Wednesday Night...

Monday's weigh-in was good - I dropped another 7 pounds last week, and our team as a whole did well. Nandy, who is leading the ladies, had a rough time - she worked so hard last week, and only lost a couple of pounds. She totally put me to shame with how hard she worked, and I felt bad that her numbers weren't that great. But her weight loss will pick up again soon. She got to go on TV Tuesday, and got a lot of compliments, so I hope that offset her disappointment. Brenda got to go with me to our weigh-in, and she got to meet everybody in person that she only previously knew through my stories.

 

Tuesday night we had our group meeting, and Donna showed us a group of photos of food servings that we had to put in order from highest calories to lowest calories. They were things as varied as fried shrimp, chocolate, chicken wings, Doritos, and macaroni and cheese. We settled on the correct order as a group, and then she told us that every serving contained exactly the same amount of calories. I had a suspicion, because in my head I kept coming up with somewhere between 300 and 400 calories. After discussing portion sizes and reading labels, we shared stories about experiences we had had as heavy people. Tammy had the funniest stories, and we laughed, not at her, but because we could relate. I recounted my last visit to Six Flags and the Ninja roller coaster. I watched and listened as the ride operators pulled each safety restraint into place - "Click-click-click-click-click-click"... "Click-click-click-click-click-click"... but when they came to my car, the safety restrain made this noise:

 

"Click."

 

The bar was down as far as it would go on me, and I spent the entire ride in sheer terror that I was going to fly out. I'm looking forward to going back with a normal-sized lap and a normal-sized belly. Others told similar stories about airplane seat belts and narrow seats. Our group meetings are always so enjoyable - I almost wish we had them weekly.

 

Wednesday morning's workout was really good - Johnnie had been trying to get us more on schedule with our workout, and this morning, it was like everything clicked. He challenged me to move on up to a heavier set of dumbbells, and I have the hardest time telling him "no". But I have learned that Johnnie is a better judge of my abilities than I am, and he was right. I had to go lighter for one exercise, but other than that, I did well.

 

There's one last holiday to get through - New Years Day - and then we will be on our regular schedule pretty much from now until the end of the competition. My next short-term goal is to be down 13 more pounds after the next two weigh-ins. I'm scheduled to be on TV on Tuesday, January 12th, and I hope to be able to say, "Only 2 months in, and I'm halfway to my goal." That means I have to get a 7 and a 6, or an 8 and a 5, or some combination that adds up to 13 pounds over 2 weeks.

 

It's Weigh-In Time Again...

Some weeks the time flies so fast between weigh-ins - this has been one of those weeks. Having a day off in the middle of the week really shortened it, as did moving our workouts with Johnnie from Monday / Wednesday/ Friday to Tuesday / Wednesday/ Saturday. I'm hoping the scale will be kind to me this week - I've made it through several parties, church functions, and Christmas day without cheating a single time. I'm hoping for at least a 5 lb. loss this week, but I should be grateful that I've only had one week where I lost less than 5 pounds.

 

This week we begin making our television appearances with PHC - I was up first, but Nandy asked if she could switch with me and do hers while she is off work next week. She will be on NBC Augusta this Tuesday morning during their 11:00 AM newscast with Donna from PHC and, I assume, either Liz Hill or Jay Jefferies.

 

I talk about Nandy a lot - she has been leading the ladies for five weeks now. She has been absolutely killing herself in the gym these last two weeks, and is getting her mile on the treadmill in under 9 minutes. I'm not there yet, but improving. Nandy is like me in that, on that first night in the TV studio when we found out we were selected for the competition, she figured she didn't have much chance at winning. She was the lightest competitor in the entire group, but in the ensuing weeks, she has gotten a taste of being in the lead, and now she's hungry. We got our names on the PHC sign last week - we still have to get our picture made in front of it. I'll have to see if we can show up at PHC at the same time in our red team ABL t-shirts.

 

I had another round of people telling me how good I look at church this morning. It's funny - people don't look me in the face now; they look at my mid-section when they talk to me. Makes me feel like I have something on my tie! It would still be nice to talk about something else every now and then, but I appreciate the support of my church family and my facebook friends so much. I could not do this alone, and I am grateful that I don't have to.

 

This week will be a light week around the church - I'm not planning to keep regular office hours, and I plan to take advantage of the opportunity to get a lot of extra work in this week. I can't afford to drive to the gym all the time, so I may have to get some Rocky-Balboa-style, no-equipment workouts in. Anybody know where I can go flip tractor tires across a field?

 

 

Christmas Morning

Every family has their own traditions around the holidays, and we are no exception. Brenda baked Hello Dollies, a wonderful treat that some of you know as Magic Cookie Bars - little bundles of sugar, fat, and cholesterol disguised as graham cracker crumbs, chocolate, butterscotch, coconut, and lots of sweetened condensed milk. My buddy Jan sent us a box of her famous sugar cookies, which are THE best cookies in the world. We had Christmas Eve lunch at Pizza Hut with a family in our church - their family has been doing it for years, and they always invite us. It's always Pizza Hut, it's usually the buffet, and we usually end up griping about the lack of pizza and/or dessert on said buffet. So many of our traditions are built around food, aren't they? I haven't had any of these treats this year, and I don't intend to. I want to get through this Biggest Loser competition and be able to say, "I never cheated, not a single time." In two weeks, we will be a third of the way through the competition. Fortunately, I'm a third of the way to my goal, so I'm pretty much on track to hit my target weight of 190-ish. It's going to get harder - it takes more work to get my heart rate up these days because I'm in better shape than I was in November.

 

My Christmas list was a little different this year - a Reebok Step, a pair of 15 lb. dumbbells, and a stopwatch. I got 2 out of the 3 items - Brenda and Debbie couldn't find the Step. When the bank account comes back up a little bit, I will find one and treat myself to a post-Christmas Christmas present! Last week I picked up the Biggest Loser Last Chance Workout video, which is actually quite like some of the stuff we do at the gym with Johnnie. In fact, we have done most of the exercises on the video at least once in the last two months. I will work through that video at least once today, maybe twice, and will have to get my walking done inside the church, because it's pouring rain here, and because I usually make up my daily walking deficit in Walmart, which is obviously closed today. But I will also take the opportunity today to rest myself - while the muscles have gotten used to exercise, the ankles, knees, and hips are still screaming, even through daily rounds of ibuprofen. I consulted with my mentor, Kristy, and she felt like a day of resting would be a wise course of action, not only for the rest, but because the change in routine might kick-start my body into another intense round of weight-loss. I don't always take Sundays off from the gym - in my mind, the best day to take off would be the day AFTER weigh-in, and the worst would be the day BEFORE weigh-in.

 

I'm so grateful and pleased with what has happened thus far - I feel better, I look better, I'm faster and more agile, and I've managed to forge a slight lead in the competition (although the only day the lead matters is May 15, four and a half months from now). This has truly been a life-changing experience for me, and hopefully a turning point to a longer and more productive life.

 

I'm thankful also for all the people that God has brought into my life since we began, starting with those in my immediate sphere of influence - Kristy Youngblood, a former teen from my youth group in the 90's, whose own journey inspired me to apply for this program, and who gives freely of her time, guidance, and encouragement; our trainer, Johnnie; our nutritionists Mark, Donna, Savannah, Priscilla, and Patricia; my teammates Nandy, Lisa, Tammy, Bronnie, and Charles; our friends on the blue team Tanner, Tim, Colin, Laycee, Ashley, and Lori; their trainer, Barry Allison; and the many folks who stick their head in to encourage and congratulate us from time to time. I'm thankful for my church family who supports and encourages me week in and week out; I'm thankful for my friends on facebook who read my ramblings and lend their support from places as far away as Alaska and Korea. I'm thankful for my terrific wife, who gives me her love, support, and encouragement every day. I'm thankful for my pastor/boss, Don Stone, who fully supports me in this effort, and doesn't mind when I come dragging in late on those mornings when Johnnie has run us to death and the chiropractor has pushed my backbone through my chest wall. Last, but most important, I am thankful to our Lord Jesus Christ, who gives me the strength every day to walk in obedience to Him. "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." (Hebrews 12:1-2) 

 

To all of you who read this blog, may God bless you with a merry Christmas and a happy, HEALTHY new year!

 

 

Before And... During.

This is for the benefit of those of you who don't follow me on facebook... the picture on the left is me before I started this journey, and the picture on the right is 47 days, 50 pounds later... I must have lost all 50 of it out of my face!!

Sunday Afternoon...

So I have discovered that when I wear my old (and baggy, now) clothes, I notice the weight loss. But when I put on something new in a smaller size, that's when everyone else notices. We had our church Christmas party last night, and because I have "downsized", my clothes did, too. I felt very self-conscious because I know they are talking about me... I caught people staring at me all night long; when I walk up, it's the only topic of conversation. It's not that I don't appreciate the support - I do - but May is a long, long way away; it'd be nice to talk about something else between now and then.

 

I worked out Saturday morning with Nandy & Charles; then Saturday afternoon, I went to the gym to work out with Barry and his trainer, Vic. Vic is a very soft-spoken, very encouraging guy. The workout was pretty tough - of course, he gave me the heaviest weight to work out with, and I'm still feeling it today. The legs are killing me with DOMS, something I haven't experienced in several weeks. (For those of you who don't know, DOMS is Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness - it's when you finish work and say, "that wasn't so bad", and then the next day you can barely move.)

 

We have had a good weekend at church; the Keffers were at our party Saturday night, providing music and entertainment. They stayed over and sang in our morning service, as well. What makes this relevant to this discussion is the fact that Mrs. Keffer became my friend on facebook, and has been following my progress since the beginning of this process. It was nice to see her and talk to her in person - she is a very positive, uplifting lady, and the encouragement she offers is invaluable, as is that of many people across the country.

 

One other interesting thing happened last night at the church party; people were saying that they had seen my name on a sign... turns out that PHC put Nandy and me on their marquee sign - something to the effect of "Biggest Losers Ed & Nandy lost 60 lbs." I guess Donna put us up as their latest success stories!

A Pretty Good Day...

My day started really early today - because I had some things I needed to help my wife with, my day started at about 3:45 this morning. I was in the gym by 4:45, left at 6:00, delivered a fake fireplace to my wife's workplace for a decorating contest, hit the chiropractor's office at 8:30, then off to work.

 

I was feeling pretty lousy today - my feet hurt, my knees hurt, my hips hurt; I'm starting to feel the effects of working out every single day and not sleeping much at night. I got a new pair of tennis shoes, and they are rubbing the tops of my toes raw - bleeding-through-my-socks raw. I decided to ask for the afternoon off - I took a little bit of time to run by a couple of stores for some pants. I grabbed a couple pair in the size I thought I needed and tried them on to make sure they fit... I had to go back twice for smaller sizes! I am now down to within 2 inches of my waist size when I got married 21 years ago. I got a pair of slacks for work, and a pair of blue jeans. I never weigh in at PHC in jeans, but today, I didn't care what the scale said... I wanted to show off my new size! When I got there, Johnnie was there with our official Biggest Loser t-shirts, very much like the ones on the TV show. I managed to land a shirt smaller than the one I originally ordered, thanks to Mariah at NBC.

 

Meanwhile, I got a "shout out" from my trainer on TV - Johnnie did an interview this morning with Liz Hill of channel 26, and mentioned me by name in the context of me leading the contest at this point in time. He then turned around and called me to tell me about it, and about the shirts coming in.

 

While at PHC, I weighed in, and on their scales, I had lost 3 more pounds since Tuesday. I never trust those numbers, because they aren't the ones that count in the contest. But progress on their scales means they don't bug me about what I'm eating, and everybody is happy.

 

All in all, it was a good day, in spite of the pain. Headed to bed now so I can get up in 6 hours and do more damage to my legs and feet...

Hanging On By a Thread...

Tonight was weigh-in... the results were not spectacular for our team, to say the least. No one gained, but the losses were small. We got our tails kicked by the blue team this week, which probably means we will get our tails kicked by Johnnie come Wednesday morning.

 

A couple of small victories for me personally, though - I lost enough (5.4 pounds) to get me out of the 300's. I have now lost 43.6 pounds since our starting weigh-in on November 2nd, a span of 38 days. I am also still in the lead for the third week in a row, and my buddy Nandy leads the ladies by a hair for the fourth straight week. She told me on the way out of the gym tonight that everybody was aiming for her (the girls on the other team have made it their mission to take the lead away). She reminded me so much of The Biggest Loser Season 7's Tara, who complained that she was walking around in the house with a target on her back. Jillian told her, "welcome to the world of being successful... embrace it... come on in, the water's fine". I told her to embrace it, and accept the challenge as an opportunity to put this thing out of reach.

 

After I left the gym and got my usual Monday night treat (Chick-Fil-A char-grilled sandwich), I was headed to the house when my phone rang - caller ID said it was Johnnie Hughes, our trainer. I immediately assumed he was calling with instructions for a brutal beating on Wednesday, or possibly even Tuesday, one of the days we are on our own. But I was wrong - Johnnie called to congratulate me on holding the lead and breaking the 300 pound mark. He may have been looking for a bright spot to lighten his mood - we know we disappointed him this week, and it showed. He thanked me for working hard, and it meant a lot to me that he took the time to call. I'm a nobody on his schedule - just a big, slow guy trying to take advantage of a 6-month window in which I am trying to reach my goal weight. I have 142 days left in which to lose 100 pounds (more, if I can do it). That's about three-quarters of a pound a day. I can do that, but it sure would be nice to have a couple of big weeks to get a jump on it.

 

Now that the pressure of our Christmas program is behind me, I should have some more time and energy to devote to the task of losing the weight. My feet and legs hurt; my back is starting to bother me some; but it's time to step it up!

Friday Afternoon...

This is, without question, the busiest weekend of the year for me. Our outdoor light display and music starts tonight and runs through Sunday night; tomorrow morning we have one final choir rehearsal for our cantata Sunday morning. One part of my focus is on getting everything done for both events; the other part of my focus has my eye on the short-term goal of breaking the 300 lb. barrier in my quest to become Augusta's Biggest Loser. If all goes well, I will be in the 290's by weigh-in Monday night - I think I'm only about a pound away.

 

I'm working at a slower pace on the Christmas stuff this year - I have to eat properly, and I have to make time for exercise at the gym and on my own. My meals are taking longer (no fast food), and my errands are taking longer to run (parking out in the boonies); but I think the slow-down is helping me keep my balance right now. Maybe this weekend won't be so stressful.

 

Nah, who am I kidding??

 

Anyway, I'll be back Monday night, hopefully with some good news from the weigh-in!

The View From the Front...

If you happened to see my facebook status Monday night, I lost another 5.4 pounds this week, bringing my total to 38.2 pounds lost from November 6 to December 7th. Yes, I still weigh over 300 pounds, but I'm only 4 pounds away from breaking into the 200's. I have a chart on the wall in my office where I have a pound countdown that goes from 342 to 203, and I just realized that I am over a quarter of the way to my original goal of losing 140 pounds! That's 38 pounds in 32 days! Yeah, I was a little upset over last week's 3.6 pounds, but how can I be anything other than grateful and proud of 38 pounds in 32 days! And for the second week in a row, both leaders are on our team - I am leading the men for the second week, and my teammate Nandy is leading the women for the third week straight.

 

Johnnie likes to remind us that in the competition, there are no moral victories; but in our personal struggles, there are. Resisting temptation at a Christmas party, shopping for smaller clothes, tossing out the "big" clothes, and doing things we've never done before (or haven't done in a LONG time) are little victories that push us forward towards our main goal.

 

We don't have exact percentages yet, but my hold on the lead is very tenuous, at best. Most of the other men are right behind me, and my advantage could hinge on as little as one pound. The lead will probably change quite a few times over the next 5 months, but the only day that counts is the last day - May 15th. On the national show, the difference between winning and losing is a quarter of a million dollars - the differential between winning and not winning here on the local level is not nearly as dramatic - probably a few hundred bucks in prizes.

 

But, hey - as long as I'm doing all this work, I might as well try to win the thing, right?

A Grain of Salt...

Friday was rough... I was feeling a little weak Friday morning when I reported to the gym for my workout. I assumed I was just a little tired - it's that time of the year. I'm not usually much for stopping during my workout, but I had trouble making it to the end of the allotted time on almost everything we did. My teammates began asking me if I was OK, and I said, "I'm fine", trying to shrug it off. I pushed on through for a few minutes, but then I heard someone (probably Lisa - she's "Mom" to the rest of us) tell Johnnie that I was gray, and someone else said I had no color in my face. He checked my pulse, and my heart rate was fine. We were almost finished with our workout, so he had me just slow down a little bit. When I got home, I started thinking about the previous day and what I had eaten and, more importantly, what I had drank. I had nearly a gallon and a half of water on Thursday, but I didn't get rid of nearly that much. When that happens, I surmised to myself, there is usually one culprit: sodium. Time to start reading labels a little more closely! I ran by the store and bought a bunch of the lowest sodium tuna I could find, and then made sure I ate nothing with more than a trace of sodium in it for the rest of the day. I drank the same quantity of water on Friday, but with vastly different results. After watching the scales not move all week, Saturday morning I woke up two and a half pounds lighter, and feeling a LOT better than I did Friday!

 

 

There's No Time To Be Healthy...

Today is December 3rd, and our two biggest Christmas season endeavors will be over in 10 days. As I frantically try to get everything done that needs to be done, I am reminded how I put on much of this extra weight. This is the time of the year I tend to skip meals like breakfast and lunch, and then use those missed meals to justify those double cheeseburgers, large fries, and 44 oz. (or larger) soft drinks at dinnertime. I used to stay up really late working on projects, sometimes until 2 or 3 in the morning, in an effort to get everything done before the cantata or musical, whichever we happened to be doing at church. This year is different - staying up late is out the window, because I have to get up at 4:30 in order to be at the gym at 5:30 AM. This morning I got up at 4:00 to be there by 5:00, because Johnnie asked us to do 20 miles on the bikes today, and getting there earlier was the only way I was going to be able to fit it in before the ride home, cooking breakfast, washing dishes, and getting ready for work. I am discovering that some things I just have to leave undone, and some things I have to find other people to help me with. I have a powerpoint presentation that has to be done by Sunday, for which I have none of the information yet; I have to re-mix the entire soundtrack for our choir's Christmas cantata; we have the stage lighting to hang in the auditorium; we have to plan out how we are going to set up for the choir and other audio needs during our outdoor Christmas event next weekend; and numerous other tasks to handle. In between all of that, there are the daily workouts, visits to the chiropractor, appointments at PHC Wellness Center.

 

But this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity I have been provided, and I have to make getting healthy a priority. Without that, there's no energy, no creativity, and I will burn out quickly. I always figured I didn't have time to be healthy; now I realize I don't have time NOT to be healthy!