Day Ninety-One - Sweet Potatoes!

I'm still feeling very cruddy from this cold.  I don't like not being one hundred percent.  It affects my mood, my energy levels, my work, and my workouts.  Thankfully I still had taste today so I was able to enjoy Bekah's delicious dinner.  Chicken, sweet potato, and green beans.  I've really started to like sweet potatoes more and more throughout my journey.  I never would have thought I would eat them without cinnamon, sugar, and marshmallows on top.  I'm eating them (and enjoying them) without butter most most of the time lately.  If you had asked me thirteen weeks ago if I would talk about liking sweet potatoes, I would have laughed at you.  It's just one more example of my life change.  I'm thirteen weeks in, and I'm losing my butter half.

I've had a great day eating, but with this cold I wasn't able to get a ride in on the bike.  I have another weigh in tomorrow morning, so I'm getting the normal uneasiness.  We'll see how much more I've lost in the morning!

Day Ninety - Confessions of a French Fry Addict

So I'm exhausted.  Out of the past twenty-eight hours, I've driven nine.  I know that sounds a little crazy, but it was well worth it.  I got to have breakfast with my brother, so that was an added bonus!  My meeting today went well and I'm glad the stress is off now.  The worst is that I have a cold coming on.  So in the spirit of not feeling very well at all, I'm going to fill you in on my success I had while traveling.

Being that I was on the road so much I was forced to eat three meals out, which would be terrible normally.  It really wasn't bad.  I have become used to eating better options, and have avoided eating fast food for long enough that the temptations of old didn't even pop up.  I have always heard people talk about In-N-Out burger.  I knew there was one on my way back from Dallas, so I decided to swing through and see if it lived up to the hype.  I ordered a burger and a water.  I was on the phone with Bekah while going through the drive-thru, and she heard me place my order.  She commented that it was a huge deal that I didn't order fries.  I guess she is right.  It really is a sign of the life change I have made.  I mean, I had a serious problem when it came to fries.  I'd order multiple orders of fries at restaurants.  If the place had two different types of fries (like Backyard Burger... I mean come on who can decide between their seasoned or their waffle fries), I would order both types.  Confessions of a real life french fry addict, right?  The point is I'm different now.  I can go through a trip and multiple fast food joints and not binge.  Roast beef at Arby's, Egg white grill at Chick-fil-A, and a cheese burger at In-N-Out.  These are all part of the change as I'm losing my butter half.

Another day down.  I am grateful that I could work out when I got home, even if it was only thirty minutes due to my cold.

Day Eighty-Nine - Don't Be Nervous. Be Confident!

I've got a very important meeting tomorrow, and I'm definitely starting to feel the pressure of it.  I don't know about any of the rest of you, but sometimes I feel like it doesn't matter how much I prepare, I still will not be ready.  I used to feel this way about tests in college.  I would work myself into a semi-frenzy and then (most of the time) do well on the exam.  So what do I need to do to make this different?  I have prepared.  I've reviewed my material, sought advice from others, and most importantly prayed.  I know I can walk in confidently tomorrow.

It isn't that much different when you are seeking to meet a goal.  You prepare yourself, seek accountability, and pray for grace.  There is no need to be nervous or worried about whether you can accomplish the task ahead.  Just attack it with full confidence.  I know the processes I have in place have proven successful thus far.  So whether it's an important meeting or losing 166.2 lbs. I can hit my task with full force and full confidence.  I know that I will do well tomorrow, and I also know that I will lose my butter half.

Eating was good today.  I did have to grab a bite to eat out which is rare these days (but it was Arby's so that was a plus).  Thankfully, I got another work out in today as well.

Day Eighty-Eight - One Holiday Down, One Christmas Season to Go

We all know that the hardest time of the year to stick to a diet is from Thanksgiving through the New Year.  Thankfully we finished off our leftovers today.  A lot of people think that Thanksgiving is the worst of it, but I would argue that it isn't as hard as Christmas.  While Thanksgiving is a day full of food and calories, Christmas is an entire season.  Weeks of Christmas parties, Christmas cookies, Christmas candy, Christmas ham and turkey and more.  To think that this doesn't end until after the New Years (which has plenty of opportunities to pack on the pounds in and of itself) can be overwhelming.  All of this goes to show that while we have survived one (two if you count Halloween), we still have a lot more to come.  So the question is, are you prepared?

How do we prepare for an entire season that aggressively opposes those trying to lose weight?  Is it even possible to survive this next month without putting on extra pounds?  Does one need to simply hide in their house and turn into Scrooge until the Christmas Season is over?  I say no!  I am preparing myself.  I have a system of processes that I have been following for nearly three solid months that have proven to work so far.  I'm not going to change them.  The thing I will be working on is my resolve.  I know that if I can stay focused and determined to stick to my calorie intake and exercise, I will not only avoid putting on weight, but I will continue to lose my butter half.

It was another good day for my calories and exercise.

Day Eighty-Seven - Don't Be Blinded by Your Own Procrastination

Since this entire blog is about meeting goals, I figured I'd share that we accomplished some here in our home today.  When we moved into our home two summers ago we decided not to purchase blinds at the time.  Now don't worry, we haven't been running around the house without window coverings (actually, that isn't entirely true.  Our kitchen shade tore a while back.  And by a while back I mean at least eight months ago).  In an effort to save money we purchased temporary shades.  Being that they were temporary we decided that they should stay up for almost a year and a half.  So we finally bought real blinds (at least for the majority of the windows) and they are now up.  I am very impressed with blindster.  The quality of the binds is great and the measuring, ordering, and now installation was easy.

Getting blinds was the end goal for use.  We were unable to reach that goal when we purchased the house, but we didn't just sit around until it was in the budget to buy the blinds.  We put up a temporary solution, something that would get us started on our path to the final goal.  If you have a goal and are "waiting for the right time" to start working towards it, please stop.  Just be honest with yourself.  You need to change your mentality and just start your journey.  Whatever the goal is, saying that you'll start later or when you are mentally ready is all just lies you are telling yourself.  Just start small.  If it's weight/diet related, just change one thing.  For me, it was cutting out all soda and other sugary drinks.  After my kidney stone (I really need to post about that soon), I decided I need to make a change, but I wasn't sure what the change needed to be.  I didn't just sit around until I knew what I wanted to do.  I did something I new would be heading in the right direction, while I worked out how I was going to lose weight.  Don't be blinded by your own procrastination.  Stop telling yourself you'll begin your journey next week or when you are prepared.  Just start with some baby steps and your ultimate plan can be developed later.  That's how I did it, and now I'm losing my butter half.

It was a great day for my calorie intake and another nice workout on the recumbent.
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Day Eighty-Six - Black Friday

Well folks, it's the day after Thanksgiving, a.k.a Black Friday!  There is shopping to be done and fights to be won.  There are deals to be had and people to make mad.  Now I'm not here to upset anyone who does go out into the craziness that is Black Friday (especially since some genius decided that Friday now begins on Thursday).  In fact, I once drove an hour and a half to get cheap computer parts at CompUSA when I was younger (yeah, that's how a geek does Black Friday... at least before Newegg and Amazon came along).  The thing that bothers me is that Black Friday seems to make us all hypocrites.  We say "thank you for all we are blessed with" on Thursday, only to say "give me more" on Friday.  Even today, I was looking online to see what deals are out there for electronics (I didn't find anything, I guess I'll have to wait until Cyber Monday now).  It is so easy to fall into the materialism of it all.

Now if you are still reading this, that means you either aren't a Black Friday shopper, or you aren't terribly offended at me for knocking it.  I'm glad you're still with me here, because it's now time for me to attempt to relate this journey to Black Friday.  You see the day after Thanksgiving really is a very important day.  For me it's the first full day of watching Christmas movies and listening to Christmas music (yeah, I'm not the all year round guy.  Just between Thanksgiving and Christmas).  It is also the first day of Thanksgiving leftovers (unless you are the person who has leftovers for dinner on Thanksgiving night).  I wonder what everyone's favorite leftovers are?  Mine are rolls turned into turkey sliders.  I take a roll (my favorite are Sister Shubert rolls) and put some turkey and stuffing on it.  Some people like cranberry and mustard or mayonnaise.  I think I may have added ketchup in the past (don't judge, my relationship with ketchup is very complicated).  I usually have a side of sweet potato casserole (without the marshmallows this year, because Bekah snuck those off earlier) and some green bean casserole.  For those of you who's goal is weight related, let me give you some caution.  I made sure to still measure my food and weigh the meat.  I counted calories, because just like Thanksgiving I don't want to set myself back.  It is so easy to overdo it when scrounging through Thanksgiving leftovers.  In fact, let me encourage you to be careful for the whole weekend.  That goes for everyone, no just those of us trying to lose weight.  Don't get complacent in your journey just because you have a few days off work.  Reaching you goal doesn't involve a break.  I'm not taking a break from my journey.  I'm losing my butter half.

Great day for calories and I just finished another workout.  Here's to doing the same tomorrow!

Day Eighty-Five - Weigh in #12 - Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

***I broke today's post into two parts.  One pre-meal, and one post.  I hope you are encouraged and enjoy***
 The aromas of pumpkin spice cinnamon rolls and apple/pear pie are filling our small home this morning.  The turkey is being prepared for the fryer and excitement is in the air.  It's Thanksgiving, and our small family is preparing to celebrate with food and fun.  Today, through the craziness, we still strive to remember the entire purpose of this holiday.  It is a day to remember how blessed we are.  It is to focus on the loved ones in our lives.  It isn't about food (which was delicious), football, and early Black Friday (How can Black Friday start on a Thursday???).  It is about being grateful for all we have and the opportunity to live the lives we choose to live in freedom.


I thought you may enjoy some photos from our Thanksgiving as a family.  I deep fried a turkey today.  It was a great experience.  I don't know that I have ever had a better turkey.  It was delicious (shout out to my coworker Cam for advice on marinade injection and seasoning)!  The skin and juices were outstanding.  Bekah put together a very delicious spread of green bean casserole, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce, and rolls.  We were able to pray and thank God for our blessings and then this evening we took time to each share five things we are thankful for.  It has been a blessed day with the most precious people in my life.  I thank God for opportunities like this.


Even though it is a holiday from work, it is definitely not a holiday from my journey.  It is still a weigh in day and that's exactly what I did.  I am happy to announce that I am down another 4.8 lbs.  This brings my total weight loss to 53 lbs. at a weight of 313.2 lbs.  I'm excited to have officially lost over fifty pounds now!  I am nearly a third of the way to my total weight loss goal.  This means that if I lose three and a half pounds per week for the next four weeks, I will hit my next milestone and weigh less than 300 lbs. by Christmas.  So with it being Thanksgiving, I am so thankful that I am still losing my butter half!

Something I am thankful for today is that I was able to stay under calories for my meals (although my lunch was quite a large amount for a single meal).  I also was able to exercise twice today, in the morning and in the afternoon.

Day Eighty-Four - What's Stopping You from Trying to Reach Your Goal?

So I'm sitting here tonight realizing that I have now completed twelve weeks of my journey.  I feel blessed to have made it to this point.  I don't know about all of you out there, but sometimes when I set a goal I feel like it is something that I can never reach.  Especially when the goal is rather massive like losing over 166 lbs.  Then once I get started, and I hit a few of my milestones I start to realize how possible hitting this goal really is.  So for those of you who haven't started your journey yet, do you feel overwhelmed?  Does your goal seem like something that is just too big?  Maybe you are thinking "why even bother?"  I've been there.  I didn't want to try and lose this "second person" I've been carrying around out of fear that I couldn't do it.

The best way to silence the negative voices is to look around and find others who have met or are on their way to meeting their goals.  Find encouragement and strength in those who are successful.  I'm not entirely sure if I'm ripping someone else off here (so if I am, all credit for this idea goes to them), but stop looking to others who haven't started their journey or aren't willing to make a goal.  You will only move in the direction in which you are looking.  If you look down or at others in your same position, it will be much harder to move towards your goal (you might even move further away from where you want to be).  If you look up to others who are having success, you too will move up.  Read encouraging blogs or pay attention to people on social media who are constantly moving forward with purpose.  When I say I have made a lifestyle change, it isn't just my eating and exercising habits.  It's also a mindset.  It's a desire to better myself and those I come into contact with.  So here I am on this journey.  I want my story to be an encouragement to anyone who is on a path toward a goal.  What is your goal and how can I help?  Please find encouragement in these posts as I'm losing my butter half.

My calories and exercise seemed right on track as normal.  I have my twelfth weigh in tomorrow morning and I am starting to get my weekly weigh in jitters.  Come back tomorrow and see where I'm at on my journey!

Day Eighty-Three - I Don't Want Easy

Do you ever feel that there just isn't enough time in a day?  Some days it seems like from the moment your feet touch the floor you are at a non-stop speed until you crawl back into bed at night.  Amazingly this happens more and more frequently as I get older.  Work will pass in a blur, and when I leave there are always unfinished quotes or policy changes.  Not to mention the organizational planning that didn't get touched that day.  I am actually grateful for the traffic each night because it allows me to catch up with my parents/siblings/friends while I'm commuting.  It also serves as a debriefing moment before I get home (basically a time where I can leave work at work).  Then it's home for dinner, kids bedtime, workout, shower, and writing the blog.  There is more that needs to be done, but by this time, my eyelids are protesting each night.  Why is life so difficult and time consuming sometimes?

I've heard it said that “Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well (Theodore Roosevelt)."  So far this journey has been anything but easy.  Working day in and day out to provide for a family is not easy.  Raising children and being a loving example to the two blessings is fun, but not easy.  Loving Bekah and being there for her is rewarding and satisfying, but it is never easy.  All of these things are priceless to me.  They are all hard, but worth the effort that is required.  I view my weight loss journey in the same light.  Just like work it requires consistency.  It is fun, rewarding, and satisfying like being a parent and a spouse.  There is no price that I can pay that can bring me the same feeling and excitement I have each time I see the numbers on the scale get lower.  Sure it takes a lot of time (which I already don't have enough of), but the results far outweigh the effort I'm putting in.  The ability to live normally and healthily.  Not to mention the freedom from guilt of dishonesty, poor stewardship, and gluttony.  So while I may have days when I an pulled in too many directions and race against the twenty-four hour clock, I know how excited I will be when I see that 200 on the scale.  My life my be a little crazy, but I am still losing my butter half.

It was a pretty normal day for calorie intake and exercise.  I like the fact that eating healthy and exercising are normal now.

Day Eighty-Two - If You Fail to Plan, You Plan to Fail

So tonight I'm just going to share a few brief thoughts on the upcoming holiday and maybe a few ideas to avoid a setback (this will probably be geared mainly towards those of you who's goal is weight related).  We all know how easy it is to get off track when Thanksgiving rolls around.  The large amounts of food and fellowship have a way of affecting our ability to control the amount of food we take in.  Kind of like the judgement you neglected to use when you agreed to go out with that one person in high school you've always regretted going out with.  You know who I mean... Janey who didn't stop asking if you wanted to see her retainer collection or Steve who didn't stop talking about your best friend Sally the whole date?  So how do we practice good judgement this Thanksgiving?

I would start by recommending that you prepare ahead of time.  Maybe go ahead and track how much of each type of food you will be eating so that you know exactly how much to take.  This will help avoid taking too much and then finding out you ate too much when you track it after the meal.  If you are going somewhere with a Pot Luck or you just don't know what types of food there are going to be (Turkey... there's going to be a lot of turkey), I would suggest asking your spouse or a family member to fix your plate.  This will allow you to eat what they provide and then head back out to the living room avoiding being tempted to get seconds.  Exercise in the morning and the evening.  This will allow you to burn more of the abnormally large number of calories you will take in this Thursday.  My final suggestion is to pay close attention to the number of calories you take in outside of the Thanksgiving meal.  Eat a lower calorie breakfast or lunch (or dinner if your "big" meal is for lunch). Just make sure you track what you are eating.  Don't give yourself an "off day."  For me, an off day turns into an off week and then off month before I can realize what happened.  I'm preparing now so that I don't get surprised this Thursday.  I'm not going to stop losing my butter half.

Great day for calorie intake and exercise.  Bekah made a Cap'n Crunch Baked Chicken for dinner that was really delicious.  I never would have thought of breading chicken tenders with Cap'n Crunch (Tip: if you do this, buy the regular Cap'n Crunch not the Crunch Berry version.  At least E had fun sorting all the Crunch Berries out!)