A week later

Well a week later give or take and I am winding down for the night. It is amazing the difference a week makes to your outlook ( give or take a couple of days lol). I made it through about 9 days without eating out ( sorry but chi town hotdogs doesn't count as ember needed food). I feel better for it and is weird I almost feel hungrier not eating out. Think it says a lot about how non portion controlled restaurants are.

My goal is to make it to the end of the month and being able to say my eating out budget is sub 40 bucks. I hope that as well as saying that I will also be below the 219 I was last month and the angry Scot won't appear again.

Peace out and have a great Monday tomorrow.

S.

Thoughts

It's been a while since I posted and I just feel in the mood to post.

Weight - Sucks, gain this month from being half assed, up to 227 so getting my act together.

Some days I feel that it's all a waste of time getting myself healthy. Really what's the point? Well for me and what I tell myself is that it's life. I lived it as a fat ass and it was not fun. Imagine going to a fairground or a park and being told you are too big. Imagine people looking at you and thinking that you obviously eat way to much. Well I have been there it's not fun and it brings your self esteem waaaaaay down. I look in the mirror today and I am starting to see someone I like being. Yeah I have work needing to be done but I am over 100 pounds lighter than my recorded heaviest.
If people don't like me for it or don't want to know me then they can take a long walk off a short pier. If people don't want to get to know me, or wanted to get to know me, then they can kiss my Scottish arse. Their loss in life.

As I go forward I need to realize that the one person that will be there for me is myself. If I don't take care of him then I may lose him ( yeah I'm talking third person). I hope by realizing this that I will continue my journey more focused and with better self esteem. As I have already said if people don't want to join me on my journey or visit then it's their loss because I think the destination is worth this trip complete with its little bumps.

Have a great day everyone

I know I will

S

July....!?!?

Just felt like posting.

Been a crazy month and not that its been bad but just that I have a feeling I will weigh in next week to a few pound weight gain. No one to blame but myself. Vacation for 10 days and not being strict about watching what I eat, then home and doing the same.

I have found myself sans motorcylce this month. Its a self imposed ban of riding the concours as I dropped it and I just feel its not the right bike for me. It is now officially Jens bike as soon as it comes back from repairs by insurance. If I can get an adjunct position in my field I hope to clear funds to get myself a cruiser to keep me going.

In the meantime maybe I can take my Road bike off the wall and actually ride it *gasp*. Think I need to have a me ride (get a baby sitter or take a day of and it could be a group ride woot).

S.

Another month bites the dust

Well as another month draws to a close I am able to give another update on my primal journey. While it has not been as strict as it should have been eating wise I am able to report another weight loss for the month.

We weighed in a little early this month with it done on Wednesday 27th. That said I can report that it was a 10lb loss this month. For the first time in more years than I remember I am under 220 lbs. yup you got it I am 219 lbs. I feel better than I have and the complements have been coming thick and fast which is a little weird for me.
I am still initially aiming for 200lbs but as I see my body just now I have the feeling that I may have to continue my journey all the way to 180. It's still a wait and see thing but if I end up in the 100's it will be a shock for me.

Still no return to the bike yet but I am still hopeful. I still want to ride a century but as long as I am not getting on the bike it does not look hopeful for this season.

Well enough for now. Talk to you soon

S.

3 months on body stats are showing a change.

Well it has been 3 months since I was "measured" and I got my stats taken again last night. Over this time I have been complimented on my changes and for me it has been difficult as I have a little problem with taking compliments. But with this knowledge I wanted to see how it translated into cold hard facts.

Body fat - a loss of 2.4 percent so I am down to 32.7 percent. Still not great but a step in the right direction

Waist - 4.5 inches lost
Neck - 0.25 inches lost
Chest an shoulders - both 2 inches lost.

So yeah. Stevie is a changing and here's hoping it continues.

S

May Update

Well another month has passed and its now been 152 days since I committed to the primal lifestyle. To say that it required a rethinking of what I do and how I eat is an understatement. When I started back in trying to lose the 30ish pounds I had gained I didn't realise the improvements I would make and where I would be now.

When I started I had crept back up to 268lbs (my pregnancy weight LOL) from 232. Now as most know 232 is not where I want to be that is another 30-50 pound lower so that being said it meant I was 70-90 from my goal but still a good 50 lbs less than I was. Even with that good news (what good news) I was not happy being heavier again. 152 days later I can happily report that I am now down to 229 lbs that is the 36lbs I gained plus 3 *grin*. For the month that means I lost 7lbs for the month.

Its not just the weight that has changed thankfully. I am seeing it in other areas also. For the first time in ohhh 20ish years I am in a size 36 Jeans. I will admit its a loose size 36 but hey its 36.  I am also working out more than I used too. Not as much as I should really be doing but I am trying to rectify that. In the 2-3 months I have had gym membership at NFC I have visited it more than the last one (3 times in a year erk). Most times it is to work with weights with Jen but on those times she is with her PT I instead do cardio. Cardio for me is still the bike and if I can get 30 mins on even a stationary bike it means I still get 30 mins.

On the food front I have been fine tweaking what I eat, a good example being that at the start of the year i was eating way to much red meat, and have been trying to vary the primal foods that I can have. We purchased coconut and almond flour to assist us and these have resulted in "alternate" cooked foods that are primal. Over the last few months coconut flour pancakes have become a regular breakfast food at the weekend (more for ember as she LOVES them LOL) but my most recent discovery was primal banana nut bread which I baked a couple of days ago and it has been a huge hit (just need to reduce the amount of salt in it though) and use the almond flour. Given time I am also looking at trying some of the almond flour breads just to see how they work. For those interested the nutrition info for the pancakes and banana nut bread are as follows

	Cals.	Fat	Sodium	Carbs.	D.F.	Sugar	Protein
Pancakes per pancake (14 per batch) we include a banana	92	5g	39mg	8g	3.5g	3g	4g
B.N. Bread per slice (assuming 20 per batch)	142	11.5g	135mg	6g	2g	3g	5g

Laters peeps
S.

Check in Time

Ok well its been a HECTIC month but its coming to an end thankfully. Big event of this last month is I will be graduation with my Masters in Instructional Technology this Friday so I am a happy camper *grin*.

On topic however. I have not been able to work out much the last 3 or so weeks what with Embers birthday, the in laws visiting and just other stuff going on. I weighed in this morning and the weight is 236 lbs which is a drop of 4 lbs. Hopefully its a drop of fat and not of any muscles I had.

Goals for the next month

• minimize sugar - we are doing a 21 day sugar fast to try squeeze sugar out
• get to the Gym more. I must must must do this.
• Relax!!!!! ohhhhh yeah

Ok just a short post. Laters guys.
S.

Embers Birthday.

Take a first birthday party. Add cake and pizza and you have a primal disaster waiting to happen.

It was our daughters first birthday and we had a scheduled bad day. I went in knowing it would be bad and came out being bad and having the upset stomach to show for it. The day after and I am happily back on primal and trying to get my stomach to be happy with me.

I think that it should not upset my primal lifestyle and that the stats will continue to change. Now that the birthday is over I think I can get back to the gym (not working on the house ). I guess I will find out in about 2 weeks hey just in time for college stress to be ending.

Talk to you soon.

Steve

Getting back

I have not posted quite as much as I wanted this month, guess life took precedence *LOL*. Its another 30 day block over and done with and the one stat that we check at the end of each block i that of weight. Yeah I know its not a true indicator of how well things are going but when you are obese its something you can look at and see that some ground is being made.

Weighed in on Saturday and the scale reported 240 lbs so that's a loss of 9 lbs for the month. I am again happy with this as it is not too drastic of a weight loss for the period (only 1-2 lbs a week). I am hoping that I can continue to go to the gym and continue to eat as primally as I do. I will say that the eating part has not been bad and the working out has actually been fun although I missed most of last week due to "stuff".

I still think I have problems with my eating though as I think I am still not eating enough or drinking enough water. To top this off I got my vitals checked and while BP was a LOT better than it has been in a long time (it was 126 / 90 WOOT) and my triglycerides were way down I have elevated LDL and cholesterol. For now I am having to make some changes to my red meat consumption (reduce it and meat more fish and chicken) but I have elected to avoid all drug use to combat it until I can let the primal lifestyle do its work and hopefully equalize my stats. My hope is that one year from now I will be able to report lower weight and better all round stats.

Enough for now. Laters S.

working out

I ended up getting some numbers run on me at the Gym last night and it really surprised me. Seems part of my problem may be that I don't eat enough. I had thought I as doing ok and maybe a little under on what I ate but I may be under eating by half each day. The numbers show that to help me lose a healthy amount of weight I should be eating about 2100 cals a day of which I need to get about 260g of protein. That's not a typo people I need 260g of protein a day.. ERK. On top of that I need to drink a gallon of water, this to a guy who is lucky to drink a cup *LOL*

I'm gonna try work hard to eat the way they have suggested though. In the 2 weeks since I had my stats taken and my body fat was measured at 35.1% I have dropped half a percent of body fat. Not a lot but I am happy with it. I keep going to the Gym, I keep eating primally and I might just get to a point I am happy with.

Ok I need to get back to it people. Be safe and see you on the swingside

S.

Things they are a changing

And I continue to surprise myself. I didn't think I would ever do it but I joined a Gym again. Not only Joined but I am actually using it. In about 10 days I have been there 3 times and have worked out at home on one day also. For a couch potato this is a change. Even better than that I am enjoying it. I like the fact that I am getting to go with Jen and she is getting to be my "personal trainer". Seriously though she is the best person for it. Not only a motivational person in the Gym (yeah I'm a T-Rex LOL) but she also knows how I need to train primally and it helps.
It took me a bit but I am trying to note down what we do for each workout so that if I go to the gym without her (I assume she wont be able to be there every time) I will be able to do a good workout for the area I work on.
Goal for this weekend is, we hope, to get out on the bikes and get the little girl re used to her bike trailer. It may just be a couple of looks around the neighborhood but its still activity *WOOT*

S.

Weigh in for February

I made a mistake in my last post. Weigh in was today the 1st and not yesterday. Sorry my bad. I went into this weigh in thinking I had not lost anything as I felt I hadn't made any gains this month. I was wrong thankfully *LOL*. Current weight as of 6am this morning is 249 lbs which is a loss of 6lbs for the month and 19lbs since Jan 1.

Goals for the month of march.

1. Deal with college. Seriously deal with it I mean.
2. Keep my carb intake at about 50 carbs a day.
3. work out at a minimum 2 -3 times a week.
4. Find somewhere in this month to have fun *LOL*

Oh yeah, suckage for the week is I can' get to Gym tonight. Life is interceding and I need to get last of sub floor layer up in kitchen for the weekends festivities (read flooring project). Talked it over with Jen and we will get there Monday for Definite.

Have a great day. S.

next step

I am hoping I have taken the next step on my journey from fat to fit. I signed up at Jens Gym and had my stats taken. Overall stats were body fat percentage and then neck, arms, chest and legs were measured. I'm not sure my stats for the body but I have a Body fat percentage of 35%. That means I have 91lbs of Fat on me... ERKKK.

I would like to get into a routine of going regularly (I would like every day) but just now that's not happening as I have a home pre project to get done for this weekend (read : ripping up plywood and Lino from the kitchen floor to prepare it for laying down laminate flooring this weekend) which I will be working on tonight and I have an appt at 6pm tomorrow. Goal for this week is to get to Gym Thursday after work.

Another part of the gym membership is that I will get remeasured May 27th (every 90 days). I hope by then to be able to report better stats all round *LOL*. Benefits I have seen from just one session last night? Normally I come home and feel tired and just want to eat and relax. Last night after the Gym I was awake and raring to go. It was the coolest thing. It may have been a freak but Jen indicated that this was normal. SWEET.

Ok Enough for now. Weigh in is tomorrow morning so talk to you after that.

Steve

Still Alive Honest

Ok I have not been avoiding the blog. Instead I am working on the next 30 day primal block where we ate a little more carbage (yeah I know its not a real word LOL) than the first one and am about to come to an end.
Overall I am not as happy with the higher carb count than the first block so we are heading back into the stricter zone for the 3rd 30 day block (it starts March 1st). Really over the last 60 days it has not been a true Primal lifestyle as I have not been exercising as I should (Jen has though). I am hoping that this is going to change as I am meeting tonight to arrange to join Jens gym. My hope is that we can work out together and I can use her as my personal trainer of sorts (and get my ass kicked into shape). Combine this with the 3rd food eating block I hope to see changes I am happy with.

The biggest thing I have got from this all so far? The way I feel for not having soda for 57 days. I feel better and the longer I don't have it the less attraction it has for me (especially as I read more and more about the crap it does to your body).

What else I have got from this? A better understanding of the crap and i mean CRAP that the American food industry is trying to pawn off as acceptable in food. When you start looking at the ingredients in food (we are trying to keep away from corn, soy, wheat etc) you realise the junk they add. High fructose corn syrup in just about everything... REALLY? Soy Lechtin in others... REALLY? The biggest one for me so far is to find out that the when the food industry tries to reduce sugar by adding sugar alcohols  (guess what its neither sugar or alcohol) they are really adding crap to it. Mannitol one of the sugar alcohols, well that lingers in the intestines for a long time and often causes bloating and diarrhea, great thanks food industry. The winner though is Hydrogenated starch hydrolysates (HSH) which are produced by the partial hydrolysis of corn (gotta love the corn industry - HFCS first now its used as a sugar substitute). Sorry guys I don't want to eat anything that powers a vehicle.

Ok enough for now. I will post at day 30

Steve out.

And the result is.....

Well This is Day 30 and we weighed in this morning. After 30 days of being primal and enjoying lots of yummy steak and similar I am happy to report I have dropped 13lbs. That takes me from the 268lbs on January 1st to 255 lbs that I weighed in at.

As is normal this is a work in progress and the primal lifestyle is not a diet but me making a life change but I am happy that it show both me looking and scales showing. I don't know why I couldn't maintain the motivation before but its here now and it is not leaving.

Ok gone for now talk to you soon.

Steve

Still here honest LOL

Well its now day 24 and I am still living the primal lifestyle. True to what I said I have still not weighed myself and will not until the 1st Feb. My focus for now is making sure I am eating and living right which I think and hope I am doing. The part of this that amazes me is not the eating part (I can do that without really thinking...ok give up bread and stuff and eat steaks n veggies... SIGN ME UP LOL) but the fact that I am 24 days carbonated drinks sober *grin*. I was probably the worlds worst soda drinker. While I drank diet it was still too much and not good for me. For now the only caffinated drinks I partake in is coffee. Apart from that its water all the way.

The one task I need to work on is exercise. I have been busy moving stuff at home but I should still have exercised more. At this time I am getting walks in at work but they are sporadic at best. Goal for the next week is to get more reliable on them.

Well let me sign off for now and I will let you know the status Feb 1st.

S

purposeful delay

Ok so almost 10 days have passed since my last post and 10 days have officially passed since I started back on my path. This was an intentional delay you see as we are not weighing in every couple of days or every week. I am going to wait till the end of the month for that instead. Rather than focusing on weight I am focusing on eating and being healthy.

In the 10 days since my resolve returned and I started following the primal blueprint (I need to read the book, what I know comes from Jen) we have been working on eating low carb and healthy non hormone injected meats n veggies. for this month the goal is to keep to about 50 carbs a day and for the last 10 days I have. No slip ups, no sodas, no ice cream nothing. The last few days I am especially proud of since Jen and Ember are in Florida and I am in bachelor mode LOL.

Setting out on this journey a few years back I swore I would never go back to the 320lb mark and thankfully I haven't but having been at 230 I HATE being up in the high 260's. As ever my primary goal for this journey is to get to 200lbs and see where I go from there. Along the way I want to work at getting rid of my huge ass gut (if I make it all the way I have before and after pics - before at 267 though). If I don't make it those pictures stay buried.

Who knows where it will go this time. I feel more resolved than I have been in a while. Life is busy but I just need to deal with it and take care of business as and when it happens. Again if you are following this I welcome you here but people need to realise I'm not posting this to have people follow I'm posting this to let me output and to give me a history of what I have done over the last few years.

Have a great day

S.

New Year, new resolve, old battle

Well its 2012 and I am still fighting the battle of the bulge. I am hoping I am over my 18 month funk and that my new resolve is here to stay. Started working on the primal blueprint and am at day 3 (hey 3rd of Jan its Day 3 LOL). Weighed myself on Sunday and weighed in at 268 lbs. Not as good as I like but not as bad as I thought it could be.

My goals for this month are to do what needs to be done, report on the progress and start getting myself ready to ride this year.

Steve