The Fatty Meets Dissapointment

Wow. So it's been about two weeks since my last weigh in on the 19th. I just finished a workout, drank some protein, took a shower and weighed myself. 332. The exact freaking same. I thought for sure that I would have shocked my body into some kind of loss. I weighed myself on my home scale about a week ago and I was five pounds less but this was the same scale as the first time and the same weight.

How does that happen after two weeks of monitoring food intake and hitting the gym? I don't know but it pisses me off. There is no way the last two weeks have just been building muscle. When you weigh 300+ you should see pretty immediate results when you make even the slightest of changes. It takes a lot of energy to carry around all this extra weight and while I don't think I've been eating the calories, I may have been drinking them.

I don't drink heavily but I do drink every day and I drink really really good craft beer. The craft beer I tend to drink is full of flavor and usually has a higher than average ABV (that's alcohol percentage). See alcohol is carbs and carbs are calories, ultimately. I've tried to bring down my consumption but my second job is at a micro-brewery and let's be honest, free (or seriously discounted) AMAZING beer is not something to be said no to. But I will have to start guessing how many calories are in that beer and start cutting them out of my day earlier. Ah well, I never liked the idea of "dieting" but making changes, slowly, that seems sustainable to me. Cutting out craft beer, not a change I'm willing to make. Drink Local Beer!


All that being said something is going to have to change. My whole body is shaking from today's workout.  The next time I step on that scale, it better be under 330 or I'm going to.. Well I will probably just keep on working out. BUT I won't be happy! I added this super awesome move that kicked my ass. The impacts of it really sneak up on you.

Check it out.

A Fatty Heart Almost Explodes

Yah, I am HUGE. YAH.

I'm not going to lie, supplements scare me. I am incredibly afraid of becoming huge. I feel like walking around with massive muscles is the male equivalent to a boob job. I know it's not but still, I don't want it for me. Based on the size of my calve muscles, I feel (not very scientifically) that my body type is prone to massive muscle growth without supplemental support.

 This may or may not be true, what I do know though is that everyone agrees that giving worked out muscles protein is incredibly important to quick healing and recovery. Since I dislike walking around with sore muscles, I ordered some whey protein from bodybuilding.com.

Too many options!

 Wow. That website terrifies me as well. They do an amazing job of breaking things down and trying to help you find the right supplements to do exactly what you want to do but still, the selection is crazy. I think I probably just need a personal trainer to take my money and give me exactly what I need because it feels like you need a Doctorate to understand what the hell they are talking about in the descriptions.

Anyway, I finally settled on a familiar brand name Cyrptosport's Monster Milk and ordered one of the special deals where you get one thing free with the order. So now Fatty has Monster Milk (Cake Batter flavor! Who knew getting healthy could be so delicious?!?), Monster Amino (I don't know what that even means and its fruit punch flavor is not so tasty), and they kindly included a few sample packets of pre-workout caffeine powders.

Tuesday's workout at 4:30pm

So on Tuesday around 4pm, I opened the shipment, saw the samples and thought, "Why not?!". That was a bad a decision. A worse decision was not listening to the directions and adding the whole packet to my water bottle. As near as I can tell I took well over 450mg of caffeine plus who knows what else. IT FELT AMAZING IN THE GYM. I worked harder than I've ever worked before and was capable of pushing my body so much further. It was fantastic.

How the Fatty felt at 6:30pm on Tuesday

However, 2 hours later I was not feeling so hot. My heart felt like it was going to explode and it would not slow down. I got legitimately scared for a period of time. Eventually everything settled down and thanks to the other supplements, there was no muscle weakness or soreness the next day. I still just went with a swim workout just to give them a bit of a break. Today was a different story. I took half of the packet (the recommended dosage) and rocked it gangnam style in the gym. It was awesome and I feel fantastic. Still slightly scared of supplements but I am definitely starting to see their value if properly used.


 
*Fun Fact: All of these lifeguards were fired, then rehired almost 2 months later by their city for making this video. As a lifeguard, I think it's AWESOME. Well done El Monte lifeguards!*.

The Fatty goes shoe shopping

A few weeks ago I returned my newest favorite pair of shoes to REI because after just a short time of owning them, they fell apart almost completely. They were a super sweet pair of really cool looking Solomons that I got at the REI in Seattle, unfortunately they couldn't hold up to the girth of the Fatty.

Turns out most running shoes are built on a EVA foam sole that works great for normal sized people but when the Fatty starts crushing it every day, it... well it crushes.

So if you're a Fatty buying shoes, look for shoes without EVA foam bases, at least for now!

In other news.... Did you know that Pomegranates are DELICIOUS and totally worth the frustration of getting the seeds out? Tonight I followed this over joyed mans directions and was rewarded with an amazing bowl of deliciousness. Go buy some and try it!

A Fatty Introduces Himself... Again

Fatty - Late September 2010 estimated weight 275lbs

A little over 2 years ago you all started a journey with this Fatty. Fatty was 26, closer to 400lbs than 350 and feeling like I needed a change. So Fatty started running and eating healthy.

Over the next four months Fatty lost a lot of weight and dropped down to 316 in April of 2011. Now over a year later Fatty is back in the gym. Well Fatty never really left the gym since he works in a gym (aka Wood River YMCA) but you know what I mean.

Let us rewind a bit and talk about some mental reasons the Fatty is a fatty.

• The Fatty has a hard time caring about it. 

Honestly! Fatty has a rare character trait that makes him believe he is the most awesomest being on the planet. This of course is sometimes used as a mask to hide insecurities or it could just be a front that even Fatty himself hasn't realized he's putting on just to find a way with being ok that he weighs twice what a normal person weighs, who knows the reasons but Fatty thinks he is awesome and has a hard time admitting he's not in some way.

• The Fatty loves food. 

He pretends it's in that "Oh man did you see Hell's Kitchen last night?" Ultra-cool foodie way and sometimes it legitimately is but let's be honest. Fatty eats a lot of food. Late night munchies equal the need to go grocery shopping the next day because somehow all the eggs, milk, cereal, meat, apples, peanut butter, maple syrup, etc. IS GONE. Fatty might have a bit of a problem sometimes. Yikes.

• The Fatty despises working out. And gyms in general. 

This one might seem like a no-brainer but it's a big one. The Fatty hates the gym. It makes him uncomfortable because it brings out all the anxiety and self-consciousness that bullet point number 1 does such a good job of masking. Also, it's f'ng hard.


Sounds like some obstacles to overcome eh? How many of you feel the same way? I betting more than a few of you. Today was my 4th workout in 4 days. I wanted to wait a few days before posting anything because I knew that if I went right to here and posted it would end up being like my last 3 posts and you wouldn't see me again for months and months. This time is different though, I made promises.

Not the Fatty but how the Fatty feels. 

See sometimes when a Fatty is fat, medical problems develop. The Fatty has a medical condition called Sleep Apnea and he has it BAD. Which means that unless Fatty wears something called a CPAP, his airway will close while he sleeps. This is generally considered a bad thing. I've had my CPAP machine since April of 2009, I got it back when I was near my biggest weight. Adjusting to constantly carrying a machine with me has been difficult, it makes camping a no-go, makes airports frustrating, sleeping in the car impossible, oh and hammocks? Forget about it.

See this picture here to the left? That's me on a nightly basis. Hoses wrapped everywhere, breathing like Darth Vader. It sucks. There is no promise that losing weight will help but it should. So I made a promise to an amazing girl, who I'm crazy about, that when we meet up again in a few months, I'll be healthier. Honestly though, I'm really glad I made that promise. My muscles hurt today with a burn I haven't felt since I first started this journey.

Ok I broke my own rules, this post is way too long. Sorry. The Fatty is glad to be back though. See you in the gym! 

A Fatty last week in San Clemente with his folks.