December and 2010 Wrap-Up

So, I went into December with kind of a negative attitude. I figured it’s was going to be a crazy month as far as my eating was concerned. After all, I was going to be with my family on the Holidays for the first time in 12

years and I was staying there for a month, well just about. I had my Dad’s 70^th birthday at the beginning of December and then Christmas then New years. Not to mention that going back home is always an eat out fest for me. I try to go to all the places that I love to eat at while I am home. So that usually means eating out 3 times a day trying to fit in all my favorite foods. Add to this that my girlfriend was flying in to stay with me on the 24^th. Woah….I thought for sure I would gain 10 pounds over this vacation.

Thankfully I stayed with my sisters. I didn’t get to go to the gym as much as I wanted (only 3 times) but staying with sisters helped me stay in line with my eating. Now, don’t get me wrong, I did eat at most of my favorite places to eat, but I only ate out once a day for the most part and didn’t gorge myself. We also got hit with about 12 inches of snow while I was there and shoveling that was like a nice HIIT workout.

So, like I said, I went into December with a negative attitude thinking I was going to gain weight. But what really came out of December was very far from negative. First off, I was able to be with my family for Christmas, which in itself was great! I was able to see some friends that I hadn’t seen in a very long time and…

I LOST WEIGHT!!

Yes…that’s right, I lost weight, five pounds to be exact. I left November weighing in at 289.6 and now I weigh in at 284.6. I think this is the first time that I have lost weight over the Holidays. It must have been from laying off the egg nog LOL. I will take a five pound loss over the December Holiday period any day! And to add to all this good stuff, my seatbelt on both flights clicked…WITH ROOM TO SPARE. Not much room mind you, but considering that on my last plane ride I couldn’t even buckle the seat belt, I would say this was a big NSV for sure!

Oh and I have one more thing to share as well. It not only topped off my whole vacation but also let me start 2011 on a very good note.

 

I asked my girlfriend (@valesia) to marry me….oh, and she said YES!!!

Yup, I am engaged to an extremely wonderful woman!

I couldn’t be happier with how 2010 ended and how 2011 began. I started 2010 a fat lazy guy who was having panic attacks about his health almost daily. He had no energy to move and the gym was just another place he was scared to go into. Today I am a different person. Sure I still have a lot of weight to lose, but I am no longer having panic attacks (only 1 since I have started working out and eating better), I am no longer a lazy couch potato and the gym is a place I visit pretty much every day.  Oh and did I mention I’m getting married!! :p. I am so going to ROCK 2011….BELIEVE IT!

Weight loss progress so far:

March 2010 – 320 lbs

Jan 1^st 2011 – 284.6

Total loss – 35.6 pounds!

My Appreciation for the Fit Blogging Community

First off, I want to say sorry to all the bloggers I follow for not keeping up with their blogs the past 11 days (and counting). I am still on vacation, spending time with family during the holidays over here on the East Coast. My PC time is a bit limited, but rest assured I have not forgotten about my blog and Twitter friends. Actually, that's what this post is about, the great friends I have made since starting this blog, and the great community of supporters.

When I left for my trip this month on the 10th, I thought I was leaving behind all my Twitter and Fitblog friends and supporters.  I realized though, as early as my first flight, that I didn't leave you behind, I took you all along with me. I bet you didn't realize that you were all taking a trip to RI with me did you? :)

After the first leg of my flight, I was sitting on the plane (I was one of only 2 that stayed from the last leg) so I got to chatting with one of the Southwest flight attendants. Come to find out she is on a weight loss journey of her own and has a goal of running her first 5k this March. This of course got me talking about my journey and the great support I have received from the Fitblog community of friends I have gained over the past 9 months. I told her how great you all are and how much of a positive experience it has been getting to know all of you. I also told her that without all of you and your great support, I would not have accomplished what I have so far. She really seemed intrigued so I asked if she was on Twitter. She wasn't at the time but said she was thinking about setting up an account. Well, I don't know if she has an account yet or not ( with all the talk of you guys, I forgot to give her my Twitter name lol ), but I will say that if any of you get a follow from a Southwest flight attendant, you know who the follow suggest came from LOL.

As I was spewing off names to her like Tidbits_of_Tara, JPnagan, Brooklyn_1012, FatgirlvsWorld, Cyclingsi, ChrisPugh, Rspnsblty199 and RingAroundRinn, I realized I never left you guys. I always carry you around. I obviously could not stand there and name all my followers but I think she got the point that everyone in the Fitblog community was responsible for my success so far. I also think that she was generally interested in what I had to say. She kept the conversation going with questions about Twitter and Fitblog so that was a good sign...I think.

I also realized that I talk about this great community all the time. Every chance I get I am letting people know about all of you. So, to sum all this up I just want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who follows and supports me. Thank you to everyone who is part of this fitblogging community (whether you follow me or not LOL) and thank you to everyone who goes out of their way to support someone who is going through this fitness and weight loss journey. You may not see it right away, but please know that you all make a very big difference in someone's life. You all help make it possible for people to realize that what they want to accomplish is entirely attainable.

THANK YOU!

Also a very special thanks to Katy (twitter: Kwidrick) for creating such a wonderfully supportive community with Fitblog. Follow fitblog chats on Tuesday nights at 9pm est by clicking here: Fitblog. Or follow the #fitblog hash tag on twitter. I promise, you'll be glad you did.

Offical Monthly Weigh In

Last month was rough. It started off with me doing a bunch of whining and beating myself up about how I only lost 5 pounds for the month of October. That lead to a few days of overeating and self doubt. After that I had blister issues to contend with and then it was the dreaded Thanksgiving feast. All of those lame excuses (well except for the blisters..they hurt like crazy) led to a dismal:

One pound Loss for the month of November.

Now, I'm not doing the same thing as last month and getting out the violin, playing a sad song for myself and wallowing away in self pity. In October I worked damn hard, so to see just a 5 pound loss was well, frustrating. As for November, I honestly didn't work hard at all. I went through the motions of going to the gym with some lazy workouts, and I counted my calories albeit half assed. But all in all, I pretty much gave in for the month of November, so a 1 pound loss was more than I expected. I thought for sure I would have a gain. 

For this month I going to get my workouts back to a kick ass level. I also need to work on holiday eating. Thanksgiving day was rough. Putting a fat guy who is trying to lose weight in front of all that food is like sitting an alcoholic at an open bar and saying hey, now go easy and only have a few drinks. It will almost always lead to a disaster. I didn't eat as much as I have in previous years, but I did eat until stuffed and then a bit later had pie.

At the end of this month I will be heading back to RI to visit family for the holidays. I don't get to visit RI too often so I'm going to have a tough time resisting all the great food I have been missing on the east coast. I usually go back and I eat my way through all my favorite places and probably gain 10 pounds in the process. This year I am adding a Christmas dinner with family into the mix. If I don't watch myself I could be in trouble so I must admit, I am a bit worried. When it comes to food I don't have much self control. I do better just staying away from it at this point in my weight loss saga, rather than testing my will at portion control. I will be staying with my sisters, who thankfully are a bit health conscious, so they might help me stay in line.  

 

What are some of the things that you do to fight off the holiday food monsters?

Well hopefully through all of this, I have worked hard enough to hear that *CLICK* when I sit down in my seat on the plane this month. If you don't know what I mean, scroll down a few posts and read. With that I leave you with a short summary of my weight loss saga so far. It's not great and with less weight lifting I think the numbers could be a tad better. But I will take this and all my NSV's over where I was in March any day.

March 2010 - 320 pounds

November 2010 - 290 pounds

December 2010 - 289 pounds

NovGTD Wrap-Up

Well another month has come and gone and so ends another monthly GTD (Going The Distance) challenge. These challenges, put together by Robby (@FatGirlvsWorld), are a great way to stay focused all month. They are also a fantabulous way to become part of group of people that will support you every step of the way. You see, these challenges are not set to pit one person against another, but they are there for you to challenge yourself. You can sign up here (http://tinyurl.com/35cmd3p), then get yourself on Twitter and follow all the great people. If you need help, I’ll lend a hand. So get on board for this month's DecGTD and become part of something special.

www.shoeboxblog.com

My NovGTD was a slow start followed by a rush to finish strong. The month began with me feeling a bit down about only having a 5 pound loss for the month of Oct. So the first week of Nov was filled with all my crap about is this really worth all the hard work and I ate too much and complained too much blah blah blah. I almost had to get the violin out a few times. I also started to develop blisters (big Mofo’s) in my armpit and that hurt like hell, so that kept the workouts to a minimum and definitely no running. After being kicked in the ass by most my fellow bloggers (I love those peeps), the second week went a bit better. The third and fourth weeks went ok as well but I ended up with only 85.4 miles on the month. I was short again of my goal of 100 miles running/walking in a month. You know what though, I was fine with that. Sure I want to hit that goal, but other than the first week (only 13 miles logged)  I really kicked ass to pull out a strong finish.

I’m about to do my monthly weight in for November and I must say I am not looking forward it. But even if I did gain, I know it’s just one month in a long journey and I will get back on track. I am so far health wise from where I was this past March and I have no complaints about that.

Next up….My monthly weight in.

Some Fun With Fake News

OK...no weight loss stuff this morning. I just thought it would be fun to do some fake news, seeing as the first snowflake of the year always bring about panic to the St Louis region LOL.

So now...your fake news (or not far from the truth news LOL):

    

St Louis MO, Vinny Slavin Reporting:

This morning was a disaster all over St Louis when a snowflake fell upon the region. All over the highways people were slamming into each other after seeing said snowflake.

One commuter was asked if after seeing the snowflake if he feared for his life. His response "My god yes. I saw the snowflake falling and as it hit my car on the windshield, I was all like holy shit I am going to die, I better slow down and do 15 mph on this 60 mph highway."

Another commuter was asked the same question while his hummer was being turned over from an earlier accident. "I saw the snowflake and immediately started to drive 120 mph to try and avoid it. That is when I drove over the top of some other obviously scared commuter doing 15 mph. Next thing I know I am in this ditch.....damn snowflake!"

In St Charles, MO a man was seen coming out of a grocery store rushing to load everything he bought into the back of his pickup. When asked what he thought about the snowflake he stated "I work from home, so I didn't even have to come out this morning, but when I saw the snowflake I knew I had to act fast. I came to the store an bought 8 gallons of milk, 12 loaves of bread and 6 dozen eggs. You know, just in case the snowflake decided to eat all our food. When I got to the register the girl ringing me out asked what all this was and I told her I saw a snowflake....she freaked!" What did she do then I asked? " Well she started screaming bloody hell and that is when all the insanity broke out. People were yelling and screaming and trying to get the last of the canned goods. Others were being hit over the head with french bread sticks, it was crazy."

All over the St Louis area stories were the same as people on their way to work saw the season's first snowflake fall. One can only imagine what will happen when many snowflakes get together and decide to fall at the same time. This reporter can only assume Armageddon.

Disappointment?

Yesterday was my official monthly weight in, I lost 5 pounds in the month of October and I have to admit, I am a bit disappointed in the results. I’m not upset at the loss, hey 5 pounds gone is never a bad thing, but with as hard as I worked I was really hoping for a bigger loss. Ten pounds I would have been ecstatic with.

I know I shouldn’t be concentrating on the scale as much as other things, but I need to see something to keep me motivated. Some have pointed at the fact that I’m weight training as the cause for the limited weight loss (only 30 pounds in 7 months). I do see a difference in my shoulders when look in the mirror; they are becoming defined a bit, but we have no full length mirrors in house so the chest up is all I can see. The stomach is still my major issue though. I don’t see much improvement at all in that area, although my girlfriend does. Why can’t I see it?

I don’t know, maybe I’m nit picking at myself or maybe I just need to go back to taking measurements. I’m just afraid motivation will start to taper off and I’ll go back to my old habits. Yesterday was a good example. I got off the scale and felt I let myself down. That led to a half ass lazy workout, and eating so much at dinner I felt sick.

Can someone say emotional eating? I guess I still have a ways to go in that area.

Today I obviously feel bad for the binge, no surprise there. I also know that I need to have a great workout today to get me back on track. So why is it I’m sitting here writing a blog post and trying to get motivated, instead of getting ready for the gym? Ugh…I’m really hoping I can turn things around today. I know I’m making some progress, I just look at where I am and I think…man, I am so far away from where I want to be.

I think a lot of this is fear talking. I just bought tickets to go home to see my family for the holidays. I’m really happy seeing that it’s been almost 12 years since I have spent a holiday with them (I’ve been home to visit since, but no holidays), but all I keep thinking about is one thing.

Will I need a seat belt extender when I get on the plane?

Seriously, this is what goes through my head. I have never used one, but there have been times when I just couldn’t get the belt snapped together and should have asked for an extension. Yup, I’m one that pretended to be buckled in when really I wasn’t. I suffer from a bit of social anxiety and the last thing I want is to be the center of attention by asking for the fat belt.

So this month I will be working even harder than last month, all so in early December I can hear one small goal…..”CLICK”. 

My Very First Guest Post

I will be back to my regular scheduled programming later in the week. Today though, I would like you to check out my very first guest post on Fat Girl vs.World. I am summing up my month for the #OctGTD challenge (October Going the Distance).

I was very honored that she would ask me to do this, and I would be equally as honored if you all jumped over and read it. :)

http://bit.ly/cdb7Ra   <------Read it here, then follow her here @FatGirlvsWorld on Twitter.