Nothing is off the Table (Except the Cookies)

I wanted to start out by showing part of the artwork that is being designed for this blog, and the future podcast.  This is done by one of my friends, and a talented guy, Adam Leonhardt . Now, let the public shaming begin! One of my favorite things about joining weight loss communities is the before and after shots posted by people who are proud of the achievements they have made during their own journey.  You look at their before pictures and they usually don't look happy, their posture is off and there is just a general sense of doom and gloom.  Then you see their after picture where their posture has dramatically changed and now there is a huge smile on their face.  The picture emits bliss and it is contagious. The only way one is able to post those pictures is they have to take the before shots so that they can get to the after . I took this picture a couple weeks after I started with intermittent fasting with the intention of posting it right away but for vari

On one of the Book of Face OMAD groups that I have gotten myself into there was a weight loss challenge that was starting right before my vacation with an entrance fee of $20.   This challenge was to lose six pounds in three weeks with the guarantee that if you lost the weight then you would get, at a minimum, your money back.  People who failed the challenge would have their money distributed to the winners.  I've been so all in on my goals and this journey that I thought signing up would help motivate me during my vacation to not make unbelievably horrible decisions and not set myself back so much that I was just pissing away my money. On July 22nd the challenge started and I came in at 258.1, ugly toes and all. Over the past month that I have been taking my weight loss seriously I have been losing 2 or more pounds every single week so I figured that even if I had a week where I didn't lose any I'd still have two weeks where I could come out swinging and make this

After going nearly four weeks with intermittent fasting and eating healthier I went on Vacation. This was a vacation from everything (except for the family).  I wanted to step back from the daily grind of my every day life and just enjoy my wife and children.  Went went to the beach a couple of times.  We went to the pool a couple of times.  We went out and saw some sites and even enjoyed our second trip to the La Brea Tar Pits, this was the first time for our 4 year old and 1 year old.  Everyone enjoyed themselves a ton but the kids kinda sorta didn't enjoy the random site seeing because they would have rather been at the beach or pool or just doing something more exciting.  They did take it well for the most part and were rewarded with more fun. However, like I said before, this was a vacation from my normal daily grind. Vacation from Podcasts. Vacation from Blogs. Vacation from Social Media. Vacation (mostly) from my phone. Vacation from Intermittent Fasting and health

There is much excitement as i'm slowly becoming less and less of a big fat-ass.  Life is throwing curve balls at me and I feel like i'm in the zone and nothing can derail me here at the beginning of my journey. The official start date of this journey is July 1st because choosing the first day of a month makes things easier in terms of tracking and that means that I have been at this journey officially for 3 weeks.  In those three weeks I have gone from 274.4 pounds to now 257.6 pounds.  My next goal is just around the corner and I can taste it. Oddly enough it tastes a lot like water which is the only thing I drink any more. Speaking of water, my goal is to reach 1 gallon of water drank per day.  While I'm not reaching that goal 100% of the time I am reaching it pretty often and when I don't I am still over 100 ounces. Yesterday ended up being my most water drank in what I'll assume is ever at 192 ounces and it was fueled by two different events. The fi

Yesterday I had a short day at work because I was over my hours and it appears to be a holy sin to get overtime so I worked a shorter shift.  This meant that I got to take the kids to see my parents in the morning before heading to work. From the previous day I had a late taco salad dinner which meant that I had to put off my eating until a bit later than normal.  I'm used to eating at 10 or 11 am at this point so when I had to put it off until noon I was feeling it even though I'm pretty sure it was all just in my head. When the time rolled around I had a big bowl of taco meat with my wife's homemade broccoli slaw (broccoli, jalapenos, Greek yogurt and some other seasonings) and it was delicious and hit the spot.  At this point I was really considering going for a 24 hour fast as long as I could easily make it past my normal end time so I ate a little more than I normally would have. I came in to work and everyone made fun of me because I had brought my lunch (Like

This current week has taught me that I probably need to come up with a separate routine to go along with the routine that I feel comfortable with at work. When I have working days I have set times that I can take my meal breaks so my pattern is very easy to maintain.  Days when I do not work it is a bit harder because we, as a family, do not have specified times for dinner and we tend to be on the go a good amount.  My past two days off I ended up finishing my meals at 7 PM instead of earlier and while it may not seem like much it does tend to throw off my routine for the next day.  I either have to extend the time when I normally eat or eat normally but cut my fast shorter. This is really not a big deal but it is something that I have ran into so I need to figure it out so my OCD doesn't kick in and throw me into chaos. Also, we had some Mochi balls in the freezer for the past few weeks and I noticed that we were down to just one left.  I decided that it was a bad idea to

Most of the time people call it falling off the wagon.  This isn't dramatic enough for me so instead of just falling off a wagon I wait until the wagon is approaching a large drop-off and I stand up and jump off the cliff.  You see, this isn't my first go-round with weight loss.  Like most fat people I have been struggling with it for most of my life and I have gone through various cycles of wanting to lose weight and giving up shortly after.  This is the story of me at my most determined and me at my most complacent. Before I was engaged, before I was even dating my wife, I hit rock bottom when it comes to my weight.  From sophomore year of college on I fluctuated between 260 and 280 pounds but I stayed in that range for over a decade.  Then I went through the most traumatic experience of my young life and I turned to food more than usual.  The result of this was that one day I decided to step on the scale and I couldn't believe the numbers staring back at me. T

My history is a little longer than the chart above would tell you but some friends have recommend some apps to track fasts and help out.  I am currently using two different apps and will play with them to figure out which I like more so that I can just use one that has features I like. My transition to the 16 hour fast has been a complete success as I have hit my goal every single day and have been going longer without much thought.  You can see that in the above seven day span I hit 17 hours 3 times and 18 hours 4 times so I figure it is time to step up my game and just make 18 hours my new goal.  I haven't quite mentally figured out how this is going to work yet because I have to plan my eating hours around work but I have faith I can make this work. Last night was the first time I struggled since the beginning but the more I thought about it the more I think the struggle was because of this dry Las Vegas Heat!  It was another high triple digit day and after eating my d

Before I jumped on board this new way of eating I told myself that I was going to be more lax with my rules so that I didn't run into my normal pitfalls.  I told myself that I was going to be easier on myself if I had a setback because no matter what harm I cause I can always recover. When I set these rules I didn't realize that my body would be testing me so hard so early.  When you are attempting to lose weight or get healthier everyone always recommends that you pick one day a week and use that as your weigh-in day and there is a reason for that.  The reason is below. Before I started the whole eating healthier and intermittent fasting thing I had plans.  One of those plans was a retirement party for a good friend of mine and we all met at an Irish pub/eatery for this celebration.  This is not a regular occurrence and I allowed myself to just enjoy the evening and suffer the consequences after. As far as the intermittent fasting goes I still held within my confines

Yesterday I struggled early with a headache but still managed to hold steady and complete my fast.  I really felt like it was a great big success and I was mentally celebrating the win. After I got to my evening job an issue was brought to my attention that there was some product needed for an install which, for various preventable reasons, was not present but was desperately needed for our installers to complete the job.  All solutions backfired and now we were left with one super fun solution for the fat man; a trip across town in triple digit heat and bad traffic to pick up this product and then bring it back to our store so the installer could finish the job tomorrow (which is now today) and the customer remains happy.  And, just who is the right man for the job?  I don't know but he wasn't available so I ended up taking one for the team and volunteering to make the trek. Let's start with the positives: 1 - I got to be out of the store for a couple of hours and

Last night while driving home I really wanted to stop and get some ice cream.  It wasn't an overwhelming desire but the thought was there creeping into my head.  I told myself that I wasn't losing the battle here and to just keep driving.  By the time I got to the normal place where I would stop the thought had left my mind and the temptation was completely gone. This morning was an entirely different scenario. I woke up at 6 am and before I even realized my alarm was going off (it had been making noise for over two minutes at this point) I felt the headache encasing me. Literally my first thought was that I would not be completing my fast for the day because I was going to pick up a couple of energy drinks and some garbage to eat to help alleviate the pain I was feeling. I haven't had a lot of headaches in the past year or so but my go-to gut reaction when I wake up with one, especially one that felt almost overwhelming like this morning, is to grab some energy d

Out of all of the changes that I am trying to make during this run at getting healthy the one that I am pushing for the hardest and (oddly enough) the one that I feel is the hardest to do is intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting is one of those things that a lot of people stand behind and use in various ways, but from what I have read they all recommend an 8 hour (or shorter) eating window and at least a 16 hour fast. A famous late night talk show host has documented how he lost his weight by having two fasting days per week where he ate 500 calories or less during those days and seemingly mostly in pickles.   But, intermittent fasting is not a diet it is just a way to eat your food.  Growing up you often hear that you shouldn't eat late at night because your body has more trouble burning off that food while you are sleeping.  The longer the fasting period the more your body will burn off.  Intermittent fasting is just taking this theory up a notch and giving you

I have an absolute Monster of a caffeine addiction.  I consume energy drinks like a Rockstar goes through booze.  The caffeine Reigns through my blood system like surviving a Quake (too soon?) and BANG! instant energy. OK, enough corniness - but the truth of the matter is that I do have an awful caffeine addiction that I have nearly kicked multiple times.  It's like an alcohol addiction and when I think I'm clear of it one little taste brings me right back. There have been a couple of times in the past where I have gotten myself off of the energy drinks and then something weird happens like I have to wake up at 5 am or earlier for an entire week and I cave in to the cravings and pick up an energy drink to help make it through the day and BLAMMO, next thing you know I'm drinking two or more a day and right back into my routine. I'm trying to kick them again.  Trying is the key word here.  So with that in mind I spent my 4th of July not having one and trying to get

Good day Fatties! Yesterday was day seven which means I have survived a full week and lived to tell about it.  I have come to a few realizations that I have documented over the past week and I have made some progress.  Overall I am very happy with the way things are going and hope to keep up the momentum (even though I have a buddy who doesn't believe that momentum actually exists).  Yes, the FatManinVegas is slightly less fat after his first week of dedication (again). So lets get to the results and see what happened. Note - The foot pictures will be gone for a bit because I'm also a LazyManinVegas :) Actually, the real reason is last night when I came home I came home determined to get my Aria scale working with my Fitbit again which means that when I step on the scale it automatically updates my weight on my fitbit app.  I'm probably going to just start doing my weigh-ins in the morning because keeping track of morning and night is tedious. Starting weigh

Last night this picture was taken a bit earlier than my normal because after a day of cleaning the house and then grilling and eating in the hot sun, not to mention the drinking serge - never forget the drinking, I was what they would call exhausted. So because off all the fun in the sun this was a gain of 1.6 pounds And here we are in the morning with a 2 pound gain over the same picture from the previous morning. No regrets.  I went into the day knowing that I was throwing caution to the wind and just having a great 4th of July with my family and that is what I did. My Hamburgers were amazing, we even used better meat for the occasion.  My Corn was delicious.  My My My, basically I overate and enjoyed every second of it. So, before I get into the meat and potatoes of the post, does anyone have a preference on when I post disgusting pictures of my feet?   Should I continue to put the pictures first or should I jump into whatever post topic I came up with?   Just r

Today was not about diet and weight loss.  It was not about self control and good decisions  Today is about Freedom! The freedom to have a good day with no consequences. The freedom to eat what I cook without worrying about the after effect. The freedom to eat the icecream that my toddler brings me after burgers and the freedom to drink my calories in the form of a brew. But most importantly the freedom to spend an amazing day with my family and no outside considerations.  Happy 4th of July all. If you celebrate,  if you don't,  doesn't matter, I hope you had an amazing day. -FatManinVegas

 If the lighting didn't give it away the picture on the left is from nearly midnight July 1st and the picture on the right is my morning groan on July 2nd.  As you can see, Cheetos Chicken Sandwich aside, I made enough right decisions to continue my downward trend. Yes, I know that I'm just super fat and the first ten pounds are the easiest but that is a damned good thing because that is when I need the most encouragement.  These pictures help!   So, currently coming in under 270 pounds and on my way to 260 which is my first goal. Which brings me to Tuesday - my first day at my office job since I have decided to give up the snacking and make better decisions.  Ok, not giving up snacking just making better choices and living with the fact that even though my stomach wants it I do not NEED to snack and eat garbage every single day.  This picture is our snack closet which is mainly for giving out to people showing up for the group activities but up until today it was also