Day #12 - The Travel Series, Part 1a

Day #12 has come and gone but one thing is for certain. I am here, right now, writing this post. As I had mentioned yesterday, I have a crazy work hours. Especially when I travel to work my company's weekend events. That is why I came up with, "The Heavy Man's Diary, The Travel Series." Even though I am traveling, I am still going to post each day of my blog, continue to eat healthy, and of course exercise. Come hell or high water, you all will have a post to read everyday.

Today started Part 1 of "The Travel Series." I was in the office until 12:00pm and then I traveled roughly and hour 1/2 to the location of this weekend's event.  The event was held from 2pm - 1am this morning. It is easy to forget about food when you are busy working. Now this could be a good or bad thing. It is good because my mind wasn't constantly thinking of foods that are bad for me. It is bad because I have a certain amount of food that I have to eat during the day.  It is a good thing that I had my fiancee with me. She was constantly reminding me, every few hours, that I had to eat and drink water. I think without her, I would be lost some times. So, the eating part of day was taken care of. I would also like to say that I had such a workout today as well. I was moving heavy boxes,  and I was walking & standing the entire day, I also had the privilege of running up and down the football field as a referee at our event. So, I would have to say that, "Part 1a" of "The Travel Series was a great success. I am looking forward to doing the same exact thing tomorrow and Sunday!!

I also took a little time this morning to talk with a friend of mine who just so happens to be a trainer at a gym. I talked to him about me suddenly dropping 4 pounds in one day after a constant 1-2lb loss per day for the last 10 days. He said weight loss like that is not out of the ordinary.  Everyone's body is different and my metabolism might of just started to work faster since I started working out on a regular basis. He said that I should not worry about it but don't get used to losing weight like that all the time.

With that being said, let's get to the details of the day:

Meals of the day (The Heavy Man = 42 Points)
(For everyone that is new to the blog, I follow the Weight Watchers point system for my nutrition plan. That is why I have point totals at the end of each meal)

Breakfast - 2 rice cakes, 3 egg whites on whole wheat toast with 1 slice of american cheese and a cup of mixed fresh fruit = Total Points 11
Early Afternoon  - 6'' Turkey sub on whole wheat bread with 1 slice of american cheese and a bag of potato chips = Total Points 9
Late Afternoon - 6" Turkey sub on whole wheat bread with 1 slice of american cheese and a bag of apple slices = Total Points 7
Early Evening - 6 " Turkey sub on whole wheat bread with 1 slice of american cheese and a bag of baked potato chips = Total Points 9
Late Evening - 6" Turkey sub on whole wheat bread with 1 slice of american cheese = Total Points 7

Total Points Eaten Today = 43( I went one point over my limit today)

I went to Subway before the event a bought 2 footlong turkey subs and packed them in a cooler. I knew I was going be on the football field the whole day so I planned accordingly with simple and quick healthy meals.

Exercise

I was constantly running and moving the whole day. It will be the same exact way for the next two days (Sat & Sun)

Day #12 -Weigh-In - 283.8

Day #12 - Weigh-In

Day #12 Front Shot

Day #11 - Welcome Back

Hey everybody it is Day #11!!!!!!!

I received a call from my very good friend today. This gentlemen like me, has struggled with weight issues for most of his life. While on the phone with him, we were talking about life and he said to me, "It has been really amazing these last few days watching you find yourself again. For the last few years you haven't been the same person and it is great to see you get your passion back. I missed you buddy." What a great thing to hear coming from one of my best friends. I do admit, I was very mad and upset with myself for letting me sink to such a low point, health wise. The way I was feeling was reflecting on the way I was acting towards my family and friends. I would like to apologize to everyone who has ever cared for me. I promise you this, I will never lose myself like that again. I had forgotten who I was for a little while but now I am slowly coming back to the person I used to be. I would officially like to say to myself, "Welcome Back."

I have shared with you all very briefly, in a few posts, that I have a demanding job that takes up a lot of hours during my day. That is why I am not able to post my blog everyday until after 12:00am. Getting back to the point, my job entails some traveling and this my friends is a potential disaster waiting to happen. Which is why I am going to plan ahead and kick this potential problem right in the butt. I will still be writing my post everyday, even while I am traveling.  It might not be posted until 2:00am the next morning, but I will promise you this, you will be able to see my progress from the day before just like you do now.  I want to prove to the world that even though I will be traveling, I will continue to stick to my mission. I will still exercise, I will still eat healthy, and I will be in the best damn shape of my life when that countdown clock on the front page of this blog reaches 0 days. I will call these business trips, "The Heavy Man's Diary, The Travel Series." The first, part of the "Travel Series" starts this weekend. My company is running an event that has some crazy hours. The event runs on Friday from 2pm - 12am, Saturday from 2pm -12am, and on Sunday from 8am - 6pm. I am planning on still working out and eating healthy. I will be packing a cooler (everyday) with subs from Subway, fruit, some baked potato chips, a bag of rice cakes, and a ton of water. Wish me luck.

Before I get to the details of the day, I have a question that maybe someone can answer. I have been losing weight at a decent amount since I have started my mission 11 days ago. The amount loss has been pretty steady, between 1 & 2lbs a day. I realize that it is mostly water weight, but it is still weight that I don't have to carry around any more. Anyway, I weighed myself today at 11pm and I lost a little over 4 lbs since last night's weight-in. I am curious to find out that after a steady weight loss of around 1-2lbs for the last 10 days, why did I all of a sudden lose 4 lbs today. I have been doing everything the same. Is it because I stepped my workouts up a little? Can anyone please let me know if they have an answer to this question. Thank you.

Well, with that being said, let's get to the details of the day:

Meals of the day (The Heavy Man = 42 Points)
(For all of those who are new to the blog, I have been following Weight Watchers for Men online. That is why I have point totals at the end of each of my meals)

Breakfast - 3 egg whites on whole wheat toast with a slice of american cheese and a cup of mixed fruit = Total Points 9
Lunch - Footlong turkey sub (double meat) on whole wheat bread with 2 slices of american cheese, a bag of baked chips, and a bag of apple slices from Subway = Total Points 18

Snack - 2 rice cakes = Total Points 2

Dinner - My fiancee and I did a search on WeightWatchers.com and found a great recipe for Mac-N-Cheese that only was 5 points a serving. So we bought the ingredients from the food store after work and made what I think was a great Mac-N-Cheese dish. We added grilled chicken to the mix as well = Total Points 8

Desert  - We had a cup of chocolate chip mint ice cream (Weight Watcher's brand) = Total Points 2

Total Points Eaten Today = 39 ( I was 3 points short of 42)

Exercise

I worked out on the elliptical machine today at the gym for 30mins. I will posts tomorrow's workout results tomorrow night.

Day #11 Weigh-In - 286.6

Day #11 Weigh-In

Day #11 Front Shot

Mac-n-Cheese Dinner
Weight Watcher's Recipe

Day #10 - Letting It Out

I have never been one for expressing my emotions. I am a very personable and fun loving person but when it comes down to sharing my true feelings I am as quiet as they come. I believe that everyone has their own problems. So, why would I burden anyone with my problems.

I was driving to the gym with my fiancee just about 2 hours ago and she said something very interesting to me. She told me she can understand what is going on in my head more through reading my blog then she can some times by just talking to me. She then went onto to tell me that she likes knowing what I am thinking and how I am feeling because it gives her a sense of what I am going through when I am attempting to get in shape. I think the conversation I had with her brings up a great point. I have always had trouble sharing my thoughts with anyone. Since I have started this blog, I have been able to express what I am feeling on the inside a lot easier then I would be able to just talking directly to someone. I think that was another problem that I had when trying to lose weight in the past. I would try to take on losing weight by myself and would get angry when I kept on failing. Here is the problem with that, I did not tell anyone what I was feeling, I would just give up. This is yet another reason why building a support system is very important when trying to accomplish a goal such as this. You constantly need reminders on how well your are doing and to keep on going. Nothing is better then getting a compliment from someone else. I know it keeps me motivated.

While at the gym, I felt a little out of place in the weights section. I haven't lifted a weight in a long time and I knew that I was in for a rough night attempting to execute my first upper body workout since...... crap I don't remember. Anyway, everyone there was in their young 20's and they were lifting what I can only describe as a ton of weight. I thought to myself I will get there eventually but until then let's take it nice and easy. I am going to take this one step at a time. When I need motivation during an exercise session, I always vision what I will look and feel like when I reach my goal. It makes me want to try harder.

With that being said, let's get to the details of the day:

Meals of the day (The Heavy Man = 42)
(For anyone new to the blog, I am currently trying out Weight Watchers. So far, so good with the results.)

Breakfast - 3 egg whites on whole wheat toast with a cup of fresh mixed fruit = Total Points 7
Lunch - Footlong chicken teriyaki sub on whole wheat bread with 2 slices of american cheese, a bag of baked potato chips, and a bag of apple slices (Subway) = Total Points 22
Dinner - 2 cups of chicken with broccoli and 1 cup of steamed brown rice = Total Points 10
Snack - 1 cup of mixed fruit (during the day) & 1 medium apple after dinner = Total Points 3

Total Points Eaten Today = 42

Exercise

Today I executed my first weight lifting session in about 6 months and man am I tired. The session went as follows:

Upper Body:

- Regular Bench Press on a resistance machine: Set #1 - 18 reps at 20lbs, Set #2 - 15 reps at 25lbs, Set #3 - 12 reps at 30lbs, Set #4 - 10 reps at 30lbs
(1 minute rest in between sets and exercise)
- Chest Flyes on a cable machine: 4 Sets x 15 reps at 10lbs
(1 minute rest in between sets and exercise)

- Biceps: Dumbbell Hammers - 3 stes x 15 reps at 10lbs, Wide Grip Cable Curls - 3 sets x 15 reps at 10lbs, and Individual Dumbbell Curls - 3 sets x 15 reps at 5lbs

Tomorrow will be a cardio and core workout day. I will post the results tomorrow.

Day #10 Weigh-In - 291.4

(The reason the photo is off center is because I need to shoot at an angle in order for the flash to not appear over the numbers. Like it was when on Day #1)

Day #10 Weigh-In

Day #10 Front Shot

Day #9 - The Week That I Feared

Wow it is already Day #9!!! Isn't it amazing how time can fly when you are focused on getting things done.

I will be completely honest with you, I feared the start of this week. In my eyes week # 2 of a diet is always the week that you start making excuses, at least for me it as always been.  In the past, the first week would always be the best. During week #1, I am motivated, I am determined, I am excited to lose weight, etc....... Then week #2 hits and I am thinking of excuses to not exercise & I why I should start eating junk food again. I get disgusted with my self because, even though I lost weight, I still look the same, heavy, out of shape, and a complete mess. I would become the most impatient person in the world and then, yup, right back to where I started. I would constantly say I will start again next Monday, it was always "I will start again" next week for me.

However, this time around is different for me and I have all of you to thank for that. Never in my wildest dreams I would have thought that I would be getting so much support so quickly. There are so many good people that this world is filled with. I have been receiving emails and calls from my family members saying how proud they are of me and how I have to keep going. Trust me, if it was only my family & friends I would be happy, but it is also people that I have never met before.  I literally have people, that I have never met before, emailing me with their words of encouragement and their stories of weight struggles and how they have over come the obstacles to get healthier. Now, that is what I am talking about!!!!! We are all starting to come together and slowly building a support network!! I know that I have said this a lot so far, and I will probably say this a lot in the future, "I am so inspired by all of you!!!" No matter what, I can not stop!!! I can't let myself down and I certainly can't let all of you down. Week #2 I am going to kick your butt!!

Please keep helping me build this support network. We need to let other people with weight problems know that they are not alone is this world. In the past, I would to try and take this monster (weight problems) on by myself. I will never do this mission alone again and I have every one of you amazing people to thank for that!!

With that being said, let's get to the details of the day:

Meals of the Day (The Heavy Man - 42 Points)
(Just in case anyone has just started following this blog, I announced yesterday that I started this mission by following Weight Watchers. As I also mentioned yesterday, I am not saying that everyone has to follow it, I am just letting you all know, that at the current time, it is working for me)

Breakfast - 3 scrambled egg whites on whole wheat toast with a cup of mixed fruit and a bottle of water = Total Points 7
Lunch - Footlong turkey sub on whole wheat bread with 2 slices of american cheese, a bag of baked potato chips, a bag of apple slices, and a bottle of water (From Subway) = Total Points 16
Dinner - Footlong chicken teriyaki sub on whole wheat with 2 slices of american cheese, a bag of baked potato chips, apples slices, and 2 bottles of water = Total Points 22

Total Points Eaten = 45 ( I went over by three points)

I am also trying to go food shopping for the week. It is very hard when work consumes a large part of your day, but there are no excuses.

Exercise

I ran for 30 mins on the elliptical machine at the gym tonight.

My workout schedule that I developed today will be in full swing tomorrow. I will be doing a cardio workout in the morning and an upper body workout with weights tomorrow night. I will post my results for the workout on tomorrow night's blog.

Day #9 - Weigh-In - 293.6

Day #9 Weigh-In

Day #9 Front Shot

Day #8

Sorry for posting Day #8 so late. I had a long day at work and had some things to do before I could sit down and write my blog.

I have tried a lot of different things in the past few years to loose weight. It seems that the older I get, the harder it is to achieve the body I always dreamed of having. Good thing I have a great personality....lol. Anyway, I am a guy who believes in doing things the right way. I am not a supporter of taking diet pills or starving myself to lose weight. I have tried the pre-made meal diets and the protein shake diets but it always seems to lead me back to same result, I gain the weight back plus more. So, before I officially started this mission of mine, I did a little research and I found a weight loss program that I think would be the best way for me to lose weight. The program I am talking about is Weight Watchers. 

Before I go any further into my explanation of why I choose to follow Weight Watchers I want to say that I do not work for Weight Watchers and I do not get paid to endorse their product. I am not going to sit here and say do Weight Watchers or you can't follow this blog. That is not why I started this whole thing. The whole purpose of my blog and my mission is to build a support system to help people get through their weight struggles.  It is up to everyone to decide how they are going to lose the weight. I just so happened to start following Weight Watchers. If it really works for me then of course I will recommend it to other people because I want to see people lose weight the right way. Who knows maybe down the road I will find something else that I believe is a better program to follow but until then I will stick to what I have started. I choose to wait for a week to reveal that I am following Weight Watchers because I wanted to see if it would work before I recommended it to others. No matter what, this blog will stay true to it's form. I will still share my struggles and accomplishments everyday. I will not stop researching, taking suggestions, or comments from anyone.  Life evolves and so will all of us.

Now, what turned me onto to Weight Watchers is that I can eat real food. I have always had troubles knowing what foods I can eat or how much food a good healthy portion consisted of. I have learned through Weight Watchers, so far, what kinds of foods are good to eat and what portion sizes are good based on my body type. The program is based on a points system that is catered to what type of body you have. The amount of points I am allowed per day is 42. Trust me I have been stuffed every single day since I have started. I learned in the past that spacing your meals out during the day with smaller portions helps fuel your metabolism at a faster rate witch burns more fat.  You got to fuel the body in order to burn the fat.  I try to eat with 2-3 hour between meals and I try not to eat after 8:30pm.

I will be honest with everyone.  I tried Weight Watchers for a little time back in college and I was to lazy to keep it going. I was also embarrassed to show up at the weekly meetings in my area because I was the youngest person there and the only guy. I wish I could go back in time and smack myself in the face for not continuing to improve my health. I like I said yesterday we all learn from our mistakes and failures. The type of Weight Watchers program I signed up for is online and it is specialized for men. How great is that!!! I can follow the program online, I don't need to go to the meetings, and it is specialized for men.

Like I mentioned early is this post, I don't work for Weight Watchers and I certainly do not get paid to promote their product. I am just a regular person like everyone else trying to get healthier. If anyone has any questions or advice please feel free to message or comment to me all you want. I will also provide the link to the website if anyone is curious and wants to check it out. Weight Watchers.

With that being said, let's get to the details of the day:

Meals of the Day (The Heavy Man = 42 Points)

Breakfast - 6 inch turkey sub on whole wheat bread w/ american cheese (Sandwich was left over from yesterday's meal) = Total Points 9
Snack - 2 Mini Pretzel Bars = Total Points 2
Lunch - Footlong turkey sub on whole wheat bread with 2 slices of american cheese, a bag of baked chips, and a bag of apple slices (From Subway) = Total Points 16
Snack - 1 Mini Snack Bar = Total Points 1
Dinner - 2 Cups of chicken and broccoli with a cup of steamed brown rice = Total Points 14

- Bringing the grand total of points eaten today = 42
- I also drank plenty of water and took all of my vitamins
- I am also going food shopping after work tomorrow with all meals planned out for the rest of the week

Exercise

I ran for 30 mins tonight on the elliptical machine at my gym, Anytime Fitness. I am going to try the workout program that Weight Watchers provided. I will let everyone know exactly what that persists of tomorrow. Yes, I will also attempt to get up in the morning to do a cardio workout. Let us pray that I can wake up and not sleep through my alarm again.....lol.

Day #8 Weigh-In - 294.4

Day #8 Weigh-In

Day #8 - Front Shot

Day #7

Has anyone ever felt so tired and fatigued that you feel like you are sleep walking? You feel like you are not awake but physically you are.  That is how I have felt for the last few months. I have dug myself into such an unhealthy hole that I constantly feel like I am sleep walking.  However, since I have started eating healthier, exercising more, and loosing weight, I feel like I am waking up from a really long sleep. I love feeling awake and alive, it is the one of the best feelings in the world. Let's hope it keeps on getting better from here.

My step sister graduated from high school today. It was a honor to be there as she walked on the stage, received her diploma , and smiled really big for everyone that was taking pictures.  Congrats, little sister and I wish the best for you in the future!! Anyway, the keynote speaker at her graduation ceremony had a really interesting speech and the message this lady was trying to get across to all the graduating students got me thinking.  The speaker stated, that when she was in high school, she failed her freshman math class. Her father wanted to pull her out of the school but her math teacher persuaded him to let her stay. The math teacher said, to the father, "that she will never succeed in life if she didn't learn from her mistakes and failures."  The speaker ended up taking that philosophy with her through college and into her first job interview. While during her interview, she was asked, "How will you react if you don't get this job?" Her response was, "I will be just fine." Then she told us that she gave that answer because she learned in high school that by failing you learn how to succeed. She wasn't afraid about not getting that job because she would find a way to be successful.

I realized that her philosophy of, "Learning from your Failures", is one that I should incorporate in my mission.  I have failed in the past at keeping myself healthy and because of this I constantly felt tired, fatigued, and like I was sleep walking. I need to learn from those mistakes / failures and make adjustments to loose weight and get healthier.

With that being said, let's get into the details of the day:

Meals of the Day

Breakfast - I was in a hurry this morning to get to my step sister's graduation so I grabbed a bag of fat free wheat thins
Lunch - I had deli style turkey on a whole wheat wrap with two slices of american cheese and lettuce with two bottles of water.
Late Afternoon Meal  - Turkey on whole wheat bread with a slice of american cheese and lettuce. I also had a bag of baked chips with a package of apple slices from Subway.
Dinner - Chicken salad with fat free french dressing

I drank plenty of water and took all of my vitamins

Exercise

I took another 30 min walk tonight.  I am also going to attempt to get up in the morning again to start my cardio workout.  Wish me luck.

Day #7 Weigh-In - 295.2

Day #7 - Weigh-In

Day #7 - Front Shot