day 71 (Moving by quick)

Man, these days are just cruising by.  Well, we are on track with the workouts and balancing those with school at the moment.  Could fall apart anytime but we will see.  Been sticking to the gluten free and had some Meatloaf tonight! Was good stuff.   Might do a RHC tonight I'm not sure, it's an off day but i kinda wanna do something.  On another note, I don't mention Marlena enough, she is in this with me.  Not so much to lose weight but to get healthy for a transplant surgery (time unknown). At first she lost very little weight and that was good, but she was loosing inches. Now she is seeing weight loss along with the inches.  She last weight herself at 113lbs and she started this at 120lbs. That's 7lbs and she started out in 7/8 pants and so she had to buy some new ones and found out she is now in 1/2's .  I told her no more weight loss! She's going to have to protein it up!!! For most ppl that would be awesome to be losing that weight and if she didn't have a tube in her stomach for dialysis i would be right along with it, but she has to have room to fill up with "Solution" each night.  So i gotta make her eat more LOL... Bet you never thought you would see that huh.

I'm still struggling with my Heart Rate and my Medicine.  I think i have found a way to do it so i can still get my Heart rate up and take my Medicine, but it'll be about timing when i take them and work out.  So, we will see how this goes.

Again, thanks for the encouragement guys! I will keep doing this and i will reach my Goals! Stay Strong!!

Day 69 (some disappointing results)

Okay, day 69. Dang moving fast, didn't realize it had been so long sense i posted last.  Well, its been a bad few days.  I've not done my ddpy for about 2days .. maybe 3.  We have kept up with the diet and don't strayed from that, but neither of us have been feeling the workout monster lately.  Maybe because of school starting or maybe cause we have been canning a lot of tomatoes and work ... basically life blah blah. Bottom line we haven't been doing it and i can tell, I'm stiffening back up and my back is already starting to hurt again.  So, today we jumped back in and did fatburner.  I like fatburner, i think I've said that before but eh I'll say it again. Tomorrow we will get back into below the belt or something and RHC we will see.

Now the news that is really bugging me.  The doctor put me back on some of my meds and i had hoped it was a small enough dose that it wouldn't effect my heart rate, but I've been on them for 4 days now and my heart rate stays at 50's at rest and at my peak workout 124.  I was seeing 140's and 150's before.  Now i know this is the point of the medicine to keep my heart rate down to prevent heart attack, but my thoughts are how can i get healthy if i can't get my cardio and strengthen that part of my body.  Wouldn't it just harden up and lose flexablitly because it can't beat like it should?  I won't be able to know these questions unless there is a cardiologist in my reading pool out there, until i have my first visit with my new cardiologist in about 2 weeks. I'm still sweating so I'm hoping it doesn't effect my weight loss, but to be honest I'm not looking at the bright side here.  I have a feeling this is going to be a massive wall for me, mentally and physically.  We'll see though.

On another note my sister has been doing great!! don't think she does a blog or anything, if she does she doesn't tell me about it.  She is having some knee pain but doing the workouts like a champ!!  I know she reads this So KEEP IT UP!!!  You'll Get there, Just don't be impatient like your little brother :) 

Well everyone peace out, stay strong and insert your own witty inspirational comment here!!

Day 66 ( Not a Great day)

Today wasn't the best day. Not really sure why. I hadn't worked out like i planned. Not saying i didn't work out i just didn't do it like i planned.  Marlena has to workout without me now cause the kids have started school.  She has to hook up on her dialysis machine early enough so she can get them up for school. So we have been trying to workout in the mornings and its been rough.  But today life got in the way and we couldn't do it this morning so the plan was to do it when i got home.  On another not the doctors appointment went well but they put me on a very low dose of my metoprolol (25mg). I was on 150mg twice a day.  So this is the second day of it and its already messing with me.  My heart rate is very hard to get up where it needs to be for the workouts and I'm already noticing I'm feeling down now where i was feeling so good just a few days before.  I'm going to keep taking them and see if my body is just adjusting, but if i start to gain weight I'm not going to take them.  Either way my weight will kill me or my heart so I'll pick the none chemical way if i have to. 

I don't know if its just today or what but I'm losing my Drive to do this, not saying i want to stop.  Just saying that push i had from myself to really do this hard is drifting off.  I'm working really hard to keep my head in there and fight against it but it just seems the workouts are getting harder, not easier.  Like i hit a point and I'm having trouble pushing through it. Maybe I'm just tired... maybe i need to take a full day off... but i don't want to.  I've taken two off already and that's to many right now.  I gotta keep going and hope its just today and tomorrow will re energize me...

Just me being an Eeyore

day 64!!! Feeling good!!

Today was a good day!! Got a little stress about money out of the way for now, so that is good for the moment. Small victory but I'll take it. Next thing, all my close friends and family that I've gotten into DDPY are doing great so far! Keeping up with the program and i make sure to text them each day they need to do it for a reminder. As far as me and Marlena we talked about it and figure is the 3 month we need to kick it up a notch.  So, we are going to workout twice a day two times a week.  Mainly on the days i have off so it easier.  We took it for a test run today and it wasn't that bad.  Ive got so much energy right now i don't know if I'll be going to be for a bit but it'll be OK.  We started with Below the Belt today, because I need that one a few times a week cause where I've had lower back problems I've found out my legs are very week and I walk on the sides of my feet so bad that standing on one leg without shoes on is a MAJOR challenge for me.  Then tonight we did Fat Burner, I like fat burner cause all the push ups and i want my man boobies gone asap. I've also made it a point to drink more water through out the day.  I've noticed even though I only drink water on a regular basis I'm still not getting enough so I've been watching myself.

Now on my health.  My Blood pressures have slowly been on the rise.  I'm not sure why that is cause it was down for so long.  So I've started watching what I'm consuming more to see what would be triggering it.  Its still nowhere close to where it was before but its still in an area that's to high.  I still have my Doctor appointment in a few days so we'll see then what is said.

Now on to the food.  We did try the pizza and i have to say, It was awesome.  Probably way to much

NOM...Nom... Nom...

cheese to be eating but it was gluten free and the crust taste just like bread, it was odd. Now it says not to use a metal pan but that's all we had and it didn't stick.  Don't know if we just got lucky or what but hey.  But I definitely say try this, its not going to be something we make all the time but it will definitely be a once a month thing.  Tomorrow I'll be grilling out on the BBQ!!! Its going to be Hawaiian Chicken! and Corn on the cob! I love grilling corn on the cob.  Then Grilled peaches for desert! Can't wait! 

Okay, make sure to meet us back here same ddpy time same ddpy channel!! Stay strong!!!

Day 63 (I think ... HA!)

Been a busy few days.  Had my oldest daughters B-day and work as always.  Missed our DDPY for a couple of days.  Really regretted that but i was so tired after the days of open and close and then dinner and movies right after for my daughter that i actually just passed out asleep yesterday. I figure a few good days of sleep to re-energize will be acceptable.

I did slip a little on my daughters bday, not alot.  We went to Fat Patty's to eat and while all the kids pigged out on giant hamburgers and deep fried chicken fingers, Me and Marlena had Salads.. really good salads too, Probably not the best dressing but hay it wasn't a full cheat if its half good right?  Anyway I had Sweet Tea and Marlena had Dr. Pepper to drink, then after that we went and seen a movie and of course had buttery popcorn and i snagged to chocolate covered cookie dough peaces.  Now I LOVE raw cookie dough... always have... But i ate two of them and if you think I'm going to say they tasted nasty.. well your wrong, Still sooo good, but i just had two and i didn't want anymore so that's a very good sign.

Now today i woke up sore.... so stiff. Made sure to do wake up before we did anything today.  Had an OK breakfast, still needed to do grocery shopping.  Stuck to my lunch and for Dinner Marlena got groceries, Yeah she didn't let us starve, and made Egg Plant Lasagna, it was So good.

After dinner we made some fruit smoothies and then did energy.  Sense we hadn't done it in a few day i didn't want to jump in full blast and pull something, still worked my butt of and got my heart rate up to 150 for a few but pulled it back a bit to bring it back down to my zone.

All and all a good day and weekend.  I'm not upset by the "fall back" because ultimately this is going to be a life change for me and we will adapt it where we need to, so that way we won't Fail at this. Oh, a friend of ours want us to post some recipes up here so starting tonight i will either link or put up some of our "Go To" recipes or stuff we try and really like. First thing is going to be Gluten Free pizza, now we haven't tried it yet but we are going to make it tomorrow so i will update with how good it is. 

But until tomorrow be strong and Stay strong!!

I can't find the link so I'm just going to type it out for you all, now this isn't our recipe and if anyone finds it online let me know so i can give credit and a link.


Gluten Free/Flourless Pizza

Crust Ingredients
4oz cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese
1/2tsp pizza seasoning
8oz (2Cups) Mozzarella cheese, shredded

Topping
1/2 cup pizza sauce
4oz (1cup) Mozzarella cheese, shredded
Assorted toppings (Pre cook any toppings slightly to ensure less fat/liquid. to prevent soggy crust)

Directions
1) Preheat oven 375, Grease 9x13 glass baking dish (Metal does not work well, crust will stick) and line with parchment paper.

2) For crust, in medium bowl, whisk cream cheese until smooth and creamy. Whisk in eggs until mixture is well blended and smooth.  Add the Parmesan cheese and seasonings. Stir in Mozzarella until Completely moistened. Spread mixture evenly over parchment paper.

3)Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes, until evenly browned, but not to dark. Let cool for a few minutes on a wire rack.  When slightly cool, you can cheat and lift the crust using the parchment paper and place all in the freezer for about 300 mins until completely cooled.  If you have plenty of time, you can cool the crust on the counter and then leave in the refrigerator for several hours uncovered.  The Goal is for the crust to dry out enough that it will be crispy/chewy and you can pick up with you hands.

4) Once cooled, remove parchment paper and place crust back in same pan (which is adequately creased from before you can even wipe out a bit with a paper towel) Spread crust with pizza sauce, then cheese (even if you love cheese, do not add more then 1 cup as the crust is almost entirely made of cheese) Then toppings.

5) Bake 375 for 15-20 mins or until toppings are bubbly and look right. let stand for a few mins before cutting.
Serves 8 

Day 60!

Day 60!! got through another 30 days easy enough.  I feel we did real good. I'm down another 20 lbs so that puts me at 263 from 295 when i started ddpyoga and 305 when we went gluten free. This is a Great feeling. I'm hyped up and plan on doing stand up today before i go to work today. I'll be posting up the pics as i can.  Right now i only have the front and side cause I've not stretched out at all today and I'm super sore today.  So I'll take them after we work out.  Nothing more to really report ATM.  Been a uneventful few days.  Just been focused on getting stuff done at home and work.

Well until next time, Be strong!! Stay Strong! And Do Your DDPYOGA!!!

Photo's here   PICTURES

Day 57

Day 57, getting pretty excited at this point to take pictures and put up the comparison photos.  I can see I've lost inches and people are noticing like I've said before. Had a day off yesterday, got caught up on yard work and lazed around the house.  Still ate good.  Had some leftovers that are cluttering up the fridge and look some notes on a Live chat last night with some of the TeamDDPYoga folks. My illness seems to be pretty much gone now.  I had a TON of energy yesterday and did get somethings done in the house, like packing a bunch of stuff upstairs i didn't want to do before. I Did do a lot of heavy lifting and today my back isn't sore at all.  Just realized that as i sat here typing this lol.

So, last night during the live hangout a question came up about what your favorite quick fix meal was and actually a lot of conversation about food. It was killing me, made me so hungry.  I honestly couldn't think of a "Favorite" food i eat now.  To tell the truth i try not to focus on the food cause that kinda what got me here in the first place.  I know i need to cook good food, and i do but i don't want to make it all i focus on anymore.  Use to my day consisted of when is my next food break.  At work i would look for break for a time to eat. Then i get home and ask the wife What was for dinner.  Then after dinner I'd start wondering what i could have to snack on... It was bad, but i never noticed it.  I even remember a time i had pick up a friend of mine to hang out for the day and in a 3 hour period went out to eat twice because i couldn't think of anything else to do.  I've gotten to the point now i don't want to eat all the time.  I'll skip meals if i think i can, I know its not good, but I'm not feeling hungry when i do it.  Oh and i do have my tricks for my sweet tooth.  I use unsweetened almond milk Olvaltine and Peanut butter and make a shake.  Taste awesome and really cuts my cravings. So all and all i have no favorite foods ATM.  Maybe I'm odd, but I've never been quite normal.  I'm not very sociable either, but we will save that for another blog rant.  Okay guess, Be Strong and Stay Strong!! And don't forget to do Your DDPYOGA!!!

Day 55

Feeling a lot better today. Still not 100% but definitely around 90's.  Starting getting my "Bang!" back into my work outs again and pushing myself like i should.  I'm still getting tired in the evenings, but that could be lack of sleep cause the crazy work schedule. Not sure but I'm off tomorrow and i plan on sleeping in.  Well, that's the plan.. kids usually kill that one.

On another note I'm noticing a difference in how i deal with stress.  My work can get pretty stressful with dealing with the public and not so happy public at that.  Well, today we had a Call off and left us short handed and the day was pretty busy.  To make it even worse was the one guy with me was fairly new and the other only has two speeds... slow and stopped.  So as it gets busy and people start getting aggravated cause of the wait and every 2 minutes i have to help one of the other guys with something.  Normally I probably would have snapped.. But i didn't.  I apologized and explained the problem and help each person as fast as i could.  Even with one Customer who was getting very perturbed and wanted to get mad at me couldn't cause i just kept smiling and doing the best i could to help him and as he left he apologized to me.  It was a great day!! The other guys where frustrated and short fused and i told them after it slowed down.. "It's going to be that way no matter what, so why let it get you mad.. I'd rather be happy when it happens.. feels better that way."  They both looked at me like I'd lost my mind.  I'm glad I'm seeing the differences in my mind and body.  The pain i use to suffer from all the time and doctors just kept feeding me painkillers is subsided to the point i don't notice it and I don't have to wait 10mins to get out of bed or get out of a chair cause the shooting pain.  I'm thankful for this.

Well Time to fly and shower to get ready for bed. Everyone Stay Strong and BE Strong!!

Day 54

Today i feel, health wise, good.  I took a massive dose of vitamin C at the first signs of it and now after a couple days of Steroids I Feel good. My blood pressures have come back down to a normal level again and i have an appointment with a Hypertension clinic the 14th.  I'm Logging all my Blood Pressure so i have something to show them when i get there, even though they probably won't pay attention to them, they hardly ever do but I'll try it.

So today was a good day.  We had a Turkey and Black bean burger.  It was pretty good, Not sure how it would be on a bun cause i don't eat bread anymore but we had homemade salsa with tomatoes from the garden on top of it.

One downside is I've not done my Yoga the way i would have liked.  I did do Red Hot core yesterday but that just never feel like enough for me.  Tonight i will be doing Below the belt and tomorrow will be Fat Burner and Red Hot Core. Sixty day is coming up fast and I'm going to hit my goals.

People are now noticing I'm losing weight.  I'm so happy.  I could see it in myself but i started to wonder if i was seeing something that wasn't there. That's why i needed that reassurance to keep me going.  My wife reassures me all the time but my doubts will still linger, so I'm happy to now have the recognition.  Anyway, gotta do my yoga so i can get some sleep tonight to work at 7am. Peace out and Remember to be strong and Stay strong!!

Day 53: Falling ill

Well, it be day 53 of our DDPyoga experience, its been a fun ride for the most part.  The past few days I've been sick and little to no energy. I've done my work outs but just really didn't want to and it seemed a lot harder then usual. Finally went to the doctor today and found out I have pleurisy.  It hurts to breath deep, but no so much it keeps me from working out full on.  Down side, my blood pressure took a spike and i took my meds and it bottomed out my Blood pressure sooo i talked to the doctor about that and they set me up an appointment with a hypertension specialist to work out what meds i should be on. Funny thing is the specialist is the same doctor my wife sees for her kidneys, so i know him already and like him, so hopefully I'll get this annoyances fixed.

So, today has started out particularly stressful.  Nothing to insane but still aggravating enough to make me wanna focus on it.  I'm trying really hard to keep a positive outlook and live life at 90%.  I take a deep breath and do my best to keep everything calm and not get mad, but dang some people.. specially family (wife's side) just like to push buttons cause they are unhappy and want you the same way.  Just gotta stay positive and keep moving forward and doing what i have to.  Not feeling to energetic today so hopefully after some meds I'll feel the #BANG! again.  Be strong and stay strong!!