Category Archives: 100 pounds

Well what do you know…

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hard work does pay off!

So, like most weigh-ins, I really didn’t know how this was going to go. Recently, I’ve been having weird weigh-in dreams the night before. Last week’s dream involved eating pizza. And then I gained.
Coincidence? I think not.

My take on the scale this week was simple: it won’t tell the whole story. The scale wasn’t going to take into consideration my extra steps, my 64 Activity Points, or how I resisted potentially hazardous eating situations. It wouldn’t take developing awesome habits into consideration either, which was what this week was all about. A lower number would just be an added bonus.

Soooooooooo I LOST 5.2 FREAKIN’ POUNDS!!!!!!!

Which means…

I CAN OFFICIALLY SAY I’VE LOST 100 POUNDS AGAIN!

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I actually got on the scale twice to make sure that was right! Throughout the week, I could definitely feel and see that weight come off my body. My stomach is already starting to deflate and shirts are starting to fit a little better.

But I’m not out of the (Randy) woods by any stretch of the imagination.

Which brings me to my next point…

I can already tell I’m going to need some patience during this rebuilding phase
While some clothes fit better, some clothes still don’t fit at all…and that really bothers me. Earlier this week, I thought “OK…I ate well and worked out today. WHY DON’T I LOOK DIFFERENT ALREADY???” I had to talk myself off the ledge a little bit and remember that this is going to take a while. Eating well and exercise are the solution, but they’re not magic either. While I’m happy and uber proud of my weigh in this morning, I know it will be hard not to get frustrated when I lose half a pound. But I am, and always have been, in this for the long haul. I’ll just need a reminder of that in a few weeks. Regardless, I am ready to keep this healthy lifestyle up and the extra amount of work that it takes!

Speaking of extra amount…

I need to prioritize my goals with fitness
When it comes to exercise, I’m one that tends to take too much on all at once; which leads to me crashing and burning and not falling through with much. Aside from training for my first half marathon, that has been my issue most of my life. Instead of focusing on one or two things, I try to dabble. Which is where I kind of am right now.

When I trained for that first half, all I did was run. I didn’t cross train at all like I should have. I was already getting my cardiovascular health in a good place, why not the rest of my body? So as I begin to plan for half training which will most likely be in October for the Tallahassee Half and Enchanted 10k, both in February, I have been trying to figure out what I should do to torch some serious fat to make running easier on my body. There are so many things that I want to do and try, but I have to remind myself that I am only one guy. I can’t do everything right this minute.

Not to mention that whole have to make time for working, eating and paying bills, thing.

So right now, I really want to actually maintain a regular schedule of strength training at the gym. I have yet to do that during my weight loss journey. I have either been too nervous to work out in the Bro Den at the FSU gym, or I have just gotten bored with it. I know that I can get the results that I want by lifting because I did it in high school. I definitely wasn’t ripped, but I could set a new max every few weeks. I just haven’t tried to be disciplined with it. I’m thinking about signing up for a personal trainer at FSU and focusing strictly on strength training this semester. I know I would be more comfortable with that foundation too.

The other thing I’ve been wanting to try for a looooooong time is a kettlebell workout routine. I have used KBs a ton of different ways over the years and each time I fall in love all over again. They are like no other workout I have ever done. I also see and feel some killer results with them too. One thing I really want to do is the 90 day Daily Burn KB program (if you haven’t checked out Daily Burn, GO THERE NOW!!!!) because I could do it at home before or after work. A lot of the KB workouts require a strong core which I don’t have but want to gain.

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH SO MANY DECISIONS!!!!!

Well, regardless, my plan is to run on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and then hit the gym, wherever that may be, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. There are about a 1,000 other classes and workouts that I want to try (spinning and Zumba, just to name a few), but I don’t know how or where they fit right now. During the year, I am considering just trying one class a week and then make Friday a makeup day. The issue is, FSU Campus Rec is just too awesome and has too much awesome stuff!!!!!

Soooooo that’s about it. Life is awesome. And I’m dang proud of this past week. This upcoming week will be a challenge because it’s essentially the first week back for FSU (or at least for faculty and staff anyway). Time to make awesomeness happen.

Here’s to an awesome week.
And remember…

the best is yet to come

Summer Reflections: What Went Wrong and What Will Go Right

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It has been quite the summer.
I can’t believe that it’s already time for back to school shopping…
and new students…
and football…
and Christmas ornaments inside the Hallmark store…
yes, that was a thing I saw at the mall today…
but that rant is for another post.

By the time we blink, we will look back and wonder how it’s already time to make our New Year’s resolutions and why we haven’t tried to tackle them sooner.

I’m starting to see that as trend in my own life.

Three years ago this past Thursday, I officially lost 100 pounds for the first time. I weighed in below 257 pounds and I had done it all in 319 days. When I first started losing weight, I was shooting to lose 100 pounds by the time I finished grad school, but I blew that out of the water because I was loving my body and the things it could do for the first time in my life. Since that time, I have been above 257 pounds only a few times, the week after that weigh-in and this summer. Between vacationing, not eating well, and the extra weight I had already strapped on because of stress, I have been above that number for about a month. So this anniversary has been bittersweet, but has served as a wake up call for my journey.

Which leads me to tonight’s post…

The summer, with its ups and downs, has brought clarity to some things I have been struggling with in my weight loss journey. Because sometimes when we are sinking in the muck and mire, things are the most clear.

The reality is, if I don’t put my health and eating in front of other things in my life, I will gain my weight back.

During this past year, I got cocky and at times intentionally slacked off or didn’t track my food because I knew a week of hard work could balance everything out. But before I knew it, I was in too deep.

When I weighed in 36 pounds away from my lowest weight last week, I realized that if I slack too much now, the weight will pack back on in no time. To put it in perspective, if I dio the same thing I did this past year this upcoming year, odds are I would gain another 30-40 pounds. That means I would be back in the 300’s. If I did the same thing a year after that, I would be almost back to my starting weight. (Even as I’m typing this I’m freaked out). I can’t won’t let myself do that. Being physically uncomfortable at this weight has reminded me how horrible I felt all the time when I was obese.

With that all being said, there is a beautiful silver lining to this. When I reach my goal weight one day and I feel like slacking off for a while, I’m going to remember this season of my life and how guilty and frustrated I’ve felt. I will remember this as a teachable moment in my journey. It’s a conclusion I’ve had to come to on my own and in my own time.

So as this new school year begins and my life gets incredibly hectic all over again until December, I am going to make time for me. I’m going to exercise every day, whether that’s a run, lifting weights, or even a brisk walk (heck, I might even throw in some prancercising in there too…) and fuel my body with the food that it deserves because I’m responsible for this temple of awesomeness. I am very optimistic for this new year and can’t wait to see where I am the next time I’m celebrating my 100-pound milestone.

 

The Art of Losing & Gaining Control of Your Life

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It’s so funny when you have an idea for a post, but then don’t know how to weave it in to your blog and then fate helps you out…whether you like it or not.

You see, I had this idea for a post about how the app Timehop can inspire someone to appreciate how far they’ve come along in life. I’m not just talking about fitness either. I look back at some of my old posts and think “wow, I’ve come a long way in four years…” (Grad school, marriage and a big-boy job will do that to you I guess.) But when I looked at my photo from a year ago, I had a complete inverse reaction.

photo 1A year ago today, I weighed 225.8 pounds. Essentially my lowest weight. At that weight, I felt fit. I felt comfortable. I felt normal. When I got on the scale this morning, I weighed 261.8 pounds. I have roller coastered my way up 36 pounds. Now granted, I haven’t been this heavy for the whole time. In fact, I was down to the 233 in January. But with vacations, an inordinate amount of stress this summer, and high level of complacency, I am letting the rope slip out of my hands as I am watching it all fall apart in front of me. I feel sick about that number. For the first time in three years, I am out of the “century club”. I will have to lose at least 5 pounds until I can say I’ve lost 100 pounds again.

After I got off the scale, I went through the stages of grief, but I didn’t pout and sulk for too long. You see all summer I’ve been out of whack. My eating has been the best it has ever been (I can make an epic low point salad) and then it was Obese Nathan bad (thirds on desserts, anyone?) My exercising was great and then lethargically terrible. Frankly, this past year has been a season of feeling just lost emotionally, physically and spiritually for me and I hate it. I somehow lost my focal point amid my new job and everything else. And maybe that’s been it, I have just been too busy to lose weight. When I say that, I say it knowing good and well it’s because I’ve replaced that time with eating out and binge watching TV, not counting points and going on long runs.

Whew, now that I have that inner-dialogue therapy session all written out…

photo 3After I got off the scale, I took freakin’ control of my life. I had a sensible breakfast, went to church, and came home and organized my life. For the first time ever on my own, I made a meal plan for the week. I didn’t give myself any wiggle room. I know I have at least two variables in my week, but that is it. Then, I went to the grocery store and bought everything I needed for the week. Again, nothing extra. I always get caught up by extraneous purchases because usually they are carbtastic so I binge the crap out of them. So since I can recognize my triggers, I need to set myself up for success by just abstaining from chips and crackers and other stuff like that. Anyway, I got home and cleaned up the kitchen so I can’t use the ol’ “oh no, there are three dishes in the sink. The kitchen is too messy to cook. Time to order a pizza!” excuse. Then I just cleaned around the house so I would have control of my spaces, instead of feeling helpless in my own house (I’m going to do the same thing with my office tomorrow.) Even those simple actions reduced my stress enough for me to feel calm and relaxed.

photo 5So here’s the deal. I’m going to try something a little different this week. A loooooong time ago, I used to track and post my points on the blog everyday. While that was awesome and helpful, it definitely got stressful and tedious for me because sometimes a screen is the last thing you want to see when you get home. So here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to take a screenshot of my Weight Watchers app every day this week with my total points and post it to my Instagram account. It will help me actually track and it will hold me accountable to you, dear reader. Here is my tracker for today. For those of you tracking at home, I have modified my points down to 43 daily points because 55 is too many. When I made the transition from old to new, I went from 28 daily points to 54 so trust me, I’m not gaining because I’m not eating enough…

I kind of feel like I’m starting over again with this, but I really am. At the very beginning, I told myself that if I could pass the 6-week mark of tracking, then this would stick. Consider this week one. See ya on Instagram.

 

 

 

29 Awesome Things I Learned In The Bahamas

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Back from the BahamasHey kids!
I’m baaaaaaccccckkkk!
(hmmmm…that kind of looks like that was said by a sheep…)Megan and I are back from an awesomely relaxing trip in the Bahamas at the wonderful Breezes Resort! My coworkers keep telling me that I look relaxed and very tan.
Meh, I’ll take either.
Anyway, I’m going to write an unsolicited review of the resort sometime soon, but for now I just wanted share with you 28 random thoughts about the trip that I wrote on the plane in my handy dandy notebook. Enjoy!

  1. The Bahamas are pretty Americanized. They even take US currency.
  2. The resort carried CBC. I watched a lot of Canadian television.
  3. Climbing a rock wall is awesome.
  4. Customer service>style
  5. Miami’s airport is a zoo.
  6. Fried conch is a weird sea snail but it tastes like clam strips.
  7. Become friends with other vacationers.
  8. Pool volleyball is a fun way to make said friends.
  9. Peddleboats are deceptively complicated.
  10. Nassau has a beautiful airport.
  11. Megan is a pool shark in training.
  12. Kayaking is a fun way to get an ab workout.
  13. When you climb a rock wall for the first time, expect some serious blisters and/or ripped skin on your hands.
  14. But it’s still worth it.
  15. Always try new things while on vacation. That way if you don’t do well, it’s in front of people that you’ll never see again.
  16. This is particularly true when it comes to belting out the last verse of “Piano Man” that no one else knows.
  17. Always do the fun and goofy activities at the resort. Everyone else is.
  18. Don’t take yourself too seriously while on vacation.
  19. In fact, never take yourself too seriously.
  20. Make time to just sit and watch TV in your hotel room.
  21. Wreck-It Ralph is awesome.
  22. I feel like I’ve failed at life for not watching it sooner.
  23. If you’re staying in a resort, don’t feel pressured to leave and explore your surroundings. Keep the paradise facade alive during your trip.
  24. Anna Nichole Smith was buried next to our resort.
  25. Some foreigners are just as interested in your culture as you are in theirs.
  26. Ask them where they have traveled.
  27. Wear sunscreen.
  28. Start planning your next adventure while your mind is clear of work gunk.
  29. But seriously, wear sunscreen.

[GUEST POST] Top Threeve Things I’ve Learned From My Weight Loss Journey

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Hey Kids!
This FFK is still on vacay, but I have another awesome blogging treat for you!
Dani from Weight Off My Shoulders has one heck of a success story! She is a Weight Watchers LEGEND and when she’s not leading a meeting, she’s probably running, triathaloning or drinking chocolate milk. She’s pretty fantastic and this post is hilariously epic. Be sure to check out her Facebook page too!
Take it away, Dani…

Top Threeve Things I’ve Learned From My Weight Loss Journey

Did you know a serving size of Cheez-Its ISN’T the entire box?

I am going to give you a minute to process that.

Mmm Cheez-Its.

tasty-cheez-it-crackers

Who starts a blog post talkin’ bout Cheez-Its when there are no Cheez-Its being offered.

Cheez-Its.

cheez-its

Okay have you processed the original question?

Have you forgotten the original question?

Did you know a serving size of Cheez-Its ISN’T the entire box?

Shocking, right?

Well this was one of the FIRST lessons I learned after starting Weight Watchers. Not that I have truly “learned” the lesson … there was the great Cheez-It incident of May 2012 where I proceeded to eat the entire box in less than 20 minutes. But hey, I did go for a 12-mile run the next day. That my friends is progress.

This was my first and hardest lesson learned so far in my weight loss and weight maintenance journey.

It makes me grumpy, but I accept it.

Now I can share the rest of my Top Threeve Things I’ve Learned during this amazing weight loss journey of mine.

***

Numbero Dos: When starting an exercise/workout/getting your booty off the couch routine … pick something you can have fun with!

fun

I know I should’ve gotten more into it, but really running a marathon through Disney World can just be so blah-zay! 😉

Since starting this crazy journey, I’ve attempted to bust a move in a hip hop class at the gym, tripped over my own feet during Zumba and managed to not sprain an ankle in step aerobics. All experiences led to more calories being burned laughing at myself after the fact, but I wouldn’t change the experiences.

And if that doesn’t work find another form of motivation!

wine

***

#3: The “D” word may no longer be spoken in my presence.

lifestyle

Yup, I’ve done this a time or two or seventy. Sorry random lady in the bathroom at that place that time. My bad!

The “D” word makes me think of deprivation and that just doesn’t fly in my world. If you tell me no more Cheez-Its, I’m making my way to the next CVS to clear out their entire stock. Knowing I can fit my vices loves into my plan, make it worth it!

***

Four – Part A: Learning to love the then.

For too long I looked angrily at the then photos. I would scream at the “old” me wanting to know why I let it get to that point. How could you let yourself get to 235 lbs? Why couldn’t you love yourself enough to stop earlier? Why didn’t you have control?

But, the more I hated on the prior – the more critical I was of the current.

beautiful

Next time you look at your prior/before/then take a moment to adjust your thought process to one of positivity and love. You will never truly love your now if you don’t accept the then. Just sayin’!

***

And last, but certainly lost least, the threeve-th and most important tip I have learned since starting my lifestyle change…

It’s really quite simple. Through the up and the down … the good and the bad … the happy and the sad …

Always remember that you are:

awesome

AWESOME!!!!

***

No matter how long the journey takes, no it is worth it. Hang in there. Have your grapes two ways: in a bowl and in a wine glass. But, just make sure you…

finish what you started

[GUEST POST] Doctor Who and Living a Healthy Life

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Why yes, this post is ridiculously epic….
Hey kids! I’m taking a blog vacation for a few days so I have some of my favorite bloggers posting on the FFK blog!

When I was at Fitbloggin’ this year, I officially my blogging buddy Jill from the Year of the Phoenix! We both have quite the nerdy side, so when she told me about her guest post, I audibly squealed in my office at work. Definitely give her blog some love and like her on Facebook!

Take it away, Jill…

Hi everyone! My name is Jill and I write over at The Year of the Phoenix and I am so thrilled to be here guest posting for Nathan! As soon as I told him my topic idea he jumped at the chance, as I knew he would. This is actually a post that is part of my own archives but I wrote it over a year and a half ago and decided it was time for an update and this was the perfect opportunity since, like me, Nathan is also a big Doctor Who fan!

As my regular readers are aware, I like to do these Healthy Living Lessons From…posts, usually pulling from popular culture like Orange is the New Black and Pixar movies. Doctor Who is a British show about a time and space traveler known as The Doctor who travels in his TARDIS, fashioned after an iconic blue police telephone box. I started watching it a few years ago and was instantly hooked. The new season starts up soon and I AM SO EXCITED.

So! With that, let’s GERONIMO our way into the Doctor’s world.

Keep Your Companions By Your Side

By his nature, The Doctor is a rather singular character. All of his family and his entire species of Time Lords are gone. He’s the last one. He’s also 900 years old so he’s going to outlive every person he meets (and, being 900 years old he’s going to meet a lot of people). Personal connections are difficult and while different regenerations of The Doctor handle this personality quirk differently, the one thing he always knows is that he can’t do it alone. He needs assistance on his adventures and they come in the form of his companions: the men and women (mostly women) who travel with him in the TARDIS and help him save the world over and over and over again.

Likewise, it’s impossible to maintain a healthy lifestyle without support from friends and family. You need people you can go to when you’re struggling. People who will help you and motivate you to keep going. The other week I was having a bad body image day and I immediately reached out to my friend Kelly for support. Texting with her allowed me to figure out what had triggered it and gave me an opportunity to learn from it for the future. Without having my network, I would probably have just ended up wallowing which would have only made the bad body image worse.

You also need to know that your own personal companions aren’t going to sabotage your efforts, whether it’s intentional or unintentional. This means understanding that you may not be going out to eat as often or not drinking as much or that your workouts sometimes have to come before your social life. They not only need to know about these changes they have to support them. This means no guilt tripping you or encouraging you to eat something you know you shouldn’t under the guise of “just one won’t kill you” or any of that bullshit. If someone isn’t supportive of your healthy lifestyle then they aren’t supportive of you.

Takes a Lot Of Heart

Or, in The Doctor’s case, two hearts. (No. Really. He has two of them.)

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this is not easy. As this saying goes, if it was easy than everyone would do it. And I’m not just talking about losing weight, be it 10 pounds or 135. I’m talking about balancing a healthy lifestyle. I’m talking about giving your diet an overhaul or building up a fitness routine. It takes passion and determination and motivation. You aren’t going to wake up one day and say I’m going to lose 100 pounds or I’m going to run a marathon and then expect it to magically happen. You have to work towards that goal. You have to put in the time and energy over and over and over again. You have to continually be putting in the effort. Because, truthfully, the race that is healthy living, there is no finish line.

Don’t Blink

Those stupid f*cking Weeping Angels, man. I don’t know about other Whovians, but as soon as I even just think about the Angels I start blinking uncontrollably.

Whatever healthy living change you are trying to make, don’t blink. Don’t take your eye off the ball. Be it losing weight or adding in new exercise routines or just eating better, don’t ever forget why you want the change to happen. I carry Before pictures around on my phone as a constant reminder of what I don’t want to be anymore. It’s not even just about not wanting to look like that but not wanting to weigh 311 pounds and having no energy, no life, no happiness. That is what keeps me motivated to keep going.

Bow Ties Are Cool

As are Converse sneakers. Or a striped scarf. It always sort of kills me whenever I read people (usually on stupid internet message boards) complaining about stores like Torrid because they see them as encouraging obesity, as if fat girls should be stuck wearing mumus for the rest of their life. As if forcing them to wear ugly clothes will someone force them to lose weight. I always want to yell You don’t really understand how this works, do you? Emotional eaters eat because they feel bad about themselves. They gain weight and need bigger clothes. If those bigger clothes make them look and feel like crap then they are going to continue to eat crap. So, in a way, you are encouraging obesity.

Look. Wear what you want to wear and stop worrying about the number on the tag. The clothing industry is ridiculous in that there is no sizing consistency across labels and brands. I can wear a 12 in one brand and in another it’s a 16. I could let it bother me but instead I buy whatever size makes me feel confident and happy. Trust me, people, wearing a particular size out of vanity isn’t going to do you any favors when the pants are so tight you are uncomfortable and everyone can see the muffin top.

Spoilers!

My absolute favorite Doctor Who character is River Song. The woman is a fucking bad ass and tends to wear femme fatale noir clothing. I mean, really: what isn’t there to love about River?

One of the coolest things about River is how we are introduced to her: in her very first episode, The Doctor has no idea who the hell she is but River knows all sorts of personal information about him. Including events in his life that haven’t even happened yet (side note: the relationship between River and The Doctor was partially inspired by The Time-Traveler’s Wife, one of my favorite books). River carries around this blue journal that looks a lot like the TARDIS and in it she has a whole history/future  of Doctor adventures only she refuses to tell him about any of it. Whenever someone mentions the journal she’ll just give that smile of her’s and say “Spoilers!”

We don’t know how our own stories are going to end. We don’t know what’s up ahead. We may lose more weight, we may gain it all back, or we may stay exactly where we are. There’s just no telling what life has in store for us, but that’s part of the beauty of the journey. When I first wrote this post back in March 2013 I had lost 135 pounds. Since then, thanks to life and stress and bad coping, I’ve regained 60 pounds, which I’ve always been completely honest and transparent about.

But that is soooooooo not what I saw coming for my future. But it is what it is and at this point I don’t know where I’ll be in another year and a half. Maybe I’ll be down, maybe I’ll be the same. But do you wanna know what else I didn’t see coming? The fact that I’m currently training for my third half marathon and this past Sunday I became a certified to teach spin classes. Oh yeah.

Yes, it’s scary not knowing and it would be so much easier if I could see in the future and know that twenty or thirty years down the road I’ll still be maintaining this weight and running more races and all of that. But I don’t know that and I won’t know until I get there. All I can really do is just take it one day at a time here in the present.


Bigger On the Inside

The Doctor travels in a time and space machine known as The TARDIS. It’s disguised as a big blue old-fashioned public telephone box. The running joke with the TARDIS is that it’s bigger on the inside. Like, way bigger. Swimming pool and multiple bedrooms and all sorts of timey-wimey wibbly-wobbly bigger.

We’ve all heard it before, that it’s what’s on the inside that counts, but in the case of the TARDIS it really is true. And it’s true for all of us, too. Because the TARDIS isn’t just a blue box and you are not just the number on the scale or your dress size. So never let any of those things define you or your sense of self. Eleven rocks his bow ties and Fez hats and doesn’t care what anyone thinks because he knows he has so much more to offer the world. Like, y’know, saving it.

There Will Always Be Daleks to Exterminate

No matter how many times The Doctor saves the world from the Daleks or Cybermen or whatever, they are always coming back for  another fight. Healthy living — and weight maintenance in particular — is very much the same thing, because it’s a constant battle. A battle with yourself to find the motivation to wake up early and workout. A battle at the grocery store or restaurant.

Maybe battle is the wrong word as it sounds too negative. My point is just that you have to be aggressive and get after it. You can’t get lazy and allow yourself to fall back on old habits or a false sense of security, because as soon as you do that’s when the threat returns. I learned that the hard way, but it’s okay because I feel armed with my electronic screwdriver and I’m ready to do battle again.

Can Always Regenerate

So The Doctor that will be gracing television screens across the world in a few weeks is the same character as the one who was in the original 1963 premiere. Because there is only one Doctor. There just happens to be different versions and incarnations of him. That’s why they are each given numbers. Like, say, the upcoming Twelve. It’s a unique feature of the Time Lord species that allows the dying or wounded Doctor to stay alive by transforming into a new body (which often also comes with a new personality). It’s how new actors are introduced into the role (and probably how it’s managed to stay on the air for 50 years without the lead jumping the shark).

For us this means that there is always an opportunity for reinvention. A chance to try again. So you  overeat at the family reunion this past weekend. Monday morning you get to wake up to a fresh day with new choices. So your most recent race time wasn’t the best. Sign up for another race and go for that PR. You fell while trying to do a headstand in yoga class. Shake it off and try again next week.

We are always a work in progress and have all the advantages and opportunities to constantly better ourselves. Don’t ever take that for granted

Vacation Recap and Being Back on Track

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Hello! I’m back!

It always feels like the week after a vacation is crazy and somehow even more exhausting the the trip itself. It’s nice to be back to normal…for a while at least!

So let’s talk about what I’ve been up to, shall we?

Vacation to Texas
We spend a about a week and a half in Texas seeing family and friends. It was nice to be somewhere that didn’t have humidity. We spent all of the 4th of July out on my parent’s porch and I didn’t even break a sweat! We also got to see our friends Scott and Tabitha and their new adorable baby Cora in Austin!

With all the fun in Texas came a lot of eating. At the beginning, portion control was the name of the game. When that started to slide, I added some movement to my days with walking around my old neighborhood for an hour or so each night. I wasn’t moving to undo my calories, I was doing it to at least get my metabolism going and to get some steps in!

When we were flying home, we got stuck on the tarmac in DFW for about an hour and a half. We had a pretty short layover in Charlotte so we knew it was going to be a race. The plane landed in CLT at 10:05 and our flight was leaving at 10:30. Oh yeah, did I mention that our gate was clear across the airport? So we Home Alone’d it like a boss and we barely made it. They had even taken the Tallahassee sign off the board at the gate. Being the ridiculous social media dude I am, I aired my grievances with US Airways. And they won the internet with their response.
US Airways WorkoutSo we got back to Tallahassee around midnight and it was exhausting but it felt good to be home!

This Week’s Weigh In
I wasn’t sure what the scale was going to say the next day, but I wasn’t feeling hopeful. Somehow, I had only gained 6 pounds which really isn’t that bad. You can gain that easily after a night of sodiumtastic Mexican food. Plus, I’m pretty sure it was 4 and a half pounds of brisket and a pound and a half of kolaches. Anyway, Megan and I went back to the basics of eating and I did some serious exercising every day. When I weighed in on Sunday, not only had I lost everything I gained on the trip, I weighed less than before the trip! So I weighed in at 254 pounds and at this point, I’m just glad that the scale is going in the right direction. I’m really ready to get out of the 250’s and to make some killer weight loss progress!

2015 Disney Enchanted 10k!!!!
rundisneyA few weeks ago, Megan and her cousin Chelsie talked about running one of the Disney Princess races in February 2015. When they decided on the Enchanted 10k, I wanted in on the awesomeness! So…WE ARE OFFICIALLY RUNNING A DISNEY RACE!!!! Running a Disney race has been a pretty big bucket list item for me. I really want to run the Disney World Marathon on my 30th birthday since my birthday is always during my birthday weekend. But I want to reach my goal weight first before I do that. Thankfully, I still have a few years to go (3 to be exact…)

Guest Posts!
Finally, I’ll have some awesome friends stopping by the FFK next week! More to come!

So that’s all I got for tonight. I’m so glad to be back on the weight loss wagon. We’ll talk soon!

Wordless Wednesday Fitbloggin Edition

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#alltheselfies
#seeyouinDenver

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Dinner with blogging friends!

The FFK and Arian Foster

Oh yeah…I met Arian Foster

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AAAHHHH it’s Fit and Free with Emily!

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Holy Crap! It’s THE Steve Gray!

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A fuzzy me and an awesome 300 Pounds and Running

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Run Bang Run, 300 Pounds and Running, and the FFK

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The Fitbloggin mastermind Roni Noone

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It’s No Thanks to Cake!!!!

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Our marathon training session selfie!

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ERMAGHARD!!! IT’S FAT GIRL VS THE WORLD!!!!

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Sarah from Losing Weight and Having Fun!

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Oh yeah I FREAKIN’ MET MICKEY!

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Alan from Sweating Until Happy!

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Brooke "The Stud" Not On A Diet!

Brooke “The Stud” Not On A Diet!

My Top 5 Takeaways From Fitbloggin’

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Oh man…so much to say…along with so many feels and ideas and challenges and thoughts and other awesome stuff.

So this past weekend, I finally got to do something that I’ve wanted to do for the past four years: attend Fitbloggin’. Even though I haven’t been able to go for one reason or another in the past, I have never really pushed to make it happen because I didn’t feel like I belonged. I mean, only blogging juggernauts who make it rain off their AdSense payouts attend blogging conferences, right? So for years, I have been fighting off that feeling, only to find out that I was the only one holding myself back.

I’ll never forget walking into the conference and having some of my favorite bloggers like DubyaWife and Alan from Sweating Until Happy come and give me a hug and then meeting some of the bloggers that I have followed ever since the beginning of my journey like Robbie from Fatgirl Vs. the World, Brooke from Brooke Not On A Diet and Kelly from Curvy Fit Girl. It was this beautifully weird sensation of embracing people that I’ve never met in person but I’ve known for the entire part of this new life. Simply put, Fitbloggin’ truly is the cat’s pajamas. (No, there was no feline nightwear involved at Fitbloggin.)

So without further adieu, I present…

My Top 5 Takeaways From Fitbloggin’

1. If You’ve Been to Savannah, You’ve Stood on a Dead Person.

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Photo Credit: carriedphotography

Half of the fun of Fitbloggin’ was being in the swashbucklin’, old south, and gorgeous city of Savannah, Georgia. Being originally from Texas, it is rare to be in a place with such beautiful 18th century architecture and being in a space that was a part of the original 13 colonies.

But with that kind of historical impact comes a lot of dead people. Lots of dead people (the kid from the Sixth Sense’s head would have probably exploded if he had lived in Savannah. Which is kind of funny since Haley Joe Osment was the little kid in Forrest Gump and he lived in Savannah. Weird…)

Anyway, so due to building over old cemeteries with urban sprawl and some rampant pandemics of yellow fever, a lot of today’s Savannah is built on stacks of dead people. Then there were the scores of poor souls that never made it into the city from Fort Jackson, the gateway into America, thanks to a red light district that was actually a front for a SAWS-like Thunderdome of mutilation that even turned sick people into chum for fishing boats (insert obsolete HMO joke here). I know all of this thanks to the AWESOME ghost tour we went on the first night. Yes, we rode in hearses and no, we didn’t see any ghosts, put others did!

2. I Flippin’ Love Zumba!

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DubyaWife and me about to party like it’s 1985.

You all know how much I love to try new workouts! Well, I finally got to do one that I’ve wanted to do for a long time: ZUMBA! One of the sessions this year was a Zumba class with an 80’s flare! There were fluorescent legwarmers and side ponytails (along with Monica from Run Bang Run‘s AWESOME Jaws shirt) as far as the eye could see. I really didn’t know what to expect, but I did expect that I would be very uncoordinated and fall down numerous times. I surprised myself and made it through the whole class without completely embarrassing myself :). The energy in the class was amazing and the sweat was abundant. It felt nice to do a class and just work out and not care about how ridiculous I (most likely) looked. While I love working out at FSU, it really is weird being the only guy (and an older and awkwardly shaped guy at that) in a class of pretty fit folks. I tend to get pretty uncomfortable so it was awesome to just let loose and shake it like a salt shaker!

From that class, which was awesomely taught by Simplifying Sam, Mrs. Fatass and a few other instructors, I realized that I really want to get certified and teach something, whether it be Zumba, Tabata, spinning, or really anything. I want to motivate people and burn some calories while doing it! I think I would do really well with people who are just starting on their journey too!

3. The Number on the Scale Isn’t Everything, but Living Your Life is

One of my favorite sessions was about what is like after you reach your goal weight, which was led by my buddy Kelly, but it also had some weight loss rock stars like THE Roni Noone and Sarah, who has lost 200 pounds! The session quickly turned into a call for a paradigm shift on how we view the “after” stage of weight loss. Sure, there is a honeymoon stage, but life doesn’t end there. It’s as if you take on a new identity. Thinking about it now, I definitely feel like I already have a new identity from the life I used to have. I used to be the person that was going to die early and was close to becoming immobile and now I’m the active half marathoner who has shed more than 100 pounds off of his body. With that being said, I am ready to reach my goal of getting to a healthy weight. Which means I’m not chained to the scale like it’s the Biggest Loser or something like that. The true end goal is to be healthy. And I’m absolutely on the right track.

4. Bloggers Are Even Cooler In Real Life

Seriously, can we all run together all the time now?

Seriously, can we all run together all the time now?

I have to admit that I do tend to have some issues with hero worship which can sometimes lead to becoming very disappointed after meeting said hero. Like the time I met the bands Relient K and OC Supertones.

Both bands were kind of jerks. And it made me sad.

So really, I didn’t know how Fitbloggin’ was going to go in that regard. We all have our online personas that sometimes contradict our real selfs. Well, that wasn’t the case at all! I know that sounds kind of weird, but what I’m saying is that I met some of the most genuine, sweet, and awesome people who are dealing with the same issues I am dealing with. Really, my favorite part of the whole conference was running a 5k through Savannah with some awesome people! Like Zumba, it was fun to just let loose and be silly and not have anyone judge how good or bad you are doing. Especially when you decide to yell “WE’RE FAMOUS ON THE INTERNET!!!” at innocent bystanders and they don’t think you’re a jerk, just an awesome weirdo like the rest of them!

and finally…

5. Some of the Best Takeaways Happen After You Leave Fitbloggin’

As we were driving back to Tallahassee from Savannah, I was mentally gleaning through the weekend and trying to pinpoint the definitive takeaways. I left unsure about how I truly felt about my weight loss progress. A while back, I made the declaration to lose 75 pounds by next June, and I was trying to decide whether or not that was a good idea. In one of the sessions, DubyaWife talked about how she needed a goal in order to get laser focused with her weight loss and that definitely resonated with me. Like her, I need that attainable goal to use as a framework for my actions.

When it came time to dinner, we threw dietary caution into the wind and went to Cracker Barrel. All I wanted was a giant plate of chicken n’ dumplings, macaroni n’ cheese, mashed potatoes with gravy, and green beans. Almost immediately after I ordered, I panicked. “WHAT DID I JUST DO???” I thought. “I’M COMPLETELY UNDOING EVERYTHING I’VE LEARNED THIS WEEKEND!!!” Like I was in some weird time vortex, I could forsee the consequences of my actions: overeating, feeling sick, getting angry. Then the food came and I ate. But halfway through my meal, I was full. Usually, I just suck it up and keep eating. But this time was different. I told my body that I was done. It was like the fork in my hand had some electromagnetic connection to the rest of the food, but I resisted. It physically hurt to not eat the rest of my food. Finally, the server walked by and I told her that I was done. And then I sat there and started to tear up. This was the first time I have stood up to food in years and it has set the tone for the rest of my week and really my life. I feel like that I will look back at the time I stood up to food at a Cracker Barrel in Jacksonville, Florida as a pivotal moment in my weight loss journey. That it was the moment where the finish line to this race was finally in sight. That is, and will always will be, the biggest takeaway from Fitbloggin’ 2014.

Getting Real About the Scale and Vacations

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Why hello!

So after a weekend full of ridiculously delicious food, I could feel my body say “okay kid, you’ve had your fun. Now it’s time to get back to business.” I haven’t checked the scale since Saturday morning, but I now that I am back on track so there’s no real reason to. It’s really really really easy to treat the scale like some life raft that I hold on to for some sort of validity instead of being a compass that is guiding me in the right direction.

The issue is that I won’t be able to do official weigh ins for the next few weekends because of fitbloggin and various vacations in July so I won’t have that pressure to be good (which is a bad way to look at it, I know). I guess I wouldn’t feel so clingy to the scale if I wasn’t still in the 250’s. Frankly, I am terrified of getting about 257. If I got above that, I would be out of the Century Club.
Scumbag-WeightWhile my weight has fluctuated a bit over the past year, I can still say that I have lost 100 pounds. I’ve been able to say since August 14th, 2011 and I’m incredibly proud of that. I know that if I slip up when I’m on vacation and things like that, my weight could go crazy. So I’m going to have to challenge myself to be as strict as possible. I know it’s possible to lose weight on vacation because I’ve actually done it multiple times. It’s really easy to get caught up in the joys of pigging out on your hometown foods, but I know that I have an ultimate goal laid out to lost 75 pounds by next June. I can’t afford to spend time undoing what I gained on a vacation. I have a lot of weight to undo already! The other thing is that I’ve been making some killer strides in my eating and how I look at food so I don’t want to undo that progress as well.

So that’s kind of where I am mentally right now. I had full intention of doing a post full of food from my day, but sometimes I need just need to get some thoughts on to paper…er…screen. See ya tomorrow.