway, I gave their Like It sized Skinny Vanilla with Oreo and Heath mixins. It ended up being 12 points (6 of that was the actual ice cream which isn’t that bad) and it was waaaaay more ice cream than I’m used to. It was just a reminder of how far I’ve come.
So today was kind of a bizarre day and it had its share of issues, but that’s just the way the process goes. I racked up 66 points which is a lot, but I tracked it and that’s a huge thing! It was worth the extra points. I’ll shoot to be better on Tuesday. That’s all I can do. See ya tomorrow.

Day 1,166

Posted on November 26, 2013 by theffkid

Still not completely sold on The Biggest Loser this season… It’s all feeling kind of forced. Not sure how many more seasons the shows has left. The issue is, I love what the show does, but I just doubt that it will be on much longer. It’s a shame the Biggest Loser Ranch wasn’t a RIDICULOUS amount for people to go to. Anyway, Biggest Loser rant over.

Let’s talk food. Delicious, delicious food.

Breakfast: Jimmy Dean Breakfast sandwich followed by a non fat Honey Bear latte from Atomic (pretty, huh?) and then delicious container of Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Yogurt. YERM!!!!

Lunch: We had to go pick up our racing packets and shirts for the Tallahassee Turkey Trot (which is going to be FREEZING COLD. That will be interesting…) at Capital City Runners which is next to our brand-spankin’ new Whole Foods! So we stopped in for lunch. I have to say this photo did not do this meal justice (my dinner photos on the other hand…) The cheese on the burger was muenster and it was scrumdulescent. I’m so glad that we have a Whole Foods in Tallahassee…:)

Dinner From Heaven: When we were at Whole Foods, we bought some deliciousness for dinner. We bought a pound of grass-fed sirloin along with some organic fingerling potatoes. I put chunks of mesquite in my BBQ chimney and lit up! I then cut the sirloin in half, padded it down with paper towels, sprinkled sea salt and some Cooper’s BBQ seasoning on the steaks and let them sit for a while. They were on the grill for about 25-30 minutes since they were cooking with indirect heat. I finished them off with a sear on the heat. I usually cut into my steaks to see if they are done, but this time I a meat thermometer which retained the juices a little more. When they were done, we tented them with foil and finished up the collard greens and potatoes. It was probably the best steak I have ever cooked. The meal was about $7 a person which was actually less than our lunch. The joys of eating at home…

So today was pretty awesome. Let’s finish off this post with a photo of a hand turkey. See ya tomorrow.

Day 1,153 That Time I Posted About Food

Posted on November 13, 2013 by theffkid

Alright, back to the basics. It’s not going to always be interesting and sexy (whatever that means for a blog) but this is what I need right now. Even if I don’t post, or have giant posts, know that I am tracking. Time to REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY get out of the 230’s for good.

Let’s begin, shall we?

Breakfast: I had a turkey bacon breakfast sandwich from Starbucks. FSU’s President Eric Barron and his sweet wife Molly are usually at the Starbucks on my side of campus. They are usually in workout clothes. Basically, our President is baller. Fun fact: he’s an avid racquetball player. President Barron, if you are reading this, let’s play some time. I’ll even let you win. When I say “let you” I mean you would destroy me no matter what. Anyway, the sandwich was 8 points.

Snack: We bought some satsuma oranges from Trader Joe’s. The are little flavor grenades of deliciousness. NO POINTS!

Lunch: Speaking of Trader Joe’s, I had some chicken tikka masala. It is easily the best frozen meal on the planet (I’ve heard Mars has a pretty killer version of a Hot Pocket, so I’ll go with best meal on our planet.) 8 points. And yes, I look ridiculous. Then I had some TJ’s Greek yogurt for 3 points.

By the way, it was a beautiful day in Tallahassee. It was cold and actually felt like fall. I wish it would stay this way….

Dinner: After a long day on campus, we were ready for some delicious (and hot) dinner. We ended up at Pho7 for some soup. It was magical as always and roughly 16 points.

Dessert: We went home for some delicious, low-cal hot chocolate. It was about 4 points with the amount of marshmallows I had.

So today I got to 39 points. Pretty good considering I was full all day! What’s better? I didn’t cheat. At one point, I had my hand in a candy jar and I had the willpower to get my hand out of there! BOOM! Weight loss win. See ya tomorrow.

Turkey Two Ways and Other Stuff

Posted on October 27, 2013 by theffkid

So my ‘Noles are awesome. I really think that’s the best possible way to start this post. I mean, have you seen Jameis Winston???

I know it has been a while since I’ve posted on the old blog. I have been super busy with life, work and other craziness.

Here’s a brief recap:

I joined an AWESOME workout training group for faculty and staff at Leach, the gym that started it all (I still want to but a plaque next to the first elliptical I used on the second floor that says “anything is possible.”) It’s mostly circuit training with some TRX and cardio thrown in there. I have only done it for three weeks, but I can already see muscle definition in my arms and my clothes are fitting better even though the scale is still in the same region. (More on that in a moment.)

I’ve been training for the Tallahassee Half Marathon in February. I haven’t done as many races this fall because our Weight Watchers meeting is at the same time most races start. I was a little concerned about where I was physically and where my running was. That was until I beast’d out a 6 miler on Thursday at about a 9-10 min/mile pace. Basically the same pace I was running this time last year. I think that I could have ran more pretty easily, but it was getting dark and I had a hot date waiting for me ;). I’m planning on running the 15k (9.32 miles) Turkey Trot again this year and I’m feeling pretty good about it. I still need to get a few more long runs under my belt, but I think I’ll be in good shape thanks to the cross training I’m getting with my workout group. I also think I’m going to just keep training after the half in February and look at possibly running a full in the spring. Maybe in May, but we’ll see!

I have been getting ready for Movember. More on that later this week.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, Megan and I have already planned out our healthy Thanksgiving meal. It’s not only going be epically delicious, it’s going to be healthy and point friendly! My first Thanksgiving on Weight Watchers was well planned out and actually lost weight that week. The other Thanksgivings haven’t been like that. Time to get back to that healthy mindset. So in the spirit of the season (which at this point it might as well be Christmas according to the stores in the mall. I even Valentine’s Day stuff out at World Market. What the heck????) we made turkey twice this weekend!

Turkey Meal No.1 Last night, after the Wolfpack beat down had been complete, we got busy smoking! We took a rub recipe from Cook’s Illustrated and modified it.The night before, we rubbed the 2.5 pound turkey breast with a salt and brown sugar mixture, wrapped it in saran wrap and put it in the fridge. The next day, we added some more brown sugar along with some Cooper’s BBQ seasoning. I light up my lump charcoal in my chimney and made two piles of charcoal in the grill. We added a aluminum foil packet of pecan chips on to one side and then put the bird on the grill skin side up. About an hour of low and slow later, we had some epic turkey. We also put some gouda sausage from Whole Foods on the grill as well. It felt like Texas BBQ! (But I’m ready for the real thing soon…)

Turkey Meal No.2 Skinnytaste strikes again. After church, we seared a turkey breast and then put it in a crockpot along with veggies and other deliciousness. We put it on low and ran our 3k race in the All Saints district in town. It was a blast! Anyway, six hours later, we took it out of the crockpot, made a gravy and then roasted some potatoes. It turned out all kinds of amazing! Basically, Skinnytaste is awesome. End of story.

So that’s about it. I’ll be posting more soon. Things are kind of normalizing, but until then, thanks for reading! See ya later.

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!

Sunday Stuff!

Posted on July 14, 2013 by theffkid

(Not sure what day it is…I need to figure that out.)

Hello everyone!

I’m watching the King of the Hill episode when Bobby has to buy clothes at the fat kid store H. Dumpty’s and I’m having childhood obesity PTSD right now. I’m so glad I’ll never have to shop at a Casual Male or any of those incredibly uncomfortable palaces of stretchable polyester ever again.

Alright, back to other things and stuff.

Today was a bit of a food challenge but we totally got through it! I forgot how counting points makes such a difference instead of just saying “merh…I’ll just wing it.” I’m also not as tempted to peek on the scale anymore. I don’t have to. I know that if I stay within my points, the rest will follow. This feels amazing. Weight Watchers Points Plus is the bomb!!! (And no, I’m not getting paid to say that.)

So here is the breakdown of the day:

Breakfast
A delicious cookie from my friend Cynthia: 2PP
Maple Ginger Dreaming Cow yogurt: 3 PP
A slice of Ezekiel bread with spray butter: 2 PP

Lunch
We went to lunch at Bandido’s with the always-awesome Julie and Melissa the fantastic! My eyes were bigger than my stomach so I ordered a breakfast burrito and a bean burrito. I ate the breakfast burrito and was ridiculously stuffed (Mexican food is my kryptonite…or gluttonite). So after I was done, I added it all up in my Weight Watchers app. I didn’t feel guilty, I felt good knowing the points of what I was eating. I felt accountable to myself. Something that I haven’t been in a while. 33 PP

Dinner
After a doing a good chunk of housework, I just made a Smart One since I didn’t have too many points left at that point.
Teryaki Smart One: 6 PP
Cereal: 3 PP
Two peaches: 0 PP
Non-fat French Onion dip with sliced cucumbers: 1 PP

Total for the day
50 PP

I ended up using 2 PP which is fine. That’s what they’re there for!

Tomorrow’s a new day. Make it awesome. See ya tomorrow.

The FFK Goes to a Weight Watchers Meeting

Posted on July 8, 2013 by theffkid

Have you ever had one of those mornings where I wake up and think “I wonder what’s going to happen today…” not knowing that your day would turn out to be potentially life changing? Well…that happened today.

Here we go…

You ready?

Of course you are.

No. The W doesn’t stand for Wonder.

Today, Megan and I officially joined Weight Watchers!!!

For the past year and a half, I have been needing a push to get through these last 60 pounds to reach my goal weight (which is 167 pounds, aka 190 pounds lost). I haven’t been keeping track of everything like I should be and I haven’t held myself accountable. I needed a shift to something new. Weight Watchers PointsPlus is that next step.

Keep in mind, I wasn’t planning on this happening when I wrote last night’s post. The plan was to talk about possibly doing this down the line a little. But then at lunch, Megan and I discussed it and decided now is the right time because why should we wait?

So after work, we went over to the Weight Watchers location in Tallahassee and signed up. Then they asked if we were going to stay for the meeting at 6:00. “Why not?” we said! We also weighed in with my new “starting weight” which was rough (keep in mind that was in the evening with completely clothed). Basically, I am up 12 pounds from two weeks ago. Sooooo glad to be back on track!

The meeting was absolutely great! It was educational, supportive and convicting all rolled in to one. The challenge for this month is ask yourself when eating “is this worth the Points?” which is incredibly serendipitous. In my first post when I started my weight loss journey, I called my readers to hold me accountable and to ask me if what I was eating was worth the Points! (You can read that post here!) After the meeting, we met with our leader one-on-one and she gave us some more insight and explanation about the PointsPlus. We told her about about our own weight loss journeys and how excited we were to get started. When we asked her about switching from the old points system to the PointsPlus, she said, without missing a beat, “You’ve got a brand new car. Drive it!” And she was right! The eTools are awesome, the app is better than Calorie Counter and other apps I’ve used in the past, and I can tell that the meetings will make such a huge difference for my own accountability.

So logistically, I will be weighing in at meetings meetings, which will be Saturday mornings. I’m not sure if I’m going to count that as my official blog weigh in, but I’m leaning towards still weighing in on Tuesdays (I would love to get some feedback on this. Do you consider your WW weigh in as your official weigh in or do you weigh in at home first?) Either way, I will have a weigh in tomorrow. (I didn’t weigh last Tuesday because our scale had a battery problem and we were installing a washer and dryer where the scale usually is. Long story.)

Pretty crazy day. Can’t wait to report to you tomorrow with PointsPlus. See ya tomorrow.

So I’ll have more about everything this week.