Remember all those who have served.

Weight loss for a fat guy - one year later

So, here it is. October the 13th. A year ago today I got my lazy butt up and went to the doctor. I found out that I was killing myself with my lifestyle. Now, one year later, I've gotten rid of my blood pressure issues, my liver and spleen are normal, and I've dropped 158 pounds. I still have more weight to lose to meet my final goal, but time is now on my side.

Fan-made opening to The Walking Dead

THE WALKING DEAD "Opening Titles" from Daniel Kanemoto on Vimeo.

Weight Loss for the fat guy. 150 pounds down.

Well, it finally happened. Just a few days ago, I weighed in 150 pounds lighter than when I started this journey Oct 13, 2009. What a journey it has been. Here is a picture (on Blogger) showing my current weight.



Guys/Gals, I can tell you it wasn't easy, and it still isn't. You will go through bouts of discouragement. You will stray. However, if you persevere with your eyes on the goal at the end, it is possible to succeed!!!

Finger in Butt Crack Sparks Knife Fight

Finger in Butt Crack Sparks Knife Fight

Conan the Barbarian: The Musical (Arnold Schwarzenegger)

Hope

Mortal Kombat Rebirth

Remember...

The National Moment of Remembrance, established by Congress, asks Americans wherever they are at 3 p.m., local time, on Memorial Day to pause in an act of national unity (duration: one minute).The time 3 p.m. was chosen because it is the time when most Americans are enjoying their freedoms on the national holiday. The Moment does not replace traditional Memorial Day events; rather it is an act of national unity in which all Americans, alone or with family and friends, honor those who died for our freedom. It will help to reclaim Memorial Day as the sacred and noble holiday it was meant to be. In this shared remembrance, we connect as Americans.

Ouch

Weight Loss for a Fat Guy: Vacation Time

For a long Mother's Day weekend, the family and I decided to go out of town on vacation. Vacations can be a stumbling block to people trying to lose weight. However, I've been listening do some fitness advice on the radio. Every Monday, Lex and Terry have fitness expert David Thompson on. His advice about vacations is to go and enjoy. If you go crazy, that's fine. Just be prepared to work on it when you get back.

That's what we did. Well, not completely crazy, but there was much "bad" food eaten. I'm talking pasta, nachos, Chinese, etc. Also, I wasn't on my normal 5 small meals a day. It was three full squares. However, this was actually tempered with a lot of walking and movement. It wasn't like I was eating bad and being sedentary. I was moving from dawn until dusk. I was also drinking as much water as I possibly could. Guess what, lost some more weight as well (down to 278 as of this morning).

So, don't fear vacations. Enjoy and don't stress; that is what they are there for. Just be prepared to get back to your normal habits when you return.

Obituary: Frank Frazetta, renowned fantasy illustrator, dies at 82 - latimes.com

Obituary: Frank Frazetta, renowned fantasy illustrator, dies at 82 - latimes.com

Posted using ShareThis

Devon! Get the tables!

Weight Loss For A Fat Guy: Late April Update

April 28th. A day that will....be pretty much like any other day. heh. Seriously though, since the last update some things have changed up a bit.

For one, I hit the 100 pound lost mark. So, as promised, I went off the wagon. The family and I went to Pizza Hut to enjoy a deep dish supreme pan pizza and a root beer. Unfortunately, I could only eat about 2 pieces. Then, I went home and road 10 miles. So much for the wagon. :)

Secondly, I'm eating more. I'm eating 5 portioned out meals throughout the day. What this does is keep the hunger down and energy up. I realized, based on my BMR calculation, that I was taking in too few calories throughout the day. Now, I try to hit at least 1500, but no more than 1800. With that level, based on age, weight, and activity, I can safely lose a pound a week.

Thirdly, I've lost over 110 pounds now. Also, I've lost 14 inches off of my waistline. It is so refreshing to be able to go into a normal store and find clothing that fits. Giving a size comparison, I've gone from wearing 4XL clothing to plain XL. Large, here I come. ;)

Wizard Staff

At least he didn't want to cast magic missile....

Weight Loss for a Fat Guy: March Update

So here it is, mid-March. I mentioned in my previous post that I was undergoing monitoring for my fatty liver. In late February, I had to go to the vampires at Quest to have more fluids removed and tested. This month, right before I was due to go back, I receive a letter from the liver doc. It states that all levels are nominal. Continue weight loss. Get another blood draw in 2 months, and don't come back to see us for another 6 months. Wha?!?!?! Holy crap, some good news!

So, not only have I dropped over 95 pounds now (97 as of this morning), but my blood pressure has gone down and my liver is back to functioning normally. Wow, this is something to this weight loss. However, I'm having a serious problem which will lead to financial difficulty. I have to go get a new wardrobe soon, and I may not need to go shopping at the Fat Ass specialty store either.

BTW. When I hit the 100 pound mark, I'm going off the wagon for one night only. Wanna come with? :P

Assault with a deadly....breast...

From The Smoking Gun:

A Kentucky woman is facing a felony assault charge for allegedly squirting breast milk into the face of a female jailer. After Toni Tramel, 31, was arrested last Thursday for public intoxication, she was transported to the Daviess County Detention Center in Owensboro. While there, Tramel, pictured in the above mug shot, was directed to change into a jail uniform. But the uncooperative suspect was "too intoxicated to complete the task on her own," so Officer Lula Brown sought to aid her, according to the below incident report. While in the jail's shower room, Brown told Tramel that she "needed to take her shirt and bra off" before changing into a green jail smock. That is when Tramel "took off her bra, grabbed her breast and squirted breast milk, hitting me in the face and neck region," reported Brown. Tramel attempted a second lactation assault, "but was unsuccessful," added Brown. Tramel is now being held in the Daviess County lockup on $5000 bond. As for Brown, a jail press release noted that the officer was successfully able to "clean the bio-hazard off her."

Space Battleship Yamato: Live Action Trailer

This won't be Star Blazers...sorry.

Scrubs Remix (DJ Steve Porter)

Weight loss for a fat guy - How the iPhone is saving my life...

Dateline September, 2009...

I hadn’t been feeling well. My body wasn’t handling the stress that work was putting me under like it had times before. I was thinking that at 38, I was too young for this. So when I actually succumbed to having my blood pressure taken, it was spiking to 180/100. That shocked me, and I knew that something had to change.

On October 13th 2009, I went to the doctor and everything changed. BP was 160ish over 100ish. However, weigh-in was shock number two: 395lbs. WTF?!?!? No way did I weigh that much. That couldn’t be right. I can’t weigh but maybe 20 or so pounds more than when I got married back in 1997. I was deluded. I was fooling myself. I was living in the past.

Shock number three was the profile the doctor said I fit. “According to my calculations, you are a man who is taking in close to 4000 calories a day”. 4000? 4000?!?!?! With the history of heart issues in my family, I was looking at an early grave. However, it was correctable. The doctor said that exercise was out of the question until I got a full cardiac profile done (stress test, blood tests, heart echo, etc). My first line of defense was diet.

The doctor gave me some great information on what I was putting in my body, what I should be putting in my body, and what to look out for when eating out. She also got me to see a nutritionist, which only further expanded my knowledge about what the do’s and do not’s are when it comes to eating “right”. This is where the iPhone comes into play.

The iPhone has many applications on it that deal with fitness. The one that I settled on had brand name nutritional information, restaurant nutritional information, and allowed me to input/correct information. The KEY to it all was the tracking. If you don’t know what is going into your body, there is no way you can honestly lose weight without hurting you. The nutritionist and doctor gave me guidelines. For an average male, take in no more than 2000 calories, 180 carbs, and 2400 sodium (for the heart).

When I first saw that, I thought that was easy enough to do. Then I started looking through the iPhone application, doctor’s literature, and on the internet. My GOD!!! I was eating myself to oblivion. Case in point was my standard Saturday night meal. I loved getting a Red Burrito from the local Hardees. It was big and loaded with “good stuff”. Know what that cost me?

From http://www.hardees.com/redburrito/menu/burritos/signature-red-burrito-beef/

Product Signature Red Burrito (Beef)
Serving Size 428, Calories 820, Calories from Fat 290, Total Fat (g) 32, Saturated Fat (g) 12, Cholesterol (mg) 65, Sodium (mg) 2820, Carbohydrates (g) 95, Dietary Fiber (g) 6, Sugars (g) 4, Protein (g) 35

This sucker, not counting the nachos, salsa, beans, and soda included in the combo, was costing 1/3 of my daily calories, ½ of my carbs, and more than a whole day of sodium.

My second weakness was soda. It had gotten bad. I was guzzling down a 2liter of Coke on a weekend. During the week, I’d start my day off with a 32oz Coke in the morning, with a refill at lunch. Know what a Coke has?

From http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/us_nutrition.html

Product Coca-Cola classic
Serving Size 8 Fl Oz, Calories 97, Calories from Fat 0, Total Fat (g) 0, Saturated Fat (g) ?, Cholesterol (mg) 0, Sodium (mg) 33, Carbohydrates (g) 27, Dietary Fiber (g) 0, Sugars (g) 27, Protein (g)0

Note the serving size. That is just for 8oz of Coke. Do you even see that anymore? Talk about garbage in. And I was downing a 2liter a weekend? I quickly weaned myself off of Coke (the headaches were a biatch), and went to strictly water.

So, the drink was taken care of, what about food? What could I have? You know, I found out quickly that if I just read the labels, ran the numbers, and adhered to the serving/portion size, I wasn’t missing out on much. See, this is where a lot of people (myself included) were misinformed. The information is right there on the can/package. Just note the serving size and make allowances in your daily allotments. It really is all about the math. What about eating out? Well, thank God for the internet (and again, iPhone). You can look up most major restaurants online. They will have nutritional information. If they don’t, there are multitudes of websites that have their own info or a copy-cat recipe with nutrition info. It may not be precise, but it worked.

Back to my tale of woe. Once I got the wake-up call, I got serious. I couldn’t do this if my head wasn’t twisted on straight. I had to buckle down and work for it, even without exercise. I used the fundamentals I was taught and learned: knowing the information, tracking the input, keeping the limitations. Between more doctor visits, my family got on board. The more questionable foods were quickly replaced with more healthy food. The sea salt shakers were replaced by Ms Dash. The regular canned veggies replaced by the low-sodium or no-sodium versions. Because my heart was still in question, we started collecting and using recipes from low-sodium cooking sites. You’d be surprised how much you don’t miss it.

So, with diet only, the pounds started to come off. Not quickly, mind you, but they did. By the time I went in for my stress test a month later, 20 pounds were gone. By Christmas, close to 40. Speaking of holidays, I have to keep reminding people when they want to cook for me that they need to make what they always do. It is UP TO ME to make sure I don’t exceed what I can have. Was it hard? Not so much. I used to load up on stuffing and gravy at Thanksgiving. I used to be able to finish off a pound of ham at Christmas. Maybe I was lucky to start this diet before the holidays, because by the time they hit, my habits had changed.

Habits built up over my lifetime were hard to overcome. However, it doesn’t take too long to reform them. You have to give yourself time. When it came to food, I was always taught to clean my plate. I would overeat to make sure I ate what I took. Well, I listen to that full feeling now. I can visualize what I know I can eat. I can mentally portion things out. It works great. I eat smaller portions of better food with greater lasting effects so I don’t get hungry. Pre-portioned meals that are commonly available in the frozen food section are a great boon! I’ve fallen in love with the Healthy Choice Café Steamers. The nutritional info is perfect for what I’m doing, and it keeps me full until dinner. Don’t buy into the old wives tale about eating breakfast big and progressively smaller meals throughout the day. Everyone is different. Everyone has to learn what their body needs and should have.

Liver issues were brought into question by some of my blood work. I got a CT scan done, and it indicated fatty liver. Off to see a specialist. Fatty liver is one of those things obese folks like I have to deal with. Your liver can store up fat, which hinders liver functions. You have to lose weight to lose the fat. So the first visit, the specialist tells me that. He likes that I am losing weight and I should continue to do it smartly. He orders more blood work and a return trip in January. So, the first week of January rolls around and I weigh in at 341. 341? That’s 50 pounds in 3 months. GOAL!!!!!

(side note: I had set some goals when I started this back in October. I wanted to lost 50 pounds by Spring 2010, and 100 by my Birthday in November 2010)

Doctor said my blood work had improved a lot and was again impressed with my weight loss. I am still going through more monitoring. This will be coming up in March. Also around this time, I got word that my heart was cleared for exercise. Fantastic! I had a coat rack…er, exercise bike that needed some loving. My family decided that the Wii Fit needed dusting off as well. I wasn’t so thrilled about this. See, the Wii Fit has a weight limit of 330 pounds. If you exceed that, you can’t use it. I had bought it in late 2008. When I first got on it, it told me that I weighed too much to use it. Ouch. However, now was a new day!

I was hesitant to get on it, but I did….and….it accepted me!!! I was pegging the high 320’s with minimal clothing, but I could do it. I combined this with the cycle for some good results. We got the newer Wii Fit Plus software, and the updates are much appreciated. I try to do 30 minutes a day minimum.

Sorry to have rambled on for so long, but as you can see, losing weight at my age is possible. It isn’t easy, but if you get your head in the game you can do it. As the 80’s cartoon GI Joe used to say “knowing is half the battle”. In my case, it was the entire battle. Once I got educated, it all fell into place. Plus, if I ever feel like going off the wagon, I have a little reminder in my pocked (iPhone) that keeps me on the right path.

Now to see if I can bust my birthday goal before spring arrives. If so, party time. Healthy with limits, of course. :)

PS. As of this morning. 308.

Sore Winner

'Deadliest Catch' Captain Phil Harris has died

From EW online:

Discovery announced tonight that Captain Phil Harris, known to fans of Deadliest Catch as captain of the crab fishing vessel Cornelia Maria, has died. He suffered a stroke late last month while in port off-loading at St. Paul Island in Alaska. “He was more than someone on our TV screen,” according to a statement from the network, which has documented the Cornelia Marie’s adventures on the Bering Sea for five seasons on the Emmy-winning series. “Phil was a devoted father and loyal friend to all who knew him. We will miss his straightforward honesty, wicked sense of humor and enormous heart. We share our tremendous sadness over this loss with the millions of viewers who followed Phil’s every move.”

Harris’ sons also put out the following statement: “It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to our dad. Dad has always been a fighter and continued to be until the end. For us and the crew, he was someone who never backed down. We will remember and celebrate his strength.”

I Am The TaxMan

For Sale: One Shuttle, used.

From New Scientist:

Space shuttle for sale, fully loaded, air conditioning, one careful owner. It's the ultimate bargain. NASA has cut the price of a space shuttle to $28.8 million. The vehicles will go on sale after they finish constructing the International Space Station, scheduled to be later this year. The New York Times reports that NASA had hoped to get $42 million for each vehicle but lowered the cost in the hope of sealing a deal. It has three to sell, although one of these, Discovery, is already promised to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC.

If an entire shuttle is beyond your budget, consider a main engine instead. NASA had hoped to charge up to $800,000 for these but lack of interest has forced it to slash the price. They are now available for free: a bargain in anybody's language. Just bear in mind that the buyer must pay for postage and packaging.

A boy's dog is a true guardian Angel

From Mail Online:

A golden retriever called Angel is being hailed a hero after it stopped a mountain lion from attacking an 11-year-old boy.

The 18-month-old dog stepped between the big cat and the youngster during a dramatic encounter in western Canada.

Police, who later shot the cougar dead, credited Angel for saving the Austin Foreman's life.

He had gone to retrieve some firewood outside his family's home in Boston Bar, about 150 miles north-east of Vancouver.

That's when the mountain lion charged across the yard at the boy.

'I was really scared. At first, I didn't know it was a cougar. I thought it was another dog,' Austin told CTV News on Sunday.

'As soon as it went underneath the light, I saw that it was a cougar. I knew at that moment, I had to go inside.'

Angel, who had been at Austin's side, attacked the big cat.

Austin ran into the house and screamed: 'A cougar is eating Angel!'

Mrs Forman said she had to get Austin to repeat himself a few times because he was so shaken.

When she looked out the window, Mrs Foreman couldn't see anything but she could hear Angel wimpering.

'To feel so helpless, I knew I couldn't do anything,' she said.

She called her father-in-law, who told her to call the police.

Royal Canadian Mountain Police Constable Chad Gravelle was nearby and was on scene within a minute.

The officer found the cougar under the back porch and heard the dog cry out as the cougar chewed its neck, police said.

He fired two rounds into the cougar's rear end, but the cat continued its attack.

The officer closed to within five feet and shot the mountain again, killing it.

Even after it was dead, the cat's jaws were clenched on Angel's face.

Angel was silent for a few moments but then took in a big gasp of air and got up.

Forman said Angel was recovering with a local vet. The dog has numerous puncture wounds around her head and neck, as well as a swollen eye.

Mrs Forman said before the attack, Austin had come into the house to tell the family how cute it was that Angel had been following him around.

'She must've known something was up,' Forman said.

Last week, when Angel was frolicking in the snow, family members called her a 'snow angel,' the mother said.

'Now, she's our guardian angel.'