Old Enemy.....It Won!!!

Well I had plan last night during my sister's birthday dinner. She wanted Mazzio's so I wanted to just get the Couple's combo with a small pizza for me and a salad. The game plan was set and I wanted to stick to it. We went in and we ordered. Then my uncle said he was paying for everything so I ordered pizza for nothing because he ordered more pizza. We sat down, I ate my salad and waited for my small pizza. I wanted to half it with Krislynn because she likes sausage pizza. Well to make a long story short I ate all of my small sausage pizza. That wouldn't have been bad at all but there was more pizza to be eaten so I ate more. Then they brought out some cinnamon sticks so I had a couple of those and a piece of cookie cake. To sum up everything, I didn't come close to sticking to my plan and I ate like it was going out of style. There is just something about pizza that I love. I can't stand leaving pizza just sitting there, looking delicious and needing to be eaten. So pizza won last night. I gave in and it was good.

All that pizza sitting in my stomach made me gain some poundage. I am at 187 as of this morning. If you read my blog you will see that is a gain of 3 pounds! Just from last night! That's why I wanted to have a game plan.

We are leaving for Branson this evening. I am taking running stuff and so is my sister. We are going to make time to run. But Branson is known for its buffet's so that is another enemy that might win. Thank God I got this gym membership!

Until next time. Peace!

I Belong to a Club!

Well my sister and I joined Anytime Fitness yesterday. I'm pretty excited about it. No more running in the hotness of summer! But I am also kind of taken back a little bit. All those miles ran on the roads around my house. The countless laps around the Gentry track. The hills that I named because like they saying goes: "If the hill has a name then it's probably tough." I don't know who said that but I read it somewhere. It's not like I will not ever run outside again it's just that running outside was what I am used too. I don't know how I will feel about running on a belt driven treadmill. I have ran on treadmills before but they were at hotels we were staying at. This I'm actually paying for so I'm going to use them as much as possible plus all the other equipment and weights so I can start toning up. I might even start running with music again. I used to run without music for 1: so I don't mess up my breathing and 2: so I don't get hit by a car. Now that I don't have the cars to worry about and I think that I am far enough into running that I can control my breathing no matter what now.

We are going to run today for the first time at the gym. I got my gym bag ready to go. I am also playing basketball after I run. Last week we ran before I played basketball at JBU. Doing that and then playing basketball made me overheat a little bit when I got home. I always drink plenty of fluids but I had a bad headache afterwards. Running inside beforehand will hopefully help that not happen this week. It's still going to be hot outside playing basketball but I shouldn't overheat this week. Hopefully.

I weighed 185 today so I'm back on the downward slide which is good. I'm going to hit this gym thing hard so I should be back at 180 for sure within the next couple of weeks. I might even be a little under but 180 is my weight that I am going to stay around. Under or over a little bit won't worry me. I will just have to adjust how I eat so I can maintain.

Well that is all for today. I can't wait to use this gym but my heart will always have a soft spot for running outside in the heat. I did it a lot last year and I owe a lot to sucking it up and doing it. But now I'm at the weight I want to stay at so no need to kill myself if I can help it.

Until next time. Peace!

Off to the Gym We Go

Well I'm going to get a gym membership today. I ran yesterday after work and as much as I love running outdoors it was too damn hot! I killed myself last year running in the hot weather during the summer months but now I have the means to get a membership to a local gym so that is what I'm going to do. My sister and possibly my wife is getting a membership as well. So that is what I will be doing today after work. I think tonight I will run one last time in the outdoors but tomorrow we will run at the gym before basketball. JBU track has served us well so far and we will run it again. Same with all the other roads that I have ran. I don't plan on never running them again, I just like running in the afternoon. Running then gives me a chance to unwind after work but now that the temperatures are rising I just don't like running in the heat.

I weighed 186 this morning so I dropped 2 pounds already. That makes me happy. We are going back to Branson this weekend and where we are staying there is a hiking trail so I think that I will take my running shoes and run the trail. Plus we plan on swimming a lot so this weekend I should be able to watch all that I eat since weekends are the hardest times for me to watch what I eat. You would figure by now I could control it but there is just much different foods readily available so I constantly snack. If I plan to maintain my 180 weight this is a part of me that I will have to contain.

 I don't really have much to say outside of me getting a membership today so I guess that will be all of this post.

Until next time. Peace!

Back to "Doing Work!"

I'm back to blogging now. I took a little hiatus from here but now it's time to get back to work. I have been enjoying the 180 mark for long enough now. I hit 180 and it was great because of all the hard work that I put into it but now it's time to get back to 180 and work on staying there. I have not been eating as well as I should so that I can maintain that weight. I have been eating way too much this past week and that has to stop now. It was good, believe me, but now it's back to running. I weighed 188 this morning. I wasn't shocked because I knew with all I ate I would be up there. I told my wife that from this week on I am going to work hard to maintain my goal weight but first I have to get back to it. That should be they easy part because maintaining is going to be hard. I'm going to have to accept the fact that this is my life now. I wanted it and now I got it and now I have to keep it. Anyone that I talk too has said that maintaining weight is the hardest part of dieting and I agree.

So I am going to be blogging regularly from now on out. I'm not stopping because my Road hit the goal weight I set, I need to keep blogging so that I can be held accountable for living my healthy lifestyle that I chose to live. 

This weekend was great, mind you. I wasn't forced to eat the way I did. I did it because I could. My wife and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary on Saturday and we went out to her favorite Italian restaurant. We had appetizers, I had possibly the best dish I have ever ordered and we had dessert. It was good, every single bite of it. It took me back to when I could eat whatever I wanted. Then yesterday my father in law had a family reunion and they had barbecue and it was also delicious. Every bite I took this weekend was good and I enjoyed every last one. It was a good weekend.

But now it's Monday and I need to get back to my goal weight. This time there won't be any celebrating or any eating out because I've done that already. Now when I hit my weight again it will be for the long haul. That is where I want to be, the reason I set out on this Road, and now I will have to fight to keep that weight and I will. I will do whatever it takes to stay where I am at. It has been entirely too much hard work to ruin what I have and what I have accomplished. I will not take this for granted by thinking "Oh, well, I can always just run it off." I know people who can't just run it off and they struggle with it everyday. I am fortunate that I can do what I do. I am fortunate that I can take off and run whenever I like and I will not be one of the people who get complacent and start to gradually fall off the horse and go down the road back to where they once were. That is not me. 

It's time again to do work. I will lose this 8 pounds that I gained. Once there, I will get my gym membership and start changing my body. I will start eating the right kind of fuel my body needs. I will get back there again. It's time to run hard and sweat. 

Until next time. Peace.

P.S. I will start writing again on my story. I will post the next part when it's complete. 

Road to 180: From There to Here Part 4

Well I weight 185 now. So I'm on my way to getting back to 180 and this time there will be no celebratory eating because I have already done that! I ran 2 miles yesterday and it was hot! Today I run with my sister than, hopefully, play some basketball. There hasn't been a lot of players the last couple of weeks. That sucks. Maybe that will change. 

Here is the next part to my story. This is as far as I have written so far. I will finish it and keep posting it as I go along. I hope you have liked my story so far. 

Lance Armstrong (April)

                This month had Lance Armstrong on it which is an inspiration of mine. Everything he accomplished after being struck by cancer. The battle he faced and the will to live he had is awesome. I knew this was going to be a good month. I wrote across Lance’s face the words “Stay Determined.” This comes from one of my favorite songs by Mudvayne called Determined. When I first started running I listened to my iPod when I ran and that was a song that I would always play when I felt like quitting. It helped a lot to have a song that picked me up and made me not quit.  I don’t run with music anymore since I have become more focused on my breathing and music messes it up for me. I still think of that song though when I get to a point of quitting.

                April was full of running because the 5k was at the end of the month. My goal was 255. I was so into running that I went on ahead a bought my first pair of Nike running shoes from the Shoe Dept. I liked them much better than the shoes that I got from Wal-Mart but I still have a special place for those shoes because they got me to that point in my running life.

                I looked at the training schedule and it was set out before me like the month before with intervals that I had to follow in order to get to 3 miles but I had a thought in my head that I could already do 3 miles if I wanted too. So I did! I ran 3 miles in forty minutes! I couldn’t believe it! After that point I took the schedule and modified it to match my running. I was in the advanced stages of the training schedule so I was running almost 3 miles every time I ran now. On Saturday the 9^th of April we had a bachelor party for my friend. There was a lot of beer and burgers. I knew that I was blowing what I had worked so hard to achieve but I had so much fun that night. The next morning not so much but that night was a blast. I had on my calendar that I was going to run two and a half miles that Sunday but that didn’t pan out for obvious reasons. On the following Monday I weighed and I was where I started the month at 267. I was bummed but I knew that was the price I paid for having a good time but I was totally worth it. That Monday I ran the furthest I ever had: 3.2 miles in forty-five minutes. I was stoked to say the least. I continued working on the three mile mark while doing short distances in between. I knew that I would be ready for this 5k as long as this training stayed consistent.

                The Friday before the 5k we had the hardest rain we have had in a long time. It rained consistently for five days and completed ruined my training schedule! I was so worried that I wouldn’t be able to do the 5k. I couldn’t believe that a monsoon would hit a week before one of the biggest days of my life! The Wednesday before the 5k I finally had a chance to run and I did a 5k distance in 36 minutes. I was trained! I thought of one of my favorite quotes from Man on Fire: “There are only two kinds of people in this world: trained and untrained.” I was trained, Denzel, I was trained. I took Thursday and Friday off from running to give my legs some rest before the big day. It helped but the course we ran was a beast and I thought there was a chance that I would have to stop and not finish it non-stop. It was time for the Siloam Springs Dogwood Festival 5k.

Dogwood Festival 5k

                The morning was perfect. A light wind was blowing. A bit of dew was on the grass and my stomach felt like I was going to throw up! I was so nervous about running this 5k. I knew that I was trained for it but did I do enough to finish this hard course? Did I push myself enough? My shoes were broke in just enough for me to run in them. I almost messed up and bought my shoes too late to where they wouldn’t be broke in and my feet would feel it. Luckily I had two friends in the run so I didn’t feel alone. I did my normal pre-run routine of stretching. I don’t stretch all that long so I was still stuck standing around thinking about what I could have done differently with my training. I hoped the few days that the rain kept me from running didn’t hurt me. I signed in and got my t-shirt. I pinned the number to my running shirt and walked to the group of runners waiting at the start line.

                I found my friends and lined up next to them. I didn’t say much because I was so nervous about what laid ahead of me. I didn’t want to be last, I kept telling myself that. Don’t be last! The guy with the gun walked up to the line and waited. I clicked my watch over to stopwatch and was ready to push the start button. Then boom! The gun went off and we started!

                I took off down the first stretch of road a pretty fast pace, a lot faster than usual, partly because my friends were running at a pretty good pace and I wanted to keep up and partly because I wanted to stay up with big group. I didn’t want to be last. This pace would come back and kill me later. I turned the first corner and a small hill was in front of me. I concentrated on my breathing, I didn’t bring my iPod because I didn’t know if other people would have or not, and to by surprise almost everyone did! I had to think about my breathing and I wasn’t used to running without tunes. This is a big reason I don’t run with music as well now because I didn’t want to have to rely on music to get me through runs. It’s good to think about music to calm down but I didn’t want to have to have it to run.

                I passed the small hill with little effort but the next part was a long slow hill that went up what seemed forever. I started to slow at this point. My friends were way ahead of me and the big group was starting to thin out as the fast runners were going far ahead. I knew at that point I was alone and I had to do this myself. The pace I was going at was faster than I was used to so I slowed down to what I ran like but I expelled a lot of energy trying to run like everyone else. I knew that I was going to place in this race but for some reason I didn’t want to do poorly. I don’t think like that anymore. I know that the whole reason for running 5k’s is to defeat that little voice in your head that wants you to quit, not try to beat everyone else, especially when I am not a speed runner by any means. I finally got to the top of the hill, by this time the fast runners were already on their way back. I remember one of them telling me good job and to keep going. That helped a lot because the next part was hell to say the least, a lot of small hills before the turnaround. I buckled down and kept putting one foot in front of the other. My friends passed me going the other way. I felt like I was doing badly but I had to keep thinking to myself that finishing is the biggest reward of this run. I just wanted to finish. The turnaround came and I knew that I had about a mile and a half left. I got through the small hills and back on the big hill but this time it was downhill and I felt relieved. I knew that I was in the back of the pack and my family was waiting for me. I picked up my pace as much as I could and kept trucking. There was a small group of JBU students lining the side of the road and they were cheering on the people going past them. When I came up on them I asked if I was in the lead. They laughed and said yeah. That little exchange lifted my spirits a little bit and I knew that if I threw up at the finish line then I was going to throw up but I was not going to stop. Nothing was going to stop me from finishing this 5k. I straightened up my posture and took the final turn to the finish line. I could see it in the distance, about a quarter of a mile away. I could see my wife holding my baby and my mother and father in law standing there. That gave me all the strength I needed and I finished the first 5k of my life!!! It felt so good to cross that line and finally be able to catch my breath. I did it in 38.38. I was happy with that time, hell I was happy that I wasn’t last! After the race we went and walked around the Dogwood Festival and to cap off the great day I just had, we had to go buy a new tire because we had a flat! It was a good day.

                I didn’t hit my goal weight of 255 that month but by the next Monday I was at 255. I ended April at 257 but I did a 5k and I was proud of that.


Until next time. Peace!

Golf Swing and Road to 180: From There to Here Part 3

Well I ran yesterday and played golf. The running was the better of the two. It is so hard now to play golf because my swing is gone. The reason being I'm not as big as I once was so the swing I used when I was bigger doesn't work now because the mechanics have changed. I used to have to swing further away from my body and it worked. Now I try that and it no longer works. My irons are ok, my fairway woods are horrible and I can't drive anymore. If someone would have sat me down before I did this weight loss and told me that I would have a hard time golfing and it make me start not liking the game I probably would have thought twice about starting. It's going to take a long time to find a golf swing again and I just don't know if I want to invest that time into doing it. Makes me mad.

But anyway I weigh 186 now. Lost a pound and back on the losing path. Should be easy now to get back to 180. I need to look up prices for a membership to a gym so I can start the second part of my journey. Without further ado, here is part 3 of my story. I hope you are liking this story so far. I am posting both February and March. Here you go:

Tito Ortiz (February)

                I didn’t weigh until the 2^nd of February which was a Wednesday. I was at 299. My boss had already gone out and had a double cheeseburger and everyone who was in the challenge already turned back to the way they used to eat. After the double cheeseburger, my boss stuck with it for a little while longer. He stuck to salads at lunch and eating well for dinner but like everyone else he fell off the bandwagon later on.

                It was on this day that I decided that my goal, even though it was a lofty one, was I wanted to get to 200 pounds by the end of the year. That would be 123 pounds to lose. That was the biggest challenge that I ever laid in front of myself. I never thought that I would have the will power or discipline to do something like this. I knew that 100 pounds would be awesome so I also decided that I would reward myself if I reached this weight. My favorite burger place was, as I said before, Dairy Deal in Salina. That would be my reward for 100 pounds lost. I would be able to get me a cheeseburger and fries from Dairy Deal. I couldn’t wait to have another burger from there.

                I stayed with the calorie counting for two weeks into February. Once two weeks had passed that is when I started to incorporate running. Of course I couldn’t run the distances I can now. It consisted of walking a lap and running a lap. Before I could get down to running I bought a cheap pair of running shoes from Wal-Mart. I wanted to make sure that I was going to stick to this running thing before I drop some real money on a good pair of shoes.

                The first mile that I actually put under my feet was the first of many miles to come. I could only run a lap then I had to walk a lap. I did that for my first mile and it took me almost sixteen minutes to complete. I was pretty proud of myself. I was 296 pounds so my feet and legs took a beating from all that weight coming down on them but they held up and took me across the finish line of my first mile. I tried to run every other day but my legs, since I was starting out, needed a couple of days of rest before I could go at it again. My next mile was a little over fourteen minutes but it still consisted of running/walking.

                My cheap running shoes served me well during February and way into March and April. I knew that I wanted to keep up running because it was taking more weight off me more that eating good did. By the end of the month of February I was at 286. I started putting goal weights on the last day of the months in pink numbers. My goal was 288 so I hit that. February came and went pretty quick. There are a lot of birthdays in February and I did well on eating at each of the cookouts and dinners we had. I was ready to face the upcoming months.

Simon Dumont (March)

                I wrote down 260 for my goal weight for March. I was now able to run a full mile at the track without stopping. I remember the first time I did my first nonstop mile. I was dripping sweat and gasping for air but I wasn’t dying by any means. I felt I could have gone further. I was running miles in about twelve and a half minutes. It was around the beginning of the month that one of my co-workers asked if I wanted to try to run a 5k. I ran it through my mind for about thirty seconds before I said yes. It was in April at the Dogwood Festival in Siloam Springs. I had two months to train. I researched and found a training schedule that was eight weeks long and it coincided perfectly with the amount of time I had to train. I started training immediately.    

                The training was called “Couch to 5k.” It started out with the notion that you already could complete a mile of running non-stop so that is where it started from. I was doing a mile in little over twelve minutes at this point. I took down my calendar and filled it in with the schedule that I would need to follow in order to finish the 5k I was going to do. As I looked at it after I filled it out I thought to myself how can I do this? I thought that I might have bitten off more that I could chew. A month ago I couldn’t even run a full lap and even though I was at a mile non-stop I didn’t think that I could get to three miles non-stop. But of course I didn’t get to where I am now by thinking like that for long. I analyzed the different distances I would be covering and started off. I was at 286.5 when I started this training and I knew that I would be losing a lot of weight because I am now going to be running further than I ever imagined I would be able to.

                March ran by quick because it was so hectic trying to follow this training schedule. Luckily I had a good babysitter through all of this training so I could keep to it religiously. I remember my legs were getting stronger from all this running and my clothes started to get baggy on me. I had to ask for a smaller size for my work uniform which was great! The only thing is I was losing weight so quick that once those sizes came in I was already ready for a smaller size! I could notice a big difference off my body when I looked at myself in the mirror. The big belly I had was getting smaller and my double chins were disappearing. It felt so good to know all this hard work was staring to pay off.

                By the end of March I was running 2.25 miles in about thirty minutes. I didn’t quite hit my 260 mark for that month because of the muscles I was building in my legs. I still lost weight though. I was at 267 at the end of the month and well on my way to running my first 5k ever. 

Tomorrow's post will be a good one. It has the story of my first 5k ever in it. Until next time. Peace

Road to 180: From There to Here Part 2

Well this weekend has been great to say the least. I finally got to eat! I told my wife that I ate like it was my first weekend out of prison! But alas, Monday is here and back to work I go. I gained some weight but I'm not mad by any means but the celebrating is over. I got to get back down then this week I am going to see about getting a gym membership so I can start the second part of my transformation and that is toning up. I weight 187 as of today but that weight will fly off. I am back to running hard and my sister project now has a goal weight so I will be working hard with her to get her to where she wants to be. The rest stop on this road has been fun but now I'm "On the road again." Here is the second part of my book. This covers January:

Michael Phelps (January)

                I noticed how weight started to come off of me pretty quickly because of the amount of calories that I cut out. I read somewhere that 1000 calories cut out of a diet is equal to a pound a week. I cut out 2000 and it pretty much rang true. I started out changing how I ate. I figured if I started getting good, healthy food in me, when I start running I will have fuel to do so. Again research came into play. I found out about good carbs, proteins, fruits and vegetables. I dropped pop altogether. The year before I quit smoking so I figured I could quit pop pretty easy since nothing is harder than quitting smoking. At least that’s what I thought.

                So there I was on Monday, my money in hand and ready to give it to the pool for this challenge. I wanted to win it so bad and prove to myself that I can do this and stay with it. Fast food was going to be tough to get rid of since I pretty much lived on it for all my life. I read about which fast food places I could eat at and still eat healthy and almost all of them were no fly zones! I did some reading on Subway and found out it was one of the best places to eat for low calorie, low fat food. I could do Subway, I actually liked Subway but the sandwich that I would always get wasn’t on the list of sandwiches I could get there. Pretty much I was stuck with chicken, ham, turkey, and that was about it. No mayo, only mustard and I couldn’t give up the cheese because I got to have a little flavor. I pretty much lived at Subway for the biggest part of my weight loss.

                I made the decision early on that I wouldn’t take anything that would help in my weight loss such as appetite suppressants, fat burners, or anything else that would give me an edge. I wanted to do this the hard work way. I felt that I would be more proud of myself if I could get there without having help. I started taking a multivitamin and that was it. I took it for a little more energy when I started to run. Looking back I’m glad I didn’t have to take anything because when people ask what I did to lose weight I can say truthfully that I did hard work and eating healthy. No miracle drug or get trim quick diet.

                I weighed in and started changing my life. Breakfast consisted of Cheerios or Corn Flakes, water and fruit. Lunch was salad with Italian dressing, boiled eggs and cottage cheese. Dinner was usually Subway or whatever my wife cooked but since she was behind me all the way on this it was more than likely chicken or lean meat with more veggies. Nothing fried or cooked in butter.

                The first week went by quick just trying to get into a groove of eating different. I didn’t want to run until I was comfortable about my eating habits. When we would go out to dinner I would check where we were going to eat to see what I could have. Every dinner out started with a drink order of water. That was strange at first. My drink of choice was Pepsi or Dr. Pepper and that would be the first thing I would tell the waiter/waitress. Now it’s water, no lemon, water, no lemon. It’s second nature now.

Once I bought my calendar I wrote down my starting weight on the Monday we started. The next Monday rolled around and I was ready to see what cutting calories would get me and was I surprised!!! Ten pounds! I could tell my body was “detoxing” from all the bad stuff I was putting into it. I found that I would wake up in the morning more ready to go than normal. I found that I wasn’t tired all the time anymore. I didn’t feel like I was a blob who only ate bad food whenever I wanted. I felt like I was accomplishing something. Again, through research, I found out that overweight people who want to lose weight do better when they weigh every day instead of once a week. The notice of what you are doing by seeing pounds go off the scale gives people more drive to keep going and believe me, it’s true. Every time I would step on the scale and see another pound gone I would feel so good about myself. I lit up knowing I was finally going in the right direction.

Well I kept the calorie cutting up for the rest of the month hoping that it would be enough to win this challenge but in the back of my mind I knew that my boss was running already but I was not. I was losing weight faster than him but it didn’t matter when it came to the percentages. If it was a straight weight loss challenge I had it in the bag. By the third week in I was down to 305. That would be 18 pounds down. I felt I was doing well but every day we would check this website that would calculate our weight loss to a percentage and I was losing barely to my boss. The final week was coming up quick and without a running regiment in place I knew that I would probably lose but not by much.

The final weigh in came on a Monday the 31^st. I weighed 300 exactly but even though I dropped 23 pounds in a month it wasn’t enough to win the challenge. I wasn’t too mad about it because I knew that I was on a road that I wanted to stay on. I knew that once I started running I would be able to really see a difference in my appearance and feel it in my health. At the end of the challenge I made a decision to keep going, to see where I could take this weight loss thing. I knew that it would be the best decision for my family for me to get healthy so I could be in their lives as much as possible. I lost the challenge but the biggest challenge lay ahead of me and I was well on my way to accomplishing something big.

Again, leave comments and I will post February tomorrow. Until next time. Peace. 

Dairy Deal and Road to 180: From There to Here

The Best Burger Ever!

Well I got to go to Dairy Deal last night and enjoy this delicious slice of heaven! It was just as good as I remember it. I didn't even care what I weighed this morning because I was still happy I got to eat my 180 meal. I weighed 181.5 so it added a pound and a half but well worth it I must say. I am running today with my sister so I have no worries about it. Now it's back to eating healthy but I can start eating a little more portions of healthy food. Now I will be on maintain mode. I don't mind going between 180 and 183 because either way it's still 140 pounds from where I started from. When I start lifting I will start to see weight gain but it will be muscle pounds which is totally fine with me. It was so good!!!

Well I told you, my readers whom I appreciate greatly, that I was writing down my story so maybe some how, some way I might be able to get it out there so I could possibly help people who are getting into weight loss and want to know the views and opinions of someone who has done it. I said that when I hit 180 I would put in my blog the parts that I have written. So I will. I am going to break it up into months that I have written so that these blog entries won't be too long. I started writing this as a rough outline and I plan on finishing it and putting in, as my friend once called it, fluff to make it longer and more enjoyable to read. Hopefully you all like it. Don't be afraid to leave me comments on this blog so I know what I can change or what parts you like. With out further ado, my story:

Road to 180: From There to Here

                3 pairs of shoes and countless hours running, two watches to keep time and plenty of Vitamin Water Zero, 143 pounds gone. Another whole person lifted off my body. I have come very far on this road but how did I get here? What did I do that other people said I couldn’t? How could I keep on going knowing that 180 pounds was 143 pounds away when I started? This is the story of my road, the road that I took to get to 180 and the many roads I ran to get there. The many miles I put under my feet and on my 3 pairs of shoes, the dedication and set backs of my Road to 180.

The Beginning

                New Year’s resolutions come and go for most people. People get it in their mind that they are going to change something about themselves they don’t like or something that will make them a better person. We all have done it. The entire day of New Year’s Eve we sit and ponder what can I do this next year that will change who I am? Quit smoking for some, eat better for others, be nicer, or help somebody every day. To some it’s the dreaded weight loss resolution. I’m going to drop 20 pounds and stay on track with exercise and eating healthy. That’s a tall order for most because after week 2 you are starving and burned out of exercising then all of a sudden McDonald’s starts looking great. Just one burger won’t hurt then after the weekend I will get back to it is what we all think in our head when we sink our teeth into that landmine from your favorite burger spot. I know because I have done this resolution countless number of times and it never failed that after a few weeks of hard work, I don’t see any difference in my appearance and start to give into temptation. Like working out for a few weeks is going to drastically change your life but we all know it won’t. I honestly think that is why people stop. They expect change in a short period of time but change happens over a long period of time.

                So the countdown started with 10 all the way to zero and hello 2011, time for resolutions. New Year’s Eve was on a Friday and all day my boss talked about a weight loss challenge for the New Year. He said that the way it would work is we would go by percentages and at the end of January we would see where we were at and then determine the winner. Entry fee was $20 no matter if you completed the challenge or not. The seed was planted in my mind that this could be a starting point to change my life but then again it sounds like another attempt at another failed resolution. We would just see how January went and go from there. I gave him my money and wrote down my name on the entry list. Normally when I commit money to something I’m in for the long haul anyway because I don’t give up money for no reason. Our challenge started on Monday the 3^rd so we had the weekend to prepare and to splurge as much as possible on whatever we wanted. I took full advantage.

                Now that I think about it I don’t quite remember what I had for dinner on that Saturday the 1st of January but I remember very clearly what I for dinner on Sunday the 2^nd. I ate my favorite meal to eat as my old self. Stay with me here: a double meat cheeseburger, mustard only, French fries, pizza pocket and a $1 Pepsi from Dairy Deal in Salina, OK. That is still my favorite meal but obviously I don’t eat it nearly as much anymore but when I did, I would eat it as much as possible. It was bad when we moved to Arkansas because that meant we had to drive an hour and a half just to have my favorite meal but we did because it is so delicious. And it was equally delicious that night before I started my weight loss challenge for January. I had a plan in my head as to what I wanted to do in order to start losing weight. All the other times I tried to lose weight I dropped soda, bad food and started exercising all at one time. I felt I failed all those times for the simple fact that I shocked my body so much cutting out so much at one time that I couldn’t help but give into temptation and ruin the diet by stopping by a fast food restaurant.

                On Monday, the 3^rd of January we started the challenge and I started with soda and eating better first. Exercise took a back seat at this point. We weighed in and I tipped the scale at 323. I couldn’t believe it when I looked at the number on the scale but then again, it figured because of what I would eat and how much I would eat so I can’t really say that it shocked me. After the first couple of days the headaches started in. Not only from the lack of caffeine but because my body was going through a detox of sorts. All the bad food that I would put in it every day was getting replaced with healthy food that I didn’t know much about. My wife and I talked about it and she was behind me from the beginning. She said how she could start cooking food healthier and replacing bad things with good things. I did a lot of research on how to cut pounds the healthy way and not make myself unhealthy by doing the wrong things. I found out that the amount of calories I took in daily was insane. Around 4000 to 4200 depending on what fried food I ate that day and the amount of soda I took in. I remember before our daughter came into our lives I had a check-up and my doctor said that if I stayed on that same path that diabetes would be right around the corner. She said that my body didn’t know the difference between a slice of white bread and a candy bar. It was taking it all and turning it straight into sugar. I will be honest; I didn’t do what she wanted me to at that point in time. The check-up was in June of 2010, our daughter was born in July of 2010, and I didn’t start the diet until January of 2011 but her words were always in the back of my mind. Now that my daughter was here and we settled into our new house, the weight loss challenge seemed like the best starting point of changing my life to be with my daughter as long as possible. I didn’t want to be the dad in the bleachers, sitting there stuffing my face with nachos and hotdogs, struggling to breath and not doing anything to make sure that I can cheer my daughter on for a long time. I want to be there to teach my daughter everything that I can to make sure she grows into a beautiful and smart woman who is prepared for a life on her own. I want to be able to coach her at sports and keep up with her. I wanted to be there to walk her down the aisle one day. With the way I was going that wasn’t going to happen and that made me very motivated.

                Eating healthy is not as easy as most people say it is when you come from nothing but fried foods and soda, sweets and grease, anything I wanted to eat was what I ate. Eating that way was a way of life for me. I grew up on fried potatoes and fried bread. Indian tacos were a must and pizza was a favorite, especially deep dish. Burgers, fries, pizza pockets, fried chicken. I could go on and on. Where I grew up foods like this were readily available. It got worse when I got out on my own. I had my own money so I could eat even more of what I already liked because I didn’t have anybody to say that it was too much. I remember once I ate two double cheeseburgers and fries at one sitting. TWO! But hey, it was great I have to admit. That freedom with food was amazing. I could finish other people’s plates if they would let me.

                I bought a calendar to track my weight loss weekly. I would write down my weight down every Monday to see where I was at. I took down my calorie intake to around 1400 to 1500 calories a day. That was the hardest part of the diet side of my weight loss. That amount of food left me hungry every night and I struggled with it. I would buy apples and bananas because through research I found out that these fruits have a way of making you feel full so that would be my snack at night and it seemed to help. Instead of eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, biscuits and gravy, my breakfast consisted of corn flakes and water, not mixed obviously. Once the headaches subsided from lack of caffeine, water was pretty good. I found that I could drink it with every meal and it started to become second nature to order water all the time. Now I live on it.

                My calendar is full of the first year of weight loss for me. Each month had an athlete on it and that was kind of a motivator in itself. I wanted to be an athlete of sorts. Not as big as the ones in my ESPN calendar but one that could be proud of. I will reference that calendar as I write this because so much happened that year, not only from weight loss but other things that I will talk about. Now on to the first month: January.

Please leave comments and I will post January in my next blog update. 

The Road has Reached 180!!!

June 14th 2012

I finally did it! 143 pounds gone and overall goal met! This has been such an exhausting effort at times but totally worth it in the end. I feel so much better, I feel so much healthier and proud of the fact that I accomplished something this big. To go from 323 to 180 pounds in a year and a half is quite honestly amazing to say the least. There were times that were hard and there were times that made it all worth it. I couldn't have gotten anywhere though without the support and inspiration from my family and friends. My wife has been behind me the entire time, pushing me to get up early and run when I wanted to sleep in, making sure that what we eat for dinner was healthy and still tasted good, she and my baby watched me at all my 5k's that I have ran, cheering me on and hugging me at the finish line. Her parent's helped when I needed a babysitter so I could run as long as I needed. Her brother gave me tips on how to be faster and how to keep going. My mom and family were always there to encourage me. My sister ran with me during the first part of this road and has started running with me again. I could go on and on with the people that have helped to get here. All the friends I have at work that have pushed me to keep going and picked me up when I was down, the ones who would give me tips on how to workout and asked me questions so they could start with their own journey, thank you.

Now that I am here, one: I get my Dairy Deal and two: I will start other workouts to tone up and keep running to keep my cardio up for the zombies. You just never know about them zombies!

It's kind of hard to realize that I don't have to worry about weight loss as much anymore. It was my life for a year and a half. All I would think about is calories and running. Seeing the 180 on the scale this morning made me happy but at the same time it made me feel a little sad. Sad because of the fact that I don't have to lose weight anymore, unless Dairy Deal puts on a couple of pounds. I worked so hard to get here and now that I am here, now what? That's what made me most sad about it all. I know that I plan on toning up and building muscle but all the time and effort I have put into weight loss I guess is just so hard to give up. But I know that I need to change the way I think now and live. Now that I am here I will be proud of what I have done and will be happy to change everything so I can do good with weight lifting. Like I said before, the Road to 180 will not stop once I get to 180 but will continue because my life doesn't stop there. My life, as I see it, has only just begun. I have a great wife, a daughter that is growing up in front of our eyes and now I know that I will be there for a long time to see all of her firsts. I am conquering fears now. My old life as big me was great and I don't regret anything from that life in the least but now I can do things and accomplish things that I couldn't back then. 180 is just a rest stop on what I plan on doing from here on out. I will live healthy and happy with my family. I will continue to grow and change with a different routine. In order to grow you've got to change.

Thank you to everyone who has helped me and thanks to everyone who doubted me. Both of you inspired me to keep going and not stop.

Until next time. Peace!!!

"'Cause sometimes you just feel tired,
Feel weak, and when you feel weak, you feel like you wanna just give up.
But you gotta search within you, you gotta find that inner strength
And just pull it out of you and get that motivation to not give up
And not be a quitter, no matter how bad you wanna just fall flat on your face and collapse." - Eminem

This is my favorite lines from any Eminem song. It would get me pumped up and remind me to not quit. Of course this is edited for content!

I conquered Wildfire and my Fear!!!

Well this was I have to admit a good weekend. We went back to Silver Dollar City in Branson. Now in my last post I had mentioned that I am working my up to get over my fear of Roller Coasters. One, because I have always wanted to ride them and two, so that my wife will always have someone to ride them with. Every time we go to Silver Dollar City, if there is no one else with us, she rides the coaster's by herself. Well not anymore my friends, not anymore! I had expected to ride the smaller coaster they have there called Thunderation. It's a big coaster at all and kids ride it all the time. So I figured that if I rode it this time, next time I would move on up to the bigger ones. Well we walked around for a while, rode some little rides with Krislynn, and went to find something to eat for lunch. We walked back towards the front of the park and found a place that had polish sausage and potato stuff. I didn't realize that we were right by the Wildfire roller coaster. We sat there and ate our food and I stared at the Wildfire sign. I knew that if I wanted to conquer this fear, I would just have to jump into it head on. So after we ate, my wife brought up the roller coaster deal and asked when I wanted to ride Thunderation. I looked at her and said, I think I need to ride Wildfire. If I'm going to do this I need to ride a big one and get over it. My wife and her mom were both amazed at what I just said. So we cleaned up and my father in law took Krislynn to the observation deck to watch us. We got in line. My heart was pumping so hard, I almost felt faint but I kept telling myself that I just had to take the fear away from the experience and enjoy it. Have fun with it. We sat in the middle of the cars and when I strapped myself into that chair I was already shaking. I remembered how Jarrod said that he loved coasters and could ride them all day so I kept asking him in my head to help me out with this. I wanted to also love coasters.

Wildfire - Silver Dollar City

The person came by and checked our harnesses and said have a good ride. They gave the thumbs up and we were off. I was so nervous but my nervousness became excitement. I knew that I could do this. We went up, up, up and leveled off at the top. We took a small curve into the first big hill. I looked down and kept my eyes opened the entire time. The feeling of going down that first drop was awesome!!! Felt like my stomach was in my throat. The entire ride was so f-ing cool to say the least! Once it was over I told my wife why have I never liked this? This was so fun! The fear was gone! Gone so much in fact that we went back and rode it two more times in a row before we left the park! I am so glad that I got over that fear. Now I want to do more coasters. They have another one there called the Powder Keg. I will ride it next time but my wife said the wait in line isn't worth the coaster. The Wildfire is more fun because it goes upside down and it doesn't throw you all over the place. I guess we shall see. I can't wait to go back in July to ride the Wildfire again. Now I understand the excitement of seeing coasters and riding them. I felt so good about conquering my fear that I even bought a Wildfire shirt! I love it!

Well after that awesome day, we went out to dinner at Famous Dave's. I did a personal Man vs. Food challenge. I have been on a hot kick here lately and have been on the hunt for the hottest thing I could find to eat. Well I found it and it was painful! I ordered a pulled chicken sandwich but I had them mix it with Wilbur's Revenge which is their hottest sauce. O-M-G! I almost didn't finish the sandwich. It wasn't until my father in law said "Food won." I said hell no! It hurt to talk, to breath, my lips were numb, my throat was in fuego and it sucked to say the least! I had about four bites left so I picked it up and finished it off. I had about fifteen minutes of shear pain afterwards. I drank so much cold water I started shaking from being cold. It was great! I finally found the hottest thing I have ever eaten and have something to base other foods off of but I will get that sandwich again but probably not in the near future. So that was the second thing I conquered that day. It was a good day all in all. My father in law had some good laughs at my pain.

Well I weighed this morning after this great weekend and I weigh 182. Not bad at all. I didn't snack nearly as much as I would on other vacations. I weighed 181 on Saturday before we left so I was 1 pound from my goal. I will hit it this week. There is no try only do. Hopefully by Friday I will be eating my celebratory cheeseburger from Dairy Deal. Let's Go!!!!

Until next time. Peace.

"Fear is only as deep as the mind allows." - Japanese Proverb

June 9th Goal: No-Go

Well here it is, June 8th and I'm still sitting at 182 which isn't bad at all. I thought that I would be way worse off than what I am. I worked hard to hit 182 and tried even harder to get to 180 by the 9th but it looks like that goal will not happen. I am not mad by any means, I just have to seriously watch what I eat this weekend because I will be in Branson. If, on Monday, I am still at 182 I will have a hell of a jump off point and will be able to work hard next week to shed those last 2 pounds. I keep telling myself don't mess up this weekend over and over in my head. I'm not going to stress about it because this past weekend I did pretty good at home and actually lost a pound and with all the walking I will be doing tomorrow I don't see myself going overboard. I just have to remember that no matter where we eat and what everyone else orders I am going the healthy route and no random snacking like I normally do.

I talked to a friend I haven't seen in a while the other day at work. He was a big guy, like me, and got a personal trainer and lost 120 pounds. It's pretty cool to see him the size he is now because I remember how big he used to be. He was telling me that he picked up running and he likes it a lot. He has already did a half marathon and is going to work to do a full marathon in November. I was happy for him but I have to admit I was also jealous of him. I wanted to do a half marathon and even started training for it but I got injured and couldn't finish the training. I need to get back to that goal of wanting to run a half marathon. I think the injury kind of scared me because I couldn't do anything physical after that point for a while. I couldn't push off on my right foot with pain going through it and now I'm afraid to start up again and get injured again and my dreams go out the window again. What I need to do is find a schedule for a half marathon and follow it closely. I didn't do that last time. I just started running further and further. I can't quite tell you how I injured myself but one day after a run the top of my right foot started to hurt a little bit. I didn't worry about it too much and told myself it would be better the next day. It wasn't. It was in pain so I curbed everything I was doing and rested it for about 2 weeks before I could start doing small things on it, even then it still hurt a little bit. I was apprehensive about running on it for a while. When I finally started again I was back to only a mile at a time and the half marathon was too close by then to even pick up training for it. I think this 180 pounds is overshadowing everything right now and I am working so hard to get too it that all other goals are taking a backseat. After I hit 180 I will finally be able to start other goals that I want to work towards and a half marathon is one of them. I want to run more 5k's as well. I just really need to get to 180. It's like that is all I think about now.

I'm probably not going to blog again until Monday but then I will let you know how Branson went and my weight for the week. I am trying to work on my fear of roller coaster's as well so I might have a story about a roller coaster I rode while in Branson but I just don't know yet. I figure I need to get over that fear because in a little under 2 years we are jumping out of a plane and I don't think roller coasters will be anything to me after that. I think a lot of things will be different after you jump out of a plane. I had a friend tell me one time: "There's life before jumping out of a plane, then there's life after you have jumped out of a plane. You don't really fear anything after that point." I hope so.

Well until next time. Peace.

Wish me luck on the roller coaster's!!!

Even Closer and Cheeseburgers???

My goal dinner! 

I am sitting at 182 right now. I am pretty pumped about that. I only have 2 pounds to lose and my overall goal will be reached. We go to Branson this weekend on the 9th and that was the date that I wanted to be at 180 and I still have hopes that I will be able to do so. Today is Basketball day as well and running with my sister I hope. Either way I'm running today after work. So close and yet so far from 180. I can't wait to sink my teeth into a Dairy Deal cheeseburger again! I haven't done that since 200 pounds. I can almost taste it just sitting here typing! I had a friend one time ask me how crazy it is for people who were big and start losing weight, their rewards to themselves is food. I think it's because it's something that I will have very rarely from now on instead of something that I could just go out and get whenever I wanted. Things have changed so much now with my eating and I admit I still crave certain foods that I haven't eaten in a long time. One is this delicious cheeseburger and fries. I know what you are thinking: "How can this cheeseburger mean so much to him?" Well if you have never eaten at Dairy Deal then you just wouldn't understand anyway. Plus this was, growing up, kind of a big thing to go to Dairy Deal to eat. I didn't have the most money growing up, my mom worked her ass off to raise us by herself and every once in a while when we had a little money to spare we would go out to eat and this was my favorite place to go. I have a lot of memories going there and not just to eat but to be with my family growing up. We used to get Dairy Deal and go to the park and eat or go to my Grandma's house. So now that I don't get Dairy Deal as much anymore, and that is completely my choice, I use it as a reward for this weight loss that I am doing.

Food used to be a huge part of my life. Anything I wanted to eat I would get. I sat down one time and ate 2 of these cheeseburgers and a side of fries. I talked to my wife about that the other night and I was amazed that I used to eat like that. Don't get me wrong, it was delicious and at the time it's all I knew. My wife would come home from work at midnight with a double quarter pounder, large fries, nuggets and a large Dr. Pepper just because I was hungry at midnight. I look back now and I see why my doctor said I was a hop, skip and jump away from Diabetes. But hey, I loved food. I still love food but now it's different. I will still get a burger at Sonic or a McChicken from McDonald's but now I eat it slow and enjoy it. I don't see how many I can eat at one sitting and even then, it's rare that I do get those types of food. I look at food now as fuel, anything bad that goes in will give me bad results. That is a complete 180 degree turn from where I once was but it's what I have been trained to do now.

So at 180 I will reward myself with this cheeseburger, not only because it's my favorite and I won't get it a lot anymore down the road, but because what where it is and the memories I have of it. It's what I used to be, where I once was, and a reminder of what path I was heading down and man, will it ever be delicious!

Well I just wrote a whole blog entry about a cheeseburger but hopefully you understand the underlying meaning to all of this. I loved food, I still do, but I look at it differently now. Food is fuel now. Fuel that I need to run and be active. Bad food = bad fuel. I am so close to 180 and I have eaten so much good food that equals good fuel for so long now that it's second nature to do so but every now and again a little splurging on your favorite food is perfectly fine. We wouldn't be human if we didn't reward ourselves somehow and we people who are working hard to lose weight and be healthy would go insane without some bad food every now and again. My favorite bad food is the cheeseburger I have pictured and I can't wait to enjoy it again!

Until next time. Peace!

MILESTONE!!!!!! and Goal in Sight

Well hello my faithful readers! This weekend has been a good weekend if I may say so myself. I went into this weekend with the very disappointing thought that I might not hit my goal weight by June 9th. I was at 185 on Friday and I wanted to be 183 to give myself that chance to hit 180 by this Saturday. Well I went on my "185 Rant" and I told myself, with the help of friends as well, to stop worrying about it. I was stressing out about still being at 185 even though I was killing myself. I gave myself a much needed rest day Friday night and went into the weekend at the same weight. This weekend was different though. I knew that I could just let the pounds come off if I didn't worry about it but still try to eat healthy and stay on track which is something I usually am horrible about on weekends because all I do is snack, snack, snack. I watch TV and get a snack, play with Krislynn and get a snack. Well not this weekend. I didn't want to eat "empty" calories like I always do on weekends so I didn't snack hardly at all. I still ate 3 meals a day which is normal but snacking was out of the question. If I felt a little hungry at night I would drink some Vitamin Water to curb the appetite.

I also stayed active this weekend. I mowed on Saturday then on Sunday I ran in the morning and went over to my Grandma's house and played around outside with my cousins and Krislynn after dinner. I also didn't go overboard with dinner at my Grandma's house which is very easy to do.

Sunday morning I woke up and weighed and I was at 184! I couldn't believe it. I didn't stress about it and let me body do the work. I shed a pound and I was totally happy. I ran that morning and like I said I went to Grandma's house knowing that I needed to keep that 1 pound off so I could start this week on a good note.

Well a good note is what I got. Actually it was more like an orchestra of good notes!!! I got on the scale this morning and I am now at 183 pounds!!!!! That is AWESOME! 140 pounds gone off my body and a big Milestone if I may say so myself. So my week is starting off great. That also means that my goal weight is in sight and, with no stressing about it, I might actually hit my overall goal weight by the end of this week as planned! 180 pounds here I come! I will do the usual work out's this week and I am not going to kill myself doing it. I am just going to let my body do the work I know it can do. That's what got me here to begin with. I love the feeling of getting to a goal. When I hit 200 it was the best feeling in the world to see that scale say 200. All the hard work and discipline paid off and it's still paying off. The light is closer now at the end of the tunnel. Just a little further Brandon and you got this. 3 pounds to the finish line. Do work!!!!

Until next time. Peace!!!

P.S. thanks to my friends who told me to not worry about the weight. After that I stopped stressing and I started losing again. No longer stuck!

185 RANT!

I don't know what it is but it's every time I get in the middle of a weight such as 215, 195 and now 185, I just seem to stop losing weight for a little while. No matter what I do I just stay there. Eventually I will drop that one pound and go to like 214, 194 or 184 and then it will start back up and I will drop those remaining pounds fast. Well I'm obviously stuck. I ran again last night with my sister project and after she was done I ran a little further to do a distance run. I got on the scale this morning and it hasn't moved. I was mad but this is what happens every time. But tonight I am giving my body a much needed rest. I have been going strong for 4 days straight and my body is telling me to give it a break. So I will. I still plan on running a distance on either Saturday or Sunday. This is the first time that I might not hit a goal. I hate to say it. June 9th is right around the corner and if I don't get out of my slump, that always happens, I may not be at 180 by then. I am going to work hard until June 9th to say I gave it all I had but I guess only time will tell.

Well this isn't much of a post as it is a rant. Please, please let me get past this 185. If I could see 184 on the scale I would so tremendously happy. Don't get me wrong I am totally happy with what I have done so far this week but I just want to get that much closer to my over all goal. Maybe I'm stressing too much about it. They say that weight has a lot to do with stress so I am going to let things be and just concentrate on running and do what I normally do and let the weight thing not bother as much. I am glad that I have my blog to get my feelings out on. Now that they are out I am not going to stress about it. Everyday is a gift and another chance to "Live Until You Don't."

Until next time. Peace.

Not even a quote for today since I am ranting!