End of Jocktober

Jocktober was a success and a failure. However, I look on the bright side, therefore, through the fails, I see improvements. Lets talk about the WINS.

1. Roller coaster

I finally fit in the roller coaster seat without feeling embarrassed. I conquered a fear of mine.

2. Gym Challenge

I pushed myself harder than ever in the gym. One week I ran for a total of 21 miles. I wanted to puke after some runs but I still accomplished something I thought I never could do.

Fails!

1. my diet

haha, I wanted to do a week eating solely fruits and veggies. #Fail… BUT, my takeaway is that I need to eat more fruits and vegetables on a daily basis. Lately, for my snack at work, I eat apples. I brought in carrots and dip for a snack today. I am taking a right step, away from processed food.

2. I am still plateauing!

Yup, no weight loss. Probably weight gain because my diet was off due to a whole cheat week.

To help with the plateau, I ordered Green Coffee beans off of Groupon. These beans have helped clinical trial patients lose 15% of their body fat without diet or exercise. I heard about this on The View and it was also on Dr. Oz. I am not relying on the green coffee beans to lose weight but just jump start the fat burning process.

I will have more on the miracle workers once I start using them.

~NOVEMBER CHALLENGE~

I thought of this in the shower today. Yes, I had to tell you this :)

Anyways, This month starts the holiday period when we binge on sweets and carbs. Well, we can’t always say no. SOOO.. I came up with a plan to fulfill our sweets and still be on a diet. It is a 50 / 50 plan. Every time sweets are in front of you, you will eat or not eat. It will go back and forth. Therefore, if I passed on the cake yesterday, then I can have a thin slice of apple pie today. Get it? it is better to alternate your yes then to binge by saying ‘YES’ all the time. Try it! I bet you will notice how little weight you will gain over the fat gaining season.

Love you all,

LaRell

So… When I gave you the ‘Jocktober’ challenge I forgot to mention how scary gyms can be. I mean, it is another world. It doesn’t matter what job you have or level of intelligence. To get respect, you have to use proper techniques. However, being new to the gym is very intimidating especially if you encounter the four types of these people.

Jocktober Begins with this new vlog :)

I am a Soda Addict

Hi, my name is LaRell and I have an addiction to soda.

It started when I was a young lad. I needed to drink some kind of bubbly refreshment with every meal. That need for soda at every meal expedited my now, former, obesity.

I tried to stop. But, I failed. The summer before college I tried to lose weight to make an impression on my new colleagues. I did so well. I lasted a WHOLE semester without a taste of soda.

Then, horror hit on a cold, eery day in January. I was on my drive back to school with a buddy. We must have ate some bad food because we… got… FOOD POISONING!!

Now, I will spare the deetz on the disaster of my food poisoning, but I will share that my body regrets that meal. Due to my “illness” I was ordered to sip ginger ale… SODA!!! But I couldn’t do that because I cut soda out of my diet.

I had to… I needed to… to survive.

From that point forward the addiction swept me from under my feet and I started guzzling down Sprites like it was the end of the world. Yes, I did mention Sprite, I am a part of the unfortunate demographic statistic / stereotype.

Skip a few years later…

Its June of 2011 and I sitting back drinking a nice cold one (soda) watching ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ with my MOMsicles. It’s Vegas Week and we are watching dancers get creamed by executive producer, Nigel Lythgoe on the telly. There is this dancer, her name was Natasha. She had a personality for days and she instantly became the fan favorite. Of course we wanted her to make it through Vegas Week.

Tragedy struck for Natasha; after practicing for a routine, she fell ill. Rushed to the ER, Natasha received news that she has diabetes. DIABETES!!! Homegirl was only 18 and weighed way less than me.

I immediately put down my drink and swore off soda from then on.

1 year later, I am going strong with no soda. It is sometimes weird to put my order in at a restaurant and just say ‘water’. Its even weirder that the Natasha moment was when I first began to change my diet. Granted, I substituted soda for sugary ‘Arnold Palmers’ and ate like I was on a cruise ship every day.

So in a weird way, thank you TV for changing my life.

~LaRell

250 lbs Check In

On the first, I weigh at 250 lbs. This means I have lost over 130 pounds in 8 months. If there was a graph on my weight loss you will notice that I am plateauing. Most people are worried and/or annoyed when the plateau. They think they are doing the work but not seeing the results.As of right now, I don’t feel this way. I kind of like that I’m plateauing. Its like my body, skin, is getting a break to recuperate for a while. I am definitely looking on the bright side of this.

Many many changes have happened in the past few days. I decided that it was time to clean my room. This meant I had to comb through my clothes to either put it in A. my dresser or B. Goodwill stack. Next week, I will be Goodwill’s best friend. I have a ton of jeans, pants, and suits to give away.

I am not much of a shopper for new clothes. When I wear something, I wear it for a LOOOONG time. If it has holes then it becomes a house shirt. So it is getting weird that I am letting go of some clothes. I am keeping my 3XL shirts for one more round of wear then I will sadly give them to charity.

My whole closet is becoming unwearable, I desperately  need to buy new clothes. I just don’t want to invest my money on something so temporary. Last week I went home to visit momsicles and popsicles. Mommy bought me some new threads. My waist is at 37, therefore, I bought 36w shorts and dress pants. Apparently, I can wear an XL shirt now. This news is crazy because I can shop at almost any store now. I might have to dethrone myself of internet shopping because I can be normal and shop in person.

There is a lot that is hard to process. I just try to smile and hold on tight to this crazy ride I call life.

~LaRell

260lbs - Check In

Okay, I lied. I definitely wrote that the next blog post will be on nutritional labels. However, I forgot my twice-monthly check up was coming up soon.

I currently weigh around 260 pounds. This is a 5 pounds lost in 2 weeks. This is great news because my weight loss is slowing down, a little bit, to help my body recover from its shock.

This past week has been simply amazing. I finally fit in these pants I bought at Goodwill a couple months ago. Yes, I shop at Goodwill, when I have the patience. I find it a bit silly to keep shopping for smaller clothes when I can save at a thrift stores.

and to contradict completely the above statement, I went inside a real clothing store this past Thursday. I think it was Macy’s and I found great clothes, in my size, on sale. I went inside the store on a fluke, just to see what jean size I was actually at. Normally, I buy jeans online which you can never try on. Now, I wear a 38w which is pretty surreal because all my life I’ve lived in the 40s, upper 40s. It’s kind of funny that my closet is full of clothes that are too big for me. When I donate them all this year, I am hope for a big tax refund. Yes, I am that frugal. :)

The next post should (hopefully) be about reading nutritional labels.

~LaRell.