228.4 – Official Weigh-In

So I forgot to post my weigh in yesterday and I’m sorry that I did. Even though it wasn’t good, it was 226.0. Yesterday we had some friends over for dinner and to watch the Florida v. Kentucky game. We ate BBQ pork sliders, coleslaw, baked beans, and mac & cheese. In addition to that my buddy Will and I probably put down 10 beers a piece. What’s that spell? D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R. Woke up this morning a full 2 and a half pounds heavier than yesterday. I have the blessing/curse of being able to lose weight very quickly but also able to gain it just as fast.

The other day Rick posted something on my blog or texted me (I can’t remember), but he said something about how I initially created this blog for myself. I was doing it so Rick could see where I was and I could go back and read where I’ve been and what I was doing.  Somewhere along the way I was surprised to find that people were actually starting to follow my blog. Wasn’t sure how they even found it (still not sure to be honest), but I kept blogging as if it was just Rick and I reading it. Soon I hit 50 followers and I think I started blogging more for what I thought people wanted to read. Before long I crossed the 100 follower threshold and I had some personal things come up that all contributed to me losing sight of what this Fit Gator blog was really about. Me.

Rick was also right when he said that this was no longer a fitness/weight loss blog, but just a blog about some guy living his life. Not trying to get better or to lose weight or anything. That really hit home. I wasn’t exercising much. Wasn’t watching what I ate. Didn’t track calories. And basically I was just doing all the crap I used to do before I began my fitness journey.

Now my knee is jacked up. MRI is scheduled for Tuesday. Fearing that I may need surgery. My knee doesn’t hurt too much, but when I walk, it is a little tender, but what really gets me is when I’m walking and it locks up on me. I get a shooting pain from my knee down to my foot and it literally stops me in my tracks. It’s depressing because I see my weight creeping up higher and higher and now I can’t do any cardio. “What Next?” I think. Seems like I can’t catch a break.

But this blog is about rising above all this. Go back and read what is 1fitgator in the links above. It’s as much, if not more, about the mental struggles of overcoming obstacles as it is the physical ones. I need to beat this. So what… I can’t run or get on the elliptical. Ok. What can I do? well I can weight train – I can build my muscles and still burn calories. I can also quit eating shit. That’s priority #1. Stop the bleeding. Reverse the trend.

So I will need to be meticulous about inputting everything I eat into my fitness pal app. Track all my calories. I’ll continue to set my daily calories as “Weight x 8” but with the exception of if I’m still hungry between meals, that I can eat a piece of fruit. My daily calories based on today’s weigh in are about 1827. If I eat a couple extra pieces of fruit in addition to this, my daily intake will only be about 2000-2200 cals which is still low enough to help me lose weight.  By adding in the “optional fruit” I won’t be as hungry by the next time I eat a meal and therefore won’t get lazy and eat crap.

Sacrifice. Dedication. Victory.

224.2 – more of the same

This morning’s weigh in, 224.2.
About where I was on Monday.

Hurt my knee while down in Gainesville. It may be pretty bad. Have X-rays scheduled today. Meeting with an orthopedic surgeon tomorrow. Hoping for the best, preparing for the worst. Definitely unable to do any cardio currently. Knee hurts in about three different places. Sometimes it buckles on me. Sometimes it locks up on me. Either way, it sucks and doesn’t help my cause.

Fitness Redux

I recently redid my “Gator Tracking” tab up there at the top of the page https://1fitgator.wordpress.com/weight-tracker/ ‎ and saw how I progressively lost weight every week from early March to early June. I was a man on a mission. A machine that couldn’t be stopped. I had the formula for losing weight down. I sacrificed and I was dedicated and because of that I lost weight at a steady click for over two months.

But then I got derailed. I tried to hold on, but it was a losing battle. My heart wasn’t in it. My weight fluctuated at first – back and forth between 205 & 212 … And then I simply let go. I quit trying; I started half-assing it.  Eventually I fell back into old habits. Eating fast food, junk food, and sodas. Exercise and good nutrition have been sporadic at best.

But looking back on all that I accomplished has actually inspired me to do it again. But I can’t do this without a plan. I’ve been winging it and you see where that’s gotten me. Fat again. But I can’t dwell on the past. I can’t live in it either.

“Always Look Forward, Never Back!”

The Fit Gator Exercise Plan:

Sunday – (morning) Strength Training @ Gym; (night) Run

Monday – (afternoon) Focus T25; (night) Elliptical

Tuesday – (afternoon) Focus T25; (night) Strength Training @ Gym

Wednesday – (afternoon) Focus T25; (night) Run

Thursday – (afternoon) Focus T25; (night) Strength Training @ Gym

Friday – (afternoon) Focus T25; (night) Run

Saturday – (morning) Run; (afternoon) H.I.I.T.

*H.I.I.T. (aka High Intensity Interval Training) will either be sprints, jumping rope, or bike “sprints”

The Fit Gator Nutrition Plan:

Saturday Morning Weight x Eight (8) = Max Daily Calories allowed for the next seven days.

Eat: Vegetables, Fruits, Lean Proteins, Healthy Fats, and Whole Grains.

Avoid: Fried Foods, Fast Food, Soda, Candy, Cookies, Cakes (and the like).

Drink: Water, water, water (At least 64 oz daily)

220.0 – What Now?

So I weighed in at an astonishing two-hundred and twenty pounds this morning. I’m well off my target weights and somewhat spiraling out of control. I told myself I’d never let my weight get back into the 220’s, yet here I sit.

My diet has been shit lately (of course). It’s no big mystery how I gain weight back or how I stall my weight loss. All I have to do is look at what I’ve been eating. Laziness and complacency have been my biggest enemies.

As I’ve said in recent posts, the FitBet was supposed to create a sense of urgency to lose weight, but as I got behind on my weight loss, it became obvious that I won’t win the bet. Now I’m in limbo. I still want to lose the weight and get back to being fit, but I no longer have that beacon guiding me. It’s kind of like going to college but not knowing what you want to do with your life. You take some classes here and there to make it feel like you’re doing something, but you’re really just spinning your wheels because you don’t have that ultimate goal to guide your path.

It’s funny, because in a recent post I thought the constant reminder of the clock ticking and counting down to a deadline was too stressful, but it seems that’s exactly what I really need.

What’s my ultimate goal? I’m not really sure any more. I know I’d like to get my weight down to around 175. I’d like to be able to run races more often – not necessarily to compete against other people, but to set PRs for myself – although I would like to one day be competitive against Rick again. 

There are still many other fitness goals that I’d like to achieve (look under the tab “Gator Strong” above), but without an attainable fitness bet pushing me, I’m stuck taking classes without a major, so to speak. It’s not fair for me to ask Rick to postpone the FitBet Deadline again. He’s done about everything he can do to motivate me.

I had a major setback when my mother passed away, and it’s been tough getting back on the horse, although I do feel that I’m not that far away. I’m teetering. I just need that extra little Push. That incentive that will fire me up again. In the back of my mind I feel like I’ll ultimately reach my fitness goals, but without a time urgency (like FitBet) reminding me to “Get up and Go!” I’m simply continuing to slack and put it off like I had been doing for years leading up to the start of this blog.

Hoping to find resolution soon…

214.0 – Fighting Temptations

*I had a change of heart and decided going “underground” is not a good idea for me. It really will give me too much leeway to muck around and not do what I need to do to lose the weight. So I’ll be publishing my posts after all. Here’s one from Saturday…

 

Some of you may have read that Post headline and thought I may have beef with Lionel Richie, but as much as I hated “Dancing on the Ceiling”, I really don’t have an issue with the guy.

No I’m talking about the temptations that we all have to fight in order to get healthy and stay that way. Mainly the temptation to eat bad food. Let me rephrase that, eating food that may taste good but is bad for you. Or in my situation, food that hinders weight loss.  Fried food,  junk food, fast food, and soda are all major players in the poor nutrition arena.

It’s often easier to simply drive through a fast food restaurant than to grocery shop, prep, and cook food the healthy way.  Soda, loaded with sugar and empty calories, is a quick pick-me-up when you’re feeling tired and sluggish but is a big roadblock in weight loss efforts.

Then there is the temptation to skip a workout. Maybe you’re tired. Maybe you don’t have time. Maybe you’re feeling sluggish or just not feeling it that day. But you have to power through it. There are times when I’ve had a long day, but still have an Insanity workout looming. Do I want to do it? Hell no! But I force myself to do it anyway and I’m usually glad I did.

Here’s another recent temptation that I’ve been having to face lately.

My buddy Will, who just moved back to town, sometimes likes to go out and get some beers on occasion. The old me wouldn’t think twice about it. Grabbing some beers and shooting the shit with a buddy is fun. It’s relaxing and a good time. But now, I’ve got to concentrate on losing weight. Downing brewskis with my friends isn’t helping that cause. There will plenty of time for that down the road.

Here’s a recent text conversation between Will and me:

218.6 – Danger, Will Robinson

Warning!…  Warning!…  Danger, Will Robinson! 

After getting my weight as low as 205 and on the precipice of breaking back into the 100’s [Onederland] for the first time in nearly a decade and a half, I have dramatically put back on the weight. The reason can be summed up in three words: Diet, diet, diet. I weighed in on Tuesday (didn’t post it) at 214.2. Forgot to weigh in yesterday and last night Rachel and I made the not-so-smart decision to eat Hibachi from a local Japanese steakhouse. I’m sure I ate way too much (calorie wise) and the food is no doubt loaded with sodium.

So here I am … instead of breaking new ground into new frontiers, I’ve lost some serious ground. I’ve fallen off the edge of the fitness cliff, and I’m hanging precariously by a small vine (of hope). I need to stop the bleeding now. Once and for all.

Lately, breakfast has been the issue. I have to eat early since I work at 6am. I have been eating either cereal or PB&J toast with Orange Juice.  Then by 8am I’m usually starving again. Why? Because I’m not ingesting very much protein which helps to keep one fuller longer. Lots of carbs which I apparently burn right through. So then at 8 (I try to hold off until at least 9), I must eat some sort of snack. It used to be a protein bar, but I got burned out on eating those (they taste like crap after a while). So lately I’ve been eating some peanut butter crackers and a Coke (damn you evil soda). More carbs, no protein. As you can guess, that also doesn’t keep me full for long.

By the time my lunch break rolls around (usually around 11:30) I’m starving again. I get in my car and contemplate having to go to my house and take the time associated with actually make something healthy, but the growls from my stomach and mild nausea from being slightly hypoglycemic usually cause me to head to a nearby restaurant instead. It’s quicker to satiate my appetite and hunger. And although I’ve been trying to avoid the usual pitfalls of fast food like McDonald’s or Zaxby’s I do find myself getting Subway or Chick-Fil-A. But I haven’t been stringent about making those meals healthy. At Subway, I’ll generally get chips and a big sweet tea with what is usually a 6″ Tuna on wheat (But sometimes I opt for a foot long – although when that happens, I usually get full after eating about 75% of it).

Then I get off work at 3 and head home to do my Insanity workout. But the Insanity workouts are tough so I eat something for an afternoon snack, usually like a Nutragrain bar or something to give me a quick boost of energy. More carbs, no protein.

So now it’s 4:30. Workout is over. I’ve been up since 5am (likely went to bed too late, 11p or later as usual). I’ve worked all day til 3. I’ve worked out til 4:30. Then I have to pick up my daughter from camp. Home by 5. I’m exhausted, tired. Plop down on the couch to hang with my daughter for a few minutes and to actually take a much needed break. 5:30 hits and my wife is off work and heading to daycare to pick up our other daughter. “What’s for dinner?” she asks. Hell, I don’t know… I’m tired, and much like I do at lunch, the motivation to take the time to cook a healthy meal after my day so far seems quite unappealing. So what do we do? We order Hibachi. Ugh… I can hear me getting fatter just by talking about this…

Dinner’s over. Kids need to be bathed. Laundry needs to be done. Rooms need to be picked up. Dishes washed. Trash taken out… The list continues. Now it’s pushing 9 pm. Kids need to go to sleep, but fight and argue to stay awake and play. I really need to incorporate my night-time cardio workout that seemed to work so well for me – even if it’s now just to counter some of the negative effects I’ve caused by eating poorly. I am literally fighting to simply stay the same weight and not gain weight, don’t even think about losing weight at this pace.

But now more often than not, the late night cardio doesn’t materialize. Since I go to work so early, when the rest of my family sleeps, my wife is solely responsible for getting the kids up, fed, and off to their respective places-o-fun for the day. Often it’s a struggle for her just to make it to her job on time.  I can’t justify not helping her after dinner, cleaning up and helping with the chores which includes making sure the kids are bathed, teeth brushed and asleep. It’s not fair to her. She deals with the arguing and struggles by herself in the morning. Kendall, the eight year old is a piece of cake. She’s tired and wants to go to bed by 9:30 on her own. Drew, our three-year old wants to party until the sun comes up. We literally have to make sure everything is shut down and lights off for her to go to sleep. Otherwise she’s too distracted and stays awake and wants to play and talk and generally keep us from doing anything we want to do.  So we turn off the lights and lay down with her to get her to go to sleep and I’m so tired and exhausted from the day and poor diet already that I usually fall asleep before she does. I wake myself up, but now it’s usually too late to work out. Closing in on midnight. 

Day over. Fat 1, Andy 0.

Rinse and repeat.

Long post, I know… hang with me. It’s almost over. I’ve gotten to the point where I simply must force myself to eat clean. I have to change-up my diet to include more protein. I have to force myself to drink shit tons of water to stay hydrated and keep the hunger pangs at bay. I have to resist the urge to be lazy and instead make my lunches and dinners. Eat healthy foods. Keep a close eye on my calories and macros. Watch my diet like a hawk. Also need to shut things down earlier at night. Get the kids to sleep earlier, so I can go to the gym or running.

So today is Day 1 on the road to recovery. Like Rick says, I must make up lost ground before I can forge new ground. But I’m determined. I won’t let this beat me. I’ll persevere and succeed.

Hot! Hot! Hot!

Went for a run …. Ended up becoming a walk after 2 miles. Humidity and heat simply drained my energy. But I’m a “glass half full” kind of guy, so I look at it not as a failed attempt to run 5K distance but as calories burned on my quest to become fit and healthy.

I ran (& walked) with MapMyRun: Overall FitGator Distance: 4.48mi, time: 01:07:22, combo pace: 15:03min/mi, combo speed: 3.99mi/h.
http://mapmyrun.com/workout/321193965

210.4 – FitBet Side Bet

Fatty Fatty 2 x 4

So in an effort to knock me out of this “comfort” zone of 205- 211 lbs, Rick has proposed a side bet. Apparently he’s a few pounds heavier than he’d like to be, so he’d like to lose ~13 pounds to get back down to about 180. As of today he weighed in at 192.4 and I weighed in at 210.4 (a substantial 18 lbs heavier than Rick).

The side bet is to see who can lose 13 pounds the fastest. Who get’s there first. For those of  you who don’t like to do math, Rick must hit 179.4 or less, and I have to finally break through this plateau and finally get under 200 lbs to land on 197.4 lbs.

The loser buys the winner’s beer all weekend long when I go down to Gainesville for the Florida/Vandy Matchup the weekend of November 8-10.  I will be going to a couple of games before then (Toledo and Tennessee (shhh… don’t tell Rick about that one, it’s a surprise)) but I don’t want to take advantage of all the beer Rick is going to have to buy me, because FitBet will still be going on (since it was extended through Sept 28th). Some of you may remember that I lost a similar bet not too long ago when I didn’t quite hit my target weight before going down there earlier this year.

http://wp.me/p2U3tb-85

So it’s on like Donkey Kong! Unfortunately for Rico, he accidentally gave away the secret to truly losing weight when he posted this on my Facebook page! Now I can’t lose!

The Truth

210.8 – Success Breeds Complacency

Rick and I having a few beers while playing some darts this past Friday night.

Apparently beer is not an approved food on my “lose-weight-and-get-fit-diet.” Complacency is a bad word. I feel like I have been way too complacent lately and as such, I have not abided by my blog’s motto, “Sacrifice. Dedication. Victory.” SDV.

When I have been successful on this journey, it’s because I did sacrifice. I have sacrificed time – time away from sleep so I could exercise instead – early in the morning on weekends or late at night on weekdays; sacrificed time with friends and family – instead of going to a movie with a friend, I would hit the elliptical. Instead of hanging out and playing with my kids, I went to the gym. Instead of going on a date-night with my wife, I would instead choose to spend that time running around the neighborhood. I’ve sacrificed foods – junk foods, fast food, sodas, and other poor choices that were simply just easier to make. I’ve turned down invitations to go to restaurants with friends to make sure I avoided temptation. I’ve fought the urge to simply get fast food during my lunch break, instead opting to go to my house and take the necessary time to make healthy meals. I’ve sacrificed free lunch at work to eat something healthier. I’ve sacrificed soda which I used to drink multiple times a day. I’ve sacrificed sleep and I’ve sacrificed comfort. All in the name of losing weight, fitness, and getting healthy.

I’ve dedicated myself to a healthier lifestyle. I’ve gone to the gym or running the streets late at night on weekdays when I have to be at work at 6 am. I’ve been dedicated to eating right and avoiding eating poorly. I”ve been dedicated to staying hydrated by drinking tons of water each day. I’ve been dedicated to getting up early to exercise on weekends, even when it’s been too cold, too hot, or too rainy when it would have been so nice to just stay in bed.

When I’ve done all of these things, victory is imminent.  I would win at hitting my weekly target weight goals. I would win the battle against temptation. I would win at overcoming physical limitations that I used to have, like not being able to run a complete 5K without walking. I would win with confidence as people noticed and complimented me about my weight loss.  And I had no doubt that I would win the ultimate FitBet that was driving this journey. 

“Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive.”

For over a month I have been way too complacent. This is why I have stalled. This is why I haven’t broken into “Onederland” yet. Either you’re getting better or you’re getting worse. I must get better. No excuses. Time to rededicate myself to the FitGator mantra.

Sacrifice. Dedication. Victory.

209.6

I woke up this morning with my throat very swollen and closing. It concerned me enough that I went to the ER at 5:15 this morning.

The doctor wasn’t as concerned as I was. He gave me prednisone to reduce the swelling and a prescription for more then sent me on my way. This strep throat is a hoot, let me tell you.

Anyway, I’m above tomorrow’s target weigh-in weight by over two pounds. Fortunately for me I haven’t had much of an appetite today so keeping calories in check shouldn’t be an issue.

Hoping to get in my last chance workout tonight at the gym. Due to the strep I haven’t really been able to exercise very much the past three or four days. 😦