Weigh in 5 or Babies & Beer

Weight 5/8: 321.2

And I'm back.  Fear not, I have not given up or gotten lazy or anything like that.  Life just got really busy for a few weeks.  For starters, Jonas decided to not only get mobile, but also that he was not happy unless he was being held - so my "free" time went to "carry a baby around" time.

In addition to this, I went and got myself a little thing called a job... I started working for Golden Road Brewing on May 1st, and spent some time down there the week prior doing some consulting and looking at an offer for full time work.  Its a great company and I'm really excited to be working for them!

As you can see my weight is pretty much staying steady, but I'm still eating as healthy as possible and juicing whenever I can.  The exercise thing hasn't quite worked out yet, but I'm not giving up hope...

Gotta keep this short as I'm just taking a break from my work day - but before I go I'll recommend that you all watch Foodmatters - its a great documentary on nutrition and how the current health care system pretty much ignores anything in regards to vitamins, nutrients, etc.  Very eye opening....  go watch it!

Weigh in 3 & 4: Life is Busy!

Weight 4/10: 322.3
Weight 4/14: 321.8

So its been over a week since I last blogged, but don't worry I haven't given up.  Life has just gotten a little crazier, with a now mobile baby (not crawling, but scooting) and various job interviews, etc.

My weight loss, though I'm back to losing, has slowed way down - which means, and I believe I said this in the last post, I really need to start exercising. I'm going to try to get out and walk everyday with Jonas for at least a mile or two to start... eventually I'd like to get up to jogging/running, but with a couple of bum knees, we'll see if thats doable.

One thing I'm fairly proud of is that its been over three weeks and I haven't touched (or really craved) beef or pork.  And the only chicken I've had is a single wing (and possibly some that got slipped into my eggplant dish in some Chinese takeout last night).

I'm continually amazed at how easy it was for me to give up, and how much better I feel without it in my system.  Sure some of that is probably psychological, but still - I feel better.

I'm fairly confident that I'll continue this way of eating for a long time, possibly for life, with meat (besides fish) saved for special occasions (the whole pig dinner at Incanto is something I will do at some point).

I promise I'll be better about blogging!

Weigh in #3 or Dammit!

Weight: 323.1

So I've actually gained a little weight since Wednesday, despite golfing and doing a little walking. I attribute this to two things: 1) Despite sticking to fish/veggies, etc - I've been backsliding when it comes to healthy eating (I freaking love french bread w/ butter or cheese) and 2) traffic has been a little backed up lately if you catch my drift.

The good thing is that I'm not letting this momentary stall get me down...  since December I'm down 20lbs, since giving up meat I'm down 10lbs and since starting this blog, I'm down 5lbs.  Not too shabby. I'm definitely going to keep up this lifestyle and even go more hardcore.

Going forward I'm going to juice 2 or 3 times a day with one light snack during that time (probably whole wheat bread with some all natural peanut butter to get some fiber and protein) - and then eat a normal dinner.  Now, as I mentioned previously, I do have to watch my glucose levels, but I don't think that will be too dificult.  I'm used to drinking fresh juice now, so I think that going from a considerable amount of fruit in each juicing to very minimal fruit won't be to hard, I've found a lot of good recipes - so we'll see how that goes (as while I sit here typing I'm drinking a very sweet blend of pineapple, cucumber, mint & cilantro).

I'm also cutting back on a few more things, including cheese.  While I don't think I could ever give cheese up completely - I am giving up cheap cheese.  It's going to become a special treat and I'm only eating the good stuff!

Finally for today - a documentary recommendation - if you haven't seen it, check out 'Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead' - its what got Shannon and I started on juicing and has helped a ton of people lose weight and get healthy (check out www.rebootwithjoe.com).  'Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead' is available to stream on NetFlix and is a great watch.

Weigh in #2 or Golfing is a lot of fun!

Weight: 322.4lbs

So Wednesday was my weigh in day and I lost 5 and a half pounds in 3 days - not too shabby!   Though I knew it was going to be a good number - thats how it works for me... First couple of weeks I drop a ton of weight and then start to slow down - the fact that I hate exercising doesn't help!  Though I may have found a form of exercising that I don't mind all that much.

I haven't played golf in a couple of years - back then, once a week a few friends and I would hit the little 9 hole course in the race track at the Pleasanton Fairgrounds and play a round while enjoying a few beers or (snuck in) cocktails. Then last week my buddy came into town and we decided to go play - it was so refreshing to get out there again.  He was back in town on Wednesday - so we went again and played two rounds... boy was my body hurting after that!

Food cravings haven't been all that bad though I did cave and snagged one of my friend's chicken wings when having lunch at Norm's in Danville (best chicken wings ever).  Also, damn Carl's Jr. for release a bourbon burger the week I decide to go healthy... bastards! But yeah, other than that doing pretty good!

One thing I do have to watch out for though is my sugar intake - drinking fresh juice and smoothies has taken my sugar intake way up - not so good for a guy that already has high glucose levels... so now I've cut back to either a juice or a smoothie each day - not both.

That's it for today!   I'm going to try to post at least 3 times a week, and two of the posts on the days of my weigh in...  We'll see...

Weight In #1: Easter

Weight: 328lbs

So my first weigh in was this past Sunday.  Thankfully I jumped on the scale in the early morning, so I could slightly indulge in Easter dinner, and massive amounts of chocolate lying around.  I tried to be good most of the day but eating hummus, veggies and fish.  However, there were copious amounts of white bread consumed (I'm a sucker for those french bread baguettes).  Trying to get rid of that now.

Before Jonas was born I had a full physical done, along with bloodwork to check glucose, cholesterol and all that other good stuff - I'm going to dig that out this week and post it on here, to see how I improve - my goal is to go in in 6 months and have it checked again, then again in a year.  Nothing in those numbers were terribly high or dangerous, but they definitely had room to come down. I've also been on blood pressure meds for about 3 years - trying to get off of those as well.

I've set myself a daily routine that I plan on pretty much sticking to with a few minor changes now and then to switch things up.

As soon as I get up I drink 24 ounces of water - before I eat or drink anything else.  It's quite possibly the easiest way to help detox your body. I then head to the kitchen to make Shannon and I juice.   So far our favorite is:

• 3 Granny Smith Apples
• 1/2 a English Cucumber
• 2 Peeled Limes
• 3-4 Sprigs of Mint
• 4 cups of Kale

This comes out to about 25oz of juice - so its a good 12 ounces for each of us. I'll drink my coffee with my juice.  A few hours later I'll finally eat some solids - a bowl of cereal with almond milk, a piece of whole wheat toast with all-natural peanut butter, something along those lines.

Lunch will be a salad, a smoothie, perhaps leftovers from the night before. Then dinner will be something that Shannon and I cook. Snacks (if I'm being good) usually consist of carrots & celery (or maybe pita chips) with hummus.

So far its going great! I'm staying full and rarely craving beer/pork/chicken...  here's hoping the weight starts to fall off!

A Fat Guy Decides to Get Healthy

Ful disclosure time. In the past I've started and stopped many different diets, eating plans, food & drink projects.  I've started and quit the 'Game On' eating plan.  I was going to start cooking meals from countries around the world and write about it.  I was going to make and blog about 300 cocktails in one year. Basically when it comes to food and drink, the only thing I'm able to stick with is eating and drinking.

Having a kid 6 months ago, lit a fire under Shannon and me to start getting healthy.  Being 33 when Jonas was born, we had to start preparing to be 'older' parents (though that seems to be the norm these days).  When he is at the height of running around and being crazy, we'll be entering our 40's, and while 40 is the new 30, the shape I'm in makes 40 the new 50 or 60.   Definitely wanted/needed to change that.  So we gave the 'Game On' diet another go, which you cut out processed food and eat small portions.  That lasted 3 or 4 weeks before we conveniently forgot about it.

My problem is portion control - whether its bacon or brussel sprouts or french bread, when I like something, I like to eat a lot of it.  So I knew I needed to try something else...

Over the past year I've had a lot of friends go to full or nearly full plant based diets.  Being a hardcore fan of meat, I respected their decisions and didn't mind the few vegan/vegetarian meals I shared with them, but there was no way I was giving up the joy of smoking a pork shoulder for 7 hours and then digging into a plateful of pulled pork... until now.

After reading a lot and talking to some friends Shannon and I decided to go pescatarian, basically cutting out all meat except fish.  Given that I'm also lactose intolerant, and have been putting up with indigestion for years, I'm also going to work my way to dairy free.  Soon, I hope that the only animal/animal products I'll be eating are fish, honey and occasionally eggs. I do plan on eating the occasional piece (yes, just one piece) of bacon just to keep me sane.

Now cutting out chicken, beef & pork isn't instantaneously going to make me a lean, mean, healthy machine, so we've also purchased a juicer and plan to have at least one meal be juice (or a smoothie) everyday, while filling the other meals with plenty of vegetables. Within the next month or so I plan on doing a 10 day juice fast, where the only thing I consume is juice (the only thing that scares me is no caffeine & no alcohol!)

I'm going to use this blog for a few things:

1. Keep me accountable - I'll be weighing in every Sunday and Wednesday and the last thing I'd want to do is post a weight that is greater than the previous post.
2. Share recipes - two of my passions are cooking and creating cocktails... well with juicing its kind of like making cocktails without the alcohol (and sometimes with!).  So be looking for many vegan/veggie recipes, fish recipes and juice recipes.
3. Talk about this crazy thing - look for reviews on food based documentaries, restaurants, and anything else that seems interesting to me regarding food/health..
4. Give me something to do - considering that for the time being I'm a stay at home dad, much of my time is spent watching Jonas play - this will keep me from hogging all his toys.

I hope you'll enjoy reading about this journey - and if you decide you want to give it a try - let me know - Strength in numbers!