Life has changed quite a bit since my last blog.

May 15th 2015
This was the happiest day of my life. I finally married the love of my life. The day had the normal glitches any wedding would have, but the important part happened went of without a hitch, we said "I do"! My wife's family was here for about 3 months surrounding the wedding, it was awesome seeing them, hanging out with them and getting to know my new family a lot better.

May 28th 2015
I chose this day to start over my fat smash diet. Just as I am getting in the routine, just bought all the groceries necessary to get going on this diet, the worst happened, and my entire department was laid off.

What transpired over the next 3 weeks was rough, trying to start a marriage while unemployed is not fun. It also reeks havoc on your diet, it's hard for me to keep track of what foods to eat when I am at home all day and not sleeping on a regular schedule. Thankfully I have only gained about 5lbs, lord knows it could have been a lot worse.

It is all over though, two days ago I accepted a job offer with a company called eVestment, and i start on July 1!

The last month has been rough but now that things are starting to settle hopefully I get back to my little venting sessions here and get back to dieting correctly and get those 5lbs back off and get back towards my goal weight.

 

 

Today's Weight: 186.3


Up a little bit today after a bad weekend. It was my anniversary and my fiances birthday. Not making excuses, just what happened, even i can only do my best sometimes. Been rough to stay on track to get these last few pounds off, and will only get harder as the wedding approaches since her family arrives from Germany today, and it will be non-stop going out between now and then. Sigh.

Staying Motivated
This topic is a tough one, as I believe motivation comes from within and varies from person to person as to what motivates them. I wanted some help with this topic, so I googled "stay motivated" and this is what I got.

 

 

Today's Weight: 185.0 ❰❰ Like a Boss!



For exercise, I go running on the Silver Comet Trail. Since I have been on this diet, I have been out there 6 days a week, and when you are out there that much you see the same people, even at the same spots on the trail, everyone seems to have their same daily routine, even me. I wave and say hi, almost as if we have a friendship. I will share a nod with someone, a non verbal "Hey, good to see you again stranger, good to see your still working out, go and get em. See you tomorrow!" I actually did once form a friendship out of stopping and talking to one of these people on the trail one day, she and I are still good friends to this day!

It reminded me of one time in particular where a stranger stood out to me. Now, I have been going on this trail for 7 years. So i was on this trail back when i was 282lbs. Well after a large chunk of the weight loss, a man stopped me as I was on my way out for a walk, a man I remember giving the nod to a few times out there on the trail. He said to me "Hey, you've been coming out here for a couple years now right? You are always with a few females? I just wanted to tell you, you look great man, keep it up!" I didn't have a response for him because I was floored by the compliments of a stranger, particularly at that time where I had lost a bunch but was struggling to stay on track.

As usual, I said all that to say this. It will be hard for those close to you to notice your weight loss unless you loose a drastic amount, it is the virtual strangers who will notice, so don't be afraid of a strangers comments!

 

 

Today's Weight: 188.7


If you look up the definition of "plateau", you will find you will find out that it is "an area of relatively level high ground", but if you read the second definition, it says: "a state of little or no change following a period of activity or progress." It is that definition which I find more apt! On April 17th, I weighed in at 188.7, same as I have weighed in this morning, which means I have gone 11 days, and essentially without any movement. I have gone up, I have gone down, but always ended up right back here at 188.7. Frustrating. What do I do? Well, I've created a three step process in order to try and get off this plateau. I just made this up, so I have not proven that this works just yet.

1) Be honest with yourself.
Since you have been on this plateau, what things have you done wrong? What things have you done right? Be honest with yourself about these things and you can move forward, lying to yourself will only hurt yourself! Did you eat pulled pork and two cookies last night? YES YOU DID! It's important to recognize your short comings, even more important to find a way to address them so they don't happen again.

2) Make a plan
What can you do to make sure you don't do the things wrong that you found in step one? What can you do to make sure you do more of the things you did right in step one? Make a action plan, maybe schedule out the next 7 days of exercise and food so you know what you have coming and don't have to worry about thinking too much and getting off track.

3) Don't wait until tomorrow
We often say "Diet starts tomorrow", if you are on a plateau, that cannot be the mentality. Need to adopt the "No better time than the present" mantra. Put your action plan into motion ASAP! What can you do RIGHT NOW to get things moving in the right direction?

I hope with all my might I can get off this plateau and continue on my journey. I am only 8.7lbs from my goal and I am far to close to start backing up. My wedding is in 17 days and I need to be as lean and fit for those pictures as I possibly can!

 

 

Today's Weight: 188.5



I had a very busy weekend, and as often happens with busy weekends, diets have to take a backseat while you are trying to get things done. With busyness of the days, I lost focus of my recent good eating habits. I wont go as far as to say "I fell off the wagon", but I did lean out and think about tucking and rolling for sure. On Friday, I met my fiance for lunch, we hadn't seen each other the day before and wouldn't see each other that evening. We went to Longhorn steak house but I had the issue of being too hungry because I had not eaten at all that day, bad idea. I ended up ordering a corn fritter appetizer and a hamburger for my meal. I did remove the bun from my hamburger before I ate it and had a salad (no cheese) as my side.

I was proud of myself Sunday for sticking to my guns, I attending an AWESOME lip-sync party Saturday night and I was able to stay away from the food table, only eating (about half) of the apples they had there (I felt bad because they were meant for people to dip in this caramel dip, but I ate all the apples to the caramel dip went relatively untouched lol).

Sunday we had a few people at the house to help with random tasks and I provided some food for them, and I messed around and bought some lemon cookies, one of my favorites, and might have had a few of those...

The good news: I got my exercise in on Saturday and Sunday. Ate right and exercised on Monday and since last Friday I have actually lost 0.2 pounds, a blessing in my opinion.

I look forward to staying seated on the wagon, secured firmly , and enjoying the rest of this ride.

Don't fret falling off, just get your butt back on!
We all fall "off the wagon" at some point while trying to kick any habit. If it was easy to do, we wouldn't need support groups, pins, medications, and metaphors that remind us of the Oregon Trail. Never the less, don't fret if you fall off the wagon on your journey. In keeping with the metaphor, just remember you still have a seat in that wagon, and it's not going anywhere without you. Dust yourself off, take note of what caused you to fall off, get back on and avoid that thing in the future. The main thing to remember is that the wagon cannot move if your not on it, so if you want to get to your goal, you got to get back on! This is definitely a journey that's just about finishing it, not making good time.