I am ALIVE!!!

Blast from the past!!! Hello to all.
Just want to let all of you know where I am at with things.

• Yes I made the 365 mark for not drinking - actually I am still going and today is day 405. I decided to keep going until I have reached my goal of taking my invention as far as I can take it and toast to success or toast to a job WELL WELL done!!! My guess is that it will be around April/May time frame.
• My weight is 195-200 on any given day you ask me for the past 8 months and I feel good about the weight window and it is working for me. I plan to stay in this window for a long time.
• Me and the Wife are doing well! We went on a vacation to Mexico and it was a great time. We are closer now than we have ever been and the family is doing very well.

That's me and I wonder if any of you thought I disappeared because all of these things went terribly wrong... Which ones lost the faith in your guy Misunderstood? I hope none of you. I will be checking your blog posts over the next week and chime in.


As ALWAYS... ONWARD!!!

Day 192 of 365 52.60% complete

I have not blogged in quite some time. It is not because I have fallen off the wagon with any of my goals this year it is simply because I have been very very very busy these days. I completed our Family move to a house that I believe we will be at for many years to come. Our family has moved more than any family should. It is in part to me and my wife's bad financial decision making, my work locations, and the status of my marriage. We are in a good place right now on all three of those fronts and it appears we will be putting a flag in the ground and claim this land.

I am now over 50% of the way to completing this year without drinking and there are so many things I have learned about myself during this time. I would recommend that anyone do this with any vise that you may have and see what you learn about yourself. It has been eye opening. The main thing I realized is all the time I have been wasting… it is amazing how much more time I have for building positive things. The past month has been hard I must say – I have been thinking about wanting to drink but most of it is just simply to relax after a long day or with dinner at a restaurant. These are the small things that I miss right now. The time I have right now needs to be getting myself ready for the final push of this year… The hardest test is yet to come. I have tailgating, all inclusive resort in Mexico, and Christmas/New-years holiday to deal with. I am not going to lie and say I am not worried – especially for the tailgating part. I know nothing else during tailgating but drinking and eating. It will be the hardest challenge I have undertaken in my life next to repairing my marriage. I don’t know how I will make it through. Like I said this time right now will need to be preparing myself for the rest of the year. Day one of the tailgating season is 9/3/11 - less than two months away.

My weight is 206. This is great considering I have not worked out in a while but I have been working hard moving though… I feel good about where my weight is and I hope to lose another 5 pounds or more over the next few weeks.

I am still doing well and still on track!!! ONWARD!!!

Day 166 of 365, 45.5% complete

Day 166 and I feel great. I know I have not had much time blog but my new job is taking my morning time and that is when I usually blog and update my blog world. My weight of 206 is great to see. I thought I had reached my "sustainable weight" level. What I mean by that is I have been eating pretty much the same over the past two months and I don’t see that changing much. I have to make a full out effort to change some things about my eating habits to get my weight to lower. I am not comfortable with being 206 but I think I would be comfortable with being 199. If I keep myself out of the 200 range I think I will be happy. I hope that my weight can still keep going down because right now I don’t really want to change what and how I am eating.

I also ate some fast food so my consecutive days have ended. It was A&W with the family but still it was fast food type food. Since I have not eaten any and that also feels good. I have taken fast food out of my mind and even though I am not consciously keeping away from it my mind does not want it so I think I am doing well.

ONWARD people ONWARD.

Day 153 of 365 42% complete

Day 153 almost at that half way point. It certainly feels good to have gotten this far. I must say that over the past month it has been more difficult than at any other point. I am stronger for it now I know that. My fast food days straight are 46 days and counting. I don’t even really want to these days so that is a GREAT feeling.

I have not blogged much the past few weeks mostly because of my new work schedule. Over the past week I have not gone to the gym at all because I have been really sick and it has been something I have never had before. It is a cold/flue but it knocked me on my butt. Temp of 102, migraines, and horrible body fatigue. I am back up to about 85%. That was something awful. My weight right now is 207 (not official because it is my bathroom scale). I have maintained my weight through my sickness over the past week or so.
I am not going anywhere. I have things to accomplish!!!
ONWARD!!!

140 of 365

Day 140 of my journey. In all honesty I must say that the only time this journey of mine is difficult is when I hang out with friends or watch sports. That is interesting in itself. The next difficult bridge will be when tailgating season starts. I have put that out of my head because I don’t even want to think about how difficult that is going to be when the time comes. So for now I keep building my resistance and when that time comes I will be prepared. 33 days into my open ended challenge to see how long I can go without fast food… This may end up being difficult after a couple weeks but we will see. Finally my weight… 208. It feels like a good weight and really all I have done is try to cut back on night eating and keeping with my 3 days a week workout regimen.

To everyone out there that is struggling to find some strength please keep reading my blog. The drinking and weight loss thing is building momentum and maybe just maybe you can get some strength from me.

ONWARD!!!

Day 138 of 365, 37.8% complete

Day 138… 37.8% complete Wow I have been at this for a good amount of time now. I have not been blogging and posting comments on others blogs lately because I have been extremely busy with work and family and my morning time is being occupied by meetings. I have to find another time to dedicate to my blogging so I can stay on top of mine and others blogs. My weight is holding at 210 right now. I guess that’s ok but I really want to see it down at least 10 right now. I eat too much. That is the bottom line. Until I get serious about reducing my intake my weight will not go down. I just don’t know why I refuse to do something about that. My 30 day Fast Food challenge is complete now. I see a direct relationship between my weight and adult acne with eliminating fast food from my diet. I think as I go forward that I will just leave it alone completely. I enjoy not having to deal with the facial issues and added weight. Lets see how long I go without a challenge in front of me.

Other than that I think I am on a new path with my invention and starting to work on it again. So as I like to say – ONWARD!!!

Day 129 of 365

Day 129 and still going strong. My journey has been tested this year but I am still on top. The Fast food and Pizza challenge is also going well day 22 of 30. This weekend was a good weekend for me. I had a great business meeting for my invention and I resisted the temptation to drink while watching The Pacman beat up on Shane Mosley in a boxing match. Usually those events are accompanied by lots food, drinks, and good times. I simply had good times. It was an all around positive weekend.

Now to get to my weight... I am at 211. I'm not sure how I feel about that number. My first reaction when getting on the scale this morning was wow I am not making any real progress with my weight loss goal. My second thought was that I feel stronger than I have felt and I generally feel great right now. I know that the amount of food I am eating is directly affecting my weight status right now. I just eat too much. I don’t eat bad foods but I am just eating too much. I'm not sure how to deal with that. Everything about my life right now feels stronger and healthier so why do I feel down on myself about the amount of food I eat and my inability to get my weight back down into the 190's…? I'm not sure how to answer that right now. Maybe it will come to me in one of my workout sessions MONDAY WEDNESDAY FRIDAY!!!

ONWARD!

Day 125 of 365

I did workout yesterday but had a lot of work things to take care of. I weighed in at 209 and still feelin good.
Still good on both goals.
ONWARD!!!

Day 122 of 365

Day 122 of 365 – Day 15 of 30. All is well.

This morning I had a re-do on the scale. My weight dropped several pounds and I did not have a good eating weekend. I guess the regular scheduled workouts are setting in. It felt good to see a real move in the scale this morning. This week Friday I have another meeting for my invention so there is a decent amount of stuff I need to do to prepare. This week started off great and I will do my best to keep it that way!!!

ONWARD!!!

Day 119 of 365

Day 119 of 365 / Day 12 of 30 and I'm feeling a little better than the past few days. Some family issues along with my invention progress taking a halt has fuel this. I have a couple more meetings set up and I had some discussions with family members so I am able to breathe a little now. I still need more thought on my post yesterday…

Day 118 of 365

Day 118 of 365 still good – Day 11 of 30 still good! Yesterday I did make it out to the gym and I weighed in at 211. I was really busy and have been going through some things lately. My resolve on my journey is being tested. Some things are just not going the way I want them to.

Question - What do people do when they become stressed? How do people handle stress in life? This is a question that justifies most bad actions for people. People use eating, drinking, abuse, drugs, and the list goes on. My sister recently had a disk in her spine that ruptured and is in a lot of pain. She smokes and there has been research that links smoking to back pain and spinal deterioration. She has been going through back pain for years and has been smoking for years as well. She is in the hospital right now and says that it's just too hard to quit smoking. The stress of her life is such that she needs this outlet. Considering the alternative I just don’t understand why we decide to hurt ourselves more when we are going through stressful periods in our life and are already hurting. I am no angel and have justified stress relievers of my own – but why do we need to do this? We want the pain to go away – numb it - most of the time we just don’t care how we just want it to go away. We are a society of "get it right now". Pleasure and stress relief are at the top of the list. How do we condition our brains to go in a different direction? I just don’t know. I will be giving this some thought over the next few weeks.

Day 115 of 365

Day 115 of my Original Journey and Day 8 of my new Fast Food Challenge! Easter weekend went by and everything is still good with my journey this year. Usually this time of year gets a lot of hangin out and drinks with Family. Not this year! O.K. so I am still good with my Fast Food challenge but Oh Boy I ate up some stuff this weekend at My families celebration and my Wife's Family celebration. I only gained one pound and that is just crazy. I would have never believed it but I saw it with my own eyes this morning on the scale. To be completely honest I could have called it 211 anyway. Let me explain… what I usually do to determine my weight is that I get on the scale and the pointer circles around until it settles on a weight. If the pointer is even a fraction above the weight line I will call it the next full pound. Today, the pointer was just barely over 211 so I had to call it 212 but in all actuality I stayed the same weight from my weigh in on Wednesday.

Family always adds some interesting twists to holidays and my family added some. What I have grown to accept is that you can only control what you do in life and be happy with what and how you are living. Really there is nothing else. So I had to brush off some things and keep it moving. Nothing can get in the way of what I am going to accomplish this year. The path in front of me is so clear that I could paint that path in a real life Picasso and convince people it was one of his!!!

Onward!!!

Day 110 of 365

Day 110 and all is well. I got to the gym and in two days I dropped a couple pounds. Current weight 211. I am applying past failures to this current journey and I am stronger now. I am not eating meals after dinner, trying to keep with reduced fat and calorie foods, and working out three times a week. PLUS, I am three days into my no fast food or pizza 30 day challenge. The posted picture shows the ups and downs and I am guessing it is pretty typical of most people go through. I am trying not to be most people anymore and get down to a weight and stay there!!!

Onward People!!!

Day 108 of 365

This is a good day! I got my butt out to the gym this morning AND I have started my next 30 day challenge with no fast food that will include Pizza as well. I always feel awesome at work after working out in the morning. I want to sit down and think about why I would decide not to workout everyday if this is how I feel afterwards. I am more confident at work, more energetic, and just all around feeling better about myself no mater what is going on in my life.

So my weight… well it was just a little higher than I had hope but certainly better than where I thought I was. 213. That’s not a bad weight but it is 23 pounds over my target weight and needs an all out effort to get myself back there. Today was a good step in the right direction. I got down to my target weight the middle of August and now it is the middle of April. I picked up 23 pounds in 8 months. Looking at it like that I guess it's not too bad but it is still not a good thing. I have to find a way to maintain my weight. My first go at it failed and I need to really understand why so that when I get back down to 190 I can keep it there.

As I like to say… ONWARD!!!

Day 103 of 365

103 Days and counting… It really feels good that I have been able to battle the temptations and keep with my 365 day journey. This past weekend was a big weekend in the journey. Friday the wife and I went to the Casino and did not have to worry about kids the next day. We won over 1000 bucks and had plenty to celebrate… from the re-kindled love, to not having kids around, to winning over 1000 bucks. We had plenty to celebrate and in the end I stuck with my cranberry juice and red bull cocktails! There was even a point where we went to the room of some of her co-workers (who were all drinking and had more than just a few drinks) and spent some time there with them. Everyone was drinking and in all honesty I really didn’t have any thoughts about wanting to at all. It was interesting being on the other side of it. THEN came Saturday where I hung out with my friends from my hometown and ended up at a couple bars and dance clubs. There has never been a time where I visited spots like that and didn’t have a least one drink… That was a bit difficult but in the end my journey is still on course and I have a couple new stories to tell. Funny that I never noticed how bad peoples breaths smell while they are drinking at the bars and dance clubs…

Now to get to my weight, eating, and working out. I have got myself to a point where I am disappointed in myself. My weight is probably up around 215, I broke the fast food streak, and I am not working out at all. I feel weighted down. I have made a promise to myself that I am getting back into the weight room starting 4-18-11. This is the new start date for Fast Food, Pizza (including pizza rolls), and working out. I don’t like where I am at physically and mentally and most if not all of it has to do with my eating and working out.

As I like to say so often… ONWARD!!!

Day 94 of 365

Day 94 and still on track. Day 32 of my 30 day Fast food challenge and I was successful in that challenge. I think I am going to continue on with it and in a week or so add pizza to the list.

Today marks a new day for my job responsibilities here at work. I moved facilities and I am working on a new program now. Change always feels strange but it is the one constant in life and I don’t mind it so much. I have to find out what all I am going to be responsible for and begin diving in. It should be interesting and should keep me busy and keep my mind off of food and other distractions.

ONWARD!!!

Day 91

Day 91 and it is no joke (April 1^st). 91 days for my libation journey and 29 days into my Fast Food Challenge. I can honestly say that the fast food challenge is helping keep my weight steady. My home scale is saying I am keeping a steady weight of 205-210. I believe it has everything to do with keeping the fast food junk out of my body. I will need to speak with my friend to see if we can extend our original challenge as well as adding another part to it.

I have not determined a starting day for my workouts. The wife and I have not talked yet to determine a good starting day. I am looking forward to it. I NEED to get my but back in the gym. My body is feeling a bit weak lately and I don’t like it.

Everything else is going good – I can't complain.

Day 87

Day 87 of the original Journey and Day 25 of my Fast food challenge. Getting the fast food out of the way first… I don’t miss it and don’t think about it. Five more days and then I will put another 30 day challenge in with my friend!!!

Day 87 means that in three days that will be 3 months. That’s a significant time period. I have already seen big changes in my life and have seen where I can improve. This has been a great thing for me to do and I would imagine that at the end of it I will be so much stronger than I have ever been in my life.

My weight… well my house scale puts me at 211 and that is before getting into the shower. My guess is that I would weigh about 214 if I were to go to the gym. It is time again to get serious about my workouts. I have some added motivation seeing how I planned a vacation with the wife in Mexico in early November. So I will come up with my start date to get serious and the wife and I will do it together.

ONWARD!!!

Day 80

Day 80 of 365 (Drinking) and Day 18 of 30 (Fast Food Challenge). Still going strong with both. This past weekend has been a tough one for the family. We have chicken pox in the house and strep throat. Our kids have been sick much more recently than in years past. Hope the area we moved to is not contaminated or something like that. Lots of home time this weekend. I am home from work today because my wife has been taking days off for the sick kids and it is starting to get noticed at her workplace. So I am the home mom and it is weird but I like it when I get the chance to do it.

I finally bought a scale for the house and it is letting me know that I am floating between 205 and 210 over the past week. It is not that expensive of a scale but it feels to be accurate for me. That is where I believe I am at so it will help to keep me in line. Working out… Hmmm… that is a big question for me I want to start back up and stay with it so I will have to give it some thought on when and what kind of intensity I will have.

Off to e-mails and daddy daddy daddy stuff

Day 75

Hello to all. I have not been working out so I have not posted much. Posting is what got me through my original journey so I think I am going to post M/W/F no matter if I work out or not.

This weekend the wife and I went to a restaurant and then to a movie... something terrible happened and I think I am O.K. though. The wife and I were sitting at the bar and she ordered an appletini and I ordered a redbull and cranberry juice (it's surprisingly good and uplifting for an short period of time). She finished her drink and had the cherry left. She said she could never tie the stem into a knot and I remember I did it once a long time ago. I said let me try and I put it in my mouth and tried to tie it... after a second I realized that it had been soaked in the drink for a while and the stem had drinks in it. I spit it out and grabbed a bunch of napkins and began spitting into the napkins. I probably looked crazy at the bar... I was sad thinking I had ruined my effort this year but after some though I figured that I could not taste any alcohol and kissing my wife after she drinks I can taste it anyway so I don't think there is any harm there. Kissing the wife after she drinks... I have to think about that one - but I don't think that counts either.

I posted a comment on my friends PATRICK (click on his name) blog and I wanted to add that comment to my blog. It really says what is on my mind right now...

For me weight gain goes mostly with my mood. The family, job, and wife situations influence my mood tremendously. I have not been able to understand it completely and I continue to struggle with it. I feel great when my weight is down. I have more energy when my weight is down. I am upbeat when my weight is down. So why don’t I control the one thing that I know can make my mood better and that is my weight. I cannot control what my family, job, or wife does so why not focus in on the things I can control. This is not a new concept and I continue to struggle with it. One day I hope to understand it and find a way to level out my moods no matter what the uncontrollables are doing…