It was the best of times and the worst of times, to paraphrase the famous line, and it was my experience this past weekend.

The bad:
I did not journal my points this weekend and overate. I don't think I gained any, according to the scale this morning, but I don't think I lost either.

The good:
I actually rode a bike for the first time in many, many years. I was rusty, nearly crashed twice, but held on and kept going for the mile and a half or so. So now I want a bike for Christmas. Especially since I know that I won't bend it in half just by getting on it.

Weigh in is tomorrow!
Eric

Its called plantar fasciitis and apparently I am now suffering from it. My right heel and foot is causing me great pain in the mornings and sometimes throughout the day. My walking has come to a screeching halt for now, as it is quite painful now to even walk long distances. I will be seeing the doctor next week about it, so hopefully I can find out how to take care of this and get back to exercising.

At least the weight loss will help keep it under control.

Have a blessed evening.
Eric

Today was my weigh in day at my meeting. I lost 2.6 pounds for a three week total of 11.2 and am now at 339.6.

I am now just 7.8 pounds away from my 5% goal and 23.8 pounds away from my 10% goal.

I have more to blog about but I need to do some things around the house before my wife kills me so until next time, have a blessed night!

Eric

Today was my weekly Weight Watcher's meeting, and my weekly weigh in. I'll get the weigh in over with first. I lost 3.2 pounds for this past week, for a total of 8.6 for the past two weeks.

I realize that this is very good progress, but I was a little disappointed over it, as I was hoping for a larger loss. That however, is a dangerous thought process, as this will kill your success, as any loss in weight is a success! So I will celebrate with my dinner of two cups of 5 bean chili over a sweet potato with mushrooms. It's actually not too bad.

The meeting was a good one with some really good losses among the group. The married couple was there and they both lost over 5 pounds each while on vacation! Kudos to them! Our challenge this week/month is to eat 3 different colored vegetables/fruits a day for the month. It should be an easy one for me as I tend to really pile on the veggies and fruits.

Other than that, it was a good week, and a good day. One lesson learned is that I need to start exercising more than I have been. I would like to lose another 5 for the next week. My 5% goal is in sight and that 10% goal is within reach. After that I'll talk about my ultimate goal.

Have a blessed evening.
Eric

I don't know about you but my old habits are very hard to break. But by breaking them and establishing new habits, I guarantee my weight loss.

What are some of the bad old habits?

• Overeating.
• There are times when I would continue to eat, even if I were full and stuffed.

• Unhealthy snacking.
• Chips provided at work, ice cream at home, dessert at my in-laws...if it was there, I would have it.

• Grazing.
• When I grazed I grazed!  I would go to the pantry just because the food was there and I knew it, and I would pick up something to eat from there.  Same thing with the refridgerator.  Everytime I went for water, I would open up the door and grab a handful of something and eat it.  All of that added up!

• Lack of exercise.
• Do I really have to say anything about this?

So, by joining Weight Watchers, I decided that even if I diet, unless I change my bad habits into good habits, I would fail.  (Actually my wife was the one who drilled this into my head.  Thank you love!)  Here is what I am doing now to replace the bad with the good.

• Overeating has been replaced with pushing away.
• Now when I feel full, I stop for a few minutes and actually see if I am full.  If I am I get up, move away from the full, put my plate up and stop eating.  I am also drinking a full glass of water when I start feeling full, to help it along.  
• Another thing I am doing on this habit is to use the correct portions.  Again, I must thank my wife in helping me do this.
• My next step is to use smaller plates and trick myself into thinking the portions are larger than they really are.

• Unhealthy snacking has been replaced with healthy snacking.
• Who knew that carrots and peanut butter, or any vegetable with hummus would be satisfying and tasty at the same time?  Now don't get me wrong, there are times when I do miss the sweets, but I can remedy that with healthy sweets.  
• I haven't had a bag of chips in 3 weeks now.  Please note that I said a bag of chips.  I have had chips, but I am actually measuring and counting them now for correct portions.
• Also, I don't have a snack until I actually feel hungry between meals.

• Grazing has been replaced by healthy snacking and just saying no to myself.
• When you keep yourself full or partially full by eating right and having healthy filling snacks, there is no need to graze.  This has been the hardest habit to break, and there are times when I have fallen off the wagon, but I am sticking to not grazing.  Sometimes you just have to tell yourself, Hell No!

• Lack of exercise has been replaced with exercising.
• This doesn' t mean that I am exercising everyday, but I am exercising more.  I am working my way up to walking everyday, and will begin to incorporate weight training very soon.

So that is it for now.  Bad habits vs. Good Habits.  To lose weight you know which one to choose.

So choose.

Have a blessed day!
Eric

I wanted to have a quick blurb about activity points. Check on everything you do, because almost anything can be counted. I cleaned the garage today, which took me almost 3 hours to do. Now, according to WW online, cleaning the garage is considered a light activity. That's fine with me, as that was the case today. A sweat soaked activity, but a light one nonetheless. However, WW awards you 1 Activity Point for every 10 minutes of doing this activity! So let's see, that's 180 minutes, divide that by 10 and I have 18 activity points.

So the next time you decide to clean, or garden or whatever, check to see if WW considers it an activity of some sort. You just might be pleasantly surprised at the results. I know that I was.

Have a blessed night.

Eric

I believe that almost everyone listens to music, or something when they work out. So I decided to post my playlist here as a picture. (Too lazy to type it all out) Tell me what you think and what you listen to.



Have a blessed day!
Eric

I went to my second weight watchers meeting today and once again, I was the only guy there in a room full of teenage girls and women. But first the good news:

I have lost 5.4 pounds over the week! Which means I got my Five Pound Sticker and received a Bravo Sticker as well.

Not too shabby and as the title says, the results are not typical according to the leader of the meeting. So even with my two days of really bad eating, I did okay.

The next goal for me is the 5% goal of 18 pounds. We'll see how long that takes.

The topic for today was BBQ Grilling. Knowing what I love to eat, and believe me, putting all of the food up on the board, especially when I hadn't eaten since 3:00 was killing me! But learning all of the point values for the correct portions made me stop and think. No wonder I am so fat! My portions would have made the typical BBQ well over 40 to 50 or more points just for that meal! We discussed healthy alternatives and one of them is shrimp. How about 8 ounces of shrimp for the same points as three ounces of brisket? No contest. This 4th I think I will opt for the lighter fare, even if I have to bring it myself.

So that's it for this week ladies and gentlemen. 5.4 pounds lighter and I am out of here to go for my walk.

Have a blessed day.
Eric

I've thought long and hard about this particular post, but I suppose that for those that do read this blog, it's time to see the person behind the writing, the person attempting to lose this weight.

This picture was taking about 6 to 8 weeks ago at my oldest daughter's piano recital. I'm not proud of it, but it shows just how much weight I need to lose.

So (drum roll please) here is the picture. Try not to lose your lunch. (Yes I do not like pictures taken of me.)

Eric

I happen to love Chipotle's food. So does the rest of my family, but up until yesterday, I never really gave the nutritional aspect much thought. I gave it a lot of thought yesterday and I did not like what I read. The burrito I had was over 1100 calories and was worth 26 points of my day!

Needless to say I was in shock as I watched my day's points virtually halved in one meal. Luckily I still had some of the weekly points left over so I could finish out my day.

So far I am doing fairly well on the diet this week. I have, so far today, 12 activity points, 11 weekly points remaining and for today I have 23.5 points left. Tomorrow is weigh in day at the meeting, so we'll see how things are progressing. I konw that this morning I weighed at 345.7, so hopefully that will stay near that mark for the weigh in.

One thing this diet has taught me so far is to actually weigh and measure out the portions. We have the Weight Watchers Food Scale and measuring spoons, so we are fine in that aspect. Yesterday was when I started weighing the foods and today was begun in earnest with this portion of it.

So anyway, that's it from the fat guy trying to lose weight and the daily round up.

Have a blessed day!
Eric

For the last two days, I attended a conference for management training. That was the good part. The bad part? Lunch.

Lunch was at the hotel restaurant, which only served a buffet style meal. They would not do anything off of the menu. The first day was fine, and I came in at .5 points under my daily allowance of 44. The second day was a nightmare. We had 40 minutes to eat lunch, I had already had a McDonald's breakfast that morning, which was 18 points (which I will NEVER do again) and the buffet was catfish, coleslaw, hushpuppies, rice pilaf, and beef tips. so I over ate.

Let's just say that I am very glad for my weekly point allowance of 35 extra, because my point total for yesterday was over 60.

I really need to plan out my meals now.

So it is now the end of day one and I survived. I even did everything I could to watch my portions, and made sure I wrote everything down. Of course writing it down meant using the online tools they have for men and women. (Yes the tools are separated.) I will definitely will have to do a post on the tools alone, as they are well worth the price of admission per month. That said, out of the allotted 44 points per day I have, I still had 3.5 point left over for today.

I even have 3.5 activity points for the day. I did 17 minutes on our treadmill and did a very high activity exercise on it. (Meaning I was going about 3.0 mph on average, with an incline of 10 and warm up and cool down.)

All in all, not too bad. I need to plan out my meals now, and snacks as well, and I need to make sure I time my times to eat. That way I am not hungry all the time.

It is late and I have a conference to go to for the next two days. Since I will have to eat out those days, we'll see how that goes.

Have a blessed night.
Eric

Well, guys, if you are looking for a place to meet women, then this is the place. Out of the 20 or so people at the meeting last night, there were two men there. Me and another married guy who was there with his wife. (DISCLAIMER...I am happily married and not looking. Just making an observation.)

I have to say, that the WW meeting was part WW grocery store, part pep rally, part motivational speaking and part contest. How you say?

As I walked in, the first things I noticed was the three ladies at the counter who greeted me. (After waiting outside for a while because the website was wrong on their meeting time, but that is another story) In front of the counter were scales. Now the scales look like they could hold a small elephant up if necessary, but the actual readout of the scales are behind the counter. You have to take their word for it. I am not sure I really like that, but oh well, not my rules.

Now after the scales, you turn and see the grocery/book/utensil sections. Here is all the WW foods, books and utensils you could ever hope for. They are very proud of their items, as the price reflects. I would highly suggest that you buy the food at Walmart or somewhere like that, the books at a used bookstore or online and as for the utensils you can find equivalents elsewhere. Some of their merchandise is expensive!

I weighed in, at 350.8 and so from now on, Tuesdays will be my official weigh in date. After weigh in I went in and waited on the meeting. Ah yes the meeting. That was the interesting part. I did get a lot of good advice from that meeting. Some things that I had not really thought of, such as putting the point values on the outside of packaging, that way you know just how much that candy will cost you if you so desire it.

The leader talked to us about planning ahead, which is a good topic. She had quite the bubbly personality and when it came time to hand out stickers for achieving certain goals, like showing up for your second week and for losing five pounds, she became both a dancer and cheerleader, playing MC Hammer's "Can't Touch This" and handing out the stickers.

I felt like I was in my youngest daughter's class for a while.

Don't get me wrong, I know why this is done this way, but I am saying that I am not that Rah Rah Sis Boom Bah type of guy. Not yet anyway. (For you youngsters out there, look it up.) But overall, I think this will be the challenge I need to get my lazy butt off the couch and into weight loss mode.

Oh, and I went with the forty dollar a month plan, with unlimited meetings and the online option as well. Now the Online option is definitely worth it! (again, another post.)

So that is it for now. I am "Officially" doing WW now, and not just on my own.

Have a blessed day!
Eric

I have been talked into it, sort of. I am going to be going to my first Weight Watcher's meeting this afternoon. I am hoping I am not the only guy there.

I'll let you know how things go.

Oh, and I weighed in this morning at 348.2.

But that will be the unofficial weigh in. The one that counts will be the one at the meeting today.

Have a good day.

Eric

There are many struggles that people deal with when losing weight. Binge eating, eating due to emotions, lack of time due to life happening, etc. But I have a couple of new ones for you: Camping and Sunburn.

We went camping for four days this past Memorial Day weekend, camping at wonderful Eisenhower Park at Lake Texhoma. It was a good time, and we mostly had fun doing this. When I started camping I weighed in at 351. I thought that camping would be good to me; I'd be hiking, fishing, doing the outdoors things I like to do. But I also apparently ate like a pig and did not even realize it. When I came home and weighed in, I had gained seven pounds! I was beside myself in disbelief.

To top that, I had decided to wear shorts for the first time in 3 years outdoors and went fishing with the kids at the Red River, actually doing some fishing while standing in the water. Can you guess what came next? That's right, I became sunburned.

I was sunburned so badly that my legs from my knees down to my feet swelled to two and one half times their normal size. I went to the urgent care clinic and they were actually advising me to make sure I came back if the skin started splitting open! Needless to say, I didn't do any exercising (i.e. walking) for the rest of the week.

So, a little over a week later, I weighed in at 349 this morning. A small victory, but a victory none the less.

Believe me, I learned my lesson from this one.

Yesterday was a day of highs and lows. Literally.

I weighed in yesterday morning at 335 pounds. A 20 pounds drop! I was ecstatic! I was now six weeks ahead of the curve! So I left for work and then told my wife later on.

Turns out the scale was WAY off. 13 pounds off to be exact.

So I weighed again this morning. I am at 351. Only a four pound loss for the week. I know, I know, I should still be ecstatic, but I think everyone would agree that learning you only lost four instead of 20 is a let down. I'll have to do better next week. I have tickets to the pops riding on this!

I also tried to jog some Monday night. That was fun. I didn't die, and I was able to go two blocks without stopping at a time. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. By the end of summer I should be the strongest man on earth!

Have a great day!

My wife and I watched the biggest loser finale last night. Personally I really wanted Mike to win, but they were all winners last night. Seeing Jerry at his age winning the 100,000 dollars for the most percentage lost outside of the ranch was amazing! and to see Mike, Helen and Tara and the percentages they lost...heck, the weight all of the contestants lost, is fantastic.
And inspiring.

I know I have blogged about this for a long while, and I have had some success, and more often than naught failures, as my wife and I watched, I could see myself in so many of those stories.

Having to lean the car seat back and tilt the wheel up to drive.
Going to the buffet, knowing it is not a healthy choice.

Just two of the many instances when after hearing, my wife would look over at me and give me that knowing look.

So we decided to make a go of this together. I won't say how much she is wanting to lose. She has her own blog for that! But as for me, I will still post my experience here.

So the skinny is this:

• I will lose around 158 pounds, which will put me at 197 pounds total weight.
  
• I will limit my caffeine consumption to my morning cup of coffee. What this means is that my daily habit of 6 to 9 Diet Dr. Peppers (or more) will go away.
• I will be limiting the weight loss to 2 to 3 pounds a week, to stay on a healthy course.
• I will be having 6 to 8 small meals a day.
• I will be drinking LOTS of water.
• I will be incorporating more exercise into my day. For example, at work I will be taking the stairs instead of the elevator. Now, that may not sound like a big deal, but you try walking up six flights of stairs, with 30 pounds of electronic gear, and not be in shape! It's not fun, believe me.

That's about it in a nutshell. Other than why now. What's my motivation.

That was an easy question to answer last night and I still stand by my answer.

My wife.

Have a blessed day!

For the last two days, I have been in the backyard with my daughters playing, and trying to help them with their soccer skills.

Now I am not a soccer player, nor do I claim to be, but I do try me best to help them out. And I get a nice workout. Believe me it is a workout. Both of my girls comment on my sweating. Mostly they try to avoid getting it on them. We are going to graduate from the backyard to the local park, which has a huge playing area to use. No more kicking balls over the fence and into the neighbor's yard, to try and get.

I am enjoying this, and I know the kids are ecstatic that daddy is spending time with them. Well, I have been lax in that department.

Now, if I can keep doing this and get my butt on the treadmill on the same days!

Thanks for reading.
Eric

Okay, so it's a long title. It's been a while since I have updated this blog so I need a long title to play catch up.

First for the non weight issues.

I have updated my main blog, Dad To 2 and have given it a completely new makeover. Gone is the dark, foreboding controversial blogging I did in the past. Instead it's a fun, upbeat more family oriented blog. After all, as my wife pointed out to me, would I REALLY want my two daughters to read any of what I used to post about? Honestly, not until they turned 21 or so. I am not saying that any of it was adult oriented, it wasn't. But the topics I covered were very controversial to say the least, and I did not hold back.

So like I said, upbeat and kid-friendly.

I have actually started re-doing this blog as well. Gone will be the extraneous stuff that was cluttering up this site and making life heck for those who wanted to see what was happening in my journey to lose the fat, and instead it will be cleaner, easier on the eyes. You'll notice the bar right under the header picture. You can navigate to my other two blogs, the Dad To 2 blogs, or to any of my wife's three blogs. Go ahead, go take a look. I'll wait right here for you.

So what did you think? Pretty nice huh? Thought so.

Now with that being said, let's talk about weight, and talk about it honestly. I have had issues with my weight for most of my life. I was extremely heavy in High School, and through most of my adult life, with one period of time in 1999 to 2001, I have been over 300 pounds. Dieting is hard for me, as I tend to eat out of habit, or as an emotional crutch. I do like to exercise but I tend to stop long before I get back into the habit of it. Usually it's because of a lack of time. But there is that laziness factor as well.

And yes, those are excuses and I know it.

So I am going to do this again go on the diet, work on more exercise and actually do it this time because this time it is a contest between me and my best friend, to see who can lose the most percentage of body weight before summer. I would like to be able to put on a swimsuit without having to cover up completely with the overly large t-shirt because I am too embarrassed, or don't want to embarrass my family. So I have incentive and a partner, and because I am very competitive, I have a contest. After all, first place is a 72 ounce prime rib. Again, just kidding.

So I weighed in and set the Weight Watchers scale up to maintain my weight and track my weight changes on Saturday and lo and behold, yes I had gained a lot of weight back. I weighed in at 353.7 pounds. Now you probably don't want to know how I weigh, so let's just say that I don't have to worry about anything but my body weight.

I weighed in this morning and I had dropped 5.7 pounds. I realize it's all water weight, but hey, it's a start.

Now as for exercise, I am quitting LA Fitness. It really is a great place to workout, and there are a lot of fat people who work out there. But it's also a place for looking at eye candy. I don't need that. I need to concentrate. That and it is much nicer to simply come home, change, stretch and then hit the treadmill. I do have weights and will hit those but I have to face facts. I need to drop some of this weight first.

So that's it. This has now caught me completely up and for those who have not dropped off of reading this, now you know.

Thanks for reading.

Eric

My "honeydo" list this weekend was fairly simple. Take care of the yardwork.

Six hours on Saturday, 2 hours on Sunday and I have 18 paper lawn and leaf bags, like the kind you buy at home depot filled with leaves, and these are not just fill with leaves until full, these are compacted several times before I put them out for the trash! I have two more bags filled with tree clippings and branches. 20 bags of yardwork.

So today, I am sore. No, sore is not the word. I hurt! My inner thighs feel like I have been weightlifting for 20 hours straight, and for a while I was hurting to bend my legs. As it stands now, I am still walking slowly and with a small limp.

So what do I plan on doing? Go hit the treadmill again either today or tomorrow.

After I worked out at the gym this past Friday, I decided to weigh in on their professional scale. Imagine my surprise when, fully clothed, minus my shoes, I weighed in at 344.2 pounds! So, I was a little perplexed at this, as I am NOT weighing that at home. So I weighed at home when I got there and it showed me at 350 pounds!

Now we use a Weight Watchers brand scale at home, and I plan on trying to calibrate it tonight.

Six pounds of difference. It's mind boggling.

Okay so I went to gym this past Friday to workout on the treadmill. I didn't do too bad.

My average time was 17:38 per mile.

Now to get my fat butt to the gym today or tomorrow.

When you look at the banner my loving wife created for me, you will see the phrase, "For my body is not my own". Some may wonder what that means and I would like to take a little time to explain.

In 1 Corinthians 6: 19-20 the Bible says this:

19. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;

20. you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

That is what I mean by that phrase.

I think that Neil Anderson, a minister who's daily devotion I read says it best:

In 2 Corinthians 5:1-4 Paul referred to the believer's body as a tent, the temporary dwelling place of the soul. Using his illustration, I must confess that my tent pegs are coming up, my poles are sagging, and my seams are becoming frayed! At my age I'm just glad that there's more to me than the disposable earth suit I walk around in.

You don't exist for your body; it exists for you. That's why Paul said, "I beat my body and make it my slave" (1 Corinthians 9:27 NIV ). In order to fulfill your purpose for being here, you need to manage your body well through exercise, balanced diet and adequate rest.

So that is why that phrase is there, and that is why I keep on keeping on with my weightloss.

I haven't posted in a while and it's mostly because of laziness. Yes I admit I am lazy. It's one reason I am fat.

I have begun walking around my neighborhood lately. The route I take is 1.1 miles and I am doing this in an average time of 30 minutes. I tend to do better in the gym on the treadmill, but it has been hard to get to the gym. It happens.

My eating has increased somewhat. I need to watch my portions more, especially at work. I need to watch my habits as the gains in weight loss will soon go away, and that is not what I want.

My weight however, has stayed the same so far. I am still at 346.

So here is to not having to start over, but continuing on that path to weightloss, onward to my goal of 230 and that spring triathlon.

You know I blogged yesterday about maintaining 346 for a few days. Well, I weighed this morning and I am down to 344.7 now. Still not sure how this is coming off, but it is.

Still planning on going to the gym sometime this evening. We'll see how that goes.

So far this new year, I have maintained my weight at 346 pounds. I have attempted to maintain eating the right portions, but I have not done much in the way of exercising. I have weighed 4 times since right before the first and my weight has remained at 346, with a fluctuation of .3 to .8 pounds.

So this week I will be hitting the gym and seeing if I can drop this to 340 by the end of the month.

Happy New Year!
I hope everyone had a great new year's eve and is doing well with no hangovers.

My wife and I have decided to do a joint resolution this year. We are going to be eating our food at home with smaller plates and utensils to control the timing of eating (i.e. not eating too fast) and how much we eat. (i.e. the food on a smaller plate looks much lager than the same amount on a larger plate.) This should give us the ability to eat normal sized portions without the psychological effects of seeing the same sized portions on a larger plate, thus making us want to put more on the plate to fill it up.

I'll let you know in later posts how this goes.

Have a great day and year!