July 15 2010
I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired about my weight, living under the guise of “Fatboy” and resting on my laurels from last summer.
No more!
As an avid listener of Dave Ramsey, who says “If I can control the man in the mirror, I can be rich and thin!” I have to take the same approach to my life and get me under control so I can be rich, healthy, and fat. Same principles apply: control yourself, don’t go with the flow. No more preaching from my soapbox about what I did do or what others can/should do to improve their lives. This is “go” time again for me, same as it was last spring.
What is the State of the Fatboy?
Sadly, I went from 135 at the end of the summer in 2010 down to a weigh-in of 103 a couple of weeks ago. That was the straw that broke my back this year. 103! The last clinic knew, I was 116 in April when I said I was dying because I was so exhausted and losing weight and coughing constantly. The doctor amusingly looked at me, saw and verified that I was non-compliant because I was working my butt off on both ends of the candle (you know the saying) and needed to do my darn treatments and take a break.
Attending the conference in Chicago opened my eyes to successful people who have offline zones and times. Sure, we were almost all social media junkies, but there is a time and a place to just BE. Now, rather than immediately checking my e-mail before getting out of bed and then spending the next 10 minutes on Facebook and Twitter in the bathroom while my digestive system comes to life, I go downstairs and get my nebs in order and start my doses. I don’t connect to e-mail or social media for the first 30 minutes each day.
What is the plan?
Yesterday, Beautiful and I were having a discussion that finally led to reason after we sorted out our emotions over the state of the business, our finances, and my attitude being generally “off of center” for a while. Chicago was supposed to recharge me and bring me back invigorated to take on the world, but I’ve been pretty “blah” for 2 weeks. The discussion landed us on some key points that we need to hit on more often than not in order for me to get control of the man in the mirror.
- Get back to having a routine. I used to hate getting up every morning at 5am, in the office at 7am, breakfast, lunch, go home, dinner, TV, games, bed at 11pm, rinse and repeat. I hated it! Now, I think I need it. It added structure to my life that I needed, only this time, I am living my life’s dream, Beautiful is here with me, and we can set the schedule how we want! Brilliant! I’ll detail my routine later.
- Get back to being totally compliant. I’ve gotten lazy in one area of my life: nebs. Now it’s in my schedule to do them, so I do them. In fact, I just finished my night-time nebs, so I’m good to go and do whatever for the rest of the evening.
- Get back to spending more quality time with Beautiful. Monday, for her birthday, I planned the trip to the beach (just so) and stayed with her without being off on Twitter and stuff on my phone unless we were both doing it or she was sleeping. I even took a nap myself.
- Get back to getting my stuff done. I’ve got lingering projects. Sometimes I can do a whole project in a week or so, but I’ve got some that are much longer than that. Some just need to be paid up on, while others are a communication nightmare, but I need to take control and wrap them up and get the money in the bank and lower our stress level.
- Get back to not being down on myself. I was uncharacteristically negative this week and I think it freaked her out more than a little bit. Today got some stuff done and the new schedule is looking up, so tomorrow is a new day with no-no negativity. I am successful.
I have projects like never before coming up this summer that I want to be sure I don’t drop the ball on, but I also have to take care of myself, first with vacation and then with sinus surgery in June.
Fatboy’s schedule
Here’s what we planned out yesterday:
- 6:00 – Wake up. Bathroom, no social media or e-mail, go downstairs.
- until 7:30 – Nebs, Vest.
- 7:30 – 8:00 – Breakfast and vitamins
- 8:00 – noon – Shower optional (hey, it’s just us), work at my computer. Start w/ e-mail, social media, catch up on industry news, and then start my most pressing or closest to finished project – try to finish something before lunch.
- Noon – 12:30 – Lunch downstairs. No e-mail unless my phone indicates important workflow e-mail from an open project.
- 12:30 – 1:00 – Read on the patio or nap or play WoW.
- 1:00 – 6:00 – Work at my computer and bury myself in code and design for the long afternoon session.
- 6:00 – 6:30 – Dinner downstairs. No e-mail.
- 6:30 – 7:30 – Nebs. Vest.
- 7:30 – Beautiful passes out – Quality time: TV, talking, going out on an errand or trip, or blogging like now.
- until midnight – Whatever I choose to decompress, including work if it will clear my mind to sleep. Other options: TV, movies on Netflix, WoW, read more on industry news, and Twitter.
The schedule seemed to work today, even though it’s Saturday. I got stuff done this morning and then was able to take the afternoon to work on the car before our road trip to see the second to last shuttle launch very, very early Monday morning.
Initial success
I’m up to 117lbs tonight after getting a refill of Megase for our trip to CA for a week of pigging out. I wanted to be sure it was a reason for my weight gain before trying to explain to the TSA why I have 8oz of milky fluid in my carry-on. I can assure you, it works as good as it did last year. I weighed 114 yesterday, but after eating all day today and then having a Hamburger Helper Italian Penne w/ 2TB extra olive oil and 1 cup of mozzarella cheese, a Boost Plus, and 16oz of sweet tea (2350 kcal), I topped out at that 117 in a great trial run of the Megase.
Man, I wish that stuff didn’t give me man-boobs from long-term use!
So, I’m onward and upward to 135 and beyond with a goal to rest at 145 this time. I’m going to need your help to hold me accountable to eating like a pig and keeping to my schedule so everything else works. We’re all in this together.
