What a nice Birthday.

Today was my birthday. I popped out 57 years ago. I don't feel a day over 14. That's where Cindy says I got stuck. Cindy broke our agreement and got me an MP3 player. At first I was a little put out. (Only because I thought we had gotten past the get presents for each other on the birthday stuff) I have to admit though that I really like it. But now I have to figure out what to get her for her birthday in a month.

Jeff and Amanda and Brandon and Preston came over for dinner tonight. They to got me something (An awesome Gym bag) It's really nice. I wouldn't have bought myself one that nice. Thanks again guys. Jeff showed me how to down load songs off of Cindy's CD's I have a pretty good Library going already. It will make the workouts better. Some of the songs are pretty motivating.

I'm down to 207 lbs. Who would have thunk it? I feel like I've slowed down quite a bit because I'm down to losing 1 lb a week instead of the 3 or 4 I was melting off. It has helped taking off all that weight (107lbs) I have 37 more to go. My back still bothers me from time to time if I'm on my feet to long because of my left leg being shorter now. Cindy told me that for every pound you lose your taking four pounds of pressure off your knees.

Thanks to those of you that  called and wished me a happy birthday. I think I might be getting the itch to blog again. (I don't know if that means I'm going into more of a manic stage again. I've been going back and forth between depressed and really feeling good the last couple of months. It hasn't been to high and not to low. The Wellbutrin must be keeping me in the middle. I'm not sure if I can do that everyday thing or not. I'll have to see. If not everyday at least 3 or 4 times a week maybe. I might just be whistling in the wind. If nothing else it will be a record for the kids and the grand kids for when I'm gone.

The only thing that would have made this a perfect day was that Josh, Adrianne and Mackenzie weren't here. We didn't really plan on it a being a party. Cindy sort of turned it into one a little by making me a cake and putting candles. At least she only whisper "Happy Birthday".    Later.

FitDay Free Calorie Counter and Diet Journal: Foods Eaten

FitDay Free Calorie Counter and Diet Journal: Foods Eaten: "- Sent using Google Toolbar" I'm trying to get this to print on the page. I haven't figured out how to do it yet. If you click on the link you can see what I had to eat today. Today was a disaster. It was the most calories I've had in 5 months on one day. Oh well. I beat myself up at the gym then my trainer finished me off. I think I burnt as many calories as I consumed today. I'm down to 222 lbs as of this morning. 92 lbs lost so far since Feb 14.

Just poking in for a minute.

My sister Donna emailed me telling me I hadn't posted in a while. I haven't felt much like posting really. I've been down a lot lately and don't want to get on here and whine. As you can see from my recent picture, my workouts are going pretty good still. I'm up to 89 lbs lost. I'm more than halfway there. This isn't bad since we just got back from camping for the 4th of July weekend. I continue to work out at the gym and count my calories. If anything I need to pick up the calorie count a little. Besides this everyday is pretty much the same as the last one.

A pretty good week over all

How do you like my nails? These aren't my feet. I forgot what blog I got the Photo from, sorry.I actually really don't need any help with the scale I've continue' d to lose an average of 2 lbs a week the last month. I've only lost about 3 inches so I must be building some muscle up. I'm down to 236.8 as of Saturday. I am more than half way to my goal of 165. It seems like such a long way to go still but I have to remember we've only been at this since February 14th. 78 lbs in 4 months. At this pace I should be down to my goal weight by October.

Yesterday Cindy and I got to baby sit Brandon and Preston. A good time was had by all. It's fun being a Grandpa.Brandon has  really got a great disposition and is fun to watch.He's very smart he must have gotten his brains from Mom right?  Next Saturday Adrianne, Josh and Mackenzie are going to come out for a short visit. That will be fun as Mackenzie is really starting to crawl and move around and explore a lot.

 

This was dinner tonight. (It tasted better than it looks) Peppers stuffed with rice, black beans and onions, with diced Tomato's. It was very good.  Momma even made a couple extra so I can warm them up for lunches this week.Two half's only came to 360 calories. It was more than enough for dinner as we had a big ole Spinach and lettuce salad with various veggies and a fruit salad for lunch. With my Skinny Cow Ice cream sandwich I'll top out at 1513 calories for the day. My breakfast this morning was a to die for Vegetable omlet with Feta cheese and Bacon that Cindy made. It was one of the best omlets I've had in a while. A lot cheaper to eat at home too.

We continue to go to the gym. I'm getting to where I don't feel guilty when we take a day off now. I really didn't feel like going today at all. (kind of a downward trend in my mood right now) Cindy and I did go though and I ended up doing 8 miles on the bike. Not bad for not wanting to go.

Well off to have my Skinny cow Ice cream sandwich. mmmmmmm

Something I've come to realize lately

I think I miss driving my big truck! I can't believe I'm typing this.I left it on so it must be real. Don't get me wrong I don't miss at all the time away from home, (Can't ever get that back)the dirty bathrooms, the receivers or shippers that just didn't get it and lots of other stuff that I  don't dwell on.  But one of the biggest things I miss is handling that big truck in traffic and backing in and all the stuff that is a challenge driving a truck. The feeling of accomplishment of delivering a load safely and on time. The not having a boss looking over your shoulder was kind of nice also. I was pretty anal about being on time. I would say my on time percentage was 99.9%. Being late was never an option. I think I can count on one hand the number of times I was ever late for an appointment.

I drove for 27 years with one accident that happened after 26 years of driving. It wasn't my fault.(I know we all say that) But it wasn't. The little ole lady driving the car that just panicked and pulled right in front of me on 81 North as a wicked rain storm was hitting in Scranton Pa. It ruined my day and her and her friends I'm sure. Luckily they weren't hurt just shook up. I did push them down the road sideways for a bit before I could get stopped. I was pretty shook up too. Luckily the truck wasn't damaged at all. Just a slight crinkle in the bumper. I was driving a Swift truck with over 200,000 miles on it so it had seen a few dings and such before I got it.

My Bipolar disorder (that's right,it all mine you can't have it) seems to be at bay right now. My highs haven't been to high and my lows haven't been to low. The Wellbutrin I'm on keeps me just this side of depression usually. It's interesting being in tune with your body, both physically with what I put in it and emotionally with how I'm feeling. I used to just sort of glide through life taking my health and well being for granted. Years of doing that takes a toll doesn't it?

On my weigh in this morning I lost a few more lbs I'm down to 239.4. The fat is just melting off my body. I'm not complaining.  I have really been  weak and tired the last 3 or 4 days though. I think I've lost some muscle mass. Not that I was every muscular it's just that I think I've done to much cardio. I've cut my cardio in half. Today at Golds I did about 4 miles on the bike which is a little more than I meant to do but the Yankee game was on TV. When that's on I can pedal for ever it seems. I had to force myself to get off after 4 miles. I did some lower body work on the weights as yesterday was upper body. I really didn't feel like going. But as normal I felt great after the workout. Oh yeah I got about 20 min work out in the pool to. My breathing on the 4th stroke is still a little off but it's better than when I first started.

Momma and I went out to breakfast alone this morning. Shawn and Pat had other things going on. So we went out on our own. I got a to die for 3 egg Omlet with Broccoli, Cheese and bacon. I even had home fries for the first time in a long time.Finished it off with wheat toast dry. We didn't go out until about noon so it was lunch and breakfast combined.  Tomorrow we're going out to breakfast with Shawn and Pat again. I'll get another omlet I'm sure. I'll probable leave the home fries out though.

Busy day!!

  After getting momma off to work this morning I went down to the gym for my workout. Did some Cardio a few machines and a lot of work in the pool. The workout really wiped me out. I got home played catch with Indy leaned back in the chair and passed out for two hours. It worked out pretty good. By time I woke up the lawn had dried up from the overnight dew and I was able to get the mower out.

 

This is my mower. I don't know what I'd do without this thing. The yard is to big to mow by hand. It takes me two hours to mow with the rider. You should see me when I get off the mower I can hardly walk for about 10 minutes. After I stretch a little I'm able to mow with the push mower under and around the bushes. I didn't used to be able to do this. So there is some improvement there. But by time I'm done with that I'm pretty much done physically. It is getting better because of my time at the Gym but I have to realize my limitations still.

I'm down to 240 lbs today. Weigh in day isn't until Saturday and I'm down 1.6 lbs from last Saturday. I've started backing down my cardio on the bike to 2.5 miles and on the rowing machine 5 minutes. I've been trying to pick up the pace a little on the weight training.

Our friends that we go to breakfast with on Saturdays came over with Dunkin Donuts coffee and a Apple and Spice donut for each of us.I had enough room with my calories tonight so the donut fit right in. It tasted darn good too.

The Yankees won tonight. Life is good.

 

Weigh in Day!!

 

To day was my official weigh in day. I weigh in every Saturday just after I get up.  Drum roll. I'm down to 241.8 with a BMI still in the 37's. Which is still in the obese range. I'm shooting for under 30 in the next month or so so I can be just "overweight".

I ended up with about 1500 calories for the day again. That seems to be what I'm falling into no matter what I eat. I haven't been planning out any particular menu. Staying accountable as the day goes on has helped me keep it before me and it's something I think about before I just put something in my mouth to eat. I do want to get where I plan out the days menu before I start so I can fine tune what I eat a little better.

After Breakfast with Shawn and Pat this morning Cindy and I went to the Gym. Today was  weights and upper body, along with my regular Cardio. I  also swam in the pool for about 20 minutes. So it was a pretty good workout day. My knee is being helped by all this excercise but my left leg is still shorter than the right so it is causing me the back pain still. I got a nice power nap in this afternoon. Cindy worked on the camper (sewing some more) when I was done with my beauty sleep I went out and helped her.

 

We grilled some Ny strip Steak on the Grill tonight. It was a little to done. I like it well done so I didn't mind. I think Cindy would have liked it a little less done. Also grilled some Peppers and a baked potato. Mmmmm good.

 

We went through my closets and drawers today taking out clothes that were to big for me. Sizes 3X. It was kind of neat trying on clothes that used to be to small but now they're wayyyy to big. We have quite alot to take to the Rescue Mission. Cindy has saved alot of clothes from my sized before I gained all the weight. We went thru them all so. I am now into 2X's but even some of them are loose on me. Heck this is turning into a weight loss blog. I guess that is better than talking politics huh? I have just about zero interest in Politics now. Both parties lie out of both sides of their mouths. Life's to short to worry about things I can't change.

My workouts have been going great!!

Got this picture out of Time magazine.

Tonight was beat up Mark and Cindy night at Golds Gym in Liverpool, Ny. (I'm sure you saw it on the national news) Well if it wasn't there it should have been. I did a half hour of cardio before my time with the trainer then he worked me pretty hard for my half hour. Sweat was just pouring off me by time he was done with me. I guess that's what we're paying him for right? We told Gregg (the trainer) that this would be our last 6 week stint with him. We each get 1/2 hour a week for six weeks for $384.00 that's starting to add up. We think we have got a basic idea how and what to work on. Maybe we'll pick back up with him for a six week session in the winter as we get down near our goal weights.

I've got a new book I'm reading and Here's the website it's based on. I've just started reading the book and it is quite a change from conventional thinking. I'm going to have to take it slow as I tend to go all or nothing with things. It's an interesting blog. Check it out if you want to study up a little on how our body works and how to lose weight. Cindy is looking at my out of the side of her eye because she knows how I get anal sometimes. Speaking of anal. How are you doing Stan?

monday

I had a pretty busy day today. I went to the gym at about 9:15 with plans to bike for 5 miles then work on the weights for a while before getting a shower and being at the Chiropractor's office by 11:00. Well a friend from a church I used to attend (Back when I did that) was there and we got to talking while I was still biking. One thing led to another and before I knew it I was on the bike for 41 minutes. I didn't have time to do a proper work out on the machines so I jumped in the Jacuzzi took a shower and made it to the Chiro with 10 min to spare.

Speaking of the Chiro. My left leg was quite a bit shorter than my right this time. Last time they were pretty much even. I could have told him with out him checking as my right hamstring has really felt tight. It must be compensating for the difference in length. I'm having all the pain in the right side of my hip now. I have to come up with an exercise that will stretch out my back on that side now.

I'm down to 246.4 as of my last weigh in on Saturday. I'm doing pretty good so far this week to. It's lower than that now but I'll wait to Saturday to officially weigh in.

I've been having some manic symptoms the last few weeks. Nothing that last very long but I can feel my self sort of losing it from time to time. I had a little bit of a Spiritual component last week to. I need to keep an eye on things and not let them go to far. Last time I went manic it cost us $107,000 for a new house. About the only project I'm working on money wise now is maybe getting a new 2 car garage. We got an estimate today. $19,500. That's kind of steep. I'll talk to a few banks and our credit union but I don't think we'll be able to do it. We don't really want to go into any more debt right now. The House is enough.

 

I mowed the lawn again today. I just mowed it Friday but it needed it again already. It looks pretty good it took a lot out of me to do it. It's amazing how whipped I get even though most of what I do is on my riding mower. I can hardly walk after being on that thing for two hours. This is what my Tractor really looks like. That seat isn't very comfortable after being on it for two hours. It hurts a lot but has to be done, so I just suck it up and use the heating pad when I'm done.

Cindy covered our adventures of being Grandpa and Gramma this weekend on her blog if you want to go over there and read it.Momma's site

All's well that "ends" well!!

  Well I got the results of my Prostrate biopsy.(my 2nd one in 2 years) The results were benign. All 12 of the samples came up negative. So that's some good news. I asked the Dr. if I was going to have to go through this every 2 years. He told me no. The 2 negative test are good. It just means I have an enlarged prostrate.

My Yankees are starting to stink up the joint. They're like 5 games out now. They have a lot of people injured but it's been their pitching that has let them down lately. It's still early in the year yet. Not time to panic yet.

I was a regular ole house husband today. Mowed the yard and all the trim work. I had to take about 4 breaks but it looks pretty good. I vacuumed the house. That's one of my assigned duties. It looks like I'm going to end up with about 1200 calories for the day as dinner is over and I've already entered my Skinny Cow Ice cream sandwich. That's to low but tomorrow is weigh in day I usually get on the scale everyday, but only count it on Saturday. I'll report on the number in the morrow.

We didn't go to the Gym today. Today must be our day off. We'll go tomorrow after breakfast with Shawn and Pat. We have to almost force ourselves not to go everyday. You can be to anal.(No pun intended)

We put the camper up last night. The repairs to the fabric seemed to hold. We'll probably test it out for real next weekend. We'll leave it up for a couple of days then put it away.

Justa nother day!

 

These are a couple of pictures of the truck that comes and does Indy I promised yesterday. It's pretty cool. Indy really responds to her and is pretty excited when he comes back in all dolled up.

I went to the gym this morning after my Ortho appointment. It was interesting at the Ortho's. Debby the Physicians assistant and some of the other ladies that work in the office there were commenting on how much weight I lost. They said it makes me look much younger. It's kind of uncomfortable accepting compliments. (It's not something I've had to worry about most of my life) I guess I'll just have to get used to it because I'm only half way to my goal weight. My workout at the gym went well. 5 miles on the bike, 5 minutes on the rowing machine and 20 minutes or so on weights and crunches. That last 15 minutes in the Jacuzzi was niceeeeee.

Cindy got out of work late today so we went to Subway for dinner. We split a Foot Long Turkey & Black Forest Ham On 8 Grain wheat then each had a bowl of Potato & Bacon soup. About 640 calories total each. We both went into the meal with a lot of calories left for the day. I even have room to have a Banana Chocolate Smoothie made with Chocolate whey and milk. That gives me about 1500 calories for the day. I have room for my Skinny Cow Ice Cream sandwich but I'm going to stop at the Smoothie.

"What are you going to do tomorrow?" you ask. Ok no one asked, but here's my plan of attack for tomorrow. Sit by the lake in my lawn chair and read. I'll probably do that after my Gym workout.

The Gym

I'm finally going to head back to the gym tonight. That's why I took Cindy to work this morning so we could go together tonight. I haven't worked out since last Thursday night. The bleeding finally stopped  when I pee. (I know to much information) I took my first Arthrotec this morning so all my sore joints from the Arthritis ought to start loosing up in the next day or so. I'm not going to work out in the gym. I'm going to swim some laps in the pool and sit in the Jacuzzi. I don't want to Jar anything  for another day or so. I really miss being able to beat my body up. lol.

 

Here's a picture that is similar to the rowing machine at the gym. I do a minimum of ten minutes. My best so far is 20 minutes. The other one is the Recumbent bike. I've done an hour on that. I usually do 5 miles though. These two machines are ones that I can work out on because I'm sitting down and they don't put pressure on my knee and back. These are pretty much what I've used to get up to the 67lbs I've lost so far. I do some strength training to try to build up some lean muscle but I've mainly been focusing on Cardio.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I drove around to some nice neighborhoods on my way back from dropping Cindy at work this morning. Our next project is going to be some Landscaping and maybe putting a sidewalk in. Those are a next year at the earliest kind of thing. Also in the conversation is a 2 and a half car garage. We've been him and hawing about this for a while now. We like to pay as we go on these projects as we just don't like debt. We paid cash for the new front porch. The only thing we still owe on are the house(That will last forever) and about $5,000 left on Cindy's car. We could have paid in off when we got it, but we added extended warranties,maintenance packages and just about what ever else they were selling us. The interest rate is only 3.5%. Heck there aren't to many investments paying that now, so we don't feel to bad carrying that note for a year or so to build savings back up.

 

Here's a picture of something like what I would like to do to the front. I got this picture off of Google Images. I haven't shown it to Cindy yet so if she doesn't like it then we go to plan B.

Indy is outside getting his haircut as we speak. It's kind of nice. Andrea (his haircut lady) has a Truck that she has converted into a mobile haircutting studio. She drives up, comes to the door and gets the pooch. After she's done she walks him up to the door. This cost $60.48 which I don't think is to bad. She comes about every 6 weeks. I'll try to put a picture of the truck up tomorrow.

If your snoozing you won't be losin!!

A lot of people have asked me how I did it. Almost expecting me to  say I used this magic pill or that book.Or I was on this diet or that diet. Nope. Those are things I used the previous times I tried to lose weight. They worked for a while but never for the long term. This time the difference was "me". I made the decision that this was it. I'm 56 years old and it is either sh*t or get off the pot. This is a life style not a diet.I knew what I had to do I just had to do it. No amount of book reading was going to bring my weight down. I look forward to how I can challenge myself to stick to 1500 to 1700 calories a day. It's become a habit now.

This is the site We use to keep track of our calories every day. I've worked my butt off to get here and I'm still not half way to my goal so I sure aint quitting. When I get there I sure as heck aint coming back. The  second thing We've done is I've joined Gold's gym. Cindy and I signed and payed  in advance for a two year membership and have had a trainer from the beginning which is pretty expensive too. By the month it is $49.95. The trainer is $394.00 for 6 one half hour sessions for each of us. So you can see it's quite a financial commitment. We are going to sign up for one more six week stint. We believe from here we can go on and do it ourselves. Our trainer is really good. He pushes us enough to get a real good work out in, but not so hard that we feel like we are on the biggest loser. He's very good at giving us things to do to work around both of our disabilities and still burn calories.

What's really neat for me and which has made it easy for me is at the same time I made "the decision" so did Cindy. We are in this together. We aren't doing it for the other person. It is for ourselves, but at the same time we have a partner. That's the thing that has spoken to me the most though. We have to do it for ourselves.

Cindy just left for church awhile ago then she's going to go to the gym. I have to take at least one more day off. I hope to get back into the Gym on the morrow. If not Tuesday for sure. I chatted on Facebook with my little sister for over an hour this morning. It was nice to catch up with her.  My mower wouldn't start this morning. It was the battery. Replaced that with a new one from Tractor Supply now I'll be good to mow tomorrow.

The Yankee game will be on in a little over an hour. I think I'll settle in and watch that. Sunday is a day of rest you know.

Now this is optimism !!!!

Justa busy day!!

  Here's a picture of Mackenzie I took last week when I went out to Rochester, Ny to see her and her mom. Look at that smile. She's 10 months old crawling around like crazy and loves to stand up. She'll be running around the house in no time.

Today was Saturday which is usually breakfast day with Shawn and Pat. They went to  one of their daughters graduation from college today so Cindy and I were on our own. It was kind of nice to just sit and talk to momma. We took our time and really enjoyed the meal. I  had a vegetable omlet with wheat toast. It's kind of weird keeping track of everything I eat. It's becoming almost second nature.

I put that it was a busy day in the header. It wasn't very busy for me. I was a spectator (Supervisor) for most of the day as I had a biopsy on my prostate yesterday morning and I can't do anything for a couple of days. This is for the guys only. Is it fun having the doctor stick something up you wazoo or what? NOT!!  It's not a real comfortable procedure. The peeing blood isn't to much fun either. I hope this isn't to much information for your Stan. As far as the busy part. Check out this picture of the front of the house. We just had a new front stairs put in. 2500 lbs worth. They delivered them on Thursday. Today Cindy went out and changed the walkway and the area leading up to the stairs and she put all new mulch down all along the front of the house.       When super woman (I mean Cindy) was done with that she worked in the garden cleaning up the rocks that grow somehow. Then she cultivated the ground with the new cultivator we bought about a month ago. It was frustrating not being able to do anything. I sat outside in my lawn chair talking to Cindy the whole time. I'm sure all the neighbors driving by must have thought I was a slave driver. As I finish this post now Cindy's out making dinner. Am I spoiled or what. Thanks to all of you that stuck around while I was on "vacation". It took a long time to get my head in the right place.

Justa starting anew!!

Ok... I said it before but I mean it this time. I AM BACK. The new and improved version(is there such a thing?) is returning to the blogeshpere. I've been in hibernation long enough. I never really left. I've been checking out everyone's blog from time to time and reading a ton of things on line. I was burnt out as far as posting goes and it has taken me this long to even "want" to post. I'll give you some quick updates on what is going on since a lot has happened since we last chatted.

 

*  I'm still on Workmen's comp. We have attempted to try to settle out so I could get on with my life but they just don't seem interested in settling this thing.  They did make an offer of $75,000 with no medical. That doesn't work to well. I was making pretty good money when I got hurt and that ain't even close. My knee is going to need to be replaced at some point and I think they should pay for that too. So we shall see.

*  I applied for and got Social Security Disability on the first go around. If any of you are familiar with SS you'll understand how unusual that is. It probably helps that we had the paper work and all supporting documents from all the medical people involved up to snuff. Momma is very good at organizing things and everything was perfect paper work wise. It probably also helped that I have had two hospitalizations in the last 10 years for my Bipolar and Depression.(That's right it is all mine. No one else can have it.) I still haven't wrapped my mind around the fact that I am on Disability. I  feel like I am taking advantage of the system. Len my Social Worker try's to tell me that I worked for this and put in to the system all these years yada yada yada. (Can you tell I've been watching reruns off Seinfield?)

*  On the weight loss front. When I first posted my weight on this site. I don't remember what date is was but the weight was 294. I did awesome. I went from that to 314. Pretty damn good huh? Am I the next Jack Lalane or what? That's how down in the dumps I was. That was then and this is now. On Valentines day this year Cindy and I gave each other a present of a membership at Gold's gym for two years. We also bit the bullet and got a trainer. Before we had signed up I had dropped down to 301. So the day we started on February 14th to today I'm at 247.4 lbs. 54 lbs. Not to shabby huh? I'm not gong to reveal Cindy's numbers as I don't want to sleep on the couch. I'll let her reveal those to you if she wants to. Suffice it to say she has done very, very well also. We are committed to this new way of living. We don't call it a diet. I stick to between 1500 and 1700 calories a day and write everything down and we go to the gym 6 days a week. We go together a lot but we work out separately. I'm limited to what I can do but what I can do I go all out. I do 5 miles on the recumbent bike and I'm up to about 20 minutes on the rowing machine. Toss in a workout on the weights every other  day  some other cardio work , some pool time and viola. It's hard but so worth it. I'll keep you updated on my progress. My goal is to get down to 165. It's not a matter of if I can do it but when will I do it.

I have a lot more things to bring up but I'm going to leave it here. I don't want this to be a novel. Real quick though. Mackenzie, Adrianne and Josh's daughter is growing and doing fine. and Jeff and Amanda have a new little one. They have added Preston to the family. He came on his due date. He is doing fine too. Just like Brandon, poor Preston looks a lot like his dad at that age too. No one is probably still out there, but if you are. Thanks for sticking around and we shall visit again later.