Day Three Hundred Six

Today was a scary day!

It snowed like crazy but I still went out and did 3 miles with Lisa. The walk took a while, though. It was really snowing and coming down hard. We bundled up and headed out with Cody and Cooper. Usually the walk takes about an hour and ten minutes. This time, it took almost two hours. It was muddy and slippery out there, plus it was cold as heck, but we got it done!

Now comes the scary part of the day. We headed up town and got groceries, then picked up some wood pellets at Home Depot. On our way home, to support the church, they had a Navajo Taco sale to help their building fund so we ordered two of them. We stopped by and picked them up. The Pastor came out to the truck soon as I got there. Lees went inside to get the food. Pastor came and talked to me for a long time, basically getting after me for leaving the church. That guy does not listen though. He thinks I walked away from God. I can't believe he said that to Lisa and I. We tried telling him we didn't do that, but as always he didn't listen and just talked over us. He tried telling me to come back tomorrow for church service...but it's not happening. A few nice words ain't going to change my mind. When I see that guy isn't trying to turn the church into one of his Louisiana black churches that you see on the movies, then I'll consider going back. So I am not changing my decision. He's gonna have to learn that! He thinks he knows me, but he doesn't!

I was feeling kinda cruddy about myself today, thinking I wasn't doing good in my exercising. Well to ease my mind, I've been really hitting this weight loss thing hard these past few weeks, plus I've been drinking my gallon of water everyday for a while now. So I was pretty confident in my weight loss. I wasn't planning on checking my weight until April, but because of how I was feeling, I went ahead and checked it, thinking that the weight I lost in the past 2 months would make me feel better. So I brought in my scale to the kitchen and stood on it....it said 338 :O OMG WTF!!! I gained 4 more pounds since I checked my weight last month and it said 334. That was before I started drinking my gallon of water per day and that was before I started pushing my exercises really hardcore. Since then I have been powerwalking my 3 miles. I've been lifting weights, doing lots of dead lifts and jump roping. Everyday I've been downing my gallon of water. Some days my legs are so damn sore and tired, I can barely walk. So I can NOT BELIEVE I GAINED WEIGHT!!! It makes NO SENSE! I was so scared. I didn't know what the hell I was going to do or what I needed to do. I felt like giving up. I felt cursed. I thought that there was no way I was ever going to lose weight again and I almost just gave up, for real. I text Lisa and told her, she didn't believe I put on fat or got bigger. She said right away that it was muscle. I didn't believe her, of course. But I researched it online. One thing I found was that when you first start hydrating yourself (drinking lots of water) your body will retain lots of that water. Your cells will absorb that water and make you gain water weight. Yeah sounds like ppl when they make excuses for their weight gain right? Well I truly believe that is what's going on with me. There is just no way I got fat again. I've lost so much weight in the last year now that I can't be putting it on. My eating is not bad. Since I started my hardcore exercise again, I've reverted back to my diet that I was on last summer. I been eating salads, chicken, turkey, veggies, and I've pretty much cut all the diet soda out and replaced it with water. I've drank so much water in the past several weeks now. It's the first time in my life I've done this so it was just so damn confusing how I put on weight. One thing the dieticians out there said online was to not measure your weight loss by the scales. Your weight can fluctuate and changes. The scales only measure body weight, not fat and muscle or body fat percentage. They said to NOT GIVE UP!! So after talking with Lisa and reading all this, I got my confidence back. I tried on all my clothes again to see if they didn't fit. Well guess what? All my clothes fit me just fine! Some I have more room than I did at the beginning of January. I'm going to measure by my clothes and I am not going to quit. Dammit, I'm going to push myself even harder from now on. Tomorrow is March 1st and I have two months left in my Fyrescape so freakin A I'm going to make those months count.

So that was my day! I am not ever going to quit. No matter what, I am determined to get my weight down to 200 pounds. That's my goal weight and I don't care how long it takes, I'm going to get there! That's really all I have to say for now. I finished my gallon of water this evening. I'm going to keep up with my gallon of water per day and I'm going to exercise constantly! I'm going to beat this, trust me. Fyrescape is going in to overkill mode tomorrow!!!

Day Three Hundred Five

Busy day today! Woke up, got ready and did my 3 miles! Lisa came with me. We actually walked a lil more than 3 miles today, which is good. I've got myself a new routine I'm working toward now. I'm wanting to build back up to doing 6 miles, but not like before. I'm going to power walk 3 miles, then the next 3 miles, I'm going to do on the track up top and start training myself to run long distance. I'm really getting into this whole fitness thing, like hardcore!

Finished my gallon of water again today. After the walk this morning, we got ready and headed up to town. It was such an Awesome day! I had planned to pay certain bills and it all worked out great! I got my vehicle insurance back on for both my truck and Lisa's car. Now we don't gotta worry about that. We sacrificed it for Christmas back in December and as a result, we lost our coverage and had our policy canceled. Now we got it back on finally ;} Paid our other bills and still have plenty of cash leftover for everything else. Such a wonderful day! I believe God really looked out for us today. So very happy!

It's snowing like crazy outside. I was playing with Cody, throwing snowballs at him earlier. He loves catching them with his mouth. We did that for a while. Cooper's eye is getting better, which I'm so happy about. I hate seeing him like that. He's getting back to his playful self, unlike yesterday. I don't know if I'll take him walking tomorrow. We left him home today because of his eye. Didn't want to risk it.

Tonight I did my crunches, leg lifts, and push ups. I did more than yesterday! I also did a short weights workout. My arms feel great, but super tired. I'm going to try and keep this up every evening. I've done good now for 3 days. I just wanna keep it up always. I think after a solid month of doing it, I'm really going to see a difference and feel a difference in my arms and stomach.

Well, that was my crazy busy and fun day! Waitin on Lees to get home, then I think we're gonna head up to Walmart and grab a few things. So, till tomorrow ;} Goodnight!

Day Three Hundred Four

I got up pretty early this morning, started up the pellet stove, then got ready and headed out. Did my 3 miles alone. Lisa was still asleep and I didn't have time to wake her up. I wanted to get my walk in before my uncle came by to pick me up. I knew that if I didn't do it in the morning, that I probably wouldn't do it at all and I already took a Rest Day so I didn't want another one, not until next week sometime. Anyway, I got if finished though. So happy about that! I did a really strong powerwalk too. I was sweatin pretty bad when I got back. I did a lot of running again this morning. It's so surprising that I can run a far distance. Yesterday really surprised me! Today was the same. My body can go so much longer. I remember back in 2010, I couldn't run 15 feet. Now, I can run for almost half a mile. Still building up to it all, but I know I'll get there!

Finished my gallon of water! I'm on a mission to get Lisa to finish her gallon. It's a tough job though because she hates drinking water, as I've mentioned in past blogs. I hope she eventually gets to it.

Soon as I got back from my walk this morning, my uncle was waiting for me here at home. So I hopped right in with him and we headed to his place. I drove the truck he's going to be working on back to my place to park it a while. Afterwards, Lisa and I went to town and picked up some turkey burgers to cook for lunch. They were sooo good! The rest of the day was pretty mellow. I wanted to go up to the casino because I had nine extra bucks, but I was too tired.

This evening I did another short workout. I did crunches and push ups. Oh my gosh, my stomach was sooo sore all day today! Those leg lifts from yesterday really kicked my arse! I tried to do them again tonight, but I couldn't. My stomach was way too sore so I'm going to put it off and try again tomorrow. The rest of the workout was Awesome! I'm feeling pretty good. I'm going to keep this up everyday! Ok, it was a good day! Till tomorrow ;} Goodnight!

Day Three Hundred Three

Today was both bad and good. Woke up this morning and did my 3 miles! Today I did more than 3 miles though. The cool thing too was that I ran. Since it snowed last night, the ground was frozen. I was just trying to hurry over the puddles and ended up jogging down hill, around the corner and all the way down. I didn't realize at first, but I had ran a really long distance and I felt I could still do so much more. I was really happy about that! I power walked thru most, then ran the rest of the way. I did great! I'm going to start adding running to my daily walk from now on. I really want to challenge myself. When I finished the whole thing, I did an extra lap. I'm planning on building back up to 6 miles again. That's going to be great! This time, however, I'm going to do it stronger and better than I did before. I'm really going to push myself to get a lot out of it.

Finished my gallon of water. Lisa didn't come walking with me today because she went out with her family. We had to haul off Grandpa's trees at 2pm today. That's what time I told grandpa we'd do it. So, I told Lisa to be home by 2. She agreed. Well, she didn't come home until after 3. I was upset, but not that bad. I have NO IDEA what her deal was, but Lisa was in a craze mode. She came home, thought I was mad at her and we ended up getting in a huge argument. She was crying and I felt so bad, but I was also angry at her for getting so crazy and causing this big huge thing. I ended up doing the trees myself. She was too mad so I brought her home, then headed to the dumb. I was really mad. It turned out ok though because we made up and things were better. Lisa felt really bad that she didn't come with me because I really did need her help out there. I got it though, then took grandpa's trailer back to his house. They were very thankful. After I got home, Lees and I had a good talk then worked everything out. She was feeling really bad, but we got thru it all. Finally, I got ready and we headed up town. We ended up going to the casino and had dinner. She surprised me with some money, which was a real treat. We ate a big chicken dinner, then I even played a few games on the machines, but I didn't win any money. I didn't repeat my stupid mistake from the other day though. I only played 8 bucks then we left. I was proud of myself. See, I don't have a gambling problem ;}

Well, the rest of the night was good. We shared an ice cream, then headed home. We got the animals fed, cleaned up the place, got the heater running and now we are pretty beat. I'm going to lay around on the couch, then eventually doze off. I am so tired. It was a long, busy, and crazy day! So glad it turned out good though. Lookin forward to tomorrow ;} So, Goodnight and Dream Sweet!!

Day Three Hundred Two - REST DAY

Ok today really wasn't supposed to be a Rest Day! However, it turned out to be that. Why? Well because we were super busy all day, and because it snowed like crazy. I'm serious, this morning it wasn't bad. It snowed last night and there was some snow on the ground, but it wasn't snowing. I called my grandpa and asked him if he wanted me to haul off his trees today and he said yes, so I woke Lisa up and we got ready. As my truck was warming up, then it started snowing and I mean Hardcore!! It snowed these big snow flurries and it just started packing up on the ground. My dogs were all anxious to go walking too. Anyway, we finally left about 8:20am and headed down there. Grandpa was just leaving when we got there. He told me what to do, then he headed off. So we hitched up his trailer, then I tried to tie the trees down because they were so big but it was snowing so hard I couldn't get it. The back of my neck was really numb. Lisa was building snow dudes while I was doing this. It was crazy! Finally, my grandma came outside and told us that grandpa called and said to just put it off until some other time. He said the roads were pretty bad and he didn't want us pulling that big trailer. So we unhitched the trailer and I talked to grandma a bit. I told her that we'd do it tomorrow. That sux! I really wish we got it done. Blah.

Anyway, we went to the casino afterwards in one of the Biggest Mistakes of 2015 already! I lost all the money I had :( Only $45 but that was all the money I had for gas. Gone! I lost it all. Oh man, I was so disappointed in myself. That was a stupid stupid stupid mistake! I was angry at myself all morning. I prayed to God and said I was sorry for doing that. It was dumb of me to go to that casino. Afterwards, we had to gather all our change. I had lots of change saved up in my coin box so we gathered all that up and headed up to Lisa's bank. We cashed it all in and got over $25. After that, we headed to Subway and got some sandwiches, then I took Lees to the college for her classes. We ate in the parking lot, then I dropped her off and headed home. I got gas in her car with the remaining money and I left $5 dollars in my wallet. Lisa and I agreed that I'd try and win something with that 5 bucks back at the casino. So I came home and did some stuff here. Got caught up on my blogs, then I organized some things. I got a lot done! Lisa's classes were over at 4:30pm. So, I didn't actually head up to the casino until almost 4. I figured with the luck I had this morning, I wouldn't be there that long. It was only $5 after all. Anyway I get up there, play my favorite game and I doubled my money ;} Yay! I only played for maybe 20 mins then I had to leave but I walked out of there with $11 instead of $5 haha. I consider that a success! Anyway, so I drive over and pick Lisa up, then we go and put in some gas. I had $6 bucks left, so we went BACK up to the casino after going home. I won some lost some. Lisa didn't do good. We just tried to win like $20 so we could go get some food. That was all. We weren't trying to hit it big or anything. We only had $6 so not a whole lot we could get out of that. Anyway, we didn't win anything, but we did have some fun. I told her that it's only fun when we win, but that's not true. Just being there trying and joking with Lisa while having free drinks (meaning diet soda) is pretty fun itself! I had a cappuccino though. It was soooo good. I haven't had one of those in a long time.

After we left, out of the blue, Lisa's mom called us and Lees told her what we were doing. She asked up to come pick her up so we did. She filled up Lisa's car with gas and she bought us a big dinner :) That was very surprising. I made some big mistakes today, but I did pray and asked God to forgive me for my stupidity. Lisa prayed as well. We still ended up getting gas in both our vehicles, we had a fun day, along with a great Subway lunch, and a really big dinner that left us so full that Lisa is already in bed this early and I'm going to head to bed also. God really does watch out for us. I'm so thankful to Him for everything. It was a very wonderful day! It turned out really good. As for me, I will NEVER make the stupid mistake I made today. The only time I'll ever go up there is if I have no money and like $10 or less. If I have more than that, no way! Dangerous place, but I know I can control myself. Actually I've done it all this time. I know when to quit. I don't know what happened today, it just got away from me. So bad!

Anyway we watched 'Wreck-It Ralph' and ate dinner. Lisa then fell asleep on the couch. I cleaned out the pellet stove. I had that thing running all day today because it was cold and snowing all day. It stopped now. The clouds are all gone and the stars are out so I'm guessing it'll be clear tomorrow. I called grandpa and told him that we'd haul off the trees tomorrow afternoon about 2. Lisa will be busy tomorrow morning so I wanted to do it later when she gets home. So that's our plan! Ok right now, I'm totally beat and I'm going to sleep. It's been a long fun day. Oh, I may not have exercised today but I finished my gallon of water Woohoo!! I'm glad I got that done at least! Still keeping that up daily now and I'm going to try and do it from now on. Ok, until tomorrow, Goodnight!

Day Three Hundred One

Waking up to a nice clean house was Awesome!! It looked so nice last night so when I woke up this morning, before getting ready to go walk, I cleaned up the kitchen again and my living room and fired up my pellet stove! This place looks so good, so does my bathroom haha. My weight room is lookin so Awesome as well!

We went out and did 3 miles today! Also, I finished my gallon of water again. I finished it pretty early today! I was still thirsty this evening. You know one of the best things about drinking all the water I'm drinking now? It's taking my cravings away. I'm not hungry so much, also and this is a huge bonus, I don't crave soda or iced tea. For years that's all I drank everyday was sweet iced tea. I drank that stuff by the ton everyday. I couldn't get enough of it. That was my favorite drink on the planet. Well since I started Fyrescape last April, I pretty much gave that up. I hadn't had any iced tea until my slack off months of November and December. Then I was drinking it, but since I got serious again last month, I've once again sworn it off. Also, last month was when I started the gallon of water per day, I believe. Wow, has it been that long?! Dang!! Anyway since I did start, I've pretty much laid off all the diet sodas I was drinking too. The only time I'll have a small cup of diet soda is at night after I'm all full of water. I'll have a small cup but I don't always finish it. So that's really good for me! I'm just all water and light foods now. We're only gotten Subway every time we feel like eating out or getting something in town. No more burgers, pizza, or any of the bad stuff. It's either Subway, turkey burgers, veggies, fish, chicken, salads, and a whole lot of water! Lisa is still working on her gallon per day. She's really got a problem drinking water. She doesn't like it so it's really hard for her. I'm going to keep pushing her though. She needs it just as much as anyone else so hopefully I can get her to start downing a gallon per day by the end of this winter season, but it's a long shot.

I almost finished cleaning my room today. I cleaned some, but it got so cold this evening. Looks like a snow storm is moving in. I was so tired this evening so I didn't finish my room. I'll try tomorrow if I can get some time. I've gotta haul off some trees for grandpa tomorrow morning. All those tree limbs we cut down on Saturday, they're all on his flatbed trailer so I agreed to haul them off. We were going to do it this morning, but it snowed last night and the roads were pretty bad. When Lisa and I did our walk this morning, it was snowing and everything. I was telling her, "Dang everyone is sitting in their homes all warm and toasty, or sitting in their heated offices at work, and here you and I are out here getting our exercise in!" That's what you call motivated ;}

Anyway, so tomorrow we're going to haul off trees. Hopefully the snow isn't too bad. I'm just glad it finally did snow. It was getting so warm outside that the damn bugs were starting to come out. Me, I'm not ready for it to be warm yet. I'm still trying to enjoy WINTER! Summer and Spring, that ain't for a while yet, so come on, Drop All The Snow You Want!!! One more thing, the other day lifting weights, I pulled a muscle in my left arm. Dang it really hurt! I couldn't outstretch my arm for a couple days so I didn't do any heavy lifting the last couple days. Don't wanna injure myself severe! Ok well that is all. Time to relax and probably fall asleep on the couch lol. Goodnight!

Day Three Hundred

300 Days of Fyrescape!!! WOW!!!

This is definitely a milestone for me. I can't believe I've been at exercising and losing weight, along with eating so much better and watching calories, basically living a much MUCH healthier lifestyle, for this long! It's Amazing and I thank God that He has blessed me with the strength and the drive to do this everyday! I will admit, I really slacked off the end of last year, but that was only because I was so busy doing work at the church so I can't feel too bad about that. I've been back on the horse since last month now and I can really feel the changes in my body! My knee is much stronger and I'm feeling lighter. I haven't checked my weight and I'm not going to. I'm just going to keep working everyday and get it all done, then come April, I'm planning to really hit it hard since that'll be my last day in my first year of Fyrescape. I've decided too that come April 29, 2015, that will be the start of my Fyrescape 2. That one will be much more intense. Then, I hit the big time on April 29, 2016! That's when Fyrescape 3 starts and I haven't decided what that one will be, but it's gonna be BIG!!! I'm super excited at where I'll be by then. So far, this 300 days has been very Awesome. Fyrescape wasn't just about weight loss and getting healthy, it was about gaining Mental health as well, meaning learning about myself, my life, and figuring things out. I've been doing that daily! Just the other day, I realized what all the mistakes were that lead me to losing myself for those years and putting on so much weight. I've learned that I need to let go of so many things from my past because that's done nothing for me but distract me from moving forward. Fyrescape is the Journey Back to Excellence!! So I'm really coming along well. I'm hoping that this next 65 days really does wonders for me. I'm almost at my year mark. I hope to be somewhere great by then! Until then, I will continue to push myself daily and just keep going! That's my best advice to anyone. Just Keep Going, No Matter What, Never Give Up!!!

Did my 3 miles today! Lisa came out with me this time. She was pretty upset that she didn't get to do it on Friday, or yesterday because we were working, so today she was delighted to be out there. I also finished my gallon of water once again. I'm really getting used to that. I'm actually drinking more than a gallon now. Sometimes, I'll finish all my water and then my body craves more later on in the evening so I'll have another cup before I go to bed. It's been Awesome!

FINALLY CLEANED MY PLACE TODAY WOOHOO!!!! I cleaned out my weight room this evening. I really cleaned it and wiped everything down now it's lookin really spiffy! The Big one was my bathroom. I cleaned it really really good! Oh man, my sink is white now. I cleaned the heck out of the whole thing. Now my bathroom and my weight room look so nice! I can't wait to use my bowflex now along with my exercise bike, ab lounge and other weights. I'm very proud of myself! Tomorrow, I gotta clean up my room, then my place will be lookin Superb ;} Ok, Goodnight!