Archive for October, 2013

The Costume the “Doctor” & the weight loss.

Posted in Health, Personal, Weigh-In | 8 Comments

I went to a Halloween party over the weekend. It’s a party I used to go to every year but haven’t really been but once in the last 4 or 5 years I’d guess. This is as you may have guess entirely due to my weight and my inability to walk much. Sometimes when you’re in that mode you don’t realize just how much affect weight like that can have on your social life, never mind the obvious health issues. But I went and this year I went all out (or as much all out as I could) but doing two customs. I went as Dr. Evil dressed up as Heisenberg. I even made some Raspberry flavored rock candy (though I didn’t eat any) for the party to go along with my theme. I took several pictures of this Doctor themed party and put them over on my new site rexpixel.com if you’d like to see them.

I recently hit a bit of a plateau on the weight loss front but that seems to have passed as I’ve dropped several pounds since my last post and I put on a par of my old pants that I forgot to donate (so I’ll do that soon) because sometimes I still see myself as much larger than I actually am. Now I won’t say I’m small by any definition at 335 pounds, but that’s 220image pounds less than I was barely more than a year ago I have to remind myself that as one number goes up and the other number goes down I am smaller…a lot smaller. In fact the pair of pants I put on were too small for me a year ago by a long shot. The pant’s waist size was 64” and by my account, my actual waist size last October was around 82” or more than a FOOT bigger than the pants. Needless to say sweats and lounge pants were my clothing option of choice back then. Well today I’m wearing 54” pants that are too big and if it were not for the extra skin I’d likely be well under the 50” mark. In fact I put on a pair of 46” Shorts and was able to button them, though wearing them at this point would be nearly impossible because I could not breathe. But this means I’m down to roughly a 48” waist or nearly HALF the man I used to be so to speak. So back to those 64” Levi’s I put on…look at this image, as I think it says a whole lot more than I could ever say at this point. Oh and I’m drilling another hole in my belt today.

So all in all I must say I’m feeling a bit surreal after looking at myself in those ridiculously large pants and more to the point remembering those pants were too small for my big fat ass not all that long ago. Now while I know I’ve got a long road ahead still I’m less than 60 pounds of weight loss from literally being HALF the man I used to be, and trust me when I say a party will be had when my weight hits image277 pounds because not only has it been more than a decade since I weighed that amount but I dropping half of my total body weight will be (no matter how much else I lose) the single biggest accomplishment in this already incredible journey I’ve been on thus far. And to be honest that list of accomplishments is growing more and more every single day. So I’d like to end this post with my weight loss list. They say you should make goals, and they don’t need to be lofty either, just things in life you want to do as you lose weight. I’ve taken that to heart and I’d like to share with you my list and it’s progress thus far. And while I have no end goal weight in mind the picture above is me at around 230 pounds if I remember correctly, so I think I’d be more than happy to see that number again, but honestly at this point I’m already so far ahead of the game I’m already happy with where I’m at and every single pound lost moving forward is just icing on the cake I can’t eat any more. ; )

LIFE GOALS:

Stop taking so many medications

I no longer take 3 of them

Stop emotional eating.

I’ve Stopped

Stop board eating.

I’ve Stopped

BIG GOALS:

Go to a tech conference again

I’m going to TechEd 2014

Buy a motorcycle & ride

I plan to do this in 2015

Take a trip to Ireland or Germany

I plan to do this in 2015

EVERYDAY GOALS:

Take a shower without pain.

Every single day!

Be active with niece and nephew

Done and will do again.

No longer need to plan my steps

I walk 3 or more miles a day!
Fit and drive my car comfortably Or in my case even a smaller one!
Mow my own yard As soon as spring hits I’ll do it.
Clean my own house Done
Be more social with friends I go out 3 or more times a week
Take day trips (Nashville, etc.) I do this as often as I can now

 

Oh and Happy Halloween everyone. I’m going trick-or-treating with my friends Stacy & Richard and their daughter Emma. While it won’t be my normal walking night it’s still exercise and more importantly it’s me getting out and being social, which is never a bad thing.

~rev (335 Pounds)

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A new Car (almost) a 3K Walk Race and Braces?

Posted in Health, News, Personal | 1 Comment

On September 22nd I was in a rather nasty accident. A woman blew through her red light and hit me full speed on the passenger side of my truck. The damage was sever enough to total my 2006 Dodge Durango and while I’m fine I do have some stiffness still around my from being tossed about.  The only physical issue this brought on was my need to take some pain killers again for the first time in several weeks, which is a bit of a bummer, but on the bright side no one was seriously injured (beyond the vehicles). Also hopefully tomorrow I’ll be picking up my new ride and get out of this awful rental car and into my new (to me) 2011 Audi Q5S.

 

Luckily I was recovered enough from the accident to enter in the 3K walk at this year’s Apple Festival in Erwin, TN. And much to my surprise I came in 3rd place in my age group (30-39 yr.) and even have a tiny little trophy to prove it. This was my first official event and I have to say I enjoyed it thoroughly and plan to do more of these in the future as well as my 5K goal in March of next year.

finally this update doesn’t include any real weight loss (I’ve dropped a pound since last week), in fact I put on a few ounces this morning in the form of a full set of metal braces (uppers and lowers). That’s right I’m 35 years old and I got braces for the first time in my life…and it’s okay to laugh…I did. But it was something I had to do as my cross bite and over bite are starting to cause more trouble as I get older so I figured it was time to get that fixed.

 

~rev (347 pounds)

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One year, 30 inches, 18 holes & 207 pounds

Posted in Health, Personal, Weigh-In | 8 Comments

One year ago today (approximately) I started my journey to finding my lean…now while I will be the first one to tell you I’ve not found it yet, not completely anyway, the journey thus far has been nothing short of amazing. This time last year I couldn’t walk 100 feet and in just 4 days I’ll be walking in my first official event. I will be at the 3K Walk at the Unicoi County Apple Festival and while I’m not even concerned where I finish in the numbers I’m just super excited to be able to do it at all.

30 inches ago my waist size was around an 82..yes I said 82 which means I was bigger around than I was tall, in fact stretched out I was bigger around than many NBA basketball players are tall. now I’m down to about a 52” waist which is still big mind you but it means that in all likelihood if I can keep up the weight loss I’ll be in the 40s by the end of the year and that’s simply fantastic.

image18 is the number of holes currently in the belt I’m wearing right now as I write this having just drilled out the newest hole only moments ago. I couldn’t even wear this belt a year ago as I was too big for it…and most of my clothes for that matter. This belt will be with me to the end. The picture to the right was taken less than a year ago…I had already lost 30-40 pounds but that was still more than 160 pounds ago. (Oh and yes I was at a Tea Party with my best friend’s daughter…don’t judge)

And finally 207 pounds…that’s the total amount of weight I’ve lost in the last 12 months. That number is astonishing, and yet I still have more to lose, how much more I honestly can’t tell you. I only know that I’m going the right direction and I feel better right now than I have in years and I will know what my end game weight will be when I get there.

So one year down, and hopefully many more years to go, but I must admit I’m excited and nervous about year two. I bought a recumbent bike for the winter and a treadmill and a set of those elastic weight bands to exercise with, and I can’t believe I’m even saying this out loud, but I’ve also started to look into yoga classes…though I’ve not gone to any yet. So here’s to another year of weight loss, exercise and healthy living!

 

~rev (348 pounds)

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