Ted Does Something...

Changing my lifestyle one day at a time. Height: 5' 8" SW: 318.7 CW: 306.8 GW: 225

[tedbigsby]

Hey guys. Remember this blog? Today was my 3rd day doing DDP Yoga this week. Can definitely tell that my body is suuuuuuuper not used to getting this far. Running off 4 hours of sleep, got to work tonight. Still got get my workout done, I guess.

[tedbigsby]

An unexpected guest

[tedbigsby]

ELAAD Times 3

ELAAD.

Eat Like An Asshole Day. 

This is a term my friends and I concocted back when we were all simultaneously dieting. It was our version of a cheat day. I know Whole30 despises Cheat Days and now I can see why.

This weekend, Sara and I attended two Flogging Molly concerts and a musical production of the Wizard of Oz all while throwing all our good dining habits to the wayside. I drank waaaaay too much and it’s weird how much weirder beer tastes after not having it for a month. Apparently I also discovered I don’t like Maker’s Mark.

Thursday Sara and I had her celebratory alcoholic drink from the arcade bar near our house. She was a huge fan. I wasn’t that fond of my Not Your Father’s Root Beer, as it tasted syrupy. Then we went to have Mexican Martinis and queso at one of our favorite Mexican places. I really could feel the alcohol hitting me harder. We had to wait around and drink some water before we were good to go on.

Friday we ate Panera and Texas Roadhouse. My Panera choices were poor ones, but the steak and shrimp I got for dinner made up for it. I had a few too much to drink and poor Sara had to drive my drunk ass home.

Saturday we ate Cracker Barrel on the way home, basically we just had bread for all parts of the meal, and then picked up food at Costco for our early dinner before the show.

3 days filled with poor decisions chasing us back to the waiting arms of the tenants of Whole 30. We both decided that going back for a week would help us feel better, that and I am going back to the gym after work tonight. My plan this week is to get 3 good workouts in. Sara, too, is feeling the after effects of terrible eating. We need to pull back on going crazy and find out if dairy and/or gluten is the cause for her digestive based funk.

ELAAD had its desired effect. We don’t want to eat that crappily for a while.

[tedbigsby]

What’s Next?

I’m 2 days post Whole30. I really don’t know exactly what to think. Sara and I had Mod Pizza the next night. It was really nice to have something with cheese on it. I had a few Chick-Fil-A chicken nuggets at the staff meeting, much to Sara’s dismay.

Overall I just kind of feel like meh. I had a cookie, like not a homemade one, but from a bag and I felt absolutely shitty. I got all sweaty. I don’t think I want to go back to that.

Sara brought home some pre-made meals for my work tonight. I was thoroughly unimpressed. I had a My Fit Meal with chipotle barbecue chicken. It was just sort of bland. Despite all the effort, I kind of miss our homemade meals.

I have 3 days off coming up, 2 of which will include me attending concerts. I’ll have to make sure I don’t go too crazy on the beer. I did promise Sara that we could go get her favorite drink before hand.

Working out hasn’t gone as planned. When I get back from my trip up to DFW, I’m going to hit the gym with renewed vigor.

[tedbigsby]

Whole30 Results

It’s been a long, interesting journey. I’ve broadened my horizons when it comes to food. I’ve undoubtedly lowered my cholesterol (no way of knowing since it’s not in the budget to go get it tested). I don’t feel the need to drink multiple, if any, sodas every day at work. I don’t really miss caffeine at all. I still wouldn’t mind some bread with certain meals.

I came home from work to have Sara tell me she’s lost 12.5 lbs. That’s EXTREMELY impressive, although she’s pissed at Anytime because according to their gym, it said she had only lost 2. Since we don’t have a reference point (and she wasn’t wearing sweaty workout gear) I’m sure their scale is a bit off from ours.

Based off of this information, I made a quick guess at what my results may be after I woke up. I was off a bit. I lost a hair under 12 pounds in 30 days. In my weird lizard brain 11.9 in 30 isn’t good enough (yes I know that 2-3 per week is ideal for long term health maintenance). I just expected to lose more than 3.7% of my weight.

Sara tried to cheer me up and tell me to look at all the positives. My clothes feel looser, my foot has hurt a bit less, we’ve eaten better, we hadn’t started working out yet, all these things. Finally she said something that I’ve been neglecting to admit.

I didn’t gain all this weight in 30 days, I can’t expect to lose all of it in 30 days either.

Things I can take from this. I’m 17.3% of the way towards my first major goal, being 250 lbs. That was my goal 3 years ago before I first went to Disney, I believe I was just shy of that goal, but I want to hit it. Sara suggest we have 30ish days of moderation and working out and then we come back to the Whole30 lifestyle. I think me working out more, training for the half, and eating better should have me (knock on wood) at my goal weight before my next runDisney race. I just can’t backslide.

I want to thank all the people who came along with me on my journey these last 30 days. The random tumblrs who messaged me since they were also doing whole 30, my friends also commuting to better lifestyle choices, strangers who found me from hashtags, all of you have made it easier to keep going.

[tedbigsby]

Day 30 - The End(?)

We’ve made it! Day 30. The end of this interesting journey. I’m also on Day 4 of 6 at work. Sara had a rough night, spilling over half of our mega jug of coconut oil whilst making dinner to bring to me at work. I think she’s ready for the rigidity to end, or she’s just ready for a few days off from work.

My headaches have been popping up every little while, I’m hoping this isn’t a lingering side effect from my vertigo spell. I don’t want to be popping ibuprofen every 6-8 hours like candy.

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, sweet potatoes, and sausage

Lunch: Roasted chicken (really good!), carrots and some leftover sweet potatoes

Dinner: 2 turkey burgers, the rest of the sweet potatoes, carrots, and mushrooms.

Sara’s chicken was a welcome change from the monotony of our food prep.I had been talking with a friend about how bored I am with turkey burgers and how I longed for something shitty like a hot pocket or a burger with cheese and buns. Clearly if I’m going to stay on the Whole 30 path afterward, I’m going to need to think of something to make for work that doesn’t leave me feeling blah. That, or I’ll have to stop working past 3 nights consecutively.

My plans to go do 30+ min of cardio after work got put to the wayside because I was going to attend my work’s staff meeting at 7:30am. Around 6:30, Sara sent me a text that she just wasn’t feeling it today, so I opted to go home instead where I made her breakfast.

[tedbigsby]

Day 29

Day 29. Tomorrow should be the finish line, but as we all know, I am going 2 extra days just to make it easier with me working. My first day off will be the night of my first of 2 Flogging Molly concerts. It’ll be a lot of fun, but that’s not today.

I slept pretty decently, only I woke up around 2pm to use the restroom. Then I couldn’t stay asleep for any lengthy time frame. I woke up at 3 and 4ish, finally getting up because Sara was home from work. I’d really like to start getting 8 hours of sleep consistently, but I guess getting 7-7.5 will have to suffice.

I’m planning on going to the gym after work. Day 1 of the going back. 3 years ago I managed to drop 20 pounds in almost 2 months going to the gym, despite eating pretty crappily. I’m hoping that going back will result in me shedding some body fat %. I know our trainer is planning to come and “re-pitch his services” in June. I think I did the math and I need to lose like 7 pounds of fat mass to keep him off my back. The fact that the gym is so close to my house should keep me going. My current plan is on MWF going and doing 15-20 min of cardio, 30-45 min of weight training with a 10 min cooldown, T-Th going and doing 30+ min of cardio. The training for my Disney race starts in July and I’d like to get a month head start on it.

Breakfast: Fried eggs, sausage and sweet potato hash, blueberry kombucha

Lunch: 2 turkey burgers, leftover sweet potatoes, zucchini

Dinner: Spaghetti squash and meatballs

More of the same meals. Lunch kind of felt like “meh”. I am enjoying the meatballs of dinner. I should come up with something we can make for the next 2-3 nights so I don’t get super burnt out.

Still wavering on getting my cholesterol levels checked. I’ll make that decision later this week after I get my paystubs.

[tedbigsby]

Day 28 - Bubble Run

Wooooo 5k day!

I got up before the alarm and started heating up breakfast for us. Leftover sweet potatoes and some hard boiled eggs. Just something so we could have some energy for our “fun run”.

We left around 6:30ish so we could have time to get our bibs and I’m glad we did. The parking was a nightmare. They had 2 people working for all these cars getting in. It took us like 10 min just to park. Ridiculous. We ended up making 2 trips back to the car, 1 to drop off gear, the other to get Sara’s sunglasses, so that was like a warm up.

We met my coworker Adriana at the starting line and chatted for a while, finally getting to start around 8:25. Adriana was a sport and stayed with Sara and me through the first mile and a half before taking off. We would see her right before the finish line. I tried to get Sara to run/job part of the course. I had it in my head that 2 people who hadn’t trained in a long time would be able to pull off 15 min miles. We came up to the first “bubble bog”, this one dyed red, and walked through it. That dye was horrible. We all looked like horror movie members doused in fake blood. Don’t know if that was what I would call fun, but others seemed to enjoy it. I think I had a brain fart about the color dye part. Had we had extra clothes and not worn our nicer running stuff, it could have been more enjoyable.

Another unexpected outcome was Sara and I had jogged up to the bog and she inhaled a bit of the bubbles. There would be no more running for her. I jogged with Adriana a bit around the 1 mile mark, but I didn’t want to leave Sara behind so I stayed with her and we walked the rest of the way.

Green, blue, and yellow stations passed and I kept pushing Sara to want to run the last bit of the race. “Finish Strong”, I kept saying. Sara was having none of it. Her legs still ached from Thursday. I’ll admit, I got frustrated with her. Though I shouldn’t have as we had zero training and the last time she ran was our 10k in January. We ended up crossing the finish line at 1 hour even. Boom, first leg of the Mickey Virtual Running Series in the books. 

We get home, have some food, then it’s nap time for me as I work the night shift. I take 2 melatonin and maybe get 2 hours of sleep. This results with me having a large headache for the first 2 hours of work.

After tonight I have 4 more. I have GOT to stop working so many in a row.

Breakfast: Hard Boiled eggs, reheated sweet potatoes

Post race: Scrambled Eggs

Work Breakfast: fried eggs, sausage, sweet potatoes

Lunch: 2 turkey burgers, green beans and leftover sweet potatoes

Dinner: spaghetti squash and meatballs.

I still don’t know if I’m doing these Whole30 right, but when I have to transition from days to nights, its hard to just eat 3 meals. Oh well!

[tedbigsby]

Day 27 - How Do You Work With That Light?

Friday. Today I’m a day shifter. I switched my shift for today so I could do a 5k tomorrow and still get some sleep. I’ll say this, being a day shift worker is weird, and not just because it’s too dang bright. I wanted to wear sunglasses all day. 

There wasn’t really any downtime at work, so that’s good. I trained one of our part time workers and it made me remember how much I enjoy training.

Day shift eats really well. They picked up a smorgasbord of food from HEB (I couldn’t eat any of it) and were raving about the ice cream. Kept telling me to have some. I told them I couldn’t and got to inform them about Whole 30. I got some props about my dedication.

Breakfast: Fried eggs, sausage, sweet potatoes

Lunch: turkey burgers, green beans, sweet potatoes

Dinner: oven baked salmon, green beans, and sweet potatoes.

I signed Sara and I up for these virtual running shorts Disney is doing during the summer. The premise is that during 3 2 week intervals we have to do a 5k each. Our reward for doing 3 5ks will be 4 medals. It’s on the honor system, but we actually need to follow through on it. Good thing we knock one out tomorrow.

[tedbigsby]

Day 26 - Assessment

Today’s the day. Time for Sara and I to see how bad of shape we are in and what we need to do to correct it. I didn’t really get to sleep in, there was a thunderstorm and Ein started being loud, even with all the stuff we’ve gotten for her. I set up the wooden baby gate at our door and let her out of the bathroom gate. That seemed to calm her down and let me get another hour, maybe, of sleep.

The trainer giving us our health assessment was very thorough about what we were looking for and asking us what our limitations were due to injuries or conditions. He even agreed to shield our weight from us, a BIG point for Sara, as apparently we aren’t supposed to be weigh in. He made sure to tell us to be honest with him during the assessment. If we felt like a 9 or 10, he wanted us to say that so we didn’t injure ourselves or throw up.

We used only one machine, the rest was just resistance exercises. 20-25 min in and I was pouring sweat. I know I was out of shape, but good lord. There was one part where he said he was going to “catch me up” to Sara exhaustion-wise and had me do two exercises back to back. I had been between a 6 and an 8 all during, but I felt I was bordering on 10. I just felt weak and couldn’t catch my breath. Luckily he let me get some extra time to breath before continuing. Afterwards, he weighed us and got our body fat % so he could break it down. Sara and I both saw our weights despite our best effort not to.

*side note* It’s really a bit deflating, almost devastating, to have given up almost everything I love eating and come this far to see so little result on that thing. I guess that’s why they say don’t weigh yourself. Later Sara told me I need to look at the “non scale victories”. She said my front looks smaller, my pants feel a bit looser, my cholesterol is clearer (dumb measuring stick), and I’ve been 27 days without a soda, 26 without McDonald’s. *back to the story*

He laid out how much of our body was fat and how much fat mass we needed to lose and how long it might take to get to our goal. On the plus side, he did point out that it could be possible to meet our goal in 41 weeks. Somehow I didn’t even think about this until he sprung it on us, but next came a sales pitch for his services. Even for a 30 min session 3 days a week, it’s 350 bucks a month. Yeah, no thanks. While I know we would benefit from it, I just don’t have that kind of money.

Breakfast: Eggs, Sausage, Sweet potatoes

Lunch: Eggs, Sausage

Dinner: Sweet potatoes, pan fried salmon, green beans

[tedbigsby]

Day 25 -

First of 2 days off! I actually came home and went to bed afterward. I slept until noon:30-ish, but then had to get up so I could take Ein to the pet store for a beauty appointment. Sara made us breakfast and we dropped Ein off. While she was at the groomer, Sara and I drove up to Austin so I could cancel my old gym membership. I went to where I had signed up, as my email said that’s where I needed to go, only to be informed that I had to go to a different gym to cancel. That seems really idiotic. I was not a happy camper. It’s all one company. Just cancel my membership! Luckily the employee called over to the Oak Hill gym and they were ready for me when I showed up. That was nice.

I guess it was some sort of divine intervention, as going there led me to going to the Goodwill next door and seeing that they had a concertina for auction. This renewed my interest to learn to play the “squeezebox”. I need to do more research to see what kind of investment I’d need to start.

We went to Costco to refill our food reserves (mainly sweet potatoes and eggs). On the way home, Sara and I decided we needed something new for tonight’s dinner. We decided to go to HEB later to get inspiration.

That inspiration came in the form of steak and shrimp. We spent around 28 bucks on dinner, still cheaper than the two of us eating out.

Brunch(?): Scrambled Eggs and pulled pork

Dinner: Shrimp, steak, steamed broccoli, and mashed red potatoes.

That meal really seemed to pull me out of my rut. It was nice to have something so different. As I think I said on the photo I posted, I wished we had opted for the non bagged broccoli, but it still was a great meal.

Tomorrow is our health assessment at the gym. No real idea what I’m in for and I’m nervous as hell.

[tedbigsby]

Day 24 -

I am SO flipping bad at maintaining the blog this week. I don’t even have a good excuse. I just didn’t.

Second day back post ER visit. Feeling a lot better, but still not up to my regular self. I am, however, starting to feel weary slowly drudging towards Day 30+2 (more on this later). I just kind of feel bored with meals and I feel in a rut. I found a place to do my repeat cholesterol at, however to the tune of 40 bucks. I’ll have to weigh my options.

Breakfast: Eggs, sausage, sweet potato

Lunch: Turkey Burgers, zucchini

Dinner: Pulled pork, green beans and mushrooms

Day 30 is Monday. However, I work all the way until Thursday morning. Sara and I have decided that we will just keep going until I finish up those days. 32 total days on this plan. I don’t know how I feel about it. I guess I just will keep marching along.

[tedbigsby]

Day 25's dinner. We needed a change up from the norm. My only regret is we opted for the bagged broccoli.

[tedbigsby]

First night sleeping with my night guard. It's ridiculous. At least once it ended up next to me. Supposed to help keep me from grinding my teeth.

[tedbigsby]

Day 23 - Back in Action

I woke up feeling uneasy. I thought I would have slept more with all the benadryl and phenergan. Still got a good amount of sleep though. My head hurt, but I figured that was from all the fluids I didn’t have yesterday. I ran a few errands, stopping to take naps through the day, and went to work. 1 week left in this program. I still don’t know how I’m going to get my cholesterol levels checked at the end of this. I really want to see the numbers.

Sara and I joined a local gym. We get a free health assessment as part of signing up along with a workout plan for both of us to achieve our goals. That’s Thursday, so it’ll be written about in more detail then.

Breakfast Pt 1: Scrambled eggs, sweet potatoes and sausage

Breakfast Pt 2: fried eggs and sausage

Lunch: Pork tenderloin, carrots, and mashed potatoes.

Dinner: Pork tenderloin, carrots, broccoli, and mashed potatoes.

Not really a big fan of the tenderloin, but Sara wasn’t feeling super great today so I’m really lucky she made anything. I need to think of something for work tomorrow to take some stress off her. As I’m writing this, I have 2.5 more hours of work and all I want to do is sleep. The program isn’t responsible, it’s just making this whole section more difficult.

Tomorrow will be better.

[tedbigsby]

Day 22 - An Unexpected Visit

Back to the grind. I had my days off, time to work 3 more.

We slept in a bit, which was really nice. Sara took an hour off work to enjoy some lounging around time. We finished watching Super Size Me over breakfast, Sara made something new! A frittata.

The past day and a half I’ve noticed that it has been painful for me to swallow food. A few days ago I had eaten a hot piece of sweet potato and I think I burned my esophagus where it meets my stomach. I did some reading and they said Maalox or Mylanta would help, so off we went to Wal-Mart to get some.

I took a few sips and started napping on the couch. Sara woke me up before she left and I decided to go to bed to sleep before work tonight.

3 pm. My eyes open and the world is spinning. I don’t know how to explain it. I think maybe I woke up too suddenly or something. I close my eyes and try to sleep again. Maybe 5 min later I open my eyes. Same effect. It’s not fun. My mind starts racing, “is this food poisoning?”, “Did Mylanta do this to me?”. So many things, all with me trying to keep my eyes closed.

I call my work and say that I’m not feeling well, and they say to go see if I can eat or drink something. On my way to the kitchen, I start losing my balance. Suddenly it happens. I start feeling nauseated, like now. I hustle to the trash can and try to puke, only nothing is in my stomach. I finally manage to cough up something, take a small sip of water, then back to bed.

I’m sweating, the world is spinning. I think that maybe a cool shower will work. By this time I’ve texted Sara twice about this. She calls me to tell me she’s coming home. I can’t get out of the bathtub. I want to stay where I can touch all four sides. Finally I know I can’t stay there as I feel the urge to throw up or go to the bathroom or both. I sit up, try to gain my bearings, and throw up a little in the tub...GROSS. I dry off best that I can and fling myself back into bed.

Sara gets home and tells me that she’s taking me to the ER. She calls my work and tells them I’m in no condition to work and starts throwing clothes at me to put on. I’m really hesitant to leave my bed. Finally the urge to throw up comes back and I rush to the toilet. I don’t know if any of you have had to throw up with nothing in your stomach, it’s painful. My stomach refused to release until something came up. I couldn’t breath, I couldn’t do anything except be in pain and make horrible sounds.

Fine...I’ll go to the ER. We got there, signed in, got back and within 8 min my doctor says “Vertigo”. 

I get some IV benadryl and phenergan and less than 90 min later I’m out there door, a few stumbles, but WAAAAAAY better than before. Holy crap...I hope I never have to go through that again. I wouldn’t wish that on ANYONE.

Sara is a major sweetheart. She drove back to Austin to get me chicken bone broth and made me a few cups just so I would have something in my stomach.

Bed time.

Breakfast: Spinach, asparagus,and egg frittata.

Lunch: Pass

Dinner: 1 coffee mug full of chicken bone both. 

Somehow I still managed to stay on course.

7 more days?

[tedbigsby]

Day 21

3 weeks in! DAMN SON!

Today was pretty uneventful. It was my work’s grand opening celebration and I was undecided if I was going to volunteer.

One of our friends/coworkers/neighbors came over and we went to the farmer’s market down in New Braunfels. Sara and I went to reload on kombucha, but it was a nice change of scenery from Barton Creek. The market was almost twice as big with lots to see, Sara just wasn’t really all that interested in buying anything. The kombucha dealer forgot CO2 and had to go get it, I waited in the line for almost 45 min before he finally showed up. It was well worth the wait. We filled up our growlers with blueberry, grape-lime, and basil honey ginger. Our friends got blueberry, I think. We talked about going to other farmer’s markets. Overall it was a decent morning. My coworker talked me into volunteering that day.

After Sara and I made a short trip to Austin, my coworker showed up on her scooter and we rode over to the Grand Opening party. Frankly I was bored the entire time. They stuck me operating the snow cone machine. Nothing like that syrup-y crap to make you feel icky. A major thunderstorm rolled in and forced Sara to come get me since riding home would be out of the question.

We picked up the scooters later, after getting some supplies from the pet store. I made dinner and we watched Super Size Me, having to turn it off half way through because it made us feel gross.

Breakfast: Fried eggs, sweet potatoes, and sausage

Lunch: scrambled eggs (quick meal)

Dinner: Pan fried salmon, green beans, and sweet potatoes