Hey guys,  I had weight loss surgery after balooning up to 467 pounds.  I had gastric sleeve surgery and now I'm down to 358 lbs! :)

Update 6/5/14

Hello everyone!  I just wanted to post an update today.  :)  I have been working out and eating healthy.  Yesterday I baked 8 chicken breasts for the rest of the week and am now sitting down to a bowl of oatmeal.  Its good to be back in a lifestyle where I value myself for me and not a number on a scale.  I feel better, have more energy and more confidence.  Working out and eating healthy is so great!  :)

Swamped with work

I have been doing so much for work that I have not posted.  I have been keeping up with my meals that I only eat at home.  The best tools I have at my disposal are my habits.  I am a creature of habit so I try to make it a habit to eat breakfast everyday now.  I also try to drink as much water as I can throughout the day.  I will keep on this path and weigh in sometime.  I am concerned about my lifestyle and not the number right now.  I want to keep going to the gym and eating under my goal of 1,800 to 2,000 calories a day.  I am trying to make writing on this blog the first thing I do before bed too.  As you can see it is 3am in the morning.


Thanks for reading!

Pot roast is something that is impossible for me to say no to.

My mother made pot roast last night and asked me if I wanted to eat dinner with them.  My immediate response was "YES!!!" because my mother is a wonderful cook.  I never make roast because I live alone and I would never be able to eat it all.  So I ate supper and had some roast but I did over indulge.  Instead I ate a TON of carrots that had cooked with the roast.  I typically do not eat carrots but they sure were delicious and I knew I was staying under my calorie budget which made them even tastier.

I'm not sure when I am going to weigh in but I can feel my body getting stronger and I have more energy.

I have been lifting weights at Planet fitness in their 30 minute full body circuit room.  I can say that is easily a demanding workout that I am feeling now after having done it only twice now.  :)  I'll elaborate more on this later.

Also happy memorial day everyone!  Lets think about our troops who sacrificed so much for us.

Healthier choices for a guy who doesn't like breakfast.

I am now eating Greek yogurt and fruit.  The fruit is canned and from what I have read that is just fine.  Frozen is supposedly the best but with canned I know exactly how much I am eating with no measuring.  This fits nicely into my calorie budget because a container of greek yogurt is 150 calories and has 12g of protein and a can of fruit GV fruit cocktail in juice is 210 for an entire can.  I am getting over 40% of my fiber for the day and a great amount of protein for very little cost in both calories and cost.  Winning!


The best perk of all is that I open a can eat my fruit then open a yogurt container.  I LOVE this as a breakfast and mix it up with different types of fruit and yogurt.  Typically I never eat fruit so this is my way of incorporating it into my life.  

Thanks for reading!

-Michael

Shedding the shame and focusing on me again.

Hello again,

I am looking back to my previous post that was over 2 years ago.  I wish I could come back and tell you all that I have lost the weight that I had gained back and achieved all of my goals.  I have in fact gained back all the weight I lost plus some.  I am currently the biggest I have ever been at 375 pounds.  I decided tonight that I am going to do anything it takes to focus on me again.  

After college I began working in the IT sector and let my job take precedence over every aspect of my life and used food to cope with the stress of a "big kid job".  I have been doing well in the professional aspect of my life and have the dream job I always wanted.  I found love and lost it and there are many reasons that happened.  After I suffered through the heartbreak I threw myself into work and at one point I was working two jobs just so I would not have to deal with the pain of losing the relationship that I had.  

I am now more balanced in most aspects of my life and am working just one job and I get to travel all across the United States which is great.  Now I know that since I have almost every aspect of my life in order that its time to focus on my health.  I am ashamed to admit that I have lost the battle of weight loss but thanks to Sean Anderson I feel that I can win the war.  In my opinion losing weight that you have already lost before is much more difficult because you always have a nagging fear that you will just gain back the weight if you give up.  It is a harsh reality to know that no matter how much you achieve it can all go away.  I have recently made some lifestyle changes to facilitate this oncoming weight loss journey.  I am also not going to equate my self worth to a number this time around.  

The plan I have started is that I will change my lifestyle and let the weight come off as a result of good choices.  I have a great gym and easy access to it and I am more aware of my weaknesses than ever before.  Please join me and help to keep me accountable throughout this journey.  I am going to list some of the weaknesses I am aware of so I can look back to this post and remind myself what to watch out for.  I am also going to put my solutions next to the weaknesses.

Weaknesses and Solutions

1. Emotional Eating (I will hop over ot the gym when I feel stressed and work it out)

2. Unhealthy foods (I am only keeping healthy food in the house to avoid any temptation, and it is food that I love)

3. Overating (I am keeping under 2,000 calories per day and 1,800 if I am not hungry then I wont eat extra)

4. An inactive lifestyle (I am committing to going to the gym 5 times a week, I actually like it :) )

5. My mothers cooking (Good old southern food that I love but I can live without)  

This is just a short introduction.  I will post everyday and try to include pictures!  I appreciate you for reading this!

Sincerely,

Michael

Confession

It has been over one year since I last posted on this blog.  I want to confess to everyone that I have gained my weight back.  It hurts to say this but I weigh 350 pounds again.  That is the starting weight that I had years ago.  I have come to realize that I let life get in the way and put my weight loss in the background.  I have been looking for a job post graduation from OSU and looked for it over a period of months and between school and my job search I was stressed.  In the face of all the stress I fell back on food.  During a period of 6 months I ate and ate and ate.  I have just decided what to do with my life and that gives me a sense of comfort and now I am ready to get back to making my weight loss my first priority in my life. 

I was looking for a job with a B.S in Business administration and I just could not find a job that I felt would be a good fit.  I decided to return to school to get another major in MIS.  Which is a great field of study to enter and it will only take me one more year to add that on. 

Today is the day that I get back up and continue to fight for my life. 

I plan to make this my source of accountability so please keep reading!  If I don't post e-mail me at mennis@okstate.edu and I will get to it! 


-Michael