Life is About Using the Whole Box of Crayons...

When I started out 2 months ago writing about my experiences trying to lose weight, I did it to help me understand everything I was going through. I knew going into this that it wasn't going to be easy. After all, I weigh about the same amount of a Volkswagen bug, and if I laid on my back we had the same shape. When I thought about exercise, all I thought about was how much it sounded like "extra fries." I liked to joke that I had a lot of close friends. They were close because they couldn't get out of the gravitational pull. No doubt, I was huge! 451 .lbs to be exact. I was at the point I had to decide what I loved more, food or myself. I chose me. What I have learned over the last several weeks is, at that moment I chose a lot more than me. I didn't know it at the time, but I chose my wife, my kids, my family, and my friends. When I said I want to change the way I have been living, I said a bold statement. I said I want to live! 

It's been an incredible experience so far, and I wouldn't change anything about it. I'm doing things I 

never thought I'd do! I'm working out 5 - 6 days a week. We are getting out and seeing things for the first time. We've been to a corn maze, walked a nature trail, and even walked all over downtown Weatherford, OK. My boys have been in college for 6 years up there and this is the first time we ever got out and walked there. We went into some really nice shops and met some really nice people. Things we hadn't done in the past. We still eat out, but we've encountered a bunch of new healthy ways to do it. I still eat some of my favorite things, I just don't eat a lot of it. I eat till I'm comfortable now, not till I'm stuffed to the gills and don't want to move. I now have energy and stamina to get out and experience a lot of stuff I had been missing. 

What has surprised me the most is how my attitude has been. I've had my moments of frustration, and disappointment, but those have only happened a few times. When I last did Weight Watchers I felt crabby and upset all the time. I felt like taking my food away from me was punishing me. I lost weight, but wasn't happy about it. This time around I feel very happy about what I'm doing. I actually enjoy going to the gym. Don't get me wrong. There are days afterward when I wake up and my body says,"What did you do to me last night? Why did you have to do those extra 200 weighted crunches at the end?" Most of the time though, I feel better after my work outs. I now feel like Leonardo DiCaprio on the deck of the Titanic. I want to stretch out my arms and yell, "King of the World!" 

One of the things I have enjoyed the most has been my humor through this whole ordeal. The ability to sit back and see the humor in things, has always been one of my greatest gifts. I'm glad it hasn't left me. I've been trying to have fun at my meetings without people noticing what I'm up to. My wife found out first. At our meetings, we have to fill out a name badge and wear it so everyone knows who we are. About 3 weeks ago, I decided to write something different. I started with Turd Ferguson, then last week I was Sexy and I know it. This week when I went to fill it out, our Weight Watcher sponsor Nanci, asked me, "Who you going to be this week?" I laughed, and wrote down, Inigo Montoya. He has a famous quote from the movie, The Princess Bride. "Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Now prepare to die!" I asked her when she noticed and she said last week. I'm not sure how many people know, but I'm sure now more people will notice. 

I know everyone is waiting for an update, but I want to wait till my next blog to fill everyone in. I have my first fitness assessment Monday, and I want to wait till after that to see exactly how everything is going. Please be patient with me, and I promise it'll be worth the wait! 

Have a great Halloween! 

I Got 99 Problems, But Being Skinny Isn't One Of Them...

I don't normally put myself out there, but let's be honest, I'm fat. Well, I'm lying. I'm obese. Being obese brings about about of unique challenges. Simple things like tying your shoes becomes hard. Putting on socks, or even shorts is a chore that leaves me out of breath. Walking is difficult. Between the pain and shortness of breath, you never want to go to a park or on a hike. Eating out can be brutal too. I have to always ask for a table because the tables in booths are almost always stationary and I can't fit in them. To save embarrassment, I always just ask for a table. I haven't been to an amusement park in over 8 years. What's the point? I'm too big for any of the rides. The ones I can fit on are water rides, and when I sit down, they tilt towards the side I'm sitting on. Movies and concerts are buzz kills too. In some places I have to wedge myself into the seat, and the arms poke in my side, ruining the whole experience. I prefer the balcony at the Warren Theatre in Moore, because they are very wide. At our high school or Owen Field, I prefer the benches. I have more room that way. I can fit into the seats at our gym, but again they are uncomfortable. The last time I sat in an actual seat at Owen Field, we sat 11 rows from the top on the east side. We went to see Toby Keith's Tornado fundraiser for Moore. Trying to get comfortable during the all day concert, I broke three chairs because of my weight. The humiliation was unbearable as the people behind us would die laughing after each one broke. There's also the looks you get from people. They nudge their friends, or snicker. You can tell by the way some people think because of the way they move their eyes. When they go wide, you can hear them saying, "Man, he's so fat, that the elevator only goes down!" A lot times, people don't make eye contact at all. It's like they're afraid that the big guy will say something to them. There's the jokes you have to endure too. Whenever we have a cookout at work, someone always says, " Let me get in there before Randy does! I want to make sure I get something!" I've been at games on a sunny day and had people ask me to sep in front of the sun so they can have a shade. I can't tell you how many times I've been called 2 names. Big Ran, Big Boy, or Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na FatMan! I've endured a lot, but I have no one else to blame but myself, but as my new life style takes shape, there's things I will also look forward to.

Buying clothes off the rack, and not having to order it online or shop big and tall sections. I can't wait to actually go to WalMart and buy a size 42 Jean and a large shirt. I want to go to Olive Garden and eat. The last time I was there, their seats had arms on them, and I could barely fit. They had some that didn't, but they refused to let me have one.That was almost 3 years ago. I want to go back, because Melody loves that place. I want to ride a roller coaster. I love NASCAR, and would love to drive one someday, but I put that one the back burner because I could fit through the window in one. I want to dance. Nothing big, just a cool little routine, just because I can. I want to play football. I have always loved the game, but only strapped on a helmet one time. How fun that would be! I want to cross my legs. I want to sit Indian style again. I want to run a 5k. I want to go to White Water. I won't have to endure the "beached whale" comments. I want to wear cowboy boots again and a large belt buckle, with some Wranglers. I used to dress like that all the time as a kid and that's one of the reasons Melody was attracted to me. Don't get me wrong we still love each other to death, and looks doesn't 

define our relationship, but it would be nice to go back down memory lane. I want to ride a mountain bike. I found a really cool one at Academy. It's a ten speed bike, with these great big over-sized tires and it would be awesome to ride out in the country where we live. 

The last thing I want is my biggest request when I get thinner. I want to grow old and be able to run and keep up with my grandkids. Nothing more important than that, but I've got to get healthy first. I'm on my way. I've lost 34.2 lbs in 7 weeks. Can't wait to see how different I am this time next year. 

Fall Seven Times, Stand Up Eight

Well, the official result came in, and I gained this week. Was I upset? A little. Was it the end of the world? No, and I'll tell you why. I ate a lot this week. When I say a lot, I mean a lot. I went over my allotted points over the weekend, and even used up all my weekly extra points that I'm given. Now, your asking yourself, "isn't the whole purpose of what he's doing is to lose weight and get healthy?"  Well, yes it is, but we had a special weekend with our son, and we enjoyed our time with him. I talked about us, in a previous blog, going out to an all-you-can eat buffet last Saturday, and eating pizza that night. What I neglected to say was that I ate leftover pizza for two days after that! Talk about a train wreck! It was the first time since we started that we had really let ourselves go. To be honest with you, I'm surprised we lasted that long. We have have eaten out before and ate some wrong things when we weren't tracking properly, but this is the first time in almost 2 months we just cast aside everything and ate. 

I saw a couple of quotes earlier, and they both are great motivators. "Strength is the Product of Struggle," and "If Your Struggling, That's a Good Thing. It Means You Haven't Given Up!" Now read them as one sentence. When I put them together, it meant so much more to me! It shows me I am learning from my mistakes. It means even though I may fall, I'm not staying down, and to be honest with you, we didn't stay down. I didn't wallow in the self-pity of, " Oh No! I messed up! What's the point of me even trying?" I didn't drown in the deep end of the pool of guilt. I pulled up my big boy pants and did what I had to do. I fought back. I hit the gym harder. I pushed myself to ride a little farther, lift a little bit more, or add in some crunches at the end of my workouts. Instead of  5 nights of work outs, we went 6! The results paid off too! Yeah, I gained, but I only gained .4 lbs! I went on a big bender, but fought back and found out just how strong I can be! The best part is I learned a lot about myself. I'm learning there are more important things than the scale. There's my health, there's my family, and I've learned this week, there's my strength. The strength to fight back. Obesity has had me beat down long enough. It has hit on me for 8 rounds. Pinned me numerous times in the corner, and beat me senseless. Knocked me down and the ref has given me a nine count, but guess what? The fights not over. The 9th and deciding round is coming up and I just got my second wind! I can see out of my eyes and I can lift both of my hands. I can walk strong and lift my head up. I am breathing better than I ever have and I am ready for the bell to ring. After this round ends, it'll be my my opponent that lays battered and bruised in the middle of the ring. Obesity won't know what hit him! All he'll be wondering is how in the world did a big Mack truck get in the ring and why didn't nobody warn him it was coming? He'll roll over and as the eyes roll into the back of his head, he'll see the referee raising my hand in victory and the crowd chanting my name!

I remember hearing one of my favorite Preachers, Terry Tramel, recite a  poem once. I was young, but I've remembered it word for word since the first time I heard it over 20 years ago. I hope it'll help you as much as it has helped me.

Press On.

Press on. Press on. Press on.

Press on.

Press on, press on, press on, press on, press on. 

Press on. 

When all else fails,  

Press on.

All or Nothing...

As I was working out tonight, I was thinking about why I have been pushing myself so hard at the gym. Why do I push myself to the verge of collapsing? I know there are greater rewards down the road, but what is it in the back of head that keeps pushing me to succeed. I've been that way most of my life. When I decide to do something, I go all in.  As I look back, I either put my absolute all into something, or just decide it's not for me and quit. In high school playing football, I was consumed with it, and became a team captain. I had jobs where I pushed myself to the limit. I didn't stop until I became either a lead or a manager.  When my boys played in little league football, I wasn't happy just being a dad on the sidelines, I became a coach and the president of their league. When they were in band, I became the booster president. I would volunteer to dive the bus. There were many times I would get up at 4:00 a.m., go to work, get off at 2:00, drive straight to school, get on a bus and drive 60 kids to the other side of the state. Get back to school at 1:00 a.m., and finally crawl into bed around 2:00 a.m., only to get up at 4:00 the next morning and go back to work. In church, I just didn't want to show up. I played guitar in during the service. I was the youth pastor, and I even preached a little bit. I can't be happy with just being along for the ride, I want to be the one driving. When I finally decided to change my life style, I went into my familiar mode. All or nothing. I joined Weight Watchers, and then I joined a gym, where I work out 5 to 6 nights a week. Then to add to the madness, I started writing a blog. I couldn't be just happy with just showing up to my meetings once a week, and just blending in. I had to go all in again.

It's something I've been pondering for a while now, and the other night while talking to my nephew, it finally came to me.  Why do I keep following the same cycle? It's all because of my Dad! He had the same attitude. Whatever he did is was all in. He would go head first, balls to the wall every time! It didn't matter what he did, he wanted to be the best at it, whether it was work or having fun. Once I got thinking about it, I realized how many examples he showed me. He used to chop and sell firewood. He always had to have the best price, then he would deliver it, and it always had to be stacked a certain way. It had to look good. When I was a teenager, we mowed yards and did landscaping together. He would get up before dawn, go do his regular job, then we'd go out after school and we'd work till after dark a many of night. He would run me into the ground. Then he'd get me up early on the weekends and we'd work till dark again. He always wanted the yards mowed and trimmed a certain way. He always wanted his yards to look the best. When he finally decided to go to church, he would mow the yard and landscape it for free. Drive the church van, or clean the church. He did whatever there was to do at the church. He was even the Sunday School president for a while. The only thing Dad couldn't do at church was sing, and those who sat by him know that is a fact! He had the attitude that all I may do is clean toilets, but not only are mine going to be clean, but they're going to be the cleanest you ever seen! He gave his all in everything he did. It was his examples that I have been following my whole life! If he was still here,  I know he'd be proud of everything me and Melody accomplished so far.

 I hear his voice in my head all the time. When I do something I'm proud of I can hear him say, "Awright!" If it is something stupid, it was usually, "Dad-gum it boy, pull your head out of your butt!" I heard that a lot too. As the days go on, and the pounds come off, I know he'd be happy, not only for finally getting off my butt, exercising and getting healthy, but that I was putting my all in! 

Love you Dad!

Lead Me Not Into Temptation; I Can Find The Way Myself.

I am a bad person. Not only did I get in trouble at my Weight watcher meeting on Thursday, I dug a deeper hole for myself Saturday. I deserve a time out. Put me in the corner and put a dunce hat on me. I'm a bad boy.  

Let me start by saying, it's one of those Good News/Bad News situations. The Good News was on Thursday, Melody lost 2.4 lbs. bringing her total to 25.4 lbs. I lost 4.4 lbs last week! The Bad News was I raised a red flag when I did. My total for 6 weeks on my new life style is 34.6 lbs of me gone! The red flag came up because it worries them that I'm losing it too fast and they're afraid it's

unhealthy. I can see their concern with it. They want me to eat my points every day, and lose 2 to 3 pounds in a week. I try to eat my points everyday, but I seem to always come out short. A typical day for me would be, Breakfast: 2 hard boiled eggs, orange juice, and peanut butter crackers. Total points for Breakfast, 15 points. For lunch: I will eat a ham and cheese 6" sub n wheat bread with mustard, and Funyuns, and wash it down with some unsweetened tea. The meal cost me only 13 points, for break, maybe crackers again for 5.  Dinner might consist of a Smart Ones meal and a can of veggies. That's usually about 10 points max for Dinner. I'll eat a apple or orange for a snack for 0 points. Break that down, I'm eating around 38 points, when I should be eating 71 points a day! The problem I'm having is, to me, 71 points is A LOT of points. In my mind, I want to lose so I'm eating healthy, because I don't like to feel stuffed anymore. To me the more I eat, the less healthy I feel.  I got fat, by eating too much. Why can't I just eat healthy and exercise, and just forget about the weight? That's just a bi-product of my success. My Weight Watcher sponsor Nanci, understands where I'm coming

from, and I can see where she's coming from. They don't want me to be like one of those weight loss

shows where I can harm my body by losing it too quick. I totally get that, but in my mind, I still weigh over 400 lbs! I can go to the bathroom and I can lose 4lbs! I've eaten meals the size of small children before, why isn't hard to conceive that I can drop a few pounds in a week? Now if I was like 150 lbs. and that happened, yeah, I would be concerned, but I weigh more than some of those new smart cars that are now out in the market. For the first time in my life, I'm eating healthy and exercising! Well, sort of....

That brings up Bad News/Worse News/Good News.  Nanci would Bermuda, I actually ate all my points Saturday. The Bad News is, I over ate my points. My wonderful son, Cody treated me and Melody to a Chinese Buffet for lunch. We ate way more than we should! The Worse News is we Used our logic and decided since we have already been bad, might as well be badder, and ate some pizza. I ended up eating 5 slices and a salad. I feel the guilt now, but I went about it healthier than I would've

in the past. I ate Hawaiian pizza. Canadian bacon and pineapple. So it had lean meat and fruit, with a thin crust. Add in the healthy salad, and I at least tried too do better. All in all, I went over 22 points in 1day. The most I had ever gone over in one day. Now here's the good news. We stayed active Friday and Saturday! We exercised Friday and the went to Weatherford, OK. Spent the night, got up Saturday, went and watched our son play for The Pride of the Great Southwest Marching Band. Afterwards we did our first corn maze. I can't understand that when I'm driving, I won't let mt wife give me directions, yet her I was letting her lead us through this corn maze. We saw one sign at least twice, but had a blast! On the way home and exercised some more. I rode 6 1/2 miles on my bike and did 3 sets of medicine ball crunchers! We had a blast all weekend! What will the scale say this week? I don't really care. My new life style is Active and Healthy. Make yours too!

There's no such thing as competitive sitting....

The moment hit tonight. The one I have been dreading the most. The one when my body and brain finally agreed together. Both were saying enough is enough! They changed our shifts at work recently and they split my days off. I get Sunday and Wednesday off every week, except one weekend a month they give me Saturday and Sunday. My last weekend was back right after I started this journey, over a month ago. It's been long and tough, but I have been faithful to keep up my workouts, 5 to 6 days a week. We changed my work outs around a little this week, and while I like the change, my body wasn't happy with me, particularly me knees. I had some issues with the bending part of my exercises, but I know they're there to help me get better. Still, if my knees could've talked last Thursday, they would've unleashed a barrage of a profanity laced tirade at me. I made it through the workout okay, and was met at the door when I got home, by my friend ice pack. I made it through work the next day okay, and even handled Cardio that night. Saturday, I got up at 4:00 a.m. and was at work at 5:00.  Soon as I got off at 2:00 p.m, me and Melody drove to Weatherford to catch our middle son, Cody, participate in a mass band and march at halftime for Southwestern Oklahoma State University. We drove back to Purcell afterwards to pick up Melody's car and finally pulled in home around 11:30 Saturday night. When I woke Sunday, I felt the weight of everything over the last few days collide on my body. Not only did my knees hurt, but my back, and ankles did too. I felt spent. 

When Melody asked me when I wanted to go to the gym, I said I didn't want to go. I was tired and too sore to go. She insisted we go. I tried to talk her out of it, but she wouldn't listen to me. We ended up compromising, she would give me a little bit of time to charge my phone, and then we'd go. We got to the gym, and I was still sore and tired, but guess what? I still worked out. Not much, but I still did it! I only rode a couple of miles on the bike, but that's 2 more than I used to do! Melody did extremely fantastic tonight. She walked almost 3 miles on the treadmill, and rode for 4 on the bike! So proud of her!

What I am enjoying the most out of this journey is doing it with her. She understands my pains and my frustrations. She encourages me when I feel like I can't. She helps me keep track of what I'm eating, and how to eat right. Without her help, I couldn't dare dream of undertaking something like this. She is my rock, and as we tell each other all the time, "I love her more than the world!" 

I encourage anyone else who's on a journey like you to find a buddy. Spouse, significant other, friend, child, co-worker, weight watcher sponsor, or somebody. Anybody! You need someone that can not only keep you accountable, but can give you that encouragement you need when you want to stop. Someone that can push you when you need it. Someone who'll rejoice in your victories and cry with youin you loses. Most importantly, they're with you so you don't have to go through it alone. It's because of my support system, I made it to the gym tonight, and it's because of her I'll make it to the end. 

Buy One, Get the Second Free!

You see all the adds on TV. The infomercials. "Buy our supplement and lose 30, 40, 50, or more pounds! We'll guarantee you'll lose 5 lbs your first week or it free!" You see all the celebrity advertisements too. "Just look how I looked just a short six months ago! I was fat, miserable, and looked horrible, but look at me today! All I did was take these 10 pills a day! 2 in the morning, 2 at breakfast, 2 at lunch, 2 at dinner, and 2 before bed time? I lost 15 pounds in 6 months! Everywhere you look, there's some sort of weight loss gimmick. The newspaper, the Internet, on billboards, in the check out line at the grocery store, and even on menus in restaurants. I get phone calls every day. E-mails touting the latest and greatest weight loss solutions. There is somebody, somewhere at any given time going to try and get you to lose weight. They tell you stuff like, "Look fabulous like me! Fit in to those jeans you haven't wore since high school! Wear that bikini to the beach!" They always tell you to lose weight so you can look fabulous! 

My question is, what happens after you lose the weight and it's time to stop that supplement? What happens when you stop eating those ready to eat meals and have to go back to regular food? Those people who didn't change a thing, but pop a pill, drink a shake, or ate a ready-to-eat meal. The answer is simple, but hard to take. You gain it all back and in most cases even more! Almost everyone of them gained the weight back! They were looking for an easy answer to a tough question. They want it all now, and not worry about what happens down the road. Forget about being healthy, I want to look good! I want people to drool over my good looks! 

So how do you learn to be healthy AND lose weight when something else is doing all the work for you? In my opinion, you can't. You have to learn how to do it yourself. One of my favorite sayings is, "If you do what you always do, you'll get what you've always gotten!"  I even put that in bold, italics, and even underlined it so you'll remember it. I've hung up on some telemarketers, and I even made a few friends and family members upset by not buying their supplements, but I choose the way I wanted to change my life, by changing my life. If you sit on a couch watching TV all day, and popping a pill, eating a meal, or drinking a shake, your not going to ever get healthy. You have to work at it. You have to learn how to get healthy. I didn't want to lose 200 lbs, and then say look at me, the turn around a year later and have gained my weight back. When I first started this journey, I wanted to lose all that weight, and keep it off. Is till want to, but along the way, I learned my health is so much more important. I still weigh over 400 lbs, but I am breathing better than I have in a long time. I'm getting around better than I have in a long time. Getting up and being active for at least an hour a day is really starting to help me. I chose Weight Watchers over other programs, because they teach me not only how to make better selections on food, they also are teaching on portion control. They teach me that I can still go to McDonalds and eat a cheeseburger and fries, but to eat a cheese burger and small fry, not a Big Mac, and super-sized fries. They encourage me to get off the couch, which is something I've been doing. I started working out. I chose Warrior's Den Health and Fitness because I've known Jared since he was a kid. I've been friends with his family for almost 20 years. Not only does he care about me and my health but he does about everyone at his gym. So I think I've got a great foundation set, now to start building on it! 

Lazy Fact #1357389205674... You Were Too Lazy to Read That Number...

It happened. The moment I've been dreading. I slipped. I tripped and fell face first into a brisket sandwich. Then on my way up, I got caught on a Nacho Bell Grande. It was ugly. Bbq sauce and Nacho cheese everywhere! It all happened over two days. First Thursday, then Friday. Me and Melody have devised us a reward system. It's one that a lot of the people on Weight Watchers use. We don't eat much on weigh-in days, and then eat a good meal after our meetings. She picks one week, then I pick the next. This week was my turn. I picked Arby's. I was thinking a good lean meat would be a sensible choice. We were both getting a little tired of chicken. I was doing good till I got out of the truck. That was my first mistake. The big picture in the window advertised it. BBQ Smokehouse Brisket Sandwich. I thought that can only be worth about 10-12 points. I have them. I haven't eaten all day! I can do this, after all I did just lose 4.4 lbs! This is the point where I should've just turned around and gotten back in the truck and drove to Subway, but I didn't. I walked right in and ordered the Sandwhich and a medium fries. Fries aren't bad either. It would only be about 6 points. In my head I justified it as a 18 point meal. I got this! This is great! I know what I'm doing, after all I just lost 4.4 lbs in one week! I'm the man! Second mistake. I listened to myself. The same brain that got me in the mess in the first place. About halfway through my meal, I decided look it up on my WW app and go ahead and track it for the day, oh the horror! I was shocked. My 18 point meal just cost me 27 points! Sandwhich was 17 and fries were 10. I felt horrible. I just made my third mistake of the night. 

The next night we were heading home and decided to eat some dinner, when we got wise. We used the app, and we each had some points to use so we decided to eat a nacho supreme at Taco Bell. I still had a few more points than Melody so I got a couple of Tacos too. I was a great meal, and I was tired and decided to wait till the next day to put in my numbers. When I put them in earlier today, I realized I got us a #5 combo, which wasn't a nacho supreme, but a Nacho Bellgrande that was worth 20 points! Wow, had I ever messed up! I had a 30 point meal! I felt horrible. 2 days in a row, I ate things I shouldn't have. 

Today I paid the price at work too. I felt sluggish and tired all day. After eating healthy for so long, and finally going back to the food I used to eat all the time it took me right back to the way I used to feel all the time. Tired, lazy, and very sluggish. I realize now the greater benefits of eating healthy. I missed having the energy. I learned my lessons the hard way this week. Never assume you know what your points will be. Look it up EVRYTIME, and always make sure you are getting what you look up.

Despite my failures, there is a bright side to all of this. After both meals, we went and worked out. I stayed active and burned off the calories that I normally wouldn't. I am also staying very upbeat about the whole situation. I messed up, oh well, it happens. I'm not perfect. I learned my lesson, and I'll use it to help me better myself. No point of beating myself up. I can't go back and change it. I've lost 24.8 lbs. in just over a month! What will I've lost after 4 months? What will I have lost after 8? All I know for certain, is this time next year, I'll be a completely different person. I think I'm encouraged more now than I have ever been since I started this journey! 

Hi. My name is Randy, and I'm changing.

Wish I Was Thin As My Patience...

 

Thought I would start tonight with an update. 5 weeks ago tonight, we joined Weight Watchers, and 4 weeks ago yesterday, I joined a gym. It has been a very challenging roller coaster ride so far. Trying to figure out what I can or can't eat. When to eat it, or when to eat it. When to workout. I think I'm finally figuring it out. I try to eat a good breakfast on my first break at work, follow up with a decent, but healthy lunch, and then I try to have enough points that I can eat something light for dinner.  We then go for a workout at the gym. Afterwards, that leaves me with a low point snack, like an apple or orange in the evening before I go to bed. I have also read that you need at least 7 hours of sleep at night to give your body time to relax and heal itself. That has been tough, but I've been trying to go to bed at a decent time. I've always been one to stay up after everyone has gone to bed and watch tv by myself or play some video games, or just surf the Internet. Doing this has cut into some of my "me" time, but one week in and I'm already feeling the benefits. I feel more refreshed the next day at work and have more energy too. As of tonight, I lost 4.4 lbs. this week, bringing my total to 24.8 in 4 weeks! Melody has lost a total of 18.4 in the same time frame! 

I took that picture of me tonight at the gym just before my lower body workout tonight. I can already tell a difference in my body. I breathe easier. I have more energy. I have a longer stamina to do things. The biggest difference I have seen in me over that last 4 weeks has been at work. I have more energy to jump in and do something, where before, I may have blown it off. It has really showed in my consistency at work. I stay more active and more engaged, where before, I may be active one day, and tired and out of breath the next. When I look down, I see less belly than I used to. My pants are starting to bag a little. I know it seems like some of this stuff shouldn't be happening after only losing 24 lbs, but I'm starting to build muscle too. I can tell how easier it's getting lifting some of the heavier things at work. The strain on bending over and picking up something heavy is going away. 

One of the biggest ways I have been achieving stuff is to set goals for myself. I set short attainable goals, and I've set long term goals. The picture on the top is a great example of one of my short goals. That is a workout pattern on my bicycle at the gym. The one highlighted I completed Weds. Night. It starts at a 3 resistance and works it way up to 9, drops down to 3, climbs up to 10, and drops to 3 and the goes back up to 11. It finishes the last 3 minutes at at a 3 resistance. The whole workout goes for twenty minutes. When I started riding the bike, I couldn't go.10 without stopping and catching my breathe. My goal was to complete the 1st workout, which is just left of the highlighted one. It was like going up a hill and riding back down, it climbed up to a 9 resistance. I completed the first one last Friday, and rode all 20 minutes without stopping. I went a total of 3.7 miles in that time. I moved on Monday and Weds. to the highlighted one. I set a new personal best Weds. night. I went the whole 20 minutes without stopping and rode 4.25 miles! My next goal is to go 5 miles without stopping and do it in under 25 minutes. 

The picture above is an example of one of my long term goals. I saw this bicycle at Academy, and decided to make it a goal. If I can lose 100lbs. I'm going to buy it for myself. It's got big tires and the gears would make it a perfect bike to ride on the dirt roads by my house. Only 75 more to go! Some of the other goals may seem foolish or something you may never though about but, they each one have a meaning to me. Eat dinner at Olive Garden. Melody loves that place, but I don't. They have chairs with arms on them, and an obese person as myself can't fit in them. I want to lose enough weight where I can sit comfortably there. I want to ride a roller coaster. Nothing more embarrassing than being asked to get off the ride because you're too fat, or watching everybody else ride because you're too afraid to even try. I want to do the zip line across the Oklahoma River. I'm too afraid they'll say you weigh too much, and refuse to let me ride. I want to run in a 5k. 2 specially. 1, our small town hosts one called the Warrior 5k every year as a fundraiser. I want to complete that one day. The other is the Memorial 5k. We have some friends whose son was in the YMCA across the street during the Bombing of the Murrah Building. He's grown to be a fine young man, and one of my son's best friends. I would like to run it with him and my son one day too. I want to drive a NASCAR. In my current situation, I couldn't even fit through the window right now, but I would love to drive a car over 150 mph on a race track. Like I said, some of these may seem corny, but they are my goals, and as we have been learning, this is my story. This is about my journey, not any one else's. I hope my rambles encourage you to write your own story. Don't let it be one a miserable one of failure, but a exciting story of reward and success!