Well it has indeed been a while since I actually posted, but it has been a crazy….. CRAZY two weeks.  As an academic advisor, no time is as busy as the beginning of each semester.  I have spent the last two days under mounds of paperwork and file folders.  I have more paper cuts than I care to admit and my relationship with carbon copies have become almost indecent. Aside from that, things have been going very well. 

In my last post I joyfully let everyone know about the impending birth of my second child whom we call him Linus… I guess that is better than blasty ( short for blastocyst).  My wife and I are in a deadlock for names.  I am pushing for D’Artagnan… but Lisa is hearing nothing of it.  I might have to use my man power to veto her ideas…(Who am I kidding… man power is a myth, I have to accept it).  We are all excited and will hopefully be ready to go in July.  The other exciting news is that we should know by next month the sex of the baby.  This will then send my wife and I into a spiral of discussions in regard to specific name choices.  This will lead to underlying agendas and bring forth an array of arguments and defenses based upon future impact and possible mockeries that would ensue.  Did I really just write that… what a load.  Anyway, it is fun to think about the baby, but what it really means is my clock is ticking.  I have 6 months.  6 months to transform more of my body.

I want to be ready this time.  I am not going to be a piece of furniture that just exists while my family moves around me.  I want to be part of it, and I am ready to go.  For the past two weeks I have been eating well.  I have eliminated about 80% of the soda I used to drink.  I have incorporated water into my diet and I have seen a huge improvement.  I think I finally am starting to see the impact sodium really has on weight loss.

Also, there has truly been a paradigm shift in my family.  We are really doing this together.  It clicked for me last night when we were making dinner.  Lisa has done WONDERFULLY in helping me eat better recently.  She has been buying salad ingredients and we eat salads at the beginning of EVERY meal.  Last night we started making the salad together.  Lisa was cutting carrots and washing them while I was dicing tomatoes and cucumbers.  Lucas helped wash the lettuce and we were as one in this journey.  In that moment I felt something I hadn’t in a long time.  For a year I have felt that I was doing this alone…. I had wonderful support and my family was with me, but I was doing it by myself.  It had to be my motivation and my decision.  Last night, I saw it was no longer me…. it turned into we.  That alone made such an impact on me.

The second phase of my journey truly began.  When I spoke of round 2, I wanted to make sure that my family became part of this experience and they truly have.  I can’t accept any credit, because it truly was Lisa that has pushed it… but I am thankful she is here with me.

The past week has been hard too with my sleep cycles.  With the stress comes my spinning head and brain, so it has been hard to sleep.  This has caused me to miss some workouts, but I have managed to keep myself active at work.  My GoWearFit has become invaluable as I have begun to ensure I add all my meals to it.  I track it several times throughout the day to see if I need to run the stairs or add some walking.  My goals are to eat around 2,000 calories a day, but burn 5,000.  I usually hit those goals.  I plan on adding screenshots of them in later posts.

Despite the lack of sleep and missing of workouts, I still had a stellar week.  A truly stellar week!  Thanks to Ryan from www.nomorebacon.com I have engaged myself in a Biggest Loser challenge.  It will span the entire length of this season I believe and I am determined to do what I can.  I have always been inspired by the show.  I may not always agree with the “game”, but the connection they have and the environment to me places me in awe.  I would LOVE to be a contestant.  Even at the risk of reality TV, I would love to be in that environment.  I have spoken with Lisa and I am definitely putting in a submission this next season.  I will even go to a casting call if it is close enough.  Any help from you would be awesome as far as tips and tricks.  Maybe I will get lucky and you will be able to see me on TV next season… or better yet, I will be down 100 lbs in July and be too small to be accepted… either way, I see this as a success.

Now onto more important business.  Fat…  or well the loss of it.  I had mentioned that I know understand the impact of sodium on weight.  I would in the past had said that diet sodas were just like water (except the enriching hydration).  Well after eliminating most of the soda from my diet, I will NEVER say that again.  After a week of eating well (6 meals a day, mostly water, 2 cans of soda the entire week, lots of veggies) I have had a great week of weight loss.

The contest started on January 8th and I weight in at 360.8.  I remember how pissed I was because I kept teetering back and forth between the 350′s and 360′s.  I just couldn’t get a groove.  I found it was more motivation than anything.  We can convince ourselves of anything if we try hard enough. I just needed to suck it up and do what needed to be done.  Well I am happy to say, after week 1 of the No More Bacon Biggest Loser Challenge, my weight is below.

YES YES YES, you saw that right.  349.8…. FREAKING 349.8 (Insert Handel’s Hallelujah here). Have you seen such a beautiful number???  That makes an 11 pound loss this week.  If I cussed, I would do it right now… actually, I will do it HOLY SHIT… Ok… phew I have that out of my system.  I truly felt like I would if I were on the show (thinking of BL9 Micheal’s comment “Can you see my abs yet”?).  Even in all of last year, I never had this amount of loss.  This is singular proof that truly balancing what you eat and tracking everything can yield great results.

Now I am sure next week will be different, but my body will have to come into balance.  I understand this and will not get frustrated… but still 11 FREAKING POUNDS….  ok, I am calm again.  I wonder if it ever frustrates you that I my writing is so disjunctive.  If so, let me know :)   I am just so excited… I just can’t hide (and it is the truth).

Now it is the weekend and I have Monday off, so I will hopefully be able to break my mind of being an advisor.  I am sure when I return on Tuesday, there will be students lined up to the hallway waiting, but for now I can go home and be in peace (right after going to a restaurant for celebration).  Now my next task begins…  learning how to eat well while I eat out.  That is a different story.  Until then, the same Fat time and the same Fat channel.  Love you all and have a wonderful weekend.