Which way to attack the last 30 pounds...

Last night I weighed in at 202 pounds, and that was a killer to see.  For so long I have hovered between 194 and 197.  Sure, I have had a few huge changes in my life, but is that really an excuse for me to be putting weight back on?  Or is it just more crap that I have to cut and realize that the best way to move on is to get back on track?  I will be picking the latter.  However I have come to a cross roads in how to tackle these next 30 pounds to get myself down to the 170 mark.

The diet that really started things off on the right path was doing a very low carb diet.  It allowed me to change my eating habits, and lose a good amount of weight.  This is also how I suggest people to start when dieting when asked what they should do.

On the other hand I can also just start tracking what I'm going to eat using Sparkpeople.com and see what happens using that program again.  It worked out very well for me after the initial weight loss from the low carb diet.

Either way I am going to need to add back in walking to my daily routine and working out with my weights.  It just becomes the question of which diet I use first to get me going once again.  However at this moment I am leaning towards the low carb alternative where I make sure everything I am eating 100 net carbs or less per day.  I am going to do this for 2 weeks and hope that it can kick start my weight loss once again.  I will keep you posted in how well this goes and what the results end up being, for now I have to cut the crap back out of my life and stop eating that darn candy!  Stupid Halloween!!!!! haha.

Tragic news=Tragic situation

This past September I lost my childhood friend in a sad unexpected way. Jason Mertz was one of a kind. His death left a hole in me my heart and emptiness in my soul.  This has lead to me not being in the right frame of mind to either exercise or write on my blog.

Through the struggles I have had a hard time keeping my weight at where its been.  I have not been caring what it was that I have to eat.  I have been eating a lot more candy.  I have also not been exercising or going for walks.  It has been a struggle to get my engines back running.  Luckily I have not gained much weight, only about 7 pounds.

Losing someone can make it really hard to function and return back to your everyday self, let alone be able to lose weight.  However I will be able to reflect back on memories and use them as motivation as I get myself back to losing weight and my goal of getting to that 100 pounds lost goal.

I remember this last time we hung out, we went down to Lincoln City for a weekend to enjoy the beach.  Jason was upset that he was no longer able to call me a fat head.  He was so impressed with the amount of weight I had loss that he decided he needed to search out a new nick name, I think he was going to just stick to big head haha.  

Jason suffered from Aspergers, so fathead was not a big deal to me growing up, that was just Jason being Jason.  Whenever he gave me a hard time I knew deep down how much respect and love he had for me.  He would tell my wife Kate multiple times just how proud he was of me, how much he respected me, and that meant so much to me.  Even though he could never really tell me, knowing how he really felt made me feel really good about myself.

I always admired how he would be there for my family and I.  Whenever we needed help, he would be there to try and fix the situation.  I feel bad I was not around him more than I was, but we always will have those feelings when the time becomes too late.

I know he is in Heaven right now and doing his all to get me to get back to losing weight again.  I have felt him near me many times and know that I need to keep going.  He was always impressed at how much weight I am losing and encouraged me to keep it up.  I know even beyond the veil he still is rooting for me.  I need to take this new motivation and keep on my path of weight loss.  I'm close to the 100 pound lost mark, and need to destroy that goal before working on a new one.  

We meet again Wii Fit...

     It had been over 100 days since I had last stepped on to the Wii fit.  Today I finally decided it was time to tackle it again.  There have been many reasons why I have not been able to get onto the Wii.  From the fact that I am trying to get use to a full time schedule, to the fact that I have been doing a lot of strength exercise now that I have my Golds Gym machine back from storage.  Also we just moved from our in-laws to a nice house on our own.  So it was nice to see that I have made progress over the past 100 days.  Although it was only 4 pounds, it still was 4 pounds.

     4 pounds is nothing compared to what I have been doing, but the way I have been eating makes me happy because I have not gained.  Getting on the Wii fit was a nice change of pace.  Lifting weights is fun, but nothing feels better then doing the super hula or some good ole yoga.  I think the yoga is what I have missed the most on the Wii.

     34 minutes of the Wii fit really made me remember why I was trying to do it daily.  I was able to burn a 150 calories in that time frame and really stretch out my back.  My back gives me a lot of trouble but has felt better since adding some muscle, the yoga only made it better.  

     So no more excuses now, I have a schedule that is now able to be planned around and a little more time now that the house is mostly done being unpacked.  Wii fit and working out with weights I think I can finish my journey of my weight loss.  My next goal is to get down to 187, that would make it 100 pounds I have lost since October of 09.  That would also be 60 pounds since December of 2010.  I can tell you I have never felt as good as I feel now, but I can only imagine how I will feel if I can keep going!

Starting to hit the weights again

Hitting the weights again...

     Now I have my gym set up and ready to go.  Last few days I have been trying a new workout routine. It is going to take a few weeks to see if anything comes of it, but I have heard nothing but good things about the type of work out I'm doing.  I'm going to work out as much as possible, hopefully 6 times a week.  3 days will be upper body workouts, 3 days be lower body and core.  

     The work out is one that you just keep going until you can't lift another weight that way.  This has been talked about on many different sites I have looked at as one of the best muscle building workouts.  However, I'm not going to see (flex) for a month so I can see the progress all at once.  We'll see how that goes however.  

     I'm still not losing the weight and I know deep inside I need to start tracking what I eat again using Sparkpeople.  So Sparky here I come again! I'll keep you updated! 

Moving means losing weight right?...

Moving

     So we moved out of the place we were staying and moved into a place of our own.  Very nice house, and lots of stuff that had to be moved.  I was excited for more than one reason.  First reason, finally get to have my family living in a house of our own again after 15 long months (thanks to those who put up with us haha).  Second reason was, moving all this stuff and all the exercise I was about to partake in, I was bound to lose some weight.

     Well, what I didn't take into account was the fact that eating was going to be a little difficult.  Dominoes here, Jack in the Box there, and my full time work diet that I talked about last night, really did a number.  I haven't really gained, but all of that extra work I did with moving seems to be the only thing that has kept me where I am.  That and those almost daily walks.  

     We are all human and bound to make mistakes.  I need to learn to control myself again and get on a routine so that I can better monitor what I eat.  Not only do I need to go back to monitoring what I eat, but I really need to start my strength workouts again.  I have my gym, it's time to cut my crap and start hitting it hard! 

The diet that is not working...

Finding a way to overcome...

     Lately I have been stagnate in my diet.  It seems I have hit a rock that will not move.  I'm at 195 pounds and I know people seem to think that I am fine at this weight, but in reality I'm still overweight and need to still drop hopefully 20 pounds.  There are many reasons why this has happened, but one shines brighter than the rest.

     I have started working full time at my job.  This is different than I"m use too.  I'm use to only working four hours or so at one job, having a few hours to come home and do things and then work at a different job.  Now, it's eight to nine hours of working, with a half an hour break.  

     During that half an hour I will go out for walks, sometimes taking something easy with me to eat.  This easy thing is normally a sandwich or a bag of nuts.  Other times I will not take anything at all.  However, I do go for that daily walk and I think that is the only thing that has kept me from not gaining.

     So what I have here is most of the time I will eat breakfast.  I then go through the rest of the day not really eating anything.  So by night time I'm starving and eat and eat and eat.  This has been a killer and a habit I am trying to get out of.  Struggling is not fun, but it is a good learning experience.  We all are going to have our ups and downs, its getting past the downs that gives us great experience.  

     Hopefully, I can break this here in the next week or so.  Kind of getting tired of not losing weight anymore, I know in my heart I still have more to go. 

Crazy week

Court is done

     April 6th 2008 is a date when my whole world came crashing to a stop, literally.  At the time I was working full time at the post office, while working my Sundays at Pizza Hut.  I had made this drive over a thousand times, each time without any incident.  I guess my number was up.  With just one quick glance to my right my car was suddenly no longer on the same path I had intended for it.  

     I have been driving for years.  Not once was I ever in an accident that occurred while actually driving.  You never expect it to be you, but I guess after years of my jobs being purely delivery jobs it was bound to happen.   

    Over a thousand deliveries and this one would end up changing my life forever.  When I was hit, I only had enough time to veer a little to the right and brace my body for impact.  That impact would eventually tear my ACL in my left knee and create a few compression fractures in my back.  I had been losing weight, feeling great, and getting my life back together.  It was then all gone.

     Only recently have I been able to get back on track.  Finally I was able to get my court date and finish all the madness.  I will say that things ended up going my way which I am glad.  But who knew that it would be so stressful and so draining.  I will have to write more about the inner workings of the court case next.  For now, I just wanted to let everyone know where I have been and why I have been away from the computer.  Hope you enjoy!