It's been a whole year.

It just dawned on me during my weigh in on Sunday that I have been doing Weight Watchers for men for a full year now.

I began that journey on January 9th, 2011 here with a different blog.  I started weight watchers at a hefty 235lbs and close to a 40" waist, I was headed down a path of obesity and self destruction.  Ok, maybe destruction is a strong word but theoretically that was possible if I continued down that path.  Those first few months were really difficult for me.  Adjusting to a life of less food, more exercise, and less scotch and beer was awful.

On my 1 year weigh in anniversary January 8th, 2012 I weighed in at an exciting 195.8lbs.  In my head my goal was to lose 50lbs in one year. That would have put me at a healthy weight loss of just under a pound a week.  I am at 39.2lbs lost for the year, and couldn't be more excited.  The weight loss is very noticeable now.  I had a friend who hasn't seen me over 3 months say, "where did you go?"  I laughed and took that as a huge compliment!

This was me before I started weight watchers:

I now fit in almost 34" waist jeans, I was able to put on jeans the other day that I haven't worn in years.

I am now no longer ashamed of my gut hanging over my belt and will tuck in shirts again.  (Now I look less sloppy).


This is me now:

(I really need to get some more full body pictures of myself, but its tough because I am always the guy behind the lens).

I definitely look drastically different in the face, and although the picture of me with Noah is from when he is 5 days old, I have only lost about 6 or 7 lbs since then.

I am regaining my confidence, and with the added weight loss my workouts supercharge my days.

I am faster.

I am leaner.

I am happier.

I am healthier.

I am stronger.

I am better now than I was before, and I will be even better this year.

I will be able to keep up with Noah when he starts walking and running.

I sleep better.

My joints don't hurt when I run anymore.

My feet don't hurt after work anymore.

My clothes fit like they are supposed to.

My wedding ring doesn't fit because my fingers got skinnier...(WTH, I had fat fingers?!!)

I bought a bike, I ride alot.

I run, ALOT.

As my next challenge to myself I also joined the Shirt Off Swimsuit Challenge , you can join their facebook page.  It is run by a rather inspirational person as well.  Brad L.  I met Brad when I first started running again at a Fleet Feet Couch to 5K program.  Brad is a marathoner (and longer distances), cyclist, and all around pretty fit guy these days.  Challenge yourself to be ready for the beach this summer and join his facebook group.  I don't know if I will ever be posting pictures of myself with my shirt off...but I will be ready for the beach this summer, will you?

Also, as a side note if you need some humorous and charming gems to read you should check out my little sisters blog as well...Click here, here, or here.  It will take you to her page.

Resolute.

I have never been much of a New Years Resolution person.  Not that there is anything wrong with making resolutions, but it seems as though most people don't keep them, or they set some unattainable goal that will take more than a year to accomplish and give up when they realize they won't reach their goal.

"I'm resolving to be a better person." (Why?  shouldn't you just do that normally?)

"I'm resolving to lose weight." (do you really need a new year to decide that?)

"I'm resolving to go to church more." (I should probably do that...)

"I'm resolving to eat more cookies." (now that is a solid resolution)

"I'm resolving to drink less alcohol." (it's empty calories...)

"I'm resolving to be less mean to people." (Me mean? NEVER.)

I'm not trying to harp on anyone making resolutions but I just don't like the idea of people resolving things at the New Year because usually it just sets people up to fail or quit.  If you are resolving to lose weight in the new year understand that you have a huge commitment in front of you.  You need to change your mindset entirely.  If you plan on just dieting to lose weight you are never going to be satisfied with the results because eventually when you quit your diet you are just going to gain the weight back.  If you resolve to be healthier, exercise more, or eat better it should be something that you commit to for the rest of your life not just because it felt right on New Years Eve.

I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe New Years celebration.  I wish you all the health, wealth, happiness, and weight loss you work to achieve this year!

Happy New Year!

 

longest ride yet.

In keeping with my workout routine, I sometimes feel like I have to make up for missed exercise days with an extended workout.  I haven't been on the bike in about a week and was feeling the itch to really get out and ride.  I gave my friend Mark a call and he was definitely in for a longer ride since we skipped our last ride for pancakes and time with our wives and kids.

I have been under the weather the last 4 or 5 days with a mild chest cold so I was curious as to how my lungs would hold up.  I must say that there is nothing that will make you feel better with a chest cold than fresh air and a 20 mile bike ride.  Yes, 20 miles.  This is my longest ride to date this year.  We headed out to the Montour trail at Logan Road and road well into Peters Township.  10 miles out and 10 miles back, total time with 1 stop for pictures and a snack 1 hour and 45 minutes.  Not too shabby if you ask me.  The sun was shining and the temperature was just right to prevent us from overheating.  If you haven't been to the Montour trail in the Bethel or Peters Township area I highly recommend it, the scenery is just amazing.

The ride gave me an additional 24 points to use during this week on the weight watchers program.  I am going to try to avoid using all 24 points because I am trying to get out of this weight loss slump I am in.  I made sure to snack on a fiber one bar while we were riding and got plenty of water.  Afterwards I had a low fat turkey burger (high protein) on a bagel thin and a bowl of Campbell's select beef barley (light) soup.   I also had a glass of skim milk right away to help get my muscles healing before I jumped in the shower.

Dinner last night was a spinach and tomato salad with light ranch and some leftover low fat turkey sausage with roasted peppers, onion, and garlic.

I don't know if it is the cold I am fighting or just the quality of protein I was eating yesterday but I feel very satisfied after those meals.  Maybe I will have to try them out again when my system is firing on all cylinders.

Post #2 10/27/2011 Fitdad update.

I seem to have become a cluster-poster.  Making all my posts for the past few days in one single day, so if you didn't read the earlier post from today you can find it here.  This post is going to be more fitdad, than dad, but there is still a small amount of dad thrown in at the end.

I have now been going on close to a week with my "refocused" approach to weight watchers for men.  Sunday will be the determining factor if it is working.  I have been diligently tracking my points and snacks and I also lowered my daily points target by 2 to see if that helps as well.  I have been on the bike trainer once for 35 minutes and ran two days ago, all since my last post.  I had made plans to go ride with my friend Mark on Wednesday, but rain and a hankering for pancakes kept us indoors.  Can't say that I regretting missing that workout for Pumpkin Pancakes and a great brunch spent with Mark and Kristin and their daughter Carly.  She and Noah are just too cute when they are together...all the old ladies were swooning.  Mark and I figure we can really pick up some hot blue hairs during brunches.

I set out on a mission during my run a few days ago to see how fast I could run a 5k.  I did that a few weeks ago when I was in Jersey for a wedding and ran a 25:38.  My goal was to run faster than that, I pushed and pushed, and finished in 25:25.  I was pretty stoked!!  Actually a little sore today because I haven't run that hard in a while.  I feel as though if I keep pushing myself I will be able to get my 5k time down into the 24's by the new year and hopefully further down that next year.

I need to get in at least 1 or 2 more workouts this week to feel comfortable with my progress.  Today is out because I work all day.  I will either have to get up early before work Friday (unlikely), or workout after work.  I am due to spin on the bike for at least 30 minutes followed by a run before Sunday.

My diet has been erratic the last few weeks, but it's difficult to always stay on the program when you are attending parties (baptism) and going out to eat.  Thank heaven that fruits and veggies are 0 points on weightwatchers plus because bananas, apples, kiwi, celery, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, and pears have been my hunger busters the past few days.  I have also relied on fiber one bars (4pts), baby bell (light) cheeses (1pt), and eggs (2pts) and chicken breasts (vary due to size), to fill my diet with fiber, protein, and flavor!  I rarely use mayo on sandwiches because its has a points value, I prefer hot sauce and mustard whenever possible.  I have really tried hard to cut out the mindless snacking that I consistently don't think about when I am hungry as well.

Now on to the additional "dad" section of part 2 of today's blog.  Here are the developed pictures from Noah's 2 month photo shoot!  I have had a few people ask me where we got the onesies marked with months for the pictures.  Those are actually stickers, we received them as a gift from our good friend Kristin Sullivan!  She said she got them from www.etsy.com just search for baby month stickers.  You will see a large selection of them.  (I don't make any money from you clicking that link just wanted to share!)

2 months!

Today our handsome, bubbling baby boy is 2 months old.  Wow, two months!!  Alot has happened in the 60 or so days since this little guy was born.  He has changed so much in the first 2 months, he has begun to really develop a personality.  Christine and I kid each other that he is a bit too dramatic sometimes, I think he gets that from his mother.  He has a voracious appetite, something he definitely gets from his father.  He has his mothers chin, and his fathers eyes.

In these first 60 days I estimate we have changed about 700 diapers, have given him 450 bottles totaling somewhere in the range of 1800 ounces of formula and breast milk.  We have done more laundry than a local laundromat.  We have lost more sleep than we have gained and we have had more visitors than we can count.  Having a newborn at home isn't an easy task but it's worth every moment.  Noah changes before our eyes.  Best advice I can give a new parent, take 1000 pictures the first month, and another 1000 the second.  Because every picture you take is going to be different.  I never want to forget what our little man is like right now.  He may be 100% dependent on us right now, but we would be 100% lost without him in our lives.

Noah had a wonderful present for mom and dad on the eve of his 2 month birthday as well.  He decided to bless us with 9 straight hours of sleep!! We were expecting a long night soon, we just didn't expect it this soon.  Since day 1 Noah was usually good for about 3 to 4 hours of sleep before he would wake up in a panic (dramatic...like mom) and want food (like dad).  In the last week or so he had graduated to about 5-6 hours of sleep before waking up starving.   I swaddled Noah last night and put him down about 8:30 in his crib.  Our room is close enough to his that we just leave the doors open to hear him, no need for baby monitor most nights.  I woke up to hear him cooing in his sleep about 2 am.  I assumed he would be ready to eat shortly so I kept an open ear and dozed off.  I woke up at 3 am, listening to make sure I could hear him.  The occasional grunt or sigh let me know he was still doing fine.  I fell back asleep and woke up at 4 wondering if he was ok, and to my relief after a few moments laying silently in bed I heard him sigh and snore a bit.  Again I fell back asleep, only to wake up to his soft cries at about 5:30am.  It was Christine's turn to get up with him so she took the feeding shift and came back to bed a little after 6.  We were so excited to have had so much sleep, we didn't know what to do with ourselves.  We got up, had some coffee, watched the news, and had breakfast.  I took my shower and got ready for work.  I was getting ready to leave and I poked my head into the nursery and Noah was fast asleep.  He looked so calm and peaceful, I whispered goodbye and slipped out of the room.

I received a text message from Christine that he made it until 9:30am before she decided to pop in and check on him.  He was laying in his crib completely Houdini'ed out of his swaddle.  He was lying on his back kicking and smiling.  For the first time in his life he had woken up under his own power.  He didn't wake up because he was hungry, he just woke up because he wasn't tired anymore!

Hallelujah!

We are crossing our fingers that this trend continues because we really enjoy the full night sleep!  We are very lucky, Noah has been a relatively easy baby.  We can pick up his cries, we know when he is hungry, we know when he is uncomfortable, and we know when he is happy.  He smiles all the time, and it's not just gas anymore.  He laughs occasionally, usually more so when he is just about to fall asleep.  He is very funny when he is in that twilight mode just before falling asleep.  He smiles in his sleepy state, and chuckles to himself, I wish I could capture those moments on video because I know those moments are impossible to replace.

These first two months have had their ups and downs but all in all this has been a wonderful experience.  We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful baby boy in our lives.

I also want to add a special thank you to a good friend Robert Healy III for directing traffic this way from The Baldwin-Whitehall Patch online news site.  Bob and I became friends a few years back, he is a great writer and friend.  (Check out his work at the patch and like their facebook page by clicking on the hyperlink).  I received no money for this and I make no money from this blog.  I am doing this as a chance to journal my son's development and my fitness/weight loss.  I want to be able to show this to him when he gets older so that he can experience what his first few years were like.  If you are here from The Patch, thanks for stopping by, if you like what you see add your email to my subscription box or add me as a friend on your reader.

Thanks for Reading,
Ron

A New Beginning.

After 85 posts at the old blog I decided it was time for a change, time to rename, refocus, and start over.  I made the decision to start losing weight and get back in shape on Sunday January 16th, 2011.  Since then I have lost over 35lbs through a combination of eating better (weightwatchers for men) and regular exercise.  When we found out we were having a baby it was time to decide whether I wanted to continue down a self destructive path of eating, drinking, and sedentary lifestyle or to start over.  I chose the latter, and am happy that I chose this path.  I have been under 200lbs for a few weeks now but have not been losing much weight in the past month.  I would say the blame mostly falls on all the nice people bringing us food so that we don't have to cook since Noah has been born. 

When the baby was born I spent the first 2 weeks or so just adjusting and getting my life back into order.  Life will never be the same (in a good way!) with this little bugger in the house and adjusting my workouts to fit around his schedule is going to be difficult.  Add to that the level of exhaustion that we feel from long nights and interruption to our normal sleep schedule that a baby brings and you have a recipe for disaster.  I don't really see it that way though because I look at the workouts now as a chance to get out and get fit.  To be ready for when Noah is able to run around the house and play.  I am going to need all the energy I can get.  I could either be the FAT DAD...or I could be the FIT DAD.  I am choosing to be the Fit Dad.  I hope you enjoy this journey as I continue to try to lose these last 25-30 stubborn pounds and as I grow as a first time father.  There is going to be frustration, fear, joy, and laughter in this journey and I hope that you get some laughs and maybe a few tears from reading the blog.  Thanks for being here and thanks for taking the time to read.

Me in High School: (about 130-140lbs)

Me at 30 and close to 235lbs. (notice the gut...and larger than normal double chin)

Me at the present with my adorable (I know I am biased) Son Noah 8 days after he was born 8/25/11 (notice the lack of round face and double chin at 199lbs)

(ps if you like the picture of the son and I you should see the rest of the work from our photographer she is amazing (very busy, but quite talented)  www.weddingsbyheather.com

Have you decided to be a fit dad instead of a fat dad?  I would love to hear from anyone out there who can help with insight or guidance to help me along.