Accomplishments on both hikes

Last year I decided that I wanted to go on a hike with my weight watchers group. We went to a trail that wasn't extremely difficult called the wind cave trail, at usery park path. The thought of going on this hike both excited me and scared me at the same time. I couldn't wait to test my body after the 7 months on weight watchers, and I didn't know how I would feel if I couldn't make it all the way to the top. Having my wife, and new friends with me helped me to just relax and accept my abilities and strengths that I had then. I however did not make it all the way to the top, but where I stopped my friends and I named it "Victory Rock". I knew that this was indeed a victory for me because I did everything to get to that spot. I did not feel bad that I didn't get all the way to the top, I rejoyced in my ability to get to this "Victory Rock", and Sudenly it became my rock. Here are some of the pics from that excution. Unfortunately my camera died before I got to "Victory Rock", so I don't have a picture of that.

This is of my wife and I at the beginning of the tail.

Some friends and I taking a rest.

Carly and I about halfway of the mountain, and also the last picture before the camera died.

Knowing that I did not make it this time I knew that I would want to do this again, I knew that as my body got stronger I would want to make it to the top, and rejoice there. So about a month ago I got invited from my work to go do this Hike again. This time I made a goal to get to "Victory Rock" and stand on it, knowing that I would make it further this time. Well thats exactly what happend I got to "Victory Rock" and I wasn't even that tired. I cantinued to push forward, and I did it, I made it all the way to the top, and here is a picture to show that I was there.
Juan Te and I at the wind cave trail.

weigh in from 6/6/2011

Here is last Mondays weigh in. The previous week I was 312.8 and I weighed in this week at 305.6. That is a loss of 7.2. :)

I was so excited to see this loss because it has been a long time since I have seen a 7.2 loss. Now I only have 6lbs to go until I am under 300lbs :).

Enjoy.

Before weight watchers and Now

Before I continue on sharing other neat things that I hadn't posted here is a Before and Now picture of my wife and I. Hope you enjoy.

Most recent weigh in

So I wanted to get my last weigh in on here so that you guys could see where I am now. I do have another weigh in today though, but I will get that up as soon as possible.

weigh in 5/30/2011, my previous video that I uploaded I weighed 439.8, now I weighed in at 312.8, that is a loss of 127lbs since my last post. Enjoy :)

Long Time No See

So it has been a long time since I have been on here to up date my blog. Some of you may have wondered whether I have quit my healthy life style endeavor. The answer is no. I am still very active, and enjoying my healthy lifestyle. That means that I have a lot of weigh ins that I have video taped to be posted, but I am going to try and think of a way to just make one big video and post that, this way you can see the weight loss.

You are probably wondering... well... how much have you lost now???

I have now lost a total of 277.2, so now I weigh a total of 312.8. I will upload my latest video as soon as I can, and then work on the big video of the weigh ins.

Now that that is out of the way, there has been so much that has happened since we have last talked.

First of all, and probably the biggest thing is, my wife is no longer going to weight watchers as a member... I know I know, what!!! how could that be!!!.

Well before you have a Myocardial Infarction, I just want you to know that she is pregnant, and you cant be a member of weight watchers while you are pregnant. Not to worry she fully intends on rejoining weight watchers as soon as the baby is born, which will be next month on July 20Th. We are both really excited to have our daughter come and be a part of our lives.

Okay now that that is out of the way, on to other things.

Well I have now been following the weight watchers program for over a year now. I can't believe that it has been that long. It seems like just yesterday that I joined, tipping the scale at 590lbs.

Healthy living continues to be a mental process every day. Some easier than others, but the mental is always there. Someone once asked me, "whats the secret?". Well I don't know that there is just one secret but I said, "for me, I had to wrap my mind around this. Deciding that it was going to be difficult, but there were no excuses big enough, and there still aren't. This is something that anyone can do, it is just a matter of deciding that you are going to do it."

I used to be the biggest excuse giver out there. Here are some examples of excuses that I used to say to my self, when I wanted to self sabotage.
I had a hard day today, I deserve this.
It's my birthday, I deserve to eat whatever I want.
It's the weekend, I can get back on on Monday.
It's any ones birthday, I can eat to celebrate with them, I don't want to seem weird.
My family is getting together...
I'm going on Vacation...
It's a holiday...
My favorite spots game is on...

You get the idea, well I have learned that there is always a reason not to make healthy choices. The thing is, is for all of these occasions, I can enjoy food. I just don't go overboard. What I mean by that is, I can have those foods that I crave, but I just have one serving of them, or find healthier substitutes for those good foods. This has helped me immensely go through this journey. All of the sudden the excuses are not valid.

Okay well I guess you probably get the point :).

There is still so much to share, but I am going to space it out and put them in other posts. So I promise it will not be a month before I post again. So I say until next time, blog friends.

P.S. Is there something that you want to know from me? Please feel free to ask and I will include it in a post.

I lose 10 lbs

Sorry it took me so long to get this up here. Well as you all know the last time I weighed in before this weigh in I gained, so the next whole week I was wondering if I was going to gain again. Well I got to the center to weigh in, and I was wrong I lost 10lbs. So here is the video.

weigh in date 10/4/2010: previous week I weighed in at 450.2 and I weighed in at 439.8 for a loss of 10.4 lbs and a total loss of 150.2. :)

My first gain!

We all knew it was coming, so here it is.

I was not expecting this at all, and I thought I was mentally prepared for it. Little did I know that the fears would come back, and full force.

For about a month now, I have been having recurring nightmares that I go to sleep and wake up 590lbs, and in my dreams there is nothing I can do about it.

No matter how well I followed that plan in my dream, I still gained. Even though I know that is just a dream, I still had to talk my self out of feeling that way.

When I went to weight watchers and stepped on the scale, and saw that I gained 3.2lbs, I felt for the first time that sinking feeling that I often had in my dreams.

Before you start wondering if I went off plan, or if I ate something that I should not have, just let me clarify that I did not. I followed the plan to a T, and it was just my week to gain.

For the whole week I kept wondering; Am I going to lose this next week? Will I gain? It was definitely a learning experience.

You see if someone else came up to me and told me that they gained for the first time, and they followed the plan. I would ask them to look at how far they have come. I would have said that it was ok, and that the next week they would do better.

Why couldn't I grasp this for me. All I could see was the gain.

So after leaving the meeting, I called my weight watchers leader and had the opportunity to talk to her about it. She told me to look past it, and to think of how far I had come. Think of what I would say to other people.

I wasn't having any doubts about the plan, and I was not even close to thinking that I needed to stop eating right. That would be silly on my part. I just kept doing exactly what I needed to do.

I do believe that this gain will help me be prepared for others that might come, because there are going to be other hiccups. This is a life style not a diet. This is a healthy way of living, and weight loss comes along with it. I was still 450.2, that is such a dramatic change from 590, and I will never be back there, EVER!!!.

I wanted to share this with you, to show that it does happen along the way, and that yes this is a learning process, and every experience will teach us, it's our job to learn from our experiences.

Learning from our experiences is something that I am working hard to do. Now I will be better equipped to sympathize with someone who has had a gain, and I will hopefully be able to help them see through it.

Just because there was a hiccup does not mean this plan does not work. It works, I am proof of that, one gain and I am still significantly lower than my starting weight.

Here is the video of the gain, the week before I was 447.0 and this weigh in I weighed in at 450.2.

Enjoy. :)

Weigh ins.

Because I haven't posted in a while I thought I would just catch you up on a couple of weigh ins.

Here are the videos.

Weigh in date 9/8/2010: the week before I was 458.8 and I weighed in at 456.2 so i lost a total of 2.6lbs that week.

Weigh in date 9/13/2010: the week before I was 456.2 and I weighed in at 453.0 so I lost a total of 3.2lbs that week

Weigh in Date 9/20/2010: the week before I was 453.0 and I weighed in at 447.0 so I lost a total of 6lbs :).

I know there are some missing but in my next post I have some news to share before I post more.

I just want you all to know that I know that this works. I am losing weight and am proof that this system works.

Seeing the numbers on the scale shows me how far I have come, and how far I can still go.

I don't think that this plan is all about the scale though, there is so much more to it. Your attitude about life changes. You view of your self changes, and deciding that you can do this, with out excuses, gives you a power that no one can take away from you.

Sometimes all we have to do is get out of out own way. Believe me I am not with out hard moments as you will see in posts to come, but I do not doubt my ability to overcome this addiction and to concur it. Ultimately becoming healthy, in both mind and body.

My Wedding ring fits!!!! :)

So this happened quite a while ago but I had been wanting to tell all of you about it.

For about 3 years now I have not been able to wear my wedding ring because I was to big. I thought I was going to have to wait until I was under 400lbs to even get it on. During my weight loss journey I had tried it on a couple times, and it still didn't fit. So I decided to give it a while. Well one day I was in my second bedroom and decided you know what I will try it on.

It fit!

I feel that this was a big NSV (non scale victory), and one of my winning out comes (goals that are reachable). As I lose more and more weight I can start to see the old me coming back, and I love it.

Now when I am hit on (this never happens lol) they will know that I am happily married. :)

Here is my picture. enjoy.

Set backs.

I hurt my big toe!!!

I don't even know how it happened, I woke up one day and it was just hurting. Mostly it hurt when I walked on it, and since I recently joined a gym it has been hurting a lot.



I decided that the pain was no big deal, and I could work through it. I just kept trucking along and ignoring the pain in my foot. Not something I would encourage anyone else to do.

Anyway when I was walking with my leader Juan Te she told me, "You should call a Dr., you don't want to make the foot worse by walking on it".



So I immediately made an appointment with my primary care Dr., who told me there is a possibility it could be fractured. GREAT! I thought just what I need. She referred me to a podiatrist who told me that my foot is not fractured, but that I just have inflammation in the joint, and he gave me a shot, in the Joint. Ouch is right. I was off the foot for a couple of days.



I know that I have only been exercising for a little while now, but I felt so lazy. I just couldn't believe that my toe hurt so so bad to walk on it.



It still hurts now, and I will be going to see another Dr. about it, so I am just taking it easy. I still work out just not as hard core as I was with the walking.



I guess all I can say is these things happen, and I can't wait to be back to full work out mode. Then I can tare it up.

weigh ins from 8/9-8/30

I haven't posted my weigh ins for a while so here they are.

8/9 weigh in

I weighed in at 476.4 for a loss of 3 lbs and a total loss of 113.6lbs.

8/16 weigh in

I weighed in at 472.0 for a loss of 4.4 and a total loss of 118lbs.

8/23 weigh in

I weighed in at 463.0 for a loss of 9lbs!!! I know what a big loss huh. and a total weight loss of 127

8/30 weigh in

I weighed in at 458.8 for a loss of 4.2 and a total loss of 131.2.

I know that it is weird to see so many weigh ins on one post but I did this because I needed to get them out there. So here they are.

I am so excited to have lost a total of 131.2 now. A lot of people have been asking me, "Do you feel different?", and to that my answer is yes; I FEEL COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. I feel so happy, energetic, and more confident. Nothing can describe how I feel. I am loving life.

I honestly believe that if I can do this, anyone can do this. Sometimes I am asked, "How do you deal with the amount of weight you have to lose? How do you stay so motivated with such a long road ahead of you?"

My answer to that is set small goals, give your self something to look forward to. I set small goals all the time. Right now I am looking forward to hitting the 430 mark.

I know that I still have a long road ahead of me, but this is my life now. I will be eating healthy for the rest of my life. It doesn't matter how long it takes me to get to goal (that doesn't mean I am not working hard to get there) someday I will be there, and I will still be eating healthy then.

I have already signed up for the program for life. have you?

Vacation, and weigh ins

So my family and I just got back from Utah, ok maybe not just, but we went to Utah, and we got back about a week and a half ago.

For those of you who have been on a diet while on vacation know that it can be very scary, and hard.

I am here to tell you that it is not impossible. I had heard of the curse of vacation many times. "Everyone gains on vacation" they said, "it's inevitable" they said, "don't be to hard on your self for it" they said.

Well.....

Guess what......

They were WRONG!!! I didn't gain while I was on vacation, I lost :D, and I have the video to prove it. In your face vacation gods!!! (ok, I don't really think there are vacation gods, but still.)

We went to a meeting in Sandy Utah and this was the weigh in, I lost 1.2. Some may say Bah 1.2, that's not a loss. To them I say; oh yes it is. It may sound childish, but 1.2 is 1.2. So here is the video from that weigh in.

I have to admit I was very scared to go. I kept telling my self that it was going to be impossible that I would have my first gain, and there is nothing that I could do about it. I was obsessing. Yes obsessing, some may "Charles obsess, impossible" but I was.

For those that know me will get why that is funny, I am a compulsive obsesser.

What did I do? you ask.

Hold on I'm getting there. :)

If you have been reading my blog lately, you know that my leader Juan Te is always giving me words of wisdom.

She told me that when she was getting ready to go on her cruise that everyone was saying that everyone gains, and she was freaking out as well. Not even enjoying the thought of going on a cruise.

"What did you do?" I asked.

"I talked to my leader about it" she said, "and she told me that I didn't have to."

She told me that once her leader gave her permission not to gain, she relaxed, and she was able and have fun on her cruise, and not gain by the way.

Wow I thought, I can do this. I don't have to gain.

So I started to plan, expecting everyone around me to focus on my diet with me (not a good idea).

I didn't realize this until about 2 weeks before we left. My wife Carly and I were at her parents house discussing the vacation, and talking about how we could follow that plan while there.

I started to stress again, thinking "is this really possible? "can I really do this while on vacation, eating 9 servings of fruits and veggies everyday, not to mention all the other servings of things that I have to eat?"

Lets just say I was obsessing all over again.

Then my wife, who by the way is an angel, from heaven, said "why can't you just do it without making everyone apart of it?", "no one even has to know that you are eating differently", "it's not about them it's about you".

Huh I thought this is possible, I can do that.

Thus commenced operation, Utah trip.

I knew that we would be going out to eat a lot while on vacation, so I created a folder of restaurants and their point values for different items. We already have a dinning out companion from weight watchers, which helped a lot, but I mostly organized all the restaurants that weren't in the dinning out companion. It took me a whole week to create the folder. I worked very hard on it.

I also made planes so that I could get all my healthy guidelines in while we were there as well. Carly and her sister Jaimie, are also doing weight watchers with me, so it made it a lot easier on us.

Also Carly, Jaimie, and their Mom, prepared all of our points for the way up. We were on our way, and we were prepared to follow the plan.

I was so grateful for the plans that we made before we left. I'm grateful for Carly's family for being ok with us going to the store like every other minute, so that we could stay on the plan.

I'm not saying that everyone has to be as crazy as I am while on vacation, but it sure helps. :)

Here are some pictures of us while we were in Utah. enjoy.

Goofy Golf in Vegas.

Most of the family, when we were in St. George Utah

Carly and I, in an art gallery in Provo Utah Most of the family in Salt Lake City Utah, at Temple Square

Carly and I, at a park in Layton, Utah Most of the family at Brice Canyon National Park

Carly and I, at Brice Canyon National Park Me while on the way home. :)

Throw Down With Juan Te

sometimes when a person joins weight watchers, he or she doesn't always know what to eat. Well a woman in our group suggested that we have a challenge with food. So that challenge is as follows: Each person attending the challenge has to make a recipe, and everyone who comes votes on one and that person wins a prize.
Well I decided to make mac & cheese, 6 pts. for a cup or 2 pts. for 1/4 of a cup, and my wife made German Chocolate cup cakes, 3 points for a whole one. Other people brought other amazing meals.

Well after we all ate the winner was announced, and guess who won. Yep you guessed it I won for the mac & cheese, and my wife won for the German chocolate cupcakes. I was completely shocked, I mean everything was good at this potluck, but the members voted and we won.

I won a cook book, and my wife won a points calculator. We have the most amazing leader in weight watchers.

Here is a video of the food and the people at the pot luck.

I truly love to eat, and finding new things to make that are healthy is always fun.

By the way if you are wondering why there is a sign that says happy birthday, it's because it was my birthday. A wonderful member named Kim made it for me, and it made me smile so big. :)

Weight loss up-date

So I am really angry at my self because I deleted my last week video on accident but oh well I have this weeks video.
So last week 7/19/2010 I weighed in at 486.8 for a loss of 5 lbs. for a total loss of 103.2. I know I was as excited as you are I now have lost over 100 lbs. Sorry I don't have the video but you'll just have to take my word for it.

No this week I weighed in and lost another 6.2 lbs. for a total loss of 109.4 lbs. I can't explain how good that feels. I feel like a different person, and I am really happy about it. Here is my video.

Almost 100

I weighed in on last monday and I lost 3 pounds making my total weight loss at 98.2 pounds. I only have 1.8 pounds to go to get to my 100 pound mark. I am so excited for that. I have been doing weight watchers for 4 months now and I absolutly love it.

Oh yeah here is my video.

Anyway I weigh in today, so I will be posting that very soon.

A two week post

6/30/2010
I wasn't able to get on here and post my weigh in for 6/30 so I will just post both.

I just wanted you all to know that I am feeling so much better now. I have been sticking with my goal of only weighing my self once a week and that has been going so well for me.

Okay on to the weight. Well I did lose this week YAY!!! I lost a total of 3.4 pounds for a grand total of 501. Just 2 pounds from being under 500 pounds, but I am okay with that, there is always next week. :)

So here is the video.

7/7/2010

Okay so I bet you are all wondering how I did this week. Well I lost 6.2, so I know you know what that means, yep you guessed it I am under 500 pounds I now weigh a total of 494.8, for a total weight loss of 95.2 pounds. I am so close to having lost 100 that I can almost taste it.

I reached my first goal. So now for my next goal. I want to get below 475.0. Why 475.0 you ask? well, the first time I joined weight watchers I was 475.0 so that is why I have that goal. So I will celebrate when that happens.

So here is my weigh in video.

I weigh in again tonight, so I Will keep you guys up dated. :)

I lost 2.9 pounds!!! A harder week.

I lost another 2.9!!! Hurray, but I still have a lot of stuff to talk about. So I figured you could see my video first. so here it is.

Well first of all I should let you know that I now have a new goal for my self that I will no longer weigh my self during the week and limit my self to weighing in only once a week.

On Saturday June 19Th I had this urge to weigh my self wanting to see how I was doing for that week, and I found a scale at the hospital that weighed me so I thought no harm done. So I proceeded to drive over to the hospital and weigh my self, after having eaten, of course you know the outcome of that. I gained. I was devastated I didn't know what to say. All I could do is turn away from the scale and walk away. I was angry I almost said a curse word, and for those of you who know me, I do not cuss. Lets just say I was sad, angry, and on the verge of tears. Did I say once to my self, "Charles look how far you have come", "Look how much weight you have lost", no I didn't I, just felt shocked.

After getting in to the car I asked my self, "Did I not follow my plan?", "Did I do something wrong?", I couldn't think of anything. I told my self to, JUST GET OVER IT, and MOVE ON. Usually when I tell my self this I feel better, but the idea of my first gain scared me, and scared me bad. I had this irrational fear that I was going to wake up and be 590 pounds again and there was nothing that I could do about it.

As you can see I went to my meeting and I lost. Again I was surprised, shocked, and over joyed, but still suffering from the after effects of the thought of weight gain. I will post the video that I made post weigh in and you can see how I react. here it is.

After leaving the meeting I felt a lot better, but my fear wasn't gone. I decided who better to talk to about thin than Juan Te, my weight watchers leader, and walking partner, I expressed to her my fear of gaining all of my weight back, and she told me that I was not the only one who had this fear, and as I continue on my Journey, which I had no intention of giving up, that I would see results, and that losing weight comes with a lot of emotion and sometimes you don't always know how to deal with these emotions. She suggested counseling and I think that is something that would be beneficial to me.

Being a large man, okay lets face it, morbidly obese, I have a lot of emotions that I need to over come during this journey, which will help me be the improved, thin Charles that I want to be.

After talking to Juan Te, and understanding that one week I will have a gain. It is inevitable. I feel a lot better. I still know that I can do this, and I will. I wanted to write about this because this is real. Life isn't always perfect, and everyone has things that drag them down from time to time. I am so grateful to my wife, Juan Te, and all of you guys, my friends.

Now on a happier note. I will have another weigh in on Wednesday so I'll be posting that as soon as I can after that.

Also Carly and I are going to start doing Zumba. I am way excited about that, I tried it on Friday and I loved it. I will keep you all posted on that.

P.S.S. I have been meaning to get my before and up til now picture up so that will be soon.

Thank you all for your support, we are doing it. :)

Weigh in 6/16/2010

For a while I will not be weighing in on Mondays and I will start weighing in on Wednesdays so I will get an update on my weight as soon as I know. thank you.

I forgot my camera for this weigh in so I will have to just have the video up for the next time. I just wanted to let you all know that I lost another 6.3 and my new weight is now 507.3 that is a total of 82.7 pounds lost. I love the way that my brother puts it "I hope you don't find those pounds that you lost". I know it's corny but I thought it was funny. :) I also have some cool posts that I will be adding soon so be looking for those.

weigh in week 11

I lost 7.4 pounds this week and I can't tell you how good that feels. I have lost a total of 76.4 pounds and I can't stop smiling.

Carly, my wife, is also on a roll she lost another 2 pounds for a total of 38 pounds in 11 weeks. You go Carly!!!

So here is my video we forgot to turn it off so it's a little long.

Weigh in week 10

Because yesterday was memorial day, I was not able to weigh in, so I weighed in today and I will be posting the video soon.

For those that want to know now I lost 1 pound which isn't bad. That means that I have lost a total of 69 pounds in 10 weeks.

Well it took a while to get the video uploaded but here it is :)