Why You Shouldn’t be Afraid of Success.

Tonight, I’m reflecting on a few other things I’ve realized after 1,000 days in to this crazy weight loss adventure. I’ll have more tomorrow night too! Enjoy.
Also, a quick shout out to the NSA agent reading this while tapping in to my data. Read as much as you want. I could use the views :).
Don’t be afraid of success.

For most of my life, I have been afraid of success. I used to be scared to get out of my comfort zone. When I did, I would freak out one way or another. A lot of the times, I would do and say crazy things (like yelling/singing the Disney song “A Whole New World” to a group of girls I didn’t really know. One of which I ended up marrying…) to hide away the fact that I was incredibly insecure in my own skin. If people were laughing with me, they weren’t laughing at me, right? But with that came the inevitable backhanded comment: “You know, you sure don’t act like you are fat. You are fun and comfortable in your own skin!”

Ouch.
I tried to not let that comment affect me, but people have said it to me way too many times in my life not for it to hurt a little. I felt that the only success I could achieve was under the provision that I was successful…for a fat guy. That didn’t sit well with me.
For most of my life, I was an average student. In fact, I had a teacher in high school that told me that I was a B student and I always would be.
Well she was wrong…I did worse than that in college.
Sure I did decent in my majors classes, but I slacked off in everything else. (Why did I have to take Geology? More important, WHY WAS GEOLOGY ONE OF THE HARDEST CLASSES I EVER TOOK???) In my hard classes, I strived to just pass because that’s what I expected of myself. At that point, grad school sounded like a great experience (the idea of just learning about social media, PR and marketing sounded amazing) but it was a pipe dream.
I left ACU with a crappy GPA. I knew I could have done better, but I was scared of succeeding. I was scared to put it all out there, to really study and actually act like I cared. What if I had put it all out there and I failed? What would be the point? I wish I could go back to that younger me and say “So what if you fail? You at least gave it your all!” (Then I would probably say “Oh yeah, you’re going to lose 130 pounds one day” to which Younger Nathan would have laughed and then ate a whole bag of Skittles in one gulp (yes, I have done that before.))
So when Megan got in to Florida State University, my dream school ever since I was in 7th grade, I was incredibly excited for her. One day when I was looking for a job in Tallahassee when we were still living in Abilene, she said “I think you should apply for grad school at Florida State.” At this point, I had been on their website 1,000 times, wishing and dreaming for the chance to apply. I knew I was a long shot, but I was going to give it my best.
Then, I took the GRE. I didn’t do well…at all. My dream was slipping away.
Fast forward to July 2010. We were sitting a Starbucks (since we didn’t have cable for our new place yet) and I got an email from FSU.
I didn’t get in, but they invited me to apply as a non-degree seeking student and to take two classes to prove my way in to the program.
“Maybe this isn’t for me,” I thought.
So I took two classes that first semester: Hispanic Marketing and an entry level stats class. I was scared of the unknown. How was I going to do in these classes? I finally said to myself “give it your best shot. Don’t worry about if you fail. What if you succeed?” So I did the work.
Not only did I pass both classes, I was even offered an assistantship for the following semester.
Three years later, I now work for my dream school and I will be starting an amazing new position within the university next week. This all began with me putting it out there and not being afraid of falling flat on my face. It was that step of confidence that lead to me taking an even bigger step months later: my weight loss journey.
Be bold. Give it your all. Don’t be afraid of success.
See ya tomorrow.

Day 935: Welcome to Weigh-In Day!

I’M ALIVE!!!!!!!!

My awful bronchopneumonia (yeah…that’s what I had) has finally subsided and I feel sooooo much better. Hooray for NyQuil and antibiotics!

So I didn’t really post my weigh in last week pseudo-unintentionally. Frankly, I wasn’t sure if it was going to “take”. You see, when I REALLY sick, I tend to drop weight pretty quickly (like the time I lost 9 pounds in 24 hours from the Great Flu Fiasco of 2011). I thought this was the same case. I was down to 226.6, which is was my lowest recorded weight. I had FINALLY gotten past the 227 threshold that I’ve been flirting with since this time last year, and I figured I would just go back to where I was.

Well…that wasn’t the case!!!

I stuck well within my points last week and I drank water like it was going out of style! I really didn’t exercise much since I was sick, but I did randomly run a 5k on Saturday which was awesometastic as well! Anyway, with all of that I got on the scale this morning and I did a double take I weigh 224.6 freakin’ pounds! I lost 2 pounds this week!!!! I cannot describe how much better I feel! I was wondering if I was ever going to get through that 227 barrier that really has been haunting me. (Oh yeah…I’ve lost 132.4 pounds since September 2010. WHAT UP!!!!!)

Today, I started to evaluate my weight loss journey so far and how things are going. Like a lot of people, after I broke through the 100-pound milestone, my weight loss start to slow down quite a bit. I thought I had hit a plateau (which was half true) but the other part of it was that I got complacent with the whole journey. I started to let some things slide. An extra piece of dessert here and there, that kind of stuff. The biggest thing was I kind of just stopped counting points for a long time. It was just getting strenuous. All I knew is that I wasn’t going to backtrack back to 357, but what happened instead was I just got stuck: first in the 240’s and then in the 230’s, which is where I have been for about a year now. I was dieting but not dieting. I wasn’t fully committed. Now, I’m back at it. I realized that if I wanted to see results, I have to be a lot more stringent than I ever have. I’m not depriving myself, I’m just actually tracking and being sensible (that’s why there’s weekly points.) Sure counting and configuring points does take some work, but when you just think of it in the context of just another step in your food prep, it makes it easier. So to summarize, I’m back, baby! And it feels great. Thank you all for being so awesome. Your support means much more than you ever know. Thanks for being awesome.

Now, in lieu of photos of food and things, here’s a Vine of me making delicious Healthy Cookies from Skinnytaste.

Enjoy!

 Click Here To Watch Me Make All The Delicious Things

See ya tomorrow.

Day 857: Back Blogging

Why Hello!

It’s been such a long time!

Here’s what’s been going on with me:

Haircut.

Eating.

Spinning.

Racquetballing.

Running

And most importantly…

Being awesome.

While I have been eating a good amount of food, I have been exercising like crazy all this week. I have burned a total of 2,972 calories this week (according to my HRM) which has felt awesome. Now it’s time to get combine the Skinny Rules with torching more than 3,000 calories a week to seriously peel off some weight. Like I said a few posts ago, I’m reading for my clothes not to fit anymore! I want to have my pants fall off! (I know what I said…) It’s time for a new outfit and a new me! Time to get crackin’!

(Anyone watching Biggest Loser right now? Did you see Joe doing bleachers at Doak? I really need to meet this guy!)
(Also, did you notice how many times Jillian dropped the F bomb at Jeff? That was intense. Don’t piss off the Jillian.)

Anyway, so I’ve had my splurging fun, but now I’m ready to get buckle down for the next two week BECAUSE I’M RUNNING THE FREAKIN’ TALLAHASSEE HALF MARATHON THE SUNDAY AFTER NEXT!!!!! It still hasn’t really set in that that’s actually going to happen on Sunday February 3rd! (Come cheer Erin, Megan and me on! It starts at FSU and ends at FSU. If you want more details let me know!) I’ve been training so much for it that’s it’s like I’ve forgotten that it’s for a race! So that’s all the more reason to drop some weight this week and next week, to have less of a stress on my body. Every little counts.

So let’s talk about food shall we?

Breakfast: Egg breakfast sandwich. YERM!!!!!!
Photo Jan 21, 1 15 31 PMPhoto Jan 21, 1 47 47 PMLunch: For lunch, we went over to our friend Julie’s apartment for some chicken n’ dumpling awesomeness! Our friends Tony and Tara brought some delicious acre peas and these cupcakes made with applesauce instead of oil. Hooray for healthy swaps! Overall, it was a pretty fantastic meal with even more fantastic friends!

 

 

 

 
Photo Jan 21, 8 38 01 PMDinner: I grilled some salmon with some grilled zucchini. There are no photos of the zukes because they are better right off the grill. Have I mentioned we love salmon?

So that’s all I got for tonight.

 

Couple things:

Updated my Runs I’ve Done page so check that out!

Also, read the reblogged post from earlier today. It is one of the best weight loss posts I’ve ever read. It truly hit home for me.

Weigh in Tuesday. Stoked to see how it goes.

See ya tomorrow.

ONE MORE THING! Facebook has unliked some of my FFK Facebook Page likes. Be sure you are up to date with all things FFK by Liking the FFK FB Page right now! Okay…that is all.

Day 843: More Biggest Loser and Skinny Rules!

So Biggest Loser is over on the East Coast and the BCS game might as well be over so it’s time for some FFK awesomeness!

Also, I have no clue how people on the West Coast deal with not having a show spoiled by being three hours behind. Do you guys just stay off Facebook and Twitter during the 5-8 pm PST hours? Can’t wait to have that problem one day because that will mean that I will be living on the Best Coast. Worth it.

In other news, tonight they showed Biggest Loser contestant Joe Ostaszewski working out in the weight room inside of Doak Campbell at Florida State! Then I found this article by the Tallahassee Democrat from December about how he was going to be on the BL and how he was a lineman for the Noles from 1988-1991. I’m really hoping that he will go pretty far because when Antone Davis was a finalist, he went back to the University of Tennessee, where he played college fooball, and they had a huge thing for him. That would be awesome if they did that at FSU. Either way, I’m going to try to meet him at some point. I know I sound like a Biggest Loser-crazed loon right now, but it’s such an inspiring show to me. Always has been. I remember watching it when I was newly married and eating a fast food cheeseburger thinking “shoot, I would beat them all” then I probably started wheezing because I used to eat so much so quickly that I would lose my breath. However, there were other plans for me. I took a different path to weight loss awesomeness and I have never looked back.

Oh yeah…and Bob Harper replied to one of my tweets tonight. Consider myself swooned.

Alright, let’s talk food!

Breakfast: 1/2 cup of oatmeal with a pinch of brown sugar (an actual little pinch, not a grab) and a 1/2 cup of nonfat greek yogurt with blackberries. This was definitely a “stick to your ribs” kind of breakfast, but not the “stick to your ribs” kind that sticks to your internal organs and kills you. What I’m trying to say is that it’s super filling.

Snack: A string cheese and an apple. The best snack for the 11:00 am hour.

Photo Jan 07, 1 01 40 PMLunch: So for lunch we made what I’m affectionately calling “Bob’s Dump Soup” since it doesn’t have an actual name (even though it’s a recipe in Skinny Rules.) All it was was chicken broth, a bag of frozen gumbo mix veggies (Publix brand), a can of cannellini beans and a can of chickpeas. All it was missing was the pasta and it could have been the minestrone from Olive Garden. I added some red pepper flakes and crushed red peppers for a little more flavor. It was incredibly filling for only being something like 100 calories for a cup! Then I just had a piece of bread for dipping and a pineapple spear for dessert!

 

 

 

 

 
Photo Jan 07, 3 55 46 PMSnack: I had a banana with a tablespoon of peanut butter. I didn’t have a decent container for the pb so I put it in a ziploc which was pretty weird. I cut the corner with my scissors and spread the pb on the banana like I was frosting a cake. Props to my friend Melanie for giving me that idea a looooong time ago. She said that’s what she does with her hummus so it made sense for pb too!

 

 

 

 

 

 
Photo Jan 07, 8 03 23 PMDinner: At this point, I hadn’t really eaten a ton of calories but I wasn’t starving at all during the day. Pretty awesome feeling. It’s nice because when you eat an afternoon snack, you don’t come home hungry and crazy. You can actually relax for a while and then think about dinner. Anyway, tonight I grilled some salmon and some squash. I brushed a little olive oil on both (I used a total of three cap fulls for three sliced up squash and three large salmon steaks) and put the salmon on some aluminum foil in the grill. I was absolutely thrilled with how it turned out. (Another reason to move to the Best Coast: I LOVE salmon. Especially the good stuff from Alaska.)

 

 

 

 

So as you can see, I did pretty well!

Okay…LAST FIVE SKINNY RULES!!!!

Rule 16: Banish High Salt Foods
I’m not really a fan of adding salt to food anyways so this isn’t a huge issue. What is an issue is how much sodium is in most foods. That’s why it’s important to read your labels!

Rule 17: Eat Your Vegetables-Just Do It!
Well…you heard the guy.

Rule 18: Go To Bed Hungry
We usually eat dinner around 6 or 7 so since that is the last thing you eat, it’s easy to go to bed hungry. I’ve always been bad about late night snacking, but I’ve just been keeping myself accountable not to snack after dinner. Even if that means not going back in to the kitchen for the rest of the night. Does that sound crazy? Probably. Awe well, it works.

Rule 19: Sleep Right
Trying to get in to that habit so let’s wrap this up so I can go to bed…

and finally…

Rule 20: Plan One Splurge Meal A Week
We did our splurge meal on Saturday at lunch which kind of turned in to a splurge day, but like I said yesterday, we weren’t crazy or anything. I am going to have to pick my splurging carefully this week because my birthday is on Sunday and I don’t want to overdo it and put me back a few steps. Food isn’t worth it to me anymore.

So that’s the whole list. What do you think?

See ya tomorrow.