Say it ain't so Joe

2010-11-12T15:16:00.004-06:00

Well today is truly a milestone in my life. As of this morning I have officially lost 40 pounds!! No Pills! No Gym Membership!! No Crazy Diets!! .... Just eating healthy, running, push-ups and sit-ups. This may be hard for some of you to believe but it is absolutely true. I started at 215 pounds and I now am 175 pounds! At times over the past 5 years I have been more than 215 pounds but that is what I weighed when I actually purchased a scale once I decided that I was going to lose weight. I began my journey of weight loss about 4 months ago in July 2010 in response to a not so great yearly checkup with my doctor. He said I could stand to lose a few pounds or it was going to start affecting my health and now was the time to do it. Everyone I have talked to lately has wanted to know how I did it so I figured I had not had an entry on my blog in a while so what a better time than now.

Well first of all it was with the help of my God-given will power and determination that I was blessed with. I could not have done it without this. Another key to success was the support of my wonderful wife. Thank you Bre for supporting me the entire way and not thinking that I am completely insane (or at least saying it out loud).

Ok so now to the actual details of my success. If I was going to lose weight successfully and make it last I knew that I needed it to be a lifestyle change. I subscribe to the Rick Burgess mentality of the idiot’s guide to weight loss and that is if you simply burn more calories than you take in you are surely to lose weight. So this is the basic premise of what I did. I began by cutting out the major things in my diet that were high calorie and consistent. I cut out all fried foods, began drinking water only (and coffee in the morning – can’t live without that), and began a low calorie diet consisting of lots of grilled fish, chicken and vegetables. This was actually easier than I thought once I got thru the first couple weeks. Drinking a lot of water helped me to curb my appetite and reduce my meal portions.
My daily routine consists of cereal for breakfast with skim milk, salad or turkey sandwich for lunch, and a sensible dinner (basically whatever my wonderful wife cooked). If I was in the mood for a snack I would eat fruit or granola/nut snacks. When I get home from work each day I run about 2.5 miles and each night do about 50-75 push-ups and sit-ups. A huge key to success was eating healthier when traveling or eating out. I travel a lot for my job and eating out was one of the big reasons I gained a lot of weight. My go to fast food items now is a grilled chicken garden salad or a grilled chicken sandwich and a side of fruit at Chick-fil-a. When dining at a nicer restaurant I would always go for any of the grilled fish entrees with roasted vegetables or rice.

I am so excited to be able to purchase new “skinny” clothes (I have lost 6 inches in my waist) and not have to purchase clothes that hide my stomach! Just for fun I put some old photos below so everyone can see where I was and where I am now. I plan to continue my new lifestyle and hopefully stay at a weight that is healthy for me so I can live as long as possible to be able and enjoy great times with my family for a long, long time. For those of you wanting to lose weight, take it from me……..You Can Do It!!!!

Here are some before photos:

AND NOW Below is the lighter NEW AND IMPROVED ME..................

The House of Change

2009-01-30T06:30:00.000-06:00

A few months ago Bre and I had decided that we wanted to put our house up for sale this spring and move........move where? No clue. Well with the wonderful economy outlook we made the decision that we are going to stay in our house for several more years. So what does that mean to Bre and I assume most women.......change the house we are in. I completely understand why. If I was at home with the kids all day every day having to be in the same rooms and look at the same stuff every day and night I would probably feel the same way (And for the record I tell Bre all the time how I could never do what she does and I appreciate what she does for our family!).

So we began the "House of Change" with a rearrangement of furniture in the living room which made a huge improvement in space (yes Bre I admit that the couch did fit on that wall!) I then painted the room which got rid of the "kid disaster area" markings on the walls. We also had Champion Electric (Brian Woodall's company) change all of our horrible flourescent light fixtures in our finished basement to recessed down lights (huge improvement). Thease are some small things that made a big diffence and to my advantage did not cost an arm and a leg.

Since we have lived in this house Bre and I have never really liked our finished basement. Most of that was the lights being way too bright and humming like you wouldn't understand but we also didn't really like the way it was arranged. We have a office and a living room area. So my suggestion was get rid of the office and make it a home theater room (guys rejoice everywhere). This has been a dream of mine for years now but the cost of the technology for a decent HD projector and screen was a little out of my reach financially. Until now....... So Bre finally agreed (half-heartedly of course) to let me make my change to the house (just in the basement, I have no say in the areas seen by guests). I now have my dream........ a 1080i Full HD projector and 93" screen with full surround sound and dimmable lights!!! I can't believe it. The most awesome thing about it is I spent less money on the projector and the screen than I would have on a 50" HD LCD TV...go figure.

So after we got the theater room wired up and working we needed to go furniture shopping.......for a nice couch to sit on while enjoying the new room. My only request is comfort. No I don't care what it looks like. I just want it to be comfortable. So Bre went looking for a couch and she finds several she likes but couldn't decide on any. Last weekend we went looking some more after church and ended up at Ashley furniture where Carter and Bentley played on all of the couches. Here is a picture of Carter's couch static hair........

Well needless to say we still don't have a couch yet but we moved our other couch from the basement in there temporarily but we are definitely ready for the big game on Sunday!

I still count 2!

2009-01-15T19:31:00.000-06:00

Well the procedure is over and everything went as planned. When I got to the office I signed in as you would at any doctor's office. When the nurse called me back she smiled and said "Are you ready to come see me?" I replied "That depends on how nice you are." So we went back and after a consultation with the doctor she took me to the room with the stirrups! They took some blood and then the doctor said this was his 3rd vasectomy today and he only lost one testicle today. Ha Ha!! Funny Guy! Well, after the local anesthesia the doctor began the procedure. After about 15 minutes and talking about everything from what I do for a living to where he went to school it was over. Bre drove me home and what a friend Marsha is because she left this wonderful surprise on our mailbox for all to see.....

I am currently laid up on the couch with a bag of frozen peas (yes, the doctor actually prescribed frozen peas). I feel pretty good so far and not much pain.........we'll see how it goes over the next few days. Thanks to all of you that have called and said a prayer for me.

And She Commenced to Shaving..........

2009-01-14T06:56:00.001-06:00

Well, tomorrow is the day. For those of you that haven't heard yet I am going "under the knife" tomorrow at 3:30 PM for a vasectomy. If you don't know exactly what is involved here is a nice description...........

family guy vasectomy @ Yahoo! Video

Pray that all goes well and I don't have to be the guy that they talk about on the brochure that says "bruising is normal but if it swells to the size of a grapefruit please contact you doctor." A grapefruit!!! Are you kidding me!!!!! I will post an update after the procedure (with funny quotes and stories I am sure).

ROLL TIDE!!

2008-12-02T09:23:00.000-06:00

Carter in the Alabama Locker Room

Carter in front of the Bear Bryant Plaque in the Locker Room

On the 50 Yard Line!

Carter & Big Al

Pics from the Islands

2008-11-20T14:44:00.000-06:00

Well I just got back from a whirlwind 2-day trip to San Juan and St. Thomas for work and here are a few of the pictures I could snap while driving to and from the buildings we are doing work in and the airport and hotel. It's a nice view but we don't ever have much time to enjoy it. If you have never been to the islands in the caribbean before I would advise you to go once but don't expect to have as much fun as the pictures make you think.

St Thomas, USVI - View From Frenchman's Reef Marriot

St Thomas, USVI - Cruise Ships Near Charlotte Amalie

Picture from top of AT&T Building in St. Thomas, USVI

Picture from top of AT&T Building in San Juan, Puerto Rico

WOW! Beatiful pic on the plane coming home

Funny Pics from Tampa, FL

2008-11-17T15:03:00.000-06:00

Nothing like Grand Ma Flossie's!

Where do tortilla's come from.........oh of course the tortilliaria.

Hey Carlos......I thought you opened at 5?

Trim that bush.........be careful when typing into Google.

Stranded.........The lucky turned unlucky

2008-11-13T05:15:00.000-06:00

Joey has this ongoing saying that I am the luckiest guy he knows and that everything always goes my way...............Well the streak has ended with a huge drop to the bottom.

Well if it wasn't bad enough that I have 8 flights scheduled in 3 days from this Wednesday to Friday ranging from Tampa, FL to Atlanta and Memphis all with connections I was leaving Tampa on Wednesday night and the flight arriving that I was to be on to get to Memphis for my Thursday meeting was 40 minutes late! So of course when I got to Atlanta I had 10 minutes until my connection flight was scheduled to leave and of course (as typical in ATL) I had to sprint for 3 terminals and when I got to my gate they said the flight left early!! What!? How does your flight leave early when you have people not on it that are stuck on another flight? Well, anyway, Delta got me a room (as close to a dump as you can get - as most airport hotels are) and after a quick nap last night I am about to board my new flight this morning to get to Memphis for a 10:00 meeting. Do airlines not care anymore? There must be a conspiracy somewhere.........maybe it could just be the reason most airlines are declaring bankruptcy?

After waking up at 3:45 AM Wednesday morning and not getting in bed until 11:00 PM in my Country Inn dump and having to wake up this morning at 4:00 AM needless to say I am a little tired. Please pray that my travels go smoothly from here on out because another screw up could end my "lucky" stauts forever.......and Joey you just might not reap the "rub off" benefit of being with me when I am lucky.

Live from Miami......a.k.a "Little Cuba"

2008-11-05T18:15:00.000-06:00

So I started my day off this morning waking up at 3:45 AM and made my way down to Ft. Lauderdale for a meeting. The day started off normal but began to take a turn for the better (or funnier, you decide).

After landing in the ATL me and the guy traveling with me began to walk toward our gate for our connection. We began on the escalator to our terminal and got to the end of the escalator and there on the floor of the Atlanta airport was a man laying there face down with medical personnel around him telling him to stay still. What??? Did this guy trip and roll down the escalator? Did he pass out drunk on the escalator at 7:00 AM? Strange huh?? As bad as it sounds I didn't stick around to watch......I got a plane to catch.

So once we took care of business in Ft. Lauderdale I began the drive down toward Miami for the night. I have never been to the Miami area before and have heard lots of things about it....none of them really very good. One thing I had heard is that it is very diverse. No one told me it was like walking off into a pool of Cubans!! This is a city in America right? We ate lunch at a local Spanish fast food place called Pollo Tropical (www.pollotropical.com) and when I ordered (a cuban sandwich of course, no....really) the lady gave me a choice between two sides in some language I have never heard before (couldn't have been Spanish). All I could do was look at the guy with me and say "huh". He just shrugged his shoulders and walked away.......so I just said "Fries?" and she nodded her head and rung up my order.

When I checked into my hotel, the attendant was Spanish, I drove into South Miami Beach for dinner and my waitress was Spanish. Yes Bre, Marsha, & Michelle this is what you consider "living it up". I don't know about you guys but I don't really consider eating by yourself in a Spanish speaking restaurant could be considered living it up!? The view was nice, but even the food was a Spanish version of Tilapia. How do you screw up Tilapia?? Every radio stations I scanned in the rental car were all in Spanish....there were like 100. I finally found one that wasn't and it was Hip Hop (Sorry you missed it Bre).

So that is my experience in Miami so far. I hope you can all relate to the story and I hope you find it entertaining, I know I do.

Tomorrow..........Off to Jacksonville. Hopefully I will have a good story.

Off to Florida

2008-11-04T13:16:00.001-06:00

I just found out that i have to go to the great state of Florida to look at some new projects. I will be leaving a 5:40 AM Wednesday morning from the Salty Ham and flying to Ft. Lauderdale for a day and staying one night in Miami. I will then fly from Miami to Jacksonville for another day of work and then fly home Friday night..........Sorry Bre!! I know you are thrilled to be alone with the kids for three days while I am "living it up" as she calls it. For those of you out there that travel for your job you will know how much real fun you get to have. Hmmmm.....Miami, never been there but I am sure it could be fun if you weren't working the whole time. Well let me just say that we are truly blessed as a company to have the huge amount of work that we have and I hope that the election outcome doesn't change that for us.

Roll Tide Family

2008-11-04T09:46:00.000-06:00