I can't sleep so I thought I'd blog...
One of my best friends got married this weekend. It was a fantastic time. He's currently in school in another state so we don't get to see each other very often and his lady is fantastic. I was really excited about seeing both of them and taking part in their wedding.
Friday night marked the rehearsal dinner/party. My friend's now-wife is from Peru and she and her family were preparing authentic Peruvian food. Ceviche, arroz con pollo, other things I can't remember then name. It was quite a feast and all told quite healthy I thought. I had wanted to try authentic ceviche for a long time now and here was two huge pans in front of me. I indulged, but I didn't feel too guilty until the cheesecake came out. How could I turn down a slice of pecan pie cheesecake? I only ate a little sliver and any damage it did to my diet was worth it. I just decided that I would work it off setting up for the wedding the next day. Outdoors + August + Mississippi = calories burned!
I went home, got some sleep, and headed back out to my friend's house early the next afternoon. Like I planned I worked my butt off setting up the PA and doing other various tasks. I came back home about an hour before the wedding, took a shower, and ate my regularly scheduled dinner.
I hadn't even considered the reception. I gave in and ate a plate of food. Pulled pork, a roll, some crackers - basically a lot of carbs. Now Nutrisystem isn't anti-carb, but the carbs are kept somewhat to a minimum, but I figured a few crackers here or there wouldn't matter much. Then I walked into the kitchen and there sat another pecan pie cheesecake. I ate another piece.
I weighed the next day and had gained a little weight. About 3 pounds. Not that big of a deal you might be thinking, but it was to me. I overthink the scale. Three pounds gained is three pounds not lost and that sets me back at least a day from reaching my goal. I was so let down Sunday that I didn't even try to eat on the Nutrisystem plan. In fact, I had lunch at Olive Garden. I even ate some cobbler and homemade ice cream when I got home.
I woke up the morning and started back on my plan. Watching what I ate, walking extra at work to burn extra calories, getting my nightly workout started back up. And I think that is the moral of this story. Everyone is going to slip up occasionally. There is going to be more pecan pie cheesecake in the world. Slip ups can't make you crash. They will only slow you down. I'm not saying they don't hurt. Slips ups are kind of like a gateway drug, they can lead to worse slip ups if you let them. However, to use a cliche, if you fall off, get back on the horse. Ride it out and overcome, I've lost these three pounds before and I'll just have to lose them again!
This blog will work better for me (and anyone reading it for inspiration) if I show my highs and my lows. No one is perfect, no matter how successful they've been in the past. We all have out plans and life will always get in the way of those plans
Am I sorry I binged a little and put on 3 pounds? Yes. Would I have been devastated if I had missed out on my friends' wedding ? Yes. Would it have made it any better if I had missed their wedding and lost 3 pounds? Hell, no. I'm glad I was there and I had a great time. So you take the good with the bad and if you mess up you recover. I guess that's what I learned this weekend. You have to live. What fun would life if you were skinny but never left your house for fear of pecan pie cheesecake?
Monday, August 16, 2010
Friday, August 13, 2010
Fat Guys Anonymous
I suppose I need to give a bit of a confession - I mean introduction.
My name is Ryan and I used to be a fat guy. In high school it was alright. I pretty much ran with the in crowd, and amongst all my football playing buddies, I wasn't THAT big, just a little less toned. I was pretty active - backyard football and baseball, pickup basketball, etc - so my weight never really got out of hand, but to be clear, I was still a big guy. By graduation in 1994, I was pushing 250 lbs.
Community College came along and I got less and less active. Sure, freshman year we had ruthless games of pickup basketball in my mom's driveway, but we also had cheeseburgers and french fries and gravy at night. Then I started working at a steak house. First, I was a dishwasher, but in 10 short years I had worked my way to grill station and head of kitchen. Long story short, three 12 oz steaks a week with french fries will builid up!
Then came university. I was on my own for the first time in my life. I went to class, I came home, I watched TV, I studied, and I ate. Oh yeah, this also marks my discovery of my love of cooking. We didn't have Food Network back home so this was a new creature to me. Sure we had cooking shows, but these chefs were entertaining and soon I fell in love with cooking. At this point, I had been a lowly steak cook for 5 or so years but never really felt like I was creating anything. With what I was learning on this magical cable channel, I could actually express myself. I started experimenting. I would cook heaping helpings of jambalaya, chicken stew, chili, (of course) steaks, and my roommates and I would devour them. I graduated after three years with a degree in English and a larger pants size. Graduating weight...somewhere in the vicinity of 285 lb.
I took a sabbatical from the world after graduation. I had already cleared it with all involved. I was going to be good for nothing for about 6 months. My friends and I loafed about my mom's house playing video games, watching cartoons, eating junk food. You know things typical 5 year olds do. Only problem we were in our early 20s. Something however did light a fire under me. I cut back the junk food, started drinking immense amounts of water everyday and bought a machete. A machete? That's right, a machete. My mom has an acre lot behind her house and it had fallen into disarray. Weeds and shurbs were growing unchecked. I woke up every morning and worked on the lot with only my machete. I eventually upgraded to two machetes - one in each hand. I think I lost about 60 lbs. That put me lighter than I had been since high school - somewhere around 220 lbs.
I was happy being smaller. I had more endurance. I didn't get all sweaty when I stepped outside. I felt good. So, of course I had to sabotage myself. I decided to go back to school. I reenrolled in my old community college and immediately started packing on the pounds. I was probably up to 280 (again) by the time I graduated (again).
I went through a long, long stage of not giving a damn about my weight. I was the big guy. It was part of who I was. People that didn't like it could get over it. I had accepted it. I remember one time thinking to myself "My weight always seems to cut off at 280. Maybe I'm supposed to be 280. I should just quit fighting it."
Well, all that changed in December of 2009 when I got on the scales and weighed in at 292. Wow, that was big - even for me. I knew I had to do something. I immediately dusted off the exercise equipment I had accumulated over the years and started working out. I felt alot better evenually. I'm not going to lie, it was pure hell the first couple of days. Feeling like I was going to vomit while I was working out...feeling like I had someone else's arms and legs after my workout...Wishing my arms and legs were someone else's the next morning. But eventually, I started looking forward to my workout sessions. Unfortunately, I wasn't losing much weight. I had never really learned how to eat. In my mind, I could still eat what I wanted to because I was working out. Despite the nutrition and fitness classes I was forced to take in college, I had no idea what a portion size was. To me a portion was how much my plate could hold.
One morning it hit me while watching Mike and Mike in the Morning on ESPN2. For those of you that don't know, Mike and Mike is a sports talk radio show hosted by ESPN sportscaster Mike Greenberg and former NFL defensive lineman Mike Golic. The running joke on the show is that Golic eats like a pig and Greenie makes fun of him. Well, it came me that I had seen Golic on commercials for some kind of weight loss plan. He screamed "POT ROAST".
The plan, of course, was Nutrisystem.
I went to their website and after reading into it, signed up. Turns out lots of men of all ages and weights have used Nutrisystem to help them reach their weight loss goals. The plan couldn't be simplier and when you add in daily exercise, the pounds just fall off of you. I lost about 23 pounds my first month and, as of today, have lost a total of 95 pounds since January 5, 2010.
Like I said in the previous entry, this blog is to journal my last 15 or so pounds and help hold me accountable once I reach my goal and attempt to maintain. Thanks for following along on my journey!
My name is Ryan and I used to be a fat guy. In high school it was alright. I pretty much ran with the in crowd, and amongst all my football playing buddies, I wasn't THAT big, just a little less toned. I was pretty active - backyard football and baseball, pickup basketball, etc - so my weight never really got out of hand, but to be clear, I was still a big guy. By graduation in 1994, I was pushing 250 lbs.
Community College came along and I got less and less active. Sure, freshman year we had ruthless games of pickup basketball in my mom's driveway, but we also had cheeseburgers and french fries and gravy at night. Then I started working at a steak house. First, I was a dishwasher, but in 10 short years I had worked my way to grill station and head of kitchen. Long story short, three 12 oz steaks a week with french fries will builid up!
Then came university. I was on my own for the first time in my life. I went to class, I came home, I watched TV, I studied, and I ate. Oh yeah, this also marks my discovery of my love of cooking. We didn't have Food Network back home so this was a new creature to me. Sure we had cooking shows, but these chefs were entertaining and soon I fell in love with cooking. At this point, I had been a lowly steak cook for 5 or so years but never really felt like I was creating anything. With what I was learning on this magical cable channel, I could actually express myself. I started experimenting. I would cook heaping helpings of jambalaya, chicken stew, chili, (of course) steaks, and my roommates and I would devour them. I graduated after three years with a degree in English and a larger pants size. Graduating weight...somewhere in the vicinity of 285 lb.
I took a sabbatical from the world after graduation. I had already cleared it with all involved. I was going to be good for nothing for about 6 months. My friends and I loafed about my mom's house playing video games, watching cartoons, eating junk food. You know things typical 5 year olds do. Only problem we were in our early 20s. Something however did light a fire under me. I cut back the junk food, started drinking immense amounts of water everyday and bought a machete. A machete? That's right, a machete. My mom has an acre lot behind her house and it had fallen into disarray. Weeds and shurbs were growing unchecked. I woke up every morning and worked on the lot with only my machete. I eventually upgraded to two machetes - one in each hand. I think I lost about 60 lbs. That put me lighter than I had been since high school - somewhere around 220 lbs.
I was happy being smaller. I had more endurance. I didn't get all sweaty when I stepped outside. I felt good. So, of course I had to sabotage myself. I decided to go back to school. I reenrolled in my old community college and immediately started packing on the pounds. I was probably up to 280 (again) by the time I graduated (again).
I went through a long, long stage of not giving a damn about my weight. I was the big guy. It was part of who I was. People that didn't like it could get over it. I had accepted it. I remember one time thinking to myself "My weight always seems to cut off at 280. Maybe I'm supposed to be 280. I should just quit fighting it."
Well, all that changed in December of 2009 when I got on the scales and weighed in at 292. Wow, that was big - even for me. I knew I had to do something. I immediately dusted off the exercise equipment I had accumulated over the years and started working out. I felt alot better evenually. I'm not going to lie, it was pure hell the first couple of days. Feeling like I was going to vomit while I was working out...feeling like I had someone else's arms and legs after my workout...Wishing my arms and legs were someone else's the next morning. But eventually, I started looking forward to my workout sessions. Unfortunately, I wasn't losing much weight. I had never really learned how to eat. In my mind, I could still eat what I wanted to because I was working out. Despite the nutrition and fitness classes I was forced to take in college, I had no idea what a portion size was. To me a portion was how much my plate could hold.
One morning it hit me while watching Mike and Mike in the Morning on ESPN2. For those of you that don't know, Mike and Mike is a sports talk radio show hosted by ESPN sportscaster Mike Greenberg and former NFL defensive lineman Mike Golic. The running joke on the show is that Golic eats like a pig and Greenie makes fun of him. Well, it came me that I had seen Golic on commercials for some kind of weight loss plan. He screamed "POT ROAST".
The plan, of course, was Nutrisystem.
I went to their website and after reading into it, signed up. Turns out lots of men of all ages and weights have used Nutrisystem to help them reach their weight loss goals. The plan couldn't be simplier and when you add in daily exercise, the pounds just fall off of you. I lost about 23 pounds my first month and, as of today, have lost a total of 95 pounds since January 5, 2010.
Like I said in the previous entry, this blog is to journal my last 15 or so pounds and help hold me accountable once I reach my goal and attempt to maintain. Thanks for following along on my journey!
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Getting started...
 |
| This is me in early January 2010 - 292 lbs |
I decided to start this blog a little too late, but we'll see where it goes. I've had weight issues for most of my life and finally decided to do something about it in January of this year. So far, I've lost 94 pounds and only have 14 to go to get to my goal. Since the last few pounds are always the hardest to shed, I decided (with some encouragement) to start blogging about it to put some extra pressure on myself to stick with it and lose it!
So stay tuned, I'm going to try to post updates every Wednesday (my official weigh-in day). I'll post what has worked for me and what didn't and my thoughts on the entire process.
For the record, I started my diet on January 5, 2010 weighing in at a whopping 292 lbs. Almost 8 months later, I am down to 198.2 lbs. My goal is 185 lbs. Will I make it? Will I have any ups to go with the downs. I guess we'll just have to wait and see!
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