The Pursuit of Skinniness

A lot of you know that my wife and i have recently been undergoing a lot of changes in our life. Physical changes. Jen has been struggling with her weight her entire life and recently decided to undergo gastric surgery. You can follow her journey on her own blog SuperMom: Loosing It. i hit my highest weight in 2008 and topped the scales at around 235. That may not seem like a lot but on my skinny bony 5' 10" frame it looked like this:

These pics were taken on August 18th 2008. At this point in our lives we decided that enough was enough and we each worked on our diets. Jen and i have always enjoyed whole grains and healthy foods and she is a wonderful cook so we tried to eat healthier and each did our own separate diets. i hate exercise and try to avoid it at all costs but we did try to walk in the evenings for a little while, until it was hot or more important things were happening so we stopped shortly after we started. My attempt at dieting was to eat as little as possible while i was at work, basically starving myself and then try to eat a sensible meal for dinner. i started walking every day during my lunch break as well. i did loose a little weight that way and over a couple of years i got all the way down to around 185. Quite a chore for me but when i started to plateau i got frustrated and so i slowly started cheating until i had gained 10 pounds back.

That brings us up to June 27th 2012 when Jen was about to start her 2 week pre-opp liquid fast. i wanted her to succeed and not have any kind of temptations and also saw her new way of life a great way for me to change permanently as well. A few months before we had watched a documentary together called "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" and i thought it was a great idea for me to do a liquid juice fast similar to the one that Joe Cross did in the movie. He consumed nothing but the juice of raw fruits and veggies for 60 days and completely changed his life. i wanted to support Jen during her fast and not eat things around her that would be tempting for her that she couldn't eat. We already had a juicer and so all i needed was some recipes and fresh veggies. i planned to eat a Nature Valley granola bar for breakfast and lunch (they come two to a package) and then drink my dinner for the two weeks before her surgery and then move on to whole salads and things. Starting at a weight of 195 i juiced every day and lost over 10 pounds during the two weeks.

During those two weeks I had an epiphany. We were all raised in a society that allows the food industry, mainly fast food, to dictate what a healthy serving size is. Even in our "kids meals" that we start eating when we are old enough to chew solid food is way too much food and certainly too many calories. We get used to the standard of what we are served in a plate of food or a "value meal" and even often opt for the super size because it's such a "deal" right? We never question what they are doing to us, how they are creating a nation of food addicts that need their next fix and are powerless to stop ourselves. We don't stop to think that maybe we don't need three huge meals a day and that maybe God didn't design us to require that much food and calories in a day. i and so many others have proven that most people can cut the amount of food they eat each day down by two thirds and still get all the nutrients, vitamins, and minerals that we need to live very healthy productive lives. The problem is that we have to COMPLETELY change the way we look at what we eat. Not an easy task at all. As a mater of fact it is the hardest thing i've ever had to do in my entire life. Eating healthy every day for the rest of your life is like being an alcoholic working in a brewery or a fish being allergic to water. Temptation is EVERYWHERE!! Every commercial, every movie, every billboard, down every single isle at every stinking store is temptation. You have to change the way you think, erase everything you know about what you need to eat and rewrite it. Not an easy task.

After the two weeks things were a lot easier. i could control my cravings for the first time in forever and i was satisfied with the salad or stir fry i had for diner. i continue to walk at lunch and try to get a few elliptical workouts in a week. Today i am down to 163 and as you can see from the pics below i still have a little work to do and i need to start doing more exercise to tone up that flabby middle and get some muscles on my arms but i am lighter than i was when i graduated high school.

                            

If you are struggling with weight loss and want help feel free to talk to Jen or me about it. We are MORE than willing to help and answer any questions you have for us. Thanks for reading and God bless!

Qeelin

My baby girl's birthday adventure

My oldest daughter turned 15 last week so we decided to take her out Saturday night for her birthday. After talking about it with her for what seemed like hours we finally decided to head to Grapevine Mills and then play it by ear once we got there. Jennifer went shopping that morning in Wichita Falls (almost an hour away) and so when she got home we were going to head out to the mall. i don't know where she found the energy to go shopping in three different stores and then walk around the mall a month after a major surgery but she did. Grapevine Mills is a huge outlet mall that is about an hour and a half (in good traffic) from our tiny town here in north Texas.

Around 5:00 we headed down there and didn't hit any major traffic problems but when we were driving down highway 121 in front of DFW airport we ran into huge construction nightmare and before we could do anything about it we were headed to the toll gates. Now i feel like i should explain that i live in a very rural area and don't have a lot of experience with such things as major airports and even toll booths. We pulled up to the attendant and i had no idea what to do. The guy just looks at me with a smile on his face like i'm sure he has done for thousands of drivers since he took that job and all i could do was just stare back and mutter "what, what do i do?" He says "take ticket" and i look down and a small ticket is sticking out of a little dispenser. i take the ticket and he nods to me as the gate opens and we enter the airport. at this point i'm freaking out a little because i have no idea what to expect. i wasn't prepared for any tolls and don't have any cash on me. Jen noticed that there is a sign that says "$2 for pass through". Now i might have limited knowledge of toll booths in the area but i do remember that recently they removed all of the area's "Cash" booths in favor of the toll tag/bill booths that if you travel through without a toll tag they take a picture of your licence plate and mail you a bill. i was completely surprised to see an attendant and have to take a ticket not realizing that this was not a typical toll booth but the airport's own booth. The whole time my GPS is very confused and kept recalculating. After going all the way to the first terminal and making a crazy u-turn that included a parking lot, we headed back out of the airport and toward the toll booth. i noticed that the ticket said "Present this ticket when leaving the airport" so i knew that i might have a serious problem getting out of the airport not having any cash on me. We drive up to the ticket window and the attendant reaches for my ticket and starts typing into his computer. The seconds passed through like an hour and suddenly he looks back at me, nods, smiles, and the gate opens. i don't understand what happened but we didn't have to pay a thing for our little u-turn.

Now we were headed north out of the airport, toward our goal, and on track according to the GPS, so we thought. Do to the construction for some reason we ended up headed east when we should be headed north. Our GPS realizes this and has us exit and make a u-turn. So now we're headed back toward the construction zone in front of the airport hoping that this time we can find the right exit to head north to the mall. When we get back to the construction it is so confusing and their are no signs to be seen so when i took  what i thought was the right exit it was of course, wrong. i'll bet you can guess where we were headed. Yep. Back to the airport! By this point there was no way i was going to go back through the ticket booth and make a u-turn in a parking lot again so we started looking desperately for some kind of exit or u-turn before we get to the gate. We're in the far right lane approaching the gate and i spot a u-turn crossover all the way on the left. i put my blinker on, looked over my shoulder, and cut across six lanes to make it to the crossover. We make the u-turn and head out of the airport yet again but this time i find the right lane and finally we head in the right direction.

Success is ours! We finally get to the mall around 6:30 and other than having to wait for a table at the Rainforest Cafe and wait in line later on to ride go carts at Speed Zone, it was a good trip and more importantly Christin had a blast.

Happy 15th birthday Christin, I love you!

Qeelin

First Blog - About Me

So, i'm new to this whole blog thing, in case you didn't know. i guess i'll take this time to talk a little bit about me and what i hope to accomplish with this blog.

i'm Qeelin, nice to meet you. (that's pronounced (key-linn) not (quee-linn) by the way) i'm a thirty something Christian husband and father of four. i have more hobbies than i have time or money to properly do them all but i try very hard. i love a wide array of things, for example i play the drums and a little guitar, i am a gamer both with console and PC games but also D&D and other table top games, i like to sail on my Hobie Cat when i get a chance, i play chess on occasion, i attend two different renaissance festivals every year, i'm a council member with the Company of the Stalwart Hearts, our rennie group, and yes, i do dress up, i'm a beer snob who brews his own, i love Star Trek, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, most movies based on comics, my heroes are people like Felicia Day, Wil Wheaton, Tony Royster Jr., Zoe Keating, Richard Garfield, and Diane Linn, (Google them if you're curious) i quote nerdy movie lines to my nerdy friends, i'm a self proclaimed nerd, and very proud of it.

Like a lot of people my hobbies move in and out of focus like seasons of the year. i might be into a certain game for a few weeks and play it every day but then set it down and get into homebrewing for a while. My current obsessions are getting ready for the fall renaissance faire season by working on faire music and helping plan events for the Company of the Stalwart Hearts and 4Nerds Gaming. 4Nerds Gaming is a Youtube channel that i help with. My wife and i and two of our friends play video games and record commentary for them. We joke around and talk about everything and nothing while playing various X-box, PS3 and Wii games. Check it out if you have some free time and tell us what you think, even if you hate it ;).

So that's what i do when i'm not working at my job as a production associate (aka piss ant) for a wiring manufacturer. We build wiring harnesses for commercial and military aircraft. This blog will be about anything  from something cool that i come across while surfing the webernets to funny stories that happen to me in my day to day life. Who knows where this journey will take us but i hope you will join me for the ride. And be sure to comment if you love it or hate it. Thanks for reading,

Qeelin