It's Time To Face the Facts

It's been about 10 months since I did a "real" post on this blog. If you are still subscribed to this blog and you're NOT subscribed to my NEW blog, this post is for you.


I encourage you to consider making the transition to my new website if


A) you're interested in health and fitness
B) you know someone that could stand to lose a few pounds
C) you could stand to lose a few pounds
C) you like finding new recipes
D) you know someone that knows someone that could stand to lose a few pounds
E) you ever discouraged about your fitness
F) you eat food regularly


If any of those, A-F, describe you, then jump on over to 1 Meal - 1 Workout and check it out. Not only do I blog over there fairly regularly, I also do a weekly podcast! I think you'll enjoy it.


I expect this will be my last post on this blog...for all your support and reading of Aaroneous Findings...I thank you!

So How Does One Get REALLY Fat?

"So how does one get REALLY fat?"

This was the question posed to me by one of my close friends.  I just officially past the "100 lbs lost" mark, and we were discussing health in general.

"I mean, as you got bigger and had to buy bigger clothes didn't you realize there's a problem?"

Of course.  But it's a little more complex than that.

When you're fat you don't like to go clothes shopping. At least I didn't.  It's not an enjoyable experience to be confronted with the reality of your situation.  For me, it would usually go like this.

I would put off clothes shopping as long as possible.  As I gained weight, my clothes would do their best to accommodate me.  Shirts would get stretched out, buttons on pants would loosen...or pop off.  You get the picture.

Eventually I would be forced to shop.  Either because I literally did not have enough clothes to make it through the week, or I had a wedding or other event coming up.  When I ultimately made it to the store, I'd find out that I crept up a size...or two.  Each time, one step at a time, I progressed down that unhealthy path.  44 inch pants turned into 46s...2X shirts to 3X...

The problem is that by the time you're in the Big & Tall Store trying to buy pants, you can't just say, "Hey!  Whoa!!  Hold the phone!  I believe that I may have gained some weight.  I'm not buying any clothes today.  I'm going to go lose some weight and THEN come back and buy some clothes."  You're at the store, you need the clothes or you wouldn't be there, so you buy the clothes that fit.

Lather, rinse, repeat. It's a vicious cycle. In my case, this was perpetuated by an incorrect body image.

Most of the time when people think about weight issues and body image, they think about bulimia or anorexia.  People that see themselves as fat when they really aren't. Mine was the opposite.  It wasn't really that I was in denial, per se, but every time that I saw a picture of myself, I was surprised at how fat I was.  In my mind's eye, my body image was such that I saw myself 75-100 lbs lighter than I actually was.

So how DOES one get really fat?

Simple.  Avoid buying clothes as long as possible so that you aren't confronted with the weight you've gained in a quantifiable way.

That's what I did, and it worked for years!  By the way...I don't recommend it.

Milestone

I did my "official" Saturday morning weigh in today, and I've hit what I consider to be a major milestone in my journey to health.

100 lbs!

Actually, 101.6 lbs to be exact.  I knew I was getting close to that mark, but I really thought it would take another week to make it.  Some of you may remember when I posted a "before and after" picture when I had lost 50 lbs.  I added a picture from today.  Sorry the lighting is so different, but I think you can get the idea!

Somebody asked me why I was so surprised all the time (in the picture).  The reality is that the first picture was a candid shot where I was acting goofy.  In the other two I was just trying to duplicate the expression so that you would have a better comparison.

A couple of other exciting things I'd like to share.  I used to wear XXXXL shirts.  That's 4 X's, in case your eyes crossed trying to count them.  Friday, I wore a XL shirt to work...and it even fit.  Also, the pants that I wore on Friday are 14" smaller than the ones I wore in June.  Wahoo!!  Thanks for everyone's continued support and encouragement.

100 lbs!!  Two-thirds of the way there!!!

10 Days to the Gobble Jog!

Wow!  Hard to believe A) how long it's been since I blogged, and B) how quick the Gobble Jog is approaching!    We just got back from a 9 day vacation (with a little work in the middle), and we had a fantastic time.  We stopped at 3 different state parks (two in Georgia, one in Florida), got to see some great friends, family, and went to the Magic Kingdom.  If you want to see pictures, you can go here:

Our pictures from the trip.

I did 3 miles tonight, but BOY, am I slow.  I can't run all 3 miles yet, and my walking speed is slow.  Of course, I didn't really expect to be able to run it by the Gobble Jog.  I've still got a lot of weight to lose.

That being said, I told my wife that when I broke the 75 lbs mark, I was going to shave my head!  Sorry, Mom!  (Mom prefers my hair.)

I hope to run my next 5k on or around my birthday (February 10th, if you were wondering).  By then, my goal is to run the entire thing.

Set Yourself Up for Success

So...snacks.

I like snacks.

Tonight, I really wanted a snack.  I looked in the pantry for something crunchy and taste-filled.  We had a few bags of chips, some crackers, cheese.  I considered eating a few of these delicacies, but while I was trying to make my decision, I spotted something else.

Crystal Light!  A-ha!  No calories...and tasty! I looked in the fridge and found another treasure:  some kind of fresh, sweet bell pepper. With an almost zero-calorie snack combo, I was set!

So what was the secret of my successful snackage?  Preparation.

Having decent snacks/drinks in the house makes it SO much easier to make a good decision.  If I hadn't had the Crystal Light and/or the peppers, I probably would have had something not-quite-so-good for me.  In fact, I guarantee it.

Do you keep healthy snacks in your kitchen?  How about at the office?  I recommend it.  I know this isn't rocket science, but give yourself good options.  Set yourself up for success.

I Call It the E.L.E.M. Method

Now that I've lost a fairly significant amount of weight (63.8 lbs as of my last Saturday morning weigh-in  wahoo!), people are asking me frequently, "What are you doing?"

When I tell them Eating Less and Exercising More (i.e., the E.L.E.M Method), about half of the people say, "Oh," and look a little disappointed.  I really think that should be encouraging instead of disappointing.  It means that they could do it, too!

No pills or supplements to buy.  No gym or program to join.

I'm actually saving money because I'm eating less!

Try out the E.L.E.M. Method...it works!

Hey! Want to Climb a Mountain?

One of the "philosophies" I've developed during this whole process is the one meal/one workout philosophy.  Anybody can eat healthy for one meal.  Anybody can go exercise one time.  So I just worry about the next meal and the next workout.  Put a string of these "one-at-a-times" together, and you get results.  I know that this isn't some big revelation, but it is the way I'm approaching it.

If you're waiting to get started on getting healthy "until Monday", or "after the holidays", or "next week"...don't wait.  Start right now!  Eat healthier at your next meal.  Plan a time to get more active.

Just think, if you had started making changes at the same time that I did back on July 1st, you'd be 3 months closer to your goals.  For some of you, you might have already reached your goals!

Because I'm healthier, today the family and I were able to go to Pine Mountain outside of Clarksville and hike about 1.5 miles up the side of the mountain to an incredible overlook point.  We then ran back down the mountain.  In June, I literally could NOT have done this, even if I had wanted to.  Today, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I can't wait for our next adventure!

Labor Day Update

Hello everyone!

We are at approximately the 10 week mark of my journey to health and fitness, and I thought I would give everyone an update.  But first, let me start by saying thank you to everyone that has supported me, encouraged me, and/or just put up with me blabbing on about getting in shape.

There are also a couple of special "shout-outs" that I would like to do.

1)  Terran Messer.  My longest and most faithful workout partner!  I've rualked many an extra mile because of his encouragement.  (And a mini-shout-out to my other private track peeps:  Justin Clarke, Lee Westberry, and Joshua Perkins.)

2)  Brian Edholm.  My coach/accountability partner/encourager/mentor/friend.  We really ought to come up with a better title for you.  Brian has met with me faithfully every other week from the beginning.

3)  Cheryl Butler.  That's right...my wife!  She's a constant source of encouragement, and always manages to sincerely say, "That's great!" whenever I go on and on about getting new running shoes for the third time in a single day.

4)  Molly, Molly, and Becky.  You've consistently encouraged me. I appreciate your encouragement, as well as your example.

Now for the update.

My goal was 50 lbs by Labor Day.  Saturday morning I did my regularly scheduled weigh-in, and I am happy to report that I had lost 50.6 lbs!!  Wahoo!  I made it early.  Here are the "stats" in a more stat-like format:

Weight lost:  50.6 lbs (I know, I just said that.)
Inches lost:  6" in my waist, a good 3"+ in my neck
Blood Pressure:  from an average of 140/90 to an average of 120/75

The "before" picture attached to this post was taken last summer.  The "during" picture was taken tonight.  I'll let you figure out which one is which.



Thanks again to everyone!

Quick Weight Loss Secrets

Would you like to lose 5 lbs a week, each and every week, until you reach your goal?  With no expensive meals, supplements or videos to buy?  No gym membership required?  Do you want a workout plan that's all plan and no work?  A plan that let's you eat what you want and not change your activity level and STILL lose all the weight you want?

Unfortunately, it doesn't exist.  But on the flip-side, there is a super simple 2-step plan that works every time.

1)  Eat less
2)  Be more active

That's the plan I've been on for the past month and a half, and it's working great.  But, like many simple things in life, simple doesn't necessarily mean easy.

---

If you're struggling to do one of these two simple steps, allow me to make a suggestion.  Pick one step.  Pick the one that is the most difficult for you.  Now, decide right now one thing you are going to do to take a step in the right direction for that step.  Here are some examples.

Eat a healthy breakfast.
Park further from your office.
Don't drink your afternoon Dr. Pepper.
Go for a walk after dinner.
Don't have seconds at dinner.
Shoot some hoops.
Turn off the TV.

Take a step in the right direction, and let me know how it goes!

110 Days Until Gobble Jog

I just thought I would give you a quick status update.

Last week I pulled my Achilles tendon.  Just slightly, but I did pull it.   I've taken it easy this week, but still tried to do what I could.  It's feeling better.  I'm going to try for a real workout on Monday.

As of this morning's weigh-in (which occurs every Saturday in my bathroom), I have lost a total of 36.4 lbs. from my "official starting weight", which is pretty exciting.

My countdown clock on my computer desktop tells me that I have 110 days left until the Gobble Jog.  That's more than 15 weeks.  If I can average losing 2 lbs a week, I should be down 30 lbs more by the Gobble Jog, which would be about 65 lbs total.  However, my goal for the Gobble Jog is to be down 75 lbs.

Hope to see you there!

A Chuck Woolery Moment

In case you don't know who Chuck Woolery is, he was the original host of Wheel of Fortune, but is probably best known for hosting Love Connection.  During his Love Connection stint, when he was segueing to commercial, he used to say, "We'll be back in two and two."  His explanation was that each commercial break was about one second to fade to commercial, two minutes of commercials, then one second to roll back to the show.

Today I had a "Chuck Woolery Moment".

Last month, I had my yearly employee physical, but I wasn't able to get my TB test.  I'd been on steroids because of a upper respiratory infection, and if you're on steroids, you can't have the test.  So today and I had my test.  While I was there I asked the nice nurse-lady to check my body fat and BMI again.

The results?

In one month I've lost 2% of my body fat and 2 points on my BMI.  My own personal "two and two".  Thanks Chuck!

Top 10 Things I'm Looking Forward To

For those of you that have never been extremely overweight, you may have a hard time relating to this list.  For those of you that either are (or have been) overweight, then I imagine you'll know from whence I am coming.

When I near my weight-loss goal, the top 10 things I am looking forward to are:

1. Going to a concert/sporting event, and being able to buy a t-shirt.
2. People not assuming I want their extra food.
3. Not having to evaluate all the chairs in a room to determine which chair is most likely NOT to fail when I sit on it.
4. Not feeling sorry for people that sit next to me on an airplane.
5. Clothes shopping at a store with neither Big nor Tall in the name.
6. Not even noticing if my current route involves stairs.
7. Eating ice cream in public without feeling like people are judging me.  (Please, no crunchies in my smoothies.)
8. Never searching for the "maximum load" sticker on a ladder before climbing up it.
9. Making the statement "one size fits all" true for me personally.
10. Riding any ride I want at Six Flags.  (Sometimes I think they need to add a "You must be this narrow to ride" sign in addition to the "You must be this tall to ride" sign.  Ask me about the Batman ride at Astroworld sometime.)

What did or would make your list?

New Addiction

It may be too early to declare it to the heavens, but I think I have a new addiction.  To be honest, I always thought that people that talked about "runner's high" were just trying to talk other people into suffering with them.  But now that I've actually experienced...had a little taste of it...I think there might be something to it.

If you read my last post, you know that I had something of a "moment" on Saturday morning when I actually ran for the first time in years.

Last night, my work out partner and I did six "laps" on my personal walking track, which equates to about 3 miles.  We ran about a half mile of the 3 miles.

Today, I was a little sore, but I couldn't hardly wait until tonight to see if I could run again tonight...and I did.  I did 2 laps, ran about a 1/4 mile.

We'll see how I feel in a  couple of weeks.

One Secret to Quick Weight Loss

I've discovered one of the must un-talked-about secrets of quick weight loss.  Are you ready for this?

Here it is:

Gain a whole lot of weight.  When you need to lose about 150 lbs., the weight just melts off!

Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town

A little early for Christmas shows, huh?  The title fits today, because at lunch I made a step in the right direction. That's the way I thought of it.  It reminded me of the song "One Foot in Front of the Other" from Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town.

What was the step, you ask?

Last night for dinner we had black beans and brown rice, so today I had leftovers for lunch.  When I opened up the container and saw that it was FULL, I thought to myself, "That's a lot of food!"  I ate half of it, put the lid back on it, and stuck the rest back in the refrigerator.

I've never done that before, except maybe with a whole pie, or entire meatloaf.  Scratch that...I would eat the entire meatloaf.  So for me, that was a step in the right direction.

Also, just as a side note, I weighed this morning.  I am 16.2 lbs down from my baseline weight.  Only 133.8 lbs to go!!  Umm....maybe I shouldn't think of it that way...

Not That Scary

The other day I posted about my then upcoming employee physical. I was a little concerned about my health stats since it's been a long time since I've had them done.

Well, I had it today, and...not too bad.

My LDL and cholesterol were a little high, but my triglycerides were fine and my HDL was just a point off. Not bad for a fat guy. It still motivated me to want to get all my stats down within range.

At least she didn't call 911 when she saw my readings and start yelling things like "We need a CBC and chem 7 stat! Hang 2 more liters of O-!!" like they always do on TV.

Thanks to those of you that were concerned with me!

A Scary Day

Next week, I'm scheduled to do my yearly pseudo-physical for work. This year, we're being required to have a lipid panel and blood sugar checked. It's just a finger stick. No big deal, right?

I'm not worried about the stick. I have a pretty high pain tolerance.

The scary part is that I haven't had my lipids checked in a long time. I'm afraid that I might get my results back and they will just say:

Chol = cheeseburger

HDL = french fries

LDL = sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit

I guess we'll see next week!

Oh, and let me clarify. We're not really being "required" to have our lipids and blood sugar done. But if we don't get it done our insurance will cost us $2o more per pay period.

What's your cholesterol?

Some Good Eatin'

My wife is a great cook. Obviously, my mom is too. My in-laws are not too shabby, either. There's lots of good cooks in my family. I can't hold a candle to any of them. I mean, hey, I've messed up macaroni and cheese (but that's another story).

But there's one thing I can cook: chili. I make a mean chili. I've actually won 3 chili cook-offs!! (Of course, two where at church and one at work, but still...)

The recipe started life as my Aunt Audeen's Winter Chili recipe. I took that wonderful base and morphed it into a work of art. The only drawback is that it makes a LOT. A whole lot. For me, that's not a problem. I have a big 8-quart cooker that I use. You can try to half the recipe, but I say just go buy a big cooker. You'll want lots of it!

Below is the recipe. Pretty simple to make. Mostly just chopping vegetables and opening cans. The secret is in the spices. Start with what is listed below, and then just season it how you like.

Another thing is to cook it two to three hours, but not much more. If you cook it too long, it kind of wimps out. Less than that, and everything doesn't flavor up like it should.

Last thing: eat it with a dab of cheese, sour cream if you're into that kind of thing, and some high quality tortilla chips.

Let me know if you liked it.

---------
2 tbs vegetable oil
4 lbs ground beef
4 bell peppers (different colors)
1 large onion
2 large cans crushed tomatoes
2 small cans tomato paste
2 cans ranch style beans
2 cans black beans
2 cans whole kernel corn
2 cans ranch style beans w/jalapeno
2 cloves garlic
3 tsp black pepper
4 tsp chili powder
3 tsp cayenne pepper
5 tsp seasoned salt
2 tsp cumin

Brown the meat. Chop up all the vegetables and lightly sauté them. Open the cans. Do not drain. Throw everything into a giant cooker and stir. You may need to add 1 – 2 cups of water, depending on how wet your canned vegetables are - just make sure that it is wet when you start cooking. Make sure you don't have any tomato paste globs. Cook for approximately 2 hours on medium heat.

Bon Appetit

My mom is a great cook (BTW, so are my wife, my in-laws, and most of my family in general). In fact she's a CHAMPION cook. That's right. She's won c0mpetitions. I'm very proud of her. So, I thought I'd write a quick note and brag on her.

The picture attached to this post is one of the walls of her bedroom with SOME of her plaques, ribbons, and trophies.

Way to go, Mom!! You rock! Now...what's for dinner?

Anchors A-Weigh

The other day, my wife and I went on a cruise. We went to Progresso and Cozumel, and our third stop was Belize. We actually never went to the mainland of Belize. Instead we choose for one of our "excursions" to go snorkeling at Goff's Caye (pronounced KEY, I've been told).


Goff's Caye turned out to be a small island. When I say small...I mean SMALL. Tiny. It was right off the coral reef, and was surrounded by crystal clear water. The picture attached to this post is Goff's Caye. There was a place to dock a couple of boats and a little cabana with some people selling drinks and snacks out of ice chests. It was a beautiful place.

Goff's Caye is not what this post is about. It's about Larry.

Larry was the "deckhand" on the boat that we took from the cruise ship to the island. He had a brilliant smile, a quiet manner, and a quick laugh. He was less than 18 years old, and weighed a buck 'O five soaking wet. One of Larry's jobs was to help people back into the boat.

You see, we snorkeled from the boat about 300 yards off Goff's Caye. When you finished snorkeling, you swam back to the boat, and got back in. At least that was the general idea.

There was a ladder on the back of the boat. However, one side of it had broken loose from the fiberglass of the boat. So Larry would stand with one foot holding the broken piece of the ladder in place, hanging a rope over the back for each person to pull themselves up. The ladder was so short that only the bottom step was actually in the water. I had to practically float on my back to get my foot up on to it.

Now picture Larry, all 105 lbs of him, trying to hold a rope that I'M pulling on, while keeping the ladder from pulling loose with one of his feet.

After about 10 minutes of me attempting to get in, Larry and I both realized that if I were to pull hard enough to pull myself up onto the ladder, what would actually happen would be the quick extrication of Larry from the boat.

Fortunately, another snorkeler was willing to give me a shove on the derrier to give me the extra boost I needed to get in without pulling Larry out.

Embaressing? Yes.

Funny? Absolutely.