So here is another weigh in and I lost another 7.6 pounds that is a total of 68 pounds all together I am extremely excited about that and I feel that I am seeing the results for the good choices that I am making in my life.

My wife wanted me to add in that she lost 5.6 pounds and so that puts her total to 33.2 pounds lost on weight watchers. So she hit her 10percent and surpassed it. We are both very happy campers.

Whats up with Charles? Where has he been?

As some of you already know I was recently admitted to the hospital for an infection, and I was in for 5 days. The whole time I was in the hospital I still followed weight watchers, THANKS TO MY WIFE, who brought me all my food everyday so that I could make sure to follow the plan. This means that I did not eat the hospital food. Also, being that I eat 44 points of food every day, means that she ,my wife, worked hard to get the food ready. THANK YOU FOR THE SUPPORT BABE.

You have probably guessed by now that I usually weigh in on Monday's, but I was in the hospital that day, so I went and weighed in on Wednesday (the day that I got out of the hospital). That is why I didn't film the weigh in, and I didn't have the camera.

What was my weight in? you ask.
I weighed in at 529.6 that's 60.4 pounds since joining weight watchers. Also that means I got my 10% key chain. I am feeling really good about that. I go weigh in tonight and I will definitely be posting that video.

I weighed in.

I lost another 3.4 pounds (yay), so that puts me at a total of 53 pounds lost. I also got my 25 pound pendant and my 50 pound pendant. :) I am one happy camper.

Another Weigh In

Wish me luck I weigh in tomorrow. I have been walking a lot this week so hopefully I see some good results on the scale. Don't forget I will be posting the weigh in here on my blog right afterwards.

Walking and a good old black bean burger.

At my work they have so many wonderful programs that you can do to get in shape, or just become more active. One of these programs is with Virgin health miles. With Virgin health miles you get a pedometer (that counts your steps), and you can up load these to your own personal website and monitor your activity, and if you get a certain number of health miles you can actually get money (I know right, good stuff). Well I have had my pedometer for a month now and have racked up a total of 1960 health miles, but in order to get money I need to have a total of 7000 health miles so away I go.





Well right now I am involved in a challenge with virgin health miles, that was set up by my weight watchers coach, who also works with me, so she has a pedometer as well. The challenge is to walk as much as you can. There are 6 teams, and it just so happens that I am on Juan Te's team. Juan Te is a walk master, she could walk circles around anyone. I feel very honored to be on her team so, being the competitive person that I am, I decided that I want to beat these other teams even more than we already would. I know when did I become this person? Isn't this a nice friendly competition between co-workers? The answer to this is yes it is. That's why there should be no hard feelings when we beat the other teams.





So what I decided I would do, since I work at a job where I sit down a lot, I would walk in place for 30 minutes 3 times a night. That seems to be working well for me. I am so excited to be contributing to Juan Te's and my teem. Go team Go.








On a side note, I love black bean burgers. They are made by morning star farms, and they are so good, not to mention they are only 2 points.

Live your life on purpose.

Right now at work we are doing this program called 'live your life on purpose', and I wanted to talk about how much this has inspired me.



I don't know about you guys, but I used to constantly think that if I was going to lose weight that one day it would just magically happen. In reality if we want to do something (lose weight, quit smoking, get more active) it has to be us that makes that decision. No one else, on this earth, is going to live our lives for us. We have to purposely decide that we are going to take measures to do something.



So in order for me to take my own advise I started to move more. I am learning to quit making excuses, and just do it. For the first time in a long time I worked out in my living room. For 2 minutes I walked and for one minute I ran. I did this for 30 minutes, and believe me it was hard. It was also kind of funny because when it was time to run I would start praying, out loud, almost pleading, that the clock would hurry and change to the next minute. I thought to my self this would make a hilarious YouTube video, but for some reason I am just not ready for to put that on YouTube yet. When I finished running I felt so proud of my self, the since of accomplishment was amazing, to the point that I talked about it for the rest of that day. Now I have since done that 2 other times and it is getting easier, I don't quite scream as loudly for the next minute to come anymore. Also Carly and I go walking together just about every night, and on Mondays before class we go walking with some members of our group in weight watchers at the target close to our meeting. When I first started moving and exercising more it was really hard. There were moments that I just wanted to give up and go take a nap. Taking the stairs at work seemed to me as if climbing Mount Everest. Weight watchers has helped me to live my life on purpose, and in doing so I have improved in all aspects of my life, spiritual, physical, and mental.

So I encourage you all to 'live your life on purpose'. As you do so you will be surprised at how much you grow, and the things you learn.

Eating...

As some of you may have guessed by now I love to eat. It is one of my favorite pass times. Which I guess is ok if I am eating the right things and following my points.

What are points? you ask: well points are what are given to food. Every weight watcher member is given a certain amount of points that they need to eat every day. The way they are given these points is by taking a test. The lowest number of points one can get is 18 and the highest one can get is 44. Well I get to have 44 points. Which is a lot of food.

Well everyday I fill out what is called a tracker. A tracker is a little journal, if you will, that you write the foods you eat in and subtract the points of the food from the 44 (or whatever number) that you get in the beginning of the day. Well in order to follow the plan there are healthy guidelines to be followed, and lets face it when they say "healthy guidelines" you get the impression that you don't have to do those things. Well I am here to say that that is not true, you will have a lot more success following those guidelines than just eating what ever you want.

So what do I eat? Well this is a typical day for me

44
2 egg whites 2 42
slice of cheese 2 40
olive oil 4 36
onion 0 36
grapes 1 35
orange pepper 0 35
corn 1 34
tomato 0 34
sandwich thin 1 33
chicken salad 2 31
chicken 1 30
cheese 1 29
brown rice 3 26
1/2 c. chicken 3 23
veggies medley 1 22
sweat sour sauce 2 20
watermelon 1 19
broccoli 0 19
1/2 c. cottage ch. 2 17
tortilla 4 13
motz. cheese 2 11
pizza sauce 1 10
pepperonis 2 8
w.w. mini burger 4 4
bagel thin 1 3
cream cheese 1 2
apple 2 0

Wow that is a lot of food now that I look at it. but of course it is dispersed throughout the day. everyday I have at least 2 lean proteins, 3 dairies, 2 oils, 5 fruits and veggies and a lot of water. I don't even drink soda anymore, not that I cant it's just that I don't want to waste my points on a mt. dew. This is a much healthier way of eating, and of course one has to eat to lose weight, but they just have to eat the right things.

Getting all of this ready takes quite a bit of planning, but of course as you know planning ahead is what makes me successful. I could not imagine how crazy my life would be if I hadn't planned ahead for the day. By the end of the day I would not be liked very much at all, and not to mention it would make it a lot harder to follow weight watchers for me.

Also I have an amazing wife (if you don't have one; I highly recommend it, just not mine she is... well mine). She takes a lot of time out of her life to help me, and her, plan ahead by putting pre packaged fruits and veggies in the fridge. I know right; this woman is a saint. When I am asked if I find it hard to plan ahead, I would have to say no, it is the best thing I can do for my self to keep a healthy lifestyle. I hope this has given you a look into what I eat. Of course it varies day to day but over all you know I am always going to get my; veggies, fruits, milk, oil, and proteins. Until next time, Charles.

And the winners are....

Our leader in weight watchers (who by the way is an amazing leader) set up a challenge to our Monday night class. The challenge was to help us weight watchers members to exercise and get moving more. The challenge lasted for a whole month with prizes that were, fancy serving spoons that measures your food for you, and a new member kit; which includes a dining out companion (so you can eat out and follow the program), a total food guide (which gives a general point amount for different foods), a three month journal (to record what you eat in it, and track your points), a recipe book (that give simple recipes for breakfast lunch and dinner), and a coupon booklet (with a lot of coupons for things you can get to make weight watchers more fun).
In order to win these wonderful prizes the leader had to pull your name out of the box. There were several ways you could get your name in the box.
1 entry for every 10 minutes of exercise
5 entries for exercising with the leader
3 entries for having walked 7000 steps on the day of weigh in
7 entries for turning in your tracker
Well I am all about winning something so I did all of those things, and so did Carly(my wife). Well today was the day to pick the big winners (no pun intended). So our Leader could be honest she decided she wasn't going to pick, so she had one of the front desk ladies pick. The first item up for win was the measuring spoons. The woman put her hand in the box and pulled a name; with the rest of the class holding our breath in anticipation. Carly! the leader called out. We all clapped because she deserved to win them, and frankly I felt hey if she won I win to, so to me it was a win win situation.
Now it was the time to announce the winner for the wonderful new member kit. A name was drawn and again anticipation. After waiting a few seconds she announced; Charles! WHAT! I screamed out yeah we both won.
Carly, being the most amazing person that she is, said "here you can have the spoons back, pick another winner". Smart girl keep the new member kit. But she was turned down we were told we won fair and square. That was pretty exciting.

The big weigh in.

So today was the big weigh in and guess what I lost 7 more pounds. I was so excited considering I didn't know if I would lose or gain this week (even though I did what I was supposed to do). So now I weigh a grand total of 540.4 which is a loss of 49.6 pounds since the beginning; so all I have to do is lose .4 of a pound and I will have lost 50 pounds. That will be a great day for me. I hope this video uploads.

Welcome to my blog

Well I have been doing weight watchers for a month now and have lost 42.6 pounds so now I weigh a grand total of 547.4. I know that I have a long way to go, but it is totally worth it to me. I go weigh in tomorrow and I will be recording the weigh in on my camera. I have been feeling a little heavy this week though, so I am nervous. I hope I lose some weight at least.
I joined weight watchers because I am sick of being this big. I did weight watchers one other time in my life, but I was not successful. Whats different this time? you ask; well my whole attitude has changed since then. I now know what it takes to do this, and that is to just do it.
It is so easy to think, this is hard, I don't have to do this, I can lose weight on my own. If I start to think I can do this on my own I am delusional and then I have no chance. Also, I had a real eye opener; one night on one of my runs to a fast food place (Wendy's) to "get my fix", I ordered a triple bacon cheese burger, 2 large fries, 2 double stacks, 2 spicy chicken nuggets, and a large soda, and I ate it all. I know some of you are probably thinking how is this possible, but believe me it is. So anyway after consuming my fest I laid in my bed and thought to my self; I am going to die, I am dieing.
It took some thought to realize that I am addicted to food. One day well talking to my sister, who is a recovering drug addict, on the phone; she was telling me about what it felt like to crave a drug, how you want it so badly and it is the only thing that will make you feel better, I said to her that that is how I feel about food. That was my realization that I was an addict my self and that my drug of choice was food. You see I always felt I was better for not having addictions but really I am not better at all. I thought if my sister could do this and stay clean for so many years than I can do this too.
People around me were making healthier choices, A friend at work was a real inspiration to me. I watched her join weight watchers and stick to it whole heatedly, she never complained that it was hard, she did what she needed to do and now because of her diligence she is right where she wants to be with her weight. I thought to my self; how is it that this woman is so strong? How is she doing this without complaint? It hit me like a ton of bricks, it takes accountability, and maturity to decide that you can do this. I am not saying that this has been easy for me, because to be honest; it hasn't. Even though it is not easy I have followed it whole heatedly.
In my weakest moments I have had to tell my self to get over it and just do it. I actually feel like I am enjoying how I eat. I eat a lot of fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and dairy, along with some other things I enjoy. So to those that read this blog, I hope I am able to lift you when your down, with the hope that you will be able to lift me when I have my down moments. When I lose all of my weight that I need to I will have a big party, and who knows maybe I could even go on the Ellen show. That would be awesome. So I better get some rest, for tomorrow is weigh in. Have a good night.