If I Can Just Make it Through Chistmas....

Well I weighed in this morning at 282lbs. That's only 2.5lbs in 2 weeks. To be honest I am not surprised, I have been lazy in my diet as of late. I do so well during the week, but lately with Thanksgiving and the whole holiday mindset, I have found myself indulging in my favorite foods way to frequently. I am not any less motivated, it is just really tough right now. I have something going on like 2-3 nights out of the week this entire month. Every one of those events involves eating..... I am careful not to get carried away, but it is getting to easy to slip into the holiday state of mind. I am still trying to keep it at 1200 cals a day but I end up eating about 1800 because of all the snacking. There were a few days where I was up to about 3500cals. The only good thing that I have done over the last two weeks was creating a calorie journal. Basically I write down everything I eat every day so that I can see it on paper. Before I would just keep track in my head. I hope that when I get off the diet I can still stay within a proper range of calories and will be able to do that by faithfully writing it down. Once I loose this weight I don't ever want it coming back.

I wanted to be at 267lbs by Jan 1, but I will be happy if I am at 275. I know part of dieting is overcoming set backs, but I sure picked a poor time to try and start a diet. Nevertheless I will not let a few challenges keep me from a healthier way of life.

On the brighter side I am seeing my endurance increasing immensely with every day. When I first started I would burn about 350 calories in 30 min. Now I can do about 630 in 30 min. My goal is to get to 800 cal's in 30 min. Tonight I spoke with John Brown about all the triathlons and Iron Man competitions he has been training for. He got me motivated to try a mini one, so I hope to be in good enough shape this summer to do the Tri in The Pines, which is a mini triathlon in Show Low. We will see how my progress comes.

I know that if I can just make it through the holidays, and keep my motivation, that I will be able to be 100% committed come Jan 1st. It might take me longer than I planned to reach my goal, but I will get there. Thanks for all the support.

I Am Pathetic....

Well I know today is not Monday, but I am so displeased with myself that I am making my weekly post now, I cant wait for tomorrow. I have been doing well all week with my diet, but this weekend has been detrimental to my progress. If you don't love food like I do, maybe you cant relate to this, but this weekend was one of which I let myself indulge in several of my cravings. Between Saturday night and Sunday after noon I had consumed a large pizza from Spinatos, home made tacos, a bowl of cereal and several handfuls of what ever treat was lying around. I am so made at my self for giving in to my cravings, I have been so good at denying them.

My goal of being 267 by Jan. first is starting to seem unreachable. I have about 5 weeks to go and I don't know if I have lost any weight this week. I am not even weighing myself tomorrow. I am going to wait till next week. I don't want to become completely unmotivated. The sad thing is that what I have eaten over the course of the last two days is what the old me could have eaten in one day. I am seeing an amazing increase in my endurance and my self control; that is up until this weekend.

Believe me my motivation has not left, I just let temptation creep its way in. Starting Monday I am going back down to 1200 calories a day ( don't hate me Mary and Tiffany ). I need to rein in my eating habit's once again. I am doing this because I know that these next two weeks are going to be super difficult with the holidays around the corner. I will go back up to 1800 in January. I WILL MAKE MY GOAL!!!! I will talk to you all again next week. Lets see how I do over Thanksgiving.

FRUSTRATION SETS IN!

Well I tell you what, I am not to proud of my progress this week. I started the week off at 287lbs and weighed in today at 284.5. I am only down 2.5lbs this week. I followed my diet and exercise routine as usual and only l0st 2.5lbs. While this is very discouraging, it has helped me recommit to losing weight. I have noticed that I have been a little laxed mentally as of late. What I mean is ever since I upped my calories to 1800 I have kind of felt like I was less on a diet and more just eating healthy, which is not where I need to be mentally. As of today I have my focus back and am more motivated than ever to loose weight.





I am going to continue to eat 1800 calories a day for the next month and a half. My goal is to be at 267 on Jan. 1st. That's 17.5lbs in 6 weeks. It will be especially hard since the next 6 weeks are some of the most food oriented weeks of the year. Nevertheless if I keep up my exercise and stay focused I should reach that goal. Once Jan. 1st rolls around I am going to drop my calories back down to about 1500 for an extra little push as I get closer to the wedding. That would give me about 2.5 months from Jan. 1st to loose another 45lbs. If I could be at 227 for Rachael's wedding I would be ecstatic.



Last night Mary and I were watching a show on THE LEARNING CHANNEL called My Half-Ton Dad. It was about the obesity epidemic in the U.S. and how the class of the "super obese" is the fastest growing class of overweight people. They featured one man who weighed 1030lbs, yes that's right a half a ton. This man was a thin attractive man in his late teens, but due to poor eating and bad genes, he blew up to that weight in about 10 years. I could not believe what I saw while watching this show. These people were consuming about 30,000 calories every day. They would eat in one day what a normal person would eat in 2 weeks. There were many other severely obese people in this documentary who all were preparing to undergo surgery to loose weight.. Let me tell you, I have never been so scared about my eating habits before in my life. While I have never been that out of control with my eating, I could have seen myself easily gaining more and more weight as I got older. The doctors on this show said that genetics is the primary problem for these people, but that their eating habits is what allowed them to get so big. After watching that show, Mary and I made a promise to each other to never let ourselves get out of control like that. I may never have wash board abs and be able to run for miles and miles, but I will never let food rule my life again. My daughters will not grow up in a home where eating is the primary activity. My daughters will grow up eating healthy and smart so that they can pass on good habits to their children America has got a real problem on its hands, I don't know what the statistic is for the U.S. but 64% of Austin Texas is obese. That is out of control and there needs to be something done. No matter how long it takes, I will get to a healthy weight and stay there.

Slow and Steady WIns the Race!!!!

Well a month has come and gone. I thought it would be a lot more difficult 4 weeks, but surprisingly it was not too bad. I have made some modifications and changes to my diet plan over the last couple weeks and have been able to remain pretty strong in my objectives.

The photos do not show as dramatic a change as I had hoped for, but I do believe there is a noticeable difference. This last week has been extremely hard as far as my diet goes. My daughter was born this week which required me to spend a couple days in the hospital which kind of got me out of my routine. Its safe to say that I had about 4-5 cheat meals this week. However, even with that being said I still did fairly well and managed to loose 2lbs. That puts me right at about 20lbs. 20Lbs in two months is not bad, as I have said before my goal is to do about 12-15 a month. This week I am increasing my calories to 1800 a day. I wont go beyond this amount, but I have found myself very very hungry as of late. The nutritionist I spoke with said that I would encounter this and she was right. The nice things about being able to eat 1800 calories is that a lot more options are opened up to me.

I have been trying to run at least 4 times a week on the tread mill and lifting at least 1 day a week. I have seen my endurance when I run increase dramatically in this short time. That is probably the biggest difference I have noticed. I am still very motivated but I have to say I do have days when I get bored of the diet; not to the point of quiting, but to the point when I snack more than I should. I don't have those days very often, but I guess it is to be expected.

I still think I will be at my goal or close to it by Rachael's wedding. I have been toying with different end weights, I know I said about 195 was my goal, but that may be too skinny. We will have to see. At any rate I have more reason than ever to be motivated, I am the proud father of another little girl, Elsie. She is gorgeous. Well they say it takes about 60 - 90 days to truly change your eating habits, if that is the case I am 1/3 of the way there. I truly appreciate the comments, keep them coming.

Almost to the Month Mark....

Well another week has come and gone, and let me tell you life has been much better now that I have changed up my diet a bit. I am still able to eat allot of the foods I like, just much smaller portions. The new plan has also proved to be successful; this week I lost another 5.5lbs making the grand total so far about 18.5lbs. I can already tell the difference in my clothes fitting better! If I keep up at this rate, I will be about 218 by Rachaels wedding. I currently weigh 288.5 so that would be about another 70 lbs in the next 4.5 months.

Last week as luck would have it, my company had a team of Nutritionists and health professionals come in as part of our annual medical screening, so I went down and paid them a visit. It was very insightful, here are some of the numbers: My Blood Pressure = 124/72 which is pretty good, my body fat is 33.8% which is bad but not as bad as I thought it would be, my goal is to get it around 20%. My Cholesterol was less than 100 which was good and my blood glucose was at 94 which means I am not in any immediate danger of getting diabetes. All this info was very informative, but what I found most interesting was my conversation with the nutritionist there. I told her my current plan for my diet and she gave me some pointers. She said the 1500 cals is ok for another week or two but then I should ramp it up to about 1800. She said to keep up the exercise and try and eat more fiber. So I have been trying to follow her advice. I am still right around 1500 cals a day for the next week or two but will soon go to 1800.

I am still doing my cheat meal once a week, however; this past weekend was a little bad. I did not go to to crazy but I had some Venezias Pizza on Friday and then we went to Gecko Grill on Saturday. Now we only went to Gecko as one last date before the baby comes and I was still pretty healthy. I only had some chips and salsa and two flour tortillas with a little beans, no cheese.

I am still feeling as motivated as ever. I appreciate all the comments and advice everyone is leaving. Next week is the big picture day. I know all of you have been excited about this..... I hope we will see a difference!

Keeping Positive....

Well today is Monday which means another weigh in day for me.. I woke up this morning hoping for big numbers, but it turns out that I only lost 4lbs this week. I didn't really expect to consistently loose 7lbs a week, but I was hoping for a little more. It's ok though, like I said before if I can loose on average 3-4lbs a week I will be down to about 220 by Rachael and Karl's wedding.
I have started to incorporate a few more carbs into my diet, this is helping me stay on track easier. I am eating about 1500 cals a day right now, which I will increase here in a bit. I am staying positive with my attitude and am finding that its not that hard to stay focused. Last weekend I went to Oregano's for my cheat meal. I had some salad and a little bit of pizza. I feel I did really well with resisting the food I had in front of me; however I did partake a little of an appetizer the Spencer and Annie bought. Let me tell you it was the most amazing thing ever, but very fattening. I only had a little bit, but I repented by not having any of the pizookie.

I am doing great with my exercise and feel myself building up my endurance every day. I had a good talk with Spencer (my brother in law) and got some ideas for burning calories in a different way. For example, tomorrow night I am going to push Evelynne and Mary around in the car for hopefully 30 min. I am also going to eventually get an old tractor tire and move that around the back yard. I am hoping by mixing things up a bit I can burn more calories...

Well I better jump on the treadmill, I will keep you posted on my progress. Thanks.

Words of Wisdom.....

Well I just wanted to make a quick post and fill everyone in on a few changes I am making. I was planning on adhering to my outlined diet as strictly as possible for the next 8 months or so, even though I knew it may not be the best long term solution. I have just had so many failed attempts in the past that I wanted something strict that would provide results. However, after an insightful email from Tiffany and several long discussions with Mary and my friend at work, I have decided to slowly incorporate more calories and carbs into my diet as I progress. Mary has been expressing her concern about this for a while, but I thought I would loose my motivation by changing up my diet. However, to the contrary I am quite motivated and truly feel "this time is different."


My goal is to continue what I have been doing for the next 3 weeks. That will give me a full month of minimal carbs and calories, while allowing me sufficient time to get my mind set on loosing weight. After that I will begin to incorporate more carbs and calories until I reach a point where I feel is healthy. The last thing I want to do is loose all this weight and gain it all right back. I will probably end up doing some sort of "Weight Watchers" type diet in the end to make sure my body adjusts to eating normal food before I become less regimented. I think this will be a positive change in helping me loose weight and staying fit.


Tonight I watched the biggest looser for the first time ever. I tell you what, even if you are skinny, that show has got to be motivating. I realized that loosing weight is not about just looking good, but it is about a healthy life style. Up until now, most of my motivation has been for reasons of vanity, but now I realize just how many diseases and complications I will be avoiding in the future. Thanks for all the advice and support from everyone, I truly do appreciate it.

One Week Down and Only 24 to Go!

Well I officially made it through the week. I expected it to be much harder. It has been my experience that once I get through the first 2-3 weeks, the diet just seems normal and I forget what junk food tastes like. I realized just the other day that I am not the only one who is effected by me on this diet. I never really thought about the fact that Mary would have to put up with my crabby attitude and bland boring meals. We enjoy going out once a week as a couple or family, but I just assumed that would stop for the next little bit. I didn't give any thought as to how this would affect Mary. She is at home all week and looks forward to going on our dates. I also gave no thought to the fact that from time to time my friends and co-workers would have to hear me gripe. So to all of you I apologize and will try to be better.

Well this morning I woke up and weighed in at 298lbs. That is a loss of 9lbs since Monday. I am going to be good about not weighing my self more than once a week from now on. At one point during the day on Saturday I weighed in at 293lbs and got really excited. However, after I drank a glass of water I was back at 299. The disappointment and discouragement that comes along with to many weigh-ins can be hindering.

One of the things that I am most excited about is being able to walk into any clothing store and know that I can find pants that will fit me comfortably. I know I sound like a woman, but the reason I hate to shop is that I have to go to like 3 stores to find one pair of pants. I am also excited about not dying of a heart attack at 35.

On Sunday Mary and I looked at old wedding photos. I must have been about 235lbs in the pictures and I remember when I first saw them how I thought I looked so fat. Now I look at them and think I look way skinny. I am excited to think that I could be very close to that weight by Rachael and Karl's wedding. My goal is to loose about 13-15lbs a month and that would put me right around 230. It may sound like a lofty goal, but I think it can be done. My mom on several occasions has used a quote from Henry Ford to try and motivate me; " you can or you cant, either way you're right." Succeeding is my only option..

NO Food Tastes as Good as Getting Into Shape FEELS!

Well I know today is not Monday, but I wanted to make a quick post and let you know of my progress. I am only suppose to weigh myself every Monday, but I needed a motivator yesterday so I weighed myself. I am down 7.5lbs to 299.5 just since the beginning of the week. I was having a really tough day Friday. I was really craving pizza. I talked with my friend at work that is helping me get into shape and he said I should have one cheat meal a week with a small treat of sorts. So tonight I had a Chipotle burrito without cheese, sour cream, or guacamole. I know it sounds fattening, but it is surprisingly not that bad compared to whats out there. I did not finish the whole thing. I was full allot sooner than usual. I also had one cookie which was amazing; I could have eaten a dozen more. Don't worry everyone, I am not loosing my motivation what so ever. I realized that by having one cheat meal a week and a small desert, that it would give me something to look forward to every week. I would not have been able to sustain that strict of diet for 8 months without having a little wiggle room. I only consume about 1200 calories a day and very very few carbs, maybe 5 grams. The task does not seem so daunting when I know I have one meal a week to enjoy.

My good friend Justin sent me a pedometer that counts how many miles I walk a day and how many calories I burn as well. This is an awesome help; my goal is to burn between 1200 and 1500 calories a day.

Despite having to adjust my diet to allow one cheat meal a week, I feel I have been very good at keeping my cravings in check. I am still motivated as ever and hope to reach my goal sooner than before. I would like to thank every one for checking the blog and leaving comments, it does really help with the motivation and accountability factor. I will make another post on Monday...

On Your Mark, Get Set, GO!

Well today is day one of what could be a very long and grueling next few months. Today I have officially started the diet. I am using a diet that was created by a friend of my brother in law. It is your basic protein diet, but I have modified it a bit to make it more realistic for me. It consists of about 12oz of chicken, vegetables, fruit, almonds, eggs and string cheese; split up throughout the day. It totals about 1600 calories and very few carbs. My intent is not to have a carbfree diet, but I would like to go at least the first month without eating very many. For now my exercise consist of running 45min a night on the treadmill, along with some weight training and sit ups and pull ups. As I progress in my diet, I plan on becoming more aggressive with the weight lifting part. I have always liked to run, but I have never been much of a weight lifter; however a friend at work is providing me with pointers on the weight lifting part. My goal is eventually to be able to go to the gym with Spencer (my brother in law) and not feel like a little girl. He has tried to provide me with work out plans in the past, but they are way beyond my skill set at this time.
My goal is to be down to 195lbs by the end of June 2009. That gives me about 8.5 months to loose about 110lbs. It is hard to believe I was at that weight just a few years ago, but that's what happens when you stop working out and begin eating like it was your job or something.
I just got done doing my running and I thought it was going to be a lot more difficult than it was. I have done diets in the past, and they always seem to leave me so drained, that it is sometimes hard to work out. I will weigh my self again next Monday and follow it up with another post. I am just taking it day by day right now. If I think to much about how hungry I am, I will find myself at Filibertos' drive through tonight, why Mary is asleep. I may decide to post some more this week if I feel I need to take my mind off food. Keep the comments coming....

Does this shirt make me look fat?

Well folks the time has finally come; I am officially tired of being out of shape and am serious about taking action. Those of you who know me know that I have had several failed attempts at dieting since I got married. I would get the determination to start the diet but sooner or later I would find myself driving down the road with a big gulp in one hand and a burrito in the other, hoping that nobody would find out. Man I love burritos, in fact I had one today for breakfast, but that is all going to change starting now. Well not really now, but in about a week. I am waiting on a diet plan from a friend at work.

This is the purpose of this blog. I figure that one of the main reasons I never was successful with loosing weight was that I did not really have to answer to any one. Sure I had Mary there to support me, but I knew that she would love me no matter what. It is my hope that this blog will allow people to monitor my progress and hold me accountable for my actions.

The plan is to track my weight loss progress with weekly updates and monthly pictures. (Sorry I wont be shirtless) For any of you that visit the site, feel free to leave messages, inspirational quotes, or even insults; what ever it takes to keep me motivated.

I currently weigh about 307lbs, I use the word "about" because on a good day I weigh about 306. My goal is to get somewhere close to 200lbs. I plan on accomplishing this in a year or less, so we are in for a long ride. Like I said before I will officially be starting as soon as I get my diet and work out plan. I will post a new blog on the day I start and at least one every week there after. Remember it is up to you guys to keep my honest, so check in regularly.