Day 1:

Well this is it. My first day of my major life overhaul. Today I make the committment of my life and attempt to go on a juice fast for 60 days. I have decided to document all this to see where I succeed and I fail.

I sit here ready to make my first cup of juice and take the plunge, so to speak. My first official juice will be:

2 green apple

3 cups of spinach

6 to 8 kale leaves

4 large carrots

1 (1-inch) piece of ginger

So I am off to make the juice now and I will pickup from there ...

WELL...

I am not going to say I loved it by any stretch. I didn't hate it either so that is a plus. We will see what happens when I try again in a few hours, but I am committed to this. Maria didn't really care for it. I think the ginger was a lot for both of us so I may cut that out of the next batch. Just need to make sure I am drinking enough water with this too so I am going to try and do a 1 - 1 that should get me about 80 0z. of water a day as well plus a glass in the morning and at night not to mention water I drink when I start walking on Monday.

All in all, not a bad start. And of course to document:

324 pounds -

The best laid plans of mice and men ...

Well, I have definitely had a rough go of it. Not much by way of diet and exercise recently. I have been sick with the flu if you can believe that. The flu. In July. My son went to church came and when he came home he neglected to tell good ole mom and dad that anyone had been sick and as a result everyone in the house got the flu. But no one got sick the same way? We were worried about my wife since she is 7th months pregnant, but we think she is okay now.

In any event, I didn't eat very much or very well. I will get back to exercise on Monday when I have gotten my strength back up. Until then.

Think Thin!

Niagra Falls. Slowly I turn . . .

Status update.

This past two weeks was long and hard. My motivation was extremely low and I missed a few days of exercise because I was so tired and physically felt beaten up. My family was away for almost two weeks. I was thinking that it would be great because I wouldn't have anyone needing things to take me out of my schedule. WRONG!

The fact that I had to go back and forth like every day was a problem. I wanted to get my house cleaned up so when my wife got back she would be happy. Well I managed to get most of that taken care of, but it was not without cost. I am supposed to work out 12 times a week. I am not sure if I am supposed to be working out Saturday and Sunday night, but I haven't so if my buddy Christian doesn't say otherwise ... it works for me. Anywho -) It was just really hard to get things moving and because I had to get financially creative, food was an issue too.

I was able to hangout with friends I haven't seen in a while. When they found out I lost weight, they were so excited that just reinvigorated me. Now I did miss working out Monday and Tuesday of this week because family was coming home and I have been keeping really REALLY late hours the past few weeks, but now I can get back on my schedule.

It is because of all this I learned a very important lesson. I was proud of myself for getting up when I was tired and walking before. Now I know why it is so important. Life is designed to screw up your plans! Life kept getting in my way these last two weeks. I was still on my diet and have been working at it, but if I let it, Life would've really knocked me down. It doesn't sound like something new, but trust me you never really can be ready for it. It's got to smack you in the face before you realize how to handle it.

So with all of this hardship you would think I would be down right? That I would be worried about two weeks of work for nothing? Why bother continuing at all? NOPE! I still lost weight even after all the struggles. You can take 5 more pounds of the scale for this guy. Yep in less that one month, I lost 15 pounds. So in one month I lost 5% of my body weight. I will take it. If I can keep this up, by the time my new baby daughter is born in September, her father will weigh 230 lbs! That is half of my goal! I would also bet I will look a hell of a lot better too. I know you are thinking "How could that be possible" but still ... If I wasn't excited before I am now!

One month down. Bring on the next one. I will have it for lunch!!!

You know, just not literally. I don't know how many calories it has.

I am sooo amazing ... and humble as well!

Okay so I am alone for the next couple of weeks. My family went off to New Jersey to visit other family. I couldn't go because of my fabulous new job (which I have gotten a raise after less than two months. Awesomeness!)

Okay so I wanted to say I am still moving forward. But I came up with an awesome chicken pasta recipe while I was cooking it. I am so amazing and so humble as well. I had to write it down for the world.

You will need (besides pans and fire):

4 oz of boneless chicken breast
1 1/2 cup of wheat pasta (I used rigatoni)
8 oz of fresh spinach
1 tablespoon of butter (yes butter)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 cup of 2% milk
1 Teaspoon of flour
Granulated Garlic
Tabasco or Louisiana Hot sauce
Oregano
Salt and pepper

First, cook the chicken breast however you like and set it aside. Pan fried or grilled, but obviously grilled it better for you and me too. The chicken doesn't convey the taste in this one. (You can cook the chicken at the same time, but better to have it done cause the sauce won't take long)

Second, in a dutch oven (big pot) boil about 5 quarts of water for the pasta. Normally, cooks tell you make sure you salt and oil the water. GARBAGE! DON'T DO THIS EVER!!!!! The salt does not add anything to the pasta except make it worse for your blood pressure and the oil only makes the pasta slippery which is bad when you want sauces to stick to it.) Cook the pasta until it is Al dente (which is hard but fully cooked. If you like mushy pasta - go for yours! Whatever you like.) Drain the past and set it aside. You will want to do with step while cooking your chicken since it will take a good 8-10 minutes.

Using the same pot you boiled the pasta in (let's dirty as few pots as possible shall we but if you want to rinse, go ahead) put enough water to cover the bottom of the pan and bring it to a boil. add the spinach stirring occasionally until it wilts. (Remember you only need a little water and will drain out the water so less is better. You only want to wilt the spinach and not burn it. Any water you throw away will have good nutritious vitamins and minerals so remember that.

Next, When the spinach is drained, over medium heat add the butter and olive oil to the pot and mix well until the butter is melted. Add chicken (better in small pieces), hot sauce (three of four dashes will do), garlic, salt and pepper as you like and mix well again. Add the milk and let it get hot. When the milk starts to bubble even once add one teaspoon of floor and mix like crazy. This will thicken the sauce and I don't like cornstarch. When everything is mixed well add the pasta and give a good spin a few more times. Turn off the heat cover and let it sit for 5 minutes.

Finally, eat.

This is good for one serving. For more, multiple. And my uncle said I would never use math in life. HA!

I Am Less of a Man!

I started this journey on June 1st officially. I weight myself as I said when I started the diet my friend Christian laid out for me. Now 2 weeks later I wieghed myself to get an idea of my progress. I didn't think I was going to lose very much. I am struggling to get out of bed every morning. I was hoping for say 3 pounds. I would've been happy with that. Hell, with all the eating I have to do on this diet, I would've been happy if I didn't gain weight!

Well I weight myself and took a deep breath. I figured I would in in normally and not Biggest loser style. There I was in my church clothes, looking studley might I add, ready for the news. TEN POUNDS! I LOST TEN POUNDS! Not 2 pounds not 5 pounds. TEN POUNDS! I can do it. Now the problem is going to be not getting disappointed if I don't lose Ten pounds two weeks from now.

My wife and my parents could not believe it. My daughter screamed and gave me a big hug. It is still a little surreal. To think all these years all I needed to do was start making some small eating substitutions and walk I would have laughed.

I called Christian and told him and he couldn't believe it. He hoped I could pull off 3-5 a week, but that was just motivation. I told him 10 pounds and he was really happy and told me this program would change my life.

I think a more realistic goal for the next two weeks is 5 pounds. If I loose more great. I am not too worried since most diets you lose water weight, but when you drink more than 1 gallon of water a day that is not a concern.

One final thing. I accidentally made a healthy chicken salad recipe and here it is:

4 oz of White meat chicken (I prefer breast meat since you can get boneless)
2 carrots
1 stalk of celery
1/2 an onion
2 Tablespoons of vinaigrette dressing ( I make my own but any will do I am sure)
*** This has to sit in the fridge overnight ***

Shred the carrots with a cheese grater and cut the celery and onion as fine as you like. Then grill the chick with any spices you like. (I use Garlic, Pepper, Mrs Dash Original Blend and Sazon - Con Culantro & Achiote (comes in an orange box and is usually in the Spanish Sections. It is the dieters best friend). When the chicken is done let it sit for 20 minutes (This way it wont be dry when you eat it.) Cut the chicken into small pieces and mix carrots, celery, onion, chicken and vinegrette together. let it sit in the fridge over night.

Eat it with Whole Wheat Crackers or on Multi grain toast.

Now I needed to do a little house keeping. I said I needed to document this journey effectively. To do that I need to make sure that I have photo proof of my progress as well, so here it is:

You are the way you eat!

Okay, so I have been at this for a little while now and I have to say it is not as bad as I thought it was going to be. It is more mentally exhausting than anything. I never really thought about how many times I would be putting stuff in my mouth on a daily basis! Walking past the fridge or the pantry to grab some food and, oh look a cracker or oh a candy bar.

I never really ate that much junk to begin with, it was just the way I ate that was the real problem. For years, I though hey I only eat twice a day so I won't get fat. WRONGO!!! That coupled with the fat that I ate as much cheese and mayonnaise as I did lettuce and green beans was the underlying issue.

A friend of my name Christian is the one that really opened my eyes. He is a soccer coach for the local organization and really understand nutrition. He is the one that really gave me the help I needed. He gave me some tips and ideas about how and when to eat and why that was just as important as what. I am going to write down everything he said and try and post it here in a few days when I understand a little better.

Just in attempt to hit the high notes, WALKING!!! I get up at 6 am every morning so I can walk for 45 minutes. That is right. I said walk. Not run. Not jog. Not stair master. Walk. At first I was skeptical. How is walking going to help. I mean, I do it everyday right. Yeah, not really, but I will get back to that.

So I walk 45 minutes in the morning. When I am done my walk, I wait 1 hour and then eat breakfast. I was thinking it would be like stale air and water. Nope. I can eat like 5 eggs every morning if I want! The only catch is only one egg yoke. I was not a big fan anyway so no big deal.

Two hours later, I have to eat again. So like today I had some light popcorn. Then two hours later lunch time. 4 oz of chicken and salad with 2 tablespoons of oil and vinegar dressing. Then 2 hours later another snack today a Cliff Bar . Then two hours later I eat dinner, wait another hour then walk for 45 more minutes.

It is a lot to get together but hopefully it will work. I have been doing it hardcore for about three days. I started on June 1st, but I didnt' put all the walking together until the 8th.

Well that is it for now. On Sunday, I am going to weigh myself and then post the results. Wish me luck.

Bye!

That is a lot of cabage

I was not able to post a new entry this week because work is a little hectic

So I was not able to get a camera to take a picture and post it here. I really wanted to have that on the blog but I wanted to post this very important number:

290! I weigh 290 pounds! Incre-a-ble!

I will get to work on this and I must say that I have been able to stick to a good diet. No cheese, not much fat (except for olive oil). No coffee (that was hard) and no soda amoung other things. I was not eating after 7 pm (I will change that to after 6 pm next week)

I have not exercised this week, but I want to see what changing my diet would do for a week first. I must admit. It was hard, but not as hard as I thought. It was more of a muscle memory thing, at least the first week. I would go to grab some chips and then stop and think about what I was doing. I think I will be able to make this work. Of course it has only been 4 days. Lets see what happens this weekend.