Tag Archives: The Biggest Loser

Day 867: #FFKPLANKADAY YO!

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So much to talk about!

First of all, I went to an amazing presentation on social media by Inside Higher Ed writer Eric Stoller tonight. Mind. Blown. Check him out.

So at this point, between that, other crazy social media things I have been working for work and for the FFK if you will, I am about to reach cerebral critical mass.

AND I’M RUNNING A HALF MARATHON IN A FEW DAYS!!!!! MY MIND IS GOING BIZONKERS!!!!!!!

In lieu of talking about my food, here is a photo of me eating a sandwich.
SamwitchOkay… #FFKPLANKADAY TIME!!!!!

I have to start off by saying this is not my original idea. I know plenty of bloggers who put on PlankaDay challenges, but I thought it was time to bring it to the FFK community!

Here are the basics:

What is PlankaDay? 

Every day in the month of February, you are challenged to hold a plank position for as long as you can. Your first one might not be a great time, but it’s your starting point. Your launching pad to greatness if you will. Each day, you’ll begin to see progress as you get stronger. Did I mention that a plank is amazing for your body? It works almost all of the major muscle areas! (Search for a video on YouTube if you need instructions on how to do it.)

Since I am a social being, I want people to post their times, their feelings, their success and their issues. I’ll be posting photos and Tweets and posts about it all through out the month using the hashtag #FFKPLANKADAY AND YOU SHOULD TOO! I’ll be collecting the creative posts and putting them in my Wordless Wednesday posts!

HOW TO JOIN:
Go to the event page (https://www.facebook.com/events/593172934031314/)
Attend said events page
Get planking!
It’s as simple as that!

Any questions? Comment below. GET STOKED! See ya tomorrow!
planking hurts so good

 

Day 865: What A Weigh In Day Edition

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What a crazy day.

Today has been a whirlwind of social media insanity for this kid (this Fotographing Fat Kid that is…)

It all started this morning when I put out a possible weigh in spoiler alert on my Facebook page if I received 8 more Likes.

Well…those 8 turned in to more than 150 over the course of the day. Thanks to the super awesome Michelle and her FB page “Leaving Obesity Behind”. She posted my little challenge on her page for all her 12,417 likes to see. (It’s good to have friends.) I just want to give a shout out to her. Her and I share a special over a special number: 357. Her and I both started our weight loss journeys at that ridiculous number. Awesomely enough, we both have the same goal weight too! What are the odds? Anyway, thanks Michelle for being awesome and thanks for all of the new likes everyone. Welcome my the craziness.

Okay, moving on. So like I said on my FB page this morning, I lost 2.8 pounds this week! I’m down to 227.6 pounds which is crazy! I’m so stoked to break through that 227 barrier and I’m ready for that to be my next weigh in! AAAAHHHHHH CAN’T WAIT!

So let’s get to the whole food tracking thing!

Breakfast: This morning, I started out with an Ezekiel English Muffin with 2 tablespoons of sunflower seed butter. Yes, it’s the sunflower seed version of peanut butter. We saw it at Earth Fare the other day and thought “why not?” It was delicious and ridiculously filling. I really want to try it in oatmeal. Yumtastic.

Snack: I didn’t have time to eat my snack before my class since I was at a FSU social media meeting (a lot of social media on my plate today) so I stopped by Starbucks and had an iced coffee with non-fat milk.


Lunch: I had some leftover chicken breast with some brown rice followed by a banana and some peanut butter. Lunch of champions.

Dinner: I made some tuna salad with two small cans of tuna and a dolip of lite mayo. It was good, but not enough. Megan made some whole-wheat noodles with a little olive oil and veggies so I nommed on some of that.

So that’s it for today! Tomorrow is Wordless Wednesday! Hooray!

Photo Jan 29, 4 10 17 PM
In lieu of decent photos of food, here is a shot of where I work. I love FSU. See ya tomorrow.

 

Day 864: Monday Yo

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After watching an emotional episode of The Biggest Loser, I’m now watching a show about Walt Disney World. I’m so flippin’ ready to go back.

Hello my lovelies!

I know it’s been a while since I have posted, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love you and it doesn’t mean that I haven’t been keeping up my exercise and eating. (I fully recognize that was a quadruple-negative sentence. Dr. Mann, my Basic Writing professor would have hated that sentence….awe well.) Anyway, I have been pretty busy with just random things, but I am back and better than ever!

Let’s see…what’s going on this week…OH YEAH! This week, I’m running a flippin’ half marathon!!!!!! I still can’t believe this is happening!!!! Instead of doing massive runs this week, I’m taking it easy with a few short runs and a walk the day before. I’m not even playing racquetball this week which is saying something. At this point, it’s all I can think about (I’m kind of obsessed.) I can’t wait to see how I do and just to see my months and months of training pay off.

WANT TO SEE THE FFK IN ACTION? That’s easy! (That is if you live on the Florida Panhandle…) If you want to come out and support Erin, Megan and me during this race, go to http://www.tallahasseemarathon.com/ to find out more! What I can tell you is that the race begins at 7:30 a.m. on Sunday at Dick Howser baseball field at FSU and ends on the Mike Long track at FSU. I’m shooting to be done by 9:45 (so shooting for a 2:15 race time). Feel free to stop by and say hi or just look for a bunch of runners south of FSU and cheer us on!

So let’s talk food!

Breakfast: I ate a sliced hardboiled egg on Ezekiel Bread toast.

Snack: I had a packet of Justin’s Peanut Butter and a banana. Aka: the combination from Heaven.

Lunch: I had leftover chili (oh yeah…I had chili for dinner.)

Snack: I ate some Greek yogurt with mixed berries. Holy crap, it was delicious!

Dinner: We made a massive Cobb Salad with chicken grilled on the ol’ George Foreman (which is not a novelty grill, regardless of what Hank Hill says), sliced up egg, romaine hearts, spring mix, cucumbers, dressing, tomatoes, and a little cheese. Massive salads are the jam!

So that wraps that up. Pretty awesome day!

Tomorrow is another weigh in. While I’m hoping to just be in the 220’s this week, I’m SOOOOOO READY to break through the 227 mark that I have gotten to, but can’t get passed. I know it’s coming, but I just need to be patient and be better. Here goes nothing. See ya tomorrow.

Day 850: First Day of Being 26

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Fact: 850 is my area code. Random.

I’m so stoked for Day 1,000!

So today was the first full day of being 26. So far, so good!

Let’s do a quick break down the day shall we?

Breakfast: A cup of oatmeal AND (yes…and) a 1/2 cup of greek yogurt with blackberries.

Snack: I had an apple and an ounce of white sharp cheddar cheese. So filling!

Lunch: I had leftover chili from last night and 1/2 cup of instant brown rice. Epic meal indeed.

Snack: I had a banana and a tablespoon of peanut butter. It was scrumtralescent.

Dinner: I made an FFK classic: Monterey Cheddar Turkey Burgers. We ate them without the bun and with Brussels Sprouts. It was sooooo good! I forgot how amazing those burgers were!

I know this is a short post, but I have a couple things I need to do tonight. Tomorrow is weigh in day! I’m not sure if my body has completely recovered from the combination of my birthday weekend and running a half marathon, but either way I’m keeping strong with the Skinny Rules and that will mean next week will just be even better! See ya tomorrow.

[ONE MORE THING]

Have you been watching The Biggest Loser this year? What do you think so far?

Day 844: First Weigh In On Skinny Rules!

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Timon and Pumbaa make eating insects sound so appealing. Or is that just me?

Hello everybody!

So today, it was time to get on the scale and see if my hard work had paid off. By that I don’t mean “I hope this hippy-dippy eating is worth it” but more of “I pushed it hard on the bike and one my runs. I’ve torched my share of calories this week.” Well boys and girls, my hard work paid off! I lost 6 pounds this week! So I am down to 230.2 pounds and have lost a total of 126.8 pounds. I am 52 pounds away from my 2013 goal. Things are going awesome so far! Like I said last night, my birthday is this week so I’m going to do what I can to stay on track because this hard work is totally worth it. Time to keep on keepin’ on!

Breakfast: I had a hard-boiled egg, a handful of strawberries and a piece of toast.

Snack: An apple and string cheese.

Photo Jan 08, 11 32 20 AMAn Oops Moment: So Jimmy John’s brought a sleigh of delicious mini (like a quarter-sized) sandwiches. I accidentally grabbed a Turkey Tom without thinking about it. I ate it in all of its white flower glory and I moved on. It is what it is and I am totally okay with it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Photo Jan 08, 1 59 16 PMLunch: After my class (which is going to be awesome) I had leftover chili with brown rice. It was even better as leftovers like all good chili batches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snack: A banana and some peanut butter from a bag. That I found on the ground.

SAWS: Did a 5k run out at Southwood. It was a rough run, but my time was still decent. I’ll take it. I’m running a crapton on Saturday so that should be interesting.

Photo Jan 08, 8 22 24 PMDinner: I had some delicious leftover salmon and peas. YUUUUUUUUMMMMM!!!!

That’s all I got for tonight. Take it easy yo! See ya tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

Day 843: More Biggest Loser and Skinny Rules!

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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.

Day 842: Biggest Loser and Stuff

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We’re watching Biggest Loser instead of Downton Abbey tonight and we don’t have DVR. We are dedicated.

So Skinny Rules are still going strong. Yesterday we had our first splurge meal which really turned in to a splurge day. We went to Momo’s and we shared a medium pizza (I had about four slices of pizza) which was really my real splurge other than “splurging” by having a Subway sandwich for dinner. (CARBS FOR DINNER???? AHHHH!) So really my splurge day would just be another day before Skinny Rules.

Today I was back to my new normal and it felt great. Clean eating just makes me feel better, so much lighter. I feel like it has cut out the calories that were just waste in my diet. I wasn’t counting those extra handfuls of chips or that extra plop of peanut butter which kept me from losing the weight. It’s those extras that you see on the scale. Can’t wait to see what the scale will say on Tuesday! Either way, I’m going in the right direction for me!

Breakfast: I had a sprout grains English Muffin with a tablespoon of peanut butter and of course a cup of water when I woke up and a cup of water before breakfast.

Snack: Like I was a toddler, I had my own little snack while sitting in church. Instead of Cheerios in a ziploc, I had a cut up apple and a stick of string cheese. It was perfect, because after church you go in to “I’M SO STARVING! LET’S EAT OUT RIGHT NOW! I’M SO HUNGRY I COULD EAT THE LINT IN MY BELLY BUTTON” (Don’t worry, it never came to that.) But what usually happens is we go eat out and not always at the healthiest place. Since I had had a snack, I was thinking clearly and we made lunch instead of undoing anything.

Photo Jan 06, 1 26 00 PMLunch: Megan made a small batch of chili. It was glorious and I didn’t overeat which was even more glorious.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo Jan 06, 5 02 31 PMSnack: During the Seahawks game (BEAST MODE!!!!) I made a protein plate of deliciousness. Now, I’m notorious for hating hard boiled eggs by themselves. The smell drives me nuts (just ask Megan or our friend Julie who eats them in our car sometimes.) But they have slowly grown on me. I’m starting to really like them sliced with a little cheese on my apple that I use as a cracker. Pretty delicious looking plate huh?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo Jan 06, 7 27 36 PMSAWS: Also during the game, I did 40 SAWStastic minutes on the bike. I would speed up during certain plays. I was really pushing it when Marshawn Lynch was beasting out those runs. I heart the bike.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Photo Jan 06, 7 54 05 PMDinner: Megan made a tofu stir fry. It was the first time she had ever cooked with tofu and she rocked it! Deliciousness.

So that’s it for tonight. I’ll talk about the rest of the Skinny Rules tomorrow night. For now, watching the Biggest Loser weigh in. Fun stuff. See ya tomorrow.

Day 839: Thursday and Rules and Stuff!

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Why hello!

I didn’t post last night because Megan and I were having an in-home date night. Sometimes cuddling with your wife while watching Fellowship of the Rings and eating kale chips is more important than blogging :).

So let’s get to it!

Here are Skinny Rules 11-15

Rule 11: Get Rid of Those White Potatoes

I heart potatoes. Sooooooooo much. I thought this was going to be an issue, but it hasn’t been yet! Plus I love sweet potatoes and there’s always purple fingerling potatoes which are awesome too!

Rule 12: Make One Day a Week Meatless

We’ve been trying to do that for a while and sometimes it just ends up happening.

Rule 13: Get Rid of Fast Foods and Eat at Fried Foods

Fried food has been an issue in the past. Sometimes it’s just easier to get something “healthy” from Wendy’s. It’s probably my biggest trigger food. With that being said, when I first started Weight Watchers, if it was fried brown, I would not eat it down. I’m just getting back in to that mindset. That’s been the biggest deal with these rules. I would have handled them fine when I first started losing weight 120-some pounds ago. There’s no reason why I can’t do them now!

Rule 14: Eat a Real Breakfast

I also heart breakfast. A lot. I love an excuse to eat breakfast. I’ll take it.

Rule 15: Make Your Own Food and Eat at Least Ten Meals a Week at Home 

This has been pretty awesome. We haven’t eaten out at all since we started which is pretty crazy. We love to eat out and it’s so easy when school is going on. This is going to be a challenge when school starts back up because there is a lot of prep for these rules. We’ll probably do a lot of it on Sunday afternoons so we’re ready for the week!

So that’s about it for tonight. What do you think about these rules so far? Doable or just straight-up cray? 

I know it’s a short post. More on Friday. See ya tomorrow.