Let's talk about food

From another bloggers post

http://spaces.msn.com/sharbear/
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Food Choices
Food choices are interesting, aren't they?

For example - 3 slices of a small pizza are 390 calories. One pound of frozen green beans are 125 calories. One family size Cambells Chicken Soup is total 360 calories (for the whole can!)

Food for thought, so to speak
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Now, I know I am not counting calories, and am just trying to generally eat healthy, but this has me thinking. 3 pieces of a small pizza, has as many calories as 3 pounds of frozen beans! Now, for those of you out there fighting the battle of the bulge who are always hungry, or always thinking you are hungry, this is pretty big. I mean, myself personally, I could not eat three pounds of frozen green beans. So we will take one of my favorite vegetable. Radishes.



Now these little things are good. Some people dislike them I suppose, but I personally love them. They have become a cruncher for me, one of those foods I eat to pass time. Now, here at work, where I work and have for the last year, we have a cafeteria. In this cafe are a good variety of foods, but mostly fried. My usual dieting exercises would always end in failure here, as I would starve myself for hours, than go eat my diet lunch, than get a huge craving, and go for a poutine at the cafe. (For those non Canadians, a poutine is fries covered in cheese and gravy.)

Now here at the cafe, our poutines are the same size as the large poutines at Harveys. The nice lil paper they give us at Harveys shows that poutines there run 750 calories. Let us add on a bottle of coke, which is what I usually had, 320 calories. Plus my diet lunch that was usually 2 sandwhiches Tuna and bread. Which came out to rougle 400 calories (Ironically just a lil more than the pop). So total lunch was 1290 Calories... about a 1000 less a day than I am consumming now, for one meal.

After this meal, as I am sure many of you could predict, I would be tired, very dim witted (not on the ball) and would usually need a nap after work.

Now today, I snack on about 10 ounzes of radishes at work, which is 60 calories. Than I have my lunch, a tuna sandwhich with lettuce, choped onions, mustard and some cayenne pepper. About 200-250 calories. I am more full, eating these healthy foods every 2-3 hours, in servings of 200-300 calories, than I was eating 4-5 meals a day of 800-1200 Calories. I am also more energetic, in a better mood, more creative, able to function better at work, and all this in a week and a half of chaning my diet. The change is so drastic my bosses have commented on my new mood. I guess this goes back to the story of you are what.

Another thing I have noticed in my new way of eating is how much more you appreciate the taste of foods. When eating processed,fastfood, you just eat, and taste the greasiness, fatty (which taste good don't get me wrong) and often unsatisfying (hunger wise) food. When you are choosing your foods for health wise, you begin to pay attention to the taste, and spices that you add to them. You look up recippees, and when you eat your food, it is more satisfying to you, than the fast food.

In other news, I would like to mention I joined the RoadBears club at http://www.bikejournal.com/ awsome, friendly club with alot of people who are all pushing each other to succeed. Jerry(who has been doing awsome at loosing weight) set up a website for them, at http://www.weightdesk.com/roadbears.htm If anyone here who a cyclist who is trying to lose weight, this would be an awsome motivator for you.

Well tommorow is weigh in day, I will post the results tommorow.

Ciao

Just a quick 15 min sprint on the bike before work today. My legs are getting pretty rubbery and I might have to take a few days off.

I posted a pic of my in my profile finally, now I feel sorry for yall to have to start at my ugly mug everytime you come by, hopefully it won't chase too many of you away.

I am trying to upload some pictures right now for the blog, as well as learn how to put links on the side bar, so far it is not working.

Again, thanks for all the emails guys, they are helping with the motivation more than I can say.

Someone emailed me and said I should start posting my diet everyday, so I will start that. For now I will put it here, once I learn how to put links on the side, I will put it on the side.

So for today

Breakfest: 4 eggs, scrambled, toast, tea, orange

Snack: Yogurt, Banana

Workout

Lunch: Tuna Sandwhich, Diet coke with lime, half a protien shake (200ml milk, 100ml water, half scoop of banana, half scoop of protein powder)

snack: Full protien shake (600ml of milk, 300ml of water, banana, full scoop of protien)

Dinner: Tuna sandwhich, 5 glasses of water, tea

Evening: Salad with light italian dressing, 5 glasses of water.

As you can see most of my calories are placed in the early morning afternoon, with the bulk of them comming post workout.

I will work and try to get those pics up for you guys soon.
Oh..leave comments! :) You can post as anoymynous, Its ok :)

Ciao for now

A different feeling


I am not sure how many bigger guys out there experience this, but I know it has been a while for me. Alot of people get this feeling constantly, but when you are a bigger guy, (like 350+) I guess it is not so common. Particularily among those of us that became thig big by eating, and eating alot all the time.

The feeling I am talking about...is feeling full.

Yep, thats right, I had honestly forgotten what it was like to feel full, a everyday occurence for some of us, totally threw me offguard.

Now, I know some people will never understand this, but, I had honestly forgotten, as I am sure some other people in the world have.

I had to ask a friend what was wrong with me.

me: man..my stomach hurts..
friend: What did you eat?
me: Well..it was my cheat night tonight, so 2 racks of ribs and a potatoe.. ugh...
friend: hmm..well since you have only been eating a sandwhich or salad, your prolly full..
me: oh...yeah...good point.

That was kind of embarassing, but hey, this blog is to show you the hill us big men/woman have to climb to make it back to a healthy life.

So yep, another small step towards my goals, my stomach has shrunk. These smaller portions spaced out are doing there thing.

Weigh in is on Sunday, catch you all tommorow, off to sleep.

Ciao

Woot!!!!

8.5miles!!!!

Now, I know to alot of you that this might not be alot, but, to me, thats a huge mountain. Next goal is 10, which is halfway to the ultime goal of 20.

Now I wasn't the smartest cookie today and did leg weights after my 30 minute ride. I expect to be pretty sore tommorow, so will probally not go for 10. On another note, I managed to do 500 pounds on the leg press. I shouldn't be suprised at this, as I am 411 pounds, but still was satisfying to be able to push alot of weight. Of course, with my realisation that I still had alot of leg muscle, I did a leg workout, which is why I am sure I will be sore tommorow. I got some hot/cold gel and ibuprofen (vitamin I) so hopefully it will not be as bad as the arms were.

Weigh in is on Sunday, so we will see what is happening, I would be happy with even 1-2 pounds a week right now. Cross your fingers for me :)

Ciao

Also..if anyone has any tuna recipes or healthy Salad recipees email em over :)

The Amazing Shrinking Man!: My New Look!

Just a quick post before I go off to the gym. Anyone wanting to read a truly truly inspirational story should click on this link. This man has gone from 568 pounds to 256 pounds in a little more than a year. Anyone looking for inspiration to get up and do there goals needs to check him out.

On another note my arms are feeling a ton better as are my legs, going to go and try for the 5.5 miles on the bike today. Going to go stop in a few bike shops too. Thanks for reading on guys, Ill update again later. Sunday is also weigh in day, so I will post my updated weight on sunday.

Ciao - Tyler

After suggestions from numerous people I have postponed the personal training again until March13th. After the episode last night, I think itll be good to work my body back into weights slowly, rather than jump right in with the trainer. Today is an off day for me, as I am resting my legs and arms, so so sore. Most I will be doing today is taking my dogs for a walk.

Wanted to say thank you to everyone who has emailed, it is awsome to hear from people who are reading this blog and following along with me, helps keep the motivation up. My friend Beeg is going to be doing a diet plan up for me, he does diet plans for people, so he will be giving me one for free! Hopefully this will help with the diet. I am going to weigh in on Sunday and we will see how much I have lost so far, I think once a week weigh ins are good, and keep you sane from the water weight fluctuations that happen day to day.

Well I am off to the hottub for now, hopefully I will be able to move my arms a little more tommorow.

Ciao everyone, and thanks again for reading.

So here I am at 3:30am...I can't sleep because my arms hurt so much, Now sure what I am going to do, going to have to cancel the personal training training today, might just take the day off to try and heal. Man it hurts, Ima try to get some sleep again, ciao

So today was a hard day. As expected when I woke up my arms were sore, really really sore. Shaving was a challenge as was getting dressed. I cancelled the boxing today as I was wayyyy too sore. Maybe I am taking this too quickly. My push for 60 hours at week continues today, with another 8 hour day at work.

On other news, the tiredness is starting to come back, I think it might have something to do with the exertion yesterday, but I am definatly feeling very slow today. I went to the bike shop today, I think cycling will help with the getting back in shape. I am looking at around 700-800 dollars!!! I mean, I know that is not alot for a bike, as I have been looking around, but I was hoping to just drop 300-400 for my first one, than work it up from there.

Stats at the gym today, since Im using this as a log too.

5 miles on the bicycle (spinner) Aim is 5.25 tommorow

6 meals today

Cereal and toast this morning 10am

Protein Shake 1:30pm

Tune Sandwhich and a bottle of diet coke(mmmm) 3:30pm

Tune Sandwhich and water (5:30pm)

Salad (7:30pm)

Protein Shake (9:30pm)

Steak :D (11:30pm)

So as you can see, it seems like alot of food space out like that, when in reality Im barely hitting 2000 calories. At least I usually feel full.

Thinking of taking ephedrine again to help with the energy, would just take a small ammount 5 days a week, with weekends out, as I hate the mood swings.

Ciao for now.

Well today was my first day training, and I am sore. I have been eating properly for the last week. My personal trainer suggested 6 small meals a day every 2 hours to help with my energy drop. It has worked beyond imagination, I feel like I can bounce off walls all day, I will definitely buy him a coffee next time I see him.

Today was my first day training. I was scared Ill admit it, I have never been so scared in my life. I walked into the same gym I have been going to for three weeks now, and I was scared. As I changed I thought about constantly just leaving, or maybe pretending to be sick and rescheduling. See, this visit was difference, much different than any ones of the previous three weeks. We were going to be doing weights....

Now, three years ago, Mr athlete would have loved to do weights, I would be drooling at the thought, but today..today I was not Mr. Athlete, I was Mr pound out of shape guy.

I went up to see Scott, I had met him last week as I was signing up for the personal training, he is a pretty cool guy, he played football for Guelph, which was the main reason I asked him to be my trainer.

I showed up at the gym around 4:00 for my 4:30 appointment, and changed into my outfit as the thoughts of running away crosses through my mind. I decided to do some cardio to warm up (this was a mistake but Ill tell you that later). So I jumped on a bicycle machine and went to it. I'm planning on buying a bicycle in 4 weeks, so figured it would be a good time to start. After doing my 15 minutes (4.5 miles, 18mph) I went off to see Scott.

At this point my legs were rubbery from the bicycle and I prayed to myself we would be doing no leg workouts today.

So I go up and see Scott, and he looks at me and says I am ready to hurt.. I like this guy, he means business. So me and Scott go over to the stairwell. He tells me I am going to run up and down this flight of stairs 6 times, than take a 1 minute break, than 5 times and a 1 minute ect ect.

At this point I am wishing I had not done any cardio, as my legs were already hurting. After this taking 15 minutes to do and me feeling like I'm about to have a heart attack we head over to the weights.

Now, with weights, I have no problem, save when the 110 pound blondie to my left is pushing twice as much weight with ease than I am, while I am struggling to push it with Scotts help. We started with bench press, which I pathetically was only able to do 25 and the bar at the end.

The workout went like this....

After the stairs and me gasping for breath like a fish out of water we go over to the weights.

Lay on bench
Scotts puts 50 pounds on side
I push the weight up and almost take my head off
Scott saves my life
Scott puts 35 on each side
I push up a pathetic 12 as the 110 blond beside me is pushing 50's on each side.

We go over to the pull downs
I do 35 pretty easily, 12 pull downs, Im feeling confident...

we take a one minute break, I stupidly, drink a full liter of water. ( we will see the results of this latter)

We go back to the bench, I am able to push up 35 about 8 times.. in crappy form..again..I have Scott help me with the last 4...

The blond is doing 65 a side now...

We go back to pulldowns, I do 50 now..life is good.

Go back to the bench press...I can't push up the 35, I can barely do 5 of the 25's....and can only pull out 10 of the bar...

little miss blond princess just finished 70 without breaking a sweat.

As we move on from the horror of the bench press, I start to feel faint..real faint. I tell Scott I'll be back in a second and run to the washroom, throwing up as I hit the bowl. For those who might just be starting out, take lil sips of water...not 1 liter gulps.

We now move on to pull ups, and flies. An exact episode of the bench comes back...

Scott helps me more than I help myself. He refuses to lower the weight, saying this will be the base, we can go up from there.

After this hour of horrors stop, I go hit the showers, spending a good 30 minutes in the steam room, before a 15 minute shower. Currently at work now, I feel great, save some tightness in the arms, which I expect. I expect the real pain will start tomorrow.

Tommorow I have a 30 minute boxing class, which is high intensity cardio...hopefully I will still be alive to make another post. :)

Well I would like to welcome you all to my blog. For those that know me, and those that do not, thank you for taking the time to read through this. This blog is not for pity, nor sympathy. I do not have some disease that made me the way I am, or some evil childhood. Nor am I just big boned. A little over 3 years ago, I weighed 242 pounds. I was active, played basketball and football religiously. Around this same time I was sucked into the world of online gaming. For the next 3 years I played a knight in far away lands, a soldier going through monsters, everything and anything, it was an addiction.

This past January, as a resolution I decided to give up online gaming. I deleted the games off my computer, and as of Feb 20th, I have yet to play or even have a desire to play games.

My weight at this moment is 411 pounds at 38.7 % Bodyfat. I wear a size 48 pants, up from my size 38 of 3 years ago. I have some new goals in life, that do not include getting to level 30 in my games. I am going to the University of Waterloo in 2007, that gives me a year and a half to lose the fat, and get in shape enough to play football there. This blog will be my journal, so I can look back and see how far I have come. I invite you along with me on this path, so you can see that it is not impossible.