Night Before Weigh-In And All Is Quiet

Today I had a TON of school work to catch up on. I let myself slide a little on that too and that is a dangerous thing to let happen. The end of the semester is fast approaching and I am not looking forward to exam week. These classes have made me start to question my field of study choice so I think I'm going to take a day off in the near future and go in to get counselling. It's funny because the class that I thought I would be having issues in ends up being the one I'm acing and the one that I thought I would ace ends up being the problem class. Ah well, all I can do is hunker down and get ready for it the best I can.

One thing that shocked me into action today is one of my friends at work who is younger than me was out of work all last week. With me being gone Thursday and Friday last week, I thought nothing of it. Well, when I came in today, he told me he was in the hospital having 2 stints put in his heart. I thought he was joking at first and kind of laughed but then I realized he wasn't laughing. This dude is about the closest to my situation as you can get. He has been over weight all of his life and went on a fad diet and lost a ton of weight only to see it jump back on him. It's the same guy I was commenting on walking with to the store the other day and him about wearing me out. I couldn't believe it. Here's this dude struggling with weight just like me and just out of the blue he gets admitted and stints put in. I don't know what to say but I got to get moving! Scary thing is that some of the symptoms that he was describing that drove him to go to the doctor, I have felt in the very near past. It's shocking to see someone so young going through something like that. If you would of lined up 100 people and told me to pick out the one with heart problems, he would have been the last one I chose. I'm beginning to think someone is trying to tell me something.

Anyway, I heard today that nothing drives people to church like the devil nipping at their heals and I think I can relate that to my weight loss journey because that's all it took for me. I did a walk at work and came home and headed straight out and walked the green way with the Ms. I could really tell the difference those 2 weeks set me back. My back wasn't the issue this time thanks to the "Amazing Brace", how sweet the sound =P. This time its my legs and knees. I powered on through it and got my 30 minutes in but it was not as easy as it was 2 weeks ago.

So tomorrow is the big Weigh In day and I get to see what damage was done on my 2 week absence. I don't really think it will be too bad, but you never know. If the scale gods are bad to me tomorrow, I know what I did wrong and I have already taken steps to correct it. If they are good to me tomorrow, well it will motivate me even more to get my big butt out there and move.

Also I missed my morning walk that I was supposed to do at 5 am this morning. I am not a morning person and not getting to bed at a decent time costs me sleep and that is a recipe for disaster for me. I say that and l;looking at the clock it's already 11:05 pm. WOW... I better be signing off.

Stats for today:  9584 steps, 4.52 miles, and 7 flights of stairs.

And as I leave yall with that, again I want to thank yall for yall's support and keeping me on my toes. It really means the world to me.

Yall Be Great!

What Happened To Fatman?

So it's been a while since I posted an entry here. I'm truly sorry about that. I want to say though that it humbles me the amount of people that sent me messages asking where I was. You guys are great! I can't say I was totally 100% in compliance during my absence but it's no where near as bad as it could have been. During this time I found out I have people watching me and I can thank you all for getting me back on track. One good thing I can take from this time away is that I STILL have not had a soda. Not a sip! My downfall though was bread. I did have my fair share of the white devil but I see what it does to me know and it ends tonight.

Also during this time off, I fell back into my rut with gaming. I can see what a damaging effect it has had on my life in the past 12 days. I honestly consider myself a gaming addict. I have to find a way to pull myself off of this computer and get things done. I will be working on this in the coming days. The only way I think I can do this is to put myself on a strict schedule and stick to it. There is so much other stuff that I need and want to do but I have no time for because of my addiction. If I schedule in my time and stick to it, hopefully that will limit these disappearances. I am hoping to start with a walk at 5 am in the morning and possibly add in dumbbell training in the evening after work.

I also fell off on my walking during my absence. Funny thing is I got the back brace to help me and that's when I pretty much threw in the towel. That back brace, by the way, is EXACTLY what I needed. When I did walk with it, my back did not kick in until I was almost finished with 30 minutes of walking. It is amazing! Now I cant wait to start back up and get this done so I don't have to wear it to walk.

I haven't weighed myself since last Tuesday but as of Tuesday I was down another 2 lbs. I'm sure that will go up on the next weigh in this Tuesday, but like I said, I know what I need to do and I plan on doing it!

I'll keep it short tonight, but just know I'm back and will be trolling Yall's posts again real soon. Thank you again for calling me out FogDog, Scott and Mrs. FatMan. I don't know what I would do without you! You guys ROCK!

Now enough of this chatter and let's get this done! Yall be GREAT!!

Day #15: Holy Pitfalls FatMan!

So I haven't been blogging in a few days. I am happy to report that I haven't deviated too much from the path in these few days. I am slammed with school and work and I also jumped back into a game that hooked me for 2 years of my life. I have also developed a back issue that shows itself everyday I walk around 10 minutes in. If you didn't know, I had a pretty serious accident about 14 years ago and now am the proud owner of 6 inches of high grade titanium lining a portion of my spine. No excuses though. That's the focus of today. So I have ordered myself a back brace and I am excited at the possibilities of having a walk without back pain.

I'm going to make this short tonight as I just finished a pretty intensive test and assignment for school and I'm getting ready to chill. I will write more tomorrow because it's weigh in day...YAY! Just know that while I didn't hit the trail like I should have, I was still doing stuff in the yard and such cause its that time of year...DOUBLE YAY!! At the last weigh in on Saturday, I came in at 364 is a little over 15 lbs. Then Easter happened and yeah..we'll see. I didn't over do it and I STILL have not had a soda so we shall see what the weight gods have in store tomorrow =).

Today, I hit the wife on a new trail and did pretty well. I kept up almost there and back but gave out the second half. One of these days, I'm gonna race by her, so watch your back Ang! I saw person after person walk around me and speed off and I got to thinking, they must think I'm stupid being out here huffin and heavin but you know what, that walk was probably 300 tines the distance I used to walk not even a month ago so they can watch their backs too, cause I'm comin!

Stats for today, 8409 steps, 3.97 miles, 8 floors and I'm just finishing up my 80th oz of water. Not a bad day to kick it back off. We'll see what tomorrow brings! BRING IT!

Motivation for today is like I said, no excuses. So I found a perfect example of this. His name is Bob Wieland.

This dude right here...WOW! Mr Wieland was a Vietnam soldier that got both of his legs blown off from a mortar mine. That didn't stop this dude. His list of accomplishments are mind numbing. This dude finished the  1986 NY Marathon, not in a wheel chair, this dude walked the whole thing on his hands! He has since gone on to compete and finish many marathons all on his hands. He also walked across the US on his hands to raise awareness for Vietnam Vets. Probably the most incredible feat though, he is the only double amputee to finish the Kona, Hawaii Iron Man race without a wheelchair.

Now if this dude can do it, who am I to stand here and say I can't? Hats off to you Mr. Weiland. Read more about him here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Wieland

http://www.bobwieland.com/

And hats off to yall for reading. I'm still going and just wont quit! Yall be Great!

Day # 8: Another Exam And The Start Of The Extended Walks

I slipped up yesterday. I got comfortable and let it go. I did good on my diet, nothing I would consider cheating, no ice cream, candy bars or soda so that was a plus. But I did not walk yesterday. After the Saturday at Carowinds, my body was tired. Plus yesterday was Wrestlemania and I haven't seen any wrestling in years. So I took a day. I know I should have gone out and it wouldn't have taken me 30 minutes but I didn't and it's now behind me.

Today on the other hand, I hit it HARD! I started off the day dealing with the ever stressful financial fitness, which I wont go into here because that is a whole other blog in itself. But I stuck to my plan on eating and I had to go take another exam today. So I run up in there and it was just stopping raining. When I came out, OMG! the weather did like a 180 today. It is beautiful and cool out there so I decided to put in my walk early. I stopped by my mothers work on the way home and just said hello for a bit and headed home. Who did I come across but my dear wife with my spazoid canine companion Kash, out on the trail already getting it. I came in dropped off my stuff and changed into some old workout clothes I had in the top of the closet. I was shocked but they did fit me, close and tight but I could sit without them exploding so that was a good thing. I'm starting to be able to fit into more of my older clothes. More on that in a bit. Anyway, so I head out and I'm thinking just around the block and back again, but then I remembered the promise to myself to extend my walks starting this week. So I said I'll go to the stop sign and back which would be the same walk  I did the other day where I ran the last leg. I got to the stop sign and was still feeling OK so I said, I'll go to the church and circle back. Same thing, I got to the church and felt OK so I kept going all the way to the railroad tracks which I have never walked to in the 12 years we have been living here. I'm not going to say when I got back in my neighborhood, I didn't wish I did that but it happened and I'm dang proud of myself.

So second think about today, I went through a small part of my closet trying on some older clothes. I have some that are still WAY too tight to be out in public in but I did come away with 3 or 4 new shirts I can add to my rotation. I have one particular shirt I have been hanging onto all these years. The one that I said one day I'm going to fit in this shirt and it's going to be awesome! I haven't gotten that far yet but it does actually fit around my neck now so I know I'm getting there. My pants feel looser also. I know its only the first week but I can feel slight differences starting and they are getting me excited. I have a whole other wardrobe just waiting in boxes for me to be able to fit into them again so this might be fun.

Thirdly, I snuck another peek at the scale this morning and I think my scale might be broken. It said I was another 2.2 lbs down. I'm full out sprinting to that 350 goal and it's got me puzzled. That's a total of 12.6 lbs so far with tomorrow being the "official" weekly weigh in date. I don't understand how or why the scale is moving at such a fast pace now. There's no way that is all water. Or is it? I know the first time I lost all my weight back 20 years ago, I started out the same way but I only dropped 10 lbs in a week. Oh well, I'll take it. Let's see what the scale has in store for me tomorrow morning. I got a feeling it will be a positive either way.

Oh almost forgot my stats:  6108 steps, 2.88 miles and 36 oz of water and it's not even supper time yet!

So motivation for today I'll leave you with these photos and a video. Take 'em to heart and be great!

Day # 5: OMG was that Fat Man?

So today I had the day off. I had a website I had to build for a project in my Information Technology class and I think it turned out pretty well. The problem I ran into today is when I work on a website, time goes into a crazy fast forward. I took advantage of not having to work today to grab some extra sleep of course, but soon after I fixed my breakfast at 10 am (horrible me) , I checked the clock and it was 2:30, time for my wife to get home. I don't know what it is but doing that kind of work just puts me in a zone. I can't stop until everything is perfect. The real problem is I didn't do anything else today. It needed to be done though, and it turned out excellent so I'm glad I took the time to do it. I had my Skype conference with my classmates to unveil the project and after that, that's when I noticed I was getting hungry. I grabbed a tablespoon of peanut butter to tide me over and soon started making my supper. I was so hungry by the time I started piecing it together, I kind of over did it. I'm proud I didn't have any bread with it but I killed 2 cans of tuna and 3 hard boiled eggs like they owed me money. I made a HUGE tuna salad and had 2 boiled eggs on the side. I think its the first time in my life I have overeaten on a salad.

So after supper, I was ready to veg, even though I had less than 500 steps in. Well my wife came to me and asked me if I was going walking and I started with the excuses. I ate too much, my back hurts... etc. Thankfully she didn't give up and I strapped on my shoes and we headed out. I was set to do my normal walk but the dog really has a problem walking with me because I am so slow. If I walk faster, I burn out quicker and my back is killing me when I'm done. So my wife and kid went on ahead of me and when I reached my normal turn around I turned and started back to the house. My wife and kid continued. As I was walking back, the dog pulling me to hurry up, I started thinking, "You know, you're a piece of work. You post on this blog about trying to turn your life around and how much work it's going to be and then you do the same walk to the same stop sign every day. You aren't even trying to push your limits." So I walked the dog up to the house, put him inside and headed back out. This time I walked around the block which has a couple of more hills than the normal route. I kept my pace steady and pushed through any pain. When I got back to the entrance of our neighborhood, my wife and kid were just coming back from their extended walk. So up the hill all of us went back towards my house, all the while that voice still saying "You're not doing enough!" We topped the hill and started to turn down our street and it hit me. "You wanna run, then do it!" so by God I did! For the first time in I know at least a decade, I pulled my sweats up and I started running. It wasn't but probably 20 yards and I know I looked like a fool but who gives a damn! I WAS RUNNING! I ran all the way to my front yard and it felt so weird. I haven't run for exercise since I was in 10th grade and I am 43 years old now. Pushing 370 lbs down the road isn't easy but it felt wonderful and believe you me tears of joy are running down my face as I type this.

I cannot wait until the day comes that I can run around my block just once. I cannot wait until the day comes when I don't have to struggle to put on socks. I cannot wait until the day comes when the thought of dread doesn't fill my being when I have to tie my shoes. I cannot wait until the day comes when bending over to pick up something I dropped isn't a public spectacle. I cannot wait until the day that I can buy clothes in a "normal" store. And if I have anything to say about it, that day WILL come.

OK, enough boo-hooin...lol. Even with that emotional session, I have to admit I did not reach my goals today. My stats for the day were:  4,159 steps, 1.96 miles, and 56 oz of water drank. I did however climb 11 flights of stairs today also and that's a new record for me. I also steered away from soda and bread successfully today. Take the good with the bad is what I've always heard. I think I have more good today than I have bad.

On a side note, since I have a wonderful daughter who is on the Autistic Spectrum, I have decided to sign up to walk for Autism. They aren't having it until October this year so I think I have plenty of time to ready myself. I'll post more about this as I officially sign up and learn more about it. Also my wife has suggested I do a review post for my fitbit, so look for that in the near future also.

Anyways, I'll leave y'all with some photos of the day, one of them jumped out at me and made me think of FogDog so I'll add it too.

Y'all be great!!

Fat Man!!