Happy Birthday Olivia Sunshine!

Today was my youngest daughter Olivia's 5th birthday.  For her birthday I got her something incredibly special.  Something that I have never gotten any of my other children.  Hopefully if it goes right, this will be a gift she will be able to share with her siblings and mom for years to come.

It's nothing new and shiny.   Nothing she can put into her backpack and show her friends at school.  But she can play with it, and hopefully love it for years to come.

This year for her birthday, I gave Olivia a healthy daddy for her birthday.

I feel transformed.  I still am trapped in this enormous, painful, restricted body but for the first time in forever (clear "Frozen song lyric reference for those of you with no small daughters), I know that there is a way out.  I don't feel as if there is nothing I can do about it anymore, and that is so motivating that it's almost all I can think of.

I've been consumed by calorie counting.  I spent the week concerned about what I was going to eat at Eli's Boy Scout campout and instead of showing up and eating what they had - ended up being chips, sugary treats and cokes, I thought ahead and picked up Clif Bars, oranges, raisins and smart foods.  Didn't cheat once.  Then, we had stone of sugary cereals for choices and it was easy for me to pass up my favorite Cinnamon Toast Crunch for oatmeal.  And instead of my usual 3 bags, I chose only 2 and followed it with an orange.

Lunch was tortillas with ham and cheese and I partook, but in limited, wise portion sizes.  I even had DORITOS.  Eight of them only.  Yes, I counted them, enjoyed them and moved on.

Tonight was the ultimate challenge.  My nemesis.  Pizza Hut.

Normally, as of the last time me and pizza met, I defeated it.  Or with my new perspective, it defeated me.  And when I say that, I mean I ate an entire large pizza without even thinking.  Honestly, it scares me to be in the same room with it.  I binge on pizza and always have.  Tonight before it was ordered, I went to LoseIt.com where I log my calories and looked at how many I had left tonight.  Since I did so well, I had over 1200 calories to use and still at goal.

So I plugged in 4 slices of thin crust the calories tracker before I went and picked the pizza up.  I chose a thin crust because the calories are less than the thin crust (spoiler: it tastes better too I come to find out).  I had an honest, serious conversation with Melissa before I left.  I told her - and this is a sincere, honest moment - to please watch me.  I've committed to four pieces of pizza and I know that I do not have the self control to keep stopping.  I told her I would take 3 slices at first, eat it consciously, and if I was still hungry I would tell her that I was taking ONE more slice.  If I took more than that, I wanted her to stop me, even if that meant hurting my feelings.   We agreed, and I went to pick it up.

I took my three.  I sat down and watched Indiana Jones: The Temple of Doom with my kids and wife, and ate my pizza.  All three went down quick.   I wanted more.  I knew I had committed to four and would be ok.   But then I knew that the three I had were kind of large, and I knew deep down in my heart that I was SATISFIED.

There was no reason to dive into that fourth piece.

I had won.

So I'm a few hundred calories under my goal today, I had a healthy campout, had healthy foods, even had some not-so-healthy foods under control, and I go on to win another day.

My dear Olivia Sunshine, I hope that you read this in ten, twenty.. even fourty/fifty years when I am long gone and you are raising your own family, and you know how hard this is for me, but how important it is for me, to be the best NEW Daddy that I could offer you.

Happy 5th Birthday my beautiful daughter.

PS: I'll post official food logs tomorrow or Monday, my phone is dead.  :)

Happy Friday!

The food log is going strong - I've officially made 7 days in a row logging and blogging my food.  Feel free to go back and critique my eating, I'm always up for good suggestions.

This one's going to be pretty short - but I wanted to point out that I've done well for a week and beat my first challenge.  I went from holiday break to my first full week back working, and figuring out how to handle food during a busy schedule.  We've made  conscious decisions on what we're going to eat, we've tried to look forward, and when I wasn't able (or failed to do so) make time to schedule meals, I've found healthy alternatives.  All and all, a good first week.

The next big test comes this weekend.  Tonight after work I take Elijah to Boy Scout Camp for the weekend - that means that I don't control the food.  I have to control the portions.  And I have to be smart and log everything, even those snacks that they offer at camp.  Either way, I have to be SMART, make SMART decisions and continue to keep the momentum that I've built up during the last week.

Then, tomorrow is Livi's birthday, so I'll have to make sure what whatever we eat for her birthday - cake, ice cream, etc.. I plan, schedule and eat again - SMART.  Too much work the past week to blow it away in a weekend.

I'm confident that I can do this.  I'm feeling better.  I don't miss the sweets and the treats.  Every once in a while I get hungry, and I do think about food a LOT.. but I've been able to look in the mirror and realize that the guy looking back at me NEEDS me to do this.

So, happy Friday everyone!  Food log for yesterday (1/5/17) below:

7 Days Makes a Week

A few things to note today.   First off, my eating has been on target and today will be the 7th day in a row that I have counted my calories - each of the days being under the 2400 calories that I set as my daily goal.  So, I'm doing well.

I'm also learning about new foods and enjoying them.  Last night I had what may end up being one of my favorite go-to dishes, and it's about as simple as you get.  I grilled chicken breasts, tossed them into romaine lettuce wraps and put goat cheese and just a tiny bit of taco sauce on them.  It was incredible and two of them filled me up.  Delicious.

If you can even count this as a cheat, the last two nights I've had little sugar cravings sneak into my head.  Now, one thing I said I wouldn't do is totally "YOU CANT NOT HAVE" anything.  If I want it, I'll plan for it, I'll eat it, I'll log it, and I'll move on.  I do not want to go on any diets and I don't want to put any restrictions on my life that will cause me to stumble on this journey.  Well, that's totally not true in a way - I said no junk food - but life can be still won without Sour Apple Straws and Doritos.

Yesterday, I stole one bite (like smaller than a ping pong ball) of cookie dough out of the fridge.  The day before, I had about 4 tablespoons (100 cal) of Cool Whip on a spoon.   Both times, it completely satisfied the sweet tooth, I grabbed a bottle of water and jumped on the couch to end my night.

This is how I want to do life.

I don't want to limit myself from the smart foods.  I want to start making better choices - well informed, well thought out choices about what I'm putting into my body - the TEMPLE that I'm looking to rebuild.  So, there's that - I'm much happier this way.

Onto an issue that I'm concerned about.  Usually after a 5K race, my right leg, hip and knee hurt like the devil for a day or two.  It's just something I've gotten used to as a big guy who does 3 miles at a time.  I deal with it (sometimes praying to God to get me to the end of the race and begging him to drag me over the finish line - no, I'm NOT joking), I go through the pain, and it goes away.

This time it's not going away.  The hip and leg feel fine, but my knee really, REALLY hurts.  I've always chalked it up to simple pain, but I'm kind of worried that I did something serious.   I'm not going to go rushing to a surgeon today, but I've got my endocrinologist appointment on Tuesday that I'm focused on, and if it still hurts the way it does today in a week, I may have to go make it official.  I mean, this is the "hurts to get out of a chair" kind of pain.   A lot of it is because there is still 456 pounds of meat leaning on the leg every time I ask it to carry me around, and I know that once my scales says 256 instead of 456 there will be a lot less of me to ask the knee to carry.. so... anyway, stay tuned.

Oh, and one other thing - I've been posting my food logs every day,   If you're reading this from the actual blog, you can scroll down and see everything I've eaten this week.  If you're the nutrition type, I'd love for a few of you to go through what I've done this week and give me some constructive criticism.  This is a learning process for me and I'm always up for good suggestions.  I tried a few scoops of this chocolate whey protein for a snack/belly filler yesterday and it curbed my cravings for a while, but I wonder what you guys think.   Just don't tell me I can't eat this or that, because I'm not going to listen.  :)

Here's the food log for yesterday.

Every Great Temple Starts With a Single Brick

A few things to talk about today - I'm trying for shorter, more frequent blogs.

Mostly, I want to point out that I'm going to start using the actual BLOG more often - I'm including good references, eating tips, other pages.. that type of thing.   For example, something I'm finding handy is this Recipe Calculator by Calorie Count.   You just have to cut and paste the recipe into a box, tell it how many servings it makes, and it spits out an actual nutrition label.  Pretty cool.

So, if you're reading this on Facebook - I'd encourage you to check the blog out once in a while.  I'll also be putting a lot of my 'data' stuff on the blog like my food logs and such, things that aren't so exciting to read on Facebook.   However, on FB, I'll be posting more motivational stuff, sharing others' stories and that type of thing.   So, I encourage you to follow them both.  :)

Finally, I want to pat myself on the back with one finger.   I stepped on the scale on December 30th and I weighed more than I have in my adulct life - 466 pounds.  Ever since, I've cut out junk food and made healthy decisions, as well as logging all of my calories and keeping myself accountable through these blogs.  

I went to the gym last night and walked my mile on the treadmill (knee is NOT giving up), and then went to step on the scale.

456.

So, ten pounds in 5 days.  That's some Biggest Loser type of stuff.   

However, I've seen it before.  I've done that.  I'm not going to get excited about numbers until I start seeing some that I haven't seen in a while.   But, I will give myself credit for it - because every good temple needs to start with a single brick.  That 10 pounds is my first brick.

1/3/17 Food Log: 

The Blog is Going EXTREME

You may notice something different about my weight loss page. The name is different, the look is different - I wanted something DIFFERENT to happen in 2017.

The "Cool Weight Loss Blog Without A Cool Name" was a fun title (and let's face it, I couldn't think of a name when I created it), but it was unfocused. I was unfocused.

This is different now.

This year is going to be an EXTREME change for me. Not just weight loss, but everything about the way I operate. Eating good foods, learning about new ways to eat, treating my body with a selfish respect that I have never done. Leading my family in a way that respects THEIR temples. Changing bad habits, making new ones and learning new tricks along the way.

I talked about the dinner we had last night in a previous blog, but I left one thing out. How did I decide to make shrimp and mushroom linguine? Melissa and I were going for a Sunday drive, and I brought along the newest two copies of a healthy eating magazine my mom bought us. I wanted to have her go through and see if she saw any good ideas for meals so we could try something different.

This may sound silly, but she taught me what a fig was. She showed me these different things that this magazine talked about that I had no idea. So, I wanted to try something new. I've never made that meal before and it worked out great.

So, that's part of my makeover. It's not going to be "so-so, kinda kinda" anymore. I'm not knocking on the door of making over my life.

I'm bashing through the wall.

Also, I will be doing much more with my actual BLOG itself. You can find it at http://extremetemplemakeover.blogspot.com. I will be setting goals, learning about new foods and exercises. I'm going to open my world up, and it's going to be YUGE.

Food Log and More (1/2/17)

Here's my food for the day. I'm pretty happy with the fact that I am eating REAL foods instead of junk, and you will notice that I have completely cut out extra sugars. It's actually been easier than I elected, and in starting to feel a bit better.

One thing that burns me is the dinner. I made this recipe from scratch - something TOTALLY brand new for me, including the sauce. When I plated the meal for my wife and I, I put half in her bowl and half in mine. As you'll see in the picture, it's not an ENORMOUS amount of pasta in the bowl.

When I went back to load the calories into the calorie counter, I realized that the recipe was for FOUR servings, not two. The frustrating part was that about halfway through the bowl, I told her that I was full. She warmed me to stop if I was full. It was good that I kept going and now I feel overfull.

I'm working on serving sizes. Didn't realize that the serving was half of what I plated. That's a learning curve I need to grow into, and I will. That being said, even with this I was under again.

Now, the hard part starts. Since I started this, I've been at home, able to focus on the food. Tomorrow, real life starts. Tomorrow I have to figure out work, busy schedules and still eating right.  I can do it.  I WILL do it.  It's already done.

12 Months of Bling

A years worth of bling. Didn't earn one in January (DNF) and did a few races that didn't give a medal. Pretty proud of this.

I've already talked about why this isn't the pinnacle, and merely the first step, but is a pretty shiny first step :-)

Now, to improve times by getting healthier, being focused and changing my life.