My Story and The Plan

Hi, my name is J Brian (group responds HI J BRIAN). I am FAT. I have been for most of my adult life.

I will be A Fat Boy No More.

Three years ago I started a journey to become A Fat Boy No More. And since September 2007 I have been publishing my success and failures. This Blog follows me from the day I first started my weight loss journey and it focuses on the everyday struggles that people with weight problems have.

Prepare yourself for a very real and very challenging event in my life. I commit to being as honest and as clear as I can be in the webpage to chronicle my ongoing battle with my weight. The pictures can be explicit.

After 12 years of being bigger than I should be... ok lets just be honest. I was not big I was fat. I have been over weight and muscular for most of my adult life. But the muscular part has been over shadowed by a large layer of fat on my body. I've eaten too much and I lived a sedentary life. In December 2006 I weighed 320 pounds. The morning I weighed myself and saw that I was over 300 pounds I essentially went into a deep depression that day and I am sure that I ate another 5 pounds worth of food. But that night I decided that enough was enough. My weight problem had become more than just an appearance problem it became a health problem, a self esteem problem and it was starting to affect my business and income. I had to do something. And I had to be held accountable. Technology is a good thing. I decided I had to put it out there. I started texting everyone in cell phone saying "Officially a fat ass now I weigh 300". I had been lying forever and telling people that I was 250. And no one questioned it.

The first step I took was to hit the gym and cut my calories. I looked on webmd and found out how many calories there where in a pound (3500) and decided to create this formula to determine how many calories and how much extra exercise I had to do to lose 60 pounds by May 27th. My annual trip to Key West Florida. By February I had lost 25 pounds. On a plan that was essentially the same thing that Weight Watchers teaches you. Then life hit me. After being so good I just got tired of it. I had no real support structure. And so I just relapsed because I was on a diet. Not a life change. But between March and August I essentially maintained my weight loss. In April I got a part time job working in a restaurant as a bartender. Everyone thinks I was crazy to do that but the truth is I just needed something to make me active. I needed to get off my lazy fat ass and be active. I gave up sweet tea and I stopped eating beef for the most part. I chose bison. Which taste so similar and has a familiar texture but had half the calories. Nothing else really changed.

But I did not lose the weight I wanted. When I was in Key West I looked like a beached whale and I felt horrible. I have a picture from that trip that show the folds of fat on my back. I was so depressed after that trip. So I essentially just maintained until late July when my best friend Michelle told me that a guy we both worked with a few years back had lost a lot of weight thru some medical weight loss plan.

I kinda brushed it off. I was looking into Lap Band or some other surgery. Then another friend of mine saw Brad as well and said Brad has lost a lot of weight. So I called Brad and he told me about the plan thru Emory Hospital. I went to an info session on the plan and decided to enroll.

Before you consider any type of surgery please look into medically managed weight loss. IT WORKS. Your doctor or the Bariatrics department of your local university hospital can direct you. Too many of my friends had surgery and lost a lot of weight and regained it. Even with a smaller stomach you can eat ice cream all the time and gain it back. I have a friend that just did that.

So this is what I did initially. Follow my blog posts from the beginning and see the transformation.

Remember

Don't give up today because you fucked up yesterday.

28 May 2010

Operation Boot Camp (OBC) Day 18 and 19

Thursday was Bring a Friend day. I did not invite anyone this month but I already have someone interested in next month's boot camp Bring a Friend Day. It was busy there had to have been 50 people. We did workouts themes around Top GUN. It was hokie but entertaining. Lots of relays and changing of stations doing different exercises. I like it because it was on a flat surface.

In general hills don't bother me. But for the last few days my right lower leg calf and shin have been aching. So this was a bit of a relief.

Today's ground had more instructors than campers. I kid you not. It's also the day before Memorial Day Weekend. So I was not surprised. Today we played a modified soccer game. I liked it... I LIKED it a lot. I won't go into details about the game but I will say a little direct competition was good.

I have not been to the gym this week at all. I think I will hit it tomorrow. We are not having boot camp makeup days this weekend and we will not meet this Monday due to the holiday. So next week we have boot camp Tuesday thru Friday. We will also have a makeup day on Monday the 7th for the day we missed due to lightning. With the end of the third week a friend of mine asked me how i felt about the plan. The answer is simple. I signed up for next month's Boot Camp already. I have come a long way and I have a long way to go. I still need to improve my sit ups.

afatboynomore.com

26 May 2010

Operation Boot Camp (OBC) Day 17

Good Morning Campers

The best laid plans of mice and men. Last night I did everything to prepare for Boot Camp today. I go my clothes ready. I made a yogurt parfait as my post workout meal...something I can eat immediately after I get in the car so I can get some fiber and protein in my diet. And I made my own Iced Cafe Americano. I have an old cheap espresso/ capachino maker and I bought some Cafe Verona beans from Starbucks. I grind my own beans to order.

I woke up at 5AM went to the bathroom, started the coffee and then I made a big mistake... I laid back down. I woke up at 5:30 and rushed to get to the park in time. I had to park an extra block away. UGH And i showed up at 5:55. I was not happy. And I think being late is just purely disrespectful to the program. I am NEVER LATE for anything.

So today we did 21 Gun Salute which is an arm and upper body workout. I was glad we were doing that because we have spent so much time doing legs this last week and a half. We used bands. Again I am becoming a bigger fan of bands than I thought I would be. I should probably us the next level down. I can use the heaviest band but my form is starting to get a little sloppy. And my right shoulder just seems to give out with the heaviest band. PRIDE is a bitch. But a broken (recovered) clavicle, and Thoracic outlet syndrome are very real. I will say my workouts are helping with those problems significantly.

Here is the recipe for my yogurt parfait. Take a cup of low fat or fat free yogurt. Take a whole strawberry and cut it up. If you are using an unflavored yogurt you may want to add some artificial sweetener and a little vanilla extract to give it some flavor. Then add a 1/4 cup of a cereal like Kashi Go Lean CRUNCH. or my personal favorite Post Great Grains "Crunchy Pecan". I am sure i could find cereal with less sugar but it's what I like. Kroger has CARBSMART Yogurt which has very little sugar at all. Calories are less than 320 Calories for LOW Fat and about 250 for NO Fat yogurt. You could use other fruits as well. Just what ever you like. Starbucks has yogurt parfaits if you need a quick option. Calories are in the upper 350-375 range.

For extra protein use Greek Yogurt. YUMMMMMMM

afatboynomore.com

25 May 2010

Operation Boot Camp Day 16

It's been a few days since my last blog entry. Sunday was a good and restful day. Monday I had the best workout I've seen so far.

The exercises were all based on using jump ropes. I have a hard time jumping rope. There is a lot of force going on and my timing always seems to get off a little. The funny thing is I actually bought a jump rope a few weeks ago. It's safely unused in the back of my suv.

So the rope swinging part had me off but the jumping and movement I thought went well. Lots of good cardio.

I felt and looked strong. And a number of comments were made to that fact. Monday is my day off. I had a good breakfast with a buddy of mine and then I thought I'd enjoy the rest of my day off.

Until I had lunch and ate some leftover chicken curry. I assume there was some MSG in the curry because I became lethargic and tired.

I slept most of the day away.

This morning was another story. The workout for day 16 was called airborne ranger. It reminded me alot of the workout from day 1. Lots of relays however most of the relays were not on flat surfaces they were on hills. Honestly I think I ran more today than I ever have before. When I woke up this morning I felt tired still and it was everything I could do to wake up and get to the park. And I was later than I usually am but I made it on time.

Yesterday I felt strong today I felt weak. But I made it thru. I just learned I'm not a big fan of hills.


Afatboynomore.com

23 May 2010

Operation Boot Camp Day 13.

I slept too late for the optional Saturday workout. And I needed it. My age must be showing. My legs are achey.
I find it hard to "not workout". So I went to the gym and did a lower body and arm workout.

My non bootcamp workouts are Very intense. Much more so than they've ever been before.

As I write this it's Sunday morning and I am having breakfast at the Thumbs Up diner in Decatur. Today I am staying away from the gym. I'm just going to enjoy this beautiful day. Take my dog to the park. Maybe ride my Valkyrie.

Relaxing is hard.

21 May 2010

Operation Boot Camp Day 12

Lightning. And there was no boot camp.

At the last minute. 5:50 lightning was seen in the area. I figured they were going to call it off and they did. Right after a car almost hit me while crossing 10th street. I would usually be pissed but the visability was horrible and I'm sure he could not see the red light.

But you know what? The sound of a car skreeeeeeching to a halt and realizing it was inches from your leg when he did stop was enough to get my heart racing.

Thank goodness for german engineered brakes.

So there I was wide awake and wet at 6 AM. What to do? Oh the Majestic Diner sounds nice. Or I could be good and hit LA Fitness.

In lieu of Boot Camp I did my normal upper body workout. Recently I've been doing that for my homework. Saturday in the park there is a make up day for those who miss Boot Camp. Or for those sadists who want it 6 days a week. I'll go to that tomorrow. Just trading my workout days. This week.

A big observation with today's workout. On the good side. I can lift more since I started OBC and I have more energy in my workouts. On the bad side (kinda) there is no pump without the cardio component that I get from Boot Camp.


Have a great day and stay dry.

Afatboynomore.com

20 May 2010

Operation Boot Camp (OBC) Day 11

Today was the most difficult workout so far...and by far. It was called Altitude Adjustment. AND in the end it was the messiest.

I'm not sure if its because this is the 4th day in a row this week or if its because I was tired... I did not want to get up... or because it was EXTRA WET today but everything about this workout was just hard. They say this is a week 4 workout... yeah I can't see it getting much harder.

Today we ran up and down hills up and down steps relay style... and we ran all over the park. Running non stop for essentially 45 minutes.

The workout ended with encouragement. A set of various push ups then rolling over on the ground into a set of various crunches/sit ups. We did 6 or 7 sets of those.

I thought it was funny because I was thinking how relatively clean we were until encouragement...Thanks for changing that Kevin. Piedmont is aerating and all those little plugs of dirt are everywhere. NASTY MUDDY FILTHY.

In comparison to most of the workouts where I am in the middle of the pack I was hangin' with the back of the crowd today... And to give you a follow up to yesterday's KickBoxing Class... I still feel it.

Body changes... I'm getting tighter. One of the girls I work with saw me yesterday and said "Are you losing more weight" the simple answer is no but I'm trading in the fat. I love my tight tummy.

Afatboynomore.com