Update time

Hello friends and readers!  First let me apologize for not writing in so long.  A few years ago, my mother, father, and I were in a car accident.  Dad and I walked away uninjured, but the impact and the airbag deployment left my mom beat up for life.  She ended up needed brain and neck surgery from it.  She has chronic pain, and yet she is still trying to run a household without much help from the others living there.  She takes care of her granddaughter, her four dogs, cooks, cleans, and maintains the yard on her own.  Because of that her pain is getting worse.  She had a very large project getting the house ready for one of my little brothers twenty-sixth birthday parties that he will be having next weekend, so I went to lend a hand.

While I was there, I began to have pretty severe pain in my mouth and it was spreading down into my jaw.  I had lost a filling out of a tooth last year, and without dental insurance, I let it go, didn't go in and get a new one.  I finally had enough and went over to the dentist last Wednesday and because I am out of work and don't have dental coverage, they ended up pulling it.  I was prescribed Vicodin, and because of past experience with that particular drug and over prescription while I was in the Marines, I decided to hang out a little longer at Mom's and asked her to dispense the drugs so I didn't over do it.

I am home now, and while I slacked off on the exercise while I was down with the post-op pain, I picked it back up as soon as I got home.  To make up for lost time, and because my grandmother asked me to bring her a newspaper, I upped my normal mile and a half to two miles.  I am still at a fifteen minute mile, but more and more of it is jogging and not walking.  Every time I set foot outside that door, I make some slight improvement to my routine.

Since my weigh-in at the beginning when I weighed two hundred and forty-seven pounds I have lost a total of six pounds by eating right and walking every day.  While I am still obese at five foot six two hundred forty one pounds, I am already noticing a difference.  I have been getting better sleep since I became active again and I have less chronic pain.  By spreading my meals out and eating breakfast and a few healthy snacks everyday, my stomach is no longer the bottomless pit it used to be begging for twenty chicken nuggets or two whoppers or an entire large pizza in a sitting.

That is where I am at right now, two weeks into my weight loss adventure and still going strong.  Stay tuned, as the weight drops, the confidence increases and I may take more pictures!

4 days, and going strong!

Well folks, we made it to day four.  This is a big step for me, the past few times I have thought about getting back into shape, I gave up by day 2.  The injuries were just to much, and I pushed myself too hard before, not actually thinking about a long term goal.

On day one I walked a mile and a half, not that big of an accomplishment, I walk everywhere I go since I don't have a car.  The difference here is I lumped all of my walking together, and pushed for a time goal.  On day 2, I got bold, and since I need to look for a job, I went walking and looking for help wanted signs for two and a quarter miles.  Day 3 the knee was kind of stiff so I went back to mile and a half course, but this time, I jogged the last half block.

Today, I once again took the mile and half course, but at the end of it, I added maybe another 50 feet to my jog.  Tomorrow, I will add a little bit more to my run.  You see this time, I am not going to go out the door running like I am still the young healthy kid I was when running four or five miles was a wake up for me.  This time I am going to be smart and build my endurance over time.

In addition to exercise I have taken to eating three meals a day.  Wait what? You want to lose weight, but you are eating more? Well the thing is, I am eating more, but I am also eating smarter.  I am not shoving candy and chips into my mouth throughout the day with a Man v Food sized dinner at the end of the night.  I have been starting my day with a bowl of oatmeal, followed by a light lunch a few hours later, and a sensible supper.  The eating is actually the hard part for me, I am not really a breakfast guy, or at least a healthy breakfast guy.

Baby steps

After posting my first article yesterday, I talked to a couple of friends, and one of them led me to sparkpages.com, a site that was designed to be used by people trying to get fit.  I signed up over there, entered my weight goals, and started using the fitness and nutrition trackers.  That was step one, keeping an eye on whats going into my body.

Step two, I dusted off my old pedometer and started keeping track of how many calories I was burning throughout my day.  I started counting at about nine o'clock last night, and by midnight I had burned about 90.  I am looking forward to seeing what a full day will bring.

Step three, eating better. Normally I am not a breakfast guy, I don't feel like eating when I wake up.  Starting out this morning, I woke up, went downstairs and made myself some oatmeal and toast. When I finish writing this, I am going to go make myself a light lunch, a sandwich and some fruit.

Step 4: Exercise.  I have not turned into a hard corps gym rat or a dedicated runner, not yet, not over night.  My baby step here, I went for a walk before bed last night.  I walked about a mile and a half in 20 minutes.  This morning after I ate my breakfast I walked a little over two miles.  I am going to work up to running this time so it doesn't hurt my bad knee as much and so I don't give up.

Changes!

I am a former United States Marine.  When I graduated basic training at 17 I was 5'6 and weighed in at 120 pounds.  That was definitely underweight but that was after three months of intense physical training and a restricted diet.  With a few months of strength training and more intense physical work outs I got up to 140 pounds, and I stayed there for almost two years.  Then in September of 2001 I fell from a window in training and destroyed my knee.  I was not able to work out on a daily basis, and at 19 years old, I didn't think about changing my eating habits. I ballooned up to 175 pounds during my recovery period, and stayed that way until Iraq.  After 8 months in the desert I came home at 135.  I got married and started eating junk food again, and by the time I got out of the Corps I was over 180.  Seven years later after a diet of McDonalds, Wendy's. Burger King and KFC I am now 247 pounds and can no longer look in a mirror or take pictures without embarrassment.

Today is the day that changes and I am going to be taking my friends, my family, and the friends I have yet to meet along with me on my journey to being healthy once more!

Side view of me today at 247

6/12/2011 247 Lbs Front view

August 2000 17 years old U.S.M.C. 120 lbs