Archive for the Cooking Category

The tale of turkey and weight loss

Posted in Cooking, Health, Personal, Weigh-In | 1 Comment

It’s been a while since I posted an update because I’ve been a bit busy and while I meant to do a video for this post if I didn’t write something today it would be another week before I posted so I wanted to share some updates with you all.

So I seem to have misplaced some weight, 5 pounds to be exact. I had it before Thanksgiving Weekend, but now it’s gone…So not only did I manage to enjoy my Thanksgiving Weekend with family but I also managed to lose weight doing it. I even had a bite (and I mean one bite) of apple pie on Thursday and one bit of Pumpkin Pie on Friday.

So where does that leave us? Well it means that soon I’ll drop below 300 pounds (maybe even before my next checkup) and it means my waist has dropped another couple inches or so and my 54” jeans are now baggy and falling off me as I’ve dipped down well into the upper 40s.

It also means I’ve started working out about 3 days a week.image Monday/Wednesday/Friday I get up at 4:45am and get ready for the gym. I do 10 minutes on the elliptical followed by a “30 Minute Express Circuit Workout” which is basically 60 seconds of cardio (stepping stations) every other minute with a weight machine sandwiched in the middle. I work pretty much every muscle group this way (seated row, leg press, leg curl, ab curl, biceps curl, leg extension, chest press, shoulder press, lat pull down, and triceps extension). Once done I do a “cool down” 5-10 minute elliptical session and then I’m out. For the more serious workout types this will seem rather tame, but for someone who couldn’t walk a year ago or so this is pretty damn good.

1467291_10151935122370914_2038150135_nWhich brings me to my missing 5 pounds and my holiday weekend. Last week while working out I was chatting up a friend and he said, “oh man I feel bad for you this year for Thanksgiving.” When I asked why he talked about the how much he loved eating until his pants button popped off, etc. I told him it didn’t bother me because I’ve had 30+ years of doing that which is how I ended up in the predicament I’m in now, but the truth is..I wasn’t honestly sure how’d I feel about the food aspect of the holiday and as I drove the 5ish hours to my sister’s house Thanksgiving morning this thought stuck with me most of the way there.

1424280_10151935127395914_801547576_nI ate two (what would be considered) thanksgiving meals at my sisters house. Once on the day of and again a whole new dinner on Friday. And I sampled pretty much every dish. I ate turkey of course, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce (not the can shaped crap) sweet potatoes, quiche, apple and pumpkin pie, and the list continues. And I enjoyed every single solitary bite. The food was amazing even if the entirety of my two days of eating was still less than an average person’s dinner off holiday I came out of my experience not feeling left out, not feeling like I’d been deprived of some ritualistic eating right of passage, and in the end smaller…5 pounds smaller in fact.

I made gingerbread cookies1474431_10151935098565914_470925001_n (didn’t eat any) with my niece and nephew. I chased around the house and generally had a great time. I met some of my sister and brother-in-law’s friends and enjoyed their company, especially when Keoko (I’m likely spelling that wrong) read my tattoo from across the room perfectly (validating I managed to pick the right characters) and talking to her husband Chuck and on and on….so no, this Thanksgiving was not ruled by food or my addiction to it, it was ruled by joy companionship and family. Do I feel I missed out this year? No, not even in the slightest.

~rev (322 pounds)

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15 Pounds and what do you get?

Posted in Cooking, Family, Health, Personal | 2 Comments

Well Two things really….you get my weight loss since I last wrote an update. (Sorry about that) and more importantly you get the amount of weight I need to lose to bring my total weight loss to a staggering 200 pounds! (Also yes…I’m aware the song is 16 tons..but the title fit so work with me people.)

Some people say I’m a man made outta fat
A slim man’s made better then that
Muscle and tone and no body fat
But mind that’s a-weak with a body all that

You lose 15 pounds, what do you get
Another day older but closer to fit
Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go
I owe my life to my weight loss goal

I’ve been fairly busy with work so I just haven’t had the time to push an update and  really wanted to correct that. I should start by saying I’m feeling great and a week or so ago now I spent a long weekend with my sister and bro-in-law which was awesome as I got to spend time with my most favorite niece and nephew in the whole world. Okay my only niece and nephew but still it was awesome. The best part was all the actual activities I was able to do without thought or loss of imagebreathe or back pain or problems getting around. We rode our bikes a little and Gavin isAmerican Bald Eagle pretty much done with training wheels. We went to this really nice National Park with a small wild-life reserve and walked around looking at everything from groundhogs (whistle pigs I  recently learned) to deer to wild turkey to Mr. Owl (who we asked how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop) and even a bald eagle. Speaking of which if you’ve never seen a bald eagle in person…it’s a rather majestic animal.

All in all I’m more and more active every day and trying new foods..which brings me to my next, albeit not so fun part of my journey thus far. On the day I returned home from my trip I got sick, and lets just say that for about 30 hours I became close with the porcelain god and suffice it to say scrambled eggs and I are threw and in the words of Taylor SwiftOooh, this time I’m telling you, We are never ever ever getting back together. Like….Ever.”

So tonight I’m going out again to hit the local pub (not to drink) to hang out friends both old and new and make fun of people singing karaoke, and I must say it’s nice to just get out. So nearly 200 pounds down now and who knows maybe I could see the my weight drop below the 300 mark by the end of the year…that would be a really nice Christmas present for myself.

And one a final note. I know I’ve been saying I’ll post another video soon and that’s starting to feel like a broken promise, but I swear I will…no really.

~rev (370 Pounds)

370 Pounds

Eat. Walk. Tan?

Posted in Cooking, Health, News, Weigh-In | 1 Comment

It’s been a bit since my last post and I am working on putting a new video up soon as well, but sometimes life gets in the way and you end up busier than you expected. And in my case you add to that busy by working on a new project but more about that later in the post.

First off I’d like to talk about something I started doing recently that I’d honestly never thought I’d do. I joined a tanning place and have started tanning once a week (have been twice now) as a result of imagea conversation with (of all people) my dermatologist. I have psoriasis and sunlight is the best thing for me but a tanning bed is a good alternative and while my goal is over all skin health and not a good tan I’ve noticed color in just two visits and I’ve noticed my plaques are fading away. Now part of the reason for the psoriasis change for the better is I’ve also started taking Enbrel which is an injectable medication that has also been helping with my psoriatic arthritis as well as my visible psoriasis. So all in all I’m looking better and feeling better…and as it turns out on my way to a pretty good tan of all things.

Moving on but keeping with general health I am happy to say that my tendon issue with my left ankle (Achilles) is pretty much better now and I’ve started walking again and additionally I’ve started a once a month massage regiment (tomorrow is my next one) and that has really helped out with my lower back pain. In fact speaking for someone who was on 90 mg of Morphine a day less than a year ago even…I’m down to 30mg and thinking that pretty soon I may be able to drop to a lower end (less narcotic) pain killer all together as I both build strength in my back muscles and continue to lose the weight.

imageI’ve started cooking again as I mentioned in one of my last updates and while also working around the house digging through boxes I found this cookbook that a friend and former employer gave me several years ago. Needless to say I’m going to enjoy trying some of these recipes again. So far I’ve been fairly lucky with what I’ve been able to eat.

I just had moment of pause and remembered by it’s a bad idea to take so long to write a new post…I’m still not done talking about health and fitness.

Now to my sleeping issues. As I’ve mentioned previously I have, as most if not all obese people do, sleep apnea (obstructive) and in my case mine was so bad when I was tested 2 years ago that not only am I using a BiPAP (assisted inhale and exhale) to sleep with but I also am on 4 liters of Oxygen when sleeping. Recently I had my pressure reduced somewhat and last night I slept with a logging pulse oximeter to check my O2 levels while sleeping without the added 4 liters of 02 and while I’m not the doctor I did look at the machine this morning and I’m thinking I may be off my nightly O2 all together based on what I saw. I’ll know for sure later this week and will update for sure.

One last note. I’m taking a short vacation to go see my sister (brother-in-law) and their kids next week and on my way I’ll be stopping in Nashville to attend a support group meeting on Wednesday. If you are thinking of having or have already had bariatric surgery don’t just go to the one mandated support group meeting….go as often as you can. I can say for me they have helped quite a bit.

Enjoy the week and hopefully I’ll see you sooner next time…oh I almost forgot. That “other project” I’ve been working on. I’m starting a new podcast over @ thatstupidpodcast.com and while I can’t tell you what it’s about it starts in 2 weeks if all goes according to plan. Are you ready?

 

~rev (384 Pounds)

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