Still going.......

Oh boy......

I've been busy, busy, busy the past week.

I started working overnights (10pm-6am) and ALSO subbing from 8-3. The bad thing is I am tired all the time, the two good things, its a lot of money AND it helps with the diet.

I only need to lose 1.4 lbs this week to hit the 30LB mark.

My wife and I are going to Philly for a few days this week so I am going to take advantage of the cheat days I haven't been using and treat myself to a Philly cheese steak and a Philly pretzel. I am not going to go crazy eating but I am going to enjoy what Philly has to offer. I also figure we will be walking EVERYWHERE so I should be able to indulge a little and still be good.

My hotel has a gym and a pool so I will take advantage of that to help my cause.

Last but not least, I ran a 10 minute mile this week. The first week I went to the gym I couldn't even run for 2 minutes let alone a mile!!

Have a great Easter everyone!

Weight Loss Update.............

So I started this joy ride on February 22, 2010.

As of today, March 26, 2010, I have lost 23.4 pounds!!

Feel a lot better than I did a little over a month ago.

I still have a LONG way to go so keep checking back to see how I am doing.

Have a great weekend!

-Bryan

Does Eating Healthy Matter for Weight Loss??

Hey Everyone!

I want to apoligize for not posting in a while. I've been busy working and pumping iron in the gym!! I should go over the 20 lb mark for weight loss this week which is very exciting!

I thought I would share this article with everyone. I found it very interesting.

http://www.intense-workout.com/clean_eating.html

I will post again on Friday (my weigh in day) with my OFFICAL weight loss so far!!


Keep Fighting the Good Fight!!


P.S. One more thing, the picture floating around of me on Facebook is really me :x. I am eating a big bowl of nachos and cheese, and they were really F'n good! This picture was taken in the beginning of Feburary BEFORE I started this blog and my current lifestyle. So if you were trying to catch me cheating, TRY AGAIN!!!!

I'm on the JUICE...............Well Crystal Light anyway.....

Big shout out this week to Kraft Foods, maker of Crystal Light. I have always drank this ice tea but every time I go off the deep end of eating I tend to forget about it. The first two weeks of this journey I saw myself drinking a bit too much diet soda. I know diet soda isn’t the best for you so I decided to bring the powdery goodness of Crystal Light back to the forefront of the fridge. Crystal Light is a very good alternative to diet soda or other high calorie fruit drinks. From the tangy sweetness to the tart fruitiness, each deliciously refreshing and moisture replenishing flavor gives you what you need to water your body (pure plagiarism). I am officially putting my seal of approval on the Crystal Light Ice Tea. Let me know if you recommend any other flavors.

On to the past week and few days, it was another strong week. As I said in my last post I joined the local gym and have got into a pretty nice routine. It feels good to be back at a gym working out. I have a feeling of accomplishment when I walk out of there. I also had the same feeling of accomplishment when I was sitting on my fat ass and went up each level of Call of Duty-Modern Warfare 2 for the PS3. I think the gym feeling is a little better for my health.

I don’t know about you, but I am always wondering what people are listening to on their IPods at the gym. Are they listening to hardcore rap? Country? Pop? Bluegrass? Polka?

So I am going to unleash my gym Top-10 for all of you wondering, and I know there are a lot of you!

10.Outkast-Rosa Parks-It’s got a good beat and its educational J

9. Kayne West-Can’t Tell me Nothing

8. Jay-Z- Empire State of Mind-

7. Pitbull-I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)

6. Day 26- Got Me Going

5. Swizz Beatz-No Money in the Bank- Story of my life..

4. System of the Down-BYOB- Crazy Song

3. Keith Urban- You Look Good in My Shirt- KU is the man

2. Scorpions-The Zoo- Pretty bad ass jam

1. Metallica-Enter Sandman

So there you have it, my Top 10 songs to jam out to in the gym. I would love to hear what you enjoy listening to.

Along the lines of listening to music while working out, besides the use of duct tape, does anyone have a solution for your ear phones not coming out of your ear every 15 seconds?


Anyway, that’s it from me for now. I will try to have another entry this weekend.

-Thanks for reading!!

One Week of Fighting the Good Fight.........

Week one has come to an end. I normally find the first 3 to 4 weeks to be very hard. I think it is my body getting used to not eating so much. I felt the hungry pains quite a bit this week. For some reason it is the worst in between breakfast and lunch. It seems like every day around 10-11 my stomach is screaming at me to feed it.

There were a few things looking back at the past 7 days I think I could improve on. For example I went to Subway 3 times this week. Each time I got a foot long instead of a 6 incher. Next time I really need to stick with the 6 inches of glory instead of adding the extra unneeded calories. I don’t really consider Subway “going out to eat”. Most of the time I can get a free sub because I have endless Subway points, and where else can you get something so delicious for so cheap? I will continue to “Eat Fresh”, just 6 less inches of it.

My colossal mistake came on Saturday night. The wife and I were out shopping for a while and both of us were hungry. We should have $5 Dollar, $5 Dollar, $5 Dollar foot long and split it. Instead we went to Pizzera Uno. I thought I made a good selection by ordering this chicken stuffed with spinach and a bunch of other crap. It was good but I failed to realize that it came smothered in alfredo sauce. I tried to avoid as much of it as I could but the damage was still done. I am not trying to being a complete diet Nazi but I know anything that is white and creamy should not be swallowed (That’s what she said). I’m talking about alfedo, mayo, and any kind of creamy dressing. I try to avoid them as much as possible but I love ranch so I try to stick with a low fat version when I absolutely have to have it.

It’s actually refreshing to look back at the past week and see where I need improve and things I could have done differently.

It’s funny that I love to eat unhealthy so much because I had some really great meals this week. The best meal was one I whipped up for myself and the wife. She loves potatoes, any kind you can name. Baked, mashed, smashed, frenched, you get the point. I on the other hand am not a big fan, I like the frenched version but really do not like the other kinds. Anyway, so I got two baking potatoes. I cut the skin off, and then cut them in to slices that resembled French fries. I threw them into a strainer and washed them under cold water. Then I got a baking sheet out and sprayed it with that non stick stuff and put the fries onto the pan. So your thinking these are going to be bland French fries right? WRONG! I kicked them up another notch by seasoning them with Emeril's Original Essence Seasoning. This stuff is top notch. Then put them in the oven for about 20 minutes at 400 and BAM, instant French Fries. They were pretty awesome. We also had a turkey burger with it, no bun though, to many carbs.

A few other things I had this week that I would recommend was Special K Fruit and Yogurt. This cereal is really good. Another good cereal I had this week was Banana Nut Cheerios. On the dinner side of things a good side I had this week was Green Giant Cheesy Rice and Broccoli. This stuff is really good. It only has two servings in the bag at I believe 150 calories a serving. I highly suggest any of these foods.

Anyone else have any good foods you enjoy??

Last but not least, yesterday I joined the local gym to get my sweat on. I really hate going to the gym. That’s the thing though, I just hate going, but once I am there it feels good to be doing something. I think my favorite part of going to the gym is listening to my Ipod. Next week I reveal some of my favoite songs, I bet you can't wait!

That’s it for this week. Thanks for checking it out!

And away we go......

Ok here goes, today is Sunday, February 21, 2010. I want this to be the last day of the fat, lazy, unmotivated person I have turned into. Saying I let myself go is an understatement. I have turned into a food crazed pig and just let my weight balloon to an all time high. I told myself after I graduated high school and got to about 340 pounds, that I would never let myself get this way again. This was in the summer of 2002. By the summer of 2003, I was 223 pounds at my lowest and felt absolutely amazing. I was able to shop at any store I wanted and did not have to worry about if things were going to fit me.


Slowly I started to put the weight back on. From about 2004-2008 I would fluctuate between 265 and 285. At this weight I was still over weight but I was comfortable with myself. After I got married I just stopped caring. My main problem is over eating and always wanting to go out to eat. What can I say, I have an addiction to food. My weight did not start to become a real problem until I moved out on my own. When I moved out I can remember being about 280. Instead of staying home and cooking, my wife and I found it much easier to just go out. Pizza, chinese, chicken wings, subs, chain restaurants. It was just so much easier to go out.


My weight started to increase. 290, 295, 300, 305, 310, 315, 320, 325, 330. I hit 330 and felt absolutely disgusting but kept eating. I kind of hit a plateau because I stayed around this range for quite a while, about a year to be exact. At this weight I couldn’t get clothes at regular stores, I had to resort to the Big and Tall, staying in the Big section of course. The only place I could get pants was on Old Navy’s website, which also has an exclusive Big and Tall section.


My wife and I made a decision to move south and that’s when things really hit rock bottom for me. Things didn’t work out for us down there and we moved back to the Empire State. We brought back some good memories and I brought back about 15 more pounds.


So as your reading this I am sure you’re wondering why is this idiot writing about being fat. Well, I have tried every sort of diet and nothing works for me. I have always known that these fad diets are just temporary fixes. That’s how I lost all the weight in ’02-’03, Adkins Diet.
What I need to do is change my life style. I need to be honest with myself and look myself in the mirror and say enough is enough. I am hoping that by writing these blogs, and sharing my successes and hard times with people who care, that it will help me get to where I need to get. So I am hoping to write 2-3 times a week. I would appreciate support, comments, suggestions from anyone who feels they have something to offer. I am sure I am not the only one who has a few LBs to lose so maybe I can motivate some of you as well.


So what I am going to start with is a couple reasons why I want to lose weight:


1. I am uncomfortable doing ANYTHING. I am out of breath doing stuff as simple as going up some stairs. I struggle to get up and down from chairs, couches, out of my car, its ridicules.


2. I want my clothes to fit me again. Currently I have one pair of jeans that fit and one pair of dress pants that fit and about 5 different shirts. Not only that I want to be able to go shopping again. Big and Tall stores are just enabling me to stay fat.


3. Being fat is embarrassing. I feel uncomfortable doing pretty much everything. It’s so bad now that I rarely take of my jacket. Essentially I am hiding behind my jacket. All of my friends are thin and in decent shape and it just embarrasses the crap out of me to be around them


4. I have two weddings to go to in August, one of them I am in. I don’t want to be the fat friend who looks bad in all the wedding pictures.


5. I play softball, starting in May. I play third base. The first season I played I did pretty well. Last season was terrible. I hit nothing more than a single because I was so slow. Being in the field was the same, about the only ball I could get were the ones hit right to me because I had no lateral movement.


6. I have man boobs. Enough said.


7. See reason 6.

I could go on and on with reasons but those are just a couple for now. As I think of more I will add them.


Anyway, I hope this doesn’t sound like a ramble and hope you understand why I am doing this.
Now, I wish I could take all this weight off by the end of the week but I know that is not happening. So my goal is to lose 2 pounds a week and about 8-10 pounds a month. Hopefully by the end of the year I can say I lost 100 lbs, again.


Tomorrow is not the first day of my diet, tomorrow is the first day of my life style change!

WISH ME LUCK...........