Thanks Mom...I Love You!

This past weekend, to kick off our Spring Break vacation, I loaded up the van and headed south with my wife and 3 kids to visit Grandma and the gang.  Now, to give you an idea of how my family is situated, my Mom and her husband live approximately 1000 steps from my older brother and his family, another 500 steps from my twin brother and his family and about 1/2 mile from my older sister and her family.  Needless to say, our family is what you might call CLOSE!  Taking the trip down to the beach to spend the weekend is a wonderful opportunity for my children to see 10 of their cousins, their aunts and uncles and to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa.  Our visit this year was great!  We spent four wonderful days hanging out with family, riding the ferry, visiting the Aquarium, fishing in the lake and sharing many meals together.  It is such a blessing as a father to see my kids enjoy the town in which I grew up.  I love those moments when I can share a bit of my childhood with my kids.  One of the biggest treats this year was the effort my Mom made to make healthy, whole grain snacks and fresh fruit available while we visited.  Now growing up, my family would not have been confused with health food activists.  Don't get me wrong, vegetables were readily available, but so were lots of sugary snacks, soft drinks and traditional "Southern Fried" fare.  Our culinary world was very typical of a 1980's southern family.  These days my Mom does a much better job of watching what she eats and prepares, but Sun Drop and other guilty pleasures are hard habits to break.  In the past I headed south with the knowledge that I would eat what was available and enjoy the company of my family, however, like I said earlier, Mom had a surprise in store.  This trip, we enjoyed grilled meats and veggies, whole wheat pasta, fresh fruit, multi-grain snacks, no sugar added ice cream cones (snack size), turkey bacon, roast with carrots and potatoes and many other wonderfully healthy treats.  The one time we did indulge in a guilty pleasure was on the final day of our visit when we went to lunch at a local Mexican Restaurant that serves exceptional cuisine.  I ordered my meal, consumed half of it, boxed the rest up and left it in the fridge when we headed home.  What a great trip and what a wonderfully caring and loving Mom I am so blessed to have.  Thanks Mom for the effort you make to provide me with healthy options that fit with my new life choice.  Thanks for always loving me with no strings attached and for being there to pick me up and dust me off when life threw me a challenge I found difficult to overcome.  Thanks for sharing movie nights, phone calls, tears, laughter, joy and sorrow over the years.  Thanks for being proud of me and the person I have become.  Thanks for helping make me the man I am today and thanks for being a shining example of the love of God here on earth.  You are...to borrow your favorite word....an "AWESOME" Mom and words cannot do justice to the love I feel for you in the depths of my soul.  I am so blessed to call you my Mom and so honored to call you my friend.  I LOVE YOU ALL THE WAY TO THE MOON AND BACK!   

Under 300....

Sorry for the recent absence from writing....the past couple of weeks have been filled with tennis matches, school trips and Spring Break vacations.  As I posted in the FINAL WRAP UP, I lost 19 lbs during my 21 days of disclosure.  It was such a motivating time and one filled with incredible revelations for me as an individual.  I plan on creating a separate post about that at a later date.  For this post, I want to focus on something equally as motivating and encouraging and something that I have yearned for and desired now for over 2 years.  As of Friday, 4-8-2011, I am no longer in the 300 club.  When I weighed that morning, I came in at 298 lbs, bringing my 28 day weight loss total to 22 lbs and moving me under 300 pounds for the first time since March of 2009.  It was such a relief and exciting moment to get on the scales and not see a three at the beginning of the flashing red digits.  Thanks for all the support and well wishes over the past month.  Hopefully, this is just the beginning and I can stay focused on reaching my goal of weighing 250 lbs by July when my family and I take our annual beach trip,  So long 300....I don't plan on visiting you again anytime soon!

THE FINAL WRAP-UP!

On Saturday, 3/11/2011, I began a 21 day odyssey of tracking and reporting the food I was eating.  During that time I focused on watching and calculating certain amounts of specific nutritional standards each day.  Some days I did extremely well and others I could have done a lot better.  I tried to open myself to the vulnerability of what I was doing and for the most part achieved that during the last three weeks.  In all honesty, there were a couple of moments when I did falter and make a choice that was not the best (i.e. a KitKat candy bar or two), which at the time I did not "fully disclose" and for that I apologize.  I realize that there are still some lingering issues I face with being completely open about the food I eat and I must strive to work harder and not allow embarrassment or shame to affect me in my honesty.  Outside of the candy bars, everything that went into my body was documented and shared.  Even though I did fall short on a couple of occasions, the accountability and desire to be as honest as possible, did get me through several other moments of weakness when old habits began to creep in and push me off of my path.  The only issue I feel guilty about is not sharing those weak moments earlier.  I still have these feelings of needing to be perfect and not letting others down because of my poor decisions.  I know that is the main thing I still need to work on and I hope that I will continue to make progress toward becoming stronger.  The one positive out of those poor decisions and one thing that should have allowed me to be more open, is that on the days I did slip up and eat something that was not the best choice, those were the days when I was low on my calories and fat and could have easily fit the candy into the daily totals and been OK.  The stigma of "oh no, I ate the candy", which has been bred in many over eaters who try to "be good" and "stay strong" just devoured my psyche and put up a mental wall that I chose not to break down.  It is one of those by-products of a life filled with "dieting" and "weight roller coasters" that seems to always be lurking in the back of my mind.  So, there is a truer sense of "Full Disclosure" and it is something that frees me now to be able to share the results of the past 3 weeks.

When I began 3 weeks ago, I weighed 320 lbs.  By watching what I ate, limiting my poor choices and exercising (even just a little), I now weigh............

301 lbs

That's right....I lost 19 pounds in 21 days.  It is an amazing feeling!  Just knowing that I was able to lose that kind of weight by basically watching and charting what I ate is so encouraging.  I worked out some, but not as much as I should and I still faltered on occasion with the rogue candy bar here and there and yet I lost 6% of my total weight and now stand on the doorstep of something that has not been a part of my life in a few years...the 200s!  I want to thank everyone who supported me during the 21 Days of Full Disclosure...henceforth known as the 21 Days of Semi-Full Disclosure and who continue to support me in every choice I make in life.  I am still keeping my journal and still maintaining my goals each day.  I will continue to try and make exercise a more significant part of my day and will also continue to work on breaking the habit of hiding choices that embarrass me.  I will also continue posting to the blog with regularity and tracking my success into the future.  Thanks again everyone......and do not fear.....you have not heard the last of me!

Full Disclosure: Entry #21 (Friday 4/1/2011)

Day #21....It All Comes Down to This!   


Food Log:

Breakfast: PowerBar Energy Bar. (250 calories, 5 fat, 2.5 sat. fat, 10 protein, 5 fiber )

Lunch: Chicken Sandwich w/ Pretzels, Apple. (655 calories, 11 fat, 3.5 sat. fat, 44 protein, 6 fiber)

Dinner: 2 cups of Tracey's Veggie Bean Soup, Turkey Grilled Cheese Sandwich. (556 calories, 11.1 fat, 4.6 sat. fat, 37.2 protein, 10.2 fiber)

Snacks: 5 Organic Ginger Snap Cookies (130 calories, 3.5 fat, 0 sat. fat, 1 protein, 0 fiber)

Total Nutritional Data: 1591 calories, 30.6 fat, 10.6 sat. fat, 92.2 protein, 21.2 fiber

Water: 82 oz.

Exercise: N/A

Wrap Up:  All will be revealed in the FINAL WRAP-UP!

Full Disclosure: Entry #20 (Thursday 3/31/2011)

Day #20....The Eve of the End!   


Food Log:

Breakfast: FiberOne Bar. (140 calories, 3.5 fat, 1.5 sat. fat, 2 protein, 9 fiber )

Lunch: SmartOnes Salisbury Steak. (280 calories, 9 fat, 3.5 sat. fat, 18 protein, 3 fiber)

Dinner: Broiled Salmon, Sauteed Beans, Red Potatoes, Corn on the Cob, Sauteed Onions. (653 calories, 8.5 fat, 1 sat. fat, 58 protein, 12 fiber)

Snacks: Turkey Sandwich w/ Pretzels, 5 Organic Ginger Snap Cookies (662 calories, 12.5 fat, 1.5 sat. fat, 42.5 protein, 2.5 fiber)

Total Nutritional Data: 1735 calories, 33.5 fat, 7.5 sat. fat, 120.5 protein, 26.5 fiber

Water: 92 oz.

Exercise: N/A

Wrap Up:  Well, tomorrow is the final day of this 3 week trial.  I am hoping to see great success and that this will be just the beginning of a future filled with better choices and a healthier lifestyle.  The past 20 days have been challenging and rewarding....the proof will be in the proverbial pudding!